News: Speaker Mike Johnson will announce this morning that he’s raised more than $50 million for House Republicans this cycle.
Johnson raised $18.65 million in the second quarter. FEC filings are due today. Buckle up.
The speaker has transferred more than $14 million to the NRCC. He’s also funneled $10.5 million directly to individual House Republicans, the most ever by a GOP speaker, his team says.
We scooped Monday that CLF and AAN, two House Republican-linked groups, raised a combined $60 million through the second quarter. Johnson’s team points out that if you combine the CLF haul and Johnson’s $50 million raise, that’s a record for a GOP speaker.
Rescissions. Senate GOP leaders are still short of the votes they need to begin moving forward with a $9.4 billion rescissions package, a high-stakes fight that will dominate the Senate floor this week.
OMB chief Russ Vought will meet with Senate Republicans today as Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the White House try to win over the GOP holdouts. President Donald Trump has made support for the rescissions package a Republican loyalty test, while Democrats are saying passage of the measure could blow up the FY2026 appropriations process.
Thune had planned to hold the first vote in the process, a motion to discharge the package from the Senate Appropriations Committee, sometime today. It’s not clear yet if that will happen.
“To be determined,” Thune told us last night when we asked if he has the votes. “We’re still having those conversations.”
Moderate Senate Republicans are raising alarms over the proposed cuts to foreign aid, especially PEPFAR, the George W. Bush-era HIV/AIDS prevention program.
They also don’t like the proposed $1 billion-plus cut to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund NPR and PBS. But PEPFAR and foreign aid are by far the biggest issues right now.
Behind the scenes. There’s little doubt Trump will largely get what he wants in the end, especially after saying he wouldn’t endorse anyone who opposes the rescissions package. Trump is “keeping score,” noted one GOP senator.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), the lead sponsor of the bill and a close Trump ally, told us he’s confident that a rescissions bill will ultimately pass in part because the president made it clear that this is a priority for him.
“It’s part of the core agenda [for Trump] — you have nominations, you have reconciliation, you have rescissions,” Schmitt said.
Yet moderate Republicans are being pushed to a place they don’t want to be. They’re not only worried about the spending cuts on paper, but they’re also concerned about what this package means for the appropriations process and the prospect of a government shutdown in the fall.
These concerns are particularly acute for Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the Senate Appropriations Committee chair. Last week, Collins asked OMB for details on how the proposed cuts will be implemented, especially on the foreign aid side. Other Republicans, including Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), spoke up in support of Collins’ request at a closed-door lunch. As of Monday night, Collins still hadn’t heard back.
“One frustration that many of us share is that we do not, still, have detailed information on many of the accounts. And we need that in order to make a decision,” Collins said Monday night. Collins declined to say whether she’ll oppose a motion to discharge the bill from her committee.
Thune was seen huddling on the floor Monday evening with Collins, along with Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.).
Here’s what Thune told us in response to Collins’ concerns:
“There’s a ton of latitude given to the administration on some of those accounts in the foreign policy space. So I don’t think that’s unusual, but I know people want more specifics.”
It’s unclear if Vought will be able to satisfy Collins and others. And it’s far from clear how Senate GOP leaders will handle amending the package, whether that’s via floor votes or with a substitute amendment. After the motion to discharge, senators will vote on the motion to proceed to the bill, which unlocks 10 hours of debate time, equally divided. After that, there’s a vote-a-rama.
The view from Dems. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), a top appropriator who’s running to be the next Democratic whip, tried to appeal to Republicans who fear that the appropriations process could unravel.
“They should do what they did in the first Trump term, which was reject a rescissions package, and it went away for the rest of the term,” Schatz said. “None of them want to do this. They are being dragged across the starting line and presumably across the finish line.”
In the House. Several House conservatives warned against potential Senate changes to the rescissions package but fell short of explicitly saying they’d oppose it.
We’ll also note that these conservatives have a history of falling in line when Trump tells them to do so.
“I’d have to look at what they do,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) said. “I probably won’t vote against it, but I’ll probably complain about it.”
Epstein fallout. In the House Rules Committee on Monday night, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) offered an amendment to pending Pentagon funding and crypto legislation that would’ve required the Justice Department to release its files on disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Republicans blocked the amendment over strong Democratic objections, although Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) crossed the aisle to vote with them. We expect more action on the Epstein front this week.
