Congress
Capitol agenda: Congress leaves health mess for January
Congress is about to leave town for the holidays — and put off their health care troubles until January.
The House and Senate will take their last votes of the year Thursday, officially allowing Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire Dec. 31. The House passed its GOP-led health care package Wednesday night, though the Senate has no plans to take it up.
Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to work “much more” on health care in the new year, after moderate Republicans joined a Democrat-led discharge petition for a clean three-year extension of the subsidies. Johnson said “it’s inevitable” that the discharge petition comes up after lawmakers return.
“We’ll deal with it in January,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters Wednesday. “These things take a lot of twists and turns. Just this week, we’ve had a lot of twists and turns.”
The Democrats’ discharge petition is a shell bill, which means lawmakers could add Senate-passed language to it — though it’s not clear what could reach 60 votes in the Senate. GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania said the plan for now is to send the clean three-year extension.
Meanwhile, moderate rank-and-file members in both chambers are trying to come up with a last-minute consensus plan that could pass the House and Senate. But nothing could come together until January, when Congress will have less than a month until the next funding cliff.
At the center of these health care talks is Fitzpatrick, who is working behind the scenes to get an ACA fix even after the subsidy expiration date.
“I think it’s a mistake,” Fitzpatrick told Blue Light News of allowing the credits to lapse. “I’m going to exhaust every single option I have to get this done.”
It’s unclear if they can pull it off. The lawmakers already failed to secure an extension before the expiration date — it’ll be much harder to revive them after.
In the meantime: Interest groups on both sides are diving furiously into the blame game over the subsidies lapse. It’s an early test of the messaging battle over health care — an issue that could define the 2026 midterms.
What else we’re watching:
— Appropriations movement: Senate GOP leaders have won over all the Republicans who objected to moving a five-bill package of government funding measures this week. Now it’s Democrats’ turn to check for holds on their side for the “minibus,” which contains the Labor-HHS-Education, Defense, Transportation-HUD, Commerce-Justice-Science and Interior-Environment bills.
— Stock trading talks: Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) expect to meet with Johnson Thursday to discuss a ban on congressional stock trading. So far, their discharge petition is nowhere close to the 218 signees necessary to force a vote in the House.
— A fight over broadband money: Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) will introduce a bill Thursday that would give states access to an estimated $20 to $22 billion in broadband deployment funding — a proposal at odds with efforts from Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) that would claw back the funding entirely.
Benjamin Guggenheim, Meredith Lee Hill, Nicholas Wu, Amanda Chu, Jennifer Scholtes and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this report misidentified Ted Cruz’s state affiliation.
Rep. Max Miller issued a subpoena to his former father-in-law and fellow Ohio Republican, Sen. Bernie Moreno, in the latest escalation of a long-running family legal drama.
Pamela MacAdams, an attorney for Miller, reported to the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Monday that three subpoenas were served in Miller’s divorce case, according to court records. A person with knowledge of the subpoenas granted anonymity to comment on them said that two were sent to Moreno and his wife, Bridget.
Their daughter, Emily Moreno, was married to Miller, and the two remain embroiled in a nasty legal battle.
Spokespeople for Miller, Emily Moreno and Bernie Moreno did not immediately return requests for comment. TMZ first reported on the subpoenas.
Miller is seeking reelection in a competitive district, and his campaign has been marred by accusations of domestic abuse against Emily Moreno and their daughter. Miller has repeatedly denied the allegations and chose to remain in the race despite other Republican lawmakers pressuring him to withdraw his campaign.
The House Ethics Committee, which began an inquiry into Miller after Miller asked to be investigated, is currently in a preelection blackout period. During that period, which will continue through the midterms, the Ethics Committee doesn’t take any action against sitting members who could return next Congress.
Congress
Trump declares $1B canceled in ‘pocket rescission’ in another affront to Congress’ funding power
President Donald Trump informed congressional leaders Friday that he has unilaterally canceled almost $1 billion without Congress’ consent — employing a budget maneuver many lawmakers consider illegal.
In a move that will almost certainly set up an ugly government funding battle after the midterms, Trump has again claimed the power to execute a so-called “pocket rescission” to nix money Congress has already enacted. The money his administration will claw back is for for immigration services, support to foreign countries, education programs, health research efforts and assistance for businesses owned by minorities.
By law, the president is allowed to send Congress a request to rescind federal funding, then withhold that money for 45 days while lawmakers consider whether to approve, reject or ignore it. Trump administration officials also argue they have the power to cancel funding without any congressional action by sending Congress a rescission request with less than 45 days left in the fiscal year. The argument is that the money automatically gets canceled on Sept. 30, when funding lapses at the end of the fiscal year.
Last year, Trump canceled $4.9 billion in foreign aid.
The Senate’s top Republican appropriator, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, immediately blasted the move as illegal, saying in a statement Friday night that “any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.”
“This move shows that OMB intentionally withheld these funds for months to execute this unlawful cancellation of appropriations that were approved on a bipartisan basis and signed into law,” Collins added, pledging to work with other lawmakers “to address these illegal actions.”
Collins and other appropriators have already been on high alert in recent days, pressing multiple agencies about funding officials have yet to spend ahead of the expiration date.
Democrats are finally catching on to how to talk to young male voters in the lead-up to the midterms, but the party can still up its game, one battleground senator and potential 2028er said Friday.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) has been one of his party’s most outspoken critics on its handling of outreach to young men, who swung right and helped deliver the White House and both chambers of Congress to Republicans in 2024.
The party is now “definitely moving in the right direction,” Gallego said Friday.
“Like back in the day, I was like the only one,” putting out positions on men, Gallego said at a Washington event on young American men. “Now, like, it seems like everyone every week is coming out with a new position, new idea, which is great.”
Gallego has criticized Democrat’s failure to highlight mens’ struggles and their tendency to over-police mens’ ideas. But there are signs the political winds have shifted in his party’s favor.
A new Cygnal poll released with the event of men ages 18-30 who say they’re the most determined to vote revealed Democrats’ generic ballot lead over Republicans at 57%-40%, Blue Light News reported. The poll also said nearly 40 percent of respondents said they feel their lives are off track.
“We need to take the opportunity to invest in that portion of this country, to say that we care about them and actually try to change the trajectory of what’s happening with men in this country,” Gallego said at the symposium.
Still, the path for specific legislation targeting the needs of this demographic faces an incredibly tight calendar this Congress and is uncertain in the political landscape of next year.
A proposal from Gallego and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) to establish a men’s health office within the Department of Health and Human Services, for example, has not advanced. Nor has bipartisan legislation from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also spoke at the event, targeting education outcomes, college investment transparency and dyslexic student support.
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