"I don’t know why you’re holding a bill that’s ready for signature hostage over a bill that will never pass in this Congress. Makes no sense to me," Sen. Tillis told reporters Wednesday.

Trump said back in March that he would torpedo the bipartisan housing affordability law if it passed, unless legislators passed the deeply controversial SAVE America Act. Today, he's following through on that promise: talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-s...

President Trump says he is cancelling the housing bill signing until Congress passes the SAVE America Act. The Truth Social post comes literally while the House GOP leadership is on stage for their weekly presser touting the bill.

Senate just passed House's Iran war powers resolution 50-48. This is a largely symbolic rebuke of Trump's war in Iran but now both chambers have voted against the war. Rs in support: Cassidy, Collins, Murkowski, Paul D opposing: Fetterman Some GOP absences helped: McConnell & McCormick

Her latest tweet goes as far as saying Trump should veto the housing bill until SAVE America Act is attached to it.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is now threatening to vote "no" on rules and bills and shut down the House floor until Senate takes up/passes the SAVE America Act.

The SAVE America Act push is back on. Last week, Trump said he would not sign a FISA Section 702 extension without SAVE attached to it. Senate Rs don’t have the votes for this. But the bills biggest defenders are not backing down.

ICYMI: Some Senate Rs are not happy with the deal President Trump made with Iran

Following the postponed confirmation hearing, Jay Clayton's nomination as DNI seems to be in serious trouble. “I’ve never been asked to slow a nomination down before,” Thune said today in response to questions on if Clayton's nom is being withdrawn by the WH.

Tillis pops off on Trump cancelling Jay Clayton's hearing: "If somebody told the president exactly how Jay Clayton got the permanent position for US Attorney and exactly what this was likely to do to 702 reauthorization and he did it anyway, he made a colossal mistake."

Finally! talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trumps-...

A Senate hearing to start the process of confirming Trump’s pick to be the DNI went up in flames early morning after a predictably lengthy social media post from the president himself. Sen. Cotton was forced to postpone the hearing to "the near future" after Trump directed Clayton to not show up.

Hal Duncan’s responses did not inspire much confidence that, if confirmed, he’d try to stop the Trump administration from undermining the legislative branch’s power of the purse.

House just passed the GOP reconciliation bill in a party-line vote, 214-212, effectively funding ICE and Border Patrol until the end of Trump's term. The Senate passed the same bill last week, following an 18-hour vote-a-rama.

The letter Senate Dems were preparing to push back on the Trump admins legal justification that the Iran war was "terminated" is out. Sens. Schiff and Kaine (leading the effort) plus 36 other Senate Dems, including Schumer, in support of the letter. www.schiff.senate.gov/wp-content/u...

Some takeaways on the Senate GOP reconciliation package: 1. Republicans yelled about Trump/DOJ "anti-weaponization" slush fund. Left town because of it without passing reconciliation two weeks ago. Just to come back and be convinced that the fund is dead because Blanche told them it is.

Republican senators feigned that they had finally put their feet down and were standing up to Trump, but it was all for show

Vote fails 15-84. Rs voting in favor: Cassidy, Collins, Cornyn, Curtis, Husted, Moran, Murkowski, Rounds, Sullivan, Tillis & Young Dems voting in favor: Cortez Masto, Hassan & Klobuchar

Tillis amendment to prohibit federal funds from being used for the anti-weaponization fund is on the floor. So far, there is bipartisan opposition to it.

As the vote-a-rama continues here is a big picture look into what the passage of this reconciliation bill would mean

Schumer amendments fails in a 49-50 vote. Rs voting in favor: Collins, Husted and Sullivan

From the R's we have been waiting on: Cassidy - no Sullivan - yes Husted - yes

Happy vote-a-rama day! The first vote-a-rama vote has been open for quite some time now. It's Minority Leader Schumer's amendment to send the bill back to committee and add a provision barring Trump's anti-weaponization fund. Several R's have still not voted.

House passed their Iran war powers resolution. The vote was 215-208. 4 GOP votes in support of it: Massie, Barrett, Davidson and Fitzpatrick. It's largely a statement against the president's war. The resolution won't be binding unless Senate passed the same, sent it to Trump and he didn't veto it.

a "scooplet" from Emine, as they say in the biz

NEWS: TPM obtained and reviewed an early draft of Senate Democrats’ letter pushing back on the Trump administration's legal justification that a so-called ceasefire with Iran stopped the 60-day clock on the War Powers Resolution.

For Trump, Massie was perhaps the biggest target of all.

Senate advanced a Iran war powers resolution today in a 50-47 vote after 4 Senate Rs joined Senate Dems in supporting to discharge the resolution from committee. Sen. Bill Cassidy changed his vote on the issue, marking the first time he voted in support of advancing it.

“He can just make up a lawsuit — it doesn’t have to be anything that would survive in court because he simply orders his Justice Department to settle it," David Super told me. "He can build the ballroom this way, he can build his triumphal arch this way, he can fund the Iran war this way.”

Trump-backed Rep. Julie Letlow and Louisiana state treasurer/former congressman John Fleming are set to face off in a runoff scheduled for June 27.

Senate parliamentarian ruled the ballroom provision language in GOP’s reconciliation bill violates the Byrd Rule. Senate Republicans can tweak the language and come back with a reworked text but will have to limit to the use of the money in order to avoid it being subject to the filibuster.

Adding Sen. Lisa Murkowski to the list. She just voted for the first time in favor of the war powers resolution, joining Dems. Collins and Paul also voted YES as they have before.

Senate Dems are expected to force another war powers vote today. This will be the first one since the conflict passed the 60-day mark. Last time they voted on this issue, Sen. Susan Collins shifted her stance and voted with Dems. First Republican senator to shift their vote on the issue.

W/ @emineirmakyucel.bsky.social: A deep look into how foreign aid has become yet another tool for mass deportations talkingpointsmemo.com/news/how-the...

Earlier this month, the White House told Congress that as far as it was concerned, the war had been “terminated” by the ceasefire.

The White House sent Congress a letter today laying out its view that the 60-day clock on the War Powers Resolution for the Iran war is suspended.

David Super, a professor at the Georgetown Law School, called the administration’s argument “absurd.” Through the naval blockade, the White House is still using the military for the purposes of the law.

As we near the 60-day deadline, Sen. Susan Collins shifted her stance on the Iran war on Thursday and joined Senate Dems in voting to end the conflict. She is the first Republican to change her vote on the War Powers Resolutions Dems have been forcing votes on.

“Once we pass the 60–day point without any approval from Congress, then this will be an indisputably illegal action," law professor David Super told TPM. Latest from me and @joshkovensky.bsky.social :

DoD officials, who are testifying in front of the House Armed Services Comm today, say the cost of the Iran war to date totals approximately $25 billion.

Senate Dems Accuse Admin of ‘Impoundment’ Over USAID Funds

As reporters on Saturday night were waiting for Trump to give a press conference from the briefing room following the White House Correspondents’ Dinner attack, a unified message began percolating online among elected Republicans and other influential right-wingers: This is why we need the ballroom.

We got you covered with the latest details on the shooting at tonight’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where President Trump was in attendance. talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/tr...

Great new stat from @senatebudget.bsky.social: of the $140 billion that Trump & Republicans gave ICE & CBP in the Big Beautiful Bill, $103 billion is still unobligated as of the end of March. Now they’re asking for another $70 billion even though about 75% of the OBBBA money still remains unused.

That line, and his refusal to acknowledge the historic Medicaid cuts Republicans enacted in last year’s reconciliation bill was one of the few things that stayed consistent over the hours and hours of testimony he gave on Capitol Hill this week. More from @emineirmakyucel.bsky.social here:

Budget resolution is out. Senate Budget Comm's budget resolution instructs Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Comms individually not to spend more than $70 billion over 10 years. As expected it will fund ICE and CBP.

The budget resolution is out: www.budget.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

Vought claimed that a part of his office’s job is to make sure “money is well spent" and “is consistent with our agenda."

While congressional Republicans have done a lot to help erode Congress’ power as a check on the executive branch during Trump II, Vought has made their authority-ceding easy. More from @emineirmakyucel.bsky.social in tonight's edition of Where Things Stand:

Republican lawmakers are struggling to come to a consensus on what should be included in their own party-line package.