Lame-duck questions

There is no shortage of issues lawmakers could tackle in the lame-duck session.

Topics that Congress will definitely debate this month and next range from the expiring George W. Bush tax cuts and appropriations to the Pentagon’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

{mosads}Bills under the “maybe” category include issues such as food safety, cybersecurity, energy, mine safety, child nutrition and the lifting of a travel ban to Cuba. 

The White House is pressing hard for the Senate to tackle a pending U.S.-Russia arms treaty, but it is far from certain that the upper chamber will approve that before the 111th Congress ends.

There will be much drama on Capitol Hill in the days and weeks ahead. Outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will win the race for minority leader, but how many votes will Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) get? How divisive will that contest be, and will Democratic members who lost their reelection criticize Pelosi?

The incoming freshmen are in town and are surely being warned about all the ways Washington can trip them up. Will soon-to-be-Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) be able to control the Tea Party lawmakers? It could be the other way around, if his reversal on banning earmarks is any indication.

House Democrats considered bringing a bill to the floor before the election that would extend the middle-class tax cuts but end the tax breaks for families making more than $250,000 a year. Some liberals want to have that vote, while influential Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said a good compromise would be to lift that threshold to $1 million. Republicans are unlikely to give much ground on the issue and have spoken out against a plan to make the middle-class tax cuts permanent while extending tax cuts for wealthy people for two years.

The ethics trials of Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) will attract a fair amount of media attention in the lame-duck session. 

There will also be jockeying for positions for key committee chairmanships in the House as GOP lawmakers vie for the top spots on the Appropriations, Financial Services and Energy and Commerce panels. 

In the wake of his party’s “shellacking” in the election, President Obama is expected to move right as he begins his reelection bid. Liberals in Congress won’t like it, but the president has little choice if he wants to sign significant pieces of legislation during the next two years.