Ron Johnson

President-elect Donald Trump has expressed frustration that flags will be flying at half-staff when he takes office on Jan. 20.

Welcome to At the Races! Each week we bring you news and analysis from the CQ Roll Call campaign team. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here. Congress’ first bill of the year could foreshadow how much political reality may affect the thinking of Senate Democrats. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, [...]The post Immigration politics hit the Hill appeared first on Roll Call.

House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) has taken the famously confrontational group in a slightly more agreeable direction as it prepares for a Trump-controlled Washington, where the goal will be to support the incoming president’s policy agenda rather than exert maximum pressure on a Democratic administration. But even as Harris and other members of [...]

President-elect Trump is leaving the rest of his GOP trifecta hanging on their reconciliation stalemate.Why it matters: Republican leaders on both sides of the Capitol have no interest in going against Trump. He has the power to quickly end this debate, but that's no closer after Wednesday's meeting with the Senate GOP.Trump pitched the idea of a single "beautiful bill," Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told reporters after the meeting. That's where the momentum is headed, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said."[H]e heard from us that and from our leader that a two bill strategy is very much still very interested in," Sen. Shelley Capito Moore (R-W.V.) told reporters.But Trump keeps making it clear: He really doesn't care about the process.That apparent indifference on this key question will force the House and Senate to attempt to resolve their differences among themselves.Inside the room: Trump went over his Day 1 executive orders, a source in the room told us.Stephen Miller walked through the immigration ones in detail, three sources told Axios.About a dozen senators spoke during the meeting, with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) giving the most passionate defense of the two-bill strategy, two sources told Axios.Trump invited the senators and their spouses to Mar-a-Lago, but didn't name a date, two sources told us. Axios scooped his plans for a Senate bash last night.The bottom line: If the one bill versus two question is hard, agreeing to a topline number should be a real treat.P.S. Top Trump campaign staffer Alex Latcham will be executive director of the Senate Leadership Fund, with former Sen. Cory Gardner serving as CEO and chairman of the board, Axios scooped on Wednesday.

President-elect Donald Trump and wife Melania, followed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and wife Kimberly, walk through the Ohio Clock Corridor on Wednesday.

Speaker Mike Johnson vowed that an ambitious bill addressing a range of President-elect Donald Trump’s priorities will be voted out of the U.S. House in April, a tight schedule for his narrowly divided chamber.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to increase the pace of U.S. military shipbuilding. But his pledge to also clamp down on immigration could make it hard for shipyards already facing workforce shortages.By Nicole Foy for ProPublicaEarly last year, President-elect Donald Trump promised that when he got back into the Oval Office, he’d authorize the U.S. Navy to build more ships. “It’s very important,” he said, “because it’s jobs, great jobs.”However, the companies that build ships for the government are already having trouble finding enough workers to fill those jobs. And Trump may make it even harder if he follows through on another pledge he’s made: to clamp down on immigration.The president-elect has told his supporters he would impose new limits on the numbers of immigrants allowed into the country and stage the largest mass deportation campaign in history. Meanwhile the shipbuilding industry, which he also says he supports and which has given significant financial support to Republican causes, is struggling to overcome an acute worker shortage. Immigrants have been critical to helping fill the gaps.According to a Navy report from last year, several major shipbuilding programs are years behind schedule, owing largely to a lack of workers. The shortfall is so severe that warship production is down to its lowest level in a quarter century.Shipbuilders and the government have poured millions of dollars into training and recruiting American workers, and, as part of a bipartisan bill just introduced in the Senate, they have proposed to spend even more. Last year the Navy awarded nearly $1 billion in a no-bid contract to a Texas nonprofit to modernize the industry with more advanced technology in a way that will make it more attractive to workers. The nonprofit has already produced splashy TV ads for submarine jobs. One of its goals is to help the submarine industry hire 140,000 new workers in the next 10 years. “We build giants,” one of its ads beckons. “It takes one to build one.”Still, experts say that these robust efforts have so far resulted in nowhere near enough workers for current needs, let alone a workforce large enough to handle expanded production. “We’re trying to get blood from a turnip,” said Shelby Oakley, an analyst at the Government Accountability Office. “The domestic workforce is just not there.”In the meantime, the industry is relying on immigrants for a range of shipyard duties, with many working jobs similar to those on a construction site, including on cleanup crews and as welders, painters and pipefitters. And executives worry that any future immigration crackdown or restrictions on legal immigration, including limits on asylum or temporary protected status programs, could cause disruptions that would further harm their capacity for production.Ron Wille, the president and chief operating officer of All American Marine in Washington state, said that his company was “clawing” for workers. And Peter Duclos, the president of Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding in Somerset, Massachusetts, said the current immigration system is “so broken” that he was already having trouble holding onto valuable workers and finding more.There is no publicly available data that shows how much the shipbuilding industry relies on immigrant labor, particularly undocumented immigrant labor. Both Wille and Duclos said that they do not employ undocumented workers, and industry experts say undocumented workers are unlikely to be working on projects requiring security clearances. However, reporting by ProPublica last year found that some shipbuilders with government contracts have used such workers. That reporting focused on a major Louisiana shipyard run by a company called Thoma-Sea, where undocumented immigrants have often been hired through third-party subcontractors.The story reported on a young undocumented Guatemalan immigrant who was helping build an $89 million U.S. government ship for tracking hurricanes. When he died on the job after working at Thoma-Sea for two years, neither the company nor the subcontractor paid death benefits to his partner and young son.ProPublica also reported that executives at Thoma-Sea, which declined to comment, had made tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Republican candidates. However, if Trump’s last time in office is any guide, the shipbuilding industry wouldn’t be exempted from any future crackdown. One of the final workplace raids under Trump’s first administration was conducted at an even larger shipbuilder in Louisiana called Bollinger.In July 2020, federal immigration agents arrested 19 “unlawfully present foreign nationals” at Bollinger’s Lockport shipyard, according to a story in the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate. Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused to provide information on the raid. According to Bollinger’s website, that yard produces U.S. Coast Guard and Navy patrol boats. Five of the workers arrested were sent to an ICE detention center and 14 were released with pending deportation cases, according to the news report.Bollinger denied any wrongdoing following the raid. Four years later, there’s no evidence in publicly available federal court records that Bollinger executives faced any charges in connection to it. Meanwhile, federal electoral records show that the company’s executives donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican elected officials last year, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both Republicans from Louisiana. The company did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment.President Joe Biden’s administration ended workplace raids like the one at Bollinger, saying that it would instead focus on “unscrupulous employers.” Department of Homeland Security officials did not answer questions or provide data on how many employers had been prosecuted since then. However, Trump’s designated “border czar,” Tom Homan, has signaled that the incoming administration will return to carrying out the raids. When asked how the second Trump administration will increase shipbuilding while limiting immigration, a spokesperson for Trump’s transition team only doubled down on the president-elect’s deportation promises, saying they would focus enforcement on “illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers.”A few days after Trump won the election, a group of undocumented shipyard welders leaving a Hispanic grocery store near the port in Houma, Louisiana, expressed a dim view when asked what they thought lay ahead. One man, who declined to provide his name, broke into a nervous laugh and blurted, “Well, we could be deported.” Another man, a welder from the Mexican state of Coahuila who’d been working in the U.S. for about two years, also declined to give his name but said he worried about losing the life he’d managed to build in this country.“When they grab you,” he said, “they’ll take you, and you’ll have to leave everything behind.”This story was originally published by ProPublica.

Elon Musk renewed criticisms of the 158 Democrats who voted against a bill in September to deport illegal immigrants convicted of sexual offenses, demanding they be voted out.

Famous figures such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Tesla and X owner Elon Musk pop up there.

The House Ethics Committee's long-awaited report into Rep. Matt Gaetz documents a trove of salacious allegations of misconduct. Here's a look at some of the committee's key findings.

Rep. Thomas Massie said he will not vote to for House Speaker Mike Johnson to retain the speakership next year.

Speaking to Iowa reporters Wednesday by conference call, Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said he is not telling candidates in advance whether he will support their nominations.

The senator explored the topic in a wide-ranging interview with NTD, The Epoch Times' sister media.

President-elect Donald Trump has abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown, instead telling House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans to essentially renegotiate just days before a deadline when federal funding ...

The Senate is slated to vote on the Social Security Fairness Act this week.

Thomas Massie likened U.S. foreign aid to an individual watering their neighbor's yard while their own house burns, and illustrated his point with an AI image of Speaker Mike Johnson.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is making the case with senators that he should lead Health and Human Services. Kathleen Sebelius, who had the job under Obama, explains the power and limits of the role.

The crowd erupted in cheers and applause as Trump entered the stadium before kickoff

As Donald Trump’s Cabinet takes shape, the nominees offer a preview of how his administration might handle abortion after he repeatedly flip-flopped on the issue on the campaign trail.

The announcement comes a week and a half after President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate loyalist Kash Patel for the position.

President-elect Donald Trump named a total of seven appointments on Tuesday night via Truth Social, including Kimberly Guilfoyle and Tom Barrack.

WASHINGTON — Russell Vought is well-known on Capitol Hill and thus far at least looks like a shoo-in to be confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump’s budget director, as he was during Trump’s first term on a party-line vote in 2020.

Two Republican lawmakers are pursuing legal challenges to election results as the Minnesota House sits at a tie

Rep. Jared Moskowitz is calling for radical changes to the Department of Homeland Security in his announcement that he is joining the DOGE Caucus.

President-elect Donald Trump's selection of a number of House Republicans to fill top posts in his administration is pulling from an already shallow bench.

Russell Vought, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, testifies during a House Budget Committee hearing in 2020.

'Huge cost and ultimate failure'

Rivalries heat up with bowl games on the line in Week 14

Senate Republicans derailed President-elect Donald Trump’s first jaw-dropping pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz. But it’s unclear if they will be able to block any other controversial nominees despite skepticism from some rank-and-file Republicans.In the weeks since Trump’s dramatic election victory, the power struggle between the president-elect and independent-minded Senate Republicans has been playing out in plain view. There had been questions about whether the new Senate GOP majority would simply kowtow to Trump, the party’s most dominant figure, and toss aside its constitutional duty of advise and consent.Instead, a handful of GOP senators flexed their muscles and rejected Gaetz. Now their political resolve will be tested several more times as Trump’s frustration builds and the MAGA base demands that Republicans rally behind Trump and quickly get his team in place. Senators are getting a brief reprieve from questions about Trump’s nominees as they celebrate Thanksgiving. But when they return next week, the scrutiny will intensify and focus on a trio of Cabinet picks who are raising alarm bells on Capitol Hill and beyond: Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence; Pete Hegseth for defense secretary; and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health and human services secretary.Trump appointments and nomineesHere are some of the people that President-elect Donald Trump has named for high-profile positions in his administration. Positions in orange require Senate confirmation.var pymParent = new pym.Parent('trump-admin', 'https://media.nbcnewyork.com/assets/editorial/national/2024/trump-admin-noms/index.html', {title: '', parenturlparam: '', parenturlvalue: ''});Source: NBC NewsWith the media spotlight off Gaetz, some Republican senators conceded that Trump’s other embattled picks will now be under the microscope. Hegseth, for example, is facing questions about a 2017 incident where a woman told police he took her phone and blocked her from leaving his hotel room before sexually assaulting her. Hegseth was not charged and has denied the allegations while confirming he paid the accuser in a confidential settlement, but the issue has come up in his meetings with Armed Services Committee members whose votes he will need.“Well, it’s a pretty big problem, given that we have ... a sexual assault problem in our military,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., who added that he backed bipartisan legislation by Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., to prevent sexual assault in the military.“This is why you have background checks, this is why you have hearings, this is why you have to go through the scrutiny,” Cramer continued. “I’m not going to pre-judge him, but yeah, it’s a pretty concerning accusation.”Political capitalBefore Gaetz withdrew his name, Cramer had warned that the Trump transition team was at risk of spending too much “political capital” fighting for a doomed Cabinet pick before the party even begins tackling its 2025 legislative agenda. The former Florida congressman had too much baggage, Cramer and others said — stemming from a yearslong sexual misconduct ethics probe and Gaetz’s successful campaign to topple GOP Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year — to win the 51 votes needed to be confirmed as the nation’s top law enforcement official.Republicans will control 53 seats in the new Senate, meaning they can only afford three GOP defections on any vote to confirm a nominee or pass legislation with Vice President JD Vance serving as the tie-breaker.Rather than drag out the fight for several more weeks, Gaetz dropped out of contention Thursday, paving the way for Trump to name former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead the Justice Department. The Bondi choice was cheered by Republicans, and she is expected to have a much easier path to confirmation.How much political capital Trump is willing to burn on other picks with baggage of their own is still an open question. Some Senate Republicans who leveled some of the strongest criticism at Gaetz said they could live with Hegseth, despite the 2017 assault allegations.“He wasn’t charged. He wasn’t even kind of charged in this. There was no crime committed. The police dropped everything there. ...” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., a Trump ally and vocal Gaetz critic, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “And so that doesn’t prevent Pete from moving forward in this.”Potential red flagsKennedy and Gabbard have their own past controversies that could become red flags for senators. Kennedy, whom Trump picked to be one of his top health officials, has made numerous false or misleading claims about vaccines, fluoride, raw milk and other things that would come under his purview if confirmed. As HHS secretary, Kennedy would oversee 13 federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.Asked about RFK Jr’s position on vaccines, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, a member of the Senate Health committee that will host Kennedy’s confirmation hearing, told reporters that “as a parent” she would continue to advocate for the “benefits of modern medicine.”​​Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., a close Trump ally, said on Fox News on Sunday he’s done an “unofficial whip count” on RFK, adding that he’s heard concerns but felt assured that the soon-to-be HHS nominee should be “confirmed quite easily.”Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman who changed parties and endorsed Trump, has faced scrutiny by Democrats — as well as some Republicans — for making positive comments about Russia and meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017. “I think she’s compromised ... Russian-controlled media called her a Russian asset,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a decorated Iraq War veteran and Armed Services member, said on CNN Sunday. She added that she didn’t think Gabbard could pass an FBI background check.Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., shot back on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” labeling Duckworth’s insults about Gabbard “a slur.” “There’s no evidence that she’s an asset of another country,” he said. In a statement, Trump communications director Steven Cheung said, “President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his Administration.”No vettingFBI background checks are typically conducted on executive branch nominees and appointees. But the Trump team has yet to submit any of his picks for such vetting.On Sunday, Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., defended the move, saying Americans do not care about who conducts the vetting process.“I don’t think the American public cares who does the background checks. What the American public cares about is to see the mandate that they voted in delivered upon,” Hagerty, Trump’s former ambassador to Japan, said on ABC’s “This Week.”Democrats say that FBI background checks may save Trump and his team a lot of hassle and embarrassment. “He may have still decided to nominate Matt Gaetz, but if they did a thorough vetting, he may have decided not to,” Sen.-elect Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.“That vetting process, having the FBI review potential nominees, is not only to protect the public interests, it’s to protect the president-elect’s interests, to make sure that he’s not embarrassed by nominating someone like Matt Gaetz.”Gabe Gutierrez, Ryan Nobles, Julie Tsirkin, Kate Santaliz and Hallie Jackson contributed.This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:Senator introduces bill to compel more transparency from AI developersTop federal prosecutor in New York announces resignationGOP senator argues Americans ‘don’t care’ who conducts background checks for Trump Cabinet picks

“His future is not as bright as it once was,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida.

After AG nomination, Gaetz resigned from his seat for the remainder of his term and announced his intention not to take the oath of office on Jan. 3, 2025.

Natalie Johnson, a onetime aide to South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, tore into her former boss over a bigoted bill to ban Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride, who is transgender, from using women’s bathroom facilities in the U.S. Capitol. “‘Protecting women’ in Congress would be introducing a bill to bar Matt Gaetz, a sexual predator with an affinity for underage girls, from ever walking those halls again, rather than dropping a messaging bill that’s sole goal is getting on TV,” Johnson wrote on X on Wednesday.Johnson was referring to former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, whom Donald Trump had nominated to be attorney general and who recently withdrew that nomination amid allegations of child sex trafficking. "If you think this bill is about protecting women and not simply a ploy to get on Fox News, you've been fooled," Johnson also wrote on Wednesday.Mace also appears to be fundraising off her anti-trans bathroom bill. Johnson posted a screenshot of a fundraising text for Mace that said, “I don’t want to see your junk in my bathroom. It’s Rep. Mace[.] The Trans Mob wants to k*ll me. But I FOUGHT BACK,” and included a URL that redirects to Mace’s campaign website. Johnson replied to the text on X, writing, “I don’t want to see your botched, cheap hooker-inspired boob job on my television. Can we introduce a bill to bar that?”

Former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz has withdrawn as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general following scrutiny over a federal sex trafficking investigation

Matt Gaetz has withdrawn as Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general following scrutiny over a federal sex trafficking investigation

A post shared on social media purports that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis can fill the House of Representatives vacancy of Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz. Verdict: False The seat must be filled by a special election process. Fact Check: The House Ethics Committee did not reach a decision on whether to release the investigation into the allegations [...]

The ex-congressman still could have several career pathways to choose from going forward.

Gaetz resigned from Congress after President-elect Trump nominated him, leaving his House seat open. Here's why he can't automatically get it back.

President-elect Donald Trump continued his cabinet announcements this weekend with the naming of oil executive Chris Wright as energy secretary.

Chris Wright, CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, has been one of the industry's loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change.

Trump also tapped Tulsi Gabbard to serve as director of national intelligence and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for secretary of state.

Trump also tapped Tulsi Gabbard to serve as director of national intelligence and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for secretary of state.

Donald Trump's 13-point victory in Florida was so large it was inconceivable even to his most die-hard supporters four years ago. He won 61 of the state’s 67 counties. "Trump victory shows Florida is so Republican red it's crimson. "The era of Florida being a battleground state is clearly over."

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a leading Republican who has investigated the Biden family, said President-elect Trump should not pardon Hunter Biden for his crimes.

President-elect Donald Trump made history by appointing veteran GOP political strategist Susie Wiles to be the first female White House chief of staff in U.S. history.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) is urging President-elect Trump not to put his thumb on the scale in the race to elect a successor to outgoing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), putting a new wrinkle in the high-stakes contest. Thune in recent days has declared his preference that Trump give Republican senators space [...]

Election Day is here. Voters are gearing up to head to the polls to cast their ballots for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in one of the nation’s most historic presidential races. They'll also be determining which party will...

Michigan is one win away from a bowl, but will the players fight for that opportunity?

By The Associated Press Election Day is here. Voters are gearing up to head to the polls to cast their ballots for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in one of the nation’s most historic presidential races. They’ll also be determining which party will control the House and Senate. Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage [...]