118th Congress: A tale of two balancing acts

The midterm elections yielded stunningly unexpected results. The so-called “red wave” of Republican victories was more like a trickle. The House has a narrow Republican majority, but the party has deep philosophical splits, with newly empowered “moderates” seeking to limit the influence of the “MAGA-wing,” which they believe led the party to defeat in crucial races. In the Senate, where a sitting president did not lose a single Senatorial seat for the first time since 1934, a teetering Democratic majority feels like a landslide. What can employers expect?

The House: infighting and oversight
Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-California) quest to become Speaker of the House will reveal just how many concessions he’s willing to make to the right-wing Freedom Caucus. He must be careful not to concede too much authority to those whose political positions are believed by many to be the cause of the Republicans’ poor showing in November. The moderates are more numerous and convinced that the electorate doesn’t want two years of reexamining the 2020 election with multiple distracting hearings about Hunter Biden—although a steady diet of both seems all but inevitable. With a Democratic Senate and president, however, the various conservative legislative grenades—repeal of funding for the IRS, suspension of aid to Ukraine—are aimed for exposure on social media and cable news, not the House floor.