Congress
Capitol agenda: Crapo to answer big megabill questions
Senate Finance is expected to reveal at least some of its tweaks to the House-passed “big, beautiful bill” Monday, but the panel’s text will likely include placeholders for key Medicaid and tax provisions as negotiations continue.
Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) will brief Senate Republicans on his proposals around 6 p.m., three people granted anonymity to share the unannounced plans told Blue Light News.
Expect the state-and-local-tax deduction to be one of the TBDs as GOP senators continue to hash out how much they want to roll back the House’s $40,000 SALT cap.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune teased a “compromise position” on SALT in a pre-taped Fox News Sunday interview. He said there “isn’t a high level of interest” among senators to follow the House in quadrupling the $10,000 limit that’s in law today.
Thune insisted that President Donald Trump’s tax priorities — no taxes on tips and overtime — will be “incorporated” in the Senate’s version of the megabill, despite Senate Republicans’ desire to trim them in favor of making business tax incentives permanent.
A person granted anonymity to discuss the negotiations tells Blue Light News that Senate Republicans still plan to make those business tax provisions permanent — a win for Thune, Crapo and other Finance members.
With the Senate out Thursday and Friday, this shortened week will be key for sending the bill to Trump’s desk by July 4. The Senate parliamentarian will have bipartisan discussions with committees, and staffers anticipate she will start issuing rulings now that nearly every committee has released text.
A few other megabill developments:
— Trump and Rand Paul talk it out: Paul told NBC News that the two spoke Saturday, after Trump spent weeks attacking the Kentucky Republican for signaling he’d vote against the bill. Paul, who has objected to the bill’s debt ceiling increase, said he told Trump he’s “not an absolute no” and that the two are “trying to get to a better place in our conversations.” But he also indicated that Republicans are spending little energy in really trying to win him over.
— What Mark Meadows is doing behind the scenes: The former House Freedom Caucus chair and one-time Trump chief of staff is operating as a sounding board for conservatives as they try to hang onto some of their biggest priorities in the megabill. Meadows huddled with House and Senate hard-liners last week, and is in regular contact with House Freedom Caucus members.
“Mark is trying to help get a deal done,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) says.
What else we’re watching:
— Where the megabill Medicaid negotiations end up: Senate GOP leaders are getting some outside help as they try to find a landing spot on the megabill’s Medicaid revamp and the provider tax, which several states use to help fund their Medicaid programs. Hospital associations from 13 states sent a letter to Thune and Crapo, a copy of which was obtained by Blue Light News, urging them to “move forward with the carefully negotiated Medicaid provider tax-related and Medicaid directed payment program provisions in the House-passed budget reconciliation bill.”
— Senator security briefing: Senators will receive a classified security briefing Tuesday morning from the chamber’s sergeant at arms and the Capitol Police after a Saturday shooting killed and injured Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses. The internal announcement Sunday from Majority Leader Thune about the bipartisan briefing came after GOP senators and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer requested one.
Mia McCarthy and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
BETHLEHEM, Pennsylvania — Speaker Mike Johnson defended President Donald Trump’s use of taxpayer funded political-themed ads ahead of the election, but he said it was “good” that MAGA Inc. would pay for them going forward.
Johnson said Tuesday that he’s only seen one of the Trump ads and that it “looked like a public service announcement.”
“It was talking about America’s greatness and the economy coming back, and it wasn’t a plea to vote for anybody. It was just — it was pro Americana,” Johnson told Blue Light News during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania.
But he added: “If the Super PAC’s funding them, that’s good.”
Trump said Monday that he or his aligned super PAC would pay for the series of taxpayer-funded ads featuring him in the final few weeks of the midterms. His decision came after bipartisan backlash, including from some GOP candidates like Brinker Harding in Nebraska’s 2nd District publicly broke with the president and said they shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer money.
Still, asked if Trump should refund taxpayers the money already spent on the ads, Johnson demurred. He said previous Democratic administrations have run PSAs as well, though Democrats argue these ads violate federal laws against using taxpayer money for “publicity or propaganda purposes.”
“Look, they’re making their decisions on funding campaigns and the content of all of it,” Johnson said of the president’s team.
“I’m going to tell you the president is deeply vested,” Johnson added, noting Trump was out on the campaign trail for Republicans.
Johnson spoke alongside Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.) during a law enforcement event in the perennial bellwether of Pennsylvania’s 7th District. He called Mackenzie’s race one of the “top three in the country” and warned it would be “enormously expensive.”
He later argued that Democrats, if they win the House majority, would roll back GOP work on the economy and “empower our enemies around the world at the worst possible time.”
“That would roil the markets … if Democrats turned Congress into lawfare on steroids,” Johnson said.
Pennsylvania is the first of seven states that Johnson plans to visit this week as he continues his midterm campaign blitz.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he plans to stay on the court through next year, brushing aside speculation that he could retire early and let President Donald Trump fill his seat after the election but before a new Congress is sworn in next year.
“I intend to stick around through this term,” Alito, 76, said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “I made that decision many months ago.”
The Supreme Court began its new term on Monday, which will last through next June.
Alito, the second-oldest justice on the bench, was in the news last week after telling CBS News that he considered retiring this year and will do so again in 2027.
His comments come as the fight over control of the Senate is in a dead heat. Democrats would have to flip at least four seats, but recent polls show several races, including in states Trump carried easily two years ago, remain competitive.
Several Senate Democratic candidates are already running on the prospect of filling a seat on the Supreme Court or, at least, denying Trump’s ability to do so. Senate Republicans successfully blocked a Democratic nominee in 2016, allowing Trump to fill the seat after he came into the White House.
“Our race to decide Ohio’s next Senator could not only determine control of the U.S. Senate, but also who fills a lifetime seat on the highest court in the land,” Sherrod Brown, the Democratic nominee in Ohio, wrote in a blog post Monday. “Ohio’s next senator could be our first line of defense against another partisan Supreme Court Justice — or rubber stamp a Trump nominee.”
John Thune has money on his mind in the final stretch before the midterms.
The Senate majority leader, in an exclusive conversation Monday with Blue Light News on the campaign trail, said funding for Republicans has dominated his recent conversations with President Donald Trump and his staff as the party tries to divvy up its spending to hold onto seats in closer-than-expected races while picking up spots in other states.
“I think the president is sincerely interested in trying to do whatever he can to help the team,” Thune said. “You know, some of the states have gotten very expensive.”
Thune’s focus highlights the emerging story defining the 2026 midterms: Is there enough Republican money, and can it be spent fast enough to counter surging Democratic campaigns and a lackluster national environment for the GOP?
Thune was at a news conference Monday with Senate GOP candidate Michele Tafoya in Minnesota — a state where the party increasingly sees a pickup opportunity after Democrats nominated progressive Peggy Flanagan.
Minnesota is one possible state where Trump could deploy his $400 million war chest, Thune said. But he was vague when asked about Republicans’ potential commitment to the race. He named Michigan and New Hampshire as other GOP pickup opportunities.
Republicans are simultaneously having to play defense in a growing list of red states, like Iowa, Kansas and Alaska. And the Thune-aligned Senate Leadership Fund recently pulled back spending in North Carolina — essentially surrendering a GOP-held seat to Democrats — while increasing its spending in Kansas.
Thune referred to the super PAC’s North Carolina decision as a “pause” in financial support.
And then there’s Texas, where Republicans are deploying hundreds of millions of dollars as they struggle to drag GOP nominee Ken Paxton over the finish line. Thune said “dedicated donors” focused on Texas have prevented the need to siphon funding away from other states.
Thune declined Monday to put odds on the GOP’s chances of keeping Senate control, but repeated, “I think we can keep the majority.”
The results may carry personal stakes for him, as he is expected to run for leader again. And while no other senator has raised their hand against him, some conservatives have questioned whether Trump would publicly turn on Thune if Republicans lose.
“I can’t control that,” Thune said, adding that the Republican conference would ultimately make the decision. “What the president does or doesn’t do … you just move forward and let the chips fall where they may.”
What else we’re watching:
— THUNE CHECKS TRUMP’S DAYLIGHT SAVING ZEAL — Thune also said Monday there is no “consensus” yet on Congress establishing permanent daylight saving time — even as Trump ramps up pressure to pass it. “The president feels strongly on it like he does a lot of issues,” Thune said. “It’s something we’re having conversations about, but there’s no clear path forward or consensus on it yet.” Thune also made clear that while Trump singled out Sen. Tom Cotton for scrutiny, opposition to the bill — which would lead to late winter sunrises in some parts of the country — runs deeper than one senator.
— BUCKS FOR BABIES PLAN DRAWS MURRAY IRE — Top Democratic appropriator Patty Murray is blasting a Trump administration plan to reward communities with high birth and marriage rates with a bigger share of federal transit money. “Tying funding for transit projects to marriage rates and how many babies a woman has is the sort of bizarre and dystopian idea you’d expect in a TV show, not actual policy put forth by the U.S. government — yet here we are,” Murray said in a statement. The Federal Transit Administration wants to revamp a multibillion-dollar program that helps state and local authorities fund infrastructure projects such as rail improvements and new bus lanes. The agency opened public feedback on the plan this month.
Jordain Carney and Sam Ogozalek contributed to this report.
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