Next Week on the Hill: NV Voters Prepare for Saturday Caucus

The tightly-contested race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination will shift west this weekend as Nevadans prepare for the Saturday caucus. Recent polling from the Silver State suggests that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), former South Bend, IN Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and former Vice President Joe Biden will be in contention for a share of Nevada’s 36 delegates. With 1,991 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, Mayor Buttigieg (23), Sen. Sanders (21), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) (8) are currently atop the leaderboard, with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) (7) and Vice President Biden (6) rounding out the top five.

In Washington, Congress will return from the Presidents’ Day district work period next week to resume legislative business. The Senate will return first on Monday, Feb. 24, with the House returning a day later on Tuesday, Feb. 25. On the Senate floor next week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has queued up a pair of abortion-related measures that are designed as a messaging exercise for the 2020 election. The measures up for consideration would: (1) establish requirements for the degree of care a health care practitioner must exercise in the event a child is born alive following an abortion or attempted abortion (S. 311); and (2) seek to boost protections for pain-capable unborn children (S. 3275). Senators will also consider four presidential nominations, including Katharine MacGregor’s nomination to be Deputy Secretary of the Interior.