The Week Ahead: February 24 - 28, 2025

Driving the Week
Budget Reconciliation
The Senate passed Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) budget resolution early Friday morning. The House returns today, with Republican leadership planning to bring their budget resolution to the floor as soon as Tuesday. President Trump endorsed the House bill last week on Truth Social. However, the House plan lacks the budgetary flexibility to permanently extend the provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and implement the President’s additional priorities.

Some House Republicans are seeking assurance from leadership that the bill will not include significant cuts to Medicaid benefits. The resolution instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to cut $880 billion, a task that will be difficult to achieve without affecting Medicaid. Many of these members plan to meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) ahead of Tuesday’s vote. The Republican-led Congressional Hispanic Conference, led by Congressman Tony Gonzalez (R-TX), will meet with the Speaker on Monday. Notably, an amendment offered by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) to align with the House Republicans' proposed spending cuts was voted down in the Senate during last week’s vote-a-rama.

Appropriations
The current continuing resolution (CR) funding the federal government will expire In 18 days, on March 14th. While House and Senate appropriators have been meeting regularly and exchanging offers, an agreement has not been reached on a top-line funding level or additional terms to guide the completion of the FY 2025 appropriations process. An additional CR is expected to be necessary to fund the government beyond March 14th, lawmakers are reportedly evaluating a three-month extension or an extension that lasts for the remainder of the fiscal year. Both the House and the Senate will need Democratic support or acquiescence to pass the next CR, but Democrats have indicated they are unlikely to cooperate without assurances that the Administration will honor the direction in the appropriations bills. 


Congress
House
The House will meet at noon for morning hour. At 2:00 pm, the House will begin consideration of legislation under suspension of the rules. The full suspension calendar is linked here.

Senate
The Senate meets at 3:00 pm and will vote on a motion to invoke cloture on Daniel Driscoll’s nomination to be the Secretary of the Army at 5:30 pm.


Key Events
Monday

• House Committee on Rules Hearing on H. Con Res. 14, H.J. Res. 20, H.J. Res. 35
• House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization Oversight Hearing on From Reset to Rollout: Can the VA EHRM Program Finally Deliver

Tuesday

• House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade Hearing on American Trade Enforcement Priorities
• House Appropriations Interior- Environment Subcommittee Hearing on American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Hearing
• House and Senate Veterans Affairs Joint Hearing on Legislative Presentation of Disabled American Veterans and Multi VSOs
• Senate Commerce Committee Nominations Hearing on Michael Kratsios to Lead the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Mark Meador to Serve as Federal Trade Commissioner

Wednesday

• House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Hearing on Leading the Charge: Opportunities to Strengthen America’s Energy Reliability
• House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Hearing on An Examination of How Reining in PBMs Will Drive Competition and Lower Costs for Patients
• Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Hearing on Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Implementation and Case Studies
• Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Digital Assets Hearing on Exploring Bipartisan Legislation Frameworks for Digital Assets

Thursday

• ​Senate HELP Committee Executive Session on Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination to be Secretary of Labor
• Senate Commerce Committee Hearing on Grand Theft Cargo; Examining a Costly Threat to Consumers and the US Supply Chain

White House/Administration
The President will host French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House beginning at 8:00 am with a Group of Seven call to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war. This afternoon, they will hold a press conference.

On Thursday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet with the President at the White House.

ICYMI​
On Friday, a federal judge extended an order to keep the DOGE team out of the Treasury Department’s payment systems.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will soon restart some wildfire grants.
On Saturday, DOGE Chairman Elon Musk sent an email to federal employees asking them to summarize their prior week’s accomplishments on the job in several bullet points.