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IN THIS EDITION

Netanyahu’s huge Washington moment

House GOP’s big problems on spending bills

The Canvass: Harris is more appealing than Biden to swing voters

Wild files discharge petition for IVF bill

The New Power Players

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Netanyahu’s huge Washington moment

Happy Wednesday morning.

In the midst of a stunning upheaval in the U.S. political landscape, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the world’s most controversial leaders, will come to the Capitol today to address a Congress deeply divided over the war in Gaza.

This is a critical moment for Netanyahu and his own internal politics, as well as one of the most fascinating geopolitical events on American soil in recent years. The longtime prime minister is in significant political peril back home. The bloody war in Gaza continues to grind on. Israel’s north is being bombarded by Hezbollah. And the Biden administration is long tired of him.

Yet Netanyahu’s allies in the United States and Israel believe he benefits from all the cheers and jeers certain to greet him today. This will be his fourth speech to Congress since 1996.

Many — if not most — Democrats loathe Netanyahu. Some even call him a war criminal. But Republicans have adopted him as one of their own, especially since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks and the start of the war in Gaza.

Speaker Mike Johnson, who outfoxed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in orchestrating Netanyahu’s visit, has sought to tie himself closely to the Israeli premier. Johnson has rebounded from mishandling an Israel aid package early in his tenure as speaker, before the Louisiana Republican found his own footing as a congressional leader.

Some news: Johnson told us Tuesday that he plans to visit Israel following the 2024 election. This would be Johnson’s first trip abroad as speaker. The Israelis invited Johnson to address the Knesset, but the body will be out of session after the U.S. election. Johnson said he would go sooner but “can’t take three or four days off the campaign trail right now.”

Here’s a sense of the mood in Washington as today’s drama unfolds.

— President Joe Biden will make an Oval Office speech tonight on why he ended his reelection campaign, which in itself is mega news.

— Senior Capitol Hill aides and lawmakers have been told in briefings that there could be upwards of 10,000 protestors on the Hill today. Two hundred protestors were arrested in the Cannon Building on Tuesday alone. NYPD officers were walking around the Capitol, brought in to help the U.S. Capitol Police control the crowds. Numerous streets are being closed off around the Capitol. In summation, don’t come to Capitol Hill today unless you absolutely must.

— Johnson sent a letter to lawmakers telling them to warn their guests that they’ll be arrested for any attempt to disrupt the 2 p.m. speech. Johnson’s letter signals lawmakers won’t be arrested but are expected to maintain decorum.

— We could see dozens of rank-and-file Democrats ditch the address.

— Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), not the vice president nor the Senate’s president pro tem, will be seated on the dais behind Netanyahu during the speech. Vice President Kamala Harris will be out of town, while Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said she’s skipping the speech.

This is the first joint meeting of Congress that Harris has skipped during Biden’s presidency. Both Biden and Harris will meet with Netanyahu this week. Netanyahu will then fly to Palm Beach, Fla., to huddle with former President Donald Trump on Friday.

— Schumer — the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in U.S. history — called on Israelis to replace Netanyahu in a major speech back in March. Schumer said Netanyahu was an “obstacle” to peace. Yet the New York Democrat will participate in a photo session with Netanyahu today.

When we visited Jerusalem last month and spoke to Netanyahu and his team, we were told that the prime minister wants this to be a unifying speech. Meaning not like his 2015 address, during which the Israeli prime minister railed against former President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Still, Netanyahu is very unlikely to satisfy his Democratic critics.

Netanyahu’s address could provide a brief respite for Republicans, however. They can’t get any bills across the floor. And Republicans seem hell-bent on leveling racially fueled attacks at Harris.

Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) was the latest Republican to call Harris a “DEI hire” during a TV interview Tuesday. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), locked in a tough primary back home, filed articles of impeachment against Harris. This isn’t what Johnson sought.

The GOP leadership was hoping to turn their focus to Harris’ decision to skip the Netanyahu speech as evidence that she’s not ready to be president — a stretch, we know. Here’s what Johnson said:

The retiring Cardin expressed a deep frustration with his colleagues who decided to skip the speech. Without directly criticizing them, Cardin told us that Netanyahu’s appearance should be viewed as a chance to push the prime minister toward a hostage-release and ceasefire deal. Cardin grew emotional when discussing the hostages, who include eight American citizens.

“I made a commitment in October with the hostage families that I would use every opportunity I have to help get the hostages home. So I’m not going to turn down any opportunity,” Cardin told us.

Several family members of the hostages will be inside the House chamber for Netanyahu’s speech. A group of these family members sent yellow ribbon pins and dog tags to every lawmaker as a show of solidarity with the hostages.

— Jake Sherman and Andrew Desiderio

Event Next Week: Join us in Baltimore or on the live stream on Monday, July 29, at 10:45 a.m. ET. Punchbowl News Founders Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman will sit down with Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore to discuss the small business ecosystem in Maryland and the state’s economic future. RSVP here!

APPROPS WATCH

House GOP’s big problems on spending bills

Fearing an embarrassing loss, House GOP leaders suddenly canceled a vote on final passage of the FY2025 Energy and Water spending bill late Tuesday night.

At around midnight, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise announced that the House instead will take up the Interior funding bill today. That’s a big lift, although GOP leaders believe they have a chance to pass the measure. It may be the last one before Election Day. Republican leaders still haven’t decided if they’re bringing members back next week or recessing until September.

Speaker Mike Johnson and the House GOP leadership are planning a floor vote today on a non-binding resolution “Strongly condemning the Biden Administration and its Border Czar, Kamala Harris’s, failure to secure the United States border.” Also up — a resolution establishing a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

And there’s the highly anticipated speech to Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But it’s fair to say that the appropriations process is a mess following Tuesday night’s debacle.

Senior House Republicans and aides describe deep frustration with Johnson and the GOP leadership over their plans to jam through spending bills despite overwhelming opposition to these measures from Democrats, the Senate and the White House. This has forced vulnerable House Republicans into votes on bills that have no chance of becoming law.

The Senate isn’t in much better shape, however. Senate appropriators have reached a bipartisan deal to spend a lot more than the House GOP leadership will go for, but they haven’t moved any bills to the floor either. The House has at least passed four bills.

There’s still no agreement between the two chambers on topline FY2025 spending levels. Meaning everything will have to be passed in a lame-duck session or it’ll drag into a new administration. That’s not surprising for an election year, but it’s still ugly to watch.

The key issue here is that Johnson and House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) won’t honor the “side deals” hammered out last year by President Joe Biden and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in conjunction with the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The FRA set spending limits for FY2024 and FY2025, while the side deals greased the wheels with some more money.

Instead, Johnson and Cole have sought to boost Pentagon, border security and veterans funding. Non-defense domestic spending would be slashed. In turn, Democrats have accused House GOP leaders of going back on last year’s agreement.

House Republicans also included numerous “culture war” riders in their proposed bills despite huge Democratic objections. And with only a very narrow margin of control and unyielding Democratic opposition, House Republicans have struggled mightily to pass any of the measures.

Even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said House Republicans are wasting their time passing “messaging bills” that can’t become law.

Greene — not a Johnson fan — and a lot of other House Republicans want to attach the SAVE Act to a short-term CR, vote on that package sometime in September and go home to run for reelection. The SAVE Act requires proof of citizenship for voters in federal elections.

These House GOP lawmakers want to dare Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the White House to risk a government shutdown just five weeks before the election over their opposition to the SAVE Act. Although knowing House Republicans, there’s no guarantee they can execute this strategy either.

— John Bresnahan

The Canvass: Harris is more appealing than Biden to swing voters

Days after one of the most dramatic events in U.S. politics, nearly all top congressional aides and K Street leaders say President Joe Biden’s decision to suspend his reelection bid will help the Democratic Party’s chances of winning in November. That surprisingly includes 85% of Republicans who took the survey.

Just 5% of respondents to a special edition of our survey, The Canvass, conducted Tuesday with independent public affairs firm LSG, said Biden’s decision would hurt Democrats.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ likely nomination has energized women and Democratic voters as the party raised gobs of money in the immediate hours and days after Biden endorsed her. About 60% of respondents to our survey said Harris appeals more to swing voters than Biden.

The VP’s VP: Harris has a big decision to make: Who will be her vice president nominee? The Canvass respondents (54%) picked Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as the most likely candidate followed by Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly (53%). A decision could come quickly as Democrats prepare for their convention in Chicago in less than a month.

Despite the more promising results for Harris and Democrats, The Canvass respondents still think Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could win the election. Forty-seven percent said Trump would win, compared with 37% who picked Harris.

Interestingly, when The Canvass polled the same group of people last week on the final night of the Republican National Convention — while Biden was still the presumptive Democratic nominee — 71% said Trump would win then.

You can find the full results of The Canvass special edition rapid poll here.

Join The Canvass community: 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.

— Elvina Nawaguna

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

Wild files discharge petition for IVF bill

News: Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) is filing a discharge petition today for legislation guaranteeing a right to in vitro fertilization.

Wild is the lead sponsor of the Right to IVF Act, a bill that would codify access to the widely-used fertility treatment into federal law.

The push to protect IVF is assuming a greater role in the campaign following the Alabama Supreme Court’s recent decision that curtailed IVF access in the state. While top Republicans have expressed their support for IVF in the months since, and the Alabama legislature later passed legislation to protect the procedure, Democrats have criticized the GOP for failing to support pro-IVF measures like Wild’s.

Wild’s discharge petition faces an uphill battle to force action on the IVF bill. So far, the bill has only four GOP cosponsors — Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Mike Lawler (N.Y.), Marc Molinaro (N.Y.) and Anthony D’Esposito (N.Y.).

If all the co-sponsors sign onto the petition, supporters would need just one more Republican to force a vote. But lawmakers rarely buck their leadership and sign discharge petitions, even if they’re cosponsors of the underlying bill.

Immigration news: A bipartisan group of House members — Reps. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.) — hosted an immigration roundtable in the Capitol Tuesday night with more than 100 stakeholders. The group focused on border security, reforming the asylum system and supporting DREAMers, farmworkers and Afghan allies.

— Max Cohen

PUNCHBOWL NEWS EVENTS

The New Power Players

On Tuesday night, we hosted Reps. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) and Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) for our third event in The New Power Players series, presented by The Network and Arnold Ventures. Armstrong and Neguse sat down with Punchbowl News’ Anna Palmer to discuss criminal justice reform, bipartisanship and news of the day. The Network’s Holly Harris and Arnold Ventures’ Kevin Ring gave opening remarks. Afterward, attendees mingled for cocktails and conversations.

Raising a glass: Juliene James of Arnold Ventures; Carrie Glenn of The Network; Kandia Milton of Dream.org; Gracey Roskam of Uptown Solutions; Devine Carama of One Lexington; Daniel Landsman of FAMM; Patrick Purtill of Faith & Freedom Coalition; Frank Russo of CPAC; Shanti Stanton of Oxford Strategies; Doug Heye of Douglas Media; Cristina Antelo of Ferox Strategies; Erin Billings of Global Strategy Group; Ashley Lerner of General Motors; and former Acting United States Attorney General Matt Whitaker.

— Team Punchbowl News

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