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IN THIS EDITION

House GOP launches anti-Harris offensive

Thune blitzes Senate battlegrounds, raises money for Trump campaign

The Vault: DeLauro says Dems must own CTC expansion

Bipartisan House group calls for more classified info training for members

THE TOP

House GOP launches anti-Harris offensive

Happy Thursday morning.

With Congress set to return to Washington next week after a very long absence, House Republicans have new targets in mind — Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

The House Republicans have turned the machinery of their committees against the Democratic presidential ticket. It’s a preview of what they’ll face if Republicans keep the House and Harris manages to defeat former President Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, the House Education and Workforce Committee subpoenaed Walz’s administration over fraud allegations at a federal food program in Minnesota. The move surprised Rep. Bobby Scott (Va.), ranking Democrat on the committee. “The timing of the Republicans’ subpoena to Gov. Walz is weird,” Scott said.

But that’s just the beginning of what House Republicans have in mind.

— On Friday, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a field hearing in Santee, Calif., titled “The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: California Perspectives.” The hearing has been in the works for some time, but it’s taken on new significance since the California-born Harris became the Democratic nominee.

— House Judiciary will also hold a hearing next Tuesday on “The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: Victim Perspectives.” And a Judiciary subcommittee is set to meet the same day on “The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: Noncitizen Voting.”

Democrats note that border crossings by undocumented migrants are at a four-year low thanks to new Biden administration policies, but GOP lawmakers see the issue as a huge political vulnerability for Harris.

— The House Oversight Committee has launched probes into Walz’s “long standing connections” to China and Harris’ “role in effectuating the worst border crisis in American history.”

— An Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee will meet Wednesday for a hearing on energy policy. The session is called “From Gas to Groceries: Americans Pay the Price of the Biden-Harris Energy Agenda.”

— The Judiciary Committee is back the same day with a hearing on crime: “The Consequences of Soft-On-Crime Policies.” This is clearly aimed at Democrats.

— House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, who is in charge of party messaging, sent a letter to Harris in late July expressing concerns about her national security adviser, Philip Gordon, and “his close ties to a known Iranian agent within the Department of Defense.”

— Even the normally staid Veterans Affairs Committee is getting into the mix. The panel has a hearing set for Tuesday called “Accountable or Absent?: Examining VA Leadership Under the Biden-Harris Administration.”

“I’m not going to deny that in this season, with a new top of the ticket, that the hearings may be calling out that it was a Biden-Harris administration and a Biden-Harris candidacy until recently,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). Friday’s Judiciary Committee hearing is in Issa’s district, where border security and immigration are huge issues.

Democrats counter that House Republicans, with no major legislative accomplishments to fall back on, need to damage Harris and Walz in order to preserve the GOP’s razor-thin majority.

“I think [Republicans] regret having a convention devoted to the facially ridiculous proposition that Donald Trump is a warm and compassionate man,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), top Democrat on the Oversight Committee. “Now, regretting that, they’re basically going to try to have their convention in the House of Representatives with a kitchen sink full of attacks on the Democratic ticket.”

“Donald Trump and his extreme MAGA allies in the House are launching pathetic, false attacks on the Vice President and Governor Walz because they cannot win on their own records of taking away Americans’ freedoms and putting billionaires and corporations ahead of hard-working families,” added Mia Ehrenberg, a Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson.

Remember, House Republicans already pushed through a non-binding resolution back in July that “strongly condemns the Biden Administration and its Border Czar, Kamala Harris’s, failure to secure the United States border.” Six House Democrats supported the resolution.

And it also comes as Speaker Mike Johnson is preparing to offer a six-month funding bill with the SAVE Act in order to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1. That measure requires proof of citizenship before registering to vote in a federal election. It’s opposed by both Senate Democrats and the White House, who note that there’s no proof that this is a problem. It’s already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections. But Trump is pressing Johnson to add it to the CR.

It’s hardly new for lawmakers to use their committees or floor speeches to score points against the other party’s nominee. Who can forget Hillary Clinton appearing before a House select committee in October 2015 on the Benghazi attack or being grilled about her private emails? Or the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid falsely suggesting in 2012 that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid federal taxes in a decade?

Yet Republicans are in a unique situation here. After spending 18 months using their investigative committees to go after President Joe Biden, the GOP has been forced to pivot to hitting Harris just months before the election.

That’s not to say everyone in the GOP is ready to let go of their Biden attacks. There are murmurs that conservative hardliners may try to force a bound-to-fail floor vote on impeaching Biden when they return to Washington. And Trump still spends a head-scratching amount of time going after his former opponent during campaign rallies and TV interviews.

— Melanie Zanona and John Bresnahan

Punchbowl News is in the South this week! Join us today in downtown Austin starting at 9:30 a.m. CT for a full day of Punchbowl News programming at the Texas Tribune Festival. We have several exciting conversations planned. Tickets are still available.

And check back in with us tomorrow afternoon at 1:15 p.m. CT/2:15 p.m. ET in Birmingham, Ala., for a conversation with Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.). We’ll discuss the small business ecosystem in Alabama and the state’s economic future. RSVP here.

THE SENATE

Thune blitzes Senate battlegrounds, raises money for Trump campaign

News: Senate Minority Whip John Thune has raised nearly $22 million this cycle after spending the August recess fundraising for a half-dozen Senate GOP candidates and former President Donald Trump.

According to a source familiar with Thune’s political operation, the South Dakota Republican visited at least eight states to raise money for a mix of Republicans challenging incumbent Democratic senators and GOP incumbents running for reelection, as well as the NRSC.

Thune’s fundraising blitz comes as the race to succeed Mitch McConnell as Senate GOP leader hits a crucial stretch. Two Republican senators have already endorsed Thune for the job, yet the rest of the GOP conference is still publicly undecided. Senate Republican candidates who defeat Democratic incumbents in November will get to vote as well.

Thune also headlined a Trump campaign fundraiser for Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) in Nebraska organized by Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.).

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), another contender in the GOP leadership race, was raising money in August for Senate Republicans as well as for Trump, traveling to three Texas cities with Vance. We told you about Cornyn’s summer fundraising on Wednesday.

Like Cornyn, Thune was skeptical of Trump’s comeback bid for the White House. Trump even backed a primary challenge to Thune in 2022, though that went nowhere. The former president spoke out against Thune in late 2020 after the South Dakota Republican criticized Trump’s push to overturn the election results. Thune endorsed Trump back in February.

Both Thune and Cornyn have long been powerhouse fundraisers for Senate Republicans. This is an essential responsibility for any party leader, but especially because whoever wins the leadership contest will be filling the shoes of McConnell, who does it better than anyone in the party.

As of the end of the second quarter, Cornyn had raised $23 million so far this cycle through his joint fundraising committee as well as his direct-to-candidate efforts.

Thune’s travels: In August, Thune headlined fundraisers across the country for the following GOP challengers and incumbents: Eric Hovde (Wis.), Dave McCormick (Pa.), Rep. John Curtis (Utah), Sam Brown (Nev.) and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). Thune also attended NRSC fundraisers in Massachusetts and Wisconsin.

Thune has also campaigned publicly with some of them. Thune spoke at an agriculture-focused event with Mike Rogers, went to a county fair with Ohio GOP Senate nominee Bernie Moreno and joined McCormick on a multi-day bus tour throughout the Keystone State.

Thune is currently on a bipartisan CODEL in Asia. The Senate is back in session next week.

The Senate GOP leadership elections are expected to take place shortly after the Nov. 5 election. Republican senators and senators-elect will vote for each position via secret ballot.

— Andrew Desiderio

The Vault: DeLauro says Dems must own CTC expansion

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) has long championed the child tax credit, and the senior Democrat says her party should drive home its support for a bigger family benefit before Election Day.

Vice President Kamala Harris recently embraced House Democrats’ proposal for expanding the CTC — a bill led by DeLauro — by proposing thousands of dollars in extra benefits for newborns on top of other boosts for families.

Democrats’ embrace of the CTC as a campaign promise isn’t new. But former President Donald Trump’s VP pick, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), backs the policy too, saying he’d like to see the CTC more than doubled to $5,000 per child.

DeLauro told us she still believes there’s a big contrast between Democrats and Republicans on the CTC, and that it’s a message her party should drive home.

“I don’t know where they’re coming from on this,” DeLauro said of Vance’s comments. “But it’s certainly not where we are with a proven, a solid program that worked from the outset and met what it was supposed to do and gave people the biggest middle class tax cut in a generation… and that’s going to be the fight next year.”

DeLauro was referencing Democrats’ temporary 2021 expansion of the CTC in the American Rescue Plan Act, which they want to revive. DeLauro also argued that Republicans’ 2017 CTC expansion — which expires next year alongside other Trump tax cuts — didn’t do enough for some of the poorest families.

DeLauro sees the CTC as an issue for her party to own before the election.

The tax fight: After the dust settles on the election, even more attention will turn to the big 2025 tax fight. And clashing visions of how to expand the CTC could be one of the biggest obstacles if there is a divided government.

DeLauro, who has worked on a CTC expansion for decades, said she’s seen the support grow significantly. The veteran Democratic lawmaker noted Harris’ enthusiasm for the CTC during a meeting she attended in the lead-up to the American Rescue Plan’s passage, and VP pick Tim Walz’s work on a state-level CTC as Minnesota governor.

DeLauro is aware that 2025 may not offer a smooth path. She said Democrats must “make a fight” if they need to work on a tax bill with Republicans next year. DeLauro added they should refuse to deal on some of the GOP’s priorities without the kind of major CTC expansion Democrats envision.

Still, DeLauro believes the momentum is finally there for a CTC expansion, noting it will be at the top of Democrats’ agenda.

“I think that this is a moment,” DeLauro said. “And that we are that close to seeing a permanent child tax credit.”

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– Laura Weiss

HOUSE SECURITY

Bipartisan House group calls for more classified info training for members

News: Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) and Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) are requesting that House leadership beef up training programs to ensure members properly handle classified information.

The bipartisan duo, along with nine colleagues, said in a Wednesday letter to Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries that “regular and frequent training on how to work with classified information” is “imperative for every member.”

The letter, exclusively obtained by Punchbowl News, calls for incoming members to undergo training during their orientation before being allowed to access classified information. The members propose that the Office of House Security would handle these sessions.

In addition, these trainings should “be readily available and encouraged for returning members,” the bipartisan group writes.

Here’s a key section from the letter, which emphasizes the dangers of House lawmakers running afoul of classified information rules:

Houlahan and Lee also request that members of the House Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, Homeland Security, Intelligence and Appropriations committees receive advanced training due to the high level of classified information they deal with.

Currently, no training on handling classified information is required for lawmakers.

Houlahan and Lee serve together on the task force investigating the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.

— Max Cohen

… AND THERE’S MORE

Dunham to run government affairs at American Investment Council

News: Will Dunham, a longtime top House GOP leadership policy hand, is taking the helm of the government affairs operation at the American Investment Council, which represents private equity firms.

AIC counts private equity giants Blackstone, the Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. as some of its members.

Dunham most recently worked at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, where he lobbied for Sequoia, Apollo, ExxonMobil, Palantir and McDonald’s. Dunham was former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s policy director, leading negotiations for House Republicans on countless battles with the White House.

Ad update: Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) is out with a new ad touting her bipartisanship. The ad notes Lee worked with Nevada’s GOP Gov. Joe Lombardo to promote affordable housing. Lee is facing Republican Drew Johnson in the 3rd District.

Endorsement watch: EMILYs List is endorsing Yassamin Ansari in Arizona’s 3rd District and Jessica Swartz for Michigan’s 4th District. Ansari is running in a safe blue seat to succeed Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). Swartz is challenging Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) in a seat that the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter lists as “Solid R,” but could be somewhat competitive in a wave year for Democrats.

Campaign briefing: Senior Trump-Vance campaign officials will brief House members and their top aides Friday morning on the state of the White House race. The Harris-Walz campaign held a similar call with House Democrats recently. Expect this to become a regular occurrence for both campaigns as they sprint to Election Day.

— Jake Sherman, Max Cohen and John Bresnahan

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