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 part due to...

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 increasing by 75...

Next Thursday, the House Agriculture Committee is scheduled to hear testimony on reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC’s last full reauthorization was in 2008. Since then, its remit has expanded dramatically (after the post-2008 global financial reforms) to cover swaps, derivatives, and a much broader set of markets, including digital assets, environmental/commodity derivatives, and novel financial products. Reauthorizing CFTC is much more than a...