The Senate parliamentarian’s ruling allowing Democrats to sidestep a GOP filibuster only one more time in 2021 is forcing Democratic lawmakers to rethink how they can advance President Biden’s agenda. Democratic aides now say the $2.3 trillion infrastructure package will have to be even bigger since they have just one more opportunity before the 2022 election […]

Draft legislation to update the landmark biomedical innovation law 21st Century Cures will likely come out in early June, lawmakers behind the bill said. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) indicated they want to pass their bill, known as Cures 2.0, by the end of the year, although they acknowledged the pandemic has set back their work. […]

Infrastructure, appropriations, and more are on the congressional to-do list now that President Joe Biden has signed the $1.9 billion Covid-19 relief package into law. Bloomberg Government legislative analysts held a webinar today, looking back at the American Rescue Plan Act and to what’s ahead for the rest of 2021. All eyes are on Biden’s […]

With slim majorities in Congress, Democrats could use budget reconciliation to pass another coronavirus stimulus measure and other priorities without Republican votes. Reconciliation can be used to enact legislation using expedited procedures in the Senate, but it must be budgetary in nature under what’s known as the Byrd Rule. That can limit the types of […]

The budget reconciliation process is a powerful tool that allows lawmakers to advance spending and tax policies through the Senate with a simple majority. Used in the past to advance major tax cuts and enact portions of the Affordable Care Act, Democrats may use reconciliation in 2021 to achieve their policy priorities and deliver President-elect […]