
The GOP's biggest shutdown hurdles
It's a pivotal week for the appropriations process as Congress looks to pass twelve spending bills before the Sept. 30 shutdown cliff.
Expect the Senate to work on passing its first batch of bills over the next few days, with full committee markups continuing in both chambers. In the House, appropriators plan to have a subcommittee markup of the bill funding the Treasury Department, the Judiciary and IRS tonight. No funding measures are currently on the House floor schedule.
Here's what to watch as Republicans navigate the hurdles that could force them toward another stopgap funding bill.
DEM WATCH — All eyes are going to be on Democrats as they discuss whether to use the one point of leverage they have: the 60 votes needed to pass appropriations bills in the Senate. But Democrats don't appear to have a solidified plan yet, Jennifer Scholtes, Nicholas Wu and Katherine Tully-McManus report this morning.
White House Budget Director Russ Vought last week said point-blank he was satisfied to see a less bipartisan appropriations process than in years past, a comment that could embolden congressional Republicans who want to put their conservative mark on the appropriations process.
Democrats have voiced their disapproval with the trajectory of government funding negotiations, specifically with Trump officials and their Hill allies for freezing, canceling and now clawing back funding Congress already approved. So far, however, they have stopped short of threatening a government shutdown on Oct.1 if Republicans don't change course.
It was a dilemma Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer faced back in March. He ultimately faced significant heat from his base over his decision that the consequences of a shutdown would be worse than letting the Trump administration continue to run roughshod over Congress' 'power of the purse.'
'To be blunt, I don't think there's one tactic or approach that is going to solve this from any individual Democrat,' Sen. Brian Schatz, a top appropriator, said in an interview. 'The Republicans have to decide whether they want to be totally lobotomized or not.'
AUGUST RECESS — Senate Majority Leader John Thune was already considering making a dent in the government funding process before the month-long August break. Now, President Donald Trump is calling on the Senate to stay through the recess to continue confirming his nominees, which would give Thune an opportunity to get more work done on appropriations, too.
Not everyone wants that. Many Republican lawmakers are eager to get back to their districts for the state work period to highlight wins from the GOP megabill — and provide counterprogramming to Democratic messaging about the deep Medicaid cuts in the new law. That summer sales pitch is a top priority for many senators.
FREEDOM CAUCUS — Then, there's the Freedom Caucus, which has been known to swoop in at the eleventh hour to undermine carefully-constructed legislative dealmaking with hard-line demands. French Hill and G.T. Thompson — chairs of the Financial Services and Agriculture panels, respectively — got a strong taste of that tactic while attempting to pass cryptocurrency bills last week.
'It is an operational change from how Congress has historically operated, where, if the Chairman and the committee blessed it, everybody just said, 'okay,'' said Freedom Caucus member Rep. Byron Donalds to reporters in the middle of last week's crypto drama. 'That's just not the way Congress is working anymore.'
The group has notoriously forced House Republicans to rely on Democrats to shore up the necessary votes to pass government funding bills. If the faction's hard-liners once again insist on lowering spending levels or inserting conservative policy riders in this year's appropriations bills, that could prove to be a problem for Republicans — and put even more pressure on House Democrats to decide if they're going to bail out the GOP or force a shutdown.
GOOD MONDAY MORNING. And if you're not ready to move away from the megabill just yet, check out this interactive on how the extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts ballooned the cost of the bill.
Email your Inside Congress crew at mmccarthy@politico.com, crazor@politico.com and bguggenheim@politico.com. Follow our live coverage at politico.com/congress.
WHAT WE'RE WATCHINGWith help from Jordan Williams
The House will vote on legislation including bills that would establish ZIP codes for certain communities and require a study examining the U.S.' exposure to the Chinese financial sector at 6:30 p.m.
The Senate will vote to move forward on Terrance Cole's nomination to be DEA administrator at 5:30 p.m.
— House Rules will meet to pave the way for floor consideration of an immigration bill, water permitting bill and three Congressional Review Act resolutions at 4 p.m.
— House Appropriations will have a subcommittee markup of the fiscal 2026 Financial Services-General Government appropriations bill at 5:30 p.m.
— Republican and Democratic leaders in both chambers will hold private meetings shortly before evening votes.
Pro subscribers receive this newsletter with a full congressional schedule and can browse our comprehensive calendar of markups, hearings and other notable events around Washington. Sign up for a demo.
THE LEADERSHIP SUITE
Steering to make its Homeland chair pick
Members of the House GOP Steering panel will make their recommendation for a new Homeland Security chair this evening to fill the vacancy to be left by Chair Mark Green once he resigns from Congress.
Up for consideration: Reps. Carlos Giménez of Florida, Michael Guest of Mississippi, Andrew Garbarino of New York and Clay Higgins of Louisiana.
Higgins, the most senior member, and Guest both emphasize their years of service on Homeland, while Giménez touts his 'boots-on-the-ground, real world experiences' having held a series of elected offices in Florida before his election to Congress. Garbarino points to his credentials in cybersecurity policy, over which the panel has some jurisdiction.
Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP leaders have met with each of the candidates in recent days but it's not yet clear who is the favorite, Meredith Lee Hill reports.
Higgins said he met with fellow Louisianans Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise last week in the speaker's office to discuss the Homeland race and what immigration policies might be included in a second party-line megabill.
Jeffries open to Democratic redistricting
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN Saturday that 'all options are on the table' for whether he'd support plans like those of California Gov. Gavin Newsom to redraw his state's congressional map, which would benefit Democrats, in response to the GOP's redistricting plan in Texas.
Yet while Jeffries attacks Republicans' mid-decade redistricting strategy as 'unprecedented,' he said Democrats responding in-kind wouldn't be the same thing: 'Republicans have a three seat majority right now and they wouldn't even be in the majority if it wasn't for the fact that they gerrymandered the map in North Carolina.'
The Texas state legislature is set to convene today for its special session in which it will attempt to make changes to its congressional map to ensure Republican victories in more districts. It's a plan with support from the president and other Republican leaders.
'Just a simple redrawing, we pick up five seats,' Trump told reporters last week of redrawing in Texas.
Still no Jeffries nod for Mamdani
Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old self-described Democratic socialist who won the Democratic primary for NYC mayor, met Jeffries Friday in Brooklyn for their first face-to-face conversation. Mamdani arrived seeking an endorsement and left about an hour later with only the promise of another meeting, Emily Ngo and Nicholas report.
Mamdani — with his new and evolving role in the Democratic Party — has become a political target for the right. Thune told Fox News on Sunday that Mamdani's election victory was the latest sign of Democrats' move to the 'far left.'
'That mayoral election in New York is probably the best indication of this shift towards socialism, communism or whatever you want to call it,' Thune said. 'These people are moving far left.'
POLICY RUNDOWN
GOP HOPES FOR BIPARTISAN HEALTH PACKAGE — Republican lawmakers are looking to revisit a long-stalled bipartisan health package before the end of the year, but Democrats are making it clear they think Republicans might have poisoned the well by plowing ahead with their party-line rescissions bill and megabill Medicaid cuts, Benjamin reports this morning.
Democrats, however, are dangling one possible sweetener that could get them to the negotiating table: Republicans going along with an extension of Obamacare premium tax credits due to expire Dec. 31. Democrats badly want to make these subsidies permanent. But that would be a tough swallow for the House GOP, since permanence would cost around $383 billion. Still, some Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, like Sen. Steve Daines, appear increasingly aware that the credits will have to be considered. 'I think that is something that is going to have to be part of the discussion here to get to 60 votes,' he told Benjamin last week.
The health package, which was on track for passage last December as part of a year-end spending deal before being derailed by Trump and Elon Musk, would also include an overhaul to the drug intermediaries known as pharmaceutical benefit managers. House Ways and Means is also eyeing for inclusion legislation by Rep. Mike Kelly that would allow weight loss drugs for treatment of obesity to qualify for Medicare.
FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: GRASSLEY PUSHES RETAIL THEFT BILL — Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley will blast out a new video campaign today pushing his bipartisan retail theft legislation. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, Mark Warner and Kristen Gillibrand recently signed onto the legislation, bringing the total number of Democratic co-sponsors to eight. Assuming the GOP bands together on the proposal, that would be enough to break through the chamber's filibuster.
The video features speakers including David Glawe, president and CEO of the National Insurance Crime Bureau, and Summer Stephan, San Diego County District Attorney, testifying to a surge in sophisticated retail theft over the past several years. Glawe notes, for instance, that the cargo industry experienced $1 billion in losses in 2023.
The legislation would, among other things, establish a new entity within the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate federal law enforcement's ability to crack down on retail crime.
HOUSE GOP TURNS TO IMMIGRATION AGENDA — Now that they've passed their sweeping domestic policy bill that would turbocharge border enforcement activities, House Republicans are turning to legislation that would further crack down on illegal immigration.
The House is set to take up legislation this week sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Bice that would increase penalties on immigrants who illegally enter the country and then reenter the U.S. after being removed. It comes as House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan signaled last week that he'd like to revive his sweeping immigration overhaul legislation from the previous Congress, which would set a new minimum of active-duty agents under U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, and that he's in active talks with the White House about best ways to proceed.
Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E:
CAMPAIGN STOP
TEXAS DEM DARK HORSE? — James Talarico, a Democratic Texas state representative, is weighing a bid for the U.S. Senate. The 36-year-old aspiring preacher gained nearly 1 million TikTok followers with videos centering on the intersection of his Christian faith and politics.
On his way out of podcasting with Joe Rogan in Austin, Texas, Talarico talked with Adam Wren for POLITICO Magazine about how his party could win over more white Evangelicals, what national Democrats get wrong about Texas and how Democrats could win the state in 2026 and beyond.
CAPITOL HILL INFLUENCE
BUTLER HEADS TO OPENAI — Former Sen. Laphonza Butler is a new adviser for OpenAI, people familiar with the contract told Christine Mui. It's the California Democrat's first known client since leaving the Hill and landing at Actum, a global public affairs firm.
JOB BOARD
Kara Lynum has launched KML Strategies, a law firm helping other firms, organizations and individuals navigate immigration policy changes. Lynum is a Senate Judiciary alum.
THE BEST OF THE REST
As Trump pushes Texas takeover in fight for House, Democrats plot their counterpunch, from Manu Raju and Sarah Ferris at CNN
$10,000 stolen from Speaker Mike Johnson's campaign committee, from Dave Levinthal at Open Secrets
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Sen. John Barrasso … Rep. Jim Clyburn … former Reps. Cori Bush, Phil Roe (8-0), Jimmy Duncan, Ed Towns (91), John Salazar and Bobby Bright … Fox News' Peter Doocy … Mick Mulvaney … CNN's Mark Preston … David Stacy … Google's Ali-Jae Henke … SoftBank's Christin Tinsworth Baker … Katherine Schneider … Jahan Wilcox … Government Publishing Office's Hugh Halpern … John Negroponte … former Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (7-0) … Meta's Ritika Robertson … Elizabeth Myers of the Congressional Research Service
TRIVIA
FRIDAY'S ANSWER: This one stumped y'all. Of the 32 GOP incumbents on Democrats' 2026 target list, 25 raised more than $700,000 and of the 25 Democrats on the NRCC's target list, 11 raised that amount.
TODAY'S QUESTION, from Ben Jacobs: Trump spent Sunday on Truth Social demanding that the Washington Commanders revert to their previous name of the Washington Redskins and threatening to hold up a stadium deal in D.C. for the football team if the name is not changed. Which former member of Congress was a first round draft pick of Washington's football team back when they were the Redskins?
The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@politico.com.
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CNBC
9 minutes ago
- CNBC
EU chief to meet Trump in Scotland in push to avoid a transatlantic trade war
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Scotland over the weekend, seeking to reach a framework trade agreement shortly before a 30% tariff on EU imports comes into effect. In a post on social media platform X on Friday, the EU's von der Leyen said she had agreed to meet with the U.S. president on Sunday "to discuss transatlantic trade relations, and how we can keep them strong." Trump later confirmed the meeting would take place as he arrived in Scotland on Friday evening, saying "we'll see if we can make a deal." "I think we have a good 50/50 chance. That's a lot," he added. It comes amid a sense of growing optimism about the prospect of a tariff breakthrough, with sources telling CNBC that the current base-case scenario for a deal includes a 15% tariff on EU imports to the U.S. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of 30% on EU goods from Aug.1, prompting the EU to consider countermeasures as part of its response. The U.S. and EU have the largest bilateral trade and investment relationship in the world, representing almost 30% of global trade in goods and services, and accounting for 43% of global gross domestic product (GDP), according to EU figures. Trump's four-day and golf-heavy Scotland visit is also expected to see him hold an informal meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Unlike the EU, the U.K. recently struck a trade deal with the Trump administration, one which is centered on a 10% tariff baseline on British goods arriving in the U.S. Hopes of the U.S. and EU averting a transatlantic trade war from Aug. 1 have been buoyed at least in part by the recent announcement of a framework agreement between the U.S. and Japan. The U.S.-Japan deal, which Trump described in a social media post as "perhaps the largest Deal ever made," includes a baseline tariff rate of 15%. Jack Allen-Reynolds, deputy chief euro zone economist at Capital Economics, said Friday that a similar framework for the EU might be seen as case where a bad deal is better than no deal. "Reports this week suggest that the EU and US are on the brink of agreeing a trade deal with a 15% baseline tariff on US imports from the bloc. It's hard to spin it as a good deal, but it would at least avoid much higher US tariffs and retaliation from the EU," Allen-Reynolds said in a research note.


Newsweek
9 minutes ago
- Newsweek
China's Xi Makes Trump Wait for Leader Talks
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The White House has been optimistic about the prospects for an in-person summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping—the first of President Donald Trump's second term. Yet analysts say the Chinese leader is likely holding out for concrete deliverables before agreeing to the high-profile meeting. All Eyes on Sweden Trump dramatically escalated the trade war with the world's second-largest economy in April, rolling out sweeping new tariffs that prompted China to respond with its own export duties and other measures. While Trump has said that "the confines of a deal" are in place ahead of a third round of talks between U.S. and Chinese negotiators, set for Sweden next week, several contentious issues remain unresolved. These include ongoing U.S. curbs on advanced chip exports to China and persistent geopolitical friction over influence in Asia and Beijing's threats toward Taiwan. Newsweek reached out to the White House and Chinese embassy in the U.S. via email for comment. Europe's Role Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Hudson Institute, told Newsweek: "A Xi-Trump summit is highly probable, but withholding final approval until Beijing can button down more information and as many concessions as possible is no doubt part of Xi's calculus." "What China and the United States can each negotiate with the EU will also help inform the China-US trade bargain that will be at the heart of any Xi-Trump summit," Cronin said. After months of efforts with dozens of countries, the White House recently secured a handful of deals with Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, Cronin added. In a picture combination created on May 14, 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump are shown. In a picture combination created on May 14, 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump are shown. Dan Kitwood, Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images Among the deals Trump hopes to achieve is with the EU—a traditionally U.S.-aligned bloc that has become increasingly alienated by Trump's unpredictable trade moves and controversial domestic policies. Analysts say China has been seeking to exploit this rift and achieve a thaw in ties with Brussels that has deteriorated over issues like alleged Chinese market flooding with state-subsidized electric vehicles, human rights concerns and Beijing's support for Russia amid the war in Ukraine. Sean King, an Asia scholar and senior vice president at Park Strategies, told Newsweek: "PRC [People's Republic of China] leaders have long seen Europe as a comparatively easier mark, as the continent doesn't have America's Asian security concerns and obligations." He added, "It's probably better for Trump to first line up what he says are trade deals with friends and allies before going for the big one with Beijing." While European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's visit to Beijing this week yielded a memorandum of understanding on climate change and an agreement to facilitate rare-earth exports, analysts note that a fundamental shift in EU-China ties remains elusive. Timetable Uncertain U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visiting Malaysia earlier this month for meetings with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, said that "the odds are high" a Trump-Xi summit will take place by the end of the year. Rosemary Foot, professor and senior research fellow at the University of Oxford's Department of Politics and International Relations, told Newsweek it's unlikely Xi is counting on Europe as leverage in his dealings with the White House. "I think that it is to do with China's more general approach to the Trump administration which is to wait for some intention to offer a serious deliverable from the meeting and perhaps also to paint President Trump as supplicant," she said. Trump and Xi last met in 2019 at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

28 minutes ago
Women legislators fight for 'potty parity'
For female state lawmakers in Kentucky, choosing when to go to the bathroom has long required careful calculation. There are only two bathroom stalls for women on the third floor of the Kentucky Statehouse, where the House and Senate chambers are located. Female legislators — 41 of the 138 member Legislature — needing a reprieve during a lengthy floor session have to weigh the risk of missing an important debate or a critical vote. None of their male colleagues face the same dilemma because, of course, multiple men's bathrooms are available. The Legislature even installed speakers in the men's bathrooms to broadcast the chamber's events so they don't miss anything important. In a pinch, House Speaker David Osborne allows women to use his single stall bathroom in the chamber, but even that attracts long lines. 'You get the message very quickly: This place was not really built for us,' said Rep. Lisa Willner, a Democrat from Louisville, reflecting on the photos of former lawmakers, predominantly male, that line her office. The issue of potty parity may seem comic, but its impact runs deeper than uncomfortably full bladders, said Kathryn Anthony, professor emerita at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's School of Architecture. 'It's absolutely critical because the built environment reflects our culture and reflects our population,' said Anthony, who has testified on the issue before Congress. 'And if you have an environment that is designed for half the population but forgets about the other half, you have a group of disenfranchised people and disadvantaged people.' There is hope for Kentucky's lady legislators seeking more chamber potties. A $300 million renovation of the 155-year-old Capitol — scheduled for completion by 2028 at the soonest — aims to create more women's restrooms and end Kentucky's bathroom disparity. The Bluegrass State is among the last to add bathrooms to aging statehouses that were built when female legislators were not a consideration. In the $392 million renovation of the Georgia Capitol, expanding bathroom access is a priority, said Gerald Pilgrim, chief of staff with the state's Building Authority. It will introduce female facilities on the building's fourth floor, where the public galleries are located, and will add more bathrooms throughout to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. 'We know there are not enough bathrooms,' he said. There's no federal law requiring bathroom access for all genders in public buildings. Some 20 states have statutes prescribing how many washrooms buildings must have, but historical buildings — such as statehouses — are often exempt. Over the years, as the makeup of state governments has changed, statehouses have added bathrooms for women. When Tennessee's Capitol opened in 1859, the architects designed only one restroom — for men only — situated on the ground floor. According to legislative librarian Eddie Weeks, the toilet could only be "flushed' when enough rainwater had been collected. 'The room was famously described as 'a stench in the nostrils of decency,'' Weeks said in an email. Today, Tennessee's Capitol has a female bathroom located between the Senate and House chambers. It's in a cramped hall under a staircase, sparking comparisons to Harry Potter's cupboard bedroom, and it contains just two stalls. The men also just have one bathroom on the same floor, but it has three urinals and three stalls. Democratic Rep. Aftyn Behn, who was elected in 2023, said she wasn't aware of the disparity in facilities until contacted by The Associated Press. 'I've apparently accepted that waiting in line for a two-stall closet under the Senate balcony is just part of the job,' she said. 'I had to fight to get elected to a legislature that ranks dead last for female representation, and now I get to squeeze into a space that feels like it was designed by someone who thought women didn't exist -- or at least didn't have bladders,' Behn said. The Maryland State House is the country's oldest state capitol in continuous legislative use, operational since the late 1700s. Archivists say its bathroom facilities were initially intended for white men only because desegregation laws were still in place. Women's restrooms were added after 1922, but they were insufficient for the rising number of women elected to office. Delegate Pauline Menes complained about the issue so much that House Speaker Thomas Lowe appointed her chair of the 'Ladies Rest Room Committee,' and presented her with a fur covered toilet seat in front of her colleagues in 1972. She launched the women's caucus the following year. It wasn't until 2019 that House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, the first woman to secure the top position, ordered the addition of more women's restrooms along with a gender-neutral bathroom and a nursing room for mothers in the Lowe House Office Building. As more women were elected nationwide in the 20th century, some found creative workarounds. In Nebraska's unicameral Legislature, female senators didn't get a dedicated restroom until 1988, when a facility was added in the chamber's cloakroom. There had previously been a single restroom in the senate lounge, and Sen. Shirley Marsh, who served for some 16 years, would ask a State Patrol trooper to guard the door while she used it, said Brandon Metzler, the Legislature's clerk. In Colorado, female House representatives and staff were so happy to have a restroom added in the chamber's hallway in 1987 that they hung a plaque to honor then-state Rep. Arie Taylor, the state's first Black woman legislator, who pushed for the facility. The plaque, now inside a women's bathroom in the Capitol, reads: 'Once here beneath the golden dome if nature made a call, we'd have to scramble from our seats and dash across the hall ... Then Arie took the mike once more to push an urge organic, no longer do we fret and squirm or cross our legs in panic.' The poem concludes: 'In mem'ry of you, Arie (may you never be forgot), from this day forth we'll call that room the Taylor Chamber Pot.' New Mexico Democratic state Rep. Liz Thomson recalled missing votes in the House during her first year in office in 2013 because there was no women's restroom in the chamber's lounge. An increase in female lawmakers — New Mexico elected the largest female majority Legislature in U.S. history in 2024 — helped raise awareness of the issue, she said. 'It seems kind of like fluff, but it really isn't,' she said. 'To me, it really talks about respect and inclusion.' The issue is not exclusive to statehouses. In the U.S. Capitol, the first restroom for congresswomen didn't open until 1962. While a facility was made available for female U.S. Senators in 1992, it wasn't until 2011 that the House chamber opened a bathroom to women lawmakers. Jeannette Rankin of Montana was the first woman elected to a congressional seat. That happened in 1916. Willner insists that knowing the Kentucky Capitol wasn't designed for women gives her extra impetus to stand up and make herself heard. 'This building was not designed for me," she said. "Well, guess what? I'm here.' ___ ____