The Secret Service on Wednesday briefed members of a bipartisan House task force on Sunday’s apparent second attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump — with leadership of the panel praising the agency’s handling of the Florida incident.

Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), the chair of the panel, and Jason Crow (D-Colo.), the task force’s top Democrat, said they believed the Secret Service had made adjustments and that Trump on Sunday received a level of security with was “commensurate” with what a president would receive.

“It’s our understanding that after July 13 that President Biden ordered the Secret Service to provide the same level of security to both Vice President [Kamala] Harris and to former President Trump that would be a presidential level security — commensurate with what the president would receive — and that that security is being provided,” Crow said, though he caveated that beyond a security “package” there are other levels of security that inherently travel with the president.

Kelly echoed that, adding that lawmakers were told during their briefing that the Secret Service had “made adjustments” and that the agency’s “awareness is heightened.”

It’s the first briefing with the Secret Service for the full task force since Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt in Florida. The task force has also requested a briefing with the FBI.

“It’s incumbent upon us to look everywhere we can,” Kelly added.

The task force was established earlier this year to investigate the July 13 assassination attempt at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. But Speaker Mike Johnson said this week that the scope of the task force, which was narrowly crafted, will be expanded by the House to include the latest incident. That is likely to take a House vote unless they can get consent to skip that step.

Beyond the briefing, Kelly said that the task force is talking about going to West Palm Beach for a site visit. Though the whole task force has not scheduled a trip, POLITICO first reported on Tuesday night that individual members of the panel are planning trips down to Florida.

Former President Donald Trump is once again urging House Republicans to shut down the government unless they can pass a GOP proposal tacked onto the current short-term spending plan that requires proof of citizenship in order to register to vote, mere hours before a floor vote.

“If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” he wrote on his Truth Social social media platform. “BE SMART, REPUBLICANS, YOU’VE BEEN PUSHED AROUND LONG ENOUGH BY THE DEMOCRATS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN.”

It’s hardly the first time Trump has drawn such a red line — which congressional Republicans seem prepared to ignore. A growing swath of the conference has acknowledged that Congress is all but guaranteed to pass a short-term spending bill by the Oct. 1 shutdown deadline that will fund the government until after the November election.

But his latest public pressure campaign comes just hours before Speaker Mike Johnson is set to force a vote on his plan to link the voting proposal to a six-month stopgap government funding bill.

Johnson and his leadership team spent the weekend and early this week trying to sway holdouts. As of late last week there were roughly 10 GOP no votes, and several other lawmakers were undecided — meaning the final number of Republicans who vote against the plan could grow.

But that plan is expected to fail given opposition from defense hawks, as well as a band of conservative Republicans who oppose any short-term spending bill. In addition to the “no” votes, Republicans are also expected to have members absent, decreasing their pool of potential yes votes.

Trump has been urging House Republicans for weeks to shut down the government if they can’t pass their voting bill — something that is a nonstarter in the Democratic-controlled Senate and appears unlikely to even be able to pass the House.

And even as Trump pressures lawmakers in his own party, some of his allies aren’t publicly embracing trying to shutter the government just weeks before the election.

Asked if he would follow Trump’s urging, Johnson told reporters earlier that “see what happens with the bill.”

“We’re on the field in the middle of the game, the QB is calling the play and we’re going to run the play,” he added.

Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team spent the weekend trying to shore up support for his short-term government funding plan. But it is still expected to fail when it comes to the floor on Wednesday.

If it fails, it will highlight publicly what some House Republicans have been saying privately for days: They can’t pass any government funding bill on their own and will ultimately need to team up with Democrats to pass a short-term measure, likely into December.

One GOP lawmaker, granted anonymity to speak candidly, questioned how Johnson’s plan could get 218 votes, noting it would be rejected by the Senate anyway and predicting that Congress will “wind up where everybody suspects we wind up”: with a short-term funding bill into December.

But how close is the House GOP conference to accepting that legislative reality? The lawmaker quipped: “I think if you’ve got psychedelics and a bottle of tequila you might get closer.”

As of late last week, roughly 10 GOP members were poised to vote no on Johnson’s spending bill that pairs funding the government through March 28 to a Republican proposal requiring proof of citizenship in order to vote. There are also several other on-the-fence GOP lawmakers, suggesting opposition could grow when the bill comes to the floor.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), in a lengthy X post this week, accused Johnson of “leading a fake fight,” and that his current government funding plan is “already DOA this week.”

“Speaker Johnson needs to go to the Democrats, who he has worked with the entire time, to get the votes he needs to do what he is already planning to do,” wrote Greene, who has vowed to oppose the bill.

House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) also said he is still a “no” on the bill.

Some Republicans are hoping that once the bill fails on the floor Wednesday, it will force Johnson and the rest of the conference to turn to a backup plan. Johnson punted a vote on the bill last week, but some Republicans believe it needs to come to the floor and fail to show its supporters they don’t have the votes.

Johnson, however, told reporters that he wasn’t currently contemplating a Plan B and wasn’t “having any alternative conversations. That’s the play.”

Johnson gave no indication during a closed-door leadership meeting on Tuesday that he was contemplating alternatives, two people familiar with the meeting said. And Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said during the same meeting that he had flipped some members, one of them added.

Emmer told POLITICO after the meeting that “we’ve moved some people.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are preparing to go on offense against Republicans for bringing the government to the brink of a shutdown just weeks before the election. In private meetings this week, Democratic aides have begun crafting their message: Republicans are choosing Project 2025 — the controversial policy plans drafted by conservative think-tanks and Trump allies — over keeping the government open, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) was tapped on Tuesday night to become the next leader of the Freedom Caucus, after the ultra-conservative group was forced to pick a new leader in the wake of the previous chair’s primary loss.

The Freedom Caucus had narrowed it down to Harris or Rep. Andy Biggs — a decision first reported by POLITICO last week. But members of the group were informed Tuesday night, shortly before they were scheduled to convene to pick their next leader, that Biggs had bowed out of the race, five Republicans familiar with the matter confirmed.

That cleared the way for the group to tap Harris to succeed Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) as chair, after the Virginia Republican formally left the post last week following a primary defeat that became official last month. He was ousted by a challenger who was supported by former President Donald Trump and some fellow Republicans inside the conference. Harris was named as chair by acclimation during the group’s Tuesday night meeting, one of the Republicans said.

Harris will serve through the end of 2024 — meaning the group will have two leadership elections in a matter of months. There has been talk of letting whoever won the election this week take over the rest of Good’s term that runs through 2025. Instead, the group is effectively punting a longer-term decision on leadership until after the presidential election. Harris at that point could run for the longer term with one member predicting that it would be a “given” that he would get it.

Those who wanted Harris, an appropriator, viewed him as a new path forward for a caucus that has remained largely divided over which procedural tactics to use for leverage and when to use them.

Harris had also previously expressed interest in leading the group last year, but the top spot ultimately went to Good. While much of the public focus has been on Biggs’ push for chair in recent weeks, Harris has been talking to members of the group about his interest, one person familiar with the outreach said.

Meanwhile, Biggs would have normally been termed out for the role under the group’s rules, Good’s early resignation created a loophole for the chair emeritus. And even by late last week, the group’s leadership board had narrowed their list down to the two conservative Andys, POLITICO first reported. Other Republicans have also been floated as names for when the group holds its next full election, including Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.).

Some of the members viewed Biggs, who was among eight Republicans who voted to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, as a more status-quo choice for leader. Members of the group had also floated him, as well as former Chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.) as placeholders to get the group through the November election and the current funding fights.

Good’s defeat also marked an embarrassing moment for the rebel-heavy group, which cares about its brand as well as perceptions about its strength. Naming a new leader allows them to begin to move on, including putting their focus on the upcoming spending fights.

Good lost to state Sen. John McGuire (R-Va.), a former Navy SEAL who got the backing of McCarthy allies as well as Trump, who took issue with Good backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis early in the presidential primary. Good’s district leans Republican, and McGuire is heavily favored to win the general election in November.

Good, meanwhile, is expected to remain a member of both the Freedom Caucus and in the House until the end of his term.

The House passed an emergency spending bill Tuesday night to boost veterans funding by almost $2.9 billion amid Biden administration warnings that VA benefits are at risk this month.

While that multi-billion-dollar infusion has bipartisan support, a follow-on tranche could be harder fought. The Department of Veterans Affairs expects a much larger shortfall over the next year, and Republicans aren’t agreeing upfront to filling the funding gap as they prepare to play hardball over government spending totals after Election Day.

Republicans blame the VA’s funding gap on budget mismanagement by the Biden administration, while also acknowledging that the VA has been providing health care and disability benefits to more veterans since Congress cleared a bill in 2022 to expand services to those exposed to toxic substances.

“But this isn’t smoke and mirrors. There are more veterans, there are more benefits. These are good things,” said Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), the bill’s sponsor. “All we’re asking for is the president’s budget request and the congressional processes reflect the higher demands and thus the higher dollar values.”

Broader fight: Beyond the almost $2.9 billion the House backed Tuesday by voice vote, the Biden administration estimates a shortfall of nearly $12 billion in veterans services through next fall.

The extra sum could become a conflict point this month as congressional leaders negotiate a bipartisan stopgap funding bill to keep government agencies funded beyond Oct. 1. And if the shortfall isn’t remedied in that patch, it’s expected to factor into negotiations later this year when congressional leaders haggle over the “topline” funding levels that set the framework for final government funding bills.

That’s because VA funding typically falls under the non-defense bucket Democrats will be trying to increase, as Republican leaders argue for a higher share on the defense side of the ledger. Counting extra VA money under the domestic total would benefit GOP negotiators, while breaking it out as emergency cash would likely afford Democrats more leverage in scoring other non-defense funding.

What’s next: Senate leaders are expected to fast-track passage of the VA patch to clear the measure for President Joe Biden’s signature in the next few days. The Biden administration told lawmakers in July that the money is needed to ensure payments aren’t missed on Oct. 1.

Sen. Jon Tester’s (D-Mont.) reelection was already difficult. It just got a little harder.

The Montana state Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling Tuesday that Green Party candidate Robert Barb can remain on the ballot for this fall’s Senate race, a blow to state Democrats who had fervently tried to block him out of fear he would pull votes away from the highly vulnerable Tester.

Of the incumbents running for reelection, Tester is locked in the most difficult race in a state that Donald Trump won handily in 2020. He faces Republican Tim Sheehy and two third-party candidates, Barb and a Libertarian.

Barb replaced the original Green Party nominee after the primary winner dropped out of the race. The state Democratic Party argued that proper procedure was not followed, and that Barb should be booted from the ballot. Their efforts clearly underscored the threat they believe Barb could pose to Tester.

There’s some evidence that’s the case. A recent AARP-commissioned poll found that Sheehy led Tester by 6 points in a head-to-head ballot but by 8 points when the Green and Libertarian nominees were included. (Though they tested Michael Downey, the initial Green Party nominee, in that poll.)

In their lawsuit, the state Democratic Party said that a candidate swap would force them “to divert staff time and resources to developing new messaging strategies that appeal to voters choosing between the Democratic and Green Party candidates.”

There was no Green Party candidate on the ballot in Tester’s 2018 race, when he won by 3.5 points. But there was a Libertarian candidate on the ballot who drew 2.9 percent of the vote.

Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that House Republicans are “looking at” potentially adding new funding for the Secret Service into a short-term funding bill — though he appeared skeptical that more money is the solution for the agency.

“We’re looking at that. I think it’s a matter of manpower allocation. We don’t want to just throw more money at a broken system. We’re looking at all aspects of it, and we’ll make the right determination,” Johnson told reporters when asked if he thought there was a need to include more Secret Service funding in the stopgap spending bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR.

Johnson’s comments come in the wake of an apparent second attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, which has fueled new questions from lawmakers about the agency.

Though House Republicans have been more complimentary of the agents on the ground on Sunday, they’re still critical of leadership at the Department of Homeland Security and have questions about how the Secret Service is allocating resources.

The funding discussion comes as Congress is facing an Oct. 1 deadline to avoid a government shutdown. Johnson will force a Wednesday vote on legislation to fund the government through March 28, paired with GOP legislation requiring proof of citizenship in order to register to vote.

But that measure is not expected to pass, with Republicans on both sides of the aisle waiting to see what Johnson’s Plan B will be. There’s a growing recognition among House Republicans that they will likely end up passing a short-term government funding bill into December without the so-called SAVE Act attached.

Senate appropriators are in talks with the Secret Service about its need for additional resources. But it’s unclear if it will get attached to this month’s short-term funding bill. Separate from more funding, they are also floating giving the agency more spending flexibility in the eventual CR.