Congress
Capitol agenda: GOP wants to move past the SAVE America Act
Congressional Republicans aren’t allowing President Donald Trump’s SAVE America Act ultimatum to uproot their legislative agenda ahead of the midterms.
Lawmakers made clear Tuesday they’re eager to wash their hands of the partisan elections legislation the day after Trump told lawmakers he needs that bill on his desk before he agrees to sign anything else.
House Republicans gathered for their retreat in Doral, Florida, quickly called this a Senate problem, then continued to talk about their policy ambitions for the remainder of 2026. Now Senate GOP leaders are moving fast to show Trump that passage of the SAVE America Act isn’t feasible — in hopes they, too, can move on to other things.
— Senate show vote: Senate Majority Leader John Thune is expected to bring the GOP election bill to the floor next week subject to the chamber’s 60-vote threshold — guaranteeing its eventual failure given united Democratic opposition.
He’ll do so despite an intensifying pressure campaign from the likes of Trump, fellow Senate Republicans and Elon Musk to force a “talking filibuster,” where Democrats would have to hold the floor continuously if they want to block the bill.
“The votes aren’t there for a talking filibuster,” Thune told reporters Tuesday. “I’m the one who has to be the clear-eyed realist about what we can achieve.”
The majority leader said senators will “continue to convey” the unsolvable math problem to the president and take the heat as it comes.
“It just kind of comes with the territory,” Thune told Blue Light News. “You just roll with it, you know. It’s the times in which we live.”
And in the end, Thune is hoping Trump will relent and agree to sign other legislation, including a bipartisan housing affordability package that 89 senators voted to advance Tuesday afternoon.
— House has its own plans: Meanwhile in Doral, House Republicans are on the final day of their annual policy summit hammering out their election-year legislative goals. An updated SAVE America Act, Trump’s “No. 1 priority,” isn’t at the top of that list.
Speaker Mike Johnson and other top GOP leaders refused to commit to passing the elections overhaul through the House a third time with the changes Trump wants, which include a near-total mail-voting ban many Republicans oppose. Instead, leaders outlined a series of targets that could advance with some Democratic support — like a reauthorization of key water projects, a highway infrastructure package and a slimmed-down farm bill.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) raised the need for a new version of the House GOP’s signature immigration bill with changes to the guest worker visa program. An earlier iteration of that package passed in 2023, when it was known colloquially as H.R. 2, but has been stalled since Republicans regained its governing trifecta last year.
Leaders also made clear they’re not ruling out passing a second megabill through the budget reconciliation process, but members are poised to head back to Washington with no consensus on what such a bill could include. Many Republicans remain convinced it would be a waste of time to pursue another party-line package given the House GOP’s threadbare, fractious majority.
What else we’re watching:
— Key Epstein deposition: The House Oversight Committee will depose Jeffrey Epstein’s accountant Richard Kahn Wednesday as part of the congressional investigation into the late convicted sex offender. The panel is poised to grill Kahn, a co-executor of Epstein’s estate, on how Epstein accumulated his wealth.
— CBO director testifies: A Senate Finance subcommittee will hold a 3 p.m. hearing on the fiscal outlook for the next decade, featuring testimony from Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel.
Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Mia McCarthy and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.
Rep. Bill Foster is leaning against challenging Rep. Maxine Waters for the top Democratic spot on the House Financial Services Committee, according to two people with knowledge of his thinking who were granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
The Illinois Democrat has been considering a bid to topple Waters but has not made a final decision, the people said. The timeline for him doing so is unclear.
Democratic Rep. Sean Casten, also from Illinois, told Waters earlier this month that he plans to run against her, likely teeing up a major fight over the Financial Services role, which the California Democrat has held since 2013.
Most Financial Services Democrats on the committee have publicly backed Waters for the role.
Foster, who was first elected in 2008, previously discussed with Waters ways to reform the committee that would give subcommittee chairs more power to shape the panel’s agenda. A physicist with a doctorate, Foster is currently the top Democrat on a House Financial Services Financial Institutions Subcommittee.
A Foster spokesperson declined to comment.
Senate Democrats’ top super PAC is pushing into South Carolina — just five days before the election.
Senate Majority PAC is putting $750,000 into digital ads to boost Democrat Annie Andrews, who they see as in an increasingly competitive position against GOP Sen. Darline Graham. The first spot could air as soon as Friday, and is set to attack Graham over rising costs and position Andrews as a fighter against corruption, according to plans shared first with Blue Light News.
The Chuck Schumer-aligned group’s investment comes as public polling shows a tightening race in the closing stretch. Republicans say they’re confident in Graham’s ability to hold the seat, in part because the GOP-aligned Senate Leadership Fund recently pledged to spend at least $5 million in the race. President Donald Trump has already held two rallies in the state to boost his hand-picked senator.
“South Carolina is tightening, and Republicans know it — you don’t send $5 million and the president to a state if you’re not nervous,” SMP spokesperson Lauren French said in a statement.
“Darline Graham is an empty suit who was handed a Senate seat and has no idea what to do with it,” French added. “Annie Andrews will lower costs on gas, groceries, insurance, and housing. In a race this close, a late infusion of cash can make the difference, and that’s why we’re in.”
Representatives for Andrews and Graham did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the investment.
Even with the extensive outside support, Graham’s campaign has been weighed down by voter fatigue after several contentious primaries, questions about her political inexperience and an increasingly difficult national environment for Republicans.
The South Carolina spending marks Democrats’ newest late-stage push into deep-red Senate races as they look to leverage Americans’ frustrations with the cost of living and Trump’s agenda to keep expanding the map. If Andrews wins next week, it would mark the first time South Carolina elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998.
Strong showings by former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina and Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia have allowed SMP to draw down its spending in those erstwhile battlegrounds while pumping millions of dollars into traditionally red territory like Texas, Kansas and Mississippi.
The winner of next week’s Oklahoma Senate race will be able to take office immediately after the election, effectively ending Republican Sen. Alan Armstrong’s appointment before the current session of the Senate concludes, the state attorney general ruled on Thursday.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s ruling on Thursday could pave the way for Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), the heavy favorite in the race and a Trump ally, to be seated by early November.
Armstrong, a former energy executive, was appointed in March to temporarily fill the seat vacated by Markwayne Mullin, now Department of Homeland Security secretary.
Both Armstrong and Hern submitted memorandums to the state attorney general’s office in disagreement over when Armstrong’s appointment ends, with Hern arguing he should be able to take office before the beginning of the next Congress.
“Oklahoma law and the U.S. Constitution point to the same answer: the voters fill this seat,” Drummond said in a statement. “Oklahomans will choose their next senator at the polls on Nov. 3, and that person will be eligible to take office once the election is certified. This opinion gives the Governor and the Legislature clear guidance on how to proceed.”
This November’s election is for a full six-year term in the Senate. Mullin, a former member of the House, initially won a 2022 special election to complete the term of the Sen. Jim Inhofe, who retired early in January 2023.
Armstrong was not a candidate to replace Mullin; Oklahoma law bars Senate appointees from seeking election to a full term.
Drummond’s formal opinion, addressed to Gov. Kevin Stitt and Oklahoma state Senate President pro tempore Lonnie Paxton, effectively sides with Hern and points to a state statute, which directs the governor to appoint a person “to serve in such office until a successor is elected.”
“The Governor has no discretion to decline or delay certifying the election,” Drummond added.
A spokesperson for Armstrong’s office said they are reviewing the state attorney general’s opinion, and “in the meantime, Senator Armstrong’s full focus remains on passing comprehensive permitting reform to lower utility prices, grow the economy, and get America building again.”
Hern did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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