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The Week in Review   Two high-profile issues dominated discussion in Congress last week, namely a conclusion to the highway funding debate—for now—and the ongoing controversy over the actions of Planned Parenthood. With the highway funding deadline looming, the Senate and House reached a short-term agreement to keep money flowing for highway construction until October […]

Our Take Last week Treasury Secretary Lew sent a letter to Congress letting them know that the Treasury’s extraordinary measures used to stave off default would likely expire around the end of October all but ensuring that we will once again see a conflation of the congressional effort to resolve the debt limit tied into […]

The Week in Review   Last week witnessed a flurry of transportation action, as the Senate worked through the weekend in hopes of advancing their version of highway funding legislation. The Senate’s six-year measure would pay for new highway funding for three years by using a variety of offsets on top of the current federal […]

Looking Ahead Near Term The House Financial Services Committee continues its nostalgic review of Dodd-Frank with a hearing on Tuesday.  Later that afternoon the Committee will mark-up the following bills:

The Week in Review   Competing approaches to resolving the highway funding challenge emerged in Congress last week, with the House and Senate taking different approaches to the issue. The House passed its version (H.R. 3038) in a 312-119 vote, providing $8 billion in funding for the Highway Trust Fund, which would allow it to […]

Our Take Tuesday marks the 5th Anniversary of Dodd-Frank and it seems like little has changed, as Republicans continue to attack the law while Democrats defend it.   With numerous event this week to commemorate the “wood anniversary” of financial reform it seemed appropriate to once again go into the time machine to dig up what […]

The Week in Review   Upon reconvening on Tuesday, both houses of Congress set to work on education bills that aim to provide a major update to the “No Child Left Behind” initiative that was a cornerstone of President George W. Bush’s domestic policy. The House version (H.R. 5) includes language that gives states much […]

This week marks the 5th Anniversary of the passage of Dodd-Frank.  It also means we’ve been writing this newsletter for nearly six years.  With all the nostalgia surrounding the 5th anniversary of the passage of Dodd-Frank we thought it might be fun to take a look back at what was on our mind what we […]

The Week in Review   The House and Senate were out last week for the Independence Day recess.  Both chambers plan to reconvene tomorrow, Tuesday, July 7.

Milton Friedman once famously said that there is nothing so permanent as a temporary government program.  Chairman Hensarling is a believer in Friedman, and while it is too early to say the Bank is dead, the Chairman must be smiling because the charter of the Export-Import Bank expires on Tuesday and Congress is not in […]

The Week in Review   The debate on whether or not to grant President Obama ‘fast-track’ authority in negotiating trade agreements finally reached its conclusion last week with the President and Congressional Republican leadership emerging victorious. After failing to pass the full trade package earlier this month, Republican leaders devised a plan to navigate around […]

The Week in Review   Trade was once again at the forefront of discussion in Congress, as President Obama and Republican lawmakers sought to navigate “fast-track authority” around Democratic opposition in the House and Senate. The trade package seemed to be stalled after Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) was recently voted down in the House, but […]