Congress
Jeffries calls on Biden to pardon more Americans
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called on President Joe Biden to pardon more people convicted of nonviolent offenses amid controversy over the president’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden.
“During his final weeks in office, President Biden should exercise the high level of compassion he has consistently demonstrated throughout his life, including toward his son, and pardon on a case-by-case basis the working-class Americans in the federal prison system whose lives have been ruined by unjustly aggressive prosecutions for nonviolent offenses,” Jeffries said in a statement.
Jeffries’ comments echo the calls from some other Democrats who in recent days have asked Biden to use his clemency powers for more Americans in federal custody besides Hunter and to address sentencing disparities. But it did not pass judgment on the pardon of Hunter Biden itself. Some in the caucus have openly criticized the president since the pardon was issued and said it could tarnish his legacy and open a lane for Donald Trump to issue similar sweeping pardons.
The Trump administration and congressional Democrats are locked in a high-stakes stalemate that’s dramatically increasing the likelihood that a major government surveillance program will expire.
Democrats have coalesced behind an ultimatum: They won’t support a reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as long as Bill Pulte, an ally of President Donald Trump with no national security experience, remains acting director of national intelligence. The White House is standing by Pulte, at least publicly, while accusing Democrats of holding the spy power “hostage” and putting the country’s “national security at risk.”
Congressional Republicans are largely leaving it to the administration to figure out a path forward after Trump’s decision to tap Pulte as Tulsi Gabbard’s temporary successor derailed an earlier agreement to extend the key spy authority for three years.
But they are also nudging the administration to pick a different nominee to fill the role in a permanent capacity. Pulte is among the subjects Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to discuss with Trump at the White House Tuesday, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose plans for the private meeting.
Unless Trump moves quickly — or one side blinks — lawmakers, aides and the administration are preparing to barrel past the June 12 deadline without an extension.
“I’d like to be involved in the middle of it, but I think it’s strictly — the way things are going — between the Democrats and the White House. It’s all got everything to do with Pulte,” Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in an interview Monday.
Asked if Pulte should be dropped, Grassley told reporters that he is “temporary” and “the sooner the president gets somebody nominated, the sooner we’re going to be able to get 702 through.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune added Monday that the administration “at some point is going to have to come up with a nominee … that will be viewed by at least enough Democrats as sufficient to get their support” for reauthorizing the surveillance law.
The law allows spy agencies to target foreigners overseas, but critics of both parties believe it currently lacks sufficient guardrails to prevent U.S. citizens from being spied on, too. That has made reauthorization a complicated endeavor even before Pulte became a factor.
“I’m familiar with some of the conversations that are happening around that,” Thune said when asked about whether Pulte should go. “I think I’ll let the White House speak to whatever the next plan might be there, but we can’t pass this on the floor without Democrats.”
Trump is interviewing potential nominees to permanently fill the director of national intelligence role, according to a Republican lawmaker and a GOP congressional aide, both of whom were granted anonymity to disclose private conversations. But there’s no guarantee that the president will move quickly, and Republicans said Monday they didn’t know if he would make a decision before Friday’s reauthorization deadline.
Because of a quirk in the statute underlying Section 702, the Trump administration would still be able to operate the program for several more months if it lapses. At least some tech providers could mount legal challenges to the program if it expires, however, which national security officials fear could temporarily limit visibility into surveillance targets under the law.
Behind the scenes, national security lawyers in the Trump administration are already working on contingency plans to backfill any gap in foreign intelligence collection, said one GOP congressional aide granted anonymity to speak candidly.
The administration is also having conversations with congressional Democrats and their staff, according to two other people granted anonymity to disclose private conversations. As part of those discussions, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe have spoken directly to Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to one of the people.
Asked about talks with the administration, Warner declined to go into details but said that “we all know the time on the clock” and that “we want a path to get this done.” A spokesperson for Warner declined to comment Monday.
Spokespeople for the CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment about ongoing conversations with Warner. And the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on conversations with Democrats or Warner specifically.
But White House spokesperson Davis Ingle defended Pulte in a statement Monday issued in response to questions about Pulte’s future and the prospects for a permanent nominee.
“Bill Pulte is a great selection and he will do a great job on behalf of the American people,” Ingle said. “Holding FISA hostage puts America’s national security at risk and it is shameful that some Democrats are threatening to put partisan politics ahead of the safety of the American people.”
Senate Democrats blocked a procedural vote Friday that would have paved the way for a three-year extension of the expiring spy power with some new transparency language and other policy changes. Seven Senate Republicans also voted against advancing the agreement, which was hashed out between Grassley and Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in coordination with Warner.
The administration will need roughly 15 Democrats, by Warner’s estimate, to get a yearslong reauthorization of Section 702 through the Senate. Congress has already punted the surveillance deadline twice since mid-April, but aides are skeptical that a bipartisan coalition of privacy hawks, who want more sweeping guardrails on the program, will agree this time to another short-term extension.
“I don’t know if there’s going to be an appetite for doing another extension or for what length,” Thune said Monday.
Johnson vowed Monday that Congress would not let the surveillance program expire. But he, too, is likely to need Democratic support given the narrow House GOP majority and the opposition in the Republican ranks.
As in the Senate, top House Democrats are warning not to count on their votes if the administration doesn’t reverse course on Pulte.
“The negotiations prior to Trump’s announcement with respect to Bill Pulte were already in a very sensitive place, and then Donald Trump, as he often does, tosses a hand grenade,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Monday.
Asked if he would let the spy authority expire, Jeffries added that there are “ongoing conversations” led by Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. He added, though, that Pulte — whom he called a “political hack” and a “malignant clown” — should first be removed from the acting position.
Himes, who has defended the Section 702 program, said he had one conversation with the White House after Trump placed Pulte in the acting role. He warned that Republicans should not expect under the circumstances to win the 42 House Democratic votes that a prior short-term extension won earlier this year.
“It’s a total mess,” Himes said. “Very sadly, I think we’re going to test this untested question about whether the program can run on a judicial certification alone.”
Meredith Lee Hill, Mia McCarthy and Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins is accusing Democrats of refusing to negotiate government funding bills ahead of the September shutdown deadline and called off markups Monday night for the second week in a row.
Collins and the Senate’s top Democratic appropriator, Washington Sen. Patty Murray, have been trading offers on overall totals for funding the military and non-defense programs for the fiscal year that kicks off Oct. 1. But an agreement has yet to be reached, and Democrats don’t want to forge ahead until there is an understanding on the balance between defense and domestic spending in the face of President Donald Trump‘s request for $1.5 trillion for the military.
Collins said in a statement Monday night that top Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee “have made clear they are not willing to work with us to pass” government funding bills, adding that “their insistence that it is not possible to move forward without a topline agreement is not accurate.”
Murray said Republicans are simply insisting on too much defense spending and not enough cash for programs that fund domestic priorities, including infrastructure improvements, child care, education and nutrition assistance for low-income babies and pregnant mothers.
“We are not close,” Murray told reporters Monday night. “They have a very high defense number. We’re just not going to agree to that.”
Murray said Republicans also want to block Democrats from offering amendments to the funding bills.
Senate Republican appropriators met privately Monday night to discuss whether to proceed without the assurance that Democrats will support approving the funding bills in committee.
Leaving the meeting, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Democratic leaders have instructed their appropriators to oppose the government funding bills no matter what.
“I have received information off the record from one of my Democratic colleagues that they have instructions to vote no on any appropriations bill,” Kennedy told reporters. “So even if we did agree to everything they wanted, they would still vote no.”
The Republican Study Committee convened a meeting Monday evening with CBO Director Phillip Swagel and Tom Barthold, chief of staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation, to discuss the process for estimating program costs and savings as part of a possible third budget reconciliation bill, according to four people granted anonymity to describe the private gathering.
RSC Chair August Pfluger of Texas, as well Budget Chair Jodey Arrington of Texas and House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman of Alabama, were at the meeting. Reps. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania and Gary Palmer of Alabama were also in attendance, according to one of the people.
“We had a dialogue and talked about their methodologies on the Big, Beautiful Bill,” Westerman said leaving the meeting — referring to last summer’s tax and spending megabill — of conversations with Swagel and Barthold. “I think it’s good to have feedback like that, and have them explain themselves, and hopefully correct, so they can make better scores on the next reconciliation package.”
Plunger’s group has been laying the groundwork for a sweeping partisan policy package since last year, and laid out a menu of policy options back in January designed to reduce costs of housing, health care and energy. He and others are pushing an aggressive timeline for Congress to pass such legislation before the August recess.
House Republicans are now discussing several components of another party-line policy package to follow up on last summer’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act” and the immigration enforcement measure that could be cleared for President Donald Trump’s signature as soon as Tuesday night.
They are aiming to center a third party-line reconciliation bill around affordability, and will also be seeking to root out alleged fraud in social programs that conservatives claim could amount to tens of billions of dollars in savings for the federal government.
Provisions currently under consideration, according to three other people, include cracking down on “fraud” in Medicaid, Medicare and other social programs; affordable housing initiatives; funding for the military and the ongoing conflict in Iran; an overhaul of federal energy permitting laws; and potentially a suite of changes to the tax code like indexing capital gains on homes.
Republicans are counting on recouping cost savings from identifying and eliminating fraud in safety net programs to pay for Iran war funding, but many GOP lawmakers are keenly aware that CBO isn’t likely to find savings of that desired magnitude. Speaker Mike Johnson also raised eyebrows Monday when he told a local radio station that Republicans have plans to adjust and fix spending in Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security “next year.”
Representatives from the Heritage Foundation, the Foundation for Government Accountability and Fiscal Lab also participated in the Monday meeting with Swagel and Barthold, according to two people granted anonymity to describe attendance.
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