we re hearing from senate democrats when they come back from this recess that they are on this week is looking at immediately turning to the priority of funding the government, government funding runs out february 18th. they re looking at whether it s possible to reach a deal with republicans on a larger spending bill. right now the federal government is operating at funding levels that were established under the trump administration, so democrats obviously want to change that. it s not clear, however, if some republicans will go along with that, since a lot of them want to preserve the trump funding levels, as well as some of the spending riders that were established the last time a spending package went through congress. so that s one area of immediate business that the senate needs to address. other areas that senate democrats have talked about as they tried to figure out what s achievable on build back better is russian sanctions as well as trying to get legislation that addresses