According to Donald Trump Jr., “It’s time for House Republicans to pass the Kids Online Safety Act ASAP.”

Speaker Mike Johnson disagrees.

Johnson says he remains concerned that the Senate-passed bill, the first serious attempt by Congress to force social media companies to do more to protect kids online, “might lead to further censorship by the government of valid conservative voices” and that more negotiation was needed.

In other words, a Saturday offer from the principal GOP Senate sponsor, Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn, to make changes to the bill, combined with endorsements from Trump Jr. and Elon Musk, haven’t yet gotten Johnson on board.

But Johnson has softened his “no” a little, saying that if an agreement weren’t possible this year, Republicans could take up the measure again in 2025. “All of us, a hundred percent of us, support the principle behind it, but you’ve got to get this one right,” he said.

Why it matters: Blackburn’s bill would create a “duty of care” requiring social media firms to change design features that addict kids and allow unwanted contact from people they don’t know.Changes she offered over the weekend would limit the regulation of platform design so it only applies to personalized features, and also limit the duty of care to only harms that are related to features that stoke compulsive usage. She also emphasized that her new version does not allow the Federal Trade Commission or any other government entity to go after protected speech, another worry House Republicans have expressed.

But despite a lobbying campaign that also includes parents, advocacy groups, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and attorneys general in over 35 states, Johnson hasn’t relented.

The opponents of the legislation include unusual bedfellows: Facebook parent Meta, tech lobbying group NetChoice, and conservative and liberal groups concerned about speech, including Fight for the Future, the ACLU, and Patriot Voices, an advocacy group started by former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).

Johnson said that waiting till next year, when Republicans will have unified control of Congress and the White House, would speed negotiations. But that might effectively kill the bill.

Blackburn’s version passed the Senate as part of a two-bill package in a bipartisan 91-3 July vote.

But when the House Energy and Commerce Committee took up another version of the bill in September, the sponsor, Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), agreed to make changes requested by GOP leaders that proponents of the Senate bill said made it much weaker.

For example, Bilirakis changed the duty-of-care language so that it only applied to the physical health of minors. The surgeon general has found that social media poses a significant danger to kids’ mental health.

Tech industry opponents of the bill want to get rid of the duty-of-care language entirely, arguing it could force them to suppress content.

What’s next: Parents groups that support KOSA are demonstrating on Capitol Hill today, putting up a tree with presents bearing the names of children who the parents say died because of social media.

They are still hoping to convince lawmakers to attach KOSA to end-of-year spending legislation.

Jordain Carney contributed to this story.

Sen. Tom Cotton has blocked a first-of-its-kind federal shield law for journalists against revealing their confidential sources, arguing its passage would represent a threat to national security.

“The liberal media doesn’t deserve more protections,” Cotton (R-Ark.), who will chair the Intelligence Committee next year, said on the Senate floor. “The press badge doesn’t make you better than the rest of America or put you above the law.”

The Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act — or the PRESS Act — previously passed the House by voice vote in January.

Cotton said he was providing the “sober second thought” to the “rash, impetuous, hasty, impulsive” action by the House on the legislation.

Under the bill, federal entities would be barred — except in rare and narrow circumstances — from using subpoenas, search warrants, or other compulsory actions to force journalists to reveal sources. The protections would also apply to third parties like email providers and phone companies, shielding them from being forced to release potentially identifying information.

“The PRESS Act [is] very important to us to preserve the press,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a strong supporter of the bill, said at a press conference earlier on Tuesday. “We hope Republicans don’t block it.”

Lead sponsors of the legislation span the ideological spectrum to include Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Attempts to pass the measure comes as incoming President-elect Donald Trump has railed against the media, often going so far as to label journalists as “enemies of the people.”

President-elect Donald Trump is considering replacing Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan with Andrew Ferguson.

Trump has not made a final decision and is set to meet with Ferguson this afternoon, according to a person familiar with the meeting who was granted anonymity to discuss the potential nomination. A decision could come soon.

If selected, Ferguson won’t need Senate confirmation since he is already on the commission.

Ferguson, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, is well-known in Republican circles. He previously did stints as chief counsel for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and was the former solicitor general for Virginia. Ferguson was also a senior special counsel for incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

Grassley told POLITICO on Tuesday that he reached out to Trump’s transition team about the benefits of picking Ferguson.

“He’s already a member of the commission, and he worked so hard for me,” Grassley said of his endorsement. “He headed up our judicial nominees for the Supreme Court — that’s a tough job. And I know his work ethic is very strong, he’s a strong person of convictions and he’s going to see that the law’s enforced.”

Asked about Ferguson’s potential pick, Graham told POLITICO, “We’ll keep our fingers crossed.” He declined to elaborate on any recent conversations, saying “I just want to lay low right now, don’t want to screw it up.”

Other contenders may still be in the mix. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee, told POLITICO he recommended his former staffer Mark Meador for an FTC role “one way or another.”

Meador is “one of several who I think could be considered for the chair role,” Lee said.

Lee stressed that whoever is named to the FTC “ought to see the same way as the incoming administration” and particularly dovetail with the ideology of Gail Slater, Trump’s recent pick to head the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, which frequently works — and occasionally clashes — with the FTC on antitrust matters.

“That’s one of the reasons I point them to Mark Meador,” Lee added. “Birds of a feather.”

Ferguson has taken a tough line on tech platforms in recent weeks, which is in line with several of other top Trump picks so far, including Brendan Carr, the incoming chair of the Federal Communications Commission.

“The FTC must protect Americans’ freedom of speech online,” Ferguson wrote in a statement early in December. “If platforms or advertisers are colluding to suppress free speech in violation of the antitrust laws, the FTC must prosecute them and break up those cartels.”

Newly sworn-in Sen. Adam Schiff said Tuesday that it would be unnecessary for President Joe Biden to issue preemptive pardons for members of the Jan. 6 committee.

“I don’t think the incoming president should be threatening his political opponents with jail time,” Schiff (D-Calif) said at a press conference alongside Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Nor do I think that a pardon is necessary for members of the Jan. 6 committee. We’re proud of the work we did on that committee.”

Schumer seemed to agree that a pardon wouldn’t be necessary for Schiff: “He broke no laws whatsoever, and the truth stands for itself.”

The committee had voted in 2022 to refer President-elect Donald Trump for criminal prosecution for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

The comments come after President Joe Biden issued a comprehensive pardon for his son, Hunter Biden. The president’s inner circle is mulling whether to issue additional preemptive pardons for political enemies of President-elect Donald Trump.

The July 13 attempted assassination of Donald Trump was “preventable and should not have happened,” according to a final report from a House task force investigating the two attempts during this year’s presidential campaign.

“The various failures in planning, execution, and leadership on and before July 13, 2024, and the preexisting conditions that undermined the effectiveness of the human and material assets deployed that day, coalesced to create an environment in which the former President — and everyone at the campaign event — were exposed to grave danger,” the House panel said in its report.

The 180-page report from the House panel investigating the July shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, and a second assassination attempt in Florida details findings from the task force’s monthslong investigation. The probe included briefings from the Secret Service, FBI and ATF, dozens of interviews with federal, state and local law enforcement, two public hearings and thousands of pages of documents.

The panel’s report said that law enforcement’s response to the Sept. 15 Florida attempt “demonstrated how properly executed protective measures can foil an attempted assassination.”

But the report also underscored significant limitations on the panel’s ability to review or publicize key aspects of other investigations into the incidents. Members said the Justice Department limited their ability to access and incorporate crucial details into their final report.

“This system was onerous and unnecessarily inhibited the ability to share information with Members and the public,” the panel concluded.

Those details included restrictions on the transcript of an ATF interview with the parents of the Pennsylvania shooter on the night of the assassination attempt, in addition to the notes from an FBI interview with Trump himself and members of his campaign. The agencies also had not provided details on the Pennsylvania shooter’s encrypted messaging accounts, the ballistic analysis of shots fired and an evidence log related to both assassination attempts.

And it wasn’t just DOJ. The task force was unable to access details related to the Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security and FBI’s review of the second assassination attempt against Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach.

Still, the House report largely aligns with previous congressional and administrative reports, including highlighting the failure to secure the building where the gunman was able to access the roof on July 13. The task force added that the failures by the Secret Service weren’t limited to the day of the shooting, saying “preexisting issues in leadership and training created an environment in which the specific failures identified above could occur.”

In addition to releasing the findings of its investigation, the task force also made a series of recommendations, including that the Secret Service “may benefit” from reducing its number of protectees. Furthermore, the task force said that Congress should consider changes to the Secret Service’s structure, including debating if the agency’s “investigative functions” should remain under the Department of Homeland Security. There is bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for removing the agency as a whole from under the department’s jurisdiction.

The task force also points to possible additional steps for Congress, including requiring the Secret Service have “full ownership” for security planning for high-profile events, more oversight from lawmakers, and requiring Secret Service radio transmissions to be recorded. The report noted that the Secret Service did not arrange or attend any meetings with state and local counterparts on the day of the Butler rally, for example, and that there was not an agreement leading up to the rally in which the law enforcement agency was in charge of securing the building where the gunman ultimately accessed the roof.

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. told the task force during its final public hearing that the agency had implemented changes in the wake of the July 13 shooting including increasing the use of drones and counter-drone technology, making structural changes within the Secret Service and increasing Trump’s detail during the final months of the campaign.

The nation’s biggest federal union is pushing back against claims by President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters over teleworking for civil servants.

The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 800,000 federal and Washington city workers, said assertions that staffers are abusing work-from-home flexibility are serving as cover for Republican lawmakers to try to tear down the government.

The clash over telework is expected to be one of the major battles for the incoming Trump administration as conservatives push for the civil service to return to the office.

“Exaggerating the number of federal employees who telework and portraying those who do as failing to show up for work is a deliberate attempt to demean the federal workforce and justify the wholesale privatization of public-sector jobs,” AFGE said on its website.

The union added, “AFGE believes that facts matter, and that lawmakers should be guided by the facts when making decisions that affect the lives of their constituents.”

At issue is a report on telework released by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) last week, which she shared with other senators. The report is expected to bolster efforts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, an outside group led by tech mogul Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, to have federal employees back in the office five days a week.

“For years, I have been tracking down bureaucrats relaxing in bubble baths, playing golf, getting arrested, and doing just about everything besides their job,” Ernst said in a statement. “Federal employees need to return to work, but if they don’t want to, I will make their wish come true.”

In her report, the Iowa senator said 90 percent of federal employees telework, while only 6 percent report to the worksite full time. In addition, close to one-third of staffers work remotely.

“If you exclude security guards & maintenance personnel, the number of government workers who show up in person and do 40 hours of work a week is closer to 1%!” Musk said on social media last week, referring to Ernst’s report.

Those figures, however, don’t match findings from an Office of Management and Budget report that telework was not as nearly as widespread among the federal workforce as Ernst’s study implies.

OMB found 54 percent of the government’s 2.28 million civilian employees were on-site full-time due to their job requirements. Meanwhile, 46 percent were eligible to telework, while 10 percent were in remote positions.

In addition, those telework-eligible staffers spent 61.2 percent of their working hours in the office. For all federal employees, 79.4 percent of their working hours were in person, according to the report, which was released in August and required under an appropriations package passed by Congress earlier this year.

Press officials in Ernst’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.

The Biden administration also has been pushing federal employees to return to the office. They set a threshold of staffers spending 50 percent of their working hours on-site.

Some energy and environmental agencies surpassed that bar. The Department of the Interior’s telework-eligible employees spent 74.5 percent of their regular hours doing in-person work, while it was 57.1 percent for the Energy Department.

EPA did not meet that goal. Its telework-eligible staff were in the office for 35.8 percent of their working hours, according to the OMB report.

Also at stake in the telework debate is federal office space going unused. Employees worked from home during the Covid-19 pandemic, and many have not returned to the worksite.

EPA is in the process of assessing its own real estate in its sprawling downtown Washington headquarters. The agency plans to release buildings left empty once that review is done next year.

The General Services Administration is also disposing of federal offices.

The government’s landlord announced last week that it would dispose eight properties in a bid to “right-size” its holdings. That move will reduce the federal real estate portfolio by 1.5 million square feet and save more than $475 million over 10 years.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell left a Tuesday Senate GOP lunch with a cut on his face and was attended by medical personnel.

He walked out of the lunch alongside Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) but medical personnel quickly entered his office. He did not attend the weekly Senate GOP press conference, which he typically leads, but incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he’s OK.

“He is fine. He is in his office,” Thune said.

McConnell, a polio survivor, has had multiple falls and health episodes in recent years.

Congressional leaders are still sparring over the details of tens of billions of dollars in disaster aid they plan to attach to a stopgap spending bill before federal funding expires at the end of next week.

As Congress prepares to punt the spending cliff into President-elect Donald Trump’s second term, negotiators are in a crucial stage before the Dec. 20 shutdown deadline on what might be added to the last major bill Congress is expected to clear before year’s end.

While top Republicans and Democrats agree that a massive disaster aid package should be attached to the stopgap, they have argued over the specifics of that plan following the White House’s request last month for more than $98 billion in emergency funding to aid recovery from natural disasters, including hurricanes Helene and Milton.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Tuesday that Democrats have “included some things that are extraneous and not really disaster.”

The spending patch is expected to expire sometime in March, keeping federal agencies running on flat funding levels in Congress’ second punt since missing the Oct. 1 deadline for finalizing a spending agreement.

Top lawmakers are aiming to release bill text before next week, to give the House a couple days to pass the legislation before Senate leaders seek fast-tracked passage to avoid a short funding lapse ahead of Christmas and the start of Hanukkah.

Maine Republican Susan Collins, the top GOP appropriator in the Senate, said Monday night that funding negotiators “worked all weekend” exchanging offers on the disaster aid package. “And we’re at the point where we’re in serious negotiations and trading,” she added. “Nothing is final yet.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), whose state was devastated by Hurricane Helene, is estimating the disaster bill will total less than the roughly $100 billion the White House requested, “but not too far south” of that amount.

Some House Republicans, including Scalise and Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, have pointed out parts of the White House disaster aid request that they deem extraneous, including funding for climate and education projects. Cole said Tuesday that funding negotiators are now “closing the gaps” on disaster aid.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that he “remains hopeful and determined” that a deal can be reached on disaster aid, “with a serious show of bipartisan cooperation.”

Many conservative Republicans want to punt the funding deadline into March to give the Trump administration a chance to weigh in, with the added pressure of across-the-board cuts that would kick in at the end of April if Congress doesn’t finish its funding work, as prescribed by last year’s debt limit deal.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said Tuesday that a March deadline would give Republicans a chance to “constrain spending in the first part of the year, which is what I hope we would do.”

Republican appropriators in both chambers, including Cole and Collins, would like Congress to finish the 12 spending bills before March, regardless of the deadline.

“I’m aiming for as soon as we can,” Cole said. “Because I just think we’re gonna have so much stuff to do, but I think just getting it off the plate would be a good place to be.”

Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

WEST PALM BEACH — President-elect Donald Trump is set to host a gala fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night where he will give “champion of America” awards to musician Kid Rock and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.

The event is a fundraiser for the America’s Future PAC led by Gen. Mike Flynn, who is also scheduled to appear at the event. It is listed as sold out.

The $5,000-per-ticket dinner gala is preceded by a “VIP” poolside reception for those willing to pay an additional $3,800.

The private festivities are in keeping with a transition that has seen the president-elect remain largely out of public view, content to gather with aides and allies at his private club as he works to fill out his administration and awaits his return to the White House.