I. Work on the Hill
As March comes to an end, Republican leadership in Congress spent this month advancing an ambitious fiscal agenda through the budget reconciliation process. In mid-February, the House Budget Committee approved a FY2025 budget resolution on a party-line vote, launching this effort. The resolution instructs House committees to draft legislation achieving up to $2 trillion in spending cuts as offsets for roughly $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade. This framework would permit increasing the deficit by about $3.3 trillion while using reconciliation to sidestep Senate filibusters. Major savings targets include $880 billion from programs under the Energy & Commerce Committee (e.g., Medicaid), a point of contention as hospitals and advocates warn against deep Medicaid cuts. Republican leaders aim to unite their caucus around this plan despite concerns from Democrats (and some moderates) about its impact on social programs. Notably, any final budget will also need to address the debt ceiling by this summer – the debt limit reset in January and is projected to become binding as early as August 2025 if not suspended or raised.