A week that began with a warning to Senate offices about attempted phishing schemes is coming to a close with Sen. Lindsey Graham revealing someone targeted him with a hack pretending to be Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Graham publicly revealed the attempted hack Thursday at the Hill & Valley Forum, making him arguably the most visible target in a concerted effort to target lawmakers, including attempts to mimic White House officials and Schumer.

“My phone is in the hands of the FBI now,” Graham said. “I get a message, I think, from Schumer, it ain’t from Schumer, and next thing you know, my phone’s, I don’t know what. Anything you can create apparently can be hacked.”

The Senate sergeant at arms, which handles cybersecurity for the chamber, sent an advisory warning to Senate offices Monday about the phishing scheme attempt.

A spokesperson for Graham, Taylor Reidy, said, “The sergeant at arms is investigating a possible hack of Sen. Graham’s phone.”

Graham was far from the only target. Late last Friday, other senators began getting texts posing as White House officials, from the chief of staff to the vice president’s office, as well as posing as Schumer, according to a Senate aide.

Schumer is famously a flip-phone user who prefers a call over texting.

Senate GOP campaign chief Steve Daines downplayed any expectation of a large Senate majority, echoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s assessment to POLITICO that the objective is simply to gain control of the upper chamber.

“Fifty one,” the Montana Republican said Thursday morning when asked about his goal. “Because that gives us the majority.”

Both Daines and McConnell have struck a decidedly different tone than the last chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Rick Scott (R-Fla.). Scott boldly predicted a 55-seat majority during the midterms, a prediction the GOP fell well short of.

Daines made his latest comments during a breakfast with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

“A lot of these races are on the margin,” he said. “They’re razor-thin races. It is going to be a night that things can go either way in many of these states. But 51 is our goal, and you will not hear me from now until Nov. 5 say anything but 51.”

In an interview with POLITICO, McConnell also sought to temper hopes of a red wave and said he only saw four seats as truly in play — for now.

“You take polls around Labor Day and begin to decide where you’re going to play,” McConnell said. “But we know where we’re going to play for sure right now: Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland.”

At the breakfast, Daines said he saw plenty of other opportunities, though no spending decisions have been made.

“There’s eight states right now that are going to be competitive Senate races,” Daines said. “I think I would add Michigan, certainly, to that list.”

The other possibilities: Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada. And he even suggested New Mexico as a possible reach state.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune told POLITICO on Thursday he believes Congress will likely need to pass a short-term extension to the FAA reauthorization bill ahead of next week’s deadline.

“We’re heading to later in the week, next week, we’re going to be up against the deadline. And it seems unlikely that we’re going to have this transacted before we hit that deadline,” Thune said. “There aren’t enough days right now, in my view, at least for us to be able to finish this.”

Negotiations over the FAA reauthorization have been littered with amendment requests. It is the last piece of major legislation the Senate has to address until the fall, making it the last opportunity for members to try and tack on their policy priorities.

A short-term extension at this point would likely require a time agreement, with members slated to leave town Thursday and return next week. Thune said he “would hope at least that getting a short-term extension wouldn’t be controversial,” but that “around here, you just don’t know.”

Others remain more optimistic. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), ranking member on the Commerce Committee, earlier Thursday insisted he still thinks the bill could be wrapped up by next week, though both Cruz and Thune said Senate leadership has still not landed a deal on the amendment requests.

Anthony Adragna contributed to this report.

Senate Democratic and Republican leadership are gauging their members’ opinions on a House-passed antisemitism bill by running a “hotline” on the legislation, per a Senate leadership aide.

Typically, leadership will hotline a bill to see if it can clear the Senate floor quickly, without a roll call vote. Any one senator can slow down passage.

The legislation overwhelmingly passed the House on Wednesday by a 320-91 vote. If enacted, it would update the definition of antisemitism used in federal anti-discrimination laws. The effort comes amid an outburst of protests on college campuses over the Israel-Gaza conflict; critics say some of those protests have, at times, veered into antisemitism.

Notably, the most recent Senate version — boasting the backing of 15 members of the Democratic conference — excludes a provision the House-passed bill retains: “The use of alternative definitions of antisemitism impairs enforcement efforts by adding multiple standards and may fail to identify many of the modern manifestations of antisemitism.”

A Senate Democratic aide, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told POLITICO there’s no love for that finding, but that they would not hold up passage over it. They added that they were actively assessing potential objections to its swift passage.

For now, it remains unclear what the Senate timing for the bill might be. GOP Whip John Thune told reporters he believes there are hold ups on both sides of the aisle. He declined to say which senators have objections, but said it’s “who you would expect.”

Several rank-and-file Democrats weren’t ready to commit to backing the measure yet.

“I’ve got to look at the language,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a prominent Jewish Democrat who said he’s been in regular contact with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the issue.

Wyden added: “I’m a First Amendment guy. First Amendment, yes. Never, never acceptable to engage in violence — ever.”

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said he also needed to look at bill text. “You gotta be careful and do it right,” he added.

The Senate faces turbulence Thursday on a bill that would reauthorize the FAA.

It cleared the first procedural hurdle Wednesday, but Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said more than 20 amendments — some germane and others not — have been filed.

The Republican whip doubted the Senate can land the plane this week and anticipated more action on the aviation bill and stack of amendments next week.

The Senate’s current task at hand is to work through that amendment roster, possibly coming to a time agreement that would allow votes on certain amendments. But that’s likely to face opposition over hotly contested amendments, including on flights at DCA, in the mix.

There’s some expectation that amendments pertaining tightly to aviation, airports and TSA have a much better chance of getting a vote. But senators see the FAA bill as one of the last chances for lawmakers to get their legislative priorities hitched to a must-pass bill, so the proposals aren’t all relevant.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has an eye on crypto and cannabis banking legislation potentially hitching a ride, but multiple Republicans said this week they won’t support those additions.

The deadline for the FAA reauthorization is May 10. The Senate is expected to leave town for the weekend Thursday afternoon.

House: Dozens of House lawmakers are headed to New Jersey on Thursday to pay respects and celebrate the life of the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-N.J.), who died last week. The House changed its schedule and scrapped Thursday votes to allow colleagues to honor Payne, who died at age 65 after a heart attack.

Payne lay in state in the Essex County Courthouse on Wednesday, and his funeral will be held Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Wednesday he is concerned about the way the Biden administration is compiling a report into whether Israel is eligible for U.S. weapons.

Background: Under President Joe Biden’s National Security Memorandum-20, which Van Hollen (D-Md.) championed, the administration must submit a report to Congress by May 8 about whether Israel and other countries that receive U.S. military aid are complying with international law and adhering to best practices when it comes to avoiding civilian casualties.

Van Hollen is among the lawmakers who have pushed Biden to be harder on Israel over how it is conducting its military campaign in Gaza. He is calling on the administration to avoid steering the report to favor Israel and cited recent reporting by Reuters that some State Department officials are concerned over Israel’s conduct.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations with folks in the administration, really urging them to make sure that this report is credible, that it’s seen to be based on facts and law, and not based on what they wish it would be — or that it not be driven by policy outcomes that they might not want to take,” Van Hollen said.

“What I’ve said to them is God help us if this report somehow says that the delivery of humanitarian assistance has been compliant with international standards — God help us because anybody with eyes to see and ears to hear knows that’s just not true,” he added.

Dissenting views: Reuters reported last week that at least seven State Department bureaus had submitted their contributions to an initial “options memo” to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. That memo highlighted internal divisions within the State Department over whether Israel is complying with the law.

Reuters reported that a joint submission from four bureaus at the State Department raised “serious concern over non-compliance” with international humanitarian law during Israel’s prosecution of the Gaza war.

The joint submission came from the bureaus of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; Population, Refugees and Migration; Global Criminal Justice and International Organization Affairs.

However, another submission Reuters reviewed, from the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, warned Blinken that suspending U.S. weapons would limit Israel’s ability to meet potential threats outside its airspace and require Washington to reevaluate “all ongoing and future sales to other countries in the region.” That bureau deals with U.S. military assistance and arms transfers.

Leading the report: Van Hollen said he does not like that the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs is leading the forthcoming report.

“I’m concerned that the bureaus at the Department of State that have the greatest expertise — Human Rights — are not the ones that are writing that section of the report, and the entity at State that has the most experience in the delivery of humanitarian assistance is not writing that section of the report,” Van Hollen told a small group of reporters.

Van Hollen also said the State Department’s legal arm seems to be cut out of the process. He called it “very concerning” that State’s lawyers “are not being directly asked, at least they weren’t, about what their legal opinion was, like a definitive legal opinion.”

An eruption of campus protests against Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza has again put Chuck Schumer — the highest-ranking elected Jewish leader in U.S. history — in an unenviable spot.

The demonstrations first picked up steam at Columbia University, in the metropolitan heart of Schumer’s home state, but they’ve since spread across the country. And when Democrats returned to the Hill this week, his caucus’ vulnerable incumbents were peppered with questions about whether they would denounce the protests amid reported antisemitic incidents.

Just weeks after taking on political risk by urging Israel to hold elections to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and criticizing the same Palestinian civilian casualties that protesters object to, Schumer publicly condemned the campus demonstrators.

It’s a delicate balance for the Democratic leader, who clearly felt a personal weight before speaking out against the Israeli government. As Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) put it: “It’s a hard time, especially for him. It is for all of us.”

Schumer’s Democratic colleagues say he’s handling the burden well. And his No. 2 made clear that he’s not alone in having to draw tough lines against demonstrations that turn discriminatory while projecting respect for the broader right to protest.

“It’s a tough challenge. If you respect the Constitution, you want to say freedom of speech is fundamental in America,” said Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “But there are lines you can’t cross. And when they cross the lines, they need to be held accountable.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), one of the House’s most senior Jewish members, said that “I agree with” Schumer’s actions so far — suggesting that too much attention is being paid to the campus protests against Israel. “The news media is making this a huge thing. It is, in fact, a small thing.”

But that “small thing” isn’t going anywhere. Though the Columbia protests largely dissipated Tuesday night after at least 200 police entered campus to disperse protesters who had occupied a campus building. Many other universities are bracing for disruptions to their commencement ceremonies later this spring, and school administrations are continuing to struggle with the line between free speech and impermissible disruptions.

The tense images and video emerging from campus protests have catalyzed Republican-led efforts to pass legislation addressing antisemitism, including a proposal to strengthen Department of Education discrimination standards that overwhelmingly passed the House on Wednesday. Senate Republicans are already calling on Schumer to immediately take up the House legislation, but he would not commit to that on Wednesday.

“We haven’t seen what the House is sending us yet,” Schumer said.

Other Republicans urged him, even in lieu of the antisemitism bill, to make a formal show of opposition to the campus protests.

“I think he especially needs to show leadership,” said Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). “If nothing else, just a resolution saying this is the voice of the Senate, that we condemn these riots.”

Notably, Schumer’s fellow New Yorker and Democratic leader, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, formally previewed his support for Wednesday’s bill before it passed.

And Schumer has gone farther in criticizing Israel in recent weeks than many would have expected of him just a few months ago. Even before his remarks calling for Netanyahu’s removal, he delivered a November speech on antisemitism that grew uncharacteristically personal about the intersection of his faith and politics during a troubling time.

After Schumer’s anti-Netanyahu speech, which drew him a rebuke from some Jewish American groups, Welch could be seen giving the majority leader a hug on the floor.

Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.

The House offered its first concrete response to a wave of pro-Palestinian campus protests nationwide that have often included antisemitic language.

The legislation, led by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and passed on a bipartisan 320 to 91 vote, would update the definition of antisemitism used in enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws. But the Senate, as of Wednesday, has indicated no plans to act on it.

The action comes amid a wave of escalating protests — and arrests — across the country in locations as varied as Columbia University, UCLA, the University of Texas at Austin, George Washington University and scores of other schools. Republicans have vowed to keep the spotlight on the demonstrations, with Speaker Mike Johnson vowing to stay focused on the issue “like white on rice.”

Both parties have condemned the explicitly antisemitic components of the protests, though many Democrats have expressed unease at cracking down on the free speech rights of students. That nuance isn’t convincing to the bill’s sponsor.

“Anyone who votes against this bill because they would rather put political expediency and electoral politics ahead of anything else has no business being a member of Congress,” Lawler said on the floor. “’Never again’ is now and we must act.”

Overall, 70 Democrats sided with 21 of the chamber’s Republicans in opposing the measure.

The bill would require the Education Department to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism as it enforces anti-discrimination laws — adding heft to a Trump-era executive order for stricter enforcement. Republicans have brushed aside Democratic calls for consideration of a broader bipartisan bill that would establish a national coordinator to counter antisemitism.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated antisemitism “needs to be dealt with, with consequences” and said Republicans would pursue ways of penalizing colleges for not adequately addressing the problem.

“We’re taking a look at how to condition that money on how they handle their campuses in situations like this,” McConnell said at a press conference Wednesday. “We’re serious about this. We’re going to take a look at what legislatively we might do.”

Many Democrats told POLITICO as late as Wednesday morning they were still undecided on how to vote on the measure. They viewed floor consideration of the legislation as a cynical attempt to divide their party without adequately tackling antisemitism in the U.S.

“It’s a political stunt,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. “It may divide us on this vote, but it’s not going to divide us … we won’t be in dysfunction like [Republicans] are.”

Many privately conceded the scenes at campuses around the country likely boosted the vote total for the legislation — even as some lawmakers view the text as poorly-written and unserious.

“That doesn’t mean a lot of us aren’t still struggling with the substance of it,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said in a brief interview. “It’s not a well-written bill. It’s not a bill that’s ever going to become law. … They are succeeding in getting us fighting about it.”

The bill had a number of notable opponents, such as Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) who is one of the most senior elected Jewish officials in the country. The American Civil Liberties Union also pushed back on the legislation, warning in a letter that it would “likely chill free speech of students on college campuses by incorrectly equating criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism.”

Palestinian advocates have also criticized the Trump-era executive order and similar measures over concerns that codifying a the IHRA definition could also lead to punishing pro-Palestinian speech on campus.

President Joe Biden’s White House notably did not come out with a formal statement of administration policy on the legislation, as it had for various other House measures on the floor this week.

Senate Republicans urged Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to take up the legislation after its passage in the House. He’s given no indication that he intends to do so.

“That’s a bill that we should probably bring to the floor and pass over here as well,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Wednesday.

Bianca Quilantan contributed to this report.