Center Square

Just six months after Republicans in Congress passed their mammoth budget reconciliation bill, House Republicans are publicly pushing for a second ‘big, beautiful bill.’
Confirming earlier rumors, the 188-member Republican Study Committee released Tuesday a framework for a second party-line bill. The plan addresses homeownership rates, rising health care costs, energy prices, family policy and “wasteful” government spending.
RSC Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, explained in a Tuesday presser that many of President Donald Trump’s priorities remain unfulfilled and more work is needed to reverse the Biden administration’s “failed economic agenda.”
“This blueprint cuts costs where families feel it most – housing, health care, and energy – slashes woke and wasteful spending, and locks in President Trump’s deregulatory agenda through the only process Democrats can’t block: reconciliation,” Arrington stated. “We have 11 months of guaranteed majorities. We’re not wasting a single day.”
He added that with affordability being “the most important issue for November,” Republicans need “to double down like never before.”
Some of the policies outlined in the Making the American Dream Affordable Again reconciliation framework, available here, include:
Eliminating capital gains tax on the sale of homes to first-time home buyers.Repealing the estate tax, or “death tax.”Imposing large taxes on foreign nationals who purchase land or real estate in the U.S.Providing another option for people to buy low-premium health insurance plans by creating a marketplace separate from the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. Reforming the existing ACA subsidy structure so that money goes directly to patients rather than to health insurance companies.Requiring pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to pass on a portion of their rebates directly to patients.Expanding access to paid family leave and certain child tax credits.Permanently freezing federal funding for large abortion providers.Slashing permitting, environmental, and other regulatory requirements for energy production projects while taxing third-party litigation against such projects.
The entire framework, if implemented, would also reduce deficits by an estimated net $1 trillion over the next decade, RSC said.
That number is of particular note, given that Republicans’ previous budget reconciliation bill is expected to cost roughly $3.3 trillion over the next 10 years. The price tag is mainly due to the legislation – dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – codifying the bulk of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Fiscal watchdogs have been urging Congress to reduce spending as the national debt is projected to surpass $53 trillion by 2035.
The U.S. government added $602 billion to the national debt in the first three months of fiscal year 2026 alone, the U.S. Treasury confirmed Tuesday.

Louisiana has indicted a California physician with allegedly sending abortion pills to the state and is seeking his return to face charges, Attorney General Liz Murrill said Tuesday.
Murrill has requested the extradition of Dr. Remy Coeytaux of Healdsburg, California to face a felony charge of criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs. The Center Square was unsuccessful getting comment from Coeytaux prior to publication.
Gov. Jeff Landry said he will sign the extradition request. Representatives for California Gov. Gavin Newsom could not immediately be reached for comment.
The request comes nearly a year after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul blocked Louisiana’s pursuit of Dr. Margaret Carpenter, charged with prescribing abortion pills online to a mother seeking them for her daughter, a minor who was pregnant.
In the case against Coeytaux, prosecutors allege he “knowingly” caused an abortion by delivering or providing abortion-inducing drugs in St. Tammany Parish. The penalties include fines and up to 50 years in prison.
The two cases highlight an interstate showdown in the years following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
While some Republican-led states, including Louisiana, forbid most abortions, Democrat-led states have passed “shield laws” that add privacy and legal protections for providers who prescribe abortion pills online and send them to patients in states with bans.
In California, Newsom signed a measure allowing providers to prescribe abortion medication anonymously, a step his administration said was aimed at protecting patient privacy and providers amid out-of-state legal threats.
Murrill, a Republican, wants to “pursue some relief” at the Supreme Court, a campaign that gained momentum among conservatives after the Federal Drug Administration in October approved another generic version of mifepristone, a medication used in abortion pills.
“FDA had promised to do a top-to-bottom safety review of the chemical abortion drug, but instead they’ve just greenlighted new versions of it for distribution,” U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, wrote on X. “I have lost confidence in the leadership at FDA.”

Former President Bill Clinton didn’t show for his closed-door deposition with congressional investigators scheduled for Tuesday morning as part of the ongoing Epstein files investigation.
Clinton posted part of a letter written by his and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s legal team to the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee on X on Tuesday morning. They accused the committee of playing political games instead of conducting a real investigation.
“You have forced the victims to relive their painful experiences, while doing little to give them and everybody else what’s deserved: truth and justice. There is no plausible explanation for what you are doing other than partisan politics,” the Clintons wrote.
Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., told journalists Tuesday that the committee plans to move next week to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton is supposed to be deposed on Wednesday, and Comer said it would do the same for her if she doesn’t attend.
The committee subpoenaed the Clintons, along with Justice Department records and former U.S. attorneys general and former FBI directors, in early August. It directed the Clintons to appear for in-person private depositions in October. The depositions were rescheduled for December and then again rescheduled for mid-January, due to pushback from the Clintons and their attorney.
Comer had said that if the Clintons refused to attend their December depositions that Congress would move to begin contempt proceedings then, but he ultimately accepted the second rescheduling as their attorney had said they were needed at a funeral.
The committee has accepted sworn statements from seven of the eight others it subpoenaed in August, according to the Clintons’ letter, but has insisted they provide in-person depositions.
With his social media post of the letter, the former president wrote, “This is not about Right or Left, it’s about Right and Wrong.”
Comer replied with an X post of his own.
“You’re right, President Clinton. This is about right and wrong,” Comer wrote. “Refusing to comply with a bipartisan, duly authorized congressional subpoena in our Epstein investigation is unacceptable. No one is above the law.”
Comer included multiple photos of Clinton with Epstein and women whose faces were blacked out.
The letter said the Clintons expected they might be held in contempt and that they were prepared to defend themselves.

Consumer prices climbed 2.7% annually in December, marking the end of a year of continued concerns about affordability for Americans.
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers increased 0.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis in December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. Over the last year, the all items index increased 2.7%.
Excluding food and energy, the index rose 2.6% over the last year. The energy index increased 2.3% for the year. The food index increased 3.1% over the last year.
“Overall, a mild inflation report for December,” said Heather Long, the chief economist for Navy Federal. “This is encouraging news for the economy.”
U.S. House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said the report confirm’s GOP policies are working.
The White House said the report showed Trump had tamed inflation with tariffs and tax cuts.
“Yet another report confirms that President Trump has defeated the inflation crisis inherited from the Biden Administration, while so-called ‘experts’ continue to be proven wrong month after month,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “President Trump’s powerful tariffs, massive tax cuts for working families, and sweeping deregulatory agenda have positioned our economy for a boom in 2026. Americans are already seeing the results: workers’ wages are rising rapidly, trillions in investments are flowing into the country to create good-paying jobs, and economic growth is accelerating.”
Trump said the report proves that the Federal Reserve should cut benchmark interest rates.
“That means that Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell should cut interest rates, MEANINGFULLY!!!,” Trump wrote in a social media post Tuesday morning.
However, the Justice Department’s criminal probe into Powell’s testimony before Congress about a renovation project could delay action from the Federal Reserve, experts said after Powell announced the criminal probe publicly on Sunday.
Last week, Trump announced that the federal government would purchase $200 billion in mortgage bonds to lower interest rates and monthly payments.

“Help is on its way,” President Donald Trump said in a short but powerful message to Iranian protesters facing an oppressive regime that reportedly is targeting demonstrators.
“Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – Take OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday morning. “I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS…MIGA [Make Iran Great Again].”
The latest message to Iranian protesters comes as the president told reporters over the weekend that he is weighing “strong options” against the Islamic Republic’s regime, inching closer to striking the country for a second time within a year.
Trump told reporters late Sunday evening on board Air Force One that he and the military are looking very seriously at responding to reports that the Iranian regime is killing protesters.
Earlier in the month, the president issued a stern warning to the regime if it retaliated against protesters.
“If Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United State of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” the president posted to his Truth Social Account.
Trump told reporters Sunday evening that he is receiving “hourly updates” and that he is “looking at some very strong options.”
The president said Iranian officials have reached out to the White House to negotiate. He added that a meeting is being set up, but indicated it may be too little, too late.
“Iran wants to negotiate, yes. We may meet with them … But we may have to act, because of what’s happening, before the meeting,” Trump told reporters.
Now it appears those meetings could be put off indefinitely.
Retaliation against protesters in Iran adds more fuel to the fire as the president is eyeing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
During the last week of December, Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when the two leaders reportedly discussed the potential of future strikes on Iran if the Islamic Republic attempts to rebuild its nuclear capabilities, after U.S. strikes in June that targeted the country’s nuclear sites.
“I hear Iran is looking to rebuild its facilities again, and if they do we will have to knock them down again,” the president told reporters during a news conference in late December. “We’re going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that build up. So I hope Iran is not trying to build up, as I’ve been reading.”
The civil uprising in Iran follows a pattern of Iranian citizens protesting the brutal regime’s grip on its citizens. The most recent unrest occurred in 2019, with one of the most significant events taking place in 2009, known as the Green Movement, which resulted in millions of Iranian citizens demonstrating against the government.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated since its initial publication to include a comment from the White House.
U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, is suing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over his effort to reduce Kelly’s Navy retirement pay following the senator telling service members to disobey illegal orders.
The retired Navy combat pilot announced the suit Monday night. It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In addition to Hegseth, the defendants are the Department of War, the Department of the Navy and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan.
Kelly, who’s also a former astronaut, said the issue is bigger than him and that few things are as important as standing up for the rights of veterans who fought to defend Americans’ freedoms. In a statement, he called freedom of speech, the Constitution’s separation of powers and due process the “bedrock principles of our democracy that has lasted 250 years and will last 250 more as long as patriotic Americans are willing to stand up for our rights.”
“Pete Hegseth is coming after what I earned through my 25 years of military service, in violation of my rights as an American, as a retired veteran, and as a United States Senator whose job is to hold him — and this or any administration — accountable,” Kelly said. “His unconstitutional crusade against me sends a chilling message to every retired member of the military: if you speak out and say something that the President or Secretary of Defense doesn’t like, you will be censured, threatened with demotion, or even prosecuted.”
The Center Square reached out Tuesday morning to the White House, which commented about Kelly.
“Mark Kelly sowed doubt in a clear chain of command, which is reckless, dangerous, and deeply irresponsible for an elected official,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Center Square. “As Secretary Hegseth said, Kelly’s status as a sitting U.S. senator does not exempt him from accountability.”
The Center Square on Tuesday reached out to the Department of War, which replied by email, “We are aware of the litigation. However, as a matter of policy, the Department does not comment on ongoing litigation.”
The Center Square also reached out Kelly’s press office, but did not receive an immediate response.
Hegseth announced on Jan. 5 that he was issuing a “Secretarial Letter of Censure” to reduce Kelly’s retirement rank. According to media reports, Kelly’s rank would go from captain to commander, with a corresponding reduction in retirement pay from approximately $6,000 a month to about $5,000 a month.
Hegseth said the action is being taken because of Kelly participating, along with five other members of Congress, in a video in November telling service members to disobey illegal orders. Hegseth has called the comments seditious but noted Kelly, as a retired military member, is the only congressional member in the video subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
“Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,” Hegseth wrote Jan. 5 on X.
“Captain Kelly’s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action,” Hegseth wrote.
“These actions are based on Captain Kelly’s public statements from June through December 2025 in which he characterized lawful military operations as illegal and counseled members of the Armed Forces to refuse lawful orders,” Hegseth said. “This conduct was seditious in nature and violated Articles 133 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to which Captain Kelly remains subject as a retired officer receiving pay.”
Kelly has said his First Amendment rights are being trampled, a point that the lawsuit emphasized.
“The First Amendment forbids the government and its officials from punishing disfavored expression or retaliating against protected speech,” according to Kelly’s lawsuit. “That prohibition applies with particular force to legislators speaking on matters of public policy.”
The lawsuit cites Bond v. Floyd, a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in which justices said the Constitution “requires that legislators be given the widest latitude to express their views on issues of policy.” The suit noted justices ruled “the government may not recharacterize protected speech as supposed incitement in order to punish it.”
“The Secretary’s letter makes clear on its face that he is disciplining Senator Kelly solely for the content and viewpoint of his political speech,” the lawsuit said.
The suit also accuses Hegseth of denying Kelly his due process. And it noted the censure interferes with the legislative branch’s constitutional ability to perform oversight of the executive branch, pointing out Kelly serves on committees that perform oversight. The senator’s committees include Armed Services and Intelligence.

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are supposed to sit for closed-door depositions this week as part of the ongoing Epstein files investigation, but it remains unclear if they will be attending.
The depositions have already been pushed back twice.
In August, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoenaed Department of Justice records, a number of former attorneys general and FBI directors, and the Clintons. The Clintons’ subpoenas directed them to meet with congressional investigators for private testimony in October.
Their attorney has argued that neither of them has information relevant to the investigation. Their depositions were pushed back to mid-December. The attorney later requested to reschedule the December dates reportedly due to a funeral, according to Politico. They were rescheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 13, and Wednesday, Jan. 14.
The Center Square reached out to Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and several other members of the committee on whether the committee had heard from them as of Monday but did not hear back in time for publication.
The committee had not released a new statement on the Clintons’ requested appearance as of 8 p.m. Monday.
In December, Comer said in a statement that the committee would begin “contempt of Congress proceedings” if the Clintons’ depositions didn’t happen.
“The former President and former Secretary of State have delayed, obstructed, and largely ignored the Committee staff’s efforts to schedule their testimony. If the Clintons fail to appear for their depositions next week or schedule a date for early January, the Oversight Committee will begin contempt of Congress proceedings to hold them accountable,” Comer said.
It is rare for Congress to subpoena former presidents, and rarer still for them to provide in-person, sworn testimony as part of a congressional investigation. President Donald Trump sued when he was subpoenaed to testify regarding Jan. 6.
It is well-established that Bill Clinton knew the disgraced financier and sex trafficker. Clinton has admitted to having flown on Epstein’s private jet, and Epstein also reportedly visited the Clinton White House numerous times (along with his associate Ghislaine Maxwell at least once). Maxwell has told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that Clinton was a friend of hers. Maxwell’s nephew worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and “was hired by the State Department shortly after” she became secretary of state, Clinton’s subpoena notes.
Trump also knew Epstein and it was reported in December that flight logs showed he had flown on his jet eight times. Like Bill Clinton, his name has also been mentioned many times in the Epstein files. Trump has not been subpoenaed in the Epstein files investigation, and in July, when the FBI said it wouldn’t be disclosing any more of the files, it also said it “did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is pushing back on what his office labeled an “unmistakable campaign of punishment” by the Trump administration against the state.
Weiser said he updated a lawsuit the state filed against the administration with additional “threats and punishments” it made against the state.
“The U.S. Constitution does not permit the president to single out states for punishment based on their exercise of core sovereign powers. And yet, that is exactly what President Trump has done,” Weiser said. “The administration cannot punish Colorado into submission, and that is why we filed his lawsuit to fight for Colorado.”
The lawsuit was first filed in October, after President Donald Trump announced plans in September to move the U.S. Space Command Headquarters from Colorado Springs to Alabama. That came just months after it reached full operational capacity at Peterson Space Force Base in December. When Trump made the announcement, he did not specify why he made that decision, besides stating that Alabama “fought harder for it than anybody else.”
Colorado alleges the decision was made to punish Colorado for its vote-by-mail system. Weiser has now updated the lawsuit with a number of other actions the Trump administration has taken against the state, which it argued was set off by Colorado refusing to release former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters in December—despite a pardon from Trump.
The lawsuit lays out the administration’s recent actions against the state, which include:
• Terminating $109 million in transportation funding.
• Ending $615 million in U.S. Department of Energy funding.
• Dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research, located in Boulder.
• Threatening SNAP funding.
• Denying two disaster relief assistance requests.
Colorado alleges this is part of a “widespread campaign of retribution.” In its lawsuit, it argues that these actions violate the Tenth Amendment, the Elections Clause, state sovereignty, separation-of-powers principles and numerous federal laws. It asks that the U.S. District Court of Colorado declare all the detailed actions unconstitutional.
Since Trump took office, Colorado has been a critical player in the coalition of Democratic states fighting against the many cuts pushed by the Republicans.
In the past year, Colorado has joined or filed 50 lawsuits against the Trump administration. That is a rate of one every seven days.