Why the GOP Needs to Keep House Members Healthy: Starting Line

Gesundheit

Next time you hear a House Republican sneeze, the wishing-good-health replies (Bless you! Gesundheit!) won’t just be mannerly reflexes. The GOP really, really needs members of its conference to keep their strength up.

After Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) departs on Jan. 5, even one more unexpected Republican resignation could limit Speaker Mike Johnson’s ability to maintain control of his chamber. “If we get to a place where there’s a one- or two-seat margin, and there are some people who start threatening those things, maybe they’re going to be the most powerful person in Washington,” said strategist Brendan Buck.

Maeve Sheehey explains by walking through the math and the calendar — including a few dates where special election results probably will go the way Johnson (R-La.) wants. Read More

Appropriations

In a burst of pre-holiday industriousness, the Senate Appropriations Committee majority put down its markers for the cuts they’ll seek when they take up the next fiscal 2026 spending bills.

Jack Fitzpatrick and Ken Tran report that the text for the proposed energy and water bill seeks big reductions in spending on renewables and energy efficiency programs, and that Democrats are displeased with being left on the sidelines.

Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) issued a statement saying she’s “disappointed that Senate Republicans released a partisan bill instead of working with Senate Democrats — and I am especially disappointed by the cuts to critical clean energy programs.” Read More

Sheehey reports that the other FY26 bill released yesterday would trim the IRS’s resources and try to prevent the need for another belated “DC fix” by allowing the nation’s capital city to spend its full budget. Read More

In addition, the draft bill seeks extra security funding for the Supreme Court as threats against federal judges have increased, Suzanne Monyak reports. Read More

‘Woe to the Public’

Though we haven’t collected data on how often the White House Easter Egg Roll has been mentioned in court, we did a double-take when it came up during yesterday’s arguments.

Zoe Tillman reports that as part of the case contesting whether White House officials can limit access for Associated Press journalists based on the outlet’s editorial decisions, a federal judge dug into who else could be banished from the grounds for exercising free speech rights.

The egg roll, which dates back to 1878, in modern times has included a mix of guests invited by the administration and families who apply via a random lottery system. Justice Department lawyer Yaakov Roth compared it to the White House Christmas party, saying the president wasn’t required to invite equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans.

Judge Robert Wilkins asked about a hypothetical family who got tickets to tour the White House but then was barred because they were critical of the administration on social media. Roth said the family would have a “stronger case” of First Amendment retaliation than the AP, but still likely would lose.

“Woe to the public,” replied Wilkins, who was appointed to the court by former President Barack Obama. Read More

See Also: DOJ Defense of Top Prosecutors Tees Up Debate for Supreme Court

About That Tax Break

Roughly 4 million white collar workers whom Biden-era rules would have made eligible for overtime pay will lose out on a new tax break, Parker Purifoy reports.

While the rules are in legal limbo, those who make less than $58,656 a year aren’t getting a break for working more than 40 hours a week. Instead, the old regulation remains in place, with the overtime dividing line back down to $35,568. Read More

Eye on Tariffs

The European Union and the Trump administration are in a staredown contest over tariffs, with the US offering to lift a levy on steel if the EU will agree to give big tech companies a break.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with EU technology czar Henna Virkkunen yesterday and didn’t get what they were after, Samuel Stolton and Jorge Valero report.

“The European digital rulebook is not up for negotiation,” Teresa Ribera, a European Commission official, said in a statement. “We, Europeans, have adopted our rules to ensure fair markets and to protect consumers rights while securing Europe’s digital future.”

The EU’s enforcement of digital antitrust rules include recent fines against Apple and Meta. Read More

See Also:

• US-Canada Trade Talks Frozen as Carney Weighs DC Trip Next Week
• Inflation Dips Then Rebounds After Tariff Hike, Fed Study Finds

Before You Go

Gender Protections: House Democratic women are urging the EEOC to maintain harassment guidance, including Biden-era language on gender identity, Sheehey reports. A letter from the Democratic Women’s Caucus and other groups argues against reversing “decades of progress ... in service of an extreme ideological crusade.”

Settlement: West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) and his wife Cathy Justice have agreed to pay more than $5 million to settle a tax case covering the 2009 tax year, Holly Barker reports. The civil complaint claimed the IRS made repeated attempts to collect the unpaid liabilities, but that the couple has either refused or neglected to pay those assessments. Read More

Talking... And Fighting: A US official is in Dubai for meetings with a Russian delegation as Trump talks in positive terms about progress on peace — even as Russia and Ukraine carried out airstrikes overnight. Read More

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