{"id":17492,"date":"2026-01-09T13:16:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T13:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-gop-pushes-back-on-trump\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T13:16:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T13:16:46","slug":"capitol-agenda-gop-pushes-back-on-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-gop-pushes-back-on-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: GOP pushes back on Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Donald Trump\u2019s grip on congressional Republicans is slipping.<\/p>\n

A series of rebukes on Blue Light News on Thursday highlighted how rank-and-file Republicans are starting to move with less regard<\/a> for the president heading into the midterms.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what comes next on three fronts:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Bringing back ACA credits:<\/b> Seventeen House Republicans broke ranks<\/a> to support a clean three-year restoration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that expired last month. The bigger-than-anticipated revolt<\/a> showed how politically dangerous skyrocketing insurance premiums could be.<\/p>\n

The bill is expected to die in the Senate, as Majority Leader John Thune has no plans to bring it up for a vote.<\/p>\n

But the Republican proponents hope the strong bipartisan support pushes the Senate to produce its own ACA solution. Senators are considering a plan that would reestablish the credits for two years with reforms. Text could come as soon as Tuesday, per Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), as lawmakers race to get a deal over the finish line before open enrollment ends Jan. 15 in most states.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Limiting Trump’s war powers:\u00a0<\/b>The Senate gave one of its strongest admonishments of the president Thursday when five Republicans helped advance a measure to constrain Trump\u2019s military action abroad<\/a>. An outraged president took to social media to say they \u201cshould never be elected to office again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The measure now heads to a final Senate vote next week. But it would still need to pass the House, which could prove more challenging. If Thursday\u2019s failed veto override votes<\/a> were any indication, House Republicans are less willing to break with the administration than their Senate counterparts.<\/p>\n

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told Blue Light News he was \u201cinclined\u201d to support the war powers resolution after this week\u2019s briefings on the Venezuela operation, but that Trump\u2019s Thursday attack was a tipping point.<\/p>\n

\u201cReading the ugly response to those senators sort of convinced me to vote yes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The House may soon vote on its own war powers measure from Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). <\/p>\n

\u2014 Installing the Jan. 6 plaque:\u00a0<\/b>The Senate voted Thursday to unanimously approve a measure<\/a>, led by Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), to install a plaque in the Capitol honoring the officers who protected it on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n

The stark moment of bipartisanship was a significant rebuke of Speaker Mike Johnson and the Trump DOJ, which argues the plaque \u2014 which has been made but not installed \u2014 does not comply with a 2022 law mandating its display because it lists the departments that responded, not individual officers.<\/p>\n

The resolution does not need House approval, but it does put pressure on Johnson. It\u2019s unclear when the Senate will install the plaque, which will remain in the chamber until a permanent location is identified on the west front of the Capitol.<\/p>\n

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

\u2014 Thune\u2019s border trip: <\/b>Thune is leading a trip to the border in Texas on Friday with several GOP senators and Senate hopefuls to sell the \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d Republicans passed last summer. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Funding progress: <\/b>Appropriators hope to release bill text Sunday night of the next spending package they want to pass before the month-end funding cliff. It\u2019s expected to include the State-Foreign Operations, Financial Services and Homeland Security bills, though the DHS portion is in flux after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney, Nicholas Wu, Lisa Kashinsky, Simon J. Levien, Hailey Fuchs and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s grip on congressional Republicans is slipping. A series of rebukes on Blue Light News on Thursday highlighted how rank-and-file Republicans are starting to move with less regard for the president heading into the midterms. Here\u2019s what comes next on three fronts: \u2014 Bringing back ACA credits: Seventeen House Republicans broke ranks to support […]<\/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-17492","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\/17492","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=17492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}