What Congress is doing during the week when people are eating the other turkeys
With the next Congress being known, the continuing resolution expires on Dec. 20. And there's still a disaster relief from the White House for $100 billion.
Now that the contours of the next Congress are fully known, what about that continuing resolution that expires on Dec. 20th? And there’s still a disaster relief request from the White House for a cool $100 billion. Bloomberg Government deputy news director Loren Duggan joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin for a congressional update.
Interview transcript:
Tom Temin: And fair to say nothing much will happen this week.
Loren Duggan: That’s right. They were in for a couple of weeks right after the election, digesting those results, orienting new members and kind of getting their bearings for the lame duck session. But this will be a week mostly at home talking over the phone, of course, but unlikely to and definitely won’t see any action on the House and Senate floors this week.
Tom Temin: Right. And they were also saying goodbye to Matt Gaetz and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Loren Duggan: That’s right. His brief stint as the AG nominee to be is now over. But another person took the spot. So that’s another thing that’s weighing on Congress right now as they look to next year.
Tom Temin: And they return next week for how long before the Christmas break?
Loren Duggan: Well, they’re scheduled for three weeks, and we’ll see if they stick to that schedule. And they had planned to be in right before the week that includes Christmas. If they needed to, they could obviously stay and have until Jan. 3 at noon to wrap up the work of the current Congress before the next one gets going.
Tom Temin: All right. So what do you expect then? I mean, the CR of the 20th of December, that’s still a date They’ve got to do something about before December 20th.
Loren Duggan: That’s the big red flashing light that you have to do something about. You’re right. And there’s been talks about what to do and disagreement about whether they try to get something done this year or kick the can into next year when it will be a Republican trifecta at least once Donald Trump is sworn in January 20th. So as of last week, they didn’t reach that all important top line number, which would unlock kind of the ability to reach agreement. So that seemed to raise the stakes for a continuing resolution of some length into next year.
Tom Temin: Right. I guess some speculation is that it would be maybe halfway through the actual fiscal year before they would appropriate.
Loren Duggan: Right. That could take us into March. But if you think about it, you have to get the Congress organized and then swear in President Trump and then begin the work of trying to get this done. So that’s probably a reasonable length of time in a new administration to get that kind of business taken care of while trying to also populate the administration through the Senate and things like that.
Tom Temin: Yeah, the House, of course, was in Republican hands and will remain that way when there’s a switch in the Senate. How long does it take them to kind of reverse everything?
Loren Duggan: They started the leadership shuffle already and they’re going to be working on solidifying who their committee chairs will be. So they’ll have a lot ready to go early next year because the committees in particular who are assessing these presidential nominations will start holding hearings as well early next year. So they’ll hit the ground running pretty quickly. And obviously, the way the Senate works is a little different than a House where they’re a little more balanced and split. And with about 51-49 now, the Republicans have had a major role in writing appropriations bills as it is. So that could help things along.
Tom Temin: And there’s a couple of dream provisions, perhaps, that at least from the Democratic standpoint, that don’t seem too likely to happen at this point. One was the telework and somehow enshrining the levels of telework available to the federal workforce, because that’s a big if for when the Trump administration comes in. And the other is bills which come up from time to time regarding the prohibition on Schedule F, which is something also expected coming from Trump.
Loren Duggan: That’s right. So that would be a dream for Senate Democrats who have that lever of power right now along with the presidency to put something in law and those unlikely to get either of those through, just given that any deal that gets cut right now will be between House Republicans and Senate Democrats and have to get to the White House. And Schedule F is definitely something top of mind for people going into the Trump administration. And when it comes to telework or RTO return to office, certainly Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, who are leading the, as it’s known, Department of Government Efficiency coming into the Trump administration, have already talked about getting people back to the office. So unlikely that they could lock those in before the end of the year.
Tom Temin: We’re speaking with Loren Duggan, deputy news director at Bloomberg Government. Anybody talking national Defense Authorization bill?
Loren Duggan: Definitely. We’ll see how that can come together next month. And I think what’s really important there is on its own, it’s important policy. They’ve done it for more than six decades, setting troop pay and dealing with that. But it could become an attractive vehicle for things that couldn’t get done elsewhere, whether it’s the Water Resources Development Act or contracting changes or stuff like that. It’ll be a very attractive vehicle, one of the last trains out of town and probably passed on a pretty bipartisan basis once they nail down what’s going to be in it.
Tom Temin: And it looks like the incoming administration is going to leave the House alone as far as picks for the administration, because it’s not that big a majority. And they have to make sure they keep what they’ve got right.
Loren Duggan: It’s a very slim I think they have 221 maybe seats, still counting a few as of Friday. But yeah, it will be slim majority. You don’t want to take too many more people out of that but we’ll see if the Senate gets more picks out of it or where else people are drawn from.
Tom Temin: And some pretty lurid pictures are still coming out of North Carolina and that gets to that. An initial request for $100 billion in disaster aid.
Loren Duggan: Yeah, that came last week. And there were several hearings on the House and Senate side, some looking at the way the response has already gone and then some looking at what to do with this package. There seems to be bipartisan support growing behind doing something on that. That could easily be attached to whatever government funding bill they come up with, whether it’s a full-term deal or a CR into next year. And I would expect that to be something they get done in December, given that these disasters have hit Republican districts and Democratic districts around the country. There’s the bridge in Maryland that people still want to deal with. So I would expect that to be another thing they get done sometime over the course of December.
Tom Temin: And it’s hard to tell. But they have been already around the axle with respect to a new congresswoman who was transgender. And there was a whole brouhaha over whether she who was biologically a he could use which restroom on Capitol Hill. What’s your feeling about how much that type of question is going to use up cycles?
Loren Duggan: I mean, it’s dominated a little bit of last week, obviously, where Nancy Mace said she would introduce this resolution and did so to require you to use the restroom and other facilities of your birth gender. And Sarah McBride, who is newly elected Congress, first person from Delaware, has said that that’s not what she’s focused on. She’s focused on coming here and doing her job, and she’d do what she needed to do. But obviously, that was a contretemps that took up some energy, including by the speaker who announced he would put in place some sort of policy, and we’ll see how it’s enforced. But there’s always a chance at the beginning of a Congress to put new rules. And I assume we might see something in that rules package or put out otherwise about how that will shake out. But it certainly did take some of the time last week of people on Capitol Hill.
Tom Temin: And from the looks of Capitol Hill, they’re not taking any chances on security.
Loren Duggan: No security will be robust. And a lot to happen between now and obviously some big dates. Jan. 3, new Congress, Jan. 6, the electoral vote count, and then Jan. 20 inauguration. So people gearing up for those high profile events that both the executive and the legislature will be keeping an eye on very closely.
Tom Temin: And I wonder if the National Park Service will use artificial intelligence to make the inauguration crowds bigger or smaller or something.
Loren Duggan: AI is everywhere.
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Tom Temin
Tom Temin is host of the Federal Drive and has been providing insight on federal technology and management issues for more than 30 years.
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