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Author: Gabriel Kornas

What We’re Reading this Week (November 30th-December 4th, 2020)

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Election Fraud Claims: In a 46 minute-long video filmed at the Diplomatic Reception Room, the President continued to push unsubstantiated claims of a “rigged election”. US Attorney General Bill Barr has confirmed that there is no evidence of widespread election fraud. Read more.

Federal Budget: Certain provisions related to environmental protection, the National Academies, and the US Capitol Police are holding up a potential omnibus spending bill to fund the Federal Government after December 11th. Appropriators have turned to leadership to resolve the differences. More.

Lame Duck Nominee: The Senate confirmed Christopher Waller to the Federal Reserve Board in a 48-47 partisan vote. Sen. Paul (R-KY) was the only Republican to vote against his confirmation. Waller is the first Board nominee to be confirmed during a lame duck session. Read more.

Facebook Lawsuit: The US Department of Justice has sued Facebook, alleging the company hired several thousand foreign workers under the H-1B program, without considering qualified American applicants. Full story.

Marijuana Vote: Today, the House will vote on a bill removing marijuana from a federal list of controlled substances and expunge some marijuana-related convictions. More.

Census Delays: The US Census Bureau has conveyed to Congress that they will need until at least January 23rd to review anomalies and transmit results to the President, potentially thwarting plans to exclude undocumented persons. More.

Bipartisan COVID Relief Bill Unveiled

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A bipartisan group of Senators have introduced a “middle ground” COVID relief bill which they hope can work for both sides of the aisle and pass before the holidays. The $908 billion bill includes some relief for state, local, and tribal governments, the USPS, $300/week unemployment supplements, help for small businesses, testing and tracing, housing assistance, a reauthorization of the paycheck protection program, and more. The bill does not include another round of $1,200 stimulus checks.

An overview is available here, however the actual bill has not been made available yet.

Some of the $908 billion is repurposed from prior spending bills, rather than new spending.

It is unclear whether the bill has enough support to pass in either chamber, or whether the President would sign it. Democrats continue to push for greater spending while Republicans want a smaller price tag.

Read more here.

What We’re Reading this Week (November 16th-20th, 2020)

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Below is a selection of articles the Federal Relations team read this week.

More Senators test positive for COVID-19: Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) became the latest Member of Congress to test positive for COVID-19. Full story.

Federal Reserve Nomination Blocked: Judy Shelton’s nomination to the Federal Reserve Board was blocked by a 47-50 procedural vote. Shelton is a controversial pick, and Senators Collins (R-ME) and Romney (R-UT) joined Democrats in voting against her confirmation. Two Republican senators were absent due to COVID-19 exposure. Read more.

Trump Fires DHS Cybersecurity Head: President Trump fired Chris Krebs as Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency after he contradicted several of the President’s claims regarding election fraud. Read the full story.

Wreaths Across America: The Army reversed course and will allow Wreaths Across America, an annual event at Arlington National Cemetery, to proceed despite COVID-19 concerns. More.

House Leadership: House Democrats held leadership elections this week, appointing, notably, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) to be Vice Chairman of the caucus, making him the highest ranking Latino. Rep. Pelosi (D-CA) will return as Speaker of the House, and Rep. Hoyer (D-MD) will again serve as Majority Leader. Read more.

Return of Earmarks: House Leadership, including potential candidates for Appropriations Chair, are optimistic that earmarks (or “congressionally directed spending”) will return for the 117th Congress. Although Majority Leader Rep. Hoyer (D-MD) said Republicans and Democrats will likely participate, the Senate still has a ban on earmarks. Read more.

SCOTUS Hears ACA Arguments

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Today the US Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in a case challenging parts of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”). The case will determine whether the mandate to purchase insurance, regardless of penalty, is constitutional. Live updates here.

Upcoming in Congress…

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As the Biden administration enters the transition period, including the vetting of cabinet officials, the current Congress begins a lame-duck session. The Senate reconvened on Monday, November 9th, and the House will reconvene on Monday, November 16th. The 117th Congress is set to begin on January 3rd, 2021. President-elect Biden will take office at 12:00pm ET on January 20th, 2021.

To recap:

  • Joe Biden has been elected President, and Kamala Harris has been elected Vice President.
  • President Trump and Vice President Pence’s terms will expire on January 20th, 2021. They are “lame-ducks”, meaning they have a limited amount of time to accomplish remaining agenda items.
  • The House of Representatives is still under Democratic control in the next Congress, by a narrow margin, after Democrats lost a handful of seats.
  • The Senate is very likely still under Republican control in the next Congress, even with uncalled elections in Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia. Republican Senators Sullivan (R-AK) and Tillis (R-NC) are projected to keep their seats. Republican Senator McSally (R-AZ) is expected to lose her seat to Democrat challenger Mark Kelly. A runoff in Georgia is scheduled for January 5th to elect those two seats, one of which is a special election. If Democrats manage to flip those two seats, the balance of the Senate would be 50-50, however this is a heavy lift considering Georgia hasn’t elected a Democratic Senator since 2000.

Looking to the next Congress:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has won reelection and is favored to remain in his position. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has also won reelection and will seek another term as Speaker. Leader McConnell confirmed during that during the lame-duck session, the Senate will continue to work on COVID-19 relief and FY21 appropriations.  Speaker Pelosi has announced a similar plan for the House. The National Defense Authorization Act also remains on the to-do list.

The current Continuing Resolution expires on December 11th, after which the Federal Government could shut down without another Continuing Resolution. Democrats and Republicans would have to come to a quick consensus on a variety of issues in order to wrap up FY21 appropriations before Biden takes office. Senate Republicans are expected to release their FY21 numbers in the next day or so.

For the 117th Congress, the members of the Washington delegation remain unchanged except for the addition of Congresswoman-elect Marilyn Strickland (D-WA-10th) replacing Congressman Heck, who will become Lieutenant Governor. Neither of the Washington Senators were up for reelection in 2020. Committee assignments for the 117th Congress should be finalized in January.

We will post relevant updates as they become available.