Congress

Cassidy projects optimism on winning bipartisan support for his health care plan

Published

11 months ago

December 7, 2025

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said he planned to present Republican leadership with his health care plan as soon as Sunday night, predicting that the divisive proposal to put money directly in Americans’ health savings accounts could clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass in the Senate.

“We’re working to deliver to Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson a plan, which I think could get 60 votes, which gives the American people the power, and they can choose a lower premium and an HSA,” he said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with host Shannon Bream. “We’re working on that. And I’ll give them a piece of paper probably by e-mail tonight.”

Cassidy is pushing for congressional leadership to advance his health care plan, which encourages Americans enrolled in Obamacare to switch to lower-premium, bronze-level plans with the hope that they would be able to afford higher out-of-pocket health care costs with new funding in their HSAs.

But the proposal faces skepticism from Democrats and health policy experts, who caution that it would do too little to help consumers facing skyrocketing premiums — merely shifting who they’d pay when — as health care subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn’t work out a deal to extend them.

Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, acknowledged: “You can’t fix everything by January 1, 2026” but said the decision about whether or not to extend health care subsidies to some extent while lawmakers debate a more sprawling overhaul of Obamacare is ultimately “a political decision.”

Cassidy said he’d been talking to Democrats about his proposal and that there was “absolute interest” in bipartisan cooperation.

“We may disagree on the threshold. … But if we can get to a framework where they give the American people a choice, they can stay with the policy they have with a $6,000 deductible or they can go to another policy with a lower premium and money in a health savings account for them to purchase that which they do, the rest is just political decisions,” he told Bream.

House Speaker Mike Johnson was set to huddle with Republican leaders on Blue Light News this weekend as he races to finalize a plan ahead of Tuesday’s GOP conference meeting.

Johnson told POLITICO last week he hopes to schedule a vote on a health care package before the end of the year, but House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was noncommittal on a timeline.

House leaders are considering pulling from an array of GOP proposals, including a bipartisan pitch for a one-year extension of the subsidies led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) and a two-year extension plan pushed by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.).

President Donald Trump, who has voiced support for Cassidy’s health savings account plan, has opted not to wade into the details of what should be included in a health care package.

Congress

Bill Foster cools on challenging Maxine Waters

Published

10 hours ago

October 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Bill Foster is leaning against challenging Rep. Maxine Waters for the top Democratic spot on the House Financial Services Committee, according to two people with knowledge of his thinking who were granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

The Illinois Democrat has been considering a bid to topple Waters but has not made a final decision, the people said. The timeline for him doing so is unclear.

Democratic Rep. Sean Casten, also from Illinois, told Waters earlier this month that he plans to run against her, likely teeing up a major fight over the Financial Services role, which the California Democrat has held since 2013.

Most Financial Services Democrats on the committee have publicly backed Waters for the role.

Foster, who was first elected in 2008, previously discussed with Waters ways to reform the committee that would give subcommittee chairs more power to shape the panel’s agenda. A physicist with a doctorate, Foster is currently the top Democrat on a House Financial Services Financial Institutions Subcommittee.

A Foster spokesperson declined to comment.

Congress

Senate Democrats’ top super PAC spends in South Carolina for the first time

Published

10 hours ago

October 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Democrats’ top super PAC is pushing into South Carolina — just five days before the election.

Senate Majority PAC is putting $750,000 into digital ads to boost Democrat Annie Andrews, who they see as in an increasingly competitive position against GOP Sen. Darline Graham. The first spot could air as soon as Friday, and is set to attack Graham over rising costs and position Andrews as a fighter against corruption, according to plans shared first with Blue Light News.

The Chuck Schumer-aligned group’s investment comes as public polling shows a tightening race in the closing stretch. Republicans say they’re confident in Graham’s ability to hold the seat, in part because the GOP-aligned Senate Leadership Fund recently pledged to spend at least $5 million in the race. President Donald Trump has already held two rallies in the state to boost his hand-picked senator.

“South Carolina is tightening, and Republicans know it — you don’t send $5 million and the president to a state if you’re not nervous,” SMP spokesperson Lauren French said in a statement.

“Darline Graham is an empty suit who was handed a Senate seat and has no idea what to do with it,” French added. “Annie Andrews will lower costs on gas, groceries, insurance, and housing. In a race this close, a late infusion of cash can make the difference, and that’s why we’re in.”

Representatives for Andrews and Graham did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the investment.

Even with the extensive outside support, Graham’s campaign has been weighed down by voter fatigue after several contentious primaries, questions about her political inexperience and an increasingly difficult national environment for Republicans.

The South Carolina spending marks Democrats’ newest late-stage push into deep-red Senate races as they look to leverage Americans’ frustrations with the cost of living and Trump’s agenda to keep expanding the map. If Andrews wins next week, it would mark the first time South Carolina elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998.

Strong showings by former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina and Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia have allowed SMP to draw down its spending in those erstwhile battlegrounds while pumping millions of dollars into traditionally red territory like Texas, Kansas and Mississippi.

Congress

Oklahoma’s next senator can be seated immediately after election, state AG rules

Published

10 hours ago

October 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The winner of next week’s Oklahoma Senate race will be able to take office immediately after the election, effectively ending Republican Sen. Alan Armstrong’s appointment before the current session of the Senate concludes, the state attorney general ruled on Thursday.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s ruling on Thursday could pave the way for Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), the heavy favorite in the race and a Trump ally, to be seated by early November.

Armstrong, a former energy executive, was appointed in March to temporarily fill the seat vacated by Markwayne Mullin, now Department of Homeland Security secretary.

Both Armstrong and Hern submitted memorandums to the state attorney general’s office in disagreement over when Armstrong’s appointment ends, with Hern arguing he should be able to take office before the beginning of the next Congress.

“Oklahoma law and the U.S. Constitution point to the same answer: the voters fill this seat,” Drummond said in a statement. “Oklahomans will choose their next senator at the polls on Nov. 3, and that person will be eligible to take office once the election is certified. This opinion gives the Governor and the Legislature clear guidance on how to proceed.”

This November’s election is for a full six-year term in the Senate. Mullin, a former member of the House, initially won a 2022 special election to complete the term of the Sen. Jim Inhofe, who retired early in January 2023.

Armstrong was not a candidate to replace Mullin; Oklahoma law bars Senate appointees from seeking election to a full term.

Drummond’s formal opinion, addressed to Gov. Kevin Stitt and Oklahoma state Senate President pro tempore Lonnie Paxton, effectively sides with Hern and points to a state statute, which directs the governor to appoint a person “to serve in such office until a successor is elected.”

“The Governor has no discretion to decline or delay certifying the election,” Drummond added.

A spokesperson for Armstrong’s office said they are reviewing the state attorney general’s opinion, and “in the meantime, Senator Armstrong’s full focus remains on passing comprehensive permitting reform to lower utility prices, grow the economy, and get America building again.”

Hern did not immediately respond to a request for comment.