Trump celebrates one year back, lawmakers talk reconciliation, PBM reform, AI with us, and more

House Republicans are planning their legislative strategy to complement President Donald Trump’s focus on lowering costs for Americans on health care, energy, and housing, as the president enters his second year.

This week, Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R., La.) “minibus” included substantial pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) reform that the administration and Republicans have long called for, including restrictions on rebates for drugs purchased through Medicare, more transparency requirements, and enforcement mechanisms to lower drug prices. These provisions will likely be well-received by Republicans, Democrats, and the administration, as PBM reform has been a consensus priority for decades.

Several House Republicans interviewed by the Washington Reporter said that a second reconciliation bill is the best vehicle to secure wins for Americans; the Reporter conducted the interviews at the latest House GOP media row hosted by Rep. Lisa McClain (R., Mich.), the House GOP’s Conference Chairwoman.

Republicans are heading into 2026 with plans to lower the cost of living for Americans, including lowering energy costs, which many lawmakers told the Washington Reporter will be key for unleashing America’s artificial intelligence (AI) and lowering the cost of housing.

The Reporter also asked lawmakers about a potential deal to pass legislation that preempts state AI laws with the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). Lawmakers were largely supportive, with multiple members expressing support for a package that protects kids while ensuring America’s dominance in the AI race against China. 

One House Republican focusing on affordability issues is Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R., Iowa), who told the Reporter in an interview at a media row organized by House GOP Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R., Mich.) that “we have to embrace all energy; we know nuclear is a part of that.”

INTERVIEW INCOMING: Our editor-in-chief Matthew Foldi scored another interview with President Donald Trump — we’re going to roll out a special edition of the Washington Reporter featuring a series of articles Foldi wrote about his latest conversation with the 47th president. HISTORY MADE: President Donald Trump celebrated one year back in the White House following his historic 2024 comeback earlier this week. Rep. Lisa McClain (R., Mich.), the House GOP’s Conference Chair, hosted another media row that the Washington Reporterwas on-site for. Stay tuned for coverage of that! 2026 WATCH: Austin Rogers, the general counsel to Sen. Rick Scott (R.,…

For too long, Washington, D.C talked about “competition” with China while China treated biotechnology as a strategic battlefield. President Donald Trump is right to reject that complacency and to recognize that America’s technological dominance is something that must be a top priority.

As advisor to CEOs and author of a forthcoming book on China’s economic model Ram Charan recently argued in the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. should stop treating China as a routine trade dispute and start approaching the country as though we’re at economic and technological war. China has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to challenge American leadership in the biotech space. 

Unfortunately, China is having some success. 

A group of Republican senators, led by Sen. Ted Budd (R., N.C.) is introducing legislation to ban foreign nationals who persecute religious minorities from entering the United States.

Budd’s legislation, obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter, the Banning Perpetrators of Religious Persecution Act, is cosponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), Jim Banks (R., Ind.), James Lankford (R., Okla.), John Kennedy (R., La.), Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.), and Ashley Moody (R., Fla.). The move amends the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), restricting visa issuance to individuals who have directed, authorized, significantly supported, participated in, or carried out violations of religious freedom.

“Nigeria is just one of many examples where non-state actors and terrorist groups are carrying out kidnappings and killings of Christians and other religious minorities,” Budd told the Reporter. “It is entirely unacceptable for the U.S., a nation founded on the principle of religious freedom, to allow such foreign nationals into our country. By codifying the Trump administration’s directive to bar these malign actors from obtaining U.S. visas, we are establishing robust consequences for violators and sending a loud and clear message to the rest of the world that America will not tolerate any attack on religious freedom.”

The top Senate Republican is headed to Louisiana to help his colleague out ahead of a contentious primary race. According to figures obtained by the Washington Reporter, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) helped Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) raise over half a million dollars during a swing through the Bayou State. 

The duo hauled in $652,000 at a Baton Rouge fundraiser, the Reporter can exclusively confirm. They were joined by a slew of VIPs, including state Reps. Dixon McMakin, Peter Egan, and Lauren Ventrella, along with Louisiana Senate President Cameron Henry, Gary Bennett, the assistant executive director of the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association, Central Mayor Wade Evans, Lane Grigsby, Gordon McKernon, Beckett Bechnel, John Condos, Jonathan Bruser, David Gaines, Kristy Nichols, Rodney Alexander, Tyron Picard, Joe Genderon, Bill Goldring, Gordon LeBlanc, Amanda Martin, Teddy Ray Price, Eddie Rispone, Chuck Stenbeck, Joe Spell, Bob Whelan, and Mike Wampold.

The two also traveled the state to pitch the agenda that they worked on alongside President Donald Trump — specifically the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, which they discussed at Phil’s Oyster Bar and Grill. That bill’s provisions, including its ban on taxes on tips, were at the forefront of the discussion. Thune, who endorsed Cassidy months ago, emphasized that the Senate GOP leadership is fully behind the pro-life Louisiana lawmaker.

The Trump administration notched its latest historic milestone when it comes to border security: for the eighth consecutive month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded zero parole releases.

Figures from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter show the difference between the Trump and Biden administrations. In one instance, DHS pointed to “209 USBP apprehensions per day on the southwest border in December — 96% lower than the daily average under the Biden administration, and less than the number apprehended every 1.5 hours under the Biden administration.”

That complements the zero parole releases from December 2025, “compared to 7,041 released by the Border Patrol under the Biden administration along the southwest border in December 2024,” DHS noted.

Rep. Tim Moore (R., N.C.) is introducing legislation obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter that incentivizes Americans to turn in individuals who harm or kill federal law enforcement officers. 

Moore’s legislation, the No Bounties on Badges Act, authorizes rewards for information leading to the arrest, conviction, or prevention of people who offer bounties to harm or kill law enforcement officers. 

“As law enforcement officers across services are increasingly targeted by radicals, Congress has to do something to stand up for them,” Moore told the Reporter. “I’m disgusted by the dangerous rhetoric likening police officers to Nazis — and now some are going even further, literally putting a price tag on their lives. That’s why I introduced the No Bounties on Badges Act in the House to send a clear message that if you put a bounty on our officers, we’ll put a bounty on you.”

President Donald Trump deserves no less than an “A” to an “A+” for what eight House Republicans told the Washington Reporter has been a historic first year, singling out the administration’s wins on everything from border security to foreign policy. 

“To give him an A+ or a 5.0 on a 4.0 scale might sound ridiculous, but I’ve been here for a long time and I’ve never seen a president hit the ground running with as much energy as what he’s done,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) told the Reporter in an interview. 

Multiple lawmakers cited Trump’s success in keeping his promises. “He’s a man who means what he says and says what he means,” Rep. John McGuire (R., Va.) said. “Every president in my lifetime said they want peace in the Middle East, he got two deals done. He moved our embassy to Jerusalem. Biden said we need legislation to secure the border, but that was wrong; we just needed a new president. Americans are safer, murder rates are down, we’re recovering from the damage of NAFTA, hope for the future is up, and we’re creating peace. I give him a high grade.”

The European Commission and European Parliament may be trying to undermine President Donald Trump’s trade agenda before the president arrives for his much-anticipated trip to Davos, Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF).

According to a leaked document reviewed by the Washington Reporter, some in the EU are trying to change the already controversial Digital Networks Act (DNA) to include “network usage fees,” which have been long-opposed by many in the Trump administration; the Trump administration has crafted frameworks for EU trade deals that specifically ban the EU from implementing network usage fees.

Should the EU finalize these changes, they would likely violate the landmark trade deal struck by the U.S. and EU in August, the framework of which obligated both sides to “commit to address unjustified digital trade barriers. In that respect, The European Union confirms that it will not adopt or maintain network usage fees.”

A slew of Republican Attorneys General came to Washington, D.C. to defend women’s sports last week as the Supreme Court deliberated cases that could save — or destroy — women’s-only sports teams.

West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey’s state is at the center of one of the cases. He predicted that the Supreme Court will unanimously side with female athletes in West Virginia and allow the state to ban men from playing on women’s sports. Should the Supreme Court rule against the girls, McCuskey cautioned that “every women’s sports team in the entire United States would be illegal.”

Not every Republican attorney general was as optimistic as McCuskey about the final decision. Idaho’s Raúl Labrador predicted victory, but noted that he is “not as optimistic as JB” about the final outcome. 

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R., Ohio) joined House Republicans and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy at a Ford assembly plant in Ohio to celebrate regulatory rollbacks that have driven down costs for families while boosting American manufacturing. 

At the event at Avon Lake’s Ford facility, Moreno and Rep. Bob Latta (R., Ohio) praised the administration’s work to end costly electric vehicle mandates that have burdened U.S. automakers and raised costs for families. Their remarks echoed the themes President Donald Trump emphasized last week during a high-profile visit to a Ford plant in Michigan, where he showcased his economic agenda and its benefit to working families. 

Secretary Duffy said, “if you’re going to sell your cars in America, you should make them in America with great American workers. Our effort has been to make cars more affordable.”

President Donald Trump has been in office for a little over a year, and our nation is experiencing record-low border crossings, violent crime is down, and the flow of deadly drugs into our communities is slowing. These statistics are primarily due to effective policies that have led to the most secure border in United States history, and are a direct result of the deportation of the worst-of-the-worst criminal illegal aliens. 

Within one year, the Trump administration has wasted no time getting the job done after the mess left behind by the Biden-Harris administration. More than 10 million illegal aliens crossed the southern border, and countless gotaways evaded Customs and Border Protection under the previous administration — all the while telling us that the border was secure. This surge followed President Joe Biden’s decision to undo major border security executive orders issued during President Donald Trump’s first term, effectively ringing the dinner bell and signaling a green light for illegal aliens.

The American reindustrialization boom is well underway. After decades of outsourcing, hollowed-out communities, and supply chains stretched across oceans, America is making things at home again.

From semiconductor plants in Arizona to data centers in Virginia, a construction, manufacturing, and technological renaissance is reshaping the U.S., with the potential to drive economic prosperity and independence for decades.

But as the number of projects being built continues to rise, our roads, bridges, and critical infrastructure are cracking under the increased load. Decades of underinvestment have finally caught up with us, and it’s time to pay the bill.

America’s economy is the envy of the world. We’re creating jobs, inflation has cooled, and the stock market is at record highs.

Yet for millions of families, financial security feels as fragile as ever. They are earning, but not saving. They are working hard, but still one emergency away from falling behind.

That gap between growth on paper and stability in the bank account speaks to a structural issue that has plagued our nation for nearly two decades. We’ve built an economy that rewards spending but does little to incentivize saving and long-term planning. And that imbalance — along with the sluggish recovery from 2008 and the rampant inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic — has utterly degraded the ability of ordinary families to prepare for the future.