Dear Colleague: Update on the House Floor Schedule
Press Types
Internal
For Immediate Release:
January 26, 2021
Dear Colleague:
After last week’s inauguration of President Biden, our country is ready to turn the page to a new phase in our fight against COVID-19 and the effort to help Americans get through its resulting economic crisis. With expanded emergency unemployment insurance benefits scheduled to expire in March, the continued rise in COVID-19 cases and in job losses, and President Biden’s pledge to deploy 150 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days, we will need to move swiftly on additional COVID-19 relief legislation. Our people are also looking to Congress to address many other pressing national challenges where progress had been delayed. Given the change in both the White House and in the Senate Majority, we now have the ability to achieve real results for the people we serve.
To that end, I am making adjustments to the 2021 House Calendar that will give us the option of using budget reconciliation to advance a COVID-19 relief package:
Since the election, our country has experienced a period of uncertainty, instability, and national trauma. Our people are hurting economically, and thousands are losing their lives to COVID-19 every day. We who serve them in Congress have been through a difficult period of the past few weeks as well, enduring an attack on the Capitol and the stresses of a fraught transfer of presidential power. However, as President Biden said, “democracy prevailed.” We are the vanguard of that democracy; it falls to us to govern responsibly and renew faith in our Constitution and system of government by demonstrating that “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” can deliver a better life for all Americans. I believe that this updated schedule will help us do our jobs for the people and make us a more effective partner to the Democratic Senate and the Biden Administration as we work together to make the soul of America whole again and build back better and stronger from these challenges that confront us.
Sincerely,
STENY H. HOYER
House Majority Leader
After last week’s inauguration of President Biden, our country is ready to turn the page to a new phase in our fight against COVID-19 and the effort to help Americans get through its resulting economic crisis. With expanded emergency unemployment insurance benefits scheduled to expire in March, the continued rise in COVID-19 cases and in job losses, and President Biden’s pledge to deploy 150 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days, we will need to move swiftly on additional COVID-19 relief legislation. Our people are also looking to Congress to address many other pressing national challenges where progress had been delayed. Given the change in both the White House and in the Senate Majority, we now have the ability to achieve real results for the people we serve.
To that end, I am making adjustments to the 2021 House Calendar that will give us the option of using budget reconciliation to advance a COVID-19 relief package:
- Week of January 25th: Committee Work Week
- Week of February 1st: House will be in session, which could extend into the weekend.
- Week of February 8th: Committee Work Week
- Week of February 15th: Committee Work Week
- Week of February 22nd: House will be in session
- Week of March 1st: House will be in session
- Week of March 8th: House will be in session
- Week of March 15th: Committee Work Week
- Week of March 22nd: Committee Work Week
Since the election, our country has experienced a period of uncertainty, instability, and national trauma. Our people are hurting economically, and thousands are losing their lives to COVID-19 every day. We who serve them in Congress have been through a difficult period of the past few weeks as well, enduring an attack on the Capitol and the stresses of a fraught transfer of presidential power. However, as President Biden said, “democracy prevailed.” We are the vanguard of that democracy; it falls to us to govern responsibly and renew faith in our Constitution and system of government by demonstrating that “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” can deliver a better life for all Americans. I believe that this updated schedule will help us do our jobs for the people and make us a more effective partner to the Democratic Senate and the Biden Administration as we work together to make the soul of America whole again and build back better and stronger from these challenges that confront us.
Sincerely,
STENY H. HOYER
House Majority Leader