House GOP leadership is sending members home early for the weeklong July 4 recess, after a GOP blockade shut down the floor for the second week in a row. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) canceled scheduled votes over his inability to pass procedural rule votes to allow legislation to come to the floor, as a coalition […]
A spate of rulings from the Supreme Court couldn’t be more of a mandate if they were handed down, gift-wrapped, and sealed with a kiss by God: The mass deportation of illegal aliens is legal and imperative if there’s any hope of saving this country. One ruling declared it within the president’s authority to interpret […]
A Republican-controlled House panel on Monday refused to allow a floor vote on a bipartisan amendment to prevent closer integration of the American and Israeli militaries, which human rights organizations say would deepen US complicity in Israeli war crimes.“This is unconscionable,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who led the proposed amendment alongside Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), said in a video posted to social media on Tuesday. “They’re not even giving us a vote on the amendment.”Khanna vowed that “Thomas and I will continue to fight to make sure we don’t compromise American sovereignty.”Watch:Congress has blocked the amendment @RepThomasMassie and I introduced to stop the integration of our military with Israel’s. It is unconscionable to not even have a vote. We will be continuing on and will not be intimidated by the pro-Israel lobby. pic.twitter.com/6ai93L0rAY— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) June 30, 2026 The Khanna-Massie amendment would have removed the US-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative from annual military policy legislation currently moving through Congress. The initiative, laid out in Section 219 of the House’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), instructs the Pentagon to “designate an executive agent... responsible for synchronizing cooperative efforts between the United States and Israel, to expand and accelerate bilateral defense technology research, development, testing, evaluation, integration, and industrial cooperation.”On Monday, the House Rules Committee unveiled a list of NDAA amendments that it decided would get a full House vote, and the Khanna-Massie proposal was absent. Ben Freeman noted at Responsible Statecraft that the rules panel made its decision “after no debate” on the amendment.“By rejecting the Khanna and Massie amendment, the Rules Committee on Monday ensured the American public would not even get to see how their representatives would vote on this pivotal issue,” Freeman wrote. “This is despite unprecedented levels of public distrust in the Israeli government and widespread public outrage directed at these proposals.”The fight to block the US-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative—which is enthusiastically backed by the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC—is not necessarily over.Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said earlier this month that lawmakers “must” strip the initiative from the NDAA, signaling a possible fight over the provision in the upper chamber. A summary of the Senate version of the NDAA states that the legislation would establish “the United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative to expand and accelerate bilateral defense technology research, development, testing, evaluation, coordination, and industrial cooperation between the US andIsrael.”Leading human rights organizations, including Amnesty International USA and Human Rights Watch (HRW), have urged lawmakers to reject the cooperation initiative, with the latter group warning that the proposal would “deepen US military cooperation with Israel while walling that cooperation off from further congressional oversight.”“Israeli forces’ widespread war crimes, crimes against humanity, and its ongoing acts of genocide in Gaza should give the United States pause about closer military association,” said Akshaya Kumar, HRW’s director of crisis advocacy. “Instead, Section 219 proposes to deepen entanglement, in a way that makes the risks of complicity ongoing. Legislators still have a chance to strip this damaging proposal out.”
It’s believed more than 100 Venezuelans who were deported from the US to Caracas hours before the earthquakes have died.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled his solution to Gotham’s housing crisis, invoking the free-market housing renaissance in Austin, Texas. Weeks later, his Rent Guidelines Board installed historic price controls. The Rent Guidelines Board, six of whose nine members were appointed by Mamdani, voted 7-1 Thursday to pause rent increases for up to two years. […]
Donald Trump called the bipartisan housing bill a "yawn" compared to the SAVE America Act, refusing to sign it amid his midterm elections push.
The House floor remained at a standstill Tuesday after more than a dozen House conservatives sustained their blockade over the stalled SAVE Act.
The House on Monday passed the KIDS Act, but key senators say the legislation has little chance of advancing in its current form.Why it matters: The vote sets up a showdown over kids' online safety as the White House works to align Congress behind legislation that would preempt some state AI laws. Driving the news: After garnering broad bipartisan support, House lawmakers fast-tracked a package of kids' online safety measures, including a version of the Kids Online Safety Act, and sent it to the Senate.The bill passed in a 267-117 vote.The House version of KOSA does not include "duty of care" language — which would require platforms to take reasonable steps to mitigate harms stemming from design features like endless scroll or algorithmic recommendations. Proponents say the provision is key to holding tech companies accountable.What they're saying: "We worked hard to reach a workable compromise," House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said Monday on the floor. "While no single bill will solve every challenge facing families online, this legislation represents a significant and long-overdue step forward in establishing meaningful safeguards," he said.Zoom in: The House package includes preemption language that critics say would make it more difficult to sue social media companies for design features.If that language were law, it would have prevented landmark social media cases in California, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said during a call with reporters last week."Let me be clear. The Senate is not interested in having these cases preempted," she said."Preemption should not be a part of it, period," said KOSA co-sponsor Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)."The preemption language in the KIDS Act is written with the explicit intent of ensuring that states have the authority to pass and enforce stronger state laws, including those with a duty of care," House Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said.The big picture: The Trump administration and the tech industry have pushed Congress to pass legislation that would override some state AI laws. Any serious preemption effort would need to include measures protecting kids online to have a chance of advancing.KOSA co-sponsor Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has been working with the White House on a deal tying kids' online safety measures to federal preemption of some state AI laws and has said any legislation needs to include duty of care language."Certainly we don't need to tie it to bad AI policy," Cantwell said.Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been working with the House on kids' online safety bills."Nobody on the committee knows what Sen. Cruz is proposing. I don't think a Republican on the committee knows what he's going to propose," Cantwell said.Cruz is expected to hold an AI legislative markup soon.The bottom line: Congress has repeatedly failed to get KOSA signed into law. This time, sponsors worry that White House pressure may result in a weakened bill crossing the finish line."We need to prevent the White House from forming an alliance with big tech on this issue," Blumenthal said.
