House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing another challenge as he tries to navigate an already tricky spy powers fight: an effort within his own ranks to link upcoming legislation to gun rights.

Rep. Warren Davidson is circulating a letter to Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise urging them to use a revived debate over controversial surveillance power to also prevent data brokers from selling consumer information to law enforcement.

And the Ohio Republican is weaving in another hot button issue, arguing that without changes, gun owners are at risk of being negatively impacted.

“It is vital that any forthcoming legislation Section 702 … close the data broker loophole. Congress now has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to update our laws to protect Americans’ liberty, Americans’ right to privacy and the Second Amendment,” Davidson wrote in the letter.

Davidson is collecting signatures from his colleagues for the letter, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO. The House Judiciary Committee already passed legislation on a bipartisan basis to prevent data brokers from selling consumer information to law enforcement.

It’s the latest potential hurdle for Johnson. House Republicans are hoping to bring a revived bill to change and reauthorize Section 702 to the floor this week. The surveillance power is meant to target foreigners abroad but has come under fire because of its ability to sweep in Americans data.

But a coalition of privacy hawks, including both progressives and conservatives in the House, view the data broker issue as a top priority for the 702 debate. They are expected to get a vote on an amendment related to it as part of this week’s debate.

And they are already getting support from some traditional GOP allies closely watching the debate.

Aidan Johnston, Gun Owners of America’s director of federal affairs, told POLITICO the group “is closely tracking the FISA loophole allowing federal law enforcement to buy lists of gun owners and concealed carry permit holders without a warrant or regard for the Second and Fourth Amendments.”

“We have serious concerns about the potential for the federal government to weaponize this data against Americans, especially given the Biden administration’s lengthy record of harassing and prosecuting political opponents, including gun owners,” he added.

House Republicans are preparing a second attempt at passing legislation reauthorizing a controversial surveillance power.

The Rules Committee will take up legislation Wednesday that would make changes to and extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The authority is meant to target foreigners abroad but has come under scrutiny for its ability to sweep in Americans.

A spokesperson for Majority Leader Steve Scalise didn’t immediately respond to a question about timing for a vote. But individuals involved in the closed-door discussion told POLITICO they expect the bill to be on the floor Thursday or Friday.

First it will need to get through the Rules Committee, where Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan last year to bring competing bills to the floor ultimately unraveled.

Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who are both members of the Judiciary Committee, along with Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), have the combined ability to block a bill in Rules absent Democratic help. They could also be a barometer for the bill’s reception among privacy hawks, members of the Freedom Caucus and their allies.

POLITICO first reported last Wednesday that Johnson was leaning toward bringing a bill to the floor this week after leadership revived a GOP working group aimed at bridging the party’s surveillance divisions.

Two individuals briefed on the discussion told POLITICO late last week and over the weekend that there are expected to be approximately six votes on amendments to the bill, including on a warrant requirement before searching 702-collected data for Americans information and on preventing data brokers from selling consumer information to law enforcement.

The revised bill comes after intense closed-door negotiations about the path forward after the Judiciary and Intelligence committees offered competing proposals late last year.

Technically Congress has until mid-April to work out a deal, but Republicans have hinted that Johnson wants quicker action. The House is currently scheduled to leave after Friday until Feb. 28. When they return, Congress is expected to be consumed by twin government funding deadlines and averting a shutdown threat.

Another Donald Trump impeachment over Ukraine funding? Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance says it’s a possibility, if the $95 billion emergency foreign aid spending bill becomes law and Trump wins the election.

Vance distributed a memo to Senate GOP offices on Monday arguing that the foreign aid measure could tie Trump’s hands if he comes into office next year wanting to pause Ukraine funds as part of negotiations on ending Russia’s war on the U.S. ally. That’s because some of the legislation’s funding expires nine months into the next presidency, effectively — according to Vance — handcuffing a future President Trump from making his own decisions on Ukraine spending.

Vance is one of the most outspoken opponents of Ukraine assistance, and he’s making a last-ditch effort to block the legislation before a critical vote later on Monday to end debate on the foreign aid plan, which needs 60 votes.

“The supplemental represents an attempt by the foreign policy blob/deep state to stop President Trump from pursuing his desired policy, and if he does so anyways, to provide grounds to impeach him and undermine his administration. All Republicans should oppose its passage,” reads the memo by Vance’s office.

The then-Democratic House majority impeached Trump in 2019 over the then-president’s move to withhold funding slated for Ukraine and pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch investigations into Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in November 2020. The Senate acquitted Trump in early 2020.

Though the 2024 election is nine months away, Trump is trying to kill the foreign aid bill and urging the Senate to stop it. Despite that, the bill is clearly on track for passage — with just one more opportunity for the GOP to block it later on Monday. It would still need to pass the House, which is an uncertain prospect at the moment.

If the overseas aid bill does become law and Trump wins the election, Vance’s new memo argues that the incoming president could be impeached again if he “were to withdraw from or pause financial support for the war in Ukraine in order to bring the conflict to a peaceful conclusion.”

Friday was a good day for Senate Republicans’ bid to retake the majority.

First they put a blue state on the battleground map with gold-star recruit, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. Then they saw Rep. Matt Rosendale’s (R-Mont.) bid for a must-win Senate seat kneecapped — by none other than former President Donald Trump, who endorsed GOP leaders’ favored candidate, Tim Sheehy.

The twin developments shook the expanding Senate battleground map as Democrats look to protect their slim majority. After a disastrous 2022 cycle, the GOP is feeling a little bit bullish this time around, forcing Democrats on defense in a series of red and purple states. And the party’s main pickup opportunities, Texas and Florida, are tough slogs.

“We’re doing everything within our power to set ourselves up for our success,” said Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), a former National Republican Senatorial Committee chair. “I think broader questions about what the presidential race looks like are just unknown.”

Friday’s developments point to the internal maneuverings of Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), the leader of the Senate GOP campaign arm, who introduced Sheehy to Trump and worked behind-the-scenes to land Hogan. Still reeling from a series of poor recruits last cycle, Daines has made it a priority to land big names and cultivate a relationship with the former president.

Senate Republicans have long believed Hogan, a popular two-term governor who has kept his distance from Trump, is the one person who could make Maryland competitive territory. They got their wish on Friday, the last day Hogan could file, after two failed recruitment pushes during the 2022 cycle and last year.

In Montana, GOP leaders were unsuccessful in their many attempts to thwart Rosendale’s plans to once again run for Sen. Jon Tester’s (D-Mont.) seat. On Friday they got the next best thing: A Trump endorsement for their preferred recruit.

Neither Sheehy nor Hogan will have anything close to an easy path against the battle-tested Tester and a to-be-determined Democrat in deep blue Maryland. Hogan could end up being something of a sacrificial lamb, with Republicans hoping he at least diverts crucial Democratic resources. Or, best-case scenario for the party, his Maryland popularity could make him a savior that delivers or adds to Republicans’ Senate majority.

But Maryland’s deep-blue lean will pose a real challenge. Joe Biden won the state by 33 points in 2020 and Hogan is running in a presidential election year for the first time.

“National issues will be front-and-center on the minds of voters. They will recognize that the majority of the Senate is at stake. So this is really a race about whether Democrats are in the majority or whether Ted Cruz, Rick Scott and the Republicans are in charge,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who supports Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks in the Democratic primary.

Still, private GOP polling conducted on two separate occasions in recent weeks showed Hogan with a double-digit lead over both his possible Democratic competitors, Alsobrooks and Rep. David Trone (D-Md.), according to two people familiar with the data who were not authorized to discuss it.

Republicans launched a full-court press to get Hogan to reconsider a Senate run after he passed last year. Daines spoke with him as he reconsidered, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also took credit on Friday for landing the former governor — something Democrats quickly amplified as they seek to nationalize the race. Even Former President George W. Bush called Hogan and urged him to jump in, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

Tester said that while Hogan is a “formidable” candidate, he knows all too well that being a popular governor doesn’t necessarily translate to a Senate race. His friend, former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D-Mont.), lost a 2020 Senate contest to Daines.

“It’s a different race,” Tester said. “Much more intense attention, much more costly.”

The annals of political history are littered with popular governors elected with wide bipartisan support who struggled to convince those same voters to send them to the U.S. Senate. Among them: Bullock in Montana, Linda Lingle in Hawaii and Phil Bredesen in Tennessee. Federal races are inherently more nationalized, a dynamic that has become even more apparent since the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion.

“People evaluate the Senate completely differently than they evaluate governor,” Bredesen said in an interview, reflecting on his 2018 loss to Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn. They wanted to know a senator would vote the party line on key issues, he said.

“That’s what I never could get over,” he added. “I mean, the number of people, Republicans, Independents, who told me after that race, ‘You were a great governor, and if you want to run for governor again I’ll always be there. I just can’t send a Democrat to Washington.’”

Trone called Hogan’s move a “desperate attempt to return Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump to power and give them the deciding vote to ban abortion nationwide.”

The Democratic primary in Maryland now takes on far more importance. One of the richest members of Congress, Trone has self-funded his primary campaign with some $23.3 million last year. If he won the nomination, he would provide Democrats with nearly unlimited money — allowing the party to funnel its limited resources elsewhere.

National Democrats were moving quickly Friday to gear up for a potentially competitive race, connecting with top campaigns and preparing to hit Hogan. For people in both parties, Hogan’s entry was a complete surprise.

That was not the case in Montana. Republicans watched nervously for months as Rosendale teased a Senate run and took shots at the D.C. establishment for lining up behind Sheehy. Daines publicly urged him to reconsider running. When that failed, they braced for impact.

But Rosendale’s launch week was saddled with two setbacks. First Speaker Mike Johnson walked back a plan to endorse Rosendale after intraparty blowback. Then Trump blasted out an endorsement of Sheehy just hours after Rosendale filed to run.

That Trump endorsement came after a concerted, months-long effort by Daines to sell the former president on his preferred recruit. Daines personally brought Sheehy to get face time with Trump in South Dakota last year and used his relationship with the former president to tout Sheehy as the strongest candidate to take on Tester.

At Trump’s rally on Thursday in Las Vegas, Sheehy got additional time with the former president. The two met in person in Nevada, according to a person familiar with the interaction.

The endorsement came the following day.

Either way, Tester dismissed Rosendale’s entry into the race, comparing the former Maryland resident similarly to Sheehy: “We’ve got an out-of-stater McConnell recruited and an out-of-stater McConnell didn’t recruit. So what the hell.”

Beating Tester — or other Democrats like Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) or Bob Casey (D-Pa.) — won’t be a layup for the GOP. And few Republicans were willing to predict that Hogan is going to the be their majority-maker, or that the GOP is now favored to take back Senate control.

“It’s too early to say anybody’s an underdog anywhere,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). “In the end, you’ve got to go out and win these races. And if you’re running against an incumbent that’s tough.”

Chuck Schumer moved to wrap up debate on the no-border supplemental spending bill on Friday, putting aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan one step closer to passage. The Senate advanced the $95 billion bill by a 64-19 vote.

Fourteen Republicans voted yes on the measure. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), who caucuses with Democrats, voted against due to concerns over aid to Israel.

Now, the Senate is in for a laggard series of weekend votes before moving on to final passage. That will include a critical vote on Sunday to overcome a filibuster on the bill. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has vowed to object to a time agreement that could speed up progress, meaning senators will have to run out the clock on debate between each vote, since any one senator can object to a time agreement.

That not only slows the bill down, but also means there’s little prospect of a comprehensive series of votes on amendments. Those are most easily scheduled by unanimous agreement among all senators.

“I hope our Republican colleagues can work with us to reach an agreement on amendments, so we can move this process along,” Schumer said Friday. ”Democrats are willing to consider reasonable and fair amendments here on the floor, as we’ve shown on many occasions in the past three years.”

A previous version of the supplemental spending bill that included border spending and policy changes was blocked in the Senate earlier this week. Despite nuking that version of the bill, many Senate Republicans remain adamant that they will not support further aid to Ukraine unless border policy changes are included — this time by amendment.

Absent an agreement with Paul, the Senate’s weekend schedule would likely look something like this:

Saturday: An in-between day for debate on the bill.
Sunday: A vote on whether or not to advance an amendment that changes the underlying text of the bill to the language in the borderless foreign aid legislation. That vote would take 60 votes to pass.
Monday: If the above passes, the Senate would move to a vote on actually approving that amendment, which would take a simple majority. The Senate would then take one more procedural vote to advance the bill further. That would take 60 votes

A final passage vote — which would take a simple majority — could happen either Tuesday or Wednesday.
And if there was any hope for Paul to come around, he told reporters in the Capitol on Friday night that because of “global warming … hell freezing over is going to be a while.”

Schumer repeatedly warned Senate Republicans that he would keep the Senate in session until work on the supplemental was done. That plan will now eat into both the weekend — including Super Bowl Sunday — and a planned two-week recess that was slated to begin next week. Members aren’t especially excited about that reality, but are proceeding nonetheless.

“People are accepting it for what it is,” Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) said.

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.

Senate Democrats say they aren’t worried about fresh allegations that President Joe Biden’s memory is failing. Instead, they’re criticizing Special Counsel Robert Hur for what they’re calling gratuitous attacks.

Hur’s report, released publicly on Thursday, recommended no charges for Biden over his handling of classified documents but indicated a jury might perceive the president to be a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” The report by the Trump-appointed former U.S. attorney for Maryland said Biden had trouble remembering when his term as vice president started and ended and couldn’t recall when his son, Beau, passed away.

The last point, in particular, inflamed Senate Democrats.

“What you have is a grandstander not a prosecutor,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said in a brief interview, adding he expected the U.S. would see Biden “very vigorously engaged” as the campaign season heats up.

“It is outrageous the way he disrespected and maligned the president,” Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said. “What he said about the president not remembering the death of his beloved son is just so despicable.”

Republicans immediately argued the report was further evidence that Biden was not up for another four years of leading the country. Speaker Mike Johnson said bluntly in a Thursday statement that “he is not fit to be President.”

Democrats rebutted on Friday by also saying they haven’t noticed the same issues in personal interactions with Biden. Smith said she spent the bulk of a day traveling recently with Biden and found him to be “at the very top of his game, all the way through it, both in private and in person.” She hit the special prosecutor as “a Trump appointee who, clearly in my mind, when you look at it, has a political ax to grind.”

“I think this issue of age is already out there, and when November comes, it’s going to be a choice between two people,” said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chair of the Armed Services Committee. “I was with a congressional leadership about two weeks ago, and no one walked out of that meeting, saying, ‘Oh, my God, it was like he wasn’t in charge.’”

And several Democrats said this was just a flash in the pan, as Republicans have been coming at Biden over his age for a while. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), one of the most endangered Senate Democrats, said in an interview that he’d yet to review the report but that: “People have been talking about his age for a while. It is what it is.” Asked if he had concerns with regards to Biden’s memory, Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said: “He’s dealing with that. That’s an issue that is well known. It’s not new.”

But how could Biden reassure Americans concerned with his age and memory? “It’s good for him to get out and show himself as much as possible at this point,” Welch replied.

Even those Democrats who acknowledged Biden might have a problem were quick to say that Trump wasn’t any better off.

“Trump is going on 78. And the President is 81 years old. Is that meaningful? Of course not, it’s the same. They are older folks, and they’re our choices,” said Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.)

“Trump doesn’t know if he’s talking about Haley or Pelosi or anything,” he continued, referring to a recent Trump flub. “So we can keep talking back and forth, but it comes back to the very core choice that we have as a nation: Do we want order over chaos? Do we want the truth over lying? Do we want virtue over just corruption and sleaze?”

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.