Today’s Notice: A word everyone can agree on; a meaning, actually, no one can agree on. The White House is calling, but fiscal hawks are not picking up. The view from a pharmacist. Probably the weirdest job interview in Washington. And: “Next cycle, we’re the diaper.”
Correction: Our February 12 edition misattributed Sen. Todd Young’s comments on DOGE’s anticipated focus on the Pentagon.
Who Will Disrupt Washington’s Disruptors?
Disruption is not a new word in Washington.
A wave of frustration against the so-called swamp swept Donald Trump into the White House in 2016. Railing against the “deep state” ushered him back to D.C. for Round 2. And disruption, of course, is not new in Elon Musk’s tech world, where the word is often the ultimate compliment.
But these days — as the Trump administration overhauls the executive branch, overrides the legislative and threatens to overrule the judicial — “disruption” is the magic word on Capitol Hill. It’s a catchall for every manner of shake-up or sin, depending on a lawmaker’s party affiliation.
“We promised to reduce the size and scope of government, and there’s been so much action on that that it’s caused controversy,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters last month after a federal judge paused the Office of Management and Budget’s attempted federal aid freeze.
“That’s a good thing,” he said. “We’re disrupting.”
“Real innovation isn’t clean and tidy; it’s necessarily disruptive and messy,” Oversight Chair James Comer said as Democrats tried to subpoena Musk last week. “But that’s exactly what Washington needs right now.”
“He’s got a disruptive style that’s ultimately going to make us a lot stronger,” Rep. Dusty Johnson told reporters of Musk in December.
The word has become the rhetorical battleground for Washington’s latest partisan feuds as Republicans insist upending the status quo is the only way to fix Washington’s spending addiction. Democrats counter that Trump isn’t fixing D.C.; he’s just breaking it more.
“If they think that they were elected to make disruption, then they should ride that out through the 2026 elections,” Rep. Jamie Raskin told NOTUS.
Inside the White House’s Reconciliation Whip Operation
When Johnson’s grip on the speaker’s gavel looked tenuous last month, Trump delivered a personal pep talk to two conservative holdouts. They folded within an hour.
A call from the White House seemed like a key ingredient to govern with a paper-thin House majority. NOTUS’ Reese Gorman reports that the White House is deploying a similar approach to build consensus behind Budget Chair Jodey Arrington’s reconciliation framework ahead of his panel’s markup today.
Staffers with the Office of Legislative Affairs have been calling Republican lawmakers to gauge their support. Apparently, it’s not going so well.
Rep. Ralph Norman, who said he received a call, described the budget resolution as insufficient. He said the cuts detailed in Arrington’s framework — which includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts and a debt ceiling hike of $4 trillion — were a “teardrop in the ocean.”
Front Page
- How Todd Blanche Tried to Woo Democrats at His DOJ Confirmation Hearing: The president’s personal defense lawyer could become deputy attorney general.
- ‘Elon Musk, Elon Musk, Elon Musk’: Democrats Go After a Common Enemy During DOGE’s First Hearing: Democrats tried to make a mockery out of Musk and the first hearing of the DOGE subcommittee. For Republicans, it was no laughing matter.
- RFK Jr. Is on the Precipice of Leading the U.S. Health System: The Senate voted on party lines to advance the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Medical Research Upended (Again)
Some hospitals are facing dire financial straits after an executive order from Trump that threatens all research grants for all hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to people under 19.
Given the vague nature of Trump’s orders, health care providers are scrambling to provide care without triggering alarm bells in the White House. Even hospitals in states where gender-affirming care is legal are responding to the threat of financial ruin. The order could create yet another significant ripple in medical research, as Trump continues to target the NIH.
“They’re trying to toe the line because if we are found violating the executive order and we lost federal funding, we go under,” one pharmacist told NOTUS’ Oriana González and Margaret Manto.
So What Would You Say You Do Here?
Trump’s nominee to lead the Dept. of Education, Linda McMahon, will sit for her first Senate confirmation hearing today. Democrats tell NOTUS’ Violet Jira they intend to ask her, you know, how long until she’ll be firing herself.
“When I talked to her one-on-one, I asked her, ‘Is what happened at USAID going to happen at the Department of Education?’ And she said it’s not going to be exactly that way. She said very extensive cuts in personnel, as well as transfers to other departments,” Sen. Andy Kim told Violet. “And I just need to drill in on that.”
Quotable: Can’t Find a Fetterman
“The dude has the job, so it’s all virtue signaling and making a statement,” Sen. John Fetterman told reporters after voting against advancing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation. “We will not like some of these things, but that honestly reminds you that we still have a democracy. The Constitution hasn’t just been shredded. Everybody can just realize that’s how D.C. works. Sometimes, one cycle, we’re the baby. Next cycle, we’re the diaper.”
Fetterman was widely regarded as the most RFK-curious Democratic senator, meeting with the Health and Human Services nominee and visiting Trump at Mar-a-Lago to discuss the president’s cabinet picks. Ultimately, Fetterman wasn’t any help to the former Democrat.
Number You Should Know
1,826
Since 2007, the Senate Ethics Committee has received 1,826 complaints and issued “disciplinary sanctions” zero times. That’s an astonishing 0-for-1,826, with 158 complaints from just last year, according to a new committee report reviewed by Dave Levinthal for NOTUS.
Not Us
We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.
- ‘Anxiety provoking’: Government workers describe their DOGE interviews by Danny Nguyen for Politico
- Trump promised no new pennies — here’s how that would work by María Luisa Paúl for The Washington Post
- In the family business of foreign policy, Donald Trump Jr. displaces Jared Kushner by Ben Smith for Semafor
Be Social
In other Democratic messaging news…
https://t.co/bPOQ5fBNfc pic.twitter.com/zXuAYS0Og6
— Rosa DeLauro (@rosadelauro) February 12, 2025
Tell Us Your Thoughts
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