November 28, 2022
The House and the Senate are back in Washington DC this week for the lame duck session.
No, that’s not an insult. That’s actually what it’s called.
But what does it mean? And – more importantly what’s on the agenda? Here’s a hint -there are some *big* items on the must do list and the wish list you should know about.
First – what’s the lame duck session? You may not realize it, but even though the Republicans won control of the house in the midterms, that control doesn’t take effect until January of 2023. That means the Democrats and Speaker Pelosi actually still control the House until the end of 2022.
So they call this awkward three weeks between now and the Christmas holiday break the lame duck session. Traditionally the party in power tries to jam through lots of legislation because if a bill isn’t passed by the end of the year, that bill has to start the legislative process all over again next year. Or it dies.
And there are lots of bills that are still hanging out there that need approval from either the house or the senate or both.
Bills like the one to codifying same sex marriage rights into federal law, the bill to make changes to the electoral count act to make it harder for congress to challenge or change election results, the bill that deals with daylight saving time and of course the bill to codify abortion rights into federal law.
Plus – Congress has some jobs that *must* be done by the end of the year. Including funding the federal government so it doesn’t shut down in a few weeks, passing the national defense authorization act to fund our military and Democrats are hoping to raise the debt ceiling this year so they don’t have to risk a fight with Republicans when it comes due early next year.
