WASHINGTON—House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on June 1.
The meeting, confirmed to The Epoch Times by a source familiar with the plan, follows last week’s break in both the House and the Senate.
Lawmakers left town in late May without passing a reconciliation bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), both of which were left out of a recent appropriations bill that funded the Department of Homeland Security. Trump set a June 1 deadline for the legislation that lawmakers are now bound to miss.
The reconciliation budget process lets Republicans bypass the filibuster, meaning they can fund their priorities through party-line votes.
Reconciliation is one of multiple issues looming as Congress members return to Washington.
Lawmakers are also weighing the Department of Justice’s proposed $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund, intended to compensate alleged victims of “weaponization and lawfare.”
Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and some other Republicans, particularly in the Senate, have raised concerns about the planned fund, as have Democrats.
During a May 19 hearing on the Department of Justice’s budget request, Collins asked Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to establish whether there is a legal precedent for the fund. Blanche likened it to an Obama-era fund created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay out claims from Native American farmers and ranchers alleging discrimination by that agency.
Congress is also reckoning with the potential expiration of certain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authorities on June 12.
Lawmakers are seeking to avert that by negotiating another extension of FISA’s Section 702, which enables the government to spy on non-U.S. persons who are outside the borders of the United States.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in Washington on Dec. 2, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Section 702, as written, enables agencies to collect information on those individuals without a warrant. Data on Americans can get swept up in that information, too—and analysts can use email addresses, phone numbers, or other information associated with U.S. persons to gather intelligence.
While Section 702’s defenders say it is vital for national security, critics warn that its current iteration runs afoul of the Fourth Amendment.
House Republicans will likely soon vote on an Iran war powers resolution after canceling a vote on the measure ahead of their break.
This week will also see the return to Washington of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) after losing a primary runoff election to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was endorsed by Trump.
Time will tell if Cornyn joins the ranks of Trump critics like Tillis, who announced in 2025 that he would not seek reelection after breaking with Trump over the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.
