Congress

Capitol agenda: Trump fund angst keeps GOP agenda in limbo

Published

4 weeks ago

June 1, 2026

After leaving town late last month for a one-week recess, House and Senate GOP leaders are returning to a slew of familiar problems threatening to leave their midterm-year agenda stalled in perennial limbo.

Republicans’ party-line immigration enforcement bill is stuck because of President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and there’s a mini-rebellion brewing over an Iran war powers resolution that, if adopted, would be politically embarrassing for the president (more on that below).

That’s to say nothing of the full-time task of managing internal GOP frustrations after a trio of incumbents fell to Trump-blessed challengers in the last two weeks.

And while there’s optimism about getting a deal to reauthorize a government spy authority before it expires June 12, there’s lingering cross-chamber divisions over a bipartisan housing bill, with the Senate eyeing changes to the latest House offer.

The biggest challenge for GOP leaders: The fate of their $72 billion immigration enforcement spending package. Senate Republicans delayed passage last month as a critical mass of their members were prepared to support Senate Democrats’ amendments to narrow or nix the Justice Department’s fund, which officials have said could be used to pay out individuals who attacked the Capitol Jan. 6, 2021.

That could have threatened the entire bill, either on Capitol Hill or with Trump, who has defended the pot of money to help those “badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration.”

Instead, Senate Republicans expect the administration to unveil modifications to the fund, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss the matter — if not announce they are nixing the account altogether. If the administration can quickly resolve the situation, Senate Republicans are prepared to kick off vote-a-rama as soon as Wednesday, according to a person with knowledge of the schedule.

And while it’s not impossible that Senate Republicans could propose their own guardrails if the administration refuses to play ball, that would come with its own political complications for GOP leaders. Another possible idea under discussion, according to two people with knowledge of the talks, is removing all of the Justice Department funding from the bill.

Moreover, Friday’s court ruling to temporarily block the fund from being tapped doesn’t change the calculus within the Senate GOP Conference, according to two people granted anonymity to describe internal party dynamics.

But so far, the White House and DOJ have been largely mum. A White House official told us late last week the administration “appreciated” last month’s conversation between GOP senators and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and all the “feedback.”

“We look forward to additional conversations as needed,” the official added.

The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, is showing no signs of backing down, telling his caucus in a “Dear Colleague” letter this morning that they are launching “a coordinated effort to kill the slush fund before one cent goes out the door. And no matter what Republicans do, we will force them to vote.”

It’s also causing drama in the House, where a group of bipartisan lawmakers are vowing to “kill” the fund as others want a commitment that payouts won’t be made to people who assaulted police officers during the Capitol attack.

What else we’re watching:

— GOP HARD-LINERS WANT URGENCY ON TRANS BILLS: GOP hard-liners who promised voters they’d use their new majority in Washington to enact anti-trans legislation are increasingly frustrated their leaders don’t seem to share the same commitment. A record number of bills that would roll back access to health care, sports participation and military service for transgender individuals have been introduced over the last year and a half after Republicans spent tens of millions of dollars campaigning on the issue in 2024.

— PEACE PLAN LOOMS OVER WAR POWERS VOTES: Congress is set to weigh in on the Iran war again this week. The question is whether a developing peace plan to end the conflict will sway enough Republicans against handing Trump a political loss.

Connor O’Brien and Paul McLeary contributed to this report.

Congress

Senate Ethics dismisses allegations against Ruben Gallego

Published

4 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.

Congress

Capitol agenda: Red, white and GOP hard-liner blues

Published

10 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Republicans finally cleared a runway this week to finish some of their top legislative priorities before the July 4 recess.

That is, unless a small band of hard-liners trip up those plans at takeoff.

Speaker Mike Johnson is hoping to move quickly to pass fiscal 2027 appropriations legislation, the annual defense policy bill and a kids online safety bill that has been years in the making. The movement comes after President Donald Trump instructed GOP hard-liners to stop holding up a procedural vote amid a protest from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and others that the Senate hadn’t passed Trump’s election security bill.

But Luna and other hard-liners are still threatening to tank the procedural vote that could delay the defense policy bill and other measures until they get concessions on the SAVE America Act, amid other demands.

Johnson, for example, had also promised hard-liners a vote before July 4 on a sweeping GOP immigration bill introduced in the prior Congress as H.R. 2, which is highly unlikely to happen.

Johnson for his part has said the House will “pass the SAVE America Act again” by folding parts of it into a third party-line reconciliation bill. But the slimmed-down version he’d need to pursue in order to meet strict Senate rules for the budget process is already being panned by hard-liners as insufficient.

That reconciliation bill is also already delayed. House Republicans aren’t on track to meet their goal of advancing its framework before the July 4 recess as members on the Budget panel balked over how to pay for the legislation in a closed-door meeting last week.

“Time is of the essence, given how many legislative days we have,” House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie, who is sponsoring the kids online safety legislation, said in an interview last week. “If we lose a week, that would be important.”

Meanwhile, Democratic leadership is grappling with their own heated internal divisions this week. Members are split over supporting the adoption of an amendment to a fiscal 2027 spending bill from Rep. Thomas Massie that would end Israel aid and cut the overall foreign military aid program by $3.3 billion.

Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro did not instruct her colleagues on how to vote during a rare Sunday evening caucus call, two sources granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting tell Mia and Riley. Leaders did, however, criticize the amendment as poorly written.

One other item this week that could split members of each party: House lawmakers are also slated to vote on a rewritten war powers resolution from Rep. Rashida Tlaib to reign in Trump administration military actions in Lebanon. Leadership worked with Tlaib to come up with new language last month that is expected to garner more Dem support, but the resolution is still expected to fail without GOP votes.

What else we’re watching:

— SENATE GOP GETS ANTSY ABOUT NOMINATIONS: Some Republican senators are unsettled by Trump’s apparent lack of urgency in filling vacant posts, even as GOP control of the chamber beyond the midterms is increasingly in doubt. There are more than two dozen federal court vacancies. Labor secretary, FDA commissioner and scores of other open positions do not have nominees, and a senior White House official said Trump is in no rush to fill them. “We’re running short on time,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a member of Senate HELP, which oversees health, labor and other issues.

—RICK SCOTT SAYS HE’S JUST TRYING TO HELP: Fresh off his controversial Trump invite to a Senate GOP lunch last week, Sen. Rick Scott told Blue Light News in an interview he’s trying to make a mark — not trying to challenge Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Scott insists that neither his invitation to the president nor a letter he circulated afterward outlining how the Senate GOP should be preparing for the midterms should be seen as a prelude to a leadership challenge. The Florida Republican said he’s perfectly happy running the conference’s conservative Steering Committee and predicted Thune would easily secure another term as leader. What has become eminently clear in recent weeks is that Scott — after a long career in business, two terms as governor and nearly eight years as senator — just isn’t a back-bench kind of guy.

Meredith Lee Hill, Riley Rogerson, Alex Gangitano, Jordain Carney and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.