Congress

Trump digs in on Johnson support as speaker showdown looms

Published

1 year ago

January 3, 2025

Mike Johnson is heading toward a noon showdown over the fate of his speakership — even as President-elect Donald Trump doubled down on his support Friday morning.

The House will kick off the new Congress and move almost immediately to a vote for the speaker’s gavel, with Johnson likely still short of the votes to retain the gavel with just hours to go.

“Good luck today for Speaker Mike Johnson, a fine man of great ability, who is very close to having 100% support. A win for Mike today will be a big win for the Republican Party, and yet another acknowledgment of our 129 year most consequential Presidential Election!! – A BIG AFFIRMATION, INDEED. MAGA!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Johnson told reporters on Friday morning that he still believes he will win on the first ballot — a feat that would require him to hold the Republicans voting for another candidate to just Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has repeatedly pledged he won’t back Johnson.

But Johnson’s allies and critics are preparing for multiple rounds of ballots as he faces an entrenched group of hold-outs.

Johnson personally called and texted remaining GOP holdouts late into Thursday, per four Republicans who were granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations. The band of rebels is expected to meet again with Johnson on Friday morning.

The group of roughly a dozen members has a range of asks including commitments on slashing spending and angling for plum committee spots that would give them more power over what gets to the floor. And some have gone public with what deals he could cut to garner their votes — exactly the type of agreements that are already sparking early warnings of blowback from other corners of the conference.

“I do believe that Mike Johnson coming out and committing to Chip Roy being chairman of the Rules Committee would secure the vote on the first round with no significant battle,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) told former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on “The Matt Gaetz Show.”

Roy, Massie and Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) got seats on the Rules Committee as part of a deal cut with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy as he sought the speaker’s gavel. But the trio have emerged as a frequent roadblock for major GOP policy bills because they have enough combined sway on the panel to prevent any bill they all oppose from advancing unless Democrats step in.

Johnson allies are adamant that he won’t cut a deal to make Roy chair of the panel in order to secure his speakership, and centrists have also privately warned that he should generally avoid cutting the types of deals McCarthy did. Many of those deals ultimately paved the way for his ouster just months later.

Johnson’s headaches come even as Trump has repeatedly reiterated in recent days that he still supports the Louisiana Republican, who got battered by conservative criticism over last month’s short-term spending deal.

But Trump’s support hasn’t been enough to sway Johnson’s most adamant hold-outs — with Republicans predicting that at least a handful could oppose him on the first ballot and deprive him of a quick win for the gavel.

Massie argued Friday morning that “if he fails on the first round today, a better Speaker can be elected in a few hours or over the weekend.”

Congress

Thune is ‘hopeful’ Mitch McConnell will return this week

Published

2 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday he hopes his predecessor as top Republican, Mitch McConnell, returns this week from a hospitalization.

Thune said he had not yet spoken directly with the 84-year-old Kentuckian but is getting “readouts from his staff.”

Asked about McConnell’s condition or if he knew if he would be back this week, Thune told reporters, “I’m hopeful that he’ll be back this week.”

A McConnell spokesperson said Sunday that he had been admitted to the hospital but did not provide details on his condition or why he was hospitalized — a break from recent prior instances where the seven-term senator was hospitalized.

A former McConnell staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity was told the senator was doing much better Monday without any further details on what put him in the hospital.

Daniel Desrochers contributed to this report.

Congress

Senate to confirm Jay Clayton as soon as Thursday

Published

4 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate could vote as soon as Thursday on Jay Clayton’s nomination to serve as director of national intelligence — a lightning speed pace that will necessitate buy-in from all 100 senators.

Confirming Clayton could help shore up enough votes from Democrats to extend a government surveillance program that expired last Friday over opposition to Trump’s pick for acting director, Bill Pulte.

“He will come out of the committee Thursday, at least hopefully, and then if we get consent, we can move,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview Monday about Clayton, who Trump only nominated for the job late last week.

Democrats “ought to be happy with Clayton,” said Thune, adding that he’s a “good” and “solid” pick.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, floated Sunday to CBS News that Clayton could be confirmed this week if every senator cooperates.

Senate Intelligence will hold a hearing Wednesday on Clayton’s nomination. If every member of the panel agrees, he could then get a committee vote Thursday. Confirming Clayton on the Senate floor hours later would require getting agreement from every senator to speed up the process. Opposition from a single member will punt Clayton’s confirmation to next week.

Confirming Clayton Thursday would, crucially, limit — and potentially circumvent — Pulte from becoming acting director of national intelligence, which Trump has slated to take place Friday, June 19.

The president’s decision to put Pulte in charge after Tulsi Gabbard’s departure at the helm of the Office of National Intelligence sparked bipartisan pushback, with Democrats saying they will withhold support for extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act while Pulte is in the acting role. Congress allowed the key government spy authority lapse last Friday without a deal.

Trump threw another curveball into a FISA extension over the weekend when he posted on social media that he was against reauthorizing Section 702 unless a GOP elections bill is attached. That bill, known as the SAVE America Act, does not have the votes to get through Congress.

Thune threw cold water Monday on tying the two issues together.

“Yeah, he’s, as you know, passionate about getting that done and wants to use every opportunity to take a shot at it,” Thune said of Trump and his desire to enact the elections bill.

But, Thune said, “we can’t get FISA done” if the policies are linked.

Congress

Senate eyes vote on updated housing affordability legislation

Published

6 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is planning to put an updated version of a bipartisan housing affordability bill on the Senate floor for a vote this week, according to two people familiar with the bill dynamics and two Senate Democratic aides granted anonymity to discuss ongoing plans.

The version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act that the Senate will vote on will include most of the House-passed language, including a provision restricting large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. The legislation would also add back Senate bills that were dropped from the House package that passed last month, the two people and the two aides said.

The Senate legislation comes after talks between Thune, Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). The updated Senate package was also discussed with the House and the White House, the aides said.

Still, it’s unclear if House leadership and the White House have signed off on the legislation.

The Senate and House have gone back and forth for months on language for a housing affordability bill as lawmakers on both sides look for a win to tout during a midterm election season dominated by cost-of-living issues.

Both chambers overwhelmingly passed their own versions of the housing bill — the Senate 89-10 in March, and the House 396-13 in May. The White House supported the Senate-passed bill and then backed the House-passed bill after it retained most of the Senate’s language on reining in private equity and other large Wall Street investors in the housing market — a top priority for President Donald Trump.

The Senate’s updated legislation would remove two of the House’s community banking deregulation bills due to budget scoring concerns, said two of the people familiar: two bills that would modify the Federal Deposit Insurance Act around failed insured depository institutions. The Senate bill also added back a provision to authorize the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program for seven years, as opposed to a permanent reauthorization in the Senate’s March legislation.

The Senate additionally re-inserted several upper-chamber priorities, including the BUILD NOW Act, which would incentivize communities to build more housing through the Community Development Block Grant program; the Rental Assistance Demonstration bill, which would raise the cap on housing authorities to convert voucher-based assistance; the Moving to Work bill, which would aim to add a new cohort of MTW public housing agencies; and the VALID Act, which would require Federal Housing Administration mortgage disclosures to include cost comparison information for veterans.

The package retains core wins for the leaders of both the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees and their members and reflects input from all four leaders of those panels, one of the people familiar said.