Today in Politics, Bulletin 337. 3/27/26

… House Republicans rejected a DHS funding deal passed by the senate last night and want to pass their own plan. One problem with that is John Thune has recessed the senate for two weeks and they are all gone. The other problem with it is that whatever the House passes it will be subject to the filibuster rule when it ultimately goes back to the senate, and Senate Dems already said they will not vote for Mike Johnson’s alternative.

… There is now no longer even the slightest question who is responsible for the shutdown. Senate Dems voted for the deal and House Dems were prepared to do so today. But House Republicans rejected it so the shutdown continues indefinitely.

… CNN’s Sarah Ferris: “House GOP leaders are furious with Thune’s maneuver and do NOT want to put Senate bill on floor, per multiple GOP sources. Biggest issues: Lack of ICE and CBP funding. Discussing what to include but it now looks like Rs will try to boomerang back to Senate.”

… Mike Johnson held an emergency conference call with his members. WSJ’s Olivia Beavers reported on one part of the call: Rep. Ann Wagner - “Has the Senate agreed to come back? Johnson: The Senate went dark and did not communicate with us.”

… Rep. Hakeem Jeffries: “Why is this happening? Because House Republicans have decided they would rather create chaos for you and for your families so they can continue to spend billions of dollars for ICE to brutalize and kill American citizens. The only thing standing right now between the chaos that is taking place at airports and making sure you are no longer inconvenienced: House Republicans.”

… NOTUS’s Reese Gorman: “Johnson is pitching members on a clean 60 day CR that would fund ALL of DHS, including ICE. This would send the package back to the Senate and require them to come back to end the DHS shutdown. Nothing is final yet, but this is the pitch he is making. Dems unlikely to go for this in either chamber. Rules will meet tonight on this CR and then hope is to vote tomorrow morning.”

… Fox reporter Chad Pergram to Mike Johnson: “If you were to accept what the Senate passed, this could end tonight and the TSA lines would shrink. Johnson: Schumer and the Democrats forced this on the Senate. Pergram: Thune didn’t have to accept it.”

… Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC): “I am done with Senate Republicans. Their failure to fully fund DHS is not just disappointing—it’s a disgrace. They refused to fund ICE units that target sex traffickers. They refused to fund Border Patrol agents. And where is the SAVE America Act? They have made one thing clear: Americans’ safety is not their priority.”

… Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) to Meidas: “It’s a disgrace that Republicans are leaving Congress in the middle of what is an unlawful and dangerous war. We have a brigade of combat soldiers going there, and I am very worried those troops are being put at grave risk by a president who has no frickin’ clue what he is doing and a secretary of defense who’s a joke.”

… Rep. Max Miller (R-OH): “The Senate just walked away. No SAVE America Act, no ICE funding: just 41 days of no pay for those on the frontline of keeping America safe.”

… Former Mike Lee staffer Ryan Neuhaus: “In the dark of night, Senate Republicans caved and passed an approps bill without funding for ICE and CBP. The two most important sub agencies for carrying out mass deportations. House Republicans should not join their Senate counterparts in helping Democrats and RINOs obstruct mass deportations.”

… Right-wing radio host Todd Starnes: “Don’t listen to the spin coming from Senate Republicans. Democrats got everything they wanted. There was a reason why John Thune scheduled the vote while the nation was asleep - so they could skip town before voters woke up and discovered what they had done.”

… Starnes: “And here’s the real kick in the pants - Republican senators left for yet another vacation without doing anything about the Save Act. There’s no polite way to say this - but Senate Republicans are sabotaging the midterm elections and Trump’s agenda.”

… Ryan: “From the beginning, Trump had the ability and the money—they put this huge slush fund into DHS a while ago—so he’s been playing politics with this from the start, and they continue to play politics while everyone else pays the price, whether it’s TSA or what’s happening in Iran. It’s just a disservice to the American people.”

… Politico: “Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris says they will not support the current DHS deal before the House. He says House needs to add back in ICE and CBP funding, ATTACH voter ID/SAVE and then send the bill BACK to the senate - which has left for two weeks. GOP leadership have been hoping for a Trump truth post telling Rs to back this at some point but unsure if it will come.”

… Trump did the opposite of what House GOP leadership hoped for - backing House Republicans who wanted to kill the senate bill while demanding Thune just kill the filibuster, which he has said many times he will not do.

… Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) to Meidas: “Trump has been funding the Coast Guard and other agencies that are supposedly part of the shutdown, but he wasn’t funding TSA. He tried to use it as some kind of leverage, and at the end of the day, I think they look like fools for what they did.”

… One Republican House member to reporter Juliegrace Brufke: “Speaker wants to pass an 8 week CR for DHS. Not take senate deal. Many members think this is a dumb plan.”

… Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) “House Republicans refuse to take yes for an answer. Mike Johnson said that this bill is a joke. That is another classic we can add to their lines about how they feel about the American people and what they are going through right now. We can add it to ‘affordability is a hoax’.”

… Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) posted: “Why would Senate Republicans throw Democrats a political lifeline now… to fund TSA that doesn’t fund ICE & CBP - and in process likely get off of SAVE America Act to go home for Easter recess…???”

… Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) to Meidas: “Mike Johnson is now blocking TSA workers from getting paid today by standing in the way of the Senate-passed DHS bill. We could pay TSA workers RIGHT NOW. Democrats pushed this plan weeks ago. Senate Republicans finally caught up. Now House Republicans are continuing to block TSA paychecks.”

… Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) to Meidas: “Republicans have realized they’ve given up all of their power to the president, and they realized this dude was holding up a deal for weeks while TSA agents were not getting paid and now, he’s going to swoop in on a problem he created and somehow save the day? They’ve realized they should get their shit together.”

… Washington Times reporter Lindsey McPherson: “Leaving Speaker Johnson's press conference where he announced House Republicans would try to pass an 8-week stopgap funding all of DHS and passed a tourist taking a photo of her middle finger in front of his office just moments after he he went back in.”

… Quality prep work for No Kings tomorrow.

… Reuters: “Iran-linked hackers have publicly claimed the breach of FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal inbox, publishing photographs of the director and his purported resume to the internet. On their website, the hacker group Handala Hack Team said Patel ‘will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims’.”

… “A sample of the material uploaded by the hackers and reviewed by Reuters appears to show a mix of personal and work correspondence dating between 2010 and 2019. A DOJ official confirmed to Reuters that Patel’s emails were compromised but did not go into detail.”

… Politico: “ICE Director Todd Lyons has been hospitalized at least twice for stress-related issues as he has carried out Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda - strain that has caused him to struggle to make key decisions for the agency. The hospitalizations took place over the last 7 months. In one incident in Dec, Lyons’ security detail drove him to a hospital in DC and he was admitted overnight. During an episode in Sept, Lyons was hospitalized for at least one night.”

… “During these episodes, officials said they saw Lyons break out into a full sweat, with his face turning deep red. They also attributed the source of the pressure to ramp up deportations to Stephen Miller, who yelled at Lyons during morning phone calls with admin officials.”

… NYT: “Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotion of 4 Army officers to be one-star generals, a highly unusual move that has prompted some senior military officials to question whether the officers are being singled out because of their race or gender. Two of the officers targeted by Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consists of about three dozen officers, most of whom are white men.”

… “Hegseth had been pressing senior Army leaders, including Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, for months to remove the officers’ names. But Driscoll, citing the officers’ decades-long records of exemplary service, had repeatedly refused. Earlier this month, Hegseth broke the logjam by unilaterally striking the officers’ names from the list, though it is not clear he has the legal authority to do so.”

… “The list is currently being reviewed by the WH, which is expected to send it to the Senate for final approval. A few female and Black officers remain on the list. It is exceedingly rare that a one-star list draws such intense scrutiny from a defense secretary. The battle highlights the bitter rifts opened by Hegseth’s campaign to reverse policies that he says are prejudiced against white officers.”

… “The frustrations with Hegseth’s approach came to a boil last summer during a heated exchange between Ricky Buria, Hegseth’s chief of staff, and Driscoll about a separate promotion. Buria chastised the Army secretary for selecting Maj. Gen. Antoinette Gant, a combat engineer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, to take command of the Military District of Washington.”

… “The command provides security and performs ceremonial duties in the nation’s capital, and its commander often appears alongside the president at Arlington National Cemetery. Buria told Driscoll that Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events, officials said.”

… CNN: “The DHS inspector general has launched a sprawling investigation into how contracts have been solicited and handled, including the involvement of Kristi Noem and her de facto chief of staff Corey Lewandowski. IG Joseph Cuffari previously announced an audit into DHS grants and contracts awarded ‘by any means other than full and open competition during fiscal year 2025’. Cuffari complained to Congress in March that DHS leadership had been obstructing some of his work.”

… “One of the sources familiar with the issue said the IG investigation that includes Noem and Lewandowski is separate from the previously announced audit. The source said investigators had ordered dozens of DHS officials to preserve records as part of the new probe.”

… The Hill: “Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) hosted a delegation of sanctioned Russian officials in DC on Thur. Luna is putting herself forward as a facilitator of dialogue between the US and Russia in pursuit of peace in Ukraine. But she is harshly criticized by Kyiv’s supporters and critics of Vladimir Putin, who say she is serving to legitimize war-stained figures.”

… “Luna provided the Russian lawmakers with a private tour of the US Capitol. A congressional aide said they entered Speaker Mike Johnson’s suite of offices through the balcony unannounced. In attendance at the meeting earlier in the day were Luna and Reps. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Eli Crane (R-AZ) and Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX).”

… Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY): “Russia is an adversary. I would have questions about what her objectives are.”

… Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) said he equates meeting with members of the Duma “to having visitors of the Third Reich. I don’t know her personally, I just disagree with working in any way with the Putin regime, they have every intent to promote the Iranian goal of death to America, death to Israel.”

… All members of the Russian delegation were sanctioned in 2022 with the outbreak of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Ukraine’s Ambassador to the US Olga Stefanishyna: “Those individuals are still fully sanctioned. So it’s up to responsibility of those Senators and Congressmen who meet people directly responsible for the massive war crimes of humanity and loss of 1.2 million Russian soldiers.”

… DCCC spokesperson Madison Andrus: “Anna Paulina Luna needs to decide if she wants to represent FL or the Kremlin. If being a Russian sycophant is Luna’s true calling, FL voters will be more than happy to show her to an early retirement so that she’s not claiming to speak on their behalf.”

… Politico: “Gavin Newsom signed an executive order banning appointed state officials with insider information from betting on prediction markets. Newsom’s move would make him the latest politician to take aim at concerns of rampant insider trading on the platforms, as fast-growing sites like Kalshi and Polymarket field all kinds of bets, from those in sports to pop culture and even state politics.”

… “The governor’s order, which will immediately take effect once signed, expands existing ethics rules to prohibit state appointees from using nonpublic information to enrich themselves or family members on prediction market bets. Newsom seized the chance to dig at Trump with his order, which accuses his admin of a failure to enforce ethical standards that would prevent govt insiders from abusing prediction markets.”

… Statement from Newsom: “At a time when Trump’s Washington is riddled with ethical failures and insider profiteering, CA is drawing a bright line. We’re not going to tolerate this kind of corruption in CA.”

Reminder that No Kings is tomorrow so try to get out to one in your area if you are able to. I will be at one in Maine before heading to a hockey game. As usual, I will post my famous Top 15 Signs of No Kings on Sunday morning on Substack.

I make a post on X and Bluesky on Saturday around 5 PM asking people to post photos of their favorite signs so they can be considered, so if you are on one of those platforms you can post yours in a reply. I always get well over 1,000 to choose from so we get some great ones. ORIGINALLY is key.

I will also be back with the Weekend Bulletin on Sunday night. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.

… MS NOW: “Nearly one month after the US began strikes on Iran, Trump is sending thousands of troops to the Middle East to potentially fight in a war he said he has ‘already won.’ That contradiction has frustrated some senior WH aides and outside allies. They described it as confusing, internally inconsistent and increasingly detached from battlefield reality.”

… One senior WH official said Trump claiming the war already won is “mostly hyperbole. It’s part of Trump just wanting to declare victory and move on. He is getting a little bored with Iran. Not that he regrets it or something - he’s just bored and wants to move on. So many people are afraid of being on the outs that they arejust drinking the Kool-Aid and going along with it.”

… Economist Adam Kobeissi: “The Fed’s worst nightmare is materializing in front of our eyes. What is often overlooked is that the Fed primarily controls demand-side