Busy Week Before Break

Key Takeaways
  • A federal shutdown was once again averted as House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed through a new Continuing Resolution with the help of House Democrats.
  • Despite using a tactic similar to the one that got his predecessor removed from his post by his own party, it appears Speaker Johnson's current leadership position is safe.
  • China's Xi Jinping and President Biden had a face-to-face meeting, notable for having taken place at all in view of heightened US-China tensions.

Congress has left town for Thanksgiving and President Biden is preparing for his traditional Thanksgiving trip to Nantucket, but before that it was a busy week for both Congress and the President.

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) lost his job when he agreed to a continuing resolution (CR) that was carried over the finish line by Democrats. This week the new Speaker, Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), did the same thing.  However, Johnson, who has been a consistent ally of the most conservative Republicans, was given a break by the Freedom Caucus and no motion to vacate was made.  The new Speaker said that there will not be another CR and a shutdown will happen if the new deadlines set in the current CR are not met.

In the House, the final vote was 336 Y to 95 N.  All but two of the NO votes came from Republicans.  In the Senate, the vote was more bipartisan–87 Y to 11 N.  Only one Senate Democrat voted NO.

The new CR followed the idea of the new Speaker to have a two-tiered expiration date: January 19th for the budgets that traditionally are less controversial and February 2nd for the more controversial budgets such as Defense and HHS.  While there will be some staff work between now and the new year, it will be a busy few weeks for Congress once it returns from the holiday break.

This past week also saw the first meeting between President Biden and President Xi in over a year.  The final communique highlighted agreements to resume talks between the two nations’ military leaders and mutual actions to stop the flow of fentanyl. However, perhaps the biggest accomplishment was that Xi traveled to the US and the two leaders had a face-to-face meeting.

As an extra bonus to President Biden, President Xi promised to replace the pandas that had recently been returned to China.

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