Congress
Johnson: No Ukraine aid on year-end spending stopgap
Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday shot down the Biden administration’s request to include $24 billion in Ukraine-related aid as part of an expected short-term spending bill Congress needs to pass by Dec. 20.
The Office of Management and Budget included the funding request in a list sent to Congress late last month. The new tranche of emergency Pentagon funding would go toward furnishing weapons and equipment for Ukraine and refilling U.S. inventories.
But Johnson, asked if he would attach the Ukraine-related money to what is expected to be a spending stopgap into early next year, told reporters: “I’m not planning to do that.”
“There are developments by the hour in Ukraine. … It is not the place of Joe Biden to make that decision now. We have a newly elected president and we’re going to wait and take the new commander-in-chief’s direction on all of that so I don’t expect any Ukraine funding to come up now,” Johnson said.
Congress has until Dec. 20 to fund the government and avoid a holiday shutdown. Though some Republicans are holding out hope that they can get a year-end agreement on a sweeping spending bill that would fund the government through the end of September, both House and Senate Republicans increasingly acknowledge that they will need a stopgap.
Johnson told reporters this week that he expects that bill will go into March, though other Republicans want it to go into January, which they argue will help them quickly turn to Trump’s larger legislative agenda.
Johnson is expected to need Democratic help to fund the government given a handful of House Republicans who tend to oppose any short-term funding bills. Johnson met with members of the Freedom Caucus on Tuesday night about the spending bill, with conservatives raising concerns about attaching disaster relief money unless it is paid for.
Congress
Another DHS funding vote coming to House floor
Speaker Mike Johnson is planning to put a stalled Homeland Security funding bill on the House floor a third time next week, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss private plans, as the GOP moves to further pressure Democrats to end the five-week closure.
Two versions of the bill have already passed the House, each time with just a few House Democrats breaking from party lines to back it. But the bill is still held up in the Senate, where Democrats have refused to approve DHS funding without adding new restrictions on immigration enforcement.
The House will also vote on a resolution next week in support of DHS workers, including TSA officers who have gone without pay as the spring break travel crush stresses U.S. airports.
Congress
House GOP leaders punt controversial FISA vote to April
House GOP leaders are punting a reauthorization vote for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that they had hoped to hold next week until mid-April, with a GOP hard-liner revolt over warrantless surveillance threatening to tank the legislation, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to discuss the conference dynamics.
GOP leaders are still dealing with a dozen or so Republican members who want reforms to the spy powers extension, as Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to pass a clean, 18-month extension without any changes. President Donald Trump has also asked for the clean extension.
Johnson and GOP leaders will instead work through the remaining issues over the upcoming two-week recess and try to put the extension on the floor the week of April 14, the people said.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and a group of ultraconservatives have warned GOP leaders that the reauthorization would fail if Johnson tried to push it through next week.
Another House Republican told Blue Light News there was “no way” a rule to advance a clean FISA extension would pass next week.
Johnson can lose only two votes on a rule to advance the measure, and already a handful of GOP hard-liners have told Blue Light News they would oppose it.
The FISA reauthorization deadline is April 20, and the delay leaves barely any time for the Senate to act.
Congress
White House sends blueprint for national AI rules to Congress
The White House on Friday published a long-awaited policy wishlist for artificial intelligence regulation that it hopes Congress will codify into law.
The light-touch federal framework blends the Trump administration’s effort to create a national AI rulebook on issues like political bias within models and reducing barriers to innovation with protections for children and teens online.
It urges Congress to overrule state AI laws that the administration says “impose undue burdens,” in favor of the “minimally burdensome” federal law that it’s recommending. The Trump administration has been trying to establish preemption over state AI laws using Congress and executive order for roughly a year, arguing that the patchwork of laws harms AI innovation.
The blueprint explicitly calls on Congress to preempt any state laws that regulate the way models are developed or that penalize companies for the way their AI is used by others, and instructs U.S. lawmakers not to create any new federal agencies to regulate AI.
It also outlines some areas where the federal government’s laws wouldn’t overrule those of the states, and asks Congress to allow states to keep laws that protect children, including those that ban AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
Trump administration officials have sought to gather support from Republican lawmakers for a light-touch approach to AI regulation in recent months. It’s unlikely, however, to receive bipartisan support in Congress.
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