Congress

The Senate’s leaving Thursday for Thanksgiving recess without clear bipartisan agreement on how to address expiring Obamacare subsidies. But after a busy week of talks across the Capitol, we’re starting to get some clarity on what will or won’t pass muster in a year-end health care deal. Here’s what we’ve learned: — Sen. Bill Cassidy’s (R-La.) plan to redirect funds into health savings accounts isn’t going to fly with Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters Wednesday his party only wants an extension of the Affordable Care Act credits that expire next month, and that “Cassidy’s proposal, as I […]

The two men meet regularly and enjoy a good rapport, but the Speaker and Senate Majority Leader have found themselves caught up in intraparty drama.

The House unanimously voted 426-0 Wednesday night to claw back language in last week's government funding bill that could award some GOP senators hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for having their phone records unknowingly obtained by former special counsel Jack Smith. The language, which was quietly slipped into the shutdown-ending package last week by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, drove bipartisan outrage in the House. Even outspoken critics of Smith — including House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who is leading an investigation into the Biden-era probe — supported the effort to repeal a politically toxic measure […]

The House Ethics Committee launched a formal investigation Wednesday into myriad allegations against the embattled Rep. Cory Mills, with the House poised to vote on whether to censure the Florida Republican later tonight. The bipartisan panel responsible for adjudicating accusations against House members has stood up an investigative subcommittee to review various allegations against Mills. It will be responsible for evaluating whether Mills broke House rules, laws or other standards in violating campaign finance rules; engaging in sexual misconduct or dating violence; or misusing his position or House resources; among other potential charges. A spokesperson for Mills did not immediately […]

Lawmakers are quietly discussing how to quickly move new Russia sanctions legislation — this time with President Donald Trump’s blessing. “The president has now weighed in, in support of the Russia sanctions legislation,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Wednesday, adding that he believed the House would need to make the first move in advancing the measure. However, House GOP leaders have long believed the Senate needs to act first. Members of the House and Senate are expected to talk Wednesday about advancing the long-stalled bill after Trump privately told top Republicans he supports it, according to Sen. Lindsey […]

Rep. Nancy Mace is moving ahead with an effort to censure and strip a fellow Republican of his committee assignments in a rare intraparty escalation. The South Carolina Republican came to the House floor Wednesday afternoon to roll out a measure to formally rebuke Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) over his alleged ethical violations and to remove him from the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees. A vote is expected as soon as Wednesday night on the censure resolution. Republicans are expected to offer a motion to set the matter aside. It comes the day after Democrats threatened to force a […]

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent chatted Wednesday with a group of House Republicans about how voters will judge the GOP’s tax and trade moves heading into the 2026 midterm elections, according to House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington. During the private meeting Arrington hosted on Capitol Hill, Bessent discussed President Donald Trump’s economic policy strategy with Republican members of the budget panel, including steps to spurring economic growth and reducing the amount of red ink the federal government racks up each year as the national debt tops $38 trillion. The group discussed the “acid test of the midterms,” Arrington said, which is, […]

Two House Republicans vowed Wednesday to pressure Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP leaders to advance a bill banning congressional stock trading in the coming weeks, not content to settle for a mere hearing on the topic. “A bill will come to the floor,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said at a press conference outside the House Administration Committee hearing room, where academics were preparing to testify about the ins and outs of current stock trade ethics enforcement. “This is a fist fight, folks,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) chimed in. The lawmakers, appearing alongside Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Seth […]

Virgin Islands Del. Stacey Plaskett on Wednesday expressed no regret for her prior contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 House Oversight Committee hearing. In an interview with CNN’s “The Situation Room,” the Democrat acknowledged that she initiated contact with the disgraced financier on the day she was set to question President Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen but refused to say if she regretted the communication. “I believe that Jeffrey Epstein had information, and I was going to get information to get at the truth,” Plaskett said. “I’m moving forward, and I think that that’s what […]

The Senate has officially passed legislation forcing the Justice Department to release more information about the case it built against the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Senators had locked in an agreement to automatically pass the bill as soon as it was received from the House, which overwhelmingly passed it on Tuesday. It now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk, where he has said he will sign it. That comes despite the fact that Speaker Mike Johnson sought eleventh-hour changes to the House-passed bill and didn’t rule out the possibility he would encourage Trump to veto it. Assuming Trump […]

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) referred a top aide to former special counsel Jack Smith to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution over obstruction of a congressional investigation. Thomas Windom, who was senior assistant special counsel under Smith, sat for an interview with congressional investigators in June and a deposition in September. In a Wednesday letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Jordan wrote that Windom declined to answer questions by citing a lack of authorization from her department, along with other justifications. But the DOJ had authorized his testimony before he sat for an interview with congressional investigators, Jordan […]

The White House’s hopes for big legislative wins in the coming months are about to crash into the reality of the congressional GOP. Deep divisions remain among Republicans over how to address spiking health care costs — and whether they should jam through a potential solution with a party-line vote in the Senate. And, of course, Democrats have little interest in helping them out. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s willingness to go to war against Republicans isn’t helping party unity. The GOP rift is playing out ahead of the end-of-year expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. While vulnerable moderates want […]

Passing major new Republican priorities would have been a tall order even before President Trump went to war inside his own party.

Speaker Mike Johnson said he voted for the Jeffrey Epstein disclosure bill Tuesday based on his hope that the Senate would make changes he’s been demanding. Senate Majority Leader John Thune shot that down. Thune said Tuesday evening that, while he had talked with the speaker about the bill, he and Senate GOP legal counsel decided the legislation was “sufficient.” The Senate effectively approved the legislation by unanimous consent mere hours after House passage Tuesday afternoon without provisions sought by Johnson, including additional victim and whistleblower name protections. "I talked with the speaker a bit, and we've been in consultation […]

The House voted 209-214 Tuesday night against formally reprimanding Del. Stacey Plaskett for communicating with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 Oversight Committee hearing. Three House Republicans — Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Lance Gooden of Texas and Dave Joyce of Ohio — voted with all Democrats against the measure. Three Republicans voted present: Reps. Andrew Garbarino of New York, Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania and Jay Obernolte of California. Plaskett drew scrutiny after documents released from the Epstein estate revealed her texts with him. She’s denied wrongdoing, saying on the House floor Tuesday that Epstein was […]

Senate Republicans are expected to debate the issue during their weekly lunch Wednesday.

Republicans are pushing ahead with an investigation into the activities of Jeffrey Epstein — even as legislation forcing the release of all Department of Justice files on the late sex offender appears to be heading to President Donald Trump for a signature. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a series of subpoenas Tuesday for some of Epstein's financial records. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the committee, issued subpoenas to J.P. Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank and requested additional documents from U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Gordon Rhea. According to the subpoenas, JPMorgan Chase began an internal […]

The new Utah congressional map, which creates a safe-blue district, will force the four current Republican members of the delegation to compete for three GOP seats. The four Republicans have discussed possible configurations, though no final decision has been made, according to two people aware of the conversations who were granted anonymity to discuss the dynamic. The congresspeople have publicly said they will make no decision until the map is finalized, anticipating potential legal appeals. “We're still waiting to see if there might be one other change,” said Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah). “In the meanwhile, we’re not going to speculate.” […]

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), the lone "no" vote on the near-unanimous House legislation to force a release of the Justice Department’s files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said on Tuesday that he opposed it on privacy grounds. “It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America,” Higgins wrote on X. “As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people — witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc. If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people […]

For the latest, read Senate approves Epstein files bill, sending it to Trump’s desk. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he expects the Senate will pass the bill to release DOJ files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as soon as Tuesday, a move that would send it to President Donald Trump for his signature. Thune told reporters the Senate could possibly pass it by unanimous consent, a maneuver that requires agreement from all 100 senators. The House passed it 427-1 with only Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) voting in opposition. “My assumption is the president sounds like he’s prepared […]