Congress
The Senate hopes for a weekend shutdown miracle
After 38 days of stalemate, the Senate is finally turning to its tactic of last resort to solve the government shutdown: a working weekend.
For the first time since the start of the nearly six-week shutdown, Majority Leader John Thune is keeping the chamber in session past Friday in a bid to keep the pressure on Democrats — at the urging of President Donald Trump and some fellow Republicans who want senators to stay in D.C. until there’s an agreement.
But with party leaders shadow boxing over competing funding and health care proposals, and bipartisan rank-and-talks moving slowly, there’s plenty of skepticism anything can get done until at least early next week.
“What we have here is an intergalactic freak show,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said after a closed-door GOP conference meeting.
Asked what senators could get done in the rare weekend session, Kennedy predicted, “Nothing. … We’re going to be here for a long time.”
The Senate will come into session on Saturday at noon but has no votes scheduled for the time being. GOP leaders aren’t yet holding another vote on the House-passed stopgap bill that Democrats have already rejected 14 times, in hopes that bipartisan talks among rank-and-file senators can build enough support to reopen the government.
“We’re here, and we’ll see if something comes together we can vote on,” Thune said Friday night, adding it “remains to be seen.”
With senators essentially left to wait and see, some are expected to leave town for home-state engagements. But many said they were happy to stay given their growing frustration with how the shutdown has dragged on — and how the real-world consequences continue to pile up.
“My adage is, put them in a barn and don’t let them out until they come up with a solution,” Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) said Friday.
Members of the bipartisan group at the center of the government funding talks are expected to stay in Washington through the weekend to keep negotiating. One person granted anonymity to disclose private discussions said that as of Friday night the bipartisan talks had picked back up. Thune said he is also speaking to Democrats “regularly” about the path forward.
On a separate track, the top members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees are trying to finalize a three-bill package that would provide full-year funding for food aid, veterans programs and other agencies and programs.
But even as the bipartisan conversations continue, there are doubts they will produce a deal that could eventually get the necessary eight Democrats to break ranks. Trump, for one, continues to press Republicans to ditch the 60-vote filibuster rule and reopen the government on party lines.
The bipartisan Senate group is talking about attaching the three full-year bills to stopgap funding legislation for the rest of the government. They’re also discussing possibly rehiring federal workers who were laid off during the shutdown, as well as reining in the president’s ability to unilaterally claw back some congressionally approved funding. Neither of the latter two is settled or even guaranteed to make it into legislative text.
Senators appear nowhere close to resolving Democrats’ key concern: guaranteeing an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year. Republicans are offering a Senate vote on the matter after the government reopens, but with no guarantee of House or presidential action.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said it was “insane” that top congressional leaders and Trump have refused to speak directly for weeks to make a deal.
“I appreciate when our colleagues get together and talk. I’ve been part of a lot of rank and file negotiations. But that doesn’t seem to be a path right now,” he said.
“They refuse to engage,” Murphy added later. “It’s killing the country.”
Murphy is part of a group of Senate progressives rankling Democratic negotiators, who view him and other senators as privately pushing for the caucus to dig in on health care without a realistic path toward a deal.
But the desire for health care concessions among Democrats runs deep, even as Republicans insist the government has to be reopened before any negotiations on the issue take place.
“I need something on health care,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said leaving the Capitol Friday evening.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered what he cast as a compromise proposal Friday, saying Democrats would provide the votes to reopen the government if Republicans agreed to attach a one-year extension of the ACA subsidies. Thune quickly dismissed it as a “nonstarter,” as did virtually his entire conference.
Republicans have held private discussions about the ACA subsidies, both with Democrats and with each other. Emerging from a closed-door conference meeting Friday, several GOP senators vowed the party would produce its own health care proposal once the government reopens. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), however, said it would take a while because they still need to get Senate Republicans, House Republicans and the ultimate wild card, Trump, on the same page.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) took to the Senate floor Friday evening to float a new proposal to address the expiring subsidies — creating new savings accounts to help people buy insurance. Cassidy has been involved behind the scenes in bipartisan discussions on health care, but those talks were put on ice weeks ago as it became clear Republicans would not cut a deal with the government closed.
Some Republicans, and even some Democrats, ended the day hoping that Schumer’s offer — and its quick rejection — could herald a thaw in the frozen talks. On-the-fence Democrats, the thinking goes, will now realize that bringing the long-running rank-and-file negotiations to fruition is the only path out of the morass.
“I think the Republicans made it very clear today that they were not going to support Senator Schumer’s offer,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said Friday night. “We need to find another path forward.”
Congress
Tennessee GOP Rep. Andy Ogles says Muslims ‘don’t belong’ in America
Rep. Andy Ogles said on Monday that Muslims have no place in America, an Islamophobic attack from a sitting member of Congress.
“Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie,” the Tennessee Republican posted Monday morning on X.
It is not the first bigoted social media post Ogles has made.
He has also said that “America and Islam are incompatible,” and has introduced legislation to halt immigration from Muslim-majority nations.
A spokesperson for Ogles referred Blue Light News to an interview the member of Congress did with Fox News following a shooting in Austin, Texas, in which he said that “mass Islamic immigration, legal or illegal, has transformed America and brought destructive consequences.”
Ogles’ post comes as Republicans gather in Florida for their annual retreat and could serve as a distraction as the party seeks to hash out its agenda ahead of the midterms.
Spokespeople for the offices of the top three House Republicans — Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer — did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ogles’ legislation, the Halt Immigration from Countries with Inadequate Verification Capabilities Act, would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act by refusing admission to immigrants from some majority-Muslim countries like Iran, Libya and Syria. North Korea, Venezuela and Yemen are also named in the bill, which does make exceptions for U.S. citizens.
The bill, which is unlikely to become law, has already garnered the support of Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.), who said “we must protect America from jihadists.”
Fine has also come under fire for Islamophobic remarks recently.
Last month, the Florida Republican faced criticism for implying that dogs were preferable to Muslims. At least one Democrat called for Fine to be censured.
A spokesperson for Fine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Congress
Capitol Agenda: Republicans face new Trump ultimatum
House Republicans are descending on President Donald Trump’s Doral resort Monday for their annual policy retreat, with hopes of sketching out their legislative priorities before the midterms.
Trump may have just upended that plan.
The president on Sunday said he wouldn’t sign any bills until Republicans pass the sweeping elections overhaul known as the SAVE America Act. Paired with a new Middle East War, surging oil prices and persistent internal turmoil threatening the House GOP’s razor-thin majority, the kickoff of the party’s South Florida gathering is looking anything but sunny.
Here’s a preview of what’s coming at the retreat:
— TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA SCRAMBLE: The president is set to speak to Republicans Monday at 5 p.m. We’ll be watching the extent to which he leans into his SAVE America Act ultimatum and another demand that Republicans add restrictions on transgender surgeries and mail voting. Trump’s request to expand the bill may trigger more GOP infighting and further weaken a push to skirt the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster to pass it.
— RECONCILING RECONCILIATION: Many House Republicans hope to leave the retreat with clarity on another major question: whether they’ll try to pass a second party-line budget reconciliation bill. Speaker Mike Johnson promised some members he would try, but the effort would require near-total GOP unity and could well be DOA in the Senate. Some Republicans think the need for more war funding could jumpstart a fresh reconciliation push given opposition by Senate Democrats.
— COMMITTEE CHAIRS SPEAK: Committee chairs are set to discuss their legislative plans for the year Tuesday afternoon.
House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith is expected to talk through a list of bipartisan health care and tax priorities. House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he’s planning to discuss his panel’s reconciliation priorities, as well as unfinished housing and crypto bills he’s working out with the Senate.
House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino said he was planning to share details about how the DHS funding lapse is degrading the department’s preparedness and discuss reauthorization bills under his panel’s jurisdiction.
Republicans expect House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole and Rep. Ken Calvert, who chairs the funding panel that oversees the Pentagon, to discuss an anticipated White House request for more military funding in light of the Middle East war.
— ROUNDING OUT THE WEEK: Republicans on Tuesday are set to hear from White House deputy chief of staff James Blair, 2024 Trump campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett. Conservative commentator Scott Jennings will brief them on GOP messaging, while podcast host Ben Shapiro will address the “speed of new media” in a Wednesday morning session.
What else we’re watching:
— Housing bill’s House hurdles: The Senate is set to pass bipartisan housing legislation as soon as this week, but House conservatives are gearing up to fight it. At issue is a part of the bill that would restrict the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency through 2030. The House has passed a permanent CBDC ban, and on Friday 32 House Republicans told leaders in a letter that the housing bill would be “dead on arrival” without it. The White House has said it wants to pass the Senate bill as-is.
— AI-boosted campaign ad: Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who is campaigning to reclaim the South Side of Chicago seat he once held, is launching a new TV and digital ad Monday featuring an endorsement from former Rep. Bobby Rush delivered partly via artificial intelligence. The spot initially shows Rush speaking in his actual voice, weakened from a battle with throat cancer. He then continues speaking in a restored version of the voice he had decades ago.
— Rudd nomination: The Senate will vote to advance the nomination of Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd to be a general Monday. If confirmed, he’s set to lead the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command.
Katherine Hapgood, Shia Kapos and Calen Razor contributed to this report.
Congress
House Republicans face internal and external headwinds as they gather to map out 2026
DORAL, Florida — House Republicans head to their annual policy retreat Monday in south Florida. Their outlook for the remainder of 2026 is anything but sunny.
GOP lawmakers were already under pressure to address cost-of-living issues ahead of the November midterms. Now President Donald Trump’s decision to launch a war in the Middle East is spiking energy prices and threatening to strain the federal budget just as new signs emerge that the domestic economy is weakening.
Internally, turmoil continues to wrack the GOP’s ultra-narrow majority. Renegade members are routinely bucking leadership — for instance, hauling in Trump’s attorney general for testimony on the Jeffrey Epstein probe. And last week’s primaries generated a fresh trio of lame-duck Republicans who leaders fear might no longer feel compelled to show up for votes on a regular basis.
On top of it all, Trump has focused his legislative energies on matters far afield from what many Republican lawmakers want to tackle. In recent days, he has renewed his push for a long-shot elections bill, adding in additional provisions targeting transgender rights for good measure.
The members gathering at Trump’s Doral resort Monday are seeking to keep the focus on what they can control — with plans to discuss a new party-line budget reconciliation bill as well as so-far elusive options to lower health care costs, fund the Department of Homeland Security and advance stalled housing legislation.
“We have to discuss exactly how we advance the president’s agenda for the last eight months before the election, and we have to set those plans in motion,” Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), chair of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, said in an interview.
Trump will address the lawmakers Monday evening as they wait for cues on the president’s policy priorities for the pre-midterm period.
House GOP leaders expect a serious battle to unfold during the retreat over whether to pursue another reconciliation bill — something Speaker Mike Johnson has promised some of his members he will pursue. But it would require almost complete unity among Republicans and faces the distinct possibility it could be DOA in the Senate.
It doesn’t help that Trump himself threw cold water on the idea last month, saying Republicans have “gotten everything passed that we need” ahead of the midterms. Since then, the Middle East War has threatened the low gas prices the president often touts and Friday’s jobs report showed much weaker-than-expected hiring.
Instead, Trump has spent much of his energy stumping for a bill that would not comply with the filibuster-skirting rules of the budget reconciliation process — the SAVE America Act, which would toughen proof-of-citizenship standards for voting. The House passed two versions of the bill, but Trump is now asking for additional provisions barring most mail voting and gender reassignment surgeries for minors.
The president threatened Sunday to not sign any more bills unless Congress passes his version of SAVE America first — and House GOP leaders are bracing for a debate over the legislation to erupt at the retreat, with Trump sure to make his demands in person Monday night.
Besides Trump’s address Monday, lawmakers are set to hear from top White House political aide James Blair, former Trump campaign co-chair Chris LaCivita and National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett. Conservative commentator Scott Jennings will brief them on GOP messaging Tuesday, while podcast host Ben Shapiro will address the “speed of new media” in a Wednesday morning session.
Committee chairs are set to discuss their legislative plans for the year Tuesday afternoon, followed by a closed-door meeting of senior elected leaders. Majority Leader Steve Scalise described the sessions in an interview as “members talking to members about planning out the rest of the year.”
“We’ve been working incredibly close with President Trump this whole last year-and-a-half to make life more affordable for families, and there’s more we want to do this year and beyond,” he added.
Republicans also expect House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Rep. Ken Calvert of California, chair of the funding panel that oversees the Pentagon, to discuss an anticipated White House request for military assistance and other possible items.
Some Republicans think the need for more war funding could jumpstart a fresh reconciliation push, given expected Democratic opposition in the Senate. One of those optimistic members is House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington of Texas, who said in an interview he would pair new military spending with cuts to Pentagon programs that need to be “retooled.”
Top party leaders have also instructed committee chairs to revisit items that were dropped from the megabill enacted last summer as they consider what might get folded into a new piece of legislation. But some remain highly skeptical this effort will ever gain traction.
House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said in an interview Thursday that he doesn’t “see a pathway” for it.
“Maybe people can prove me wrong,” he said.
Elsewhere, Johnson is under pressure to advance stalled legislation to crack down on lawmaker stock trading, a farm bill, and possibly an energy permitting overhaul and a highway bill. All have some bipartisan support but constitute major legislative lifts.
Smith is expected to talk through a list of bipartisan health care and tax priorities he hopes to advance to the House floor and send over to the Senate. House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) said in an interview he’s planning to discuss his panel’s reconciliation priorities, as well as unfinished housing and cryptocurrency market structure bills — both of which are currently stuck in negotiations with the Senate.
The retreat also opens on the 24th day of an ongoing DHS shutdown impacting TSA, FEMA and other security operations. House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) said he was planning to share details about how the funding lapse is degrading the department’s preparedness, as well as a number of reauthorization bills under his panel’s jurisdiction.
Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan, the No. 4 GOP leader, said another major topic will be how Republicans should be selling last summer’s party-line tax and spending package and what can be done “between now and the end of the year to lower costs for the American family, bring down prices, bring more manufacturing over, bring costs down and [put] more money in their pocket.”
But pursuing any partisan legislative undertaking will require near-complete unity in the GOP ranks.. With only one defection permitted under the current party split, Johnson has to worry about members like Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who forced disclosure of the Epstein files, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who led the effort to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Johnson also can’t afford any attendance issues: A handful of members are dealing with health problems, including Rep. Neal Dunn of Florida, who was thought to be considering resignation before announcing he’d serve out his term. There’s the growing cadre of lame ducks, too, which now includes Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, who missed votes Thursday after admitting to an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide. Texas Reps. Dan Crenshaw and Wesley Hunt also lost primary races last week.
The House GOP’s math problem could improve following a special election Tuesday for the seat vacated by former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), which is expected to go to another Republican. But with more than 20 candidates in the GOP primary, the race could go to a monthlong runoff.
Republican leaders are also banking on having the votes to expel a Democrat, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida, who has been federally indicted on corruption charges. But they have to first wait until the House Ethics Committee holds a hearing on the matter, and those proceedings were delayed until later this month after Cherfilus-McCormick lost her lawyer.
Democrats, meanwhile, could attempt to counter her expulsion by attempting to expel Gonzales, who says he plans to finish out his term. House Democratic leaders are also pushing their members to show up and make every vote as uncomfortable for the GOP as possible.
“There’s a lot of jobs I don’t want in this town,” Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the Democratic Caucus chair, said at a recent news conference. “And Republican whip is definitely high on that list.”
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
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