Mike & Co. — The most significant personnel question opened up by Paul Ryan’s promotion was resolved this evening when the GOP members of House Ways and Means elected Kevin Brady of Texas the Committee’s new Chair, succeeding Ryan. So the parlor game now is what this means for comprehensive tax reform. Some say …
Mike & Co., The House continues work this week on reauthorization of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). It is considering a bill for up to $325 billion on transportation projects over the next six years, $261 billion on highways, $55 billion on transit and approximately $9 billion on safety programs — but it still must come …
Mike & Co. — The top-lines on FY 2016 domestic and military spending settled, there remains work on how that funding should be divvied up among agencies and federal programs. In the coming weeks, the Appropriations Committees will begin crafting an omnibus spending bill that must be signed into law by Dec. 11 to keep the government …
Mike & Co., The busiest week of the session so far was John Boehner’s last as Speaker. Amid the speakership transition, several big-ticket fiscal and financial items moved. What happened and where they stand, ex. the budget, in brief roundup below. As always, contact me for clarification, elaboration, etc. Great weekends all and let’s …
Mike & Co. — A bombshell of a budget agreement between the White House and Congressional leadership was announced last night that would raise the debt limit through March 2017 and remove cuts mandated under the Sequester through September 2017. In fact, Sequester spending would increase by $80 billion over FY 2016 and 2017 — …
Mike & Co. — The House voted 246-177 tonight in favor of a discharge petition setting up a final House vote tonight orTuesday on reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank, a rare parliamentary maneuver to force the agency’s proposed resurrection onto the House floor, over the opposition of conservative Republicans. If the Bank is ultimately revived, it would mark just the third time in …
Mike & Co. — The pattern is familiar from last month’s CR and almost every must-pass piece of legislation considered by Congress the past five years — there is majority support for a solution but it cannot come to a vote until the House has considered an alternative proposed by the Freedom Caucus that cannot …
Mike & Co. — Wheels are in motion on almost every major front right now in Congress, with Paul Ryan announcing tonight that he is a to serve as a unity candidate for Speaker, if all the major caucuses of the House Republican conference endorse him. He is giving the conference until this Friday to decide whether it is …
Mike & Co. — Little action to report this recess week on the Hill but there was a signal “district work period” development. Speaker Boehner’s chief of staff told a Ripon Society meeting that Congress was unlikely to move on the massive trade package until a late 2016 lame-duck session. The policy director for Senate Majority …
Mike & Co. — After another week of surprises and certainty — or “chaos” — surrounding the future of the House GOP leadership, right before members left for a week’s recess, came a major unexpected boost for Ex-Im reauthorization today. Good long weekends all, Dana ———- Ex-Im Update — a Tree Grows in Brooklyn You …
