Scalise Talks Spending

The NOTUS Interview, Steve Scalise Edition: While attention turns to the Senate’s reconciliation bill work this week, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise says House Republicans still have plenty more on their summer to-do list. Namely, rescissions and (optimistically) appropriations bills.

Here’s what he told NOTUS’ Reese Gorman and Daniella Diaz:

• The rescission package from the White House would lock in some DOGE cuts, including to NPR, PBS and USAID. “I’m hearing a little over $8 billion right now,” Scalise said of the total cuts. “Whatever that number is, it’s a good start.”
• Scalise said he hadn’t heard of any Republican resistance to the rescission package “formally,” though once the bill is actually filed, they’d be “gauging member support.”
• Scalise said the House wants to pass every appropriations bill. Reminder: Congress has not passed all 12 individual appropriations bills since 1997.
• “The Trump administration is serious about not only addressing the spending problem on the mandatory side, which we’re doing in reconciliation, but also on the discretionary side, which we’re doing with the rescissions package and then ultimately in the appropriations process,” Scalise said.

Probably Happening This Week — Some Questions About This: From Fox News: Trump shares post saying Biden was executed, replaced with clones

What’s Not Happening This Week: A Senate confirmation vote for President Donald Trump’s now-former nominee to lead NASA, Jared Isaacman. Trump pulled the nomination over the weekend after claiming he learned Isaacman had made donations to Democrats (though The New York Times reports Isaacman told Trump about them).

• Isaacman, a tech billionaire close to Elon Musk, had already been approved by a Senate committee. Now, whoever replaces him will have to adjudicate a philosophical divide over the very purpose of the agency, Marina Koren reports in a piece for NOTUS today.

Fuzzy Math: When Musk and Trump held a press event in the Oval Office Friday to bid farewell to Musk, they continued mischaracterizing DOGE’s work and touting results that can’t actually be backed up. The White House list of DOGE “wins” was heavy on hype and light on substance, NOTUS’ Mark Alfred and Claire Heddles report.

• The claim: DOGE canceled $170 billion in spending. The reality: That figure is attributed to “the DOGE Live Tracker” — an unofficial website tied to an X account related to the betting site Polymarket promoting a privately run store called the “Fed Store” that sells DOGE T-shirts.

• The claim: DOGE’s work led to the direct termination of “679 office space leases across the country … saving $400 million.” The reality: These two claims fly in the face of data provided by DOGE on its official website and by information put out recently by the General Services Administration.

• “The DOGE Wall of Receipts provides the latest and most accurate information following a thorough assessment, which takes time,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told NOTUS. “Updates to the DOGE savings page will continue to be made promptly, and departments and agencies will keep highlighting the massive savings DOGE is achieving.”

Breaking yesterday: FBI director Kash Patel said the bureau was investigating a “targeted terror attack” in Colorado during a demonstration calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas. Read the latest from The Associated Press.

MAHA Commission Report, Still Full of Issues: A day after NOTUS first revealed the shoddy — and at times completely made-up — citations in the Make America Healthy Again Commission report, at least 18 of them had been edited or completely swapped out.

Same old problems: A few of the new updated citations continue to misinterpret scientific studies, NOTUS’ Margaret Manto and Emily Kennard report.

• Pulmonologist Harold J. Farber said his relatively small study on treatment for childhood asthma is used in the report to paint a national picture about asthma care that Farber doesn’t believe is nuanced or accurate. “You don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water,” he said.

But wait, there’s more: The MAHA report’s findings on pesticides cite a study thrown out of a lawsuit by a judge last year because it was “junk science,” NOTUS’ Nuha Dolby reports.

Have a tip for Margaret and Emily? Reach them on Signal: Margaretmanto.61 or Emilykennard.24.

Less Green For Red States: Nearly $4 billion in Dept. of Energy funding for 24 industrial projects across the country was withdrawn Friday. The vast majority of those projects were planned for rural and conservative areas that voted for Trump, NOTUS’ Anna Kramer reports.

• These are the first cancellations announced after the DOE said it would review funds awarded by the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act and infrastructure bill.

See it: Check out NOTUS’ map of the canceled projects.

The New Hyde Amendment? Republican lawmakers and their allies want a ban on using federal funds to pay for gender-affirming care to be a standard part of spending bills moving forward.

• “It’s the new Hyde Amendment,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw told NOTUS’ Oriana González, referring to a similar restriction on using federal funds for abortions. The Texas congressman was behind the push to include such a ban in the House-passed reconciliation bill, and even called it the “Crenshaw Amendment.”
• “I have a lot of things I’d like to be remembered for, but this is certainly one of them,” Crenshaw said.

Week Ahead

• Congress comes back to town, there is some kind of supposedly large and good-looking bill on the agenda.
• Sec. of Education Linda McMahon will appear at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Tuesday to discuss the Dept. of Ed. budget.
• Sec. of Commerce Howard Lutnick will appear at another Senate Approps hearing for his department’s budget on Thursday.

Meet Us

Brett Bachman, Senior Editor for Breaking News

• Hometown: Eau Claire, Wisconsin
• Past: Local TV, the New York Post, Salon, The Daily Mail and The Daily Beast
• Why journalism: I really do believe in the power of journalism to be a force for good in people’s lives. More importantly, it’s always interesting. No two days are alike.
• Why AJI/NOTUS: I love the teaching mission, and NOTUS has assembled a powerhouse of talent. I’m excited to help grow our reach.
• Thing you can’t live without: Ibuprofen and Icy Hot. I play in basketball and tennis leagues throughout the year, and though it’s super fun, I’m not 20 anymore.
• Best advice you’ve ever been given: Don’t ever buy that prepackaged garlic at the grocery store. Cut it up yourself.

New On NOTUS

• Trump Once Said Marco Rubio Was a ‘Disaster’ With Money. A Decade Later, Rubio’s Finances Haven’t Improved Much: He’s surrounded by millionaires and billionaires in Donald Trump’s cabinet.
• An ‘Egregious’ Backlog: Interior Searches for Ways to Speed Up Native American Probate Court: There were 48,000 unresolved probate cases as of May. Some families wait generations for their case to be heard.
• Democrats Ask SCOTUS to Keep Contribution Limits in Place — Or Let Them Go to Court: Party committees seek to keep limits on “coordinated spending” in place.
• Democrats Fear Brain Drain as the Trump Administration Targets Foreign Students: “International students help drive cutting-edge research, fuel our universities and build the industries of tomorrow,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi said.

Not Us

• A choose-your-fighter breakdown of the NJ governor race, by Dustin Racioppi and Anna Wiederkehr for Politico
• A city’s dream deal promised jobs, money. Then residents learned it was with Elon Musk, by Holly Bailey for The Washington Post
• AI-powered fanfiction blurs political reality, by David Weigel and Kadia Goba for Semafor

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