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FIRST THINGS FIRST

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you. Tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. We remember the nearly 3,000 people who were killed, the loved ones who carry their loss and the first responders whose courage defined an unimaginably dark day.

And in Dallas: Day two of Trumpapalooza gets underway this afternoon with a heavy dose of midterm politics: battleground candidates, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) are among the speakers before Vice President JD Vance and President Trump close out the Republican convention tonight. The programming will also feature taxes and affordability, government corruption, education and public health, plus a showcase of House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates.

Related: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) launched a five-figure national digital ad buy today counterprogramming the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, contrasting President Trump’s economic promises with higher costs for groceries, gas and health insurance. “That’s not a golden age,” Jeffries says in the sports-targeted 60-second spot. “That’s a shakedown.”

And from the White House: The administration says nearly one million Affordable Care Act enrollees in 30 states will receive $500 refunds beginning in October from surplus federal-exchange user fees, a day after Trump proposed $5,000 “dividend” checks for U.S. adults if Republicans retain Congress. The $500 payments will go to enrollees who pay full premiums without federal assistance. The White House says the money represents refunds for excess fees collected under the Biden administration.

And in Missouri: The Supreme Court blocked the state from using its new Republican-drawn congressional map in November, leaving the 2022 lines in place and preserving Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City-based district while the federal appeal continues. The order resolves, for this election, a clash between state and federal courts over which map should govern the midterms.

New economic data: The Producer Price Index rose 0.4% in August and 5.4% from a year earlier, with a 4.2% jump in energy costs—led by a 24.1% surge in diesel—helping push transportation and warehousing prices higher. The report, out a day before CPI and with oil above $100 a barrel, adds to concerns that energy costs are feeding through supply chains ahead of next week’s Fed meeting.

The Big Interview: Noreen Farrell, Part II: Yesterday, Noreen Farrell made the case that Washington may be thinking about affordability too narrowly.

The president and executive director of Equal Rights Advocates told me that the economic debate tends to focus on lowering prices while overlooking policies that can increase or protect the money workers have available to spend. She argued paid sick days, higher wages and pay transparency can function as affordability policies by strengthening household finances even if they don’t directly make groceries, rent or health care cheaper.

That argument grows out of a new national poll commissioned by the Equal Rights Advocates Action Fund, the organization’s political arm. The survey found 58 percent of likely 2026 voters said the economy was not working well for them and their families, while large majorities said Congress should make progress on affordable family and elder care, fair wages, paid leave and equal pay.

But broad support for an idea and enactment into federal law are two very different things.

That’s where we left the conversation yesterday.

Farrell argues that Congress should resist trying to solve the entire problem through sprawling legislative packages and instead pursue smaller policies capable of producing tangible benefits quickly. She also believes those policies could help lawmakers rebuild some capacity for bipartisan legislating.

So I asked her to get specific: Where has the political system broken down? What could Congress realistically accomplish? And if lawmakers could move only two pieces of the agenda she champions, which two should come first?

I also pressed Farrell on the Action Fund’s bigger political claim—that the “road to victory” in November runs through this agenda. The poll measures whether supporting particular policies would make voters more or less likely to vote for an elected official. That is not the same thing as demonstrating those policies will determine how someone votes.

Here’s the rest of our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity…

📬 The best stories often start with a conversation. If you’ve got insight, context or something others are missing, my inbox is open. Send me tips, scoops or just say hi: michael@onceuponahill.com.

IN THE KNOW

Talarico rolls out Republican endorsements: More than 20 current and former Republican officials and leaders are backing Democratic Texas Senate nominee James Talarico over GOP nominee Ken Paxton, including former Dallas Mayor Steve Bartlett, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and several former Texas lawmakers and judges. The cross-party push comes as Talarico has increasingly made an explicit appeal to Republicans and independents in the closing weeks of the race.

AOC backs Haynes in Texas: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Texas) endorsed Rev. Frederick Haynes III for Texas’s 30th District, praising his support for civil rights and opposition to corporate power. Haynes, Jasmine Crockett’s longtime pastor, is the Democratic nominee for the seat Crockett vacated to run unsuccessfully for Senate.

Duckworth wants more transparency for blocked military promotions: Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) urged NDAA negotiators to require the Pentagon to give officers written notice and justification within seven days when their promotions are withheld, delayed or removed, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blocked at least 40 one- and two-star promotions since January 2025. Duckworth says women and officers of color have been disproportionately affected and wants the requirement applied retroactively to Jan. 20, 2025.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

“After 9/11, the U.S. built an anti-terror apparatus. Trump is using it at home.” by Warren P. Strobel: “Waning attention to international terrorism and other threats has former officials worried.”

“The election deniers’ long game” by Toluse Olorunnipa: “Right-wing activists have slowly taken control of a significant part of America’s local election apparatus. The country isn’t prepared for what they might do.”

“Why is no one paying each other back?” by Samantha Leal: “Splitting the check is easy—in theory. In practice, you’re probably getting ghosted on Venmo more than you’re being repaid.”

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FIRST THINGS FIRST

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you. The 2026 NFL season kicks off tonight with the New England Patriots taking the field against the defending champion Seattle Seahawks in a Super Bowl LX rematch. 2,174 miles to the southeast, national Republicans will be gathered at the American Airlines Center in Dallas for the GOP’s first-ever midterm convention. The two-day Trumpapalooza is designed to showcase the party’s economic pitch on tax cuts, health care and domestic manufacturing, along with its immigration, public-safety and election-integrity agenda, plus battleground candidates and a closing keynote from President Donald Trump. Which primetime programming will you be tuned into? 👀

— AI alarm: Jacob Coxon’s warning that leading AI companies are racing toward potentially uncontrollable superintelligence triggered an unusually urgent bipartisan response on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers calling for hearings and new safeguards. House Democratic Vice Chair Ted Lieu pushed his bipartisan “AI kill switch” bill, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) called for a special session of Congress, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced plans for legislation to pause development of superintelligence, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he is working with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune on legislation addressing catastrophic AI risks.

— The Big Interview: Noreen Farrell: Washington has for decades had a recognizable bucket of policies it calls the “women’s economic agenda”: equal pay, paid family and medical leave, affordable child care and protections for caregivers and workers.

Noreen Farrell thinks that old taxonomy is increasingly out of step with how Americans experience the economy.

Farrell is the president and executive director of Equal Rights Advocates, the gender-justice organization where she has helped lead campaigns on pay equity, paid leave and economic security for women and families. Its political arm, the Equal Rights Advocates Action Fund, recently commissioned a national poll of 1,000 likely 2026 voters that found deep economic anxiety alongside broad support for congressional action on many of the policies historically associated with the women’s economic agenda.

Fifty-eight percent of voters said the economy was not working well for them and their families. And while voters were most likely to identify the cost of basics, health care and housing when asked what mattered to them personally, 89% said it was important for Congress to address affordable family and elder care, 86% said the same about fair wages and 78% said so about both paid leave and equal pay.

That gap is what interested me.

Farrell argues that Washington’s affordability conversation has become too fixated on one side of the household ledger: what things cost. She says policies that protect or increase what workers earn can provide another form of economic relief by putting more money in people’s pockets and giving families greater power to decide where to spend it.

It is also why Farrell believes policies once categorized primarily as questions of women’s equality increasingly belong in the broader debate over Americans’ economic security. Equal Rights Advocates has spent years connecting wages, paid leave, caregiving and other workplace policies through that lens, including through state-level legislative campaigns.

I spoke with Farrell this afternoon about that argument, what she thinks Congress is missing and whether the politics have finally caught up with the economics.

Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Once Upon a Hill: I want to start with the poll’s premise. What changed that makes you believe policies Washington has traditionally treated as “women’s issues” should now be understood as part of the broader affordability agenda?

Farrell: The poll numbers are fairly staggering in confirming the point. Voters have been calling for what the women’s agenda calls for: equal pay, higher wages, paid leave, affordable child care, elder care. Those have been filed and dismissed as women’s issues.

But these numbers really support the finding that the whole electorate is calling it the winning agenda. Ninety-four percent of voters want lower costs on food, housing and health care. Eighty-nine percent want access to affordable family and elder care. Seventy-eight percent want equal pay for women in the workplace.

What is really compelling is that this is consistent across the demographics and party of the voter. Independents are deciding many elections, and they’re not on the fence here. They back affordable family and elder care at 92% and fair wages at 91%. That’s not a swing voter. That’s a settled voter.

We really think this confirms a new brand of populism. It’s turning on kitchen-table economics: fair wages, paid leave, health care, child care, elder care, equal pay. You can call it “popular feminism.” But I think it’s already shaping this election cycle, as we’ve seen in the primaries, and I think it will continue to shape our politics heading into 2028…

— Oil shock: Brent crude climbed above $100 a barrel for the first time since July as renewed U.S.-Iran attacks and Houthi strikes on Saudi energy infrastructure deepened fears of prolonged supply disruptions. The escalation is also bleeding into the broader U.S. outlook, with stock futures falling and Treasury yields rising as investors price in fresh inflation pressure ahead of new inflation data and the Fed’s Sept. 16 meeting.

— TPS cliff: Temporary Protected Status for roughly 232,000 Salvadorans reaches its scheduled expiration today with DHS’s next move still unclear. The designation will automatically extend for six months if the department does not make the required determination, preserving protections for beneficiaries who in many cases have lived in the United States for decades.

— Save the date: FBI Director Kash Patel will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next Tuesday. Patel’s appearance will give Senate Democrats one of their highest-profile opportunities this fall to publicly scrutinize his management of the FBI, including allegations of politicization and misuse of bureau resources, just weeks before the midterms.

📬 The best stories often start with a conversation. If you’ve got insight, context or something others are missing, my inbox is open. Send me tips, scoops or just say hi: michael@onceuponahill.com.

IN THE KNOW

House Democrats press ICE over conditions at Delaney Hall: Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Adriano Espaillat and Reps. Analilia Mejia (D-N.J.) and Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) conducted an oversight visit today at the Newark, N.J., immigration detention facility following repeated complaints about conditions inside. The Democrats said detainees described delayed or denied medical care, spoiled food and inadequate air conditioning and pledged additional oversight of DHS and GEO Group, including seeking answers about deaths of people held at the facility…

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“The decade that ruined everything” by Jonathan Kaufman: “We are suffering the consequences of the conservative revolution that began in the 1980s.”

“The largely hidden force helping drive America’s craze for weight-loss drugs” by Lydia Sidhom: “Firms are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to convince doctors to prescribe GLP-1 drugs.”

“Why journalists love a push alert” by Charlotte Klein: “In an age of traffic scarcity, competition is fierce to reach readers via a smartphone notification.”

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FIRST THINGS FIRST

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you.

House Democrats have changed how they talk about corruption ahead of the midterms.

They argue it is not only a threat to democracy, but also making Americans’ lives more expensive.

The shift has increasingly folded one of Democrats’ defining arguments of the Trump era into the party’s broader “Fighting for an Affordable America” message, as leaders seek to connect allegations of self-dealing and favoritism in Washington to the financial pressures voters experience at home in the final eight weeks of the campaign.

A person familiar with House Democrats’ messaging confirmed that evolution to Once Upon a Hill, while emphasizing that the party still views corruption through the traditional lenses of democracy and elections.

“There is plenty of evidence to suggest that working people are paying the price for their corruption,” the person said of President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. “Trump and his family and friends are making money off of the things that are causing working people significant financial stress, and we are calling them out for it.”

The person said Democrats are encouraging members this week to hold events and other engagements around “Exposing Republicans’ America Last Agenda” to counterprogram the Republican midterm convention set to kick off in Dallas tomorrow. The person added that they doubt corruption will fade as an issue anytime soon and have gathered that it would become even more important if Democrats win the House majority…

📬 The best stories often start with a conversation. If you’ve got insight, context or something others are missing, my inbox is open. Send me tips, scoops or just say hi: michael@onceuponahill.com.

IN THE KNOW

Canada’s counter-tariffs on U.S. goods take effect: Ottawa imposed duties of 15%, 25% and 50% on $27.6 billion in American imports, targeting steel, dairy, appliances, farm equipment, pulp and paper and electronics. Canada says the measures match U.S. tariffs dollar-for-dollar and rate-for-rate. The escalation follows stalled trade talks and Trump’s threat to block Bombardier aircraft sales unless the company shifts more production to the United States.

DOJ asks Supreme Court to revive expanded voter-citizenship checks: The Trump administration wants the justices to lift a lower-court order blocking DHS from using its revamped SAVE database to run state voter rolls against immigration and Social Security records. The D.C. Circuit left the injunction intact 2–1 on Friday, citing concerns that the system violates federal privacy protections and could wrongly flag naturalized citizens.

Appeals court keeps IRS taxpayer data away from ICE: The D.C. Circuit upheld an injunction blocking an IRS policy that allowed the agency to share taxpayer addresses with immigration authorities, finding the process violated federal privacy safeguards. ICE had submitted requests covering roughly 1.28 million people, and the IRS disclosed about 47,000 records before the policy was blocked. The court said incomplete or placeholder addresses failed Congress’s strict disclosure requirements.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

“We’ve forgotten the most important lessons of 9/11” by Peter Bergen: “The world has lost track of the truth about Al Qaeda.”

“The worst advice parents can give first-year students” by Ezekiel J. Emanuel: “Today’s college students will have ample time to figure out their careers. Before that, encourage them to take risks.”

“Ugly AI food photos are only the beginning” by Reece Rogers: “Restaurant menus with AI-generated food images are going viral for their off-putting aesthetic. But AI’s impact on modern menus runs even deeper.

Programming note: Congress Nerd Sunday took the Labor Day holiday off yesterday. I neglected to give you a heads-up in Thursday’s edition—my apologies for the oversight.

To make sure everyone still gets a free edition of Congress Nerd this week, I’m opening tonight’s Daily to all readers. Paid subscribers will be back behind the paywall with me tomorrow evening.

Also, Congress Nerd looks a little different today. I’ve brought back a three-section format from the newsletter’s early days: First Things First, In the Know and Read All About It. The goal is simple: make each edition faster and more enjoyable to read without sacrificing the original reporting, insider context and policy intelligence you come here for. Think of it as an old format built for the Congress Nerd of today.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Birthright citizenship is usually discussed today as an immigration issue. Its constitutional roots are in the fight over whether Black Americans belonged to the country at all.

The 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause was ratified after the Civil War to settle that question after Dred Scott, the Supreme Court decision that denied U.S. citizenship to Black Americans.

More than 150 years later, President Donald Trump has sought to narrow that guarantee primarily through restrictions aimed at children of immigrants—even after the Supreme Court reaffirmed this summer that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are citizens under the amendment. The opinions themselves trace the Citizenship Clause to Reconstruction-era efforts to secure citizenship for Black Americans.

Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) points to this history to explain why Black Americans should see themselves in a political and legal fight that has largely been framed around immigration.

“The threat remains as urgent as ever that Donald Trump and the administration and the Supreme Court have left open the possibility that birthright citizenship can be overturned, which is a direct attack on Black people and communities here in this country,” Underwood told Once Upon a Hill last week.

Underwood has been sounding the alarm for months—and specifically warning that the immigration debate obscures who else has a stake in the outcome.

“Birthright citizenship was originally written about us,” she told OUAH in February at the House Democratic retreat. “The Trump administration is framing it in terms of Hispanic immigrants, but we know that there is an anti-Black sentiment that courses through every policy coming out of the Trump administration.”

Then came Trump v. Barbara.

The Supreme Court rejected Trump’s original approach in June. But Republicans did not treat the decision as the final word. Trump issued a narrower executive order in August identifying several categories the administration says fall outside birthright citizenship. And last week, the House Judiciary Constitution subcommittee convened a hearing explicitly devoted to the Supreme Court decision and “potential legislative responses.”

In other words: The constitutional ruling settled a case, but did not end the argument in Washington over the boundaries of citizenship.

Underwood points to another Republican priority in that argument: requiring Americans to produce documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote.

House Republicans last week passed a nonbinding resolution calling for enactment of the SAVE America Act. The legislation would require documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration, with several forms of documentation available to satisfy the requirement. Republicans argue the additional safeguard is necessary to ensure only citizens are registered to vote in federal elections.

Underwood sees the same policy from the other end: What happens when being an American is no longer enough and the government increasingly asks you to prove it?

A 2023 YouGov survey found just 34% of Black Americans had a current U.S. passport, compared with 42% of white Americans and 55% of Hispanic Americans. The SAVE America Act accepts several forms of documentary proof beyond passports. Still, Underwood argues Black Americans could face particular burdens as the government demands more evidence of a status the Constitution grants at birth.

“We never were a country where you had to show your papers,” she said last week. “But for us, there’s an urgency around that because our right to vote and our right to enjoy the benefits, so to speak, or privileges of U.S. citizenship, there is an urgent threat coming our way.”

There is a separate question for Democrats: If the Supreme Court just reaffirmed birthright citizenship, should a future Democratic Congress spend political capital protecting it again?

At least one House Democrat says no.

“I don’t think so. I don’t want us to have to reaffirm everything in the Constitution,” the member told OUAH. “We need to start with the rebuild.”

The member explained that means more than any one policy: restoring government and voters’ sense that it works for them.

“I really think people want to see the government working for them again,” the member said. “The fighting, BS and noise is exhausting, overstimulating and empty.”

Underwood isn’t necessarily prescribing a congressional response either. Her warning is about what could happen outside the text of the 14th Amendment as the political fight continues over who gets presumed to be an American—and who gets asked to prove it.

“The overwhelming majority of Black people do not have passports,” Underwood said in February. “I’m not saying it’s right. I’m saying we got to be ready for the threat that’s coming.”

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IN THE KNOW

FIRST IN CONGRESS NERD: SKD eyes DPCC opening: Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) is laying the groundwork for a potential bid for Democratic Policy and Communications Committee co-chair, according to a person familiar with her thinking. The California Democrat, who serves as CBC whip and on the Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees, has begun talking with colleagues about the position, has received encouragement to run and Democratic leadership is aware of her interest. Kamlager-Dove views her work as a party messenger and collaborator with colleagues on issues important to their constituents as central to her potential pitch for the job, the person said.

Missouri map fight reaches SCOTUS: Opponents of Missouri’s new congressional map formally asked the Supreme Court to reject Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ emergency bid to revive it for November, arguing the state Supreme Court properly applied Missouri referendum law. Without intervention before the Sept. 19 military-ballot deadline, the state will use its 2022 map while voters decide the new map’s fate by referendum.

House Dems challenge Trump’s boat strikes: The top Democrats on House Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, Intelligence and Homeland Security introduced a War Powers Resolution last week to end U.S. military strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Adam Smith (Wash.), Jim Himes (Conn.) and Bennie Thompson (Miss.) said the yearlong campaign, which they say has killed at least 227 people, was never authorized by Congress and should instead be handled through law enforcement.

GAO pokes hole in DHS savings claim: The Department of Homeland Security said its DOGE-era contract terminations could avoid $10.5 billion in costs, but a new GAO report found the actual amount will be lower. Nearly $10 billion of the claimed savings came from canceled IT contracting vehicles whose work could shift elsewhere and DHS already spent $1.7 billion through other government-wide contracts for those needs. GAO found just $92 million in net deobligations from 438 terminated contracts.

Senate Dems press DOJ on gun law: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and 12 other Senate Democrats pressed Attorney General Todd Blanche to explain why the Justice Department declined to seek an immediate stay after a federal judge struck down key National Firearms Act requirements covering short-barreled rifles and shotguns and silencers. The senators urged the DOJ to appeal and questioned whether the reversal conflicts with Blanche’s confirmation commitment to defend federal laws when reasonable constitutional arguments exist.

Trump threatens Bombardier over U.S. production: President Trump said Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier should be barred from selling planes in the U.S. unless it builds them here, escalating the trade dispute with Canada. The White House has not explained how it would carry out the threat. Bombardier already has a defense facility in Kansas and Trump made similar aircraft-related threats in January that were never implemented.

Russia leaves door open to new peace talks: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow does not rule out renewed trilateral negotiations with the U.S. and Ukraine after Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s weekend diplomacy. However, no date or venue has been set. Any momentum remains tenuous: Russia resumed attacks across Ukraine after a temporary pause, killing at least three people and injuring dozens, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Iran tightens pressure on Hormuz shipping: Iran said it will establish a new restricted maritime zone in the Persian Gulf and new shipping corridors through the Strait of Hormuz, while warning U.S.-linked oil and gas facilities could be targeted if American attacks continue. The threat followed U.S. strikes on three Iranian tankers as Hormuz traffic remained sharply reduced and Brent crude traded near $97.50 a barrel.

Trump moves on beef prices: President Trump signed two executive orders last week to support ranchers and lower meat costs as the U.S. cattle herd sits at a 75-year low. One directs tougher enforcement against anticompetitive meatpacking practices and seeks to expand interstate sales by smaller processors. The other orders reviews of country-of-origin labeling, grazing and wolf protections and directs agencies to prioritize lower consumer prices.

More labor muscle for El-Sayed: Three Michigan SEIU locals representing tens of thousands of health care workers, janitors, security officers and public employees endorsed Abdul El-Sayed for Senate. SEIU Healthcare Michigan, Local 1 and Local 517M join the Michigan AFL-CIO, UAW, AFT, AFSCME, National Nurses United and Michigan Education Association in backing El-Sayed, further consolidating organized labor behind his campaign.

DCCC steps up its ground game: House Democrats’ campaign arm said more than 2,200 volunteers knocked 91,000-plus doors across 52 battleground districts during its August weekend of action. That was twice as many doors as its July push and more than four times its June total. The DCCC reported particularly strong participation in NY-17, TX-34, CA-22, VA-01, WA-03 and NJ-07.

📬 The best stories often start with a conversation. If you’ve got insight, context or something others are missing, my inbox is open. Send me tips, scoops or just say hi: michael@onceuponahill.com.

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READ ALL ABOUT IT

“Donald Trump’s Capital makeover” by Antonia Hitchens: “A coterie of advisers, planners, and architects is enabling the president’s passion project—renovating D.C. in his own image.”

“Meta’s reckoning” by John Hermann: “Like its users, the company is stuck in an endless, unhappy doomscroll.”

“The last thing teenagers will let you teach them” by Liz Krieger: “An interesting shift happens when a kid is learning to drive, and you’re both inside a box with your fear, moving 40 miles an hour.”

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THE LINEUP

• New college sports chaos, same Hill divide

• House passes Israel boycott bill

• House GOP drops final two of Sept. session

• Padilla, Morelle press DHS on election security funds

• Pappas to bring in Warren, Kelly before primary

THE BIG STORY

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you. A sad note before we get going: Gloria Steinem, the pioneering journalist and feminist organizer who helped transform American politics and culture, died Wednesday at 92, according to a post on her official Instagram account.

New college sports chaos, same Hill divide: A fresh wave of legal fights over professional football players attempting to return to college has given supporters of a sweeping federal college-sports overhaul a vivid new argument for congressional action. It doesn’t appear to have solved their problem with House Democrats.

The Congressional Black Caucus discussed the Protect College Sports Act during its weekly meeting this week, but the group’s official opposition to the legislation remains unchanged, according to a person familiar with the discussion.

The decision leaves one of the bill’s biggest House-side obstacles intact even as a fresh wave of eligibility disputes involving former professional football players has strengthened supporters’ argument that Congress needs to impose national rules on college sports.

CBC Chair Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) told me this week that the latest upheaval has not changed her opposition to the bill, citing Congress’s failure to meaningfully restore voting-rights protections following the Supreme Court’s Callais decision.

“It’s about how these colleges benefit, notwithstanding all the challenges that they face from Black athletes,” Clarke said...

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THE POWERS THAT BE

House GOP drops votes final two Sept. weeks: House Republican leaders canceled votes for the final two weeks of September, leaving the week of Sept. 14 as the chamber’s last scheduled voting week before the midterms. The move sharply narrows the window for several Senate GOP priorities—including the PCSA, the CLARITY Act and a possible third reconciliation package—to clear both chambers before members head home to campaign in October. The House departed this morning for another 10-day break after just returning from its five-week August recess.

THE POLICY DESK

Padilla, Morelle press DHS on election security funds: Senate Rules Ranking Member Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and House Administration Ranking Member Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) called on DHS and CISA to restore federal support for the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC), saying the administration has failed to follow congressional direction months before the midterms. The top Democratic election officials in each chamber said CISA has not provided any of the more than $39.6 million appropriated for election-security work and pressed for an update on funding and staffing by Sept. 9.

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THE TRAIL

Pappas to bring in Warren, Kelly before primary: Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) will campaign this weekend with Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire Senate primary. Warren will join Pappas Saturday for a Granite State Victory office opening in Dover and a housing event in Northwood, while Kelly will appear with him Sunday at a Manchester canvass launch. Pappas is seeking the Democratic nomination for the open seat of retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).

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THE LINEUP

• Democrats reckon with the rule revolt

• Civil-rights groups launch poll-watcher operation

• Democrats see an opening on corruption

• Frost targets homeless detention policies

• AOC backs Nixon in Florida

THE BIG STORY

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you.

House Democrats are still trying to contain the fallout from Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) blindsiding leadership to rescue a Republican rule on Tuesday, with members openly discussing consequences, questioning how the episode happened and warning that the caucus needs a tighter operation if it wins the House this fall.

The anger has not faded.

“I still can’t believe it,” one House Democrat told me Wednesday morning before the weekly whip meeting. “I hope there are consequences. I trust leadership will make sure the punishment matches the depth of the betrayal.”...

📬 The best stories often start with a conversation. If you’ve got insight, context or something others are missing, my inbox is open. Send me tips, scoops or just say hi: michael@onceuponahill.com.

THE POWERS THAT BE

Democrats see an opening on corruption: House Democratic leadership shared polling during this morning’s whip meeting showing voters increasingly trust Democrats on the economy and want the party to connect corruption more explicitly to their top concern: affordability, according to a person who attended. The message from voters, leadership told members, is to make the case with specifics—particularly on how corruption affects health care and prescription drug costs.

THE POLICY DESK

Frost targets homeless detention policies: Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) introduced legislation to bar federal housing funds from supporting detention-style facilities for people experiencing homelessness, including programs that require involuntary placement or work in exchange for shelter. The bill responds to a growing conservative push to criminalize homelessness and move unhoused people into temporary facilities, including policies already adopted in several states.

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THE TRAIL

AOC backs Nixon in Florida: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed Angie Nixon for Senate, praising the Florida Democrat as a fighter for working families who built her political career through community organizing rather than establishment support. Ocasio-Cortez said Nixon’s independence from major political machines and commitment to her values were central to her endorsement.

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THE LINEUP

• Two Democrats rescue Johnson’s agenda

• U.S. launches a new round of strikes inside Iran

• Hayes eyes Education and Workforce post

• Warren presses Trump housing officials

• HMP expands its fall ad offensive

THE BIG STORY

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you.

Two House Democrats rescued Speaker Mike Johnson’s agenda this afternoon after they cast the decisive votes on a procedural motion that otherwise would have failed and blindsided Democratic leadership in the process.

Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington joined Republicans to advance the rule 210–208. Five Republicans opposed it, along with every other Democrat.

Without Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez, the rule would have deadlocked 208–208 and failed.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told Once Upon a Hill after the vote that he received no warning from the two Democrats.

“We’re going to have a conversation about it all,” Jeffries said when asked for his reaction. “And until that point, you know, I have nothing to say at this point.”

A conversation with whom?

“Everyone involved.”

Asked whether Golden or Gluesenkamp Perez gave him a heads-up beforehand, Jeffries said: “I didn’t get a heads-up. You’ll have to talk to Katherine.”

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) did not stop to answer questions after the vote. When I approached her as she began walking out of the cloakroom, she turned around and left the floor through another door.

The episode exposed an unusual fissure within the House Democratic Caucus just nine weeks before the midterm elections. Democratic leaders generally do not whip votes on rules, the procedural resolutions that govern floor debate. But the minority almost universally opposes the majority’s rules rather than supplying the votes needed to keep its legislative agenda moving.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) underscored how extraordinary she considered Tuesday’s vote.

“Voting for the rule is something that I, as Speaker, we never — we didn’t even consider that anybody would do that,” Pelosi told reporters. “We never had that problem. So I’m disappointed that they did that.”

Privately, the reaction among Democrats was even sharper.

“They are not team players,” one House Democrat told me after the vote. “I wonder why they even caucus with us.”

A senior House Democratic aide was similarly furious: “I’m just so pissed off. Why would you ever help the Republicans with a rule? It makes no sense.”

Golden had a direct policy interest in the package. The rule provides for consideration of legislation he introduced with Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York to extend through 2035 a congressional pause that effectively protects the American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries from new federal regulations intended to reduce risks to the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

But Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez also helped clear the way for votes some of their Democratic colleagues would rather avoid...

📬 The best stories often start with a conversation. If you’ve got insight, context or something others are missing, my inbox is open. Send me tips, scoops or just say hi: michael@onceuponahill.com.

THE POWERS THAT BE

Hayes eyes Education and Workforce post: Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) plans to run to lead Democrats on the House Education and Workforce Committee next Congress, according to a source familiar with her plans, setting up a potential contest with Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-Va.), who is expected to seek the post again. Hayes is focused for now on winning reelection but plans to pitch colleagues afterward on a more assertive committee that advances ambitious education policy (potentially including reversals of education provisions in Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act), aggressively investigates the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Education Department, and prioritizes member retention. The former educator, named National Teacher of the Year in 2016, was elected to Congress two years later as the first Black woman to represent the state.

THE POLICY DESK

Warren presses Trump housing officials: Senate Banking Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) demanded HUD Secretary Scott Turner and FHFA Director Bill Pulte explain what their agencies are doing to curb Wall Street ownership of housing, arguing they have instead made it easier for institutional investors to compete with homebuyers. Warren pointed to both Trump’s January executive order and the bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act, which restricts large investors from buying additional single-family homes, and requested answers by Sept. 14.

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THE TRAIL

HMP expands its fall ad offensive: House Majority PAC launched new television, digital and Spanish-language radio ads across six battleground districts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Ohio and Texas, targeting Republicans over Medicaid cuts, tariffs, corruption and personal conduct. The Democratic super PAC’s latest wave hits Juan Ciscomani, David Valadao, Gabe Evans, Derek Merrin, Monica De La Cruz and Eric Flores as the fight for the House enters its final stretch.

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THE LINEUP

• Trump takes on the data-center backlash

• SCOTUS lets Trump keep building his ballroom

• Johnson pitches GOP case for Iran war

• Democrats press Trump on Russia sanctions

• Harris backs Pappas in NH

THE BIG STORY

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you.

President Donald Trump jumped headfirst into the growing political backlash against data centers this morning, warning communities resisting the massive facilities powering the artificial-intelligence boom that they risk becoming “backwards and poor”—and handing Democrats a fresh opening to make the issue about affordability ahead of the midterms.

“The good news is that there are plenty of other places that want them,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.”

Trump added that China “could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement” and urged Americans to “let Data Reign.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told me this afternoon that concerns about data centers came up wherever he traveled during the August recess, particularly as part of voters’ broader frustration with the cost of living.

“Republicans continue to insult their own voters,” Jeffries said. “This is not a partisan issue.”

He said Americans across urban, suburban, rural and small-town communities are concerned about being “overrun by data centers” and the possibility that their electricity and water bills will continue to rise.

Jeffries also connected the backlash for the first time to Republicans’ signature domestic-policy law, accusing the party of supporting data-center development “without any restraints.”...

📬 The best stories often start with a conversation. If you’ve got insight, context or something others are missing, my inbox is open. Send me tips, scoops or just say hi: michael@onceuponahill.com.

THE POWERS THAT BE

Johnson pitches GOP case for Iran war: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told the Republican Jewish Coalition that Republicans should emphasize Iran’s nuclear threat when defending the six-month-old war to voters. Johnson said the administration was “in the process of winding this down” and added that resolving the conflict within the next 64 days “would be great as we go into the midterm election,” while arguing Republicans could defend continuing it if necessary.

THE POLICY DESK

Democrats press Trump on Russia sanctions: Top Democrats on the Senate Banking and Finance committees and House Foreign Affairs, Ways and Means and Joint Economic committees urged President Trump to use his existing authority to impose additional sanctions on companies, individuals and vessels supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine. The lawmakers argued waiting for Congress to grant new tariff authority would only give sanctions evaders more time to adapt.

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THE TRAIL

Harris backs Pappas in NH: Former Vice President Kamala Harris endorsed Rep. Chris Pappas in New Hampshire’s open Senate race ahead of the Sept. 8 primary. The endorsement comes as Pappas prepares for a competitive general-election race against former GOP Sen. John Sununu, the older brother of former Gov. Chris Sununu. Recent polling showed Pappas and Sununu separated by only a few points.

THE LINEUP

• McIver’s legal fight enters its next phase

• Clyburn backs Supreme Court expansion to 13 justices

• Senate Republicans target mifepristone access

• Talarico goes negative on Paxton for the first time

THE BIG STORY

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Sunday. I hope your weekend was everything for you.

Rep. LaMonica McIver is weighing how far to take her fight to stop the federal criminal case against her from reaching trial after an appeals court dealt the New Jersey Democrat a major setback last week.

Her options include asking the same three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its decision, seeking review from the full appeals court or petitioning the Supreme Court to intervene before a trial occurs.

The options aren’t mutually exclusive, McIver attorney Paul Fishman told reporters last week, and her legal team has not decided which path to pursue.

“We are not afraid to try this case,” Fishman said. But he argued the pretrial fight is about more than whether McIver is ultimately convicted. It is also about protecting members of Congress “who could be targeted by this administration for speaking out, for conducting oversight of the executive branch.”

McIver is making a similar argument to her colleagues.

She said she is grateful to House Democrats who have publicly defended her and helped raise money for her legal expenses. But she wants colleagues who have been quieter to recognize what she views as the broader institutional stakes of her prosecution.

“I hope that other colleagues who haven’t been as vocal or haven’t been as supportive, that they understand that this is about our collective as members of Congress all together,” McIver told Once Upon a Hill. “They should give a damn about what is happening to me. If it can happen to me, definitely it can happen to either one of them.”

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), a fellow Congressional Black Caucus member close to McIver, said the congresswoman needs more support.

“I see her. CBC sees her. Her district sees her. Black women see her,” Kamlager-Dove told Once Upon a Hill. “It is obvious that this administration really sees her. And she needs more allies.”

McIver also views her prosecution within a broader pattern of Trump administration actions targeting Black Americans, particularly Black women.

“We have been literally on Trump’s number-one hit list,” she said. “I’m just one of the ones on his list and one of the first ones.”

McIver, 40, has represented New Jersey’s 10th District since September 2024, when she won a special election to succeed the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr. The Newark native is the first Black woman to represent the district and serves on the House Homeland Security Committee, which oversees the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.

The case stems from McIver’s May 2025 oversight inspection of Delaney Hall, an immigration detention facility in Newark that sits in her district. McIver was there with two other lawmakers when federal authorities moved to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka outside the facility.

Prosecutors allege McIver made physical contact with federal officers during the ensuing altercation. She faces three counts of forcibly impeding or interfering with federal officers. The maximum penalty is 17 years if she’s convicted.

McIver sought to have the charges dismissed on several grounds, including that her conduct was protected by the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause. The Third Circuit upheld a lower court’s rejection of that argument for two counts but sent a broader third count back for the district court to determine whether it includes protected legislative activity.

The appeals court also declined to consider before trial McIver’s claims of selective and vindictive prosecution. Judge Thomas Ambro partially dissented, arguing in part that the court should have allowed further examination of whether the prosecution was retaliatory.

McIver’s lawyers ordinarily have 14 days to seek rehearing, Fishman said, although the deadline can be extended. The district court has scheduled a Sept. 15 status conference to address the remanded count and other issues.

For now, McIver says she has no intention of allowing the case to deter the oversight work that brought her to Delaney Hall in the first place.

“I’m not going to be intimidated out of doing my job,” she said.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

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THE POWERS THAT BE

Trump calls on FCC to punish Kristen Welker: Relatedly, President Trump called on FCC Chair Brendan Carr to take action against Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker after she described his record of Republican primary endorsements as producing “mixed results.” Trump disputed the characterization, claiming a 99% success rate and saying Welker “will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment.” Minutes earlier, Trump declared “FCC TO THE RESCUE!” while complaining about unfavorable media polling. FWIW, the FCC licenses individual TV stations, not national networks or journalists. But as I reported earlier this month, Carr has previously threatened regulatory consequences against broadcasters over alleged news distortion.

Clyburn backs Supreme Court expansion to 13 justices: Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) called for expanding the Supreme Court from nine justices to 13, telling NBC’s Meet the Press he wants to see “a baker’s dozen” on the high court. The endorsement puts the former House majority whip behind one of the most aggressive proposals for overhauling the court as Democrats debate how to respond to its conservative majority. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) reiterated his call for “dramatic Supreme Court reform” as recently as this weekend but stopped short of endorsing court expansion or another specific proposal. The House, meanwhile, is scheduled to vote this week on a proposed constitutional amendment from Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) that would permanently set the court at nine justices.

📬 The best stories often start with a conversation. If you’ve got insight, context or something others are missing, my inbox is open. Send me tips, scoops or just say hi: michael@onceuponahill.com.

THE POLICY DESK

Senate Republicans target mifepristone access: Senate HELP Committee Republicans released a report last Thursday pressing the FDA to tighten restrictions on mifepristone following a months-long investigation led by Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) into the drug’s three FDA-approved sponsors. The report challenges existing safety requirements and scrutinizes manufacturers’ oversight of prescribers and pharmacies, despite decades of evidence establishing mifepristone as safe and effective. The Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights research organization, accused Republicans of relying on “junk science and false claims” to build political pressure for new restrictions as the FDA conducts its own safety review of the medication.

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THE TRAIL

El-Sayed to hit the road (and Rogers over Trump): Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed will join state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Detroit leaders Monday to knock Republican Mike Rogers as he campaigns with Vice President JD Vance, part of an effort to tie Rogers to President Trump’s economic and trade policies. The event comes as El-Sayed launches his “It Shouldn’t Be This Hard” tour, a series of town halls across Michigan beginning Thursday focused on affordability and health care while contrasting his accessibility to voters with what his campaign describes as Rogers’ avoidance of debates and interviews.

Talarico goes negative on Paxton for the first time: Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico launched his first negative ad of the general election on Saturday, attacking Republican Ken Paxton as “the most corrupt politician in Texas.” The 30-second spot targets Paxton’s personal wealth, real-estate holdings and 2023 impeachment while tying those attacks to the cost of housing, health care and overtime pay. The ad debuted during TCU’s season opener against North Carolina and will air statewide as part of Talarico’s eight-figure advertising campaign.

Vindman puts $250K behind Democratic Senate candidates: Alex Vindman announced on Friday a $250,000 investment in the DSCC and Democratic Senate candidates in nine states: Mary Peltola in Alaska, Josh Turek in Iowa, Troy Jackson in Maine, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Dan Osborn in Nebraska, Chris Pappas in New Hampshire, Roy Cooper in North Carolina, Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Charles Booker in Kentucky. The spending comes after Vindman lost Florida’s Democratic Senate primary to state Rep. Angie Nixon earlier this month. He has since invested $400,000 in the Florida Democratic Party to support candidates up and down the ballot, including Nixon, and says additional investments are coming.

Editor’s note: Congress Nerd is on summer break this week ahead of the House’s return from August recess on Monday. But when Reproductive Freedom for All offered us an exclusive on its latest midterm endorsements, we didn’t want to make you wait. Regular Congress Nerd programming resumes Sunday evening.

Reproductive Freedom for All will endorse 17 Democratic House challengers this morning, including 13 running in battleground districts, as the abortion-rights group expands its $23.5 million effort to elect what it calls a reproductive-freedom majority in Congress.

The slate includes candidates across 14 states, from Alaska to Virginia, and is part of Reproductive Freedom for All’s My Body. My Ballot. campaign, its largest-ever midterm electoral program. The initiative is designed to mobilize voters who support abortion rights—including independents, soft Republicans and split-ticket voters—and turn that support into votes for candidates up and down the ballot.

Twelve of the 17 candidates are also members of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue program for competitive challengers: Randy Villegas in California’s 22nd District; Marni von Wilpert in California’s 48th; Manny Rutinel in Colorado’s 8th; Lindsay James in Iowa’s 2nd; Sam Forstag in Montana’s 1st; Cait Conley in New York’s 17th; Bob Harvie in Pennsylvania’s 1st; Bob Brooks in Pennsylvania’s 7th; Johnny Garcia in Texas’ 35th; and Shannon Taylor, Elaine Luria and Tom Perriello in Virginia’s 1st, 2nd and 5th districts.

The overlap is a reminder of where the fight for the House will actually be decided in less than 10 weeks.

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Much of the national conversation around Democrats this summer has focused on the party’s ideological direction, including the rise of democratic socialist candidates and whether a broader left-wing insurgency is reshaping Democratic politics. But control of the House is likely to turn on a collection of competitive districts where Democrats are trying to defeat Republican incumbents or flip GOP-held seats—and where outside groups such as Reproductive Freedom for All are directing money, organizing infrastructure and voter outreach.

The DCCC describes Red to Blue as its program for “top-tier” candidates positioned to flip Republican-held districts. Reproductive Freedom for All’s new slate substantially overlaps with that battlefield, underscoring how reproductive freedom groups see abortion not simply as a motivating issue for the Democratic base but as a potential persuasion tool in the races most likely to determine the majority.

“These races span the country, but the choice is the same in every district: leaders who will protect our fundamental freedoms or politicians who will help Trump take more of them away,” Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju said in a statement announcing the endorsements.

📬 The best stories often start with a conversation. If you’ve got insight, context or something others are missing, my inbox is open. Send me tips, scoops or just say hi: michael@onceuponahill.com.

The endorsements are the latest phase of My Body. My Ballot., which Reproductive Freedom for All launched in June with plans for direct voter contact, coordinated canvassing with campaigns, relational organizing and digital outreach. The organization says its strategy specifically targets voters whose support for abortion access does not always translate into support for Democratic candidates.

That gap is one Reproductive Freedom for All is trying to close this year.

Pavitra Abraham, the organization’s director of state campaigns, told me earlier this month that Reproductive Freedom for All has focused on voters who split their tickets in 2024, including those who backed abortion-rights measures while supporting Republicans elsewhere on the ballot.

Abraham said the group believes some of those voters were presented with a false choice between reproductive freedom and affordability. Its 2026 strategy is to connect abortion access to economic concerns including health-care costs, Medicaid and the financial consequences of deciding whether and when to have children.

“We focused on these split-ticket voters,” Abraham said. “We understand what happened in ’24.” She argued that reproductive freedom and affordability should not be viewed as competing priorities.

“Making a choice about how and when to start a family is the single biggest economic decision you can make in your life,” Abraham said. “Articulating that to voters and helping people see those connections is how we’re going to break through and win.”

Since Congress Nerd Daily is still on summer break for one more week, here’s something a little different for your Sunday reading.

A Media Operator recently profiled me and Once Upon a Hill, including the nearly yearlong process of becoming the first journalist publishing on Substack to receive a congressional press credential, how that access changed my reporting and what I’ve learned building an independent newsroom from scratch.

One detail from the piece made me especially proud: The congressional press gallery told AMO that a handful of other Substack publishers have since been credentialed.

I’m proud to have been first. I’m even prouder I wasn’t the last.

Read the full profile →

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THE LINEUP

• What four years of the IRA taught Democrats

• Jeffries keeps his distance from the left’s agenda

• House Dems take ICE oversight to Maine

• Florida Dems face tests of ideology and representation

THE LEAD

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Sunday. I hope your weekend was everything for you.

Programming note: Congress Nerd Daily is on summer break this week, so there will be no Monday-through-Thursday editions. I’ll be back in your inbox next Sunday with another look at the week ahead before Daily returns the week of Aug. 30, when the House comes back from its August recess. Enjoy the break—and what’s left of summer.

The IRA, four years later: Former President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law four years ago today, capping a yearlong Democratic effort to turn unified control of Washington into a sweeping rewrite of the social safety net and clean-energy economy.

What reached Biden’s desk was considerably smaller than what House Democrats passed nine months earlier under the Build Back Better banner. But the IRA still represented the largest federal investment to combat climate change in U.S. history, empowered Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices for the first time and extended enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.

1461 days, another presidential administration and a Republican rollback later, the law’s legacy is coming into clearer focus. Here are four lessons from what Democrats enacted, what they left behind and what happened next.

1. The IRA became more about health care and climate than inflation.

Inflation was running near four-decade highs when Democrats passed the bill, and then-Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia—an indispensable vote in a 50-50 Senate—had spent months warning that additional federal spending could make matters worse.

But the law’s most durable consequences have been elsewhere. The IRA made Medicare a prescription-drug price negotiator, capped beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket drug spending and limited insulin costs for Medicare patients. It extended enhanced ACA premium assistance and poured hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy, manufacturing and emissions reductions.

Four years later, the law is more consequential as a health, climate and industrial-policy measure than as the anti-inflation legislation its name advertised.

2. The IRA’s major policies have had very different staying power.

The law provided nearly $80 billion over a decade to rebuild the IRS after years of budget cuts. Congress began clawing back that funding before Republicans regained unified control, and by fiscal year 2026, nearly $54 billion of the original $79.4 billion had been rescinded. (The rollback began under divided government, with Congress rescinding $21.6 billion in 2023 and 2024 before Republicans regained unified control.)

The GOP went further after returning to power. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by President Donald Trump last year, accelerated the expiration of tax credits for electric vehicles, residential clean energy and home efficiency improvements while restricting other incentives.

Those rollbacks came after the IRA had already driven billions of dollars in private clean-energy investment. Some investment has continued; other projects have been delayed or canceled as federal policy changed.

The result offers Democrats evidence of how quickly federal policy can influence private investment—and how quickly a subsequent Congress can rewrite the policy behind it.

3. Democrats haven’t abandoned Build Back Better.

House Democrats passed the Build Back Better Act in November 2021 with universal pre-K, child-care subsidies, an expanded Child Tax Credit, housing investments, expanded home care and other policies designed to lower household costs.

Manchin rejected the House package, while then-Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona separately resisted pieces of Democrats’ tax agenda. Months of negotiations eventually produced the narrower agreement that became the IRA.

But many of the ideas left behind never disappeared from Democratic politics. Four years later, Democrats confronting an affordability crisis are again proposing ways to lower housing, child-care and health-care costs, expand family tax benefits and use federal policy to relieve household expenses. The details have changed, but parts of Build Back Better’s economic argument survived its legislative defeat.

4. The IRA could shape Democrats’ next governing agenda.

Democrats would not enter their next period of unified government where they stood in 2021. Medicare can already negotiate prices for certain prescription drugs. The party has seen the effects of using the tax code to encourage private investment on a massive scale—and which policies Republicans targeted when they regained power.

Meanwhile, affordability policies Democrats couldn’t get through the Senate remain part of the party’s conversation about what governing should look like the next time it controls Washington.

That doesn’t mean a future Democratic Congress would dust off the House-passed Build Back Better Act. The party, economy and political environment have changed.

But the problems that animated it haven’t gone anywhere. The unfinished question isn’t simply whether the IRA worked. It’s what Democrats learned from the pieces that did—and whether their next majority will return for the ones they left behind.

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THE POWERS THAT BE

Jeffries keeps his distance from the left’s agenda: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) used an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press this morning to resist being drawn into his party’s ideological fights, declining to say Democratic Socialists don’t belong in the party even as he distanced himself from several of the left’s signature policies. Jeffries said he does not support the DSA agenda but acknowledged socialist candidates who win in November will join what he expects to be a “broad” caucus alongside progressives, New Dems and Blue Dogs. Pressed on what that caucus might do in the majority, Jeffries backed dramatically reforming ICE but stopped short of committing to a vote to abolish the agency, said he does not currently support Medicare for All, and left broader Supreme Court reforms beyond an ethics code to Judiciary Democrats. Instead, he repeatedly returned to the ground on which he wants House Democrats fighting the midterms: affordability, health care and holding the Trump administration accountable.

📬 The best stories often start with a conversation. If you’ve got insight, context or something others are missing, my inbox is open. Send me tips, scoops or just say hi: michael@onceuponahill.com.

THE POLICY DESK

House Dems take ICE oversight to Maine: House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Reps. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Troy Carter (D-La.) and Val Hoyle (D-Ore.) will hold a shadow hearing tomorrow morning in Biddeford, Maine, to examine ICE’s use of force following the July 13 killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero. The lawmakers will hear from Durán Guerrero’s family attorney, Biddeford Mayor Liam LaFountain and immigrant-rights advocates about the circumstances surrounding his death and the broader impact of ICE operations in Maine.

Warren targets presidential bank conflicts: Senate Banking Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and nine colleagues will introduce legislation barring presidents, vice presidents, their immediate families and other senior federal officials from owning or controlling banks or obtaining key regulatory approvals for financial institutions they control. The bill comes after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approved a national bank charter for World Liberty Financial, the Trump family-linked crypto company. It would also require federal banking regulators to review approvals issued since Jan. 20, 2025, and terminate those granted while a covered official owned or controlled the applicant. “This is the most brazen act of self-dealing our financial system has ever seen,” Warren said.

Massachusetts Dems inspect ICE detention facility: Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Jim McGovern and Stephen Lynch conducted an unannounced oversight visit Friday at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, the only Massachusetts facility holding civil immigration detainees long-term. The lawmakers said they met detainees who described inadequate food, drinking water and medical care and called for greater accountability and changes to ICE detention and enforcement practices. Pressley and McGovern renewed their calls to abolish ICE, while Lynch said lawmakers should continue using their authority to conduct unannounced inspections and oppose agency funding absent reforms, including body cameras, a ban on masks and new use-of-force standards.

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THE TRAIL

Florida Dems face tests of ideology and representation: Florida Democrats will vote on Tuesday in several House primaries that could offer another measure of where the party is heading. The sharpest fight may be in the safely blue 20th District, where Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is running to represent a seat Black Democrats have fought to preserve as a center of Black political representation after Republican redistricting made her current district considerably more difficult for Democrats. Local Black Democratic leaders have opposed her move, while Elijah Manley, Dale Holness, Luther Campbell and former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick are competing to keep the seat under Black representation. In the 25th, Rep. Jared Moskowitz faces democratic socialist Oliver Larkin in a test of whether the left’s recent primary momentum can extend into a more competitive district, while Democrats will also choose among seven candidates to succeed retiring Frederica Wilson in the safely blue 24th.

DCCC puts a price tag on its affordability message: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched a new website that lets voters calculate how much prices for everyday groceries have increased and share a personalized “receipt” by text or social media, the latest effort by House Democrats to make affordability central to their closing argument ahead of the midterms. The committee is branding the increases the “House Republican Price Hike” and tying higher prices for staples including ground beef, coffee and bread to GOP control of Washington. The launch comes as Democrats seek to capitalize on persistent voter concerns about the cost of living, with annual inflation reaching 3.4% in July.

Dems lock in their 2028 primary map: The Democratic National Committee voted at its summer meeting in Austin on Saturday to approve six states for its 2028 presidential primary early window, putting South Carolina first on Jan. 22, followed by Nevada on Feb. 1, New Hampshire on Feb. 8, New Mexico on Feb. 15, Michigan on Feb. 22 and Virginia on Feb. 29. The calendar, previously recommended by the party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, significantly expands the racial and geographic diversity of the early-state electorate while placing the battlegrounds of Nevada and Michigan prominently in the nominating process. DNC Chair Ken Martin said the calendar would “truly represent our party and our values” while helping produce a nominee prepared to retake the White House.

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THE LINEUP

• Abortion’s next test is the midterms

• Trump’s Harvard pressure campaign hits a legal wall

• Lawmakers advocate for better post-disaster pet reunification

• DNC listens in on 2024 drop-off voter

THE LEAD

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you.

Programming note: Congress Nerd Daily is taking a little summer break for the next two weeks. Once Upon a Hill will still publish Congress Nerd Sunday on Aug. 16 and Aug. 23 before returning to regularly scheduled programming the week of Aug. 30, when the House returns from its August recess. Until then, enjoy the last few weeks of summer—and try not to think about September government-funding deadlines.

Abortion’s midterm test: Abortion rights flexed their political muscle again last week as voters in Kansas and Missouri overwhelmingly rejected Republican-backed measures that reproductive-rights advocates warned would weaken protections in both states.

The results extended an extraordinary post-Roe winning streak for reproductive-rights supporters ahead of another major test this fall. Voters in Nevada, Virginia, Idaho and Missouri will decide abortion-related ballot measures alongside races that will determine control of Congress and state governments....

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THE POWERS THAT BE

Trump’s Harvard pressure campaign hits a legal wall: A federal judge dismissed the Trump administration’s antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard, a setback to its broader effort to use civil-rights enforcement and federal funding to force changes at elite universities. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns found the Justice Department failed to plausibly allege an ongoing Title VI violation…

THE POLICY DESK

Lawmakers advocate for better post-disaster pet reunification: Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Young Kim (R-Calif.) led 39 lawmakers in asking the Government Accountability Office to examine how pets displaced during federally declared disasters are tracked and reunited with their owners…

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THE TRAIL

DNC listens in on 2024 drop-off voters: The Democratic National Committee says affordability emerged as the dominant concern from nearly 10,000 extended conversations with voters who cast ballots in 2020 but sat out the 2024 election…

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THE LINEUP

• CBC readies agenda for Democratic House

• Durbin, Booker defend First Step Act ahead of SCOTUS

• Pallone probes airlines over surveillance pricing

• Ossoff seizes on Collins’s Jan. 6 comments

THE LEAD

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you.

Leavitt to leave WH: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will step down at the end of the month to spend more time with her family, President Donald Trump announced this afternoon. Trump said Leavitt will remain one of his “top outside advisors” and an influential Republican voice as the party works to win the midterm elections. He did not announce her successor. Leavitt has served as press secretary since Trump returned to office in January 2025.

Inflation cools as Fed weighs weaker jobs market: Consumer prices rose 0.1 percent in July and 3.4 percent from a year earlier, down from a 3.5-percent annual rate in June, while core inflation ticked down to 2.5 percent annually. Shelter accounted for roughly two-thirds of the monthly increase, while energy prices fell 1.5 percent but remained 14.7 percent higher than a year ago. The cooler inflation reading, combined with a surprisingly weak July jobs report that showed the economy lost 23,000 jobs, has shifted expectations ahead of the Fed’s September meeting, with financial markets increasingly betting policymakers will hold interest rates steady rather than resume rate hikes.

Democratic voters keep choosing change: Tuesday’s primaries offered another sign of Democratic voters’ impatience with the status quo. Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan easily defeated Rep. Angie Craig for the Democratic Senate nomination, delivering progressives another major win a week after Abdul El-Sayed upset Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan. But in Wisconsin, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley narrowly defeated democratic socialist state Rep. Francesca Hong for the gubernatorial nomination after making electability against Republican Tom Tiffany central to his closing argument. And in Connecticut, former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin soundly ousted 14-term Rep. John Larson in a generational rather than ideological revolt. The results suggest the defining mood of the Democratic primaries may be less left versus center than an appetite for change—with electability still capable of putting limits on it.

CBC readies its majority agenda: The Congressional Black Caucus is putting the finishing touches on an affirmative agenda outlining what its members want Democrats to prioritize if they retake the House this fall, according to a CBC and a person familiar with the planning.

The caucus hopes to release the agenda in September, shortly after lawmakers return from the August recess and in time for the final October campaign sprint, the person said.

The agenda would give the CBC a governing blueprint before voters decide control of the House and put down a marker for what one of the Democratic Caucus’s most influential blocs expects from a potential majority.

CBC Chair Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) told me just before the House left Washington last month that restoring federal voting-rights protections sits at the top of the caucus’s list...

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THE POWERS THAT BE

Durbin, Booker defend First Step Act ahead of SCOTUS: Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to reverse a Fifth Circuit ruling that limits how federal prisoners can enforce earned-time credits under the bipartisan First Step Act…

THE POLICY DESK

Pallone probes airlines over surveillance pricing: House Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) has asked eight major US airlines whether they use customers’ personal information and artificial intelligence to determine how much individual travelers pay for flights…

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THE TRAIL

Ossoff seizes on Collins’s Jan. 6 comments: Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) called on Republican Senate nominee Mike Collins to retract his support for taxpayer-funded payments to people involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, escalating one of the first major contrasts of their Georgia general-election matchup…

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THE LINEUP

• Inside the left’s looming moment of truth

• Jeffries to headline NABJ newsmaker plenary

• Study estimates major savings under Medicare for All

• Planned Parenthood lines up behind El-Sayed

THE LEAD

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Gilman headed home: Russia released Robert Gilman, a 32-year-old American and former Marine who had been imprisoned there since 2022, after President Donald Trump said he personally pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his release.

Trump said Gilman was freed on humanitarian grounds without a prisoner exchange, an account also confirmed by the State Department. Gilman, whose health had seriously deteriorated in Russian custody, is expected to arrive at Joint Base Andrews tonight before receiving further medical treatment in Texas.

Progressives to face their general-election test: The left has spent the primary season proving it can win Democratic nominations, but now comes the test some Democrats have been waiting for: Can progressives help win the House majority?

In conversations in recent days, Democratic sources have increasingly raised the question as left-wing candidates have emerged from primaries with nominations in competitive seats the party needs to turn from red to blue—not simply safe Democratic districts where progressive victories make already-blue seats bluer...

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THE POWERS THAT BE

Jeffries to headline NABJ newsmaker plenary: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) will open the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention on Thursday in Atlanta with a conversation moderated by NABJ President Errin Haines on the state of the country and the political landscape heading into the midterms…

THE POLICY DESK

Study estimates major savings under Medicare for All: A new Yale-led study estimates Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) Medicare for All proposal could reduce annual U.S. health care spending by more than $1 trillion, or nearly 20 percent, and prevent 114,000 deaths each year by expanding access to care and reducing prescription drug costs, administrative expenses and other spending…

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THE TRAIL

Planned Parenthood lines up behind El-Sayed: Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsed Democratic Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, adding another major advocacy group to his general-election coalition…

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THE LINEUP

• Democrats confront what comes after FCC ownership vote

• Trump orders overhaul of childhood vaccine schedule

• Hegseth invokes Graham in Pentagon spending push

• House Dems push Johnson for AI CEO hearings

• Bipartisan lawmakers seek probe of federal bank surveillance

• McBride backs Jones in FL-24

THE LEAD

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you.

Trump orders overhaul of childhood vaccine schedule: President Donald Trump signed an executive order this afternoon directing the federal government to support a childhood vaccine schedule covering 11 diseases and encouraging vaccines to be administered separately and across multiple doctor visits, including splitting the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three shots when individual versions are available.

With Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. standing behind him in the Oval Office, Trump called the approach a “gold standard” and “a major victory for parents’ rights,” arguing that spreading out shots could help address autism. Decades of research have found no causal link between vaccines and autism, and Trump acknowledged when pressed that he did not have evidence that the MMR vaccine is dangerous, saying instead that he had “heard” concerns about administering the vaccines together.

The order follows an earlier administration effort to reduce the routine childhood schedule from vaccines against 17 diseases to 11 that was halted by a federal court; major medical groups have opposed the changes and warned that reducing or delaying vaccinations could leave children vulnerable to preventable diseases.

Jeffries heads to New Jersey over ICE detention: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) will join Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-N.J.) in Morristown, N.J. tomorrow morning for a roundtable with former Delaney Hall detainees and relatives of people who died in ICE custody, followed by a press availability on the Trump administration’s detention policies and Democrats’ immigration agenda. The event gives Jeffries a chance to keep immigration enforcement at the center of House Democrats’ recess messaging as the party continues pressing the administration over conditions in ICE facilities.

Dems eye FCC guardrails: The Federal Communications Commission’s decision to eliminate a decades-old limit on national television ownership has raised a larger question for Democrats on how far they should go if they regain congressional power to rein in an agency they increasingly view as exceeding its authority under President Trump.

The Republican-controlled FCC voted 2–1 last week to eliminate the national audience reach cap, which had prevented a single broadcaster from owning local television stations reaching more than 39% of U.S. households. The commission replaced the hard limit with a case-by-case review process…

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THE POWERS THAT BE

Hegseth invokes Graham in Pentagon spending push: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally renamed Joint Base Charleston for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and used the ceremony to press Congress to approve the administration’s proposed $1.5 trillion military budget…

THE POLICY DESK

House Dems push Johnson for AI CEO hearings: Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) and 18 House Democrats called on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to schedule open hearings with the CEOs of the country’s largest AI companies following incidents in which test models from OpenAI and Anthropic allegedly escaped controlled environments and hacked outside organizations…

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THE TRAIL

McBride backs Jones in FL-24: Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) endorsed Florida state Sen. Shevrin Jones in the Democratic primary for Florida’s 24th District, praising the former teacher and longtime state legislator as a “barrier breaker…

THE LINEUP

• Senate Republicans left themselves a September squeeze

• Netanyahu rejects Trump-backed Gaza plan

• Cortez Masto targets construction worker suicide

• Dems face two more Midwest tests

• South Carolina GOP to pick Graham successor

THE LEAD

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Sunday. I hope your weekend was everything for you.

A Capitol Hill vacuum legend dies: RIP to Beth, the beloved nearly 50-year-old Hoover vacuum cleaner owned by 92-year-old Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who became an unlikely social media star thanks to Grassley’s annual holiday posts. In a eulogy on X, Grassley announced that Beth had finally broken down after dangerous electrical sparks signaled the end. Need proof Beth had a fan base? She even earned a New York Times obituary.

Case easily turns back progressive challenge: Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii) defeated state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole by more than 20 points in Saturday’s Democratic primary, a decisive win for the 73-year-old Blue Dog co-chair over a younger progressive challenger who argued the safely Democratic district needed generational change. Case leaned on his seniority and perch on the House Appropriations Committee to make the case that his experience translates into influence and federal resources for Hawaii. The result offers a counterpoint to recent progressive victories elsewhere: Democratic voters may be hungry for change, but Case showed that incumbency and an argument centered on delivering for the district can still be potent defenses against an ideological challenge.

Senate GOP’s September legislative squeeze: Senate Republicans left Washington on Saturday morning having checked several major items off their pre-recess list.

They passed a Russia sanctions package, confirmed 74 of President Donald Trump’s nominees and Todd Blanche as attorney general, and approved a stopgap spending bill to keep the government funded through Dec. 11.

But some of the hardest work remains unfinished.

Republicans postponed votes on a budget resolution needed to unlock a third reconciliation package, the CLARITY Act to regulate cryptocurrency markets and the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act. All three are expected back on the agenda when senators return Sept. 14, leaving GOP leaders to navigate unresolved policy and political disputes during an abbreviated pre-midterm stretch when floor time will be increasingly scarce.

The budget resolution may be the most consequential punt.

Senate Republicans spent roughly two hours Friday discussing the measure before deciding they could not be certain it would pass.

“There was concern whether or not I could actually pass the budget resolution tonight,” Senate Budget Committee Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told reporters after the meeting.

Johnson said senators also questioned whether the $60 billion proposal in the House-passed blueprint provided enough money for the military. Republican senators then spoke with Trump, who agreed they should forgo a Friday vote and spend the coming weeks developing what Johnson called “a better budget reconciliation bill.”

That decision buys Republicans time to resolve their differences, but it also concentrates the risk.

The resolution would set the parameters for a third reconciliation bill Republicans want to use to increase defense spending, assist farmers hurt by Trump’s tariffs and trade war and fund voter-ID provisions associated with the SAVE America Act. Any Senate changes to the House-passed resolution would require another House vote before committees could finish writing the underlying legislation.

Republicans also left the CLARITY Act unfinished amid disputes over illicit-finance protections and ethics restrictions governing public officials’ crypto holdings. The Senate is expected to hold a test vote Sept. 15 on beginning debate.

The Protect College Sports Act faces its own coalition-management problem. The bipartisan legislation would establish a national framework for college athletics and name, image and likeness rules. Still, supporters have yet to assemble the votes needed to move it through the Senate due to opposition from the Congressional Black Caucus and organized labor and conservatives who feel like the legislation preempts state laws in more than half of the country that ban trans athletes from participating in women’s sports. Leaders nevertheless expect to revisit the measure next month.

The September pileup matters because Republicans have traded one deadline for several overlapping ones.

Senators return with only weeks before lawmakers turn increasingly toward the November midterms (Congress is scheduled to be out of session all of October). The crypto and college-sports bills require bipartisan cooperation. Reconciliation requires Republicans to keep their own conference together. And the Senate still has nominations and other legislative business competing for limited floor time.

Republicans insist the unfinished business is delayed, not dead. Johnson said the conference and Trump were aligned on continuing the reconciliation effort and would work through August and September to assemble a stronger package.

But Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) was unusually candid about another piece of the GOP agenda that remains unresolved: the SAVE America Act.

“Would it have been better if we had passed the SAVE America [Act] already? Absolutely,” Lee said. “Would it be better if we had the votes right now to pass it? Yes.”

Republicans, he added, “for a variety of reasons, don’t have the wherewithal [or] capacity right now.”

The extra negotiating time could help Republicans find the votes they were missing on Friday. But September leaves little margin for another delay.

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THE POWERS THAT BE

Netanyahu rejects Trump-backed Gaza plan: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel does not accept the 15-point ceasefire plan proposed by President Trump’s Board of Peace and would make no further withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas is fully disarmed. The rejection exposes a key disagreement over sequencing: The Trump-backed framework links Israeli withdrawals to progress on disarmament, while Netanyahu is insisting Hamas surrender all its weapons first. Netanyahu said Israel is discussing the issue with the U.S. and that some American proposals are unacceptable, adding that his government is prepared to “stand our ground, even against our best friends when necessary.” The dispute tests whether Trump can persuade one of his closest allies to accept the terms of his Gaza peace initiative without jeopardizing the broader ceasefire.

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THE POLICY DESK

Cortez Masto targets construction worker suicide: Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) introduced legislation directing the CDC to study suicide risk factors among construction workers—including financial stability, substance and alcohol use and access to health coverage and workplace benefits—to inform future prevention programs. The bill, cosponsored by five Senate Democrats, would also require HHS to recommend policies to Congress. Cortez Masto’s office says construction accounted for nearly one-fifth of suicides with a reported industry in 2023 despite employing about 7% of the U.S. workforce.

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THE TRAIL

Dems to face two more Midwest tests: Democratic voters in Minnesota and Wisconsin will head to the polls on Tuesday for a pair of primaries that could offer the clearest indication yet of whether Abdul El-Sayed’s upset victory in Michigan last week was an isolated result or part of a broader shift toward the party’s progressive wing.

In Minnesota, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Rep. Angie Craig are the leading candidates to succeed retiring Sen. Tina Smith. Flanagan, the DFL-endorsed candidate, has consolidated support from progressives and much of organized labor, while Craig has pitched her record of repeatedly winning a competitive House district as evidence she is better positioned for a general election. The closing stretch has featured Flanagan attacking Craig over her vote for the Laken Riley Act and Craig tying Flanagan to fraud scandals under Gov. Tim Walz’s administration. Recent polling has shown Flanagan ahead, though surveys have varied considerably.

The stakes are similarly ideological in Wisconsin, where state Rep. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist, enters Tuesday as the polling leader in the four-way Democratic primary to succeed retiring Gov. Tony Evers. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has emerged as Hong’s principal rival after briefly dropping out of the race last month and later reentering with Evers’s endorsement. Former Evers administration official Joel Brennan and state Sen. Kelda Roys round out the field.

Hong has argued Democrats can win the battleground state by expanding the electorate with an unabashedly progressive economic message. Crowley is making a more traditional electability case and has benefited from a late fundraising surge as Democratic establishment support consolidated around him. The winner is expected to face Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in November.

Flanagan and Hong victories, coming less than a week after El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens, would give progressives three major Upper Midwest primary wins in six days—and much stronger evidence that Democratic voters are rethinking what electability looks like heading into November.

SC GOP to pick Graham successor: Republicans in South Carolina will vote this Tuesday in a special Senate primary to choose their nominee to succeed the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, with appointed Sen. Darline Graham, Reps. Ralph Norman and Russell Fry, and former Gov. Mark Sanford among the nine candidates competing for the nomination.

President Trump and the NRSC are backing Graham, whom Gov. Henry McMaster appointed to temporarily fill her brother’s seat after his death last month. Graham has never previously run for elected office, making the primary an early test of whether Trump’s endorsement and the Graham name can consolidate a fractured Republican field around her.

A candidate must win more than 50 percent Tuesday to avoid an Aug. 25 runoff. If no one does, the top two finishers will advance, putting particular attention on Graham’s share of the vote and the contest among Norman, Fry and Sanford to emerge as her potential challenger. The Republican nominee will face Democrat Annie Andrews in November.

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THE LINEUP

• Where the Senate stands before recess

• Kamlager-Dove moves to impeach Vought

• Progressives propose AI tax to fund jobs

• New Democratic poll shows Jackson ahead in Maine

THE LEAD

👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you.

Today is the 61st anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, a remembrance marked by urgent civil rights warnings because the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Louisiana v. Callais effectively dismantled Section 2, the law’s primary remaining tool against racial gerrymandering.

Lawmakers and civil rights organizations and legal experts are using today’s milestone to highlight how the landmark 1965 legislation has been hollowed out, leaving minority voting power highly vulnerable.

“Republican extremists are determined to turn back the clock,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on X this morning. “House Democrats will not rest until the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is the law of the land. And we end the era of voter suppression once and for all.”

Senate state of play: The Senate remains in a holding pattern as Republican leaders work toward a comprehensive time agreement on a series of legislative measures Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) hopes to clear before senators leave Washington for a five-week August recess.

Without unanimous consent, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters the Senate could remain in session through this weekend and into next week to finish the GOP’s agenda.

“Also my best guess, based on our conversations, is that in order to get an agreement with the Democrats, as opposed to just doing stuff by regular order, they’re going to insist on we not take care of all of our business.”

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) told me the burden of governing falls on Republicans, who control the Senate.

“They’re in charge. They set the agenda,” she said. “I hope they get something figured out so that we can take the necessary votes and move on.”

Here’s where the major items under consideration stand…

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THE POWERS THAT BE

Kamlager-Dove moves to impeach Vought: Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) introduced articles of impeachment against Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, accusing him of abusing his power by withholding congressionally appropriated funds and failing to execute federal law faithfully…

THE POLICY DESK

Progressives propose AI tax to fund jobs: Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas), joined by Reps. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.) and Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), introduced legislation that would tax large AI companies and use the revenue to create a new federal Work Protection Administration aimed at offsetting AI-driven job losses…

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THE TRAIL

New Democratic poll shows Jackson ahead in Maine: A new Senate Majority PAC survey of 802 likely Maine voters finds Democratic nominee Troy Jackson leading Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) 49% to 45%, with 6% undecided, while Collins’ job approval sits underwater at 46% approve to 52% disapprove…

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THE LINEUP

• How El-Sayed plans to turn a primary upset into a Senate win

• Democrats seek Pentagon watchdog probe

• Senate confirms CDC director

• Chuck Edwards calls it quits amid House Ethics fallout

THE LEAD

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Michigan Democrats moved quickly to unite behind Abdul El-Sayed after the progressive physician defeated Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) in Tuesday night’s Senate primary, with retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) telling me this morning that the party’s immediate task is bringing Democrats together before a closely watched general election against Republican Mike Rogers.

“The party has to all come together right now,” Peters said. “We don’t have a lot of time, but everybody has to come together and understand that as Democrats, whatever differences we have between us as Democrats are minor compared to the differences between our Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate.”

Peters told me he spoke to El-Sayed first thing this morning and described the conversation as “very positive.”

Asked whether Stevens’ supporters will ultimately coalesce around the nominee, Peters replied: “We’re going to work hard to make sure that happens.”

Pressed on whether El-Sayed should moderate any of the positions that helped him win the primary, Peters declined to offer campaign advice.

“I’m not going to speak for the candidate,” he said. “Obviously, he has to make those kinds of decisions as to how he approaches his campaign in the general [election]. It’s going to be up to him.”

Peters’s comments came as national and state Democratic leaders rapidly consolidated behind El-Sayed…

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THE POWERS THAT BE

Democrats seek Pentagon watchdog probe: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) joined House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) in asking the Defense Department’s inspector general to investigate reports that more than $3.2 billion in Pentagon contracts, loans and other awards have gone to companies with ties to President Trump’s sons…

THE POLICY DESK

Senate confirms CDC director: The Senate voted 51-44 to confirm Erica Schwartz as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ending nearly a year without a Senate-confirmed leader at the nation’s top public health agency…

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THE TRAIL

GOP loses another incumbent: Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) ended his reelection campaign, becoming the latest House Republican to step aside after the House Ethics Committee recommended he be censured over findings that he engaged in inappropriate conduct toward two female staffers…

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THE LINEUP

• Merkley looks beyond Trump with constitutional reform blueprint

• Ethics panel to review Miller allegations

• Senate Dems unite against Medicaid rule

• HMF targets Kean in new digital ad

THE LEAD

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Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) this morning unveiled a sweeping package of democracy reforms designed to curb presidential power and rebuild constitutional guardrails after President Donald Trump’s second term.

The For Our Republic Act has virtually no path through the Republican-controlled Congress, and Merkley readily acknowledged as much during an off-camera briefing this morning. Instead, the Oregon Democrat described the package as an effort to shape the debate ahead of the 2028 election and prepare a future Congress to respond to what he called the erosion of the separation of powers under Trump.

“We can’t wait until there is a blue president,” Merkley told reporters. “We have to start thinking now about how we have to address this.”…

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THE POWERS THAT BE

Ethics panel to review Miller allegations: The House Ethics Committee announced it is reviewing allegations that Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) may have engaged in domestic violence, abuse or illegal drug use, while emphasizing that opening the review does not indicate any violation occurred. The announcement came hours after Miller said he would seek an ethics investigation himself, saying he would provide the committee with “all necessary documents” to clear his name…

THE POLICY DESK

Senate Dems unite against Medicaid rule: All 47 Senate Democrats insisted that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services withdraw its rule implementing Medicaid work reporting requirements…

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THE TRAIL

HMF targets Kean: House Majority Forward launched a new digital ad targeting Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.) to call out his previous opposition to expanding paid family and sick leave before he took more than 15 weeks of leave from Congress earlier this year. The spot is part of the Democratic super PAC’s August offensive, following its announcement of more than $15 million in television and digital reservations targeting battleground House districts.