The Latest on the Government Shutdown

  Looking Ahead Near Term The House and Senate are out this week. Further Out The Senate Banking Committee is expected to vote on a series of nominations in August.   The vote had been scheduled for last Thursday but was scrapped when the Senate finished up its floor schedule earlier than anticipated triggering an earlier […]

The Week in Review While House lawmakers returned to their districts for August recess, the Senate reconvened for another week of legislative work prior to leaving for a two-week break. The upper chamber cleared a host of priorities including: (1) a four-bill appropriations minibus (H.R. 6147) containing the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Interior, and […]

  Looking Ahead Near Term The House is in Recess until September. The Senate is in session this week and is expected to finish up its work on its mini-bus of the T-HUD, Ag, Interior and FSGG spending bills.  After that, the Senate could vote on any of the following: A short-term funding reauthorization for […]

The Week in Review The White House rode a wave of positive economic news last week as President Trump touted his tax and regulatory policies as drivers of the best economic growth in nearly four years. The U.S. economy expanded at a 4.1 percent rate in the April-to-June quarter, the highest level since growth hit […]

Looking Ahead Near Term The Senate is expected to take up its version of a minibus spending bill comprised of the financial services, interior, transportation and agriculture spending measures this week. The Senate Banking Committee will hold anominations hearing on Thursday to consider multiple vacancies, including SEC Commissioner, Head of Ginnie Mae, and the Director […]

The Week in Review Buzz in Washington focused last week focused on President Trump’s performance in a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a bilateral summit in Helsinki, Finland. Political commentators and a number of politicians on both sides of the aisle criticized President Trump for appearing too conciliatory to his Russian counterpart, […]

Looking Ahead Near Term The House will take up two bills of importance to the financial services industry. First, they continue to move forward with another minibus spending bill. This one comprised of the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) measure. Second, on Tuesday, the full House, under the suspension calendar (i.e., non-controversial) will take […]

The Week in Review The domestic news highlight of the week was President Trump’s primetime announcement of D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh as the nominee to replace Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh, who will likely start his lifetime term at age 53, comes with the sterling credentials expected of Supreme Court nominees having […]

The Week in Review Both chambers were in recess this week in celebration of Independence Day. For the White House, the main action came on Thursday, as tariffs went into effect against $34 billion worth of Chinese imports. Despite world markets’ concerns over the looming trade war, President Trump has continued to insist that the […]

Our Take Wednesday marks the 242nd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.   As anyone who has seen or heard “Hamilton” knows, people most frequently quote the document’s most famous lines, about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  But those are the start of the Declarations’ second paragraph.   As any good history […]

The Week in Review The week’s biggest headline came out of the Supreme Court on Wednesday when Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy announced he will retire on July 31 after three decades on the nation’s highest court. The 81-year-old has been the Court’s most important figure in recent years, acting as the critical swing vote in […]

The Week in Review Last week, a planned focus on immigration bills in the House of Representatives escalated when the Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance” policy was exposed for its forced separation of thousands of immigrant families seeking asylum and the resulting bipartisan backlash. On Wednesday, President Trump signed an executive order that will keep families […]