Morning Report — Senators put the budget bill under the microscope ...Middle East

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Senators put the budget bill under the microscope

In the Senate, President Trump’s signature “big, beautiful bill” is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Amid increasing pressure to enact Trump’s sweeping agenda, Senate Republicans are taking control of the party’s mammoth tax and domestic policy bill today, kicking off a key four-week stretch to hammer out provisions. 

The goal: passage by the Fourth of July.

But there are a number of roadblocks facing lawmakers as they work through the “big, beautiful bill” that passed the House by a single GOP vote ahead of Memorial Day. It was a winding road toward passage, guaranteed only after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) struck a fragile compromise with different factions of his conference.

The Senate is likely to prove an even tougher crowd as Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) works to shepherd the legislation through the upper chamber with only three votes to spare.

The multitrillion-dollar tax and spending package will face fierce debate in the weeks ahead, and some provisions, including those pertaining to Medicaid, the state and local tax (SALT) deduction and child tax credit, among others, could change significantly in the upper chamber. Whatever version of the bill ultimately passes the Senate will then go back to the House for approval — which experts say will prove a challenge.

MEET THE HOLDOUTS: There are at least a half-dozen Senate Republicans, ranging from fiscal conservatives to moderate members, who could gum up the works, opposing the megabill for various reasons, reports The Hill’s Al Weaver. 

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), one of the holdouts, said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that "the math doesn't really add up" on the cost of the bill. The Kentucky Republican has been a loud critic of the bill over its inclusion of a debt ceiling hike and lack of deficit reduction.

"I think they're asking for too much money," Paul said.

Paul has made clear that his red line for any bill is a debt ceiling increase. But Republicans on both sides of the Capitol are seemingly intent on following through on Trump’s wishes to include it and help the party avoid giving Democratic concessions in any possible negotiation. 

▪ Politico: The “Medicaid moderates” are the senators to watch on the megabill.

▪ The Associated Press: Can Trump fix the national debt? Republican senators, many investors and even Elon Musk have doubts.

▪ The Hill: Education advocates press the Senate for changes to Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

FILIBUSTER REFORM? Senate Democrats are planning to challenge key elements of the legislation, including a proposal to make Trump’s expiring 2017 tax cuts permanent. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) vowed in a Sunday letter to fight the effort “with everything we’ve got” and make it as painful as possible for Republicans. 

Senate Democrats are warning that if Thune makes an end run around the parliamentarian to codify the tax cuts, it will open the door to Democrats rewriting Senate rules in the future — and seriously undermine the filibuster.

Senate Republicans argue that it’s up to Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), not the parliamentarian, to set the budgetary baseline for the bill, writes The Hill’s Alexander Bolton. Democratic aides say they suspect Thune’s decision before the Memorial Day recess to put a major procedural question up for a Senate vote was a dress rehearsal for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who has called for eliminating the Senate filibuster for legislation, said Senate Republicans’ actions blew a hole in the filibuster rule.

“It’s clear that the Republicans can no longer say that they’re opposed to getting rid of the filibuster because they just got rid of the filibuster when it suited them,” she said. “We need a set of rules that apply across the board, and that’s true whether you have Democrats in the majority or Republicans in the majority. Yes, it is time for filibuster reform.”

SMART TAKE with NewsNation’s BLAKE BURMAN 

May was a good one for financial markets. The S&P 500 had its best May of this century, up more than 6 percent for the month. 

We will see how markets react today to a weekend vow by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that tariffs are not going away. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will give his first public comments today since a rare meeting with President Trump at the president’s invitation last week. The government’s jobs report for May will be released Friday. 

The economic data this month could take a backseat to a presidential schedule: Investors and businesses want to see if Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping get on the phone to talk trade “very soon,” as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested Sunday.

Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation.

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

▪ The FBI is investigating as possible terrorism a Boulder, Colo., attack that injured eight people Sunday after a man who shouted “Free Palestine” threw a makeshift incendiary device into a group assembled to raise attention for Israeli hostages in Gaza. A suspect was arrested, jailed and awaits charges. U.S. lawmakers and Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu issued statements condemning the attack as targeting Jews.

▪ Hurricane season officially began on Sunday and extends to November. Here’s this year’s forecast.

▪ Join The Hill’s June 4 half-day summit, “Invest in America,” at 8 a.m. EDT featuring titans from Washington and Wall Street. Participants share insights about economic developments, tariffs, artificial intelligence, crypto, taxes and more. RSVP HERE.

LEADING THE DAY  

© Associated Press | Patrick Semansky

Democrats are in a slow-motion freak-out about how to transform their political travails into speedier triumphs. As June begins, Democrats who are raising their voices include former President Clinton, 78; Maryland’s Wes Moore, 46, the only Black governor in America; and David Hogg, 25, a gun control activist and one of five vice chairs of the Democratic National Committee.

Every party elder and newcomer appears to have a recovery theory. Or three. Some preach urgent action during what they view as the ruinous Trump era. Some bet on patience (and voters’ druthers in upcoming elections) to put Democrats in a finer light. Democrats who have participated in decades of political change lean on history. Impatient progressives favor full-throated activism over waiting as the party’s aging generals move off the battlefield.

“Elections will happen. And we will see,” Clinton told “CBS Sunday Morning.” If Democrats win governors' races and capture the House majority in 2026, opposition to Trump will grow, he added. “Look, only elections are going to change this.”

“President Trump has a right to do what he thinks is right; he's doing it,” Clinton continued. “The courts are doing their jobs. There will be other elections. But someone needs to stand up and say, 'Damn it, what we have in common matters more. We cannot throw the legacy of this country away. We cannot destroy other people's trust in us. We need to preserve that and find a way to work together, and not humiliate other people just so we can win.' We got to just calm down and try to pull people together again. That's what I think.”

Moore last week said he is not running for president, even as he made a weekend political appearance in South Carolina, a leadoff primary state. The governor urged Democrats to act with “speed” to try to improve Americans’ lives, even under GOP control in the White House and Congress. His message echoed the frequent reference by former President Obama to “the fierce urgency of now,” which Obama attributed to Martin Luther King Jr.

“Gone are the days when we are the party of bureaucracy, multiyear studies, panels, and college debate club rules,” the governor said Friday. “We must be the party of action. Because right now, the people of this country are calling on us to act.” 

Hogg, unabashed about publicly rebuking his party, draws attacks from all sides even as his star rises. As a senior at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, his gun control activism resulted from the mass shooting deaths of 17. “We need to vote people out of office that are perpetuating issues affecting young people, like gun violence,” he said at the time.

Hogg has drawn ire and praise from Democrats for his move to get involved in the party’s congressional primaries, part of what he says is an effort to bring about generational change. Republicans, meanwhile, see him as a useful political foil.

“We can’t just hope that Donald Trump screws everything up so much that voters come begging back to us for any alternative,” Hogg told Fast Company. “We don’t want people to feel like they’re just voting for the less bad of two options. What we’re trying to do is light a fire under everybody’s ass in our party. And frankly, if that makes you uncomfortable, maybe you should question whether or not you should run.” 

Politico: Today, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender and leading voice within his party, plans to launch an anti-Trump political action committee, the American Mobilization Project, to fund groups nationwide that oppose cuts to Medicaid and register young people to vote. “If we don’t act aggressively right now to organize and mobilize, we may not have our democracy in 2026,” he said.

CNN poll:Amid a wave of skepticism among Democrats about their own party’s effectiveness, the GOP currently holds the advantage across several key attributes — though with a shrinking advantage on the economy, which regularly polls as Americans’ top concern, according to a CNN survey released Sunday and conducted by SSRS. Americans are far more likely to give a nod to Republicans over Democrats as the party with strong leaders, 40 percent to 16 percent. Americans are more likely to call Republicans the party that can get things done (36 percent to 19 percent) and to describe the GOP as the party of change (32 percent to 25 percent).

Trump's approval rating rebounded last week to 46.7 percent, according to the Decision Desk HQ/The Hill polling average.

The Hill’s rankings: Here are five Senate seats most likely to flip next year.

WHERE AND WHEN

ZOOM IN

© Associated Press | Lindsey Wasson

FOLLOW THE MONEY: There’s a big difference in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) world between claiming savings for the U.S. government and what actually happens to U.S. consumers. Trump’s deregulatory push, for instance, is costing Americans in credit card fees, household appliances and their health insurance costs, according to an analysis by The New York Times. 

Sahil Lavingia, who says he was fired from DOGE after speaking out about his experiences with the team, described to WIRED how he communicated with the group, which personnel appeared to be in charge and what might be coming next.

WithMusk’s official departure Friday as a “special government” adviser to Trump, The Hill’s Alex Gangitano reports on whether there will be a figure who succeeds Musk in the government efficiency business.

ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: The nomination of Musk ally and billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to lead NASA is being withdrawn by Trump ahead of a Senate confirmation vote, the president announced Saturday, ostensibly because Isaacman donated to Democrats. The change spells uncertainty for the space agency.  

STICKY TARIFFS: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he does not anticipate an “extension” for the 90-day pause Trump placed on his “reciprocal” tariffs, set to expire in July. Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Lutnick said federal law gives the president authority to impose tariffs amid economic emergencies, even though a federal trade court last week ruled many of Trump’s duties are illegal. The president has other powers under statutes if courts rule against the White House, Lutnick continued, adding that Trump would just “bring on another or another or another.” 

The Hill: The White House stepped up court attacks after a tariff ruling.

COURTS AND DEPORTATION: The Trump administration is coming under scrutiny for deporting several U.S. citizen children along with their foreign-born parents, The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch reports. Administration officials have defended the move, saying the minors were not deported, but that the parents have elected to take them along rather than be separated from their children.But attorneys for the families say their clients were given little notice and forced to make split-second decisions about what to do.

Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), has been in contact with lawyers for several families, including a Honduran woman with two U.S. citizen children, including a 4-year-old with Stage 4 cancer.

“At no time did the mother offer any consent,” Magaziner told The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch. “At no time did the mother sign anything. Also, the mother was not given the opportunity to speak with legal counsel, even though the lawyer was in the same building at the time.”

▪ New York Daily News: Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Sunday he was infuriated after a weeping social worker on his staff was apprehended and handcuffed Wednesday in his Manhattan office by a Department of Homeland Security federal agent. The incident was captured on videotape and made public by Gothamist. “If this can happen in a member of Congress’s office, it can happen to anyone — and it is happening,” Nadler said in a statement.

▪ The New York Times: The American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal appeals court on Saturday to stop Trump from using a rarely invoked 18th century law to deport scores of Venezuelans.

▪ The Hill: Law firms targeted by Trump executive orders are on a winning streak against him in courts.

▪ The Hill: The Supreme Court handed a big win to fossil fuels and federal powers.

HEALTH: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is exactly who public health experts thought he was, they said. Kennedy — who is also the nation’s most well-known vaccine skeptic — is remaking the agency in his image, casting doubt on the benefits of vaccines, and erecting new barriers that will make it harder for people who want shots to get them, like requiring new vaccines to be tested against placebos.

Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said the public should take Kennedy at his word. 

“He’s right. We shouldn’t trust him,” Benjamin said. “He’s unbridled. He’s out of control, and so I am fearful that he will do more to undermine vaccine access and quality in the United States.”

The Hill: Kennedy’s autism crusade ignores history, including his own family’s.

HIGHER ED: Harvard University, amid its battle with the Trump administration over free speech and academic and administrative independence, is feeling the heat to tap its $53 billion endowment as the government withholds federal research grants and attempts to block enrollment of international students. But on multiple fronts, that move would be more difficult than many people realize, The Hill’s Lexi Lonas Cochran reports. 

“It’s not like a bank account… The idea is that you’ll have it sort of forever so that you can take income from it and fund some activity, but you could do that forever. So not just for students today, but for students in the future,” said Sandy Baum, a nonresident senior fellow at the Urban Institute. 

ELSEWHERE

© Associated Press | Markus Schreiber

UKRAINE: Negotiators from Moscow and Kyiv are set to meet today for another round of peace talks to end the three-year war sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion. Both sides are expected to formally exchange their respective conditions for a deal. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said he will only accept a settlement on his terms and will keep fighting until they’re met — pummeling Ukraine with waves of missiles and drones. Kyiv, meanwhile, launched drone strikes deep inside Russia on Sunday, targeting dozens of strategic bombers at several bases. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky questioned Russia's commitment to progressing peace talks, accusing Moscow of “doing everything it can to ensure the next possible meeting is fruitless.”

“For a meeting to be meaningful, its agenda must be clear, and the negotiations must be properly prepared,” he said. Ukraine sent its proposals to Russia, reaffirming "readiness for a full and unconditional ceasefire.”

▪ The Hill: Russia’s drone “safaris” haunt Ukrainians in the front-line city of Kherson.

▪ The Washington Post: Karol Nawrocki, a conservative nationalist, won Poland’s presidential race. His victory bolstered right-wing gains in Europe and dealt a blow to the centrist government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

IRAN: The U.S. presented its first formal proposal to Iran for elements of a nuclear deal over the weekend, just hours after United Nations inspectors reported a major surge in the size of Tehran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium.

“President Trump has made it clear that Iran can never obtain a nuclear bomb. Special envoy [Steve] Witkoff has sent a detailed and acceptable proposal to the Iranian regime, and it’s in their best interest to accept it,” according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

The proposal calls for Iran to cease all enrichment of uranium and proposes the creation of a regional consortium to produce nuclear power that would involve Iran; Saudi Arabia and other Arab states; and the U.S. Back in 2018, Trump withdrew from an Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran and imposed sanctions on the Middle Eastern country. However, U.S. and Iranian officials have recently taken part in multiple rounds of talks relating to Iran’s nuclear program.

GAZA: A new White House proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza is facing pushback from Hamas, in a development Witkoff is calling “unacceptable.” The proposal, which includes a 60-day ceasefire, is the latest attempt by the U.S. to end the fighting in Gaza that's been raging for nearly 20 months. Israel has accepted the U.S. draft.

In Gaza, more than 30 people were killed and scores were wounded on Sunday after an attack near a food aid distribution center. The Israeli military denied claims that its soldiers were involved. The bombing began with airstrikes, followed by tank fire, Gaza resident Ahmad Abu Labdeh told NBC News.

“They told us to come and collect aid, and when we gathered, they opened fire on us,” he said. “It was hell.”

OPINION

■ Ukraine just rewrote the rules of war, by Max Boot, columnist, The Washington Post.

■ Living to die well, by physician Sunita Puri,guest essayist, The New York Times.

THE CLOSER

© Associated Press | Matias Delacroix

And finally … ??“Novel retreats” can mean book-centered reading vacations, according to travel trends. 

Call it a wellness break, a publisher or book club gimmick or a magnificent excuse to socialize in paradise. The upshot: Planned escapes can include reading as a goal, including the social dividend of comingling with others who love books, enjoy talking about books, favor book clubs and/or swoon over certain genres, celebrities and authors.

Want to know more? It can be a girls trip idea. There are websites that specialize in booking such getaways, plus crowd-sourced reviews of reading retreats and even pop-up events nationwide at hotel chains, such as Sheraton.

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