Congress

Jeffries calls on Biden to pardon more Americans

Published

2 years ago

December 3, 2024

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called on President Joe Biden to pardon more people convicted of nonviolent offenses amid controversy over the president’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden.

“During his final weeks in office, President Biden should exercise the high level of compassion he has consistently demonstrated throughout his life, including toward his son, and pardon on a case-by-case basis the working-class Americans in the federal prison system whose lives have been ruined by unjustly aggressive prosecutions for nonviolent offenses,” Jeffries said in a statement.

Jeffries’ comments echo the calls from some other Democrats who in recent days have asked Biden to use his clemency powers for more Americans in federal custody besides Hunter and to address sentencing disparities. But it did not pass judgment on the pardon of Hunter Biden itself. Some in the caucus have openly criticized the president since the pardon was issued and said it could tarnish his legacy and open a lane for Donald Trump to issue similar sweeping pardons.

Congress

Cory Mills hopes Trump boost will overcome Ethics headlines in Florida primary

Published

2 hours ago

August 13, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Rep. Cory Mills, under investigation by the House and shunned by some of his GOP colleagues in Congress, heads into a primary next week hoping a months-old endorsement from President Donald Trump will outweigh negative headlines and weak fundraising

Mills has remained adamant that he has done nothing wrong amid a long line of incidents — including a restraining order placed on him at the request of a former girlfriend — and has defied calls from other Republicans to step down from his central Florida congressional seat. He has compared his own legal woes to Trump’s, even as some media outlets have reported he has come under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“I’m the only person who sits on this stage today who has been endorsed three times by President Donald J. Trump,” Mills said last week at a primary debate in New Smyrna Beach. “I’m going to continue to fight for the American people, and that’s not what the swamp wants. But I can tell you right now, I’ve never cared about what the swamp wants or what the swamp needs.”

Mills’ bid to hang onto the state’s 7th District is just the latest race in a summer replete with members’ Ethics concerns hanging over their campaigns. The House Ethics panel derailed GOP Rep. Chuck Edwards’ reelection campaign last week after recommending censure for inappropriate behavior with female staffers. And Rep. Max Miller, an Ohio Republican, is officially on the ballot this fall after pressure campaigns failed to push him out amid domestic abuse allegations that he denies.

But if Mills fends off his three Republican primary challengers, his seat will likely become the top target for Florida Democrats. He has seen his fundraising efforts stagger, and his latest federal campaign reports show that he has less than $70,000 in his campaign account.

Republicans are trying to pick up as many as four seats in the state following a mid-decade redistricting push by Gov. Ron DeSantis that reshaped districts held by Democratic incumbents. Mills’ district did not change under that new map; Trump carried it by more than 12 points in 2024, but only won it by about 5.5 points four years earlier.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has already targeted the seat and has lined up behind Bale Dalton, a military veteran who also worked as chief of staff for Bill Nelson when Nelson led NASA.

Mills, who is seeking a third term in Congress, is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee into whether he benefited from contracts from the federal government. In February, Washington police investigated whether he assaulted a former girlfriend. Lindsey Langston, a former Miss United States and Republican state committee member from north Florida, accused him of threatening to release sexually explicit videos when asked for a restraining order. There have been calls to censure or even expel Mills from other members of Congress.

Trump gave Mills his “complete and total endorsement” last February, and Mills has leaned into that endorsement in his campaign messaging to voters, including a new television ad the campaign has cut. (It’s not clear when that ad will air. Mills does not have any pending ad buys, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact.)

Trump last week and on Tuesday evening posted repeated endorsements on his Truth Social account in several other Florida contests including governor. But he did not include one for Mills.

The three GOP challengers seeking to oust Mills have contended that he has lost trust among Republican voters and other GOP elected officials.

Ryan Elijah, a former local television anchor who has led primary opponents in fundraising, has warned GOP voters that backing Mills will result in Democrats flipping the seat in November.

“We have a member of Congress who is on the verge of getting kicked out, and that’s what you need to understand,” Elijah said at last week’s debate. “We’re all conservatives here. But if you look the other way, we are going to get a huge surprise in November.”

Elijah, who waved a copy of the since-expired restraining order at Mills during last week’s debate, told Blue Light News that he got into the race because of Mills and his “reputation” that has alienated other Republicans.

“We’re not running against the president, we’re not running against the party,” he said this week.

Elijah’s bid to knock off Mills has picked up support from central Florida sheriffs as well as GOP Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Mike Haridopolos. Luna previously told POLITICO she thought Mills should have resigned from Congress.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, a law enforcement officer well-known in the region who routinely gets statewide attention, ripped into Mills this past week as a “liar” even though Florida’s 7th does not include that county. Judd was upset Mills listed him as a supporter on his website because the sheriff endorsed him in a previous run.

Others challenging Mills have leaned into other allegations against him as well. Michael Don Johnson, an Army veteran who also worked for the Pentagon and ran against Mills two years ago, has criticized Mills over his personal life as well as reports alleging inconsistencies regarding his military record. Mills has sharply denied that he has misrepresented his service in order to receive awards he didn’t deserve.

At last week’s debate, Johnson pushed back against Republicans upset with his criticisms of Mills and said they had “warped minds.”

“I’m sorry that you folks like lies and falsehoods, you need to go to talk to your preacher,” Johnson said. “I’m telling the truth, and I’ve been doing it all my life. And defending this man for all the things he’s lied about over his years in Congress is despicable. It’s disgusting.”

Congress

Why House GOP hopes of cracking down on fraud could flame out

Published

2 hours ago

August 13, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Republicans are hoping Vice President JD Vance’s personal appeal to Congress to help crack down on alleged abuse in safety-net programs will revive talks of tackling fraud before the end of the year. But many are skeptical any such bill will ultimately reach the president’s desk.

Finding cost savings by rooting out so-called government waste and fraud in Medicare, Medicaid and the federal food assistance program known as SNAP was a top priority for House Republicans, who set out earlier this year to pass another party-line reconciliation package on the heels of last year’s “big, beautiful bill” and June’s immigration enforcement measure.

Many Republicans believe the fraud issue will have salience with voters amid larger concerns about affordability, since it would ostensibly involve returning lost funds to government health programs.

Lawmakers spent months discussing ways to tackle the matter, including hosting multiple hearings and meetings with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz to convince moderates and vulnerable GOP incumbents that their constituents would not misconstrue such efforts as gutting key social services.

“It should be one of our top priorities,” said Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) in a text message this week, “and I am very much in favor of seeing this in some type of reconciliation package.”

Yet with less than 100 days until the midterms, Republicans who were eager to go home to their districts for August recess and fold significant fraud wins into affordability messaging have little to show for it. And some now admit they are at a loss for whether there’s any campaign promise on this topic they can make and truly keep.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who chairs a House Oversight subcommittee that at one point was designed to complement the now-disbanded Department of Government Efficiency, said in an interview Wednesday that his fellow Republicans don’t “have the guts” to follow through on significant cost cutting measures.

“If Congress is listening to the public, then it should” advance fraud prevention legislation, Burchett continued, but added that it would only happen if Vance, or President Donald Trump, “picks up the phone and calls” members directly.

A roundtable at the White House last week alongside congressional Republicans may have provided a needed jolt: Vance, the administration’s newly-minted “fraud czar,” specifically called on Congress to stiffen penalties for fraudsters, increase data sharing between federal and state governments and give more money for extra staff and technology to federal agencies such as CMS.

Several House and Senate Republicans met with the vice president after the roundtable to discuss possible legislative solutions and appeared confident that they would work in tandem to move anti-fraud bills soon.

“We’ve got to bring accountability back to the system; otherwise, it’s going to continue to get worse, much worse, at a time we can least afford it,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who has pushed for more legislative action on fraud in the Senate, in a video of remarks following the event.

“Allowing fraud to run rampant in the United States of America is a slap in the face to hardworking Americans,” said Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) at that same confab.

Burchett also praised Vance’s engagement, while House GOP leaders are now actively looking into Vance’s requests and want to help the administration with the fraud crackdown as much as they can, according to one person granted anonymity to share details of private discussions.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over several health programs, is pursuing several bills to address fraud, including legislation that would impose stricter requirements for states overseeing social programs. Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said in a statement that the panel was also looking at “state Medicaid programs and identifying ways states can do more to root out fraud that is actively harming patients.”

“We need to tackle fraud. It is rampant and I agree we need to work on it in this Congress,” Energy and Commerce GOP Rep. Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee said in an interview Wednesday.

In addition to the roundtable, Vance made his pitch to Congress in a piece for The Washington Post.

“To protect these programs for the next generation, Congress must help us finish the job,” he said before laying out the legislative requests. Those asks included stiffening penalties for fraudsters, increasing data sharing between federal and state governments and giving more money for extra staff and technology.

Yet factions of House Republicans have been pushing for months for fraud crackdown efforts to be included in the third reconciliation bill the White House wants passed before the midterms — so far to no avail.

The Republican Study Committee put out a reconciliation framework in January that involved tackling fraud in the health care sector. Soon after Vance’s call for Congress’ engagement last week, RSC Chair August Pfluger of Texas put out a statement noting that his group’s proposal would codify the Trump administration’s anti-fraud measures into law.

Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), the chair of the House Budget Committee, was pitching even larger cuts to safety-net programs for inclusion in a party-line policy package before the second or third reconciliation bills started moving.

Then, in the days leading up to the summer recess, GOP leaders ultimately chose to put forward a more narrow blueprint that would free up funding for the Iran war effort and components of the partisan election security measure known as the SAVE America Act — a concession that there wasn’t support in the Senate for a more expansive, filibuster-skirting reconciliation package given the slim Republican majority.

House Republicans voted for that slimmed-down budget blueprint after leaders promised fraud prevention provisions would be included in a fourth reconciliation bill to be advanced following the November elections.

Pfluger didn’t have an answer when asked last month why members should believe there will be a path for the proposals later this year that did not exist in July.

“That’s a great question for leadership,” he said.

House GOP leaders have argued the dynamics will be different after the election. Arrington predicted in an interview before the recess that the lame duck session of Congress would actually be a perfect opportunity to address the issue. Then, he reasoned, House Republicans would be free from the pressures of looming elections — emboldened to proceed if they hold onto their majority, or determined to leave a lasting mark if their days in control are numbered.

“The political will that it takes to do any spending reform in 100 days prior to an historic midterm election is very different than the dynamics in the lame duck,” Arrington said. “You get past the election, and you got an invigorated body that is not thinking about their political life.”

Even so, a fourth reconciliation bill this year can only happen if the Senate moves ahead with the pending third proposal’s framework — and there are already doubts among GOP lawmakers that this will happen.

Short of that, House GOP leaders could put more individual fraud bills on the floor for votes. Arrington, for instance, has introduced legislation to create a $28 billion fund for CMS to fight fraud by providing more resources for staffing and technology to identify fraudsters faster.

But these measures would be political messaging vehicles only, as none would clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold and related bills the chamber passed previously have remained in limbo across the Capitol. The House has already passed several that have so far stalled in the Senate.

If Republicans do manage to hold onto their majorities in the House and Senate, it could be a centerpiece of the first reconciliation measure lawmakers pursue come January.

Still, some Republicans said tackling fraud isn’t a guarantee in any of these bills. Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia, when asked if he believed Congress was missing out on the opportunity to tackle fraud by not including it in the third reconciliation measure when they had the chance, said “that’s yet to be seen.”

Congress

Top House Judiciary Democrat escalates scrutiny of Paramount merger in new letter

Published

19 hours ago

August 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Democrats are ramping up their scrutiny of Paramount Skydance’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery — and previewing their plans to crack down on the merger if they win the majority next year.

In a new letter Wednesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland — the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee — invited Paramount CEO David Ellison to appear for a transcribed interview “to tell Congress and America your story and answer the Committee’s questions about your Donald Trump-enabled shopping spree to consolidate news organizations, movie studios, cable channels and streaming services.”

As a member of the minority party, Raskin has no power to force Ellison’s cooperation. A spokesperson for committee Republicans did not immediately return a request for comment about whether they were also interested in hearing from Ellison.

But should Democrats win back control of the House in the midterms, Raskin is expected to become the committee chair, and he would at that time have the power to exercise subpoena authority to compel Ellison’s testimony.

Raskin previewed his plans to ramp up oversight of the Paramount merger earlier this week, telling Blue Light News that the investigation is a “priority” and that “anyone involved should be prepared to answer under oath for their role in this brazen campaign to bend America’s free press to Donald Trump’s political, financial and personal will.”

A spokesperson for Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Paramount Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim, during a California policy summit Tuesday hosted by Blue Light News, said the company has been “transparent” and responsive to lawmaker’s concerns.

In his letter Wednesday, however, Raskin said that Ellison has not responded to four letters Judiciary Democrats have sent over the past year seeking clarity on the proposed $110 billion merger, which has sparked opposition from Democrats worried about antitrust violations, corruption and national security implications.

“The House Committee on the Judiciary is committed to scrutinizing how the antitrust laws are being enforced to promote the public interest; how market power abuses may be harming not only competition but consumers, workers, and the public generally; and whether the federal antitrust agencies are successfully promoting free competition and innovation — or whether they are using their governmental powers to distort the market and undermine freedom of speech and freedom of the press, in violation of the First Amendment,” Raskin wrote.