By Mark Valentini, Vice President of Legislative Affairs
The House of Representatives passed a budget reconciliation package this week with unanimous Republican support. This sets the stage for a framework to determine a path forward to pass a government funding measure for the remainder of FY25 while encompassing the Trump administration’s priorities on which the President campaigned.
However, there are differences between House and Senate leadership on how to move forward. House leadership, with the support of the President, seeks a comprehensive package that includes all of the president’s priorities on tax, immigration, energy, debt ceiling and other issues combined with a continuing resolution to fund government for the remainder of the fiscal year; Senate leaders prefer a more structured approach that addresses these issues on a successive piece-by-piece basis.
Even if the House and Senate reconcile their differences on strategy, Democratic leadership has signaled they will not support a spending bill until their concerns are addressed regarding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its controversial efforts at streamlining federal government operations which has included historic dismissals of thousands of government employees, and providing SpaceX/Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his DOGE team access to sensitive government IT infrastructure as part of that effort. With considerably tight margins in the House and Senate, this logjam is susceptible to a government shutdown if no agreement is reached by March 14. Furthermore, with the future of several federal agencies in doubt, it remains unknown whether and how Congressional appropriations will be secured for certain agencies if they are significantly downsized or eliminated altogether.
PHCC’s Government Affairs team is monitoring the situation closely in Washington, and determining how these developments will impact the plumbing and HVAC industry.
