Congress

Ways and Means Chief says he’s focused on bipartisanship

Published

2 months ago

May 14, 2026

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith: Mr. Bipartisanship?

Speaking at a conference Thursday sponsored by the Tax Council Policy Institute, the reliably partisan tax chieftain struck a conciliatory tone in saying he wants to spend the rest of this year working with Democrats on a number of issues.

The Missouri Republican had kind words to say about his panel’s ranking Democrat Rep. Richard Neal (“effective”), Alabama Democratic tax writer Terri Sewell (“a jewel”) and especially Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the top Democrat on the Finance committee.

“We’re not from the same cloth, but I love Senator Wyden — I really do,” said Smith, adding they’re supposed to have lunch next Monday. “He’s a good, good man.”

Smith had little to say about the third reconciliation package House Republicans hope to put together and, at one point, called it “reconciliation 10.0 or whatever.”

He emphasized instead areas where he said he could work with Democrats.

“We can do things on health care, trade and tax from a bipartisan perspective, and I intend to do that in the next few months,” he told conference attendees.

“Everything that we move forward on Ways and Means needs to be bipartisan, because I want to legislate,” Smith continued. “I don’t want to just like pass things just to pass things. I want them to become law.”

It’s a notable shift for Smith, who was one of the architects behind Republicans’ hyperpartisan tax cuts pushed into law last year, and comes even as his House colleagues still hope to pass yet another party-line reconciliation bill later this summer, in addition to the one now pending in the Senate that’s focused on funding immigration enforcement.

Smith noted that he had just arrived from a closed-door meeting with Democratic tax writers to discuss cryptocurrency tax issues. He’s spent months working on a still-unreleased plan to revise the tax code to account for the rise of digital assets, though he’s said he won’t move it without support from Democrats.

Smith has also been pushing to move a package of uncontroversial measures aimed at improving tax administration.

Congress

Mitch McConnell is still in the hospital after medical episode, his office says

Published

8 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Mitch McConnell remains hospitalized, his office said in a statement Thursday — without offering details about a recent medical episode that has renewed concern about the health of the former Republican majority leader.

McConnell “continues his recovery in the hospital” and “continues to improve,” his office said.

“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” the statement said. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”

The statement did not explain why he was hospitalized last month.

The update comes after multiple outlets reported details of a first responder dispatch call indicating emergency medical personnel responded to McConnell’s home last month to treat an unconscious person who had experienced “cardiac arrest.”

Blue Light News has not independently verified the dispatch call.

The 84-year-old senator, who is retiring at the end of this term, has experienced multiple medical incidents in recent years. On two occasions in 2023, he froze while speaking with reporters. He has also suffered multiple falls and temporarily used a wheelchair, a move his office described at the time as a precautionary measure.

Congress

House Ethics says it doesn’t have information to share on lawmaker sexual misconduct settlements

Published

15 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House adopted a resolution Tuesday requiring the House Ethics Committee to release information on taxpayer funds used to pay out sexual misconduct settlements with lawmakers — but the committee now says it has no information it can share.

In a statement Thursday, the committee reiterated it does not manage sexual harassment lawsuits or their settlements; taxpayers have not footed the bill for those payments since 2018.

Since that time, according to the statement, “the Committee has not been notified of any awards or settlements relating to allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or other sexual misconduct by a Member.”

Instead, the bipartisan Ethics Committee said it was up to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to publicly release a list of each member who has received settlements for sexual misconduct allegations, as mandated by the resolution championed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

The committee, in the Thursday statement, said it “fully supports the release of information about sexual misconduct settlements and calls on OCWR to abide by [the resolution] and make publicly available information about Member sexual misconduct matters resulting in payment of taxpayer funds.”

Massie, in a text message Thursday, said “OCWR can release it.”

The OCWR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The bipartisan Ethics Committee has been under pressure in recent months to show it takes allegations of sexual misconduct against colleagues seriously. Two former House members — Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) — were forced to resign earlier this year amid serious accusations against them.

The renewed reckoning has prompted new questions about whether the House is up to the task of policing its own. The resolution earlier this week was adopted nearly unanimously, with just one member, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), voting “present.”

House Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) said in an interview earlier this week that while he would support Massie’s resolution, the relevant “information was already out in the public domain.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

AOC endorses El-Sayed in Michigan Senate race

Published

18 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign for Michigan’s open Senate seat on Thursday, a decision that comes as progressives look to capitalize off a series of recent high-profile primary victories in New York, Colorado and elsewhere.

Her endorsement could provide El-Sayed with a critical boost just over a month before the state’s Aug. 4 primary. The former public health official is locked in a heated contest against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow for the right to take on Republican Mike Rogers in the general election.

It also comes as El-Sayed has risen to the top of the pack in recent public polling.

Virtually any Democratic path to flipping the Senate in this year’s midterms would see the party hold the open Michigan Senate seat, with two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) retiring at the end of his term.

The race has emerged as perhaps the largest battleground over the ideological future of the party. El-Sayed, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, has collected endorsements from progressives, while Stevens has the tacit backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, with AIPAC also boosting her candidacy.

El-Sayed, Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with The New York Times, is her party’s best chance.

“Despite our ideological differences and whatever disagreements there are in the party, every single one of us sees this moment as existential,” she said. “And I think many people are willing to put aside differences in order to give us the best chance at winning. And I think that Abdul gives us that right now.”