Congress, still completely controlled by Democrats until January, returned for its “lame duck” session this week. The Senate moved forward on a food safety bill that would give the FDA new powers while House Republicans blocked an extension of unemployment benefits (the vote required a two-thirds majority for passage), even as they fight for tax cuts for the rich. The Senate also confirmed Jacob Lew as the new White House budget chief and voted to delay a schedule Medicare pay cut for doctors. The House ethics committee voted to censure Rep. Charlie Rangel for various rule violations.

Congress will break again next week for Thanksgiving and when they return they will have four weeks to pass legislation until the Christmas break and end of the session. With that in mind, House Democrats are promising a vote on extending middle class tax cuts only and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pledging a vote on repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” as part of the defense authorization bill and bringing up the DREAM Act, which would give the children of illegal immigrants a chance at legal status, as a stand-alone bill. The White House is also strongly pushing for a vote on the New START nuclear arsenal treaty with Russia this year, but is, of course, facing Republican resistance.

While Republicans won control of the House of Representatives and several seats in the Senate, those new members will not be sworn in until January. The current Democratic congress is still in charge until then (though Democratic numbers in the Senate will be reduced to 58 as Senator-elect Mark Kirk will take office in December) and there’s a lot to do in the short session in these two months:

Extending tax cuts is a top political priority but the world won’t end if they expire for a short while: more money will simply be withheld from workers’ paychecks. And, next spring’s income tax returns are based on tax provisions in effect in 2010.

But there are other items that simply can’t be put off until next year.

Not a single spending bill has passed. A stopgap bill is needed to avoid a government shutdown.

Doctors face a 23 percent cut in their Medicare reimbursements, with another 6.5 percent cut looming on Jan. 1. That needs to be fixed.

It gets worse. Tax cuts that expired at the end of last year haven’t been extended, and that’s a problem that needs to be fixed this year. It would be too late to address it next year because the filing season will have already begun. More than 26 million families would face tax bills in April averaging $2,600 higher because of the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, which was enacted four decades ago to make sure the rich pay at least some tax, but threatens to reach into the middle class because it’s never been updated for inflation.

“That’s a political train wreck that I can’t imagine they’ll let happen,” said GOP tax lobbyist Ken Kies.

A popular deduction on state and local sales and property taxes has already expired and also needs to be revived this year so taxpayers can claim it when preparing their taxes next year. Also in that category are popular tax breaks on college tuition, the widely backed research and development tax credit and a roster of other business tax cuts.

And, without action by Congress, 2 million unemployed people will lose jobless benefits averaging about $300 a week nationwide by the end of December. It’s by no means a sure thing that the benefits could be extended in the post-election session.

One of the few sure bets is that Congress will find a way to avoid a government shutdown when a stopgap spending bill expires Dec. 3. The lame duck session begins Nov. 15 for a week and then resumes after Thanksgiving.

Some lawmakers are holding out the possibility of wrapping all 12 unfinished spending bills for the budget year that began Oct. 1 into a massive $1.1 trillion catchall bill, but that’s now a long shot, given the election results. Instead, another stopgap bill freezing budgets at current levels, perhaps until March, is needed to avoid a shutdown.

On the other hand, it’s looking bleak for the annual defense policy bill, which has been passed every year for five decades. It’s caught in a standoff over the Pentagon’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy on homosexuals serving in the military.

Indeed, Defense Secretary Gates is encouraging Congress to repeal DADT now. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promises a vote on the DREAM Act. There’s also the New START treaty President Obama negotiated with Russia to reduce our respective nuclear arsenals. A two-thirds majority is constitutionally required for passage by the Senate and that’s why Democrats are being encouraged now when there’s still more of them. In fact, it makes sense for Democrats to pass as much as possible before Republicans takeover. Why not? The Republicans used the 1998 lame duck session to impeach President Clinton!

After newly sworn-in Democratic Senator Carte Goodwin (a former counsel of popular West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, who has announced he will run for the seat in a special election this fall), the Senate finally passed an extension of unemployment benefits which was blocked three times by Republicans and even for another 30 hours after it was obvious it was going to pass. The House of Representatives followed suit today and the checks will go out as President Obama swiftly signed it into the law.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan, with Sen. Lindsey Graham again being the only Republican to vote in favor of President Obama’s nominee. According to the Washington Post, the full Senate is expected to take up Kagan’s nomination after an energy legislation debate that should begin next week. A confirmation vote is likely in the first week of August, before Congress recesses.

Speaking of the energy bill, reports today sadly indicate that Democrats will be dropping the climate change measures because they do not believe 60 votes are there for passage otherwise.

After weeks of delay, Senate Democrats were finally able to defeat GOP roadblocks and pass the bill to reign in Wall Street, and hopefully, prevent the 2008 crises from happening again. As the House already passed the final version, the bill now goes to President Obama for signature. The Senate’s next big legislative item will be an energy/climate bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will try to bring to the floor in two weeks. The House passed its version last year, but the Senate will scale back the “cap and trade” provision to only limit carbon pollution to power plans.

A Senate vote on extended unemployment benefits has been put off until next week, when Bob Byrd’s replacement (to be announced by Gov. Manchin tomorrow) will be sworn in, giving the Democrats enough votes. Republicans also delayed a commitee vote on Elena Kagan until next week.

With the sad passing of Sen. Robert Byrd, the longest serving member of Congress in U.S. history, the Democrats for now number 58 in the Senate (the Democratic governor of West Virginia will appoint someone in the near future, with a special election taking place in 2012, the same time as the next election was going to be held anyway). As it is tradition that the President pro temp of the Senate goes to the most senior member of the majority party, Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii was sworn in.

Since the Democrats lost a member, they had to reconvene conference negotiations on the Wall Street reform bill, removing a bank tax (meaning costs of the bill will now fall back on the taxpayers) to appease Sen. Scott Brown who is still uncommital on his vote, which will now not take place until next week.  The House of Representatives passed the final version, with Speaker Pelosi personally gavelling the vote to a close, as it represents the biggest financial reforms since the Great Depression.

And extension of jobless benefits passed in the House but died once again in the Senate (thanks to Republicans and Sen. Ben Nelson), meaning that the unemployed will continue to suffer through the 4th of July congressional recess. The House also passed a bill that broadens BP’s legal liability for the 11 workers who died in the oil rig explosion.

Gen. David Petraeus was quickly confirmed 99-0 to command the war effort in Afghanistan, replacing Gen. Stanley McChrystal whom was removed by Pres. Obama after controversial remarks to Rolling Stone but will be retiring with four stars. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings this week were decidedly uncontroversial and she is expected to be confirmed.

Congress passed new sanctions on Iran and the House of Representatives passed the DISCLOSE Act, which came in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision that severely weakened previous campaign finance laws. Unfortunately, groups like the NRA were exempted from having to disclose its top donors on its campaign ads but would still have to put its own name on any of its spots. The Senate still has to pass the bill, so potentially the bill can be strengthened. But despite the exemptions, this is still a big step in disclosure for campaign contributions.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans again killed a bill to extend unemployment benefits and prevent layoffs of state and local government workers though Congress delayed cuts to Medicare payments for six weeks while they work out the broader bill.

House and Senate negotiators have come to an agreement on financial reform legislation and hope to send it to President Obama by the July 4th recess. A bill has been introduced in Congress to crack down on puppy mills (you can ask your representatives to support the measure here). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to try and attach broader energy/climate change legislation to an oil industry regulation bill to get it fast tracked before the August recess. Speaker Pelosi is fighting for broader congressional oversight of the CIA and other intelligence agencies. And forgotten-Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings will begin Monday.

Congress finally passed an extension of unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies (which President Obama immediately signed) after being blocked several times by Senate Republicans. Congress also passed a Haiti debt relief bill.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are paving the way for a Wall Street reform bill , a version of which passed the House of Representatives last year. Senate Republicans are having trouble getting the votes on their side to block it. And as early as next week, the House may bring back a bill to give D.C. residents a representative who can actually vote on bills.

Sen. Kerry is also about to introduce a new climate change/energy bill that has the support of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. The House passed a version last year, but unfortunately, it’s unlikely Congress will get back to it before the midterms either because they lack the time or because it’s an election year, as is the issue with immigration reform. That’s too bad since whether the Republicans can flip either chamber or not, Democrats almost certainly won’t have as many seats in the next Congress and it’ll be even harder to get such legislation passed.

UPDATE: It looks as if the D.C. voting rights bill is dead.

The House of Representatives voted to extend unemployment benefits, stop Medicare premium hikes, and keep the goverment running through October. That is all.

Another group set to benefit from the stimulus package working its way through Congress? The uninsured and unemployed:

With little notice and no public hearings, House Democrats would create a temporary new entitlement allowing workers getting unemployment checks to qualify for Medicaid, the health program for low-income people. Spouses and children could also receive benefits, no matter how much money the family had.

In addition, the stimulus package would offer a hefty subsidy to help laid-off workers retain the same health plans they had from their former employers.

Altogether, the economic recovery bill would speed $127 billion over the next two and a half years to individuals and states for health care alone, a fact that has Republicans fuming that the stimulus package is a back door to universal health coverage.

[...]

Medicaid is normally for low-income people, and for decades it has been financed jointly by the federal government and the states, with the federal share averaging 57 percent of costs.

The economic stimulus bill prevents states from enforcing a means test, saying, “No income or resources test shall be applied with respect to any category of individuals” who become eligible for Medicaid because they are receiving unemployment benefits. The federal government would pay 100 percent of the costs for people enrolled under this option through December 2010.

Republicans said this proposal would take a big step toward federalizing Medicaid. For their part, Democrats said the changes took a major step toward their goal of coverage for all Americans.

At the same time, the legislation would provide a huge measure of fiscal relief to state Medicaid programs, at a time when state revenues are declining and the number of Medicaid recipients is rising because of the recession.

The bill would also offer a lifeline to workers who have lost health insurance along with their jobs. In theory, such workers and their families can keep their group health benefits for 18 months under a federal law, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986, known as Cobra. But laid-off workers are often required to pay 102 percent of the full premium, including the employer’s share, so the cost now can be prohibitive.

Under the bill, the federal government would pay 65 percent of the premiums for a year. That subsidy would almost surely increase the number of laid-off workers choosing to continue coverage.

Thirty-five percent is still a lot, especially if someone recently laid off was used to their employer picking up most of the bill, but it’s a hell of a lot better than one-hundred and two percent, and at least gives people a realistic chance of maintaining their health care for (maybe?) long enough to get through this downtime (provided of course they can find employment that permits them even that.)

Congress returned to business this week, passing an extension of unemployment benefits (thankfully, still-President Bush reversed his opposition) but punting a bailout of the auto industry until the Big 3 can demonstrate how the money would help.

Ever-masochistic, House Republicans elevated strong conservatives to leadership posts. Rep. Henry Waxman successfully toppled Rep. John Dingell as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, likely giving stronger voice to environmentalists just as the Senate prepares to introduce bills after Obama’s inauguration to combat global warming.