Congress

Johnson to meet with Trump in last-ditch bid to unstick House floor

Published

3 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Republican leaders are scrambling to regain control of the House after GOP hard-liners effectively shut down the floor Wednesday over their demands that the Senate pass a stalled elections overhaul bill.

Speaker Mike Johnson is set to meet with President Donald Trump Thursday morning in an effort to try and find a way out of the mess, according to four people granted anonymity to describe the private plans.

Johnson is planning to keep the House in session Thursday and have members vote on at least one bipartisan bill that has already been teed up for the floor as he tries to convince the president to help end the hard-liners’ blockade.

GOP leaders hoped to put several additional bills up for a vote this week, including a pair of fiscal 2027 spending measures. But the group of MAGA loyalists, led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, is insisting no legislation can pass until the SAVE America Act clears the Senate.

If Johnson can’t enlist Trump to break the impasse, the House will leave for the week, the four people said.

A breakthrough won’t be easy. The president is just as animated about the SAVE America Act as the hard-liners holding up the House floor. He abruptly canceled a planned bill-signing for landmark bipartisan housing legislation Wednesday morning, just hours before it was scheduled to take place in the Capitol with Johnson and other GOP leaders, citing the need to prioritize the elections bill.

Johnson is expected to pitch Trump on a plan to enact a watered-down version of the SAVE America Act’s proof-of-citizenship requirement by including a grant program to encourage adoption of voter ID laws in a long-shot plan to pass a new party-line policy bill this year.

But that is only a fraction of what Trump wants the Republican Congress to get done this year, and the GOP hard-liners are already panning Johnson’s plan as insufficient.

Congress

The Squad 2.0 is coming — and they’re ready to frustrate Hakeem Jeffries

Published

45 minutes ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Hakeem Jeffries has met his nightmare scenario: The Squad 2.0 is coming to Capitol Hill.

A trio of hard-left Democrats who won House primaries Tuesday in New York City boast among them eight protest-related arrests, three endorsements from Mayor Zohran Mamdani, two Democratic Socialist of America memberships, an average age of 41 and just one commitment to vote for Jeffries as the next speaker.

That adds up to a major governing challenge emerging for the House Democratic leader next year, when he will have to come to grips with a brash and emboldened faction of his caucus who believe they have a mandate to yank their party leftward.

”I know we all share very fierce values on things like guaranteed health care, raising wages, expanding union rights, and so I think our hope is that we use our ability in the majority to change people’s lives and make their lives better,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday, reacting to the primary night earthquake in her hometown.

Eight years ago it was Ocasio-Cortez who was shaking up a hidebound Democratic leadership, sending the sitting No. 3 party leader into retirement and inaugurating a tight-knit “Squad” of unabashed progressives.

Now the left-wing bloc is expanding and on the cusp of asserting real power. It’s a function of the tight margin Democrats are likely to have if they can eke out a majority in November, coupled with Jeffries’ relative inexperience as top leader as compared with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the obvious progressive lurch of the party’s voting base on display Tuesday night.

Brad Lander, a longtime New York City official, walloped incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman. State legislator Claire Valdez trounced a Democratic opponent who ran with establishment support to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez. And, in the biggest upset of the night, activist Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated longtime Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair.

Jeffries and fellow House Democratic leaders have shrugged off the prospect of future caucus infighting. He told reporters this week that while he disagreed strongly with Mamdani’s endorsements, “a handful of primaries that go in one direction or the other in a given state or two aren’t going to reshape who we are as House Democrats.”

“We’ve been very clear,” Jeffries said. “What brings us together is a focus on driving down the high cost of living, fixing our broken health care systems, and cleaning up corruption.”

But the existing cadre of left-leaning House Democrats said Wednesday they are excited to have backup — even if some identify with the fractious DSA, which has been openly at odds with national Democratic Party leaders.

“Whether it’s DSA or progressive Democrats, we will have more power and more leverage,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former Congressional Progressive Caucus chair.

“We shouldn’t be moderating,” she added. “Having that ability to form a voting bloc, a bigger voting bloc, and a stronger voting bloc … allows us to continue to push for truly transformational policies that lift working people.”

The New Yorkers are all contesting deep-blue districts and are all but guaranteed victory in November, and they won’t be alone in beefing up the hard-left faction next year. Chris Rabb of Pennsylvania and Daniel Biss of Illinois are on track to join them, along with Rep. Analilia Mejia, who won a New Jersey special election earlier this year.

That’s in addition to the original squad members, Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Ocasio-Cortez.

“Our team of progressive champions is growing,” Lander said during his Tuesday night victory speech. “I believe it will continue to grow in the months ahead.”

That could spell trouble for Jeffries, who has spent the past year-and-a-half cajoling his caucus into a unified message around lowering costs and accountability for the Trump administration. The new class of progressives threaten to unravel that work, using their platforms to force Democrats into uncomfortable — and politically precarious — conversations about support for Israel, Green New Deal environmental policies, defunding the police and the ethical bounds of immigration enforcement.

Avila Chevalier has emerged as a particular flashpoint. She has argued in recent interviews that all deportations are wrong, including for people convicted of breaking U.S. laws. Her deleted social media posts — later unearthed by CNN — express a deep disdain for the Democratic establishment including one reading, “Fuck Kamala Harris.”

Avila Chevalier and Valdez have not committed to backing Jeffries as speaker should Democrats take the majority. While they have said little publicly about him, they have also done little to dispel animosity among their supporters for their fellow New Yorker.

At Valdez’ Election Night party, supporters booed Jeffries and chanted, “You’re next.”

If Democrats win a slim majority, these progressives could wield considerable power. Much as the House Freedom Caucus has rocked the Republican Conference by withholding its votes on party priorities, the new progressives will have similar leverage. The AOC-centric “Squad” mostly avoided those tactics in the four years they had the majority — in part because they didn’t have the requisite numbers.

Valdez suggested she would not hesitate to deploy hardball tactics, criticizing her main primary opponent, Antonio Reynoso, on the campaign trail for not being aggressive enough. The person who represents her district in Congress, she recently told The New York Times, should “have real moral courage and conviction.”

More moderate Democrats are warning a clash is inevitable — and worrying about the political price the party as a whole could pay. House Republicans spent their morning caucus meeting salivating over the opportunity to paint their Democratic opponents as Marxists.

“I hope Jeffries is ready for the fight, because he’s got himself one now,” said one Democratic centrist, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “If it’s a tight majority, you’re going to see a huge tug of war between more moderate Democrats and people who want to get stuff done, and bomb throwers who are just trying to disrupt.”

Rep. Vicente Gonzales (D-Texas) said he had a “huge concern” about having to defend against attacks based on statements and positions taken by hard-left members.

“A lot of these policies that obviously I don’t agree with, and would be very difficult for me to sell to people in South Texas, and I don’t intend to sell them, because I don’t believe in most of them myself,” he said.

The progressives won’t be alone in the new class of incoming Democrats. More moderate candidates such as former Rep. Ben McAdams of Utah and Cait Conley of New York also won House primaries Tuesday. If Democrats take the majority, it will be in part because of a cadre of centrists who will be intent on beating back the left.

Those who were around for the rise of the original Squad said they were confident the vast ideological differences would eventually get bridged.

“It will be nothing special,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the Democratic Caucus chair. “We’ll talk with them about their hopes and their aspirations to represent their districts and what committees they want to serve on. … We look forward to building a relationship.”

Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez had to weather a similar storm after the class of 2018 was sworn in. After months of crossfire on social media and the House floor, the two eventually reached a public détente. Ocasio-Cortez, notably, did not endorse any of the New York progressives, who were running against incumbents or candidates with leadership backing.

“AOC has been part of our caucus for a long time,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said. “You know what representative government is? It represents. It means that every voice is represented.”

Yet by the time Ocasio-Cortez came to Congress, Pelosi was 16 years into her leadership of House Democrats, had four years as speaker under her belt and decades of experience as a cold-blooded political operator.

Jeffries does not have that level of seasoning, nor is he politically rooted in the progressive wing of the caucus as Pelosi was. He built his power base through the Congressional Black Caucus and ties to New York business interests and once co-led a PAC to protect incumbents from progressive challengers.

But veterans of the Democratic left said they expect him to make peace with the incoming insurgents by any means necessary.

“I’m sure he will do what Pelosi did,” Jayapal said, “which is cajole, bribe, make deals with, get to know, build a relationship with all of these new members, and that’s going to be a big part of his task as he comes in.”

Ali Bianco contributed to this report.

Congress

GOP hard-liners outline anti-abortion, military funding demands for party-line bill

Published

2 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Freedom Caucus sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday outlining its demands for a third reconciliation bill, including extending a prohibition on federal funding for abortion providers and immediately paying for any new spending.

“This is our last and best chance to prove they were right to send us here to fight for them,” the House Freedom Caucus Board of Directors wrote in the letter, referring to U.S. voters who gave the GOP control of both chambers this Congress. “That is why any Reconciliation 3.0 bill must be focused on wins for the American people.”

The letter comes as House Republicans have started to move ahead on another party-line package, though without consensus on the details of what the legislation will actually include. The conference is considering provisions to fund the war in Iran alongside other policies related to affordability and health care. The bill is also expected to tackle alleged fraud in government programs as one way to offset the costs.

Several members of the conservative hard-liner group in recent weeks have warned they would only support the upcoming bill if any new spending included in it is fully paid for. Some members, like Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, have also said the pay-fors need to be immediate — not several years in the future.

In the letter, the members also told Johnson the next bill should eliminate clean energy tax credits — something they pushed for in the first reconciliation bill last year. The lawmakers are also asking for reforms to health care, the removal of certain firearm-related taxes and “responsible short-term funding for key government personnel and services” to prevent another government shutdown ahead of the midterms.

With the military funding portion of the reconciliation bill, the members requested the package should be used to “modernize our military and deliver clear America First national security priorities.”

“Together with President Trump, we must use our unified Republican majorities to advance a bold, America First agenda,” the members wrote in the letter. “We control the field — we cannot afford to leave any points on the board in reconciliation. We stand ready to work with you to accomplish this goal.”

Congress

A frustrated Trump unloads on Senate Republicans behind closed doors

Published

4 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans hoped to use a closed-door lunch to clear the air with President Donald Trump. Instead, the president vented his frustrations with the senators for more than an hour, leaving them no closer to detente.

The meeting came at an explosive moment, with GOP lawmakers increasingly frustrated by Trump’s mercurial treatment of congressional Republican priorities. Just hours before arriving on Capitol Hill, Trump delivered his latest rug-pull — announcing he would refuse to sign a major housing bill that leaders were already touting after big bipartisan majorities passed it this week.

But senators said Trump arrived determined to prosecute his internal grudges against the Republican lawmakers who have opposed him at times — particularly those who have expressed misgivings about the Iran war and who are refusing to comply with the president’s demands for swift passage of a controversial elections bill.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) described Trump as “mad as a murder hornet” about the Iran vote, while Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) described the scene as “very much like a hospital board meeting, when a bunch of doctors are yelling at each other.”

Marshall added that “at the end of the day, we’ll figure out a way to get along.”

Another GOP senator, granted anonymity to speak candidly, called the lunch “very intense.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), deploying some go-to congressional lingo for heated encounters, called it “spirited,” “frank” and “candid.”

Trump and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) sparred at length over the Iran war, according to two people granted anonymity to describe the private interaction. Trump also railed over Tuesday’s successful war powers vote, lambasting Cassidy and three other GOP senators who voted for the resolution.

Cassidy acknowledged the two had a heated exchange to reporters after the lunch. After Trump questioned why Republicans would vote against him on the war, Cassidy said he told the president that the conflict was not going as well as senators were being told.

“The president said something negative about me. I received it as attempting to bully me from asking a question that I think the American people need to know, and I’m not going to be bullied,” said Cassidy, who recently lost his campaign for renomination after Trump endorsed against him.

Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) also confirmed the exchange between Trump and Cassidy. He said the two “harbor bad feelings” and urged them both to move on.

The meeting also failed to reveal a way forward on Trump’s No. 1 priority, the elections bill known as the SAVE America Act.

Trump cited the need to pass the legislation in his stunning decision Wednesday morning to cancel a signing ceremony for the long-stalled housing bill. A rostrum had been erected in Statuary Hall for the occasion, and House GOP leaders were promoting its benefits at a news conference when the presidential U-turn occurred.

Senators said Trump largely reiterated his publicly stated positions on the housing bill, the GOP election bill and his demand that they eliminate the 60-vote legislative filibuster.

“He believes that the SAVE America act ought to be in front of the housing bill,” Justice said.

Sen. Rand Paul said there had been “a thorough airing” of the elections bill during the meeting, but added it’s unclear “if there is a solution.”

The announcement only served to further exasperate the Senate GOP ahead of the lunch, which had been arranged by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a MAGA loyalist who acted without the foreknowledge of Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

Underscoring the mood going into the meeting, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said, “I would advise them to only use plastic utensils today.”

Republicans had hoped the housing bill would give them a long-sought legislative victory that would get the party on the same page and give them a foothold to argue that they are responding to Americans’ affordability concerns heading into the midterms.

Instead, Trump’s surprise declaration, which appeared to catch even some of his own staff off guard, became the latest curveball for Senate Republicans — following a surprise request for White House ballroom security funding and the announcement of a Justice Department “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that overshadowed and delayed passage of a GOP immigration enforcement bill.

Since then, Trump also has thrown a key surveillance program into limbo and upended the confirmation plans for his own nominee for director of national intelligence.

Most persistently, he has fixated on Senate Republicans passing the SAVE America Act — including by eliminating the filibuster — even though Thune and other GOP senators have said repeatedly that there aren’t the votes to do that.

“There is a huge group of people who really appreciate what the president is doing right now and it’s the Democrat party,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said. ”And we’ve got to get our act together and stop surprising people and stop having conflicting messages.”