Congress

Capitol agenda: Brace for sharper shutdown pain

Published

8 months ago

October 27, 2025

Congress is just days away from a significant escalation of shutdown pain. But with President Donald Trump in Asia all week, there’s little hope of an immediate breakthrough.

Come Nov. 1, SNAP benefits will be halted for over 40 million people, troops will miss their next paychecks and millions of Americans will see sharp premium hikes as they start shopping for Affordable Care Act health plans. The air travel system also appears to be at growing risk of meltdown, with understaffing causing delays through the weekend.

But with Trump overseas negotiating foreign investments and peace efforts, the question on Capitol Hill is whether any progress can be made toward resolving the crisis before he returns and reengages in domestic affairs.

Senators are exploring ways to ease shutdown burdens this week. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said he may try to seek unanimous consent on a bill to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for the duration of the shutdown.

SNAP food aid has never lapsed in modern history, even during shutdowns, but the Trump administration concluded in a Friday memo that it can’t tap a contingency fund or other nutrition programs to cover the $9 billion in monthly food benefits.

Other “rifle shot” bills addressing particular pain points that could come up on the floor this week include one from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to pay air traffic controllers and another from Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) to pay troops.

The most promising effort right now — and it’s still a long shot — is a potential compromise to pay federal workers and active-duty members of the military. Democrats rejected a bill by GOP Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.) Thursday but he and Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) said they would talk about finding common ground. Those discussions are ongoing, two people granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations tell Blue Light News.

“Something is going to have to come from the rank and file,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Blue Light News last week, dismissing Democrats’ insistence that Trump swoop in and broker a deal.

Still, there’s no sign most Democrats are ready to abandon their position until Republicans negotiate a deal to extend enhanced ACA subsidies past the end of the year.

“Right now both sides think they are winning and that’s not fertile ground for any kind of change, right?” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told Blue Light News. “So we’ll see once the next set of paychecks go unpaid whether or not increased pressure comes up.”

What else we’re watching:

— Jeffries talks redistricting in Illinois: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is scheduled to visit Illinois Monday to talk to members of the Illinois Black Caucus about redrawing the state’s congressional map. Some of them have been outspoken against the idea, fearing it will dilute Black political power.

Jeffries will have to address those concerns quickly: Illinois lawmakers are back in Springfield this week for the annual fall veto session, and redistricting could get added to the agenda.

— Dems force votes in the Senate: Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats are forcing votes on three resolutions this week to rebuke Trump’s sweeping global tariffs and his tariffs on Canadian and Brazilian goods. This would be the first time the Senate votes on the tariffs on the Brazil tariffs resolution.

Democrats will also be able to force a vote on a war powers resolution from Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Adam Schiff of California in the coming days that would block military strikes on Venezuela without authorization from Congress. It follows a previously failed effort to curtail Trump’s maritime strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers in the Caribbean.

Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Grace Yarrow and Shia Kapos contributed to this report.

Congress

Johnson-backed plan to combine Pentagon and election bills advances to floor

Published

3 hours ago

June 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Rules Committee advanced a procedural measure aimed at breaking an intra-Republican deadlock Monday night. But GOP leaders are still facing a major battle Tuesday to regain control of the House floor.

The panel approved on party lines a measure to set up Republicans’ $1.1 trillion defense policy bill, a government funding bill and other GOP bills for floor debate. It would then combine the Pentagon bill, once passed, with the contentious elections overhaul known as the SAVE America Act and send it to the Senate as one piece of legislation.

That maneuver, telegraphed by Speaker Mike Johnson earlier Monday, is aimed at appeasing House GOP hard-liners who have blockaded the floor, demanding the Senate pass the elections bill that has languished there for months.

However, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, the Republican leading the blockade, said in an interview Monday before the Rules Committee acted that Johnson’s plan is not sufficient — raising the possibility she and allies could vote down the measure on the floor. Other House GOP hard-liners say there are other outstanding issues to battle over Tuesday.

Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Rules Democrat, called the merger move “a big waste of time.” The panel voted down a motion by McGovern to remove the provision to combine the two bills in a party-line vote.

The Senate is set to debate its own version of the defense bill next month, and it is likely that the elections overhaul will be removed in negotiations between the two chambers — as McGovern acknowledged Monday and House GOP leaders privately concede.

“The Senate will just strip the SAVE Act out,” he said at the meeting. “There is a zero percent chance SAVE ends up in the [Pentagon bill] because of this rule today.”

The defense bill faces a tight vote if Republicans can pass the procedural measure. Most Democrats are expected to oppose the measure over its massive price tag, which they contend is wasteful.

The panel is set up debate on 312 amendments to the bill. The slate includes GOP measures to codify a Trump executive order to block transgender people from serving in the military, prohibit coverage of gender-affirming care, block aid to arm Ukraine and strip Democratic-backed protections for collective bargaining for Pentagon civilian workers.

The committee also voted down Democratic proposals to slash $150 billion from the bill’s topline and limit the war against Iran.

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

Congress

Pentagon and elections bills could be combined in bid to unfreeze House floor

Published

5 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday he plans to deploy an unusual procedural maneuver in a bid to unfreeze the House floor this week, seeking to send the annual Pentagon policy bill and the GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act to the Senate in a single package.

That is likely a recipe for a continued standoff between the two chambers over the SAVE America Act, which has stalled in the Senate for months due to internal GOP divides. Under Johnson’s plan, the annual defense policy bill, which typically passes every year with large bipartisan majorities, could become a collateral victim of the impasse.

Asked in brief interview if he had talked to Senate Majority Leader John Thune about his plans, Johnson replied, “I have to do my job in the House, and they’ve got to do their job in the Senate, so we’ll see what happens.”

Johnson is seeking to placate House conservative hard-liners, led by Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who have threatened to oppose the procedural measures that give Republicans control of the floor unless they agree to tougher tactics meant to force the Senate into passing the elections bill.

House GOP leaders discussed the plan to merge the two bills over the weekend as Luna pushed to amend the defense bill directly.

She did not say in an interview Monday whether Johnson’s gambit would suffice: “We want it baked together, not able to be stripped out,” she said.

But the Senate is free to work its own will, and members of that chamber are likely to reject any defense bill that has the partisan elections bill attached. That would set the stage for GOP leaders to strip it out when the House and Senate hash out the differences between their competing Pentagon bills later this year.

Johnson, meanwhile, is pushing a separate plan to pass a slimmed-down version of the SAVE America Act through the party-line budget reconciliation process — an option hard-liners have all but rejected.

“I don’t think that that can be done,” Luna told reporters Monday.

He’s also facing another complication: The version of the SAVE America Act he is proposing to attach to the Pentagon bill doesn’t include the latest demands for the bill from President Donald Trump — including a near-total ban on mail voting that is opposed by many Republicans.

Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

Congress

Top Trump officials face bipartisan questions in first all-member Iran briefings

Published

6 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Lawmakers of both parties questioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio and top Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff Monday in the first broad congressional briefings on President Donald Trump’s Iran deal.

While Democrats asked some of the sharpest questions, participants in an afternoon conference call with House members said, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) at one point pressed the administration officials on the fate of Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium.

According to two people granted anonymity to disclose the private remarks, Witkoff and Rubio repeated assurances the administration has privately made to select lawmakers in prior briefings — that the goal is to negotiate a final deal that would prohibit Iran from keeping its highly enriched uranium.

The memorandum of understanding Trump signed earlier this month, they said, was meant to launch those negotiations. Witkoff, the people said, added that the technical team involved in that part of the talks was traveling from Switzerland to Qatar, where talks between the U.S. and Iran are set to happen Tuesday.

Democrats, meanwhile, pushed the administration for more details on what financial benefits Iran could reap under the memorandum — including proceeds from previously sanctioned oil sales.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) went back and forth with Rubio and Witkoff over the lifting of the oil sanctions, two other people granted anonymity on the House call said. The officials eventually cut off the conversation and ended the call.

At another point, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) raised concerns about Witkoff’s business interests in the Middle East as he’s negotiating with Iran, prompting a sharp defense from Rubio, those people said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked Rubio and Witkoff about the oil sanctions during a separate all-senators call Monday, saying in a statement afterward that they “confirmed to me that Iran will reap billions in oil revenue while retaining dangerous leverage over the Strait of Hormuz.”

“If this is the administration’s defense behind closed doors, Secretary Rubio should make it under oath, in public, before the Foreign Relations Committee,” Schumer added, calling the briefing “delayed, deficient, and devoid of details.”

An administration official granted anonymity to speak candidly countered on Schumer’s characterization, noting that he had previously gotten a briefing of the deal as part of a group of top leaders engaged on national security matters. Schumer, the official said, had the opportunity to ask multiple follow-up questions on the Senate call.

A separate group of White House officials briefed top congressional leaders and key committee chairs in a classified briefing in the Capitol later Monday.

The administration has faced bipartisan skepticism over multiple provisions of the memorandum of understanding — particularly the lifting of oil sanctions and a $300 billion reconstruction fund that many Senate Republicans fear will help fuel Iran’s military and regional proxies.

Rubio and Witkoff sought to ease concerns about the slow reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — the critical trade route whose closure has sparked higher fuel and fertilizer costs. Both officials said more mine removal is required, and Witkoff indicated that Iran broke the terms of the Trump-signed deal by launching a drone attack on a passing ship over the weekend.

They also sought to assure lawmakers that Iran has received no money under the memorandum — especially not directly from American sources. Administration officials have previously pledged in smaller briefings that the reconstruction fund won’t include U.S. funds.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) called the Senate briefing a “productive conversation” but said “much of what I heard today is similar to what I heard last week” during a dinner at Vice President JD Vance’s residence.