Bipartisan Bill to Prevent a Wall Street Shutdown: Schumer Addresses the Democrats’ Backlash against the Manchin-Manchin Measure

First, the government runs out of authority to spend money on Friday, December 16. The House and Senate must act to prevent a government shut down.

“This is bipartisan legislation, which is common sense, and we are voting on it,” Schumer said on the floor. We didn’t go to the brink and risk a shutdown because of the timely conclusion. Millions and millions of people can breathe easy knowing that we have done this in a timely way and the money to continue the government will be there.”

The legislation passed 72-25. It includes money for New Mexico to recover from a wildfire, money for a low-income home heating program and money for the water crisis in Jackson, Miss.

The bill also allows for the reauthorization of FDA user fees for another five years, which Schumer said in a statement is “vital if we want to avoid any slowdown in the review of new lifesaving drugs.”

But bipartisan opposition to Manchin’s proposal ensued, with Senate Republicans bitter over Manchin joining Democrats in passing the Inflation Reduction Act after indicating he wouldn’t support such a package. A group of progressive Democrats concerned about potential environmental impacts also objected to Manchin’s measure.

The continuing resolution easily overcame a procedural vote on Tuesday when Manchin agreed to remove his language from the legislation.

House Speaker Paul Ryan Repackaged: The 2020 Midterm Election, Bridging the Gap between Congress and the American Heart and Mind, and Why Americans Should Care

Both chambers are eager to leave Washington and return home, particularly lawmakers who want to make their final pitches to constituents ahead of November’s midterm elections.

More than 220 candidates who questioned the 2020 election have won state or federal office, and about thirty of them have said the election was stolen or rigged.

The reforms proposed in the bills address this threat by making clear that state officials must count their votes according to the state laws in place on Election Day. They may not change the outcome because they don’t like it. The new bills steer disputes over the vote totals to the courts, where judges have the final say.

Democrats claim that the measures were necessary to help the country recover from the impact of the epidemic as well as to tackle other priorities. Democrats say that money to respond to Covid, health care and climate should not mean there should be less money next year for government operations and non-defense, domestic spending.

He said if people want to make a debt ceiling for a long time, they have to change their behavior.

It’s a serious threat: Republicans have engaged in similar brinkmanship repeatedly in recent years, most notably in 2011, when the possibility that the government might fail to meet its obligations produced a measurable increase in the interest rates the government must pay to borrow money, costing taxpayers an estimated $1.3 billion. Limits were imposed on federal spending that delayed the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.

The Lame Duck Sensitivity of the Democrat-Republican Confrontation with the Partisan Problem of the House Speaker’s Representation

With that in mind, Democratic leaders are eager to bring several bills to the floor for votes during the lame duck session – the period after the midterms and before the new Congress begins.

There is a busy agenda that includes funding the government to avoid a shutdown before the end of the calendar year, passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, and a vote in the Senate to authorize funding for the Department of Defense.

While the House is able to pass legislation by a simple majority, Democrats in the Senate face an uphill climb given their narrow majority. Democrats don’t have enough support from within their party to eliminate the filibuster, as they don’t have enough votes in the Senate with a 50-50 partisan split. Therefore, major priorities for liberal voters – like the passage of legislation protecting access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – are expected to remain out of reach for the party for the foreseeable future.

The Democrats were not expecting to lose control of the Congress, but they are returning with a reality that they didn’t think would occur: the balance of power in the house will be decided by races not called. Republicans seem to be in a good position to control the chamber, but it may be with a narrower margin than had previously been anticipated.

CNN projected on Saturday that the Democrats will keep control of the Senate after the news session of Congress starts in January. With a US Senate race in Georgia to be decided on December 6, final make-up of the chamber won’t be known until then.

Chuck Schumer told the news conference that there would be many hours and heavy work, but he refused to give any details about the agenda of the session.

McCarthy is under pressure to take a harder stance on many policy issues, including the spending package, as he struggles to shore up support for his speaker’s bid. The House GOP will be in control in the new year, and so the hardliners wanted to wait until then to fund the government.

Congress also has to pass the defense bill. There could be a push for amendments to the bill if it’s considered, including Saudi Arabia’s recent decision to cut oil production.

The Senate is poised to vote on codifying same-sex marriage. In mid-September, the chamber punted on a vote until after the November midterm elections as negotiators asked for more time to lock down support – a move that could make it more likely the bill will ultimately pass the chamber.

Votes are likely on bipartisan legislation that would make it harder to overturn a certified presidential election, a response to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to block the 2020 election results, which led to the siege of the Capitol. It is supported by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. If the bill passes the Senate, it would also need to clear the House, which in September, passed its own version of the legislation.

Schumer said at the news conference that he needed to talk to other members of leadership and see where the House ends up.

She said that thedefense bill in Washington is one of many things that have been on their plate. The budget bill at the end of the year is where I am leading with Susan Collins and Joe Manchin to make sure we get that right. Immediately, all of that is when we get back.

The government funding standoff gripping Washington ahead of Friday’s shutdown deadline is one of the first indicators of the coming shift in power dynamics that will return the capital to a governing cold war between congressional Republicans and a Democratic White House.

A bipartisan deal on government funding is not easy to reach. Lawmakers have not yet been able to reach a negotiated agreement for a comprehensive, full-year funding package – known on Capitol Hill as an omnibus – amid a dispute between the two parties over how much money should be spent on non-defense, domestic priorities. Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has told reporters the two sides are roughly $26 billion apart.

When the Republicans and Democrats won the House and Senate last month, neither side had the power to fully deliver on their campaign promises, which could lead to paralysis in government.

Some of these clashes, like disputes over funding social programs and the need to raise the government’s borrowing limit next year, threaten to shut the government or badly damage the US economy. The holiday season used to be a time of government shutdown threats during the Obama administration after Republicans gained congressional majority. In the months of December and January, Donald Trump’s administration had a 35 day government shut down due to a dispute over his demand for border wall funding.

McConnell said on Tuesday that he and his colleagues are close to a deal on a spending bill. McConnell said that needs to be finished no later than December 22, noting that they “intend to be on the road going home” on December 23 ahead of the Christmas holiday.

McConnell gave a grim prediction for a deal with Democrats on a big funding bill last week after saying they didn’t have agreements to do anything. … We don’t know what we’re going to spend and we’re running out of time.

Several senators said that McCarthy’s comment came as a surprise to McConnell. While the House GOP leader had signaled privately – including at a White House meeting – that he’d be open to a large spending deal to finish this year’s business, Republicans were not expecting him to take aim at McConnell even if he publicly came out against the package. McConnell was involved in a funding deal that gave McCarthy a clear path for the next Congress, despite the strong opposition of the House GOP leader.

But a senior Biden administration official warned last week that even a funding deal that lasted a year would have “disastrous” consequences for key programs.

Democrat Sen. Bernie Huckabee: “It’s a waste of time,” Sen. John Kennedy told CNN on the omnibus spending crisis in Ukraine

And on Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, implied that Republicans were trying to jam Democrats at the end of this year to kickstart their effort in the new GOP House to slash spending on vital social programs.

Huckabee said on CNN that the Republicans see it as an opportunity to hold us hostage in order to get their demands met.

“Look, they have not been shy about making it clear they want to cut Social Security, they want to cut Medicare, they want to cut Medicaid,” Sanders told Dana Bash.

The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense were sent up to Capitol Hill by Biden to brief senators on the war in Ukraine. But in a sign of the consuming nature of the spending showdown, Republicans emerged from the meeting complaining that the two secretaries spent time lobbying for an omnibus spending bill over a continuing resolution.

It was a waste of time. It was a waste of our time,” Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy told reporters. He said that Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had asked Blinken and Austin to explain why the new spending bill was so necessary. “I knew as soon as Chuck said that. … this is just a political exercise,” Kennedy said.

“Bring your Yuletide carols and all that stuff here because we may be singing to each other,” South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, told reporters last week.

The End of the Weekend: How long will it take to get a deal on government spending? The challenge for McConnell and Leahy

The approaching deadline had members of Congress and their staffers from both parties, as well as Biden administration officials, continuing to slog through negotiations over the weekend to try to get to an agreement on a spending package.

One administration official is involved in the talks and told CNN that this is the time of the year when there is no weekends for people working on appropriations.

Over the weekend, both Democrats and Republicans were sharing with one another their “bottom lines” on various fronts, and the White House remained publicly optimistic that an agreement could be reached on an omnibus: “There is absolutely still a path and time for a deal.”

But if Biden administration officials are still keeping their eyes on the ball on Congress ultimately reaching a deal on a government spending deal, there is also real recognition that lawmakers will need an extra few days – perhaps even a week – of cushion to buy themselves more time. That would be achieved through passing a short-term stop-gap measure called a continuing resolution, or a CR.

The key question will be how long such an extension would last. It could be as simple as a week, a time that would allow more time for negotiations while keeping the pressure on to reach a broader deal. Or it could extend the shutdown deadline into the next Congress, which will convene on January 3, and when Republicans take control of the House.

It would pass both chambers if there was a broader bipartisan deal. It is probable that some Republicans will break with McCarthy to vote for the deal in the House. House Democrats will only have a two seat margin, and because negotiators would have to craft any deal in order to win 10 GOP votes in the Senate, it’s likely the bill won’t pass muster with some progressives in the House looking for more domestic spending.

McConnell laid out the GOP position on the Senate floor. He and his party have spent money on domestic priorities outside of the normal appropriations process. Obviously, we won’t allow them to now hijack the government funding process, too, and take our troops hostage for even more liberal spending,” McConnell said.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, outlined the argument for his party in his own floor remarks on Thursday. The Republicans are demanding steep cuts to programs the American people rely on.

The omnibus bill that Democrats plan to introduce Monday does not have the Republican votes to pass in the Senate, so it will serve as a marker of Democratic priorities in the funding fight.

It is the busiest time of year on Capitol Hill because Congress tries to complete most of its work in a short period of time.

Second, the newly elected Congress will be sworn in on January 3. The Democrats will have a small majority in the Senate, but Republicans will take charge of the House. Everything resets in the new Congress, and lawmakers will have to start from scratch on anything they don’t finish up this month.

Legislators are going to roll all the spending bills for the federal government into a single bill that could approach or exceed $1 billion.

The problem is that they’re still negotiating, and Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have not reached an agreement on how much the government can spend, much less the specifics. They’re still $26 billion apart, according to Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama. The most likely current scenario is the House and Senate each pass short-term, one-week funding bills to keep the lights on while they continue to hash out the larger funding bill.

In addition to writing checks, Congress authorizes government activity through policy bills, including the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes $858 billion in annual defense spending.

It’s a sprawling endeavor, and this year’s version passed by the House gives members of the military a 4.6% pay raise, gives new support to Ukraine and NATO, and retools US air power and land defense efforts. It also rescinds a Covid-19 vaccine requirement for service members, a move that Biden has opposed.

Senators are expected to take up the bill this week. It will eat up valuable time on the floor of the Senate where Democrats want to push through judicial nominees, but it should get bipartisan support. The defense bill has more information.

The Congressional Deadlines: Trump’s Taxes and the House Select Committee on the February 6, 2020, Insurrection, and the New Counsel Jamie Smith

The government spend more than it takes in. The government is running a deficit of $336 billion for the fiscal year that began in October, which is 20 billion less than the previous year’s period.

Republicans will shut down the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection when they take control in January. GOP lawmakers plan to flip the script and investigate the committee’s activity.

But first, the committee, which features Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, will issue its much-anticipated report on December 21. It is recommended that the Department of Justice prosecute the members of Trump’s inner circle.

Meanwhile, Jack Smith, the newly appointed special counsel, has been busy ramping up a pair of criminal probes involving the former president, all of which could explode into public view if charges are ultimately brought. Smith’s work is the latest to be read.

There’s probably no time for a thorough review, and Republicans will have little appetite for a Trump tax investigation when they take control of the House.

Democrats could move to make some of Trump’s tax information public – on top of what was already published by The New York Times in 2020. Since Democrats obtained the returns, it could be a political problem to simply release them. Read more about Trump’s taxes.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/politics/congress-deadlines-funding-what-matters/index.html

The Electoral Count Act: Dealing Together to Completion the Work of the Senate and House Democrats on Government Funding in the Run-Up to Congress

It would be a bipartisan idea to make some major clarifications to the election law so that January 6, 2021, won’t be necessary. The bill is designed to protect against Insurrection 2.0.

But there may be no time to pass the proposal – there are similar but competing versions in the House and Senate. The Senate version, in particular, has bipartisan support. There is a chance that the legislation will not be taken up by Republicans when they take over the House in January.

If the Electoral Count Act can pass, it could be slipped into that massive spending bill. This example of lawmakers working together could be a good one, because it hasn’t gotten much attention.

McCarthy told House Republicans about his position about a few hours after McConnell declared on Tuesday that the deal in the works was “broadly appealing.” Top congressional negotiators announced Tuesday evening that an agreement has been reached for a framework that should allow lawmakers to complete a sweeping full-year government funding package.

McCarthy and McConnell are headed on a collision course as congress wraps up its work to fund federal agencies through the fall of 2007, in order to give the House GOP time to work on next year’s agenda.

“It’s a House-Senate dynamic, and the conference in the House, obviously, a lot of times can be in a different place than the conference in the Senate,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune, the South Dakota Republican who serves as McConnell’s top deputy.

McCarthy made comments after the White House meeting where he said that continuing resolutions to fund the government were not where they wanted to be. The California Republican said that a short-term fix might be needed if Democrats wouldn’t want to work with them, and that they can get it done in January.

“Everybody’s probably got a reason at the moment to oppose it,” said Sen. Richard Shelby, the Alabama Republican and top GOP appropriator, said of McCarthy. They may oppose it on political and philosophical grounds.

McCarthy pointed his finger at Democrats after he dodged a question about McConnell’s support for the emerging funding package.

McCarthy said that his message was to Democrats who want to spend more. They spent a lot of money last year and I wouldn’t be giving them any more money.

Even as McCarthy signals his staunch opposition to the massive spending package, some of his critics are complaining about how the process is playing out.

The chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus said that McConnell was about to roll the House. Tell me how things change here. I am interested to hear but right now I don’t see anything changing.

Republican sources say that the House GOP leadership will likely whip against both the omnibus bill and the one week short-term spending patch as well. Both packages will be voted on by McConnell.

The Senate Majority Whip Chuck Schumer vs. the Senate Finance Committee: a case for a better deal before the end of the fiscal year

“They have different styles, different flavors of their conferences,” the member said. There is a different dynamic. McCarthy is fighting for his political future.

The ongoing separation between the Senate and House Republicans has been discussed recently by members as they prepare to take control of the levers of power.

A framework that should allow for a full-year government funding package to be agreed to was announced Tuesday evening by congressional negotiators.

The announcement did not say what the agreement encompassed, but it marked a major breakthrough in the race to fund the government before year’s end.

Republicans say that the Democratic Party has spent too much money and will make it harder for them to win a second term in the House of Representatives by passing a sweeping health care and climate bill.

The Senate majority whip warned of the Government funding fight moving into next year. He said that would just invite more obstruction. October 1 was when the fiscal year began. The job should be done before Christmas.

“I assume that people will want to fund the government until we have a longer resolution in place, whether that’s a (continuing resolution) into next year or whether that’s an omni,” he said, referring to a full-year deal known as an omnibus.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that negotiations on a year-long government funding bill are moving forward and if talks continue as they are, he’s “hopeful” they’ll reach a deal.

The House voted Wednesday evening to pass a stopgap bill to avoid a government shutdown this week, which is at the end of the week. The vote was 224 to 201 with nine Republicans joining with Democrats to vote in favor.

The Tax Credit Problem and Senate Majority Leader Ron Wyden, R.D. Thune, L.R. Shelby, G.E.C. Shelby

Democrats and progressives are pushing to restore parts of the enhanced child tax credit that will help families fight off poverty in the 21st century.

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said on Tuesday that he plans to “fight with every ounce of my strength” over the issue.

The top interest of companies is for trained and educated workers. You make investments like the Child Tax Credit and you give the employers the chance to get more of what they want. The Child Tax Credit and the Research and Development Credit are both supported very firmly by him.

But asked about the possibility of a tax package in an omnibus deal, Thune said on Tuesday, “There’s a lot of expiring tax policy that needs to be extended, which enjoys bipartisan support, but as is usually the case there’s a ransom to be paid when it comes to tax policy and the price may be too high. I don’t see it at the moment.

On Wednesday, Shelby said the top line was about $1.7 trillion, but didn’t provide any further details. Shelby said the exact allocations to the different government agencies are still being negotiated.

A bipartisan agreement for a full-year government funding deal has proven challenging to secure amid disagreement between the two parties over how much money should be spent on non-defense, domestic priorities.