What the New $1.9T Spending Law Means for Life and Annuity Legislation

The current debt limit suspension expires Jan. 1. The Treasury likely will be able to keep the lights on using extraordinary measures until the summer. But Congress will face another need to pass must-pass legislation, and another major opportunity for supporters of the Secure 3.0 package and Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provision extensions, before the Treasury runs out of extraordinary cash-management ideas.

3. It may have broken the old dealmaking system.

In recent years, Republicans and Democrats have overcome their inability to pass ordinary legislation through the ordinary rules of Congress — by making enough compromises to get at least 50% of the votes in the House and at least 60 of the 100 votes in the Senate — by packing most bills that have some, but not much, opposition into giant, "must-pass" spending packages or other must-pass packages that show up at the last minute.

Lawmakers pushed ARA, 2025 through the House partly by stripping most of the provisions unrelated to keeping the federal government open out of the original spending bill.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., helped keep the government open by getting the package passed, and he said Congress needs to consider more bills one at a time, instead of putting the bills in giant, must-pass packages.

"One of the reasons people distrust this institution is because we quite often pile things on bills that are totally unrelated," Cole said.

Cole's way of thinking could have more sway in the 119th Congress, and it could require supporters of measures like the Secure 3.0 package to spend more time on making the case for stand-alone bills and less on courting must-pass spending package creators.

4. It may have affected the balance of power between Congress and the executive branch.

The thinking, going in, was that the Republican seats in the House were full of people who were loyal to President-elect Donald Trump.

But when House members had to decide between adding a debt-ceiling fix provision that Trump wanted and keeping the government open, they chose to keep the government open.

5. It may have shown how Trump sees the scope of his authority.

Trump has alarmed some opponents by suggesting that he might take steps such as having opponents arrested and vowing to operate as a dictator.

But his statements about ARA, 2025 appear to imply that he expects to comply with federal laws such as the laws governing federal debt limits. That may decrease the odds that financial services policy players can hope to have the Trump administration create new financial services rules or eliminate unwanted rules through executive actions that clearly conflict with federal law.

Credit: Bloomberg