Congress
Capitol agenda: Five days to save FISA
Republicans are about to put one Donald Trump-induced headache behind them — but another is right behind it.
The House is expected to send a long-stalled GOP immigration enforcement funding bill to Trump’s desk Tuesday after the president threw multiple curveballs into the process.
Now the Senate will spend the coming days wrangling over a key spy power that has repeatedly been punted over the past two months. It is set to expire Friday
But Trump’s decision to install Bill Pulte as director of national intelligence has all but quashed any chance of a long-term renewal for the Section 702 program.
With Democrats pushing for Pulte’s removal before supporting any extension, even another short-term patch for the key piece of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is in serious doubt just days before the deadline.
“The idea that we’re going to allow Mr. Pulte to be potentially in charge of how this tool is used or manipulated, that’s going to be a very uphill path to convince Democrats,” Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Senate Intelligence Democrat, said in a BLN interview Sunday. “This was a self-inflicted harm.”
Warner and other Democrats had been working with Republicans to pass a three-year extension. But the Pulte move prompted nearly every Senate Democrat to oppose a procedural vote on that deal early Friday morning. Trump didn’t help matters later that day when he told the Wall Street Journal he wants Pulte to conduct mass firings inside intelligence agencies.
The writing is on the wall: Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Intel Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) sent a letter to the administration over the weekend indicating it should prepare for a lapse in the key spy power.
Grassley piled on the pressure Sunday evening, posting on X in his trademark diction that Democrats were putting Americans’ safety at risk “RIGHT B4 WORLD CUP +AMERICA250” with their opposition to the extension. He called on them to “do what’s right for ALL Americans.”
Note that Warner and Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top House Intel Democrat, both stopped short of saying in Sunday-show interviews that they would allow Section 702 to expire if Pulte is not removed.
But the path is extremely narrow. About 15 Senate Democratic votes needed, Warner said, and very few are willing to give Trump and his hand-picked new intel chief the benefit of the doubt.
What else we’re watching:
— UTAH REPUBLICANS ERUPT: The Pentagon’s Friday move to greatly cull the list of servicemember religious classifications has elected officials Utah up in arms after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was excluded from the “Christian” category used for 20 other denominations. Sens. John Curtis, Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Mike Kennedy were among those questioning why the church wasn’t explicitly named as Christian.
— TAX FIGHT ROILS AIR-SAFETY BILL: A little-noticed provision that would make it easier for wealthy people to avoid paying state and local taxes on their private jets is sparking a partisan brawl as Congress finalizes an air-safety bill. The measure would bar tax officials from using the identifying information that aircraft are required to broadcast while flying as part of their tax-collection efforts.
Jordain Carney, Brian Faler and Calen Razor contributed to this report.
Rep. Max Miller issued a subpoena to his former father-in-law and fellow Ohio Republican, Sen. Bernie Moreno, in the latest escalation of a long-running family legal drama.
Pamela MacAdams, an attorney for Miller, reported to the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Monday that three subpoenas were served in Miller’s divorce case, according to court records. A person with knowledge of the subpoenas granted anonymity to comment on them said that two were sent to Moreno and his wife, Bridget.
Their daughter, Emily Moreno, was married to Miller, and the two remain embroiled in a nasty legal battle.
Spokespeople for Miller, Emily Moreno and Bernie Moreno did not immediately return requests for comment. TMZ first reported on the subpoenas.
Miller is seeking reelection in a competitive district, and his campaign has been marred by accusations of domestic abuse against Emily Moreno and their daughter. Miller has repeatedly denied the allegations and chose to remain in the race despite other Republican lawmakers pressuring him to withdraw his campaign.
The House Ethics Committee, which began an inquiry into Miller after Miller asked to be investigated, is currently in a preelection blackout period. During that period, which will continue through the midterms, the Ethics Committee doesn’t take any action against sitting members who could return next Congress.
Congress
Trump declares $1B canceled in ‘pocket rescission’ in another affront to Congress’ funding power
President Donald Trump informed congressional leaders Friday that he has unilaterally canceled almost $1 billion without Congress’ consent — employing a budget maneuver many lawmakers consider illegal.
In a move that will almost certainly set up an ugly government funding battle after the midterms, Trump has again claimed the power to execute a so-called “pocket rescission” to nix money Congress has already enacted. The money his administration will claw back is for for immigration services, support to foreign countries, education programs, health research efforts and assistance for businesses owned by minorities.
By law, the president is allowed to send Congress a request to rescind federal funding, then withhold that money for 45 days while lawmakers consider whether to approve, reject or ignore it. Trump administration officials also argue they have the power to cancel funding without any congressional action by sending Congress a rescission request with less than 45 days left in the fiscal year. The argument is that the money automatically gets canceled on Sept. 30, when funding lapses at the end of the fiscal year.
Last year, Trump canceled $4.9 billion in foreign aid.
The Senate’s top Republican appropriator, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, immediately blasted the move as illegal, saying in a statement Friday night that “any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.”
“This move shows that OMB intentionally withheld these funds for months to execute this unlawful cancellation of appropriations that were approved on a bipartisan basis and signed into law,” Collins added, pledging to work with other lawmakers “to address these illegal actions.”
Collins and other appropriators have already been on high alert in recent days, pressing multiple agencies about funding officials have yet to spend ahead of the expiration date.
Democrats are finally catching on to how to talk to young male voters in the lead-up to the midterms, but the party can still up its game, one battleground senator and potential 2028er said Friday.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) has been one of his party’s most outspoken critics on its handling of outreach to young men, who swung right and helped deliver the White House and both chambers of Congress to Republicans in 2024.
The party is now “definitely moving in the right direction,” Gallego said Friday.
“Like back in the day, I was like the only one,” putting out positions on men, Gallego said at a Washington event on young American men. “Now, like, it seems like everyone every week is coming out with a new position, new idea, which is great.”
Gallego has criticized Democrat’s failure to highlight mens’ struggles and their tendency to over-police mens’ ideas. But there are signs the political winds have shifted in his party’s favor.
A new Cygnal poll released with the event of men ages 18-30 who say they’re the most determined to vote revealed Democrats’ generic ballot lead over Republicans at 57%-40%, Blue Light News reported. The poll also said nearly 40 percent of respondents said they feel their lives are off track.
“We need to take the opportunity to invest in that portion of this country, to say that we care about them and actually try to change the trajectory of what’s happening with men in this country,” Gallego said at the symposium.
Still, the path for specific legislation targeting the needs of this demographic faces an incredibly tight calendar this Congress and is uncertain in the political landscape of next year.
A proposal from Gallego and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) to establish a men’s health office within the Department of Health and Human Services, for example, has not advanced. Nor has bipartisan legislation from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also spoke at the event, targeting education outcomes, college investment transparency and dyslexic student support.
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