Happy Friday! Here's what's happening in Washington as summer hits full stride.
Trump Refuses to Sign Housing Bill, but It Will Likely Become Law Tonight Anyway
President Donald Trump said Friday that he does not intend to sign a bipartisan housing affordability bill as a protest against the failure of Congress to pass a separate election bill that would tighten the rules governing voting nationwide.
"I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT," Trump wrote on his social media platform.
Trump's protest is largely symbolic. The housing bill, called the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, will become law automatically just after midnight, assuming Trump does not formally veto it.
Voiding a victory: When the bill passed by huge margins in both chambers in June - likely sufficient to override any veto attempt - Democratic and Republican lawmakers hailed it as a major accomplishment that would help more families find affordable housing, with Trump's press secretary calling it "one of the most significant pieces of housing legislation in American history." But Trump abruptly canceled a signing ceremony for the bill scheduled on June 24, saying he would sign it only if Congress also passed a voter ID bill called the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot.
Lacking the 60 votes required to advance, the voting bill is stuck in the Senate. Trump has repeatedly called for it to pass, saying it is his top legislative priority and the key to Republican victory in the midterms. On Friday, he said that not passing the bill is "CRAZY, and a serious threat to any politician who votes against it!"
"I will no longer be able to call them Dumocrats again!" Trump's social media post says, referring to Democrats. "The title of DUMB will revert to the Republicans who allowed this horrible calamity to happen to our Party, and our Nation, itself!"
A worry about messaging: Trump's lack of enthusiasm for the housing bill does little to help Republicans trying to convince voters that they hear their concerns about affordability - a concept that the president has mocked.
"This is the exact kind of bill they want to point to and say Republicans are working on issues that their voters care about, and Democrats would want the same," Julian Zelizer, a history professor at Princeton University, told The Washington Post. "That's not the signal that the administration is sending."
Instead, Trump is expected to allow the bill to become law by ignoring it, distancing himself from what could be one of Republicans' best pitches to voters in the fall.
Chart of the Day: Gas Price Peril
As the United States and Iran once again trade blows in the Persian Gulf, the price of oil has bounced higher after falling for the past few weeks, with gas and diesel prices following suit. The average price of gasoline rose to $3.88 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA. That's about 90 cents higher than before the start of the war on February 28, though well below the peak of $4.56 recorded in May.
Some Republicans in Congress are reportedly worried that higher gas prices will hurt them in the midterms - and that Trump has little concern about it either way.
"He and the Iranian leadership share many common traits: survival and control and self-enhancement drive both," a Republican member of the House told Politico, referring to the president. "Midterms are still beyond Trump's focus zone. Not screwing us might be his goal, but he's screwing us into political oblivion."
Still, plenty of Republicans are sticking with Trump, accepting his argument that preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons overrides other concerns, which will be dealt with later. "As the Iranian terror threat is fully neutralized, Americans will again see cooling inflation, gas prices at multi-year lows, and accelerated economic growth," a White House spokesperson said.
Highway Bill Would Increase Trust Fund Deficit: CBO
The surface transportation reauthorization bill currently under consideration in the House would increase the deficit in the Highway Trust Fund by billions of dollars over the next five years, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.
In its analysis of House Resolution 8870, the BUILD America 250 Act, CBO found that the five-year deficit in the highway account would rise from an estimated $86.0 billion to $99.5 billion, while the deficit in the transit account would rise from an estimated $45.2 billion to $48.2 billion.
The bill, which advanced through committee in a 62-2 vote in May, would provide $580 billion for highway and rail programs over the next five years. It would impose new fees on electric vehicles in an effort to make up for the loss of fuel taxes. According to the CBO, those fees would help offset some of the revenue losses, but only modestly, and not enough to cover the proposed new spending.
Fiscal News Roundup
- Iran and US to Continue Talks, but Ceasefire Is 'OVER,' Trump Says – Politico
- Trump Will Let Bipartisan Housing Bill Become Law Without Signing in Protest Over GOP Voter ID Law – Associated Press
- GOP Faces Megabill Angst and a 'Time Problem' – Politico
- Gas Prices Climbing Again as US-Iran Tensions Flare – CBS News
- The Gas Is Cheap. The Trump Administration Isn't Saying Who's Paying for It – Politico
- Donald Trump Ousts Election Commission Members in Latest Push to Reshape US Voting Process – Associated Press
- Trump, Ending Decades of Protection, Opens Wild Habitats to Drilling and Mining – New York Times
- Trump Administration Taps Climate Science Critic to Oversee Flagship Report – New York Times
- Millions Who Rely on US-Funded HIV/AIDS Programs Face Uncertainty as Financial Cliff Looms – CNN
- Contaminated Food, Unwashed Hands: Inside an ICE Detention Facility – New York Times
- Crews Are Draining the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Again as Part of Trump's Troubled Revamp – Associated Press
Views and Analysis
- Trump's Renewed Iran Strikes Put Republicans in a Bind – Mark Satter et al, Politico
- Trump Leans on 'Communist' Messaging as Economic Angst Drives Democrats – Franco Ordoñez, NPR
- Government-Seeded Accounts Could Test Trump's 'communists' Claim – John T. Bennett, Roll Call
- How Trump's Tariffs Really 'Work' – Wall Street Journal Editorial Board
- They Harvest the Nation's Food, but a New Rule May Strip Them of Health Insurance – Paula Andalo, KFF
- Jerrold Nadler: Penn Station Won't Fund Itself – Rep. Jerrold L. Nadler (D-NY), New York Times
- America's Clean Energy Expansion Isn't Doomed – Washington Post Editorial Board
- How American Socialism Changed, and Stormed the Democratic Party – Jia Lynn Yang, New York Times
- 'We're Going to Need a Bigger Boat' - Our Budget Process Is Causing Our Fiscal Problems – Doug Branch, The Hill
- If Florida Slashes Property Taxes, Where Will the Money Come From? – Richard Fausset, New York Times