Congress
The Senate has met a problem even a ‘gang’ can’t solve
When Washington first woke up to a government shutdown earlier this month, there was one hope for a quick exit: A bipartisan clutch of rank-and-file senators were at least talking.
There was reason for optimism. Past groups had evolved into “gangs” that had figured out some of Capitol Hill’s most intractable disputes.
But that’s not the trajectory so far. Three weeks into the shutdown, there are no signs that the conversations are anywhere close to generating a solution to what is now the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history.
“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who has been involved in the conversations that sprang up as Congress barreled over the funding cliff in early October but have since stalled. “I don’t see that there’s a path forward at this point.”
Senators don’t even agree on whether there are still bipartisan talks taking place at all, let alone on what it would take to break the stalemate. If they agree on anything, it’s that they aren’t a gang, and they aren’t negotiating.
It’s a stark shift from early 2018, when a Senate gang helped negotiate a deal to end a short shutdown during President Donald Trump’s first term. They built on that with a series of bipartisan deals — including multiple coronavirus relief bills and an infrastructure agreement under Trump’s successor, Joe Biden.
But the Senate has changed dramatically since then. Dealmaking senators such as Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) have retired, hollowing out the corps of lawmakers with any experience crossing the aisle.
The personnel drain has been exacerbated by the sharp battle lines that have been drawn by party leaders as well as deep frustration with an administration that has taken a sledgehammer to a government funding process that once provided a basic framework for bipartisanship inside the Senate.
“Right now … there’s not enough trust between us,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who has a long history of negotiating with Republicans.
He and others noted the challenges for the would-be negotiators are vast and involve figuring out how to bridge sweeping policy and political divides.
The shutdown impasse isn’t only about government spending; some Democrats have demanded that any off-ramp deal include an extension of key Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year — potentially leaving millions uninsured, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
Democrats say they want a bipartisan negotiation on extending the credits, while Republicans say they won’t negotiate while the government is closed down. None of the would-be dealmakers have strayed from those positions set out by their respective party leaders.
The Senate’s bipartisan talks have instead focused on what would happen after the government reopens. Lawmakers involved have floated several ideas, including the possibility of having a vote to reopen the government followed immediately by a vote on an extension of the insurance subsidies.
But that hasn’t been enough to get Democrats to bite. Asked Tuesday if lawmakers were close to finding a path out of the shutdown, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) replied dryly, “Not that I have seen.”
Asked why senators haven’t broken out the “talking stick” — the device the 2018 shutdown-solving group used to manage their bipartisan meetings — Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a perennial gang member, argued that there was little incentive in either party to break ranks at the moment.
“Both sides think there is political advantage in sticking with the positions that they have,” she added.
The senators aren’t completely throwing in the towel, and some of their colleagues still see the sputtering bipartisan talks as the best path out of the shutdown. But there are simmering flashes of frustration from Shaheen and others in the group that what is needed is hands-on involvement from top leaders to break the stalemate — including from Trump.
“I think he’s an important part of it,” Murkowski said.
Senators believe they are nearing a crucial juncture: Trump will leave Friday for a weeklong trip to Asia, and there’s some private grumbling on Capitol Hill that he’s been too deeply engaged in foreign affairs as the country lumbers deeper into the shutdown. Coming to a deal to end it will be difficult as long as he is out of the country, they think.
But most Republicans don’t believe Trump should come to the table until after the government is reopened — and GOP senators left a lunch with the president at the White House Tuesday pledging to remain unified behind their funding strategy. Democrats, meanwhile, have been emboldened by the “No Kings” rallies against the Trump administration over the weekend as well as encouraging polling that appears to back up their shutdown stance.
Even as senators downplay hopes that a bipartisan gang will ride to the rescue, the rank-and-file group is taking care to keep lines of communication open given the freeze-out between Democratic leaders and the White House. A Tuesday request to Trump from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for a meeting was quickly swatted away by the White House, in keeping with the wishes of top GOP leaders.
Some cross-aisle outreach continued this week, according to three people familiar with the matter granted anonymity to disclose private discussions. And while there wasn’t much public progress to show for it, Shaheen said Tuesday it hasn’t been a total wash. But, she added, they needed help from higher powers.
“I think people have moved on both sides,” she said, but it was essential that “the leaders in both houses and both sides sit down with the president and negotiate an end to the shutdown. I think that’s in everyone’s interest.”
Congress
Schumer rolls out Democrats’ midterm energy pitch
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rolled out an energy and climate change agenda Wednesday as a preview of what Democrats have in store if they take the chamber’s majority in November’s elections.
Schumer’s five-point plan seeks to ride the national momentum on affordability, framing Democrats as the party not just of clean energy and fighting climate change, but of lower electricity bills and more jobs.
It touches on some longtime Democratic priorities — like bringing back the Inflation Reduction Act clean energy tax incentives that President Donald Trump and Republicans rolled back last year — and easing permitting hurdles for wind, solar and other zero-emissions energy sources.
“We can bring new voters and allies into the fight for a cleaner environment by showing how clean energy is affordable energy,” Schumer said.
“With this new expanded coalition, putting us back in the majority, we have an opportunity to put forward new policy solutions, strong policy solutions, that tell the American people we can both lower costs and make real progress on climate change,” he continued.
Schumer presented the plan at the League of Conservation Voters’ annual Capital Dinner, gathering hundreds of donors, lawmakers, environmental staff and others.
The group, long a major Democratic ally, is one of the nation’s top election spenders, and is poised to be a major part of Democrats’ attempts to recover from their 2024 losses.
Clean energy, Schumer said, is “the cheapest and fastest way to add energy to the grid, and reduces our emissions at the same time.”
The Democrats’ plan seeks to build out more electricity transmission and storage, make sure data centers pay their fair share for energy, and better protect consumers from electricity bill increases.
While many of the pillars are longtime priorities on the left, Schumer emphasized some new priorities. The plan puts geothermal and nuclear energy, including fusion, on a similar level to renewables like wind and solar.
Schumer is also promising “a thorough re-examination of the entire structure and incentives within our energy systems … to prioritize lowering costs,” and new efforts to make electricity bills “easier to understand.”
While Democrats have been engaging with Republicans toward bipartisan permitting legislation for all forms of energy, Schumer presented a more partisan permitting concept in his speech.
“Democrats will provide legislative certainty for clean energy projects, so that workers and investors can rebuild the clean energy project ecosystem that Trump has destroyed,” he said, adding that permitting legislation “never, never must come at the expense of our obligation to protect local communities and safeguard the environment.”
Democrats have not been particularly vocal on climate change in their drive to take the Senate and House majorities, as they reexamine the issue’s palatability with voters. Schumer’s rollout shows at least some willingness to focus on climate, but keeps the party’s priority on affordability.
Democrats currently hold 47 of the Senate’s seats, so they would need a net gain of four seats to get the majority. The party is focusing on candidates like former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina, Gov. Janet Mills in Maine and former Rep. Mary Peltola in Alaska to get there, but it’s an uphill battle.
The party has also taken recent steps to push its energy agenda in the Senate. Earlier Tuesday, Democrats forced a vote on a resolution that sought to undo Trump’s implementation of clean energy tax policies. More such resolutions are forthcoming.
Congress
Special election shocker has Florida Republicans nervous about redistricting
Florida has been viewed for months as the potential capstone of a GOP redistricting campaign, but now Sunshine State Republicans are growing wary after the dramatic flip of two legislative seats in the state — including one where President Donald Trump votes.
Republicans already hold a commanding 20-8 edge over Democrats in the Florida House delegation, and some in the GOP — including Gov. Ron DeSantis — believe they could pick up as many as five more seats with a rare mid-decade redraw of district lines.
Some Florida incumbents are now warning in stark terms it could backfire.
“I think the Legislature needs to be very cognizant of the fact that if they get too aggressive … you could put incumbent members at risk,” GOP Rep. Greg Steube said. Some seats that Republicans previously won by eight or nine points, he said, could instead have only a four- or five-point GOP advantage — putting them in reach for Democrats in a wave election.
DeSantis, citing a state Supreme Court decision from last year and a potential ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, has already called a special session of the state Legislature in April to push ahead with new lines. So far there have been no official maps produced or any signs that lawmakers have started working on them.
Republican anxiety has only grown further after Democrats notched surprising wins in special elections Tuesday, including a Palm Beach County district that contains the Mar-a-Largo resort where Trump lives and votes.
While many in the GOP have brushed off the Democratic gains there and in other states as anomalies, private qualms are growing among the incumbents whose seats could be put at greater risk due to redistricting.
“We keep saying these are kind of one-off things that haven’t gone our way,” said one Florida House Republican granted anonymity to speak candidly. “But I’m not seeing any of the one-offs that are going our way.”
“To talk as aggressively as some of what we’ve heard, there’s no way to get there without significantly weakening some districts,” the member added.
House Democrats are hoping to capitalize on the opportunity. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries quickly sent a warning Tuesday night that redistricting could backfire.
“We will crush House Republicans in November if DeSantis tries to gerrymander the Florida congressional map,” Jeffries said in a post on X.
Others are openly objecting to redistricting on more high-minded grounds. Rep. Daniel Webster, a veteran Republican from central Florida, called it a “slippery slope.”
“I’ve been around enough reapportionments to know it can come back and bite you,” he said.
“I don’t like this redistricting stuff,” Jacksonville-area Rep. John Rutherford said, noting south Florida would likely bear the brunt of any changes. “But if they think they can get another two seats or something, have at it.”
Any significant redraw in Florida would likely focus on changing districts that were drawn based on racial considerations, the subject of the court rulings DeSantis has cited. While much of the focus has been on seats held by Democrats, Republicans concede it could lead to changes to the Miami-area district represented by GOP Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.
Some incumbents are also worried that redistricting — still weeks away — is hindering their reelection campaigns as the midterms approach.
“Why would you knock on doors if you don’t know if those doors are gonna be in your district or not?” Steube said.
The hand-wringing over Florida comes as the fallout from Trump’s monthslong redistricting push continues to ripple through the House. Republicans kicked things off with a surprise effort to draw new maps in Texas, but Democrats countered with an effort to draw California’s lines in their favor.
After months of wrangling in about a dozen states, the whole effort looks to end up close to a wash — after some Republicans tried to warn party leaders the heavy-handed effort could backfire.
A group of House Republicans from Florida privately discussed their concerns about the fallout of yet another redistricting push in their state, several Republicans confirmed — especially amid rising anxiety that Hispanic voters could be turning away from the GOP.
House GOP leaders mostly brushed off the Florida special elections in public comments Wednesday, arguing that low-turnout, off-cycle races shouldn’t be considered midterm bellwethers. But some suggested there are lessons to be learned from Tuesday’s results.
“Surely you look at those and see, are there things we can learn and improve upon when the big election comes?” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters Wednesday. “And obviously, November is the election that we are focused on.”
The top leaders of the House GOP’s campaign arm, Reps. Richard Hudson of North Carolina and Brian Jack of Georgia, both deferred to the state Legislature on redistricting in Florida Wednesday.
Hudson, the NRCC chair, said Florida’s growing population means redistricting “makes sense to do,” but he said he was more concerned about turnout and other factors.
Jack, the group’s deputy chair for recruiting, similarly talked up the candidates Republicans would be fielding in Florida and elsewhere. As for redistricting, he said, “I defer to the Legislature.”
“It’s up to them,” he said, “not up to us.”
Congress
Arrington: Fraud cuts for war funding
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington is making clear he will push for the “fraud prevention” spending cuts he wants across state and social safety net programs in order to pay for any Iran war funding in a second GOP reconciliation bill.
The Texas Republican is meeting soon this afternoon with Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in Graham’s office to discuss plans.
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