Biden officials highlight slate of Hill hearings as House moves in spending cycle

Yes, there’s a big hearing involving a senior Biden administration official Tuesday at the House Judiciary Committee. (Playbook has you covered pre-hearing.) But Merrick Garland’s not the only big name headed to the Hill. The lineup for your scheduling needs:

Senate Foreign Relations will have a 10:30 a.m. closed briefing on China with U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns.
VA Secretary Denis McDonough and VA Inspector General Michael Missal testify at the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee at 10:15 a.m.
Senate Appropriations subcommittees hold hearings Tuesday with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
CBO Director Phillip Swagel and Social Security Administration Chief Actuary Stephen Goss testify at House Ways and Means at 11 a.m.

Spending cycle: House Republicans hope to approve their MilCon-VA bill on the floor by Wednesday afternoon, when the House is set to leave town. It’s the first of a group that appropriators are trying to clear the floor by the end of the month, with State-Foreign Operations and Homeland Security, getting subcommittee markups Tuesday. Text of House Republicans’ Defense and Financial Services measures are expected Tuesday as well ahead of Wednesday subcommittee action.

Border rebuttal: Senate Republicans are preparing their rebuttal to Biden’s anticipated executive order action on the southern border, with a press conference scheduled for 10 a.m. Led by Texas Republicans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz they’ll declare Biden’s action “too little too late.”

Primary picture: We’re also watching primaries in Montana, Iowa, New Mexico, New Jersey and South Dakota.

Two Iowa Republicans are facing challenges from the right: David Pautch is making a longshot challenge to oust Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and Rep. Randy Feenstra is facing Kevin Virgil, who has the backing of former Rep. Steve King and Vivek Ramaswamy

Keep an eye on Montana, too, where a whole slate of contenders is vying for the GOP nomination to replace Rep. Matt Rosendale. And in New Jersey, Herb Conaway Jr. and Carol Murphy are the leading contenders for Rep. Andy Kim’s (D-N.J.) 3rd District seat as he runs for Senate.