President Donald Trump’s Tuesday evening address to a joint session of Congress headlines another busy week at the Capitol — and don’t look now, but there are less than two weeks until the current government funding law expires.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., previewing the speech that does not officially qualify as a State of the Union message, said Sunday that, “in this case, it actually will be more like a State of the Union address, because President Trump has such a long series of victories, things that he has done, promises he has kept, and it is putting America back on a strong footing, and we can’t wait to welcome him back to the chamber.”
Johnson also confirmed that all signs are pointing toward a continuing resolution to extend funding for the balance of fiscal 2025.
“The Democrats in Congress were trying to demand that as a condition of appropriations, that we would somehow tie the hands of the president, limit his authority, you know, put Elon Musk in a corner and take him off of his mission. We’re not doing that. That’s a nonstarter, and Democrats know that, so I hope they’ll be reasonable,” Johnson said Sunday on Fox News.
The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, “remains ready, willing and able to talk with our Republican colleagues, but there has been zero outreach from the Trump administration and House Republicans have walked away from the negotiating table,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a statement on Sunday.
Johnson also said in his Sunday show appearances that he envisioned the process looking different for fiscal 2026, which begins on Oct. 1, with efforts to solidify the cuts made by Musk and the office known as the Department of Government Efficiency.
DOGE and its associated efforts have been causing chaos across the national capital region, with mass terminations at a host of federal agencies. Federal workers who have lost their jobs amid the upheaval will be expected to be guests of Democratic lawmakers at Trump’s speech.
The Senate nominations train keeps rolling Monday with the expected confirmation of Linda McMahon as secretary of Education. Senators on Thursday voted 51-47 to limit debate on the McMahon nomination before breaking for the weekend.
There are several other key nominees out of committee and awaiting floor votes, headlined by former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Labor.
There’s an abundance of confirmation hearings on the Senate schedule as well, including an Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday on the nomination of Elbridge Colby to be undersecretary of Defense for policy. The Foreign Relations Committee also hears from Trump nominees Tuesday, including Matthew Whitaker, the nominee to lead the United States at NATO.
Whitaker, who was acting attorney general for a time in the first Trump administration, will surely face questions about the relationship between the administration and America’s traditional European allies, as well as the aftermath of the Friday Oval Office blowup with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Musk, a top adviser to the president, said in a post on X this weekend that “I agree” with a statement about the United States leaving the transatlantic alliance.
On the floor, after the McMahon confirmation vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has set the first order of business as a procedural vote on a bill sponsored by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., that would require Title IX determinations in athletic competitions to be based only on gender as assigned at birth, a measure that targets transgender women athletes. The House passed a similar measure in January by a vote of 218-206.
The Monday vote, to limit debate on the motion to proceed, would require 60 votes to advance. Trump has already signed a related executive order.
House to vote on blocking Biden regulations
The House this week is set to take up a trio of joint resolutions of disapproval, as the Republican majorities in Congress keep up their efforts to nullify rules from the final months of the Biden administration using the Congressional Review Act.
The list includes a measure, already passed by the Senate, to stop a rule from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management requiring identification of archaeological locations like shipwrecks near offshore drilling sites.
There’s also measures that would stop a rule on national emissions standards for the production of rubber tires, and one stopping a Department of Energy rule expanding energy conservation standards and labeling requirements for some appliances.
David Jordan contributed to this report.
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