How Schumer is preparing for the fall funding showdown
Senate Democrats will face their first government funding decision Tuesday, with Republicans teeing up the first procedural vote on a package of government funding bills that have passed the Senate Appropriations Committee largely on a bipartisan basis.
Democrats appear to be leaning toward at least helping start debate on the package. But Schumer told his No. 2, Dick Durbin, that he wants to have a full caucus discussion Tuesday about how to handle that first tranche of funding measures before announcing a strategy, the Illinois Democrat said in an interview Monday.
Publicly, Schumer is trying to keep the pressure on Republicans, accusing Senate Majority Leader John Thune of 'talking a bit out of both sides of his mouth' on government funding by talking up the importance of the normal appropriations process while also greenlighting efforts by the administration to clawback funding previously blessed by Congress.
'If Leader Thune wants to talk about bipartisanship, he should focus on keeping his side of the street clean first,' Schumer said.
He warned in a letter to his caucus earlier this month that Republicans shouldn't bank on having help from Democrats on government funding if they pursue go-it-alone funding strategies like the rescissions package. But Schumer has also declined multiple times to discuss what the outcome would be for such actions, telling reporters late last week to ask Republicans if they were willing to stand up to White House budget director Russ Vought.
Across the Capitol, Jeffries is drawing his own line on government funding, saying Monday at a press conference, 'it's my expectation that if Republicans try to jam a highly partisan spending bill down the throats of the American people here in the house, we will reject it.'
But while the two New Yorkers face a similar dilemma, Schumer also faces a tougher task: House Republicans don't need Democratic votes to pass legislation if they can achieve near-unity — a rare occurrence for the fractious conference but, as they have proven, not impossible. Schumer's caucus, in contrast, plays a more decisive role given the need for 60 votes for the Senate to advance a funding bill to avoid a shutdown.
'Here's the reality: we have to have a budget. We've got 47 votes, they've got 53,' said Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), in an interview. 'How we deal with that, when we've got 47-53, remains to be seen.'
Katherine Tully-McManus, Jennifer Scholtes and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Trump escalates attacks on Obama and Clinton as questions swirl about Epstein
'Obama was trying to lead a coup,' Trump said. 'And it was with Hillary Clinton.' Trump's extended digression, which came during a visit with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines, was a stark example of his campaign of retribution against an ever-growing list of enemies that has little analogue in American history. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up It even prompted a rare response from Obama's office. Advertisement 'These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,' said Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesperson for Obama. 'Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.' After Trump's attack on Obama, reports continued to surface about his relationship with Epstein. CNN published photos of Epstein at Trump's 1993 wedding to Marla Maples, the president's second wife. Gabbard's report, which claimed there was a 'treasonous conspiracy' by top Obama officials, contradicted a lengthy study by the Senate Intelligence Committee that was signed by all Republican members of the committee, including Marco Rubio, now the secretary of state. Advertisement The Obama administration never contended that the Russians had manipulated votes; instead, the administration, and the Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee, concluded that Russia mounted a major effort to influence voters. Still, in his remarks Tuesday, Trump claimed that he could have sent Clinton, the former secretary of state and another of his political rivals, to prison but chose not to. He said he would show no such leniency to Obama. 'I let her off the hook, and I'm very happy I did, but it's time to start after what they did to me,' Trump said. 'Whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people. Obama's been caught directly.' The president then listed even more enemies he wanted his Justice Department to target, including his former FBI director, James Comey and James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, and former President Joe Biden. 'It would be President Obama,' Trump said. 'He started it, and Biden was there with him, and Comey was there, and Clapper, the whole group was there.' 'He's guilty,' he said of Obama. 'This was treason. This was every word you can think of.' Trump's campaign to exact revenge against his perceived enemies has taken many forms. Over the past six months, he has pulled protective details from former colleagues facing death threats from Iran. He has revoked or threatened to revoke the security clearances of Biden, members of his administration and dozens of others. His administration has taken steps to target members of the media seen as unfriendly, taken the hatchet to entire agencies perceived as too liberal, and fired or investigated government workers deemed disloyal. Advertisement The re-examination of the intelligence around the 2016 election began with John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, ordering a review of the agency's tradecraft that went into the intelligence community assessment in December of that year. The review was deeply critical of the Obama administration and the former CIA director, John Brennan. CIA analysts took issue with the speed of the assessment and accused Brennan of allowing an unverified dossier prepared by a former British intelligence officer to influence the assessment. But Brennan has long denied that the so-called Steele dossier had any impact on the assessment, and other former officials said that the analysts working on the report paid no attention to it, maintaining that it was unverifiable rumor. Ratcliffe wrote on social media that the review had shown that the process was corrupt, and then he made a criminal referral to the FBI. Last week, Gabbard issued another report that criticized the findings of the intelligence assessment even more directly. Gabbard's report suggested that in the winter of 2016, intelligence officials under pressure from the White House changed their assessment from one that Russia had failed to mount a significant effort to hack election infrastructure to one that the Kremlin was trying to boost Trump and denigrate Clinton, the Democratic nominee. But Gabbard's report conflated two different intelligence findings. Intelligence officials had concluded that Russia had not engaged in any major effort to hack election systems and change votes. But they also believed that Russia had tried to influence the election in various ways by releasing hacked documents to harm Clinton and sow dissent. Advertisement Gabbard has also called for several Obama officials to face criminal investigation, without naming them. This article originally appeared in
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Omar calls GOP ‘pedophile protection party' for dodging Epstein votes
Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) on Tuesday slammed the GOP for dodging a vote that would call for the release of files related to deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Republican leaders this week scrapped their legislative plans and headed early into a long summer recess — all to avoid votes on the Epstein saga. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has insisted the move was not intended to shield Republicans from tough Epstein votes — or protect Trump from potentially embarrassing disclosures — but to end the Democrats' 'political games.' 'The pedophile protection party is shutting down Congress just to avoid voting on the release of the Epstein files,' Omar wrote in a post on X in response to the move. Last week, GOP lawmakers killed a vote backed by Democrats attempting to force the release of Epstein's files. It failed 211-210 along party lines. 'The American people are best served by putting an end to Democrats' side shows. That's what we're doing by not allowing the Rules Committee to continue with that nonsense this week,' Johnson said during a Tuesday press conference. 'We're done being lectured on transparency,' he said. However, some Republicans have refused to completely abandon the public's desire for more information related to Epstein's international illegal dealings. The House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee voted Tuesday to subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, longtime associate to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, to appear for a deposition. Some are hoping the measure will unveil new details about the list of people involved with the human trafficking ring. 'This is progress. We will not stop fighting until the Epstein Files are released. Trump and Bondi must stop blocking the American people from the truth,' House Oversight Democrats wrote on the social platform X after the vote. On Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also said in a statement that he has communicated with Maxwell's counsel 'to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the Department.' 'I anticipate meeting with Ms. Maxwell in the coming days,' Blanche said. 'Until now, no administration on behalf of the Department had inquired about her willingness to meet with the government. That changes now.'
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
As the dollar slides, the Euro is picking up speed
'We are witnessing a profound shift in the global order: Open markets and multilateral rules are fracturing, and even the dominant role of the U.S. dollar, the cornerstone of the system, is no longer certain,' she wrote last month. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The dollar's role as the world's reserve currency gives the United States an 'exorbitant privilege' — a term coined begrudgingly by a French politician in the 1960s. Because investors, governments and central banks around the world seek the safe, predictable returns of dollar-denominated assets such as Treasury bonds, there is a robust, built-in demand for dollars. That makes it easier for the U.S. government to borrow and boosts the spending power of American consumers. Advertisement The eurozone, which is made up of the 20 countries that use the euro and rivals the United States in terms of size and wealth, has never attracted investors in the same way. The euro ranks a distant second to the dollar in global use. Advertisement The euro's recent rise is a major reversal from just three years ago, when it dropped to parity with the dollar because investors feared the damage of surging inflation and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And it is a world away from the eurozone debt crisis last decade, when at times the currency union seemed at risk of crumbling. As welcome as the euro's recovery from those episodes has been — the euro is trading near a record high against the currencies of dozens of major trading partners — it is also possible to have too much of a good thing. As money flows into the euro and euro-denominated assets such as German government bonds, economists and executives warn that the currency's strength could hurt exporters. They are already contending with Trump's tariffs, which make their goods more expensive for buyers abroad, as well as increased competition from Chinese rivals in key markets. 'Further euro strength is likely to be self-defeating,' said Valentin Marinov, a currency strategist at Crédit Agricole, a French bank. Exports were already likely to weaken and become a drag on the eurozone economy because of U.S. tariffs and European government policies that would encourage more imports. After a surge in energy prices led to years of fighting to bring inflation down, the European Central Bank, which sets interest rates for the eurozone, now faces the prospect that inflation could be too low. The bank forecasts inflation to average 1.6% next year, notably below its 2% target. That's partly because of the impact of a strong euro, which makes imports cheaper. Advertisement Some policymakers have said there is a risk that sluggish inflation will become entrenched, which is a familiar problem for the region. For nearly a decade until 2021, the central bank kept its key interest rates below zero in hopes of spurring faster economic growth and encouraging prices to rise steadily. That, policymakers hoped, would feed through to higher wage growth and better living standards. ECB officials are expected to keep interest rates steady when they meet this week, but analysts are adding to bets they could cut rates again later this year, if the economic outlook darkens or the euro's strength pushes inflation forecasts even lower. Reducing interest rates tends to weaken a currency, but the euro's recent strength has come, notably, as the ECB cut rates eight times in a year. Luis de Guindos, the vice president of the central bank, said that if the euro climbed above $1.20, that 'would be much more complicated.' Some big European companies have warned about the effect of the strong currency on their earnings, especially in export-heavy Germany. SAP, a software firm that recently became Europe's most valuable public company, said every 1-cent increase in the euro-dollar exchange rate results in a 30 million euro decline in revenues, without currency hedges. Adidas, the sportswear brand, said a strong euro had 'negative translation effects' on its overseas sales. Daimler, a truck maker, said fluctuations in the euro-dollar rate 'could significantly impact' its financial performance. Where the euro goes next is hard to predict. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect the euro to continue strengthening, to $1.21 next year. But Marinov said he believed that traders had gotten ahead of themselves: He expects the euro to fall back toward $1.10 next year. Advertisement The currency's rally this year does not necessarily mean there will be a lasting shift toward the euro, in which it accounts for a larger share of central banks' reserves or is used in more cross-border payments. Lagarde said seizing the moment for a 'global euro' would take a concerted effort to bolster the bloc's fragmented economy, streamline its governance and deepen its capital markets, among other things. 'A step towards greater international prominence for our currency will not happen by default: It must be earned,' she said. This article originally appeared in .
