Congress is back in session this week after being out of session last week. They already had their hands full with the amount of work they need to do and the announcement of the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has added one more major item to the Senate’s calendar.
The Democratic majority has made it clear that replacing Breyer with whomever President Biden nominates will be a top priority. That will be added to other top priorities: preventing a government shutdown when the current funding of the government runs out on February 18 and passing some variation of the President’s “Build Back Better” legislation, among others.
While they have been coming up with the funding legislation needed for the rest of fiscal year 2022, many close observers doubt they will be able to finish in time to meet the February 18 deadline, which is now just three weeks away.
It is more likely that they will have to pass one more temporary funding bill to keep the government open and give them more time to complete the final funding bill.
