1. RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: The House GOP dropped its budget blueprint this morning even as Senate Republicans charged ahead with the first markup of their own plan for reconciliation legislation. The House draft is in line with Speaker Mike Johnson’s recent proposal. It includes $4.5 trillion for tax cuts, $880 billion in spending cuts from House Energy & Commerce (watch out, Medicaid), and raising the debt ceiling for about two years, POLITICO’s Ben Leonard and Meredith Lee Hill report. Read the budget resolution But but but: Some members are still haggling over final details of the plan, whose fate tomorrow at a House Budget Committee markup is uncertain, per Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman. And the Senate Budget Committee took up their resolution this morning, though Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) described it as a backup plan if the House can’t get theirs together, per POLITICO’s Katherine Tully-McManus. Graham said he hopes it can be on the Senate floor as soon as next week, POLITICO’s Jordain Carney reports. 2. ALL EYES ON THE COURTS: Eight federal IGs fired by Trump in a breach of a 2022 law filed a lawsuit today to be returned to their positions, POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney reports. It’s the latest instance of independent watchdogs fighting back against Trump’s efforts to purge them. The step back: Across more than 50 lawsuits, all of Trump’s biggest executive orders have already been challenged in court, laying the groundwork for some major reckonings at the Supreme Court. Axios’ Erin Doherty and Sam Baker predict that Trump could find a favorable reception from the justices on some moves, including his decimation of the federal workforce and anti-transgender policies. CNN’s John Fritze reports that the conservative supermajority may be especially eager to overturn the precedent set by 1935’s Humphrey’s Executor v. US, making it easier for the president to fire the heads of independent agencies without cause. What challengers will rely on: the 1946 Administrative Procedure Act, a key statute that gives judges the power to junk agency moves that are “arbitrary and capricious,” NBC’s Lawrence Hurley reports. It’s a wonkier and more obscure level of legal challenge, on top of bigger constitutional questions. 3. 2026 WATCH: Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco plans to jump into California’s gubernatorial race, POLITICO’s Chris Cadelago scooped. The tough-on-crime Republican, a Fox News mainstay, successfully helped push the Prop 36 ballot measure last fall. He’d face an uphill battle in liberal California, but his public safety-focused campaign — or a potential bid from Republican Steve Hilton — could scramble a sprawling Democratic field in the state’s all-party, top-two primary system. Another notable contender: Arizona Republican Karrin Taylor Robson announced she’s running for governor, per the Arizona Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl. The businesswoman narrowly lost the 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary to Kari Lake, when Robson was seen as the more establishment-friendly candidate. But this time around, her announcement heavily emphasized the fact that Trump has already endorsed her and aligned with him on the border. GOP Rep. Andy Biggs is also running. 4. MORE GITMO QUESTIONS EMERGE: DHS has emphasized that the migrants taken to Guantánamo Bay thus far are “the worst of the worst”: Venezuelan members of the Tren de Aragua gang. But CBS’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez scooped that “low-risk,” non-violent migrants without criminal histories are being sent there too — with more coming today. These migrants are being housed in a separate facility from the maximum-security prison. The news follows a report yesterday from NYT’s Julie Turkewitz and Hamed Aleaziz report about a man sent to Guantánamo Bay whose family says he’s no gang member. Further immigration reading: “Trump Wants Sheriffs to Aid Deportation Efforts, but Who Would Pay?” by NYT’s Eileen Sullivan … “The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is Torn at a Critical Moment,” by The Bulwark’s Adrian Carrasquillo 5. NIGHTMARE FUEL: “Trump’s W.H.O. Exit Throws Smallpox Defenses Into Upheaval,” by NYT’s William Broad: “President Trump’s order that the United States exit the World Health Organization could undo programs meant to ensure the safety, security and study of a deadly virus that once took half a billion lives, experts warn. His retreat, they add, could end decades in which the agency directed the management of smallpox virus remnants in an American-held cache. Health experts say discontinuation of the W.H.O.’s oversight threatens to damage precautions against the virus leaking into the world, and to disrupt research on countermeasures against the lethal disease.” 6. BANNED AID: As the Trump administration dismantles USAID, his aides are considering moving billions of dollars from the agency’s funding to the U.S. International Development Finance Corp., Bloomberg’s Shawn Donnan, Joe Deaux and Daniel Flatley report. That would be a major shift in America’s approach to the world, tilting the balance away from humanitarian aid for desperate people and toward the Wall Street-friendly private-sector investor. More broadly, the federal cuts rammed through by Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” thus far are more about ideology than good-faith cost savings, GOP budget experts tell Reuters’ Tim Reid, Helen Coster and James Oliphant. 7. DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DID: “Trump official targeting Jan. 6 investigators worked on those cases himself,” by NPR’s Ryan Lucas: “After a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Emil Bove led efforts by federal prosecutors in Manhattan to help the FBI aggressively investigate, identify and arrest rioters from the New York region. Four years later, Bove is now the acting No. 2 official in President Trump’s Justice Department. He has used that perch to denounce the Capitol riot investigation and spearhead a purge of prosecutors — and potentially of FBI agents — who worked on Jan. 6 cases. The disconnect … has troubled some former colleagues.” DOJ responds to NBC 8. TRADE WARS: All 13 Canadian premiers are in Washington today to fight against Trump’s tariffs, urging policymakers to instead align with Canada against China, Bloomberg’s Thomas Seal reports. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for the announcement of Trump’s global reciprocal tariffs, which Reuters’ Andrea Shalal and David Lawder report are still being finalized and might not come until later this week. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick started discussing reciprocal tariffs with other countries this morning, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told reporters. This will likely be the first time that a president has tapped Section 338 of the Trade Act of 1930 for the authority to impose tariffs, per Lawder.
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