What will happen when Congress comes back to work?

By Suzanne Kubota
Senior Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio.com

Now that healthcare is history, will Congress return from Spring Break ready to clear some legislative decks?

Don’t count on it, said Jodi Schneider, Congressional expert and Senior Editor in the Washington Bureau of the American Banker. While energy and immigration reform are on the “to do” list, Schneider told Federal News Radio, they’ll be taking a backseat to financial reform, the budget, and campaign concerns.

The White House has sent word down Pennsylvania Avenue that the President would like a financial reform package on his desk by Memorial Day.

Schneider, a veteran Congress watcher, said that’s “hard to fathom for a couple of reasons.” Even if they do get financial reform through the Senate, they have to reconcile with the House.

“And the House and the Senate bills are still pretty different,” said Schneider. “So my sense is they will get a bill, but they are more likely to get it on the President’s desk before the July 4th recess than before the Memorial Day recess.”

Add to that, said Schneider, the deadlines the White House gave Congress over healthcare.

I think there is a bit of deadline fatigue, particularly in the House, particularly among some moderates who have to run in tough races in November. This is really unusual for an election year, for even a mid-term election year, to be doing substantive legislation this close to the elections. Usually nothing really substantive gets done. They pass the budget, budget resolution, and some appropriations bills. They don’t usually finish them. And maybe a few things here and there, some extensions of expiring things, but they don’t usually do this kind of legislation.

While both sides would like to pass it, Schneider said that doesn’t mean they’re going to race to do it. She said she sees some sticking points in financial reform. “Right now, the two issues really that are big points are the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and also where it would go and how strong it would be, and then shielding taxpayers from ‘too big to fail’ institutions. Both sides say they want that but the question is just how do you do it.”

So, Federal News Radio asked Schneider, this probably means no climate legislation, either.

(laughs) Right. Remember how worked up everybody was over that and cap and trade? That’s really dead for this year. Even Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), one of the big proponents whose committee it was going through has said that they’re really not going to get to it. Every once in a while you hear word of somebody saying the committee is going to take it up again.

But first of all, financial regulatory reform legislation, let’s face it: if they get it through the Senate before Memorial Day, they still have to reconcile with the House. That’s going to take to the July 4th recess, and frankly could take part of the rest of July. It’s tough to do these things. And the House bill is very different than the Senate bill.

        Read more: Federal Drive

And they do still have to do the budget. They’d have to do some appropriations bills. Particularly the Democrats have to look like they’re doing the competent things Congress does. And then you’re already up to the (August) recess, and you know they’re not going to do anything in September of substance. And then they’re on the campaign trail in October, so the clock is running.

So it seems that the streak of the Continuing Resolution will continue. Schneider said she would be “very surprised if they’re able to do a lot of the appropriations bills on top of financial reg reform. I think anything else, there’s just not any room for.”

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