Congress

Senate unlocks ‘minibus’ deal, prepares to advance three spending bills

Published

11 months ago

August 1, 2025

The Senate has finalized an agreement to take action on three fiscal 2026 spending bills, breaking a multi-day impasse that prevented the first government funding bills of the yearly appropriations cycle from coming to the floor.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins requested Friday to tie together the Military Construction-VA and Agriculture-FDA bills. Under the agreement, a third bill to fund Congress itself will be voted on separately.

No senator objected, and votes on the so-called minibus are expected to begin swiftly Friday afternoon.

Current government funding runs out on Sept. 30, and lawmakers are expected to pursue a stopgap funding deal because the 12 annual appropriations bills will not be ready in time. This package is unlikely to become law but, if passed, will be used as a basis for future negotiations between the chambers and parties.

Collins stressed on the floor that the three measures “were approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support.”

It was the second attempt in two days to try to assemble a package of spending bills. An earlier request for a four-bill package, also including Commerce-Justice-Science measure, was derailed Thursday night by a single objection dealing with the FBI headquarters location.

The deal also tees up votes on a sizable roster of amendments offered by senators of both parties. The separate vote on congressional funding was set up at the behest of Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, who objected to the amount of spending in the $7.1 billion bill and wants the chance to vote against it separately.

Congress

To get the Senate moving, this Republican is jamming up the House

Published

24 minutes ago

June 25, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is leading a blockade that has frozen the House — to the growing annoyance of some fellow Republicans.

The casualties of her fight, after all, are major GOP-written bills that are now going nowhere fast as Luna and allied hard-liners push the Senate to enact a partisan elections bill, a version of which the House has already passed. The move is now threatening the annual defense policy bill and the entire House schedule next week unless Speaker Mike Johnson can quickly find an off-ramp.

It’s stirring frustrations among many Republicans, even those who want to pass the elections overhaul known as the SAVE America Act.

“She’s going to have to start being a team player here,” Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) said in an interview. “I mean, you can’t be a team of one. It’s not an institution that can function with one rogue member, especially in the small majority you have.”

But Luna says she is perfectly comfortable picking the fight because she can claim a crucial ally: President Donald Trump.

“It’s not my job to play trust games with the Senate when they’ve actively betrayed our trust multiple times,” Luna said in an interview this week. “Plus, the president’s on my side.”

Luna’s tactics, in fact, are a mirror image of Trump’s own approach to the SAVE America Act, which has stalled in the Senate for months due to internal GOP opposition to the bill’s contents and the precedent-smashing maneuvers that would be required to pass it.

Trump shocked congressional Republicans Wednesday by canceling his planned signing of a landmark bipartisan housing package, explaining he wanted the elections bill passed first. Luna has similarly demanded that no further legislation pass the House until the Senate acts on elections — never mind GOP leaders’ repeated insistence the votes just aren’t there.

Many Hill Republicans believe there’s a reason the two appear to be in sync with their hardball approach to the legislation, which would mandate strict new proof-of-citizenship requirements for voting, among other provisions: They think Luna is privately pushing Trump to keep the pressure on the Senate, even as Johnson looks to keep his own agenda moving.

“The speaker talks to the president a lot. But Luna talks to him more,” said one House Republican who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Johnson is hoping to counter Luna’s push Thursday, meeting with Trump at the White House to discuss possible solutions to the impasse. House GOP leaders have already canceled scheduled votes Friday and are considering telling members not to come back for next week’s planned legislative business, either, according to five people granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

The possibility of losing nearly two weeks of floor time is fueling frustrations inside the House GOP. Leaders scrapped votes on two fiscal 2027 appropriations bills this week, and next week’s plan to bring up the annual defense policy bill is hanging in the balance — much to the chagrin of Armed Services Committee members who helped write that bill, including Jackson.

Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a senior appropriator, said Thursday the self-imposed blockade is “not our finest hour — we’ve got to get this thing open. But it’s not surprising to me because when you tend to want to reward bad behavior, you get more of it.”

That was a veiled reference to multiple prior episodes this Congress where Luna attempted, and sometimes succeeded, in hijacking control of the floor from Johnson.

A broader group of Republicans is annoyed that infighting over the stalled elections bill has now overtaken both chambers with just over four months until the midterms. What’s downright mystifying, in their view, is holding up House business over a lack of Senate action.

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) said it was “like beating your dog because your neighbor won’t cut his grass.”

Luna responded to the gripers in a social media video Thursday: “This is the No. 1 most important issue in the country,” she said, referring to the elections bill. “The American people want it, and we’re not budging until we get it.”

Johnson tried to convince Luna to end her blockade Wednesday, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private conversation. He argued a party-line policy bill Republicans are separately trying to assemble could provide a pathway to enacting the SAVE America Act.

But Luna wasn’t swayed. She is among many GOP hard-liners who don’t believe Johnson’s proposed compromise — which would involve a grant program aimed at encouraging states to adopt strict voter-ID requirements — is sufficient. Johnson is expected to float a similar plan to Trump Thursday.

Luna is also pushing to attach the SAVE America Act to the Pentagon bill or another must-pass bill. That doesn’t have widespread support among Republicans, either, and is viewed by House leaders as a sure-fire recipe for derailing important bills. It doesn’t help that one key element Trump is insisting on — a crackdown on mail voting — divides the GOP and probably can’t pass the House.

“I hope that doesn’t happen,” Jackson said, adding he wanted the defense bill passed “as clean as we possibly can.”

House GOP leaders blew off Luna’s initial threat this week to lead a floor rebellion if they proceeded with a vote on the bipartisan housing bill. It passed Tuesday 358-32 after passing the Senate 88-5 last week.

The huge bipartisan margins didn’t deter Luna, who publicly announced she had enough members willing to indefinitely block the procedural measures that GOP leaders use to control floor debate and prepare major bills for votes.

Other House conservatives have said they were in Luna’s corner, including Rep. Max Miller of Ohio and Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, who is among several House Freedom Caucus members who committed to the blockade Thursday. “I personally think we should not have any more legislation until the Senate comes back in session,” Norman said.

Johnson told reporters before meeting with Trump Thursday that “we’re in an era with small margins and small majorities, and we’ve got to get things moving.” He blamed Senate Democrats for the issues with the elections bill and did not mention Luna or the standoff.

“I’m going to talk with the president about these issues and how to get the agenda moving again,” he said.

Luna’s close relationship with Trump has shielded her from significant blowback inside the House GOP. She talks with the president frequently and is one of the few Republicans on Capitol Hill to enjoy Oval Office walk-in privileges. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Luna’s relationship with Trump and his view of her maneuvers.

During an internal crisis over a cryptocurrency bill last year, she left a meeting at the Treasury Department with a group of Republicans who were struggling with the matter, according to four people granted anonymity to describe the incident.

Luna walked over to the White House and into the Oval Office, the people said. Minutes later, Trump brought the whole group in and later issued a social media post saying they had hashed out the disagreement — by agreeing to give hard-liners a policy concession that wasn’t tenable with the rest of the House GOP.

“Luna has more operational control around here than most anyone,” said another House Republican granted anonymity to speak frankly.

Ali Bianco contributed to this report.

Congress

GOP leaders cancel Friday votes as House agenda hangs in balance

Published

4 hours ago

June 25, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Republican leaders have canceled planned Friday votes as GOP hard-liners continue threatening to block legislative action over an elections bill that is stalled in the Senate, according to a notice sent to members Thursday.

Members are expected to leave town after a 1 p.m. vote Thursday, and it’s possible they might not return Monday as planned: Speaker Mike Johnson is hoping to discuss the legislative agenda with President Donald Trump at an afternoon meeting in hopes of brokering a solution that will allow the House to resume voting next week.

If not, the House could join the Senate on an extended recess, not returning till mid-July, two people granted anonymity to describe internal conversations said.

Congress

Raskin launches discharge effort to formally block ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’

Published

5 hours ago

June 25, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is launching a campaign to force a floor vote on legislation that would formally block the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

The so-called No Carte Blanche Act — a tongue-in-cheek nod to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — also would also explicitly bar payouts from the Judgement Fund, a pre-existing account for settlements with the United States, to people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

While Blanche, who will sit for a confirmation hearing July 15 to run the Justice Department in a more permanent capacity, recently told lawmakers that the administration was abandoning the effort amid bipartisan backlash, he has refused to put that pledge in a written declaration to Congress.

“This is why Congress must act to comprehensively shut down this shameful shakedown once and for all,” Raskin, of Maryland, said in a statement. “The people’s representatives must decide whether to uphold the rule of law and protect taxpayer dollars—or stand aside as this unprecedented corruption spins out of control.”

Raskin is attempting to compel a floor vote on his bill through a discharge petition, where 218 signatures in support will require Speaker Mike Johnson to bring the measure up for a vote. It’s a maneuver members of both parties have deployed with success in recent months due to the GOP’s slim majority — and it’s possible it could work this time, too, with a small number of House Republicans on record opposing the fund.

It would likely face an uphill battle getting the necessary 60 votes in the Senate to become law, however: An earlier attempt from Democrats to block the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” from going into effect failed in a 50-49 vote.

The fund was created out of a settlement from President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the federal government over the leak of his tax returns. While it was purportedly intended to provide financial compensation to individuals deemed victims of “lawfare,” critics worried it was designed to reward Trump’s allies.

Also as part of the settlement agreement, Trump, his family and businesses would be freed from any current audits of their taxes. Raskin’s legislation would also block that provision.