The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

The latest on why Washington could careen into a shutdown

Salazar challenges Trump’s mass deportation plan

The Vault: Daines on why permanent tax cuts is ‘the hill I’m willing to die on’

Thune, tech execs, campaign chiefs to speak at Scott-affiliated policy summit

THE TOP

The latest on why Washington could careen into a shutdown

Happy Tuesday morning.

Big announcement: We will interview House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries at Punchbowl News’ The Conference on March 11 in D.C.

Jeffries, the top House Democrat, joins the stacked lineup that we’ve previously announced. The roster includes: Speaker Mike Johnson, Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.).

NCAA President Charlie Baker, NASDAQ CEO Adena Friedman, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, McKinsey & Company Global Managing Partner Bob Sternfels and AMD CEO Lisa Su will also be on stage for live interviews.

Also: Two special panels at The Conference:

– We’ll have a live taping of the Daily Punch with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, the host of “The Source” and the network’s chief White House correspondent.

– We’ll also have a panel with Jeff Miller, the CEO of Miller Strategies, and Brian Ballard of Ballard Partners, two of the top Republican lobbyists in America.

There will be a big announcement later this week on some additional high-profile guests.

The Conference is invite only. To join our list for future events open to the public, please sign up today.

Trump speech and government-funding latest: Now let’s talk about government funding and what’s going on with efforts to prevent a shutdown after the March 14 deadline. We expect President Donald Trump to address this during his address to a joint session of Congress tonight, but right now, there’s no sign of a bipartisan deal.

We scooped in Monday’s Midday edition that there wouldn’t be a House vote on the CR until next week. Text of the Republicans’ CR package – including critical “anomalies” language covering special provisions – won’t be available until later this week or into the weekend. House Republicans haven’t started whipping anything yet since there’s no bill. There’ll be discussion of the situation during today’s House GOP conference meeting.

With only a 218-215 margin, House GOP leaders can only lose one vote on a rule or final passage. Since there’s no deal with Democrats, so they have to carry this on their own.

News: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told us Monday night that he’ll oppose both the rule and the CR. We don’t see Massie changing his position, so Johnson can’t lose another Republican vote.

House and Senate GOP appropriators want to use a “two-track” approach to a continuing resolution to keep federal agencies open – a “short-term,” roughly month-long bill, and a “long-term” CR that runs through the end of FY 2025 on Sept. 30.

However, we don’t see much sense in passing a short-term bill, and neither does GOP leadership. Both sides would end back at the same place they are now – Democrats demanding guarantees that Trump won’t try to redirect spending approved by Congress and signed into law, while Republicans insist they won’t do anything to bind the president’s hands.

On a long-term CR, House Republicans must prove they can pass both a rule for the CR and then the actual resolution with GOP votes alone. Jeffries told reporters Monday night that he’s heard nothing so far from Johnson or the White House:

Now there’s been some discussion in GOP circles about possibly adding earmarks to the package to make it easier for Republicans – and maybe some Democrats – to support the CR.

But there’s also concern that if the House Freedom Caucus or mega billionaire Elon Musk “get hold of some of these” earmarks, it will go badly, said a senior House Republican.

And even if the House passes a long-term CR, Republican leaders aren’t totally convinced that enough Senate Democrats will vote to support the package to reach the 60-vote threshold needed if there is a filibuster.

Meanwhile, Musk’s DOGE spending cuts remain a huge issue on the Hill. A group of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is out with a letter this morning to OPM’s acting director focusing on the thousands of veterans who have lost their jobs as a result of the federal workforce cuts.

We’ll have lots more on this later today and this week.

Scoop: Vice President JD Vance will introduce Elbridge Colby at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee later this morning.

Colby is Trump’s nominee for the Pentagon’s No. 3 job, under secretary of defense for policy. Vance and Colby are longtime friends. Some GOP defense hawks have privately raised concerns about Colby, though he isn’t expected to face significant hurdles on his path to Senate confirmation.

— John Bresnahan, Jake Sherman and Andrew Desiderio

Don’t miss our special edition focusing on President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress. Check your inboxes and our website later this morning for what we’re watching on foreign policy, taxes, tariffs and more.

IMMIGRATION AND BORDER

Salazar challenges Trump’s mass deportation plan

Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.) is bringing a relatively nuanced perspective to the House Republican Conference when it comes to immigration, something that’s increasingly rare in GOP circles these days.

The Florida Republican, who represents a roughly 80% Hispanic district in South Florida, is advocating for due process and what she says is “dignity” for undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation under President Donald Trump.

“People are scared,” Salazar told us. “It’s just not the right thing to do, the Christian thing to do or the intelligent thing to do to be deporting people who do not have a criminal record and who have been here for more than five years.”

Trump made mass deportations of undocumented immigrants a key promise on the campaign trail.

While many Republicans have shied away from touching the issue of deportations, Salazar has been taking the lead on the complex topic.

Salazar has been working with Democrats on bipartisan bills, including the American Dream and Promise Act with Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) that would offer permanent legal status to Dreamers and undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

In fact, Garcia told us she reached out to multiple Republican offices for co-sponsorship, but Salazar was the only one who signed on. The bill has more than 200 Democratic co-sponsors.

Last Congress, Salazar also led the Dignity Act with Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas). That measure sought to implement tough border security measures while also providing a pathway to citizenship or legal status for undocumented residents. Salazar is planning to soon introduce a new version of the legislation.

Salazar also previously wrote to the Homeland Security Department expressing concerns about how deportation enforcement guidance impacts Miami residents. DHS officials haven’t responded yet to Salazar’s request.

For the record: Salazar condemned the Biden administration’s approach to the border, calling it “egregiously irresponsible.” The Florida Republican said she’s on board with all Trump’s efforts to enhance border security measures.

But Salazar also said she believes there needs to be caution used when it comes to mass deportations and who is being targeted for removal.

“Those who have been here for many years with no criminal record, those are the ones I am out to defend,” Salazar said. “They came in illegally, true, but someone gave them a job and profited from their labor.”

Opportunity knocks: Outside of members in vulnerable districts, bipartisan interest in immigration and border security has largely waned in a highly polarized Congress.

And so far, Salazar has only improved her electoral victories. The former Telemundo television reporter won 51% of the vote in 2020 in a district that went double digits for Hillary Clinton in 2016. In 2024, Salazar outperformed Trump by seven points and won by 22 points total.

Escobar said she appreciated Salazar’s pragmatic approach to the issue of immigration in working with her.

“I came to understand just how committed she is to solving this issue and doing it in a way that recognizes the political realities that we’re in, but also doesn’t sacrifice the overarching goal of finding a solution,” Escobar said of Salazar.

Salazar said she wants to push Republicans to take the lead on immigration while they have control of the House, Senate and White House, arguing that there’s been a failure among both parties to tackle the issue.

Salazar cited the major swing of Hispanic voters towards Trump as motivation to be effective on immigration reform. Miami-Dade County, in particular, voted in a major red wave, handing Trump 55% of the vote over Kamala Harris.

“The GOP can be a leader when it comes to immigration and that’s what I’m trying to do,” Salazar said. “Ronald Reagan said that Hispanics are Republicans. They just do not know it. Now, we’re going to tell them so they can realize it. We are in power and it’s our duty right now to do the right thing.”

– Mica Soellner

The Vault: Daines on why permanent tax cuts is ‘the hill I’m willing to die on’

Senate Republicans are making a huge push to permanently lock in the Trump 2017 tax cuts. And a notable rank-and-file senator has led a series of bold moves to score points in that debate: Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.).

Fresh off a successful cycle leading the NRSC, Daines is once again putting himself in the center of the tax fight.

Consider this: Daines orchestrated a letter in mid-February drawing a red line on making the Trump tax cuts permanent in the GOP’s reconciliation bill. Key Republicans including Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) signed on. Then last week, Daines put together a White House meeting for himself and Crapo to lobby President Donald Trump on the idea.

“I’m not normally seen as one who is a hostage-taker in the United States Senate,” Daines said in an interview. “But there are times you stand on important principles, and this is one of them.”

The House budget resolution that passed last week wouldn’t leave room to extend the 2017 tax cuts permanently in reconciliation without huge budgetary offsets in the future, which Republicans don’t see as a politically viable option. So Daines and his allies would have to amend the budget resolution to get there, likely using an untested scoring option to get around the Senate’s reconciliation rules.

Because that option has never been done in reconciliation before, it’s a risk. But Daines’ view underscores why senators want to go for it nonetheless.

Making the tax cuts permanent is “a hill that I’m willing to die on,” Daines said.

Let’s talk about the why: When Republicans passed the Trump tax cuts in 2017, Daines – who spent decades in the business world before running for office – was among a couple Senate holdouts who pushed down to the wire to cut more taxes for S corporations, sole proprietorships and other pass-through businesses.

Rather than paying the corporate rate, those businesses’ owners pay income taxes directly on earnings. Many U.S. businesses, big and small, are set up this way. The 2017 law’s pass-through deduction sunsets after this year, but corporations got permanent tax cuts in 2017.

Daines emphasized the pass-through deduction must be permanent and that’s a “non-negotiable” for him, although he wants all the provisions locked in.

Here’s Daines:

This all led Daines to put together his letter demanding permanent tax cuts. At first, he figured that it was worth laying down a demand given the Finance Committee’s one-seat margin. Then Senate GOP leaders quickly jumped on board, Daines said.

And at the White House meeting Daines organized, Trump got Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on the phone to weigh in. Daines said he made a point to ask them to voice their view on permanent extensions, noting their private sector vantage point.

Expect more from Daines to come. “I plan to be a very active voice in the discussion, a reasonable voice, but very firm – certainly on this,” he said.

– Laura Weiss and John Bresnahan

THE CAMPAIGN

Thune, tech execs, campaign chiefs to speak at Scott-affiliated policy summit

Several Senate Republicans, top GOP campaign officials and technology executives will be on-hand Wednesday and Thursday for a policy summit organized by a conservative nonprofit affiliated with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.).

Scott will headline the conference, which is centered on President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office and how conservatives can help advance his agenda.

According to an agenda we obtained, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is scheduled to give remarks on Thursday. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso is scheduled to make an appearance on Wednesday evening, along with Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

News: The group, Rescuing the American Dream, a 501(c)(4), will also unveil the results of a new poll conducted by OnMessage. The survey, per the results shared with us, found that 50% of voters have a favorable view of Trump and 60% believe he is following through on his promises.

On taxes, 65% back Trump’s bid to eliminate taxes on tips and on overtime pay.

The agenda: The summit will bring together conservatives of all stripes. Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), along with Lithium Americas CEO Jonathan Evans, will speak on a panel about energy.

Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) will provide updates on budget reconciliation.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) will moderate a discussion on innovation with AWS public policy chief Shannon Kellogg and Coinbase policy chief Faryar Shirzad.

There’s also a campaign-focused panel featuring Alex Latcham, executive director of the Senate Leadership Fund, the GOP leadership-aligned super PAC. Alex Bruesewitz, a Trump campaign adviser, and Sentinel Action Fund’s Jessica Anderson will also appear.

The conference will end with a “fireside chat” between Scott and entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary.

— Andrew Desiderio

… AND THERE’S MORE

Money news: Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) will announce a $100,000 transfer to the NRCC at the House GOP Conference meeting this morning.

Job news: Karalee Geis is now the senior associate director in the White House’s Office of Public Liaison. Geis was previously the director of Coalitions and Outreach for the House Judiciary Committee and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.).

Tech news: Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) are bringing back their bill to give teens up to age 16 more privacy online.

Meanwhile, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is out with a condemnation – via his new ALFA Institute – of the Biden administration’s rule restricting export of certain advanced chips.

– Mica Soellner, Max Cohen and Ben Brody

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