PSW Weekly Round-Up - 3/4

Legislative Update

Presidential Address. President Trump will deliver an address to Congress and the American public at 9 p.m. on Tuesday. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) will provide Democratic responses in English and Spanish, respectively.

Senate. The Senate is continuing to consider nominations, including voting to confirm Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education on Monday. Senators could also move forward on the nomination of Lori Chaves-DeRemer as Labor Secretary. A Senate vote on the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y) to serve as U.N. ambassador continues to be on hold as House Speaker Mike Johnson and the White House are reluctant to lose a reliable GOP vote in the narrowly divided House. PSW has kept tabs on all the nominations, which can be found at our PSW Confirmation Tracker.

House. The House will take votes on three Congressional Review Act joint resolutions of disapproval to repeal Biden Administration rulings. The resolutions include measures that would repeal an Interior Department rule requiring identification of archaeological locations like shipwrecks near offshore drilling sites; an EPA rule on national emissions standards for the production of rubber tires; and an Energy Department rule expanding energy conservation standards and labeling requirements for some appliances.

Budget Resolution. Following the House’s 217-215 vote on Feb. 25 to adopt an FY 2025 budget resolution, House and Senate negotiators must now forge a compromise version that can be approved by both chambers. Party leaders have not said whether there will be a formal conference committee or informal negotiations, but various Senators have laid down markers for what provisions they believe should be in the final resolution, and many of their demands are not slam dunks for House approval.

They include permanent extension of the Trump tax cuts, trimming the House’s deep cuts to federal spending (which was a demand of some House Republicans), and deleting the House version’s $4 trillion increase in the debt limit. While party leaders want to move quickly to find common ground, it is unclear how long it will take to hammer out a compromise.

Until the budget resolution is adopted by both chambers, the reconciliation process cannot formally begin. However, committee Republicans plan to move forward with discussions on how to craft legislation in their jurisdiction. House Ways and Means Republicans, for example, are tentatively planning to kick off this exercise with two, day-long sessions next week to examine both the TCJA tax cuts and potential revenue raisers, such as changes to Biden’s green energy tax benefits.

FY 2025 Spending Bills. With the current continuing resolution expiring on March 14, House Speaker Mike Johnson wants lawmakers to approve a new CR that would fund the government through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year. Assuming this long-term legislation can be drafted quickly, a rule for floor consideration will need to be approved by first the Rules Committee and then the full House. Since it is typically up to the governing party to approve floor debate rules, Johnson will need the support of almost every Republican to pass the rule for the CR. Two Republicans, Reps. Tony Gonzales of Texas and Don Bacon of Nebraska, have already voiced concerns about passing a year-long CR rather than individual appropriations bills.

Lacking enough Republican support in the past to approve the rule for consideration of government funding bills, Johnson has had to pass them by suspending the rules and relying on Democratic support since a two-thirds majority is needed for suspension bills. Democrats would likely prefer a short-term CR to allow negotiations to continue on regular appropriations bills, so it is not a given that Johnson will be able to count on their support next week.

Timing is also a factor for any suspension votes. In January, House Republicans adopted a new rule (not to be confused with rules for floor debate) providing that bills can only be considered under suspension of the rules on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, unless a special rule is adopted to change that rule. It may sound confusing, but the intent is to prevent the leadership from jamming through bills at the end of the week (and March 14 is a Friday).

In general, CRs maintain the previous year’s level of appropriated funding, but they can also provide funding increases for certain programs, and Johnson’s CR is expected to include a number of funding increases. Also, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2003 provides that if a CR is in place on April 30, there will be across-the-board cuts to federal spending. Because these cuts would disproportionately hit defense spending, the expectation is that the automatic sequester will be “turned off.” This could be done either through legislative language in the CR itself or through an administrative decision since the responsibility for ordering the automatic cuts is up to the Office of Management and Budget and some Republicans have argued that a year-long CR should not trigger the automatic cuts.

If House Republicans next week approve both the floor debate rule and the long-term CR, the next question will be whether 60 Senators will agree. If there is no agreement by Friday, either because of House or Senate objections, it appears that there are two possible scenarios – either a government shutdown or passage of a short-term CR to avoid a shutdown.

Committee Action of Note

Tuesday, March 4

• Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing to consider the nomination of Elbridge Colby to be Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
• Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing: “Advancing American Interests in the Western Hemisphere”
• House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Hearing: “The State of the Livestock Industry: Producer Perspectives”
• House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Hearing: “Leveraging Technology to Strengthen Immigration Enforcement”
• House Financial Services Task Force on Monetary Policy, Treasury Market Resilience, and Economic Prosperity Hearing
• House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation Hearing: “America Builds: Air Traffic Control System Infrastructure and Staffing”
• House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance Hearing: “Building Our Future: Increasing Housing Supply in America”

Wednesday, March 5

• Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Hearing to consider the nomination of Jayanta Bhattacharya to serve as Director of the National Institutes of Health
• Senate Budget Committee Hearing to consider the nomination of Dan Bishop to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget
• House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party Hearing: “End the Typhoons: How to Deter Beijing’s Cyber Actions and Enchance America’s Lackluster Cyber Defenses”
• House Financial Services Committee Markup of 11 measures, including:
  • H.J. Res. 59, Disapproving the rule submitted by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating to ‘‘Overdraft Lending: Very Large Financial Institutions
  • H.R. 747, the Stop Chinese Fentanyl Act of 2025
  • H.R. 1577, the Stop Fentanyl Money Laundering Act of 2025
• House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy Hearing: “Scaling for Growth: Meeting the Demand for Reliable, Affordable Electricity”
• House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Hearing: “Fixing Biden’s Broadband Blunder”

Thursday, March 6

• Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Markup to consider the nomination of Keith Sonderling to be Deputy Secretary of Labor
• Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Hearing to consider the nomination of Martin Makary to serve as Commissioner of Food and Drugs
• Senate Finance Committee Hearing to consider the nomination of Michael Faulkender to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury

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:

• Addressing The Threat To National Security From Imports Of Copper - February 25, 2025
• Making America Healthy Again by Empowering Patients with Clear, Accurate, and Actionable Healthcare Pricing Information - February 25, 2025
• Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production - March 1, 2025
• Addressing The Threat To National Security from Imports of Timber, Lumber - March 1, 2025

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