After Election Day, Familiar Faces in New Places on Senate Defense Committees | Defense News | defensenews.com: Votes were still being counted in Alaska and Virginia on Wednesday morning, meaning the Republican majority technically could reach 54. But that’s still well short of the 60 votes required in the chamber to end debate on legislation like annual Pentagon spending and authorization bills and move to a final vote.
Political scholars and analysts say there is a chance congressional Republicans and the Democratic president with whom they so staunchly disagree, Barack Obama, could reach accords quickly on issues like immigration and tax reform, fast-track trade authority and national security issues.
But on other issues — like finally stitching together a fiscal package that would lessen or replace the remaining defense and domestic sequestration cuts — those experts are predicting continued stalemate in Washington.
“After Election Day, getting anything done in America’s increasingly polarized Congress will be very difficult,” said Craig Volden, a politics professor at the University of Virginia.
