Congress

Thune mocks Schumer’s shutdown stance: He ‘knows where my office is’

Published

1 year ago

September 16, 2025

Senate Majority Leader John Thune responded tartly to his Democratic counterpart’s calls for “bipartisan negotiations” ahead of an approaching government shutdown deadline Tuesday, underscoring the posturing that has marked the process thus far.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer “knows where my office is,” Thune told reporters. “Why do you guys keep asking me this?” He later added during a floor speech that Schumer “knows my number. I haven’t heard from him.”

It’s a direct retort to Schumer’s repeated calls for a “negotiation” ahead of the Sept. 30 funding deadline. Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have sent letters to Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson requesting a bipartisan meeting but haven’t gotten a response.

Thune told reporters he was “happy” to meet with Schumer though he questioned the “reason” for a meeting since Republicans are planning to proceed with a “clean” short-term stopgap bill that would largely maintain current government funding levels into late November without major policy add-ons.

Still, it’s the first time since March that Thune has acknowledged a willingness to meet with Schumer on funding.

Democrats have warned that if Republicans do not include them in negotiations about funding the government that they will bear the blame for a shutdown come Oct. 1. Trump indicated in a Fox News interview last week that he believed Republicans didn’t need Democratic votes, but in the Senate it will take at least seven of them to help advance a stopgap.

“When he says out loud that he says he doesn’t need or want our votes, that means Donald Trump wants a shutdown,” Schumer said Tuesday, adding that Thune and Johnson are “doing exactly what Donald Trump wants.”

“They have refused even to sit down at the table … despite repeated requests,” Schumer added.

Schumer, in particular, is under pressure to stand up to Republicans after agreeing to advance a GOP-written continuing resolution back in March. GOP leaders are eager to run the same play again this month and test his resolve.

Inside a House GOP conference meeting Monday, influential conservative Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) stood up to back the clean-CR plan, reminding his colleagues of Schumer’s recent comments opposing it.

So “send Chuck Schumer a clean CR,” Johnson told them.

Schumer hasn’t outlined a specific policy proposal that Democrats need to see attached to any stopgap in exchange for their votes, but he has said in general terms that health care needs to be addressed. Democrats have made expiring Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies a key area of focus.

Thune, however, reiterated Tuesday that the subsidies, which lapse Jan. 1, won’t be attached to the stopgap bill and that there’s “nothing close to ready to go” that could be finished by the end-of-the-month deadline.

“I think the ACA subsidies will be an issue that will be addressed, but I think right now we’ve got to keep the government open so we can do appropriations bills,” Thune said, adding that he believes there’s a “path” to keeping the government open and having a conversation on the subsidies.

Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters much the same Tuesday, saying “there are some Democrats pining for a shutdown” and that there was “zero chance” that Republicans would heed another emerging Democratic demand: unwinding the Medicaid cuts included in the GOP megabill passed this summer.

Schumer indirectly responded to Republicans wanting to punt the discussion of an ACA subsidies extension, saying at a health care event Tuesday that “we don’t put any faith” in the GOP’s willingness to deal with the issue later.

Congress

Sanders to rally for Troy Jackson in Maine

Published

19 minutes ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Bernie Sanders will hit the road for Troy Jackson in Maine starting Oct. 10, the first time the progressive leader will stump for the candidate this cycle.

The Vermont independent plans to hold three rallies with Jackson, according to an itinerary shared first with Blue Light News: first in Bangor on Oct. 10th followed by Lewiston and Biddeford on Oct. 11.

The Maine swing will kick off Sanders’ travel for the final stretch of the midterms, covering ground throughout October for House and Senate candidates, POLITICO reported.

“Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them,” Jackson spokesperson Dan Gottlieb told Blue Light News. “Susan Collins has had nearly 30 years to deliver, and working Mainers are still getting squeezed while she serves the billionaires and corporate interests who bankroll her campaigns. Mainers don’t need another six years of excuses.”

Sanders campaigned ahead of major wins for progressives in the primary season, speaking at more than 60 rallies since last year’s Fight the Oligarchy tour and endorsing more than 90 candidates up and down the ballot.

He’s also opening his substantial $23 million campaign war chest, POLITICO reported, and contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars toMinnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and others including Angie Nixon in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,

Sanders will return to Maine after initially backing Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate. Allegations reported by POLITICO ultimately led him to call on the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.

Sanders had not formally endorsed Jackson since he clinched the nomination from Platner, though he previously backed Jackson’s initial run for governor.

Congress

Hill: Trump’s ‘lack of favorability’ creating challenging politics

Published

32 minutes ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he has “no concerns” about winning back his Arkansas seat in the upcoming midterm elections, but the six-term House member acknowledged the political headwinds for his party.

“I consider the atmosphere a very tough political environment right now because of President [Donald] Trump’s lack of favorability at the top, and you know people are concerned about, as I say, what it’s like to live under an inflated economy the last four years,” Hill said in an interview.

Hill is in a solidly red district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and said he is up against a “weaker candidate this time than I’ve had in past races.” Polling in the district, however, has shown a tighter race. The two polls done this year placed Democratic challenger Chris Jones ahead of Hill by a few percentage points. Any perceived polling victory for Jones is still well within the margin of error, and one of the polls had a Democratic sponsor.

Stephannie Lane Baker, a spokesperson for Jones, said that “of all the Republicans in Congress, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee doesn’t get to dodge responsibility for this economy. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.”

Additionally, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s PAC, Ready for the Fight, committed more than $1 million in television ads through the next five weeks for Jones’ race in Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the PAC confirmed. Overall Democratic spending on advertising for the race was just over $1 million, primarily made up by contributions from the Ready for the Fight PAC, with Republicans spending almost $2.7 million on ad buys, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking service.

Hill said he has addressed affordability concerns “head on” this Congress.

“My work on housing, my work on the Price Stability Act, my work to try to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and drop the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP,” Hill said. “All these things can contribute to a more affordable environment for people. So I’ve tried to make that a forefront of my campaign this year.”

Hill was a key architect of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing affordability bill that became law in July. The Price Stability Act, which is unlikely to become law this year, would narrow the Federal Reserve’s current dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and price stability to focus exclusively on containing inflation.

Congress

Sanders, AOC, Merkley propose bill to ban Flock cameras

Published

6 hours ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Friday released text of legislation intended to ban the use of Flock surveillance cameras and other license plate readers.

Flock has faced severe public backlash against the surveillance technology following reports that police officers misused the technology to track women, and it has the largest network of license plate readers across the U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) hosted a hearing last month probing its potential misuses, although the company’s CEO Garrett Langley did not appear.

The latest bill, unveiled Friday and named the Ban Flock Act, would bar federal agencies from using automated license plate readers or accessing data from the technology and prevent federal grants from funding states and local governments that use automated license plate readers.

“At a time of growing concern about the unchecked power of artificial intelligence, Flock is eviscerating the very notion of privacy by installing tens of thousands of cameras in communities across America without their consent,” Sanders, who has positioned himself as a leading progressive voice on AI technology, said in a statement. “We cannot allow America to become a surveillance state where a handful of AI oligarchs profit by giving the government the power to track our every movement.”

Ocasio-Cortez similarly condemned the surveillance capabilities of the technology and said the bill would “enforce our constitutional right to privacy and protect Americans from both corporate and government surveillance.”

“No one should have this unchecked surveillance power at their fingertips,” Merkley added.

Republicans have introduced similar efforts to regulate license plate readers, such as Hawley’s Stop Flock Abuse Act, which would require audits and limits on unauthorized searches.

Flock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.