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Washington – The two houses of Congress returned to Capitol Hill together on Monday for the first time since late July, and lawmakers are considering a long list of legislative tasks they must deal with in the coming weeks.
The multitude of deadlines, some self-imposed, sets off a wave of legislative activity for the House and Senate and leaves Democratic leaders to navigate divisions not only with Republicans, but also within their own party.
“The next few weeks will be critical weeks for the Senate,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a Senate address Monday. “Members should be prepared for the possibility of working late at night and until the weekend.”
The most immediate cliff face lawmakers face is the September 30 deadline to fund the government and avoid a partial government shutdown. But the White House is also sounding the alarm on the looming debt crisis, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warning that a failure by Congress to raise the debt ceiling would have huge economic consequences.
Democrats said Monday they plan to include an increase in the debt ceiling in a bill on short-term government funding and disaster relief, staging a showdown with Republicans who immediately swore to oppose the measure if it includes an increase in the debt ceiling.
Along with the two budget hurdles, Democrats are hoping to hand President Biden a pair of legislative packages that anchor his economic agenda, although the way forward for the bills has been blurred by party disputes.
Here are the items on the Congress agenda as the two chambers reconvene.
Government funding
The House Rules Committee met on Monday to consider three bills, including an interim measure that will keep the federal government funded at current levels until December.
The text of the continuing resolution has not been made public, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Schumer said in a statement that it would include a suspension of the debt ceiling until December 2022.
Schumer and Pelosi said the short-term measure will also include $ 14 billion in disaster assistance for states hard hit by recent hurricanes and fires, as well as $ 6.4 billion for relocation efforts. Afghan refugees, money that was requested by the White House.
Congress has until September 30 to authorize the inescapable measure to avoid an interruption in government funding and bypass a partial government shutdown.
Among the bills considered by the Rules Committee on Monday was a reproductive rights measure that would codify the right to abortion. Pelosi said the House vote on the bill on his return to Washington after the Supreme Court refused to block a Texas law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, but it is unlikely to be approved by the Senate.
Debt ceiling
The Treasury Department estimates that the federal government’s borrowing authority will expire in October, and the White House and administration officials issue terrible warnings to Congress about the consequences of inaction, which would cause the United States to default on its debts.
As the White House pushes for a bipartisan vote to raise the debt ceiling, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said it is the responsibility to do so belongs only to democrats, which control the presidency and both houses of Congress.
To avoid a debt crisis without the GOP, the Republican of Kentucky suggested Democrats include a provision to raise the debt ceiling in a massive $ 3.5 trillion social spending package developed by Congress.
Democratic leaders hesitated at McConnell’s suggestion, and Pelosi and Schumer said on Monday that limiting debt was a responsibility shared by members of both parties.
“Redressing the debt limit means meeting obligations the government has already taken on, like December’s bipartisan COVID emergency relief legislation as well as life-saving payments to Social Security beneficiaries and our veterans. », They declared. “Further, as the administration warned last week, a forced reckless default by Republicans could plunge the country into a recession.”
But McConnell reiterated his opposition to supporting any legislation that includes an increase in the debt ceiling, telling the Senate that Democrats “will not get help from Republicans in the Senate to raise the debt ceiling.”
$ 1,000 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill
When the House voted in August for approve a budget plan which begins the process Democrats use to pass their $ 3.5 trillion spending plan, he also advanced the bipartisan $ 1,000 billion infrastructure bill negotiated by a group of senators and the White House.
The House vote came after a feud between Pelosi and a group of moderate Democrats who threatened to oppose the fiscal framework if the lower house did not vote on the narrow infrastructure bill first.
To appease moderate Democrats, Pelosi pledged to submit the infrastructure plan, which funds improvements to the country’s physical infrastructure, to the House for a vote by September 27.
But it remains to be seen whether Pelosi will deliver on his pledge, as the House is still working to deliver the larger $ 3.5 trillion package. To further complicate the way forward in the House, Progressive Democrats warn they will only vote for the infrastructure bill after they pass the broader plan, which is not yet complete.
$ 3.5 trillion social spending program
While Democrats have no date to approve their sweeping spending program, Progressive Democrats have threatened to block the bipartisan $ 1,000 billion infrastructure bill if it passes before the 3,500 legislation. billion dollars, which will likely be reduced in the Senate. .
House committees last week Work completed developing their respective parts of the package, and legislation is now heading to the House Budget Committee.
The package includes Democrats’ plans for universal pre-kindergarten, children and the elderly, tackling climate change and expanding health insurance, but there is an internal party dispute over the size of the measure.
Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona oppose the $ 3.5 trillion price tag, while Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Sunday on “Face the Nation” that figure was the result of an agreement between a group of Senate Democrats and would not be reduced.
Democrats are using a tool called budget reconciliation to speed up the package, which allows it to clear the Senate by simple majority. But the opposition of Manchin or Sinema would kill the measure.
Passing it, along with the bipartisan $ 1,000 billion infrastructure bill, would be a massive victory for Mr. Biden and the Democrats, as both pieces of legislation form an important part of his domestic policy agenda and include policies long encouraged by Democrats.
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