Rand Paul forces GOP into megabill runaround

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IN TODAY'S EDITION:— The GOP's remarkable shunting of Rand Paul— What could get cut in next week's Byrd bath— First in IC: GOP wary of Vought's new funding trick
Sen. Rand Paul is a frequent thorn in GOP leadership's side. But his recent break over border security funding in President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' has top Republicans pushing the bounds of institutional norms to rein him in, our Hailey Fuchs reports.
Senior Republicans have sidelined Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, in their talks with the White House over policies under the panel's purview.
Budget Chair Lindsey Graham told Hailey he has taken over as the lead negotiator around how to shepherd through tens of billions of dollars for border wall construction and related infrastructure in the GOP megabill. Meanwhile, a Senate Republican aide said Sen. James Lankford — who heads the relevant Homeland Security subcommittee — will be the point person for negotiating the bill's government affairs provisions.
With every other committee chair helping manage negotiations for their panels' portions of the massive tax and spending package, cutting Paul out is unprecedented. But Paul proposed funding border security at a fraction of what the administration requested and the House passed in its bill.
'Senator Paul usually votes 'no' and blames everybody else for not being pure enough,' Graham told Hailey. 'As chairman, you … don't have that luxury sometimes. You have to do things as chairman you wouldn't have to do as a rank-and-file member.'
Indeed, few of Paul's own committee members appear willing to defend him. Paul lost an ally in Sen. Ron Johnson, a fellow deficit hawk, after top White House adviser Stephen Miller briefed senators on the administration's border request and made a persuasive argument. Graham said the meeting was requested by himself and Majority Leader John Thune to 'contest' Paul's offer. Paul did not attend.
Sen. Josh Hawley said Paul's decision to draft his own proposal 'without any consultation of the committee' was concerning, adding that he had 'never seen that happen before.'
Nonetheless, Paul still believes some pieces of his own plan unrelated to border security will end up in the final bill, he told our Jordain Carney Wednesday, and that he's involved in ongoing talks with the Senate parliamentarian.
Speaking of the parliamentarian: Senate rule-keeper Elizabeth MacDonough is scrubbing the final draft of the megabill in a 'big, beautiful' Byrd bath. Her rulings on which provisions will fly under the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process are expected to roll in through the middle of next week, when Thune wants to schedule the first procedural vote related to the package, Jordain reports.
Republicans are bracing for an answer to one consequential question they punted on earlier this year: whether they can use an accounting maneuver known as 'current policy baseline' to make it appear that extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts would cost nothing.
Senate Finance Republicans and Democrats will make a joint presentation to MacDonough this weekend about which provisions to keep or scrap. And there's no shortage of GOP priorities under Byrd scrutiny — from tax cuts on certain gun silencers to a plan to raise taxes on foreign companies known as the 'revenge tax.'
Other outstanding issues before the parliamentarian: whether Commerce has to tweak language to prohibit states from regulating AI over the next decade; whether Judiciary can block judges' ability to issue preliminary injunctions and whether Agriculture can use the megabill to pay for pieces of the stalled farm bill.
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THE SKED
The House is out but will have a pro forma session at 11 a.m.
The Senate is out but will have a pro forma session at 3:15 p.m.
Next week: Both chambers will be back in session on Monday. The Senate will continue taking up Trump's nominations, including Daniel Zimmerman to be an assistant secretary of Defense, and work toward a vote on the GOP megabill.
THE LEADERSHIP SUITE
Thune's megabill timeline troubles
The Senate majority leader is ramping up efforts to quell rebellions within his conference over the megabill as he works to get it to the floor next week. That includes talking to Trump, who he frequently refers to as his 'closer,' on a near-daily basis, Thune told Jordain.
Thune's got his work cut out for him. Hawley is urging GOP leaders to strike Senate Finance's language that would largely reduce the provider tax to 3.5 percent from 6 percent, warning that it won't fly with House Republicans who voted to freeze, rather than reduce, the tax that many states use to fund their Medicaid programs.
Hawley told Jordain in an exclusive interview that House Republicans have told him they were 'not consulted' and it 'cannot pass.' (Read more from that conversation on our Inside Congress Live blog later this morning.)
'I don't know why we would pass something that the House can't pass and will force us into [a] conference,' Hawley said.
House Republicans — including members of Speaker Mike Johnson's circle — were indeed blindsided by the Senate's move, Mia reports with our Meredith Lee Hill. Moderates in the chamber are now scrambling to undo it, working with hospitals and planning to set up calls with leadership.
Hawley told Jordain he's prepared to support the House's provider-tax freeze — with minor technical clarifications that 13 states' hospital associations, including his own, asked for in a letter Inside Congress scooped Monday. GOP leaders are also pondering a fund to support rural hospitals, but Hawley says that isn't enough. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt declined in a press conference Thursday to share Trump's preference for how to break the stalemate, 'out of respect for the ongoing discussions that the White House is very much actively involved in.'
Thune also has other policy disputes to resolve, including over the state-and-local-tax deduction cap critical to a cadre of moderate House Republicans. That's leaving some of his members openly doubting whether Thune can meet his party's self-imposed July Fourth deadline to send the bill to the president's desk. Sen. Tommy Tuberville put it at a '50/50 chance,' saying there could be half a dozen Senate Republicans still wavering; Thune can only afford to lose three.
ICYMI: Megabill debt warnings fall on deaf ears inside the GOP
FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: Schumer, Dems hammer Thune on safety-net changes
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley — the ranking members on Agriculture, Finance and Budget, respectively — are spearheading a letter from the Senate Democratic Caucus urging Thune to work across the aisle on health care and food assistance rather than forging ahead with changes in Republicans' party-line push.
That won't happen. But the letter, which Jordain obtained exclusively, is a preview for Democrats' lines of attack against two of the most controversial pieces of the GOP megabill: Changes to Medicaid and shifting part of the cost of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to states.
'If enacted, these cuts to food assistance and health care will mean widespread hardship for Americans,' Democrats wrote in the letter. 'Just because the House has acted in this regard does not mean the U.S. Senate must make the same mistakes.'
Schumer and Senate Democrats will convene a Zoom call Saturday to discuss their strategy ahead of anticipated floor action next week, a person with direct knowledge told Jordain.
Schumer says senators set for Iran briefing
Schumer has privately confirmed there will be an all-senators classified briefing on Iran early next week, a Schumer aide told Jordain. It comes as Trump says he'll decide within in two weeks whether to strike the country amid its escalating confrontation with Israel.
Trump said in a statement Thursday he set that deadline based on a 'substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place in the near future.' Top Senate Democrats are demanding more information, pushing Trump to outline a strategy on Iran before any American involvement, our Connor O'Brien reports. Sen. Tim Kaine's resolution requiring congressional approval for Trump to take military action in Iran will be eligible for a vote next Friday — within the president's two-week window — though it's not gaining much Republican support.
Garcia leads Dems' Oversight race
Rep. Robert Garcia is emerging as the prohibitive favorite to win Democrats' vacant top slot on House Oversight ahead of next Tuesday's vote, Nicholas Wu and Hailey report. The 47-year-old Californian has run a careful campaign, focusing on his contributions on the panel and his experience as a big-city mayor, while sidestepping the age and seniority questions that are roiling his party.
'The seniority system in Congress is not going to go away,' Garcia said as he downplayed the notion that the race is a proxy battle in a larger war over the future leadership of the Democratic Party. 'There's an opportunity here to expand who's at that table, and I bring a different kind of experience.'
Top House Dems condemn incident targeting GOP rep
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar are condemning an incident in which GOP Rep. Max Miller said Thursday he was 'run off the road' by an aggressor with a Palestinian flag. They're also using the latest alleged attack on a lawmaker to bolster Jeffries' push for more resources for member security.
POLICY RUNDOWN
MEGABILL'S MEGA IMPACTS — As the House and Senate debate how much to slash clean-energy tax credits in the GOP's party-line bill, hundreds of investments — mostly in Republican districts — are at imminent risk of being stifled, our Kelsey Tamborrino and Jessie Blaeser report.
There are 794 wind farms, solar plants, battery storage facilities and other clean electricity generation projects that have not yet started construction and could lose key tax breaks if the final bill rolls back key provisions in the Democrats' 2022 climate law. Even under the Senate's less aggressive proposal, the projects lose all of their tax breaks if they don't break ground in time.
And Republicans could be at the brunt of it: Three out of four clean electricity generation projects that could benefit from the tax credits would be built in GOP districts, according to the POLITICO analysis.
FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: WH FLOATS NEW FUNDING TRICK — OMB Director Russ Vought's strained relationship with GOP appropriators is about to be tested once more as the White House pursues 'pocket rescissions' — the ultimate end-run around congressional funding power, our Jennifer Scholtes reports this morning.
Vought has repeatedly pushed the idea of 'pocket rescissions' as a way to codify the spending cuts Elon Musk made through his Department of Government Efficiency initiative. It's a dizzying maneuver that would involve sending a list of spending cuts to Capitol Hill with less than 45 days left until the end of the fiscal year, and then withholding — or 'pocketing' — the money if lawmakers don't act on the request. But the federal government's top watchdog says it's against the law, as do some of the appropriators already frustrated with the administration's moves to run roughshod over Congress' 'power of the purse' ahead of an upcoming government-funding deadline.
'Pocket rescissions are illegal, in my judgment,' Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins said in an interview this week.
GOP TIFFS OVER TIKTOK — Trump's latest move to keep TikTok alive is frustrating congressional Republicans who object to China's continued involvement in the popular app and want a divestment deal finished, our Anthony Adragna reports.
Trump on Thursday signed another 90-day delay of a law that would require TikTok to divest from ByteDance, the app's Beijing-based company, after repeated extensions since January. Lawmakers passed this law with bipartisan support in the previous Congress, and it was upheld last year by the Supreme Court.
'The law is clear - TikTok can only be used in the U.S. if ByteDance divests its foreign ownership, with only one permissible extension of the compliance deadline,' Rep. Dan Newhouse said Thursday in a post on X. He added he believes the law should be 'implemented as written.'
CRYPTO CHALLENGES AHEAD — Trump is urging House Republicans to send a 'clean' version of the Senate-passed stablecoin regulatory framework to his desk 'LIGHTNING FAST' — dialing up the pressure on congressional Republicans as they mull changes to the bill, including potentially packaging it with broader digital-assets market structure legislation.
Trump doesn't seem too keen on that approach as he looks to score a big crypto win, fast: 'NO DELAYS, NO ADD ONS,' he posted on Truth Social.
Senate Banking is set to hold a hearing next week on its version of that separate, market-structure legislation.
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JOB BOARD
Jacob Downs is now press secretary for Rep. David Kustoff. He most recently was press assistant for Rep. Nancy Mace.
Athena Hood has been promoted to deputy press secretary for the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. She most recently was a press assistant for the committee.
Hannah Hussey has been promoted to director of operations for Rep. David Kustoff.
Blake Nolan has been promoted to chief of staff for Rep. Vern Buchanan.
Heather Smith has been promoted to chief of staff for Rep. William Timmons.
Ben Nichols is now comms adviser at the FDA's office of external affairs. He was previously deputy comms director for House Ag Committee Republicans.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Sen. Eric Schmitt (5-0) … Reps. Don Beyer, Deborah Ross and Ralph Norman … Adrienne Elrod … former Rep. Phil English… POLITICO's Josh Gerstein and Mackenzie Wilkes… Ian Prior … Brandon Arnold of the National Taxpayers Union … Tom Zigo of the MPA … Brad Howard of Corcoran Street Group … Ryan Walker of Heritage Action … Ginger Loper … Gisselle Reynolds of Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart's office … Emma Tenery … Chris Grieco
TRIVIA
WEDNESDAY'S ANSWER: Brian Caudill correctly answered that John Scott Harrison was the lawmaker who was the only person to be the son and father of a U.S. president (son of William Henry Harrison and father of Benjamin Harrison).
TODAY'S QUESTION, from Mia: Happy belated Juneteenth! In what year was the first congressional resolution recognizing Juneteenth Independence Day introduced?
The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to [e-mail].