The Washington Report

House and Senate are both in session all week, trying to get work done before taking a week-long 4th of July recess … Senate stalls on H.R. 4, the Rescissions Act … reconciliation bill moves through the Byrd Bath, with lots of Byrd Droppings … President Trump orders B-2 stealth bombers to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat by dropping multiple 30,000-lb bombs … all this and more.

House is out, Senate is in for a short week … Speaker Mike Johnson Rabbit-out-of-a-Hat Alert: The House passes the rescissions package and sends it to the Senate … President Trump calls out the National Guard in CA, even as CA’s senior US Senator interrupts a DHS press conference and gets handcuffed in the process … reconciliation is still moving through the Senate, setting up votes when they come back next week … all this and more.

Just what is the Byrd Rule, anyway? You’ll understand it after watching today’s broadcast … House and Senate are in — the House will consider a rescissions package to claw back already-approved spending, while the Senate will consider more Trump nominees … major moves on the illegal immigration front, including riots in Los Angeles as both the mayor and the governor refuse to allow police forces under their control to help assist federal law enforcement authorities do their jobs; President Trump responds by federalizing the California National Guard … all this and more.

House and Senate come back for a work session before the July 4th recess with a big agenda — passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill through the Senate, and passage of a rescissions package through both houses … and Senate Dems are trying to block Trump nominees from confirmation, and it’s time for Senate GOPers to step up … all this and more.

House and Senate are back for one more week before taking a short Memorial Day recess … it’s all about RECONCILIATION — which committee was at its markup for more than an entire 24-hour day before it finished up its work? Which committee held a meeting at 10 PM on a SUNDAY night? Find out the details and more...

Think about this — Qatar may be about to gift a $400 million Boeing airplane to the U.S. Government … the U.S. and China may have come to a trade deal that ends the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies … Ukraine may have turned the diplomatic tables on Russia … the U.S. Government may have figured out a way to lower drug prices, or maybe it hasn’t … and the latest on the budget reconciliation fight … all this and more.

House GOP leadership, still in search of consensus on its “Big, Beautiful Bill," holds up markups on reconciliation … Pentagon IG expands investigation into Signalgate … Trump ousts National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, replaces him temporarily (?) with Secretary of State Marco Rubio … Trump releases 2026 budget, with $163 billion in cuts to domestic discretionary spending and a whopping 13% INCREASE to national security spending … all this and more.

House and Senate return, and take up the task of actually drafting legislation on the reconciliation bill … Pentagon Chaos, Week Two unfolds, but President Trump thinks the Secretary of Defense is doing just fine, thank you … Just what, exactly, did President Trump say about raising taxes on high earners? … a Milwaukee judge helps an illegal alien evade arrest by ICE and gets arrested herself by the FBI … George Santos sentenced … all this and more.

House leadership releases reconciliation committee markup schedule … what’s going on at the Pentagon … will Putin get what he wants just by waiting out Trump? … White House prepares a spending cuts package for Congress’ return … all this and more.

The House follows the Senate in passing a budget resolution to unlock the magic of the reconciliation process and then gets out of town for two weeks … we’re in Week Two of Liberation Day, and the world is still reeling … DOGE has new numbers on how many MILLIONS of noncitizens were granted Social Security numbers during the Biden administration, and it’s not a pretty picture … all this and more.