Congress

GOP leaders scramble to unjam the House as time runs short

Published

3 months ago

July 13, 2026

Republican leaders on Capitol Hill have high hopes they can use the dwindling pre-midterm legislative calendar to bolster their case for reelection.

First, they’ll have to put down a weekslong internal revolt that has ground the House floor to a halt.

Taking cues from President Donald Trump, hard-liners are falling in behind Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and her crusade to press for passage of the SAVE America Act, the partisan elections bill that has stalled for months in the Senate.

Before the July 4 holiday break, she blocked votes on the annual defense policy bill in protest, frustrating GOP colleagues are now just wondering if she can be persuaded to stand down.

“Not one member can understand the thought behind it,” Rep. Craig Goldman (R-Texas) said in an interview last week. “The hope is that when we come back, we start moving legislation again.”

So far, it’s not looking good. Trump shows no signs of abandoning his drumbeat for the elections bill. In his latest gesture, he announced Friday he would not sign a widely supported bipartisan housing bill in protest of the Senate standstill.

That has inspired more House lawmakers to deliver ultimatums. Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) announced Friday, for instance, that Republicans must add the SAVE America Act “to every piece of legislation until we secure our elections once and for all.”

On top of that, House GOP leaders are sparring with a separate group of ultraconservatives who are angry Speaker Mike Johnson hasn’t followed through on what they insist was a handshake deal to hold a vote on a tough immigration and border-security bill.

They’re threatening their own floor blockade, even as a separate group of more moderate lawmakers insist they cannot support the immigration legislation the hard-line Republicans are pushing.

House GOP leaders have asked the White House for help leaning on the Republican holdouts, according to two people granted anonymity to comment on internal discussions. To that end, Vice President JD Vance is set to visit a Tuesday conference meeting and encourage Republicans to reopen the floor and advance Trump’s agenda.

“At this point I’m pessimistic that it ever gets introduced or sees the light of day, because I think they just think these moderates aren’t going to vote for it,” said Michael Hough, co-president for federal relations at NumbersUSA, a think tank that advocates for more restrictive immigration policies.

Republican leaders have spent nearly two weeks strategizing after Johnson was forced to send lawmakers home early for the July 4 recess due to Luna’s blockade. Johnson did try to attach the elections overhaul to the defense bill before recess, but Luna blocked it anyway.

The GOP leadership team remains unsure of what, if anything, they will be able to move across the floor back in Washington this week. They have decided not to try to revive the must-pass Pentagon bill for now. Instead, they’re looking to call up a year-round daylight saving time bill on the floor this week — a priority for Florida lawmakers — as a way to entice Luna to allow legislative business to restart.

Johnson is also planning to again try to pass fiscal 2027 funding for the State Department and overseas programs — another casualty of the Luna-imposed meltdown. That would include a highly anticipated vote on an amendment from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) that would slash aid to Israel — something GOP leaders expect will divide Democrats as Republicans seek to exploit the fierce divisions in the opposing party ahead of Election Day.

To appease the immigration hard-liners, GOP leaders have looked at potentially calling up narrower bills — such as a resolution critical of birthright citizenship following last month’s Supreme Court ruling upholding the practice or a bill cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities that do not comply with federal immigration enforcement agencies.

But with the issue weighed down with competing factional demands, Johnson’s leadership circle doesn’t believe any immigration measure can come to the floor at this point, according to four people granted anonymity to candidly describe the talks. Leaders have little to offer holdouts beyond a committee markup for a conservative border bill.

“Just do sanctuary [cities] — that’s like an 80-20 issue, especially among Republicans,” Hough said. “But they get four or five moderate members that say, ‘No, we’re not doing it,’ or, ‘We want what we want,’ and it’s kind of paralyzed them from doing anything.”

Also in a state of paralysis is the yearly appropriations process as a Sept. 30 funding deadline approaches. The House floor impasse has been part of that, but the more profound breakdown has been in the Senate, where a partisan stalemate over spending levels had left the Appropriations Committee unable to act — even before the weekslong absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the sudden death Saturday of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

“It’s as dead as Woodrow Wilson,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said of the annual spending process.

The SAVE America Act is not expected to return to the Senate floor anytime soon, given that Majority Leader John Thune has repeatedly indicated it does not have the votes to move forward.

Instead, Thune is set to launch debate on the Senate’s version of the annual defense policy bill, stalled surveillance legislation and possibly cryptocurrency or college athletics legislation before heading home in August. He’s also set on confirming high-profile nominees like Trump’s attorney general pick, Todd Blanche, and his director of national intelligence designee, Jay Clayton.

The Senate GOP will also be watching as House Republicans try this week to compile a new partisan policy bill under the party-line budget reconciliation process. The White House wants any such package to include tens of billions of dollars in Iran war funding as well as other affordability-oriented items.

Some of the biggest supporters of the bill — referred to on Capitol Hill as “Reconciliation 3.0” in light of the two previous party-line bills Republicans have passed this Congress — initially hoped to move the measure before the summer recess.

That’s now looking unlikely for the House with only two weeks of session left, and Senate Republicans are more skeptical than ever — especially after struggling for weeks to pass a relatively narrow immigration enforcement proposal earlier this year through the filibuster-skirting reconciliation process.

“You saw how easy it was to pass Reconciliation 2.0, right? A very simple reconciliation, something we all supported, and that hit snags,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who is poised to take over the Senate Budget Committee after Graham’s death.

Johnson said Senate Republicans have not seen any of those details yet, and the House Budget Committee similarly has not produced any framework for the legislation — a key prerequisite for any reconciliation bill.

Still, Speaker Johnson is vowing to press forward in the House, and he is planning to huddle Monday with key GOP members to make a plan for the coming weeks.

House Budget Committee Republicans held a call Wednesday to sort out the way forward but didn’t come away with any breakthroughs or even a timeline as fiscal hawks demand spending cuts to offset any new war money or other expenditures, according to two people on the call who were granted anonymity to describe it.

Before members left town for the recess, Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) said in an interview that if there isn’t movement in the first couple of days back in session, reconciliation 2.0 is “real trouble.”

“I think the sense of urgency is known, and we want to get a win for this country,” he said.

But even as Republicans on both sides of the Capitol profess a desire to focus on affordability and to beef up their accomplishments heading into the midterms, a sense of resignation has taken hold.

Asked about the GOP agenda this summer, Sen. Johnson said, “I was going to say: What agenda?”

Myah Ward contributed to this report.

Congress

Capitol agenda: AI experts to school Congress wanted

Published

23 minutes ago

October 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Artificial intelligence is challenging some lawmakers’ confidence that they have the capacity to regulate it.

The slow pace of Congress and a challenging political environment are already working against lawmakers under pressure to address AI threats. There’s also a significant gap in tech policy expertise.

“We need to dramatically increase the base knowledge of Congress if we’re going to legislate meaningfully,” Rep. Sam Liccardo said in a recent interview.

One big concern is at the staffing level: getting people with a deep understanding of the technology around rank-and-file members. Aides who specialize in tech policy often get lured to private companies with huge salaries that can be hard to resist.

Some lawmakers, like Rep. Mark Takano, are advocating for an in-house hub — something like the long-defunct Office of Technology Assessment, which helped Congress understand emerging technology and its social and policy implications from 1972 until it was scrapped in 1995. A Takano aide said he’ll introduce a bipartisan bill to restore such an office in the coming weeks.

Members have also been leaning on fellows from TechCongress — a nonprofit founded by former congressional aide Travis Moore that places technology experts in member and committee offices.

Moore said in an interview that there are plenty of people who want to work on Capitol Hill, but it’s a matter of “Congress’s will and capacity to absorb that talent.”

Not everybody buys into the theory that staffing will solve the problem. Some conservatives, in particular, have seized on the lack of member expertise to argue for a hands-off regulatory approach.

“We don’t understand it well enough,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who has repeatedly brought in technology experts through the TechCongress fellowship, told reporters this month. “We don’t have the expertise to do it.”

“Do you really trust the members of Congress, who barely understand AI, to write the regulations around something?” added Rep. Eric Burlison in an interview last month.

There are a few members who consider themselves fluent in AI policy, including several who have joined working groups on it. They’ve taken educating their colleagues into their own hands but have not always seen great enthusiasm.

Liccardo, for example, recounted how he has brought in experts to brief lawmakers — including huge AI industry figures like Sam Altman of OpenAI and Dario Amodei of Anthropic— only to struggle to convince members to attend.

“We have had challenges in the past trying to get folks’ attention to the issues,” he said.

What else we’re watching:

— WRIGHT: LAWMAKERS ARE ‘WRONG’ ON RUSSIA: Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Sunday dismissed bipartisan criticism when asked about lawmakers warning that President Donald Trump’s diesel deal would help finance Russia. “In fact, they are all wrong. They don’t understand what President Trump’s doing,” Wright said on ABC News. Wright also defended Trump’s decision Friday exempting Russia from key sanctions outlined in the late Sen. Lindsey Graham sanctions law, which was enacted just last month and set to take effect Sunday. The moves have drawn bipartisan outcry.

— PILOT BILLS GET COMEDIAN’S HELP — Lawmakers are targeting year-end enactment of a pair of bipartisan bills aimed at helping pilots deal with mental health issues and hazy medication regulations, thanks in part to a comedian with an HBO show. Lawmakers and others credit Nathan Fielder, star of the docu-comedy “The Rehearsal” for raising awareness on the stresses pilots face in the hit show last year. They say Fielder wasn’t actively involved in lobbying despite pleas from some for help. “Frankly, I’m glad he elevated the story,” Rep. Sean Casten, one of the lawmakers leading the mental health legislation, told Safa. After passing the Senate late last month, the two bills are awaiting House action.

Katherine Tully-McManus, Jalen Beckford and Safa Wahidi contributed to this report.

Congress

Wanted: Tech experts to help Congress regulate AI

Published

4 hours ago

October 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Lawmakers are under pressure to pass legislation to address the threats from advanced artificial intelligence, but many have serious doubts they have the capacity to regulate the technology’s explosive growth.

Few are expecting lawmakers themselves — some of whom still proudly use flip phones — to become AI experts overnight. But while even congressional Luddites acknowledge there is urgency for Capitol Hill to quickly expand its expertise in tech policy to help with legislating, regulating and conducting effective oversight, there’s no consensus yet on how to achieve it.

“We need to dramatically increase the base knowledge of Congress if we’re going to legislate meaningfully,” Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.) said in a recent interview.

Congress already has a long track record of lagging behind as technological innovations transform the world beyond Washington: It has adopted a largely hands-off approach to regulating the Internet as it integrated into everyday life in the past 40 years, relying instead on existing laws that govern other industries and taking smaller piecemeal bites.

The challenging political environment won’t help speed things along now: Democrats are split over whether the answer is to put guardrails on the AI industry or ban “superintelligence” entirely, while many Republicans — including President Donald Trump — warn that any regulation would stifle innovation and cede ground to China.

Some members consider themselves fluent in AI policy, including several who have joined working groups on AI policy. Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.) have pursued masters degrees in AI and machine learning, in addition to many others who are self-taught.

The “overwhelming number” of lawmakers have some idea of what AI is and what it is capable of, Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.), co-chair of a House Democratic commission on AI policy, said in a recent interview. But, she added, “None of us can say that we understand where it’s going.”

The larger concern is at the staff level — putting people with real expertise around the rank-and-file members who don’t have the bandwidth or interest in educating themselves on the frontier of the industry. Aides who do specialize in tech policy often get lured to the industry with huge salaries that can be hard to resist.

That’s where Travis Moore, a former congressional staffer, has spent more than a decade trying to help.

In 2015, Moore left his post as legislative director for Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and founded TechCongress, a nonprofit that places technology experts in member and committee offices. The hope is that those offices will be convinced to hire those fellows full-time — or at least recognize the need to secure in-house tech policy expertise.

“You should have a technologist at the table to at least mitigate the unknown unknowns,” Moore said, regardless of what members themselves know about technology.

As AI has boomed, so has demand for TechCongress’ fellows: In the last two years, Moore has fielded more than 1,200 applications for about 36 fellowship slots through the program, which does not accept funding from corporations or tech companies.

Of nearly 130 fellows selected through the program since its founding, Moore said 32 were later hired full-time. Two-thirds of all the fellows have pursued careers in public service, either on Capitol Hill or other government roles.

Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), one of the leaders on AI policy on Capitol Hill, is among the offices that currently employs a TechCongress fellow. The House Judiciary Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) also host fellows.

Moore says his initiative has shown there are plenty of people who want to work on Capitol Hill to help inform some of the most pressing issues of the moment — even when more lucrative salaries in the private sector beckon.

“The constraint is not talent supply,” Moore said in an interview. Rather, he said, it’s a matter of “Congress’s will and capacity to absorb that talent.”

Some on Capitol Hill are advocating for an in-house hub — something like the long-defunct Office of Technology Assessment, which helped Congress understand emerging technology and its social and policy implications from 1972 until it was scrapped in 1995.

Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) has long championed efforts to revive the OTA for years and expects to reintroduce his legislation restoring the office in the coming weeks with bipartisan backing, spokesperson Austin Clark said.

Not everybody buys into the theory that staffing will solve the problem. Some conservatives, in particular, have seized on the lack of member expertise to argue for a hands-off approach to regulation.

“We don’t understand it well enough,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), who has repeatedly brought in technology experts through the TechCongress fellowship, told reporters this month. “You can’t address it based on what policymakers know about it on a one-size-fits-all universal basis. … We don’t have the expertise to do it.”

“Do you really trust the members of Congress, who barely understand AI, to write the regulations around something?” added Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) in an interview last month.

Others don’t see a hopeless cause, but a convenient excuse.

“I understand it’s hard, but lots of things we do here are hard,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in an interview, noting that lawmakers have had to bone up quickly on everything from nuclear energy policy to complex weapons systems and advances in health care, like biologic drugs.

“I just think the industry wants us to believe that there’s seven people who understand this, and that’s just not true,” Murphy said, accusing some of his colleagues of “just throwing shit up against the wall to try to figure out how to justify doing nothing.”

A few members on both sides of the aisle have taken educating their colleagues into their own hands. Obernotle says he helped tutor more than two dozen House members through the bipartisan AI working group he chaired in the previous Congress.

Liccardo, who represents parts of Silicon Valley, recounted how he has brought in experts to brief lawmakers — including huge AI industry figures like Sam Altman of OpenAI, Dario Amodei of Anthropic and Jensen Huang of Nvidia — only to struggle to convince members to attend.

“We have had challenges in the past trying to get folks’ attention to the issues,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do, I’ll just say, to get everybody up to speed.”

Riley Rogerson, Jordain Carney and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

Congress

Retiring GOP congressmember will ‘absolutely not’ vote for successor in at-risk seat

Published

2 days ago

October 17, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Retiring Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei said he won’t vote for the Trump-endorsed GOP candidate vying to replace him amid a string of stolen valor and other accusations — and warned that the once-safe Republican seat President Donald Trump won by 14 points is at risk of flipping blue on Election Day.

Amodei said in an interview Saturday he would “absolutely not” vote for businessperson David Flippo in Nevada’s 2nd District. “I think the seat’s at risk,” he added, citing a string of stolen valor and financial allegations against Flippo.

“You say, well, the president endorsed him,” Amodei added. “It’s like, well whoever was advising the president on, ‘Hey, this would be a good place for you to go ahead and weigh in,’ gave him awful advice. The vetting process — quote unquote — must have been nearly non-existent.”

Amodei specifically cited a series of allegations against Flippo as disqualifying, for reportedly lying about his military service and also failing to file financial disclosures on time.

“It’s just one thing after another. The stolen valor accusations — all that. But you’re just sitting here going, ‘What the heck?’” Amodei said. Flippo has said apparent exaggerations about his military service on campaign materials were mistakes by his staff and others. Still, GOP officials have been weighing whether Trump should campaign in the region to help boost Flippo before Election Day, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The district has never been represented by a Democrat.

Amodei said he plans to vote early in the coming days and “is looking seriously” at casting his ballot for the independent candidate.

Amid the deteriorating landscape, national Republicans are increasingly wary about Republicans like Flippo holding onto seats in once-safe red districts. Trump won the Northern Nevada seat that encompasses Reno and nearby rural counties by double digits in 2024 and Amodei has held it for 15 years.

On paper, Democrats should have no business playing there. And, national Republicans are still bullish on their chances of holding onto the seat, arguing it’s safer than other red districts they’re more worried about. But Republicans have watched Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson, a former Nevada Assembly majority leader, make the race much tighter than comfortable.

Limited general election polls have Flippo either up or trailing by several points. The Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. super PAC just dropped its first spending into the district in recent days, looking to boost Flippo who has self-funded a large part of his campaign.

Nevada Republicans — once bullish about flipping the Las Vegas-area 1st and 3rd Districts — are now paying increasing attention to Amodei’s Northern Nevada district. The economic headwinds that have hit farm states across the country have slammed Nevada’s so-called cattle counties, and demographic change in Reno has favored Democrats in recent years.

Amodei, who has refused to endorse Flippo, views him as entirely the wrong candidate for the district. Flippo is “somebody who air drops into the district,” Amodei said, “announces their intent, pulls out of another district in Las Vegas, within hours of when I said, ‘Hey, I think the time is right for me to retire.’” Amodei also questioned Flippo’s delays in filing his financial disclosures.

“It’s the cynical attitude towards the process to me that has just been staggering in terms of the end justifies the means,” Amodei added.

Amodei said he believes Republicans still have a shot at holding onto their House majority, and he’s told Speaker Mike Johnson he “sincerely” wants the Louisiana Republican to stay on as speaker next Congress.

But Amodei warned the larger landscape for House Republicans has turned darker, compared to a year ago when Republicans “were feeling pretty good, and the winds were at our back.”

“It’s gone,” he said, adding “the mood of the country right now does not feel warm.”

“There’s absolutely no, ‘Yeah, I’d rather be us than them,’” Amodei said. “It’s like everybody better button up their chin strap and be ready to play through the fourth quarter.”

Samuel Benson contributed to this report.