A New Year, A New Session: Few New Issues | Action Mirrors Last Year
Congress is slated to return to the Capitol on January 20. If the House and Senate leaders' plans hold together, this election year session will be a short one, with votes scheduled for only about 90 days in the entire session. The current plan appears to be to have the major substantive business of the session wrapped-up by the convening of the Democratic National Convention in late July. This would reserve September -- slated to be the final month of the session -- to complete work on the annual appropriations bills.
Given the shortness of the time available, leaders want to begin early with substantive action. Among the items on which they will seek action in the early part of the year are:
- Energy Legislation
- One more attempt will be made to round-up votes in the Senate for the conference report on the energy package which came up short in 2003.
- TEA-21 Reauthorization
- Neither the House nor the Senate knows yet how to pay for the proposals pending in their respective bodies, but leaders continue to press for floor consideration in February/March.
- TANF Reauthorization
- The issue of the number of required hours of work-related activity continues to be a sticking point to gaining sufficient votes in the Senate for extending TANF. Further extensions are possible.
- Job Training
- Senate leaders continue to look for ways to advance the concept of consolidating certain job training programs. Democrats are resisting.
- Reconciliation
- The tax vehicle for the year is expected to be a reconciliation measure designed to helpd reach budget targets on the revenue side. Reconciliation bills do not need 60 votes to pass in the Senate, so look for this to be a major piling-on opportunity for a number of tax-related issues. For example, the internet tax issue may well be resolved on this legislation.