Shutdown law clears as election-law push stalls in Senate
WASHINGTON — The House and Senate are most likely done legislating until after the November midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported. Late-session attempts to pass bills affecting college sports, data centers, permitting reform and affordability will not become law anytime soon because, the Journal wrote, Congress “has thrown in the towel.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) has called this Congress “one of the most productive of all time.” The One Big Beautiful Bill that Congress passed last year was enormous and consequential, the Journal reported, affecting tax policy, immigration policy and government spending.
After that, the Journal reported, “things gummed up.” Congress for the most part seized up this year and deferred a lot of authority to the White House on matters including war powers and trade. President Trump, with a lot of support from conservatives, pushed Republicans to put everything else on hold unless they could pass changes to election law, the Journal reported. That effort, like many other measures, stalled in the Senate.
Congress did pass a law recently that prevented a government shutdown that would have begun Thursday, which the Journal called “no small feat in modern Washington.”
The Journal reported deep dissatisfaction with Congress around the country. Dozens of lawmakers are quitting their jobs and not running for re-election, and the balance of power has shifted, according to the report. A new Wall Street Journal poll shows large numbers of Americans embracing populist ideas that defy traditional political labels, which the Journal said could pose a challenge to the way Congress has worked for many years. The next Congress, the Journal wrote, might have to adapt to political winds “blowing in from the left and the right.”
The same edition of the Journal’s Politics newsletter reported several other Washington developments. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Anthropic and OpenAI to determine whether they deceived consumers about artificial intelligence’s potential harms. Behind the scenes of Tuesday’s meeting with Trump, industry leaders questioned Anthropic chief Dario Amodei about his warnings regarding the dangers of artificial intelligence; Amodei told the other executives it is important to be honest with the public about model capabilities and not play down risks, the Journal reported.
Trump is scheduled to hold a morning policy meeting and then depart for Denton, Texas, where he will deliver remarks at Peterbilt Motors, the Journal reported. Later he will travel to Oklahoma and speak at a Republican National Committee midterm rally in Durant, Okla.
The Journal also reported that tens of billions in contested tax bills hinge on the words “and continuing” in Trump’s 2020 Covid-19 pandemic-disaster declaration. Court cases over that language will determine whether the government turned off tax deadlines for more than three years and whether U.S. companies and individuals prevail in disputes over billions of dollars.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is creating a four-star combatant command for autonomous warfare, overhauling how the Pentagon buys, tests and deploys drones and other cutting-edge technologies, the Journal reported. In a speech at a Marine Corps base, Hegseth said the command is set to be functional in October 2027 and that Elon Musk will help the Pentagon study the future of warfare.
The current standoff extends reporting MSI published in July, when House Republicans were privately calling the current Congress a “zombie Congress” and a rebellion led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida over the stalled Save America Act blocked a routine procedural vote, prompting Speaker Johnson to send members home early for the Fourth of July holiday, as MSI previously reported.