Congress
Capitol agenda: Gabbard, RFK Jr. committee votes come down to the wire
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation chances are coming down to a trio of publicly uncommitted Republican senators who have the power to sink their nominations in committee votes Tuesday.
Sen. Bill Cassidy is the sole wildcard on the Senate Finance Committee, which will decide whether to advance the HHS secretary nominee at 10 a.m. Cassidy has indicated that he’s still troubled by Kennedy’s vaccine skepticism, and he’s balancing his physician past with his political future in deep-red Louisiana, where he’s up for reelection next year.
Cassidy told reporters Monday he had a “cordial” conversation with Kennedy over the weekend but was “still working through” his decision. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Cassidy have talked about it.
Over on Senate Intelligence, Sens. Todd Young and Jerry Moran have yet to disclose how they intend to vote on Gabbard’s nomination for national intelligence director during a closed session at 2 p.m. Young told reporters Monday that he had “a lot of great conversations” over the weekend regarding Gabbard. Moran left Gabbard’s hearing last Thursday saying her responses to his questions on Russia and keeping intelligence nonpartisan were “satisfactory” — but declined to say how he would vote.
Gabbard on Monday won the backing of Sen. Susan Collins, another Intel swing vote, who said the former Hawaii lawmaker “shares my vision” of scaling back the size of the DNI office and “addressed my concerns” over her past support for pardoning NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Sen. James Lankford, another Intel member, also reaffirmed his support for Gabbard despite raising concerns last week that she refused to call Snowden a traitor in her confirmation hearing.
Step back: If Gabbard and Kennedy advance Tuesday, it means President Donald Trump has a strong chance of getting all his Cabinet picks through the Senate (not counting Matt Gaetz). That’s a stunning turn of events from just weeks ago, when it seemed like Kennedy, Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were all in trouble. And it illustrates, yet again, Trump’s iron grip on the congressional GOP.
What else we’re watching:
- Other nominees: Senators confirmed Chris Wright as Energy secretary Monday evening. The Senate also advanced Pam Bondi for attorney general and Russ Vought for OMB director in procedural votes. VA Secretary nominee Doug Collins is set for a confirmation vote at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday. Senate Agriculture on Monday also approved Brooke Rollins to lead USDA.
- Budget resolution bills: Speaker Mike Johnson’s reconciliation plan is already running behind schedule. The House Budget Committee is not planning to vote on a budget resolution this week, despite the speaker’s initial plan to do so, according to two people familiar with the matter. GOP leaders have been scrambling to address demands from committee hard-liners who want deeper spending cuts.
- Bessent’s reassurances on Musk: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reassured Republican lawmakers in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill Monday night that Elon Musk and his team do not have control over a sensitive government system that manages the flow of trillions of dollars in payments, according to five lawmakers in the room. Rep. Andy Barr, a senior Republican on the Financial Services panel, said in an interview that Bessent’s presentation was “very reassuring” to GOP lawmakers and that he’s confident “Treasury has control of the Treasury payments system.” Meanwhile, Democrats are uniting around making Elon Musk their bogeyman — threatening to stall State Department nominees and filing amendments that prevent Musk and his allies from accessing Treasury payment systems.
- David Sacks on Blue Light News: Trump’s cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence policy czar, David Sacks, will be up on Capitol Hill this afternoon as Republicans craft industry-friendly digital assets legislation. He will speak at a 2:30 p.m. press conference at the Senate Banking hearing room.
Jordain Carney, Daniel Payne, Meredith Lee Hill, Jasper Goodman, Michael Stratford and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley rescheduled a planned vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general late Friday in a preemptive move as negotiations between the Trump administration and GOP holdouts continue.
The vote, now set for Tuesday after a scheduled Thursday vote was postponed, isn’t an indication that a deal allowing for Blanche’s confirmation is near, so much as it is a nod to Judiciary Committee rules that require three days of notice for a panel meeting.
There is no sign that President Donald Trump is about to acquiesce to the unflinching demands of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who wants a controversial settlement agreement between Trump and the IRS substantially pared back.
Cornyn, who lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate, wants the Justice Department to nullify a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and limit the scope of a tax audit immunity component of the pact.
Trump told reporters earlier Friday the fund is “dead” but added “I wish it weren’t.”
“I’d like to see them compensated,” he added, referring to people he considers victims of government abuse, including participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
To advance Tuesday, Blanche needs to pick up Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another senator on the panel with similar concerns. He can’t lose any GOP votes if he wants to be reported favorably out of the Judiciary Committee.
“Chairman Grassley wants Todd Blanche’s nomination to be successful,” said a Judiciary Committee spokesperson, who declined to be named. “Noticing the markup gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee. Grassley would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess as he has an excellent record restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.
Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.
Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.
After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.
He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.
President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.
Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.
“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.
Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.
“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”
On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.
“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.
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