{"id":19534,"date":"2026-03-03T13:01:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T13:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-marco-rubio-works-to-stave-off-a-revolt-on-iran\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T13:01:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T13:01:39","slug":"capitol-agenda-marco-rubio-works-to-stave-off-a-revolt-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-marco-rubio-works-to-stave-off-a-revolt-on-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Marco Rubio works to stave off a revolt on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The White House is trying to stave off a revolt on Capitol Hill against its military actions in Iran, as both chambers are set to vote on resolutions this week that would put guardrails on President Donald Trump\u2019s unilateral use of military force.<\/p>\n

Their first order of business: Bring administration heavies to Capitol Hill to discuss the rationale for strikes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on Blue Light News Monday to brief congressional leaders<\/a>. He\u2019ll be back Tuesday with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and they plan to meet first with members of the Senate, then the House.<\/p>\n

At this point, lawmakers on both sides are decrying a lack of details from the administration \u2014 including evidence that Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S. that would necessitate military action. But so far, it\u2019s looking like Republican leaders will be able to avoid mass GOP defections on the war power votes being forced in both chambers.<\/p>\n

When the Senate votes Wednesday on Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rand Paul\u2019s (R-Ky.) bipartisan resolution that would prevent further attacks without congressional buy-in, Democrats will need to pick up at least five Republicans to secure adoption \u2014 given Democratic Sen. John Fetterman\u2019s (D-Pa.) expected opposition. Watch GOP Sens. Todd Young (Ind.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine), who helped advance a Venezuela war powers effort last month and were noncommittal Monday when asked how they\u2019d vote on Iran.<\/p>\n

Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday he believes he has the votes to block Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna\u2019s (D-Calif.) Iran war powers resolution in the House, which will hit the floor Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that we would take the ability of our commander in chief \u2026 to finish this job, is a frightening prospect to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Pressure on DHS funding: <\/b>Republicans have another job this week \u2014 build pressure on Democrats to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, citing a need to fully fund the agency amid heightened security risks following the strikes in Iran.<\/p>\n

The House Rules Committee convenes at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon to tee up another vote Thursday on a DHS funding bill similar to what the chamber passed last month, with Republicans daring Democrats to vote against defending the homeland.<\/p>\n

But there are no signs of Democratic surrender<\/a> as the DHS shutdown enters Day 18 amid a stalemate over the Trump administration\u2019s immigration enforcement agenda. Democratic leaders in the House are whipping against the vote, telling members there is \u201cno new language to end the chaos caused by ICE in communities across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expect more debate when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testifies in front of members of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. These will be her first congressional hearings since the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents, which sparked the DHS impasse in Congress.<\/p>\n

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

\u2014 Texas primary day: <\/b>Leaders in both parties will be closely watching a slew of House and Senate races in Texas Tuesday night that could determine control of Congress next year. The biggest contests across the Lone Star State will be the Senate primaries. James Talarico and Rep. Jasmine Crockett are vying for the Democratic nomination, while Sen. John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt are competing for the Republican nomination.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Farm bill markup: <\/b>House Agriculture will Tuesday evening begin marking up a farm bill years in the making \u2014 and some of the amendments under consideration will be more viable than others.<\/p>\n

In the DOA category: Proposals from Democrats, including Reps. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) and Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.), that would reverse GOP cuts to food aid spending that were enacted in last summer\u2019s megabill. In the more likely category: Rep. Jim Baird (R-Ind.) plans to offer an amendment that would postpone new restrictions on hemp products by two years, which would be a win for the hemp industry resistant to further regulation.<\/p>\n

Katherine Tully-McManus, Jordain Carney, Andrew Howard, Rachel Shin and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The White House is trying to stave off a revolt on Capitol Hill against its military actions in Iran, as both chambers are set to vote on resolutions this week that would put guardrails on President Donald Trump\u2019s unilateral use of military force. Their first order of business: Bring administration heavies to Capitol Hill to […]<\/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-19534","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\/19534","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=19534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}