Congress
Mortality and margins weigh on House Republicans as they kick off the election year
Tuesday was supposed to be a rah-rah day for House Republicans — a chance to strategize with President Donald Trump about their agenda for the tough election year ahead.
Instead, 2026 got off to an unexpectedly somber start as they confronted the sudden death of a well-liked colleague and pondered the dire political and policy straits their dwindling majority has to navigate.
Most members learned about California Rep. Doug LaMalfa’s overnight passing as they boarded buses outside the Capitol to head to the Kennedy Center for their annual policy meeting. That news — as well as word that another Republican, Rep. Jim Baird of Indiana, had been badly hurt in a car crash — cast an immediate pall.
“This is coming as a shock to all of us,” said one House Republican who, like others quoted for this story, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the mood.
Even a characteristically freewheeling speech from Trump — delivered at the performing arts center his hand-picked board had recently renamed for him without congressional approval — hardly lightened the mood. He remembered LaMalfa, a rice farmer who represented a rural northern California district for seven terms, as a loyal supporter and said he considered skipping the speech out of respect for his death.
“But then I decided that I have to do it in his honor,” Trump said. “I’ll do it in his honor because he would have wanted it that way.”
But reality soon set in that the House GOP would be facing challenges that went well beyond mourning. For one, LaMalfa’s death and Baird’s hospitalization represented another blow to their razor-thin majority, leaving many contemplating whether Republicans could ever muster the votes they would need to pass a laundry list of pre-midterm policy priorities.
LaMalfa’s death and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation this week left the GOP with a bare 218 votes for at least until early March. With Baird’s indefinite absence and the unreliable support of libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Speaker Mike Johnson has to confront a day-to-day struggle to maintain control of the House.
His leadership circle, for instance, quickly had to calculate whether they would have enough Republicans in attendance to clear a procedural vote Wednesday allowing them to pass on a critical government funding package and several other bills this week.
“We keep saying we are one breath away from the minority — that’s more true today than ever,” another House Republican said.
Trump’s 84-minute speech ultimately veered into myriad topics. He at one point commented on his own mortality and pushed back on reports about his aging and declining health, admonishing some Republicans in attendance for calling to check if he was “dead” last year after he was away from cameras for several days.
He also raised concerns about keeping the House majority next year — a topic that lawmakers and White House aides say is frequently on the president’s mind.
“They say that when you win the presidency, you lose the midterm,” Trump said. “So you’re all brilliant people: I wish you could explain to me what the hell’s going on with the mind of the public, because we have the right policy.”
He then proceeded to throw a bomb into those policy plans as Republicans struggle to address rising health care costs — a topic that’s become an albatross for the party after a bitter December fight over extending Obamacare tax credits that have now expired, raising premiums for millions of Americans.
The president directed Republicans to be “flexible” on abortion issues in ongoing health care talks — essentially asking many in his party to cross a moral red line by abandoning the longstanding ban on taxpayer funding for abortion known as the Hyde amendment.
The remark stunned House conservatives in the audience and those listening in the Senate.
“I almost fell out of my chair,” said one who attended the meeting.
“Everything depends on details, but Hyde is nonnegotiable for most conservatives,” added a senior House Republican aide. That person didn’t rule out a potential “creative solution” on the matter but said “caving on Hyde is not an option.”
Asked for his reaction on Capitol Hill, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said, “I’m not flexible on the value of every child’s life.” Others took it as an encouraging sign that Trump wants to notch a deal this month on an especially nettlesome election year issue.
But inside the House GOP policy sessions that followed the Trump speech Tuesday — touching on energy, housing and other issues — members continued to struggle with the way forward on their health care plans, according to six Republicans with direct knowledge of the conversations.
Many hard-line conservatives — who see abortion protections as an essential element in any health care legislation — would prefer Republican leaders pursue a party-line bill under filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation rules rather than cut a deal with Democrats.
Otherwise, according to two people with knowledge of the retreat discussions, key lawmakers ran through a well-known menu of legislative options — albeit one that is unlikely to offset the impact of the expired Obamacare subsidies before Election Day.
House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) discussed proposals to expand tax-advantaged health savings accounts, while Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) talked through potential overhauls to a key prescription drug program and bills that would crack down on intermediaries known as pharmacy benefit managers.
Trump directed House Republicans in his earlier remarks to work on so-called “most favored nation” drug pricing legislation — something he’s pursued in executive orders and deals with health care giants as he moves to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
But the issue is deeply divisive among Hill Republicans, and GOP leaders have continued to rebuff Trump’s attempts to attach it to numerous legislative vehicles — including the sprawling megabill Republicans passed this summer.
Senior GOP aides on Capitol Hill say they have plans to address drug prices via HSAs and other policies, but they are leaving it to the White House to promote the most-favored-nation and other direct drug pricing plans.
That, Trump said — along with being “flexible” on Hyde and “directly” giving Americans money to purchase coverage — would allow Republicans to “take away” the issue of health care from Democrats, Trump asserted at the House GOP meeting.
“You could own health care, figure it out!” Trump said.
But House Republicans privately acknowledged throughout the day Tuesday it’s far from that easy.
“We’re still far from a solution on health care,” one GOP lawmaker said.
Benjamin Guggenheim contributed to this report.
The House Rules Committee advanced a procedural measure aimed at breaking an intra-Republican deadlock Monday night. But GOP leaders are still facing a major battle Tuesday to regain control of the House floor.
The panel approved on party lines a measure to set up Republicans’ $1.1 trillion defense policy bill, a government funding bill and other GOP bills for floor debate. It would then combine the Pentagon bill, once passed, with the contentious elections overhaul known as the SAVE America Act and send it to the Senate as one piece of legislation.
That maneuver, telegraphed by Speaker Mike Johnson earlier Monday, is aimed at appeasing House GOP hard-liners who have blockaded the floor, demanding the Senate pass the elections bill that has languished there for months.
However, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, the Republican leading the blockade, said in an interview Monday before the Rules Committee acted that Johnson’s plan is not sufficient — raising the possibility she and allies could vote down the measure on the floor. Other House GOP hard-liners say there are other outstanding issues to battle over Tuesday.
Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Rules Democrat, called the merger move “a big waste of time.” The panel voted down a motion by McGovern to remove the provision to combine the two bills in a party-line vote.
The Senate is set to debate its own version of the defense bill next month, and it is likely that the elections overhaul will be removed in negotiations between the two chambers — as McGovern acknowledged Monday and House GOP leaders privately concede.
“The Senate will just strip the SAVE Act out,” he said at the meeting. “There is a zero percent chance SAVE ends up in the [Pentagon bill] because of this rule today.”
The defense bill faces a tight vote if Republicans can pass the procedural measure. Most Democrats are expected to oppose the measure over its massive price tag, which they contend is wasteful.
The panel is set up debate on 312 amendments to the bill. The slate includes GOP measures to codify a Trump executive order to block transgender people from serving in the military, prohibit coverage of gender-affirming care, block aid to arm Ukraine and strip Democratic-backed protections for collective bargaining for Pentagon civilian workers.
The committee also voted down Democratic proposals to slash $150 billion from the bill’s topline and limit the war against Iran.
Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday he plans to deploy an unusual procedural maneuver in a bid to unfreeze the House floor this week, seeking to send the annual Pentagon policy bill and the GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act to the Senate in a single package.
That is likely a recipe for a continued standoff between the two chambers over the SAVE America Act, which has stalled in the Senate for months due to internal GOP divides. Under Johnson’s plan, the annual defense policy bill, which typically passes every year with large bipartisan majorities, could become a collateral victim of the impasse.
Asked in brief interview if he had talked to Senate Majority Leader John Thune about his plans, Johnson replied, “I have to do my job in the House, and they’ve got to do their job in the Senate, so we’ll see what happens.”
Johnson is seeking to placate House conservative hard-liners, led by Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who have threatened to oppose the procedural measures that give Republicans control of the floor unless they agree to tougher tactics meant to force the Senate into passing the elections bill.
House GOP leaders discussed the plan to merge the two bills over the weekend as Luna pushed to amend the defense bill directly.
She did not say in an interview Monday whether Johnson’s gambit would suffice: “We want it baked together, not able to be stripped out,” she said.
But the Senate is free to work its own will, and members of that chamber are likely to reject any defense bill that has the partisan elections bill attached. That would set the stage for GOP leaders to strip it out when the House and Senate hash out the differences between their competing Pentagon bills later this year.
Johnson, meanwhile, is pushing a separate plan to pass a slimmed-down version of the SAVE America Act through the party-line budget reconciliation process — an option hard-liners have all but rejected.
“I don’t think that that can be done,” Luna told reporters Monday.
He’s also facing another complication: The version of the SAVE America Act he is proposing to attach to the Pentagon bill doesn’t include the latest demands for the bill from President Donald Trump — including a near-total ban on mail voting that is opposed by many Republicans.
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
Lawmakers of both parties questioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio and top Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff Monday in the first broad congressional briefings on President Donald Trump’s Iran deal.
While Democrats asked some of the sharpest questions, participants in an afternoon conference call with House members said, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) at one point pressed the administration officials on the fate of Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium.
According to two people granted anonymity to disclose the private remarks, Witkoff and Rubio repeated assurances the administration has privately made to select lawmakers in prior briefings — that the goal is to negotiate a final deal that would prohibit Iran from keeping its highly enriched uranium.
The memorandum of understanding Trump signed earlier this month, they said, was meant to launch those negotiations. Witkoff, the people said, added that the technical team involved in that part of the talks was traveling from Switzerland to Qatar, where talks between the U.S. and Iran are set to happen Tuesday.
Democrats, meanwhile, pushed the administration for more details on what financial benefits Iran could reap under the memorandum — including proceeds from previously sanctioned oil sales.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) went back and forth with Rubio and Witkoff over the lifting of the oil sanctions, two other people granted anonymity on the House call said. The officials eventually cut off the conversation and ended the call.
At another point, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) raised concerns about Witkoff’s business interests in the Middle East as he’s negotiating with Iran, prompting a sharp defense from Rubio, those people said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked Rubio and Witkoff about the oil sanctions during a separate all-senators call Monday, saying in a statement afterward that they “confirmed to me that Iran will reap billions in oil revenue while retaining dangerous leverage over the Strait of Hormuz.”
“If this is the administration’s defense behind closed doors, Secretary Rubio should make it under oath, in public, before the Foreign Relations Committee,” Schumer added, calling the briefing “delayed, deficient, and devoid of details.”
An administration official granted anonymity to speak candidly countered on Schumer’s characterization, noting that he had previously gotten a briefing of the deal as part of a group of top leaders engaged on national security matters. Schumer, the official said, had the opportunity to ask multiple follow-up questions on the Senate call.
A separate group of White House officials briefed top congressional leaders and key committee chairs in a classified briefing in the Capitol later Monday.
The administration has faced bipartisan skepticism over multiple provisions of the memorandum of understanding — particularly the lifting of oil sanctions and a $300 billion reconstruction fund that many Senate Republicans fear will help fuel Iran’s military and regional proxies.
Rubio and Witkoff sought to ease concerns about the slow reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — the critical trade route whose closure has sparked higher fuel and fertilizer costs. Both officials said more mine removal is required, and Witkoff indicated that Iran broke the terms of the Trump-signed deal by launching a drone attack on a passing ship over the weekend.
They also sought to assure lawmakers that Iran has received no money under the memorandum — especially not directly from American sources. Administration officials have previously pledged in smaller briefings that the reconstruction fund won’t include U.S. funds.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) called the Senate briefing a “productive conversation” but said “much of what I heard today is similar to what I heard last week” during a dinner at Vice President JD Vance’s residence.
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