Uncertainty ahead as Congress limps to close
Relationship with an untested new president unclear.
WASHINGTON — The 114th Congress has limped to a close, two years of partisan acrimony punctuated by the occasional burst of bipartisan deal-making in the waning days of Barack Obama’s presidency.
Ahead is uncertainty, as the GOP prepares to assume monopoly control over Washington for the first time in a decade come January, and with Congress’ relationship with an untested new president yet to be determined.
Thus far, congressional Re p u b l i c a n s h a v e b e e n highly deferential to President-elect Donald Trump, even when his pronouncements fly in the face of longheld GOP goals like free trade and limited government. The question hanging over the next Congress will be whether Trump prevails on issues like his call for a $1 trillion infrastructure bill and steep tariffs to prevent outsourcing — or whether congressional Republicans steer him in a direction more in line with traditional GOP beliefs.
“We see the fact that we were given this opportunity to have unified government as a way to get this country back on track,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said in his final news conference before the House a d j o u r n e d f o r t h e y e a r. “And that includes getting our nation’s finances back on track.”
When lawmakers return to Washington on Jan. 3 and the 115th Congress gets under way, the Senate will immediately begin taking the steps necessary to pass a repeal of Obama’s health care law. Republicans hope to present Trump with legislation to sign not long after his inauguration Jan 20.
Yet six years after Obama’s health care overhaul became law, Republicans still do not know exactly what they’ll replace it with, and disagree over how much time they should allow themselves to put a replacement into place.
Cooperation from Senate Democrats will probably be needed for the replacement, but Democrats say they won’t be lending their support . That le aves the outcome of Republicans’ push to re peal s o - c a l l e d “Obamacare” unpredic table, and political risks high for the GOP.
Republicans often accuse Democrats of overreaching by jamming laws through on party-line votes and say Democrats lost congressional majorities in the past as a result. Yet now Republicans must avoid committing the same mistakes themselves.
“We’ll be moving in a different direction as a country, and I think we’d be wise to show some humility and move deliberately and make s ure we don’t make our changes, that we don’t go too far too fast,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. “That’s always the temptation after a big win and we saw what happened when President Obama did that, and made a lot of mistakes. We don’t want to make mistakes.”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., wrote i n a j oi nt opi ni on piece Friday for the National Revi e w t hat vot e r s have given Republicans a “historic opportunity.”
“They gave us the House, the Senate, a majority of governor’s seats, and the White House,” L ee and Walker wrote. “Now we must honor the trust they have put in us.” They added: “Congress and the Trump administration can’t afford to fumble the repeal of Obamacare.”
Adjournment early Saturday morning — the Senate finally wrapped up at 6:39 a.m. EST — came only after one last partisan squabble, this one over health benefits for retired coal miners. With a group of miners watching from the gallery and a government shutdown threatening at midnight, the Senate finally voted to pass a short-term government funding bill that will keep the lights on in federal agencies and departments through April.
By that time, the nation will have seen the new president and GOP Congress tried and tested together. And 2018 midterms will already be looming, with potential to bring change to Washington once again.
A hard-fought budget and debt agreement that provided two years of relief from unpopular automatic budget cuts and extended the government’s borrowing cap through next March. The end of a 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports. A rescue package for financially strapped Puerto Rico, creating an oversight board to supervise some debt restructuring and negotiate with creditors.
A sweeping biomedical bill that would help drug and medical device companies win swifter government approval of their products, boost disease research and drug-abuse spending and revamp federal mental health programs.
The first overhaul of the Toxic Substances Control Act since it was approved in 1976.
A sweeping rewrite of education law, giving states more power to decide how to use the results of federally mandated math and reading tests in evaluating teachers and schools.
An aviation bill that attempts to close gaps in airport security and shorten screening lines.
Five-year, $305-billion highway legislation to address the nation’s aging and congested transportation systems.
The USA Freedom Act, which extends some expiring surveillance provisions of the USA Patriot Act passed after the 9/11 attacks.
Defense legislation rebuffing President Barack Obama’s attempts to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and blocking the Pentagon from starting a new round of military base closings.
Legislation authorizing hundreds of water projects, including measures to help Flint, Michigan, rid its water of poisonous lead, and to allow more of California’s limited water resources to flow to Central Valley farmers hurt by the state’s lengthy drought.
Confirmation of Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. Gun control legislation. Bills that would have halted federal payments to Planned Parenthood, after secretly recorded videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing tissue donations fueled an uproar among congressional Republicans and abortion opponents. Comprehensive or incremental changes to immigration law. $1 trillion worth of agency budget bills that will be kicked into next year, complicated by a familiar battle over the balance between Pentagon spending and domestic programs and a desire by Republicans to get a better deal next year from the Trump administration. Congress passed a four-month extension of current spending instead.
A bipartisan criminal justice bill that would have reduced some mandatory sentences for low-level drug offenders and increased rehabilitation programs.
The first comprehensive energy bill in nearly a decade, which would speed exports of liquefied natural gas and create a new way to budget for wildfires. War powers for Obama to fight Islamic State militants. A bill forcing the president to allow construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada. Obama rejected the pipeline in 2015 after seven years of indecision.