Congress

Trump wants House to ‘get on board’ with Washington budget fix

Published

1 week ago

March 19, 2025

President Donald Trump wants Congress to repair a significant cut to the District of Columbia’s budget and is happy to leave the procedural details to Speaker Mike Johnson, according to two White House officials.

But the president is prepared to work the phones — or, if needed, fire off a social media post — to correct legislative language that could have major repercussions for the capital city if left unaddressed.

Last Friday, the Senate passed a Trump-endorsed bill that would restore as much as $1.1 billion in local funding, according to District officials, that was — inadvertently, by some accounts — slashed by the government spending measure signed into law the next day.

The president has confidence the speaker will bring the bipartisan measure up for a vote, said a White House official granted anonymity to discuss Trump’s thinking.

How the bill gets through the House, however, is “sausage-making in the background,” said the official. “I don’t think he’ll publicly call for Johnson to bring [the fix] to the floor — that’s going to be a behind-the-scenes thing. If [Trump] must, though, a pressure campaign from Truth Social is always a possibility.”

If need be, Trump also is open to making calls to individual House members to ensure their support for the budget fix: “The president has no problem using his phone to make sure members get on board with what he’s trying to do.”

A second White House official, also granted anonymity to share private conversations, described the District of Columbia cut in the funding bill as “an oversight” that would eventually be fixed. That official said the White House wasn’t pressuring House GOP leaders and was giving Johnson space to figure out the way forward.

But Trump could, at some point, grow impatient: part of his interest in getting the budget fix approved is about extending an olive branch to Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, one of the White House officials said.

While Bowser has pushed back on the threat to the city’s budget, she has mostly spoken respectfully about Trump and has recently taken steps to comply with GOP priorities for the city — for instance, dismantling the “Black Lives Matter Plaza” her administration set up near the White House amid the 2020 racial justice protests.

She so far has been viewed by the White House as a “good actor” in the endeavor to get the budget fix enacted, according to the official.

Still, congressional Republicans note the city won’t run out of money in the meantime; they also argue the shortfall is closer to $500 million, not $1.1 billion. In any case, local elected officials and their allies say a failure to enact the repair bill would effectively force the District of Columbia to make dramatic mid-fiscal-year cuts to law enforcement, infrastructure improvement efforts and public education.

As House Republicans worked to advance a seven-month funding bill to avert a government shutdown last week, GOP leadership did not include routine language allowing the District to continue spending its local budget dollars. And while leaders made several changes to the bill text just before bringing it to the House floor for a vote, they didn’t address Washington’s funding omission.

It caught many senior lawmakers off guard.

“It came as a surprise to me and explains why the mayor has called me,” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins of Maine said in an interview. “It certainly wasn’t something we did.”

House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) at first told reporters he thought the omission was to rescind funding for “a lot of inaugural stuff,” saying “we’re not leaving inauguration funding going to D.C. in a bill when there’s not an inauguration.”

He later acknowledged that not all the slashed funding fell under that inauguration category, but he declined to address it, saying he’d have to “look at it in more detail” and that “it’s actually in the weeds.”

Many facets of the District of Columbia are subject to congressional oversight, but most of the city’s $21.2 billion budget is funded by local taxpayers. Roughly $5 billion comes from the federal government — the vast majority through formula-based federal programs, such as Medicaid, similar to what states receive.

Johnson now has to figure out when and how to bring the bill up for a floor vote amid opposition from hard-liners in his rebellious conference. GOP leaders feel like they have some time to figure out the way forward.

The speaker is not currently planning to advance the bill Monday through the Rules Committee, which would pave the way for a floor vote requiring a simple majority that could splinter Republicans on a procedural motion needed to bring the measure forward. Most likely, Johnson will need to pursue an expedited floor maneuver in the coming weeks that requires a two-thirds majority vote to secure passage.

Outside pressure — not just from Trump — could continue to build. City residents gathered outside the tiny House Rules Committee room for its initial meeting to set parameters for floor debate on the stopgap funding bill, raising alarms and objections to lawmakers about the consequences of the cuts.

Congress

McConnell slams Trump administration’s peace talks with Russia

Published

6 hours ago

March 28, 2025

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Mitch McConnell warned Thursday that advisers to President Donald Trump are pursuing an “illusory peace” with Russia that “shreds America’s credibility, leaves Ukraine under threat, weakens our alliances and emboldens our enemies.”

They are among the most pointed words from any elected Republican since Trump ordered U.S. officials to begin direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government about bringing the Ukraine war to a close. And it is some of the most direct criticism McConnell has levied against the administration since giving up his top GOP leadership role and pledging to speak out against the isolationist wing of his party.

“When American officials court the favor of an adversary at the expense of allies, when they mock our friends to impress an enemy, they reveal their embarrassing naivete,” McConnell said, according to prepared remarks shared with Blue Light News ahead of a U.S.-Ukraine Foundation event Thursday where he was honored.

“Unless we change course, the outcome we’re headed for today is the one we can least afford: a headline that reads ‘Russia wins, America loses,’” he added.

Trump sent shockwaves through Washington when he and Vice President JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office last month. That confrontation came as Trump has adopted a warmer tone toward Putin, sparking pushback from some Republicans.

While some GOP lawmakers have warned the administration not to bend to Russia as it tries to hash out a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv, many top congressional Republicans have signaled they are willing to give Trump space.

Not McConnell, however, who vowed shortly after he announced last year that he would step down as Senate Republican leader that he would use his final years in the chamber to advocate for a muscular foreign policy. As Senate GOP leader he helped shepherd additional Ukraine aid through Congress, even as he faced fierce pushback from MAGA-oriented Republicans in the House, as well as some of his own members.

That was part of the reason McConnnell was honored Thursday with the “Star of Ukraine” award from the foundation, recognizing “individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to advancing Ukraine’s freedom and security.”

Though McConnell has supported most of Trump’s nominees, he has voted against high-profile national security picks, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He also ultimately supported the seven-month funding bill Congress passed earlier this month while warning that it could hurt the Pentagon.

In his prepared remarks for Thursday’s event, McConnell did not directly criticize Trump, and he did not call out any of his advisers by name.

He also stressed the need to increase defense spending, pointing back to a “peace through strength” mantra that has been popular among Trump administration officials.

“But too many of those who use it — particularly among the president’s advisors — don’t seem ready to summon the resources and national will it requires,” he added.

Congress

GOP senators expect White House to send spending cuts — eventually

Published

10 hours ago

March 27, 2025

Blue Light Newsroom

A group of Senate Republicans left a meeting with top White House officials Thursday saying they are increasingly confident that President Donald Trump will send a package of spending cuts to Capitol Hill for lawmakers’ approval.

The senators, however, said they did not yet have a timeline for when the Trump administration might request what are known as rescissions — a process allowing Congress to claw back previously approved funding by a simple-majority vote in both chambers.

“Nothing happens until it’s done, but I believe we’ll have a rescissions package,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), adding that he has spoken frequently about it with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, who was in the meeting with GOP senators on Thursday.

Vought declined to comment upon leaving the meeting.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso added that there was a “big appetite” among Republicans to rescind funding “abuses” identified by the White House, an apparent reference to efforts by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative to slash the size of the federal bureaucracy.

“That has to originate from the White House, and we’ve been meeting with White House officials about doing just that,” Barrasso said as he left the meeting.

The closed-door meeting comes after Senate Republicans pitched Musk personally on rescissions during a lunch earlier this month. Some senators have argued that having Congress vote on DOGE’s cuts could give them more staying power given the legal challenges the administration is facing over Musk’s work.

Still, some Republican senators believe the administration is in no hurry to send over a package of cuts, preferring to fight the DOGE battles in the courts first.

Congress

Moolenaar, Cammack double down on opposition to TikTok-Oracle plan

Published

10 hours ago

March 27, 2025

Blue Light Newsroom

Two Republican lawmakers, including the chair of the House China committee, stepped up their attacks Thursday against a potential White House deal to sell TikTok to Oracle that preserves a role for its Beijing-based owner.

“I’m here to make one thing clear: any deal that allows ByteDance to maintain control of TikTok is a grave threat to our security and a violation of U.S. law,” House Select China Committee Chair John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) said, repeating the hard line he drew against the Oracle plan in an earlier op-ed. “ByteDance is trying to hold onto TikTok by pushing a licensing deal and maintaining control over its algorithm and staff.”

Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) stressed “there has to be an absolute pure divestiture” and broke down what a compliant alternative would look like: “For me, it’s really important the source code, algorithm and data and servers are all completely separated from mainland China, from ByteDance.”

Moolenaar and Cammack were speaking at an event hosted by the TikTok Coalition, founded by former lobbyist and CEO of Iggy Ventures Rick Lane. About 20 people attended the event, which convened in a House meeting room.

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.

The White House is seriously discussing the deal and has accelerated talks with Oracle ahead of President Donald Trump’s April 5 deadline for a sale, even as China hawks and legal experts say it would violate the law Congress passed last spring to force TikTok’s sale or ban in the U.S.

Lawmakers said Thursday they expect that latest tactic by TikTok to backfire, pointing to it as evidence of the app’s hold over its users — a would-be asset to a foreign rival like China.

“They’re running a massive PR campaign across the U.S. to sway public opinion and distract from the core issue: ongoing Chinese control of the app,” Moolenaar said.