The House Steering Committee voted Thursday to allow Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) to serve a second term as chair of the Transportation Committee, as has been expected since his lone challenger dropped out of contention for the gavel earlier this week.

The decision comes a week after Steering granted Graves a waiver to bypass conference term limits that hold members to a total of three terms. Graves has spent two terms as ranking member and one as chair.

Graves had presented a condensed version of the pitch he made for his waiver in which he hammered home the case to the panel that he can move quickly to implement President-elect Donald Trump’s priorities in the new Congress, especially when it comes to the impending surface transportation bill. The Steering panel apparently liked that pitch, which also was likely strengthened by Graves having only had one full term as chair.

Read more here.

Rep. Tim Walberg is slated to helm the House Education and the Workforce Committee after defeating Rep. Burgess Owens.

The Republican Steering Committee voted Thursday afternoon to designate the Michigan Republican as chair after he and Owens, of Utah, gave presentations to the panel, according to Walberg’s office and two people with knowledge of the vote. His appointment now heads to the full conference for final approval, which is largely a formality.

This will be the eight-term lawmaker’s first time wielding a full committee gavel. He has been a member of the committee for more than a decade, and his victory comes nearly two years ago after his loss to Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who won a rare party waiver to lead the Republicans on the committee for a fourth time.

Read more about his education positions.

Read more about his workforce and labor positions.

Olivia Beavers contributed to this report.

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s embattled pick for Defense secretary, is shifting his stance on LGBTQ+ service members.

The former Fox Host has previously labeled policies allowing gay and transgender troops a “Marxist agenda.” But when asked by reporters on Thursday during a meeting with Sen. Rand PaulRand Paul (R-Ky.) whether he supports gays serving in the military, he said, “Yes.”

The apparent pivot comes after meetings with more moderate Republican senators, including Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

And it follows a CNN report Thursday highlighting comments Hegseth made in his 2024 book, The War on Warriors, and in recent media appearances. He has called the original “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and its 2011 repeal a “gateway” and “camouflage” for broader cultural shifts that he argues have weakened military cohesion and effectiveness.

Asked about the report, Hegseth replied, “I don’t feel the need to respond to CNN.”

Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk are joining other Trump allies in slamming the Securities and Exchange Commission after a federal appeals court threw out the regulator’s approval of board diversity rules from the Nasdaq exchange.

Less than 24 hours after the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided in favor of conservative groups that had challenged the rules, Ramaswamy, Musk and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said the decision underscored what they see as underlying issues with Wall Street’s top regulator.

“When an agency like the SEC is so repeatedly & thoroughly embarrassed in federal court for flouting the law, it loses its legitimacy as a law enforcement body,” said Ramaswamy, who is heading up the so-called Department of Government Efficiency alongside Musk, in a post on X.

Musk called the SEC “just another weaponized institution doing political dirty work” in a post of his own, while Lee said the SEC “cannot be trusted.”

The attacks could offer a preview of the potential scrutiny that awaits the SEC in the incoming administration, as President-elect Donald Trump and his team look to overhaul the federal government and slash spending. Leading that charge from the outside will be Ramaswamy and Musk’s DOGE, an advisory panel that is expected to look at everything from cutting regulations to forcing the federal workforce back to the office.

The SEC has long been a popular target for conservative groups, lawmakers and business titans, including Musk. The billionaire owner of X, Tesla chief executive and Trump’s highest-profile backer has repeatedly clashed with the agency in recent years, including during the first Trump administration. Most recently, the SEC has been investigating Musk’s $44 billion purchase of X, which was then called Twitter.

An SEC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the posts by Ramaswamy, Musk or Lee.

The Nasdaq rules were designed to require companies listed on the exchange to publicly disclose data about their board members and to have at least two members who identify as having diverse backgrounds — or for the company to explain why they don’t have those individuals in place.

But the Fifth Circuit found that the proposals “cannot be squared” with federal securities laws and that the SEC had “intruded into territory outside its ordinary domain” by approving them.

The decision, handed down more than three years after the SEC’s approval order, was the latest in a string of legal defeats for the Gary Gensler-led SEC.

Financial industry and conservative groups have launched a wide-ranging effort in recent years to knock down critical SEC rules in the courts — and particularly in the conservative-majority Fifth Circuit. An SEC spokesperson said late Wednesday that the agency is reviewing the Nasdaq ruling.

How the SEC handles the legal challenges going forward could fall on the shoulders of Trump’s pick to lead the agency, Paul Atkins. Earlier this month, the president-elect tapped the former SEC commissioner and Wall Street adviser to replace Gensler next year. If confirmed, Atkins is widely expected to pursue a business-friendly agenda that could entail walking back certain rules and lawsuits pursued by Gensler’s SEC.

Dennis Kelleher, who leads the financial reform advocacy group Better Markets, told POLITICO that the federal court ruling had little to do with the SEC or the merits of Nasdaq’s rules. Instead, he said, “it is about a biased kangaroo court weaponized with Trump-appointed judges who reflexively side with the industry against government rules regardless of facts, law or policy.”

“The goal of the industry is to turn the SEC from an effective cop on the Wall Street beat to a toothless tiger that does not do its job and cannot do its job,” Kelleher said. But, he warned, “undermining and crippling the SEC is undermining the United States capital markets, which is the jet fuel for our economy.”

Congressional leaders are closing in on a deal to fund the government into early next year, along with tens of billions of dollars in disaster aid, as they work to avoid a holiday shutdown.

The burgeoning agreement comes after weeks of House and Senate leadership negotiations, which included top appropriators, ahead of the Dec. 20 deadline. Text of the funding bill is expected over the weekend or early next week to allow both chambers to pass the measure before lawmakers leave town until January.

“We’re making good progress,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said Thursday afternoon.

“It’s the final phases in negotiation, and something can always go wrong,” Cole said Wednesday night. “I know when people are working in good faith and trying to get to a common point. And I would say that’s happening both across the rotunda and across the partisan divide.”

The spending patch is expected to fund the government into March.

Lawmakers have been privately haggling over the details of a disaster aid package that is expected to be included in the bill, following the White House’s request last month for more than $98 billion in emergency funding to aid recovery from hurricanes Helene and Milton, as well as other disasters throughout the country.

Some Republican lawmakers have predicted that the disaster aid will total less than the White House’s request, but not dramatically. There is broad acknowledgment that the emergency funding within the package will not be offset by funding cuts to other accounts, despite deficit hawk concerns.

The decision to fund the government into March comes after some Senate Republicans had pushed for an earlier deadline, arguing it would help clear the deck for Republicans to focus instead on using the reconciliation process to skirt the Senate filibuster to pass priorities like energy policy and tax cuts.

GOP appropriators and some members of leadership had also initially hoped to wrap up government funding until Oct. 1 as part of a sweeping year-end spending deal, but those aspirations quickly died after Donald Trump’s election win. Washington quickly recalibrated so that Trump could put his stamp on the larger spending package early next year. A spending deal also would have sparked a likely challenge to Mike Johnson’s speakership.

Rep. French Hill, an Arkansas Republican and former banker, is poised to become the next chair of the House Financial Services Committee after winning the endorsement of the GOP’s steering panel, according to three people with knowledge of the vote.

Hill, a moderate who has represented the Little Rock area since 2015, beat three other long-time members of the Financial Services panel — Reps. Andy Barr of Kentucky, Bill Huizenga of Michigan and Frank Lucas of Oklahoma — in one of the most closely watched gavel races this year.

The four presented their cases to GOP steering committee members Thursday in alphabetical order. Now, the full conference must vote to ratify the selection.

Hill, who currently serves as Financial Services vice chair and leads a digital assets subcommittee, will be tasked with helping to steer President-elect Donald Trump’s financial policy agenda through Congress. He has worked alongside outgoing Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) to champion industry-friendly crypto legislation, which is expected to remain a major priority under Trump.

Read more here.

As Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) remains under the microscope as she weighs her vote to confirm Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon, two of her Republican colleagues jumped Thursday to defend her.

Ernst, who has met twice with Hegseth and appears to be warming toward him, has garnered fierce pressure from within her own party over not being immediately ready to support the Fox News host as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Defense secretary.

Speaking Thursday at the centrist group No Labels’ “Power to the Middle” conference in Washington, Republican Utah Sen.-elect John Curtis said he had “talked to a sitting senator today who has what feels like the entire world coming after her, because she may or may not support one of the Trump nominees.”

“She’s being plummeted with threats, with all sorts of things that don’t belong in political arena, and her staff is. And so you talk about pressure, right?” Curtis continued, without mentioning Ernst by name. “And speaking with her, she has to worry about things like, ‘Well, if I vote against this nominee, what happens to my state when I need something from this administration?’”

Those threats, he quickly added, had been “never directly said. It’s implied.”

Earlier on Thursday at the same event, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican and outspoken Trump critic, called out Republicans for slamming Ernst “for not being good enough” — even though, Murkowski said, she is “one of the more conservative, principled Republican leaders in the Senate right now.”

Murkowski added that she is worried Ernst could be primaried by another Republican who shows more loyalty to Trump.

A spokesperson for Ernst did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President-elect Donald Trump said he’s open to getting rid of vaccines depending on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s review of their safety.

Trump’s comments to Time magazine contradict promises previously made by Kennedy, who is Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and has long been skeptical of vaccines widely considered to be safe and effective. Last month, Kennedy told NBC he would not take vaccines away from anyone who wants them.

But Trump said in an interview with Time released Thursday that he might get rid of some vaccines if he thinks they’re “dangerous” or “not beneficial” after working with Kennedy to review evidence on them.

“I’m going to be listening to Bobby, who I’ve really gotten along with great and I have a lot of respect for having to do with food, having to do with vaccinations,” Trump said. “I don’t think it’s going to be very controversial in the end.”

Why it matters: Public health and medical experts have heralded widespread vaccinations as lifesaving for a huge number of Americans who would have otherwise died of infectious diseases. Health leaders have been concerned that Kennedy’s skepticism might fuel public distrust that could lower vaccination rates, but the prospect of taking shots off the market could have a much larger impact.

The comments could also matter for Kennedy, who will likely be quizzed by senators on his views on vaccines — and perhaps more importantly, how those views might change federal policy. Some in Kennedy’s orbit have tried to clear up his views leading up to meetings on the Hill, but Trump’s comments could complicate that messaging.

What’s next? Kennedy is headed to Capitol Hill next week to meet with senators about his confirmation as HHS secretary.

The tech billionaires are fighting for Donald Trump’s attention. At least, that’s what it looks like.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, donated $1 million to the president-elect’s inaugural fund, the company confirmed to POLITICO on Thursday. And this morning, it seemed like fellow billionaire Elon Musk has taken issue with its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg’s potential involvement in the new administration.

“Concerning,” Musk said on X, responding to a post from conservative commentator Ashley St. Clair claiming — without evidence — that Meta is “actively censoring conservatives right now.” While it’s unclear exactly what Musk was referring to, the original post St. Clair was responding to was a video of a suited up Zuckerberg wakesurfing with an American flag announcing the $1 million donation from an account titled “DogeDesigner.”

It’s not unusual for corporations to contribute to presidential inaugurations, but neither Zuckerberg nor Meta donated to Trump’s inaugural fund in 2017, or to President Biden’s fund in 2021.

The tech giant’s donation comes just weeks after Zuckerberg visited Mar-a-Lago to dine with Trump — an additional attempt from the company to mend relations with the Republican party’s MAGA wing after he banned the then-former president from the platform in 2021. Trump’s accounts have since been restored.

Trump and Zuckerberg’s fraught relationship is well documented. In Trump’s book, “Save America,” released in September, he claimed that Zuckerberg plotted against him during the 2020 election and that the Meta CEO would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he did it again. In July, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that if elected, he would pursue “ELECTION FRAUDSTERS at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time. We already know who you are,” before directly addressing Zuckerberg. “DON’T DO IT! ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!”

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone declined to comment on Musk’s post. Spokespeople for Musk via X did not immediately respond for comment.

Congressional Democrats broadly denounced the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson Friday morning, after Republicans started accusing Sen. Elizabeth Warren of excusing violence.

“No one’s condoning this,” said Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.). “Violence never is the right answer for anything. And it was a horrible murder, a tragic loss for his family.”

Warren this week condemned the shooting, but added that people “can be pushed only so far.”

“We’ll say it over and over,” Warren said on MSNBC’S “The ReidOut.” “Violence is never the answer. This guy [Luigi Mangione] gets a trial who’s allegedly killed the CEO of UnitedHealth, but you can only push people so far, and then they start to take matters into their own hands.”

In a statement to POLITICO, Warren said, “Violence is never the answer. Period. I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.” Top Republicans denounced Warren’s comments and the walked-back rhetoric, with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) calling it “inappropriate and dangerous.”

Some House Democrats asked about the incident on Thursday pivoted the conversation to discuss policy options on health care or gun safety.

“I don’t really know that this is really a space that Congress normally weighs in on,” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas). “But at the end of the day, I think it’s an opportunity, because now people are talking about health care and to talk about the fact that this industry has honestly not been as helpful as it could be.”

“Violence is never the answer,” said Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.). “We know that there are people suffering, there’s great challenges in healthcare. There’s great challenges, and people have, in fact, been wronged, but a process of governance is the way to address that, not violence.”

And Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) who denounced the murder, said the killer should be prosecuted and that “I do know that allegedly a ghost gun was used, and we should also ban ghost guns. There’s no reason for them beyond the streets.”