Congress

Trump’s Capitol Hill dreams are at odds with GOP reality

Published

3 months ago

November 19, 2025

The White House’s dream of clinching major new Republican victories on Capitol Hill before the midterms is crashing into the reality of a bitterly divided Congress.

Tackling major GOP priorities on the economy and health care was already going to be a heavy lift: There are deep divisions among Republicans about their strategy ahead of the end-of-year expiration of some Affordable Care Act subsidies, and President Donald Trump is showing little appetite to cut a deal with Democrats.

Trump’s top political aide raised the possibility Tuesday of pursuing another go-it-alone bill, a sequel to the sweeping tax-focused megabill the GOP passed this summer, but going down that road would require building almost complete unity among congressional Republicans.

And that would have been a tall order even before Trump went to war inside his own party this past week, effectively excommunicating longtime ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) over her criticism of his policies, as well as her support for the release of Justice Department records related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The rift comes amid other signs that Republicans in and out of Washington are growing less willing to follow Trump’s lead, whether on congressional redistricting or overhauling the Senate’s rules. And, with Trump already sketching out red lines on health care, skepticism is growing inside the GOP about burning months of political capital in an election year without a clear path forward.

Asked this week about the ugly standoff between Greene and Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged a fact of political life that Trump has often struggled to grasp: Today’s enemy could be tomorrow’s indispensable ally.

“I work on unity in the party, and my encouragement of everybody is to get together,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to do all that in order to deliver for the people.”

Johnson’s peacemaker stance comes as House Republicans privately plot a health care overhaul, with GOP leaders pitching their members on policy options during a closed-door conference meeting Tuesday. One slide shared by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise during the meeting knocked the expiring Obamacare subsidies, calling them part of the “Unaffordable Care Act.”

Around the same time, White House deputy chief of staff James Blair at a Bloomberg News event sketched out a major “affordability” bill that could include $2,000 checks that Trump has pitched as tariff “dividends” as well as health care legislation along the lines of what House Republicans are discussing.

Those ideas are not likely to get Democratic buy-in — especially with less than a year before the midterms. That means the GOP would have to explore party-line approaches to passing any policy agenda. But Senate Republicans have spurned Trump’s demands that they eliminate the filibuster that requires bipartisan buy-in for most legislation, leaving the convoluted reconciliation process, which was used to pass this summer’s megabill, as their only viable choice.

Talk of another reconciliation bill has been hanging around Hill GOP circles for months, ever since House leaders dangled the promise of a second bite at party-line legislation to conservative hard-liners earlier this year in exchange for their votes to pass the “big, beautiful bill.”

But that push appeared to fizzle earlier this fall. And just two weeks ago, during a meeting with Senate Republicans, Trump himself expressed skepticism about how much another reconciliation bill could accomplish. Some Republicans still want to try and revive the idea for the spring, but they are facing a hard sell with many members who remember the political trauma their party suffered amid attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare in 2017.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said in an interview that she did not want to pursue a GOP-only health care bill, arguing that it would undermine efforts to work with Democrats on other issues like funding the government

“I don’t want another one-sided, partisan reconciliation bill right now — I want us to legislate,” Murkowski said. “Let’s be legislators here. Reconciliation is, yes, it’s a tool for us, but it’s a partisan tool and look at how divided we are right now. … That’s not the way to go.”

Republicans have barely any room for error if they are going to launch another party-line policy bill. Murkowski, notably, was a decisive vote in getting the first GOP megabill through the Senate over the summer — after helping to sink the 2017 partisan health care bill.

To get another reconciliation bill passed now, Republicans would need to lean on their most vulnerable members during a time in the election cycle when party leaders typically become shy about making their front-liners take politically tough votes that could negatively ricochet in swing districts.

Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who voted against the reconciliation bill in July, left the door open to pursuing a new party-line bill. But underscoring the headache waiting for GOP leaders and the administration, he floated using it to at least partially address some of what he called the “problematic” policies from the first Republican megabill.

He also voiced a concern that has taken root with many of his House and GOP Senate colleagues — that if they are going to make a second run at reconciliation, they need to be unified at the outset about the nature of the end product rather than figuring it out along the way.

“It could go sideways real quick if the scope changes much, so we’d have to have a lot of agreement up front to make sure it was going to be successful,” he said in an interview.

Inside the closed-door conference meeting across the Capitol Tuesday morning, GOP leaders got pushback to their ambitious health care agenda from Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), who asked why they had waited until just weeks before the expiration deadline for the Obamacare subsidies.

House Republicans, Moran countered in the meeting, should have been working on alternatives months ago, according to four people granted anonymity to share the private exchange.

GOP leadership aides and senior Republicans on Capitol Hill say they have been waiting for months for Trump to outline what he wants on health care. But the president only started weighing in publicly on policy options in recent days.

The president on Tuesday warned that the only thing he would support would be a bill that sends “THE MONEY DIRECTLY BACK TO THE PEOPLE,” adding that Congress should “not waste your time and energy on anything else” and “GET IT DONE, NOW.”

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) added that Trump’s proposal — to essentially restructure the subsidies to give them directly to Americans — was a “welcome discussion … but we’re not going to get that done before Dec. 31. That’s unlikely.”

Asked about Trump’s comments, Senate Majority Leader John Thune didn’t close the door Tuesday night to the chances lawmakers could reach a bipartisan health care deal, but he said that would be up to what Democrats would be willing to accept. They have been cool to the health savings account ideas favored by the GOP.

“We’ve got members who are very interested in addressing the affordability of health care,” Thune added. “The question is, what’s the best way to do it.”

Senate Budget Committee Republicans are keen to advance a budget resolution that would unlock the filibuster-skirting power of a second reconciliation bill, but they are tentatively looking at early next year to do that. And they are getting pushback from their colleagues behind the scenes.

When Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana pitched fellow Senate Republicans during a caucus lunch about using the fast-track procedure to pass a health care plan, a colleague pointed out that many of the GOP’s favorite policies wouldn’t comply with the strict rules governing the budget reconciliation process, according to an attendee who was granted anonymity to describe the private discussion.

Kennedy acknowledged in an interview he can’t guarantee a bill will ever make it to the floor, but he suggested there was a pent-up feeling among some Republicans that Congress, despite being in GOP hands, has little to show for their majority.

“That’s the problem — nothing’s happened. We’re not doing anything. I think some of that was reflected in the [off-year] elections” earlier this month, Kennedy said.

“Everybody says, what about the One Big Beautiful Bill? That was yesterday — I mean what have we done since then?” he continued. “We haven’t done anything for months, and a lot of people — you are talking to one — are sick of it.”

Calen Razor contributed to this report.

Congress

Capitol agenda: Mike Johnson’s shutdown gamble

Published

50 minutes ago

February 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House GOP leaders face an uphill battle to pass the revamped government funding package from the Senate, potentially dragging out the shutdown.

Speaker Mike Johnson hopes to pass the five full-year funding bills and the two-week DHS stopgap on Tuesday relying only on Republicans, after Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told him he wouldn’t help secure the Democrats needed to expedite the legislation. GOP leaders will have to quell an internal Republican revolt before they get there.

Here’s how things are shaping up ahead of Tuesday:

— Democrats divided, Republicans seek unity: Most House Democrats who spoke during a private caucus call Sunday evening were against the package, which was negotiated by Senate Democrats and the White House. House Homeland Security ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) was among the Democrats urging members to oppose it in a Dear Colleague email Sunday night.

But some senior Democrats on the call said they supported the legislation, including Reps. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and New Democrat Coalition Chair Brad Schneider of Illinois, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss the conversation. The disconnect between leadership and other senior members is triggering some hand-wringing among frontline Democrats about what to do next.

Even though some Democrats are signaling they’d vote for the package in the end, it’s not clear whether Johnson can get past the procedural step of adopting a rule with GOP support still uncertain and Democrats unlikely to bail him out.

GOP leaders and White House officials are trying to convince key hard-liners to get on board.

Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) are among the Republicans who want to attach legislation aimed at preventing noncitizens from voting in elections. Some ultra-conservatives oppose the Senate agreement overall and would prefer a Homeland stopgap that lasts six weeks or longer.

Luna said Sunday night that “these appropriations bills will FAIL” if the election citizenship legislation isn’t included.

— Bigger DHS deal looks tougher: Key lawmakers continue to raise red flags about striking a deal on a full-year DHS funding bill by the time the two-week CR expires.

Johnson on Sunday panned Democrats’ demands to bar federal immigration enforcement officers from wearing masks and to require them to wear identification. He also signaled unwillingness to negotiate on tightening requirements for judicial warrants for immigration operations. Jeffries is insisting that an agreement on judicial warrants is “a condition of moving forward.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune doesn’t believe Congress can pass a Homeland Security deal in two weeks, telling reporters late last week that “a two-week CR probably means there’s going to be another two-week CR and then maybe another two-week CR after that.”

“I just think it’s going to be really, really hard to get anything done and then actually execute on the procedures and process we have in the Senate, even if there’s an agreement,” he said.

What else we’re watching:

— Johnson to swear in new Dem: Johnson plans to swear in Houston Democrat Christian Menefee before votes Monday night, pending final certification of his special runoff victory to serve out the rest of the late Rep. Sylvester Turner’s term. Once Menefee joins the House, Johnson will have a single-vote buffer with 218 Republicans and 214 Democrats.

Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Mia McCarthy and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.

Congress

Mike Johnson says House can end government shutdown ‘by Tuesday’

Published

20 hours ago

February 1, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he is confident Congress can end the partial government shutdown “by Tuesday” despite steep opposition from Democrats and turmoil within the GOP conference.

Johnson is under pressure to unite his caucus, with lawmakers raising concerns about funding for the Department of Homeland Security as the Trump administration faces scrutiny over its nationwide immigration crackdown that has at times turned violent.

House Republicans are hoping to take up the $1.2 trillion funding package passed by the Senate on Tuesday following a House Rules Committee meeting Monday. The partial shutdown began early Saturday.

GOP leadership in the House originally hoped to pass the bill under suspension of the rules, an expedited process that requires a two-thirds-majority vote, but Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Johnson on Saturday that Democrats would not help Republicans acquire the necessary support for the spending bill.

“I’m confident that we’ll do it at least by Tuesday,” Johnson said in a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We have a logistical challenge of getting everyone in town, and because of the conversation I had with Hakeem Jeffries, I know that we’ve got to pass a rule and probably do this mostly on our own. I think that’s very unfortunate.”

The Senate voted Friday to pass a compromise spending package after Senate Democrats struck a deal with President Donald Trump to extend DHS funding for two weeks. The move bought Congress more time to work out a compromise on reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement after federal officers fatally shot two people in Minnesota earlier this month.

Speaking to host Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press,” Johnson acknowledged that “there’s been tragedies in Minnesota” — but he also blamed Democrats in the state for “inciting violence,” even as the Trump administration attempts to tamp down pressures in the state.

Johnson praised Trump’s decision to send White House border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis, a step widely seen as a deescalation from the aggressive tactics favored by Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino.

“[Trump] was right to deputize him over that situation,” he said of Homan on NBC. “He has 40 years of experience in Border Patrol and these issues. So I think that this is going to happen, but we need good faith on both sides. Some of these conditions and requests that they’ve made are obviously reasonable and should happen. But others are going to require a lot more negotiation.”

Johnson pushed back in particular on Democratic calls to bar federal immigration enforcement officers from wearing masks and require them to wear identification, telling Fox’s Shannon Bream: “Those two things are conditions that would create further danger.”

He also signaled an unwillingness to negotiate on Democratic demands to tighten requirements for judicial warrants for immigration operations.

Still, House Democrats remained opposed to passing the funding package as is, with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) saying Sunday: “I’m not just a no. I’m a firm no.”

“I just don’t see how in good conscience Democrats can vote for continuing ICE funding when they’re killing American citizens, when there’s no provision to repeal the tripling of the budget,” Khanna said in a Sunday interview with Welker on NBC. “I hope my colleagues will say no.”

Jeffries also signaled Sunday that a wide gap remains between his conference and House Republicans, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the House must reach an agreement on judicial warrants “as a condition of moving forward.”

“The one thing that we’ve said publicly is that we need a robust path toward dramatic reform,” Jeffries said on ABC’s “This Week.” “The administration can’t just talk the talk, they need to walk the walk. That should begin today. Not in two weeks, today.”

Congress

Shutdown likely to continue at least into Tuesday

Published

1 day ago

February 1, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The partial government shutdown that began early Saturday morning is on track to continue at least into Tuesday, which is the earliest the House is now expected to vote on a $1.2 trillion funding package due to opposition from Democrats and internal GOP strife.

House Republican leaders have scheduled a Monday meeting of the House Rules Committee to prepare the massive Senate-passed spending bill for the floor. According to two people granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, the procedural measure teeing up a final vote would not happen until Tuesday, with final passage following if that is successful.

That’s one day later than GOP leaders had hoped. Their previous plan was to pass the bill with Democratic help under suspension of the rules, a fast-track process requiring a two-thirds-majority vote.

But that plan was complicated by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries telling Speaker Mike Johnson in a private conversation Saturday that Democratic leadership would not help Johnson secure the 70 or so Democratic votes to get the measure over the line, according to the two people and another person granted anonymity to discuss the matter.

The Tuesday plan remains tentative as GOP leaders scramble to navigate tensions inside their own conference, which could make passing the procedural measure difficult. Some conservative hard-liners, for instance, want to attach a sweeping elections bill to the package.

Jeffries said in a MS NOW interview Saturday that Republicans “cannot simply move forward with legislation taking a my way or the highway approach” while noting that House Democrats are set to have “a discussion about the appropriate way forward” in a Sunday evening caucus call — first reported by Blue Light News.

He did not rule out that Democrats might support the Senate-passed spending package, which funds the majority of federal agencies through Sept. 30 while providing a two-week extension for the Department of Homeland Security — including controversial immigration enforcement agencies.

Democrats, Jeffries said, want “a robust, ironclad path to bringing about the type of change that the American people are demanding” in immigration enforcement.