House Republican Study Committee Chair August Pfluger said Tuesday he “fully expect[s]” Congress to have completed work on a sweeping party-line policy package by August recess.

“The speaker is fully briefed on our ideas,” the Texas Republican said in an interview of the RSC’s framework for a budget reconciliation bill, which would follow the GOP’s tax and spending megabill last year and the immigration enforcement funding legislation President Donald Trump wants on his desk by June 1. “We are starting our meetings in earnest this week and I expect that we’re going to have some very good discussions.”

Pflugers added he has “produced some timelines that we think are reasonable to get this done by the end of the July period” — an aggressive timetable given the continued disagreements in a narrowly-divided Republican Conference about what a “reconciliation 3.0” effort should entail.

House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington said in an interview Tuesday he would “reserve judgment” on the White House’s request for Republicans to include $1 billion in security funding in their party-line package until he saw legislative text, but cautioned he wanted to see an “itemized” list of what the money would be used for.

“I hope it’s narrowly tailored to getting ICE and CBP funded and restoring the safety and security of the American people — that was our intent from the beginning,” Arrington, a Texas Republican, said of the bill GOP lawmakers want to pass through the filibuster-skirting reconciliation process to fund the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement activities.

His comments come as GOP lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned about the administration’s desire to wedge $1 billion into the reconciliation bill, which can be used to fund the security features of a new White House ballroom and other “frequented venues” by the president.

Secret Service Director Sean Curran met with Senate Republicans at a closed-door lunch Tuesday to walk through the funding request, providing a handout breaking down the funding, but he failed to convince everyone present that approving the full amount was a wise idea.

President Donald Trump has yet to name a nominee for his next attorney general, but congressional Democrats are making clear they intend to make things difficult for Todd Blanche, the former deputy attorney general now leading the Justice Department in an acting capacity.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in a new letter is accusing Blanche of leveraging his “office to improperly shower government cash on Donald Trump’s political operatives and sycophants.”

Specifically, Raskin is alleging that Blanche — who is running the agency after Pam Bondi’s ouster — ordered the FBI to pay large sums to FBI agents accused of misconduct.

“The record definitively shows that the agents were not disciplined for making protected disclosures to Congress or for the imaginary offense of being a Republican,” Raskin wrote. “They were disciplined for reckless misuse of classified information or serious episodes of professional misconduct that endangered national security.”

For example, Raskin writes that the DOJ approved payments in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for someone who previously had his security clearance revoked after he was involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and misrepresented his actions to the FBI.

Judiciary Democrats did not provide supporting documentation for the sources of some of their claims. But Raskin argued the settlements underscore “broader pattern of the Trump Administration using the public fisc as a slush fund to reward its allies.”

He asked for a host of materials relevant to the Democratic investigation into the issue, and the request suggests that Democrats — should they retake the House in the midterms — could make the settlements a key part of their oversight activities in the next Congress.

A DOJ spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

Raskin also alleged in his letter that staffers in the office of Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley were involved in talks around the settlements. The Iowa Republican’s office has previously said he played a role in the meditation of FBI “whistleblowers” settlements.

“This seven-page screed is a disgusting and defamatory attempt to smear legitimate whistleblowers while protecting their Biden administration retaliators,” said Clare Slattery, a spokesperson for Grassley. “Senator Grassley stands by his efforts to defend and protect all whistleblowers, no matter which administration they blow the whistle on, just as he has done for decades.”