Johnson’s spending holdouts

IN TODAY’S EDITION:

Johnson, White House hammer holdouts
Thune taps a debt-limit whisperer
More tax complications on GOP agenda

EAT LIKE A LAWMAKER — POLITICO Magazine is out this morning with a rundown of where Republicans and Democrats in Congress wine and dine around Washington, from House Majority Leader Steve Scalise‘s go-to steakhouse to senators’ favorite French bistro. Who are the top spenders at Bullfeathers and We, the Pizza? Check out the piece by our Jessica Piper.

SHUTDOWN SHOWDOWN — House GOP leaders went into the week with plans to pass their stopgap funding bill today without Democratic support. That might not be possible.

With one surefire “no” in Rep. Thomas Massie, Republican leaders still need to wrangle a handful of potential holdouts — including Reps. Tony Gonzales, Tim Burchett, Cory Mills, Rich McCormick, Beth Van Duyne, Kat Cammack, Andy Ogles and Brian Fitzpatrick.

This group seems more open than Massie to backing the funding patch that would avert a shutdown that could kick in Saturday. Gonzales has repeated he will make a “game-time decision.” Mills said he needs “further explanations on some areas.” Others, like Ogles, might change their tune since leadership adjusted a provision in the bill that increased the number of available visas for Afghan allies.

The White House pressure campaign is in full swing. Trump is pushing for a primary challenger to Massie, saying he will “lead the charge against him.” Mills said Trump called him with OMB Director Russ Vought a few days ago to explain “some of the pros and cons” of the bill. Mills also got a call from Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles on Monday. And Vice President JD Vance will join Republicans’ weekly conference meeting this morning.

Trump and White House officials have been telling GOP holdouts who want more spending cuts that the administration will pursue impoundment — that is, holding back federal funding already appropriated by Congress — according to two Republicans who were in a recent meeting with the president and spoke to Meredith Lee Hill.

But many of these fence-sitting Republicans are waiting to see if any Democrats support the stopgap funding. That’s unlikely: Many purple-district lawmakers are adamantly opposed. And while a few, including Reps. Laura Gillen and Don Davis, told our colleague Nicholas Wu that they were keeping their options open, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Monday that “it is not something we could ever support.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Sen. Patty Murray, Democrats’ top appropriators, released a shorter-term stopgap Monday night that would fund the government through April 11 and give negotiators more time to finalize full funding bills. But even House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole has ruled out that option, saying there is no Plan B to the stopgap GOP leaders are putting on the floor today.

Senate Democrats are still holding out hope. Across interviews and scrums Monday evening, 15 Democratic senators expressed hope that a shorter stopgap could prevail, that the full-year CR text could still change or that Speaker Mike Johnson would straight up fail to push the plan through as written.

GOOD TUESDAY MORNING. There are four 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 [email protected] and [email protected].

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THE SKED

The House is in session and voting on the continuing resolution, among other legislation, at 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.

— Republicans and Democrats will hold their separate weekly conference meetings at 9 a.m.

— GOP leaders hold their post-meeting news conference at 10 a.m.

— Judiciary will have a hearing on NCAA name, image and likeness issues at 10 a.m.

— Education will have a hearing on school choice for early childhood, elementary and secondary education students at 10:15 a.m.

— Democratic leaders will hold their post-meeting news conference at 11 a.m.

— Homeland Security will have a hearing on eliminating waste, fraud and abuse at DHS at 2 p.m.

— Oversight will have a hearing on coordination between federal and local governments in tackling illegal immigration at 2 p.m.

— The Republican Study Committee will have a news conference on codifying Trump’s executive orders at 2:30 p.m.

The Senate is in session and will vote to advance Steven Bradbury’s nomination as deputy Transportation secretary at 11:45 a.m., and, if successful, vote on his confirmation at 2:15 p.m. The Senate will also vote to advance Abigail Slater’s nomination as assistant attorney general at 2:15 p.m. and, if successful, vote on her confirmation at 5:15 p.m.

— Armed Services will have a hearing on stabilizing the Military Health System at 9:30 a.m.

— Veterans Affairs will have a hearing featuring testimony from VA officials on pending legislation, including a bill preventing the VA from sending certain information to the DOJ, at 10:30 a.m.

— Republican and Democratic senators will have separate weekly conference lunches at 12:45 p.m.

— Judiciary will have a hearing on a bipartisan bill focused on protecting children from online sexual exploitation at 2:30 p.m.

The rest of the week: House Democrats will begin their issues retreat in Leesburg, Virginia, on Wednesday. The Senate will take up the continuing resolution, if it passes the House, and tee up other Trump nominees.

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THE LEADERSHIP SUITE

John Thune’s new deputy on Trump and the debt limit

The Senate majority leader has tapped Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana to get Trump on board with a plan for raising the debt ceiling. But Kennedy says that Trump doesn’t seem interested, our Jennifer Scholtes, Meredith and Jordain report. “I’ve done it publicly and privately,” Kennedy said of his efforts to push Trump, “and it’s clear to me that the president is not ready to focus that much on the debt limit.”

Thune confirms Trump’s last Cabinet secretary

Senators confirmed Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Labor secretary in a 67-32 vote Monday, meaning the majority leader has successfully confirmed all of Trump’s Cabinet secretaries before the Senate took a recess — and staved off Trump’s push for recess appointments.

Jeffries’ plans for House Dems’ retreat

Democrats will highlight battlegrounds and centrist voices at their annual issues retreat this week, according to a schedule obtained by Nicholas. Jeffries will participate in a keynote conversation Thursday with swing-state Govs. Josh Shapiro and Gretchen Whitmer and red-state Gov. Andy Beshear. Rep. Susie Lee will moderate a battleground session. And pollsters are set to discuss the “Evolving Democratic Coalition.”

The numbers aren’t great for Democrats. A majority of voters in battleground House districts still believe Democrats in Congress are “more focused on helping other people than people like me,” according to an internal poll conducted by the Democratic group Navigator Research and shared first with our Elena Schneider.

SPOTTED ON THE HILL — Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the House during Monday’s votes. He was on hand for the last day of his longtime aide James Min.

POLICY RUNDOWN

MORE GOP TAX COMPLICATIONS — As Senate Finance Republicans exited their latest closed-door strategy session Monday, several told Jordain that they don’t yet have a consensus on the tax portion of Trump’s agenda or how far they should go on spending cuts. Sen. Thom Tillis pointed to August as the deadline for completing the bill — far from the Memorial Day time frame House Republicans are targeting.

Beyond needing to iron out their own differences, Senate Republicans are looking for proof from their House colleagues that they can draft a bill that adheres to their budget resolution and, until they see it, are continuing to softly push their two-bill approach.

Meanwhile, House Ways and Means Republicans huddled on Monday with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to review a large menu of tax options for the GOP’s policy agenda, our Benjamin Guggenheim and Jordain report. Tax writers were mostly tight-lipped as they left the meeting. “We’re looking at the menu,” said Rep. Aaron Bean. “I don’t think we’ve ordered anything.”

FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: MEDICAID PRESSURE CAMPAIGN — Left-leaning advocacy group Protect Our Care is launching a $2 million ad buy targeting key House Republicans on preserving Medicaid, our Ben Leonard reports. The ads will target several New York, California and Pennsylvania Republicans in swing districts, including Reps. Mike Lawler and Young Kim.

ANOTHER FIRST HERE: BIPARTISAN DOGE BILL — First-term GOP Reps. Michael Baumgartner and Jeff Hurd are signing onto a new bill to address Elon Musk’s mass firings of probationary federal workers, our Hailey Fuchs reports.

The bill, which Democratic Rep. Sarah Elfreth will introduce today, would ensure recently terminated probationary workers can reclaim the seniority they amassed in their previous positions if they’re rehired by the government. It’s the latest signal that Republicans are feeling political pressure to respond to Musk’s actions.

CENSURE WARS — House Financial Services Chair French Hill signaled opposition Monday to kicking Democratic Rep. Al Green off his committee, our Jasper Goodman reports. It sets up a potential rift with conservative hard-liners who are seeking to punish the Texas lawmaker for disrupting Trump’s joint address to Congress last week. Separately, Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan is pushing her own censure of Rep. Lauren Boebert for her comments against Green, Nicholas reports.

DEMS DIVIDED ON CRYPTO BILL — Senate Banking is set to vote Thursday on bipartisan legislation that would create a regulatory framework for stablecoins — and it’s poised to divide Democrats on the panel, Jasper reports. Pro-crypto lawmakers introduced a revamped version of the bill on Monday that is setting up a rift within the party that will pit crypto-friendly senators against Senate Banking ranking member Elizabeth Warren, who has signaled opposition to the legislation.

MARK KELLY VS. MUSK — The Arizona Democrat said Musk is “not a serious guy” and should “go back to building rockets” after the SpaceX CEO accused Kelly of being a “traitor” for traveling to Ukraine late last week. Kelly also criticized Trump for casting doubt on Ukraine’s push to join NATO and restore its pre-2014 borders ahead of the talks, arguing the president has been “telling Ukraine that they do not have the cards … because he gave up two aces before the negotiation started,” our Connor O’Brien writes in.

Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E:

THE BEST OF THE REST

Congress Doesn’t Want Trump to Scrap NASA’s Moon Rocket for Musk’s Starship, from Mark Alfred at NOTUS

Trump, With More Honey Than Vinegar, Cements an Iron Grip on Republicans, from Annie Karni and Jonathan Swan at the New York Times

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JOB BOARD

Bethany Stevens is now press secretary for NASA. She was previously press secretary for Sen. Ted Cruz.

Diala Qasem is now legislative director for Rep. André Carson. She previously was senior legislative assistant for the office.

Peter Butkovich is now a legislative assistant for Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet. He most recently was a research assistant for Sen. Gary Peters and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee minority.

Douglas Gates is now national security adviser and prospective general counsel for Sen. Todd Young. He previously was counsel at WilmerHale in the defense, national security and government contracts group.

Drew Myers is now press secretary and digital director for Rep. Eric Sorensen. He previously was deputy press secretary for Bob Casey’s reelect and is a Jacky Rosen alum.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.) … Ben Becker of Precision Strategies … Claire Burghoff of Kratos Defense and Security Solutions … Curt Cashour … Miguel Almaguer … Joe Quinn of SAFE Commanding Heights … Carrie Pugh … Lauren O’Brien of Sen. Todd Young’s (R-Ind.) office … Suzanne Hammelman … Tim Mack of Sen. Andy Kim’s (D-N.J.) office … Amy Weiss of Weiss Public Affairs … Libby Marking … Qorvis’ Brad Klapper … Apple’s Madeline Broas … Abbey Schieffer of ROKK Solutions … Jay Reichard of HB Strategies