Exclusive: Schumer's new megabill play

Politico

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IN TODAY'S EDITION:— Schumer zeroes in on clean-energy credits— Oversight race heats up — Megabill could hit hospitals hard
Chuck Schumer tells us Democrats have a ripe new target in their fight against the megabill: leveraging Republican infighting over whether to eviscerate clean-energy credits.
In an exclusive interview with Lisa Thursday, the Senate minority leader said his caucus is looking to make it politically untenable for Majority Leader John Thune and his members to follow House Republicans in gutting green credits under the Biden-era climate law. Those credits, Schumer points out, have widely benefited red states.
Schumer's game plan: Needle Republicans already wary of job and investment losses back home to compel Thune to skip the drastic cuts that House GOP leaders included to bring hard-liners along.
How Senate Democrats will do it: Ramp up the public pressure campaign Schumer kick-started Thursday against the backdrop of a rooftop solar field in Manhattan, and force Republicans to take tough votes through eventual vote-a-rama amendments.
'There are a whole number of Republicans, particularly those that have a lot of clean-energy investments in their states, who really didn't like what the House did,' Schumer told Lisa. 'And the question is: Will they be able to put enough pressure on Thune, or even vote [with us] on some amendments?'
Why Schumer sees this as a fruitful avenue for attack: A quartet of GOP senators — Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis, John Curtis and Jerry Moran — warned their leadership weeks ago against a 'full-scale repeal of current credits.' Tillis has already raised concerns about the House language. Schumer said he's spoken privately to 'a good number of Republican colleagues' who dislike the House's cuts, but declined to name names.
'The irony here is most of the new solar, wind and battery factories are in red states. And so we want to make it clear … [the rollbacks] are going to be huge problems in their states,' Schumer said.
Democrats may have an unlikely ally in this fight. Elon Musk's Tesla on Thursday blasted plans to phase out the clean-energy tax credits and terminate most credits for electric vehicles at the end of the year, arguing it would 'threaten America's energy independence and the reliability of our grid.'
But Republicans have a more pressing challenge awaiting in the Senate. Pet policy provisions that House Republicans tucked into the megabill could get ruled out by the Senate parliamentarian for not meeting the Byrd Rule — the requirement that components of a reconciliation package have budgetary impacts. And they could get cut in what's known as a 'Byrd Bath.'
The seven 'Byrd droppings' to keep an eye on, per our Jordain Carney this morning: tax-cut accounting, AI regulations, judicial powers, gun regulations, farm bill provisions, Planned Parenthood funds and energy permitting.
TGIF. Wouldn't be a recess without a Sen. Chuck Grassley Dairy Queen post. See you all on Monday. And email your Inside Congress scribes at [e-mail], [e-mail] and [e-mail].
THE LEADERSHIP SUITE
Johnson's text to Musk
Speaker Mike Johnson said he defended the House-passed GOP megabill to Musk after the billionaire publicly trashed it Tuesday for not cutting enough spending.
'I sent my good friend Elon a long text message last night explaining it can be both big and beautiful,' Johnson said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, adding that the Congressional Budget Office projections that Musk referred to are 'historically totally unreliable.'
The speaker also said the projections didn't take into account potential revenue from President Donald Trump's tariffs.
'This is a pro-growth package,' Johnson said. 'Lower tax rates, less regulation. We'll do exactly what we did in the first Trump administration, but this time on steroids.'
Musk is scheduled to have a press conference with Trump in the Oval Office at 1:30 p.m. today to mark 'his last day,' according to a Truth Social post Thursday.
Oversight election heats up
The race to replace the late Rep. Gerry Connolly as the top Democrat on House Oversight is officially on. Reps. Stephen Lynch, 70, and Robert Garcia, 47, both launched campaigns on Thursday, while Rep. Kweisi Mfume, 76, told colleagues he intends to run, our Nicholas Wu and Hailey Fuchs report.
Lynch, who's been filling in for Connolly on the dais, touted the former ranking member's 'trust and endorsement' as part of his opening pitch in a letter to colleagues. Garcia, in a nod to how the contest will test Democrats' appetite for elevating younger leaders to leadership roles, suggested his caucus needed to value 'fresh energy' as well as seniority. Mfume likened himself to fellow Marylander and former Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings, who died in 2019, in his own letter to colleagues.
The election to serve as one of Democrats' most prominent foils to Trump will take place June 24. Candidates will first go before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which will then make recommendations to the full caucus.
Key Republicans ramp up probes of Biden's decline
Top Republicans may not be able to steer clear of the recent maelstrom over President Joe Biden's mental state much longer. Sens. John Cornyn and Eric Schmitt will force the issue June 18 when they hold a Senate Judiciary hearing probing Biden's decline while in office.
GOP leaders have given hard-liners some leash on these red-meat probes in the past. But they remain fearful that going too far down conspiracy rabbit holes could backfire politically, our Kyle Cheney writes in, especially when it comes to a former president no longer seeking office.
POLICY RUNDOWN
MEGABILL COULD HIT HOSPITALS HARD — Health care providers could lose close to $800 billion in revenue over the next decade if the House-passed GOP megabill becomes law, according to a new analysis from the Urban Institute backed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Hospitals would take the brunt of the losses, with $306 billion in lost revenue, per the analysis from the think tank and philanthropy headed by former CDC acting director Rich Besser. Prescription drug revenue would also fall by $184 billion, and physicians' revenue would fall by $79 billion. Uncompensated care would rise $198 billion over a decade.
Those findings stem from changes to both Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act under the bill, which would cumulatively lead to more than 11 million people losing health care coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Republicans have made the case that they're going after waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid, while Democrats argue that provisions like Medicaid work requirements will lead to many people who are eligible losing coverage.
MAJOR NEW CRYPTO BILL — House Financial Services Chair French Hill released a new version of landmark cryptocurrency legislation aiming to overhaul the regulation of digital assets, our Jasper Goodman and Katherine Hapgood report.
The legislation is central to Republicans' push to move industry-friendly crypto legislation, and has three Democratic backers already. It would divide oversight of digital assets among regulators by giving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission new power over them.
Hill is eyeing a June 10 markup for a committee vote on the legislation, according to three people with knowledge of the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss unannounced plans.
Republicans, with the support of key crypto industry players, are considering tying this bill to different stablecoin legislation and passing both by the August recess. But that could complicate the path forward for the latter. As Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott recently told Katherine: 'Why would we want to do both at the same time when we already have the votes to do the GENIUS Act by itself?'
RUBIO'S OVERHAUL — Secretary of State Marco Rubio is pushing to gut his agency's human rights bureau as part of a massive reorganization, according to internal documents obtained by our Robbie Gramer and people familiar with the planning.
The State Department sent a document to Congress notifying lawmakers of the changes that call for the elimination of most offices in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. That would lead to funding freezes or cuts to programs ranging from internet freedom initiatives in autocratic countries to support for pro-democracy civil society groups facing repression in sub-Saharan Africa. It also calls for the creation of new positions that reflect Trump administration values, including emphasizing debates over digital censorship and creating a deputy assistant secretary of State role focused on 'Democracy and Western Values.'
The move is part of a wider effort to reorganize more than 300 bureaus and offices outlined in the document, all to revamp what the Trump administration views as an unwieldy and bloated foreign policy bureaucracy.
Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E:
CAMPAIGN STOP
HUIZENGA DEFIANT — Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga is moving ahead with plans to run for Michigan's open Senate seat despite GOP attempts to dissuade him. He intends to make a final decision this summer, Adam Wren and Lisa scooped. Huizenga's update came a day after the NRSC went public with its attempts to keep him out of the GOP primary against former Rep. Mike Rogers. But Huizenga argues Republicans need a new candidate after Rogers lost to now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, last year even as Trump won the state.
ICYMI: HOYER'S CHALLENGER — Former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, 85, has drawn a 35-year-old challenger who's explicitly calling to 'stop treating congressional seats as lifetime appointments.' Harry Jarin is the latest in a wave of younger Democrats mounting long-shot challenges to aging incumbents.
TUNNEL TALK
NEW ETHICS REPORT — The Office of Congressional Conduct believes Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick may have violated House rules while requesting community project funding, also known as earmarks, on behalf of a for-profit entity, Hailey and Nicholas report.
The findings of a new report made public Thursday by the congressional watchdog group — which reviews outside ethics complaints against House members and recommends further action to the House Ethics Committee — builds on allegations the Florida Democrat has been facing since 2023.
THE CARRYOUT
Welcome back to our Capitol Hill food recommendations — by Hill people, for Hill people. We're back with our next lawmaker-suggested eat.
Sen. Ruben Gallego isn't a fan of any food on the Hill, though the former House member claims Senate food is far better than what's available on the House side. When he's in DC, he will occasionally settle for some Old Bay wings.
Do you agree? Email us at [e-mail] and [e-mail].
THE BEST OF THE REST
New York NGOs Worry They Won't Be Able to Make Up for Steep Medicaid and SNAP Cuts, from Shifra Dayak at NOTUS
Trump's Senate Antagonists (Ranked), from Leigh Ann Caldwell at Puck
CAPITOL HILL INFLUENCE
Former Sen. Jon Tester is joining Unite the Country as a senior adviser.
FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: NO TAX ON TIPS TAKEDOWN — The Independent Restaurant Coalition sent a letter urging members of Congress to amend the portion of the megabill that would eliminate taxes on tips to include changes to the way service charges are taxed. The letter was signed by more than 500 business owners and workers from 47 states. The Senate already unanimously passed No Tax on Tips outside of the reconciliation package.
CRYPTO GIANT ADDS DEM LOBBYING SUPPORT — Tether has started working with Lilette Advisors, the firm started last year by Biden alumni, on the GOP-led GENIUS Act beginning on May 6, POLITICO Influence reports. Ankit Desai, who worked for Biden during his time in the Senate, is listed as the sole lobbyist on the account.
Tether previously added Miller Strategies, Ridgeline Advocacy Group and Jucundus Business Services — additions that made its roster of hired guns overwhelmingly Republican.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Former Rep. Steve Israel … NBC's Frank Thorp … Reema Dodin … Miryam Lipper … Stratton Kirton … Loren Duggan … Nicholas Ballasy … POLITICO's Maggie Miller … Rob Noel … Novartis' Nicole Longo … Jeff Freeland … Chris Gowen … Holland & Knight's Scott Mason
TRIVIA
THURSDAY'S ANSWER: Shanelle Wilson correctly answered that fiscal 1997 was the last time Congress passed all 12 regular appropriations bills on time.
TODAY'S QUESTION, from Shanelle: A proposed amendment becomes part of the Constitution as soon as it is ratified by how many states?
The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to [e-mail].