Both the House and Senate are out of session today. The House will return for votes on Monday, July 19th at 6:30 p.m. and the Senate will reconvene on Monday, July 19th at 3:00 p.m. and will resume consideration of Tiffany P. Cunningham to be United States Circuit Judge for the Federal Circuit who would become the first Black judge on the nation’s top patent court. Cunningham, a partner at Perkins Coie LLP, was approved 16-6 with bipartisan support in the Judiciary Committee.
The Senate left town Thursday with the fate of a bipartisan infrastructure package uncertain, despite Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-New York) attempt to force it forward by advancing a floor vote next week. Schumer has scheduled the vote for next Wednesday, a hardball tactic Senate Democrats hope will allow them to pass the package before the August recess. But negotiators face several outstanding issues, both on funding mechanisms and spending priorities. On Thursday evening, the proposal to increase IRS enforcement as a way to raise new revenues was deemed problematic and is likely to be removed and the group of senators haggling over the bill had begun discussing alternatives. Members of the bipartisan group said they planned to work through the weekend, after a Thursday afternoon huddle with White House officials. Given the absence of legislative text and the likelihood that members will not yet have a score from the Congressional Budget Office by Wednesday the timing of the Wednesday vote is influx, however, Schumer will take the first steps toward moving the bipartisan physical infrastructure proposal Monday, using a House bill as a legislative vehicle that would later be amended to reflect the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure deal. Even if a deal is clinched and the Senate votes to move ahead on the bill next week, it will likely take days or even weeks to finish its work on the bipartisan legislation because of intense desire to vote on amendments to a bill very likely to win Biden’s signature. In addition to Wednesday’s vote on the bipartisan package, Schumer imposed a deadline that same day for Democrats to coalesce around a budget resolution setting up the $3.5 trillion plan.
This morning, the President participated in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Virtual Retreat, where Leaders discussed ending the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting the global economic recovery. Leaders of the Asia-Pacific trade group (APEC), including President Joe Biden, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and China’s Xi Jinping, pledged on Friday to work to expand sharing and manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines to fight the global pandemic.
Later this afternoon, the President will receive a briefing from members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team on the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccination program.
