Congress has a lot on its plate this month and for the rest of the year. It faces critical deadlines for raising the debt ceiling and funding the government to prevent a partial shutdown on October 1. It will also be looking to provide disaster relief funding for Hurricane Harvey — a House vote is set for Wednesday on a first installment of $7.85 billion — and President Trump just dropped DACA, the program that provided legal protections to about 800,000 people who came to the U.S. illegally as children, on their docket as well. Congress also needs to reauthorize the debt-laden National Flood Insurance Program and the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program by the end of the month.
Oh, and then there’s tax reform, which the Trump administration is still pushing to get done this year. Plus, if Republicans want to take another shot at repealing Obamacare this year without facing the threat of a filibuster by Democrats, they’ll have to do it by the end of September. Otherwise, Republicans would have to include new instructions for passing a health care bill under reconciliation in a 2018 budget resolution, but that would complicate their plans to change the tax code. Assuming the repeal push is over, at least for now, Congress will have to figure out how to stabilize the individual insurance market created by the Affordable Care Act.
All of which brings us to our number of the day. You’ve likely heard that the House and Senate will have just 12 legislative days this month to tackle their to-do lists. But the schedule for the rest of the year will likely be very tight, too: Per Politico’s Morning Tax email, “There are 117 days left in 2017, and, counting today, the House is scheduled to be in session for 48 of them.”
Forty-eight days and counting.
Get to work, ladies and gentlemen.
