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IN THIS EDITION

And we’re back. Johnson is eyeing CR with SAVE Act next week

Schumer riffs on McConnell’s legacy

House Dems continue to chip in to the DCCC

Fall fundraising fun

THE TOP

And we’re back. Johnson is eyeing CR with SAVE Act next week

Happy Monday morning.

Happy Labor Day, happy September and welcome back. We missed you too.

There are 64 days until Election Day.

The House and Senate return next week. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Pittsburgh this afternoon after they meet with aides involved in the effort to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

Since we left you, the political environment has continued to improve for Harris and the Democrats, although the presidential race remains extraordinarily close in the battleground states.

House Republicans are worried about keeping their tenuous majority, and Democrats continue to outraise the GOP. Our friends at the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter have their House rankings here, which shows a competitive landscape in the fight for control of the chamber. Senate Republicans remain in a very strong position to grab the majority, yet the outlook is brighter for Democrats in Arizona and Nevada especially.

New: Speaker Mike Johnson is heading to Italy this week for his first trip abroad as speaker. Johnson will be participating in a G7 meeting for heads of parliaments.

News on government funding: It’s that time of year again. Federal agencies run out of money on Sept. 30. There won’t be a government shutdown. Congress traditionally passes a short-term funding bill to get past Election Day. But that doesn’t mean the month will be devoid of drama.

To Democrats and the White House, the contours of this legislative battle is quite clear: Johnson has to stick to the funding levels agreed to under last year’s Fiscal Responsibility Act.

This includes the side deals hammered out by Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy. House GOP leaders, of course, haven’t done this in any of their proposed FY2025 funding bills.

This is a red line for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, as he told us during an interview at the DNC in Chicago last month.

Here’s the news: Johnson and the GOP leadership are discussing a plan to move a CR next week when the House returns that would extend government funding into March 2025 with the SAVE Act attached to it.

The SAVE Act requires proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in a federal election. It’s already illegal for undocumented immigrants to cast a ballot in federal elections.

Why is Johnson doing this? The speaker is getting pressure from hardline conservatives and former President Donald Trump to attach the SAVE Act to the CR even if it threatens a shutdown.

Conservatives also want a CR until next year in hopes that Trump will be back in office.

We’ll note that this is the speaker’s opening salvo. Johnson is running this play early – the week of Sept. 9 – to try to give himself time to make the case that he moved a CR and the onus should be on the Senate to accept it.

Will this work? No. First, it’ll be difficult for Johnson to get 218 votes for this proposal. There are a lot of House Republicans who just won’t vote for any CR. The hope in the GOP leadership is that Johnson will gain Republican votes by inserting the SAVE Act.

But moderate Republicans and those in swing districts have little to gain here by threatening a shutdown just five weeks before Election Day. The Senate won’t go for it – including some Republicans – and the White House will say no.

China week. House Republicans are trying to make September about unifying GOP lawmakers and dividing Democrats.

To that end, the House Republican leadership is quietly planning a week focused on curbing what they see as an existential threat from China. This themed week has been discussed inside the Republican leadership for some time. But it’s now September and there’s not much political safe ground for the four-seat GOP majority other than rapping on geopolitical enemies.

To that end, the House Republican leadership has told committees of jurisdiction that it is teeing up a number of bills for possible consideration. Here’s the list of bills that the House is expected to consider under a rule:

– The End Chinese Dominance of Electric Vehicles in America Act of 2024. This bill, which was written by Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.), bars individuals who have electric cars with batteries made from “prohibited foreign entities” from getting clean vehicle tax credits.

– Rep. Dan Newhouse’s (R-Wash.) Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act. Newhouse, who faces a very tough challenge in November, just introduced the bill last week. The legislation makes it more difficult for foreign nationals to buy American farmland.

– Rep. Tom Tiffany’s (R-Wis.) No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act. This doesn’t expressly deal with China but makes any World Health Assembly agreement on pandemics subject to a Senate vote. This has long been a talking point in conservative circles.

– DHS Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act by Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas). This legislation bars DHS from giving funding to a university that receives funding from the Chinese government.

– The Protect America’s Innovation and Economic Security from CCP Act of 2024 by Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas). This legislation reestablishes a China-focused division in the Justice Department.

Twenty-one other bills are lined up to be considered under suspension of the rules, meaning they’ll need a two-thirds vote to pass. Here’s the list with the link to each bill.

— Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan

THE SENATE

Schumer riffs on McConnell’s legacy

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he’s been “more friendly” with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in recent years, and it’s not difficult to see why.

Schumer credits McConnell for helping deliver GOP votes for the major bipartisan legislative accomplishments of Joe Biden’s presidency — even the ones McConnell didn’t personally back. And Schumer agrees with the widespread belief in Washington that Ukraine wouldn’t have gotten another aid package from Congress if it wasn’t for McConnell.

But for Schumer, that’s not enough to reorient McConnell’s legacy as the Kentucky Republican is preparing to step down as GOP leader in a few months.

In an interview at the DNC in Chicago, Schumer told us that despite McConnell’s more recent efforts to push back against Donald Trump and his worldview, the longtime Senate Republican leader will be remembered as an enabler of the once-and-potentially-future president.

“[McConnell’s] role in history, in my opinion, will go down poorly,” Schumer said, citing McConnell’s decades-long and ultimately successful push to tilt the Supreme Court to the right. “Not just on Roe, but on issue after issue where they’re so far out of touch with the American people… Even when McConnell thought Trump was wrong, he went along with him too many times.”

OK, so what? It goes without saying that McConnell doesn’t care much what Schumer thinks about what his legacy will be. Don’t forget how bitterly the two men fought during the Trump administration — especially on judicial nominees, which led to change in the institution’s rules.

It’s one that McConnell happens to be proud of — from reshaping the federal judiciary to defeating campaign finance reform efforts and ultimately winning the most recent battle over Ukraine aid.

But McConnell has told us that his “top priority” in the remaining two years of this term will be to push back on his party’s Trump-inspired foreign policy doctrine — one he’s said reminds him of the isolationists who enabled the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Schumer sees this as a “constructive role” for McConnell after leaving the GOP leadership suite.

In Schumer’s judgment, McConnell can “salvage” his legacy in the history books on this front.

“He can salvage some of that reputation — and I’m not trying to tell him what to do — by trying to get the old Republican Party back,” Schumer said. “He will ally with us in not being isolationist. He feels that passionately.”

The “old Republican Party” that Schumer speaks of isn’t coming back, as much as he and McConnell may want it to. But Schumer has a theory that if Trump loses by a significant margin, enough Republicans will realize that Trumpism is a loser politically and the party will realign accordingly.

“If he loses by quite a bit, we may find the old Republican Party and we’ll be able to work with them … I was able to work with them in 2021 and 2022,” Schumer added, a reference to the bipartisan bills on infrastructure and more that become law.

“I know from my Senate experience and my friendship with Senate colleagues that many of them, even if they go along with Trump, don’t like him and don’t think he’s good for their party or what they believe in. Exhibit A is Mitch McConnell,” Schumer said.

— Andrew Desiderio

DUES REPORT

House Dems continue to chip in to the DCCC

With two months to go until Election Day, more House Democrats are pitching in to pay their dues to the DCCC. We’ve got our hands on the latest internal caucus dues report from July. Here’s what stood out to us in the four months since we last reported on the subject:

— 36 members have paid over 100% of their dues, double the 18 House Democrats that did so back at the end of March.

The standouts in leadership include House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries ($4.5 million paid in dues, or 409% of his goal), former Speaker Nancy Pelosi ($1.2 million paid, 230% of her goal), House Minority Whip Katherine Clark ($1.1 million paid, 127% of her goal) and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar ($1.1 million paid, or 171% of his goal).

As of the end of June, Jeffries had raised $193 million for the DCCC.

— A further 44 House Democrats have paid exactly 100% of their dues. That’s an increase of 20 members compared to the end of March. Notably, this group includes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who has paid $260,000 in dues to the DCCC and gave a further $56,000 to Frontline and Red-to-Blue candidates. This was reported back in April by the New York Times.

— Twenty-four members have paid between 51% and 99% of dues, while 54 House Democrats have paid between 1% and 50% of their dues.

— Excluding Frontliners — the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents who don’t have to pay dues — 20 members haven’t paid a cent to the DCCC. At the end of March, there were 29 non-Frontliners who hadn’t chipped in anything to the DCCC.

— Max Cohen

THE MONEY GAME

Fall fundraising fun

Wednesday: Sally Yates, the former acting U.S. attorney general, is hosting a “lawyers for [Kamala] Harris” fundraiser in San Francisco. Contributions range from $1,000 to $10,000.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) has his “Steelhead Spectacular” fundraiser at the Requa Inn in Klamath, Calif. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Assistant Democratic Leader Joe Neguse are the special guests.

Thursday: Yates will host another “lawyers for Harris” event in Los Angeles. Susan Rice is hosting a reception for Harris in D.C.

Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) has a BRAVE PAC fundraiser at the Loews Hotel in Atlanta.

– Jake Sherman

… AND THERE’S MORE

The Campaign: Sen. Jon Tester’s (D-Mont.) “Republicans for Tester” initiative has its first ad up across the state. The ad features several self-described Republican voters saying they’ll vote for Tester, the incumbent being challenged by Tim Sheehy.

The spot has one man saying he will vote for former President Donald Trump but will also vote for Tester, the kind of ticket-splitting Tester will probably need to win reelection. The ad also says that Tester got more than 20 bills signed into law by Trump.

— Defend American Jobs, the crypto-backed super PAC, is up with a new ad boosting Bernie Moreno in Ohio’s Senate race. The spot is running across the Buckeye State. It’s a pretty standard Republican talking points ad, saying Moreno is pushing for energy independence and will oppose government mandates that “kill Ohio manufacturing jobs.”

— Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), facing Democrat Monica Tranel, has a new minute-long ad up in the Butte-Bozeman market touting his work in Congress. This is notable because it’s a minute-long ad in which Zinke is clearly trying to play up his Montana roots; Zinke has been criticized for having a home in California. Zinke says that the “liberal threats from D.C. are almost as bad” as the threats he saw during his 23 years in the Navy SEALs.

Downtown Download: Paulson & Co., the family office of billionaire John Paulson, has hired Susan Hirschmann of Williams and Jensen to monitor the “state of play on budget, tax, health, care and regulatory issues.”

– Jake Sherman

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