Good morning. I'm Anna Palmer. I'm Jake Sherman. And welcome to The Daily Punch,

brought to you by Punch Bull News. It's Thursday, January 22nd, 2026. Let's get in the mix. Here are

your Washington headlines of the day. Number one,

the funding mess. What's happening? Number two senators, they're just like us, delaying construction

on the Senate heart building. And number three, we've got some news here. Representative Ben Klein says

he's next in line to be the next RSC chair. All right, Jake, let's get to it before we get into

the funding mess. What House Republicans are doing.

We've got some news at the top of AM on Speaker Mike Johnson and his fundraising.

Yes, we do.

Mike Johnson raised $82 million during 2025.

His first full non-election year's speaker, a big amount of money.

And that includes a $16 million haul in the fourth quarter of the year a speaker, big amount of money, and that includes a $16 million

hall in the fourth quarter of the year. So a big money year for Mike Johnson, who is constantly

on the road of raising cash, as every speaker is. And also he has the CLF dynamic, too, because

the super PAC is a huge part of the House Republicans

political machine so that's a lot of dough Anna and that's what it takes certainly he has assuaged

the concerns that he was not up to the job of bringing money there might be other people who've got

positives and negatives on how the speakership is going.

But the money game, he's gotten good at.

Yes, he has.

And the ultimate question is, does it come along with the office or is it the person? And I would say initially it comes along with the office, but then it's the person.

Because donors have a lot of emotions and thoughts. Imagine it's like sports fans, Anna.

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