US politics – Congress matters

The specter of another rescissions package isn’t being met with uniform enthusiasm among Hill GOP.

The president’s budget director said Trump is likely to send more cutbacks requests to Congress “soon.”

House Republicans on the Rules Committee voted down a Democratic amendment Thursday night to advance a bipartisan bill calling for the release of documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, and instead unveiled their own non-binding resolution on the matter that won’t receive an immediate floor vote. The House GOP conference is under rising pressure from constituents to provide more transparency around the Epstein matter. Republicans devised this measure as a way to respond to this pressure, as well as Democratic attacks over the Epstein case — while also breaking an impasse over advancing Trump’s $9 billion rescissions package before a Friday deadline. Republicans on the Rules Committee plan to report out two rules Thursday night. The first will advance the rescissions package and, once it’s approved on the House floor, it will effectively clear the package for final passage without requiring a second vote. The second rule will include the non-binding resolution calling for the release of documents related to Epstein, the late-disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, which Republicans say protects victim privacy since it would not compel the immediate unsealing of the materials. That second rule will not get a vote on the House floor Thursday night. As the Rules Committee was meeting, Trump posted on Truth Social that he has asked Attorney General Pam Bondi “to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.” Democrats continue to press for a vote on the bipartisan resolution from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) that would make the materials public.

House Republicans are closing in on a measure to provide an outlet for the Jeffrey Epstein-related furor unfolding on Capitol Hill. On Thursday, Rules Committee Rep. Ralph Norman was the lone Republican on the panel who supported a Democratic amendment calling for the release of information around the case of Epstein, a sex predator. The matter has sparked an outcry from some Republicans’ constituents who want to see more action from the Trump administration and Congress. Norman, leaving a several hours-long huddle with Speaker Mike Johnson and other Rules panel Republicans Thursday afternoon, suggested the group was closing in on a solution. He said the Rules Committee “will be meeting” Thursday evening. Johnson and Republicans are trying to forge a likely nonbinding resolution on the matter that could help fend off Democratic attacks that the GOP is showing a lack of transparency on the case. The House Rules Committee needs to meet tonight or Friday morning in order for the chamber to clear the $9 billion rescissions package. But they’re also planning to force another Epstein-related vote during the meeting — putting Republicans in a very difficult spot. House Democrats are reveling in the pressure they’re turning up on Republicans over the case. “The fact that they’re taking this long to come up with language to affirm they don’t cover up for pedophiles tells you everything you need to know about what’s going on here,” said one senior Democratic aide. Asked about the effort on the resolution, Johnson said: “House Republicans are for transparency, and they’re looking for a way to say that.”

Former Rep. Bill Clay Sr. (D-Mo.), one of the 13 founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus and an icon in Missouri’s civil rights movement, died this week, the CBC said. “Congressman Clay helped build the CBC into a force for equity and accountability in American Democracy,” caucus Chair Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) said Thursday in a press statement. “As a member of Congress, he was a fierce defender of labor rights, education and social justice.” Clay was 94. Clay became Missouri’s first Black congressman when St. Louis voters elected him in 1968. He entered the House alongside two other Black lawmakers, former Reps. Louis Stokes (D-Ohio) and Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) The trio helped launch the Congressional Black Caucus several years later in 1971. Clay spent his entire 32-year career in the House serving on the Education and Labor Committee, where he championed efforts to reform the Hatch Act and promoted the Family and Medical Leave Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993. When Clay left public office, he was succeeded by his son, William Lacy Clay Jr., who served in Congress until 2021. “His work laid the foundation for future generations of Black leadership in public service,” Clarke wrote. “May he rest in power and everlasting peace.”CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated New York Rep. Yvette Clarke’s state affiliation.

A discharge effort from Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna could put members on the spot as soon as next week.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis defended his decision to back Emil Bove for the 3rd Circuit judgeship while Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat, shouted over proceedings.

Turns out President Donald Trump didn’t have the magic touch House Republicans were expecting. Another day of crypto drama has now put the House in a severe time crunch, setting members up for a mammoth day of voting Thursday. To recap: Speaker Mike Johnson headed into Wednesday confident that Trump had struck a deal with conservative holdouts to move a trio of cryptocurrency bills. But that quickly evaporated after committee chairs pushed back at hard-liners’ demands to attach a central bank digital currency ban to another bipartisan crypto bill. The impasse kept the House rule vote open for nine hours until GOP leaders finally cut a late-night deal to include a CBDC ban in the National Defense Authorization Act. The crypto crash-out now leaves the House with a lot to do in very little time: The three crypto bills, the Defense appropriations bill and a rescissions package were all scheduled to get a vote this week. House Republican leaders wanted to punt the Defense bill to next week — but an irate Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) insisted they finish up this week. The House stayed in extra late Wednesday night for general debate and en bloc amendments. “He is just mad — I don’t blame him,” one House Republican told POLITICO about Cole, who has his eye on the 11 unpassed fiscal 2026 spending bills and the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline. Which brings us to Thursday: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told POLITICO the House will begin debating individual Defense amendments Thursday morning before finishing up that bill and moving on to the three cryptocurrency bills. But the real must-do is rescissions. The Senate finally passed a modified package around 2:30 a.m. Now the House needs to reconvene the Rules Committee, approve yet another rule on the floor and then vote on sending the $9 billion clawbacks package to Trump’s desk. That’s a lot to cram into less than two days, especially with the rescissions deadline looming Friday night. If they get too close to the deadline, it’s possible Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — fresh off of an eight-hour “magic minute” speech two weeks ago — could try to blow past it. If something’s got to give, watch to see whether all three cryptocurrency bills end up getting a vote this week as planned. One possibility under discussion is passing only the Senate-approved stablecoin bill, which Trump wants to sign as soon as possible, and punting the other votes. He called into a meeting with holdouts and key committee leaders late Wednesday after they struck a new deal — for real this time. “He’s happy with it,” a person in the room told POLITICO of the outcome. What else we’re watching: — Senate Approps resumes: Senate Appropriations will resume its markup of the Commerce-Justice-Science funding bill Thursday morning after a fight over the future location of FBI headquarters derailed last week’s proceedings. — Bove, Pirro get a committee vote: It appears all but certain Senate Judiciary will have the votes to favorably advance Emil Bove’s nomination Thursday morning, but the panel’s Democrats are still expected to put up a big fight against Trump’s pick to serve as a judge to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Also up for a committee vote is Jeanine Pirro, Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. Attorney for D.C. — Epstein files fallout: GOP leaders are keeping their distance as MAGA outrage grows over the releasing of files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Johnson said he was “misquoted and misrepresented” in reports that he was breaking with Trump over whether to release the files. Senate Majority Leader John Thune dodged again Wednesday, telling reporters: “I’m not at this point taking a position on it. I just think it’s going to be a question that’s left to others to decide.” Meredith Lee Hill, Jennifer Scholtes and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.

The House late Wednesday advanced a trio of cryptocurrency bills and a 2026 Defense spending measure after a group of GOP hard-liners dropped their opposition to the effort following a chaotic day of turnabouts and negotiations with Republican leaders. The House voted 217-212 to advance the bills following a closed-door standoff between House conservatives and the leaders of the Financial Services and Agriculture committees, which crafted the legislation. The vote was held open more than nine hours for the negotiations. GOP hard-liners, who tanked a procedural vote on the bills Tuesday afternoon, were pushing to merge a sweeping crypto market structure bill known as the CLARITY Act with separate, partisan legislation to ban a central bank digital currency. The GOP chairs of the Financial Services and Agriculture panels, Reps. French Hill (R-Ark.) and G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.), opposed that plan, fearing it would kill off Democratic support for the market structure bill. The Republican rebels dropped their opposition after GOP leaders said they would attach a measure banning a CBDC — a government-issued digital dollar that conservatives say would open the door to privacy invasions — to a must-pass defense authorization bill. The deal came following a late-night meeting in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office. Trump called in at the very end and was briefed on the agreement, according to two people in the room granted anonymity to describe a private discussion. “He’s happy with it,” one of the people said. “This breaks the logjam, allows us to get our work done,” Johnson afterward. The Louisiana Republican spoke to Senate Majority Leader John Thune Wednesday about adding the CBDC ban to the NDAA, according to two other people granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation. The procedural vote tees the House up to adopt the crypto bills in the coming days. Johnson said he expects to vote on a Senate-approved measure that would create new rules for so-called stablecoins on Thursday. A vote on the CLARITY bill could be pushed to next week. The stablecoin legislation, known as the GENIUS Act, would go to President Donald Trump’s desk and become the first major crypto bill ever passed by Congress, delivering a major lobbying victory to crypto firms. The procedural vote also will allow the House to move swiftly on an amended package of spending clawbacks requested by Trump. As House Republicans struggled over crypto issues Wednesday, senators were grinding through votes in hopes of approving the rescissions package ahead of a Friday deadline.

White House officials have discussed potential candidates who could replace Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) if she elects not to run again in 2026, according to a person familiar with the conversation granted anonymity to speak about political strategy. Though there is no discussion of pushing a primary on the 72-year old, President Donald Trump would love to see a “better option,” in place of one of his most persistent GOP critics, the person said. Though she hasn’t formally launched a campaign, the Senate Appropriations chair confirmed Tuesday she is planning to run again and was “pleased” with the strong fundraising she reported last week. Collins’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The person declined to say who Trump might like to see run if Collins retires when her fifth term ends. Collins — chair of the historically powerful Appropriations Committee — is one of a handful of lawmakers Democrats hope to knock out to retake the majority. Flipping Maine, which then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried in 2024, would be much easier for Democrats if Collins decided not to run. Collins, a moderate Republican, has faced an uphill battle in the Senate this month, with GOP leaders pushing through Trump’s megabill, while snubbing some of her safety-net cutback concerns. In addition this week, Republicans are pushing through a Trump clawback effort of $9 billion in spending Collins helped approve.

Sen. Tina Smith has been admitted to the hospital after becoming ill Wednesday and won’t be available to help Democrats during crucial votes on the rescission package. Smith will stay overnight for observation, her office said. “While at work at the Capitol today, Sen. Smith started to not feel well. She went to the Capitol physician who recommended she undergo more thorough examination at GW hospital,” the statement read. “Out of an abundance of caution, they are keeping her overnight for observation. She expects to be back at work very soon.” The Minnesota Democrat will be unable to help Democrats as they seek to make changes to the $9 billion package of funding clawbacks in a “vote-a-rama” amendment series. Democrats have failed in their efforts thus far to block pieces of the proposed $1.1 billion in cuts to public media and $8.3 billion in cuts to foreign aid. Some Republicans have backed proposed amendments from Democrats, but not enough to overcome the Republican majority thus far. Smith’s absence means that, barring any other absences, Republicans will not need to rely on Vice President JD Vance to cast a tie-breaking vote on any amendments this evening. Vance traveled to Pennsylvania earlier on Wednesday and is scheduled to return to Washington this evening.

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan is in touch with the White House about bringing his sweeping immigration overhaul bill up for a vote — in exactly the same form as in the previous Congress. In an interview this week, the Ohio Republican said he wants to revive consideration of legislation that passed the House in May 2023 without any Democratic votes. “What I’d like to do in our committee, and we’re talking to the White House about when it makes sense to do this, is look at … the language that we had last Congress,” said Jordan. Jordan had previously signaled an openness to tweaking the bill text to include some changes to high-skilled visa rules — a policy change championed by Elon Musk, tech mogul and former head of the Department of Department Efficiency initiative. Since that time, however, Musk left his administration posting on bad terms with Donald Trump over for the GOP’s sweeping domestic policy package, railing against the megabill and burning bridges with the president along the way. And while Musk and Jordan had at one point been close allies, Jordan was recently one of the several high-profile Republicans who Musk unfollowed on his social media platform, X, following passage of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Jordan’s immigration overhaul bill would significantly crack down on legal immigration in the United States through limits on asylum and parole eligibility. It also would require employers to use E-Verify, an online system where they can ascertain an individual’s eligibility to work in the U.S., while setting a new minimum of 22,000 active-duty agents for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. A 2023 report from the Congressional Budget Office found that the bill would lower population estimates by 2033 by 600,000 “mostly by reducing the number of unaccompanied alien children present in the country.” The nonpartisan scorekeeper also estimated that 4.4 million people would also no longer be eligible for parole or asylum. It would come on the heels of the megabill’s allocations of tens of billions of dollars for completing the border wall and implementing new fees for applicants seeking entry into the country.

Senate Republicans batted down Democratic attempts on Wednesday to shrink the $9 billion package of funding clawbacks the chamber is expected to pass after a “vote-a-rama” amendment spree. Democrats are seeking to knock out pieces of President Donald Trump’s request to cancel $8.3 billion in foreign aid, along with $1.1 billion from public broadcasting. But they failed in their initial attempts Wednesday at protecting funding for international disaster relief and public broadcasting that supports public safety. In a 50-49 vote, the chamber rejected an amendment from Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) that would retain $496 million in international disaster relief Trump wants Congress to slash in the rescissions package. GOP Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine voted with Democrats in favor of the amendment. Those Republicans also voted earlier in the week against debating the package and knocked the White House for not providing lawmakers with account-by-account totals for what will be cut if Congress clears the bill before the Friday night deadline. Global disaster aid doesn’t just “save lives in countries around the world,” Coons argued. “It strengthens our standing, brings us closer to our allies and helps us compete with China.” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), who is leading the Senate GOP effort to pass the package, argued that “many foreign governments and U.N. agencies have become reliant on U.S. emergency funding, using it to avoid investing in their own disaster preparedness.” The Senate also voted 51-48 to reject an attempt from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) to send the bill back to committee and bar public broadcasting cuts that would affect public safety efforts, including the work of first responders and law enforcement. Cassandra Dumay and Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, facing a MAGA revolt over his vote in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, is about to get a boost from a super PAC committed to the Republican’s reelection. Louisiana Freedom Fund is set to announce that it has $2.5 million in cash on hand to support Cassidy, according to a person granted anonymity to disclose the total ahead of a formal filing. Cassidy is up against multiple GOP challengers attacking his 2021 vote to convict Trump over his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The infusion of outside funds comes after Cassidy’s campaign revealed Tuesday it already holds a massive cash advantage over his opponents. The four-term incumbent has $8.7 million banked, compared with State Sen. Blake Miguez’s $1.7 million and state treasurer John Fleming’s $2.1 million, per campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Those reports also showed that Cassidy raised $1.6 million in the second quarter, significantly more than donors gave the other top candidates, who are running largely self-funded campaigns. Miguez raised $800,000 and loaned himself an additional $1 million, while Fleming raised $121,000 and loaned his campaign $2 million.

More cryptocurrency drama is unfolding on the House floor Wednesday, a day after conservative hard-liners foiled GOP leaders’ plans to advance a trio of regulatory bills. The hard-liners climbed back aboard following a Tuesday night meeting with President Donald Trump and a last-minute negotiation Wednesday with House leaders that allowed the chamber to take an initial procedural step on the legislation. But the deal they cut — to merge the market-structure-focused CLARITY Act with a separate bill banning a central bank digital currency — has sparked backlash from members of the committees that crafted the legislation. Speaker Mike Johnson is now huddling with members of the Financial Services and Agriculture panels, as well as the conservative holdouts, in Johnson’s ceremonial office off the House floor as a vote on the rule setting up debate on the legislation remains open. Two people in the room granted anonymity to describe the talks said there is a standoff between hard-liners who want to guarantee passage of the CBDC ban and committee members who believe attaching it to the CLARITY Act will simply doom both bills. Instead the parties are exploring a deal to add the CBDC provision to another must-pass bill, such as the annual defense authorization or the renewal of foreign surveillance powers. More than a dozen Republicans have yet to vote on the rule. They include Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) and Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.); both are huddling with Johnson. Majority Leader Steve Scalise confirmed leaders planned to combine the bills after they are voted on; a 4 p.m. Rules Committee hearing has been announced to start that process.

Democrats and Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee are set to have a bipartisan meeting next Wednesday with Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as congressional tax writers eye year-end health care legislation following their work in helping craft the “big, beautiful bill.” According to a notice of the meeting viewed by POLITICO, Ways and Means members are invited “to discuss the priorities” of CMS on July 23, including issues “involving health care matters” that fall within the jurisdiction of the panel. Conversation could turn to what’s next for Ways and Means and its counterpart in the Senate, the Finance Committee, where Republicans are actively discussing interest in moving an overhaul to the operations of pharmaceutical benefit managers, the intermediaries who negotiate drug prices between pharmacies and manufacturers. Discussion next week could also focus on the critical role Oz played in reassuring Senate Republicans that hospitals in their states could tap into a rural hospital relief fund amid steep cuts to Medicaid in the GOP megabill.

Zohran Mamdani, the polarizing Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, huddled privately Wednesday with Democratic lawmakers at a Washington restaurant. The conversation, attendees said, focused on campaign strategy and lessons learned from his surprise win. Those included “the effective communications strategy that they employed, very dynamic and natural,” said Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-Ill.). “And it allowed him to project who he is and his vision for New York.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) organized the event, which was billed as a “communication and organizing skill share” breakfast. Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani both left the roughly two-hour meeting without appearing or speaking with reporters. A Mamdani spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. As Democrats search for a winning message and campaign strategy heading into the 2026 midterms, some in the party have pointed to Mamdani’s campaign and its social media virality as evidence they need to focus more on cost-of-living issues than other hot-button culture war issues. Attendees were largely from the left flank of the party; centrists have publicly and privately expressed concern about Mamdani, who identifies as a Democratic Socialist, being a liability for the party nationally. Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democratic leader and a fellow New Yorker, has so far withheld an endorsement pending a meeting with Mamdani. Rep. Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.), who represents a purple Long Island district, has gone so far as to brand Mamdani as “too extreme” to lead the city. But those leaving the meeting spoke positively about him and his campaign. “There is no debating that the campaign that he ran was a successful one. His economic message, his ability to cut through and just speak to people’s pain points in New York City,” said Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.). “And then how he did it, right, the videos, the media, the volunteers, the organizing. … We talked about the lessons from that campaign and how it can really impact the way we speak to voters.” “The party can learn a lot from him and AOC about digital communication and organizing,” added Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said he expects votes on all three cryptocurrency bills that Republicans are pushing to go to the House floor Wednesday, though leadership is still weighing how to sequence or combine them. “We’re bringing all of them,” Scalise said in a brief interview. “We’re back on track. And exactly what the combination will be, we’re talking through that, but all three bills will be encompassed in the work we do today.” The slate of crypto bills includes a sweeping market structure measure known as the CLARITY Act, Senate-passed stablecoin legislation called the GENIUS Act and a third measure to ban a central bank digital currency. “They’re all going to pass,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) told reporters entering the speaker’s office Wednesday morning. How they pass, though, remains an open question. GOP leaders could seek to merge the CBDC ban into the CLARITY Act in order to appease conservative hard-liners who brought down a key procedural vote Tuesday. The holdouts say they secured a promise from Trump to add CBDC language into CLARITY, but GOP leaders have balked at directly linking the two. The market structure bill has bipartisan support, but most Democrats oppose banning a CBDC, which is a government-issued digital dollar that conservatives say would open the door to privacy invasions. A senior Republican granted anonymity to describe private scheduling conversations said if the sequencing isn’t figured out today, the entire slate of bills could get pushed into next week.

Embattled Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy maintains a significant cash advantage over his primary challengers as the GOP’s MAGA wing attempts to unseat him over his vote in President Donald Trump’s 2021 impeachment trial. Cassidy raised $1.6 million in the second quarter, significantly more than donors gave his two self-funding challengers, according to campaign finance reports filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission. Cassidy has been a top target of Trump supporters since he voted to convict the president in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. That impeachment vote enraged many Louisiana Republicans who viewed it as a betrayal to Trump, and has inspired a deep field of candidates attempting to oust him. State Sen. Blake Miguez — who declared that “Cassidy sucks” in his campaign announcement — raised $800,000 and loaned himself an additional $1 million. The other major candidate, state treasurer John Fleming, raised $121,000 and loaned his campaign $2 million. That loan effectively pads his overall totals without bringing in more money: Fleming first loaned his campaign $2 million at the start of the year, and then last quarter he paid it back while issuing a new one. Cassidy ended the quarter with $8.7 million cash on hand. Miguez has $1.7 million in cash on hand while Fleming has $2.1 million.

Speaker Mike Johnson is trying again to pass landmark cryptocurrency legislation this week after Tuesday’s failed rule vote. This time, President Donald Trump says he has the votes. After 12 hard-liners tanked the procedural vote setting up debate on three cryptocurrency bills, the president announced he flipped the holdouts after a meeting with them in the Oval Office on Tuesday night. “Johnson was at the meeting via telephone, and looks forward to taking the Vote as early as possible,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Some of the House Republicans who tanked the crypto rule were also at the Treasury Department on Tuesday night talking through their concerns about a possible central bank digital currency, according to two Republicans granted anonymity to discuss the talks. House Freedom Caucus members were initially demanding a ban on any government sponsored digital currency be added to the GENIUS Act, the Senate-passed stablecoin bill, out of concerns over privacy and stifling private sector innovation. That language already exists in the CLARITY Act, a crypto market structure bill also slated for action this week. “Central bank digital currency — we have to put a stake in its heart once and for all,” House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) told POLITICO on Tuesday after the failed vote. “The action under that rule wouldn’t have done it.” It’s not clear what assurances the holdouts got. But the House is now flipping its schedule: Lawmakers will vote on the GENIUS Act on Wednesday after the rule vote, rather than voting first on the CLARITY Act. Trump has said he wants the Senate-passed stablecoin bill sent to his desk this week. After the party-line rule vote, all three cryptocurrency bills are expected to easily pass with some Democratic support. Speaking of central banks: Several Republicans left the Oval Office meeting under the impression that Trump is about to move against Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) posted to X last night that an announcement is “imminent.” Powell has steadfastly insisted he will remain in his post, and firing Powell could easily backfire on Trump and cause markets to tank. What else we’re watching: — Vote-a-rama begins: Senate Majority Leader John Thune can let out an initial sigh of relief after Republicans cleared the first procedural hurdles Tuesday on Trump’s effort to claw back billions in funding. Senators will move forward with a vote-a-rama on amendments starting at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, when rescissions skeptics like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) plan to take another shot at further tweaks to the bill. — Crypto hearing: The Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee will meet Wednesday morning to discuss ways to harmonize the tax code with the other regulatory blueprints for digital assets pending votes on the chamber floor. The hearing will feature testimony from industry players including Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger and Jason Somensatto, director of policy at Coin Center. — Epstein fallout: Most Republican members are steering clear of the Epstein turmoil, but signs of discomfort are showing. Johnson broke with Trump on Tuesday to call on the Department of Justice to release all of its information on Jeffrey Epstein and for Attorney General Pam Bondi to explain her previous statement about having some sort of “client list.” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) is pushing House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) to invite Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell to testify in a public hearing before the committee. Meredith Lee Hill, Calen Razor and Benjamin Guggenheim contributed to this report.

Battleground Alliance PAC is promising a registration and turnout operation in 37 Republican-held districts across the country.

Internal polling suggests that there’s a window for Democrats to use the controversy over the so-called “Epstein list” — and more than a dozen strategists, elected officials and aides are urging them to take it.

The Senate Appropriations chair says she intends to seek a sixth term as the bipartisanship she treasures crumbles around her.

Kentucky Senate candidate Daniel Cameron was once seen as the heir apparent to succeed retiring former GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, but he’s not raising money like a frontrunner. Cameron raised a little more than $385,000 last quarter, according to a campaign finance report filed Tuesday night with the Federal Election Commission. It’s a surprisingly meager sum for the former state attorney general who faces a contested GOP primary that includes Rep. Andy Barr and Lexington businessman Nate Morris. Cameron, attempting to make history as Kentucky’s first Black senator, was trounced by Barr, who posted a strong second quarter pulling in more than $1.4 million. Barr’s fundraising haul suggests he’s got early momentum in the contest where all three candidates are racing to embrace the MAGA mantle. He has a significant cash on hand advantage over Cameron — $6.1 million compared to just $532,000 — that will give him a leg up in campaigning. Cameron was the first of the major Republican candidates to kick off campaigning, launching his bid hours after his mentor announced his retirement. But slow fundraising can stall a campaign, and Cameron has yet to release an ad. And his $385,000 haul is less than the $508,000 he raised in the first quarter, meaning his fundraising actually slowed down instead of accelerating. Both Barr and Morris have been active on social media. In one recent digital ad, Morris refers to Barr and Cameron as “McConnell Puppet #1” and “McConnell Puppet #2.” Barr posted his own video on social media, calling Morris a “Phony, Fake and Full of Garbage” while also referring to him as “America’s original woke CEO.” Morris kicked off his Senate campaign less than three weeks ago, so a clear picture of his fundraising won’t be known until he’s required to report his campaign’s finances in October. Two years ago, Cameron came up short in his gubernatorial bid to unseat incumbent Democrat Andy Beshear, which on top of his time as attorney general gave him name ID and experience running statewide. But Cameron’s lackluster fundraising shows that for now, the early donors favor Barr’s bombastic political style to Cameron’s slow-to-punch campaign — raising questions about whether he can mount enough of a fight to secure the nomination.

Democrats are set to duke it out in expensive open-seat primaries in Michigan and Illinois. In the race to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters in Michigan, State Sen. Mallory McMorrow raked in about $2.1 million in contributions and spent roughly $1.3 million, leaving her with about $827,000 cash on hand. Rep. Haley Stevens raised a total of $2.8 million, of which $1.5 million was transferred from her House campaign. Stevens reported about $2 million cash on hand. And former Wayne County health official Abdul El-Sayed raised about $1.8 million and had $1.1 million cash on hand. Former Michigan State House Speaker Joe Tate lagged behind the other Democratic candidates, with about $193,000 raised and about $70,000 cash on hand. On the GOP side, former Rep. Mike Rogers, whom national Republicans have rallied behind, raised about $745,000 through his Senate account and about $779,000 through his joint fundraising committee, “Team Rogers.” Rogers had about $1.1 million cash on hand in his Senate account at the end of the quarter. He was narrowly outraised by Rep. Bill Huizenga, who’s been weighing a bid, who raised about $747,000 into his House campaign account and had roughly $1.4 million cash on hand. Republicans see Michigan as a top pickup opportunity in next year’s midterm elections. President Donald Trump won the state last year even as Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin defeated Rogers for an open Senate seat. Over in Illinois, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi led the pack in the brewing primary to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin. He raised about $2.3 million in contributions through his “Raja for Illinois” committee and transferred $10.2 million from his House account. He’s got $11.8 million cash on hand in his Senate account and $9.3 million in his House account, giving him $21.1 million combined between the two committees for what’s expected to be a hotly contested primary in the deep-blue seat where the Democratic primary winner is heavily favored in the general election. Rep. Robin Kelly raised a total of $2.5 million, of which about $2.2 million was transferred from her House campaign account. Kelly finished the quarter with $2.2 million cash on hand. Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton raised about $1.1 million and had about $666,000 cash on hand at the end of the quarter. Illinois’ billionaire governor J.B. Pritzker is expected to play a role in backing her campaign too. 

Texas Sen. John Cornyn maintained a financial edge over challenger Ken Paxton last quarter, helping him grow his cash advantage ahead of a tough primary fight. Cornyn’s political operation raised $3.9 million compared with Paxton’s $2.9 million, according to campaign finance reports filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission. The matchup between Cornyn and Paxton, the Texas attorney general, is the most high profile — and hostile — GOP Senate primary in the midterms. Polls show Paxton, the MAGA favorite, well ahead of Cornyn, the establishment pick whose Senate resume includes stints as GOP whip and head of its campaign arm. President Donald Trump has not yet endorsed a candidate. Cornyn, a four-term incumbent, reported that roughly $800,000 was raised directly by his campaign, while another $3.1 million was raised by Cornyn Victory Committee, his joint fundraising group. But not all of that joint fundraising money will go directly to Cornyn’s campaign — at least $1.1 million of the funds raised by Cornyn Victory Committee exceed candidate donation limits and will go to other groups backing Cornyn instead, according to a POLITICO analysis. That means the amount the Cornyn and Paxton campaigns themselves will receive from the last quarter of fundraising is about the same: a little under $3 million each. The other money raised by Cornyn will still benefit his campaign, just indirectly, because it will be sent to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which has endorsed him, along with super PACs backing him. Paxton’s haul came entirely through his campaign. Cornyn still has an advantage in cash on hand: His campaign alone reported $5.9 million in the bank compared to $2.5 million for Paxton.

Rep. Thomas Massie announced Tuesday he’d kickstart a longshot procedural maneuver to force a vote on releasing Jeffrey Epstein-related files. The Kentucky Republican, alongside Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), is launching a so-called discharge petition to bypass leadership and allow a floor vote on the release of the materials — provided the petition gets the 218 lawmaker signatures. “We all deserve to know what’s in the Epstein files, who’s implicated, and how deep this corruption goes,” Massie wrote on X. “Americans were promised justice and transparency.” The discharge petition gambit is rarely successful, with many majority-party members hesitant to buck their own leaders even if they support the underlying premise. But Republicans have been roiled by divisions over the Trump administration’s handling of the investigation into Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in jail after being charged with sex trafficking. Some Republicans like Massie have called for more disclosure from the administration after the Justice Department said there was no evidence Epstein had a “client list” or that he was murdered, despite suggestion from President Donald Trump and his allies during the 2024 campaign that they believed such information was being hidden from the public. Democrats, in turn, have needled the GOP over the controversy and attempted to turn a procedural vote Tuesday into a referendum on releasing more Epstein files.

Speaker Mike Johnson said he hopes to try again Wednesday on a procedural vote that would allow the House to take up a slate of cryptocurrency bills after GOP hard-liners tanked the measure Tuesday afternoon. Republicans are “still having conversations, answering questions for people,” Johnson told reporters leaving the Capitol. Asked how he might win over conservative holdouts, the Louisiana Republican said “it’s a priority of the White House, the Senate and the House to do all of these crypto bills.” House conservatives are calling on GOP leaders to amend a Senate-passed bill to regulate so-called stablecoins or package it with two other digital assets bills that were slated for floor votes this week in a bid to force the Senate to take all of them up together. But Johnson said leaving the Capitol Tuesday that “we have to do them in succession,” suggesting that GOP leaders won’t seek to directly link the bills in one package. A combined package that ties the Senate’s stablecoin legislation with the two other bills — a sweeping crypto market structure bill and a third measure that would ban a central bank digital currency — would likely be dead on arrival in the upper chamber. “We cannot stuff these into one package,” one senior House Republican said, noting that it would trigger a host of issues.

Speaker Mike Johnson is calling for the Department of Justice to release all of its information on Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in jail after being charged with sex trafficking, and wants Attorney General Pam Bondi to explain previous statements on the matter. The Trump administration this month declined to release additional information regarding Epstein’s death, with the Justice Department and FBI concluding there’s no evidence that Epstein had a list of clients or was murdered in his jail cell. Republicans blocked a House vote on Tuesday afternoon that Democrats tried to cast as a referendum to force the White House to release the files. In an interview published shortly after the vote, Johnson told conservative commentator Benny Johnson that he is “for transparency.” “It’s a very delicate subject, but you should put everything out there, let the people decide it,” the Louisiana Republican said. He added that Bondi needs to clarify previous remarks she made about having some sort of “client list” of Epstein’s — pivoting from Monday when he threw his support behind the attorney general. “I think she was talking about documents, as I understood that were on her desk. I don’t know that she was specific about a list or whatever, but she needs to come forward and explain that to everybody,” Johnson said.The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In February, Bondi told Fox News that files related to the Epstein investigation — including a document suspected to include high-profile names associated with his sex crimes — was “sitting on my desk right now.”  But in a Cabinet meeting earlier this month, Bondi denied saying she had a client list. “My response was, it’s sitting on my desk to be reviewed. Meaning the file, along with the JFK and MLK files,” Bondi said during the meeting. Some of Trump’s top supporters, including congressional lawmakers and his former senior adviser Elon Musk, have expressed outrage over the administration’s decision to withhold information detailed in the reports. Trump on Tuesday defended Bondi amid calls for her to step down. “The attorney general has handled that very well. She’s really done a very good job, and I think that when you look at that, you’ll understand it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. Johnson on Tuesday said he is “anxious” to get the issue resolved. “We need the DOJ focusing on the major priorities. Let’s get this thing resolved so that they can deal with violent crime and public safety and election integrity and going after ActBlue and the things that the president is most concerned about,” said Johnson.