Congress

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

Published

4 hours 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

House floor is frozen after GOP holdouts reject Johnson’s election-bill plan

Published

54 minutes ago

June 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A handful of House Republicans angry about the Senate’s failure to act on a GOP elections bill and other grievances with party leaders rejected a procedural measure Tuesday, effectively halting progress on the annual defense policy bill and other legislation.

The hard-liner rebellion Tuesday at least temporarily extends a freeze on most floor business that began last week amid conservative frustrations over the stalled SAVE America Act, which President Donald Trump has called his No. 1 legislative priority.

The “rule” setting up further House votes this week failed 224-198, with 14 Republicans voting with Democrats against the measure. Those Republicans included Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who immediately moved to reconsider the vote at a later time. Leaders also faced absences from several Republicans.

If Speaker Mike Johnson can’t placate the holdouts, he will be unable to move the annual Pentagon bill or the fiscal 2027 spending bill for the State Department and other agencies as planned before a scheduled weeklong July 4 recess begins. Also set to be left behind is a ceremonial resolution commemorating the one-year anniversary of tax-cut legislation that remains the GOP’s major legislative triumph of President Donald Trump’s second term.

Johnson told reporters Republicans would work for the “next day-and-a-half” to settle the disputes and move on with the scheduled business.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida demanded Tuesday that Johnson attach the SAVE America Act to the Pentagon bill as an amendment — even after Johnson moved to attach the bill as part of the procedural vote that failed Tuesday.

Divisions among Republican senators have stalled the bill in the other chamber, where it faces a certain Democratic filibuster.

Trump has amped up pressure on congressional Republicans, canceling the signing of a major housing bill last week to put pressure on the Senate to pass the bill. Later, after meeting with Johnson at the White House Thursday, the president instructed GOP members not to blockade the floor.

Luna and others did not heed him Tuesday.

Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, called the situation “unhinged” on the floor Tuesday.

“What on earth are we doing here?” McGovern said. “Every week, wondering if someone’s going to throw a fit, if Donald Trump is going to post something crazy and blow everything up, if Mike Johnson is going to bring something to the floor when he doesn’t have the votes.”

Congress

GOP rebels threaten Iran spending bill over Poland troop fight

Published

3 hours 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

4 hours 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.”