The Senate returns Tuesday, the House is out of session until July 14. President Donald Trump is back in D.C. Trump said he’ll likely visit disaster-stricken Texas on Friday.
Texas latest. The horrific tragedy in Texas continues to unfold. The death toll is more than 80, including 28 children. Dozens of people are still missing. Trump has issued a disaster declaration for Kerr County, located in the Hill Country northwest of San Antonio. U.S. Coast Guard helicopters have been sent to the region, as well as planes capable of finding missing persons.
The tragedy has touched lawmakers personally. Rep. August Pfluger’s (R-Texas) daughters were at Camp Mystic, as well Rep. Buddy Carter’s (R-Ga.) granddaughters. All are accounted for, although Carter’s granddaughters lost a cousin in the flooding. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) represents the area hardest hit by the flood.
News here. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has written a letter to Commerce Department Acting Inspector General Roderick Anderson asking him to “investigate whether the staffing shortfalls at [National Weather Service] offices in Texas — and across the country — played a role in exacerbating the impact of this deadly flooding event.”
Rescissions. Congress has until July 18 — next Friday — to pass the White House’s $9 billion-plus rescissions package in some form. And unlike with reconciliation, that’s actually a statutory deadline. The money will be spent as appropriated if Congress doesn’t act by that date.
But just like with reconciliation, the Senate is gearing up to jam the House with a revised measure at the last minute.
The motion to discharge the rescissions package from the Senate Appropriations Committee becomes privileged today, meaning any senator can force a vote. This step is necessary because Senate GOP leaders have decided not to hold a formal markup.
Yet that vote isn’t expected to occur until next week at the earliest. That would give the Senate roughly two days to pass a revised rescissions package using expedited procedures. The process ends with a vote-a-rama — yes, another one — followed by a vote on a GOP leadership-drafted substitute amendment. Under this scenario, the House would have very little time to pass it before the July 18 deadline.
At this stage, there’s some skepticism about whether the Senate can even get 50 votes for a rescissions package that maintains the cuts the White House wants, which focus on foreign aid and public broadcasting.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) is perhaps the most prominent critic of the proposed clawbacks, especially the cuts to PEPFAR, the George W. Bush-era global HIV/AIDS prevention program. Ditto Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Others, like Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), have issues with the public broadcasting cuts.
Schumer has been telling Senate Democrats that a successful rescissions vote risks upending the FY2026 appropriations process. More on that below.
Netanyahu in Washington. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in Washington for a visit with Trump, his third in half a year. Netanyahu’s alliance is incredibly important to his domestic political standing in Israel. Trump was already popular in Israel and has grown more so since the U.S. bombing attack on Iranian nuclear sites last month.
Netanyahu also said he will be meeting with members of Congress during his visit. Speaker Mike Johnson is sticking around in D.C. to meet with Netanyahu Tuesday morning. There’s also a bipartisan Senate meeting in the works for Tuesday.
Trump is very eager for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza.
Trump tariffs: Trump has set a July 9 deadline for tariff deals with foreign trading partners. But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday the administration is sending letters to dozens of countries this week saying that if trade deals aren’t complete by August 1, they’ll see their tariffs “boomerang” to the rates Trump outlined in April.
No matter what happens, the Wednesday deadline is a reminder for Senate Republicans that the major trade deals they’ve been pushing the administration to prioritize have not yet come to fruition.
Government funding: Now that the GOP-run Congress has finally finished with the One Big Beautiful Bill, it’s time to turn to the FY2026 appropriations process. It’s a mess so far. We’re not saying there will be a government shutdown this fall, but it’s a real possibility.
The Trump administration has taken an unprecedented – even stunning – view on the executive branch’s power over government funding. Trump ordered the closure of the Education Department and other agencies, all while firing tens of thousands of federal workers via DOGE.
The White House sent Congress a cursory “skinny budget” for FY2026 that calls for more than $160 billion in domestic spending cuts while boosting the Pentagon and border security (The OBBB including $325 billion for these).
OMB is withholding tens of billions of dollars in spending, defying Congress and ignoring the long-term CR that Trump signed in March.
House Republicans have begun drafting FY2026 appropriations bills at the Trump budget level. Democrats are vehemently opposed to the GOP-drafted bills, and they’re not going anywhere in the Senate. We’re also not even sure how many Johnson can pass.
The Senate Appropriations Committee is marking up three bills at the full-committee level this week. Collins and Patty Murray (Wash.), the ranking Democrat, haven’t said what those will look like yet, but they’re at some modified FY2025 spending level. Which isn’t going to fly with House Republican leaders.
Johnson’s new goal: Two more reconciliation bills. Johnson also said on “Fox News Sunday” that he wants to do two more reconciliation bills: one in the fall and one in the spring. We see this as exceedingly unlikely. Johnson didn’t give any details of what these packages may include, but we’ll note that a fall reconciliation bill would come just as the government funding battle unfolds, so it’s hard to see that happening simultaneously.
