Congress
Ernst pushes spending cuts for another party-line policy package
House Republicans discussed plans for a second party-line megabill during their policy retreat in Florida this past week, and now GOP senators want in on the action.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), in her capacity as head of the Senate DOGE Caucus, sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson and House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) outlining what she says are $93.5 billion in savings that could be incorporated into a filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation bill.
“Republicans should seize every opportunity to advance policies that lower prices, cut taxes, and lift burdensome regulations off the backs of American families while we hold the White House and majorities in both chambers of Congress,” Ernst wrote in the letter, shared first with Blue Light News. “This moment will not last forever.”
Her list includes proposals to claw back unspent COVID-era funds; rescind more of former President Joe Biden’s climate initiatives; impose stiffer penalties for states with high rates of inaccurate SNAP food aid payments; implement a new $250 fee for new electric vehicle owners; and create more accountability for government charge cards.
“This is not an exhaustive list, and I stand ready to help you pass another transformational reconciliation bill,” Ernst said.
The DOGE Caucus, created to mirror the work of the now largely defunct Department of Government Efficiency formerly led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has little tangible power on Capitol Hill. But Ernst’s appeal signals the extent to which jockeying among Republicans has begun as discussions accelerate around a second megabill — even if there’s scant evidence congressional Republicans can pull one off.
Johnson told House Republicans in a closed-door session closing out the retreat Wednesday that he remains intent on pursuing a new reconciliation package to follow on last year’s “big beautiful bill” focused largely on tax cuts. The legislation could theoretically tackle some cost-of-living issues, but the speaker didn’t offer any specific policies that would be incorporated or a timeline for advancing it, according to four people in the room granted anonymity to describe the private meeting.
Some senior Republicans present privately warned they don’t have much time left for such a big legislative lift, and their razor-thin and frequently fractious House majority could make it difficult to find necessary consensus around a final legislative product.
Congress
House Republicans eye passage of Senate-backed DHS funding bill
House Republican leaders are working to approve a bill Thursday that would fund all of the Department of Homeland Security except its immigration enforcement agencies — potentially ending the department’s 76-day shutdown — according to a half-dozen people granted anonymity to describe the behind-the-scenes talks.
Speaker Mike Johnson is discussing the idea with members of his conference who have wanted to hold off on passage of the bill until Republicans enact a separate party-line package to fund agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
The Senate passed the partial DHS funding measure in March, but for more than a month, House GOP leaders have bowed to the holdouts and resisted calls to send it to President Donald Trump’s desk. Now the White House and some House Republican lawmakers are pressuring Johnson to clear the bill before lawmakers leave town for a weeklong recess.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma and House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain of Michigan were among the Republican lawmakers who confirmed that GOP leaders are attempting to send the bill on for Trump’s signature Thursday.
Johnson and Cole have both floated the idea of tweaking the bill to omit language explicitly stating that ICE and Border Patrol aren’t funded. But that would require sending it back to the Senate — not directly to Trump.
The speaker is still considering whether to alter the bill or put it on the floor without changes, the people familiar with the talks said. Either would involve using a fast-track process that requires support from two-thirds of lawmakers for passage.
Congress
Mike Johnson backs Louisiana election delay, urges other states to redraw maps
Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday he supported delaying House elections in his home state of Louisiana after the Supreme Court invalidated the state’s congressional map Wednesday.
“The governor has no choice but to suspend it,” Johnson said. “The court has ruled our map unconstitutional.”
He spoke as GOP Gov. Jeff Landry announced that Louisiana could not carry out elections under the current map and would be working “to develop a path forward.” Any new map is likely to threaten the seats of Democratic Reps. Troy Carter and Cleo Fields, who are both Black.
The Supreme Court ruling narrowed the impact of the 1965 Voting Rights Act on the longstanding practice of requiring line-drawers to protect racial minorities’ voting power.
The exact timing of the rescheduled elections is “not my decision,” Johnson added, but said “the way it was typically done” was to hold an all-party “jungle” primary in November, with a runoff in December, and “it looks like it may be that way again.”
“But again, my fingerprints aren’t on it,” Johnson added. “It’s a decision of the state Legislature.”
He also encouraged other states with VRA-mandated minority districts to act quickly and potentially redraw their maps before November, even though many have their election processes well underway already.
“All states that have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully, and I think they should do it before the midterms,” he said.
Congress
A top GOP super PAC warns ‘the Republican Senate majority is at risk’
Top Republicans are growing increasingly anxious that the Senate, once seen as a lock for the party to hold in the midterms, is at risk of flipping as Democrats continue to hammer President Donald Trump for the cost of living and foreign intervention in Iran.
That fear is laid out in a new memo, shared exclusively with POLITICO, from the powerful GOP and Koch-aligned super PAC Americans for Prosperity Action, whose leaders are calling on the GOP to lock in on the cost of living or risk losing power in Washington.
“As it stands today, our view is that the Republican Senate majority is at risk,” AFP senior adviser Emily Seidel and Executive Director Nathan Nascimento write. “Our internal polling in several battleground states and one-on-one conversations with voters show that for the first time, Democrats are more trusted on the economy and inflation.”
Their warning comes with a clear plea for the GOP: Figure out how to message on cost living, and fast.
“The window to act is now,” they said.
In their view, there’s a clear path forward, but it requires a coherent message and “relentless focus on driving costs down and keeping them low.”
“Every policy fight, every floor speech, every campaign event should answer one question—what are you doing to lower the cost of living for working families?” they write.
The memo comes as polling shows Trump’s approval rating continue to slip on economic issues: A Reuters/Ipsos survey released this week found just 22 percent of Americans approved of his handling of cost-of-living issues.
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