Congress

Russia sanctions bill clears procedural House hurdle

Published

8 minutes ago

September 15, 2026

Sweeping Russia sanctions legislation championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham cleared a procedural hurdle in the House on Monday, likely teeing up a full House vote later in the week.

The House Rules Committee voted to advance the measure, following a heated exchange between lawmakers over a provision that would give the White House more tariff authority.

“Today we have an opportunity to help end the war in Europe and project peace through strength around the globe,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said during the hearing, arguing that “failure to act” on the bill would empower Moscow and encourage other adversaries like North Korea and Iran to further their aggressive actions as well.

But the legislation isn’t out of the woods yet. House GOP leaders could still face procedural obstacles on the floor during the party-line vote that sets the time for debate. House Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford to lose a handful of Republican votes or risk having the measure caught up in a procedural snag.

There’s also a time constraint: If lawmakers don’t vote on the legislation this week, it’ll get punted until after the midterms as the House is set to leave town again next week to campaign for reelection in their home districts.

Johnson suggested to reporters Monday that he could avoid that procedural mess entirely by moving the bill under a fast-track process that would require a bipartisan two-thirds majority for passage.

“I believe we’ll have the votes,” Johnson said, adding that if the procedural rule vote fails, he would shift to the expedited method, known as suspension of the rules.

Although the sanctions legislation, which has White House backing, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate in August, its progress slowed after summer recess amid flagging Republican enthusiasm and growing Democratic opposition. Many Democrats have argued against the bill, saying it would hand too much tariff authority to a White House already liberally applying tariffs against both friends and foes alike.

In addition to mandatory sanctions for Russia’s leadership and energy sector — as well as collaborators in Moscow’s defense industry and so-called shadow fleet — the bill would hand President Donald Trump the power to hit top buyers of Russian oil with 100 percent tariffs.

New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the measure would get “overwhelming Democratic support” if the secondary tariffs were excised.

Meeks offered multiple amendments to the legislation, including a move to strike the tariff language, one to clarify that the EU is not a “country” for the purpose of the secondary tariffs and one to change the broad waiver language in the bill so that sanctions can only be waived if doing so was “vital to the national security of the United States.”

“It is deeply flawed, despite what its title says,” Meeks said of the bill. “It’s unlikely to result in any new sanctions on Russia. It will, however, hand the president of the United States sweeping new tariff authorities that he can abuse to raise the cost on the American people.”

The legislation is only headed to the House floor because Trump told Johnson he wanted the broad tariff authorities “immediately,” Meeks said, reiterating comments he told POLITICO last week.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who cosponsored the House version of the bill, said that he supported all of Meeks’ amendments — except for stripping the tariff language.

Instead, Hoyer offered an amendment that would identify the 10 countries that would be affected by tariffs: China, India, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Slovakia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

While the White House isn’t a fan of the amendment, Trump won’t veto the bill, Hoyer said.

“If we do not pass this bill, there will be great joy in the Kremlin and great devastation in Kyiv,” Hoyer said.

The committee ultimately rejected both Meeks’ and Hoyer’s amendments.

Despite Democratic opposition over the tariff provisions, the top Democrat on the committee Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said he thought the bill would pass “no matter what.”

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

Congress

Sen. Kennedy readies AI ‘kill switch’ bill

Published

53 minutes ago

September 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. John Kennedy plans to introduce a bill that would require companies to build a “kill switch” into their artificial intelligence models, he told reporters. It comes as pressure mounts on Congress to regulate the risky technology and tech leaders call for an industry slowdown.

The Louisiana Republican intends to introduce the bill under unanimous consent Wednesday. “That’s the only way you’re going to get anything done, we’re not going to get anything done for the next two and a half weeks,” he said. There are currently no cosponsors for the bill.

Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) introduced their own AI “kill switch” bill in July, which would allow the government to order top AI firms to shut down or slow AI models it deems too dangerous and require companies to report incidents.

Kennedy stressed his bill would not permit the government to halt these powerful AI systems. “If I put the federal government in charge of the kill switch, it won’t pass, and the president will probably veto it. The president is not too keen on AI regulation,” he said Monday.

President Donald Trump blasted safety and security concerns around AI as a “HOAX” in a series of posts Monday in an apparent effort to kill the growing push for guardrails in Washington.

Congress

Trump nominates Wesley Hunt as US ambassador to Saudi Arabia

Published

4 hours ago

September 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump nominated Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) to be the next U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia on Monday, part of a spate of nominations sent to the Senate less than two months before the midterms decides the fate of the GOP’s control of the chamber.

Hunt, one of the first Black Republicans to represent Texas in the House, was one of three Republican candidates locked in a fierce battle for a Senate seat in Texas earlier this year.

Trump held off on endorsing a candidate in the initial primary but backed state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the runoff. Hunt pitched himself as a staunch Trump ally in that race and quickly endorsed Paxton — the eventual winner — once Trump signaled his favorite.

The ambassadorship was last held by Michael Ratney, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden and served in the position until January 2025.

Trump has long made relations with Saudi Arabia a priority, welcoming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House in 2025 and striking deals with the kingdom. But the nomination comes as tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis has reignited and the war in Iran has caused disruptions in its ability to export oil.

The other 40 nominations sent Monday to the Senate include some that Trump had previously announced on social media, including Heidi Overton as the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and Hung Cao as the next Navy secretary.

Congress

Hakeem Jeffries: Congress must act ‘immediately’ to rein in AI

Published

4 hours ago

September 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Monday for immediate congressional action to regulate artificial intelligence — his most urgent call to date for guardrails on the rapidly advancing technology amid warnings it could eradicate humanity if left unchecked.

“The explosive growth of artificial intelligence and the challenges that are therein presented — that’s not a hoax,” Jeffries said at his weekly news conference. “It’s very real, despite what Donald Trump has to say about that issue as well, and it requires decisive congressional action immediately, in a manner consistent with what some of the leading AI voices in the country are now saying needs to happen, as it relates to slowing things down to protect the health, the safety and the well-being of the American people.”

Jeffries’ call for regulation comes days after an ex-Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, warned that AI could “kill us all,” prompting calls from the company’s CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI CEO Elon Musk for an AI development slowdown. Trump has responded by downplaying the risks and doubling down in his support for accelerating AI breakthroughs to compete with China.

Jeffries urged Speaker Mike Johnson Monday to keep Congress in session “until something is done decisively to protect the safety and the well-being of the American people, in the face of growing concerns being raised by experts within the artificial intelligence industry itself.”

Johnson canceled the last two weeks of session before the midterms, meaning that the House is slated to leave Capitol Hill on Thursday and not return until Nov. 9. The speaker has given no indication he will revisit this plan and has remained noncommittal on whether the chamber will consider AI safety legislation ahead of the elections, if at all.

Jeffries also said the Democrat-only AI commission he convened this Congress could begin rolling out its policy recommendations soon, noting he plans to meet with the group’s three co-chairs this week. And he blamed Johnson for declining to reconstitute a bipartisan AI task force that would have allowed members of both parties to work together on the issue.

“We want to ensure that American entrepreneurs and companies can continue to lead in this space and not be overcome by the Chinese Communist Party,” Jeffries said of what the Democratic-led commission has been working on. “But on the other hand, we’ve got to ensure that the American people actually experience the benefits of artificial intelligence without being subjected to the very real, and very grave and very dangerous downsides.”

But while Jeffries is positioning Democrats as leaders on AI policy — now and in the next Congress — he declined to endorse a proposal from some of his colleagues to create a select AI committee if the party wins the majority in November.

“We’re focused on the substance, not the process,” he said, adding that any select committee discussions would take place after election day.

Jeffries did endorse the Ratepayer Protection Act — a bipartisan bill intended to shield Americans from energy costs associated with the data center boom — which is slated for a vote Tuesday.

“It’s a step forward,” he said. “More clearly needs to be done.”