Congress
Trump taps Eric Ueland for key role at OMB
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.
House Republican appropriators are publicly rebuking the Trump administration for seeking must-have military cash through a party-line reconciliation bill that’s not guaranteed to clear Congress.
In a report they plan to release later this week, obtained by Blue Light News, House appropriators warn that the White House is trying to fund “critical efforts” like weapons and military equipment through the party-line process, rather than using it to “scale up” military dollars beyond Congress’ regular government funding bills.
“This approach is risky and uncoordinated,” reads the report, an official addendum that goes along with the chamber’s defense funding bill for the fiscal year that starts in October.
In particular, appropriators criticized President Donald Trump’s budget request for splitting funding for the F-35 fighter, the most expensive program in Pentagon history, between the two bills.
The annual government funding bills and the reconciliation process are “entirely separate tracks, with different timelines, committees of jurisdiction, and approval processes,” the report notes.
Many Republican lawmakers are also doubtful GOP leaders will succeed in enacting another party-line package this year.
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
The House will begin consideration of a bipartisan housing bill Tuesday, with a final vote potentially taking place the same day, accelerating a previous plan to secure congressional passage of the legislation, according to four people familiar with the planning granted anonymity to discuss planning not yet public.
The Senate will hold a final vote on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act Monday.
House leadership had planned to fast-track approval of the housing affordability bill by suspending the rules, a maneuver that limits debate but requires a two-thirds majority vote, as soon as Wednesday, but are looking to move that process a day earlier, the people said.
President Donald Trump is expected to hold a signing ceremony for the bill as soon as Wednesday, said two people familiar, involved with the planning conversations.
The housing bill aims to tackle housing affordability and boost homeownership and supply as the looming midterm election is dominated by cost-of-living concerns and Congress has a narrowing window to get legislation through before the August recess.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
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.
- House Republicans slam Trump’s ‘risky and uncoordinated’ military funding strategy
- House to accelerate housing bill consideration, final passage as soon as Tuesday
- Dershowitz to testify on Epstein ties
- Hegseth to brief House Republicans on White House goals for party-line package
- Monday’s Campaign Round-Up, 6.22.26: Why Trump backed both Republicans in a key S.C. race
- Trump tries dual endorsement in South Carolina as his pick for governor flounders in polls
- Fears of an ‘economic catastrophe’ helped push Trump toward an Iran deal
- In back-to-back reversals, the Trump administration folds under pressure
- Vance touts ‘successful’ first round of U.S.-Iran talks after Trump threatens new attacks
- Turek leads Hinson in Iowa Senate poll of likely general election voters
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