Tillis says he won't back any Trump nominees who express support for Jan. 6
It's dangerously close to the July 18 deadline that will render Trump's rescissions package expired for good if Congress doesn't act. But Senate Republicans are seeking tweaks to minimize the bill's cuts to AIDS prevention efforts around the world and valued local broadcasters back home.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune can lose no more than three GOP senators if he wants to get the White House request across the finish line. According to him, it's still TBD what the bill will look like when and if it gets through the chamber.
'We'll see where it goes,' Thune told reporters Tuesday, adding that he doesn't have a hard vote count yet. Thune is assuming Republicans will at least be able to gather the necessary 51 votes to begin debate on the package while leaders continue to whip support.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) is among the Republicans seeking to amend the package, but she refused to elaborate on how much of the $9.4 billion she is aiming to protect: 'I have already made clear I don't support the cuts to PEPFAR and child and maternal health,' Collins said Tuesday night.
Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) on Tuesday both said they want amendments to protect public radio stations for Native American reservations and rural Alaskans, respectively.
'Whatever form it takes, we can't lose these small-town radio stations across the country that are literally the only way to get out an emergency message,' Rounds told reporters.
Complicating efforts to change the package: Any amendment would have to be narrowly tailored to comply with germaneness rules. The parliamentarian is involved, guiding senators on what tweaks will be allowed.
Should the parliamentarian allow changes, Collins & Co. might find support from other Republicans. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said he's keeping his options open until he sees what the chamber's rulekeeper will allow. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he currently 'lean[s] yes' on the package but said some Republicans have made persuasive arguments in favor of protecting PEPFAR.
Other Republicans can't understand their colleagues' objections.
'After all the tough talk by Republicans in the Senate about the need to reduce spending, if we can't agree to reduce $9 billion worth of spending porn, then we all ought to go buy paper bags and put them over our heads,' Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday.
What else we're watching:
Russia sanctions pending: Expect developments later this week from Thune on when the chamber could take up a bipartisan bill to impose new sanctions on Russia. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters the president is on board with a punishing new package as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to resist peace talks in Ukraine.
Biden doc to testify: Kevin O'Connor, who served as former President Joe Biden's physician, is testifying before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday as part of its probe into Biden's mental acuity while in office. The Trump White House waived executive privilege for O'Connor ahead of his interview, meaning he won't be able to invoke that reason to avoid answering questions.
New megabill talks heat up: Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) joined House GOP leaders in saying that he wants a second reconciliation bill this fall. He believes policies were left on the table from the first package, although declined to disclose specifics. House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said he believes GOP leaders should try to revive provisions cut from the first megabill due to the Byrd rule.
Jordain Carney, Jennifer Scholtes and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New York Times
6 minutes ago
- New York Times
New York Republicans Unite in Attacking Mamdani
Zohran Mamdani may well be far out of sight, visiting family in Uganda some 7,000 miles from New York City. But he is clearly not far from the minds of Republicans. On Wednesday, within a matter of a few hours, Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, was targeted by two prominent Republican House members in New York and the New York Young Republican Club. Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican who represents a crucial Hudson Valley swing seat, introduced a bill called the MAMDANI Act, an acronym that stands for Measuring Adverse Market Disruption And National Impact. The bill is aimed at studying the effect of Mr. Mamdani's proposal for five city-owned grocery stores. 'Zohran Mamdani's push for government-owned grocery stores is straight out of the Marxist playbook, and history shows exactly how this experiment ends,' Mr. Lawler said, arguing that the candidate's 'socialist fantasies' would fail. Mr. Mamdani has proposed creating one municipal grocery store in each borough to help lower prices for shoppers. The stores could help reduce costs by using city land or buildings, buying food wholesale and receiving an exemption from property taxes. An hour earlier, Representative Elise Stefanik, a fellow New York Republican and close ally of President Trump, issued a drive-by attack on Mr. Mamdani, warning that a 'radical communist defund-the-police antisemite may be elected mayor of New York City.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.


New York Post
8 minutes ago
- New York Post
Dem Senator Elissa Slotkin complains party is too worried about ‘p—ing off' the Internet
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., says that Democrats are too worried about making people angry and that they 'constrain' themselves too much. During an interview last week on PBS's 'Firing Line with Margaret Hoover,' Hoover asked Slotkin about President Barack Obama's recent criticism of Democrats, where he said that his party should 'toughen up.' 'President Obama chided Democrats, saying they need to 'toughen up' against Donald Trump. You have said we need more 'alpha energy' in the Democratic Party,' Hoover told Slotkin. Slotkin agreed, and Hoover asked if she and Obama are 'saying the same thing.' 'I don't know if we're saying the exact same thing, but it sort of smells the same, right,' Slotkin said. 'And I think this idea that Democrats are so careful, and they're so caveated, and they're so worried about offending each other, offending other people, they're so worried about pissing off people on the Internet. They live often in a world where they constrain themselves.' Hoover then asked if Democrats are 'too sensitive.' 'I think some of them, sure, are too sensitive,' Slotkin said. 'And this is, to me, the central point, especially with Donald Trump in the White House, this is just not a moment to be careful and polite. We need a plan. We need to be on the same page. We need to play as a team. We need to call out when someone isn't helping the team. And we need to hug someone when they do something great.' 3 'They're so worried about pissing off people on the Internet,' Senator Slotkin said about Democrats. 'They live often in a world where they constrain themselves.' PBS 3 Slotkin agreed with Barack Obama's statement that the party should 'toughen up.' 'It sort of smells the same, right,' Slotkin said. Getty Images The PBS host asked Slotkin if she was saying that Republicans are afraid of Trump, and if Democrats 'fear each other's factions.' Slotkin responded by saying that some 'fear' backlash on X, still often referred to as its former name Twitter. Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! 'You know, I've been shocked — you know, I'm new to the Senate, six months in — how many of my peers said, 'Well, Elissa, I'd love to be with you on that issue, but, you know, Twitter will be mad. You know, the Internet people will be mad at me,'' Slotkin said. 'They literally say that,' Hoover asked. 3 'Especially with Donald Trump in the White House, this is just not a moment to be careful and polite,' the sentor said. 'We need a plan.' AP 'Yeah. There'll be a bad online response,' Slotkin admitted. Obama's 'toughen up' comments referenced by Hoover were made at a fundraiser in July where he said Democrats should complain less.


The Hill
8 minutes ago
- The Hill
Supreme Court lets Trump fire federal product safety commissioners, liberal justices dissent
The Supreme Court on Wednesday paved the way for President Trump to fire three members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) — the second time the justices have allowed Trump's terminations at independent agencies to go into effect. The emergency order lifts a lower court's ruling that determined the firings were unlawful and effectively ordered the reinstatement of commissioners Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr. as the litigation progresses. The majority pointed to its May emergency ruling greenlighting Trump firing members of two other independent agencies, saying the CPSC did not differ in 'any pertinent respect.' 'Although our interim orders are not conclusive as to the merits, they inform how a court should exercise its equitable discretion in like cases,' the unsigned order reads. The three justices appointed by Democratic presidents publicly dissented, saying their colleagues had 'negated Congress's choice of agency bipartisanship and independence.' 'By means of such actions, this Court may facilitate the permanent transfer of authority, piece by piece by piece, from one branch of Government to another. Respectfully, I dissent,' wrote Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The decision marks an immediate victory for the Trump administration, which has looked to vastly expand executive power since Trump returned to the White House. The administration has sought to eviscerate removal protections for members of independent agencies throughout the government, pushing back on a 90-year-old Supreme Court precedent that cleared the way for Congress to establish those protections. The new order marks the second time the justices have intervened to permit Trump's firings of independent agency leaders. In May, the justices cleared the way for Trump to fire National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said lower courts still haven't gotten the message, including when U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox later blocked Trump's termination of the three CPSC members. Sauer urged the Supreme Court to firmly settle the issue by leapfrogging the lower courts to take up the CPSC case on their normal docket. 'This case illustrates that the sooner this Court resolves the merits of this application and decides foundational questions about the scope of the President's removal authority, the better,' Sauer wrote in the application. The majority declined to do so, instead sending the case back to the lower courts. But Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's second appointee to the court, said he would've taken that additional step. He warned his colleagues may leave 'extended uncertainty and confusion' about whether the court will overrule the precedent. 'Moreover, when the question is whether to narrow or overrule one of this Court's precedents rather than how to resolve an open or disputed question of federal law, further percolation in the lower courts is not particularly useful,' Kavanaugh wrote. The CPSC commissioners, appointed by former President Biden, were let go earlier this year. Trump did not purport to have cause to fire them, despite federal law providing independent agencies across the federal bureaucracy with for-cause removal protections. CPSC commissioners cannot be fired by the president except for 'neglect of duty or malfeasance in office' under federal law. Similar setups exist for a handful of other agencies, providing a degree of independence from the political impulses of the White House. The commissioners, represented by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, urged the justices to stay out of the case. 'The government now asks this Court to disrupt the status quo and enter a stay that would prevent the Commissioners from serving in the roles that the district court held they are entitled to occupy and that they have in fact been occupying for the last month. The government cannot establish its entitlement to this extraordinary relief,' the group's attorneys wrote in court filings.