Johnson’s next test
The House Speaker has his work cut out for him as he attempts to muscle a massive spending agreement through procedural and political landmines—with little to no help from Hakeem Jeffries.
👋🏾Hi, hey, hello! Welcome to Congress Nerd Sunrise, a free morning guide to what’s ahead in Congress and Washington, without the overwhelm that often comes with morning tipsheets. Sunrise will offer a clear look ahead, a few key headlines you may have missed, and reading recommendations worth your time. Paid subscribers will still receive the paid evening edition of Congress Nerd—I’m calling it Sunset during this experiment—with original scoops, fresh reporting, and analysis on the day’s most important story and what it means for the legislative process and national politics. Sunrise will begin as a test as I gather feedback from the OUAH community, and I’d love to hear what you think.
Today in Congress
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will face his first major test of the partial shutdown, the second funding lapse in four months, when his Rules Committee meets this afternoon to report a rule that will allow him to bring a Senate-passed spending agreement between Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and President Donald Trump to the floor for a simple majority vote.
Johnson’s initial approach was to deploy a fast-track procedure to bypass the Rules and pass the agreement to reopen the government with a two-thirds majority. But this would have required 70-ish Democratic votes, which House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told Johnson over the weekend he wouldn’t provide.
As I reported last night, this will force the speaker to find the votes to turn the lights back on within a raucous conference full of rebels threatening to exploit the House GOP’s ever-shrinking majority to secure their own policy priorities.
None of these developments accounts for the reason we’re in another shutdown: Democrats want meaningful reforms to the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in broad daylight in Minnesota last month. (ProPublica has identified the two agents involved in the second shooting that resulted in Alex Pretti’s death.) Most Republicans are fine with the status quo and want DHS fully funded and to continue to sympathize with federal agents who are roving American cities with less transparency and accountability than required of your local police department.
It’s all a mess. And depending on how this afternoon unfolds, it may get worse before it gets better.
Happenings
The House is in at 9 a.m. and will vote at 6:30 p.m. on suspension bills to create a Medal of Sacrifice, improve and expand Veterans’ Affairs education, employment, health, and accrued-benefits programs, set clinical supervision standards for marriage and family therapists in the VA, and relocate the National Woman’s Relief Corps’ incorporation and headquarters to Illinois.
The House Rules Committee will meet at 4 p.m. to prepare the funding deal and legislation to overturn a D.C. tax conformity law, hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for defying Oversight subpoenas, and strengthen U.S. control over critical mineral supply chains.
The Senate is in at 3 p.m. and will vote at 5:30 p.m. to end debate on the nomination of David Clay Fowlkes to be U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Arkansas.
President Trump will participate in signing time at 3:30 p.m. in the Oval Office.
In the Know
— Former Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee won the TX-18 special runoff election against former Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards to fill the seat vacated by the death of the late Rep. Sylvester Turner last March. Menefee will be the fourth House member for the downtown Houston district in a year and a half: Erica Lee Carter served from November 2024 to January 2025, after her mother Sheila Jackson Lee died the previous July. Turner succeeded Lee Carter until his death. The 37-year-old Menefee will face Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) in the March 3 primary after Green after the 78-year-old was drawn into the 18th following Texas Republicans’ mid-decade gerrymander last summer. When Menefee is sworn in, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will have just a one-vote majority on party-line votes with full attendance. Read my preview of the special election.
— Taylor Rehmet, an Air Force veteran and union leader, won the special election runoff for Texas Senate District 9, defeating Republican Leigh Wambsganss by a roughly 57–43 percent margin to claim a seat Republicans had held for decades and that Trump carried by about 17 points in 2024. Rehmet’s campaign focused on economic issues—cost of living, jobs, public education—messages that seemed to resonate even in a conservative district. National groups, including the Democratic National Committee and veterans organizations, poured support into his effort, while GOP heavyweights, like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Trump, personally campaigned for Wambsganss. Democrats have stamped the victory as a bellwether for the 2026 midterms and evidence of potential political shifts even in traditionally red territory, while publicly calling it a warning sign for Republicans nationwide and a sign of energized Democratic voters under a Trump presidency.
— The Supreme Court announced last Friday that it will hear a direct challenge on April 1 to President Trump’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship. The justices will decide whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause protects automatic citizenship for virtually everyone born here and whether lower courts erred in blocking the government’s attempt to eliminate that guarantee. The case is one of the most consequential of the term and among several others on the March docket that span major areas, including election law and voting, administrative and civil procedure, criminal justice, arbitration and jurisdiction, and immigration.
— Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff, White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify before Congress about whether the Trump administration traded national security to benefit the president’s crypto business—and whether the officials personally profited. Warren’s demand follows new reporting from The Wall Street Journal that revealed an official of the United Arab Emirates bought a 49% stake in Trump’s crypto company four days before Trump’s inauguration and months before gaining access to advanced AI chips. She also called on the Trump administration to reverse its decision to sell sensitive AI chips to the UAE.
— Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced an upcoming book, Crisis of the Common Good, due out at the end of May. In a thread previewing the release, the potential 2028 hopeful argues the U.S. has shifted from a “we” nation to a “me” nation and blames the cults of profit, consumption, technology, globalization, credentialism and winner-take-all politics for hollowing out shared purpose and the common good. He also asserts that defeating Trump electorally isn’t sufficient if the underlying disconnection, loss of meaning and social fragmentation aren’t addressed.
Read All About It
“MAGA’s war on empathy” by Hillary Rodham Clinton: “The crisis in Minneapolis reveals a deep moral rot at the heart of Trump’s movement.”
“Trump’s SNAP rules are about to imperil food access for millions” by Katie Herchenroeder: “Work rules take effect this week for states around the country, cutting access to one of the nation’s most vital anti-hunger programs.”
“How the supermarket’s cheapest fish became Gen Z’s latest obsession” by Kyndall Cunningham: “The secret to ‘looks-maxing’ and saving money? Sardines.”