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Johnson digs in against proxy voting, citing House’s ‘integrity’

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Speaker Mike Johnson is digging in against allowing proxy voting for the House’s new parents, heightening a standoff with members of his own party that has frozen legislative action in the chamber.

“While I understand the pure motivations of the few Republican proxy vote advocates, I simply cannot support the change they seek,” Johnson said in a Wednesday post on X.

The speaker is in a serious bind after suffering a stunning defeat over a procedural vote Tuesday, prompting him to send the House home until next Monday. Johnson’s initial effort to block a vote on a proxy-voting measure from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) failed after eight fellow Republicans joined her and every Democrat.

Luna was on the cusp of forcing a vote on her bill under a discharge petition, which can circumvent leadership’s control of the floor.

If Johnson attempts a similar move next week, Luna and several of her GOP allies insist they will vote against any effort to reopen the floor. The speaker’s leadership circle, meanwhile, says if he doesn’t try to kill Luna’s petition, House Freedom Caucus hard-liners who oppose proxy voting will themselves defeat any attempt to get House business moving as usual.

Johnson’s circle is aware of the optics of opposing accommodations for new mothers while also upholding their pro-life values and not risking electoral blowback ahead of the midterms.

“As the father of a large family, I know firsthand the difficulty and countless sacrifices that come with balancing family life and service in Congress,” Johnson wrote Wednesday. “New mothers and all young parents face real challenges in this regard. We truly empathize with them.”

But he said he had an obligation to “defend and uphold the Constitution and the integrity of this institution, which has stood the test of time for more than two centuries.”

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Congress

Democrats take aim at Trump’s latest tariffs

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After successfully engineering a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump, Senate Democrats want to do it again: They’re eyeing a new measure that could splinter Republicans and potentially undo the sweeping tariffs Trump rolled out Wednesday.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who led the push to undo Trump’s Canada tariffs that won approval Wednesday, said it was “likely” that Democrats would move forward with legislation taking aim at the new, more sweeping levies. The vote, he said, wouldn’t occur until after the Senate returns from a two-week recess slated to start on April 11.

One of the laws Trump used to levy the latest tariffs, the National Emergencies Act, allows Congress to quickly debate and vote on a disapproval resolution that would effectively cancel the tariffs. But actually doing so faces major obstacles: Not only would the Senate have to act, but the GOP-controlled House would have to approve the same measure. Trump could then still veto it, forcing a two-thirds-majority override vote.

Democrats are still poring through Trump’s latest round of sweeping tariffs to determine which ones they could potentially target for cancellation. But Kaine said he believed support for rolling back the new tariffs will only grow with time. Four Republicans joined Democrats on Wednesday’s vote, and he predicted a “larger universe” of support for the forthcoming measure.

“I think people need to go home and hear what their constituents are telling them, so I think having it timed so that it comes up over recess is the right time,” Kaine said.

Separately, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York — the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee — said Wednesday he would introduce a similar measure. Speaker Mike Johnson led an effort to block a vote on a Meeks-led disapproval resolution targeting the Canada tariffs last month and could do so again for the new round of tariffs.

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Top Johnson aide pleads not guilty to DUI charge

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Speaker Mike Johnson’s chief of staff pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he drove under the influence and operated a vehicle while impaired on the night of President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.

Hayden Haynes appeared by videoconference for a hearing before D.C. Superior Court Magistrate Judge Heide Herrmann, accompanied by prominent white collar attorney Stuart Sears. Sears has previously represented Steele Dossier source Igor Danchenko (who was acquitted of charges brought by special counsel John Durham), Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller and Mueller investigation witness Sam Patten.

Sears did most of the talking Thursday, although Haynes identified himself to the judge at the beginning of the brief court session. According to the U.S. Capitol Police officer who arrested Haynes early on the morning of March 5, the Johnson aide could not complete a sobriety test after twice striking a black Chevy Suburban with his white Tesla sedan.

Herrmann permitted Haynes to remain on release while his charges are pending, but required him to submit to a drug test and drug/alcohol assessment and ordered him to refrain from driving after taking any drugs or drinking alcohol. His next court date is next month.

Haynes is being prosecuted by the office of D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb.

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Senate panel advances Trump’s picks for Wall Street and banking regulators

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The Senate Banking Committee on Thursday approved President Donald Trump’s pick for a new top Wall Street regulator and other key financial nominees who will help carry out his administration’s deregulatory agenda.

On a 13-11 vote, along party lines, the panel advanced the nomination of Paul Atkins to be chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins is a former SEC commissioner who has worked as a consultant to many of the biggest financial firms over the last 16 years. He has indicated he would take a lighter-touch regulatory approach to cryptocurrency markets, enforcement, and the rules around how companies raise money in the U.S.

The committee similarly voted along party lines to approve the nomination of Jonathan Gould as the comptroller of the currency, a top regulator of national banks. Gould, currently a partner at the law firm Jones Day, was the agency’s chief counsel during the first Trump administration.

Republicans have cheered Trump’s picks as they seek to turn the page on Biden-era regulators that were loathed by many in the financial industry.

But Democrats on the committee, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, largely opposed Trump’s nominees, citing concerns they would weaken guardrails on Wall Street institutions and take a lax approach to policing financial institutions.

One of Trump’s picks for a senior Treasury Department role garnered bipartisan support, however. Six Democrats joined with the committee’s Republicans in supporting Luke Pettit’s nomination to be Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial institutions, a position focused on financial regulations and policy. Pettit is a former Senate Banking Committee staffer who previously worked at the investment firm Bridgewater Associates and as a senior policy analyst at the Federal Reserve.

Declan Harty and Katy O’Donnell contributed to this report.

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