Congress

Capitol agenda: Trump officials pitch GOP on ballroom funds

Published

5 months ago

May 12, 2026

Administration officials are trying to win Hill Republicans’ blessing for $1 billion in security funding that could go towards parts of President Donald Trump’s ballroom project.

Secret Service Director Sean Curran is meeting Tuesday with Senate Republicans. He’ll face several senators who aren’t convinced or are outright opposed to green-lighting the money.

Expect Curran and GOP leaders to pitch the funding as necessary for White House security improvements and helping the Secret Service keep up broadly with growing threats.

The funds are part of a larger party-line spending package that would mainly support immigration enforcement. Trump has given lawmakers until June 1 to clear the legislation.

Things aren’t looking easier over in the House, where a growing number of Republicans are complaining its inclusion sends a tone-deaf message as voters struggle with higher gas and grocery prices.

“It’s a bad look. It’s bad timing. It’s bad all around,” said one House Republican, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Some House GOP leaders privately doubt the measure has the votes to pass, according to four people granted anonymity to describe behind-the-scenes discussions, but they’re hoping it gets stripped out in the Senate first.

As we scooped, conversations with the Senate parliamentarian are already under way and bipartisan meetings — known as a Byrd bath — are expected later this week. Sen. Rand Paul, who said Monday he opposed the ballroom security funding measure, predicted it’s possible that provision gets stripped out during the review.

Coming up next week: The Senate Homeland Security panel will vote on its portion of the party-line bill, which does not have the ballroom language in it. The Judiciary Committee, which does, postponed its planned markup — with Chair Chuck Grassley pointing to the panel’s drawn out rules as the reason.

The Senate Budget Committee will also need to hold a meeting next week to compile the full bill. Notably, panel member Sen. John Kennedy declined multiple times to discuss the ballroom project Monday night. The Louisiana Republican has previously tried to expand the scope of the bill beyond immigration enforcement.

Senate Republicans are aiming to begin floor consideration of the bill next Wednesday to pass it and send it to the House by Friday. That timeline has House GOP leadership already discussing the likelihood they will need to remain in session for at least part of Memorial Day weekend to finish their work.

What else we’re watching:

— DEMS GRASP FOR REDISTRICTING SILVER LINING: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — left with few alternatives for action — is hoping voters punish Republicans in the midterms for aggressively redrawing maps to help them hold onto the House in November. Jeffries guaranteed his party would win control of the chamber this fall in a letter Monday, part of a flurry of statements by Democrats trying to find a silver lining to recent court blows in the parties’ gerrymandering wars.

— TRUMP’S GAS TAX HOLIDAY FACES HEADWINDS: Bipartisan interest in a gasoline tax holiday urged by Trump is growing on Capitol Hill, but the proposal is facing pushback from key Republicans. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Monday he has not “been a fan of that idea” in the past, adding he’d hear out colleagues who think it’s a good plan as the Iran war continues to jeopardize global oil supplies.

Andrew Howard, Pavan Acharya and Amelia Davidson contributed to this report.

Congress

GOP senator questions Elon Musk’s influence over military assets

Published

52 minutes ago

October 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said Thursday that he had concerns about Elon Musk’s influence over national security matters after Ukraine was blindsided by a disruption of a satellite communications service developed by Musk’s SpaceX.

“We’re putting too many eggs in one company’s basket when it comes to our space assets,” the Republican member of the Armed Services Committee said. He added about Musk that he was concerned about the power of “one individual and one company over America’s ability to protect the domain of space, which is a war-fighting domain.”

Cramer received a briefing Thursday from Air Force Secretary Troy Meink that he said focused on getting an update on Starshield — a military product based on SpaceX’s Starlink technology. Cramer told reporters before the briefing that he wanted Congress and the Pentagon to “pour a lot of resources … into making sure there’s lots of competition both for satellite production and satellite launch.” “I’m uncomfortable with the potential vendor lock in space, and I think the events of the last couple of weeks have demonstrated greater concern, even than just simply cost,” Cramer said.

Musk has been under days of scrutiny — including fresh pledges by Democrats to investigate him next year — after the Wall Street Journal reported that he ordered the recent slowdown in Starshield capabilities over the Russia-Ukraine war theater.

Cramer, asked about the Journal reporting after the closed-door briefing, said that he wasn’t sure if Musk ordered the slowdown and that the “culpability of multiple people … was left somewhat loose.”

“By that I mean, discussions with the president before, discussions with the president after. … Obviously I don’t think it could have possibly happened without Elon Musk’s knowledge, whether or not you know how supportive he was one way or the other,” Cramer said.

Cramer added that he believed there could have been a broad misunderstanding within the U.S. government and within SpaceX about how reliant Ukraine was on the satellite technology. But he said it was incumbent that the operation of satellite technology like Starshield must “be exclusively with the authority of the United States government.”

“There are certain things the government has to do that can’t be so dependent on others,” Cramer said. “And fighting wars is one of those things.”

Congress

Top Senate Finance Democrat maps out clean energy plan

Published

4 hours ago

October 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee wants to revive a clean energy tax credit program he argues was a booming success — and says he has the receipts to prove it.

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon is releasing a new report of IRS data, shared first with Blue Light News, showing that, in the first two years of the Democrats’ 2022 climate law, nearly $2.5 billion in direct payments went directly to schools and other tax-exempt entities to cover electric school buses, rooftop solar, electric vehicles and more.

Wyden said in a press release the numbers prove there is “massive demand” for “any and all” programs that lower energy costs and rebuild aging infrastructure, after Republicans gutted many of these wind and solar tax credits in their tax and spending megalaw last summer.

“When Democrats have a trifecta of power, reinstating the wind and solar tax credits and bolstering the Direct Pay Program will be a top priority to help bring an end to Trump’s energy crisis,” said Wyden, who is poised to take back the Finance gavel if control of the Senate flips in the midterms.

The report, prepared by Democratic staff for the committee, argues the current “energy crisis,” where Americans’ utility bills are rising, was manufactured by Republicans and the direct result of the Trump administration’s clean energy incentive rollbacks.

Wyden said he would revive the solar and wind tax credits if given the chance to chair the Finance Committee again, plus boost what’s known as the Direct Pay Program, which schools and tax exempt entities can use on rooftop solar, electric vehicle purchases, heat pumps and more.

“If we’re back in the majority — and I think we will — I will be introducing that bill [to restore] the clean energy tax credits that had billions of dollars in the market in the first couple of years,” Wyden said in an interview last month regarding his plans. “I’ll be introducing that right away.”

Wyden, who has led his party on the Finance Committee since 2015, wrote the bulk of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act’s climate and clean energy provisions.

Congress

Capitol agenda: Some Republicans get bipartisan curious

Published

5 hours ago

October 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Facing a blue wave, Republicans have found bipartisanship.

A new Blue Light News poll shows that 66% of Republican voters this midterm want a Democratic House to find common ground with President Donald Trump to pass legislation next year, assuming the party flips that chamber in November.

Democrats don’t seem sold on the unity vibe. Almost the same percentage of Democratic voters want their party to block Trump and GOP proposals they disagree with, even if that means fewer bills get passed.

The GOP’s team-player spirit is also showing up in Republicans’ campaign messaging too — far more than in previous cycles.

Across all House and Senate races, GOP candidates or outside groups backing them have run nearly 200 ads that mention bipartisanship, working across the aisle or “both sides,” according to a Blue Light News analysis of AdImpact data. That’s up more than 60% from 2024.

An ad from Michigan GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers says he’ll “bring both parties together” to lower prices. Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn told voters in an ad he is “one of the most bipartisan members of Congress.” And Arkansas Rep. French Hill is touting how the housing law he backed “passed with bipartisan support.”

The focus is a notable change from 2024. Back then, GOP candidates and groups ran more than 90 ads that promised to “stop Biden” or “stop Democrats.” That rhetoric is all but gone from GOP ads now.

Still, it remains to be seen if GOP lawmakers elected in November can collaborate with the different factions of the Democratic party that may be more — or less — willing to reach across the aisle.

Seventy-one percent of progressive voters, for example, indicated they would prefer Trump obstruction over finding common ground, compared to 57% of moderates, according to the polling. Progressives were also more likely to say Democrats’ highest priority if they retake the House should be doing everything they can to block Republicans’ agenda.

The one exception for Dems: affordability. Fifty-seven percent of Democratic midterm voters indicated they’d prefer the party do whatever it takes to pass legislation lowering the cost of living, even if it’d give the GOP a win — including 56% of progressive voters and 58% of moderates.

What else we’re watching:

— DEMS’ TREASURY TARGETS — Democrats are readying for a showdown with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent if they take back power in November. The Democrats who would lead the committees overseeing the Treasury Department and IRS are preparing to investigate Trump’s alleged self-enrichment schemes and efforts to dismantle regulatory agencies, according to people with direct knowledge of Democrats’ plans granted anonymity to describe them.

— WYDEN’S CLEAN ENERGY PLAN — Sen. Ron Wyden wants to bring back a clean energy tax credit program he says new data proves was wildly successful in helping keep down Americans’ energy expenses. The top Democrat on Senate Finance is releasing a report of IRS data, shared first with Blue Light News, showing $2.5 billion in direct payments made in the first two years of the Democrats’ 2022 climate law to cover electric school buses, rooftop solar, electric vehicles and more. Wyden said he would revive the solar and wind tax credits if given the chance to chair the panel again, plus boost what’s known as the Direct Pay Program, which schools and tax exempt entities can use on clean energy infrastructure.

Jessica Piper, Danny Nguyen, Michael Stratford and Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.