John Thune sketched an ambitious timetable for passing a compromise budget bill, telling members of the Finance Committee on Monday night that they need to move quickly to meet a July 4 deadline for President Trump's signature.

Why it matters: Pens need to be put down soon. The Senate GOP leader is signaling to his conference that debating and drafting will need to end if they want to meet their self-imposed deadline.

• "The leadership is going to try to hit the president's goal of getting this done by July 4, which means things are going to have to move much faster," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters.
• Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), said the target was for the Finance Committee to get a draft out by the end of the week, describing that as "a stretch goal."

Zoom in: There are still deep concerns in the GOP conference about the ratio of tax and spending cuts, as well as Medicaid spending and which green energy tax cuts to preserve — and for how long.

• "I didn't hear the leader say no to anybody," Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said after the meeting.

Zoom out: Senators expect the White House to get more involved soon to help resolve their differences. Thune met with Trump today.

• The president also spoke to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) who claimed Trump "said again, NO MEDICAID BENEFIT CUTS," on X.

Between the lines: Senate GOPers have for months been telegraphing some of the tax policy changes they want to make.

• It's long been a goal of Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) to make three provisions of Trump's 2017 tax bill — the R&D deduction, bonus depreciation and interest expensing — permanent.
• They expire after five years in the House version.
• And there's a desire to lower the $40,000 SALT deduction that blue-state House Republicans fought so hard to include in their version.

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— Hans Nichols

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Jewish lawmakers are worried by a growing spate of attacks aimed at Jews — with some openly saying they may be next on the target list.

The big picture: Concerns about Jewish safety spiked again this week after a man yelling "free Palestine" threw Molotov cocktails at attendees of a Boulder, Colorado, rally advocating for the release of hostages held by Hamas.

• "The Jewish people across America — and all Americans — should be horrified, and we are in great pain," Schumer said Monday on MSNBC. "Unfortunately, as we have seen, it's not an isolated incident."

Zoom in: There has been a sharp rise in antisemitism and threats against lawmakers in recent years. For some Jewish representatives, the two trends are eerily correlated.

• "The number of times in the course of a week I'm called a 'Jewish demon' is pretty unsettling," Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) told Axios.

Capitol Hill was rocked last month when two Israeli embassy staffers were fatally shot outside an American Jewish Committee meeting at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

• The incident came after a man who set fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's official residence cited the Jewish governor's stance on the war in Gaza as a factor.

What they're saying: Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) said in a phone interview with Axios that he "increased our investment in security" after the D.C. attack.

• Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said: "I've always thought we were in jeopardy and jeopardized when we were on the Capitol campus."
• Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Calif.) added: "The Jewish community is very much on edge ... and elected officials in general, I think, are feeling less safe."

Several lawmakers previewed a renewed push to fund the Nonprofit Safety Grant Program, particularly to provide security for houses of worship and faith-based organizations.

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— Andrew Solender and Kathleen Hunter

GOP leaders are making fresh noise about moving forward with sanctions on Russia following Ukraine's unprecedented drone strikes deep inside Russia this past weekend.

Why it matters: As we told you last Monday, Senate Republicans are seizing on President Trump's growing frustration with Vladimir Putin to unstick fresh penalties against Moscow.

• Thune said Monday that senators "stand ready to provide President Trump with any tools he needs to get Russia to finally come to the table in a real way" and that the chamber could vote this month on a broadly bipartisan sanctions bill.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters he'd not discussed the issue with Trump but "there are many members of Congress that want us to sanction Russia as strongly as we can, and I'm an advocate of that."

What to watch: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal's (D-Conn.) bill to hit Russia with economic sanctions if Putin refuses to negotiate with Ukraine — or if Russia launches another attack after a peace deal is reached — has more than 80 co-sponsors.

— Kathleen Hunter

Freshman Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is already making moves to appeal to moderates and boost his national profile with an eye toward a possible 2028 presidential run.

Why it matters: Gallego's 50% Arizona approval rating in May is higher than President Trump's and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs', according to new polling by Noble Predictive Insights, a Phoenix-based nonpartisan polling firm.

• Gallego kept his Arizona seat in Democrats' column last November despite Trump's victory there.

Zoom in: Gallego criticized the Democratic Party last month for "kicking people out of the tent" ahead of the 2024 election.

• "What happened the last election is that we got so pure, and we kept so pure that we started kicking people out of the tent," he said at a town hall in a Philadelphia-area swing district that Trump narrowly flipped.
• "It ends up there aren't enough people in the tent to win elections," he added.
• 🏦 Gallego also had one of the best-ever fundraising debuts for a Senate Democrat, pulling in more than $1 million in his first quarter.
• And he's released an immigration overhaul plan that pairs liberal priorities such as pathways to citizenship with conservative principles like increased border security funding.

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— Stephen Neukam