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Speaker Mike Johnson made clear to House Republicans on a private call Tuesday that GOP leaders have no plans to put a standalone bill for expiring food aid benefits up for a vote as the shutdown pressure mounts on Democrats before Nov. 1.

“Things are getting real” this week, Johnson said as he braced his members for some of the worst real-world fallout of the shutdown so far. He urged Republicans to stay in lockstep as “pressure mounts on Democrats” — including key deadlines that will impact millions of low-income Americans. The call was described by four people with direct knowledge of it.

“The pain register is about to hit level 10,” Johnson said, adding that “sadly” 42 million Americans will be hit this weekend when Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits run out of money. “We deeply regret it on our side,” he added, lambasting Democrats for their tactics.

The call got heated at times. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) railed against the White House political team and said people are “pissed” about Republicans failing to deliver on “America First” principles.

Johnson said the Senate would vote again on the stopgap spending bill House Republicans already passed, but he indicated GOP leaders have no plans to put standalone bills up for a vote to keep funding flowing for food assistance or to pay federal workers. He noted the pressure rising on Democrats as key unions also call for the shutdown to end.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said much the same to reporters Tuesday. “There’s not a high level of interest in doing carve-outs, or so-called rifle shots. I think most people realize the way to get out of this mess is to vote to open up the government.”

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

Senate Democrats rejected the House-passed, GOP-led stopgap for the 13th time Tuesday, as the pain from the government shutdown is poised to escalate by week’s end.

Lawmakers voted 54-45 on the funding patch, which would float federal operations through Nov. 21. Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — as well as Independent Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats — continued to break ranks to vote in favor of advancing the bill.

It comes as Democrats are under increasing external pressure to vote to reopen the government following a statement Monday from the powerful American Federation of Government Employees that called on Congress to immediately pass a clean stopgap bill and end the shutdown.

Democrats have largely signaled they have no immediate plans to change their position: that they would not vote to resume federal funding until Republicans come to the table to negotiate on a bipartisan compromise on soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act tax credits.

“We are in a health care crisis and Republicans don’t even want to talk about how to fix it,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday. “The president isn’t even in town as Americans are about to be devastated by the bills they’ll receive on health care.”

He was referring to the Nov. 1 date when open enrollment begins for Obamacare health plans, with people are expected to be slapped with high premiums absent a deal to extend the insurance subsidies.

But Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, acknowledged Monday evening that AFGE’s statement could have an impact, even if he wasn’t changing his own stance at this time.

“It is in my mind,” said Durbin. “The SNAP program feeds one out of eight Americans.”

Lawmakers are staring down a grim reality that fallout from the shutdown is about to get worse, and there’s no offramp in sight. On Friday, members of the military will miss a paycheck; on Saturday, the government will stop distributing key food aid benefits relied upon by millions of low-income Americans.

And then there are worries that key personnel at airports will stop showing up for work, which could lead to major air travel disruptions as well as potential safety issues.

Republicans will discuss holding votes on stand-alone bills to lessen certain elements of shutdown pain, such as paying the troops and federal employees, during a closed-door lunch Tuesday with Vice President JD Vance.

A growing number of Democrats have signaled they would be willing to support legislation from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that would fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, for the duration of the shutdown.

But Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday, “there’s not a high level of interest in doing carve outs, or so-called ‘rifle shots.’ I think most people realize the way to get out of this mess is to vote to open up the government.”

Republicans are not expected to give Hawley’s proposal a vote this week, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss internal scheduling.

Ultimately, with the shutdown all-but-guaranteed to cross the one-month mark, Republicans want to keep maximum pressure on Democrats to reopen the government by making conditions on the ground as unpleasant as possible.

At the same time, some GOP senators are pushing for the chamber to remain in session beyond its normal Thursday afternoon exit time to make progress on reaching an agreement to end the impasse. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) urged her colleagues to stop treating the shutdown as business-as-usual during a floor speech Monday.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), asked Tuesday about Murkowski’s remarks, said he was willing to stay in session through the weekend if it would result in Democrats supporting the GOP stopgap.

“We’ve been here on weekends and it doesn’t seem to have made a difference,” he added.

Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) is running for governor in 2026, he announced Tuesday, making the GOP lawmaker the most high-profile Republican to enter the race for the state’s top office.

Feenstra, who has served three terms in Congress and has long been rumored to run, made his candidacy official in a post on X, touting his Iowan roots and his ties to President Donald Trump.

“I’m running to be the next governor of Iowa to take our state to new heights,” he wrote on X. “Working with President Trump, we will build a stronger Iowa and keep the liberal, progressive agenda out of our state.”

His announcement also took aim at the likely Democratic nominee Rob Sand, the Iowa state auditor, slamming him for his ties to “radical liberals.”

“Liberal liar Rob Sand only sinks low, but Randy Feenstra always stands tall for Iowa,” Feenstra’s campaign video said.

GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds announced in April she wouldn’t seek reelection, startling Republicans who largely expected her to seek a third term. Now, the growing list of GOP candidates will be vying for Trump’s endorsement — with former state Rep. Brad Sherman, state Rep. Eddie Andrews and former Iowa Department of Administrative Services Director Adam Steen also in the mix for the GOP nomination.

Feenstra’s entrance into the race for the governor’s mansion also opens up his seat in Iowa’s 4th District — a deep-red district that Feenstra has easily held after successfully primarying then-GOP Rep. Steve King in 2020.

“In Iowa, the crops grow tall and strong,” Feenstra’s campaign video said. “Randy Feenstra is no different.”

The union representing air traffic controllers is continuing to advocate for an end to the ongoing federal shutdown — but it’s not specifically calling for a “clean” short-term spending bill as the American Federation of Government Employees is.

Speaking to reporters at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport early Tuesday, Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, would say only that his union wants the lapse in appropriations to “end today.”

“Whatever the means are, whatever the way that they get it done, that’s what the American people deserve, that’s what the flying public deserves and especially our air traffic controllers,” Daniels said in response to a question from POLITICO. “There is no other solution.”

Controllers are working without pay during the shutdown.

Context: AFGE’s Monday endorsement of a short-term funding patch known as a continuing resolution was a win for Republicans who have been pushing such a measure, and frayed Democrats’ coalition.

NATCA, which for the second time in two weeks is distributing leaflets at major U.S. airports urging Congress to end the shutdown, has consistently struck a nonpartisan tone in its recent messaging.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, meanwhile, has blamed Democrats for controllers working without pay.

What’s next: Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has introduced a bill to pay controllers and TSA baggage screeners during the shutdown, S. 3031, but it’s unclear if it will receive a floor vote.

More information about Republican leadership’s plans for the legislation is expected after Tuesday’s closed-door GOP caucus lunch.

Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he’s spoken with President Donald Trump about the possibility he might seek a third term but said he doesn’t “see the path” for such a move.

Asked about Trump floating a third term, which is barred under the Constitution, Johnson replied, “Well, there’s the 22nd Amendment.”

“It’s been a great run, but I think the president knows, and he and I’ve talked about, the constrictions of the Constitution,” Johnson told reporters at a Tuesday news conference.

Talk of a third Trump term was rekindled after former Trump strategist Steve Bannon told The Economist that there was a plan in place to keep Trump in office past 2029.

“At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is,” he said.

Speculation erupted that Trump could somehow run for vice president and claim the presidency after the election — something the president addressed and rejected Monday.

“It’s too cute. It wouldn’t be right,” he said, while refusing to completely rule out the notion he might serve a third term: “I haven’t really thought about it.”

JD Vance is heading to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for lunch with Senate Republicans. The White House says the vice president is swinging by to talk tariffs, but it’ll be tough to divert the discussion away from the shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said as much Monday, telling POLITICO he fully expects to hear Vance’s “assessment of where things stand on government funding” alongside “any other range of subjects.”

GOP senators could be anxious to hear from an administration emissary, with President Donald Trump on an overseas trip as the shutdown barrels into its fifth week. Rank-and-file Republicans are split over whether to take action to ease certain pain points or allow conditions to deteriorate so Democrats will feel maximum pressure to vote on the House-passed stopgap.

GOP leaders will hear out different factions within the conference during Tuesday’s lunch before deciding whether to allow votes on so-called “rifle-shot” bills that would allow funding to flow to certain government programs even as the shutdown affects operations elsewhere.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has legislation that would pay air traffic controllers and TSA agents for the duration of the funding lapse, while Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has a measure that would prevent millions from losing food aid when the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is due to run out of money Saturday.

But Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said Monday there’s “not a lot” of appetite among Republicans to hold standalone votes on piecemeal bills, citing a prevailing desire within the GOP to punish Democrats for their shutdown stance.

Another potential Tuesday lunch topic: GOP appropriators want to discuss moving full-year government funding bills once the shutdown ends. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told POLITICO that includes whether the White House would respect bipartisan spending negotiations or continue to claw back congressionally-approved funding.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats will huddle in their own closed-door lunch Tuesday for their first caucus-wide gathering since the American Federation of Government Employees — the largest federal employee union — on Monday called for the party to stand down and pass the “clean” continuing resolution.

Democratic leaders didn’t immediately signal plans to surrender. And plenty of Democrats said they intend to hold firm until Republicans come to the table to negotiate a bipartisan compromise to reopen the government.

“The AFGE would not want us to cut a deal and then have Trump fire a bunch of people next week,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told reporters. “If we cut a deal and then he did that, they would come to us and say, ‘What the hell were you guys thinking?’”

Still, AFGE’s unequivocal statement pushed Democrats into a defensive crouch for perhaps the first time since the shutdown began, while exposing some major fault lines inside the party.

“It has a lot of impact,” Democratic Whip Sen. Dick Durbin said of the union’s statement. “They’ve been our friends.”

What else we’re watching:   

— Will Illinois enter the redistricting fight? House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Black leaders in a meeting in Chicago on Monday that a redistricting effort in Illinois is essential to counter GOP moves to redraw maps in Texas, North Carolina and Missouri. It comes as House Democrats broadly are amping up their redistricting efforts in not just Illinois but Virginia and New York, too, as Trump eyes ways to capture up to 19 new GOP seats for the 2026 election cycle. But Democrats’ plans in Illinois won’t come without pushback from Black leaders.

Jordain Carney, Nicholas Wu and Shia Kapos contributed to this report.

The House GOP’s much ballyhooed investigation into former President Joe Biden’s alleged cognitive decline has largely ended with a thud.

In a new report released Tuesday morning, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Republican majority claims to have found evidence that senior Biden White House aides “exercised the authority of the former president” and concealed signs of Biden’s mental deterioration. In fact, the probe concluded with the need for answers to more questions than any appearance of a smoking gun.

Between June and September, House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) convened depositions or transcribed interviews with more than a dozen former Biden aides, including chiefs of staff Ron Klain and Jeff Zients. The Trump administration waived executive privilege for witnesses as part of an effort to clear the way for their cooperation. Even so, several of them invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

The House Oversight GOP is citing, in part, this barrier to getting information from the witnesses as proof of an internal cover-up around Biden’s health. The committee chair is now asking President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice to look into each and every one of Biden’s executive actions, with Comer arguing the state of Biden’s mental faculties could not be accounted for at the time of signing.

“[B]arring documentation establishing a record of President Biden’s decision-making, the Committee deems void President Biden’s executive actions that were signed using the autopen,” Comer wrote in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi. “[A]nd the Committee determines that action by the Department of Justice is warranted to address the legal consequences of that determination.”

The request could prolong the administration’s crusade against some of Trump’s biggest political rivals, though the efforts to overturn Biden’s executive actions could be blocked by the courts. Presidents also have for years relied on the autopen to sign materials as a standard practice, and Biden has maintained that his decisions were his own.

The Republican report recommends that the District of Columbia Board of Medicine investigate whether Biden’s White House doctor, Kevin O’Connor, failed his duties as a physician by misleading Americans as to the president’s health. As evidence, the report pointed to O’Connor’s refusal to cooperate with the committee’s probe: O’Connor cited his Fifth Amendment rights and physician-patient privilege in declining to answer questions. Republicans also cited O’Connor’s decision to forgo a cognitive exam for the president.

Finally, Comer is asking DOJ to investigate O’Connor as well as two senior aides — Anthony Bernal and Annie Tomasini — who also cited the Fifth Amendment to ascertain whether their conduct in the former administration was criminal.

“Dr. O’Connor’s lack of transparency demonstrated while serving as the active White House physician and not testifying before this Committee to answer relevant, pointed questions about President Biden’s ability to carry out the duties of the presidency is untenable for a licensed medical professional tasked to diagnose, heal, and protect the official in the highest elected office,” Comer wrote in a letter to the D.C. Board of Medicine’s chair.

The letter added that, if necessary, O’Connor should be sanctioned by the Board of Medicine.

Comer’s leadership of the probe into Biden’s mental decline comes at a fortuitous time in his own political career: The Kentucky Republican is weighing a bid for the state’s governorship in 2027 — a race where Trump’s endorsement could carry considerable weight.

He previously co-led an impeachment inquiry into Biden that culminated in a hundreds-of-pages long report that concluded his family “engaged in a global influence peddling racket from which they made millions of dollars.” And although the report argued Biden’s actions constituted “impeachable conduct,” House GOP leadership never set up an impeachment vote on the House floor.

Biden’s weak performance in the June 2024 presidential debate set off a cascade of questions over his mental acuity, ultimately forcing him out of the presidential race. But even after he dropped his reelection campaign and largely stepped aside from public life, Republicans continued to press the party’s leadership for covering up Biden’s potential health failings.

Comer took on the charge of putting together a review of the former president’s use of the autopen. Trump, separately, launched the administration’s own probe into whether Biden’s former White House aides contributed to a cover-up of his decline and authorized illicit use of the autopen.

“With the exception of the RIGGED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020, THE AUTOPEN IS THE BIGGEST POLITICAL SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social this summer.

The Justice Department and representatives for Biden, O’Connor, Bernal and Tomasini did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Among the highlights of Comer’s report is that Zients told the committee that Biden had been informed of his suggestion that he should consider dropping out of the presidential race and Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, thought Biden should drop out after the June debate.

Additionally, Zients disclosed that Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, took part in some White House discussions around pardons. Biden would go on to pardon the younger Biden, who was facing his own legal struggles.

Democrats grappled Monday with the first major fraying of their coalition amid the government shutdown, with a federal employee union calling for them to stand down four weeks into the standoff.

There was no immediate surrender from party leaders, but the union’s plea forced many Democratic lawmakers into a defensive crouch. Their No. 2 Senate leader said it would be a subject of internal conversations this week with bipartisan talks all but ground to a halt.

“It has a lot of impact. They’ve been our friends,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters Monday, adding that Democrats “take them seriously.”

The push by the American Federation of Government Employees for Congress to immediately pass a “clean” stopgap funding bill, which is what has been offered by Republicans, is among a laundry list of pressure points that are bearing down on lawmakers.

By the end of the week, members of the military will miss their next paycheck, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will run out and Americans who get their health insurance through Affordable Care Act exchanges will confront premium spikes as open enrollment starts without a deal on how to extend soon-to-expire subsidies. The ramifications of the shutdown on air travel also escalated over the weekend.

Sen. Mark Warner of federal-worker-heavy Virginia has been firmly in favor of confronting President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans over the expiring ACA subsidies and health care. But the Democrat struck a more cautious note Monday.

“Look, I think we can still deal with health care and SNAP, but I know … the shutdown is a real challenge,” he said. “Federal employees feel like they’ve been abused and also going for weeks now without pay.”

He sidestepped a question on whether the AFGE’s statement would change his position: “Let’s see.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer met Monday evening with his leadership circle, including Durbin. The entire Senate Democratic caucus will meet for a closed-door lunch Tuesday.

Schumer didn’t directly address the union’s new position during a floor speech Monday. Spokespeople for Schumer also did not respond to a request for comment on the group’s statement, in which national president Everett Kelley said, “It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today.”

Instead, Schumer noted the cascading consequences of the shutdown and laid the responsibility for ending it on Trump and Republicans, saying that the president “skipped town for his second foreign trip in a month.”

“The president should stop focusing on foreign escapades, on ballrooms, on bailouts for Argentina, and start focusing on negotiating with Democrats,” Schumer said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters in Chicago that Democrats aren’t budging.

“We want to find a bipartisan agreement that reopens the government immediately,” he said. “We’re going to continue to stand by hardworking federal employees, and our position has not changed over the last several weeks.”

But among the rank-and-file, there are growing signs of bipartisan frustration about the stalemate, with few signs of movement in the Capitol for weeks.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in a floor speech Monday called for the Senate to abandon its typical four-day workweek and gavel in Friday, joking with reporters afterward that she went “rogue.”

“I don’t think we should be going home and just behaving as if this was another week in the United States Senate — not when we have a government shutdown,” Murkowski said. “There is so much, so much that is coming at us like a freight train.”

Murkowski, who has an independent streak, pointed to the looming SNAP deadline and ACA open enrollment as a “pivot point” for Congress. She spent time speaking with several colleagues on the Senate floor Monday, including Democratic Sens. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, as well as GOP Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama.

“I thought it was really constructive,” she said about the conversations, adding that lawmakers need to get to a point where “we’re not going to leave the room until we work this out.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson pointed to the looming deadlines Monday and said the onus is on Democrats to relent. Johnson cited the union’s statement during a news conference, saying he hoped it impacted Democrats’ thinking.

“They understand the reality of this,” he said.

But Republicans are facing a tactical divide of their own as they debate whether to hold standalone votes on the Senate floor this week that would ease particular pain points such as the SNAP lapse and paychecks for active-duty troops.

Senate GOP leaders won’t make a final decision until a closed-door lunch Tuesday as they hear out different factions within their conference. But they are wary of easing up on Democrats just as they show signs of fraying and are seen as unlikely to allow votes on the so-called “rifle-shot” bills.

Durbin, for instance, predicted Monday that bills from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would pay air traffic controllers and TSA agents and from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that would keep food aid flowing would likely pass with Democratic support.

What was also clear Monday is that Democrats continue to feel comfortable laying the blame for the shutdown at Trump’s feet — especially as he spends the week in Asia.

That colored responses from many Democrats, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who said in a statement that “Trump should spend less time traveling around the world and more time negotiating an end to his shutdown.”

Van Hollen is in talks with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to try to find an agreement on legislation that would pay federal employees and active-duty military troops. Democrats are also proposing limiting Trump’s ability to fire federal employees for the duration of the shutdown.

“We’ve been engaged over the weekend and now,” Van Hollen said Monday.

Another Democrat from a fed-heavy state, Virginia’s Tim Kaine, also invoked Trump Monday in brushing off the union’s new stance.

“The AFGE would not want us to cut a deal and then have Trump fire a bunch of people next week. If we cut a deal and then he did that, they would come to us and say, ‘What the hell were you guys thinking?’” Kaine told reporters.

Shia Kapos contributed to this report.

Dozens of Democratic attorneys general and governors are planning to sue President Donald Trump’s administration Tuesday over its decision to not tap emergency funds amid the government shutdown to keep food aid flowing to 42 million Americans next month, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss the matter ahead of a public announcement.

Trump officials concluded in a Friday memo that they cannot legally tap a $5 billion contingency fund for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program amid the shutdown to pay benefits in November. Some in the administration believe, with $9 billion needed to fund SNAP payments for the month, there is no time to distribute smaller payments to individual states.

Administration officials anticipated their legal determination would be challenged in court, POLITICO reported last week, and there are no serious efforts underway at USDA to find other sources of funding, according to two other people granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations. But some GOP lawmakers whose constituents would be clobbered by a first-ever lapse of federal food benefits, are pushing for some kind of patch to prevent that from happening.

Senate Republicans are divided over whether to vote on a standalone bill to keep SNAP beneficiaries — many of whom live in rural and Hispanic-majority Republican districts — from losing assistance. Many argue Democrats will be at fault if the Friday deadline barrels past with no fix as they continue to push Democratic senators to vote for the stopgap spending bill the House passed last month.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune argued Monday the best way to fund SNAP was for Democrats to vote to reopen the government, though he said GOP senators would discuss the issue during their Tuesday policy lunch.

Republicans, for now, don’t believe Thune will put a SNAP funding carve-out to a vote this week, according to two senators and three aides granted anonymity to discuss GOP party strategy.

But a growing number of Senate Republicans — including some within Thune’s own leadership circle — are publicly saying Congress needs to fund SNAP whether or not Democrats relent on overall government funding, lest millions without food aid before Thanksgiving.

“Yeah, I would vote for that,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said in a brief interview Monday about supporting a standalone SNAP bill.

Capito, who chairs the Senate GOP policy committee and whose constituents are heavily reliant on SNAP, said she didn’t want the program to lapse during the shutdown.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins and a handful of other Republican senators have signed on to a bill from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) to fund the program, and they are pushing for a vote this week.

Asked Monday if she wants the administration to allow SNAP to be administered in November, Collins replied, “I certainly do.”

Collins said she wrote to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins last week and “strongly recommended that she use the $5 billion in contingency fees.” She said she hadn’t heard back from the secretary.

Republican and Democratic aides believe a SNAP carve-out would pass in the Senate, but bringing it up for a vote this week would require all 100 senators to agree to fast-track it to the floor.

Privately, Republicans fear allowing a standalone vote on food aid would relieve key pressure on Democrats and potentially prolong the shutdown. Passing it would also mean bringing the House back into session to send it to Trump’s desk, something Speaker Mike Johnson has been trying to avoid.

“If we could figure out a way to find something Democrats will vote for, we’d love to do that, but right now, we could fully fund the SNAP program by reopening the government,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said. “We could do that in 30 minutes from now.”

Asked if he would support a standalone SNAP bill, Mullin replied, “I would support opening the government back up.”

Calen Razor and Jordain Carney contributed to this report. 

Vice President JD Vance will meet with Senate Republicans during their weekly lunch Tuesday before key tariff votes this week, a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to share the plans told POLITICO.

The Senate is expected to vote this week on terminating three of the national emergencies President Donald Trump declared in order to impose tariffs: one to block the 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian goods, one to block the 35 percent tariffs on Canadian goods and one to block the 10 to 50 percent tariffs Trump imposed on nearly every country in the world.

Vance is also likely to face questions from his former Senate colleagues about a potential way out of the shutdown, which will be in its 28th day.

The tariff votes mark the latest opportunity for Senate Republicans to push back against the Trump administration’s far-reaching trade policy, after months of building tension in the party over how the duties are hurting farmers and small businesses. Senate Republicans already challenged U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer during a private lunch this month, urging him to focus on securing more export markets as China has stopped its purchases of several crops.

The most recent Senate vote on Trump’s tariffs was only narrowly defeated — and likely would have passed if it weren’t for the absences of Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). The Senate already voted against the tariffs on Canadian goods in April. But even if the tariff votes clear the Senate, they’ll get buried in the House, where Republican leaders have worked the legislative rules to prevent a vote until March.

It isn’t the first time Vance, a former senator, has served as a liaison with Congress. He previously took part in shutdown negotiations, including attending a bipartisan meeting and a briefing with Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune when it became clear a shutdown was impending.