The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

It snowed. Fun! But Congress will be in session to certify the election

Thune to Senate GOP: Don’t overrule parliamentarian on reconciliation

The Vault: Trump backs one reconciliation-bill approach

A new ad about Trump’s health policies

THE TOP

It snowed. Fun! But Congress will be in session to certify the election

Happy Monday morning.

Today is Jan. 6, the fourth anniversary of the attack on the Capitol. And it’s the constitutionally appointed day for Congress to certify Donald Trump’s Electoral College victory.

It snowed in D.C. It’s pretty significant snow, meaning several inches are on the ground already with more expected. Maybe lots more. The federal government and D.C. public schools are closed.

Keep an eye on the Metro website to see if your train is messed up. Bus service is already reduced due to the weather. And remember, roads are closed around the Capitol today because of the election certification proceedings.

On any other day, Congress would just fold it up and cancel everything. But not today!

What a snowy Washington means for certification. Let’s start with this: Speaker Mike Johnson is intent on having Congress certify the presidential election today. The House GOP leadership told members to stay in town over the weekend and many did. Many House Democrats left town. But Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are expected to have enough lawmakers present to conduct the proceedings.

If any of this changes before the appointed time of 1 p.m., we’ll let you know on our texting platform.

Johnson and Thune could theoretically delay the proceedings if necessary. The statute says Congress “shall be in session” but doesn’t say it needs to finish on Jan. 6. But we’ve been told that congressional leaders want to start and finish today.

Your Congress this week. This week is going to be pretty quiet in the Capitol. Between the snow and former President Jimmy Carter lying in state in the Rotunda, there’s not much for lawmakers to do.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise announced two bills would be considered pursuant to a rule: the Laken Riley Act (H.R. 29) introduced by Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), and Rep. Chip Roy’s (R-Texas) H.R. 23, which would impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court.

However, Johnson hasn’t yet appointed a Rules Committee chair or named members to the panel. We’re told those selections could come this week.

House Republicans also have a number of bills related to Amtrak and disaster relief lined up.

House GOP weekend plans. We scooped on the Punchbowl News text platform Sunday that Trump will host a broad cross-section of House Republicans at Mar-a-Lago next weekend. As we all know, Trump enjoys a give-and-take with elected officials.

The House Freedom Caucus will be first up, with a meeting on Jan. 10. Theoretically, the HFC should be Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill. But there are factions in the group that will drive a hard bargain with Trump over deficit reduction and other fiscal matters.

On Jan. 11, Trump will have meetings with House Republicans focused on the state and local tax deduction. This is mostly blue state Republicans — think New Yorkers, New Jerseyans and Californians. The SALT cap, instituted as part of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, is one of the gnarliest issues Trump has to solve in renewing and expanding the tax rates. Trump has said he wants to fix the SALT cap, but he hasn’t provided details on how. He faces a skeptical House GOP leadership and membership in getting this done.

House GOP committee chairs will also be at Mar-a-Lago on Jan. 11. And a broad selection of the House Republicans will be there on Jan. 12.

But there’s a risk here. When it comes to legislating, Trump is susceptible to latching onto the advice of the last person he spoke to. He’ll have literally dozens of House Republicans at Mar-a-Lago on the brink of his inauguration. This will be a challenge for Johnson. He may want to sit in on all these meetings.

Case in point: Johnson told House Republicans at an off-campus retreat over the weekend that Trump favors a single, large-scale reconciliation package, which we also scooped. Trump publicly voiced support for this approach in a social media post Sunday. This comes after people in Trump’s orbit and Thune had spent weeks advocating for a two-step approach. Much more on reconciliation below.

Noms. This is the final week for Trump’s Cabinet nominees to assuage senators’ concerns before confirmation hearings begin next week.

The focus will shift to Senate Democrats, as many of Trump’s nominees have already met with nearly every GOP senator. It’ll be interesting to see which Democrats step forward for this, especially with some of the more controversial nominees. Most Democrats haven’t met with any yet.

Here’s some news: Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, is picking up support from the parents of Kayla Mueller, a U.S. aid worker who was kidnapped in Syria and killed by ISIS terrorists. Her parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller, spoke at the RNC convention in 2020 as well.

Gabbard’s record and public comments on Syria have been under a microscope, including her secret 2017 meeting with recently-deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Carter in the Capitol. Carter will lay in state in the Capitol ahead of his funeral service on Thursday. Congressional leaders will hold a ceremony for Carter in the Rotunda on Tuesday, followed by a two-day viewing period. Carter’s state funeral in Georgia took place over the weekend.

— Jake Sherman, Melanie Zanona, Andrew Desiderio and John Bresnahan

The Daily Punch 🥊 With new episodes every weekday morning, The Daily Punch brings you inside Capitol Hill, the White House and Washington all in less than 15 minutes. Listen to today’s episode now.

THE SENATE

Thune to Senate GOP: Don’t overrule parliamentarian on reconciliation

Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated to us that he’d oppose efforts to overrule the Senate’s parliamentarian if certain GOP border security and tax provisions are ruled inconsistent with budget reconciliation rules.

In a brief interview, Thune said on Friday that voting to reinstate sections that are scrapped by the Senate’s nonpartisan rules chief would amount to nuking the legislative filibuster, which Senate Republicans have vowed to preserve.

Here’s what Thune told us when we asked whether he’d advise his party against moving to override the parliamentarian:

Why this is important: Thune is planting a flag here amid concerns that Senate Republicans could try to enact sweeping border policy changes that would normally be prohibited under reconciliation rules. And he’s standing by his promise to keep the filibuster intact.

The budget reconciliation process allows the majority party to circumvent the 60-vote threshold and pass legislation with a simple majority, but only if the bill alters spending or revenue levels. That means policy changes can’t be included. And it’s up to the parliamentarian to determine whether each provision complies with basic reconciliation rules. This is the famous “Byrd Rule,” named after the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.).

Portions that the parliamentarian rules invalid are dropped from the legislation unless lawmakers motion to overrule the parliamentarian. This would require a simple majority.

However, as Thune suggested, this is essentially a backdoor elimination of the filibuster because it would allow Republicans to pass legislation that typically requires 60 votes with just 51.

Key limitations: Addressing border security through the reconciliation process would mean Republicans can only enact reforms that involve funding or have a “non-incidental” budgetary impact — such as allocating additional resources to seal the U.S.-Mexico border. In other words, immigration policy changes that aren’t tied to funding would almost certainly be a no-go.

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to use executive orders on this issue when he enters office, but those are easily reversible by the next president. Trying to go further as part of the reconciliation process — such as codifying Trump’s moves into law — would risk an unfavorable ruling by the parliamentarian or a point of order from Democrats.

This could prompt a pressure campaign from outside influences on overruling the parliamentarian — not dissimilar to how Trump called on Senate Republicans several times during his first term to get rid of the filibuster. They resisted these calls at the time.

GOP senators have shown that they’re not easily moved by these sorts of pressure campaigns (See the pro-Rick Scott lobbying during the GOP leadership race.) And Thune’s declaration is an early indication of how Senate Republican leaders will react if the parliamentarian takes a red pen to certain elements of a reconciliation bill.

But top Senate Republicans don’t think it’ll get to that point, however. They’ve argued that Democrats expanded the scope of reconciliation when they passed the American Rescue Plan in 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, although it’s unclear how those precedents could apply to Republicans’ yet-unwritten reconciliation bill.

— Andrew Desiderio

THE CAMPAIGN

A new ad about Trump’s health policies

The Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition is running an ad saying it believes President-elect Donald Trump when he says he wants to make a measurable impact on the disease in the next two years. It compares Trump to former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Michelle Obama. The spot is running in D.C.

— Jake Sherman

… AND THERE’S MORE

Downtown Download. Former Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) is now lobbying on behalf of ​​​Panacea Health Corporation. She is lobbying on “[i]ssues related to Provider Relief Fund.”

The Money Game. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) is hosting a swearing-in reception at the International Spy Museum on Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-Ohio) has a birthday celebration and thank you reception at District Winery from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) is hosting a thank you reception at the Frost Group’s offices.

— Jake Sherman

MOMENTS

CLIPS