Congress
Trump’s Capitol Hill dreams are at odds with GOP reality
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.
A group of 10 Democrats has signed on to Rep. Greg Casar’s (D-Texas) bill that would ban superintelligence and pause advanced AI development until a vetting regime could be stood up.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), both of whom are mulling a 2028 presidential run, are cosponsoring the bill, named the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act.
Khanna, in a statement, noted that he convened a hearing this week on AI safety cooperation between the U.S. and China as ranking member of the House China Select Committee with AI experts who underscored the need for a verifiable pause on superintelligence.
AI superintelligence is an as-yet hypothetical form of the advanced technology that surpasses humans’ cognitive capabilities, but exactly when AI crosses the threshold into superintelligence remains contested. The bill would subject violators to a 20-year prison sentence.
The support from prominent progressives in the Democratic caucus comes as the party is navigating how they would approach AI regulation should they retake control of one or both chambers in November.
Other cosponsors include Reps. Analilia Mejia of New Jersey, Yassamin Ansari and Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, Val Hoyle of Oregon, Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, Chuy García of Illinois, Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania and Nydia Velázquez of New York.
“We absolutely have to slow down and regulate the advancement of dangerous AI technologies that have the potential to spiral out-of-control and threaten humanity,” Ansari said.
To Lynch, a string of recent AI-led cyberbreaches has “shown us that the advanced forms of this are out of control,” he said in an interview. “We haven’t really solved that control problem yet, nor have we got the alignment problem right yet.”
Casar’s bill, introduced this week with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), is among the most stringent AI regulations proposed by either party.
Rather than focusing on bans as Casar and his progressive allies have done, centrist Democrats are looking to legislative proposals they say can address the technology’s risks without stifling innovation.
Senate Republicans are discussing whether to call up a data center utility costs bill as they make plans to stay in Washington next week rather than beat an early exit before the midterms.
Two GOP aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the Senate will remain in town amid pressure from some corners of the party to send members home early to campaign.
Asked if the Senate will stay next week, Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday it’s “looking that way.”
While some lawmakers had hoped to move a long-brewing bipartisan energy permitting deal, those hopes have evaporated, and GOP leaders are instead eyeing votes on the Ratepayer Protection Act — a top priority of endangered Ohio Sen. Jon Husted.
Thune said Thursday moving to the data-center-focused bill next week “is an option.” The Senate is also expected to take up a Democratic resolution condemning the Iran war and several presidential nominations.
The Ratepayer Protection Act easily passed the House earlier this month, but some Senate Democrats are arguing it does not go far enough and party leaders could be motivated to deny Husted a pre-election win.
Josh Siegel contributed to this report.
A bipartisan group of senators failed to close a long-sought deal on legislation to ease permitting approvals for energy projects, kicking consideration of the issue until after the midterm elections.
A senior Democrat aide familiar with the negotiations and granted anonymity to discuss the matter told Blue Light News on Thursday that Senate Democrats don’t think there’s enough time to get it done.
“The goal here has always been to pass permitting reform, not just to introduce it,” the aide said.
Top negotiators — Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), along with Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee and ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) — were unable to reach agreement on a package this week, despite recent overtures made by both sides.
The lack of a deal now means a permitting bill likely won’t get a vote until after the elections, when lawmakers are expected to face a packed legislative agenda and the power dynamics in Congress will begin to shift.
Republicans and the Trump administration were eager to lock in a vote soon, arguing legislation to ease permitting approvals for energy projects would represent a major bipartisan breakthrough to address voters’ affordability concerns.
President Donald Trump even signaled he would ease his administration’s blockade on wind projects to entice Democrats to agree on a permitting deal.
But Democrats wanted more time for their members to review any bill and are seeking stronger assurances that the Trump administration would lay off its attacks on clean energy projects. They also did not face the same political incentives to act now, with Trump and Republicans struggling in the polls.
“I appreciate very much what the Trump administration has done to move in this direction, but in order to brief colleagues on what this really means, we need just a bit more clarity on exactly what return to regular order for wind and solar projects looks like. So that’s still to be done, but that I think can happen in fairly short order,” Whitehouse told reporters Thursday.
For all the common ground in both parties around encouraging more energy production and accelerating projects to help address affordability concerns and meet rising power demand, permitting also touches on thorny issues for congressional Republicans, Democrats and this White House.
Democrats are pressing for significant measures to boost interstate transmission lines to deliver clean power to major demand centers and restrain the administration’s power to cancel projects or stall on approvals.
Republicans, for their part, want to limit states’ authority to reject projects under a provision of the Clean Water Act that Democratic governors have used to block interstate pipelines.
Other elements of a deal would likely include easing approvals and limiting legal challenges against projects under the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock procedural environmental law that is increasingly blamed for stalling projects of all types, as well as under the National Historic Preservation Act, a landmark law designed to protect Native American cultural treasures.
Amelia Davidson contributed to this report.
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