Congress

Funding meltdown foreshadows Johnson’s tough year ahead

Published

2 years ago

December 16, 2024

Speaker Mike Johnson’s efforts to pass a short-term spending bill before Friday’s shutdown deadline should’ve been fairly straightforward. Instead, it has turned into yet another test of his ability to steer a chaotic conference as he embraces an ambitious agenda next year.

Johnson and his team are working to minimize GOP defections while keeping enough Democratic support, since he can’t pass the funding extension with only Republican votes. But a demand for farm aid from Republicans in agriculture-heavy districts is complicating the negotiations, prompting Democrats to ask for additional concessions and fueling conservative ire over increased spending.

Those hardliners likely wouldn’t vote for a stopgap spending bill regardless, but if they’re angry enough it could cause problems for Johnson on Jan. 3, when he will need nearly unanimous GOP support in order to maintain the speakership.

Johnson already tried to appease ultraconservatives, but the move inflamed the farm-district Republicans; he shot down their ask last Tuesday to fund the economic aid via conservation money in Democrats’ partisan Inflation Reduction Act. Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell held firm on that position in the Friday night talks. That triggered those GOP lawmakers to publicly and privately threaten to vote against the final funding stopgap if it doesn’t include billions in economic assistance for farmers.

“It’s a must-have,” said House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson. He and others argue they need to pass additional economic aid to protect struggling farmers against a new wave of bankruptcies and financial pain in rural America, where the majority of voters supported Donald Trump.

Thompson said that he was “pleased with the conversations” happening now, after leadership talks over the matter blew up overnight on Dec. 13. Johnson’s team spent the weekend quietly trying to hold off a massive wave of farm district Republican opposition to the funding measure. Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said Monday that the “differences are narrowing.”

“We’re working through it. I’m optimistic,” he added.

Still, it’s a bad sign for Republicans in the next Congress. Unlike a funding punt, negotiations over ambitious, party-line bills on the border, taxes and energy are already expected to get extremely complicated. Despite Trump coming to the White House and Republicans taking control of the Senate, Johnson will still have a tough job as he navigates the demands of a diverse conference on several high-priority campaign issues with virtually no room for error.

“Next year is going to be fun,” a GOP aide involved in the funding talks said wryly, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

For now, GOP leaders have told lawmakers that Johnson wants to pass the entire government funding measure and separate supplemental disaster package together, via a process called suspension. But that process requires a two-thirds majority, which means Johnson needs all the backing he can get, not just from his own party, but also from Democrats. And Johnson’s antagonists will be watching closely to see if he can get a majority of Republicans to vote for the ultimate spending deal, which is viewed as a key test of leadership’s support within the GOP ranks.

Hardliners are already largely opposed to the farm bill extension that leaders want to attach to the stopgap, arguing Congress needs to slash farm subsidies and other spending. That group is now leaning on Johnson to reject any new spending in the funding stopgap, as his speakership hangs in the balance.

“Adding things to the farm bill, I know farmers are hurting, but where is this coming from?” Freedom Caucus member Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said.

GOP leaders already weren’t counting on several of those conservatives to vote for the funding deal, as they typically take a principled stance against stopgaps. If Johnson loses more GOP votes, he’ll have to bend to more Democratic demands to push the package through Congress before Friday’s deadline.

Congressional leaders on Monday were circling a final funding deal with $10 billion in economic aid for farmers as part of the agreement, possibly up to $12 billion depending on what Republicans agree to on Democratic demands in return. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters Monday morning that leaders may be able to release the text of the massive bill in the coming hours, but he stressed that nothing was final yet.

“No white smoke yet, still working through the final pieces,” Scalise said late Monday morning.

There’s another demand Johnson is trying to balance. Farm district Reps. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.) are behind an effort to insert a waiver into the spending package that would allow year-round E15 ethanol fuel sales. Conservatives, who overwhelmingly oppose ethanol subsidies, are furious at that prospect.

Trump himself has a complicated history balancing support for the ethanol and oil industries.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), an outspoken conservative who typically opposes stopgap funding bills and hasn’t said how he will vote on the speakership, said Monday that the ethanol deal and other provisions should not be passed in the spending package.

“Call me crazy, but we should reduce the deficit and not pass stupid policies,” Roy, a member of the Freedom Caucus, said on X.

Congress

Nvidia’s Huang heads to Capitol Hill for AI talks

Published

2 hours ago

July 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will meet with lawmakers in Washington to discuss American leadership on artificial intelligence, the company said Monday.

A spokesperson for the chipmaker said Huang would hold talks with both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill to talk about latest developments with the technology.

“Jensen is in DC to meet with leaders on both sides of the aisle to discuss American leadership in AI, including leading in open source,” the spokesperson said.

Huang is scheduled to sit down Tuesday with Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who has expressed serious concern about security threats following last week’s OpenAI autonomous cyberattack.

The senator’s office confirmed the meeting. Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It comes as Huang defended open-source AI on X, writing that such models “strengthen safety and cybersecurity, accelerate innovation and diffusion, and enable sovereignty.”

Huang’s visit comes as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is also expected to meet with Warner, although a spokesperson for the senator said the talks were separate. Earlier Monday, Open AI announced it was in talks with Nvidia, a technology company that makes chips to use artificial intelligence, for a data center project.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Congress

Texas Republican is under House Ethics investigation

Published

3 hours ago

July 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Ethics Committee said in a statement Monday it is investigating Rep. Lance Gooden, a four-term Texas Republican.

It’s unclear what the committee is probing, but the Office of Congressional Conduct, an independent investigative branch of the House, sent over findings regarding Gooden to the committee June 10.

The Ethics panel plans to release an update on its investigation by Nov. 9. Committee representatives declined to comment beyond the statement.

In 2021, the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint asking for an investigation into Gooden’s apparent failure to report his stock trades in a timely manner, which is a requirement under a federal law known as the STOCK Act. The complaint was sent to the OCC.

Congress

Congressional Black Caucus members break with Jeffries, endorse against Thanedar in Michigan House race

Published

4 hours ago

July 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A handful of members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Monday broke with Democratic Party leadership to endorse Michigan state Rep. Donavan McKinney in his bid to primary Rep. Shri Thanedar, an unusual move given that sitting members of the same party rarely endorse against each other.

Democratic Reps. Steven Horsford (Nev.), the former chair of the CBC, and Lateefah Simon (Calif.) called McKinney a “fighter.” Rep. Ilhan Omar (Mich.) praised McKinney as “the only trusted candidate” in the race. And Rep. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) touted McKinney for “never [losing] sight of the people.”

“We need Donavan in Congress,” said Pressley.

The race between McKinney and Thanedar, who was elected in 2022, is the latest battleground in the ongoing ideological clash between the Democratic establishment and its progressive flank.

McKinney is hoping to capitalize on the latest wave of progressive successes in primaries, but Thanedar retains the power of the incumbency — and the backing of House Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar.

Thanedar’s 2022 election marked the first time since 1955 that the majority-Black city of Detroit didn’t have a Black lawmaker representing it in Congress. And he won two years ago only after Adam Hollier, who was viewed as his most credible primary challenger, was disqualified from the ballot.

“It’s not just about having Black representation, but that is a part of what appropriate representation looks for,” Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), who had previously backed McKinney, told Blue Light News. “You have a majority-Black district, and I think that there is certainly an appetite to see that again, or to at least make sure that a Black candidate has the opportunity to present themselves.”

In a phone call, Thanedar emphasized that he has worked closely with members of the CBC during his time in office, noting that the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) was a mentor of his and, in addition to Jeffries, he has the endorsement CBC members like Rep. Bennie Thomspon (D-Miss.).

“I am fully aware that I am representing the Blackest city in America and I’m proud of it,” Thanedar, who is Indian-American, said. “My story is like Detroit’s story — I struggled through poverty, never say die, never gave up and I have that resilience that Detroit has. The resilience of Detroit is what my life is about.”

McKinney on Monday said he was “honored” by the endorsements.

“Millions of lives across the country have been made immeasurably better because of the hard work these members have done in Congress, and I look forward to working alongside these incredible leaders to pass critical legislation to protect voting rights, get big money out of our politics, and ensure all families have access to the resources they need to not just survive, but to truly thrive,” he said in a statement.