New megabill text dropping this week

Politico

03-06-2025

IN TODAY'S EDITION:— This week's megabill text schedule— Rescissions package coming today— Lawmakers hit with AM radio curveball
Senate committees will start rolling out their portions of the GOP megabill as soon as today, providing a first look at how Republicans in the chamber plan to address some of the House's most controversial proposals.
Here's the draft-text timeline our Benjamin Guggenheim and Jordain Carney reported Monday night, though it could change:
— Armed Services on Tuesday
— Environment and Public Works on Wednesday
— Commerce on Thursday
— Banking on Friday
The scheduling logic: Just as the House sequenced its megabill markups from least-to-most controversial to buy lawmakers more time to resolve their stickier policy debates, the Senate will have committees release their least-contentious draft bills first. Finance, which has jurisdiction over tax cuts and changes to Medicaid, is widely expected to be among the final Senate panels to release text, if not the last.
The massive tax-and-spending package will 'most likely' hit the Senate floor the last full week of June, ahead of the July 4 recess, per Majority Leader John Thune.
It could come even sooner — but that depends on how conversations go with the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough. Committee staffers started vetting the megabill with MacDonough last week, and will continue their talks this week and next. MacDonough's job is to recommend which House-passed provisions and policy priorities must be dropped to comply with the strict rules governing the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process.
Thune signaled Monday that Republicans won't seek to override their referee if they don't like her rulings. But he said he hoped MacDonough could be convinced to greenlight inclusion of the so-called REINS Act 'in some fashion.' The longstanding conservative proposal would give Congress more authority to approve agency regulations.
The chamber's lightning-fast turnaround nods to the weeks of behind-the-scenes work by GOP senators and their aides to prepare for the domestic policy bill's arrival from across the Capitol. It also shows the immense pressure they're under from the White House to get moving on advancing President Donald Trump's sweeping legislative agenda.
The president is starting to play his own hand. Trump met separately Monday at the White House with both Thune and Sen. Rick Scott, who wants deeper spending cuts but told Lisa 'we all want to get a bill done.' Trump also spoke by phone with Sens. Ron Johnson, who's pushing a return to pre-pandemic spending levels, and Josh Hawley, who's opposed to some of the Medicaid changes endorsed by the Republican House. And Jordain reports the president will likely meet with Thune and Finance Chair Mike Crapo either this week or next to talk through the details of the tax portion of the bill.
One key fight to watch this week: Look to see if the Senate backs away from the House's plan to reup government auctions of federally controlled spectrum. Sen. Mike Rounds has drawn a red line on it, saying Monday that 'we'll have to take out the spectrum language that's in the bill right now. That simply is a non-starter for me.'
GOOD TUESDAY MORNING. And welcome to Maia Nehme, a Politico Journalism Institute student who will be helping us out on the newsletter this week. Follow our live coverage at the Inside Congress blog at politico.com/congress and email your Inside Congress scribes at [e-mail], [e-mail] and [e-mail].
THE SKED
The House is in session and voting on a bill, named after the late Rep. Gerry Connolly, which requires the GAO to provide a report on esophageal cancer, among other legislation at 6:30 p.m.
— Rules will have a hearing on a major package to fight the opioid crisis and two SBA-related bills at 4 p.m.
— House Republican and Democratic leadership will hold separate private meetings shortly before evening votes.
The Senate is in session and voting on Michael Duffey's nomination to be undersecretary of Defense and to end debate on Allison Hooker's nomination to be an undersecretary of State at 11:30 a.m. The Senate will vote on Hooker's nomination and to end debate on Dale Marks to be an assistant secretary of Defense at 2:15 p.m.
— Finance will vote on Billy Long's nomination to be IRS Commissioner at 9:30 a.m. It will have a hearing on the nominations of Joseph Barloon to be a deputy U.S. trade representative, Janet Dhillon to be the director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and Brian Morrissey Jr. to be general counsel for Treasury at 10:30 a.m.
— Appropriations will have a hearing on Trump's fiscal 2026 budget requests for the Education Department, with testimony from Secretary Linda McMahon, at 10 a.m.; and for the SEC, with testimony from Chair Paul Atkins, at 2:30 p.m.
— Republican and Democratic senators will have separate weekly conference lunches at 12:45 p.m.
— Judiciary will have a hearing on district judges ruling against Trump at 2:30 p.m.
— Intel will have a closed-door briefing at 2:30 p.m.
— Agriculture will vote on legislation to allow whole milk in public school lunches, followed by a hearing on Michael Boren's nomination to be the undersecretary of Agriculture at 3 p.m.
The rest of the week: The House will take up the opioid legislation and SBA-related bills. The Senate will continue to work through Trump's nominees, including Edward Walsh to be ambassador to Ireland.
THE LEADERSHIP SUITE
Trump's $9.4B rescissions package expected today
The White House plans to send up a package today outlining $9.4 billion in spending cuts, asking Congress to nix current funding for NPR, PBS and foreign aid, our Jennifer Scholtes writes in.
House Republican leaders helped shape the so-called rescissions request over the last few weeks in a back-and-forth with the White House. But Senate Republicans are exploring options for amending the package.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins said she isn't sure yet if her committee will mark up the package, telling reporters Monday night that Republicans have been talking to the parliamentarian about the 'very, very complicated' rules around altering a rescissions request.
White House budget director Russ Vought, who met Monday with Speaker Mike Johnson, has said he's open to transmitting additional rescissions packages if Congress approves the first one. He's also strategizing with House GOP leaders about how to make DOGE cuts permanent, even with architect Elon Musk no longer leading the charge.
One option the budget director is increasingly vocalizing: Pocket rescissions. That's when the White House sends a rescissions request toward the end of the fiscal year and lets the funds expire.
Thune faces a divisive crypto problem
Thune said Monday he wants to finish landmark cryptocurrency legislation 'in the very near future.' But his pledge to allow an open amendment process could come back to bite Republicans trying to pass one of Trump's biggest non-reconciliation priorities, our Jasper Goodman reports. For instance, there's a distinct possibility Republicans could end up having to vote on a polarizing amendment that would force credit card processors like Visa, MasterCard and American Express to compete on swipe fees.
This language, long championed by Sens. Dick Durbin and Roger Marshall, would pit two powerful lobbying forces — the financial sector and major retailers — against each other. If either lawmaker demands a vote on it, it could derail progress for crypto supporters, who are closing in on their biggest legislative win to date. Sen. Thom Tillis has warned the provision, if adopted, would be 'a deal killer.'
Thune stands firm on Russia sanctions bill
The Senate majority leader isn't caving to growing internal pressure to take up Sen. Lindsey Graham's bipartisan Russia sanctions bill, saying he doesn't want to step on the White House's strategy.
'It very well could be something we take up in this work period,' Thune told reporters Monday. 'But obviously we're working with the White House to try and ensure that what we do and when we do it works well with the negotiations they've got underway.'
But senators who overwhelmingly support the legislation are pushing Thune not to wait, with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling Monday for Republican leaders to put the bill on the floor 'as soon as possible.'
POLICY RUNDOWN
FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: AM RADIO CURVEBALL — Automakers are wading into a major battle on Capitol Hill over how people listen to radio programming in their cars — a move that could further complicate the path forward for a popular bill that mandates AM capabilities in all new vehicles, Ben reports.
In a new letter first reviewed by POLITICO, two trade groups for leading carmakers are throwing their weight behind tying the so-called AM Radio in Every Vehicle Act to the American Music Fairness Act, which would compel broadcasters to pay royalties to the copyright holders of songs played on the airwaves.
'Congress should not mandate the use of an infringing platform that exploits artists by not paying them for their work,' the Alliance for Automotive Innovation and the Zero Emission Transportation Association wrote to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, which have jurisdiction over the music payment bill.
Adding another issue to the AM radio debate could get messy. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' support for a two-bill package thwarted plans to advance the AM radio bill as part of the larger government funding measure Congress passed last December. Broadcasters backing the AM radio bill have also opposed the music payment bill, arguing it would amount to onerous new fees on local radio stations. Car manufacturers say AM radio is outdated, and being forced to install the technology in new cars could prompt major marketplace disruptions.
SBA SPARS WITH SANCTUARY CITIES — The House will vote this Thursday and Friday on two immigration-related bills that would hamstring Small Business Administration activities in localities that don't comply with federal immigration laws, Maia reports. The legislation would codify new SBA rules announced earlier this year: One that would move SBA offices in so-called sanctuary cities into jurisdictions that comply with immigration enforcement efforts and another that would require SBA loan applicants to provide documentation of their citizenship status.
One of the bills, which advocates say was written in response to 'public safety threats' against SBA employees in sanctuary cities, comes hot on the heels of the May 29 release of a DHS list of jurisdictions allegedly flouting federal immigration law. DHS removed the list from its website Sunday after widespread backlash from local officials about misspellings and the inclusion of cities that support Trump's hard-line immigration policies, according to The Associated Press.
OBAMA ENTERS THE MEGABILL CHAT — Barack Obama is stepping up to help defend his signature 2010 health care law from the latest round of Republican attacks.
'Here's something everybody should be paying attention to: Congressional Republicans are trying to weaken the Affordable Care Act and put millions of people at risk of losing their health care,' the former president said in a post on X. 'Call your Senators and tell them we can't let that happen.'
Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on Senate Finance, also told reporters Monday he believes the House-passed megabill is doubling as a 'backdoor' effort to repeal the health law after Republicans failed to do so in 2017.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said the House GOP's proposed elimination of certain Affordable Care Act provisions could lead to more than 3 million people losing insurance.
A LONG TIME COMING — Senate Finance will vote today to advance the nomination of Billy Long, Trump's pick to lead the IRS, six months after the president announced the selection.
In his confirmation hearing last month, Long sought to distance himself from his promotion of certain tribal tax credits that turned out to be nonexistent. Democrats have accused the former Missouri Republican of being too partisan for the job, and plan to bring that up again today.
'I'm going to walk in there and say, 'the Republicans have always talked about how they didn't want the IRS involved in politics,'' Wyden told Mia and Maia. 'And all the signals indicate that Billy Long is going to be up to his eyeballs in politics if he's confirmed.'
The IRS has had five separate acting commissioners since the beginning of the year amid massive layoffs and cost-cutting moves.
Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E:
CAMPAIGN STOP
ERNST DRAWS ANOTHER CHALLENGER — Sen. Joni Ernst's viral 'we're all going to die' response to constituent concerns about Medicaid cuts has earned her a new Democratic challenger. State Rep. J.D. Scholten told our Andrew Howard that 'I have to do this' after Ernst 'disrespected' Iowans. Scholten has run unsuccessfully for Congress twice before.
Ernst and other Republican senators contended Monday that her comment was taken out of context. 'I'm very compassionate and you need to listen to the entire conversation,' she told reporters at the Capitol. 'We want to protect the most vulnerable.'
TUNNEL TALK
NEW USCP CHIEF — The U.S. Capitol Police will be led by Assistant Chief Sean Gallagher on an acting basis while the search continues for a permanent leader, our Chris Marquette, Nicholas Wu and Katherine Tully-McManus scooped Monday.
Gallagher's appointment by the Capitol Police Board comes after Chief Thomas Manger retired last month after about four years on the job. Gallagher has held a variety of roles within the department over the past two decades and is widely seen internally as a strong contender for the permanent position.
COMING TO AUDI FIELD SOON — The Congressional Women's Softball game, a charity contest raising money for breast cancer research that pits lawmakers against members of the press corps, is headed to Audi Field this year and will include a televised broadcast for the first time on the Monumental Sports Network.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Sen. Jon Ossoff and Alisha Kramer, a doctor, welcomed Lila Rose Ossoff this weekend. She joins big sister Eva.
THE BEST OF THE REST
Fetterman defends mental health, desire to stay in Congress, from Cheyanne M. Daniels at POLITICO
Menendez has voted. It may be his last vote for a while, from David Wildstein from the New Jersey Globe
Antonio Delgado, Hochul's No. 2, Will Challenge Her in Governor's Race, from Jeffrey C. Mays at the New York Times
CAPITOL HILL INFLUENCE
Reilly McBride is now VP of policy and advocacy comms at JPMorganChase. She previously was deputy comms director for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies and is an Invariant alum.
Philip Bednarczyk is now director of the German Marshall Fund's Warsaw office. He previously was an adviser for Europe and Eurasia for the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
JOB BOARD
Christian McMullen is now communications director for the office of Sen. Ted Budd. He was most recently comms adviser for the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Hunter Lovell is now press secretary for the Labor Department. He previously was comms director for Rep. Mike Turner and is a Steve Scalise alum.
Christian Calvert is now press assistant for the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He previously was a program officer for campus advancement at Young America's Foundation.
Meghan Taira is joining Resolution Public Affairs as a principal. She previously was legislative director for Schumer.
Angela Ryan is now director of operations for Sen. Steve Daines. She previously was director of operations and senior adviser for Rep. Mike Turner.
Alyssa Bretan is joining HHS as a confidential assistant for the office of the assistant secretary for legislation. She previously was member services coordinator for the House Budget Committee.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Former Reps. Roscoe Bartlett (98), Solomon Ortiz and Carolyn Bourdeaux …former first lady Jill Biden … WSJ's Michelle Hackman … David Planning of Cornerstone … Defend the Vote's Brian Lemek … Gina Foote of FGS Global … Lilia Horder of Monument Advocacy … Amy McGrath … Patrick Martin of Cozen O'Connor … Kellee Lanza-Bolen … Nick Troiano ... Justin Clark … Manisha Sunil of New Heights Communications
TRIVIA
MONDAY'S ANSWER: Timothy Trent correctly answered that 96 percent of the 119th Congress are four-year college graduates.
TODAY'S QUESTION, from Mia: What is the average age of the newly elected House members of the 119th Congress?
The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to [e-mail].