Federal and Congressional Update Congress begins the second session of the 118 th Congress facing a significant amount of unfinished business from the first session, which may go down in history as one of the most tumultuous years in the history of the House of Representatives. In October, California Congressman Kevin McCarthy became the first Speaker in history to be ousted, ultimately leading to McCarthy’s decision to retire at the end of 2023. The House took 21 days to elect a new Speaker — Rep. Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Congressman from Shreveport, LA. The new Speaker has a razor thin majority to resolve federal government funding, federal tax policy and expiring provisions of the Farm Bill.
In November, Congress pushed a decision on federal government funding into early 2024. In mid-January, realizing it could not meet its previously set deadlines to pass full-year appropriations bills, Congress passed another continuing resolution to extend funding until early March. Using a new approach, Speaker Johnson divided government funding into two large continuing resolutions — providing continued funding to four major departments until March 1 and to the rest of the government until March 8. Funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is in the first resolution and will expire on March 1 unless Congress acts before then. On January 7, House Leadership and the White House announced an agreement on a $1.59 trillion topline for discretionary spending. This agreement may stave off another government shutdown
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JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2024
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