Congress is in Session as Washington Prepares for President-elect Trump's Inauguration on January 20th
The House and Senate are both in session this week as Washington prepares for the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance on Monday, January 20th while President Biden’s final week in office includes a farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday at 8PM.
The House will vote on several bills, including U.S.-Taiwan double-tax mitigation legislation, while the Senate continues consideration of the Laken Riley Act following last week’s 84-9 vote on a procedural motion to begin debate, and reconciliation planning continues to dominate conversations on Capitol Hill. The Senate’s primary focus over the next few weeks will be confirming the President’s nominees, beginning with over a dozen nomination hearings lined up between Tuesday and Thursday.
House Update
- The House will take up the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act (H.R.28), Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act (H.R.30), and United States-Taiwan Expedited Double-Tax Relief Act (H.R.33), as well as over a half-dozen several suspension votes, including:
- Disaster recovery and assistance measures, the Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act (H.R.152), Post-Disaster Assistance Online Accountability Act (H.R.153), and POWER Act (H.R.164).
- A pair of Amtrak transparency measures, the Amtrak Executive Bonus Disclosure Act (H.R.192) and Amtrak Transparency and Accountability for Passengers and Taxpayers Act (H.R.188).
- Several Committees will hold organizing meetings, including Ways and Means (on Tuesday, at 10AM), Veterans’ Affairs (on Tuesday, at 10:30AM), Oversight and Government Reform (on Tuesday, at 1PM), Homeland Security (on Wednesday, at 9AM), Transportation and Infrastructure (on Wednesday, at 10AM), and Education and Workforce (on Wednesday, at 10:15AM).
- Speaker Johnson is expected to announce Chairs of the Rules and Intelligence Committees in the coming days.
- House Democrats’ Steering and Policy Committee will meet today with the goal of populating the non-exclusive committees after meeting last week to populate the exclusive committees as follows:
- Appropriations: Reps. James Clyburn (SC), Mike Levin (CA), Madeleine Dean (PA), Veronica Escobar (TX), Frank Mrvan (IN), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA), Glenn Ivey (MD)
- Financial Services: Reps. Cleo Fields (LA), Janelle Bynum (OR), Sam Liccardo (CA)
- Ways and Means: Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle (PA) and Reps. Stacey Plaskett (USVI) and Tom Suozzi (NY)
- Energy and Commerce: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Jake Auchincloss (MA), Troy Carter (LA), Rob Menendez (NJ), Kevin Mullin (CA), Greg Landsman (OH), Jennifer McClellan (VA)
Senate Update
- Beginning on Inauguration Day (January 20), Senate Republican leadership will work to confirm Cabinet nominations as quickly as possible.
Senate Confirmation Hearings
- Tuesday, January 14
- Veterans Affairs: Doug Collins appears before the Veterans’ Affairs Committee (at 9AM).
- Defense: Pete Hegseth appears before the Armed Services Committee (at 9:30AM).
- Interior: Doug Burgum appears before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee (at 10AM).
- Wednesday, January 15
- Homeland Security: Kristi Noem appears before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (at 9AM).
- Justice: Pam Bondi appears before the Judiciary Committee (at 9:30AM).
- State: Marco Rubio appears before the Foreign Relations Committee (at 10AM).
- Energy: Chris Wright appears before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee (at 10AM).
- Transportation: Sean Duffy appears before the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee (at 10AM).
- Central Intelligence Agency: John Ratcliffe appears before the Intelligence Committee in open and closed sessions (at 10AM).
- Office of Management and Budget: Russell Vought appears before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (at 1PM).
- Thursday, January 16
- Environmental Protection Agency: Lee Zeldin appears before the Environment and Public Works Committee (at 10AM).
- Housing and Urban Development: Scott Turner appears before the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee (at 10AM).
- Justice: Pam Bondi appears before the Judiciary Committee (at 10:15AM).
- Treasury: Scott Bessent appears before the Finance Committee (at 10:30AM).
Reconciliation Update
- Speaker Johnson has indicated that he would like to bring a budget resolution to the House floor by early to mid-February, which is the first step in the process but a critical one because it lays out the size of the reconciliation package and provides instructions to specific authorizing committees.
- House Republican leadership will continue to hold multiple small group Member meetings about the size and scope of the reconciliation package, given their 217-215 margin, which is expected to last until at least April. This process will continue until leadership is confident it can provide guidance to the Budget Committee on drafting a budget resolution that can receive 217 votes on the floor. How that works with the Speaker’s preferred timeline remains to be seen.
- House and Senate Republicans, working with the incoming Trump Administration, have several decisions to make in drafting the budget resolution:
- Process: One reconciliation bill (as the House prefers) or two.
- Debt limit: Whether to include a debt ceiling increase.
- Baseline: Whether to use the current policy baseline or a current law baseline to assume an increased cost.
- Offsets: The size of any spending cuts.
- Additional tax policy: Whether to include any changes beyond extension of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
- The House Ways and Means Committee will convene its first hearing of the new Congress (on Tuesday, at 10AM) on the need to make the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent for working families.
