Now that numerous provisions from the earlier coronavirus stimulus bill are set to expire in December, lawmakers from both parties are looking to pass an additional bill.
Of course, this is a hard task to accomplish when no one seems to be willing to put any pressure on Nancy Pelosi. The Speaker of the House seems content to dawdle in the meantime and Americans are getting fed up.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell don’t seem to be in much of a rush either. Since there is no major legislation for anyone to vote on, the House is now focusing on the truly important things.
Private ownership of large cats and marijuana decriminalization are the big items on the agenda at the moment.
These are the things that the House prioritizes. Congress is currently in the process of negotiating a deal to avoid the latest potential government shutdown.
That deadline is rapidly approaching and a deal will need to be done by December 11. At the moment, no one seems to know if a bipartisan consensus can be reached when it comes to a new coronavirus stimulus bill.
This should be a slam dunk but no one is surprised that it is taking this long. “The leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations committees reached an agreement last week on how to divvy up about $1.4 trillion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2021 that is allowed under a two-year budget deal.
Setting spending allocations for the 12 appropriations bills is just the first step in negotiating an omnibus package, and appropriators still have to work through several policy differences between the House and Senate spending bills,” according to a report from Roll Call.
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are going to hold out until they get what they want, in other words. If they are not getting enough money to bail out all of the Democrat cities that are currently drowning in debt, any deal is a non-starter for them. As anyone would expect, Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell are not about to let that happen on their watch.
Since Christmas is approaching and the pressure is on, House members on the left side of the aisle are applying their own pressure to Pelosi. She is being told to take a smaller package now, in exchange for a larger one later. They seem to think that they will have better luck when Biden is in the White House.
You would think that the Pelosi preening would be over now that the election dust has settled but she’s still carrying on even worse than before.
“We need COVID relief now. Republicans fail to grasp the severity of the crisis and their proposals are inadequate. It’s time for Democrats to accept this reality, instead of complaining about it. Let’s make hard compromises that help people now and fight for more next year,” tweeted Representative Stephanie Murray.
At least someone is talking sense over there. As for the marijuana legislation, the Senate is never going to pass that bill as long as it is controlled by the Republicans. That’s where the Georgia runoffs come into play.
If the Democrats are able to win those races, that’s when that calculus changes. The first vote on the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act is expected this week. Will it pass in the Senate? More than likely. The House is a completely different story at the moment.
The Big Cat Public Safety Act (or as we like to call it, the Carole Baskins law) will be voted on this week, as well. According to Baskins, the bill would “address two of the biggest sources of abuse of big cats by ending owning big cats as pets and stopping exploitative roadside zoos from offering cub petting and photo ops.”
Cannabis and kitty cats, that’s what we are discussing as the nation circles the financial drain. Lovely!
