Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, died Wednesday morning at 75 years old, his family said.
What they're saying: "It is with immense sadness that we share that our devoted and loving father, husband, brother, friend, and public servant, Congressman Gerald E. Connolly, passed away peacefully at his home this morning," the family said in a statement.
Connolly had been battling with esophageal cancer, prompting him to announce last month that he would step aside as ranking member of the Oversight panel.
This story is adapted from the new book "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson.
Needing video of then-President Biden speaking sharply and fluidly in a freewheeling setting, his campaign staged a closed-to-the-press town hall with a friendly audience in April 2024.
The resulting footage was unusable, CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson write in their new book, "Original Sin."
Why it matters: The episode highlights the lengths that Biden's campaign went to cover for his deficiencies as an 81-year-old re-election candidate — and how difficult he made it to carry out the basic blocking and tackling of a modern campaign.
Behind the scenes: The event at a high school gym in Biden's home state of Delaware was supposed to be the basis for a campaign commercial. The idea was to create scenes of Biden taking off-the-cuff questions from voters that could be used in ads.
The campaign had a full list of the questions the voters would ask, and cameras rolled for 90 minutes with Biden on stage.
Some blamed the gym's lighting for the event being a dud, while others firmly pointed the finger at Biden's performance.
The big picture: The staged town hall was just one of a series of frustrations the campaign faced in trying to salvage workable video of Biden, Tapper and Thompson report in the book.
The campaign regularly needed recorded remarks from Biden that could be played at events or used in fundraising pitches, but the candidate often was unable to tape even mundane remarks without botching lines.
When supportive groups requested a taped five-minute video address from Biden, the White House would respond by saying the video would be one or two minutes.
As a workaround, Biden would be filmed with two cameras instead of one, so that any flubbed lines could be smoothed over with jump cuts.
Even with such accommodations, videos sometimes were unsalvageable. In some cases, the heavy edits were so obvious that campaign staffers regretted putting them out.
Reality check: Many campaigns use two cameras to film remarks to make the editing process easier. But the extent of how reliant Biden was on them troubled campaign officials.
Past campaigns also have used stage town halls to film commercials, as well as authentic ones. Biden was doing virtually no authentic town halls.
What they're saying: "The man could not speak," said one person involved.
Staff blamed Biden's inability to find words or stay on a train of thought — not his stutter — for the issue.
"Every shoot was anxiety-inducing for Biden's team," Thompson and Tapper wrote.
Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden have pushed back on reports of his decline, acknowledging that he had been physically slowed by age but saying that never affected his performance as president.
"The people who wrote those books were not in the White House with us, and they didn't see how hard Joe worked every single day," Jill Biden said earlier this month during the Bidens' appearance on "The View."
A Biden spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The book is based on interviews with more than 200 people, mostly Democratic insiders, with knowledge of the events that unfolded during the final two years of Biden's presidency. Almost all of the interviews took place after the 2024 election.
President Trump yesterday declared himself the biggest "fiscal hawk" in Washington.
He then spent the next hour urging Republicans to unite behind the most budget-busting legislation in modern U.S. history.
Why it matters: Trump's "big, beautiful bill" is projected to add trillions to the deficit over the next decade — rattling conservatives who have long warned that the U.S. is barreling toward fiscal catastrophe.
Some Republicans now find themselves trapped between two of the party's most animating principles: Deficit reduction vs. absolute loyalty to Trump.
That tension is threatening to derail Trump's vision for a new "Golden Age," which the White House hopes will begin in earnest with a vote on the House floor this week.
State of play: Trump and his aides have brushed off warnings that his ambitious tax-and-spending bill — combined with his pledge not to touch Social Security and Medicare — could balloon the national debt, which now tops $36 trillion.
White House officials emphasize they inherited sky-high deficits from the Biden administration, and say their policy mix of spending cuts, deregulation, tariffs, and pro-growth policies will bring them down.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt went as far as to claim that the bill "does not add to the deficit," and that it would actually save $1.6 trillion through spending cuts and Medicaid work requirements.
Reality check: Independent budget experts see that as laughable.
Moody's, which downgraded the U.S. credit rating on Friday, estimates that extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts alone — a central component of the bill — would add $4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.
What they're saying: "This tax bill's enormity is being underplayed ... [It] will cost more than the 2017 tax cuts, the pandemic CARES Act, Biden's stimulus, and the Inflation Reduction Act combined," Jessica Riedl, a budget specialist at the conservative Manhattan Institute, told Yahoo Finance.
Jim Millstein, a former chief restructuring officer at the Treasury Department, warned that most deficit projections "assume consistent economic growth."
"Just imagine the Trump tariffs ... cause a recession," Millstein told Bloomberg. "They are risking a fiscal disaster."
The other side: Some Republicans argue that not passing the bill poses a more immediate threat. If Trump's 2017 tax cuts are allowed to expire, taxes would rise for 62% of filers, according to the Tax Foundation.
Some conservatives also reject the notion that cutting taxes should be equated with the type of deficit spending that Congress approved during the Biden administration.
"If you think a tax cut is a cost, you're standing in the shoes of the government, not the American people," anti-tax activist Grover Norquist told the Washington Post. "Tax cuts are income to Americans and a loss to the bureaucracy."
The bottom line: The cost of interest on America's national debt is already soaring. If rates remain as high as they are now, the U.S. could owe $40 trillion more in interest payments alone over the next 30 years.
In their fury over the Trump administration's charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), House Democrats are planning to ramp up oversight visits to ICE facilities, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The prosecution effort has, to a shocking degree, galvanized Democrats on an issue that perennially divides them — with even the party's centrist border hawks railing against it.
"Members are getting increasingly angry and frustrated at the overreach, and now one of our members has been singled out for intimidation," said House Administration Committee ranking member Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.).
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), a moderate, told Axios: "Democrats should be all over oversight. ... We have to double down. We have to do more."
What we're hearing: Several House Democratic groups have discussed organizing oversight visits to ICE facilities during the next week's recess, multiple lawmakers familiar with the conversations told Axios.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) told Axios that "many of us were going to go visit anyway, and we're going to move those visits as soon as we can."
"We actually discussed at our Progressive Caucus meeting ... doing more of those visits," said Progressive Caucus chair Greg Casar (D-Texas), who said members want to show they "will not be cowed" by Trump.
What happened: McIver was charged with two counts of assaulting law enforcement officers in connection with a scuffle she and other House Democrats had with ICE officials in New Jersey earlier this month.
The confrontation occurred outside the Delany Hall detention center, a migrant holding facility that the Democrats alleged is being operated by a private prison company without the proper permitting.
The lawmakers — along with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested at the scene — made an unannounced visit to conduct oversight of the facility.
The Trump administration has accused McIver of elbowing officers as they arrested Baraka, but she has said she was the one who was assaulted.
What they're saying: Democrats from across the political spectrum have condemned the charges as baseless, accusing the Trump administration of trying to intimidate them into not conducting oversight.
"My hope is that we don't let what the administration is doing — trying to stifle our voices — shut us down," said Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), the chair of the center-left New Democrat Coalition.
"When the shoe was on the other foot, we allowed Republicans to do these unannounced visits. There was no stopping them from doing that, there was no bulls**t like that," said Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.).
Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.), one of the lawmakers who was with McIver at Delany Hall, told Axios: "The idea that we're going to change course or do anything other than we've done previously is just not the case."
What to watch: In addition to group trips, some individual House Democrats are already talking about making their own visits to nearby ICE facilities while back in their districts over the Memorial Day break.
"I think we should be doubling down, and I think what you're hearing from our members is we need to be spending next week doing these visits," said Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.).
"I'm prepared to go to the detention centers in Indiana," she added. "If they're going to arrest me, then so be it."
President Trump's campaign to dismantle FEMA is on the verge of a high-stakes stress test, as the U.S. hurtles toward peak disaster season under uniquely dangerous conditions.
Why it matters: Extreme weather is growing deadlier and more destructive. But instead of strengthening the systems that help states respond, the Trump administration is gutting FEMA, banning climate change research and urging governors to go it alone.
State of play: With less than two weeks until the start of Atlantic hurricane season, leaks from inside the government continue to suggest that FEMA is understaffed, underfunded and underprepared.
Acting FEMA head Cameron Hamilton was fired earlier this month after testifying to Congress that eliminating the agency — as Trump has called for — is not "in the best interests of the American people."
His successor, David Richardson, has no experience managing natural disasters and acknowledged in private meetings that the agency doesn't yet have a fully formed hurricane response plan, the Wall Street Journal reported.
"As FEMA transforms to a smaller footprint, the intent for this hurricane season is not well understood," warned an internal review obtained by CNN. "Thus FEMA is not ready."
"I say you don't need FEMA. You need a good state government," Trump said during a tour of the Los Angeles wildfires in January. "FEMA is a very expensive, in my opinion, mostly failed situation."
FEMA, which was created under President Jimmy Carter and is part of the Department of Homeland Security, has shed roughly 1,000 workers and over a dozen senior leaders as a result of DOGE cuts.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told Trump in March that she would move to "eliminate" FEMA, though that would ultimately require an act of Congress.
Zoom in: Miami hurricane specialist John Morales warned that staffing cuts at FEMA are "yet another reason hurricane season 2025 has a greater chance of being the most tragic in memory."
Morales — who was brought nearly to tears on live TV last year during his coverage of Hurricane Milton — told Axios he feels like he's "flying blind heading into this hurricane season."
As tornadoes have ripped across parts of the central and southern U.S. in recent days, local leaders pleaded for federal aid.
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said Monday, days after a deadly tornado outbreak in her city: "This is where FEMA and the federal government has got to come in and help our communities. Our city cannot shoulder this alone. The state of Missouri cannot shoulder this alone."
Asked whether FEMA was on the ground yet, she said no.
The White House and FEMA did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
Flashback: Trump has a long history of spreading misinformation about natural disasters and FEMA — including during the campaign, when Hurricanes Helene and Milton impacted multiple southern states.
He has also threatened to weaponize disaster relief against blue states, demanding, for example, that California implement voter ID in exchange for federal wildfire aid.
Between the lines: "I think we're all in agreement about [FEMA] reform, but let's do it smartly and be able at the same time to complete the mission," Pete Gaynor, who ran FEMA for about two years during Trump's first term, told Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick earlier this year,
The frequency and extremity of disasters themselves have strained FEMA's "workforce in unprecedented ways," a U.S. Government Accountability Office report found early last year.
The agency is on track to run out of disaster relief funds by July or August for the third consecutive year, and the administration canceled billions of dollars in grants for disaster preparedness.
As climate change worsens the severity of storms in disaster-prone states, many of them are still reeling from one storm (Helene) when the next one hits (Milton).
But the timing of Trump's FEMA overhaul couldn't be worse, experts warn.
"If you're serious about making a big policy change, and shifting the balance of responsibility from federal to state government, you have to give states a chance to legislate to fill the gap," Sarah Labowitz of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told Axios.
"A lot of state legislatures are meeting now and winding down their legislative sessions before there's a clear policy landscape from the administration, and while disaster season is getting started," she added.
New research says 49 is the age when physical activity markedly declines.
Why it matters: Putting a number on when exercise drops off could encourage people to establish active habits early — before brain changes can make it harder to get moving.
"We've always said this phrase, 'Physical activity declines with age.' It's really nice to be able to put a number to it," said Timothy Morris, an assistant professor of physical therapy, human movement and rehabilitation sciences at Northeastern University.
What they did: Researchers analyzed MRI scans and self-reported activity levels from adults ages 18 to 81. 52% were female and 48% male.
What they found: Physical activity drops off suddenly around age 49.
The study used data from nearly 600 people in and around Cambridge, U.K., so the findings may not apply broadly.
The big picture: The brain could bepartly to blame for a drop in exercise, Morris said.
When you age, the part of the brain that helps control impulses — the "salience network" — changes.
So at a certain point, your brain won't naturally "inhibit that desire to sit on the sofa," Morris says.
How can we get motivated to move, despite a desire to stay put?
Start young.
During childhood is best. Kids who play sports growing up are more likely to be physically active as adults, studies find.
Make it fun.
Opting to be active simply because it feels good might help you bypass the innate human desire to minimize effort, Morris said.
Morris is finding preliminary evidence that offering adults "points" for exercising (equivalent to a few cents) gets people out the door. And it seems to be much more effective at getting people moving than reminding them of the health benefits of exercising.
What we're watching: A postdoc in Morris' lab is focused on the connection between exercise and brain changes specific to perimenopause, a topic that's gotten more research and legal attention lately.
Washington, D.C. is once again home to the country's best city park system, a new ranking finds.
Why it matters: City parks serve as community meeting spots and civic spaces, offer room for exercise and fresh air, and can draw in new residents — but they require investment, attention and protection.
Driving the news: That's according to the 2025 ParkScore index, an annual ranking from the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a pro-park nonprofit.
The report ranks the 100 most populous U.S. cities' park systems relative to one another based on five categories: acreage, access, amenities, investment and equity.
What they found: D.C. took home top honors with a total of 85.5 points, thanks in part to big access and investment scores.
Irvine, California, came in second, while Minneapolis ranked third.
Zoom in: Irvine jumped from fourth place in 2024 to second this year — "propelled," TPL says, by "continued progress on its 'Great Park,' one of the most ambitious public park projects in the country."
Denver's now in the top 10 (up from 13th last year), while Cincinnati moved from eighth to fourth.
Stunning stats: Among the cities analyzed, $12.2 billion was invested in park and recreation systems in 2024, while 76% of residents now live within a 10-minute walk of a park.
Those are both records since TPL started tracking such figures in 2007 and 2012, respectively.
What's next: Some of the money cities are spending on public parks lately is tied to pandemic-era federal infrastructure funding, which won't last forever.
"It'll be interesting to see over the next couple of years, if there aren't replacement funds ... what that will mean for cities and communities that are really wanting to invest in parks," TPL president and CEO Carrie Besnette Hauser tells Axios.
Representatives for Andrew Cuomo, a New York City mayoral race front-runner, on Tuesday questioned the timing of a reported Trump Department of Justice investigation into the former Democratic N.Y. governor.
Why it matters: The New York Times first reported that the investigation into Cuomo over decisions he made as governor during the COVID pandemic began about a month ago, after the DOJ moved to have the criminal corruption case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams dismissed.
"That puts the Trump administration in the unusual position of having ended a criminal case against the leader of the nation's largest city — Mr. Adams, who is running for re-election as an independent — and opened one into his chief rival, Mr. Cuomo, who is leading the Democratic primary field in the polls, in the span of a few months," the NYT noted.
What they're saying: "We have never been informed of any such matter, so why would someone leak it now?" said Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, in a statement shared with outlets including Axios.
"The answer is obvious: This is lawfare and election interference plain and simple — something President Trump and his top Department of Justice officials say they are against," he added.
State of play: Cuomo came under fire during the early stages of the pandemic for his handling of COVID in nursing homes and House Republicans in a criminal referral last year accused him of violating the law by allegedly making false statements during congressional testimony on the matter.
The NYT reports that U.S. attorney's office in D.C. began the investigation into Cuomo in response to this when Ed Martin was running the office before he was replaced by former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, whom the NYC mayor candidate beat to become N.Y. state attorney general in 2006.
Pirro was scathing in her criticism of Cuomo's handling of the pandemic on her show "Justice with Judge Jeanine," notably saying in one segment after he was accused of covering up nursing home deaths in 2021: "You cannot escape the consequences of your intentional and reckless acts."
Azzopardi said in his emailed statement Tuesday that Cuomo "testified truthfully to the best of his recollection about events from four years earlier, and he offered to address any follow-up questions from the Subcommittee — but from the beginning this was all transparently political."
A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment on the matter and representatives for the White House and the U.S. Attorney's office in D.C. did not immediately respond to Axios' Tuesday evening request for comment.
Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
The House GOP's blue state holdouts are close to a deal on the "big, beautiful bill" that would raise the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap to $40k a year for people making up to $500,000 a year, sources familiar told Axios.
Why it matters: Getting the blue state holdouts on board is a must-do for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who wants a House floor vote Wednesday on the full bill.
Zoom in: Johnson offered the holdouts on Monday an increase for the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000 a year, within income limits.
The speaker then got an assist from President Trump, who told the holdouts to cut a deal and warned them to stop pushing so hard.
The agreement that's in final negotiations is a $40k a year cap for people making up to $500,000 a year. The income phaseout would grow 1% a year for 10 years, and then the deduction would become permanent.
Not all the details have final agreement, but sources said they're making progress and they expect most SALT members to agree to the terms before passage.
The bottom line: That number would keep the GOP within the $350 billion window that it has left for cuts, according to the reconciliation bill instructions.
This story is adapted from the new book "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson.
Mike Donilon, a top adviser to former President Biden, was paid about $4 million to work on the 2024 Biden campaign at the president's insistence, CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson write in their new book, "Original Sin."
Why it matters: The sum was orders of magnitude higher than the pay for other top aides — campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon made $300,000 — and illustrates the standing held by Biden's inner-most circle of advisers.
Many former Biden officials remain bitter at Donilon for making so much money and, in their view, guiding the campaign into disaster.
Behind the scenes: In early 2024,Donilon agreed to shift from the White House to the campaign, but wouldn't budge on his asking price.
"The president told the campaign: Pay Mike what he wants," the authors report. "Senior campaign staff were outraged when they heard about this arrangement."
Between the lines: Donilon's pay has caused further resentment among many Biden aides toward the former president's inner-circle and their handling of the re-election campaign.
They argue that Biden's top aides should have had to courage to confront him about the huge risks of running for a second term, and not profited so much from what was ultimately an unsuccessful campaign.
Some former Biden aides are quietly trying to separate themselves from the Biden re-election effort.
What they're saying: A Biden spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Donilon has rejected the notion that Biden's acuity and judgment declined during his tenure, calling it an "impression" fueled by the media.
The book is based on interviews with more than 200 people, mostly Democratic insiders, with knowledge of the events that unfolded during the final two years of Biden's presidency. Almost all of the interviews took place after the 2024 election.
Google used this week's I/O developer conference to announce a slew of new AI features and experiences, along with a new $250-a-month subscription service for those who want to access the company's latest tools.
Why it matters: Google is aiming to prove that it can make its core products better through AI without displacing its highly lucrative advertising and search businesses.
Key announcements Google made Tuesday:
It debuted Flow, a new AI filmmaking tool that draws on the company's latest Veo 3 engine and adds audio capabilities. The company also announced Imagen 4, its latest image generator, which Google says is better at rendering text, among other improvements.
Google said it would soon make broadly available its latest Gemini 2.5 Flash and Pro models and add a new reasoning mode for the Pro model called Deep Think.
Google will make its AI Mode, a chat-like version of search, broadly available in the U.S., and it's updating the underlying model to use a custom version of Gemini 2.5.
It's also beginning to allow customers to give large language models access to their personal data — starting with the ability to generate personalized smart replies to Gmail messages that draw on a user's email history. That feature will be available for paying subscribers this summer, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said.
On the coding front, Google offered further details on Jules, its autonomous agent, which is now available in public beta. Microsoft and OpenAI have also announced new coding agents in recent days.
For those who want to make sure they can have the most access to Google's AI models, the company is introducing Google AI Ultra, a $250-a-month service.
The high-end subscription — an alternative to the standard $20-a-month basic service — includes access to a number of its most powerful AI agents, models and services, as well as YouTube Premium and 30TB of cloud storage.
Also in Google's cavalcade of demos, the company showed an early prototype of its Android XR glasses searching, taking photos and performing live translation.
The glasses have audio and camera features similar to Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, but also offer an optional display. (Meta is also said to be working on a version of its glasses with a built-in display for later this year.)
Partners include Samsung and eyewear makers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster.
The big picture: Google's event comes a day after Microsoft made a slew of announcements at its Build conference in Seattle. Anthropic, meanwhile, is holding its first-ever developer conference on Thursday in San Francisco.
Former President Biden's team on Tuesday sought to shut down questions over how long they've known about his cancer diagnosis.
The big picture: After previous concerns that the 82-year-old's health issues may have been covered up in the past, Biden's disclosure over the weekend that he has Stage 4 prostate cancer was met with both sympathy and speculation over its timing.
What they're saying: A spokesperson for Biden told Axios in an emailed statement Tuesday evening that the former president's last known prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test was in 2014.
"Prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer," the spokesperson said.
State of play: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation on screening for prostate cancer holds that it's an individual choice for men age 55-69 and that it offers a small potential benefit of reducing the chances of death.
They worry about potential harms of screening, including additional testing, prostate biopsy, over-treatment and complications.
For those 70 and older, like Biden, they advise against it, saying with moderate certainty that potential benefits don't outweigh expected harms.
Between the lines: Biden was 70 or 71 years old when he had his last PSA, before he had symptoms that led to last Friday's exam. That's within standard guidelines and is not unusual.
It is noteworthy, however, that he apparently was not tested for it even while he was president.
A judge in a late Tuesday order said the Trump administration must "maintain custody and control" of immigrants "being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country" in case he finds such removals were unlawful.
The big picture: Immigration attorneys have accused the administration of deporting immigrants from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan in violation of a court order, per a filing Tuesday that requested their "immediate return."
The attorneys made the filing in a Boston-based federal court to U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, who's already ruled that sending undocumented immigrants to countries they're not citizens of would "clearly violate" an earlier order against sending people to third countries.
The latest: The Biden-appointed Murphy said in his order he's leaving "the practicalities of compliance" to the Trump administration, but he expects the immigrants "will be treated humanely."
Driving the news: The lawyers said the man from Myanmar, identified as N.M., was delivered a notice in English without an interpreter on Monday, saying he'd be sent to South Sudan, an East African country that the State Department advises U.S. citizens not to travel to due to "continued security threats" that include crime, kidnapping and armed conflict.
"N.M. has limited English proficiency," said a San Francisco-based attorney in a Tuesday filing that said she was told after the fact that her client had been "removed" from Texas' Port Isabel Detention Center to South Sudan.
The emergency filing in the Massachusetts District Court said T.T.P., a national of Vietnam, "appears to have suffered the same fate as N.M." and the lawyers had "information that there were likely at least 10 other" immigrants on the deportation plane to South Sudan.
The lawyers said this "blatantly defies" the court order prohibiting sending immigrants to third countries and requested the judge block any further such deportations.
Zoom in: Murphy told Elianis Perez, a Department of Justice lawyer, at a hearing later Tuesday that he has a "strong indication" that his preliminary injunction order "has been violated," per Reuters.
It "seems like it may be contempt" based on what he's been told, but he's "not going to order that the plane turn around," he said, the New York Times reports.
Perez said the Burmese immigrant had been sent to Myanmar and not South Sudan but wouldn't say where T.T.P. or the plane were, nor would she confirm its final destination because she said the information was "classified," according to the NYT.
Joseph Mazzara, the Department of Homeland Security 's acting general counsel, said "at least one rapist and one murderer" were on the flight, citing other administration officials, per the NYT.
Representatives for the Trump administration did not immediately respond to Axios' requests for comment in the evening.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune is blazing forward with a controversial move to repeal California's EV mandate — and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is warning it will come back to bite him.
Why it matters: Schumer (D-N.Y.) all but threatened to deploy similar strategies to get around opinions by key, nonpartisan rule makers if and when he grabs back control of the chamber.
"What goes around comes around," Schumer said on Tuesday. He and other Democratic leaders have described the GOP move as a "nuclear option."
Thune (R-S.D.) accused Democrats of "throwing a tantrum."
Driving the news: The Senate will vote as soon as Wednesday on a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would overturn California's Clean Air Act waiver, leading to an eventual ban on gas-powered vehicles.
The Government Accountability Office issued an opinion saying that the waiver is not a rule that cannot be repealed by the CRA. The Senate parliamentarian then agreed with GAO.
That isn't stopping Republicans.
Zoom in: Key Senate Republican leaders have been discussing the best way to move forward with repealing California's EV policy — and assuring senators with concerns about ignoring the parliamentarian.
For weeks, GOP Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) assured reporters the Senate would move forward with the CRA, making the case for it on the Senate floor and in an op-ed.
Senate Rules Chair Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a staunch defender of Senate procedure, spoke in favor of using the CRA during a closed-door lunch last week. His voice was particularly influential for some senators on the fence, according to sources familiar.
Between the lines: Republicans argue the California waiver is a unique case, the GAO does not get to decide what rules can be undone and that their action does not count as overruling the parliamentarian.
"We are not talking about doing anything to erode the institutional character of the Senate," Thune argued on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
Democrats say Republicans are leaving the door wide open for how the CRA can be interpreted and used in the future — and point to past examples of Republicans asking the GAO to weigh in on the CRA.
"To go nuclear on something as significant as this, and to do the bidding of the fossil fuel industry, is outrageous," Schumer said on the Senate floor on Tuesday evening.
Some of the first House Democrats to call for former President Biden to drop his reelection bid in 2024 saw firsthand signs of his deterioration as early as 2023, according to a new book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson.
Why it matters: Many top Democrats, including White House officials, donors and lawmakers, ignored what they were seeing for months or even years. Others, the book says, noticed Biden's shortcomings but kept quiet.
In the end, it was self-preservation that spurred many Democrats to finally drop the charade and urge Biden to get out of the race after his disastrous presidential debate.
The book "Original Sin" is based on interviews with more than 200 people, mostly Democratic insiders, with knowledge of the events that unfolded during the final two years of Biden's presidency. Almost all of the interviews took place after the 2024 election.
Driving the news: Thompson and Tapper write that a White House Christmas party in 2023 was a watershed moment for several Democratic lawmakers.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, was "stunned" to see Biden "completely out of it" while interacting with guests at the photo line.
Upon leaving the party, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and his wife, Liz, "remarked on how frail the president looked and how lethargic he seemed compared with the previous December."
Zoom in: For Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), the book says, the epiphany came even earlier.
During a trip to Ireland in April 2023, Quigley saw Biden rapidly go from energetic to drained. "This was how his father, Bill, had been before he died," the authors write.
"Biden, Quigley thought, needed to go to bed for the rest of the day and night. He wasn't merely physically frail; he had lost almost all of his energy. His speech was breathless, soft, weak."
The other side: "There is nothing in this book that shows Joe Biden failed to do his job, as the authors have alleged, nor did they prove their allegation that there was a cover-up or conspiracy," a Biden spokesperson told Axios.
"Nowhere do they show that our national security was threatened or where the President wasn't otherwise engaged in the important matters of the Presidency. In fact, Joe Biden was an effective President who led our country with empathy and skill."
Some Democrats have leapt to Biden's defense, with Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) saying in a CNN interview that he "never saw anything that allowed me to think that Joe Biden was not able to do the job."
Zoom out: Smith, Moulton and Quigley were among the first House Democrats to call on Biden to withdraw his bid for reelection after his debate with Trump in June 2024.
But they and other House Democratic colleagues had largely kept quiet up until that point.
Former Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who challenged Biden in the Democratic primary, had "tried to get other Democrats to talk about the president's decline, but no one was willing to say anything publicly," the book says.
The former congressman is quoted as saying later: "The whale who spouts gets harpooned."
Between the lines: At a debate watch party, one House Democrat who watched the calamity unfold exclaimed to House Democratic caucus chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.): "I just lost my job."
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) heard from swing-district House Democrats who "were getting polling back that indicated Biden's campaign was going to drag dozens of them down with it," the book says.
Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) said at a closed-door Democratic caucus meeting: "I lived through the 2010 bloodbath — we lost sixty-three seats. That could happen again."
This story is adapted from the book, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson.
President Trump on Tuesday touted $25 billion in initial funding for the "Golden Dome" and put Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein in charge of realizing the hemispheric missile shield.
The big picture: Golden Dome — previously dubbed Iron Dome, but separate from Israel's missile defense program — is a mammoth undertaking with enthusiastic backing from the president but many doubters in the national security community.
Trump said the project will cost around $175 billion and be built over the next three years, though those are both just estimates. The initial $25 billion will be included in the "big beautiful bill" working its way through Congress, Trump said.
Planning, building, operating and maintaining the Golden Dome, as well as paying for it, will require intense coordination between the Pentagon, Congress, current and future presidents, defense contractors and troops. Trump said Canada also expressed interest in being covered by the shield but would have to "pay their fair share."
Analysts have expressed doubts about the plausibility — and immense costs — of replicating Israel's air defense capabilities at a continental scale. Trump, however, remains bullish.
The latest: Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth discussed the envisioned countermeasures during a televised Oval Office meeting.
They said the missile shield will be designed to block hypersonic missiles, ICBMs and other projectiles, including nuclear weapons, whether they are launched from the earth's surface or from space.
Trump said President Reagan had wanted to build something similar during the Cold War "but they didn't have the technology." Now, he said, the U.S. has "super technology."
"This is very important for the success and even survival of our country. It's a pretty evil world out there," Trump said.
How it works: At the heart of Golden Dome is a mesh of sensors and spotters and space-based interceptors.
Zoom out: Defense companies have been jockeying for position since Trump signed an executive order in January to pursue it.
Lockheed Martin pitched its F-35 stealth fighter, Sentinel A4 radars, command-and-control networks and more as components. Chief operating officer Frank St. John told Axios the project will "require the best of every technology company."
Booz Allen Hamilton unveiled Brilliant Swarms, a nod to the Reagan-era Brilliant Pebbles. It envisions masses of satellites capable of detecting and smashing into missiles. "The longer you wait to kill an enemy ballistic missile, the harder your problem gets," executive vice president Chris Bogdan told Axios.
Meanwhile, Anduril Industries, Palantir Technologies and SpaceX were collaborating on dome-related plans, according to Reuters.
House Speaker Mike Johnson cautioned the Senate in a closed door lunch on Tuesday not to make big changes to the reconciliation bill, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: If Johnson can get his conference in line, his problem will soon be Senate Majority Leader John Thune's (R-S.D.)— with an important July deadline looming on the debt ceiling.
Sources tell Axios that Johnson projected a lot of confidence in the meeting.
Johnson told senators "we're going to land this plane" and to expect a vote on Wednesday night, according to one attendee.
The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee plans to grill the Department of Justice on its decision to charge Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) with assault on law enforcement, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Democrats have roundly condemned the charges as an intimidation effort aimed at chilling their oversight of the Trump administration's deportation policies.
What they're saying: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told Axios he will "definitely" be questioning the Justice Department on the decision-making behind the charges, potentially in the form of a letter.
"It's a terribly troubling situation. It's an absolute assault on congressional powers," he said of the assault charges against McIver.
Security contractors are adapting to DOGE's brutal cost-cutting regime — by pitching their tech as essential to its mission.
Why it matters: As federal workforce cuts deepen, DOGE is expected to lean more heavily on third-party security vendors to help dismantle longstanding information silos — despite the national security risks that could come from its quest.
Driving the news: In recent weeks, DOGE has quietly begun laying the groundwork for what privacy advocates long feared was its endgame: building a centralized database containing the personal information of millions of U.S. citizens and residents.
Some reports also suggest DOGE is exploring ways to deploy AI agents to replace federal workers across agencies, fueling further alarm about the national security and privacy implications.
Between the lines: Several companies are now marketing their tools directly to agencies as a way to survive DOGE's cost-cutting demands.
ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott said in an earnings call last month that his company is benefiting from the shift. "In this moment, we're one of the rare companies that will grow 30% year over year in the public sector," he said.
Wired reported this month that OpenAI has met with the Food and Drug Administration about a tool to evaluate new drugs. Two DOGE associates were also in attendance, according to the report.
A source familiar with the matter confirmed the meetings to Axios, noting that OpenAI has shown clear interest in working specifically with the FDA in some capacity. However, no contracts have been signed yet.
The intrigue: Many of these vendors have ramped up their lobbying power in recent months — particularly with Trump-aligned lobbying firms.
So far in 2025, at least nine security and consulting firms, including Zscaler, Accenture, and Booz Allen Hamilton, have registered with Ballard Partners, according to congressional lobbying disclosures.
Zoom in: Axonius, an Israeli cybersecurity startup with growing federal ambitions, told Axios it's started pitching itself to agencies as a tool that can help them dodge the most severe DOGE audits.
The company's platform gives administrators full visibility into devices, software and users, aligning closely with DOGE's stated mission to streamline IT environments.
Tom Kennedy, vice president of Axonius Federal Systems, told Axios that the company's tools can be "part of a great efficiency story" and that its technology usually gets through relevant DOGE audits.
But Brian Meyer, field CTO at Axonius Federal Systems, added that the company's pitch doesn't endorse job cuts.
"Even before the DOGE, there was a problem in the cybersecurity industry for full-time employees — they're already trying to do more with less," he said. "We've been telling that story for years: Based on what we have, you can do more with the resources that you have."
The big picture: The federal cybersecurity ecosystem has been on edge during the early months of the second Trump administration, amid staff cuts in the federal cyber workforce and a pending Department of Justice investigation into former CISA director Chris Krebs.
Several administration officials met with companies on the sidelines of the RSA Conference last month in the hopes of mending some of these relationships.
Still, some executives say federal work has remained consistent. "We have been really privileged to have a strong relationship with every White House administration," Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince told Axios in an interview.
"It feels like everything today is a partisan issue — but cybersecurity is on the less partisan side of that equation," he added.
Yes, but: That hasn't spared vendors from fallout.
Security research government contractor Mitre is laying off 442 employees, or nearly 5% of its workforce, in June due in part to contract cancellations.
Deloitte has also shared plans to lay off staff, and other consulting firms have warned of declining U.S. federal revenues this year.
"It's disruptive, there's no other way to put it," Kennedy said of DOGE's cuts to the federal cybersecurity workforce. "We were hoping that cybersecurity would be sheltered, and it has not been from a human side."
The chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee told Axios the House GOP's campaign arm will stick with its policy of not intervening in Republican primaries if President Trump tries to knock off incumbents.
Why it matters: Trump told reporters on Tuesday that House Republicans who vote against his "big, beautiful bill" could "possibly" face primary challenges, saying they would be "knocked out so fast."
Trump said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a key holdout on the bill who the president tried and failed to primary in 2020, "should be voted out of office."
What they're saying: NRCC chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), asked about Trump's comments, told Axios, "I don't want to comment on something I didn't hear."
But, pressed further on whether the NRCC would get engaged to protect GOP incumbents targeted by Trump, he said: "We don't do primaries."
The NRCC has long had a formal policy of not spending in GOP primaries — though Republican leadership has occasionally faced accusations of meddling in primaries to protect incumbents.
