Earlier today, the House passed the Senate’s amendment to the House-passed FY25 Budget Resolution, thus arming the two chamber’s dueling reconciliation instructions. With reconciliation now in effect, the two bodies can begin the process of fulfilling their respective instructions with legislative language from the committees that were instructed (view the House Budget Committee’s reconciliation process […]

Late this afternoon the Senate GOP released its new proposed budget resolution, which leaders expect to begin voting on and debating tomorrow. This afternoon, President Trump affirmed his support for the Senate plan, which is a significant departure from its original “skinny” budget resolution. The Senate GOP one-pager can be found here for your reference, […]

This week will be among the most consequential to date for the Trump 2.0 Administration and the Republican-controlled 119th Congress. On Tuesday, the Commerce Department, Treasury, and USTR will release trade reports as mandated under the America First Trade Policy memo, setting the stage for the imposition of broad-based reciprocal tariffs on April 2 (aka “Liberation Day”). […]

Today, House Republicans released the text of a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2025). While the CR is mostly “clean” (i.e., largely funds current programs at existing FY24 levels), it does contain a number of anomalies (outlined below), some of which fund Democratic priorities. […]

After some high drama, House Republicans managed to pass their version of the FY25 budget resolution tonight by a vote of 217-215. Only Representative Thomas Massie voted no, while all House Democrats opposed the measure. The vote was a victory for House Leadership, including Speaker Mike Johnson, Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, and Budget Chair Jodey […]

This week marked yet another busy trade week for the Administration, with the successful confirmation and swearing-in of Howard Lutnick as Secretary of Commerce (Jamieson Greer will be confirmed as USTR this coming week), the President moving to defend U.S. companies and innovators from overseas policies it deems discriminatory and exploitive (e.g., DSTs, fines, practices, […]

With the House out this week on recess, the Senate will continue confirming President Trump’s nominees and will likely advance its FY2025 budget resolution after enduring dozens of amendment votes on the floor in “vote-a-rama.” Meanwhile, President Trump will sign additional Executive Orders today at 1:00 PM EST from Mar-a-Lago. This memo provides an update […]

Tomorrow at 10:00 AM, the House Budget Committee is scheduled to markup Speaker Mike Johnson and Chairman Jodey Arrington’s proposed budget resolution. The relevant portion begins with Title II on page 34, whereby the resolution provides reconciliation instructions to eleven different House committees. Taken together, these instructions set the parameters for the “one, big beautiful […]

While House Republicans continue their internal discussions in an effort to unify on a one-bill reconciliation strategy, Senate Republicans are in parallel working on the first of what would be a two-budget reconciliation approach. Senator Graham just released a draft skinny budget resolution to be marked up Wednesday of next week.  In contrast to the House GOP, […]

While the flurry of activity in Washington has been primarily confined to the Executive Branch and the President’s executive orders, cabinet nominees, and the DOGE, Congress continues to spin its wheels on a path forward with reconciliation, with both House and Senate Republicans making their respective cases to the President directly today and over the […]