A Stopgap Senate Bill to Make Funding the Government Prioritized as the Government Comes Back from its Break” Sen. Joe Schumer

Congress passed a short-term funding bill in September that expires December 16 and it is expected that they will make funding the government the number one priority as they come back from their break.

“This is commonsense, bipartisan legislation,” Schumer said on the floor prior to the vote. “I’m glad we came to a timely conclusion and didn’t go right up to the brink and risk a shutdown. Millions of people can be reassured that the money to continue the government will be there even after this has been done.

The legislation passed quickly. It includes funding for a low-income home heating program and emergency aid to help address the water crisis in Jackson, Miss.

The re-authorization of FDA user fees is important if we want to avoid the review of new life-saving drugs being slowed down, Schumer said in a statement.

The first hurdle in passage of a stopgap bill is the original language written by Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia. The Inflation Reduction Act is the signature piece of Democrats’ spending package and was brokered by Manchin and Schumer.

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

The 2020 midterm election: Reply to the epsilon, deniers, and the cost of bailing out the government

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.

Election deniers, however, remain a potent force on the right: More than 220 candidates who questioned the 2020 election have won state or federal office, and about 30 of those have said the election was stolen or rigged.

Even if these reforms pass, they are, like any other law, only words on paper. In order to work, they need to be upheld by those in positions of power, who are committed to acting in the interests of American democracy and the rule of law. Still, both the Senate and House bills are far better than what we have right now, and either one would go a long way to ensuring that the electoral-count law cannot be used as a tool for subverting the election in 2024 or beyond. Congress needs to pass the overhaul now, when it has willing majorities in both houses and well before anyone casts a ballot in 2024.

Democrats also want more funding for the Covid-19 pandemic, but Republicans are not likely to support that request. The Department of Justice investigation into the January 6th, 2021, attack on the Capitol might be in need of more money.

The government is expected to reach the limit of its congressionally authorized borrowing capacity, known as the debt ceiling, at some point in 2023. For the government to pay its bills, Congress must raise that limit — but House Republicans have made clear that if the vote is deferred until the next Congress, they will threaten to withhold consent, risking a global financial crisis to compel the White House to accept reductions in federal spending.

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. That standoff also imposed limits on federal spending that delayed the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.

Democrat Work in the Lame Duck Sessions: Probing Congress After Tuesday’s Election and the Future of Senate Majority Turnout Measures

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.

The busy agenda includes: Funding the government to avert a shutdown before the end of the calendar year, passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, the annual must-pass legislation that sets the policy agenda and authorizes funding for the Department of Defense, a vote in the Senate to protect same-sex marriage and possible consideration of other key issues.

Democrats in the Senate can’t easily pass legislation because they have a narrow majority. With a 50-50 partisan split in the Senate, Democrats lack the votes to overcome the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold – and do not have enough support within their party to abolish the filibuster, as many are anxious to do. 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.

Democrats, who currently control both chambers, are returning with a new reality in the wake of Tuesday’s election they did not expect: Key races that will determine the balance of power in the House have not been called, and CNN has not yet projected who would control the House. Republicans seem to be in a good position to control the chamber, but it’s possible that they won’t win enough seats.

CNN projected that the Democrats will retain control of the Senate after the news session of Congress starts in January. But with a runoff election set for Georgia’s US Senate seat set for December 6, the final make-up of the chamber won’t be known until at least then.

Chuck Schumer said at a news conference on Sunday that there would be a lot of work and long hours, though he wouldn’t give anything more than that.

Provisions that Democrats want to pass during the final weeks of the election could come about because the legislation must be passed. More financial support for the country as it defends itself against Russia. The funding has bipartisan support, however, some conservatives, such as Kevin McCarthy of California, the top House Republican who is expected to become speaker if his party eventually wins the chamber, are hesitant about the pricey contributions and are going to scrutinize additional requests from the Biden administration.

The defense bill is important to Congress. Consideration of a wide-ranging bill could lead to discussion and amendments regarding a variety of topics, including the decision by Saudi Arabia to cut oil production.

A Senate vote on codifying same-sex marriage is also on tap. In September, the chamber sat down to vote on the bill until after the elections in November which could make the bill more likely to pass the chamber.

The siege of the Capitol was caused by attempts by former President Donald Trump to block the results of the 2020 election, so votes are likely on bipartisan legislation that will make it harder to overturn a presidential election. It is in support of Senate Minority Leader McConnell. The bill would need to pass the House in order for it to be signed into law.

The debt ceiling is something we have to deal with. Schumer said that they would look at it over the next few weeks. “I have to talk to the leadership first. We don’t know where the House is going to be.”

“In Washington, we have a bunch of things on our plate, including getting the defense bill done with Ukraine right before us and the strides that (Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky) is making against Vladimir Putin,” she said. There is a budget bill that we have to do before the end of the year so that we can make sure we get that right. When we get back, all of that is immediately.