Heard on the Hill
What we're hearing from people we trust on and around the Hill
NDAA DELAY?: Congressional sources tell us that the NDAA is going to come down to the wire, with the final horse trading potentially pushing passage back to early 2026. Our view is to bet that Congress gets it done. There’s a reason the NDAA is called the “must-pass” bill.
KOSA FOR A MORATORIUM? A bipartisan group of senators is working on a package that includes the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) along with a partial moratorium against state laws regulating AI, tech and Hill sources told the Washington Reporter. Our take: good in theory, but the path to floor time and 60 Senate votes in an election year is unlikely, to say the least. If support, or opposition, towards AI starts popping up in midterm ads in the next few months, the chance of bipartisan legislation on this topic declines to zero.
FACTS FIRST: A purported “civic freedoms report” that pans a “rapid authoritarian shift” in America under President Donald Trump isn’t exactly all it’s cracked up to be. Alexa Henning, the Deputy Chief of Staff of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard, noted that “the ‘civics freedoms report’ referred to here is actually South African-based CIVICUS that is funded by a group of George Soros NGOs.”
HAMADEH ON ISRAEL: Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R., Ariz.) penned an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post about why the “relationship [between America and Israel] is not only strategic or ideological, but it is also deeply personal.”
HEALTH CARE ROLL OUT: Rep. August Pfluger (R., Texas) and Sen. Rick Scott (R., Fla.) are releasing the More Affordable Care Act as Republicans grapple with what comes next on the health care front. Their legislation, Pfluger’s Republican Study Committee (RSC) explains, “give[s] individuals control over their health care dollars. Instead of funneling billions of taxpayer dollars to large insurance companies, this bill creates Trump Health Freedom Accounts, where federal subsidies are deposited straight into accounts that individuals manage.” Scott, a longtime healthcare executive, said that “we don’t have to replace Obamacare, we keep exchanges, we keep protections for preexisting conditions — but we can add options for families, allowing them to shop across state lines, increasing transparency in health care, and giving any financial support to them directly through HSA-style Trump Health Freedom Accounts so families can choose the care that fits their needs.”
WIOA WORK: The Departments of Labor and Education announced a joint plan to integrate the federal government’s workforce development portfolio. The two departments, helmed by Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Linda McMahon, respectively, announced that they will transition the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) state plan portal to the Labor Department to streamline federal workforce development programs.
APT IS WATCHING: Americans for Public Trust (APT), a watchdog group, just filed a complaint in Florida against both Energy Foundation China and the U.S. Energy Foundation for violating Florida’s Solicitation of Contributions Act. APT alleges that both organizations accepted prohibited contributions or other things of value from a “foreign source of concern,” in this case the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).