Originally published The to-do list for Congress gets longer over recess on by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/congress/2025/04/the-to-do-list-for-congress-gets-longer-over-recess/ at Federal News Network
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Members of Congress are back in their home districts, but the list of things they’ll have to tackle when they come back keeps getting longer. A budget reconciliation bill is top priority, but now they also have to think about how presidential executive orders, Department of Government Efficiency-directed closures, and tariffs are affecting their constituents at home. Federal News Network’s Terry Gerton got the details from Bloomberg Government Senior Reporter Jack Fitzpatrick on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
Interview transcript:
Jack Fitzpatrick They have a lot of differences to sort out. Fortunately, they have to sort out a lot differences when they actually craft a bill anyway. The downside for Republicans who have been negotiating this is typically at this point of the reconciliation process, if the House and Senate have adopted a budget resolution that basically has the framework for what that bill should look like in broad terms, you’d hope that the House Senate would have agreed to the same exact framework for both chambers. They did not do that. The House Conservatives have been pushing for stricter requirements for spending cuts, and they have some differences on how they want to prioritize Defense versus border spending, but the fight over spending cuts is the big one. And the Senate Republicans, while saying they support the idea of major cuts to offset the effect of tax cuts, have not required that in that document that they approved to set the stage for this negotiation of the bill. So they’re almost starting at square one and the House Republicans have said they really want to take the lead negotiating that bill because they didn’t make major demands of the Senate in voting for the budget resolution. So there’s a big fight to be had over exactly how much they need to cut from spending and how much room that creates for tax cuts.
Terry Gerton Yeah, there really are billions of dollars of difference between the House version and the Senate version. Where’s the trade space to find the consensus to move this forward?
Jack Fitzpatrick It’s a tough question. I think that the biggest part of that that they need to negotiate is exactly where they come down on Medicaid. The House, by setting a floor, nominally, of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts as offsets, but functionally basically calling for $2 trillion, raised the bar very high. And if you look committee by committee, they said we need to cut $880 billion from the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has the jurisdiction for Medicaid. Even the Congressional Budget Office has acknowledged you couldn’t possibly get that number without touching Medicaid at all. There are concerns among some senators who have brought this up. [Sen.] Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), for example, saying – and House Republicans from moderate districts saying – they don’t want to cut Medicaid. Now, can you cap the increase in projected future spending? Do you find savings that aren’t direct cuts to Medicaid? That’s the big question. That seems to be the biggest gap between the House and Senate and the biggest political challenge to see if there really is middle ground between the hardcore conservatives in the Freedom Caucus in the House, and the more moderate members like your Lisa Murkowski, [Sen.] Susan Collins (R-Maine), those types.
Terry Gerton Well, as the members have been back in their districts over the last week or so, there’ve been a lot of protests, the hands-off protests, and one of the things that those placards say is “hands off Medicaid.” So how is that all going to play? How are members taking that public sentiment on board when it comes to making these really difficult compromises?
Jack Fitzpatrick Yeah, it’s notable that a number of Republicans have not been having town halls lately, and that’s to be expected at a pressure cooker moment politically when they’re negotiating a really tough bill. But there are members who represent swing districts who have spoken out and said they’re not going to support cuts to Medicaid. There are a lot of members to keep an eye on. And I mentioned Senator Murkowski, Senator Collins. It’s in the House, too. Someone like [Rep.] David Valadeo (R-Calif.), from a pretty competitive district in California, have all made statements to varying degrees saying they reserve the right to oppose this final bill if they’re not satisfied with what happens on Medicaid. And you’re right that when they hear from constituents, when they talk about their constituents’ priorities, concerns over Medicaid are one of clearly the most politically sensitive topics at play here.
Terry Gerton I’m speaking with Jack Fitzpatrick, senior reporter with Bloomberg Government. So thinking about other things they might or might not be hearing while they’re at home in their districts, you’ve been reporting on some of the broad takeaways of [the Department of Government Efficiency]’s proposals for federal office closures. [The General Services Administration] just posted, what, eight for immediate sale and another 41 that are going to be listed for disposition? What are you finding in terms of trends there? How is that playing back in middle America?
Jack Fitzpatrick Yeah, well, it’s a very, very direct question for middle America. If you look at the proposed lease cancelations that DOGE has up on their website, because after sifting through all the numbers, there’s 653 proposals to cancel federal office leases, and they do actually seem to be disproportionately weighted toward rural areas. It seems that that is because a lot of the agencies with a large real estate footprint, at least that are leasing office spaces, are spread across rural areas. It’s a lot of Department of the Interior agencies, actually the number one agency facing the most office closures pushed by DOGE is the Fish and Wildlife Service. So there’s some strange kind of surprising trends. Batesville, Arkansas, which is about a population of 12,000, faces as many office closures for the lease cancelations as Arlington, Virginia, which is kind of counterintuitive. Eastern Kentucky faces the same number as New York City. So it is pretty focused on rural areas, at least when it comes to what’s being pushed by Elon Musk and DOGE for these lease cancelation. And that has sparked a bit of some pushback from members of Congress. That’s still up in the air because members of Congress are still attempting to talk them out of closing things down in their states. And it’s an ongoing fight.
Terry Gerton Well, there are some of the other [executive orders] that are going to have similar sorts of impacts. Are you hearing that when Congress gets back to town, they may take up legislation to formalize any of those executive orders? I’m thinking reorganizing federal procurement, maybe addressing the ability of the President to declare an emergency. Any of those may be coming up on a legislative agenda?
Jack Fitzpatrick In a lot of ways, Congress is deferring to the president on the things we have seen him act on through executive orders. I mentioned there is pushback at times to DOGE proposals to close offices, but there’s a lot of latitude given to President Trump, by Republicans at least, who control the Senate in terms of, for example – tangential to those DOGE lease cancelations – just recently the President had an executive order revoking prior executive orders that require or at least incentivize the federal government to emphasize downtown business districts and historic buildings. There’s not a lot of pushback to that kind of executive order.
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Originally published The to-do list for Congress gets longer over recess on by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/congress/2025/04/the-to-do-list-for-congress-gets-longer-over-recess/ at Federal News Network
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