Congress
House Dems invoke Medicaid cuts in warnings over government shutdown fight
The top three House Democrats stopped short on Friday of urging united opposition in their party to the funding plan Republicans are working to finalize — with just one week left until federal cash stops flowing.
In a letter to members, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar trashed Speaker Mike Johnson’s intent to pass a bill next week to keep federal agencies running on autopilot budgets through September. The missive does not call for all Democrats to vote “no” on that bill, after Jeffries said Thursday that “Republicans are going it alone.” But the letter does defend safety-net programs like Medicaid that Republicans are targeting in their separate, yet-to-be-drafted, party-line page of tax cuts, defense spending, border security investments and energy policy.
“Medicaid is our redline,” the letter said. The Democratic leaders did not elaborate, however, on whether they would demand future Medicaid protections as an ultimatum in the fight over government funding.
House GOP leaders aim to release bill text of their funding bill later Friday or over the weekend, hoping to give lawmakers at least three days to review the measure before a vote ahead of the March 14 government shutdown deadline.
Predicting that the bill will pass the House, Johnson said on Friday that there won’t be any way “politically” for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to avoid blame for a government shutdown if Democratic senators don’t vote to send the bill to President Donald Trump, who has personally whipped support among GOP lawmakers. Many Senate Democrats still won’t say how they would vote if the House passes the lengthy stopgap next week, and at least eight of them are going to have to cross party lines to advance the measure.
“It will be on him,” the speaker said of Schumer on Fox News. “Everybody in the country will be watching.”
The letter House Democratic leaders penned on Friday also warns that the House Republican plan to pass a “full-year” funding patch “threatens to cut funding for healthcare, nutritional assistance and veterans benefits through the end of the current fiscal year.”
While the legislation is not expected to directly cut funding for federal programs, Democratic leaders caution it will empower the Trump administration to continue freezing billions of dollars — including for veterans, education, law enforcement and housing initiatives — while Elon Musk leads the cost-cutting efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency. The Democrats also criticized Republicans’ plans to enact a partisan package through the reconciliation process that would bankroll trillions of dollars in tax breaks by cutting safety-net programs like Medicaid and SNAP food assistance to low-income households.
“House Democrats would enthusiastically support a bill that protects Social Security, Medicare, veterans health and Medicaid, but Republicans have chosen to put them on the chopping block to pay for billionaire tax cuts,” the letter said. “We cannot back a measure that rips away life-sustaining healthcare and retirement benefits from everyday Americans as part of the Republican scheme to pay for massive tax cuts for their wealthy donors like Elon Musk.”
The Democratic leaders said their top appropriator, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, “remains ready to negotiate a meaningful bipartisan spending agreement that puts working people first.”
DeLauro and Congress’ other top appropriators confirmed this week that they were closing in on a deal on overall spending levels for the military and non-defense programs, the first step to finalizing bipartisan bills that would fund the government at updated levels for the remainder of the fiscal year. That agreement has yet to materialize, however, as Johnson insists that a “full-year” stopgap is the only option House Republicans are considering.
The Senate on Thursday voted 56-43 to confirm Bill Pulte as the nation’s top housing regulator, putting him at the center of a fight over the future of two government-controlled companies that prop up half the residential mortgage market.
As the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Pulte will have oversight of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been in government conservatorship for more than 16 years.
The Trump administration is widely expected to seek to release Fannie and Freddie from government control — a complicated process that will rekindle debate about the role of the federal government in housing at a time when affordability has emerged as a major political concern.
Pulte gave few clues during his confirmation hearing with the Senate Banking Committee about what would happen with the companies, which buy mortgages and package them into securities for sale to investors.
“While [Fannie and Freddie’s] conservatorships should not be indefinite, any exit from conservatorship must be carefully planned to ensure the safety and soundness of the housing market without upward pressure on mortgage rates,” he told the panel.
Pulte expanded slightly on that position in a written response to questions for the record from Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the committee.
“My priority in overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is ensuring a stable and thriving housing and mortgage market, and to this end, any decisions related to if or when Fannie or Freddie are released from conservatorship would involve the President and the Secretary of the Treasury,” he wrote.
Pulte declined to answer Warren’s question about whether he has consulted with outside advisers including Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund founder who has held sizable positions in both companies for years in the hopes that they would eventually be privatized.
LEESBURG, Va. — Rep. Sarah McBride said she lived to “rent-free in the minds of some of my Republican colleagues” amid a controversy about GOP lawmakers referring to her by the wrong gender.
Speaking Thursday at a news conference with House Minority Whip Katherine Clark and first-term Democratic women lawmakers, McBride said Republicans were “obsessed with culture war issues” and said it was “weird” and “bizarre.”
“We will not take a lecture on decorum from a party that incited an insurrection,” the first openly transgender member of Congress said, making reference to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) referred to her as “Mr. McBride” during a congressional hearing earlier this week, sparking a confrontation between Self and Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.) over the issue. Other GOP lawmakers have targeted McBride’s identity, with Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) addressing her as “the gentleman from Delaware” while presiding on the House floor at one point.
House Republicans have sought to turn transgender rights into a wedge issue against Democrats this Congress. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) led an effort to ban transgender women from using women’s bathrooms on Capitol Hill. She responded to McBride’s comments Thursday with an X post addressing her as “Sir.”
McBride has generally shied away from weighing in on the attacks on her identity. Thursday’s remarks were her first public comments on the incident beyond a Tuesday post on X where she wrote: “No matter how I’m treated by some colleagues, nothing diminishes my awe and gratitude at getting to represent Delaware in Congress.”
In wake of the January crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that killed 67 people, leaders of a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee are launching a bipartisan investigation into the military use of Washington-area air space.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Reps. William Timmons (R-S.C.) and Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) — the chair and ranking member of the subcommittee on military and foreign affairs, respectively — requested a member-level briefing no later than April 1 on the potential operational failures that led to the Jan. 29 collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and a commercial passenger airplane.
They are specifically asking for information about the potential risks of the heavy air traffic in the U.S. Capitol region, the “procedural or regulatory issues” that may have contributed to the January incident and any changes by the Defense Department to prevent such an incident from reoccurring.
The airport is a frequent and favorite hub for lawmakers traveling to and from their respective states.
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- Senate confirms Pulte as top housing regulator, with market’s future at stake
- Sarah McBride says she lives ‘rent-free’ in Republicans’ heads
- House Oversight Committee launches probe into deadly plane crash
- Top Illinois Democrat readies a Senate bid — and tells people she has major backing
- Johnson taps Boeing exec Curtis Beaulieu as top tax adviser
- White House to withdraw CDC director nominee
- ‘Be careful about this’: Warnings abound as GOP considers writing off tax cuts
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