Compass

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill, The House and Senate are both in a race against the clock this week to pass a government spending bill before funding expires on Friday. The Senate, which normally works at the sleepy pace of 2.5 days a week, has an ambitious schedule: on Monday and Tuesday, they will vote […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill, There is a renewed sense of purpose and focus in Washington, D.C., as the Trump transition kicks into gear and Donald Trump’s cabinet picks prepare for confirmation.  Pete Hegseth, the nominee for the Secretary of Defense, and Elise Stefanik, the nominee for Ambassador to the United Nations, sat for in-depth, […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill,  Late Sunday night, President Joe Biden issued a sweeping pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, who was shortly to be sentenced for firearm and tax offenses. However, Biden’s pardon covers far more than those charges alone, immunizing Hunter Biden from any “offenses against the United States which he has committed […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill,  There’s a lot to cover this week. President-elect Trump’s cabinet is now complete with the nominations of new appointees to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner; Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins; Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bessent; Head of the Office of Management and Budget; and Secretary of […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. We are so back. After months of the action occurring everywhere but Washington, the city is once again the center of the storyline as Congress returns and President-elect Donald Trump staffs up his administration. Last week, the House and Senate GOP conferences selected their leaders. For the first time in […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill.  Let’s talk about the upcoming election. No, not that one. Plenty of ink will be spilled about November 5th. Let’s talk about the forthcoming Republican congressional leadership elections, which both the House and Senate have now set for November 13. Regardless of how the federal elections shake out, these positions […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. The dawn of the information age was supposed to change the world. When individuals could access and control the world’s collective information via the computer, the thinking went, the gatekeepers would lose all control and our collective genius would leap humanity forward. That has, of course, happened in a thousand […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. After the attempted assassination of President Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, various agencies and congressional committees immediately began investigations. The reports are trickling in, and all of them agree on a singular fact: the Secret Service failure was titanic and avoidable. Last week, a bipartisan Department of Homeland […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. With so much else taking up the political oxygen, it’s easy to forget about the other election happening this year: the election for leader of the Senate Republican Conference. In February, Mitch McConnell announced he would be stepping down as GOP leader at the end of the year (though remaining […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. Hurricane Helene has left a trail of devastation in its wake, ravaging the southeast from Florida up to Virginia. The 350-mile-wide storm left millions without power or clean water, and killed more than 200. Hundreds are still unaccounted for and the death count continues to rise.  All eyes have been […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. That sad trombone sound you’re hearing is the House GOP majority failing by a vote of 202 to 220 to pass a 6-month Continuing Resolution which was paired with the SAVE Act (requiring proof of citizenship before registering to vote). On Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced the House would […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. And here we are, a second time in as many months: another assassination attempt on President Trump. A shooter targeted Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club on Sunday, pointing a rifle in the vicinity of the former president who was playing golf a few hundred yards away. […]

The Olympics ended in August, but Congress has returned to Washington for a three week sprint (I’m sorry. I had to make that joke.). Congress is engaging in its annual tradition of generally not having a plan for the government funding deadline that they’ve known about all year – except this time, there is sort […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. We are so (almost) back. The House and Senate return to session on September 9th for that time honored tradition of fighting over government funding, which expires on September 30. At the time of this writing, it appears that Speaker Mike Johnson will align himself with conservatives in putting forward […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. August is the sleepiest month in Washington, but don’t let the slow pace fool you. The fall funding fights are already taking shape. Last week, the House Freedom Caucus issued an official position in favor of passing a short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) to extend existing government funding levels into early […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. Congress is still out of session, but the courts are action packed. Here are three recent developments. Judge Finds Google Has A Monopoly On Search On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta found that Google has a monopoly on search and text advertising, capping off a win for the […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. Both chambers are officially out of session for their August recess. They return on September 9th.  We often discuss the chaos and disorder of our southern border – but what about our legal immigration programs? Turns out they’re not doing much better. That’s according to an internal U.S. Citizenship and […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. It’s still July for a few more days, but in the House, it’s already August. The chamber broke for their month-long recess last week, days earlier than anticipated. House Republicans had hoped to have all 12 appropriations bills passed by August recess, but that plan has stalled with only five […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. Steve Bannon is fond of saying “There are decades when nothing happens, and weeks where decades happen.” In the last three weeks, we’ve witnessed the true state of President Biden’s cognitive state at the presidential debate, an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Senator JD Vance being named Trump’s […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill.  What happened on the evening of July 13, 2024 has instantly become a generational marker – you’ll remember where you were and what you were doing as an assassin’s bullet came within a whisper of shattering the skull of Donald J. Trump.  The former president’s slight turn of his head, […]

Good afternoon. The House and Senate are back this week after an eventful Independence Day recess week. The House will take up the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill, and a bill titled the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act). In the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will hold another show vote on an abortion related […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. On Monday, the Supreme Court delivered its ruling in Trump v United States, regarding presidential immunity.  By a vote of 6 to 3, the Court, in an opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, held that former presidents can never be prosecuted for actions relating to the core powers of their office. […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill.  The Senate is in recess until July 8. The House is here this week, working through appropriations bills in the middle of a D.C. heat wave. The stated aim of House GOP leaders is to have all 12 appropriations bills out of the Appropriations Committee by mid-July, with consideration by […]

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. The House is out this week and the Senate is in for a short week (in other words, their normal work week).  Before leaving town last week, the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act which contained several key amendments to address the White House’s continued politicization of the military. […]