Congress

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

Published

1 month 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

Scalise will kick off August campaign sprint in marquee Nebraska House race

Published

1 hour ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.

Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.

Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.

After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.

He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.

Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.

Congress

Trump needles Cornyn as Blanche remains blocked

Published

5 hours ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.

Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.

“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.

Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.

“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”

On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.

“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.

Congress

Capitol agenda: The Senate’s fly-out agenda takes shape

Published

6 hours ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans are prepping a jam-packed — if somewhat optimistic — agenda for their final week before summer recess.

Majority Leader John Thune wants to move stopgap funding through Dec. 11, bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation and a bloc of nominees — perhaps including attorney general pick Todd Blanche.

He’s also under pressure from President Donald Trump, administration officials and many of his GOP colleagues to adopt a budget resolution — the first step in unlocking another party-line spending bill.

Leaders are prioritizing the stopgap, though. Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) expects continuing resolution text to be unveiled later today, she told reporters Thursday, and an initial vote is expected Monday evening.

Still TBD: Collins wants to use the funding patch to block the Trump administration from putting political appointees in charge of approving grants — a demand Democratic senators are also making.

The decision is in Thune’s hands. He acknowledged a “handful of issues” are still under consideration with the CR, and said he’s “hoping both sides can come together and figure” them out.

As for the sanctions bill, leaders of both parties are still trying to work out a deal to fast-track the legislation amid concerns from some Democrats and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that it gives Trump too much tariff power.

In addition to the nominees package, Thune also hasn’t ruled out an initial vote on the landmark cryptocurrency bill both parties have spent months negotiating or teeing up a bipartisan college sports overhaul now in final stages of talks.

But the big question is whether Republicans can take a major step toward another reconciliation bill by advancing a budget resolution.

Thune met Thursday with Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who said he was “optimistic in terms of how things are kind of coming together.”

Republicans anticipate giving a number of Senate committees instructions for the bill, setting up a lengthy and politically painful process ahead of adoption despite pushes for urgency from the White House.

Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was the latest official to head to Capitol Hill to try and light a fire under top Republicans. But GOP senators don’t necessarily see the urgency.

“The hard part is the president wants to be able to move fast, like an executive can move, and we’re a legislative branch,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). “It doesn’t move that fast.”

What else we’re watching:

— BLANCHE TEETERING: Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general isn’t dead yet. But it’s certainly on life support. The acting AG met with Cornyn and Tillis Thursday at NRSC headquarters, and one person familiar with the discussion said the group was “working collaboratively now.” But it would now be difficult to confirm him before August recess under Senate rules.

— FARM BILL TEXT: Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman said his farm bill legislative text — originally expected Thursday — could come Friday or Saturday. The bill, which is expected to include language allowing year-round E15 sales and a potential compromise on postponing GOP-led cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is set to be marked up Thursday.

Jordain Carney and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.