Year-End: What Congress Passed, Did Not Pass

In December Republicans passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which featured massive tax cuts for middle-class families and small businesses. The tax reform legislation also repeals Obamacare’s individual mandate and opens up the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling.

President Trump broke the all-time record for federal appeals court judges confirmed during a president’s first year in office; Trump confirmed 12 judges to the appeals circuit in 2017. The previous record of 11 appellate appointments was jointly held by Presidents John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. The Senate also confirmed six judges to other federal courts. The Republican-controlled Senate was able to break this decades-long record in the face of unprecedented obstruction from Democrats, who attempted to filibuster almost two-dozen judicial nominees in 2017, and used up nearly 30 hours of floor debate time per nominee in an effort to limit the number of judges confirmed under Donald Trump.

Congress also passed a number of bills using the Congressional Review Acts (CRAs) to repeal many of President Obama’s onerous agency regulations. CRAs allow Congress to repeal rules issued by a federal agency 60 days after they are reported to Congress. Congress created the CRA to undue last-minute agency regulations made by “lame duck” presidents, lawmakers rarely used the rule until President Trump took the oath of office to undue burdensome regulations issued in the twilight years of the Obama administration. Once a regulation is repealed through the CRA, the rule cannot be issued again without with a new one through Congress.  read the rest here