ADVOCACY & POLICY UPDATE - March 31, 2025

Washington Update

Appropriations/Budget

Senate GOP leaders, led by Majority Leader John Thune, plan to advance a budget resolution as early as Wednesday to push President Trump’s agenda through a party-line bill. They aim toadopt it before the weekend, with a potential vote-a-rama on Thursday or Friday. Last month, House and Senate Republicans each passed their own budget blueprints — the House in a single large bill and the Senate using a two-track strategy. Since then, GOP leaders have been working to reconcile the differences. The Senate’s revised budget resolution lowers deficit reduction targets for its committees while keeping the House’s mandates intact, prioritizing flexibility amid ongoing divisions over the final reconciliation package. A key hurdle could be how the Senate parliamentarian rules on whether Republicans can use the current policy baseline in the reconciliation process — an approach they hope will allow them to make the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent. Meanwhile, House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (OK) has suggested that including a debt limit increase could help drive passage as the X-date looms. However, if reconciliation fails due to conservative opposition or timing constraints, GOP leaders may pivot to using a disaster relief package, with Democratic support, to raise the debt ceiling.

House Education and Workforce Committee

On Wednesday, March 26, House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Tim Walberg (MI), along with several other GOP Committee members, sent a letter to Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer urging the Department of Labor (DOL) to withdraw a proposed rule from the Biden-Harris administration that would stop issuing 14(c) certificates, which provide employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The lawmakers argue that the rule, introduced in the final weeks of the Biden-Harris administration, could significantly reduce employment options for people with severe disabilities and instead recommend that federal policy focus on expanding workforce participation for individuals with disabilities, offering a range of employment opportunities.

Click here to access the press release.

Click here to access the letter.

Initial Jobless Claims

In the week ending March 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 224,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level.

Click here to read the full report.