Congress

Capitol agenda: Thune tries a new shutdown strategy

Published

12 months ago

October 15, 2025

Senate Democrats’ next tough decision? Whether to play ball with Republicans on full-year appropriations bills or hold out to maintain leverage in the shutdown fight.

GOP leaders are unleashing a new strategy in hopes of creating some movement amid the standoff. Majority Leader John Thune teed up a Thursday procedural vote on the House-passed Defense spending bill as his Republican colleagues try to expedite a House conference on the three-bill package the Senate passed in August.

Whether this is a pressure tactic or a trust-building exercise depends on whom you ask.

“If the Democrats can see the regular appropriations process running more smoothly, that might encourage them,” Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) told Blue Light News on Tuesday.

But Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who leads the agriculture subcommittee, told reporters this was a put-up-or-shut-up moment after weeks of sparring over the House’s posture on spending: “We’re thinking: OK, fine, then let’s go forward and see if they object and they’re just using it as an excuse.”

This much is clear: If Democrats refuse to help advance the full-year bills, Republicans plan to cast them as obstructionists. And if they agree, Republicans will argue that undercuts their shutdown stance.

“If we can show that we can move the appropriations bills, there’s absolutely no justification or rationale for a government shutdown,” Collins told Blue Light News.

The dilemma threatens to split Senate Democrats who have mostly presented a united front during the shutdown.

Democratic appropriators could be tempted to cooperate on bipartisan legislation they traditionally support. But the party would risk softening its push for GOP commitments on extending Obamacare subsidies and spending federal money as appropriated.

Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said she recently told Speaker Mike Johnson that only a leadership-level negotiation on a broader list of outstanding items, including health care, could break the impasse and end the shutdown.

But it could be tempting to at least make progress on the full-year bills while the shutdown drags on. As Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told Blue Light News, those are “two separate issues.”

“Since we’re here, let’s go ahead and get started on it,” he said. “I like the idea of using our time wisely.”

What else we’re watching:

— Johnson’s shutdown presser: The speaker will host a news conference with other House GOP leaders and Main Street Caucus Chair Mike Flood (R-Neb.), Vice Chair Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) and military veterans Reps. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) and Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) on the House steps at 10 a.m.

— House Democrats’ shutdown programming: Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will host a news conference with House Democrats on the House steps at 11:30 a.m. before their caucus meeting at noon. House Democratic leaders and their Steering and Policy Committee co-chairs will hold a forum on rising health care costs in the Capitol Visitor Center at 3 p.m.

— Possible Russia sanctions vote, Zelenskyy meeting: Thune left the door open Tuesday to voting on a long-stalled Russia sanctions bill as soon as this month. It comes as Trump is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House on Friday where the two will discuss supplying Ukraine with weapons. Senators are also working to set up a bipartisan meeting with Zelenskyy later this week.

Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

Congress

‘I think we win’: Schumer sets the tone as Senate Democrats grow more confident about November

Published

46 minutes ago

October 1, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A tidal wave of Republican money is threatening to soak Democrats in the final stretch of the midterm campaign, and Chuck Schumer has a message for his party: Keep your sheets dry.

While the Senate minority leader warned in an interview Wednesday that they shouldn’t be “overconfident,” he painted a rosy picture where Democrats have the “wind in our sails” and are well positioned to overcome an “almost obscene” GOP funding advantage.

“Here’s how I’d sum up the election: Can enormous amounts of Republican money beat a Democratic enormous advantage in much better candidates and a much better political climate?” Schumer asked in his Capitol Hill office. “I think we win.”

Those assurances are emblematic of the rising confidence many Senate Democrats are now expressing as they prepare to leave for a seven-week recess. After months where a tough GOP-tilted map and a series of nasty primary battles cast a shadow over their battle to retake the majority, some are more openly acknowledging they could return to Washington as victors.

“It certainly feels like it’s going to be a wave election, and not for good reasons,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in an interview. “This president’s domestic and foreign policy has gone off the rails. People are paying more than ever before for basic necessities like gasoline, and we have the most corrupt White House in the history of the country. So that’s where we are.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he was “increasingly hopeful,” while Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) said Democrats are “in a position to earn the trust of voters across the country, win majorities in both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate.”

Schumer, like most Senate Democrats, is being careful not to predict outright they will flip the chamber. They need to win four seats on net, including several that President Donald Trump won at least once.

But party leaders and strategists see an increasingly rosy political environment as high energy costs associated with the Iran war drive voter dismay, and Republicans grow publicly anxious about their prospects. They also believe they have landed on a winning message after more than a year in the messaging wilderness following Trump’s 2024 victory — “costs, chaos and corruption,” as Schumer put it Wednesday.

“I helped spread this in the caucus,” he said.

Schumer, like most Senate Democrats, is being careful not to predict outright they will flip the chamber.

Schumer declined to handicap the national map in detail, but the party has expanded the range of states it is spending in. The main Schumer-affiliated super PAC announced this week it would spend more than $50 million in Texas — a place it had once been reluctant to invest in.

Brushing off questions about specific investments, Schumer said, “We’re in much better shape in state after state after state, whether they be states that are a little more purple or states that are a little more red.”

Republicans are striking a different tone, telegraphing that they hope to hold on to their majority by the skins of their teeth. In one sign of the deep anxiety, GOP leaders kept the Senate in session this week to hold a vote on an affordability-related measure championed by one of their endangered incumbents, Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) put the GOP’s odds of success at “between 60, 70 percent,” acknowledging that any resulting majority would be “slim, maybe a net reduction.”

Asked Wednesday if he believed his party could hold on, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said, “I don’t know. … I’m doing everything I can.”

“I try to see the world as it is,” he added. “They’re all going to be close races.”

Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) said there was a “really, really good chance” at least one of the chambers would flip, “and if Republicans aren’t concerned that it could very well happen in both, they’re living in a cave to me.”

The November battlefield is coming into clearer focus for both parties. They now largely agree that Georgia, once expected to be a top GOP pickup opportunity, is now safely in the hands of incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff.

Democrats haven’t locked things up, however, in two other states where they are defending seats — Michigan and New Hampshire, where Sens. Gary Peters and Jeanne Shaheen, respectively, are retiring — though Democratic nominees lead in most polls there.

Even if Democrats hold on in those three states, they still need to win four seats currently held by Republicans.

The North Carolina seat Tillis is vacating is viewed as most likely to flip. After that, Democrats will need to cut a path through states like Maine, Ohio, Iowa, Alaska and Texas, with Kansas and Nebraska also seen as within reach by party leaders. Trump won all but Maine in 2024.

Schumer is facing pressure from some Democratic activists to go even deeper into GOP territory and invest serious money in Mississippi, Florida and South Carolina — where some polls show underfunded Democratic nominees nipping at the heels of GOP incumbents.

But some party strategists are leery of sinking donor cash into stretch races given the need to keep up with the flood of Republican spending in core states. Asked about that trade-off, Schumer said only Democrats would do “whatever it takes to win” and that he expects to spend the next five weeks fundraising.

“We have lots of different paths to victory, and we’re not going to turn any of them down,” he said.

There is plenty personally at stake for Schumer, who has been feeling heat from the party base for the better part of two years as they’ve bristled against the limits of Democrats ability to check Trump. As pressure has grown, Schumer has repeatedly touted his campaign recruiting successes as proof of his leadership skill.

He downplayed any divisions Wednesday, saying his caucus is “totally unified” going into the midterms and that he would seek to continue in the top spot regardless of the outcome.

“I am running for reelection for leader,” Schumer said. “Period.”

Calen Razor contributed to this report.

Congress

Ron Johnson blocks vote to stop Trump’s funding cancellations

Published

2 hours ago

September 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Ron Johnson blocked the Senate from passing a bill Wednesday to restore $810 million in federal funding President Donald Trump nixed Friday without Congress’ consent and stop him from using the controversial budget tactic again.

Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Patty Murray of Washington asked on the Senate floor to swiftly pass a measure that would nullify Trump’s latest move to unilaterally cancel money Congress appropriated and prevent similar attempts by blocking the president from sending requests to claw back federal dollars less than 90 days before the cash expires.

While objecting to passing the bill, Johnson said he supports the president doing “whatever it takes” to reduce federal spending.

“Personally, I wish it was a lot larger,” the Wisconsin Republican, who chairs the Budget Committee, said of the sum Trump canceled Friday. “That money doesn’t have to be spent, and it shouldn’t be spent.”

Merkley, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, argued that Trump’s move is akin to exercising “a line-item veto” and taking “a wrecking ball” to the vision of the country’s founding fathers.

While Johnson objected to passing the bill, several prominent Republican lawmakers have slammed the Trump administration’s latest move to cancel federal funding and are discussing ways to head off another attempt.

Those Republican calls to stop Trump from employing the funding maneuver are a turnabout after more than a year of resistance to taking action. Democrats have repeatedly attempted to use funding bills to defend against this kind of eleventh-hour clawback but were rebuffed by Republicans.

“Time after time, they have shot down our attempts to stop this administration from defying Congress and robbing our constituents,” said Murray, who described Trump’s latest cancellation as “theft from the American people, plain and simple.”

Congress

Cruz kills Blackburn effort to pass AI deepfakes bill

Published

4 hours ago

September 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz blocked an effort from Sen. Marsha Blackburn to pass her bill on the chamber floor Wednesday afternoon that would allow people to sue over artificial intelligence “deepfakes” — the latest episode in a long-running public rift between the two Republicans over AI legislation.

Blackburn of Tennessee argued the measure, the NO FAKES Act, would guarantee protections against the “proliferation harmful AI-created deepfakes” while ensuring artists and creative work are not impeded.

“Our bill would establish clear guardrails that protect our creators in Tennessee and across the entire country, in addition to establishing a federal intellectual property right in every American’s voice and visual likeness,” she said in a floor speech.

Blackburn sought to advance the bill by unanimous consent, a process that does not require a roll call vote but does permit any single senator to show up in person to object. That person Wednesday was Cruz, who argued the bill was not ready for primetime.

The Texas lawmaker said he had free speech concerns about the legislation as currently written — for example, would the AI-generated photos and videos like the ones frequently promoted on President Donald Trump’s social media accounts be deemed out of compliance? The same could end up being true for news parody websites like The Onion, Cruz added.

Blackburn said that free speech would not be jeopardized by her proposal, and that the bill instead targets online scamming activities that would certainly be illegal if conducted offline. Cruz was not convinced.

“I am happy to work with you,” Cruz ultimately told Blackburn. “But at least as of now, I object.”

Cruz and Blackburn have been at odds on the issue for some time, dating back to when a five-year deal to block states from enacting their own AI rules and regulations collapsed during One Big Beautiful Bill Act negotiations in 2025.

While Cruz voted for the NO FAKES Act in the Senate Judiciary Committee over the summer, he was unable to help broker a larger agreement with Blackburn and the White House to include it as part of a package of bills addressing preemption of state AI regulations and kids online safety issues.

Cruz also undercut Blackburn’s efforts during an Oval Office meeting over the summer, where he told Trump the package had no chance of moving in the Senate. The president ultimately held off on an endorsement.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a NO FAKES co-sponsor, emphasized the broad support from the creative industry that lawmakers have worked to build.

“This is the most baked, ready-to-go AI-related bill there is,” Coons said as he walked onto the Senate floor Wednesday. “We’ve done hearings, we’ve done technical assistance, we’ve done markups. It’s broadly bipartisan.”

Cruz, who objected Tuesday to an attempt to pass an AI safety bill by unanimous consent, countered that his bill making it a crime to knowingly publish sexually explicit images on the internet without the subjects’ consent — real or AI-generated — is the only major AI bill to become law in the 119th Congress.