Speaker Mike Johnson and District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser spoke Monday on a call to discuss a path forward on legislation to restore the capital city’s spending powers, according to one person granted anonymity to share details of the private conversation.

Still, there are no plans to bring the bill to the House floor in the coming days before the chamber leaves for a two-week recess, said three people with direct knowledge of the schedule.

That will keep city officials in further limbo as they soon need to make decisions about whether to wait for congressional action or move ahead with plans to account for a looming budget shortfall of as much as $1.1 billion — requiring dramatic mid-fiscal-year cuts to law enforcement, infrastructure improvement efforts and public education.

Johnson back in March drafted a stopgap funding measure to float federal operations through the end of September that omitted key language typically included in appropriations bills allowing the District of Columbia to continue to spend its own locally-raised tax dollars.

The Senate passed legislation to restore that provision after clearing the standalone government funding bill to avoid an imminent shutdown. At that time, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) noted the measure had support from her counterpart, House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.), as well as the White House.

President Donald Trump has since posted on social media that he wants the House to take up the funding fix, saying the chamber should vote on it “IMMEDIATELY” to “clean up our once beautiful Capital City, and make it beautiful again.”

Still, Johnson hasn’t moved the bill. People aware of internal party dynamics describe it as a casualty of unrelated floor schedule delays and an overloaded legislative calendar, where the District of Columbia budget fix just isn’t being made a priority. GOP leaders were at one point aiming to bring the measure to the floor before the upcoming Easter recess.

But Johnson is also contending with conservative fiscal hawks who aren’t fond of the capital city and its liberal leadership, and see the bill as giving away more than $1 billion away in federal funding — though that is not an accurate understanding of what the measure would actually do.

Johnson also wants to pass the measure through the regular order process, rather than jam it through under an expedited floor maneuver requiring two-thirds of those voting and present to vote in the affirmative. He is currently working to add conservative policy provisions to the underlying bill that would encourage more Republicans to come on board — though it’s unclear whether Democrats would stand for further infringements on its Home Rule authority.

A spokesperson for Bowser declined to comment.

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Elbridge Colby, President Donald Trump’s controversial pick for Pentagon policy chief, a win for the increasingly vocal wing of the GOP that wants the U.S. to focus on China rather than Europe and the Middle East.

Colby’s contentious nomination highlighted a foreign policy rift inside the Republican party. The hard-nosed realist has often clashed with traditional defense hawks, who worry his laser focus on Beijing comes at the detriment of other priorities, such as the Ukraine war.

Top members of Trump’s circle, including Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr., engaged in a pressure campaign to ensure he made it through. They prevailed. Colby was confirmed 54-45, largely along party lines, with three Democrats also backing him. Just one Republican, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, defected.

Colby — who has served in the Pentagon, State Department and in the office of the director of national intelligence — was instrumental in crafting a 2018 national defense strategy during Trump’s first term. The blueprint sought to reorient the military on so-called great power competition with Russia and China.

The incoming policy head has argued that the U.S. must prioritize deterring an invasion of Taiwan by China over assisting Kyiv. He has insisted Beijing’s military buildup and limited U.S. stockpiles of weapons require that trade-off, and Europe should take on the burden of helping defend Ukraine.

That stance has clashed with traditional hawks, who argue backing out of Europe risks emboldening Russia. Some hawks have also raised concerns about his past views favoring containment over intervention in Iran.

McConnell, who has acted as a foil to the Trump administration on foreign policy, excoriated Colby’s focus on the Pacific at the expense of other regions.

“Elbridge Colby’s long public record suggests a willingness to discount the complexity of the challenges facing America, the critical value of our allies and partners, and the urgent need to invest in hard power to preserve American primacy,” McConnell said in a statement.

But Colby also won over a handful of Democrats. Three Democratic senators supported his confirmation: Senate Armed Services ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.).

Trump allies came out in force to defend Colby’s nomination — including Vance, Donald Trump Jr. and conservative media personality Charlie Kirk. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who voted to confirm him, raised concerns during Colby’s confirmation hearing about his positions on the Middle East — and became a target of that criticism.

Democrats moved Tuesday to force a congressional votes on President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs — putting GOP leaders in a tough spot as the economic ramifications of the move continue to mount.

“Republicans can’t keep ducking the vote on these taxes,” said Democratic Reps. Gregory Meeks of New York, Richard Neal of Massachusetts and Rick Larsen of Washington, introducing a House disapproval resolution Tuesday. “It is time they take a vote and show their constituents whether or not they support the ‘economic pain’ President Trump is inflicting on American families.”

Their measure would terminate the emergency authorities cited by Trump in implementing the broad tariffs that have rattled markets in recent days and sparked recession fears. The Senate last week approved a similar measure targeting an earlier emergency declaration used to justify levies on Canada.

Senators introduced their own measure targeting the global tariffs Tuesday, co-sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.).

Democrats have largely united against Trump’s trade moves to hammer Republicans for potential price hikes, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries dubbing them “the largest tax increase on the American people since 1968.”

Meeks and the Democrats are bringing the legislation to the House floor through a fast-track process that can bypass committees and leadership and ultimately force a vote on the floor. But Johnson has tools to sidestep the vote, and it’s not clear that Democrats will have the votes to defeat them.

Speaker Mike Johnson moved successfully last month to block a Democratic effort to force a vote on the Canada tariffs, and he could pursue a similar maneuver to protect Trump’s latest round of tariffs.

So far, Hill Republicans have voiced concerns about the global tariffs and their effect on the markets, but there has been only limited evidence that GOP lawmakers are willing to buck Trump and party leaders to block them.

Only two Republicans, for instance, joined a bipartisan bill filed Tuesday that would require congressional review of tariffs imposed by the president. The bill backed by Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.) is a companion to a Senate bill backed by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and six other Republicans.

The two Republicans stressed that they don’t categorically oppose all of Trump’s tariffs but want to reassert congressional authority.

“The Constitution clearly gives the authority for taxes and tariffs to Congress, but for too long, we have handed that authority to the executive branch,” Bacon said.

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

A group of House Republicans is scheduled to visit the White House this afternoon to meet President Donald Trump about the pending GOP budget framework, according to two Republicans granted anonymity to discuss the plans.

The 1 p.m. meeting is expected to include key holdouts on the Senate-approved budget, which Speaker Mike Johnson wants to finalize in the House this week.

In a morning conference meeting Tuesday, Johnson and other leaders tried to rally their members behind the plan, telling them if they advanced it this week, the House and Senate would seek to hammer out more contours of the bill during the coming two-week recess, according to three people with direct knowledge of the meeting.

As Johnson spoke, though, a raft of GOP members were already waiting by microphones to air their grievances about the strategy, the people said.

One member who was invited, House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.), said in an interview he did not plan to go, saying that Trump should “spend time with people whose minds he might change.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in an interview Tuesday that leaders still intend to call a House Rules Committee meeting later this afternoon to set up floor consideration of the budget, setting up a final vote as soon as Wednesday. But leaders are watching three hard-liners on the panel who could balk at sending the measure to the floor.

One of them, Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia, replied “I hope not” Tuesday morning after he was asked if he thought the panel would in fact vote today.

Republican senators desperate for an off-ramp to Trump’s escalating trade war want to know Donald Trump’s endgame now — even as GOP leaders pledge to give the president “space” to let his market-tanking tariff gamble play out.

Expect it all to play out in front of Senate Finance, where Trump’s top trade representative, Jamieson Greer, testifies starting at 10 a.m. It’s the first of two annual Hill hearings this week on the president’s trade policies that will now serve to show the scope of the fallout from Trump’s blanket-tariff strategy.

Republicans are eager to hear more about potential trade deals that could help calm the markets. “The faster we can get some negotiations done and resolved, the better,” committee member Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) told POLITICO on Monday.

Indeed, Greer plans to argue that Trump’s tariff strategy is “already bearing fruit,” according to a copy of his prepared remarks that we reviewed. “Nearly 50 countries have approached me to discuss the president’s new policy and explore how to achieve reciprocity,” he plans to say.

But Trump is still playing coy about whether he intends to negotiate, even after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s weekend warning to the president that he needs to focus more on cutting deals or risk a further economic meltdown. Trump on Monday threatened to slap an additional 50 percent tariff on China, disparaged the idea of a trade deal with the European Union and did not announce a tariff agreement with Israel during a closely watched meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Turning his attention to the Hill, he mocked his trade-policy critics as “Weak and Stupid” while pledging to veto bipartisan legislation from GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) — and backed by a half-dozen other Republicans — that would return some control over enacting tariffs to Congress. GOP Rep. Don Bacon (Neb.) is pursuing similar legislation in the House. Neither is likely to see floor action.

The salvos appeared to have their intended effect: Outright breaks with Trump’s brash trade policy remain limited inside the GOP. Greer has been a key part of the pacification effort — privately briefing Hill Republicans over the past few weeks in an attempt to assuage nervous free-market-supporting members.

Greer can certainly expect a grilling from Senate Democrats. Ranking member Ron Wyden (Ore.) plans to slam the administration for offering “no clear message” about how Trump chose his tariff targets and how long he plans to keep them up, according to prepared remarks POLITICO reviewed. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) message: The blanket tariffs are “illegal and another step toward authoritarianism.”

What else we’re watching:

— Budget business: GOP leaders are planning to bring the Senate-approved budget resolution to the Rules Committee today — but there are still plenty of hurdles to leap before a planned vote on Wednesday. Several hard-liners still want steeper spending cuts, even after House Speaker Mike Johnson stopped by the House Freedom Caucus on Monday night.

— Trump’s military moves: Bipartisan concerns about reports that the Trump administration is considering major changes to military posture in Europe are likely to take center stage when House Armed Services hears today from the commander of U.S. forces in Europe, Gen. Christopher Cavoli. Chair Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) plans to raise his objections to a reduced U.S. role in Europe.

— SNAP takes the spotlight: House Agriculture will convene this morning to discuss “the power of work” related to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — the first public meeting this Congress about House Republicans’ plan to cut agriculture spending.

Jordain Carney, Daniel Desrochers, Joe Gould, Benjamin Guggenheim, Ari Hawkins, Connor O’Brien, Jennifer Scholtes and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

Former Justice Department officials addressed Congressional Democrats Monday about the Department of Justice’s alleged closed-door dealings in a so-called shadow hearing — one of the few avenues for conducting oversight of the Trump administration afforded to the minority party in a Republican governing trifecta.

Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees pressed former DOJ pardon attorney Liz Oyer, who was fired from the department, and former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell, who resigned in wake of the agency’s decision to drop its corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, about the circumstances of their departures.

Both witnesses appeared willingly before the Democratic lawmakers who, without control of the House or Senate, lack the ability to call official hearings and subpoena uncooperative witnesses.

California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, who led the hearing with House Judiciary ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), said Democrats had pleaded with congressional Republicans to hold oversight hearings around the Trump administration’s actions, but their colleagues had “abdicated that important responsibility.”

“Trump is taking unprecedented steps to bend our justice system to his will,” said Schiff in his opening remarks, adding that congressional Republicans “have stood by as the President has run roughshod over the legislative branch and turned Congress into a little more than a rubber stamp.”

A shadow hearing, as its often called, is a frequent tool for House lawmakers in the minority to hold public meetings around issues that the majority party will not. It’s less often deployed in the Senate. But the bicameral event was unusual in bringing together about 14 lawmakers from across the Capitol for a hearing led by one of the Senate’s most junior Democrats. Schiff, who served in the House prior to his election to the Senate last November, sat beside the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin of Illinois.

Oyer, the former pardon attorney, testified that she had been fired after refusing to cooperate with the administration’s efforts to restore the gun rights of actor Mel Gibson, who is also a supporter of President Donald Trump. She claimed that ahead of her appearance before lawmakers Monday, the Justice Department moved to silence her, sending a letter urging her not to share confidential department information. To deliver the letter, DOJ intended to send U.S. marshals to her home Friday night while her teenage son was there alone, but once Oyer confirmed receipt of the letter via email, the in-person delivery was called off, she added.

A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Crosswell, the former federal prosecutor, recalled how attorneys in his division of DOJ were asked to sign a motion to help drop the charges against Adams, after a number of other officials had resigned in refusing to cooperate. The alumnus of the DOJ’s public integrity section ultimately chose to resign his post too, he said.

In addition to Oyer and Crosswell, the witnesses included Rachel Cohen, a former Big Law associate who called on her firm to refuse to cooperate with the administration, and Stacey Young, the founder of a support network for DOJ alumni launched at the start of the second Trump administration.

President Donald Trump’s tariff “strategy is already bearing fruit,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer plans to tell Congress on Tuesday, pointing specifically to three countries that he said have offered trade concessions after being threatened with higher U.S. duties.

“Nearly 50 countries have approached me to discuss the president’s new policy and explore how to achieve reciprocity,” Greer says in prepared testimony obtained by POLITICO. “Several of these countries, such as Argentina, Vietnam and Israel, have suggested they will reduce their tariffs and non-tariff barriers.”

“These obviously are welcome moves,” Greer continues, while also citing recent auto industry plans to employ more American workers “Our large and persistent trade deficit has been over 30 years in the making, and it will not be resolved overnight, but all of this is in the right direction.”

Greer will testify Tuesday before the Senate Finance Committee, and Wednesday before House Ways and Means. The annual hearings on the president’s trade agenda are attracting increased attention this year following Trump’s decision last week to impose a baseline tariff of 10 percent on nearly all imports and tariffs ranging up to 50 percent on 60 trading partners that have the biggest trade surpluses with the U.S., which the Trump administration argues is a sign of unfair trade relations.

Trump’s tariff action has triggered a major financial market selloff and increased the risk of a recession, due to increased costs of imports and lost export sales as countries, such as China, retaliate against American goods. In addition, Trump and members of his administration have sent mixed signals about whether the tariffs are here to stay or can be negotiated away in exchange for other countries reducing their own barriers.

Greer, in his prepared remarks, defends Trump’s action, which he describes as “the most significant in change in U.S. trade policy since we allowed China to joined the World Trade Organization” in 2001. He blamed that “disastrous decision” and others like it for the loss of 5 million manufacturing jobs and 90,000 factories since 1994, although advances in technology and increased mechanization are also responsible for some of the job losses.

He also outlines a vision of where Trump wants to lead the economy, despite warnings that higher tariffs will increase prices for consumers and make American companies less competitive in international market as well as strain relations with the rest of the world.

“We must move away from an economy based solely on the financial sector and government spending and we must become an economy based on producing real goods and services,” Greer says. “This adjustment may be challenging at times. It is a moment of drastic, overdue change, but I am confident the American people will rise to the occasion as they have done before.”