Congress
Capitol agenda: New megabill text dropping this week
Senate committees will start rolling out their portions of the GOP megabill as soon as Tuesday, providing a first look at how Republicans in the chamber plan to address some of the House’s most controversial proposals.
Here’s the draft-text timeline Blue Light News reported Monday night, though it could change:
— Armed Services plans to release its text Tuesday
— Environment and Public Works is pushing for Wednesday
— Commerce is aiming for Thursday
— Banking is expected Friday
The scheduling logic: Just as the House sequenced its megabill markups from least-to-most controversial to buy lawmakers more time to resolve their stickier policy debates, the Senate will have committees release their least-contentious draft bills first. Finance, which has jurisdiction over tax cuts and changes to Medicaid, is widely expected to be among the final Senate panels to release text, if not the last.
The massive tax-and-spending package will “most likely” hit the Senate floor the last full week of June, ahead of the July 4 recess, per Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
It could come even sooner — but that depends on how conversations go with the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough. Committee staffers started vetting the megabill with MacDonough last week, and will continue their talks this week and next. MacDonough’s job is to recommend which House-passed provisions and policy priorities must be dropped to comply with the strict rules governing the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process.
Thune signaled Monday that Republicans won’t seek to override their referee if they don’t like her rulings, but said he hoped MacDonough could be convinced to greenlight inclusion of the so-called REINS Act “in some fashion.” The longstanding conservative proposal would give Congress more authority to approve agency regulations.
The chamber’s lightning-fast turnaround nods to the weeks of behind-the-scenes work by GOP senators and their aides to prepare for the domestic policy bill’s arrival from across the Capitol. It also shows the immense pressure they’re under from the White House to get moving on advancing President Donald Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda.
The president is starting to play his own hand. Trump met separately Monday at the White House with both Thune and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who wants deeper spending cuts but told Blue Light News “we all want to get a bill done.” Trump also spoke by phone with Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who’s pushing a return to pre-pandemic spending levels, and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who’s opposed to some of the Medicaid changes endorsed by the Republican House. And the president will likely meet with Thune and Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) either this week or next to talk through the details of the tax portion of the bill.
One key fight to watch this week: Look to see if the Senate backs away from the House’s plan to reup government auctions of federally controlled spectrum. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) has drawn a red line on it, saying Monday that “we’ll have to take out the spectrum language that’s in the bill right now. That simply is a non-starter for me.”
What else we’re watching:
— Rescissions incoming: The White House plans to send up a package Tuesday outlining $9.4 billion in spending cuts, asking Congress to nix current funding for NPR, PBS and foreign aid. House Republican leaders helped shape the so-called rescissions request over the last few weeks in a back-and-forth with the White House. But Senate Republicans are exploring options for amending the package.
— Billy Long is back: Senate Finance members will vote Tuesday to advance the nomination of Billy Long, Trump’s pick to lead the IRS, six months after the president announced the selection. In his confirmation hearing last month, Long sought to distance himself from his promotion of certain tribal tax credits that turned out to be nonexistent.
Jordain Carney, Benjamin Guggenheim and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
Congress
House GOP poised to vote on pesticide language
The House is poised to vote this week on whether to keep controversial pesticide language in the farm bill after a revolt from some Republicans and Make America Healthy Again activists.
House GOP leaders drafted a rule Tuesday to move forward with the farm bill and other key legislative priorities this week after overnight negotiations.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and other MAHA-aligned Republicans have threatened to withhold support for the bill unless the pesticide provision — which bars states from creating pesticide labeling laws that differ from EPA guidance — is stripped.
Luna said Monday she would “BLOW UP the farm bill” if the pesticide language wasn’t removed.
The draft rule, which was obtained by Blue Light News, would still need to clear the committee and be adopted by the House before Luna’s amendment could get a floor vote.
House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) defended the pesticide language Monday during a Rules Committee hearing, sparring with Democratic lawmakers who slammed the provision as a “liability shield.”
Farm state Republicans have worried the Luna amendment will pass if it’s allowed a floor vote, noting only one Democrat opposed a similar measure in the House Agriculture Committee.
The fight over pesticide manufacturer health risk liability has reached a fever pitch in Washington this week. The Rules Committee’s decision comes the day after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case weighing whether Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, should be preempted from failure-to-warn claims for cancer risks associated with pesticide use.
Other amendments made in order to the draft rule include adding hot rotisserie chicken as eligible to be purchased using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, banning “painful” dog and cat testing, and repealing the transfer of the Food for Peace international aid program to the Agriculture Department while giving the president authority over the initiative.
The Rules Committee also made in order an amendment from Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) to remove emissions mandates on farm equipment after she threatened to vote against the rule.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Congress
Florida Rep. Daniel Webster announces retirement
Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) announced Tuesday he will not seek reelection in November, joining dozens of lawmakers who have announced their retirement ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
Webster, who has served in Congress since 2011 after a decadeslong career in the statehouse, said the decision came after much prayer and discussion with his wife, Sandy.
“The time has come to pass the torch to the next conservative leader and spend more precious time with my wife, children and 24 grandchildren,” Webster said in a statement.
Webster represented a red-leaning House district outside of Orlando after serving in the state Legislature, including as the first Republican state House speaker since reconstruction in Florida.
His forthcoming exit from Congress is unlikely to create a pickup opportunity for Democrats in November.
His retirement comes a day after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled newly drawn congressional maps designed to give Republicans an even larger advantage in the state, although Webster’s district was not changed dramatically.
Webster had been critical of the redistricting efforts, warning that it was a “slippery slope.”
“I’ve been around enough reapportionments to know it can come back and bite you,” Webster said last month.
Still, Webster said Tuesday that he plans to “finish strong.”
“There is much work left to do before this Congress closes and I am fully focused on finishing strong,” Webster said. “I will keep working to get bills over the finish line that will leverage private investment to finance public infrastructure projects; ensure America — not China or any other adversary — remains the leader in space exploration; and that the United States will set the standards that protect our technological advantages.”
Congress
Rules coming back
The House Rules Committee will reconvene at 1 p.m. as GOP leaders grow more confident they can break through an impasse that has ground the floor to a halt.
“We’re getting closer,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Tuesday, sticking with a plan that would have Republicans vote later in the day on a measure teeing up votes on the Section 702 spy law, a budget resolution setting up funding for Homeland Security agencies and the farm bill.
Scalise added that they are trying to work a ban on central bank digital currencies — a key demand of conservative hard-liners — into some legislative vehicle.
“We’re going have some late night votes tonight,” he said, due to King Charles III’s joint-meeting address Tuesday afternoon.
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