Congress

Senate Republicans scramble to lock down support for Trump’s spending clawbacks

Published

1 year ago

July 15, 2025

Senate Republicans are scrambling to iron out changes to President Donald Trump’s $9.4 billion request for spending clawbacks ahead of a key vote on Tuesday.

Majority Leader John Thune needs 51 votes to start debate on the “rescissions” package, and as of Monday evening, it was not clear he had them. He’s also staring down a looming deadline: Congress has until Friday night to clear the request Trump sent last month, or the president will be forced to spend the money as Congress intended. An added wrinkle is that if the Senate makes changes it will have to be passed again by the House.

Even if Thune can gather the necessary support to start debate on the package of cuts to public broadcasting and foreign aid, it’s not clear he’ll get the votes to pass it later this week. Appropriations Chair Susan Collins huddled with several GOP senators in her committee office on Monday as some Republicans seek changes to the White House request or clarifications on what exact spending the administration is seeking to rescind.

Collins told a small group of reporters after the meeting that there are “still many open questions … that we still do not have the answers to.” Collins said the questions went beyond her previously stated concerns about PEPFAR, the global AIDS program, to include broader concerns about cutbacks in overseas public health.

“We still are lacking the level of detail that is needed to make the right decisions,” Collins said. “It’s extremely unusual for any senator to not be able to get that kind of detailed information.”

The meeting in Collins’ office included some GOP senators, including Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, who support the administration’s effort to claw back funding and are trying to help their colleagues get answers from the administration.

“We’re working through questions and concerns right now, which is why we’re trying to handle all this on the front end, but I’m very hopeful and confident we’ll address those,” said Schmitt, who is spearheading the bill in the Senate, as he left the meeting.

The meeting was also attended by several Republicans who have not yet said if they will support the rescissions package and are considered votes to watch, including Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Todd Young of Indiana and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Moran, who comes from a major agricultural state, said in a brief interview after the meeting that his key concern is global food aid. He added that he is still waiting for clarity about “what are they actually rescinding” as well as taking part in ongoing conversations about “are there things that we would not want to rescind?”

Whether and to what extent the Senate ends up tweaking the package likely hinges on the responses from the administration. Republican senators will hear from White House Budget Director Russ Vought during a closed-door lunch Tuesday about which specific accounts the administration would cut if Congress approves its request.

For weeks, Republicans on both sides of the Capitol have asked the White House for those specifics, and many say they have not yet gotten satisfactory responses.

“We’ve been working with a number of our colleagues over the weekend trying to address concerns they have and again see what a path forward on amendments looks like,” Thune said Monday evening as he left the Capitol.

Asked if he thought he had the votes to start the process on the floor, he added: “To be determined. We’re still having those conversations.”

Republicans believe Collins will vote to push the rescissions package out of committee, the first step in the floor process. But they are less certain, based on where talks currently stand, whether she would agree to start debate. Asked about that second step on Monday, Collins noted Vought is coming back to the Capitol on Tuesday so “this will be a chance to try to pin him down and get the detailed information that we need.”

Other Republicans in the meeting with Collins on Monday night are expected to support the administration’s effort to claw back the funding but have left the door open to supporting amendments or backing their GOP colleagues’ requests for more information.

“I just think it’s curious,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters Monday night about the lack of specificity from the White House.

“I’ve already said I’m a lean yes,” Tillis added. “But I think there’s some very important process questions that people are asking that could make me rethink that, particularly just answering the questions of the members.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who is hosting the lunch with Vought, said “hopefully we can get a lot of questions answered” there.

When asked if she’ll be offering any amendments or needs to see specific changes, she added: “No, but I’m listening.”

Congress

Trump apparently shares Tom Cotton’s phone number in push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent

Published

1 day ago

October 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump appeared to share Sen. Tom Cotton’s phone number in a Saturday morning social media post imploring the Arkansas Republican to get behind a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

“Almost everybody wants “The Sunshine Protection Act” to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”

The president has spent months personally pushing Senate Republicans to end the practice that sees Americans change their clocks twice a year, cementing more sunlight hours in the evening for all twelve months of the calendar. Cotton, whom Trump called “a friend of mine” in the Saturday post, has long argued that making daylight saving time permanent would leave children, farmers and other early risers in the dark for hours on winter mornings.

One of Trump’s key selling points on Saturday: the PGA tour.

“The PGA TOUR, as an example, needs more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments,” he said, attaching a letter from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp endorsing the bill. ”Likewise, regular Golfers, Tennis Players, Hunters and, perhaps most importantly, Farmers who want more Daylight to play or work.

A Blue Light News call to the cellphone number went to voicemail. A spokesperson for Cotton did not respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The current version of the bill was introduced in the House in January 2025 by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) leading the Senate version. The legislation would make daylight saving time permanent across most of the country, ending the twice-yearly clock changes. The legislation has been stalled in the Senate since July.

The president encouraged supporters of the bill, dubbed the “The Sunshine Protection Act,” to call Cotton to “let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”

During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he publicly gave out the personal cellphone number of then-rival Sen. Lindsey Graham after the South Carolina Republican criticized him. Trump, who came to count on Graham as a reliable Senate ally after he won the presidency, revisited the moment during Graham’s funeral in July, acknowledging that sharing the number was something he “shouldn’t have done.”

Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.

Congress

Sanders to rally for Troy Jackson in Maine

Published

2 days ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Bernie Sanders will hit the road for Troy Jackson in Maine starting Oct. 10, the first time the progressive leader will stump for the candidate this cycle.

The Vermont independent plans to hold three rallies with Jackson, according to an itinerary shared first with Blue Light News: first in Bangor on Oct. 10th followed by Lewiston and Biddeford on Oct. 11.

The Maine swing will kick off Sanders’ travel for the final stretch of the midterms, covering ground throughout October for House and Senate candidates, POLITICO reported.

“Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them,” Jackson spokesperson Dan Gottlieb told Blue Light News. “Susan Collins has had nearly 30 years to deliver, and working Mainers are still getting squeezed while she serves the billionaires and corporate interests who bankroll her campaigns. Mainers don’t need another six years of excuses.”

Sanders campaigned ahead of major wins for progressives in the primary season, speaking at more than 60 rallies since last year’s Fight the Oligarchy tour and endorsing more than 90 candidates up and down the ballot.

He’s also opening his substantial $23 million campaign war chest, POLITICO reported, and contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars toMinnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and others including Angie Nixon in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,

Sanders will return to Maine after initially backing Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate. Allegations reported by POLITICO ultimately led him to call on the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.

Sanders had not formally endorsed Jackson since he clinched the nomination from Platner, though he previously backed Jackson’s initial run for governor.

Congress

Hill: Trump’s ‘lack of favorability’ creating challenging politics

Published

2 days ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he has “no concerns” about winning back his Arkansas seat in the upcoming midterm elections, but the six-term House member acknowledged the political headwinds for his party.

“I consider the atmosphere a very tough political environment right now because of President [Donald] Trump’s lack of favorability at the top, and you know people are concerned about, as I say, what it’s like to live under an inflated economy the last four years,” Hill said in an interview.

Hill is in a solidly red district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and said he is up against a “weaker candidate this time than I’ve had in past races.” Polling in the district, however, has shown a tighter race. The two polls done this year placed Democratic challenger Chris Jones ahead of Hill by a few percentage points. Any perceived polling victory for Jones is still well within the margin of error, and one of the polls had a Democratic sponsor.

Stephannie Lane Baker, a spokesperson for Jones, said that “of all the Republicans in Congress, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee doesn’t get to dodge responsibility for this economy. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.”

Additionally, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s PAC, Ready for the Fight, committed more than $1 million in television ads through the next five weeks for Jones’ race in Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the PAC confirmed. Overall Democratic spending on advertising for the race was just over $1 million, primarily made up by contributions from the Ready for the Fight PAC, with Republicans spending almost $2.7 million on ad buys, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking service.

Hill said he has addressed affordability concerns “head on” this Congress.

“My work on housing, my work on the Price Stability Act, my work to try to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and drop the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP,” Hill said. “All these things can contribute to a more affordable environment for people. So I’ve tried to make that a forefront of my campaign this year.”

Hill was a key architect of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing affordability bill that became law in July. The Price Stability Act, which is unlikely to become law this year, would narrow the Federal Reserve’s current dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and price stability to focus exclusively on containing inflation.