Washington — Lawmakers are returning to Washington this week for the ultimate dash earlier than the top of the 117th Congress, and the Home and Senate face a laundry checklist of legislative objects earlier than the yr's finish, starting from a must-pass invoice to maintain federal businesses working to a plan to reform how Congress counts electoral votes.
Within the Home, the lame-duck session marks Democrats' last alternative to behave on their legislative priorities earlier than Republicans take management of the decrease chamber with a slender majority in January. However the December work interval will even be full of commonplace payments that Congress should take up, which can take up flooring time.
"Whether or not it is strengthening our economic system, enhancing our immigration system, defending our nationwide safety, or safeguarding democracy all over the world, now we have necessary work forward of us in December," Home Majority Chief Steny Hoyer wrote in a letter to his Democratic colleagues Sunday. "We should take full benefit of the approaching weeks to ship outcomes for the individuals."
Here's a have a look at the objects on Congress's legislative to-do checklist for the lame-duck session.
Respect for Marriage Act
The Senate is poised to vote this week on last passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, a invoice that would offer federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages. Twelve Senate Republicans voted to advance the invoice earlier this month, successfully guaranteeing it is going to win approval within the 50-50 Senate.
As soon as the wedding equality laws clears the Senate, it is going to head again to the Home and, if handed, to President Biden's desk for his signature.
An earlier model of the Respect for Marriage Act handed the Home with help from 47 Republicans this summer time. The Senate-approved plan consists of protections for spiritual liberty, which may appeal to extra GOP help.
Funding the federal government
Congress is staring down a Dec. 16 deadline to cross laws that funds the federal authorities. If lawmakers are going through a time crunch in reaching an settlement to maintain businesses' lights on, they might vote on a short-term invoice that may push the deadline to cross a authorities funding invoice nearer to the vacations.
When appropriations leaders introduced a stopgap measure in late September to fund the federal government by Dec. 16, they stated the invoice, generally known as a seamless decision, afforded them extra time to finish work on an omnibus package deal. However it's unclear whether or not they're close to consensus on the spending plan for fiscal yr 2023, and failure to succeed in settlement may pressure lawmakers to approve one other short-term persevering with decision.
Nationwide Protection Authorization Act
The annual protection authorization invoice is one other piece of laws that Congress should cross earlier than the top of the yr. The measure, which units protection coverage, has been handed yearly for greater than six a long time.
Reforming the Electoral Depend Act
Former President Donald Trump's announcement this month that he's working for president for a 3rd time added urgency to reforming the Electoral Depend Act. Lawmakers in each chambers have proposed modifications to the regulation after it served as the premise for Trump's authorized technique to overturn the outcomes of a presidential election.
The Home handed its personal reforms to the 1887 regulation in September. Referred to as the Presidential Election Reform Act and sponsored by Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Zoe Lofgren of California, the measure ensures that Congress receives an electoral certificates from every state that precisely displays the desire of the voters, requires Congress to depend electoral votes because the Structure stipulates and reaffirms that the vp's function in approving electoral votes is merely ministerial.
The Senate has its personal model, launched by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia final month. Their proposal has greater than three dozen co-sponsors, together with 14 Republicans.
The quantity of help from GOP senators ought to clear the way in which for the invoice to beat a filibuster, although lots of the Republicans who signed on to the plan are leaving Congress on the finish of the yr.
In his letter to his fellow Home Democrats, Hoyer acknowledged the Home might have to take up the Senate's invoice, writing the Home's Democratic majority "must take swift motion to make sure that we safe reforms to our electoral depend system."
COVID-19 and Ukraine help
The White Home requested Congress this month to supply a further $10 billion to assist reply to the COVID-19 pandemic and different infectious ailments, in addition to one other $37.7 billion in help for Ukraine.
It is unclear, although, whether or not there may be sufficient Republican help for emergency supplemental funding for the pandemic, and earlier requests from Mr. Biden had been rebuffed by GOP lawmakers.
Republicans have largely supported offering more cash to Ukraine because it continues to defend itself from Russia, however such a request from the Biden administration may face new resistance from a GOP-led Home, as some congressional Republicans have begun to query the necessity for extra help to Ukraine.