The Latest on the Government Shutdown

Both chambers are picking up on the work they left off before last week’s recess, with the Senate working through the remaining confirmations for President Trump’s Cabinet and the House targeting executive branch regulations. Wilbur Ross’ confirmation as Secretary of Commerce starts action in the Senate, and given that a cloture vote for his nomination […]

The Week in Review Lawmakers enjoyed a week away from Washington in honor of the President’s Day holiday. Many Republicans, including Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Dave Brat (R-VA) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), encountered raucous crowds at town hall events as constituents voiced their opposition to the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and […]

Looking Ahead Near Term Both the House and the Senate are in Recess this week. Further Out Chairman Hensarling is expected to release the latest iteration of his Dodd-Frank replacement bill, known as the Choice Act, perhaps as soon as the week Members return.   According to some accounts, he has left version 2.0 behind and […]

The Week in Review The Senate worked to continue filling President Trump’s Cabinet last week, with successful confirmations including David Shulkin for Veterans’ Affairs Secretary, Linda McMahon for Small Business Administrator, Mick Mulvaney for Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Scott Pruitt for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Both Mulvaney and […]

Our Take Earlier this week, in a very excellent piece that ran in Axios (totally worth adding to the morning subscription list if you haven’t already), Jim VandeHei laid out a very rationalized reason why he thinks the current state of American politics will only get worse.  While he may be correct, it seems the […]

The week will bring a sense of déjà vu to Washington as the House lines up another series of resolutions taking aim at Obama-era agency regulations and the Senate plods through the confirmation process for more of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees. Under the powers of the Congressional Review Act, the House plans votes to walk […]

The Week in Review The Senate spent most of the last week working to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominees to top administration posts, spending a total of 90 hours of debate to confirm three key cabinet officials: Betsy DeVos as secretary of Education, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) as attorney general, and Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) […]

Looking Ahead Near Term A relatively tame week could be on tap as the Senate continues to slog through the nominations process, while the House continues to push through a series of Congressional Review Act resolutions.   The House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to meet to approve the Committees’ oversight plan for the coming year.   […]

Democrats are using every tool at their disposal to prevent the one Cabinet nominee who has attracted some Republican opposition – Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos – from being confirmed on the Senate floor. The minority party kept the upper chamber in session throughout the night in an attempt to convince one additional Republican to […]

The Week in Review Congress continued to take aim at Obama-era regulations last week, with both chambers passing disapprovals of a Securities and Exchange Commission rule requiring companies to publish the payments they make to foreign governments as a part of their attempts to extract natural resources (H.J. Res. 41), an environmental regulation that aims […]

Looking Ahead Near Term The House starts up the Congressional Review Act process by teeing up votes on a handful of regulations, including on Dodd-Frank era SEC rule requiring disclosure of payments made for mineral extraction.  In the Senate, lawmakers will continue to work through President Trump’s Cabinet nominees, with floor votes scheduled for Secretary […]

Despite efforts from Democrats to slow down the process, the Senate is moving forward on confirming President Trump’s Cabinet nominees, starting with a final vote on Betsy DeVos’ nomination to be Education Secretary scheduled for Monday. The upper chamber successfully invoked cloture on DeVos’ confirmation this morning on a 52-48 party-line vote. However, Republican Sens. […]