Congress

Trump refuses to sign landmark housing bill, taking aim at GOP

Published

3 hours ago

July 10, 2026

President Donald Trump said Friday he would not sign Congress’ much-awaited bipartisan housing affordability legislation — protesting lawmakers’ inaction on his preferred elections bill, the SAVE America Act.

The House formally transmitted the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act to Trump last week, setting in motion a 10-day period after which the bill would be enacted into law absent any action from the president. Trump did not indicate plans to veto the legislation, which is expected to become law at midnight between Friday and Saturday.

“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump posted Friday morning on his social media platform, Truth Social.

Trump last month abruptly called off signing the landmark housing legislation in part over his dissatisfaction with Congress’ progress on the unrelated voter registration bill. On Friday, the president reiterated that he blamed lawmakers from his own party for holding up the SAVE America Act.

“I will no longer be able to call [the Democrats] Dumocrats again!” Trump’s post reads. “The title of DUMB will revert to the Republicans who allowed this horrible calamity to happen to our Party, and our Nation, itself!”

A White House spokesperson declined to provide additional comment. Speaker Mike Johnson and House GOP leadership, along with White House officials, all worked over the last 10 days to try to persuade Trump not to veto the bill, according to three people with direct knowledge of the conversations who were granted anonymity to speak openly.

Johnson said in an interview shortly before he officially transmitted the bill to the White House that he was still trying to persuade Trump to sign the legislation. But, he added that Trump would not veto it.

House GOP leadership had also conveyed to the White House that they had the votes to override him if he chose to veto it, and that congressional Republicans would do it, as POLITICO has reported.

Despite Trump’s apparent disinterest in the bill, the legislation marks one of the most significant bipartisan achievements during a session of Congress marked by gridlock and chaos.

The legislation passed by overwhelming margins in both the Senate and House following monthslong negotiations among the two chambers, White House and industry. Lawmakers on both sides are touting the legislation as a direct response to voters’ affordability concerns ahead of the midterm elections.

The law contains almost 60 provisions, including the first-ever restrictions on the ability of large Wall Street investors to buy up single-family homes. Trump made the provision a condition for his support of the bill. The measure would prohibit large, institutional investors from owning more than 350 single-family homes.

The housing law includes a wide range of other measures, including language that aims to eliminate red tape for community lenders, leverage federal funding to incentivize communities to build additional housing and make it easier to build manufactured homes in an effort to boost supply and cut some costs.

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

The reason House GOP leaders are holding a vote to stop the changing of the clocks

Published

11 minutes ago

July 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House GOP leaders are planning to put legislation on the floor next week that would make daylight saving time permanent in hopes of softening a revolt led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.

According to four people granted anonymity to describe internal party strategy, GOP leaders are moving ahead with a vote on the so-called Sunshine Protection Act because the bill is a major priority for Florida Republicans, including Luna. It’s also a top priority for President Donald Trump, who in recent months has personally been calling lawmakers to urge them to back the measure that would add more sunlight to the evening hours and end the twice-yearly practice of changing the clocks.

Luna helped tank a procedural vote before the July 4 holiday in protest of the Senate not having passed the GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act, forcing the House to leave early for its weeklong recess. She has still not committed to allowing legislation to go through when Congress is due to return Monday.

The concept of making daylight saving time permanent is popular in Florida, which relies on the tourism and golfing industries. Her office, however, did not respond to a request for comment Friday about whether a vote on daylight saving time would change her calculus.

Meanwhile, it’s also not likely to change the calculus for other House GOP hard-liners who opposed the procedural rule alongside Luna — not as leverage over the SAVE America Act but to demand votes on unrelated border security and immigration legislation. They will need to be enticed in other ways, according to three of the people.

But the decision by Republican leaders to hold a standalone vote on the Sunshine Protection Act, which is already included in the surface transportation reauthorization measure pending consideration by the full House, signals a desperation to get the chamber back on track in short time left before the launch of the August recess and the final stretch of midterm campaign season.

Apart from Luna, passage of the measure at this time would give Trump an easy win as the transportation bill is not expected to advance by its Sept. 30 deadline — plus stands a very high chance of getting stripped out due to disagreements among lawmakers, particularly among those in agriculture-heavy states worried about the effects of additional hours of darkness on farmers.

Spokespeople for Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Congress

Capitol agenda: GOP faces megabill angst and a ‘time problem’

Published

5 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Republicans return to Capitol Hill Monday facing a dwindling calendar and rising pressure to beef up their midterm message with legislation.

But their efforts to pass a new party-line bill are sputtering, and the political benefits of the last one are, a year later, looking modest at best.

“I think the complication is that … you did so much work in one legislative exercise that it’s tough to go back and really tell that story,” Rep. Nick Langworthy said in an interview about the July 4 anniversary of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

In the last week, certain megabill provisions celebrated by Republicans — such as the launching of President Donald Trump-branded child investment accounts and the sunsetting of clean energy tax credits — have gone into effect.

But Republicans have had trouble selling the bill to the American public. Some provisions don’t come into effect until 2028, and the GOP has tried to rebrand it as the “Working Families Tax Cuts Act” after Trump acknowledged its original name was “not good for explaining to people what it’s all about.”

That’s adding to the pressure Republicans will feel next week as they try to jumpstart the party’s efforts on another party-line policy bill.

“We’ve got a time problem, but we want to get a win for this country,” Rep. August Pfluger said.

But with only eight House legislative days before August recess and ongoing intraparty fights holding up the floor, many are acknowledging the time strain.

“There was a lot of pressure and political support behind trying to get the first bill done and that took us eight months to do,” Rep. Greg Steube said in an interview. “The timing of another one is challenging, and these days we can’t even pass a rule.”

What else we’re watching:

— WHY JOHN KENNEDY IS SUDDENLY EVERYWHERE: Sen. John Kennedy is the Senate GOP’s new unlikely campaign trail star. The 74-year-old Louisianan has long been known as the master of the folksy one-liner in interviews. But his profile has recently exploded thanks to an increasing tempo of Fox News hits, a bestselling book and a growing TikTok following.

— TRUMP OUSTS ALL ELECTION COMMISSIONERS: Trump has ousted the remaining commissioners from a bipartisan federal agency charged with helping state and local officials conduct elections in an apparent move to assert control over voting ahead of the midterms. The president removed the two Democratic members of the Election Assistance Commission on Thursday while a Republican was allowed to resign, according to a White House official and three other people familiar with the dismissals.

Jordan Carney, Aaron Pellish and Zach Montellaro contributed to this report.

Congress

John Kennedy is the Senate GOP’s unlikely campaign-trail star

Published

8 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

In the halls of Congress, Sen. John Kennedy has long been known as the master of the excruciatingly folksy one-liner. His profile off Capitol Hill, however, has recently exploded — thanks to an increasing tempo of Fox News hits, a bestselling book and a growing TikTok following.

The 74-year-old Louisianan is putting his burgeoning notoriety to work for his Senate Republican colleagues, criss-crossing the country for a series of surprisingly successful events where he’s dropping his trademark bons mots, fielding questions about a future presidential bid and discussing “Margaret” — the exercise machine sitting in his carport that is named after Margaret Thatcher and is a guest star in his viral videos.

“When I go into a state and headline a fundraiser for one of my colleagues, it seems to attract people,” Kennedy said in an interview. “I think I’m like the new animal in the zoo. They don’t know what it is, but they like to poke to see what will happen.”

A trip to Ohio for Sen. Jon Husted helped raise more than $2 million, Kennedy said, and he appeared in New Hampshire with former Sen. John Sununu, who is looking to regain the seat he lost in 2008 to outgoing Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

Kennedy also recently headlined state-party events in Indiana and Tennessee, the latter of which broke fundraising records, according to attendees. Kennedy said he’s also planning stops in Michigan, Georgia and other battleground Senate states.

“Some of them I have to tell, no, because you can’t be everywhere,” he said. “And frankly some of my colleagues don’t need it — you know they’re going to win anyways.”

Husted praised Kennedy during one of their campaign stops as having a “common-sense approach to governing.” Kennedy, in typical fashion, described Husted more colorfully — as “what cool looks like.”

When Kennedy, at a Politics & Eggs event also attended by Sununu, said that he loved New Hampshire, an audience member yelled back: “Well, we love you!”

Kennedy previously traveled in 2024 to help support key Senate races. But this campaign swing comes as Kennedy’s social and political cachet is on the rise — and it’s especially notable because he has no declared leadership ambitions, which is what tends to put sitting senators on the fundraising circuit.

His appearances on Fox News have earned him fans among Republican voters well beyond the borders of his home state. But his notoriety spread further after publishing “How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will,” which spent months on The New York Times bestseller list.

Kennedy discussed his book full of mostly tongue-in-cheek insider observations at the New Hampshire event, saying it would make readers “think” but also “may make you day-drink.”

He is planning to run for reelection to his Senate seat in 2028. Kennedy, however, has acknowledged that efforts have been made to recruit him into the presidential race by people with “a lot of money.” Kennedy didn’t rule out a possible White House bid, summing up his feelings as “never say never.”

Kennedy’s breakout comes as he’s carved out a lane on Capitol Hill as a deliverer of folksy aphorisms who is typically a reliable vote for leadership and Trump but is occasionally willing to throw an elbow.

He put up a stink for days last year over a government funding package — but ultimately accepted a deal that let the bills move forward. He sank a judicial nominee during Trump’s first term and warned in an interview last month that he was willing to vote against a key appeals court pick if Trump nominates someone he can’t support.

Kennedy said he doesn’t go to the White House just to hang out, like some colleagues. And while Kennedy has acknowledged that Trump has sometimes gotten angry with him, he believes he has a good and candid relationship with Trump.

He was part of a group of GOP lawmakers who went to 1600 Pennsylvania in May to press the president on a stalled housing bill. Trump also called him to consult on potential replacements for Kristi Noem shortly before the president removed her from her post as Department of Homeland Security secretary.

His quotemongering can sometimes be hokey — especially for someone with degrees from Vanderbilt, Virginia Law and Oxford — but his colleagues view him as a serious legislator who is willing to use his leverage to advance his conservative policy agenda and isn’t afraid to ruffle fellow Republicans’ feathers.

Those colleagues still take note of his way with words. As Kennedy was talking to a Blue Light News reporter recently, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) crashed the conversation to note, “Damn, he’s got good quotes.”

He now has a much broader audience for his down-home wit courtesy of short-form video. One TikTok about the driveway elliptical machine has more than 5 million views — meaning Margaret might now rival “Beth,” the vintage Hoover vacuum wielded by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) ahead of family gatherings, for social-media fame.

Kennedy said his staff gave him some general advice for how to approach the vertical videos to be “normal” and to not be “serious” or make videos about “policy stuff.”

“They said, ‘Just be yourself,’ which is frankly a dangerous instruction, that’s what I tried to do, and they sent me home one weekend with instructions to film the video … and I decided to do one with Margaret,” Kennedy said.

More recently he posted about his dog Charlie with one viewer comparing him to “America’s uncle.” He praised his wife’s chicken salad — using the same words of praise he’s used for omelets and the states of Ohio and New Hampshire — as being “better than sex.” And he filmed a video talking about his backyard being filled with his dogs’ poop, acknowledging in an interview that his wife “goes ballistic” when he uses kitchen knives to clean it out of his tennis shoes.

And while Kennedy says he has “no idea” if any of his colleagues are watching his TikTok videos, they appear to have caught on both in Washington and outside of it.

“I don’t understand it, really don’t,” Kennedy said. “But people stop me all the time and ask how Margaret is.”