Thursday on Capitol Hill brought a packed schedule of consequential hearings across both chambers, with OMB Director Russell Vought defending President Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget before the Senate Budget Committee, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Select Committee on the CCP examining Chinese efforts to undermine American leadership in artificial intelligence. The day’s proceedings also unfolded against the backdrop of a historic Department of Homeland Security shutdown now stretching past two months, and fresh fallout from the Senate’s fourth rejection of an Iran war powers resolution.
Vought Defends $1.5 Trillion Defense Budget as Democrats Slam Domestic Cuts
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought appeared before the Senate Budget Committee at 10:00 a.m. in Room SD-608 to defend President Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget proposal, a document that calls for a nearly 50 percent increase in defense spending to approximately $1.5 trillion while proposing steep reductions across non-defense agencies. The hearing, chaired by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) with Ranking Member Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), exposed deep divisions over the administration’s spending priorities.
The proposed budget requests that Congress appropriate roughly 10 percent less for non-defense agencies, targeting Biden-era green energy and infrastructure programs, billions in K-12 education funding, and scientific research — including a proposed 54 percent cut to the National Science Foundation. Democrats arrived prepared to press Vought on what they characterized as months of stonewalling on oversight questions, with Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) arguing that the administration’s roughly $9 billion in proposed spending rescissions would undermine bipartisan funding agreements reached with 60-vote thresholds in the Senate.
Notably, the hearing drew criticism from both sides of the aisle. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) raised concerns about the impact of proposed cuts to public media on Native American radio stations in his state that receive funding through NPR. The bipartisan pushback suggests the administration’s rescission package may face a difficult path through the Senate, even with Republican majorities, and signals that the FY2027 budget fight will be protracted. (Senate Budget Committee hearing page; The Hill coverage)
Kennedy Grilled on HHS Cuts Before Ways and Means
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before the full House Ways and Means Committee beginning at 9:00 a.m. in 1100 Longworth House Office Building, defending the administration’s budget request for HHS and the sweeping workforce and programmatic changes he has implemented since taking office. The hearing marked Kennedy’s latest in a series of contentious congressional appearances this month.
Kennedy defended his downsizing of HHS — from approximately 82,000 employees to 62,000 — characterizing the reductions as necessary cost-cutting that eliminated redundancies. The FY2027 budget proposal includes a $500 million increase for Kennedy’s signature “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, which promotes nutrition and healthier lifestyles. However, the boost comes alongside deep cuts to infectious disease prevention, medical research, maternal health programs, and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
Members pressed Kennedy on his public statements regarding vaccines, which public health experts have said are contributing to a measles outbreak now confirmed in at least 11 states. Kennedy has repeatedly declined to recommend that parents follow the CDC’s childhood vaccination schedule, a position that has drawn bipartisan concern. The hearing underscores the ongoing tension between the administration’s health policy direction and congressional oversight responsibilities. (House Ways and Means hearings page; PBS News coverage)
Select Committee Targets Chinese AI Espionage
The House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party convened at 11:00 a.m. in 390 Cannon House Office Building for a hearing titled “China’s Campaign to Steal America’s AI Edge.” Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) led the bipartisan inquiry, which examined the scope and scale of Chinese-linked industrial espionage targeting American artificial intelligence companies.
Witnesses included Dmitri Alperovitch, Chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator; Yusuf Mahmood, Director of AI and Emerging Technology at the America First Policy Institute; and Dr. Kyle Chan, a Fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution. The hearing comes after three major American AI firms — OpenAI, Anthropic, and Alphabet — announced plans earlier this month to share threat intelligence through the Frontier Model Forum regarding Chinese-linked distillation attacks targeting their systems.
Alongside the hearing, the Select Committee announced the “No Adversarial AI Act,” bipartisan legislation that would bar federal agencies from acquiring or using AI systems developed by companies linked to the CCP — including firms like DeepSeek — unless agencies first obtain approval from Congress and the Office of Management and Budget. The bill also mandates that the Federal Acquisition Security Council maintain an updated database tracking AI systems developed by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The Stanford HAI 2026 AI Index, released days before the hearing, found that China has effectively erased the United States’ former lead in several AI benchmarks, adding urgency to the committee’s legislative push. (Select Committee hearing page; Congress.gov event page)
Senate Rejects Iran War Powers Resolution for Fourth Time
In a vote concluded late Wednesday, April 15, the Senate rejected by 47-52 a motion to discharge S.J. Res. 123 from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The resolution, introduced by Senate Democrats, would have directed the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran not authorized by Congress. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had forced the procedural vote under the War Powers Act.
The vote marked the fourth time this year that the chamber has declined to reassert congressional war powers authority over the Iran conflict. Republicans argued that Iran’s nuclear capabilities and the high stakes of potential withdrawal justified continued deference to presidential wartime leadership. The vote produced notable cross-party breaks: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voted in favor of the resolution, consistent with his longstanding skepticism of executive war powers, while Democratic Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania voted against it for the fourth consecutive time.
The resolution’s repeated failure reflects the broader dynamic in the 119th Congress, where war powers challenges have consistently fallen short of the simple majority needed for discharge motions. Arms control and civil liberties groups have vowed to continue pressing the issue. (S.J. Res. 123 text on Congress.gov; Roll Call coverage)
DHS Shutdown Casts Shadow Over Appropriations Hearings
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security held two budget hearings on Thursday that unfolded in the context of a DHS funding lapse now exceeding two months — the longest government shutdown in American history, having surpassed the 2018-2019 record on March 29. The morning session at 10:00 a.m. in 2362-A Rayburn featured testimony from CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons on the agencies’ FY2027 budget requests. An afternoon session at 1:30 p.m. in 2359 Rayburn covered CISA, TSA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and FEMA.
The DHS shutdown, triggered by a dispute over ICE and CBP reform provisions following incidents involving federal agents in Minnesota in early 2026, has strained agency operations across the department. A Senate hearing on April 15 revealed that the funding lapse has hampered security preparations for the FIFA World Cup this summer, with DHS official Christopher Tomney telling lawmakers that the agency will struggle to replace transportation security officers who departed during the shutdown. Republicans are now exploring the use of budget reconciliation to provide multi-year DHS funding, bypassing Democratic demands for enforcement reforms. Separately, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has provided ICE with $75 billion in supplemental funding, making it the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency despite the broader departmental shutdown. (House Appropriations hearing page; Government Executive coverage)
Appropriations Panels Advance FY2027 Budget Reviews
Beyond the headline hearings, multiple appropriations subcommittees continued their methodical review of the administration’s FY2027 spending requests. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development convened at 10:00 a.m. in 2362-B Rayburn for a Department of Energy budget hearing, examining the administration’s energy spending priorities amid proposed cuts to clean energy programs enacted under the Inflation Reduction Act. These hearings follow the Senate Appropriations Committee’s April 15 joint session reviewing FIFA World Cup security preparations and a Legislative Branch subcommittee review of budget requests for the Congressional Budget Office, Government Publishing Office, and Government Accountability Office.
The budget season is entering a critical phase, with multiple Cabinet secretaries scheduled to appear before congressional committees over the coming weeks. Kennedy alone is slated for six appearances this month. The breadth of budget hearings reflects the scale of the administration’s proposed reorientation of federal spending — from a massive defense buildup to sharp domestic reductions — that will dominate the legislative calendar through the summer. (Energy and Water hearings page)
Looking Ahead
The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing on the President’s FY2027 Department of Health and Human Services budget for April 22, which will bring Kennedy before the upper chamber. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will also examine the DOE’s FY2027 budget request in the coming days. The DHS shutdown remains unresolved, with no clear path to a bipartisan agreement, and the reconciliation strategy being explored by House Republicans could further inflame partisan tensions. The Select Committee on the CCP’s “No Adversarial AI Act” is expected to advance through markup in the coming weeks, with bipartisan support making it one of the more viable pieces of China-related legislation this Congress.
Investigative Beat Notes
Several threads from today’s proceedings merit continued investigative attention. The Stanford HAI finding that China has closed the AI gap with the United States adds empirical weight to the Select Committee’s legislative efforts and warrants deeper examination of specific technology transfer vectors. The DHS shutdown’s impact on World Cup security preparations raises questions about operational readiness with the tournament weeks away. The administration’s proposed 54 percent cut to the National Science Foundation, if enacted, would represent a generational shift in federal science policy. And the bipartisan fractures visible in both the Vought budget hearing and the Iran war powers vote suggest that party discipline on spending and foreign policy may be more fragile than floor vote tallies alone would indicate.