The Democratic Party's base is demanding that lawmakers do more to counter Donald Trump. But Democrats are signaling they don’t want to use their major leverage point — forcing a government shutdown if the GOP refuses to rein in the president’s war on the federal government. “My folks don't want to shut down,” said Rep. Sanford Bishop, a senior appropriator. Sen. Richard Blumenthal insisted his party needed to “use whatever levers and points of power we have” to extract concessions from the Trump administration. But he added: “I don't think we should seek a shutdown.” A spending bill to avert a government shutdown by the March 14 deadline is the one, must-pass piece of legislation that Republicans need Democrats’ help to get over the finish line in the immediate future. Democrats can promise to hold Trump and the GOP accountable through investigations, protests and messaging bills, but none of those things have much bite in the minority. Still, triggering a shutdown is a tricky card to play, as our Rachael details in her latest Corridors column: You can’t win a shutdown fight if you’re taking the political blame for the shutdown. At least one Democrat is opening that door: First-term Sen. Andy Kim said Democrats may be willing to shut down the government over what he called Trump’s “lawlessness” during an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer didn’t lean in that much in a subsequent letter to his colleagues Monday morning, saying Republicans would need to work with Democrats to avoid a “Trump shutdown.” Democrats haven’t publicly indicated specific policy concessions they want in return for help passing spending bills, besides mandating no more federal funding freezes. Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, said Monday evening, said “we don’t want to see the government shut down.” But if Republicans don’t want to work with Democrats on a bipartisan federal spending deal, “they’re on their own.” GOOD TUESDAY MORNING. Don’t judge if you saw Mia ordering a Dunkin’ ‘DunQueens’ sweatshirt in the Senate basement last night. Follow our live coverage at the Inside Congress blog at politico.com/congress and email your Inside Congress scribes at mmccarthy@politico.com and lkashinsky@politico.com. THE SKED The House is in session. — The House will vote at 1:30 p.m. — Republicans and Democrats will have their separate weekly conference meetings at 9 a.m. — GOP leaders hold their post-meeting press conference at 10 a.m. — Ways and Means will have a hearing to analyze the return on investment from Democrats’ additional IRS spending in the Inflation Reduction Act and the need to modernize the agency at 10 a.m., and then another hearing on modernizing American health care at 2 p.m. — Homeland Security will hold a hearing on Chinese investments in ports across the Western Hemisphere and potential implications for U.S. security at 10 a.m. — Judiciary will have a hearing on concerns about the administrative state, particularly agency rulemaking procedures, at 10 a.m. — Natural Resources will have a hearing on reopening offshore oil and gas drilling at 10:15 a.m. — Democratic leaders hold their post-meeting press conference at 11 a.m. — The Republican Study Committee will meet at 12:30 p.m. — Oversight will have a hearing on the growth of welfare programs in the United States and potential changes at 1:30 p.m. — Financial Services will have a hearing on the current uses of digital assets and how that could affect the economy at 2:30 p.m. The Senate is in session. — Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will have Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testify on the semi-annual Monetary Policy Report at 10 a.m. — Finance will vote on approving Jamieson Greer as United States Trade Representative ambassador at 11:30 a.m. — Senators will hold weekly conference lunches at 12:30 p.m. — Intel will have a closed meeting followed by a closed briefing at 2:30 p.m. The rest of the week: The House will vote later in the week on a bill that would allow lawmakers to more easily roll back federal rules under the Congressional Review Act and a bill that would criminalize the act of fleeing from border patrol agents. The Senate is expected to vote on confirming Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence in an early Wednesday vote, and then move to consider Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for HHS secretary, Howard Lutnick for secretary of Commerce, Brooke Rollins for Agriculture secretary and Kelly Loeffler to be administrator of the SBA.
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