It was a busy week in the nation’s capital.

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) scored a surprise victory on Tuesday when she sought unanimous consent to pass the No Tax on Tips Act — and no one objected. Then on Wednesday, word got out that Rep. Mark Amodei’s (R-NV) Nevada land sales provision was being stripped from the reconciliation bill.

That became official Wednesday night, and on Thursday morning, the House passed the big, beautiful bill by a one-vote margin, sending it over to the Senate. (In between, your humble newsletter writer was able to watch the Indiana Pacers’ epic fourth quarter comeback. Sorry to readers who are Knicks fans.)

Amodei and I sat down to talk through what happened, and why he still thinks his lands bills can move this Congress.

Programming note: D.C. Download will be off next week. See you in June!

The News of the Week: Nevada public lands

Two weeks ago, Amodei successfully added a surprise provision to the reconciliation bill designating hundreds of thousands of acres of public land in Nevada for sale with the support of all but one of the committee’s Republicans, and no Democrats.

Then the outrage started. Predictably, Democrats pilloried him for including land in Clark County, which he does not represent. Conservationists lamented the sell-off of lands without offsets for conservation, as is typically done in Nevada lands bills. And Nevada’s Democrats in Congress criticized the lack of a provision stipulating that money from the land sales would remain in Nevada.

But there were some Republican complaints as well. One Republican in particular was not happy: Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), the former secretary of the interior during Trump’s first term.

Zinke drew a sharp red line around public lands sales as a means to generate revenue.

“This was my San Juan Hill; I do not support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands,” he said in a press release. “Once land is sold, we will never get it back. God isn’t creating more land.”

Not all red lines — especially ones stated in the public — are as strong as members may initially say (see one Amodei, Mark and clean energy tax credits), particularly as pressure begins mounting from leadership and the president to support the bill. 

But Zinke held firm — much to the ire of Amodei.

Amodei said Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) met with Zinke and Amodei to try and hash out the issue. The speaker’s office suggested a few potential compromises, including taking out the land sales in Clark County while retaining the acreage sales in the rest of Nevada and Utah.

But Zinke, Amodei said, was still a “hard no.” And so House Republican leaders had to make a calculation — and, fearing that Zinke could sink the bill, told Amodei to pull the land sale provisions. As it turned out, the reconciliation bill — sans lands — passed by exactly one vote, with Zinke’s support.

And while Zinke threatened to withhold his vote, Amodei was never willing to play that card.

“I started the negotiations by going, I'm not going to come in here and hold a gun to anybody's head and say ‘Screw you, I’ve got four people from Utah and me who are nos,’” he said. “If you do that, I think that's a phenomenally ungifted proposal [when] you’re part of a team that's trying to get something done.”  

A team player who is frequently frustrated with holdouts in his own party, Amodei’s political style has typically veered toward cooperation over confrontation. Though Zinke won this battle, Amodei believes his acquiescence banked political capital for his own lands legislation moving forward. He said he has a commitment from GOP leaders that his Northern Nevada lands bill will be prioritized by the House Natural Resources Committee.

Zinke, meanwhile, said through a spokesperson that he wants to partner with Amodei on improved management of federal lands moving forward.

“Congressman Zinke understands and is empathetic to Congressman Amodei’s argument, particularly on affordable housing, however they were just on opposite sides of the policy debate related to public lands sales,” his spokesperson said.

And he said the criticism has not deterred him from working with interested parties in Clark County on lands issues — particularly because he is the only Nevadan in the majority. And while the Clark County Democrats have berated him over the issue, he said the challenge of helping Las Vegas grow responsibly without access to more federal land is too pressing to not take an interest.

“I feel an obligation to Clark County,” Amodei said. “Somebody needs to be a voice — based on experience with passing federal lands bills — for Clark County.”

And as for the beef with the Democrats? Amodei said as someone who has been through majorities and minorities, the other members of the delegation have asked for and will continue to need his help, at least in this Congress.

“Right now, [they’re saying] ‘How dare you cross south of Indian Springs and be involved in anything?’” Amodei said. “Well, it was OK for me to be involved making sure that the Homeland Security Department was there for you when the [World Cup] is in L.A. and you expect a lot of people to come to Vegas. It's OK for when the F1 people come and want to meet with Kristi Noem. It's OK for you to help us with that.”

Around the Capitol

📜The rest of the bill — Public land sales aren’t the only thing that was revised in the bill. Two major updates that will affect Nevada:

• Medicaid work requirements will now phase in at the end of 2026, instead of the beginning of 2029.
• Further restriction of the investment and production IRA tax credits, which will especially affect solar. To qualify, projects must begin construction within 60 days of the law’s enactment, and be in service by 2028.

💬Let the 2026 messaging wars begin! — Democrats voted to raise your taxes! Republicans voted to cut your benefits! Those tax cuts are for the wealthy; those benefits were for undocumented immigrants.

That’s a preview of what you’ll be hearing for the next 17 months, if the emails in my inbox are any indication. The big, beautiful bill is likely to be Trump’s signature legislative accomplishment in his first two years, and thus, it will be a huge part of the 2026 midterms. 

What I’m Reading

Inside Climate News: Locals oppose ‘insane’ plan to sell 500,000 acres of public lands for housing in Nevada and Utah

One potential consequence of this saga — it united Nevada’s sometimes fractious conservation community. 

The Nevada Independent: Rosen gets Senate to pass no tax on tips using unlikely procedural maneuver

100-0!

The Las Vegas Review-Journal: Former congressional candidate makes bid for Nevada state treasurer

It’s official: Drew Johnson plans to run for treasurer instead of Congressional District 3.

Notable and Quotable

“Sometimes people try to exploit it, and we'll take care of it if we see that. It's really important that we do that for our average folks in Nevada.”

— Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), on if companies with tipped employees may lower wages based on the No Tax on Tips Act