Dear Friends:
Though Congress remains on recess this week, April should be an exceptionally busy month on the Hill. The President’s FY2027 budget request, released last week, seeks a major boost in defense spending (see Fellow Katina Slavkova’s recent article for more on this) coupled with cuts to many domestic programs. The proposal has sparked predictable reactions from members of Congress, who will continue conducting hearings in advance of preparing funding bills for floor action later this year.
In the midst of FY27 activity, the Department of Homeland Security remains shut down due to a lapse in FY26 appropriations. Keep reading for Senior Fellow Matt Glassman’s excellent article on the process and politics behind the longest agency shutdown in our nation’s history.
One likely outcome of the DHS impasse will be a GOP reconciliation bill funding the department through a process that only requires a simple majority for passage in both chambers. The bigger question will be whether that measure is followed by additional reconciliation legislation to fund other Republican priorities. The wish list is long, but threading the needle to hold together a majority is far from guaranteed.
Hanging over all of this is the ongoing war in Iran. The conflict has spurred additional calls for Congress to act on a war powers resolution and will also likely require supplemental defense funding to keep pace with the cost of the operation. This is an evolving situation that will be awaiting members when they return – or may spark growing calls for them to cut short their break.
I’ll end with my regular reminder that GAI is here to help deepen your understanding of all these dynamics, whether through our open-enrollment courses or customized training. For those of you working in the national security arena, I encourage you to check out our brand-new Defense Congressional Operations Seminar kicking off June 1. The class follows our tried-and-true Congressional Operations Seminar model, with specially-selected topics and speakers for the defense community.
All the best,
Kristin
