Not entirely sure if you want to count this Grassley exercise as a subpoena, but the answer might be William French Smith in 1984 www.nytimes.com/1984/11/01/b...
04.03.2026 21:23
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Not entirely sure if you want to count this Grassley exercise as a subpoena, but the answer might be William French Smith in 1984 www.nytimes.com/1984/11/01/b...
I only know this thanks to the only people other than me crazy enough to read more than 13,000 entries Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress to figure out, the fine staff at Roll Call rollcall.com/2025/12/31/t...
First twin-to-twin succession, but not the first sibling-to-sibling one. That happened with the Fitzpatricks in the House in 2016 and JFK-to-Ted Kennedy in the Senate.
3. I own appropriate winter accessories for this weather.
So ask me anything, I guess?
2. I am the only person I know to have ever actually had an enhanced drivers' license (and hadn't really thought about it in a decade until the SAVE America Act)
1. I watched A LOT of commercials about, and voted on an extremely weird 2012 ballot proposal related to, what's now the Gordie Howe bridge.
Ways having lived in southeast Michigan for six years unexpectedly prepared me for the last 2+ weeks in D.C., a brief thread.
For all the reasons you are thinking of (and maybe some you're not), this has been a HARD year for many people who live in Washington. That's making the decision to gut the parts of the Post (metro, sports) that cover the region as a place that people *live* extra hard to take.
Per Judge Cobb's order granting the congressional plaintiffs' TRO in the case involving access for oversight of ICE facilities, turns out I was not the only one with questions about the plausibility of the government's claim. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Since @bbkogan.bsky.social solved my longstanding linguistic problem of how to describe when a funding measure expires last fall ("midnight as Saturday begins"), I can now focus all of my pedantic energy on the difference between a lapse in appropriations and a shutdown.
Republicans would have needed to want it, and even if some of them did, the Byrd Rule would probably have wanted a word.
relevant (genuine, because budget execution is not my area) Q I've been mulling: how likely is it that DHS has actually segregated the OBBBA $ from the discretionary $ such that they can accurately claim facts consistent with the rider not applying (if, indeed, that's the correct legal argument)?
We lost one of our most treasured colleagues in Governance Studies at @brookings.edu, Steve Hess, this past weekend. His work over five decades was wide-ranging and sharp, and he was relentlessly kind, demonstrating care for every member of our team. We will miss him. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/u...
I can't tell if they did it this way because
a.) they've started to generally prefer this approach (see: the emissions waiver episode)
b.) they used this approach the last time I'm aware they set a new WPR-related precedent (in 2018)
c.) some other reason
d.) no real articulable reason at all.
The placeholder bill + rule + related discharge petition remains one of the more interesting procedural innovations of last two congresses.
It's the first legislative week of the year, and the House AND the Senate have both seen successful motions to discharge a committee. The 119th Congress, everyone.
I can never do better than the fine folks at the Congressional Research Service. www.congress.gov/crs-product/...
Would darkly enjoy learning much more about the circumstances in the conference committee deliberations in 1983 that produced this arrangement.
Five years ago today, many people simply woke up on January 6, 2021 and went to work in and around the Capitol to serve their country in ways big and small, only to be met with violence. Their stories are many, and they are still with me.
Given that David Valadao, the only other remaining House Republican to vote for impeachment in 2021, is sitting in one of the seats targeted by California's redistricting efforts, there may be zero such members come 2027.
This, to me, is as telling as the increase in filed discharge petitions, because it says something about members’ persistent expectations about the state of the chamber.
The Gottheimer ACA discharge petition has, at its root, HR 185, the Responsible Legislating Act. This is the *third* separate discharge petition this year to have that catchall bill as its core underlying vehicle.
It’s also that members now expect that they might need a discharge effort as an action forcing mechanism to the point that they introduce placeholder bills with very broad jurisdictions that just sit out there, waiting to become the target of a future discharge effort.
It’s not just that the number of filed discharge petitions is up this year (though it is; see below).
Welcome! We're excited to have you as a colleague.
would love to read a list of every person who explains things for a living's least favorite thing to explain.
(mine's the definition of "merely incidental.")
I'd also note that one lesson from 2025 vs. 2017 is that the politics of a narrower (in this case, health-focused) reconciliation bill are potentially trickier than a big (beautiful or otherwise) one. There's just one hill on which you win or lose, not a bunch of different hills you can choose from.
featuring links to very helpful work by @bbkogan.bsky.social, the excellent folks at @centeronbudget.bsky.social, and @sbagen.bsky.social
