Senate Democrats are scrambling to patch together a scaled-down version of President Biden’s failed Build Back Better Act for a vote this summer. Build Back Better was a bad bill when the economy was stronger and even a scaled-down version is worse in our current economic environment.
The original bill died because, with all Republican senators opposed, it needed the support of all 50 Democratic senators. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) withheld his support and walked away fr...
Opinion
Republicans aren’t guaranteed to sweep the midterms, but if they do, here’s what to expect
window.loadAnvato({"mcp":"LIN","width":"100%","height":"100%","video":"7817084","autoplay":false,"expect_preroll":true,"pInstance":"p1","plugins":{"comscore":{"clientId":"6036439","c3":"thehill.com","version":"5.2.0","useDerivedMetadata":true,"mapping":{"c3":"thehill.com","ns_st_st":"hill","ns_st_pu":"Nexstar","ns_st_ge":"Hill.TV","cs_ucfr":""}},"dfp":{"adTagUrl":"https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=1x1000&iu=/5678/nx.thehill/just_in/landing&ciu_szs=3...
The debt ceiling strategy is no excuse to go nuclear on the filibuster
Pressure to “nuke” the Senate filibuster is rising among Democrats as they seek to legislate new policy on such divisive issues as voting, guns and abortion. Last week, even President Joe Biden joined the chorus calling for a “carve-out” in Senate rules to codify now-defunct Roe v. Wade protections. One argument put forth by party activists, writers and even Hillary Clinton points to their success in raising the debt limit in December 202...
Why are laws so long and complicated?
Americans often complain that our laws are too complicated, with many statutes running to dozens or even hundreds of pages of dense language. When the late Herman Cain was briefly the frontrunner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, he drew sustained applause by vowing to veto any bill longer than three pages.
More serious political figures in both parties realize that complex issues – such as health care, taxes and national security – must be addressed in detail. ...
Federal government getting ready to open its books and show us the receipts
As members of Congress and staff dig into President Biden’s 2023 budget request, they have a new tool for tracking when, where, and how the president is authorizing federal agencies to spend money — but Congress, and the public, needs to know this new tool exists. It comes in the form of apportionment transparency, an instrument designed to reinforce Congress’s power of the purse.
In Federalist No. 58, James Madison described the power of the purse — or the legislature’s autho...
Justice Breyer’s collegiality and civility will be sorely missed
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will be missed — not necessarily for his votes but for his voice, one that valued collegiality and civility on an increasingly politicized court.
The 83-year-old Breyer is stepping down after 28 distinguished years on the High Court. He came into public service at a time when compromise and searching for consensus were common in politics and in the courts.
He's leaving at a time when that sort of comity is rare — incl...
To advance equity, score it like the budget
It is often said that we measure what we value. Since 1974, we have assigned a high value to the price tag of new bills: The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation score legislation for their effects on our national budget.
These scores matter for the public debate around a proposal, but they also matter for policy. For example, after CBO’s budget scoring projected that the Affordable Care Act would cost more than predicted, the bill was rev...
Latino families are facing a health coverage cliff — Congress must intervene
Last month, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra extended the COVID-19 public health emergency through mid-July, a decision that helped maintain access for some of the 86 million Americans currently relying on Medicaid.
The secretary knows that while two-thirds of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated, the pandemic is not yet over. Cases are continuing to rise this week, and more than 160,000 Latinos have died ...