Food Fights

Good afternoon. This is the Final NOTUS newsletter for February 18, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here — it’s free!

The Latest

Talks to end the DHS shutdown seem to be going nowhere fast. Karoline Leavitt called last night’s proposal from Democrats “very unserious,” but did say the White House team has “been in direct conversations with both Democrats and Republicans.”

Republicans are eager to move on to other things in the Senate when they return next week, but will need to sort out DHS first. Sen. Mike Lee and others have been pushing for a fast vote on a voter ID bill, but Majority Leader John Thune told Fox News the ongoing shutdown “obviously will have some bearing on what we decide, how we decide to schedule the floor.”

Meanwhile, FEMA is suspending the travel of some disaster aid workers due to the shutdown. Any new travel will need approval from DHS leadership.

The Hill

Les Wexner sat for a deposition today over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Democratic members of the Oversight Committee questioned Wexner at his home in Ohio, where he reportedly told them Epstein was a “con man” who “duped” him, and he never witnessed Epstein’s crimes.

• No Republican members were present, but members of their staff were.

A number of Democrats plan to boycott next week’s State of the Union address. It’s not new for Democrats to skip Donald Trump’s speech, but this year they are adding in some counterprogramming with a rally on the Mall.

Sen. Adam Schiff’s legal fund has raised $1.2 million, NOTUS’ Dave Levinthal reports. The fund was created to fight off legal threats from Trump.

The Administration

The shakeup at HHS continues. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, will get a second job as the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As does that ‘he said, he said’ between the NGA and Trump. In the ongoing saga of “who disinvited whom to the White House,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who chairs the National Governors Association, insisted today the whole thing was a misunderstanding.

• “I basically just simply said the NGA is not the facilitator if not all governors are invited, right? You can invite whoever you want to the White House, but it can’t be an NGA event if it’s not inconclusive to all 50 governors,” Stitt explained at an event alongside Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who was most certainly not invited. “So that’s, that’s all that was. I’m excited to go.”

Environmental and public health groups sued the EPA today in an attempt to stop the agency from abandoning the “endangerment finding” — which says greenhouse gas emissions pose a significant risk to health and welfare.

Cool Kickflip Bro

Rep. Riley Moore says he’s the “#1 ranked skateboarder in Congress,” though we aren’t sure there’s a lot of competition (sorry to Rep. Tim Burchett).

Thank you for reading! Today’s newsletter was produced by Matt Berman and Kim Breen. If you like it, please forward it to a friend. If someone shared it with you, please subscribe — it’s free! Got a tip or comments to share? Email us at finalnotus@notus.com.