Japanese PM urges support for Ukraine in address to Congress
lead image
Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP Whip Tom Emmer tried to meet into the night with many of the 19 Republicans who tanked a key procedural vote on the reauthorization of a controversial surveillance program.
The defeat on the floor Wednesday was the fourth failed procedural vote in the last six months since Johnson took the speakership.
The issue at hand: A measure to reauthorize and change Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allowing the intelligence community to gather and sort the communications of foreign targets without a warrant.
Johnson could bring the surveillance bill’s rule back up for a vote Thursday, but the outcome of those evening meetings with FISA critics are not yet clear.
The collapse of the FISA measure followed former President Donald Trump’s social media push for lawmakers to kill the bill. That adds to the growing list of congressional priorities that Trump has scuttled in recent months, from the bipartisan border agreement in the Senate to Ukraine aid and now FISA. Johnson’s trip to Mar-a-Lago on Friday will follow a bruising week in the House.
Key schedule squeeze to look out for: The joint meeting and speech from Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Members have to be in their seats in the House chamber before 10:30 on Thursday morning.
Speaker Mike Johnson hauled in more than $20 million during the first quarter of the year, his office will announce Thursday in a report shared first with POLITICO.
The Louisiana Republican has worked aggressively to meet high expectations of him on the fundraising circuit, and his high intake during his first full quarter in the job indicates success breaking through with high-dollars donors his party needs to hang onto the House majority this fall.
So far, Johnson has traveled to more than 20 states for fundraising and campaigning with GOP candidates since he won the gavel in October, according to his office.
“In less than six months as Speaker, we have hit the ground running to ensure House Republicans will have the resources necessary to win in battlegrounds across America — and we cannot slow down now,” Johnson said in a statement, while also thanking supporters of the House GOP’s efforts.
One of the party’s biggest worries when Johnson claimed the speakership was whether he could keep up the torrid fundraising pace of his predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Johnson’s persona may be less back-slapping than McCarthy’s, but his robust first quarter indicates that he’s making progress on that front. The speaker previously told POLITICO that he’s grateful for McCarthy’s help connecting him with thick-wallet donors.
But in a sign of a challenging election cycle to come for Johnson’s conference, the House Majority PAC — the super PAC dedicated to electing House Democrats — out-raised its GOP counterpart, the Congressional Leadership Fund, during the first quarter of the year.
Senate Majority PAC, a group aligned with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, raised $39.3 million in the first three months of 2024 — about $15 million more than its GOP counterpart.
The group ended March with $92 million in the bank, according to numbers shared first with POLITICO.
SMP is the largest Democratic outside group focused on Senate races. It will spend tens of millions of dollars to protect Democrats’ narrow majority, facing a grueling map that includes three Democrats in states that former President Donald Trump carried. Republicans may need just one seat to gain control of the chamber.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a group aligned with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, announced earlier this week it raised $24.4 million in the first quarter and ended March with $59.5 million in the bank.
“SMP continues to break records with our fundraising because Democrats are focused and motivated on holding the Senate,” SMP President JB Poersch said in a statement. “As out-of-touch, carpetbagging GOP candidates try and use their shady wealth to buy Senate seats across the map, these resources have never been more important.”
House Republicans on Wednesday brought down their own speaker’s third attempt to reauthorize a controversial spy power — a fresh blow to the perpetually embattled Mike Johnson.
Nineteen Republicans voted to block debate on legislation that would have made changes to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs communications from foreigners outside of the United States that are collected without a warrant.
Johnson pushed forward with trying to bring the bill to the floor despite growing angst on his right flank and former President Donald Trump’s urging that Republicans “KILL” the larger surveillance law. Congress now has no clear path to extending an program that administrations in both parties have touted as vital to national security before its April 19 expiration.
Speaker Mike Johnson and former President Donald Trump are preparing for a Friday appearance together at Mar-a-Lago, according to two people with direct knowledge of the planning.
The side-by-side comes as Trump, now the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, continues cementing his influence over congressional Republican policymaking — and as Johnson grapples with the resulting effects on his legislative agenda. Earlier Wednesday, Trump urged GOP lawmakers to “KILL” a wiretapping bill that Johnson still hopes to clear by the end of the week, despite mounting conservative skepticism.
CNN first reported the plans for a Trump-Johnson appearance in Florida.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene met with Speaker Mike Johnson as she continues to openly discuss her motion to vacate the chair.
Greene (R-Ga.) said following the meeting that Johnson made “a lot of excuses” and that the speaker gave her no guarantees on how he would proceed on foreign aid and a controversial surveillance program.
She said he floated the idea of a Cabinet of advisers though she wouldn’t commit to supporting that idea.
“I said ‘I’ll wait and see what his proposal is on that.’ Right now, he does not have my support, and I’m watching what happens with FISA and Ukraine,” she said after the meeting, referring to the reauthorization of the controversial surveillance program, known as section 702, currently before the House.
Before the speaking meeting, Greene also said she spoke with former President Donald Trump on Tuesday prior to the presumptive Republican nominee urging House Republicans to kill an extension of the surveillance tool.
There are a growing number of signs that Speaker Mike Johnson’s right flank could scuttle House debate on a bill reauthorizing a controversial government surveillance authority.
Johnson has warned opponents that if they fail again this week — which would be the third time one corner of his conference has derailed the legislation — the Senate could try to jam them with an extension that makes no changes to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which targets communications by foreigners outside of the United States.
On Tuesday night, the Rules Committee voted to tee up the bill to the floor, along with votes on six amendments. The House is set to vote Wednesday to greenlight debate on legislation. Congress has until April 19 to reauthorize the wiretapping authority.
House Republicans will meet for a closed-door conference Wednesday, during which they are expected to debate the 702 bill. And if the measure makes it to the floor, it’s not actually expected to get a vote until Thursday. But it’s not clear that members of the Freedom Caucus and their allies will prevent the bill from coming to the floor, or if they are just venting their frustration at both the process and Johnson.
Aides involved with the debate believed at the start of the week that they would be able to get reauthorization legislation up for debate, and the intelligence community and its congressional allies were feeling increasingly optimistic about the chances of passing a bill this week.
But anger from the right at Johnson has grown over the last 24 hours as lawmakers reconvened in Washington for the first time in two weeks. And the Louisiana Republican can only lose two of his own members to get the bill to the floor.
The House will also get a closed-door briefing Wednesday from members of the intelligence community, giving them a chance to make the pitch directly to members on a spy authority they view as a critical national security tool.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has already vowed to oppose the rule if it didn’t tee up an amendment vote on a proposal to prevent data brokers from selling consumer information to law enforcement. It is not expected to get an amendment vote as part of the 702 debate, but leadership has indicated it could come up as a separate standalone this week.
“Count on me to vote against proceeding onto that legislation unless we at least have the opportunity to get votes on the things that will fix the problem. If Speaker Johnson is unwilling to fix FISA we are left wondering what he is indeed willing to fix,” Gaetz said on his podcast on Tuesday.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who is not a member of the Freedom Caucus, said he’s “leaning against” voting for the bill to be brought to the floor, though he hadn’t totally made up his mind. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the Rules Committee, predicted the resolution teeing up debate for the spy power would fail on the floor, pointing to the number of House Republicans wearing “no spy” buttons.
And another voice in opposition emerged overnight: Former President Donald Trump, who posted on his platform Truth Social, “KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!”
The House bill does contain changes to FISA overall that would address concerns Trump mentioned in his post, which do not directly involve section 702. And Johnson had tried to allievate some of Trump’s previous concerns in a Friday letter, writing: “Had these safeguards been in place when President Trump was running for election in 2016, I am confident the baseless attack against his campaign would never have been possible. With this bill’s enactment, we are ensuring that can never happen again.”
The Republican Steering Committee unanimously endorsed Rep. Tom Cole late Tuesday to chair the House Appropriations Committee, ahead of a final vote expected Wednesday from the full House Republican Conference.
Cole is running unopposed for the top Appropriations post and easily won backing from the Steering panel, which tends to favor more establishment candidates for leadership positions. The Oklahoma Republican, who would be the first from his state to serve as chair of the panel, is set to succeed Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who announced late last month that she would give up the gavel early, before retiring from Congress next year.
Walking into the closed-door selection meeting Tuesday evening, Cole said being chair has been his “longtime goal.”
“It’s an enormous opportunity. Great challenge. Dream come true,” he added.
Cole currently serves as chair of the Rules Committee, vice chair of the Appropriations Committee and leader of the Transportation-HUD funding subcommittee. Securing the endorsement of nearly every other senior Republican appropriator, his installation at the top of the committee has been long anticipated.
An ally to leadership, Cole has helped negotiate bipartisan funding deals necessary to thwart government shutdowns, which have increasingly fueled rancor over spending within the GOP conference.
Bipartisan support: Many Democrats have praised Cole for his collegial style and track record of working across the aisle on annual spending bills.
“Tom is one of the most respected people on the committee in both parties,” Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democratic appropriator, said in an interview last week. “In the past I’ve seen nothing but professionalism, despite his, you know, strong conservative voice. But he respects the institution. And these days, that alone is worth celebration.”
Cole also has experience leading the Labor-HHS-Education and Legislative Branch subcommittees, in addition serving a long tenure on the Defense spending panel.
Reform push: Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), the House’s most senior GOP appropriator besides Granger, entertained a challenge to Cole but didn’t enter the race. Aligning himself with conservatives, Aderholt still positioned himself as an alternative to the Oklahoma Republican, proposing reforms aimed at assuaging GOP members who have become increasingly fed up with an appropriations process viewed as wasteful and closed off to rank-and-file members.
“There’s a lot of members of Congress, rank and file members, that really just don’t trust the appropriations process,” Aderholt said in an interview Tuesday.
The Alabama Republican leads the Labor-HHS-Education spending subcommittee and voted against his own funding bill last month in protest of earmarks Senate Democrats inserted. Now he wants to usher in a change that would require all four subcommittee chairs, across both chambers, to sign off on any earmarks in order for those funds to make it to the president’s desk, among other changes.
“I’m just hoping I can work with him and try to make some of these common sense changes,” Aderholt said of Cole.
Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
Senate Republicans are trying to orchestrate the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to exact maximum political pain on their top Democratic targets in November — especially Sens. Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown.
Democrats are signaling they’ll quickly shut down the Mayorkas trial once they receive impeachment articles from the House. Given the anti-Mayorkas fervor among Republicans — which on Tuesday resulted in the House delaying the trial until next week to heighten focus on the vote — Democrats will need near-unanimity to dismiss it.
That puts vulnerable Democrats like Tester (Mont.) and Brown (Ohio) in an unenviable bind, and some of their purple-state colleagues will also feel the heat. The upper chamber’s campaign map this year already favors Republicans tremendously, and the GOP wants to exploit Democrats’ vulnerabilities on the topic as migration surges to take back the chamber.
Democrats are hoping to quickly move past the trial and remind voters that their GOP colleagues tanked a border deal earlier this year. But until then, Republicans are looking forward to making them squirm — despite the fact that several Republicans previously panned the House’s impeachment efforts.
“Not dealing with it in some way runs the risk of putting a lot of their incumbent Democrats and probably, for that matter, candidates in other races around the country, in a really difficult position,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). “I would not want to be them, defending that vote.”
Thune pointed to Brown and Tester specifically. Illustrating that point, neither would explicitly commit as of Tuesday to supporting a motion to table or dismiss the trial, which would effectively end proceedings off the bat. After saying in February he’d vote to scuttle the trial, Tester said this week he is waiting to see the actual articles of impeachment. Brown said it’s “likely” he’d support dismissal but did not go further.
Still, both of them stressed their decision would not be based on political risks. Brown called the issue a “distraction” and insisted he cared little about the GOP “playing politics.” Tester said Republicans using the vote against him was “not a damn concern, honestly.”
“They’re going to say whatever they want to say, whenever they want to say it. They’re already doing it,” Tester added.
The third-term Montanan is already facing ads back home hitting him for his record on immigration. And there’s almost certainly more to come.
“Any senators who vote against holding an impeachment trial for Secretary Mayorkas are absolving Mayorkas and the Biden Administration of their roles in creating this border crisis, and we will hold them accountable in November,” said Torunn Sinclair, a spokesperson for Senate Leadership Fund, the main GOP Senate super PAC.
In a closed-door lunch on Tuesday, Senate Republicans discussed how to best highlight Democrats’ rejection of the Mayorkas impeachment trial. They reasoned that delivering articles on Wednesday would potentially allow Democrats to bury the trial on Thursday night and quickly move on, according to an attendee. They also discussed Tester’s new comments about reviewing the articles after vowing to dismiss them earlier this year, with some arguing the GOP’s pressure tactics are working.
Ultimately, Republican senators and Speaker Mike Johnson agreed to change course and start the proceedings on Monday. And Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) made clear how he believes the politics will play out: “My hope is that the good people in Montana and Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania — that they hold their senators accountable this November.”
It’s not the first time surging migration has come to the forefront of national politics in recent months. As Biden’s numbers on immigration sagged last year, he and his party ended up signing off on stricter new immigration and border policies in a deal with Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.).
Yet after months of negotiations, prompted by Republicans who demanded border changes be tied to further Ukraine aid, GOP senators overwhelmingly blocked an agreement in February. They did so after former President Donald Trump announced his opposition to the deal.
As Tester has faced the GOP’s immigration attacks, he’s called on Democratic leaders to force Republicans to vote again on the bipartisan border deal. He argued Republicans’ impeachment strategy is an attempt to shift blame for that bill’s failure. Similarly, Brown said the GOP’s decision to pursue the impeachment but not to pass the bipartisan border deal earlier this year “speaks volumes.”
Some Senate Republicans have also independently cast doubt on the merits of impeaching Mayorkas in the first place, though some of those senators have signaled they’ll likely vote against dismissing the trial. The impeachment took two tries to pass in the House due to the opposition of three GOP lawmakers.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, insisted the impeachment effort “is just political theater” and said he was confident it would not harm his incumbents. Still, they are moving ahead cautiously on border issues.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), another vulnerable incumbent, also did not commit to supporting a motion to dismiss this month. But she echoed Tester and Brown’s sentiment, charging Republicans with politicizing the border and trying to distract from the border package failure.
“They are clearly going to use all this as a political football. They are not thinking about how we address the crisis on our border,” she said.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) is expected to vote to shut down the trial. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) did not directly answer a question on whether or not he’d support a motion to dismiss the trial. He did, however, say that “the Senate should be spending time passing the bipartisan border deal” and that he has “no doubt at all” that Republicans will try to use the outcome against him and other vulnerable Democrats.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, effectively confirmed Democrats’ predictions.
“Border is the No. 1 issue for the American people,” Daines told POLITICO of how the trial outcomes may reflect on Democrats. “So they’ll be paying very close attention to what happens with Mayorkas.”
Of course, Senate Democrats could proceed with a trial if they wanted to. But doing so could take days, if not weeks, and would put even more of a spotlight on the contentious issue of immigration. The entire Mayorkas impeachment effort amounts to a GOP rebuke of how the Biden administration has handled the southern border. Democrats aren’t eager to debate the administration’s success.
And Republicans know it.
“It would be a lot of talk about the border,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “They want to change the subject. So I get it. They want to move on.”
Anthony Adragna contributed to this report.