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GOP leaders prepare to steamroll opponents of DHS funding plan

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Conservative lawmakers are throwing up roadblocks to a GOP-only immigration enforcement funding plan. But party leaders are hitting the gas anyway, hoping to quickly flatten any skeptics as they race to meet a June 1 deadline set by President Donald Trump.

At stake is the final endgame of the 58-day-and-counting Department of Homeland Security shutdown. The Senate has passed the biggest piece of the funding puzzle, and top GOP leaders are now embarking on the multistep budget reconciliation process to sidestep Democratic opposition and fund enforcement agencies for the rest of Trump’s term.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday he would pursue an “anorexic” bill narrowly focused on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Republicans hope that will allow them to skip months of agonizing infighting — as they endured before enacting last year’s tax-cuts-focused megabill.

Still, some agony looms.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) insisted Monday on spending cuts to offset the new enforcement funding. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said he wants to include money for the military and other GOP priorities. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) argued parts of a hot-button GOP elections bill should be in the mix. And across the Capitol, the House’s right flank insisted Republicans fund all of DHS through the party-line process — not just ICE and Border Patrol.

Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson are expected to discuss the path forward during their private weekly meeting Tuesday. The House is stalling for now on the bipartisan Senate-passed bill that would fund the bulk of DHS, waiting for progress on the second bill under discussion.

Even Kennedy, who said it was a “mistake” not to include parts of the SAVE America Act in any upcoming reconciliation measure, warned Thune against expanding its scope.

“If he starts making deals with individual senators … then he’ll have an avalanche on his hands,” he said. “I know a number of senators who will take a run at Thune and say, ‘Look, you’ll only get my vote if you include my stuff in it.’ Well, if he starts that, then I’ve got some of my own stuff.”

The ultimatums could start pouring in as soon as the Senate GOP’s closed-door Tuesday lunch, when Thune and Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will get the chance to talk through the plan with their colleagues.

The first step will be for Republicans to take up a budget resolution — a fiscal blueprint for the party-line legislation, which Graham’s committee could release as soon as Tuesday. That blueprint is expected to task the Senate Judiciary Committee and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with drafting legislation that would fund immigration enforcement agencies for the rest of Trump’s term.

Typically reconciliation bills include at least some attempt to offset new spending with other savings or revenue. But GOP leaders are ready to argue that won’t be necessary in this instance since it involves funding that would have gone through the appropriations process — had Democrats not insisted on enforcement policy restrictions after federal agents shot and killed two Minneapolis residents in January.

Thune also warned Monday that expanding the bill by instructing additional committees — such as the Finance panel, which deals with taxes and federal health programs — would expose Republican senators to politically tough votes that could threaten the overall package. Any amendment that is germane to a reconciliation bill and under the jurisdiction of the instructed committees is eligible for a simple-majority vote — and the minority party aims to use those “vote-a-ramas” to put the majority on the spot.

“It gets really complicated procedurally, politically, and so, you know, to execute on it — to do it with any speed — you’ve got [to] keep it really tight,” Thune said.

In a sign of just how fast Senate Republicans want to move, Graham is expected to skip a committee vote on the fiscal blueprint for the reconciliation bill, according to three people granted anonymity to describe private planning. While Graham indicated Monday he still hasn’t made a final decision, going straight to the floor would deny Budget committee members, including Scott and Kennedy, a first bite at making any potential changes.

Instead, Republicans are aiming to bring the budget resolution straight to the floor as soon as next week. That would give the House time to adopt it before both chambers are scheduled for a recess in early May, though it’s possible that timeline could slip — especially if Republicans also struggle to meet an April 20 deadline to extend a key surveillance program.

To get the budget blueprint or the subsequent reconciliation bill through the Senate, Thune can lose as many as three GOP senators, with Vice President JD Vance breaking a possible tie.

Republicans are closely watching one of their own committee chairs who will be tasked with helping write the bill, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. He didn’t say how he would handle the budget resolution Monday but told reporters that he generally supports “spending less money, not more.”

Besides the grumbling from fiscal hawks, there are also Republican senators who are skeptical of any new reconciliation bill — especially appropriators concerned that the party-line approach is encroaching on their bipartisan turf.

But GOP leaders are cautiously hopeful they will be able to move quickly after months of sparring with Democrats over immigration enforcement policy frustrated many in their ranks. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters Monday her panel has been giving “technical assistance” to Graham’s panel while lamenting the breakdown in the appropriations process.

“It obviously would have been better if we came up with a bipartisan compromise to finish up the one remaining bill,” Collins said.

But the bigger threat could be in the House, where Republicans have an even tinier majority and a more rambunctious band of ultraconservative lawmakers.

One of their ringleaders, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, reacted negatively to Thune’s “anorexic” vision for the funding bill Monday. He suggested funding all of DHS through a party-line reconciliation bill, not just ICE and Border Patrol.

“Well – he isn’t the only voice in this, is he?” Roy wrote on X. “We should move other priorities with ALL of DHS… we’re running out of time to deliver and to clean up these repeated swamp messes.”

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Congress

Johnson says he’s ‘looking into’ ongoing Cory Mills ethics probe

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Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday he would be “looking into” an ongoing House Ethics investigation into whether Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) is guilty of assault and benefiting from federal contracts while in office.

His comments to reporters come amid a broader reckoning in the House over alleged transgressions among members on both sides of the aisle, leading to announcements Monday that Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) would resign after being accused of sexual misconduct.

While Johnson said he was not sure about the current status of the Mills investigation, he was confident the House’s “consensus” would be to soon vote to oust another Florida lawmaker, Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, following findings by the House Ethics Committee that she committed myriad campaign finance infractions.

The Ethics panel is due to meet next week to determine whether to recommend a formal punishment, which could be as severe as expulsion. If members ultimately suggest a lesser consequence, Republicans could still force a floor vote on an expulsion resolution, though Democrats could counter with a resolution to expel Mills at the same time. It’s not clear how Republican leadership will proceed.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries separately told reporters Tuesday that the Cherfilus-McCormick ethics probe “is not yet complete” and they will “see what” the panel recommends.

Jeffries also said conversations regarding Swalwell “will stay private.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

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Johnson: No amendments for FISA extension

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Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday he is not willing to add any amendments to a straight extension of a key spy powers law, as he tries to overcome a GOP hard-liner rebellion fueled by privacy concerns.

“It’s going to be a clean extension,” Johnson told reporters. “If we put amendments on it, it jeopardizes its passage. And it’s far too important.”

Johnson is preparing to push an 18-month extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act through the House Rules Committee this afternoon. He doesn’t yet have the votes to then advance the measure on the floor later this week, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss the talks.

Republicans, including members of leadership, have discussed a backup plan that would be a shorter extension. But they’re likely only willing to take that step if the current proposal fails on the floor.

Some House GOP holdouts privately say White House officials and GOP leaders are trying to strong-arm them into accepting a clean FISA extension, despite their concerns about American citizens being swept up in government surveillance.

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Olivia Troye, Trump aide turned critic, launches Virginia congressional bid

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Olivia Troye, a first-term Trump administration staffer who emerged as a vocal critic of the president in 2020, is launching a run for Congress as a Democrat in Virginia.

In a Tuesday campaign launch video, Troye cast herself as the candidate best positioned to take on President Donald Trump, pointing to the president bypassing Congress in sending federal immigration agents to U.S. cities and starting a war in Iran.

“Trump doesn’t scare me,” she said. “I took him on when it mattered the most. And I’m ready to do it again. It’s time to send some real courage to Congress.”

Troye worked for then-Vice President Mike Pence during Trump’s first term, advising him on counterterrorism and homeland security. She also served on the White House’s coronavirus task force before leaving the administration in a public split months before the 2020 presidential election.

Troye then became an active critic of Trump, slamming the president for minimizing the Covid-19 pandemic and sharing fears that Trump wouldn’t accept the results of the election if he lost to then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

“The evil I saw in that White House was staggering,” she said in her launch video. “In 2020, I finally said ‘enough.’ And they came for me. Kash Patel, Stephen Miller, even Trump himself. They sent MAGA after me, tried to bankrupt me, threatened to kill me. They thought they could silence me.”

Troye is planning on running in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, should Virginia voters approve a ballot measure next week to allow Democrats to gerrymander the state’s congressional lines. Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-Va.), who represents the current battleground formulation of the 7th District, plans to run in the 1st District if the map is redrawn.

The new 1st and 7th Districts would both be blue-leaning.

Virginia Democrats argue the redistricting move is necessary to keep up with Republicans’ aggressive mid-decade redistricting in Texas, Missouri and, perhaps soon, Florida.

Virginia voters will head to the polls on April 21. And while a slim majority of voters told a Washington Post/Schar School poll last week that they support the redistricting initiative, a sizable enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats is sending alarm bells for Democrats that supporters might not be able to get it over the line.

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