FISA lapse, Binance-Iran probe, and NDAA markups dominate sparse Tuesday

Senate Majority Leader Thune made FISA reauthorization and the Clayton confirmation the explicit floor priorities for the balance of the week. He tied the two together, arguing Clayton's swift confirmation as director of national intelligence would "unlock the 702 process."

"Jay Clayton is an eminently qualified individual to become the new director of national intelligence," Thune said at a Republican leadership press conference. "Chairman Cotton, they will be … having his confirmation hearing tomorrow … and hopefully reporting him out later in the week."

Thune also cited a historical first: "This president, President Trump, is the first president in history not to have a civilian nominee confirmed either by voice vote or unanimous consent. That is truly, truly unprecedented."

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., reinforced the theme in a separately released media appearance, framing the FISA expiration as a specific vulnerability during the ongoing FIFA World Cup. "You think about them letting FISA expire when we're having the World Cup here in the United States … we have what is equivalent to 11 plus Super Bowls across the country, with over 78 games, and they decided to let our intelligence agencies go dark," Britt said.

Sen. Schiff and three Democratic colleagues — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. — sent a joint letter to Treasury and the Justice Department demanding answers about Binance's alleged role in routing funds to Iran-backed groups.

The senators cited reporting that Binance executives allowed Iranian operator Babak Zanjani to coordinate exchange of $850 million "as part of a larger effort to move funds to IRGC-affiliated accounts, including transactions just one month before President Trump initiated military operations with Iran."

The letter sharpened its conflict-of-interest argument around Trump's stablecoin: "In April 2026, Binance operated a reward scheme designed to encourage individuals to hold or trade USD1, driving up its value and further enriching the Trump and Witkoff families. Furthermore, Binance currently holds nearly 80 percent of all USD1 tokens on the market, giving the firm significant influence over the profitability of the token," the senators wrote.

The probe builds on prior action — Schiff and Warren introduced a resolution last year condemning Trump's pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, which Senate Republicans blocked.

The Senate Armed Services Committee reported out its FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act Tuesday, triggering a wave of member statements highlighting secured amendments.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., announced amendments renaming the Department of Defense as the Department of War, expanding Title IX protections across all department education activities, and authorizing roughly $2 billion for a new USSPACECOM headquarters at Redstone Arsenal. "The United States was constantly on our heels and playing defense under the Biden administration. Those days are over thanks to President Trump and Secretary Hegseth," Tuberville said.

Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., also announced secured NDAA provisions tied to military airpower and counterterrorism operations, though his release provided only a truncated summary.

A large bloc of Senate Democrats sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday warning that Trump administration cuts to foreign aid and the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization have eroded outbreak containment infrastructure as Ebola and hantavirus spread in central Africa.

The letter — led by Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and signed by more than two dozen colleagues — argued: "The dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the withdrawal from key international organizations such as the WHO, and the abrupt foreign aid cuts have had the combined effect of degrading our outbreak preparedness and seriously weakening the systems we rely upon to keep Americans safe from infectious diseases."

Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, both D-N.M., issued a parallel release making the same case, noting specifically that CDC-WHO laboratory collaboration "no longer exist[s] due to the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO."

Senate Majority Leader Thune and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., separately took to the floor Tuesday to prosecute the Democratic Party's shutdown record and its opposition to anti-fraud provisions in the recently enacted Working Families Tax Cuts law.

In a floor statement, Thune quoted what he characterized as an admission by the Democratic leader: "'We made a lot of strategic decisions that got us to this place — it didn't happen by accident,' the Democrat leader said, referring to his view of his party's position." Thune tied those decisions to air traffic controller funding cuts, TSA officer attrition, and federal workers lining up at food banks.

Barrasso focused on Medicaid fraud in Minnesota, highlighting a recent federal prosecution. "Here in the Senate, every single Democrat voted against landmark legislation to fight fraud, to fight waste, to fight abuse, to fight corruption. Democrats would rather protect thieves than protect hardworking American taxpayers and the people these programs were created to help," Barrasso said.

Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter Tuesday to CISA Acting Director Nick Andersen demanding a full accounting of staff reductions at the cybersecurity agency, warning that cuts are creating exploitable vulnerabilities.

Warner's letter noted that since January 2025, the Trump administration has "purged nearly one-third of CISA's workforce — primarily senior career officials." He drew a specific operational picture: "At present, five of the 10 CISA regional directors are serving in an 'acting' capacity, and one of the regional websites appears to misspell the name of the acting director."

"The experience, institutional knowledge, and trusted relationships built by career staff are irreplaceable assets and vital to supporting states and critical infrastructure owners and operators to defend against cyberthreats," Warner wrote. He set a response deadline of June 26.

Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, both D-Colo., joined Sen. Schiff and eight colleagues in launching a formal inquiry into the Department of the Interior's reported redirection of national park fee revenue to presidential vanity projects in Washington.

"Rather than distribute these fee revenues back to our national parks and public lands, it appears that the Department of the Interior has redirected fee revenues to pay for President Trump's vanity projects around Washington, D.C.," the senators wrote. The inquiry cited reports that NPS is spending $60 million in visitor fees on ornamental fountains and $7 million on renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — a project Trump had previously said would cost $1.8 million.

Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., separately released a report calculating what $300 million in taxpayer funds reported spent on Trump's ballroom project could have provided Nevada, including Medicaid coverage for roughly 60,000 residents for a year. "Donald Trump said his gilded ballroom would be funded without using a dollar from the American taxpayer, and it's now clear he lied," Rosen said.

Two separate FEMA funding announcements landed Tuesday from opposite ends of the political spectrum, both touting results from constituent advocacy.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., announced FEMA released nearly $10 million in delayed Tropical Storm Debby and COVID-19 grants to Pennsylvania — the second round following his April letter to DHS. "I'm grateful to see federal funding go back to those impacted by circumstances that were out of their control," Fetterman said. He and Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., also jointly announced $1.5 million for Presque Isle State Park shore protection, secured after Fetterman's personal outreach to the Army Corps of Engineers.

Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, both D-N.Y., announced $11.75 million in FEMA grants for New York covering COVID-19 pandemic response reimbursements and infrastructure damage from Tropical Storm Debby's remnants.

Three legislative introductions covered distinct ground Tuesday. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., led a bipartisan foursome — including Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Andy Kim, D-N.J. — in introducing the Web of Biological Data Act, which would direct the Secretary of Energy to build a centralized, AI-ready biological database. "High-quality, AI-ready biological data will be the foundation of future American biotechnology innovation … it would secure U.S. biological data from exploitation by the Chinese Communist Party," Young said.

Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, both R-Miss., joined three colleagues in urging USDA to require exporting countries to certify their products free of Yellow Catfish Virus and Channel Catfish Virus before U.S. import. The senators noted YcCV — first identified in Chinese aquaculture in 2020 — carries mortality rates approaching 90 percent and "can remain viable during freezing and thawing."

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., introduced the Foreign-Trade Zone Export Enhancement Act of 2026 with Sen. Britt to allow goods produced in U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones to be exported duty-free to Mexico and Canada under USMCA. "My bill levels the playing field for our businesses by making sure American manufacturing remains globally competitive, boosting USA-made exports, and supporting American jobs," Scott said.

Senate Democrats and Republicans issued competing immigration-related statements Tuesday. Sen. Bennet joined more than 50 colleagues in pressing Acting AG Blanche over a Board of Immigration Appeals ruling they say undercuts DACA's forbearance protections, which have been upheld by the Fifth Circuit. "We are troubled to see the Board, and by extension, the Department of Justice, attempt to circumvent legal protections for DACA recipients," the lawmakers wrote.

On the Republican side, Sen. Cornyn announced the DOJ formally opened applications for his Bridging Immigration-related Deficits Experienced Nationwide (BIDEN) Program — a $3 billion reimbursement fund for states' border security costs created under the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. "For four years, President Biden's disastrous open-border policies wreaked havoc on our nation, and no state did more during that time to fill in the gaps to try to protect and defend the southern border than Texas," Cornyn said.

The Senate unanimously passed a resolution led by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., condemning Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party — described by Scott as possessing "a particular brand of evil" — one day after Xi's birthday.

Signals

• volumeTuesday's 28 releases ran 67 percent below the Tuesday baseline of 85.1 — the lowest volume signal in the current dataset.
• coordinatedAt least 25 Democratic senators signed onto the Ebola/hantavirus letter to Secretary Rubio, with at least six separate Senate offices issuing individual releases amplifying the same letter on the same day.
• coordinatedSenate Majority Leader Thune issued two floor statements in a single day — one on shutdown messaging, one on FISA/Clayton — an unusual same-day doubling for leadership communications.
• voteThe Senate passed unanimously Sen. Rick Scott's resolution condemning Xi Jinping and the CCP, the only floor vote action noted in Tuesday's releases.
• recessSenate is 13 days from the Independence Day state work period; no scheduled floor votes appear on the calendar for this week beyond the Clayton confirmation hearing.
• silent breaksSen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, has been quiet for 43 days; Sen. Ron Johnson, R-WI, for 36 days — both absent from today's release set as well.

Quiet desks

Senators with no release in two weeks or more.

• Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC43d
• Sen. Ron Johnson, R-WI36d
• Sen. Alan Armstrong, R-OK—