{"id":22025,"date":"2026-04-29T12:02:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-nobodys-making-mike-johnsons-week-easy\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:02:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:02:06","slug":"capitol-agenda-nobodys-making-mike-johnsons-week-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-nobodys-making-mike-johnsons-week-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Nobody’s making Mike Johnson’s week easy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

We\u2019ll find out Wednesday if Speaker Mike Johnson can cross off something\u2014anything\u2014from his long to-do list this week.<\/p>\n

The House meets Wednesday morning to vote on a procedural step<\/a> to advance three legislative priorities: government spy powers that expire Thursday, the farm bill, and a budget resolution for immigration enforcement funding.<\/p>\n

But after a weeks-long standoff over how to proceed on reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the sweeping agricultural policy bill and the budget framework, House Republican leadership doesn\u2019t appear to have the votes to advance anything.<\/p>\n

And some House and Senate Republicans want President Donald Trump to get involved to break the stalemates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are the battles Johnson is facing within his own caucus and the Senate:<\/p>\n

\u2014 FISA: A growing number of House Republicans are livid Congress is barreling toward a three-year FISA extension with a House plan Senate Majority Leader John Thune has warned is \u201cdead on arrival.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team has spent too much time with approximately 10 of our members who want compromises the other 210 don\u2019t want,\u201d Rep. Don Bacon said. \u201cMeanwhile there\u2019s about 40 Dems who are willing to support. This is dysfunction.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the House activity flounders, the Senate is negotiating its own FISA extension, multiple senators told Blue Light News. Members are currently looking at a three-year extension paired with some changes, according to three senators. But Sen. John Kennedy warned that there was \u201cheartburn\u201d over that length for an extension, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t think we have the votes in the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if the House is able to move the procedural rule Wednesday, the Senate won\u2019t swallow a ban on central banking digital currency attached to the measure upon passage.<\/p>\n

“That’s not happening,” Thune said in an interview about linking the two matters.<\/p>\n

\u2014 FARM BILL: Rep. Chip Roy sent the first warning Tuesday night that the rule\u2019s fate was at risk. GOP leaders\u2019 plan to tack on language green-lighting year-round sales of E15 gasoline blend was \u201cE15 crap,\u201d he said, adding it is still a problem with conservative hardliners.<\/p>\n

Rep. Lauren Boebert later announced she would vote against the rule after many of her amendments for rural constituents introduced in the Rules hearing were voted down.<\/p>\n

House GOP leaders\u2019 plan to simply add E15 legislation to the farm bill is also looking dead on arrival in the Senate. Privately, GOP senators and aides told Blue Light News they\u2019re going to write their own farm bill and haven\u2019t agreed to add the E15 language to it, as they feel that provision won\u2019t clear the chamber.<\/p>\n

\u2014 IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT: Johnson tried to press his members in a closed-door meeting Monday night to approve the narrow, Senate-approved budget resolution as-is that would set up a path to fund immigration enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security funding lapsed more than two months ago.<\/p>\n

Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, who wants a more expansive bill to fund the department \u2014 as do other key House GOP chairs \u2014 declined to say if he would support the measure if Johnson put it on the floor in its narrow form.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just listening to all the conversations,\u201d Smith said in a brief interview.<\/p>\n

Johnson can only lose a couple of votes on the rule Wednesday with full attendance.<\/p>\n

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

\u2014 WARSH VOTE IN SENATE BANKING \u2014\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Few if any Democrats are expected to support Kevin Warsh when the Senate Banking panel takes up his nomination to serve as Fed chair Wednesday. The panel is still expected to advance<\/a> Trump\u2019s pick to replace outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, putting him on a glide path to confirmation. But Warsh\u2019s potential lack of Democratic support stands in stark contrast to Powell\u2019s years as a bipartisan force on Blue Light News.<\/p>\n

\u2014 WHAT MEMBERS WILL ASK HEGSETH \u2014\u00a0<\/b>Republicans and Democrats see Pete Hegseth\u2019s hearing before the House Armed<\/a> Services panel Wednesday as a rare chance to get direct, public answers from the Defense secretary. The hearing is Hegseth\u2019s first congressional testimony outside of classified sessions since the start of the Iran conflict.<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney, Jasper Goodman, Victoria Guida and Leo Shane III contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ll find out Wednesday if Speaker Mike Johnson can cross off something\u2014anything\u2014from his long to-do list this week. The House meets Wednesday morning to vote on a procedural step to advance three legislative priorities: government spy powers that expire Thursday, the farm bill, and a budget resolution for immigration enforcement funding. But after a weeks-long […]<\/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-22025","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\/22025","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=22025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}