Congress
Capitol agenda: GOP prepares a weekend jam for Democrats
Republicans are bracing for weekend work to push through a stopgap funding bill. The first step: reaching consensus on new money for member security.
The debate around the cost and viability of additional security measures — elevated in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination — will come to a head in Tuesday morning’s House GOP conference meeting. Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) will brief members on current security resources and what additional options might look like.
GOP leaders think the most viable plan is to extend the expiring pilot program — which provides security for members when they’re home in their districts — through the length of the continuing resolution. They’ve discussed a range of alternatives but are circling an additional $30 to $50 million, according to two people granted anonymity to describe the talks.
“I get it’s going to cost a lot of money, but funerals aren’t cheap either and we need to have some protection for certain members,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told reporters Monday.
If House GOP leaders unveil CR text later Tuesday as they hope, the chamber likely won’t vote until Friday. That means the Senate could be working on Saturday or beyond to meet Majority Leader John Thune’s target of wrapping things before next week’s scheduled recess.
And that’s if Democrats cooperate, which is a big “if.”
Meanwhile, the bigger picture is coming into focus as a group of GOP senators begin crafting legislation to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies with policy changes designed to win over fellow Republicans.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said Monday he was “part of the group that’s working on the wording to make sure we do it right.” It comes as more Republicans acknowledge the political risk of allowing insurance premiums to hike on Jan. 1.
But Democrats are still waiting for Republicans to sit down and negotiate a funding deal, which could encompass an extension of the ACA subsidies.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have not publicly outlined a specific policy demand that Republicans would have to offer in order to secure votes for the CR. Instead, Schumer is pushing for a “bipartisan negotiation where we can address some of the grave harms Trump has caused to our health care system.”
Thune continues to wave off Democrats’ calls for more talks and is ruling out a deal on the expiring tax credits for now.
“I don’t know at this point if there’s a lot to talk about,” Thune told Blue Light News on Monday evening, adding that the subsidies “will be an issue for hopefully in November when the time comes.”
What else we’re watching:
— Patel hits Blue Light News: FBI Director Kash Patel will be in the congressional hot seat Tuesday in front of Senate Judiciary and Wednesday before House Judiciary. Expect lawmakers of both parties to grill him on the agency’s handling of the assassination of Charlie Kirk and its decision to withhold materials in the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, along with firings at the bureau under Patel’s watch.
— Senators re-up tariff fight: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is leading a bipartisan effort this week to force a vote that would roll back Trump’s “emergency” tariffs on Canada and Brazil. He and his allies, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), think their past success with a similar measure and increased public anxiety about higher prices will earn them the necessary votes this time.
— Greene’s weather forecast: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has previously stoked conspiracy theories about weather manipulation on social media. She’ll use her Oversight gavel Tuesday to elevate her concerns on Capitol Hill. Her DOGE subcommittee hearing will ostensibly examine cloud-seeding and solar geoengineering — methods that could increase rainfall or limit the amount of sunlight absorbed by the earth.
Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney, Benjamin Guggenheim, Hailey Fuchs and Ari Hawkins contributed to this report.
Congress
DHS stopgap set for quick House action after Rules Committee vote
The House Rules Committee advanced a measure Friday evening that would fund the entirety of the Homeland Security Department through May 22 — without setting up debate or a separate vote on the funding bill itself.
The panel, after a raucous meeting that devolved into shouting at multiple points, voted 8-4 on party lines to advance the measure to the floor.
The rule includes a “deem and pass” provision, a tactic that allows legislation to be passed by the House automatically once the rule itself is adopted. While there will be one hour of floor debate and a vote on the rule, there will not be a standalone House vote on the DHS spending bill.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) described himself as needing “a neck brace” from the whiplash of hearing Republicans argue for hours that the Senate’s early-morning voice vote on a different DHS funding measure was “shameful” for lack of transparency and accountability.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) accused the Senate of moving their bill “in the middle of the night, with the smell of jet fumes in the air,” lamenting that the House was left “to take it or leave it.”
House leaders, McGovern suggested, have chosen a similar path by fast-tracking the eight-week DHS stopgap.
“You’re in charge,” he told Rules Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.). “You can do whatever the hell you want to do.”
Congress
Rand Paul weighs a 2028 presidential bid
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is considering a bid for president in 2028, as Republicans jockey for the future of the GOP post-Trump.
In a “CBS Sunday Morning” interview airing Sunday, a reporter asked Paul about an article that implied he would be running for president.
“We’re thinking about it,” Paul said. “I would say fifty-fifty,” adding that he would make a final decision after the midterm elections.
Paul ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2016 with a libertarianism-focused campaign but ultimately dropped out after a poor performance in the Iowa caucuses and a shortage of cash. He instead ran for reelection to the Senate.
Paul has had a complex relationship with his own party and with President Donald Trump, often finding himself the lone Republican on certain issues. More recently, he was the only Republican to support a joint resolution that would limit Trump’s war powers in Iran.
His father, former Rep. Ron Paul, also ran for president three times: first as a Libertarian in 1988, and twice as a Republican in 2008 and 2012.
Congress
‘Meltdown’: DHS shutdown set to drag on after House GOP rejects Senate deal
House Republicans moved Friday to further extend the six-week shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security by rejecting a Senate bill that would fund the vast majority of DHS agencies through September.
Instead, Speaker Mike Johnson proposed a temporary extension of DHS funding through May 22 — a plan that has uncertain prospects in the House and certainly won’t pass the Senate before the shutdown becomes the longest funding lapse in U.S. history Saturday.
But Johnson said House Republicans simply could not swallow the Senate bill, which omits funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Border Patrol and some other parts of Customs and Border Protection.
“The Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement,” he said. “We are going to deport dangerous criminal illegal aliens because it is a basic function of the government. The Democrats fundamentally disagree.”
The move toward an eight-week stopgap creates a tactical gulf between Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who called an end to weeks of abortive bipartisan talks Thursday and pushed through the funding bill in hopes of tacking on funding later for ICE and CBP in a party-line budget reconciliation bill.
President Donald Trump has largely stayed out of the GOP infighting on Capitol Hill, keeping his criticism trained on Democrats. He ordered DHS to pay TSA officers Thursday as long security lines snarls more U.S. airports.
Johnson played down the split with his Senate counterpart, saying the Democratic leader there bore more blame for the impasse.
“I wouldn’t call John Thune the engineer of this,” he said. “Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in the Senate have forced this upon the Senate. I have to protect the House. … Our colleagues on this side understand this is not a game. We are not playing their games.”
Thune said early Friday morning he did not speak directly to Johnson in the final hours leading up to the Senate’s voice vote, but he said they had texted. He acknowledged he did not know in advance how the House would handle the Senate bill.
“Hopefully they’ll be around, and we can get at least a lot of the government opened up again, and then we’ll go from there,” he said.
Johnson made his game plan clear with House Republicans on a private call just minutes before addressing reporters in the Capitol, according to four people granted anonymity to describe the call. He warned that a failure to advance the short-term DHS stopgap would upend GOP plans for a reconciliation bill, the people said.
He suggested the Senate could quickly clear the stopgap measure once it passes the House. Most senators have left Washington for a recess running through April 13, but Johnson said the chamber could approve the House measure by unanimous consent at a planned pro forma session Monday.
But some House Republicans on the private call, including Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida, aired doubts it could pass the Senate — or even the House. Some fellow GOP centrists argued that the House should just swallow the Senate bill and end the standoff.
The House plan for a 60-day stopgap won a cold reception in the Senate, with even Republicans warning it will only prolong the partial government shutdown.
The plan is instead fueling frustration among both Republicans and Democrats who view House Republicans as essentially throwing temper tantrum. Three people granted anonymity to speak candidly each described the House as having a “meltdown.”
Schumer publicly slammed the House GOP plan Friday, saying it was “dead on arrival” across the Capitol, “and Republicans know it.”
A Senate GOP aide granted anonymity to speak candidly added that the quickest way to end the shutdown is for the House to pass the Senate bill.
Five people granted anonymity to comment on Senate dynamics said there was no possibility that Democrats would let the House GOP plan pass during the Senate’s brief pro forma sessions over the next two weeks. It would only take one Democratic senator to show up and object to any attempt to pass it.
The bill, according to the five people, also can’t get 60 votes in the Senate once the chamber returns. Democrats have previously rejected even shorter stopgaps, leaving some to privately question why House Republicans would ever think their plan would work.
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