Congress steps on the gas pedal

IN THIS EDITION

Why legislation is suddenly swamping Congress

Lengthy Venezuela briefing exacerbates partisan tensions

New signs of life for government funding, but a shutdown still looms

Gowdy heads to top GOP lobbying shop

THE TOP

Why legislation is suddenly swamping Congress

Happy Tuesday morning.

Today is the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Like you, we’ll never forget the events of that dark day.

All of a sudden, it’s turned into a high-stakes legislative week on Capitol Hill.

Not only is Congress dealing with a president who insists he’ll “run” Venezuela and may reimburse major energy companies to rebuild that country’s oil infrastructure. Not only are lawmakers watching an administration that is publicly toying with taking Greenland and overthrowing the communist government in Cuba. But now members and senators face a stack of high-profile votes to kick off this election year.

Consider what the House will take up just this week:

— A three-bill, 414-page FY2026 funding bill. The package includes the Interior, Energy and Water and Commerce-Justice-Science spending bills. But there’s still no deal yet on the most difficult and largest of the annual measures, including Defense or Labor-HHS.

— The House GOP leadership expects a procedural vote on Wednesday and a final passage vote on Thursday on legislation to extend the enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies for three years. Passage of the legislation — forced onto the floor after a revolt by GOP moderates — is an early-year defeat for Speaker Mike Johnson. This will put pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to find a path to extend the expiring tax credits.

— On Thursday, the House will vote to overturn President Donald Trump’s first two vetoes of his second term, both of which came during the holiday break. If successful, the overrides would be a rare instance of GOP pushback against Trump. More on this in a moment.

Add to that: Trump will speak to House Republicans at 10 a.m. today during a legislative retreat at the Kennedy Center. This is a closed-door session aimed at rallying House Republicans as they enter a difficult election year.

Across the Capitol, the Senate is expected to vote Thursday on a Democratic-led war powers resolution to end the administration’s efforts in Venezuela. This follows early Saturday morning’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a daring military raid. Maduro is now being held in a federal prison in New York while Trump decides what’s next for the embattled South American nation.

Administration officials will be on Capitol Hill to hold separate briefings for the Senate and House on the situation in Venezuela. Top committee lawmakers and the “Gang of Eight” got a briefing Monday evening.

Again, all of this is in the first week back from the two-week holiday break.

Now let’s dig deeper.

Venezuela war powers. Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) Venezuela war powers resolution is on track to get a vote on Thursday. But Kaine is making clear that he won’t stop with Venezuela, as lawmakers are now taking Trump’s threats toward other nations more seriously following what happened in Caracas.

Citing Trump’s increasingly escalatory rhetoric regarding Cuba, Greenland and Colombia, Kaine told us he plans to force similar votes aimed at preventing Trump from engaging in hostilities elsewhere without congressional approval.

Kaine, though, is unsure whether Republicans will join him.

“It might be this. It might be the vote on Greenland. It might be the vote on Cuba. It might be the vote on Mexico. It might be the vote on Colombia,” Kaine said. “You’re gonna see a lot of votes on these things … When it’s repeated over and over again, you’ve got to take it seriously.”

The Venezuela resolution isn’t likely to go anywhere, even if it passes. The White House is already working overtime to try to hold Republicans together. There were just two GOP defections — Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky — on a previous war power effort centered on the wave of deadly U.S. boat strikes.

At least one additional Republican, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, expressed an openness to the new war powers effort on Monday and said there are “too many unanswered questions” about the Venezuela operation.

Plus, there’s no guarantee that a GOP-run House will approve it.

Veto override. One of the bills Trump vetoed is a water infrastructure project in Colorado. Trump’s veto was the latest salvo in his push to punish Colorado amid state officials’ refusal to release a convicted election-tamperer.

The second bill benefits a Native American tribe in Florida that Trump accused of trying to “obstruct” his immigration policies.

Overriding a presidential veto requires a two-thirds majority vote. House leaders believe they can hit that threshold, but Thune was noncommittal about what the Senate would do.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who’s among the backers of the Native American bill that was vetoed, didn’t sound ready to break with Trump.

“I talked to the president about it. He has concerns about it. I think we ought to address his concerns,” Scott told us.

Assuming all 47 Democratic senators vote to override, it would take at least 20 GOP senators for a successful override.

Health care. While the House’s three-year clean extension is D.O.A. in the Senate, Thune told us he’s “not averse” to a deal that includes a pared-back extension of the Obamacare subsidies. Thune said any deal would need to come together within the next month in order to have a realistic chance of success.

A bipartisan group of senators met again Monday night as they try to strike a compromise. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), who’s helping lead those talks, said after the meeting that they’ve made “a tremendous amount of progress” but compared the effort to “climbing Mt. Everest.”

“If there’s a deal to be made, it’s going to be made very soon or not at all,” Moreno added.

Moreno also said the group wants any bipartisan deal to include an extension of the open enrollment period through March 1.

— Jake Sherman, Andrew Desiderio and Laura Weiss

DEFENSE

Lengthy Venezuela briefing exacerbates partisan tensions

A classified briefing Monday night deepened the partisan fissures on Capitol Hill over the military operation that left Venezuela’s president in American custody and President Donald Trump declaring the United States would “run” the South American country for the foreseeable future.

Democrats demanded more details from the Trump administration following the more than two-hour-long briefing. It was lawmakers’ first opportunity to hear from top national security leaders in person following the weekend’s stunning events.

“Their plan for the U.S. running Venezuela is vague, based on wishful thinking and unsatisfying,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. “I did not receive any assurances that we would not try to do the same thing in other countries.”

Republicans rallied around Trump. They defended the operation as limited in scope while pushing back on characterizations that capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and bringing him to the United States to face drug trafficking charges amounted to regime change.

Here’s what Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters:

Let’s be clear: This was a de facto regime change. The United States captured Maduro, jailed him in New York City and said they will be forcing Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president and now the interim president, to do what Trump wants. If she doesn’t, Trump has threatened to replace her too.

The briefing was held for congressional leaders and members of national security committees. Rank-and-file lawmakers are expected to get briefed separately on Wednesday.

Questions about what comes next for Venezuela dominated Capitol Hill on Monday. GOP lawmakers — including members of leadership — who haven’t yet been briefed indicated they wanted more information.

“I think the interpretation of ‘run’ has been pretty broad,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told us.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said: “I don’t think anybody knows [enough] at this point.”

Reactions run the gambit. Other senior committee Republicans weren’t especially animated. Heading into the briefing, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Jim Risch (R-Idaho) said his panel would “probably” hold a public hearing on Venezuela. Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said he believed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had “clarified” what it means for the United States to “run” Venezuela.

Rubio joined other administration officials — such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine — in briefing lawmakers Monday night.

In a Monday interview with NBC News, Trump reiterated that he was ultimately in control of Venezuela policy and said oil companies would “get reimbursed by us, or through revenue” for rebuilding the country’s fossil fuel infrastructure. Such a move would likely need congressional approval.

– Briana Reilly and Anthony Adragna

GOVERNMENT FUNDING

New signs of life for government funding, but a shutdown still looms

Congressional leaders and appropriators are taking a major step this week toward averting a partial government shutdown at the end of the month, but there’s a ton of work left to do.

House and Senate appropriators released a bipartisan funding deal Monday for the FY2026 Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior and Energy and Water spending bills. The three-bill funding package is on track for passage over the next few weeks, with initial House action expected later this week.

The package largely rejects major spending cuts the White House had sought and doesn’t include provisions that would have led to partisan blowups.

The nearly $180 billion package was backed by Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and the top Democratic appropriators, Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.).

Even House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) said in a statement that while he’s still going through the minibus, it’s “a good first step to actually lowering spending next year to control our runaway federal debt.”

What’s in, what’s out. Let’s break down the minibus.

— The Kennedy Center. The Interior bill doesn’t use the “Trump Kennedy Center” name, instead still referring to the memorial as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. House appropriators had also sought a provision naming the opera house after First Lady Melania Trump, but that didn’t make it into the final bill.

— Epstein records. Senate appropriators had approved an amendment from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on the CJS bill that would have required the Justice Department to retain records related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and submit a report to Congress. Appropriators had agreed to the measure unanimously, but it was ultimately left out of the legislation.

— Rejecting Trump’s spending cuts. House Democrats said the appropriations bills leave aside roughly $163 billion in proposed cuts from the Trump administration. Instead, the bills stave off drastic spending reductions for climate research, the EPA and NASA.

— Protecting the power of the purse. The appropriations bills included directives that detail how the administration must spend the funds. While that language is often included in funding bills, Democrats noted that the CR gave more leeway to OMB.

What’s next? The minibus heads to the House Rules Committee tonight. The House will vote on the package on Thursday.

Negotiators are still working on the six remaining funding bills that must get done by Jan. 30. Some of those bills may require a short-term or long-term CR.

— Samantha Handler and Andrew Desiderio

DOWNTOWN DOWNLOAD

Gowdy heads to top GOP lobbying shop

News: Former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) is signing on with Miller Strategies, joining forces with one of the top Republican lobbyists in D.C.

Miller Strategies is run by Jeff Miller, one of the party’s top fundraisers and lobbyists. The lobbying firm counts Carnival Corp., Morgan Stanley, Nike, Koch, Apple, Uber, Stripe, Oracle and OpenAI as clients.

Miller Strategies has signed 114 new clients since President Donald Trump was elected in 2024, according to lobbying disclosures. Miller was the finance chair of Trump’s inauguration and has raised millions of dollars for GOP lawmakers. Miller is a close friend and ally of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Miller is also a partner at the public affairs firm Watchtower Strategy with McCarthy, Dan Conston, Arthur Schwartz, Cliff Simms and Brian Walsh.

Gowdy will be of counsel at Miller Strategies.

Gowdy represented South Carolina in the House from 2011 to 2019. He served as the chair of the House Benghazi Committee and the Oversight Committee. Gowdy, a federal prosecutor before coming to Congress, is also a Fox News contributor.

In addition, Miller Strategies is bringing on Natalie McIntyre as a principal. McIntyre was in the White House legislative affairs office. She previously worked as legislative director for Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.).

– Jake Sherman

THE CAMPAIGN

Minnesota scoop. Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) raised $2.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, an impressive haul for her Senate campaign. Craig ended the year with $4 million on hand in her bid against Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in the Democratic primary.

Ad news. Liberal outside group Opportunity Wisconsin is spending $420,000 on an ad attacking Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) over rising health care costs. The ad features a Van Orden constituent bemoaning an increase of $12,000 to her health care bill as a result of the expired ACA subsidies.

“I don’t know what I’m gonna do. How could you do that to another human being?” the constituent says. “We need to tell Congressman Derrick Van Orden to stop raising our health care costs.”

House fundraising. Democrat Manny Rutinel raised $425,000 in Q4 and has $1.2 million on hand. Rutinel is running to unseat Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) in Colorado’s battleground 8th District.

Democrat Denise Powell raised $305,000 in Q4 and ended the year with $1 million raised. Powell is running to flip Nebraska’s 2nd District, the seat currently represented by retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.).

— Max Cohen

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