Tight…..
VERY Tight…..
The Senate is only scheduled to be in three weeks for the rest of 2021, with a recess set to start Dec. 10. There’s almost no chance that schedule holds at this point, with the Democratic majority facing a to-do list more daunting than a Black Friday sales rush. Congress has to fund the government past Dec. 3, pass a massive defense policy bill, finish out a $1.75 trillion party-line social spending bill and potentially maneuver around a U.S. credit default.
Each of those four bills could take several days of Senate floor time, not to mention the myriad negotiations still left to hash out Biden’s GOP-free domestic agenda with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who wants to slow things down. Already some senators are anticipating a short-term government funding patch for a few weeks, potentially right up until Christmas. And in a worst-case scenario, the debt limit would need to be raised right around that same time — something Republicans say they won’t help with.
“It’s going to be a train wreck,” surmised Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the minority whip.
Of course, last year’s Republican Senate was barely better — passing a spending deal in late December and having to work on New Year’s Day 2021 to finish the defense authorization bill. But the better parallel to this year’s coal-lumped holiday season might be 2009, when then-Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) leveraged the holidays to pass the Affordable Care Act on Christmas Eve. That included holding a Saturday session during a driving snowstorm, the type of work that focuses lawmakers on getting out of Washington as soon as possible.