WASHINGTON – Congress returns to work today with election-year politics certain to shape an already-limited agenda.
Republicans intend to focus on every facet of President Barack Obama’s health-care law. They see a political boost in its problem-plagued rollout as the they looks to maintain its House majority and seize control of the Democratic-led Senate.
First up in the House, according to Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., is legislation addressing the security of personal data, part of his party’s effort “to protect the American people from the harmful effects of Obamacare.”
Republicans also promise closer scrutiny of the administration’s tally of enrollment numbers in the program.
Democrats will press to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour and extend unemployment benefits, trying to cast the party as more concerned with the less fortunate and intent on dealing with income inequality. The issues resonate with liberals, the core Democratic voters crucial in low-turnout midterm elections.
Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, said an extension of federal benefits for an estimated 1.3 million Americans who saw their payments stopped Dec. 28 is more than an economic issue.
“It’s about real people, people with families struggling to put food on the table, to make ends meet, including ... 200,000 military veterans who are among these folks who are losing their benefits,” he told reporters Friday.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has scheduled a vote tonight on legislation by Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., to extend jobless benefits for three months.
President Barack Obama will try to make his case the next day. He has scheduled a White House event with some of those whose benefits expired at the end of December.
Republicans hinted they might go along with extending benefits if they could extract spending cuts from Reid elsewhere to pay for them.
“If the senator comes up with any kind of a reasonable idea to offset the $26 billion, I think that he might find some people that are willing to talk to him,” said Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz.
