Congress

Capitol agenda: Shutdown hinges on razor-thin rule vote

Published

9 months ago

February 3, 2026

House Republican leaders are facing a white-knuckle vote Tuesday morning as they move to end the partial shutdown after four days.

Here’s what we’re watching on both sides of the aisle as an unpredictable day shakes out in the House.

— Razor-thin rule vote: Speaker Mike Johnson and President Donald Trump got involved in wrangling hard-liner holdouts Monday who were threatening to oppose the procedural measure setting up final debate of the $1.2 trillion spending package.

Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) started the day threatening to tank the rule if the SAVE Act, a partisan elections bill, wasn’t attached. But a White House meeting left the duo in a better place, with Luna telling reporters Monday night she got “assurances on the standing filibuster” that would allow the bill to pass the Senate.

One big caveat: There’s been no acknowledgment from Senate Majority Leader John Thune that any such deal is in place.

Various proposals for a “standing filibuster” or “talking filibuster” have been rattling around for years on both sides of the aisle — most recently from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) — but that hasn’t convinced the vast majority of Senate Republicans who want to keep the 60-vote threshold in place.

While Luna said she expected “an announcement” on a rules change that would force Democrats to hold the floor in order to block the bill, no such announcement appears imminent. But her remarks — and a big midday Truth Social nudge from Trump — were enough to buoy GOP leaders.

Asked Monday night if he was confident he had the votes to move forward and end the shutdown, Johnson said, “I think we do.”

— Dems fume over another Senate jam: While Democrats are expected to unite against the rule, party leaders declined to comment on how they would vote on the overall package ahead of Tuesday morning’s closed-door caucus meeting.

It appears it will be a vote of conscience: A whip alert circulated Monday night urged a “no” vote on the rule but did not offer any guidance for the underlying bill, which funds most federal agencies but ends Department of Homeland Security funding after Feb. 13.

Still, many House Democrats have been left grumbling — again — after being sidelined in negotiations between Senate Democrats and the White House.

Top leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are playing down tensions over the deal, but many in the rank-and-file are miffed at getting jammed with a spending bill they oppose for a third time in less than a year.

“We end up having to answer for what [the Senate] won’t do, and it can be very frustrating,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said.

What else we’re watching:

— House moves to overturn DC tax law: The House Rules Committee teed up floor consideration this week for a bill that would roll back a D.C. law that declines to apply key tax cuts from last summer’s megabill to local income taxes in the city.

In that measure, the D.C. Council decided not to adopt 13 separate tax provisions from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including several key incentives the GOP restored for businesses and the deductions for tipped income, overtime pay, new car loan interest and seniors.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to consider its version of the resolution Wednesday.

Meredith Lee Hill and Bernie Becker contributed to this report.

Congress

Chris Murphy released from hospital after stroke

Published

57 minutes ago

November 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Chris Murphy announced Friday that he has been released from the hospital after suffering a stroke last week, but will miss “several weeks” of Senate votes while he continues to recover.

“The doctors are very encouraged by the progress I’ve made so far,” the Connecticut Democrat said in a statement. “In order to take my recovery seriously and get back to work on the quickest timeline possible, I will be spending several weeks at a rehabilitation center after being discharged from the hospital today.”

He added that he remains in touch remotely with his staff and colleagues.

Murphy, who was hospitalized last weekend, said Friday that he was “diagnosed with a small bleed in the thalamus region of my brain.” Jose Suarez, the Chief of Neurosciences Critical Care at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, said in a separate statement released by Murphy’s office that the senator “experienced a small hemorrhagic stroke.”

“He has shown tremendous progress, and at the current rate of improvement, we expect that he will make a full recovery following rehabilitation,” Suarez added.

Murphy is the latest senator to suffer a stroke in recent years. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) were both hospitalized for strokes in 2022. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), at that time a Senate candidate, also had a stroke in 2022 that he later described as near fatal.

Congress

Congressional Progressive Caucus chair lays out strategy to ‘wield our power’

Published

1 hour ago

November 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said his group will still be power brokers in a massive Democratic majority in a strategy memo previewing plans for next term.

“While some in the press have speculated that a majority of this size undermines our influence within the caucus, they have it exactly backwards,” Rep. Greg Casar of Texas said in the Friday memo obtained by Blue Light News. “Big majorities are good for getting big things done. Our goal is not to win a battle against other Democratic caucuses. It is to pass longstanding progressive priorities that bring down costs, root out corruption, and boost wages.”

The CPC will have at least 105 members next term, according to the memo. If Democrats had a narrow majority, progressives — and any other faction in the caucus — could have used their votes as leverage. Now that presumptive speaker Hakeem Jeffries will have as many 30 votes to spare, Democrats broadly are recalibrating their approach next term.

Casar laid out a “three-pronged” strategy for the CPC to “wield our power” in the three-page memo — tackling legislation, oversight and “holding Donald Trump to his word on populist economic policies.”

“Small majorities give corporate special interest groups the ability to block popular populist policies by recruiting a small number of opponents; a big majority gives us the advantage,” he said.

Casar previewed how the CPC can engage with Trump, noting that “one of the few bright spots for bipartisan lawmaking” was a housing bill that banned private equity firms from buying homes. He noted the caucus should push Trump to cap credit card interest rates, lower credit card fees for small businesses and lower prescription drug costs.

“While we oppose [Trump] strongly on the vast majority of fronts, we should send bills to his desk that would lower prices and raise paychecks. If he signs them, good. If he vetoes those bills, that will propel us to a continued Democratic majority and a trifecta where a Democratic president can sign these proposals into law,” he said.

Casar also outlined oversight targets beyond the administration, urging Democrats to specifically investigate corporations that use customer data for “surveillance pricing,” health care companies that are “taking advantage of seniors” through the Medicare Advantage program and artificial intelligence labs who are “putting jobs and lives at risk.”

“By focusing not just on the Trump administration but also on big corporations and billionaires, we will show the American people we are not just anti-Trump but also pro-worker and pro-consumer,” he said.