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Lawmakers urged to probe scam ads on Meta
Inside Congress Live Jun 18, 2026
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Your first read on Capitol Hill politics and policy.
2 days ago
Retirement groups are calling on Congress to investigate Meta over a wave of social media scams targeting older Americans.
In a letter sent Thursday to House Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the groups alleged Meta has been slow to take down fraudulent ads, leaving seniors vulnerable to financial loss. The letter, shared exclusively with POLITICO, was signed by the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Postal Workers Union Retirees and the American Federation of Teachers, among others.
“Fraudulent Medicare ads have proliferated on Meta platforms and too many seniors are getting scammed while Meta profits,” said Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans. “We are calling on Congress to investigate how these scams are allowed to spread, what Meta knew about them, and why stronger protections are not in place. Seniors should not be left vulnerable while scammers and tech companies cash in.”
The letter’s demands follow a report published last month by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit advocacy group, which alleged that Meta has profited by leaving up fraudulent ads, many of which target Medicare recipients.
“Scammers are determined criminals who use increasingly sophisticated tactics to defraud people and evade detection,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement. “We aggressively fight scams on and off our platforms because they’re not good for us or the people and businesses that rely on our services and for years we’ve been one of law enforcement’s strongest partners in the fight against this type of online crime — identifying criminals, disrupting their crimes and helping bring them to justice.”
Stone pointed to several examples of Meta’s efforts to combat scams on its platform, including a recent collaboration with U.S. and Thai law enforcement to disrupt online scams.
It’s not the first time Meta has faced scrutiny over the scams: Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) urged the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities Exchange Commission to open an investigation into the company in November after Reuters reported that Meta in internal documents projected 10 percent of its 2024 revenue would come from fraudulent ads. And in February, a group of bipartisan lawmakers pressed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over its plans to prevent and combat fraud on its platforms.
Reps. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) and Lou Correa (D-Calif.) also introduced bipartisan legislation earlier this year to combat predatory scam ads.
Lead Art: Retirement groups say seniors have been targeted by fraudulent ads on Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram. | Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
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2 days ago
Congress is expected to send a landmark, bipartisan housing affordability bill to President Donald Trump’s desk by the end of next week as the Senate and House schedule action on the legislation in the coming days.
The Senate has teed up the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act for final passage on Monday, after completing all its necessary procedural votes this week.
The legislation will then move on to the House where GOP leadership plans to open debate on Wednesday, with a vote expected as early as the same day, according to six people familiar with the vote granted anonymity to discuss plans.
House leadership plans to suspend the rules, requiring a two-thirds majority vote, to speed up the bill’s path to Trump’s desk. Final passage could be pushed to Thursday depending on timing, the people said.
The housing bill aims to tackle housing affordability and boost homeownership and supply ahead of a midterm election dominated by cost-of-living concerns.
The four lawmakers leading the negotiations over the legislation — Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.), ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) and ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) — came to an agreement Tuesday afternoon after months of back and forth on the bill’s contents.
The housing affordability legislation, which the White House supports, contains a provision limiting the role of large institutional investors in the single-family housing market, which was a key condition for Trump to sign the bill.
Lead Art: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have teed up their chambers to send a large, bipartisan housing package to President Donald Trump's desk by the end of next week. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP
2 days ago
House Administration Chair Bryan Steil is pitching legislation that would bar lawmakers and their family members from wagering on certain Washington-focused prediction markets.
The Wisconsin Republican’s bill, introduced Thursday, proposes to prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and their dependent children from participating in prediction markets that are focused on specific government policy, government action or political outcomes. Violators would need to pay fines of at least $2,000 and the trade’s net gains, according to Steil’s office.
“The American people deserve to know their Member of Congress is not profiting off insider information,” Steil said. “Lawmakers should be writing policy, not wagering on its outcome.”
Steil’s bill lands in the middle of a firestorm over the risk of insider trading on the prediction markets — or financial exchanges that offer their users the chance to bet on U.S. elections, sports and the Oscars, among other events. The nascent industry has seen an explosion of growth amid a friendlier regulatory environment under President Donald Trump — but that attention has also brought new scrutiny, including from Congress.
Lawmakers’ concerns about insider trading on the prediction markets reached a fever pitch earlier this year after federal authorities charged a U.S. soldier with allegedly using confidential information to trade on the capture of then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Polymarket, a leading prediction market. The soldier has pleaded not guilty.
Just days after the charges were filed, the Senate unanimously voted to bar senators and their staffs from using the prediction markets altogether, effective immediately.
Federal regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, more recently, were investigating former Rep. George Santos for his trading activity on the prediction market Kalshi, a person familiar with the matter who was granted anonymity to speak freely told POLITICO earlier this month.
Santos said shortly after NPR first reported that the agency and the Justice Department were investigating, that his lawyers were in talks with authorities.
Lead Art: House Administration Chair Bryan Steil has introduced a bill that would prohibit members of Congress from wagering on government actions and political outcomes through the prediction markets. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
2 days ago
The White House scheduled a meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss legislation regarding kids’ online safety and preemption of state artificial intelligence laws, according to two people granted anonymity to share details of the private briefing and an invitation obtained by POLITICO.
The invitation — sent Wednesday by Hailey Borden, the deputy director of the White House’s Office of Public Liaison — said the meeting would be “an off the record discussion on kids safety and preemption.” The two people said groups advocating for online safety were invited to attend and that the discussion would focus on a package of AI regulations that’s being assembled by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).
It followed several meetings last week that top White House officials convened with tech companies and childrens’ safety groups to discuss the legislative push.
The latest invitation did not name which groups were invited. The White House and Blackburn’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The meeting comes as lawmakers and White House officials continue to iron out details of the legislative package, which is expected to include versions of the NO FAKES Act — which would create new regulations against AI deepfakes and other AI-generated replicas and advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday — as well as the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, which aims to hold companies to stricter design standards that would prioritize child safety. The App Store Accountability Act, or AASA, which requires minors to obtain parental verification before downloading apps, is also expected to be included.
This proposal could have new life now that Meta, which helped kill KOSA two years ago after a fierce lobbying fight, dropped its opposition to the specific bill now that it’s expected to be linked to a limited preemption of state AI laws and AASA, which would put the onus on app store platforms like Google and Apple to verify users’ ages.
But Blackburn’s forthcoming package is expected to face opposition in the Senate, where she’ll be tasked with winning over leadership and key voices on AI like Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
Asked about the talks on Thursday afternoon, Cruz told reporters only: “We’re all working collectively.” Blackburn echoed the sentiment that discussions are ongoing, saying, “We’re going to have more to say about that sometime soon.”
The efforts to attach kids’ online safety measures to Blackburn’s broader AI package has also sparked backlash from conservative groups including former Vice President Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. The groups wrote to Cruz and Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) on Wednesday warning that ASAA “would threaten the privacy and data security of Americans of all ages.”
Their letter, shared exclusively with POLITICO, included signees from the industry coalition Chamber of Progress — which was founded by former Google executive Adam Kovacevich — and trade group NetChoice, whose members include Google, OpenAI and Amazon.
Gabby Miller and Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.
Lead Art: Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) speaks during a hearing on artificial intelligence deepfakes, May 21, 2025, in Washington. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP
2 days ago
The Senate Commerce Committee advanced legislation Thursday that would aim to put new guardrails on the multibillion-dollar college sports industry.
It marks a victory for the panel’s bipartisan leaders who have been working for weeks to assert the dominance of their proposal against a similar, stalled bill in the House. Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) reiterated he wanted the measure signed into law before the start of the coming academic year and that Senate Majority Leader John Thune has committed to putting the package on the floor for a vote.
“I believe when we pass this with a big bipartisan vote, it will go to the House with momentum, and I believe the House will take it up and pass it,” Cruz told reporters after the markup.
But the final, 19-9 vote in committee, with seven Democrats and two Republicans opposing, signals Cruz and the bill’s co-sponsor, Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington, still have more work to do to build consensus.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump urged lawmakers on social media to work together to pass a college sports bill and specifically called out the Cruz-Cantwell legislation, which would establish national standards for how college athletes are compensated and override the current patchwork of state laws that currently govern student athletes’ name, image and likeness rights.
It also would, among other things, create new rules for transfers and eligibility, set salary spending caps, put protections in place designed to strengthen women’s and Olympic sports and give the NCAA limited antitrust exemptions to enforce its rules without facing endless litigation.
Yet House Republican leaders, who have been unable to move their own legislation amid opposition on both sides of the aisle, continue to pronounce the Senate Commerce bill dead on arrival in their chamber, largely because it does not address whether student athletes could be granted certain labor rights.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has been leading the campaign against the Senate bill, incredulous that senators thought they could get away with advancing a college sports package adamantly opposed by two of the biggest conferences in the country: the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference.
Supporters of the Senate proposal also need to win the backing of the Congressional Black Caucus, which opposed the House Republican-led college sports bill and urged senators to also pause their effort “until athletic leaders meaningfully engage with concerns about attacks on Black political representation.”
Cantwell, in remarks during the Thursday markup in Senate Commerce, called her bill with Cruz a compromise and committed to making further changes to get the measure across the finish line.
She also has been working to pitch the proposal in the House, including in meetings with members of the CBC and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, according to a Senate Democratic aide granted anonymity to describe private conversations.
Cantwell suggested at the hearing that the CBC’s position has been misinterpreted, and that “they have not said” they “[don’t] support us moving forward on this bill.”
Neither the CBC nor Jeffries’ office responded to a request for comment.
Back in the Senate, some members of the Commerce Committee, including Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, acknowledged Thursday they were voting to advance the bill with some reluctance in hopes that there would be changes before floor consideration is scheduled.
But in an interview after the committee vote, Cruz expressed confidence, telling reporters that in any event, his bill was “the only train that’s leaving the station.”
“I have long believed that anyone who has concerns with this bill has a burden of pointing to what is the alternative,” he said, adding that doing nothing would lead to “devastation” in short order.
Lead Art: Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) take part in a roundtable discussion with college athletes, coaches, and administrators on the Protect College Sports Act on Capitol Hill on June 10, 2026. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
2 days ago
Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker on Thursday panned the Iran peace deal signed by President Donald Trump this week, saying the agreement “negotiates away the victories of Operation Epic Fury in ways that are completely out of step with the president’s goals.”
The Mississippi Republican, a vocal defense hawk, has repeatedly warned against negotiating with Tehran, arguing that the country’s leadership can’t be trusted to fulfill any agreement. Wicker has instead urged Trump to end a months-long ceasefire and continue bombing Iran.
In a statement, Wicker criticized the $300 billion fund for Iran’s reconstruction and economic development, even if the money is not supplied by American taxpayers. Administration officials have said the money, coming from regional partners, would be made available only if Iran reaches certain compliance benchmarks.
Wicker said he believes the money will instead be used for terrorist activities, regardless of the guardrails put in place.
“The Iranian regime has not renounced its ultimate goal — ‘Death to America, Death to Israel,’” he said. “The regime will invest every penny it receives to further that aim.”
Wicker is among a chorus of influential Republicans to criticize the nascent deal. The Trump administration sent the 14-point document to Congress on Thursday.
Some have expressed concerns about whether the agreement will free up funds for Iran and whether the pact does enough to limit its nuclear ambitions.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who was defeated in a primary after Trump endorsed one of his opponents, assailed the administration’s deal as “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”
“Reagan is rolling over in his grave,” Cassidy wrote in a social media post on Wednesday. “Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future. Now, Iran gets to build brand-new infrastructure under this deal.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) defended the deal as an important preliminary step but also dismissed the $300 billion fund as “not something that’s going to happen.”
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said the potential end to the war and the resumption of oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz are “a step in the right direction,” though he worries Iran might use the windfall of access to frozen assets to support proxy groups in the Middle East.
“I have more concerns about the release of frozen assets,” Rounds said. “If that’s the case, what stops them from using that to fund Hezbollah and other terrorist activities as they have done in the past?”
Lead Art: Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker criticized the $300 billion fund for Iran’s reconstruction and economic development. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
2 days ago
Rep. Tom Kean Jr., the New Jersey Republican who has been missing from Capitol Hill since March 5, will return to work later this month — 117 days after his last vote.
Harrison Neely, a spokesperson for Kean, said the 57-year-old lawmaker plans to attend the June 30 House session. It is the first time Kean’s office has provided a specific date for his return.
Neely did not disclose any further details about Kean’s extended absence, which his team has attributed to an undisclosed health issue. In written statements throughout his absence, staff have promised he would return to work “soon.”
“Congressman Kean is eager to return to in person work on June 30 and resume a full schedule,” Neely said, adding that Kean “plans to be fully transparent regarding the nature of his health issue and you should expect to hear from him in person June 30th.”
The New Jersey Globe first reported on the return date.
As Kean was missing scores of votes, House GOP leaders had to contend with an even thinner majority than they already had. He now returns to face a highly competitive race to keep his seat in November, with national groups heavily backing Democratic nominee Rebecca Bennett.
Kean’s lack of voting or public appearances, along with the mystery surrounding his illness, have turned his absence into a national news story.
Reporters have staked out the missing lawmaker’s house, with one even traveling to a Kean family vacation home on an exclusive island in Long Island Sound after hearing rumors that they might find him there.
It has become unwelcome news for Republicans, who were already expected to have a tough time defending Kean’s seat in the current political environment.
Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot whose resume echoes New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill — who won the state by a landslide in 2025 — won the Democratic nomination earlier this month to take on Kean. There were signs Republicans would have preferred Kean run against one of her three primary opponents, including $650,000 in spending to boost Bennett’s rivals from a super PAC with Republican ties.
Kean has high name recognition as the son of Tom Kean Sr., the most popular former New Jersey governor of modern times. That has helped give him a moderate aura, even as he publicly embraced the endorsement of President Donald Trump.
Kean, however, has never been known for personal accessibility. He has not held an in-person town hall meeting since his first election to Congress in 2022, and his single debate performance in 2024 was at times halting and awkward.
Bennett has mostly held off on criticizing Kean’s absence, but other Democrats haven’t. Your Community PAC, a Democratic super PAC, this month spent $289,000 on ads highlighting the issue.
“I sincerely wish him well. I hope he has a good recovery. But he’s absolutely failed this district, so we’re going to hold him accountable for his voting record,” Bennett said in a June 3 phone interview. “It wasn’t like he was doing anything for us when he was showing up for work versus when he was not.”
Lead Art: Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.) speaks to journalists during a news conference outside Saint Michael cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 22, 2024. | Francisco Seco/AP
2 days ago | exclusive
The White House sent the “memorandum of understanding” putting hostilities with Iran on hold to Congress on Thursday, after days of complaints from lawmakers of both parties that they didn’t receive the agreement sooner.
The document obtained by POLITICO lays out 14 points the U.S. and Iran reached over at least temporarily ending the nearly four-month military campaign launched by President Donald Trump.
Congress received the agreement after Trump signed it Wednesday night in France and shortly before Vice President JD Vance briefed reporters at the White House on the deal, which sets up 60 days of further negotiations on the fate of the Iran nuclear program.
A swath of GOP senators and some House Republicans were livid Wednesday when a Trump administration official read the memorandum to reporters before sharing the document with lawmakers.
Senior White House officials have held small-group and individual calls with select GOP lawmakers, but an all-member briefing from Trump administration officials on the agreement is not expected until next week.
Lead Art: U.S. President Donald Trump departs after the dinner at the Palace of Versailles, early Thursday, June 18, 2026, in Versailles, France. | Michel Euler/AP
2 days ago
Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled deep uncertainty Thursday over the fate of Jay Clayton’s nomination as director of national intelligence.
Its future, he told reporters, is essentially up to President Donald Trump.
Asked whether Clayton’s nomination was being withdrawn, Thune pointed to the White House for answers.
“I’ve never been asked to slow a nomination down before,” he said.
Asked for a further explanation of why Trump effectively killed the Senate GOP’s hopes of quickly confirming Clayton and unlocking an extension of key surveillance law, Thune mentioned the acting director of national intelligence who is set to start Friday: “I think he’s very committed to Bill Pulte.”
“I don’t have good answers for these questions — those are probably better asked of the president and his team,” he added. “We are just executing or trying to execute on what they had asked us to.”
Trump’s early-morning Truth Social post Wednesday was only the latest instance where the president caught Republicans off-guard and frustrated GOP senators who worry that he is undercutting their efforts to pass a legislative agenda and help their party’s chances in the midterms.
Trump has fumed in particular over Senate Republicans’ inability to pass a GOP elections overhaul, the SAVE America Act, which doesn’t have 50 votes, much less the 60 needed to defeat a Democratic filibuster.
“We’re going to do everything we can to work — as I’ve said before — in a constructive way on an agenda, but it’s going to be an agenda that we can get the votes to pass,” he said.
Thune went on to comment on Trump’s peace agreement with Iran, which has sparked angst among Senate Republicans. He said that he expects senators to be briefed on the “ memorandum of understanding” signed by Trump on Wednesday early next week.
“I think it’s good for Americans in the sense that opening up the [Strait of Hormuz] and getting the shipping lanes opened is going to make it easier to get things in and out,” Thune said, adding that he needs “to learn more about” a $300 billion reconstruction fund included in the agreement.
Lead Art: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) speaks with reporters outside the Senate chamber at the U.S. Capitol on June 15, 2026. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
2 days ago
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced the NO FAKES Act by voice vote on Thursday.
Introduced by Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), it would create new protections against AI-enabled replicas and deepfakes and allow people to sue over the unauthorized use of their likeness. The bill could be included in a package of AI and kids’ safety bills that Blackburn is currently working on with the White House.
The latest version of the bill has earned broad support from Hollywood and the tech industry, receiving endorsements from YouTube, TikTok and OpenAI as well as Disney and the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA. It was originally introduced last Congress.
“It is imperative that we put this national standard in place for voice and visual likeness protection of creators,” the Tennessee Republican said at the markup.
Other bills that could be included in Blackburn’s package are the Kids Online Safety Act and the App Store Accountability Act. Such a package could ultimately block some state laws on AI — though it’s not yet clear how aggressively the measure would preempt state action on narrow issues such as verifying users’ ages on social media.
“I’ve always said America needs one set of rules for AI, and NO FAKES is a critical component of that rulebook,” Blackburn added.
Both the NO FAKES Act and KOSA have come under fire over a number of First Amendment concerns. A coalition of free speech groups including the Center for Democracy & Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation sent a letter to Judiciary Committee leadership on Tuesday urging members not to advance the NO FAKES Act in its current form.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) expressed their issues with the bill’s effects on free speech and looked to address those concerns with the co-sponsors.
As an example, Cruz pointed to former reality television star Spencer Pratt, who ran a series of AI-generated videos — often without a statement disclosing the content was created using AI — during his failed Los Angeles mayoral campaign, including portrayals of himself as Batman and Luke Skywalker. The political deepfakes raised concerns that some of the ads risked misleading voters during campaign season.
“ I think of the ad Spencer Pratt ran in the LA campaign, which I thought were hysterical and I think are a good example of what should be protected and not fall within a bill like this,” Cruz said.
Lead Art: Sen. Marsha Blackburn speaks at POLITICO Policy Outlook: Cybersecurity on Oct. 1, 2025. | Pixelme Studio for POLITICO
2 days ago
President Donald Trump has pushed Senate Republicans to the brink of their patience, and they’re not staying quiet about it.
The president in recent weeks has been firing out missives Republicans view as bad decisions that undermine their ability to deliver legislative wins as the midterms approach.
The latest irritation was the early-morning Truth Social post Wednesday, where Trump upended GOP plans to quickly confirm Jay Clayton as the new director of national intelligence and revive a key surveillance bill that the president already derailed earlier this month.
“The president’s timing and communication needs improvement,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said. “I think it’s unfortunate. It throws a kicker into the system when we get going and then we have to readjust.”
Trump’s U-turn on Clayton is one of several fronts where senators have pushed back in recent weeks. Republicans also foiled plans to fund part of his White House ballroom project in a recent immigration enforcement funding deal and forced the Justice Department to abandon plans for a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
Sen. John Kennedy answered “No” when asked if Trump takes senators into consideration: “He wants what he wants, and until he gets it, he just keeps pushing.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, who announced his retirement last year after breaking with Trump on policy legislation, said the dynamic is “undermining our ability to produce the very results he wants.”
The frustrations are also bubbling up as the president is trying to sell an Iran peace deal that a section of his party despises (more on this below).
To Trump, the solution is simple: None of this would matter if Republicans would just follow his lead.
Trump has handed Republicans a midterm playbook they’re unlikely, and unable, to heed: get rid of the filibuster, fire the Senate parliamentarian and pass an election security overhaul known as the SAVE America Act.
“If everyone just follows his lead, follows the blueprints he’s laid out, and runs on the record that he has, then I think we’ll fare well,” said a senior White House official, granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Trump’s controversial demands, however, have been unfortunately timed as lawmakers have been on the precipice of delivering policy goals. His naming of Bill Pulte as acting DNI, for example, blew up a brewing three-year deal on reauthorizing a key piece of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. His announcement of the DOJ payout fund delayed and nearly killed a critical immigration funding bill.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said his relationship with Trump was “fine” amid the public turmoil. He later explained in an interview the White House and Senate Republicans do a “fair amount of coordination.”
“But sometimes you get surprised,” he added. “It’s a business model the White House employs, and we’ve had to figure out how to be adaptable.”
What else we’re watching:
— TRUMP’S IRAN DEAL RACKS UP BIPARTISAN CRITICS: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle panned the details of the memorandum of understanding Trump signed in hopes of ending the conflict in Iran. Sen. Bill Cassidy called the agreement “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.” “Before the war, the strait was open, Iran was being crushed by sanctions, and 13 service members were still alive,” Cassidy posted on X. “Now, 13 Americans are dead, families have paid billions at the pump, sanctions will be lifted, and the bombing has stopped.”
— SENATE GOP COOL ON ‘RECON 3.0': Senate Republicans have taken no concrete steps toward advancing Trump’s ask for a $350 billion party-line bill to fund the military and notch other conservative policy victories. Senators acknowledge the tough path for marshaling 50 votes behind such a measure on their side of the Capitol just months before the midterms. Members and aides in interviews this week said it was becoming clear any “Reconciliation 3.0” would be a House-led effort.
Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Katherine Tully-McManus, Megan Messerly, Alex Gangitano and Myah Ward contributed to this report.
Lead Art: Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks with reporters as he walks to a vote on June 17, 2026. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
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