How Epstein survivors fueled Leger Fernández’s fight against Swalwell, Gonzales
Plus: White House touts ‘no tax on tips’ as Democrats warn it won’t last and Thune sidelines Planned Parenthood fight in reconciliation bill.
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☝🏾Heads up: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is set to meet with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) today as the two Republican leaders try to break an intraparty impasse that has stretched the Department of Homeland Security shutdown to nearly 60 days.
As I reported in last evening’s Sunset, the standoff reflects a growing split between Senate Republicans, who already cleared a bipartisan deal to fund most DHS agencies before the Easter recess, and House conservatives, who are refusing to go along without concrete movement on a broader reconciliation package that would fund the department through the end of President Donald Trump’s second term. In the meantime, the administration has been relying on funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to continue paying DHS workers, buying time but not resolving the underlying dispute.
📌 New this morning: How Epstein survivors fueled Leger Fernández’s fight against Swalwell, Gonzales … White House touts ‘no tax on tips’ as Democrats warn it won’t last … Thune sidelines Planned Parenthood fight in reconciliation bill.
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FIRST THINGS FIRST
How Epstein survivors fueled Leger Fernández’s fight against Swalwell, Gonzales
Democratic Women’s Caucus Chair Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) moved within hours of the sexual assault allegations against Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) last Friday, calling for an investigation and backing the accusers—an early intervention that quickly escalated into bipartisan pressure culminating in the resignations of Swalwell and Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who recently admitted to an affair with a staffer who later died by self-immolation.
The episode underscores how the DWC has asserted itself as a key enforcer of accountability in misconduct cases, pushing leadership and rank-and-file Democrats to act swiftly even when it involves their own. Their response mirrors the caucus’s broader focus on survivor advocacy, including its work around survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual violence, and signals a more aggressive posture toward policing member conduct in a volatile political environment.
Leger Fernández told me in a statement that Gonzales and Swalwell’s resignations—and an expulsion resolution she plans to introduce if Gonzales’s resignation is not immediately effective—are critical, arguing that members who demand accountability for the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators must also hold their colleagues accountable for abusing women.
“The reality is women have been abused and used for way too long. Men have relied on the silence of women to get away with this abuse. I need to honor the Epstein survivors because they refused to be silenced,” she said. “We are demanding to hold these two congressmen accountable in the context of objecting to the way powerful men treated the Epstein survivors.”
The DWC has spent the past year centering the Epstein survivors through a mix of legislation, advocacy and public pressure—from backing the bipartisan push to release FBI files and hosting a Capitol Hill vigil to elevating survivors at the State of the Union and pressing the Justice Department for a fuller accounting of the case.
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ECONOMY
White House touts ‘no tax on tips’ as Democrats warn it won’t last
The White House leaned into its working-class tax message Monday when it staged a photo op with President Donald Trump and Sharon, a DoorDash driver who said she received $11,000 under the “no tax on tips” provision in the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act—money she said she used to help pay for her husband’s cancer treatment.
The event is part of a broader Republican push during tax week to highlight provisions in the party’s signature legislative achievement ahead of the 2026 midterms. Trump is set to travel to Arizona and Nevada to promote deductions for tips, overtime pay and auto loan interest—policies aimed squarely at service workers and middle-income voters. The House is also expected to vote this week on a nonbinding resolution backing those measures.
Democrats, however, argue the benefits are short-lived compared to the law’s permanent tax cuts for corporations and high earners.
“It is temporary relief for a long term problem,” a House Democratic aide told me. “But their Big Ugly Bill tax breaks were permanent for the wealthy, proving they have the power to do so.”
Several of the worker-focused provisions—including the capped deductions for tips, overtime and auto loan interest, along with a new senior deduction—are set to expire after 2028. By contrast, core elements of the 2017 tax framework, including the 21% corporate rate, expanded business deductions and lower individual tax rates, were made permanent under the new law.
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, told me Democrats will push to extend those provisions when they regain power.
“I’m for giving these workers permanent relief,” he said. “I’d like to go broader in terms of getting relief for these workers.
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HEALTH CARE
Thune sidelines Planned Parenthood fight in reconciliation bill
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Monday downplayed any immediate effort to extend Republicans’ one-year cutoff of federal Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood and signaled the issue won’t be a priority in the party’s upcoming reconciliation bill focused on immigration enforcement.
“That was something that we worked long and hard to get done last year, and we are very committed to that objective and end, and we’ll see how best to accommodate it,” Thune told reporters, adding that the next reconciliation package “has to be very narrow and tight” to move quickly and comply with Senate rules. “The goal…is to deal with the border on this recon bill, try and keep it as neat and tight as possible.”
The comments suggest GOP leaders are wary of overloading the bill as they try to secure funding for ICE and CBP, even as conservative lawmakers push to make the Planned Parenthood restriction permanent.
The provision, included in the OBBBA, blocks Medicaid reimbursements to certain reproductive health providers for one year starting last July 4—including for non-abortion services like cancer screenings, STI testing and contraception. It applies to large nonprofit providers that offer abortion services and receive more than $800,000 in Medicaid funding, effectively targeting Planned Parenthood affiliates.
The policy has been tied up in court since enactment. A federal judge initially blocked it, but the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit allowed it to take effect last fall, and it remains in place for many providers after Planned Parenthood dropped some legal challenges earlier this year.
Republicans are expected to revisit the issue in another legislative vehicle later this year.
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HAPPENINGS
All times Eastern
— Floor action:
The House will meet at 12 p.m. and vote at 6:30 p.m. on a slate of suspension bills, including several post-office-naming measures, a sweeping aviation safety bill, and measures to make it easier for farmers and landowners to access upfront federal funds to recover from disasters.
The Senate is in at 10 a.m. and will vote at 11:30 a.m. to confirm John Shepherd to be U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Arkansas and to limit debate on the nomination of Christopher Wolfe to be U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Texas. Following the cloture vote on the Wolfe nomination, the Senate will recess until 2:15 p.m. for each party’s weekly policy lunch, after which the Senate will vote to confirm the Wolfe nomination.
— Committee hearings:
The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health will hold a field hearing at the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine at 9 a.m. on empowering Americans to live healthier lives.
The Senate Commerce Committee will meet at 10 a.m. to consider several bills, including a bipartisan proposal from Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.) to require social media platforms to warn users of potential mental health risks whenever a user opens an app or site. The panel will also consider a bipartisan bill by Sens. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) to modernize FAA mental health regulations so that pilots and air traffic controllers can seek mental health care without stigma or fear of career loss.
The House Rules Committee will meet at 4 p.m. to prepare several bills for floor consideration, including a clean 18-month extension of FISA Section 702, a nonbinding resolution backing the tax provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and three measures to deregulate the Clean Air Act.
— News events:
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will lead a National Commemoration of the Days of Remembrance Congressional Gold Medal presentation at 10:30 a.m.
Senate Minority Whip and Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) will hold a press conference at 12 p.m. on Section 230 and Big Tech accountability.
President Trump will meet at 1:30 p.m. at the White House with Speaker Johnson and National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.). He will meet at 3 p.m. with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, participate in a pre-taped interview with Fox host Maria Bartiromo at 4 p.m. and meet with U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue at 5:30 p.m.
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READ ALL ABOUT IT
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“The death of the basic American car” by Clifford Winston: “This is how cars got so ridiculously, forbiddingly expensive.”
“The internet’s most powerful archiving tool is in peril” by Kate Knibbs: “As major outlets cut off the Wayback Machine, journalists and advocacy groups are rallying to protect the Internet Archive’s vast collection of web pages.”