Below is the Federal Policy team’s weekly preview, published each week when Congress is in session.

HEADLINES

• Congress is in session this week after both chambers canceled their scheduled recess week amid the ongoing partial government shutdown, now more than a full month in length.

• Both chambers are focused on political messaging bills: The House will take up appropriations legislation that would reopen unfunded agencies; the Senate plans to debate a package modeled after President Donald Trump’s weekend proposal to trade three years of protection for immigrants brought to the United States as children for border wall funding.

• World leaders are gathering in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum; Trump canceled his attendance amid the shutdown.

HOUSE

• The House has votes planned today through Friday. The agenda includes a package of six appropriations bills, which will likely pass the House but not be considered in the Senate, where leaders say they will only consider spending bills that Trump would sign.
• House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richie Neal, D-Mass., has urged Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to appear at a Thursday hearing on the shutdown’s impact; Mnuchin declined, and the Treasury Department offered other senior officials to testify.
• There is little other committee activity scheduled, as the House was previously scheduled to be in recess this week and committees continue to organize.
• Any additional committee activity will be listed here.

SENATE

• The Senate will reconvene today, with votes expected on a package including all seven remaining appropriations bills.
• The legislation also includes Trump’s immigration proposal in exchange for funding for a physical barrier on the border. Democrats quickly rejected the proposal.
• The Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a roundtable on Thursday on the United States’ role in the Arctic.
• The current list of Senate committee activity can be found here.

WHITE HOUSE

• Trump’s schedule this week remains fluid as the shutdown drags on.
• He was scheduled to appear in Davos this week, but due to the shutdown he canceled the trip for himself and the rest of his administration’s delegation.