The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

What to watch as Congress returns

Senate eyes using FAA bill to jam House on unrelated legislation

FIFA president heads to the Hill

Capitol Hill leaders say Johnson is staying, for now

THE TOP

What to watch as Congress returns

Happy Monday morning.

Congress is back. The House is in today, the Senate returns tomorrow. President Joe Biden is in D.C.

The House is scheduled to be in session for four straight weeks, the start of a lengthy May-June-July run for members. Of course, the calendar can change depending on political developments. There’s already chatter about this happening if House Republican leaders don’t have anything to vote on.

Congress needs to act on the FAA bill by the May 10 expiration date — more on this below. House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) has promised a markup on a new five-year farm bill by Memorial Day. And moving forward on the FY2025 appropriations bills will be a focus for leaders in both chambers. But there probably won’t be any final agreement on these measures until after Election Day, especially if the House Freedom Caucus clogs up the process as expected.

Yet for the first time in months, there’s no big legislative crisis hanging over lawmakers’ heads — especially Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans (well, maybe). Federal agencies are funded through Sept. 30, with a continuing resolution certain to happen before lawmakers leave in the fall. FISA is reauthorized, and Congress passed the $95 billion foreign aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

We’re going to see a wave of messaging bills over the next few months. The House schedule this week includes bills that would delist gray wolves from the endangered species list and allow more oil drilling in Alaska. Another GOP resolution condemns Biden’s immigration policies. The Senate will keep confirming more of Biden’s judges, although Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer hopes to cut some bipartisan deals.

So this morning, we’ll focus on two issues — Israel and Johnson’s future.

On Israel: Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East for another round of talks on a possible ceasefire in Gaza. Blinken will first stop in Saudi Arabia for the World Economic Forum with Gaza talks on the side. He then heads to Israel and Jordan.

Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday and reaffirmed his strong opposition to any Israeli military operation in Rafah, according to a White House statement.

The president also pressed Netanyahu over “increases in the delivery of humanitarian assistance into Gaza including through preparations to open new northern crossings starting this week.”

The swirl of diplomatic maneuvering comes as protests over the war continue to roil U.S. college campuses. There were more than 200 arrests over the weekend at schools across the country. Locally, George Washington University has students camped out in the middle of one of the school’s quads. The GW administration said it was going to remove the protesters by Friday at 7 p.m. They haven’t done so. More from the GW Hatchet here.

With antisemitic incidents rising nationwide, House GOP leaders also are bringing up a bipartisan antisemitism bill drafted by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.). The bill would require the Department of Education to use a broader definition of antisemitism when enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws. Lawler said the bill “will help put a stop to the antisemitic intimidation of Jewish students on campus once and for all.”

On Johnson: Johnson made a huge decision to back the Ukraine funding package two weeks ago. Now we’ll see what conservative GOP hardliners do in response with a push to oust Johnson — and whether it has any legs.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has introduced a motion to vacate that’s backed by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.). Greene is seeking more support this week for her motion. “The only people that will save Johnson are the Democrats,” said a senior House aide close to the situation.

For his part, Johnson continues to throw his arms around former President Donald Trump as tightly as he can. Johnson will attend a “spring donor retreat” that Trump’s campaign is holding this week, per our friend Alex Isenstadt at Politico.

This comes after we reported that Johnson and the NRCC wanted Trump to attend an NRCC fundraiser in Dallas last week. Trump, of course, is on criminal trial in New York City and couldn’t make it. Johnson also was with Trump a few weeks ago in Mar-a-Lago.

On Friday, Trump said Johnson “is doing a very good job.”

Trump also said Greene “has a lot of respect for the speaker,” which isn’t close to being true.

If Greene forces a floor vote on the motion to vacate, all eyes will be on House Democrats. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has signaled that Democrats may help Johnson stay as speaker if conservatives try to oust Johnson, but where does that leave him internally?

If Republicans lose the House, Johnson won’t be speaker and will almost certainly face one or more challengers. If Republicans keep the House, conservatives could block Johnson from winning a floor vote for speaker, like they did with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in January 2021. Trump could intervene if he’s president-elect. Yet that may be the only scenario in which Johnson can keep the gavel next Congress.

— John Bresnahan

TOMORROW: Join us at 8:30 a.m. ET for a conversation with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) as a part of our series, The AI Impact. Anna Palmer, Punchbowl News CEO, and Rounds will discuss the news of the day and the role AI plays across different industries. Afterward, Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs at Google, will join Anna for a fireside chat about what it will take to unlock AI’s potential. RSVP!

THE SENATE

Senate eyes using FAA bill to jam House on unrelated legislation

News: Senate and House negotiators released the long-awaited FAA reauthorization bill just after midnight with the first procedural vote expected in the Senate on Wednesday.

This will kick off a mad scramble as senators plot ways to use the bill to jam the House on long-stalled bipartisan measures that are unrelated to the FAA bill itself.

You can read the bill text here. The section-by-section breakdown is here.

But first, perhaps the biggest news to come out of the agreement is that negotiators sided with the Senate Commerce Committee’s bid to increase the number of flight slots at Washington Reagan National Airport. The full House rejected this idea last year.

The negotiated text requires the Department of Transportation to grant 10 additional slots at DCA, or five round-trip flights. This is sure to enrage the DMV-area lawmakers, who are strongly opposed to the expansion.

The FAA bill is one of Congress’ final must-pass agenda items before the election. So this is a chance to hitch a ride onto one of the last trains out of the station, so to speak. And senators will have some leverage here.

How it could work: Under the current timeline, the Senate likely won’t be able to finish the FAA reauthorization before the May 10 deadline unless all 100 senators come to a time agreement. That’s in part because the Senate is expected to substitute for the House text with the deal that was released overnight. That means more steps in the floor process.

In order to pass the bill on time, Senate leaders will likely need to allow votes on amendments. This is a chance for senators to use the FAA bill as a “Christmas tree” vehicle. It’s also likely that senators will demand votes on amendments related to the actual FAA bill — like the DCA slot proposal.

The House would then need to pass the negotiated FAA package. That could mean forcing House GOP leaders to accept bipartisan Senate bills that wouldn’t have otherwise been taken up there.

Here are some changes to the bill that could be in play.

DCA expansion: The DMV-area delegation has long fought against an expansion, pointing to recent FAA data showing that the airport is already overburdened. The local lawmakers say adding flights would make delays at DCA even worse and jeopardize passenger safety. United Airlines is opposed. Delta Air Lines has been strongly in favor of the expansion.

This is one of those unusual Capitol Hill fights that doesn’t fall along party lines. And you can bet that Maryland’s and Virginia’s senators will be pushing to scrap the DCA provision from the FAA bill.

Kids’ online safety: Congress took a whack at Big Tech with the passage of the TikTok forced-divestiture bill. And as we told you on Friday, there could be more Big Tech crackdowns coming.

The easiest to clear would be the Kids’ Online Safety Act, which has more than 60 co-sponsors and could therefore overcome a filibuster. The bill has long been a priority for Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), so they could seek to use the FAA bill as the vehicle to get it done. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is also a cosponsor.

It would create new rules for tech companies aimed at shielding children from potentially addictive or otherwise damaging content. Opponents say the bill could be abused by state-level officials to censor certain online content.

Radiation compensation: A government program for victims of nuclear contamination is set to expire soon. The Senate passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act by a vote of 69-30 last month, but the House hasn’t taken it up. Attaching it to the FAA bill could be the best shot at getting it signed into law.

Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) have been leading the charge on this. But it’s been an uphill battle in part because the issue divides Republicans, and because Speaker Mike Johnson has yet to make a decision on how to handle it. There’s also a $50 billion price tag to consider.

— Andrew Desiderio

WORLD CUP WATCH

FIFA president heads to the Hill

News: FIFA President Gianni Infantino is visiting Capitol Hill on Tuesday and Wednesday to meet with lawmakers to discuss planning for the 2026 World Cup.

Infantino is meeting with the leaders of the Congressional Soccer Caucus — Reps. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) — to delve into the preparation for the upcoming World Cup. The 2026 World Cup will be played in 16 cities in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Infantino is based in Florida but is making his first visit to Capitol Hill this week. Lawmakers are also expected to lobby Infantino on the United States’ bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

The World Cup is the biggest sports event in the world and comes with a long list of logistical headaches. The Soccer Caucus members will bring up a litany of economic, infrastructure and security topics with Infantino.

FIFA, global soccer’s governing body, has been hit with a wave of scandals in recent years. Infantino succeeded disgraced Sepp Blatter as head of FIFA in 2016.

— Max Cohen

THE INNOVATORS 2024

On Friday, Punchbowl News hosted The Innovators, our kickoff event for White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend. The event celebrated innovators across industries in business, travel, media and more through our partner activation and our signature gifting experience.

Anna Palmer, CEO and a founder of Punchbowl News, Kerry McLean, executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Intuit and Hooman Shahidi, CEO and co-founder of EVPassport, gave remarks. Black Women’s Congressional Alliance and The Female Quotient were community partners for the event. Check out more photos from the event here!

Raising a glass: Small Business Administrator Isabel Guzman; Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.) and Shuwanza Goff, Sydney Harvey, Ashley Jones, Herbie Ziskend, Wintta Woldemariam, Dean Lieberman and Sanam Rastegar of the White House.

Hayden Haynes of the Office of Speaker Mike Johnson; Gideon Bragin, Nnemdilim Ubezonu and Christie Stephenson of the Office of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries; Michael Reed and Courtney Cochran of the Office of House Minority Whip Katherine Clark; Kate Noyes of the Office of Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Annie Clark of the Office of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

Also, Meena Harris of Phenomenal; Michael Kennedy, Paul Lindsay, Erica Terry Derryck and Kacey Schneider of Intuit; Blaine North of Mailchimp; Jamie Wall of ExxonMobil; Jennifer Prosser and Jessica Lightburn of Goldman Sachs; Ramya Raghavan and Anne Wall of Google; John Bivona of Rasky Partners; Jeff Shockey of RTX; Dani Dudeck and Casey Aden-Wansbury of Instacart; Amanda Miller of Under Armour; and Abby Phillip, Phil Mattingly, Manu Raju and Jessica Dean of CNN.

Capitol Hill leaders say Johnson is staying, for now

Most Capitol Hill senior staffers believe Mike Johnson is unlikely to be removed as speaker of the House before the end of this Congress. It’s not a commanding majority — 62% — but it signals that things may be better for the Louisiana Republican than conventional wisdom previously thought.

Last month, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) filed a motion to vacate against Johnson. Despite that setback, our Canvass respondents believed in the speaker’s staying power in the survey conducted April 1-19 in partnership with independent public affairs firm, LSG.

On April 17, Johnson pushed forward on the $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, an unpopular move among conservative members in his party. Johnson did this in the closing days of our survey. But a few days earlier, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries indicated that Democrats would likely save the speaker if hardline conservatives moved forward with the motion to vacate.

When we polled K Street leaders in March, 73% of them said Johnson was an ineffective speaker.

Want to take part in The Canvass? Our survey provides anonymous monthly insights from top Capitol Hill staffers and K Street leaders on key issues facing Washington. Sign up here if you work on K Street. Click here to sign up if you’re a senior congressional staffer.

— Robert O’Shaughnessy

MOMENTS

CLIPS