For the Record: Let's get lame, like Congress
We may have voted for change in the White House, but voters did not “drain the swamp” we call Congress. The House and Senate look largely like they did before the election, and that has big implications not only for what happens for the rest of this year, but also in the early days of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Let’s get lame today. Lame-duck lame.
WHAT IS CONGRESS DOING?
Congress reconvened Monday in what we call the lame-duck session, the few weeks after a presidential election where either a ton of stuff happens or absolutely nothing happens. Had Hillary Clinton won, pundits expected the Republican-controlled Congress to kick it into overdrive and pass a bunch of stuff Clinton never would have done. But with Trump heading into office, Congress is likely to sit around and argue but not actually do anything, much like your in-laws at Thanksgiving.
WHAT’S IN PLAY (AND WHAT’S DOA)
There’s basically one thing that has to happen before Dec. 9, and that’s passing a short-term budget fix so the government doesn’t partially shut down. Republicans had been intent on cementing a full year of spending before the election to hamstring Clinton, but now it looks like some would rather punt for a few months to incorporate Trump’s agenda. Expect a fight on that, because some in the GOP want to set spending now so they are free to tackle an Obamacare repeal next year.
Beyond that, here are where other big issues stand:
- Trans-Pacific Partnership: DOA. Both presidential candidates were against it, so it probably never had a chance. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he won’t bring it forward for a vote this year, and the White House now admits there is no way forward for what would have been the most sweeping trade deal in a decade.
- Merrick Garland: Nope. How likely is it for Obama’s Supreme Court nominee to get a hearing now that Trump has won? Pigs may sprout wings first. Republicans have long argued that the next president should get the vote, and one in five voters told exit polls that was a factor in how they voted. There’s no political cover to consider Garland now.
- Defense spending: Maybe. Congress has passed a defense policy bill every year for seemingly ever, but there are a couple of sticking points in this year’s version. Senate Democrats are concerned about an item they say would allow discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, while the House and Senate are fighting over money for weapons that the Pentagon didn’t request.
- Medical research: Perhaps. The Senate is finishing up a bill designed to speed drugs and medical devices to market, which also may have some cash attached for personalized medicine and cancer research. The bill has bipartisan support, though wrangling over how to pay for it could kill it.
- Iran sanctions: Probably. A law expires at the end of the year that penalizes companies for doing business with Iran. This one also has bipartisan support to keep it going, so unless it gets held up by arguments over unrelated things, it should pass.
WRANGLING FOR DIRECTION
Remember we told you that voters wanted change but Congress is still mostly the same? Yeah, about that: So, even if most members are still there, there is grumbling on both sides about reform and the future of the party. There will be closed-door meetings this week to set congressional leadership, and while it appears no one is seriously challenging anyone for their jobs, the meetings could go long and get contentious as both parties try to figure out where they go from here.
One congressman wrote last week that “Republican leadership (should) keep us in a room until we are ready to join together in one direction.” A few Republicans and Democrats have asked to postpone the meetings, presumably to buy time for working things out. Either way, the looming battle is worth watching, because it could indicate how far Republicans will go to roll back Obama’s policies – and how capable Democrats will be of standing in their way.
MORE FROM THE TRANSITION:
- Bernie Sanders’ supporters are now working to get the interim Democratic Party leader kicked out (Paste BN)
- What’s Mike Pence hiding in his emails? Go inside his court fight to keep the contents secret (Indianapolis Star)
- Obama at first news conference since the election: ‘We're going to make sure that we finish what we started, that we don’t let up in these last two months’ (Paste BN)
- Trump reaches out to leaders in China and Russia. What’s next – North Korea? (Paste BN)
- A week after the election, schools are still reassuring students that it’s safe and this is how democracy works (Ventura County [Calif.] Star)
- Mark Zuckerberg did some thinking and concludes that Facebook definitely isn’t to blame for the election (Gizmodo)
IF THIS IS BIDEN’S LEGACY, THAT WOULD BE ALL RIGHT
If you’re like us, you’ve been scrolling past most of the posts on your Facebook feed since the election because you 1) hate gloating and 2) hate whining. That’s why those Joe Biden memes couldn’t have come at a better time. People on both sides of the Trump vote were sharing the pranks America’s Favorite Uncle would love to play as Obama prepares to leave the White House, and for a weekend at least, Facebook was fun again.
