The Bellevue Compass

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Welcome back to the Bellevue Compass. It’s been an interesting week in Washington—and it’s only Wednesday. The White House Correspondents’ Dinner took a frightening turn last week. King Charles III visited on Tuesday, and the Speaker of the House stared down three major budget bills that have been tough to move. We break it all down below.

The Congressional Breakdown

You might remember how we talked about the “farm bill”, a piece of legislation part of a broader Farm, Food, and National Security Act that gets renewed every five years and addresses aspects of agricultural policy. As usual, members usually tack amendments onto the legislation, which causes strife during passage. 

After an uncertain few hours, House GOP leaders managed to clear a rule for the farm bill, but party members are already threatening to tank the legislation on the floor this morning. GOP leadership’s plan to include language that green-lights sales of year-round E15 gasoline, and ire over other party members’ shot-down amendments, are a few reasons that the fate of the bill is uncertain. 

One key provision that’s shaping up to be a major issue during passage is pesticide language that would bar states from creating pesticide labeling laws that differ from EPA-led guidance. Party members aligned with “MAHA” argue that the provision acts as a liability shield for pesticide companies and should be stripped from the bill. 

The same rules meeting finally produced agreement on the consideration of the FISA bill and the reauthorization of Section 702, which allows the government to spy on foreign actors abroad. Contention remains after the floor vote failure and the short reauthorization earlier this month, which was passed to give the House more time to reach an agreement. Hardline GOP members focused on security wanted a warrant requirement included. Still, leadership has added another seemingly unrelated provision that other GOP members wanted, prohibiting the Federal Reserve from establishing a central bank digital currency, which some Republicans argue would give the government the ability to track consumer spending. The language for that provision has already passed the House and will be tacked onto the FISA bill before it’s sent to the Senate. Majority Leader Thune, however, is throwing cold water on putting the two issues—FISA and central bank currency—together. “That’s not happening,” he says. 

Whether it will be enough to get FISA over the finish line is unclear. Speaker Johnson only has two votes to lose, and members of the House Freedom Caucus are planning to vote against the rule to force debate on a larger package. Some Republicans prefer gutting FISA entirely in favor of a recrafted product. The fate of the provision remains to be seen. 

The third bill that passed out of rules on Tuesday is a resolution that serves as a vehicle for Republicans to draft and advance a reconciliation bill focused on DHS immigration enforcement, while bypassing the filibuster. The partial shutdown is the longest on record.

The issue here is that some GOP members are staunchly opposed to “Reconciliation 2.0” and are wary of moving forward with the narrow Senate package that passed three weeks ago. Democrats have signaled that their caucus's stance on the matter hasn’t changed, and reconciliation is unlikely to receive any Democratic support. 

The attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, Republicans argue, is another reason to pass a DHS funding bill and end the impasse. The Secret Service, like TSA, is being paid through emergency funding, and its members were integral in stopping the would-be assailant during the event. In the wake of the incident, Trump is making a renewed push for his White House ballroom, backed by Senator Lindsey Graham. The project, according to Graham, will need to be approved by Congress to the tune of $400M.

We’ll know, hopefully at some point today, if any of the three pieces of legislation are moving forward. 

Finally, there was a bid in the Senate to curb President Trump’s authority to wield military force in Cuba, as the president continues to put economic pressure on the country. It’s one of many failed war powers measures in recent months, including five failed votes on Iran and a few that attempted to check Trump on operations in Venezuela. As the conflict in Iran stretches to 60 days on May 1st, many congressmembers expect to be voting on another measure to curb the war as negotiations stall. 

The Sector Breakdown

The PA Impact

There’s a Pennsylvania fingerprint on the farm bill’s turbulent week in Washington. Rep Glenn “GT’ Thompson (R-PA) chairs the House Agriculture Committee and has been a major part in pushing leadership to bring the farm bill to a vote before May 1st. Additionally, it was Rep. Scott Perry of PA who introduced an amendment to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard entirely, as the House attempts to garner support for the E15 provision. 

We’ve made the claim before that AI will be a major topic in the upcoming election, especially in Pennsylvania, which boasts more than 100 data centers. A $20 billion investment from Amazon is fueling a broader buildout of AI infrastructure in a region where seats are hotly contested, and chamber control might be affected. Republicans Ryan Mackenzie (7th District) and Rob Bresnahan (8th), both of whom ousted Democratic incumbents in 2024, are in toss-up arenas, and data center backlash is adding a new layer of complexity. 

The Harrisburg response to the data center boom and its subsequent backlash is active. The PA House passed a bill in March that seeks to prevent a rise in electricity costs as more data centers move into the state. It gives the Public Utility Commission greater authority to require data centers to pay security deposits and requires them to obtain an increasing share of their energy from “clean energy” sources.

Outside of data centers, Pennsylvania is still fighting an uphill battle with the DHS shutdown. According to a spokesperson from the Transportation Security Administration, over 1,110 officers at the agency have quit since the shutdown began. Across the agencies that make up the Department of Homeland Security, there’s been bartering for office supplies, vendor payment issues, and long wait times, among other issues. FEMA has only $3.4 billion remaining, nearing the threshold known as Immediate Needs Funding, after which all spending is restricted to lifesaving operations. Lawmakers are chattering, too, about the upcoming FIFA World Cup games across the country, some of which will be located in Philadelphia, and the impact and ongoing shutdown will have. 

As Congress continues to debate restoring funding for immigration enforcement, a pair of bills has been introduced in the state House and Senate to protect K-12 schools across the commonwealth. The proposals, one in each chamber, mandate that school districts implement policies to prevent staff from allowing federal immigration agents, or local law enforcement aiding them, to enter most school grounds without a signed judicial warrant. If you haven’t yet, subscribe to The Bellevue Bulletin and get major Pennsylvania-specific legislative news in your inbox every Friday. 

What We’re Watching

Did You Know? We all know that Pennsylvania’s state tree is the eastern hemlock, the state flower is the mountain-laurel, and the official state animal is the white-tailed deer. (If you don’t know, now you know, Mr. President.) But did you know that we have a state amphibian? The nation’s largest salamander, the eastern hellbender, can grow up to 30 inches long and can actually indicate that the water quality in an area is good.

Till next time,