Congress

NDAA delays pile up as GOP leaders work through last-minute snags

Published

8 months ago

December 3, 2025

Republican leaders on Capitol Hill are scrambling to hammer out a host of complex, 11th-hour intraparty policy fights in the massive annual defense policy bill, delaying the release of final legislative text beyond the expected date of Thursday, according to four people granted anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations.

They are still pushing to release text of the sprawling bill by the end of the weekend, according to two of the people. But GOP leaders are going back and forth with White House officials about a raft of final issues, including Senate housing legislation that the administration wants but a key House committee chair opposes.

President Donald Trump and his deputies are eager to address housing costs, and top Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio told a closed-door meeting of House Republicans earlier Wednesday that Republicans need to focus more on housing issues ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

With White House officials digging in, congressional GOP leaders are now considering whether to add a revised or scaled down version of the Senate’s “ROAD to Housing” legislation to the Pentagon bill, but no final decisions have been made, according to the people. House Financial Services Chair French Hill has previously opposed the parts of the measure and said in a statement late Wednesday that “any housing package must have the buy-in” of his committee.

“Given our Conference has not seen any text, it’s unclear how we could support its inclusion in the NDAA,” Hill said.

Other issues GOP leaders are still working through include whether to add in new restrictions on U.S. investments in China, as well as provisions that would expand coverage for in vitro fertilization and other fertility services for military families under the Defense Department’s Tricare health system.

GOP leaders are reviewing the IVF expansion, which was included in both the House and Senate-passed defense bills. Pushed by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) and others, the provision wasn’t included in last year’s defense bill amid concerns about the practice from some conservatives.

A spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement that he “has clearly and repeatedly stated he is supportive of access to IVF when sufficient pro-life protections are in place, and he will continue to be supportive when it is done responsibly and ethically.”

The last-minute moves could weigh heavily on how easily Republican leaders can get the votes needed to pass the sprawling Pentagon bill, which the House aims to do next week.

The annual National Defense Authorization Act typically passes with broad bipartisan support. Johnson won passage of a hard-right version of the defense bill in September with just the support of a handful of Democrats, while the Senate cleared its own version with support from both parties.

Bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees made quick work of their negotiations on a compromise defense bill, which largely concluded before Thanksgiving.

The legislation was then handed up to House and Senate leaders to hammer out what provisions that fall outside of Armed Services’ jurisdiction would be attached. Top lawmakers on those panels have cautioned against attaching unrelated issues that don’t have broad support and could tank the final bill.

House and Senate leaders have already had to retreat on some fronts. Trump urged lawmakers to include a contentious moratorium on state regulations for artificial intelligence backed by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and other Republicans. But the effort foundered, and Scalise this week conceded the NDAA “wasn’t the best place for this to fit.”

Jasper Goodman contributed to this report.

Congress

Todd Blanche won’t get Thursday vote in Senate Judiciary Committee

Published

3 hours ago

July 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate Judiciary Committee has abandoned plans to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general Thursday, according to a committee spokesperson.

The decision comes as Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) continue to push the Justice Department to revise a controversial settlement agreement between President Donald Trump and the IRS. A “no” vote from either senator would effectively sink Blanche’s nomination.

The two senators met Wednesday with Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) but did not announce any breakthrough.

“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure,” said the spokesperson, who declined to be named. “Senators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement. Tomorrow’s markup is postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support in committee to favorably report [Blanche], who is highly qualified for the job.”

The meeting could still be rescheduled if Cornyn and Tillis are placated, but any delay threatens Senate GOP leaders’ plans to confirm Blanche before the chamber adjourns for its summer recess next week.

Congress

White House pitches Senate GOP on ‘tight’ party-line bill focused on military, farm aid

Published

7 hours ago

July 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

White House officials urged Senate Republicans on Wednesday to quickly adopt a spending blueprint for a narrowly focused party-line spending bill, but they struggled to quash GOP skepticism about the administration’s vision.

White House budget director Russ Vought stressed during the private lunch meeting with Senate Republicans that the next package passed under the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process should include only President Donald Trump’s most urgent priorities — particularly defense spending and aid for farmers.

Vought said Republicans should not seek to cut spending or otherwise offset the deficit impact of the tens of billions of dollars the Trump administration wants enacted, nor should they attempt to raise the debt limit.

“It should be tight,” he told reporters as he exited the lunch. “It should be for the defense needs that we need now, for the [agriculture] needs that we need now. And to get this as straight a shot to the president’s desk as possible.”

That approach comports with the $95 billion framework the House adopted last week before lawmakers there left Washington for their summer recess. But Vought and other White House officials faced pushback in the room Wednesday on a variety of issues.

Majority Leader John Thune warned afterward that he doesn’t believe he has the votes for the narrow budget resolution the Trump administration is contemplating. He said there was a disconnect between the narrow bill the White House is seeking and the political challenges it creates.

Those challenges revolve around “vote-a-rama” — a feature of the reconciliation process that allows Democrats to force a series of amendment votes that could put GOP senators in tough spots. The more committees the budget resolution “instructs” to deliver legislation, the more opportunities Democrats will have to create political mischief for Republicans.

“Some of the things that are contemplated being done in this reconciliation bill, or in this budget resolution legislation, are things that could implicate a number of committees,” Thune said. “Obviously that creates an uphill challenge in terms of trying to ensure that you have 50” votes.

Senators also aired concerns about Trump’s obsessive focus on the GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act. The House blueprint contemplates including parts of that bill in the party-line package.

But Senate Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said doing so in the Senate could involve more committees — and open up the range of issues Democrats would be able to force politically troublesome votes on.

“I think we all hate vote-a-rama,” Johnson added. “Some people are more sensitive to the kind of votes they have to take.”

In another complication, some Senate defense hawks want more military spending than the $60 billion House Republicans laid out in their own framework. Johnson said he and other Republicans expect to meet with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later Wednesday to discuss the Pentagon’s needs.

But other Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), aren’t convinced it’s a good idea to pursue another party-line bill at all.

“It used to be we would try to figure out how we worked through some challenging problems with the minority,” she said.

Murkowski added that the Trump administration’s strategy of relying on the reconciliation process to avoid bipartisan negotiations only works if a majority of Republican senators go along with the plan.

“It’s not always guaranteed that you get 50” votes, she said.

Vought, meanwhile, leaned on the potential for yet another party-line reconciliation package to be enacted after the midterm elections as another vehicle to deliver key priorities. That could include a debt limit increase, he said, along with yet another tranche of defense cash to meet Trump’s $1.5 trillion goal for annual military spending.

The various legislative vehicles left some GOP senators scratching their hands as they left the lunch.

Asked if he had gotten clarity from Vought & Co., Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, “‘Not really’ is the short answer.”

Congress

Cruz drops plans to advance AI bills next week

Published

10 hours ago

July 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz said Wednesday he is again postponing a highly anticipated markup of artificial intelligence bills planned for next week.

Instead, the Texas Republican said in an interview Wednesday, the panel will only take up bills focused on kids’ online safety.

Cruz said senators could not strike a deal on AI legislation in time for the committee to vote next week.

“We are going to do a markup on kids’ safety next week,” Cruz told Blue Light News. “We have moved the broader AI markup to September. … It’s our intention still to mark those up, but it is taking longer to get bipartisan agreement.”

Cruz said the committee would mark up the Kids Online Safety Act, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), along with other measures.

Under the panel’s rules, the chair must publish an agenda a week in advance. The committee did not immediately respond to a question about exactly which bills would be on the docket.