“House Republicans will try to fix issues with their megabill in the Rules Committee this week based on provisions the Senate parliamentarian has identified as non-compliant with the chamber’s rules,” Politico reports.
“Republicans need to send their massive tax and spending package to the Senate to make its own changes. But without making certain revisions to the House-passed bill first, it could run afoul of the chamber’s parliamentarian.”
“Republicans from Texas’ congressional delegation met at the U.S. Capitol Monday night to discuss a proposal to redraw the lines of their House districts,” the Texas Tribune reports.
“Emerging from a meeting attended by most of the 25-member GOP delegation, Sessions said there was ‘a lot we don’t know,’ including whether Gov. Greg Abbott would be in favor of the idea. Abbott has the lone authority to call members of the Texas Legislature back to Austin for a special session, which would be required to carry out the rare and extraordinary move of reshaping the state’s political boundaries in the middle of the decade, years before the next census in 2030.”
New York Times: “President Trump’s political team is encouraging Republican leaders in Texas to examine how House district lines in the state could be redrawn ahead of next year’s midterm elections to try to save the party’s endangered majority.”
“House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-TN) will resign from Congress as soon as the House votes again on the reconciliation bill, Punchbowl News reports.
“Green announced he would not seek reelection in 2024, only to reverse his decision weeks later and handily win reelection.”
“Green recently got divorced. His ex-wife, Camilla Green, sent a text message to House spouses in September saying that the Tennessee Republican was having an affair and ‘Satan has rewritten our marriage in his mind.’”
“Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday he was removing the entire membership of the influential vaccine advisory panel that makes immunization recommendations for the United States, an unprecedented move by Kennedy and escalation of his overhaul of federal vaccination policy,” the Washington Post reports.
“In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy said he decided to retire the 17 independent vaccine experts from the Advisory Committeeon Immunization Practices because the panel has been “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest” and has become a “rubber stamp” for vaccines.Doctors and pharmacists look to the committee’s recommendations to decide which shots to offer.”
“Just a few short days ago, President Trump was remarkably and viciously feuding with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and the person who spent more money than anyone to return him to the White House,” the New York Times reports.
“But one of the constants in Trump’s second term is that the subjects of his quarrels are ever-changing. And by Monday, Trump had turned the page on Musk — for now — and focused on a more familiar and frequent target for his rage: Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California.”
“President Trump said that Iran appeared to have rejected a key element of an American proposal aimed at breaking the deadlock in the negotiations over the future of the country’s nuclear program,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump told reporters that Tehran wants to continue enriching uranium on its own soil, after the United States proposed an arrangement under which Iran would phase out its own efforts but still receive nuclear fuel for power production.”
“Roughly 500 Marines based out of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in California have been mobilized to respond to the protests in Los Angeles, and will join the National Guard troops that were activated by President Donald Trump over the weekend without the consent of California’s governor or the city’s mayor,” CNN reports.
“The deployment of the full Marine battalion marks a significant escalation in Trump’s use of the military as a show of force against protesters, but it is still unclear what their task will be once in LA, the sources said. Like the National Guard troops, they are prohibited from conducting law enforcement activity like making arrests unless Trump invokes the Insurrection Act.”
Washington Post: “The spectacular public feud last week between Musk and Trump has laid bare just how much Musk may lose if their rocky relationship continues to unravel.”
“While Trump and the GOP have benefited from Musk’s money, Musk is most vulnerable if the president uses the levers of government to retaliate — a prospect the president raised in a message last week threatening to cancel Musk’s companies’ federal contracts.”
“Senate Republican leadership is urging senators to double down on condemning the chaotic protests that erupted over the weekend in Los Angeles,” Axios reports.
“Republicans are convinced they have a winning issue.”
Said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR): “This gives us an opportunity to remind Americans how extreme the Democratic party is on immigration. Americans have a choice between Republicans’ law & order vs. the Democrats’ car-burning, illegal alien rioters.”
He added: “So far, every Senate Democrat who has spoken out has backed the rioters…”
“President Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that the protesters in Los Angeles “are insurrectionists,” a term that several of his aides have been using as well, in what may become a rationale for him to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act,” the New York Times reports.
“Invoking the act would give Mr. Trump broad authority to use the United States military to deal with violent protests in California and possibly elsewhere.”
Politico: “Trump, for now, has given the troops a limited mission: protecting federal immigration agents and buildings amid a wave of street protests against the administration’s mass deportation policies. To justify the deployment, Trump cited a provision of federal law that allows the president to use the National Guard to quell domestic unrest.”
“But Trump’s stated rationale, legal scholars say, appears to be a flimsy and even contrived basis for such a rare and dramatic step. The real purpose, they worry, may be to amass more power over blue states that have resisted Trump’s deportation agenda. And the effect, whether intentional or not, may be to inflame the tension in L.A., potentially leading to a vicious cycle in which Trump calls up even more troops or broadens their mission.”
For members: Trump Blurs the Line Again
“I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great. Gavin likes the publicity… I like Gavin Newsom, he’s a nice guy, but he’s grossly incompetent.”
— President Trump, suggesting immigration czar Tom Hohman should arrest California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“The reconciliation bill has given Republicans a way to target abortion access in states that legally protect it: threatening their federal health care funding,” NOTUS reports.
“House Republicans added a last-minute provision to their reconciliation bill via a manager’s amendment that would block certain Affordable Care Act funds from going to state health plans that cover abortion services. There are currently 13 states — California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state — with laws in the books that require insurers to cover abortion.”
Mark Leibovich: “No matter how brazen Trump becomes, the most effective communicator in the Democratic Party continues to opt for minimal communication. His ‘audacity of hope’ presidency has given way to the fierce lethargy of semi-retirement.”
Reuters: “The risk of a public backlash against Trump if conditions at the national parks prove unpleasant for visitors this summer is significant. While Americans are increasingly divided on a range of key issues, the vast majority cherish the parks as national treasures and beloved, affordable vacation getaways.”
“And they are visiting them in record numbers. Last year, national parks welcomed more than 331 million visitors, a new high, up 6 million from 2023.”
Bill Gates went to the White House and begged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to unwind the DOGE cuts to foreign aid, Tara Palmeri reports.
But the secretary of State “informed Gates that even with Musk out, they have no plans to reverse the cuts.”
A video shared by the U.S. Army of tanks being transported to the nation’s capital for the Army’s upcoming 250th birthday parade showed one loaded on a flatcar with graffiti that appeared to read: “Hang Fauci & Bill Gates,” the Washington Post reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.