Budget Reconciliation Takes Center Stage; Members of Congress Push Back on Executive Actions

With the fiscal year (FY) 2025 process (mostly) in the rearview mirror following the passage of a full-year continuing resolution (CR) earlier this month, Congress is returning its attention to passing a budget resolution to enact some of the Trump Administration’s top priorities (see previous COSSA coverage). As previously reported by COSSA, the House passed their budget resolution in February that included a permanent extension of the Trump 2017 tax cuts and $1.5 trillion in cuts to non-defense discretionary spending. In order to unlock the reconciliation process—which would allow the tax cuts and spending reductions to pass by a simple majority and avoid a filibuster—the House and Senate must first pass identical budget resolutions that include overall spending targets. According to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), the Senate could vote on an emerging compromise budget reconciliation as soon as this week. Even if that happens, there are many steps still to be taken before getting to a vote on what Trump calls his “big, beautiful bill.”

In other news and in a rare show of bipartisan criticism of the Administration, on March 27, Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, respectively, sent a letter to the Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Russell Vought, accusing the Trump Administration of illegally refusing to spend $2.9 billion in funds appropriated in the recently passed FY 2025 CR (see previous COSSA coverage). The funding in question was included in the CR as emergency funding; the President does not agree that the designated funds are an emergency, by his determination, and therefore will not spend it. Among the funds is $234 million for the National Science Foundation (NSF), specifically for research facilities construction costs. In the letter, Sens. Murray and Collins wrote, “Just as the president does not have a line-item veto, he does not have the ability to pick and choose which emergency spending to designate.” Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, sent a similar letter, although Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, did not sign-on.

Elsewhere in Congress, Members have been introducing legislation in response to executive actions taken by the Trump Administration (see related article). This includes the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee (SST) Democrats, who are currently in the minority, who have introduced legislation to prevent reduction in force (RIF) at federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) (see bill text here). We have also seen bills to repeal President Donald Trump’s EO establishing DOGE, including the BAD DOGE Act introduced by Rep. Dave Min (D-CA).  

Stay tuned to COSSA’s continued coverage on Congressional activities.