Programming Note: The Topline will be taking a break for the congressional recess and will be back in your inbox on Friday, May 2nd.
Reconciliation Results: House Republicans passed their Senate-amended budget resolution before departing for the two-week Easter/Passover congressional recess. Following some discussions with hesitant members on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) made a verbal pledge to work with the House to make substantial cuts, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) adding that many House Republicans are going to look for minimum cuts of $1.5 trillion over 10 years. Passage of the bill was a major milestone for Republican leadership in both chambers, allowing them to now move forward on implementing President Trump's agenda.
After the vote, Speaker Johnson noted that the reconciliation process will continue after the scheduled recess, when bills will be considered by the authorizing committees and assembled into one reconciliation bill for consideration. While undeniably a crucial step forward, remember that the budget resolution is only the basic framework for the final reconciliation bill. The thorniest parts of the process, including program cuts and tax legislation, still need to be hammered out over the coming months, as deep divisions remain within the Republican party over the details.
FY26 Guidance Released: Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have released their member guidance for FY26 requests. The House guidance specifies that the Committee will open its electronic portal to receive member requests on April 14th. House subcommittee due dates range from May 2nd to the 23rd. As was the case in prior years, members are limited to 15 Community Project Funding requests, and any projects that were included in House Reports for FY25 must be resubmitted. The Senate guidance has subcommittee deadlines ranging from May 9th through June 4th and limits the number of Congressionally Directed Spending requests each senator may submit to certain subcommittees and/or accounts (though that limit is significantly higher than in the House).
Delighted Defense-Hawks: This week, Congress got its first sneak peek into the President's FY26 budget request, even though a "skinny" budget request is not expected until later this month. During a press conference earlier this week, President Trump stated that the U.S. would be approving a $1 trillion defense budget for FY26. This would be an almost $180 billion dollar increase over FY25 funding for the Department of Defense. It is unclear if this budget also includes national security spending typically appropriated under other agencies, such as nuclear programs within the Department of Energy, or even defense funding expected to be included in the reconciliation bill. Either way. This is an area to keep an eye on as the FY26 appropriations process continues to ramp up.
ICYMI: Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) said on Thursday that President Trump will send over the Administration's fully fleshed-out FY26 budget request in mid-May. However, House and Senate appropriators are not waiting to see the full budget proposal before starting FY26 hearings, which will resume when Congress returns from recess.
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