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Hello, friends. It’s the last weekend without pro football games taking over our TVs: Who is excited (or maybe not so excited)?
The House was back this week for a quick stint, passing a government funding bill lasting through the midterms as well as other messaging bills. But they won’t be spending much more time here in Washington before the midterms. More on that below.
In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend and has a happy Labor Day!
— Cami Mondeaux
The Big Idea: Russian sanctions take a backseat
The House was back for four days this week, although few pieces of significant legislation were passed.
Aside from the continuing resolution to fund the government through Dec. 11, the House mostly dealt with symbolic messaging bills related to socialism and whether to lock the size of the Supreme Court. But we didn’t see any movement on the Russia sanctions package that passed the Senate last month — and it’s not clear if we will see a vote on it any time soon.
The House won’t return until Sept. 14, but GOP leaders canceled the final two weeks of the September session. Meaning the House won’t be in session from Sept. 17 until Nov. 9 — a whopping seven weeks away.
That means House members will have just four legislative days before the midterm elections. And the odds of getting the Russia sanctions bill is looking slim, according to some conversations I had with members this week.
“I would hope it gets done quickly,” Utah Rep. Blake Moore told me this week. “I know I’d be supportive of getting something like that done as soon as possible, but I don’t know. There’s a mountain of stuff we’ve got to do. The Senate obviously has a vast majority of our stuff that they are sitting on. ... It’d be great to see if we could get it done, but I just — I don’t know if it’s a priority for this week with government funding.”
Flashback: The Senate passed the sanctions package in early August targeting Russia and Iran, and it was a major bipartisan vote. The sanctions target Russian officials, oligarchs, their family members, foreign persons, and Russian banks and financial institutions.
The sanctions package has been under negotiation for years, but it got a surge of momentum after the unexpected death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who spearheaded this effort ever since the war first broke out.
But now that it’s been tossed to the House, that momentum seems to have been lost.
“We’re working through it. We want to bring it, but not sure exactly when yet that decision has not been made,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told me this week. “We’ve got a few folks that we’ll be talking to still about it.”
Although the bill got a huge bipartisan vote in the Senate, most Democrats in the House aren’t sold yet. That’s because the sanctions package includes language that would allow the president to impose targeted tariffs on countries that purchase the vast majority of Russian oil or gas.
That language was crucial to getting President Donald Trump on board — but it’s worried Democrats who fear the expansion of tariff powers it provides to Trump, who has already tested the limits of that authority during his second term.
“We stand firmly and strongly behind Ukraine, the Ukrainian people, in their effort to protect their territorial sovereignty and integrity, and push back against this brutal, unprecedented, and unprovoked attack that was launched by Vladimir Putin,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said this week. “I have serious concerns with the legislation. I haven’t been able to evaluate it line by line yet, but I expect that the House Democratic Caucus will have a conversation about it as early as this week.”
Top Democrats on the Foreign Relations and Ways and Means committees have expressed concerns with the new tariff authority — as well as some centrist Republicans.
“This should be a bipartisan effort. We all believe in sanctioning Russia, but we have to have the right environment to pass the bill. So we’ll see how that goes,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told a group of us on Thursday. “It’s a couple of pockets of concern about it. But I think the broad consensus of this Congress, of course, is that we would want to sanction Russia for what they’re doing.”
Senate Democrats anticipated these concerns — and they told me last month that they carefully negotiated the tariff language to ensure it didn’t give Trump outsize authority.
“The tariff authority is narrowly targeted and confined to the five largest purchasers of Russian oil and gas,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told me last month. “None of our European allies are hit (by it). The president simply has no authority under this bill to apply tariffs in a broad blunderbuss way.”
But, the main problem here is still timing. Unless they make Russia sanctions a priority in their solo legislative week this month, the issue of sanctions could be punted until after the midterms.
— Cami Mondeaux
Stories Driving the Week
- Curtis creates coalitions: Utah Sen. John Curtis has spent his first two years in the Senate searching for areas where Republicans and Democrats can coexist — and crafting his own playbook to keep bipartisanship alive. My deep dive.
- Trump trade talks: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with House Republicans behind closed doors on Wednesday to discuss the Trump administration’s latest trade policies, offering lawmakers a guide on how to address those issues on the campaign trail.
- Spending squabble: The House approved a bill on Tuesday to extend funding levels through early December in an attempt to avoid another government shutdown fight ahead of the midterm elections. President Trump signed it this week.
Trump hits campaign trail with Republicans
It’s officially campaign season — and President Donald Trump is looking to get in on the fun.
Although he is not on the ballot this year, Trump still wants to use the midterm cycle to tout his policy wins in an effort to elevate Republican candidates — and ultimately hold on to these slim majorities in Congress. If he loses control of either the House or Senate, he risks entering a lame-duck session for his final two years in office.
As part of those efforts, the Republican National Committee will host its first-ever midterm convention in Dallas next week. The two-day affair will feature dozens of speakers, including Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
Speakers will focus on touting the “Big Beautiful Bill” that Republicans passed last summer, specifically on tax cuts and other affordability messages.
Nearly all of Utah’s House delegation will be in attendance: Reps. Blake Moore, Celeste Maloy and Mike Kennedy, their offices tell me.
It’ll be an interesting experience. And a gamble for Trump and Republican candidates.
As we’ve talked about before, the midterm elections usually act as a referendum on the sitting president, and voters typically support candidates in the party opposite of who controls the White House. So at a time when Republican candidates may want to distance themselves from Trump — especially with his falling approval ratings — they appear to be going all in.
That’s what Trump wants. His message to voters: “Pretend I’m on the ballot.”
So we’ll see how that goes. But there is a question about what the TV ratings may be for the primetime addresses. The convention falls on the first two days of the NFL season, which is usually one of the biggest events on American TV.
— Cami Mondeaux
Quick hits
From the Hill: Utah Rep. Owens invites rogue Democrats to join GOP after they angered party leaders. … House Republican formally rebuked for ‘inappropriate conduct’ toward female staffers. … House approves resolution denouncing socialism — but pro-Israel Democrat said it had poison pill.
From the White House: Trump touts new agreements to lower drug prices. … Trump administration closes commercial truck driving schools over fraud. … What we know about Trump’s deal giving U.S. access to vast oil reserves in Venezuela.
From the courts: One word changed the tone in the Tyler Robinson courtroom: ‘Hate.’ … Jury in Lindsay Clancy trial struggles to reach unanimous verdict. … Supreme Court gives Trump green light to continue White House ballroom construction.
What’s next
The House and Senate are out next week for the Labor Day holiday. Both chambers will return on Sept. 14.
As always, feel free to reach out to me by email with story ideas or questions you have for lawmakers. And follow me on X for breaking news and timely developments from the Hill.