UNDER THE DOME: Both chambers are in recess this week, with the Senate returning on January 23 and the House reconvening on January 24.
Committee Ratios: On January 14, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries unveiled the agreement he reached with the Republican leadership on committee ratios for four committees. Under the agreement, the Appropriations Committee will increase by one seat on each side (new ratio 34R/27D), the Energy and Commerce Committee will decrease by three seats on both sides (29R/23D), the Financial Services Committee will decrease by one on each side (29R/23D), and the Ways and Means Committee will mirror that of the 117th Congress (25R/18D). The ratios for other committees could be announced by the end of the week. The ratios for Senate committees could be unveiled later this week or next week.
House Committee Chairs: The Republican Steering Committee last week nominated chairs for four committees that had contested races for the gavel: Budget – Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX), Education and the Workforce – Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Homeland Security – Chair Mark Green (R-TN), and Ways and Means – Chair Jason Smith (R-MO). A list of all House committee chairs can be found here. On January 16, the Steering Committee approved Appropriations Chair Kay Granger’s (TX) slate of chairs for the 12 subcommittees.
Debt Limit: On January 13, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen notified Congressional leaders that the statutory debt limit of approximately $31.381 trillion will be reached on Thursday, January 19. Once the limit is reached, Treasury will begin to take “certain extraordinary measures to prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations.” Yellen pointed out that “the period of time that extraordinary measures may last is subject to considerable uncertainty due to a variety of factors, including the challenges of forecasting the payments and receipts of the U.S. government months into the future.” While Treasury can’t predict exactly how long extraordinary measures can be used to pay the government’s obligations, the department’s best guess is that government payments can be made until at least early June.
State of the Union: President Biden will deliver his State of the Union address on February 7. The Administration's budget was expected to follow in mid-February but is likely to be delayed (mid-March?) given December's late passage of the 2023 Omnibus spending measure.
POLITICS:
New Senator: As expected, the new Republican governor of Nebraska on January 12 named the outgoing Republican governor, Pete Ricketts, to take the seat of Senator Ben Sasse (R), who resigned on January 8 to become president of the University of Florida.
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THE DYNAMICS OF DEFENSE SPENDING
Please join our industrials and macro policy teams tomorrow, January 19 at 10:00 am as we host a call with guest speakers Tom Davis of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) and our geopolitical advisor Col. Jeffrey McCausland to discuss the state of play of defense spending given the new dynamic in Congress, geopolitical factors as well as new developments in the war in Ukraine - and the resulting implications for the defense industry.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 19 AT 10:00AM
CLICK HERE to access the event.
About Tom Davis
Tom Davis, a Senior Fellow in Residence at the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Field Artillery upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1972. After numerous troop assignments in Germany and Korea, he earned a Master’s Degree in International Relations and Economics at Harvard University, and joined the faculty of the Military Academy teaching International Relations, Economics, and Government in the Department of Social Sciences. In 1985, Mr. Davis graduated from the Marine Command and Staff College where he won the prestigious Clifton B. Cates Award for individual research, then joined the Office of the Army Chief of Staff as the Fire Support and Classified Program Analyst. Tom later joined the Northrop Grumman Corporation as Senior Defense Analyst advising the corporate leadership on emerging strategic, technological and budgetary trends in the American defense program and General Dynamics Corporation as a Director of Strategic Planning.
About Dr. Jeffrey McCausland
Dr. McCausland is a retired U.S. Army Colonel who formally served as the Dean of Academics at the U.S. Army War College. During his time in the military, he commanded a battalion in combat during the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991. He also served on the National Security Council staff in the White House during the Kosovo crisis. He currently serves as a national security consultant for CBS radio and television. He routinely does analysis for CBS on issues such as Iraq, European security, arms control, or related questions of national security policy. He is currently involved in a project for the National Nuclear Security Administration focused on nuclear weapons in South Asia and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Dr. McCausland is also the founder and CEO of Diamond6 Leadership and Strategy, LLC. Diamond6 conducts executive leadership workshops for corporate, public, and non-profit leadership teams across the United States. He recently published a new book, Battle Tested! Gettysburg Leadership Lessons for 21st Century Leaders.
