Congress

Capitol agenda: The megabill has mega issues

Published

1 year ago

April 30, 2025

Republicans’ drive toward the “big, beautiful” bill is starting to hit some big potholes.

As lawmakers get into gear on extending President Donald Trump’s tax cuts, cracks are deepening on critical issues, including Medicaid, food aid and even lower-profile issues like transportation funding. Lawmakers are also getting impatient for more details about the plans from leaders, including on lifting caps on deductions for state and local taxes.

“We’re in the seventh or eighth inning of this game. At some point in time, leadership and/or the committee need to reveal part of their hand,” Rep. Nick LaLota told reporters, adding he expects a number on how much leaders are planning to lift the SALT cap from a meeting Wednesday. “[It’s been] mostly pleasant the last few months, mostly because we haven’t been specific.”

Here are the key headaches they have to solve:

MEDICAID — House Speaker Mike Johnson has a deepening challenge on his hands: How to deal with the safety-net health program millions of Republican voters rely on. Couple that with blue-state Republicans’ push to boost the SALT cap, and he’s got a big math problem that could delay the GOP’s bid to extend Trump’s tax cuts.

Key vulnerable House Republicans like David Valadao and Don Bacon are raising red flags about the extent of potential spending cuts, as POLITICO reported Tuesday afternoon.

LaLota told reporters Tuesday he wants to hear more from Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie about how capping federal spending in states that have expanded Medicaid would impact recipients.

“My sense is that would be a cut, and I’m not in favor of that,” LaLota said. Guthrie is huddling with concerned members Wednesday.

SNAP — The White House won’t support a proposal to push some nutrition program costs onto states, House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson said Tuesday. That throws a wrench in his plans to scale back federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in order to reach their target of $230 billion in spending cuts.

Now he’s waiting to see if Republican leadership lowers the savings target. “If it’s $230 billion, I don’t think that’s an appropriate number” absent the cost-sharing arrangement, he said.

VEHICLE FEES — Johnson and other Republicans are also hesitant about a proposal to create a $20 annual fee on passenger cars in the Transportation and Infrastructure portion of the package. (It would be even higher for hybrids and electric vehicles.) The speaker said it wasn’t his “priority.” Fiscal hawk Rep. Chip Roy was more direct in his opposition, calling it a “gimmick.”

“Are you out of your fricking mind? Like, the party of limited government is gonna go out and say we’re gonna have a car tax?” Roy vented to reporters Monday.

FEDERAL PENSIONS — On Oversight, Rep. Mike Turner said he would oppose the committee’s proposal to slash federal employee retirement benefits as a way of offsetting the cost of the larger legislation. The panel is tasked with finding $50 billion in savings, much of which is expected to come from changes borne by the federal workforce.

“These pensions are not giveaways — they are promises to federal workers in exchange for their dedicated service,” Turner said in a statement.

CARRIED INTEREST — House Republicans might be souring on Trump’s proposal to kill a tax break favored by Wall Street. Ways and Means has privately indicated it’s not leaning toward closing so-called carried interest loophole in the package, according to one House Republican and another person familiar with the private conversations. One House Republican said they are “talking about it” but indicated it’s unlikely to survive.

What else we’re watching:

– Judiciary markup: House Judiciary will mark up its portion of GOP megabill Wednesday, which includes more than just the expected immigration provisions. The bill hands Trump a new swath of executive powers: It would consolidate the federal government’s antitrust enforcement powers at the Justice Department and supercharge the GOP’s deregulatory agenda. House Oversight, Financial Services and Transportation and Infrastructure will also mark up their portions of the GOP party-line bill Wednesday.

– Tariff talk: Senate Majority Leader John Thune is cracking down on members of his conference still squeamish over Trump’s trade strategy as Democrats and GOP Sen. Rand Paul push a vote Wednesday to reject the president’s use of emergency powers to impose blanket global tariffs. After four Republicans joined Democrats in rejecting the emergency Trump was using to justify his tariffs on Canadian imports, Thune warned GOP senators in a private lunch Tuesday with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer not to cross party lines again.

– Dems 100 days in: Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries will continue hammering the second Trump administration’s first 100 days in a joint appearance on the Capitol steps Wednesday afternoon. But even as Democrats cast Trump as their unifying force, fissures remain in their resistance strategy.

Benjamin Guggenheim, Meredith Lee Hill and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.

Congress

Mike Johnson voices uncertainty about his future if GOP loses control

Published

9 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

13 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.

Congress

Democrats call on Chuck Grassley to apologize to Jack Smith for basketball gaffe

Published

16 hours ago

October 8, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Judiciary Democrats are asking chair Chuck Grassley to apologize to Jack Smith on the behalf of his GOP committee members — especially for Sen. Eric Schmitt, the Missouri Republican who falsely accused Smith of secretly attending an NBA game in Atlanta to conspire with local prosecutors about bringing charges against President Donald Trump.

The letter, spearheaded by ranking member Dick Durbin of Illinois and obtained exclusively by Blue Light News, also demands Grassley turn over the underlying records Schmitt used during a hearing last month to levy the false allegations against Smith, the Biden-era special counsel investigating whether Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election and mishandled classified documents.

The episode, Democrats wrote, “caused needless confusion, slowed down the business of the Committee, introduced the possibility that false information would be entered uncontested into the record, and created an embarrassing stain on one of the most important committees in Congress.”

The Democratic letter to Republicans marks an escalation of the typical bickering between the two parties. It’s also reopening a not-yet-closed wound for Republicans, whose efforts to damage Smith’s reputation during their high-profile hearing were blunted by Schmitt’s error.

Congressional Republicans have for years been working to undermine Smith’s investigations as politically motivated, and many GOP senators on the Judiciary Committee hoped to use their hearing with Smith to catch him in either a lie or an admission he weaponized the judicial system against Trump.

To that end, Schmitt used a giant poster to display images of text messages from Smith’s team in an attempt to prove the special counsel was in Atlanta on Feb. 3, 2024, for an NBA basketball game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Golden State Warriors — scheduled around the same time local prosecutor Fani Willis, who was working to convict Trump over his 2020 election subversion scheme, was facing damaging questions about her conduct.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) display a sign accusing Jack Smith of meeting with Fani Willis during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 29, 2026.

Smith ultimately clarified he did not attend the NBA game on that date but was instead at a women’s basketball game at the University of Maryland between the Terrapins and the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, then led by star player Caitlin Clark. The exchange went viral and Schmitt continues to show no regret for his apparent misunderstanding.

The text messages “established only that Senator Schmitt had not done the basic due diligence of verifying a document before relying on it,” the Democrats wrote in their letter to Grassley, adding that, “nonetheless, Senator Schmitt incorrectly asserted to Mr. Smith, ‘I think you’ve already perjured yourself,’ and inexcusably branded him ‘a dirtbag,’ language which is beneath the dignity of this Committee and the Senate.”

And because Democrats didn’t have advance access to the materials Schmitt referenced in his presentation during the hearing, they said they were “were forced to synthesize these baseless accusations and respond in real time.”

Democrats also took aim at another record they say was not shared with them ahead of time: a readout of an Aug. 17, 2024, phone call between Smith and the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department, which Schmitt and fellow Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley both referred to during the Senate Judiciary hearing.

The notes from that phone call, which Hawley mentioned during his questioning of Smith, indicated the Public Integrity Section advised Smith to wait to file an updated indictment against Trump until after the 2024 presidential election. Smith had originally sought to file an amended indictment in the 2020 election subversion case following the Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump had broad immunity for official actions undertaken as president.

Smith testified during the hearing that several drafts of a superseding indictment were passed back and forth before one was ultimately approved and filed in August 2024.

“We ask that you immediately provide all committee records that you have withheld, commit to fully complying with Senate Rules … going forward, and apologize to Mr. Smith on behalf of the Committee,” the Senate Judiciary Democrats wrote.

Clare Slattery, a spokesperson for Grassley, said in a statement, “it’s Jack Smith who owes an apology to the thousands of Americans he and his staff ran roughshod over.”

Spokespeople for Smith, Schmitt and Hawley did not immediately respond to requests for comment.