Congress
Capitol agenda: House eyes summer for another party-line bill
House Republicans are aiming to finish before August another party-line bill that they hope will persuade voters to keep them in power in midterm elections.
House GOP leaders and a group of GOP members in closed-door meetings Tuesday discussed passing a third reconciliation bill by the end of July, five people with direct knowledge of the conversations told Blue Light News. The third party-line bill would be in addition to the current immigration enforcement spending bill moving through the Senate.
Speaker Mike Johnson told Blue Light News as he left the House floor Tuesday “I do” think Republicans can meet that timeline. Rep. August Pfluger, who has pushed for the additional party-line bill as chair of the Republican Study Committee, said he was optimistic it could be done.
“We have achieved every objective and goal that we set out to do,” he told Blue Light News. “And we will achieve this one as well.”
Plenty of obstacles stand in the path to their plan. One senior Republican noted there are just over 30 legislative days that the House is in session before summer recess, which begins July 23.
Both chambers would also have to approve an identical budget resolution, meaning the fractious House and Senate would have to agree on broad outlines for the bill — a process that took months during last year’s drafting of the GOP’s megabill.
The party also has yet to finalize its second reconciliation bill focused on immigration enforcement. The legislation has become mired in debate over a provision that could allow up to $1 billion in spending for the Secret Service and security for President Donald Trump’s ballroom project, which polls show is deeply unpopular with voters.
That ballroom spending debate has only added to calls from members saying the party needs to do more to address cost-of-living matters before voters go to the polls in the fall.
Some members argue Republicans have struggled to sell to the public the “big, beautiful bill” they passed last year. And more recently, House and Senate Republicans are facing divisions over a gas-tax holiday being demanded by Trump, not to mention housing and energy permitting bills that have stalled for months.
That set of overlapping internal battles — and rising inflation numbers — are underscoring the party’s political peril. Another reconciliation bill, which Republicans can pass without Democratic support, is seen as crucial to efforts to show voters they can deliver affordability solutions.
“Well, do we pass it? Or do we try?” Sen. Rick Scott said. “I know we’re going to try.”
What else we’re watching:
— GOP LEADERS LUKEWARM ON GAS TAX HOLIDAY: Trump’s plan to suspend the federal gasoline tax is getting a reality check from GOP leaders wary of taking a political gamble with relatively little payoff for Americans at the pump. A day after Trump’s call to action and more than two months into a Middle East war that has caused fuel prices to surge, congressional leaders were not throwing any weight behind legislative proposals, preferring instead to wait and see whether Trump will make a more direct appeal to Congress.
— WARSH POISED FOR RECORD LOW BIPARTISAN SUPPORT: The Senate’s vote Wednesday on Kevin Warsh’s nomination to lead the Federal Reserve is poised to be the most partisan of any Fed chair ever. While some Democrats say they were impressed with Warsh in their private meetings, few are expected to back him, largely because they think he’s doing Trump’s bidding.
Meredith Lee Hill, Kelsey Brugger, Jordain Carney, Andres Picon, Pavan Acharya, Amelia Davidson, Jasper Goodman and Sam Sutton contributed to this report.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted Republicans Monday for being “pro-data center without any restraints,” making his strongest rebuke yet of the tech industry’s massive infrastructure buildout as it becomes a key issue in midterm campaigns.
“Donald Trump and Republicans are divorced from reality,” Jeffries said at a Capitol Hill news conference. “They think that the affordability crisis is a hoax. Donald Trump and Republicans have made clear they love inflation. Donald Trump and Republicans have told the American people directly, ‘We don’t think about your personal financial situation.’”
“So the Republicans — it should come as no surprise — are pro-data center without any restraints,” he continued.
His criticism of Republicans’ approach to artificial intelligence and the infrastructure needed to power it comes amid a groundswell of voter frustration in key battleground districts about the impact of data centers on their communities.
Jeffries told Blue Light News earlier this year protecting consumers from rising electricity costs associated with the data center boom would be a priority on Democrats’ should they win the majority.
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social Monday that communities that reject data centers will end up “backwards and poor.”
Jeffries specifically hit Republicans for policies embedded in their sweeping 2025 tax-cuts-focused domestic policy bill.
“House Republicans voted to preempt state and local authorities from regulating data centers at all,” Jeffries said. “And every single House Republican but one or two voted to unleash data centers on the American people in an unfettered fashion. That’s facts, right there.”
He specifically blasted vulnerable Republican Reps. Mike Lawler of New York and David Valadao of California for voting to “give tax credits to people building massive data centers in communities across the country, particularly in rural America, without restriction.”
“They can try to run away from their votes right now,” Jeffries said. “We will not let them hide.”
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will speak at the Republican Study Committee’s weekly lunch Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the plans. The visit to Capitol Hill comes as more lawmakers express concerns about the burgeoning trade war President Donald Trump is escalating with Canada just months before the midterm elections.
House Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.) will also be speaking to the group of House conservatives.
The House is back in session, but it might be a short one.
Speaker Mike Johnson is looking to tick off the lone essential item on the chamber’s to-do list in lawmakers’ first days back: a Senate-passed, shutdown-averting spending bill.
A handful of other priorities are caught up in partisan battles and Senate limbo. Rebel factions in a thin House GOP majority continue to threaten Republicans’ plans of opening the floor for debate. And many Republicans are simply eager to get back home to campaign ahead of the November midterms rather than endure more headaches in Washington.
Together, those dynamics have fueled open speculation among members and aides that House leaders will call it quits until mid-November much sooner than the currently scheduled Oct. 1 exit date.
“So many people are having to run back and forth to campaign,” Rep. Morgan Griffith told reporters Thursday. “I think we can get some other things done [beyond the spending stopgap], but the big bills will probably have to wait until after the election.”
Johnson’s planning to put the spending bill on the floor Tuesday under a fast-track method, since there are reasons to believe it will pass without much drama.
The House agenda for this week also includes a vote from Republicans on a resolution condemning socialism — a political swipe at Democrats. And a potential vote is on tap to censure Rep. Chuck Edwards for alleged inappropriate conduct toward two female staffers following an Ethics Committee recommendation. Edwards attempted to clear his name last week ahead of the expected vote.
Other House priorities are stuck in the Senate or at a stalemate:
Key House Democrats believe the Senate-passed Russia sanctions bill gives too much authority to President Donald Trump, making it unclear it can pass.
Adoption of a budget blueprint for a fresh GOP party-line spending package is stuck amid competing demands from defense hawks, fiscal conservatives and some GOP senators who still aren’t convinced the bill is needed. Senate Republicans don’t expect the budget measure to be brought to the floor before the election, according to five people granted anonymity to disclose private discussions.
The Senate is expected to focus in September on confirming Trump nominees and holding a vote on cryptocurrency legislation, as well as trying to advance a bill to overhaul college athletics and the Senate version of the farm bill.
With those items deep in negotiations, there’s little incentive for House members to hang around to see if the Senate will play ball once it returns Sept. 14 for a brief three-week session.
Both chambers are already scheduled for recess next week following the Labor Day holiday, and many Republicans are expected to travel to Dallas then for the GOP’s midterm convention.
What else we’re watching:
— LAWMAKERS JOCKEY FOR E&C SPOTS: Lawmakers are already lobbying leadership to secure at least eight empty slots opening up on the powerful Energy and Commerce panel next year. Democrats Reps. Melanie Stansbury, Maxine Dexter, Jill Tokuda, Eric Sorensen and Luz Rivas have thrown their hats in the ring so far. Meanwhile, Republican Reps. Bob Onder and Brad Knott are working to convince leadership to put them on the panel.
— MILITARY WIDOWS STUCK IN BILL BRAWL: Military widows are caught in the middle of a bigger battle over how veterans should get compensated for their service. That House brawl over veteran benefits could ruin the last, best chance for widows to fix a decades-old law that strips away support benefits if they remarry. House lawmakers are eyeing mid-September for another vote on the legislation after a July vote was derailed amid opposition. If that’s successful, Senate Republican leaders have promised to fast-track the bill in an effort to send it to the president’s desk by the end of the year. If House lawmakers can’t, the measure will likely be shelved until at least the next Congress.
Mia McCarthy, Jordain Carney, Kelsey Brugger and Leo Shane III contributed to this report.
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