Congress
Why House GOP hopes of cracking down on fraud could flame out
House Republicans are hoping Vice President JD Vance’s personal appeal to Congress to help crack down on alleged abuse in safety-net programs will revive talks of tackling fraud before the end of the year. But many are skeptical any such bill will ultimately reach the president’s desk.
Finding cost savings by rooting out so-called government waste and fraud in Medicare, Medicaid and the federal food assistance program known as SNAP was a top priority for House Republicans, who set out earlier this year to pass another party-line reconciliation package on the heels of last year’s “big, beautiful bill” and June’s immigration enforcement measure.
Many Republicans believe the fraud issue will have salience with voters amid larger concerns about affordability, since it would ostensibly involve returning lost funds to government health programs.
Lawmakers spent months discussing ways to tackle the matter, including hosting multiple hearings and meetings with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz to convince moderates and vulnerable GOP incumbents that their constituents would not misconstrue such efforts as gutting key social services.
“It should be one of our top priorities,” said Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) in a text message this week, “and I am very much in favor of seeing this in some type of reconciliation package.”
Yet with less than 100 days until the midterms, Republicans who were eager to go home to their districts for August recess and fold significant fraud wins into affordability messaging have little to show for it. And some now admit they are at a loss for whether there’s any campaign promise on this topic they can make and truly keep.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who chairs a House Oversight subcommittee that at one point was designed to complement the now-disbanded Department of Government Efficiency, said in an interview Wednesday that his fellow Republicans don’t “have the guts” to follow through on significant cost cutting measures.
“If Congress is listening to the public, then it should” advance fraud prevention legislation, Burchett continued, but added that it would only happen if Vance, or President Donald Trump, “picks up the phone and calls” members directly.
A roundtable at the White House last week alongside congressional Republicans may have provided a needed jolt: Vance, the administration’s newly-minted “fraud czar,” specifically called on Congress to stiffen penalties for fraudsters, increase data sharing between federal and state governments and give more money for extra staff and technology to federal agencies such as CMS.
Several House and Senate Republicans met with the vice president after the roundtable to discuss possible legislative solutions and appeared confident that they would work in tandem to move anti-fraud bills soon.
“We’ve got to bring accountability back to the system; otherwise, it’s going to continue to get worse, much worse, at a time we can least afford it,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who has pushed for more legislative action on fraud in the Senate, in a video of remarks following the event.
“Allowing fraud to run rampant in the United States of America is a slap in the face to hardworking Americans,” said Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) at that same confab.
Burchett also praised Vance’s engagement, while House GOP leaders are now actively looking into Vance’s requests and want to help the administration with the fraud crackdown as much as they can, according to one person granted anonymity to share details of private discussions.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over several health programs, is pursuing several bills to address fraud, including legislation that would impose stricter requirements for states overseeing social programs. Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said in a statement that the panel was also looking at “state Medicaid programs and identifying ways states can do more to root out fraud that is actively harming patients.”
“We need to tackle fraud. It is rampant and I agree we need to work on it in this Congress,” Energy and Commerce GOP Rep. Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee said in an interview Wednesday.
In addition to the roundtable, Vance made his pitch to Congress in a piece for The Washington Post.
“To protect these programs for the next generation, Congress must help us finish the job,” he said before laying out the legislative requests. Those asks included stiffening penalties for fraudsters, increasing data sharing between federal and state governments and giving more money for extra staff and technology.
Yet factions of House Republicans have been pushing for months for fraud crackdown efforts to be included in the third reconciliation bill the White House wants passed before the midterms — so far to no avail.
The Republican Study Committee put out a reconciliation framework in January that involved tackling fraud in the health care sector. Soon after Vance’s call for Congress’ engagement last week, RSC Chair August Pfluger of Texas put out a statement noting that his group’s proposal would codify the Trump administration’s anti-fraud measures into law.
Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), the chair of the House Budget Committee, was pitching even larger cuts to safety-net programs for inclusion in a party-line policy package before the second or third reconciliation bills started moving.
Then, in the days leading up to the summer recess, GOP leaders ultimately chose to put forward a more narrow blueprint that would free up funding for the Iran war effort and components of the partisan election security measure known as the SAVE America Act — a concession that there wasn’t support in the Senate for a more expansive, filibuster-skirting reconciliation package given the slim Republican majority.
House Republicans voted for that slimmed-down budget blueprint after leaders promised fraud prevention provisions would be included in a fourth reconciliation bill to be advanced following the November elections.
Pfluger didn’t have an answer when asked last month why members should believe there will be a path for the proposals later this year that did not exist in July.
“That’s a great question for leadership,” he said.
House GOP leaders have argued the dynamics will be different after the election. Arrington predicted in an interview before the recess that the lame duck session of Congress would actually be a perfect opportunity to address the issue. Then, he reasoned, House Republicans would be free from the pressures of looming elections — emboldened to proceed if they hold onto their majority, or determined to leave a lasting mark if their days in control are numbered.
“The political will that it takes to do any spending reform in 100 days prior to an historic midterm election is very different than the dynamics in the lame duck,” Arrington said. “You get past the election, and you got an invigorated body that is not thinking about their political life.”
Even so, a fourth reconciliation bill this year can only happen if the Senate moves ahead with the pending third proposal’s framework — and there are already doubts among GOP lawmakers that this will happen.
Short of that, House GOP leaders could put more individual fraud bills on the floor for votes. Arrington, for instance, has introduced legislation to create a $28 billion fund for CMS to fight fraud by providing more resources for staffing and technology to identify fraudsters faster.
But these measures would be political messaging vehicles only, as none would clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold and related bills the chamber passed previously have remained in limbo across the Capitol. The House has already passed several that have so far stalled in the Senate.
If Republicans do manage to hold onto their majorities in the House and Senate, it could be a centerpiece of the first reconciliation measure lawmakers pursue come January.
Still, some Republicans said tackling fraud isn’t a guarantee in any of these bills. Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia, when asked if he believed Congress was missing out on the opportunity to tackle fraud by not including it in the third reconciliation measure when they had the chance, said “that’s yet to be seen.”
James Talarico is planning to counterprogram President Donald Trump’s GOP midterms convention in Dallas with a focus on affordability.
The idea from the Texas Democratic Senate candidate and seminarian: host a statewide “Love Thy Neighbor” food drive to offer a contrast with Republicans coming to town and highlight the high cost of groceries, according to plans shared first with Blue Light News.
“Next week, billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians will gather at a convention in Dallas to clink champagne glasses and toast their own corruption. They’re paying $20,000 for entry to a Billionaire Ball celebrating corrupt tariffs, billionaire tax breaks, and a new forever war that are all driving grocery costs through the roof,” Talarico said in a statement to Blue Light News. “We’ll be doing something different. We’re bringing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together to collect groceries for our neighbors who have been screwed over by corrupt politicians.”
The campaign said it will “mobilize volunteers to collect, sort, and donate groceries for middle class Texans struggling with the high price of groceries.” The event will last from Sunday, Sept. 6 through Wednesday, Sept. 9 — the same day the GOP convention kicks off.
Talarico is also expected to field media interviews in a large warehouse near the convention.
“Texans across the political spectrum will come together to build community, show up for their neighbors, and take power back for working people,” the campaign said in a statement.
A recent poll conducted by Texas Public Opinion Research poll released last week showed Talarico leading ,his opponent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 48 percent to 42 percent.
Trump this week said he would campaign for Paxton soon.
Congress
‘I don’t think anyone is really comfortable’: Democrat leading on AI raises alarms at Trump, Zuckerberg call
A House Democrat trying to lead her party on artificial intelligence policy sent a warning shot Friday to tech CEOs trying to undermine efforts to regulate the fast-growing technology.
In an interview, Rep. Lori Trahan raised alarm bells over a POLITICO report detailing attempts by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to personally discourage President Donald Trump from moving ahead with plans to establish an independent AI regulator modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA.
“I don’t think anyone is really comfortable when they see tech executives who are sitting on the stage at the president’s inauguration, and have had to pay millions of dollars to this fund and that fund, calling the shots,” said the Massachusetts Democrat.
Allowing Zuckerberg to call the shots on the proposed AI commission would be tantamount to “a complete abdication of Congress,” Trahan continued. She also suggested would use her perch on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to work with other Democrats to haul in industry executives like Zuckerberg to testify, should Democrats win back the House majority in the midterms.
“Congress’ job is to do oversight and to have those hearings,” she said. “And I think we would learn a lot from those hearings so that we can put pen to paper on thoughtful proposals. So yes, there have been a number of people, myself included, who have called for those hearings, and I think we’re going to continue to do that.”
Trahan is poised to be a major player in the coming weeks and months when it comes to AI, especially if Democrats prevail in the November elections and are forced to solidify a position on the subject; the party is currently all over the map.
Unlike other Democrats who have retreated to their corners to work on partisan proposals, Trahan has gone out on a limb by crossing the aisle to broker a deal on a bipartisan AI safety bill with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) — a package that was originally met with disdain by members of both parties.
She announced this week she would opt out of a run for a place in House Democratic leadership after being widely expected to make a play in the next Congress — in part, she said, to continue working on AI issues.
But Trahan’s comments Friday illustrate the deep distrust among Democrats, herself included, over the GOP approach to AI regulation — from Republicans waffling on whether they support the proliferation of data centers to Trump’s recent call with Zuckerberg.
Her calls are consistent with left-leaning members like Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who has been at the forefront of the most aggressive proposals to crack down on top tech companies.
“The CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI say that cutting edge AI could be as dangerous as nuclear weapons,” Casar said Thursday on X in response to the Blue Light News report. “But Trump is conspiring with billionaires for this technology to be regulated like … Hollywood movies.”
Trahan said Friday that “reasonable people can disagree on what regulatory construct we come up with” governing development and use of AI.
But, she added, “what I don’t think the American people agree with is that Mark Zuckerberg and President Trump are going to figure that out on a phone call.”
House Democrats’ top election leader has a message for states ahead of the midterms: count faster.
“We are, I think, nicely trying to encourage people to do their balloting as quickly as possible, and that means hiring additional staff so that it doesn’t call into question results,” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said in a Thursday interview with Blue Light News.
The advice is just one part of Morelle’s efforts to secure the midterm elections. He said Democrats have wargamed over 150 scenarios of how the Trump administration could attempt to interfere or complicate the November elections and its certification. He is encouraging states to have a “degree of urgency” when counting ballots to stave off Republican-led conspiracy theories about the reasons for delays.
Morelle said he is leaning on states to staff up on election officials to facilitate speedy ballot counting while emphasizing the process should still be “done properly,” “fairly” and that “we don’t want people with cast ballots not to have their ballots counted.” He is going to Los Angeles next week to deliver that message and meet with election security experts and election administrators — though he did not specify whom he is meeting with or where.
“We are trying to gently encourage people to staff up,” he said. Morelle added that if Democrats take the House majority, they’d “push for more resources for local and state administrators so they can hire additional capacity.”
Morelle has other big plans in the majority, including cracking down on dark money in politics, protecting voting rights and most notably, working on a bipartisan voter identification bill.
Asked whether he could accept some form of voter identification as part of a larger bipartisan elections package, Morelle said, “I’m personally not opposed to some form of voter ID,” adding that he has opposed multiple Republican-led proposals to tighten up identification requirements.
“I don’t know where my colleagues on the Democrat side will be, but I think voters think, ‘Okay, you show your ID for just tons of things. Is it really that much of a burden?’” he said. “And if it is, we’ll get state issued IDs or federally issued IDs to people who can’t afford it. So I do think that there’s hope for a bipartisan way forward, and I’ll be anxious to work with colleagues to do it.”
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