The Senate will reconvene at 3:00 P.M. and is expected to take up the nomination of Ebony M. Scott to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and the nomination of Donald Walker Tunnage to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
The House will reconvene for votes at 6:30 P.M. and will continue work on H.R. 4445 – Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021, legislation that would enable workers to sue employers over workplace sexual harassment or assault regardless of contractual restrictions. The bill would make it illegal to enforce agreements signed before an alleged incident of sexual harassment or assault that mandate third-party arbitration, a form of dispute resolution that is conducted behind closed doors and often favors employers. Workers would be free to sue their employers for workplace sexual misconduct, giving them a chance to seek justice in a public setting. The House may also consider six bills under suspension of the Rules.
This week, the House will also consider H.R. 3485, the Global Respect Act, which furthers our nation’s commitment to LGBTQ rights around the world by sanctioning foreign individuals found to be complicit in violating the human rights of LGBTQ people, and the House will also consider H.R. 3076, the Postal Service Reform Act. The bill eliminates a requirement that the Postal Service prepay future retirement health benefits. The bill also allows the Postal Service to provide non-postal services as part of an agreement with state and local governments and requires that the Postal Service make deliveries six days of the week.
The House is also expected to take up a stop-gap continuing resolution (CR), this week, ahead of the February 18th deadline to fund the government before it is scheduled to leave town after this week until February 28th. Leadership in both chambers have signaled that they expect the CR, which will continue current funding levels, to be a short-term bill, but they haven’t said how long the bill will keep the government funded. The need for a CR comes as members of leadership and top members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee have been swapping offers as they try to come up with a larger omnibus bill that would fund the government through September 30th, the end of the 2022 fiscal year.
