Letters from Capitol Hill that Members of Congress have written and signed on to lately.
Procedural Game Playing for the 119th
The option to go nuclear is always a possibility in real life, and, despite best efforts to embody surrealism, this still includes Capitol Hill, where procedural game-playing is already coming into the forefront of the 119th Session.
Of course, blowing up the rules and going nuclear with the procedures of the respective chambers is nothing new for Congress:
For instance, had the Rules Committee in its President Johnson Era had not intervened to hear certain legislation, the U.S. may still be without Civil Rights Amendments. (It’s too bad the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments didn’t do anything about Johnson reportedly taking meetings from a toilet in an opened-door bathroom, but the committee's jurisdiction can only be manipulated so far.)
More present day, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) caught a bad rap for his invocation of the “nuclear” option that lowered the number of votes needed to pass legislation in the Senate to a simple majority.
Even from beyond the grave, Reid’s legacy lives on, with President Joe Biden using the move early in his term to pass the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, and then again for the Inflation Reduction Act.
Cut to the current Session of Congress, newly re-minted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is teeing up a procedural play known as reconciliation to pass a rumored mega bill of policy and technical terms of soon-to-be-installed President Trump’s priorities.
A signature piece of legislation is always the priority of any incoming President; however, with a Jan. 6 snow day federal office closure day in D.C. potentially impacting certification of the general election results, an end-of-April deadline as Johnson has proclaimed for this policy/budget package may be ambitious.
Wrapped in a patina of a budget package, Johnson said the “powerful” bill would address issues, such as border security, including: money for the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, an extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, raising or eliminating the federal debt ceiling, reducing federal regulations, “dismantling the deep state,” and the President-elect’s promise on “no tax on tips” for restaurant and service industry workers who rely on tip generosity.
Actively working to avoid negotiations with Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Johnson said he preferred working the legislation with a procedural option known as reconciliation between the chambers, where only 50 votes would be required for passage in the Senate.
This “nuclear option” to avoid regular order and processes for deliberation may be a preference for Johnson’s slim 4-vote margin majority in the House, anticipated to change further when a number of Republican Members will depart for a different House further down Pennsylvania Ave.
Whether clever procedural maneuvering will pay off for Johnson 2.0 under Trump Redux remains to be seen. What’s clear is Republicans from both chambers have already expressed concerns that one big policy/budget bill will be too cumbersome to achieve under accelerated expectations.
There’s a new sheriff in town in the Senate with Sen. Thune (R-SD) replacing a semi-retired Sen. McConnell (R-KY), who relinquished the reins after 18 years running the Republicans, but a 53-47 count leaves little room for ambition - even with reconciliation or other procedural plays.
Just a reminder - with reconciliation, the minority party in the Senate is unable to launch a filibuster - the go-to Senate weapon of choice that Thune has vowed to protect.
Circling back and switching to the other weather word - a Hill chief shared with Proxenos that Members were told to stay in town over the weekend to avoid being stranded by snow ahead of the election certification.
But it wouldn’t be a Jan. 6 if there wasn’t a bed check vote gone array, with a number of Democrats reportedly not in D.C. and more than four inches of snow on the ground at DCA.
Republicans say they have the majority quorum required to proceed with the election certification the House.
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Jan. 06 | Floor Schedules
Did you know that Republicans have only controlled the White House, Senate, and House for 10 years in the past century?
IN THE HOUSE
This week, the House is set to hold its first votes on legislation of the 119th Congress, count the electoral votes, as well as pay respects to former President Jimmy Carter, who is due to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda through Thursday.
The People’s Chamber will consider two bills related to immigration detention requirements and International Criminal Court sanctions. The measures were made in order under the rules package for the 119th Congress, which the House adopted 215-209 on Jan. 3.
Additionally, the House and Senate will meet in a joint session to formally declare President-elect Donald Trump the winner of the 2024 presidential election.
A closer look at the House docket
Immigration Detention | Named after Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student killed by a Venezuelan immigrant in 2024, this Homeland Security Department (DHS) bill would require the agency to detain non-U.S. citizens entering the country illegally that are arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting. The measure also allows states to pursue civil action against DHS for harms allegedly caused by not complying with immigration laws related to admissions and removals.
International Criminal Court Sanctions | Under this proposed legislation, the president would be required to impose sanctions on individuals involved in International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions against Americans or citizens of U.S. allies who have not consented to the court’s jurisdiction. For some context, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government officials in November for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
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Jan. 04 | Schumer et all-Senators
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is pressing Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) for an all-senators briefing on recent dangerous events in New Orleans and Las Vegas.
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Jan. 04 | Nazi-Linked Credit Committee Report
Tens of thousands of documents uncovered as a result of a Senate Budget Committee investigation into Credit Suisse’s World War II-era accounts indicate extensive new evidence of previously unknown or only partially known Nazi-linked account holders. The bank failed to disclose these accounts during prior investigations. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) spearheaded the investigation in their capacities as Budget Committee Ranking Member and Chairman, respectively, during the 118th Congress.
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Jan. 03 | Letters for Louisiana
U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and the entire Louisiana congressional delegation requested disaster recovery assistance following the Bourbon Street terrorist attack in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. The two letters request approval from President Biden of Governor Jeff Landry’s emergency disaster declaration for the State of Louisiana. They also request a Small Business Administration (SBA) Disaster Declaration for Orleans Parish. This will make essential assistance available in the form of SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loans to small businesses affected by the attack.
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