Today, John Thune acted on the House bill he warned was "dead on arrival."

• The Senate majority leader all but dismissed the House's passage of a three-year FISA Section 702 extension, announcing the Senate will instead move forward with a 45-day extension.

🗣️ Why it matters: Thune and Speaker Johnson spoke throughout the day — including an in-person meeting — but they continue to talk past each other.

• "We told him that we can't move the bill" if it includes a central bank digital currency (CBDC) ban attached, Thune told reporters.
• After a two-hour rule vote, the House passed a FISA bill tonight, 235–191, which included the ban Thune called a nonstarter.

‼️ What we're watching: The FISA authority expires at the end of tomorrow. That means a Senate vote tomorrow, but Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) says he plans to object to unanimous consent. He wants a three-week extension, not 45 days.

• If it clears the Senate, the House would then vote on the short-term extension, likely under suspension of the rules, sparing Johnson the difficulty of relying on a party-line vote.

😤 Between the lines: Thune appeared exasperated when told the House was struggling to pass a budget reconciliation package to fund ICE and Border Patrol.

• "That should be the easy part," he said.
• Thune declined to engage when asked how the Senate can function if the House struggles to pass key legislation.
• "I don't answer that," he said. "We do what we can."

🤬 The other side: Rank-and-file House Republicans voiced their own frustration.

• "I hate the Senate," Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said. "There are like two and a half good senators."

— Hans Nichols and Kate Santaliz

For Democrats, there's no sugarcoating the Supreme Court's weakening of the Voting Rights Act.

• "The corrupt conservative majority on the Supreme Court appointed by Donald Trump has taken a blowtorch to the Voting Rights Act," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement after today's ruling in a Louisiana case.

Why it matters: The ruling is set to cost Democrats at least a few safe House seats in the Deep South immediately, potentially hampering their efforts to retake the lower chamber in November.

• "It's devastating. It's a devastating blow," said Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. That sentiment was echoed across the CBC.
• "It's not good," said former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
• Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), who represents a Deep South majority-minority district, said she "absolutely" expects the Republican-controlled state Legislature to try to draw her out of her seat this year.

Between the lines: Speaker Johnson called the Supreme Court decision an "obvious result," but it's not clear how far or fast state Republicans will move to redraw maps across the South.

• "We have, as you know, a primary coming up in about two weeks," Johnson said of his home state of Louisiana.
• "So we'll see if the state Legislature deems it appropriate to go in and draw new maps."

Zoom out: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Supreme Court ruling a "despicable decision" and unveiled a new Democratic "war room" to counter what he said were GOP efforts to "steal" the midterm election.

• Schumer announced an expanded task force on election integrity.
• Dems will "red team" various scenarios with outside groups, including how state-level rules, election administration and the SAVE Act could potentially suppress votes, Schumer said.

The bottom line: "Anyone who tells you they can predict with certainty exactly what comes next is foolish," said Jessica Furst Johnson, a GOP election attorney.

• "However, if states have relied on race to draw maps, they have a problem," she added. "Depending on the state process, they have the ability — if not a mandate — to change it."

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— Andrew Solender and Hans Nichols

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) are demanding answers from major tech and artificial intelligence companies over concerns that employees with ties to China could access cutting-edge U.S. AI systems.

🕵🏻‍♂️ Why it matters: Lawmakers are focusing on insider access — not just hacking — as a potential vulnerability, putting pressure on companies to demonstrate stronger safeguards.

• "The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has an extensive track record of conducting espionage on U.S. companies in critical sectors," Grassley and Banks write.

📪 Zoom in: Identical letters sent to the CEOs of Amazon, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Safe Superintelligence Inc., Thinking Machines Lab and xAI ask for responses to nine questions by May 20.

👨‍⚕️ Between the lines: The two senators also indicate they want to work collaboratively with companies to identify and plug potential security gaps.

• They ask: "What support or engagement from Congress or the U.S. government would be useful in securing AI technology, trade secrets, and research from the PRC?"

🔎 Zoom out: Congress has ramped up oversight, including classified briefings with leading AI firms, as Axios reported yesterday.

• U.S. officials have warned that China is conducting "industrial-scale" efforts to extract American AI capabilities, underscoring bipartisan concerns about espionage and technological competition.
• Lawmakers have engaged directly with companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and Nvidia on how their technologies could be secured against foreign access.

Go deeper: See a few of the senator's questions

— Hans Nichols