Congress

House Republicans advance their budget after appeasing hard-liners

Published

1 year ago

February 14, 2025

Score one for the backers of “one big, beautiful bill.”

House Republicans launched their budget plan out of committee Thursday night — the first legislative step toward fulfilling President Donald Trump’s policy agenda but at odds with the Senate’s continued pursuit of a “two-track” plan.

The House Budget Committee voted to approve a budget resolution along party lines, 21-16, after a marathon markup. In order to rally enough Republican support to push the measure over the finish line, GOP leaders placated fiscal conservatives by tweaking the blueprint that will ultimately allow them to pass a massive bill tackling tax cuts, border security, defense spending and energy policy — all while sidestepping the Senate filibuster.

“This budget resolution provides the fiscal framework for what will be one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in modern history,” House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said, “and the principal legislative vehicle for delivering on President Trump’s ‘America first’ agenda.”

The changes to the budget resolution, if adopted by both chambers, would force Republicans to cut more spending in exchange for tax cuts. It could curtail their ability to deliver on Trump’s most prominent campaign-trail promises, like nixing taxes on tips, while also alienating swing-district Republicans uncomfortable with slashing safety net programs like SNAP food assistance to low-income households.

Democrats are already blasting it. “How can my colleagues across the aisle take money that is meant to put food on people’s tables and instead use that money so a CEO can deduct the cost of a private jet?” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) said during the markup, calling the plan “a betrayal of the middle class.”

A floor vote on the fiscal blueprint is House GOP leaders’ next challenge in the arduous process of unlocking the filibuster-skirting power of reconciliation. The budget measure would allow the House’s tax panel to come up with tax cuts that increase the deficit by up to $4.5 trillion over a decade, while ordering other committees to cut enough from mandatory spending programs to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion.

“We do not have a revenue problem in the United States. We have a spending problem,” Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.) said during the markup. “And House Republicans, with this budget resolution that we’ve crafted, are taking steps to try to get us on the right path.”

Because the budget resolution is just 45 pages long and only broadly outlines how much Republicans can grow or shrink the deficit in a final bill, Democrats won’t be able to sharpen their attacks on the party-line proposal until Republicans draft the actual package, which is expected to be hundreds of pages long, if not more than a thousand.

So on Thursday, Democrats on the Budget Committee spent more than seven hours peppering their GOP colleagues with amendments that would nix the committee orders included in the fiscal blueprint. They also branded the GOP plan “the Republican ripoff” and noted that it allows for a $3.3 trillion increase in the deficit over a decade.

“Just think about it. You talk about how bad the deficits are and then say: That’s why I’m voting for the bill that increases the deficit,” said Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, a member of the budget panel and also the top Democrat on the House Education Committee.

The panel defeated all 32 amendments Democrats offered, including several proposals aimed at stopping Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from slashing federal funding and accessing federal systems that contain sensitive information about Americans. Democrats also proposed amendments aimed at protecting funding for in-kind food assistance programs, Meals on Wheels and other initiatives funded through block grants to states for social services.

Of the two Republican amendments offered Thursday, both were adopted. One, the compromisethat won the House Freedom Caucus endorsement of the resolution, would shrink the amount of tax cuts Republicans can enact if they don’t cut $2 trillion in spending at the same time. The other would ensure Republicans include the text of the REINS Act in their final reconciliation bill. That measure, a perennial favorite of congressional Republicans, would curtail federal rule-making across government.

If House Republicans can adopt the budget resolution on the floor later this month, they stand to increase their clout in the ongoing debate with Senate GOP leaders over how to package their party-line ambitions.

Almost four weeks into Trump’s presidency, House Republicans are still demanding one whopping package that includes trillions of dollars worth of tax cuts, while Senate Republicans root for a plan that leaves tax cuts for later and first delivers border security, defense spending and energy policy. Even Trump’s top advisers and Cabinet officials remain divided.

In the Senate, Budget Chair Lindsey Graham of South Carolina sent a message to his House counterparts during his own budget markup this week: “I hope you will consider what we do if you cannot produce the one big, beautiful bill quickly.”

Graham’s budget, which would pave the way for one slimmer bill now and then another later, could come to the Senate floor as soon as next week. The House is due to schedule a vote on its proposal the last week of February.

If Republican leaders want to enact any major legislation without input from Democrats in the GOP’s first months with “trifecta” control in Washington, Republicans will need to quickly unite around one strategy. Neither chamber can advance a final package until both approve an identical budget measure to unlock the reconciliation power they need to skirt the Senate filibuster. Of course, both chambers also have to pass the same final bill to clear it for Trump’s signature.

Congress

Jack Smith invited to testify before Senate next month

Published

3 hours ago

August 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Jack Smith, the former special counsel who brought criminal charges against President Donald Trump, has been invited to testify Sept. 22 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to an invitation from Chair Chuck Grassley reviewed by Blue Light News.

Smith previously testified before the House Judiciary Committee in January, but Grassley (R-Iowa) and his team have been probing Smith and his investigations for months.

Grassley recently revealed that Smith obtained text messages that 44 members of Congress sent to White House officials during the waning months of Trump’s first term leading up to and around the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

Grassley’s texts were among those accessed by Smith’s team, along with Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).

“In the process of a deeply flawed, weaponized investigation, Jack Smith subpoenaed phone toll records from a dozen senators, scooped up text messages from over 40 members of Congress, and subpoenaed the private communications and financial records of hundreds of other Republican entities and individuals,” Grassley said in a statement.

“He needs to answer directly to Congress for his actions,” Grassley added. “Smith has requested to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and our committee looks forward to hearing from him as part of Congress’ investigation into Arctic Frost and his time as Special Counsel. Smith must be honest and forthcoming in his answers, because the American people deserve nothing less than full transparency and accountability.”

Lawyers for Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During the January hearing, Republicans focused on technicalities of how Smith investigated the probe into Trump’s election interference, such as whether he properly signed his oath of office and whether he was sufficiently versed on the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause that protects members of Congress from criminal investigation for their lawmaking actions.

Congress

Chuck Edwards recommended for censure by House Ethics Committee

Published

3 hours ago

August 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Ethics Committee recommended Monday that lawmakers censure Rep. Chuck Edwards for engaging in “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers” — cataloguing multiple episodes of sexual harassment by the married lawmaker.

Censure is the most severe punishment the panel can recommend short of expulsion, requiring targeted members to submit to a public shaming on the floor. The bipartisan panel said it plans to bring a privileged resolution to a vote once the House returns to session later this month.

A spokesperson for Edwards, 65, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a 15-page rebuttal, lawyers for Edwards said that the Ethics Committee “failed to demonstrate that either of the two staffers expressed discomfort to Representative Edwards regarding his conduct with them.” They also rejected the need for censure, noting that it has been used “sparingly in this context and directed only at matters of severe sexual misconduct.”

The panel itself released a trove of evidence including emails, text messages and photographs showing how Edwards had insinuated himself into intimate aspects of their lives.

Edwards, the committee found, made comments on the appearance of two young female staffers in his congressional office, telling them they looked “pretty” or “breathtaking” and made a comment on one staffer’s weight. He also lavished the young women with gifts, including purses valued at more than $1,000, as well as guns, shoes, flowers and one-on-one dinners.

Text messages from one of the women showed Edwards at one point sent her more than 20 containers of ice cream because, he said, she needed “a lot of cheering up!”

Sexual harassment is prohibited by House rules and federal law, and the committee found that Edwards violated “the spirit of the House’s prohibitions on sexual harassment and unwanted advances, as well as the requirement to act in a manner that reflects credibly upon the House.”

The report found Edwards brought one of the staffers to a holiday event at the White House, gave her flowers and texted her how he was “so excited about tonight” and that he pressured her to continue the night with him after the event. Edwards told the committee he accompanied that staffer to her home in Virginia because he “felt uncomfortable dumping a young lady on the street.”

Edwards also talked to that staffer and others about going to strip clubs in Washington, the report says.

The panel concluded that Edwards did not engage in sexual activity with either of the women, nor did he explicitly proposition them or other staff members for sex. Edwards, who is facing a competitive race for reelection in his western North Carolina district, cooperated with the probe, the committee said.

In one instance, the panel found, Edwards skipped House votes one night to decorate the second staffer’s Christmas tree. He also went out drinking and gambling with her. On another occasion, he recited a poem at her going-away party in his office and cried during that incident, making his staff noticeably uncomfortable.

When the second staffer left his office, Edwards helped her move back to North Carolina and sent her a handwritten letter in which he described her as “the most amazing woman” and that she had “written a complex chapter in my heart that I will never stop reading.”

Edwards told the committee that letter was not romantic.

“It was only to imply that we had a relationship on so many different levels — on a congressional level, on a professional level, on a friendship level, on a helping-one-another-out-with-our-chores-and-responsibility level,” he said.

Congress

Cornyn, Tillis confirm they will vote for Blanche

Published

7 hours ago

August 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has a clear path to the Senate Judiciary Committee advancing his nomination to the permanent job after two GOP holdouts confirmed Monday they would vote for him.

The statement from Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) comes after the late-night announcement Sunday of a Justice Department agreement to clarify a controversial May settlement agreement between President Donald Trump and the IRS.

A successful Judiciary vote Tuesday would set Blanche up for confirmation on the Senate floor later this week, before the chamber breaks for August recess.

“We want to express our gratitude to Mr. Blanche and his staff for working with us on this, and we look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon,” Cornyn and Tillis said in a joint statement.

The senators suggested their agreement with Blanche also satisfies the concerns of several other Republican senators off the Judiciary Committee who have raised concerns about the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” created in the original settlement, as well as provisions immunizing Trump and his family from some tax audits.

“We are pleased that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund. Additionally, the Department has acknowledged in a binding written order that the audit settlement is limited to the plaintiffs and the scope does not extend beyond the defendants in the lawsuit, the IRS and the Treasury, addressing concerns that multiple of our Republican colleagues share,” Cornyn and Tillis said.

Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, John Curtis of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are among the other Republicans who have expressed concerns about the payout fund. Blanche recently visited Alaska and announced a flurry of settlements benefiting Alaska as he courts Murkowski’s vote.