Congress

Anti-deepfake bill advances to Senate floor

Published

2 hours ago

June 18, 2026

The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced the NO FAKES Act by voice vote on Thursday.

Introduced by Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), it would create new protections against AI-enabled replicas and deepfakes and allow people to sue over the unauthorized use of their likeness. The bill could be included in a package of AI and kids’ safety bills that Blackburn is currently working on with the White House.

The latest version of the bill has earned broad support from Hollywood and the tech industry, receiving endorsements from YouTube, TikTok and OpenAI as well as Disney and the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA. It was originally introduced last Congress.

“It is imperative that we put this national standard in place for voice and visual likeness protection of creators,” the Tennessee Republican said at the markup.

Other bills that could be included in Blackburn’s package are the Kids Online Safety Act and the App Store Accountability Act. Such a package could ultimately block some state laws on AI — though it’s not yet clear how aggressively the measure would preempt state action on narrow issues such as verifying users’ ages on social media.

“I’ve always said America needs one set of rules for AI, and NO FAKES is a critical component of that rulebook,” Blackburn added.

Both the NO FAKES Act and KOSA have come under fire over a number of First Amendment concerns. A coalition of free speech groups including the Center for Democracy & Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation sent a letter to Judiciary Committee leadership on Tuesday urging members not to advance the NO FAKES Act in its current form.

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) expressed their issues with the bill’s effects on free speech and looked to address those concerns with the co-sponsors.

As an example, Cruz pointed to former reality television star Spencer Pratt, who ran a series of AI-generated videos — often without a statement disclosing the content was created using AI — during his failed Los Angeles mayoral campaign, including portrayals of himself as Batman and Luke Skywalker. The political deepfakes raised concerns that some of the ads risked misleading voters during campaign season.

“I think of the ad Spencer Pratt ran in the LA campaign, which I thought were hysterical and I think are a good example of what should be protected and not fall within a bill like this,” Cruz said.

Congress

White House delivers Iran agreement to Congress

Published

46 minutes ago

June 18, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The White House sent the “memorandum of understanding” putting hostilities with Iran on hold to Congress on Thursday, after days of complaints from lawmakers of both parties that they didn’t receive the agreement sooner.

The document obtained by POLITICO lays out 14 points the U.S. and Iran reached over at least temporarily ending the nearly four-month military campaign launched by President Donald Trump.

Congress received the agreement after Trump signed it Wednesday night in France and shortly before Vice President JD Vance briefed reporters at the White House on the deal, which sets up 60 days of further negotiations on the fate of the Iran nuclear program.

A swath of GOP senators and some House Republicans were livid Wednesday when a Trump administration official read the memorandum to reporters before sharing the document with lawmakers.

Senior White House officials have held small-group and individual calls with select GOP lawmakers, but an all-member briefing from Trump administration officials on the agreement is not expected until next week.

Congress

Jay Clayton nomination remains up in the air, Thune says

Published

1 hour ago

June 18, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled deep uncertainty Thursday over the fate of Jay Clayton’s nomination as director of national intelligence.

Its future, he told reporters, is essentially up to President Donald Trump.

Asked whether Clayton’s nomination was being withdrawn, Thune pointed to the White House for answers.

“I’ve never been asked to slow a nomination down before,” he said.

Asked for a further explanation of why Trump effectively killed the Senate GOP’s hopes of quickly confirming Clayton and unlocking an extension of key surveillance law, Thune mentioned the acting director of national intelligence who is set to start Friday: “I think he’s very committed to Bill Pulte.”

“I don’t have good answers for these questions — those are probably better asked of the president and his team,” he added. “We are just executing or trying to execute on what they had asked us to.”

Trump’s early-morning Truth Social post Wednesday was only the latest instance where the president caught Republicans off-guard and frustrating GOP senators who worry that he is undercutting their efforts to pass a legislative agenda and help their party’s chances in the midterms.

Trump has fumed in particular over Senate Republicans’ inability to pass a GOP elections overhaul, the SAVE America Act, which doesn’t have 50 votes, much less the 60 needed to defeat a Democratic filibuster.

“We’re going to do everything we can to work — as I’ve said before — in a constructive way on an agenda, but it’s going to be an agenda that we can get the votes to pass,” he said.

Thune went on to comment on Trump’s peace agreement with Iran, which has sparked angst among Senate Republicans. He said that he expects senators to be briefed on the “memorandum of understanding” signed by Trump Wednesday early next week.

“I think it’s good for Americans in the sense that opening up the [Strait of Hormuz] and getting the shipping lanes opened is going to make it easier to get things in and out,” Thune said, adding that he needs “to learn more about” a $300 billion reconstruction fund included in the agreement.

Congress

Capitol agenda: GOP gets louder as Trump gets pushier

Published

5 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump has pushed Senate Republicans to the brink of their patience, and they’re not staying quiet about it.

The president in recent weeks has been firing out missives Republicans view as bad decisions that undermine their ability to deliver legislative wins as the midterms approach.

The latest irritation was the early-morning Truth Social post Wednesday, where Trump upended GOP plans to quickly confirm Jay Clayton as the new director of national intelligence and revive a key surveillance bill that the president already derailed earlier this month.

“The president’s timing and communication needs improvement,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said. “I think it’s unfortunate. It throws a kicker into the system when we get going and then we have to readjust.”

Trump’s U-turn on Clayton is one of several fronts where senators have pushed back in recent weeks. Republicans also foiled plans to fund part of his White House ballroom project in a recent immigration enforcement funding deal and forced the Justice Department to abandon plans for a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

Sen. John Kennedy answered “No” when asked if Trump takes senators into consideration: “He wants what he wants, and until he gets it, he just keeps pushing.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, who announced his retirement last year after breaking with Trump on policy legislation, said the dynamic is “undermining our ability to produce the very results he wants.”

The frustrations are also bubbling up as the president is trying to sell an Iran peace deal that a section of his party despises (more on this below).

To Trump, the solution is simple: None of this would matter if Republicans would just follow his lead.

Trump has handed Republicans a midterm playbook they’re unlikely, and unable, to heed: get rid of the filibuster, fire the Senate parliamentarian and pass an election security overhaul known as the SAVE America Act.

“If everyone just follows his lead, follows the blueprints he’s laid out, and runs on the record that he has, then I think we’ll fare well,” said a senior White House official, granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Trump’s controversial demands, however, have been unfortunately timed as lawmakers have been on the precipice of delivering policy goals. His naming of Bill Pulte as acting DNI, for example, blew up a brewing three-year deal on reauthorizing a key piece of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. His announcement of the DOJ payout fund delayed and nearly killed a critical immigration funding bill.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said his relationship with Trump was “fine” amid the public turmoil. He later explained in an interview the White House and Senate Republicans do a “fair amount of coordination.”

“But sometimes you get surprised,” he added. “It’s a business model the White House employs, and we’ve had to figure out how to be adaptable.”

What else we’re watching:

— TRUMP’S IRAN DEAL RACKS UP BIPARTISAN CRITICS: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle panned the details of the memorandum of understanding Trump signed in hopes of ending the conflict in Iran. Sen. Bill Cassidy called the agreement “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.” “Before the war, the strait was open, Iran was being crushed by sanctions, and 13 service members were still alive,” Cassidy posted on X. “Now, 13 Americans are dead, families have paid billions at the pump, sanctions will be lifted, and the bombing has stopped.”

— SENATE GOP COOL ON ‘RECON 3.0’: Senate Republicans have taken no concrete steps toward advancing Trump’s ask for a $350 billion party-line bill to fund the military and notch other conservative policy victories. Senators acknowledge the tough path for marshaling 50 votes behind such a measure on their side of the Capitol just months before the midterms. Members and aides in interviews this week said it was becoming clear any “Reconciliation 3.0” would be a House-led effort.

Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Katherine Tully-McManus, Megan Messerly, Alex Gangitano and Myah Ward contributed to this report.