Congress
Tammy Duckworth urges Trump to endorse expansion of IVF coverage for military
Sen. Tammy Duckworth is taking the unorthodox step of asking Donald Trump to wade into a legislative debate before he becomes president, urging him to support her proposal to expand coverage for in vitro fertilization for military personnel.
Duckworth, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, penned a letter to the president-elect, obtained by Blue Light News, encouraging him to endorse provisions in the annual defense policy bill that would expand TRICARE coverage for IVF and other fertility services for military families.
Access to IVF became a hot-button issue during the 2024 campaign, following a ruling by Alabama’s Supreme Court this year that frozen embryos should be considered people. While Democrats sought to use the ruling against Republicans, Trump pledged on the campaign trail that insurance or the government would cover the cost of IVF.
Duckworth noted Trump’s promise and urged him to send “a clear and simple declaration of your support for preserving” the expanded coverage of IVF in a final version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which is still being negotiated by congressional leaders.
“He made a promise,” Duckworth said of Trump in an interview. “I was super excited when he made that campaign promise.”
Both House and Senate versions of the NDAA include provisions, adopted with bipartisan support, that would make IVF and other fertility coverage on par with what members of Congress and federal employees receive from government marketplaces.
Still, Duckworth raised the spectre that some Republicans could push to strip the provisions, writing to Trump that many GOP lawmakers “publicly dismissed your campaign promise” on IVF. The Illinois Democrat argues conservatives would undermine Trump’s agenda in doing so.
“As the leader of the Republican Party, it would be appropriate for you to exercise your influence to prevent Congressional Republicans from undermining your ability to govern by your own ‘promises made, promises kept’ motto before your second term even begins,” Duckworth wrote.
Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Provisions included in both House and Senate bills, particularly with bipartisan support, are often seen as highly likely to be adopted in a compromise bill. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) secured the IVF coverage proposal in the House-passed defense bill.
Some hard-right Republicans have opposed expanding IVF coverage, though. Republicans split on Trump’s call for full coverage of IVF costs during the campaign.
Conservative Reps. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) and Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) wrote to leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees urging them to drop IVF-expansion provisions, arguing the treatment “leads to the destruction of innocent human life.” But it’s unclear if hard-right lawmakers will have much influence over a bill that needs bipartisan support to pass.
Negotiators are aiming to roll out a compromise version of the NDAA, which outlines the nearly $900 billion national defense budget and prescribes Pentagon policy, as early as this week as they seek to meet a year-end deadline to enact the bill.
Adam Hamilton raised $10.6 million in the third quarter of 2026 across his Senate campaign and his joint fundraising committees, his campaign tells Blue Light News, a significant haul for the Kansas Democrat.
The fundraising total illustrates Democrats’ newfound bullishness about flipping a Senate seat in the deep-red state for the first time since 1932.
“This grassroots support sends a clear message: with three weeks until Election Day, Adam Hamilton is building the momentum to win,” said Hamilton campaign spokesperson Tyson Brody.
Hamilton’s third-quarter figure is nearly triple his $3.66 million second-quarter total. His campaign did not provide a current cash-on-hand total.
National Democrats began pumping money into Kansas in recent days, a sign of their growing hopes that Hamilton could win. Last week, Senate Majority PAC — Senate Democrats’ top super PAC — reserved $5 million in television ads backing Hamilton. American Bridge PAC and Lower Costs Now, a new group affiliated with former Vice President Kamala Harris’ super PAC, have spent in Kansas in recent weeks.
Republicans have also flocked to Kansas to prop up Marshall: Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s top PAC, has spent or reserved nearly $11 million backing Marshall in the past week, according to tracking firm AdImpact.
“It took us five months to raise $15 million. [Marshall] got it in a day,” Hamilton said at a campaign event in Lawrence, Kansas on Monday. “So please help us.”
Marshall’s campaign has yet to release his third-quarter fundraising totals. As of mid-July, Marshall had over $5 million in the bank to $1.73 million for Hamilton.
A bipartisan Senate duo is urging Trump national security officials to “bring its full capacities to bear” to stave off threats posed by artificial intelligence — sooner rather than later.
Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, and Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who serves on the Senate Armed Services cybersecurity subcommittee, are calling for a full government response to a growing number of cybersecurity breaches.
“Recent AI security incidents should serve as a warning,” the senators wrote in a Tuesday letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and White House Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios. “Advanced AI agents have escaped testing environments, bypassed safeguards, and gained unauthorized access to real-world systems owned by government agencies and private organizations.”
Spokespeople for Clayton and Kratsios did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Their letter comes as lawmakers struggle to hash out what legislation on AI safety, if any, might look like. Members are currently in recess ahead of the November elections and there’s little hope progress can be made by the year’s end.
But those lawmakers who have been engaged on the topic for years now have mapped out administrative actions the Trump administration could move on now, without waiting on Congress.
The Cantwell and Rounds priorities include: strengthening federal AI safety and security standards at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST; expanding independent testing capabilities at the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence, Department of Energy and the national labs; and working with the tech industry to develop and deploy defensive AI tools.
Specifically, the senators wrote, new NIST standards should address the risks posed by advanced AI capabilities, including the “potential misuse by malicious actors” to conduct sophisticated cyberattacks, automate attacks at scale and agents that threaten external systems and critical infrastructure.
They also said the federal government capacity should be complemented by universities and other research organizations, as well as by private sector, third-party evaluators.
Finally, they point to ways the government could use existing programs at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to work with AI labs to help detect threats and reinforce vulnerable systems.
A bipartisan group of senators urged President Donald Trump to rescind his recent diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, amid bubbling anger on Capitol Hill about Trump’s announcement.
In a letter sent to the White House, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the senators warned that the president’s deal with Russia will not “achieve just ends” or benefit Americans.
“Granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves from Putin’s murderous, illegal war,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded.”
On Sunday, a smaller group of senators called on the president to “immediately reverse course” on the plan in a statement. Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — who signed on to both — said Sunday there may be “a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump announced in a social media post on Friday that Russia would “immediately supply” diesel fuel to global markets — including potentially the U.S. — to help relieve high prices driven, in part, by the ongoing war with Iran. Though Trump has repeatedly defended the U.S.’s actions against Iran, on Saturday he demanded an end to Ukrainian drone strikes that have crippled Russian oil refineries that he argues have caused the record-high oil prices.
The senators on Tuesday argued that the deal with Russia will have a “negligible impact” on fuel prices while providing Putin with “more fuel to finance his war machine” as Russia continues its “brutal attacks on Ukrainian civilians.”
The deal with Russia is a sharp pivot from a sweeping sanctions package signed into law last month. That legislation — championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — was meant to deplete Moscow’s resources by targeting Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of oil tankers. It drew widespread bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress.
Senators on Tuesday referenced the package as they condemned Putin as a “tyrant.”
“For decades, America has stood as the bastion of freedom against tyranny, and American presidents have embodied our nation’s resistance to tyrants. Putin is a tyrant,” the letter reads. “Withdraw from this agreement, rescind General License No. 135, and execute the authorities provided under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. Maintain our legacy – and the duty America holds – as leader of the free world.”
In addition to Blumenthal and Tillis, Tuesday’s letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Jack Reed (R.I.), and Chris Coons (Del.) and Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Alan Armstrong (Okla.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and John Cornyn (Texas).
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