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Politico
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Politico
Members clash over increasing their own security
Presented by Programming note: We'll be off tomorrow but back in your inboxes on Friday. IN TODAY'S EDITION:— Lawmakers debate personal safety resources— Thune's slippery megabill timeline— GOP holds first hearing on Biden's decline Lawmakers confronting a rise in political violence are grappling over whether to use more tax dollars for their own protection, even as Republicans search for deep cuts across the federal government. That question will be tested next week, when the House Legislative Branch appropriations bill funding the operations of Capitol Hill gets marked up, Katherine and Nicholas Wu report. Top congressional Democrats are pushing for more money for both Capitol Police and for a program that provides funding for lawmakers' personal security after the weekend shootings of state lawmakers in Minnesota. Some Republicans are also calling for a funding boost. Only a select few leaders in each chamber have 24/7 security, while rank-and-file members have little day-to-day protection unless they've been deemed to be under an active threat. Some members, like Rep. Tim Burchett, want more widespread coverage. There's one problem: Some lawmakers have been reticent to take advantage of the resources that are already on offer. They can use official office funds to buy security equipment and take advantage of a program providing security upgrades for lawmakers' primary residences. Capitol Police also offer to coordinate some in-district events with state and local police departments. But while more than half of House lawmakers last year participated in the home security program, hundreds of thousands of dollars in security resources were left unspent, with those not enrolled citing either lack of interest or a feeling that the paperwork and approval process was too burdensome, according to two people familiar with the initiative. Others are simply wary of additional safety measures that would restrict their freedom of movement and interactions with the public (not to mention intrude on family life). 'I don't want to have security on me. I'm a very private person. I like to go outside and be by myself,' said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that funds Capitol Police. Even so, the Capitol security budget could grow to new heights. The USCP budget request for fiscal 2026 is $967.8 million — a 22 percent boost over current levels. With lawmakers now calling for even beefier security post-Minnesota, the budget for the relatively small force could soon top $1 billion. GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING. Are you the one who deleted the 'Hilltern Barstool' Instagram account that followed a bunch of House Democrats and Melania Trump? Email us, we have even more questions: ktullymcmanus@ mmccarthy@ lkashinsky@ and crazor@ Follow our live coverage at the Inside Congress blog at THE SKED The House is out. The Senate is in session and will vote to end debate on Rodney Scott's nomination to be commissioner of Customs and Border Protection and on the confirmation of Olivia Trusty to be a member of the FCC at noon. The Senate will vote on Scott's confirmation at 1:45 p.m. — Armed Services will have a hearing on the president's fiscal 2026 budget request for the Defense Department with testimony from Secretary Pete Hegseth at 9:30 a.m. — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will have a news conference on the tax portion of the GOP megabill at 10 a.m. — Judiciary will have a hearing on the 'Biden cover-up' with testimony from former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer at 10:15 a.m. — Foreign Relations will vote on various nominations, including Andrew Puzder to be ambassador to the EU and Howard Brodie to be ambassador to Finland, then have a hearing on the 2025 NATO Summit at 10:30 a.m. — Commerce will have a subcommittee hearing on modernizing America's railroad network with testimony from Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ian Jefferies at 10 a.m. — Energy and Natural Resources will have a hearing on the president's fiscal 2026 budget request for the Energy Department with testimony from Secretary Chris Wright at 10 a.m. — HELP will have a hearing on various nominations, including former Rep. Anthony D'Esposito to be inspector general for the Labor Department and Andrea Lucas to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission member at 10 a.m. — Appropriations will have a subcommittee hearing on the president's fiscal 2026 budget request for the Army, with testimony from Secretary Daniel Driscoll at 10:30 a.m. — Intel will have a closed door hearing at 2:30 p.m. The rest of the week: The Senate and House are out of session and will return Monday. THE LEADERSHIP SUITE Thune's slippery megabill timeline Rank-and-file Republican senators' revolt over GOP leaders' megabill changes is threatening to derail Senate Majority Leader John Thune's goal to pass it next week, Benjamin Guggenheim and Jordain Carney report. Even as the White House pushes to get the bill to Trump's desk by Independence Day, Vice President JD Vance told Senate Republicans Tuesday the ultimate deadline to get it to Trump's desk is the August recess. If all goes well, Republicans would quickly wrap up parliamentarian work this week and have a draft of the full bill by Monday. GOP senators and aides are tentatively preparing for an initial procedural vote next Wednesday or Thursday, which would set up final passage that weekend. But that depends on leaders striking deals on key policy disputes; Sen. Ron Johnson predicted if the bill is brought to the floor next week in its current state, 'it will fail.' Chief among the disputes: Hospital executives are joining 'Medicaid moderates' in digging in against Senate Finance's proposed overhaul of the health care program, even as Trump dispatched Vance and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz to the Hill Tuesday to allay senators' concerns. Oz argued that lowering the cap on state provider taxes — which the House wants to freeze and the Senate wants to reduce to 3.5 percent from 6 percent — won't 'influence the ability of hospitals to stay viable.' Thune backed him up, casting the Senate's proposed Medicaid changes as 'important reforms.' But Sen. Josh Hawley, who's alarmed about the potential impact to rural hospitals, isn't backing down. He spoke with Trump about the Medicaid changes Tuesday and skipped GOP senators' lunch with Vance and Oz, dismissing the latter as 'not a decision-maker.' Vance met Monday with another senator with Medicaid concerns, Susan Collins, though they both declined to share details of the chat. Another problem for Thune: Several GOP senators are seeking to further soften Finance's proposed rollback of clean energy credits, aiming to give more time for hydrogen and solar power to qualify for the federal incentives in Democrats' 2022 climate law, our Josh Siegel and Kelsey Tamborrino report. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, Jim Justice and Bill Cassidy expressed surprise Tuesday about the committee's harsh treatment of the hydrogen credit. Johnson confronts dueling Iran resolutions Dueling bipartisan resolutions over the worsening Israel-Iran conflict are giving Speaker Mike Johnson some wiggle room on a politically thorny issue. Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna introduced a privileged war powers resolution that would block U.S. involvement in the conflict between Israel and Iran. But Reps. Brad Sherman and Claudia Tenney introduced a competing resolution Tuesday that would reaffirm U.S. support for Israel's strikes. Sherman and Tenney's resolution gives Johnson an alternative to Khanna and Massie's attempt to force a vote on Trump's war powers. Republican leaders could also move to short-circuit Khanna and Massie's effort in House Rules, as they did with Democratic efforts to reverse Trump's global tariffs. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Tim Kaine is looking to force a floor vote on his own privileged resolution barring U.S. involvement in Iran as soon as June 25, he told our Joe Gould. Asked Tuesday whether he supports it, Schumer hedged: 'I believe Congress and Senate Democrats, if necessary, will not hesitate to exercise our authority.' But Sen. John Fetterman, a staunch Israel supporter, said he'd oppose it outright. Kaine is still looking for Republican support. One prospect, Sen. Rand Paul, was noncommittal Tuesday. Hawley, a non-interventionist who discussed the conflict with Trump on Tuesday, said he won't back Kaine's resolution because 'I don't think the president needs pre-clearance to do one-off military strikes.' POLICY RUNDOWN FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: PAYGO FLY A KITE — Democrats in both chambers have issued warnings about automatic cuts to Medicare as part of their messaging fight against Republicans' 'big, beautiful bill.' Now Senate Republicans are pushing back. A new letter from CBO Director Phillip Swagel sent Tuesday in response to questions from Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham casts doubts on whether the megabill would actually trigger 'sequestration' under the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act. 'Since enactment in 2010, sequestration has not been triggered under S-PAYGO,' Swagel wrote in the letter obtained by POLITICO. S-PAYGO was meant to impose budget discipline, but Congress has never let cuts under the law go into effect — usually by using creative math to exclude the deficit effects from the 'scorecard' or simply acting to exclude or delay the effects. Neither the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (passed by Republicans) nor 2021 American Rescue Plan (passed by Democrats) resulted in automatic cuts despite large increases in the federal deficit. CRYPTO HEADS TO THE HOUSE — The Senate passed landmark cryptocurrency legislation in a bipartisan vote Tuesday after months of negotiations, delivering a major win for Trump and industry lobbyists, our Jasper Goodman reports. But the bill that would establish the first U.S. regulatory framework for stablecoins faces an uncertain fate in the House, where Republicans are weighing changes and considering packaging it with a broader measure to divvy up regulation of digital assets between market regulators. That could be more difficult to advance in the Senate due to its complexity. Democrats who battled the stablecoin bill in the Senate aren't dropping their resistance. They believe the legislation doesn't do enough to safeguard national security, protect consumers or crack down on Trump and his family's conflicts of interest with the industry. Sen. Elizabeth Warren told Lisa it's 'likely there will be significant changes' in the House so 'this is just step one in a long process.' SENATORS DIG IN ON RESCISSIONS — Republicans will hold a hearing next Wednesday on the White House's rescissions package, our Jennifer Scholtes reports. Collins, the Senate's top appropriator, told Jennifer she wants 'an in-depth hearing so that everybody knows exactly what is proposed and what the justification is.' OMB Director Russ Vought will testify, our Sophia Cai reports. The package — which asks Congress to rescind over $9 billion in previously appropriated money — narrowly passed the House last week. But senators have raised concerns about clawing back money for public media and specific foreign aid programs such as PEPFAR (a core issue for Collins). Sen. Mike Rounds told Calen Tuesday he wants to 'handle the public radio issues on our Native American reservations' and 'see what we can do to retain PEPFAR.' Sen. Dan Sullivan said he's considering an amendment 'that could help very rural stations without funding the left-wing NPR content.' Collins is deferring to GOP leadership on a markup. Congress has until July 18 to act on the rescissions request or the appropriated money goes out the door. REPUBLICANS PROBE BIDEN 'COVER-UP' — Congressional Republicans will hold their first hearing today on President Joe Biden's mental decline, our Hailey Fuchs writes in. No Biden associates will appear before the panel co-chaired by Sens. Eric Schmitt and John Cornyn. Instead, the hearing will include testimony from former Trump administration officials — including former press secretary Sean Spicer, who was there during the chaotic launch of Trump's first administration, and former deputy assistant to the president Theo Wold. The committee's top Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin, plans to give an opening statement and immediately leave the hearing, a spokesperson said. Sens. Adam Schiff and Peter Welch told Calen Tuesday that they'd follow Durbin's lead. THE MEGABILL'S SURPRISING DYNAMIC SCORE — The House-passed GOP megabill would add $2.8 trillion to the U.S. deficit over a decade when considering economic effects, the Congressional Budget Office estimated on Tuesday, Jennifer reports. That's a surprise: Usually the 'dynamic' score for tax-cutting bills shows a lower fiscal impact due to the resulting growth. But this score came in higher than the $2.4 trillion increase the nonpartisan scorekeeper found in its prior analysis, thanks to higher interest rates spiking debt service costs. Needless to say, this is complicating GOP efforts to play down the costs of the bill. FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: DEM AGS ON THE HILL — Four Democratic attorneys general will testify to congressional Democrats on Monday about their litigation against the Trump administration in a so-called shadow hearing, Hailey writes in. It's the latest effort to elevate the party's efforts to thwart Trump's agenda in Washington, as the Democratic base demands a more aggressive confrontation with the White House. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Andrea Campbell of Massachusetts, Kwame Raoul of Illinois and Matthew J. Platkin of New Jersey will testify. Ellison is expected to speak about the political violence in his state after the shooting of two Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses. Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E: THE BEST OF THE REST Democrats Preview a New Attack: Trump's Pardons Are Majorly Expensive, from Riley Rogerson at NOTUS 'A Direct Attack on Women': Lawmakers Demand Labor Secretary Preserve the Women's Bureau, from Julianne McShane at Mother Jones CAPITOL HILL INFLUENCE Michael Marn is now a senior manager for federal affairs at the Computer and Communications Industry Association. He was previously a legislative assistant to Sen. Marsha Blackburn and a policy analyst for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. SPOTTED — Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman was in the Senate basement on Wednesday, Hailey writes in. The billionaire and GOP megadonor was a confidant to Trump during his first term and supported his 2024 presidential bid — after condemning the Capitol riot and calling for a peaceful transfer of power in 2021. GOP GROUP DEFENDS IRA INCENTIVES — Built for America is pouring another $1.5 million into ads urging six Republican senators — Todd Young, Dave McCormick, Thom Tillis, Jerry Moran, John Cornyn and Finance Chair Mike Crapo — to preserve green credits under Democrats' 2022 climate law, POLITICO influence reports. The ads build on the group's initial $2 million buy targeting the president and his inner circle over Republicans' push to gut the incentives. JOB BOARD Lexi Hamel has been promoted to senior adviser for Rep. Mike Simpson. She continues as his comms director. Grace Evans has been promoted to be comms director for Sen. Katie Britt. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Reps. Andy Ogles, Jenn Kiggans and Paul Tonko … former Rep. Jerry McNerney … former Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Mike Johanns … David Drucker … CNN's DJ Judd … Robert O'Brien … Axios' Nick Johnston … House's Kate Knudson … Will Kinzel … Narric Rome … Daniel Epstein … POLITICO's Isabel Delgado and Amber Ebersohl … Hattie Hobart of Nature Is Nonpartisan … Dina Powell McCormick … SKDK's Ajashu Thomas TRIVIA TUESDAY'S ANSWER: Joe Bookman correctly answered that John F. Kennedy was the first presidential candidate to appear on late night television when he joined Jack Paar's Tonight show. TODAY'S QUESTION, from Mia: This past Sunday was Father's Day. Name the former member of Congress who is the only person to have been both the son and the father of a U.S. president. The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@
Politico
2 days ago
- Business
- Politico
Crapo to answer big megabill questions
Presented by IN TODAY'S EDITION:— Senate Finance to release 'big, beautiful bill' changes— Scoop: Hospitals back megabill Medicaid plan — Senators to get post-Minnesota security briefing Senate Finance is expected to reveal at least some of its tweaks to the House-passed 'big, beautiful bill' today, but the panel's text will likely include placeholders for key Medicaid and tax provisions as negotiations continue. Chair Mike Crapo will brief Senate Republicans on his proposals around 6 p.m., three people granted anonymity to share the unannounced plans told Jordain. Expect the state-and-local-tax deduction to be one of the TBDs as GOP senators continue to hash out how much they want to roll back the House's $40,000 SALT cap. Senate Majority Leader John Thune teased a 'compromise position' on SALT in a pre-taped Fox News Sunday interview. He said there 'isn't a high level of interest' among senators to follow the House in quadrupling the $10,000 limit that's in law today. Thune insisted that President Donald Trump's tax priorities — no taxes on tips and overtime — will be 'incorporated' in the Senate's version of the megabill, despite Senate Republicans' desire to trim them in favor of making business tax incentives permanent. A person granted anonymity to discuss the negotiations tells Jordain that Senate Republicans still plan to make those business tax provisions permanent — a win for Thune, Crapo and other Finance members. With the Senate out Thursday and Friday, this shortened week will be key for sending the bill to Trump's desk by July 4. The Senate parliamentarian will have bipartisan discussions with committees, and staffers anticipate she will start issuing rulings now that nearly every committee has released text. A few other megabill developments: — Trump and Rand Paul talk it out: Paul told NBC News that the two spoke Saturday, after Trump spent weeks attacking the Kentucky Republican for signaling he'd vote against the bill. Paul, who has objected to the bill's debt-ceiling increase, said he told Trump he's 'not an absolute no' and that the two are 'trying to get to a better place in our conversations.' But he also indicated that Republicans are spending little energy in really trying to win him over. — What Mark Meadows is doing behind the scenes: The former House Freedom Caucus chair and one-time Trump chief of staff is operating as a sounding board for conservatives as they try to hang onto some of their biggest priorities in the megabill, Jordain and Meredith Lee Hill report. Meadows huddled with House and Senate hard-liners last week, and is in regular contact with House Freedom Caucus members. 'Mark is trying to help get a deal done,' Sen. Rick Scott said. GOOD MONDAY MORNING. Email your Inside Congress scribes at lkashinsky@ mmccarthy@ jcarney@ bguggenheim@ and crazor@ Follow our live coverage at the Inside Congress blog at THE SKED The House is out. The Senate is in session and voting to end debate on Gary Andres' nomination to be an assistant secretary of HHS at 5:30 p.m. — Intel will have a closed briefing at 4 p.m. — Senate Republican and Democratic leadership will hold private meetings shortly before evening votes. — Crapo will brief the Senate Republican Conference on the Finance portion of the megabill after votes around 6 p.m. The rest of the week: The Senate, which is in through Wednesday, will take up stablecoin legislation and work through Trump's nominations, including Olivia Trusty to be a member of the FCC. The House is out all week and will return next Monday. THE LEADERSHIP SUITE Senate leaders to convene security briefing after Minnesota shooting Senators will receive a classified security briefing Tuesday morning from the chamber's sergeant at arms and the Capitol Police, Jordain scooped, after a Saturday shooting killed and injured Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses. The suspected shooter, Vance Boelter, was arrested late Sunday, per The Associated Press. The internal announcement Sunday from Thune about the bipartisan briefing came after GOP senators and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer requested one. Schumer said he also obtained extra security for Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, as well as Sen. Alex Padilla after the California Democrat was forcibly removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's Los Angeles press conference last week. 'We have to reevaluate how we are protecting members of Congress and staff in the face of rising threats,' Schumer said Sunday. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Saturday he also asked the Capitol Police and the House sergeant at arms to ensure members' safety. The rise in political violence is rattling members on both sides of the aisle, many of whom have experienced threats. Speaker Mike Johnson called the Minnesota incident 'horrific' and urged lawmakers to 'unequivocally condemn it' in a post on X. Exactly eight years ago to the day of Saturday's shooting, Majority Leader Steve Scalise was shot and wounded during a congressional baseball practice in Virginia. POLICY RUNDOWN FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: HOSPITALS GIVE GOP GREEN LIGHT ON MEDICAID CHANGES — Senate GOP leaders are getting some outside help as they try to find a landing spot on the megabill's Medicaid revamp and the provider tax, which several states use to help fund their Medicaid programs. Hospital associations from 13 states sent a letter to Thune and Crapo, a copy of which was obtained by Jordain, urging them to 'move forward with the carefully negotiated Medicaid provider tax-related and Medicaid directed payment program provisions in the House-passed budget reconciliation bill.' The states represented in the letter include several with red-state senators like Jim Justice and Shelley Moore Capito from West Virginia, Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt from Missouri and Thom Tillis from North Carolina. (Maine, where Sen. Susan Collins has raised concerns about rural hospitals and the impact of a provider tax freeze, is not represented on the letter.) The call to hold the line on the House language comes as some Senate conservatives have floated going further and rolling back the provider tax, something that would likely cause heartburn with both House and Senate moderates and rural-state lawmakers. But the hospital associations warned that 'additional changes to seek further cuts through these Medicaid provider tax-related provisions would jeopardize the fragile balance that has been struck and threaten the healthcare safety net in our communities.' GOP SCRUTINIZES TRUMP'S HOUSING MOVES — GOP lawmakers and the mortgage industry are questioning the Trump administration's plans to maintain government control over much of the nation's housing finance system, defying expectations that it would back off, our Katy O'Donnell reports. Trump surprised the industry late last month by pledging to take public Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled companies that stand behind half the $16 trillion residential mortgage market, while preserving an implicit federal guarantee for their solvency. It's causing a rift among Republicans, including among some administration aides who have long worked to reduce the government's footprint in the housing market. 'I want to get [Fannie and Freddie] out of conservatorship,' said Sen. Mike Rounds, chair of the Senate Banking subcommittee with oversight of the mortgage giants. 'But I want to be very careful about how we do it, because we need the secondary [mortgage] market, and we need it to work.' Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E: CAMPAIGN STOP FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: NEW CANDIDATE IN MI-10 — Tripp Adams, an Army and Navy veteran who's served as CEO of a health tech startup, is joining the crowded Democratic field in Michigan's 10th District as GOP Rep. John James runs for governor. Democrats are making the district one of their top targets to flip in 2026; it includes parts of Macomb and Oakland counties and is among the more competitive in the state. Adams is looking to lean on his service record to differentiate himself from the pack, billing himself in a statement as part of a 'new generation of patriotic leadership.' It's part of a growing trend of Democrats looking to play up their military backgrounds as the party tries to separate patriotism from MAGA. TUNNEL TALK OUT AND ABOUT — Schumer was seen having dinner with former Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio. The dinner comes as some Democrats hope he will consider another Senate bid, as P laybook noted this weekend. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Sen. Ruben Gallego and his wife, Sydney Gallego, welcomed a son, Cooper. THE BEST OF THE REST $75 billion firm wins carve-out in tax bill after lobbying push, from Jeff Stein and Clara Ence Morse at The Washington Post Lisa Murkowski Says 'It's Dangerous for Us in the Legislative Branch', from Lulu Garcia-Navarro at The New York Times Padilla handcuffing raises the stakes for Democrats confronting administration, by Rebecca Beitsch at The Hill CAPITOL HILL INFLUENCE NEW IRA TAX CREDIT LOBBYING — Energizer Holdings has brought on Washington Council Ernst & Young to help salvage an Inflation Reduction Act incentive for advanced manufacturing of products like batteries and battery components, POLITICO Influence reports. Tommy Brown, who worked in Treasury's legislative affairs office during the Biden administration, will work on the account with Bob Schellhas, Evan Giesemann and Ryan Abraham, who was the Democratic tax counsel on Senate Finance during negotiations on the 2017 GOP tax bill, according to a disclosure filing. JOB BOARD Graeme Crews will be senior director of media and public relations at Brady United. He previously was comms director for Rep. Judy Chu and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Valeria Ojeda-Avita will be chief communications officer for BOLD PAC. She previously was deputy chief of staff, senior adviser and comms director for Rep. Gabe Vasquez. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rep. Jason Smith … former Rep. Robert Hurt … Don McGahn … Phil Singer of Marathon Strategies … Liz Bourgeois … NPR's Steve Inskeep … POLITICO's Zack Stanton, Madison Fernandez, Sophie Gardner … Cook Political Report's Jessica Taylor … Matt Gruda … Mark Tapscott … Colin Diersing … Rocky Deal … Reid Wilson … Phil Cox of GP3 Partners and P2 Public Affairs … Jared Kamrass of Technicolor Political … Jim Kim of the American Cleaning Institute … Ryan Yeager … Jared Kamrass of Technicolor Political TRIVIA FRIDAY'S ANSWER: Noah Rubin correctly answered that Chris Collins was the former House lawmaker whose insider trading indictment included video footage of the White House Congressional Picnic. TODAY'S QUESTION, from Noah: In honor of Flag Day this past weekend, which president designated June 14 as Flag Day and in what year did they do so? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@
