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Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview Tuesday morning he would allow a floor vote on a bipartisan bill compelling the full release of the Jeffrey Epstein files — once the House comes back into session following the end of the government shutdown.

“If it hits 218, it comes to the floor,” Johnson said of the discharge petition, a procedural maneuver that allows members to bypass leadership to force a floor vote on legislation if it receives that requisite number of lawmaker signatures.

The discharge petition, led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), will reach that threshold once Johnson swears in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who won a special election weeks ago to succeed her late father, Raúl Grijalva. Johnson, however, has said he will not officially seat her until Democrats in the Senate vote on House-passed legislation to fund the government — a decision Democrats say is driven by his desire to keep a vote on the Epstein files at bay.

Johnson also insisted he would not stand in the way of allowing the bill to come to the floor, as he has done in recent months. “No, we’re not — that’s how it works: If you get the signatures, it goes to a vote.”

That he won’t seek to a block a vote on the discharge petition if it gets 218 signers echoes comments he has made privately to fellow House Republicans for months. But Johnson also has in the past worked with senior House GOP leaders to circumvent that outcome, including by adjourning the House early for the August recess and shutting down the Rules Committee, which sets parameters for much of the chamber’s floor activity.

White House officials and senior Republicans also have, for weeks, been waging a quiet pressure campaign to get the three female Republicans to remove their names from the discharge petition — without success.

In any event, Johnson added, the Massie-Khanna vote was now “totally superfluous … All this work’s been done and will continue to be done.”

His comments follow lengthy remarks at a press conference earlier Tuesday morning, where Johnson praised the work of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for leading an investigation into the late, convicted sex offender. So far, he said, the panel has released 43,000 pages of documents, issued many deposition subpoenas and received suspicious activity reports from the Treasury Department’s financial records.

Among the files now public are Epstein’s personal phone logs, financial ledgers and daily calendars.

“The bipartisan House Oversight Committee is already accomplishing what the discharge petition, that gambit, sought and much more,” Johnson said, at the press conference, adding that all “credible information” would be released to the public as part of the panel’s monthslong probe into the matter, while taking precautions to protect Epstein’s accusers.

“I’ve met with some of the Epstein victims,” Johnson said. “We’re working around the clock to ensure that justice is served and also as part of the oversight to figure out why justice has been delayed for so long.”

Still, Johnson lamented, “some Democrats and sadly even a couple Republicans have tried to make this a political issue.”

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), also on hand for the press conference Tuesday, said his committee’s work has demonstrated that President Donald Trump was not implicated in the Epstein case, despite Trump’s admitted relationship with Epstein years ago.

Comer added that the panel was working to bring former President Bill Clinton, whose relationship with Epstein has also been long chronicled, in for a deposition. He later told reporters that Clinton’s legal team has been cooperating with his office toward that end.

The Justice Department, though, has signaled it will only resume cooperation with the committee to transmit information to Capitol Hill once the government shutdown ends.

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Trump-pardoned Jan. 6 rioter arrested for allegedly threatening to kill Jeffries

A man pardoned by President Donald Trump for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 was arrested last week for allegedly threatening to kill House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Christopher Moynihan, who was among a small group of Jan. 6 rioters convicted for breaching the Senate floor and rifling through senators’ desks, was arrested by New York State Police after a “thorough investigation,” which authorities say began with an anonymous tip to the FBI.

Court records reflect that the FBI’s tipster told the bureau that on Oct. 17, Moynihan “made statements regarding the assassination of Congressman Hakeem Jeffries” and that he planned to carry out the attack “in a few days,” while the Democratic House leader was in New York. The person told the FBI that Moynihan described the motivation for the plot as “the future” and voiced concern that the man given clemency by Trump had been abusing drugs and expressing increasing “homicidal ideations.”

Investigators also indicated they had reason to believe Moynihan owned or had access to a firearm. Moynihan’s Oct. 19 arrest was first reported by CBS News. He faces a charge of making a terroristic threat against a member of Congress. Jeffries praised state and federal authorities for apprehending Moynihan and lamented Trump’s blanket pardon.

“Unfortunately, our brave men and women in law enforcement are being forced to spend their time keeping our communities safe from these violent individuals who should never have been pardoned,” Jeffries said in a statement.

Moynihan was part of a group of Trump supporters who entered the Capitol early Jan. 6, reaching the Senate chamber just minutes after lawmakers evacuated. Charging documents from that case say Moynihan could be seen on video reviewing papers on senators’ desks and saying, “There’s got to be something we can use against these fucking scumbags.” He then stood on the Senate dais — where then-Vice President Mike Pence had stood just minutes earlier — alongside “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley and others who formed the early vanguard of the Jan. 6 mob.

Moynihan was convicted in 2022 at a bench trial by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who later sentenced him to 21 months in prison for obstructing Congress’ proceedings on Jan. 6, 2021.

Cooper released him from prison a year into his sentence after the Supreme Court agreed to review questions about the way obstruction charges had been applied to those who attacked the Capitol. In reaching the decision,Cooper emphasized that he believed Moynihan “would not present a danger to the community” upon release.

After Trump’s inauguration, Moynihan’s case was dismissed altogether, following Trump’s grant of clemency to those who participated in the Jan. 6 riot.

Moynihan is one of a growing list of Jan. 6 defendants who have been charged with, convicted of, or sentenced for other crimes since Trump ended the nationwide manhunt. One of them, Edward Kelley, was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year for attempting to carry out an assassination plot against law enforcement officials who investigated him over his role in the riot.

Others have faced burglary, possession of child pornography or firearms-related charges. But Moynihan is the first Jan. 6 defendant accused of explicitly targeting a member of Congress for violence after Trump’s pardon.

Moynihan‘s arrest is also notable because it arrives in the midst of a national debate over political violence, particularly in the wake of the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Trump and his allies have repeatedly ascribed political violence exclusively to left-wing extremists, and the president has worked in recent weeks to push conspiracy theories that the Jan. 6 attack was instigated by the FBI or other government actors, rather than supporters who believed that the 2020 election was stolen.

Asked about the threat against Jeffries, Speaker Mike Johnson called it “terrible” but reiterated that “The violence on the left is far more than the violence on the right.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

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Trump-backed Gallrein officially launches bid to unseat Massie

Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie has officially drawn a Donald Trump-backed challenger.

Ed Gallrein, who preemptively earned the president’s endorsement last week, launched his campaign Tuesday to oust the seven-term lawmaker Trump began targeting earlier this year over Massie’s opposition to Republicans’ megalaw.

“This district is Trump Country. The President doesn’t need obstacles in Congress — he needs backup,” Gallrein said in a statement. “I’ll defeat Thomas Massie, stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, and deliver the America First results Kentuckians voted for.”

Trump hailed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL captain who ran unsuccessfully for state Senate last year, as a “WINNER WHO WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN” in a Truth Social post last week. He also said Massie “must be thrown out of office, ASAP.”

Massie is dismissing Gallrein as a threat, casting his opponent to POLITICO last week as a “failed candidate and establishment hack.” He later took to X to post vote totals showing he outran Gallrein in the counties they overlapped last year. And he recently posted the biggest fundraising quarter of his career, hauling in $768,000 from July to September and entering October with more than $2 million in cash on hand.

The president has been searching for a challenger to Massie since the Kentuckian voted against the “big, beautiful bill.” Trump’s political operation launched a super PAC aimed at unseating Massie in June, as the representative pushed to reassert congressional authority over Trump’s military actions in Iran. The group, MAGA KY, has spent $1.8 million on independent expenditures so far.

Trump’s effort is coming to a head just as Massie is poised to secure the required 218 signatures to end-run Speaker Mike Johnson and force a floor vote on compelling release of the Justice Department’s entire file on the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump and his team also vetted state Sen. Aaron Reed, who narrowly defeated Gallrein in the GOP primary for that seat last year. Some Republicans had hoped former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron would drop his bid to replace retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell and enter the race against Massie instead.

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

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Capitol agenda: Time for a new CR?

Republicans know the House-passed funding patch is probably no longer viable as the shutdown inches closer to the Nov. 21 expiration date. But they’re split over how much more time they should give themselves to come up with a plan to fund the government for a full fiscal year.

Some fiscal hard-liners, who generally don’t want to vote for a bill that would raise spending levels, are now advocating for a continuing resolution that would run until March or even to the beginning of the next fiscal year, according to three Republicans granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. At the same time, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) says she is “adamantly opposed” to a long-term CR that could undermine the chances of quickly locking in fiscal 2026 funding.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, when asked if he would support a CR running until next Oct. 1, said he’s in favor of “doing the appropriations process,” but that Democrats “may not leave any alternatives” if talks continue to flounder.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who the White House has leaned on to help lead bipartisan negotiations among the rank-and-file, also had a dim outlook Monday, saying discussions are “not really happening” anymore and the two sides are at an “impasse.”

If Republicans do decide to pitch a longer-term CR, they have an idea for trying to entice Democrats to come on board: offer to hold a separate vote on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits.

GOP leaders are privately ramping up talks within their senior ranks and with White House officials over what guardrails they could put on the subsidies to make an extension more palatable to conservatives, once the government is reopened. There’s recognition that allowing the subsidies to expire could cause major political headaches heading into an election year — and also that Democrats won’t vote to end the shutdown without some sort of ACA victory.

One option under consideration is advancing a year-end health care policy package that pairs items from a GOP wishlist with a two-year extension of scaled-back ACA subsidies, then attaching that package to a bundle of full-year spending bills.

Muscling something like that through the House would be tricky for Speaker Mike Johnson, who may not be able to convince enough of his members to accept any form of an Obamacare extension.

For now though, conservatives like Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) seem optimistic — depending on how quickly ACA credits are phased out and whether the GOP gets policy wins like encouraging the use of tax-free Health Savings Accounts.

“If we have health care reforms on the table that protect and provide greater freedom and independence for patients and doctors, then I’m on board with things that would help build a package,” Roy said.

What else we’re watching:

— Heading to the White House: President Donald Trump invited Senate Republicans for a lunch Tuesday in the Rose Garden Club to celebrate their unity in the government shutdown fight and for passing nominees.

— Smooth sailing for DCA bill: Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) expects his committee to easily approve aircraft safety legislation Tuesday morning — the first major legislative response to the deadly passenger jet crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport earlier this year. The bipartisan bill would strengthen oversight of flight routes and require military aircraft to be equipped with transponding technology.

Jordain Carney and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

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GOP leaders map out potential Obamacare extension as hard-liners warm to health talks

Republican leaders on Capitol Hill are quietly ramping up talks within their senior ranks and with White House officials over how to structure and advance a potential extension of key Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies before the end of the year, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the conversations.

One option under serious consideration is, once the government shutdown ends, attaching a revamped subsidy framework to a small bipartisan package of full-year funding bills or a long-term stopgap running through early next year, the people said. GOP leaders have been encouraged as some of their party’s most conservative members warm up to potentially passing an extension — albeit with major provisos.

Key Republicans have floated a list of possible ways to curb the subsidies without eliminating them entirely when they expire on Dec. 31. Those include imposing an income cap for beneficiaries, forcing some individuals to pay a minimum out-of-pocket premium or grandfathering in current enrollees while cutting off new enrollment.

The expiring health insurance subsidies are at the heart of Democrats’ shutdown demands, and extending them will require a bipartisan deal to get them enacted in Congress. But while some Republicans are quietly talking about options across party lines, GOP leaders are publicly insisting they will only seriously discuss an extension deal after Democrats agree to reopen the government.

Still, it’s significant that those leaders are sketching out what a deal might look like and how it might move through the House and Senate once agencies reopen. While the three people said the conversations remain high-level at this point, one option under early consideration is to pair a two-year extension of scaled-back subsidies with some other conservative health care policy provisions, then attach it to some of the annual spending bills that have so far been stuck in partisan limbo.

Passing that package through the House would be tricky for Speaker Mike Johnson, who would likely face opposition from hard-liners firmly opposed to any extension of the Democratic health law known as Obamacare. The three people said the plan would involve advancing it through the chamber under “suspension of the rules,” a procedure that would sidestep a tricky party-line procedural vote but would require a two-thirds bipartisan majority to pass.

Doing so, the people said, would require a public endorsement from President Donald Trump in order to build GOP support for the package.

White House officials have been involved in the internal discussions about structuring the extension of the subsidies and about what other GOP health policy priorities might be included alongside it.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has been publicly pushing to add provisions that could build more conservative support, including expanding association health plans and encouraging the use of tax-free Health Savings Accounts.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune also made clear in an interview last week he is seeking new restrictions on the subsidies as part of any extension — and possibly other conservative health policies as well.

Building GOP support in the House, where a major swath of Republicans oppose any ACA extension, is a huge task. But even some prominent hard-liners are now publicly saying they could possibly support a larger health care package — so long as any extension of the subsidies includes significant changes.

They’ve been privately signaling as much for weeks now and are eager to steer the talks to add more conservative policy items, especially as Trump himself has said he’s open to negotiating a larger health care deal after the shutdown ends.

They’re also hoping to shape how the deal moves through Congress. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), chair of the House Freedom Caucus, said in an interview Monday that while leadership could move a health care package attached to a bundle of funding bills, he said he would prefer “a standalone bill.”

The spending bills, Harris said, “should be kept as clean as possible.” And he added that his support for the health care piece “depends on what the whole package is” and that he wants the ACA credits to be eventually sunsetted completely in any deal.

“If you had tremendous savings over 10 years and you were able to wind down the Covid-era enhancements — yeah, I mean, we’ll look at anything,” he added.

Rank-and-file Democrats have been warming to income caps and other new restrictions for the ACA subsidies themselves, but it’s not at all clear they would be willing to accept a total phase-out of the subsidies — let alone other GOP health policies.

In other words, finding middle ground with Republicans who want a more serious overhaul of the health care system could be impossible. But for now, GOP members such as Texas Rep. Chip Roy are sounding an upbeat note.

He, too, said his support would depend on how quickly the expanded subsidies are phased out and the larger scope of health policy proposals — listing provisions that would boost “direct primary care, Health Savings Accounts” as items conservatives are interested in.

“You wrap that in then with whatever it takes to get the votes,” he said. “I’m always open to that.”

Benjamin Guggenheim contributed to this report.

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Republicans broach a longer stopgap bill as shutdown enters fourth week

When House Republicans first passed a stopgap spending bill last month, it was written to give Congress a seven-week window to come to a long-term deal on government funding.

With the government shutdown now running into a fourth week, that original Nov. 21 deadline is looming fast — and numerous Republicans acknowledged Monday a new, longer stopgap bill will be needed.

What they don’t yet agree on is how much more time to give themselves to score a more enduring deal given that negotiations with Democrats to end the shutdown are virtually nonexistent.

GOP leaders are discussing dates ranging from mid-December to deep into 2026, and — in hopes of bringing Democrats aboard a shutdown-ending stopgap — they have offered to hold a separate vote on extending key health insurance subsidies alongside it. Altering the end date would also require the House to return at some point from its month-long shutdown recess to approve the measure.

But reopening the timing debate is risky and divisive inside the GOP. Leaders face a similar dilemma as they did before the shutdown began: Appropriators generally want a shorter stopgap, allowing them to write bipartisan bills, while conservative hard-liners want a longer continuing resolution running until March or even to the beginning of the next fiscal year, according to three Republicans granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune raised the possibility Monday that lawmakers would need “something much longer term” into 2026 if the current stalemate continues.

“I’m for doing the appropriations process, but, you know, at some point [Democrats] may not leave any alternatives,” Thune said when asked if he would support a CR until next Oct. 1.

Going that far into next year would spark pushback from members of the Appropriations Committee, who want to lock in a fiscal 2026 funding deal as soon as possible. The deeper Congress goes into the fiscal year, they worry, the less appetite there will be for reaching an agreement that doesn’t just extend funding levels set more than 18 months ago.

“We’re probably going to have to extend the CR date because the Democrats have held us up for weeks now,” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters Monday. “Having said that I don’t want to go into next year and I am adamantly opposed to having a long-term CR.”

The backdrop of the timing debate is a bipartisan negotiation process that has almost completely broken down, if it ever really started in the first place. Thune and other senators acknowledged one-off conversations here and there in interviews Monday, but the group of rank-and-file senators who gathered early in the shutdown to try and forge a deal have made no significant progress.

“They’re not really happening,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said on Monday of the bipartisan talks, adding that the two sides were at an “impasse.”

Getting Democrats to agree to a longer CR is far from a sure thing. They’re almost certain to balk at the idea of going into next year without an agreement on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.

While Senate Republicans are willing to give Democrats a vote on extending those subsidies immediately after they vote to reopen the government, Democrats have been holding out for firmer guarantees that an extension can pass the House and get signed into law by President Donald Trump.

Private Senate GOP discussions about changing the expiration date for a stopgap spilled into public view when Mullin suggested more than a week ago that Republicans needed to start thinking about a longer window, potentially to Dec. 18 or 19. House GOP hard-liners argued strongly against that December timeline in conversations with senior Republicans, according to two other people granted anonymity to describe private talks.

But with the clock ticking, Mullin opened the door Monday to a 2026 expiration date given the current shutdown stalemate.

The idea of going deeper into the year — or potentially next year — has gained traction with a growing number of Republicans who acknowledge that they will need more than just a month to negotiate a sweeping deal that would set new funding levels, and new policy priorities, for the rest of the fiscal year.

“The 11/21 extension is no longer tenable & should be extended much further out,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), a close Trump ally, tweeted Monday.

Calen Razor contributed to this report.

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Thune hopes White House withdraws Ingrassia nomination

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday he hopes the White House withdraws Paul Ingrassia’s Office of Special Counsel nomination, after POLITICO reported on texts that showed him making racist remarks to fellow Republicans.

“He’s not gonna pass,” the South Dakota Republican told reporters. Ingrassia is scheduled to testify on his nomination Thursday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

At least three other Republicans are signaling they will oppose Ingrassia’s confirmation: Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and James Lankford of Oklahoma.

“I’m not supporting him,” Scott said. “I can’t imagine how anybody can be antisemitic in this country. It’s wrong.”

“I have tons of questions for him,” Lankford said, adding he “can’t imagine supporting that.”

Ingrassia can lose only three Republicans before Vice President JD Vance is called in to break a tie for confirmation, assuming all Democrats vote in opposition.

POLITICO reported Monday on a text chat that showedIngrassia saying the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell” and that he has “a Nazi streak.” A lawyer for Ingrassia did not confirm the texts were authentic and said they “could be manipulated or are being provided with material context omitted.”

Earlier this month, POLITICO separately reported that Ingrassia, the White House liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, was investigated for harassment involving a lower-ranking colleague. The colleague filed a complaint against him before retracting it. Ingrassia’s attorney denied the allegations.

A spokesperson for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), chair of the Senate Homeland panel, referred questions to the White House about what would come next for the nominee. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Diana Nerozzi contributed to this report.

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Rick Scott will oppose embattled Trump nom Ingrassia

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) says he will oppose Paul Ingrassia’s nomination to lead the White House Office of the Special Counsel following a POLITICO report on texts that showed he made racist and antisemitic remarks.

“I’m not supporting him,” said Scott in an interview Monday evening. “I can’t imagine how anybody can be antisemitic in this country. It’s wrong.”

Assuming all Democrats oppose Ingrassia, he can only afford to lose three Republican votes on the Senate floor before Vice President JD Vance is called in to break a tie for confirmation.

Scott is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is set to hold a hearing Thursday on Ingrassia and other pending Trump nominees.

He was among the GOP lawmakers who expressed concerns about Ingrassia back in July, when the panel was last set to hear his testimony. At that time, Ingrassia was known for his ties to Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist, and Andrew Tate, a Holocaust denier.

“This big thing for our state is, he’s had some statements about antisemitism,” Scott said then.

In recent weeks, POLITICO has reported further on Ingrassia’s actions and viewpoints.

POLITICO reported earlier this month that Ingrassia was investigated for allegedly sexually harassinga lower-ranking colleague as White House liaison to DHS. The colleague filed a human resources complaint against him before retracting it days later. Ingrassia’s attorney denied the allegations.

And atext chat shows Ingrassia boasting about his “Nazi streak” and claiming the holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell.”

The office of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of Senate Homeland, referred comments to the White House regarding the latest reporting on Ingrassia and whether the committee hearing would move forward Thursday as planned. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Other Republican members of the panel were less definitive in how they would proceed. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma said he wasn’t familiar with the new reporting but he planned to ask Ingrassia about his previous social media posts.

“He has lots of posts that he’s done in the past, and there’s plenty of questions there,” Lankford told reporters Monday.

Diana Nerozzi contributed to this report.

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John E. Sununu to announce New Hampshire Senate bid this week

Former Sen. John E. Sununu is expected to launch a Senate comeback bid in New Hampshire this week, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss the campaign-in-waiting.

Sununu has been exploring a run since September for the seat he held for a single term before being ousted by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen in 2008. Shaheen is retiring next year.

He has been in contact with the White House and is expected to visit with President Donald Trump soon, according to a senior White House official granted anonymity to disclose details.

Trump’s endorsement will be critical in the GOP primary, even though the state’s broader electorate rejected him for president in all three of his campaigns.

Sununu has long opposed Trump, serving as a national co-chair of former Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s 2016 presidential campaign and backing former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley in 2024. He penned an op-ed ahead of the state’s GOP presidential primary last year lambasting Trump as a “loser.” Trump went on to win that primary by 11 points.

Still, the scion of a prominent Republican political dynasty in the state — his father is former governor and White House chief of staff John H. Sununu; one of his brothers is former Gov. Chris Sununu — would likely give the GOP its best hope of flipping the Senate seat.

National Republicans consider Sununu to be a strong candidate. He has previously discussed a potential bid with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who he served with in the House and Senate and who he remains close to, and former Sen. Cory Gardner, the outgoing Senate Leadership Fund chair. A spokesperson for Sununu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Former Sen. Scott Brown, who represented Massachusetts before moving to New Hampshire, is already running in the GOP primary. He is not expected to step aside for Sununu and is positioning himself as the more Trump-aligned candidate of the two. Another candidate, state Sen. Dan Innis, recently ended his campaign and preemptively endorsed Sununu.

While Sununu would start as the polling front-runner in the GOP primary, he trailed Democrats’ leading contender, Rep. Chris Pappas, in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup in a recent University of New Hampshire survey.

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Russia sanctions bill on hold for now, Thune says

Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated Monday that legislation slapping new sanctions on Russia and its trading partners is on hold until after an upcoming meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I think they’re thinking that — see how this meeting goes in a couple of weeks with Putin,” Thune told reporters, adding that he is in close contact with the Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is coordinating the sanctions efforts with the White House.

“I think at least right now [Graham] is working with the White House trying to determine whether or not that meeting that happens in a couple of weeks will be a fruitful one,” Thune added.

A second person granted anonymity to disclose internal discussions confirmed that the bill is effectively on ice until after the Trump-Putin meeting. Trump announced last week the meeting would happen in Budapest, Hungary, but he did not set a date.

The decision to press pause comes after Thune indicated Thursday that it was time to move on the legislation, which would impose tariffs on countries that import Russian oil and gas and implement secondary sanctions on foreign firms that support Russian energy production.

But the same day Thune spoke out, Trump held a long phone call with Putin and subsequently questioned whether it was the right time to move forward with the sanctions legislation.

The sanctions bill has more than 80 cosponsors, giving it enough support that it could overcome opposition from Trump. But Republicans have been reluctant to move forward without an explicit endorsement from the president.

The concern is that if GOP leadership were to move forward without Trump’s public approval, it would put their members in a politically difficult spot if he were to subsequently come out against the bill.