Congress
Capitol agenda: GOP pushes back on Trump
Donald Trump’s grip on congressional Republicans is slipping.
A series of rebukes on Blue Light News on Thursday highlighted how rank-and-file Republicans are starting to move with less regard for the president heading into the midterms.
Here’s what comes next on three fronts:
— Bringing back ACA credits: Seventeen House Republicans broke ranks to support a clean three-year restoration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that expired last month. The bigger-than-anticipated revolt showed how politically dangerous skyrocketing insurance premiums could be.
The bill is expected to die in the Senate, as Majority Leader John Thune has no plans to bring it up for a vote.
But the Republican proponents hope the strong bipartisan support pushes the Senate to produce its own ACA solution. Senators are considering a plan that would reestablish the credits for two years with reforms. Text could come as soon as Tuesday, per Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), as lawmakers race to get a deal over the finish line before open enrollment ends Jan. 15 in most states.
— Limiting Trump’s war powers: The Senate gave one of its strongest admonishments of the president Thursday when five Republicans helped advance a measure to constrain Trump’s military action abroad. An outraged president took to social media to say they “should never be elected to office again.”
The measure now heads to a final Senate vote next week. But it would still need to pass the House, which could prove more challenging. If Thursday’s failed veto override votes were any indication, House Republicans are less willing to break with the administration than their Senate counterparts.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told Blue Light News he was “inclined” to support the war powers resolution after this week’s briefings on the Venezuela operation, but that Trump’s Thursday attack was a tipping point.
“Reading the ugly response to those senators sort of convinced me to vote yes,” he said.
The House may soon vote on its own war powers measure from Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).
— Installing the Jan. 6 plaque: The Senate voted Thursday to unanimously approve a measure, led by Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), to install a plaque in the Capitol honoring the officers who protected it on Jan. 6, 2021.
The stark moment of bipartisanship was a significant rebuke of Speaker Mike Johnson and the Trump DOJ, which argues the plaque — which has been made but not installed — does not comply with a 2022 law mandating its display because it lists the departments that responded, not individual officers.
The resolution does not need House approval, but it does put pressure on Johnson. It’s unclear when the Senate will install the plaque, which will remain in the chamber until a permanent location is identified on the west front of the Capitol.
What else we’re watching:
— Thune’s border trip: Thune is leading a trip to the border in Texas on Friday with several GOP senators and Senate hopefuls to sell the “big, beautiful bill” Republicans passed last summer.
— Funding progress: Appropriators hope to release bill text Sunday night of the next spending package they want to pass before the month-end funding cliff. It’s expected to include the State-Foreign Operations, Financial Services and Homeland Security bills, though the DHS portion is in flux after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis.
Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney, Nicholas Wu, Lisa Kashinsky, Simon J. Levien, Hailey Fuchs and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
Less than a month ago, a huge bipartisan Senate majority voted to honor the late Sen. Lindsey Graham and pass legislation he pushed aimed at sanctioning Russia’s trading partners.
Now the bill is at serious risk of languishing in the House, where it is suffering from significant Democratic opposition, lack of Republican enthusiasm and fading impetus to honor the late South Carolina senator.
GOP leaders omitted it from a list of bills to be voted on this week, and as top Republican lawmakers filed into the Capitol Monday after a five-week summer recess, none said passing the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act was anywhere near top of mind.
“We just came from a chairmen’s meeting, and nobody brought it up,” House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said in an interview.
Asked whether the bill might pass through her committee on the way to the House floor, she said, “I have no idea. Nobody’s talking about it.”
Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged an uphill battle Monday and was noncommittal on whether the bill would hit the House floor after passing the Senate on an 86-11 vote.
“We’ll see,” Johnson said, blaming Democratic opposition for the uncertainty. “We’ve been very consistent on taking a strong hand against Russia. So we’ll see what happens.”
The measure’s backers in the House and Senate argue it would give the White House new leverage as it leans on Russia to end the war in Ukraine — including by handing President Donald Trump new tariff tools.
But with the GOP majority split over intervening in Russia’s war with Ukraine and many Democrats wary of giving Trump any new tariff powers, the bill doesn’t appear to be a top priority for Republican leaders as they plan out their final legislative sprint before the election.
Republicans are also openly speculating whether Johnson will keep the House in session for four weeks in September as scheduled — particularly if lawmakers pass a bill as expected Tuesday to punt government funding to December.
Johnson is already facing internal resistance to getting his scheduled bills on the floor this week, with some hard-right members unhappy about how GOP leaders have handled government funding and other issues. If they vote down a procedural measure setting up debate on those bills Tuesday, that could spell the end of the pre-election House session.
“I don’t know if we’re going to pass anything,” said Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), one of the ultraconservatives threatening to frustrate the leadership’s plans.
At the same time, a handful of hawkish Republicans are warning that the House needs to stay and bring the sanctions bill across the finish line before heading home for campaign season.
“I think it’s very important to pass the sanctions bill,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a defense hawk who is retiring from the House. “It’s a failure to not do so.”
Even if leaders make a push to get the sanctions bill on the floor, it’s unclear if it has enough Republican support to pass. Several conservatives who have vocally opposed Ukraine aid in the past said they haven’t looked into the legislation yet.
“Haven’t seen it. Haven’t heard about it. All I can say is in 14 years I’ve never voted to sanction a sovereign country,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said in an interview Monday.
While leaders could seek to skirt Republican opposition by using a fast-track procedure requiring a two-thirds-majority vote, it’s unclear if there are enough Democrats to push it over that threshold.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries expressed “serious concerns” with the measure at a news conference Monday, saying top Democrats are worried that the bill “risks providing tariff and sanctions authority to Donald Trump and his administration that we believe they will abuse.”
The Democrats who are opposed include the party’s leaders on the Foreign Affairs and Ways and Means committees — Reps. Greg Meeks of New York and Richard Neal of Massachusetts, respectively — who argue that Trump already has all the tariff powers he needs.
“Donald Trump already has ample authority to impose sanctions on the companies, individuals, and vessels propping up a Russian war machine that continues its deadly attacks on Ukraine,” they wrote in a Monday joint statement with Democratic Rep.. Don Beyer of Virginia and Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. “Congress does not need to greenlight new tariff authority for the President to impose those sanctions on Russia today.”
Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois, leader of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, also opposes the sanctions bill and said in an interview Monday, “I’m opposed to giving the executive branch more authority that was rightly placed with the legislative branch a very long time ago.”
“We’ll see and evaluate if it comes to the floor,” Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the No. 2 House Democrat, said in an interview. “But there’s a great deal of concern about giving this president, who continues to drive up costs with tariffs for working Americans, even more authority to do that.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted Republicans Monday for being “pro-data center without any restraints,” making his strongest rebuke yet of the tech industry’s massive infrastructure buildout as it becomes a key issue in midterm campaigns.
“Donald Trump and Republicans are divorced from reality,” Jeffries said at a Capitol Hill news conference. “They think that the affordability crisis is a hoax. Donald Trump and Republicans have made clear they love inflation. Donald Trump and Republicans have told the American people directly, ‘We don’t think about your personal financial situation.’”
“So the Republicans — it should come as no surprise — are pro-data center without any restraints,” he continued.
His criticism of Republicans’ approach to artificial intelligence and the infrastructure needed to power it comes amid a groundswell of voter frustration in key battleground districts about the impact of data centers on their communities.
Jeffries told Blue Light News earlier this year protecting consumers from rising electricity costs associated with the data center boom would be a priority on Democrats’ should they win the majority.
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social Monday that communities that reject data centers will end up “backwards and poor.”
Jeffries specifically hit Republicans for policies embedded in their sweeping 2025 tax-cuts-focused domestic policy bill.
“House Republicans voted to preempt state and local authorities from regulating data centers at all,” Jeffries said. “And every single House Republican but one or two voted to unleash data centers on the American people in an unfettered fashion. That’s facts, right there.”
He specifically blasted vulnerable Republican Reps. Mike Lawler of New York and David Valadao of California for voting to “give tax credits to people building massive data centers in communities across the country, particularly in rural America, without restriction.”
“They can try to run away from their votes right now,” Jeffries said. “We will not let them hide.”
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will speak at the Republican Study Committee’s weekly lunch Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the plans. The visit to Capitol Hill comes as more lawmakers express concerns about the burgeoning trade war President Donald Trump is escalating with Canada just months before the midterm elections.
House Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.) will also be speaking to the group of House conservatives.
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