On Wednesday, there will be no votes or legislative business in the House or Senate as Congress pays respect to President James Earl Carter, Jr. while he lies in state. The next votes in the House are expected on Thursday, January 9th at approximately 11:45 A.M.
President-elect Donald Trump plans to meet privately Wednesday night with Senate Republicans in Washington as the party is trying to shore up a strategy to advance Trump’s early agenda on border security and tax cuts. Trump is scheduled to be in town in advance of former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Senate is preparing for confirmation hearings on some of Trump’s Cabinet picks starting next week. Defense Secretary-designate Pete Hegseth and Attorney General pick Pam Bondi will be the first two cabinet nominees of President-elect Donald Trump to sit for confirmation hearings by Senate committees next week before the Armed Services and Judiciary Committees, respectively, starting January 14th.
While Senate GOP leaders say their first priority will be to confirm President-elect Trump’s Cabinet nominees they will move quickly to passing Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions to overturn an array of Biden-era regs. Senate Republicans, waiting for their House counterparts to figure out their strategy on border security and tax reform, are planning to use the Congressional Review Act to wage a lightning war on regulations implemented by the Biden administration over the past six months. Joint resolutions disapproving of Biden administration rulemaking cannot be filibustered in the Senate but Republican senators will need to act on the resolutions within a 60-day window if they are to bypass regular procedural hurdles. The resolutions are filibuster-proof if Senate Republicans advance them within the first 60 session days of the 119th Congress, which are calendar days when the Senate is in session. After that window, the special procedural protection expires, which means the new GOP-controlled Congress can act on rules finalized since the middle of last summer. The disapproval resolutions must be passed by both the Senate and House and signed by Trump once he is sworn into office to overturn a Biden-era rule. Senate Republican staff have compiled a list of 60 Biden rules that they say would be eligible for repeal.
