Congressional Update
FY25 Appropriations Politics: Why a Potential Full-Year CR is Relevant to the Fight over Trump Impounding Funds
Matt Glassman | March 6, 2025
On Friday, President Trump endorsed a full-year CR for the FY25 appropriations, which will likely end the appropriations process for this fiscal year. After its failure to enact full year appropriations bills by October 1, Congress has passed a series of continuing resolutions (the first through December 20; a second through
Mister Chairman: Reversing Trends for Women Chairing House Committees
Katina Slavkova | February 12, 2025
Last December, shortly before House Majority Leader Steve Scalise released the Republican Steering Committee’s recommendations for committee chairs in the incoming 119th Congress, former Republican representative from Virginia, Barbara Comstock, objected strongly to initial reporting that no women were being selected for these positions. Two days later when the majority leader’s office formally
Laura Blessing | November 7, 2024 Election Day 2024 is behind us. The country is taking stock of who we are and where we might be going. The final calls on some congressional races are still forthcoming, as predicted. There are many ways of viewing the political moment we’re in, but any reading of political history shows precursors to phenomena of Matt Glassman | February 5, 2024 The first session of the 118th Congress was historically unproductive. Only 35 measures were signed into law, with only the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the Defense Authorization Act of significant note. Several major items on the agenda—border security, foreign aid, tax extenders—saw no floor action, while others—the Farm bill, FAA reauthorization, the FY24 appropriations— Katina Slavkova | January 10, 2024 After a chaotic and historically unproductive first session, the 118th Congress appears to be off to a more hopeful start in the new year. Recent news indicating congressional leaders have finally secured an agreement on the top-line numbers for funding the federal government for the remainder of FY24 is certainly Laura Blessing | June 7, 2023 Normally, we remember what we were doing when great triumphs or tragedies take place on the world stage. Fiscal policy is not typically on that list of events. And yet, I remember clearly what I was doing in the lead up to Treasury’s “X date” in 2011. I was in grad school, and I had Katina Slavkova | May 3, 2023 The partisan and intra-branch posturing on the debt ceiling, on display since January, has finally yielded actual legislative text. Last week Speaker Kevin McCarthy successfully shepherded his conference to pass a debt ceiling bill, accurately characterized as a “bare-minimum victory on a doomed bill.” This description of the House GOP’s initial bargaining offer perfectly Matt Glassman | March 17, 2023 President Biden released the President’s Budget last week and with it, the federal appropriations process has lurched to a start. In the modern era, we have come to expect to see late introduction of the President’s budget, forgoing passing a budget resolution by the budget committees (“deeming” them instead), and the failure to pass individual GAI | January 9, 2023 Guest Post by Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Cabana For the national security community, the calendar year has dawned with an $858 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and an omnibus funding bill passed in late December. But what may have felt like a Christmas miracle to congressional staffers scurrying home belies a larger problem. The fiscal Katina Slavkova | December 1, 2022 Why walk when you can fly? As the 117th Congress pushes into its lame duck session, party leaders consider an ambitious array of bills, and historically, it’s not unusual for such sessions to feature major legislative items. While lame ducks of the past decade or two have typically been marked by
The Government We Deserve?
Political Dynamics of the Second Session of the 118th Congress
Second Verse, Same as the First: 2024 Appropriations Watch
Debt Limit Déjà Vu? What Can We Learn from the Close Calls of 2011 and 2023?
The Debt Ceiling and the Appropriations Process
Back to the Future for Appropriations Procedures in the 118th Congress?
Continuing Resolutions: Continuing to Damage Defense
A Very Busy Lame Duck?