Axios Hill Leaders

May 22, 2025
โ๏ธ Pour one out for House staffers, who've earned their Memorial Day recesses. Tonight's edition is 992 words, 3.5 minutes.
- ๐ฅ Johnson's moment of truth
- ๐ป Scoop: NRCC, NRSC sic FTC on Google
- ๐ค MAGA media's safe space
- ๐ Senate GOP ready to ignore parliamentarian
๐ ICYMI: Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) told Hans at an Axios Building the Future event that Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing President Trump "like a fiddle" after a two-hour call they had this week ended without a ceasefire in Russia's war with Ukraine.
1 big thing: ๐ฅ Johnson's moment of truth
Speaker Mike Johnson is finally ready to vote โ most likely tomorrow at this point โ on the "one big, beautiful bill."
Why it matters: Johnson will lose if the GOP's public "no" votes follow through. But he's betting they won't and that his chances of winning are better now than later.
- "There were some people that were 'no' walking onto the floor that ultimately voted 'yes,'" House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said tonight in reference to earlier budget votes this year.
- The intrigue: Johnson told reporters Trump could issue executive orders to ease concerns from Freedom Caucus lawmakers. He didn't elaborate.
Zoom in: The House Rules Committee still hasn't voted on the bill, despite a 1am ET start today.
- Johnson needs to release a manager's amendment to the bill before that vote.
๐ One surprise last-minute "no" threat is coming from Rep. John Rose (R-Tenn.), who blasted the deal to raise the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. He's running for governor in Tennessee.
- Rose is potentially offset by Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who told Punchbowl he thinks he's succeeded in getting language requiring the sale of public lands in Utah and Nevada stripped from the bill.
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) told reporters tonight talks are "moving in the right direction."
- Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said "all indications" are that a vote will happen tomorrow morning โ but the Freedom Caucus will huddle after the bill text is released to take a group position on it.
โ Andrew Solender and Peter Sullivan
2. ๐ป Scoop: NRCC, NRSC sic FTC on Google

The House and Senate GOP campaign committees are calling on the FTC to investigate whether Google and Gmail suppress emails to conservative subscribers.
Why it matters: Their call marks a resumption of hostilities in a long-running war between the Republican Party and Big Tech.
- Since Trump's election, there's been a bit of a detente, after top CEOs cut $1 million checks to his inauguration and appeared to embrace the MAGA mentality.
- But while other tech companies, like Meta, have made direct overtures to conservatives, there are signs the emerging MAGA-tech alliance may not be an enduring one.
Driving the news: Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the chair of the NRSC, and Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), the chair of the NRCC, fired off a joint letter to FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson today, detailing their concerns.
- "Google's speech suppression practices are detrimental to American democracy and should not be allowed to persist for another election cycle," they write in a letter we obtained.
- They are calling for the FTC to consider their complaints as part of their inquiry, announced in February, "technology platforms deny or degrade users' access to services based on the content of their speech or affiliations."
Zoom out: Conservatives have long accused tech and social media companies of altering their algorithms to silence or sideline their views.
- In October 2022, the RNC filed suit against Google for "blatant bias" against Republicans. The following August, it was dismissed.
- During Trump's first term, Facebook conducted a nearly yearlong audit into claims of anti-conservative bias.
Zoom in: The lawmakers accuse Gmail, which they claim has 75% of the American market share, of sending more of their emails to spam and therefore hurting their fundraising.
- "In the 2024 election cycle, a mere 30 percent of NRSC emails were successfully delivered to the primary inboxes of Gmail users, with the vast majority directed into the intended recipients' spam folders where they would never be viewed," they write.
โ Hans Nichols
3. ๐ค MAGA media's safe space
Some of the harshest critics of the "one big, beautiful bill" are still welcome guests on MAGA media.
Why it matters:ย Hosts like Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk have commiserated with hardliners like Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) about their debt and deficit worries while pushing for a way to get to "yes."
- But the same courtesy is not extended to blue-state moderates advocating for increases in the SALT deduction.
- "The SALT folks need to take a win, they need to take a middle ground," Andrew Kolvet, the executive producer and guest host of "The Charlie Kirk Show," said yesterday.
- "Make no mistake," posted Rogan O'Handley, who runs the popular DC Draino X account. "The SALT RINOs want all of us to pay their blue state taxes. Insane."
Zoom in: "From the MAGA base's view, they don't like it when somebody goes fully against Trump," said a source close to Trump's orbit.
- ๐ฆฎ "But there's a lot longer leash if the view is your criticism is coming from a place of wanting to make the bill more MAGA or more conservative, versus if the view is you're opposing the bill because it's too MAGA or too conservative."
- "The more members defend President Trump's agenda, the more negotiating leeway they would earn," said Mark Bednar, a former aide to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
โ Tal Axelrod
4. ๐ Senate GOP ready to ignore parliamentarian

Senate Republicans are moving forward tonight with repealing California's EV mandate โ ignoring opinions from the Government Accountability Office and Senate parliamentarian.
Why it matters: Democrats called it the "nuclear option," warning Republicans are setting a new precedent for what kind of rules can be undone by Congress.
- "I suspect Democrats are trying to use a situation as cover to justify abolishing the filibuster the next time they're in charge," Majority Leader John Thune said tonight.
โ Stef Kight
This newsletter was edited by Justin Green and copy edited by Kathie Bozanich.
Sign up for Axios Hill Leaders


