Congress

Capitol agenda: Big changes for the ‘big, beautiful bill’

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2025

Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” appears on a glidepath to passing the House Thursday morning after GOP leaders rolled out a slew of eleventh-hour changes to appease holdouts from across their conference’s competing factions. A final vote is expected soon.

Catch up quick: After a more than 21-hour Rules Committee markup — followed by several procedural votes forced by Democrats as delay tactics — the House finally adopted the rule governing floor debate for the revised GOP megabill at 2:40 a.m. Thursday. The largely party-line 217-212 vote had just one Republican defection: Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.), who made it clear he was a “no” from the start.

“If something’s beautiful, you don’t do it after midnight,” Massie said on the floor in the wee hours Thursday.

Dropping just one GOP vote on the rule is a good sign for Speaker Mike Johnson as he navigates his slim majority toward final passage. Johnson was confident early Thursday he had the votes, but couched: “You never know ‘til the final vote tally.”

Johnson flipped at least one holdout overnight: Rep. Ralph Norman (S.C.), who told Blue Light News that voting for the party-line bill to enact President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda is “the right thing to do.”

But House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (Md.) said he was “not a ‘yes’ yet” as of early Thursday, and Rep. Chip Roy (Texas) also appeared on the fence, telling reporters around 3 a.m. that the changes GOP leaders made overnight are “better” but “could still be better.”

Barring last-minute hiccups, the speaker looks on track to hit his self-imposed Memorial Day megabill deadline, thanks to a raft of changes aimed at quelling rebellions from fiscal hawks to swing-seat moderates. Hard-liners got more Medicaid cuts and clean-energy rollbacks. Blue-state Republicans got a bigger boost for the state-and-local-tax deduction.

Here are some of the most significant adjustments, and read up on some other key tweaks:

MEDICAID — Work requirements would kick in at the end of 2026, rather than the start of 2029 as initially proposed. There would be financial incentives for states not to expand coverage to people who are still near the poverty line but have higher incomes than traditional enrollees. And the bill would bar coverage for gender-affirming care for adults under the program, not just minors as initially proposed.

SALT — The cap on the state-and-local-tax deduction would quadruple to $40,000 from $10,000, but be phased out for taxpayers making more than $500,000. The $40,000 deduction cap and $500,000 income limit would increase by 1 percent through 2033. The cap is up from the $30,000 limit GOP leaders initially proposed.

TAX CREDITS — The revised bill would weaken the clean electricity investment and production tax credits to a point where clean-energy developers say they may be rendered largely unusable. Projects would need to “commence construction” within 60 days of the bill’s enactment to qualify for tax credits and be placed in service by the end of 2028. But Republicans did soften rollbacks of credits for advanced nuclear reactors.

What else we’re watching:

— CRA debate: Senate Majority Leader John Thune managed to avoid directly overruling the parliamentarian late Wednesday night as part of the party’s effort to nix California’s EPA waivers. He did so by effectively kicking the question about what rules qualify for consideration under the Congressional Review Act back to the Senate, which voted in favor of changing the definition along party lines. The chamber is set to vote to repeal the waivers Thursday.

— Qatari jet plane controversy: Thune says he believes lawmakers will get “more information” soon about Qatar’s gift to Trump of a $400 million luxury jet for use as Air Force One. The administration is “prepared to brief us on that,” Thune said.

— More Library of Congress fallout: Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) is calling on lawmakers to take charge in appointing the heads of major legislative-branch agencies, including the Library of Congress and Government Accountability Office, following attempted Trump administration meddling. It’s the latest sign of growing GOP pushback to the Trump administration’s inroads into agencies traditionally under legislative purview.

Jordain Carney and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

Senate confirms 74 Trump nominees

Published

8 hours ago

August 7, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans confirmed dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees Friday, just before they leave for a five-week congressional recess.

Senators voted 51-47 to approve officials at the Departments of Defense, Energy, State and other agencies.

They included David Cummins to head the Transportation Security Administration, Cameron Hamilton to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Hal Duncan to be OMB deputy director and Francis Brooke to be Treasury deputy secretary. Among the group were several ambassadors, including former Rep. David Brat to be ambassador to Australia.

Senate Republicans changed the chamber’s rules last year to be able to confirm lower-level nominees as a package instead of having to hold a vote on each.

After finishing the expedited procedure Friday, Senate Republicans estimate they will only have a small number of civilian nominees awaiting confirmation.

Congress

Trump says voters are mad at other Republicans, not him, as midterms approach

Published

12 hours ago

August 7, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump said voters may seek to punish Republicans — but not him — in the November midterm elections, as GOP lawmakers sweat that affordability concerns and the war in Iran could mean Democrats flip the House and perhaps even the Senate.

“They’re angry at Republicans,” Trump said in an interview with Punchbowl News that aired Friday. “But they’re not angry at me. They’re not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans.”

The GOP faces the prospect of heavy losses this November, as gas and grocery prices remain stubbornly high due in part to the White House’s five-month-long war in Iran. The administration’s guidance on campaign trail messaging has been “tone deaf,” House Republicans fear.

Meanwhile, the president’s approval rating has tumbled since he returned to the Oval Office last year, and even his biggest supporters have grown frustrated over his Middle East war.

And with a messy, jam-packed slate of primaries now all but in the rearview mirror, Democrats are determined to go on offense. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has 58 seats on its midterm target map that stretches into redder territory — while still facing an uphill climb to take the Senate.

Trump has a massive war chest at his disposal. His MAGA Inc. super PAC reached $400 million in June. The president told Punchbowl he plans to use it to “help Republicans,” but he stressed that he faces no pressure in this campaign cycle.

“I said to somebody, ‘Wait a minute, you don’t understand, I won,’” Trump said, referencing his 2024 presidential election victory. “I’m not campaigning.”

The biggest issue for Republicans this year? That Trump himself is not on the ballot, he said.

“If I don’t run, will those people go out and vote? And that’s the one thing I can’t tell, I’m going to ask them to,” he said.

Congress

Capitol agenda: Senators find their exit strategy

Published

15 hours ago

August 7, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate’s plan to get out of town is coming together.

Majority Leader John Thune teed up a final vote on the Russia sanctions legislation for this morning, as well as a confirmation vote for dozens of nominees and a procedural step on a stopgap funding bill.

But there’s still a number of questions that need to be answered if Thune wants to adjourn for recess by the end of the day:

— BLANCHE’S FATE: President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general needs to secure at least one more vote to be confirmed before the break.

It looks like it’s all up to Sen. Bill Cassidy after Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced Friday morning she is opposed. Thune indicated Thursday night Blanche’s fate was uncertain and that leaders were “still working to get the final vote.”

— SAVE AMERICA ACT: Thune said to expect a vote related to the SAVE America Act as well as an initial vote on a budget blueprint for a third party-line spending bill — which includes elements of Trump’s election security legislation.

The decision to hold the budget vote comes after two Republican senators, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told Blue Light News Thursday they believed Sen. Mike Lee or another member of the GOP’s right flank would have otherwise forced a vote on the framework.

But as we’ve previously reported, Republicans don’t believe the budget resolution has the votes within the conference to be adopted — meaning the expected initial vote today will fail to clear a simple majority threshold.

And it’s not clear Lee or like-minded senators will be satisfied and allow for lawmakers to adjourn for recess without more action on the elections measure. The senator has made similar threats over the past year but has never followed through.

— TIME AGREEMENT: GOP leaders need to strike an agreement to finish other business, including passing the stopgap government funding bill and advancing a college sports bill.

At this point, any single senator could still object to expediting the chamber’s agenda, which would derail Thune’s goal of getting members out of town by the end of the day.

“We’ve been having these conversations with Democrats trying to figure out what’s the path,” Thune said.

“We’ll see how it goes,” he added.

What else we’re watching:

— GOP EXPECTS CRYPTO BILL DELAY: The Senate will leave for the chamber’s August recess without holding a vote on a landmark cryptocurrency bill, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Thune may still file cloture on the bill, but it likely won’t come to the floor until lawmakers return to Washington next month, two of the people said.

— COLLEGE SPORTS BILL STUMBLES: Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell’s legislation to impose new guardrails on college sports is looking increasingly unlikely to hit the floor this week. Eleven senators objected to expedited consideration of the Protect College Sports Act after Thune filed cloture earlier this week, two people familiar with discussions told Blue Light News.

— OGLES OUSTED: GOP House leaders lost an incumbent — and a perennial headache — with Rep. Andy Ogles’ primary defeat in Tennessee Thursday night. His loss to former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher represents the second Trump-endorsed candidate to lose a primary this week.

Jordain Carney, Mia McCarthy, Andrew Howard and Jacob Wendler contributed to this report.