Sen. Thom Tillis warned his colleagues during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday that he would not vote to take up the party’s sweeping domestic policy bill without further clarity on Medicaid changes, a person granted anonymity to disclose private discussions said.

“He said he wouldn’t vote for a motion to proceed until he got some clarity on what’s going to happen with the provider tax,” the person said, referring to a funding mechanism Senate GOP leaders are hoping to curtail. Tillis has been trying to get details on how the Senate language will impact North Carolina, the person added.

Tillis wasn’t alone.

Multiple other Republican senators warned Majority Leader John Thune during the lunch that they were not ready to vote to launch floor debate on the megabill, according to three attendees. But it’s Tillis, who is up for re-election next year, who has emerged as a key vote to watch as Thune moves to try and meet a July 4 target for final passage of the bill.

Tillis told colleagues he spoke recently with CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz about the provider tax’s impact on North Carolina but said he believed the numbers provided by Oz and his team underplayed the impact. Tillis handed out a document to his colleagues earlier this week that estimated his state’s losses at more than $38 billion.

“He said just now in this meeting … ‘If you proceed on this provider tax like you’re going to do right now, you won’t have a member from North Carolina sitting at this table after next year,’” the person added.

It was just the latest instance of Tillis raising concerns privately about the Senate’s Medicaid proposal. While the House-passed bill freezes existing provider taxes, the Senate’s bill incrementally rolls back an existing federal cap.

Senate leaders made their opening offer on a rural hospital relief fund Wednesday morning. But that figure, $15 billion, is sparking pushback publicly and privately from Tillis and others.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is undecided on the reconciliation bill, told reporters Wednesday that “any money is helpful, but, no, it is not adequate.” She floated a $100 billion fund but added, “I don’t think that solves the entire problem.”

On the other end of his conference, Thune is facing GOP senators who want the rural hospital fund to be shrunk further. He’s not just facing pushback over health care provisions; a clutch of deficit hawks also still aren’t on board with the bill.

The ongoing negotiations have some of his members openly questioning whether they will be able to meet his goal of passing the bill in the Senate this weekend. Thune can lose three GOP senators and still have Vice President JD Vance break a tie.

“Well, I mean, everybody’s got their vote,” Thune said when asked about the holdouts. “We’re working with all of their members to try to get people comfortable with the bill, and hopefully in the end, they’ll be there.”

Other Republicans are banking that their colleagues’ rhetoric is a negotiating tactic and that they will ultimately fall in line — potentially with leadership agreeing to changes to assuage their concerns.

“All of our guys are going to keep advocating for what they want until we pass it,” said Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), predicting that GOP leaders will ultimately get votes to proceed with the bill.

Sen. Ron Johnson said Wednesday he’s not ready to support Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy bill. But the Wisconsin Republican said that the White House, including the president himself, is helping to move him closer to yes.

Johnson shared details of Monday’s one-on-one meeting with Trump in an exclusive interview where he credited the administration for working with him on a push to set up a budget review panel that would force Congress to return to the issue of deficit reduction even after the “big, beautiful bill” is passed.

He said he remains in discussions about getting the concept included in the megabill ahead of its floor consideration, which could begin as soon as Friday. Besides his meeting with Trump, Johnson said he also spoke this week with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

“I realize we can’t do this in one fell swoop. I think the main sticking point is … what’s the forcing mechanism to actually realize those savings, to enact them?” Johnson said.

The panel, he said, would be made up of members of the House, Senate and the Office of Management and Budget. Part of the ongoing discussions are about how it gets funded and if executive orders are needed to back it up.

So far they haven’t landed on a “forcing mechanism” bulletproof enough to convince Johnson he will get another bite at the apple. GOP leaders, administration officials and even Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have said they intend to pursue another party-line reconciliation bill to sweep up any orphaned policy priorities, which would give fiscal hawks like Johnson another chance to seek funding cuts.

But Johnson is warning that verbal commitments won’t be enough to sway him. He said he floated a shorter debt ceiling hike to force Congress back to the table, but the White House has shot that down.

“I’ve got everybody’s attention,” Johnson said, adding that it’s “coming down to crunch time — they realize I’m serious, so they need to get serious.”

The behind-the-scenes efforts to try to get Johnson on board comes as Senate Majority Leader John Thune tries to lock down a range of holdouts on the megabill. He’s got fiscal hawks such as Johnson to contend with as well as a number of GOP senators who are concerned that the bill’s Medicaid cutbacks will have negative impacts on their home states.

Thune can lose three GOP senators and still let Vice President JD Vance break a tie. He acknowledged this week he “could” lose two or three of his members.

Monday’s White House meeting came after Trump privately told Johnson during a meeting with Finance Committee Republicans earlier this month that he needed to speak more positively about the megabill. Johnson said Trump acknowledged in their conversation that he had been more upbeat in recent weeks.

Still, he’s not a supporter. Asked about Thune wanting a first vote in a matter of days, Johnson noted that Republican senators haven’t gotten final text yet.

“I don’t mind the President and Senator Thune saying, okay, we’ve got to get this done by July 4,” he said. “I think that’s a stretch, I think we have a lot of outstanding issues, but setting that deadline is concentrating everybody’s efforts.”

Both Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries congratulated Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani on his apparent Tuesday night victory in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary, vowing to meet the young democratic socialist — but stopping short of offering him their endorsements.

Tuesday night’s sweeping upset saw the toppling of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had been favored to win the primary, as the Democratic Party grapples with messy messaging and calls for leadership changes in a Trump era.

“I have known @ZohranKMamdani since we worked together to provide debt relief for thousands of beleaguered taxi drivers & fought to stop a fracked gas plant in Astoria. He ran an impressive campaign that connected with New Yorkers about affordability, fairness, & opportunity,” Schumer wrote on X on Wednesday, adding that he had spoken to Mamdani in the morning and hoped to meet with him in person soon.

Jeffries, too, congratulated Mamdani on a “strong campaign that relentlessly focused on the economy and bringing down the high cost of living in New York City,” and promised to meet with him “shortly” after speaking earlier in the day.

Both Schumer and Jeffries are New York City natives. Mamdani finished comfortably ahead of Cuomo, but city officials are not expected to run the ranked choice tabulation until early July.

Neither Democratic leader immediately offered an endorsement to the 33-year-old democratic socialist whose likely win marked a seismic shift for their party. Instead, both men highlighted Mamdani’s successful campaign strategy centering around the economy and affordability in the city, as Democratic hopefuls plot their messaging campaigns ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Earlier in the day, Jeffries avoided addressing the ideological gap between Mamdani and battleground members of the Democratic Party while discussing the primary on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” instead pivoting to criticize President Donald Trump’s economic policies.

Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated for a circuit court judgeship, on Wednesday confirmed an earlier POLITICO report about an internal inquiry into his conduct at the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office that concluded he should be demoted from a leadership position.

Bove ultimately wasn’t demoted, POLITICO reported, in part because he pleaded with the office’s leadership for a chance to improve his behavior. “You are aware of this inquiry and their recommendation?” Sen. Mazie Hirono asked Bove during his confirmation hearing, after reading the story aloud.

“As well as the fact that I was not removed,” Bove replied.

“Did you plead that you not be removed and that you would change your behavior?” Hirono asked. Though Bove disputed the characterization, he added: “Senator, I’m not perfect, and so when I get constructive criticism … I absolutely take account of that and try and be better at my job, and I did that in that instance.”

Hirono also said the Judiciary Committee had done its own research and “did talk to people who work for you, and they concluded that you engaged in abusive behavior and that you should be removed.”

Hirono also asked Bove about an incident that occurred around the same time as the decision not to demote him. Bove and his unit co-chief had overseen an economic sanctions case that crumbled after defense lawyers accused prosecutors of failing to turn over exculpatory evidence.

The case was eventually dismissed, and a federal judge criticized what she described as a lack of supervision by Bove and his co-chief.

“Do you recall the court making that assessment of your supervisory ability?” Hirono asked.

“I do, senator, and I respect Judge Nathan and I think that what she was trying to accomplish in that decision was to make sure there were protections in place,” Bove responded.

House appropriators released their committee report Wednesday for the Legislative Branch funding bill, which includes detailed guidance on how they’d like Capitol Hill offices and agencies to spend fiscal 2026 funding. Here’s a sampling of what’s on their minds ahead of Thursday’s full-committee markup:

Member security: The report instructs the security agencies under congressional purview, including Capitol Police, to direct patrols to buildings and locations “where the Members tend to congregate” and to educate members on how to stay safe while outside the Capitol complex.

“The Committee is concerned about the current level of security measures across the Capitol campus, particularly when Members of Congress are travelling across the Capitol Plaza to vote,” reads the 38-page report.

The report also includes notice that Congress will not continue funding a Capitol Police pilot program of field offices across the country tasked with investigating threats against lawmakers, saying “there has been insufficient return on investment for this program.”

Road safety: Lawmakers want more designated parking spaces for expectant mothers and a crossing guard for busy Independence Avenue. The report recommends that the Capitol Police Board “review the current motorized device policy” due to “continued interest of members, staff, and visitors” in electric scooter use on the Capitol campus.

Food: “The committee underscores the importance of providing an accessible workplace for those with food allergies and celiac disease,” says the report. It instructs the House Chief Administrative Officer to prioritize working with campus food service providers “to ensure that food is available, prepared, stored, and labeled appropriately.”

Company cars: Appropriators raised questions about the number of Capitol Police employees who have take-home vehicles provided by the department. The panel “fails to see any value in home-to-work vehicles for civilian employees and expects to see a responsible reduction in the number of all home-to-work vehicles.”

Elevators: The panel raises concerns about “the increased regularity of elevator outages in the House Office Buildings.”

Dome tours: The coveted tours all the way to the top of the Capitol Dome are hard to come by and can only be scheduled by lawmakers. “It has become increasingly challenging for Member offices to reserve a Dome tour,” the panel complains.

Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.

Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official who’s up for a circuit court judgeship, denied allegations from a former DOJ official that he suggested the department would flout court orders for the administration’s agenda.

“I have never advised a Department of Justice attorney to violate a court order,” he told the senators at a Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Erez Reuveni, who was fired from DOJ in April, alleged that Bove indicated during a meeting that the administration would defy court orders to conduct its aggressive deportation agenda. Reuveni submitted his allegations in a whistleblower letter to Congress and the Department’s inspector general.

Democrats were quick to argue the charges called into question Bove’s fitness for the lifetime appointment to the circuit court.

Bove also defended the widely criticized decision to abandon the corruption prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, which triggered a revolt inside the Justice Department and prompted at least 10 prosecutors in New York and Washington to resign.

In his defense, Bove pointed to the decision by U.S. District Judge Dale Ho to dismiss the case.

“The motion to dismiss those charges was granted,” Bove said, “because the motion reflected a valid exercise of prosecutorial discretion.”

But in his decision, Ho excoriated Justice Department officials’ rationales for abandoning the case and wrote that he agreed to dismiss the case because he can’t force the department to prosecute someone.

Bove also denied that there was a deal with Adams to drop the prosecution in exchange for the Democratic mayor’s support for Trump’s immigration agenda. “The suggestion that there was some kind of quid pro quo was just plain false,” Bove said.

Moments later, however, Bove acknowledged that “policy reasons made it appropriate to dismiss the charges.”

Bove disputed some of the widespread characterizations of him, saying: “I am not anybody’s henchman. I am not an enforcer. I am a lawyer from a small town who never expected to be in an arena like this.”

Senate GOP leaders have given their opening offer to their “Medicaid moderates” — a $15 billion stabilization fund for rural hospitals impacted by the pending domestic policy bill.

The details, sent to Senate offices in a memo on Wednesday and confirmed by two people granted anonymity to disclose private negotiations, is unlikely to satisfy a swath of senators concerned that the Senate GOP plan to roll back state provider taxes will negatively impact rural hospitals in their home states. Many states use the taxes to help fund their Medicaid programs.

The offer comes after POLITICO first reported Monday that GOP leaders would include the rural hospital fund in the “big, beautiful bill.” Punchbowl News first reported the initial funding offer Wednesday.

Senators have been clamoring for days to get details of the fund, which GOP leaders privately confirmed in closed-door meetings this week would be included in the megabill . One person who was granted anonymity to describe the talks characterized the $15 billion figure as a “working draft,” predicting that it would change as intense negotiations continue behind the scenes to try to get holdouts on board.

Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have been some of the most vocal members of the conference raising concerns about the impact on rural hospitals. Both support including a fund while also warning it might not be enough to address their large concerns about the Medicaid changes under consideration; Hawley, for one, has suggested a much higher figure for the fund than what’s now on offer.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has also privately warned his colleagues about their Medicaid changes, including handing out a fact sheet this week that estimated how much money several states, including his and Hawley’s, would lose under the provider tax proposal. The loss figures Tillis cited are larger than the $15 billion stabilization fund offer.

Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday excoriated Emil Bove, a top Trump Justice Department official and nominee for a seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that he was uniquely unqualified for the seat on the federal bench.

Bove, President Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee along with four district court nominees. His nomination has come under fire this week after allegations that he suggested flouting court orders to fulfill Trump’s political agenda.

His nomination has become the first flashpoint judicial confirmation battle of Trump’s second term, as the president and his allies have become increasingly hostile to judges who have ruled against him.

Durbin argued that Bove’s nomination was in a “category all of his own” compared to the kind of judicial conservatives Trump had nominated to the federal bench in his first term. He pointed to, among other things, Bove’s role in ousting DOJ staffers who worked on cases tied to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Durbin also pointed to Bove’s dismissal of federal corruption charges against New York City mayor Eric Adams around the time that Adams agreed to cooperate with the administration’s immigration enforcement at the city’s Rikers jail.

“Bove has led the effort to weaponize the Department of Justice against the president’s enemies,” the senator said. “Having earned his stripes as a loyalist to this president, he’s been rewarded with a lifetime nomination.”

Durbin also criticized Bove for his tenure as a federal prosecutor at the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office. He cited an internal inquiry into his “abusive” management style, first reported by POLITICO, that determined he should be demoted from his leadership position. (The office’s leadership never implemented the intended demotion.)

Installing an enduring conservative slant in the federal judiciary was a key accomplishment of Trump’s first term. During four years, the White House shepherded dozens of new appeals court judges and three Supreme Court justices.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, opened the hearing by noting that Bove had seen an “intense opposition campaign.” He added that Bove, who is currently principal associate deputy attorney general, may be bound by certain privileges, including executive privilege and attorney-client privilege.

“Turning every nominee into a political punching bag isn’t advice and consent, it’s smear and obstruct,” Grassley said, noting that opposition from home-state senators does not disqualify a candidate for a circuit court judgeship under the committee’s current rules.

“Let’s not pretend that nominees with ties to the President are somehow suspect.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries doled out light praise for New York state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani after his stunning victory in Tuesday’s New York City Democratic mayoral primary, embracing Mamdani’s successful focus on affordability as a campaign target for 2026 Democratic hopefuls.

Mamdani’s likely win — ranked choice tabulations will be released next week — opened a new chapter for a Democratic Party that has struggled to home in on a successful messaging strategy to counter President Donald Trump and boost its own approval ratings. The 33-year-old democratic socialist made affordability the centerpiece of his campaign, hooking into New Yorkers’ frustration with the cost of living and longtime political players like former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had been favored to win the primary.

But the stunning upset also marks a reckoning for Democrats, who face the choice of whether or not to lean into the candidate’s progressive policies to chart more party wins in 2026.

“I think what’s clear is that the relentless focus on affordability had great appeal all across the city of New York. He also clearly out-worked, out-organized and out-communicated the opposition,” Jeffries told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday. “And when someone is successful in being able to do all three things at the same time, it’s usually going to work out for them.”

Jeffries — who also represents New York City — did not endorse a candidate in the primary. He was not asked about endorsing his party’s standard bearer on his Wednesday morning appearance, and did not proactively offer his backing.

The Democratic leader skirted directly addressing the gap between Mamdani’s democratic socialist policies and the party’s status quo, instead aiming criticism at their common target: Donald Trump.

“From the standpoint of House Democrats and what our focus has been, clearly we have an affordability crisis in the United States of America, and our focus will continue to be on driving down the high cost of living in this country,” Jeffries said, when asked whether Mamdani has an “ideology” that Democratic 2026 candidates should adopt. “Donald Trump promised to lower costs on day one. Costs haven’t gone down. They’re going up.”