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👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome to Congress Nerd Daily, Once Upon a Hill’s reported evening briefing chronicling the strategic decisions, procedural fights and campaign dynamics that determine how power is exercised, challenged and won on Capitol Hill.

Good luck to the lawmakers taking the field tonight for the annual Congressional Baseball Game at Nationals Park. The event raises money for the Washington Literacy Center, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington and Washington Nationals Philanthropies. You can watch live on Fox Sports 1 or C-SPAN, or stream it through services like Fubo.

Before members trade floor speeches for fastballs, they got another reminder that inflation remains a political problem neither party can ignore.

The Consumer Price Index rose 4.2% from a year earlier in May, its fastest annual increase in more than three years. Prices climbed 0.5% from April, driven largely by a surge in energy costs tied to the ongoing war in Iran.

The details beneath the headline were somewhat less alarming. Outside energy-sensitive sectors such as travel and transportation, inflation continued to cool. Prices for new vehicles, furniture and prescription drugs all fell last month, a sign that broader tariff-related price pressures may be easing.

Still, the topline number is more than double the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, making it highly unlikely policymakers will cut interest rates when they meet next week. Markets broadly expect the Federal Open Market Committee to leave benchmark rates unchanged at 3.5%-3.75%.

President Donald Trump, however, had a different reaction.

Asked about the report in the Oval Office, Trump replied: “No, I love it, the numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) could hardly have asked for a better soundbite.

“Every time Donald Trump opens his mouth about the economy, he significantly increases the likelihood that Democrats are going to take back control of the House of Representatives,” Jeffries said.

In this evening’s edition: Ted Cruz defends his college sports overhaul against growing criticism from the Congressional Black Caucus and civil-rights groups while outlining an ambitious path to passage. Plus: Johnson plans a FISA short-term extension vote that seems destined to fail.

🔓 This edition is in front of the paywall. But if you want the Tuesday and Thursday editions, plus the Sunday lookahead, upgrade your subscription for full access to every edition and the complete archive. Whether you’re taking the votes, writing the bills, running the campaigns, shaping the message or trying to influence any of the above, Congress Nerd Daily helps you see around corners before everyone else catches up.

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The Big Story

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) continued his increasingly aggressive case this morning that Congress has little choice but to pass his bipartisan college sports overhaul and do it fast.

Speaking after a roundtable Wednesday with coaches, athletes, university leaders and conference officials, Cruz brushed aside criticism of the Protect College Sports Act and argued the legislation represents the only realistic path forward for a college athletics system he says is buckling under litigation, NIL disputes and transfer-portal instability.

“My appeal is this is the only train leaving the station,” Cruz said. “This bill, I believe, has a real prospect of passage.”

The legislation, introduced last week with Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), would establish a national framework governing NIL compensation, athlete transfers, revenue sharing and college sports governance.

Cruz’s comments come as the Congressional Black Caucus and NAACP continue to press lawmakers to slow consideration of college sports legislation until athletics leaders engage more directly with concerns about voting rights and Black political representation following the Supreme Court’s Callais decision.

I asked Cruz what he would say to CBC members and civil-rights advocates who argue it is impossible to have a good-faith discussion about college sports legislation without first addressing the redistricting battles unfolding across the Deep South.

Cruz responded by arguing that failing to act would disproportionately harm many of the same communities the CBC says it is trying to protect.

“When the president of [Texas Southern University] says that [the consequences] would be devastating for HBCUs, they would be devastating for hundreds of thousands and over time millions of athletes,” Cruz said. “Failure is not an option.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) was unimpressed.

“We’re not trusting the fate of Black America to Senator Ted Cruz,” Jeffries told me.

CBC Chair Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) went further, accusing supporters of the legislation of minimizing athletes’ ability to advocate for themselves.

“It’s very paternalistic,” Clarke said after the caucus’s weekly meeting. “They’re making it seem as though we don’t have the talent or expertise to help negotiate with our talent and their families and their congregations fair NIL contracts.”

The exchange highlights the emerging political challenge facing Cruz and Cantwell as they attempt to build support for a bill that has attracted significant backing from conferences, coaches and university leaders but still faces skepticism from civil-rights groups and some lawmakers.

Nonetheless, Cruz is pressing forward with an ambitious timeline.

He told reporters his goal is to move the legislation through Congress before the start of the upcoming school year, citing concerns from college athletics leaders about additional program cuts and uncertainty surrounding the transfer portal.

“My hope is that we get this passed before the beginning of the school year,” Cruz said.

Whether Congress can move that quickly remains unclear.

“We’re gonna huddle and see,” Cantwell said when asked when the Senate Commerce Committee might mark up the bill.

She acknowledged that women’s sports and Olympic sports could attract significant attention during the amendment process, particularly questions surrounding long-term funding protections.

“There’s a lot of attention already to that,” Cantwell said.

The Washington Democrat also pushed back on criticism from the CBC and NAACP, arguing that the Senate proposal differs substantially from the House’s failed SCORE Act.

“We’re talking to them about the differences between our bills,” she said. “We are showing them so that they understand we’re both fighting the SEC.”

Not every senator is sold.

Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) told me she believes Congress must act to preserve college sports but said she still has concerns that would need to be addressed before she could support the legislation.

“There are a couple things where I have some concerns, and those concerns would need to be addressed for me to be able to get behind it,” Britt said. “There’s no doubt that we have to do something in order to save college sports and the integrity of it, but I also want to make sure that we allow the market to work.”

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👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome to Congress Nerd Daily, Once Upon a Hill’s reported evening briefing chronicling the strategic decisions, procedural fights and campaign dynamics that determine how power is exercised, challenged and won on Capitol Hill.

New York Democrats spent part of the day grousing over President Donald Trump’s planned appearance at Game 3 of the NBA Finals tonight, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) accusing him of bringing the “MAGA circus” to Madison Square Garden and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) arguing the visit is disrupting what should be a celebration of the Knicks’ first Finals home game in nearly three decades.

Trump’s attendance triggered an extensive security perimeter around MSG, canceled the planned outdoor watch party, imposed airport-style screening and forced fans to arrive much earlier than usual.

In this evening’s issue: Hakeem Jeffries says House Democrats won’t support a FISA extension while Bill Pulte remains acting DNI, a sign the surveillance fight may be headed toward a cliff with just days left before expiration.

Plus: Elizabeth Warren presses the Trump administration to defend its AI oversight strategy before Congress and a new poll offers Democrats fresh evidence the Iowa Senate race may actually be in play.

🔓 This edition is in front of the paywall. But if you want the Tuesday and Thursday editions, plus the Sunday lookahead, upgrade your subscription for full access to every edition and the complete archive. Whether you’re taking the votes, writing the bills, running the campaigns, shaping the message or trying to influence any of the above, Congress Nerd Daily helps you see around corners before everyone else catches up.

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The Big Story

Leader Jeffries said this afternoon that House Democrats will not support an extension of the federal government’s foreign surveillance authorities while Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte remains acting director of national intelligence, escalating a standoff that now threatens Congress’s ability to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before its June 12 expiration.

The comments mark the clearest indication yet that Democrats are prepared to make Pulte’s removal a central condition of any path forward on FISA, which intelligence officials have warned is one of the government’s most important tools for monitoring foreign threats.

“There were already challenges as it related to extending foreign surveillance authority given the refusal by the Trump administration to put into place the type of common-sense reforms that would be designed to both promote our national security interests on the one hand and on the other protect the privacy and civil liberties of the American people,” Jeffries told reporters.

He argued negotiations were already fragile before President Trump elevated Pulte to lead the intelligence community on an acting basis.

“Donald Trump, as he often does, tosses a hand grenade into those sensitive negotiations by elevating Bill Pulte as the Director of National Intelligence,” Jeffries said. Pulte, he added, is “woefully unqualified” for the role.

Jeffries was unequivocal when directly asked whether he would support a short-term extension if Pulte remains in the position.

“No.”

Jeffries said reversing Pulte’s appointment would be “a starting point, not an ending point” toward restoring what Democrats view as good-faith negotiations. He noted that Senate Majority Leader John Thune also questioned Pulte’s qualifications last week, though Thune has stopped short of calling for his removal.

The dispute arrives at a precarious moment for FISA negotiations.

The Senate failed last week to advance a long-term reauthorization bill after supporters fell short of the 60 votes needed to begin floor debate. The setback left lawmakers with only days to resolve a dispute that has increasingly centered on both privacy protections and who would ultimately oversee the surveillance authority.

Republicans maintain that the legislation already includes substantial reforms designed to protect Americans’ privacy regardless of who occupies senior intelligence posts.

“We have a deadline ahead of us, we need Democrat votes,” Thune told reporters this afternoon. “Irrespective of what you think about Bill Pulte, providing the reforms that are included in the 702 reauthorization is a safeguard regardless of who’s in that job or which party is in power here.”

Thune declined to speculate on whether the White House might replace Pulte or nominate a permanent director this week. But he acknowledged discussions are occurring behind the scenes and repeatedly emphasized that Republicans cannot pass the bill without Democratic support.

“If we don’t meet it, it’s not good for the country,” Thune said of the looming deadline.

The emerging impasse underscores how dramatically the debate has shifted in recent days. What began as a familiar fight between national-security hawks seeking a long-term extension and privacy advocates demanding stronger warrant protections has evolved into a broader argument about trust, oversight and the officials responsible for wielding some of the government’s most powerful surveillance authorities.

Whether removing Pulte would ultimately unlock enough Democratic support to break the stalemate remains unclear. Jeffries made it clear Monday that Democrats' concerns extend beyond a single personnel decision.

But with just days remaining before Section 702 expires, both parties now appear to agree on at least one thing: Congress is running out of time.

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👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome to Congress Nerd Daily, Once Upon a Hill’s reported evening briefing chronicling the strategic decisions, procedural fights and campaign dynamics that determine how power is exercised, challenged and won on Capitol Hill.

In this evening’s edition: College athletics leaders warned that NIL chaos, transfer-portal instability and conference consolidation threaten the future of college sports, even as the Congressional Black Caucus urged senators to pump the brakes.

Plus: Senate Republicans finally moved their party-line immigration vote to the floor in a sprint to pass it tomorrow—after two controversial issues threatened to derail the package altogether—and how Democrats’ scare in CA-06 has folks scrutinizing the Golden State’s jungle primary system yet again.

First things first: Senate Democrats’ Election Protection Task Force met today with a group of prominent election lawyers and democracy advocates to discuss potential threats to the voting process, while House Administration Committee Ranking Member Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) is preparing a separate members-only tabletop exercise focused on election security. People familiar with the efforts say lawmakers in both chambers are preparing for a range of scenarios that could disrupt voting.

On the foreign policy front, the House just passed House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks’s (D-N.Y.) Iran War Powers Resolution in a 215-208 vote, marking the chamber’s first successful rebuke of President Donald Trump’s handling of the conflict after three previous House attempts failed. Four Republicans joined all voting Democrats in support of the measure, which follows Senate passage of a similar resolution last month and signals growing bipartisan concern about the administration’s conduct of the war. Democrats erupted in applause as the vote was gavelled to a close.

Last but not least: This edition is in front of the paywall. But if you want the Tuesday and Thursday editions, plus the Sunday lookahead, upgrade your subscription for the full Congress Nerd experience and access to the complete archive. Whether you’re taking the votes, writing the bills, running the campaigns, shaping the message or trying to influence any of the above, Congress Nerd Daily helps you see around corners before everyone else catches up.

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The Big Story

The Senate’s most serious attempt yet to stabilize college sports ran headfirst today into a much larger fight over Black political power.

The Senate Commerce Committee held a three-hour-plus hearing on the Protect College Sports Act, bipartisan legislation from Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) that would create a national framework for name, image and likeness payments, transfers, revenue sharing and college sports governance after years of court rulings, state laws and market forces weakened the NCAA’s old model.

But less than an hour before the hearing began, the Congressional Black Caucus formally urged Cruz and Cantwell to pause consideration of the bill, arguing Congress should not confer new protections, authorities or legal certainty on college athletic institutions while their leaders remain silent amid what the caucus describes as attacks on Black political representation across the South after the Supreme Court’s Callais decision.

“The issue before us is larger than college athletics,” the Chair Yvette Clarke wrote on behalf of the CBC. “It is whether institutions that benefit from the talent, labor, and cultural contributions of Black communities can remain silent while the political power of those same communities is systematically weakened.”

That letter added a sharp political edge to what was already a consequential hearing.

Cruz opened the proceedings by arguing that “the foundation under college sports is cracking,” citing NIL spending, transfer portal instability, historic rivalries disappearing, professional athletes returning to college competition and the richest conferences pulling further away from everyone else.

“To be clear, this problem wasn’t caused by student-athletes profiting from their name and image and likeness,” Cruz said. “The problem is the old system was dismantled without a durable replacement.”

Cantwell made a similar case, warning that failure to act could hurt women’s sports, Olympic sports and the college pipeline the United States relies on to develop athletes.

“We cannot have a pay-for-play system” that cuts women’s and Olympic sports, she said.

The witnesses largely backed the bill’s basic premise that the current system is unsustainable, even if the legislation is not perfect.

Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban said he was not there to represent a team or conference but “to preserve college athletics as a whole.” He said NIL has become pay-for-play and warned that college sports have “moved away from development to focusing on money and not life skills.”

Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua said Congress needed to act urgently to protect athletic departments and preserve the student-athlete experience.

“If Congress doesn’t act now, there are going to be thousands and thousands and thousands of stories of young men and women—particularly in football and men’s and women’s basketball—that bounce around to three, four schools,” Bevacqua warned.

Gordon Gee, West Virginia University’s president emeritus, said the bill would bring “common sense to a very intractable problem,” while Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould said college athletics faces challenges too complex for any single bill but still requires immediate action.

The hearing’s first real note of skepticism came from Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), a CBC member and former head of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, who said she had heard serious concerns from student athletes, families, labor unions and civil rights organizations.

“I understand also that the Congressional Black Caucus has sent letters to the chair and ranking member,” Blunt Rochester said. “This is just a really important issue at a very tough time, and so I hope that we take our time and get this right.”

She also questioned whether student athletes fully understand a provision that could leave them responsible for attorney fees and litigation costs if they sue and lose.

That line of questioning captured the emerging split around the bill. Its supporters view it as Congress’s last best chance to prevent college sports from devolving into a mini-NFL controlled by a handful of wealthy programs. Critics and skeptics worry that the bill could reconcentrate power among schools, conferences and the NCAA at the expense of athletes.

Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who questioned witnesses about injury prevention and player health, told me afterward that he is still learning the bill and plans to hear from New Jersey stakeholders.

“I think so much of the conversation so far has focused on the money,” Kim said. “I just wanted to make sure that we bring it on back. I’m a dad. I got little kids that are going to be in college in a couple years.”

Kim added that many college athletes will never play professionally and should be protected while they are still students.

“These are not professionals,” he said. “I just want to make sure they’re safe, and I just want to make sure that they’re being treated fair.”

Clarke was more direct outside the House Democratic Caucus meeting this afternoon.

“We just think the timing is horrible,” Clarke said. “Voting rights are the main issue for Americans across this nation right now, and to reward sort of these southern athletic conferences, who are the main drivers behind the SCORE Act … it just feeds the beast.”

Rep. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts, one of the House Democrats most engaged on college sports, gave Cruz and Cantwell credit for drafting a bipartisan bill, unlike the House’s failed SCORE Act. But she said Democrats are still reviewing whether the Senate proposal is sufficiently athlete-centered and protective of women’s and Olympic sports.

“There is a lack of consensus on a number of issues,” Trahan said.

That may be the real takeaway from Wednesday’s hearing.

Cruz and Cantwell have built a serious bipartisan vehicle on one of the thorniest issues in sports and higher education. But the CBC’s intervention made it clear that the bill’s path forward will not hinge solely on NIL rules, transfer limits or antitrust exemptions.

It will also test whether Congress can separate the business of college sports from the Black athletes and communities that made it so valuable in the first place.

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👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome to Congress Nerd Daily, Once Upon a Hill’s reported evening briefing chronicling the strategic decisions, procedural fights and campaign dynamics that determine how power is exercised, challenged and won on Capitol Hill. Happy Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈

Before we get to politics, a quick tour through the alternate universe that was today in sports.

Serena Williams officially announced her return to the tennis court after retiring nearly four years ago. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion will compete as a doubles wild card at the Queen’s Club Championships in London later this month as a tune-up for Wimbledon, which begins in late June.

Meanwhile, NFL single-season sack leader Myles Garrett was traded from the Cleveland Browns to the Los Angeles Rams this afternoon in a blockbuster deal that sends the two franchises in dramatically different directions: an all-in push to win now for the Rams and a full organizational reset for the Browns. My Dallas Cowboys travel to Southern California to face Garrett and his new team on Dec. 20.

And ahead of Wednesday’s tipoff between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs in an NBA Finals rematch 27 years in the making, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an “executive order” temporarily repealing bedtimes across the city so kids of all ages can stay up and watch the Knicks. (Each game is scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m. ET, FWIW.)

“As Mayor, you’re forced to make many difficult decisions,” Mamdani wrote on X. “This was not one of them. Go Knicks.”

In this evening’s edition: reporting on why the Justice Department’s decision to abandon its proposed $1.8 billion so-called weaponization fund may still not be enough to quell the bipartisan Senate outrage that derailed Republicans’ immigration reconciliation bill before Memorial Day.

Plus, how Black voters fit into the statewide coalition state Sen. James Talarico is building in hopes of defeating Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in November and details on a bipartisan, bicameral bill that would require the federal government to notify Americans when their emails or other personal digital records have been accessed.

☝🏾 One more thing: This edition is in front of the paywall. But if you want the Tuesday and Thursday editions, plus the Sunday lookahead, upgrade your subscription for full access to every edition and the complete archive. Whether you’re taking the votes, writing the bills, running the campaigns, shaping the message or trying to influence any of the above, Congress Nerd Daily helps you see around corners before everyone else catches up.

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The Big Story

The Justice Department on Monday did what several Republican senators had urged Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to do before Memorial Day: halt plans for the controversial $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” created as part of a settlement resolving President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax records.

The department said on X that while it strongly disagreed with a federal district judge’s decision last week to freeze the program, it would comply with the order and immediately pause all operations.

But the court’s block is temporary, and trust between the administration and congressional Republicans remains low after Trump officials unveiled the fund while Senate Republicans were attempting to advance a party-line immigration reconciliation bill. The controversy was compounded by a separate $1 billion provision for Trump’s White House ballroom project and came as two prominent Republican incumbents, Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas, suffered defeats to Trump-backed primary challengers.

Without an explicit commitment from the administration that it will not revive the fund once the court order expires, it remains unclear whether the pause will satisfy Republicans who opposed the proposal before last week’s recess.

The Justice Department’s statement also did little to address another source of GOP frustration: a separate $1 billion provision for Trump’s White House ballroom project, despite the president’s previous insistence that taxpayers would not bear the cost.

“I think the best way to get the reconciliation bill moving and across the finish line is to confine it to the issues that we were addressing in the initial bill, which was CBP and ICE, and funding it for the next three years through the end of the Trump administration,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told me this afternoon.

The Justice Department’s reversal came shortly after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) met with Trump at the White House to discuss the fund, underscoring the political pressure the administration faces from congressional Republicans eager to revive the stalled reconciliation effort.

Democrats, meanwhile, are pressing ahead with plans to permanently kill the program.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Monday that Democrats will launch a coordinated campaign to shutter the fund. In a Dear Colleague letter, Schumer argued the proposal amounts to a taxpayer-funded slush fund that could benefit Trump, his allies and Jan. 6 defendants. He said Democrats would use reconciliation, appropriations, floor votes and congressional oversight to force Republicans to take public positions on the issue.

Three Democratic senators, Adam Schiff (Calif.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (Mich.), introduced legislation Monday that would effectively shutter the fund.

“This thing’s a disgrace,” Kelly told reporters. “Let’s call this what it is. This is corruption in broad daylight.”

The senators said they had not yet spoken with Republican colleagues about supporting the legislation but planned to do so in the coming days.

“I will say the easiest way for them to insulate themselves from this would be to join us and co-sponsor this legislation to prevent this from ever happening again,” Kelly said.

Asked whether Republicans would support Democratic-led legislation to block this or future compensation funds, Thune said he was uncertain.

“But I do think that the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,” he said.

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) said she plans to introduce three bills this week that would redirect the money to SNAP, Medicaid and local law enforcement hiring programs.

The compensation fund would draw on the federal Judgment Fund to compensate individuals who allege they were targeted by political investigations or “lawfare.” No money has been distributed because the five-member commission responsible for approving payouts was never appointed before the court-ordered freeze took effect.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) quickly seized on reports that the administration could abandon the fund.

“The corrupt Trump $1.8 billion slush fund for violent insurrectionists is on life support,” he wrote on X. “Congress needs to pull the plug.”

House Democrats are expected to make the fund a central messaging focus, though caucus leaders had not finalized a formal strategy as of Monday morning, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Jeffries said last week on SiriusXM’s The Julie Mason Show that Democrats would use the appropriations process to prohibit the administration from distributing taxpayer dollars to Jan. 6 defendants.

“It was completely and totally outrageous,” Jeffries said when asked about the proposal. “And again, I think just further evidence that Donald Trump is not interested in making life better for the American people. Rather, his primary interest appears to be enriching himself, running the whole Trump administration in a way that is designed to benefit the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected.”

Thune expressed confidence that House Republicans would ultimately support a narrower Senate-passed reconciliation bill focused solely on funding for ICE and CBP.

“I hate to predict or project what the House may or may not do,” the South Dakota Republican said. “But I think the best way to get it done is to get back to where we were originally, and that was a targeted, clean, focused, narrow bill that addresses specifically those Homeland Security issues through the end of the administration.”

Thune said he last spoke with Trump about the fund last week and continued discussions with administration officials over the weekend.

“I’ve made my views clear on this for several days now,” he said.

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First Things First

👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Thank you for starting your day with Congress Nerd Sunrise.

The Supreme Court handed criminal justice reform advocates a pair of setbacks on Thursday, ruling in two cases that limit how federal prisoners can seek sentence reductions under the bipartisan First Step Act and prompting a sharp rebuke from Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), one of the law’s chief architects.

In an 8-1 decision in Fernandez v. United States, the Court held that federal inmates cannot use the First Step Act’s compassionate-release provision to challenge the validity of their convictions. The majority concluded that such claims must instead proceed through the traditional habeas corpus process.

The Court also ruled 6-3 in Rutherford v. United States that prisoners serving so-called “stacked” sentences imposed before the First Step Act’s enactment cannot automatically seek sentence reductions based solely on Congress’s later decision to change the law.

The tandem rulings narrowed the pathways available to incarcerated people seeking relief under one of the most consequential criminal justice reform laws enacted in decades, a bipartisan measure that expanded compassionate release, reduced some mandatory minimum penalties and made portions of the Fair Sentencing Act retroactive.

“The Supreme Court just significantly weakened a landmark, bipartisan criminal justice reform law in defiance of Congressional intent,” Durbin said in a statement, adding that lawmakers would explore legislative options to preserve what he described as the law’s original purpose.

The decisions mark a notable victory for a more restrictive reading of the statute. But Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who dissented in both cases, argued the majority interpreted the law too narrowly and failed to give full effect to Congress’s effort to expand judicial discretion when considering requests for relief.

The First Step Act, signed into law by former President Donald Trump in 2018 after years of bipartisan negotiations led by Durbin, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), has become a centerpiece of the federal government’s “smart on crime” reform efforts. Supporters point to thousands of sentence reductions and compassionate-release grants, as well as recidivism rates among participants that are significantly lower than the federal prison system as a whole.

Durbin’s pledge to pursue legislative fixes suggests the Court’s rulings may reopen a debate many lawmakers thought Congress had settled eight years ago about how much authority federal judges should have to revisit lengthy prison sentences after they have been imposed.

Programming note: Today’s edition is the final Congress Nerd Sunrise before the newsletter goes on hiatus for the summer beginning in June.

Once Upon a Hill isn’t slowing down. Paid subscribers will continue receiving five editions each week: Congress Nerd Sunday, a new weekly look-ahead at the biggest legislative and political storylines shaping Washington for the upcoming week, plus Congress Nerd Daily on Monday through Thursday evenings with the reporting, analysis and Capitol Hill intelligence they’ve come to expect from Sunset.

If you’re on the free list, you’ll receive Monday and Wednesday editions of Congress Nerd Daily.

The shift will allow me to spend more time on deeply sourced enterprise reporting, ambitious features outside the daily news cycle and expanded coverage of the summer campaign season as Congress barrels toward another high-stakes stretch on appropriations, reconciliation, surveillance powers and the 2026 midterms.

Sunrise has been a meaningful part of Once Upon a Hill’s growth and evolution over the past year, and I’m grateful to everyone who made it part of their morning routine. My goal with this next chapter is simple: fewer production demands, more reporting muscle and an even stronger Congress Nerd for the months ahead.

As always, thank you for reading and supporting independent congressional journalism.

📬 Send me tips, scoops or just say hi: michael@onceuponahill.com.

What Paid Subscribers are Reading

In last evening’s Congress Nerd Sunset, I reported on a federal judge’s decision not to immediately block President Trump’s executive order targeting voting by mail and citizenship verification, and why Democrats see the ruling as part of a broader battle over election rules ahead of the midterms. The story also explores growing frustration among some Democratic strategists who worry the party is treating voting-rights fights as legal disputes rather than political ones, even as leaders like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) ramp up election-protection efforts. Still on the free plan? Upgrade your subscription for full access to this report and all future editions of Sunset.

Happenings

The House will meet at 12 p.m. in a pro forma session.

The Senate is out.

President Trump will receive his intelligence briefing at 11 a.m. and participate in a policy meeting at 1:3o p.m. He will sign executive orders at 3:30 p.m. before another policy meeting at 4:30 p.m.

In the Know

— Inflation accelerated again in April, with the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge rising 3.8% from a year earlier while core inflation climbed 3.3%, complicating hopes for near-term interest-rate cuts. The report also showed consumers are increasingly relying on savings to sustain spending, with the personal saving rate falling to 2.6%, its lowest level in roughly four years.

— House Democrats escalated their criticism of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files after the Justice Department confirmed that former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s transcribed interview before the House Oversight Committee later this morning will not be videotaped. Democrats argue the decision shields Bondi from public scrutiny over what they describe as the administration’s mishandling of the files, while Republicans have shown little appetite for extending an investigation that has become a political headache for the White House.

— Senate Democrats urged the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to produce its own estimate of the cost of President Trump’s war in Iran, arguing that Pentagon figures have been inconsistent and may significantly understate the conflict’s true price tag. Led by Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chuck Schumer, the lawmakers say an independent analysis is needed as the administration reportedly prepares to seek up to $200 billion in additional war funding on top of its proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget.

— More than 150 congressional Democrats joined a legal effort to block President Trump’s planned White House ballroom, arguing in a newly filed amicus brief that the administration cannot move forward with demolishing and rebuilding the East Wing without congressional approval. The filing comes after Senate Democrats successfully challenged a proposed $1 billion reconciliation provision tied to security upgrades for Trump’s planned White House ballroom, though broader questions about future federal funding for the project remain unresolved.

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First Things First

👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Thank you for starting your day with Congress Nerd Sunrise.

Hours after Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) on Wednesday morning unveiled the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act, lawmakers in both parties raised concerns that the framework either does too little to shield schools from mounting legal exposure or too much to restore NCAA control over athletes.

The early reaction to the legislation underscores the difficult political balancing act facing senators trying to stabilize college athletics without alienating either schools or athletes.

House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and House Education and Workforce Chair Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) warned the legislation leaves unresolved what many House Republicans increasingly view as the central question hanging over college sports: whether student-athletes will ultimately be treated as employees.

The Republican chairmen argued that without resolving employment status, schools could remain exposed to costly litigation and financial pressures that threaten smaller athletic departments, women’s sports and Olympic programs.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) criticized the proposal from the opposite direction, arguing the framework appears designed primarily to protect the NCAA and wealthy athletic departments rather than athletes themselves.

Murphy said the legislation would limit athlete compensation while granting the NCAA antitrust protections unavailable to most industries, even as coaches, athletic directors and conference executives continue collecting massive salaries.

Notably absent were immediate public responses from several House Democrats who helped derail the SCORE Act last week, including Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) and senior House Democratic leaders who had become increasingly vocal critics of the NCAA and major conferences during the House debate.

Conference leaders, meanwhile, cautiously welcomed the Senate effort while stopping short of fully endorsing the legislation.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said the conference appreciated Cruz and Cantwell’s efforts to “seek solutions for college sports” but stressed the league would continue reviewing the bill before drawing conclusions about its merits.

Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti thanked the senators for working to restore “stability” to college athletics, while Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark praised the legislation’s attempt to “help build a sustainable future for college sports.” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips similarly framed the proposal as part of a broader effort to preserve opportunities for future student-athletes.

The bipartisan legislation would create a national NIL standard overriding state laws, preserve the House settlement’s roughly $20.5 million annual revenue-sharing framework and give the NCAA and conferences limited antitrust protections to enforce recruiting, transfer and compensation rules.

The bill would also crack down on booster-backed “sham NIL deals,” limit athletes to one unrestricted transfer before future moves could trigger sit-out penalties and prohibit professional athletes from returning to college competition after signing pro contracts.

A Republican Senate Commerce aide described the proposal as an attempt to restore practical amateurism for the modern era by bringing order to a college sports landscape increasingly defined by NIL bidding wars, transfer portal chaos, conference consolidation and litigation.

But the mixed reaction suggested the legislation may face the same political squeeze that has doomed previous congressional attempts to regulate college athletics: Republicans worried the bill does not go far enough to protect schools from labor exposure and lawsuits, while Democrats and athlete advocates remain skeptical it gives too much power back to the NCAA and the richest conferences.

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What Paid Subscribers are Reading

In last evening’s Congress Nerd Sunset, I broke down the bipartisan Cruz-Cantwell proposal to regulate college athletics and how Senate negotiators are attempting to strike a delicate balance between athlete compensation and restoring order to the NIL and transfer portal chaos reshaping the sport—while confronting growing backlash from athletes, Democrats and civil-rights groups who fear the framework gives too much power back to the NCAA and the richest conferences. Still on the free plan? Upgrade your subscription for full access to this report and all future editions of Sunset.

Happenings

The House is out.

The Senate will meet at 3:30 p.m. for a pro forma session.

President Trump will participate in a pre-tape interview at 10 a.m., signing time at 2 p.m. and a policy meeting at 3:30 p.m.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will hold a White House press briefing at 2 p.m.

In the Know

— Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) publicly rebuked former Rep. Colin Allred on Wednesday after his runoff victory over Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Texas), exposing fresh tensions inside the Democratic coalition over representation following the Texas primary runoffs the night before.

In a statement issued by the Congressional Equality Caucus’s political arm, Takano and Torres praised Johnson’s campaign while warning her defeat could leave Texas—and potentially the broader South—without openly LGBTQ+ representation in Congress.

“Many in our community remain deeply hurt by Colin Allred’s decision to challenge one of our own,” they said. “As he moves forward, he bears a responsibility to help heal those divisions and rebuild trust with the communities impacted by this race.”

The statement marked one of the sharpest public responses from Democratic lawmakers following Tuesday’s runoff elections and underscored the difficult tradeoffs national Democrats navigated throughout the Texas cycle between identity-based representation and perceived general-election strength.

Allred defeated Johnson in a closely watched North Texas runoff that became a proxy battle over the party’s future, generational leadership and coalition politics. National Democrats viewed Allred as one of the party’s strongest statewide communicators after his 2024 Senate campaign against Sen. Cruz, while Johnson’s allies argued Democrats should not push aside one of the South’s few openly LGBTQ+ members of Congress in pursuit of electoral pragmatism.

Equality PAC stopped short of opposing Allred going forward, but the group’s unusually candid statement suggested some frustration inside LGBTQ+ Democratic circles may outlast the runoff itself.

— Republicans and Democrats in the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus launched a new working group aimed at curbing partisan gerrymandering, injecting a small but notable cross-aisle collaborative effort into the year-long redistricting wars that exploded after President Trump pushed Texas Republicans last summer to aggressively redraw the state’s congressional map ahead of the midterms.

The new task force, announced by Problem Solvers Caucus co-chairs Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Rep. a (D-N.Y.), will explore reforms to what members described as a system in which “politicians often choose their voters instead of voters choosing their representatives.” The working group comes as both parties remain locked in escalating legal and political battles over congressional maps following the Supreme Court’s controversial decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which, as you know by now, narrowed the practical reach of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and accelerated partisan remapping fights across the South.

The bipartisan panel will be co-chaired by Reps. Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.), Ed Case (D-Hawaii), Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and includes a politically diverse mix of battleground-district lawmakers from both parties.

The effort is unlikely to produce immediate legislative breakthroughs in a divided Congress, particularly because the Constitution gives states broad authority over redistricting. But the announcement underscores how the fallout from the Texas wars has reverberated far beyond Austin. Trump’s pressure campaign on Texas Republicans last year triggered a broader national arms race over House maps, with Democrats openly debating whether to pursue more aggressive counter-gerrymanders in blue states while voting-rights groups challenged GOP-drawn maps in federal court.

Members involved in the effort argued that increasingly safe districts have fueled polarization and weakened incentives for compromise, a dynamic that has become more pronounced as competitive House seats continue to disappear nationwide. The working group’s creation also reflects growing anxiety among some centrist lawmakers that perpetual map warfare could further erode public trust in democratic institutions at a moment when election legitimacy and voting rights remain central political flashpoints heading into November.

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First Things First

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Texas Republicans on Tuesday night nominated a political flamethrower for the Senate while Texas Democrats spent the night settling a series of generational and ideological fights inside their own coalition.

Attorney General Ken Paxton decisively ended Sen. John Cornyn’s four-term Senate career after defeating the incumbent in a bruising GOP runoff that doubled as the latest loyalty test inside President Donald Trump’s Republican Party.

Cornyn quickly pledged to support the Republican ticket in November, but his defeat instantly transforms him into one of several outgoing or politically untethered GOP senators no longer fully constrained by Trump-world pressures, alongside figures like Thom Tillis (N.C.), Bill Cassidy (La.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and retiring former GOP leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) in a bloc could complicate Trump’s legislative ambitions at key moments over the next several months. The result also leaves national Republicans in an awkward position after months of warning primary voters that Paxton’s legal baggage and impeachment history could cost the GOP a Senate seat Democrats have not won since 1988.

Paxton wasted little time pivoting toward Democratic nominee James Talarico, casting him as culturally out of step with Texas voters, while Talarico struck a more conciliatory tone by praising Cornyn’s decades of service and openly courting disaffected Cornyn supporters into his coalition.

National Democratic operatives I texted with after the race was called for Paxton cautioned that Talarico remains a clear underdog in a state Democrats have not won at the presidential or Senate level in decades.

But they also argued Paxton’s nomination could force Republicans to spend millions of dollars defending a seat that otherwise may have allowed the GOP to focus more heavily on protecting vulnerable incumbents in states like Ohio, Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina and Nebraska while targeting Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia.

Those same operatives expect Republicans to aggressively define Talarico early, although some privately wondered whether Talarico’s political instincts would allow him to effectively counterpunch himself or whether that role would fall primarily to outside allies and surrogates.

The Democratic side of the ballot revealed a parallel appetite for change.

Rep. Christian Menefee defeated longtime Rep. Al Green in the redrawn TX-18 after a campaign that was centered heavily on generational turnover and the future direction of Houston-area Democratic politics. The race marked Menefee’s fourth campaign in just seven months and forced Green into a politically painful runoff against a fellow Democrat after last year’s redistricting scramble reshaped the district.

Former Rep. Colin Allred moved one step closer to returning to Congress after defeating Rep. Julie Johnson in TX-33, giving the Congressional Black Caucus an opportunity to offset Green’s departure as Republican legislatures in the Deep South work to gerrymander members of the powerful 62-person coalition out of power. And in TX-35, Democratic leaders got their preferred candidate when Johnny Garcia defeated controversial candidate Maureen Galindo after weeks of pressure from Democratic officials and allied groups alarmed by Galindo’s antisemitic comments during the campaign.

The night’s other major casualty was Rep. Chip Roy, who gave up a safe House seat only to lose the Republican attorney general runoff to state Sen. Mayes Middleton. Roy’s defeat is likely to reverberate beyond Texas, given his prominence inside the conservative movement and House GOP conference.

What Paid Subscribers are Reading

In last evening’s Congress Nerd Sunset, I wrote about how the Congressional Black Caucus is escalating its post-Callais pressure campaign by urging corporate America to speak out against what members and civil-rights leaders describe as efforts to dilute Black political representation across the South, reviving a civil-rights-era strategy built around economic pressure and institutional accountability. Still on the free plan? Upgrade your subscription for full access to this report and all future editions of Sunset.

Happenings

The House and Senate are out.

President Trump will hold a cabinet meeting at 11 a.m., followed by policy meetings at 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

In the Know

— Two top House Democrats demanded answers on Tuesday in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio after reports that Trump administration officials used U.S. embassies in Asia to pressure foreign companies into making million-dollar donations tied to a Trump-aligned fundraising operation that offered access to President Trump during America 250 celebrations. The letter from House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) escalated Democratic scrutiny of what they described as a potential “pay-to-play” scheme that blurred the line between official diplomacy, political fundraising and foreign influence ahead of the nation’s semiquincentennial celebration this summer.

— House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) on Tuesday named Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.) to lead the caucus’s new task force focused on civil rights and government accountability, as Democrats continue to sharpen their oversight strategy against President Trump’s second-term agenda despite being in the minority. The move signals Democrats plan to use the panel as another messaging and investigative hub on issues ranging from voting rights and immigration to disinformation and discrimination ahead of the 2026 midterms.

— A bipartisan group of House lawmakers led by Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.) urged Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to tighten rules at the National Institutes of Health governing animal suppliers for federally funded research after a Wisconsin beagle breeding facility accused of extensive animal welfare violations remained eligible under current policy. The effort reflects growing bipartisan pressure in Congress to strengthen oversight of animal testing and federal research ethics as the Trump administration simultaneously pursued a broader push to phase down mandatory animal testing requirements across the government.

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First Things First

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Texas voters head to the polls today for a slate of runoff elections that could reshape the ideological makeup of both parties’ congressional delegations heading into the 2026 midterms, with battles testing the strength of President Trump’s grip on the GOP, Democrats’ generational tensions and the limits of the party’s tolerance for inflammatory rhetoric.

The marquee contest remains the Republican Senate runoff between four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which became an even bigger proxy fight over the future of the GOP after Trump endorsed Paxton last week over the objections of Senate Republican leadership. Cornyn allies have warned Paxton could jeopardize a seat Republicans have long taken for granted, while Paxton has cast the race as a final blow against the Texas GOP establishment.

Down ballot, Republicans are also watching the attorney general runoff between Rep. Chip Roy and state Sen. Mayes Middleton to replace Paxton, while Democrats are closely tracking a bitter North Texas clash between Rep. Julie Johnson and former Rep. Colin Allred for the open seat being vacated by Rep. Marc Veasey.

Meanwhile, the Democratic runoff in Texas’s 35th Congressional District has spiraled into a national embarrassment for the party after candidate Maureen Galindo drew widespread condemnation from Democrats last week over antisemitic remarks. House Democratic leaders and outside groups have rallied behind Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Garcia, while party officials also raised alarms over a mysterious six-figure outside spending campaign boosting Galindo’s candidacy.

Another closely watched Democratic race pits Rep. Al Green against Rep. Christian Menefee in a contest that has become a broader test of the party’s generational divide. Menefee spent the final stretch of the race campaigning across Houston-area churches and polling locations while arguing his three months in office have proven he’s the long-term leader for his district, which has had three representatives in two years (two of whom have died in office), while Green has leaned on his decades-long standing inside the district and national profile as one of Trump’s fiercest critics.

What Paid Subscribers are Reading

In last evening’s Congress Nerd Sunset, I wrote about how Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said Minnesota communities are still reeling from the fallout of President Trump’s Operation Metro Surge months after the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, while previewing how Democrats planned to turn the Senate GOP’s stalled Senate reconciliation bill into a broader argument about immigration enforcement, accountability and affordability during the debate and vote-a-rama that never happened. Still on the free plan? Upgrade your subscription for full access to this report and all future editions of Sunset.

Happenings

The Senate will meet at 8 a.m. and the House will meet at 11 a.m. for pro forma sessions.

President Trump will visit Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to greet service members and staff before undergoing a physical exam. Once back at the White House, Trump will participate in a series of policy meetings before hosting a dinner in the Rose Garden.

Hill leaders grapple over latest round of Iran talks: House Democrats left Washington last week enraged that Republican leaders postponed an Iran War Powers Resolution vote the GOP was on track to lose due to Republican absences and a weeks-long Democratic whip effort that unified the caucus behind limiting President Donald Trump’s military authority in the Middle East without congressional approval.

Republicans are hoping the political and military landscape looks dramatically different by the time Congress returns next week. The Trump administration and Iranian officials appear to be inching closer to a potential diplomatic off-ramp after nearly three months of war, even as the U.S. launched new “self-defense” strikes inside Iran amid what officials described as a fragile and uneven ceasefire.

Trump said on Monday that any agreement would need to be “great and meaningful,” while administration officials privately projected cautious optimism about the direction of the talks. A senior administration official told CBS News the two sides have reached a “broad commitment” on the core principles of a deal, including reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reducing regional military tensions and restarting formal nuclear negotiations.

He also dramatically expanded the public scope of the negotiations this week, stipulating that any agreement with Tehran should be paired with a sweeping expansion of the Abraham Accords to include additional Arab and Muslim-majority nations—and potentially even Iran itself—in what Trump cast as a historic regional realignment effort.

But the toughest questions are still on the table. The administration is pushing for a sanctions-for-verification arrangement that would require Iran to dispose of its highly enriched uranium stockpile before receiving meaningful sanctions relief. Some reports suggested Iranian leadership had agreed in principle to major uranium concessions, although Iranian officials publicly pushed back on that characterization and denied a final agreement was imminent.

The negotiations have increasingly become a regional effort, with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan all playing behind-the-scenes roles as intermediaries or pressure points amid fears the conflict could further destabilize global energy markets and send oil prices even higher.

At the same time, the administration is maintaining its pressure campaign. The Treasury Department imposed fresh sanctions on Iranian financial networks and oil transport vessels earlier this month, underscoring Trump’s effort to negotiate from a position of maximum leverage rather than offering early concessions.

The emerging diplomacy has also exposed familiar political fault lines in Washington. Iran hawks inside the Republican Party and parts of the pro-Israel movement have warned against giving Tehran too much breathing room, while anti-war lawmakers in both parties continue pressing the administration to pursue a durable settlement and avoid a prolonged regional conflict with mounting economic and political costs back home.

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Once Upon a Hill will be off for Memorial Day weekend, which means there will be no Sunset on Sunday evening or Sunrise on Monday morning. The former will return for paid subscribers on Monday evening, followed by the latter for all readers on Tuesday morning. Safe travels to everyone spending the holiday away from home. And on Memorial Day, may the lives of the servicemembers who died defending our freedoms be a blessing to all who loved them.

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First Things First

President Donald Trump spent months steering congressional Republicans toward a reconciliation showdown designed to showcase unified GOP strength on immigration enforcement and border security.

Instead, Senate Republicans left Washington on Thursday for Memorial Day recess without even beginning debate on the package after internal backlash to Trump-backed provisions exposed growing frustration with a White House many senators increasingly view as politically demanding, strategically undisciplined and uninterested in the institutional realities of governing Capitol Hill.

The collapse marked more than just a procedural setback for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). It hardened an emerging tension within the Republican conference over how much political risk lawmakers are willing to absorb for a president who continues to ask Congress to move aggressively on his agenda while simultaneously complicating Republicans’ political standing back home.

Several Senate Republicans privately blamed Trump for turning what they believed should have been a politically advantageous reconciliation bill into a messaging nightmare after the White House pushed for a $1 billion ballroom-security funding provision and a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, which alarmed both institutionalists and vulnerable incumbents.

The irony frustrated many Republicans: reconciliation itself became necessary largely because Trump’s governing philosophy treats bipartisan compromise as political weakness, particularly on immigration enforcement and federal law enforcement policy. Rather than pursuing bipartisan talks on changes to immigration enforcement practices or federal investigative powers after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in January, Republicans moved to use reconciliation to fund a massive expansion of ICE and Customs and Border Protection operations through the remainder of Trump’s term.

But once reconciliation became the primary governing vehicle, it also became vulnerable to Trump’s broader political instincts: score-settling, loyalty tests and legacy-building projects that many Republicans viewed as unnecessary political baggage attached to an otherwise unifying border-security package.

Senators spent much of Thursday openly signaling discomfort with the anti-weaponization fund after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met privately with Senate Republicans to defend the proposal. The lengthy meeting appeared to deepen concerns rather than resolve them.

“Our members have very legitimate questions about it,” Thune told reporters earlier in the day.

The White House also appeared caught off guard by the extent to which the ballroom funding and anti-weaponization provisions had become political liabilities inside the conference, particularly as Republicans already face worsening political headwinds tied to inflation, rising gas prices and growing voter unease over the administration’s handling of the conflict with Iran.

That frustration has become more personal for some Senate Republicans in recent days after Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) lost to a Trump-endorsed House rank-and-file member and the president backed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over John Cornyn (R-Texas) in an upcoming GOP runoff election for a seat Democrats now see as winnable due to Paxton’s myriad general-election liabilities.

Trump endorsed primary challengers against Sen. Bill Cassidy and Sen. John Cornyn, two well-liked members inside the conference who nevertheless found themselves targeted by the president and the MAGA movement.

For many Republicans, many of whom personally and politically respect Cassidy and Cornyn, the episodes reflect a deeper concern that Trump increasingly views Congress less as a separate governing branch and more as a vehicle to execute his political agenda with minimal resistance, while MAGA activists increasingly treat lawmakers who assert institutional independence as disloyal or insufficiently conservative.

Even so, few Republicans expect the broader reconciliation effort to collapse permanently. Trump still retains an overwhelming influence over the Republican base, and many lawmakers ultimately support the underlying goal of securing long-term funding for his immigration agenda.

But the failed push before Memorial Day recess handed Democrats a potent political opening heading into the summer by reinforcing their argument that unified Republican government has become consumed by internal dysfunction, political self-interest and ideological spectacle rather than affordability concerns facing voters.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) quickly seized on the moment Thursday afternoon, declaring that Republicans were “in complete disarray” after abandoning plans to move the package before recess.

For now, Republicans will return home without the bill Trump demanded by June 1 and with growing evidence that even a fully Republican Washington may not be enough to overcome the political and institutional tensions shaping Trump’s second term.

What Paid Subscribers are Reading

In last evening’s Congress Nerd Sunset, I wrote about how Democrats appeared to test a new “fighting for you” midterm message on Thursday built around affordability, corruption and the argument that President Trump and Republicans are prioritizing wealthy allies and special interests over everyday Americans. The messaging experiment reflects a broader work inside the party to craft a clear and compelling closing argument to voters ahead of the 2026 midterms.

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Happenings

The Senate will meet at 8:30 a.m. and the House will meet at 10:30 a.m. for pro forma sessions.

President Trump will participate in a swearing-in ceremony for Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh in the East Room at 11 a.m. before traveling to Rockland County, New York, to campaign with Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), one of the three House Republicans who represent a district that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. Trump will then travel from New York to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, for the remainder of the weekend.

In the Know

Dems slam GOP for Iran war powers delay: House Republican leadership abruptly pulled a planned floor vote Thursday on a Democratic-led War Powers Resolution to force President Trump to seek congressional approval for future military action against Iran, retreating after Democrats concluded the measure likely had enough bipartisan support to pass due to GOP absences.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), who sponsored the resolution, accused Republicans of ducking the vote because “they knew they were going to lose it,” while Jeffries, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) blasted the GOP for behaving like a “wholly-owned subsidiary” of the Trump administration.

As I reported in Thursday morning’s Sunrise, the move came one week after a separate Iran War Powers Resolution failed by a single vote and days after the Senate advanced Sen. Tim Kaine’s version with support from four Republicans, underscoring growing bipartisan unease over the increasingly costly and open-ended conflict.

Dems block GOP women’s museum proposal: The House rejected legislation on Thursday that would have advanced plans for the long-discussed Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum after Democrats abandoned the previously bipartisan effort over late Republican changes tied to transgender inclusion and presidential authority. The bill failed 216-204, with Democrats leading the opposition and a handful of Republicans defecting.

The original museum proposal had broad bipartisan support for years, but Republicans added language limiting exhibits to “biological women,” barring transgender inclusion and giving Trump final authority over the museum’s location on the National Mall. Democrats accused Republicans of turning a consensus project into a culture-war vehicle aimed at pleasing the president.

The bill would also have decoupled the women’s museum from the long-linked National Museum of the American Latino, leading to frustration among Hispanic Democrats after both Smithsonian projects were originally authorized together in 2020.

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Martin releases DNC autopsy: Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin on Thursday released the party’s long-delayed and deeply disputed autopsy of the 2024 election, publishing the 192-page report alongside a striking disclaimer that the DNC could not independently verify many of its claims, data points or sourcing.

The release comes months after Martin shelved the report over concerns it would distract from the midterms, a reversal that triggered backlash from Democratic activists, strategists and some elected officials who accused the DNC of abandoning transparency. The report itself argues Democrats became overly reliant on anti-Trump messaging, underinvested in state parties and organizing and struggled badly with male, rural and non-college voters, while repeatedly faulting the Biden White House and the truncated Harris campaign for failing to define then-Vice President Harris on favorable terms.

Reaction to the rollout was almost as brutal as the reaction to the findings. Critics across the party blasted the document as incomplete, error-ridden and internally contradictory, with missing sections and repeated editor’s notes disputing unsupported claims. Some Democrats privately questioned Martin’s leadership after he spent months defending the decision not to release the report, only to abruptly publish it anyway amid mounting pressure.

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