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Anyone who watched School House Rock knows how bills become law. From a numbers standpoint, it is straightforward. It needs 218 votes in the House, 51 votes in the Senate (60 to cut off a filibuster), and a presidential signature. Given this math, some wonder why Speaker Pelosi is hesitating
Last week, following a whistleblower complaint about certain foreign affairs actions taken by the White House, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that the House was beginning an “official impeachment inquiry” into President Trump. Pelosi directed six House committees to put together their case for potential impeachment and forward
Congress is back in session, and all eyes are on the impending budget negotiations. The past month has not provided a respite from significant news. A number of mass shootings, border developments, and the clattering of the 2020 presidential aspirants reminds us that while Congress may have escaped the Potomac’s
In politics, we often learn the lesson of the last time. When President Obama came into office, he and his advisors read Gordon Goldstein’s Lessons in Disaster, which covered mistakes made in Vietnam, to apply them to Afghanistan and Iraq. The enduring legacy of these conflicts is the power vacuum
House Democrats and President Trump are on a collision course. Democrats demand the administration and others comply with their subpoenas and document requests on everything from the president’s tax returns and business records to the unredacted Mueller report. So far, President Trump has uniformly refused, an unprecedented move that directly
Early last week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies released its draft FY2020 bill, and subsequently approved it in a markup held on Wednesday. In some respects, this was all very normal; the MilCon bill (as it is widely known) is often one of
Dear Friends: Happy spring! While cherry blossoms steal the show outdoors, a buzz of activity continues inside the Capitol complex. A slew of committees are holding hearings on the FY2020 budget, with Cabinet members and other officials making the trek to the Hill to defend the President’s funding requests. However,
Procedurally, the House and Senate could not be more different. The House is subject to absolute majority rule. Conversely, the Senate is governed by more bipartisan processes like unlimited debate, supermajority cloture, and unanimous consent. However, the two chambers have become more similar in recent years. Partisan House members moving
Congressional oversight in the 116th Congress has gotten off to a roaring start. After two years of unified government in the Trump administration, Democrats are eager to begin looking into a long list of topics now that they have retaken the House. The news cycle, already moving at an exhausting
The FY2019 appropriations process in Congress—which will provide funding for the federal government from October 1, 2018, until September 30, 2019—is once again approaching a deadline. After managing to pass five of the twelve annual appropriations bills in two “mini-bus” packages in late September, Congress passed two continuing resolutions (the
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