Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) is recovering back in North Dakota after falling on Sunday and suffering a “severe concussion,” he said in a Facebook post.

Cramer, who turned 64 last month, said that he was walking down to his dock earlier this week when he “stepped on ice and evidently fell hard, hitting the back of my head.”

“I do not remember anything from the fall until arriving at Sanford Health emergency room with Kris. After seeing the emergency doctor, taking some tests, including a CT Scan, and seeing a neurologist, I was diagnosed with a severe concussion, a seizure, and a slight brain bleed,” Cramer wrote on Monday.

“I am better today with only a slight brain bleed and pretty bad headaches. Doctors prefer I rest a little longer before returning to DC, so I do not know exactly when that will happen. It will be day to day this week, but I am ready to return quickly if events require it,” Cramer added.

Cramer previously suffered a serious hand injury in 2022, keeping him temporarily away from Washington.

His absence this time will leave the Senate Republican majority temporarily capped at 52 seats, which is still enough for the GOP to confirm nominees without needing help from Democrats so long as they remain mostly united.

Senate Republicans are currently awaiting to see if their House counterparts can adopt a budget resolution this week that would tee up a sweeping tax, border, energy and defense bill.

Amid some Republican pushback against Sen. Ted Cruz‘s efforts to gain unilateral subpoena power to haul Big Tech CEOs before his panel, the Senate Commerce chair now plans to compel testimony from an online service provider he argues has deplatformed conservatives.

Cruz, a Texas Republican, said in a social media post he intends to subpoena the communications firm Bonterra, which he investigated in his capacity as the committee ranking member in the previous Congress. He concluded the company stopped doing business with a conservative women’s group.

“Big Tech companies like Bonterra weaponized their terms of service to systematically deplatform conservatives,” Cruz said in a statement to POLITICO. “Unless we put a stop to Big Tech’s growing weaponization of standard terms of service, more conservatives may find themselves unable to carry out essential administrative work, harming the entire movement and depriving President Trump and his administration of critical allies and supporters.”

The announcement comes as Cruz is still trying to get committee Republicans to give him blanket authority to issue subpoenas without buy-in from members — a departure from the status quo, where chairs need sign-off from the ranking member or a vote by the full committee.

There have been ongoing private discussions among Commerce Committee Republicans about whether to give this power to Cruz, who has vowed to “use every available tool” to engage in oversight of Big Tech. He has already had the panel advance legislation earlier this month that would prohibit children under the age of 13 from using social media and prevent social media companies from using certain algorithms to target minors.

An attempt to move forward with the rules change was squelched last month amid concern from Trump administration officials, who are cozy with players in the industry. There’s still no resolution, meaning Cruz could have to rely on fellow Commerce Committee Republicans to vote in support of subpoenaing Bonterra. GOP members will probably give Cruz this victory, as the firm is not considered an industry giant with outsize influence.

Commerce Republicans have also expressed openness to giving Cruz more narrow authority to issue subpoenas without member interference, including on matters related to diversity, equity and inclusion practices during the Biden administration and illegal immigration.

Accordingly, Cruz this week said he would subpoena the Massachusetts Port Authority for documents related to migrants sheltering at Boston’s airport.

Bonterra didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Speaker Mike Johnson said in a brief interview Tuesday he’s not worried that a late-night post from Elon Musk signaling concerns with the GOP budget plan could tank support ahead of a vote this evening.

“No concerns,” Johnson said when asked about the post, adding that he felt “very positive” about the vote’s prospects today.

He is still, however, facing an array of opposition.

Indiana Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz, arriving for a House GOP Conference meeting, confirmed she’s a “no today” on the budget resolution, “unless the instruction changes.” She, like other conservatives, wants the plan to guarantee deeper spending cuts across the federal government, while a contingent of other vulnerable incumbents think the blueprint would result in cutting spending too deeply — especially from safety net programs like Medicaid.

Johnson has said he’s not changing the resolution to accommodate holdouts, but his math is getting increasingly difficult. It didn’t help that Musk, on Monday night, appeared on X to be stoking anxieties that the resolution would add to the federal deficit. It was in response to a post on X from Rep. Thomas Massie, who has told fellow Republicans he’ll also be voting in opposition.

“I hope we’re not going to have this come to whatever is said on X to change months and months of substantive work to actually do this in a deficit-neutral way,” said Rep. Blake Moore of Utah, the vice chair of the House Republican Conference, in an interview. “I wish we were eliminating as much of the deficit is possible. What’s missing from that X exchange is what happens if it doesn’t pass, and we have the largest tax increase on lower and middle income Americans ever. We can’t be so singularly focused on one aspect of this.”

House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington of Texas said he was not concerned about losing votes after Musk’s post, adding that he welcome Musk’s scrutiny.

“I think he’s doing a great job,” said Arrington. “I think he wants the same things that I want, which is a more efficient government with less waste and fraud, more stewardship of tax dollars, right sizing very bloated bureaucracy.”

The budget resolution is necessary to pave the way for Republicans being able to draft and pass party-line legislation under the reconciliation process, necessary to enact the bulk of President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.

The morning conference meeting was a chance for leadership to continue to sell the budget plan. Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) displayed a slide of all the Democratic attacks on the blueprint, according to three Republicans in the room, with GOP leaders reiterating to some wary Republicans that Medicaid cuts aren’t specifically listed in resolution — though they have not clarified how they would reach hundreds of billions of dollars in savings without slashing into the popular program that serves millions of low-income Americans.

Nicholas Wu and Ben Leonard contributed to this report.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, plans to investigate Washington’s top prosecutor for making threats against the Trump administration’s political adversaries — including one of his own members.

In a letter shared first with POLITICO, Connolly, a Virginia lawmaker, announced he was leading the minority party in a probe against Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Connolly is requesting materials related to Martin’s inquiries into Democratic officials, arguing that Martin is moving to suppress political expression.

One of Martin’s targets is Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat who recently said on CNN that Americans want “us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for Democracy.” The remarks were in the context of President Donald Trump’s effort to transform the federal bureaucracy with Elon Musk. Martin responded by investigating Garcia, noting the comments sounded like a threat against a public official.

“The safety of federal employees and officials is self-evidently paramount and emphatically must remain an ironclad priority for the Department of Justice,” wrote Connolly to Martin. “Your recent public statements, however … raise serious concerns that your new initiative is a pretext for misusing your office for political ends, threatening and intimidating critics of the Administration, and chilling constitutionally protected speech.”

Ultimately, Connolly’s powers are limited in a Republican majority — he does not have subpoena power or the authority to schedule hearings or otherwise drive a committee agenda. But his decision to make a political statement underscores the boiling anger from Democrats toward Martin, who has yet to be confirmed by the full Senate to take on this role in a permanent capacity.

Martin has bucked precedent that U.S. attorneys generally act independently of White House politics, suggesting that his confirmation battle could be one of the next flash-point personnel fights across the Capitol.

He has also launched an effort dubbed “Operation Whirlwind” to prosecute individuals who threaten public officials — and broken with recent norms by publicly disclosing his office’s investigations. Connolly argued in his letter that Martin’s “politically selective approach to law enforcement violates DOJ policies, breaches your ethical obligations, and constitutes a misuse of your office.”

Mike Johnson has about 12 hours to get his conference behind his plan for enacting the president’s sweeping agenda. It’s not looking good.

The speaker insists he’s not changing the budget resolution, which would set parameters for a sweeping bill to address border security, energy and tax policy. If House Democrats are at full attendance, just two GOP “no” votes would sink the resolution.

He and other GOP leaders held meetings late into the night Monday to try to flip holdouts, who fall into two camps with diametrically opposed demands: centrists who don’t want significant reductions to Medicaid and other safety-net programs, and conservatives who want steeper spending cuts.

There was some progress from those meetings. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, previously undecided, said she was leaning yes after she left Johnson’s office. But a handful of other centrists, including Reps. Tony Gonzales and Juan Ciscomani, remain undecided.

Many of them met Monday night with Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie, as Republican leaders are scrambling to find cuts to other programs to soften the blow to Medicaid, according to three people granted anonymity to speak frankly. The existing budget framework would have Guthrie’s committee cut $880 billion from initiatives under the panel’s purview — with Medicaid poised to feature prominently on the chopping block.

“I don’t know how you do it without cutting Medicaid seriously,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew said. “And so that’s my concern, and that’s why, at this point, I’m a lean no.”

But some conservatives might be a problem, too. Reps. Tim Burchett and Victoria Spartz say they are currently opposed, though they still plan to talk with GOP leadership prior to the vote. Rep. Thomas Massie has told fellow Republicans he’s a no. Rep. Andy Ogles and other hard-liners are still furious there aren’t deeper spending cuts in the plans and are threatening to tank the resolution on the floor Tuesday night. And still others are signaling they want answers about a government funding deal before they vote to adopt a budget resolution.

Johnson likely hoped he would get some backup from Trump in the leadup to the big vote, but that hasn’t materialized yet. Van Drew said he spoke to Trump and that they’re “aligned” on not wanting to cut people’s health care, but the New Jersey Republican said Trump didn’t ask him to support the budget resolution. And Elon Musk wrote “that sounds bad” in response to a Massie X post that said the budget plan would add to the deficit.

Johnson said Monday night that he still planned to hold the vote today, adding: “I think we’re on track.”

What else we’re watching:

• Dems call out GOP cuts: Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is leading his caucus to the Capitol steps to skewer cuts Republicans are likely to put in their budget plan. It’s part of Democrats’ stepped-up pushback to potential reductions to Medicaid, food assistance and other safety-net programs. At the same time, GOP representatives who faced blowback in their districts over the sweep and speed of the cuts being driven by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency returned to Washington still largely supporting them.
• Trump freeze delays spending deal: The fight over curbing Trump’s ability to freeze federal funding has delayed lawmakers from reaching a deal to avert a government shutdown after March 14. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said negotiators are “very close” to a deal, but Democrats’ insistence on adding a condition to stop Trump from withholding money Congress has already appropriated has become the final sticking point.
• Lawmakers weigh more judges: A House Judiciary subcommittee will meet today to discuss the need for additional judgeships. As federal judges halt Trump administration executive actions, House Republicans have been mulling drastic intervention in the federal judiciary, including impeaching those judges who block Trump’s agenda. But any legislative solution likely won’t go over well with Senate Democrats.

Meredith Lee Hill, Ben Leonard, Jennifer Scholtes and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.

Want this in your inbox before 5 a.m.? Subscribe to the Inside Congress newsletter here.

Some of the House Republicans who have doubted Speaker Mike Johnson’s budget plan said Monday night that they’re more inclined to support the blueprint after GOP leaders ruled out certain cuts to Medicaid in a private meeting.

GOP leaders provided some generic but reassuring details about how they would protect certain Medicaid services and not cut into the share of federal payments for Medicaid, a joint state-federal program, according to several lawmakers who attended the late night confab in Johnson’s office.

A group of swing-district Republicans and others representing redder areas were in the meeting, along with House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.). Those members have demanded more detail from GOP leaders on how they would reach the $2 trillion in spending cuts they are laying out without making deep cuts to Medicaid services and benefits.

Leaving the meeting, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) said that Guthrie addressed some of the issues that had been of concern to her — including increasing the share of states’ responsibility in the joint state-federal Medicaid program. She said she is now leaning toward voting for the budget plan, claiming there are “hundreds of billions” of dollars in savings from addressing waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid as well as separate energy policy options that could reach the $880 billion in savings set out for Guthrie’s panel.

“It’s moving in the right direction,” Malliotakis said. “There’s a lot of space to address the issue without hurting beneficiaries.”

GOP leaders have been scrambling for alternative spending offsets in order to assuage members who have raised serious concerns about the GOP plans for Medicaid and other safety-net programs.

The progress is good news for Speaker Mike Johnson, who is hoping to hold a floor vote on the budget plan Tuesday night. It advanced out of the Rules Committee on Monday night in a key procedural step.

Johnson also faces opposition several other more-dug-in GOP holdouts who want deeper spending cuts in the plan, including Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.) and Victoria Spartz (Ind.).

The fight over curbing President Donald Trump’s ability to freeze cash is now the make-or-break dispute as leading lawmakers close in on a deal to avert a government shutdown next month.

Top appropriators on both sides of the Capitol reported good progress Monday night toward a bipartisan deal on overall spending totals for the military and non-defense programs, with a shutdown deadline looming on March 14. But House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said Democrats’ insistence on adding conditions to stop Trump from withholding funding that Congress already appropriated could foil a final agreement.

“I think we’ve moved a long way on the numbers. We’re very close. I would say essentially there,” Cole told reporters. “The real question is conditions on presidential action. And look, there’s no way a Republican Senate and Republican House are going to limit what a Republican president can do.”

Republicans can pass a funding deal in the House without Democratic support, but they’ll need at least seven Democrats to back it in the Senate. And Cole acknowledged it would be “very difficult” to pass a stopgap funding patch even through the House with only Republican votes. But if House Republicans could rally a majority of their conference to vote for a funding bill in the face of a Democratic ultimatum over Trump’s authority, it would be easier to blame Democrats for spurring a funding lapse, the Oklahoma Republican added.

“Then we could probably credibly argue: We didn’t shut down the government, the other guys did,” Cole said. “But I don’t want to have that argument. I want to get to a deal still.”

Cole and the dozen Republican lawmakers who chair his panel’s subcommittees plan to meet Tuesday with Speaker Mike Johnson to talk about Democrats’ latest offer in the private negotiations, the Oklahoma Republican said.

“It really is now down to presidential powers,” Cole said, adding that “nobody can make a deal if our leaders don’t support the deal” and that he is “certainly not interested in sending a bill to the president that he’s not willing to sign.”

Across the Capitol, the Senate’s top appropriators met privately Monday night. “We’re making good progress,” Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the chamber’s top Democratic appropriator, said as she left Appropriations Chair Susan Collins’ office. The Maine Republican delivered a similar readout.

Congress will likely need at least a short-term stopgap to extend the funding deadline, Collins said, even if leaders can reach an overall deal this week. From there, appropriators would need to reach a bipartisan agreement on a dozen totals for each of the individual annual funding measures and then hash out the specifics of those bills, a process that usually takes at least a month.

But the Senate Appropriations chair is “absolutely” opposed to a so-called “full-year” stopgap funding patch, also known as a continuing resolution or a CR, that would keep federal agencies running on current budgets through September.

“A full-year CR would lock in the Biden administration’s priorities, rather than the bills that we negotiated in committee on a bipartisan basis,” Collins said.

And there’s another potential wrinkle: Top appropriators have been seeking clarity from Trump’s budget office to make sure they avoid triggering across-the-board funding cuts. Those reductions were baked into the two-year budget deal enacted in 2023 in an effort to motivate Congress to stop relying on stopgap funding bills.

Cole has received “verbal assurance” from Trump’s budget office that a stopgap through September would not cause any sequestration cuts, he said. “But I don’t have a piece of paper that says that, and I wouldn’t trust it until I do,” he added.

Rep. Cory Mills continues to push back against allegations he assaulted a woman last week.

In an interview at the Capitol on Monday evening, Mills emphasized that both he and the alleged victim — who POLITICO is declining to name as a possible target of domestic violence — denied that any assault took place.

The woman initiated the call to law enforcement, but said in a statement afterwards she did so in a state of being “severely jet-lagged and sleep-deprived” and that there was, in fact, “no physical altercation.”

“Both myself and the other individual said that what they’re claiming took place never took place and that’s been reported multiple times,” Mills said Monday. “That’s why the prosecutor, [when] MPD tried to even push it forward, denied prosecution or any follow up.”

A report of the incident from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department said the Florida Republican had used some kind of force with hands or feet against the woman, who is not his wife, at a home in Southwest Washington.

Ultimately, Mills was not charged. A spokesperson for MPD said Monday the department sent the U.S. Attorney’s office a warrant for Mills’ arrest, but that warrant was never signed. The MPD also said it was now investigating its own handling of the incident.

When asked why MPD attempted to issue an arrest warrant, Mills said, “That’s something for them.”

Mills, 44, is a two-term House member who represents a central Florida district. He has suggested he might run for the Senate in 2026.

House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington said Monday he is not expecting substantial alternations to the fiscal blueprint he muscled through his committee earlier this month as Republicans try to placate holdouts and move it across the floor this week.

GOP leaders are hoping to tee up a final vote Tuesday on the budget resolution as moderate Republicans push back against some of the spending cuts the framework prescribes and some hard-line conservatives demand even deeper slashing. Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday he was not inclined to alter the legislation to address those concerns, and Arrington told reporters much the same — that members will fall in line behind the budget plan as the only way to deliver the “big, beautiful bill” President Donald Trump is seeking.

“I don’t expect it to change much,” Arrington said during a roundtable interview Tuesday afternoon.

“Now, are there still some folks to convince to move forward? Maybe there are. But I think it won’t be that difficult,” the Texas Republican added. “Because this is just the step that unlocks the policy-making process where the committees will get into the details and specifics of meeting those targets with real policy reforms on all sides.”

Arrington and other House leaders are under pressure to deliver a budget framework that can earn the support of both fiscal conservatives and swing-district Republicans. They cannot afford more than one GOP defection on a party-line vote if all members are voting.

With potential cuts to Medicaid benefits giving swing-district members the most heartburn, Arrington argued that Republicans don’t need to deeply slash program benefits to find the savings his budget framework requires. Making changes like requiring a double-check of a person’s Medicaid eligibility can prevent fraud and improper payments, he said, yielding up to “hundreds of billions of dollars” in savings — part of what he said are “trillions of dollars in unnecessary and wasteful spending in the federal government.”

Arrington also addressed the possibility that the Senate could drastically reshape the framework if and when it emerges from the House, including by reducing the scope of spending cuts while also ballooning the cost of the tax policies by making Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent.

“What I’d hate to see happen is for a product to come back from the Senate that has all the tax cuts that any Republican Senate could desire under any circumstance, but none of the hard decisions to rein in the spending that’s driving us off the fiscal cliff,” Arrington said.

Senate Republicans adopted their own budget resolution last week as a Plan B in case House Republicans can’t rally around their own. Arrington said it’s “fine” for Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham to continue toward a bill that focuses only on energy policy, defense spending and border security investments while leaving tax cuts for later. But he continued to insist the House’s one-bill approach was the better course.

“I think there’s a lot at risk to tax provisions and the spending reforms if you don’t keep it all together,” he said.