Thune barrels ahead on rescissions

Politico

6 days ago

IN TODAY'S EDITION:— Senators ready questions for Vought— Scoop: Crypto super PACs reveal 2026 war chest— Epstein meltdown emerges in the House
Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he will bring the first procedural vote to the floor today on the White House's request to claw back $9.4 billion in spending. It's not clear he has even the 51 votes necessary to start debate on the package.
Congress needs to approve the request before it expires Friday, or the administration will have to spend the money as lawmakers originally intended. That deadline is looming large as several GOP senators insist the administration clarify what spending it is actually seeking to rescind, our Jordain Carney, Katherine Tully-McManus and Jennifer Scholtes report. They'll question President Donald Trump's budget director Russ Vought during senators' closed-door lunch this afternoon.
'We still are lacking the level of detail that is needed to make the right decisions,' Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins told reporters Monday evening. 'It's extremely unusual for any senator to not be able to get that kind of detailed information.'
Collins is concerned not just over the administration's proposal to scale down the global AIDS-fighting program PEPFAR, but also about broader cutbacks in overseas public health. Sen. Jerry Moran told Calen he's particularly interested in protecting funding for global food aid programs like Food for Peace and the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program.
It's increasingly evident the rescissions package will have to be changed in order to pass the Senate, and Thune told reporters as he left the Capitol Monday that leadership is working with wary senators to 'see what a path forward on amendments looks like.'
Senate leaders expect a vote-a-rama on amendments to start Wednesday, teeing up a final vote late Wednesday or early Thursday. If senators are able to advance a package with tweaks, House GOP leaders plan to put the package on the floor Thursday; they have already started to clear away procedural hurdles that would prevent them from passing the spending cut proposal ASAP.
Throwing another wrinkle into it all, though, is that House GOP leaders don't want the Senate amending the package at all, knowing their members will be jammed with changes they don't like and be forced to choose between passing a watered-down product or missing the deadline to act.
'I think you got to respect the White House's request, and that's what we did, so I hope that's what we get back,' Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday. 'There are two big categories of rescissions, and I'm not sure either of them should be subject to dispute.'
It's also unclear whether an amended rescissions package would even have the support in the Republican House. Fiscal hawks are already drawing red lines, with Rep. Ralph Norman going as far as telling our Meredith Lee Hill he won't support a rescissions package that is 'a penny less' than the House-approved version.
MEANWHILE, IN OTHER FUNDING FIGHTS — Senate appropriators remain at a standstill on moving a funding bill forward for the Commerce and Justice Departments. They're trying to schedule a briefing with the FBI on the administration's rationale for abandoning the plan to move the bureau to suburban Maryland, according to Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, whose stand against Trump's desire for a site in the District of Columbia derailed a markup of the bill last week.
But Van Hollen insists that even if the FBI assures senators that the D.C. location is a secure site, he won't back off his attempt to block the administration from diverting about $1.4 billion that has been set aside for relocating the agency's campus to Maryland, our Cassandra Dumay and Jennifer report.
Across the Capitol: House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole told Meredith House leaders began whipping votes Monday night as the chamber prepares to take its vote on the $831.5 billion defense appropriations bill later this week. While defense appropriations bills have been bipartisan in the past, Republicans are expecting this measure to be a largely party-line affair.
GOOD TUESDAY MORNING. Reach your Inside Congress crew at [e-mail], [e-mail] and [e-mail]. Follow our live coverage at politico.com/congress.
WHAT WE'RE WATCHINGWith help from Alec Snyder
The House will vote on a rule for the fiscal 2026 Defense appropriations bill and cryptocurrency legislation at 1:30 p.m. and at 5 p.m.
The Senate, around 11:30 a.m., will vote to confirm Luke Pettit as an assistant secretary of the Treasury, and to advance the nomination of Anthony Tata to be under secretary of Defense for personnel and readiness. Senators will take the official photo for the 119th Congress at 2:15 p.m., then vote to confirm Tata and to advance Joseph Edlow's nomination to be the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at DHS.
— House Republican leaders will have their weekly news conference at 10 a.m. Democratic leaders will have their weekly news conference at 10:45 a.m.
— Senate Foreign Relations will hear testimony from former Rep. Mike Waltz during his confirmation hearing to become UN ambassador at 10 a.m.
— Senate Republicans will have their weekly lunch, with Vought as a guest, around 12:45 p.m.
The rest of the week: The House will take up crypto legislation and move through appropriations bills. The Senate will work through Trump's rescissions package.
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
FIRST IN POLITICO: Crypto super PACs reveal war chest for midterms
A network of crypto super PACs that emerged as a huge force in the 2024 campaign is entering the 2026 midterms with more than $140 million to spend on congressional races, Jasper Goodman is first to report this morning.
The group, known as Fairshake, is revealing its war chest as the crypto industry ramps up its pressure on House lawmakers — including indecisive Democrats — to back landmark digital asset legislation that's on the floor this week.
Having spent big during the last campaign cycle to support its allies and dethrone its enemies, Fairshake is now signaling that Wednesday's House vote on crypto market structure legislation will be a key metric for how it sizes up incumbents. The Cedar Innovation Foundation, a nonprofit dark money group affiliated with Fairshake, says that the so-called CLARITY Act is 'the most important vote members will take this Congress.' The bill would revamp securities and commodities regulations that the industry has long seen as a major hurdle in the U.S.
Fairshake has backing from three main sources: venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, crypto exchange operator Coinbase and blockchain payments company Ripple. The group's latest fundraising haul also includes support from Uniswap Labs and the crypto entrepreneur Robert Leshner.
Democratic leaders aren't urging members to vote for or against the crypto market structure bill, Jasper reports with our Nicholas Wu. Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar were noncommittal Monday when asked how they'd vote.
Even so, some Democrats who supported an earlier version of the bill last year now say they won't vote for it, in part because of concerns about the Trump family's growing crypto empire.
Epstein meltdown emerges in the House
Republican leaders are facing a new headache from their members over whether the DOJ should release files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019.
The issue over whether to release the so-called Epstein files, something Trump discussed on the campaign trail, has caused a fissure among the president and his MAGA base. On Monday, Rep. Ralph Norman voted in favor of a Democratic amendment in the House Rules Committee that would have forced a floor vote on the DOJ releasing more materials from the federal case against Epstein.
GOP leaders have attempted to stay clear of the issue that has caused a rift between Trump and his allies. Johnson defended Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is refusing to release more files from the Epstein case as more Republicans accuse her of hiding information about an alleged client lister. Thune sidestepped the question of whether he agreed with Bondi's handling of the materials and instead noted that 'the president seems happy with her.'
'I just try to stay focused on what we've got going on up here,' Thune said to reporters.
GOP leaders push off Russian sanctions bill
A bipartisan Russian sanctions bill might stall in the House and Senate after Trump announced secondary tariffs on countries trading with Russia. Thune said Monday he would hold off on advancing the bill for now.
'It sounds like right now the president is going to attempt to do some of this on his own,' Thune told reporters. 'If at some point the president concludes that it makes sense and adds value and leverage that he needs in those negotiations to move the bill, then we'll do it. We'll be ready to go.'
A vote on the bill could be delayed until after August recess, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told Meredith, though he also didn't rule out unilateral action from Trump rendering the sanctions bill altogether moot.
'If anybody's going to be able to get Putin to the table to finally agree to peace, it's President Trump,' Scalise said.
But other defense hawks are pushing leaders to pass the bipartisan sanctions bill in parallel with the president's actions. 'I'd be for all of the above,' said Rep. Joe Wilson, a co-sponsor of the bill in the House.
Champions of the sanctions legislation in the Senate, Sens. Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal, said in a statement they supported Trump's latest tariff threats, but that 'the goal is not more tariffs and sanctions — the goal is to entice Putin to come to the peace table.'
POLICY RUNDOWN
FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: DEMS' LAST STAND AGAINST BOVE — Senate Democrats are making a final bid to draw the spotlight to a whistleblower's allegations that Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official and 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals nominee, urged defiance of the same judicial branch he is seeking to join, our Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney write in. All 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to Chair Chuck Grassley in a letter late Monday asking him to call the whistleblower, longtime DOJ immigration attorney Erez Reuveni, to testify before the panel prior to its vote on Bove, which is set for Thursday morning. Republicans are unlikely to agree.
WALTZ'S NEXT TANGO — Mike Waltz will appear before Senate Foreign Relations this morning for his confirmation hearing to serve as Trump's next ambassador to the United Nations. His nomination for the role follows his abrupt ouster as national security adviser amid the outcry over his use of an insecure text message app to share detailed plans of military action against Houthi militants in Yemen. Subsequent reporting revealed that Waltz's team regularly set up chats on Signal to coordinate official work.
Expect Democratic committee members to flay Waltz, a former Florida GOP Rep., for those security lapses as evidence of poor judgment that make him ineligible to represent the administration to the UN, our Phelim Kine writes in.
WAYS AND MEANS TALKS TRADE — House Ways and Means Republicans will meet with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer this morning and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Wednesday. Committee members told Benjamin they expect both officials to provide updates on the administration's renegotiation of various trade agreements as financial markets continue to digest new tariff rates.
'I think they're just keeping us abreast, which is what we'd expect,' said Rep. Kevin Hern, a member of House GOP leadership. 'And I think if there's anything we can do to help expedite any of these issues, we're going to be involved in that.'
LAWMAKERS HOLD FIRE ON POWELL — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told leaders of the Senate Banking Committee on Monday that he has asked the agency's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, to examine the ballooning costs of renovating Fed headquarters, our Victoria Guida scooped. The move comes as Vought has assailed Powell for allegedly mismanaging taxpayer dollars in overseeing the expensive project.
These recent attacks have raised some alarm bells that the White House could be looking for excuses to replace Powell with someone more amenable to lowering interest rates. So far, GOP lawmakers are largely taking a wait-and-see approach on whether to follow Vought's lead in going after the Fed chair.
Sen. John Kennedy, a member of Senate Banking, praised the decision to deploy Horowitz to investigate the renovations, calling the IG 'first rate.' Another Republican on the panel, Sen. Thom Tillis, cautioned the administration not to dismiss Powell before the end of his term next year, telling reporters he was 'very focused on making sure the Fed remains independent.'
BIPARTISAN IMMIGRATION BILL REEMERGES — GOP Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar and Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar are reintroducing legislation that would create a temporary status for undocumented immigrants without criminal records who have been in the U.S. for over five years. These immigrants would have to pay a $7,000 restitution fee over seven years and would not receive any federal benefits or pathways to citizenship, according to a document prepared for members and staff obtained by Mia.
Fifteen to 20 members, evenly divided between the two parties, will hold a press conference today at noon marking the bill's reintroduction, said a person granted anonymity to share event logistics.
Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E:
CAMPAIGN STOP
THE INFLUENCERS ARE COMING — A young political influencer's chance at being elected to Congress is getting its first test today: Deja Foxx goes up against Adelita Grijalva, who is running to replace her father, Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who died earlier this year. Our Ben Jacobs writes this morning on what could be a new trend as influencers go from shaping votes to actually receiving them.
TUNNEL TALK
NINE DAYS LEFT OF LONGWORTH DUNKS — It's time for the great Capitol food turnover of 2025, our Katherine reports. A new timeline is out for the planned changes to House food service options over the August recess, according to a schedule released Monday by the House Chief Administrative Officer (spoiler alert: Dunkin' is closing for good next week).
THE BEST OF THE REST
Kyrsten Sinema's Campaign Committee Spent Big on Flights, Wine Shops and Skiing, from Dave Levinthal at NOTUS
Another Moderate Republican Opts Out, from Mark Leibovich at The Atlantic
CAPITOL HILL INFLUENCE
FLYING IN — The National Corn Growers Association is in town this week to meet with around 150 Hill offices from both parties as well as senior Trump administration officials at USDA, EPA and other agencies, POLITICO Influence reports.
ALSO FLYING IN — Leaders with the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies will hit the Hill today for meetings with key lawmakers, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler, NRCC Chair Richard Hudson and Senate GOP Conference Chair Tom Cotton.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Former Reps. David Cicilline, Mac Thornberry, Dan Lipinski, Chris Stewart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen … Chris LaCivita … WaPo's Paul Kane … Semafor's Max Tani … CMS' Chris Krepich … Bloomberg's Jodi Schneider … Tia Bogeljic of Rep. Joe Neguse's office … National Association of Realtors' Kathryn Crenshaw … Eun Kim … Naomie Pierre-Louis … Ericka Perryman … Andrew Usyk … Helen Hare … Erica Fein … Nate Gaspar … Electric Power Research Institute's Arshad Mansoor … Rob Ellsworth of the Majority Group
TRIVIA
MONDAY'S ANSWER: John McKechnie correctly answered that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is the son of Sen. Charles Goodell, who succeeded the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
TODAY'S QUESTION, from John: In honor of tonight's MLB All-Star Game, name the Hall of Famer who once unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Maryland.
The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to [e-mail].