Congress
Inside the ‘Cigar SCIF:’ How Tom Cole pulled off a House appropriations miracle
The crucial votes to fund the government last week were brokered in Speaker Mike Johnson‘s ceremonial office just off the House floor. But the groundwork to get the $1.6 trillion spending package through the chamber was laid in a literal smoke-filled room just steps away.
That would be the domain of Rep. Tom Cole, the 76-year-old cigar-and-whiskey-loving chair of the House Appropriations Committee. Inside that haunt, the Oklahoman took an unabashedly old-school approach over the course of months to getting the congressional funding process unstuck after a record-long, 43-day shutdown last year.
“That’s not actually an office — it’s a smoke room,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), a regular in what some members cheekily call the “Cigar SCIF,” a play on the “sensitive compartmented information facilities” where government officials review state secrets.
Inside, Cole “doesn’t dazzle you with numbers, he works on people-to-people skills,” Issa said, “and it’s the reason we’ve gotten something done.”
That’s something of a miracle considering who Cole is and what his colleagues have demanded.
When Cole took the Appropriations gavel in the spring of 2024, conservative demands for spending reductions were mounting. Hard-liners citing unfulfilled promises of funding cuts had ousted Kevin McCarthy, a close Cole ally, from the speakership just six months earlier. Months later, Donald Trump was elected to a second term as president and immediately began freezing billions of dollars top appropriators had already fastidiously allocated.
“We often joke: Boy, did we get here at a bad time,” Cole said in an interview, describing the situation he and Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) confronted.
While the politics of government spending grew stormy as 2025 wore on, Cole and his allies were biding their time and working — puff by puff and sip by sip — to build support for the government funding bills he was quietly negotiating with his counterparts across the aisle and across the Capitol.
Matters came to a head in the weeks after the longest shutdown in U.S. history concluded in November. Fiscal conservatives in the House were threatening to block passage of the bills Cole had helped craft — demanding changes to legislation that had already been settled with Democrats.
In early January, with tensions high and the chances for another lengthy shutdown rising, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) entered Cole’s office off the House floor. He emerged more than an hour later and gave Cole his public blessing to proceed with what appropriators had negotiated, a key vote of confidence from the GOP leadership.
“The bills are being built by the Appropriations Committee in the House and the Senate,” Emmer said. “Tom Cole and his colleagues on the Appropriations Committee are doing excellent work.”
House hard-liners, who were eyeing massive cuts to member-requested earmarks, didn’t secure any further changes to the funding bills. Now eleven of the 12 annual measures have been signed into law, guaranteeing cash through September for every federal agency except the embattled Department of Homeland Security.
Along the way Cole has won grudging respect from those same hard-liners, who give him credit for negotiating relatively flat overall funding levels and for trying to return the House to its traditional process of debating the 12 bills individually instead of as a catchall omnibus package.
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” Republican Rep. Scott Perry said of Cole in an interview. “Of course he listens. He listens because he has to listen — we have votes.”
Cole is “a big reason,” the Pennsylvania conservative continued, that the House is “crawling out of this hole of just ‘go along to get along’ in Washington, D.C.”
‘Space is a great gift’
While Freedom Caucus types like Perry tend not to be denizens of Cole’s tobacco-scented inner sanctum, a wide variety of members are often seen slipping in and out.
Alongside top Republican appropriators like California Rep. Ken Calvert are some GOP lawmakers who don’t sit on the spending panel, among them Reps. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, Andrew Garbarino of New York and Don Bacon of Nebraska. Some Democrats, including California Rep. Jimmy Panetta, are known to drop in.
“I’ve learned more in that room than anywhere else in Congress about how things operate,” said Rep. Mark Alford, a second-term GOP congressman from Missouri who coined the “Cigar SCIF” moniker. “But it’s just good to have a place to have honest conversations and develop friendships.”
A grand photo of Cole’s great aunt, a famous Chickasaw storyteller known as Te Ata, is mounted beside a window overlooking the west front of the Capitol and the National Mall. Most days in winter, a fire burns in a black marble fireplace.
“I think space is a great gift, and I think it’s misused quite often,” Cole said. “These are grand settings. They’re lovely rooms. They’re obviously immediately adjacent to the floor. You can’t have much better real estate than that.”
Engraved on one chair is the name of Rep. Hal Rogers, the longest-serving House member and a former Appropriations chair. The 88-year-old Kentucky Republican is often by Cole’s side during House votes and spends hours each week in the room off the floor, which Rogers said wasn’t used as “an open forum” until Cole got the gavel.
When Nebraska GOP Rep. Mike Flood — more than 25 years Cole’s junior — came to Capitol Hill in 2022, he sought Cole’s guidance on how to get on the Financial Services Committee. He got an invitation to another one of Cole’s smoke-filled offices — this one upstairs, next to the Rules Committee hearing room where Cole was then serving as chair — and received an education on Congress from Cole and “four other guys north of 75.”
“The people who don’t avail themselves of that have a much different experience in Congress,” Flood said in an interview, “because they’re not learning the Congress as an institution, as a functioning way to make laws and govern Americans.”
Cole likes to be regarded as an institutionalist and a “practical politician.” He holds a masters degree from Yale and a doctorate from the University of Oklahoma — both in British history — and is an avid reader of nonfiction accounts of war and politics. He was a member of the Oklahoma Senate in the 1980s, ran the National Republican Congressional Committee in the 1990s, served as Oklahoma secretary of state and then came to Congress in 2003.
“Experience, knowledge, temperament and persistence — he has it all in spades,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), a senior appropriator and one of Cole’s closest friends. “The cigar does not hurt.”
Beyond the House
Last March, Cole joined with House GOP leaders to halt bipartisan negotiations with Democrats and instead advanced a six-month funding patch — an audacious move that spurred Democratic fury and fueled the government shutdown this past fall.
“The Democrats just didn’t think we could do it,” Cole said. “I think that’s what made the 12 bills possible this year. They know we can do it. They know we will.”
Even as Trump directly undermines Congress’ power to steer funding, Cole frequently praises the president in the first lines of any speech or statement celebrating a spending deal. He also was among the Republicans who voted Jan. 6, 2021, against certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election, saying in a statement at the time that he did so “on behalf of my constituents.”
“I look on the administration as allies, not as enemies. But I also recognize that they can’t just do what they want to do,” Cole said this year. “Anybody that thinks that Congress has somehow lost its power of the purse — it has not.”
As Congress stares down another partial government shutdown over DHS funding, Cole is deferring to the White House in negotiations with Democrats who are demanding changes to the administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
“Clearly the decision is going to be made by the president on this,” he said.
Cole also doesn’t meddle in the negotiations of his “cardinals,” the dozen lawmakers who chair his panel’s subcommittees, empowering each of them to resolve differences with Democrats on their own.
“His word is gold,” said Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), one of those chairs. “He’s infinitely fair, infinitely reasonable. He is so well attuned to working with people.”
Cole instead focuses on negotiating overall totals and tricky policy disputes with Congress’ other three top appropriators: Collins, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
None of those women smoke cigars, and they prefer to meet in Collins’ less-odorous office on the Senate side. But they all have a close relationship with Cole.
Murray and Cole go back years: They faced off in negotiations over health, education and labor funding as subcommittee chairs during Paul Ryan’s speakership. Cole described the Washington Democrat as “a candid politician” who is “steely in her resolve” but “wants to get to a deal.”
Cole said Collins reminds him of his mother, who was the first Native American woman to serve in the Oklahoma Senate. “Her political skills are formidable,” he said, and “she’s a hard person not to like.”
As for his Democratic counterpart in the House, Cole calls DeLauro one of his “favorite people in Congress” and describes her as “an Italian grandmother.”
The respect is mutual. “You make a lot of acquaintances in this business, but you have few friends,” DeLauro said in an interview. “Tom Cole is my friend.”
That relationship was built not only through years of hard-nosed negotiations but also gentler moments like a 2004 Middle East trip the pair took as part of a bipartisan delegation of appropriators.
“I’m going to drink all the bourbon with you that I can,” she recalled telling him. “On the other hand, I’m not smoking any cigars.”
Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), the top Republican on the DHS appropriations subcommittee, will not seek reelection to the House this year, he announced Friday.
The eight-term lawmaker is just the latest high-profile Republican to announce plans to retire from Congress in an increasingly murky midterm environment for the GOP.
“I came to Congress to solve problems and to make sure our State and Nation have strong voice in the federal policy and oversight processes,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to finishing my term.”
Amodei’s 2nd District is Republican-leaning and would likely remain in GOP hands even in a tough year for the party overall. He’s the only Republican in the state’s congressional delegation.
Amodei’s decision comes just three months after President Donald Trump blessed him with a “Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-election” in November. At the time, it appeared he would run again.
“Thank you Mr. President @realDonaldTrump!” Amodei wrote in response.
The House is set to vote next week on a once-obscure elections bill that has now become a household name among hard-right activists and a major rallying point for an otherwise divided GOP.
The SAVE America Act, aimed at tightening voter registration standards, has a difficult path to enactment despite a no-holds-barred pressure campaign from the likes of President Donald Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk. Democrats are certain to filibuster the bill in the Senate, and it’s unlikely the GOP is ready to take extraordinary steps to overcome that hurdle.
But amid growing fears that their party is not doing enough to address Americans’ key concerns — rising prices chief among them — House GOP leaders and key senators have chosen to put the election security push at the center of their agenda.
The issue almost tanked a massive government funding package this week and threatened to extend a four-day partial government shutdown — until Trump intervened and ordered House Republicans to pass the bill without attaching the elections legislation.
But the issue is not going away. Besides the House action next week — the chamber’s second vote on a version of the legislation in less than a year — there is a mounting campaign on GOP senators to find ways around Democratic opposition and get the bill to Trump’s desk.
Trump is personally involved in the effort. Majority Leader Steve Scalise spoke with the president about the bill at a Jan. 29 White House meeting, and GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin met with Trump to discuss it Thursday afternoon.
Scalise said in an interview that Trump “wants to find the best place to get it passed so it can get signed into law” and Republican leaders are “in the process of working with the president to get the best path forward.”
The legislation would trigger major changes to how Americans vote, including requiring would-be voters to present proof of citizenship to register, eliminating mail-only registrations, and requiring photo ID in every state for the first time. It would also require states to take new steps to remove noncitizens from existing voter rolls.
The push for the bill has taken flight among GOP hard-liners, who won a private promise from Speaker Mike Johnson to schedule the upcoming vote, according to four people granted anonymity to describe the conversations, in lieu of attaching the election bill to the larger spending package and threatening its ability to clear the Senate.
White House deputy chief of staff James Blair this week also wrangled House GOP holdouts upset over the lack of action on the elections bill. The top Trump political aide worked to salvage the funding package in a series of phone calls in the final minutes before it was ultimately passed, according to three people with direct knowledge of the conversations.
Democrats and voting-access advocates have attacked the legislation as likely to disenfranchise huge swaths of legitimate voters in a misguided effort to address an alleged epidemic of noncitizen voting that they say does not exist.“If you’re one of the tens of millions of U.S. citizens who does not have access to your birth certificate, or if you’re one of the 50 percent of Americans who don’t have a passport, the SAVE Act could make it impossible for you to participate in elections,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said this week.
But the bill is in keeping with Trump’s longstanding belief, unsupported by evidence, that elections in many states are “rigged” in favor of Democrats and that strong federal action is needed to rectify it. He said in an interview this week that Republicans should seek to “nationalize” elections.
Addressing House Republicans at a policy retreat last month, Trump told them they “ought to pass” the SAVE America Act, formerly known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.
“Our elections are crooked as hell, and you can win — not only win elections over that and not only win future elections, but you’ll win every debate because the public is really angry about it,” he said.
He reiterated the message in a Truth Social post Thursday, published after his meeting with the three senators: “We are either going to fix [America’s elections], or we won’t have a Country any longer.”
The House is expected to vote on a procedural measure Tuesday paving the final floor action later in the week. What happens in the Senate after that is less clear.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has pledged to call the bill up for a vote at some point in the coming months, but under normal circumstances Democrats could block it from proceeding.
Yet rank-and-file House Republicans and some GOP senators are pushing for a breakthrough, urging Thune to require a “talking filibuster” or “standing filibuster” that would eventually, they believe, force Democrats to relent. The change would force senators to be present and speaking on the Senate floor to block legislation, as opposed to the current practice of requiring 60 votes to end debate and move to the final passage of most bills.
But Thune has treaded carefully around any suggestion that the 60-vote rule should be diluted. Many Republican senators want to see the supermajority threshold start in place, and Thune dismissed claims from some House Republicans this week that he had agreed to pursue the talking filibuster route. He said he would only agree to discuss the matter with his conference.
With the Senate still working through how to pass long-term Department of Homeland Security funding, that internal conversation has yet to take place. Some senators are privately and publicly warning the push could tie up the Senate floor for weeks or months, blocking other GOP priorities.
Some hard-line Republicans are floating a trial run, using the talking filibuster to try to pass a DHS funding stopgap, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private discussions.
“I would just remind people that the coin of the realm in the Senate is floor time, and we have a lot of things we have to do,” Thune told reporters. “Triggering a talking filibuster has implications and ramifications that I think everybody needs to be aware of. So we will have those discussions.”
In a sign that Republicans are looking at this as more than a political messaging exercise, the bill’s proponents say they are addressing some of the criticisms of the bill — including that it could effectively bar members of the U.S. military stationed abroad from voting.
Co-author Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said there are exceptions in the bill that would address the military and other concerns but allow only “true absentee ballots.” He said he was otherwise focused on pushing the other chamber to sidestep Democrats and send the bill to Trump.
“They get on the Senate floor, they can call the question, if there are people willing to speak … there’ll be drama, and then we’ll see what happens,” Roy said. “We’ll see who wins, but that’s what we’re supposed to do.”
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
The Department of Homeland Security’s independent watchdog disclosed numerous investigations into the department on Thursday as the White House faces heightened scrutiny over its nationwide immigration crackdown.
The probes, some of which have previously been disclosed, span ICE’s hiring surge, expedited removal of individuals, use of force and compliance with detention standards. An additional review pertains to “DHS’ processes for determining U.S. citizenship for individuals detained or arrested during immigration enforcement operations.”
The inspector general’s office is also conducting a probe into Customs and Border Patrol. The investigation — which is reviewing whether CBP conducts interior immigration enforcement in accordance with department policies and federal requirements — was opened in early January, according to a spokesperson for the DHS OIG.
The spate of investigations comes as the Trump administration faces an uproar from Democrats and a growing number of Republicans over its immigration enforcement operations in several states, which have at times turned violent. Senate Democrats are currently holding up DHS funding over a list of demands for reforms to ICE and CBP, including requirements that federal officers wear body cameras and IDs. The administration has also refused to budge on a demand that immigration enforcement agents do not wear masks.
Spokespersons for DHS, ICE and CBP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
President Donald Trump purged independent watchdogs for several government agencies during the first month of his second term, but Joseph Cuffari — the inspector general for DHS nominated by Trump during his first term — remains in place.
Dozens of congressional Democrats wrote last week to Cuffari urging him to expedite his probe into “whether ICE investigates allegations of use of excessive force,” which his office opened in June.
In a Thursday statement, Cuffari’s office said the timeline for conducting an oversight review “is affected by several variables.” The office has an internal goal of completing audits within 397 days but routinely misses the benchmark, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office last month.
“If, however, during our work we find matters that warrant immediate attention and action (such as those posing serious risk or imminent threat to safety, health, property, or continuity of operations), DHS OIG has mechanisms to promptly inform the Department and Congress, rather than waiting for a final report,” the office said.
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers have also called for the removal of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in recent weeks, although an impeachment resolution is unlikely to garner sufficient bipartisan support in the House.
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