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April 15, 2025
Presented by RED Coalition
You voted for American energy dominance—and the Trump Administration is delivering. From solar to oil & gas, they’re unleashing it all. More energy. More jobs. Higher wages. America is booming—because when we lead, we win.
PRESENTED BY
THE TOP
News: NRCC gets on track with $21M raised in March
Happy Tuesday morning.
House Republican fundraising news: The NRCC raised $36.7 million in the first quarter of 2025, an impressive haul as House Republicans seek to protect their slim majority. This is the best off-year Q1 tally in its history, the NRCC says. The House GOP campaign arm has $23.9 million on hand.
The NRCC raised $21.5 million in March, a massive sum that should help quiet some of the committee’s critics in the House Republican Conference. Furthermore, the NRCC paid off $6.75 million of its debt, leaving just $4.5 million on the note.
The March fundraising sum dwarfs the two previous months. The NRCC raised $5.9 million in January and $9.2 million in February.
Many political entities will be filing today – we’ll have our eyes peeled.
How a bill becomes law … or not. We are approaching the 100th day of President Donald Trump’s presidency. Trump and Republican congressional leaders often claim his new administration has been the most productive in recent memory.
Except when it comes to passing laws.
Trump has signed fewer bills into law at this point in his presidency than any new president taking office for the last seven decades, according to government records.
Trump has signed just five bills into law so far: three Congressional Review Act resolutions overturning Biden-era regulations, the Laken Riley Act and a stopgap funding bill needed to avoid a government shutdown last month.
Congress actually passed the Laken Riley Act before Trump took office, but the GOP leadership held it so former President Joe Biden wouldn’t be able to sign it into law.
Trump’s 100-day mark is officially April 30. But Congress will be out until April 28. So this is as good a time as any to judge the legislative prowess of the Republican trifecta.
Consider this:
By this point in 2017, Trump had signed 24 bills into law.
By this point in Biden’s presidency, he’d signed seven bills into law.
In 2009, Barack Obama had signed 11 bills into law by now.
In 2001, George W. Bush had signed seven bills into law.
In 1993, Bill Clinton had signed 21 bills into law.
At this point in 1989, George H.W. Bush had signed 13 bills into law.
In 1981, Ronald Reagan had signed nine bills into law by now.
Jimmy Carter had signed 19 bills into law by now in 1977.
Richard Nixon had signed eight bills into law by this time in 1969.
John F. Kennedy signed 20 bills into law by the end of March 1961.
Dwight D. Eisenhower had also signed 20 bills into law by this time in 1953.
There are many reasons this Congress has been historically unproductive on the legislative front.
– Speaker Mike Johnson has a historically small majority. In 2017, for example, then Speaker Paul Ryan had 246 Republicans in the House GOP conference when Trump started his term. In 2009, Obama had 256 Democrats serving alongside then Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
– Trump has done a tremendous amount through executive orders. He has signed 124 executive orders since taking office. They cover issues ranging from energy policy, TikTok’s ownership, combating “unfair practices in the live entertainment market” and threatening to withdraw security clearances for lawyers at law firms that tangled with Trump.
In fact, with the Republican-run Congress doing almost nothing to push back, Trump has stretched his authority far more than any recent president, resulting in a wave of lawsuits that are working their way through federal courts.
– House Republicans employed a procedural tactic to prevent lawmakers from challenging Trump’s use of emergency powers to place new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. When some Republicans, including several GOP senators, threatened to get behind a bill that would reassert congressional authority over tariffs, the White House threatened a veto while Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune bashed the proposal.
– Trump has used DOGE and Elon Musk to launch his layoffs of tens of thousands of federal employees. Trump-appointed Cabinet officials – in some cases after bruising confirmation fights – have gone along with Trump’s efforts on this front.
– Republican congressional leaders have spent most of their time and energy on reconciliation. House and Senate Republicans have passed two slightly different budget proposals. Republicans expect to spend the next six weeks or so crafting a legislative vehicle that will carry the bulk of the president’s domestic agenda.
– Jake Sherman and Max Cohen
Join us on Tuesday, April 29 at 8:30 a.m. ET for a conversation with Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.). Punchbowl News Founder and CEO Anna Palmer will sit down with Lee to discuss the news of the day and how the country is advancing with artificial intelligence. RSVP now!
WASHINGTON X THE WORLD
State Dept. to propose major overhaul of U.S. diplomatic footprint
News: The State Department is expected to propose an unprecedented overhaul of the U.S. government’s diplomatic footprint overseas, including the elimination of entire embassies and consulates, according to a document obtained by Punchbowl News.
The document, part of a broader FY 2026 budget proposal due to the Office of Management and Budget later today, outlines a consolidation of outposts in countries such as Japan and Canada, that includes “resizing” consulates in major cities to “FLEX-style light consulates.”
Ten embassies and 17 consulates would be shuttered under the Trump administration plan, including Eritrea, Luxembourg, South Sudan and Malta. All would be folded into embassies in nearby countries. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently revoked all visas for South Sudanese citizens in the United States.
“Posts were evaluated based on feedback from regional bureaus and the interagency, consular workload, cost per [U.S. Direct Hire] billet, condition of facilities, and security ratings,” the memo states.
Five of the proposed consulate closures are in France: Lyon, Rennes, Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Marseille. Two are in Germany: Düsseldorf and Leipzig. The list also includes Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital, as well as Florence, Italy.
The consolidation of diplomatic outposts would also apply to a number of major U.S. allies. For Canada, this would mean U.S. consulates in cities such as Montreal and Halifax would be downsized to “provide ‘last-mile’ diplomacy with minimal local support.”
The document also proposes folding U.S. missions to international organizations into the U.S. embassies and consulates in those cities. It specifically names Paris, where OECD and UNESCO are headquartered. President Donald Trump hasn’t nominated ambassadors to either organization.
The document, compiled by senior Trump administration appointees, calls for “reduc[ing] or eliminat[ing]” the State Department’s footprint in Mogadishu, Somalia, because of a “non-permissive environment” for State, despite noting it’s “highly rated by the interagency.”
State Department officials also want to close the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center in Iraq’s capital, adding that Iraq is “by far” the most expensive State Department mission. These are noted as “special cost and risk containment posts.”
Rubio still needs to sign off on the budget proposals. But the header of the memo reads: “M Recommendations for Closure.” The “M” refers to the Under Secretary of State for Management. State Department official José Cunningham is currently performing the duties of this role.
Cunningham took over the job earlier this month from Tibor Nagy, a veteran diplomat who led the African Affairs bureau during Trump’s first administration and had been running the Management division since January. Nagy has since left the State Department and criticized the broader budget-slashing efforts in Foggy Bottom.
All told, the document reflects the Trump administration’s push to dramatically shrink the State Department’s budget. Politico reported that the administration wants to cut the department’s budget by nearly half. The Politico story also referenced some embassy cuts.
Ultimately, of course, this is all up to Congress. But the Trump administration’s moves set the table for a potentially major clash over FY 2026 funding for the State Department.
— Andrew Desiderio
The Vault: Moreno unveils bipartisan blockchain bill
Exclusive: Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) is rolling out a new bipartisan bill to boost blockchain technology, creating a “National Blockchain Deployment Advisory Committee” at the Commerce Department and tasking the secretary with a bigger advisory role.
Moreno is working with two fellow freshmen on the push: Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.).
The new legislation would task the commerce secretary with serving as a principal adviser to the president on blockchain and applications built on distributed ledger technologies similar to blockchain.
Moreno’s move hits close to home. The freshman GOP senator co-founded a blockchain business for digital car titles before coming to Congress.
And while there are a lot of uses for blockchain, the most notable is crypto.
Moreno also got a huge boost from the crypto industry in his election last year, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars in ads. Moreno toppled former Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in the race and joined the Banking Committee himself.
Crypto has already made its mark as a major financial services focal point for the 119th Congress and the Trump administration. The White House launched its own working group on digital asset markets in January.
The House: There’s also interest in the House for Commerce to focus more on developing blockchain technology.
Florida Reps. Kat Cammack, a Republican, and Darren Soto, a Democrat, have a House bill by the same name as the Moreno-led effort, which is similar to the Senate push but not directly coordinated.
Cammack and Soto’s measure would also direct the commerce secretary to take on an advisory role on blockchain issues and create a “Blockchain Deployment Program” at the department.
— Laura Weiss
PRESENTED BY MCDONALD’S
THE SENATE
Hassan, Ernst reintroduce Deterrence Act
News: Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) are reintroducing the Deterrence Act, legislation that increases criminal penalties for individuals hired by foreign adversaries to commit crimes on U.S. soil.
The legislation is especially relevant given Iran’s alleged attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump. The bill, which passed the Senate by voice vote in December 2024 but didn’t clear the House, is also picking up Sens. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) as cosponsors. Read more about the bill here.
— Max Cohen
THE CAMPAIGN
Kelly’s Q1 haul and other fundraising scoops
First in Punchbowl News: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) raised more than $4.1 million through his campaign and leadership PAC in the first quarter of 2025. That includes $3.9 million for Kelly’s campaign and around $200,000 for his PAC.
Kelly has been one of several Democrats taking on an outsized messaging role for the party in recent months, especially on national security issues.
In other news: Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) raised $1.2 million in the first quarter as she eyes a potential Senate run. This is Craig’s best-ever first-quarter haul. Craig has $1 million on hand.
House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) raised $860,000 in the first quarter and has more than $2.75 million on hand. Steil is on the DCCC’s “Districts in Play” list for 2026. Steil beat his Democratic opponent by more than 10 points last cycle.
More fundraising nuggets: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is up for reelection in 2026, raised $842,366 in the first quarter. She has $3.2 million on hand.
Former Rep. Cheri Bustos’ (D-Ill.) campaign is paying her son Nick Bustos $1,000 per month for “media consulting services.” Both Bustos and her son work for Mercury Public Affairs.
Former Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) has $2.2 million on hand for his primary challenge against GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.). Fleming loaned his campaign $2 million.
Sam Couvillon, who is running in a Republican primary against Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), has raised $263,000 in two months. He has $213,000 on hand.
— Jake Sherman and Andrew Desiderio
PRESENTED BY MCDONALD’S
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Presented by RED Coalition
You voted for American energy dominance—and the Trump Administration is delivering. From solar to oil & gas, they’re unleashing it all. More energy. More jobs. Higher wages. America is booming—because when we lead, we win.