Congress

Capitol agenda: Lawmakers nearly at the funding finish line

Published

5 days ago

January 21, 2026

Congress is on track to avoid another shutdown, but it needs to clear several hurdles in a short amount of time in order to beat its month-end deadline.

The pressure is on the House to pass four of the most challenging spending bills Thursday — to fund the departments of Defense, HHS, Labor, HUD, Transportation, Education and Homeland Security — then bundle them up with the two-bill package the chamber previously passed to fund Financial Services and State-Foreign Operations.

Senators will then have one week to take a big swing at passing all six bills before sending them to President Donald Trump’s desk.

Passing all 12 annual appropriations bills would be a stunning feat for lawmakers and leadership — especially in such a bitterly divided Congress. Here’s what they’ll have to deal with first:

— Spotty attendance: Speaker Mike Johnson’s barely-there majority could pose a problem come Thursday, when the House is expected to vote along party lines to tee up the rule vote allowing the final package of spending bills to come to the floor.

This dynamic could be further complicated by the fact that House GOP leaders will allow a passage vote for the Homeland measure that’s separate from that of the other funding bills in recognition of its divisiveness.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the House’s top Democratic appropriator, said the legislation does not include some of the broader policy changes Democrats proposed, like preventing DHS from detaining and deporting U.S. citizens or from deploying personnel from other agencies to conduct immigration enforcement.

While Republican leaders expect the other bills to pass with broad bipartisan support, Homeland will likely be a tight vote. House Democrats plan to discuss their position on the DHS bill during their closed-door caucus meeting Wednesday morning.

— Any hard-liner opposition: House Freedom Caucus members told Blue Light News Tuesday night they are combing through all the earmarks included in this funding package after previously vowing to work vigilantly to block money for projects they don’t like.

“There’s always trepidation when it comes to earmarks,” Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) said Tuesday.

Conservatives are also digging through the details on the health care legislation that bipartisan, bicameral leadership hopes will sail through as part of this funding measure. Many Republicans who worked on the deal feel confident that the policies designed to crack down on pharmacy benefit managers, and the extension of several public health programs, will make it across the finish line. But don’t rule out complaints from fiscal hawks at the last minute.

“I’m fine largely,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told reporters Tuesday night. “But I don’t know, I got to look, see if there’s anything objectionable.”

— Time crunch in the Senate: The Senate is in recess this week, but it is due to return Monday — if travel back to Washington isn’t derailed by snow this weekend. At that point, there will be just five days until the Jan. 30 deadline, and leaders will need to get all 100 senators on board with fast-tracking passage of the final six-bill package. That’s assuming the House, which is scheduled to be in recess next week, passes it without incident.

Senate leaders may have to offer amendment votes to get holdouts on both sides of the aisle to come on board, which could quickly become a slippery political slope — or they risk dragging out procedural votes beyond the funding cliff.

What else we’re watching:

— Clinton contempt vote: The House Oversight Committee votes on two measures at 10 a.m. Wednesday over whether to recommend holding Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas to testify in the panel’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Keep an eye on Democrats, who will have to decide whether they will side with Republicans to advance the contempt resolutions to the chamber floor — where, if adopted by the full House, the consequences for the Clintons could be as dire as imprisonment by the Trump DOJ. One person granted anonymity to share internal party dynamics said it was looking like most Oversight Democrats will vote “yes.”

— House vote on mining CRA: The House will consider a resolution Wednesday afternoon that would overturn the Biden administration’s ban on new mining near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters under the Congressional Review Act. A House aide granted anonymity to discuss the dynamics said to expect a nail-biter.

— New crypto text landing: Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) is preparing to release an updated draft of his panel’s portion of a major cryptocurrency bill Wednesday. It comes after the senator postponed a previously planned markup to allow bipartisan discussions to continue around the so-called market structure measure.

Katherine Tully-McManus, Benjamin Guggenheim, Jordain Carney, Josh Siegel, Hailey Fuchs, Meredith Lee Hill and Jasper Goodman contributed to this report.

Congress

Rand Paul summons Trump immigration officials to testify after Minneapolis shooting

Published

7 minutes ago

January 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Rand Paul, chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, called on three top immigration enforcement officials to testify before his panel in the wake of Saturday’s killing of a Minneapolis man by federal agents.

The Kentucky Republican sent letters Monday to Rodney Scott, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection; Joseph Edlow, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; and Todd Lyons, who is serving as acting director of ICE, requesting that the three men testify at a Feb. 12 hearing.

“As you know, the Department of Homeland Security has been provided an exceptional amount of funding to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws,” Paul said in the letters to the administration officials. “Congress has an obligation to conduct oversight of those tax dollars and ensure the funding is used to accomplish the mission, provide proper support for our law enforcement, and, most importantly, protect the American people.”

Paul’s letters don’t mention this weekend’s killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, which has sparked a wave of new scrutiny of the immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota ordered by President Donald Trump.

But the hearing would be the first chance senators will have to question Trump administration officials’ over the shooting and the president’s broader immigration and Homeland Security agenda.

Separately, Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) joined the growing ranks of Republicans raising questions about the shooting, saying he supports a “full and transparent investigation into the tragic event in Minneapolis.”

“Congress has requested testimony from ICE, CBP, and USCIS leaders in an open hearing, and they should testify soon,” said Young, who is not a member of Paul’s committee, in a statement to Blue Light News. “Providing the American people with the full facts is an important part of maintaining public trust. We also need state and local officials to better cooperate with federal enforcement efforts.”

Congress

White House backs appropriations package with DHS funding

Published

23 minutes ago

January 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The White House on Monday urged the Senate to pass the six-bill appropriations package to avert a partial government shutdown and signaled it doesn’t want Department of Homeland Security money separated out.

“At this point, the White House supports the bipartisan work that was done to advance the bipartisan appropriations package and we want to see that passed,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a White House briefing when asked if the administration would be willing to separate DHS funding.

Leavitt said that “policy discussions on immigration in Minnesota are happening,” pointing to President Donald Trump’s call with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz earlier Monday. She said the discussions “should not be at the expense of government funding for the American people.”

The press secretary also pointed to the winter storms across the country and the effect a lapse in FEMA funding could have on the response effort.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has pressed Republicans to rewrite the DHS funding legislation in the wake of the killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota and signaled that the other five appropriations bills could move forward without it. Senate Republican leadership want to move forward all six bills, including DHS funding, and the first votes are expected Thursday.

Congress

More Hill Democrats want Kristi Noem out as DHS secretary

Published

38 minutes ago

January 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A growing number of Hill Democrats are calling for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be step aside or be impeached following shooting of a Minneapolis man by DHS agents Saturday.

A House impeachment resolution targeting Noem now has 140 cosponsors, nearly two-thirds of the Democratic caucus, according to a spokesperson for Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), who authored the legislation. Dozens signed on over the weekend, including after a private caucus call Sunday where a number of House Democrats spoke out for impeachment.

Although impeaching President Donald Trump remains a highly divisive issue among Democrats, calling for Noem’s impeachment or resignation is fast becoming a mainstream position in the party.

On the cosponsor list for Kelly’s resolution are purple-district lawmakers such as Reps. Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) and Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), as well as members of the party leadership team including Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.).

Others in the party are calling for Noem’s removal without mentioning the prospect of impeachment. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, for instance, declared in a Monday social media post that Noem “must be fired.”

In a statement provided first to Blue Light News, 15 House Democrats who are veterans said Noem should resign.

“We call for an immediate stand down of ICE and CBP interior enforcement operations and demand the resignation of the Secretary of Homeland Security,” said the lawmakers, including California Democratic Reps. Ted Lieu, Salud Carbajal and Gil Cisneros. “Current leadership has failed to protect civil liberties, ensure accountability, or maintain the public trust.”

With Republicans in control of the House floor, it could be difficult for Democrats to force the issue anytime soon. Absent a GOP groundswell, Speaker Mike Johnson will be able to bottle up the measure indefinitely though Kelly could try to call up her impeachment legislation as a privileged matter, allowing it to bypass committees and move to a quick House vote.