The Senate has not yet voted on whether to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the government’s health agencies, but Republicans in the chamber are already gearing up to push Kennedy’s agenda on Capitol Hill.

Five GOP senators said Thursday they’d created a caucus to promote the ideals of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) are the founding members.

The caucus’ stated purpose is to implement legislation in line with Kennedy’s agenda, as well as work with state and local governments to do the same. President-elect Donald Trump nominated Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services last month.

The policy goals include promoting food and non-pharmaceutical interventions and encouraging agricultural practices that improve the nutritional value of food, as well as furthering efforts to research, prevent and treat chronic diseases. The group also plans to push for more access to affordable primary care.

Why it matters: Kennedy, a longtime Democrat and scion of the country’s most famous Democratic family, has worked as an anti-vaccine activist and environmentalist. He’s also at times supported abortion rights.

That doesn’t appeal to many Republicans, but the formation of the caucus is in keeping with what GOP senators told POLITICO this week: that they see a lot to like about Kennedy’s focus on the root causes of disease, his desire to overhaul the public health bureaucracy and his history of challenging experts the Republicans think steered the country wrong during the Covid pandemic.

The caucus also suggests some GOP senators are willing to take on parts of Kennedy’s health policy vision as their own — while hoping to incorporate their long-standing goals in that work.

Kennedy, too, has bent in his sales pitch to senators whose votes he will need to win confirmation. He has backpedaled on his vaccine skepticism, for instance, saying he would not take away vaccines from people who want them.

And the caucus’ goals suggest that it expects Kennedy will promote issues that he has not previously focused on but the senators have, such as expanding community health centers, telehealth access and health savings accounts. Members say those policies would expand care access and affordability.

What’s next: The Finance Committee, where Johnson has a seat, is expected to hold Kennedy’s confirmation hearing early next year. Marshall and Tuberville are on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which could also seek to hear from Kennedy.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, the focus of a House Ethics Committee report that may soon become public, is planning to inflict fresh pain on some of his old colleagues. A number of Republican lawmakers are preparing to help.

Gaetz this week floated a plan that would force the disclosure of House members who were the subject of sexual harassment settlements paid with public funds. The effort is inching toward reality, with GOP lawmakers passing around a resolution that would execute the effort, according to a draft obtained by POLITICO.

The measure says it would make public “each settlement of a complaint filed against the office of a Member of the House under the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 that provides for the payment of funds which was approved by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee during any Congress.”

It’s still unclear who, if anyone, would introduce the resolution, but it is a topic of serious discussion, according to a Republican lawmaker granted anonymity to talk about the effort. If a lawmaker introduced it as a privileged motion, he or she could force a vote on it within two legislative days without leadership’s blessing. The resolution would direct the Administration Committee to submit a report to the House with the information.

The move is the latest headache Gaetz has inflicted on the House since stepping down as part of a failed bid to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general. Republicans have been struggling over the fate of a House Ethics Committee report looking into misconduct allegations against Gaetz, including that he had sex with a minor. The committee, which has been rattled by the episode, secretly voted earlier this month to release the findings, and they’re expected to become public after House members leave Washington in the coming days.

Gaetz, who has denied any illegal acts but has owned up to partying and womanizing in his younger years, is working to punish House lawmakers for agreeing to release the report. The Florida firebrand raised the idea of disclosing harassment settlements in a post on X earlier this week as news broke that his report would be made public, writing:

“Someone suggested the following plan to me:
1. Show up 1/3/2025 to congress
2. Participate in Speaker election (I was elected to the 119th Congress, after all…)
3. Take the oath
4. File a privileged motion to expose every “me too” settlement paid using public funds (even of former members)
5. Resign and start my @OANN program at 9pm EST on January 6, 2025.”

President-elect Donald Trump is calling on eager Texans to consider a primary challenge to conservative Rep. Chip Roy.

“Chip Roy is just another ambitious guy, with no talent,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Thursday. “I hope some talented challengers are getting ready in the Great State of Texas to go after Chip in the Primary. He won’t have a chance!”

Trump said in a separate post that Roy was “getting in the way, as usual, of having yet another Great Republican Victory – All for the sake of some cheap publicity for himself. Republican obstructionists have to be done away with.”

Roy has voiced no desire to raise the nation’s debt limit — as demanded by Trump — without corresponding spending cuts throughout the federal government. The Texas conservative also serves as a member of the Rules Committee, which gatekeeps which measures hit the House floor.

When asked about Trump’s primary threat, Roy told reporters that “we’re working right now on how to actually cut spending, which is what the voters sent me to Washington to do. So that’s what we’re working on.”

The president-elect has made a habit of threatening challengers to Republicans who cross him. Many have been successful, though he’s come up short in challenging some — like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) — who have not been reflexive votes for his nominees or agenda.

Roy, a former chief of staff to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), took office in 2019 and has easily won reelection since then.

Daniella Diaz contributed to this report.

Republicans have struck a deal on a short-term government spending patch and potential debt limit increase, according to two GOP lawmakers meeting in Speaker Mike Johnson’s office Thursday afternoon.

“There is an agreement,” said Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.). Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) confirmed there was a deal among Republicans, though the news caught House Democrats by surprise.

The plan Johnson is expected to put on the House floor later Thursday includes, according to three Republicans familiar with the deal, a stopgap measure that funds the government through mid-March, a clean farm bill extension, the $110 billion disaster aid package previously negotiated with Democrats, clean health care provision extenders and a two-year suspension of the debt limit, kicking a new deadline into January 2027.

Bice said Republicans have kept Donald Trump apprised of the deal. The goal is for the House to vote Thursday, she added. Given House Democrats did not appear to be read in on the deal, it’s unclear if they will support it, and Johnson will almost certainly need their votes to pass it through the chamber.

Olivia Beavers and Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

Speaker Mike Johnson is bending to President-elect Donald Trump’s demands in his latest bid to avoid a government shutdown in less than 36 hours and help save his job. GOP lawmakers are skeptical he can pull it off.

There’s no final plan yet, as the Lousiana Republican continues to huddle in his office on Thursday with a rotating cross-section of his conference, including members of his leadership team, House Freedom Caucus lawmakers and others. The speaker is assessing various options and running them by Trump world to ensure he has the incoming president’s buy-in before moving forward on another plan, after Trump publicly trashed the spending bill Wednesday and suddenly demanded that lawmakers raise the debt ceiling as well.

Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who has been in and out of Johnson’s office all day, has told a swarm of reporters roughly two dozen times that the situation is “fluid.” By early afternoon he had switched his descriptive of the talks to “moving.” The head of the GOP’s campaign arm, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), was asked if the House would vote on a spending plan Thursday and replied: “I guess we’ll find out.”

The scramble underscores Johnson’s reality, not just now but in the coming months: Nearly any plan he puts forward will spark grumbling, if not an outright rebellion, from his ranks. With a spending deal, he will almost certainly need to get Democratic votes to avoid a shutdown deadline Friday night, since some conservatives are unlikely to support the plan regardless. That problem came up repeatedly in a meeting of more mainstream GOP members on Thursday.

“It was mostly about frustration with one group, who’s gonna demand what’s in and out of this bill, and then still vote against it,” said one House Republican who was in the meeting, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Johnson also needs to keep Trump happy, and the incoming president is demanding that the speaker not cede to Democratic demands. A handful of members on the right flank are publicly calling for Johnson to just let funding lapse and allow a government shutdown before Christmas. Trump has also expressed he’s open to the idea.

But his last-minute demands are also sowing discontent with other lawmakers. One House GOP lawmaker was overheard by a POLITICO reporter complaining to another member about Trump’s last-minute demands.

“If [Trump] wants to do this … he needs to show up,” said the House Republican. “This is a deeply unserious party right now.”

Johnson can only afford to lose three Republicans on any partisan proposal he puts forward — a bar he’s been unable to clear on funding fights before. Some of his members are stating the obvious: Even if Republicans manage to pass it without Democratic help in the House, it will have to clear the Democratic-controlled Senate and get signed by President Joe Biden.

“If you don’t take pretty close to what we’ve got right now, I just don’t know how it gets through the Senate,” said Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), referring to Johnson’s initial three-month funding bill that dozens of House Republicans vowed to oppose.

Members have been given guidance that there could be votes on Thursday, though it’s not clear what funding plan they would be voting on.

A growing number of GOP members say they believe there will likely be multiple bills to deal with farm bill and additional assistance for farmers, disaster aid and the stopgap, given Trump’s demand to punt the debt limit fight, according to three Republicans. Adding to Johnson’s predicament, farm district Republicans have remained firm in their demand that any stopgap plan includes a farm bill extension and additional assistance for struggling farmers.

The hurdles with raising the debt ceiling are two-fold. Democrats are against the idea and trying to pressure Johnson to stick to their original deal. Meanwhile, Trump’s push to raise — or completely eliminate — the debt limit doesn’t square with conservatives’ long-held demand for cuts to government funding and reining in spending.

“Republicans cannot raise the debt ceiling without massive spending cuts and significant structural reforms,” outgoing Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) wrote on X.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) repeatedly declined to comment as he left meetings in Johnson’s office on Thursday. But he hinted at his previous positions of opposing clean debt ceiling suspensions or hikes, telling reporters that “everybody knows how I feel about a debt ceiling increase.” And Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), another Freedom Caucus member, said he could not support a short-term funding bill that included a clean debt hike or suspension.

Others shrugged off the concerns of raising the debt limit, arguing it hasn’t done much to rein in spending at all.

“It hasn’t been very effective in dealing with constraining the debt,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “We knew we were going to have to address the debt limit at some point. President Trump just wants it done now, rather than on his watch. And I can understand why.”

Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) told reporters after a meeting in Johnson’s office that abolishing the debt limit is “not part of the conversation.” But, she added, Trump has said “he wants to make sure that we are addressing the debt ceiling in addition to the continuing resolution and the spending priorities.”

“Still negotiating,” she added, saying that Republicans are having a “robust discussion.”

The lack of a clear path forward has prompted Republicans to start preparing for the unseemly idea of a shutdown over the Christmas holiday. A growing number of GOP lawmakers are even publicly calling for the government to shut down until next year, with some floating the party could keep it shuttered until Trump’s inauguration. That would mean the construction to build Trump’s inauguration platform outside the Capitol and other surroundings would stall, among various other issues.

“We can reset federal government appropriations after Trump is sworn in. Shut it down,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) tweeted.

Meanwhile, Trump isn’t being subtle: how Johnson handles this will impact if he can become speaker in a Jan. 3 vote. Early Thursday, Trump told Fox News Digital that if the GOP leader “gets rid of all of the traps being set by the Democrats, which will economically and, in other ways, destroy our country, he will easily remain speaker.” He also implied the Louisiana Republican needs to toughen up.

Conservatives, meanwhile, have started floating other names to replace him, including those who had backed Johnson for speaker as recently as last week.

“I’d be open to supporting Elon Musk for Speaker of the House. DOGE can only truly be accomplished by reigning in Congress to enact real government efficiency. The establishment needs to be shattered just like it was yesterday,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted, just two weeks after telling POLITICO she will back Johnson on the House floor.

Johnson has largely avoided talking to the press over the past 24 hours amid his dust-up with Trump.

Nicholas Wu contributed reporting. 

The Senate is in limbo as it waits for the House to piece together its crumbling government-funding strategy.

Soon-to-be GOP Leader John Thune told reporters Thursday morning his understanding is that Vice President-elect JD Vance and Speaker Mike Johnson are “trying to work it out” and that the “action is in the House.”

Thune added that he has not yet talked to Johnson on Thursday morning, though he expects he will, and is “hoping that they make some headway.” When asked about Trump’s proposal to include an increase to the debt limit in the year-end funding package, Thune reiterated “they’re trying to sort that out in the House.”

And Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) downplayed the chaos unfolding in the lower chamber. “This is just the typical drama we have,” he told reporters later. “We end up avoiding the shutdown. I don’t think anybody wants a shutdown.”

Meanwhile, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned Speaker Mike Johnson that the only way legislation is getting through both chambers — stop us if you’ve heard this before — is through bipartisanship.

Schumer on Wednesday night said he’d wait to see what the House does on the continuing resolution before moving forward.

CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story misattributed a quote from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).

High prices may have cost Democrats the election, but the U.S. economy has powered through 2024 with better-than-expected growth. And now President-elect Donald Trump is poised to inherit it.

GDP rose at a 3.1 percent annualized pace in the third quarter of the year, according to Commerce Department data released Thursday, after growing at a 3 percent rate in the second quarter — a rapid clip for an economy of the U.S.’s size. That growth, fed by steady consumer spending, comes alongside a still-low unemployment rate of 4.2 percent and much-improved inflation, which has fallen below 3 percent.

It’s the final big-picture snapshot of the economy that President Joe Biden is leaving to his successor.

“I feel very good about where the economy is,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told reporters Wednesday. “I expect another good year next year.”

Still, the surging economy could also make it harder for the Fed to get inflation all the way back down to its 2 percent target. The healthy GDP numbers have come alongside strong productivity data — more economic activity doesn’t have to put upward pressure on prices if the economy can produce enough to keep up — but also stalled progress on inflation.

Central bank officials projected inflation would remain similarly stubborn next year, though Powell said he still thinks inflation is trending down.

Speaker Mike Johnson and Donald Trump’s team are circling a new federal funding stopgap plan that includes disaster aid, pushing off a debt limit fight for two years and a one-year farm bill extension, according to two Republicans familiar with the discussions.

The closed-door talks between the speaker and Trump’s team, including incoming Vice President JD Vance, are still ongoing and the plans could change, according to the two lawmakers. Other options are also being floated. It’s unclear if Democrats would support this plan.

Trump had made an 11th hour public demand that any stopgap bill should deal with the debt limit. Trump’s team is pushing for at least a commitment to lift the debt limit before Jan. 20. Some lawmakers are still airing doubts that raising the debt limit is possible to do before a shutdown deadline Friday.

“I don’t see Chuck Schumer doing that, or Joe Biden signing that into law,” said Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.)

The level of disaster aid and whether it’s completely paid for is still unclear. The package would also likely include some additional economic aid for farmers, amid threats from rural Republicans to oppose any stopgap that doesn’t include the funding.

Most lawmakers leaving Johnson’s office Thursday morning were noncommittal about a path forward. Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, the GOP whip, said “the situation is still fluid.”

“I wouldn’t say there’s no plan. I’m not the guy who is supposed to come up with a plan,” said Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.).