How House Democrats plan to sell their vision for an “Affordable America”
Plus: Senate Dems press Pentagon on Iran casualty reporting, a bipartisan bill targets tax filing scams and Troy Jackson officially wins Maine Democratic Senate nod.
👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Sunday. I hope your weekend was everything for you.
FIRST THINGS FIRST: The House has begun its five-week August recess, but the Senate still has two weeks to answer a familiar question: How much can it realistically accomplish before Washington empties for the summer?
The biggest floor vote this week will be procedural. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has set up a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to a House-passed bipartisan tax bill that Republicans plan to use as the legislative vehicle for a Russia sanctions package championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Whether supporters can assemble the 60 votes needed to begin debate will be the clearest test yet of the sanctions bill’s viability following Graham’s death.
The week will also be shaped by services honoring Graham, beginning on Tuesday in the U.S. Capitol before moving to the Washington National Cathedral and then returning to South Carolina on Wednesday.
Beyond sanctions, Senate leaders are juggling a crowded agenda. Appropriators are trying to negotiate a bipartisan continuing resolution that could fund the government through the November midterm elections, while the chamber is expected to take up Jay Clayton’s nomination to serve as director of national intelligence with a vote to limit debate on the matter scheduled for Monday evening.
Lawmakers are also seeking time agreements to consider the bipartisan Clarity Act and the Protect College Sports Act, two complex measures that will require weeks of floor time to process without unanimous consent to expedite debate.
Beyond the floor, several Senate committees will tackle major policy and personnel fights before senators head home.
Anthony Fauci, the former chief medical advisor to former President Joe Biden, returns to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for testimony before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, while the HELP Committee examines artificial intelligence’s impact on the workforce and the Aging Committee explores how deepfakes, chatbots and other AI tools are fueling scams targeting older Americans.
On Thursday, the Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination to serve as attorney general, the HELP Committee will consider Keith Sonderling’s nomination for labor secretary and the Commerce Committee will examine the next generation of intelligent networks designed to create self-optimizing communications systems.
Hovering over the Senate’s final two weeks before recess is President Donald Trump’s fresh demand that lawmakers adopt the House-passed budget resolution to unlock a third reconciliation bill for military funding, farm aid and election grants tied to the SAVE America Act’s voter ID requirements.
Thune has repeatedly said the votes are not there and has indicated he does not plan to bring the resolution to the floor before senators leave Washington. That all but guarantees Trump’s pressure campaign will continue, adding another layer of tension between the White House and Senate Republicans as Thune tries to steer the chamber toward bipartisan wins on sanctions, government funding and other major priorities before the August break.
THE LINEUP
How House Democrats plan to sell their vision for an Affordable America
Senate Dems press Pentagon on Iran casualty reporting
Bipartisan bill targets tax filing scams
Jackson officially wins Maine nod
THE LEAD
Today marks 100 days until Election Day and House Democrats are kicking off a five-week campaign designed to persuade voters they’re not only ready to replace Republicans this fall but prepared to govern once the new Congress starts in January.
Internal messaging guidance obtained by Once Upon a Hill shows the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee has spent the past month building a district work period around “Fighting for an Affordable America,” the affordability-focused tagline first reported in Congress Nerd last Thursday.
The effort asks lawmakers to organize nearly every public appearance during the August recess around three messages: lowering the cost of groceries, gas and housing; delivering affordable health care for every American; and “holding the crooks accountable.”
The guidance, distributed to members on Friday under the banner of DPCC Chair Debbie Dingell (Mich.), describes the next 100 days as House Democrats’ “final sprint” and tells lawmakers the recess is “a time to prove that House Democrats are meeting the moment.”
The DPCC has been developing the rollout for the past several weeks. The entire August break will revolve around the new messaging framework, with individual days highlighting issues such as Medicaid, Social Security, voting rights and attacks on women and diverse communities, while broader weeks of action reinforce the overarching affordability message.
The internal guidance reflects a notable refinement in House Democrats’ messaging.
For much of the past year, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and other Democratic leaders have emphasized lowering costs, fixing the nation’s “broken health care system” and cleaning up corruption. The new framework keeps affordability at its center while sharpening the latter two messages into promises of “affordable health care for every American” and “hold the crooks accountable.”
A source familiar with the matter declined to explain precisely how Democrats landed on the new corruption language but said “‘crooks’ is widely applicable and ‘accountable’ delivers the accountability people want in comparison with the blatant Trump administration corruption from top to bottom.”
Jeffries repeatedly previewed the new language during his final Capitol press conference last week before lawmakers left Washington.
“We’re committed to a country that provides affordable health care for every American, and we also are committed as Democrats to hold the crooks accountable, who’ve been robbing the American people blind, and that includes a whole lot of folks in this town and folks across the country.”
Pressed later to define that third pillar, Jeffries argued Democrats intend to use a future House majority to investigate what he called “the most corrupt administration in American history,” while contrasting Republican perceived focus on billionaires and mega corporations with Democrats’ populist economic message.
Jeffries appeared this afternoon in Pennsylvania’s 7th congressional district alongside Gov. Josh Shapiro and Democratic nominee Bob Brooks, the president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, as Democrats look to unseat Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.), one of the nation’s most competitive House races this cycle.
The messaging push coincides with a broader party-wide effort to frame affordability as the defining issue of the fall campaign.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a memo this morning arguing the political environment continues moving in Democrats’ favor as Republicans defend rising costs, tariffs and last year’s unpopular One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The committee also launched a new digital advertising campaign targeting voters in battleground districts across the country with messages tying vulnerable House Republicans to higher everyday costs.
Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee marked the campaign’s 100-day milestone with more than 425 organizing events across 42 states and four territories this weekend, including canvasses, voter registration drives and community events designed to reach voters before the fall stretch.
Senate Democrats are embracing a similar argument.
“One hundred days out from Election Day, Senate Democrats are well-positioned to win the majority, with multiple paths to get there,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) said in a statement. “Over the next 100 days, Democrats will tirelessly make our case in every battleground state – and come November, voters will elect a Democratic Senate majority that delivers real results and puts the American people first.”
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THE POWERS THAT BE
Senate Dems press Pentagon on Iran casualty reporting: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and 11 Senate Democrats demanded a full accounting of every U.S. service member killed, wounded or injured during Operation Epic Fury, citing discrepancies between the Pentagon’s public casualty figures and official statements that they say have obscured the war’s human toll. In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and senior military leaders, the lawmakers requested answers by Thursday on casualty totals, traumatic brain injuries, undisclosed attacks in Jordan and the military’s mass-casualty response capabilities.
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THE POLICY DESK
Dems target foreign money loophole: Sen. Kelly, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) introduced legislation to bar U.S. companies that are majority-owned or controlled by foreign entities from spending unlimited sums in American elections, arguing current campaign finance law has failed to keep pace with the globalization of corporate ownership. The proposal comes as foreign ownership of U.S. stocks has grown from roughly 4% in 1986 to about 40% today, a shift the lawmakers say has created a loophole that undermines the longstanding prohibition on foreign nationals influencing federal elections while preserving the rights of Americans living in the United States to make political contributions.
Pressley unveils maternal health package: Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced the MOMMIES Act, a sweeping proposal to expand Medicaid coverage and improve access to postpartum, reproductive and community-based care as Democrats seek to reverse the nation’s rising maternal mortality rate and narrow persistent racial disparities in pregnancy-related deaths. Pressley also introduced the Justice for Incarcerated Moms Act, which would discourage the shackling of pregnant people in custody, expand maternal health services in prisons and jails, support alternatives to incarceration for pregnant individuals and primary caregivers, and launch the first comprehensive federal study of maternal and infant health among incarcerated people.
Bipartisan bill targets tax filing scams: Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen the IRS’s electronic filing system by preventing scammers from using stolen Electronic Filing Identification Numbers (EFINs) to file fraudulent tax returns and steal sensitive taxpayer information. The SECURE Tax Filing Act would require tax software providers to verify that participating tax professionals are using legitimate EFINs before they can access the IRS e-filing system, closing a loophole lawmakers say has enabled identity theft and tax refund fraud.
THE TRAIL
SC stays first as DNC expands early map: The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee voted on Friday to recommend a six-state early presidential primary calendar for 2028, keeping South Carolina first, followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia—a lineup that elevates Black, Latino, labor and suburban voters at the outset of what is expected to be a wide-open nomination fight. The proposal still requires approval from the full DNC next month, but it offers an early glimpse at how party leaders want future candidates to prove they can assemble the coalition Democrats need to win back the White House.
Jackson officially wins Maine nod: Maine Democrats officially selected former state Senate President Troy Jackson as their U.S. Senate nominee on Saturday, moving quickly to unify the party after Graham Platner withdrew from the race amid allegations of sexual assault, which he has denied. Jackson now heads into one of the country’s most closely watched Senate contests against five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins, giving Democrats a fresh start in a race that could help determine control of the chamber.