Below is this week’s congressional update by BakerHostetler’s Federal Policy team. We’ll continue to post in weeks when both chambers of Congress are in session.
HEADLINES
- The 117th Congress will hold the first full week of its second session.
- President Joe Biden and his fellow Democratic leaders will press for passage of an overhaul of federal election laws.
- Democrats are also searching for a path forward on the rest of Biden’s agenda, after his Build Back Better Act stalled at year’s end.
HOUSE
- The House this evening will reconvene for the second session of the 117th Congress.
- Tomorrow, the House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing on cybersecurity in federal agencies.
- Wednesday, the House Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing on electric vehicles and agriculture.
- The current schedule of committee activity can be found here.
SENATE
- The Senate will take up voting rights legislation, in coordination with Biden’s speech in Atlanta, as leaders seek to renew political pressure to eliminate the filibuster.
- The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee will hold hearings with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on his nomination to a second term, and with Lael Brainard on her elevation to vice chair.
- The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday will host the nation’s top health officials for a hearing on COVID-19.
- The full list of Senate committee activity can be found here.
WHITE HOUSE
- Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Atlanta tomorrow to deliver speeches on federal voting laws, attempting to build public support for eliminating the Senate filibuster in order to address the issue.
- Biden and Harris will also lay a wreath at the tomb of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and will visit the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., is pastor.
- Biden’s public schedule is otherwise light as his administration works to address the worldwide surge in the omicron variant.
