Congress

To get the Senate moving, this Republican is jamming up the House

Published

3 months ago

June 25, 2026

Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is leading a blockade that has frozen the House — to the growing annoyance of some fellow Republicans.

The casualties of her fight, after all, are major GOP-written bills that are now going nowhere fast as Luna and allied hard-liners push the Senate to enact a partisan elections bill, a version of which the House has already passed. The move is now threatening the annual defense policy bill and the entire House schedule next week unless Speaker Mike Johnson can quickly find an off-ramp.

It’s stirring frustrations among many Republicans, even those who want to pass the elections overhaul known as the SAVE America Act.

“She’s going to have to start being a team player here,” Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) said in an interview. “I mean, you can’t be a team of one. It’s not an institution that can function with one rogue member, especially in the small majority you have.”

But Luna says she is perfectly comfortable picking the fight because she can claim a crucial ally: President Donald Trump.

“It’s not my job to play trust games with the Senate when they’ve actively betrayed our trust multiple times,” Luna said in an interview this week. “Plus, the president’s on my side.”

Luna’s tactics, in fact, are a mirror image of Trump’s own approach to the SAVE America Act, which has stalled in the Senate for months due to internal GOP opposition to the bill’s contents and the precedent-smashing maneuvers that would be required to pass it.

Trump shocked congressional Republicans Wednesday by canceling his planned signing of a landmark bipartisan housing package, explaining he wanted the elections bill passed first. Luna has similarly demanded that no further legislation pass the House until the Senate acts on elections — never mind GOP leaders’ repeated insistence the votes just aren’t there.

Many Hill Republicans believe there’s a reason the two appear to be in sync with their hardball approach to the legislation, which would mandate strict new proof-of-citizenship requirements for voting, among other provisions: They think Luna is privately pushing Trump to keep the pressure on the Senate, even as Johnson looks to keep his own agenda moving.

“The speaker talks to the president a lot. But Luna talks to him more,” said one House Republican who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Johnson is hoping to counter Luna’s push Thursday, meeting with Trump at the White House to discuss possible solutions to the impasse. House GOP leaders have already canceled scheduled votes Friday and are considering telling members not to come back for next week’s planned legislative business, either, according to five people granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

The possibility of losing nearly two weeks of floor time is fueling frustrations inside the House GOP. Leaders scrapped votes on two fiscal 2027 appropriations bills this week, and next week’s plan to bring up the annual defense policy bill is hanging in the balance — much to the chagrin of Armed Services Committee members who helped write that bill, including Jackson.

Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a senior appropriator, said Thursday the self-imposed blockade is “not our finest hour — we’ve got to get this thing open. But it’s not surprising to me because when you tend to want to reward bad behavior, you get more of it.”

That was a veiled reference to multiple prior episodes this Congress where Luna attempted, and sometimes succeeded, in hijacking control of the floor from Johnson.

A broader group of Republicans is annoyed that infighting over the stalled elections bill has now overtaken both chambers with just over four months until the midterms. What’s downright mystifying, in their view, is holding up House business over a lack of Senate action.

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) said it was “like beating your dog because your neighbor won’t cut his grass.”

Luna responded to the gripers in a social media video Thursday: “This is the No. 1 most important issue in the country,” she said, referring to the elections bill. “The American people want it, and we’re not budging until we get it.”

Johnson tried to convince Luna to end her blockade Wednesday, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private conversation. He argued a party-line policy bill Republicans are separately trying to assemble could provide a pathway to enacting the SAVE America Act.

But Luna wasn’t swayed. She is among many GOP hard-liners who don’t believe Johnson’s proposed compromise — which would involve a grant program aimed at encouraging states to adopt strict voter-ID requirements — is sufficient. Johnson is expected to float a similar plan to Trump Thursday.

Luna is also pushing to attach the SAVE America Act to the Pentagon bill or another must-pass bill. That doesn’t have widespread support among Republicans, either, and is viewed by House leaders as a sure-fire recipe for derailing important bills. It doesn’t help that one key element Trump is insisting on — a crackdown on mail voting — divides the GOP and probably can’t pass the House.

“I hope that doesn’t happen,” Jackson said, adding he wanted the defense bill passed “as clean as we possibly can.”

House GOP leaders blew off Luna’s initial threat this week to lead a floor rebellion if they proceeded with a vote on the bipartisan housing bill. It passed Tuesday 358-32 after passing the Senate 88-5 last week.

The huge bipartisan margins didn’t deter Luna, who publicly announced she had enough members willing to indefinitely block the procedural measures that GOP leaders use to control floor debate and prepare major bills for votes.

Other House conservatives have said they were in Luna’s corner, including Rep. Max Miller of Ohio and Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, who is among several House Freedom Caucus members who committed to the blockade Thursday. “I personally think we should not have any more legislation until the Senate comes back in session,” Norman said.

Johnson told reporters before meeting with Trump Thursday that “we’re in an era with small margins and small majorities, and we’ve got to get things moving.” He blamed Senate Democrats for the issues with the elections bill and did not mention Luna or the standoff.

“I’m going to talk with the president about these issues and how to get the agenda moving again,” he said.

Luna’s close relationship with Trump has shielded her from significant blowback inside the House GOP. She talks with the president frequently and is one of the few Republicans on Capitol Hill to enjoy Oval Office walk-in privileges. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Luna’s relationship with Trump and his view of her maneuvers.

During an internal crisis over a cryptocurrency bill last year, she left a meeting at the Treasury Department with a group of Republicans who were struggling with the matter, according to four people granted anonymity to describe the incident.

Luna walked over to the White House and into the Oval Office, the people said. Minutes later, Trump brought the whole group in and later issued a social media post saying they had hashed out the disagreement — by agreeing to give hard-liners a policy concession that wasn’t tenable with the rest of the House GOP.

“Luna has more operational control around here than most anyone,” said another House Republican granted anonymity to speak frankly.

Ali Bianco contributed to this report.

Congress

Paul: ICE hasn’t shared information about Minneapolis shooting probes

Published

3 hours ago

September 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Department of Homeland Security still has not shared the findings from its investigations into the January killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis, despite continued requests from the top Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of the panel, said during a brief hallway interview that DHS has not yet given the committee any information from internal probes into any shootings involving immigration officers.

Asked if that included the two January shootings in Minneapolis, where immigration officers shot and killed two American citizens, Paul said: “We’ve asked for information. We’re still asking.”

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Paul’s comments come as DHS faces continued bipartisan scrutiny following several incidents where ICE or Border Patrol agents used deadly force against individuals they were trying to apprehend. Several of those individuals were U.S. citizens.

Most recently, ICE agents Saturday shot an unauthorized immigrant who faced deportation. The man, 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, survived. His lawyers claim he has been transferred into ICE custody despite still having a bullet lodged in his back.

Paul had asked DHS earlier this year to share more information about its reviews of the shootings, and did not schedule a confirmation hearing for the administration’s ICE director nominee as he awaited those findings. The White House ultimately pulled that nomination last week as the nomination stalled.

Congress

GOP Armed Services chair blasts White House welcome of Chinese leader

Published

4 hours ago

September 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker lambasted the White House decision to invite Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a state dinner this week, calling the foreign head of state “a brutal, unelected and oppressive dictator” who cannot be trusted.

Wicker, typically a staunch defender of President Donald Trump and Republican loyalist, targeted most of his criticism at Xi and Chinese policy during a Senate floor speech Tuesday. But the comments were nonetheless a surprise rebuke of the president’s courting of Beijing amid broader concerns, such as the durability of U.S. security commitments to the Indo-Pacific, including in deterring a potential invasion of Taiwan from the Chinese mainland.

The Mississippi Republican urged Trump to press the Chinese premier on a variety of sensitive topics — including purported support for Iran, its military buildup and human rights abuses.

“Had the White House asked me for advice, I would have suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington for such a lavish welcome here in the United States, based on all of the troubling issues we have with President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.

“I know the president tends to discuss trade and artificial intelligence with the Chinese leadership, and rightfully so,” he said. “Perhaps some progress will be made. But … during every minute of dialog, our commander in chief should keep in mind that his guest is a brutal, unelected and oppressive dictator who seeks to dominate his neighbors and whose massive military arsenal is aimed directly at the United States of America.”

The senior Republican’s comments on the Senate floor were delivered just a few hours before Xi’s expected arrival in Washington. Trump has scheduled a formal welcome ceremony for Xi and his wife at the White House on Thursday, along with talks between the two leaders throughout his three-day visit.

Trump is facing bipartisan criticism over the state visit by Xi. Wicker’s comments followed similar attacks on Chinese leadership from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Ted Budd (R-N.C.).

“President Trump has been clear that under his leadership, the United States must engage with China, given the reality of our economic relationship,” Budd said. “But we can’t forget that China is also a competitor and an adversary.”

Congress

Appeals court’s Capitol steps ruling may signal trouble for Trump on media ban

Published

8 hours ago

September 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A federal appeals court ruling Tuesday on demonstrators’ access to the steps of the Capitol could bode poorly for President Donald Trump’s attempt to ban three media organizations from the White House.

The majority opinion, written by Trump appointee Neomi Rao, concluded that the East Steps of the Capitol are a “nonpublic forum” — just like most areas of the White House grounds, including the press facilities. While the government may impose restrictions on access to those nonpublic areas, the limits must be “viewpoint neutral,” apply “objective, workable standards” and not permit officials to exercise “unbridled discretion over a forum’s use,” the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel concluded.

“A regulation that grants the government arbitrary control over who may speak invites the suppression of disfavored viewpoints and undermines the First Amendment’s core protections,” wrote Rao, who was joined in the majority by Judge Karen Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee.

The ruling, on the eve of a hearing over restoring White House accessfor Blue Light News, BLN and MS NOW, reaffirms the D.C. Circuit’s longstanding First Amendment precedents at an inopportune time for Trump. The president has explicitly described his ban on the three outlets as a punishment for publishing what he calls “fake news.”

“Fake News people and publications that only write negatively, and who violate our National Security by writing false and defamatory stories with unknown ‘sources,’ shouldn’t be allowed access to the most important Office anywhere in the World,” Trump said on social media Monday.

The outlets have said their access was revoked because the White House objected to their reporting and that the ban “threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”

The D.C. Circuit would hear any appeals in the litigation over Trump’s media ban, and Trump has in fact already said he anticipates filing an appeal, presuming that he will be dealt a defeat in district court.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The D.C. Circuit’s Tuesday ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought by Patrick Mahoney, a clergyman who sought to hold prayer vigils and demonstrations on the East Steps of the Capitol several months after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack, which resulted in new access restrictions. His permit was denied in part based on Capitol Police regulations that prohibit public demonstrations on the steps unless they are sponsored by a member of Congress.

Though the case has inched through the courts for years, Tuesday’s ruling resolves a key question, labeling the Capitol’s East Steps a “nonpublic forum” for which congressional authorities may restrict public access — in part because lawmakers use those steps to enter and exit the building.

But allowing members of Congress to sponsor gatherings on the steps creates an arbitrary system, the majority concluded.

“Because the protection of unpopular speech and advocacy is central to the First Amendment, we cannot leave it to the selective enforcement of members,” Rao wrote.

Notably, Rao’s opinion cites a D.C. Circuit ruling last year that concluded “it would be unreasonable to control access to White House press facilities through standardless discretion.”

The third judge on the panel, Clinton appointee Judith Rogers, dissented, but her opinion was even more protective of free-speech rights.

Rogers said she agreed with her colleagues that the “selective exception” for demonstrations sponsored by lawmakers was unconstitutional. However, she said she would have held that the lower portion of the Capitol steps was a public forum where the government was obligated to permit protest activity.