With just days left to go until Congress’ August’s recess, members of the House and Senate have a busy legislative slate standing between them and a return home from Washington — especially with November’s midterm elections looming and control of both chambers up for grabs.

For Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., time is of the essence in order to pass key legislation — and make the case to voters to keep their party in power in November, let alone expand their razor-thin margins in both chambers.

“It is incredibly important for [voters] to see that Democrats understand that the work is not done, and that they are continuing to push and push for more,” Laura Rodriguez, vice president of government affairs at the Center for American Progress, told Spectrum News.

With only a handful of votes to spare in the House and no room for error in the 50-50 Senate, for the Democratic majority, party leadership must be careful about how they prioritize their legislative agenda, which includes a $280 billion bill to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing, a measure codifying same-sex marriage, admitting Sweden and Finland to NATO, a bill to aid veterans exposed to toxic burn pits and a party-line bill on prescription drug pricing and extending Obamacare subsidies. 

The House is also set to take up a number of public safety bills, including a ban on assault weapons and a bipartisan till to increase pay for police officers.

On Monday, two key moderate lawmakers — Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska — announced that they had tested positive for COVID-19, sidelining them from any Senate votes this week. Manchin and Murkowski’s announcements make them the fourth Senate lawmakers to announce positive COVID-19 tests in the last week — and unlike the House, the Senate does not allow for proxy voting, making the presence of every lawmaker crucial in the evenly divided chamber.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont is likewise recovering from hip surgery, though his office told Politico that he could be available to vote in person if needed. 

Here’s some of the major priorities lawmakers are hoping to pass ahead of the August recess:

The Senate on Tuesday held a cloture vote on a $280 billion bill aimed at boosting domestic semiconductor production. The vote, which was initially set for Monday, passed with more than enough support to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold, setting it up for final passage later this week. The final count was 64-32.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle support the measure, saying that it’s crucial to ease supply chain disruptions, bolster national security and increase competitiveness with China.

President Biden on Monday convened a virtual meeting with CEOs and labor leaders to discuss the importance of passing the CHIPS Act, calling it crucial for both national and economic security.

"One-third of the core inflation last year in 2021 — one-third of it — was due to the high price of automobiles," Biden said Monday. "You know why that's driven? That's driven by an inability to manufacture more automobiles. Why? The shortage of semiconductors." 

The measure includes $52 billion in subsidies for the microchip industry, including $39 billion in financial aid to “build, expand, or modernize domestic facilities and equipment for semiconductor fabrication, assembly, testing, advanced packaging or research and development.” Of that figure, $6 billion can be used for loan guarantees or direct loans.

An additional $11 billion will be devoted to the Commerce Department for advanced research and development programs, $2 billion will go to the Pentagon for workforce applications and national defense programs, $500 million will be utilized by the State Department to “support international information and communications technology security and semiconductor supply chain activities,” and $200 million will be used for a domestic workforce and education fund. 

The measure also includes certain “safeguards,” including language which says that federal funds cannot be used for stock buybacks, nor can they be used to “build advanced semiconductor production facilities in countries that present a national security concern,” including China.

The House and Senate each passed separate versions of the bill in the last year, and have been negotiating toward compromise legislation, but a number of Biden administration officials urged lawmakers to come together quickly on an expedited, scaled-down version of the measure.

The measure carries a number of sponsors among both parties, including one unlikely ally: Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who urged lawmakers to pass the bill last week in a Twitter post.

“I urge Members of Congress to pass the CHIPS Act,” Pompeo write. “The cost of compromise on this bill pales in comparison to the costs we will suffer if we allow the Chinese Communist Party to one day own and control access to our most critical technologies.”

The bill cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate last week in a 64-34 vote, and appears likely to clear both chambers with solid bipartisan support.

However, one key progressive lawmaker has railed against the bill: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has described it as a "blank check" for the microchip industry.

In response to the CEO of Intel threatening to relocate a planned semiconductor manufacturing facility from Ohio elsewhere, Sanders said he thinks such an ultimatum amounts to "extortion."

“To me, what he is saying is, ‘Oh, our industry loves America. Our industry knows how important this is for national defense, how important it is for the healthcare industry, these sophisticated chips," Sanders said. "But despite our great love for the country, and the military, if you don’t give us the [$]76 billion, we’re out of here.’"

"Sounds to me like extortion," he continued. "If I say to you, ‘don’t give me this, you’re in trouble.’ I think the word extortion is not inappropriate.”

The House of Representatives last week voted to pass a bill protecting the right to same-sex marriage nationwide, a rebuke to the Supreme Court amid concerns that the justices may revisit certain landmark rulings after overturning Roe v. Wade.

In a concurring opinion to last month's ruling, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the high court “should consider” a number of other key rulings, including Obergefell v. Hodges, which guaranteed the right for same-sex couples to marry, and Griswold v. Connecticut, which protects the right of marital privacy against state restrictions on contraception.

"In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote at the time. “Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous’ … we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”

The House passed a flurry of legislation in response to the ruling and Thomas' concurring opinion, including the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify marriage equality rights into law and repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that defined marriage as between one man and one woman and allowed states to refuse same-sex marriages performed legally in other states.

The bill was sponsored by Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who was the first openly LGBT woman elected to both the House (in 1999) and the Senate (in 2013).

The measure passed in a 267-157 vote, with 47 Republicans joining all present Democrats to pass the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said last week that he was “impressed” by the bipartisan support the measure received in the House, and said that they were working to secure enough Republican votes to overcome the 60-vote legislative filibuster threshold.

Democrats have roughly half of the 10 votes they need to get to 60 votes: The bill was sponsored by Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he “probably will” support the bill, and Sen. Ron Johnson, the other member of Wisconsin’s Senate delegation, said in a recent statement he sees “no reason to oppose” the bill. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is also widely seen as a likely yes. 

Several other Republicans have been largely noncommittal, saying they’d like to review the bill or would wait until it’s brought to the floor, while others have vehemently opposed the bill, with some calling it a distraction by Democrats or a so-called “messaging bill,” believing the issue was settled by the high court’s decision in Obergefell.

One Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, went as far as to call the measure a “stupid waste of time.”

After sinking President Biden’s $2.2 trillion social and climate spending plan at the end of last year, Sen. Joe Manchin returned to the negotiating table to try and hash out an agreement with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on a spending bill that could be passed using the reconciliation process, which would require approval from a simple majority.

Manchin announced earlier this month he would not support a package that includes spending on countering climate change or tax increases on wealthy individuals and corporations, citing inflationary concerns. 

A slimmed-down bill is expected to focus on lowering prescription drug prices by allowing Medicare to negotiate on pricing and extending Affordable Care Act subsidies.

According to Punchbowl News, Democratic and Republican aides met with the Senate parliamentarian last week to hash out whether the bill meets the highly specific requirements of the chamber's reconciliation rules. Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough could issue a ruling in the coming days, allowing for the reconciliation process to begin.

Spectrum News' Ryan Chatelain contributed to this report.