Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz told reporters Thursday he hopes to advance legislation that would impose new protections for children online within the “next six weeks.”

The proposed timeline for legislative action outlined by the Texas Republican comes after the Senate earlier this month passed the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) by unanimous consent.

“We are certainly looking to move forward with KOSA and COPPA 2.0 and KOSMA altogether,” he told reporters.

Cruz’s comments follow a push by lawmakers in both chambers to advance proposals that would establish new legal responsibilities for Big Tech companies to protect children using their platforms online.

House Energy and Commerce Committee lawmakers last week advanced a package of bills Thursday that would establish national age verification requirements and create new online safety and privacy protections for children.

“At this point, we’re looking for what [kids’ online safety] legislation will have the maximum impact, and will have the broadest support so that it can pass,” Cruz said.

Sen. Ron Johnson said Thursday he wants the Senate to vote on nixing the legislative filibuster, as an effort to convince fellow Republicans to bypass it altogether is running into a brick wall.

The Wisconsin Republican’s suggestion comes as the Senate will next week begin consideration of a partisan election bill known as the SAVE America Act. Some GOP senators on the conference’s right flank have been lobbying leadership and their colleagues to agree to invoke a “talking filibuster” as a way to get around the 60-vote requirement to advance the legislation. It would force Democrats to hold the floor if they want to block the measure.

“If we do go to a cloture vote [on the election bill], immediately after that we ought to vote on ending the filibuster,” Johnson told reporters, referring to the 60-vote threshold.

That vote, too, would fail to garner the necessary support, but Johnson said his position was, “let’s get people on the record” — including Democrats, many of whom have previously supported weakening the 60-vote filibuster.

According to the Senate GOP’s current strategy, first reported by POLITICO, Senate Republicans are expected to take up the House-passed elections bill next week — a step for which they will only need 51 votes. It’s unclear if Republicans will even be able to clear that bar, as Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Thursday he will vote against taking up the bill and a handful of other GOP senators haven’t yet said how they will vote.

If Republicans are able to overcome that initial hurdle, the chamber will then debate the measure for several days, with potential amendment votes to incorporate some of Trump’s new priorities into the underlying legislation. That includes barring transgender women from participating in women’s sports and prohibiting gender affirming surgery for children, as well as possibly imposing a near-universal ban on mail-in voting.

But at the end of this lengthy process, the SAVE America Act will need to clear a 60-vote threshold. That means it will fail, since Democrats are expected to oppose the proposal en masse.

Johnson, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and other conservatives had previously pitched invoking a talking filibuster because it wouldn’t require a formal rules change. It has, however, sparked widespread concern inside the party that the maneuver would backfire and allow Democrats to eat up months of the legislative calendar before the midterms.

Johnson acknowledged Thursday that a “true talking filibuster” would also allow Democrats to force amendment votes, which could put vulnerable GOP incumbents in a tough spot — and that the process the Senate will use instead will still put Democrats on the record over the GOP elections bill.

Lee also appeared to acknowledge in a video he posted to X late Wednesday night that the talking filibuster gambit was a no-go, but urged Republicans to delay a final, 60-vote cloture motion for as long as possible to try to put pressure on Democrats to relent.

“We shouldn’t file for cloture until we think we can get to 60. Otherwise, we keep it going,” Lee said.

Johnson, separately, quipped Thursday that perhaps Republicans will be “so successful” in making their case for the bill that the “American people” will put “so much pressure on Democrats” and the SAVE America Act will pass.

He added, however, that he doesn’t actually believe that’s “highly likely.”

For the fourth time in so many weeks, senators voted down a bill Thursday to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, then left town for the weekend — ensuring the agency remains shuttered past the one-month mark come Friday.

The Senate voted 51-46 against moving ahead with the House-passed measure to fund all of DHS, failing to meet the 60-vote threshold necessary to move forward. Senate Majority Leader John Thune voted “no” for procedural reasons, allowing him to bring the motion back up at a later date.

Before that vote, Republicans objected to multiple requests from Senate Democrats to pass a series of narrower bills that would cover specific agencies, including TSA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Coast Guard and FEMA.

Democrats wanted to put Republicans on the record as opposing efforts to reopen key DHS operations that are casualties of the larger, ongoing disagreement over what guardrails to place on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement activities under the department’s purview.

Republicans weren’t moved, however, and negotiations between senior congressional Democrats and the White House remain deadlocked.

“Why won’t they budge to give an inch on ICE, which is highly unpopular and even the president has said hasn’t done things right?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech Thursday.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, her chamber’s top Republican appropriator, in her own Thursday floor remarks said the Democrats’ approach to negotiations could be “characterized by a lack of urgency and a lack of seriousness.”

She also accused Schumer of “sitting on what is a good faith offer from the White House” for weeks.

Congress is taking steps to meld artificial intelligence and biotechnology with new legislation that would direct the U.S. government to create a national framework for standardizing biological datasets that can be readily used to train advanced AI models.

Lawmakers are expected to soon introduce a bipartisan, bicameral proposal that represents the fourth and final plank of shared goals between Congress’ biotech commission — which published an “action plan” last April identifying biotech as the next front in the quest to dominate the world’s most cutting-edge tech — and President Donald Trump’s AI Action Plan.

The measure, shared first with POLITICO, is being championed in the Senate by Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who serves as chair of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology — a bipartisan commission that advises policymakers on biotechnology and national security — alongside Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.).

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif) — an NSCEB commissioner — and Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) have co-sponsored companion legislation in the House.

It’s intended to provide American scientists and researchers with access to high-quality, federally funded biodata as they pursue medical, biological and other industrial breakthroughs. Biological datasets have rapidly become crucial geopolitical assets in the race for global technological and military supremacy between the U.S. and China.

It also would answer a call from an April 2025 report from the NSCEB to ensure the U.S. government supports path-leading research — and the commercialization — of key scientific breakthroughs. The commission also called on Congress to direct the Defense Department to consult on ethical use of the technology for the U.S. military.

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) will run for reelection this November, he announced Thursday, bucking calls for generational change in his party even as other longtime Democratic Party power brokers plan to leave Washington.

“Today I’m going to answer a question that is always asked,” Clyburn said at the South Carolina Democratic Headquarters in downtown Columbia. “What is there unfinished or what more you need to do? Well, it’s in the Preamble of our Constitution. We exist in pursuit of a more perfect union.”

Clyburn, 85, was first elected in 1992 and has served 17 terms in the House, including a stint as majority whip. Working alongside Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, he helped shepherd many of the key Democratic policy wins of the era, including the Affordable Care Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

The coming legislative session will mark his first without Pelosi and Hoyer as House colleagues. The pair is set to retire next year.

Clyburn, a longtime Democratic Party power broker, became the first Black congressman to represent South Carolina in nearly 100 years. He’s evolved into a kingmaker in his home state and for the Democratic Party nationally.

He is a fierce defender of the state’s early primary, and his endorsement of Joe Biden in January 2020 helped catapult what was a flagging campaign all the way to the nomination and eventually the White House.

Clyburn’s 6th District is heavily Democratic and he will be the big favorite to win again, although some Republicans in the state have sought to target his seat in redistricting.

House Republicans discussed plans for a second party-line megabill during their policy retreat in Florida this past week, and now GOP senators want in on the action.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), in her capacity as head of the Senate DOGE Caucus, sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson and House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) outlining what she says are $93.5 billion in savings that could be incorporated into a filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation bill.

“Republicans should seize every opportunity to advance policies that lower prices, cut taxes, and lift burdensome regulations off the backs of American families while we hold the White House and majorities in both chambers of Congress,” Ernst wrote in the letter, shared first with POLITICO. “This moment will not last forever.”

Her list includes proposals to claw back unspent COVID-era funds; rescind more of former President Joe Biden’s climate initiatives; impose stiffer penalties for states with high rates of inaccurate SNAP food aid payments; implement a new $250 fee for new electric vehicle owners; and create more accountability for government charge cards.

“This is not an exhaustive list, and I stand ready to help you pass another transformational reconciliation bill,” Ernst said.

The DOGE Caucus, created to mirror the work of the now largely defunct Department of Government Efficiency formerly led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has little tangible power on Capitol Hill. But Ernst’s appeal signals the extent to which jockeying among Republicans has begun as discussions accelerate around a second megabill — even if there’s scant evidence congressional Republicans can pull one off.

Johnson told House Republicans in a closed-door session closing out the retreat Wednesday that he remains intent on pursuing a new reconciliation package to follow on last year’s “big beautiful bill” focused largely on tax cuts. The legislation could theoretically tackle some cost-of-living issues, but the speaker didn’t offer any specific policies that would be incorporated or a timeline for advancing it, according to four people in the room granted anonymity to describe the private meeting.

Some senior Republicans present privately warned they don’t have much time left for such a big legislative lift, and their razor-thin and frequently fractious House majority could make it difficult to find necessary consensus around a final legislative product.

The Senate is on track to easily pass a housing affordability package Thursday that is dead in the House as is — an ominous sign for any GOP affordability measures.

The bipartisan package, aimed at lowering high housing costs, is expected to sail through the Senate after an 89-9-1 procedural vote earlier this week. But the bill’s ultimate fate remains dire — as does the GOP trifecta’s ability to make any legislative progress on affordability before the midterms.

— House issues: Freedom Caucus members warned they won’t support the Senate version of the bill, with several likening some of its provisions to “socialism.” Their key concerns include a temporary ban on a central bank digital currency (they want it to be permanent) and a ban on institutional investors from owning single-family homes.

“There are problems,” Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) said. “It’s not as conservative a product as the House bill was.” The House passed its own version in February under a fast-tracked process with Democratic support.

Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged conservative objections to the Senate’s housing bill during a closed-door, conference-wide meeting Wednesday at the House GOP retreat. He suggested the House and Senate would have to go into conference negotiations to iron out the problems, according to four people in the room.

Rep. Mike Flood, chair of the Financial Services Housing and Insurance Subcommittee, echoed that sentiment.

“I am holding out hope for some fixes, but time runs short,” the Nebraska Republican told POLITICO in a statement.

— The Senate’s game plan: Senators are moving ahead with their version — and largely ignoring the House-passed one.

Many don’t support the community banking provisions in the House version. The Senate version also includes the institutional investor provision that President Donald Trump requested.

“I don’t think we’ll need a conference. I think we’ll get it worked out,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said.

For now, senators appear to believe the White House — including the president — will help get House GOP colleagues on board. To their credit, they’ve seen this movie many times before.

“If one side, Senate or House is being unreasonable, the White House may have to slap a couple of people to Pluto,” Kennedy said. “But we’re not there yet.”