2026 Congressional Outlook: A Narrowing Window Before the Midterms

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 […]

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, […]