Congress on Edge
Conservatives wary of secret talks to keep government open. Bloomberg: "Members of Congress are back home for a two-week recess ... Government funding expires on April 28, which will give Congress five days [when they return] ... a bipartisan group of lawmakers has been quietly negotiating an omnibus spending bill ... Nobody has seen the result yet, which leaves conservatives deeply suspicious about why their party’s leaders are waiting so long to unveil the legislation.
Trump starts over on tax reform. AP: "President Donald Trump has scrapped the tax plan he campaigned on and is going back to the drawing board in a search for Republican consensus ... Administration officials say it's now unlikely that a tax overhaul will meet the August deadline set by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin ... One [idea] circulating this past week would change the House Republican plan to eliminate much of the payroll tax and cut corporate tax rates. This would require a new dedicated funding source for Social Security ..."
Nothing for the Wall
No money for the wall. The Hill: "GOP leaders are expected to exclude the money in the spending bill being prepared to keep the government open beyond April 28 ... With Democrats united against new wall funding, it’s unlikely the Republicans have the votes to get it through ... some Republicans are concerned that deteriorating relations with Mexico may be too high a price to pay for the wall ..."
States battle cities over "sanctuary" policies. The Hill: "Legislators in 33 states have introduced measures to limit or prevent cities from acting as sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants. Only one state this year, Mississippi, has enacted a ban on sanctuary jurisdictions ... The clash between states seeking to impose their will and the cities that want to harbor undocumented immigrants is likely to head to court in many jurisdictions."
Gorsuch Seated
Gorsuch will impact Court immediately. LAT: "...Gorsuch joins the Supreme Court just in time to cast potentially significant votes in cases that pit religious liberty against gay rights, test limits on funding for church schools and challenge California’s restrictions on carrying a concealed gun in public."
But Merrick Garland's influence may still be felt. Politico: "...an article Garland wrote more than three decades ago has emerged as a kind of playbook for those plotting the legal resistance to Trump’s campaign to unwind regulations ... Garland argued that agencies revoking regulations must have at least as good a basis for killing a rule as they did for issuing it — and that the action be consistent with congressional intent ... news stories from the Reagan era described the Washington-based federal appeals court [the Garland now presides over] as a key obstacle to that administration’s regulatory agenda."
Breakfast Sides
Republicans increasingly defending Obamacare. The Hill: "Many House Republicans are now defending ObamaCare’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions, in the face of an effort by the conservative House Freedom Caucus to repeal them. Some Republican lawmakers are also speaking out in favor of ObamaCare’s expansion of Medicaid and its mandates that insurance plans cover services such as mental health and prescription drugs."
Republicans wield Congressional Review Act to circumvent filibusters. Politico: "The Congressional Review Act, a 21-year-old law that created a fast track for wiping out 'midnight rules' finalized late in a presidential administration, had only been used once before this year. But Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have already deployed it 11 times to strike down Obama-era regulations ... Under the CRA, Republicans have until early May to eliminate Obama rules finalized after last June ..."
Trump could wreck Census. Politico: "Already, Congress’ inability to agree on a full-year funding measure for fiscal 2017 has forced the Census Bureau to cancel multiple field tests and delay opening three field offices. It also had to cut back on new, less labor-intensive methods for verifying household addresses, a critical undertaking that was supposed to make the 2020 Census more cost-effective and accurate. And more broadly, the Trump administration’s hardline rhetoric and executive orders cracking down on undocumented immigrants may already be creating a major new risk for the census, making members of minority and immigrant communities less likely to respond."
