{"id":15904,"date":"2025-11-21T13:16:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T13:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-things-are-not-normal-on-the-hill\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T13:16:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T13:16:50","slug":"capitol-agenda-things-are-not-normal-on-the-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-things-are-not-normal-on-the-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Things are not normal on Blue Light News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After a seven-week recess, Speaker Mike Johnson was optimistic about making progress on urgent priorities like government funding and rising health care costs. Instead, the House used hours of floor time to vote five times this week on measures rebuking other members.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing we can apparently do is condemn each other,\u201d says Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.). \u201cI\u2019ve not seen the House hit this low of a point since I\u2019ve been here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once a rare tactic, censures have become commonplace partly for their use as a political rallying cry and a fundraising boon. Concerned lawmakers are now scrambling to stop the censure wars from escalating<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.) introduced bipartisan legislation Thursday that would require 60 percent of the House \u2014 rather than the current simple majority \u2014 to approve a censure of a member, disapprove their conduct or remove them from committee assignments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe institution needs some protection,\u201d Bacon said in an interview.<\/p>\n

House leaders seem open to curbing the personal brawling. Johnson called the general suggestion of a rule change \u201can intriguing idea\u201d and said he\u2019d be \u201copen to having that conversation.\u201d Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also said he is \u201copen-minded about what the possibilities are in terms of getting the Congress out of this repeated effort by Republicans to censure members.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump added fuel to the fire when he declared Thursday morning that six Democratic lawmakers are engaged in \u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOUR, punishable by DEATH!<\/a>\u201d The Democrats \u2014 Sens. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) and Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), Maggie Goodlander (N.H.) and Chris Deluzio (Pa.) \u2014 shared a video Tuesday encouraging U.S. military members to disobey unlawful orders.<\/p>\n

Johnson initially defended Trump<\/a>, saying it was the Democrats who were acting \u201cwildly inappropriate.\u201d He later conceded \u201cthe words that the president chose are not the ones I would use.\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune said of Trump\u2019s suggestion of executions: \u201cI don\u2019t agree with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Russia sanctions action: <\/b>Some Republicans are prepared to introduce a discharge petition as soon as Friday to force a vote on stalled Russia sanctions legislation if House leaders don\u2019t take action. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) told Blue Light News he huddled with Johnson on the House floor Wednesday night and that Johnson \u201cshares the sense of urgency\u201d but \u201cdoesn\u2019t necessarily\u201d agree with Thune\u2019s assessment that the bill must start in the House.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Another discharge petition threat: <\/b>House Republicans interested in forcing a vote to ban congressional stock trading say they\u2019re ready to kick off the process Friday if leaders continue to stall. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) told Blue Light News she\u2019s first waiting to see whether House Administration Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) will mark up and offer an amendment process Friday on a potential separate bill related to stock trading.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Wu, Meredith Lee Hill and Jordain Carney contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a seven-week recess, Speaker Mike Johnson was optimistic about making progress on urgent priorities like government funding and rising health care costs. Instead, the House used hours of floor time to vote five times this week on measures rebuking other members. \u201cThe only thing we can apparently do is condemn each other,\u201d says Rep. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}