{"id":19806,"date":"2026-03-10T12:17:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-trumps-doral-demands-ripple-through-gop\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:17:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:17:30","slug":"capitol-agenda-trumps-doral-demands-ripple-through-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-trumps-doral-demands-ripple-through-gop\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Trump\u2019s Doral demands ripple through GOP"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s demand that Congress pass an expanded version of the SAVE America Act is creating headaches for both chambers.<\/p>\n

The president told House Republicans on Monday the sweeping GOP elections overhaul bill \u2014 with several key add-ons \u2014 should be their \u201cNo. 1 priority.\u201d It\u2019s upending their plans to discuss other premidterms priorities during the retreat Tuesday \u2014 and raising eyebrows among some senators back in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u2014 How it’s playing in Doral:\u00a0<\/b>The House has passed two versions of the GOP elections bill already, but now the president wants to tack on limits to mail voting, a ban on transgender surgeries for minors and a prohibition on transgender women participating in women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n

GOP leaders now have to drum up support from members reluctant to dive into the culture war of transgender politics when they\u2019d prefer to focus on affordability. And the mail voting provision was left off the package last time for a reason.<\/p>\n

Committee chairs will brief members Tuesday on their legislative priorities, including the possibility of a new reconciliation bill this year. But Trump made no mention of that possibility during his remarks Monday, which does not bode well for those seeking a second megabill.<\/p>\n

Elected Republican leaders will then huddle privately at 4 p.m. to discuss paths forward. Expect Trump\u2019s SAVE America demands to be a big part of the conversation.<\/p>\n

The GOP leaders will also discuss how to pass a housing affordability package \u2014 though that, too, doesn\u2019t appear to be a priority for Trump, who said Monday that Americans are demanding the election bill and \u201cdon\u2019t talk about housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 More trouble for Thune:<\/b> Trump\u2019s ultimatum further complicates matters in the Senate, where there the legislation is on the rocks even without the president\u2019s new demands.<\/p>\n

Several Republican senators signaled Monday they aren\u2019t behind the president\u2019s call to significantly limit mail-in ballots, touting the success of the practice in their own states.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want the federal government telling me that I can\u2019t have mail-in voting or absentee ballot voting,\u201d Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with mail-in voting if you have the right standards in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also kept pressing on the \u201ctalking filibuster,\u201d keeping that internal battle front and center for Majority Leader John Thune, who delivered a public reality check<\/a> on the \u201ccomplicated and risky\u201d idea Monday.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), in a sign of how desperate some Republicans are to avoid a bruising internal filibuster fight, floated passing the SAVE America Act through reconciliation Monday, despite the lack of a clear budget connection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some clever wordsmiths,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

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

\u2014 Immigration policy hearings: <\/b>Two Senate hearings Tuesday will put a spotlight on key immigration policy debates \u2014 birthright citizenship and so-called \u201csanctuary cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will host a 10:30 a.m. hearing on jurisdictions that do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement; witnesses will include Chad Wolf, Trump\u2019s former acting DHS secretary.<\/p>\n

A Senate Judiciary panel will then hold a 2:30 p.m. hearing on \u201cProtecting American Citizenship\u201d as the Supreme Court mulls whether to void Trump\u2019s effort to end automatic birthright citizenship for those born in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Race to replace MTG: <\/b>It\u2019s Election Day to fill the seat of Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose retirement from Congress in January narrowed an already thin Republican House majority. The bad news for the GOP: The race might drag on another month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Seventeen candidates are on the ballot, including 12 Republicans. And because so many candidates filed, it\u2019s possible no one emerges with the 50 percent required to win, leaving the seat open until after the potential April 7 runoff.<\/p>\n

Hailey Fuchs and Andrew Howard contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump\u2019s demand that Congress pass an expanded version of the SAVE America Act is creating headaches for both chambers. The president told House Republicans on Monday the sweeping GOP elections overhaul bill \u2014 with several key add-ons \u2014 should be their \u201cNo. 1 priority.\u201d It\u2019s upending their plans to discuss other premidterms priorities […]<\/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-19806","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\/19806","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=19806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}