Congress is just about finished for the year with the Senate trying to confirm a group of 20 nominees for various Administration positions including some key Ambassadors to nations such as China and Japan. Majority Leader Schumer is trying to use the push to get home for Christmas as a wedge to get a handful of Republican Senators to stop filibustering each and every Biden nominee.

One positive note was that Congress did have two significant bipartisan accomplishments in the past few weeks. First, Senators Schumer and McConnell developed a plan to allow the debt ceiling to be passed and to do it in such a way that no Republicans voted for the increase. Democrats raised the ceiling by $2.5T which should be able to carry government financing into at least 1Q23 and avoid the drama of a government default during a midterm election year.

The second big bill passed was National Defense Act Authorization (NDAA) which passed the House and Senate on large bipartisan votes. The Senate vote was 88 to 11, and the House 363 to 70. The NO votes were largely cast by Democrats who thought the DoD budget should be cut, instead the bill totaled $770B which was $25B more than the Biden Administration had requested.

What is not getting accomplished on a bipartisan basis is passage of the Biden/Democratic domestic agenda in the Budget Reconciliation Build Back Better (BBB) legislation. Senate Democrats and the President wanted the bill passed by Christmas, then yearend, and now sometime next year.

The problem remains that Senator Manchin is using the power he holds as the critical 50th vote in the evenly divided Senate to fashion a bill that he can sell to the conservative electorate in West Virginia. In looking at Senator Manchin it is critical to remember that Trump carried WV in 2020 by 38 points; something that is on the mind of Senator Manchin. Can a bill pass eventually, TBD.

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