September 2020

08 Sep September 2020

What promises to be an eventful fall kicks off this week with the Senate coming back into town today for a scheduled five-week session followed by the House’s return next week for a quick three-week work period. This week, the House has four “Committee Work Days” followed by the next three weeks in DC, so the two chambers are only scheduled to be in town together for nine legislative days this month. As we wait to see whether any form of COVID-19 relief/stimulus legislation comes together, other eyes will be on whether a reported agreement holds between House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to pass a clean continuing resolution to fund the government past the end of the fiscal year (September 30^th) and into December after the election. On COVID, the Senate is expected to attempt to move forward on a targeted relief package this week, and we will see if there continues to be little interest from Democrats on considering such limited measures. Overriding official activities in Congress, of course, is the election as we are now just eight weeks away from November 3^rd. The first debate between President Trump and Vice President Biden is scheduled for the end of this month on September 29^th in Cleveland followed by two more and a vice presidential debate in October. And while nearly everything will continue to be viewed through the election lens, below is a brief outlook of where we believe things stand heading into September in Washington.