Congress
Capitol agenda: Thune’s 48-hour megabill scramble
Senate GOP leaders want to start voting on the “big, beautiful bill” in just two days. Right now, they’re scrambling to rewrite critical pieces of it while major policy disputes remain unresolved.
Catch up quick: Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) met separately with Donald Trump at the White House Monday as the president ramps up pressure on fiscal hawks to fall in line. Trump told Scott he wants a repeal of green credits under the Biden-era climate law and supports a balanced budget, the Florida senator said. The trio relayed Trump’s message to House Freedom Caucus members Monday night, but were publicly mum on other details.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) signaled progress in closing the chasm between chambers over the state-and-local-tax deduction, suggesting the Senate could keep the $40,000 cap negotiated in the House but change the income threshold. The rub: That combination was publicly rejected by the House’s SALT Republicans days ago.
Meanwhile, Senate GOP leaders are floating a fund to help offset the effects of Medicaid changes on rural hospitals — a major pain point among “Medicaid moderates” balking at Senate Finance’s push to slash the provider tax.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told reporters he’s “absolutely happy with a rural fund” but cautioned, “I don’t know” if it will solve the issue. House GOP leaders are also warning it won’t pass their chamber.
GOP senators also have to keep in mind the 38 House Republicans who recently warned that Senate Majority Leader John Thune must adhere to a strict linkage between spending cuts and tax cuts in the bill. House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) told Blue Light News Monday he thinks Senate Republicans are already straying from the House-passed plan.
“It looks like right now, with some of the scoring, it’s not working out,” Harris said. “If it should pass the Senate in its current rumored form, it probably would have trouble in the House.”
What to watch Tuesday: Committees will finish holding meetings with parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough. Her last rulings on what can skirt the filibuster are expected as soon as Wednesday. Final text will follow once that process — known as the Byrd bath — wraps up.
Those Byrd droppings have multiple committees racing to redraft their portions of the megabill. Senate Agriculture Republicans believe they can salvage their cost-sharing plan for food aid. Senate Banking Republicans are reworking a proposal to cut funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
And Lee is now floating a narrower version of his plan to sell millions of acres of public lands after MacDonough deemed his initial proposal — which had drawn fierce opposition from a quartet of western-state GOP senators — noncompliant. Lee’s effectively halving his old proposal by removing Forest Service lands.
Thune still hopes to hold an initial vote on the megabill Thursday, but acknowledged the parliamentarian’s process is “taking a little bit longer” than anticipated. The raft of unresolved policy disputes have some senators openly doubting he can pull it off, with some predicting the first vote could slip to Friday.
“We’ll eventually pass something,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters Monday. “I just can’t tell you when.”
What else we’re watching:
— Dem Oversight election: Democrats will vote Tuesday morning to decide the top Democrat on the Oversight committee. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) is the frontrunner after the Californian clinched a majority of votes from the steering committee on the first ballot.
— War powers resolutions: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told Speaker Mike Johnson that he will no longer advance a resolution seeking to block U.S. involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict if the ceasefire that Trump announced holds. But in the Senate, Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said he’s forging ahead with forcing a vote on a similar resolution regardless of the ceasefire, and expects a vote sometime between Wednesday and Friday.
— Cassidy’s latest vaccine push: Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) criticized the top vaccine advisers of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Monday for lacking experience and urged the agency to delay a scheduled meeting with them. Cassidy said a meeting with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices scheduled for Wednesday should not proceed “with a relatively small panel, and no CDC Director in place to approve the panel’s recommendations.”
Garrett Downs, Nicholas Wu, Hailey Fuchs and Kelly Hooper contributed to this report.
Congress
Oversight of WHCD ramps up on Capitol Hill
The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, following a briefing Monday from U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran, said he saw “no indication” of a security lapse at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“It’s a challenge to bring that many people, 2,500 or whatever the number was … but they gave us a good explanation,” the Illinois Democrat told reporters of Curran’s presentation to himself and the panel’s chair, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
Curran is currently making the rounds on Capitol Hill after a shooter attempted to blow past the magnetometers outside the hotel ballroom where President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Speaker Mike Johnson and several Cabinet members were in attendance.
The incident has prompted members of leadership and key committee chairs to request briefings with Curran. He also met Monday with House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.), according to a panel spokesperson, who added that they were trying to set up a briefing for all members take place later this week.
An aide with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said the office had been in touch with Secret Service and the FBI and that the top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, expected to be “briefed soon.” Spokespeople for Sen. Rand Paul, the committee’s chair, did not immediately respond to a question about if he would also be briefed.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter Monday asking Paul to hold a hearing in the wake of Saturday’s shooting, saying it could be used “to assess the adequacy of presidential security arrangements and resources in the current threat environment.”
Paul didn’t address whether or not he would hold a hearing when talking to reporters Monday, but said that his panel would investigate the security posture around Saturday’s dinner.
“We’re looking into it,” Paul said.
Durbin, meanwhile, said it was not clear whether Grassley intended to call for a hearing with Curran, and that his counterpart had not committed to next steps his committee might take.
“I appreciate Secret Service Dir Sean Curran coming 2my office 2day 4 bipart briefing w me+Sen Durbin USSS is closely reviewing its security posture+the attacker’s bkground Overall Secret Service response has been swift&transparent I commend their bravery + ongoing work,” Grassley wrote on X.
Congress
Over 1,000 TSA officers have quit amid shutdown
More than 1,110 officers at the Transportation Security Administration have quit since the ongoing DHS shutdown began Feb. 14, a spokesperson told Blue Light News on Monday.
That’s a sizable jump compared with a week ago, when DHS on April 20 said that over 830 TSA personnel had departed the agency due to the record-breaking lapse in appropriations.
The latest figure, first reported by Blue Light News, could have implications for this summer’s FIFA World Cup, which kicks off in June. The TSA spokesperson in a statement Monday said replacements need four to six months of training to “perform regular airport duties.” As of late March, there were about 50,000 TSA officers total, according to the White House.
In a statement, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin added that President Donald Trump via executive action has allowed DHS to “grab emergency funding” from last year’s GOP megalaw to pay department employees, but that money will be exhausted if the shutdown continues into the first week of May.
Should that occur, airport security lines could become snarled again, like they were earlier during the spending stalemate — which waylaid travelers across the country.
Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that a Senate-passed bill to fund most of DHS, including TSA, will have to change to get the House’s OK. That suggests there will be a further delay in reopening a large swath of the department.
During last fall’s 43-day federal shutdown, around 1,110 TSA officers left the agency, a 25 percent increase in separations compared with the same time frame in 2024.
Congress
Jeffries says AI data centers will be Dem priority
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries signaled Monday that shielding consumers from rising electricity costs associated with the data center boom would be a priority on Democrats’ artificial intelligence agenda should they win back a majority.
The New York Democrat said at a press conference that Democrats want to ensure that “our homegrown companies can continue to lead the world in this transformative technology” but that “we’ve got to make sure we protect the American consumer.”
“We have to protect the American homeowner,” Jeffries said when asked by Blue Light News about how he is advising Democrats to talk about AI and what his related legislative priorities would be. “We have to protect the American rate payer from some of the downsides of the explosion of what has been taking place across the country, particularly in connection with data centers.”
Jeffries’ comment comes as House Democratic leadership’s AI priorities are beginning to crystallize. Earlier Monday, Republican Rep. Jay Obernolte and Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu — both members of leadership from California — introduced legislation to boost federal research on AI.
“We’ve maintained from the very beginning as House Democrats that we want to support innovation excellence, while at the same time making sure there are guardrails to protect the American people,” Jeffries said.
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