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News and updates

News and updates

What We’re Reading this Week (November 16th-20th, 2020)

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Below is a selection of articles the Federal Relations team read this week.

More Senators test positive for COVID-19: Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) became the latest Member of Congress to test positive for COVID-19. Full story.

Federal Reserve Nomination Blocked: Judy Shelton’s nomination to the Federal Reserve Board was blocked by a 47-50 procedural vote. Shelton is a controversial pick, and Senators Collins (R-ME) and Romney (R-UT) joined Democrats in voting against her confirmation. Two Republican senators were absent due to COVID-19 exposure. Read more.

Trump Fires DHS Cybersecurity Head: President Trump fired Chris Krebs as Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency after he contradicted several of the President’s claims regarding election fraud. Read the full story.

Wreaths Across America: The Army reversed course and will allow Wreaths Across America, an annual event at Arlington National Cemetery, to proceed despite COVID-19 concerns. More.

House Leadership: House Democrats held leadership elections this week, appointing, notably, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) to be Vice Chairman of the caucus, making him the highest ranking Latino. Rep. Pelosi (D-CA) will return as Speaker of the House, and Rep. Hoyer (D-MD) will again serve as Majority Leader. Read more.

Return of Earmarks: House Leadership, including potential candidates for Appropriations Chair, are optimistic that earmarks (or “congressionally directed spending”) will return for the 117th Congress. Although Majority Leader Rep. Hoyer (D-MD) said Republicans and Democrats will likely participate, the Senate still has a ban on earmarks. Read more.

Incoming Biden Administration Names Agency Review Teams

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As it prepares to assume control on January 20, the incoming Biden Administration has released the names of the members of the various Agency Review Teams.  The review teams are intended to gather information about the operations of various federal agencies to foster, as much as possible, a smooth transition of power to a new administration.

The lists of the different teams are available here.  At this point, access to the agencies by these teams is limited, as the General Services Administration still has not officially certified the election results.

Read more about the review teams here.

SCOTUS Hears ACA Arguments

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Today the US Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in a case challenging parts of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”). The case will determine whether the mandate to purchase insurance, regardless of penalty, is constitutional. Live updates here.

Upcoming in Congress…

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As the Biden administration enters the transition period, including the vetting of cabinet officials, the current Congress begins a lame-duck session. The Senate reconvened on Monday, November 9th, and the House will reconvene on Monday, November 16th. The 117th Congress is set to begin on January 3rd, 2021. President-elect Biden will take office at 12:00pm ET on January 20th, 2021.

To recap:

  • Joe Biden has been elected President, and Kamala Harris has been elected Vice President.
  • President Trump and Vice President Pence’s terms will expire on January 20th, 2021. They are “lame-ducks”, meaning they have a limited amount of time to accomplish remaining agenda items.
  • The House of Representatives is still under Democratic control in the next Congress, by a narrow margin, after Democrats lost a handful of seats.
  • The Senate is very likely still under Republican control in the next Congress, even with uncalled elections in Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia. Republican Senators Sullivan (R-AK) and Tillis (R-NC) are projected to keep their seats. Republican Senator McSally (R-AZ) is expected to lose her seat to Democrat challenger Mark Kelly. A runoff in Georgia is scheduled for January 5th to elect those two seats, one of which is a special election. If Democrats manage to flip those two seats, the balance of the Senate would be 50-50, however this is a heavy lift considering Georgia hasn’t elected a Democratic Senator since 2000.

Looking to the next Congress:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has won reelection and is favored to remain in his position. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has also won reelection and will seek another term as Speaker. Leader McConnell confirmed during that during the lame-duck session, the Senate will continue to work on COVID-19 relief and FY21 appropriations.  Speaker Pelosi has announced a similar plan for the House. The National Defense Authorization Act also remains on the to-do list.

The current Continuing Resolution expires on December 11th, after which the Federal Government could shut down without another Continuing Resolution. Democrats and Republicans would have to come to a quick consensus on a variety of issues in order to wrap up FY21 appropriations before Biden takes office. Senate Republicans are expected to release their FY21 numbers in the next day or so.

For the 117th Congress, the members of the Washington delegation remain unchanged except for the addition of Congresswoman-elect Marilyn Strickland (D-WA-10th) replacing Congressman Heck, who will become Lieutenant Governor. Neither of the Washington Senators were up for reelection in 2020. Committee assignments for the 117th Congress should be finalized in January.

We will post relevant updates as they become available.

Senate Control Still Undetermined

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The race for the second Senate seat in Georgia is also headed to a runoff in January.  Although the incumber David Perdue (R) led the challenger Jon Ossoff (D), neither reached the 50-percent threshold required to win the seat outright and avoid a runoff.  The race, along with the other runoff in Georgia, is scheduled for January 5.

If the Democrats were to win both races in Georgia, that would result in a 50-50 split in the Senate, where the new Vice President would cast the tie-breaking votes.