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Capitol agenda: Things are not normal on Blue Light News

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After a seven-week recess, Speaker Mike Johnson was optimistic about making progress on urgent priorities like government funding and rising health care costs. Instead, the House used hours of floor time to vote five times this week on measures rebuking other members.

“The only thing we can apparently do is condemn each other,” says Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.). “I’ve not seen the House hit this low of a point since I’ve been here.”

Once a rare tactic, censures have become commonplace partly for their use as a political rallying cry and a fundraising boon. Concerned lawmakers are now scrambling to stop the censure wars from escalating.

Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.) introduced bipartisan legislation Thursday that would require 60 percent of the House — rather than the current simple majority — to approve a censure of a member, disapprove their conduct or remove them from committee assignments.

“The institution needs some protection,” Bacon said in an interview.

House leaders seem open to curbing the personal brawling. Johnson called the general suggestion of a rule change “an intriguing idea” and said he’d be “open to having that conversation.” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also said he is “open-minded about what the possibilities are in terms of getting the Congress out of this repeated effort by Republicans to censure members.”

President Donald Trump added fuel to the fire when he declared Thursday morning that six Democratic lawmakers are engaged in “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOUR, punishable by DEATH!” The Democrats — Sens. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) and Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), Maggie Goodlander (N.H.) and Chris Deluzio (Pa.) — shared a video Tuesday encouraging U.S. military members to disobey unlawful orders.

Johnson initially defended Trump, saying it was the Democrats who were acting “wildly inappropriate.” He later conceded “the words that the president chose are not the ones I would use.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said of Trump’s suggestion of executions: “I don’t agree with that.”

What else we’re watching:   

— Russia sanctions action: Some Republicans are prepared to introduce a discharge petition as soon as Friday to force a vote on stalled Russia sanctions legislation if House leaders don’t take action. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) told Blue Light News he huddled with Johnson on the House floor Wednesday night and that Johnson “shares the sense of urgency” but “doesn’t necessarily” agree with Thune’s assessment that the bill must start in the House.

— Another discharge petition threat: House Republicans interested in forcing a vote to ban congressional stock trading say they’re ready to kick off the process Friday if leaders continue to stall. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) told Blue Light News she’s first waiting to see whether House Administration Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) will mark up and offer an amendment process Friday on a potential separate bill related to stock trading.

Nicholas Wu, Meredith Lee Hill and Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

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Congress

Johnson touts ‘bipartisan’ path for FISA reauthorization, but obstacles remain

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Speaker Mike Johnson is raising the possibility of a “bipartisan” path forward on extending a key spy authority after negotiations among House Republicans blew up late last week.

“We’re confident that we’ll be able to find strong bipartisan consensus that builds off of the really meaningful reforms that we included in the legislation the last time we reauthorized it,” Johnson said during a news conference Tuesday morning.

The emergency short-term reauthorization Congress cleared last week expires April 30, putting pressure on lawmakers to reach a deal quickly.

Among the options GOP leaders are discussing: If the Senate can advance a three-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with policy changes, the House could then pass it with a majority of Republicans and some Democrats, according to three people granted anonymity to share direct knowledge of ongoing conversations.

It’s also possible Johnson could put that measure on the House floor under an expedited procedure that does not require prior adoption of a party-line rule, but would need a two-thirds majority voting in the affirmative to secure passage. House GOP leaders still need to appease hard-liners who have very specific demands for new guardrails on warrentless surveillance practices as part of any reauthorization measure.

House Democratic leaders, meanwhile, aren’t promising cooperation — and they’re skeptical Johnson is as close to a deal as he might suggest.

“His confidence meter was always pretty high, and then he put a bill on the floor that had zero consensus among his caucus, and looked like the disaster that it was after midnight,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California told reporters Tuesday.

He added that he has not had “any discussions” yet with Republican counterparts on next steps for Section 702, and “absent those conversations, it’s going to be hard to find bipartisan consensus.” Aguilar also said that Democrats would follow the leads of House Intelligence Chair Jim Himes of Connecticut and Jamie Raskin of Maryland.

Johnson is planning to meet Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Darin LaHood of Illinois later Tuesday as the pair of Republicans works with Democrats on a bipartisan FISA extension plan, according to two people granted anonymity to share private scheduling.

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Graham releases blueprint for GOP immigration enforcement funding plan

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Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham unveiled a fiscal blueprint Tuesday paving the way for the GOP’s party-line immigration enforcement plan.

The budget resolution is the first step in Republicans’ two-step plan to deliver a bill funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and other agencies to President Donald Trump’s desk by his self-imposed June 1 deadline.

Senate Republicans are aiming to adopt the budget resolution this week. Senate Majority Leader John Thune can lose as many as three GOP members so long as Vice President JD Vance is available to break ties.

“Republicans are doing something that must be done quickly, and that our Democrat colleagues are trying to prevent us from doing. That something is simple: fully fund Border Patrol and ICE at a time of great threat to the United States,” Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement.

The budget resolution tasks the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with drafting the subsequent immigration enforcement bill.

The resolution gives the committees until May 15 to hand over text. It sets a ceiling of $70 billion for the Judiciary Committee’s portion and $70 billion for the Homeland Security panel’s portion. While the language would allow for a larger bill, a Graham aide said Tuesday that Republicans are aiming to keep the measure to about $70 billion.

Senate Republicans are expected to take an initial vote on the budget resolution as soon as Tuesday afternoon. After that they’ll need to complete a marathon session known as a vote-a-rama before they can approve the fiscal blueprint and send it to the House.

Democrats are expected to force several amendments related to cost-of-living concerns. Senate conservatives could also try to expand the scope of the bill, though GOP leaders hope to avoid making any changes to Graham’s text.

House Republicans could take their own vote next week. They are also waiting to grant approval of a Senate-passed deal to fund the rest of the Department of Homeland Security. Speaker Mike Johnson has delayed action on the measure amid hard-right demands that the Senate move on the immigration enforcement funding bill first.

Some House conservatives want the Senate to complete the entire reconciliation process, which allows ICE funding to bypass a Democratic filibuster, before they take up the larger DHS deal. That could drag the agency’s shutdown deep into May.

Senate Republicans are aiming to put the final immigration enforcement bill on the floor the week of May 11.

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‘Many families are struggling’

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Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan offered a rare acknowledgment from a GOP leader Tuesday that the U.S. economy might not be in tip-top condition. McClain, the Republican Conference chair, said at a news conference that “even with bigger [tax] refunds, many families are struggling right now, and I get it.”

That’s a departure from the message President Donald Trump sent at a event in Las Vegas last week, where he said “everything’s doing really well” and played down the impact of higher energy prices since he ordered military strikes on Iran.

“But we also owe it to the American people to be honest about how we got here, to make sure we don’t ever go back again,” McClain, the No. 4 party leader added, saying Americans are “digging out of a hole” from former President Joe Biden’s administration.

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