The House has introduced articles of impeachment against President Trump accusing him of “incitement of insurrection”. Votes could occur as early as Wednesday. Even if the articles pass in the House, it is unlikely that the Senate would convene a trial, or vote to convict, before the President’s term ends. Read more.
Category: 117th Congress
Congress Affirms Biden’s Win After an Unbelievable Day
After Congress reconvened, it affirmed President-elect Biden’s electoral victory during the early hours of Thursday.
Even after the historic violence earlier in the day, more than 100 House Republicans objected to the electoral votes of Pennsylvania and seven Republican Senators voiced their support for the move when Congress resumed the counting. When the Capitol was attacked, both chambers were in the middle of a debate about the votes from Arizona. After debates restarted, more than half of the House Republicans– more than 120– objected to the votes from Arizona while six Senate Republicans voted that way. A handful of Republican Senators changed their minds about objecting to the votes after the day’s events.
Needless to say, what is normally a routine event every four years was anything but yesterday/this morning.
You can read more about the developments here, here, and here.
Congress Reconvenes
Following the breach of the US Capitol today, the Senate reconvened several hours later to continue counting electoral ballots for the President and Vice President-elect of the United States. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced the House will also reconvene tonight at 9:00pm ET.
Read Speaker Pelosi’s statement here. Watch Senate floor proceedings here and House floor proceedings here.
Final Senate Races Lead to Democrat Control
Amid much national and international attention, the two runoff US Senate elections in Georgia on January 5th decided the (foreseeable) control of the US Senate for at least the first two years of President-elect Biden’s term. Both Georgia seats were flipped after Democrats defeated the Republican incumbents.
Senator-elect Jon Ossoff (D-GA) won election to the Class II seat previously occupied by former-Senator Perdue (R-GA). He will be up for reelection in 2026.
Senator-elect Raphael Warnock (D-GA) won election to the Class III seat previously occupied by former-Senator Loeffler (R-GA). Loeffler was appointed to replace former-Senator Isakson (R-GA) who resigned in 2019. Warnock will be up for reelection in 2022 for a full six year term.
With the Senate split 50-50, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris (D) will serve as the tie-breaking vote in her constitutional role as President of the Senate.
Read more.
Waiting on the Senate
As of Wednesday, the US Senate has still not voted on whether to override President Trump’s veto of the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). A final vote, and eventual passage, is expected by this weekend after Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) objected to unanimous consent today. The House already voted to override the veto with bipartisan support.
Sanders’ objection was an attempt to push Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to schedule a vote on the increased, $2000 stimulus payments. The increased payments already passed in the House, and have the backing of President Trump. In a statement, Senator McConnell said the increased payments have “no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate.”
The clock is ticking to finish remaining agenda items before the 117th Congress is sworn in at 12:00pm on Sunday, January 3rd, 2021.
Read more here.