ABA Advocacy: The first session of the 119th Congress
The first session of the 119th Congress convened on Jan. 3, 2025, with Republicans taking control of both chambers following Donald Trump’s reelection. What ensued was a turbulent session that adjourned Jan. 3, 2026, marked by bitter disputes among members, challenges to Speaker Mike Johnson by members of his own party, and a standoff over Affordable Care Act subsidy extensions that ultimately triggered the 43-day government shutdown—the longest in U.S. history.
After the November elections that restored Trump to the White House, Republicans preserved their House majority, though by a historically tight margin of 220-215. Unlike the previous congressional session, when it took almost a week and an unprecedented 15-ballot votes to elect a speaker of the House, the Trump-endorsed Republican Johnson faced down initial internal dissent to secure the House speakership in the first round of voting.
Senate Republicans opened with a 53-47 majority, making it the third consecutive Congress to open with a single-digit majority, with Sen. John Thune of South Dakota succeeding Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as the majority leader.
The session launched with sharp internal turbulence inside the House Republican Conference. Hard-line conservatives rejected leadership’s proposed federal spending caps and demanded that stringent border-security provisions be tied to early appropriations bills. Their resistance triggered multiple failed procedural votes in February and March, forcing GOP leaders to pull legislation from the floor and delaying the organization of key committees.
Throughout the session, Congress often found itself overshadowed by Trump, who leaned heavily on executive actions—including executive orders, memoranda and notices—and used them to implement billions of dollars in cuts to federal programs. In the first year of his second term, Trump issued 221 executive orders, compared to President Joe Biden’s total of 162 executive orders over his entire term. In terms of legislation, Trump signed 68 bills into law in 2025 versus 30 signed into law by Biden during the first session of the 118th Congress.
The White House frequently set the pace with unilateral initiatives, such as broad attempts to reorganize or dismantle key federal agencies, federal grant freezes and reductions in the federal workforce that triggered legal challenges and administrative turmoil.
In July 2025, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a major budget and reconciliation package supported by Trump that included changes to tax rates and deductions and cuts to such programs as Medicaid and SNAP. Following a narrow House vote (218–214) and a 51–50 Senate vote, Trump signed it into law July 4, 2025. Its passage reflected a high-stakes use of the budget reconciliation process by congressional Republicans to advance a wide-ranging legislative agenda.
On Oct. 1, the stage was set for the longest government shutdown in U.S. history—43 days—when negotiations over a must-pass funding bill collapsed amid a standoff over whether to extend Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, with Democrats pressing to preserve enhanced subsidies set to expire and Republicans resisting their inclusion in the spending package.
The shutdown’s effects quickly rippled beyond Washington, disrupting air travel as staffing shortages strained airport security and air traffic control operations, delaying flights and raising safety concerns. Millions of low-income households faced uncertainty as SNAP benefits were suspended, while federal courts, regulatory agencies and contractors curtailed operations.
The shutdown ended Nov. 12, when Trump signed legislation approved by the House. The measure had cleared the Senate only after a contentious vote in which several Democratic senators joined Republicans, exposing internal Democratic divisions and underscoring the fragile bipartisan balance required to reopen the government. The deal extends funding through Jan. 30, 2026.
Judicial confirmations remained a significant area of activity. The Senate confirmed 26 Article III judges during the first session, including several appellate nominees whose confirmations required bipartisan support due to narrow margins.
In a major change to Senate rules, the Senate adopted a new legislative procedure Sept. 11 on a party-line vote that lowers the threshold for Senate approval of groups of sub-Cabinet nominees from 60 votes to a simple majority, such as deputy Cabinet officers, ambassadors and U.S. attorneys. The “nuclear option” rule change does not apply to Cabinet or judicial nominees to the Supreme Court or the federal courts but has the effect of weakening the ability of individual senators to block nominees.
Congress also directed attention to immigration and border issues as crossings surged along the southwest border. Less than a month after his inauguration, Trump signed the Laken Riley Act, which requires that federal authorities detain immigrants who lack legal status and are accused of crimes, including several misdemeanor offenses, with the potential for deportation.
Increasingly throughout the session, Republican infighting in the House undercut Johnson’s authority, as a bloc of GOP members bypassed his leadership on key votes and used procedural tools like discharge petitions to advance bipartisan measures. The internal divisions weakened Johnson’s control over a narrow majority and complicated the House’s ability to set a legislative agenda.
These unresolved leadership tensions are likely to persist in the second session of the 119th Congress, limiting ambitious legislation and heightening the risk of procedural brinkmanship as the chamber moves closer to the 2026 midterm elections.
Despite the limited legislative output of Congress during the first session of the 119th Congress, ABA advocacy and engagement helped achieve several successes, the most notable of which are outlined below.
• Countering Threats and Attacks on our Judges Act (S. 2379) would establish a State Judicial Threat Intelligence and Resource Center to provide technical assistance, training and monitoring of threats for state and local judges and court personnel. The ABA-supported legislation passed the Senate Nov. 20, 2025, by unanimous consent and was received in the House.
• In response to concerns raised by the ABA and others, Congress preserved two critical tax benefits for law firms and other professional service businesses in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law July 4. The new law preserves the existing state and local tax (SALT) deduction at the entity level for law firms and other professional service businesses, thus avoiding a significant tax increase. It also makes the qualified business income (QBI) deduction permanent at the current 20% level and modestly increases the limits on income that owners of law firms and other professional service businesses can earn and still claim some of the deduction before it completely phases out, thus enabling more of those owners to claim the deduction.
• The ABA and its allies in the National Creditors Bar Association (NCBA) worked closely with U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wisconsin, to update and reintroduce H.R. 3213, the Restoring Court Authority Over Litigation Act, which would clarify that attorneys engaged in litigation should be regulated and disciplined exclusively by the courts, with no federal agency authority over attorney litigation activities. The legislation, endorsed by the ABA, the NCBA and the Conference of Chief Justices, is now pending in the House Judiciary and Financial Services Committees.
• During deliberations on the budget reconciliation process, a proposal was advanced to cut or eliminate the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program to capture an additional $40 billion in funding for administration priorities. While several major loan repayment programs were eliminated by lawmakers to capture nearly $300 billion, the PSLF program was left untouched.
• The Senate appropriations bill for the Departments of Commerce, Justice and related agencies would provide $29 million for the ABA Legal Orientation Program (LOP), a $1 million increase from the prior fiscal year. The bill was approved by the full Senate Appropriations Committee but has not yet reached the floor. The LOP provides support for noncitizens and immigration courts by enhancing due process and providing access to legal information in the absence of sufficient legal representation. Early in 2025, the LOP program’s funding had been terminated. The ABA held numerous meetings on the Hill encouraging continuation of the program, including with majority and minority staff of the Senate Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee.
• The ABA made increased funding for the Legal Services Corp. a central advocacy priority during its ABA Day 2025 efforts in Washington, D.C., and conducted grassroots campaigns urging strong and sustained LSC funding. Senate appropriators in July approved a 1% increase for the Legal Services Corp. to $566 million in the Commerce, Justice, Science and related agencies fiscal year 2026 appropriations legislation. In the second session, both the Senate and the House voted to provide $540 million in the fiscal 2026 CJS appropriations to the LSC for fiscal 2026 through September. The package is expected to be signed into law.
• Consistent with an Oct. 22, 2025, letter from ABA President Michelle Behnke and a coordinated ABA grassroots advocacy campaign, Congress passed and the president signed into law P.L. 110-37, which included a $90 million increase in funding for federal public defense funding for FY 2026 versus FY 2025. The funding is part of a continuing resolution that runs through Jan. 30, 2026.
• The ABA advocated in support of continued funding for the Library of Congress through FY 2026, which has been funded at $592.4 million since FY 2024. Although the House Appropriations Committee proposed cutting its funding by more than $90 million, Congress ultimately agreed to maintain the library’s funding at the same level for an additional year.
With the second session of the 119th Congress now open, lawmakers must direct their attention to a considerable list of unfinished priorities. The approaching midyear elections—and the 46 senators and House members who have announced retirements or bids for other offices—will add to the complexity, as will the recent death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-California, which will further shrink the already-thin House GOP majority.
Disputes over health care subsidies are likely to persist, along with ongoing challenges within Johnson’s own party. And, once again, a possible government shutdown is on the horizon in January.
The GAO team will continue to collaborate with ABA leadership, member entities and allied organizations to identify and pursue opportunities in Congress and the executive branch to advance ABA policy priorities that support the legal profession and advance access to justice and the rule of law.
This report is written by the ABA Governmental Affairs Office and discusses advocacy efforts by the ABA relating to issues being addressed by Congress and the executive branch of the U.S. government. Follow us on social media platforms @ABAGrassroots to learn more about significant legislative and governmental developments of interest to the ABA as they happen.
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