Back to reconciliation…but first!

As you know, Speaker Johnson managed to get his CR passed late last night, which means it's now up to the Senate. (The House is now on break.) Interestingly, the vote was much more partisan than your correspondent anticipated. There was just one aisle-crosser on each side, while we expected five or ten Democrat moderates to vote for the bill. Which just highlights the remarkable party discipline on display from Speaker Johnson. Here's the statement from the lone Democratic vote for the CR, Maine's Jared Golden.

With Republican votes assured, it means the ball is now in the Democrats' court. They must now decide whether to back the House plan, angering their supporters, or to filibuster it, and cause a government shutdown. We think they will choose the former, government shutdowns just aren't part of the Democrats' political culture, but the point is that what looked like a Republican self-created mess and chaos a couple days ago is now a political headache for the Democrats. We are starting to think that not only does Speaker Johnson have the hardest job in Washington, he may be one of its most underrated players.

But now, the bigger challenge of reconciliation awaits…

Policy News You Need To Know

#MakeGreenlandGreatAgain — We haven't discussed "the Greenland thing" much because it seems somewhat outside our remit as a domestic policy-focused news site, but if Greenland is to become a territory of the United States… Underneath all the noises, it does seem to be the deliberate policy of the US government, as expressed most clearly in President Trump's address to Congress, to encourage the native population of Greenland to seek their own independence so as to join the United States. This is a powerful inducement because Greenland today is completely dependent economically and (especially) fiscally on Denmark; the offered patronage of the United States obviously changes the calculus of "independence." In other words, "the Greenland thing" is not just a meme. It's very real. And so, Greenland had an election yesterday, and it seems like it has been seriously affected.

#DOGE — Very funny, and potentially incredibly effective, response by the White House to attempts by left-wing pressure groups to get injunctions from judges to stop Federal government actions: a memo to department and agency heads notifying them about "Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c)" and reminding them to seek enforcement of it. This provides that plaintiffs in these types of cases have to post a security, and apparently a security equal to the potential costs of the injunction to the Federal government. So, if we're reading this correctly (and the White House certainly wants us to read it this way), if you are trying, say, to unfreeze $1 billion in spending, you must post $1 billion as security. If this is the correct interpretation and if it is enforced, it should put a brake on such actions, needless to say.

#TheEconomy #Tariffs — President Trump told business leaders yesterday that tariffs were necessary and that economic woes were necessary as part of "a period of transition."

#Trade — While on the topic of trade, AAF's Jacob Jensen has a useful item out on what we know is the woeful uncompetitiveness of US ports.

#EdDismantled — Ed has announced layoffs of half of its workforce.

#DEI — Telling little item reminding us of how important implementation is when it comes to policy. Famously, notoriously, the President of the United States signed an executive order mandating all federal agencies to terminate all of their DEI programs. The American Battle Monuments Commission (!) apparently chose not to comply. That is, until a reporter from the Daily Signal asked about it. "Trust but verify," indeed.

#DontCallItAMuslimBan — "President Trump to reinstate his ban on immigrant travelers to the U.S. from high-risk Muslim nations, including: Somalia, Iran, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan," reports RealClear's Paul Sperry.

#ExecutivePower — Interesting: Heritage's "Oversight Project" which is a kind of investigative arm has found that many executive decisions by President Biden, including his pardons, were signed with an autopen. This could potentially open up legal challenges. The Constitution does not explicitly say that the President's signature must be handwritten; however, it implicitly sets out the President's powers, particularly his pardon power, as a personal power. If the President is not present or personally involved in the signing of a document like a pardon, this could be a legal problem. An OLC memo from 2005, reaffirmed in 2011, allowed the use of an autopen for signing legislation, but it can be argued that this does not apply to pardons, as they are an explicit constitutional power uniquely vested in the President.

#Budget — David Stockman, President Reagan's budget director and now a Senior Scholar at the Brownstone Institute, makes the case for rescission.