Congress

Johnson quietly shops new budget blueprint

Published

1 year ago

February 11, 2025

After a series of setbacks and delays, Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday night shopped around a new budget blueprint, snatching the pen from Rep. Jodey Arrington amid mounting frustration with the House Budget Committee chair.

Johnson’s latest plan includes a new floor for spending cuts — between $1.25 trillion and $1.5 trillion — to offset part of the massive domestic policy package Republicans are now pursuing, according to four people granted anonymity to provide details on the private talks. That range of reductions is greater than what the speaker initially laid out to his conference last month but still lower than the $2.5 trillion some conservatives have been pushing for.

The level of cuts is just one of several moving pieces Johnson and other House GOP leaders are still struggling with as they try to build unity for the sweeping border, energy and tax package. They want to use special budget reconciliation procedures to pass the bill along party lines, but first they need to get Republicans almost completely united behind a budget framework, and they have already blown past an informal deadline to get that blueprint through committee.

The Senate is prepared to move forward with a competing budget plan, one Johnson strongly opposes, later this week.

In another major adjustment, the speaker’s new draft plan could give the Ways and Means Committee even less fiscal space to craft an expansive package of tax cuts. Republicans had agreed to a $4.7 trillion instruction during their White House meeting on Thursday, but that number is now expected to dip lower — a move certain to concern GOP members who are already worried they won’t be able to fit all of President Donald Trump’s tax priorities into the bill.

Johnson continued to circulate the plan with key House GOP factions late Monday, with the floor for spending cuts likely to land closer to $1.5 trillion. If those talks go well, he is expected to present the new budget plan at a closed-door House Republican Conference meeting Tuesday morning, two of the people said.

First, however, GOP leaders have to make sure their own budget chair is fully on board. During a huddle on the House floor Monday night, Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and other senior Republicans pressed Arrington on what his more conservative committee members would think of the new leadership-led plan — assuming that he’d broken the ice with the hard-line conservatives on the panel.

Arrington indicated he didn’t know, leaving some senior Republicans concerned that he wasn’t doing enough to advocate for the plan with the hard-liners. Senior Republicans also pressed Arrington on what he would say about the plan in the Tuesday morning conference meeting, given that Johnson wanted Arrington to deliver part of the presentation.

Some Republicans were worried Arrington might stir up opposition given that he’s shown sympathies toward conservative causes in private meetings. Arrington and fellow Texan Rep. Chip Roy have been privately warring against Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith and other senior Republicans in recent days over Trump’s tax cuts and how to pay for them.

“They’re very worried that they’ll present the plan and Jodey will get questions as budget chair and will not back leadership up,” a senior GOP aide said, adding: “This all stems from a leadership-Jodey Arrington beef. Jodey’s been really tough to nail down: Is he with leadership? Or is he with the rank-and-file budget members who are pushing back? Nobody can figure it out.”

A spokesperson for Arrington did not respond to inquiries Monday night.

To be sure, Johnson is not sidelining Arrington entirely. Leaders still hope to move the budget plan through his committee, perhaps as soon as this week, and they expect the chair to take the lead in ironing out key details. But they have been concerned that he’s taking too long, and with Senate Republicans moving their own bill through committee this week, some in House GOP leadership are increasingly worried about getting jammed.

They’re so fearful, in fact, that some Republicans have privately started speculating about whether they should cancel next week’s House recess to force progress on the budget — though so far there’s no indication that leadership would do so.

As recently as Friday, GOP leaders and conservatives thought they had a tentative deal to cut as much as $2 trillion in spending as part of their party-line domestic policy package. But Trump’s aversion to steep cuts across Medicaid has emerged as a sticking point behind the scenes.

GOP leaders told senior Republicans in a series of private meetings Monday that Trump wasn’t yet on board with the major Medicaid cuts it would take to secure up to an additional $800 billion in savings, according to three people familiar with the conversations who, like the others, were granted anonymity to describe the private talks.

Johnson and senior Republicans are wary of pursuing the Medicaid reforms only for Trump to publicly bash the move. GOP leaders indicated in private meetings Monday that “they need to work with Trump” on the Medicaid issue before proceeding, according to one of the people.

But Trump and his team are worried those cuts will invite political blowback. And, many House Republicans in competitive and even some safer seats are alarmed at the idea of slashing Medicaid, even if they don’t directly cut individual benefits.

“Trump’s team has said he does not want to make this bill a health care bill,” said the aforementioned senior GOP aide. “They don’t want anything too drastic on health care or savings because that becomes the talking point.”

Johnson has also been considering adding a debt limit increase back into the reconciliation plans since the White House meeting last Thursday, given a push by Trump. However, the speaker and other GOP leaders remain privately skeptical it can advance in a party-line package.

With that decision still unsettled — not to mention the parameters for spending reductions and tax cuts — senior House Republicans think it is unlikely the plan could move through the Budget Committee this week, as Johnson had hoped.

Congress

House Oversight requests Alan Dershowitz testify in Epstein probe

Published

20 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Oversight Committee requested that Alan Dershowitz, the lawyer who once represented Jeffery Epstein, testify as part of its investigation into the federal government’s handling of the Epstein files.

The interview is tentatively slated for 10 a.m. on July 9, with a video and transcript of the testimony being released “as expeditiously as practical,” Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote in a letter to Dershowitz on Friday.

“Due to public reporting, documents released by the Department of Justice, documents obtained by the Committee, and your former role as Mr. Epstein’s attorney, the Committee believes you have information that will assist in its investigation,” Comer wrote.

Comer told reporters on Wednesday that he wanted to hear from Dershowitz, who helped Epstein secure a controversial plea deal in his 2008 sex abuse case.

“I’m looking forward to testifying,” Dershowitz wrote in a text message to Blue Light News on Friday, adding that he is “trying to adjust my schedule” for July 9.

Congress

Cornyn tells Mike Lee to lay off John Thune

Published

22 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. John Cornyn isn’t a card-carrying member of the Senate GOP’s growing YOLO caucus. But with less than seven months left in office after losing his primary, the Texas Republican appears to be feeling newly free to speak his mind.

The latest clap-back came Thursday night and the early hours of Friday morning, when Cornyn called a conservative influencer a “grifter” and told Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on social media to stop publicly blaming fellow Republicans — including Senate Majority Leader John Thune — for the fact that the GOP elections bill doesn’t have support to pass inside the party.

“You don’t have the votes” for the SAVE America Act, Cornyn posted on X. “@LeaderJohnThune can’t change that. It is math.”

He was directing his comments at Lee, who had just penned a post telling Thune, “let’s do this!”

Cornyn continued, “Try focusing on Democrats instead of Republicans. Republican on Republican attacks are hurting our chances to win the majority in November.”

Lee responded to ask, “on what planet is this an attack on Republicans?” and appeared to suggest a staffer was tweeting on Cornyn’s behalf: “Once my friend John Cornyn realizes that you’re saying this in his name—whoever you are—I don’t think he’ll be happy with you.”

Cornyn, however, is known for posting himself on his social media accounts in a chamber where many Senate accounts are run solely by staff. And he’s been making it clear all week that he will push back on Trump and his party when he thinks it’s needed.

In multiple conversations with reporters in the Capitol, Cornyn said that Republicans need to “stop the circular firing squad.” And he added that he won’t intentionally be “a thorn in [Trump’s] side,” but he’s also “not going to go out of my way to try to appease him.”

“I want him to succeed, I want the Republican Party to succeed, I want the country to succeed,” Cornyn said this week. “But on a case-by-case basis, when I think there’s been overreach or just a bad idea, I’m not going to hesitate to weigh in.”

The four-term senator’s comments come after he lost his primary last month to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who Trump endorsed in the final days of the runoff.

Cornyn said in an interview with The New York Times that he was not a “wounded bear” but that he believed Trump’s insistence on “slavish adherence” was going to backfire for Republicans in the midterms and result in “the most miserable two years of his life” if Democrats flip the House or Senate.

“I think it is going to be a pretty bumpy ride for the next seven months,” Cornyn said.

Congress

Capitol agenda: What Schumer told us about AI

Published

1 day ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Chuck Schumer wants Congress to pass AI legislation. But he’s casting doubt on it happening this year.

“In this Congress, it’s hard,” the Senate minority leader said in an interview Thursday.

Schumer’s reality check isn’t a complete door-slam. But it underscores the steep climb lawmakers face to bridge a slew of intra-party and inter-chamber divides about what Washington’s approach should be toward the emerging opportunities and risks from the rapidly developing technology.

The problems are multi-pronged.

The White House, whose posture toward AI has shifted dramatically in recent weeks, is angling to enact legislation that would preempt state laws in favor of a national standard. Most recently, administration officials have been exploring a plan to attach preemption legislation to bills designed to shore up kids’ safety online. But there are issues — House Republicans aren’t in love with the Senate GOP’s kid safety bills and Senate Majority Leader John Thune has warned that many senators have concerns “about not trampling states’ rights in the process.”

Democrats aren’t unified on what to do next, with the public broadly skeptical about AI.

Some House and Senate Democrats are leery of state preemption and want to wait until next year to tackle AI, when they might be in power. Opposition from key Democrats is a major factor derailing an attempt by Reps. Lori Trahan and Jay Obernolte to strike a deal on legislation that would set nationwide safety and transparency rules while restricting state action. And Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have proposed a moratorium on AI data centers pending stricter government oversight.

Schumer is striking a balanced tone on how to proceed, arguing that there are “tremendous benefits” from AI but that “we also have to have guardrails.”

“We should get something done on AI, and it’s … got to be balanced — keep innovation strong, but have guardrails to prevent the dangers,” he said. “That’s a hard needle to thread, but I would very much like to see that get done the sooner the better.”

What else we’re watching:

— FISA LAPSE, CLAYTON NOMINATION: Thune is vowing to move “fairly quickly” to confirm Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence, with the FISA Section 702 spy authority set to lapse at midnight thanks to a stalemate between Democrats and the White House over the position.

— GOP ADVANCES BIG DEFENSE BOOST — Republicans have taken the first steps toward granting President Donald Trump’s request for the largest budget ever for the Pentagon. Senate Armed Services members on Thursday approved a draft of their annual defense authorization bill outlining priorities for $1.14 trillion in defense spending next year. The House Appropriations defense subcommittee advanced $1.1 trillion in fiscal 2027 funding for the Defense Department in a closed-door markup.

Calen Razor and Connor O’Brien contributed reporting.