The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

The risks and opportunities for Republicans on the budget resolution

Tensions persist after Nadler’s Judiciary ouster

Senate Democrats urge Carr to stop ‘weaponization of the FCC’

RFK, Rollins and what’s next on noms

Shutdown watch: 29 days out and House GOP feels unencumbered by the FRA

THE TOP

The risks and opportunities for Republicans on the budget resolution

Happy Thursday morning.

We’re going to start this morning on the topic that is consuming Capitol Hill, K Street and some parts of the administration — reconciliation and the future of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.

The Senate Budget Committee voted along party lines Wednesday to send a “skinny” budget resolution to the floor. The resolution, which was drafted by Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), was approved on an 11-10 vote after dozens of Democratic amendments were defeated by Republicans.

Graham’s proposal — which would boost defense and border security funding by more than $300 billion over four years, alongside some energy policy changes — could go to the Senate floor sometime in the next couple of weeks, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told us. It will take several days to process whenever that happens, including a vote-a-rama.

Across the Capitol. After lots of fits and starts, the House Budget Committee is going to begin marking up its spending blueprint today.

We’ll start by noting that the House Republican leadership initially was taken aback when House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said he’d mark up a budget resolution today.

But as of late Wednesday night, House GOP leadership feels somewhat confident that they’ll be able to get the resolution out of committee and to the floor sometime in late February.

If this resolution does advance out of the Budget panel, there’s a strong chance it will pass the House. Why do we say that? Because do you want to be the GOP lawmaker standing between Trump and the passage of his agenda when he has a 53% national approval rating?

Also, House Republicans need to pass this budget resolution through the committee or else Senate Republicans are in the driver’s seat on reconciliation. Any delay or signs of struggle by House Republicans will be viewed by the White House as weakness.

Promises are being made. Will they be delivered? The House GOP budget resolution includes a floor of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, a $4.5 trillion cap on tax cuts and a $4 trillion extension of the debt limit.

This isn’t what hardline conservatives wanted. They have been pushing for at least $2 trillion in spending cuts. GOP leaders are emphasizing right now that they hope they can find another half-trillion dollars in cuts.

Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters the blueprint is a “starting place” for cuts.

“Our objective is to try to save $2 trillion or more because we think that’s necessary to prevent an increase in the deficit,” Johnson said.

Some of the hardliners are also seeking assurances that the House Ways and Means Committee will gut billions of dollars in clean energy tax credits from the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said he wants a commitment “that the vast majority of them are going to be gone.”

But that’s already worrying some Midwestern Republicans and moderates who want a far more limited approach to getting rid of the IRA. Some of the tax credits are very politically sensitive, in particular anything that benefits biofuels or projects already underway.

Arrington and Smith. The House budget chair and top tax writer are being pulled in different directions, and it’s creating some real tension.

Arrington is trying to be sensitive to his panel, which includes House Freedom Caucus members and deficit hawks. Arrington has been making the case for addressing rising U.S. debt via reconciliation for a long time now.

Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith’s (R-Mo.) north star is delivering the big tax bill that Republicans — and the Trump administration — want badly.

Smith argues to colleagues that a number in the $4.5 trillion range wouldn’t give Ways and Means room to deliver Trump’s new tax cut priorities on top of extending the GOP’s 2017 tax law.

A $4.5 trillion cap for Ways and Means makes Smith’s job very difficult. It puts more pressure on tax writers’ options for crafting Trump’s new tax cut priorities. It forces a conversation about finding ways to pay for the tax portion of the reconciliation bill from within Ways and Means’ jurisdiction, such as scrapping credits. It means there’s less room to operate on some of the key tax snags — a compromise on the cap for deducting state and local taxes, or SALT, and IRA credit rollbacks.

Reconciling with the Senate. Remember, this, right now, is the easy part.

Once the House gets its budget resolution through, they need to somehow sync up with the Senate’s blueprint. Then both chambers need to negotiate the actual policies in the reconciliation package. That’s where the rubber meets the road.

When it comes to taxes, the Senate could end up making Smith’s life easier in the end. There’s a lot of Senate support for the “current policy baseline” that would make it realistic to permanently lock in some tax cuts. It would also cut the $4 trillion-plus cost of extending the 2017 tax cuts to zero.

— Jake Sherman, Laura Weiss and John Bresnahan

Happening today! Our tax policy summit is kicking off soon. Join us for an interview with Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), a fireside chat with Danielle Rolfes of KPMG, and a dynamic panel discussion. Stay for networking with leaders from Capitol Hill and the financial sector. Register now to join us!

HOUSE DEMS

Tensions persist after Nadler’s Judiciary ouster

Two months after Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) took over as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee from Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), there’s still some bad blood between top Democrats on the panel.

Multiple Judiciary Democrats privately unloaded on the strained relationship between Raskin and Nadler, as well as the former chair’s posture toward other members of the committee.

For example, there was a dispute over Nadler seeking the subcommittee ranking posts from other colleagues in a manner that rubbed some Democrats the wrong way.

Several sources familiar with the matter cited an incident where Nadler made a last-minute play for Rep. Hank Johnson’s (D-Ga.) spot as the top Democrat of the subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet.

Nadler called Johnson eight minutes before his ranking member spot on the panel was to be announced to declare that he’d challenge the Georgia Democrat for the spot. Nadler ultimately landed as the ranker on the subcommittee focused on antitrust. That post was previously led by Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.).

Then there was a private fallout over some staff retention when Raskin took over for Nadler. Some of Nadler’s top staff weren’t kept on under Raskin, though sources close to the Maryland Democrat said Raskin didn’t explicitly promise to return everyone from the original staff.

“Obviously Jerry was not happy to be going, but I think Jamie’s team has tried to help him stay involved,” one Judiciary Democrat told us. “My understanding is that Nadler tried to go for a lot of different subcommittee options after stepping down.”

Raskin has tried to quell any notion of a beef between the two men. Raskin organized a celebratory dinner for Nadler last month during the Judiciary Democrats’ retreat where members could talk about Nadler’s tenure and mentorship.

“It’s excellent,” Raskin said of his bond with Nadler. “We have a great relationship.”

Meanwhile, Nadler was more terse in his view, saying that the two’s relationship is “OK.”

Nadler’s aides said the veteran lawmaker and Raskin have a productive relationship and he’s satisfied serving as the top Democrat on the antitrust subcommittee.

Committee reset: Raskin was one of a handful of younger House Democrats who challenged aging leaders following last year’s elections.

The Maryland Democrat, who is a constitutional lawyer, is already putting his own spin on the panel by expanding member engagement and hosting a retreat that included a discussion by a pair of psychologists to study ways to combat Republicans.

So far, committee members have welcomed the change with Raskin taking the helm against top Trump ally and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.).

“He’s in his element,” said Correa. “It’s not a question of leadership style, but a knowledge base. If you look at the Constitution, there’s no better guy than Raskin.”

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) said Raskin’s takeover has “reenergized” committee members.

Meanwhile, Jordan welcomed Raskin as his new Democratic counterpart but reflected on areas he and Nadler aligned on such as the Section 702 fight.

“I can work with both of them,” Jordan told us. “I can debate both, but I was always able to talk with Jerry when we weren’t in intense debate and we worked well together on FISA.”

— Mica Soellner

Senate Democrats urge Carr to stop ‘weaponization of the FCC’

Three Senate Democrats are urging Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr to stop investigations of TV and radio broadcasters that the lawmakers say appear to be impermissible attempts to damage the press over coverage Carr dislikes.

The senators, led by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), referred to FCC demands to see a transcript of a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, alongside the agency’s moves to reinstate complaints against ABC, CBS and NBC and launching probes of PBS and NPR.

You can read the full letter, which was also addressed to Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington, here. This is what the senators said about the FCC’s recent actions:

In addition to Markey, Democratic Sens. Ben Ray Luján (N.M.) and Gary Peters (Mich.) signed the letter. All three serve on the Commerce Committee. In the note, they complained that Carr recently reinstated past complaints about ABC, CBS and NBC, but not Fox.

On “60 Minutes,” the trio of Senate Democrats wrote that the transcript of the full interview reveals that excerpts that aired on TV showed journalists choosing among different “answers to the same question — a quintessential example of editorial decision-making” that must be protected from government meddling. Carr had suggested the transcript might reveal “distortion” in violation of FCC policies.

The Democrats also said Carr acted “baselessly” in telling the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to look into the underwriting practices of PBS and NPR member stations. The senators slammed the chair for calling on Congress to defund the two networks, calling it “a partisan political goal of congressional Republicans that is outside the FCC’s jurisdiction.”

The senators said actions from Carr and Simington were taken “at the behest of President Donald Trump.”

The Democratic trio didn’t mention Carr’s latest directive to the Enforcement Bureau to investigate “Comcast and NBCUniversal’s Promotion of DEI.” In that move, Carr suggested that racial classifications could violate civil rights law.

In the Comcast probe, which Carr disclosed via X Wednesday, the chair also teased efforts to try to stop programming.

“[T]he FCC will be taking fresh action to ensure that every entity the FCC regulates complies with the civil rights protections enshrined in the Communications Act and the agency’s [equal employment opportunity] rules, including by shutting down any programs that promote invidious forms of DEI discrimination,” Carr said.

— Ben Brody

NOMS, NOMS, NOMS

RFK, Rollins and what’s next on noms

The Senate is poised to confirm two more of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees today before leaving for a four-day weekend. Here’s where things stand:

The Senate will vote on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services at 10:30 a.m. This vote, originally scheduled for 7 a.m., got pushed back several hours thanks to a time agreement reached on Wednesday night.

We expect Kennedy to be confirmed. In a 53-47 party-line vote, the Senate invoked cloture on Kennedy’s nomination on Wednesday.

Plus, key GOP swing votes — Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.), Susan Collins (Maine), John Curtis (Utah) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — have announced they’ll back Kennedy. One Republican to watch is Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who has voted against Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard. McConnell is a childhood survivor of polio.

After the Kennedy confirmation vote, the Senate will vote to confirm Brooke Rollins to be agriculture secretary. Rollins advanced out of committee by a unanimous 23-0 vote earlier this month.

Later Thursday afternoon, there will be two cloture votes on Howard Lutnick’s nomination to lead the Commerce Department and SBA nominee Kelly Loeffler. If cloture is invoked, these two nominations will be taken up by the Senate when they return on Tuesday.

Also in the pipeline: Kash Patel, the nominee for FBI director, will have his Senate Judiciary Committee vote today. USTR nominee Jamieson Greer was voted out of the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday.

— Max Cohen

…AND THERE’S MORE

Shutdown watch: 29 days out and House GOP feels unencumbered by the FRA

With 29 days until the government runs out of spending authority, House Republicans no longer seem bound by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the 2023 spending deal between then-President Joe Biden and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said one of the challenges of current government-funding negotiations is that the FRA must be re-negotiated, something Democrats have opposed so far.

That 2023 deal doesn’t exist anymore, Cole argued, meaning a spending sequester in April may not go into effect if Congress enacts a CR to avoid a March 14 government shutdown.

Essentially, appropriators don’t necessarily need to abide by the FRA because “the same political structure that existed” under the deal isn’t around, the Oklahoma Republican told reporters Wednesday night.

“When the power structure changes, the nature of the deal will change,” Cole said. “You have to renegotiate it and people don’t like to renegotiate things.”

Also: Every congressional Democrat — plus Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) — has signed onto this Labor Caucus-led letter that slams the Trump administration for firing former National Labor Relations Board Member Gwynne Wilcox.

The widespread Democratic effort shows how the party is aiming to slam Republicans for what it sees as anti-labor practices that will hurt American workers.

— Samantha Handler, John Bresnahan and Max Cohen

MOMENTS

CLIPS