IN TODAY'S EDITION:
- Senate Dems’ shutdown test
- Jeffries indicates House Dems won’t help on stopgap
- GOP backlash on DOGE’s VA cuts
WHAT LAWMAKERS REALLY THINK — Is dementia a problem on the Hill? Do members vote drunk? We asked 25 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle — on and off the record — about what life in Congress is really like. A few highlights from the piece, which is kicking off a POLITICO Magazine series focused on Congress:
- "It’s turned all of us into OnlyFans models just monetizing your latest protest or your latest speech or whatever."
- “Every time we do an 11 p.m. vote, a minority of the chamber has a zero blood alcohol content.”
- “I have a difficult time sometimes telling between the deterioration of members and a handful who are just not very smart.”
For more, check out a Playbook Daily Briefing podcast interview set to run at 5:50 a.m. with our colleague Ben Jacobs. SHUTDOWN SCARIES — Senate Democrats are running out of time to decide whether fighting President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s funding freezes is worth forcing a government shutdown. Assuming House Republicans can successfully pass the six-month spending patch they plan to put on the floor next week, GOP senators will need help from at least eight Democrats to get a House-passed stopgap bill through the other chamber. And they could need more if other Republicans join Sen. Rand Paul in opposition. Right now, Republicans have one Democrat committed: Sen. John Fetterman, who told Lisa on Thursday that he’ll “never” be part of shutting the government down. He said it was “bullshit” that Democrats “would even rattle those sabers.” Sen. Dick Durbin, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, told our colleague Jordain Carney on Thursday that he didn’t believe enough of his members were willing to support a full-year stopgap bill to get it through the Senate. But Democrats have clearly been keeping their options open — Senate Democratic leaders have avoided saying the party would blanket oppose a clean funding patch, and they’ve privately urged members to keep their powder dry. Senators are listening, for now. Across roughly a dozen interviews, Senate Democrats largely declined to say they’d vote against a clean stopgap. Sen. Tim Kaine said he is “anti-shutdown” but declined to endorse Republicans’ plan. And swing-state Sen. Elissa Slotkin told Mia she was “open to all options” but “I gotta understand what protections we have that money we appropriate is going to be used right for the purposes it was appropriated for.” The bill may not be totally clean. It’s expected to include measures that would avert cuts in pay for doctors treating Medicare patients and extend eased Medicare telehealth rules, our Ben Leonard reports. Those provisions are expected to be narrow. But any additions could make passing a stopgap harder, given that fiscal conservatives don’t want more spending and Democrats would like to propose additions of their own. Several Democrats — and some Republicans — want to give negotiators more time to hash out a deal on overall spending levels with top appropriators saying an agreement is imminent. But GOP Sen. Susan Collins, the chamber’s top appropriator, indicated Thursday that House Republicans would not support a shorter stopgap. “I do not think the House is interested in that,” she told reporters, adding, “I don't know what's going to happen next week, but I'm determined to prevent a government shutdown.” TGIF. There are eight days left until a potential government shutdown. Follow our live coverage at the Inside Congress blog at politico.com/congress and email your Inside Congress scribes at lkashinsky@politico.com and mmccarthy@politico.com. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: Please fill out this survey and let us know what you think of the new Inside Congress. We’ll take your feedback and work to make this an even better read. Thank you.
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