Senate Breaks for August After Nominations Stalemate

After repeatedly demanding that the Senate remain in session to confirm dozens of Trump appointees, President Donald Trump finally relented late Saturday, posting on social media that Republicans should instead “go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are.” This post followed a series of contentious negotiations between the two parties over […]

Senate leadership is continuing discussions on the pending fiscal year (FY) 2026 appropriations vehicle as Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) aims to pass as many as possible in this first tranche. As of now, the Senate Appropriations Committee has passed six bills out of committee — Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS), Interior-Environment, Legislative Branch, Military Construction-VA (MilCon-VA), […]

The Senate will return for legislative business on Monday as the chamber looks to move its first fiscal year (FY) 2026 spending bills through before the end of the summer work period. Late yesterday, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) “hotlined” a three-bill spending package containing the bills for Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice-Science, and Military Construction-VA […]

House lawmakers met for a marathon day of legislative business yesterday and into the early morning hours today, where they cleared several pending bills. Here’s an overview of what happened and what to watch for next week: Landmark Digital Asset Bills Pass Overwhelmingly. It’s a watershed moment for digital assets in Washington after House lawmakers […]

Key authorizing committees are meeting today to resume markups of their respective portions of the GOP reconciliation bill. After the Armed Services, Education & Workforce, and Homeland Security Committees approved their pieces of reconciliation yesterday, the Financial Services, Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I), Judiciary, and Oversight Committees are on tap for today. Of note, T&I Republicans […]

The House formally adopted [216-214] the updated GOP budget resolution to officially unlock the reconciliation process for President Trump’s legislative agenda on tax, border, energy, and more. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) originally intended to hold a vote on the updated resolution during yesterday’s session, but more than a dozen GOP lawmakers expressed concerns about the […]

The House will gavel in today for a pivotal vote on the House GOP budget resolution as leadership looks to move closer toward crafting and enacting a sweeping reconciliation package on tax, energy, border security, and more. House Republican leadership has been working overtime to shore up support for the budget resolution among lawmakers that […]

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will bring the House GOP’s budget resolution to the floor next week after President Donald Trump endorsed the one-bill approach yesterday. While the House’s resolution passed in committee with the full support of Republicans on the panel, leadership will still need to work overtime to ensure full support on the floor […]

The Senate GOP’s budget resolution is on a glidepath toward adoption in the upper chamber, but President Donald Trump is not fully onboard with the two-bill approach. In a major win for House Republican leadership, the president took to his social media platform earlier today and called on the GOP to “kickstart” the reconciliation process using […]

House leadership officially filed a three-month continuing resolution (CR) that would, among other things, keep the government funded until March 14, 2025. In addition to addressing several expiring programs, the 1,500+ page legislation also includes: Roughly $100 billion in disaster relief aid, including $29 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund; […]

House Republicans have formally elected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) to serve as Speaker of the House, drawing a merciful end to the 22-day ordeal after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted. Speaker Johnson has a tall task ahead of him with getting the House back to business, especially when it comes to several pending […]

The House speaker race is back to square one after Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) withdrew himself from consideration on the floor. Leader Scalise’s decision came as more than a dozen House Republicans came out against his nomination, either in favor of Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH), former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), or someone […]