Congress
RFK Jr. has big asks of Washington. Republican lawmakers say they’re open.
MAGA won big. Now MAHA is ready to take on Washington.
President-elect Donald Trump promised Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a chance to implement his Make America Healthy Again vision and Kennedy is in the mix to run the Department of Health and Human Services.
That could turn the government’s role in public health upside down. Kennedy blames Americans’ poor health in part on a corrupt alliance among the food and drug industries and the regulators supposed to watch over them. He wants to replace the bureaucrats and overhaul the systems for overseeing pesticides, food additives and vaccines.
That could mean rules and product bans that threaten the profits of the food and pharma sectors GOP lawmakers have long deferred to — and who employ many of their constituents. MAHA expects them to put up a fight, but Trump during his campaign and the GOP lawmakers most willing to talk this week said they’re taking Kennedy’s asks seriously and are open to pursuing his policy goals through legislation or by confirming him to a top administration post.
“Bobby Kennedy can do more working with President Trump to advance America’s health than anybody really in history,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said. “If President Trump wants him, I think he could [be confirmed to the Cabinet]. Why not?”
Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville and Kentucky’s Rand Paul seconded Johnson’s point.
Tuberville said it was “great” that Kennedy is involved and said he was open to confirming him to a top job. Paul called the longtime environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist, and scion of one of America’s most famous Democratic families “an important voice… for reassessing the crony capitalism that has big corporations, particularly big pharma, having an undue influence in regulation and approval of their drugs.”
Even Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, noted “several issues” where he and Kennedy, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination before dropping out to endorse Trump, would agree, including: “tobacco and organic agriculture.”
Wyden declined to say more about how he’d respond if Trump gave Kennedy an administration role.
It might just be that Kennedy’s critics are holding back, expecting Trump won’t go there. But holding back they are.
Lobbyists for food and pharmaceutical interests have declined to publicly criticize Kennedy or openly push for the incoming administration to change course, even as they say they are reaching out to the Trump transition team and lawmakers for reassurance.
And many GOP lawmakers — including some who represent farm country, like Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — declined to comment as they were returning to Washington after a break for the election. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told Blue Light News Thursday it was premature to say if she’d vote to confirm Kennedy given he hasn’t been nominated to a post yet.
Public health and medical experts have sounded the alarm on Kennedy’s ideas, particularly his claim that vaccines cause autism, as dangerous.
Kennedy declined to comment on the MAHA movement’s involvement in the incoming administration or criticisms from industry groups and health experts.
MAHA devotees aren’t declaring victory, predicting a fight with lobbyists for pharma and food companies and their allies on Capitol Hill.
Jeff Hutt, spokesperson for the Make America Healthy Again PAC and former national field director for Kennedy’s presidential campaign, will brief health policy staffers on Capitol Hill next week, following a similar briefing in September from Kennedy ally Calley Means, a former food-industry lobbyist who has become a prominent voice in the debate about Trump’s health policy platform.
“Established Republicans are going to have to be the most brave for this to be successful,” Hutt said.
For now, MAHA’s acolytes are waiting to see whether Trump is brave enough to follow through on his promise to Kennedy.
Adam Hamilton raised $10.6 million in the third quarter of 2026 across his Senate campaign and his joint fundraising committees, his campaign tells Blue Light News, a significant haul for the Kansas Democrat.
The fundraising total illustrates Democrats’ newfound bullishness about flipping a Senate seat in the deep-red state for the first time since 1932.
“This grassroots support sends a clear message: with three weeks until Election Day, Adam Hamilton is building the momentum to win,” said Hamilton campaign spokesperson Tyson Brody.
Hamilton’s third-quarter figure is nearly triple his $3.66 million second-quarter total. His campaign did not provide a current cash-on-hand total.
National Democrats began pumping money into Kansas in recent days, a sign of their growing hopes that Hamilton could win. Last week, Senate Majority PAC — Senate Democrats’ top super PAC — reserved $5 million in television ads backing Hamilton. American Bridge PAC and Lower Costs Now, a new group affiliated with former Vice President Kamala Harris’ super PAC, have spent in Kansas in recent weeks.
Republicans have also flocked to Kansas to prop up Marshall: Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s top PAC, has spent or reserved nearly $11 million backing Marshall in the past week, according to tracking firm AdImpact.
“It took us five months to raise $15 million. [Marshall] got it in a day,” Hamilton said at a campaign event in Lawrence, Kansas on Monday. “So please help us.”
Marshall’s campaign has yet to release his third-quarter fundraising totals. As of mid-July, Marshall had over $5 million in the bank to $1.73 million for Hamilton.
A bipartisan Senate duo is urging Trump national security officials to “bring its full capacities to bear” to stave off threats posed by artificial intelligence — sooner rather than later.
Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, and Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who serves on the Senate Armed Services cybersecurity subcommittee, are calling for a full government response to a growing number of cybersecurity breaches.
“Recent AI security incidents should serve as a warning,” the senators wrote in a Tuesday letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and White House Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios. “Advanced AI agents have escaped testing environments, bypassed safeguards, and gained unauthorized access to real-world systems owned by government agencies and private organizations.”
Spokespeople for Clayton and Kratsios did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Their letter comes as lawmakers struggle to hash out what legislation on AI safety, if any, might look like. Members are currently in recess ahead of the November elections and there’s little hope progress can be made by the year’s end.
But those lawmakers who have been engaged on the topic for years now have mapped out administrative actions the Trump administration could move on now, without waiting on Congress.
The Cantwell and Rounds priorities include: strengthening federal AI safety and security standards at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST; expanding independent testing capabilities at the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence, Department of Energy and the national labs; and working with the tech industry to develop and deploy defensive AI tools.
Specifically, the senators wrote, new NIST standards should address the risks posed by advanced AI capabilities, including the “potential misuse by malicious actors” to conduct sophisticated cyberattacks, automate attacks at scale and agents that threaten external systems and critical infrastructure.
They also said the federal government capacity should be complemented by universities and other research organizations, as well as by private sector, third-party evaluators.
Finally, they point to ways the government could use existing programs at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to work with AI labs to help detect threats and reinforce vulnerable systems.
A bipartisan group of senators urged President Donald Trump to rescind his recent diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, amid bubbling anger on Capitol Hill about Trump’s announcement.
In a letter sent to the White House, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the senators warned that the president’s deal with Russia will not “achieve just ends” or benefit Americans.
“Granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves from Putin’s murderous, illegal war,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded.”
On Sunday, a smaller group of senators called on the president to “immediately reverse course” on the plan in a statement. Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — who signed on to both — said Sunday there may be “a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump announced in a social media post on Friday that Russia would “immediately supply” diesel fuel to global markets — including potentially the U.S. — to help relieve high prices driven, in part, by the ongoing war with Iran. Though Trump has repeatedly defended the U.S.’s actions against Iran, on Saturday he demanded an end to Ukrainian drone strikes that have crippled Russian oil refineries that he argues have caused the record-high oil prices.
The senators on Tuesday argued that the deal with Russia will have a “negligible impact” on fuel prices while providing Putin with “more fuel to finance his war machine” as Russia continues its “brutal attacks on Ukrainian civilians.”
The deal with Russia is a sharp pivot from a sweeping sanctions package signed into law last month. That legislation — championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — was meant to deplete Moscow’s resources by targeting Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of oil tankers. It drew widespread bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress.
Senators on Tuesday referenced the package as they condemned Putin as a “tyrant.”
“For decades, America has stood as the bastion of freedom against tyranny, and American presidents have embodied our nation’s resistance to tyrants. Putin is a tyrant,” the letter reads. “Withdraw from this agreement, rescind General License No. 135, and execute the authorities provided under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. Maintain our legacy – and the duty America holds – as leader of the free world.”
In addition to Blumenthal and Tillis, Tuesday’s letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Jack Reed (R.I.), and Chris Coons (Del.) and Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Alan Armstrong (Okla.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and John Cornyn (Texas).
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