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Schatz’s ‘yes’ vote on CR makes his leadership ambitions clear

The next big stretch for reconciliation

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House GOP likely to wait a week on D.C. budget fix

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Schatz’s ‘yes’ vote on CR makes his leadership ambitions clear

Happy Wednesday morning.

Of the 10 Senate Democrats who voted to advance the GOP-drafted government funding bill last week, one name stands out: Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).

Schatz was agonizing over his vote more than most Democrats, per our conversations with his colleagues. It’s not difficult to see why.

That vote, which has prompted a ton of backlash from activists and the party base, was one of the clearest signs yet that Schatz is angling for a prominent leadership role in the Senate Democratic Caucus.

It’s an open secret in the Senate that Schatz, 52, has leadership ambitions. If Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin doesn’t seek reelection in 2026, Schatz would be a top contender for the job.

Yet being in leadership means taking difficult and sometimes unpopular votes, so this situation in particular was an opportunity for Schatz to show he’s willing to do that — and take the arrows that come with it.

“I know that this was a really hard choice for him,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who’s close with Schatz. “When you’re in leadership, your job is to think not only about your own political future but about the good of the whole…This is something Brian can see.”

Schatz declined to be interviewed for this story. In a Friday statement explaining his vote, Schatz alluded to the fact that Hawaii has a high percentage of federal workers, nearly all of whom would be furloughed in a shutdown.

On the other hand, Schatz is a staunch progressive who isn’t known to back away from a fight. He was sympathetic to the arguments being made by those who wanted to see Democrats use their leverage even if it meant forcing a shutdown. Schatz said it was “a difficult and close call” for him. After the vote, progressive social media accounts expressed shock and dismay, assuming Schatz would be on their side.

But Schatz’s vote was more a message to his colleagues than it was to the party base, leaving some to believe it was self-serving despite the skewering he’s received from liberals.

“Brian knew there were many in the caucus who wanted to vote for this terrible bill simply to avoid shutting down the government, but didn’t want to deal with the inevitable reaction we got from the left,” said a Democratic senator who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “He was speaking for them. And I think they appreciated that. But I have little doubt there was some political calculation of his own built into this.”

There’s also a sense that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who’s taken the brunt of the criticism for the decision to allow the GOP funding bill to pass, put Schatz in even more of a bind. By threatening to filibuster the GOP bill and then saying just 24 hours later he’ll help pass it in order to avert a shutdown, Schumer ensured that the backlash would be even more intense, according to one Democratic senator.

“The leader also put [Schatz] in a very difficult position,” said this Senate Democrat. “The sense within the caucus was…that we never really had a plan for dealing with this, never really had a strategy emerging from this, an understanding we were never going to be [all] on one side or another.”

Schatz ended his Friday statement with this line:

Knowing Brian Schatz: The Hawaii Democrat, a former lieutenant governor, was appointed to the Senate in 2012 following the death of Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), a giant in Aloha State politics and the Senate. Schatz has won all of his elections since with at least 70% of the vote. That’s an important consideration for anyone who wants to be in party leadership.

Just 40 years old when he was sworn in, Schatz was the chamber’s youngest senator for about a week until Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), 10 months his junior, was sworn in. Murphy is also ambitious, although he’s being talked about more as a potential presidential candidate than a member of Senate leadership. Murphy voted against the funding bill.

During an appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday, Schumer named both Murphy and Schatz as “great spokespeople” for the caucus.

Schatz has been the chief deputy whip since 2017 and has taken an active role in helping wrangle votes. He’s also a Democratic messaging guru and a frequent BlueSky and X user.

On the fundraising front, Schatz has used his X account in particular to raise gobs of cash for Democratic Senate candidates and incumbents. He knows how to use these platforms effectively, unlike a lot of senators.

Democrats also say Schatz has close relationships with all of the different factions of the caucus. This was particularly evident during the negotiations surrounding the Inflation Reduction Act, when Schatz helped bridge some of then-Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) concerns. Schatz is also a frequent go-between with GOP leadership.

— Andrew Desiderio

NEW! Join us on Thursday, April 3 at 8:30 a.m. ET for a conversation with Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.). Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman will sit down with Hill to discuss the news of the day, digital payments and small business. Afterward, Richard Hunt, executive chair of the Electronic Payments Coalition, will join Jake for a fireside chat. Save your seat now with a RSVP!

Don’t miss: The first Vault Quarterly special edition of 2025 will go out later this morning. President Donald Trump is ushering in a whole new era of financial deregulation, tax cuts and trade wars. To get a better understanding of what’s going on, we have an exclusive interview with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and much, much more. Check your inboxes and our website for more.

THE TRUMP AGENDA

The next big stretch for reconciliation

Republican leaders are heading into a critical three-week stretch in their scramble to push through President Donald Trump’s agenda.

After turning the page on the government funding fight, the Senate GOP is now focusing on plans for the bill they aim to pass through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process in the coming weeks. Much of the work is going to be staff-driven.

As we scooped, Senate Budget Committee Republicans are planning to meet with the Senate parliamentarian over the next few weeks about reconciliation. During those meetings, Republicans will seek guidance on using the “current policy baseline” as a scoring method to achieve their goal of making the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent.

This is a red line for Senate GOP leaders, provided it can pass muster with the parliamentarian. House Republican leaders are supportive of the effort but want more assurances about the parliamentarian’s blessing for the play. They’re wary about their Senate GOP counterparts messing too much with the delicate balance struck by the House Republican budget resolution.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson have had several meetings about this topic, including last week.

“Both of us understand we’ve got to get this done. And we’re trying to figure out the best way to do that,” Thune told us after his meeting with Johnson. “There is no easy way to explain. This is just a long, arduous process. But we’ll get there.”

Still, House Republicans keep pressing on their Senate colleagues to get going and make some fast decisions.

The House GOP leadership thinks they might be able to take up a compromise budget resolution during the week of April 7, the last for both chambers before a two-week recess.

House Republicans are feeling good after pulling off big wins to get a budget resolution and CR through the chamber with their razor-thin majority. But Johnson’s timeline to wrap up reconciliation in April or May is still creeping up quickly.

On the tax front: House Ways and Means Committee Republicans are expected to have more sessions over the next three weeks to hammer out exactly what members want to do in the tax bill. These will be like the two marathon meetings Ways and Means held last week.

Ways and Means Republican members spent hours meeting at the Library of Congress for last week’s sessions. Last Monday, tax writers spent some of the time talking about options for working Trump’s tax priorities into a bill. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also made an appearance. On Wednesday, much of the conversation was about potential offsets for the tax bill, according to sources familiar with the conversations.

Republican senators on the Finance Committee will keep up regular meetings to talk through their own tax plans.

— Laura Weiss, Andrew Desiderio and Jake Sherman

CONGRESS X THE DISTRICT

House GOP likely to wait a week on D.C. budget fix

News: The House Republican leadership doesn’t plan to bring up a bill next week that would stave off deep cuts to the District of Columbia’s budget, according to multiple sources familiar with party strategy.

The Senate passed a measure last week by unanimous consent that would alter the CR to prevent D.C. from having to revert to FY2024 spending. D.C. officials say unless the House passes it and President Donald Trump signs the Senate-passed fix, the District may have to cut anywhere between $250 million to $1 billion from its budget – depending on who you ask.

Funding bills typically include this language by default. But Republicans left the provision out this year. It’s subjective whether this was a way to clamp down on D.C.’s spending or an oversight by the House Republican majority.

As with everything in the House these days, the D.C. budget issue is quite tricky and there is internal politics that Speaker Mike Johnson has to navigate.

House Republicans aren’t going to be eager to help the District, which the GOP has lambasted as poorly run. Several House Republicans have said Congress should repeal the 1973 Home Rule Act, which gave control of the District to locally elected officials.

The Trump administration is supportive of passing the budget fix, but House Republican leadership is unsure that the president himself will weigh in and ask for the chamber to pass the measure.

If Trump isn’t vocal, a massive number of House Republicans would vote no, sources say.

If Johnson wanted to put the measure on the floor under a rule, he would have to get it through the House Rules Committee, which still has hardline conservative Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) as members. Johnson could choose to put the measure on the floor under suspension, which requires a two-thirds majority. The GOP leadership is unsure they can meet that threshold.

There has been some discussion of giving the District some budget flexibility, but not the full measure the Senate passed.

The White House’s thinking here is that Trump is asking a lot of the District – to clean the city up, beef up police presence and crack down on homeless encampments. Thus Mayor Muriel Bowser needs the full budgetary flexibility that the District is owed.

The House GOP leadership plans to talk to its rank and file when it returns next week to plot a course.

– Jake Sherman

THE CAMPAIGN

You may remember that former Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) is running for mayor of Oakland. Loren Taylor, a former city council member who is running against Lee, has a new ad targeting Lee, saying that Oakland doesn’t “have time for someone who has been in D.C. to come and figure it out.” Ouch! Taylor also says in the ad that he loves and respects Lee. The election is April 15.

– Jake Sherman

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