Ethics and Influence

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Forecast for October 4, 2021

By DanielSchuman October 4, 2021 17 min read

Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your regular look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Subscribe here. Congress passed the stopgap funding bill on September 30, temporarily averting a government shutdown. While in theory there will be no House floor votes until the 19th and the next two weeks are committee work weeks, with the debt […]

Forecast for September 20, 2021

By DanielSchuman September 20, 2021 15 min read

Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your regular look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Subscribe here. THE TOP LINE The upcoming 10 days are going to be crazy, but the tick-tock is adequately covered by other newsletters so you don’t need it from us. Here is this week’s House floor calendar, the Senate floor schedule, the combined committee […]

Forecast for September 13, 2021

By DanielSchuman September 13, 2021 13 min read

Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your regular look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Subscribe here. THE TOP LINE The fence is (almost certainly) coming back around the Capitol building and Supreme Court in anticipation of an event featuring Trump insurrectionists and their allies. Representatives of white supremacist groups who were promoting the “rally,” such as the Proud Boys […]

Forecast for August 27, 2021

By DanielSchuman August 27, 2021 7 min read

Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your regular look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. This is an unusual Friday edition; we are hoping to not publish next week. Subscribe here. THE TOP LINEThe House returns for a committee work week on Tuesday; the Senate is out until September 13th.The House’s National Defense Authorization […]

Special Forecast for August 13, 2021

By DanielSchuman August 13, 2021 8 min read

Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your weekly look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. No, it’s not Monday, but with the Congress away, it seemed best to send this lest we get inundated with out-of-office responses. We’re planning on taking a little break with Congress out unless something major happens… or we get bored. […]

Forecast for August 9, 2021

By DanielSchuman August 9, 2021 14 min read

Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your weekly look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Subscribe here. A preview of coming distractions: if Congress takes a break, we may take one, too. Wouldn’t that be nice. THE TOP LINE Members of Congress can force policy change without moving a bill. Rep. Bush made that clear last week in […]

Forecast for August 2, 2021

By DanielSchuman August 2, 2021 15 min read

Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your weekly look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Subscribe here. THE TOP LINE Congress enacted the Security supplemental with a 98-0 vote in the Senate, a 416-11 vote in the House, and a signature from the President. Six House Dems voted no. (The amended bill text is here.)The $2.1 billion bill includes significant non-congressionally related funds, such […]

Forecast for July 19, 2021

By DanielSchuman July 19, 2021 10 min read

Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your weekly look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. The House and Senate are holding floor votes this week; the House is currently scheduled to go into recess in two weeks and the Senate is scheduled to go into recess in three. We shall see. Subscribe here. THE TOP LINE […]

Forecast for July 12, 2021

By DanielSchuman July 12, 2021 10 min read

Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your weekly look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. This week’s newsletter is shorter than most; enjoy it while it lasts. You can subscribe here. The Senate is in; it’s a committee work week for the House. THE TOP LINE Follow the money. House Appropriators released text for the four […]

Forecast for July 6, 2021

By DanielSchuman July 6, 2021 18 min read

Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your weekly look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Subscribe here. We hope you had a wonderful July 4th weekend. THE TOP LINE House Appropriations favorably reported six of the twelve spending bills, including a Legislative Branch bill and report that included desperately and long overdue investments in the Legislative Branch, […]

Forecast for June 28, 2021

By DanielSchuman June 28, 2021 26 min read

Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your weekly look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Subscribe here. The Senate is in recess for two weeks until July 12th. The House is in session this week but prepping for the 4th of July holiday; it returns for a committee work week on July 12th and floor votes […]

Forecast for June 21, 2021

By DanielSchuman June 21, 2021 24 min read

Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your weekly look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Subscribe here. We hope you had a good Juneteenth holiday weekend. The Senate is back on Monday and the House is back on Tuesday. THE TOP LINE Follow the money. The House deemed top line discretionary spending as part of an unrelated bill […]