Author: Thornrun

Capitol Hill Update

Congress is expected to conclude its September legislative work session this week before embarking on a month-long sprint to the finish for the 2020 campaign. In the upper chamber, Senators are poised to take up the bipartisan continuing resolution (CR) (text; summary) tomorrow ahead of Wednesday’s Sept. 30 government funding deadline. The measure — which includes extensions for the surface transportation law, National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), and expiring health care programs — would punt the funding deadline into the “lame duck” session on Friday, Dec. 11. Meanwhile, the Senate is scheduled to return later in October to begin the confirmation process for Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, with a hearing scheduled in the Senate Judiciary Committee for Oct. 15. President Donald Trump tapped Barrett to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg over the weekend.

Capitol Hill Update

Congress will convene today with less than 10 days remaining until the government funding deadline. Congressional leadership is hopeful that lawmakers will be able to take up and pass a continuing resolution (CR) this week that would avert a shutdown on Sept. 30th, but the talks have hit a snag over various lingering issues. Funding for agriculture relief payments, election security, and COVID-19 relief, as well as the overall length of the stopgap funding measure, stand out as key sticking points that have delayed the measure’s official introduction thus far. House Democratic leadership is hopeful they can file the text early this week, but that deadline could end up slipping if the two sides are unable to bridge these differences.

Capitol Hill Update

Senators failed to advance (52-47) the GOP’s targeted pandemic relief bill last week Senate Democrats, plus Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), voted against the motion to proceed for the underlying bill. The package — which included Republican priorities on child care, liability protections, health care, education, and small business — did not meet the 60-vote threshold required to advance the measure for full consideration on the floor. While Congressional Democrats continue to push for a more robust stimulus package to address existing and emerging issues related to the pandemic, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has reiterated her willingness to strike a relief agreement that totals below the $3 trillion outlined in the House-passed HEROES Act. Negotiations between the two sides are expected to continue when the House convenes for votes this week. However, the likelihood of a deal getting struck prior to both the Nov. 3 election and the end of this congressional session remains precarious, as both sides still remain far apart on the overall size and scope of the relief package.

Capitol Hill Update

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows did not move closer to a deal on the next round of pandemic relief aid, as the two sides remain far apart on the size and scope of the next package. The two lead negotiators held a roughly 25-minute phone call last week to discuss the legislation, with Speaker Pelosi noting that the Democrats are willing go to down to $2.2 trillion as a starting point for the next bill. With Congress set to return after Labor Day, it’s likely that negotiations will remain on ice until after the holiday.

Capitol Hill Update

Over this past weekend, House lawmakers convened for a rare Saturday session, passing (257-150) legislation that seeks to shore up the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). House Oversight and Government Reform Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney’s (D-NY) bill would: (1) provide the USPS with $25 billion to cover revenue losses; (2) reverse service and operational changes implemented earlier this year; and (3) require that all election-related mail be treated as first-class to ensure priority delivery. While 26 House Republicans joined all Democrats in voting for the Delivering for America Act, the measure is not expected to be taken up in the GOP-controlled Senate. The Trump Administration issued a veto threat against the bill late last Friday, arguing that USPS “needs reforms that will return it to a trend of long-term financial self-sufficiency.”

Capitol Hill Update

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is poised to call Members back to Washington for votes amid growing concerns about the state of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Lawmakers will likely come back later in the week to vote on House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney’s Delivering for America Act, which prohibits the Postal Service from implementing any changes to operations or level of service it had in place on January 1, 2020. The vote comes following a series of USPS letters to 46 states and the District of Columbia warning that it could not guarantee all ballots cast by mail will arrive to elections officials in time to be counted, raising the possibility that the pace of its delivery could disenfranchise voters. While the measure is likely to pass the lower chamber, it faces a cloudy future in the GOP-controlled Senate as President Donald Trump has publicly opposed additional funding for the USPS.

Capitol Hill Update

With negotiations on the next round of COVID-19 relief legislation at a standstill, President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders on pandemic-related priorities over the weekend. The orders seek to the restore the enhanced federal unemployment benefits at a rate lower than the CARES Act allocation, defer payroll taxes until early 2021, renew the moratorium on evictions, and continue deferring student loan payments and accrued interest under the CARES Act Statute.