Democrats and Israel. A stunning 40 Senate Democrats voted late Wednesday to block a U.S. weapons sale to Israel, the latest sign of the party’s growing rift with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu-led government over its continued military campaigns in the region.
Two Senate resolutions authored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) got an unprecedented level of support from the Democratic Caucus even as their leader, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), voted against both. Schumer — strongly pro-Israel but anti Netanyahu — is the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in U.S. history.
Overall, just seven Senate Democrats voted no on the first Sanders disapproval resolution, and 11 on the second. Sanders hailed the results as a sign of Democratic discontent “with Netanyahu and his horrific, illegal wars.” No Republicans voted for either resolution.
The previous Sanders resolution to block arms sales to Israel, which came last July, won support from just 27 Senate Democrats. In April 2025, a similar resolution got only 15 Democratic votes.
“It means that Netanyahu really screwed up the politics of the Middle East, and he is destroying the bipartisan nature in terms of support for Israel,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who previously opposed such efforts but flipped to “yes” on Wednesday. “Certainly a lot of us aren’t going to support offensive actions in a war that we don’t support,” Gallego added.
FISA flop. The House Republican leadership’s bumbling, stumbling and general dysfunction over renewing FISA is a disaster months in the making.
We should say at the outset that Speaker Mike Johnson should be able to pass an extension of FISA Section 702 today or Friday. Johnson is usually able to wriggle out of messes like this with the White House’s help. And FISA is far too important for U.S intelligence operations to be allowed to expire, lawmakers continue to repeat.
The White House and House Republicans have been negotiating over modest changes to warrant requirements, possibly in exchange for a FISA extension longer than the 18 months previously envisioned. But Trump administration officials are finding themselves having to rebuff requests for the inclusion of non-FISA related policies, including a ban on a central bank digital currency.
“Oh it’ll probably get done this week,” said House Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who has been opposed to FISA. “There’s plenty of time.”
But the fact that Johnson finds himself just four days out from FISA’s expiration having not passed a bill is stunning. It’s easy to say that Johnson has a two-seat majority and legislating is hard. That’s true.
Just consider all of the steps — some say missteps — that led to this moment.
In April 2024, Johnson and House Republicans abandoned plans to extend FISA for five years after President Donald Trump — then out of office — urged members to vote no. Some reforms were included in an eventual compromise, but GOP lawmakers gambled that Trump would be back in office to oversee the program and would be interested in a rewrite. He’s clearly not.
The White House has pushed hard for a clean 18-month extension. If that’s what he gets, that might force Trump into high-stakes negotiations with a Democratic-run Congress in 2027.
The House GOP leadership whistled past the graveyard a bit by not waving Trump off the clean extension. The HFC was always going to be opposed to FISA without warrant requirements. This looming trainwreck was visible from a mile away.
Also, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) never held a hearing to mark up a FISA bill. That’s where many of these policy discussions could’ve been hashed out in advance.
Approps. House Republican appropriators are pushing ahead this week with FY2027 spending bills, despite the fact that Congress still hasn’t finished up on FY2026 funding. The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for 61 days — more than two months — due to Republican infighting and overwhelming Democratic opposition.
House GOP appropriators will begin markups on Friday, releasing some bills that will propose cuts from FY2026 levels. Like last year, House Republicans will try to move forward with the smallest funding bills first because there’s no topline spending deal yet.
House appropriators will begin marking up FY2027 Financial Services and General Government and MilCon-VA bills on Friday. These will be partisan bills that likely won’t get any Democratic support.
House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said he’d prefer that House and Senate Republicans plus Democratic leaders come to an agreement on toplines. If that doesn’t happen, as it didn’t last year, Cole is prepared to tell his cardinals to move forward with bills that can advance out of the committee.
“It’s easier for me to get a bill out of committee than it is for Steve Scalise and Tom Emmer to get it across the floor. They’ve got a bigger problem,” Cole said. “So we work very closely with them as well.”
But appropriators are still reeling over the DHS shutdown. Cole said Appropriations cardinals discussed their concerns with the DHS deal during a meeting on Wednesday evening.
“Not to be critical of our leadership or what they’re trying to do, from an appropriator’s standpoint this is not a good solution. It’s better than no solution but it’s not the right solution,” Cole said. “Senate Democrats and the Senate Republicans are more interested in protecting the filibuster than defending the appropriations process.”
Democrats slammed Republicans for starting the FY2027 funding process while DHS is still shut down.
“Republicans are marking up FY27 funding bills while actively blocking us from finishing FY26,” House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said. “‘My colleagues across the aisle would rather talk about anything other than the work they are failing to complete.”
