The Senate returns today from Easter recess for a five-week stretch before Memorial Day recess, while the House will return tomorrow. Congress plans to continue work on a pressing list of items including additional pandemic relief money, additional Ukraine aid, approving legislation to strengthen the US supply chain, and re-engaging on a smaller social-spending package months after Build Back Better stalled.
Last week, the White House announced that it would request more supplemental aid for Ukraine as Russia’s military invasion continues. Previously, Congress had approved $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian aid, as well as economic sanctions aimed at Russian trade. President Joe Biden has yet to specify how much aid he’s looking for Congress to approve, though he has called for lawmakers to consider it swiftly when he does. Democratic leaders have also signaled that they may try to combine this funding with the pandemic aid. If they do, it could wind up making this legislation more contentious for Republicans, who’ve been eager to help Ukraine but much less interested in approving more Covid-19 funding. For weeks, the White House has been urging Congress to pass more pandemic funding to help purchase treatments, tests, and vaccines. Senators, however, have struggled to approve this aid due to disagreements about how it should be paid for and a Republican push to add amendments addressing some of their legislative priorities. Right before the recess, Democrats and Republicans reached an agreement in the Senate on $10 billion in Covid-19 relief, much less than the $22.5 billion the White House initially requested. This would be paid for using unspent funds that different agencies received as part of last year’s American Rescue Plan. Senate Republicans, however, refused to move forward with a vote on the aid unless lawmakers considered an amendment preserving Title 42, a Trump-era immigration policy that enables the US government to block noncitizens from entering the country due to public health concerns. Many public health officials have long argued Title 42 is ineffective at stopping the spread of Covid-19, and President Joe Biden is now rolling that policy back.
For today, the Senate will reconvene at 3:00 P.M. and resume consideration of the nomination of Lael Brainard to be Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Brainard, who now sits on the Fed’s board of governors has said that the central bank’s “most important task” was to moderate the recent rise in consumer prices, which had disproportionately burdened low- and middle-income families. The Federal Reserve will likely begin a rapid reduction of its $9tn balance sheet as soon as its next policy meeting in May and is prepared to take stronger action when it comes to raising interest rates in order to bring down inflation. A cloture vote on another Fed nominee, Michigan State University’s Lisa Cook, nominated to fill a vacant seat on the Board, could come as early as Tuesday. If she and Brainard overcome the procedural hurdle, confirmation votes for them as well as Fed Chair Jerome Powell, renominated to his current position, and Davidson College dean of faculty Philip Jefferson, nominated to a vacant seat on the Board, would be expected later this week.
