#Another word for lame duck full

But today we are in fiscal year 2023, which started on October 1. The two most consequential bills in the first Biden term-the American Rescue Plan in 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022-were a product of reconciliation. Every budget includes the opportunity for reconciliation. Ordinarily, raising or eliminating the debt limit runs into the same problem that faces all Senate legislation: It needs either 60 votes thanks to automatic Republican filibusters, or 50 votes to eliminate the filibuster, neither of which it has right now.īut this is where the newest reconciliation bill comes into play.

Republicans have not been shy about saying they would use the debt limit as leverage to deal with social insurance programs, undoubtedly through cuts or increases in the retirement age (which is functionally the same thing). The debt limit was last extended a year ago, and is set to offer enough breathing room to last until sometime in spring 2023. It allows the government to pay the bills for spending already appropriated by the Congress. It’s possible that some version of permitting reform, which failed in the last government funding effort, could be appended to one of those bills, as could legislation that would enable the Justice Department to sanction OPEC nations for cutting oil production, funding to help Ukraine in its war with Russia, and some other items.Ĭongress has the ability to use the 2023 reconciliation bill right now.īut nothing would have a more wide-ranging effect on policy and politics, and be more inarguably necessary, than neutralizing the debt limit.Īs a reminder, the debt limit does not authorize any new spending.

There are a couple of must-pass pieces of legislation: funding the government after December 16, and passing the defense authorization bill. The Biden administration has said they will make an effort in the lame duck to pass two tech antitrust bills.Įven without any such bipartisan bills, Congress can fill the lame-duck schedule with judicial and executive appointments in the Senate (which are vital especially if Senate control hinges on a Georgia runoff on December 6) and routine business. The SAFE Banking Act to allow cannabis-based businesses to get bank accounts has won House votes repeatedly, and there’s an effort in the Senate to team that with other marijuana policies. A stock trading ban almost certainly can cross any vote threshold. Changes to the Electoral Count Act that would make it more difficult for Congress to overturn an election have been endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. There might even be other options for the lame duck that have broad bipartisan support. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have said time and again that they are not interested in doing so. But this would require tossing out the filibuster, and Sens. They should be able to reinforce the right to same-sex marriage, whether Republicans agree to support it or not. Lawmakers should be able, as Ryan Grim wrote on Wednesday, to abide by the closest thing to a midterm mandate and codify Roe v. Now, it’s worth emphasizing that Congress shouldn’t have to rely on yet another end run around the filibuster to accomplish something of value. government, and the integrity of the global financial system, if they don’t get their way.

#Another word for lame duck full

But ending any possibility of hostage-taking is easy: Just take away the means by which Republicans can threaten the full faith and credit of the U.S. President Biden in a Wednesday press conference said he would not negotiate over those programs under any circumstances. It must be done before Republicans take the House and fulfill their stated plan to use the debt limit as a mechanism to force deep spending cuts they couldn’t get otherwise. That reconciliation process (which can’t be filibustered) will take just a few weeks in the lame duck, and include either raising the debt limit to some astronomically high amount, or eliminating it entirely. And Democrats can do this, in contrast to many of their other priorities, by using the last unused tool for a majority vote in the Senate: the fiscal year 2023 reconciliation bill. While Democrats have already signaled the end-of-the-year session will be busy, one priority shines above everything else: the need to prevent a debt limit hostage situation before it develops by extinguishing this unnecessary anachronism entirely. This has major implications for the final two months of legislative work in this Congress, nicknamed the lame-duck session. Though Democrats have an extremely narrow path to holding the House of Representatives, the expectation is that Republicans will eke out a narrow victory, largely on the strength of outsized performance in two states, New York and Florida.