Washington, April 25
US President Joe Biden faces a trial of strength in Congress over his appointment of Julie Su as the new Labour Secretary as the House resumes its sessions this week.
The most important factor to flag for Wednesday is: The Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee will vote on Biden's nomination of Su.
The Senate confirmed Su as deputy secretary for the agency in 2021.
Su faced a backlash from Republicans in a HELP Committee hearing where her detractors felt that her California labour policy was too radical in wrongfully allocating $30 billion of taxpayers money to tackle unemployment during the pandemic.
Five other important issues are on the table of the house speaker Kevin McCarthy including his own compromise $1.5 trillion debt ceiling limit while holding payments out of the treasury until March 2024, media reports said of the oncoming stormy session ahead.
Congress has a tough busy schedule this week which includes resolving the GOPs long standing demand and its own path ahead to raise the debt limit and confirming President Biden's new labour secretary nominee, resulting in a bipartisan debate.
What's ahead of the Congress to resolve this week? The House of Representatives meeting amid the backdrop of the White House insisting it is not open to debt ceiling negotiation with what it called "Cruel Republicans".
Speaker McCarthy says he is hopeful the house will pass his modified $1.5 trillion debt ceiling increase plan this week -- this will hold off US Payment until March 31, 2024, seeks to slash $4.5 trillion in spending over the course of a decade and cut funding by more than $130 billion from the current levels of expenditure.
"We will hold a vote this week, and we will pass it," McCarthy told Fox News.
In a bipartisan approach. Like minded Democrats and Republicans have strongly urged the President to end the "inaction" voicing their serious concerns over the debt crisis that could land the country into a serious catastrophic payments situation.
"President Biden has a choice," McCarthy said on the House floor. "Come to the table and stop playing partisan political games � or cover his ears, refuse to negotiate, and risk bumbling his way into the first default in our nation's history."
McCarthy needs to secure 218 votes for the bill to pass the House.
Meanwhile, the House Homeland Security Committee is pushing forward with a heads-up on its border security bill. The committee is considering the Border Reinforcement Act of 2023 which requires the Department of Homeland security to resume the construction of the border well introduced by the Trump administration.
Introduced by Republican Mark E. Green, the House Homeland Security Committee chairman, it is part of the party's plan to combat US-Mexico border security concerns. It adds more teeth to the current legislation in terms of appointment of more agents to the field ensuring Customs and Border Protection possesses high technology to patrol the borders.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is scheduled to hear the impact of Biden's proposal for school closure during the pandemic.
Chairman Brad Wenstrup of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic will hold a hearing on Wednesday focusing on the Biden administration's closure of schools and the effect the restrictions had on students.
The hearing, titled "The Consequences of School Closures, Part 2: The President of the American Federation of Teachers Ms. Randi Weingarten", will seek to examine American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten's role in revising reopening guidelines from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendations, media reports said.
The committee will look into if schools were shut down longer than necessary.
On Thursday, House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith will hold a hearing on accountability and transparency at the IRS with IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel.
It may be recalled that during a floor hearing introducing the Republican Party's Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023, the plan to raise the debt ceiling, the IRS's nearly $80 billion in funding as part of the Inflation Reduction Act was brought into scrutiny, as some members had opposed it earlier on grounds that Biden was setting off agents on the wealthy.
McCarthy claimed it would eliminate "Biden's army of 87,000 IRS agents strongly denied by democrats and termed it as spreading false information by the critics.
The House is also scheduled to vote on cancelling Biden's emergency solar panel policy. The White House said Monday it would veto the congressional efforts to overturn Biden's solar tariff waiver.
The House Ways and Means Committee voted to advance restoring tariffs on solar panels from four Southeast Asian nations, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam in an attempt to overturn Biden's policy allowing Chinese solar manufacturers to bypass US tariffs, the Washington Examiner said in a report.
Yet another important item on the house's agenda is Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday in the wake of the halt to the Veterans Affairs electronic health records modernization project.
