The House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee today released its draft appropriations bill accompanied by a press release. The subcommittee markup is tomorrow, and we won’t know what it in the committee report until the full committee markup on Tuesday. We reviewed the legislation and compared the proposed funding to the enacted levels from last Congress. […]
Tracking House appropriations markups can be more art than science. We’ve compiled this timeline to help everyone follow along. Meeting notice Must be provided three legislative days in advance. House Rule XI(g)(2)(3)(A)(ii), Committee Rule 4(d)(3). An announcement of the meeting must be publicly “promptly” in the Daily Digest and made publicly available in electronic form. […]
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 […]
Bipartisan Coalition Supports Efforts To Keep the Senate Operational in an Emergency FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 14, 2021 CONTACT: Daniel Schuman, policy director, Demand Progress, daniel@demandprogress.org, 240-237-3930 Washington, DC — The Senate must act to ensure its continuity in a national crisis, according to a bipartisan coalition of 18 organizations and six congressional experts in […]
Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your weekly look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Subscribe here. THE TOP LINE Justice Department surveillance. The Justice Department surveilled at least two Members of the House Intelligence Committee, some committee staff, and family members in 2017-8 as part of a “leaks” investigation. Apple and an unidentified Information Service […]
Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, our weekly look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Don’t miss an issue: subscribe here (it’s free). THE TOP LINE This week. The Senate is back and the House is holding a committee work week. Attorney General Garland will testify on Wednesday and the approps process is heating up. Strengthening Congress. […]
Bring on the out-of-office responses and welcome to this recess edition of the First Branch Forecast, where we look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Now, you’ll have time enough at last to encourage your colleagues to subscribe here. TOP LINE The forgotten art of congressional oversight is the topic of a fantastic, extensive article by the American Prospect’s […]
Congress regularly requests reports on strengthening Congress but there’s no central place to keep track of what they’ve requested. To help keep track of things, we built a public spreadsheet that maintains a catalog of projects, broken down by item due, entity responsible, and due date. The catalog covers reforms and requests ordered by the […]
Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your weekly look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Encourage your colleagues to subscribe here. TOP LINE The House is holding a committee work week and the Senate is in. Next week, both chambers will be out to coincide with the Memorial Day holiday. The January 6th Commission bill (H.R. […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 17, 2021 CONTACT: Daniel Schuman, policy director, Demand Progress, daniel@demandprogress.org, 240-237-3930 30 organizations and 11 congressional experts sent a bipartisan letter to House appropriators today calling to restore funding levels for congressional personal office and committee staff, amounting to double-digit percentage increases. The bipartisan letter was organized by the progressive organization […]
Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your weekly look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Encourage your colleagues to subscribe here. TOP LINE Both chambers are in session this week and getting down to business: A bill providing for a January 6th Commission likely will be considered in the House this week. The legislation, introduced by […]
Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your weekly look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here. TOP LINE STOP EVERYTHING. “100% of my focus is on stopping this new administration,” said Sen. McConnell at a press conference. He added: Democrats want to turn America into a “socialist country” and […]