Congress

GOP lawmakers already divided over sweeping Trump policy bill

Published

2 years ago

December 4, 2024

Congressional Republicans are clashing over sweeping legislation on taxes, energy and immigration that will be the heart of President-elect Donald Trump’s legislative agenda — underscoring the hurdles ahead as the party tries to unify amid thin margins.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune sparked heartburn across the Capitol this week when he told GOP senators that the package, which under budget reconciliation rules would allow the GOP to bypass a Democratic filibuster, would be split into two parts. The first would focus on border and energy, with a goal to pass it in the first 30 days of the new Trump administration, and the second on tax. Speaker Mike Johnson quickly endorsed the two-step strategy, though he noted leaders were still working out what would be included in each package.

But a number of House Republicans, including committee chairs key to pulling off the plan, are already raising red flags over the strategy, saying they don’t feel the need to stick to that. The disconnect illustrates the challenge that Republican leaders will have next term: They can preach unity, but they have no room for error as they wrangle at-times raucous members with varied priorities.

“Our members need to weigh in on that. This doesn’t need to be a decision that’s made upon high, okay?” said House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) about the two-step strategy. “We’re all unified around the objectives, [but] how we roll it out, the tactics and strategies, still under discussion.”

Supporters of the two-step strategy believe moving quickly on a first bill will let them get an early win on some of their biggest campaign promises — namely border security — right off the bat. The transition team is pushing to pass Trump’s border priorities as quickly as possible, which is why Republican leaders are considering doing a non-tax reconciliation bill first, a person familiar with the discussions told Blue Light News.

Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) have been coordinating behind the scenes with Trump and his team, including making trips to Mar-a-Lago, to discuss their legislative strategy. Thune has also met with Trump and his team there, according to a person familiar with the matter.

But the move to prioritize immigration in the first bill could make it more challenging for the Ways and Means Committee to move a tax package later in the year — and Republicans on the panel are making their dissatisfaction clear. GOP lawmakers face major points of division on tax policy, including what to do with the state and local tax deduction. And tax writers had hoped that including border and energy in one package with tax would help sweeten the pot for skeptical lawmakers.

“I’d like to see us do tax in the first reconciliation,” said Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.), a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means panel. “Businesses want predictability, so the sooner we can figure this out and have it predictable for them, I think that can be better.”

Republicans on that panel met to discuss their strategy during a weekly lunch meeting on Wednesday.

Asked if he supported the two-step strategy, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) pointed to pushback from Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), adding that: “We’ve got members who have some concerns.” Immigration falls primarily under Judiciary’s jurisdiction.

Republicans struggled to deliver on their policy promises during Trump’s first term, a waste of invaluable political capital GOP leaders have indicated they do not want to repeat. An effort to repeal and replace Obamacare unraveled in the Senate, and GOP leadership has kvetched in closed-door meetings this year that they feel like their party didn’t go far enough on reconciliation during Trump’s previous term, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Reconciliation deals are famously difficult to maneuver. While it allows the party controlling both chambers to pass legislation with a simple majority, provisions have to follow certain rules, including that they need to have more of an impact on the budget than on policy. The Senate parliamentarian has thrown out both GOP and Democratic proposals that don’t meet that at-times ambiguous standard.

“We have to all be on the same page,” Thune said Wednesday, adding that conversations are ongoing. “Sometimes it’s challenging because you’ve got to have a House, Senate and White House all pulled in the same direction.”

Even as House and Senate leaders try to unify behind a plan, others are floating their own ideas.

“I remain of the belief that we ought to deliver very quickly on a reconciliation package that has core tenets of the things we want to accomplish in terms of border and fees and so forth, IRA repeal, then some elements of tax policy. And then maybe do a second version that gets at true long-standing permanent tax reform,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a Freedom Caucus member who is also on the Budget Committee.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also hinted that she believes Republicans should challenge the Senate parliamentarian if she determines that any of the border and immigration policies Republicans try to put into the bill don’t fall within the strict rules of budget reconciliation. GOP senators have been hesitant to do that over the years, since Democrats could turn around and do the same thing when they control the majority.

“No one elected her, so she should not stop the will of the people,” Greene said, asked about what Republicans should do if the parliamentarian rules against some of the border and immigration proposals.

Republicans are hopeful that they can get things like the border wall and other immigration-related funding into the bill. But Jordan previously told Blue Light News that he is also looking at trying to go broader and get sweeping changes to asylum rules and more into the bill, things that would be all but guaranteed to run into parliamentarian issues. Democrats tried to include significant immigration changes in their broad reconciliation bills and were repeatedly denied by the parliamentarian.

And House Republicans have another concern: Once some House Republicans leave for appointments in the Trump administration, they might not be able to lose a single vote until those lawmakers are replaced via special election. So delaying the tax bill until later in the year, some argue, would allow Johnson to have the largest margin and a bit more room for GOP opposition or absences.

“You almost need a whiteboard for all the moving parts, because it’s more than just: Do you run two reconciliations for the two different open budget years, where this one’s more policy and this one is more tax, financial, debt, deficit-type issues? At the same time, are you also calculating your votes,” said Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), a Ways and Means member who argued it is less about people “fussing” with each other than the overall complexity of the process.

“They have a bigger majority in the Senate than we have in the House. And the problem is: Thune is managing his traditional Senate ideas, not realizing we have one or two votes to give on our side,” he added.

Congress

House Oversight requests Alan Dershowitz testify in Epstein probe

Published

8 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Oversight Committee requested that Alan Dershowitz, the lawyer who once represented Jeffery Epstein, testify as part of its investigation into the federal government’s handling of the Epstein files.

The interview is tentatively slated for 10 a.m. on July 9, with a video and transcript of the testimony being released “as expeditiously as practical,” Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote in a letter to Dershowitz on Friday.

“Due to public reporting, documents released by the Department of Justice, documents obtained by the Committee, and your former role as Mr. Epstein’s attorney, the Committee believes you have information that will assist in its investigation,” Comer wrote.

Comer told reporters on Wednesday that he wanted to hear from Dershowitz, who helped Epstein secure a controversial plea deal in his 2008 sex abuse case.

“I’m looking forward to testifying,” Dershowitz wrote in a text message to Blue Light News on Friday, adding that he is “trying to adjust my schedule” for July 9.

Congress

Cornyn tells Mike Lee to lay off John Thune

Published

10 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. John Cornyn isn’t a card-carrying member of the Senate GOP’s growing YOLO caucus. But with less than seven months left in office after losing his primary, the Texas Republican appears to be feeling newly free to speak his mind.

The latest clap-back came Thursday night and the early hours of Friday morning, when Cornyn called a conservative influencer a “grifter” and told Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on social media to stop publicly blaming fellow Republicans — including Senate Majority Leader John Thune — for the fact that the GOP elections bill doesn’t have support to pass inside the party.

“You don’t have the votes” for the SAVE America Act, Cornyn posted on X. “@LeaderJohnThune can’t change that. It is math.”

He was directing his comments at Lee, who had just penned a post telling Thune, “let’s do this!”

Cornyn continued, “Try focusing on Democrats instead of Republicans. Republican on Republican attacks are hurting our chances to win the majority in November.”

Lee responded to ask, “on what planet is this an attack on Republicans?” and appeared to suggest a staffer was tweeting on Cornyn’s behalf: “Once my friend John Cornyn realizes that you’re saying this in his name—whoever you are—I don’t think he’ll be happy with you.”

Cornyn, however, is known for posting himself on his social media accounts in a chamber where many Senate accounts are run solely by staff. And he’s been making it clear all week that he will push back on Trump and his party when he thinks it’s needed.

In multiple conversations with reporters in the Capitol, Cornyn said that Republicans need to “stop the circular firing squad.” And he added that he won’t intentionally be “a thorn in [Trump’s] side,” but he’s also “not going to go out of my way to try to appease him.”

“I want him to succeed, I want the Republican Party to succeed, I want the country to succeed,” Cornyn said this week. “But on a case-by-case basis, when I think there’s been overreach or just a bad idea, I’m not going to hesitate to weigh in.”

The four-term senator’s comments come after he lost his primary last month to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who Trump endorsed in the final days of the runoff.

Cornyn said in an interview with The New York Times that he was not a “wounded bear” but that he believed Trump’s insistence on “slavish adherence” was going to backfire for Republicans in the midterms and result in “the most miserable two years of his life” if Democrats flip the House or Senate.

“I think it is going to be a pretty bumpy ride for the next seven months,” Cornyn said.

Congress

Capitol agenda: What Schumer told us about AI

Published

14 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Chuck Schumer wants Congress to pass AI legislation. But he’s casting doubt on it happening this year.

“In this Congress, it’s hard,” the Senate minority leader said in an interview Thursday.

Schumer’s reality check isn’t a complete door-slam. But it underscores the steep climb lawmakers face to bridge a slew of intra-party and inter-chamber divides about what Washington’s approach should be toward the emerging opportunities and risks from the rapidly developing technology.

The problems are multi-pronged.

The White House, whose posture toward AI has shifted dramatically in recent weeks, is angling to enact legislation that would preempt state laws in favor of a national standard. Most recently, administration officials have been exploring a plan to attach preemption legislation to bills designed to shore up kids’ safety online. But there are issues — House Republicans aren’t in love with the Senate GOP’s kid safety bills and Senate Majority Leader John Thune has warned that many senators have concerns “about not trampling states’ rights in the process.”

Democrats aren’t unified on what to do next, with the public broadly skeptical about AI.

Some House and Senate Democrats are leery of state preemption and want to wait until next year to tackle AI, when they might be in power. Opposition from key Democrats is a major factor derailing an attempt by Reps. Lori Trahan and Jay Obernolte to strike a deal on legislation that would set nationwide safety and transparency rules while restricting state action. And Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have proposed a moratorium on AI data centers pending stricter government oversight.

Schumer is striking a balanced tone on how to proceed, arguing that there are “tremendous benefits” from AI but that “we also have to have guardrails.”

“We should get something done on AI, and it’s … got to be balanced — keep innovation strong, but have guardrails to prevent the dangers,” he said. “That’s a hard needle to thread, but I would very much like to see that get done the sooner the better.”

What else we’re watching:

— FISA LAPSE, CLAYTON NOMINATION: Thune is vowing to move “fairly quickly” to confirm Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence, with the FISA Section 702 spy authority set to lapse at midnight thanks to a stalemate between Democrats and the White House over the position.

— GOP ADVANCES BIG DEFENSE BOOST — Republicans have taken the first steps toward granting President Donald Trump’s request for the largest budget ever for the Pentagon. Senate Armed Services members on Thursday approved a draft of their annual defense authorization bill outlining priorities for $1.14 trillion in defense spending next year. The House Appropriations defense subcommittee advanced $1.1 trillion in fiscal 2027 funding for the Defense Department in a closed-door markup.

Calen Razor and Connor O’Brien contributed reporting.