Congress

Conservatives hope to enlist Trump in their spending war. It won’t be that easy.

Published

2 years ago

December 24, 2024

Conservatives who want to slash the federal budget are hoping they can enlist President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk to their side come January. But last week’s meltdown over government funding underscored that Trump doesn’t always share their fiscal restraint.

Though Trump and Musk helped upend an initial bipartisan appropriations deal loathed by fiscal hardliners, 38 House Republicans later balked at Trump’s big demand in the next bill: a looser limit on Washington’s borrowing authority.

That move is a reminder that Trump exploded the deficit and greenlit billions in additional spending during his first term — two overall budget concerns that the House Republicans who opposed last week’s bill say they want to fix.

After the debt ceiling battle last week, the fiscal rebels, GOP leadership and Trump appeared to land on a handshake agreement to raise the debt limit next year in exchange for $2.5 trillion in spending cuts. It won’t be easy as Republicans try to deliver on campaign pledges that include bolstering border security, slashing taxes and boosting energy production.

For now, fiscal conservatives are banking on Trump being their best hope after losing battle after battle the last two years.

“We allow the bureaucracy to grow. We pass CR after CR,” said Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, who voted against a Trump-blessed funding plan on the floor last week. “That’s going to be where the Trump bully pulpit is going to come in and actually try to deal with some of this stasis, this problem.”

“We’ve never had the level of focused reform that you have coming in,” echoed Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.). “The incoming executive branch is on our side.”

It’s a big risk for fiscal hardliners. Trump could be effective at pushing for cuts if he wants, or he could end up amplifying the GOP’s existing internal fights and cause more chaos. And if he doesn’t ultimately align with conservatives on their spending goals, it raises questions about whether those members will get into a public fight with the incoming president or bend to his will.

And they’re not the only ones courting Trump and Musk. Different factions of the conference have their own relationships with the president-elect and have been clearly trying to appeal to Musk on his mission to find significant government funding cuts. And Speaker Mike Johnson has worked diligently for months to keep Trump on his side, with mixed results. Trump may be unhappy with Johnson after the spending battle, but he hasn’t publicly crossed him ahead of the Jan. 3 speaker vote — where Johnson appears to be on thin ice.

“Things are going to be very different around here. This was a necessary step to bridge the gap to put us into that moment where we can put our fingerprints on the final decisions on spending for 2025,” Johnson said shortly after the House passed a bill that funded the government with wide Democratic support.

Other, more centrist Republicans, are also embracing the idea of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, even if they aren’t aligned on the specifics. Some are actively hoping Trump can help them tame their hardliners instead of emboldening them.

“I think unified government helps us, because I think President Trump is going to tell some of these guys: ‘Get in line,’” said centrist Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), noting, without naming anyone, that the GOP is also losing some of its most “incendiary” members.

Even appropriators are opening the door to having outside eyes on the federal budget process — they have their own ideas for where Trump and his allies should look to cut spending.

“If this DOGE group really wants to do something, they should look at the mandatory spending, how we can fix that problem,” said Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), referring to a bucket of government funding that involves things like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.

But members of the House Freedom Caucus and others in their corner of the conference have already started to try to sway Trump’s DOGE leaders, in particular. They warned Musk and his co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy during a closed-door meeting that some of the very House Republicans in the room with them were the biggest impediment to overhauling spending and the size of the federal government, according to three people in the meeting.

Conservatives will also have two notable allies in the middle of the White House budget process: Russ Vought, who Trump intends to nominate to lead the Office of Management and Budget, and outgoing North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop, who is being tapped for the No. 2 OMB spot.

And they are encouraging Musk and Ramaswamy to effectively launch a public pressure campaign against Republicans who impede their efforts — a move that could risk backfiring. There are early signs that GOP lawmakers are already bristling after Musk injected uncertainty into the December spending fight. The two men also pitched creating a “naughty” and “nice” list to help keep members accountable.

“I think what they’re able to do is shine a spotlight on this crap and frankly force Congress to do its job,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas). “Their primary benefit is going to be [to] expose — if they can highlight the stupid then Congress has to defend the stupid, or they have to get with the program to fix the stupid.”

Congress

Todd Blanche won’t get Thursday vote in Senate Judiciary Committee

Published

5 hours ago

July 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate Judiciary Committee has abandoned plans to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general Thursday, according to a committee spokesperson.

The decision comes as Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) continue to push the Justice Department to revise a controversial settlement agreement between President Donald Trump and the IRS. A “no” vote from either senator would effectively sink Blanche’s nomination.

The two senators met Wednesday with Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) but did not announce any breakthrough.

“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure,” said the spokesperson, who declined to be named. “Senators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement. Tomorrow’s markup is postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support in committee to favorably report [Blanche], who is highly qualified for the job.”

The meeting could still be rescheduled if Cornyn and Tillis are placated, but any delay threatens Senate GOP leaders’ plans to confirm Blanche before the chamber adjourns for its summer recess next week.

Congress

White House pitches Senate GOP on ‘tight’ party-line bill focused on military, farm aid

Published

10 hours ago

July 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

White House officials urged Senate Republicans on Wednesday to quickly adopt a spending blueprint for a narrowly focused party-line spending bill, but they struggled to quash GOP skepticism about the administration’s vision.

White House budget director Russ Vought stressed during the private lunch meeting with Senate Republicans that the next package passed under the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process should include only President Donald Trump’s most urgent priorities — particularly defense spending and aid for farmers.

Vought said Republicans should not seek to cut spending or otherwise offset the deficit impact of the tens of billions of dollars the Trump administration wants enacted, nor should they attempt to raise the debt limit.

“It should be tight,” he told reporters as he exited the lunch. “It should be for the defense needs that we need now, for the [agriculture] needs that we need now. And to get this as straight a shot to the president’s desk as possible.”

That approach comports with the $95 billion framework the House adopted last week before lawmakers there left Washington for their summer recess. But Vought and other White House officials faced pushback in the room Wednesday on a variety of issues.

Majority Leader John Thune warned afterward that he doesn’t believe he has the votes for the narrow budget resolution the Trump administration is contemplating. He said there was a disconnect between the narrow bill the White House is seeking and the political challenges it creates.

Those challenges revolve around “vote-a-rama” — a feature of the reconciliation process that allows Democrats to force a series of amendment votes that could put GOP senators in tough spots. The more committees the budget resolution “instructs” to deliver legislation, the more opportunities Democrats will have to create political mischief for Republicans.

“Some of the things that are contemplated being done in this reconciliation bill, or in this budget resolution legislation, are things that could implicate a number of committees,” Thune said. “Obviously that creates an uphill challenge in terms of trying to ensure that you have 50” votes.

Senators also aired concerns about Trump’s obsessive focus on the GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act. The House blueprint contemplates including parts of that bill in the party-line package.

But Senate Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said doing so in the Senate could involve more committees — and open up the range of issues Democrats would be able to force politically troublesome votes on.

“I think we all hate vote-a-rama,” Johnson added. “Some people are more sensitive to the kind of votes they have to take.”

In another complication, some Senate defense hawks want more military spending than the $60 billion House Republicans laid out in their own framework. Johnson said he and other Republicans expect to meet with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later Wednesday to discuss the Pentagon’s needs.

But other Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), aren’t convinced it’s a good idea to pursue another party-line bill at all.

“It used to be we would try to figure out how we worked through some challenging problems with the minority,” she said.

Murkowski added that the Trump administration’s strategy of relying on the reconciliation process to avoid bipartisan negotiations only works if a majority of Republican senators go along with the plan.

“It’s not always guaranteed that you get 50” votes, she said.

Vought, meanwhile, leaned on the potential for yet another party-line reconciliation package to be enacted after the midterm elections as another vehicle to deliver key priorities. That could include a debt limit increase, he said, along with yet another tranche of defense cash to meet Trump’s $1.5 trillion goal for annual military spending.

The various legislative vehicles left some GOP senators scratching their hands as they left the lunch.

Asked if he had gotten clarity from Vought & Co., Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, “‘Not really’ is the short answer.”

Congress

Cruz drops plans to advance AI bills next week

Published

12 hours ago

July 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz said Wednesday he is again postponing a highly anticipated markup of artificial intelligence bills planned for next week.

Instead, the Texas Republican said in an interview Wednesday, the panel will only take up bills focused on kids’ online safety.

Cruz said senators could not strike a deal on AI legislation in time for the committee to vote next week.

“We are going to do a markup on kids’ safety next week,” Cruz told Blue Light News. “We have moved the broader AI markup to September. … It’s our intention still to mark those up, but it is taking longer to get bipartisan agreement.”

Cruz said the committee would mark up the Kids Online Safety Act, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), along with other measures.

Under the panel’s rules, the chair must publish an agenda a week in advance. The committee did not immediately respond to a question about exactly which bills would be on the docket.