Congress

Trump’s iron grip on Congress slips

Published

9 months ago

January 9, 2026

A cadre of congressional Republicans dealt President Donald Trump significant defeats Thursday — a series of rebukes that demonstrate how his iron grip on Capitol Hill has weakened at the start of a critical election year.

The defiance kicked off in the Senate with a stunning vote, backed by five GOP senators, to move ahead with a measure that would constrain Trump on a matter he has presented as a signature triumph — his military intervention in Venezuela. Later in the day, 17 House Republicans joined with Democrats to rescue Obamacare subsidies Trump has repeatedly railed against.

And in a surprise move, senators of both parties agreed unanimously to erect a plaque honoring the officers who fought the mob at the Capitol on Jan, 6, 2021 — breaking from Trump’s false narrative about that day.

Trump took notice of the disloyalty in the first instance. Almost immediately, he shot off a social media post accusing the five Republicans of “attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America” and declaring that they “should never be elected to office again.”

None of the Republicans who voted crosswise with the White House Thursday said they intended to deal a personal brushback to Trump. But several said they were determined to assert congressional authority that many on Capitol Hill fear has withered over the past year.

Sen. Todd Young of Indiana insisted “any future commitment of U.S. forces in Venezuela must be subject to debate and authorization in Congress.”

“President Trump campaigned against forever wars, and I strongly support him in that position,” Young said in a statement. “A drawn-out campaign in Venezuela involving the American military, even if unintended, would be the opposite of President Trump’s goal of ending foreign entanglements.”

Speaking at the White House after the Senate vote, Vice President JD Vance rejected the notion that Trump’s grip on Congress was slipping, saying the GOP opposition was “based more on a legal technicality than any disagreement on policy.”

But the internal GOP dissent came to the delight of Democratic leaders, who are growing jubilant over their ability to highlight the splits and hammer Republicans heading into the midterms.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters “Republicans need to get their act together in terms of their leadership,” saying the party had been badly distracted from addressing Americans’ cost-of-living concerns.

After the war powers vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hailed it as “a critical step” for the chamber in “reasserting its constitutional authority” and pushing back on an imperious president.

Still, there were signs that Trump’s sway over the GOP had not entirely eroded.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), while voting to constrain Trump’s war powers, downplayed the break and reiterated multiple times that he supports the president.

“I don’t take any offense to that,” he said about Trump’s suggestion that he should not be reelected. “I think the president is great. I love the president. … I understand he’s ticked.”

And in a particularly stark demonstration of Trump’s continued sway over the House GOP, most Republicans in the chamber voted with him Thursday to sustain his veto of two bills they had allowed to pass unanimously just weeks before.

One bill benefited the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida, which opposed his administration’s attempt to build a vast migrant detention center in the Everglades. Another authorized a water project backed by Colorado politicians who have clashed with Trump, including Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert.

“I am disappointed to see the lack of leadership, the amount of people that will fold, that will cave, that will not take a stand,” Boebert said after the vote. “This had nothing to do with policy. … Folks are afraid of getting a mean tweet or attacked.”

Some House Republicans who opposed the veto override cited White House officials who circled the chamber as the votes unfolded. It was clear they were taking note of the defectors, one GOP lawmaker said. Trump going nuclear on the five Republican senators who had defied him earlier in the day helped convince others to not stick their neck out.

“It wasn’t worth it,” another House Republican said. “It’s not my bill.”

Still, 35 Republicans broke ranks with Trump on the Colorado project while 24 did so on the tribal bill. Two committee chairs voted to override both vetoes.

Later in the day, a critical mass of House Republicans sent an incontrovertible message on an issue much more central to the GOP’s midterm prospects than expanding a tribal reservation — addressing health care costs.

Seventeen GOP members joined with Democrats to pass a bill that would revive lapsed Obamacare tax credits for three years. Trump, with the encouragement of Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, has refused to engage in bipartisan negotiations — instead slamming the subsidies as wasteful and calling on lawmakers to set up an alternate system where Americans get direct payments to help afford coverage.

But multiple Republicans, while still blaming Democrats for the morass, said Thursday they were not willing to stand by and do nothing amid the standoff. The expired subsidies were used by more than 20 million Americans, lowering their premiums in many cases by thousands of dollars per year.

“I have a bunch of my constituents that are depending on these programs, and I’m not going to leave them hanging because the Democrats broke the damn system,” said GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who represents a swing Wisconsin district and referred to the bill as a “bridging mechanism.”

Asked if his vote could be seen as a rebuke of Trump, Van Orden said he “didn’t even think of it like that.”

Republicans were similarly roundabout when it came to the Senate’s action Thursday to display the contentious Jan. 6 plaque, which was created pursuant to a 2022 law but has remained in storage as Speaker Mike Johnson refuses to install it.

But the timing spoke volumes, coming two days after the fifth anniversary of the Capitol attack and the White House publication of a website casting the riot as the fault of Democrats and the Capitol Police itself.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), without mentioning Trump, said the plaque was a commemoration of “what I would consider to be one of the most significant stress tests for this institution since it was founded.”

“It was a great day for democracy because of the law enforcement officers,” he said. “We took a brief recess, we got ourselves together, the Capitol was secured and before we left the compound we came back and completed our constitutional duty” to certify the 2020 election.

Meanwhile, the fallout of the war powers vote is likely to continue. Thursday’s vote sets up final consideration of the resolution next week, where Trump’s commitment to an “America First” foreign policy will be debated. In addition to the pushback on his plans for Venezuela, many Republicans aired deep misgivings this week about his overt attempts to seize control of Greenland, a Danish territory.

The House is on track to take up a similar vote later this month after Democrats introduced a companion measure Thursday and expressed cautious optimism that more Republicans might vote to constrain the president.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said he was already “inclined” to support the war powers resolution after hearing from top administration officials in briefings this week and after hearing about Trump’s threats against Greenland. But he said the president’s attack on the five GOP senators Thursday cemented his position.

“Reading the ugly response to those senators sort of convinced me to vote yes,” he said.

Mia McCarthy and Calen Razor contributed to this report.

Congress

Senators weigh staying in town to vote on data center bill

Published

3 hours ago

September 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans are discussing whether to stay in town next week to vote on a data center bill being championed by one of their most vulnerable incumbents, according to two GOP senators granted anonymity to disclose private talks.

Republicans haven’t made a decision — and lawmakers said they were given no concrete guidance on their schedule during a closed-door lunch with party leaders Wednesday. But the fact that some are weighing whether to remain in session so close to the midterms against sending members home early to campaign signals a growing anxiety over affordability-related issues ahead of Election Day.

Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), who is fending off a competitive challenge from former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, tried last week to clear a House-passed bill aimed at getting tech companies to cover the energy costs associated with data centers — an issue that has overtaken his Senate race.

But Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, blocked Husted’s effort to pass the bill quickly via a unanimous consent agreement, arguing the measure doesn’t go far enough to protect consumers.

That means GOP leaders would need to jump through days of procedural hoops in order to get even an initial vote on the bill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also indicated Wednesday that he would urge his colleagues not to support the legislation at this time, instead touting another Democratic bill that would put more enforcement mechanisms in place.

“Senator Husted’s bill is a fraud. It’s voluntary, no company has to do it,” he told reporters during his weekly news conference. “The bill we have is mandatory. It is much stronger and it is what is needed.”

The House version of Husted’s bill passed in the House with overwhelming bipartisan support earlier this month.

Senate Republicans are also still waiting to see if a long-sought deal to overhaul the energy permitting process comes together. If an agreement can be reached soon, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has indicated that the chamber would stay in town next week to process that bill, giving lawmakers more time to take up the Ratepayer Protection Act as well.

Calen Razor contributed to this report.

Congress

Mike Collins memo identifies 1 in 10 Georgia voters who should be voting for him — but are ‘up for grabs’

Published

4 hours ago

September 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

One in 10 Georgia voters aren’t sold on Mike Collins for Senate — even though those same voters backed President Donald Trump in 2024, according to a new memo from Collins’ campaign.

The finding comes as public polling continues to show Collins trailing Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the premier battleground state. A YouGov poll released Wednesday found Ossoff up by 10 percentage points over Collins.

The memo identifies the “up for grabs” voters as Republicans and conservative-leaning independents who also plan to vote for the state’s GOP gubernatorial candidate, Rick Jackson, and could decide the election.

“They should be voting for Mike Collins, and they are not yet, mainly because they do not have a firm opinion of him,” the memo reads. “Most of them cannot tell you anything about him, and a third have never seen an ad about him.”

Collins’ campaign has been working to convince GOP leaders and outside groups that he can narrow Ossoff’s polling advantage, as the party weighs how best to allocate its resources in the closing stretch of the election.

For now, top Republicans have appeared to deprioritize the Georgia Senate race as a top pickup opportunity — as other battleground states come more into view — but Senate Majority Leader John Thune is planning to attend a fundraiser for Collins alongside Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday to shore up support.

The campaign memo makes the case that Collins does not need to build a new GOP coalition to close the gap but instead focus on the existing Republican coalition in the state that it identifies as still up for grabs for him.

Two-thirds of those voters live in the Atlanta media market, according to the memo, followed by Macon and Augusta.

“Streaming is how a plurality get live television,” the memo reads. “They are seeing fewer political ads than everyone else, so they need to see these messages more often, and they need to keep seeing them all the way through November 3.”

The overriding issue for these voters, according to the memo, is the cost of living. “Nothing else is close,” it says. The memo argues that the campaign’s closing message should introduce Collins by emphasizing his Georgia roots and business background while attacking Ossoff over taxes and other elements of his record.

“Every Georgian needs to understand how Jon Ossoff failed them by making their lives less safe and less affordable while aligning himself with far-left socialists who proclaim that ‘America deserved 9/11,’” Collins spokesperson Meyer Siegfried said in a statement.

Congress

Sanders, Casar introduce ‘superintelligence’ ban

Published

7 hours ago

September 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Two top congressional progressives unveiled their bill Wednesday to ban artificial “superintelligence” and establish a Cabinet-level agency to regulate AI, fleshing out their plans for a crackdown on the industry.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) have advocated for heavy regulation of the rapidly evolving technology, particularly following a string of high-profile cyberattacks and doomsday warnings from industry insiders. Sanders and Casar teased the proposal earlier this month but only officially rolled out their “Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act” on Wednesday.

Casar said the bill would ban “recursive self-improvement,” meaning AI’s ability to build improved and more capable versions of itself. The bill also bars AI models from designing nuclear or biological weapons and would ban models that try to “escape human oversight or deceive humans,” Casar told reporters.

Sanders and Casar had previously outlined their plans to draft legislation banning “superintelligence” and to pause advanced AI development until a “Department of Artificial Intelligence” with a Senate-confirmed secretary is capable of monitoring model capabilities and identifying risks.

The legislation would set penalties for any entity that attempts to circumvent federal oversight, including the “corporate death penalty” for companies and up to 20 years in prison for individuals — on par with the punishment for illegally developing nuclear weapons.

The duo is bullish about both chambers swiftly taking up their legislation, even as Democratic leaders entertain much smaller-bore regulatory actions and some Republican leaders reject the need to advance AI safety legislation entirely. Casar said he believed the bill “will be considered the commonsense proposal in the coming weeks” as public pressure on Congress to enact AI guardrails mounts.

“In my view, we cannot simply sit by idly and wait for advanced AI to cause the next 9/11 or Chernobyl or a global pandemic or a financial crisis before we take action to protect the American people and, of course, the people of the world,” Sanders told reporters.