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Oversight Chair plans meeting with Patel to plot take-down of ‘Deep State’

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House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) plans to meet next week with Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-confirmed pick to run the FBI, to discuss how he can be an ally in the new administration’s efforts to root out the so-called “Deep State.”

“I want [Patel] to know that our committee will assist in any way possible to help him disrupt the ‘Deep State,’” Comer said in an interview on Thursday, referring to the conspiracy of illicit power-players running the government.

Patel, who if confirmed would replace Christopher Wray as head of the FBI, has come under scrutiny for suggesting he intends to go after Trump’s political adversaries. But Trump’s allies, including Comer, have argued that Wray failed to address bias at the agency that they claim has become overly politicized.

While his confirmation hearing date has not yet been set, Patel has promised if installed in the posting to rebrand the FBI headquarters as a so-called “museum of the deep state” and enumerated members of the “Deep State” in his book “Government Gangsters.”

Comer said his committee could help in Patel’s effort, specifically suggesting the Oversight Committee could relay to Patel’s team the names of bureaucrats “that kept coming up in our depositions and interviews of people that were obstructing and covering up.”

He was alluding to the officials interviewed in the previous congress during the House GOP’s ultimately unsuccessful impeachment inquiry into the outgoing president, Joe Biden, of which Comer was a leader.

That probe, which failed to gain traction among the broader House GOP, was based on allegations that Biden engaged in “impeachable conduct” for using his position to enrich those close to him. Comer and his colleagues ultimately recommended that the Justice Department prosecute the president’s son, Hunter Biden, and brother, James Biden, for lying to Congress.

In an interview, Comer also suggested there was more work to be done in scrutinizing whether officials sought to obstruct his committee’s prior work surrounding the impeachment inquiry.

“[Patel] and I are fixing to meet because with respect to him, they need to hold some people accountable for a cover up,” Comer asserted. “It’s a big deal to know that the President of the United States is on the take, and yet you do nothing – and I would go further, obstructed our investigation and coordinated with the media to write things that just weren’t true.”

The expected meeting with Patel, a former Trump National Security Council staffer, is an early sign that the House GOP will play a key role in the Trump administration’s efforts to transform the Department of Justice and potentially pursue action against their political opponents.

Comer’s committee has already submitted a request that Biden’s former Social Security Administration commissioner Martin O’Malley, who is also a candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee, appear before his committee this Congress.

The Oversight Committee chair is also not the only panel leader looking to keep the Biden administration on the front burner despite the upcoming transfer of power. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said in an interview this week he might, in the months ahead, seek to recall the special counsel in the Hunter Biden criminal probe to get more information about the scope of the allegations against him.

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Congress

Senate prepares to take final megabill votes

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The Senate is on track to start voting on final amendments and passage of the GOP megabill.

“I believe we do” have a deal, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters.

There will be several amendments debated before the final vote, according to Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.). One, he said, would be from Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, challenging a provision negotiated to placate GOP holdout Sen. Lisa Murkowski dealing with the SNAP food-aid program in her home state of Alaska.

A final “wraparound” amendment reflecting other negotiated points is also expected to be offered that will tweak provisions dealing with Medicaid and clean energy tax credits.

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Trump wavers on July 4 megabill deadline

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President Donald Trump appeared to leave room to extend his July 4 deadline for Congress to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as the Senate scrambles to push through the legislation amid Republican infighting.

“I’d love to do July 4th, but I think it’s very hard to do July 4th,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn on Tuesday, before adding that the goal is “somewhere around there.”

The fate of the sweeping megabill remains up in the air, as Republican leaders struggle to secure enough votes to push the legislation through the Senate.

Trump has repeatedly sought to firm up GOP votes, blasting holdouts as “not good people” and not so subtly reminding Republicans not to go “too crazy,” because they “still have to get reelected.”

But even though the president and his allies have launched a pressure campaign to encourage movement from Republicans in the Senate, Trump began to waffle on the self-imposed July 4 ultimatum as it drew closer.

The president on Friday said the deadline was “not the end-all,” and that “it can go longer, but we’d like to get it done by that time if possible.”

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GOP clean-energy amendment won’t get a vote

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Sen. Joni Ernst said her closely watched amendment seeking to maintain wind and solar tax credits will not get a Senate vote before the anctipated passage of the GOP megabill.

“I don’t think they’re going to let us” offer the amendment, the Iowa Republican told reporters Tuesday morning as GOP leaders rushed to put finishing touches on the bill. “There’s a lot of stuff that went on overnight that kind of waylaid our plans.”

Ernst’s amendment would echo an earlier proposal to phase down the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean electricity production and investment tax credits for solar and wind generation projects by linking to when projects begin construction. It would also eliminate an excise tax proposed by Republicans that would penalize any wind and solar project placed into service after 2027 if it includes material assistance from China or other prohibited foreign entities.

Ernst was joined on the amendment by Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

It’s possible that the amendment or part of it could be included in a final “wraparound” amendment GOP leaders are expected to offer ahead of a final vote. Murkowski, considered a swing vote on the overall bill, was in intensive talks early Tuesday morning with Majority Leader John Thune and other Senate leaders.

Josh Siegel, Kelsey Tamborrino and James Bikales contributed to this report.

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