Congress

Shutdown chances rise as Johnson defers to Trump on a spending plan

Published

1 year ago

December 19, 2024

Speaker Mike Johnson is bending to President-elect Donald Trump’s demands in his latest bid to avoid a government shutdown in less than 36 hours and help save his job. GOP lawmakers are skeptical he can pull it off.

There’s no final plan yet, as the Lousiana Republican continues to huddle in his office on Thursday with a rotating cross-section of his conference, including members of his leadership team, House Freedom Caucus lawmakers and others. The speaker is assessing various options and running them by Trump world to ensure he has the incoming president’s buy-in before moving forward on another plan, after Trump publicly trashed the spending bill Wednesday and suddenly demanded that lawmakers raise the debt ceiling as well.

Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who has been in and out of Johnson’s office all day, has told a swarm of reporters roughly two dozen times that the situation is “fluid.” By early afternoon he had switched his descriptive of the talks to “moving.” The head of the GOP’s campaign arm, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), was asked if the House would vote on a spending plan Thursday and replied: “I guess we’ll find out.”

The scramble underscores Johnson’s reality, not just now but in the coming months: Nearly any plan he puts forward will spark grumbling, if not an outright rebellion, from his ranks. With a spending deal, he will almost certainly need to get Democratic votes to avoid a shutdown deadline Friday night, since some conservatives are unlikely to support the plan regardless. That problem came up repeatedly in a meeting of more mainstream GOP members on Thursday.

“It was mostly about frustration with one group, who’s gonna demand what’s in and out of this bill, and then still vote against it,” said one House Republican who was in the meeting, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Johnson also needs to keep Trump happy, and the incoming president is demanding that the speaker not cede to Democratic demands. A handful of members on the right flank are publicly calling for Johnson to just let funding lapse and allow a government shutdown before Christmas. Trump has also expressed he’s open to the idea.

But his last-minute demands are also sowing discontent with other lawmakers. One House GOP lawmaker was overheard by a Blue Light News reporter complaining to another member about Trump’s last-minute demands.

“If [Trump] wants to do this … he needs to show up,” said the House Republican. “This is a deeply unserious party right now.”

Johnson can only afford to lose three Republicans on any partisan proposal he puts forward — a bar he’s been unable to clear on funding fights before. Some of his members are stating the obvious: Even if Republicans manage to pass it without Democratic help in the House, it will have to clear the Democratic-controlled Senate and get signed by President Joe Biden.

“If you don’t take pretty close to what we’ve got right now, I just don’t know how it gets through the Senate,” said Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), referring to Johnson’s initial three-month funding bill that dozens of House Republicans vowed to oppose.

The hurdles with raising the debt ceiling are two-fold. Democrats are against the idea and trying to pressure Johnson to stick to their original deal. Meanwhile, Trump’s push to raise — or completely eliminate — the debt limit doesn’t square with conservatives’ long-held demand for cuts to government funding and reining in spending.

“Republicans cannot raise the debt ceiling without massive spending cuts and significant structural reforms,” outgoing Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) wrote on X.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) repeatedly declined to comment as he left meetings in Johnson’s office on Thursday. But he hinted at his previous positions of opposing clean debt ceiling suspensions or hikes, telling reporters that “everybody knows how I feel about a debt ceiling increase.” And Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), another Freedom Caucus member, said he could not support a short-term funding bill that included a clean debt hike or suspension.

Others shrugged off the concerns of raising the debt limit, arguing it hasn’t done much to rein in spending at all.

“It hasn’t been very effective in dealing with constraining the debt,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “We knew we were going to have to address the debt limit at some point. President Trump just wants it done now, rather than on his watch. And I can understand why.”

Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) told reporters after a meeting in Johnson’s office that abolishing the debt limit is “not part of the conversation.” But, she added, Trump has said “he wants to make sure that we are addressing the debt ceiling in addition to the continuing resolution and the spending priorities.”

“Still negotiating,” she added, saying that Republicans are having a “robust discussion.”

The lack of a clear path forward has prompted Republicans to start preparing for the unseemly idea of a shutdown over the Christmas holiday. A growing number of GOP lawmakers are even publicly calling for the government to shut down until next year, with some floating the party could keep it shuttered until Trump’s inauguration. That would mean the construction to build Trump’s inauguration platform outside the Capitol and other surroundings would stall, among various other issues.

“We can reset federal government appropriations after Trump is sworn in. Shut it down,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) tweeted.

Meanwhile, Trump isn’t being subtle: how Johnson handles this will impact if he can become speaker in a Jan. 3 vote. Early Thursday, Trump told Fox News Digital that if the GOP leader “gets rid of all of the traps being set by the Democrats, which will economically and, in other ways, destroy our country, he will easily remain speaker.” He also implied the Louisiana Republican needs to toughen up.

Conservatives, meanwhile, have started floating other names to replace him, including those who had backed Johnson for speaker as recently as last week.

“I’d be open to supporting Elon Musk for Speaker of the House. DOGE can only truly be accomplished by reigning in Congress to enact real government efficiency. The establishment needs to be shattered just like it was yesterday,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted, just two weeks after telling Blue Light News she will back Johnson on the House floor.

Johnson has largely avoided talking to the press over the past 24 hours amid his dust-up with Trump.

Nicholas Wu contributed reporting.

Congress

Capitol agenda: Trump leaves Congress in dark on Iran deal

Published

4 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans want a say on a deal President Donald Trump is touting to end the monthslong war in Iran.

The absence of publicly released text for the “memorandum of understanding” Vice President JD Vance reportedly signed with Iranian officials Sunday sparked bipartisan scrutiny on Capitol Hill about what the deal might entail.

Senators in both parties agreed: More information needs to come to Congress soon, and any agreement touching on the future of the Iranian nuclear program would have to eventually be subject to a congressional vote.

“If you want a deal to last, it can’t be an executive agreement,” said Sen. James Lankford. “We’ve got to have a vote of Congress to be able to solidify [it] long term.”

The Trump administration said it expects release of the memorandum of understanding no later than Friday.

The agreement reportedly includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, but it’s not clear to what degree Iran will be required to abandon its nuclear program. The White House circulated talking points to Hill Republicans Monday touting the deal, including that “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon” and “energy prices … are coming down,” according to a copy of the document reviewed by Blue Light News.

“If it’s a secret deal, then how can I take it seriously?” Sen. Thom Tillis told reporters.

Weighing heavily on several lawmakers is the possibility of an agreement landed by the administration looking very similar to the last Iran nuclear deal, consummated more than a decade ago by then-President Barack Obama amid a bipartisan uproar over trading sanctions relief and cash concessions to the Iranian regime in return for curbs on its nuclear ambitions.

Democrats believe Trump should’ve never abandoned that deal — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — in his first term, while GOP defense hawks despised it from the start.

“If [the Iranians] can enrich [uranium] anywhere at all, then it’s the same as JCPOA,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of the Trump administration’s forthcoming deal. “If they can’t enrich, then that makes it a good deal.”

One legacy of that 2015 controversy: the GOP-controlled Congress at the time passed legislation allowing for congressional review of any agreement dealing with the Iranian nuclear program. That law gives members the ability to kill a deal via a disapproval resolution that could be subject to presidential veto.

In the absence of further details, senators mainly agreed that they wanted a chance to formally review and vote on Trump’s deal — even as some Republicans predicted the administration would find a way to avoid that happening.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday there is “probably some expectation” that his chamber would ultimately vote on the agreement while declining to weigh in on the particulars.

“I just don’t know enough about it yet, and I don’t think even the people who follow this stuff closely up here know that much about it,” he said, adding that he expected Vance or other administration officials to brief members on the deal at some point.

What else we’re watching:

— DEMS NONCOMMITTAL ON SPEEDY CLAYTON CONFIRMATION: It’s unclear if Senate Republicans will be able to move at the lightning speed they’d hoped to in confirming Jay Clayton to serve as director of national intelligence by the end of the week. If every Senate Intelligence member agrees, Clayton could get a committee vote Thursday following his Wednesday hearing. Confirming Clayton on the Senate floor hours later would require getting agreement from every senator to speed up the process. Opposition from a single member would punt a vote to next week.

— THUNE AIMS FOR HOUSING BILL PASSAGE THIS WEEK: Thune is hoping his chamber can pass an updated version of a bipartisan housing affordability bill by the end of the week. The legislation comes after talks between Thune, Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott and ranking member Elizabeth Warren. Two Senate Democratic aides granted anonymity to discuss ongoing plans said the bill was also discussed with the House and the White House.

Katherine Hapgood contributed to this report.

Congress

Senate Republicans want a say on Trump’s Iran deal

Published

16 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump is touting a deal that would end the monthslong war with Iran — and potentially ease some of the political headwinds bearing down on Republicans.

GOP lawmakers still have lots of questions.

The absence of publicly released text for the “memorandum of understanding” Vice President JD Vance reportedly signed with Iranian officials Sunday left an information vacuum on Capitol Hill, where senators of both parties were left airing concerns about what the deal might entail.

Even most Republicans agreed: More information needs to come to Congress soon, and any agreement touching on the future of the Iranian nuclear program would have to eventually be subject to a congressional vote.

“If you want a deal to last, it can’t be an executive agreement,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). “We’ve got to have a vote of Congress to be able to solidify [it] long term.”

The bipartisan scrutiny of the long-brewing agreement is a legacy of the last Iran nuclear deal, consummated more than a decade ago by then-President Barack Obama amid a bipartisan uproar over trading sanctions relief and cash concessions to the Iranian regime in return for curbs on its nuclear ambitions.

Trump withdrew from the deal in his first term, and now he is back with an agreement that — pending release of the text and final negotiations yet to come — could end up looking like Obama’s deal. That has raised the hackles of both defense hawks who despised the original agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and Democrats who believe Trump never should have left it in the first place.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of those defense hawks, told reporters that he was “pulling for a deal,” while also making note of serious discrepancies in the terms that have emerged thus far.

“The MOU being described by us sounds really very good; the MOU being described by Iran sounds awful,” Graham said.

“If they can enrich [uranium] anywhere at all, then it’s the same as JCPOA. If they can’t enrich, then that makes it a good deal,” he continued, adding in a separate conversation that he was “skeptical that Iran will ever go there” to cease enrichment.

The Trump administration said it expects release of the memorandum of understanding no later than Friday.

The possibility that Congress would take any kind of vote on the agreement is also a legacy of the 2015 deal. Amid bipartisan concern about the Obama administration’s pursuit of nuclear talks, the GOP-controlled House and Senate that year passed legislation allowing for congressional review of any agreement dealing with the Iranian nuclear program.

That law, however, does not require Congress to approve a deal — it rather gives it the ability to kill a deal via a disapproval resolution that could be subject to presidential veto. That means each chamber would have to effectively muster a two-thirds majority to block Trump, something it did not come close to doing in 2015.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday there is “probably some expectation” that his chamber would ultimately vote on the agreement while declining to weigh in on the particulars.

The lack of specificity was par for the course on Capitol Hill Monday, with many senators expressing exasperation that text of the signed agreement has not yet been released.

“If it’s a secret deal, then how can I take it seriously?” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters.

The agreement reportedly includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, but it’s not clear to what degree Iran will be required to abandon its nuclear program. Vance indicated in a series of interviews that the administration will attempt to ensure Iran does not develop or obtain a nuclear weapon but left details regarding civilian nuclear facilities and potential uranium enrichment unaddressed.

The White House circulated talking points to Hill Republicans Monday touting the deal including that “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon” and “energy prices … are coming down,” according to a copy of the document reviewed by Blue Light News. The administration also argued in the memo that the agreement “beats” the Obama-era agreement.

In the absence of further details, senators mainly agreed that they wanted a chance to formally review and vote on the deal — even as some Republicans predicted the administration would find a way to avoid that happening.

“I don’t expect that to happen,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said about a vote. “They’ll try to write it around the treaty requirements, so I don’t expect we’ll vote on it.”

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said the administration should send the deal to Congress “if they want it to be something other than a political agreement, like the JCPOA was.”

Most congressional Republicans have been eager for Trump to find a way out of the nearly four-month war, which has driven up energy prices ahead of the November elections. Thune predicted Monday that a deal would “have a very positive impact on the economic situation in the country and that obviously will translate into the political situation in the country.”

Some of Trump’s most vocal allies on Capitol Hill praised the agreement Monday.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) said has had conversations with senior White House officials and he was “very hopeful.” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), who is likely the next Senate GOP campaign chair, added on X: “President Trump deserves our trust and support as he works to bring peace to the Middle East.”

Democrats were largely keeping their powder dry Monday on how they would handle a vote on the agreement. Some could find it hard to oppose a deal that ends hostilities on negotiated terms roughly similar to what was secured under a Democratic president in 2015.

But plenty of Democrats questioned what was gained by the conflict.

“We still don’t know the details,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor. “The American people need to know exactly what’s in the deal. … We know this for certain: We are worse off than before Trump began his foolish war of choice.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

Thune is ‘hopeful’ Mitch McConnell will return this week

Published

20 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday he hopes his predecessor as top Republican, Mitch McConnell, returns this week from a hospitalization.

Thune said he had not yet spoken directly with the 84-year-old Kentuckian but is getting “readouts from his staff.”

Asked about McConnell’s condition or if he knew if he would be back this week, Thune told reporters, “I’m hopeful that he’ll be back this week.”

A McConnell spokesperson said Sunday that he had been admitted to the hospital but did not provide details on his condition or why he was hospitalized — a break from recent prior instances where the seven-term senator was hospitalized.

A former McConnell staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity was told the senator was doing much better Monday without any further details on what put him in the hospital.

Daniel Desrochers contributed to this report.