Bread and Circus: The Complete Record of American Governance
Today’s newsletter covers official U.S. government happenings from the executive, legislative, and judicial branches yesterday, as well as key economic indicators. Below, you’ll find concise summaries of each document, with links to the original sources for further reading.
What Happened Yesterday:
🦅 Executive Branch: No activity
🏛️ Legislative Branch: 3 documents (1 Congressional Record - Daily Digest, 1 Congressional Record - House Section, 1 Congressional Record - Senate Section)
⚖️ Judicial Branch: No activity
📊 Economic Indicators: 1 documents (1 Bureau of Labor Statistics press release)
Total words condensed: 87,288 into 2,321
The Big Picture
On June 24, 2025, Congress was active in shaping key national policies and leadership appointments. The Senate introduced 13 new bills and passed resolutions honoring various causes, while confirming Daniel Zimmerman as Assistant Secretary of Defense. The House focused on setting rules for bills related to military construction, veterans affairs, immigration, and public safety. Notably, a resolution to impeach President Trump was overwhelmingly rejected, signaling limited appetite for such a move despite ongoing political tensions. These actions reflect Congress’s ongoing work to manage government spending, national security leadership, and immigration enforcement, with some contentious debates about presidential war powers and healthcare funding continuing in the background.
Economic data from May 2025 shows a mixed but cautiously optimistic job market. The national unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%, slightly higher than last year, with some states like Mississippi seeing notable increases, while others like Indiana experienced declines. Texas led job growth with over 213,000 new jobs in the past year, and South Carolina had the fastest growth rate at 2.7%. These figures suggest uneven economic recovery across states, which could influence future federal and state policy decisions on workforce development and social support programs. Meanwhile, debates in Congress over a major spending bill highlight concerns about deep cuts to healthcare funding, which could have significant effects on hospitals and vulnerable populations if enacted.
Pattern to Watch
A clear emerging pattern is the intensifying political struggle over presidential authority and federal budget priorities, especially regarding healthcare and military engagement. Congressional debates and speeches reveal deep divisions over the president’s unilateral actions on war and the scale of Medicaid and healthcare spending cuts proposed in the large appropriations bill moving through Congress. The rejection of impeachment efforts contrasts with vocal concerns about executive overreach, while the proposed $1 trillion-plus cuts to Medicaid and healthcare subsidies could reshape access to care for millions. Continued developments to watch include the Senate’s confirmation votes on key administration nominees, the final passage or amendment of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, and the Senate’s handling of the broader spending bill with its healthcare provisions. These will signal whether Congress moves toward more restrained executive power and how it balances fiscal responsibility with social safety nets.
🦅 Executive Branch
No activity today.
🏛️ Legislative Branch
Congressional Record
On June 24, 2025, Congress took several important steps. The Senate introduced 13 new bills and 5 resolutions, passed three resolutions honoring groups and causes like the Oklahoma State University golf team and National Sarcoma Awareness Month, and confirmed Daniel Zimmerman as Assistant Secretary of Defense with a 61-35 vote. They also voted 56-42 to end debate on Paul Dabbar’s nomination for Deputy Secretary of Commerce and planned to vote on his confirmation the next day. In the House, Representative Green offered a resolution to impeach President Donald Trump, but it was quickly rejected by a 344-79 vote. The House also agreed to rules for considering four bills, including the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act for 2026 (H.R.3944), and bills related to immigration and public safety. These actions matter because they show Congress working on government spending, leadership appointments, and important national issues like veterans’ care and immigration enforcement, while also rejecting an impeachment effort against the sitting president. Read full document →
Random excerpts from the Senate
I have to say, it is a pretty grim indictment of the moral health of a party when one of its signature issues is promoting the right to kill the youngest and most vulnerable Americans. As I said, there is still a lot of work to be done, but I am confident that we can get there. I look forward to the day when the life of every American, born and unborn, is protected and when being small and vulnerable does not mean that your human rights are any less respected.
— Sen. John Thune (R-SD)
Trump declared total victory. Iran threatened retaliation. Americans in the region were forced to shelter in place. Trump’s own team then admitted no one knows where the nuclear materials are and what nuclear capacity Iran might still have. Trump called for regime change, and then last night, just for a moment, we hoped and believed there was a cease-fire, only for us to wake up to frantic posts on social media by the President begging both sides to stop shooting missiles and rockets at each other. Today, the Deputy Commander of Central Command could not describe what kind of contingency plans the Defense Department was making or even whether they did or didn’t have plans for the United States to put boots on the ground in this Middle East conflict. And a classified briefing scheduled for right now that we should be having so that all the Senators can ask questions about what has happened and what is currently happening in Iran has just been scrapped by the Republicans for another 48 hours.
Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise. I rise today in the name of government of the people, by the people, and for the people. I rise today because our country is nearing a moment of decision. I rise because we are at the intersection of democracy and autocracy. I rise to announce that, at this moment in time, I have filed H.Res.537. H.Res.537 is a privileged resolution. H.Res.537 has been filed because I believe that the President of the United States has committed an impeachable act. H.Res.537 addresses abuse of Presidential powers by disregarding the separation of powers, devolving American democracy into an authoritarian--an authoritarian, an authoritarian--government, usurping congressional power to declare war. Mr. Speaker, I take no delight in what I am doing. I do this because I love my country. I do this because I understand that the Constitution is going to be meaningful or it will be meaningless. I do it because I understand that the President of the United States of America has a duty to consult Congress before taking this country to war. I do it because no one person should have the power to take over 300 million people to war without consulting with the Congress of the United States of America. I do this because, if I do not, this authoritarian President that we currently have will continue to assume power. He has already instigated an assault on the citadel of democracy, the Capitol of the United States of America. He went so far as to pardon the persons who were actually involved in the assault. He has denied persons due process of the law. I believe that, if we do not take immediate action, this authoritarian President will devolve the country into authoritarianism. I believe he is a would-be dictator who would become a dictator. I today announce that, later today, I will bring these Articles of Impeachment to the floor, and I will call for a vote. I believe that the hour of decision is upon us, and we all have to decide: Are we going to go down and choose the path of democracy, or will we allow ourselves to choose the low road of autocracy? I believe that this country has come too far to allow a single person to declare war without conferring with the Congress of the United States of America. This is why I stand. This is what I will do, and I do it in the name of my country that I love dearly.
— Rep. Al Green (D-TX-9)
Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, today is June 24, and it is almost exactly a month ago that in this House, the misnamed One Big Beautiful Bill Act was passed in the dead of night after hours and hours of debate while the American people were asleep at home. With the rush of events that take place every single day, it sometimes gets hard to remember exactly where that stands and what is going on. The bill is moving in the Senate, literally as I stand here in the well of the House. In the light of day over the last month or so, a lot of the rocks have been kicked over in H.R.1 to sort of see what is in there. A lot of pretty ugly things have slithered out, including a provision to auction off some of our precious public lands out West, basically robbing those treasured assets from future generations. There are deregulated gun silencers, which have been on the National Firearms Act since the 1930s. Who benefits from that? I am sure there are a lot of criminals that are rooting for them to be able to go out and buy tax-free gun silencers. It increases the national debt by $5 trillion, with about $3.5 trillion in new debt with another $1.5 trillion in interest payments. It cuts taxes for American families with a yearly income above $500,000 to the tune of over a trillion dollars with a pittance for middle-class and working families. It raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion so the government can sell bonds to finance debt. Again, it is a bill that basically benefits the Elon Musks and Jeff Bezos of the world. What is really at the heart of H.R.1 that should concern every single American is a provision that includes the largest cut in healthcare spending in American history with over a trillion dollars of cuts in the bill as it left this floor on May 22. I have here a poster next to me that talks about what the real-life impact is going to be on hospitals all across the country. It is not coming from me as a member of the minority caucus. This comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which has been around for 50 years and is a completely nonpartisan analyst in terms of healthcare spending and healthcare financing throughout the country. What it did was break down State by State what the impact of this bill will be. For the State of Connecticut, where I am from, it is actually about a $9 billion cut over the next 10 years in terms of the Medicaid program, as well as eliminating the premium tax subsidies for people who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. That is about 15 million Americans. The hospitals, in particular, are going to take the biggest hit. As this headline says in the Connecticut press, it is about $4 billion over the next 10 years. All of my colleagues that are here today, I encourage them to look at this analysis which shows State by State, sector by sector within healthcare spending, hospitals, physicians, and prescription drugs, in terms of the impact that this bill will have. There was a lot of hope that maybe in the Senate this bill might be fixed and addressed, particularly because it hits rural hospitals so hard. There are so many Republicans in the majority caucus in the Senate that obviously are going to feel the pain if this provision goes through. Unfortunately, what we saw come out of the Senate Finance Committee is even worse in terms of what came through from the House. Don’t take my word for it. Listen to the Catholic Hospital Association, who issued a statement just a few days ago after this provision came out. They had warned them before of the devastating impact it would have, particularly on safety net hospitals which Catholics are definitely a part of all across the country. It fell on deaf ears. Children’s hospitals rely on Medicaid to a greater proportion than other hospitals because they don’t have elderly patients, obviously. They are children’s hospitals, and Medicare pays for a lot of those patients. Children’s hospitals have no place to cost-shift, so they have uncompensated care with this devastating Medicaid cut that is going to hit every State in terms of its Federal matching funds. This is going to land on the most vulnerable in our society and the people who are delivering the care. They are not partisans. They are not approaching Congress as Democrats or Republicans. They are there as people who are doing their job day in and day out. I visited one of those hospitals last week, Lawrence Memorial Hospital in New London, Connecticut. Over 40 percent of their patient census is on Medicaid. It is in the heart of New London, a wonderful, historic community, but it has a high Medicaid population. Mr. Speaker, we have to stop this insane attack on healthcare that affects every single American. We have got to block H.R.1. We got to go back and do a better job for the American people.
In May 2025, the number of people without jobs went up a little in 3 states and down a little in 2 states, but stayed about the same in most places. The overall U.S. jobless rate stayed at 4.2%, which is 0.2% higher than last year. Some states like Mississippi saw their jobless rate rise by 1.2%, while Indiana’s rate dropped by 0.4%. The total number of jobs didn’t change much from April to May, but over the past year, 18 states added more jobs. Texas added the most with 213,300 new jobs, and South Carolina’s jobs grew the fastest by 2.7%. This shows that while some places are still struggling with unemployment, many states are slowly creating more jobs. This matters because jobs help people earn money to pay for things they need, so changes in employment affect how families live and plan for the future. Read full document →
