Look Ahead May 18, 2026

Look Ahead to the Week of May 18, 2026 | Key Congressional Priorities Maintain Momentum Despite Hurdles

Alston & Bird’s Legislative & Public Policy Group previews the week ahead highlighting anticipated federal legislative, regulatory, and political activity, and key upcoming actions in Congress, the Administration, and relevant policy arenas.

Administration

  • During President Trump’s state visit to China last week, he invited Chinese President Xi Jinping for a White House visit on September 24.
  • President Trump will host a health care affordability event at the White House this afternoon.
  • Vice President Vance will tour a manufacturing facility in Kansas City, Missouri this week and speak on the Administration’s support for American manufacturing.

House

  • The House returns Wednesday as Speaker Mike Johnson hosts an annual large-donor retreat earlier in the week.
  • Bipartisan leaders of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee released text of a five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill that includes a controversial new fee on electric and hybrid vehicles.
  • An amended housing affordability bill is scheduled for a fast-track vote this week. The measure will require a two-thirds majority vote to send back to the Senate.

Senate

  • Republican leaders are expected to rework portions of their reconciliation bill after the parliamentarian struck several sections over the weekend, including $1 billion in Secret Service funding for White House security upgrades. GOP leaders are targeting a Thursday floor vote, with a vote-a-rama expected before final passage.
  • Appropriations hearings will continue in various subcommittees, including testimony from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya.
  • Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, and Labor Committee, became the first sitting senator in nearly a decade to lose a primary. Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA-05) and Louisiana state Treasurer John Fleming will advance to a June 27 runoff.

Key Hearings

May 19, 2026

• Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs: Business meeting to consider reconciliation recommendations to the Budget Committee
• Senate Judiciary Committee: Enforcing Callais: Implementing the Supreme Court’s Command Against Racial Gerrymandering

My 20, 2026

• House Energy & Commerce Committee: Health Hearing: Examining the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, MACRA, and Opportunities for Payment Reforms
• Senate Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee: No Sure Bets: Protecting Sports Integrity in America
• House Ways & Means Committee: Your Paycheck, Returned: How the Working Families Tax Cuts Delivered for Americans
• House Education & Workforce Committee: Bad Medicine: Politics, Unions, and Antisemitism in Health Care

May 21, 2026

• Senate Appropriations Committee: A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Request for the National Institutes of Health

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