CD333: January 2026 — Big Tests, Minimal Action

Four Republicans voted yes on the discharge petition to force a vote on the health care subsidies. The bill they forced a vote on was written by Democrats, obviously, and it would have extended the subsidies for three years. When that vote happened, 17 Republicans voted to make health care insurance more affordable for their constituents, along with all of the Democrats, and the bill passed. The bill then moved to the Senate, where Republican leader of the Senate, John Thune, is refusing to allow a vote on it. And it appears dead, along with any American who can't afford health insurance or to pay for cancer treatments or for major surgeries out of pocket. Put another way, millions of us had a problem that Congress caused and could solve, but this Congress chose not to. I am so damn tired of being lied to. I don't think I can deny it anymore. You can't stick to your story if you think it flies. But I'm not gonna buy it anymore. Hello, my friend, and thank you for listening to the 333rd episode of Congressional Dish. I'm your host, Jennifer Briney. And today's episode is going to be a summary of January 2026. And it wasn't the busiest month, but some things did go down. We had a shift in the whip count in the House of Representatives, which means there was a change in the number of Republicans, and I'll tell you why that happened. We also got a new government funding law, which was signed many months late. But I read that funding law and I will let you know it was in it. We also had a handful of new laws that might affect your life. I'll let you know about those. And there was one Trump administration official who was confirmed by the Senate to his job, whose resume was just too crazy to ignore. So I'll tell you about him. And then finally, we're going to look at the big picture of January 2026. Because after looking at the job performance of the 119th Congress, I think we need to analyze, like, did they meet the moment of that month? And when I look at January, spoiler alert, the answer is no. But before I get into everything that happened in January, I do need to remind you that this show is listener supported. We do need money to keep this going, but we will not ever take ads. And the reason for this is that I want to be able to tell you about any company or rich person who is corrupting our government. and I never ever want to feel incentivized to keep information to myself out of fear of pissing off a sponsor. This show is for you. It's not for them. And this business model is what makes that possible. But I get that this is not the time for voluntary expenses for a lot of us. Things feel expensive in the United States. God knows I'm feeling it too. And quite frankly, I don't trust that the people in charge are managing the country's finances wisely. In fact, I don't really trust these guys to operate a bake sale competently. And I also don't trust the data that they're giving us that's telling us that everything is fine. So I know that I am being more careful with my spending. And so I get it if you are too. And I've told you pretty often lately that if you support the show on Patreon and pay for each public episode, there's generally only two a month. But if you pay for the public episodes, you get more frequent updates on Congress via the last week in Congress episodes. which are only available to producers of this show. And those episodes are unedited overviews of what Congress does every week. And those serve as the building blocks for the monthly summary episodes. They are much more informal than these. But I get it if you can't commit to any ongoing expenses right now. And I think that that's okay. The most important information is public and will always be public. I got you. But can I just take a minute, if that is your case, to let you know how much I love the Venmo payments that you send in, even if they're more sporadic, like I don't think you understand the effect that they have on my mental health. Because when I drop an episode, no matter how much I like it or think it's valuable, I get anxious. I don't know if that's because I'm a needy woman or whatever, but I do need to know that you approve of the episode that I produced for you. And so each Venmo ding is like an injection of therapy for me. Each ding is like, oh, thank God they liked it. And so you really help me on a personal level every time you make my phone ding with a Venmo. And when it doesn't ding after an episode drop, I really do spiral. And so I guess what I'm trying to tell you is that when it comes to the Venmo payments, while I obviously love high dollar amounts, and thank you to anyone who's ever sent one in, especially our executive producers. But there's also an enormous amount of value for me from that ding. And the dings are like a number of people thing. It's not a number on the screen. And so if you can't commit to supporting the show on an ongoing basis, the Venmos that you send in with an amount you can afford, they make a huge difference. So if you can afford a dollar, send in a dollar with the episode number. Ding! You've provided me therapy, and it is appreciated every single time. And so now let's get into what happened in January. And January, as you probably know, was the start of the second year of the 119th Congress. And right from the jump, the reality for the ruling party in Congress, the Republicans, it shifted. The first shift happened on January 5th when Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican that we are all too aware of, who represented a district in rural Georgia, well, she resigned halfway through her term. Apparently, losing her status as a MAGA princess made it impossible for her to serve her district, and so she quit, like a loud, bitter baby. And when she did so, the Republicans' majority in the House got smaller. After her resignation, the Republicans had 219 seats in the House, and the Democrats had 213, a six-seat advantage for the Republicans. And it stayed that way for less than a day. That's because the next day on January 6th, Doug LaMalfa, who's a Republican, age 65, who represented the most northern part of California, well, there were unexpected problems with his heart and he died and no one was expecting that. Now, Doug LaMalfa hadn't been in office since 2012, but I gotta say that this guy was a backbencher. Despite him being in Congress for the entire history of this podcast, a search of my sound clip Dropbox resulted in exactly zero times that he said something worthy of being featured on this show. And so honestly, from a governing standpoint, his absence from Congress probably won't be noticed much, at least not by me. But his death changed the partisan makeup of the House for the second time in two days. The House divide became 218 Republicans to 213 Democrats. But the Republicans got more bad news that day. Representative Jim Baird, who's a Republican of Indiana, on the same day that Doug LaMalfa died, got into a bad car accident. Now, he survived and he's going to be just fine, but he was absent from Congress for all of January. Now, he's back to work now. I'm recording this in February. But his absence meant that the Republicans effectively had 217 votes to Democrats 213 for the entire month of January. They had only a four-vote difference. Which means that for the entire month, two Republican defections could tank any Republican legislative attempt, which I'm sure will help explain why this is likely to be one of the shortest congressional-ish episodes in years, because the Republicans didn't get much done. But something they did finish, thankfully, and finally, they did finish some of the 2026 government funding bills. Now, as you hopefully know, unless you're new here, there are 12 sections of government funding, each funded with a separate bill that needs to become law every single year. All 12 of them are due on September 30th every year, and in 2025, this Congress finished exactly zero of them on time. By the end of the year, they had three of them done, And in January, they finished three more for a total of six. By the end of January, this Congress had finished half of their homework from September. And it was the easy half. But regardless, let's take a look at the funding that was signed into law on January 23rd. Now, the funding that got finished on that day was the funding for the Commerce, Department of Justice and Science section. They also finished the section for Energy and Water. and they also finished the section for the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency. And so one of the more important things that this funding bill package did, aside from setting funding levels for those departments, was that it extended the deadline for the other half of the unfinished government funding laws until January 30th, preventing a shutdown of those agencies for a week. Now that extension became necessary for two reasons. First, they had to extend the funding because they still weren't finished with the rest of the bills. But also because it became crystal clear that the Democrats would not vote for the Department of Homeland Security funding without restrictions placed on immigration and custom enforcement's behavior after ICE killed two U.S. citizens on video in one month. And as I record this a few days before the end of February, the Department of Homeland Security is shut down for its second straight week. and quick little opinion break here. But Kirstie Noem, the Barbie in charge of the Department of Homeland Security, she has decided to punish travelers in order to get us mad at the Democrats in Congress for the shutdown. But this shutdown, the demands for this one are reasonable because what the Democrats are demanding are judicial warrants be used if ICE wants to enter our homes, not make-believe warrants that the Department of Homeland Security agents have been creating themselves. The Democrats want real warrants issued by actual judges before ICE can arrest us and enter our private property. They also want ICE agents to be identifiable and to stop wearing masks thereby adhering to the standards of every other law enforcement officer in this country They also want the Border Patrol agents to be sent back to the border What the hell are they doing in Minneapolis They also want the federal government to cooperate with state and local investigations into murders of civilians committed by federal agents. And then finally, the Democrats are demanding that Kristi Noem be replaced by someone competent who doesn't abuse their power and direct her agency to disregard the Constitution. And that's not an exaggeration. That's exactly what she's doing. And I will present proof to you in the next episode. But right now, you need to know why the Department of Homeland Security is shut down. And it's because the Democrats are demanding that I sit here by basic good governance standards. A letter with the Democrats' demands is in the show notes for you if you want to know exactly what they're asking for. But Kirstie Noem, using her position as the head of the Department of Homeland Security, is now punishing the traveling public. She's decided that the global entry system, which all participants paid for with fees out of our pockets and which is fully automated at this point and saves agents time, well, she decided to shut it down during the shutdown to force Americans who travel overseas to wait in the long customs lines when we get home. And I just feel the need to say that as one of those travelers who has global entry, let me just use my soapbox to say this. I would rather wait for days in the customs line than see one more home invaded by warrantless agents, than see one more human locked in a cage with no idea when they're going to be released. I would rather wait for a week than see one more child with a gun pointed in their faces in their own homes, or one more human shot in the street by ICE. ICE under the Trump administration has gone so far past every red line. And so inconvenience me all you want. I support any effort made to stop their lawlessness right now. 202-224-3121 is the number to call Congress if you agree. And if you don't, please listen to the next episode of Congressional Dish because ICE is a danger to us all. But anyway, jumping off the soapbox, let's get back to the funding in January. And here's the truth about it. I was pleasantly amazed by how little changed, especially in the environmental sections where I was expecting a legalized bloodbath and I was expecting dingleberries for oil companies. But none of that was there. In fact, the numbers stayed largely the same as they were before this Trump administration took office. I was comparing the 2026 numbers to 2024, the last year of the Biden administration. And this is an indication of this Congress quietly ignoring President Trump, because his administration did request the massive cuts to energy efficiency and to renewable energy and environmental protections. So for example, the Trump administration wanted to cut the budget for the Department of Energy's Office of Energy efficiency and renewable energy by almost 75% and take back money that was given to it by the Infrastructure and Jobs Act. That funding became law during the Biden years. And while there were some cuts to these programs, they were nothing close to the chainsaw that the Trump administration envisioned. And so in a welcome surprise, there were no surprises. It was a pretty clean funding package. But there were some old zombies that still remain in these funding laws, zombies that I've seen over and over again, so much so that I think are worth reminding you that are always in here. So one of the zombies that is back is that the Department of Justice is being prevented from paying for abortions, except for cases where the life of the mother is in danger or in the case of rape or incest. And this matters because the Department of Justice is in charge of the Bureau of prisons. And so essentially Congress is forcing caged women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. Now the law itself acknowledges that this might be unconstitutional and it says that it would be null and void if ever declared so by a court. Speaking of the Bureau of Prisons, they are also not allowed to use any money for cable television or to rent or buy any media for recreational purposes. Prisons controlled by the feds can only buy or rent media that is for training, education or religious purposes, which sounds like a unique form of torture to me. Now, this next one, this one is relatively, I have seen this in the last five years, and this was intended to protect COVID era anti-vax, anti-mask moms. But I do think we peasants could twist this in our favor if more of us knew about it. So the funding law says that the Department of Justice is not allowed to use any of its money to, quote, target or investigate parents who peacefully protest at school board meetings and are not suspected of engaging in unlawful activity, unquote. Well, school board meetings are televised. And so this might be an opportunity for some peaceful, televised anti-ice protests in communities who are being terrorized by Trump's thugs right now. Just a seed to plant in your heads. Also, I think it's worth knowing that the law expressly prohibits the Justice Department, so Pam Bondi and friends, from using any money that they have for publicity or propaganda that is not explicitly authorized by Congress. Now, right now, the propaganda machine is the Department of Homeland Security under the care of the cosplaying cowgirl, Kirstie Noem. But this is worth keeping in mind if we see the Department of Justice start to up their social media game. And they might have already. And so I think if there's another journalist or a lawyer out there who's monitoring the Department of Justice, Socials, and Websites for Propaganda, I actually think this could be a worthy rabbit hole to go down because it is expressly illegal. Sticking with the Department of Justice section, the law also expressly prohibits the Department of Justice to use money, quote, in any way whatsoever to support or justify the use of torture by an official or contract employee of the United States government, unquote. Now, our biggest problem in this country right now is, again, the Department of Homeland Security. They are the ones funding the private prisons that are housing immigrants in reportedly deplorable conditions that might rise to the level of torture. We don't know right now because they are hiding their actions from the media and even from members of Congress, which is a violation of the law. We also know that the Trump administration has shipped human beings to CICOT, which is a known to torture people prison in El Salvador. But there are instances when it's technically the Department of Justice who is the department paying for detention of humans in private prisons, like if an immigrant is being held on federal charges or was arrested by U.S. Marshals. If we find out that what is happening in those prisons amounts to torture and things like sleep deprivation and solitary confinement, those are torture according to our own manuals. Well, if we find out that those things are happening, then this could come back to haunt and to punish the cruel Trump sycophants currently in charge of the Department of Justice. That's just something to keep in mind. And while we are on the topic of torture, there is a man named Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that was proven to have been tortured by our government 183 times via waterboarding, in addition to other forms of torture, after he was arrested for his possible role in 9-11. But because of the torture, a fair trial based on his confessions is pretty much impossible. And even though he has been imprisoned now for 23 years in Guantanamo Bay prison, he's never been convicted of anything, which seems like a violation of the Constitution to me. And he's not the only one. He's just the most famous name and the one specifically named year after year in our funding laws, funding laws that prohibit him from being moved out of Guantanamo Bay, along with about 35 other people who have been caged without convictions for decades, 23 of whom have never even been charged with a crime. I've been reading funding bills for this is my 13th year, I think. And every single year, Congress in our names has put in law that the imprisonment of those people in Guantanamo Bay prison must continue, despite it violating the Bill of Rights in multiple ways. This is a shameful reminder that this country on a bipartisan basis, abandoned our principles a long time ago, and this forgotten but consistently revived provision of law is proof of that. But moving on to something less shameful and more fun, there is a zombie provision in the 2026 funding law that prevents the Department of Justice from using their money to prevent our states from implementing our own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana. And so, if the provision that was snuck into law last year, which makes marijuana-ish products that contain Delta-8 and Delta-9 illegal, that would be enforced starting in November if the NARCs have their way. Well, if that survives in this election year, the pathway to legal weed still exists via medical marijuana. And in California, before marijuana was recreationally legal, when I lived in California during that time, that system worked. The way it worked in order to get marijuana was you had to meet with a doctor. It cost 50 bucks. And that doctor gave you a little informational chat before issuing you a medical marijuana card. And then you were free to go to the dispensaries and get as much marijuana as was legal, which was plenty, let me tell you. And the truth is, I really like that system. I think it's a good system, even if you're supportive of recreational marijuana, because as someone who has used this substance, it hits you late. And I don't think a lot of people understand that. And I'm really disturbed by the fact that these marijuana type drinks, because Delta 8 and Delta 9, they have the same effect as marijuana, but it's not exactly marijuana. But whatever. These drinks are being served now in bars. So you can have a drink, feel nothing, get in your car to go home, and it hits you when you're on the road. That is dangerous. And so I actually think it's a really good thing to license people before they're allowed to freely buy these products. I feel like 50 bucks, and I don't think it has to be $50 a year. That was a whole scam that they were doing in California But a one required conversation with a doctor who will tell you how this stuff works I actually think would be really good for our country So I honestly wouldn hate for us to go down this path So at least we know that the people using these things would be understanding what they're getting themselves into. So this provision makes sure that if we want to go down this path in our states, the feds, you know, the Trump narcs, they can't do shit about it. And so we should keep that in mind as this marijuana fight ramps up because it will as we get closer to the fall. And then finally, in a hide the science and it doesn't exist move, for years, these funding laws have prohibited any regulations that would require mandatory reporting of greenhouse gases emitted from manure management systems. And that zombie is back again. This is how the climate changing effects of animal raising and slaughter is hidden from the public and helping liars convince the less informed that climate change is a hoax and we are not affecting it at all. It's little legislative tricks like this. That's how it's done. And like I said, none of these provisions are new. In fact, they are so routine that no one seems to notice them anymore. And so, in summary, this package of funding laws is kind of same old, same old. And I think this relative stability in funding levels and lack of Dingleberries explains the bipartisan support for this package of bills. It passed the Senate 82 to 15 and it passed the House 397 to 28. And the opposition appears to be mainly from people who wanted different priorities reflected in the funding. So for example, Republican Chip Roy of Texas voted against it because he wanted a prohibition on the existence of sanctuary cities. And he was pissed about the long list of earmarks, which are now called congressionally directed funded projects, unquote, there was a long list of those that were included. And I know that earmarks became a dirty word back during the W. Bush and Obama years, which is what got them banned in Congress for about a decade. But earmarks are back, and they're actually how a lot of really great things in our communities get funded. So, for example, I'm back in Austin, Texas for a while, and so I went to the list of earmarks and searched for the names of my congressman, which right now is Lloyd Doggett, to see if he got anything for us. And he did. He got us two goodies. So for us here in Austin, he got about a million bucks for maternal health research, and he got another million for the city of Austin for community violence intervention. And I got to tell you, the last time I lived here, there was a dude who got attacked by a nutty who had a machete in the park, and he basically split this guy's neck. and this happened where we walk our dog every single day. There's also been a crazy dude with a chainsaw living in the plants in the wild land behind Justin Robert Young's house. And so I do welcome the money for violence intervention around here and it was an earmark that's getting it for us. And there were a lot of earmarks in this law for communities all over the country. And so I put the list of earmarks in the show notes for you. And so if you wanna open that and do a little control F and search for the name of your members of Congress, you can search for what they got funded in your own community. And I do think that could be a good way to judge their job performance for November or for the primary, which is coming up soon. Mine already started. So that was the big law, but it wasn't the only new law. And so here's a few more. And by the way, this isn't all of the new laws that were signed in January, although it is most of them, but I'm not going to waste your time telling you about new laws that like change behind the scenes government processes. Like for example, there's one that orders the government accountability office to do a report. Who cares? And so we're going to skip those. But here are the laws with a chance, a minor chance of affecting your lives. And so one new law is S222. And this is the new law that says that whole milk can be served in public schools. This was totally uncontroversial on both sides of Congress. It didn't even get voted on because Moo cares about whole milk right now. Don't fire me for that. We also had a new law, H.R. 224, which requires the exclusion of service-connected disability compensation when they are determining whether a person is a person of low and moderate income. Essentially, this new law makes it easier for a working-class disabled person to qualify for benefits. And even the Republicans of the 119th Congress, the worst kind of Republican, couldn't vote against that. It moved forward without a recorded vote. Same with H.R. 4323, which created a process for canceling the criminal convictions and clean the arrest records of victims of human trafficking who committed crimes that were directly related to them having been the victims of human trafficking. And again, this is another one that didn't even need a vote. And that was it. Those were the only laws that could affect you and probably won't that were signed in January. And over in the Senate, little was also accomplished, but they did confirm some more people. But only one of them I found interesting enough to move out of last week in Congress and into this episode. And that is Keith Bass, who is our new Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. That position, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs oversees the military health system. And what's interesting about our new guy is that Keith Bass is not a doctor. He is, however, a zombie from the first Trump administration. During Trump's first term, this guy was a director of the Office of Medical Services at the CIA, where he oversaw health programs. And so he essentially had a similar role at a smaller agency. And how did he do? Well, Keith Bass was fired in 2021 for poor management of the CIA's health programs. Things actually got so bad that Congress got involved. And you know, it's got to be bad if Congress does a thing. And Congress inserted a provision into the Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022 that mandated a complete overhaul of the CIA's health programs, which included stricter oversight and a new medical advisory board. But President Trump is bringing that loser back and he's failing up to now managing the health system for the entire Department of Defense, a health system that manages the care for nine and a half million American service members and their families. And what could go wrong as we appear poised to start another war in the Middle East for no reason and with fewer allies? But most of the Republicans in the Senate don't seem concerned because they confirmed this guy 50 to 35, and he is now in charge. But you should also know that the no's were Democrats and independents because of course they were. And Susan Collins joined them. She is a Republican from Maine who is up for reelection. She joined them in saying no. And I should also note that Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, she's been voting her conscience pretty consistently in this Congress, and she didn't vote at all. So there you have it. And that's it. That's what your Congress accomplished in January. But I think for this particular January, we should also address what they didn't do. because even though you can't see it from looking at the congressional progress report, January was a big test for our system of checks and balances. And I think the absence of action needs to be a part of this documenting of history today. Because as you probably know, at the beginning of January, in an action that was not in any way approved by Congress, President Trump ordered an attack on Venezuela and captured Venezuela's president. And in the days following that clear act of war, our President Trump suggested that it was possible, if the new government didn't obey the Trump administration, that American troops could be sent to do I don't even know what in Venezuela. But boots on the ground was not dismissed as impossible. Here's a reporter asking President Trump about this on Air Force One in the beginning of January. It just sounded like you weighed out another strike, another land strike at least in Venezuela. You sound like you weighed that out. We didn't need it. We were prepared to do a second strike if we needed it. We're totally prepared. But that's off the table. We're still prepared. That's off the table now. No, it's not. If they don't behave, we will do a second strike. The question is that the American troops, are they going to be on the ground? They're doing any kind of peacekeeping. I think Americans are going to... It depends. It depends on what happens. It depends a little bit on the new administration, if you want to call it. Now, Congress is supposed to be the branch of government that decides whether or not our country goes to war. This is a responsibility that Congress has shamefully abdicated for a very long time. But with a president who doesn't feel it necessary to even notify Congress of war-making activities like overthrowing the president of another country, you would think that they would be incentivized to protect their own power. But not the 119th Congress. The closest they came to doing so in the Senate was in mid-January. The senators were going to vote on a war powers resolution requiring the consent of Congress to go to war in Venezuela after five Republican senators joined all the Democrats and independents to bring that war powers resolution to the floor for a debate. But after a bullying campaign by President Trump, two of those Republican senators abandoned their principles and helped the Republican Party with the tie-breaking vote from Vice President J.D. Vance and stopped that vote from even happening. And over in the House, there was a vote on a similar resolution, but it failed in a 215 to 215 tie. Two votes in Congress, semi-asserting its war declaration powers. And both of them ended in a tie, all because most Republicans support surrendering their congressional power to President Donald Trump. And so after our president attacked another country and kidnapped that country's president without the consent or even the advance notice to Congress, the history books are going to show that our Congress chose to do absolutely nothing about it. And we should remember that happened when we vote this year. Also in matters of war, in the weeks following that attack on Venezuela, President Trump also threatened our allies in Europe, online to reporters and in person in a long deranged speech at the Davos conference with repeated declarations that he wanted to own Greenland or else, or else tariffs or else war. but the dude freaked out the world and what did Congress do to assure our allies that this insanity was not going to happen they did nothing and now the rest of the world including our allies are pretty much universally speaking of the United States as a country that is dangerous unpredictable and in need of isolation Congress could have helped that situation by using its power and reassuring the world that the president is not above our laws. But this Republican-controlled Congress sat on the sidelines instead. And so that's how they represented us on the world stage. Here at home, millions of Americans who had health insurance last year don't have it anymore because it got so much more expensive for some of us. Because you see, during COVID, during a global pandemic, the geniuses in Congress decided that maybe more of us should be able to get medical care without going bankrupt. And so they threw money at us in order to get more of us to buy health insurance. And it worked. They made health insurance less expensive for people who have to buy it in cash. So like people like me who don't work for a corporation, and shocking, more people could purchase the less expensive product. Well, those COVID era funding levels for our health insurance expired. And so all of the people who were able to afford it when it was affordable can't afford it anymore. And the result is that millions of us peasant workers don't have health insurance and us peasants vote. And so some members of Congress give a damn. And those members in the House of Representatives created a discharge petition that got enough signatures to force a vote on extending the subsidies, which was necessary because Mike Johnson, the current Speaker of the House, who is a complete brown noser to Donald Trump, well, MAGA Mike wouldn't allow a vote on extending the health insurance subsidies. This is what the shutdown was all about last year. But remember in the beginning of the episode how I told you that the Republicans lost Marjorie Taylor Greene, Doug LaMalfa, and Jim Baird for the month of January? And because of those vacancies, two Republicans could derail Magamike's plans? Well, four Republicans voted yes on the discharge petition to force a vote on the health care subsidies. The bill they forced a vote on was written by Democrats, obviously, and it would have extended the subsidies for three years. When that vote happened, 17 Republicans voted to make health care insurance more affordable for their constituents, along with all of the Democrats, and the bill passed. The bill then moved to the Senate, where Republican leader of the Senate, John Thune, is refusing to allow a vote on it, and it appears dead, along with any American who can't afford health insurance or to pay for cancer treatments or for major surgeries out of pocket. Put another way, millions of us had a problem that Congress caused and could solve, but this Congress chose not to. And so, as usual, the news overhaul isn't great coming out of Congress, but I actually look at the events of January in Congress and see some brightening silver linings. Because you just heard about the Republican defectors in the House who voted against their party to try to make health insurance affordable. Well, there were some other defeats for the Republican Party bosses as well. So let's look at the Flexibility for Workers Education Act, which the Republicans tried to get passed through the House of Representatives. Well, what kind of flexibility were the Republican Party bosses trying to provide with that House bill? Well, they were trying to give employers, our bosses, is the flexibility to not pay us for job-related training that takes place outside of our working hours. And it's pretty wild to me when I see bills like this, which, by the way, I've seen bills like this come out of the Republican Party over and over again over the years. And it's wild to me how the Republican Party has somehow convinced so many working-class people in this country that the Republicans represent their interests. Because how do they do this? Is it because they wear cowboy hats in commercials. Like, I really don't get it. Because if you pay any attention to what the Republican Party does, this is what they do. They make it easier for bosses to f**k their workers over time and time again. But this time in an election year, this was too much for at least a few Republicans because six of them voted no along with all the Democrats. Now, let's be clear that that means that the vast majority of the Republicans in the House of Representatives supported allowing our bosses to offer training to us, conduct that training after work, call it voluntary, wink, wink, and then not pay the employees for getting trained. And who does that bill help? It helps the bosses. That's who the Republicans work for. That's who they have always worked for, at least for the 13 years that I've been studying their legislative priorities. But with a super slim majority and an election on the calendar this year, doing something so clearly anti-worker made a handful of Republicans say no. And that's all it took. A handful of them getting in touch with their consciences or their constituents. 202-224-3121. Calling them works. And there are more signs that the Republican mutiny, there's signs that it's going to continue because at least three other bills that would have enriched bosses by screwing over workers, specifically by cutting overtime pay and redefining what an employer is to get some of them out of providing benefits, well, those bills were pulled from the voting schedule. The bills didn't even get votes because MAGA Mike realized that he and his fellow corporate hacks didn't have the votes to pass them. And so I know it's been a tough year. I know it's been a depressing year, at least for those of us who work for a living and who value a functional ethical government. And I do think there is still plenty of crazy and legislative damage likely in the months ahead. But I also think that the worst of it is over. I'm calling it right now. The Republicans at the top of the party are really struggling to maintain unity in 2026. It's obvious. And this was only January. And I have even more to tell you about in the next summary episode about what went down in February. So stay tuned. So now I'd like to thank our executive producers in general, and our producers, because for the second straight week, I don't have any new executive producers to announce. But I do appreciate people that have supported the show for all these years. Like I said, we're going through some tough financial times over here, but I don't think we're alone. And so those of you who continue to support the show and have for all these years, The show is yours. And thank you for helping me keep it going. I'd also like to thank Claire, who is my production and research assistant. She does such a good job. Thank you, Mike at Pro Podcast Solutions. Thank you, Mark at podcastbranding.co. He does our web design and security. Thank you to my sister, Lauren, who does our bookkeeping and our executive producer services. And I'm paying her for nothing lately. So please make my money worth it. And let's get some executive producers on here and change the most valuable episodes list. I'd also like to thank my dad and Robin. It's damn near tax season. So this is when they earn the nothing that I pay them for working for congressional dish. And I'd also like to thank Brian, our guardian angel. We will miss you forever. All right. Thanks for listening. The next episode is going to be highlights of some hearings about ICE. Heard some really crazy stuff. So I'm going to put that together as fast as I can. And then the February summary episode, that's going to be tougher because there was the government funding law that funded five out of the six remaining sections of government. It was the tough ones. So it was like Department of Defense, Department of Labor was in their State Department. That's where the nastiest dingleberries tend to be. And I know this one was 500 pages, like more than that single space. So it's going to take me a minute to get through that. But I will find their secrets. And I will let you know about those as soon as I can. So if you support this work, please pay for it. And I will keep doing it. Thanks so much. Thanks for listening. Please share the show as well, because the more listeners we get, the more people who might pay, and then we can keep the show going long term. That would be good. But yeah, thank you for being a part of this. I appreciate you. And I will talk to you soon. Bye. We don't have a domestic spying program. They're content to fight in black and white despite the many in-betweens. We got a president who plays with the facts. With the facts. And then he waves a flag to cover his tracks. As if a lie is alright, in the end we'll justify the means. Now we are so damn tired of being lied to. The polar ice caps aren't going away. We don't think we can deny it anymore. You can stick to your story if you think it lies. But we're not keeping quiet anymore. We are so damn tired of being lied to Government jobs consume the profits of the private sector. We don't think we can deny it anymore You can't stick to your story if you think it flies These bills represent common sense, bipartisan solutions that actually solve problems. Thank you.