Back Home With the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill': BGOV Starting Line

How’s It Resonating?

Members of Congress are at home this week, with House members likely catching up on sleep after last week’s 48-hour marathon to pass President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill.”

It’s a safe bet none of them knew much about what they were voting on last Thursday in the five-ish wee hours between the release of bill text and the final gavel.

This is the week they’ll learn about it.

There’s a constituency for every major proposed policy change, with lobbyists attached who have no problem using CTRL-F to learn exactly how the bill treats their issue and what to give their member an earful about.

Take credit unions, who want senators to keep their mitts off a long-standing tax exemption. The House bill didn’t touch it, thanks in part to $1.2 million spent in the first quarter of 2025 on lobbying to protect it, writes Bloomberg Tax’s Zach C. Cohen.

It’s a safe bet senators will be hearing from some of their hometown credit unions outside the beltway. Conveniently, lobbyists for America’s Credit Unions, a trade association, include a former aide to Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.). Read More

The more globally minded executives might be whispering to their representatives that the bill’s “revenge tax"—which targets countries like Canada, the UK, France, and Australia that impose “digital services taxes” on large technology companies—may not be the best thing for multinational companies that hold US assets.

‘We’re Not D.C.’

In keeping with the recess theme, members at home might be surprised to learn that their state governors are already looking to weather the impact of US tariffs by brokering their own deals with other countries.

According to Bloomberg Government’s Brenna Goth, leaders from nearly a dozen states have promoted foreign partnerships on trade missions this year to Canada, South Korea, Taiwan, and beyond. Gubernatorial trade missions—often a routine part of the job to burnish their reputation on the international stage—took on greater urgency in the last four months.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) traveled in March to Taiwan to meet with President Lai Ching-te and tech companies. Taiwanese semiconductor company TSMC announced that month an additional $100 billion in US investment that adds to the $65 billion already committed to its Arizona facilities.

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) told Goth that he sees the tariffs as an opportunity to reshuffle the trade cards, for example by promoting his state’s low-carbon natural gas to countries like Japan and Taiwan that are weighing their environmental footprints.

Oh, and in case the public’s view of the nation’s capital as a “swamp” is in any doubt, some governors, like California’s Gavin Newsom (D), are trying to distance themselves from it. He addressed Canadians directly in a video describing California as “a world away in mindset” from Washington, D.C. Read More

Eye on the Economy

Two major economic indicators are being released today, (1) the Commerce Department’s report on orders for durable goods in April and (2) the Conference Board’s gauge of consumer confidence.

Last month, both figures showcased shakiness in the economy. Consumer confidence dipped to an almost five-year low, the weakest since May 2020. It marked the fifth straight monthly decline, the longest such stretch since 2008, according to Bloomberg News. Read More

Orders for durable goods—items meant to last more than three years such as toasters, washers and dryers, and even aircraft—were up 9.2%, but only because of a 139% jump in orders for commercial aircraft, according to Bloomberg News. The value of core capital goods, a proxy for business investment in equipment and buildings, rose a measly 0.1 percent in March. Read More

Before You Go

Republicans in Congress have passed more resolutions this year to undo the work of the Biden administration than a previous GOP-led Congress passed during Trump’s first term to unravel Obama regulations.

Bloomberg Government’s Dan Lee unpacks the current administration’s use of the Congressional Review Act, a legislative tool that allows lawmakers to bypass the Senate filibuster on resolutions to cancel agency actions within a 60-day window. Those 60 days are measured in “legislative days,” which means the time period for voiding the previous administration’s actions typically stretch into May.

Read More and download the OnPoint here.

The Republican congressional majority has made liberal use of the CRA in both of Trump’s terms, rescinding 16 Obama rules in his first term and 17 Biden rules in this term. Trump hasn’t signed all of this year’s crop. There are currently eight on his desk. But given that three of them target blue-state California environmental rules (yes, under a questionable definition of the 60-day window), it’s a fair bet Trump’s signature is simply a matter of time.

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