President Trump will emerge in April from his first 100 days in office with a mixed record when it comes to getting things done, and with a series of new challenges that could have major implications for his presidency.
Trump got his Supreme Court nominee confirmed by the Senate, but he also failed to meet a self-imposed deadline last month when Congress couldn’t move a bill to repeal Obamacare. That failure damaged Trump’s image as a dealmaker and raised questions about his ability to deliver on other priorities.
But the White House will have another opportunity to flex its muscles on Capitol Hill this month as the government barrels toward a shutdown on April 28 if Congress fails to pass a new funding bill. And a series of upcoming meetings and announcements will put Trump’s foreign policy rhetoric to the test for the first time.
Here are five deadlines looming ahead of the Trump administration.
April 28: Government shutdown
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are hoping to avoid a government shutdown in three weeks by finding a solution that funds the federal government beyond April 28. That’s when the continuing resolution Congress passed in December is set to expire.
The road to a funding mechanism won’t be easy, however, and Republicans and Democrats have already drawn battle lines in preparation for the fight. Trump’s push to secure appropriations for a border wall is likely to become a flashpoint, as is the perennial debate over whether taxpayers should continue to fund Planned Parenthood.
And Congress will have just a few days to debate spending legislation once members return from the two-week Easter recess that began Friday.
April 28: Congressional Review Act window closes
The Trump administration has quietly teamed up with Republicans in Congress to roll back Obama-era regulations using the Congressional Review Act, a rarely-used law that gives lawmakers the power to eliminate rules enacted by the executive branch within 60 legislative days.
Trump has already signed 11 CRA bills into law, and two more are awaiting his signature. Several others that have passed the House await action in the Senate, but must reach Trump’s desk before April 28 in order to erase recent regulations.
The Trump administration must navigate the lengthy and complex regulatory process to tackle any rules it wants to change outside the CRA.
Already, the administration has used the law to roll back environmental regulations and federal rules imposed on schools by the Department of Education.
“It is a tool that we’re taking advantage of and we’re actually passing this legislatively and working with House and Senate leadership,” Marc Short, the White House legislative director, told reporters this week. “What we’re actually doing is allowing the legislative branch to work its will… to try to pull back on things that were not done legislatively.”
Short predicted the CRA bills already enacted would save taxpayers $10 billion over 20 years.
Before the end of April, the Senate must act on several House-passed bills if Republicans hope to complete their roll-back of Obama-era regulations. That includes one that repeals a labor rule that puts private employees in state-run retirement programs, and another rule that places methane restrictions on energy companies.
End of May: Decision on Paris Climate Accords
The White House has indicated it will make a decision on whether the U.S. will pull out of the Paris climate change agreement by the end of May.
That agreement was negotiated and agreed to by the Obama administration in Dec. 2015 at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris. It bound signatory nations to a set of environmental restrictions designed to combat global warming.
While Trump promised on the campaign trail to rip up the deal, he has felt pressure from a broad range of interest groups to consider continued U.S. participation.
Because Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping ratified the climate deal together, Trump was expected to discuss the accords during his summit with Xi this week at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has already directed his EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, to start the process of unwinding domestic environmental regulations. Proponents of exiting the deal see the accords as another layer of bureaucratic burdens on businesses.
But supporters of the Paris climate agreement argue the diplomatic consequences of pulling out could damage U.S. credibility and threaten the future of climate policies on a global scale.
June 21: Insurer deadline
Major insurance providers have to decide whether they will participate in the Obamacare exchanges for 2018 by June 21, the deadline set by the Department of Health and Human Services.
If insurance companies are to factor Republican-led changes to the healthcare system into their decisions about whether to continue offering coverage through the state exchange created by the Affordable Care Act, then the GOP will need to enact Obamacare reform before the deadline.
The various decisions on whether to stay in the exchanges could have a dramatic impact on the health of Obamacare. Insurance providers have pulled out of state exchanges across the country over the past two years, leaving some counties with just one provider available. The result has been a steady rise in premiums that could only get worse if more providers opt out ahead of the deadline for next year.
July 7: G20 summit
Trump’s highly-anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin could come at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany on July 7 and 8. Both leaders will be in attendance and are expected to meet there in what will be their first face-to-face interaction as leaders unless the White House or Kremlin schedules an additional visit beforehand.
By July, Trump will need to arrive at a coherent strategy for dealing with Russia and be ready to set it in motion during his first confrontation with Putin. Trump has swung from acknowledging his respect for Putin and promising to stabilize U.S.-Russia relations during the campaign to striking a Russian ally militarily and allowing his United Nations ambassador to mock the Kremlin now that he is president.
Trump’s missile strike Friday on a Russian-backed air base in Syria has ratcheted up tensions and raised new questions about how the president plans to navigate a complicated conflict in Syria, where the Russians are deeply entrenched.
