House Republicans’ latest strategy to raise the debt limit next year while cutting trillions in spending is a risky one, requiring buy-in from conservatives who strongly oppose an increase in borrowing. But first you should know:
- Crypto lobbyists scored some major wins this year, but others on K Street weren’t so lucky. We have the winners and losers list.
- A national security panel has deadlocked on the sale of US Steel, leaving the final decision to President Joe Biden.
- RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine sentiments may prompt workers to push back against their employers’ vaccine requirements.
Republicans Plan to Tie Debt Limit to Trillions in Spending Cuts
Speaker Mike Johnson will try next year to increase the government’s authority to borrow money while committing to cutting trillions of dollars in spending over the next decade. Democrats say they’ll use the fight over the debt limit to try to slow down the Republican tax agenda.
The debt limit, which is set to kick in Jan. 1, became a stumbling block to the bipartisan agreement last week on a short-term spending package to keep the government open. President-elect Donald Trump initially urged lawmakers to repeal or otherwise postpone the statutory limit on how much the government can borrow before he takes office.
House Republican leaders told members they plan to raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion and cut $2.5 trillion in spending in a filibuster-proof bill they would pass through the budget reconciliation process, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) said members were told last week. GOP leadership did not outline what spending they would target. The $2.5 trillion in cuts couldn’t come from Social Security under reconciliation rules, and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said Medicare would also be off the table.
The newest plan is risky. It would require a nearly unanimous GOP vote to increase borrowing, something conservatives strongly oppose, but Tiffany said tying it to $2.5 trillion in spending cuts over a decade could be both palatable and realistic.
- “It’s $250 billion a year. So it isn’t that much money in Washington-speak,” Tiffany said.
Democrats who constantly decried Republicans for using the debt ceiling as a leveraging tool in the past changed their tune after Trump’s insistence on an extension.
- “They made it a bargaining tactic. And so, you know, I think it shouldn’t be used as a bargaining tactic, but they made it so. So we’re not walking away from that,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said. Read More
Programming Note
This newsletter will not publish on Dec. 25, due to the holiday. We’ll resume our normal publication schedule on Thursday, Dec. 26.
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Congress passed a late-night measure for the NFL team to potentially return to the nation’s capital. But not before the measure looked doomed after lawmakers stripped it from a year-end funding deal.
Other big legislative fights this year pit lobbying behemoths like pharmaceuticals and banks against competing sectors and injected millions of dollars into K Street.
Some of the biggest wins include:
- The cryptocurrency industry made bipartisan strides this Congress and is well-positioned for next year.
- Google and Meta stalled the Kids Online Safety Act.
- Pharmacy benefit managers narrowly avoided a brutal legislative loss after changes to the industry were initially included in the year.
Lobbyists who were less fortunate include:
- Boeing‘s lobbying operation has been through a rough year, starting in January when a door plug blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight.
- TikTok lost a big and swift lobbying fight in April when lawmakers hustled over the finish line a divest-or-ban measure.
- Transgender rights advocacy groups, including the Human Rights Campaign, lost a fight over a measure included in this year’s defense authorization that prohibits the military’s health-care program from providing gender treatment to transgender minors.
Kate Ackley breaks down this year’s biggest lobbying winners and losers. Read More
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