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GOP proposal would boot three N.J. Democrats from House committees

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Rep. Buddy Carter is proposing to strip three New Jersey lawmakers of their House committee assignments after they participated last week in a protest at a Newark migrant detention facility.

The Georgia Republican introduced a one-page resolution that would remove Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman from the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rob Menendez from the Energy and Commerce Committee and Rep. LaMonica McIver from committees on Homeland Security and Small Business.

“This behavior constitutes an assault on our brave ICE agents and undermines the rule of law. The three members involved in this stunt do not deserve to sit on committees alongside serious lawmakers,” Carter said in a statement.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson already suggested the lawmakers could be arrested — something House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called a “red line” on Tuesday. Spokespeople for the three New Jersey Democrats did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Removing the lawmakers from their committees would be a less drastic step but still mark a major escalation in cross-party tensions. Republicans removed three Democrats from committees last Congress for various infractions; that followed Democrats booting Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from their panels when they held the majority in the Congress before that.

While Republicans say the lawmakers wrongfully forced their way into the detention facility, resulting in a chaotic scrum that was caught on video, Democrats argue they were legally entitled to inspect the facility as members of Congress. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested at the protest and later released.

Carter last week launched a Senate campaign against Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff. It’s not clear if the resolution will hit the House floor; a spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Carter could seek to bring the measure up under a fast-track process that would bypass House leadership and committees.

Fox News first reported the bill’s introduction.

Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.

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Congress

GOP, Democrats blast Vought for holding back cash: ‘You don’t have the authority to impound’

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Senators from both parties chided the Trump administration Thursday for continuing to withhold funding Congress has approved, more than a year after the White House first froze billions of dollars for temporary “review.”

During White House budget director Russ Vought’s testimony before the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) scolded the OMB chief for not sending hundreds of millions of dollars the Trump administration is supposed to give states throughout the year to support community services aimed at reducing poverty.

“Congress has appropriated money, and you don’t have the authority to impound it,” Grassley said about the more than $810 million Congress appropriated this year for the Community Services Block Grant program.

That program helps states fund anti-poverty services such as transportation, education and nutrition assistance that serve more than 9 million people each year.

Grassley told Vought that lawmakers “are not getting any answers” as to why the Trump administration hasn’t sent states their quarterly funding from the program. “I want those quarterly allotments released,” Grassley said.

While Vought did not directly address Grassley’s comments, he said at a different point during the hearing that “we have not impounded a single thing.”

Other senators, including Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), lamented federal dollars being withheld for the fund that provides capital to small banks and credit unions in underserved areas. For months lawmakers from both parties have pushed back against Trump’s plans to eliminate that program, the Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.

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Congress

FISA extension vote delayed

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House GOP leaders are pushing back the planned 3:15 p.m. procedural vote related to the bill extending a key spy power due to expire in four days.

Leaders are continuing to negotiate with hard-liners to come up with a deal that can pass the chamber.

No new time has been set for the rule vote.

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Congress

Senate Republicans ‘syncing’ immigration funding plan with House GOP

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that GOP leaders want to make sure Republicans in both chambers are aligned as they move ahead with a party-line plan for immigration enforcement funding.

The South Dakota Republican told reporters he hopes the Senate will adopt a budget framework “by middle-to-the-end of next week,” the first step to unlocking the filibuster-skirting power to clear a package of up to $75 billion for ICE and Border Patrol.

Then ideally the House would adopt the Senate budget measure without changes, Thune said, allowing Republicans to move on to passage votes on a final bill to fund the immigration enforcement agencies.

“We’re communicating as much as we can, making sure that we’re syncing this up and doing it in the way that meets the requirements that both bodies have,” Thune said Thursday, following a meeting Wednesday with Speaker Mike Johnson for a routine check-in.

The attempt at GOP unity comes after House Republicans hotly rejected the Senate’s proposal last month to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, where funding lapsed more than two months ago. Now several House GOP lawmakers are also insisting Republicans fund all of the department through the party-line budget reconciliation process — not just the immigration agencies Democrats won’t support without new rules on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.

Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters Thursday afternoon that he hopes to release text of the budget framework in short order.

“We’re working on all that. Hopefully we’ll find consensus here soon. But I think we’re getting close,” he said.

“I hope we can get moving on it as early as next week,” Graham added.

Senate Republicans have started talking to their chamber’s parliamentarian as they seek to enact the party-line package — one piece of their two-part plan to end the DHS shutdown that began in mid-February.

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