The Senate will reconvene at 3:00 P.M. and will resume consideration of H.R.4521, the America COMPETES Act which the Senate will vote to send back to the House in order for the two chambers to start formal conference negotiations on what will now be called the Bipartisan Innovation Act. Last week, with bipartisan support, the Senate took two important votes to advance the America COMPETES Act which is aimed at increasing U.S. competitiveness and boosting manufacturing, particularly in the semiconductor industry. The legislation has the support of the White House, and these key Senate votes mean that the House of Representatives and Senate will soon begin the formal House-Senate conference to consider differences between the America COMPETES Act and S. 1260, the United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), which the Senate passed last June.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court will continue moving forward Monday when the Senate Judiciary Committee meets to review her nomination after a week of tense hearings. The panel is not expected to vote until April 4th. Then the full Senate will vote later that week, requiring a simple majority to grant Jackson, a federal appeals judge, a lifetime appointment on the high court. Jackson’s nomination got a major boost Friday when two Democrats from conservative states, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, came out in favor of her, putting her in a strong position to win confirmation.
The House will also reconvene today for votes at 6:30 P.M. and is expected to take up five bills under suspension of the Rules, including S. 2629 – Better Cybercrime Metrics Act. Late Friday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) released a Dear Colleague letter outlining the items House Democrats plan to take up in the March-April Work Period. This week, the House will take up the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act authored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-New York) which would remove cannabis from the list of federal controlled substances and eliminate criminal penalties associated with the drug. It would also impose a federal tax on marijuana sales to fund programs to help communities negatively impacted by the war on drugs. The bill is set to be taken up by the House Rules Committee on Wednesday and get a vote on the floor by the end of the week. The bill has near-uniform support among Democrats and a top ally in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York), who has been aiming to introduce a similar measure this spring.
The White House released President Joe Biden’s 2023 federal budget today, which proposes tax hikes on the ultra-wealthy and corporations while providing billions of dollars in new spending at the Defense Department and the Justice Department. The proposal sent to Congress touts a reduction in the federal budget deficit of more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years. This is paid for, in part, by raising the corporate tax rate from 21% up to 28%, a rate favored by progressive Democrats but opposed by key moderates. Biden also proposes a new 20% minimum tax on the top 0.01% earners and households worth more than $100 million.
