Congress

House Dems invoke Medicaid cuts in warnings over government shutdown fight

Published

1 year ago

March 7, 2025

The top three House Democrats stopped short on Friday of urging united opposition in their party to the funding plan Republicans are working to finalize — with just one week left until federal cash stops flowing.

In a letter to members, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar trashed Speaker Mike Johnson’s intent to pass a bill next week to keep federal agencies running on autopilot budgets through September. The missive does not call for all Democrats to vote “no” on that bill, after Jeffries said Thursday that “Republicans are going it alone.” But the letter does defend safety-net programs like Medicaid that Republicans are targeting in their separate, yet-to-be-drafted, party-line page of tax cuts, defense spending, border security investments and energy policy.

“Medicaid is our redline,” the letter said. The Democratic leaders did not elaborate, however, on whether they would demand future Medicaid protections as an ultimatum in the fight over government funding.

House GOP leaders aim to release bill text of their funding bill later Friday or over the weekend, hoping to give lawmakers at least three days to review the measure before a vote ahead of the March 14 government shutdown deadline.

Predicting that the bill will pass the House, Johnson said on Friday that there won’t be any way “politically” for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to avoid blame for a government shutdown if Democratic senators don’t vote to send the bill to President Donald Trump, who has personally whipped support among GOP lawmakers. Many Senate Democrats still won’t say how they would vote if the House passes the lengthy stopgap next week, and at least eight of them are going to have to cross party lines to advance the measure.

“It will be on him,” the speaker said of Schumer on Fox News. “Everybody in the country will be watching.”

The letter House Democratic leaders penned on Friday also warns that the House Republican plan to pass a “full-year” funding patch “threatens to cut funding for healthcare, nutritional assistance and veterans benefits through the end of the current fiscal year.”

While the legislation is not expected to directly cut funding for federal programs, Democratic leaders caution it will empower the Trump administration to continue freezing billions of dollars — including for veterans, education, law enforcement and housing initiatives — while Elon Musk leads the cost-cutting efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency. The Democrats also criticized Republicans’ plans to enact a partisan package through the reconciliation process that would bankroll trillions of dollars in tax breaks by cutting safety-net programs like Medicaid and SNAP food assistance to low-income households.

“House Democrats would enthusiastically support a bill that protects Social Security, Medicare, veterans health and Medicaid, but Republicans have chosen to put them on the chopping block to pay for billionaire tax cuts,” the letter said. “We cannot back a measure that rips away life-sustaining healthcare and retirement benefits from everyday Americans as part of the Republican scheme to pay for massive tax cuts for their wealthy donors like Elon Musk.”

The Democratic leaders said their top appropriator, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, “remains ready to negotiate a meaningful bipartisan spending agreement that puts working people first.”

DeLauro and Congress’ other top appropriators confirmed this week that they were closing in on a deal on overall spending levels for the military and non-defense programs, the first step to finalizing bipartisan bills that would fund the government at updated levels for the remainder of the fiscal year. That agreement has yet to materialize, however, as Johnson insists that a “full-year” stopgap is the only option House Republicans are considering.

Congress

Dershowitz to testify on Epstein ties

Published

1 minute ago

June 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Alan Dershowitz is scheduled to speak with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on July 20 as part of its ongoing Jeffery Epstein investigation.

“I asked to be allowed to set the record straight and correct various misconceptions,” Dershowitz said in a text message. “I look forward to doing so.”

The prominent criminal defense attorney who once represented O.J. Simpson and President Donald Trump also worked on Epstein’s 2008 plea deal, which many have argued allowed Epstein — who died by suicide behind bars in 2019 — to continue to prey on young women and girls for another several years before his later incarceration.

The Oversight Committee is separately set Friday to interview investor Leon Black, whose business dealings with Epstein have been under congressional scrutiny for years.

Congress

Hegseth to brief House Republicans on White House goals for party-line package

Published

1 hour ago

June 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to give a classified briefing Wednesday to a group of House Republicans about the administration’s goals for military funding and another party-line reconciliation bill, according to three people granted anonymity to describe a private meeting.

The gathering will take place during the Republican Study Committee’s weekly lunch and be held in the House SCIF, underscoring the potentially sensitive nature of Hegseth’s planned presentation.

Lawmakers are expected to also press Hegseth on the agreement the Trump administration has reached with Iran to end the war.

Congress

Turek leads Hinson in Iowa Senate poll of likely general election voters

Published

6 hours ago

June 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Iowa Democratic Senate nominee Josh Turek has a narrow lead over GOP rival Ashley Hinson in a new internal poll of likely general-election voters.

Turek leads Hinson 47 percent to 45 percent in the poll, conducted by Global Strategy Group from June 8-11 among 1,000 likely general election voters. The poll shows that Republicans have a 10-point edge in voter registration (42 percent to 32 percent) and an electorate that voted for Trump by 9 points (50 percent for Trump to 41 percent for Kamala Harris).

But the polling also shows President Donald Trump’s favorabilities underwater across the electorate, with 45 percent favorable and 52 percent unfavorable. Among registered independents, Trump is upside down 28 points.

Turek is “significantly outperforming the state’s underlying partisan dynamics,” Global Strategy Group’s Matt Canter & Ramzi Ebbini write in a memo first obtained by Blue Light News. “Republicans maintain substantial advantages in voter registration and party identification, yet Turek enters the general election ahead of Republican Ashley Hinson, with stronger personal favorability ratings, overperforming a generic Democrat, and with clear opportunities to expand his coalition as more voters become familiar with him.”

Some Republicans have acknowledged a concern about Iowa.

“There are some issues there that we got to deal with — the biggest one is trade — trade and tariffs,” said a Republican close to the White House, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the obstacles.

In his early general election messaging, Turek has leaned into farmers’ frustrations.

“Josh Turek is winning this race because Iowans are sick and tired of multi-millionaire politicians like Ashley Hinson who sell out working families while they get rich,” Turek for Iowa campaign manager Brendan Koch said in a statement first shared with Blue Light News. “We will spend the next 134 days connecting with Iowans in every corner of the state and across the political spectrum to send a fighter for the working class to the U.S. Senate.”