While the House remains in recess until Monday, February 27th, the Senate convened at 10 A.M. and will resume consideration of the nomination of Adrienne Nelson to be a circuit court judge for the District of Oregon. At 11:30 A.M., the chamber will vote on the Nelson nomination and cloture on the nomination of Ana Reyes to be a district court judge for the District of Columbia. At 1:50 P.M. the Senate will proceed to one vote on cloture on the nomination of Daniel Calabretta to be a district court judge for the Eastern District of California. And at 4:30 P.M., the Senate will vote on confirmation of the Reyes and Calabretta nominations.
The Senate will also receive a briefing Wednesday afternoon from Biden administration officials on China. Wednesday’s briefing comes after Biden administration officials briefed House and Senate lawmakers behind closed doors last week. Emerging from the meeting, Democrats largely supported the Biden administration’s response to the Chinese spy balloon, while Republicans argued that officials should have downed it immediately instead of allowing it to travel across the continental U.S. to the Atlantic Ocean. Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) will lead a Senate investigation into why it took so long for the Defense Department to detect Chinese spy balloons that floated over the United States this month and in previous years, revealing an embarrassing gap in the nation’s air defenses. Tester says President Biden should have shot down the balloon that floated over his state before it ever passed over sensitive military installations such as the intercontinental ballistic missile silos based in central Montana.
Also today, President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Internal Revenue Service was grilled by lawmakers over how he intends to oversee the use of $80 billion in new funding coming to the agency over the next decade. Daniel Werfel, a former acting IRS commissioner, testified before the Senate Committee on Finance Wednesday morning. The full Senate is expected to later approve his nomination. But first, Werfel faced hard questions about how he will use the new money to revitalize the struggling tax agency and which taxpayers may face increased audit rates.
As House and Senate leadership continue to negotiate on the debt ceiling, the Congressional Budget Office announced today, that the federal government could default on its debt as early as July if Congress is unable to raise the debt limit, according to a report released Wednesday by the CBO. The report comes a month after the Treasury warned it could run out of the emergency measures as soon as June, after the national debt reached the roughly $31.4 trillion threshold set by Congress more than a year ago. At the same time, the looming deadline has triggered a high-stakes battle on Capitol Hill over the nation’s finances, as Republicans press for significant fiscal reform to be tied to any legislation raising the limit with proposals that Democrats have already panned as non-starters.
When the Senate goes into recess on Thursday, it will not be in session next week for Presidents Day, and will next convene on Monday, February 27th.
