Politics

(WASHINGTON) — A new legislative push led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., is seeking to bar special government employees like tech billionaire and senior Trump adviser Elon Musk from communicating with government agencies that interface with their companies, and would require federal employees like Musk to meet new ethics requirements.

Warren and Stansbury introduced a bill this week in the Senate and House, respectively, that would prevent special government employees (SGEs) like Musk – who lead companies worth $1 billion or more – from interacting with federal agencies that interface with his companies.

SpaceX and Tesla together have received billions of dollars in government contracts over the past ten years.

While the legislation introduced by Warren and Stansbury does not mention Musk or his companies by name, Musk’s proximity to Trump in the early days of Trump’s second term has made him a clear target of Democrats who have been outspoken about their opposition to Musk’s key role in orchestrating massive cuts to the federal government, with little input from lawmakers.

The bill, titled the SGE Ethics Enforcement & Reform (SEER) Act of 2025, would create what the lawmakers are calling a “bright-line rule” that makes new provisions explicitly applicable to owners of a “large company,” which the bill defines as any for-profit company making over $1 billion.

Democrats, including Warren, have also raised concerns that Musk’s companies could be unfairly benefitting from Musk’s influence over Trump’s policies.

Since 2015, Musk’s companies SpaceX and Tesla have been awarded at least $24 billion in federal contracts, according to government spending data and public announcements. SpaceX has won nearly $23 million worth of contracts, which includes nearly $6 million that the Space Force recently awarded SpaceX for launch missions.

“No special Government employee, as defined in section 202 of title 18, United States 23 Code, who is not on an advisory committee or a chair or vice chair on an advisory committee may have direct or indirect communications in their official capacity with an agency or office that contracts with, regulates, or has a pending enforcement action against a large company – (1) that the special Government employee owns; or (2) for which the special Government employee serves as a senior executive or director,” the bill reads.

The new bill would also implement a new requirement for government employees designated as “special government employees” to resolve conflicts of interest between their private-sector and governmental work during their service.

Unlike other cabinet and high-level positions that are subject to congressional scrutiny via the Senate confirmation process, Musk, in his advisory role, is designated a “special government employee,” a status Congress created in 1962 for temporary executive branch hires to perform limited duties for no more than 130 days.

“Unelected billionaire Elon Musk should not be acting as co-president of the United States and making $8 million a day from government contracts while he’s at it. My new bill would crack down on conflicts of interest and create stronger ethics rules for Elon Musk and all Special Government Employees. Government should work for the American people, not billionaires lining their own pockets,” Sen. Warren said in a statement provided to ABC News.

Those working for the government as special government employees are not paid by the federal government and can continue to collect payment from outside entities while performing their work for the government, which Warren and Stansbury say runs the risk of creating possible conflicts of interest.

The legislation aims to address those concerns by applying the same standard ethics rules that apply to regular federal employees to special government employees after they render 60 days of government service. These rules guide federal employees to avoid using their office for personal gain, to steer clear of conflicting financial interest, to maintain impartiality, to avoid outside activity or employment that could raise conflict of interest questions, and more.

The new legislation would also apply tougher scrutiny to the process of acquiring a conflict of interest waiver for this kind of work.

Musk has appeared alongside Trump as recently as Thursday, when he was present at a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

ABC News has previously reported that Musk could be taking a step back from his current role in the administration. His term would be up around the end of May but it had been widely rumored that the White House could take steps to keep him on or extend his employment status in some way.

“Elon has done a fantastic job. Look, he’s sitting here, and I don’t care. I don’t need Elon for anything other than I happen to like him,” Trump told reporters during the meeting.

Trump has acknowledged that Musk will eventually need to return to Tesla to run the company. However, when reports that Musk could depart the White House in May surfaced, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt refuted them.

“Elon Musk and President Trump have both publicly stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at [the Department of Government Efficiency] is complete,” Leavitt said earlier this month.

The bill introduced by Warren and Stansbury faces an uncertain future on Capitol Hill. It does not currently have a Republican co-sponsor and it’s unlikely to get the GOP support it would need to move through either chamber of the Republican-controlled Congress. Many Republicans have praised Musk’s efforts to slash federal spending and have remained hesitant to criticize Musk’s work at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Still, the bill comes as Democrats are looking to demonstrate that they are fighting against the Trump agenda on all fronts. Warren has been particularly focused on the Musk-led effort to dismantle federal agencies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that she was instrumental in creating.

ABC News’ Soorin Kim contributed to this report.

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(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) — At the U.S. Naval Academy, it’s not what’s on the shelves that’s drawing attention — but what’s missing.

The institution’s Nimitz Library has been stripped of 381 titles, according to a list published in the New York Times, including works exploring race, gender, and national identity.

The culling includes “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi, “Bodies in Doubt” by Elizabeth Reis, and “White Rage” by Carol Anderson. None was banned outright — just rendered “not immediately available,” a Naval Academy spokesman, Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, said. The books, he said, had been placed in a room where patrons could no longer access them.

President Donald Trump’s Jan. 29 executive order titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” has been extended to cover the country’s military academies. With language targeting what it called “discriminatory equity ideology” and “gender ideology” — which he later called “the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies” — the order set in motion extensive removals, reviews and institutional confusion.

“There isn’t any clear criteria,” Katherine Kuzminski, director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security, told ABC News. “It leaves leadership scrambling — how do we ensure compliance without being accused of overcorrecting?”

Kuzminski said military leaders, bound by a strict code to obey lawful orders, are grappling with what she called the ambiguity of the policy. “Particularly in the Air Force,” she noted, “when the Tuskegee Airmen learning module was removed from basic training for a few days, leadership was trying to follow through with the best of intentions.”

Department of the Navy leadership determined which books required removal at the Naval Academy library, Hawkins told ABC News.

Initially, officials searched the Nimitz Library catalog, using key word searches, to identify books that required further review, Hawkins said. Approximately 900 books were identified during the preliminary search, he said, and department officials then closely examined the preliminary list to determine which books required removal to comply with directives outlined in executive orders issued by the president.

That ultimately resulted in nearly 400 books being selected for removal from the Nimitz Library collection, he said.

Historians and former military officials told ABC News the implications are chilling. Richard Kohn, a military historian and former chief historian for the Air Force, sees the move as a “cleansing” effort. “It reveals a certain kind of weakness in the current administration’s confidence,” he said. “They’re determined to appeal to their MAGA constituency by rolling back decades of progress on race, religion, and diversity.”

For Kohn, removing these books from the shelves sends a clear message to cadets: To get ahead in the military, avoid certain ideas.

Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Thomas Keaney, a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced international Studies, spoke about how far the academies have come — and how far he said they risk falling back. “When I was there,” he said, “it was a whites-only institution,” he said of the U.S. Air Force Academy. “It was the poorer for it.” Education, he insisted, is about exposure. “You are not harming people by letting them read,” he said.

In a letter to the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, Democratic Reps. Adam Smith and Chrissy Houlahan called the book removals “a blatant attack on the First Amendment” and “an alarming return to McCarthy-era censorship.”

They demanded to know who ordered the removals, the process used and which titles were being purged, while urging an immediate halt.

The academies have issued carefully worded responses — or none at all — when asked by ABC News for comment.

The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy did not respond to repeated requests. The U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Air Force Academy and U.S. Coast Guard Academy issued brief statements affirming compliance with executive orders but offered few specifics.

“The Coast Guard Academy is conducting a comprehensive review of its curriculum to ensure compliance with all executive orders,” a spokesperson said.

The U.S. Naval Academy spokesman confirmed that “nearly 400 books” had been removed from its Nimitz Library, explaining the move as an effort “to ensure compliance with all directives outlined in Executive Orders issued by the President.”

He emphasized what he called the library’s robust collection — some 590,000 print books and thousands of academic resources — framing the book removals as minor compared to the size of the overall collection. “The Naval Academy’s mission,” the spokesperson added, “is to develop Midshipmen morally, mentally and physically … to prepare them for careers of service to our country.”

At the U.S. Air Force Academy, a spokesperson noted that a curriculum review was underway “to ensure our compliance with executive orders.”

But outside voices in military academic circles warned that the issue goes beyond compliance, saying it strikes at the core of intellectual development.

“You can’t make ideas safe for people, but you can make people safe for ideas,” said Kohn, who specializes in civil-military relations. “If you don’t mentor students in the academies to understand what’s going on in American society, you don’t really educate them.”

Keaney, the former U.S. Air Force officer, was more circumspect but equally concerned. “I don’t think anyone is going to be hurt by reading anything — however nutty or outside their own culture it is,” he said. “You’re not harming people by exposing them to ideas. On the contrary, you’re training them to be discerning leaders. Give them a chance. Don’t leave them to deal from ignorance.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice said it is reviewing the criminal case brought against a former FBI informant convicted of peddling lies about former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden and is moving for a judge to release the man from prison immediately while his case is on appeal.

Alexander Smirnov was sentenced to six years in prison in January after pleading guilty to lying to his FBI handler about the Biden family’s ties to a Ukrainian energy company — in addition to a series of unrelated tax fraud charges.

Smirnov’s lies were later seized on by House Republicans to bolster their efforts to impeach Joe Biden over unproven claims that he corruptly used his position as vice president in the Obama administration to benefit himself financially once out of office.

“The United States intends to review the government’s theory of the case underlying Defendant’s criminal conviction,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Friedman said in a filing Thursday, offering no further explanation.

The case against Smirnov, brought by former special counsel David Weiss, who was previously a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, alleged he concocted “fabrications” about Joe Biden and his son accepting $5 million in bribes from the Ukrainian energy giant Burisma. The indictment accused Smirnov of repeatedly changing his story about the alleged bribery scheme after meeting with senior members of Russia’s intelligence services, in what Weiss described as a deliberate effort to influence the 2024 presidential election.

The Thursday filing points to health problems Smirnov has reportedly faced since his incarceration. His attorneys have said he has suffered from chronic eye disease for over a year and requested he be released to receive treatment from a doctor in California.

The judge overseeing his case, however, repeatedly rejected their efforts prior to his guilty plea, arguing he posed a risk of flight from the United States based on his extensive contacts with overseas foreign intelligence services.

A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment further on the government’s filing.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump undergoes his annual physical at Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday, marking his first such exam of his second term.

“I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Trump, who became the oldest president to be sworn into office at 78, posted on Truth Social earlier in the week.

The public hasn’t been provided a detailed look into Trump’s health since 2018 and, during the 2024 presidential campaign, he didn’t provide any details about his health despite numerous promises to do so.

It is not clear whether the White House will provide an update after Friday’s exam, but details about Trump’s medical history have been disclosed in the past.

What Trump’s last official presidential checkup revealed

In the January 2018 evaluation, Trump appeared to be in “excellent” cardiovascular shape for his age, according to then-White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson, who administered Trump’s nearly four-hour physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center said.

The president’s medical issues were limited to high cholesterol, rosacea (a benign skin disease) and being considered “overweight,” as measured by the body mass index (BMI).

Trump’s LDL cholesterol level was 143 and total cholesterol level was 223, higher than the recommended total of 200. The LDL cholesterol, in particular, is significantly higher than the recommended level of 100.

His BMI – or body mass index – is calculated at 29.9, using the National Institutes of Health calculator, which is just shy of the obesity classification, which starts with a score of 30.

The 2018 report said the president takes a cholesterol-lowering drug called rosuvastatin, and because his cholesterol level was a little high, Jackson increased the dosage.

Trump was also taking finasteride for male-pattern hair loss. That medication can also be used to treat prostate issues at higher doses.

Trump also takes aspirin daily to prevent heart disease, a multivitamin and applies a cream called ivermectin, as needed, to treat skin condition rosacea.

At Trump’s urging, his physician conducted a brief screening test called the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Jackson claimed Trump had a perfect 30/30 score.

COVID hospitalization

In October 2020, Trump was hospitalized after he contracted COVID-19. Then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said that Trump had a fever and his blood oxygen level had dropped rapidly.

Sources with knowledge of the situation told ABC News that Trump was having trouble breathing and was given supplemental oxygen.

Doctors gave Trump an experimental course of monoclonal antibodies and steroids to treat him and he returned to the White House after three days

Trump’s health post 1st term

Other than the letters from Jackson, the most recent revelation of Trump’s health was a three-paragraph letter from his personal physician Bruce Aronwald of Morristown Medical Group, in which the doctor wrote that Trump’s “overall health is excellent.”

“His physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional,” Aronwald wrote. “In addition, his most recent extensive laboratory analysis remains well within normal limits and was even more favorable than prior testing in some of the most significant parameters, most likely secondary to weight reduction.”

The doctor further explained that Trump’s cardiovascular studies were “all normal” and cancer screening tests were “all negative,” claiming Trump had lost weight through “an improved diet and continued daily physical activity.”

Butler assassination attempt

On July 13, gunfire erupted at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing Trump supporter Corey Comperatore and wounding Trump and six others, according to investigators.

Trump’s former White House physician, GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson, released a letter claiming that he had personally reviewed Trump’s medical records from Butler Memorial Hospital, which Jackson claimed showed the former president was treated for a “Gunshot Wound to the Right Ear.”

Jackson also confirmed that Trump underwent a precautionary CT scan while in Butler.

The Trump campaign, however, would not release the records that Jackson claimed to have reviewed.

Trump shared another letter from Jackson, detailing Trump’s ear injury and its healing process — claiming he’s doing “well” and recovering “as expected.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Far as he was from Washington, D.C., as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hiked to the top of a towering sandstone arch in rural Arizona with a group of Navajo Nation leaders, the impact of his agency’s cuts reached farther.

Wearing a shirt with a clear request written on the front, “Save IHS Jobs and Diabetes Program,” a Navajo council delegate, Eugenia Charles-Newton, approached Kennedy to tell him she was concerned HHS cuts were impacting the diabetes program that she relied on for care.

Charles-Newton said she’d heard funding wasn’t being renewed for aspects of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians, a program within Indian Health Services (IHS) at HHS. The rapid restructuring at HHS had made it difficult to track the actual impact, she said.

Kennedy, who listened and then walked arm-in-arm with Charles-Newton for the last leg of the hike, promised to look into the program and whether any funding was being impacted by the HHS-wide restructuring. The improvements to Navajo health care that she was asking for seemed like “common sense,” he said.

The president of Navajo Nation, Buu Nygren, also mentioned an impacted program — the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which provides federally funded assistance to reduce utility bills and help with weatherizing homes. Navajo people — living with the extreme temperatures of the desert — relied heavily on its assistance, he said.

But the program was gutted by HHS cuts. Nygren told ABC News he held out hope that Kennedy, made aware of its importance to Navajo Nation, might consider reinstating it.

From the start of the layoffs, Kennedy has insisted that no “essential services” would be cut. “The cuts in all of our agency are not affecting science,” Kennedy told ABC News last week.

But the scope of the cuts — and the work impacted, from utility bill assistance on Navajo Nation, to research into black lung disease for coal miners, to a division that monitors lead exposure among children — has continued to dog Kennedy, raising questions about his oversight and involvement in the major restructuring.

In all, the tribal leaders were resoundingly appreciative of Kennedy’s visit, which was part of his first major trip as HHS secretary. The trip focused on combatting chronic disease, with a heavy emphasis on the importance of healthy, unprocessed foods.

Dubbed the Make America Healthy Again tour, Kennedy also visited Utah, the first state in the nation to pass a law to remove fluoride from drinking water systems, and met with local officials. While there, he toured the Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of Utah, which is aiming to center healthy diet and exercise in the health care conversation, and got aboard their “food pharmacy,” which delivers prescribed healthy foods to patients.

In Arizona, which passed a law to ban SNAP recipients from using the assistance for soda, Kennedy held a press conference with the legislators who championed the bill and toured a Phoenix health center that offers healthy cooking programs for local native communities. He also stopped in for a panel discussion at the 2025 Tribal Self-Governance Conference, sitting with tribal leaders including the chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribe, which he fondly described spending time around during his childhood in Massachussetts.

On Navajo Nation, the crowd that gathered at the foot of Window Rock, a memorial, commended him for his devoted attention to issues of outdated medical centers, lack of water infrastructure and inadequate access to healthy foods.

“Processed food hurts all of us. It disproportionately injures Native people,” Kennedy told the group of Navajo leaders, who nodded in agreement.

But they also used the opportunity to tell Kennedy that they needed more support, not less — warning against the impact of his agency’s cuts. It was a conversation that Kennedy was receptive to.

“We are all going back with a long laundry list of tasks that we need to perform. And I’m going to give you my commitment today that I am available and listening to you,” Kennedy said.

In an interview with CBS News that aired on Wednesday, Kennedy struck a similar tone to what he told the tribal leaders on Navajo Nation — that he would look into cuts that he wasn’t aware of, and reinstate those that had disrupted “scientific research.”

“There’s a number of studies that were cut that came to our attention and that did not deserve to be cut, and we reinstated them. Our purpose is not to reduce any level of scientific research, that’s important,” Kennedy said in an interview with CBS News on Wednesday.

Kennedy’s comments come after he also told ABC News last week that studies and personnel were being reinstated, adding that the plan was always to make large cuts and then “remedy” mistakes.

But government officials later walked back those comments — and have largely stood by the cuts, which hit nearly one-fifth of the workforce at both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

On Wednesday, HHS did not respond to a request from ABC News for clarity on which research studies Kennedy was referring to in his interview with CBS News, and whether they had been reinstated.

Asked about various cuts in the CBS interview, from a grant for diabetes research at the University of Michigan to over $11 billion in cuts to COVID recovery efforts at the state level, Kennedy said he wasn’t “familiar,” but would look into it.

Across the CDC, FDA and the National Institute of Health, three of the main public health arms of HHS, there have not been significant changes to the cuts that hit around 10,000 employees last week.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House narrowly voted to approve the GOP budget blueprint Thursday by a vote of 216-214, delivering a major victory for President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.

Trump congratulated the House on the bill’s passage, saying in a post on his Truth Social platform that this “sets the stage for one of the Greatest and Most Important Signings in the History of our Country.”

“Among many other things, it will be the Largest Tax and Regulation Cuts ever even contemplated,” Trump said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the bill’s passage “a statement of purpose and strength.”

“The Trump Administration will continue pushing for the certainty, simplicity, and stability that will unlock long-term prosperity for all American,” Bessent said in a statement.

House Speaker Mike Johnson suffered a setback on Wednesday night when he was forced to scrap a planned vote due to opposition from a small group of Republican hardliners who are concerned the budget would add to the nation’s deficit.

Standing alongside Senate Majority Leader John Thune Thursday morning, Johnson said he had “very productive” deliberations with members on Wednesday night and on Thursday sought to highlight efforts to slash spending by more than a trillion dollars.

“We are committed to finding at least $1.5 trillion in savings for the American people while also preserving our essential programs,” Johnson said.

Thune seemed less enthusiastic about the target for deficit reduction but meekly endorsed the House’s lofty goal for budget savings — announcing the Senate’s ambition for fiscal sustainability is “aligned with the House.”

“We have got to do something to get the country on a more fiscally sustainable path and that entails us taking a hard scrub of our government, figuring out where we can find those savings,” Thune said. “The speaker has talked about $1.5 trillion. We have a lot of United States senators who believe that is a minimum and we’re going to do everything we can to be as aggressive as possible.”

President Trump, who has been personally involved in trying to get the measure adopted, weighed in on Thursday morning that Republicans were “getting close.”

“‘The Big, Beautiful Bill’ is coming along really well. Republicans are working together nicely. Biggest Tax Cuts in USA History!!!,” Trump wrote in a post to his conservative social media platform.

Johnson faces a short window to get the measure over the finish line before the House is slated to go on its two-week April recess.

The speaker can only afford to have only three defections from his caucus with all members voting and present.

House GOP leaders have scrambled for the past week to lock down the votes, after more than 20 Republicans expressed concern that the Senate’s resolution set a floor of just $4 billion in savings. Now, Johnson says he has the support needed.

“Our aim is to deliver on our promises,” Johnson said.

ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Two Democratic senators are demanding answers from the White House over serious concerns that President Donald Trump’s rollbacks on his tariffs and his social media posts earlier Wednesday may have been part of insider trading among White House allies.

Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., sent a letter to Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday asking for an investigation into potential conflicts of interest over the actions that took place Wednesday.

Hours before Trump announced he was rolling back tariffs to 10% to all countries except China, which sent the stock market soaring, he posted on Truth Social: “BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” and “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT.”

“This sequence of events raises grave legal and ethics concerns. The President, his family, and his advisors are uniquely positioned to be privy to and take advantage of non-public information to inform their investment decisions,” the senators said in their letter.

Stocks were down Wednesday morning before Trump’s Truth Social post immediately caused markets to spike. Nasdaq soared 12.1% at close, the index’s largest single-day gain since 2021, while the Dow jumped 7.8%, its biggest one-day increase in five years.

The White House has not immediately commented.

The senators asked the Office of Government Ethics to probe whether any White House or executive branch officials, to include special government employees, were informed of the announcement in advance and what financial transactions were made by officials with knowledge of nonpublic information.

The senators also said they wanted answers to several questions about Wednesday’s chain of events, including whether any Trump’s family members were informed of the deliberations prior to Trump’s Truth Social post announcing the tariff changes and if there were any records of communications with executive branch officials, family members or special government employees.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday that the president’s decision was part of his plan and that 75 countries had called to negotiate with the president. They did not provide further details.

Hours later, however, Trump told reporters he made his decision Wednesday morning.

“I think it probably came together early this morning, fairly early this morning. Just wrote it up. I didn’t — we didn’t have the use of, we didn’t have access to lawyers, or it was just brought up. We wrote it up from our hearts,” he said.

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(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday will try again to hold a vote on a budget blueprint to fund President Donald Trump’s agenda.

The House is expected to vote in the 10 a.m. hour on the measure, which was passed by the Senate last week.

“I’m happy to tell you that this morning, I believe we have the votes to finally adopt the budget resolution so we can move forward on President Trump’s very important agenda for the American people,” Johnson said at a news conference alongside Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

Johnson suffered a setback on Wednesday night when he was forced to scrap a planned vote due to opposition from a small group of Republican hardliners who are concerned the budget would add to the nation’s deficit.

Johnson said he had “very productive” deliberations with members on Wednesday night and on Thursday sought to highlight efforts to slash spending by more than a trillion dollars.

“We are committed to finding at least $1.5 trillion in savings for the American people while also preserving our essential programs,” Johnson said.

Thune seemed less enthusiastic about the target for deficit reduction but meekly endorsed the House’s lofty goal for budget savings — announcing the Senate’s ambition for fiscal sustainability is “aligned with the House.”

“We have got to do something to get the country on a more fiscally sustainable path and that entails us taking a hard scrub of our government, figuring out where we can find those savings,” Thune said. “The speaker has talked about $1.5 trillion. We have a lot of United States senators who believe that is a minimum and we’re going to do everything we can to be as aggressive as possible.”

President Donald Trump, who has been personally involved in trying to get the measure adopted, weighed in on Thursday morning that Republicans were “getting close.”

“‘The Big, Beautiful Bill’ is coming along really well. Republicans are working together nicely. Biggest Tax Cuts in USA History!!!,” Trump wrote in a post to his conservative social media platform

Johnson faces a short window to get the measure over the finish line before the House is slated to go on its two-week April recess.

The speaker can only afford to have only three defections from his caucus with all members voting and present.

House GOP leaders have scrambled for the past week to lock down the votes, after more than 20 Republicans expressed concern that the Senate’s resolution set a floor of just $4 billion in savings. Now, Johnson says he has the support needed.

“Our aim is to deliver on our promises,” Johnson said.

ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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The Democratic National Committee — continuing its push to host town halls in Republican-held districts — is announcing a new set of town halls focused on the Republican-led budget bill and featuring high-profile officials such as Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., ABC News has learned exclusively.

These “People’s Town Halls,” which will be held during Congress’ two-week April recess that begins next week, comes as Democrats look to hammer Republicans and the White House and to reach out to voters over economic concerns and affordability.

The Democrats are focusing in large part on a budget blueprint that President Donald Trump has said will help his administration’s priorities, including tax cuts and border security investments.

But that bill has been criticized by Democrats as potentially leading to cuts to key programs Americans rely on, such as health care or food assistance, during a time of economic uncertainty.

“In both red and blue communities, people are sick and tired of Donald Trump and Elon Musk destroying the economy, threatening health care and Social Security, and making life worse for families,” DNC chair Ken Martin said in a statement.

“In April, we’re doubling down with leading Democratic voices joining even more town halls in key districts across the country. Republicans still want to pretend like their constituents don’t exist, but we believe Americans deserve to have their voices heard.”

Republicans have argued that the budget blueprint does not and will not threaten any benefits or entitlements, and Trump has said his administration will not cut or threaten Social Security benefits. Republicans have also pushed back against claims they are not hosting town halls, saying that they are continuing to host in-person events or are hearing from constituents by phone and virtually. Some members have faced fierce pushback from constituents at their events.

The Democratic Party town halls during the recess are set to feature high-profile congressional figures — including Booker, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, Arizona Rep. Greg Stanton and Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost, according to the DNC.

Booker received heightened attention in early April after breaking a Congressional record, speaking for more than 24 hours in a marathon speech on the Senate floor protesting the national “crisis” he said President Donald Trump and key advisor Elon Musk had created.

“The Democratic Party is at its weakest when it’s concerned about the party. It’s at its strongest when it’s concerned about the people, when it’s bigger and broader than any narrow, political analysis,” Booker told ABC News’ “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.

The Democratic town halls will be held during the recess on April 13 in Arizona’s 6th District, on April 22 in Pennsylvania’s 8th District, on April 24 in Colorado’s 8th District and North Carolina’s 9th District, and on April 25 in Missouri’s 2nd District.

Two of those districts — Pennsylvania’s 8th, represented by Rep. Robert Bresnahan, and Colorado’s 8th, represented by Rep. Gabe Evans, were flipped by Republicans in the 2024 election.

North Carolina’s 9th District is represented by Rep. Richard Hudson, the chair of the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC). In March, Hudson encouraged House Republicans to do more virtual events instead of in-person town halls, although the NRCC said this was a suggestion to help members reach more constituents.

The Democrats’ new batch of town halls is also a joint effort between the DNC and two of its affiliates, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Association of State Democratic Committees (ASDC).

“While vulnerable Republicans continue to run scared because they’re voting to raise costs, gut Medicaid, and threaten working families livelihoods, we’re going to make sure voters know they don’t have to wait until Election Day to hold them accountable,” DCCC chair Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said in a statement.

According to the DNC, those three arms of the party have hosted 71 town halls in 35 states and territories in the past three weeks altogether, with tens of thousands of attendees overall.

ABC News’ Mariam Khan, Lauren Peller and Isabella Murray contributed to this report.

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LONDON — U.S.-Russian dual citizen Ksenia Karelina was released from Russian prison in an overnight prisoner exchange, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Thursday.

The exchange took place overnight in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Karelina’s lawyer Mikhail Mushailov confirmed to ABC News that she had been released.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the exchange in a tweet, writing, “American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States. She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and President Trump secured her release.”

A U.S. official told ABC News that American and Russian intelligence agencies took the lead in negotiating the prisoner swap.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement, “Today, President Trump brought home another wrongfully detained American from Russia. I’m proud of the CIA officers who worked tirelessly to support this effort and we appreciate the government of UAE for enabling the exchange.”

A CIA spokesperson told ABC News that “much of the swap was negotiated by the U.S. government, with CIA playing a key role engaging with Russian intelligence.”

“Through these engagements, CIA negotiated with Russia and worked closely with domestic and foreign partners, including the UAE, to carry out the exchange,” the spokesperson said. “We also collaborated closely with counterparts at agencies across the [U.S. government] to facilitate this exchange.”

Russia’s Federal Security Service also confirmed Karelina’s release, saying she had been pardoned via a decree from President Vladimir Putin. The FSB said the exchange was made at Abu Dhabi airport with the mediation of the UAE.

German-Russian citizen Artur Petrov — who was detained in Cyprus in 2023 at the request of the U.S. and later extradited — was exchanged for Karelina, the service said.

A Justice Department notice of his arrest said Petrov was accused of involvement in a scheme to procure U.S.-sourced microelectronics subject to export controls on behalf of a Russia-based supplier. The components were intended for manufacturers supplying weaponry and other equipment to the Russian military, the notice said.

A 2024 statement related to Petrov’s extradition to the U.S. said he was part of a network that secretly supplied Russia’s military industrial complex with “critical U.S. technology, including the same types of microelectronics recovered from Russian weapons on Ukrainian battlefields.”

Karelina — a ballet dancer — was serving a 12-year prison sentence in a penal colony, having been convicted of treason in August 2024. She was accused of organizing fundraisers for Ukraine’s military, attending pro-Ukraine rallies and posting social media messages against Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Her boyfriend, Chris Van Heerden, spoke to ABC News Live hours after her sentencing, saying she did nothing wrong. He said all she did was donate $50 to a Ukrainian charity.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Cindy Smith, Tanya Stukalova and Shannon K. Kingston contributed to this report.

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