Republicans are gearing up to move their agenda through Congress via “reconciliation”—the same process they used during the first Trump administration to slash the corporate tax rate and give breaks to the top 1 percent. Understanding reconciliation is essential for tracking the GOP’s policy plans, anticipating impacts on the rest of us, and holding lawmakers accountable to the people they serve.
Join the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center, Indivisible, and the National Women’s Law Center as we break down what you need to know about reconciliation and what it means for our communities. We’ll explain why this process matters, discuss history’s lessons learned, and answer YOUR questions!
Speakers:
Tricha Maharaj, Indivisible
Bobby Kogan, Center for American Progress
Catherine Rowland, CPC Center
Ben D’Avanzo, National Immigration Law Center
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Please note that our webinars are recorded and often posted to our website and/or social media. If one of our panelists reads your comment or question, or if you come off mute to ask your question, your name or voice may appear in the recording.
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.
On Wednesday, February 12, 2025, at 10:00 a.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources will meet to consider:
H.R. 231 (Rep. Hageman), “Colorado River Basin System Conservation Extension Act of 2025”;
H.R. 249 (Rep. Pallone), To redesignate certain facilities at Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park in honor of Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr.;
H.R. 331 (Rep. Fulcher), To amend the Aquifer Recharge Flexibility Act to clarify a provision relating to conveyances for aquifer recharge purposes.
H.R. 618 (Rep. Horsford), To amend the Apex Project, Nevada Land Transfer and Authorization Act of 1989 to include the City of North Las Vegas and the Apex Industrial Park Owners Association, and for other purposes.
H.R. 1001 (Rep. Hageman), To provide for a memorandum of understanding to address the impacts of a certain record of decision on the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund.
H.R. 1044 (Rep. Valadao), To amend Public Law 99-338 with respect to Kaweah Project permits.
H.R. 1110 (Rep. LaMalfa), “Grazing for Wildfire Risk Reduction Act”.
Any proposed amendments should be emailed to Sophia Varnasidis ([email protected]) no later
than 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 11, 2025. Note that all amendments filed by this time will be given
priority recognition at the meeting. Please email and deliver 70 hard copies of any amendments submitted
after the 12:00 p.m. deadline to 1324 Longworth House Office Building.
The oversight plan includes: “The Committee will also
work with federal agencies and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reduce
unnecessary spending, make the federal government more efficient, and ensure better stewardship
of taxpayer dollars.”
“To truly enter the 21st Century, the NPS should adopt more market-based
solutions and engage in public-private partnerships to maximize agency resources and enhance
visitor services.”
“On July 24, 2024, a group of U.S.-based non-profits
operating under the ‘Shut It Down for Palestine’ movement staged a violent anti-Israel riot at a
public gathering at Union Station in DC, a National Park Service site. The Committee will
continue to investigate and provide recommendations to improve the public gathering permitting
process for the National Park Service to improves the permitting process, and ensure it is not
abused by organizations that intend to cause violence and destruction. Additionally, the Committee
will continue to expose these organizations’ ties to foreign adversaries like the CCP, Iran, and
Hamas.”
“During the 118th Congress, the Committee investigated potential foreign
influence over domestic environmental and natural resources policies, particularly at DOI,
accomplished through a network of U.S.-based activist non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The Committee will continue identifying NGOs with ties to foreign adversaries such as the CCP
and Iran and prevent foreign influence over domestic natural resources policy.”
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.
On Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at 2:00 p.m., in Room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Federal Lands will hold an oversight hearing titled “Restoring Multiple Use to Revitalize America’s Public Lands and Rural Communities.”
Eric Clarke, County Attorney, Washington County, St. George, Utah
• Jim D. Neiman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Neiman Enterprises, Hulett, Wyoming
• Tim Canterbury, President, Public Lands Council, Howard, Colorado
• Dan Gibbs, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Denver, Colorado [Minority Witness]
On January 27, 2021, President Biden issued
Executive Order (E.O.) 14008, directing the U.S.
Department of the Interior (DOI), the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Council
on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and other
federal agencies to preserve at least 30 percent of
the country’s lands and waters by 2030.
The BLM’s enabling statute, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976
(FLPMA), requires the agency to manage its 244 million acres of land and more than 700 million
acres of subsurface mineral estate in accordance with multiple use and sustained yield
(commonly referred to as a ‘multiple use mandate’).
On May 9, 2024, the BLM published its final “Conservation and Landscape Health”
Rule (commonly referred to as the “Public Lands Rule”). The rule enables BLM to lease federal parcels under “restoration and mitigation” leases and change certain standards
governing land-use decisions. Moreover, if BLM determines that uses previously authorized
under FLPMA are incompatible with a restoration and mitigation lease, new land-health
standards, or an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), those uses would no longer be
allowed.
President
Biden created or expanded 12 national monuments and restored the boundaries of three others
that Presidents Obama and Clinton had created. This included two national monuments that
President Biden created in California during the last two weeks of his presidency: the 624,000-
acre Chuckwalla National Monument and the 224,000-acre Sáttítla Highlands National
Monument.
In April 2022, President Biden issued E.O. 14072, directing USDA and DOI to define, identify,
and inventory “mature and old growth forests” on public lands and develop policies to protect those forests. The interagency mature and old growth initiative began in July 2022 with
a Federal Register Notice and public comment period, resulting in roughly 4,000 comments and
more than 100,000 signatures on various form letters from across the country. In April 2023,
USFS published an “initial draft” seeking to define and inventory “old-growth and mature
forests” and convened a “Definition Development Team.” The report identified 91 million acres of “old-growth and mature” forested lands on
National Forest System (NFS) lands, comprising 63 percent of all land managed by USFS. USFS published a Notice of Intent to amend all
128 national forest land management plans to provide direction on managing, conserving, and
stewarding old-growth forest conditions. On June 21, 2024, USFS released a Draft Land Management Plan Direction for Old-Growth Forest Conditions Across the National Forest System. USFS announced they were withdrawing the proposed amendment on January 7, 2025.
A selection of bills planned for consideration or already considered this Congress in the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Natural Resources include the following:
H.R. 471 (Rep. Westerman), “Fix Our Forests Act”: Comprehensive, bipartisan legislation to restore forest health, improve resiliency to catastrophic wildfires, and protect communities by expediting environmental analyses and deterring frivolous lawsuits.
H.R. 3397 (Rep. Curtis) (118th), “Western Economic Security Today (WEST) Act of 2024”: Withdraws the proposed Public Lands Rule and prohibits the BLM from finalizing, implementing, or enforcing any substantially similar rule.79
H.R. 5499 (Rep. Miller-Meeks) (118th), “Congressional Oversight of the Antiquities Act”: Amends the Antiquities Act by requiring congressional approval for the designation of national monuments. If Congress does not approve the designation within six months, the monument cannot be redesignated by the President for 25 years.80
H.R. 6085 (Rep. Hageman) (118th), To prohibit the implementation of the Draft Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the Rock Springs RMP Revision, Wyoming: Restricts the Secretary of the Interior from finalizing, implementing, administering, or enforcing the RMP and Environmental Impact Statement for the Rock Springs RMP Revision, Wyoming.81
H.R. 6547 (Rep. Boebert) (118th), “Colorado Energy Prosperity Act”: Restricts the Secretary of the Interior from finalizing, implementing, administering, or enforcing the Draft RMP or Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the CRVFO and GJFO RMPs.
H.R. 7006 (Rep. Curtis) (118th), To prohibit natural asset companies from entering into any agreement with respect to land in the State of Utah or natural assets on or in such land: Restricts a NAC from entering into any agreement regarding land or natural assets in Utah.
The Committee on Rules will meet Monday, February 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM ET in H-313, The Capitol on the following measure:
H.R. 77 – Midnight Rules Relief Act, to amend chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, to provide for en bloc consideration in resolutions of disapproval for “midnight rules.” Introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.)
The Fix Our Forests Act dismantles National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Endangered Species Act safeguards in order to fast-track forest management projects up to 10,000 acres with minimal public oversight, promoting unchecked tree removal and vegetation clearing.
