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Capitol agenda: Tariff tumult roils GOP agenda

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2 years ago

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President Donald Trump is doubling down on his trade war as global financial markets melt down and economic calamity looms. It’s going to be a brutal week ahead for Republican lawmakers who are already on edge about owning the policy and are struggling to unify behind Trump’s legislative agenda.

A growing number of Republicans are signing onto bills that would rebuke Trump’s tariff strategy, and some are anxious about the lack of direction from the administration.

Look for the rift to grow in the coming days.

Republican Rep. Don Bacon is set to introduce legislation today that would wrest back Congress’ authority to approve tariffs. Rep. David Valadao, a California Republican, is signaling he’ll support it. In the Senate, six Republicans have signed onto the companion bill led by Sen. Chuck Grassley.

House Ways and Means Republicans held a private call Friday with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who is set to testify before Senate Finance Tuesday and Ways and Means on Wednesday. Other Republicans are stressed over not having enough information from the White House, and Speaker Mike Johnson is committing to arranging a briefing from the administration.

The rising economic pressure is making it even more urgent for Republicans to show progress behind Trump’s sweeping plans for tax cuts and other legislative priorities.

Johnson on Sunday vowed to push through the budget plan that the Senate adopted last week, even as he faces a growing backlash from fiscal hawks in the House over what they see as insufficient spending cuts. In a private call with Republican lawmakers Sunday, Johnson cited the market upheaval as a reason the House needs to act and not try to revise the Senate plan.

Senior Republicans are already discussing fallback plans, including whether to make changes to the budget and send it back to the Senate or having GOP leaders and committee chairs from both chambers hammer out an agreement in a conference meeting.

What else we’re watching:

– Proxy voting agreement: Johnson and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna found a solution to their standoff over allowing new mothers to vote by proxy, the Florida congresswoman said in a post on X Sunday — opening up the House floor to take up the budget resolution later in the week.

– Coming in House Rules: The committee will have a meeting today at 4 p.m. to tee up floor consideration of bills that would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, restrict district court judges from issuing nationwide injunctions and undo Biden-era CFPB rules after the bills were held up from a failed rule vote last week.

– More Trump picks: The Senate will continue working through Trump’s nominations later this week, including George Glass’ nomination to be ambassador to Japan and Mike Huckabee’s nomination to be ambassador to Israel.

Meredith Lee Hill and Benjamin Guggenheim contributed to this report.

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Congress

Clean energy group sets its sights on a new GOP target: Lauren Boebert

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7 hours ago

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October 7, 2026

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A clean energy group is launching a $1.5 million spend against Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), its latest effort this midterm cycle targeting Republicans who actively work against renewables.

The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition’s first ad in the spend, which was obtained by Blue Light News, focuses on an embarrassing incident for Boebert: when she was ejected from a live musical performance of “Beetlejuice” for allegedly vaping, singing and recording the show.

“If Lauren Boebert can’t be trusted in a room full of kids, then she can’t be trusted in the halls of Congress,” the ad says.

The spot makes no mention of clean energy or Boebert’s attacks on the so-called “Green New Scam.” The strategy mimics the group’s previous playbook that it has deployed to help defeat Reps. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) in their Republican primaries earlier this year, as the latter two sought statewide office. The PAC had tried to paint Ogles as an absentee member of Congress and Roy as insufficiently MAGA.

The group, which is backed by solar executives, has become an increasingly forceful player this cycle, which has seen a massive influx of outside spending.

“This industry has been villainized and used as a punching bag at times by the right, and the industry hasn’t always punched back,” said Chris Coffey, the CEO of Tusk Strategies, which is helping run the group. “Maybe when they’re deciding who to villainize next year, they will at least be like, ‘You know what? I don’t need problems with those guys.’”

Boebert’s district is historically deeply red. But Invest in Tomorrow also commissioned a poll, which shows she is underwater: 39% of likely voters view her favorably and 55% view her unfavorably. It also found Boebert leading the district’s Democratic nominee Eileen Laubacher by 5 points.

The poll, conducted by Impact Research from Sept. 21 to 24, polled 403 likely voters and had a margin of error of ±4.8%.

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Trahan unveils AI liability discussion draft

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15 hours ago

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October 7, 2026

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Rep. Lori Trahan on Wednesday unveiled a discussion draft for a bill that would make artificial intelligence developers liable when their products cause harm.

The legislation comes after OpenAI’s agents escaped containment and autonomously hacked into AI platform Hugging Face and accessed U.S. government websites.

The Clear Liability for Artificial Intelligence Misconduct Act aims to make it easier for those harmed by so-called rogue AI to bring claims against developers. Trahan’s bill does not preempt new state laws on AI liability — historically a prerequisite for attracting Republican support in the House.

“When someone breaks the law and hurts you, you can take them to court. That shouldn’t change just because the wrongdoer is an AI agent,” Trahan (D-Mass.) said in a statement. “Developers have already built systems capable of acting on their own and causing real damage. The CLAIM Act makes sure they answer for what their systems do.”

Legal experts have warned that existing laws require proof of intent or negligence, standards that can be difficult to show in court when AI models go rogue.

Trahan’s bill would ensure AI developers are unable to argue that their AI systems are incapable of intent. Instead, courts “would presume an AI system acted with the state of mind a person taking the same actions would have had.”

Trahan spokesperson Francis Grubar said work on the CLAIM Act began almost immediately after theJuly introduction of the FRONTIER Act, legislation with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) that would grant the government power to restrict the deployment of AI models deemed to pose catastrophic risks. While that bill aims to prevent serious harms before they happen, Grubar said the CLAIM Act would address how to impose accountability for existing damages.

Unlike an AI liability proposal announced last week by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Trahan’s legislation would not amend the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Grubar said the CLAIM Act would instead impose clearer liability on a broader range of harms, as well as autonomous or AI-enabled cyberattacks.

The CFFA, an anti-hacking law that bars individuals from accessing a computer without consent, requires proof of intent to hack into a computer system, which can’t be as easily applied to AI agents.

The Hugging Face incident, along with a flurry of other disclosed hacking incidents by rogue AI agents from OpenAI and other AI developers, has sparked a debate over how companies should be held legally liable for their AI systems.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in an interview with Blue Light News’s Decoded podcast, said there should be a new “liability framework” to hold developers accountable for AI-powered cyberattacks. His comments come after White House officials like Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, who was recently appointed as AI czar by President Donald Trump, previously said that existing product liability laws are sufficient for now in addressing AI’s risks.

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Vance to sit for CBS town hall in Michigan ahead of midterms

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15 hours ago

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October 7, 2026

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Vice President JD Vance will take questions from Michigan voters in a CBS News town hall airing Oct. 17 as the Trump administration prepares a closing message to voters ahead of the midterms.

The town hall comes amid a blitz of campaign events for Vance and President Donald Trump as their party faces multiple headwinds that could cost them control of the House and Senate.

Michigan’s Senate contest between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers has become one of the cycle’s closely watched battleground contests. Michigan also has several competitive House races and will elect a new governor for the first time in eight years.

Vance campaigned in Michigan with Rogers, gubernatorial nominee John James and Mike Bouchard Jr., the GOP nominee in the 10th Congressional District, at an Aug. 31 rally in Sterling Heights. Rep. Lisa McClain also appeared at the event.

The one-hour special, moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, will be recorded earlier in the week. Vance and Dokoupil will discuss issues facing voters, including affordability, tariffs, immigration, health care, artificial intelligence, the war with Iran and the state of American democracy, according to CBS News.

The two were scheduled for a town hall interview in March, but the vice president postponed due to the war with Iran.

The vice president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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