Congress
Capitol agenda: Senate GOP braces for Cabinet shakeup
The Trump administration saw yet another high-profile departure Wednesday, with Navy Secretary John Phelan heading to the exits. Senate Republicans are bracing for even more.
President Donald Trump’s recent administration shakeup — the sacking of Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi as well as this week’s departure of Lori Chavez-DeRemer — has created openings for a slew of potential confirmations, and GOP senators are contemplating who might be next and how quickly Trump should make any further changes.
No Republicans are publicly urging any particular oustings. But privately GOP senators believe Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and FBI Director Kash Patel could be at risk of leaving — voluntarily or not.
“He’s in a bad mood,” one GOP senator said about Trump. “He’s preparing to really let a lot of them go.”
A further Cabinet shakeup would add more onto the Senate’s plate, and some GOP senators want anyone eyeing an exit to do it sooner rather than later to give the lawmakers the longest runway possible for confirming a successor.
On their minds is looming work on a budget reconciliation bill (maybe two), soon-to-lapse surveillance powers, a spate of lower-level nominations plus a potential Supreme Court vacancy.
“The number of working days are very limited,” Sen. Thom Tillis said in an interview. “You just do the math. It’s a very compressed schedule.”
That’s not to mention the looming midterms — and the possibility the GOP could lose control of the chamber.
Another GOP senator granted anonymity to speak candidly said that it would “make sense to do it now” and “you never know what’s going to happen to the Senate” in the midterms.
But several acknowledged the obvious: Trump will move on his own timeline.
And Majority Leader John Thune said the Senate already has a “full plate, so confirming new people is going to take a while.”
What else we’re watching:
— Eyes on the House after Senate vote-a-rama: Just after 3:30 a.m., the Senate voted 50-48 to green-light the GOP’s plan to send tens of billions of dollars to immigration enforcement agencies in the coming years. Now House Republicans need to approve the budget blueprint before GOP leaders can move on to crafting the party-line package itself. Thune told reporters that Speaker Mike Johnson hasn’t guaranteed the House can adopt the budget resolution in its current form.
— The latest on 702: Thune early Thursday also filed cloture on a three-year extension of the key spy authority known as Section 702 — an insurance policy in case the House can’t agree to a plan. “If the House can’t move by sometime tomorrow, then my assumption is we’re going to have to figure it out next week because we can’t afford to go dark,” he said.
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
The Senate on Tuesday voted to cut off the U.S. military campaign against Iran, handing a fresh loss to President Donald Trump despite his attempts to convince lawmakers and the public that a deal to end the war is at hand.
Four Republicans broke ranks to help approve a resolution to block further military action unless it is green-lighted by Congress.
The war powers measure is largely symbolic — the resolution cleared Tuesday doesn’t go to the president to sign or veto. But the bipartisan 50-48 vote is a damaging milestone for the Trump administration: Both the Senate and House have now weighed in against the Middle East conflict that’s stretched on for more than 100 days. The same measure passed the House in early June after months of close calls.
The long-anticipated bipartisan housing bill is under threat from a Florida Republican who threatened to “shut the floor down” if House GOP leaders move forward with passing it Tuesday.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said Republicans instead need to prioritize passage of the SAVE America Act, the GOP elections bill that has been stuck in the Senate for months. Speaker Mike Johnson has scheduled a Tuesday evening vote on the housing bill in hopes of sending it to President Donald Trump for a planned Wednesday signing at the White House.
Luna posted her threat on social media Tuesday afternoon and later specified in an interview that she would oppose procedural measures teeing up GOP-backed legislation going forward if party leaders didn’t abandon their plans to hold the housing bill vote via special fast-track procedures that would effectively sideline Republican hard-liners.
Luna cannot single-handedly block those procedural votes, but she said there is “a group” of lawmakers who would join her. She separately called on Trump to veto the housing bill in a bid to force the SAVE America Act to be added to it.
Johnson plans for now to proceed with the Tuesday evening vote on the housing bill, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. If Luna and her unnamed allies follow through with their threats, they could derail a pair of appropriations bills set for House consideration this week and potentially freeze the floor indefinitely given the GOP’s razor-thin majority.
“I have been telling them,” Luna said of her complaints to GOP leaders.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is tentatively planning to have top tech executives testify at a July 28 hearing, according to five people with knowledge of the committee’s plans granted anonymity to discuss private negotiations.
Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) had previously summoned the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and Google to a hearing, originally scheduled for Tuesday, to discuss their online child safety practices, AI safety and other topics.
“Chairman Grassley looks forward to a productive hearing as he continues his bipartisan efforts to get lifesaving child safety legislation signed into law,” a spokesperson for Grassley told Blue Light News.
The hearing, which remains provisional, comes at a pivotal moment for the tech sector. Congress is actively debating legislation aimed at protecting children online, while courts and state attorneys general are intensifying pressure on social media companies over allegations that their platforms harm young users.
The list of tech executives the committee is eyeing to testify remains in flux but currently includes head of Instagram Adam Mosseri and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, according to the five people. Three of the people said Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel and CEO of TikTok’s U.S.-based joint venture company Adam Presser may also be called to attend.
The four companies did not immediately comment on the proposed hearing.
- Hormuz evacuation plans emerge after months of gridlock
- Senate votes to halt Iran war despite Trump’s push for peace deal
- Housing bill threatened in GOP elections-bill spat
- Top tech executives expected to testify at July 28 Senate hearing
- Supreme Court chips away at remaining cases
- Mexico’s cartel violence down during World Cup: analyst
- Trump doubles down on Reflecting Pool vandalism claims
- National Guard, Park Police patrolling Reflecting Pool
- Expanding the Supreme Court isn’t court-packing
- Lawmakers, companies tread carefully on data center energy bill
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