Tag

Featured

Browsing

President Donald Trump on Monday delivered a sharp rebuke of Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a onetime ally who has become increasingly critical of the president in recent months.

“I don’t know what happened to Marjorie,” he told reporters at an Oval Office press conference. “Nice woman. But I don’t know what happened, she’s lost her way, I think.”

Greene emerged as a vocal opponent of Republican strategy during the government shutdown, accusing party leadership of failing to focus on healthcare as Democrats pushed in vain for an extension on expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Trump’s comments came in response to a question about a Monday social media post from the three-term lawmaker in which she said: “I would really like to see nonstop meetings at the WH on domestic policy not foreign policy and foreign country’s leaders.”

The president hosted Syrian leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa at the White House on Monday, the next step in his work on fostering diplomacy in the Middle East and shore up relations with Damascus, almost one year after Al-Sharaa’s forces took down authoritarian leader Bashar Assad.

“I have to view the presidency as a worldwide situation, not locally,” Trump said. “We could have a world that’s on fire where wars come to our shores very easily if you had a bad president.”

Greene has also pressured the White House to release more information about the files related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and is one of several Republicans who signed a discharge petition to force a floor vote on their release. In July, she bucked the GOP establishment by calling out the “genocide, humanitarian crisis and starvation” in Gaza, accusing Israel of committing a genocide.

Trump accused her of “now catering to the other side.”

“When somebody like Marjorie goes over and starts making statements like that, it shows she doesn’t know,” he said.

Greene’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A cybersecurity breach discovered last week affecting the Congressional Budget Office is now considered “ongoing,” threatening both incoming and outgoing correspondence around Congress’ nonpartisan scorekeeper.

Employees at the Library of Congress were warned in a Monday email, obtained by POLITICO, that the CBO cybersecurity incident is “affecting its email communications” and that library staff should take a range of measures to protect themselves.

Library of Congress workers also were told to restrict their communication with the nonpartisan agency tasked with providing economic and budgetary information to lawmakers.

“Do NOT click on any links in emails from CBO. Do NOT share sensitive information with CBO colleagues over email, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom at this time,” the email reads.

“Maintain a high level of vigilance and verify the legitimacy of CBO communications by confirming with the sender via telephone that they sent the message,” the note continues.

Congressional staff are in regular communication with CBO regarding scores of legislation and cost estimates the agency prepares for bills in both the House and Senate.

There was no immediate information Monday about the broader implications that a legislative branch office was continuing to experience cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

A CBO spokesperson said last week that officials had taken “immediate action to contain” the breach as officials investigate the incident.

When asked for comment Monday about ongoing issues, the CBO spokesperson referred to the prior statement.

Sen. Rand Paul wants a vote on his amendment to strike language from a shutdown-ending spending deal that would “unfairly target Kentucky’s hemp industry” before allowing the bill to clear the Senate, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Republican confirmed Monday.

Paul’s objection to allowing the package to proceed without the vote is slowing down Senate GOP leaders as they race to end the 41-day shutdown. Without unanimous consent from all 100 senators, it could take the Senate much of the week to move through procedural votes before sending it to the House for final approval and President Donald Trump’s signature.

Paul’s insistence on the hemp vote comes after a bruising fight with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) — both senior appropriators — over the language that would crack down on intoxicating hemp products. Paul’s one-page amendment would effectively preserve the status quo.

Spokesperson Gabrielle Lipsky said in a statement that Paul “affirms his commitment to reopening the government without delay” and said the hemp provision he is seeking to strike “is unrelated to the budget and the government-reopening goal.”

Paul wants a simple-majority vote on the measure, she added in response to a question from POLITICO; GOP senators and aides granted anonymity to describe internal Senate dynamics believe it’s unlikely to garner enough support for adoption.

Lipsky added that Paul intends to “work to ensure that the final bill excludes this unrelated language in order to defend the livelihoods of Kentucky farmers, hemp processors, and manufacturing jobs.”

Longtime Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman announced Monday that she is not running for reelection next year and will retire at the end of her term, saying that it is “time to pass the torch.”

The 80-year-old has served New Jersey’s 12th District since 2015, when she became the first Black woman to represent New Jersey in the House. Prior to her time in Congress, she was a member of the state Assembly, where she served as majority leader. Watson Coleman was also previously chair of the state Democratic Party.

“I made this decision with tremendous thought and reflection, and through many personal conversations with my husband Bill and my family,” Watson Coleman said in a statement. “I am confident it is the right choice for me and my family who have graciously sacrificed by my side when I placed serving our community above all else and I can truly say, I am at peace with my decision.”

Watson Coleman, a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in her retirement announcement touted her efforts to “build an economy for all, reform our criminal justice system, achieve health equity, and eliminate poverty,” and said she “pray[s] our leaders advocate for a two-state solution that paves the way for peace, prosperity, and dignity for Israelis and Palestinians.” She called for lawmakers to “continue to stand and fight against those who would target the vulnerable and attempt to harm our democracy.”

Earlier this year, Watson Coleman was one of three Democrats in the New Jersey Democratic delegation — along with Reps. Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver — who participated in a high-profile visit to Delaney Hall, an immigrant detention facility in Newark. Their visit turned into a chaotic scrum involving federal law enforcement. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested on a trespassing charge that was later dropped, and McIver was later accused of assaulting Homeland Security agents — though her trial, which was set to begin on Monday, has been delayed and she’s pleaded not guilty.

NJ-12 is a safe Democratic seat that covers parts of Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset and Union counties.

Prior to Watson Coleman announcing her retirement, just one other Democratic candidate filed with the Federal Election Commission for the seat: Kyle Little, a fitness studio owner who raised just over $10,000 since getting in the race over the summer.

Other potential Democratic candidates to replace Watson Coleman include state Sen. Andrew Zwicker and Assemblymember Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello, Mercer County Commissioner Sam Frisby and East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, according to a Democratic official granted anonymity to discuss party positioning. Zwicker, who works at Princeton University’s Plasma Physics Laboratory, is a protege of Watson Coleman’s predecessor, former U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, who hired him at the lab.

“It is my fervent hope that whoever is next elected to serve the people of the 12th Congressional District will be a public servant grounded in strong moral principles and an unabashed advocate in the United States Congress on behalf of those they have the privilege to represent,” Watson Coleman said in her statement. “I hope we will see, in this district and districts across the nation, representatives who, in the words of my dear former colleague and friend, Congressman John Lewis, stand ready to, ‘Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.'”

Matt Friedman contributed to this report.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries backed Chuck Schumer, his Senate counterpart, amid a progressive backlash to Schumer’s handling of a compromise to end the government shutdown.

“Yes and yes,” Jeffries told reporters Monday when asked if Schumer was effective as Senate minority leader and should keep his job. Jeffries and other Democratic leaders have signaled they will oppose the stopgap funding bill when it comes to the House later this week. Schumer voted against advancing the legislation Sunday.

Jeffries added that “the overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, have weighed a valiant fight over the last seven weeks, defeating the partisan Republican spending bill 14 or 15 different times, week after week after week.”

It’s a departure from how Jeffries responded to questions about Schumer’s leadership in March. Jeffries broke from his Senate counterpart then after Schumer and nine other Senate Democrats voted to advance a GOP-backed stopgap funding bill. Jeffries ignited an internal firestorm at the time when he passed up a chance to vouch for Schumer’s leadership.

“Next question,” he said when asked if there should be new Democratic leadership in the Senate. House Democrats fumed about Schumer’s leadership in the aftermath of the Senate vote, with some calling for him to step down or face a primary challenge.

The two Democratic leaders took pains to stay publicly unified as they navigated the runup to the shutdown, aligning on a strategy to elevate health care as a central issue.

But they carved out subtle tactical differences as the shutdown wore on. Jeffries insisted any health care agreement needed to be “ironclad and in legislation” rather than a handshake commitment, while Schumer did not draw a similar red line.

While Schumer is opposing the GOP-led stopgap this time around, many House Democrats are furious that he did not block the eight members of his caucus from cutting a deal with Republicans.

Speaker Mike Johnson urged House members Monday to start returning to Capitol Hill “right now” as the chamber prepares to vote on a funding package that would end the 41-day government shutdown.

The Senate has yet to provide final sign-off on the legislation, but the success of a procedural vote Sunday was a firm signal it is on track to pass this week. House members are on a 36-hour notice to return to the Capitol, but Johnson noted the ongoing air travel disruptions due to the shutdown as he recommended members begin making their way to Washington.

Johnson added he would officially call members back to the Capitol “at the very moment” the Senate passes the package, which will provide full-year funding for food aid, farm and veterans programs and congressional operations, while extending funding for most other federal departments and agencies through Jan. 30.

Johnson, who made the rare decision to keep the House out of session for more than 50 days in a bid to persuade Senate Democrats to fold, declared victory in the shutdown during a Monday morning appearance.

He left without taking questions but later told reporters in the hallway that “I think we will” have the votes to pass the package in the House.

Johnson told reporters at his prior appearance that President Donald Trump was “very anxious” to reopen the government, suggesting he would ensure fellow Republicans fall in line.

“As recently as last night, I was with him, and he told the press, he said, ‘We want to get the government open,'” he said.

An end to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history is finally in sight following a bipartisan breakthrough. Here’s what comes next after the Senate took a critical procedural step Sunday night.

WHEN THE SENATE WILL WRAP — It’s possible the Senate passes the deal Monday, depending on whether leaders can secure unanimous consent to speed ahead.

Getting to the finish line will require amending the House-passed continuing resolution to include three full-year appropriations bills for a number of programs plus a new CR for the rest of the government through Jan. 30.

Conversations are ongoing about accelerating the timing. Key players to watch are progressive senators who blasted the deal as well as Sen. Rand Paul, who is upset over the impact the agriculture appropriations piece of the bill would have on hemp.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters following Sunday night’s vote that it “remains to be seen” how quickly the Senate will be able to get to a final vote on the deal, including if senators will agree to yield back time Monday. Paul wants a vote to remove the hemp language and a “guarantee,” according to Thune, that it will be successful.

“We’ll see how motivated people are [Monday],” Thune said.

TRUMP AND THE HOUSE — The House GOP leadership circle expects to pass the deal once President Donald Trump leans on House Republicans to back it. House Republican leaders plan to give 36 hours’ notice to members before voting.

Senior Senate Republicans worked behind the scenes with House Republicans through several issues during negotiations, but GOP hardliners are expected to grumble about pieces of the funding bill.

While many House Democrats will likely come out against it, a handful of centrist Democrats could consider voting for the plan. Keep an eye on purple-district Democrats including Reps. Jared Golden, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Henry Cuellar.

Golden voted for the original House-passed CR. Cuellar praised the compromise on X, saying: “It’s past time to put country over party and get our government working again for the American people.”

What else we’re watching:

— A bipartisan duo’s ACA proposal: Reps. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.) and Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) are releasing a bill Monday that would extend expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits for two years. Unlike legislation from Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) that would enact a clean extension, the bill from Liccardo and Kiley would cap eligibility for the credits at those making six times poverty-level income. For a family of four, that would be $192,900.

In a bid to “pay for” the legislation, the bill would target “upcoding” in Medicare Advantage and impose new penalties on brokers who submit false applications to enroll in the ACA.

— House movement on stock trading limits: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) says that Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed to her that the House would begin to move forward on proposed bipartisan stock trading restrictions once the government reopens. The bill, which many Republican House members oppose because of the impacts on lawmakers’ finances, would face an uncertain fate in the House, and there’s skepticism from Johnson’s leadership circle on how to pass it. Johnson has pledged in private conversations to work on the issue.

Mia McCarthy and Benjamin Guggenheim contributed to this report.

Eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus broke ranks Sunday and voted to advance a deal to reopen the federal government.

That’s fewer than the 10 Democrats who broke ranks in March to advance a previous GOP-led stopgap funding bill — a move that sparked a huge backlash against Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

There are few obvious threads connecting the group who broke the partisan impasse this time. Some of them helped broker the agreement with Republicans over the opposition of Schumer and most other Democrats, who wanted a guaranteed extension for expiring federal health insurance subsidies.

Most, but not all, previously held state-level office — including four former governors. Most, but not all, come from presidential swing states. Two have announced they are retiring from the Senate after their current terms end, and two are senior members of the Senate Appropriations Committee. None are up for reelection in 2026.

The vote remains open Sunday night as Senate leaders await the arrival of all 100 senators, but these eight members have already cast their votes, with most issuing statements explaining why:

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada

Cortez Masto has voted 15 times to end the federal government shutdown, even before Democrats had extracted the promise of a vote on the health care tax credits. She repeatedly stated she did not want to inflict sweeping pain on some Americans in order to extract a solution to “the impending health care crisis” of expiring tax credits.

She described “lines like I haven’t seen since the pandemic” for food banks in Nevada to reporters during the vote Sunday night and said that that opening the government “was key to stopping that pain.”

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois

Durbin is the Democratic whip and the only member of party leadership who voted with Republicans to advance the deal to end the shutdown. His likely successor as whip, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), voted against advancing the deal after sticking with Schumer and Durbin in March.

“This bill is not perfect, but it takes important steps to reduce their shutdown’s hurt,” Durbin said in a statement. “Now that Democrats secured these wins, it’s time for Leader Thune to keep his promise to schedule a vote on the ACA tax credits in December.” He is retiring next year after three decades in office.

Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania

Fetterman is the only Democrat who has voted each and every time to end the shutdown. He’s knocked his party for sparking the shutdown and blamed them for government workers missing paychecks and low income families losing federal food aid.

Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire

Hassan, who was one of the Democrats who negotiated the vote on the Affordable Care Act tax credits deal. A former New Hampshire governor, she is up for reelection in 2028.

“I’ve heard from Granite Staters who can’t afford a doubling of their health insurance costs. I’ve also heard from families about the deep pain that the government shutdown has caused,” Hassan told reporters Sunday, highlighting the dueling pressures Democrats were under to cut a deal.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia

Kaine represents about 150,000 federal workers affected by the shutdown and backed the deal that includes a key provision for his state: reinstatement of federal workers impacted by mass “reduction in force” firings during the shutdown.

“This legislation will protect federal workers from baseless firings, reinstate those who have been wrongfully terminated during the shutdown, and ensure federal workers receive back pay,” he said in a statement. Kaine admitted Sunday night that he was a latecomer to the group, saying, “I joined it 48 hours ago, not for lack of interest.”

Sen. Angus King of Maine

King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, was a key negotiator on the deal struck to guarantee a vote on Affordable Care Act tax credits once the government is open. He hosted multiple meetings in his Capitol hideaway in recent weeks as the compromise came together.

A former governor of Maine, King pointed to the pain the shutdown is causing with federal aid programs halted. “We are closer to the possibility of work on the ACA tax credits for the people of this country than we were yesterday, than we were a week ago, two weeks ago, or a month ago,” he said Sunday.

Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada

Rosen joined her fellow Nevadan Cortez Masto to vote to advance the deal, representing a state where 95,000 Nevadans utilize the ACA tax credits. Like King, she was just reelected in 2024.

“Trump and his Republican cronies on Capitol Hill do not give a damn about hurting working people, and their conduct over the last month has been nothing short of appalling, Rosen said in a statement. She called the ACA tax credit vote “the concession we’ve been able to extract.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire

Shaheen was an original sponsor of the legislation that created the enhanced Obamacare tax credits that have been central to the shutdown dispute and played a key role in negotiating the vote to extend them. Like Durbin, she is retiring from the Senate next year and has spent much of her Senate career on the Appropriations Committee. She was also part of shaping the new stopgap spending bill that, in tandem with the ACA vote promise, could open the government.

“This was the only deal on the table. It was our best chance to reopen the government and immediately begin negotiations to extend the ACA tax credits,” Shaheen said Sunday night.

The Senate is expected to vote as soon as Sunday night to start advancing legislation to end the 40-day government shutdown, but there are obstacles that could drag the process out for many more days.

One of them is Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has been warning GOP leaders that he will obstruct passage of any bill that takes aim at the hemp industry in his state.

The hemp policy fight has been a major internal headache for the GOP, pitting Paul against fellow Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell. The release of Agriculture spending bill text Sunday showed McConnell, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, won out over Paul, with the inclusion of language that would crack down on some intoxicating hemp products.

Paul said late last week that he has warned GOP leaders that he plans to drag out Senate passage of any shutdown-ended deal if he didn’t get alternate language he’s been pushing in the hemp fight.

“I’ll vote no, but it also it’ll take them five days to pass this,” Rand said in a brief interview Thursday. He argued his fellow Senate Republicans were pushing policies that would “kill an entire industry.”

Senators have reached a deal to end the government shutdown.

The agreement, which was negotiated in part by Sens. Angus King, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan as well as GOP senators, has “more than enough” members of the Senate Democratic Caucus to advance, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose the terms.

Senate Republicans are expected to support the agreement.

The Senate is poised to vote later Sunday night to advance the House-passed stopgap, which will later become the vehicle for the larger funding deal.

That vote would tee up consideration later this week of a legislative package that would fund the Department of Agriculture and the FDA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects, and the operations of Congress, for the full fiscal year — the product of months of bipartisan, bicameral negotiations. All other agencies would be funded through Jan. 30, according to text of a continuing resolution released Sunday.

As part of Democrats’ agreement to end the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is promising Senate Democrats a vote in December to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are due to expire at the end of the year short of Congressional action. Democrats will also get to determine what extension bill gets a vote.

The government-opening agreement also guarantees that federal employees laid off during the shutdown are re-hired and gives federal employees backpay.

Many progressives in the Senate — along with a large number of House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — think anything short of a deal to pass an extension of the tax credits as part of a government funding bill is insufficient.

“We will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. We will fight the GOP bill in the House of Representatives, where [Speaker] Mike Johnson will be compelled to end the seven week Republican taxpayer-funded vacation,” Jeffries said in a statement.

House Democratic leadership has insisted the health subsidies be addressed in legislation rather than a handshake compromise, especially as Johnson has refused to offer Democrats the same promise of a vote on an extension in his chamber.