House Oversight Chair James Comer wants Democratic governors JB Pritzker of Illinois, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Kathy Hochul of New York to testify before his committee about their states’ immigration policies.

The Kentucky Republican invited the three governors to appear at a May 15 hearing on so-called “sanctuary states,” which limit law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The letters follow the high-profile hearing last month with the Democratic mayors of Boston, New York City, Denver, and Chicago, where Republican lawmakers pressed the officials on their cities’ immigration policies.

“Sanctuary jurisdictions and their obstructionist policies hinder the ability of federal law enforcement officers to effectuate safe arrests and remove dangerous criminals from American communities,” Comer wrote in letters to the governors. “This threatens Americans’ safety.”

Comer, who has been mulling a 2027 bid for Kentucky governor, has made scrutiny of Democrats’ immigration policies a focus of his Oversight post this Congress. In selecting Hochul, Pritzker, and Walz — the former vice presidential nominee — Comer is recruiting a host of high-profile Democrats for what could potentially be a closely watched hearing.

Pritzker’s name has been floated for a 2028 presidential bid, and Hochul could face a primary battle during her reelection campaign next year, including, potentially, from her lieutenant governor.

Comer is also requesting a trove of documents from the governors on their states’ immigration practices as part of a broader investigation into sanctuary jurisdictions.

Hochul has already signaled she is willing to testify: “We just received notification of their interest in my opinion on state laws, which I’m happy to share with them,” she told reporters at an unrelated event Thursday. “I told people like Tom Homan that I will continue doing what our practice has been from beginning, which is to cooperate with ICE when they have a warrant or they have evidence that there’s a person who’s committed a serious crime.”

Alex Gough, a spokesperson for Pritzker, said in a statement that the governor’s office was reviewing the request for documents, and Pritzker was considering whether he would testify. “Let’s call this what this is: another partisan dog and pony show,” Gough said.

A spokesperson for Walz did not immediately return a request for comment.

Shia Kapos contributed reporting.

Speaker Mike Johnson told Republican holdouts on the party’s crucial budget plan in a private meeting Wednesday night that they could oust him from the speakership if he doesn’t follow through with his fiscal promises, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss it.

Johnson pledged to abide by the House budget instructions, including $1.5 trillion minimum in spending cuts, for the domestic policy megabill that Republicans are now able to pursue on party lines after Thursday’s successful vote.

The “motion to vacate” the speaker comes up often in the House GOP conference. But the speaker’s comments, the people said, acknowledged that fiscal hawks could trigger a vote on his removal as speaker if doesn’t follow through. Several people in the room chuckled after the remark, they said. But hard-liners are planning to hold him to it.

The discussion of his ouster was seen as a concrete expression of how serious he was and displayed his enthusiasm for moving Trump’s agenda forward, according to one of the people. Some of the fiscal hawks saw it as a “blood oath,” according to another person.

A spokesperson for Johnson declined to comment Thursday.

A memorandum signed by Johnson and shared with reporters Thursday by Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina said he is “committed to maintaining linkage between provisions that result in a deficit increase … and provisions that reduce federal spending” and would deliver a “fiscally responsible product.”

Johnson’s fiscal assurance was one of the key factors that got hard-liners on board with the budget framework, which the House approved on a 216-214 vote, the people said. Some hard-liners on Thursday also cited assurances by President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune in swaying them in support of the plan.

Benjamin Guggenheim contributed to this report.

Despite a partial U-turn, Senate Democrats are vowing to move forward and put their GOP colleagues on the record on President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a lead author of a resolution that would overturn the basis for Trump’s global levies announced last week, said in an interview Thursday that Democrats still plan on forcing a vote on the measure. Trump on Wednesday put a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs on Wednesday, though he left in place a lower, 10 percent levy and announced severe retaliatory tariffs on China.

“My colleagues are telling me they want to move ahead,” Wyden said Thursday. “It’s the same trade chaos — I don’t know if you’ve seen the [financial market] numbers, but the only thing going up on the index today is volatility.”

Senate Democrats and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced the resolution earlier this week, and they are expected to force the vote once the Senate returns from a two-week break.

Four Republicans previously joined Democrats in a successful Senate vote to nix Trump’s earlier Canada tariffs. Speaker Mike Johnson moved to block a House vote on that measure and has undertaken a similar move to block a future House vote on the global levies.