Judy: Back from the Thanksgiving
holiday, the
democratic-controlled congress
is up against a ticking clock.
There are just five weeks until
Republicans take over the
majority in the house of
representatives and there is a
long list of priorities that
lawmakers are trying to pass
before the end of the year.
Our congressional correspondent,
Lisa Desjardins, is here to walk
us through it.
A lot to be watching.
Tonight, potentially historic
movement on an important issue.
Tell us where we are.
Lisa: We are talking about
same-sex marriage.
The senate is in the midst of
passing a bill that would
essentially codify same-sex
marriages that are recognized by
any state.
I want to talk about this bill.
It needs 60 votes.
It is expected to get 60 votes.
Let's talk about what this bill
does and does not do.
This would mean that every state
must recognize same-sex and
interracial marriages that are
recognized in any state that
licenses such a marriage.
However, it does not mean there
would be a national right to
same-sex marriage.
This would be the same effect as
the Dodd decision for abortion.
We know that same-sex marriage
has been found constitutional.
It is a constitutional right
under the current supreme court
law but it's not clear.
Some are worried the supreme
court may change that and
reverse that right as it did
with roe V. Wade so this idea
for this bill is to protect
same-sex marriages in states
where that is recognized.
I will say when th
Oberg refill decision -- when
that decision was made, 35
states said same-sex marriages
was not allowed there and
congress is moving on it
tonight.
Judy: We call this the lame-duck
session but it is busy,
jampacked, as we were
suggesting, including some big
deadlines including that railway
strike issue.
Tell us where we are with that.
Lisa: This is an incredibly
juicy lame-duck but there are
high-stakes issues here.
We are just over one week away
from potential deadline that
could cause national railway
strike.
President Biden called the
leaders in congress to the white
house to talk about this and
other issues.
The white house decorated
but all of them had serious
faces and all of those leaders
left saying they are serious
about passing something to
either extend the deadline for
this strike for negotiators or
to force negotiators into a deal
, beginning deal that they said
earlier.
Here is what we heard
specifically from president
Biden about that.
Pres. Biden: There is a lot to
do including resolving the train
strike and what we are doing
now.
Congress I think has to act to
prevent it.
It is not an easy call but we
have to do it.
Lisa: The will from leadership
is there but this is going to be
a heavy lift in the senate where
this kind of idea would need 60
votes and would need it by next
week.
Senator Bernie Sanders among
others is someone who thinks
that perhaps workers should get
a better deal, holding out for a
vote on an idea he has.
Also some moderate Republicans
who are needed like senator
Susan Collins.
She is not sure she thinks
congress should have to get
involved.
She things the white house made
a mistake here so we will watch
that closely.
Judy: The last thing I want to
ask you about is funding the
government, money that is
running out, and the clock is
ticking as we said.
Lisa: They have 2.5 weeks to
fund government.
In this case, lawmakers are
behind in getting things
together.
They have not even agreed on
basic like how much should
governments spend?
They have a lot to do in a
couple weeks and there are a lot
of decisions to be made in
particular about whether to have
another short term deal for
maybe a week or so or a couple
of months.
Or do they try and finish the
whole year's funding now? Here
is incoming house -- current
house Republican leader Kevin
Mccarthy, who hopes to be house
speaker in January, talking
about that perhaps he does not
want a full deal right now.
Here is what he said today.
>> I'm not going to sit back and
let some bill passed in the
middle of the night.
I am not going to let them
continue to do this runaway
spending, continue doing more
the challenges that we have in
America when it comes to our
energy policy, border policy.
Lisa: These dynamics are
complicated.
He has a lot of votes in the
house and he has sway with
Republicans potentially in the
senate so all of these groups
have to agree on some kind of
large appropriations bill or a
short-term deal very quickly.
On top of all of that, let's
look at the calendar.
Everything that is ahead of us
coming up.
One of those deadlines, December
9, is the deadline to avoid a
railway strike.
Just a week after that, December
16, that is the deadline for the
government funding bill which
needs to be passed by then.
December 15, the day right
before that, that is the last
day the house is supposed to
meet for the year.
They don't have any time after
that on the schedule and as
mentioned, just a couple weeks
after that, January 3 is when
the new congress is set to
begin.
I have not even talked about
electoral count reform, a man
bill, folks talking about
immigration.
This is a very wild lame-duck
session ahead of us.
We are going to be talking about
it a lot.