President Donald Trump will gather with House Republicans on Tuesday to ensure they're aligned on their agenda at the start of a critical midterm election year that could alter the course of his final two years in office. GOP lawmakers are hosting a daylong policy forum at the Kennedy Center, the performing arts venue on the other side of Washington from the Capitol. Its board, which is stacked with Trump loyalists, recently voted to rename it the Trump Kennedy Center, though that move is being challenged in court.
On a particularly stressful day in a particularly stressful week during what has been, honestly, a particularly stressful year for House Republicans, the ever-sunny but perpetually beleaguered Mike Johnson insisted that he retained at least a modicum of power over the institution he ostensibly leads. "I have not lost control of the House," the speaker declared to a gaggle of reporters trailing him through the Capitol.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer led his caucus, and the country, into a record-breaking government shutdown and voted against reopening when a small group of his members defected. But there are still calls for him to step aside from Democrats who think he should have fought harder. It's a now-familiar position for the Democratic leader, who was pilloried by the liberal base in March when he voted with Republicans to keep the government open.
It's unclear they have the votes to pass it. The stopgap bill extends current funding levels for federal agencies for seven weeks and adds $58 million to boost security for the federal judiciary and for executive branch officials, following a request from the White House. Republican leaders in the House added another $30 million to increase resources that lawmakers can use for their own security.
