News

Accountability and Oversight, Appropriations, Congressional Security, Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, Modernization, Appropriation Tracking, Announcements, Blog posts, Reports & Analysis

Key Policy Provisions Included in the FY 2022 Legislative Branch Bill and Joint Explanatory Statement

By DanielSchuman April 3, 2022 27 min read

President Biden signed the FY 2022 appropriations omnibus bill into law on March 15th, 2022. Included in the omnibus package was the FY 2022 Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill, which contains dozens of policy provisions that aim to strengthen congressional capacity, oversight, technology, and modernization. This legislation signifies a monumental investment in restoring the Legislative branch. […]

Tags: Library of Congress, US Capitol Police, Diversity and Inclusion, House Intern Resource Office, Staff Pay

Appropriations, Appropriation Tracking, Blog posts, Reports & Analysis

FY 2023 Leg Branch Approps Requests

By DanielSchuman April 2, 2022 1 min read

We were curious about how the requests for the Legislative Branch for FY 2023 compared to prior years. So we took each line item for the requests published in the president’s budget for FY 2023 and compared it against the line items for FY 2022 and FY 2021. The following spreadsheet, which is also available […]

Tags: Legislative Branch

Appropriations, Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, Ethics and Influence, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

First Branch Forecast for March 28, 2022: Statler and Waldorf

By DanielSchuman March 28, 2022 10 min read

TOP LINE This week. The Senate is in today; the House is in tomorrow. We’ll be watching Tuesday’s much-anticipated Senate Judiciary Cmte FOIA hearing, which we hope covers strengthening the law and asking whether AG Garland’s long overdue FOIA memorandum goes far enough? (No.) The Capitol Police’s budget will be the focus of a first-of-the-season House Leg Branch Approps hearing on Wednesday; […]

Tags: Staff Pay, House Ethics Committee, Whistleblower Protections

Accountability and Oversight, Appropriations, Congressional Security, Continuity and Resiliency, Ethics and Influence, Modernization, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

First Branch Forecast for March 21, 2022: Not the Supremes

By DanielSchuman March 21, 2022 18 min read

Welcome‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌First‌ ‌Branch‌ ‌Forecast,‌ ‌your‌ ‌regular‌ ‌look‌ ‌into‌ ‌the‌ ‌Legislative‌ ‌branch‌ ‌and‌ government ‌transparency.‌ ‌Tell ‌your‌ ‌friends‌ ‌to‌ subscribe. TOP LINE This week. The Senate is in; the House is out. This week, much attention will focus on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on SCOTUS nominee Hon. Ketanji Brown Jackson. Last week was packed with Sunshine […]

Tags: Office of Legal Counsel, Freedom of Information Act, Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act, Staff Pay, Congressional Unionization, US Capitol Police, January 6, Congressional Transparency Caucus, Whistleblower Protections, Political Violence, Advisory Committee on Transparency

Appropriations, Announcements and Statements, Appropriation Tracking, Blog posts, Reports & Analysis

Key Funding Items Included in the FY 2022 Legislative Branch Bill

By DanielSchuman March 12, 2022 6 min read

The FY 2022 appropriations omnibus was passed by both houses of Congress this past week and President Biden is expected to shortly sign the measure into law. The FY 2022 Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill was rolled into the package, and it is packed with good government reforms and significant investments in Congress’s capacity to legislate, […]

Tags: Appropriations, Staff Pay, US Capitol Police, MRA, Legislative Branch

Appropriations, Congressional Security, Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, Ethics and Influence, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

First Branch Forecast for February 14, 2022

By DanielSchuman February 14, 2022 19 min read

Welcome‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌First‌ ‌Branch‌ ‌Forecast,‌ ‌your‌ ‌regular‌ ‌look‌ ‌into‌ ‌the‌ ‌Legislative‌ ‌branch‌ ‌and‌ government ‌transparency.‌ ‌Tell ‌your‌ ‌friends‌ ‌to‌ subscribe. TOP LINE Schedule. The Senate is in this week; the House has a committee workweek. Both are on recess next week. The committee calendar is light, but I’ll be busy. On Thursday the House Admin Committee will […]

Tags: Congressional Unionization

Accountability and Oversight, Appropriations, Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, Modernization, Rules, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

First Branch Forecast: Top lines, bottom lines, effective oversight, and legislative nirvana (Nov. 8, 2021)

By DanielSchuman November 8, 2021 10 min read

Welcome‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌First‌ ‌Branch‌ ‌Forecast,‌ ‌your‌ ‌regular‌ ‌look‌ ‌into‌ ‌the‌ ‌Legislative‌ ‌branch‌ ‌and‌ ‌government ‌transparency.‌ ‌Tell ‌your‌ ‌friends‌ ‌to‌ subscribe. THE TOP LINE OOO. The Senate is in recess until the week of November 15th; no floor votes are scheduled in the House until the week of the 15th, although there are a few committee […]

Tags: Foreign Lobbying, Transparency, Office of Congressional Workplace Rights

Accountability and Oversight, Appropriations, Modernization, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

Forecast for October 25, 2021

By DanielSchuman October 25, 2021 17 min read

Welcome‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌First‌ ‌Branch‌ ‌Forecast,‌ ‌your‌ ‌regular‌ ‌look‌ ‌into‌ ‌the‌ ‌Legislative‌ ‌branch‌ ‌and‌ ‌government‌ ‌transparency.‌ ‌Tell ‌your‌ ‌friends‌ ‌to‌ subscribe. WE NEED YOUR HELP Many First Branch Forecast readers were unsubscribed from our newsletter for technical reasons that have nothing to do with us. The upshot: hundreds of people lost their subscriptions; many others had our emails go […]

Tags: Library of Congress, Foreign Lobbying, January 6, Leg Support Agencies, Whistleblower Protections

Appropriations, Blog posts, Reports & Analysis

First Reactions to Senate Democrats’ Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee Bill

By DanielSchuman October 20, 2021 4 min read

On Monday, the Senate Appropriations Committee Democrats released draft text, explanatory statements, and summaries for nine appropriations bills, including the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. We reviewed the bill text, explanatory report, and subcommittee bill summary and compared the proposed funding to the enacted levels from the last Congress. Senate Democratic Appropriators proposed a […]

Tags: Appropriations, House, Senate, Transparency, Leg Support Agencies

Appropriations, Congressional Security, Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, Modernization, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

Forecast for October 18, 2021

By DanielSchuman October 18, 2021 14 min read

Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your regular look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Tell your friends to subscribe. In the words of Ted Lasso, “I appreciate you.” THE TOP LINE Send me in, coach. The House returns on Tuesday with a fairly light floor schedule that suggests bigger legislation is afoot. The Senate reconvenes on Monday. In […]

Tags: Government Accountability Office, Staff Pay, Diversity and Inclusion, US Capitol Police, January 6, debt limit, Caucus Rules

Appropriations, Congressional Security, Modernization, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

Forecast for September 27, 2021

By DanielSchuman September 27, 2021 7 min read

Hey everyone, welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your regular look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Subscribe here. We had written a lot more but pared it down because that seemed the humane thing to do. Here’s the top things you need to know. Spending and budget. You already know that we’re in for […]

Tags: PLUM Act, Freedom of Information Act, Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act, US Capitol Police, NDAA

Appropriations, Congressional Security, Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, Ethics and Influence, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

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 […]

Tags: Foreign Lobbying, Office of Congressional Ethics, US Capitol Police, January 6, debt limit, NDAA, Whistleblower Protections

Key Policy Provisions Included in the FY 2022 Legislative Branch Bill and Joint Explanatory Statement

FY 2023 Leg Branch Approps Requests

First Branch Forecast for March 28, 2022: Statler and Waldorf

First Branch Forecast for March 21, 2022: Not the Supremes

Key Funding Items Included in the FY 2022 Legislative Branch Bill

First Branch Forecast for February 14, 2022

First Branch Forecast: Top lines, bottom lines, effective oversight, and legislative nirvana (Nov. 8, 2021)

Forecast for October 25, 2021

First Reactions to Senate Democrats’ Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee Bill

Forecast for October 18, 2021

Forecast for September 27, 2021

Forecast for September 20, 2021

Media Center

Contact Us

Subscribe to first branch forecast