Tensions between House and Senate Republicans are threatening the GOP’s legislative agenda ahead of the midterms.
The two chambers come back to Capitol Hill this week with a list of legislative priorities they have failed to reach consensus on — and a shrinking time frame to get it done.
Who is at fault for the standoff depends on who you ask.
“We control Washington. When … we don’t get things done, we’re making a huge mistake,” Sen. Thom Tillis said about his House counterparts. “We’ve got to deliver.”
“The House is doing its job,” Rep. Chip Roy said. “Sometimes it gets a little tense, but we’re still getting stuff done. We’re sending it over to the Senate, so we look forward to them doing their job.”
Republicans did get a few wins before the brief recess: The House passed a Senate bill to fund everything in DHS except immigration enforcement after a record-setting 76 day shutdown of the department. Speaker Mike Johnson had initially called the bill a “crap sandwich.”
The House and Senate also managed to get on the same page about a budget blueprint for a party-line spending bill President Donald Trump wants on his desk by June 1. Congress is likely to spend most of May focusing on that deadline — especially after the Senate’s proposal included $1 billion in security funding that can be used for at least parts of Trump’s proposed White House ballroom, a project voters have shown little support for.
But other fights are coming up quickly.
Republicans bought themselves through mid-June to figure out a plan on a key government spy power reauthorization that now includes a central bank digital currency provision, which is dead-on-arrival in the Senate.
A ban on CBDC is also a key hang-up in dueling housing affordability proposals between the House and Senate, among other differences between the chambers’ plans (more on this below).
It’s a key frustration for Senate Republicans, who believe getting a housing bill to Trump’s desk would be an easy way to show voters the party is responsive to their affordability anxieties.
“Conversations continue,” House Financial Services Chair French Hill said before the recess. “We just are looking for the path to get a bicameral bill.”
What else we’re watching:
—GOP’s VIRGINIA WIN MAY MUDDLE BALLROOM TALKS: Republicans’ redistricting win in Virginia might translate into some immediate new headaches for Speaker Mike Johnson’s legislating agenda and Trump’s ballroom security plans. The state Supreme Court’s Friday decision to overturn Democrats’ redrawn maps boosts the GOP’s outlook to hold onto more seats in November’s midterms. But senior House Republicans are concerned those Virginia Republicans with a new lease on life in Congress could present challenges for the GOP’s latest party-line spending plans, four people with knowledge of the conversations told POLITICO. Johnson must convince those members facing highly competitive races to support the reconciliation bill and pass it by Trump’s June 1 deadline. That may not be easy given a highly debated proposal setting aside $1 billion that may be spent on the White House’s ballroom security.
— HOUSING BILL’S WALL STREET PROVISIONS IN FLUX: House GOP lawmakers have drafted amended housing legislation that would reel in efforts by the Senate to limit the role of Wall Street in housing, according to text obtained by POLITICO. It strips a much-debated Senate provision requiring single-family homes built by large institutional investors as long-term rentals be sold after seven years to individual homebuyers — which is where much of the House opposition has been focused.
Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill and Katherine Hapgood contributed to this report.
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