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April 14, 2025
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PRESENTED BY
THE TOP
Johnson’s $32 million quarter. And what is the Trump W.H. saying on tariffs?
Happy Monday morning.
Congress is out this week. President Donald Trump is in Washington. He’s expected to meet with the President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Vice President JD Vance will be in Italy Friday to meet with Meloni.
Some news nuggets for you this morning. We have Speaker Mike Johnson’s first quarter fundraising numbers. And we have some reconciliation news for you below.
News: Johnson’s big first quarter. Johnson raised $32.2 million during the first quarter. The Louisiana Republican’s team says this is his largest quarterly fundraising total ever. Johnson transferred $5 million to the NRCC in the first quarter, as well as $4 million to GOP incumbents.
Johnson will campaign in 10 cities in Texas, Florida, Indiana and Louisiana ahead of the Easter holiday.
House Republicans’ financial position has been the subject of intense discussion on Capitol Hill. The NRCC reported having just under $15 million in the bank at the end of February with $11.2 million in debt. The committee raised $9.2 million in February. The NRCC will file its March report in roughly a week.
The DCCC, meanwhile, had $26 million in the bank and raised more than $11 million during February. The DCCC owes $12.5 million.
House Republicans are apt to say that money doesn’t mean everything. Democrats frequently outraise the GOP, yet Republicans were able to keep their House majority in 2024.
Trump helped raise $35 million last week at an NRCC dinner, a number senior Republicans touted as being far larger than the last time the president appeared at a dinner for the House GOP.
Super PACs have also supplanted the national party committees in a lot of ways as well, although those funds are far more unpredictable.
What to watch this week – world markets and Trump. Trump now has two weeks with Congress gone. He’s been able to exploit congressional absences so far in his return to the White House.
Yet it’s fair to say that Trump’s handling of his trade war has been nothing short of chaotic. While Trump campaigned on remaking U.S. trade policy, no one in Washington was prepared for the speed, scale and sheer unpredictability of his moves so far. It’s rattled the party and country, while Trump’s poll numbers on the economy have slumped.
It’s difficult to get a straight answer from senior administration officials on anything related to trade policy or tariffs, either in public comments or private guidance. This is maddening for House and Senate Republicans who reflexively back the White House only to have the rug pulled out from under them over and over again.
Let’s take two examples from the weekend.
No. 1: The Trump administration has exempted electronics and smartphones from its newest tariffs on China, a massive carveout that will help settle some nerves on Capitol Hill, Wall Street and in Cupertino, Calif. at Apple’s headquarters. Trump criticized media coverage of the exemptions as “fake news.”
But then Trump told reporters on Sunday night as he returned from a Mar-a-Lago weekend that “we have to talk to the companies.”
More from Trump, per the pool report: “You know, you have to show a certain flexibility. Nobody should be so rigid. You have to show a certain flexibility.”
Earlier in the day, during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had insisted that the exemptions are temporary.
“What [Trump is] doing is he’s saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick said. “So these are coming soon.”
Lutnick added:
OK, so is this reprieve temporary? Maybe. Maybe not.
No. 2: The White House and Trump said that the administration would be levying tariffs on pharmaceutical products soon. This would have a huge impact on millions of Americans, especially seniors.
Yet on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, USTR Jamieson Greer said the Trump administration must conduct an “investigation” before levying such tariffs. CBS’s Margaret Brennan asked Greer if the administration has already “decided the outcome” of the investigation.
So a tariff on pharmaceuticals? Maybe. Maybe not. It’s daily whiplash from the Trump administration as markets continue to seesaw.
With economists now having shifted their predictions on the likelihood of a U.S. recession, Trump insists that everything is going great and to not worry about what you’re seeing or hearing otherwise.
“We have a country that is much richer than it was a few months ago,” Trump said. “We have a financial system that’s very respected.”
– Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan
THE HOUSE
Reconciliation markup schedule takes shape
News: House Republicans are set to begin marking up their reconciliation package as soon as Congress returns from the two-week recess, according to sources involved with the planning.
The House committees expected to be among the first to mark up include the Judiciary, Homeland Security and Armed Services, three of the key authorizing committees. These markups will likely begin the week of April 28, GOP sources say.
Other committees may also mark up that week, as well.
The Judiciary, Homeland Security and Armed Services panels are responsible for new spending on border security and defense that Republicans are planning in the reconciliation package. This should be an easier lift compared to House panels tasked with crafting a hugely complex tax-cut package or slashing federal spending by hundreds of billions of dollars. So it makes sense to start here.
Here are the maximums the budget resolution directs each of these committees to spend:
— $110 billion for Judiciary.
— $90 billion for Homeland Security.
— $100 billion for Armed Services. The Senate Armed Services Committee has instructions to spend up to $150 billion, and defense hawks have been pressing for the higher sum.
The entire House committee markup schedule has been thrown into flux since the passage of the House-Senate budget resolution last week. House and Senate committees have vastly different instructions for their committees. GOP leadership was still reworking the cadence of markups for the 11 House committees instructed under the resolution.
Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership team is committed to marking up its reconciliation package first, before the Senate gets started. Remember: tax bills have to start in the House.
Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are intent on finishing the package before Memorial Day. That’s just 42 days from now. This is a very ambitious timeline, as we’ve repeatedly noted.
Also, paging the White House. Johnson again expressed his dismay with raising the top tax rate for wealthy Americans, something that the Trump administration keeps privately pushing.
Appearing on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo, Johnson said he is “not a big fan” of trying to hike the rate for top earners, keeping himself firmly in line with traditional Republican Party orthodoxy on taxes.
Here’s Johnson, trying to tamp down this talk since there’s no way House Republicans would go for it:
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) addressed this recently too, telling reporters that a tax increase for top earners hasn’t been discussed in any meetings he’s been in. Arrington sits on the Ways and Means Committee in addition to wielding the Budget gavel.
“I think the offsets are more for… special interest tax breaks or loopholes,” Arrington said. “And then beyond that, I think the focus of savings is on the spending reduction side.”
– Jake Sherman, Laura Weiss and Samantha Handler
THE CAMPAIGN
Some Q1 fundraising highlights
– Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) raised $1 million in the first quarter and has roughly $1 million cash on hand.
– Frontline Rep. Dave Min (D-Calif.) raised $752,000 in the first quarter and has $716,000 on hand.
– Rep. Pete Stauber’s (R-Minn.) victory committee brought in $62,000 from two donors, including $50,000 from John Miner of Miner’s Inc.
– Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) raised $72,000 into her victory committee.
– Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) raised $256,444 in the first quarter and has $987,231 in the bank.
Also: Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) has his Palm Springs, Calif., retreat today. It began Sunday, so you can’t join him. Sorry. This trip runs between $1,500 and $5,000.
And VoteVets is endorsing Democrat Maura Sullivan for New Hampshire’s 1st District. The seat is currently held by Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, who recently announced his intentions to run for Senate.
– Jake Sherman, Mica Soellner and Max Cohen
PRESENTED BY MCDONALD’S
ICYMI
The Ones to Watch: Advancing with AI
We spent the last several weeks exploring how artificial intelligence is boosting different sectors and regions of the U.S.
The four-part series, The Ones to Watch: Advancing with AI, included interviews with key public officials who are paying attention to the new technology and exploring ways to encourage innovation while creating a suitable regulatory framework.
Follow the links below to read the different segments on:
| → | Energy innovation with Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin. |
| → | Cybersecurity with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif). |
| → | The workforce with Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.). |
| → | Economic investment with Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa). |
– Elvina Nawaguna
DOWNTOWN DOWNLOAD
Ballard Partners has signed Balkan Energy SHA and will provide “[a]ssistance and guidance breaking into foreign energy markets.”
Amgen, the biotech giant, has signed with Capitol 6 Advisors to lobby on the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. Stephanie Gadbois, a former House Appropriations Committee staffer, will lobby on the account.
1st Quarter spending. Amazon spent $20,000 with Holland & Knight to lobby on tax reform. … CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company, spent $60,000 with Cornerstone Government Affairs to advocate “for robust cyber funding and critical policies to ensure that the US government can protect itself from cyber attacks and disruptions.”
The Washington Commanders spent $60,000 with Dentons to monitor “issues related to economic development and federal transportation funding.”
Coca-Cola paid Ervin Graves Strategy Group $50,000 to make “general Introductions and relationship building with Members of Congress; Monitoring relevant legislative activity and advise client on matters.”
The City of Cleveland paid Holland & Knight $50,000 to lobby on WRDA.
Smithfield Foods paid Holland & Knight $270,000 to lobby on a host of agriculture-related items, including export policy and the farm bill.
The Michigan Farm Bureau spent $220,000 to lobby on issues related to immigration and other matters.
— Jake Sherman
PRESENTED BY MCDONALD’S
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Americans know who to blame for rising drug prices: Big Pharma. Most Republicans, Democrats, & Independents all believe Big Pharma is stealing from Americans, one prescription at a time. Let’s hold them accountable and put Americans first.