(The Center Square) – One of Wisconsin’s Republican congressmen says it could be a “frustrating” return to Capitol Hill this week.
Congress is back after a two-week break, and Rep. Bryan Steil said there is a lot on the to-do list.
“It’s frustrating,” Steil said during an interview on News Talk 1130 WISN. “We have narrow majorities in both the House and the Senate, that’s not lost on anybody, so making progress is difficult.”
Steil isn’t sure how much will actually get done, but he said his focus is on ending the shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security.
“The path forward on this is to move it through on a party-line vote and using the tactic of reconciliation to get around the Senate filibuster,” Steil said. “Getting the funding through for the Department of Homeland Security is so absolutely essential. That is going to take a ton of energy in the room, but I think we will be successful in the coming weeks.”
Steil is also focusing on his now three-year-long investigation into the fundraising platform ActBlue.
“What are online portals, like ActBlue, doing to prevent foreign donations from being processed on their platforms?” Steil asked. “We asked ActBlue a series of questions, and now it appears that they were not fully truthful.”
Politico wrote about Steil’s investigation Tuesday and followed a New York Times report that said ActBlue leaders may have “misled” Congress during testimony in 2023.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday called ActBlue the “most corrupt group in Government” in a post on Truth Social.
Steil said he expects “significant action in the coming weeks.”
“We’re taking this incredibly seriously, because at the end of the day the American people deserve to know that in U.S. elections there is no foreign funding,” Steil said.
As for how the ActBlue investigation ends, Steil said he is focusing on getting answers for the American people. Anything else would have to come from the Justice Department.
“The DOJ may have their own investigation that would result in an individual being held accountable to the law,” Steil said. “On the Congressional side, what I can do is provide transparency that can move the Department of Justice…but also to make sure that we are changing the laws on the books.”
