Congress

Capitol agenda: Medicaid mucks up the megabill

Published

1 year ago

April 29, 2025

Republicans are hitting a major roadblock in drafting their “big, beautiful” megabill: Divisions over how deeply to cut Medicaid are threatening to upend the timeline for advancing President Donald Trump’s tax agenda.

Energy and Commerce Republicans emerged Monday night from a lengthy closed-door meeting largely tight-lipped as the committee figures out the Medicaid problem. Chair Brett Guthrie said he still is aiming for a markup next week, but some members are tempering expectations.

“We can get there, but there are so many different pieces in play that it’s hard to say,” panel member Morgan Griffith told reporters late Monday.

One of their thorniest issues is how to address states that expanded Medicaid access under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans are considering capping or reducing federal Medicaid payments to those states for the program — which would make the program more sustainable, Republicans argue, but could lead to millions of people losing coverage.

“That is an issue we have to negotiate through,” said Guthrie, who has made the case that the changes are necessary to protect the program for the most vulnerable.

Behind closed doors, some Republicans are irked that their leaders are not doing enough explaining: One Republican with direct knowledge of the matter told Blue Light News “there’s frustration for not laying out the rationale behind Medicaid cuts.”

The Medicaid debate could set off delays elsewhere. While Ways and Means has made some progress on tax issues, plenty remains in limbo as members wait for other committees to determine how deeply they can cut spending in their panels’ jurisdiction.

“Sitting on their hands for a bit makes a lot of strategic sense,” said one former senior GOP Hill aide.

Once the Medicaid issue is solved, Ways and Means will still have to wait on Agriculture to deal with the next problem: cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Agriculture Committee Republicans are meeting Tuesday to discuss the internally controversial proposal to push some SNAP benefit costs onto states for the first time, according to two Republicans with direct knowledge of the plans. The panel’s markup could slip past next week.

Meanwhile, three other megabill markups begin today. Here’s what we’ll be watching:

— Expect sparks to fly in Armed Services, during which Democrats are likely to force tough votes on politically charged amendments, including on the dysfunction at the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

— Homeland Security will mark up a bill that sends $46.5 billion to expand border security measure including completion of Trump’s border wall.

— Education and Workforce could also get testy as Republicans target a rollback of existing student loan repayment plans — a rebuke to former President Joe Biden

What else we’re watching:

– Signalgate on Blue Light News: House Rules Republicans approved a provision Monday night that would forestall a Democratic effort to force votes on Hegseth’s use of an unclassified messaging app. If the rule is adopted Tuesday, so-called “resolutions of inquiry” could be bottled up through the summer.

– Opioid bill reauthorization: House Energy and Commerce will debate reauthorizing significant legislation to tackle the opioid epidemic, which Trump signed into law during his first administration. Reauthorization of the bipartisan bill was part of a major health care package lawmakers sought to attach to a year-end spending bill last December. But it got scrapped when Trump and Elon Musk complained the funding measure was too full of extraneous provisions.

Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill and Mackenzie Wilkes contributed to this report.

Congress

Mike Rogers opens the door for AIPAC support in Michigan Senate race

Published

2 hours ago

October 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers signaled he would accept support from AIPAC as he remains locked in a tight contest against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.

Rogers was asked during a debate Thursday whether he would welcome public backing from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — and he pointedly did not rule it out.

“Anybody that wants to help my campaign stop” El-Sayed, he said, “I’ll take all of that help.”

AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, uncorked more than $30 million against El-Sayed in Democrats’ bruising primary. El-Sayed turned the deluge into a cudgel, railing against the group’s heavy spending to rally progressives to his side as support for Israel cratered among Democrats amid the war in Gaza.

The group does not appear to have spent on television ads since, according to tracker AdImpact.

The debate moderator asked Rogers about an Axios report from August that said allies of the Republican had asked AIPAC not to advertise on his behalf. The report said the group scrapped a video ad against El-Sayed a day after Rogers spoke with AIPAC board chair Michael Tuchin.

Rogers also reportedly attended fundraisers hosted by AIPAC in California in August.

A representative for UDP declined to comment.

Rogers and El-Sayed clashed over U.S. military aid for Israel in their debate. Rogers said he supports Israel’s “right to defend itself in a very difficult neighborhood,” while El-Sayed said “I don’t want our tax dollars buying weapons for other countries.”

Congress

Mike Johnson voices uncertainty about his future if GOP loses control

Published

12 hours ago

October 8, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested that he could leave Congress if Democrats regain control — the farthest he has gone in acknowledging what he would do in a GOP House minority.

“Heaven forbid, if we lose this majority or whatever, I don’t know what my next chapter of life is,” Johnson said in an interview with Fox News posted this week. “If God moves on our hearts and says we should, you know, go back to my hometown of Shreveport and start a lawn business, I’ll do that with equal fervor.”

In the past, the Louisiana Republican has steered clear of the hypothetical.

Johnson also did not rule out a run at minority leader, instead telling Fox News that House Republicans will hold onto the majority and he will stay speaker.

“I’m going to be the speaker in the next Congress,” Johnson said, when asked if he would run. “I’m not going to talk about the scenario where we don’t win the House, because I am laser-focused on winning the House.”

With the midterms less than a month away, Republicans are doing everything they can to salvage their chances of maintaining their majority in an unfavorable political environment.

As some Republicans privately worry about their chances of holding onto the House, many believe jockeying for a GOP minority leader race is already underway.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan are potential names floating around to take over. House Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) had also been named as an option, though he could also run to stay as whip.

All three House Republicans have been campaigning across the country in the lead-up to the election. If Republicans lose the House, GOP members will begin the race for minority leader almost immediately when they return to Washington.

Congress

Capitol agenda: GOP ads have yet to overwhelm voters, poll finds

Published

16 hours ago

October 8, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Republicans have a massive campaign cash advantage going into the final stretch before Election Day, but a new Blue Light News poll shows they aren’t yet capturing voters’ attention.

More than 70% of poll respondents who had seen ads said they’d either seen more spots in support of Democrats or an equal amount between the parties over the past week — including ads on television, social media, or any other platform. Only 24% said they’d seen more ads for Republicans.

The numbers are striking considering Republican-aligned groups had triple the amount of cash on hand compared to their Democratic rivals going into the final months of the campaign. That figure includes the $400 million war chest that President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC reported over the summer, for which Dems have no equivalent.

Republicans have been racing to saturate key battlegrounds — and even some deep-red districts and states — with GOP messages in the final weeks before the midterms to counterbalance the favorable political environment for Democrats.

One reason GOP ad dollars could be getting less bang for their buck may lie in ad rates: direct campaign accounts from prolific individual fundraisers — Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff or Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, for example — can buy ads at cheaper rates.

Timing may be another reason: Trump’s super PAC waited until recent weeks to start buying ads through affiliate groups, when rates were already high close to the election.

“It’s competition that drives [rates] up to these ridiculous amounts, and then when super PACs come in late with these reservations, it’s even more than a two times disadvantage,” Jeff Burton, GOP campaign strategist and president of Maven Advocacy Partners said in an interview.

Burton said Republican candidates will need to rethink spending strategies to catch voters’ attention in the final stretch. Still, having a cash advantage might only take some so far, he said, citing the massive outspending Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed and Texas’ Ken Paxton overcame in their respective primaries.

“I think you’ll see a lot of these campaigns diversifying, paying for grassroots, paying for different mediums to try to reach voters,” Burton said.

The poll was conducted by surveying U.S. adults online between Oct. 3-5 with PF Global.

What else we’re watching:

— FIRST IN IC: DEMS WANT A GOP APOLOGY TO JACK SMITH — Senate Judiciary Democrats are asking chair Chuck Grassley to issue an apology to former special counsel Jack Smith on behalf of GOP committee members and Sen. Eric Schmitt. A letter from committee Democrats to Republicans, obtained exclusively by Blue Light News also demands Grassley turn over the underlying records Schmitt used last month to levy false allegations against Smith of secretly attending an NBA game in Atlanta to conspire with local prosecutors about convicting Trump.

— HILL LOBBIES FOR UKRAINIANS IN U.S. — Lawmakers afraid the Trump administration will cancel protections for Ukrainian seeking refuge in the U.S. want the president to consider another option: Do nothing. The administration has until Oct. 19 to renew or cancel temporary protected status for more than 100,000 Ukrainians in the U.S. who fled the war still ravaging their country. While a number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are hoping Trump will renew the permission, some also support a backup option — letting the status expire without formally canceling it, triggering an automatic six-month extension.

Chris Marquette, Eric Bazail-Eimil and Andrew Howard contributed to this report.