Congress

Maine Democrat Troy Jackson has raised $1M for his Senate bid so far

Published

1 hour ago

July 22, 2026

Maine Democrat Troy Jackson has raised $1 million in the less than two weeks since he entered the race for Senate shortly after Graham Platner dropped out, his campaign told Blue Light News on Wednesday morning.

Jackson, the presumptive Democratic nominee, raised $613,000 of that haul since Sunday following the selection of the 601 delegates who will determine Platner’s replacement this weekend. More than 90 percent of those delegates have pledged to back Jackson.

The fundraising number is a strong showing for Jackson, who only raised a bit over $1 million in his entire run for governor earlier this year. But he still has a lot of work to do to catch up to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is sitting on an $11 million war chest.

Jackson’s campaign said they received 27,283 contributions from 24,669 individual donors. A University of New Hampshire poll released Tuesday showed Jackson with a narrow lead against Collins, 49 percent to 46 percent.

The Maine Senate seat is a must-win for Democrats hoping to retake control of the upper chamber. Collins is the only sitting Republican senator up for reelection in a state that former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024.

Congress

Darline Graham: Her brother’s work ‘took him from us’

Published

7 minutes ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Newly seated Sen. Darline Graham said she thinks her late brother’s work in Congress took a toll on his body, causing his sudden death earlier this month.

“I begged him to slow down. I knew it was not going to be good. And I had already prayed, and knew in my heart, that one day something was going to happen,” she said of late-Sen. Lindsey Graham. “I feel like it took him from us.”

Darline Graham gave the emotionally raw remarks during the Senate Budget Committee’s first meeting since the death of her brother, who was previously the panel chair.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the committee’s new chair, also said he believes Lindsey Graham’s advocacy for foreign policy issues and aggressive travel schedule caused his death.

“I think it cost him his life,” Johnson said, noting Graham’s travel to Turkey and Ukraine in the days before he died July 11. “So that’s his lasting legacy. He dedicated his life. He gave his life to this country.”

The official cause of death for Graham was an aortic dissection caused by cardiovascular disease.

Johnson called for lawmakers to attempt more bipartisan policy efforts in Graham’s memory: “We’re going to miss his demonstration of how to work together. It’s maybe a wake-up call.”

Democrats on the panel also noted the late senator’s ability to bring lawmakers from both parties together on policy issues while also influencing President Donald Trump.

“We are a grimmer and a dumber place without Lindsey Graham,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). “Our prospects as a body are narrower. Our boundaries are more constrained, and frankly, more tedious.”

Congress

Arrington, eager to appease fiscal hawks, proposes $28B boost to health fraud busting

Published

2 hours ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Budget Committee chair and five other GOP lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday that boosts funding to fight health care fraud by $28 billion through 2030.

The Anti-Fraud Fund Act led by Budget Chair Jodey Arrington of Texas and Rep. Blake Moore of Utah is in service of one of the Trump administration’s top second term priorities: targeting government fraud. And it comes at a time when fiscal hawks in the GOP are threatening to oppose new war funding President Donald Trump has requested because of the cost.

Arrington has sought to convince them the administration is doing its part to control the deficit by fighting fraud.

The bill offers an extra $28 billion to the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program, created in 1996 to fund Justice and Health Department investigations and health fraud education.

“This joint DOJ-HHS program has a 7:1 return for dollars saved for every dollar spent,” said Moore in a statement.

He added that the legislation will empower CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz to “bring accountability to Medicare and Medicaid providers.”

Other co-sponsors are Reps. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, Mike Carey of Ohio, Addison McDowell of North Carolina and Jay Obernolte of California.

The legislation comes as House Republican fiscal hawks express wariness about a party-line spending bill Arrington is shepherding. That spending measure would include $95 billion for the Iran war and aid for farmers, as well as other Republican priorities, but no offsets to cover the costs.

It also does not include any extra funding for combating fraud, which Arrington has touted to his committee members as a major cost saver; Vice President JD Vance has echoed that argument.

Arrington also told Blue Light News Tuesday he believes the House could put together yet another party-line reconciliation bill later this year — an idea floated by some in House GOP leadership — to assuage lawmakers who are angry their priorities are not in the war funding bill the House is now considering. That later bill could include more funding to fight fraud, he said.

“We have not tens, but hundreds of billions in savings on fraud prevention,” Arrington said. “This is not for this moment. We have to keep this [current reconciliation bill] so clean.”

The later bill could be passed in the lame duck session after the November midterm elections, he added.

The Congressional Budget Office, which determines whether bills save the federal government money, is developing a report to examine how more fraud-busting resources could offset new spending.

The legislation comes as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has ramped up fraud scrutiny in the government health care programs, primarily in blue states. CMS announced on Tuesday it has withheld more than $1 billion in Medicaid funding to both Minnesota and California over what it deems suspect payment claims.

Mia McCarthy contributed to this story.

Congress

Trump’s pick for No. 2 post at OMB clinches committee approval

Published

3 hours ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump’s nominee for the No. 2 position at the Office of Management and Budget scored initial committee approval Wednesday as Senate Republicans work to confirm him.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted to advance the nomination of Hal Duncan to serve as deputy director of the White House agency known as the “nerve center” of the federal government.

The Senate Budget Committee is also scheduled to vote Wednesday morning to approve the nomination.

Duncan has been serving in the role in an acting capacity since late last year, when Trump nominated then-Deputy Director Dan Bishop to serve as a U.S. attorney.

During his Senate vetting this summer, Duncan said he couldn’t rule out the use of any “fiscal tools,” including the pocket rescission tactic OMB employed last year to unilaterally cancel billions of dollars in foreign aid without Congress’ consent.

Duncan has also expressed an eagerness to finalize the Trump administration’s plans to put political appointees in charge of approving or scrapping awards for federal grants.

Lawmakers in both parties have raised concern about the impending regulation to change the grant approval process. Most notably, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) called this month for White House budget director Russ Vought to nix part of the proposal and extend the deadline for public comment, which closed last week.

Democrats have noted Duncan’s relative inexperience compared to other former top OMB officials, many of whom served as undersecretaries of other federal agencies or members of Congress before taking on the role. Duncan graduated with a bachelor’s degree less than a decade ago and worked as a Republican congressional aide before joining OMB last year.