Congress
Dems brace to bail out Johnson on stopgap spending package
House Democrats are once again likely to bail out Speaker Mike Johnson on a stopgap spending bill, as conservatives largely vow to oppose it on the floor.
“I expect we’re going to pass the CR,” said Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.
“Because Republicans can’t pass this on their own, we were able to have a lot of that leverage to make sure that significant Democratic priorities are part of this resolution,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.).
Democratic lawmakers emerged from a closed-door leadership meeting Wednesday without taking a formal position on whether to support or oppose the stopgap bill, and they’re unlikely to whip on it. But Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday were touting the wins for their side in the legislation, including $100 billion in disaster aid, childcare funding and health care provisions.
Congressional leaders released the bill text Tuesday evening, which would fund the government through March 14 and includes a handful of unrelated policy bills, including legislation to renew expiring health care programs, another measure that would restrict U.S. investments in China and a one-year extension of the farm bill, which sets agriculture and food policy.
Dozens of Republicans are expected to oppose the legislation when it comes to a vote this week, and conservatives are signaling they would even block it in the Rules Committees, which determines what legislation makes it to the floor. That means Johnson likely would have to pass it under a process known as suspension, which requires a two-thirds majority in the House. Conservatives are fuming about the legislation arguing the package is a “bad deal.”
That means Johnson would need a huge number of Democrats to back it on the floor to avoid a shutdown that would kick in on Friday night. He’s likely to get it, though some Republicans won’t be thrilled that he’s once again relying on the opposing party to pass major legislation.
“We’re at that point primarily because the Republicans hate themselves and they can’t get anything to pass on the floor,” said Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.)
There are still some Democrats who might oppose the stopgap bill, known as a continuing resolution or a CR, namely over a provision that could result in a cost-of-living pay increase for members of Congress. Lawmakers haven’t gotten a raise since 2009, amid fears that voters might punish them for approving salary increases for themselves.
“Mainers can’t wave a wand and give themselves a raise, and Congress shouldn’t either — especially when most voters would tell you our job performance is poor at best,” purple-district Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) said in a statement. “Until the pay freeze is reinstated, I will not vote for this CR.”
It’s a concern that senior Democrats, including those who had long pushed for the cost-of-living increase, brushed aside.
“We don’t change the law. We’re following the law. It’s a very small part,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
Sen. John Cornyn said Monday he will not support Todd Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general absent a written modification to the settlement agreement President Donald Trump entered into with his own administration.
Opposition from the Texas Republican could sink Blanche’s nomination in a highly anticipated Judiciary Committee vote scheduled for Thursday.
While Cornyn said he is in talks with Blanche and others at the Justice Department, he has not secured changes he has demanded to the settlement agreement between Trump and the IRS. Those include formally rescinding a proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” and restricting the scope of tax audit immunity granted to the president and his family.
Cornyn told reporters he needs the document to be signed by Blanche but did not specify whether Trump also needs to sign it.
“We’re talking about that. That hasn’t been fully resolved yet,” Cornyn said in a subsequent interview when asked if Trump needs to sign the modification as well. “We’re still talking. I mean, there’s different ways to approach it.”
Time is running out for Blanche to meet Cornyn’s demands ahead of Thursday’s committee vote, where any one Republican’s opposition could be fatal to the nomination. The senator said Blanche and the administration have been so far “reluctant” to follow through.
At his nomination hearing last week, Blanche testified that plans for the payout fund were dead and that the audit agreement was more limited than set out in the settlement. But Cornyn honed in on the text of the agreement, which states that it “may be modified only with the written agreement of the Parties.”
Blanche acknowledged during the hearing that, without a written change to the agreement, the anti-weaponization fund could still be revived.
“That’s what we’re trying to get them to agree to, which is again what his sworn testimony was,” Cornyn said. “So I don’t know why they’re so reluctant to do that.”
The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
Jay Clayton is on the verge of becoming President Donald Trump’s next director of national intelligence — though Democrats won’t be helping him get there.
The news: The Senate on Monday voted 51-43 in a party line vote to move forward with Clayton’s nomination, teeing up a final vote as soon as Tuesday to confirm him as the next head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. No Democrats joined their GOP counterparts in support of Clayton.
Clayton, the top prosecutor in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office and a former SEC chair, will take over from acting spy czar Bill Pulte and join Trump’s Cabinet when he’s confirmed by the full Senate.
Why it matters: At some level, that’s a win for Democrats, who have been eager to replace Pulte, a Trump loyalist with no background in national security, since the president named him to the post last month. But after an up-and-down confirmation process for Clayton, Democrats have new reservations about the incoming intel adviser, as Monday’s vote underscored.
During his Senate confirmation hearing two weeks ago, Clayton refused to say that Joe Biden fairly won the 2020 vote, leading Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Panel to vote against his nomination. That marked a reversal from June, when Senate Democrats worked with their GOP counterparts to fast-track Clayton’s confirmation in exchange for renewing a powerful spy law. That deal fell apart after Trump intervened, alleging on social media that Democrats weren’t delivering on their end of the deal.
Open question: Though Clayton’s confirmation now looks imminent, Senate action on the spy statute that was supposed to be part of the deal — Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — is not.
With the House already gone for the August recess, the Senate appears unlikely to vote on Section 702 until September.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will meet with lawmakers in Washington to discuss American leadership on artificial intelligence, the company said Monday.
A spokesperson for the chipmaker said Huang would hold talks with both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill to talk about latest developments with the technology.
“Jensen is in DC to meet with leaders on both sides of the aisle to discuss American leadership in AI, including leading in open source,” the spokesperson said.
Huang is scheduled to sit down Tuesday with Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who has expressed serious concern about security threats following last week’s OpenAI autonomous cyberattack.
The senator’s office confirmed the meeting. Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It comes as Huang defended open-source AI on X, writing that such models “strengthen safety and cybersecurity, accelerate innovation and diffusion, and enable sovereignty.”
Huang’s visit comes as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is also expected to meet with Warner, although a spokesperson for the senator said the talks were separate. Earlier Monday, Open AI announced it was in talks with Nvidia, a technology company that makes chips to use artificial intelligence, for a data center project.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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