End-of-2026 Health Policy Landscape: What Congress Could Address Before Year-End

The House returns to action this morning as the chamber seeks to clear two major legislative priorities. Lawmakers are expected to approve the conference report (H.R. 5895) for the minibus spending package for military construction and veterans’ affairs, legislative branch, and energy and water. The House will also vote on a measure (S. 3021) under […]

Congress returns for a truncated legislative work week as lawmakers look to clear crucial agenda items prior to next week’s recess. In significant appropriations news, both chambers are positioned to take up the first conference report on a package of three fiscal 2019 spending bills, which fund agencies including the departments of Energy and Veterans […]

The Week in Review Congress convened last week and began the process of reconciling their respective FY 2019 appropriations bills. The House passed motions to go conference with the Senate on a federal spending package for the Defense, Labor, HHS & Education Departments, as well as an appropriations package (H.R. 6147) that includes spending allocations […]

Our Take The last week of August saw perhaps the best example of the current cognitive dissonance of American politics.  This refers to the twin events of Senator McCain’s funeral and the Florida Gubernatorial primary.  The primary, which took place on August 28th, resulted in the election of two politicians that come from each parties’ respective […]

The Week in Review The Senate finished up work for the week — and the month — after reaching a deal to break the presidential nominee logjam. Under an agreement announced on the Senate floor by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), seven judicial nominations were confirmed Tuesday, including Lynn Johnson to be Assistant Secretary for […]

The Week in Review The Senate returned to Washington last week and completed its work on the Defense-Labor-HHS-Education appropriations minibus (H.R. 6157). Prior to final passage, the upper chamber approved a large bipartisan amendment package (#3695) following a brief hiccup in the process over an amendment offered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) that would have […]

The Week in Review The Senate returned from a truncated August recess last Wednesday and continued work on its presidential nominations queue and the appropriations process. Following the completion of its scheduled nominations work — confirming Marvin Quattlebaum, Jr. and Julius Ness Richardson to be judges on the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court — the Senate officially […]

The Week in Review Voters in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District went to the polls in the last special election prior to November’s midterm elections, as Republican Troy Balderson squared off against Democrat Danny O'Connor for a House seat that the GOP has held for 35 years. As of today, Balderson still holds a 1,500-vote lead, […]

  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 […]