Ben Leonard

Some news: Tomorrow is my last day covering Congress at POLITICO. I’m starting at @UVALaw in August. Thankful for all who made these 4+ years possible — editors who took a chance on me, the best reporter colleagues I could ever ask for, sources generous with their time and more

Scoop: Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) is in line to be announced Thursday as the next chair of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee. Rep. Buddy Carter is stepping down as the top GOP member on the subcommittee to focus on his Senate campaign. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025/0…

New: During a meeting with Mods in the WH, Trump told members that if they want to win elections, they shouldn’t touch: Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security “But we’re touching Medicaid in this bill,” one member responded to Trump, per 3 sources. notus.org/congress/recon…

Wow. Rep. Buddy Carter just announced he’s stepping down as chair of the Health subcommittee on House Energy and Commerce. Comes as Carter is running for GA’s Senate seat…

Intensely grateful for the entire @politico Congress and policy crew who have kept the blog popping all day on a summer Saturday politico.com/live-updates/2…

Exclusive: For Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, friends created a book of bawdy letters. One was from Donald Trump. on.wsj.com/3TL8s7C

Did not expect this one to be read aloud by lawmakers at Senate Appropriations, House Appropriations AND House Rules today. Thanks for reading, folks. politico.com/live-updates/2…

New story: GOP leaders not fully ruling out ACA subsidy extension, sources say, but still a steep uphill climb "I'm trying to keep an open mind," No. 4 GOPer Sen. Capito told me.... "I know it impacts a lot of people in our state."

Proposing a “Good Piece of Hitting” Derby which is just guys punching the ball the other way through the infield

WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department unit charged with defending against legal challenges to signature Trump administration policies - such as restricting birthright citizenship and slashing funding to Harvard University - has lost nearly two-thirds of its…

New: UnitedHealth is trying to quiet its critics through legal threats against journalists, investors, doctors, filmmakers and others. The giant company is invoking the murder of its CEO to argue that intense criticism risks inciting future violence. 🎁🔗 nytimes.com/2025/07/12/bus…

"More than 1,000 counties — one out of three — do not have the equivalent of even one full-time local journalist" cnn.com/2025/07/10/med…

“How many times have you watched Patrick Bailey’s walk-off three run inside the park home run with Dave Flemming’s insane KNBR call?”

Scooplet: Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on Monday REVERSED a ruling that language expanding Medicare’s drug price negotiation exemption for orphan drugs to include medicines that treat multiple rare diseases violated the Byrd rule. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025/0…

As @politico reported last week - House GOP leaders and moderates have been pushing Senate for a compromise on the Medicaid provider tax — including a new 4-5% cap Senate GOP leaders have INTENSELY resisted But House GOP wants it in a final Senate amendment - otherwise it…

Our @politico interns are here, give them a follow! @pavanmacharya @nicolejmarkus @_amiramckee @MunisJacqueline @rachel_shin_ @theAvrilSilva @juliann_ventura @KylieWilliams99 @jacob_wendler

The Senate is slogging through a reading of the GOP megabill, followed by debate ... slowly moving towards final passage of the sprawling GOP tax and domestic policy bill early next week. But the most grueling part is still ahead. w/ @nicholaswu12 politico.com/news/2025/06/2…

Megabill on track for likely Senate passage Monday -- if GOP leaders can keep this sucker duct-taped together @jordainc politico.com/news/2025/06/2…

Scroll to the bottom for credit to the amazing policy experts who did late night and early morning analysis of the new bill text!! Couldn’t have done this roundup without them 🙌

NEW and BREAKING: UVA's president has resigned in face of demands by Trump admin/DOJ that he step down. Hundreds of millions of dollars in fed funding for school were on the line. Major Trump victory in Trump v. Higher Ed w/@MichaelCBender nytimes.com/2025/06/27/us/…

FOLKS: It's very possible that nothing has changed re: nationwide injunction on birthright citizenship. While the court broadly limited nationwide injunctions, it said states may still be entitled to them if it's necessary for complete relief. Two of the birthright cases were…