OUR PERSPECTIVES

The House Appropriations Committee will convene a key oversight hearing later today to examine the U.S. Forest Service’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year, with testimony from Chief Tom Schultz. The hearing represents one of Congress’s primary opportunities to scrutinize both the administration’s funding priorities and the agency’s evolving direction. This will be Schultz’s first public testimony since the announcement of the relocation of the agency’s headquarters

When policymakers return to Washington, DC, after the Easter Recess, they will have quite an agenda waiting for them.  April and May will be busy on Capitol Hill, and here is a brief update on what to expect when Congress returns:  Analysis and Hearings Around the President’s Budget Request:  President Trump will send his proposed Fiscal Year 2027 Budget to Congress on April 3 rd .  These budget documents will outline his funding priorities and broader policy priorities in so

It’s easy to watch the headlines or the news and assume every policy in DC falls along partisan lines. But look a little closer, and you can easily find exceptions to that assumption. Many issues at their core have strong bipartisan support; it’s just finding the policy solutions that take work and compromise to bring both sides to the table. Breaking through requires stakeholders and congressional champions to be strategic in how they position and advance an issue. The issue

Republicans are kickstarting another reconciliation package, which means everything is back on the table. While some elements are likely to be included, such as SAVE America Act provisions that meet budget rules and funding tied to Iran, major questions remain. Reconciliation is one of the few opportunities for the party in power to move a wide range of priorities in a single vehicle. This reconciliation process is no different. While the Senate Byrd Bath requires that all pr

Last week, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis released its annual update on how the outdoor recreation sector contributes to state and national economies. We’re approaching 10 years since Congress unanimously passed the REC Act and directed BEA to produce this data. By now, for the industry, it’s like waiting for a report card. And in 2024, the sector showed resilience (data for 2025 will be out in the fall).   On an inflation-adjusted basis, the sector’s c

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced new investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to identify unfair trade practices.  These investigations -- similar to those under the first Trump Administration -- will likely be used to justify new country-specific Section 301 tariffs. The Administration has targeted the investigations at the following countries: China, the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Th

Every spring, Washington shifts into appropriations mode. Talk to any frenzied Hill staffer right now, and you’ll know that we’re in the midst of it. As it goes every year, the White House releases the President’s Budget, Congress begins soliciting funding requests, and appropriators begin hearings. For many organizations, this season is focused on one thing – securing funding. However, even if you’re not pursuing congressionally directed spending or increased programmatic fu

Check out the most recent #RuralReport for details on the House's recently marked-up farm bill and the possibility of additional farm aid being attached to the Iran funding supplement. Click here to download the full PDF version of the Rural Report.

Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee opened its electronic portal for FY27 earmark requests for House members, allowing them to submit programmatic, language, and Community Project Funding (CPF – the House’s designation for earmarks) requests on behalf of their constituents. Deadlines for each House account are below: Friday, March 13 th : ·       Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration ·       Commerce, Justice, and Science ·       Financial Ser

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a lower court’s ruling and determined that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not provide the president with the authority to initiate tariffs. This was somewhat expected given the general tenor of several justices during oral arguments months ago.  However, what comes next (which is already the subject of a large guessing game in DC) is somewhat unknown, with a few exceptions.  We do k

There are two realities in DC – (1) there are a lot of advocacy campaigns, and (2) many of them are fairly unsophisticated. Like many things, advocacy is an art, not a science. It requires know-how, flexibility, analysis of metrics, and a comprehensive plan. Most advocacy plans fail before they even launch, especially those driven by newcomers to this space. It is largely because they are either approaching advocacy in manner that is too simple and linear, or they are just no

Last week, House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson (R-PA) introduced the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 , their version of the Farm Bill designed to update federal agriculture, nutrition, rural development, conservation, and food policy. This bill aims to build on the agricultural, research, and conservation provisions that were enacted last year through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act  (H.R. 1) while completing the remaining policy frameworks across th

We are just under 265 days from the midterm elections (with early primaries just around the corner), so almost everything needs to be viewed through both a policy and political lens at this point...and increasingly so as the election nears.  Doing this helps to separate messaging from policy, while also appreciating how closely the two are aligned heading into a consequential election cycle.     Trade is no exception.  The President's tariff agenda has consistently been a tal

As soon as Congress passed a continuing resolution until January 30 th , pretty much everyone in DC circled the date on their calendar as the next possible government shutdown.  However, at the time, both parties were committed to avoiding that scenario – even if it meant another continuing resolution for the legislation not yet finalized in time.  All that said, we are now on the eve of a government shutdown that has complexities – policy, politics, and parliamentary logisti

Before a second killing by ICE agents in Minneapolis over the weekend created major objections to advancing increased Homeland Security funding (and could very well lead to the second government shutdown in 6 months), the remaining 6 FY26 appropriations bills were largely on a glidepath to final passage in the Senate. And despite one of the tensest political environments in modern history, the progress on moving 9 out of 12 appropriations bills up to this point is in no small

If we consider 2025 to be a year of undoing and sharp change in direction at the federal level, then we can look forward to 2026 shaped less by new headline-grabbing legislation and more by the consequences of decisions already on the books. Energy and environmental issues have always been shaped by hard-to-comprehend issue areas (such as changes to power plants and wonky emissions reduction schemes). However, this year the consumer will feel the impact of an aging grid on th

We are now 300 days away from the 2026 election, and, like most past elections, the economy will take center stage as the core issue of the campaign cycle, with a particular focus on the costs facing consumers and the overall issue of the affordability of goods, services, healthcare, and more.  And, it seems as though both sides of the political aisle want to have this debate.   While there may be many issues that are above the fold in papers every day, few are things that vo

Enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits are set to expire at the end of this month unless Congress takes action. These subsidies, first expanded under the American Rescue Plan and later extended by Congress, lowered monthly insurance premiums and pushed the so-called “subsidy cliff,” allowing many Americans to qualify for assistance for the first time. If the enhanced subsidies expire, premiums for marketplace plans will rise sharply in 2026, in many cases incr

With 323 days until the 2026 Midterm Elections, we are already seeing a high number of retirements. We looked back at the number of retirements in each party and chamber leading up to each election, as well as the electoral outcomes. Click here or the image below to download a full PDF version of the document.

Just yesterday, new regulatory obligations came down on “social media platforms” that operate in Australia. Prompted by concern that young users – kids under 16 – are especially exposed to harm on those platforms -- and unpersuaded that platform operators were doing enough to protect them -- last year, the Australian Parliament amended its Online Safety Act to essentially ban creating underage accounts. The new rules took effect on 10 December, Australian time. As an island n