Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) have said they want to get a framework of the party’s pared-down social spending infrastructure package together by the end of the week. What will likely be included are provisions including the child tax credit expansion for one year and pared down Obamacare subsidies and Medicaid expansion. Democrats are expected to drop one of Mr. Biden’s favorite campaign promises as part of the scaling back: a plan to offer two years of free community college to every American. They probably will also drop what had been a centerpiece of his climate plan: a clean electricity program intended to help rapidly replace coal- and gas-fired power plants, which is opposed by Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. In its place, Democrats are in discussions to spend as much as $150 billion on additional tax credits for solar and nuclear power and capturing carbon emissions from fossil fuel-powered plants, along with grants and loans to incentivize emissions reductions in steel, concrete and other industrial uses, in hopes of keeping the United States on track to keep an international commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
As this plays out in Washington, President Joe Biden will travel today to his childhood hometown, Scranton, Pennsylvania, to press the case for the economic, environmental and social policy agenda that congressional Democrats are whittling down in hopes of securing an agreement to pass it into law this fall. In a meeting at the White House on Tuesday, the president reiterated that the overall price tag would be about $2 trillion and suggested that it could be as low as $1.75 trillion. In recent days, Mr. Biden had proposed spending $1.9 trillion to $2.2 trillion over 10 years. During his visit to Scranton, Mr. Biden will give a speech at the Electric City Trolley Museum, where he will reflect on his working-class upbringing and how it influenced his values and the policies he has pursued in office.
For today, the Senate will resume consideration of the nomination of Catherine Elizabeth Lhamon, of California, to be Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, at the Department of Education and then will vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to Calendar #125, S.2747, Freedom to Vote Act. As Senate Democrats try again to advance voting rights legislation, Republican opposition means that it won’t clear the 60-vote cloture threshold to break a filibuster and allow the bill to be considered.
The House will take up eighteen bills under suspension of the Rules, including H.R. 4469, Counterterrorism Oversight Enhancement Act. The House Rules Committee will also meet to take up the contempt resolution against Steve Bannon, teeing up a vote by the full House on Thursday. If approved by the chamber, the referral would be sent to federal law enforcement for potential charges. The House committee investigating the January 6th attack on the US Capitol formally approved holding Bannon in contempt of Congress on Tuesday night, setting up a key House vote later this week. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced that the full House would vote on the criminal contempt report Thursday, and following passage in the chamber, it would then get referred to the Justice Department.
Adam S. Olsen, Washington, D.C.
