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House Budget Committee Approves GOP Framework

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On Thursday night, the House Budget Committee advanced their budget resolution, the first legislative step toward fulfilling Donald Trump’s policy agenda. The fiscal blueprint was advanced in a 21-16 party line vote after GOP hardliners on the committee were brought on board following weeks of negotiations. The next step for the resolution is a floor vote in the House, another difficult task with the GOP’s razor-thin majority.

The budget resolution contains reconciliation instructions, meaning that, if adopted by both chambers, it will instruct certain committees to draft legislation implementing spending changes. Each committee that receives instructions then writes a bill to achieve the prescribed target, before the bills are packaged into one large piece of legislation. Crucially, this legislation cannot be filibustered in the Senate, meaning that it can be passed by a simple majority in both chambers.

The passage out of committee comes after weeks of negotiations and infighting among House Republicans, with Budget Committee hardliners holding up passage by demanding larger spending cuts. The uncertainty in the House led Senate GOP leaders to introduce their own budget resolution last week. Senate Republicans largely favor a two-step reconciliation approach, with border security, defense, and energy being tackled early in the year and tax cuts receiving a separate legislative package later on. House GOP leaders, on the other hand, favor the Trump-backed plan to advance the entire legislative package in “one big, beautiful bill.” The passage of their resolution out of the Budget Committee brings them one step closer to achieving this goal.

The resolution, which House Budget Chair Joey Arrington (R-TX) called “the fiscal framework for what will be one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in modern history,” instructs the House Ways and Means Committee to come up with tax cuts that will increase the deficit by up to $4.5 trillion over a decade. It orders other committees, including the Education and Workforce, Energy and Commerce, and Agriculture Committees, to cut at least $1.5 trillion from mandatory spending programs to help offset these tax cuts.

The House is set to schedule a vote on the resolution during the last week of February.

As noted above, the Senate Republicans’ preference on reconciliation is through two bills and the Senate Budget Committee approved its first budget resolution on Wednesday.  The two chambers will need to bridge their differences along the way.

RFK Jr. Confirmed

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Late Thursday morning, the Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services in a 52-48 vote.

All but one Republican voted in favor of confirmation, the lone exception being Mitch McConnell who joined all Democrats in opposition.

Trump named Kennedy as his nominee to lead the HHS in November after Kennedy dropped his own presidential bid and endorsed Trump. Kennedy now becomes the top health official in the nation, responsible for overseeing the department’s nearly $2 trillion budget.

Tentative Budget Reconciliation Schedule

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President Trump and GOP leadership are moving forward with their plan to advance their agenda through the budget reconciliation process. The tentative schedule of the process is as follows:

Week of Feb. 10: House Budget Committee approves a budget resolution, followed by a House floor vote

Week of Feb. 17: Senate vote-a-rama to adopt a budget resolution

A week to negotiate a bicameral resolution that serves as a compromise between the House and Senate plans

Feb 27: Final vote to adopt a concurrent budget resolution backed by Republicans in both chambers

By Easter (April 20): Pass a reconciliation package in the House floor

By Memorial Day: Final passage

The Trump Administration Begins

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Donald Trump was officially sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on Monday, and quickly got to work, signing a flurry of Executive Orders, pardons, and personnel actions. Many of the most notable actions of his first 24 hours in office relate to immigration, the federal workforce, foreign relations, and those charged with crimes on January 6th, 2021.

One of the most controversial actions taken by Trump, and one that has already garnered legal pushback, is an order to narrow the constitutional definition of those eligible for birthright citizenship. For over a century, birthright citizenship has been considered guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified on July 9, 1868, which states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Under this new order, the Trump Administration seeks to deny the extension of citizenship to persons born in the United States “(1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary…and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.” A coalition of more than twenty Democratic-led states, along with the city of San Francisco and the District of Columbia, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston on Tuesday, alleging that these efforts are unconstitutional.

This was far from the only immigration-related policy enacted during Trump’s first day in office. He also signed several orders seeking to increase border security, including declaring a national emergency, designating numerous cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, restricting funds from sanctuary cities, and reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy, among others.

Trump has also issued orders that make it easier to remove career civil servants from the federal government by reinstating “Schedule F,” which states that occupants of career/policy positions are “required to faithfully implement administration policies to the best of their ability, consistent with their constitutional oath and the vesting of executive authority solely in the President. Failure to do so is grounds for dismissal.”

In yet another controversial move, President Trump has issued a sweeping grant of clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Most of those affected by this order will be granted full pardons, effectively wiping all charges from their criminal record. In a separate move, Trump commuted the prison sentences of members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, many of whom were charged with seditious conspiracy. In total, the commutations erased more than 100 years of prison time for the 14 defendants.

Furthermore, among the slew of executive actions taken by President Trump on Monday and Tuesday include a number related to energy and power. Trump declared a national emergency designed to promote the development of energy resources and issued memorandums to restrict and review numerous wind-power projects throughout the country.

Finally, in foreign policy news, Trump issued orders withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris Climate Accords. The order withdrawing from the WHO cites the organizations “mishandling” of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the unfair payments extracted from the United Staes as the motivation for leaving.

Many of these executive actions will face significant legal resistance in the coming weeks.

 

 

 

 

Government Shutdown Update

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The three-month Continuing Resolution (CR) was unveiled late Tuesday. Early Wednesday were digested, the dynamics around the CR passing changed drastically last night. A government shutdown starting at midnight Saturday now a very real possibility.  While a shutdown is possible, it is important to keep in mind that only certain parts and functions of the federal government would be shut down and federal employees will be furloughed. Many parts of the academic research community will feel the impact of the shutdown.

A host of basic federal functions and services will be temporarily shut down, with federal employees furloughed.  For example, while National Parks may remain open (they have been closed during shutdowns), they will be devoid of staff and services.  Visa processing will cease and State Department employees in consulates overseas will not be able to do screening.

Many of the functions related to the federal research enterprise, such as the processing and reviewing of grant applications, will be temporarily unavailable. Significant portions of the funding agencies’ staff will be furloughed, and they will be legally prohibited from performing any of their duties, so all work products including emails, phone calls, etc. is prohibited.  Questions related to proposals, applications, and other issues will not be answered during the shutdown.

Activities deemed essential will continue, even during a shutdown.  Employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will continue to screen passengers at airports. Members of the military will continue to be on duty and serve, but those who manage shipbuilding will be furloughed.  The Social Security Administration will continue to process monthly checks to seniors.  However, none of these essential workers will be paid for their efforts during the shutdown.

Even at the agencies forced to shut down many of their functions, a number of employees and activities are classified as “essential” employees, meaning that they would still be working and functioning throughout the shutdown to maintain the agencies’ critical services.  In the academic context, examples include continuing to support labs with animal subjects.  Agencies prepare for shutdown scenarios and each agency updates its policies regarding employees and functions that are considered “essential.”  Each agency is prepared for this latest potential shutdown.

As a result of change in law after the last shutdown, each federal employee is guaranteed back-pay from their furlough.  Unfortunately, federal contractors have no such guarantee.

Please continue to check this space for updates.