James Gallagher

Congressional Review Act resolution nullifying the EPA decision at 90 Fed. Reg. 1998 that partially authorized California to enforce amendments to the Air Resources Board's Commercial Harbor Craft regulation. The amendments require tugboats, ferries, excursion vessels, workboats, and commercial fishing boats operating in California waters to move to cleaner diesel engines or to zero-emission power, with standards and compliance dates varying by vessel class and engine model year. Introduced by Rep. James Gallagher (R-CA-1) and managed on the floor by Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL), who argued the standards would impose billions in costs on boat operators, that diesel particulate filters have not been certified as safe for maritime use, and that the Coast Guard and several maritime labor unions had raised fire risk objections with California. Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said the harbor craft standards would avoid up to $5 billion in health care costs, and that both the Government Accountability Office and the Senate Parliamentarian have ruled California Clean Air Act waivers are orders rather than rules and so cannot be repealed under the CRA at all. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said every California House Democrat opposed the resolution and repeated that a federal court had ruled days earlier that EPA broke the law by relabeling these waivers as rules. Passed 214-208 on the last day of session before a seven-week pre-election recess: Republicans 210-1 with Fitzpatrick (PA) the lone nay, Democrats 3-207 with Cuellar (TX), Davis (NC), and Gonzalez (TX) voting yea, and Kiley (I-CA) yea. Project 2029 position is nay: this is the second of two back-to-back repeals of California port and harbor air rules, taken under a closed rule in the final hours of the Congress, against a standing court ruling that the waivers were never eligible for this process, and it shifts the cost of diesel exhaust from the operators who generate it onto the people who live and work at the waterfront.

House passage of a bill by Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) requiring the head of any state agency administering a listed federally funded program to provide the Attorney General, on written request, 'such information as the Attorney General may require' for investigating or prosecuting alleged fraud in that program. The bill sets no probable cause standard, no reasonable suspicion standard, and no requirement that any named person be under suspicion. The listed programs are Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, state unemployment compensation, the Coronavirus Relief Fund, State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, Emergency Rental Assistance, school emergency relief grants, the BEAD broadband program, Community Development Block Grants, FEMA public assistance and hazard mitigation, and the State Small Business Credit Initiative, followed by a catch-all covering any other state program the Attorney General identifies as vulnerable to fraud. The records covered are identity verification records, benefit disbursement logs, provider billing statements, demographic information tied to an active investigation, and 'any other information, as determined appropriate by the Attorney General.' Section 3 requires handling under the Privacy Act and HIPAA, encryption, use limited to fraud law enforcement, and destruction of records when the investigation or proceeding ends. Introduced September 10 and passed September 16 under a closed rule, with no hearing, no subcommittee hearing, and no markup. Judiciary Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) argued the bill legislates what DOGE was blocked from doing in court, that states already share program data with federal fraud investigators under program-specific statutes that carry privacy standards, that 21 state attorneys general are currently fighting a DOJ demand for blanket access to the records of everyone ever enrolled in SNAP, and that the two open-ended clauses let Attorney General Todd Blanche define both which programs and which records are covered. Van Drew cited Minnesota SNAP and child care billing fraud rings and state agencies that refused federal data requests. Rep. Kiley (I-CA) voted yea while agreeing that Raskin's process objections were legitimate. Passed 217-207: Republicans 210-1 with Massie (KY) the lone nay, Democrats 6-206, Kiley (I-CA) yea. The Democratic yeas were Cuellar (TX), Davis (NC), Golden (ME), Gonzalez (TX), Gray (CA), and Perez (WA). Project 2029 position is nay: fraud in benefit programs is real and is already prosecuted with grand jury subpoenas and existing data-sharing mandates. Writing a statute that lets a politically directed Attorney General demand any record about any beneficiary of any program he names, with no suspicion standard and no judge in the loop, builds the master database the courts have repeatedly blocked, and it puts the private records of tens of millions of people who are suspected of nothing inside the Department that has been prosecuting the President's critics.

Congressional Review Act resolution nullifying the EPA decision at 88 Fed. Reg. 72461 that authorized California to enforce amendments to the Air Resources Board's Ocean-Going Vessels At-Berth Regulation. The regulation requires large ships docked at California ports to shut down their auxiliary diesel engines and either plug into shore power or run an approved emission capture and control system. The amendments at issue extended that requirement to additional categories of ocean-going vessels, including tankers and vehicle carriers. Introduced by Rep. Vince Fong (R-CA-20) and managed on the floor by Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY), who said the compliance technology does not exist at scale and that the costs would be passed to consumers on every good moving through California. Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) led the opposition and said the rule is expected to cut cancer risk in communities near major ports by as much as 55 percent and deliver roughly $2.3 billion in public health benefits, that compliance reached 95 percent in 2025 with more than 3,400 vessel visits using shore power, and that the pass-through cost works out to about $3 a year for the average California driver. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), chair of the California Democratic delegation, told the House that a federal court had ordered EPA on September 12, three days before the vote, to withdraw or correct its reclassification of these Clean Air Act Section 209 waiver decisions as rules, the maneuver that made them eligible for CRA repeal in the first place. Passed 216-211: Republicans 212-1 with Fitzpatrick (PA) the lone nay, Democrats 3-210 with Cuellar (TX), Davis (NC), and Gonzalez (TX) voting yea, and Kiley (I-CA) yea. Kiley said he supports the two-decade-old shore power program for container, passenger, and refrigerated ships and objected only to extending it to tanker boilers. Project 2029 position is nay: this strips a rule that is already working, at 95 percent compliance, from the port communities that breathe the exhaust, in exchange for a fuel price benefit its own supporters measure in fractions of a cent per gallon, and it does so through a Congressional Review Act maneuver a federal court had ruled unlawful days earlier.

Concurrent resolution directing the President, pursuant to Sec. 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities against Iran absent a declaration of war or a specific congressional authorization, exempting only those elements needed to defend the United States, an ally, or a partner from imminent attack. Introduced by Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), a Marine veteran of the Iraq war. Passed 220-204, the widest margin of the six Iran war powers votes the House has taken this Congress: Democrats 213-0, Republicans 7-203, Rep. Kiley (I-CA) nay, Rep. Garamendi (D-CA) not voting. The seven Republican yeas were Barrett (MI), Davidson (OH), Fitzpatrick (PA), Massie (KY), Mace (SC), Miller-Meeks (IA), and Nunn (IA). Mace, Miller-Meeks, and Nunn had not voted for any of the five earlier resolutions, and their defections seven weeks before the midterms took the Republican crossover from four to seven. Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast (R-FL) controlled the opposition and used most of his time demanding that Moulton name the specific aircraft, ships, and personnel he wanted withdrawn, calling the resolution political theater. Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D-NY) told the House the war was in its seventh month after the President said it would take four to six weeks, that 19 service members had been killed and more than 750 wounded, that Americans had paid over $100 billion more for gasoline and diesel since it began, and that the Foreign Affairs Committee has still not held a single public hearing with an administration official on the war. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) counted 200 days of fighting with none of the four original war aims achieved. Moulton said the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, Iran's nuclear program is intact, and the administration lifted sanctions on Iran in the middle of the war. The resolution was received in the Senate on September 16 and referred to the Foreign Relations Committee. Project 2029 position is yea: Congress issued this same directive in June, the President ignored it, and the constitutional answer to a defied directive is to issue it again on the record rather than to stop voting.

House vote on a resolution by Rep. Jeff Crank (R-CO), introduced August 27 and rushed to the floor on the first day back from recess, declaring that the House 'condemns and denounces socialism in all its forms.' The text recycles the Cold War framing of the 2023 and 2025 anti-socialism resolutions - socialism 'necessitates a concentration of power' and has caused 'the killing of over 100,000,000 people' - but bolts on something new: it names the Democratic Socialists of America, cites the November 2025 election of a democratic socialist as mayor of New York, and resolves that 'American elections are for American citizens only' and that Congress should enact the SAVE America Act, the documentary-proof-of-citizenship and photo ID bill Democrats have blocked all year. That rider collapsed Democratic support. The February 2023 version (H.Con.Res. 9) passed 328-86 with 109 Democratic yeas; the November 2025 version (H.Con.Res. 58) passed 285-98 with 86; this one passed 220-192 with 8: Castor, Cuellar, Davis (NC), Golden, Gonzalez (TX), Gluesenkamp Perez, Soto, and Vasquez, with Houlahan and Goodlander voting present and Kiley (I) yea. Every Republican voted yea. Minority Leader Jeffries said Democrats opposed it because it endorsed 'toxic voter suppression legislation.' The rule bringing it to the floor survived 210-208 only because Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez voted with Republicans to offset five GOP defections, which Democratic leadership called 'a significant breach of trust.' Project 2029 position is nay: this is a red-baiting exercise designed to be unvotable, fusing a loyalty oath against 'socialism' with an endorsement of the SAVE Act's citizenship-papers regime so that any nay can be cut into an attack ad. The swing from 109 to 86 to 8 Democratic yeas tracks the poison pill, not any shift on socialism.

House passage of a bill by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), co-led by Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), amending the December 2022 omnibus (Section 101 of Division JJ of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023) by striking '2028' and inserting '2035.' The 2022 rider had deemed the American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries in compliance with the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act and frozen any new federal rules to reduce rope entanglements through December 31, 2028, after a federal judge found NOAA's 2021 Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan inadequate to protect the North Atlantic right whale. Roughly 380 right whales remain, with about 70 breeding females; entanglement in fishing gear and vessel strikes have been the leading causes of death since 2011, and NOAA's best science says the species can absorb fewer than one human-caused death per year and still recover. Committee Democrats' dissenting views called the bill a 13-year waiver from the two bedrock wildlife laws, enacted two years before the existing pause even expires. The White House strongly supported it. Passed 219-196: Republicans 209-2 (Bean and Fitzpatrick nay), Democrats 10-193, Kiley (I) nay. The Democratic yeas were the New England delegation members with lobster constituencies (Golden, Pingree, Pappas, Goodlander) plus Costa, Cuellar, Davis (NC), Gonzalez (TX), Gray, and Gluesenkamp Perez. Project 2029 position is nay: suspending the Endangered Species Act for a single industry until 2035 is a death sentence by legislation for a species with fewer than 400 animals left, and it removes every incentive to deploy the ropeless gear that would let lobstermen and whales coexist.

Rep. Austin Scott's (R-GA) bill revives the Social Security Administration's lapsed Section 234 authority, expired since 2022, to run Social Security Disability Insurance demonstration projects through 2031 that can waive program rules, including eligibility criteria and benefit formulas, for voluntary participants. It requires 120 days' notice to Congress and promises that a participant's 'total income' will not fall. Passed 232-188: Republicans 212-0, Democrats 19-188. Ways and Means Democrats opposed it because SSA has disclosed no plan for the authority, the income guarantee still allows benefits below current law once earnings are counted, applicants get no protection against tougher eligibility tests, there is no public comment or congressional disapproval, and administrative costs shift from the trust fund onto SSA's already-strained customer-service budget. Rep. Larson's amendment adding exactly those guardrails was rejected 23-18 in committee. Trump's first-term budgets proposed using this same demonstration power to cut SSDI by roughly $50 billion over ten years. Project 2029 position is nay: return-to-work pilots have real bipartisan history, but handing an administration with a record of proposed disability cuts a blank check to rewrite SSDI rules, with none of the protections Democrats asked for, is not a work incentive.

Concurrent resolution directing the President, pursuant to Sec. 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities against Iran, including any ground forces in a combat or occupation role, absent a declaration of war or authorization from Congress. Introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). Passed 214-208: Democrats 210-0, joined by Republicans Fitzpatrick, Massie, Davidson, and Barrett; Rep. Kiley (I-CA) voted nay. This was the House's fifth Iran war powers vote and its second passage. H.Con.Res. 86 cleared both chambers on June 23 and the administration ignored it; on July 10 Trump notified Congress that military action had resumed after he declared the month-long ceasefire over, and the two sides have traded strikes since. The vote came a day after three U.S. service members were killed in an Iranian attack on a base in Jordan. Hours later the Senate fell short 47-49 on a binding companion, S.J.Res. 180 from Sen. Van Hollen. Project 2029 position is yea: a directive Congress has already issued once and the President has openly defied must be issued again, on the record, until the war is authorized or ended.

A budget resolution whose operative content is its reconciliation instructions: four House committees are directed to report legislation adding up to $95 billion to the deficit by September 11, 2026. Armed Services gets $60 billion and Intelligence $13 billion to fund the unauthorized Iran war, Agriculture gets $12 billion in farm aid tied to war-driven cost increases, and House Administration gets $10 billion for grants pushing states to adopt SAVE America Act voter ID and citizenship rules. Nothing is offset; the blueprint projects a $1.6 trillion FY2027 deficit. OMB Director Vought whipped the vote in person. Passed 216-214: Republicans 216-2 (Davidson and Massie nay, Davidson calling a package with no pay-fors dead on arrival), Democrats 0-211, Kiley (I) nay. The Senate parliamentarian has already ruled SAVE Act provisions non-budgetary, and the Senate could not pass the SAVE Act on its own. Project 2029 position is nay: Congress's answer to a war it has twice voted to end should not be a filibuster-proof path to fund it, and the power of the purse cannot be used to launder a voter ID mandate that failed on its merits.

House passage of the roughly $1.15 trillion FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act, about $250 billion above last year, on a 216-212 vote that broke the bill's decades-long bipartisan pattern: Republicans 209-7, Democrats 6-205 (Cuellar, Davis, Golden, Gonzalez, Gray, and Gluesenkamp Perez yea). Ranking Member Adam Smith led the opposition, arguing that with the administration refusing to seek authorization for the Iran war, 'as we support anything in the defense area, we are de facto supporting this war with no end in sight.' Democrats also objected to Section 219, which locks U.S. and Israeli defense technology and supply chains together (a Massie-Khanna amendment to strike it was denied a floor vote), to July 21 amendments barring TRICARE coverage of gender-transition care (219-208), banning transgender girls from Defense Department school sports (221-203), and loosening personal firearms rules on bases (215-214), and to the rule directing that the SAVE America Act be appended to the bill before it goes to the Senate. The bill also renames the Pentagon the Department of War. Republican nays included Massie, Roy, Luna, and Crane. Project 2029 position is nay: a record defense authorization that funds an unauthorized war, hard-codes a foreign supply-chain entanglement, carries anti-trans riders, and doubles as the delivery vehicle for a federal voter ID mandate is not a bill about the troops.

Rep. Bryan Steil's (R-WI) bill bars members of Congress, spouses, and dependent children from buying individual stocks and requires seven days' public notice before a sale, with penalties of $2,000 or 10 percent of the trade. It does not require anyone to divest: members keep every share they hold, may sell at any time after notice, may reinvest dividends in the same companies, and the bill leaves the President, Vice President, and executive branch untouched. The Campaign Legal Center said its exceptions 'swallow the few new rules it does try to enact,' and Rep. Jayapal called it 'a fake stock trading ban.' Republicans then folded in H.R. 9368, the Voter ID Act, a national photo ID requirement for federal ballots lifted from the SAVE America Act, under which a voter without ID must cure a provisional ballot within three days. Rules Committee Republicans twice rejected Democratic substitutes requiring full divestment and covering the White House; Rep. Magaziner's motion to recommit failed 211-218 on party lines. Passed 232-198: Republicans 218-0, Democrats 13-198 (Castor, Cuellar, Davis, Golden, Gonzalez, Gottheimer, Kaptur, Lee, Moskowitz, Pappas, Perez, Soto, Tran yea). Golden called the voter ID rider 'cynical' but voted yes anyway; Rep. Yvette Clarke called the package a 'Trojan horse.' Project 2029 position is nay: a stock ban that bans no one from owning stock, welded to a photo ID mandate the Senate has already rejected, is voter suppression wearing an ethics costume.

A 'clean' continuing resolution funding the government from October 1 through December 4, 2026 at current levels - passed in July, before the August recess, to push any shutdown fight safely past the November midterms. Passed 220-205: Republicans 213-1 (Massie the lone nay), Democrats 6-204 against (Castor, Cuellar, Davis, Golden, Gonzalez, Vasquez voting yea). Most House Democrats opposed locking in current spending levels with no negotiation while awaiting an uncertain 60-vote Senate. Project 2029 position is nay: a CR timed to shield the majority from accountability before an election, extending funding levels Democrats had no hand in setting, is a political instrument - not a budget.

Concurrent resolution directing the removal of U.S. Armed Forces from unauthorized involvement in hostilities in Lebanon, with explicit carve-outs for security cooperation with the Lebanese Armed Forces and protection of diplomatic facilities. Introduced by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI); unlike her broader April version (which failed 92-324), this narrowed resolution won the backing of Leader Jeffries and Democratic leadership. Failed 189-235: Democrats voted 187-22 for it, Republicans 2-212 against (Massie yea; Boebert voted yea, then said it was a mistake). Democratic nays included Cuellar, Suozzi, Gottheimer, and Sherman. Project 2029 position is yea: U.S. intelligence and strike-coordination support for a foreign occupation is involvement in hostilities, and the War Powers Resolution does not have a carve-out for wars conducted through a partner's air force.

Final House passage (358-32) of the landmark bipartisan housing supply law, clearing it for enactment. All 32 nays were Republicans; every voting Democrat supported it. The law expands affordable-housing financing and planning grants, streamlines environmental review for housing, reforms manufactured-housing rules, strengthens community banks' role in housing lending, and bars large institutional investors (350+ single-family homes) from buying additional single-family homes. Became law July 11, 2026. Project 2029 position is yea: this is what governing on the housing crisis looks like - more supply, more financing, and Wall Street pushed out of the starter-home market.

A short-term extension of FISA Section 702 warrantless surveillance authority to July 2, 2026. Failed under suspension 198-218, and Section 702 lapsed on June 12, 2026 - the first lapse since the program's creation in 2008. Democrats voted 7-199 against, refusing to extend the authority without warrant-requirement reforms and in protest of Trump's installation of Bill Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence; 19 civil-liberties Republicans (Massie, Davidson, Roy, and others) also voted nay. Project 2029 position is nay: Congress has spent a decade extending warrantless surveillance with reform promises that never materialize. Refusing to rubber-stamp another extension - especially with an unconfirmed loyalist atop the intelligence community - is the constitutional position.