Only the Senate is in session this week, returning today (March 9) and holding a 5:30 p.m. vote on a military nomination. There still is no agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security, and President Trump said on social media Sunday that he will not sign any bills until the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act voter ID bill (H.R. 22) is enacted. The House is out this week, and Republican members have a policy retreat at President Trump's Doral resort in Florida that could have a focus on a potential follow-on bill to the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (OBBBA). President Trump is expected to address members at the retreat tonight.

Reconciliation — The retreat is expected to include discussion of a second budget reconciliation bill — with prospects for health, tax and trade provisions — after House Republican leaders previously decided to pursue a second Republican-only package. A concern is that conservatives will certainly demand revenue offsets, and finding such pay-fors that members will support will be difficult, especially given concerns about how the OBBBA was paid for. Administration officials have been touting the benefits of the OBBBA ahead of the midterms, but there are questions about the effect it is having on voters. "Left unsaid here by nearly everyone in GOP circles is that the OBBB didn't give Republicans the political boost they wanted or needed," Punchbowl News said in a report about additional reconciliation efforts. It was also reported that House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) is expected to present budget cut proposals targeting waste, fraud and abuse.

A March 9 Politico story, "House Republicans face internal and external headwinds as they gather to map out 2026," said, "House GOP leaders expect a serious battle to unfold during the retreat over whether to pursue another reconciliation bill — something Speaker Mike Johnson has promised some of his members he will pursue. But it would require almost complete unity among Republicans and faces the distinct possibility it could be DOA in the Senate."

Regarding President Trump's insistence on signing the SAVE Act before any other bills, Senator John Neely Kennedy (R-LA) said on "Fox News Sunday" that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is committed to bringing the bill up for a vote, which he anticipates in the next few weeks, but "Democrats will be against it." Asked whether Republicans would need to turn to the reconciliation process to pass the bill, Senator Kennedy said: "I would do it [in] reconciliation. We can short-circuit all of this, but I'm in a minority. I have chased Senator Thune, my good friend, like he'd stole Thanksgiving to try to get him to do a reconciliation. This would be perfect for reconciliation."

Economy — The Politico story noted that affordability concerns are clashing with foreign policy: "GOP lawmakers were already under pressure to address cost-of-living issues ahead of the November midterms. Now President Donald Trump's decision to launch a war in the Middle East is spiking energy prices and threatening to strain the federal budget just as new signs emerge that the domestic economy is weakening."

Other press articles have noted that events in the Middle East are causing gas prices to surge, adding to the concerns of some voters about the cost of living. President Trump has suggested the financial pain would be temporary, but the Administration is taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to confronting it. A March 8 Wall Street Journal (WSJ) story, "Trump Comes Under Pressure to Address Gas Prices, Iran War Strategy," said, "Inside the administration, federal agencies have been tasked with providing the White House with options to lower the cost of gasoline. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Energy Secretary Chris Wright have spoken with oil executives about ways to curb energy prices … "

Secretary Wright said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday regarding gas prices, "They shouldn't go much higher than they are here, because the world is very well supplied with oil. There's no energy shortage at all in the Western Hemisphere."

Supplemental — The WSJ story also noted that Congress is in something of a "bottleneck" over DHS funding and the SAVE Act, and "lawmakers already are signaling that they see a supplemental spending bill as an opportunity to attach their own pet priorities." There were reports last week that a potential war funding package could carry $15 billion in tariff relief for farmers and wildfire disaster relief.

Housing — The Senate remains on a path to passing the bipartisan "21st Century ROAD to Housing Act" (HR 6644) this week, though toward the end of last week issues related to a ban on larger investors owning single-family homes and a potential digital currency issued by the Federal Reserve have emerged as problems for House Republicans. The investor ban, a priority for the White House that was not included in either the original Senate or House housing bills, prompted opposition from the National Association of Home Builders last week, as well as a number of Republicans including Financial Services Committee Vice Chair Bill Huizenga (R-MI). In addition, a provision that Senate sponsors included as a sweetener to attract support from House conservatives — blocking the Fed from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) until 2030 — became controversial when some members determined the language would only give the Fed a few years' runway before moving to establish a digital dollar. Republicans have argued that a CBDC would likely compromise the privacy of people who used such coins, while crowding out private stablecoin issuers. Punchbowl News reported that some House Republicans have circulated a letter to Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Thune, urging them to reject the sunset provisions of the Senate housing bill's CBDC ban.

The White House has applied pressure on Congress to send the housing bill to the President's desk without delay. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week urged the House to clear whatever the Senate passes without changes. Financial Services Chairman French Hill (R-PA) had refrained from criticizing the Senate's process in the belief that their bill could be improved before it comes up for a vote. On Friday (March 6), however, Hill effectively said the current language in the Senate's substitute amendment was unacceptable and went as far as to threaten a rare House-Senate conference. In his statement, Hill said he was "optimistic" the House's concerns would be addressed in the final housing text, but raised the prospect of "further negotiations, including a possible conference" to finalize the bill: "There are members in the House whose provisions and views were not accounted for in the current iteration of the [bill]. Similarly, there are members concerned that the threat of a [CBDC] is actually heightened because of the language in the bill."

Notably, House Financial Services Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) has also expressed disappointment that a number of the House bill's provisions were dropped in the Senate amendment. One factor that might provide some breathing room for the bicameral negotiations was the fact that President Trump on Sunday vowed not to sign any other bills until the House-passed SAVE Act voter ID bill (H.R. 22) is enacted. "If that holds, the House and GOP leadership have more time to maneuver on the housing deregulation effort," Punchbowl reported.

Budget — Deficit concerns that underlie efforts to enact additional legislation will be up for discussion in a major Senate committee this week. The Senate Finance Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth has scheduled a hearing, "The Fiscal Outlook: 2027—2036," for Wednesday, March 11 at 3 p.m. Witnesses:

• Phillip Swagel, Director, Congressional Budget Office
• Maya MacGuineas, President, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
• Martha Gimbel, Executive Director and Co-Founder, The Budget Lab at Yale

There will surely be discussion of the CBO February 11 "Budget and Economic Outlook: 2026 to 2036," which stated:

• The deficit totals $1.9 trillion in fiscal year 2026 and will grow to $3.1 trillion in 2036
• Debt held by the public rises from 101% of GDP in 2026 to 120% in 2036

The report said the 2025 reconciliation act (OBBBA, Public Law 119-21) increased CBO's projections of deficits by $4.7 trillion, while higher tariffs reduced deficits by $3 trillion.

IRS — A story in the Sunday Washington Post, "Trump moves to undo tax rule that Biden said would bring in $100 billion," questioned the March 5 IRS proposal to remove Basis Shifting TOI Proposed Regulations, saying, "If enacted, the Trump administration's proposal would mean that large business partnerships no longer need to tell the IRS when they shift assets from one corporate entity to another." The story said two of three prongs of the regulations would be removed, those requiring that businesses report certain transactions to the IRS and an increase in audits of partnerships.