Congress

Senate trudges through vote-a-rama to ready a backup budget

Published

1 year ago

February 21, 2025

Senate Republicans are on track to adopt their budget resolution in the early hours of Friday morning — a bid to show support for a “Plan B” if House GOP lawmakers can’t unite around their more expansive vision for a party-line package necessary to enact President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.

Senators had voted on more than 10 amendments to their budget resolution before midnight, with plans to continue their “vote-a-rama” into the night. Democrats are using the marathon amendment process to score political points, hoping it will pay dividends in 2026.

“Families lose, billionaires win. That is the proposition at the heart of the Republican budget resolution,” the Senate Budget Committee’s top Democrat, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, said on the floor. “We will see tonight that Democrats vote against irreparable increases in the deficit, and Republicans vote to explode the deficit.”

Democrats have so far used the amendment free-for-all to repeatedly force their GOP colleagues to go on the record against protecting Medicare and Medicaid. They also offered amendments on stopping hedge funds from buying single-family homes, supporting wildland firefighters and rehiring federal workers who have been fired in the first weeks of the Trump administration.

Senate Democrats will be able to hone their attacks on Republicans’ party-line ambitions later, when GOP leaders in the chamber craft the actual reconciliation bill to deliver on Trump’s biggest policy priorities. The budget resolution, just 62-pages long, merely lays out the framework for the final product, which would allow for $150 billion in new defense spending and up to $175 billion in new spending on border security, plus require billions of dollars in savings from education, labor, energy and agriculture programs.

“One can predict where they’re going based on the numbers that they’re providing. Sure does look like Medicaid cuts in what they’re pushing for, and not small Medicaid cuts either. Huge Medicaid cuts,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said in a brief interview.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered an amendment to block Republicans from enacting tax cuts if the GOP cuts even $1 from Medicaid. At one point, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) attempted to give Republicans some cover, putting forward his own amendment that would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to protecting Medicare and Medicaid. A Senate Democratic leadership aide was quick to counter, in a memo to reporters, that the proposal would in effect raise the age of Medicare eligibility and “carve out populations Republicans deem worthy and cut benefits for everyone else.”

Democrats also characterized the Senate Republican budget as a plot to bankroll tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, and even their GOP counterparts wanted to talk about taxes. But the plan doesn’t set up tax cuts, with Senate Republicans arguing that should be tackled later in the year in separate legislation.

“While we aren’t considering tax policy as part of this reconciliation package, it’s important to set the record straight at what’s at stake in the upcoming tax debate,” Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) said.

In some cases, Democrats were successful in getting Republicans to take the bait — to a point. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), for instance, backed Democrats in their attempts to allow floor votes on two amendments seeking to bar tax cuts for the wealthy in a final bill. Collins is a key target for Democrats in 2026, when she faces reelection.

While the budget measure GOP senators are working to adopt would lay the groundwork for a party-line package of energy policy, defense spending and border security investment, Trump is insistent on a more sweeping piece of legislation that also includes trillions of dollars in tax cuts. The House budget would lump all those priories together in what the president has called “one big, beautiful bill.”

Now the pressure is on House GOP leaders to show that they can rally enough support for that grander plan, which would require balancing the demands of fiscal conservatives with those of moderate Republicans unwilling to back deep cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP food assistance.

Ultimately, Senate Republicans are bracing themselves for the distinct possibility they’ll have to do this all again in the not so distant future, if House Republicans are able to advance their own budget resolution next week that would achieve the more expansive bill Trump has explicitly endorsed.

But Republicans did have one diversion Thursday night: The intense USA v. Canada hockey game was playing on a television inside the GOP cloakroom.

Congress

Pence-backed think tank joins push to keep kids’ safety bills out of AI package

Published

2 hours ago

June 17, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

More than a dozen groups including former Vice President Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom are urging Senate Commerce Committee leaders to reject efforts to attach kids’ online safety measures to a national artificial intelligence framework, according to a letter shared exclusively with Blue Light News.

The groups argue that the proposed measures could undermine users’ free speech rights while creating new risk to privacy and data security. Their push comes as lawmakers weigh broader AI legislation, and follows reports last week that Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is working with the White House to shore up support for a kids’ safety package that could ultimately preempt some state laws on AI.

The Blackburn-led measure is expected to include the Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act, which includes a “duty of care” requiring companies to design their products with an eye toward preventing harm to children, the NO FAKES Act and the App Store Accountability Act. It’s not yet clear how aggressively it would preempt state action on narrow issues such as verifying users’ ages on social media.

Think tanks including the libertarian R Street Institute, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, and industry group NetChoice, are among the 13 total signatories. They take issue primarily with ASAA, which would require app store platforms such as Google and Apple to verify users’ ages, and KOSA.

The coalition is alarmed by age verification requirements that could require users to submit personal information to digital databases vulnerable to data breaches and hacks. It also takes issue with parental consent provisions, which would “inevitably require even more intrusive data gathering to prove both the identity of the parent and his or her status as the child’s legal guardian,” the letter reads.

KOSA is also problematic, according to the coalition, because of its duty of care provision. It argues this would infringe on users’ First Amendment speech rights by “requiring online platforms to suppress certain kinds of content.”

Meta helped kill KOSA two years ago after raising similar free speech concerns with the bill to Speaker Mike Johnson, though it has since dropped its opposition because Blackburn’s package is expected to include language preempting state AI laws, as POLITICO exclusively reported Tuesday.

Congress

‘Un-American’: Democrats attack Trump’s uneven disaster response

Published

3 hours ago

June 17, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Democratic senators Wednesday attacked President Donald Trump’s approach to disseminating disaster aid as “unconscionable,” “shameful” and “un-American.”

At a confirmation hearing for Trump’s nominee to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency, three Democrats cited an article by POLITICO showing that the president had approved 89 percent of disaster requests from Republican-led states compared to 23 percent of requests from states led by Democrats. No president has distributed disaster aid at such uneven levels going back to at least 1981, when Ronald Reagan took office.

“Denying over 75 percent of requests from states that are led by representatives of another party is unconscionable,” said Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, displaying a large poster of a chart included in the news article.

“Given this stark data, what other conclusions can one draw other than that the president is using federal disaster assistance to punish states that elect Democrats?” Peters asked Cameron Hamilton, who would be the first permanent FEMA administrator in Trump’s current term. The committee did not vote Wednesday on Hamilton’s nomination.

“The idea that Americans who need help in the wake of a tornado or a flood or a hurricane should be treated differently based upon politics is shameful. It is un-American,” Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) told Hamilton.

Hamilton avoided answering questions about the discrepancy as he tried to assure senators.

“If confirmed, my focus will be to ensure that FEMA is objective, is fair and reasonable, follows the law, and is consistent in the approach to how we adjudicate claims and requests for disasters,” Hamilton told Peters.

“You still can’t answer questions about what happened while you were there,” Peters shot back, noting that Hamilton was FEMA’s acting administrator for part of 2025. “I don’t trust that that’s what you’re going to do because it didn’t seem like you did it when you were there before.”

The sharp comments came the day after 16 Democratic senators along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) sent a letter to White House budget director Russ Vought citing the Blue Light News article to ask for details about every disaster request Trump has handled, including internal FEMA documents.

“There is no politicization to the President’s decisions on disaster relief,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement to Blue Light News’s E&E News.

Hamilton ran FEMA from the start of Trump’s term until he was fired on May 9, 2025, after contradicting the administration by testifying that FEMA provides essential services to the country. Trump and then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had said they were considering eliminating the agency.

During Hamilton’s 15 weeks at FEMA last year, Trump denied a disaster request for Washington state that had been submitted by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) in late 2024, shortly before he left office.

FEMA’s own analysis of Inslee’s request found that storms and flooding had caused $34 million in damage, which is more than double the agency’s financial threshold to qualify for disaster aid. Trump and Inslee had harshly criticized each other during Trump’s first term.

Hassan asked Hamilton what he would do if Trump rejected a request for disaster aid to punish Democrats.

“Well, that’s a very odd hypothetical. I don’t believe the president would do that. But I will tell you that my oath of office requires that I follow and obey the law,” Hamilton replied.

“You all are going to have to think about what you will do when he reverses your decision, completely based on politics, which as I said would be immoral and un-American,” Hassan replied.

Federal law gives presidents exclusive authority to approve or deny requests for disaster aid. FEMA recommends whether aid should be approved or denied based on an estimated cost of repairs.

Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D) recalled what she described as an unusual action by Trump after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) sought disaster aid last year following an ice storm that demolished electricity infrastructure in northern Michigan. Trump approved some disaster aid but denied Whitmer’s request for aid to repair the damaged equipment. Trump eventually reversed his denial and approved the infrastructure aid after heavy lobbying from Michigan officials.

“It’s just hard to rationalize how many disasters have been approved for aid in Republican states versus Democratic states,” Slotkin said. “Republicans would be screaming bloody murder if the stats were reversed.”

Congress

OMB nominee touts plan to give Trump appointees power to kill grants

Published

5 hours ago

June 17, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump’s nominee for the No. 2 post at the White House budget office told lawmakers Wednesday that the administration will stop federal cash from flowing to “divisive ideologies” under new grant rules in the works.

Hal Duncan, who is seeking Senate confirmation to serve as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, said during his confirmation hearing that the White House will ensure federal grants are aligned with Trump’s priorities by changing the way more than $1 trillion is approved each year.

“The ultimate deciders of these grants will be the political employees at the agencies,” Duncan noted in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The White House proposed changes last month that would put political appointees in charge of blessing or nixing awards to state and local governments, community groups, education institutions and nonprofit organizations. The result, Duncan said, will be that the administration will more easily head off fraud and no federal dollars will go to “divisive DEI ideologies, woke gender ideologies, illegal immigration.”

The administration is expected to finalize these plans as soon as this summer.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) touted the proposal as a way to ensure federal money goes to “things that President Trump actually ran on — his causes.”

But Democrats are raising concern that the Trump administration will use the new approval process to deny federal support for groups or governments that don’t boost Trump.

“That really sounds to me like you all are trying to turn the entire federal government into this one big slush fund to reward those aligned with the administration and punish everyone else,” Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the Senate’s top Democratic appropriator, told Duncan on Tuesday, during his first confirmation hearing before the Budget Committee.

Both committees must vote in the coming weeks to advance Duncan’s nomination to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote by the full chamber. He is already serving in the role as acting deputy director.