![]() A version of the bill passed the House earlier this year, with support from dozens of Republicans. “Passing the Respect for Marriage Act is no longer a matter of if but only of when,” he said in recent remarks. Earlier this month, 12 Republicans joined all Democrats to clear a major procedural hurdle that put the historic measure on track to passage. Schumer said the Senate will take a final vote on legislation to protect same-sex and interracial marriages when the chamber returns after the Thanksgiving recess. Senator Georgia Raphael Warnock, who faces a runoff election in Georgia, will push to cap the cost of insulin. While fiscal matters are at the center of negotiations on Capitol Hill, there are many more legislative items on the agenda. “It’s generally not a good idea to enter a negotiation with a ticking timebomb and a counter-party willing to let it go off.” “Any Democrats averse to taking such a painful vote now should consider how much leverage their party will lose once Republicans control the House – and how much higher the risk of default will be then,” he wrote. In a Washington Post op-ed, Peter Orszag, the former director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office, implored Democrats to prioritize the issue, even if it takes up precious floor time to accomplish. Speaking to reporters on the same day, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, said he didn’t think Congress would take up the issue until “sometime next year”. Schumer said last week that he would like to “get a debt ceiling done in this work period” but insisted that it would require Republican support, effectively ruling out a go-it-alone approach that would allow Democrats to unilaterally raise the debt limit. Yet Democratic leaders have suggested that it is unlikely Congress will address the borrowing limit in the next few weeks. The debt ceiling now stands at $31.4tn, a level that will need to be addressed by the third quarter of 2023, according to projections. In an interview with CNN, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, who is poised to succeed Nancy Pelosi when she steps down as the House Democratic leader in January, said raising the debt ceiling before Republicans take control of the House was probably “the right thing to do” as a way to prevent conservatives “from being able to hold the American economy hostage”. House Republicans have threatened to use the debt ceiling as leverage to extract deep spending cuts, a prospect that has raised alarm among economists and policymakers who are pleading with Democrats to defuse a dangerous fiscal standoff. Lawmakers must also reauthorize the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a must-pass bill that sets US military policy for the coming year.ĭemocrats must also decide whether to confront the debt limit. Failure to do so would result in a government shutdown. “It’s going to be heavy work, long hours to try and get much done.”Īmong the unfinished business is enacting legislation to keep the federal government funded past a 16 December deadline. ![]() “We are going to try to have as productive a lame-duck session as possible,” the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said at a post-election press conference. But they are also under mounting pressure to act to raise the statutory debt limit, staving off a partisan showdown next year that many fear could lead to economic calamity. ![]() With a narrowing window to act, Democrats intend to use the end-of-year “lame duck” session to leave a legislative mark while they still control all the levers of power in Washington. Meanwhile, Democrats will retain – and possibly expand, depending on the outcome of a runoff election in Georgia – their majority in the Senate, allowing them to continue confirming Biden’s judicial and administrative nominees. ![]() In January, Republicans will claim the gavel in the House, giving them veto power over much of Joe Biden’s agenda. There are only a handful of working days left before the balance of power in Congress shifts and Democrats’ unified control of government in Washington ends. ![]()
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