Congress

Retiring Rep. Barbara Lee considering run for Oakland mayor

Published

1 year ago

December 21, 2024

OAKLAND, California — Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee said Friday she will announce in early January whether she plans to run for mayor of Oakland as the city holds a special election following the recall of its last mayor.

Lee, who leaves Congress early next year, tweeted that she is considering running — the first official confirmation that she might vie to lead the turbulent Bay Area city following months of speculation about her intentions.

“The decision to run for mayor of Oakland, a city that I have long called home, is not one I take lightly,” Lee posted. “As my time in Congress wraps up, my current priority is navigating the crisis before us in DC,” Lee said, referring to efforts to avert a government shutdown.

Lee, a national progressive icon known for being the lone member of Congress to vote against the war in Afghanistan, would immediately be the frontrunner in the race, and her candidacy could cause other progressives to clear the field.

Lee’s candidacy could create a headache for moderate activists and donors eager to put a more centrist Democrat at the helm of City Hall — an effort to repeat the political shift underway across the Bay in San Francisco, as tech-funded groups nudge the famously liberal city closer to the center.

Voters in Oakland, a city reeling from a deep budget deficit and a gun-violence epidemic, recalled former Mayor Sheng Thao in the November election, largely over their frustrations with dysfunction inside City Hall. The recall effort was bankrolled by moderate advocacy groups and wealthy tech donors who want to move the deep-blue city in a more centrist direction.

A special election to fill the seat is scheduled for April 15 and will utilize the city’s ranked-choice voting system.

Loren Taylor, a former city councilmember and moderate Democrat, is already running and would likely be Lee’s toughest competition. Meanwhile, Marshawn Lynch, a former NFL running back, has hinted he’s also considering jumping into the race, though he hasn’t made any announcements.

Earlier this year, Lee unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate, handedly losing the primary to fellow Democrat Adam Schiff. In that contest, Lee struggled to raise the millions of dollars needed to mount a statewide campaign and struggled to appeal to voters outside her progressive base.

But those weak spots could be far less of a hurdle for Lee if she runs for mayor in Oakland, where she’s a household name and more closely aligned with voters’ liberal politics on issues like the war in Gaza and police accountability.

Lee had previously expressed interested in serving as Housing and Urban Development secretary in a Kamala Harris’ administration before the vice president lost the election.

Congress

Thune is ‘hopeful’ Mitch McConnell will return this week

Published

3 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday he hopes his predecessor as top Republican, Mitch McConnell, returns this week from a hospitalization.

Thune said he had not yet spoken directly with the 84-year-old Kentuckian but is getting “readouts from his staff.”

Asked about McConnell’s condition or if he knew if he would be back this week, Thune told reporters, “I’m hopeful that he’ll be back this week.”

A McConnell spokesperson said Sunday that he had been admitted to the hospital but did not provide details on his condition or why he was hospitalized — a break from recent prior instances where the seven-term senator was hospitalized.

A former McConnell staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity was told the senator was doing much better Monday without any further details on what put him in the hospital.

Daniel Desrochers contributed to this report.

Congress

Senate to confirm Jay Clayton as soon as Thursday

Published

5 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate could vote as soon as Thursday on Jay Clayton’s nomination to serve as director of national intelligence — a lightning speed pace that will necessitate buy-in from all 100 senators.

Confirming Clayton could help shore up enough votes from Democrats to extend a government surveillance program that expired last Friday over opposition to Trump’s pick for acting director, Bill Pulte.

“He will come out of the committee Thursday, at least hopefully, and then if we get consent, we can move,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview Monday about Clayton, who Trump only nominated for the job late last week.

Democrats “ought to be happy with Clayton,” said Thune, adding that he’s a “good” and “solid” pick.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, floated Sunday to CBS News that Clayton could be confirmed this week if every senator cooperates.

Senate Intelligence will hold a hearing Wednesday on Clayton’s nomination. If every member of the panel agrees, he could then get a committee vote Thursday. Confirming Clayton on the Senate floor hours later would require getting agreement from every senator to speed up the process. Opposition from a single member will punt Clayton’s confirmation to next week.

Confirming Clayton Thursday would, crucially, limit — and potentially circumvent — Pulte from becoming acting director of national intelligence, which Trump has slated to take place Friday, June 19.

The president’s decision to put Pulte in charge after Tulsi Gabbard’s departure at the helm of the Office of National Intelligence sparked bipartisan pushback, with Democrats saying they will withhold support for extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act while Pulte is in the acting role. Congress allowed the key government spy authority lapse last Friday without a deal.

Trump threw another curveball into a FISA extension over the weekend when he posted on social media that he was against reauthorizing Section 702 unless a GOP elections bill is attached. That bill, known as the SAVE America Act, does not have the votes to get through Congress.

Thune threw cold water Monday on tying the two issues together.

“Yeah, he’s, as you know, passionate about getting that done and wants to use every opportunity to take a shot at it,” Thune said of Trump and his desire to enact the elections bill.

But, Thune said, “we can’t get FISA done” if the policies are linked.

Congress

Senate eyes vote on updated housing affordability legislation

Published

7 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is planning to put an updated version of a bipartisan housing affordability bill on the Senate floor for a vote this week, according to two people familiar with the bill dynamics and two Senate Democratic aides granted anonymity to discuss ongoing plans.

The version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act that the Senate will vote on will include most of the House-passed language, including a provision restricting large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. The legislation would also add back Senate bills that were dropped from the House package that passed last month, the two people and the two aides said.

The Senate legislation comes after talks between Thune, Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). The updated Senate package was also discussed with the House and the White House, the aides said.

Still, it’s unclear if House leadership and the White House have signed off on the legislation.

The Senate and House have gone back and forth for months on language for a housing affordability bill as lawmakers on both sides look for a win to tout during a midterm election season dominated by cost-of-living issues.

Both chambers overwhelmingly passed their own versions of the housing bill — 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.

The Senate’s updated legislation would remove two of the House’s community banking deregulation bills due to budget scoring concerns, said two of the people familiar: two bills that would modify the Federal Deposit Insurance Act around failed insured depository institutions. The Senate bill also added back a provision to authorize the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program for seven years, as opposed to a permanent reauthorization in the Senate’s March legislation.

The Senate additionally re-inserted several upper-chamber priorities, including the BUILD NOW Act, which would incentivize communities to build more housing through the Community Development Block Grant program; the Rental Assistance Demonstration bill, which would raise the cap on housing authorities to convert voucher-based assistance; the Moving to Work bill, which would aim to add a new cohort of MTW public housing agencies; and the VALID Act, which would require Federal Housing Administration mortgage disclosures to include cost comparison information for veterans.

The package retains core wins for the leaders of both the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees and their members and reflects input from all four leaders of those panels, one of the people familiar said.