Congress
Capitol agenda: Johnson’s turn to deliver a health plan
Get ready for the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies to lapse.
All signs are pointing in that direction as President Donald Trump refuses to endorse an extension and Senate Republicans coalesce behind a plan from Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that would end the Obamacare tax credits and instead expand government-funded health savings accounts.
Now House Republicans are racing to prepare their own health care framework to vote on next week before leaving for the holidays — one that also likely would not extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies, which were supercharged as part of the Democrats’ 2021 pandemic relief package.
Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise will brief their conference Wednesday morning on all the options for this framework, which Scalise and relevant committee chairs helped craft.
“It won’t just be concepts we’re talking about … It’ll be very specific things that are available in bill format,” Scalise told reporters Tuesday, noting some provisions will reflect proposals that ultimately did not make it into the final GOP megabill over the summer. He said each piece will be presented individually “to see where the consensus is and let members decide.”
— Moderates sound the alarm: Many rank-and-file Republicans are still pushing for an extension, worried about voter backlash over the ensuing skyrocketing premiums. Even some Trump aides have advised that an extension would be politically prudent.
“We can agree that the current construct is flawed, but that letting them expire is not acceptable,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said in an interview Tuesday. “That doesn’t work.”
Fitzpatrick and Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) have been proposing their own blueprints that would include extensions. But neither has earned approval from GOP leaders, who are under pressure from conservatives who say the tax credits are rife with fraud and abuse.
Scalise didn’t rule out an extension Tuesday. Still, he said, “at the end of the day, we’ve got to do what the consensus of our members want to do.”
— Don’t rule out the discharge petition: While Republicans might not currently have the support in their conference to pass an extension, the Fitzpatrick and Kiggans plans have bipartisan backing. Fitzpatrick told Blue Light News last week he believes he has 218 votes for his bill and didn’t rule out filing a discharge petition to circumvent leadership and force a vote.
Some House Republicans told Blue Light News Tuesday they were even more inclined to back a discharge petition after Trump’s recent comments refusing to endorse an extension. That includes Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), who told reporters Tuesday he would support a discharge petition for either the Fitzpatrick or Kiggans proposal, if there were no other options.
“I respect the speaker tremendously, but I disagree with them on this,” Van Drew said. “We just can’t listen to a handful of people.”
— Eyes on the White House: The Trump administration has yet to provide clear guidance on what they want Congress to pass. But Tuesday night, Blue Light News saw James Braid and James Blair — the White House director of legislative affairs and deputy chief of staff, respectively — head into a meeting with House GOP leaders and committee chairs.
What else we’re watching:
— Dems blast Senate GOP health plan: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will host a news conference on health insurance premiums at 10:15 a.m. It comes a day after he criticized Senate Republicans’ health plan as “dead on arrival.”
— House votes on NDAA: The House is scheduled to vote on the National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday afternoon as a group of hard-liners weigh whether to hold up the bill over complaints it would give aid to Ukraine and wouldn’t include a central banking digital currency ban. The big question is whether Republicans will be able to adopt the procedural rule governing floor debate on the NDAA.
Meredith Lee Hill and Benjamin Guggenheim 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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