At the beginning of the second session of Congress 119, Democrats will remember the fifth anniversary of the attack on Congress, the magnitude of which the president Donald Trump and Republican leaders have wanted to blur, and will fuel the call to restore enhanced subsidies for health plans Obamacare.
To these priorities, Democrats also add efforts to pass legislation that stops any new attempt by the Trump administration to attack or intervene militarily in Venezuelaafter removing the president from the country Nicolas Maduro and take him as a prisoner to New York, where he is accused of drug trafficking.
On the first day of the session of the Lower House, this Tuesday, the Democratic minority will hold an informal hearing, with the members of the committee that investigated the act of insurrection of January 6, 2021, to hear the testimonies of the congressmen who lived through that historic attack, by which Republican mobs managed to interrupt the certification of the 2020 electoral college vote count, which confirmed the victory of Joe Biden.
The public hearing will be chaired by the congressman Bennie Thompson (Mississippi), who led the original congressional investigation last four years.
The Senate began the second session of the 119th Congress on Monday. The Lower House meets again this Tuesday.
“At the hearing, we will examine the ongoing threats to free and fair elections posed by Trump’s out-of-control administration, expose election deniers who hold important high-level positions in the Executive Branch, and detail the threats to public safety posed by the hundreds of violent criminals who were pardoned on the first day of President (Trump’s) second term.”, indicated the leader of the House Democratic minority, Hakeem Jeffriesin a letter sent last week to members of his caucus.
Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 convicts and defendants for the insurrection five years ago, which left five people dead. Some of those who were pardoned have been charged with committing new crimes.
The current president of the United States, convicted of 34 serious crimes related to false business records, was accused of inciting the act of insurrection, but that case was closed after the decision of the US Supreme Court that granted a high level of immunity to the tenants of the White House.
In a recent interrogation before the House Investigative Committee – behind closed doors – the former special prosecutor in the case, Jack Smith, warned that The events of January 6, 2021 would not have occurred without the provocation caused by Trump himselfwho during a message that day urged his followers to go to the Capitol to hold accountable the Democratic congressmen who defended the legitimacy of Biden’s election.
“The evidence here made it clear that President Trump was, to a large extent, the most guilty and responsible for this conspiracy. These crimes were committed for his benefit. The attack on the Capitol, part of this case, does not occur without him. The other accomplices did it for his benefit,” said Smith, who unsuccessfully claimed to testify in open court.
Trump has gotten congressional Republicans to downplay the attackwhich for the first time in history interrupted the certification of the president-elect of the United States. “In the years since that shameful day, far-right Republicans in Congress have repeatedly attempted to rewrite history and cover up the events of January 6,” Jeffries said.
The House minority leader hopes, in turn, to force a vote in the coming days on the resolution that seeks to extend for three years the improved subsidies for health plans under the Obamacare law, which expired at the beginning of the new year. The legislation, with the support of a handful of Republicans, obtained the majority of co-sponsors necessary to bring it to a vote in the chamber.
If, as expected, the legislation is approved in the full House, the measure will go to the Senate, where it can be stopped or, at least, limited. Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune (South Dakota) has acknowledged that any deal on the healthcare industry will have to be reached this month, when many federal appropriations also expire.
The federal government is operating primarily through a temporary budget resolution, following the 43-day partial shutdown that took place between October, when fiscal year 2026 began, and mid-November. That temporary ruling largely funds the federal government until Jan. 30, so without new legislation, many U.S. government agencies would fall back into a partial shutdown.
Added to the original agenda of Congress is the crisis generated by the US bombings in Venezuela and the removal from the country of President Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, amid new accusations of drug trafficking and possession of destructive weapons, among other charges that are beginning to be debated in the Federal Court in southern New York.
The leader of the Democratic minority of the Senate, Charles Schumer, said that he will force a vote on a resolution that seeks to prevent any new US military action in Venezuela, without authorization from Congress.
Schumer maintained that Saturday’s attack in Venezuela was a violation of federal law, because it did not have the approval of the US legislature. “It is a violation of the law to do what they did without the authorization of Congress,” he stated on ABC’s “This Week,” indicating that the resolution will also be led by Republican Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Democrat Tim Kaine (Virginia).
