Beltway Buzz, June 6, 2025

Senate Republicans Want Legislative Priorities Passed in June. All eyes are on the U.S. Congress this week as Republicans in the U.S. Senate roll up their sleeves and get down to working on their version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. President Donald Trump has stated that he wants to sign the bill by July 4, which gives Senate Republicans roughly four weeks to pass the bill—an ambitious timetable. As a reminder, because Republicans are using the reconciliation legislative process, they can pass this bill on their own in the Senate, without the need to convince Democrats to vote in favor of the bill.

Buzz readers know that we are watching closely the status of the “no tax on tips and overtime” provisions in the House-passed reconciliation bill, particularly since the Senate passed the No Tax on Tips Act (S.129). Already at least one Republican senator has expressed concern over the U.S. House of Representatives version’s language on tips, because it would benefit certain workers over others, even when they earn the same amount of money. The Buzz is also watching to see if the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, which was included in the House bill, will survive the reconciliation process in the Senate. The REINS Act is, in a way, the opposite of the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which we’ve often examined: while the CRA allows Congress to disapprove regulations after they’ve been finalized, the REINS Act would require Congress to affirmatively approve of regulations before they can be finalized.

SCOTUS Rejects Heightened Evidentiary Standard for Majority Group Plaintiffs. In a unanimous decision this week, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a plaintiff from a majority group does not have to demonstrate additional “‘background circumstances” at the initial phase of his or her case.Aaron Warshaw has the details, including how the decision may play out amidst the administration’s current scrutiny of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

President Trump Issues Travel Ban. On June 4, 2025, President Trump issued a proclamation entitled, “Restricting The Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.” Effective June 9, 2025, the proclamation “fully restrict[s] and limit[s] the entry of nationals” from the following twelve countries:

• Afghanistan,

• Burma,
• Chad,
• Republic of the Congo,
• Equatorial Guinea,
• Eritrea,
• Haiti,
• Iran,
• Libya,
• Somalia,
• Sudan, and
• Yemen.

The proclamation further institutes partial limitations and restrictions on the entry of nationals from the following seven countries:

• Burundi,
• Cuba,
• Laos,
• Sierra Leone,
• Togo,
• Turkmenistan, and
• Venezuela.

These restrictions apply to both immigrant and nonimmigrant visas and “only to foreign nationals of the designated countries who:

• are outside the United States on the applicable effective date of this proclamation; and
• do not have a valid visa on the applicable effective date of this proclamation.”

A variety of exceptions are provided, including for lawful permanent residents of the United States, international athletes, immediate family immigrant visas, adoptions, and others. Whitney Brownlow and Ashley Urquijo have the details.

SCOTUS Allows CHNV Rescission to Proceed. On May 30, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States stayed a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to block the Trump administration’s rescission of the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV) humanitarian parole program. The ruling removes parole protections and work authorization for approximately 532,000 individuals while the legal challenge to the administration’s termination decision continues to work its way through the courts. In dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson (who was joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor) wrote that the Court’s ruling “undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.” Whitney Brownlow and Derek J. Maka have the details. Evan B. Gordon and Daniel J. Ruemenapp wrote previously about what the removal of work authorization for covered individuals means for employers.

DOL Launches New Opinion Letter Landing Page. This week the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced the launch of its opinion letter program. The program will provide compliance assistance to stakeholders with questions regarding federal laws overseen by the Wage and Hour Division, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Employee Benefits Security Administration, the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (which will also “provide compliance assistance resources through its new MSHA Information Hub, a centralized platform offering guidance, regulatory updates, training materials and technical support”). According to the announcement,

Opinion letters provide official written interpretations from the department’s enforcement agencies, explaining how laws apply to specific factual circumstances presented by individuals or organizations. By addressing real-world questions, they promote clarity, consistency, and transparency in the application of federal labor standards.

The DOL’s new opinion letter landing page is here. Opinion letters were a longstanding practice of the agency until the Obama administration, which replaced them with “Administrator’s Interpretations.” The program was resuscitated during President Trump’s first administration but used sparingly during the Biden administration. John D. Surma has the details on Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling’s announcement of the program.

Budget Time! It is the time of year when the administration offers its budget to Congress in anticipation of the 2026 fiscal year (FY), which commences on October 1, 2026. Agency budget justifications are aspirational in nature, but can help guide Congress towards some final numbers, particularly in the current political climate, where Republicans control Congress and the White House.

• Department of Labor. The DOL is requesting a FY 2026 budget of $8.6 billion, about $5 billion less than enacted in the current fiscal year. The budget proposes to completely shut down the remaining functions of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, transferring enforcement of the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act to Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, and enforcement of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). T. Scott Kelly, Christopher J. Near, and Zachary V. Zagger have the details on the Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate OFCCP.

• EEOC. The Commission is requesting $435 million in FY 2026, about $20 million less than enacted in the current fiscal year. As part of the “Chair’s Message” section of the budget submission, Acting Chair Andrea Lucas makes the EEOC’s FY 2026 priorities clear:

the agency substantively will focus on relentlessly attacking all forms of race discrimination, including rooting out unlawful race discrimination arising from DEI programs, policies, and practices; protecting American workers from unlawful national origin discrimination involving preferences for foreign workers; defending women’s sex-based rights at work; and supporting religious liberty by protecting workers from religious bias and harassment and protecting their rights to religious accommodations at work.

• National Labor Relations Board. The Board is requesting $285.2 million in FY 2026, about $14 million below the FY 2025 enacted budget of $299.2 million. The anticipated savings largely come from “staff attrition” of ninety-nine employees, which would bring the NLRB staff to 1,152.

Remember that this is all just the administration’s ask. Ultimately, Congress retains the power of the purse and will set agency spending levels (and would have to authorize the transfer of Section 503 responsibility to the EEOC).

“Our Next Item Up for Bid … IRS Commissioner.” The Senate Committee on Finance has advanced the nomination of Billy Long to be Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner. Long, a Republican, represented Missouri’s 7th congressional district from 2011 to 2023. Prior to his career in politics, Long was an auctioneer and owned his own auction company. He was no slouch, either. Long was named “Best Auctioneer in the Ozarks” for seven years in a row and is a member of the National Auctioneers Association Hall of Fame. During a congressional hearing in 2018, Long famously employed a mock auction chant to drown out a protestor until she was escorted out. Assuming he gets confirmed by the Senate, maybe Long can use his fast-talking skills to speed up those IRS audits.