We Have a Situation (Room)

Today’s notice: Remember the longest government shutdown in American history? Us neither. The Epstein story is back. Chris Murphy says Democrats should be more alarmist. Roger Stone’s lobbying wins. And: Let’s talk about the weather… modification.

THE LATEST

Yes, the government is open. Have you heard the latest about the Epstein files? That’s how it feels every conversation is going ever since the newly-sworn in Rep. Adelita Grijalva locked in the discharge petition on the Epstein files Wednesday.

A vote on the discharge petition is expected to hit the House floor next week, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters.

“If it comes on the floor, I’m gonna vote for it,” Rep. Don Bacon told the NOTUS Hill team. He may be one of many Republicans who didn’t sign the discharge petition but will vote in favor of the bill it forces to the floor. Many House Republicans left the door open to supporting the legislation, even if they would not back it on the record yesterday, the team reports.

On that list: James Comer, who declined to publicly oppose the bill even as he stated his Oversight Committee is already doing what the petition asks for (“and more,” he said).

Anyway, the government is open. The longest government shutdown has ended, and the next conversation about a shutdown begins right after everyone gets back after New Year’s — because the deal passed last night only keeps the lights on through Jan. 30.

Some highlights from the vote: Six Democrats voted for the Senate bill. The rest grumbled loudly about the eight Senate Democrats who cut the deal that made the House vote possible. Two Republicans voted against it.

Trying to keep the health care fight going: Democratic leadership is going to try another discharge petition to force a vote on ACA subsidies. It’s unlikely to happen, but Democrats hope to split the GOP on the issue.

Republicans laughed it off. “The only thing they got out of this 40-plus-day shutdown, causing the most food insecurity in the United States since the Great Depression: They changed the date on the CR,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden said.

But it was a very short victory lap: The House left town again immediately after the reopening vote. Next time they’re in Washington, it’ll be Epstein Day.

Open tabs: The Penny Dies at 232 (NYT); Catholic Bishops Speak Out Against Trump’s Immigration Crackdown (NOTUS); ICE Plans to Spend $180 Million on Bounty Hunters to Stalk Immigrants (404 Media); Bessent says tariff cuts on coffee coming soon (Politico)

From the White House

The resurgence of the Epstein files saga was clearly not welcomed by the administration or Trump, who accused the Democrats of playing politics to change the subject from the shutdown.

The White House’s efforts to pressure Republicans to remove their name from the discharge petition — playing phone tag with Rep. Nancy Mace and hosting Rep. Lauren Boebert in the Situation Room on Wednesday — went nowhere.

“I’m not going to detail conversations that took place in the Situation Room,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the briefing.

Two former Biden White House officials told NOTUS that it was “highly unusual” and “weird” for the Situation Room to be used for non-national security or classified issues. The White House did not respond.

“It’s just an easy SCIF to get to,” Boebert told NOTUS’ Manuela Silva last night when she asked why the meeting took place in a room reserved for high-profile national security issues. “I guess I’m pretty high profile.”

From the Hill

What Democratic leaders want to say after the shutdown: “I think that there is no division in our commitment to making sure we protect and deliver affordable health care for the American people,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark told NOTUS in Daniella Diaz and Ursula Perano’s latest report. “That’s the message of this Democratic Caucus.”

Oh, is it? “And for the people that say, you know, ‘We won the messaging war’ — to me, part of the problem is we think about things in terms of messaging and not in terms of results,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal said.

Back to work. Rep. Rosa DeLauro is making no assurances about how negotiations with Republicans will go over the remaining nine appropriations bills. “When we come to Jan. 30, we will see what progress has been made,” DeLauro said, telling reporters she’s looking for movement on health care.

At least someone’s feeling good. “This is the most confident I have been in our process since I’ve been here,” Republican Rep. Mark Alford said. Huh?

From the campaign trail

Catching up with Chris Murphy in New Hampshire. He spoke at a town hall at St. Anselm College last night and NOTUS’ Kate Nocera was there.

On running for president: “You know, I’ll be honest with you. I am not, in this sense: What a fool any of us would be planning to run in an election that may not happen.”

On the call for Chuck Schumer to step down: Murphy called it more of a family conversation “between the 47 of them” than anything else. “We have to be more united...that’s a question for the caucus and a question for our leadership as well.”

One quote that summed the evening up: “I had a colleague tell me I was being too alarmist. I don’t think the problem isn’t that we aren’t too alarmist, we’re not alarmist enough.”

NEW ON NOTUS

Roger Stone is a good lobbyist: The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe in Louisiana is one of the smallest tribes recognized by the federal government. NOTUS’ Taylor Giorno reports that over the past few months, tribal leaders have scored a visit from top Trump administration officials and a $10 million no-bid contract for construction work at the U.S. Embassy in Singapore.

It’s one of four clients that Drake Ventures, the lobbying firm launched by Stone as the second Trump administration got underway, is actively working with. The tribe paid the firm $250,000 from April to September.

Weather machine politics: Utah is a Republican state, and many of its Republican officials are fans of long-running weather modification programs that help with water supply in the state. Unfortunately for them, the MAHA movement does not like these programs, especially cloud seeding. And the movement has a powerful ally inside the Trump administration: “I’m going to do everything in my power to stop it,” RFK Jr. told Dr. Phil in April.

NOTUS’ Margaret Manto and reporter Addy Baird from our Washington Bureau Initiative partner The Salt Lake Tribune report on how the GOP’s changing politics around science is playing out in Western states.

More: Ex-Newsom Aide Accused of Siphoning Campaign Cash for Gucci Bags and Yacht Rentals, by Tyler Spence

Judge Orders Trump Administration to Release More Than 600 Immigrants Arrested Without Warrants, by Jackie Llanos

Former Democratic Congresswoman Plots a Comeback in Virginia, by Amelia Benavides-Colón

NOT US

• Meet the Republicans who killed solar subsidies — after using them, by Timothy Cama and Corbin Hiar
  
• Democrats’ Latest Long-Shot Senate Recruit: A Kentucky Horse Trainer, by Reid J. Epstein for The New York Times
  
• Inside the D.C. Sandwich Guy’s Jury Deliberations, by Ashley Parker for The Atlantic

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