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March 31, 2022
Presented by AARP
48 million family caregivers give everything to help older loved ones. They give time and energy, too often giving up their jobs and paying over $7,000 a year out of pocket. With a new Congress, it’s time to act on the Credit for Caring tax credit.
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Happy Thursday morning. A quick reminder: Jake and Anna will interview Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell this morning at 9 a.m. We’re fully committed in person, but you can tune in here to watch virtually.
Get ready for next week. Congress is set to leave for the Easter recess at the end of next week, meaning Washington is about to face a legislative logjam with three critical issues lined up for possible action.
| → | The must do: SCOTUS. The Senate Democratic leadership will move forward with the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. If confirmed – which is all but assured at this point barring some dramatic reversal – the 51-year-old Jackson will become the first Black woman to serve on the high court. She’ll also be the first Democratic-nominated justice to take a seat in a dozen years. While Jackson won’t alter the court’s ideological balance, she’s likely to be on the bench for decades to come. |
So there’s a lot riding on this for President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats. Yet pushing the nomination across the finish line is going to take most of the week.
On Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Jackson’s nomination. Unless something changes, it will be a tie vote inside the panel. This means that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will need to file a motion to discharge the nomination from the committee – unless Republicans agree to forward Jackson’s nomination without that anyway, which isn’t likely to happen.
On Tuesday, Schumer will file cloture on the nomination. Wednesday will be the intervening day.
On Thursday, the Senate will vote on cloture to end debate on the Jackson nomination. Under Senate rules, following that vote, there are up to 30 hours of debate time. With the outcome of Jackson’s nomination a foregone conclusion, party leaders will try to reach a time agreement to speed up the process. The lure of recess will be beckoning at that point.
But there’s more…
| → | Covid relief. As we noted Wednesday morning, a new Covid prep package is back on the front burner. Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer met yesterday afternoon to exchange offers on that package. Republicans and Democrats were haggling over pay-fors, and sources told us the two sides had major differences. |
One example: Senate Minority Whip John Thune told The Hill’s Jordain Carney Wednesday night that the cost of the package had shrunk from $15 billion to $10 billion. Plus, Romney – who is leading the talks for Republicans – has said that he wants the budgetary offsets to be validated by the Congressional Budget Office. Logistically and substantively, that will be a challenge.
In other words, it’s not entirely clear that they’ll get a deal. But on both sides of the Capitol and at the White House, there’s real urgency to get this done before Congress leaves town for a few weeks.
| → | The Russia oil ban and trade relations. The Senate is still wrestling with a bill to ban oil imports from Russia while also ending preferred trade relations with both Russia and Belarus. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has ended his legislative blockade of the bill. However, sources tell us that a few other Republican senators also have holds preventing the bill from moving forward. |
These holds aren’t insurmountable, but they will require some negotiations between Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. That takes time, as will the process of debating and amending any subsequent bill.
The other issue here is that the House has already approved this measure by a big bipartisan margin. Meaning if the Senate amends it, the legislation will have to go back to the House for final approval before it can be sent to Biden.
In other words, you should expect that next week is just one of those weeks, especially in the Senate.
For your awareness: The White House and Schumer suffered an embarrassing defeat on Wednesday night when a trio of moderate Senate Democrats joined with all the Republicans to tank Labor Department nominee David Weil.
Weil, nominated to serve as the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division administrator, is the first Biden-era nominee to go down to defeat on the Senate floor. Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.) joined with Republicans to block his nomination from moving ahead. Weil, who was nominated to the post for a second time, faced heavy criticism from Republicans over how he led the agency during the Obama administration.
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| → | House Democrats held two huge fundraisers Wednesday that raised a total of $3 million yesterday to support the DCCC. The influx in cash comes after a concerted push from leadership earlier this week to get members to pay their campaign committee dues. |
House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Pete Aguilar and Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) hosted a lunch that raised $1 million for Frontliners — the most endangered House Democratic incumbents. The sum represents the largest amount raised in a single event for Frontliners in the party campaign arm’s history. DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney was also present.
Aguilar, Bera and Maloney are all former Frontliners themselves. Bera is also currently chair of the DCCC’s Frontline program.
Check out the flier:
| → | About last night: House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal hosted an event with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Maloney and other Ways and Means Democrats. The Neal-led dinner brought in a whopping $2 million for the DCCC, according to multiple sources. |
The invite:
| → | Alex Isenstadt of Politico reported that House Republicans raised $215,000 for Harriet Hageman, Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-Wyo.) primary challenger, at the D.C. home of lobbyist Jeff Miller, a close Kevin McCarthy ally. Color us a tiny bit unimpressed with that total. |
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Presented by AARP
48 million family caregivers give everything to help older loved ones. They give time and energy, too often giving up their jobs and paying over $7,000 a year out of pocket. With a new Congress, it’s time to act on the Credit for Caring tax credit.