{"id":17360,"date":"2026-01-07T13:16:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T13:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-the-house-gops-nerve-wracking-return\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T13:16:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T13:16:56","slug":"capitol-agenda-the-house-gops-nerve-wracking-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-the-house-gops-nerve-wracking-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: The House GOP\u2019s nerve-wracking return"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The start of the second session of the 119th Congress isn\u2019t going as planned for House Republicans.<\/p>\n

First, the GOP Conference\u2019s long-planned, day-long policy retreat Tuesday at the Kennedy Center \u2014 intended to build unity around a legislative agenda in a midterm election year \u2014 was shaken by news of Rep. Doug LaMalfa\u2019s (R-Calif.) unexpected death<\/a> and Rep. Jim Baird\u2019s (R-Ind.) hospitalization from a car accident.<\/p>\n

It brought into stark relief the major math challenges House Republicans now face. LaMalfa\u2019s passing brings the balance of the House to 218-213. And as long as Baird is out recovering, Speaker Mike Johnson can afford to lose only a single GOP vote on party-line legislative business on the chamber floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep saying we are one breath away from the minority \u2014 that\u2019s more true today than ever,\u201d said one House Republican granted anonymity to speak candidly about the mood.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The numbers game:\u00a0<\/b>Johnson\u2019s margins could be a major problem for Wednesday\u2019s vote to move forward with consideration of a \u201cminibus\u201d funding package covering Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water and Interior-Environment \u2014 if the measure makes it to the floor at all.<\/p>\n

Rules ultimately recessed Tuesday night without approving the rule to allow for floor debate on the funding bill after Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and other conservatives revolted over some of the earmarks<\/a> for projects in Democratic districts and states.<\/p>\n

The panel is expected to reconvene Wednesday morning to discuss a leadership-backed compromise, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss the plans \u2014 though it wasn\u2019t immediately clear what resolution could satisfy Roy\u2019s demands without alienating Democrats whose support will be key in the Senate. <\/p>\n

\u2014 Health care:\u00a0<\/b>Republicans who hoped a speech from Donald Trump at the Tuesday retreat would bring messaging clarity to their position on health care policy also had their dreams quickly dashed as the president suggested the GOP ought to be \u201cflexible\u201d<\/a> when it comes to federal funding for abortion.<\/p>\n

It caused an uproar among conservatives who insist any agreement to extend lapsed Affordable Care Act subsidies must include language banning the use of federal funds for abortions \u2014 while Democrats say abortion restrictions are a nonstarter.<\/p>\n

Republicans will have to soon decide what compromises they\u2019re willing to make. The House is set to take a procedural vote Wednesday on whether to move forward with legislation that would revive the enhanced ACA subsidies for three years, which Congress let expire in December.<\/p>\n

The bill is expected to pass the House on Thursday with support from all Democrats and a handful of Republicans. Then, senators will have to make the next move.<\/p>\n

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

\u2014 More Venezuela briefings: <\/b>Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine will brief all lawmakers on the Venezuela operation Wednesday morning \u2014 first in the Senate, then in the House.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Appropriations movement: <\/b>Congress has just over three weeks to pass the remaining spending bills needed to avoid another shutdown.<\/p>\n

If lawmakers can pass the Energy-Water, Interior-Environment and Commerce-Justice-Science funding measure by early next week, appropriators are tentatively planning to move two more spending packages. The first, according to Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), would include Homeland, State-Foreign Operations and Financial Services. A final minibus could contain Defense, Labor-HHS-Education and Transportation-HUD.<\/p>\n

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The start of the second session of the 119th Congress isn\u2019t going as planned for House Republicans. First, the GOP Conference\u2019s long-planned, day-long policy retreat Tuesday at the Kennedy Center \u2014 intended to build unity around a legislative agenda in a midterm election year \u2014 was shaken by news of Rep. Doug LaMalfa\u2019s (R-Calif.) unexpected […]<\/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-17360","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\/17360","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=17360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}