Axios Hill Leaders

June 10, 2026
🗞️ We've got news. Tonight's edition is 849 words, 3 minutes.
- ⌛️ Running out of time
- 💪 The DCCC's strongest soldiers
Scoop: A group of congressional Republicans is urging the U.S. International Trade Commission to enforce U.S. patent rights in a case involving Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Axios' Madison Mills reports.
- Why it matters: This escalates a fight over whether the world's largest chip manufacturer should receive special consideration because of its role in providing the U.S. with the chips necessary to stay ahead in the global AI race.
- Go deeper
1 big thing: ⌛️ Running out of time
One of America's most valuable spy powers is on track to expire Friday after President Trump refused to back down from a coming purge that has blown up Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune's carefully negotiated FISA deal.
- Johnson will try a last-ditch vote tomorrow to extend the program's surveillance authorities through July 2. It's expected to fail.
💣 Why it matters: Johnson and Thune were this close to a deal that could have likely passed both chambers with bipartisan votes, and then Trump named Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence.
- Trump wants Pulte "to execute the immediate and needed downsizing" of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, he posted today on Truth Social.
🛑 Now Democrats are refusing to back another extension of Section 702 unless Trump reverses his decision to name Pulte to the acting DNI job.
- "Bill Pulte cannot serve a minute as acting director of national intelligence, and until that elevation is abandoned, there's nothing really to talk about," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters today.
- "Pulte is just one of the most vicious, incapable, non-fact-based people I've ever seen in the government," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told Punchbowl News.
📖 Zoom out: Section 702 of FISA feeds more than half of the president's daily briefing and has been credited with helping thwart terror plots and other national-security threats.
- "It'd be a very dangerous time to allow us to not have that important national security tool," Johnson said today.
- "I'm the only one in this institution that's actually used 702 to save lives," Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) told us. "It is critical to the president's daily brief. It's the single most important 9/11 commission recommendation that we have, and it's at risk of going dark due to foolishness."
🕵️♀️ Section 702 allows the U.S. attorney general and director of national intelligence to compel electronic service providers to provide communications involving foreign intelligence targets overseas.
- Intelligence agencies and telecommunications companies will face immediate legal uncertainty over what collection activities may continue.
The bottom line: Not every Democrat is comfortable allowing the authority to expire, but Johnson is nowhere close to the necessary two-thirds majority and Republicans aren't signaling support for a short-term extension.
- "I'm not going to play politics with our national security, that's ... you know, that's for Donald Trump to do," Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, told us.
- Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), who has been pushing for reforms to the program, told us he's considering voting against a short-term extension. "They ask guys like us, 'Well, could you please give us a little more time to get this done?' You grow tired of that crap after a while."
— Kate Santaliz
2. 💪 The DCCC's strongest soldiers


Yesterday, we told you about how some House Democrats are threatening to withhold their dues to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee unless it stops meddling in primaries.
- Now we want to tell you what those dues are, exactly, and who is paying them.
Why it matters: This isn't the DCCC's only source of income, but it is a significant one. And it has a problem with its members coughing up.
- More than half of House Democrats had paid less than 50% of their expected dues as of the beginning of April, with an average payment rate of 47%, according to a member dues report obtained by Axios.
- Nearly 30 members who aren't in battleground districts have paid 0% of their expected dues.
- The report was first reported by Puck News.
Between the lines: DCCC dues are what House Democrats in safe districts are expected to fork over to their party's campaign arm each cycle to help swing-district members and candidates get elected.
- The thinking essentially goes: If you want legislative power, you'll give your money to the campaigns that will give you the majority and, subsequently, committee gavels.
- Ambitious members seeking coveted committee spots, leadership roles or simply to garner favor with their colleagues often strive to meet or exceed their set target.
- Those already in leadership roles are expected to pay more than the average rank-and-file members.
Those who haven't paid any dues include:
- Members who have faced tough primary challenges this year: Reps. Al Green (D-Texas), Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) and Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.).
- Several retiring members, such as Reps. Jerry Nadler and Nydia Velázquez, both of New York, and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton of D.C.
- Some other big names are Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
— Andrew Solender
This newsletter was edited by Justin Green and copy edited by Kathie Bozanich.
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