The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

Booker’s record-breaking week

The Khan coalition

D.C. budget brouhaha

Democrats vs. Abbott

THE TOP

Booker’s record-breaking week

Welcome to The Readback, our weekend digest featuring the best of Punchbowl News this week. Here, we share a quick roundup of all our scoops, analysis and Capitol Hill insight you won’t find anywhere else. We’ve also included a few of our favorite outside reads from the week.

On limited occasions, events on Capitol Hill can break through the noise and reach Americans outside the Congress bubble.

This week, Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) record-breaking floor speech did exactly that. Booker kicked off proceedings at 7 p.m. on Monday and ended 25 hours and five minutes later on Tuesday night — the longest floor speech in Senate history.

Throughout that stretch, Booker commanded control of the Senate and prevented the chamber from taking up scheduled votes.

A crucial point here — Booker’s speech wasn’t a filibuster, which is when a senator rises to obstruct action on a specific bill. Instead, Booker’s dilatory tactic was aimed at a more general purpose: protesting President Donald Trump’s actions.

Booker’s marathon speech was a response to a Democratic base that’s furious at Trump and crying out to lawmakers to “do something.” Booker decided to disrupt the Senate and prove that this was not business as usual.

But did it work? Booker’s speech certainly got widespread attention. The New Jersey Democrat is an impressive orator and captivated audiences at times during his 2020 presidential campaign.

The pure physical aspect of Booker’s feat was also remarkable. Booker didn’t use the restroom for the entire duration of his speech. He later told reporters that he purposefully dehydrated himself by cutting off food and water consumption for days in the leadup.

The peak viewership turning into the live stream of his speech was more than 300,000, according to Booker’s team. The speech also took off on TikTok, a platform where many younger Americans consume political news.

The symbolism of Booker — the first Black senator from New Jersey — breaking segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond’s (R-S.C.) record for the longest Senate speech was powerful.

But after Booker finally yielded back the floor on Tuesday evening, the GOP-controlled Senate immediately got back to work and confirmed Matthew Whitaker as the next U.S. ambassador to NATO on Tuesday.

The Senate also confirmed Harmeet Dhillon and Mehmet Oz to top posts in the DOJ and HHS.

And most importantly, the Senate moved forward on the compromise House-Senate budget resolution that paves the way to unlocking much of Trump’s legislative agenda — the same things Booker railed against for 25 hours straight.

That’s the crux of the issue for Democrats, which Booker acknowledged. As much as they protest, hold the floor and criticize Republicans, there’s little they can do to stop Trump for now.

That’s the nature of life in the minority.

What I’m watching: Who will emerge victorious in the Final Four’s battle of the one seeds? I’m rooting against Duke, for what it’s worth.

– Max Cohen

You can find The Readback in your inbox every Saturday at 8 a.m. And don’t hesitate to reach out to readback@punchbowl.news with feedback. Enjoy The Readback.

The Khan coalition

Lina Khan isn’t primarying Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, but she is trying to build a new political coalition.

“No, I admire people who do electoral politics, but it’s not something that I personally have a deep desire to do,” the former Federal Trade Commission chair said this week when asked about a challenge to her fellow New Yorker.

Khan, who has attained somewhat unlikely star power for her fights against Big Tech, was speaking at a conference hosted by Y Combinator. The gathering is officially devoted to making sure competition policy allows so-called Little Tech to thrive. The subtext, though, is highlighting the possibility of political fusion between anti-corporate forces on the left and right.

Hence, a photo that went viral of Khan with Steve Bannon, the populist former Trump aide and right-wing media personality.

It wasn’t just a quick photograph either. During Bannon’s appearance — with progressive former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra — Bannon praised Khan as a major political thinker. I could see the two chatting for a while before the snapshot too.

For her part, when Khan took the stage, she sidestepped the praise from Bannon, who did a stint in jail last year for defying a congressional subpoena, and later she posted a picture of herself with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

At the summit, however, Khan was clear she believes in the possibility of a movement that could pull from progressives and conservatives.

“There’s a lot of energy and enthusiasm, especially among young people, to figure out … what does it mean to keep building out this anti-monopoly movement,” she said. “That’s what I’m going to be focused on.”

This talk of fusion politics isn’t too surprising to those of us who have followed the “Khan-servative” phenomenon the last several years — politicians on the right who like the tough-on-tech stances from the celebrity bureaucrat (a celebri-crat?). At the conference last year, Khan famously received a lot of praise from then-Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).

Building a powerful cross-partisan coalition devoted to taking on big companies is possible — and has precedent in history — but the larger political context means building such a movement would be a very, very tough undertaking at the moment.

Neither side wants to give the other a win right now. President Donald Trump has also chosen Khan-esque antitrust enforcers, while eagerly entertaining Big Tech executives — a fact that the former chair slammed repeatedly during her appearance. Plenty of Democratic leaders are deeply tied to California donors also.

Still, these days, when people are eager to take on mega-corporations, they’re prone to getting questions about their willingness to take on their own parties too.

What I’m reading: As of writing this, I’m about 10 hours away from a dinner party where everyone else has already read last year’s thriller “The God of the Woods” and is eager to discuss it. I only started it last night. I guess I’ll just blame all the tech news this week.

– Ben Brody

D.C. budget brouhaha

Nothing’s ever easy in Congress, especially not the 119th session.

For a moment, it looked like it was going to be tricky, but possible for lawmakers to approve a measure that would give the D.C. government flexibility to spend its budget. After Congress passed a stopgap government funding bill last month, the Senate immediately approved the measure by unanimous consent.

D.C. officials say that unless the legislation passes, the District may have to cut somewhere between $250 million and $1 billion from its budget.

The legislation even got the blessing of President Donald Trump – the key to getting anything passed these days.

Enter the U.S. House of Representatives. While it seemed like the House was going to take up the measure before lawmakers left for their April break, that’s now up in the air.

We had a few scoops on this issue this week.

For one, it’s unclear if the legacy policy riders — provisions often added on to must-pass legislation like funding bills — apply. Some of that language traditionally included is to ensure that no D.C. government funding is used to pay for abortions.

We’re seeing a split on this between House and Senate appropriators. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said the riders still apply. Meanwhile, Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), a House Appropriations cardinal, said there needs to be changes to the Senate bill.

The hardline House Freedom Caucus is also now asking Speaker Mike Johnson to hold off on the bill while they figure out what they want to do with the legislation. Many of those conservatives want to load up the Senate measure with policies related to abortion, marijuana and concealed carry licenses.

There’s one appropriator, though, who wants to stay out of this issue altogether. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told us straight up that it “doesn’t matter to me.”

To be fair, if the bill were to go to a House committee, it would go to House Oversight and Government Reform, not appropriations. And, Cole said he wants to make sure that the traditional riders still apply and is supportive of D.C. getting the funding autonomy it needs.

All of these concerns are complicating the bill’s path to enactment and throws D.C.’s financial outlook in jeopardy.

We’ll see how this plays out this week and whether its path to the House floor becomes clearer or murkier.

What I’m watching: I’ll be watching the “White Lotus” season finale on Sunday night. I’m out of theories – it’s just time to see what happens!

– Samantha Handler

Democrats vs. Abbott

The pressure is on for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to set a date for a special election to replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner in the Lone Star State’s 18th District.

A month after Turner’s death, there’s still no indication of when the governor may call for the election. And he’s already missed one deadline that would put it on the ballot for the upcoming May election.

This delayed timeline, at a critical time in the House, is making some Democrats antsy and ready to lawyer up.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced that the caucus is “very likely” to pursue a lawsuit against Abbott if he doesn’t call an emergency special election soon.

Christian Menefee, the Harris county attorney who is running for the seat, is also weighing his legal options, while the Texas Democratic Party is also on board with potential litigation.

I reported this week that some Texas Democrats have been circulating a history chart of the timelines Abbott has previously had in calling special elections. Every race he’s called has already been much earlier and typically within the two-week period after a representative has departed the office.

But of course, there are special circumstances in Washington at the moment. House Republicans have a razor thin majority and Speaker Mike Johnson needs every vote he can get to pass even basic legislation.

When asked about the timeline for a potential special election, Abbott’s office responded with what the state code says about them.

“The Texas Election Code authorizes the Governor to set a special election when practicable,” said Andrew Mahaleris, press secretary for Abbott.

Ok then!

But it’s still unclear what the pathway is for a national lawsuit against Abbott. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this.

What I’m watching: I’ve been watching the Japanese reality show “Terrace House: Aloha State” on Netflix.

– Mica Soellner