By Daniella Diaz and Caitlin Emma

With an assist from Jordain Carney, Ursula Perano and Burgess Everett

The passage of a Senate spending package would lay down an important marker — with Senate leaders, including Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray and Ranking Member Susan Collins, eager to show off their chamber’s functionality. | Getty Images for JDRF

APPROPS BILLS GO BETTER TOGETHER

The Senate is back, baby. And leaders are moving forward with a bipartisan plan to pass an initial spending package that groups together multiple bills, commonly called a “minibus,” as soon as next week.

The goal: Gaining leverage in the government funding standoff with the House, with federal appropriations set to expire in mere weeks.

The real question: How will House Republicans respond?

The first minibus is expected to bundle some of the least controversial bills coming out of the 12 Appropriations subcomittees, including the Agriculture-FDA and Military Construction-VA measures, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Tuesday. Collins, the top Republican appropriator in the Senate, said a third bill is still being discussed.

“There will probably be a combination of minibuses … to get them all done,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said Tuesday of the upper chamber’s spending plan for fiscal 2024, while Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said leaders have a “goal” of getting unanimous consent to move onto the first package in the hopes of sucking up as little floor time as possible.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer boasted in a Dear Colleague letter last week that all 12 appropriations bills have passed out of committee with bipartisan support and laid the blame of a potential shutdown on Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is pushing to undercut a spending-caps deal reached in May.

“As I said, we're working very well in the Senate, we have good bipartisan cooperation, we're talking regularly, Democrats and Republicans, about how to get this done,” Schumer told reporters Tuesday (h/t our new Senate reporter Ursula).

To be clear: There will be ample sniping between the chambers as the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline approaches. But the passage of a Senate spending package would lay down an important marker — with Senate leaders, including Collins and Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, eager to show off their chamber’s functionality and progress amid the standoff with the House.

Across the Capitol, House Republicans are eyeing action on a trio of individual bills that could potentially garner enough support for floor passage among their deeply divided conference, including the measures that would fund the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. But success is far from certain.

With scant time for a bipartisan, bicameral agreement on full-year funding, both chambers will have to settle for a short-term spending patch that buys more time for fiscal 2024 talks. It won’t be an easy lift for either chamber, especially the House, where Republicans will almost certainly need help from Democrats.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (yes, he’s back on Capitol Hill — more on that below) was in sync with Senate Democrats Tuesday: “We need to keep the lights on” and avoid a government shutdown, he said during his floor speech.

And don’t forget the supplemental: Alongside a shutdown-avoiding patch, Schumer and McConnell have also voiced support for additional funding to help Ukraine in its war against Russia and states dealing with natural disasters. Other key senators spoke up Tuesday on the issue:

• On Ukraine … Said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to skeptical Republican colleagues: “Pulling the plug on Ukraine and allowing Putin to get away with this is Afghanistan on steroids,” Graham told reporters. “But to say that the outcome in Ukraine doesn't matter to us is just a huge mistake.”
• On disaster funding … Schatz told reporters the White House request for a combined $16 billion “will certainly get us through the next several months, but I anticipate, after the [stopgap], we’re going to have to do another disaster supplemental — not just for Maui but for whatever unfortunate disasters have yet to occur.”

— Daniella Diaz and Caitlin Emma, with assist from Burgess Everett 

A message from Electronic Payments Coalition:

STOP THE BIG-BOX BAIT AND SWITCH: Big-box retailers, led by Walmart and Target, are seeking a massive handout from Congress, paid for by consumers. Mega-retailers are trying to trick Congress into enacting harmful credit card routing legislation (S. 1838/H.R. 3881), falsely claiming that it will help small businesses. In reality, this bill transfers billions from consumers to big-box corporations while eliminating popular credit card rewards programs, weakening cybersecurity protections, and reducing access to credit. Congress: reject this Big-Box Bait and Switch. www.stopthebigboxbaitandswitch.com

GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Wednesday, Sept. 6, where your Huddle host is counting down until the first day of Fall.

NEW THIS MORNING

As Huddle reported Tuesday, Democrats are waging a multi-front battle ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline to build unity in their own ranks and highlight the harms that proposed GOP spending cuts — and a potential shutdown — would pose.

In their latest salvo, Democrats on the House China Select Committee wrote to House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-Texas) and Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) saying a shutdown “would severely harm America’s ability to effectively compete against the [Chinese Communist Party] by creating needless uncertainty and instability at home and abroad.”

They furthermore requested additional funding for “strategic initiatives that are essential to competing with and countering the CCP’s policies,” including programs dealing with science, education, diplomacy and more. Read the full letter here.

PAUL QUESTIONS McCONNELL’S HEALTH

Sen. Rand Paul — Kentucky’s other Republican senator — thinks something’s fishy about the explanations McConnell has provided regarding his health, which have blamed lightheadedness and dehydration for his recent on-camera pauses.

"You know I’ve practiced medicine for over 20 years, I've seen people who are dehydrated. What's occurring, from what I've seen, is a neurological event, it’s not dehydration,” Paul, who is an ophthalmologist, told reporters Tuesday. “And so I think my advice would be to be more forthcoming with what's going on.”

McConnell sought to quell concerns Tuesday by releasing a note from Brian Monahan, the congressional attending physician, who said “there is no evidence” McConnell suffered a stroke or seizure following his latest public freeze, in Kentucky last week.

When it comes to the questions about McConnell’s health, the public has heard only from Monahan — who said last week he consulted with neurologists who have treated the longtime leader for a concussion suffered in a March fall. Monahan is the lead of a team of doctors on Capitol Hill that are there to serve members.

With McConnell showing no sign of stepping down as GOP leader, his backers are using Monahan's letters as evidence the GOP leader is fit to continue serving. The minority leader will face perhaps more questions in just a few hours at the party's first policy lunch since July.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a close McConnell ally, told reporters he believed McConnell has been candid about his concussion and has confidence in the Republican leader.

“I don't know what more he can do,” Cornyn said. “I mean, he’s had every medical test in the book and passed with flying colors. He's just recovering from a concussion, which takes you a little longer when you're up in years.”

Worth noting: Monahan has a background in hematology and oncology, not neurology. He is McConnell’s primary doctor, according to his staff.

In recent memory, after Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and then-Senate candidate John Fetterman (D-Pa.) suffered strokes, their physicians who weren’t Hill staff shared health information directly to reporters in statements.

“I mean, we had all our doctors all talking to one another. That was a choice that I made. And they were willing to do that and sharing information with one another. But that was my choice. That was my direction,” Luján told Huddle Tuesday.

— Daniella Diaz, Ursula Perano and Burgess Everett

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IMPEACHMENT WATCH 

The House GOP’s right flank is warning it could move to force impeachment votes on President Joe Biden, putting new pressure on McCarthy to move forward with a formal inquiry.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) took a direct shot at the California Republican, writing Tuesday that if McCarthy “stands in our way, he may not have the job long.” One option Gaetz and others have is to bring privileged impeachment articles to the House floor — a move that would allow them leapfrog leadership.

A Gaetz spokesperson told us that “all options are on the table.”

Keep in mind: Such a move would likely fail — Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) filed a privileged impeachment in June, and the House voted to send it to committee. But it’s the latest sign of the headaches awaiting McCarthy starting next week as he tries to balance the increasingly restless right flank of his conference, which wants to quickly move forward on impeachment, with centrists who still aren’t on board with even so much as an inquiry.

— Jordain Carney

The Fetterstashe stays: The Pennsylvania senator is also walking around with his cutout of his colleague Sen. Bob Casey, who’s running for reelection.

News you can use: Sweetgreen outposts open today! The locations include Cannon basement rotunda (across from the Cannon coffee cart) and O'Neill 3200. Order by 11 a.m., make sure you select the correct outpost in the app, and pick up by 12:15 p.m.

A message from Electronic Payments Coalition:

QUICK LINKS 

Sheldon Whitehouse lodged an ethics complaint against Samuel Alito with the chief justice of the Supreme Court, from Katherine Tully-McManus

Former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers jumps into Michigan Senate race, from Ally Mutnick

Former Biden White House aide wins crowded primary for safe Dem seat in Rhode Island, from Madison Fernandez

Celeste Maloy, Becky Edwards neck and neck in Utah’s 2nd Congressional District GOP special primary election, from The Salt Lake Tribune’s Bryan Schott and Emily Anderson Stern

A message from Electronic Payments Coalition:

CONGRESS: DON’T FALL FOR THE BIG-BOX BAIT-AND-SWITCH: Despite vigorous lobbying efforts from mega-retailers like Walmart and Target, proposed credit routing mandates (S. 1838/H.R. 3881) face steep bipartisan opposition. Consumers and small businesses don’t want to lose valuable credit card benefits or suffer from weakened cybersecurity protections– both consequences of proposed credit card routing mandates. Americans didn’t send their lawmakers to Washington to be fooled by the retail giants’ massive corporate welfare scheme--and they won’t forget those who sold out Main Street so that big-box retailers could line their pockets while consumers and small businesses suffer. Last year, Congress wisely rejected a similar Big-Box Bill, and they must do so again. Congress must protect consumers, preserve the integrity of the payment ecosystem, and reject this detrimental and unnecessary government intervention. www.stopthebigboxbaitandswitch.com

TODAY IN CONGRESS

The House is out.

The Senate convenes at 10 a.m. with two votes at 11:30 a.m. Then the Senate will recess until 2:15 p.m. for the weekly caucus lunches. At 2:15 p.m. the Senate will hold two roll call votes and at 5:15 p.m. the Senate will hold two roll call votes, the last of the day.

AROUND THE HILL

Quiet on Capitol Hill.

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TUESDAY’S ANSWER: Carla Zeppieri correctly answered that Bill Richardson, then a candidate for New Mexico governor, set a Guinness World Record in 2002, shaking 13,392 hands in only eight hours.

TODAY’S QUESTION: Who was the one member of Congress to vote in 1941 against going to war with Japan?

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to [email protected].

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