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Category: On the Hill

Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship

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In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump’s executive order declaring that children born in the US are not American citizens if their parents were here illegally or temporarily.

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights—to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment, “We keep that promise today.”

Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorusch, and Samuel Alito dissented. Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the court’s majority to strike down the executive order but said he based his decision on a federal law, not the Constitution. Back in April, Trump attended the oral arguments for this case, Trump v. Barbara, becoming the first sitting president ever to do so. The Court was expected to uphold birthright citizenship, but the final ruling was closer than predicted, with most expecting a 7-2 ruling.

The decision is one of several key rulings released over the past week:

  • In a 6-3 decision, the Court upheld state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams, ruling that state bans in Idaho and West Virginia don’t violate the Constitution or Title IX.
  • In a 6-3 decision, the Court expanded the power of the executive branch to fire independent regulators, with the notable exception of members of the Federal Reserve. Despite allowing Fed governor Lisa Cook to stay in her role, this ruling increases the power of the president to fire agency heads at will.
  • In a 5-4 decision, the Court upheld Mississippi’s grace period for late mail-in ballots, rejecting Trump’s persistent attempts to invalidate ballots arriving after Election Day. This ruling is significant for protecting mail-in voting across 2026 battleground districts. Over half of states permit mailed ballots to be counted a certain number of days after the election, if they are postmarked by Election Day.
  • In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court erased party spending limits in federal elections, striking down a federal election law more than 50 years old.
  • Also in a 6-3 decision, the Court ruled the Trump administration may end legal protections for migrants fleeing violence in Haiti and Syria, allowing DHS to end the temporary protected status program.

CJS Bill Clears House Appropriations Committee

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After a markup session during which numerous amendments were considered, the House Appropriations Committee adopted its FY2027 Commerce-Justice-Science funding bill by a vote of 32 – 28.

The bill, which funds a number of science agencies, including NSF, NOAA, NASA, and NIST, is available here.

The text of the report, which details how the funds are to be spent, is available here.

 

 

Trump signs $1.2 trillion funding bill

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Following the quick turnaround leaders hoped for, the House passed a spending package on Tuesday afternoon to fund most of the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year. Just hours after the House approved the bill, President Trump signed the package into law, officially ending the partial government shutdown. More details on the package can be found here.

The final vote was 217 to 214, with most House Democrats (193) voting against the bill, while 21 Republicans also opposed the measure. Speaker Mike Johnson was optimistic that the bill would pass quickly, but it faced hurdles as President Trump and Republicans pressured conservative holdouts to vote in favor.

While the package fully funds the majority of federal agencies through September, it funds DHS only through the end of next week, setting the stage for difficult negotiations over immigration restrictions. Lawmakers have ten days to reach a broader deal or another short-term agreement to avoid a funding lapse. The funding debate has been focused on ICE and Customs and Border Protection, but DHS includes other major agencies like TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard.

Senate leaders scramble to save bipartisan deal to avert shutdown

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In a surprising turn, Senate Democrats were able to strike a deal with President Donald Trump Thursday night to separate DHS funding from the broader appropriations package and fund it for two weeks while Congress debates ICE guardrails.

“Republicans and Democrats have come together to get the vast majority of the government funded until September,” Trump said in a social media post Thursday evening, encouraging members of both parties to cast a “much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ vote.”

However, late Thursday, this plan ran into further snags. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is one of the main objectors, opposing language which repealed a provision allowing senators to sue if their phone records were collected. This contentious “Arctic Frost” provision passed as part of the bill ending the government shutdown last year and was ultimately struck out of the final House bill.

The Senate reconvened this morning to try again to pass the funding measures. If it passes, it will then need to go back to the House, meaning at least a short funding lapse.

On the House side, Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he had been “vehemently opposed” to breaking up the funding package, but “if it is broken up, we will have to move it as quickly as possible. We can’t have the government shut down.” He said he doesn’t expect any floor votes on the funding bill until Monday.

House Republicans have already made it clear they do not want changes to the bill they passed. Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus wrote they stand with ICE in a letter to President Trump on Tuesday.

Congress Home for the Holidays

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After a busy week, Senators huddled on the floor Thursday night as they made an eleventh-hour attempt to find a path forward on bringing up a bundle of five bills or minibus for consideration before the end of 2025. No agreement to move forward was reached after Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, both of Colorado, announced they would hold up the package after White House OMB director Russ Vought’s decision to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is based in Colorado.

 

The package under consideration in the Senate would fund the Departments of Defense, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce (including NOAA), Health and Human Services (including NIH), Transportation, Labor and Interior, along with the EPA and NSF.

A few Republican Senators have held the bill from moving forward but released a hold after Senate leadership agreed to an amendment vote on stripping earmarks in the legislation. The Colorado hold is new to the OMB decision.

The Senate will resume consideration and negotiations in January.