Congress
House Oversight plans new subcommittee to coordinate with DOGE efforts
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) intends to establish a new subcommittee next year led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that will oversee Delivering on Government Efficiency, a person familiar with the plans confirmed to Blue Light News.
The subcommittee will be tasked with coordinating with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, an outside-of-government effort announced by Donald Trump which will be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The commission has been tasked with providing advice and coordinating with the White House and Office of Management and Budget.
“The Oversight committee has the broadest jurisdiction in the House and is the perfect place to support the DOGE mission. I’m excited to chair this new subcommittee designed to work hand in hand with President Trump, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and the entire DOGE team,” Greene said in a statement.
“We will identify and investigate the waste, corruption, and absolutely useless parts of our federal government. Our subcommittee will provide transparency and truth to the American people through hearings. No topic will be off the table,” she added.
The person familiar with the plans added that lawmakers have already met with the incoming DOGE team, including Ramaswamy. The subcommittee, the person added, will be tasked with investigating wasteful spending, looking at how to reorganize federal agencies with an eye at improving efficiency, and identifying solutions to eliminate bureaucratic red tape.
House Democrats initially reacted to the news with disdain. “These distractions are not to the benefit of our constituencies or our culture. They’re hurtful, they’re harmful, and we’re prepared to do the real work,” Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.) said.
Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) added: “Marjorie Taylor Greene chairing it tells you everything.”
Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
Trump-endorsed Marty O’Donnell won the GOP primary Tuesday to take on Democratic Rep. Susie Lee in Nevada’s battleground 3rd District.
The seat, which touches parts of Las Vegas, is one of Republicans’ targeted pickups this November since President Donald Trump carried it by less than 1 percentage point in 2024 after losing it by nearly seven points in 2020.
But O’Donnell — who also has the backing of the National Republican Congressional Committee — will face an uphill battle. He recently came under fire for hosting a neo-Nazi influencer on his podcast. Trump’s tariffs have hit the district hard, with Canadian tourism to Sin City down by 17 percent, leaving Democrats confident they can hold the seat.
O’Donnell is best known for his role as the audio composer for the “Halo” video game series. It’s his second run in the district after placing fourth in the 2024 Republican primary.
O’Donnell bested several candidates Tuesday, with businessperson Tera Anderson and former Ambassador to Iceland Jeff Gunter — who ran for Senate in 2024 — putting up the most significant challenges.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is on his way to clinching his fifth term in the Senate.
Graham won the Republican primary for Senate on Tuesday, vanquishing five opponents that included businessperson Mark Lynch — who challenged the senator over his staunch support for the war in Iran and long history in Washington. Lynch also drew support from some of the president’s most prominent MAGA Republican critics.
But Graham won more than half the primary vote, allowing him to avoid an embarrassing two-week runoff sprint. He is expected to cruise to victory in November; a Democrat has not represented the state in the Senate since 2005, when longtime Sen. Fritz Hollings chose not to seek reelection.
The four-term senator spent big in the final weeks of the campaign to make sure he won, combining with his allies to spend over $18 million in television and digital ads touting his record and endorsement from President Donald Trump. That spending proved to be decisive in staving off Lynch’s challenge from the right.
He even called in the big guns for a last minute bump, bringing in Trump, who reaffirmed his support for his occasional frenemy in a telerally on the eve of the primary election.
Graham’s success is a loss for the strict “America First” wing of the GOP that has criticized the president’s new interventionist foreign policy streak, including former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former counterterrorism official Joe Kent. They came out in support of Lynch during the final stretch of the campaign, though that was not enough to upset Graham, a fixture of Columbia and Washington politics.
Twenty House Republicans broke with Speaker Mike Johnson to help pass a Democratic-led bill Tuesday aimed at making it easier for workers to form unions, widening the divide between a bloc of pro-labor Republicans and GOP leaders.
Democrats successfully used a discharge petition to sidestep Johnson and force the vote with the help of a handful of House Republicans, including Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Nick LaLota of New York.
“It’s passing,” Fitzpatrick said before the vote when asked about Johnson’s efforts to whip Republicans against the bill.
The Faster Labor Contracts Act aims to reduce the amount of time between workers voting to form a union and negotiating their first collectively bargained contract, in part by requiring the parties to more quickly enter federal mediation. It’s the latest in a series of employment bills that pro-union House Republicans have bucked their party on in recent months.
House Education and Workforce Chair Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) spoke out sharply against the bill on the floor Tuesday, saying it would “threaten jobs, kill growth and in some cases, shut business down entirely.” But a hefty subset of Republicans backed the bill nonetheless, joining all voting Democrats.
- Platner romps to victory in Maine Democratic primary, will face Collins despite controversies
- Ex-Fox News host will advance in California governor’s race, facing Becerra for Newsom’s seat
- U.S., Iran exchange airstrikes following downing of Army helicopter
- Tuesday’s Mini-Report, 6.9.26
- House passes immigration reconciliation bill — without blocking Trump’s compensation fund
- Trump-backed Marty O’Donnell wins primary for battleground Nevada House seat
- Sen. Lindsey Graham wins primary over ‘America First’ challenger
- US to reach $41T debt ceiling as soon as late winter, forecasters predict
- The Democratic establishment begrudgingly moves to embrace Graham Platner
- Teresa Benitez-Thompson wins crowded Dem primary for Nevada House seat
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