NEWS: Inside the GOP talks on Obamacare

IN THIS EDITION

Inside the Obamacare subsidy talks

Tech: House leaders urge Trump to wait on AI order

The Vault: FinServ’s NDAA blame game begins

Dems push to block Venezuela ops spending

THE TOP

Inside the Obamacare subsidy talks

Happy Friday morning.

News: Republican senators have been privately lobbying President Donald Trump to support a limited short-term extension of Obamacare subsidies, arguing it would save the GOP from a 2026 drubbing and buy time for Congress to pass a longer-term health care plan that mirrors the president’s preferences.

Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) has spoken with the president several times this week to pitch the idea, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Britt and other GOP senators, some with different views on the subject, were scheduled to meet with Trump on Thursday, but we’re told the meeting was canceled for unrelated reasons.

The pitch comes as senators are staring down a mid-December deadline to have a bill ready for floor action — a commitment Senate Majority Leader John Thune made as part of negotiations to end the government shutdown.

Trump’s involvement is critical to secure enough GOP support in both chambers for any health care bill, especially one that renews an Obamacare policy. The effort to sway Trump on a two-step process also highlights the urgency many Republicans feel about finding a solution to address the year-end cliff, rather than turning the floor votes into doomed-to-fail messaging exercises.

“I see the political shop on the Democratic side just churning up all the very sympathetic stories that are gonna result if we don’t come up with a reasonable plan,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) warned.

A short-term extension of the Obamacare subsidies could mean one, two or even three years, with strict eligibility crackdowns, such as income caps and anti-fraud provisions. A Trump-led push would provide political cover for vulnerable Republicans; it would also save Thune from having to deal with a divided conference.

Failing to address the immediate cliff would make it impossible for Republicans to negotiate a longer-term plan, Britt and others have argued to Trump. Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), for example, have lots of ideas.

Scott, who unveiled an Obamacare fix on Thursday, was on the invite list for the White House meeting. And Cassidy joined us on Fly Out Day — more on that in a bit.

The challenges. There are significant hurdles to getting this done. When senators return from the Thanksgiving recess, they’ll have just two weeks to hold a vote — though Thune could extend the deadline if a deal is close.

Complicating matters further, Trump has gone on tirades against the Obamacare subsidies recently, and Republicans have mimicked his posture.

“I’m not opposed to bipartisan deals. The problem is, Obamacare was never a bipartisan deal. Democrats seem to be saying you need to swallow this partisan bill that was sold under false pretenses,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told us. “That’s unacceptable.”

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats seem to be hardening their position and downplaying the chances of securing enough GOP votes for even a pared-back Obamacare subsidy extension.

“If they don’t have the votes, then what are we even doing here?” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said. “The burden is on them to demonstrate that they can help us enact something. I’m not super interested in six [Republicans] flopping around on the deck pretending they’re gonna save [Obamacare].”

Many Republicans are now questioning whether there’d even be a sufficient number of Democratic votes, noting that the party’s leaders are no longer calling for bipartisan meetings with Trump — a tactic they used throughout the shutdown to portray Republicans as intransigent.

At the townhouse. During his appearance on Fly Out Day, Cassidy expressed confidence that Democrats could be interested in crafting a longer-term plan to help cut health care costs, though some Republicans want to use the party-line reconciliation process.

But Cassidy is cognizant that the political dynamics need to shift if Congress is going to act before the end of the year.

“People have to come out of their ‘Oh, I’m going to oppose it because the other side has proposed it,’” said Cassidy, who chairs the Senate HELP Committee. “They have to come out of that mindset.”

As we’ve reported, some Republican senators are already urging their leadership to allow a “side-by-side” vote on a GOP-favored health care bill. While this would provide political cover for vulnerable Republicans, it would essentially guarantee that there won’t be 60 votes for either proposal.

The House. There’s still intense resistance among House Republicans to the Obamacare subsidies. House Republicans who want to extend them are throwing everything at the wall but getting increasingly desperate for a solution.

“I’m from Virginia, where politically there’s a lot going on these days and the elections didn’t turn out as we would want them,” Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) told us. “And I know health care is an issue that’s important to people in my district.”

A bipartisan group met on Wednesday and is planning to meet virtually with senators over the Thanksgiving recess, Kiggans said.

GOP members of the Problem Solvers Caucus discussed health care options at a Thursday night dinner. Co-chairs Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) have been keeping in touch with Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

News: Suozzi and Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.) are proposing a new bill that would extend the subsidies for two years with added limits.

The bill would add a new income cap, extending the enhanced credits for families of four earning less than $200,000 per year and phasing them out for families of four earning between $200,000 and $300,000.

One other idea under discussion is a one-year subsidy extension with income caps and fraud-prevention changes, paired with a commission to negotiate a longer-term solution next year.

But there’s still no sign House GOP leaders would put a bill on the floor. And there’s very little time left for a discharge petition.

— Andrew Desiderio, Samantha Handler, Laura Weiss and Jake Sherman

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Tech: House leaders urge Trump to wait on AI order

News: House Republican leaders are urging the White House to hold off on an executive order targeting state artificial intelligence laws while lawmakers continue to negotiate a legislative compromise, according to several people familiar with the discussions.

The leadership feels that, if signed, the draft order — which leaked widely on Thursday — will short-circuit that work.

As we scooped, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has been looking to include language preempting state AI laws in the annual defense policy bill, though the effort faces resistance from key lawmakers.

The draft executive order would empower the Justice Department to sue states that have implemented AI regulations while also allowing the administration to withhold coveted broadband funding from these states.

Hill, please. Some Republican lawmakers told us they’d prefer Congress take the lead, arguing legislation is necessary to make preemption legally sound.

“I don’t think the executive branch has the authority to enforce preemption on the states,” Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) said. “If they’ve found some legal angle, I haven’t heard about it.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters he’d “rather do it through the law” than an executive action, which he said would not “give us long-term certainty.”

Over the summer, Tillis was the lone vote to keep an earlier version of AI preemption in the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Meanwhile, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was conspicuously silent. Cruz, who has been the leading advocate for preemption of state AI laws, declined to respond to multiple reporters’ questions on the potential executive order.

AI politics. The leaked order complicates potential negotiations over federal AI standards.

Any legislation on the topic would almost certainly have to be bipartisan. There is a significant number of Democrats open to preemption so long as it includes a national standard for AI safety and other safeguards. But any White House effort to bypass Congress will make them less willing to strike a deal with congressional Republicans.

The administration is making little effort to address these concerns.

As we scooped, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told tech industry officials Wednesday night that the administration will act on its own if lawmakers can’t make progress.

Despite reports Trump could sign the order this week, the president seemed likely to hold off for now, according to several people familiar with the process.

— Diego Areas Munhoz, Jake Sherman and Ben Brody

DEFENSE

Dems push to block Venezuela ops spending

News: House Democrats plan to unveil a bill Friday that would cut off funding for U.S. operations in or against Venezuela.

The legislation, led by Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), would bar the Trump administration from spending money on military campaigns targeting Venezuela unless lawmakers approve an Authorization for Use of Military Force, according to an aide.

Moulton plans to announce the push during a 9 a.m. news conference, alongside fellow Democratic Reps. Jimmy Panetta (Calif.), Eugene Vindman (Va.) and Jake Auchincloss (Mass.).

The lawmakers will also use the unveiling to denounce President Donald Trump’s comments Thursday accusing a group of House and Senate Democrats of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” The group of lawmakers, who all have national security backgrounds, filmed a video urging military members to refuse to follow “unlawful orders.”

Pressure campaign. The legislation continues House Democrats’ pushback against the Trump administration’s strikes targeting alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.

Half a dozen leading lawmakers earlier this week pitched a resolution seeking to prevent Trump from using U.S. forces against any groups he’s labeled as designated terrorist organizations within the Western Hemisphere. The Senate has blocked two similar resolutions in recent months.

– Briana Reilly

…AND THERE’S MORE

The DCCC outraised the NRCC in October, bringing in $7.6 million to the GOP’s $5.7 million. The DCCC also ended with slightly more cash on hand, $46.8 million, compared to the NRCC, $45.7 million.

Both congressional campaign committees had roughly the same cash on hand at the end of October as they did at the end of September.

On the Senate side, the NRSC slightly outraised the DSCC, $7.8 million to $7 million. But Senate Democrats have more cash on hand, $18.4 million, compared to the GOP, $14.9 million.

At the national level, things are getting dire for the DNC. The committee raised $23.1 million last month but $15 million of that came from a loan.

The RNC, meanwhile, raised $14.7 million and has $91.2 million banked. The DNC has $18.2 million in the bank.

Tariff checks. President Donald Trump’s idea of sending tariff rebate checks out to Americans has yet another critic.

Leaders of the new Congressional Territories and Commonwealths Caucus — Resident Commissioner for Puerto Rico Pablo José Hernández, a Democrat, and Guam Del. James Moylan, a Republican — sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urging him to include U.S. territories in any program and emphasizing that the relief must go through Congress.

— Ally Mutnick and Laura Weiss

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