Hospitals in the D.C. area are putting a prompt stop to aiding transgender youth and their families continue their transition after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that bans all gender-affirming care nationwide for minors under 19.
We started with our letters calling on DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb and the DC Deputy Mayor for Health & Human Services join with the 14 state’s Attorneys General who have already acted and issue public guidance affirming that denying care based on gender identity is unlawful under DC’s anti-discrimination laws as well as use the full authority vested in their office to ensure this care is reinstated.
We gave you a week to act, now we protest.
No ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth.
Protest 12-2 pm, Thursday February 13th. (Rescheduled from Wednesday due to the snow).
The plan, to be marked up by the committee Feb. 12 and 13, assumes $342 billion over four years divided between border security, the Pentagon and Coast Guard: $175 billion for the border, $150 billion for defense and $17 billion for the Coast Guard.
The new funding would be fully paid-for, but how they do that specifically is up to the authorizing committees charged with drafting the implementing bill. Committees given instructions to come up with the offsets are given low targets — at least $1 billion — to provide them with maximum flexibility. But the expectation is those committees will exceed those targets.
Provisions to expand domestic energy production through making more areas available for oil and gas drilling has long been part of the plan. Graham on Friday also said the budget assumes repeal of the methane emissions fee on oil and gas producers that was enacted as part of the 2022 clean energy reconciliation package.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the methane fee will cost the industry about $6 billion over 10 years, so the Environment and Public Works panel would have to account for that cost in its reconciliation submission due next month.
Graham said the budget assumes the reconciliation package will provide funding to finish a southern border wall and upgrade border security technology, increase the number of detention beds for those who cross the border illegally, and expand staffing of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol agents, attorneys who prosecute immigration-related offenses and immigration judges.
The funds provided for defense would go to expanding the Navy and strengthening the industrial base needed to build ships, developing an air and missile defense system and overhauling the nation’s nuclear defense.
The reconciliation instructions direct the following Senate committees to increase or reduce the deficit over 10 years in the following amounts:
Agriculture: Reduce deficit by at least $1 billion.
Armed Services: Increase deficit by no more than $150 billion.
Commerce: Increase deficit by no more than $20 billion.
Energy and Natural Resources: Reduce deficit by at least $1 billion.
Environment and Public Works: Increase deficit by no more than $1 billion.
Finance: Reduce deficit by at least $1 billion.
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions: Reduce deficit by at least $1 billion.
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Increase deficit by no more than $175 billion.*
Judiciary: Increase deficit by no more than $175 billion.*
*The two committees share jurisdiction on border and immigration policy and the total figure they will report out combined is $175 billion, not twice that amount.
Although the Senate blueprint is more of a “shell” budget to set the table for the initial reconciliation package, it does make some assumptions about the 10-year spending and revenue trajectory of the federal government.
The blueprint’s tables show an aggressive $11.5 trillion net spending reduction from the Congressional Budget Office’s most recent 10-year baseline. Coupled with $3.7 trillion in revenue losses from an eventual tax cut package, Graham’s resolution targets nearly $8 trillion in lower deficits over a decade.
The House proposal makes room for massive tax cuts for corporations and the ultra-wealthy. The Senate’s proposal does not.
The House aims to spend a lot more than the Senate does ($4.8 trillion in the House vs. $521 billion in the Senate). Again, this is largely because of taxes.
The House’s proposed cuts are way bigger than the Senate’s ($1.5 trillion with a goal of $2 trillion in the House vs. at least $4 billion in the Senate).
The House wants to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. The Senate’s proposal doesn’t touch the debt ceiling.
The budget directs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to make at least $880 billion in cuts. This committee oversees Medicaid, the health insurer for more than 70 million Americans. Moreover, the resolution states, “it is the goal of this concurrent resolution to reduce mandatory spending by $2 trillion over the budget window.”
The House proposal tells the Agriculture Committee to find $230 billion in cuts. This committee oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), often called “food stamps”—a program that feeds more than 40 million Americans. Moreover, again, the resolution states, “it is the goal of this concurrent resolution to reduce mandatory spending by $2 trillion over the budget window.”
Council for a Responsible Budget:
The budget resolution’s instructions include a net $3.3 trillion in allowable deficit increases – or nearly $4 trillion including interest in additional debt by 2034.
The budget resolution includes $3.3 trillion of net allowable deficit increases – from $4.8 trillion of deficit increases somewhat offset by $1.5 trillion of required savings – that, with interest, we estimate would allow nearly $4 trillion of additional debt.
Passing a reconciliation bill consistent with these instructions would increase debt in 2034 (the last year of the budget) to 126 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) compared to 117 percent under current law.
The budget’s economic assumptions are overly aggressive, and the ultimate direction of the economic effects is likely ambiguous; if they resulted in modestly positive economic feedback, we estimate debt would be 123 percent of GDP by 2034, or if they resulted in modestly negative feedback, we estimate debt would be 129 percent of GDP by 2034.
The window of the budget – FY 2025 through 2034 – includes one year where the TCJA doesn’t need to be extended (2025) and one less year of extension (2035) than a 2026-2035 budget would include, which could make the $4.8 trillion of tax cuts and spending increases in this budget window translate to $5.5-$6 trillion of ten-year increases.
Fierce Healthcare:
The budget framework calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and increases the debt limit by $4 trillion. It also instructs the Energy and Commerce Committee to slash spending by $880 billion over 10 years, which is expected to include major Medicaid reform, and the Education and Workforce Committee to eliminate $330 billion in spending over 10 years.
Business meeting to consider an original resolution authorizing expenditures by the committee during the 119th Congress; to be immediately followed by a hearing entitled, “Eliminating waste by the foreign aid bureaucracy.”
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
Full committee hearing to receive testimony on the posture of United States Northern Command and United States Southern Command in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2026 and the Future Years Defense Program.
Witnesses:
Admiral Alvin Holsey, USN, Commander, United States Southern Command
General Gregory M. Guillot, USAF, Commander, United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command
Educators, parents, community leaders, and elected officials are coming together to stand up for students and public schools. The push to dismantle the Department of Education isn’t just politics—it’s a direct attack on students’ futures. If successful, it will mean overcrowded classrooms, fewer resources for vulnerable students, cuts to services for students with disabilities, the loss of job training programs, higher costs for college, and weakened civil rights protections.
We refuse to stay silent. As Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearings approach, join us Wednesday, February 12, at 4:00 PM on the Capitol Grounds (corner of Independence Ave SE & First Street SE) to make our voices heard.
Every student deserves the resources to succeed. Be there, dress warmly, and stand with us in this fight for our schools.
Join the Metro DC DSA Bodily Autonomy Working Group to protest denial of care based on gender identity.