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IN THIS EDITION

House Republicans’ big reconciliation moment

Skirmishes and seating charts

The Trump cabinet nom that Dems saved

A packed town hall focused on DOGE

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House Republicans’ big reconciliation moment

Welcome to The Readback, our weekend digest featuring the best of Punchbowl News this week — a quick roundup of all our scoops, analysis and Capitol Hill insight you won’t find anywhere else. We’ve also included a few of our favorite outside reads from the week.

House Republicans made a statement when they pulled off a successful floor vote on their budget resolution to kick off reconciliation this week.

For a conference that’s had lots of infighting over the last few years and now has the thinnest of majorities, getting through the first step toward passing President Donald Trump’s agenda was a huge win. But it didn’t come without drama.

The House GOP leadership had to put together high-level plans for a bill to kick off the budget reconciliation process, which allows the Senate to dodge the filibuster and pass a package by a simple majority vote. That’s critical because Republicans have a Senate majority, but not the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.

To start reconciliation, both the House and Senate have to adopt a budget resolution with instructions for committees on how much to spend or cut. House Republicans landed on a deal that cleared the Budget Committee, a big first step.

But at the start of this past week, it wasn’t clear whether leadership could pull off a floor vote. Democrats had been hammering Republicans’ plans, especially for cutting Medicaid. A group of moderate and center-right Republicans started to air concerns about the potential Medicaid cuts and impacts for other social safety net programs.

A few other Republicans had opposite complaints, criticizing their party’s plans for failing to go far enough to slash spending.

The critical 48 hours: The dominos started to fall Monday. Leadership began huddling with members who were worried about Medicaid cuts and meetings went late into the night. But it was quickly clear they’d likely do the trick. Those Republicans began signaling they were inching closer and closer to voting yes.

It all seemed to be down to two factors as the Tuesday night vote drew closer: A handful of members primarily incensed about leadership not slashing spending enough, and how many members would be in town to vote.

If every House member is present, Republicans can only lose a single vote and still pass a bill right now. But a few Democrats had been away from Washington because of health problems and maternity leave. All but one of those Democrats rushed back to town to try to block the GOP’s plans. Republican leadership worked their holdouts.

The vote: Tuesday night, it was finally time for the budget resolution’s big test. The House voted first on an unrelated measure. That meant members all had to crowd onto the House floor and that gave House Republican leadership and the whip team the chance to shore up their votes and work holdouts.

But things didn’t seem to be going great. The first vote was held open for a really long time. Then, leadership pulled the plug on the budget resolution vote.

It was a big shock and a horrible sign for House Republicans’ ability to get going on Trump’s agenda. It was almost 7:30 p.m., so members started to rush out for the night and hop into cars.

I was waiting with a big group of reporters outside the door to the House floor that leadership usually uses, ready to press them on what went wrong and what they’d try next. But House GOP leaders weren’t coming off the floor.

The minutes ticked by, and then in a shocker, Republicans reversed course again. After about 10 minutes of waiting, the vote was on again. Members had to turn around and run back to vote.

All of a sudden, we were watching the holdouts closely to see what they’d do. All but one fell in line, which was enough to pass the budget blueprint.

The story had done a wildly fast 180. On the brink of a huge defeat, Speaker Mike Johnson had instead suddenly pulled off one of the biggest victories of his time leading House Republicans. Now as reporters, we got ready for a very different set of questions for Johnson.

Still, House Republicans have bigger tests ahead to get Trump’s agenda into law. And this week showed that even when things go well, this razor-thin of a House majority isn’t without its messy moments.

What I’m watching: The new season of Yellowjackets. So good.

– Laura Weiss

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Skirmishes and seating charts

If you need to catch sitting members of the Federal Trade Commission, one good place is a confirmation hearing for a future commissioner.

Commissioners try to attend these sessions to display a welcoming spirit and bipartisanship at an agency that, for a long time, has often been defined by respectful disagreement, nonpartisan consensus or strange bedfellows.

So, as I walked into the hearing for Mark Meador to join the commission this week, I knew it was possible I’d see the other four commissioners.

But I also notice that FTC collegiality seems to have broken down a bit. Disagreements among commissioners used to play out in semi-legal filings. It was fencing by footnote, filled with invocations of economic theory, citations to legal precedent and references to other commissioners by their proper titles.

In recent years, however, discord has spilled out. There was the speech that a Republican commissioner gave all but calling progressive-aligned former Chair Lina Khan a Marxist. More recently, Khan’s successor, Republican Chair Andrew Ferguson, and Democratic Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya have argued on X, formerly known as Twitter, about whose party is responsible for the cost of living crisis.

Still, when I walked into Meador’s hearing, there were Ferguson, Bedoya and the two other commissioners milling around the front row seats of the Commerce Committee hearing room.

Ferguson and Bedoya even shook hands briefly as they waited for the proceedings to begin. I’m not sure if it was a particularly warm gesture, but it made clear that two lawyers can get into it on social media and still sit together when Washington protocol demands it.

The social niceties of the Senate notwithstanding, Bedoya also praised a few of Ferguson’s moves that he liked, including the chair’s decision to continue looking at labor issues in antitrust. After all, Ferguson’s been charting a course as an anti-tech chair.

Ferguson has continued some of Khan’s initiatives that were despised by industry. He has also added his own, notably the probe into whether online content moderation and the handling of political posts ever tipped over into something illegal (which Democrats will likely fight).

During his hearing, Meador, a Republican, also said tech is a top priority, and he’s viewed as a serious ally to Democrats in regard to the industry’s economic power.

In other words, Ferguson and Bedoya may keep shouting at each other, but they — and Meador — may continue to find themselves sitting near each other at times.

What I’m watching: This weekend, I expect to be rewatching “The French Connection” or doing a first viewing of “The Conversation” — and, either way, appreciating the genius of the late Gene Hackman.

– Ben Brody

The Trump cabinet nom that Dems saved

Hill Democrats have spent almost every waking hour of the first weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term slamming the administration and pledging to fight back against Republicans. This week, however, Senate Democrats did something different: They intervened to save one of Trump’s Cabinet nominees.

On Thursday, three Democrats on the Senate HELP Committee voted to advance Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s labor secretary nomination to the Senate floor. Because Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted no in committee, all HELP Democrats could’ve sunk Chavez-DeRemer’s bid if they stuck together.

So why did Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) save a struggling Trump nominee?

For starters, Chavez-DeRemer is far from your normal Trump pick. A former House Republican, Chavez-DeRemer developed a moderate reputation during her one term representing a battleground district during the 118th Congress.

In the last Congress, Chavez-DeRemer even co-sponsored the Democratic-led PRO Act — a pro-union bill supported by just two other House Republicans. Chavez-DeRemer’s co-sponsorship has dominated her confirmation process, angering hard-right Republicans like Paul while offering encouragement for Democrats and unions.

Kaine told reporters this week that he was swayed to support Chavez-DeRemer due to her significant union backing.

Another factor for Democrats was the acknowledgment that Chavez-DeRemer may be the best nominee the party could hope for from Trump’s White House.

This left Chavez-DeRemer in an interesting spot for a Trump nominee as she faced the strongest opposition from the conservative wing of the Senate GOP instead of the moderates. In her hearing, the Oregon Republican attempted to address right-wing concerns by walking back her support for overturning state right-to-work ads. But it wasn’t enough to win over Paul.

Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination comes at a critical juncture for unions and Republicans. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who spoke at the Republican National Convention last year, backed Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination. And union members and working class Americans particularly voted for Trump in larger numbers than any election in recent history.

This led Republicans like Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) to back Chavez-DeRemer as a perfect bridge between business and labor interests.

The Senate is likely to vote to confirm Chavez-DeRemer next week.

What I’m reading: I finally finished Ron Chernow’s exceptional biography of Alexander Hamilton. It took me a while, but it was worth it. I can’t recommend the book enough for its vivid depiction of a giant in American history.

– Max Cohen

A packed town hall focused on DOGE

Haymarket, Va. — Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are getting an earful from their constituents at their town halls. And DOGE is the top concern.

I went out to Virginia’s 10th District, just outside of Washington, on Thursday to attend a local town hall hosted by freshman Rep. Suhas Subramanyam. The Virginia Democrat represents thousands of federal workers in his district and it was clear there’s real concern about the future of their jobs.

Subramanyam was met with an overall supportive crowd, but dozens and dozens of constituents lined up at the mics to express concerns about DOGE and the Trump administration’s efforts to drastically shrink the size of government. More than 800 people signed up to attend the event held at a local high school.

It was clear what was on most constituent’s minds. Is my job safe? What will happen to Medicaid? Some veterans asked about the future of their benefits.

Subramanyam is in a fairly Democratic district, so he didn’t receive much pushback from political opponents. But there was still blatant frustration about what exactly Democrats can do in a GOP trifecta.

Subramanyam highlighted litigation, legislation and expanded messaging as the best way Democrats can fight back at the moment. One resident mentioned the importance of the 2026 midterm elections.

I caught up with Subramanyam after the event to ask about his plan to assuage some of the concerns heard by residents.

Subramanyam mentioned taking his message to different social media channels, including TikTok. He also wants to write letters and launch inquiries where he can.

“We had a lot of great ideas that I’m going to try and work on … and do everything we can to protect our constituents here,” Subramanyam told us.

Even after a five-minute interview with a few reporters, the lawmaker was quickly pulled away into a crowd of his constituents that had more questions.

Of course, Democrats have been trying to highlight videos of protesters and angry constituents taking DOGE concerns to Republican town halls.

The House Majority PAC – the Democratic leadership-aligned super PAC – has been circulating a growing list of more than 50 town hall events and protests where GOP lawmakers were questioned on DOGE.

What I’m listening to: I’ve been listening to Tate McRae’s new album “So Close To What.”

– Mica Soellner