Skipping Congress
Pay attention because we’re likely to hear more about this. Jack Fitzpatrick and Ken Tran report that President Donald Trump’s budget chief has an idea for getting what he wants without having to bother with congressional negotiations.
The objective: to unilaterally cut spending. The method: testing a loophole in a 1974 budget law. The result, if successful: a “pocket rescission” akin to a line-item veto that axes funds after a bill has been signed into law.
The GAO has said that would be illegal. OMB Director Russell Vought told reporters, “it’s one of the executive tools that you hear me talking about that are on the table.”
The 1974 Impoundment Control Act allows presidents to temporarily freeze funding for 45 days while asking Congress to rescind the money permanently. Vought’s potential innovation would be to start that 45-day timetable when 45 days or less are left in the fiscal year. The idea is to run out the clock and let the funding die on Oct. 1. Read More
It’s Relax-With-Donors Time
The head of a company that has done more than $1 billion worth of business with the federal government is among the corporate titans who’ll be rubbing elbows with Republican lawmakers today and tomorrow in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp is to participate in a “discussion on growth vs. gridlock” at Speaker Mike Johnson’s summer retreat for colleagues and the donors whose contributions help keep them in office, Greg Giroux and Liam Quinn report. Read More
How Well Do You Know Washington — Author Edition
With Samuel Alito becoming the latest justice to write a book after joining the Supreme Court, we wondered how extracurricular authorship has worked out for his colleagues.
So this week’s question follows a check on their mandatory disclosure reports.
In 2024, the salary for an associate Supreme Court justice was $298,500. Who supplemented that with the most book royalty income?
A) Justice Amy Coney Barrett
B) Justice Neil Gorsuch
C) Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
D) Justice Sonia Sotomayor
E) Justice Clarence Thomas
Scroll down for the answer.
Putin Coming to America
Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have a date — Friday — and a place — Alaska. Conspicuously missing from the announcement about their planned talks about Ukraine: anyone from Ukraine.
The apparent exclusion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy from the talks is bound to fan fears that Trump will cave in to Putin’s demands for control of Ukrainian land.
Zelenskiy said over the weekend that Ukraine won’t cede territory to Putin to bring an end to Russia’s 3 1/2-year invasion, and said any deal reached without Kyiv’s involvement was a “dead solution.” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha echoed those comments, saying on X that Russia “must not be rewarded for starting this war” and that “we need a lasting peace that won’t be destroyed by Moscow’s next move.”
European foreign ministers are holding an extraordinary video conference today to discuss the next steps regarding Ukraine. “International law is clear: All temporarily occupied territories belong to Ukraine,” Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said in a statement. “A sustainable peace also means that aggression cannot be rewarded,” she said. Read More
Redistricting Update
As Texas Democrats continue to shun Austin to deny a quorum for the mid-cycle redistricting initiated to make Trump happy — and make it harder for voters to kick the GOP out of power in the House next year — a blue state has firmed up a counterweight plan.
Top California legislators say they’ll release draft congressional maps this week and prepare for a special election this fall, Andrew Oxford reports.
“We will nullify what happens in Texas. We will pick up five seats with the consent of the people,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said. Read More
Meanwhile, a judge has barred former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D) and his organization, Powered by People, from raising and using political funds to pay for that avoid-the-quorum out-of-state travel.
The fundraising conduct “constitutes false, misleading, or deceptive acts under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act” because the group is using political contributions from Texans to pay for the personal expenses of state legislators, Judge Megan Fahey said in an order issued in the 348th District Court of Texas. Read More
And for a refresher, check out this gerrymandering primer that our video team colleagues put together for 2021’s normal redistricting: Legally Rigging Elections: Watch on YouTube
Eye on the Economy
American businesses have taken around 64% of the hit from tariffs so far, but the burden will increasingly be passed on to consumers as companies hike prices, according to research by Goldman Sachs.
US consumers’ share of those costs will rise to 67% if the latest tariffs follow the pattern of levies in previous years, the firms’ economists write in a new note. The report adds weight to a widespread view among economists that the new fees on imported goods will fuel inflation — exactly the reason that the Federal Reserve has delayed lowering interest rates. Read More
As higher tariffs start to filter through to consumers in categories such as household furnishings and recreational goods, a Bloomberg survey of economists projects that the core consumer price index rose 0.3% in July.
If they’re right, that would be the biggest gain since the start of the year. Read More
Unusual Arrangement: Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices agreed to pay 15% of their revenues from Chinese AI chip sales to the US government in a deal to secure export licenses. It’s part of the president’s effort to engineer a financial payout for America in return for concessions on trade. Read More
And one of Trump’s overnight social media posts is drawing attention to agricultural trade with China.
“China is worried about its shortage of soybeans,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social website on Monday. “I hope China will quickly quadruple its soybean orders. This is also a way of substantially reducing China’s Trade Deficit with the USA.” Trump also thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the post, without saying why.
China has stepped up purchases of soybeans from its top supplier Brazil in recent months, and is also testing trial cargoes of soybean meal from Argentina. Beijing’s tariff truce with the US expires tomorrow, though the Trump administration has signaled that is likely to be extended. Read More
See also:
- Why a Product’s Country of Origin Matters in Trump’s Trade War
- Who Loses the Most From Trump’s Tariffs? Who Wins?: QuickTake
- Tariffs Are Starting to Squeeze Profits for Trump-Loving Farmers
Did You Ace the Quiz?
The answer to this week’s quiz is Option C — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, whose 2024 royalties for Lovely One were just over $2 million. That was in addition to the $893,750 advance she reported earning in 2023.
You’re ahead of the next development if you picked Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Her memoir, “Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution,” is scheduled to be published in September.
Justice Neil Gorsuch reported receiving $250,000 last year for “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law,” which he co-authored with his former law clerk, Janie Nitze. Previously, Justice Clarence Thomas received $1.5 million for his 2007 memoir, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor got a $1.175 million advance for hers, published in 2013. Both books became bestsellers. Sotomayor subsequently wrote several books for children, and for 2024 reported royalties of nearly $134,000.
If you swing by the Supreme Court gift shop, the Supreme Court Historical Society sells signed editions of the works of SCOTUS authors.
Before You Go
Congressional Counterweight: One of the youngest members of Congress, Rep. Jack Auchincloss (D-Mass.), is drawing attention for the foam display boards and elaborate charts he uses to argue against the policies of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and for his memorable word choices, slamming Kennedy’s advisers as “bros” with views “based in conspiracy and quackery.” Read More
Bossless: As of this week, there’s no commissioner in charge of the IRS. Former congressman Billy Long’s tenure lasted less than two months. The Washington Post reported that before Long was pushed out, the IRS had said no to a White House request for information on whether a list of immigrant taxpayers included people who had used the earned income tax credit. Erin Slowey and Erin Schilling examined the hiccups and the aftermath of Long’s depature. Read More
Rebossing: Vinay Prasad , who was recently ousted as the FDA’s top vaccine and gene therapy regulator, is returning, an HHS spokesperson said. Prasad will resume leadership of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. It’s unclear whether he will also retake two other roles he held at the agency as chief science officer and chief medical officer. He left July 29 after a conservative backlash that included complaints by an outside-the-White House influencer, Laura Loomer. Read More
Cut Off: Unions representing thousands of EPA workers are the latest to have their collective bargaining agreements nullified, Parker Purifoy reports. They join the unionized employees of the VA, which last week terminated its collective bargaining agreement for all employees except for police, security, and firefighters. Read More
Speaking of Police: Trump has ordered FBI, DEA and ATF agents deployed for at least a week to patrol the nation’s capital. This morning, he has a news conference to discuss “ending Crime” and the “General Physical Renovation” of Washington, D.C.
‘Liked’ By 15,000 and Counting: You may be hearing more about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to repost on X a video that included various pastors saying women should no longer be allowed to vote. “All of Christ for All of Life,” Hegseth wrote in his post that accompanied a CNN report about Doug Wilson, co-founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. As ABC News explained, the report featured a pastor from Wilson’s church advocating the repeal of women’s right to vote, and another pastor saying that in his ideal world, people would vote as households.
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