Congress
GOP leaders launch their last-ditch megabill whip job
With just hours until they want to start voting, House Republican leaders and White House officials have launched an all-hands-on-deck push Wednesday to get the GOP megabill through the House and to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Several groups of House Republican lawmakers who have aired grievances with the Senate-passed version of the domestic policy poll are meeting Wednesday morning, and Speaker Mike Johnson is making his way their those groups — including speaking with a particularly crucial group of conservative hard-liners.
Multiple groups of holdouts are expected to visit the White House later Wednesday to meet with Trump, who has demanded the bill get done by July 4.
Skeptical members on across the GOP’s ideological spectrum said Wednesday they were still reviewing the 887-page bill passed by the Senate.
“I’m still looking at it,” said Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), a suburban member who has raised concerns about Medicaid cuts, while Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), a former chair of the hard-right Freedom Caucus with deep fiscal misgivings, said, “I’m still thinking about it.”
Republican leaders are intent on keeping the bill moving as quickly as possible, cognizant that any significant delays could only embolden the intraparty holdouts. Asked about voting plans Wednesday morning, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said he expected final passage “sometime today.”
That could change if the holdouts band together and decide to withstand the lobbying blitz. Republicans are closely eyeing early procedural votes that would set up the megabill for final floor consideration. House leaders want to take those votes as early as 11 a.m. Wednesday, but that could slip if GOP whips conclude there’s not enough support to keep the bill moving forward. With full attendance, four GOP defections could sink the bill.
“If there’s four [GOP ‘nos’], there’s going to be 20 — and it’s going to be a jailbreak,” said one House Republican granted anonymity to candidly describe internal dynamics.
Asked if he had the votes to advance the bill Wednesday, Johnson said, “We’re working on all that right now.”
A White House pressure campaign started ramping up Monday night, when Trump, Vice President JD Vance and senior administration officials began a new round of public praise for the sweeping legislation — which includes a $5 trillion debt limit hike and deficit spending that has made many congressional Republicans anxious.
The White House officials have sought to tamp down the deficit concerns by encouraging members to ignore the costs of extending the 2017 tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of this year. Trump on Wednesday touted the bill’s “GROWTH, which will be the primary reason that the Big, Beautiful Bill will be one of the most successful pieces of legislation ever passed.”
“Our Country will make a fortune this year, more than any of our competitors, but only if the Big, Beautiful Bill is PASSED!” he wrote on Truth Social. “Republicans, don’t let the Radical Left Democrats push you around.”
Leaders are also still dealing with objections from dozens of members concerned about the Medicaid provisions in the bill. The Senate deepened the cuts to the joint federal-state program in some respects, including by curtailing medical provider taxes — a key state financing mechanism.
Johnson, for his part, needs to find a way to assuage grumpy members without agreeing to changes to the Senate-passed bill — which would require potentially weeks of additional negotiations and sending the bill back across the Capitol for more action. He has already floated the potential of doing at least one and possibly two other party-line policy bills before the end of the Congress next year.
“We’re working through everybody’s concerns and letting them know this is the best possible product we can produce,” Johnson said Wednesday.
Stormy weather rolling through the mid-Atlantic has been another major complication. Many members saw their flights back to Washington canceled or delayed Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Johnson said he was “worried about flights” and acknowledged timelines could slip.
Democrats, who are threatening to force procedural votes to delay the megabill’s consideration, said they expected to have their members here soon enough. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) was spotted at the Capitol Wednesday after missing weeks of votes due to a medical issue.
“Mother Nature’s not cooperating, but people are going to be here,” said Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the minority whip.
Congress
Trump apparently shares Tom Cotton’s phone number in push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent
President Donald Trump appeared to share Sen. Tom Cotton’s phone number in a Saturday morning social media post imploring the Arkansas Republican to get behind a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.
“Almost everybody wants “The Sunshine Protection Act” to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”
The president has spent months personally pushing Senate Republicans to end the practice that sees Americans change their clocks twice a year, cementing more sunlight hours in the evening for all twelve months of the calendar. Cotton, whom Trump called “a friend of mine” in the Saturday post, has long argued that making daylight saving time permanent would leave children, farmers and other early risers in the dark for hours on winter mornings.
One of Trump’s key selling points on Saturday: the PGA tour.
“The PGA TOUR, as an example, needs more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments,” he said, attaching a letter from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp endorsing the bill. ”Likewise, regular Golfers, Tennis Players, Hunters and, perhaps most importantly, Farmers who want more Daylight to play or work.
A Blue Light News call to the cellphone number went to voicemail. A spokesperson for Cotton did not respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The current version of the bill was introduced in the House in January 2025 by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) leading the Senate version. The legislation would make daylight saving time permanent across most of the country, ending the twice-yearly clock changes. The legislation has been stalled in the Senate since July.
The president encouraged supporters of the bill, dubbed the “The Sunshine Protection Act,” to call Cotton to “let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”
During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he publicly gave out the personal cellphone number of then-rival Sen. Lindsey Graham after the South Carolina Republican criticized him. Trump, who came to count on Graham as a reliable Senate ally after he won the presidency, revisited the moment during Graham’s funeral in July, acknowledging that sharing the number was something he “shouldn’t have done.”
Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.
Sen. Bernie Sanders will hit the road for Troy Jackson in Maine starting Oct. 10, the first time the progressive leader will stump for the candidate this cycle.
The Vermont independent plans to hold three rallies with Jackson, according to an itinerary shared first with Blue Light News: first in Bangor on Oct. 10th followed by Lewiston and Biddeford on Oct. 11.
The Maine swing will kick off Sanders’ travel for the final stretch of the midterms, covering ground throughout October for House and Senate candidates, POLITICO reported.
“Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them,” Jackson spokesperson Dan Gottlieb told Blue Light News. “Susan Collins has had nearly 30 years to deliver, and working Mainers are still getting squeezed while she serves the billionaires and corporate interests who bankroll her campaigns. Mainers don’t need another six years of excuses.”
Sanders campaigned ahead of major wins for progressives in the primary season, speaking at more than 60 rallies since last year’s Fight the Oligarchy tour and endorsing more than 90 candidates up and down the ballot.
He’s also opening his substantial $23 million campaign war chest, POLITICO reported, and contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars toMinnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and others including Angie Nixon in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,
Sanders will return to Maine after initially backing Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate. Allegations reported by POLITICO ultimately led him to call on the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.
Sanders had not formally endorsed Jackson since he clinched the nomination from Platner, though he previously backed Jackson’s initial run for governor.
House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he has “no concerns” about winning back his Arkansas seat in the upcoming midterm elections, but the six-term House member acknowledged the political headwinds for his party.
“I consider the atmosphere a very tough political environment right now because of President [Donald] Trump’s lack of favorability at the top, and you know people are concerned about, as I say, what it’s like to live under an inflated economy the last four years,” Hill said in an interview.
Hill is in a solidly red district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and said he is up against a “weaker candidate this time than I’ve had in past races.” Polling in the district, however, has shown a tighter race. The two polls done this year placed Democratic challenger Chris Jones ahead of Hill by a few percentage points. Any perceived polling victory for Jones is still well within the margin of error, and one of the polls had a Democratic sponsor.
Stephannie Lane Baker, a spokesperson for Jones, said that “of all the Republicans in Congress, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee doesn’t get to dodge responsibility for this economy. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.”
Additionally, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s PAC, Ready for the Fight, committed more than $1 million in television ads through the next five weeks for Jones’ race in Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the PAC confirmed. Overall Democratic spending on advertising for the race was just over $1 million, primarily made up by contributions from the Ready for the Fight PAC, with Republicans spending almost $2.7 million on ad buys, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking service.
Hill said he has addressed affordability concerns “head on” this Congress.
“My work on housing, my work on the Price Stability Act, my work to try to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and drop the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP,” Hill said. “All these things can contribute to a more affordable environment for people. So I’ve tried to make that a forefront of my campaign this year.”
Hill was a key architect of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing affordability bill that became law in July. The Price Stability Act, which is unlikely to become law this year, would narrow the Federal Reserve’s current dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and price stability to focus exclusively on containing inflation.
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