Today Congress gavels into session for the first time since mid-July, for a four-week meeting that represents the last chance for law-making before the November elections. Last week, I told you what members were up to during the break. Now, what lies ahead for them back in Washington?
The answer depends a bit on which party’s members you ask, but there’s no getting around the top priority, regardless: funding the government.
When Paul Ryan took over as speaker of the House, nearly a year ago, he vowed to break the miserable cycle of recent years, and oversee an orderly budget process. That dream has died; House Republicans couldn’t even agree on a total spending figure, let alone pass the 13 separate appropriations bills the “normal” process entails.
With the federal government’s fiscal year—and its current budget—ending on September 30, that presumably means Congress and President Barack Obama must agree this month on a continuing resolution (CR) to temporarily keep the government operating.
“The next four weeks is going to be all about getting the budget done, and passing a continuing resolution,” said Rep. Katherine Clark of Melrose, who as a senior whip participates in House Democrats’ strategy sessions.
Many conservatives want a CR to extend well into 2017, allowing time for the new incoming lawmakers to deal with it. But with Senate Democrats strongly opposing that plan, it’s more likely that a CR will go only into December, forcing another deadline during this Congress’s lame-duck session.
Clark, like most Washington observers, expects a CR to get done, one way or another, despite intense internal GOP disagreements, to avoid a politically damaging government shutdown just before the election.
“Republican leadership realizes that [a shutdown] would be a disaster, so they will go to great lengths to avoid it,” Clark said.
House Democrats, Clark says, will focus on three funding demands that they blame Republicans for impeding: preventing the spread of the Zika virus; combating opioid addiction; and mitigating the Flint water crisis.
Not on that list: gun-related legislation that Clark and other Democrats were demanding in their sit-in protest earlier this summer. No votes on the topic are expected; instead, Ryan has reportedly indicated that some form of official rebuke will be made against those members who participated in the sit-in.
“I think the speaker has been crystal clear that he has no intention to even bring a vote on background checks,” Clark said. So, Democrats’ strategy has now turned to putting pressure on back in the states and districts where Republicans face re-election. “We’re really focused on making this an issue at the polls,” Clark said.
House Republicans, who control the chamber, naturally have their own agenda for the month, also made with an eye on how they’ll look to voters making up their mind about the coming elections.
Their to-do list, laid out by Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in a memo he sent to GOP House members late last week, includes a $1.1 billion Zika bill, but did not suggest how to overcome an ongoing impasse on that legislation. Other items, including regulation reform, Veterans Administration oversight, and an “innovation initiative” likewise might see House votes but fail to get further. And, McCarthy’s memo notably omits some ambitious ideas that might have run out of time in this two-year session, including criminal-justice reform that Ryan has touted.
McCarthy’s agenda, while heavy on issues the party is running on for next term, is silent on the possibility of impeachment proceedings against John Koskinen, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, over actions stemming from alleged targeting of conservative organizations.
Instead, House Republican leadership promises a bill dealing with the $400 million payment made to Iran earlier this year, which was the subject of considerable reporting and criticism during the summer recess.
Voters may have forgotten about it, and charges that it constituted a ransom for prisoners. By debating and voting on a legislative response, Republicans hope to remind them.
Along with that, Republicans plan to move forward on a bill filed in June by Maine Rep. Bruce Poliquin, who is in a tough re-election fight with Democrat Emily Cain. Poliquin’s Iranian Leadership Asset Transparency Act would require the Treasury Department to make public reports on the financial holdings of Iran’s government and military, in hopes of preventing money laundering and terrorist funding.
The bill was quickly voted favorably out of one committee in June, but had appeared stalled until specifically mentioned in McCarthy’s memo.
If it passes the House, Poliquin’s bill would still need the rapid attention of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The sense among observers is that McConnell is not in much of a mood to do much that isn’t a clear benefit toward keeping the GOP’s majority status in the Senate.
Rather than forcing them to take potentially controversial votes, McConnell wants Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and other Republicans facing tough re-elections, to pass something to keep the government open and then get back home to campaign.
Senate Democrats will surely point to a variety of derelictions they see in this strategy—including Senate Republicans’ ongoing refusal to hold confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.
Expect a war of words over that, as Democrats try to remind voters who may have forgotten.
In other words, both parties will be shouting and waving their arms in attempts to draw voters’ attention to issues and controversies that could sway them to want their side to hold Congressional power.
Not that many of those voters will notice. With the presidential race barreling out of summer, and Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump dominating the headlines, members of Congress will likely spend more of their time fielding questions about what their party’s presidential nominees are doing, than what they are up to themselves.
