Essential Tasks for the Lame Duck Congress

The Washington Post ran an an especially salient editorial yesterday. Given that Republicans will almost certainly gain control of the House of Representatives, it’s imperative for the lame duck Congress, whose life will end as the new year begins, to pass critically needed legislation that the Republican-controlled Congress would surely block: 1) raising the debt limit sufficiently so Republicans can’t extort concessions from Democrats by threatening to cause the United Staes to default on its obligations; 2) authorizing ample funding of continuing support for Ukraine in continuing to defend itself against Russian aggression; and 3) passing legislation to protect the integrity of electoral processes, most particularly by reforming the Electoral Count Act to close loopholes that would enable an unscrupulous presidential candidate to prevail despite having failed to win a majority of electoral votes at the polls. None of these measures would be necessary if the Republican Congressional leaders were honorable and responsible, but that’s not the case.