Congress

Tax Day is the GOP’s focus as Congress returns to war, shutdown and other challenges

Published

5 months ago

April 13, 2026

Republicans return to Washington this week eager to promote the pocketbook benefits of their nine-month-old megabill ahead of Tax Day. But the fallout from the war in the Middle East threatens to complicate that election-year message.

Explaining away rising gas prices and spiking inflation is not where GOP lawmakers wanted to be seven months before the midterms, but that is the challenge they face as a cease fire with Iran proves tenuous and there is scant evidence global energy flows will return to normal anytime soon. That’s not to mention the host of internal policy battles further distracting GOP lawmakers as they return from a two-week recess.

Still, they are seeking to rally this around the glue that has held their fractious coalition together — tax cuts — with Trump going on the road this week to tout the “big, beautiful bill” and House Republicans planning a Wednesday all-member news conference, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss the plans ahead of an announcement.

“My constituents are saving thousands of dollars and they know it,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) said in an interview. “Republicans can and should take credit because the alternative would’ve been massive tax hikes under the Democrats had they won the 2024 election.”

She played down fears that the Iran conflict could weigh on the GOP’s tax-cut messaging, calling them “separate issues.” But GOP lawmakers have acknowledged concern that rising gas prices could make it harder for their party to claim it has made life more affordable for Americans.

Republicans, Malliotakis said, “need to ensure that the spike is only temporary and that we get those prices back down as soon as possible so we have all three: low taxes, affordable gas and a safer nation.”

The threat of rising prices was further underscored by new federal data published Friday showing inflation at its highest level in two years, with energy costs accounting for the bulk of the spike, as well as the collapse of peace talks with Iran over the weekend aimed at restoring oil flows through the Persian Gulf.

Directly tackling the issue, however, is not at the top of the congressional agenda at the moment. The Senate is set to restart debate on a sweeping elections bill most Republican members don’t think can pass, and the House is set to vote on a handful of measures rolling back environment regulations as well as an aviation safety bill and the renaming of several post offices.

House GOP leaders hope the deregulatory effort will help assuage some rank-and-file Republicans who want to do more to address cost-of-living issues ahead of the midterms. But they also have to face a pile of problems that have only grown more pressing in the two weeks since they broke for recess.

Those include a rapidly approaching deadline for the reauthorization of key surveillance powers and the ongoing furor over the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The former issue is caught in an internal GOP dispute between Trump’s wishes and those of conservative hard-liners, while the latter was turbocharged last week after first lady Melania Trump called on Congress to “uncover the truth” and hold a public hearing focused on survivors of the late convicted sex trafficker’s crimes.

Leaders also have to figure out how to deal with bipartisan demands to expel several members accused of personal misconduct — including Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who is facing sexual assault allegations, and Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who admitted to an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.

The tax cuts, however, are one issue that has proven able to bring the party together — even as members privately fret over whether that talking point will break through with voters.

“It’s all we have to run on,” said a House Republican granted anonymity to speak candidly about the party’s messaging. “Do you see us turning out other big-ticket legislation? This is it.”

The congressional GOP is also growing increasingly entangled with the six-week-old Iran war, which stands to cast a long shadow over the party agenda. Both chambers this week will likely be debating and voting on Democratic-led war powers resolutions. While the tentative cease fire has helped calm Republicans’ nerves, the White House is taking firm steps to ensure GOP members stay loyal.

The White House communications office sent talking points on the cease fire to GOP offices last week, arguing Trump had delivered “Peace Through Strength,” though much of that guidance referred to a possibility of a “broader peace agreement” that appeared kaput by Sunday morning.

“What’s left of the Iranian regime is desperate, dejected, and in denial,” the memo said.

But there were almost immediately sharp questions about how durable the cease fire might be, and the key factor in lowering energy prices — restoring the flow of oil and gas through the strait — remained wholly unsettled into the weekend.

Even some Republicans who backed Trump’s decision to strike are skeptical that a long-term peace agreement is within reach.

“Russia and China will help them rebuild their military,” Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said in an interview. “We are safer today because Iran is significantly weakened. But the government is still in place and that means they’ll threaten us in the long term. We bought time.”

House and Senate Republicans also return to a toxic internal fight over how to end the nearly two-month-old Department of Homeland Security shutdown. House members left town after rejecting a Senate-approved deal funding most of the department, after Speaker Mike Johnson publicly trashed it. He then reversed course, infuriating members who hated the Senate’s two-track plan which leaves immigration enforcement funding for the party-line reconciliation process.

Despite endorsing the plan, Johnson does not intend to move forward on the Senate-approved DHS funding bill this week. The House GOP will instead wait until the Senate makes progress on the bill funding the remainder of the department through the partisan budget reconciliation process, according to four people granted anonymity to describe private plans.

But making progress on that bill is rife with complications. Senate Republicans are charging ahead with a plan not to find spending offsets to pay for the cost of the legislation, which would help keep Democrats from forcing tough Senate votes on a wide variety of hot-button issues as part of the reconciliation process.

But that decision will rankle House GOP fiscal hawks who wanted to include a raft of spending cuts and additional policies beyond immigration enforcement funding.

Some GOP leaders are counting on the possibility of yet another reconciliation bill that could happen later in the year incorporating the remaining items on the GOP wish list. Johnson suggested as much on a tense call with House Republicans over the recess.

That promise is not sitting well with scores of House Republicans who say they’re running out of time to notch GOP wins ahead of the midterms. Many want the next party-line bill to include a multitude of policies aimed at addressing affordability issues weighing on voters, while others want to include tens of billions of dollars for the Iran war the White House requested in its budget blueprint last week.

Johnson is also trying to wrangle a so-far intractable problem: how to extend the spy powers law ahead of its April 20 expiration.

He is planning to put a straight extension of the so-called Section 702 program on the floor this week, as the White House is demanding. But discussions continue with GOP hard-liners who want to vote amendments aimed at protecting American citizens from getting swept up in government surveillance — something that could upend Johnson’s plan.

Congress

Chris Murphy gives $525K to party, state committees

Published

58 minutes ago

September 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy is giving more than $500,000 to Democratic national and state committees working to boost the party in the midterms.

Murphy will announce Monday — according to details first shared with Blue Light News — that he is investing $200,000 with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, $100,000 with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

He is also spreading a total of $125,000 across 25 state Democratic parties.

“Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda are failing the American people. Democrats can pass a new minimum wage, reign in Trump’s illegal war, and keep his billionaire friends in check,” Murphy said in a statement. “But we need majorities to do so. That requires investment.”

Murphy’s contributions come amid speculation that the lawmaker harbors 2028 presidential ambitions. They are also landing as Democrats believe they are within striking distance of winning the Senate majority after they’ve expanded the map and Trump’s numbers threaten to drag down Republicans.

In all, Murphy has contributed more than $2.5 million over the 2026 campaign cycle, including transferring nearly $250,000 to Democratic Senate candidates and raising more than $300,000 directly for Senate candidates. He also is expected to do more fundraisers in the final stretch of the midterms, saying that his aim is to support “candidates ready to build a populist movement.”

His support could bolster the candidates he backed in the primaries — including Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who is running to succeed retiring Sen. Tina Smith.

Murphy is part of a group of progressive senators who endorsed some candidates, like Flanagan, who were either not supported or running against candidates backed by the DSCC or Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“His support has helped us build the momentum and resources we need to win,” Flanagan said in a statement of Murphy. “His leadership challenging the political influence of greedy corporations and fighting for working people is exactly what Washington needs more of, and I’m proud to have him in our corner as we work to bring a stronger, more people-focused vision to the Senate.”

Congress

Capitol agenda: Congress isn’t rushing after AI alarms

Published

3 hours ago

September 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The top executives running America’s most powerful artificial intelligence companies over the weekend agreed their industry needs to slow down — or risk humanity’s safety.

But the chance of Congress rushing to action in the coming weeks is next to zero.

One obstacle is the tight calendar before the midterms: Lawmakers return Monday, but the House is scheduled to leave by Friday and the Senate is already eyeing cutting their three-week session to two.

Another hurdle is the lack of momentum behind any plan. Senate Commerce could hold a markup of AI legislation this month, but it’s unclear a broad bipartisan AI safety bill being pushed by Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Amy Klobuchar will be finalized. Senators can’t yet agree on provisions that would hold AI labs legally accountable.

And some don’t think there’s a need to do anything right now: Senior House Republicans have largely stood in line with President Donald Trump, who has brushed aside concerns of an existential threat in light of the AI arms race against China.

— WHAT’S NEXT: Speaker Mike Johnson suggested lawmakers, Trump and tech execs as soon as Monday “go in a big room, close the door and sort this out.”

Yet Johnson in a Sunday interview on BLN threw cold water on the idea of Congress fast-tracking a legislative solution, arguing that setting industry-wide safety protocols should be the responsibility of the tech companies themselves.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, said AI would be “a high priority” during House Democrats’ weekly caucus meeting Tuesday.

But while he said Congress needed to “take decisive action to slow down the pace of development,” he didn’t articulate any plan for doing so.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is out with a statement Monday morning that’s also short on details — saying simply that while he understands concerns about giving China the advantage on AI, Congress needs to act to put “safe, responsible and accountable guardrails on it.” He called for legislation to cut off the flow of advanced AI chips and semiconductor technology to China to slow their development.

He’s also calling for an all-senators classified briefing from administration officials on how they plan to deal with the rapidly-evolving technology.

— ALARM BELLS: Meanwhile concern is brewing within the rank-and-file of both parties that could add political pressure:

Rep. Lori Trahan told Blue Light News in an interview Sunday it was a mistake for the House to leave town so early and that she’d push for members to stay longer to deal with the AI risk. Short of the whole House remaining in session, she’s suggesting at least a smaller group of negotiators stick around to hash out a plan.

“I just want to make sure that Congress is in a position to act quickly,” Trahan said.

She’s worried, though, that leaders won’t get behind her bipartisan legislation that would, among other things, create a possible emergency brake for AI models. It’s the only comprehensive bill of its kind that’s ready to work its way through committee.

Retiring Rep. Chip Roy is also sounding the alarm in an interview with Blue Light News about the need to “have some degree of guardrails” on technology that could fundamentally change what it means to be a “free human.”

And on the campaign trail, frontline Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers on Sunday pointed to the tech executives’ warnings and said he believed AI development needed to slow down to allow the government to put a national security framework in place.

“The first role of our government is to keep us safe,” he said.

What else we’re watching:

— DATA CENTER VOTE ON TAP — House GOP leaders Tuesday plan to bring legislation to the floor to curb data center costs, marking lawmakers’ biggest step yet to regulate AI infrastructure. Meanwhile, Sen. Jon Husted is “having conversations on how the Senate can follow suit,” according to an aide. The decision to proceed this coming week signals that pressure has been building on leaders to act, underscored by the fact at least five House GOP frontliners have signed on as co-sponsors since Sept. 1: Reps. Bill Huizenga, Tom Barrett, David Valadao, Jen Kiggans and Mónica de la Cruz.

— GOP REVAMPS CRYPTO BILL — Senate Republicans late Sunday released revised text of a landmark cryptocurrency bill with key changes aimed at winning over Democratic holdouts, including new, White House-blessed government ethics language covering federal officials’ engagements with digital assets. It is unclear if the changes will be enough to win enough bipartisan support to advance the measure on the Senate floor this week. It is set for a key procedural vote Tuesday afternoon. Schumer convened Democrats to discuss the measure Sunday night, before Republicans unveiled their new text.

Ali Bianco, Kelsey Brugger, Nico Portuondo and Jasper Goodman contributed to this report.

Congress

Chip Roy is leaving Congress — but not before warning his colleagues to take the threat of AI seriously

Published

20 hours ago

September 13, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Chip Roy isn’t known for his touchy-feely approach to legislating. But as the staunch conservative is preparing to leave Congress at the end of the year, he’s raising difficult, philosophical questions about whether the rapid rise of artificial intelligence could turn over human dominion to “entities that have no soul.”

The Texas Republican is grappling with how to square his small-government, anti-regulatory values with what he sees as an urgent need to bring some accountability to an industry that has answered few questions about whether the rapidly evolving technology could fundamentally change what it means to be a “free human.”

And as many of his fellow Republicans warn that regulating AI in the U.S. could cede ground to China, he keeps coming back to a nagging question: At what cost?

“All the proponents of technology will say, ’Oh, your life is better. You can do so many more things, so many advancements, curing cancer … blah blah blah.’ And I’m like, ‘yeah, but what world am I living in?’ And I think that’s a question we have to ask as we kind of work through all this stuff.”

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

We’re speaking the day after an ex-AI researcher went on social media to issue a warning about the potential extinction threat posed by unchecked AI development. What do you think is going on here?

Everybody’s feeling like they’re losing control. They don’t know what their job’s going to look like. They don’t know what their life’s going to look like. They’re being told that we need to have all these data centers and invest in those, and whatever that means, whatever the impact is, don’t worry, it’ll be better, and there’ll be plenty of water, there’ll be plenty of electricity. But you got to do it because, “beat China?”

I’m a free market guy. I’m a limited government guy. I’m a guy that believes that the government can’t solve problems very well, but I’ve tried to have some conversations with folks about this in terms of responsibility. Is this not unlike nuclear proliferation?

Did you think you’ve had to rethink your free market inclinations at all?

None of this makes me rethink free market. The free market is the best thing you could possibly have to provide as many options as possible without government interference. However, what I want people in this space to acknowledge is, this is a unique issue. This is not the simple transition from a horse and buggy to a car. This is an earth shattering potential human replacement on multiple levels. And with no clear direction for what it means, and then ultimately no clear understanding of who’s in charge of what is supposed to be a tool for humanity — but can ultimately make humans the tools of the technology.

One researcher has put it at a greater than 10% chance that AI could end civilization. Do you take that seriously and, if so, does that mean Congress should act sooner rather than later?

I think that certainly raises eyebrows and opens eyes to, “wait, what are we talking about here?” And the biggest problem is that most of the people in the industry cannot just unilaterally deny it. They cannot answer the question of, “what does it do for the dignity of work and the ability of humans to continue to work and produce with their hands and through their own toil and production?”

At what point can the genie not go back in the bottle?

I am of the mindset that the genie cannot go back in the bottle. I am of the mindset that technology and entrepreneurs are our best hope for figuring out how to manage all of this — not government. But I do think government can provide some safety valves, right? If everything is digitized and AI is sort of running things, if everything goes sideways, what do I do? We have to be philosophical about what it means to live. Not all advancements make the world better; they make it different, and some of them do make it better, right? Was it better to grow up in the ’90s or in 2026 as a kid? I don’t know.

If your ultimate backstop as a human is that God gave us life and dominion over your world, why should I have to answer to a world that chose an AI-driven world? Why? I mean, you have to live in the world you’re in, but shouldn’t I have an option as a free human?

You’re talking about your faith — what role could Christians play here?

Do I think that there is a God question in this entire AI debate? I absolutely do. Do I think that God gave man dominion over the world, and that we owe it to ourselves and our posterity and to God to try to make sure that we maintain that dominion and not turn that over to, essentially, entities that have no soul and have no ability to understand humanity? You cannot turn leadership and decision-making over to soulless entities, and I think that that is a central question to everything that we’re going to be debating on this topic.

Do you think this will be a big issue in faith circles?

Yes. I don’t think people have caught up to it yet, but I do think that’s going to be a growing issue in faith circles, in Christian circles.

The White House’s position has largely been about the need for the U.S. to beat China.

So I’ll be honest. I don’t know what the proper role of government is here. The Big Tech bros need better answers if they want us just to all say, “oh yeah, just let the market figure it out.” Well, then give me my answers. So far the Big Tech bros’ answer has been: “but China.” And “but China” is not a policy prescription. It’s a fear mechanism.

It seems like you are really wrestling with the role of government here.

Yes. And all of us should be wrestling with it. And our predisposition as free market conservatives should be that the market is going to produce the best and most efficient and most effective solutions for all of these problems. But the people that are running the industries, they owe us an understanding that they’re doing that. Government has a role to have hearings. Government has a role to raise questions. Government has a role to maybe demand certain levels of safety or security, or maybe government has a role to demand some certain level of escape valve.

The reactions to the warnings from the AI researchers have come overwhelmingly from Democrats. Do you think we could see Republicans start to say, “oh, maybe progressives who want to ban superintelligence are right?”

I do not believe “we’re going to shut it all down” is either plausible or the best solution. I do think we must have some degree of guardrails and that the same laws and rules that apply to humans are going to have to apply to a world of AI, and there are other existential questions that have to be raised.

If you’re sitting as a red coat and a blue coat in the revolution, staring across the field, you know that if you walk out there, you’re gonna get shot, or you might get shot, and you got to be willing to risk it. And you’re risking your life. What is a robot risking? I think that’s a big deal.