Sens. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer have a long road to go in working out agreements on power-sharing and other immediate issues for the 50-50 divided Senate.
Time is running out for McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, and Schumer, a New York Democrat, with just one day before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated and Schumer is set to become the majority leader of the Senate with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote.
Top congressional aides told the Washington Examiner that the Republican and Democratic Senate leaders have not reached any agreements on immediate issues for the Senate, including the division of power in committees and whether legislation can advance in the case of a tie vote, the schedule for a Senate impeachment trial for President Trump, the confirmation of key Biden Cabinet nominations, and the timing for considering Biden’s proposed coronavirus aid package.
The two men are scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon, so the issues may be resolved then.
Adding to the complication is that Biden’s team is not communicating with McConnell’s office on which Cabinet nominees it would like immediately confirmed, the sources said.
Confirmation of any of the nominees on Inauguration Day would require unanimous cooperation from all senators and would have to be planned ahead of time.
Normally, the Senate confirms several positions on the day a new president is inaugurated. But the Republican-controlled (for now) Senate has not held hearings for many of Biden’s picks and has been out of session since Jan. 7. It will be back in session on Wednesday.
Schumer cannot become the majority leader until later on Wednesday, after Harris is sworn in as vice president and three Senate Democrats are sworn in: Sens.-elect Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, whom California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed to fill Harris’s seat.
Schumer said on Tuesday that the three senators will be sworn in “probably tomorrow,” according to the press pool.
The Senate allows for consideration of both impeachment and other business, such as confirmations, but neither House Speaker Nancy Pelosi nor Schumer indicated when the House will send the impeachment article regarding the “incitement of insurrection” at the Capitol on Jan. 6 to the Senate.
