The Georgia Senate runoff election this week rounds out the midterms, and Congress is looking at a packed legislative agenda in its lame-duck session to close out 2022.
There are three stories to watch on the political front this week:
Georgians will go to the polls on Tuesday for a runoff election between Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and GOP challenger Herschel Walker.
The early voting turnout shattered records, which had favored Democrats in the past. What is the impact of the broader Midterm results on Georgians wanting to get out to the polls?
A Warnock win would show that Georgia is leaning more Democratic. A Republican victory would be good news for Trump's MAGA movement, which faced lackluster turnout in the broader 2022 midterms.
The lawmakers are moving closer to passing the roughly $847 billion National Defense Authorization Act NDAA as Congress approaches a December 16 deadline to pass a government funding bill.
The Republicans, led by would-be House Speaker Kevin McCarthy R-CA, are pushing to remove military vaccine mandates. Democrats are advocating for more diversity and inclusion initiatives.
There is a potential ornament on the legislative Christmas tree: banking for the cannabis industry. Axios said a bipartisan group of legislators could provide regulatory clarity and a framework for the cannabis industry to access financial services in states where marijuana is legal as part of the NDAA.
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana, but the Department of Justice still lists it as a Schedule 1 drug. The disconnect between federal and state regulations has created regulatory uncertainty for the industry as a whole.
Biden will be in Taiwan Semiconductor's TSM Arizona chip plant next week with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to promote the success of the bipartisan CHIPS Act, which includes $52 billion in funding for semiconductor research and development.
Tech diplomacy talks between the European Union and U.S. trade officials continue this week, and the plant is currently under construction.
EU officials are wary that a portion of the Inflation Reduction Act that provides subsidies for electric vehicles will not be applied to European companies, according to Reuters. Macron told CBS that it was a point that French President Emmanuel Macron raised with President Biden during his trip to Washington last week.
Kevin Cirilli is a visiting media at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub and the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue.