Congress
Capitol agenda: GOP fears what Tennessee means for 2026
Speaker Mike Johnson held onto a much-needed red seat in Tennessee Tuesday night — but fellow Republicans say this isn’t cause for celebration.
Johnson’s leadership’s team was bracing for a tighter-than-comfortable race in the special election to succeed former Rep. Mark Green.
But the single-digit margin of victory for Matt Van Epps was still a hard pill to swallow after national Republicans pulled out all the stops to rescue their candidate on the final days of the campaign, with the speaker himself traveling to the district to make a final pitch.
“It was too close,” said one House GOP leadership aide.
The surprisingly-tight race between Van Epps and Democrat Aftyn Behn “is a sign that 2026 is going to be a bitch of an election cycle,” one House Republican told Blue Light News. “Republicans can survive if we play team and the Trump administration officials play smart. Neither is certain.”
Retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) warned “the GOP should not ignore” how close it came to losing a district President Donald Trump won by 22 points in 2024 — not to mention the Democratic gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey last month.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) agreed it was a “dangerous” sign for his party. “In a year, it’s going to be a turnout election, and the left will show up,” Cruz said in an interview with Fox Tuesday night. “Hate is a powerful motivator. They hate President Trump.”
This close call in Tennessee adds to the ongoing headaches for Johnson back in Washington.
The speaker is facing a revolt led by a member of his own leadership team, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), over news that the National Defense Authorization Act likely won’t include her provision to require the FBI to notify Congress when it opens investigations into candidates running for federal office.
Stefanik, who is running for governor, accused Johnson Tuesday of blocking the provision and “lying” about it as she builds support from other Republicans to vote against the NDAA. But if Johnson adds the language back in, he risks losing Democratic support that could be crucial for getting the historically-bipartisan package over the finish line.
Johnson could also be on the verge of being undermined by his own members who want a vote on legislation that would ban congressional stock trading. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) officially moved Tuesday to lay the groundwork to circumvent leadership and force that vote, with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) saying he and Luna were “tired” of waiting.
Also on Tuesday: Johnson faced a small rebellion on the House floor over a procedural move involving legislation to regulate name, image and likeness compensation in college sports. That could spell trouble around a final vote coming Wednesday afternoon.
And then there’s health care. Johnson is promising that House Republicans will come up with a health policy proposal. But there’s no sign he’ll be able to bring together moderates like Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who wants to extend the enhanced Obamacare tax credits, and conservatives who are downplaying the effects of letting the subsidies lapse.
As retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Tuesday, midterm backlash for the GOP could be substantial if Republicans don’t do something to prevent premiums going up come January.
What else we’re watching:
— Venezuela fallout: Significant cracks in GOP unity are growing amid Trump’s campaign to kill alleged drug traffickers off the coast of Venezuela.
— Hawley’s health care pitch: Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is rolling out a bill to allow all taxpayers to deduct up to $25,000 in medical expenses. The bill also allows out of pocket expenses on health care premiums to be deducted.
— NDAA latest: House and Senate leaders are engaged in last-minute talks over whether to include new restrictions on U.S. investments in China in the NDAA. It’s one of the last outstanding issues for lawmakers to resolve as they look to release compromise bill text Thursday.
Meredith Lee Hill, Hailey Fuchs, Jordain Carney, Robert King, Alice Miranda Ollstein, Calen Razor and Jasper Goodman contributed to this report.
Congress
Mike Johnson says House can end government shutdown ‘by Tuesday’
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he is confident Congress can end the partial government shutdown “by Tuesday” despite steep opposition from Democrats and turmoil within the GOP conference.
Johnson is under pressure to unite his caucus, with lawmakers raising concerns about funding for the Department of Homeland Security as the Trump administration faces scrutiny over its nationwide immigration crackdown that has at times turned violent.
House Republicans are hoping to take up the $1.2 trillion funding package passed by the Senate on Tuesday following a House Rules Committee meeting Monday. The partial shutdown began early Saturday.
GOP leadership in the House originally hoped to pass the bill under suspension of the rules, an expedited process that requires a two-thirds-majority vote, but Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Johnson on Saturday that Democrats would not help Republicans acquire the necessary support for the spending bill.
“I’m confident that we’ll do it at least by Tuesday,” Johnson said in a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We have a logistical challenge of getting everyone in town, and because of the conversation I had with Hakeem Jeffries, I know that we’ve got to pass a rule and probably do this mostly on our own. I think that’s very unfortunate.”
The Senate voted Friday to pass a compromise spending package after Senate Democrats struck a deal with President Donald Trump to extend DHS funding for two weeks. The move bought Congress more time to work out a compromise on reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement after federal officers fatally shot two people in Minnesota earlier this month.
Speaking to host Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press,” Johnson acknowledged that “there’s been tragedies in Minnesota” — but he also blamed Democrats in the state for “inciting violence,” even as the Trump administration attempts to tamp down pressures in the state.
Johnson praised Trump’s decision to send White House border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis, a step widely seen as a deescalation from the aggressive tactics favored by Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino.
“[Trump] was right to deputize him over that situation,” he said of Homan on NBC. “He has 40 years of experience in Border Patrol and these issues. So I think that this is going to happen, but we need good faith on both sides. Some of these conditions and requests that they’ve made are obviously reasonable and should happen. But others are going to require a lot more negotiation.”
Johnson pushed back in particular on Democratic calls to bar federal immigration enforcement officers from wearing masks and require them to wear identification, telling Fox’s Shannon Bream: “Those two things are conditions that would create further danger.”
He also signaled an unwillingness to negotiate on Democratic demands to tighten requirements for judicial warrants for immigration operations.
Still, House Democrats remained opposed to passing the funding package as is, with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) saying Sunday: “I’m not just a no. I’m a firm no.”
“I just don’t see how in good conscience Democrats can vote for continuing ICE funding when they’re killing American citizens, when there’s no provision to repeal the tripling of the budget,” Khanna said in a Sunday interview with Welker on NBC. “I hope my colleagues will say no.”
Jeffries also signaled Sunday that a wide gap remains between his conference and House Republicans, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the House must reach an agreement on judicial warrants “as a condition of moving forward.”
“The one thing that we’ve said publicly is that we need a robust path toward dramatic reform,” Jeffries said on ABC’s “This Week.” “The administration can’t just talk the talk, they need to walk the walk. That should begin today. Not in two weeks, today.”
Congress
Shutdown likely to continue at least into Tuesday
The partial government shutdown that began early Saturday morning is on track to continue at least into Tuesday, which is the earliest the House is now expected to vote on a $1.2 trillion funding package due to opposition from Democrats and internal GOP strife.
House Republican leaders have scheduled a Monday meeting of the House Rules Committee to prepare the massive Senate-passed spending bill for the floor. According to two people granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, the procedural measure teeing up a final vote would not happen until Tuesday, with final passage following if that is successful.
That’s one day later than GOP leaders had hoped. Their previous plan was to pass the bill with Democratic help under suspension of the rules, a fast-track process requiring a two-thirds-majority vote.
But that plan was complicated by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries telling Speaker Mike Johnson in a private conversation Saturday that Democratic leadership would not help Johnson secure the 70 or so Democratic votes to get the measure over the line, according to the two people and another person granted anonymity to discuss the matter.
The Tuesday plan remains tentative as GOP leaders scramble to navigate tensions inside their own conference, which could make passing the procedural measure difficult. Some conservative hard-liners, for instance, want to attach a sweeping elections bill to the package.
Jeffries said in a MS NOW interview Saturday that Republicans “cannot simply move forward with legislation taking a my way or the highway approach” while noting that House Democrats are set to have “a discussion about the appropriate way forward” in a Sunday evening caucus call — first reported by Blue Light News.
He did not rule out that Democrats might support the Senate-passed spending package, which funds the majority of federal agencies through Sept. 30 while providing a two-week extension for the Department of Homeland Security — including controversial immigration enforcement agencies.
Democrats, Jeffries said, want “a robust, ironclad path to bringing about the type of change that the American people are demanding” in immigration enforcement.
Congress
Here’s what federal programs are headed for a (possibly brief) shutdown
Government funding is set to lapse at midnight Friday for the military and many domestic programs, but cash will continue to flow at a slew of federal agencies Congress already funded.
House leaders are aiming to send a funding package to President Donald Trump Monday, days after the Senate passed the legislation just before the deadline to avert a partial shutdown.
The effect on most federal programs is expected to be minor, and employees who are furloughed would miss just one day of work if the House acts on schedule — which is not assured.
This time, many of the services that have the greatest public impact when shuttered — like farm loans, SNAP food assistance to low-income households and upkeep at national parks — will continue. That’s because Congress already funded some agencies in November and earlier this month, including the departments of Energy, Commerce, Justice, Agriculture, Interior and Veterans Affairs, as well as military construction projects, the EPA, congressional operations, the FDA and federal science programs.
Still, the spending package congressional leaders are trying to clear for Trump’s signature next week contains the vast majority of the funding Congress approves each year to run federal programs, including $839 billion for the military.
Besides the Pentagon, funding will lapse for several major nondefense agencies beginning early Saturday morning.
That includes federal transportation, labor, housing, education and health programs, along with the IRS, independent trade agencies and foreign aid. The departments of Homeland Security, State and Treasury will also be hit by the shutdown.
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