Congress

Collins slams Trump plan to ‘politicize’ grants as defying Congress

Published

48 minutes ago

September 21, 2026

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins warned Monday that President Donald Trump would be defying Congress if he moves forward with empowering top political appointees to decide who gets grant funding for health research.

“Any attempt to politicize grantmaking … is contrary to congressional intent,” the Maine Republican said in a statement.

Trump wants to issue an executive order to seat White House budget director Russ Vought and National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya on a board that would decide which grants the NIH should fund, according to two administration officials granted anonymity to describe a private meeting in the Oval Office last Friday.

Following reports of that meeting, Collins noted Monday that the stopgap funding patch Congress cleared this summer bars the White House from finalizing a separate proposed rule to put political appointees in charge of approving federal grants, or “any substantially similar” plan.

The Office of Management and Budget “should not be involved in agency decisions on the awards of grants,” Collins said, adding that “imposing a political review … undermines the long-standing principle that the government funds awards based on scientific need and merit, rather than political ideology.”

Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the House’s top Democratic appropriator, called the White House’s latest idea an attempt to “take control over federal funding, so they can use it to punish their perceived enemies and reward their friends.”

Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the Senate’s top Democratic appropriator, warned that the move would mean “a single political appointee could kill a cancer study or an Alzheimer’s trial with no scientific reason at all.”

A spokesperson for House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole did not return a request for comment regarding the Oklahoma Republican’s position.

Congress

Hinson calls for end to Iran war amid soaring diesel costs

Published

3 hours ago

September 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) on Monday expressed frustration over the ongoing war in Iran and its impact on Iowans’ pocketbooks, publicly distancing herself from President Donald Trump ahead of November’s rapidly approaching midterm elections.

“Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran,” Hinson said in a post to social media on Monday. “We need to use every option at our disposal to provide some relief from high prices.”

It’s the second time Hinson, the GOP candidate in Iowa’s critical Senate race and a loyal ally of Trump’s, has expressed concerns over the war. In June, Blue Light News obtained audio of Hinson warning the war could become a “political liability” if it continued much longer. Hinson did not mention Trump by name in her Monday statement.

Hinson called for suspending the gas tax, pausing diesel exports and creating a diesel relief program to help farmers and truckers “being crushed by the high costs,” among several other possible solutions.

“These actions to lower costs are needed ASAP, and the war needs to be brought to a successful and immediate end,” she added.

Gas and diesel prices have soared over the duration of the war with Iran, which began in February. Regular gas was just over $4.45 per gallon on Monday, according to AAA, and diesel prices hit a record high of $6.50 per gallon.

Trump and members of his administration have dismissed concerns over the costs.

“You have a little higher. It’s a very inexpensive price to pay for what we’ve done,” Trump said during a campaign stop in North Carolina last week. “Remember that. It’s a little more. Frankly, even if it was a lot more.”

Hinston on Monday said she will “work with anyone who is ready to tackle this challenge immediately.”

Congress

Senior GOP appropriator pours cold water on funding Trump’s arch

Published

4 hours ago

September 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson, a senior Appropriations Committee Republican, questioned whether federal funds should be spent on construction of President Donald Trump’s triumphal arch, which the president claimed over the weekend could be used for military purposes.

“There’s a lot of things that we need the military funding for — in fact, we’re short on military funding right now,” Simpson told reporters at the Capitol Monday.

“If it was my choice, I wouldn’t put any of that money into the arch,” Simpson added, when pressed on whether Pentagon funding should be used at all.

Simpson spoke a day after Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that the arch — which he wants to build less than a mile from the Pentagon, just across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial — would be used to store and deploy drones and snipers.

Given that rationale, Simpson said the arch is “something that needs to be debated” and that other Defense Department needs should take priority.

“I hope if they decide to do it, that they would come to Congress and ask for an appropriation for it if they’re going to use appropriated dollars to do it,” Simpson said.

Simpson also questioned Trump’s ban of three news outlets over the weekend, including Blue Light News, as well a recent comments from House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) suggesting members of the media should be barred from the the Speakers Lobby, a space just off the House floor. He called any such media ban “wrong.”

“Just because you don’t like what the press is reporting — or the fact that they wouldn’t call it the Gulf of America or something else like that — that’s not the reason to ban the press,” he said. “You should never ban the press. The press is what keeps us honest. So I don’t like what they’re doing.”

Congress

Jared Golden crosses party lines again, endorsing Mike Lawler for reelection

Published

5 hours ago

September 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) endorsed GOP Rep. Mike Lawler in his reelection campaign in suburban New York, Golden wrote in an opinion article published on Monday.

Lawler is facing a tough reelection campaign against Democrat Cait Conley in one of the biggest House battlegrounds this November. The lawmakers have previously collaborated to advance the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act, and are both members of the centrist Problem Solvers Caucus.

Golden, who is not running for reelection, was one of two House Democrats to break with the party and twice vote in favor of the Republican legislative agenda earlier in September. He and Rep. Marie Glusenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) were the deciding votes in pushing through a pair of key procedural votes in a closely divided chamber. The GOP-led bills included a resolution condemning socialism that Republicans want to use against Democrats on the campaign trail.

House Democrats have since pressured Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to punish the defectors.

“Mike Lawler has been a true partner to me and a friend to fishing families he will never represent,” Golden wrote. “I strongly back him, and I hope voters send him back to work. Wherever you live, find the members who pass laws with the other party, and keep them.”

Gluesenkamp Perez is running for reelection in a red-leaning district.

The Lobsterman Protection Act passed in the House with bipartisan support in September. The bill would delay the implementation date for regulations meant to protect the endangered North Atlantic whale. The current rule is too onerous, Maine’s fishing industry and its advocates have argued.

Lawler represents a suburban New York district that is unimpacted by the regulations, but Golden praised the New Yorker for working alongside him to help the fishing community.

“That is how Congress is supposed to work: members of different parties set aside their disagreements, find a problem that matters to the country and fix it,” Golden said.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Conley and Jeffries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“While we are from different parties and different states, Jared and I have worked during our time together in the House to find common ground on issues that matter both to us and our constituents,” Lawler wrote in a statement.