Suddenly Capitol Hill is a beehive for federal issues
"That December 20th deadline, only two weeks away, no one wants the government to shut down," said Bloomberg Government Deputy News Director Loren Duggan.
Between the nominees of President-elect Donald Trump traipsing up the Senate and the 2025 budget deadline Capitol Hill has become a beehive of activity. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin gets a roundup of what to watch from Bloomberg Government Deputy News Director Loren Duggan.
Interview transcript:
Tom Temin The budget continuing resolution, of course, is over very soon. And I guess there’s work going on?
Loren Duggan There is work going on. Lots of discussions about what to do, how long to do it for and what to attach to it. That was one of the two packages that they were thinking about and working toward achieving because that December 20th deadline, only two weeks away, no one wants the government to shut down. They’d like to get something done and go into the new year with funding in place. But some of the big questions are what do you do about disaster aid, which has been a big debate and a long standing one, because there’s a request out there, many needs across the country that they’re hoping to address as part of that stopgap spending plan.
Tom Temin Right. The situation in North Carolina seems to be kind of festering week after week with not a lot of federal money apparently flowing there to help those people out.
Loren Duggan That’s right. That’s one of the areas and that’s an area that has Republicans and Democrats in it. So there’s bipartisan support for that. And when you look nationwide at whether it’s the fire in Maui back in 2023 or the hurricanes elsewhere in Florida or even something like the Baltimore bridge collapse, this is a bipartisan, not a partisan thing. And the question is, how much do you package together? Does it need to be offset? There seems to be some people wanting that, but probably pressure not to do that. But that’s kind of the contours of the debate that they’re having amongst themselves about what to do with that.
Tom Temin And the parallel debate is the national defense bill, Senate and House versions, still some significant reconciliation to go.
Loren Duggan They’ve made a lot of progress there and could get a vote as soon as this week if everything’s ready to go and they can line up support for it. There was a big gap on the top line there, $25 Billion more in the Senate than in the House. And then the House had many provisions that are more culture war issues that the Senate is probably not likely to accept. So the final version, if they get all the I’s dotted and T’s crossed, could get across the line pretty quickly, probably with wide bipartisan support sometime, like I said, maybe this week in the House next week in the Senate, just depending on if it’s ready. But those are really the two twin packages that need to go and vehicles for other things that could move before they leave for the year.
Tom Temin Right. Because there’s some stand alone bills. I think [Rep.] Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.), who’s leaving Congress, has a bill to help federal employees get back into the government if they leave for some family reason or career pause. But the standalone bills like that, they don’t get a lot of attention these days.
Loren Duggan They don’t get a lot of attention, and they have to be pretty far along. There’s a list, the House does things every week under suspension of the rules, which is if it has two thirds support, it can go through quickly. There are some bills like that this week that have support, whether it’s things about zip codes or some government efficiency things, things like that that have broad bipartisan support. If Wexton could get enough support, that one could move over the line easier. She could have gotten it stuck into one of these vehicles that’s moving as well. So we’ll see. On her bill in particular about getting people back in was a “returnship” program — kind of “not an internship but a returnship” — for people who had left the government and may want to come back.
Tom Temin Yeah, sounds like the Queen Mary, the “returnship.” And I guess it’s significant that many members of Congress would entertain Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, traipsing up there and listening to it. It’s not everything they’re saying, I guess, is not taken as totally outlandish.
Loren Duggan No, it’s not. And they had a reception. This was like brainstorming sessions in the House, in the Senate. And there are groups that have been formed to match it, like what they’re calling DOGE caucuses after the Department of Government Efficiency, which is what this commission or entity will be known as. So there’s a caucus in the House, caucus in the Senate, and then there will be a subcommittee formed under Marjorie Taylor Greene, who will kind of be the liaison between whatever’s happening in their arrangement and what the Hill wants to do. So there’s a give and take. Not everyone’s buying it hook, line and sinker. And some people are saying if you’re only going after discretionary spending or somethings there that won’t find you all the money you need, there needs to be talk about entitlements. But there was at least an open reception and a lot of interest from folks like us in the media, because those are two big names. And Elon Musk is a big deal in all sorts of areas.
Tom Temin All right. We’re speaking with Loren Duggan, deputy news director of Bloomberg Government. And what about that bill to add judgeships that would subdivide the circuits and so forth and make room for more judges?
Loren Duggan That’s a bill that was passed by the Senate over the summer and it’s come over to the House. It had the bipartisan backing at one point. But as one of our reporter, Suzanne Monyak has reported, Democrats are getting a little wary of it at this point because it would add some, I think, 66 judgeships over several years, But that would give Donald Trump more judicial positions to fill once he takes office next year. It’s scheduled, I believe, for a vote in the House Rules Committee, which would set it up for a vote on the floor. It could get through if there are no changes, that would had to President Biden, he’d have to decide what to do with it. But there are a lot of places that have fewer judges per person than they’d like. So there are needs around the country and the judiciary itself recognizes that and has asked for more judgeships across the country to be created.
Tom Temin And as we said at the top, there are a lot of nominees now that require Senate consent and advice there. And they have been heading up, some doing well, some not so well. What can we expect to see between now and Christmas time?
Loren Duggan I mean, more of that. The nominations themselves get up officially on January 20th after Donald Trump’s sworn in. But there’s a lot that happens before then. Committees are having these meetings. And the first time that the chairman for next year meets with this nominee is usually the big one. But as we saw with Pete Hegseth last week, making the rounds with lots of senators, trying to make his case, we’ll see more of that this week with different nominees as they continue to be named, because Donald Trump has been naming folks to lots of different positions below the cabinet that are of interest to certain members in certain committees. So that will be a very important pipeline this week for activity.
Tom Temin Yeah, fair to say Pete Hegseth is not toasting them and them him with bourbon or anything like that.
Loren Duggan Probably not, given that he said he’d stave off if he got the job.
Tom Temin And then Marsha Blackburn has a bill on return to the office for federal employees.
Loren Duggan Yes, that’s a package of bills called “DOGE acts,” going back to the Department of Government Efficiency we talked about, where she’s trying to maybe stave off the size of the federal workforce, keep it where it is, get people back to the office and maybe move some departments out of town. That’s probably an opening discussion that other members will have. But there was a report from Joni Ernst, who’s part of the efficiency efforts here, who said that there’s low uptake to coming back to the office, that she’d like to see change. Obviously, Ramaswamy and Musk have said they want to see federal workers back. So I think that’s a a theme we’re going to hear a lot of going into the new year about getting folks back to the office more, maybe five days a week even.
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Tom Temin
Tom Temin is host of the Federal Drive and has been providing insight on federal technology and management issues for more than 30 years.
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