Legislative Update
House. The House has another light legislative schedule this week. House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries informed his Democratic colleagues last week that the Caucus Issues Conference will be postponed from its original dates of Feb. 9-11 due to the ongoing pandemic. Jeffries hopes that the conference can be rescheduled for early March.
Senate. The Senate was scheduled to be in recess this week but instead will be out of session next week. On Wednesday, the Senate is expected to hold a cloture vote on legislation dealing with voting rights and election reform. The cloture vote, which needs 60 votes to end debate, will fail. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has indicated he will then take steps to set up a vote to change the filibuster rules. While the rules could be changed by a simple majority vote, Schumer does not have the support of all 50 Democrats to eliminate the filibuster, and he has not said exactly what rules change he will propose.
Committee Action of Note:
House Republicans are discussing options for providing aid to Israel and Ukraine, and several new chairs have taken the subcommittee gavels at the House Appropriations Committee.
Read MoreThis week, House Republicans will select a new chair of the Appropriations Committee and will deliver to the Senate articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Read MoreThe gavel will be changing hands soon at the House Appropriations Committee, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and possibly the Rules Committee.
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