BCRA unlikely to survive the Parliamentarian? Hold your horses.

The Olympics ended in August, but Congress has returned to Washington for a three week sprint (I’m sorry. I had to make that joke.). Congress is engaging in its annual tradition of generally not having a plan for the government funding deadline that they’ve known about all year – except this time, there is sort […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. We are so (almost) back. The House and Senate return to session on September 9th for that time honored tradition of fighting over government funding, which expires on September 30. At the time of this writing, it appears that Speaker Mike Johnson will align himself with conservatives in putting forward […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. August is the sleepiest month in Washington, but don’t let the slow pace fool you. The fall funding fights are already taking shape. Last week, the House Freedom Caucus issued an official position in favor of passing a short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) to extend existing government funding levels into early […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. Congress is still out of session, but the courts are action packed. Here are three recent developments. Judge Finds Google Has A Monopoly On Search On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta found that Google has a monopoly on search and text advertising, capping off a win for the […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. Both chambers are officially out of session for their August recess. They return on September 9th.  We often discuss the chaos and disorder of our southern border – but what about our legal immigration programs? Turns out they’re not doing much better. That’s according to an internal U.S. Citizenship and […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. It’s still July for a few more days, but in the House, it’s already August. The chamber broke for their month-long recess last week, days earlier than anticipated. House Republicans had hoped to have all 12 appropriations bills passed by August recess, but that plan has stalled with only five […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. Steve Bannon is fond of saying “There are decades when nothing happens, and weeks where decades happen.” In the last three weeks, we’ve witnessed the true state of President Biden’s cognitive state at the presidential debate, an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Senator JD Vance being named Trump’s […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill.  What happened on the evening of July 13, 2024 has instantly become a generational marker – you’ll remember where you were and what you were doing as an assassin’s bullet came within a whisper of shattering the skull of Donald J. Trump.  The former president’s slight turn of his head, […]

Good afternoon. The House and Senate are back this week after an eventful Independence Day recess week. The House will take up the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill, and a bill titled the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act). In the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will hold another show vote on an abortion related […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. On Monday, the Supreme Court delivered its ruling in Trump v United States, regarding presidential immunity.  By a vote of 6 to 3, the Court, in an opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, held that former presidents can never be prosecuted for actions relating to the core powers of their office. […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill.  The Senate is in recess until July 8. The House is here this week, working through appropriations bills in the middle of a D.C. heat wave. The stated aim of House GOP leaders is to have all 12 appropriations bills out of the Appropriations Committee by mid-July, with consideration by […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. The House is out this week and the Senate is in for a short week (in other words, their normal work week).  Before leaving town last week, the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act which contained several key amendments to address the White House’s continued politicization of the military. […]

The House and Senate are back this week. The House begins the process of working through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA is the annual defense authorization bill that sets policies and spending levels for a whole host of things such as personnel, equipment, guns, bullets, tanks, planes, and ships. Over the years, […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill.  The House and Senate return this week to a state of American politics that looks very different than when they departed Washington a week ago. When they left, the foundations of the American system – blind and fair justice, a respect for legal tradition and accommodation, and the ability to […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. Both chambers are out of session but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on! Here are a few things to watch for in the coming weeks. Appropriations On The Move Congressional appropriations committees are already hard at work preparing spending bills for fiscal year 2025, which begins in September. However, […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. The House and Senate are both in session this week, hurtling toward next week’s highly coveted Memorial Day recess. Both sides will take on the crisis at the southern border this week – though from different angles. In the House, the chamber will vote on legislation to bar illegal aliens […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. Happy belated Mother’s Day!  The House and Senate are both in session this week, with Speaker Mike Johnson coming off a fresh motion to vacate vote. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called the vote on Wednesday of last week. As promised, House Democrats made a motion to table (or, kill) the […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. The House and Senate are in session this week. The Senate is still struggling through its reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration, while the House waits to see if Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will make good on her promise to call a vote on the motion to vacate the House […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. The House and Senate are back in session after a brief recess.  Last week, the Senate followed the House and passed their $95 billion Taiwan-Israel-Ukraine-TikTok supplemental spending bill. Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer blocked all amendments with the tacit acquiescence of Mitch McConnell and a majority of the GOP conference. […]

Good afternoon from Washington. What a long, strange trip it’s been. In the week since we last met: Why does all of this matter? Let’s begin with the House Rules Committee. Formed in 1789, the Rules Committee is the oldest standing committee in the House. It has a unique and specific function to the institution: […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. This past weekend’s Iranian attack on Israel has reignited the debate in Congress over foreign aid. Of course, nothing is as simple as passing stand-alone aid to Israel – and last time the Senate and House tried, the White House called it “a ploy,” and yesterday confirmed they “will not […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. Both the House and Senate return to DC this week after a two week recess – accompanied by a full solar eclipse on Monday. A portent? No one knows. But if you feel like we’re all hurtling directly into the sun, you’re not alone. On deck this week: the impeachment […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. The House and Senate are still in recess, but it’s not all fun and games. House Speaker Mike Johnson is signaling his intentions to move a Kyiv-sized problem to the House floor next week. In a recent Fox News interview, Johnson laid out a potential path for the House to […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. On Friday, the House and Senate left town for a two week recess – but not without a little (okay, a lot) of drama. Both chambers muscled through a $1.2 trillion “minibus” appropriations bill to fund the rest of Fiscal Year 2024, which ends at the end of September. House […]