Long Lines and No Deal

Good afternoon. This is the Final NOTUS newsletter for March 25, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here — it’s free!

THE LATEST

It remains an ‘open question’ whether lawmakers will take their scheduled recess next week, John Thune said today. A potential deal to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security — except for immigration enforcement — is hanging by a thread, though the Senate majority leader insisted that the framework is still the “best landing spot.”

• Democrats sent over a counteroffer today, which includes measures to rein in ICE.
  
• “The offer that the Democrats sent over is not a good faith offer,” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins told reporters. “I don’t know where we go from here.”
  

What would break the impasse? “A couple more shootings or the [airport] lines to get even longer,” a senior Republican House member told Fox.

Cracks forming? After leaving a briefing on the war with Iran, House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers, a reliable defense hawk, knocked the Trump administration for keeping lawmakers in the dark.

• “We want to know more about what’s going on,” a frustrated Rogers told reporters, signaling that he and other Republicans could pull their backing for the conflict. “I conveyed to them at the end of this hearing, this has consequences if you don’t remedy it.”
  
• He wasn’t the only one: “Let me put it this way: I can see why he might have said that,” Roger Wicker, Rogers’ Senate counterpart, told Politico.
  

Iranian state-run Press TV reports that senior government officials rejected Trump’s proposed peace deal today. “And we do not plan on any negotiations,” the country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, added during an appearance on the network.

• The U.S., through Pakistan, submitted a 15-point ceasefire plan — though Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing that reports on the plan were “not entirely factual” and only contained “elements of truth.”
  
• Iran later broadcast its own five-point plan, including reparations, no more killings of government officials and “sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.”

THE HILL

Ruben Gallego wants to give DHS workers a bonus when the agency reopens. The Democratic senator from Arizona is proposing a bill that would give a 10% payout to essential employees who have been forced to work without pay during the partial shutdown.

• White House officials turned down an offer from Elon Musk to pay TSA workers, CBS News reported.
  

House progressives are balking at the Trump administration’s reported $200 billion request for funds to bankroll the war with Iran. The early opposition suggests the funding fight, which is one of the clearest ways Congress can assert control over the conflict, could become a major test of Democratic unity.

• “Not one more cent for this reckless, illegal war,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar said at a press conference.

THE ADMINISTRATION

The CDC’s acting director, Jay Bhattacharya, said he has plenty of “scientific” disagreements with his boss, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

• “Do we agree on every single item? No,” Bhattacharya said of Kennedy during an internal Q&A session, according to audio obtained by NOTUS’ Margaret Manto. He added, “We may have disagreements about scientific matters, but he listens.”
  

The Trump administration is extending the sale of a gasoline blend in an effort to keep prices down through the spring and summer months. The blend, which contains higher ethanol, typically isn’t sold in most states through the summer due to federal air-pollution requirements.

• “EPA is working with our federal partners to reduce unnecessary costs and uncertainty and ensure that gas prices remain affordable for all Americans through the summer,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement Wednesday.
  

Entire airports may soon be forced to close, the acting administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, Ha Nguyen McNeill, warned. More than 480 TSA officers have quit since the DHS shutdown began.

THEY’RE JUST LIKE US!

Thank you for reading! Today’s newsletter was produced by Kelly Poe and Andrew Burton. If you liked it, please forward it to a friend. If someone shared it with you, please subscribe — it’s free! Got a tip or comments to share? Email us at finalnotus@notus.com.