Morning Report — Border bill, possible Netanyahu speech divide Congress

Tax returns, artificial intelligence and border security. Those are just some of the issues lawmakers are set to tackle in the coming weeks, as Congress checks items off the legislative bucket list ahead of their summer recess.

Meanwhile, House Republicans are plotting an ambitious schedule to pass all 12 annual government funding bills for fiscal 2025 by August, but negotiators say they are already off to a late start. GOP leadership unveiled the proposed plan at a conference meeting Wednesday, reports The Hill’s Aris Folley, with aims to start in the House in early June.

“If we don’t hit any speed bumps it could work,” Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), chair of the funding subcommittee that oversees dollars for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Wednesday. “But we usually hit speed bumps.”

But first on the docket: the bipartisan Senate border bill, which failed to gain support in February, but is being put up for a new vote today by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Though he supported the measure when it was first negotiated, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told President Biden Monday that Republicans plan to vote against it.

The White House response? Goading Senate Republicans to support the package they abandoned after former President Trump voiced his opposition.

“Senate Republicans will have another opportunity to decide whether they want to support the toughest, fairest border security agreement in decades or whether they will continue putting their partisan political interests ahead of the nation and security,” a senior administration official told reporters Wednesday.

The blame game highlights the downward spiral the erstwhile deal has taken from an actionable piece of legislation early this year to a twice-doomed messaging bill with no chance of becoming law, writes The Hill’s Rafael Bernal. In February, only four Republicans voted for the deal. Across the aisle, the measure raised the ire of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, a key immigration stakeholder that was visibly kept out of the negotiating room.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are already balking at the prospect of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing a joint session of Congress, with liberal Democrats and progressives vowing a boycott. The conflict has been an ongoing headache for Biden and other Democratic leaders, write The Hill’s Mike Lillis and Mychael Schnell, who are attempting to strike a delicate balance between supporting America’s closest Middle Eastern ally and denouncing elements of Netanyahu’s military strategy, which has resulted in more than 34,000 civilian deaths in Gaza.

“I boycotted his last visit. I certainly will not attend this one,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a Jewish Democrat who characterized Netanyahu as “a menace.” “It’s not going to help move us forward — it’s a detriment. Should he come for any reason, in any venue, I am not going to be there.”

There’s still some hope for bipartisanship — in the form of new legislation that would target presidents’ tax returns, as well as any foreign payments, in a bid for increased transparency and an election-year push to curb foreign influence. The bill, introduced by House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), would require presidents and vice presidents to disclose their tax returns and any foreign payments made to them or their families in the two years prior to taking office, during their term in office and in the two years following (The Hill and ABC News).

Porter said that “by boosting transparency and requiring additional financial disclosures, Congress can shine a light on improper conduct in the Executive Branch — or be confident that none occurred.”

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⚖️ Hunter Biden, who heads to trial June 3 in Delaware on felony gun charges, was granted a delay Wednesday until Sept. 5 for a separate trial on tax charges in California. The younger Biden’s laptop will be at the center of the government’s evidence while prosecuting him for purchasing a revolver in 2018 and allegedly lying on a government form about his drug use at the time. Biden owned the weapon for 11 days and never fired it, according to his legal team. He pleaded not guilty in October. “The defendant’s laptop is real (it will be introduced as a trial exhibit) and it contains significant evidence of the defendant’s guilt,” prosecutors wrote in a Wednesday court filing. Lawyers for the president’s son have said the laptop files were manipulated.

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LEADING THE DAY

POLITICS

Nikki Haley plans to vote for Trump, a man she campaigned to defeat this year and a presumptive nominee she has said creates “chaos” wherever he goes. “Biden has been a catastrophe” on international affairs, securing the border and defending U.S. allies abroad, she said at a Hudson Institute event Wednesday while explaining her intended vote.

After Haley quit the primary race in March, allies predicted she would ultimately endorse Trump to avoid permanently alienating the GOP's hardcore base.

“I’m not looking for anything from him,” Haley said in February.

Two big questions: What happens to Haley’s supporters who backed her before and after she withdrew from the contest? And would Trump consider her to be his running mate? He has said no.

Some Senate Republicans who have been Trump detractors plan to skip the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this summer. GOP Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Todd Young (Ind.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) told The Hill they do not plan to attend the nominating event. Republican Sens. Mike Rounds (S.D.), Susan Collins (Maine), Bill Cassidy (La.) and Rand Paul (Ky.) indicated they are undecided. Of the group, Rounds and Tillis support Trump’s third bid for the White House after holding out for months.

Trump has called Romney a “Democrat secret asset.” Romney said the former president, whom he voted to convict during impeachment, had a “dangerous approach” in office and an authoritarian streak.

The former president has described Murkowski as a “RINO” — Republican in name only — who was “disloyal.” Rounds made it clear he would vote for his party’s presidential nominee this year as his preferred choice to Biden.

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ZOOM IN

HEALTH & WELL-BEING

A SECOND CASE OF BIRD FLU has been confirmed in humans, health officials said. A farmworker in Michigan was the second human to be infected with the current H5N1 bird flu virus, resulting in mild symptoms and a full recovery, according to state health officials. The virus has been circulating in dairy and poultry farms across the U.S. this spring, and the farmworker was in contact with dairy cattle presumed to be infected.

“The current health risk to the general public remains low,” Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan’s chief medical executive, said in a statement. “We have not seen signs of sustained human-to-human transmission at this point. This is exactly how public health is meant to work, in early detection and monitoring of new and emerging illnesses.”

Federal health officials told reporters Wednesday the case was detected because they were looking for it and emphasized that farmworkers remain at elevated risk. As exposures increase, the risk of additional cases among humans increases, they said (The Hill and NBC News).

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ELSEWHERE

INTERNATIONAL

CEASE-FIRE: Earlier this month, Egyptian intelligence officials quietly changed the terms of a cease-fire proposal that Israel had already signed off on, ultimately jeopardizing a deal that could have released Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and set a pathway to temporarily end the fighting in Gaza, CNN reports. The agreement that Hamas ended up announcing on May 6 was not what Qatari or U.S. officials believed had been submitted to Hamas for a potential final review. The changes made by Egyptian intelligence led to a wave of anger and recrimination among the mediators, and left the talks at an impasse.

“We were all duped,” one source told CNN.

Egypt threatened Wednesday to withdraw as a mediator in the talks, with Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s State Information Service, saying in a statement that “attempts to cast doubt and offend Egypt’s mediation efforts… will only lead to further complications of the situation in Gaza and the entire region” (The Times of Israel).

“A DISTORTED STEP”: Israel dismissed Norway, Spain and Ireland’s announcement Wednesday that they would formally recognize a Palestinian state on May 28. The move is intended to pressure Israel to accept a political process to end its war with Hamas in Gaza. In response, Israel recalled its ambassadors to the three countries.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Hamas both welcomed the announcement. Israel announced it will not transfer much-needed funds to the Palestinian Authority in the wake of the countries’ decision, threatening to push the Palestinian government into a deeper fiscal crisis (CBS News and The New York Times).

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THE CLOSER

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