Congress

GOP Whip Emmer weighs in on megabill’s fate

Published

3 weeks ago

June 6, 2025

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer isn’t concerned about the GOP megabill’s fate in the Senate, despite a raft of current policy disputes in need of speedy resolution. During an exclusive interview Thursday, the Minnesota Republican was bullish about getting the massive tax and spending package to President Donald Trump’s desk by July 4.

“The Senate will do their work. They’re going to send the bill back to us,” Emmer said. “We are going to pass it and send it to the president’s desk. The time for talking is over.”

There’s one area Emmer said he hopes the Senate won’t touch: the quadrupled state and local tax deduction cap carefully negotiated with blue-state Republicans in the House. Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo recently said there’s little appetite among his members for keeping the increase fully intact. But Emmer said he believes the Senate understands the House’s more difficult math.

“John Thune was quoted somewhere as saying, you know, ‘We understand it’s 51 over here and it’s 218 over there.’” Emmer said. “That should tell you everything you need to know.”

Emmer also said he believes the Republican senators who have raised concerns on the House’s Medicaid overhaul proposals — specifically Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Josh Hawley of Missouri— are “going to be pleasantly surprised when they go through” the House-passed package.

“A lot of their concerns that they thought they were going to have are just not there,” Emmer insisted, adding that “there might be” tweaks from across the chamber to the House’s product, but no one has flagged any “major problems” in the bill. Emmer said the only area he thinks there might be unease is about the provider tax.

A key group of senators could also hold up the bill over the House’s moves to repeal or scale back the clean-energy tax credits that were created by the Democrats’ 2022 climate law. Disrupting the long-term availability of those credits could disrupt projects already underway in red districts and states. Emmer said House members are sensitive to this dynamic as well.

“That’s one of the reasons why the sunsetting [of certain credits] is out at least three years, so that people can continue projects and repurpose them,” said Emmer. “That was the whole concept. Whatever the Senate does with it, that’s their business.”

Emmer weighed in, too, on Speaker Mike Johnson’s suggestion that Republicans could pursue a second megabill through the filibuster-skirting, party-line budget reconciliation process — or even a third. The majority whip didn’t wave off the idea but emphasized that Congress should “get the first one done.”

“All of it’s possible,” Emmer said. “Is it probable? We’ll see.”

Congress

Musk goes back on the offensive as megabill moves through Congress

Published

40 minutes ago

June 30, 2025

Blue Light Newsroom

Elon Musk is escalating his assault on President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” as the Senate readies a final vote on it.

The world’s richest man, who until recently played an active role in the Trump administration, attacked the GOP’s sweeping domestic megabill over the weekend. On Monday, he threatened to wield his financial resources against Republicans who support it.

“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!” Musk wrote on X. “And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”

Musk’s opposition to the megabill, which could cripple the renewable energy industry while adding trillions to the national debt, led to a public break with the president shortly after his time as a federal government employee came to an end in late May.

The two appeared to patch things up several days later.

But Musk is again on the offensive. Also on Monday, he tagged Freedom Caucus members Texas Rep. Chip Roy and Maryland Rep. Andy Harris in another post assailing the megabill.

“How can you call yourself the Freedom Caucus if you vote for a DEBT SLAVERY bill with the biggest debt ceiling increase in history?” Musk wrote.

Congress

Planned Parenthood funding at grave risk after Senate ruling

Published

1 hour ago

June 30, 2025

Blue Light Newsroom

Republicans are on the cusp of a breakthrough in their long effort to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood after a Senate ruling Monday.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough advised lawmakers that a provision that would cut off Medicaid funding for one year to the women’s health organization and abortion provider can remain in the GOP’s domestic policy megabill without threatening its ability to be passed along party lines, according to Senate Democrats.

The megabill is expected to clear the Senate Monday or Tuesday using a budgetary tool to bypass a 60-vote filibuster. Bills advanced with that tool must adhere to strict budget rules, and the parliamentarian is the de facto arbiter of those rules. Senate Democrats had challenged whether the provision was allowed.

“Republicans will stop at nothing in their crusade to take control of women’s bodies,” said Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon in a statement.

Conservative lawmakers have sought to strip Planned Parenthood’s eligibility for federal funds for decades. It has long been subject to the Hyde amendment, which bans federal funding directly on abortions, but the organization bills Medicaid for nonabortion services and receives other federal funding through other programs and grants.

Republicans sought to target the group in their party-line 2017 push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but the overall effort collapsed.

Congress

Anxious House Republicans scramble to forestall Senate’s Medicaid cuts

Published

4 hours ago

June 30, 2025

Blue Light Newsroom

Dozens of House Republicans are scrambling behind the scenes to head off the deep Medicaid cuts in the Senate version of the party-line megabill that could pass as soon as tonight.

Group texts are blowing up and frantic phone calls are being exchanged among GOP lawmakers alarmed about the Senate Medicaid provisions, according to six House Republicans granted anonymity to describe the conversations. Even some conservatives in states that will be hit hard by the Senate’s crackdown on state-directed payments and medical provider taxes don’t want to vote on the Senate’s Medicaid text.

That’s to say nothing of an effort pushed by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to scale back federal payments under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion — a well-established red line for many House members.

Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to hold a call with House Republicans Monday afternoon, according to two other people granted anonymity to discuss yet-to-be-announced plans. Senate and House leadership staffers huddled Monday to discuss the outstanding concerns.

Senior House Republicans are warning they still might need to hammer out differences between the two chambers if the Senate doesn’t strike a final compromise on the language and add it in a final amendment before sending the bill to the House. That would mean missing President Donald Trump’s arbitrary July 4 deadline for signing the megabill.

It’s still unclear whether the Senate will relent and allow a compromise on Medicaid or other policy issues in a final amendment. That chamber is dealing with its own politics, including the determination of many GOP senators to swell the size of the tax-cut package, prompting the need for sharper Medicaid cuts.

Thune has been noncommittal in closed-door meetings with GOP senators about whether there will be a final “wraparound” that would incorporate House Republicans’ concerns. Senate leaders are betting the House will accept whatever the Senate sends them.

“Right now, there isn’t a need for it,” said one GOP senator granted anonymity to discuss the situation.