2026 Congressional Outlook: A Narrowing Window Before the Midterms

Congress will return on Tuesday with less than one week until the next government funding deadline. According to the latest reports out of Capitol Hill, policy disagreements within two of the six remaining bills, Homeland Security and State-Foreign Operations, still have yet to be settled. Of note, Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-ME) […]

House lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill that could ultimately ban the popular social media app TikTok. Specifically, the House passed The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521), which would force the Chinese parent company of TikTok to divest its ownership of the app within 165 days of enactment or face […]

The Biden administration unveiled its annual budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2025 yesterday as policymakers race to play catch-up on the lagging appropriations process. Government funding is expected to eat up significant bandwidth in Washington in the coming weeks and months ahead, especially given the fact that Congress still needs to pass the remaining […]

Congress is officially halfway through its to-do list for fiscal year (FY) 2024 spending bills after President Biden signed a six-bill “minibus” package last week. Appropriators will now turn their attention to the remaining six funding measures — including Defense, Homeland Security, Financial Services and General Government (FSGG), Labor-HHS-Education, State and Foreign Operations, and Legislative […]

President Joe Biden is slated to deliver his State of the Union (SOTU) address where he will outline his re-election campaign platform ahead of his rematch with former President Donald Trump in the 2024 general election. The president is expected to tout progress on key policy items contained within laws passed during his administration — […]

House lawmakers will meet today for consideration of a six-bill spending package ahead of Friday’s government funding deadline. This first “minibus” — which contains the spending measures for Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water Development, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD — is expected to pass under suspension of the rules today with support on both sides of the aisle. […]

The race to replace Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is beginning to take shape ahead of the highly-anticipated November 2024 leadership elections. Notably, Senate GOP Whip John Thune (R-SD) said yesterday that he “hopes” to be elevated to the position of GOP Leader in the fall, joining former Senate GOP Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) […]

Congressional leadership has unveiled legislative text of a six-bill “minibus” spending package for consideration this week as lawmakers look to clear the decks on fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations this month. The spending package contains the funding measures for Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water Development, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD, as funding for this tranche expires Friday at midnight. […]

Yesterday’s meeting between President Biden and the “big four” congressional leaders appears to have yielded a tangible result in the form of another last-minute continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded. Under the emerging plan, six funding bills — Agriculture-FDA, Military Construction-VA, Energy-Water, Transportation-HUD, Interior-Environment, and Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) — would be punted […]

Lawmakers will return this week as leadership scrambles to figure out a path forward for keeping the federal government funded. Here’s an overview of where things stand as we approach the upcoming March deadlines.   What happened? Leadership was originally hoping to unveil text of the first fiscal year (FY) 2024 spending bills over the […]

With one week until the March 1 government funding deadline, multiple reports from Capitol Hill indicate that congressional leadership will announce next steps in the government funding process on Sunday. As of now, expectations are that appropriations leaders will either announce a deal on a pair of “minibus” spending packages that carry all 12 bills […]

Conservative lawmakers on the House Freedom Caucus are continuing their push for policy priorities and spending cuts as the March government funding deadlines approach. In a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), 28 House Republicans — led by Reps. Bob Good (R-VA) and Chip Roy (R-TX) — asked for an update on roughly two-dozen policy riders that […]