Congress

Capitol agenda: Johnson stares down another revolt — this time on energy permitting

Published

10 months ago

December 12, 2025

Speaker Mike Johnson is facing another intraparty revolt — one that has nothing to do with health care, defense policy or pay for college athletes.

Johnson wants the House to vote on a bill next week from Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) that would accelerate the production and delivery of domestic energy. For Republicans, it would fulfill a yearslong legislative priority — and for President Donald Trump, his dreams of achieving U.S. energy dominance.

But some conservatives want to speed up the federal permitting process only for fossil fuels. And they’re furious that Westerman’s measure, which advanced out of committee with bipartisan support last month, would ease the path for green energy projects, too.

The GOP will likely need to supply all the votes on a procedural rule — as per usual in the majoritarian House — to tee up the measure for floor debate. Right now, the votes may not be there.

“We’re taking in … whether [the legislation] goes far enough to free up all the constraints put on oil, gas and nuclear and whether it’s still promoting too much wind and solar,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who sits on House Rules.

The meltdown prompted Johnson to delay consideration of the bill from this week to next. But hard-liners have yet to budge, and Westerman told Blue Light News Thursday there are no plans to remove some of the most controversial language to appease them.

Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) and Reps. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) and Chris Smith (R-N.J.) escalated their campaign against the measure this week in a new letter to Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

“Your administration would have fewer tools to rightfully halt offshore wind development, and projects currently being blocked by successful court actions brought by your administration would see a second life,” they warned of the consequences of Westerman’s bill becoming law.

Van Drew told Blue Light News he plans to share his concerns directly with the White House in the coming days.

For now, Johnson plans to plow ahead as GOP leadership aides work to resolve outstanding issues, three people close to negotiations told Blue Light News.

“We are working through it,” Westerman said in an interview. “We’re just taking everybody’s input under consideration right now and focusing on the big picture of getting permitting reform done.”

What else we’re watching:

— House moves on health care: Moderate House Republicans are talking with leadership about possibly setting up an amendment vote that could add an extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies to a health care package expected on the floor next week, according to four people granted anonymity to describe internal conversations.

GOP leaders will likely meet with a few more Republican groups Friday morning before finalizing the package. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Thursday he is hoping to file the bills Friday.

— Speaking of health care: The Republican Study Committee is hosting a briefing Friday morning on health care polling with the Foundation for Government Accountability, according to a copy of the event invitation obtained by Blue Light News. The invite says the briefing will feature “critical polling showing what the American people really care about when it comes to health care.”

Kelsey Brugger, Josh Siegel, Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney and Benjamin Guggenheim contributed to this report.

Congress

Elon Musk pours another $76 million into boosting Republicans

Published

2 hours ago

October 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gave another $76 million to boost Republicans in the first two weeks of October, bringing his total giving this cycle to more than $442 million.

The additional funds, which Musk gave to his super PAC, America PAC, make the group one of the biggest super PACs this cycle. America PAC has already spent tens of millions of dollars on digital advertising, mailers and text messages as it targets competitive House and Senate races across the country.

Musk — the world’s wealthiest man — is by far the biggest single donor this cycle, with his political giving this year far exceeding even the roughly $290 million he spent in 2024. There is no precedent in modern American history for any donor spending as much as he has.

While the Tesla CEO and former DOGE lead has spent significantly to help Republicans, he has not been joining GOP candidates on the campaign trail this fall like he had in the past. Republicans privately acknowledged Musk could be politically toxic after the party lost a major Wisconsin judicial race in the spring of 2025 where Musk had become both the biggest funder and a campaign issue.

Still, Musk’s money has been instrumental for Republicans this fall. His earlier giving this cycle includes $158 million for Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, which was transferred to a super PAC boosting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is locked in a tight Senate race against Democrat James Talarico. Democrats have looked to make his money a campaign issue: Talarico recently responded to an attack from Musk on the Musk-owned X social media site by saying that there was “deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal U.S. Senator.”

Musk has also given to House Republicans’ super PAC arm, President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC, and a group seeking to repeal Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, along with a smattering of GOP candidates.

Congress

Senate Democrats’ campaign arm takes out $15M loan

Published

2 hours ago

October 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Democrats have taken out a $15 million loan as they hope to expand their map in the final days before the midterms.

The party’s campaign arm took out the loan earlier this month, according to a report submitted Thursday to the Federal Election Commission.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spent $32 million in the first two weeks of October, with half of those funds going toward coordinated expenditures in 10 states. That includes: $4.7 million Ohio; more than $1 million in each of Iowa, Michigan, Kansas, Alaska and Maine; and additional funds in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and New Hampshire.

The committee reported just over $20 million cash on hand as of Oct. 14, according to its FEC report.

Its GOP counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, previously took out $20 million in loans in September, according to an FEC report filed earlier this week. The DSCC has slightly trailed the NRSC in fundraising for most of the cycle, but Democratic candidates have largely outraised GOP ones across the map — in some cases, several times over.

Democrats’ candidate fundraising advantage has helped offset the GOP’s massive super PAC cash advantage since candidates, and parties working with them, get better rates for broadcast ads.

It’s not unusual for party committees to take out loans late in an election cycle to power last-minute spending. In 2024, the DSCC took out $20 million in loans.

“In the face of being outspent by GOP megadonors, Senate Democrats remain in the best position yet to win the majority, after we strategically and effectively expanded the map and sent Republicans scrambling to play defense in red states everywhere,” DSCC spokesperson Maeve Coyle said in a statement. “We will continue to use every tool at our disposal and we will win in November.”

Congress

Kevin McCarthy predicts GOP will lose House majority

Published

8 hours ago

October 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy predicted Republicans will lose the House in two weeks, citing historical midterm trends while also criticizing the sitting GOP leadership for how they’ve managed the chamber.

“In the last 100 years, all off-year elections, whoever is the party in power has the White House, has lost seats, and it’s only a few seats for the majority,” McCarthy said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Thursday.

Democrats, he added, will “get a majority” in the House: “I’m not quite sure how big it is, but they will probably win the majority.”

The former speaker, who ushered in the current GOP House majority in 2022 but only led the conference for less than a year before being booted from the speakership, went on to fault his own party for giving the election away.

“It’s not that the Democrats are going to win this election,” he said. “Republicans are going to lose it.”

He pointed to the skimpy House legislative calendar as a factor. Speaker Mike Johnson and his deputies have routinely canceled scheduled session days amid member revolts that have undermined his grip on the razor-thin majority.

“You’re only given 24 months in a majority to manage it. They were in the fewest amount of days. They let the Democrats dictate,” McCarthy said. “You have to give a reason why to win. What are the three things Republicans will do if they win the majority? I can’t tell you what that is.”

Still, McCarthy cautioned that if Democrats win the House, it won’t be because they have laid out their own agenda and warned that he believes that Democrats will face their own hurdles.

“Democrats are not popular. They haven’t laid out an agenda on what they’ll do,” McCarthy said. “So they’ll have a really hard time governing in the next Congress.”