News: There are big changes afoot in House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s office.
Two longtime senior aides – Francis Brooke and Ben Napier – are leaving Scalise’s operation and Capitol Hill.
Brooke, who served as Scalise’s policy director, is heading to the Treasury Department to be assistant secretary for international trade and development. This is a high-profile role in the Trump administration and is subject to Senate confirmation. Brooke will be a counselor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent until then.
Napier, who is the floor director for Scalise, is heading to the private sector. More on that soon.
Napier has been with Scalise since 2016, Brooke since 2021. These are two key aides for Scalise and, by extension, the House Republican Conference.
BJ Koohmaraie, Scalise’s counsel and lead adviser on reconciliation, will take over Brooke’s role as policy director.
Eric Zulkosky is returning to Scalise’s office from Fierce Government Relations, where he’s been for the last eight years since leaving the Louisiana Republican’s office. Zulkosky will replace Napier.
What to expect in reconciliation today. In case you missed it, the House Republican leadership wants you to know that, despite delaying all of the most important committee markups this week, their reconciliation timeline isn’t delayed at all. Really.
Speaker Mike Johnson allowed Monday that House Republicans may not get President Donald Trump’s agenda through the chamber by Memorial Day. Johnson, however, later reversed himself and said it’s still possible.
The Treasury Department also has yet to formally notify Congress when the debt limit needs to be lifted. House GOP leadership is in the dark on when they will get official notice of the “X date.” Sources in the administration and Capitol Hill have said it could come this week.
Today is critical on the reconciliation front. Several House committees will have private, Republican-only meetings about the future of the Trump agenda.
– Agriculture Committee Republicans will meet at 8 a.m.
– The House Republican Conference will meet at 9 a.m.
– Ways and Means Committee Republicans will meet at 10 a.m.
– Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans will meet at 10:15 a.m.
– The GOP leadership, including Johnson, will meet with moderate House Republicans at 4:30 p.m. to discuss Medicaid spending cuts and programmatic changes that party leaders want in the reconciliation package.
Energy and Commerce. Republicans on the high-profile committee still don’t have agreement on how to reach $880 billion in spending cuts mandated under reconciliation instructions, most of which likely have to come from Medicaid.
Many of the GOP moderates fighting deep Medicaid cuts are drawing red lines — vowing not to back per capita caps or federal match rate changes for the expansion population. Without enacting at least one of those changes, it’s challenging for the panel to reach $880 billion.
There’s also the very real possibility that even if House Republicans back those Medicaid cuts, the Senate may not. So the moderates could end up walking the plank on a politically toxic vote only to see the Senate Republicans change the bill anyway.
The White House also complicated matters. The Trump administration wants more input on work requirements and drug pricing provisions. The meeting today and Wednesday will be crucial for GOP lawmakers to find consensus.
Ways and Means. The White House has an extensive list of tax priorities they want Ways and Means to work into a tax bill, as we scooped. But the biggest political challenge for the tax package will have to be settled with members outside the panel’s ranks.
Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said he’s working out a revised SALT cap with New York, California and New Jersey Republicans demanding relief and his own committee members, who had a discussion about the limit last week.
“We’re just constantly talking with them and constantly talking with the Ways and Means Republicans because ultimately the Ways and Means Republicans will be putting the bill together, so they’re the ones making the decision,” Smith said.
Most of the Republicans drawing the sharpest line on SALT are also pushing back on Medicaid cuts, so that’s another key factor.
Agriculture. House Agriculture Republicans are attempting to finalize a SNAP proposal that would force more of the costs for the food-stamp program onto the states.
The idea, known as cost-sharing, is controversial. Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) have said they’re against it. The Agriculture panel has struggled to find savings in SNAP that won’t cut benefits – which Chair GT Thompson (R-Pa.) has said he won’t do.
One option the panel is considering is shifting more of the cost of SNAP to states with the highest overpayment error rates. Alaska, New Jersey, California and New York have some of the highest error rates, so we expect Republicans from those states to be wary of this plan.
The panel is still waiting on CBO scores for the error-rate proposal.
From the beginning of the reconciliation process, Bacon has warned that $230 billion in cuts for the Agriculture Committee would be too high. Like with Medicaid, Bacon and other moderates were hoping that the panel’s cuts would end up closer to $100 billion. But that will spark complaints from conservative hardliners, who are already nervous that the Senate wants to pass tax cuts and not spending cuts.
