Conservatives Threaten to Sink House Budget Plan

Sipa USA/Reuters
Sipa USA/Reuters
By Michael Rainey

Happy Tuesday. Republicans are still wrangling over their budget blueprint as Speaker Mike Johnson faces complaints that it fails to cut spending enough - or cuts too much, especially from Medicaid, in ways that could hurt the party politically. Over at the White House, President Trump is preparing for his first Cabinet meeting tomorrow, which will include DOGE overseer Elon Musk. The White House also revealed the name of the official administrator of DOGE today, something it has avoided doing until now. Amy Gleason, who has worked as a senior adviser to the U.S. Digital Service, which the Trump administration transformed into DOGE, will serve as the acting administrator of the organization.

Conservatives Threaten to Sink House Budget Plan

The House approved a measure to vote on the Republican budget resolution Tuesday, but GOP leaders still aren't sure they can get enough votes from their caucus to push it through. Democrats are all expected to vote no, leaving Speaker Mike Johson with a tiny three-vote majority.

The vote could happen later tonight. As of Tuesday evening, Republicans were huddled on the floor of the House trying to convince a handful of holdouts to support the bill.

Conservatives are complaining that the blueprint fails to cut enough spending to make up for the revenues lost through the tax cuts.

Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana said the way the budget is written is "actually increasing deficits," warning that the resulting debt would harm young people in the future. "I don't change my vote if the language doesn't change," she said as she announced that she would vote no. "And I was very transparent and clear that this is our chance and responsibility to look all of the fraud in mandatory spending."

Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio said he wanted to see spending cuts now, not a promise of cuts in the future. "Their promises to hold discretionary spending flat for 10 years are not credible," he said of the OGP plan. "Same plan as always: surrender now with a hollow promise to fight later. I can't support that."

The bottom line: The House could pass a Republican blueprint for a massive tax and spending bill tonight, but a handful of conservatives could sink the measure.

Musk Gives Federal Workers 'Another Chance'

Delaying a deadline set for midnight on Monday, Elon Musk says he is giving millions of federal employees another opportunity to preserve their jobs by providing an update on their recent accomplishments.

"Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance," Musk wrote Monday evening on his social media platform X, extending a request originally sent via email over the weekend. "Failure to respond a second time will result in termination."

The social media posting from the tech billionaire, who serves as a special government employee in the White House on a temporary basis but has no clear authority to make hiring and firing decisions, did little to reduce confusion and concern over the administration's latest effort to radically reduce the size of the federal government. Some departments have told their employees to ignore Musk's demand, while the Office of Personnel Management has said that replying is "voluntary" - even as the world's richest man who appears in some ways to be running the government has threatened them with firing if they remain silent.

A worker at the Department of Veterans Affairs told CNN the situation was chaotic. "Our chief said it was mandatory. Then OPM said it became voluntary. Then I guess Trump just told us it was mandatory again," the employee said. "No one knows who is in charge and who to listen to."

Another federal employee summed it up simply: "It's bedlam."

One problem with Musk's email is the assumption that all government workers are using computers and email regularly. But as CNN reports, at one government facility, managers had to set up a special room to allow janitors - who as a rule spend more time with cleaning supplies than they do answering emails - to reply to the Musk message. At the Department of Veterans Affairs, a staffer noted that the Musk email had resulted in multiple meetings for workers to discuss the matter. "That's all time taken away from patient care," the staffer said.

Still, despite the concerns and confusion, many federal workers have replied to the Musk request. On Tuesday, the White House said 1 million employees had sent a summary of their work last week. No plan has been announced, however, on who, if anyone, will read those replies.

Number of the Day: 30,000

The layoff notices have been flying in Washington since President Trump and DOGE overseer Elon Musk took power in January, and all those pink slips are quickly adding up. According to a tally being kept by New York magazine, about 30,000 workers have been laid off so far, and that number is only expected to grow in the coming days. The administration says the goal is to reduce costs and increase efficiency, but critics charge that the mass firings are creating chaos that could be damaging and costly in the long run.

Here are some of the largest layoffs from the New York list:

Department of Agriculture: 4,200 probationary employees were fired, including about 3,400 from the Forest Service. Most probationary employees have been hired within the last year or two and have fewer legal protections, and their firings raise questions about whether they are being eliminated because they are poor performers or just easy targets. To complicate matters, some probationary employees are more experienced and have simply taken new positions within their organizations.

Department of Energy: 1,000 probationary workers were fired, with about half of them working on the power grid in the West.

Department of Health and Human Services: Around 2,800 fired, including 1,500 probationary employees at the National Institutes of Health and 1,300 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the Associated Press reports that the CDC firings were announced as 1,300 but have been closer to 700 so far).

Department of Homeland Security: More than 400 were fired, about half from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Department of the Interior: Roughly 2,300 probationary workers fired, including 1,000 at the National Park Service.

Department of State: As many as 10,000 workers are being fired from or put on leave by the Agency for International Development.

Department of the Treasury: More than 6,000 probationary workers fired at the Internal Revenue Service.

Department of Veterans Affairs: About 1,000 probationary employees fired, including doctors and nurses.

Trump Pitches 'Gold Card' Investor Visa

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday, President Trump announced that in about two weeks the U.S. will begin offering a "gold card" visa to wealthy investors around the world.

The program will replace the existing EB5 visa program, which provides green cards to wealthy foreigners who create or preserve jobs in the U.S.

"We're gonna be selling a gold card. You have a green card, this is a gold card," Trump said. "We're gonna be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that's going to give you green card privileges, plus. It's gonna be a route to citizenship, and wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They'll be wealthy, and they'll be successful and they'll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people."

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the proceeds will be used to reduce the deficit.

Asked if Russian oligarchs could buy into the program, Trump responded: "Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people."

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