The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

Can Republicans get a reconciliation deal? This week will be big

Inside Brian Schatz’s inner circle

Lawmakers concerned about Trump admin handling sensitive materials

Big hurdles for the Antisemitism Awareness Act

THE TOP

Can Republicans get a reconciliation deal? This week will be big

Happy Monday morning. Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Here’s a provocative question worth pondering: Can House Republicans get a reconciliation deal?

During the last week, several dynamics have emerged that make us wonder not only if a reconciliation deal is close but whether Republicans can even pull it off at all.

1) Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to meet with moderate House Republicans early this week. As of Sunday night, the timing for this critical discussion wasn’t set.

Johnson faces a group of GOP moderates who see the reconciliation package currently under discussion as an existential political threat, while hardline conservatives are pressing their leadership for hundreds of billions of dollars in additional spending cuts, especially for Medicaid.

Moderates are upset over the GOP leadership’s public insistence that they’ll end up supporting per-capita caps for Medicaid and lowering the federal match rate (FMAP). In reality, these moderates won’t support Medicaid cuts exceeding $450 billion to $500 billion, arguing that to do so could jeopardize health-care coverage for too many constituents back home.

Moderates and the House Republican leadership also are nowhere close to notching an agreement to raise the cap on the state-and-local tax deduction. This is blue-state House Republicans’ hill to die on.

House Republican leaders will be working throughout the week with staffers on the Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce and Agriculture Committees to hammer out the specifics of policy proposals. Rank-and-file members will likely be brought into the process toward the end of the week.

2) Johnson has asked three key committees to delay their reconciliation markups for a week. Those three committees – Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce and Agriculture – have the majority of the reconciliation package in their jurisdictions. The panels are now scheduled to mark up the week of May 12.

House Republicans now face a daunting time crunch to meet Johnson’s Memorial Day deadline for floor action. The House Republican leadership plans to hold a Rules Committee markup on May 19 to prepare the bill for floor consideration that week. If there are any more setbacks, Johnson’s timetable is in jeopardy.

We expect the House Republican leadership to tell rank-and-file Republicans that they won’t adjourn for the Memorial Day recess until the House passes the reconciliation package.

3) The White House is now finally getting engaged in the process, which has both upsides and risks. Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) went to the White House last week for a meeting with President Donald Trump. Following that session, the White House seems to be waking up to what’s in this bill – and they want a say in changing it.

Senior Trump administration officials seem to be most interested in drug-price controls and a variety of tax provisions, including rate increases for wealthy Americans. Johnson has expressed opposition to both ideas.

But House GOP leaders are beginning to grow frustrated that the White House is injecting new ideas into the Republicans’ bill at this point in the process.

During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Smith said this when asked about increasing taxes:

Smith did allow that the path may be “bumpy” given the GOP’s tight majority in the House.

Johnson said on Fox News Sunday night that “we will get this job done” because the “stakes are too high.”

Elsewhere on the Hill. We’re still waiting on the White House’s $9 billion-plus rescissions package, as well as the Treasury Department to announce the “X date” for the debt limit. That will have a big impact on the reconciliation process.

Remember: We reported that the rescissions process had hit the skids in the Senate. It seems entirely possible that the White House will wait until after reconciliation passes to send the proposed rescissions list to the Hill. At least that’s what many senior Republicans are hoping for anyway.

On Thursday, the House will consider Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” It will be interesting to see if any Democrats vote for this measure.

FY 2026 funding: The House and Senate Appropriations Committees will begin holding hearings with Cabinet officials on Trump’s FY 2026 budget request. That jaw-dropping proposal, which included huge cuts to housing, environmental and law enforcement, went over like a lead balloon on the Hill with lawmakers in both parties.

– FBI Director Kash Patel will face lawmakers to talk about Trump’s proposed $500 million cut to the bureau. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will get questions on the Alien Enemies Act and deportations, including from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who went to El Salvador to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia. And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins will get grilled over what Trump’s trade war means for the U.S. economy and America’s farmers.

– Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan

THE SENATE

Inside Brian Schatz’s inner circle

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) is moving quickly to lock up support in his bid for Senate Democratic whip even as it remains unclear whether anyone will challenge him for the job.

The stakes of this particular race are even higher because whoever is elected the Democratic whip after the 2026 election immediately has a leg up in the eventual contest to succeed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as the chamber’s top Democrat.

Regardless of whether this ends up being an actual race or a coronation, we wanted to bring back a signature Punchbowl News feature: The staffers – both on and off the Hill – who matter most in Schatz’s orbit.

Top aides: Schatz, who was appointed to the Senate in 2012, has been laying the groundwork for a leadership run for years. Schatz made his bid official within a few days of Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin’s announcement last month that he wouldn’t seek reelection.

Schatz’s staff consistently ranks among the most racially diverse in the Senate. His office is also stacked with senior aides who’ve worked in the Senate since long before Schatz arrived.

In 2023, Schatz hired Reema Dodin, his chief of staff and a key player for the Hawaii Democrat.

Dodin was Durbin’s floor director for eight years and eventually became the Illinois Democrat’s deputy chief of staff. She worked for Durbin for a total of 15 years and wrote a book on Senate procedure in 2017. Dodin left the Senate in 2021 to serve as President Joe Biden’s deputy legislative affairs director, returning to the Hill two years later as Schatz’s chief.

Rounding out Schatz’s top aides are Malia Oshima Paul, deputy chief of staff; Mike Inacay, deputy chief and communications director; Arun Revana, legislative director; and Roberto Berrios, deputy legislative director and senior counsel. All have lengthy ties to Schatz.

Paul is based in Hawaii and is Schatz’s longest-serving Senate staffer. Inacay has been with Schatz for more than a decade. Revana is Schatz’s longtime top policy aide, having served in a similar role for the late Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii). Berrios previously oversaw Senate confirmations for the Biden White House.

Off the Hill: There’s been little reporting over the years about Schatz’s political operation, in part because he doesn’t have competitive reelection fights back home.

Schatz also often takes fundraising into his own hands, with the 52-year-old frequently using social media to raise gobs of cash for Democratic candidates and incumbents. Since the 2022 cycle, Schatz has raised more than $5 million just on X.

Lori LaFave is Schatz’s chief fundraising consultant. LaFave’s other clients include Durbin and Senate Majority PAC, the Democratic leadership-aligned super PAC. Both of these provide critical donor networks.

Schatz’s campaign account has nearly $1.8 million cash on hand, although he isn’t up for reelection until 2028.

Schatz’s campaign committee gave $450,000 to the DSCC late last cycle. His leadership PAC, Hawaii PAC, gave another $80,000, according to FEC records, while also spreading around tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations to Democratic candidates nationwide.

— Andrew Desiderio

Lawmakers concerned about Trump admin handling sensitive materials

Most lawmakers on Capitol Hill are worried about the security of sensitive materials being in the hands of the Trump administration, our latest survey found.

More than three-quarters of senior Hill staff (76%) said their boss was concerned about how the Trump administration handles and distributes sensitive materials following the Signal chat controversy.

That includes 100% of Democrats who took the survey and 52% of Republican staffers.

The survey was conducted in the weeks leading up to President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to fire National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong last week. Waltz, who is now Trump’s U.N. ambassador nominee, was at the center of the SignalGate scandal.

Among survey responses, 84% said their lawmaker was concerned about Waltz adding The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the Signal chat that included discussions of sensitive defense plans.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were also involved in the Signal chat, but have so far kept their jobs. Hegseth has since been embroiled in a second Signal chat controversy and is under investigation by the Pentagon inspector general.

The survey was conducted April 7-28 in partnership with LSG, a public affairs firm.

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 Washington is dealing with. Sign up here if you work on K Street. Click here to sign up if you’re a senior congressional staffer.

– Mica Soellner

BILL WATCH

Big hurdles for the Antisemitism Awareness Act

After a messy Senate markup last week, Hill Republicans are facing a real struggle to pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act.

The bipartisan bill made it through the House during the 118th Congress, passing by a 320-91 margin. More than 130 Democrats backed the measure, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other party leaders.

But there was concern on both the left and right over how antisemitism was defined in the legislation, and the measure stalled out in the Senate.

Now, with the Trump administration escalating its attacks on educational institutions and visa holders under the banner of fighting antisemitism, Democrats are leery of giving their support to the legislation.

And once again, it’s not just Democrats who have issues with the proposal, which directs the Department of Education to utilize a specific definition of antisemitism when investigating anti-Jewish hate acts on college campuses.

During a contentious Senate HELP Committee markup on Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joined with the panel’s Democrats to adopt a number of amendments that imperiled the bill’s status in the GOP-controlled Senate. The most prominent amendment stated that criticism of Israel isn’t antisemitic.

The issues don’t stop there. Senate HELP Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) inserted a manager’s amendment intended to address right-wing Christian concerns that the bill impeded on their free speech to allege Jews killed Jesus. But since the markup adjourned last week without a final vote, that amendment hasn’t been adopted yet.

What’s next: Cassidy on Thursday pledged to come back to vote again to advance the legislation out of committee. HELP Committee Republicans are working through logistics to find a time in the panel’s busy schedule to reconsider the issue. But if Paul continues to side with Democrats, there aren’t enough votes to pass the measure.

The House could move forward with the act. But there are concerns that progressive Democrats, combined with the Christian conservative opposition, could pose roadblocks.

Ahead of the Senate markup, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) urged Democrats to oppose the bill. Raskin voted for the bill last Congress but now says the package will help “Trump’s further transparent moves to undermine American democracy.”

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) said on Friday that President Donald Trump’s “use of antisemitism as a pretext and abuse of the First Amendment” is hindering efforts to pass the bill.

More right-wing backlash: Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Sunday they’d oppose Rep. Mike Lawler’s (R-N.Y.) bill to penalize international governmental organizations from boycotting Israel. After conservatives rallied against the legislation, House Republican leadership removed the bill from this week’s floor schedule.

— Max Cohen

… AND THERE’S MORE

Downtown Download. Amazon spent $4.3 million lobbying the federal government in the first quarter of 2025. The internet giant lobbied on a host of issues, from online privacy to tariffs.

The Campaign. The tech-supported American Edge Project has a new ad running in D.C., New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago urging Congress to keep the U.S. competitive with China on AI. See the ad here.

– Jake Sherman

MOMENTS

CLIPS