Congress

Megabill teeters after hard-liners make their stand

Published

1 year ago

May 15, 2025

House Republican leaders are having to salvage their party-line megabill a lot sooner than they thought.

A surprise holdout by ultraconservative members of the House Budget Committee Thursday is forcing Speaker Mike Johnson to entertain significant changes to the GOP sweeping domestic policy bill, endangering his ambitious Memorial Day timeline for House passage.

The hard-right objections surrounded missing fiscal scores for the legislation and ongoing concerns about the depth of Medicaid cuts that Republicans are prepared to make. One option under serious discussion as a concession to fiscal hard-liners is moving up the onset of work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries by two years — from 2029 to 2027.

Three Republicans granted anonymity to discuss the negotiations confirmed the possible change, and Johnson himself was overheard discussing the proposal with House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington as the two left a Capitol Hill meeting Thursday.

“We’re working to settle all the pieces, so stay tuned,” Johnson said. Later he promised that the package “will clear the Budget panel Friday.”

The urgency of addressing the hard right’s concerns was heightened when several conservative members of the Budget Committee suggested they would withhold their votes at a scheduled Friday meeting. The panel needs to package up various pieces of the bill advanced by other committees and send it to the floor, a perfunctory but necessary step toward passage that is now threatened by the holdouts.

Johnson huddled with several of them just off the House floor Thursday evening, including GOP Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina. Both said they would vote no in the Budget Committee on the existing bill. Reps. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin also declined to commit to supporting the bill.

The group demanded three key changes, according to two Republicans granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations: speeding up the phase-out of tax credits enacted under former President Joe Biden; immediately removing immigrants in the country illegally from any Medicaid access, rather than allowing states several years to comply; and moving up the Medicaid work requirement start date.

“We’ll kill it,” Norman said leaving the meeting. “I don’t want to. But I will.”

Norman and Roy both said they were pushing for the work requirements to hit as soon as possible, in the fall of 2026. Hardliners and GOP leaders are expected to hold a call late Thursday evening, with just hours to spare before the Budget panel meeting Friday.

Such a move could create tens of billions more savings for Republicans’ megabill, the centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s agenda on taxes, energy and the border, while helping satisfy conservatives’ demands for deeper cuts. It would also create deeper coverage losses more quickly, potentially ahead of the 2028 presidential election.

Crucially, Republican moderates appear to be on board with the accelerated timeline, which could give leaders more space to address their own concerns — including the highly contentious state-and-local-tax deduction, or SALT.

Several moderate Republicans huddled separately with Johnson throughout the day Thursday, raising concerns about shifting Medicaid and SNAP food aid costs to states, changes to a federal pension program and other issues they want changed before the bill hits the House floor, according to three other Republicans with direct knowledge of the talks.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said in an interview he was promised that a controversial change to ban legal immigrants from accessing federal food assistance would be stripped before the bill hits the floor. Senior Republicans added the provision from Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) to the Agriculture panel’s portion of the bill this week.

As for moving up the start date of some Medicaid changes, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise told reporters to expect the requirements to come sooner than originally planned and that Republicans would revise the bill. He said the change could help leaders address the SALT demands from a separate group of Republicans.

“I think everybody in the room wants that,” Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.) said leaving a briefing Thursday afternoon, and asked if he wants work requirements moved up. “I think they’re going to move it up.”

Bacon, a key moderate, also said in an interview that he’s comfortable moving the timeline up. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) told reporters that when the requirements begin is “not that consequential.”

Still, the White House would still need to sign off on the move; Trump and most of his senior aides have been in the Middle East this week, leaving Johnson and other GOP leaders to settle the various policy skirmishes themselves. But the speaker has remained in contact with the president while he’s been overseas.

Quickly implementing the Medicaid changes could be difficult. Most states will have to update their systems to incorporate the new work requirements, which they will be responsible for enforcing. The bill includes $100 million in federal grants to help update those systems; only Georgia currently has a work requirement program in place.

Arrington said Thursday afternoon that a committee markup Friday is “absolutely” possible but separately told reporters it wasn’t clear that the meeting could continue as scheduled given the sheer scale of issues raised inside the closed-door meeting.

Even if GOP leaders agree to tweak the package before passage, it can’t be amended during the Budget meeting Friday. The next opportunity for changes would come in the House Rules Committee, which Johnson wants to meet Monday to prepare the bill for floor debate.

“It’s what we do around here,” Johnson said. “We’re working to settle all the pieces.”

Robert King, Jennifer Scholtes and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

Congress

Mamdani boosts congressional slate ahead of primary election

Published

12 hours ago

June 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

NEW YORK — With just five days to go until the primary election in New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued a stark warning to members of Congress who believe “incumbency is a substitute for action”: Watch out.

“People often ask me what I think of the state of the Democratic Party,” Mamdani said to the crowd at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn as he boosted his endorsed congressional candidates. “This slate here today is our answer. The Democratic Party must change.”

The democratic socialist framed Tuesday’s election as much more than what that means for New York, though. In recounting how people also ask him about the 2028 presidential election, he put it bluntly: “It starts now. It starts on Tuesday.”

“For far too long, our party has seen its job as managing decline instead of delivering material change for working people,” Mamdani said. “That old way of thinking will lose on Tuesday. And frankly, it will lose in South Carolina and New Hampshire. It will fall short of 270 electoral votes, because the party of the past will not be what leads us into the future.”

Mamdani, joined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, urged his supporters to show up for his endorsed candidates “the way you showed up for me.” They include former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who’s challenging two-term Rep. Dan Goldman; state Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who’s vying for retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s seat; and community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, who’s trying to unseat five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Mamdani’s endorsed slate of legislative candidates were at the rally, too.

The rally featured standard stump speeches from the candidates, highlighting the need to support working class New Yorkers and immigrants. Speakers called out the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel group that has loomed over many of these primaries — despite no evident spending from its independent expenditure arm. Sanders also emphasized his call to ban super PACs, which have reshaped primaries across the city.

Taking place just hours after the massive ticker-tape parade celebrating the Knicks’ historic championship, there were also Knicks references galore.

“I hate to break it to you, but OG Anunoby is not here to save the day,” said Mamdani, who was wearing a Knicks jersey under his suit. “The only hands we can count on are ours.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a get out the vote rally ahead of New York's primary election on June 18, 2026, in Brooklyn.

Sanders, who is wildly popular in New York, previously endorsed Valdez and Lander. Both Valdez and Avila Chevalier are members of the Democratic Socialists of America and are backed by the city chapter in their bids. Sanders had not officially endorsed Avila Chevalier prior to the rally.

“Why are progressives and socialist candidates winning elections all across this country?” Sanders asked. “The answer in my view is not complicated. The working class of America understands that our current economic system is rigged, that it is designed to benefit the wealthy and the powerful.”

Polling has shown Lander with a lead over Goldman, and a tight race for Velázquez’s seat. Public polling is scarce in the Espaillat race, but recent internal surveys suggest Avila Chevalier is posing a real challenge to the incumbent. Mamdani endorsed her just weeks ago, much later than Lander and Valdez, but his engagement in the race has significantly elevated its profile.

“Six months ago, they told us this race was over before it started,” Avila Chevalier said at the rally. “They told us Adriano was untouchable, that he was an institution, that you don’t run against someone like him and win. That this district was his, and that we should wait our turn. And they said it with such confidence, like the outcome had already been written. Look around. Look at what we’ve built.”

Mamdani’s decision to get involved in congressional races is stress-testing how the new mayor navigates relations with powerful, well-respected party figures — many of whom he’s on the opposite side of.

Mamdani’s endorsement is expected to be a significant asset for his picks; he had dominant performances across these districts in last year’s mayoral primary. And that shine doesn’t seem to have dulled. Recent polling has shown that Mamdani has high approval ratings.

Goldman did not support Mamdani during last year’s mayoral primary or the general election, as Lander has often pointed out. Espaillat backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary, but supported Mamdani in the general election. Valdez’s opponents, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and city Council Member Julie Won, both supported Mamdani in the primary.

The mayor has been active on the trail for his congressional candidates of choice in the closing stretch of the campaign. And he touted them all in an advertisement that ran during the first game of the Knicks’ finals run.

Still, Lander has tried to keep some distance. When asked at a recent press conference why he would appear in that ad with Avila Chevalier, who attended a pro-Palestinian rally the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in 2023 — the same rally Lander said he left the DSA over — he said it was an “opportunity to show New Yorkers that politics can be a team sport.” He also clarified that he has not endorsed candidates in any other congressional primaries.

Avila Chevalier told reporters that she went to that rally to “stand against” Israel engaging in “a response that is often disproportionate and creates a greater loss of life.” She added that she has “condemned Hamas” and does “not believe that celebrating the loss of anybody’s life is OK.”

Kings Theatre isn’t located in any of the districts these congressional hopefuls are trying to represent — though it neighbors the seats that Lander and Valdez have their eyes on.

It’s especially far from Espaillat’s district, which includes parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx.

While handing out campaign literature to people walking out of the subway in Hamilton Heights, Blue Light News asked Espaillat if he had thoughts about Avila Chevalier appearing at the rally.

“I’m rallying right here in my district with my constituents — not in Brooklyn,” he replied.

Jason Beeferman contributed to this report.

Congress

Meta faces calls for Congress to probe scam ads targeting seniors

Published

15 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Retirement groups are calling on Congress to investigate Meta over a wave of social media scams targeting older Americans.

In a letter sent Thursday to House Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the groups alleged Meta has been slow to take down fraudulent ads, leaving seniors vulnerable to financial loss. The letter, shared exclusively with POLITICO, was signed by the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Postal Workers Union Retirees and the American Federation of Teachers, among others.

“Fraudulent Medicare ads have proliferated on Meta platforms and too many seniors are getting scammed while Meta profits,” said Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans. “We are calling on Congress to investigate how these scams are allowed to spread, what Meta knew about them, and why stronger protections are not in place. Seniors should not be left vulnerable while scammers and tech companies cash in.”

The letter’s demands follow a report published last month by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit advocacy group, which alleged that Meta has profited by leaving up fraudulent ads, many of which target Medicare recipients.

“Scammers are determined criminals who use increasingly sophisticated tactics to defraud people and evade detection,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement. “We aggressively fight scams on and off our platforms because they’re not good for us or the people and businesses that rely on our services and for years we’ve been one of law enforcement’s strongest partners in the fight against this type of online crime — identifying criminals, disrupting their crimes and helping bring them to justice.”

Stone pointed to several examples of Meta’s efforts to combat scams on its platform, including a recent collaboration with U.S. and Thai law enforcement to disrupt online scams.

It’s not the first time Meta has faced scrutiny over the scams: Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) urged the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities Exchange Commission to open an investigation into the company in November after Reuters reported that Meta in internal documents projected 10 percent of its 2024 revenue would come from fraudulent ads. And in February, a group of bipartisan lawmakers pressed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over its plans to prevent and combat fraud on its platforms.

Reps. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) and Lou Correa (D-Calif.) also introduced bipartisan legislation earlier this year to combat predatory scam ads.

Congress

Congress lays out path for final passage of housing bill

Published

15 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Congress is expected to send a landmark, bipartisan housing affordability bill to President Donald Trump’s desk by the end of next week as the Senate and House schedule action on the legislation in the coming days.

The Senate has teed up the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act for final passage on Monday, after completing all its necessary procedural votes this week.

The legislation will then move on to the House where GOP leadership plans to open debate on Wednesday, with a vote expected as early as the same day, according to six people familiar with the vote granted anonymity to discuss plans.

House leadership plans to suspend the rules, requiring a two-thirds majority vote, to speed up the bill’s path to Trump’s desk. Final passage could be pushed to Thursday depending on timing, the people said.

The housing bill aims to tackle housing affordability and boost homeownership and supply ahead of a midterm election dominated by cost-of-living concerns.

The four lawmakers leading the negotiations over the legislation — Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.), ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) and ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) — came to an agreement Tuesday afternoon after months of back and forth on the bill’s contents.

The housing affordability legislation, which the White House supports, contains a provision limiting the role of large institutional investors in the single-family housing market, which was a key condition for Trump to sign the bill.