Congress

Capitol agenda: Thune tries a new shutdown strategy

Published

9 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

Top Trump officials face bipartisan questions in first all-member Iran briefings

Published

28 minutes ago

June 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Lawmakers of both parties questioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio and top Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff Monday in the first broad congressional briefings on President Donald Trump’s Iran deal.

While Democrats asked some of the sharpest questions, participants in an afternoon conference call with House members said, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) at one point pressed the administration officials on the fate of Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium.

According to two people granted anonymity to disclose the private remarks, Witkoff and Rubio repeated assurances the administration has privately made to select lawmakers in prior briefings — that the goal is to negotiate a final deal that would prohibit Iran from keeping its highly enriched uranium.

The memorandum of understanding Trump signed earlier this month, they said, was meant to launch those negotiations. Witkoff, the people said, added that the technical team involved in that part of the talks was traveling from Switzerland to Qatar, where talks between the U.S. and Iran are set to happen Tuesday.

Democrats, meanwhile, pushed the administration for more details on what financial benefits Iran could reap under the memorandum — including proceeds from previously sanctioned oil sales.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) went back and forth with Rubio and Witkoff over the lifting of the oil sanctions, two other people granted anonymity on the House call said. The officials eventually cut off the conversation and ended the call.

At another point, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) raised concerns about Witkoff’s business interests in the Middle East as he’s negotiating with Iran, prompting a sharp defense from Rubio, those people said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked Rubio and Witkoff about the oil sanctions during a separate all-senators call Monday, saying in a statement afterward that they “confirmed to me that Iran will reap billions in oil revenue while retaining dangerous leverage over the Strait of Hormuz.”

“If this is the administration’s defense behind closed doors, Secretary Rubio should make it under oath, in public, before the Foreign Relations Committee,” Schumer added, calling the briefing “delayed, deficient, and devoid of details.”

An administration official granted anonymity to speak candidly countered on Schumer’s characterization, noting that he had previously gotten a briefing of the deal as part of a group of top leaders engaged on national security matters. Schumer, the official said, had the opportunity to ask multiple follow-up questions on the Senate call.

A separate group of White House officials briefed top congressional leaders and key committee chairs in a classified briefing in the Capitol later Monday.

The administration has faced bipartisan skepticism over multiple provisions of the memorandum of understanding — particularly the lifting of oil sanctions and a $300 billion reconstruction fund that many Senate Republicans fear will help fuel Iran’s military and regional proxies.

Rubio and Witkoff sought to ease concerns about the slow reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — the critical trade route whose closure has sparked higher fuel and fertilizer costs. Both officials said more mine removal is required, and Witkoff indicated that Iran broke the terms of the Trump-signed deal by launching a drone attack on a passing ship over the weekend.

They also sought to assure lawmakers that Iran has received no money under the memorandum — especially not directly from American sources. Administration officials have previously pledged in smaller briefings that the reconstruction fund won’t include U.S. funds.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) called the Senate briefing a “productive conversation” but said “much of what I heard today is similar to what I heard last week” during a dinner at Vice President JD Vance’s residence.

Congress

Senate Ethics dismisses allegations against Ruben Gallego

Published

5 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate Ethics Committee has dismissed allegations of misconduct levied against Sen. Ruben Gallego, who stood accused by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of “campaign finance violations and inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature.”

The charges came following the resignation of the Arizona Democrat’s longtime friend, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who was forced to step down amid accusations of serious sexual misconduct. Luna, a Florida Republican, sought to implicate Gallego by claiming in an interview on CBS that a woman would come forward about an “incident that occurred between the two of them at the same time and the event was sexual in nature allegedly.”

But in a letter to Gallego sent Monday — which he shared in a public news release — the notoriously inactive Ethics Committee cited Gallego’s “prompt contact with the Committee following media reports of the allegations and appreciated your full cooperation with the Committee throughout the investigation.”

Gallego has maintained he was unaware of the allegations against Swalwell and said in a statement he was a victim of “right-wing conspiracies peddled by far-right activists like Anna Paulina Luna, the White House, and their allies.”

He continued, “I look forward to an apology from Rep. Luna for weaponizing the ethics process while refusing to investigate historic corruption that’s making life harder for families.”

Luna, in a post on X, defended her referral to the Senate Ethics Committee.

“The good news about DC is everyone talks, and eventually the reporters come forward with your texts,” Luna wrote on social media. “Do yourself a favor and keep raising for your legal defense fund. Once a creep always a creep, and you’re gonna need it.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s state. She represents Florida.

Congress

Rubio, Witkoff to brief Congress on Iran

Published

8 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Top deputies of President Donald Trump will brief Congress on the Iran peace talks in a Monday conference call — the first time administration officials have addressed a broad group of lawmakers since Trump signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Tehran earlier this month.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, will lead the briefing for all House and Senate members at 4 p.m., according to seven people granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

Republicans and Democrats have called for more transparency about the 14-point agreement inked on June 18, which initiated a cease-fire between the two countries. Since then, the U.S. and Iran have continued to engage in hostilities.