The House and Senate are both back in session after the Independence Day recess.
The Congress returns to a shocked Washington in the wake of the sudden and unexpected passing of Senator Lindsey Graham. The governor of South Carolina, Henry McMaster, selected Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, to finish out his term.
In a post on X, CPI Founder and Chairman of the Board, Jim DeMint, called his former colleague “an independent thinker with common sense,” remarking that “Washington could use a lot more like him.”
As mentioned last week, the actual in-session days remaining to pass the legislative priorities of the Congress are slipping away. The third and likely final budget reconciliation is gaining momentum.
This is the same process used for the One Big Beautiful Bill.
The budget reconciliation process originates in both the House and Senate Budget committees with the drafting and then passing of a budget resolution. These budgets come along with instructions to other committees for how to increase or reduce spending.
Reportedly, the House will move forward with a budget resolution that spends $95 billion dollars, mostly made up from the $73 billion to cover military and intelligence operations.
Senator Ron Johnson, who has replaced the late Senator Lindsey Graham as chair of the Senate Budget Committee, has warned that senators will want to pay for any new spending through offsets.
Interestingly, there appears to be $10 billion in funding for election related matters, suggesting there might be an effort afoot to secure substantial election reforms.
Next up, both the House and the Senate will have to pass the same budget resolution with instructions to individual committees.
Those committees will write the bills as instructed. Then, the budget committees will combine the proposals into a single bill.
The House and Senate will need to then pass the same bill. Notably, the Senate’s threshold is 51 votes, but also includes a “vote-a-rama” which is a process by which senators can offer however many amendments to the legislation, so long as they are related to provisions in the bill.
Once the Senate passes the bill, it’s off to the president’s desk for signature.
ICYMI…
- American Intelligence: The First Thing AI Learned
- First Things: The Enemy Within
- Todd Blanche Hearing Before Senate Judiciary Committee (Part 1), Todd Blanche Hearing Before Senate Judiciary Committee (Part 2)
- Federal News Network: OPP reduces, modernizes another 50-year-old acquisition program