Senate Republicans hit a temporary stumbling block in its latest effort to confirm dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees. Democrats blocked Republicans from successfully taking an initial step toward confirming a package of more than 80 nominations because one of the picks doesn’t qualify to be included: Sara Bailey’s nomination to be the director of national drug control policy is a senior-level pick requiring individual consideration under the new rules Republicans themselves drafted earlier this year for multinominee confirmation votes. Republicans are expected to refile the resolution after adding additional nominees to the package, bringing it to about 95 names, and vote on it next week. That will pave the way for another series of votes on confirming the nominees, which currently include 13 U.S. attorney designees and dozens of sub-Cabinet appointments. Lead Art: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) answers questions about the ongoing government shutdown outside his office at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Nov. 10, 2025. | Alex Kent for POLITICO The Government Accountability Office will investigate whether Federal Housing Director Bill Pulte misused his authority to spur mortgage fraud investigations into president Donald Trump’s political enemies. The GAO sent Senate Banking ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) a letter, released publicly Thursday, accepting Senate Democrats’ request to investigate Pulte’s referrals of New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) to the Department of Justice for alleged mortgage fraud. The independent and nonpartisan congressional watchdog said in its letter that it will review “recent actions undertaken at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to determine whether the agency and its employees misused federal authority and resources.” Democrats and the targets of Pulte’s DOJ referrals have accused the FHFA director, who is also chair of the boards of government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, of leading politically motivated and improperly conducted investigations into public figures who have opposed the president. The FHFA’s top internal watchdog position has been vacant since early November, when Reuters reported that Pulte had circumvented the previous Inspector General Joe Allen to make the criminal referrals. The cases spurred by Pulte’s allegations have faced recent setbacks. The cases against Comey and James were dismissed last month when a federal judge ruled that the case’s prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed to the position. Speaker Mike Johnson is racing to finalize a Republican health care plan in time to present it to his conference at their weekly meeting Tuesday, but his team still needs to decide on major contours of the plan, according to three people granted anonymity to describe internal conversations. GOP leaders are meeting Thursday to nail down what will go in the package, according to the three people. One major decision still to be made is whether to offer multiple individual bills for floor consideration or to assemble them into one piece of legislation. But top Republicans want to have a GOP alternative to vote on as Democrats hammer them over expiring Obamacare subsidies that will spike premiums for millions of Americans in the new year. If Johnson and fellow GOP leaders don’t make decisions about the way forward Thursday, one senior House Republican said, “it’s going to be bad.” The package is likely to be an assemblage of various GOP bills that have been working through House committees that are largely aimed at providing more options for health care coverage outside of the Affordable Care Act framework. One likely to be included would provide for “association health plans” allowing smaller businesses to join together to offer plans rather than going through ACA exchanges. Leaders are also likely to include options for expanding the use of health savings accounts, something President Donald Trump has endorsed but Democrats have generally opposed. It’s also likely to include bipartisan legislation overhauling the role of pharmacy benefit managers and potentially other bills that could lower prescription drug prices — something Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio advised a group of House Republicans to focus on as Democrats seize on the expiring tax credits. Johnson said in a brief interview that he and leaders plan to walk House Republicans through the health care plan through this weekend and then circulate the framework early next week. He also confirmed what GOP leaders have said in private — they want to vote on a health care package before the end of the year. But House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who had been coordinating the health care deliberations, wouldn’t commit to that timeline shortly after Johnson spoke. Party leaders are facing massive pressure from GOP centrists who are assembling their own compromise plans to extend the expiring subsides with new eligibility requirements. But Johnson, Scalise and many House Republicans have no interest in continuing with the Obamacare framework. Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), who coauthored a new plan that would provide a one-year extension of the subsidies that has been endorsed by more than two dozen members in both parties, said “we need to act on this issue.” “To do nothing is the wrong answer,” she said. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who is assembling a separate compromise bill that would include a longer subsidy extension, said his party’s leaders were not going down a path that will prevent a spike in American’s health care costs. “Is it a Republican-only solution? That’s not a serious solution,” he said. “The million-dollar question is, is it bipartisan or not?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer officially unveiled Democrats’ plan for a health care vote next week, saying Thursday on the chamber floor his caucus will propose extending soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years. “This is the bill, a clean three-year extension of ACA tax credits, that Democrats will bring to the floor of the Senate for a vote next Thursday, and every single Democrat will support it,” Schumer said. “Republicans have one week to decide where they stand.” The strategy aligns Senate Democrats with their counterparts in the House — and gives the party a message with which to hammer Republicans heading into next year’s midterms. But the Democratic bill is guaranteed to fail. While many GOP senators say they would back a two-year extension, they’ve said income caps and other new restrictions would need to be added in order to garner sufficient Republican support. Senate Republicans are still mulling whether or not to put up a counterproposal on health care for a vote next week. They are likely to discuss the issue during their closed-door lunch Thursday afternoon. Matt Van Epps was sworn in on the House floor Thursday morning, less than 48 hours after he won a surprisingly competitive special election in Tennessee. The Republican’s arrival brings the GOP House majority to 220 opposite 213 Democrats, still a strikingly narrow margin for Speaker Mike Johnson to navigate as his conference grows increasingly restive. Van Epps replaces former Republican Rep. Mark Green, who retired in July. Thursday could determine whether the Lone Star State gets five more Republican-leaning seats next Congress. Yet the state’s Texas-sized influence is beginning to wane. The Texas GOP delegation is losing its clout due to a combination of redistricting, retirements and bids for higher office. The group is on track to lose the seniority and committee gavels it once wielded to influence key decisions in the House. With six retirements looming and another five new GOP-leaning seats in the proposed map — the Supreme Court could decide as soon as Thursday whether to approve it — the state is looking at potentially 11 new members in a 30-member delegation. “There’s going to be a lot of introductory lunches, that’s for sure,” Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-Texas) told POLITICO, noting it’s going to be a “drastic change.” For decades, the GOP delegation was known for guarding its influence, holding weekly lunches to strategize, amassing seats on the influential steering committee that determines committee assignments and often voting as a bloc on key matters. But the fact that President Donald Trump started his aggressive redistricting campaign with Texas — and that it proceeded at all — reflects the state’s relative impotence in Trump’s Washington. Republicans wary of the effort eventually folded under pressure from the president, and since then, a fifth of the delegation has announced plans to leave. Those retirements include Budget Chair Jodey Arrington and Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on two key committees for over a decade. At the start of Trump’s first term, Texas had seven gavels, including influential Armed Services, Financial Services and Ways and Means panels and three coveted Appropriations subcommittee chairs. Now, Texans hold only three committee gavels — including Arrington — and no Texans serve in the House GOP’s elected leadership. “We were powerful,” said Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), who chairs the House Small Business Committee, recounting what the delegation was like when he first arrived in 2013. “But that all cycles.” What else we’re watching: — Van Epps seated: Speaker Mike Johnson will swear in Rep.-elect Matt Van Epps (R-Tenn.) on the House floor at 9 a.m., giving the GOP a 220-213 majority. — Health care talks: Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) plan to introduce a new framework at 9:30 a.m. to reduce health premiums as lawmakers scramble to figure out what to do about expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies. It includes a one-year extension of the subsidies with new guardrails to crack down on fraud and a menu of separate pay-for options — not in the form of subsidies — to keep premiums low. Senate Democrats are expected to propose a three-year extension of the subsidies, which Senate Majority Leader John Thune said was “designed to fail.” — NDAA hurdles: Final legislative text on the annual defense authorization bill was originally expected Thursday but has been delayed as GOP leaders work through eleventh-hour intraparty issues that could put its passage in jeopardy. Leaders are now aiming to unveil bill text by the end of the weekend. Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney, Connor O’Brien and Joe Gould contributed to this report.

She left a $390,000-a-year job and now uses a simple set of rules to make her savings last in Switzerland.

It was the 11th known time the Trump administration has launched strikes against alleged drug-carrying boats in recent months.