Congress

Republicans go easy on RFK Jr. at confirmation hearing

Published

1 year ago

January 29, 2025

Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee offered Kennedy a chance to defend himself against Democrats’ attacks in his confirmation hearing Wednesday and suggested they would support him to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

“I think I’ve come to know what’s in your heart,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told Kennedy. “I think I know the personal and political price you’ve paid for this decision [to serve President Donald Trump]. I just want to say publicly, I thank you for that.”

The panel’s chair, Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), endorsed Kennedy as the hearing ended. “I think you have come through well and deserve to be confirmed,” he said.

Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn predicted he would. “I look forward to seeing you help make us healthy again,” she said, referencing Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” slogan.

Democrats took aim at Kennedy’s past work as an anti-vaccine activist, saying it disqualified him to lead federal health agencies.

“He has made it his life’s work to sow doubt and discourage parents from getting their kids life-saving vaccines,” ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said, echoing fellow Democrats who called his nomination “disturbing.”

Kennedy denied being anti-vaccine, despite his history of saying the shots are dangerous.

Democrats also highlighted his past support for abortion rights and accused him of hypocrisy for allying with Trump, who appointed the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. They raised questions about conflicts of interest posed by his legal work against vaccine makers.

But the questioning from Republicans suggested Kennedy would gain the Finance panel’s approval — Republicans have a one-seat edge — and that Kennedy would get a vote on the Senate floor. There, he can lose three Republican votes and still win confirmation, if every senator in the Democratic caucus opposes him.

If Kennedy were to pursue even a fraction of the policy agenda he espoused as an activist, it would upend HHS and the public health system.

If he’s confirmed, Kennedy would helm one of the largest agencies in the federal government, responsible for, in part, the health coverage of more than 1 in 3 Americans, creating rules and enforcing laws that govern nearly all health care providers, the preparation for and response to infectious diseases, and the approval of vaccines, drugs and medical devices.

Republicans on the panel focused on areas where they see common ground with Kennedy.

Kennedy answered questions from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) about sustaining rural health care by explaining that Trump had tasked him with ensuring access to care nationwide — and suggesting artificial intelligence and remote care could be a key solution to improving rural care.

To Blackburn’s question about overmedication of children, Kennedy suggested Americans need more non-pharmaceutical therapies for illness.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who told Blue Light News earlier this month he’d sought reassurance about Kennedy’s views on vaccines, used his time to ask what Kennedy would do to improve care for people who are covered by both Medicare and Medicaid. Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, will get another chance to question Kennedy about the programs in a hearing Thursday morning.

Kennedy said he wanted to make sure “we take good care of people” without getting into policy details.

Kennedy demonstrated some command of the policy issues facing HHS, saying he believed reform of the pharmaceutical market was needed, a hot topic on Capitol Hill, and suggested he wanted to train doctors to boost treatment of substance use disorder. He said Medicaid, the federal-state insurer for low-income people, needed reform because it had not prevented a rise in chronic disease.

But Kennedy’s command of the intricacies of policy was often shaky. He seemed at one point to confuse Medicaid with the federal insurer for older Americans, Medicare.

Kennedy claimed that most people dislike the Affordable Care Act, despite polling updated on Jan. 17 by the health policy research group KFF found that 64 percent of American adults favorably viewed the 2010 health care law.

He also said many people would prefer to be on Medicare Advantage but can’t afford it. A September 2024 report from the Better Medicare Alliance, a group of insurers and business groups that support the privately run alternative to traditional Medicare, found that 52 percent of Medicare Advantage enrollees make less than $24,500 a year.

Asked whether Kennedy was up to the task of overseeing Medicare and Medicaid, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said: “I think he can learn.”

Chelsea Cirruzzo and Robert King contributed to this report.

Congress

Todd Blanche is trying to charm his way to confirmation

Published

1 hour ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Todd Blanche is mounting a charm offensive with Republican senators as his nomination as attorney general inches forward. So far, he seems to be saying the right things.

The scheduling of a confirmation hearing next month and positive early reviews from GOP swing votes are raising expectations that the acting Justice Department head and former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump could be permanently installed later this year.

In his meetings Tuesday with Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, as well as key senators off the panel, Blanche sought to assuage lingering concerns about the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” the department recently proposed as it settled a Trump lawsuit against the IRS.

The fund, which could have funnelled up to $1.8 billion in payouts to Trump political allies, was withdrawn after a bipartisan outcry on Capitol Hill, and Blanche assured senators during the closed-door sitdowns that it’s gone for good.

“We had an extensive discussion on the Anti-Weaponization Fund, which he has assured me with no equivocation at all that he is not for it, will not pursue it, that it will not exist,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters, calling it a “very good meeting.”

Blanche’s private assurances come ahead of his scheduled July 15 appearance before the Judiciary Committee, where he is certain to be grilled on the fund and his handling of other matters involving Trump. With Democrats on the panel unlikely to support Blanche’s confirmation, he will need to win over all 12 panel Republicans in order to advance to a floor vote, which could take place as soon as the first week of August.

The payout fund is a major issue Blanche will have to address, but it will not be the only one. The IRS settlement also included a provision indemnifying the president and his family against future tax audits, which has raised hackles with at least one Senate Republican.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said Blanche had committed to giving him a “further briefing on the tax audit issue involving President Trump and his family.” He otherwise said the two had a “positive” meeting.

More generally, Blanche has faced criticism over his close personal ties to Trump, having represented the president in various criminal cases across the country. He was on Trump’s legal team for both federal prosecutions out of former special counsel Jack Smith’s office and for the Stormy Daniels hush money case brought by local prosecutors in Manhattan.

That background has fueled the perception that Blanche has been unduly loyal to Trump in his stewardship of the Justice Department, and some Senate Republicans have indicated that they want to push Blanche on whether he understands the difference between being attorney general and being Trump’s personal lawyer.

But the mere fact that Blanche once represented Trump in a personal capacity is unlikely to derail his chances for confirmation. Every Republican present confirmed Blanche to be deputy attorney general last year knowing that history.

His actions since joining the Justice Department have garnered more scrutiny, however — especially the IRS settlement. He publicly defended the $1.8 billion fund before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee last month in the face of deep skepticism from Democrats and Republicans alike, including Collins.

Two days later, Blanche faced a brutal reception during a closed-door lunch where dozens of Republican senators grilled him over the fund. The controversy threatened to derail a GOP immigration enforcement bill, and it ultimately delayed its passage for more than a week.

Blanche subsequently helped break the stalemate when he told House appropriators that the administration would not move forward with the fund. Those remarks helped publicly assure Senate Republicans, who had been underwhelmed by his appearance at the Senate GOP lunch.

Some senators indicated he still has more assuring to do.

“I like Todd … but I think he’s going to have a rigorous confirmation,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), another Judiciary member. “I think he’ll ultimately be confirmed, but I’ve got some hard questions for him.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been careful not to guarantee Blanche will be confirmed, noting he first has to get out of the Judiciary Committee where multiple GOP senators are keeping things close to the vest.

“If he can get a strong vote coming out of the Judiciary Committee, then my expectation is, we would be able to process him on the floor,” Thune told reporters this week. “You’ve got a couple people on that committee that he’ll have to convince, but I know that he’s prepared to do that.”

A critical Republican on the panel — retiring Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina — will meet with Blanche next week.

Tillis has previously tanked Trump nominees over concerns relating to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, including Ed Martin’s nomination to be U.S. attorney in D.C. But the senator gave no initial indications this week of disqualifying marks in Blanche’s background regarding the insurrection and its aftermath.

“I haven’t seen anything that, you know, from a Jan. 6 perspective would be a problem,” Tillis said Tuesday. “So now we’re just going through all the other vetting.”

Pressed on the payout fund, he added: “It will be an issue if the weaponization fund isn’t effectively dead by the confirmation hearing because I’ve got a real problem with it being out there.”

With a month to go until Blanche’s hearing and at least another week before he gets a committee vote, further Justice Department activity involving Trump adversaries could continue to weigh on his nomination. California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s disclosure this week that he and his wife are under federal investigation have newly fanned concerns that Blanche is pursuing a retribution campaign at Trump’s behest.

Tillis said he expects to question Blanche at the hearing on the apparent targeting of Trump’s political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey, who is under indictment in North Carolina for allegedly threatening Trump.

“I want to hear about what the details behind that Comey investigation are,” he said. “Because look, I know that the Biden administration was guilty of weaponization. I don’t believe the proper response is a mirror image.”

Blanche is also certain to face tough questioning next month on another matter: his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi told Congress last month that Blanche oversaw the process of releasing Justice Department files concerning Epstein, the late convicted sex offender. The botched redaction process, which in some cases led to release of private material related to Epstein’s victims or the withholding of information about people who were not victims, has been the subject of bipartisan scrutiny.

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) has requested Blanche speak with his committee next month about the files’ release, which could put him in lawmakers’ crosshairs just weeks or days before a potential confirmation vote.

Congress

Senate, House reach deal on housing bill, Senate to start votes Tuesday

Published

3 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday the chamber will move forward with its first procedural vote on updated bipartisan housing affordability legislation. The movement comes after the leaders of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees announced bicameral agreement on the long-awaited bill.

The text of the revised 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act was released Tuesday and contains most of the House-passed housing language, including the House’s version of a provision to restrict large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. Six Senate bills stripped from the House-passed package were also added back onto the bill with “meaningful changes” to address House concerns, according to a note the Senate Banking Committee circulated with the bill text that was obtained by Blue Light News.

“This bill is the result of years of work to lower costs, expand housing supply, cut red tape, protect taxpayers, and help more Americans achieve the dream of homeownership,” Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott said in a statement.

Scott negotiated the revised language with ranking member Elizabeth Warren and worked with House Financial Services ranking member Maxine Waters “to get her to good on the package,” according to the note.

House Financial Services Chair French Hill was able to support the revised bill after an additional change to the bill was made, which would authorize a controversial disaster relief program for only three years instead of the Senate-proposed seven-year sunset, according to two people familiar with the legislative negotiations.

“I appreciate the Senate including a three-year sunset on the CDBG-DR program and adopting key House priorities including nine community banking bills and the House’s language limiting institutional investors from outcompeting American families in the housing market,” Hill said in a statement.

Lawmakers from both parties view the legislation, which aims to increase homeownership and boost housing supply, as an answer to cost-of-living concerns that have dominated the midterm elections season. Despite bipartisan agreement on respective sides of the Capitol, the two chambers have gone back and forth for months, with the House voting on two different versions of the housing affordability legislation, and the Senate now preparing for a second round of votes on the bill.

Thune said Monday he was hopeful the bill could be passed this week.

Both chambers overwhelmingly passed their own versions of housing legislation — the Senate 89-10 in March, and the House 396-13 in May. The White House supported the Senate-passed bill and then backed the House-passed bill after it retained most of the Senate’s language on reining in private equity and other large Wall Street investors in the housing market — a top priority for President Donald Trump.

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

Congress

Senate thwarts move to limit Iran war as Trump pushes peace deal

Published

3 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans on Tuesday knocked down another Democratic-led attempt to force an end to the Iran war despite the defection of four GOP members.

The 47-48 vote on the war powers resolution came as President Donald Trump has insisted a peace agreement with Tehran is all but signed.

Ahead of the vote, Senate Foreign Relations Chair Jim Risch (R-Idaho) slammed Democrats for forcing the vote as Trump attempted to clinch a peace plan. The unlikely passage of the war powers limits, he argued, would upend those efforts.

“If that miracle happened, do you think Iran would sign the deal that has been negotiated? Of course not,” Risch said.

Tuesday’s action came nearly a month after the chamber advanced a similar war powers measure which called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Middle East, and two weeks after the House voted to limitTrump’s military authorities in Iran.

But absences in the Senate doomed hopes of a third rebuke for the president. Five senators — two Republicans and three Democrats — missed the vote.

GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky broke ranks to support the legislation. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat opposed.

The political fault lines in the Senate remained largely unchanged from May. The White House’s announcement of a long-term deal on Sunday failed to sway lawmakers’ opinions on the matter.

Still, many GOP lawmakers have signaled they still have plenty of questions about the “memorandum of understanding” between the two countries, and whether it ultimately could end up with an agreement similar to the nuclear pact the Obama administration struck with Iran. Trump withdrew from that agreement in his first term.

As with the Obama-era plan, many GOP lawmakers are adamant that any deal touching on Iran’s nuclear program be subject to a vote by Congress. A chief concern for many defense hawks is whether Iran would be permitted to enrich uranium to near-weapons-grade levels.

GOP leaders have dismissed the war power votes as performative and aimed at embarrassing Trump. They also said the move is unnecessary given the impending peace plan, set to be signed Friday.

The White House condemned the resolution ahead of Tuesday’s vote and threatened to veto the measure.

“The joint resolution attempts to legislate away essential Article II authority and could create immediate, material risks to U.S. forces, allies and missions,” administration officials said in a statement obtained by Blue Light News.

“In addition, the broad scope of the resolution risks creating uncertainty and operational paralysis in a crisis, while emboldening the Iranian regime and undermining the United States’ ability to speak with one voice in the midst of sensitive international negotiations,” the White House argued.

But Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who has been a leader on the resolutions, said Tuesday that news of a ceasefire extension or more permanent deal highlight the importance of Congress reasserting its role in war declarations.

“The way to get us in the mix on both continuing the war and considering if a [peace] deal is sufficient enough is to vote for a war powers resolution,” he said.

About 50,000 U.S. military personnel engaged in Middle East operations related to the war, which has been in a ceasefire since April 8. Trump over the weekend announced that U.S. and Iranian negotiators had reached a new peace deal, but details of that plan have yet to be released to Congress or the public.

Felicia Schwartz contributed to this report.