Congress

Capitol agenda: Mike Johnson on the cusp of megabill victory

Published

12 months ago

July 3, 2025

Speaker Mike Johnson is potentially just a couple of hours away from sending Donald Trump his “big, beautiful bill,” defying expectations that he could meet the president’s arbitrary but unwavering deadline.

After it appeared to be derailed late Wednesday by hard-right holdouts, Republicans advanced the bill around 3:30 a.m. and are set to vote on final passage around 6 a.m.

During the all-nighter, GOP leaders kept the procedural vote open for almost six hours as they worked to flip 12 votes. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick was the lone Republican to vote “no” at the end.

Things looked dire until around the 2 a.m. hour, when Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise returned to the House floor saying they had the votes. Not long after, the speaker was seen talking, laughing and what appeared to be praying with some of the House Freedom Caucus holdouts.

How did they get there? Per Meredith Lee Hill, holdouts say they’ve secured commitments from the White House on a variety of topics, especially on how the megabill is implemented. But House Republicans described the hours of talks as more of a venting session for the hard-liners.

“It was more just expression of concerns and priorities that are shared by the administration,” said one person granted anonymity to relay the conversations.

The holdouts said earlier Wednesday they were discussing future legislative opportunities, including a second reconciliation package, and the possibility of executive branch moves to address aspects of the bill they don’t think go far enough.

There was some tough love, too. Several MAGA-world figures including long-time Trump aide Jason Miller and Trump’s 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita threatened the Republican holdouts on social media. Trump, who’d been privately helping Johnson press them all day, piled on pressure in a series of increasingly irritated missives. “RIDICULOUS!!!” he fired off at 12:45 a.m. as the bill was in limbo.

The mood among House Republicans is that they’re likely to pass the bill later this morning.

“I do so deeply desire to have just [a] normal Congress, but it doesn’t happen anymore,” Johnson said around 1:30 a.m. “I don’t want to make history, but we’re forced into these situations.”

What else we’re watching:

— New E&C subcommittee chair: Rep. Morgan Griffith is in line to be announced today as the next chair of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, according three people granted anonymity to discuss the plan. “There’s a good possibility,” E&C Chair Brett Guthrie said Wednesday when asked if Griffith would get the post. “We’re announcing tomorrow though.”

— Race for DHS chair: Rep. Carlos Gimenez has entered the race to lead the House Homeland Security Committee. After Rep. Mark Green announced his retirement, Gimenez sent a letter to the GOP Steering Committee on Tuesday notifying his intent to run for the seat.

David Lim, Bethany Irvine and Ali Bianco contributed to this report.

Congress

Thune is ‘hopeful’ Mitch McConnell will return this week

Published

3 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday he hopes his predecessor as top Republican, Mitch McConnell, returns this week from a hospitalization.

Thune said he had not yet spoken directly with the 84-year-old Kentuckian but is getting “readouts from his staff.”

Asked about McConnell’s condition or if he knew if he would be back this week, Thune told reporters, “I’m hopeful that he’ll be back this week.”

A McConnell spokesperson said Sunday that he had been admitted to the hospital but did not provide details on his condition or why he was hospitalized — a break from recent prior instances where the seven-term senator was hospitalized.

A former McConnell staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity was told the senator was doing much better Monday without any further details on what put him in the hospital.

Daniel Desrochers contributed to this report.

Congress

Senate to confirm Jay Clayton as soon as Thursday

Published

5 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate could vote as soon as Thursday on Jay Clayton’s nomination to serve as director of national intelligence — a lightning speed pace that will necessitate buy-in from all 100 senators.

Confirming Clayton could help shore up enough votes from Democrats to extend a government surveillance program that expired last Friday over opposition to Trump’s pick for acting director, Bill Pulte.

“He will come out of the committee Thursday, at least hopefully, and then if we get consent, we can move,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview Monday about Clayton, who Trump only nominated for the job late last week.

Democrats “ought to be happy with Clayton,” said Thune, adding that he’s a “good” and “solid” pick.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, floated Sunday to CBS News that Clayton could be confirmed this week if every senator cooperates.

Senate Intelligence will hold a hearing Wednesday on Clayton’s nomination. If every member of the panel agrees, he could then get a committee vote Thursday. Confirming Clayton on the Senate floor hours later would require getting agreement from every senator to speed up the process. Opposition from a single member will punt Clayton’s confirmation to next week.

Confirming Clayton Thursday would, crucially, limit — and potentially circumvent — Pulte from becoming acting director of national intelligence, which Trump has slated to take place Friday, June 19.

The president’s decision to put Pulte in charge after Tulsi Gabbard’s departure at the helm of the Office of National Intelligence sparked bipartisan pushback, with Democrats saying they will withhold support for extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act while Pulte is in the acting role. Congress allowed the key government spy authority lapse last Friday without a deal.

Trump threw another curveball into a FISA extension over the weekend when he posted on social media that he was against reauthorizing Section 702 unless a GOP elections bill is attached. That bill, known as the SAVE America Act, does not have the votes to get through Congress.

Thune threw cold water Monday on tying the two issues together.

“Yeah, he’s, as you know, passionate about getting that done and wants to use every opportunity to take a shot at it,” Thune said of Trump and his desire to enact the elections bill.

But, Thune said, “we can’t get FISA done” if the policies are linked.

Congress

Senate eyes vote on updated housing affordability legislation

Published

7 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is planning to put an updated version of a bipartisan housing affordability bill on the Senate floor for a vote this week, according to two people familiar with the bill dynamics and two Senate Democratic aides granted anonymity to discuss ongoing plans.

The version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act that the Senate will vote on will include most of the House-passed language, including a provision restricting large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. The legislation would also add back Senate bills that were dropped from the House package that passed last month, the two people and the two aides said.

The Senate legislation comes after talks between Thune, Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). The updated Senate package was also discussed with the House and the White House, the aides said.

Still, it’s unclear if House leadership and the White House have signed off on the legislation.

The Senate and House have gone back and forth for months on language for a housing affordability bill as lawmakers on both sides look for a win to tout during a midterm election season dominated by cost-of-living issues.

Both chambers overwhelmingly passed their own versions of the housing bill — the Senate 89-10 in March, and the House 396-13 in May. The White House supported the Senate-passed bill and then backed the House-passed bill after it retained most of the Senate’s language on reining in private equity and other large Wall Street investors in the housing market — a top priority for President Donald Trump.

The Senate’s updated legislation would remove two of the House’s community banking deregulation bills due to budget scoring concerns, said two of the people familiar: two bills that would modify the Federal Deposit Insurance Act around failed insured depository institutions. The Senate bill also added back a provision to authorize the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program for seven years, as opposed to a permanent reauthorization in the Senate’s March legislation.

The Senate additionally re-inserted several upper-chamber priorities, including the BUILD NOW Act, which would incentivize communities to build more housing through the Community Development Block Grant program; the Rental Assistance Demonstration bill, which would raise the cap on housing authorities to convert voucher-based assistance; the Moving to Work bill, which would aim to add a new cohort of MTW public housing agencies; and the VALID Act, which would require Federal Housing Administration mortgage disclosures to include cost comparison information for veterans.

The package retains core wins for the leaders of both the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees and their members and reflects input from all four leaders of those panels, one of the people familiar said.