Congress

Capitol Agenda: Welcome back to the House

Published

10 months ago

November 11, 2025

The House is coming back into session to end the shutdown after more than 50 days in recess. Here’s what to expect in the next 24 to 36 hours.

Chiefs of staff for House members have received notice to make arrangements for their bosses to return to Washington. The chamber has a lengthy to-do list that’s piled up since lawmakers have been back in their districts, but the first task is taking up Senate-passed legislation to reopen the government.

Today is a federal holiday in observance of Veterans Day, but House GOP leadership is prepared to convene a Rules meeting sometime in the afternoon to tee up the government funding package for floor consideration Wednesday. Votes could occur as soon as Wednesday at 4 p.m. according to a whip notice that went out Monday night.

Republicans appear ready to support the bill, which would fund a handful of agencies for the full fiscal year and the rest of the federal government through the end of January. Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday he thinks he has the votes. The House Freedom Caucus “is cool” with it too, according to one of the caucus members, who said the group sees it as a win because it doesn’t include an extension of the expiring Obamacare subsidies.

President Donald Trump has also called it a “very good” deal — an endorsement that’s likely to help some wavering fiscal conservatives get on board.

Johnson’s biggest dilemma at the moment involves travel logistics for his members, many of whom will be contending with canceled or delayed fights as a result of major shutdown-related air travel disruptions. Johnson has encouraged lawmakers to make arrangements to come back to town as soon as possible.

It’s less clear how many Democrats will break ranks in support of the bipartisan deal brokered in the Senate. Most members of the minority party are irate to be caving without a deal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. House Democratic leaders plan to vote against the bill and are whipping against it.

In a new statement shared first with Inside Congress, leadership of the moderate New Democrat Coalition — which makes up the largest ideological caucus of Democrats in the House — is also opposing the package too.

“While New Dems always seek common ground, our Coalition remains united in opposition to legislation that sacrifices the wellbeing of the constituents we’re sworn to serve,” New Democrat Coalition Chair Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) said in the statement.

Some Democrats could break ranks. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the only Democrat to support the GOP-led continuing resolution back in September; keep an eye on other centrists, like Reps. Marie Perez Gluesenkamp (D-Wash.) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas). But none of them have revealed how they could vote this week.

What else we’re watching:

— GOP ACA group: As Congress works toward a bipartisan solution to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies and prevent insurance premiums from skyrocketing, Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Rick Scott of Florida and Roger Marshall of Kansas will represent Republicans at the negotiating table, Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced Monday night. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will run point for Democrats in the health care talks.

— Thune’s Leg Branch provision: Senate Republicans secured a provision in the bipartisan, shutdown-ending government funding package that could award senators hundreds of thousands of dollars for having their phone records collected without their knowledge as part of a Biden-era investigation. It turns out that legislative language came directly from Thune.

Calen Razor, Nicholas Wu, Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.

Congress

How Talarico is countering Trump’s midterms convention

Published

2 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

James Talarico is planning to counterprogram President Donald Trump’s GOP midterms convention in Dallas with a focus on affordability.

The idea from the Texas Democratic Senate candidate and seminarian: host a statewide “Love Thy Neighbor” food drive to offer a contrast with Republicans coming to town and highlight the high cost of groceries, according to plans shared first with Blue Light News.

“Next week, billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians will gather at a convention in Dallas to clink champagne glasses and toast their own corruption. They’re paying $20,000 for entry to a Billionaire Ball celebrating corrupt tariffs, billionaire tax breaks, and a new forever war that are all driving grocery costs through the roof,” Talarico said in a statement to Blue Light News. “We’ll be doing something different. We’re bringing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together to collect groceries for our neighbors who have been screwed over by corrupt politicians.”

The campaign said it will “mobilize volunteers to collect, sort, and donate groceries for middle class Texans struggling with the high price of groceries.” The event will last from Sunday, Sept. 6 through Wednesday, Sept. 9 — the same day the GOP convention kicks off.

Talarico is also expected to field media interviews in a large warehouse near the convention.

“Texans across the political spectrum will come together to build community, show up for their neighbors, and take power back for working people,” the campaign said in a statement.

A recent poll conducted by Texas Public Opinion Research poll released last week showed Talarico leading ,his opponent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 48 percent to 42 percent.

Trump this week said he would campaign for Paxton soon.

Congress

‘I don’t think anyone is really comfortable’: Democrat leading on AI raises alarms at Trump, Zuckerberg call

Published

2 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A House Democrat trying to lead her party on artificial intelligence policy sent a warning shot Friday to tech CEOs trying to undermine efforts to regulate the fast-growing technology.

In an interview, Rep. Lori Trahan raised alarm bells over a POLITICO report detailing attempts by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to personally discourage President Donald Trump from moving ahead with plans to establish an independent AI regulator modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA.

“I don’t think anyone is really comfortable when they see tech executives who are sitting on the stage at the president’s inauguration, and have had to pay millions of dollars to this fund and that fund, calling the shots,” said the Massachusetts Democrat.

Allowing Zuckerberg to call the shots on the proposed AI commission would be tantamount to “a complete abdication of Congress,” Trahan continued. She also suggested would use her perch on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to work with other Democrats to haul in industry executives like Zuckerberg to testify, should Democrats win back the House majority in the midterms.

“Congress’ job is to do oversight and to have those hearings,” she said. “And I think we would learn a lot from those hearings so that we can put pen to paper on thoughtful proposals. So yes, there have been a number of people, myself included, who have called for those hearings, and I think we’re going to continue to do that.”

Trahan is poised to be a major player in the coming weeks and months when it comes to AI, especially if Democrats prevail in the November elections and are forced to solidify a position on the subject; the party is currently all over the map.

Unlike other Democrats who have retreated to their corners to work on partisan proposals, Trahan has gone out on a limb by crossing the aisle to broker a deal on a bipartisan AI safety bill with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) — a package that was originally met with disdain by members of both parties.

She announced this week she would opt out of a run for a place in House Democratic leadership after being widely expected to make a play in the next Congress — in part, she said, to continue working on AI issues.

But Trahan’s comments Friday illustrate the deep distrust among Democrats, herself included, over the GOP approach to AI regulation — from Republicans waffling on whether they support the proliferation of data centers to Trump’s recent call with Zuckerberg.

Her calls are consistent with left-leaning members like Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who has been at the forefront of the most aggressive proposals to crack down on top tech companies.

“The CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI say that cutting edge AI could be as dangerous as nuclear weapons,” Casar said Thursday on X in response to the Blue Light News report. “But Trump is conspiring with billionaires for this technology to be regulated like … Hollywood movies.”

Trahan said Friday that “reasonable people can disagree on what regulatory construct we come up with” governing development and use of AI.

But, she added, “what I don’t think the American people agree with is that Mark Zuckerberg and President Trump are going to figure that out on a phone call.”

Congress

House Dem election leader’s message to states: Count faster

Published

2 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Democrats’ top election leader has a message for states ahead of the midterms: count faster.

“We are, I think, nicely trying to encourage people to do their balloting as quickly as possible, and that means hiring additional staff so that it doesn’t call into question results,” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said in a Thursday interview with Blue Light News.

The advice is just one part of Morelle’s efforts to secure the midterm elections. He said Democrats have wargamed over 150 scenarios of how the Trump administration could attempt to interfere or complicate the November elections and its certification. He is encouraging states to have a “degree of urgency” when counting ballots to stave off Republican-led conspiracy theories about the reasons for delays.

Morelle said he is leaning on states to staff up on election officials to facilitate speedy ballot counting while emphasizing the process should still be “done properly,” “fairly” and that “we don’t want people with cast ballots not to have their ballots counted.” He is going to Los Angeles next week to deliver that message and meet with election security experts and election administrators — though he did not specify whom he is meeting with or where.

“We are trying to gently encourage people to staff up,” he said. Morelle added that if Democrats take the House majority, they’d “push for more resources for local and state administrators so they can hire additional capacity.”

Morelle has other big plans in the majority, including cracking down on dark money in politics, protecting voting rights and most notably, working on a bipartisan voter identification bill.

Asked whether he could accept some form of voter identification as part of a larger bipartisan elections package, Morelle said, “I’m personally not opposed to some form of voter ID,” adding that he has opposed multiple Republican-led proposals to tighten up identification requirements.

“I don’t know where my colleagues on the Democrat side will be, but I think voters think, ‘Okay, you show your ID for just tons of things. Is it really that much of a burden?’” he said. “And if it is, we’ll get state issued IDs or federally issued IDs to people who can’t afford it. So I do think that there’s hope for a bipartisan way forward, and I’ll be anxious to work with colleagues to do it.”