Congress is back: Police Week, spending fights and Trump abroad
Plus: Supreme Court prepares to rule on medication abortion restrictions and Schumer links cruise ship outbreak to Trump public health cuts.
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Good Monday morning. Thank you for waking up with Congress Nerd Sunrise.
📌 In this edition:
Congress is back: Police Week, spending fights and Trump abroad
Supreme Court prepares to rule on medication abortion restrictions
Schumer links cruise ship outbreak to Trump public health cuts
📬 Send me tips, scoops or just say hi: michael@onceuponahill.com
○ ● ●
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Congress is back: Police Week, spending fights and Trump abroad
Congress returns from a weeklong recess this week, with the Senate back this evening and the House returning Tuesday night for a two-week sprint before the Memorial Day break.
It’s National Police Week and House Republicans are reviving their tough-on-crime playbook with a slate of so-called law-and-order bills designed to elevate law enforcement, target progressive criminal justice policies like cashless bail and sanctuary jurisdictions and force Democrats into politically uncomfortable votes on crime and public safety.
The House will also take up Republicans’ first fiscal year 2027 appropriations bill as lawmakers try to avoid a repeat of the chaotic 2026 funding cycle, which was plagued by multiple record-long government shutdowns and spending bills that weren’t enacted until seven months into the fiscal year.
Across the Capitol, the Senate will begin the process of confirming Kevin Warsh to serve as the next chair of the Federal Reserve before current Chair Jerome Powell’s term expires Friday. Paid subscribers to Once Upon a Hill got the full rundown on this week’s agenda in Sunday evening’s edition of Congress Nerd Sunset, plus a look at how two court rulings over the last 10 days scrambled Democrats’ path back to the House majority.
Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled Tuesday morning to mark up its portion of the GOP’s $72 billion immigration funding package, although Democrats are expected to delay a committee vote until next week. Republicans are also likely to face questions over the bill’s $1 billion allocation for President Donald Trump’s planned East Wing ballroom after Trump and allies previously insisted private donations would cover the project.
Lawmakers also have just 32 days left to reach a long-term agreement on reauthorizing the federal government’s foreign surveillance powers. Privacy hawks continue pushing for warrant requirements before intelligence agencies can surveil Americans communicating with foreign targets, while conservatives are demanding a ban on a central bank digital currency.
Trump is set to travel to China this week for a high-stakes meeting with President Xi Jinping on trade and economic relations. Trump also dismissed Iran’s latest response to a U.S. peace proposal as “totally unacceptable” as negotiators remain far apart on a deal aimed at ending the war, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
● ○ ●
THE COURTS
Supreme Court prepares to rule on medication abortion restrictions
The Supreme Court is expected to decide today whether to preserve nationwide access to mifepristone through mail delivery and pharmacy dispensing after Justice Samuel Alito last week temporarily blocked a lower-court ruling that would have immediately reinstated in-person dispensing requirements for the abortion pill.
At issue is a recent 5th Circuit decision siding with Louisiana and ordering the Food and Drug Administration to roll back rules that expanded access to mifepristone by mail. If allowed to take effect, the ruling would effectively end non-in-person dispensing nationwide, including in states where abortion remains legal.
Abortion-rights advocates view the case as the latest escalation in the anti-abortion movement’s post-Dobbs strategy to restrict abortion access nationally through the courts after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“Since then, anti-abortion politicians have tried to pick up the baton and continue these nationwide attacks on medication abortion access,” Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Freedom Project, told me. “The idea that Louisiana’s anti-abortion attorney general should get to decide what access to medication abortion looks like in the dozens of states with legal protections for abortion is outrageous, yet the 5th Circuit rubber-stamped that request.”
The case has drawn unusually broad opposition from medical, pharmaceutical and public-health groups. Organizations ranging from the American Medical Association to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America filed amicus briefs urging the justices to block the lower-court ruling.
Congressional Democrats also weighed in last week. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and more than 250 Democratic lawmakers argued in a separate filing that mifepristone is a safe and effective medication used in nearly two-thirds of abortions as well as miscarriage care.
The Trump administration did not respond by the court’s Thursday deadline.
“The administration’s silence speaks volumes and is a permission slip to the Supreme Court to restrict access to medication abortion nationwide, betraying decades of science and President Trump’s campaign promises not to impose new federal restrictions on abortion,” Deirdre Schifeling, the ACLU’s chief political and advocacy officer, said in a statement. “The outcome of this case could damage access to abortion and miscarriage care in every state in this country, including those that protect abortion rights.”
● ● ○
HANTAVIRUS
Schumer links cruise ship outbreak to Trump public health cuts
Chuck Schumer accused the Trump administration on Sunday of weakening the nation’s public health defenses as officials respond to a deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship carrying American passengers.
In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Schumer argued that cuts to federal health programs, staffing reductions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the administration’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization have undermined the government’s ability to manage infectious disease threats involving Americans abroad.
“The U.S. is at a disadvantage to protect the public from the dangers of hantavirus,” Schumer wrote, urging the administration to restore staffing and funding for public health programs and rejoin the WHO.
The letter comes as three people have died and several others have fallen ill from hantavirus aboard the ship, which carried 17 American passengers. Schumer noted reports indicating the outbreak involves the Andes strain of hantavirus, the only known variant capable of person-to-person transmission.
Schumer specifically criticized the administration’s decision last year to fire full-time employees within the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program as part of broader DOGE-directed workforce reductions, arguing the cuts weakened the federal government’s ability to identify and respond to threats aboard cruise ships. He also pointed to staffing shortages at CDC Port Health Stations, which monitor infectious diseases entering the country through ports and transit hubs.
The New York Democrat additionally accused the administration of providing delayed and insufficient public communication about the outbreak and questioned whether turmoil at the CDC—including the absence of a Senate-confirmed director—has slowed the response.
The letter requests detailed information by May 17 on CDC staffing levels tied to the outbreak response, coordination with the WHO, plans for screening and monitoring returning passengers and communication with state and local health departments handling possible quarantine and contact-tracing efforts.