Policy
How Congress Kills a Federal Rule in 60 Days
The Congressional Review Act runs on several clocks at once. Here is what each one counts, why the Senate needs only 51 votes, and what a disapproved rule can never become.
Alexandria Lucas
Policy
Assessment of governing programs against the machinery available to enact them. Pieces separate measures achievable by executive action from those requiring legislation, price them against fiscal rules, and identify the veto points ahead. Read by legislative staff, lobbyists, journalists and researchers tracking implementation.
Examination of legislative programs: what has been promised, which measures need statute, what the budget permits, and where resistance will come.
Policy
Who Can Impose a Tariff? The Statutes Behind the Power
Congress holds the tariff power, has delegated slices of it under conditions — Section 232, Section 301, IEEPA — and the courts are now policing the map of what was delegated.
Alexandria Lucas
Policy
Medicaid Section 1115 Waivers: How States Rewrite the Program
The Secretary of Health and Human Services can approve anything that «promotes the objectives» of Medicaid — a phrase that lets each administration's policy preferences reach the states, five years at a time.
Alexandria Lucas
Policy
Executive Orders, Memoranda and Proclamations: What Each Can Do
The documents differ in formality and publication, not in legal force — all three bind only the executive branch, and none can amend a statute.
Alexandria Lucas
Policy
Earmarks Are Back With a Receipt: How Community Project Funding Works
Since 2021 House members request funded projects in public letters, capped at 1 percent of discretionary spending, with conflict-of-interest certifications and ban on for-profit recipients.
Asha Venkataswamy