Brutal day ahead for Johnson

Politico

4 days ago

IN TODAY'S EDITION:— The House's staggering two-day to-do list— Hill leaders back away from Epstein uproar— Bove set to glide through Senate Judiciary
Turns out President Donald Trump didn't have the magic touch House Republicans were expecting. Another day of crypto drama has now put the House in a severe time crunch, setting members up for a mammoth day of voting today.
To recap: Speaker Mike Johnson headed into Wednesday confident that Trump had struck a deal with conservative holdouts to move a trio of cryptocurrency bills. But that quickly evaporated after committee chairs pushed back at hard-liners' demands to attach a central bank digital currency ban to another bipartisan crypto bill.
The impasse kept the House rule vote open for nine hours until GOP leaders finally cut a late-night deal to include a CBDC ban in the National Defense Authorization Act.
The crypto crash-out now leaves the House with a lot to do in very little time: The three crypto bills, the Defense appropriations bill and a rescissions package were all scheduled to get a vote this week. House Republican leaders wanted to punt the Defense bill to next week — but an irate Appropriations Chair Tom Cole insisted they finish up this week. The House stayed in extra late Wednesday night for general debate and en bloc amendments.
'He is just mad — I don't blame him,' one House Republican told Meredith Lee Hill about Cole, who has his eye on the 11 unpassed fiscal 2026 spending bills and the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline.
Which brings us to today: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told Meredith the House will begin debating individual Defense amendments this morning before finishing up that bill and moving on to the three cryptocurrency bills.
But the real must-do is recissions. The Senate finally passed a modified package around 2:30 a.m. (more on that below). Now the House needs to reconvene the Rules Committee, approve yet another rule on the floor and then vote on sending the $9 billion clawbacks package to Trump's desk.
That's a lot to cram into less than two days, especially with the rescissions deadline looming Friday night. If they get too close to the deadline, it's possible Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — fresh off of an eight-hour 'magic minute' speech two weeks ago — could try to blow past it.
If something's got to give, watch to see whether all three cryptocurrency bills end up getting a vote this week as planned. One possibility under discussion is passing only the Senate-approved stablecoin bill, which Trump wants to sign as soon as possible, and punting the other votes.
He called into a meeting with holdouts and key committee leaders late Wednesday after they struck a new deal — for real this time.
'He's happy with it,' a person in the room told Meredith of the outcome.
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WHAT WE'RE WATCHINGWith help from Alec Snyder
The House will vote at 4:10 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on three cryptocurrency bills and the Defense appropriations bill. The House is also expected to vote on the Senate-passed rescissions package today.
The Senate will vote at noon on the nomination of Joshua Divine to be a District Judge for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri.
— Senate Judiciary will vote on the nominations of Emil J. Bove III to be a judge on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals and Jeanine Pirro to be a U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia at 9:15 a.m.
— Senate Appropriations will resume debate on the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill and mark up the House's fiscal 2026 Military Construction-VA appropriations bill at 9:30 a.m.
— House Appropriations will mark up the fiscal 2026 Transportation-HUD and Energy-Water appropriations bills at 10 a.m.
The rest of the week: The House is expected to finish voting on the rescissions package before the Friday deadline.
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THE LEADERSHIP SUITE
Rescissions back to the House
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has weathered the storm in his chamber threatening to sink Trump's request to codify billions of dollars in spending cuts. A vote-a-rama with a string of unsuccessful amendments from Democrats and some Republicans like Appropriations Chair Susan Collins went through Wednesday night and into the early morning. It marks the first time in decades that a rescissions package has been approved by the Senate.
In a final 51-48 vote, GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Collins were the only defectors, with Mitch McConnell ultimately voting 'yes.' An attempt by Murkowski to offer tweaks was voted down 47-51. Democrat Sen. Tina Smith missed the vote, with her staff disclosing Wednesday that she was being kept in the hospital overnight 'out of an abundance of caution.'
The package now heads to the House for a final vote before it can be sent off to the president's desk for his signature. House leaders are working to get it done as soon as today, eager to appease fiscal conservatives who have condemned the Senate's changes.
Epstein files continue to rile MAGA — and make Hill leaders uncomfortable
Right-wing activist Laura Loomer is telling Trump that the GOP divide over the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files could 'consume his presidency,' Adam Wren, Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing and Gregory Svirnovskiy report.
The president, meanwhile, is brushing off the MAGA anger over his disinterest in publicizing further information on the notorious sex offender, calling the whole issue a Democrat-manufactured hoax.
GOP leaders are keeping their distance on the Epstein debate as funding fights and critical legislation burst into flames. Johnson said he was 'misquoted and misrepresented' in reports Tuesday that he was breaking with Trump over whether to release the files.
Thune dodged again Wednesday, telling reporters: 'I'm not at this point taking a position on it. I just think it's going to be a question that's left to others to decide.'
Thune added that it's 'largely' an issue for the Justice Department, but that 'the question is if some of our committee chairs want to [take action].'
Garbarino seeks top Homeland post
Rep. Andrew Garbarino is vying to be the next head of the powerful House Homeland Security Committee, which has broad sway over U.S. cyber policy, according to a letter from the New York lawmaker shared first with POLITICO.
Garbarino argues his policy chops and background make him an ideal candidate to replace retiring Chair Rep. Mark Green, our John Sakellariadis and Eric Bazail-Eimil report. In his tenure as chair for the panel's cybersecurity and infrastructure protection subcommittee, Garbarino has become a respected legislator on digital security issues — due in part to his efforts to defend the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency from attacks by his GOP colleagues.
He also commits to advancing the president's immigration agenda.
'Under my leadership, the committee will continue working to secure the border, support ICE operations, expose sanctuary policies and conduct aggressive oversight of immigration failures under the prior administration,' reads Garbarino's letter, which was sent to the House Steering panel Monday.
POLICY RUNDOWN
FBI FUNDING BILL BACK ON THE DOCKET — Senate Appropriations will resume its markup of the Commerce-Justice-Science funding bill this morning after a fight over the future location of FBI headquarters derailed last week's proceedings, Jennifer Scholtes reports.
During last week's markup, Murkowski voted with Democrats on an amendment to the bill from Sen. Chris Van Hollen that would have blocked the Trump administration from dipping into a $1.4 billion construction fund for anything other than relocating the FBI to the Maryland site that had been selected after a lengthy competition.
The surprise adoption of that amendment prompted Collins to postpone further proceedings while committee members worked out their differences. Murkowski said she met this week with FBI Director Kash Patel and now feels 'in a better spot' about Trump's interest in moving the agency's headquarters just a few blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue.
But Collins told Calen Wednesday night they may not have broken the impasse: 'I'm hopeful that that's the case, but we won't know for sure until' the panel meets.
Van Hollen, meanwhile, thinks any deal appropriators make to resume the markup will be partisan in nature. 'There's no sort of agreement to break the impasse,' Van Hollen told Calen Wednesday. 'There's just indications that Republicans have come up with their own plan, but it's not a bipartisan plan.'
BOVE AND PIRRO ON THE GLIDE PATH — It appears all but certain Senate Judiciary will have the votes to favorably advance Emil Bove's nomination this morning, but the panel's Democrats are still expected to put up a big fight against Trump's pick to serve as a judge to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
They're raising hell over whistleblower allegations that Bove, a senior Justice Department official, urged the administration to ignore court orders that would have blocked its deportation agenda. In a letter earlier this week, they asked Chair Chuck Grassley to allow testimony from the whistleblower, Erez Reuveni — a request Grassley brushed off in a statement as 'unnecessary.'
Senate Judiciary is also stacked with Trump loyalists, and the one Republican who might have broken ranks, retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, has said he'll 'probably' vote for Bove. Tillis has also said he'll vote in committee today for Jeanine Pirro, Trump's nominee to be the U.S. attorney for D.C. Tillis tanked Trump's first pick for the position, Ed Martin, based on the nominee's past defending participants in the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021.
NEW CRYPTO TAX BILL COMING SOON — Rep. Max Miller, a freshman member of the taxwriting Ways and Means, said during an Oversight Subcommittee hearing Wednesday he plans to lead Republicans on crafting a comprehensive tax framework for crypto, Benjamin reports. Miller said his draft legislation, which could be released in the coming weeks, could reduce IRS paperwork for crypto users and outline the best way to tax 'mining' and 'staking' activities that validate crypto transactions. Subcommittee Republicans also indicated they'd like to make digital assets more accessible in retirement accounts.
JORDAN PUSHES OLD IMMIGRATION BILL — Now that Republicans have passed Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' to turbocharge border enforcement activities, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan is in talks with the White House to revive his partisan immigration measure that passed the House in 2023, Hailey Fuchs reports. Jordan's bill, as written in the previous Congress, would put significant limits on asylum and parole eligibility, and Jordan told Hailey he doesn't want to change the language at this time.
But one thing to watch is whether any Republicans, including those in the administration, would push for new provisions to ease the ability of immigrants to obtain high-skilled work visas. That was a pet policy backed by tech giant Elon Musk, and Jordan earlier this year said he was open to considering Musk's ideas. However, this was long before Musk's fallout with Trump and congressional Republicans over the megabill.
Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E:
CAMPAIGN STOP
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TUNNEL TALK
DISPATCH FROM AUDI FIELD — Amid chaos on the Hill, Capitol Hill reporters faced off against lawmakers Wednesday evening in the 17th annual Congressional Women's Softball Game. While the game was cut short due to severe thunderstorms, lawmakers upset the Bad News Babes, 5-3, for the first time in three years.
THE BEST OF THE REST
It's a 'Horrible Time' in Congress. But at Least There's Softball., from Oriana González at NOTUS
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JOB BOARD
John Nagle is now a federal policy manager at Pacific Legal Foundation. He most recently was a legislative assistant for Rep. Glenn Grothman.
Maggie Angel is joining the Illinois governor's office in D.C. as director of federal affairs. She previously was a legislative assistant for Sen. Dick Durbin.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
House Minority Whip Katherine Clark … Kathy 'Coach' Kemper … Katherine Scarlett … Roz Leighton … Chris Buki … Chris Berardi … Morgan Routman Hill of Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester's office … Marnie Funk … Barbara Boland
TRIVIA
WEDNESDAY'S ANSWER: Robert Summer correctly answered that Al Gore was an investigative reporter before he ran for office.
TODAY'S QUESTION, from Mia: At what time Wednesday did the House break the record for the longest vote in the chamber's history?
The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to [e-mail].