Schumer, Jeffries demand spending meeting

IN THIS EDITION

Schumer, Jeffries push for ‘Big 4’ talks on spending

Texas Dems launch quorum break to block redistricting

Dem doctors run against GOP over Medicaid cuts

K Street expects China competition legislation

Pence-led group opposes gambling fix, Dooley to get in Georgia Senate race

THE TOP

Schumer, Jeffries push for ‘Big 4’ talks on spending

Happy Monday morning.

The House and Senate are on recess until Sept. 2. President Donald Trump is having lunch today with Vice President JD Vance.

We have some news for you to kick off the week, then we’ll discuss the fallout from Saturday’s Senate debacle and what it means for Washington moving forward.

We’re also tracking the huge fight in Texas over congressional redistricting. More on that below.

News: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are asking for a “Big Four” meeting this week with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson to talk about FY2026 funding:

The outlook for a government-funding deal is pretty poor right now. A shutdown or CR – or both – is a real possibility heading into the Sept. 30 deadline. Or potentially a hybrid situation where Congress passes some spending bills and then adopts a short-term CR (say two or three months) for the other federal agencies.

That would leave Washington lurching along from shutdown threat to shutdown threat throughout 2025-26.

The Senate passed three spending bills Friday by a big bipartisan margin. Schumer and Thune hailed it as a breakthrough, but those good feelings didn’t last long.

House and Senate Republicans (mostly) are moving in different directions on spending. Democratic leaders are under pressure to combat Trump’s every move. And the White House is still threatening to send up another rescissions package, which Democrats say would make a spending deal impossible.

Saturday Senate meltdown: Let’s go over what happened Saturday in the Senate, which is a bad omen for the fall.

A recap: Frustrated with the unprecedented Democratic slow-walking of his nominees, Trump has been pushing Thune to take drastic steps, including recess appointments or changing Senate rules to speed up the nomination process.

In turn, Schumer and top Senate Democrats want Trump to “unfreeze” billions of dollars in funding they believe OMB is illegally withholding. Democrats are also urging the White House to commit to no more rescissions packages.

Schumer saw this as a two-stage deal. Democrats would agree to move quickly on a “small batch” of nominees immediately if Trump unfroze funding for NIH and some foreign aid. Democrats would then greenlight a second tranche of nominees in October if the White House didn’t move forward on rescissions.

White House officials were privately pressing for Democratic signoff on roughly 70 nominees. Schumer — who made sure Thune was part of every conversation he had with the White House — was focused on clearing roughly 20 to 30 Trump picks, with no judges or controversial nominees.

The three-sided talks went back and forth throughout Friday and Saturday. Schumer initially wanted the White House to release $5 billion in NIH funding, and he started at roughly $2.5 billion in foreign aid (including several hundred million dollars for Gaza that Republicans had previously backed).

The Democrats’ ask on foreign aid was whittled down to about $1 billion. The White House tweaked the nominees it was seeking clearance on during the talks.

Thune and Schumer thought they had a deal late Saturday afternoon, according to senators and aides in both parties. Thune called Trump for a final signoff. But Trump surprised everyone by saying ‘no.’

Trump then posted on Truth Social accusing “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer” and Democrats of “political extortion” and urged Senate Republicans to go home. This was after repeatedly demanding that the Senate should stay in session throughout August to approve all his nominees.

The Senate ended up approving 10 Trump nominees Saturday night (on top of three on Friday) and leaving town.

Thune and other Senate Republicans warned that a rules change to speed up the nomination process is likely when the Senate returns next month unless Democrats stop slow-walking Trump picks. This rules change can be done by a simple majority vote, aka “the nuclear option,” but it’ll set off a furor that will reverberate throughout this Congress.

So what does this all mean?

1) September could get very ugly. Republicans claimed Schumer changed his demands, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Schumer declared Trump “got nothing” after the talks broke down.

Meanwhile, the White House won’t take another rescissions package off the table. If OMB submits one to the Hill, then a CR is guaranteed and a shutdown is more likely than not.

2) There was GOP talk about adjourning the Senate and allowing Trump to make recess appointments, a major blow to senators’ “advise and consent” role on nominees.

But the Jeffrey Epstein scandal played a role in what happened. Remember, Johnson had to send the House on recess early because the Epstein scandal paralyzed the House GOP conference.

In order to allow Trump to use the recess appointment power, the House would’ve had to return and pass an adjournment resolution. Yet Republican leaders didn’t think that could happen without Johnson facing an Epstein-related vote, and there’s no way they were going to let that happen.

3) Thune and Johnson face an impossible task sometimes in trying to placate Trump. Although not as unpredictable as he was during his first term in office, Trump can shift his priorities quickly, forcing the two GOP leaders to choose between their roles as institutional leaders or keeping a vengeful president happy. So far, they’ve chosen Trump.

– John Bresnahan

MAP MOVES

Texas Dems launch quorum break to block redistricting

Texas Democrats fled their state Sunday in an audacious attempt to block Republicans in the legislature from enacting a new congressional map.

The state lawmakers decamped to Illinois and New York. Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois held a press conference with them following their arrival at O’Hare International Airport. A second group of Texas Dems will appear this morning with New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in Albany.

Texas Republicans advanced a redistricting proposal that created five new red seats. Republicans currently hold 25 of the state’s 38 congressional districts. The full Texas House is expected to vote on that plan this week — unless they can’t meet the attendance requirements to take legislative action.

The Texas Democrats could remain out of the state until the current special session ends. The session began on July 21 and can last for no longer than 30 days. Of course, GOP Gov. Greg Abbott could always call another one.

To deny a quorum, 51 Texas House Democrats must leave the state. They’ll face fines for being absent and the threat of arrest.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote on X that he supports the “immediate arrest” of those Democrats who fled. Paxton is running in the GOP primary against Sen. John Cornyn.

Abbott then went a step further, announcing that he’d attempt to remove from office any Democrat who doesn’t return to Austin by 3 p.m. today. But it’s not clear if there’s even a path for Abbott to do this. A court would have to make the final determination.

Democrats respond: National Democrats have urged state lawmakers to take the strongest possible measures to thwart Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting attempt.

Texas Republicans are taking up the new map before addressing relief measures for the deadly July 4 flooding. Texas Democrats cited that in their reasoning for fleeing the state.

“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said in a statement. “Governor Abbott has turned the victims of a historic tragedy into political hostages in his submission to Donald Trump.”

Yet this also complicates the optics behind Democrats’ departure. Their absence delays the passage of both flood relief and redistricting.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who traveled to Texas last week to appear with state Democrats, praised their decision to leave the state in order to block the new congressional map.

“The courage, conviction and character Texas Democrats are displaying is the embodiment of good trouble as we collectively push back against the extremism Donald Trump has unleashed on the American people,” Jeffries said in a statement Sunday night. “We have their backs.”

The stakes: Democrats only have to win a handful of seats to take back the majority. Jeffries has already met with California Democrats as they’ve discussed redrawing their congressional map in order to pick up as many as a half dozen seats.

This isn’t the first time Texas Democrats have left the state to try to stop a mid-decade redistricting effort.

In 2003, at the urging of then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), Texas Republicans redrew their map. At that time, more than 50 Texas Democrats fled to Oklahoma when the new map was put forward. Texas Democratic state senators later fled to New Mexico.

But these Democratic efforts eventually failed, and Texas Republicans were able to pass a new map. In 2004, Republicans won five more House seats, giving them a majority in the congressional delegation for the first time.

– Ally Mutnick and John Bresnahan

MEDICAL MOVES

Dem doctors run against GOP over Medicaid cuts

As health care becomes a central issue in the 2026 midterms, an increasing number of Democratic doctors are running for Congress — and they’re centering their campaigns around Medicaid.

More than half a dozen Democratic candidates are challenging GOP incumbents or running in open seats, highlighting their experience working in hospital rooms.

“I’m an emergency physician and this is what I do daily for a living,” said Dr. Amish Shah, who is seeking to run against Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.). “We see Medicaid patients. This is a daily reality to us to treat patients and hear stories of people who cannot afford care,” Shah added.

Democrats have been hammering Republicans over Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill. But the party is also using these candidates as unique messengers to talk about the real life impact of health care cuts. CBO estimates the new-GOP drafted law could cause 10 million people to lose health insurance.

Dem candidates speak: Dr. Jasmeet Bains, a family physician running against Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), said she had “full faith” the incumbent would support the bill even though he warned against big Medicaid cuts.

“The guy voted for the highest health care cut in the history of America, in the area with the biggest needs in the country,” Bains said. “[Valadao] kept saying that he wasn’t going to, and then he did.”

Dr. Tina Shah, who is challenging GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey’s 7th District, said she’s had more patients face issues with their insurance not covering everything they need.

“It’s really hard to be a doctor right now because we were trained to serve people, and now it feels like my hands are being tied,” Shah said.

Shah served in the Obama and Biden administrations, including working as a senior adviser to the U.S. Surgeon General to address doctor burnout.

Other Democratic candidates include Dave Oxman, a Philadelphia-area doctor running for retiring Rep. Dwight Evans’ (D-Pa.) seat; Dr. Ada Cuellar, running against GOP Rep. Monica De La Cruz in Texas’s 15th District; and Kishla Askins, who is seeking retiring Rep. Don Bacon’s (R-Neb.) seat.

GOP response: Republicans have leaned heavily into the reconciliation law’s tax benefits in seeking to counter Democratic attacks. The NRCC also argues that the GOP Medicaid cuts are eliminating patients who are abusing the system.

Currently, there are more Republican doctors in Congress than Democrats. These GOP doctors all supported the reconciliation bill.

Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), a co-chair of the GOP Doctors Caucus who still practices medicine, said he’s explained his support for some Medicaid cuts to patients and constituents. Murphy added that he’s had patients on the program that shouldn’t be on it.

“We’re trying to reform the system. We’re actually strengthening it for those who need it,” Murphy said.

– Mica Soellner

K Street expects China competition legislation

Most K Street leaders expect Congress to pass China competition legislation before the end of the year, according to our most recent survey of top lobbyists.

Countering China is one of the few areas of strong bipartisan agreement in Congress. Lawmakers are concerned about several issues, including intellectual property theft, cyber espionage and China’s advancements in artificial intelligence and biotechnology.

Among the respondents, 47% of Democrats and 58% of Republicans said Congress will pass legislation this year to make the United States a stronger competitor to China.

Trade: The survey was conducted as President Donald Trump continues to go back and forth on his trade policies with several countries. A plurality of lobbyists, 42%, said it’s likely the administration will reach a trade deal with China by the end of the year.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is leading trade negotiations with Chinese officials and said last week the two sides had “the makings of a deal.” Since May, there’s been a 90-day break on escalating tariffs on Chinese goods. That pause expires on Aug. 12.

More Republican lobbyists (53%) than Democrats (31%) said it’s likely a trade deal happens.

The Canvass K Street was conducted July 7-25 in partnership with independent public affairs firm, LSG.

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.

– Kenzie Nguyen

GAMBLING

Pence-led group opposes gambling fix, Dooley to get in Georgia Senate race

News: Advancing American Freedom, a conservative think tank helmed by former Vice President Mike Pence, is lobbying Hill offices against a push to make gambling losses 100% tax-deductible.

Here’s the memo being circulated to congressional offices.

“Americans have the freedom to gamble on sports, but why should American taxpayers foot the tax bill for sports gambling?” the memo argues. “Congress should encourage a pro-growth tax code by declining to reinstate full expensing for gambling losses.”

As we’ve reported, gamblers are making a sustained pitch to Congress to make losses tax deductible, and there’s bipartisan support for the change.

News: Former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley is entering the GOP primary to take on Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.). Dooley, a friend of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, plans to run as a political outsider who decided to enter politics after watching former President Joe Biden’s term, according to a source familiar with his plans.

Check out his launch video here.

Dooley joins a crowded Republican field that includes Reps. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) and Mike Collins (R-Ga.).

— Max Cohen and Ally Mutnick

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