Congress

House to return to laundry list of controversies after 7-week hiatus

Published

10 months ago

November 10, 2025

The House is set to return to work Wednesday after a staggering 54 days out of session. Ending the record government shutdown will be the least of Speaker Mike Johnson’s problems.

Tensions have been running high for weeks over Johnson’s decision to shut down the House for the duration of the shutdown, sparking intense criticism from Democrats and private alarm inside pockets of the House GOP.

With members now returning to Washington after spending nearly two months dispersed across the country, he is faced with jump-starting dormant committee work, tackling a looming health care deadline and resolving long-brewing internal conflicts over the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and congressional stock-trading — if he can reopen the government first.

Asked Monday if he had the votes to pass the Senate-negotiated package, Johnson replied, “I think we will,” as he dashed into his office.

Johnson is already leaning heavily on President Donald Trump to get his conference behind the funding package. He made clear on a private call with House Republicans Monday morning that Trump wants the government reopened as soon as possible, and Trump signaled later in the day that he backs the deal.

GOP hard-liners who have traditionally opposed spending bills appear to be falling in line, arguing that the package constitutes a major win because it preempts a year-end omnibus bill that would fund the whole federal government through September and does not extend expiring Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies, as Democrats had demanded.

Even the famously intransigent House Freedom Caucus “is cool” with the package, according to one Republican in the group who was granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. Their support solves one of Johnson’s biggest headaches and puts the bill on a glide path to passage, with Trump ready to cajole any other holdouts.

The bigger challenge might be getting members to Washington for a final vote. They’re likely to face massive travel disruptions this week with FAA flight limits prompting airlines to trim thousands of domestic flights. Johnson urged GOP members Monday to begin traveling to Washington as soon as possible. Chiefs of staff also received a notice Monday morning for lawmakers to return to Washington by Tuesday evening, and be ready to vote Wednesday.

Once lawmakers arrive and reopen the government, Johnson will then have to confront other long-simmering controversies.

One issue he plans to confront immediately Wednesday, before the first House votes, is swearing in Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva seven weeks after she won the special election to fill her late father’s Arizona House seat, according to five people granted anonymity to discuss his plans ahead of an official announcement.

But that in turn will jump-start another long-running GOP political hassle: Grijalva says she will be the 218th and decisive signature on a discharge petition to compel the release of the “Epstein files” — records held by the Justice Department that Trump has opposed sharing. That will start a cascade of legislative steps requiring the measure to be brought to the floor by early December.

Republican leadership has taken pains to avoid Epstein-related votes, which have generated fissures inside the GOP, but Johnson has said he won’t seek to block the discharge petition.

Separately, many members of both parties are pushing Johnson to advance a contentious bill that would ban lawmakers from trading individual stocks. Appropriators will also face the daunting task of drafting full-year spending bills for most of the federal government ahead of the new Jan. 30 shutdown deadline. And lawmakers on other committees will be forced to catch up on weeks of missed hearings and markups, with GOP leaders privately warning members that many late nights of work are in store upon their return.

The toughest internal battle Johnson will have to confront centers on health care. A brewing conflict over the expiring Obamacare subsidies — which the speaker was mostly able to keep under wraps with members out of town — is now set to spill out into the open in the coming days.

On one side, scores of Republicans are dead-set against extending the subsidies that have been at the center of the shutdown. On the other side, Johnson is facing a handful of unhappy GOP members, including some who are privately considering backing any discharge petition to sidestep Johnson and force a vote on an extension before the Obamacare tax credits expire Dec. 31.

“We will find a way,” said one House Republican who supports an extension and was granted anonymity to speak frankly about internal dynamics. Johnson told House Republicans on their Monday call that he is not committing to hold any vote on extending the subsidies. Asked later by reporters, he said only that there would be “a deliberative process.”

Across the aisle, he will be facing down over 200 angry Democrats who are already strategizing about how to turn their disappointment over the shutdown’s apparent anticlimactic ending into political advantage.

House Democrats will likely be unable to block the legislation to reopen the government this week, and many are fuming about what happened in the Senate.

Gathering on a private call Monday afternoon for their first party discussion since the Senate deal came together, members vented their anger about the eight Democratic and independent senators who broke ranks to advance the funding bill, according to five people granted anonymity to describe the discussion.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries took steps to cool the internal tensions, offering support to his Senate counterpart, Chuck Schumer, amid a fiery backlash Monday.

“Leader Schumer and Senate Democrats over the last seven weeks have waged a valiant fight on behalf of the American people, and I’m not going to explain what a handful of Senate Democrats have decided to do,” he told reporters Monday.

He and other Democrats are trying to refocus attention on extending the health care subsidies, with Jeffries telling fellow Democrats on the private call he would pursue all options to force action, including a new discharge petition, the people said. Democrats believe enough House Republicans are willing to cross Johnson and circumvent his leadership, though the House might not be able to act quickly enough to prevent a massive hike in Americans’ health insurance bills in the coming months.

Democratic leaders are expecting their members to vote en masse against the Senate deal and are expected to formally recommend a “no” vote. But one centrist House Democrat granted anonymity to comment on internal discussions said at least a handful of colleagues are expected to vote for the funding package this week.

A spokesperson for the only Democrat to vote for a GOP-led stopgap spending bill ahead of the shutdown — retiring Maine Rep. Jared Golden — said his “position on using a government shutdown as a legislative strategy has been clear and has not changed.”

Golden also said he has “spent months having bipartisan conversations about how to build the support necessary to extend the ACA credits” and “looks forward to continuing those conversations with his colleagues in the days to come.”

Congress

How Talarico is countering Trump’s midterms convention

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

James Talarico is planning to counterprogram President Donald Trump’s GOP midterms convention in Dallas with a focus on affordability.

The idea from the Texas Democratic Senate candidate and seminarian: host a statewide “Love Thy Neighbor” food drive to offer a contrast with Republicans coming to town and highlight the high cost of groceries, according to plans shared first with Blue Light News.

“Next week, billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians will gather at a convention in Dallas to clink champagne glasses and toast their own corruption. They’re paying $20,000 for entry to a Billionaire Ball celebrating corrupt tariffs, billionaire tax breaks, and a new forever war that are all driving grocery costs through the roof,” Talarico said in a statement to Blue Light News. “We’ll be doing something different. We’re bringing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together to collect groceries for our neighbors who have been screwed over by corrupt politicians.”

The campaign said it will “mobilize volunteers to collect, sort, and donate groceries for middle class Texans struggling with the high price of groceries.” The event will last from Sunday, Sept. 6 through Wednesday, Sept. 9 — the same day the GOP convention kicks off.

Talarico is also expected to field media interviews in a large warehouse near the convention.

“Texans across the political spectrum will come together to build community, show up for their neighbors, and take power back for working people,” the campaign said in a statement.

A recent poll conducted by Texas Public Opinion Research poll released last week showed Talarico leading ,his opponent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 48 percent to 42 percent.

Trump this week said he would campaign for Paxton soon.

Congress

‘I don’t think anyone is really comfortable’: Democrat leading on AI raises alarms at Trump, Zuckerberg call

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A House Democrat trying to lead her party on artificial intelligence policy sent a warning shot Friday to tech CEOs trying to undermine efforts to regulate the fast-growing technology.

In an interview, Rep. Lori Trahan raised alarm bells over a POLITICO report detailing attempts by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to personally discourage President Donald Trump from moving ahead with plans to establish an independent AI regulator modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA.

“I don’t think anyone is really comfortable when they see tech executives who are sitting on the stage at the president’s inauguration, and have had to pay millions of dollars to this fund and that fund, calling the shots,” said the Massachusetts Democrat.

Allowing Zuckerberg to call the shots on the proposed AI commission would be tantamount to “a complete abdication of Congress,” Trahan continued. She also suggested would use her perch on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to work with other Democrats to haul in industry executives like Zuckerberg to testify, should Democrats win back the House majority in the midterms.

“Congress’ job is to do oversight and to have those hearings,” she said. “And I think we would learn a lot from those hearings so that we can put pen to paper on thoughtful proposals. So yes, there have been a number of people, myself included, who have called for those hearings, and I think we’re going to continue to do that.”

Trahan is poised to be a major player in the coming weeks and months when it comes to AI, especially if Democrats prevail in the November elections and are forced to solidify a position on the subject; the party is currently all over the map.

Unlike other Democrats who have retreated to their corners to work on partisan proposals, Trahan has gone out on a limb by crossing the aisle to broker a deal on a bipartisan AI safety bill with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) — a package that was originally met with disdain by members of both parties.

She announced this week she would opt out of a run for a place in House Democratic leadership after being widely expected to make a play in the next Congress — in part, she said, to continue working on AI issues.

But Trahan’s comments Friday illustrate the deep distrust among Democrats, herself included, over the GOP approach to AI regulation — from Republicans waffling on whether they support the proliferation of data centers to Trump’s recent call with Zuckerberg.

Her calls are consistent with left-leaning members like Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who has been at the forefront of the most aggressive proposals to crack down on top tech companies.

“The CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI say that cutting edge AI could be as dangerous as nuclear weapons,” Casar said Thursday on X in response to the Blue Light News report. “But Trump is conspiring with billionaires for this technology to be regulated like … Hollywood movies.”

Trahan said Friday that “reasonable people can disagree on what regulatory construct we come up with” governing development and use of AI.

But, she added, “what I don’t think the American people agree with is that Mark Zuckerberg and President Trump are going to figure that out on a phone call.”

Congress

House Dem election leader’s message to states: Count faster

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Democrats’ top election leader has a message for states ahead of the midterms: count faster.

“We are, I think, nicely trying to encourage people to do their balloting as quickly as possible, and that means hiring additional staff so that it doesn’t call into question results,” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said in a Thursday interview with Blue Light News.

The advice is just one part of Morelle’s efforts to secure the midterm elections. He said Democrats have wargamed over 150 scenarios of how the Trump administration could attempt to interfere or complicate the November elections and its certification. He is encouraging states to have a “degree of urgency” when counting ballots to stave off Republican-led conspiracy theories about the reasons for delays.

Morelle said he is leaning on states to staff up on election officials to facilitate speedy ballot counting while emphasizing the process should still be “done properly,” “fairly” and that “we don’t want people with cast ballots not to have their ballots counted.” He is going to Los Angeles next week to deliver that message and meet with election security experts and election administrators — though he did not specify whom he is meeting with or where.

“We are trying to gently encourage people to staff up,” he said. Morelle added that if Democrats take the House majority, they’d “push for more resources for local and state administrators so they can hire additional capacity.”

Morelle has other big plans in the majority, including cracking down on dark money in politics, protecting voting rights and most notably, working on a bipartisan voter identification bill.

Asked whether he could accept some form of voter identification as part of a larger bipartisan elections package, Morelle said, “I’m personally not opposed to some form of voter ID,” adding that he has opposed multiple Republican-led proposals to tighten up identification requirements.

“I don’t know where my colleagues on the Democrat side will be, but I think voters think, ‘Okay, you show your ID for just tons of things. Is it really that much of a burden?’” he said. “And if it is, we’ll get state issued IDs or federally issued IDs to people who can’t afford it. So I do think that there’s hope for a bipartisan way forward, and I’ll be anxious to work with colleagues to do it.”