{"id":19337,"date":"2026-02-25T13:16:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T13:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-trumps-sotu-demands-for-congress\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T13:16:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T13:16:48","slug":"capitol-agenda-trumps-sotu-demands-for-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-trumps-sotu-demands-for-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Trump\u2019s SOTU demands for Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump littered his record-breaking, nearly two-hour-long State of the Union address Tuesday night with dramatic tributes to American heroes, caustic attacks on congressional Democrats and a preview of his party\u2019s midterm campaign pitch.<\/p>\n

But he also sprinkled in a handful of legislative demands that have uneven prospects at best on Capitol Hill. Here\u2019s what caught our ears:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Targeting noncitizens:\u00a0<\/b>Trump repeatedly railed against illegal immigration and pushed lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act, the GOP bill that would tighten proof-of-citizenship standards for voting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would anyone not want voter ID?\u201d Trump said at one point. \u201cOne reason \u2014 they want to cheat.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the bigger news might be what Trump didn\u2019t mention: A hard-right push to use a \u201ctalking filibuster\u201d to get the House-passed bill<\/a> past Senate Democrats. In what was likely a big relief for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the president didn\u2019t mention the filibuster at all. <\/p>\n

Trump also called for passage of \u201cDalilah\u2019s Law<\/a>,\u201d which would bar states from granting driver\u2019s licenses to undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Health care:<\/b> The president pressed Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson to take the most-favored-nation drug-pricing deals he\u2019s recently struck with pharmaceutical companies and enact them into law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure it matters, because it\u2019s going to be very hard for somebody that comes along after me to say, \u2018Let\u2019s raise drug prices by 700 or 800 percent,\u2019\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut John and Mike, if you don\u2019t mind, codify it anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the provision faces big opposition from the prescription drug industry and its allies inside the GOP.<\/p>\n

Completely unmentioned? The expired Obamacare subsidies, which now seem like ancient history in Washington. Trump only briefly mentioned his \u201cGreat Health Care Plan\u201d that would give money \u201cdirectly to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Stock trading:\u00a0<\/b>Trump drew bipartisan applause after endorsing a ban on stock trading by members of Congress. But getting a bill on Trump\u2019s desk will be tough.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s leadership-blessed legislation to crack down on the practice is in limbo, without enough GOP support to put it up for a vote. Democrats are pushing for a more expansive stock trading bill, which would also apply to the president and vice president.<\/p>\n

Even if the House can pass something, the Senate is seen as even more unlikely to act.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Crime:\u00a0<\/b>The president included a demand for lawmakers to pass \u201ctough legislation to ensure violent repeat offenders are put behind bars and, more importantly, that they stay there.\u201d<\/p>\n

That called back to Trump\u2019s multiple comments last summer about pursuing a sweeping crime bill<\/a>, which never materialized into legislation. Rekindling the effort in an election year would be iffy at best.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Housing:\u00a0<\/b>Trump renewed his request for Congress to limit large investors<\/a> from purchasing single-family homes as the GOP tries to address a growing housing affordability crisis \u2014 an idea that has bipartisan support.<\/p>\n

It comes as the House and Senate are working to reconcile competing legislative packages, and the White House push could help convince skeptical Republicans to include it in a final product.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want homes for people, not for corporations,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Left unmentioned: <\/b>There\u2019s one area where the president conspicuously said lawmakers are free to sit on their hands: \u201cCongressional action will not be necessary,\u201d Trump said, to impose new global tariffs to replace the levies struck down by the Supreme Court last week in what he called a \u201cvery unfortunate\u201d ruling.<\/p>\n

And while Trump did discuss an expansion of a retirement savings program launched under former President Joe Biden, he did not call for new tax cuts or party-line economic measures to address rising prices \u2014 which he continued to blame on Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir policies created the high prices,\u201d he said. \u201cOur policies are rapidly ending them. We are doing really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Lawmakers are set to grill two Trump nominees Wednesday morning who have come under fire for their records and financial ties.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Steve Pearce for BLM:<\/b> Steve Pearce\u2019s appearance in front of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will be the former House Republican\u2019s first opportunity to publicly push back against accusations from Democrats and conservation groups that he\u2019s unfit to lead the Bureau of Land Management.<\/p>\n

The committee\u2019s top Democrat, Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, and Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) will almost certainly zero in on Pearce\u2019s voting record. When Pearce was in Congress, he opposed BLM efforts to tighten rules on the oil and gas industry and supported selling some BLM and Forest Service lands.<\/p>\n

Pearce also reported that he earned as much as $1 million last year from a business often associated with oil and gas development.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Casey Means for \u2018America\u2019s top doctor\u2019:<\/b> Over at the Senate HELP panel, all eyes will be on how hard Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) presses Casey Means, Trump\u2019s pick to be U.S. surgeon general, over her stance on vaccines. Cassidy has repeatedly criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s vaccine policy changes, and Means has previously condemned giving the hepatitis B shot to infants.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also bipartisan criticism over Means\u2019 credentials. The wellness influencer and health-tech entrepreneur\u2019s medical license is currently listed online as inactive, and she has promoted contested health practices such as consuming raw milk.<\/p>\n

Scott Streater, Nico Portuondo and Amanda Friedman contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump littered his record-breaking, nearly two-hour-long State of the Union address Tuesday night with dramatic tributes to American heroes, caustic attacks on congressional Democrats and a preview of his party\u2019s midterm campaign pitch. But he also sprinkled in a handful of legislative demands that have uneven prospects at best on Capitol Hill. Here\u2019s […]<\/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-19337","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\/19337","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=19337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}