House Speaker Mike Johnson is in the midst of a 30-day nonstop campaign swing that will take him to 18 states this summer, as he fights political headwinds in an effort to keep a GOP majority in this midterm election year.

One of the campaign stops took place this week in Virginia, where he said the stakes couldn’t be higher.

“Virginia’s 2nd District will determine the fate of the country because this will be a close election,” Johnson said Monday.

Johnson traveled to Virginia Beach to campaign on behalf of Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans, who represents the district.

Kiggans is considered one of the most vulnerable GOP members of Congress this year.

She is leaning on a campaign message that Johnson has been emphasizing.

“It’s a fight right now between craziness and common sense,” she said. “And really civility and communism, socialism.”

Republicans are emphasizing the divide within the Democratic Party, between progressives and Democratic socialists and more moderate members.

Even though polling indicates Republicans are being hurt by President Donald Trump’s low approval ratings and the continuation of the war with Iran, Johnson insists his party can defy history.

“I’m absolutely convinced that we’re going to grow the House majority,” Johnson said.

Generally, the party in power in the White House almost always loses seats during a midterm election.

Congressional rematch

Kiggans’ Democratic opponent is a familiar one: former congresswoman Elaine Luria, who she defeated in 2022.

Luria, a military veteran, is not from the progressive wing of the party, but earned the enmity of President Donald Trump’s supporters by serving on the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, .

She issued a statement this week, reacting to criticism from Johnson and Kiggans.

“As corrupt Jen Kiggans and Mike Johnson meet with wealthy donors today, working Virginians are seeing their gas and grocery bills skyrocket, their friends and family members in uniform sent to fight in another foreign war, and their healthcare taken away to pay for tax cuts for billionaires,” Luria said. “Kiggans and Johnson refuse to stand up to Donald Trump, and Hampton Roads is paying the price.”

The race between Luria and Kiggans is expected to be bitterly contested.

While the 2nd District leans Republican, Democrats believe they have a good chance of retaking it.

It is likely to be a bellwether for the midterm elections.

Luria flipped the seat when she was first elected to Congress in 2018, then won reelection in 2020, before being defeated by Kiggans.

Republicans currently control the House by a 218-212 margin, with one Independent.

Johnson is hoping to build on that slim majority, while Democrats believe the political winds are at their back and they can retake the upper chamber.

Source

The Virginia primary had light voter turnout, but it sets up midterm elections with weighty political implications for control of Congress.

Voters this fall will consider candidates for all the state’s congressional seats, as well as a race for U.S. Senate. The battle for control of the U.S. House will turn on just a few dozen races nationwide, so every contest counts.

House Republicans now have a 218-212 edge, with one independent and four seats currently unfilled.

Virginia Democrats had hoped to get a big boost in their congressional delegation from a redistricting referendum, potentially gaining four seats, for a 10-1 advantage. Voters initially approved it, but the state Supreme Court later rejected the referendum.

So instead of potentially picking up four seats, political analysts say Virginia Democrats have a realistic shot of flipping two seats. Republicans, in turn, hope to flip a Democratic seat.

2nd District House race is a bellwether

Former congresswoman Elaine Luria again won the Democratic nomination for the 2nd District House seat in the Virginia Beach area on Tuesday, setting up a rematch with GOP Rep. Jen Kiggans.

Kiggans is considered the most vulnerable Republican lawmaker in Virginia. She defeated Luria in 2022.

Voters in the district swing between the two parties. Since 2008, the party of the candidate that won the race in the 2nd District also won control of the House, making it a reliable bellwether for the broader election.

In the 1st District, Republican Rep. Rob Wittman will seek reelection against former Henrico County prosecutor Shannon Taylor.

Taylor is a former candidate for attorney general and has name recognition in the Richmond area.

While Wittman has held the seat for close to two decades, Democrats believe they can defeat him.

“Even though Democrats were thwarted in their plans to come up with a net gain of four seats in Virginia, the difficult environment for Republicans this cycle, because of the president, does create the possibility that there may be two seats, particularly Congressional District 1 and 2 … could be pickups anyway,” said Stephen Farnsworth, political scientist at Mary Washington University.

As for Republicans, they hope GOP nominee Douglas Ollivant can knock off Democratic Rep. Eugene Vindman in Virginia’s 7th District. Ollivant, like Vindman, has served on the White House National Security Council.

Republicans believe he has a strong chance of flipping the seat, since Vindman only beat his GOP opponent in 2024 by less than three points.

Final race for U.S. Sen. Mark Warner

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner will face retired Army Maj. Gen. Bert Mizusawa, who cruised to a victory in the GOP primary. Warner has said it will be his last Senate campaign, as he seeks a fourth term.

Mizusawa acknowledged he’ll need to raise a lot more money as he takes on an incumbent who has a more than $25 million campaign war chest.

“Mark Warner is pretty much well-defined in the minds of most voters,” Mizusawa said in an interview with �鶹����. “I think every dollar that I raise will go 10 times farther than the dollars he has, because I am a relative unknown.”

Mizusawa outraised his two GOP opponents in the primary, but the total money brought in by all of them was only about $620,000.

Democrats are confident Warner will hold his seat and they can’t afford any political slipups as they try to regain control of the Senate.

The victory of progressive Abdul El-Sayed in Tuesday’s Democratic Senate primary in Michigan over Rep. Haley Stevens sets up a big race against former GOP congressman Mike Rogers. Many establishment Democrats are concerned that El-Sayed will have a tough time beating Rogers in the fall election.

Democrats need to retain control of the Michigan seat if they are to have a solid chance of retaking the Senate. Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters is retiring, which opened up the seat.

The Democratic Senate primary in Michigan had a strong turnout, with more than 1.5 million votes cast. By comparison, fewer than 250,000 voted in Virginia’s GOP Senate primary.

Republicans currently have a 53-47 majority in the Senate and Democrats need to net four seats to return to power in the upper chamber. Senate races that Democrats hope to flip include those in Alaska, Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.

Source

The bill is sponsored by Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

“Radical D.C. Democrats want to solve their spending problem by reaching deeper into taxpayers’ pockets and driving further on the path to socialism,” Comer said.

Comer alluded to but did not name D.C. Council member Janeese Lewis George, who is likely to become the city’s next mayor after winning the Democratic nomination.

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said the bill would mark a major blow to local control.

“If enacted, this will be the most consequential reduction in D.C.’s authority to govern itself since the D.C. Home Rule Act was passed in 1973 the entire modern history of D.C. home rule,” Norton said.

For all the latest developments in Congress, follow �鶹���� Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller at Today on the Hill.

Mayor Muriel Bowser also opposed the legislation in a statement Wednesday.

“This would render the District incapable of recovering from the debilitating impacts of COVID, federal remote work, and DOGE,” Bowser said.

In a letter to Comer, D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson said the bill “would straitjacket District government while not adding to Congressional authority over the District. Congress already has the authority to disapprove any and every tax increase adopted by the Council.”

Council member Robert White, the Democratic nominee in the 2026 election to replace Norton as D.C.’s congressional delegate, said the bill “would be devastating.”

“Our budget would become a request we sent to Congress that dies the moment they ignore it. That’s not oversight. It’s a veto over our own city,” White said.

If the bill eventually gets a vote on the House floor, it will still face an uphill battle in the Senate, where Democrats would likely block it with a filibuster.

Source

Members of Congress joined former federal employees outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to honor State Department and USAID workers who lost their jobs to sweeping cuts last year by the Department of Government Efficiency.

The DOGE purge forced out of their government positions.

They included many Americans who worked on international programs for the State Department and USAID, which was .

Dozens of former federal workers gathered near the Capitol, along with Virginia and Maryland lawmakers, who vowed to keep working on their behalf.

Rep. James Walkinshaw, who represents Virginia’s 11th District, said the employees had carried out valuable work, saving lives through humanitarian and health outreach overseas.

“We’re not going to end that fight until we stop more damage from occurring,” he said to cheers. “We’re not going to end that fight until we undo the damage that has been done.”

Caught up in the DOGE purge

Maryum Saifee had a rewarding job with the U.S. Foreign Service until she lost it last year as DOGE cuts swept through the federal government.

She questions whether DOGE actually saved money and made the State Department more efficient.

“Taxpayers invested over $35 million just in our language training,” she said. “Now, the department is spending that much and more to train our replacements from scratch. That’s not efficiency.”

Former employees held up signs with messages including, “Reinstate State Department Jobs” and “Reinstate USAID Jobs.”

Rep. Steny Hoyer, who represents Maryland’s 5th District, said the DOGE cuts had no logic to them.

“In a few days of time, people came in who had no idea of the consequences of their actions,” he said. “All they knew was to get to numbers. How many people could they fire?”

July 4 and the Trump administration has no plans to assess its impact.

Walkinshaw and Hoyer were joined Wednesday by U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Rep. Don Beyer, who represents Virginia’s 8th District, along with leaders from federal employee unions.

The “Missing Badge” event included the posting of large placards explaining the human rights, humanitarian and healthcare outreach to which the workers had been committed.

Source

Loudoun County Superintendent Aaron Spence faced pointed questions from Republican lawmakers about school system policies during a congressional hearing Wednesday, including an incident with a transgender student.

Spence was one of three administrators from different school systems who testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee.

Republicans made it clear in their comments and questions that they are skeptical of school systems that have developed special policies covering transgender students.

“If I was a parent in either of those districts, with these students, I’d consider suing for child abuse and neglect,” GOP Rep. and committee chair Tim Walberg, of Michigan, said of Loudoun County and Chicago public schools.

Democrats on the panel pushed back, arguing that Republicans are trying to distract from more profound issues affecting public schools, and major cuts to the U.S. Department of Education.

“It is irresponsible and shortsighted to leave states and localities to fend for themselves, especially when many school jurisdictions are already strapped for resources and funding,” said Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the committee’s ranking Democrat.

Spence was pressed by GOP lawmakers about several issues, including an incident last year at Stone Bridge High School, in which a transgender student allegedly took a video of other students in the boys’ locker room.

The incident led to a legal battle, as well as .

Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican who represents Florida’s 6th District, fired a series of questions at Spence.

“Why did the girl pretending to be a boy, who filmed the boys in their restroom, why was there no discipline for that student?” Fine asked.

“What you’ve stated is factually inaccurate,” Spence said.

Fine told Spence and the other school administrators who testified that he was glad the Florida school systems don’t put up with the “garbage” that they do.

Spence took issue with assertions from Fine and other Republicans that his school system isn’t applying common sense policies.

“We have very clear policies that would prevent filming students in our bathrooms,” Spence said.

Spence also said he and school officials take all issues raised by students and parents very seriously.

“As the superintendent it’s my job to ensure that we follow federal law, state law and locally adopted school work policies,” Spence said. “And we work with our students and with our families to do that.”

Source

Thousands of National Guard personnel remain on patrol in the nation’s capital and President Donald Trump says there is no plan to have them leave D.C. any time soon.

“We’re going to keep them,” he said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House this week.

The president said someone asked if there were fewer National Guard personnel in D.C. and he answered, “I hope not.”

During the meeting, he turned to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and said he wants the military men and women to remain on patrol in the District, telling him, “don’t lower the number if you don’t mind.”

Hegseth said there is a plan to surge their numbers this summer.

“They look great,” Trump said.

The administration has requested that an additional 1,500 Guard troops be deployed in D.C., ahead of the celebration of the country’s 250th birthday. That will bring the total number to 5,000 this summer.

, after he announced he was taking over the D.C. police department under a public safety emergency.

In addition to the D.C. National Guard, units have continually been sent to the District from states with Republican governors.

Some D.C. officials have questioned the need for Guard patrols and whether they actually deter crime.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has said she doesn’t think the Guard should be used to police local laws.

Guard members don’t make arrests and are often seen walking around areas of D.C. that are popular with tourists.

A report compiled earlier this year for Democratic U.S. senators estimated that the Guard deployment in D.C. costs more than $1.65 million a day.

More than two dozen states oppose National Guard DC deployment

A coalition of 26 states this week , arguing that it should uphold a lower court ruling that would block the deployment of the National Guard in D.C.

The Trump administration is appealing the lower court ruling.

The filing is supported by three governors and 23 attorneys general, including Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown.

“President Trump unlawfully deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C. for political theater, not for public safety,” Brown said in a statement. “Our office will continue defending the rule of law against unlawful efforts to use military power to police American communities.”

Brown is joined in the brief by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the offices of the governors of Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

Source

A Virginia congressman is introducing legislation that would prevent construction of near Arlington National Cemetery.

Rep. Don Beyer, who represents the district where the arch would be located, said in a statement Wednesday that the president’s arch proposal is illegal and lacks congressional authorization.

Beyer said the arch fails to respect the families of those buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Trump has said he doesn’t need Congress to approve the 250-foot arch, which would be the highest of its kind in the world.

Critics say it would block views of the grave sites.

“Arlington National Cemetery is sacred ground, the resting place for some of our nation’s greatest heroes,” Beyer said. “It is unthinkable that we would desecrate this hallowed space to build a monument to Donald Trump’s ego.”

The Democratic lawmaker called the arch a “vanity project” for the president, arguing the Trump administration gave “no consideration to potential harmful effects” on the region.

Beyer also raises traffic concerns

In addition to his legislation, Beyer outlined his concerns about the arch, its construction and how it could potentially add to traffic problems near the Memorial Bridge to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Acting Director of the National Park Service Jessica Bowron.

“I write to express my grave concerns about the impacts on traffic that this project will have on my Northern Virginia constituents, and to request copies of your plans and studies for coping with the transportation disruption generated by the proposed construction,” Beyer said.

He requested any information available involving traffic studies or related documentation.

“If no such studies or documentation exist, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to immediately address potential traffic impacts arising from this project,” he said.

Beyer’s letter and legislation follow last week’s decision by , which is to be built in Memorial Circle.

All of the commission’s members were appointed by the president.

Beyer and other lawmakers have said the project is supposed to go through an extensive approval process, but the president has indicated it’s not necessary.

The National Capital Planning Commission, which considers proposals for construction on federal land, has the arch on its agenda for an upcoming June meeting.

Public comments on the arch have been overwhelmingly critical of the plan.

The cost of the arch remains unclear. President Trump has said it could be paid for with private donations leftover from .

Source

But lawmakers and D.C.-area residents want assurances that an environmental disaster like the one that took place in January won’t happen again.

“In your opinion, does this pipe need to be replaced?” Georgia Rep. Rick Allen asked David Gadis, CEO and general manager of D.C. Water, during a on Wednesday.

“Not the whole 54 miles needs to be replaced,” Gadis said of r, which stretches along the river from Virginia, through Maryland and into D.C. “There are segments that we feel need to be repaired and we’ve identified three of those segments.”

He said replacing the entire pipe would be a “herculean” task and indicated it would be “very, very expensive” — something ratepayers would have to help fund.

During the hearing, Gadis was asked how much the new repairs will cost, to which Gadis said they do not have an estimate “at this point in time.”

“We are mobilizing … on those three areas, but I’m not sure we have a cost estimate as of yet,” he said.

A spokesperson for D.C. Water later the current estimated cost for the repairs is $425 million.

Gadis said he hopes the National Park Service can move more quickly than it has in the past, to allow for permitting so the repairs can get underway.

“We’ve got to strike while the iron’s hot here,” Allen said, and Gadis agreed.

Could a pipe rupture happen again?

When asked if another pipe burst could take place, Gadis said given the pipe was first installed in the 1960s, he couldn’t make a flat guarantee that won’t ever happen.

“Another break could cause an issue for the Washington Aqueduct because of their intakes that they have along the river,” he said.

But he also stressed D.C. Water and federal agencies have access to technology that greatly improves the ability to isolate possible problems — much more than those available decades ago.

They can use cameras inside the pipeline as well as ground sonar to look for structural risks.

After the January break, workers encountered massive boulders which complicated efforts to repair the pipe and reroute the sewage so that more wouldn’t flow into the river. The boulders may have also contributed to the pipe’s rupture.

Despite a rapid response, a total of at least 240 million gallons of raw sewage entered the Potomac near Cabin John, Maryland, making it one of the worst spills of its kind nationwide.

Gadis testified during the hearing that D.C. Water first identified issues with the 72-inch in diameter pipe in 2018, but obtaining permits from the National Park Service took years.

The park service has said that was due, in part, to changes in the proposals over time.

On a positive note, federal officials and Gadis said there was very good cooperation among the agencies and local leaders as they reacted to the spill. And all of them pledged to do everything they can to ensure a spill of this magnitude doesn’t happen again.

While Maryland residents say they can still smell the stench from the spill, steps are being taken to mitigate it.

Also, the overall water quality of the river in the area is said to have returned to normal.

Source

But they were pressed by lawmakers, who remain concerned about problems revealed by the environmental disaster, which sent more than 240 million gallons of sewage into the river in January.

“What led to the collapse? Was this failure preventable? Were there warning signs that were being ignored or even missed?” asked Pennsylvania Rep. John Joyce, who chairs the House Emergency and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

The chair of the overall committee, Kentucky Rep. Brett Guthrie, had a series of questions about delays linked to an effort by D.C. Water to get a permit for replacing the pipe that eventually broke. He cited a article published earlier this year.

“I’m trying to see what do we need to fix?” he asked. “How do we do it quicker?”

“For construction permits proposed by utilities, those could be six months to a year for a construction-type permit,” said Edward Wenschhof, acting superintendent of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park. “There are others that are identified as high priority.”

When Guthrie asked if the threat of the pipe bursting was imminent, Wenschhof indicated that was a matter of ongoing litigation.

The Department of Justice filed a Clean Water Act earlier this year related to the interceptor’s collapse.

David Gadis, CEO and general manager of D.C. Water, has sought to reassure the public his agency is doing all it can to move forward with repairs and monitoring of the river.

“The incident did not occur because D.C. Water ignored infrastructure challenges,” Gadis said in prepared testimony. “Rather, it occurred within one of the nation’s oldest and most complex wastewater systems, a system D.C. Water has spent decades modernizing, rehabilitating and improving for the benefit of the region and the environment.”

The spill, involving a system known as the , occurred when a large pipe burst near the C&O Canal in Cabin John, Maryland.

People who live in the area complained during a Glen Echo Town Hall on Monday night that they can still smell the sewage.

One man said, “I always open the window and it’s putrid!”

Wednesday’s hearing was entitled, “Corrosion, Collapse, and Clean-Up: Examining the Potomac Interceptor Collapse.”

D.C. Water is conducting daily water quality testing at 10 sampling sites through July 5.

It then plans to carry out weekly testing through Sept. 10.

D.C. Water has sought to keep the public informed about efforts to address the spill, posting .

Source

A congressional hearing will be held Wednesday on January’s massive sewage spill in the Potomac River and will include testimony from several key officials involved in the cleanup, project renovation and efforts to protect public health.

Among those scheduled to testify is David Gadis, CEO and general manager of D.C. Water, who has sought to reassure the public his agency is doing all it can to move forward with repairs and monitoring of the river.

“The incident did not occur because D.C. Water ignored infrastructure challenges,” Gadis said in prepared testimony. “Rather, it occurred within one of the nation’s oldest and most complex wastewater systems, a system D.C. Water has spent decades modernizing, rehabilitating and improving for the benefit of the region and the environment.”

The hearing is being conducted by the House Emergency and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

The spill, involving a system known as t, took place in January, dumping hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac.

It occurred when a large pipe burst near the C&O Canal in Cabin John, Maryland.

People who live in the area complained during a Glen Echo Town Hall on Monday night that they can still smell the sewage.

One man said, “I always open the window and it’s putrid!”

Gadis spoke to area residents at the meeting in Glen Echo on Monday.

He and several other top administrators will testify before lawmakers Wednesday.

The first part of the House hearing will include testimony from the following:

• Jessica Kramer, assistant administrator, Office of Water, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Col. Francis B. Pera, commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District
• Edward Wenschhof, acting superintendent, Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior

Gadis will testify in the second part of the hearing, along with Tom Neltner, national director at Unleaded Kids.

The hearing is expected to look back at the response, but also look ahead to preventing spills in the future.

The hearing is entitled, “Corrosion, Collapse, and Clean-Up: Examining the Potomac Interceptor Collapse.”

D.C. Water is conducting daily water quality testing at 10 sampling sites through July 5.

It then plans to carry out weekly testing through Sept. 10.

D.C. Water has sought to keep the public informed about efforts to address the spill, .

Source