Congress
Insurer CEOs testifying before House health subcommittee Jan. 22
House Republicans are summoning top health insurance executives to testify on Capitol Hill this month as part of a broader effort to examine health care costs, a move that comes weeks after enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits expired Dec. 31.
The hearing announcement comes amid Democrat criticism that Republicans allowed the enhanced ACA subsidies to lapse — a decision they argue is burdening Americans who relied on the enhanced tax credits to help them afford Obamacare premiums. It also comes amid pressure from President Donald Trump, who urged House Republicans earlier this week to tackle health care affordability.
“Alarm bells have been ringing for health care affordability for months,” said House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee ranking member Diana DeGette (D-Colo.). “And with the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits at the end of 2025, we knew that premiums would skyrocket in 2026.”
But House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said the Jan. 22 health subcommittee meeting with insurer executives will be part of a series of hearings over the next few months focused on health care affordability.
“While some want to talk solely about a small subset of the population, I believe we have to take a broader look,” Guthrie said.
UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest insurer, said it has received the invitation to the hearings and looks forward “to discussing health care costs as part of their series with hospitals, drug companies, and others,” spokesperson Robert Josephson said in a statement.
“Keeping health care affordable should be everyone’s top priority, and we will continue to partner with policymakers on solutions,” Josephson said.
Trump told House Republicans earlier this week that he plans to meet with 14 insurance companies in the coming days to pressure them to bring down prices.
“I am hopeful that we can have a productive discussion about what is truly driving increased healthcare costs and premiums for everyone,” Guthrie said. “From there, we need to look at the entire health care system, why prices and costs are going up.”
Kelly Hooper contributed to this report.
Congress
Capitol agenda: Marco Rubio works to stave off a revolt on Iran
The White House is trying to stave off a revolt on Capitol Hill against its military actions in Iran, as both chambers are set to vote on resolutions this week that would put guardrails on President Donald Trump’s unilateral use of military force.
Their first order of business: Bring administration heavies to Capitol Hill to discuss the rationale for strikes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on Blue Light News Monday to brief congressional leaders. He’ll be back Tuesday with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and they plan to meet first with members of the Senate, then the House.
At this point, lawmakers on both sides are decrying a lack of details from the administration — including evidence that Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S. that would necessitate military action. But so far, it’s looking like Republican leaders will be able to avoid mass GOP defections on the war power votes being forced in both chambers.
When the Senate votes Wednesday on Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) bipartisan resolution that would prevent further attacks without congressional buy-in, Democrats will need to pick up at least five Republicans to secure adoption — given Democratic Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-Pa.) expected opposition. Watch GOP Sens. Todd Young (Ind.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine), who helped advance a Venezuela war powers effort last month and were noncommittal Monday when asked how they’d vote on Iran.
Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday he believes he has the votes to block Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna’s (D-Calif.) Iran war powers resolution in the House, which will hit the floor Thursday.
“The idea that we would take the ability of our commander in chief … to finish this job, is a frightening prospect to me,” he said.
— Pressure on DHS funding: Republicans have another job this week — build pressure on Democrats to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, citing a need to fully fund the agency amid heightened security risks following the strikes in Iran.
The House Rules Committee convenes at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon to tee up another vote Thursday on a DHS funding bill similar to what the chamber passed last month, with Republicans daring Democrats to vote against defending the homeland.
But there are no signs of Democratic surrender as the DHS shutdown enters Day 18 amid a stalemate over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda. Democratic leaders in the House are whipping against the vote, telling members there is “no new language to end the chaos caused by ICE in communities across the country.”
Expect more debate when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testifies in front of members of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. These will be her first congressional hearings since the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents, which sparked the DHS impasse in Congress.
What else we’re watching:
— Texas primary day: Leaders in both parties will be closely watching a slew of House and Senate races in Texas Tuesday night that could determine control of Congress next year. The biggest contests across the Lone Star State will be the Senate primaries. James Talarico and Rep. Jasmine Crockett are vying for the Democratic nomination, while Sen. John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt are competing for the Republican nomination.
— Farm bill markup: House Agriculture will Tuesday evening begin marking up a farm bill years in the making — and some of the amendments under consideration will be more viable than others.
In the DOA category: Proposals from Democrats, including Reps. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) and Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.), that would reverse GOP cuts to food aid spending that were enacted in last summer’s megabill. In the more likely category: Rep. Jim Baird (R-Ind.) plans to offer an amendment that would postpone new restrictions on hemp products by two years, which would be a win for the hemp industry resistant to further regulation.
Katherine Tully-McManus, Jordain Carney, Andrew Howard, Rachel Shin and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.
Congress
Republicans took shots at Hillary Clinton — and she came ready to fight back
Hillary Clinton was subpoenaed to testify about what she knew about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Instead, she was being asked to answer questions about “Pizzagate.”
A former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of State — not to mention a veteran of congressional grillings — warned lawmakers before her deposition in Chappaqua, New York, last week that she had no memory of ever meeting Epstein. She said early on in her closed-door testimony that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was the person they should talk to.
But when several Republican members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee weren’t getting answers about the political power couple’s ties to the late, disgraced financier — pivotal to their ongoing Epstein investigation — they turned to unfounded conspiracy theories regarding Democrats and sex trafficking at a popular District of Columbia pizza shop, along with what the government might know about UFOs.
Clinton was aghast in response to a series of questions from Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) regarding the intersection between the “Pizzagate” theory — which centered around allegations that Democrats trafficked children — and the Epstein files, according to video of her deposition released Monday.
“I mean, really — I mean, I expected a lot of interesting questions today, but Pizzagate was not on my list,” she said, smiling.
The roughly six-hour deposition with the Oversight committee exposed all the partisan fault lines in the congressional Epstein probe. Members of the panel walked into two days of depositions with both Bill and Hillary Clinton sharing a bipartisan commitment to interrogate Epstein’s connections to some of the most powerful people — and left just as divided over the purpose of their work.
Neither Bill nor Hillary Clinton have been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. They have maintained that they had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
“Pizzagate,” said the Oversight Democrats in a statement on X, pointing to the exchange between Boebert and Hillary Clinton. “Embarrassing to spend time asking Secretary Clinton these questions.”
One major flare-up came when Boebert briefly derailed the deposition after it became apparent she leaked a photo of the closed-door deposition to an online far-wing influencer, who put it on social media.
“Oh for heaven’s sake,” said Clinton, slamming her hand on the table before leaving the deposition table altogether in a fury.
“I’m done with this,” Clinton said, as news emerged that Boebert had shared the photo. “You can hold me in contempt from now until the cows come home. This is just typical behavior.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) accused the former secretary of State as being “unhinged” in a news conference outside the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, where the deposition was being held.
And it appeared at times that GOP lawmakers wanted to get a rise out of their interview subject. A probing Mace asked how Clinton felt about seeing her husband in the files.
“I am not going to offer opinions or speculation about anything that I have no context for and was not there,” Clinton cooly responded.
When Mace asked about her relationship with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, she began speaking about her work with the former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald after many of his employees died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The two then shouted over one another, with Mace vocalizing her own alleged experience with sexual violence while Hillary Clinton defended her work as a New York senator around the aftermath of the Twin Towers’ collapse.
“You want to yell at me, that’s fine, but I’ll yell right back,” Mace said. “I’m doing the job that you would not do.”
Clinton seemed bored, if not annoyed, as Republicans took their jabs. She told Mace that the South Carolina Republican would “have a chance to talk to him tomorrow” — a line she said in variations several times in punting the questioning to her husband, who was scheduled to testify the next day.
“How do you feel about your husband being named in the Epstein files?” asked Rep. John McGuire (R-Va.).
“Well, I think it’s something that is unfortunate,” the former secretary of State responded. “And I’m sure that he will tell you that he wished he had not flown on Epstein’s plane.”
Bill Clinton said in his deposition he flew with Epstein on a few occasions as part of official business with the Clinton Global Initiative but never saw anything inappropriate. He also said he stopped traveling with Epstein once closer acquaintances began offering up their planes.
Hillary Clinton, who lost the presidency to Donald Trump in 2016, has maintained her status as a potent GOP foe despite. Throughout much of her political career, those across the aisle have sought to leverage various scandals to undermine her — from the 2012 attack on a U.S. government facility in Benghazi, Libya to her use of a private email server during her government service. She endured an 11-hour hearing in 2015 before a select House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks.
The proceedings also gave Democrats ammunition to undermine the proceedings as partisan and politically motivated, with Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) at one point calling the deposition a “clown show.” But Democrats are also leveraging Trump’s relationship with Epstein for political gain, including by suggesting they could move to subpoena Trump should they take control of the House after the midterm elections.
“Democrats used most of their time to ask President Clinton questions about President Trump,” said a spokesperson for Oversight Republicans in a statement. “In doing so, President Clinton destroyed Democrats’ latest hoax against President Trump by stating twice he has no information that he committed any wrongdoing.”
Trump has not been charged with any crime connected to Epstein and has maintained he severed ties years before the financier’s 2019 arrest on sex trafficking charges.
Hillary and Bill Clinton were both subpoenaed by the Oversight panel as part of its investigation into Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now serving 20 years for her part in the sex trafficking crimes.
Unlike Hillary Clinton, the former president recalled meeting Epstein and recounted to investigators about how his former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who has since resigned from Harvard, connected the two men. Bill Clinton also questioned why his wife was coming in to testify given that she had “nothing to do” with Epstein.
The former first couple were initially reluctant to sit before House lawmakers, saying that the subpoenas were not tied to a legitimate legislative purpose but the process was instead designed to imprison them. With lawmakers threatening to hold them in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate, however, they agreed to sit and answer questions.
Many Republicans asked Clinton questions that were relevant and substantive. House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) inquired about allegations that Epstein may have operated as some kind of spy and whether Epstein’s activity satisfied the requirements for human trafficking — explaining he wanted his panel to work to strengthen human trafficking laws.
In a press conference after the hearing, Clinton commended Comer for his “significant questions.”
But both Clintons, who had at one point said they were eager appear in public hearings, now appear to have no intention of coming back anytime soon.
“Oh, I’m not gonna do it again,” she told reporters after her deposition. “I think they could’ve spent the day more productively.”
Congress
No sign of Democratic surrender on DHS funding after Iran strikes
Democrats said Monday they have no plans to end their blockade of Department of Homeland Security funding in the face of GOP pressure to capitulate after President Donald Trump’s sweeping strikes on Iran.
Congressional Republicans insist the military conflict makes ending the 17-day DHS shutdown even more urgent, given the agency’s role in counterterrorism and domestic security.
But Democrats say they’ve been clear from the beginning that if Republicans want their votes, they must agree to changes to how the Trump administration carries out its immigration enforcement agenda.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, flatly rejected the suggestion that war with Iran should change his party’s shutdown posture.
“No,” he said in an interview. “We gave fair warning to the Republicans that we were serious about reining in what the ICE forces are doing. What we’re talking about is responsible.”
As an alternative, many Democrats are willing to fund DHS agencies that don’t deal with immigration enforcement. Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the House’s top Democratic appropriator, introduced a bill almost three weeks ago that would fund parts of DHS including the Coast Guard, TSA, Secret Service, FEMA and the nation’s cybersecurity agency through Sept. 30.
“There’s no disagreement on any of that. We could move forward and fund those for the rest of the year, and then have the negotiation” on ICE and Customs and Border Protection, DeLauro said in an interview Monday night. “But this is about their politics.”
Splitting up the DHS bill is something Republicans have opposed since the funding lapse started. According to three people granted anonymity to disclose private strategy, House and Senate GOP leaders see no reason to change their views now.
Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) said in an interview Monday that Democrats are “putting the country at risk” by not funding DHS and that they “should work with the administration to come up with something they can vote for.”
A group of Republicans in the Texas legislature cited a deadly Sunday morning shooting in Austin in urging congressional leaders to “pass full, unencumbered funding for DHS without delay.” Authorities are investigating whether the Iran attack motivated the gunman, who was killed by law enforcement.
Because a huge proportion of DHS employees work on “essential” national security related tasks, agency furloughs have been limited, though administrative and planning work is largely on pause. That means most TSA screeners, FEMA workers and Coast Guard members are at work but not being paid as the shutdown stretches past two weeks.
Immigration enforcement agencies are still active during the DHS shutdown, and they have billions of dollars already in their coffers from the GOP megabill Republicans passed last summer.
The standoff leaves the two sides largely stuck at loggerheads with no clear path to ending the partial government shutdown anytime soon.
House GOP leaders are planning a second vote on DHS funding Thursday — on a bill that has only minor changes from the measure the House passed on Jan. 22. That was just days before the killing of a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents prompted Senate Democrats to demand major policy changes in return for their votes.
At least seven Democrats would need to support a DHS funding bill to end debate under Senate filibuster rules.
Speaker Mike Johnson told House Republicans in a private call Sunday night that funding DHS operations will be a priority for the House GOP amid the Iran war fallout, given the heightened security risk. Privately, GOP leaders are hoping to exacerbate a Democratic split on the vote and keep the focus away from their own internal divides over the war.
Democratic leaders in the House are whipping against the funding bill ahead of the Thursday vote, saying in a caucus memo it has “no new language to end the chaos caused by ICE in communities across the country.”
Seven House Democrats voted “yes” in January, but that was before federal agents shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis — and even then, the funding fight sparked days of public sparring within the caucus.
And while Johnson could pick up at least a few Democratic votes, the modified bill is dead on arrival in the Senate. Only Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has voted to advance the DHS bill, and there is no sign more of his Democratic colleagues are prepared to join him.
“I’ve heard Republicans suggest that we should fund ICE because they started an illegal war with Iran — that’s ridiculous,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), ranking member of the DHS Appropriations subcommittee. “The American public wants ICE to stop murdering people, and they also don’t want us at war with Iran.”
Democrats and the White House have been trading counteroffers for weeks without making much progress. Trump hasn’t sat down yet with congressional leaders, and each side is dismissing the other as making unworkable demands.
“They have not given us a serious offer, and they need to understand we’re taking this seriously,” Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democratic appropriator in the Senate, said in an interview Monday. “We want accountability and reforms to ICE in order to fund them.”
Mia McCarthy, Jennifer Scholtes, Meredith Lee Hill and Calen Razor contributed to this report.
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