Congress

Mark Sanford launches Senate bid in South Carolina special election

Published

32 minutes ago

July 23, 2026

Former South Carolina representative, governor and onetime presidential candidate Mark Sanford entered the crowded race for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s seat on Thursday.

“We’re at a tipping point, and that’s why I’ve decided to run for the U.S. Senate,” Sanford said in a launch video. “I’d ask that you look at my record in Congress and as governor in watching out for your family’s future.”

Sanford, who left Congress in 2019, is a longtime fixture in South Carolina politics, known for his fiscal conservatism. He earned national notoriety after an extramarital affair during his time as governor and his criticism of President Donald Trump, including a short-lived 2020 primary challenge.

He is the latest high-profile entrant in a crowded field that includes Sen. Darline Graham, the sister of the late senator; Reps. Russell Fry and Ralph Norman; and businessman Mark Lynch, among others. President Donald Trump has already endorsed Graham, who was appointed to fill her brother’s seat for the duration of his term.

A special primary election will be held on Aug. 11 to select the Republican nominee for a full six-year term.

Sanford was first elected to Congress in 1994, in the same class as the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. He served for three terms, was elected South Carolina governor in 2002, and was reelected to the House in a special election in 2013. Sanford launched a campaign for his old seat this cycle, but abandoned the bid after a month to launch a debt-focused nonprofit.

A budget hawk, Sanford pointed to the country’s national debt as a motivating factor for his Senate bid now.

“I’m worried for our children because for the first time, America is borrowing from the future faster than we’re building it,” Sanford said in the video. “We’ll add about a trillion dollars to the national debt over the next 100 days, and if left unaddressed, that debt will crush our economy. It’ll wipe out our savings, and it could even destroy our republic.”

Congress

‘Figure out a way to get it done’: Scalise warns pressure is building on Senate GOP to move on reconciliation

Published

1 hour ago

July 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans are warning it won’t be easy to advance the $95 billion budget resolution the House approved Wednesday — and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise on Thursday delivered a blunt response: That’s too bad.

“They can say all day long, ‘It’s going to be hard.’ Everything’s hard. Give me a lecture about how hard things are. That’s what I do every day,” Scalise told a small group of reporters. “They’ve got to figure out a way to get it done. They have to get that bill to the president’s desk.”

Fresh off narrowly muscling the budget plan through his chamber, Scalise said he talked to President Donald Trump recently and now expects the president lean heavily on the Senate GOP to adopt the blueprint — necessary for Republicans to be able to write and pass legislation through the filibuster-skirting reconciliation process.

Their bill would fund the Iran war, farm assistance and components of the GOP election overhaul package known as the SAVE America Act — Trump’s top legislative priority, which has stalled on Capitol Hill.

“He’s going to be putting a lot of pressure” on them, Scalise said of Trump.

“Those senators are going to go home, too, and they’re hearing the same thing,” he added, referring to what Senate Republicans could confront during their upcoming lengthy summer recess.

Scalise also argued that the $10 billion dollars in the plan to advance voter ID and citizenship requirements from the SAVE America Act will be politically toxic for Senate Republicans to ignore ahead of the midterms.

“We’ve packaged ‘SAVE America’ in a number of different ways, but a reconciliation bill is the most straightforward way where the excuse of the filibuster is no longer around,” he said.

“Democrats are obstructing everything. We all know that. A reconciliation bill is the one tool that the Democrats can’t filibuster, can’t obstruct,” Scalise added.

Senate Republicans don’t expect Senate Majority Leader John Thune to move the budget resolution before the August recess. He has also signaled he could hold it until Congress reaches a deal to fund the government ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline to avoid a shutdown.

But many GOP senators don’t believe they would take up the budget resolution in September either, given the close proximity of the midterms — punting the matter until after the November election, when House Republicans have already promised their members they’ll pursue a fourth reconciliation bill focused on cracking down on fraud.

In any event, Scalise’s latest comments are sure to trigger another wave of backlash among key GOP senators, where the widely held belief is that pursuing another reconciliation bill at this time is nothing but trouble.

Thune said Thursday he doesn’t currently believe a budget blueprint for a third reconciliation bill has the votes to get through the Senate. With Sen. Mitch McConnell’s ongoing absence for health reasons, Thune can only lose two of his own members given opposition from Democrats.

“I can’t count to 50 right now on a budget resolution, but we’ll see. … The priority is funding the government, and so to me, that’s the thing we’ve got to keep our eyes on,” Thune said.

Many Senate Republicans are concerned that acting on another party-line bill at this time will expose vulnerable GOP incumbents to a wave of tough votes, including about food aid access.

And Thune has also said, time and again, the SAVE America Act doesn’t have the GOP votes to pass — and enough of his members are not interested in blowing up the Senate filibuster to force it over the line. He reiterated Thursday that the GOP election bill doesn’t have the votes within the conference, saying, “the math on that hasn’t changed.”

Scalise on Thursday morning batted away concerns from Senate Republicans that the package’s $67 billion for defense is insufficient and that the $12 billion in farm aid isn’t enough to cover farmers hit by Trump’s tariffs, weather disasters and the high costs of fertilizer and fuel. He also threw cold water on threats from farm state Republicans and defense hawks in the Senate to up the amount.

“I don’t expect that to happen,” Scalise said. “And you know, what will happen in the Senate? I don’t even try to predict that. I’ve got a tough enough job getting the House to do the things we need to do. And we’re delivering and doing our job, and now the Senate has to do their job, and I’m confident they’ll do it.”

Congress

Vote on health emergency preparedness nominee delayed

Published

2 hours ago

July 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate Health Committee dropped plans to vote on Sean Kaufman’s nomination to lead the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response on Thursday after a tense confirmation hearing last week that focused on vaccines.

“There are ongoing conversations with the administration on the path forward for Mr. Kaufman’s nomination,” a spokesperson for the committee said in a statement.

Kaufman has served as senior adviser for global affairs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since December. He also co-founded a biosafety consulting firm.

It was unclear Thursday morning why the administration pulled the nomination, but Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) had publicly expressed concerns about Kaufman during his confirmation hearing last week. Thursday’s decision to delay the planned vote suggested Kaufman would not have advanced.

During the hearing, Kaufman admitted to having authored a LinkedIn post saying he would “rather perish” than give his children the Covid-19 vaccine. In a different LinkedIn post, Kaufman had previously questioned the safety of the hepatitis B birth dose — of which Cassidy is a vocal proponent. He also addressed a video from four years ago, where he said he hates the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which works closely with the agency he had hoped to lead.

Kaufman largely backtracked on those comments, telling members that “vaccines save lives,” but added some caveats, especially around Covid vaccines.

He told Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, that he believes mRNA vaccines, including the Covid shot, are safe and effective, but qualified that statement later by pointing to individuals who experienced adverse effects after getting the mRNA Covid shots, noting that some people suffered.

Simon J. Levien and Lauren Gardner contributed to this report.

Congress

Capitol agenda: House GOP budget faces Senate reality check

Published

5 hours ago

July 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Speaker Mike Johnson successfully muscled Republicans’ Recon 3.0 ball into Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s court.

GOP Senators aren’t exactly thrilled to have it there.

“I don’t think Senator Thune’s going to take it up,” Sen. John Kennedy told reporters Wednesday.

GOP senators are likely to face a wave of pressure from the White House and House Republicans to move quickly and advance their budget resolution before August recess — the first step necessary to pass another party-line spending bill. But Thune has been frank about the rocky road the effort faces and careful not to guarantee he’ll be successful — before recess or ever.

Here are the obstacles he faces:

— GOVERNMENT FUNDING: GOP leaders are prioritizing funding the government past its Sept. 30 deadline before any party-line reconciliation bill.

“Our goal is to make sure we have government funded, and we want to get a continuing resolution done. …That’s number one,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said in an interview.

Thune said this week he would hold the House’s budget resolution in reserve as an alternative way to fund the government if Democrats don’t cooperate on passing a stopgap.

But if government funding talks get punted to September, Republicans are also skeptical they’d advance the budget resolution given the close proximity to the midterms and the politically tricky votes that arise during the reconciliation process.

“I’m not a fan of pursuing reconciliation,” Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, who is up for re-election, said.

— DEFICIT HAWKS: Several Senate Republicans — including Rick Scott, Bill Cassidy and Rand Paul — are making it clear they will want to pay for part of the bill, as the House’s plan has no spending offsets.

Thune can only lose votes from two of his members and still secure the budget blueprint’s adoption, given unified opposition from Democrats. And Sen. Mitch McConnell is absent indefinitely for health reasons.

Asked Wednesday how close he was to having the 50 votes necessary to proceed on the Senate floor, Thune quipped: “Good question.”

And if Senate Republicans ask committees to look for ways to pay for the new spending, that could balloon the debate into a much larger fight about taxes, health care and other issues — and potentially force Republicans into politically sensitive votes.

“We literally have not had an organized conversation about reconciliation yet,” Sen. Ron Johnson, Republicans’ newly appointed Budget Committee chair, said when asked if 50 Senate Republicans were serious about wanting to do a third bill.

— SAVE AMERICA PUSHBACK: Senate Republicans don’t believe they’ll be able to get parts of Trump’s priority elections legislation into the bill amid pushback from some of their own members.

That’s assuming the provisions would adhere to the chamber’s strict rules for what can be included under the reconciliation process.

Sen. Thom Tillis warned last week that he’d “use every device I have available to slow down the wheels of government” if a reconciliation bill comes over from the House with components of the SAVE America Act included.

“Do the math,” he added.

What else we’re watching:

— HOUSE DEMS LOBBY GOP ON WAR POWERS VOTE: House Democrats are trying to convince more of their Republican counterparts to join them on an Iran war powers resolution they’ll force Thursday on the House floor. The House last month successfully advanced a similar measure to limit Trump’s military authority in Iran with the help of four Republicans. We’re now watching to see how many other Republicans may join them to back a resolution from Rep. Pramila Jayapal as strikes in the Middle East ramp up. Meanwhile in the Senate, Democrats will try to force their own Iran war powers resolution on the floor Thursday.

— AI-LAUNCHED CYBERATTACK SPURS BIPARTISAN BILL: Reps. Ted Lieu and Nathaniel Moran are introducing one of the most aggressive bipartisan AI safety proposals yet to emerge on Capitol Hill, Blue Light News scooped. The bill comes days after OpenAI disclosed the first fully autonomous breach by two of its most advanced models. The bill would empower the Department of Homeland Security to order AI companies to slow, suspend or shut down advanced AI models deemed to pose serious risks.

Jordain Carney, Mia McCarthy, Riley Rogerson, Gabby Miller, Brendan Bordelon and Dana Nickel contributed to this report.