GOP turns the gears on spending plan

Politico

10-03-2025

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THE CATCH-UP
THE OTHER BIG COMEBACK IN THE CAPITAL THIS YEAR: 'The Most Liked Man in D.C. Might Be This Silver-Haired Russian Ready to Reset NHL History,' by WSJ's Jason Gay: 'Alexander Ovechkin is nine goals away from toppling Wayne Gretzky's career mark of 894, a record once considered unbreakable.'
TODAY'S ACTION ON THE HILL: The House Ways and Means Republicans are meeting today to start drafting the tax portion of the GOP's party-line bill. The session is expected to last all day and will be followed by a second meeting on Wednesday. And at 4 p.m., the Rules Committee will have a hearing on advancing the stopgap funding bill and other legislation. It's expected to clear the panel, setting up a vote on the spending bill on Tuesday.
RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: A group of House Republicans are urging their party to preserve the clean energy tax credits in Democrats' climate law — issuing a fresh warning that they may oppose the party's budget bill if those incentives get axed, POLITICO's Josh Siegel and James Bikales scooped.
The 21 House Republicans — whose districts have drawn billions in new investments because of the Inflation Reduction Act incentives — said in a letter shared exclusively with POLITICO that developing clean energy was critical for the U.S. to meet Trump's goal of becoming 'energy dominant.'
'We have 20-plus members saying, 'Don't just think you can repeal these things and have our support,'' said Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), who organized the letter.
Hitting home: The spending bill released this weekend could have major side effects for D.C., officials in the District say, 'potentially leading to about $1 billion in overnight cuts impacting everything from the city's law enforcement to schools,' per WaPo's Meagan Flynn. 'If it passes, the city, whose local budget is overseen by Congress, would be treated as a federal agency and be forced to revert to its 2024 budget spending levels for the remaining six months of this fiscal year, until Oct. 1.'
MAJOR SHAKEUPS AT WAPO: Matt Murray, the executive editor at the Washington Post, issued a new staff-wide memo today outlining a variety of major changes 'meant to broaden the outlet's coverage and reach a wider audience,' Axios' Sara Fischer reports.
'As part of the newsroom overhaul, the Post will divide its national desk into two sections that focus on national reporting, and politics and government coverage, respectively. The politics and government desk 'will encompass most of our reporters and editors covering the political scene and the government, which remain a central pillar for The Post,' Murray wrote.
''The Economics and Economic Policy team from Business will move to this department.' The national desk, 'which incorporates the America team, the education team, and the GA desk in Washington, will have a remit to cover the United States and important issues and figures outside of Washington and across the country more broadly,' he added.
Perhaps the most notable news out of the paper this morning, though, is the resignation of longtime columnist Ruth Marcus, who said in a note sent to colleagues that she was exiting after 40 years after CEO Will Lewis decided 'to spike a column that I wrote expressing concern about the newly announced direction for the [opinion] section and declined to discuss the decision with me.' Read Marcus' full note to staff and her resignation email to Lewis and Jeff Bezos
FOR YOUR RADAR: 'Harvard pauses hiring amid 'financial uncertainties' under Trump,' by POLITICO's Mackenzie Wilkes
EXPLOSIVE STORY: 'Man accused as 'predator' by Rep. Nancy Mace breaks his silence,' by CNN's Randi Kaye and Meridith Edwards
Good Monday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at [e-mail].
8 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
1. IN THE DOGE HOUSE: As Elon Musk's DOGE team continues its push to reshape the federal bureaucracy, there's a pair of fresh accounts detailing just how the incursions are playing out across the government.
At the SSA: A former Social Security Administration official says Musk's team 'came in aggressively,' WaPo's Lisa Rein reports, 'demanding access to sensitive taxpayer data and refusing briefings on how the agency ensures the accuracy of its benefit systems. They recklessly exposed data in unsecured areas outside Social Security offices, the official said, potentially disclosing personally identifiable information on almost every American to people not authorized to see it. And representatives sent by the U.S. DOGE Service refused to explain why they needed taxpayer information that is protected by law, the former official said.'
At the IRS: Right in the middle of tax season, Trump has ordered massive cuts to the IRS, which means the agency now 'may struggle even more with its basic mission of collecting taxes,' NYT's Andrew Duehren writes. 'Work-intensive investigations into large businesses and rich Americans could decline, a drop in enforcement that would add to the deficit even as Elon Musk says his team is helping narrow it.' Current and former officials 'described deep uncertainty as the I.R.S. cycled through three leaders in a matter of weeks and Mr. Trump's team moved to rapidly remake one of the government's most fundamental agencies.'
One to watch: Musk is sitting down for an interview with Fox Business Network's Larry Kudlow, which will air at 4 p.m. It'll be his first major interview since he appeared on Fox News alongside Trump last month and since POLITICO's Dasha Burns and Kyle Cheney reported the details of last week's explosive Cabinet meeting in which Trump reined in some of Musk's powers.
2. SCOTUS WATCH: The Supreme Court today agreed to take up a case out of Colorado 'to decide whether state and local governments can enforce laws banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children,' AP's Mark Sherman writes. 'Colorado is among roughly half the states that prohibit the practice of trying to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling. The issue is whether the law violates the speech rights of counselors. Defenders of such laws argue that they regulate the conduct of professionals who are licensed by the state.'
3. THERE'S ALWAYS A TWEET: 'Deleted tweets show top State Department official spread false rumor about Rubio's sexuality, called him 'low IQ,'' by CNN's Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck: 'The deleted tweets from Darren Beattie, the acting under secretary of state for public diplomacy, were uncovered as part of a CNN review of his social media and include a mixture of insults and harsh attacks against [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio. … Though Beattie left up several of his most inflammatory posts, he does appear to have purged criticism of Rubio from his feed. Beattie deleted tweets suggesting a deep hostility toward Rubio — particularly after the then-senator voted to certify the 2020 election results and condemned the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. One deleted tweet also attacked Rubio for criticizing possible Russian actions in Ukraine.'
4. FARMVILLE: Across America's farmland, a Biden-era USDA program sought to reward farmers for projects that were environmentally conscious. 'The project description labeled them 'climate resilient farming practices' to appeal to President Joe Biden's green priorities. Now, the Trump administration is considering axing the project, along with hundreds of other agreements 'related to climate initiatives,' according to internal USDA documents and two people familiar with the agency's deliberations,' WaPo's Nicolás Rivero and Sarah Blaskey write. 'The whiplash shows how farmers have been caught in the middle of a political battle over the language used to describe federal programs.'
5. THE REAL-WORLD IMPACT: ''I don't feel safe': Trump's passport gender policy sparks fear for trans travelers,' by WaPo's Hannah Sampson: 'For travelers caught up in the Trump administration's new policy on passports, leaving the country has become difficult or impossible. Some Americans are in limbo, waiting for word on their passports' statuses after applying for updates. Others are in shock after receiving passports that misgender them. … Seven transgender and nonbinary people have challenged the policy in federal court and asked a judge to grant the plaintiffs passports under the previous policy.'
6. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN: 'Who Likes Tariffs? Some U.S. Industries Are Eager for Them,' by NYT's Peter Eavis: 'There are deep pockets of support for [Trump's] trade policies in the business world, particularly among executives who say their industries have been harmed by unfair trade. In particular, the leaders of American steel and aluminum companies have long contended that foreign rivals undercut them because those rivals benefit from subsidies and other government support. And they say that tariffs, when imposed without loopholes, have been effective at spurring more investment in the United States.'
7. IT AIN'T EASY BEING GREENLAND: 'Trump Looms Over Greenland's Election, but Voters Have Other Concerns,' by NYT's Christian Ulloriaq Jeppesen, Maya Tekeli and Jeffrey Gettleman: 'Greenland's leading political parties are presenting different visions for the future and some are pushing for a new relationship with the United States and quick independence from Denmark, which colonized Greenland hundreds of years ago and still controls some of its affairs. But for many of Greenland's 56,000 residents — a tiny population on the world's biggest island — geopolitics is not a priority. At the recent town hall debate and in interviews with voters, Greenlanders expressed much more prosaic worries, often about living costs, unemployment, schools and health care.'
8. HOLLYWOODLAND: 'Hollywood Pivots to Programming for Trump's America,' by WSJ's Joe Flint: 'The embrace of right-leaning programming is a stark contrast to much of the past few decades in Hollywood. … Now, the entertainment industry is pulling back on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on the business side. Television agents and some executives say privately there has also been a chilling effect on any programming that could be perceived as 'woke.' Furthermore, the president's legal battles with ABC News and CBS's '60 Minutes' also present a threat to the industry.'
TALK OF THE TOWN
Michelle Obama is launching a new video interview podcast show, 'IMO,' with her brother Craig Robinson. The NYT reviewed the first two episodes, writing that the hosts 'mainly offered advice based on their life experiences, and refrained from addressing current events or politics.'
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is stoking the 2028 flames, as he's set to headline the New Hampshire Democrats' McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner on April 27, per Fox News' Paul Steinhauser.
MEDIA MOVES — Daniel Barnes and Hassan Kanu are joining POLITICO. Barnes will be a Washington law and lobbying reporter and previously was a reporter at NBC. Kanu will be a regulatory law reporter and is an American Prospect, Reuters and Bloomberg Law alum.
TRANSITIONS — Sean Conway is rejoining Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld as a partner in the telecom, media and technology practice. He most recently was deputy chief counsel for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and is an FCC alum. … Peter Butkovich is now a legislative assistant for Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Mich.). He most recently was a research assistant for Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee minority.. … Carla Zeppieri is joining SMI as a VP. She previously was deputy assistant secretary of Defense for industrial base resilience. …
… Emilie Simons is joining Airbnb to lead policy and corporate comms for North America. She most recently was deputy assistant to the president and senior deputy press secretary for the Biden White House. … Douglas Gates is now national security adviser and prospective general counsel for Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.). He previously was counsel at WilmerHale in the defense, national security and government contracts group. … Drew Myers is now press secretary and digital director for Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.). He previously was deputy press secretary for Bob Casey's reelect and is a Jacky Rosen alum.
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