Washington on One - May 18, 2026

The Lede

1. The President spent the week in Beijing. Trump's first state visit to China since 2017 ran Wednesday–Friday and produced a tacit extension of the October 2025 Busan trade truce, headline purchase commitments on agriculture and Boeing aircraft, and the launch of bilateral working bodies on trade and AI. Xi accepted Trump's invitation for a return state visit to Washington September 24, 2026. Full feature below.

2. The CLARITY Act cleared Senate Banking, 15-9, with bipartisan support. Thursday's markup advanced the most consequential crypto financial-regulatory bill of 2026 to the Senate floor — ten months after the House passed it 294-134. Full feature below.

3. Sen. Bill Cassidy lost his Louisiana Republican primary Saturday. Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming both finished ahead of the two-term incumbent and advance to a June 27 runoff; the winner is heavily favored in November. Cassidy is one of the few remaining Republicans who voted to convict Trump after January 6 still in the chamber. The result has direct implications for HELP Committee business — including the FDA Commissioner nomination process and PDUFA reauthorization — and is the clearest demonstration to date of the President's grip on the Republican primary electorate. See The Weekend section below.

4. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned Tuesday. Kyle Diamantas, the agency's top food regulator, is acting commissioner. The departure was driven by the fruit-flavored vapes approval, mifepristone politics, and pharmaceutical-industry dissatisfaction; it widens an already large HHS leadership gap (no permanent Surgeon General, NIH director doubling as acting CDC head, no permanent leadership in either FDA biopharma review division).

5. FCC Chairman Carr's actions against ABC moved into open litigation. ABC filed a sharply-worded response Friday May 8 (represented by former Solicitor General Paul Clement) arguing that the FCC's challenges to "The View" and its review of all eight ABC-owned local station licenses violate the First Amendment. The dispute is now the most aggressive media-vs.-FCC posture in decades.

6. Iran remained the shadow over everything. The April 8 ceasefire was on "massive life support" after Trump rejected Tehran's latest counterproposal. U.S. Navy blockade of Iranian ports continues. Both chambers of Congress moved war-powers resolutions — both failed.

7. Russia launched its largest single-day drone-and-missile assault of the four-year war on Ukraine, roughly 1,500 UAVs and hundreds of missiles, around May 13–14 — even as a Trump-brokered three-day ceasefire (May 9–11) had just expired. The Pentagon separately announced May 14 that it was canceling a planned deployment of 4,000 troops to Poland, citing frustration with NATO non-participation in the Iran war. Latvia's Prime Minister resigned after Ukrainian drones flew into Latvian airspace.

8. The FY27 appropriations cycle opened. HAC marked up the FY27 CJS bill in full committee Wednesday ($77.341B, $670M below FY26). House floor finished H.R. 8469 MilCon-VA Friday with 51 amendments — first FY27 bill on the floor. E&W subcommittee marked up Friday morning.

9. Kevin Warsh confirmed to the Fed Board, 51-45, with cloture invoked on his Chairmanship the same margin Wednesday. Final Chairmanship confirmation vote pending next week.

10.The White House's AI national-security posture splintered into the open. The Washington Post reported Monday that U.S. spy   agencies are pushing for expanded regulatory authority over AI, against opposition from the Commerce Department and the AI-Crypto Czar's office. The split surfaced as the Beijing summit was framing a bilateral AI working group.

Feature: The Beijing Summit

Trump–Xi  ·  May 14–15, 2026

The first U.S. presidential state visit to China in nearly nine years produced no headline breakthrough — and was never expected to. The interesting story is in what the two sides agreed to keep stable, what they postponed, and what the choreography itself signals about the shape of U.S.–China policy heading into the midterms.

The Choreography  Trump arrived in Beijing Wednesday evening for a roughly 48-hour visit centered on a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, two bilateral meetings with Xi Jinping, a state banquet in the Golden Room, and a joint visit to the Temple of Heaven. The U.S. delegation was notable for its breadth: Secretary of State Rubio, Treasury Secretary Bessent, Trade Representative Greer, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Miller, and Science & Technology Advisor Kratsios — alongside Defense Secretary Hegseth, the first Pentagon chief to accompany a U.S. president on a state visit to China since Richard Nixon's 1972 trip. A separate corporate delegation included Apple's Tim Cook, Tesla's Elon Musk, and Nvidia's Jensen Huang (the latter added on a stopover in Alaska after Trump publicly recruited him).

Trump invited Xi for a return state visit to the United States on September 24, 2026 — giving both leaders a second in-person window before the October 2026 expiration of the Busan trade truce, and before the November midterm elections.

Trade & Tariffs  Outside observers had set expectations low and were largely correct. The two sides agreed in principle to a tacit extension of the Busan tariff truce, headline purchase commitments on U.S. agricultural products and Boeing aircraft (Trump told Fox the figure is 200 aircraft), and the formal launch of a bilateral "Board of Trade" with a parallel investment-focused body — both pre-sketched in working-level talks. Tariff levels themselves were left largely untouched. China made no significant new commitments on structural economic reforms; the U.S. secured no significant new market access. The framing of the relationship as "constructive, strategic and stable" — language both sides used in opening remarks Thursday — is the most concrete deliverable. 

Rare Earths & Critical Minerals  This was the U.S. delegation's highest-priority economic ask, and the area where Beijing arrived holding the better cards. Movement was incremental: some commitment to maintain rare-earth licensing volumes already agreed to at Busan, no broader rollback of China's expanded export-control regime. China continues to occasionally throttle rare-earth and magnet supplies as a pressure instrument; that lever has not been surrendered. Domestic implication: the policy push to build U.S. and allied processing capacity remains the operative posture and will continue to drive activity at DOE, BLM, and DoD's Office of Strategic Capital.

Technology, Semiconductors & AI  Two threads. First: the Administration confirmed its policy of permitting sales of less-advanced Nvidia AI chips into China against a 25% federal fee — Huang's last-minute inclusion in the delegation was read in both capitals as a signal of continuity. Second: the two sides announced a new bilateral working framework on AI governance, focused on risk and safety. This is process, not policy — but it is the first formal U.S.–PRC AI dialogue at this level and creates a venue where issues such as compute thresholds, model transparency, and dual-use export controls can be raised. The bilateral framework lands as the U.S. internal AI policy posture itself is contested — see the Beyond the Hill section.

Iran  Iran was the elephant in the room. The U.S. continues to enforce its blockade of Iranian ports; China is Iran's largest oil customer and the principal commercial loser from the Strait of Hormuz disruption. Trump pressed Xi to lean on Tehran toward de-escalation; Trump told reporters afterward that Xi committed not to send military aid to Iran. The Iranian Foreign Minister's Beijing visit in the week before the summit suggests Beijing was already engaged. This was arguably the most consequential conversation of the trip — and almost certainly the least public.

Taiwan  The pre-trip controversy over Trump's announced intent to discuss Taiwan arms sales — which Taipei and outside observers framed as a potential departure from Reagan's Six Assurances — appears to have produced no formal U.S. policy change. Xi delivered Beijing's standard language ("the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations") and warned of "great jeopardy" if mishandled. The Chinese Embassy's pre-trip "four red lines" framing was reiterated. The U.S. readout used the customary "does not support" formulation on Taiwan independence rather than "opposes" — the wording Taipei had feared.

Quick Take: The summit's value to clients is mostly in what it preserves rather than what it creates. The Busan truce extension reduces the probability of a snap tariff or export-control escalation in the next 90 days. The China-policy hawks inside the Administration and the bipartisan China hawks on Capitol Hill were not visibly accommodated; that posture re-asserts itself in the FY27 NDAA and approps cycles, where rider risk remains the principal near-term channel for new China-specific restrictions. Clients with PRC exposure should treat the post-summit window as a planning opportunity, not a peace dividend.

Feature: Crypto Market Structure Moves

CLARITY Act  ·  Senate Banking  ·  May 14, 2026

After a ten-month wait in the Senate, the largest piece of financial-regulatory legislation likely to move in 2026 cleared its highest-stakes procedural hurdle. The outstanding questions are now political, not technical — and the calendar is unforgiving.

What Happened  The Senate Banking Committee marked up the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act of 2025 (H.R. 3633) Thursday morning in Dirksen and reported it favorably on a 15-9 bipartisan vote, two Democrats joining all Republicans on final passage. Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) navigated more than 100 filed amendments — most rejected on largely party lines — and secured the additional Democratic votes through a series of last-moment accommodations. The bill is the Senate counterpart to the House version that passed 294-134 last July, the largest bipartisan margin ever recorded on crypto legislation in Congress.

What's In It  The 309-page bill does three structural things. First, it formally allocates jurisdiction between the SEC and the CFTC, creating a new statutory category of "digital commodities" and ending the agency turf war that has defined the last five years of U.S. enforcement. Second, it codifies the Alsobrooks-Tillis stablecoin-yield compromise: stablecoin issuers cannot pay yield on holdings that is "economically or functionally equivalent" to bank deposit interest — protecting bank deposit franchises while preserving exchange-side rewards programs tied to trading and liquidity activity. Third, the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act language survived markup, shielding DeFi software developers who do not custody user funds from money-transmitter regulation. Self-custody is protected.

The Amendment Fight  The headline amendment vote was Senator Mike Rounds's (R-SD) AI sandbox provision, adopted 15-9 with bipartisan support — a notable expansion of the bill's scope into financial-AI governance, opening a regulatory sandbox for AI-enabled financial products. Senator Warren's amendments — including keeping "risky assets" out of retirement accounts and protecting bank-supervisory records — mostly failed 11-13 on party lines. Senator Hagerty (R-TN) filed but did not force a vote on a central-bank-digital-currency ban. The conflict-of-interest section that would limit federal officeholders from profiting from digital-asset businesses was held out of the bill — the Banking Committee does not have jurisdiction — and is the principal piece of unfinished business.

The Politics  The ethics question is the live political variable on the path to 60 floor votes. Senate Democrats led by Van Hollen and Warren are pressing for restrictions on the President and senior officials owning, promoting, or affiliating with digital-asset businesses — language with obvious salience given Bloomberg's estimate of $1.4 billion in Trump-family crypto revenue, the family's stake in World Liberty Financial, and that company's pending U.S. banking-charter application. White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt's public posture is that the Administration will accept rules applying "across the board" but will not accept a provision singling out a specific officeholder. Senate Banking GOP leadership has assessed that some form of ethics provision is required to get to 60 votes; Democratic Senator Gillibrand publicly estimated up to 70 senators could support a properly drafted version.

The Calendar  Congress recesses for Memorial Day on May 21. Senator Lummis (R-WY), the bill's most active Republican proponent, has warned that missing the May–August window puts the bill at risk of sliding past the midterms and effectively into the next Congress. The Digital Chamber's Cody Carbone and Democratic Senator Gillibrand have both publicly cited an August deadline for a floor vote.

Quick Take: The CLARITY Act's clearance through committee is the single most important U.S. financial-regulatory event of 2026. The bill — together with the GENIUS Act stablecoin framework enacted last summer — would for the first time give the digital-asset industry a federal regulatory perimeter with predictable jurisdictional lines. The ripple effects extend well beyond crypto-native firms: banks and asset managers face a redrawn competitive landscape around stablecoin-adjacent products; payment companies gain a clearer path to integrate digital-asset rails; fintechs and AI firms gain access to a federally sanctioned sandbox via the Rounds amendment; and any client with retirement-product, custody, or treasury exposure needs to reassess product strategy against a 60-vote Senate outcome.

Feature:  Cassidy Loses Louisiana Senate Primary

Letlow and Fleming Advance to June 27 Runoff

Two-term Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy was eliminated in Saturday's Louisiana Senate primary, finishing third behind Rep. Julia Letlow (Trump-endorsed) and state Treasurer John Fleming. Letlow and Fleming advance to a June 27 runoff; the winner is heavily favored in November's general election. Cassidy's vote to convict Trump in the second impeachment trial — and Trump's subsequent decision to recruit and endorse Letlow — proved the determinative dynamic. Cassidy used his Sunday remarks to push back on Trump without naming him, framing the primary loss as the cost of independence.

Why it matters beyond Louisiana:

• Cassidy is HELP Committee Chairman and was the operative Senate variable on the FDA Commissioner confirmation — see Pharmaceuticals & FDA-Regulated Industries below. His ability and willingness to advance a Trump-aligned FDA nominee through committee is now operating in a lame-duck posture through January 2027. He has both more freedom to vote his conscience and less leverage to extract concessions on PDUFA reauthorization, mifepristone, and other HELP-jurisdiction healthcare items.

• The result is the clearest demonstration to date of President Trump's continued grip on the Republican primary electorate. Of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict in the second impeachment, Cassidy was one of the few remaining in the chamber. The signal to other GOP senators on any close-call vote — particularly with the CLARITY Act, DHS reconciliation, and FY27 NDAA in front of them — is unmistakable.

• Louisiana effectively has no fully-empowered Senate representation for the next six weeks. The June 27 runoff is between two Trump-aligned Republicans; either way, the seat moves further into the Administration's column when sworn in January 2027.

Quick Take: President Trump owns GOP primaries.  Cross him at your own, and your job’s, risk.

The Week that was in the Committees

House

Monday, May 11

• Pre-session day; no committee activity. House met for pro-forma session.

Tuesday, May 12

• HAC Defense Subcommittee: FY27 budget hearing with Secretary Hegseth.

• HAC Transportation, Housing & Urban Development Subcommittee: HUD Secretary testimony on FY27 budget

• House Rules Committee: granted 8-2 the rule package for H.R. 8469 MilCon-VA appropriations and related police-reform measures.

• Various other committees in session.

Wednesday, May 13

• HAC full-committee markup of the FY27 Commerce, Justice, Science & Related Agencies bill ($77.341B; $670M below FY26 enacted).

• House Financial Services Committee full-committee markup of six bills: H.R. 2152, the AI Practices, Logistics, Actions, and Necessities (AI PLAN) Act; H.R. 2978, the Guarding Unprotected Aging Retirees from Deception (GUARD) Act; H.R. 4801, the Unleashing AI Innovation in Financial Services Act; H.R. 5396, the Price Stability Act of 2025; H.R. 8278, the Fostering the Use of Technology to Uphold Regulatory Effectiveness in Supervision (FUTURES) Act; H.R. 8671, the Bank Fraud Technology Advancement Act of 2026.

• Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Health markup of ten bills, including H.R. 2821, the FDA Modernization Act 3.0; H.R. 8205, the Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Reauthorization Act of 2026; H.R. 4348, the Kay Hagan Tick Act Reauthorization; H.R. 4541, the EARLY Act Reauthorization of 2025; H.R. 3747, the Accelerating Access to Dementia and Alzheimer's Provider Training (AADAPT) Act; H.R. 8209, the School-Based Health Centers Reauthorization Act of 2026; H.R. 5160, the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2025; H.R. 2715, the Destruction of Hazardous Imports Act; H.R. 5347, the Health Care Efficiency Through Flexibility Act.

• House Foreign Affairs full-committee markup: H.R. 8649, amending the Arms Export Control Act to authorize Foreign Military Financing for direct commercial contracts; H.R. 8665, requiring a strategy to encourage foreign-partner participation in FMS and direct commercial sales on a multinational basis.

• Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Energy hearing: "Wires, Rates, and States: Permitting Transmission for Reliable and Affordable Power" — witnesses including Hon. Tony Clark, Hon. Mark Christie, Rob Gramlich, and Michael Skelly.

• HASC Subcommittee on Seapower & Projection Forces: hearing on the Department of the Air Force FY27 budget request for Seapower and Projection Forces.

• House Veterans Affairs full-committee hearing: "Expanding the Mission: The Future of the National Center for Warrior Independence in West LA."

• House Education & Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections hearing: "Building a Safer Future: Private-Sector Strategies for Emerging Safety Issues."

• HAC Defense DoD hearing continued; House Natural Resources, Judiciary, and Energy & Commerce other panels also met.

Thursday, May 14

• House Education & Workforce full-committee hearing: Secretary Linda McMahon testimony — "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Department of Education." Substantive exchanges on Education Department dismantling (workforce reduced from ~4,200 to ~2,300; 100+ programs offloaded to other agencies); IDEA/special education potential transfer to DOL or HHS; OCR caseload backlog (112 resolutions out of ~12,000 pending); graduate borrowing caps under OBBBA ($20,500/year, $100,000 lifetime); federal tax-credit scholarship rule-setting authority for states.

• HASC Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies & Innovation rescheduled hearing on DoD Science, Technology, and Innovation Posture.

• House Administration full-committee markup of election-integrity measures: H.R. 8720, the Campaign Finance Transparency Act (Steil); H.R. 8721, the Preventing Foreign Interference in Americans Elections Act (Steil); H.R. 7418, the Securing Tech and Election Administration Defenses for All States and Territories (STEADFAST) Act (Bice); H.R. 3535, the Stop Foreign Funds in Elections Act (Fitzpatrick); Morelle bill modernizing FEC administrative operations.

• House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement & Intelligence markup: H.R. 7443, the I&A Mission Reorientation Act of 2026 (Pfluger); H.R. 7764, the National Threat Evaluation and Reporting Program Reassignment and Funding Reform Act (Evans-CO); H.R. 7574, the ELO Realignment and Strategic Engagement Reform Act (Evans-CO); H.R. 8142, the Special Events Program Alignment Act (Mackenzie).

• House Natural Resources full-committee markup of six bills: H.R. 741, the Stronger Engagement for Indian Health Needs Act of 2025 (Stanton); H.R. 3924, the Wildfire Risk Evaluation Act (Neguse); H.R. 5694, Alaska's Right To Ivory Sales and Tradition (ARTIST) Act (Begich); H.R. 7250, the Fort Peck Reservation Rural Water System Reauthorization (Downing); two additional measures.

• House Veterans Affairs full-committee markup of approximately eighteen bills.

• Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Environment markup of three measures.

• Floor: H.Con.Res. 75 (Gottheimer) Iran War Powers Resolution failed 212-212 — a tie equals lost. Three GOP crossovers — Massie, Fitzpatrick, Barrett. One Democrat — Golden — voting against.

Friday, May 15

• HAC Energy & Water Development subcommittee markup of the FY27 E&W bill. Subcommittee mark forwarded to full committee without amendment.

• HASC full-committee hearing on the FY27 Army budget request.

• Floor: H.R. 8469, the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act FY27, passed 400-15 (Roll No. 175) — the first FY27 appropriations bill on the floor; consideration began Thursday under H. Res. 1275 with 51 amendments offered.

• H.R. 8845 introduced: FY27 Commerce, Justice, Science & Related Agencies appropriations (H. Rept. 119-652).

• 28 public bills (H.R. 8842–8869) and 7 resolutions introduced.

• House adjourned 11:41 AM; returns Tuesday May 19 at noon for morning-hour debate.

  
  

Senate

Monday, May 11

• S. Res. 690 / Warsh cloture sequence on en bloc nominations at 5:30 PM.

• Late Monday night: Senate Judiciary and HSGAC released text on the $72 billion DHS reconciliation package — funding ICE personnel ($7.45B), CBP personnel ($19.1B), CBP border surveillance technologies ($3.45B), immigration enforcement and removal operations, and Trump's White House ballroom project. Senate floor action expected ahead of June 1 Presidential deadline.

• Various FY27 budget hearings underway across committees.

Tuesday, May 12

• Warsh confirmed to the Federal Reserve Board, 51-45.

• Cloture invoked on Warsh's Chairmanship of the Federal Reserve, 51-45.

• Additional en bloc nominations confirmed.

• Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies: open hearing on FY27 EPA budget proposal.

• Senate Environment & Public Works Committee: open hearing on FY27 NRC budget proposal.

Wednesday, May 13

• Iran war-powers resolution failed 50-49 — closest war-powers vote on the conflict to date.

• CRA disapprovals moved on three CFPB rules sponsored by Sens. Reed, Warnock, and Van Hollen.

• Senate HSGAC hearing: "Whistleblower testimony on COVID".

• Continued en bloc nominations.

Thursday, May 14

• Senate Banking Committee marked up the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, reported favorably 15-9 with bipartisan support after more than 100 filed amendments — see feature above. Rounds AI-sandbox amendment adopted 15-9; Warren amendments mostly failed 11-13; Hagerty CBDC ban filed but not pressed; conflict-of-interest section held out (jurisdiction issue).

• Other committee work continued.

• Senate adjourned until 3 PM Monday May 18.

Friday, May 15

• Senate out.

  
  

Beyond the Hill: Executive Branch, Regulatory & Personnel

The China trip dominated White House communications, but a number of other administration actions of substance moved during the week.

FDA Commissioner Makary Resigns

HHS / FDA  ·  Personnel

Dr. Marty Makary resigned Tuesday May 12 after roughly 13 months in the role, with Trump confirming the departure ahead of his China trip. Kyle Diamantas, the FDA's top food regulator (a lawyer, not a physician), is acting commissioner and testified before Congress Wednesday in Makary's place. Triggers included the May 6 fruit-flavored vapes approval (which Makary had resisted), mifepristone-review politics, and broad pharmaceutical-industry dissatisfaction. The departure widens an already large HHS leadership gap: no Senate-confirmed Surgeon General, NIH Director Bhattacharya doubling as acting CDC head, and both main FDA biopharma review divisions led by acting officials. Sen. Cassidy (R-LA) — facing a Trump-backed primary challenger — is the operative variable on any nominee. PDUFA reauthorization negotiations are ongoing.

FCC v. ABC — First Amendment Fight

FCC  ·  Media Policy

ABC's filing Friday May 8 (lead counsel: former Solicitor General Paul Clement) is the most aggressive defense by any broadcast network in years. Disputes: (i) the FCC's challenge to "The View"'s 24-year-old "bona fide news" exemption under the equal-time rule, prompted by KTRK-TV Houston's airing of a Democratic Senate candidate interview; (ii) the agency's accelerated review of all eight ABC-owned local station licenses, years before scheduled expiration; (iii) the underlying DEI-compliance inquiry. Chairman Carr's prior posture on Kimmel-related sanctions is the contextual backdrop. Even some Senate Republicans (notably Sen. Cruz) have publicly criticized the FCC's approach. 

Intra-Administration AI Posture Split

White House  ·  AI Policy

The Washington Post reported Monday May 11 that U.S. national-security agencies are pushing for expanded regulatory authority over advanced AI models, against opposition from the Commerce Department and from the AI-Crypto Czar's office (David Sacks). The split surfaced as the Beijing summit was producing a bilateral U.S.–PRC AI working framework — a venue whose American negotiating posture is now visibly contested internally. White House Chief of Staff Wiles signaled support for frontier-lab innovation in public messaging. The intra-administration debate is the lead variable for any forthcoming AI-related EO or NPRM.

ICTS National Emergency Continued

White House  ·  Presidential Action

The continuation notice on Executive Order 13873 (Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain) was transmitted to both chambers Tuesday and published in the Federal Register Wednesday. Continuation preserves Commerce's underlying authority over connected-vehicle, drone, IoT, software, and related supply-chain transactions involving foreign adversaries.

Poland Deployment Canceled

DoD  ·  NATO Posture

The Pentagon announced Thursday May 14 the cancellation of a planned deployment of 4,000 troops to Poland, with White House officials citing frustration over NATO non-participation in the Iran war. Among the most direct U.S.–Europe security frictions of the Administration to date; defense-industrial clients with European exposure should track the second-order consequences for FMS pipelines and joint-program execution.

Look-Ahead — Week of May 18

• DHS reconciliation push, all week: The Senate is expected to take up the $72 billion DHS reconciliation package this week ahead of Trump's June 1 deadline. Parliamentarian's ruling against the $1 billion White House security funding language requires redrafting. House action follows once Senate vote completes. This is the dominant procedural story of the week.

• Tue 5/19: FY27 approps markup activity continues in HAC; SAC opens its cycle. Watch CJS and LHHS subcommittee mark releases. NTSB begins two-day investigative hearing on the November 2025 UPS cargo plane crash.

• Wed 5/20: FCC Open Meeting — tentative agenda includes robocalls, disaster outage reporting, USF High-Cost / broadband. ABC v. FCC posture is the live overlay.

• Thu 5/21: Expected committee day. HASC subcommittee NDAA markup window opens — rider risk on China-specific named lists is the principal near-term threat to watch. Congressional Memorial Day recess begins at COB.

• Fri 5/22: Both chambers likely out by COB. Recess through May 26.

• Tentative across the week: Senate final-confirmation vote on Warsh as Federal Reserve Chairman; Federal Circuit briefing schedule on Section 122 administrative-stay request; possible permanent FDA Commissioner nominee announcement.

  
  

30 / 60 / 90-Day Horizon

Date	Window	Item	Sector(s)
Wed May 20	30d	FCC Open Meeting — Covered List read-across; ABC v. FCC overlay	UAS & data systems; media
Thu May 21	30d	Congressional Memorial Day recess begins	All
Late May – early Jun	30d	HASC FY27 NDAA subcommittee markup window — named-list rider risk	Biotech; CVs; UAS; defense
Mon Jun 1	30d	DHS reconciliation — Trump-imposed deadline for ICE/CBP funding package ($72B)	Immigration; defense; broader political
Tue Jun 30	60d	BIOSECURE direct DoD procurement bar effective	China biotech
Sat Jun 27	60d	Louisiana Senate runoff — Letlow (Trump-endorsed) v. Fleming	Political; pharma/FDA
Jun – Jul	60d	FY27 approps full-committee and floor cycle	Medicaid; immigration; critical minerals
Fri Jul 24	60d	Section 122 tariff authority sunsets (absent legislative extension); Federal Circuit decision expected before	All trade-exposed
Aug (target)	90d	CLARITY Act — industry-and-Democratic-leadership floor-vote deadline	Digital assets; banks; payments
Thu Sep 24	90d+	Xi state visit to Washington	All China-exposed
Oct (TBC)	90d+	Busan trade-truce one-year expiration	All China-exposed
Thu Oct 1	90d+	§71115 indirect hold-harmless threshold effective	Medicaid managed care
Tue Nov 3	90d+	Midterm elections — post-Callais map in effect	All

Washington on One Page is the weekly federal-affairs publication of DGA Group Government Relations. We cover the legislative, executive, judicial, and regulatory environment in Washington for clients across critical minerals, advanced manufacturing, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, immigration, technology, digital assets and financial services, media and telecommunications, defense, and international trade.