McConnell seeks clean slate for Republican majority in Senate
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) wants to get all must-pass legislation completed in the lame-duck session so Senate Republicans will have a clean slate at the start of 2015 if they control the upper chamber.
Senate GOP aides say thats the message from the leader, who could face opposition from conservative lawmakers who want to block any non-emergency measures in the window between Election Day and the start of the new Congress in January.
Under this scenario, the Senate Republican leadership would prefer to pass an omnibus spending bill or a year-long stopgap funding measure that would keep the federal government operating until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
It could also have implications for a package extending a variety of expired tax provisions. Some House Republicans would like to delay action on the so-called tax extenders package to 2015 in the hope that a Congress under unified GOP control could make some of the fixes permanent.
This, however, would have to be done immediately at the start of the new session if the fixes were to apply to 2014. Tax returns must be filed by mid-April.
House Republicans are seeking to extend some expired provisions indefinitely, like the credit for business research.
Aides say the Senate GOP is open to that approach, but want to finish off an extenders package before 2015 and the easiest way to do that could be with the bipartisan measure already passed by the Finance Committee.
The ranking Republicans on committees also hope to pass their legislative priorities in the December session instead of shoving them into next year.
Thats the approach were taking. Were trying to get the low-hanging fruit out of here, said another senior GOP aide.
The biggest question is what to do about legislation funding government. Republicans are divided over whether it should keep federal departments and agencies operating through the end of the calendar year or only until the late winter or early spring.
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McConnell seeks clean slate for Republican majority in Senate