Congress
Capitol agenda: GOP’s health revolt heads to the Senate
House Republicans just showed how divided they are over health care. Thursday’s Senate votes could expose the party’s strife even further.
Senate Republicans know both parties’ health care proposals are doomed Thursday. But as Democrats prepare to unite behind a three-year extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson can’t get Republicans on the same page.
— In the Senate: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is the only definite GOP defector on Thursday’s vote on a framework by Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that would expand health savings accounts rather than extend the enhanced Obamacare tax credits.
But a handful of Republicans have not yet said how they would vote, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. And Florida Sen. Rick Scott — who has a competing proposal of his own — said he’s still reviewing the Crapo-Cassidy bill.
Thune is already messaging around Thursday’s near-certain failure and suggesting it’ll spur more serious negotiations.
“When we get through this exercise this week the question is, ‘Are there enough Democrats who want to fix the problem?’” he told reporters Wednesday. “I think there’s a path forward. … Obviously we don’t have a lot of time to do this, but I think there are ways in which you could, where there’s a will.”
— In the House: At least 10 Republicans on Wednesday signed a bipartisan discharge petition authored by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Jared Golden (D-Maine) that would extend the enhanced tax credits for two years while imposing new eligibility requirements. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) also moved Wednesday to file a discharge petition on their own proposal that would extend subsidies for a year with new guardrails.
Both efforts are direct challenges to House leaders who appear determined to let the subsidies lapse. But they would likely need all House Democrats — and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is pushing a measure to compel a vote on a three-year extension. Asked if he would support Fitzpatrick’s bill Wednesday night, Jeffries said he had not had the opportunity to look at it yet.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told Blue Light News he’s “not a fan of discharge petitions,” adding that the extension framework being proposed in the Fitzpatrick-Golden bill is one of many that has split the GOP conference.
But Golden and other centrists are urging leaders not to brush off brewing discontent.
“Leadership, no matter who they are, in both parties, House and Senate, should pay attention to what’s going on with discharge petitions,” Golden said.
— From the White House: Meanwhile, lawmakers are getting mixed signals about whether President Donald Trump wants Republicans to utilize the filibuster-skirting process of reconciliation to advance a party-line package to address affordability concerns, including health care.
Asked Wednesday if he wants to see another megabill move through Blue Light News next year, Trump told reporters “we don’t need it.” But hours later, White House deputy chief of staff James Blair told Semafor the administration “would love to do” another reconciliation bill.
“That’s really a partisan tool, and then obviously there’s bipartisan pathways too,” Blair said. “Which one opens up is largely contingent on whether or not the Democrats want to work on anything.”
What else we’re watching:
— Will Cuellar get his gavel back?: Rep. Henry Cuellar’s (D-Texas) fate as an appropriations leader will be decided Thursday when House Democratic appropriators vote in a secret ballot on whether the recently-pardoned lawmaker will resume his former subcommittee chair role. Some Democrats are uneasy with allowing a colleague who’s been accused of bribery regain control over more than $60 billion in annual spending as the top Democrat overseeing Homeland Security funding.
— National Guard deployments in the spotlight: Pentagon officials will be in the hot seat during a 9:30 a.m. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Trump’s decision to send National Guard troops to cities like Washington and Los Angeles. The president has said the deployments were necessary to fight crime or crack down on protests; Democrats contend the administration is illegally wielding troops against blue cities.
Meredith Lee Hill, Mia McCarthy, Nicholas Wu and Connor O’Brien contributed to this report.
Congress
Mike Johnson says House can end government shutdown ‘by Tuesday’
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he is confident Congress can end the partial government shutdown “by Tuesday” despite steep opposition from Democrats and turmoil within the GOP conference.
Johnson is under pressure to unite his caucus, with lawmakers raising concerns about funding for the Department of Homeland Security as the Trump administration faces scrutiny over its nationwide immigration crackdown that has at times turned violent.
House Republicans are hoping to take up the $1.2 trillion funding package passed by the Senate on Tuesday following a House Rules Committee meeting Monday. The partial shutdown began early Saturday.
GOP leadership in the House originally hoped to pass the bill under suspension of the rules, an expedited process that requires a two-thirds-majority vote, but Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Johnson on Saturday that Democrats would not help Republicans acquire the necessary support for the spending bill.
“I’m confident that we’ll do it at least by Tuesday,” Johnson said in a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We have a logistical challenge of getting everyone in town, and because of the conversation I had with Hakeem Jeffries, I know that we’ve got to pass a rule and probably do this mostly on our own. I think that’s very unfortunate.”
The Senate voted Friday to pass a compromise spending package after Senate Democrats struck a deal with President Donald Trump to extend DHS funding for two weeks. The move bought Congress more time to work out a compromise on reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement after federal officers fatally shot two people in Minnesota earlier this month.
Speaking to host Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press,” Johnson acknowledged that “there’s been tragedies in Minnesota” — but he also blamed Democrats in the state for “inciting violence,” even as the Trump administration attempts to tamp down pressures in the state.
Johnson praised Trump’s decision to send White House border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis, a step widely seen as a deescalation from the aggressive tactics favored by Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino.
“[Trump] was right to deputize him over that situation,” he said of Homan on NBC. “He has 40 years of experience in Border Patrol and these issues. So I think that this is going to happen, but we need good faith on both sides. Some of these conditions and requests that they’ve made are obviously reasonable and should happen. But others are going to require a lot more negotiation.”
Johnson pushed back in particular on Democratic calls to bar federal immigration enforcement officers from wearing masks and require them to wear identification, telling Fox’s Shannon Bream: “Those two things are conditions that would create further danger.”
He also signaled an unwillingness to negotiate on Democratic demands to tighten requirements for judicial warrants for immigration operations.
Still, House Democrats remained opposed to passing the funding package as is, with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) saying Sunday: “I’m not just a no. I’m a firm no.”
“I just don’t see how in good conscience Democrats can vote for continuing ICE funding when they’re killing American citizens, when there’s no provision to repeal the tripling of the budget,” Khanna said in a Sunday interview with Welker on NBC. “I hope my colleagues will say no.”
Jeffries also signaled Sunday that a wide gap remains between his conference and House Republicans, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the House must reach an agreement on judicial warrants “as a condition of moving forward.”
“The one thing that we’ve said publicly is that we need a robust path toward dramatic reform,” Jeffries said on ABC’s “This Week.” “The administration can’t just talk the talk, they need to walk the walk. That should begin today. Not in two weeks, today.”
Congress
Shutdown likely to continue at least into Tuesday
The partial government shutdown that began early Saturday morning is on track to continue at least into Tuesday, which is the earliest the House is now expected to vote on a $1.2 trillion funding package due to opposition from Democrats and internal GOP strife.
House Republican leaders have scheduled a Monday meeting of the House Rules Committee to prepare the massive Senate-passed spending bill for the floor. According to two people granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, the procedural measure teeing up a final vote would not happen until Tuesday, with final passage following if that is successful.
That’s one day later than GOP leaders had hoped. Their previous plan was to pass the bill with Democratic help under suspension of the rules, a fast-track process requiring a two-thirds-majority vote.
But that plan was complicated by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries telling Speaker Mike Johnson in a private conversation Saturday that Democratic leadership would not help Johnson secure the 70 or so Democratic votes to get the measure over the line, according to the two people and another person granted anonymity to discuss the matter.
The Tuesday plan remains tentative as GOP leaders scramble to navigate tensions inside their own conference, which could make passing the procedural measure difficult. Some conservative hard-liners, for instance, want to attach a sweeping elections bill to the package.
Jeffries said in a MS NOW interview Saturday that Republicans “cannot simply move forward with legislation taking a my way or the highway approach” while noting that House Democrats are set to have “a discussion about the appropriate way forward” in a Sunday evening caucus call — first reported by Blue Light News.
He did not rule out that Democrats might support the Senate-passed spending package, which funds the majority of federal agencies through Sept. 30 while providing a two-week extension for the Department of Homeland Security — including controversial immigration enforcement agencies.
Democrats, Jeffries said, want “a robust, ironclad path to bringing about the type of change that the American people are demanding” in immigration enforcement.
Congress
Here’s what federal programs are headed for a (possibly brief) shutdown
Government funding is set to lapse at midnight Friday for the military and many domestic programs, but cash will continue to flow at a slew of federal agencies Congress already funded.
House leaders are aiming to send a funding package to President Donald Trump Monday, days after the Senate passed the legislation just before the deadline to avert a partial shutdown.
The effect on most federal programs is expected to be minor, and employees who are furloughed would miss just one day of work if the House acts on schedule — which is not assured.
This time, many of the services that have the greatest public impact when shuttered — like farm loans, SNAP food assistance to low-income households and upkeep at national parks — will continue. That’s because Congress already funded some agencies in November and earlier this month, including the departments of Energy, Commerce, Justice, Agriculture, Interior and Veterans Affairs, as well as military construction projects, the EPA, congressional operations, the FDA and federal science programs.
Still, the spending package congressional leaders are trying to clear for Trump’s signature next week contains the vast majority of the funding Congress approves each year to run federal programs, including $839 billion for the military.
Besides the Pentagon, funding will lapse for several major nondefense agencies beginning early Saturday morning.
That includes federal transportation, labor, housing, education and health programs, along with the IRS, independent trade agencies and foreign aid. The departments of Homeland Security, State and Treasury will also be hit by the shutdown.
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