Congress

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

Published

7 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: SAVE America swallows Washington

Published

1 hour ago

June 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Speaker Mike Johnson’s day will be consumed by the SAVE America Act — again.

President Donald Trump’s signature election security bill is on track to derail his chamber’s agenda for the rest of the week as a small group of hard-liners demand House GOP leaders somehow find a way to force the Senate to pass the measure.

Johnson Monday night tried to appease the group by leveraging an unusual procedural maneuver that would send the elections measure and the annual Pentagon policy bill to the Senate in a single package.

But Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who has led the bloc halting House business, dismissed Johnson’s move, arguing it’d allow the Senate to easily strip out the SAVE America Act.

It “will not work,” Luna said Monday night after demanding “a full bakeage” into the must-pass defense bill earlier in the day.

To be clear: Her own proposal to simply add SAVE America as an amendment could be removed just as easily in the Senate as with Johnson’s plan.

But with the speaker needing a unified conference to unlock floor business for the rest of the week — he may be forced to deal with Luna and allied hard-liners regardless of legislative logic.

Meanwhile, a Supreme Court decision Monday only sharpened Trump and his allies’ fixation on the legislation, as the court ruled states may accept mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day so long as they are postmarked by that day.

“In light of the tremendous loss in the Supreme Court today concerning Voter’s Rights, and the fact that ‘people’s’ votes are allowed to be counted LONG AFTER an Election is over, it is more important than ever to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump said on Truth Social, reinvigorating hard-liners’ crusade despite his calls last week for them to stop threatening “No’s” on rule votes.

The court’s ruling spotlights another complication for Johnson: The version of the elections bill he is proposing to attach to the Pentagon legislation doesn’t include the latest demands from Trump — including a near-total ban on mail voting that is opposed by many Republicans.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, for example, was noncommittal Monday when asked about supporting Trump’s full demands for the bill.

“The voter ID part I’m fine with,” he said in an interview. “I’ve already voted for that.”

Even if the House somehow overcomes a tight rule vote and subsequently passes the merged bills, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said the combo could not pass his chamber.

Senators are set to debate their own version of the defense bill next month, and it is all but certain the election overhaul would be removed in negotiations between the two chambers.

What else we’re watching:

— JOHNSON HUDDLES WITH TRUMP ON HOUSING BILL: Johnson said a landmark housing affordability package Congress cleared last week will become law, and that Republicans won’t have to take an uncomfortable vote to override a presidential veto to make that happen. Johnson in an interview Monday said he’d speak again with Trump Tuesday about signing the bipartisan housing bill. The president tanked plans last week to swiftly sign into law one of Republican lawmakers’ top priorities before the midterms, saying he’d hold the measure hostage until Congress passed his election security bill.

— RELATIONSHIP FRAYS BETWEEN SENATE’S TOP APPROPRIATORS: It’s getting harder and harder for the top Republican and Democrat overseeing government funding in the Senate to keep up the collegial working relationship they’ve long prided themselves on. Sens. Susan Collins and Patty Murray have been increasingly at odds as the midterms approach and spending priorities diverge. It comes after their successful collaboration on bipartisan legislation during Murray’s two-year reign as chair of Senate Appropriations, which continued when Collins took the gavel last year.

Meredith Lee Hill, Kelsey Brugger, Jennifer Scholtes and Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

Congress

The messy standoff driving a wedge between a bipartisan Senate duo

Published

5 hours ago

June 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sens. Susan Collins and Patty Murray have long prided themselves on working together to advance government funding bills. That collegiality is now showing signs of decay.

The Maine Republican and Washington Democrat have been openly feuding about the path forward on spending measures this summer. It comes after their successful collaboration on bipartisan legislation during Murray’s two-year reign as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which continued when Collins took the gavel last year.

Democrats attribute the clash to Collins’ pursuit of President Donald Trump’s demands for a record military budget that eclipses domestic spending, as she fights to retain her Senate seat in November. Republicans say Murray is playing midterm politics by trying to prevent Collins from landing a deal before Election Day, when Democrats hope to regain House and Senate majorities — and the upper hand in year-end funding talks.

“It’s not personal, but it is very frustrating,” Collins said last week, while insisting she and Murray are still on good terms.

All Murray would say about the state of their relationship was, “We’re talking.”

While that impasse doesn’t necessarily heighten the odds of a government shutdown this fall, it could delay any meaningful Senate appropriations action until after the elections. The outcome of congressional races — including Collins’ toss-up contest against Democrat Graham Platner — could change the power balance in government funding negotiations.

“It certainly looks to me like the Democrats don’t want to give Susan Collins a victory,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said in an interview. “I really think it’s intensely political. She is a very reasonable legislator. If you can’t make a deal with Susan Collins, you don’t want to make a deal.”

Part of Collins’ campaign-trail pitch to Mainers is that she gets results in Washington, and her inability to advance the dozen annual appropriations bills through her committee undercuts that narrative.

Collins isn’t refuting the idea that Democrats might want to deprive her of legislative success as she competes against Platner in one of the closest and most-watched races in the country.

“That’s certainly a viable theory, which is pretty pathetic,” she said in an interview.

This month Collins publicly accused Murray of sending government funding offers that have “made it clear that Democrats are abandoning the appropriations process.” Murray, meanwhile, suggested Collins was at fault for the stalemate by divulging she hadn’t responded to Murray’s latest offer in more than two weeks.

It’s a major tone shift for the two lawmakers, who have earned a reputation for trying to stay out of the partisan fray since they became their party’s top leaders on the Appropriations Committee in 2023. They’ve consistently resisted broadcasting behind-the-scenes friction during tough negotiations and succeeded in reaching cross-party compromises to advance funding bills each year — even after the record government shutdown last fall.

But they’re now at loggerheads over funding totals for the military and domestic programs, along with votes on hot-button Trump policies. Senate Republicans are seeking a military funding boost more than four times larger than any increase in domestic spending, as Trump calls for a record $1.5 trillion defense budget.

“We do not have an agreement,” Murray said, because Republicans “are set on increasing defense in an increasingly huge way that we’ve never had to deal with before.”

GOP senators also want to avoid any amendment votes that could sink approval of appropriations bills, including some related to the Justice Department’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund” administration officials have promised not to pursue.

The result is that Collins has yet to hold a committee markup on a single government funding bill with just three months left before federal dollars expire. And some Republican appropriators acknowledge it’s possible the panel won’t vote on any of the spending measures this year given the deadlock.

“Obviously Susan is up this year. And Democrats, at every level and every opportunity, are playing politics with it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview. “The appropriations process used to be fairly bipartisan. … Murray and the Democrats have turned it into a partisan game.”

Some Democrats openly sympathize with Collins’ predicament in trying to represent politically moderate Maine while holding one of the most influential positions on Capitol Hill during Trump’s second term and unified Republican control of Congress.

“The chair of the committee is being squeezed in every direction,” Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a senior Democratic appropriator, said in an interview.

Many Senate Republicans don’t “give a damn” about funding domestic efforts like public education and biomedical research, Baldwin continued. “I believe that the chairwoman does care about those issues. But you know, she’s in an unenviable position.”

Since Trump was reelected, Collins has worked to negotiate funding bills that spend far more on domestic programs than the president sought. The result has been essentially flat funding for nondefense programs and a 17 percent increase in military spending, which includes the billions of dollars Republicans enacted along party lines last year.

“Chair Collins is very devoted to, or interested in, following through to help the president get more money for the Department of War and munitions, et cetera,” said West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a top Republican appropriator. “And I think Senator Murray is on the opposite page.”

“Rather than legislate and work these things out,” Capito added, “I think it’s been decided on the other side to just be obstinate and not participate and not negotiate.”

Trump is calling this year for boosting Pentagon spending by more than 40 percent while slashing domestic programs by 10 percent. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a senior Democratic appropriator who has served in Congress for more than 40 years, calls it “a massive change” in the way government funding has been divvied up for decades — by negotiating matching dollar-for-dollar increases in both military and nondefense funding.

“We’re so far apart. We haven’t faced anything like that in recent memory,” Durbin said in an interview. “And to accept the premise of it — what’s left for nondefense is terrible.”

Collins could proceed with markups this summer without an agreement with Democrats, as the House Republican majority has done for years. But Republican senators would need to be willing to vote on controversial amendments Democrats might offer — including proposals that defy Trump.

Senate Republican appropriators faced that issue last summer, when the panel unexpectedly adopted an amendment barring the Trump administration from repurposing cash intended for relocating the FBI headquarters. That outcome prompted several GOP senators to withdraw support for the funding bill.

“The challenge is that, if you have every Democrat voting against reporting the bill out — and then they also are offering poison pills — it’s hard to move those bills,” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), chair of the Appropriations subcommittee that funds the FBI, said in an interview.

During the two years Murray chaired the full committee, Moran recalled, “We had members who wanted to offer what would probably be considered poison pills by Democrats. And Senator Collins talked Republicans out of doing so, to move the process.”

The two sides could easily reach an agreement on amendments and policy stipulations, some Democrats contend, if only Collins and Murray could bridge the divide between the president’s military funding demands and their own domestic priorities.

“Senator Collins is carrying out the administration’s wishes,” Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, another senior Democratic appropriator, said in an interview. “And Senator Murray is noting that a reckless increase in defense spending is not in the best interest of Americans.”

“So they’re both advocating for their viewpoint,” Merkley added. “That’s what we do in a democracy.”

Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

Congress

Johnson-backed plan to combine Pentagon and election bills advances to floor

Published

11 hours ago

June 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Rules Committee advanced a procedural measure aimed at breaking an intra-Republican deadlock Monday night. But GOP leaders are still facing a major battle Tuesday to regain control of the House floor.

The panel approved on party lines a measure to set up Republicans’ $1.1 trillion defense policy bill, a government funding bill and other GOP bills for floor debate. It would then combine the Pentagon bill, once passed, with the contentious elections overhaul known as the SAVE America Act and send it to the Senate as one piece of legislation.

That maneuver, telegraphed by Speaker Mike Johnson earlier Monday, is aimed at appeasing House GOP hard-liners who have blockaded the floor, demanding the Senate pass the elections bill that has languished there for months.

However, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, the Republican leading the blockade, said in an interview Monday before the Rules Committee acted that Johnson’s plan is not sufficient — raising the possibility she and allies could vote down the measure on the floor. Other House GOP hard-liners say there are other outstanding issues to battle over Tuesday.

Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Rules Democrat, called the merger move “a big waste of time.” The panel voted down a motion by McGovern to remove the provision to combine the two bills in a party-line vote.

The Senate is set to debate its own version of the defense bill next month, and it is likely that the elections overhaul will be removed in negotiations between the two chambers — as McGovern acknowledged Monday and House GOP leaders privately concede.

“The Senate will just strip the SAVE Act out,” he said at the meeting. “There is a zero percent chance SAVE ends up in the [Pentagon bill] because of this rule today.”

The defense bill faces a tight vote if Republicans can pass the procedural measure. Most Democrats are expected to oppose the measure over its massive price tag, which they contend is wasteful.

The panel is set up debate on 312 amendments to the bill. The slate includes GOP measures to codify a Trump executive order to block transgender people from serving in the military, prohibit coverage of gender-affirming care, block aid to arm Ukraine and strip Democratic-backed protections for collective bargaining for Pentagon civilian workers.

The committee also voted down Democratic proposals to slash $150 billion from the bill’s topline and limit the war against Iran.

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.