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This Week in Congress

Last Friday, the House re-elected Rep. Johnson (R-LA) as Speaker and the 119th Congress was sworn into office. Now, the House and Senate will prepare for the 2025 congressional session scheduled to start later this month. On Monday, January 6th, Congress made Donald Trump’s Electoral College victory official and no Democratic lawmakers rose to challenge any state’s electoral results during the joint session of the Senate and House, meaning President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance are set to be sworn in on January 20, 2025. The number of the electors is 538 with the majority being 270 and Donald Trump received 312 votes.  On Tuesday, former President James Earl Carter lied in state at the U.S. Capitol prior to his national funeral on Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral.

Ahead of the speaker vote, the Republican Conference published its proposed rules for the 119th Congress. The most notable change: A motion to vacate the speaker’s chair must have the backing of nine members from the majority party in order to move to floor vote. The package also eliminates the House’s diversity and inclusion office and adds a number of provisions relating to spending, appropriations, and deficits.

In an interview last Friday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) reiterated his promise to preserve the filibuster.  More specifically, with respect to the budget reconciliation process, he said that he would oppose efforts to overrule the Senate parliamentarian on rulings that exclude certain provisions as inconsistent with budget reconciliation process rules.

This week, the House voted on two measures:  (1) the Laken Riley Act (H.R. 29), which would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to detain individuals in the country illegally who are charged with theft, and (2) the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act (H.R. 23), which would impose sanctions and block any funds from going to the International Criminal Court if it engages in any effort to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute people from the U.S. and its allies.