The Big, Beautiful Bill Turns Ugly: At least that’s how House conservatives see it.
“Now it’s turning into Frankenstein,” Rep. Andy Ogles said of the so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill” Act. “It’s not big and beautiful anymore.”
Tensions are high as Republicans face a lot of the same problems as before, with even less time to solve them (that is, if we’re going by President Donald Trump’s July 4 deadline.)
The parliamentarian is doing her work. And Republicans aren’t liking it. Among the nixed provisions were proposals to cut the Medicaid provider tax, revoke program eligibility for some noncitizens, ban the use of Medicaid funds for gender-affirming medical care and language to restrict the coverage of abortions in some Affordable Care Act plans.
“That’s a big problem,” Sen. Ron Johnson said of the ruling on cost savings. “That’s a big old grenade.”
Meanwhile, the SALT Caucus isn’t buying what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is selling. Still in an intractable fight with the Senate, which wants to restrict the state and local deduction, blue-state House Republicans met with Bessent to talk a path forward, and left saying “no.”
“I’m not even going to go to any of their future fake negotiations,” Rep. Nick LaLota told reporters of possible subsequent meetings.
The sale of public lands didn’t sell, either. “We’ve got the votes to strike it if we need to,” Sen. Steve Daines said of a provision to sell vast swaths of federal land championed by Sen. Mike Lee.
Open Tabs: ICE Plans to Send Abrego Garcia to an Unnamed Nation (NOTUS); How the stock market made it back to a new record (CNBC); Kennedy’s advisers endorse flu vaccines with exceptions (AP); Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s Venice wedding facts and figures (Reuters)
From the Hill
Consensus on the Iran strike remains obliterated: Senators did not speak with one voice after the classified briefing led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth yesterday. Democrats were skeptical of the administration’s claims that Iranian nuclear capacity was “obliterated.”
Republicans were, in general, ready to believe the administration. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime Iran hawk, remained dubious that diplomatic efforts the admin is pushing would result in much. “You’re not going to get religious Nazis to give up their nuclear ambitions by talking to them,” he told the NOTUS Hill team. “You have to weaken them. You have to put them on their knees.”
From the White House
What will Trump do about the NYC mayor’s race? The president got somewhat close to Eric Adams recently — will he endorse the embattled incumbent as he faces likely Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani in the general? “It’s a tough call,” a source familiar with the president’s thinking told NOTUS’ Jasmine Wright on Thursday.
Team Trump may wait to see how the field develops before deciding what to do — Jasmine’s source mentioned other candidates might leave or get into the race (the New York Post reported that GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa is facing pressure to drop out, and CNN says former Gov. Andrew Cuomo may stay in, after all). The source didn’t know if Adams has reached out, and added that Trump “hasn’t mentioned an endorsement” to them during the busy 48 hours since polls closed in the president’s native city.
The source said the White House sees Adams as the person in the race who they could truly work with, particularly on immigration. Asked if Trump considers Adams a friend, the source said, “They know each other.”
THE BIG ONE
What Happened to the National Security Council? Trump has the fewest NSC staffers in decades. Jasmine and NOTUS’ Violet Jira and John T. Seward report on the effects of that decision.
The risk: “This means that there’s big information gaps,” one person familiar with the NSC’s internal functions and in communication with current staff told NOTUS. “The president’s decision-making here is only partially informed by the professional cadre that monitors, tracks, has worked on these issues and has the institutional knowledge.”
Talk about a rough first week at work: Wayne Wall, the NSC’s newly appointed senior director of Middle East policy, was in his role for just days before the U.S. military struck three nuclear sites in Iran, one source tells NOTUS.
For context… Hegseth told reporters that planning for the strike took “months and weeks of positioning and preparation” to be ready when Trump made the order.
The NSC also no longer has a spokesperson who is only focused on NSC-related issues: “You’re shooting yourself in the foot from a communications perspective,” Sean Savett, the former spokesperson for the NSC under Joe Biden, told NOTUS.
The council is restaffing, but the White House is also making the case that small is actually good.
“What happens when you have too many cooks in the kitchen is that you get redundant or conflicting foreign policy. We want to make sure all foreign policy aligns with the president’s agenda,” a White House official told NOTUS.
NEW ON NOTUS
Lobbying the Senate Parliamentarian: Lobbyists won’t be able to meet with Elizabeth MacDonough directly, as the powerful staffer’s door is fully closed to them. So they try to lobby the arguments senators make to MacDonough. “A large part of the role we play is helping educate the staff and give them the ammunition to make the best arguments to their boss,” Rich Gold, a partner at Holland & Knight, told NOTUS.
‘Make Oklahoma Healthy Again’: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Gov. Kevin Stitt launched a state level MAHA campaign with an order to “immediately cease any state-level promotion or endorsement of fluoridation of the public water supply” and ban the use of artificial dyes in meals the state’s agencies pay for.
Bye-Bye Hurricane-Tracking Satellites: The Department of Defense abruptly shut down satellites that could be central to tracking hurricanes this season. “This particular one is going to result in delays in the recognition from [the National Hurricane Center] that storms are strengthening,” ex-NHC chief James Franklin told NOTUS’ Claire Heddles and Emily Kennard.
The Medicaid Ads Are Coming: One Democratic strategist told NOTUS he has been advising clients to make health care messaging the lion’s share of their ad budget ahead of 2026. Others are urging clients to keep Medicaid at the top of voters’ minds. But some strategists warn the strategy requires keeping the focus on individual stories of impact, rather than politicians talking about them.
More: Elissa Slotkin Lays Out a ‘New Vision’ for Centrist Democrats After Zohran Mamdani’s Shocking Win; Democrats Want to Probe Republican Fundraising Platform WinRed; Supreme Court Will Allow States to Defund Planned Parenthood
NOT US
- Can Zohran Mamdani’s Agenda Survive Albany? By Sam Mellins, Julia Rock and Colin Kinniburgh for New York Focus
- A Running List of Policies Rejected From the Republican Megabill, by Alicia Parlapiano for The New York Times
- Thousands of LGBTQ+ veterans were supposed to get pardons. A year later, only four have succeeded, by Leah Rosenbaum for The War Horse
- China Is Still Choking Exports of Rare Earths Despite Pact With U.S., by Jon Emont for The Wall Street Journal
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