Congress

GOP inaction stymies Trump’s bid to reshape Civil Rights Commission

Published

6 months ago

January 12, 2026

Inaction by Republican lawmakers has stymied the Trump administration’s efforts to wrest control of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, allowing the panel to slip back into Democratic hands for the time being.

That could have significant implications for the commission’s ongoing investigation into antisemitism on college campuses — making it more likely that the probe will scrutinize the Trump administration’s unprecedented pressure campaign against universities and dismantling of federal civil rights offices.

The commission lapsed into a 4-3 Democratic majority in December, after Senate Majority Leader John Thune failed to appoint a member to the 8-seat commission after a GOP appointee’s term expired.

A spokesperson for Thune told Blue Light News that the senator’s staff is “working on a number of appointments right now and look forward to filling this slot.”

Until then, the commission’s work will continue under a Democratic majority and Democrat-appointed Chair Rochelle Garza, who has maintained her role despite a purported demotion by the White House — and more recent threats that she would be detained by federal authorities and forcibly removed from her position.

“A lot of this is about intimidation and it’s about bullying and … taking over the commission,” she told Blue Light News. “If we are here to champion civil rights we have to do it above board and we cannot let anybody push us around, it doesn’t matter if you’re the president of the United States, there are rules.”

The White House did not respond to requests for comment for this story. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Blue Light News in April that Trump “reserves the right to fire anyone he wants” within the executive branch, shortly after Garza declined to comply with the administration’s decision to replace her as chair.

There’s an open seat on the panel after commissioner Gail Heriot’s term expired on Dec. 12. Heriot, an affirmative action critic who is formally listed as an independent, has been appointed by Republicans to multiple terms, most recently in 2019.

She stunned commission members and staffers last year by alleging a campaign of threats against Democratic members during an unusually contentious business meeting, according to four people who attended the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive circumstances.

The alleged threats also include freezing the pay of staffers who work for Democrat appointees and terminating others if their bosses do not accede to the White House’s moves to demote Garza and the Democratic vice chair, Heriot said during the September meeting.

“I would love to be able to move full speed ahead on all of this and vote in favor of the President’s” nominees to replace the panel’s leadership, the former commissioner said. “But there is a much deeper problem … and that is that threats have been made to get the four Democratic Commissioners to vote ‘yes.’ I cannot be a party to that.”

Three other commission staff members familiar with the developments confirmed that employees heard about vague threats to their jobs and to physically remove the Democratic chair. The White House said last spring that it was “de-designating” Garza from her post, and elevating a Republican member instead. But the commission has not put the White House’s directive to a vote.

“I have no reason to believe that these threats are coming from President Trump himself or from his top advisors … but it does seem to be coming from somewhere in the administration,” Heriot said at the meeting, adding that she could not offer further details.

Heriot, whose term expired Dec. 12, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

A spokesperson for the commission told Blue Light News that its campus antisemitism investigation is ongoing and a final report is expected in September.

Colleges and universities “are cooperating with the investigation” and have sent back some interrogatories and data, the commission said. “Relevant agencies such as the Department of Education, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Health and Human Services, have been in communication with the Commission [and we are] currently awaiting responses and information from these federal agencies.”

Garza told Blue Light News she would continue to resist the moves to oust her, which she views as unlawful. “I’m not going to let anyone threaten or intimidate me into doing something I know is wrong,” she said.

Congress

Johnson-backed plan to combine Pentagon and election bills advances to floor

Published

6 hours ago

June 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Rules Committee advanced a procedural measure aimed at breaking an intra-Republican deadlock Monday night. But GOP leaders are still facing a major battle Tuesday to regain control of the House floor.

The panel approved on party lines a measure to set up Republicans’ $1.1 trillion defense policy bill, a government funding bill and other GOP bills for floor debate. It would then combine the Pentagon bill, once passed, with the contentious elections overhaul known as the SAVE America Act and send it to the Senate as one piece of legislation.

That maneuver, telegraphed by Speaker Mike Johnson earlier Monday, is aimed at appeasing House GOP hard-liners who have blockaded the floor, demanding the Senate pass the elections bill that has languished there for months.

However, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, the Republican leading the blockade, said in an interview Monday before the Rules Committee acted that Johnson’s plan is not sufficient — raising the possibility she and allies could vote down the measure on the floor. Other House GOP hard-liners say there are other outstanding issues to battle over Tuesday.

Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Rules Democrat, called the merger move “a big waste of time.” The panel voted down a motion by McGovern to remove the provision to combine the two bills in a party-line vote.

The Senate is set to debate its own version of the defense bill next month, and it is likely that the elections overhaul will be removed in negotiations between the two chambers — as McGovern acknowledged Monday and House GOP leaders privately concede.

“The Senate will just strip the SAVE Act out,” he said at the meeting. “There is a zero percent chance SAVE ends up in the [Pentagon bill] because of this rule today.”

The defense bill faces a tight vote if Republicans can pass the procedural measure. Most Democrats are expected to oppose the measure over its massive price tag, which they contend is wasteful.

The panel is set up debate on 312 amendments to the bill. The slate includes GOP measures to codify a Trump executive order to block transgender people from serving in the military, prohibit coverage of gender-affirming care, block aid to arm Ukraine and strip Democratic-backed protections for collective bargaining for Pentagon civilian workers.

The committee also voted down Democratic proposals to slash $150 billion from the bill’s topline and limit the war against Iran.

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

Congress

Pentagon and elections bills could be combined in bid to unfreeze House floor

Published

8 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday he plans to deploy an unusual procedural maneuver in a bid to unfreeze the House floor this week, seeking to send the annual Pentagon policy bill and the GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act to the Senate in a single package.

That is likely a recipe for a continued standoff between the two chambers over the SAVE America Act, which has stalled in the Senate for months due to internal GOP divides. Under Johnson’s plan, the annual defense policy bill, which typically passes every year with large bipartisan majorities, could become a collateral victim of the impasse.

Asked in brief interview if he had talked to Senate Majority Leader John Thune about his plans, Johnson replied, “I have to do my job in the House, and they’ve got to do their job in the Senate, so we’ll see what happens.”

Johnson is seeking to placate House conservative hard-liners, led by Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who have threatened to oppose the procedural measures that give Republicans control of the floor unless they agree to tougher tactics meant to force the Senate into passing the elections bill.

House GOP leaders discussed the plan to merge the two bills over the weekend as Luna pushed to amend the defense bill directly.

She did not say in an interview Monday whether Johnson’s gambit would suffice: “We want it baked together, not able to be stripped out,” she said.

But the Senate is free to work its own will, and members of that chamber are likely to reject any defense bill that has the partisan elections bill attached. That would set the stage for GOP leaders to strip it out when the House and Senate hash out the differences between their competing Pentagon bills later this year.

Johnson, meanwhile, is pushing a separate plan to pass a slimmed-down version of the SAVE America Act through the party-line budget reconciliation process — an option hard-liners have all but rejected.

“I don’t think that that can be done,” Luna told reporters Monday.

He’s also facing another complication: The version of the SAVE America Act he is proposing to attach to the Pentagon bill doesn’t include the latest demands for the bill from President Donald Trump — including a near-total ban on mail voting that is opposed by many Republicans.

Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

Congress

Top Trump officials face bipartisan questions in first all-member Iran briefings

Published

9 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Lawmakers of both parties questioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio and top Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff Monday in the first broad congressional briefings on President Donald Trump’s Iran deal.

While Democrats asked some of the sharpest questions, participants in an afternoon conference call with House members said, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) at one point pressed the administration officials on the fate of Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium.

According to two people granted anonymity to disclose the private remarks, Witkoff and Rubio repeated assurances the administration has privately made to select lawmakers in prior briefings — that the goal is to negotiate a final deal that would prohibit Iran from keeping its highly enriched uranium.

The memorandum of understanding Trump signed earlier this month, they said, was meant to launch those negotiations. Witkoff, the people said, added that the technical team involved in that part of the talks was traveling from Switzerland to Qatar, where talks between the U.S. and Iran are set to happen Tuesday.

Democrats, meanwhile, pushed the administration for more details on what financial benefits Iran could reap under the memorandum — including proceeds from previously sanctioned oil sales.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) went back and forth with Rubio and Witkoff over the lifting of the oil sanctions, two other people granted anonymity on the House call said. The officials eventually cut off the conversation and ended the call.

At another point, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) raised concerns about Witkoff’s business interests in the Middle East as he’s negotiating with Iran, prompting a sharp defense from Rubio, those people said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked Rubio and Witkoff about the oil sanctions during a separate all-senators call Monday, saying in a statement afterward that they “confirmed to me that Iran will reap billions in oil revenue while retaining dangerous leverage over the Strait of Hormuz.”

“If this is the administration’s defense behind closed doors, Secretary Rubio should make it under oath, in public, before the Foreign Relations Committee,” Schumer added, calling the briefing “delayed, deficient, and devoid of details.”

An administration official granted anonymity to speak candidly countered on Schumer’s characterization, noting that he had previously gotten a briefing of the deal as part of a group of top leaders engaged on national security matters. Schumer, the official said, had the opportunity to ask multiple follow-up questions on the Senate call.

A separate group of White House officials briefed top congressional leaders and key committee chairs in a classified briefing in the Capitol later Monday.

The administration has faced bipartisan skepticism over multiple provisions of the memorandum of understanding — particularly the lifting of oil sanctions and a $300 billion reconstruction fund that many Senate Republicans fear will help fuel Iran’s military and regional proxies.

Rubio and Witkoff sought to ease concerns about the slow reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — the critical trade route whose closure has sparked higher fuel and fertilizer costs. Both officials said more mine removal is required, and Witkoff indicated that Iran broke the terms of the Trump-signed deal by launching a drone attack on a passing ship over the weekend.

They also sought to assure lawmakers that Iran has received no money under the memorandum — especially not directly from American sources. Administration officials have previously pledged in smaller briefings that the reconstruction fund won’t include U.S. funds.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) called the Senate briefing a “productive conversation” but said “much of what I heard today is similar to what I heard last week” during a dinner at Vice President JD Vance’s residence.