Congress
Capitol agenda: Trump fund drama comes to vote-a-rama
Republicans are on the verge of finally passing their massive $70 billion immigration enforcement bill — but first they’ll need to stick together through an obstacle course of tricky votes meant to squeeze their most vulnerable incumbents.
The Senate is expected to kick off an hours-long marathon vote series, known as vote-a-rama, around 10 a.m. Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters the House could vote on the package as early as Friday morning.
GOP leaders are feeling fairly confident they’ll ultimately be able to pass the bill, but they are facing efforts by some in their own party to use the vote series to formally nix or place guardrails on Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
Retiring Sens. Thom Tillis and Bill Cassidy have both filed amendments on the fund, which set off a firestorm last month when Trump officials said those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 could apply to receive payouts.
“We have a third of our members up for reelection this year … I’m trying to fend off some headwinds our members will have” Tillis said. “There’s no way to explain the fund [to voters], so the only way to explain it is to explain that you got rid of it. It’s that simple.”
Several more of their GOP colleagues told us they may support trying to get language related to the fund into the bill, which GOP leaders believe could threaten the legislation’s prospects.
Tillis’ proposal would reallocate the $1.8 billion that would have gone toward the fund to fraud prevention instead.
Meanwhile, Cassidy has filed amendments to prohibit payments from the pot of money and to create a “Capitol defenders fund” for law enforcement officers involved in Jan. 6. Another Cassidy measure would prevent prohibitions of tax audits of the president, which targets a Justice Department agreement last month ending any IRS scrutiny of Trump.
“You want to make sure it’s really dead, and I think we can make it really dead,” Cassidy said of the fund.
Democrats have several amendments of their own related to the funding, including a proposal from Sen. Chris Coons to prevent taxpayer money from being used to make payments through the fund and one from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto to require Trump to pay taxes on the settlement.
Democrats also have proposals to redirect the immigration enforcement funding toward health care, child care and other cost-of-living concerns as they try to hammer home an affordability message heading into midterms.
And wait, there’s more.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren filed an amendment seeking to force the government to release more information on Jeffrey Epstein and a Sen. Mark Warner measure would prevent the director of nationalintelligence from getting a salary “if the individual does not have extensive national security expertise” — a knock at Bill Pulte, who Trump named to be the acting DNI this week.
What else we’re watching:
— BLANCHE’S POSSIBLE NOMINATION SPLITS SENATE GOP: Trump is imminently expected to nominate Todd Blanche as attorney general, the position he’s held on an acting basis since April. Tillis, as a member of Senate Judiciary, could single-handedly block the panel from approving his nomination, and this week was already signaling hesitation given the role Blanche played in defending Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
— REPUBLICANS COMPILE RECONCILIATION 3.0: House GOP leaders are looking to have a blueprint for their next party-line reconciliation bill ready within the next few weeks as some Republicans are antsy about making progress. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz was on Capitol Hill Wednesday discussing with senior House Republicans ways to crack down on Medicaid and hospice “fraud,” according to four people granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting.
Dasha Burns, Myah Ward, Aaron Pellish and Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley rescheduled a planned vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general late Friday in a preemptive move as negotiations between the Trump administration and GOP holdouts continue.
The vote, now set for Tuesday after a scheduled Thursday vote was postponed, isn’t an indication that a deal allowing for Blanche’s confirmation is near, so much as it is a nod to Judiciary Committee rules that require three days of notice for a panel meeting.
There is no sign that President Donald Trump is about to acquiesce to the unflinching demands of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who wants a controversial settlement agreement between Trump and the IRS substantially pared back.
Cornyn, who lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate, wants the Justice Department to nullify a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and limit the scope of a tax audit immunity component of the pact.
Trump told reporters earlier Friday the fund is “dead” but added “I wish it weren’t.”
“I’d like to see them compensated,” he added, referring to people he considers victims of government abuse, including participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
To advance Tuesday, Blanche needs to pick up Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another senator on the panel with similar concerns. He can’t lose any GOP votes if he wants to be reported favorably out of the Judiciary Committee.
“Chairman Grassley wants Todd Blanche’s nomination to be successful,” said a Judiciary Committee spokesperson, who declined to be named. “Noticing the markup gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee. Grassley would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess as he has an excellent record restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.
Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.
Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.
After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.
He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.
President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.
Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.
“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.
Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.
“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”
On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.
“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.
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