Congress

Key House GOP hard-liner doesn’t rule out short-term shutdown punt

Published

1 year ago

September 8, 2025

House Republicans are inching closer together on a plan to fund the government, with a key GOP hard-liner suggesting he could tolerate a short-term punt before funding runs out Sept. 30.

Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus and for weeks has pushed for a year-long continuing resolution, said in a brief interview Monday he could support a shorter stopgap plan that Appropriations Chair Tom Cole is backing — if Cole has the votes.

Some in the Freedom Caucus ranks have declared themselves as “hard no” on Cole’s plan, which doesn’t currently have the votes to pass. But Harris said he would not necessarily oppose a shorter CR that would expire before the winter holidays — allowing time for more negotiations between the two parties and chambers.

“No, if they have the votes for it, I think we’ll support it, but we prefer it to be into next year,” Harris said.

Cole wants the stopgap into November, with three full-year funding bills included. Harris himself chairs an Appropriations subcommittee. Other senior appropriators have indicated they will dig in to block a longer-term stopgap into 2026.

Asked about his push for a shorter punt, Cole said Monday, “I think it is getting a little steam” and noted that talks were moving “in the right direction.”

Speaker Mike Johnson has yet to make a decision on how to handle the looming Sept. 30 expiration of government funding, with senior GOP aides believing President Donald Trump needs to publicly weigh in as well.

House GOP leaders laid out several options to fund the government in private meetings with senior Republicans Monday but mostly asked for additional input, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the conversations.

“Lot of strong agreement that we need more discussions,” one of the people said of those conversations.

While White House officials have privately noted the benefits of pushing another funding vote into next year, Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have already discussed a shorter funding punt into November or December.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that it was “in everybody’s interest” to keep any stopgap “as clean as possible” to allow for further negotiations on full-year spending bills under a “normal appropriations process.”

He also kept the door open for a possible deal with Democrats to extend key federal health insurance subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. Any agreement along those lines, he said, would have to have Trump’s blessing.

Thune added that the onus was on Democrats to “come forward with a solution” that would extend the subsidies at a lower cost. “This a problem … of their making,” he said, referring to the subsidies that were created under former President Barack Obama and expanded under Joe Biden.

GOP leaders and senior Republicans also discussed at their Monday meeting the need to develop a plan to address the subsidies, according to the two people. How they would address the growing political problem is still under discussion.

Passing a stopgap into November could allow Republicans to continue work on their funding bills while also providing a vehicle for a possible bipartisan deal on the expiring tax credits — something that poses a serious political problem for the White House going into a midterm election year.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, warned the GOP not to take Democratic votes for granted as the shutdown deadline approaches.

“This week we need to see signs from Republicans that they are serious about avoiding a shutdown or time will run out,” he said in a floor speech. “And the American people will know Republicans will be responsible if a shutdown happens.”

Congress

Sanders to rally for Troy Jackson in Maine

Published

4 hours ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Bernie Sanders will hit the road for Troy Jackson in Maine starting Oct. 10, the first time the progressive leader will stump for the candidate this cycle.

The Vermont independent plans to hold three rallies with Jackson, according to an itinerary shared first with Blue Light News: first in Bangor on Oct. 10th followed by Lewiston and Biddeford on Oct. 11.

The Maine swing will kick off Sanders’ travel for the final stretch of the midterms, covering ground throughout October for House and Senate candidates, POLITICO reported.

“Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them,” Jackson spokesperson Dan Gottlieb told Blue Light News. “Susan Collins has had nearly 30 years to deliver, and working Mainers are still getting squeezed while she serves the billionaires and corporate interests who bankroll her campaigns. Mainers don’t need another six years of excuses.”

Sanders campaigned ahead of major wins for progressives in the primary season, speaking at more than 60 rallies since last year’s Fight the Oligarchy tour and endorsing more than 90 candidates up and down the ballot.

He’s also opening his substantial $23 million campaign war chest, POLITICO reported, and contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars toMinnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and others including Angie Nixon in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,

Sanders will return to Maine after initially backing Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate. Allegations reported by POLITICO ultimately led him to call on the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.

Sanders had not formally endorsed Jackson since he clinched the nomination from Platner, though he previously backed Jackson’s initial run for governor.

Congress

Hill: Trump’s ‘lack of favorability’ creating challenging politics

Published

5 hours ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he has “no concerns” about winning back his Arkansas seat in the upcoming midterm elections, but the six-term House member acknowledged the political headwinds for his party.

“I consider the atmosphere a very tough political environment right now because of President [Donald] Trump’s lack of favorability at the top, and you know people are concerned about, as I say, what it’s like to live under an inflated economy the last four years,” Hill said in an interview.

Hill is in a solidly red district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and said he is up against a “weaker candidate this time than I’ve had in past races.” Polling in the district, however, has shown a tighter race. The two polls done this year placed Democratic challenger Chris Jones ahead of Hill by a few percentage points. Any perceived polling victory for Jones is still well within the margin of error, and one of the polls had a Democratic sponsor.

Stephannie Lane Baker, a spokesperson for Jones, said that “of all the Republicans in Congress, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee doesn’t get to dodge responsibility for this economy. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.”

Additionally, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s PAC, Ready for the Fight, committed more than $1 million in television ads through the next five weeks for Jones’ race in Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the PAC confirmed. Overall Democratic spending on advertising for the race was just over $1 million, primarily made up by contributions from the Ready for the Fight PAC, with Republicans spending almost $2.7 million on ad buys, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking service.

Hill said he has addressed affordability concerns “head on” this Congress.

“My work on housing, my work on the Price Stability Act, my work to try to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and drop the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP,” Hill said. “All these things can contribute to a more affordable environment for people. So I’ve tried to make that a forefront of my campaign this year.”

Hill was a key architect of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing affordability bill that became law in July. The Price Stability Act, which is unlikely to become law this year, would narrow the Federal Reserve’s current dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and price stability to focus exclusively on containing inflation.

Congress

Sanders, AOC, Merkley propose bill to ban Flock cameras

Published

10 hours ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Friday released text of legislation intended to ban the use of Flock surveillance cameras and other license plate readers.

Flock has faced severe public backlash against the surveillance technology following reports that police officers misused the technology to track women, and it has the largest network of license plate readers across the U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) hosted a hearing last month probing its potential misuses, although the company’s CEO Garrett Langley did not appear.

The latest bill, unveiled Friday and named the Ban Flock Act, would bar federal agencies from using automated license plate readers or accessing data from the technology and prevent federal grants from funding states and local governments that use automated license plate readers.

“At a time of growing concern about the unchecked power of artificial intelligence, Flock is eviscerating the very notion of privacy by installing tens of thousands of cameras in communities across America without their consent,” Sanders, who has positioned himself as a leading progressive voice on AI technology, said in a statement. “We cannot allow America to become a surveillance state where a handful of AI oligarchs profit by giving the government the power to track our every movement.”

Ocasio-Cortez similarly condemned the surveillance capabilities of the technology and said the bill would “enforce our constitutional right to privacy and protect Americans from both corporate and government surveillance.”

“No one should have this unchecked surveillance power at their fingertips,” Merkley added.

Republicans have introduced similar efforts to regulate license plate readers, such as Hawley’s Stop Flock Abuse Act, which would require audits and limits on unauthorized searches.

Flock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.