US politics – Congress matters

The Maryland Democrat is in the national spotlight as he advocates for the return of his wrongfully-deported constituent.

President Donald Trump and his allies said the Maryland senator’s visit with the illegally deported Salvadoran native was playing into the administration’s hands.

Republican members of Congress have been allowed to visit the notorious facility.

The senator said this week that she has been “just trying to listen as carefully as I can to what is happening.”

It’s a massive haul for the progressive lawmaker who has been barnstorming the country with Bernie Sanders.

The latest Democrat aiming to unseat Republican Rep. David Valadao isn’t trying to do it from the center. Randy Villegas, a Visalia, California, school board trustee, is hoping economic populism will resonate in a swing district that continues to be a top Democratic target. He also plans to tie Valadao to President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and GOP efforts to slash federal government. Like other Democrats who have embraced an anti-corporate message in the aftermath of the 2024 election, his candidacy will represent a test of progressive messaging in a purple district. “I’m running on an economic populist message,” Villegas said in a phone interview. “I think we need to have candidates who are willing to say that they’re going to stand up against corporate greed, that they are going to stand against corruption in government, and that they are going to stand against billionaires that are controlling the strings right now.” Affiliated with the Working Families Party, Villegas could run to the left in a Democratic primary, though he said he would “hesitate to put any labels on myself.” The majority-Latino 22nd District in California’s San Joaquin Valley has been a top Democratic target the past few cycles, though the 2024 election saw it slide toward President Donald Trump along with many other Latino-heavy districts across the country. Valadao has represented the area in Congress for all but two of the last dozen years, representing the seat since 2021 and holding a previous version of the district from 2013 to 2019. (Valadao was ousted in the 2018 midterms but won his seat back two years later even as Joe Biden carried the district.) He’s touted his centrist creds in the House and is one of only two House Republicans remaining who impeached Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Still, Villegas is trying to hitch him to controversial moves by national Republicans that could result in cuts to federal programs. “The reason that I got to where I was was because of programs like Medicaid, because of programs like free and reduced school lunch and WIC, and now all of those programs are under threat right now because Valadao won’t stand up to Musk, to Trump, to his Republican colleagues,” Villegas said. Raised in Bakersfield, California, he’s also an associate professor of political science at College of the Sequoias. One wrinkle in the race: It’s not clear whether former California state Rep. Rudy Salas, Democrats’ nominee the last two cycles, will run again, though he’s pulled paperwork to run for the seat. Villegas, who noted he’d been an intern for Salas when he was a college student, said he had “all the respect for the work [Salas] did in the California State Assembly, but I think that voters are ready for a new face.”

The Silicon Valley Democrat said the president’s tariff policies are “chaotic” and will hike prices without reestablishing manufacturing jobs.

Congressional Democrats are raising increasingly pointed concerns about potential financial malfeasance by President Donald Trump and his allies surrounding his dramatic recent tariff moves, despite a lack of evidence of wrongdoing. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Friday joined the growing number of Democrats formally calling for investigations zeroing in on the wild swings in the stock market amid Trump’s escalating trade war. It’s one of the central messages the party has coalesced around in the 48 hours since Trump partially reversed his implementation of sweeping trade barriers. Trump on Wednesday morning posted to Truth Social that it was a “GREAT TIME TO BUY” despite the chaos within the financial markets. Hours later, Trump announced he was pausing the most sweeping global tariffs for 90 days, causing a temporary but dramatic stock market rally. Some Democrats quickly questioned whether there was financial gain to be had amid the market whiplash, though no evidence has emerged of insider trading or other wrongdoing, and top party leaders have now followed suit. In the latest salvo, Schumer joined Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Schumer in requesting SEC Chair Paul Atkins to launch an investigation into whether Trump or those around him “engaged in insider trading, market manipulation, or other securities laws violations.” “It is unconscionable that as American families are concerned about their financial security during this economic crisis entirely manufactured by the President, insiders may have actively profited from the market volatility and potentially perpetrated financial fraud on the American public,” the senators said in the letter. The White House accused Democrats of “playing partisan games instead of celebrating President Trump’s decisive action yesterday to finally corner China,” according to a statement from spokesperson Kush Desai provided to media organizations. Trump, he added, was seeking “to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering.” In a separate letter Friday, Schumer, Schiff, Warren and Wyden sent a letter requesting state attorneys general also launch investigations into any potential violations of state laws, including by members of Congress. “We do not make this request lightly. No one — not even a president — is above the law. … Any proven misconduct must be prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent permitted by the laws of your states,” they added. The senators’ actions followed two days of increasingly strident reactions from top House Democrats. “We need to get to the bottom of the possible stock manipulation unfolding before the American people — including what, if any, advance knowledge members of the House Republican Conference had of Trump’s decision to pause the reckless tariffs he put in place,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Thursday. As the minority party in both chambers, there aren’t many options available for Democrats to force an investigation —- they don’t hold committee gavels, and they have limited avenues for getting legislation considered. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she and her colleagues were discussing “several options” including a discharge petition to force a vote on a congressional stock trading ban, though that effort faces an uphill climb after previous attempts to ban congressional stock trading have fizzled out. The disclosure of lawmakers’ stock trades has presented a perennial ethics issue for members of Congress. Any trades that happened around the tariff-induced market swings must be publicly disclosed through congressional ethics authorities by May 15.

A House Republican is suing the federal government for $2.5 million, claiming he was retaliated against by the Capitol Police four years ago for his vocal criticism of the department’s leadership after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. Rep. Troy Nehls’ unusual lawsuit, filed in federal court in his home state of Texas, accuses the Capitol Police of improperly entering his office in November 2021 and taking pictures of a whiteboard that had notes related to legislation. The Capitol Police declined to comment on the lawsuit, but the department has long denied the allegations that leadership targeted Nehls for his criticism. An officer indicated he entered the office during a regular security sweep, according to a department report, because the door was left ajar and took pictures of the notes because he found them concerning. “If a Member’s office is left open and unsecured, without anyone inside the office, USCP officers are directed to document that and secure the office to ensure nobody can wander in and steal or do anything else nefarious,” Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said after Nehls first surfaced his allegations in 2022. “The weekend before Thanksgiving, one of our vigilant officers spotted the Congressman’s door was wide open. That Monday, USCP personnel personally followed up with the Congressman’s staff and determined no investigation or further action of any kind was needed.” But Nehls called the actions part of an attempt to chill his criticism of the department. His lawyer, Terrell Roberts, has represented the family of Ashli Babbitt, a Jan. 6 rioter who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to enter the lobby near the House chamber. A spokesperson for Nehls did not immediately return a request for comment. It’s unclear why Nehls filed the civil claim in Texas rather than Washington, where his office is located and where the alleged breach took place. It’s also unclear why he waited more than three years to file the lawsuit. The Texas congressman, who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, was one of a handful of Republicans initially selected by then-GOP leader Kevin McCarthy to serve on the panel investigating the Capitol riot, then withdrawn by McCarthy after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi vetoed some of his other picks. Nehls continued to criticize the Capitol Police’s handling of the events at the Capitol that day and called for a grand jury investigation of the officer who shot Babbitt. Nehls’ lawsuit accuses the Capitol Police of violating his First and Fourth Amendment rights, as well as the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which protects members of Congress from being questioned by authorities outside the legislative branch. However, the Capitol Police, as Nehls acknowledges, are housed within Congress, so it’s unclear how that clause would be applied. Nehls’ allegations against the Capitol Police sparked an inspector general investigation that concluded in 2022 and undercut Nehls’ claim of nefarious actions by the department. The inspector general recommended the department update its policies on how to handle open office doors in a way that “strikes the proper balance of protecting congressional representatives and their staff from physical outside threats while simultaneously protecting their legislative proposals and work product from possibly inappropriate photography, scrutiny, and questioning by USCP employees.” After the report, the Capitol Police swiped at Nehls for “spreading unfounded conspiracy theories” about its officers’ actions.

President Donald Trump called Friday for Congress to adopt permanent daylight saving time — meaning there would be more daylight in the evening hours and most Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year. He’s weighing in as Congress is also starting to debate the issue, including in a hearing convened Thursday by the Senate Commerce Committee. “The House and Senate should push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day. Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!” Trump said in a Truth Social Post. Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said there’s general consensus that the twice-annual changing of the clocks should end, but there’s disagreement on whether to switch to daylight saving time or standard time. Advocates for permanent daylight saving time, including the golf industry, have argued the extended evening sunlight would reap benefits for recreation and exercise, while advocates for permanent standard time have argued their favored alternative would lead to better sleep. Trump’s endorsement for making daylight saving time the norm — rather than changing clocks twice a year or conforming to standard time, which would mean more daylight in the morning hours and less in the evening — could help settle the debate for lawmakers. While it’s consistent with Trump’s previous positions, he wavered slightly last month, calling it a “50/50 issue” during remarks in the Oval Office. Senators on both sides of the aisle said in Thursday’s hearing they want to be sure that states still have latitude to make the decision between standard and daylight saving time, weighing economic and health trade-offs. For example, Republican Sen. Todd Young warned that his state of Indiana may not reap the same benefits of daylight saving time as states farther east, saying the sun may rise past 9 a.m. in the winter. “Hoosiers would begin their day in darkness for much of winter. … What works for East Coast states, I’m hearing from many of my constituents, may not work for states like Indiana,” Young said. “A one-size-fits-all national policy of time changes doesn’t take into account the regional differences that significantly impact daily life.” Congress came closer than ever to adopting a permanent daylight saving time. The Senate unanimously passed legislation in 2022 from then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to create permanent daylight saving time, without requiring states already on permanent standard time to make the move. The bill’s passage took many lawmakers by surprise, including those who said they would have hurried to the floor to block the request for speedy consideration had they known the measure was coming up for a vote. It later died in the House. With Rubio now Secretary of State, the bill is now being championed by Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott.

House and Senate Republicans finally agreed on the same budget framework to tee up President Donald Trump’s tax, border security and energy agenda. The bigger challenge will be wrangling Republicans to agree on the specifics of sweeping program cuts and policy details needed to fulfill Trump’s pledges. As committee chairs get to work over the two-week Easter recess, here’s a rundown of three of the biggest fights they face: Medicaid — Republicans can no longer avoid figuring out how to slash $880 billion from programs under House Energy and Commerce, an element of the budget that’s poised to lead to Medicaid cuts. Moderates are wary of changes that could lead to benefit reductions, while conservative hard-liners want to make deep cuts to the program. Speaker Mike Johnson and Trump insist they have no plans to trim benefits and are instead looking to tackle what they see as “waste, fraud and abuse.” But that alone won’t be enough to meet the $880 billion target. Johnson acknowledged Thursday that Republicans are looking at “other areas,” without giving any details. Some Medicaid changes being considered: One idea is to reduce the federal share of payments for certain beneficiaries, since it’s a joint state-federal program. Another is to include work requirements, something even Senate Republicans otherwise wary of cutting benefits say they support. Taxes — Both chambers will have plenty to hammer out between extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and enacting his campaign tax promises. Several blue-state moderate Republicans, including Reps. Mike Lawler and Nicole Malliotakis, are pushing to raise a key deduction for state and local taxes. Expect that to run into resistance from House hard-liners. Other Republicans, including Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo and Sen. Josh Hawley, are eyeing an expansion of the Child Tax Credit, something that’s quietly gaining traction in both chambers but that deficit hawks could also oppose. Clean-energy credits — Conservatives want to undo former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. But a growing number of Republicans are fighting to preserve the law’s clean-energy tax credits. Four GOP senators — enough to stop the reconciliation package — wrote to Majority Leader John Thune in defense of the tax credits this week. Sen. Lisa Murkowski told POLITICO that the group is prepared to use its leverage. One possible compromise would be to revamp the credits to reduce their cost. What else we’re watching: — HHS staff briefs E&C: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s HHS staff will brief bipartisan staff from House Energy and Commerce members on his overhaul of the agency today, including sweeping layoffs and a major reorganization. It comes after members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers were surprised by the drastic changes. — Schumer’s upcoming vacancy: Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet is expected to launch a run for Colorado governor today, potentially giving Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer another seat to defend down the line. Ben Leonard, Elena Schneider and Josh Siegel contributed to this report.

House Oversight Chair James Comer wants Democratic Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Kathy Hochul of New York to testify before his committee about their states’ immigration policies. The Kentucky Republican invited the three governors to appear at a May 15 hearing on so-called sanctuary states, which limit law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The letters follow the high-profile hearing last month with the Democratic mayors of Boston, New York, Denver and Chicago, at which Republican lawmakers pressed the officials on their cities’ immigration policies. “Sanctuary jurisdictions and their obstructionist policies hinder the ability of federal law enforcement officers to effectuate safe arrests and remove dangerous criminals from American communities,” Comer wrote in letters to the governors. “This threatens Americans’ safety.” Comer, who has been mulling a 2027 bid for Kentucky governor, has made scrutiny of Democrats’ immigration policies a focus of his Oversight post this Congress. In selecting Hochul, Pritzker and Walz — the former vice presidential nominee — Comer is recruiting a host of high-profile Democrats for what could potentially be a closely watched hearing. Pritzker’s name has been floated for a 2028 presidential bid, and Hochul could face a primary battle during her reelection campaign next year, including, potentially, from her lieutenant governor. Comer is also requesting a trove of documents from the governors on their states’ immigration practices as part of a broader investigation into sanctuary jurisdictions. Hochul has already signaled she is willing to testify: “We just received notification of their interest in my opinion on state laws, which I’m happy to share with them,” she told reporters at an unrelated event Thursday. “I told people like Tom Homan that I will continue doing what our practice has been from beginning, which is to cooperate with ICE when they have a warrant or they have evidence that there’s a person who’s committed a serious crime.” Alex Gough, a spokesperson for Pritzker, said in a statement that the governor’s office was reviewing the request for documents, and Pritzker was considering whether he would testify. “Let’s call this what this is: another partisan dog and pony show,” Gough said. “Governor Walz is happy to work with Congress, but since Minnesota is not a sanctuary state, one can’t help but wonder if this is, perhaps, politically motivated,” Teddy Tschann, a spokesperson for Walz, said in a statement. Shia Kapos contributed to this report.

Speaker Mike Johnson told Republican holdouts on the party’s crucial budget plan in a private meeting Wednesday night that they could oust him from the speakership if he doesn’t follow through with his fiscal promises, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss it. Johnson pledged to abide by the House budget instructions, including a minimum of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, for the domestic policy megabill that Republicans are now able to pursue on party lines after Thursday’s successful vote. The “motion to vacate” the speaker comes up often in the House GOP conference. But the speaker’s comments, the people said, acknowledged that fiscal hawks could trigger a vote on his removal as speaker if doesn’t follow through. Several people in the room chuckled after the remark, they said. But hard-liners are planning to hold him to it. The discussion of his ouster was seen as a concrete expression of how serious he was and displayed his enthusiasm for moving President Donald Trump’s agenda forward, according to one of the people. Some of the fiscal hawks saw it as a “blood oath,” according to another person. A spokesperson for Johnson declined to comment Thursday. A memorandum signed by Johnson and shared with reporters Thursday by Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina said he is “committed to maintaining linkage between provisions that result in a deficit increase … and provisions that reduce federal spending” and would deliver a “fiscally responsible product.” Johnson’s fiscal assurance was one of the key factors that got hard-liners on board with the budget framework, which the House approved on a 216-214 vote, the people said. Some hard-liners on Thursday also cited assurances by Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune in swaying them in support of the plan. Benjamin Guggenheim contributed to this report.

Despite a partial U-turn, Senate Democrats are vowing to move forward and put their GOP colleagues on the record on President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a lead author of a resolution that would overturn the basis for Trump’s global levies announced last week, said in an interview Thursday that Democrats still plan on forcing a vote on the measure. Trump on Wednesday put a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs on Wednesday, though he left in place a lower, 10 percent levy and announced severe retaliatory tariffs on China. “My colleagues are telling me they want to move ahead,” Wyden said Thursday. “It’s the same trade chaos — I don’t know if you’ve seen the [financial market] numbers, but the only thing going up on the index today is volatility.” Multiple Senate Democrats and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) formally introduced the resolution Thursday, and they are expected to force the vote once the Senate returns from a two-week break. Four Republicans previously joined Democrats in a successful Senate vote to nix Trump’s earlier Canada tariffs. Speaker Mike Johnson moved to block a House vote on that measure and has undertaken a similar move to block a future House vote on the global levies.

Senators are wading into the thorny issue of whether to “lock the clock” — that is, end the practice of changing the time twice a year to account for the shifting seasons. At a hearing Thursday, Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz said there was general consensus among his colleagues that Americans should stop changing the clocks by adopting permanent daylight saving time — which makes it light later in the evening and later in the morning — or permanent standard time, which does the opposite. But there isn’t agreement on which standard to embrace. The Senate unanimously passed legislation in 2022 from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to create permanent daylight saving time without requiring states already on permanent standard time to make the move. The bill’s passage at that time took many lawmakers by surprise, including those who said they would have hurried to the floor to block the request for speedy consideration had they known the measure was coming up for a vote. It later died in the House. Scott said Thursday that President Donald Trump is “on board to lock the clock.” In December, Trump expressed support for ending the practice of changing time twice a year, but in March said it’s a “50/50 issue.” He explained in remarks in the Oval Office, “If something is a 50/50 issue, it’s hard to get excited about it. I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don’t want to take their kids to school in the dark.” A White House spokesperson declined to clarify Trump’s stance further. But Commerce Committee members also said they wanted to make sure states have latitude to make their own decisions on whether to use permanent daylight or standard time, weighing economic and health trade-offs. “There are very real and complicated issues and countervailing arguments on both sides,” Cruz said. “There is widespread agreement on locking the clock … but the reason we’re holding these hearings is because these are real arguments and they have real impacts on people.” Lawmakers heard Thursday from advocates on both sides of the issue, including the CEO of the National Golf Course Owner’s Association favoring permanent daylight saving time and a sleep medicine expert backing permanent standard time. Jay Karen, CEO of the NGCO, said that late afternoon golf activities account for a high share of revenue and that permanent daylight saving time would be a boon for outdoor recreation generally, leading to health benefits. Karin Johnson, the sleep medicine doctor and member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s advocacy committee, said permanent daylight saving time would be a “hidden mandate” that would wake Americans earlier and disrupt their circadian rhythms. She also pointed out that previous attempts to make this switch were abandoned. Permanent standard time would also lead to lower rates of depression and better sleep, she argued. Cruz didn’t take a clear stance on whether he sided with permanent daylight saving time or standard time, but he argued that changing the clocks twice a year can indeed disrupt sleep. “This leads to increased risks of health problems, including higher rates of heart attacks, strokes, and even car accidents immediately following the time change,” Cruz said. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) said it’s important lawmakers be “thoughtful” about how time changes work state by state. “What works in my home state of Delaware may not work in Washington state,” Blunt Rochester said. “It’s time to figure this out. People across our country are tired of the constant cycle of falling back and springing forward.”

Republicans are scrambling to shore up the votes in the House to approve the Senate-adopted budget resolution, necessary for being able to draft and pass President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Thursday morning, a little more than an hour before the House was set to reconvene to vote on the measure after leaders were forced to punt Wednesday night, Speaker Mike Johnson appeared alongside Senate Majority Leader John Thune to project unity — and promise they want to reduce the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion in Trump’s package of tax cuts, beefed up border security, energy policies and more.”I’m happy to tell you this morning I believe we have the votes,” Johnson said at the leadership press conference after failing to sway roughly a dozen holdouts just over 12 hours earlier. “Our ambition in the Senate is we are aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined in terms of savings. The speaker has talked about $1.5 trillion we have a lot of United States senators who believe that is a minimum,” Thune said. Johnson also said Republicans are committed to finding $1.5 trillion in savings while protecting “essential programs,” like Medicaid, and “many of us are going to aim much higher” than $1.5 trillion for deficit reduction targets. Now they have to sell that pledge to win over a final band of House holdouts, with the clock ticking fast. As Johnson and Thune expressed confidence they were poised to break the impasse, a group of House conservatives huddled elsewhere to plot their next moves, wanting sure-fire certainty they will get deeper spending cuts in the framework for Trump’s bill than the Senate’s budget resolution would by itself allow. The verbal commitment from the two GOP leaders may not go as far as some holdouts want, as many House hardliners have floated changing the budget resolution to require the Senate to formally commit to a higher level of savings. That would require the budget resolution to be pinged back to the Senate for yet another vote-a-rama — something House and Senate leadership as well as the White House want to avoid. But some holdouts believe the public promise Thursday morning will flip enough votes for the budget resolution to advance today — without changes to the underlying measure — in time to send members home for a two-week recess. And Trump is continuing his public pressure campaign for the House to act with a new social media post that also expressed confidence that members could come up with a deal before leaving for a two-week recess. “Great News! ‘The Big, Beautiful Bill’ is coming along really well,” he wrote. “Republicans are working together nicely. Biggest Tax Cuts in USA History!!! Getting close.”

Democrats are plotting a fresh round of town halls in GOP-held districts to hammer Republicans for scaling back open forums amid backlash to the Trump administration’s cuts. Top of their town-hall target list over the upcoming recess, according to information shared first with POLITICO: the North Carolina district of NRCC Chair Richard Hudson, who told GOP representatives last month to stop holding in-person town halls. The April 24 event in Hudson’s district is one of five “People’s Town Halls” the DNC, DCCC and Association of State Democratic Committees are organizing in vulnerable Republicans’ districts over the two-week recess. The others are slated for the districts of Reps. Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania, Gabe Evans of Colorado and Ann Wagner of Missouri. Democrats expected to participate in the town halls include Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Cory Booker of New Jersey, as well as Reps. Greg Stanton of Arizona, Greg Casar of Texas and Maxwell Frost of Florida. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has encouraged his members to take part. Democrats have held 71 town halls in 35 states over the past three weeks in an effort to harness anger over Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s deep cuts to government agencies and services. They’re also warning of the potential for more cuts to federal jobs and services as part of congressional Republicans’ party-line push to enact the president’s border security, energy and tax agenda. Trump and GOP leaders insist they won’t cut benefits like Medicaid. “While vulnerable Republicans continue to run scared because they’re voting to raise costs, gut Medicaid, and threaten working families livelihoods, we’re going to make sure voters know they don’t have to wait until Election Day to hold them accountable,” DCCC Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) said in a statement.

Donald Trump and Mike Johnson failed to convince enough deficit hawks to back the latest budget plan for the president’s agenda — forcing the speaker to punt his planned Wednesday vote on the resolution and sending House leadership scrambling for a compromise that could satisfy hard-liners’ demands for more spending cuts. Now, the speaker is staring down two potential options to get holdouts to come on board. Plan A: Rules — GOP leaders “tentatively” plan to bring the budget blueprint back to the Rules Committee Thursday morning, Johnson said as he emerged from a meeting late Wednesday. They would tack on an amendment that would guarantee more spending cuts in the party-line package of tax cuts, border security investments, energy policies and more. Rep. Lloyd Smucker has proposed tying the tax cuts to spending cuts — something he said would get him to “yes.” Another option is more straightforward: Language to the budget resolution that would require that a certain level of spending cuts be achieved in a final product that hard-liner holdouts want. “There’s a mutual commitment that we’re going to find real savings in federal spending, because we have to do that,” Johnson said Wednesday night. But that would kick the budget blueprint back to the Senate, which already tweaked this version of the budget once and has also held two all-night vote-a-ramas in less than six weeks. Senate Majority Leader John Thune was deeply unenthusiastic about holding a third: “I think everybody realizes that we’re at the time that we’ve got to move,” he said. Plus, Thune would have to get key senators on board yet again. And many House moderates were privately counting on the Senate’s spending levels to avoid the steep $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion cuts proposed by the House. Johnson is already trying to reassure them. He reiterated Wednesday night that House Republicans would not cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits, even as their framework makes Medicaid cuts likely to meet their massive deficit reduction targets. Plan B: Conference Committee — Heading straight to conference would be a rare and time-consuming process that would require House and Senate leaders and committee chairs to hash out the differences between their chambers’ plans. It’s a last resort, but one that some hard-liners have pushed in recent days to avoid a failed floor vote and force more concessions on spending cuts. Meanwhile, the House also hasn’t played the full Trump card (even after the president Tuesday told House Republicans to “stop grandstanding”). Johnson said he stepped out of a meeting with holdouts Wednesday night to speak with Trump, who’s closely monitoring the situation. “The president is very anxious, as I am, for us to get this done,” Johnson said after a late Wednesday meeting. A note for your calendars: Johnson said it is not his “intention” to leave for the scheduled two-week Easter recess before adopting a budget resolution — though he noted that Passover starts this Saturday and he doesn’t want voting to stray into the holiday. The speaker said “the calendar is not our friend,” but “if we have to come back next week, then we’ll do that.” What else we’re watching: — GOP senators back Biden-era tax credit: Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and John Curtis are leading a letter to their leadership, alongside Sens. Thom Tillis and Jerry Moran, asking that clean-energy tax credits created by the Democrats’ 2022 climate law not be repealed as part of the GOP bill enacting Trump’s agenda. The senators say the credits are essential to the president’s goals of spurring American energy and manufacturing dominance. — Michelle Bowman hearing: Trump’s pick to be the Federal Reserve’s top regulatory official faces Senate Banking this morning to pitch an overhaul of how the Fed supervises banks and argue for a “tailored approach” to regulation that makes it easier for financial institutions to innovate. Her industry-friendly approach broadly echoes the roadmap that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlined this week for easing bank regulations. Katherine Tully-McManus, Jennifer Scholtes and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

The House passed legislation Wednesday that would limit the power of lower court judges to issue orders with broad national implications amid a rash of rulings to halt the Trump administration’s agenda. Members voted 219-213 on the No Rogue Rulings Act, with just one Republican joining Democrats in opposition. It represents House GOP leadership’s latest response to President Donald Trump’s growing anger at the federal judiciary, which has served as the primary obstacle for his administration’s sweeping efforts to transform the government and implement aggressive immigration policies. Trump and his base have increasingly called for the House to impeach judges who have ruled against him. But without the votes to do so, House leadership has been looking for alternatives to placate the right flank of the GOP — including with this bill from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). “In recent years, it has become glaringly obvious that federal judges are overstepping their constitutional bounds,” said Issa on the House floor during debate Tuesday. “This is not a partisan issue. It may be a timely issue for this president, but that does not make it partisan.” Still, the bill is almost certain to fail in the Senate, where Republicans must accrue enough support from their Democratic colleagues to meet the 60-vote threshold. The lack of enthusiasm among House Democrats for this proposal signals it’s highly unlikely Republicans across the Capitol will find necessary bipartisan support. Democrats have argued that the courts acted appropriately to curb the overreach of the Trump administration’s powers, and national injunctions are necessary for the federal judiciary to serve as a check on the executive branch. “Here’s a message: if you don’t like the injunctions, don’t do illegal, unconstitutional stuff,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). “Nationwide injunctions play an essential role in protecting our democracy and holding the political branches accountable.” Trump has also asked the Supreme Court to limit lower courts’ abilities to issue injunctions that broadly block his administration’s actions. His administration’s request is pending before the Court, which could issue a ruling at any time.

Rep. Elise Stefanik said Wednesday she will rejoin the House Republican leadership, albeit at a lower rung, after being forced to abandon her nomination as ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik previously served as GOP conference chair, the No. 4 leadership position, before abandoning the post when Donald Trump tapped her last year as president-elect for the U.N. Her nomination was pulled in late March to help pad the House GOP’s thin majority. Speaker Mike Johnson quickly promised her a role back in leadership, though not in her old position, which Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) now holds. The new post, Stefanik said in a statement, is “Chairwoman of House Republican Leadership” — where she will “lead House Republicans in implementing President Donald Trump’s mandate from the American people for an America First agenda that includes securing our borders, strengthening our national security, growing our economy, and combating the scourge of antisemitism across our country.” The new position will focus on strategy and communications, and she will also serve on the powerful GOP Steering Committee, according to the statement. She compared the role to previous unelected but influential leadership positions, such as the post former Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) recently held as chair of GOP’s Elected Leadership Committee under Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Stefanik also said she will be returning to the Intelligence, Armed Services and Education and Workforce committees, in addition to being appointed to the boards of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. She will keep her seniority on the Intelligence Committee, she said.

House Republicans are making new moves to ensure a slew of clean energy tax credits benefitting red districts and states around the country are preserved in a final party-line package. House Conservative Climate Caucus Chair Mariannette Miller-Meeks met earlier this week with House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) to underscore the importance of leaving intact many of those tax credits created by the Democrats’ 2022 climate law, the Iowa Republican said in an interview. It went “very well,” said Miller-Meeks, adding that she told Smith to “thread the needle” in his approach to evaluating which tax credits to keep and scrap. Anthony Cruz, a spokesperson for Miller-Meeks, said later in a statement that the lawmaker “appreciated Chairman Smith’s time and consideration of these important job-creating credits. “It was a good meeting and he was receptive to our advocacy for these energy credits, which benefit Iowa and are aligned with President Trump’s push for American energy dominance and independence,” Cruz continued. “We know the Chairman has a very difficult needle to thread as we … navigate our Conference’s diverse views. We look forward to continuing our dialogue in the near future.” Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), who has helped lead the charge among House Republicans to protect the credits, said he was pursuing his own meeting with the House’s top tax writer, too. “There’s absolutely more than 21,” he said in an interview of colleagues who want to keep at least parts of the climate law. “Now, it’s worth starting discussing with the committee what thoughts they have and what thoughts we have, and so we’re looking forward to that initial meeting.” Smith’s committee would be responsible for finding massive savings for the package of tax cuts, beefed up border security, energy policy and more. Conservative hard-liners are agitating for spending cuts to be found in gutting Biden-era programs to incentive wind, solar and carbon-reduction business endeavors.CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misspelled Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ name.

House Republicans want to ratify President Donald Trump’s efforts to rename the Gulf of Mexico. Democrats have other ideas. At a House Natural Resources Committee markup Wednesday of legislation from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to formally redesignate the oceanic basin as the “Gulf of America,” Democrats threw out alternative suggestions, forcing Republicans to take amendment votes to name it something else. One amendment would have renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of Ignorance.” Another would have dubbed it the “Gulf of Helene,” after a major hurricane that wreaked havoc off the coast of Florida last year. In a similar vein, Democrats threw out calling it the “Gulf of American Should Rejoin The Paris Accord” — the global emissions reduction pledge from which Trump has on two separate occasions withdrawn the United States. The most dramatic proposal from Democrats was to simply just rename the entire planet after Trump. “Let’s skate to where the puck is going” said the committee’s ranking member, Rep. Jared Huffman of California, noting that Congress should forget about simply renaming one body of water and think bigger. He said his amendment offered an opportunity for Republicans to “show how mindlessly cultish you are.” He offered these thoughts next to an illustration of a golden statue of Trump on horseback. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), the chair of the committee, suggested that that particular amendment was not germane. Huffman did not disagree.

Key GOP holdouts held firm against approval of a budget framework for Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” domestic policy bill even as the president continued working to quell the revolt from House fiscal hawks. Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) said he was “not going to change my vote” and predicted the budget vote would fail if it came to the floor. “The Senate needs to be willing to do what the House was willing to do, which is cut spending,” he said Wednesday morning. Burlison said he had met with White House staff on the issue. Meanwhile, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a vocal leader of the holdout bloc, said in a Wednesday Rules Committee meeting that he would support bringing the budget plan to a final vote but would oppose it on the floor. Roy, who attended a White House meeting with Trump on Tuesday, told his fellow Republicans to “stop making up math.” “Stop lying to the American people that you can just magically put something on a board and say, ‘Oh, it all pays for itself.’ It doesn’t,” he said. “Get an eraser and a pencil, and put it out on paper and come show me — and that message from me goes to the White House, to my Senate Republican colleagues and to the leadership on this side of the aisle. Come show me the math.” Both comments came after Trump on Tuesday night addressed lawmakers and urged them to “stop grandstanding” and “close your eyes and get there.” And on Wednesday morning, he continued to crank up the pressure in a series of social media posts. “It is IMPERATIVE that Republicans in the House pass the Tax Cut Bill, NOW!” he said in one post. Trump’s intense whip effort comes after he failed to move Roy and several other hard-liners in Tuesday’s White House meeting. Throughout his remarks to House Republicans at the annual NRCC dinner Tuesday evening, the president demanded that the fiscal hawks fall in line. “In case there are a couple of Republicans out there [in opposition], you just got to get there,” he said. “It’s a phenomenal bill.” Administration officials are intensely targeting some of the holdouts, continuing to call them to warn that opposing the plan could tank tariff-wary markets further and damage the president’s agenda, according to two people granted anonymity to describe the whip effort. House GOP leaders are planning to try to muscle the budget plan across the floor Wednesday evening. The Rules Committee is now meeting to set up final consideration of the bill while leaders work to flip the opposition and ask Trump to lean on remaining holdouts. Speaker Mike Johnson projected confidence heading onto the floor: “We’ll have the votes today at some point,” he said. Asked if he expected Trump to call the holdouts, he said the president had offered to but “I hope it doesn’t come to that.” Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.

Former Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel is kicking off a bid to challenge North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. The attorney and former Obama administration staffer, who served one term in the House before redistricting made his seat much redder, is getting ready to nationalize the race by hitching Tillis to President Donald Trump. “We got to stand up to Donald Trump and Thom Tillis, over and over, has been the one that has voted for the Trump agenda. He’s been the deciding vote on important confirmation after confirmation,” Nickel said in an interview. He’s the first major Democratic candidate to kick off a bid for what is likely to be one of the few competitive Senate seats this cycle. Nickel has floated a Senate campaign since announcing he wouldn’t run for the House again. He was a member of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition during his House tenure, though he said he eschewed labels as he launched his bid for the Senate. Democrats haven’t held a Senate seat in North Carolina since Kay Hagan lost in 2014, but they are optimistic about their chances this time. Vice President Kamala Harris lost the state in 2024 even as Democrats won the races for governor, attorney general and secretary of state. “North Carolina is trending the right way,” Nickel said. One wrinkle for Nickel is the potential entry of former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper into the race. Democrats have hoped Cooper, who’s been noncommittal on his future plans, would run for Senate. But Nickel sidestepped a question on whether he’d stay in the race if Cooper launched a bid. “I have absolutely nothing but good things to say about former Governor Roy Cooper,” Nickel said. “My focus is Thom Tillis, who is voting over and over with Donald Trump on disastrous policies that are going to harm North Carolina.” A person directly familiar with Cooper’s thinking granted anonymity to speak about private conversations said the governor is still “actively considering the decision to run” and he’ll decide after he completes his Harvard University fellowship later this spring. “Announcements by other potential candidates will not have an impact on his decision,” the person added. Nickel also dodged a question on whether he would support Sen. Chuck Schumer for leader again after intraparty furor for the New York Democrat’s vote to advance a Trump-backed government funding bill last month. “My focus is just winning the Senate race and making sure that we flip this seat from red to blue,” Nickel said. Elena Schneider contributed reporting.

A Democratic group formed to counter Donald Trump’s tax policies is launching a Tax Day-themed ad criticizing the administration and Republican lawmakers over potentially pursuing cuts to Medicaid to fund the president’s agenda. The nonprofit Families Over Billionaires is putting six figures behind the ad that will run on social media and streaming platforms through Tuesday in the DMV market, according to information shared first with POLITICO. “This Tax Day, I want to thank Republicans in Congress for having the guts to slash health care for families, seniors, and our veterans — all to give billionaires like me another tax break,” a man says in the ad as a butler hands him a refund check on a silver platter. Democrats’ latest attack comes as the House is set to vote as soon as today on the framework to advance Trump’s sweeping border security, energy and tax agenda that cleared the Senate last week. House Republicans are looking at major reductions to Medicaid to help fund the party-line push to enact Trump’s priorities — though the president reiterated last week that he would not approve cuts to the program. But Democrats are hammering away at it anyway. Families Over Billionaires has launched a series of ads since its launch in late January targeting vulnerable Republicans over the GOP’s tax plans. The group counts former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), former Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young and the Service Employees International Union among its backers.

President Donald Trump is ratcheting up pressure on House Republicans to get going on a budget vote, with dozens opposing the plan or undecided. But things are looking dicey. After a White House meeting failed to seal the deal, Trump tried one more time at Tuesday evening’s NRCC dinner. It came as House GOP leaders pushed hard to set up Wednesday’s 8:45 a.m. Rules Committee meeting to start advancing the budget resolution. “Close your eyes and get there,” Trump said Tuesday night. “Stop grandstanding.” With Trump bearing down, Speaker Mike Johnson is facing one of the biggest internal revolts so far this year. He has only a couple of days to turn things around before members leave town for a two-week recess and potentially rob Trump of a win as he faces a global backlash over his “Liberation Day” tariffs. While we’ve seen conservatives defy Johnson before, this time deficit hawks across the conference are digging in to get deeper cuts to federal spending. Trump may have made things harder for Johnson on Tuesday. After meeting with holdouts at the White House, Trump declared on Truth Social that he hoped for spending cuts “in excess of $1 Trillion Dollars” — a number that isn’t going to fly with House fiscal hawks looking for more. “I’m right now a no unless I can be convinced that the Senate actually means that they would cut $1.5 or 2 trillion in spending,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) told POLITICO. What else we’re watching: — Amid the tariff turmoil: House Republicans will get their crack at U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer today when he heads before Ways and Means at 10 a.m. GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.) said she’ll press for answers on the progress Trump is making toward cutting deals with other countries. But Trump said Tuesday night that “we don’t necessarily want to make a deal with them.” — Meta under fire: Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former director of global public policy at Facebook, will testify this morning that Meta company executives lied about their involvement with China and willingness to censor on their sites. Meta has pushed back on these claims. Senators are set to press her on Meta’s work to develop a presence in China. — Crypto coming up: House Financial Services and Agriculture are having separate hearings today on crypto legislation that would revamp regulation of digital asset trading. House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) says: “You’ll see us use the next few weeks as a way to listen to stakeholders, get feedback from the administration.” Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

The party has disagreed over tariff policy in the past, but has found common ground lately

Speaker Mike Johnson is projecting confidence about finalizing a GOP budget plan after he and President Donald Trump went to work on a group of Republican holdouts at a White House meeting Tuesday — but they still haven’t locked up the votes. “We had a lot of members whose questions were answered, and I think we’re moving, making great progress right now,” Johnson told reporters as he arrived back in the Capitol. He has about 10 members threatening to vote no, with dozens more undecided. Trump assured meeting attendees that he would follow through with big spending cuts even though the newly finalized Senate instructions go nowhere near the minimum $1.5 trillion in reductions that the House is targeting. Trump made a similar pledge to some Senate Republicans last week. “We have a deficit of trust sometimes between the two chambers, but I think when the White House and the president himself expresses his resolve for this, … we take it in good faith that we’re going to do this together in a collaborative effort and deliver this agenda,” Johnson said. Trump did secure at least one vote: Rep. Ron Estes of Kansas, a Budget Committee deficit hawk, said “I’m a yes” after the meeting. But one key holdout who attended the meeting, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, said he remained opposed. “Why am I voting on a budget based on promises that I don’t believe are going to materialize?” Roy asked, referring to the Senate plan. Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, who didn’t attend the meeting, also said he wanted to see a plan for spending cuts before committing his support: “Details matter,” he said. Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee said much the same: “They got to make some cuts. That’s all they got to do, is make some cuts.” Johnson has to decide soon whether to have the House Rules Committee meet and prep the budget for a floor vote Wednesday. Key panel member Ralph Norman — one of the three hard-liners who could block further progress — said he was undecided Tuesday afternoon. Trump and Johnson will have another chance to make their case later Tuesday, before an NRCC gala dinner where the president is expected to lean on a different group of holdouts: “We all got to go put on our tuxedos, and I think we’ll be moving forward this week,” Johnson said. Ben Jacobs and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

Vice President JD Vance castigated Sen. Mitch McConnell on Tuesday over the former GOP leader’s opposition to a key Pentagon nominee — an unusual swipe at a prominent member of Vance’s own party and his former colleague. Vance lashed out shortly after McConnell cast the only Republican vote against President Donald Trump’s pick of Elbridge Colby to be the Defense Department’s policy chief. “Mitch’s vote today — like so much of the last few years of his career — is one of the great acts of political pettiness I’ve ever seen,” Vance wrote on X. It’s hardly the first time the vice president has criticized McConnell. The two split over a debate on Ukraine aid last year when Vance was still a member of the Senate. McConnell has voted for most of Trump’s nominees but Colby joins a list of notable high-profile defections, particularly in the national security space. In a lengthy statement Tuesday, McConnell argued that Colby’s confirmation would boost the isolationist wing within the Trump administration. “Elbridge Colby’s long public record suggests a willingness to discount the complexity of the challenges facing America, the critical value of our allies and partners and the urgent need to invest in hard power to preserve American primacy,” McConnell said. The Senate confirmed Colby on 54-45 vote. McConnell did not respond when a reporter asked him in the Capitol halls about Vance’s comment Tuesday.