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Back from two weeks of exploring, eating, relaxing and catching up with good friends in SE Asia. Congress is also back to put together and -they hope- pass a major bill on Trump’s agenda. Gonna be a busy May!

House lawmakers are proposing a $200 annual registration fee on EVs and $100 annually on hybrids. Part of the big reconciliation package lawmakers are working on.

Van Drew on says his redline on Medicaid - “I will not vote for any bill that cuts eligible legal people, human beings or entities. That means hospitals, that means nursing homes, that means out working poor, that means disabled, all of those things.”

The GOP budget proposes to fold the audit watchdog - the PCAOB - into the SEC and force the SEC to eat its $400m budget and 800 staff. The result would be either (a) the SEC is hit with a 20% cut or (b) we stop enforcing rules to ensure legit audits.

New: House Judiciary is backtracking on its effort to consolidate FTC and DOJ antitrust enforcement. The manager’s amendment in today’s markup would strike that section from the panel’s portion of the reconciliation bill

Johnson says the tax package/one big beautiful bill is “coming together very well.” We are awaiting some final calculations on a few of the tax components, and we expect to be able to complete that work on a very aggressive schedule.”

HAPPENING NOW: Panel on Russian journalists reporting from exile, moderated by Alsu Kurmasheva. Panelists include Masha Borzunova and Mikhail Zygar. #WorldPressFreedomDay2025

Toplines from Trump's FY2026 budget request, out just now: —23% drop in overall spending —$163B in cuts to DEI, climate, "bureaucracy" —Would be lowest discretionary spending since 2017 — +13% in defense spending — +65% in DHS (border, ICE) — No changes to Social Security

K Tully-McManus AlexGangitano Ghost of Tip O'Neill the budget is a fantasy document. the elimination of the Longworth Dunkin is real

!! Debra Tice at the Press Freedom Center about Austin Tice - “...for 12 and a half years, our government knew exactly where Austin was, and we had an opportunity to bring him home.” No longer the case

VOA staffers now are being silenced on X, with savevoa being suspended.