On March 11, President Joe Biden submitted his FY 2025 Proposed Budget to Congress. Unlike prior year budget proposals, this one is a setup for an unavoidable tax debate in 2025, when many of the tax provisions enacted during the Trump administration in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 will expire.
The quest to approve federal funding continued during another busy week in Washington, where lawmakers took up a $435 billion funding package that includes the FDA and a number of other departments. Also this week, 16 states and American Samoa held presidential primary elections, with 854 Republican and 1,420 Democratic delegates at stake.
For the first December in recent years, Congress is no longer facing a government shutdown deadline. Prior to the Thanksgiving recess, Congress approved a two-tiered appropriations package. This “laddered” approach primarily funds domestic programs (such as housing, agriculture, transportation and infrastructure) until Jan. 19, 2024, and the remaining programs, including defense and homeland security, until Feb. 2, 2024. Year-end 2023 is not without its share of must-pass legislation, however.
Following three weeks of negotiations and squabbling, House Republicans elected Louisiana Representative Mike Johnson to serve as the 56th Speaker of the House. This was a difficult time for House Republicans, who struggled to find a new speaker after eight of their members joined all House Democrats to abruptly oust McCarthy on Oct. 3.
On Tuesday, Kevin McCarthy became the first speaker in the history of the United States to be removed from his office when eight Republicans, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, and all 208 Democrats present in the House voted to support the motion to vacate. The final vote was 216- 210.
There are only 11 days when both the House and the Senate are scheduled to be in session before the current federal funding authorization expires. In most years, the House and Senate leadership would simply agree to a continuing resolution (CR) that maintains existing federal policy and holds funding at current levels for a certain period to prevent a government shutdown before Oct. 1. This year, however, is not following Congress’ standard operating procedure, and is reminiscent of the years when congressional leaders were powerless to rein in the political forces that led to government shutdowns.
On Monday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy visited Wall Street to debut the latest House Republican proposal to raise the debt ceiling. In his speech, McCarthy stated that in the coming weeks, the House would approve a one-year increase in the debt limit that will include a reduction in discretionary spending to 2022 levels, while limiting future increases to 1% annually over the next 10 years.
President Joe Biden submitted his proposed fiscal year 2024 federal budget to Congress on March 9. It contains numerous tax increases that repeatedly failed to clear the House of Representatives and Senate even when these chambers were controlled by Democrats. But the president’s budget submission makes sense if you acknowledge that its primary purpose is as a political messaging document, meant to provide a contrast between his administration and Republicans in advance of the 2024 presidential election.
The 2022 midterm congressional elections certainly did not turn out as many had expected. With President Joe Biden’s approval ratings
The Senate is back in session this week, and the House of Representatives returns from its summer recess next week.
