.Senator Tina Smith to Anthony Adragna just now in passing: “King of the follow-up question! ‘Should you start!?!’”

👀 Norman tells me he’s not sure if he’ll vote for the rule on the supp package in Rules anymore. Had said so far this week that he would.

“I don’t know. This is very upsetting. And I don’t understand it”

Imagine showing this to someone from the 1980s

Congrats to my brilliant spouse David Kihara on his promotion to national editor at POLITICO!

Congressional leaders roll out final $1.2T funding package ahead of Saturday shutdown deadline politico.com/live-updates/2… via Caitlin Emma Jennifer Scholtes

NEW: Pressure is mounting on Mike Johnson to move on Ukraine aid.

There are bipartisan efforts to force a vote as Kyiv runs out of ammo. But Johnson says the government must be funded first, and a coming recess would delay it to mid-April.

w/Jennifer Scholtes politico.com/news/2024/03/1…

This weekend: Release of six appropriations bills
March 5: Super Tuesday
March 7: SOTU
March 8: Gov't funding deadline
March 10: Clocks spring forward
March 11: President's FY25 budget
March 22: Gov't funding deadline

Get ready to be exhausted!!

💰House Appropriations musical chairs💸
- Tom Cole is running for chairman next Congress, says he'll push other chairs to take action on entitlements
- Ken Calvert wants a term-limit waiver as Defense cardinal; others wait in the wings

news.bgov.com/bloomberg-gove…

It's official — congressional leaders have reached a funding deal on half a dozen annual spending bills alongside a stopgap that pushes two shutdown deadlines later into March: politico.com/live-updates/2…

w/ Jennifer Scholtes Olivia Beavers

One GOP member about the conference call:

“This is pointless.”

The government funding fight is about to flare again.

Where things stand, with both chambers headed for recess and two weeks until the first deadline, w/ ⁦Jennifer Scholtes⁩ politico.com/news/2024/02/1…

House conservatives want the speaker to fight —and win — on anti-abortion policy in the 12 funding bills they need to close out before the next shutdown deadline. Alice Miranda Ollstein + Meredith Lee Hill explain the angst, after talking to a TON of lawmakers politico.com/news/2024/01/1…

Policy special by John Hendel: 22 million households are expected to lose internet subsidies this spring, if Congress doesn't act. $17.4B has been spent on the pandemic-era program, created in 2020. But it has no long-term funding mechanism politico.com/news/2024/01/0…

GOP hardliners learn to love the Biden-McCarthy debt deal — as a weapon against Dems.

w/Jennifer Scholtes politi.co/3tfC3g0

“It’s clear where we are,” said Sen. Kennedy “My Democratic colleagues are waiting for [President] Biden to give them cover so they can decide what to do to make changes' to border policy

politico.com/news/2023/12/1…

🇺🇸 US BUDGET WATCH: #Debt and #Deficits have been mentioned 35 times in the first four #GOPDebates :

➡️ Nikki Haley: 10
➡️ Vivek Ramaswamy: 9
➡️ Chris Christie: 8
➡️ Ron DeSantis: 3
➡️ Donald J. Trump: 0*
* Has not participated in debates.

🔗: crfb.org/blogs/talking-… #USBW2024

The debt deal was terrible. It’s providing some leverage now in the aftermath of the debacle bc a good chunk of the spending can go away with McCarthy’s side deal & the fact that a long term CR turns off your precious 1% cut to go deeper.

I took flak for voting for the debt limit deal in exchange for caps and a 1% cut in the event of a long CR.

But with another CR looming, big spenders are worried the deal gives us real leverage to cut spending.

Sen. Graham, “Everybody’s getting screwed.”
politico.com/news/2023/12/2…

It’s time for a Fiscal Commission:

“… the last time that interest rates on debt were this high, the amount of debt held by the public was $3 trillion less than the amount of debt that is maturing in the next year.”

That’s me in a new article:

realclearpolicy.com/articles/2023/…

NEWS: Rep. Dan Kildee tells me he will not seek reelection to his battleground Michigan House seat.

After battling cancer this year, Kildee said it was time to ask himself, 'OK, what are my priorities?'

politico.com/live-updates/2…