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Presented by Electronic Payments Coalition: An evening recap of the action on Capitol Hill and preview of the day ahead | | | | |  | | By Jennifer Scholtes, Caitlin Emma and Daniella Diaz | | | With assists from POLITICO’s Congress team
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Hill leaders might have agreed on an overall spending level but appropriators can’t get to work writing legislation until the two appropriations chairs work out their own deal on how to divvy up the topline number among the 12 individual bills. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | WHAT’S NEXT WITH SPENDING On a 314-108 House vote, Congress just bought six more weeks to continue the fiscal 2024 funding fight. But even the new March government shutdown deadlines are going to be a challenge to meet. STEP 1: ANOTHER NUMBERS DEAL — Top Hill leaders might have agreed on overall spending levels nearly two weeks ago, but appropriators can’t get to work writing legislation until the two appropriations chairs — Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) — work out their own deal on how to divvy up the topline number among the 12 individual bills, setting what’s known among wonks as the 302(b)s. It’s been slow going, and other top appropriators are growing impatient. “I have no insights as to why it’s taking so long,” said Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine). “I’m very concerned.” As to whether there’s enough time for Congress to meet the split March 1/March 8 deadlines: “I think there is if we get the allocations promptly next week,” Collins said. People familiar with the process have stressed that negotiating subcommittee allocations typically takes a while. Speaking before the Senate passed the latest stopgap earlier this afternoon, Murray said she’s “working nonstop” with her House counterparts to keep things “moving as quickly as we possibly can.” STEP 2: ENTER THE SUBCOMMITTEES — Once the 302(b)s are set, the 12 appropriations subcommittee chairs and ranking members will start trading offers on how to distribute their allocations among each department, agency and program in their jurisdiction, while also haggling over potential policy stipulations. For several of the bills, that’s going to be a challenge, considering the vast differences between the measures that the House and Senate each pumped out last year. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), chair of the State-Foreign Operations panel, told us that he and GOP counterpart Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) have a lot of daylight to close in negotiations with their peers across the Capitol. "Lindsey and I work well together,” he said. “But the gap between our bill in the Senate and the House is pretty significant. So once we have allocations, there's still a lot of work to do.” STEP 3: RIDER TIME — House conservatives, who’ve failed for months to secure steep spending cuts, say they’re hellbent on securing major policy wins, such as anti-abortion provisions and immigration restrictions that are dead on arrival for the Democratic-controlled Senate. They have backing from Johnson, who just last Sunday said the new funding patch will buy time to fight for “meaningful policy wins” while cajoling Republicans to support the latest stopgap. As our Alice Miranda Ollstein and Meredith Lee Hill report today, House Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) said many in the House Republican conference will be “disappointed and upset” if the speaker doesn’t win on anti-abortion language, arguing that House Republicans “should get at least half of what we want.” STEP 4: PASS IT OR BUST — If lawmakers fail to pass full-year appropriations bills over the next six weeks, senior appropriators are warning that will mean yet another continuing resolution — this time, through the rest of the fiscal year. They are counting on the threat of flat budgets and potentially devastating cuts to avert that outcome. A continuing resolution through Sept. 30, for instance, would cut non-defense budgets by a total of $73 billion from current levels. Separately, lawmakers are facing another potential “sequester” scenario, thanks to a provision baked into the debt limit package passed last year. If the government is operating under any short-term CR come April 30, there will be a $10 billion cut to the military’s budget and a $41 billion cut to domestic programs. — Jennifer Scholtes, Caitlin Emma and Daniella Diaz
| | | | A message from Electronic Payments Coalition: CREDIT UNIONS & COMMUNITY BANKS IN All 50 STATES OPPOSE THE DURBIN-MARSHALL CREDIT CARD BILL: Local credit unions and community banks serve an essential role in supporting Main Street. So, when 9,600+ credit unions and community banks throughout the country oppose the Durbin-Marshall credit card bill, Congress should pay attention. Durbin-Marshall lines the pockets of corporate mega-stores by shifting costs and risks to credit unions, community banks, and their 135 million customers. Click here to learn more. | | | GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Thursday, Jan. 18, where we ask you to send us some snow photos tomorrow! NEW FREEDOM CAUCUS THREATS House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-Va.) warned that conservative hardliners could tank GOP bills from even coming to the floor going forward, delivering a public warning shot to leadership following today’s CR vote. “If they don’t need our votes for the substantive bills … you shouldn’t presume you’re going to get them for the stuff that doesn’t matter,” Good said on Thursday, explicitly threatening to vote against the rules needed to bring partisan bills to the floor. The stance doesn’t unify the Freedom Caucus, for now, but it also doesn’t need to. Republicans are down to a historically narrow margin given absences and vacancies within their own ranks. Republicans need near-unity to even start debate on most bills given routine Democratic opposition. It’s a familiar playbook for Good and other conservatives, largely Freedom Caucus members — they have deployed the tactic at times under Johnson and his predecessor Kevin McCarthy. But if used widely, it would grind the floor to a halt for anything that can’t garner 290 votes — the two-thirds threshold for suspension of the rules. The increasing weaponization of rule votes has increasingly frustrated their colleagues, not least Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.). “The majority needs to act like the majority,” Cole said. “You vote to keep control, procedurally, for the majority on bills. Then you vote however you want on legislation. … You don't need to bring the rule down to keep us from even considering the bill.” — Jordain Carney and Jennifer Scholtes, with assist from Joe Gould
| | | | A message from Electronic Payments Coalition:   | | | SNOWSTOPPER: SHUTDOWN AVERTED Before Eric Sorensen was a congressman, he was a meteorologist. And he had some thoughts about Congress rushing a vote on the spending stopgap just hours before a predicted one to three inches of snow hit the Capitol on Friday. “You wouldn't believe how many members of Congress from both sides are asking me — not for advice on what we're voting on, but how we're going to get home or how we are going to get back to D.C. on Tuesday,” Sorensen (D-Ill.) said, laughing. He wasn’t the only member who noticed how the threat of a few snowflakes got lawmakers in gear. “Honestly, one to three inches in Wisconsin and we don't even bat an eye, but in this town that seems to at least be a convenient excuse to get things done,” Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.) said Friday. Added Sorensen: “Maybe if only we had more snowstorms, that would force us to actually come to the table and get more done.” — Daniella Diaz and Nicholas Wu
| | | | A message from Electronic Payments Coalition: CREDIT UNIONS & COMMUNITY BANKS IN All 50 STATES OPPOSE THE DURBIN-MARSHALL CREDIT CARD BILL: The Durbin-Marshall credit card bill would create new government mandates on credit cards that would put consumer data and access to credit at risk. The bill would benefit corporate mega-stores, like Walmart and Target, at the expense of Main Street and the 135 million Americans who rely on credit unions and community banks. The threat of Durbin-Marshall to small financial institutions is so clear that 9,600+ credit unions and community banks in America are opposed to the bill. They also see through the so-called “carve out” for smaller banks which is a hoax to try and buy their support. Their message to Congress is simple: on behalf of credit unions and community banks in all 50 states, commit to actively opposing the Durbin-Marshall credit card bill. Click here to learn more. | | | A SENATOR WEIGHS IN ON MEMBER PARENTAL LEAVE A bipartisan group of House members urged leadership Thursday to allow proxy voting for new moms up to six weeks after giving birth. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who became the first senator to give birth in office, told Inside Congress she agreed with her House colleagues — but would go further. “I don't think it should just be moms,” she said. “I think it's new parents — so you can have adoptions, you can have fostering, but in that situation, you should be able to work from home.” Duckworth knows from whence she speaks: She cast a floor vote with her newborn Maile by her side in 2018. (She also gave birth to her first child while a House member, in 2014.) “I had to bring my 10-day-old child to the Senate in order to vote on the floor, and that's not good for a 10-day-old child,” she said. “There's a whole other human being, another life that you're caring for.” Speaker Mike Johnson’s office declined to comment on the push.. — Daniella Diaz and Anthony Adragna
| | Chris Coons' staff made an entire playlist based on his greenhouse-gas bill passing committee. We agree with this take on Rosa DeLauro. The Senate has repealed its prohibition on flowers in the chamber. That’s right: There was a ban on flowers in the chamber. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had his first magic minute of 2024 on the House floor today. Lawmakers attended a baby shower for Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón just off the House floor during the CR vote, complete with a sign, cupcakes and other treats. “That’s the only part of your body you are allowed to pierce,” Rep. Ann Wagner told her granddaughter over FaceTime in the Speakers Lobby. The 6-year-old got her ears pierced for her birthday. QUICK LINKS Why Bob Menendez Is Still In The Senate, from Haley Byrd Wilt at NOTUS Interview: California’s newest senator, Laphonza Butler, on Trump, Gaza and her future, from Erin B. Logan at The Los Angeles Times This GOP Rep.’s Anti-Abortion Stances Keep Vanishing From Her Website, from Sam Brodey and Riley Rogerson at The Daily Beast Exasperated Republicans frustrated with lack of anti-abortion provisions in budget talks, from Alice Miranda Ollstein and Meredith Lee Hill TRANSITIONS Brandon Renz will be senior adviser to House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.). He most recently was at the American Flood Coalition and is a Virginia Foxx alum. TOMORROW IN CONGRESS The House and Senate are both out. FRIDAY AROUND THE HILL Snow day!
| | WEDNESDAY’S ANSWER: Trudi Amundson correctly answered that Lyndon Johnson was the president who signed the bill to create the Department of Transportation. Alan Boyd was the first Secretary of Transportation. TODAY’S QUESTION, from Trudi: What year was the Federal Reserve established, and which Senate Republican was the driving force behind the move? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@politico.com. GET INSIDE CONGRESS emailed to your phone each evening. Follow Daniella on X at @DaniellaMicaela. | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
