115th Congress
Outlook for the FY2018 Appropriations Process
Matt Glassman | January 9, 2018
The FY2018 appropriations process in Congress—which will provide funding for the federal government from October 1, 2017, until September 30, 2018—is once again approaching a deadline. After its failure to enact full year appropriations bills by October 1, Congress has passed a series of continuing resolutions (the first through December 8; a
Dear Friends: Happy New Year! As Washington begins to thaw, Congress returns for the second session of the 115th Congress facing a serious to-do list and a short window before (even more) attention is consumed by the November elections. If you want some great perspective on what’s ahead for the year in Congress, featuring key Laura Blessing | December 21, 2017 The Republican Party has become a victim of its own success. Given their legislative, administrative, and impending electoral challenges, this may sound odd. But on their biggest policy priority, tax policy, they may have been too successful. And those previous successes combined with the tax bill passed this week may just imperil their reputation as Katina Slavkova | December 18, 2017 There is a common adage in national security and foreign policy debates that “partisan politics stop at the water’s edge.” This famous statement was first coined by the influential chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI) who, at the outset of the Cold War, overcame his political Mark Harkins | November 20, 2017 November 16, 2017, will be a day long remembered in the annals of Congressional history. Not because of the Franken picture or the fact that Sen. Menendez’s trial ended in a hung jury or even that Roy Moore had another revival press conference. No, this day will be remembered as the day the budget hawks As we noted in our last newsletter, September was, perhaps, the cruelest month. A bevy of high stakes deadlines (and potential crises) loomed— many, but not all, were met. But the real blow to the party in power was the failure to meet a parliamentarian-decreed deadline to repeal and replace The 2016 election was a near universal shock. President Trump beat (nearly) all prognosticators. House Republicans only lost 6 seats, retaining their 4th largest House majority since 1930. Senate Republicans also beat the odds and held on to a 52 seat majority. Suddenly, the 2016 Election that was supposed to go bad for Republicans turned GAI | August 24, 2017 Senior Fellow Mark Harkins was interviewed by CBS News to weigh in on a recent New York Times report about a widening rift between President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. You can see the CBS News story here . There’s a lot of talk about the broken processes in the House and Senate, particularly around the health care bill. Extraordinary secrecy has been employed to push the AHCA through the House and the BCRA through the Senate. In fact, there’s so much commentary about how “broken” the institution is that people are overlooking what Josh Huder | July 24, 2017 The House and Senate efforts to repeal and replace versions of the Affordable Care Act have relied on an amazingly convoluted, opaque, and covert process. It was, and is, a stunning display of haste and hubris, well outside the norms of the modern legislative process. Speaker Ryan dropped the American Health Care Act (AHCA) practically
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Director’s Desk
Victims of Their Own Success
At the Water’s Edge: Is House Intelligence Oversight As Good As It Gets?
R.I.P. Budget Hawks
Why Tax Reform Is Hard
Republicans’ Inability to Do Routine Things Is Scuttling Their Big Plans
Senior Fellow Mark Harkins in the News
It’s more than just bad process. It’s harmful.
Secrecy in Lawmaking and What it Spells for the rest of the 115th