Congress
Thune’s ‘difficult’ recon update
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Wednesday progress on a new party-line spending bill is an “option” after the midterms — but cautioned that he still didn’t see a path to getting 50 votes.
Thune spoke with Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) Wednesday morning.
“Obviously we’re continuing to track and see what what is achievable and what we can get the votes for,” Thune said, adding that it’s “difficult.”
Senators are circling a rapid escape from Washington today.
Majority Leader John Thune told Jordain the chamber could wrap up by the end of Wednesday.
“No certainty around this yet but it seems to be that everybody is … heading toward a glide path tomorrow night,” Thune said Tuesday about the Senate’s impending exit.
The decision will let battleground candidates get home to start campaigning as Republicans try to hold onto control of the chamber.
One issue to watch: Republicans were already missing two senators during Tuesday night’s vote — Sens. Dan Sullivan and Bill Cassidy. And they expect their attendance issues to only grow.
What’s left to do: Thune will bring up a House-passed bill to restrict the ability of members of Congress and their families to trade stocks. It also includes voter ID language being championed by frontline candidate Sen. Jon Husted.
Democrats are expected to block it with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accusing Republicans of “playing partisan political games” by linking the two efforts.
The Senate will then turn to a data center cost bill also championed by the Ohio Republican. Democrats have panned the bill as “toothless” and, as our colleague Amelia Davidson reported, appear to be gearing up to spike it.
Republicans will take a first step toward confirming Keith Sonderling to be Labor secretary. But with the 30-hour debate requirement for Cabinet nominees following an initial vote, final confirmation would keep lawmakers in session until late Thursday — when members decidedly do not still want to be in town and the attendance problems would likely only grow.
If Democrats could be talked into a time agreement, Republicans could confirm Sonderling before a Wednesday night exit. But Thune also appeared skeptical Sonderling would be finished before senators left, which would punt his confirmation into November.
A scheduling question mark: Senate Republicans have six resolutions to cut energy and ship-related regulations members want a vote on, but it’s not clear yet which will get floor time this week.
Thune told us he’d “like” to do some, but it would come down to “vote counts and attendance and everything else.”
What else we’re watching:
— DEMOCRATS UNIFY ON WEST BANK: Senate Democrats, including Schumer, overwhelmingly supported a resolution Tuesday that aimed to shed light on growing Israeli violence against Americans and Palestinians in the West Bank. The measure was ultimately blocked by Republicans in a 47-51 vote, but the unanimous Democratic support (minus Sen. John Fetterman) highlights Democrats’ increasing frustration with Israel’s military conduct across several regional conflicts, including the war with Gaza and the war with the U.S. against Iran. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who forced the vote, said in a statement after he was “pleased that so many of my Democratic colleagues joined this effort,” while slamming Republicans for what he deems denying accountability for crimes by Israeli settlers against Palestinian locals.
— SENATE AWAITS PERMITTING LANGUAGE — Senators on both sides of the aisle are waiting eagerly for the full text of a bipartisan permitting reform package to be released midday Wednesday, A summary of the bill’s broad provisions, obtained first by Blue Light News, had been circulated already, but senators are eager to see the exact legislative language, particularly on the contentious issues that could decide how many votes the package gets in a lame-duck vote. “All the issues are solved in concept,” said Sen. Angus King. “We have to produce legislative language.”
Nico Portuondo and Pavan Acharya contributed to this report.
Congress
Brian Fitzpatrick’s campaign ads feature damning news headlines. They’re not from an unbiased source.
Facing his toughest election challenge in years, GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has blanketed southeast Pennsylvania with attacks on his Democratic opponent — many of them citing what appear to be independent local news reports.
“Bob Harvie calls himself a king,” reads one article quoted in a June television spot.
“Bob Harvie has his FBI files but refuses to release them,” reads another headline quoted in a September digital ad.
Another quotes, “Bob Harvie to independent voters: ‘join a political party or lose your right to vote.’”
These ads and five others all cite headlines from Patch, once a well-funded experiment in “hyperlocal” news that garnered hefty audiences in some communities but has since withered into a largely unedited volunteer operation.
That isn’t the only reason to question the reliability of coverage referenced in the ads: Each of the articles cited carry the byline of Dave Sommers, a Levittown, Pennsylvania, man with close ties to Fitzpatrick and a checkered history with law enforcement.
The battle for the 1st Congressional District has grown increasingly nasty as the five-term incumbent battles national headwinds for Republicans and tries to fend off a spirited challenge from Harvie, a Bucks County commissioner.
Central to the GOP defense strategy has been a costly ad blitz, with Fitzpatrick and allies trying to paint Harvie not as a devoted public servant but as an ethically compromised political operator — using Sommers’ headlines as key fodder.
Sommers has received sporadic payments and reimbursements from Fitzpatrick’s campaign, as well as from the campaign of his late brother, Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, dating back to 2010. As recently as 2022, Brian Fitzpatrick’s campaign paid Sommers $500 for “office setup services,” according to Federal Election Commission records.
That year, Sommers was charged with stealing an election sign that expressed support for a GOP primary challenger, Alex Entin, according to a local news report.
Sommers has been pictured with Fitzpatrick at campaign and personal events. Fitzpatrick’s Facebook page shows Sommers posing next to the lawmaker at a March 2025 St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Sommers’ own Facebook has featured a stream of posts supporting Fitzpatrick, including one post from June where Sommers is seen sporting a tank top with the phrase “Team Fitz.”
Sommers also attended Fitzpatrick’s June wedding, according to multiple social media posts. In one wedding photo posted to Sommers’ Facebook, he poses with former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), also a guest.
Sommers did not respond to repeated requests for comment about his relationship to Fitzpatrick and his campaign. Spokespeople for the Fitzpatrick campaign also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Reilly Richardson, a spokesperson for the House GOP campaign arm, pointed in a statement to a Friday report that Harvie passed off “known Democrat activists” as “concerned voters” in his own ads and accused him of “lying to voters.”
“Now, he’s desperately trying to distract from his pathetic, flailing campaign, but Pennsylvanians won’t be fooled,” Richardson said of Harvie.
Sommers is a retired reporter who worked for the Bucks County Courier Times, the Trentonian and other local outlets.
He drew headlines of his own after he was prosecuted for trafficking in protected turtles. Prosecutors alleged he made more than $500,000 over six years selling diamondback terrapins online, running afoul of state and federal conservation laws. Sommers was handed a six-month prison sentence in 2019, along with six months of house arrest and a $250,000 fine.
Sommers opened a more recent chapter as a Patch contributor, posting eight articles dating back to late February. They all attack Harvie, slamming him for being “divisive,” “arrogant” and a “hack.” They feature messaging consistent with the Fitzpatrick campaign, including an Aug. 27 post which accuses Harvie of wanting “more data centers in Bucks County.”
Harvie in a statement called Fitzpatrick “a complete and total fraud” and said he’s growing “desperate.”
“Brian Fitzpatrick is worse than the rest of the Washington swamp because he pretends to be different, but the receipts show he is corrupt to the core,” he said.
Harvie has also repeatedly denied several of the Fitzpatrick campaign and its allies’ characterizations of his record, particularly that he was the target of any FBI investigation. Harvie testified before a federal grand jury with other officials in September 2022 as part of an apparent public corruption probe, according to a local report.
He sent a cease-and-desist letter to Fitzpatrick in July, claiming defamation in campaign ads. He also sued the pro-Fitzpatrick Defending America PAC in August for defamatory statements.
The use of headlines mined from self-publishing platforms in political ads is not unheard of, with outlets such as Medium and Substack offering opportunities for both parties to pass off politically motivated attacks as independent reporting. Campaigns around the country have drawn scrutiny for leaning on articles in their campaign materials from partisan sources or that misrepresent their origin — but rarely are they citing sources that have such direct ties to the candidate.
Posting on Patch, like those other platforms, requires only creating an account. An email associated with Sommers appears to be tied to a Patch account, prompting a “Welcome back!” message when it is used to try to open a new account.
A Republican senator blocked a resolution Tuesday that would have denounced President Donald Trump’s recent campaign-style ads funded with taxpayer dollars.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming objected to Sen. Maggie Hassan’s nonbinding resolution, which said it was the sense of the Senate that the ads “should not be paid for by the United States government.” Because Hassan (D-N.H.) was trying to pass the resolution without a formal vote, any one senator could block it.
“It just tells the president that he is wrong — that these ads need to be pulled down and that they should not be paid for with taxpayer dollars,” Hassan said on the floor.
Lummis however countered that Hassan’s concerns about the ads say “more about her side of the aisle” and compared Trump’s ads to President Bill Clinton’s antidrug campaign, among others. One of the ads Trump is running at taxpayer expense is virtually identical to a 2024 campaign ad.
“When a Democratic president tells Americans what to do, it’s a public service,” Lummis said. “When this president tells Americans that liberty is worth defending, it’s a problem.”
- Thune’s ‘difficult’ recon update
- Capitol agenda: One day more?
- Jon Ossoff’s hosting fundraisers — and they’re not all for his reelection campaign
- States look to cut fuel prices — and win the messaging game
- Brian Fitzpatrick’s campaign ads feature damning news headlines. They’re not from an unbiased source.
- A cure for ‘medical tyranny’: RFK Jr. puts a positive spin on AI
- Democrats gear up to tank data center legislation
- Lummis blocks resolution denouncing Trump’s ‘public service announcements’
- Republicans wanted Jack Smith to give them a smoking gun. They got a gaffe instead.
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