Congress

Trump taps Eric Ueland for key role at OMB

Published

1 year ago

March 11, 2025

President Donald Trump has tapped Eric Ueland, a veteran Senate and White House aide, to a key post at the Office of Management and Budget.

Ueland has been nominated to serve as deputy director for management at the White House budget office, a high ranking role that would have him serving directly under OMB Director Russ Vought.

He is already a familiar face to many lawmakers and staffers on Capitol Hill in his former capacity as legislative affairs director during the first Trump administration. Ueland also was a key fixture in the Senate during negotiations on the massive, $2 trillion pandemic relief package enacted in March 2020. That was a major legislative effort under budget reconciliation, a process he’d likely be deeply involved with again in the coming months if confirmed at OMB.

Earlier in his career, he held a number of roles on Capitol Hill over more than two decades, building a reputation as a strategist and master of the Senate’s rules. He was the GOP staff director of the Senate Budget Committee under then-Chair Michael Enzi, and chief of staff to former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

Most recently, Ueland was regularly at the Capitol acting as a liaison between the White House and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, helping to navigate one of the new administration’s most difficult confirmation battles so far.

Ueland’s service in the Trump administration also included serving at the State Department as undersecretary of State for civilian security, democracy and human rights, and as director of the Office of U.S. Foreign Assistance. Senators will likely press him during his upcoming confirmation hearings on how his experience in those roles informs his view of the Trump administration’s decision to gut the U.S. Agency for International Development.

On Wednesday, former Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), Trump’s nominee for the No. 2 spot at OMB, will face a vote in the Senate Budget Committee — the second hurdle he’ll have to clear before getting confirmed on the Senate floor.

Congress

Dershowitz to testify on Epstein ties

Published

48 minutes ago

June 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Alan Dershowitz is scheduled to speak with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on July 20 as part of its ongoing Jeffery Epstein investigation.

“I asked to be allowed to set the record straight and correct various misconceptions,” Dershowitz said in a text message. “I look forward to doing so.”

The prominent criminal defense attorney who once represented O.J. Simpson and President Donald Trump also worked on Epstein’s 2008 plea deal, which many have argued allowed Epstein — who died by suicide behind bars in 2019 — to continue to prey on young women and girls for another several years before his later incarceration.

The Oversight Committee is separately set Friday to interview investor Leon Black, whose business dealings with Epstein have been under congressional scrutiny for years.

Congress

Hegseth to brief House Republicans on White House goals for party-line package

Published

2 hours ago

June 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to give a classified briefing Wednesday to a group of House Republicans about the administration’s goals for military funding and another party-line reconciliation bill, according to three people granted anonymity to describe a private meeting.

The gathering will take place during the Republican Study Committee’s weekly lunch and be held in the House SCIF, underscoring the potentially sensitive nature of Hegseth’s planned presentation.

Lawmakers are expected to also press Hegseth on the agreement the Trump administration has reached with Iran to end the war.

Congress

Turek leads Hinson in Iowa Senate poll of likely general election voters

Published

7 hours ago

June 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Iowa Democratic Senate nominee Josh Turek has a narrow lead over GOP rival Ashley Hinson in a new internal poll of likely general-election voters.

Turek leads Hinson 47 percent to 45 percent in the poll, conducted by Global Strategy Group from June 8-11 among 1,000 likely general election voters. The poll shows that Republicans have a 10-point edge in voter registration (42 percent to 32 percent) and an electorate that voted for Trump by 9 points (50 percent for Trump to 41 percent for Kamala Harris).

But the polling also shows President Donald Trump’s favorabilities underwater across the electorate, with 45 percent favorable and 52 percent unfavorable. Among registered independents, Trump is upside down 28 points.

Turek is “significantly outperforming the state’s underlying partisan dynamics,” Global Strategy Group’s Matt Canter & Ramzi Ebbini write in a memo first obtained by Blue Light News. “Republicans maintain substantial advantages in voter registration and party identification, yet Turek enters the general election ahead of Republican Ashley Hinson, with stronger personal favorability ratings, overperforming a generic Democrat, and with clear opportunities to expand his coalition as more voters become familiar with him.”

Some Republicans have acknowledged a concern about Iowa.

“There are some issues there that we got to deal with — the biggest one is trade — trade and tariffs,” said a Republican close to the White House, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the obstacles.

In his early general election messaging, Turek has leaned into farmers’ frustrations.

“Josh Turek is winning this race because Iowans are sick and tired of multi-millionaire politicians like Ashley Hinson who sell out working families while they get rich,” Turek for Iowa campaign manager Brendan Koch said in a statement first shared with Blue Light News. “We will spend the next 134 days connecting with Iowans in every corner of the state and across the political spectrum to send a fighter for the working class to the U.S. Senate.”