Congress
Vance to Senate GOP lunch
Vice President JD Vance is attending Thursday’s Senate Republican lunch.
The visit comes as senators try to make progress on several key priorities and leave Washington for a five-week recess. Among the unsettled issues is whether the GOP will advance a budget framework for a new party-line spending bill and take votes on the SAVE America elections bill.
Senate Agriculture Committee Democrats rejected a GOP-led farm bill Thursday in a vote that highlights deep partisan divisions over nutrition aid cuts and leaves Congress without a clear path toward reauthorizing the long-overdue bill.
Chair John Boozman recessed the panel indefinitely after the 10-11 vote, meaning that he can call members back to revisit the bill at any point, including in September after the chamber’s August break.
Democrats stood united against Boozman’s package, sticking to their demand for a two-year delay to Republicans’ requirement that states share the cost of providing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
“I want us to get to a bipartisan agreement. I think people know that that is how I have operated in this place, and that’s what I want to get done,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the panel’s ranking member. “But first and foremost, that includes addressing this ridiculous [SNAP] situation.”
Boozman offered a one-year SNAP delay, language to authorize year-round E15 sales and increased funding for a program that distributes food through food banks in hopes of attracting bipartisan support. GOP senators resisted Democrats’ efforts to push for a longer delay.
Republicans needed at least one Democratic vote to advance the bill due to the absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell on Thursday. Boozman accused Democrats of holding SNAP participants “hostage and holding our farmers hostage.”
“I want to be clear: A two-year delay does not have the support of the majority in Congress or of the White House. The offer before you is the best, and it’s the final offer,” Boozman said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) defended Boozman’s offer during the markup.
“The chairman fought as hard as he could,” said Thune, a longtime Agriculture Committee member. “The proposal in front of us … gives everybody another year to do this and saves some states in this room a whole lot of money.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said that “all of us knew before we walked in this room” that the bill would fail due to the SNAP stalemate.
“I want to get the bipartisan stuff done, and we’re not going to get a farm bill. That’s the game here today,” Booker said.
Senators adopted dozens of amendments to the original text, including those that would permanently transfer the Food for Peace program to USDA and make hot rotisserie chicken eligible under SNAP. They rejected several Democratic-led amendments to undo SNAP funding cuts and add other nutrition priorities to the bill along party lines.
Rachel Shin contributed to this report.
Rep. Jay Obernolte, a California Republican leading the charge on wide-ranging artificial intelligence legislation in the House, said Thursday he’s ramping up pressure for a committee vote after a series of cyber breaches involving rogue AI models.
“We have been aware of the need for this type of bill for the last couple of years,” the California Republican told reporters in Washington. “However, the recent events have certainly elevated the discussion amongst my colleagues and elevated awareness of just how necessary this bill is. So, in that sense, it’s been timely.”
Obernolte’s comments follow a series of recent disclosures by OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta that their models autonomously engaged in cyberattacks.
The lawmaker is leading legislation with Democratic Rep. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts that would preempt some state AI regulations and give the federal government the ability to restrict deployment of AI models that pose catastrophic risks.
Obernolte said Thursday that discussions with fellow lawmakers about his bill have continued since the House left Washington last week, including during a recent trip focused on critical minerals. He said leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee seems open to holding a vote on the bill in September but have made no commitments.
“We feel like that’s a reasonable compromise that everyone can be happy with,” Obernolte said. “So we’re going to push to have some hearings and markups on that in Energy and Commerce when we return in September.”
A spokesperson for House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Obernolte said he has been briefed on a yet-to-be publicly released White House framework for vetting AI cybersecurity risks and that he has had “constant discussions” with the administration.
Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) becomes the latest lawmaker to announce a forthcoming book — but this one will take aim at his own party and President Donald Trump.
“How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents” will explore how a group of “grifting sycophants and useful idiots” have impacted the second Trump administration, according to a new summary from his publisher released Thursday.
Tillis has clashed publicly with the president and members of his administration, particularly after Trump effectively forced him into retirement. In an interview with MS NOW on Thursday, Tillis said those individuals — whom he dubs as “MAGATS” in his book — “are not giving the president honest advice and putting us in positions that we could avoid.”
“I’m talking about people who have never worked a day in business, who now have business strategy, decision-making roles, and they’re simply not looking around corners and taking care of this president,” Tillis said. “Those are the people I want to expose in this book.”
Tillis has publicly criticized members of Trump’s administration including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; the Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought; onetime acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte; and Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller. His most recent break with the president was his refusal to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche until he agreed to eliminate Trump’s $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund.
But Tillis, who announced last year he would not seek reelection after serving two terms in the upper chamber, emphasized on Thursday that he hopes to help Republicans maintain their slim majority.
“I want Republicans to win in November. That’s why I’m speaking out,” said Tillis. “ I’m here for the American people, not to score points with Stephen Miller, Pete Hegseth or these other folks who I think are giving the president bad advice.”
His book — a play on the famous “How to Win Friends and Influence People” — will be released Oct. 6, ahead of the midterms.
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