With Congress reconvening today after a month-long recess, lawmakers will not only address a number of pending legislative issues in the lame-duck session of Congress scheduled to last until December 13, they will also select their leadership for the new Congress. The biggest changes will take place on the House side given the retirement of Speaker Paul Ryan and the election results (still trickling in) resoundingly handing control of the gavel over to the Democrats. Republicans will hold their leadership elections tomorrow with Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy the early favorite for House Minority Leader. Democrats are planning to hold their elections the week after Thanksgiving with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi the clear frontrunner for Speaker of the House with no opposition currently mobilizing against her.
During the lame-duck session, Congress will have to agree to a stopgap measure to fund roughly a quarter of the government’s operations before the current continuing resolution expires on December 7 – with a government shutdown looming over funding for the border wall. There are a number of other major issues/expiring programs Congress needs to address before the end of the year:
- Farm Bill/ Food Assistance [SNAP]
- National Flood Insurance Program
- Tax Extenders + Technical Corrections to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2018
- IRS Reforms
- ~140 Nominees Requiring Senate Confirmation
- Higher Education
- Intelligence Reauthorization and Election Security
Please join us for our outlook on these issues and more on Monday, November 19 at 2:00 pm.
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