This week in Congress: Ukraine, COVID, China, inflation, and as always, Manchin
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The Senate returns to work after a two-week recess Monday and the House will come back on Tuesday to all the same fights they were having before leaving town. The Biden administration still needs billions for COVID-19 measures, and Republicans (with help from a few Democrats) don’t want to allow that without continuing the racist immigration policies of the previous administration. That could complicate Senate passage of the other big Biden ask: more funding for Ukraine military and humanitarian aid. With the House scheduled, as of now, to be working in the Capitol just four days out of the next two weeks, the Senate is where stuff has to happen, and as usual, prospects of that happening are uncertain.
Last week, President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. is sending another $800 million of military aid and $500 million in economic assistance to Ukraine. He said that the administration will request more funding for Ukraine from Congress, probably this week. The $14 billion authorized in the big government funding package that passed in early March is nearing depletion, and Ukraine’s need is only increasing. Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko is in Washington now to meet with U.S. officials, requesting $2 billion a month in economic aid for April to June, and is asking for another $3 billion a month from other international partners.
That request will be part of the package the White House presents to Congress in its ask this week. The House is planning to pass the Senate’s Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 on Thursday, a bill that makes it quicker and easier for Biden to use existing authority to enter into lend-lease agreements for military equipment with Ukraine. The administration has already been using the law to provide equipment; this will just make it quicker and easier. But it doesn’t preclude the need for a lot more money and weapons.
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Last week, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he intends to couple that Ukraine aid request with the stalled $10 billion the administration is seeking for COVID-19. The administration has actually asked for more than double that amount, but Congress—including Democratic leadership—has insisted that funding has to be clawed back from already apportioned COVID funds, which has posed a problem for other Democrats whose home states would be losing that money. A better solution, if Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Schumer are looking for one, would be to get that money from the private companies that stole an estimated $76 billion or so in fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loans. (Disclosure: Kos Media received a Paycheck Protection Program loan. Not fraudulently.)
This is where immigration policy comes in. Senate Republicans already derailed a COVID-19 package just before Congress left for the Easter recess, refusing to allow a vote on the aid unless they get an amendment vote to force Biden to reinstate the Trump-era public health order known Title 42, restricting migrants’ entry into the country, including asylum-seekers. That order is set to expire on May 23. Republicans and a handful of Democrats are trying to keep it. As of now, there’s no resolution to that dispute in sight, largely because of the five Democratic senators who are in a position to help Republicans win.
Meanwhile, the administration just struck a deal with Pfizer to make its COVID-19 pill available at all pharmacies nationwide. The treatment would be available to people testing positive for COVID-19 who would likely face a serious case of the disease. The government has ordered 20 million courses of the drug, but can’t close the deal until Congress pays for it.
For now, though, the Senate is easing into the work with convening Monday at 3 PM ET with nomination of Lael Brainard to be vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. At 5:30 PM ET, the Senate will vote to invoke cloture on the nomination. While negotiations are happening on all the other stuff, the Senate will spend much of the floor time on the rest of the Federal Reserve nominees, including current Chair Jerome Powell, Philip Jefferson, and Lisa Cook, who will be the first Black woman on the board.
Also ongoing, according to the White House, are discussions with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on what they can possibly salvage from Biden’s would-be signature domestic package to fight climate change and provide a more level economic playing field with a fairer tax code, more funding for education and child care, expanded health insurance, and a repaired social safety net. Manchin scuttled all that last winter in a fit of pique and ego. Democrats want to try to salvage something by July 4 so they can head into campaign season with it. Manchin is being Manchin—while the White House is saying they’re negotiating with him, he’ll likely as not deny it.
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