The House and Senate are in session this week. The House will return to Washington on Wednesday afternoon, with no scheduled floor activity as of Monday. However, when the chamber returns it will very likely pass a final $1.4 trillion FY 2021 appropriations omnibus package by the new Friday, December 18 funding deadline. House and Senate lawmakers are close to agreement on the omnibus spending package for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 and are planning to file the legislative text on Tuesday. If that schedule holds, the House could be ready to vote on the bill as early as Wednesday. While appropriations subcommittees were going over their sections of the massive package, leadership, White House officials and other congressional committees were still ironing out how to handle coronavirus relief, surprise billing legislation and extensions of expiring tax breaks and health care programs. If agreements are reached in time on those items, they are likely to be rolled into the massive year-end omnibus legislation. Another potential add-on to the FY 2021 omnibus package is the House-passed Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2020 (S. 1811).
The Senate will vote on at least two judicial nominees, including: Thomas Kirsch to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit and Katherine Crytzer to be U.S. District Judge for the District of South Carolina. The Senate will also likely pass the FY 2021 omnibus spending package by the Friday deadline, after the House has passed it.
A bipartisan group of Senators will unveil the text of their $908 billion coronavirus pandemic relief legislation today at 4pm ET, although there’s “no guarantee” Congress will pass it, one of the key negotiators, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), said on Sunday. The group of eight Senators plans to split up the $908 billion proposal, initially unveiled on Dec. 1, and release two separate bills—the first one, totaling $160 billion, will include just liability protections and aid for state and local governments—the two most contentious issues between Republicans and Democrats. The other, totaling $748 billion, will include all the other provisions that have broad consensus, including aid for small businesses. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has previously suggested that Congress move forward with a bill that does not include liability protection for employers from virus-related lawsuits and $160 billion in aid for state and local governments. The next step for the legislation will be for Republican and Democratic leaders to finish negotiating the final package that could get a vote this week. Lawmakers of both parties have said that the best chance for passing a pandemic-relief bill this month would be to attach it to the 12-bill FY 2021 omnibus package Congress must pass by Friday to fund the government.
Throughout Monday, through 7pm ET, the 538 members of the United States Electoral College will be casting their official electoral votes for President and Vice President of the United States in the District of Columbia and the 50 state capitals. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will receive votes from 306 electors while Donald Trump and Mike Pence will receive votes from 232 electors. On January 6, 2021, a joint session of Congress will count the 538 electoral votes and declare the final results of the November 3, 2020 presidential election.
