Dr. Casey Burgat, Legislative Affairs Program Director at The George Washington University
Bill Dauster, Professor at Penn Arts and Sciences and former Deputy Chief of Staff on Policy for former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
PROCESS:
Despite Democratic control in both chambers and the White House, Congress remains remarkably split.
This is especially on display in the Senate, where Democrats hold the slimmest possible majority, with a 50-50 tie, broken by a vote by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Since most bills need 60 votes to pass in the Senate due to the filibuster, many Democratic advocates have started to call for action to be taken through budget reconciliation, a maneuver that would only require a simple majority.
While some Democrats are eager to advance President Joe Biden’s agenda, others see next week’s high-profile Senate trial as an opening to force the GOP to reckon with Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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Source: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday he will vote against President Joe Biden s nominee to become the next Department of Homeland Security Secretary.
“Today the Senate will vote on Alejandro Mayorkas, President Biden’s nominee to be Secretary of Homeland Security. Up to this point, I’ve voted in favor of the President’s mainstream nominees to key posts. I will have my differences with Secretaries Austin, Yellen, and Blinken on policy, but they were mainstream choices from the President, McConnell said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. “Mr. Mayorkas is something else. He does not deserve Senate confirmation to lead Homeland Security. Frankly his record should foreclose confirmation even to a lower post.
Centrist Democrats such as Sen. Joe Manchin
The restaurant industry and other business groups also are launching an intense lobbying campaign against the effort to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour by 2025. They say it would deal a crushing blow to restaurants, which have already been hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.
The procedural issue is related to the so-called Byrd Rule, named after Robert Byrd, the former Democratic senator from West Virginia.
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough will have to determine whether raising the minimum wage through reconciliation meets the Byrd Rule requirements that the change has an effect on the federal budget and that it is not “merely incidental to that effect.