Congress
Capitol agenda: GOP dreams face harsh legislative reality
The White House’s hopes for big legislative wins in the coming months are about to crash into the reality of the congressional GOP.
Deep divisions remain among Republicans over how to address spiking health care costs — and whether they should jam through a potential solution with a party-line vote in the Senate. And, of course, Democrats have little interest in helping them out.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s willingness to go to war against Republicans isn’t helping party unity.
The GOP rift is playing out ahead of the end-of-year expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. While vulnerable moderates want GOP leaders to extend the tax credits, Trump and some conservatives are calling for an entirely new framework, like an overhaul of health savings accounts.
Trump’s top political aide, James Blair, on Tuesday raised the possibility of a megabill sequel — pursuing GOP health care priorities through the party-line reconciliation process, which lets Republicans skirt a Democratic filibuster. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Tuesday that Republican leaders are talking to members about the possibility to see if “consensus forms.”
That pitch is being rejected by Republicans who remember how excruciating it was to pass the megabill this summer. They worry another attempt could undermine efforts to work across the aisle on matters like government funding.
“I don’t want another one-sided, partisan reconciliation bill right now — I want us to legislate,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who cast a decisive vote in the first package. “Let’s be legislators here. Reconciliation is, yes, it’s a tool for us, but it’s a partisan tool and look at how divided we are right now. … That’s not the way to go.”
Any attempt at partisan legislation will be complicated by the fact that Republicans are increasingly willing to break from Trump. (Case in point: Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.)
Speaker Mike Johnson, for his part, acknowledged a lesson that could be crucial for the president to grasp: Today’s enemy could be tomorrow’s indispensable ally.
“I work on unity in the party, and my encouragement of everybody is to get together,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to do all that in order to deliver for the people.”
What else we’re watching:
— House floor action: The House is expected to vote Wednesday to repeal a provision in the shutdown-ending deal that could allow eight GOP senators to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation for having their electronic records seized during the Biden administration. And while there’s bipartisan support in both chambers to roll back the provision, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who secured the language, is standing by it.
— Notable Wednesday hearings: Paragon Health Institute’s Brian Blase, one of the fiercest critics of extending the enhanced ACA subsidies, will testify at a 10 a.m. Senate Finance hearing on rising health care costs. There’s also a 10 a.m. House Administration hearing on congressional insider trading, which is happening as pressure builds for House GOP leadership to take up a bipartisan bill banning the practice.
— What’s next for appropriations: Talks are set to ramp up on the other nine spending bills that weren’t included in last week’s shutdown-ending minibus deal. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) has meetings teed up Wednesday morning to huddle with his subcommittee chairs, then with all House Republican appropriators.
Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Hailey Fuchs and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
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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