There is a list of issues waiting for members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. With the 2012 General Election now in the history books, they’ll begin a lame duck session on Capitol Hill next week.
“We have several important decisions we have to make before the end of the year or we will face another fiscal cliff,” Third District Congressman Nick Rahall, who was reelected this week, said on Wednesday’s MetroNews Talkline.
Without action, tax cuts made under President George W. Bush will expire on January first while, at the same time, automatic federal spending reductions, called sequester, take effect.
Temporary steps could be taken in the coming weeks to address the fiscal issues at least until the new Congress begins its work in January.
Because of the current leadership in the U.S. House, Congressman Rahall says there may first have to be some movement toward some kind of consensus agreement on taxes and spending from the U.S. Senate.
“I believe, if the Senate acts in a cooperative and compromising fashion to avoid this fiscal cliff, then the pressure will be doubled, tripled, quadrupled on the House of Representatives to follow suit,” he said.
Congressman Rahall will start his 19th term in the U.S. House in the New Year. He was first elected in 1976.
In West Virginia’s First Congressional District, Congressman David McKinley won his second term in Tuesday’s General Election.
The next term will be the seventh for Second District Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito.
“The message I heard universally in West Virginia is, ‘We’re sending you there to get things done and solve these problems and not create more,'” she said on MetroNews Talkline, the day after Election Day.
“And that’s a mandate, I think, for all of us and I’m hopeful that we can do that.”
President Barack Obama called for cooperation during his victory speech, early Wednesday morning, in Chicago.
“I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together,” President Obama said.
Former Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney made similar statements about the need for true bipartisanship during his concession speech in Boston.