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By Ali Bianco |
Presented by |
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THE CATCH-UP |
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Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is the one with the most to gain if the Republicans leave town with guaranteed funding through the midterms in their pocket. | Francis Chung/POLITICO |
The Senate has about a million things left to do before heading out for August recess. But there’s one thing above all that most everyone agrees they want to get done even as the scent of jet fumes grows stronger: government funding. Susan Collins is at the center of that push — and she’s the one with the most to gain if the Republicans leave town with guaranteed funding through the midterms in their pocket. “Susan should take that as a win,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told your author yesterday, saying she can go home with the message that she’s the responsible lawmaker who averted a government shutdown. “There's only about five members of my conference that I care about, and they're the ones who are running in at-risk states,” Tillis told reporters. “One of them happens to be the Appropriations chair.” Collins is once again facing a tight reelection bid in Maine. A dramatic Democratic primary season largely left Collins in the background, sitting on a significant war chest as Democrat Troy Jackson steps into the spotlight to unseat her. Democrats — led in no small part by Chuck Schumer — are eager to make Maine their key pick-up seat in the Senate. The Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC’s latest internals today show Jackson up by four points. But if Collins is running on anything, it’s her track record in the Senate. Cinching a bipartisan deal to get government funding out of the way until December would lift the threat of a potential shutdown — but it would also be yet another rabbit-out-of-a-hat moment for Collins to take home to Maine voters this August, a person familiar with her campaign strategy told Playbook. Collins has been working with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and the CR currently has broad bipartisan support. GOP leadership recognizes the importance for Collins. They also know she won’t leave or go back to the campaign trail in Maine until it gets done, one source close to leadership told Playbook. “She never misses a vote,” they said. “She would be the biggest winner.” Given those stakes it’s likely the CR, which is currently embroiled in pushback over a White House-backed delay on a hemp ban, will keep senators in Washington until it passes. “I don't imagine us leaving,” without the CR, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told Playbook. “We got a lot of things and not much time.”
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But with no deal yet on a time agreement to speed things up — Collins, or any other at-risk senators, likely won’t be back on the campaign trail tomorrow as many had hoped. Collins has campaign events planned for the weekend, but if the Senate is still in she’ll miss them. For those keeping count: There’s the judicial nominations package, which as of now could only move as early as 11 p.m.; a college sports bill that’s been teed up for a cloture vote; acting AG Todd Blanche’s teetering nomination; a Russia sanctions bill the GOP doesn’t want to lose momentum on; a crypto regulatory framework that could be a necessary up-or-down vote ahead of the midterms (and which GOP leaders wanted to get done before recess); the never-ending SAVE America Act saga and the budget resolution some senators are still hoping for. It’s three weeks of work GOP leadership is trying to cram in. Punctuating the stakes is VP JD Vance’s presence at today’s Senate GOP lunch, where he was expected to press on a number of these fronts as the White House also looks to the Senate to bank a few wins before leaving. GOP leaders are preparing to stay until late next week, if necessary, per the source familiar. The time agreement is still in the works, and it likely won’t land until it suddenly does. Yet any foot-dragging on the laundry list of agenda items also comes with the inherent risk that more time in session creates more time for eleventh-hour problems — which could spiral for vulnerable Republicans. Or, as Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) put it: “I just know if you fool around long enough, you run the risk of losing your votes.” Good Thursday afternoon. This is Ali Bianco. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Send me your tips at abianco@politico.com. |
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7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW |
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1. OH SNAP: “Senate Republicans’ farm bill fails over SNAP stalemate,” by POLITICO’s Grace Yarrow: “Senate Agriculture Committee Democrats rejected a GOP-led farm bill Thursday in a vote that highlights deep partisan divisions over nutrition aid cuts and leaves Congress without a clear path toward reauthorizing the long-overdue bill. Chair John Boozman recessed the panel indefinitely after the 10-11 vote, meaning that he can call members back to revisit the bill at any point, including in September after the chamber’s August break.” 2. FLOGGING FAUCI: Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee voted this morning to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about his role during the pandemic during a public hearing last week, POLITICO’s Robert King and Sophie Gardner report. But the future of the effort to punish Fauci faces a complicated path forward: Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wants to skip a full Senate vote and ask the Justice Department to prosecute Fauci. Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the panel, warned the contempt push could weaken the committee’s ability to conduct investigations as future witnesses may skip testifying for fear of a contempt resolution. 3. IRAN LATEST: The wait continues for a finalized agreement between Iran and Oman that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said yesterday “an understanding in principle has been reached” but nothing has been formally announced, per Bloomberg. Behind closed doors, Iran is pushing Gulf states to help convince Trump to end the strikes against Iran, or Tehran will hit their energy infrastructure if the states don’t cooperate, Reuters’ Parisa Hafezi and Samia Nakhoul scoop. Now five months in, more Americans expect the war to slip toward chaos than bring stability, per the latest Reuters poll. |
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Pete Buttigieg talks AI wealth, 2028 and Democrats’ next chapter In the latest episode of On the Road, Jonathan Martin sits down with Pete Buttigieg in Traverse City for a conversation on the future of the Democratic Party, the Michigan Senate race, economic inequality and why Buttigieg says the next era of American politics will require bigger ideas.
Watch now. |
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4. TODAY IN TENNESSEE: Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) could be the second Trump-endorsed Republican just this week to lose his primary, as he faces his most competitive reelection race yet, POLITICO’s Andrew Howard reports. The state’s 5th District is only redder after redistricting, but Ogles has been slammed by $2 million in advertising from renewable energy backers and a strong challenge by former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher. Ogles said in a statement he’s “being targeted by left-wing liberals from California because I am one of President Trump’s closest allies.” Eyes on Iowa: Recent Emerson College polling has Democrat Rob Sand leading Republican Zach Lahn in Iowa’s gubernatorial race by five percentage points, 48 percent to 43 percent. And the Senate matchup finds a close race between GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson and Democrat Josh Turek, with Hinson leading by three percentage points, 48 percent to 45 percent, falling within the poll’s margin of error. Mikie drop: New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill is endorsing her first slate of candidates, throwing her PAC’s support behind 13, including Rep. Seth Moulton, who’s mounting a primary challenge to Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), CBS’ Fin Gómez and Joe Walsh scoop. 5. 2028 WATCH: “Trump privately tells donors to back Vance while publicly keeping 2028 open,” by WaPo’s Natalie Allison and Isaac Arnsdorf: “Trump recently told donors in private that he wants to see his vice president win the 2028 presidential election — a sign that he is open to publicly backing JD Vance … An adviser to the president with direct knowledge of Trump’s comment to the donors said that Trump has privately resolved that Vance will be the heir to the GOP, but that it is ‘too early’ to determine when Vance will announce his candidacy or when Trump will publicly endorse him. Six other Trumpworld advisers and allies, however, cautioned that they aren’t convinced the president has settled on Vance.” 6. THE NEXT LEFT: The Democratic establishment now has to fight its way through a wilderness within its own party — after repeated defeats amid a surge of progressives that reached its pinnacle with Abdul El-Sayed’s victory on Tuesday. In response, Third Way, the centrist think tank, is launching a new $15 million effort to discredit Democratic socialism and keep moderates at the center (no pun intended) of 2028, NYT’s Shane Goldmacher scoops. Instead of targeting specific candidates, the group is planning to go after DSA directly. The party’s progressive flank is instead trying to use the recess to push the party to lean into economic populism and fight corporate interests, per Semafor’s Burgess Everett. 7. THE EPSTEIN SAGA: “Congressional probe promised answers on Epstein. A year later, frustrations are mounting,” by CNN’s Annie Grayer: “A year later, the probe has kept [Jeffrey Epstein] in the headlines, but its parade of high-profile witnesses has failed to produce the kind of revelations many lawmakers and Epstein survivors had hoped for. … That gap between expectations and results is now a central point of tension hanging over House Oversight Chairman James Comer’s probe … [Comer] told CNN that he is ‘very confident’ the Justice Department will have no choice but to reopen its Epstein investigation after his committee sends prosecutors a ‘to-do list’ later this year.” “But interviews with more than a dozen lawmakers and sources involved with the probe paint a much more complicated picture … frustrations are boiling over— not just among Democratic committee members, but their Republican colleagues, who are increasingly voicing concern over what the probe has achieved.” |
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TALK OF THE TOWN |
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TOP TALKER — NYT’s Annie Karni dishes on how she ended up oversharing about her divorce, and the cast of political characters who offered her advice, in a must-read personal essay in Vogue. The highlight is Karni’s interaction with Steve Bannon, who delivered an emphatic bit of encouragement: “You’re Annie fucking Karni,” Bannon told her. “Come on, girl.” Later, Karni writes: “When I saw Bannon later that summer, I admitted to him that his ‘first name fucking last name’ pep talk had been as effective as any I’d received. He said I looked happier. And he warned me it was still no time to be giving my heart away to anybody new. (Steve Bannon, relationship counselor. The world is full of surprises.)” She goes on to detail interactions with Chuck Schumer, Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert and Anna Paulina Luna. BOOK REPORT — Thom Tillis is releasing a book with Harper Collins, and the retiring North Carolina senator has chosen an apt title: “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents” (yes, really). It’ll explore the group of “grifting sycophants and useful idiots” in the second Trump administration, and he’s naming names in the book. It drops Oct. 6 — less than a month before the midterms. More from POLITICO’s Cheyanne Daniels PIRRO PROBLEMS — U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro may still be in troubled waters as more people in the administration are privately raising concerns about her work, and with Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro publicly criticizing her yesterday, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott scoops. “At a time when she needs allies, after a year in the position, she’s treated too many people like she did Doug Burgum,” one person close to the president told Semafor. OUT AND ABOUT — MS NOW President Rebecca Kutler hosted a lunch to toast to Peter Alexander and his new show State of Play with Peter Alexander ahead of the debut on Monday, August 10 at 11 a.m. at a lunch at Le Diplomate. SPOTTED: Peter Alexander, Rebecca Kutler, Kaitlin Collins, Eugene Daniels, Kristen Welker, Jackie Alemany, Kelly O’Donnell, Michael Steele, Andrea Mitchell, Vaughn Hillyard, Luke Russert, Sudeep Reddy, Shawna Thomas, Greg Kordick, Casey Dolan, Richard Hudock, Kate Farrell, Alison Alexander, Rachel Adler, Jess Kurdali, Joya Manasseh and Sandi Cohen. — SPOTTED at a party hosted yesterday by Mary Jacoby, Steve Rochlin, Makario Sarsozo and Nihal Krishan for Will Hackman’s new book, “Radically Reframing Climate Change: A Guide To Saving Ourselves” ($23.21) at Jacoby's Chevy Chase home: Michael Isikoff and Mary Ann Akers, Eric London, Christina Sevilla, Blake Hestir, Michael Svoboda, Jeannie Baumann, Michelle Lapinski, Mala Persaud, Ashwani Jain and Kristin Thomas, Susie Jacoby and Prachi Patel. MEDIA MOVES — Ben Conarck has joined WaPo as a local reporter covering crime, policing and the broader criminal justice system. He previously worked at the Baltimore Banner. 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 Giuseppe Macri and deputy editor Garrett Ross. |
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