Congress

Capitol agenda: House vs. Senate rift threatens GOP agenda

Published

2 months ago

May 11, 2026

Tensions between House and Senate Republicans are threatening the GOP’s legislative agenda ahead of the midterms.

The two chambers come back to Capitol Hill this week with a list of legislative priorities they have failed to reach consensus on — and a shrinking time frame to get it done.

Who is at fault for the standoff depends on who you ask.

“We control Washington. When … we don’t get things done, we’re making a huge mistake,” Sen. Thom Tillis said about his House counterparts. “We’ve got to deliver.”

“The House is doing its job,” Rep. Chip Roy said. “Sometimes it gets a little tense, but we’re still getting stuff done. We’re sending it over to the Senate, so we look forward to them doing their job.”

Republicans did get a few wins before the brief recess: The House passed a Senate bill to fund everything in DHS except immigration enforcement after a record-setting 76 day shutdown of the department. Johnson had initially called the bill a “crap sandwich.”

The House and Senate also managed to get on the same page about a budget blueprint for a party-line spending bill President Donald Trump wants on his desk by June 1. Congress is likely to spend most of May focusing on that deadline — especially after the Senate’s proposal included $1 billion in security funding that can be used for at least parts of Trump’s proposed White House ballroom, a project voters have shown little support for.

But other fights are coming up quickly.

Republicans bought themselves through mid-June to figure out a plan on a key government spy power reauthorization that now includes a central bank digital currency provision, which is dead-on-arrival in the Senate.

A ban on CBDC is also a key hang-up in dueling housing affordability proposals between the House and Senate, among other differences between the chambers’ plans (more on this below).

It’s a key frustration for Senate Republicans, who believe getting a housing bill to Trump’s desk would be an easy way to show voters the party is responsive to their affordability anxieties.

“Conversations continue,” House Financial Services Chair French Hill said before the recess. “We just are looking for the path to get a bicameral bill.”

What else we’re watching:

—GOP’s VIRGINIA WIN MAY MUDDLE BALLROOM TALKS: Republicans’ redistricting win in Virginia might translate into some immediate new headaches for Speaker Mike Johnson’s legislating agenda and Trump’s ballroom security plans. The state Supreme Court’s Friday decision to overturn Democrats’ redrawn maps boosts the GOP’s outlook to hold onto more seats in November’s midterms. But senior House Republicans are concerned those Virginia Republicans with a new lease on life in Congress could present challenges for the GOP’s latest party-line spending plans, four people with knowledge of the conversations told Blue Light News. Johnson must convince those members facing highly competitive races to support the reconciliation bill and pass it by Trump’s June 1 deadline. That may not be easy given a highly debated proposal setting aside $1 billion that may be spent on the White House’s ballroom security.

— HOUSING BILL’S WALL STREET PROVISIONS IN FLUX: House GOP lawmakers have drafted amended housing legislation that would reel in efforts by the Senate to limit the role of Wall Street in housing, according to text obtained by Blue Light News. It strips a much-debated Senate provision requiring single-family homes built by large institutional investors as long-term rentals be sold after seven years to individual homebuyers — which is where much of the House opposition has been focused.

Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill and Katherine Hapgood contributed to this report.

Congress

Mitch McConnell is still in the hospital after medical episode, his office says

Published

14 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Mitch McConnell remains hospitalized, his office said in a statement Thursday — without offering details about a recent medical episode that has renewed concern about the health of the former Republican majority leader.

McConnell “continues his recovery in the hospital” and “continues to improve,” his office said.

“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” the statement said. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”

The statement did not explain why he was hospitalized last month.

The update comes after multiple outlets reported details of a first responder dispatch call indicating emergency medical personnel responded to McConnell’s home last month to treat an unconscious person who had experienced “cardiac arrest.”

Blue Light News has not independently verified the dispatch call.

The 84-year-old senator, who is retiring at the end of this term, has experienced multiple medical incidents in recent years. On two occasions in 2023, he froze while speaking with reporters. He has also suffered multiple falls and temporarily used a wheelchair, a move his office described at the time as a precautionary measure.

Congress

House Ethics says it doesn’t have information to share on lawmaker sexual misconduct settlements

Published

22 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House adopted a resolution Tuesday requiring the House Ethics Committee to release information on taxpayer funds used to pay out sexual misconduct settlements with lawmakers — but the committee now says it has no information it can share.

In a statement Thursday, the committee reiterated it does not manage sexual harassment lawsuits or their settlements; taxpayers have not footed the bill for those payments since 2018.

Since that time, according to the statement, “the Committee has not been notified of any awards or settlements relating to allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or other sexual misconduct by a Member.”

Instead, the bipartisan Ethics Committee said it was up to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to publicly release a list of each member who has received settlements for sexual misconduct allegations, as mandated by the resolution championed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

The committee, in the Thursday statement, said it “fully supports the release of information about sexual misconduct settlements and calls on OCWR to abide by [the resolution] and make publicly available information about Member sexual misconduct matters resulting in payment of taxpayer funds.”

Massie, in a text message Thursday, said “OCWR can release it.”

The OCWR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The bipartisan Ethics Committee has been under pressure in recent months to show it takes allegations of sexual misconduct against colleagues seriously. Two former House members — Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) — were forced to resign earlier this year amid serious accusations against them.

The renewed reckoning has prompted new questions about whether the House is up to the task of policing its own. The resolution earlier this week was adopted nearly unanimously, with just one member, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), voting “present.”

House Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) said in an interview earlier this week that while he would support Massie’s resolution, the relevant “information was already out in the public domain.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

AOC endorses El-Sayed in Michigan Senate race

Published

1 day ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign for Michigan’s open Senate seat on Thursday, a decision that comes as progressives look to capitalize off a series of recent high-profile primary victories in New York, Colorado and elsewhere.

Her endorsement could provide El-Sayed with a critical boost just over a month before the state’s Aug. 4 primary. The former public health official is locked in a heated contest against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow for the right to take on Republican Mike Rogers in the general election.

It also comes as El-Sayed has risen to the top of the pack in recent public polling.

Virtually any Democratic path to flipping the Senate in this year’s midterms would see the party hold the open Michigan Senate seat, with two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) retiring at the end of his term.

The race has emerged as perhaps the largest battleground over the ideological future of the party. El-Sayed, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, has collected endorsements from progressives, while Stevens has the tacit backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, with AIPAC also boosting her candidacy.

El-Sayed, Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with The New York Times, is her party’s best chance.

“Despite our ideological differences and whatever disagreements there are in the party, every single one of us sees this moment as existential,” she said. “And I think many people are willing to put aside differences in order to give us the best chance at winning. And I think that Abdul gives us that right now.”