Congress
Capitol agenda: Republicans brace for Trump’s wrath
President Donald Trump has held his fire since senators skipped town for five weeks without advancing his elections security bill. Some Republicans don’t expect that to last.
Senators punted until at least September any vote on a framework for a third party-line spending bill that includes parts of the SAVE America Act, rather than hold a failed vote.
Whether Trump accepts that explanation is entirely unclear.
Some Republicans privately are prepared for the mercurial president’s yearslong obsession with the election measure to resurface over the recess and risk further inflaming the party’s base just months before GOP senators need those same voters to turn out.
“That would be consistent with his approach,” Sen. Mike Rounds said about the possibility. But “we also know the votes aren’t there,” he added.
Senate conservatives tried different ways to appease the president before leaving.
Budget Chair Ron Johnson said they spoke directly with Trump before pulling the plug on any vote as they struggled to corral support to advance a budget resolution. Johnson said Trump blessed delaying the vote to September.
And Majority Leader John Thune called up a vote on a simpler voter ID bill that unifies the GOP conference, rather than the more complex SAVE America Act that includes provisions restricting mail-in voting, for example, that some in the party don’t support.
Still, some Republicans don’t believe it’ll be enough to satisfy Trump given his relentless focus on nixing the filibuster and passing the election bill, a hardball strategy that there also isn’t sufficient support for within the conference.
One GOP senator, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said Thune wanted to hold a vote on the voter ID bill because “he thinks it will give us cover with the president.”
“I think he’s wrong,” the senator added.
Asked if he thought the voter ID bill vote would satisfy Trump, Thune said in an interview “good question, but I think if they want votes, we’ll try and get votes, but I can’t guarantee outcomes.”
Sen. Mike Lee and other conservatives continue trying to twist the conference’s arm, vowing to “keep fighting” for the GOP bill and to renew the effort once the chamber returns.
But Trump and his allies’ continued focus on legislation that doesn’t have the votes to pass has frustrated many Republicans, who worry that strategy is sowing division rather than uniting the party against Democrats that they need to defeat.
“I hear what the administration is saying,” Sen. Thom Tills said. “I look at political data almost every day of the week. …I don’t see [the SAVE America Act] as one of the major factors that are going to get out to the polls.”
What else we’re watching:
— HOURS LEFT FOR MILLER DROP-OUT WATCH: Rep. Max Miller has less than 12 hours to drop out of his race and let Ohio party leaders replace his name on the November ballot. So far, Miller is signaling that’s not going to happen. The Ohio Republican has until 4 p.m. Monday to drop out of his race for reelection in the Cleveland suburb district. But Miller has remained defiant amid allegations of domestic abuse from Emily Moreno, his ex-wife and the daughter of Ohio GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno.
— HEGSETH FAILS TO WIN GOP BUDGET SUPPORT — Senators began their break no closer to enacting the crown jewel of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s agenda: a record-breaking $1.5 trillion defense budget. Hegseth hasn’t persuaded Republicans to steamroll Democrats and advance the money in a party-line plan, despite regularly trekking to Blue Light News and hobnobbing with lawmakers. Instead, an increasingly vocal group of GOP lawmakers argue the administration hasn’t explained why Republicans should burn valuable political capital in pursuit of Trump’s vision — especially with the midterms just months away.
Jordain Carney, Mia McCarthy, Connor O’Brien and Mark Satter contributed to this report.
Sen. Ron Johnson is sending a letter Monday requesting a conference meeting to discuss the midterm results and a delay in the leadership election.
Johnson has gathered enough signatures to force the meeting under the Senate GOP’s rules and is proposing the gathering for 9 a.m. Tuesday.
“Tuesday’s result was a stunning defeat,” Johnson and his backers write in the letter to Conference Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO. “Holding leadership elections without engaging in a robust discussion and evaluation of how those running for leadership intend to lead would be political malpractice”
Republicans still expect their leadership election to be held Tuesday, where Majority Leader John Thune is so far unopposed to lead the party next year in the minority.
Sen. Chris Murphy announced Friday that he has been released from the hospital after suffering a stroke last week, but will miss “several weeks” of Senate votes while he continues to recover.
“The doctors are very encouraged by the progress I’ve made so far,” the Connecticut Democrat said in a statement. “In order to take my recovery seriously and get back to work on the quickest timeline possible, I will be spending several weeks at a rehabilitation center after being discharged from the hospital today.”
He added that he remains in touch remotely with his staff and colleagues.
Murphy, who was hospitalized last weekend, said Friday that he was “diagnosed with a small bleed in the thalamus region of my brain.” Jose Suarez, the Chief of Neurosciences Critical Care at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, said in a separate statement released by Murphy’s office that the senator “experienced a small hemorrhagic stroke.”
“He has shown tremendous progress, and at the current rate of improvement, we expect that he will make a full recovery following rehabilitation,” Suarez added.
Murphy is the latest senator to suffer a stroke in recent years. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) were both hospitalized for strokes in 2022. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), at that time a Senate candidate, also had a stroke in 2022 that he later described as near fatal.
The head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said his group will still be power brokers in a massive Democratic majority in a strategy memo previewing plans for next term.
“While some in the press have speculated that a majority of this size undermines our influence within the caucus, they have it exactly backwards,” Rep. Greg Casar of Texas said in the Friday memo obtained by Blue Light News. “Big majorities are good for getting big things done. Our goal is not to win a battle against other Democratic caucuses. It is to pass longstanding progressive priorities that bring down costs, root out corruption, and boost wages.”
The CPC will have at least 105 members next term, according to the memo. If Democrats had a narrow majority, progressives — and any other faction in the caucus — could have used their votes as leverage. Now that presumptive speaker Hakeem Jeffries will have as many 30 votes to spare, Democrats broadly are recalibrating their approach next term.
Casar laid out a “three-pronged” strategy for the CPC to “wield our power” in the three-page memo — tackling legislation, oversight and “holding Donald Trump to his word on populist economic policies.”
“Small majorities give corporate special interest groups the ability to block popular populist policies by recruiting a small number of opponents; a big majority gives us the advantage,” he said.
Casar previewed how the CPC can engage with Trump, noting that “one of the few bright spots for bipartisan lawmaking” was a housing bill that banned private equity firms from buying homes. He noted the caucus should push Trump to cap credit card interest rates, lower credit card fees for small businesses and lower prescription drug costs.
“While we oppose [Trump] strongly on the vast majority of fronts, we should send bills to his desk that would lower prices and raise paychecks. If he signs them, good. If he vetoes those bills, that will propel us to a continued Democratic majority and a trifecta where a Democratic president can sign these proposals into law,” he said.
Casar also outlined oversight targets beyond the administration, urging Democrats to specifically investigate corporations that use customer data for “surveillance pricing,” health care companies that are “taking advantage of seniors” through the Medicare Advantage program and artificial intelligence labs who are “putting jobs and lives at risk.”
“By focusing not just on the Trump administration but also on big corporations and billionaires, we will show the American people we are not just anti-Trump but also pro-worker and pro-consumer,” he said.
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