The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

Inside how Johnson handled steering and what it means for the pitfalls ahead

Gabbard and Patel’s time in the spotlight

The Vault: Last call for the FinServ gavel

New Senate calendar draws complaints

Miller Strategies gets a top Jordan staffer

THE TOP

Inside how Johnson handled steering and what it means for the pitfalls ahead

Happy Thursday morning.

When the 33 members of the House Republican Steering Committee entered HC-5 in the basement of the Capitol Monday, many of the GOP lawmakers and their top aides were certain that Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) would be picked as the next chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Wagner, a former U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg, had the support of Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, her longtime close ally. That was six of the 17 votes Wagner needed to grab the gavel. The full conference needs to ratify the pick, but that’s mostly a formality.

The other House Republicans vying for the position — Reps. Darrell Issa (Calif.), Joe Wilson (S.C.) and Brian Mast (Fla.) — were viewed as having little chance of beating Wagner, a sixth-term Missouri Republican.

But then something interesting happened.

Scalise spoke on behalf of Wagner, delivering a stirring endorsement of her candidacy. But Johnson did not. Members of the powerful steering panel, who typically defer to the speaker and look for his cues on committee posts, came to believe that Johnson was backing Mast.

Recollections differ among the roughly dozen members of the panel we spoke to. But after Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) delivered an endorsement of Mast, lawmakers in the room thought that Johnson gave his approval of Mast’s candidacy. Some Republicans said Johnson made an offhand remark about the strength of Mast’s presentation. Others recalled that Johnson said it would be “hard to say no” to Mast’s pitch.

One steering committee member said that Johnson said “We should listen to the general when he speaks.” Bergman is a former lieutenant general in the Marine Corps.

Johnson told us Thursday evening that he’d made clear to lawmakers that he wasn’t trying to put his thumb on the scale for anyone.

“I said ‘Don’t look for cues,’” Johnson said. “I am Switzerland here. I couldn’t have said it more clearly than that.”

But members of the steering committee didn’t get the message. And several of them told us they thought Johnson was backing Mast.

Mast won the election on the first ballot, a massive surprise given there were four candidates in the race.

The postmortem on what happened has captivated members of the secretive steering committee over the last few days. Several Republicans tell us that they have had a harder time “reading the room” — the steering committee — than ever before. Former speakers like John Boehner, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy rarely let their preferences for committee chairs remain a secret. With four votes — no one other than Scalise has more than one — Johnson’s support is a big deal.

This episode teaches us a bit about Johnson’s leadership style. And it dovetails nicely with the mess unfolding over passing President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.

Right now, for instance, Johnson is stuck between two competing camps over the best strategy for advancing the heart of Trump’s legislative program.

On one side is Stephen Miller, Trump’s top adviser who will serve as the top domestic policy hand in the White House, and incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Miller and Thune want Johnson to agree to pass two budget reconciliation bills — one with a slew of domestic priorities early next year and a second package later with an extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts.

On the other side is House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.). Smith has told anyone who’ll listen that Congress could miss an opportunity to extend the Trump tax cuts if the White House insists on splitting the president-elect’s agenda into two bills.

Smith has made the case that, when it comes to tax policy, he understands the House better than anyone. Smith’s belief is that unless Congress quickly crafts one massive reconciliation package with all the critical policies that Trump wants to sign into law, tax cuts could fall by the wayside.

For what it’s worth, Smith’s position has a bevy of backers in the Johnson-Scalise-House Majority Whip Tom Emmer orbit, many of whom shudder at the prospect of having to balance the various equities of tax policy without the sweeteners of border security funding, energy provisions and other goodies.

But Johnson hasn’t shown his hand yet. He’s been straddling both positions. Inside GOP meetings, some have come to believe that Johnson is going to bat for Smith with the Trump team.

Then on Fox News on Tuesday night, Johnson told Bret Baier that “there probably will be at least two reconciliation packages.” At least!

As we noted in Wednesday’s Midday edition, opposition to two reconciliation bills is hardening among the rank-and-file House Republicans and committee chairs. The House GOP leadership team is eager for Johnson to take a position and rally Republicans around it. Because right now, Smith is whipping up opposition to Thune and Trump’s plan. And it’s working.

— Jake Sherman and Melanie Zanona

Don’t miss: Our Vault Quarterly special edition will go out later this morning. Check your inboxes and our website for the latest on the battle over the expiring Trump tax cuts, Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-S.C.) ascent to chair of the Senate Banking Committee and an exclusive interview with Business Roundtable CEO Joshua Bolten.

NOMS, NOMS, NOMS

Gabbard and Patel’s time in the spotlight

Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel, step on up.

As the outlook for Pete Hegseth’s confirmation as secretary of defense improves – it’s not a sure bet, as we noted, but the chances are better – things are looking increasingly rosy for a number of President-elect Donald Trump’s other potentially controversial nominees.

Republican senators are insistent that Gabbard and Patel — despite their unorthodox backgrounds and extreme viewpoints — are being well received by the Senate GOP. Gabbard, though, remains the toughest vote for some Republicans.

Gabbard is seeking to be the next director of national intelligence and Patel is looking to lead the FBI. Both have fiercely criticized the way things are currently run at the agencies they’re seeking to take over.

As Gabbard spoke with Republican senators with hawkish, more traditional views on foreign policy this week, the former Hawaii Democrat got a largely positive response.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he thinks Gabbard has “a very good chance” of getting confirmed.

Rounds said he’s been impressed by her performance in the one-on-one sessions with GOP senators and is working to prepare Gabbard for the inevitable grilling from Senate Democrats during her public hearing. Democrats will likely focus their efforts on Gabbard’s connections with former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, as well as her history of anti-Trump comments.

“I don’t have a problem with someone going and visiting with an official from another country. It’s a matter of, ‘What was your purpose for getting there?’” Rounds told us. “Those are the types of questions that we want her to be prepared to respond to.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said that every senator he’s spoken to about Gabbard has told him she’s “done a phenomenal job.”

After Gabbard met with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the current ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Rubio lavished her with praise. Rubio is Trump’s pick to lead the State Department and will be leaving the Senate next month when he’s confirmed.

Gabbard’s history of some foreign policy beliefs that are out of step with establishment Republican views aren’t necessarily a turn-off, Senate Republicans told us.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is encouraging nominees — from Gabbard to Patel — to directly confront their checkered past.

“Every nominee would be well served to cover the top ten most audacious things that have been said about them, and in the first part of their meeting just take that off the table,” Tillis said. “All of us have made comments that we wish we’d been a little bit more elegant, or shouldn’t have said at all — if that’s the case, just stipulate that.”

Gabbard will meet with incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Thursday, in addition to Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.).

In other nomination developments: When FBI Director Christopher Wray announced he was stepping down from his post next month, it cleared a major hurdle for Patel to get confirmed. Republicans we spoke to said that Patel was already in a strong position before Wray’s announcement. But Wray’s announcement was a boost to Patel’s chances.

Another hot-button nominee — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s bid to lead the Health and Human Services Department — will kick off meetings next week.

Vance on the move: Vice President-elect JD Vance was at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday morning and specifically flew to D.C. to help defeat one of President Joe Biden’s National Labor Relations Board nominees. It’s a significant vote given Vance had vowed to go to great lengths to vote during the lame duck, following earlier criticism immediately following the election.

— Max Cohen

SENATE

New Senate calendar draws complaints

Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune made a big deal of unveiling the 2025 Senate calendar last week.

Senators — who, for years, have flown into D.C. on Monday nights and left on Thursday afternoons — were going to find themselves working five days per week. And there were going to be long stretches where the Senate was in session every week, especially early in President-elect Donald Trump’s new term.

But Thune is already hearing grumbling from some of his Republican colleagues, particularly some of the veteran senators or those who face long trips to be in town every Monday.

These complaints were raised during a closed-door Senate GOP meeting earlier this week — and Thune promised he would try to be flexible. Senators are likely to see some of these Friday votes dropped. But not early in the year, not until a large number of Trump’s nominees are cleared and the Republican agenda gets passed, Thune warned.

“The 2025 calendar is a serious commitment to accomplishing the long list of shared goals between Senate Republicans and President Trump,” said Ryan Wrasse, Thune’s communications director.

— John Bresnahan

AND THERE’S MORE

Miller Strategies gets a top Jordan staffer

Downtown Download. Tyler Grimm, a top adviser to House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), is joining Miller Strategies as a principal.

Grimm is Jordan’s chief counsel and one of his key advisers on policy and strategy. Very few people in Jordan’s inner circle defect, so this is a notable move.

Grimm has been on the Hill for 14 years and has been with the Ohio Republican through impeachment, numerous investigations and a variety of key legislative topics such as tech regulation and intellectual property.

With Jordan and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) likely to investigate the private sector in the 119th Congress, the market for oversight hands downtown will be booming.

“We hate to lose Tyler Grimm because he’s a tremendous staffer and one of the best strategists on Capitol Hill, but I know he will do a great job for Jeff Miller and his group,” Jordan said in a statement.

Miller Strategies, helmed by Jeff Miller, is a major player in GOP politics. Miller is the finance chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration and is a close ally of GOP leadership. The firm’s clients include Apple, Anheuser-Busch, Charles Schwab, Comcast, Delta Air Lines, Oracle, the PGA Tour, Southern Company and Blackstone.

BOLD PAC news: Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) will serve as the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC for another term. The California Democrat is touting that BOLD PAC poured $6.5 million in independent expenditures this cycle and oversaw key wins, like Sen.-elect Ruben Gallego’s (D-Ariz.) victory.

House AI report ready. The chamber’s task force on artificial intelligence unanimously approved their final report Wednesday, according to the group’s chair, Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.). The report will get rolled out “within the next few days” with more than 80 recommendations, and will complement the Senate’s AI report from earlier this year, Obernolte added.

— Jake Sherman, Max Cohen and Ben Brody

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