After a month-long recess, lawmakers are returning to Washington, D.C. on Sept. 9 with a busy schedule—and facing the looming prospect of a presidential election.
One of the highest priorities is dealing with spending, as current funding will run out by Sept. 30 if new spending bills or an extension aren’t approved.
The U.S. Capitol building in Washington on Aug. 14, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
However, lawmakers will have a series of other agenda items, ranging from China to defense to agriculture.
Hanging over all of it will be the prospect of the election, which will be roughly seven weeks away once lawmakers return, and which is likely to influence lawmakers’ actions and rhetoric across the board.
Here are five things to watch out for in September.
1. Spending—At the top of Congress’s to-do list is spending.
Each year, Congress must pass 12 spending bills; failure to pass all before Sept. 30 results in a shutdown.
It’s a contentious process.
Former President Donald Trump has urged Republicans to use the deadline to force the inclusion of the SAVE Act, which prevents illegal immigrants from voting in elections and which Democrats strongly oppose.
The House has passed 5 of the 12 spending bills on its end, but the Senate has passed none—raising the prospect of another controversial omnibus package and continuing resolutions in the coming months.
2. China—The House also plans to consider a series of bills aimed at curbing the existential threat from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as part of Republican leadership’s “China Week” initiative.
The 25 China-related bills to be considered cover a wide range, protecting U.S. farmland, trade secrets, critical infrastructure, national sovereignty, and advanced technology.
With Republicans’ four-seat majority, it’s unclear how these bills will fare in the House or the Democrat-controlled Senate.
3. NDAA—Congress will also need to pass the annual Pentagon blueprint, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
While actual funding is authorized in a separate bill, the NDAA lays out the broad policies, purchases, and initiatives that Congress wants the Defense Department to pursue.
Due to lingering disagreements on culture war amendments, more bicameral negotiation will likely be needed to push the must-pass legislation over the finish line.
4. VA Shortfall—Some members of Congress are also looking into a reported $15 billion shortfall reported by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Republicans have blamed the deficit on “horrendous, top-to-bottom mismanagement,” and plan to investigate.
While Republicans have pushed for a similar investigation in the Senate, none are currently planned.
5. Farm Bill—Congress will also need to continue working on the Farm Bill, an important and expensive legislation that has been bogged down in partisan disputes for over a year.
With an estimated 10-year price tag of $1.5 trillion, the heft spending package is subject to continuing partisan disputes over issues included in the bill like food stamps and climate change.
The bill has been in congressional limbo since 2023 when it was extended until the end of September. Some lawmakers suspect another extension will be necessary this month.
—Joseph Lord, Jackson Richman, and Stacy Robinson
HARRIS BREAKS WITH BIDEN ON CAPITAL GAINS
Yesterday Vice President Kamala Harris proposed a new plan to increase the capital gains tax to 28 percent—a lower increase than President Joe Biden’s 44.6 percent, which she had previously endorsed.
Still, the rate is a bump from the current long-term capital gains rate of 20 percent
“If you earn a million dollars a year or more, the tax rate on your long-term capital gains will be 28 percent under my plan,” Harris said, during a campaign rally in North Hampton, New Hampshire.
Under the current plan, those who earn more may be subject to an extra 3.8 percent “net earned investment income” tax, pushing the rate to 23.8 percent. It’s uncertain whether Harris’ 28 percent includes that extra tax.
It is also not clear whether she will stick with Biden’s plan to raise the net earned investment tax to 5 percent, which would increase Harris’ tax rate to 33 percent. Former President Donald Trump’s campaign pushed back on the tax hike.
“The Harris–Walz tax plan calls for the largest tax hike in history, including a higher income tax, higher business taxes, higher investment taxes, an unrealized gains tax, and an expanded death tax—among others—all of which will hurt small businesses and their customers,” the campaign said in a statement to The Epoch Times.
Trump had promised to lower the capital gains tax to a maximum of 15 percent during his 2020 presidential campaign but has made no current statement about it.
Harris also unveiled a tax plan intended to benefit small businesses during a campaign speech in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The proposal includes raising the tax write-off for new businesses from $5,000 to $50,000. She’s also raised the goal for new small business applications from Biden’s 19 million to 25 million.
“On average, it costs about $40,000 to start a new business in America. That is a great financial barrier for a lot of folks, and it can hold entrepreneurs back,” she said.
Experts speaking to the Epoch Times cautioned that the plan may be a double-edged sword: It may spur the economy but may drive up the U.S. deficit over the next ten years. It would also need approval from Congress.
Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, estimated the ten-year cost to be about $20 billion. Still, he said he didn’t think the plan was unreasonable.
”It could be a more bipartisan topic. There has been, of course, some interest in promoting greater entrepreneurship and startups in Congress on a bipartisan basis.”
The small business credit is only one component of Harris’ “opportunity economy,” touted at her speech during the DNC on August 22. She also proposes a Child Tax Credit, bans on price-gouging, lowering pharmaceutical costs, and a goal of 3 million new affordable homes over her first term.
A previous economic plan was expected to cost 1.7 trillion over the next decade and included raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent.
The Trump campaign responded to news of the proposal, saying “If Kamala wanted to help small businesses, why hasn’t she done it during her four years as vice president?”
—Stacy Robinson
BOOKMARKS
The Office of Old Age, Survivors, Disability Insurance (OASDI) has released a report highlighting a $63 trillion gap in social security funding over the next 75 years. To eliminate the shortfall, OASDI suggests raising the payroll tax to 17 percent or cutting benefits by 26.5 percent.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters union is postponing an endorsement of Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign until she meets with them, face-to-face. Teamsters President Sean O'Brien says the union’s members are split almost evenly between Republicans and Democrats, and “you don’t hire someone unless you give them an interview.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name must remain on the ballot in Michigan, according to a ruling by Court of Claims Judge Christopher P. Yates. Kennedy had requested his name be removed when he ended his bid for president, so as not to siphon votes away from Donald Trump this fall.
The Department of Justice has taken control of 32 websites in an effort to prevent Russian interference with the 2024 election. Some of the websites were reportedly designed to mimic well-known American sites like Washington Post and Fox News in a scheme “to publish Russian government messaging falsely presented as content from legitimate news media organizations.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul reached out to the State Department to remove Chinese consul general Huang Ping from his position in New York, following revelations that one of her former top aides had been a spy for the Chinese government. Huang no longer holds the position, according to the State Department, as he reached the end of his regularly scheduled term.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, the country’s top diplomat, has resigned his post in what appears to be the beginning of a cabinet-wide restructuring. Four other members of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s cabinet, as well as his deputy prime minister, resigned the day before Kuleba stepped down.
—Stacy Robinson
