Congress

Schumer reelected as Senate Democratic leader

Published

2 years ago

December 3, 2024

Democrats nationally are wrestling over who will lead their party post-election. But in the Senate, they’re largely staying the course.

In a closed-door party meeting on Tuesday, Senate Democrats elected leadership for their return to the minority, including tapping Sen. Chuck Schumer for another term as caucus leader, according to a Senate Democratic leadership aide. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) was also elected to another term as whip, the No. 2 spot.

Two other Democrats rose in the ranks: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) was elected to the No. 3 spot as chair of the Steering and Policy Committee. It’s a step up for Klobuchar, who is currently No. 4 in the Democratic leadership rankings and serves as chair of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee.

And Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) was elected as chair of the Strategic Communications Committee. The one-time presidential candidate has been in the Senate in 2013 after previously serving as a mayor of Newark, N.J.

All of the elections were unanimous, per the aide.

Schumer’s reelection as leader in particular signals trust from rank-and-file Democrats in their current leadership ranks. Despite a brutal November for the party writ large, Senate Democrats did win competitive races in Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada and Arizona. They’re still publicly ambitious about their 2026 map and hopeful about their chances to take back the majority.

That positivity doesn’t extend party-wide. Multiple Democrats in the House are being challenged for ranking member seats. And Democratic pundits are still locked in a back-and-forth over what went wrong for the party which lost the House, Senate and presidency. Schumer himself has acknowledged the party needs to reflect on how it’s connected with voters and assess ways to adjust.

“I am honored and humbled to be chosen by my colleagues to continue leading Senate Democrats during this crucial period for our country …” Schumer said in a statement. “Republican colleagues should make no mistake about it, we will always stand up for our values. We have a lot of work ahead – in the Senate and as a country — and in this upcoming Congress, our caucus will continue to fight for what’s best for America’s working class.”

Schumer, gesturing to the photographers after the leadership elections, asked his fellow Democrats if they should flash thumbs up, but Klobuchar replied: “No, we should not.”

Congress

Thune wants DNI nominee soon

Published

1 hour ago

June 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday that President Donald Trump is “weighing seriously” naming a permanent nominee to be director of national intelligence and that he hopes Trump makes an announcement soon.

Thune’s comments come after Trump’s decision to name Bill Pulte acting director of national intelligence all but quashed the chances of passing a long-term reauthorization of a key surveillance power ahead of a Friday deadline.

The hope is that by naming a permanent nominee who would replace Pulte, enough Democrats would support extending the law known as Section 702.

Congress

Capitol agenda: Drama as House GOP eyes next big swing

Published

4 hours ago

June 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Tuesday’s the day House Republicans are hoping to put one reconciliation bill behind them and start moving on another.

But like everything else for the House GOP over the past 18 months, it’s not so simple. Party leaders still aren’t sure if they’ll have the votes to send their long-brewing immigration enforcement bill to President Donald Trump.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), for one, said Monday night that he informed the GOP whip team he’s undecided on the procedural vote needed to put the Senate-passed bill on the floor.

“We’re literally bending over backwards just to get back to the status quo and to remove people that are just going to come back in four years under the next administration, because we’re not codifying anything,” Roy said.

Rep. Kevin Kiley, an independent member of the GOP conference, said he’d oppose the bill: “I’ve made clear I will not support it unless reforms have been enacted and that position hasn’t changed.”

Other members are on the GOP watchlist, and with primary elections happening in four states today, attendance will be a concern. At least one Republican on the ballot, Rep. Julie Fedorchak of North Dakota, will be on hand today to vote for the GOP bill.

The uncertainty over what has become known as “Reconciliation 2.0,” however, isn’t stopping House Republicans from gearing up for another, longer-shot party-line bill ahead of the midterms.

The Republican Study Committee hosted the top nonpartisan legislative scoring officials for a Monday night briefing on the fiscal details surrounding the process of assembling that bill.

“We’re still early on in this process, but yes, this is a ‘let’s get ahead of it,’” RSC Chair August Pfluger (R-Texas) said. “The better truth we have here, the more accurate that product is, the more we can do.”

In a separate private meeting of senior House Republicans in Speaker Mike Johnson’s office, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) suggested adding some partisan pieces of the regular appropriations process into the bill, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter.

That would not only infuriate Democrats, but it’s already unsettling some Republican appropriators who are wary of further eroding Congress’ power to oversee federal spending on a bipartisan basis.

Harris declined to confirm what he said inside the room. But as an appropriator who also leads the hard-line Freedom Caucus, he said he was all in on Reconciliation 3.0: “Plenty of fraud, waste, and abuse left on the table. We’ll see where that goes.”

Top leaders are speaking more carefully. Johnson acknowledged in an interview Monday night that the appropriations idea “came up today” but added, “I’m not committing to anything. There are lots of ideas on the table.”

Majority Leader Steve Scalise cautioned the entire process is still in flux: “We’re far from agreement on 3.0.”

What else we’re watching:

— GOP HOPES FOR PULTE OFF-RAMP: Republicans are largely leaving it to the Trump administration to figure out a path forward to renew a major government surveillance program before it expires Friday. Democrats are calling on Trump to remove Bill Pulte, an ally of the president’s with no national security experience, as acting director of national intelligence before they support the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Pulte’s future is expected to come up when Johnson speaks with Trump at the White House later today.

— HOUSE WEIGHS INTO CRYPTO TAX DEBATE: House Ways and Means will hold a 2 p.m. hearing today on seven draft bills that, taken together, could establish the rules of the road for taxing cryptocurrency. Chair Jason Smith and other tax writers, however, face an uphill battle to clinch a crypto tax package this year. It would have to be bipartisan, and right now plenty of Democrats are treading carefully on the matter.

Katherine Tully-McManus, Calen Razor and Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.

Congress

Republican leading AI effort has ambitious timeline for getting his bill through the House

Published

12 hours ago

June 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Jay Obernolte has an aggressive timeline for getting his new bipartisan Artificial Intelligence proposal taken up in the House — and a path for getting a congressional hearing on a major part of the plan.

In an interview Monday night, the California Republican said he hoped to turn the draft framework he unveiled last Thursday into multiple bills, with the first expected to be introduced in the coming weeks. Each bill would be considered by its committee of jurisdiction.

“One of the challenges that we have is that the bill crosses so many different policy committee jurisdictions,” he said. “So I think we’ve got to divide it up into different titles that are in the jurisdiction of various policy committees and hear those individually.”

He said that the majority of the provisions contained in his 269-page blueprint for regulating AI — including the authorization for the Center for AI Standards and Innovation and the National AI Research Resource — would fall under the purview of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Incidentally, Obernolte said the Science panel — of which he is a member and chairs the Subcommittee on Research and Technology — was aiming to convene a hearing on AI at the end of the month, where his proposal could take center stage.

Obernolte ambitions, however, could quickly run up against reality: He and the Democratic co-architect of the proposal, Rep. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts, still need to sell their ideas to their respective party leaders and their colleagues, who are themselves sharply divided over what role the federal government should play in regulating the emerging technology.

But Monday night, Obernolte insisted he was continuing to talk to the White House about his effort, saying he was “cautiously optimistic” the administration would eventually back his bill, which would among other things override some state AI laws and require top developers to disclose the safety and security risks of their new models.

He also said he and Trahan were continuing to seek out additional co-sponsors beyond the original four who have committed to signing onto a formal piece of legislation: Reps. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.), Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Scott Franklin (R-Fla.) and Erin Houchin (R-Ind.)

Asked about feedback so far, Obernolte called it “pretty thoughtful,” and said criticism from both ends of the ideological spectrum has been fairly split.

“I would say that there’s a broad swath of people in the middle of the issue that are respected and thoughtful on the issue that have been praising the framework,” he said. “And then you’ve got voices on both sides — some that say that we’re not doing enough, some that say we’re doing too much — and the volume on both of those points of view have been about the same. So I think that’s an indication that we got it right.”