Dems submit new DHS counterproposal

IN THIS EDITION

Three things you need to know today

Defense: GOP questions swirl on Golden Dome

Tech: A Democratic plan on DOGE data

Cassidy proposes FDA overhaul

THE TOP

Three things you need to know today

Happy Tuesday morning.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson has died at age 84. A protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson was a leader in the civil rights movement for decades and mounted several high-profile runs for president. Jackson has one son currently in Congress — Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.). Another son, Jesse Jackson Jr., served 17 years in Congress before pleading guilty in 2013 to wire and mail fraud. Jackson Jr. is running for the House again this year.

We have three pieces of news for you this morning. Two of them are related to the four-day-old shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. One is a new addition to Speaker Mike Johnson’s senior staff.

1) Congressional Democrats late Monday evening submitted their latest counteroffer to the White House on overhauling ICE operations as part of President Donald Trump’s harsh immigration crackdown. The offer is the newest ping-pong between the White House and Hill Democrats over DHS funding.

But it’s tough to call this a traditional negotiation. Congress is gone for the week, and there’s unlikely to be any face-to-face meetings until next week at the earliest.

Democrats released their 10-point DHS overhaul plan on Feb. 4. Democrats sent the White House legislative text of their proposal a couple of days later. The White House responded to Democrats with a four-page letter of their own, followed later by legislative text. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have dismissed the White House’s submission as “not serious.”

To be honest, we have no reason to doubt them because the Trump administration hasn’t publicly released any information on its offer to Democrats. Yet the fact that few specific details have leaked are a sign the talks also are serious. But Democrats are making clear that Republicans need to accept a few non-negotiable demands or there won’t be any deal.

We don’t know what White House officials want to do with DHS beyond some openness to mandating body camera usage for ICE and CBP officers. We’re aware of what the Trump administration doesn’t want to do — mandate judicial warrants for immigration enforcement operations and ban the use of face masks for federal officers, for example.

We also know that Republicans believe they’re winning this political showdown with Democrats.

With the crisis surrounding the two deadly shootings of protestors by federal officers last month in Minneapolis receding somewhat, GOP congressional leaders and the White House believe they’re on firmer political ground in talking about immigration and ICE. This isn’t health care or Obamacare subsidies like last fall’s brutal 43-day government shutdown, which was a very difficult argument for Republicans to win.

Trump and GOP leaders see the immigration debate as a crime and public safety issue. It complements their push over the SAVE America Act, the upcoming 2030 census and “election integrity” — who is an American, who isn’t, and who gets to decide the future of the country.

Republicans are also comfortable pinning the blame on Democrats for the resulting shutdown of FEMA, TSA and the Coast Guard, all of which come under DHS.

For their part, Democrats see this as a clash of values and morals at the heart of the country. Seeing masked federal agents on the streets in dozens of U.S. cities is far beyond what voters were bargaining for when they returned Trump to power. Democrats are also highlighting the general popularity of their demands to rein in ICE.

More importantly, it doesn’t help Republicans win the affordability fight. Every day spent fighting over DHS funding is a day Trump and Republicans aren’t talking about bringing costs down.

Of note – White House officials and top Hill Republicans don’t believe that Trump’s State of the Union address will be canceled if DHS is still shut down on Feb. 24, just one week from today.

In fact, Republicans feel like the annual address to Congress will give the president a good opportunity to criticize Democrats over their DHS funding position, especially with the fight over next year’s budget about to kick off.

Trump also has had a run of good economic news on inflation, jobs and growth in recent days, something they plan to highlight next week.

2) House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will travel this week to Texas and Illinois, we’re told. We expect to see Jeffries in at least one border district, and he’s bound to talk immigration, ICE and deportations.

Texas is the epicenter of the political universe right now. Republicans gerrymandered the state’s congressional map last year to help them gain five new seats in the midterms. But Democrats are convinced they have pickup opportunities this November thanks to GOP overreach, especially in the Rio Grande Valley, where they are defending two seats and targeting one.

Trump has been losing ground on immigration, according to new polling. A majority of Americans, 54%, believe that Trump has gone too far in restricting legal immigration. A total of 52% believe he has gone too far in deporting immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally, according to a new AP-NORC polling.

Bolstering Democrats’ position: 60% of those polled view ICE unfavorably, according to the poll.

We have boots on the ground in the Lone Star State this week. We’ll have a lot of coverage throughout our AM editions all week.

3) News: Johnson has a new communications director. Lance Trover, a GOP strategist with extensive campaign experience, is joining Johnson’s office as communications director. Trover is an alum of the NRSC, the campaigns for former Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), former Reps. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) and Michelle Steel (R-Calif.), and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

– Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan, Andrew Desiderio and Ally Mutnick

Tomorrow. Join Punchbowl News on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 12 p.m. ET for a conversation with candidate for Georgia lieutenant governor and former state Sen. John F. Kennedy (R-Ga.) on lawsuit abuse and insurance affordability. Afterwards, we’ll sit down with Adam Blinick, head of public policy at Uber. Stick around for a conversation moderated by our event partner, Protecting American Consumers Together, with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. RSVP here.

Defense: GOP questions swirl on Golden Dome

President Donald Trump’s domestic missile defense shield is likely to be a key tenet of his forthcoming FY2027 budget request. But the Pentagon will need to overcome congressional skepticism to secure more funding for the effort.

Trump’s pet defense project, known as Golden Dome, already received a windfall through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But that’s one-time money, and proponents of the effort are eager to translate that investment into a stream of annual spending.

“There are a million questions, a million details,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said. “But I think it’s a sound concept and I think the American people are supportive of it.”

Golden Dome is billed as a layered homeland defense program that combines systems based on the ground, in the air and in space to defeat incoming missile threats. The Space Force has already sent signals that leaders anticipate big budget growth starting in FY2027, due in part to the service’s role in supporting the missile shield.

Details, details. To realize that enhanced spending, however, the Trump administration will have to push past some bipartisan and bicameral frustration over the lack of information about the program shared with Congress.

“I can tell you how much we included within the reconciliation bill for Golden Dome, but in terms of what it exactly means, I think the Congress is still waiting to hear on that as well,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a senior appropriator, said.

Asked where she thinks the project is going, Murkowski responded: “That’s what I’d like to know.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.) said he anticipates Golden Dome will be a source of “argument” among appropriators going forward.

“It’s stirring, big debate here,” Mast said.

Demanding info. Appropriators used the FY2026 defense spending bill to demand more information from the Pentagon on its plans for spending the $23 billion that the Department of Defense already received under the reconciliation package for Golden Dome. Lawmakers faulted the administration for failing to provide basic details.

The Pentagon previously told the Hill it would submit its plan for spending the $23 billion in reconciliation funds on Golden Dome in November. But three months later, lawmakers are still waiting.

“I would hope we could have hearings on it — both classified and unclassified — to lay out the plan and also talk about budgets and where the money’s coming from, and how we’re going to integrate technology,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said.

— Briana Reilly and Anthony Adragna

Tech: A Democratic plan on DOGE data

Concerns that DOGE improperly scooped up Americans’ data for its own uses have long outlasted Elon Musk’s tenure as architect of President Donald Trump’s government-cutting effort.

On Tuesday, Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) is calling for a future Democratic Congress to fix a half-century-old law in a bid to update the White House’s access to information in the era of advanced technology.

“The Privacy Act was written for a world of file cabinets and mainframe computers, not one defined by cloud storage, data brokers, and AI,” Trahan said in a statement accompanying her nearly 70-page report. “Americans should be able to trust that their personal information is handled responsibly by their government.”

As Trump jumps from topic to topic, he generates an ever-shifting list of outrages for congressional Democrats. Yet allegations that DOGE improperly accessed or acquired data from Social Security payment systems, a labor agency and other federal systems have become durable sources of criticism. That makes reining in the government’s use of personal data a high-tech priority for congressional Democrats.

This is where Trahan comes in.

Studying up. Trahan spent the last 10 months gathering and digesting “dozens of responses from former government technology officials, watchdogs, good government groups, technology companies, privacy advocates, and individual citizens” on how to revamp the Privacy Act.

Her recommendations include placing further limits on high-risk data uses, expanding the scope of the Privacy Act to cover more immigrants and visitors, and reining in the White House’s discretion over disclosures.

“Congress should also eliminate the ability for the President to, via executive order, authorize new processing purposes,” the report says.

Trahan is particularly concerned with the green light that the current law gives to government officials seeking records about people if those bureaucrats “have a need for the record in the performance of their duties.”

The report contends that, in practice, this need-to-know exemption and other provisions allow access to almost any data. Trahan’s report also says the Privacy Act does too little to protect Americans whose data might surface in government searches that weren’t designed to find personal information.

The proposal adds that, while the law allows too much dangerous data-sharing, it also hinders basic government functioning.

— Ben Brody

HEALTH POLICY

Cassidy proposes FDA overhaul

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) released a new report Tuesday detailing legislative and regulatory recommendations on how to “modernize” the Food and Drug Administration.

The nearly 20-page report lists more than a dozen ways the FDA and Congress can change how the agency regulates and approves products and encourages medical research.

Cassidy plans to “initiate a collaborative, bipartisan process for reforms to strengthen the FDA and get better and more affordable products to patients faster,” according to the report. Cassidy added his panel “looks forward to coordinating with FDA under its new leadership to promote patient access, accelerate U.S. competitiveness, and improve the health of American families.”

It’s unlikely that Democrats will support a new bipartisan health policy that doesn’t include an extension of the expired Obamacare subsidies. So, we won’t see these recommendations become law anytime soon. Still, it’s notable that Cassidy is turning his focus to the FDA.

The report comes as Republican senators have railed against FDA Commissioner Marty Makary for not yet conducting a safety review of the abortion pill mifepristone, as he pledged during his confirmation hearings. While the report doesn’t mention the drug, the topic is likely to come up as the health panel tackles ways to change the FDA.

The Trump administration has also made reducing drug costs a major priority. Cassidy, who’s in a competitive primary after the president endorsed Rep. Julie Letlow (R-La.) in the race, has supported the effort.

Some of the recommendations include making it easier to get new, low-cost drugs to market and integrating AI to expedite the FDA review process.

– Samantha Handler

… AND THERE’S MORE

House Ways and Means Committee Republican Chief Tax Counsel Sean Clerget is heading to K Street, where he’s joining Cozen O’Connor as a senior principal in the D.C. office.

Clerget will lobby and provide strategic advice on tax policy for clients of Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies, the firm’s government relations and communications division. He’ll also work on congressional and other government investigations for the law firm.

Clerget is leaving Ways and Means after nearly seven years with the committee, where he served as GOP chief oversight counsel before becoming the top Republican tax aide.

— Laura Weiss

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