Congress

Push for Labor nominee is latest threat to House GOP majority

Published

3 months ago

June 9, 2026

Some Republicans are privately lobbying to make a first-term House Republican the next Labor secretary — a move that would further imperil the party’s tiny congressional majority should President Donald Trump follow through.

Rep. Riley Moore of West Virginia is the subject of the behind-the-scenes effort being waged by some Trump administration officials, fellow GOP lawmakers, lobbyists and industry officials, according to nearly 20 people with knowledge of the effort.

Moore has also privately expressed interest in the job during recent conversations with fellow Republicans, according to two of the people, who were granted anonymity to disclose private conversations.

Moore declined to comment. Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson, said “when there is an announcement on a permanent nomination, it will be made by the President directly.”

Some Republicans expressed doubt that Trump would nominate Moore, given what it would mean for the GOP’s already tenuous grip on the House.

With the expected swearing-in this week of Rep.-elect James Gallagher (R-Calif.), Republicans can lose up to three votes on party-line measures where all members are voting. But Rep. Tom Kean (R-N.J.) has been absent for months with no firm timeline to return, and Democrats could add two more votes in the coming months when voters in California and Georgia fill vacancies.

As a former welder and one of a handful of elected Republicans with close ties to organized labor, Moore has fans in the GOP both on and off Capitol Hill. Some have suggested Trump could aim to have him start later in the year, when his absence would not have as much impact in the House.

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), who chairs House Republicans’ labor caucus, said Moore would be a strong pick.

“I’ve seen first-hand his commitment to working Americans,” LaLota said. “He understands the struggles of blue-collar families, and his record makes clear that he would be an outstanding Secretary of Labor.”

The lobbying effort around Moore comes after the April resignation of Trump’s first Labor secretary, Lori Chavez DeRemer. She, too, was tapped after serving in the House and developing a reputation as a union-friendly Republican before a high-profile series of misconduct allegations against her and her top staffers derailed her tenure.

Moore is a member of a storied West Virginia political family that includes GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, his aunt. Despite serving only 18 months, he is viewed as a close White House ally — for instance, traveling to an El Salvador prison last year to vouch for a Trump plan to send migrants deported from the U.S. there.

But the idea that Moore could get the Labor job is getting sharp pushback from some White House officials who say Trump supports acting Secretary Keith Sonderling, and many Trump officials want to see Sonderling stay in the role.

“Keith Sonderling is doing a great job serving as the acting Labor Secretary,” Rogers said.

In his short time in office, Moore has helped spearhead bipartisan workers-rights legislation, co introducing a bill with Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), as well as Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), related to employee labor rights. And while Moore sits at the House GOP leadership table as a member of the Elected Leadership Committee, he has clashed with top Republicans on labor and union issues.

In one instance, he joined with like-minded Republicans to derail a bill that would allow employers to exclude some voluntary training or certification hours from overtime calculations. “I was a welder. It’s what I used to do for a living. So I know these issues pretty well. I’ve done plenty of trainings and certifications and everything else in my life,” Moore said at the time. “I don’t like the idea … where they’re being forced, coerced towards voluntary training making no hourly rate.”

“We need to be standing up for the American worker, not making it more difficult for them,” he added.

Moore’s previous work with Democrats, as well as his own personal connection to a sitting senator, could help him get through the confirmation process. Chavez-DeRemer was confirmed last year with 67 votes, including help from more than a dozen Democrats.

But any Labor nominee will need to get through the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who recently lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed challenger and has since shown a willingness to block some presidential priorities.

“I’m going to continue to do what is best for my state and best for my country and try and make every decision with that consideration,” he said after the election when asked about nominees passing through the committee.

Myah Ward contributed to this report.

Congress

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

Published

5 hours 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.”

Congress

Capitol agenda: What Johnson’s early exit could leave behind

Published

5 hours ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday curtailed the chamber’s pre-election calendar, putting a number of priorities at risk of being delayed until the lame-duck period or axed altogether.

Johnson cited pre-midterm political pressures and a lack of action in the Senate — which is due to return Sept. 14 — as reasons for canceling the House’s final two weeks of session before November.

But that means House lawmakers have just one more work week in Washington before the elections, and a short list of priorities some members wanted to see action on are now in serious doubt:

— DATA CENTERS: One key item that could slip off the pre-midterm agenda is a measure to rein in data centers. Several vulnerable Republicans, like Rep. Rob Bresnahan, say they want to respond to voter backlash against the AI infrastructure.

Rep. Brett Guthrie’s so-called Ratepayer Protection Act was the most promising bill poised for action this month given its bipartisan approval by Energy and Commerce. He’s been pushing Johnson for a floor vote for the bill meant to curb data centers’ grid impact — but the speaker has made no commitments as the broader data center issue has divided Republicans.

— RUSSIA SANCTIONS: Legislation aimed at sanctioning Russia’s trading partners is also at risk of languishing in the House after supporters earlier this week had hoped for a vote this month. Johnson on Thursday told reporters leaders were still trying to build bipartisan consensus on the measure.

Foreign Affairs ranking member Gregory Meeks, “apparently is vehemently opposed to it, and I think the Democrat leadership is as well,” Johnson said. “This should be a bipartisan effort.”

— EPSTEIN OVERSIGHT: House Oversight members, including Chair James Comer, wanted to hold a meeting as early as this month for Attorney General Todd Blanche to be interviewed as part of the panel’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation. But yesterday Comer sought to temper expectations given the shortened calendar.

An effort by Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna to force a second House vote requiring Blanche to provide more Epstein documents could also fall by the wayside. Massie had earlier this week been bullish on getting enough signatures to force the vote before the midterms, saying he thought the transparency effort would “help anybody who’s in a purple state.”

Anything that gets punted to November joins a lengthy list of other major priorities lawmakers have lined up to deal with when they return, including the annual defense policy bill, government funding legislation, a surface transportation package, a farm bill, a renewal of government spy powers and more.

The diminished likelihood of some of these members’ priorities reaching the floor before then is a likely welcomed fate to some Republicans, who hoped to avoid what could be politically tricky votes on data centers and further scrutiny of administration officials and the Epstein files.

Democrats, meanwhile, have cast the curtailed schedule as proof of the GOP’s dysfunction.

“No farm bill. No AI regulations. No affordability agenda. No transportation bill. No water resources bill. No college sports bill. No end to this war,” Sen. Brian Schatz posted about Johnson’s schedule change. “See you right before the holidays! Great job!”

What else we’re watching:

— BATTLEGROUND REPUBLICANS WARY OF TRUMP MIDTERM VISITS: Republicans facing tough elections are wary of tying themselves too closely to President Donald Trump despite his eagerness to get on the campaign trail. Trump’s promise to be heavily involved in the final days of the midterm elections has put many Republicans in an uncomfortable spot: Stay too close to Trump and they could be dragged down by the president’s low approval rating. But run too far away and risk alienating MAGA or Trump, whose super PAC is sitting on more than $400 million they desperately need deployed to help them win key races.

— DEM ELECTION CHIEF WANTS FASTER VOTE TALLIES: Count faster. That’s the message from Rep. Joe Morelle, House Democrats’ top election leader, to states ahead of the midterms. Morelle said in an interview with Blue Light News he’s been leaning on states to staff up on election officials to facilitate speedy ballot counting, while emphasizing the process should still be “done properly.” The advice is part of his efforts to secure the midterm elections and stave off Republican-led conspiracy theories about the reasons for delays. Morelle also said Democrats have wargamed over 150 scenarios of how the Trump administration could attempt to interfere or complicate the November elections and its certification.

Andrew Howard, Meredith Lee Hill, Erin Doherty, and Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.

Congress

Casten tells Waters he won’t challenge her for Financial Services gavel — but won’t rule it out publicly

Published

16 hours ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Sean Casten privately told Rep. Maxine Waters this week that he would not challenge her for the House Financial Services gavel next year, according to two people with knowledge of the exchange, batting down speculation that he will run against her if Democrats take back the House.

The revelation comes after Punchbowl News reported that Casten is weighing a bid to challenge Waters for the top spot on the Financial Services panel. Waters, 88, heard rumors this week about Casten considering a challenge and asked him Thursday afternoon if he planned to run against her, one of the people said. He indicated he would not, the person said.

Yet, Casten, 54, is not publicly denying that he is considering a bid. The Illinois Democrat said in a statement Thursday that he has “great respect for Ranking Member Waters, who has made the Financial Services Committee my home in Congress.”

“My focus is on working to ensure we take back the majority,” he said.

Casten, who currently serves as the vice ranking member of House Financial Services, has privately expressed interest in succeeding Waters as Financial Services chair, according to two people with knowledge of his thinking. But Blue Light News cannot independently confirm that he is currently considering running against Waters.

A spokesperson for Waters did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the matter.

Casten has previously said he backs Waters. In an interview on Nov. 21, 2025, he told Blue Light News: “I think she does a great job and she’s got my support as long as she wants to stay in that seat.”

“She brings the fire,” he said at the time. “I think in this moment you want people who are fighters.”

Waters would be the oldest House Financial Services chair ever — a concern for some Democrats who want fresh blood in the seat. Asked about her age last November, Casten said he didn’t have any concerns about Waters’ abilities.

“I am a firm believer that when people are visibly past their time, it’s time to sort of have some hard conversations,” he said. “That’s a mental issue, not an age issue. And I don’t have any concern that she’s mentally up for the job.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is in line to become speaker if Democrats retake the House, has also signaled support for Waters. In a statement to Blue Light News in March, Jeffries said that Waters “has led the Financial Services Committee with vision, intellect, passion and skill.”

“It’s my expectation that such iconic leadership will continue in the 120th Congress,” he said at the time.