| | | | |  | | By Mia McCarthy and Lisa Kashinsky | | Presented by |  | | | With assists from POLITICO’s Congress team IN TODAY'S EDITION:
- House GOP aims for reconciliation “blueprint”
- Schumer's ICC bill problem
- Big buys against RFK Jr.
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Speaker Mike Johnson has some big policy blueprints to map out. | Angelina Katsanis/POLITICO | Speaker Mike Johnson will confront an increasingly anxious House GOP today at Donald Trump’s Doral resort, where they’re holding their annual policy retreat through Wednesday. The big complication: Republicans need to decide which of Trump’s priorities need to be included in their party-line budget reconciliation plan, which is set to touch everything from energy to border security to tax policy, versus the separate, bipartisan spending bill that Republicans have to pass before mid-March. Members are getting impatient for more details on both of those packages, our colleague Meredith Lee Hill reports. After all, the government shutdown deadline is March 14, Congress needs to raise the debt ceiling in the coming months to avoid a default, and — under Johnson’s latest timeline — the House Budget Committee is set to meet next week to finalize a reconciliation blueprint. “We need to have a sense of urgency with the debt ceiling coming,” Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.), a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, told Meredith. “I hope there's options at this point.” It puts a lot of pressure on Johnson this week, as he continues trying to balance hard-liners' demands for deep spending cuts with … everything else the GOP wants to accomplish. And even if House Republicans come to a consensus in Doral on what should be in their party-line bill, they’ll need agreement from their Senate counterparts in order to move forward with the reconciliation process. GOP senators still favor a two-bill strategy. Trump could help by forcefully outlining his preferred plans when he addresses House Republicans tonight as part of their retreat. But he’s repeatedly fallen short on that point. Vice President JD Vance is also planning to make an appearance at the House GOP gathering, as Meredith scooped. GOOD MONDAY MORNING, Hill folks. Mia is headed to the GOP retreat today. Lisa’s still on the Hill keeping up with the Senate. Hit us up — we can commiserate about the Commanders: mmccarthy@politico.com and lkashinsky@politico.com. And don’t forget to follow our live blog coverage at politico.com/congress. THE SKED The House is out. — House Republicans are kicking off their policy retreat around 3:30 p.m., followed by a reception and dinner where Trump is expected to address lawmakers. They’ll be in Florida through Wednesday. The Senate is in session. — The Senate will vote at 5:30 p.m. on confirming Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary and to end debate on Sean Duffy’s confirmation as Transportation secretary. The rest of the week: The Senate is continuing to work through nominations this week, as well as a vote Tuesday on sanctioning the International Criminal Court. The House is not in session, except for pro formas Tuesday and Friday. THE LEADERSHIP SUITE
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Pete Hegseth squeaked through a Friday night Senate vote to be confirmed as Defense secretary. | Andrew Harnik/Getty Images | John Thune passes his first big nominee test The Senate majority leader notched a major win — for himself and for Trump — when Pete Hegseth squeaked through his confirmation vote for Defense secretary on Friday night. Senators confirmed Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary the next day in a more bipartisan manner. Next up are Bessent and Duffy, who should see relatively smooth confirmations. But Thune has rougher waters ahead: Trump’s other controversial nominees — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (HHS secretary), Tulsi Gabbard (director of national intelligence) and Kash Patel (FBI director) — are all facing committee hearings midweek. Republicans are girding for a fight on Gabbard, particularly — if her nomination even clears committee. Meanwhile, the White House is threatening “consequences” for senators who don’t back Trump’s nominees, NBC reported. Chuck Schumer’s ICC problem The Democratic leader faces a potentially challenging caucus calculus of his own this week, with Republicans aiming to advance legislation Tuesday that would impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court for prosecuting Israeli officials over the war in Gaza. Democrats can only lose six votes if they want to give Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) leverage to negotiate a revised bill with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) — she outlined her concerns about the current bill during a closed-door caucus meeting Friday, our Jordain Carney writes in. But Schumer is already down one: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who not only said he’ll vote in favor of the bill but urged his colleagues to do the same. And this comes amid a broader Democratic push to iron out their strategy for dealing with GOP bills.
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Learn more about how others are building with open source AI. | | | POLICY RUNDOWN CONGRESS ON COLOMBIA — Congress is now fully immersed in Trump’s next wave of trade wars. A group of GOP lawmakers quickly announced they were working on formal legislation to slap “new sanctions” on Colombia after Trump threatened the South American country with tariffs and a slew of economic sanctions in response to the Colombian president’s initial refusal to allow U.S. deportation flights to land. Sens. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), along with Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), were at work yesterday on the bill in hopes of filing it as soon as today, two people familiar with the plans told Meredith — though that was before Trump issued a late-night statement saying the presidential sanctions would be "held in reserve, and not signed" after Colombia agreed to his terms. Regardless, Johnson made clear earlier in the day Congress would have Trump's back in using trade measures as leverage: "Congress is fully prepared to pass sanctions and other measures against those that do not fully cooperate or follow through on requirements to accept their citizens who are illegally in the United States," he wrote on X. SPEAKING OF RFK — Two groups are out with new ads today targeting eight GOP senators — Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Bill Cassidy (La.), John Curtis (Utah), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Mike Rounds (S.D.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) — who they believe could be open to voting against Kennedy for HHS secretary, our colleague Daniel Payne scooped this morning. Protect Our Care’s “Stop RFK War Room” is putting more than $1 million into its effort to derail Kennedy’s confirmation, and 314 Action is putting another $250,000 into this week’s digital ads. Both groups are calling attention to Kennedy’s history of anti-vaccine rhetoric as a reason to reject him. HOMAN TO CONGRESS: SHOW ME THE MONEY — Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, told ABC’s “This Week” that the success of the administration’s efforts to deport every undocumented immigrant from the country is “going to be based on what Congress gives us” because “I don’t have the money” to remove what is estimated to be 11 million people. INSPECTING INSPECTOR GENERAL FIRINGS — Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) acknowledged Trump might have acted illegally by firing a dozen inspectors general, our Hailey Fuchs reports. Current law dictates the president must give Congress 30 days’ notice, including a “substantive rationale,” before dismissing agency watchdogs. “I’d like further explanation from President Trump,” Grassley said in a statement. Grassley has played hardball over this issue in the past: Four years ago, he slow-walked two Trump nominees because the president, during his first term, fired two inspectors general without giving advance warning. He later joined with other lawmakers to strengthen the law requiring congressional notice. STATE OF TRUMP’S UNION — Johnson invited Trump to address a joint session of Congress on March 4, marking the first time he’ll do so in his second presidency. It’s not a formal State of the Union address, but it will have similar pomp and circumstance. TURNER TALKS — Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), whom Johnson recently booted as Intelligence Committee chair, said he is concerned about the direction the panel will now take, in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation.” He specifically said he was concerned that the panel might focus too much on internal enemies, with the endorsement of Trump, at the expense of powerful countries targeting the U.S.
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THE BEST OF THE REST How Redistricting Helped Republicans Win the House, from Nick Corasaniti and Michael Wines at NYT New bid for TikTok from Perplexity AI could give US government 50% stake, from Haleluya Hadero and Christopher Rugaber at AP CAPITOL HILL INFLUENCE Tara Rountree is now lead director of government affairs at CVS Health. She previously was chief of staff for Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.). JOB BOARD James Mazol is now performing the duties of the undersecretary of Defense for research and engineering. He previously was Republican policy director for the Senate Armed Services Committee. Ryan Rasins is now legislative director for Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.). He previously ran the Senate Values Action Team and is a Marco Rubio alum. HIRING TREND: FAKE ELECTORS — Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) and Rep. Brian Jack (R-Ga.) have both hired staffers who were identified as fraudulent electors supporting Trump following his 2020 election loss, per Andy Gottlieb at Legistorm. Jack has hired Joseph Brannan as district director and McCormick has hired Sam DeMarco as regional director. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Chief Justice John Roberts (70) … former Reps. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), Zack Space (D-Ohio), John Mica (R-Fla.) and Dick Ottinger (D-N.Y.) (96) … Meredith Kelly of Declaration Media … C-SPAN’s Howard Mortman … Jamal Ware … Connie Partoyan of Targeted Victory … Ben Owens … American Conservation Coalition’s Michael Esposito … Rachel Dumke of Sen. Steve Daines’ (R-Mont.) office TRIVIA FRIDAY’S ANSWER: Jakob Johnsen correctly answered that the five universities with both a president and Super Bowl-winning quarterback as alumni University of Delaware, University of Michigan, the Naval Academy, Miami University in Ohio and Stanford University. TODAY’S QUESTION from Jakob: How many people have served as a Cabinet secretary, Supreme Court justice, and president of the United States? Who were they?
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