3 reasons why the electoral vote count was a breeze
Mother Nature was one of them.
First Things First
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome back to Once Upon a Hill. It’s Jan. 6th, four years removed from the insurrection President-elect Donald Trump incited on the US Capitol in an attempt to steal the 2020 election. Five people died and many more were injured—including 174 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack would later die by suicide. The damage was nearly $3 million.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and the House chaplain held a moment of prayer this afternoon near the door where rioters first broke into the Capitol to commemorate the insurrection and remember the people who lost their lives during the attack.
Thankfully, enough lawmakers stayed in town as an overnight snowstorm that shut down local public schools and federal agencies so they could assemble at the US Capitol to certify the 2024 election with far less drama than 2020.
In tonight’s issue, news and notes on details on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)’s new leadership position in the caucus, former President Jimmy Carter’s lying-in-state at the Capitol this week and the bill President Joe Biden signed to expand Social Security benefits for more than two million Americans.
But let’s start with three reasons why this year’s counting of the electoral votes, which clocked in at 30 minutes, was a relative breeze.
The Evening Report
The first reason is obvious: Trump won so there’s no reason for him and his supporters to attempt another coup. Plus, Democrats did not formally contest the results of the election like Republicans did four years ago.
Second, 20-degree weather and several inches of snow aren’t the ideal conditions to storm the Capitol.
Third, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas designated the presidential certification as a special national security event last fall at the request of District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser. The designation allowed the Secret Service to pool significant resources from the federal government and state and local partners into the comprehensive security plan the agency developed to secure the event and keep members safe. This was the first time the certification of electoral votes occurred under this designation and came at the recommendation of the House Select January 6 Committee and the Government Accountability Office. (A downside to the heightened security: Kids didn’t get to spend their snow day sledding on Capitol Hill, an activity Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-District of Columbia) makes possible each winter.
The upcoming presidential inauguration on Jan. 20 was previously designated as a national security event.
Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the proceedings, in what I’m sure was an awkward situation former Vice President Al Gore can relate to as the federal official responsible for overseeing the certification of an election they lost as their party’s presidential nominee this century.
The Republican side of the House chamber erupted into a boisterous standing ovation when Harris announced Trump’s 312 electoral votes. Democrats did the same for Harris when she announced the 226 she secured. A bipartisan standing ovation broke out after Harris dissolved the joint session, officially completing the certification.
Harris then was escorted out of the chamber to Jeffries’ leadership suite where she met with the top House Democrat behind closed doors.
“Today was obviously a very important day, and it was about what should be the norm and what the American people should be able to take for granted, which is that one of the most important pillars of our democracy is that there will be a peaceful transfer of power,” she told reporters.
Ahead of the count, Harris released a video from her official White House account on X on her responsibility to ensure a peaceful transfer of power.
“This duty is a sacred obligation, one I will uphold guided by love of country, loyalty to our Constitution and my unwavering faith in the American people,” she said. “As we have seen, our democracy can be fragile and it is up to then each one of us to stand up for our most cherished principles and to make sure that in America, our government always remains of the people, by the people and for the people.”
The vice president’s role in the event had always been ceremonial. However following the insurrection, Congress revised the Electoral Count Act in 2022 to add to the procedures outlined in the Constitution for the counting of electoral votes following a presidential election. The reforms in the updated law are designed to prevent a repeat of violence and alleged crimes that followed former President Trump’s refusal to concede and allow for the peaceful transfer of power, which included a pressure campaign for former Vice President Mike Pence to block the formal certification of election results.
The act now allows for some preparation to take over the administration of the federal government from the incumbent president even when an election result is unclear. It also clarified the vice president’s role in the certification of electoral votes.
It also guarantees expedited review of actions brought by an aggrieved candidate for president or vice president in the US District Court of the federal judicial district where the state capital is located. The Supreme Court can consider an appeal from the court’s judgment on an expedited basis and the court’s final order on remand must occur on the day before the electors’ meeting at the latest.
In the Know
Gillibrand tapped as Senate Dems’ campaign chief
Leader Schumer announced this morning that he appointed Sen. Gillibrand to serve as chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) for the 2026 cycle.
In this role, the four-term senator who was appointed to succeed then-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) when she was confirmed as Barack Obama’s Secretary of State in 2009, will be responsible for building out a campaign infrastructure, recruiting candidates, contrasting Democrats’ legislative record against Republicans and mobilizing voters to turn out.
Gillibrand will have her work cut out as Senate Democrats look to recover from the four seats they lost in the 2024 election. While the ‘26 map is less daunting than ‘24 when Democrats were mostly on defense, Republicans are tasked with protecting 20 of the 33 seats up for grabs. Most are in safe red states leaving Democrats with few pick-up opportunities in Maine (Susan Collins) and North Carolina (Thom Tillis). Texas seat currently held by Sen. John Cornyn (R) is seen as a longshot. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) is viewed as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat.
But Gillibrand is coming off her own successful reelection campaign where she outran Vice President Harris and also helped lead New York’s coordinated campaign that flipped four seats last year after a disappointing 2022 midterm cycle.
In addition to the DSCC role, Gillibrand also serves on the Senate Appropriations, Armed Services and Intelligence Committees and is the top Democrat on the Senate Aging Committee.
She inherits the chairship from Sen. Gary Peters, who led the DSCC for the 2022 and 2024 cycles and is up for reelection in 2026. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) was appointed by Leader Jeffries to serve a second term as chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) as House Democrats look to flip the chamber in two years.
Carter to lie in state at the Capitol this week
The remains of former President Jimmy Carter will arrive in Washington on Tuesday afternoon before they’re transferred to the Capitol from a hearse to a horse-drawn caisson for a procession. Military body bearers will carry the casket into the Rotunda.
Members of Congress will pay their respects during a service in the Rotunda before Carter lies in state while the military maintains a guard of honor from 7 p.m. to midnight. The public is invited to pay their respects throughout these hours.
The former president’s remains will lie in state all day Wednesday until Thursday morning when they are returned to his hometown of Plains, Ga. for a private funeral service.
The late president has laid in repose since Saturday night through tonight for public visitation. Carter’s state funeral was on Saturday morning.
Carter entered politics in the 1960s, serving in the Georgia Senate and later as the state’s governor from 1971 to 1975. He announced his presidential run in 1974 and won the 1976 election. As the 39th president, he brokered the Camp David Accords, improved US-China relations and championed human rights. Domestically, he focused on energy policy, deregulation and environmental protection, including expanding national parks and wilderness areas.
Carter was born in Plains and grew up in nearby Archery. After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1946, he served as a submariner and worked in the nuclear submarine program. In 1953, he left the Navy to run his family’s farm and business in Georgia.
Carter was 100 years old when he passed away late last month. President Biden directed the US flag be displayed at half-staff at the White House and all federal public buildings for 30 days from the day of his death. Biden also appointed Jan. 9 as a National Day of Mourning.
Biden unlocks millions in additional Social Security benefits
Nearly two dozen bipartisan members from both chambers joined President Biden at the White House on Sunday afternoon where he signed into law the Social Security Fairness Act, which will expand benefits by hundreds of dollars per month for more than 2.5 million Americans.
The bill does away with two requirements that have long frustrated retirees. First, it gets rid of the government pension offset, which cuts Social Security benefits for spouses, widows, and widowers who also get government pensions. It also repeals the windfall elimination provision, which reduces benefits for people who receive a pension or disability payments from jobs that didn’t pay into Social Security. These changes kick in for benefits paid after December 2023. In the Senate, Susan Collins and former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) teamed up to sponsor the bill, while former Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) and Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) championed it in the House.
A White House official noted Biden is the first president in more than 20 years to expand Social Security benefits.
What’s remarkable about the legislation is that it reached the floor in the first place. The bill died in committee each Congress dating back to 2001 and House GOP leadership showed no urgency to allow a vote.
Graves and Spanberger filed a discharge petition, a rarely successful legislative mechanism that allows members to bypass committee consideration and leadership, to bring a bill to the floor.
The petition gained the necessary signatures in mid-September to force a vote, which occurred under a fast-track procedure known as suspension of the rules that requires a two-thirds majority for final passage. It passed the House in November in a 327-75-1 vote with all but four House Democrats in support.
The Senate passed on the final day of session last month by a 76-20 tally. All no votes were from Republicans.
Do you have questions about the new Congress or the incoming Trump presidency? Drop me a line at michael@onceuponahill.com or send me a message below to get in touch and I’ll report back with answers.
Today in Congress
The House and Senate met for a joint session of Congress to count the 2024 electoral ballots for President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance. Vice President Harris presided over the proceedings.