Congress
House GOP tax writers maintain radio silence on their plans
House Republican tax writers were clamming up Wednesday about their tax plans, a sign that negotiations were getting serious as they prepared to go into a second day of close-door talks.
“I’m not talking about anything associated with our ongoing deliberations,” said the normally chatty Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah). “We’re in a new phase — everything was hypothetical three months ago.”
“I hope you’re not finding anybody who is willing to talk.”
Moore’s comments came as lawmakers on the Ways and Means Committee try to hash out their draft of a plan to address the expiration of some 40 expiring tax credits, along with additional tax proposals offered by President Donald Trump.
They met Monday for a lengthy policy session, amid Chair Jason Smith’s desire to get a bill — which would also include Trump’s energy, border and defense priorities — to the president’s desk quickly. The Senate, though, is just getting started.
Negotiations in the House have gotten far enough along that Ways and Means has begun eyeing when they might be able to unveil their plans and bring it before the committee to formally approve.
Some Republicans hope committee action would help generate momentum in other committees despite major questions over lawmakers’ stomach for spending cuts that are supposed to accompany their tax plans, and even though negotiations with the Senate over how to proceed are off to a creaky start.
Congress
Floor arm-twisting continues
The House floor has been frozen for more than an hour now as GOP hard-liners dig in against a procedural vote to move ahead with consideration of extending a government surveillance law, a farm bill and a budget blueprint for a party-line immigration bill.
GOP leaders have been seen huddling with holdouts on the House floor and have so far been able to flip Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, and Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona. Speaker Mike Johnson will need to flip several holdouts to be able to proceed.
Five Republicans, however, are still standing firm. That includes Reps. Troy Nehls and Keith Self of Texas, as well as Reps. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. GOP leaders have been seen in huddles with the hard-liners, several of which have still not voted. Though a few have since voted for the rule after talking to GOP leaders.
Many Colorado Republicans also haven’t voted yet, with several of them concerned about small refinery language added to a E15 sales bill that will merge with the farm bill upon passage.
Congress
House Oversight sets date for Pam Bondi deposition
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi will appear May 29 for a deposition before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, a panel spokesperson said Wednesday.
The announcement came after committee Democrats said they would pursue contempt charges against Bondi after she failed to appear for an earlier deposition as part of Oversight’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and the Department of Justice’s handling of the federal inquiry into the late convicted sex offender.
In a sign of Republican efforts to quickly preempt Democrats’ action, ranking member Robert Garcia of California was taken by surprise by the development during a news conference Wednesday morning to roll out the contempt resolution.
Since the bipartisan vote to compel Bondi’s testimony earlier this year, she has been ousted, and her former deputy, Todd Blanche, has assumed the role of acting attorney general.
Congress
Capitol agenda: Nobody’s making Mike Johnson’s week easy
We’ll find out Wednesday if Speaker Mike Johnson can cross off something—anything—from his long to-do list this week.
The House meets Wednesday morning to vote on a procedural step to advance three legislative priorities: government spy powers that expire Thursday, the farm bill, and a budget resolution for immigration enforcement funding.
But after a weeks-long standoff over how to proceed on reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the sweeping agricultural policy bill and the budget framework, House Republican leadership doesn’t appear to have the votes to advance anything.
And some House and Senate Republicans want President Donald Trump to get involved to break the stalemates.
Here are the battles Johnson is facing within his own caucus and the Senate:
— FISA: A growing number of House Republicans are livid Congress is barreling toward a three-year FISA extension with a House plan Senate Majority Leader John Thune has warned is “dead on arrival.”
“Our team has spent too much time with approximately 10 of our members who want compromises the other 210 don’t want,” Rep. Don Bacon said. “Meanwhile there’s about 40 Dems who are willing to support. This is dysfunction.”
As the House activity flounders, the Senate is negotiating its own FISA extension, multiple senators told Blue Light News. Members are currently looking at a three-year extension paired with some changes, according to three senators. But Sen. John Kennedy warned that there was “heartburn” over that length for an extension, adding: “I don’t think we have the votes in the Senate.”
Even if the House is able to move the procedural rule Wednesday, the Senate won’t swallow a ban on central banking digital currency attached to the measure upon passage.
“That’s not happening,” Thune said in an interview about linking the two matters.
— FARM BILL: Rep. Chip Roy sent the first warning Tuesday night that the rule’s fate was at risk. GOP leaders’ plan to tack on language green-lighting year-round sales of E15 gasoline blend was “E15 crap,” he said, adding it is still a problem with conservative hardliners.
Rep. Lauren Boebert later announced she would vote against the rule after many of her amendments for rural constituents introduced in the Rules hearing were voted down.
House GOP leaders’ plan to simply add E15 legislation to the farm bill is also looking dead on arrival in the Senate. Privately, GOP senators and aides told Blue Light News they’re going to write their own farm bill and haven’t agreed to add the E15 language to it, as they feel that provision won’t clear the chamber.
— IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT: Johnson tried to press his members in a closed-door meeting Monday night to approve the narrow, Senate-approved budget resolution as-is that would set up a path to fund immigration enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security funding lapsed more than two months ago.
Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, who wants a more expansive bill to fund the department — as do other key House GOP chairs — declined to say if he would support the measure if Johnson put it on the floor in its narrow form.
“I’m just listening to all the conversations,” Smith said in a brief interview.
Johnson can only lose a couple of votes on the rule Wednesday with full attendance.
What else we’re watching:
— WARSH VOTE IN SENATE BANKING — Few if any Democrats are expected to support Kevin Warsh when the Senate Banking panel takes up his nomination to serve as Fed chair Wednesday. The panel is still expected to advance Trump’s pick to replace outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, putting him on a glide path to confirmation. But Warsh’s potential lack of Democratic support stands in stark contrast to Powell’s years as a bipartisan force on Blue Light News.
— WHAT MEMBERS WILL ASK HEGSETH — Republicans and Democrats see Pete Hegseth’s hearing before the House Armed Services panel Wednesday as a rare chance to get direct, public answers from the Defense secretary. The hearing is Hegseth’s first congressional testimony outside of classified sessions since the start of the Iran conflict.
Jordain Carney, Jasper Goodman, Victoria Guida and Leo Shane III contributed to this report.
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