Today’s notice: Republicans push the rules. A reconciliation drama update. A loophole stays open. And sleepy lawmakers.
This edition is written by Evan McMorris-Santoro and Samuel Larreal.
How Far Are Republicans Willing to Push the Rules?
You knew eventually we’d get to the parliamentarian. It’s not Byrd bath time for the reconciliation bill yet, but as NOTUS’ Ursula Perano and Helen Huiskes report, a fight with the parliamentarian is arriving for the three-vote majority Senate GOP that will show us how willing Republicans are to bend the rules.
This fight comes as Republicans attempt to use the Congressional Review Act to fulfill one of Donald Trump’s key promises to end California’s ability to set its own vehicle emissions standards. The parliamentarian says that’s not something the CRA can do. A growing number of Republicans appear willing to decide that ruling has no meaning.
There is an extremely complex regulatory and statutory backstory to all this, which the NOTUS team neatly details. But the broad strokes are this: If the Senate GOP decides the parliamentarian doesn’t matter this time, there’s nothing stopping them from saying so again and again.
Democrats have been in this position before, with activists pushing them to ignore the parliamentarian. Senate inertia has always won out. “They should just follow the rules,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto told us. “If Democrats are doing it, they should also follow the rules.”
Helen and Ursula note how some of that power is being felt in the CRA fight already: Majority Leader John Thune “said he would oppose overruling the parliamentarian on reconciliation” if it comes to it and Sen. Thom Tillis doesn’t think casting the ruling aside on the CRA means anything for reconciliation. But Thune’s predecessor, Sen. Mitch McConnell, is reportedly on board with breaking tradition on this. And other institutionalists have yet to say what they’ll do. How it ends could have broad implications for a lot of things.
—Evan McMorris-Santoro and Samuel Larreal | Read the story.
Trump’s Judicial Trial Balloon
Court observers have said for months that Trump’s efforts to unilaterally end birthright citizenship guaranteed under the 14th Amendment is one of the clearest cases of unconstitutional power that will eventually be knocked down by the Supreme Court.
But today’s court arguments are likely going to be focused on a more complicated topic where predictions are more mixed: whether a number of federal judges who temporarily stopped Trump’s birthright executive order actually have the power to issue rulings that apply outside their districts. Republicans have railed against this under Trump 2.0, with some proposing legislation that would prevent federal district judges from issuing nationwide rulings.
Plaintiffs in the birthright citizenship cases warn such a move would undercut checks and balances and lead to legal chaos, according to a statement from Democratic State Attorneys General. “A child could be born in a non-plaintiff state, be deemed not to be a U.S. citizen, and then move to a plaintiff state, meaning they would be ineligible for federally funded programs and be forced to rely instead on state-funded programs and still harm the plaintiff state, despite a block on the policy there,” they said.
—Evan McMorris-Santoro
Not Us
We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Changed His Wife’s Flight to Avoid Newark Airport, by Matt Novak for Gizmodo
- White House eased China tariffs after warnings of harm to ‘Trump’s people’, by Jeff Stein, Natalie Allison and David J. Lynch for The Washington Post
- The Republican Trainwreck of the 2026 Election Cycle, by Ben Jacobs for Politico
- Federal Agents Arrest 189 in DC Immigration Crackdown, by Jessica Sidman for Washingtonian
Big, Beautiful Lawmaking
The latest on crafting the House reconciliation bill text:
- Republicans are pushing for a change to SNAP work requirements that would only offer exemptions to recipients who have dependents under the age of 7 (it’s currently 18). NOTUS’ Nuha Dolby reports on a raucous partisan argument over the provision, with Democrats calling it cruel and Republicans calling it practical. “The concept that’s being lost here is that if all your children are 7 years or older, they’re in school for about seven hours per day, five days a week, generally in round numbers,” Rep. Doug LaMalfa told NOTUS. “So it’s 35 hours a week, that will give the parent or parents time to do something outside the home.”
- Meanwhile, a blue-state Republican push to make more people eligible for the SALT tax benefit is continuing to be a struggle, NOTUS’ Shifra Dayak reports. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis broke with the SALT caucus and backed leadership’s plan to set the SALT cap at $30,000 for many households. “Everything’s fine,” she told NOTUS. “We’re going in the same direction here, and I think that everybody’s just, everybody’s frustrated.”
- And multiple GOP groups are still digging in their heels over Medicaid cuts. The most vocal in the House at the moment are conservatives, NOTUS’ Hill team reports. They don’t like provisions that wait until 2029 to kick in new work requirements for Medicaid recipients. “If it’s good enough in four years, why isn’t it good enough now?” Rep. Ralph Norman told NOTUS.
Read about SNAP. | Read about SALT. | Read about Medicaid.
Reconciliation Vibe Check: Exhausted
A lot of House members were up all night going into Wednesday, and let’s just say, we could tell. Members on the House’s Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees weren’t shy about sharing with NOTUS how they pushed through the fatigue, from matcha to getting a nudge from a colleague.
More Like Carrying On Interest
Add Trump to the list of presidents who have tried to close the carried interest loophole and, so far, failed. A fortune was spent on lobbying to convince reconciliation bill writers to leave the loophole, NOTUS’ Taylor Giorno reports, and early indications are that those efforts worked. “There was a lot of concerns about what it was going to do to the private equity industry,” Rep. Kevin Hern told Taylor.
The White House said it’s “expecting more negotiations will take place” and “declined to comment on whether Trump would call on the House to eliminate the loophole,” Taylor writes.
Front Page
- Trump Cuts Funding to Two Centers That Help Prepare Communities for Extreme Climate: NOAA’s Climate Adaptation Center in the Pacific Northwest worked with rural communities the Trump administration has repeatedly said it would support
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Tells Congress People Shouldn’t Look to Him for ‘Medical Advice’: The health secretary defended his sprawling cuts and changes to the Department of Health and Human Services at a House committee hearing.
- Democrats Demand Information About What the FAA Is Doing to Overhaul Flight Safety: The hearing with top aviation officials comes in the wake of staff cuts and flight safety concerns.
- A Measure to Defund Planned Parenthood Will Stay in the Reconciliation Bill: Some moderate Republicans are wary of the provision. Two vulnerable Republicans skipped an amendment vote addressing the issue altogether.
- What the Fight for Reparations Looks Like in the Trump Era: Several members plan to reintroduce racial justice legislation they hope will steer the movement forward.
Correction: This edition of the newsletter has been updated to accurately reflect Sen. Thom Tillis’ position on Republicans’ CRA efforts.
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