Congress

Kean returns to House, says depression diagnosis led to four-month absence

Published

1 hour ago

June 30, 2026

Rep. Tom Kean Jr. made his first appearance on the House floor in nearly four months Tuesday and revealed a depression diagnosis led to his extended hospitalization.

The New Jersey Republican’s floor remarks were his first public disclosure about the absence that went publicly unexplained for more than 100 days. His staff blamed a personal medical condition without providing other details, sparking widespread concern and speculation as they assured reporters that all would be revealed when he returned.

Kean explained in the speech that his diagnosis came after medical testing and that he did not know at the outset how long he would be hospitalized.

“When I said I hoped to return in a matter of weeks, I believed it,” he continued. “Those were the best estimates the doctors could provide, but as the over 48 million of my fellow Americans being treated for this illness have come to discover, there is no timeline for healing, there is no timeline for recovery — only the work of getting better one day at a time

Kean, the son of a beloved former governor of the state, is New Jersey’s most vulnerable House Republican. He will face Democrat Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot, in the November midterms.

In addition to being absent from Washington, Kean has also been missing from the campaign trail for the last several months, boosting Democratic hopes of flipping his seat. Kean, who won the June 2 primary for his seat unopposed, has insisted he’s fully committed to winning a third term and has a fundraiser scheduled for later Tuesday.

Even Kean’s political allies spent the last several months largely in the dark about his condition. The other two House Republicans from New Jersey, Reps. Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith, said in April that they had tried reaching out to Kean out of concern but had not heard back — Van Drew described it as “radio silence” — and local party leaders in Kean’s district were similarly left out of the loop.

The mystery of Kean’s absence was only fueled further by reports of empty houses and ominous statements from his team that there were “no cameras” where he was.

“I am a private person by nature,” Kean said Tuesday. “Talking about myself has never come naturally, but I believe that I owe an explanation to the people of New Jersey’s 7th District, to my colleagues in this chamber and to the American people for my absence.”

Speaker Mike Johnson said in April that he had spoken with Kean by phone, and later described Kean’s condition as something “very common” and “not a scandalous thing at all.”

Speaking shortly before Kean addressed the House Tuesday, Johnson gently chided him for his secrecy: “If it were me, I would have been more specific about that, and I encouraged him to be.”

Kean’s absence has complicated Johnson’s efforts to pass key legislation through a closely divided House where every Republican vote has been precious.

Despite reassurances from Kean’s political team that he was still seeking reelection, his prolonged absence led to speculation in Republican circles that the party would need a late replacement.

Laura Ali, the Republican chair of Morris County, which overlaps with Kean’s district, told Blue Light News earlier this month that Republicans who “would want to be” considered to replace Kean and “have made their intentions quite clear.” Ali and other local Republicans grew nervous as Kean had effectively ceded the early summer campaign playing field to Bennett.

“Yeah, I am nervous — of course I am, because it’s a very unsettling situation,” Ali said at the time.

Johnson predicted Tuesday that Kean “gets elected easily this fall.”

Kean won reelection against Democrat Sue Altman by 5 points in 2024 — an unusually strong year for Republicans in New Jersey. This year he faces what’s shaping up to be a tougher political environment and an opponent who Republicans, by all appearances, would have preferred to avoid facing.

As Bennett ran a more centrist campaign than her primary rivals, a Republican super PAC posed as a left-leaning group and attacked Bennett as “weak” for not calling to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Bennett’s biography closely matches Democratic New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who last year defied expectations with a landslide victory over Republican Jack Ciattarelli despite eight years of full Democratic control of New Jersey that saw rising energy costs. Sherrill’s statewide victory included a 2-point win in Kean’s 7th District.

Congress

GOP rebels threaten Iran spending bill over Poland troop fight

Published

15 minutes ago

June 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A splinter group of moderate House Republicans is threatening to derail an $88 billion Iran war spending bill unless American troops are returned to Poland.

Led by frequent Trump critic Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), the small cadre of GOP lawmakers could scuttle the emergency spending bill, which also includes farm aid and money to counter the Ebola virus. Bacon and his allies are trying to force the White House to make good on its plan to replace 4,200 American troops abruptly pulled out of Poland last month.

Just three defections could lead to serious trouble for Speaker Mike Johnson, given the narrow Republican House majority and expected widespread Democratic opposition to the measure, and concerns from GOP fiscal hawks about writing such a huge check.

The standoff is the latest clash between Republican defense hawks and a Trump administration that has largely ignored GOP worries about pulling forces from Europe — part of a larger push by the White House to force European nations to shoulder more of their own national security burden.

“We had five brigades, and we’re three now,” Bacon said about U.S. forces in Poland, considered a key ally of the United States. “It’s unsatisfactory. … If they want my support on the supplemental, they better come up and address it,” added Bacon, who described himself as the effort’s “spokesman.”

This month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Pentagon would conduct a six-month review of American forces in Europe, and lashed out at NATO allies who declined to throw military support behind the U.S. during the Iran war.

“I stand with Don,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, (R-Penn.), adding that he wanted answers from the Pentagon on why the department is changing course on “unquestionable policy” that has lasted for generations.

Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), also a member of the Armed Services panel, said while he would still support the supplemental, “we won’t have the votes to pass it without those two.”

The White House, Defense Department and Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The abrupt cancellation of a deployment of 4,200 Army soldiers to Poland in May caught American lawmakers, Army leaders and Polish officials by surprise. Two senior Polish defense ministry officials were immediately dispatched to Washington as Warsaw raced to figure out what had happened.

At the time, Bacon said it was “a slap in the face to the Armed Services Committee,” and panel Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) told Army Secretary Dan Driscoll that his committee was “not happy.”

In the days following the Pentagon’s announcement, President Donald Trump said he would send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland “based on the successful Election of the now President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, who I was proud to Endorse.”

But those troops have yet to be deployed.

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), also a member of the Armed Services Committee, said he hoped withholding votes from the supplemental would not be necessary, and that the Pentagon would soon replace the troops.

“I think it’s going to come through,” he said.

Congress

Vought: Congressional earmarks will be protected under new grant rules

Published

45 minutes ago

June 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

White House budget director Russ Vought said Tuesday that the Trump administration’s overhaul of the federal grant approval process won’t undermine lawmakers’ ability to direct cash to specific projects back home.

“Sometimes you have an earmark to a specific person or a specific organization, and that would probably be at the top of the list that needs to be funded,” Vought told House appropriators during a morning oversight hearing.

The White House proposed changes last month that would put political appointees in charge of approving or scrapping funding awards to community groups, education institutions, state and local governments and nonprofit organizations. But projects Congress orders the Trump administration to fund through so-called earmarks are “not something that is impacted by this grant rulemaking,” Vought said.

Congress enacted thousands of earmarks, worth almost $16 billion, under the government funding bills cleared over the last year. After Republicans swore off earmarks for more than a decade beginning in 2010, many lawmakers in both parties see their return as a way to protect their power to dictate how federal dollars are spent as the Trump administration continues to withhold, cancel and shift billions of dollars Congress has approved elsewhere.

The window for public comment will close in less than two weeks for the rule change the White House proposed in late May following President Donald Trump’s executive order to that end last summer.

“Probably record numbers of comments have come in. We’re going to assess each one of those comments and make any changes that we need to,” Vought said, explaining that the overall goal is to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent in a way that is “aligned with the president’s agenda, as he got elected on behalf of the entirety of the American people.”

Congress

House GOP hard-liners continue to threaten floor blockade ahead of crucial vote

Published

1 hour ago

June 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Hours ahead of a crucial floor vote, hard-right House Republicans threatened to continue blocking legislative business Tuesday in a bid to force action on a stalled GOP elections bill backed by President Donald Trump.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and allied hard-liners derailed last week’s planned House business, and they said Tuesday morning that Speaker Mike Johnson’s efforts to meet their demands to force Senate passage of the SAVE America Act have fallen short.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), chair of the House Freedom Caucus, said a crucial procedural measure scheduled for an early-afternoon vote “is going to have problems the way it is currently structured.” Harris argued he needs “more than a commitment” from Johnson to hold a vote on border security issues, which the speaker promised hard-liners several weeks ago as part of a deal to pass a separate measure.

“I don’t know if the leadership is going to change it in order to give it a better chance of passage, but we’ll see,” Harris said.

GOP leaders want the House to vote this week on the annual defense policy bill, fiscal 2027 funding for the State Department and other agencies, as well other measures. Johnson moved Monday to attach the House-passed SAVE America Act to the Pentagon bill, as Luna and her allies had demanded. But after the House Rules Committee acted on the plan, Luna said the plan was insufficient.

In a closed-door meeting of House Republicans Tuesday, Johnson urged his members to fall in line on the procedural vote. But very few of the biggest potential holdouts were in the room, according to four people in the room who were granted anonymity to describe the private meeting.

House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) sounded off on the “stupid” blockade threat in an interview Tuesday morning.

“The idea you’re going to make the Senate do something by doing nothing in the House is ridiculous,” Cole said. “You make the Senate move by putting pressure on them by passing [bills], not by having a self-inflicted shutdown.”

Cole added of Luna: “If she wants to be a senator, she should run for the Senate,” he said. “Trying to use the House in that way just makes us ineffective — as ineffective as they are.”

Johnson told reporters separately he doesn’t plan to further modify the procedural measure to placate holdouts.

“There’s always lingering issues, and we’re going to work through them today,” he said.

In a small boost to Johnson, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who previously advocated to shut down the House floor unless the Senate passes the SAVE America Act, said in an interview Tuesday that he plans to support the procedural vote.

“Whether it’ll pass or not, I’m not sure,” he said.