| | | |  | | By Eli Okun | | Presented by |  | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | | 
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) provided the crucial vote to pass the reconciliation bill through the Senate. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: The Senate has passed Republicans’ megabill by the narrowest of margins, bringing President Donald Trump and the GOP much closer to a landmark victory that would lower taxes, beef up border and military spending, slash the social safety net, damage the clean-energy boom, balloon the deficit and raise the debt ceiling. How it happened: In the end, VP JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote after Republicans lost Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.). Majority Leader John Thune managed to keep just enough skeptical moderates and fiscal hawks on board, winning the support of Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Rick Scott (Fla.). More from POLITICO’s Jordain Carney The scramble to the finish line: The Senate passed the budget reconciliation bill amid a barrage of last-minute policy revisions and debates before the parliamentarian, the tail end of a messy, overnight floor process that set a record as the biggest vote-a-rama in the chamber’s history. Thune told Semafor’s Burgess Everett that making the bill more conservative than the House’s text on Medicaid cuts and other policies was critical to its success. What’s in: Republicans doubled a fund to shore up rural hospitals against the bill’s Medicaid cuts from $25 billion to $50 billion. (No such luck for non-rural hospitals that could also be affected.) That helped secure Murkowski’s vote, but it wasn’t enough for Collins. SNAP negotiations also slowed cuts for Alaska and a handful of other states. But the changes are ultimately projected to lead to millions of Americans losing food aid. And one new estimate says the bill would cause at least 17 million people to lose their health insurance, erasing a significant portion of the gains since the Affordable Care Act, WaPo’s Yasmeen Abutaleb reports. Murkowski, who in the end looked to be the crucial swing vote, told reporters that she “struggled mightily with the impact on the most vulnerable in this country, when you look to Medicaid and SNAP” — and that she has urged both the White House and Hill leaders to send the bill to conference. But she said she “had to look on balance” at the whole bill and put Alaskans first. What fell out: Conservatives’ late effort to reduce federal funding for Medicaid expansion didn’t come up for a vote. The last-minute excise tax on solar and wind energy was removed, though the bill still would unwind significant clean-energy tax credits. And after a GOP deal fell apart, a provision to ban state-level regulation of AI for a decade was removed in a 99-1 vote. Now back to the House: The revised bill still needs to pass the House again, and voting is set for tomorrow. The Rules Committee plans to take it up quickly today, at 1:30 p.m. The Senate’s deeper Medicaid cuts (cracking down on the provider tax loophole stayed in the bill) could alienate moderates, while conservatives will chafe at the higher price tag. Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) are already signaling they may not be able to vote for the bill. But Republican leaders think they and Trump can muscle it through like they did last time. From 30,000 feet: Even by Washington’s recent standards, this bill’s huge debt impact — adding $3.3 trillion by one analysis — “stands apart in its harm to the budget,” NYT’s Andrew Duehren reports. The resulting “shortfall could begin a seismic shift in the nation’s fiscal trajectory and raise the risk of a debt crisis.” The politics: Beyond the bill’s potential to change many Americans’ lives and bank accounts, it also constitutes a hard-fought win for Trump and his Hill allies. They pushed through months of fragile negotiations and slim margins to roll most of their legislative priorities into one package, and Republicans will seek to trumpet this as their marquee achievement for the midterms. But just as eager are Democrats, who plan to wield the bill as a cudgel to flip at least the House next year, emphasizing that its advantages disproportionately accrue to the wealthy while slicing into benefits for the working class. (As WaPo has reported, it may be the largest cut to the federal social safety net in modern history.) And the feud between Trump and Elon Musk over the bill isn’t over: Trump this morning threatened to use the powers of the federal government to go after his new political enemy, saying the Department of Government Efficiency “is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon” and that he would “have to take a look” at deporting his onetime right-hand man, per POLITICO’s Irie Sentner. “So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now,” Musk responded. Meanwhile, James Fishback, a Trump ally and former DOGE adviser, launched a new super PAC to counter Musk’s threats of primary spending, POLITICO’s Sophia Cai reports. Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@politico.com.
| | | | A message from bp: bp added $190+ billion to the US economy over the last three years. Like investing in our Cherry Point refinery, the largest supplier of jet fuel to Seattle, Portland and Vancouver airports. These upgrades increased efficiency and reduced emissions. One more way we're investing in America. | | | | | | 6 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | 1. FED UP: Fed Chair Jerome Powell made it plain this morning: Trump would have already gotten his much-desired lower interest rates by now if not for his massive tariffs. “We went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs,” the central bank leader said today at a European forum. “All inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially.” In return, Trump continued to attack Powell from Florida this morning. More from The Hill 2. IN THE DOGE HOUSE: Musk’s feud with Trump notwithstanding, DOGE is still barreling through much of the federal government. Its officials have now encouraged the SEC to pursue more deregulatory moves, Reuters’ Douglas Gillison and Chris Prentice scooped. Those include easing up on rules for special purpose acquisition companies and private investment advisers’ data reporting. Among some SEC officials, it’s “raising concerns over whether a White House initiative should be involved in the core work of an agency long seen as independent.” Around the country: Staffing cuts have left VA hospital doctors and nurses with plummeting morale, CNN’s Brian Todd reports: “They say supplies have gone unordered, appointments go unscheduled, and medical staff fear that these conditions might not only encourage doctors and nurses now working in the over-strained system to quit, but dry up the pipeline for future talent.” Deadly impact abroad: The decimation of USAID included axing a contract for 100,000 emergency rape kits for war-torn parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Reuters’ Jessica Donati and Sonia Rolley scooped. As violence worsened, that left thousands of rape victims without lifesaving treatments to prevent sexually transmitted diseases after being assaulted. 3. IMMIGRATION FILES: Touring the new “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center in the Everglades today, Trump joked about immigrants being chased by alligators if they tried to escape. “Don’t run in a straight line,” he advised — though the zig-zag method that he suggested is actually a myth, per a University of Florida fact sheet. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said immigrants could arrive at the controversial, rapidly constructed facility as soon as tomorrow. More from the Miami Herald Related read: “U.S. holding detainees from Asia, Africa and Europe at Guantanamo Bay immigration facilities,” by CBS’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez: “As of earlier this week, Guantanamo Bay’s immigration detainees … included nationals of China, Jamaica, Liberia and the United Kingdom … Two U.S. officials said most of those detained at the base are considered to be ‘high-risk’ detainees … [They] signal a significant expansion in the Trump administration’s efforts to turn parts of Guantanamo Bay into immigration detention facilities.”
| | | | At the Aspen Ideas Festival, the world’s most influential minds — across business, technology, finance, media, science, and public policy — gather for bold conversation and uncommon access. 2025 sold out. Registration now open for June 25-July 1, 2026. An unmissable gathering. Learn more and buy a pass. | | | | | 4. TRAIL MIX: The official ranked-choice voting results from NYC confirmed a big win for Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary: He topped Andrew Cuomo 56 percent to 44 percent. … Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) raised a whopping $10 million in the second quarter for his Florida gubernatorial campaign, Axios’ Marc Caputo scooped. … In Mississippi, Ty Pinkins, who was the Democratic Senate nominee last year, announced he’ll leave the party and run again in 2026 as an independent, per SuperTalk Mississippi. Race for the House: The newly open swing seat in Omaha got its first new Republican contender, as City Council Vice President Brinker Harding announced a bid to replace Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), per the Nebraska Examiner. … Pennsylvania Dem Chair Sharif Street, a state senator, has quickly joined the contest for an open congressional seat in Philadelphia, per POLITICO’s Holly Otterbein. … Meanwhile nationwide, the DCCC is zeroing in on the cost of living as a key issue where it intends to attack Republicans, with a new interactive tool that shows grocery prices rising under the GOP, Fox Business’ Paul Steinhauser scooped. 5. WAITING FOR ANSWERS: “Mystery surrounds the Jeffrey Epstein files after Bondi claims ‘tens of thousands’ of videos,” by AP’s Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer: “It was a surprising statement from Attorney General Pam Bondi as the Trump administration promises to release more files from its sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein: The FBI, she said, was reviewing ‘tens of thousands of videos’ of the wealthy financier ‘with children or child porn.’ … Yet weeks after Bondi’s remarks, it remains unclear what she was referring to.” 6. BEYOND THE BELTWAY: As a new fiscal year begins today for many states, a number of notable laws are taking effect in Republican-led states, as NBC’s Raquel Coronell Uribe runs down. Iowa is leading the nation in stripping out gender identity as a protected class in civil rights code, while Indiana and Georgia bar transgender women from women’s sports. Florida becomes the first state to officially rebrand the “Gulf of America,” and the second to remove fluoride from drinking water. Mississippi and Indiana are barring diversity initiatives in schools. And Indiana has axed public broadcasting funds.
| | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Jonathan Kaplan is launching Write Cadence Strategies, a strategic advisory firm. He previously was comms officer at the Open Society Foundations. — Matt Taverna and Bryan Whitaker are launching TwoRivers Strategies, a Democratic tech consultancy. They previously were at Statara Solutions and are TargetSmart alums. — Eric Gutshall, Justin Ángel Knighten, Han Nguyen and Kristin Lynch are launching Pinnacle Collective, a public affairs firm. Gutshall previously was at the Education Department. Knighten previously was at FEMA. Nguyen previously was at the SBA. Lynch is a Biden White House and Treasury alum. MEDIA MOVES — Adam Cancryn is now a White House reporter at CNN. He previously was a White House reporter at POLITICO. … MSNBC is adding Vaughn Hillyard as senior White House correspondent, Laura Barrón-López as White House correspondent, David Noriega as a correspondent and Marc Santia as an investigative correspondent. Hillyard, Noriega and Santia previously were at NBC. Barrón-López previously was at PBS NewsHour. TRANSITIONS — The Reproductive Freedom Alliance is adding Sydney Etheredge as director of operations and strategic initiatives and Izzy Nathanson as director of state partnerships. Etheredge previously was president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania. Nathanson most recently was a health policy adviser in Colorado’s Office of Saving People Money on Health Care. … Aisha Haynes is joining SMI as VP. She most recently was principal director for advanced materials in the office of the undersecretary of Defense for research and engineering. … … Delaney Wehn is now comms director for Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.). She previously was a staff assistant at the State Department. … Phil Stein is now campaign manager for Amy Acton’s Ohio Democratic gubernatorial bid. He most recently was senior adviser to Virginia state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, who just secured the Democratic lieutenant gubernatorial nomination. … Ingrid Izaguirre is joining the Climate Solutions Foundation as its first full-time executive director. She previously was a climate solutions fellow for Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.). Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
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