PSW Weekly Round-Up - 3/10

Legislative Update

House. The House is planning to vote Tuesday evening on a Continuing Resolution that would fund the government through Sept. 30. While CRs generally extend funding at the previous fiscal year’s levels, the House CR would cut $13 billion from domestic and foreign aid programs, even zeroing out some of them, and add $6 billion to the defense side of the ledger, as well as including an additional $6.6 billion in emergency defense funds, primarily for shipbuilding. The measure does not include any earmarks for home-state projects and does not prevent a scheduled reduction in payments for doctors who treat Medicare patients.

With President Trump’s backing, Speaker Mike Johnson is hoping he can get almost unanimous Republican support in order to pass the measure. If so, the question then becomes whether a handful of Senate Democrats will break ranks in order for the CR to get over the 60-vote hurdle. Without an agreement by both chambers on the House’s six-month CR or a possible back-up, short-term CR, funding for government programs expires on March 14. If Congress should approve the six-month CR, the Office of Management and Budget issued an advisory opinion last week saying that the CR would not result in automatic spending cuts implemented under the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. According to OMB, "a full-year CR itself is a full-year discretionary appropriations Act".

The House is not scheduled to be in session on Thursday and Friday, with Democrats planning to attend their annual issues conference March 12-14 at the Lansdowne resort in Loudon County, Va. The schedule could change, of course, if action is needed late in the week on legislation to keep the government open.

Senate. The Senate will continue to consider nominations, including a vote earlier this evening confirming Lori Chavez DeRemer as Labor Secretary. PSW has kept tabs on all the nominations, which can be found at our PSW Confirmation Tracker. Later in the week, the Senate will vote on a Continuing Resolution to fund the government.

Tariffs. There have been so many stops and starts on the tariff front that we’ve pulled together a short overview of the latest actions:

• February 4 – 10% tariffs imposed on Chinese imports.
• March 4 – 10% tariffs on Chinese imports doubled to 20%. China implements retaliatory measures, including duties on U.S. agricultural goods.
• March 4 – 25% tariffs imposed on Mexican and Canadian products (10% on energy from Canada).
• March 5 – President Trump grants one-month exemption from tariffs on automobiles imported from Mexico and Canada so long as they meet the content requirements of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
• March 6 – President Trump delays tariffs until April 2 on all goods from Mexico and Canada that enter the U.S. under the USMCA. Approximately 50% of the products of Mexico and 38% of Canadian products qualify under USMCA, but Mexican officials believe that companies can take certain steps so that 85%-90% of Mexican exports to the U.S. would be compliant with USMCA.
• March 10 – 25% surcharge on electricity exports to Michigan, New York, and Minnesota imposed by Premier of Ontario.
• March 12 – Additional 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum scheduled to go into effect.
• April 2 – 25% tariffs scheduled to go into effect on all products from Mexico and Canada.
• April 2 – Reciprocal tariffs scheduled to go into effect that will reflect tariffs and non-tariffs imposed on U.S. exports by other countries.
• Sometime between today and April 2 – Possible imposition of 250% tariffs on Canadian dairy products and 25% tariffs on Canadian lumber.

Committee Action of Note

Monday, March 10

• House Rules Committee meeting to formulate rules on three measures, including the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025

Tuesday, March 11

• House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces: “The State of U.S. Shipbuilding”
• House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health Hearing: “After the Hospital: Ensuring Access to Quality Post-Acute Care”

Wednesday, March 12

• Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee Hearing: “Perspectives from the Field: Risk Management, Credit, and Rural Business Views on the Agricultural Economy Part 3”
• Senate Budget Committee Markup to consider the nomination of James Bishop to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget
• Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Markup of 17 measures, including:
  • The nomination of Mark Meador to be a Federal Trade Commissioner
  • S. 28, Informing Consumers about Smart Devices Act (Cruz)
  • S. 97, Securing Semiconductor Supply Chains Act (Peters)
  • S. 244, ROUTERS Act (Blackburn)
  • S. 323, PLAN for Broadband Act (Wicker)
  • S. 389, Setting Consumer Standards for Lithium-Ion Batteries Act (Gillibrand)
  • S. 433, National Manufacturing Advisory Council Act (Peters)

Thursday, March 13

• Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Markup to consider pending nominations:
  • Jayanta Bhattacharya to be Director of the National Institutes of Health; and
  • Martin Makary to be Commissioner of Food and Drugs
• Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Hearing to consider the nomination of David Weldon to be Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Friday, March 14

• Senate Finance Committee Hearing to consider the nomination of Mehmet Oz to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Recent Executive Actions of Note

As President Trump continues to take executive action on a number of fronts, the Executive Orders can be found here, while all presidential actions can be found on the White House website here. Recent presidential actions include:

• Restoring Public Service Loan Forgiveness - March 7, 2025
• Establishment Of The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve And United States Digital Asset Stockpile - March 6, 2025
• Amendment To Duties To Address The Flow Of Illicit Drugs Across Our Southern Border - March 6, 2025
• Amendment To Duties To Address The Flow Of Illicit Drugs Across Our Northern Border - March 6, 2025
• Further Amendment To Duties Addressing The Synthetic Opioid Supply Chain In The People’s Republic Of China - March 3, 2025

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