Politico: “A group of senior House Republicans gathered at the Pentagon on Thursday morning to discuss the military funding portion of another party-line reconciliation bill with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to four people granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting.”
“It’s a sign conversations around ‘Reconciliation 3.0’ are heating up after President Donald Trump signed the GOP-only immigration enforcement funding measure earlier this week.”
“House Republicans have reached a boiling point over their colleagues who have skipped votes in recent months, leaving their razor-thin majority ungovernable and at times giving Democrats majority status,” NOTUS reports.
“On Tuesday, a few hours before a vote on a critical border security bill, Republicans expressed anger over how their ability to pass legislation would be made more difficult by the absence of GOP lawmakers who were back home campaigning.”
New York Times: “The ActBlue chief executive, whose own lawyers warned her that she might have misled Congress about how her organization vetted its foreign donations, will invoke her Fifth Amendment rights when she testifies before a House committee, she wrote in an opinion essay published on Wednesday in the Washington Post.”
“Regina Wallace-Jones wrote that she would not engage in questions from the Republican-led House Administration Committee, which she had agreed to appear before on Wednesday morning to discuss the committee’s investigation into the operations of ActBlue, a Democratic payment processor.”
“Rep. Nancy Mace’s trouncing in Tuesday’s South Carolina gubernatorial primary dealt a blunt defeat to a once rising GOP star, a politician who had basked in national attention during her dramatic political transformation,” the Washington Post reports.
“Mace had real political talent and promise, but her downfall and isolation followed years of brazen political opportunism, a hunger for media attention at any cost, rejecting advisers’ counsel and turning on many allies, more than a dozen former aides, colleagues and supporters in both South Carolina and Washington said in interviews.”
Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) “was caught faking a phone call in order to avoid answering questions about his party’s plan to cut Social Security and Medicare,” the Daily Beast reports.
Politico: “Twenty House Republicans broke with Speaker Mike Johnson to help pass a Democratic-led bill Tuesday aimed at making it easier for workers to form unions, widening the divide between a bloc of pro-labor Republicans and GOP leaders.”
“Democrats successfully used a discharge petition to sidestep Johnson and force the vote with the help of a handful of House Republicans, including Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Nick LaLota of New York.”
CNBC: “A monthslong stalemate over immigration enforcement could come to an end on Tuesday, as the U.S. House is poised to vote on a $70 billion funding package despite Democrats’ vows to fight back.”
“It’s a major test for House Speaker Mike Johnson as he tries to cement one of President Donald Trump’s top domestic priorities.”
“House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith says he won’t get behind the GOP’s next budget reconciliation bill if tax provisions aren’t included,” Politico reports.
“A number of House Republicans — including those in leadership — are voicing concerns that including tax provisions would allow Democrats in the Senate to force floor votes on politically fraught health care amendments, putting vulnerable Republican senators in a difficult spot just before the midterms.”
Politico: “The Republican Study Committee convened a meeting Monday evening with CBO Director Phillip Swagel and Tom Barthold, chief of staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation, to discuss the process for estimating program costs and savings as part of a possible third budget reconciliation bill.”
NewsNation: “The House Freedom Caucus will undergo a transformation next year, as a number of the confrontational conservative group’s most high-profile members depart Congress — with the changing membership sure to impact the group’s relationship with Republican leadership and with President Trump.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) slammed a Fox News reporter for asking if she had an affair with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).
Said Boebert: “Fuck you, first of all!”
She added: “If you’re gonna bring me into this, like, the sexist stuff is like out of control. So there’s your clickbait that you were looking for. I don’t want to talk about anybody’s exes and the crazy sh*t that they do.”
CNN: “Republicans are still on track to muscle through a top party priority next week, delivering $70 billion in Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection funding. But even that measure had been at serious risk of collapse in recent weeks after Republicans revolted over Trump’s insistence for a $1.8 billion settlement fund that critics say is intended to reward his political supporters.”
“While Senate GOP leaders successfully quashed much of that dissent, the days of bitter wrangling exposed cracks in Trump’s base of support on Capitol Hill. There is now a growing chorus of Republicans — and not just the usual defectors — willing to defy him as they seek to rein in his pursuit of his agenda, ranging from projects like the White House ballroom and exacting political retribution on his enemies to his handling of the Iran war and other foreign policy issues.”
“The trend is only expected to accelerate as the November elections approach, with contentious fights ahead like Trump’s push to confirm his controversial expected pick to lead the Department of Justice.”
Semafor: “Progressive and centrist Democrats are remarkably aligned around their plan for using a potential House majority to investigate President Donald Trump: Pursue businesses that have cultivated his administration for backdoor oversight, and don’t hold back.”
“As outside advisory and legal firms prepare the private sector for a Democratic House takeover that still looks likely, despite the GOP’s aggressive redistricting, the target list may well grow beyond US-based companies. Foreign dealmaking by the Trump family and its allies, including in the Gulf, is also in line for Democratic scrutiny.”
“President Donald Trump’s push to rebrand the Pentagon as the Department of War won a victory late on Thursday when Republicans on a key committee voted to make the change permanent,” Politico reports.
“The House Armed Services Committee narrowly voted along party lines to codify the renaming of the Department of Defense, which Trump kicked off last fall, during marathon deliberations on its annual defense policy bill.”
NOTUS: “The House passed bipartisan legislation on Thursday leveling new economic sanctions on Russia and strengthening Ukraine’s defenses despite opposition from Republican leaders.”
“The measure passed by a vote of 226-195, with 18 Republicans and one independent joining Democrats in support. Coming a day after the House backed a measure to end the war with Iran, the Ukraine vote represented another challenge to President Donald Trump’s foreign policy approach.”
New York Times: “It now heads to the Senate, where Mr. Trump’s opposition has stopped similar attempts at new penalties on Russia and its allies. And even if it were to clear both chambers, it would likely be vetoed by the president, who has repeatedly balked at legislation that seeks to constrain his ability to negotiate on foreign policy matters.”
Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) accused Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) of advocating for the terrorist organization Hezbollah during remarks on the House floor Wednesday, Politico reports.
Said Miller: “You advocate for terrorists on a daily basis.”
Tlaib requested Miller’s remarks be taken down, and his comment was ultimately stricken.
Politico: “There’s a 2.4-million-square-foot ticking time bomb on Capitol Hill, and lawmakers are dithering over how to deal with it as anxieties rise over the massive costs and disruptions involved.”
“The Rayburn House Office Building has never undergone a full renovation since it opened in 1965, and as plans for a massive revamp of Congress’s largest office complex keep getting pushed off, key systems are routinely failing and expensive piecemeal repairs are weighing on the legislative branch budget.”
“The GOP-led House voted to restrict President Trump’s ability to continue the war against Iran without congressional approval, a rebuke to the White House and the latest sign that Republican lawmakers’ support for the war is eroding on Capitol Hill,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The measure passed 215-208, with four Republicans joining Democrats in support.”
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.
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