Congress

Schumer keeps options open on housing bill as cross-chamber tensions rise

Published

2 months ago

May 19, 2026

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told a group of people in the housing industry last week that he’s open to supporting the House version of an embattled housing affordability package if it were to pass in the House and emerge as the most viable path towards a final bill, said three people familiar with the conversations who were granted anonymity to speak about private discussions.

The House is expected to pass its bipartisan housing bill on Wednesday and send the legislation back to the Senate.

The House bill would amend the Senate-passed 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act that received 89 votes in March and was endorsed by the White House. The two bills are largely similar and aim to increase housing supply and affordability and individual homeownership.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers view passage of the bill as a key policy win during an election year that is increasingly being dominated by voters’ concerns over rising costs.

The House legislation would significantly scale back the Senate bill’s restrictions on large investors buying up houses and add some additional Democratic and Republican priorities. The House bill earned the support of both House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) and ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and is expected to move under special fast-track procedures that will require significant bipartisan support. House GOP leaders have been adamant that they do not have the support to pass the Senate-passed housing package as-is.

A spokesperson for Schumer said it was “not true” that the New York Democrat is in support of the House’s bill.

“Leader Schumer supports the Senate-passed housing bill and wants to get a good housing bill done that meaningfully takes on the housing affordability crisis facing American families. That’s why, the House should take up the Senate bill,” the spokesperson said.

Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the architects of the Senate-passed housing bill, have both continued to push back against the House version, urging their colleagues on the other side of the Capitol to pass the Senate’s language.

The White House is also pressuring the House to pass the Senate bill, arguing that the Senate’s language on large institutional investors better aligns with President Donald Trump’s priorities for cracking down on Wall Street’s role in the housing market.

However, the housing industry has largely backed the housing language from the House. A coalition of more than 30 national housing-related groups sent a letter to House leaders Monday urging the chamber to pass the housing package immediately. Other housing groups, which had previously spoken out against the Senate-passed housing bill, publicly supported the House’s version over the past few days.

Congress

Mitch McConnell is still in the hospital after medical episode, his office says

Published

7 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Mitch McConnell remains hospitalized, his office said in a statement Thursday — without offering details about a recent medical episode that has renewed concern about the health of the former Republican majority leader.

McConnell “continues his recovery in the hospital” and “continues to improve,” his office said.

“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” the statement said. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”

The statement did not explain why he was hospitalized last month.

The update comes after multiple outlets reported details of a first responder dispatch call indicating emergency medical personnel responded to McConnell’s home last month to treat an unconscious person who had experienced “cardiac arrest.”

Blue Light News has not independently verified the dispatch call.

The 84-year-old senator, who is retiring at the end of this term, has experienced multiple medical incidents in recent years. On two occasions in 2023, he froze while speaking with reporters. He has also suffered multiple falls and temporarily used a wheelchair, a move his office described at the time as a precautionary measure.

Congress

House Ethics says it doesn’t have information to share on lawmaker sexual misconduct settlements

Published

14 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House adopted a resolution Tuesday requiring the House Ethics Committee to release information on taxpayer funds used to pay out sexual misconduct settlements with lawmakers — but the committee now says it has no information it can share.

In a statement Thursday, the committee reiterated it does not manage sexual harassment lawsuits or their settlements; taxpayers have not footed the bill for those payments since 2018.

Since that time, according to the statement, “the Committee has not been notified of any awards or settlements relating to allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or other sexual misconduct by a Member.”

Instead, the bipartisan Ethics Committee said it was up to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to publicly release a list of each member who has received settlements for sexual misconduct allegations, as mandated by the resolution championed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

The committee, in the Thursday statement, said it “fully supports the release of information about sexual misconduct settlements and calls on OCWR to abide by [the resolution] and make publicly available information about Member sexual misconduct matters resulting in payment of taxpayer funds.”

Massie, in a text message Thursday, said “OCWR can release it.”

The OCWR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The bipartisan Ethics Committee has been under pressure in recent months to show it takes allegations of sexual misconduct against colleagues seriously. Two former House members — Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) — were forced to resign earlier this year amid serious accusations against them.

The renewed reckoning has prompted new questions about whether the House is up to the task of policing its own. The resolution earlier this week was adopted nearly unanimously, with just one member, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), voting “present.”

House Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) said in an interview earlier this week that while he would support Massie’s resolution, the relevant “information was already out in the public domain.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

AOC endorses El-Sayed in Michigan Senate race

Published

17 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign for Michigan’s open Senate seat on Thursday, a decision that comes as progressives look to capitalize off a series of recent high-profile primary victories in New York, Colorado and elsewhere.

Her endorsement could provide El-Sayed with a critical boost just over a month before the state’s Aug. 4 primary. The former public health official is locked in a heated contest against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow for the right to take on Republican Mike Rogers in the general election.

It also comes as El-Sayed has risen to the top of the pack in recent public polling.

Virtually any Democratic path to flipping the Senate in this year’s midterms would see the party hold the open Michigan Senate seat, with two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) retiring at the end of his term.

The race has emerged as perhaps the largest battleground over the ideological future of the party. El-Sayed, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, has collected endorsements from progressives, while Stevens has the tacit backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, with AIPAC also boosting her candidacy.

El-Sayed, Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with The New York Times, is her party’s best chance.

“Despite our ideological differences and whatever disagreements there are in the party, every single one of us sees this moment as existential,” she said. “And I think many people are willing to put aside differences in order to give us the best chance at winning. And I think that Abdul gives us that right now.”