Congress

Ballroom, gas-tax fights illustrate GOP’s affordability pickle

Published

2 months ago

May 13, 2026

Americans are furious about the rising cost of living, and a series of internal battles on Capitol Hill this week is laying bare why Republicans are struggling to do anything about it.

House and Senate Republicans are facing divisions over a gas-tax holiday being demanded by President Donald Trump, not to mention housing and energy permitting bills that have stalled for months.

Meanwhile, a long-term immigration enforcement bill that could be the last major piece of GOP legislation before the midterms has become engulfed by the inclusion of a billion-dollar Secret Service funding request that has put a spotlight on Trump’s controversial White House ballroom project.

The scale of the political challenges facing Republicans were further underscored Tuesday with the administration’s latest cost estimate for the Iran war surpassing $29 billion and a brutal inflation report showing gas, grocery and housing prices surging last month amid the conflict.

“I don’t know that the Congress is doing a whole lot — that’s the real issue,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “My advice to Congress would be, it might be good for us to do something on cost of living. … It seems like voters are making it very clear that they want some relief.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) also offered a blunt assessment of the optics the party is facing as they try to approve the Secret Service funding, which can be used for parts of Trump’s ballroom project, as Americans deal with high gas prices

“Not good,” she said.

Secret Service Director Sean Curran met with Senate Republicans Tuesday to make the case for his agency’s staggering request, but several GOP senators said afterward that they aren’t satisfied with the explanations administration officials have so far provided.

Even some senior House Republicans are airing public doubts about the security funding — about $220 million of which could end up being spent as part of the ballroom project, according to a breakdown given to senators and obtained by Blue Light News.

House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said in an interview Tuesday he did not doubt the need for additional security for Trump and other Secret Service protectees but would “reserve judgment” on the $1 billion request as he seeks an “itemized” list of what it would fund.

“I hope it’s narrowly tailored to getting [immigration enforcement] funded and restoring the safety and security of the American people,” said Arrington, who initially wanted affordability and other measures added to the party-line bill.

Curran’s visit to Capitol Hill Tuesday was part of a White House lobbying blitz for the security funding, with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and White House legislative affairs director James Braid making pitches to other groups of Republicans in closed-door meetings Tuesday and Wednesday.

One member granted anonymity to speak candidly said it could get “ugly” with the White House seemingly determined to get it done despite GOP lawmakers’ protests. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a key centrist, said in an interview Tuesday that the $1 billion request was simply “not happening here” in the House.

Republicans believe they’ve already taken some steps to address cost-of-living concerns, including the tax cuts included in last year’s “big, beautiful bill” that they hope Americans are beginning to feel benefits from.

But the ballroom security squabble has handed Democrats something they view as a potent political cudgel heading into November.

“Instead of listening to the American people, Donald Trump and the GOP put forward a reconciliation bill that would force Americans to pay for Trump’s billion-dollar-ballroom and tens of billions of dollars more for Trump’s masked agents while including zero — zero — dollars to bring down Americans’ costs,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

The issue for congressional Republicans is that many of the ideas currently being batted around to address high prices divide their ranks, giving them an unclear path to Trump’s desk.

Senate Republicans pointed to a long-brewing permitting overhaul Tuesday as a way to potentially reduce energy costs — but the proposal has remained just out of reach for years now. And, according to two attendees, GOP senators urged Speaker Mike Johnson to pass their housing bill without changes, believing it could give the party a quick way to show voters they hear their concerns.

“I think it gets at the core issue, the heart of the matter for most voters, which is affordability,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said about the need to pass the housing bill.

The closed-door lunch came after a group of GOP senators met with Trump Monday at the White House, where they discussed the fate of a housing bill that passed the Senate on an 89-10 vote in March. Afterward, Trump went on Truth Social and urged Congress to quickly pass the legislation.

But House Republican leaders are signaling they want to make further changes, which would require it to be passed in the Senate a second time — even though White House officials are strongly pushing back on that idea.

“I’d just be happy if they do something,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Tuesday, blaming “one or two” House Republicans for the impasse: “They’ve been holding it up since God was a baby. Their reasons for holding it up run from substantive to ‘my dog ate my homework.’”

Trump, for his part, has made a series of comments that have only fueled accusations that his party isn’t focused enough on affordability.

Asked Tuesday as he left the White House for his overseas trip to China whether Americans’ finances figured into his approach to the Iran conflict, he gave an answer Democrats immediately pounced on.

“I don’t think about America’s financial situation,” he said. “I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump did, however, throw his support behind a modest cost-of-living measure Monday, saying he wanted to suspend the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax to alleviate Iran-related price hikes.

House GOP leaders, however, are not thrilled with the idea. They are hoping the White House finds a way for Trump to take some steps to lower gas prices through executive actions and leave Congress out of it, according to five people granted anonymity to describe internal conversations.

There are also scores of Republicans, for instance, who publicly admonished then-President Joe Biden for floating the same idea amid in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and, in the words of one of the people, would have to “eat shit” if they go back on that position now.

Thune didn’t rule out an eventual vote on a gas-tax holiday, but he characterized proposals from Hawley and others as “trial balloons.” He suggested the move could impact highway projects without meaningfully lowering gas prices.“The question is, would it get passed on to the consumer … or would it get absorbed in the supply chain somehow?” he said.

Johnson told reporters Tuesday suspending the federal gas tax was an “intriguing” idea but added that Republicans have to work through any “unintended consequences” of such a move and will continue to discuss it.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was also noncommittal: “Obviously we all want to see gas prices come back down, and when the Iran conflict is resolved, they will, and they’ll come down quickly. I don’t think anybody disputes that.”

“You’re seeing the president work really hard to try to get this resolved,” he added. “Hopefully it’s soon.”

But the top Republicans may be forced into action as rank-and-file backers of a gas-tax holiday, such as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), arguing Congress needs to act quickly to pass a bill before the Memorial Day recess starts in just over a week.

That sense of urgency is not shared by other GOP lawmakers who view a gas-tax holiday as an ineffective Band-Aid — including Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), who compared it to “taking aspirin for cancer,” and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who identified a more consequential driver of high prices.

“I think instead of suspending the tax, we should suspend the war,” he said.

Mia McCarthy, Riley Rogerson and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

Congress

Mitch McConnell is still in the hospital after medical episode, his office says

Published

10 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Mitch McConnell remains hospitalized, his office said in a statement Thursday — without offering details about a recent medical episode that has renewed concern about the health of the former Republican majority leader.

McConnell “continues his recovery in the hospital” and “continues to improve,” his office said.

“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” the statement said. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”

The statement did not explain why he was hospitalized last month.

The update comes after multiple outlets reported details of a first responder dispatch call indicating emergency medical personnel responded to McConnell’s home last month to treat an unconscious person who had experienced “cardiac arrest.”

Blue Light News has not independently verified the dispatch call.

The 84-year-old senator, who is retiring at the end of this term, has experienced multiple medical incidents in recent years. On two occasions in 2023, he froze while speaking with reporters. He has also suffered multiple falls and temporarily used a wheelchair, a move his office described at the time as a precautionary measure.

Congress

House Ethics says it doesn’t have information to share on lawmaker sexual misconduct settlements

Published

18 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House adopted a resolution Tuesday requiring the House Ethics Committee to release information on taxpayer funds used to pay out sexual misconduct settlements with lawmakers — but the committee now says it has no information it can share.

In a statement Thursday, the committee reiterated it does not manage sexual harassment lawsuits or their settlements; taxpayers have not footed the bill for those payments since 2018.

Since that time, according to the statement, “the Committee has not been notified of any awards or settlements relating to allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or other sexual misconduct by a Member.”

Instead, the bipartisan Ethics Committee said it was up to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to publicly release a list of each member who has received settlements for sexual misconduct allegations, as mandated by the resolution championed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

The committee, in the Thursday statement, said it “fully supports the release of information about sexual misconduct settlements and calls on OCWR to abide by [the resolution] and make publicly available information about Member sexual misconduct matters resulting in payment of taxpayer funds.”

Massie, in a text message Thursday, said “OCWR can release it.”

The OCWR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The bipartisan Ethics Committee has been under pressure in recent months to show it takes allegations of sexual misconduct against colleagues seriously. Two former House members — Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) — were forced to resign earlier this year amid serious accusations against them.

The renewed reckoning has prompted new questions about whether the House is up to the task of policing its own. The resolution earlier this week was adopted nearly unanimously, with just one member, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), voting “present.”

House Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) said in an interview earlier this week that while he would support Massie’s resolution, the relevant “information was already out in the public domain.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

AOC endorses El-Sayed in Michigan Senate race

Published

21 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign for Michigan’s open Senate seat on Thursday, a decision that comes as progressives look to capitalize off a series of recent high-profile primary victories in New York, Colorado and elsewhere.

Her endorsement could provide El-Sayed with a critical boost just over a month before the state’s Aug. 4 primary. The former public health official is locked in a heated contest against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow for the right to take on Republican Mike Rogers in the general election.

It also comes as El-Sayed has risen to the top of the pack in recent public polling.

Virtually any Democratic path to flipping the Senate in this year’s midterms would see the party hold the open Michigan Senate seat, with two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) retiring at the end of his term.

The race has emerged as perhaps the largest battleground over the ideological future of the party. El-Sayed, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, has collected endorsements from progressives, while Stevens has the tacit backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, with AIPAC also boosting her candidacy.

El-Sayed, Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with The New York Times, is her party’s best chance.

“Despite our ideological differences and whatever disagreements there are in the party, every single one of us sees this moment as existential,” she said. “And I think many people are willing to put aside differences in order to give us the best chance at winning. And I think that Abdul gives us that right now.”