Senate Republicans are gearing up to ask Trump in a dinner Friday whether they should take the lead on advancing the core of his sweeping legislative agenda, as House efforts to kick off budget reconciliation look like they’ll collapse.
Majority Leader John Thune told Mia on Tuesday night that GOP senators’ two-bill strategy “could be in play” for Trump.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise emerged from a private reconciliation meeting late Tuesday and said that GOP leaders were haggling over at least $1 trillion in guaranteed spending cuts, but had no agreement even as they work toward a Budget Committee vote next week. GOP leaders are facing delays as conservative hard-liners push for steeper cuts as part of enacting Trump’s priorities on energy, the border and taxes.
Lawmakers are also growing anxious about the government shutdown deadline on March 14. Top appropriators are struggling to reach agreement on spending levels, thanks in part to complications from Trump’s chaotic overhaul of the federal bureaucracy.
“I don’t think anybody thinks a shutdown is a good thing. But the politics are such that we could certainly stumble into one without meaning to,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said in an interview.
What else we’re watching:
- Get ready for a long night: Senators are girding for an all-nighter as Democrats plan to use all 30 hours of debate over Russ Vought’s confirmation to protest the OMB director nominee. Senate Democrats plan to unanimously vote against Vought, but that won’t derail his confirmation.
- Musk’s limited Treasury access: The Treasury Department said in a Tuesday letter to Sen. Ron Wyden that Elon Musk’s team has “read-only” access to the system that controls trillions of dollars in federal payments, and that there have not been any suspensions or delays to disbursements approved by federal agencies.
- Republicans have an ax to grind: GOP senators are looking at what final Biden administration regulatory actions they can quickly ax along party lines under the Congressional Review Act. Thune said his conference has “10 or 15 potential CRAs that we’ve been reviewing and looking at.”
- IRA fight ramps up: A coalition of companies and trade associations will lobby lawmakers today to save Biden-era clean energy tax incentives that Republicans are considering clawing back in their search for spending cuts.
Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Jennifer Scholtes and Michael Stratford contributed to this report.