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May 2, 2025
Presented by UL Standards & Engagement
The bipartisan Setting Consumer Standards for Lithium-Ion Batteries Act will keep uncertified batteries off the market and out of homes — reducing the fire risk and preserving consumer access. It passed the House by an overwhelming majority. Now it’s the Senate’s turn to make a smart decision to protect Americans.
THE TOP
Byrd’s the word as House Republicans stumble
Happy Friday morning.
Catching you up. The House Republican leadership has delayed three critical markups on President Donald Trump’s reconciliation package as internal party squabbles have hobbled the GOP’s ability to move quickly.
After a White House meeting between Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and key committee chairs, the GOP leadership decided to delay markups next week in the House Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means and Agriculture panels, according to Republican lawmakers and aides.
Let’s put this in context: The Energy and Commerce and Agriculture panels are charged with finding $1.1 trillion-plus in spending cuts from Medicaid, food stamps and other social safety net programs. This has set off a bitter clash between the conservative and moderate wings of the House GOP conference.
Meanwhile, the Ways and Means Committee’s remit is the core of the Republican reconciliation process — an extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts plus the president’s campaign priorities.
Despite working on the policy behind the scenes for nearly a year to find party consensus, the massive GOP package remains in flux. Huge disagreements over key policy issues remain:
– The White House is seeking to change the trajectory of debate around some policies, namely how House Republicans are handling Medicaid work requirements, drug pricing and the provider tax. White House officials are also intent on notching a victory on lowering drug prices and see the inclusion of this policy in the reconciliation package as a political priority.
– Energy and Commerce needs more time to work out Medicaid conflicts both internally and with the White House. This is, by far, the most serious dispute, and one that could sink the whole package.
– The Ways and Means Committee is waiting on budgetary scores from the Joint Committee on Taxation on a host of its policies.
Looking ahead. The House GOP leadership wants the trio of committees to mark up their sections of the package during the week of May 12. But that would mean that all three panels will mark up the same week as the Budget Committee. Budget is charged with stitching together one giant reconciliation package using the various pieces from all the panels.
For Johnson to meet his Memorial Day deadline, everything would have to go according to plan in the three committees. This is far from guaranteed, although Johnson remains dead set on this timeline and the leadership says they are still convinced they can hit it.
The Senate. There hasn’t been a single Senate markup yet on reconciliation – and probably never will be – yet the Byrd Rule has already come into play.
Under the arcane and hyper-complex Byrd Rule, only provisions that directly deal with spending, revenue or the debt limit can be included in the filibuster-proof package.
In response, the House Judiciary Committee ditched its plan to move the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust enforcement authority to the Justice Department. Senators were dubious it would be allowed under their chamber’s rules.
Farm bill problems. The House Agriculture Committee looks like it will have a similar Byrd Rule problem.
House Agriculture Republicans are planning to squeeze more of the farm bill into the reconciliation package. The plan is to enact more of the farm bill through reconciliation, leaving only a small number of measures for bipartisan negotiations.
But Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) dismissed that idea Thursday.
“Most of the stuff that they’re talking about, I don’t think would survive the Byrd Rule in the Senate,” Boozman said. “Their rules are very different from ours.”
Financial Services: Two targeted agencies – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board – both exist outside the normal appropriations process.
Republicans believe they can argue both changes will result in revenue for the federal government that can be used as reconciliation pay-fors. But it’s not a given that the Senate parliamentarian will agree.
Democrats are deeply skeptical that the effort will generate meaningful savings.
“House Republicans want to fire the cops on the beat who protect families from getting scammed and cheated,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Thursday. “That doesn’t save anybody money, and the House Republicans know that.”
Natural Resources: House Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) has said a major permitting overhaul is unlikely to be included in reconciliation because of Byrd Rule concerns. Westerman will have to show there’s a revenue impact on the policies he’s pursuing.
Westerman aims to approve some mining projects in reconciliation, specifically the Twin Metals mine in Minnesota. He’s also floated the idea of requiring more auctions for oil and gas drilling.
— Jake Sherman, Samantha Handler, Laura Weiss and Brendan Pedersen
NEW! Join us on Thursday, May 22 at 9 a.m. ET for a conversation with Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler. Punchbowl News Founder Jake Sherman will sit down with Loeffler to discuss the role of supplier development and the small businesses driving the economy.
Afterward, Andrea Albright, executive vice president of sourcing for Walmart and Jeff Picken, owner of Beaumont Products, will join Jake for a fireside chat. Save your spot now!
The Vault: Tim Scott isn’t expecting Democratic noms
News: The White House isn’t expected to put forward Democratic nominees to serve in minority positions at financial agencies, according to Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.).
In an interview Thursday, Scott said he didn’t anticipate the Trump administration would put forward Democratic names to serve on bipartisan boards at agencies like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or US Securities and Exchange Commission.
“We’re struggling to get what we have done on the noms. I do not expect the White House to ask me for names at this point,” Scott said.
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This isn’t surprising in terms of politics, even if it breaks with precedent. President Donald Trump has moved to fire Democrats on independent agency boards like the National Credit Union Administration, Federal Trade Commission and National Labor Relations Board.
But in terms of procedure, it’s a problem for Senate Republicans and the chamber’s nominees. The lack of a time agreement among Senate leadership has made the process of moving nominees far more costly. Having Democratic nominees would have been one way to encourage a bit of cooperation from Senate Democrats.
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Reconciliation: Scott said he was supportive of the House Financial Services Committee’s approach to reconciliation. And he’s “not really” itching for the Senate Banking panel to have its own markup. “The way that we’re doing this process is as a team ballgame,” Scott said.
House Republicans made two major moves with their reconciliation print. One would lower the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding cap from the Federal Reserve’s budget by about 60%.
The second would fold the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board into the Securities and Exchange Commission. Scott told us that would be a “welcome change” that could save as much as $800 million. We’ve heard a similar estimate from House GOP aides.
Scott has one quibble with the House Republican approach to the CFPB that we’ve heard from other GOP senators. A 60% cut would be nice. But “we’d like to see it go down to zero, honestly. I think there’s an argument to be made that moving it to normal congressional oversight will take it down significantly,” Scott said.
Crypto ahead: Scott is bullish on the Senate holding a floor vote before Memorial Day on the GENIUS Act, a stablecoin reform bill that cleared Banking in March.
Scott didn’t seem too pressed about the crypto industry’s one big worry with Congress these days – that its twin legislative priorities of stablecoin reform and market structure reform could move separately.
House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) warned viewers on Fox Business this week that stablecoin reform would be “not useful” without market structure reform.
“There’s lots of questions about how you do it. Right now, what we know in the Senate is that we have a clear path forward and the votes to get it done,” Scott said. “You gotta vote.”
– Brendan Pedersen
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THE CAMPAIGN
The Senate-governor push and pull
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are both working to persuade a number of current and former governors to run for Senate in competitive states this cycle.
Convincing popular governors to run for Senate has been a perennial challenge for party leaders and campaign chiefs. It’s especially difficult this time around.
Those very governors are watching their would-be colleagues do the reverse, with Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) all looking to lead their home states.
It underscores the challenges facing both Thune and Schumer when it comes to candidate recruitment in a cycle that features intensely competitive races across several states.
The field: Already, Gov. Janet Mills (D-Maine) and former Gov. Chris Sununu (R-N.H.) have passed on a 2026 Senate run. The jury’s still out with Govs. Brian Kemp (R-Ga.) and Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.), as well as former Gov. Roy Cooper (D-N.C.).
We asked Thune whether having senators leaving to run for governor was making it harder to recruit potential Senate candidates.
“Yeah, that’s a little hard to explain,” Thune told us.
“A lot of these people, they want to make a difference,” Thune added. “And they’re trying to figure out how best to use their talents and where they can use their talents to do that.”
Thune went through a similar process in 2002, when he was planning on running for governor but was convinced to run for Senate instead — including by then-President George W. Bush.
Thune and NRSC Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) recently met with Kemp in Atlanta. The South Dakota Republican told us his pitch to potential candidates is that the Senate is a place where they can “make a difference.”
Those who are leaving, however, are making clear that their decision is in part an indictment of the Senate itself. The consolidation of power at the leadership level, for example, has made it harder than ever to actually accomplish big things for individual senators.
Making the case: Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), who famously said he’s “not cut out” to be a senator but ran anyway after serving two terms as governor, said he understands Bennet’s decision.
“It’s so partisan and so divided that it’s frustrating. It’s very hard to get things done,” Hickenlooper told us. “The bar’s pretty low for a great governor. I think it’s really hard to be a great senator. And I think [Bennet] is a great senator.”
As governor, Hickenlooper said, you solve problems for people in real time. In Washington, it takes months, even years.
Tuberville told us his move toward the governor’s mansion — which he says is not a final decision — isn’t motivated by a dislike of the Senate. Tuberville added that he was considering running for governor before he ultimately launched his Senate bid.
— Andrew Desiderio
THE SENATE MAP
Dueling approaches to Trump in critical Georgia Senate race
President Donald Trump is already looming large over the 2026 Georgia Senate race.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) is appealing to the Democratic base and betting on liberal anger at Trump’s second term to propel him to reelection.
Meanwhile, Gov. Brian Kemp, the sought-after GOP recruit who clashed with Trump in the past, is studiously avoiding criticizing the president as he weighs a Senate run.
Georgia marks Republicans’ best flip opportunity of the 2026 cycle, since Ossoff is the only Senate Democrat up for reelection in a state that Trump carried in 2024.
Ossoff not holding back: Even though Trump won Georgia in November, Ossoff isn’t pulling any punches against the president.
A recent AJC poll found Trump underwater in Georgia. In the same poll, Kemp was the only Republican contender who ran ahead of Ossoff.
Meanwhile, Kemp has largely chosen silence instead. Trump’s cost-cutting plans have taken aim at Georgia universities that rely on NIH grants, but Kemp hasn’t weighed in. When the White House turned down Kemp’s request for additional disaster aid, the governor also didn’t speak out.
Ossoff has hailed the Inflation Reduction Act’s funding boost to Georgia’s economy. But as Trump seems to unwind the legislation, Kemp isn’t crying foul.
Another flashpoint in the state is over mass layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In response to the firings, Kemp said “government can stand a little right-sizing.” Ossoff declined to comment and the senator’s team pointed us to Ossoff’s town hall demand for Kemp to oppose the CDC cuts.
The Kemp-Trump background: After a high-profile feud stemming from the 2020 election fallout, Kemp and Trump negotiated a detente during the closing months of the 2024 campaign. Trump stopped openly bashing Kemp, while the Georgia governor worked for a GOP presidential victory.
If Kemp jumps in the race, questions will only intensify about whether he approves of Trump’s actions. To win, Kemp — who can’t run for governor in 2026 due to term limits — will need to unite a coalition of Trump supporters and moderate Republicans. Kemp’s team didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Who else could jump in? Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is sending fundraising appeals to supporters asking whether she should run against Ossoff.
— Max Cohen
… AND THERE’S MORE
Former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez has raised $505,000 in over a month of campaigning for the special election in Arizona’s 7th District. Hernandez’s top opponent is Adelita Grijalva, daughter of late Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who passed away in March.
Ad watch: The Protecting America Initiative is launching a $225,000 digital and TV ad buy encouraging House and Senate Republicans to follow President Donald Trump’s “tough on China” agenda.
The ad, which will run in Washington, D.C. and several congressional districts, asks elected Republicans to support policies that aid American agriculture manufacturers.
The campaign is targeting Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.), Speaker Mike Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and House Agriculture Committee Chair GT Thompson (R-Pa.) among others.
TANF push: Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) are introducing their bill to reauthorize and overhaul the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which aids low-income families. It’s a priority for LaHood as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Work and Welfare panel.
Their bill would make changes to the program including putting new limits on funds and measuring fraudulent payments. Read a summary here.
— Mica Soellner and Laura Weiss
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Presented by UL Standards & Engagement
E-bike fires are happening across the country, costing lives and forcing families out of their homes. The Senate can help stop these fires and protect Americans. The bipartisan Setting Consumer Standards for Lithium-Ion Batteries Act will keep uncertified batteries off the market, reducing the risk.