Where Things Stand on Government Funding

With highway funding and reconciliation settled, Congress is geared to begin a busy legislative week. Lawmakers will only have five days to complete an omnibus package funding the government beyond current funding’s expiration on December 11. The text of a $1.1 trillion omnibus bill may be posted today, which would allow the House to take […]

Our Take As we start the first day of Hanukah and are well into the Christmas season, it is worth noting that we are also seeing the height of the annual kabuki ritual that is the congressional appropriations negotiation process.  For the uninitiated it goes something like this.  The majority party make their first budget […]

The Week in Review Two major legislative packages that were negotiated for months made their way through the Senate last week, one being the conference report to the bipartisan highway funding bill (H.R. 22) and the other being the highly partisan budget reconciliation measure (H.R. 3762) that would defund Planned Parenthood and dismantle the Affordable […]

Congress will begin on a bipartisan note this morning as the House is set to vote on the broadly backed conference report to reauthorize elementary and secondary education programs. The report to H.R. 5 would replace the George W. Bush-era No Child Left Behind law and give significantly more power to the states in setting […]

The Week in Review  The House and Senate were on recess last week in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Both chambers are scheduled to return to Washington tomorrow. 

Our Take Last week a bipartisan bill, H.R. 1737, which had been reported out of the Financial Services Committee with a majority of Democrats in support, passed the House by a vote of 332-96. (more on this bill below)   By all accounts, this bill should be hailed as an example of how Congress should […]

The Week in Review After the shocking terrorist attacks in Paris, political discourse in Washington centered on crafting an appropriate response and whether any policy changes should be made regarding the Syrian refugees already set to come to the United States. Many Republicans, joined by some Democrats, expressed fear that members of the Islamic State […]

With the current stop-gap authorization for highway funding expiring on Friday, it is now crunch time for the surface transportation bill. House-Senate conferees will work against a Friday deadline to try to quickly iron out differences on H.R. 22 and enact the first multi-year highway authorization law since 2012. However, it is likely that they […]

The Week in Review  While the House enjoyed a week-long recess, the Senate was in session for Monday and Tuesday before heading home early after passing a pair of defense bills and naming highway bill conferees. On Tuesday, the Senate overwhelmingly approved (91-3) a revised defense authorization bill (S. 1356), clearing it for President Barack […]

Looking Ahead Near Term The Senate is in for an abbreviated session and will take up the revised NDAA as well as the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs spending bill.  The House in Recess, returning for votes on the 17th Further Out House calendar for next year released. Senate calendar for next year released. Funding for the […]

The Week in Review  Speaker Paul Ryan’s first full week on the job was a successful one as the House successfully advanced a highway funding measure (H.R. 22) that would renew highway and surface transportation programs for six years – paying for three years and leaving Congress to find funding for the second three years […]

​Looking Ahead Near Term On Tuesday the Financial Services Committee Meets to mark-up the following bills H.R. 1309, the “Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2015” H.R. 1478, the “Policyholder Protection Act of 2015” An Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute expected to be offered by Mr. Posey is being distributed with this notice.  Members wishing […]