Congress

House approves stopgap funding bill, putting shutdown ball in the Senate’s court

Published

1 year ago

September 19, 2025

The House has passed a seven-week stopgap funding bill, putting Congress on a path to avert a government shutdown Oct. 1, when current funding is set to expire. That is, if the Senate can pass the measure, too.

The 217-212 vote went almost along party lines — a victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, who could only afford to lose two votes if all Democrats stuck together in opposition. GOP Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana voted “no,” while Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) voted “yes” in the only party defections.

The short-term patch spearheaded by Republicans is aimed at buying lawmakers more time to negotiate new funding levels for agencies across the federal government. But Democrats in both chambers are irate Republicans are plowing ahead with a product they say was crafted with little input from their side of the aisle.

As such, the measure is expected to fail in the Senate later Friday, prolonging the brinksmanship as lawmakers prepare to leave town for a weeklong break ahead of the midnight deadline at month’s end.

Democrats are continuing to demand any funding measure include an extension of expiring enhanced subsidies for Obamacare insurance, which GOP leaders say should be dealt with outside the government funding process. They have introduced an alternative funding measure that would float federal operations for just a month and include the health care language, along with provisions designed to prevent President Donald Trump from clawing back funding previously approved by Congress.

“When Donald Trump says don’t even bother to deal with Democrats, he says he wants a shutdown. Plain and simple,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday. “You need our votes. To say not to bother with us is saying you don’t want a shutdown.”

The Senate will take procedural votes on both parties’ offers Friday afternoon; each is expected to fail to achieve the necessary 60-vote threshold to succeed, putting lawmakers no closer to a solution to avoid a shutdown.

The House-passed bill would keep federal agencies funded through Nov. 21. It would allow the Trump administration to spend more freely on the WIC nutrition program that serves low-income pregnant women, infants and children, satisfying a request made by the White House.

It would release the D.C. government’s full budget, which is mostly funded through locally raised revenue. Congress blocked the capital city’s authority to spend its own tax dollars back in mid-March, creating a roughly $1 billion hole in the city budget.

The legislation also would allocate $30 million for lawmaker security and $58 million to provide enhanced protection for members of the executive branch and justices on the Supreme Court — reflecting a major priority for Congress amid a surge of political violence and the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

In prior days, Johnson has heard from a number of his members demanding that even more money for lawmaker security be included in the government funding package — beyond the $30 million that had already been tacked on to bolster the program that coordinates Capitol Police and local law enforcement to protect members when at home in their districts.

Minutes before the vote, House GOP leaders pitched several holdouts on a standalone member security package in October, according to three people with direct knowledge. Johnson is also directing his colleagues to focus on changes to the full-year fiscal 2026 legislative branch spending bill, which is in the thick of bipartisan and bicameral negotiations and will be the vehicle for additional security investments.

Last minute headaches aside, this House-passed bill marks the second time this year that Republicans have managed to pass government funding legislation without needing any Democratic support. It also marks the continuation of a major shift for the House GOP Conference, where fiscal conservatives who rarely vote for spending bills signed on, saving Republicans from needing Democratic support to bail them out.

Even more striking was the unity among those conservatives advocating for a continuing resolution, which has for many years been anathema to House hard-liners like those in the Freedom Caucus. But these fiscal hawks banked on the stopgap solution being a more conservative deal than a bipartisan negotiated funding patch. Plus, Trump called on House Republicans to clear the measure this week.

Jennifer Scholtes and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

Trump apparently shares Tom Cotton’s phone number in push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent

Published

4 hours ago

October 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

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.

Congress

Sanders to rally for Troy Jackson in Maine

Published

1 day ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

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.

Congress

Hill: Trump’s ‘lack of favorability’ creating challenging politics

Published

1 day ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

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.