Congress stares down slew of deadlines with return to Washington
CBSN
Washington — The holiday season has arrived, and Congress has gifted itself a lengthy legislative to-do list that includes must-pass bills to keep federal agencies operating and avert a fiscal crisis, as well as President Biden's sprawling social spending and climate change package that has been a source of squabbling among Democrats.
The House and Senate returned to Washington early this week after a Thanksgiving recess, and lawmakers are now turning their attention to navigating a slew of self-imposed deadlines, the most immediate of which is the expiration Friday of a measure that funds the federal government.
But on the heels of the December 3 cutoff to skirt a partial government shutdown comes the need for Congress to extend or suspend the debt limit, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said must be addressed by December 15 to avoid a default for the first time in U.S. history.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.