A Long Island dad fighting to save the only research lab that he says can treat his 5-year-old son’s rare genetic disorder has finally won his battle with Congress.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday signed the long-stalled bipartisan Small Business Innovation Research Act to free up funding for the Queens lab treating Merrick resident Andrew Jedlicka’s son — sending the bill to President Trump’s desk for hopefully final passage.

“I’m relieved that it finally reached the president’s desk, and I hope that it is signed into law very soon so that we can continue the great work we’re doing for the KBG community,” Jedlicka told The Post

Jedlicka’s son, who has not been identified at his father’s request, was diagnosed last year with KBG syndrome — an extremely rare genetic disorder linked to developmental delays, speech issues and seizures.

There are only about 800 known cases worldwide, though experts believe the disorder is underdiagnosed.

The bill, if signed into law, would provide crucial funds to dozens of small businesses and research labs across the country conducting cutting-edge medical research, including the Long Island City lab that Jedlicka’s son has been receiving an experimental treatment at for the last five months.

The lab, located in Queens, is the only one in the world capable of not only treating his 5-year-old son’s disorder, but possibly curing it all together, Jedlicka said.

But the lab’s future hinges on that renewed federal funding from the Small Business Innovation Research program, which lapsed in October 2025 after Congress failed to reauthorize it, multiple stalemated negotiations, and now continues to be held up without the President’s signature.

“If the lab closes, everything stops, and we don’t get the cure,” Jedlicka, an NYU business professor who has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money on the treatment, previously told The Post.

Long Island Rep. Laura Gillen said she had been urging Johnson to push the bill to the president.

She wrote to the speaker Wednesday desperately pleading for him to move it along.

“I’m proud to have helped push this funding for vital medical research through Congress after months of a partisan stalemate in the Senate and weeks of inaction by the speaker of the House,” said Gillen, previously calling the funding “vital” and declaring the delay was costing lives.

The bill, passed by the Senate on March 3 and the House on March 17, awaited Johnson’s signature and remained unsigned for weeks until Gillen’s push just two days before the speaker signed off Friday.

“Every day that passed without a reauthorization of this funding threatened to end lifesaving treatment for Long Islanders and others across the country. This legislation now moves one step closer to saving the medical breakthroughs and innovations they rely on,” the congresswoman added.

The total cost of Jedlicka’s son’s treatment at the center is more than $1.2 million. The lab would roughly need about a million more dollars on top of that just to stay afloat, and without the federal funding, Jedlicka said he would be responsible for every penny.

The bill now awaits either Trump’s signature or veto, with Jedlicka hoping for the best in the face of uncertainty as the president’s 2027 budget proposal includes a plethora of cuts to federal health and research funding.

House Speaker Johnson nor The White House responded to The Post’s requests for comment.

The House is primed to end the record-breaking Homeland Security shutdown, but Republicans are still fuming over a “s— sandwich” deal from the Senate. 

The Senate again advanced its partial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill on Thursday after being derailed by a House GOP rebellion. The frustration among House Republicans hasn’t gone anywhere, however, with lawmakers railing against House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., during a members-only call on Thursday afternoon.

The simmering anger comes after Johnson made a swift reversal, spurred by President Donald Trump, and backed Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s, R-S.D., on a two-track approach Wednesday that would pass the Senate’s partial DHS bill while funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a forthcoming party-line reconciliation package.

A senior GOP aide told Fox News Digital that House Republicans wanted to see action from their Senate counterparts on reconciliation and were frustrated with how the upper chamber handled the DHS deal, which the source said amounted to a “s— sandwich.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune endorsed a two-track approach to end the shutdown on Wednesday, but Johnson is facing criticism from his conference over his previous rejection of the plan. (Getty Images)

BEHIND THE SCENES OF CONGRESS’ ELEVENTH-HOUR RUSH TO FUND THE DHS

House Republicans are incensed at the Senate plan, which carves out funding for ICE and CBP. Still, the bill is expected to pass with bipartisan support.

“People are mad at Johnson,” one source familiar with the call told Fox News.

But for now, House Republicans are in no hurry to return to Washington, D.C., to end the 48-day shutdown. The House is next scheduled to return on April 14. A source familiar with the call told Fox News Digital that leadership is not expected to ask members to return to Washington early to vote on the measure. 

A source told Fox News that there was “a lot of frustration” with the situation.

“Does feel like whiplash,” the source said.

“Not happy,” another person familiar with the call said. “Not willing to vote for anything that defunds law enforcement absent tangible action from Senate. Thune should call Senate back today.”

Some House Republicans argued the chamber must fund the president’s immigration and border security efforts through reconciliation before considering the Senate bill — despite the budget reconciliation process expected to take months.

This viewpoint was expressed by a broad group within the conference, not just the conservative flank, according to a source familiar with the call.

If Johnson proceeded first with the Senate bill, conservative opposition could determine how he brings the legislation to the floor. In the event he lacks conference-wide support for the upper chamber’s partial DHS bill, he could be forced to call up the Senate bill under suspension of House rules.

That strategy — requiring a two-thirds majority to pass — risks upsetting conservatives if the DHS bill relies on Democratic votes to clear the chamber.

Some House members voiced frustration with House Speaker Mike Johnson’s DHS shutdown strategy during a private call Thursday, sources told Fox News Digital. (Getty Images)

HOUSE REPUBLICANS PASS RIVAL DHS PLAN, SETTING UP SENATE FIGHT AS SHUTDOWN SET TO BECOME LONGEST IN HISTORY

House lawmakers could have used the same fast-track process Thursday to pass the DHS bill that was done in the Senate, but opted not to. 

Thune said Thursday that he didn’t know when the House would move on the bill, but noted that when they did, Republicans would begin a sprint to complete the budget reconciliation process.

“My assumption is, at some point, hopefully they’ll move it,” Thune said. “And you know, [with] the understanding that we’re going to come behind it with the Recon bill. I mean, I think this whole — where we are is just a regrettable place.” 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s, D-N.Y., demanded that the House GOP immediately take up the bill and accused them of now owning “the longest government shutdown in history.” 

“The deep division and dysfunction among House Republicans is needlessly extending the DHS shutdown and hurting federal workers who are missing another paycheck,” Schumer said. “The Senate did its work twice to fund key parts of DHS without funding the lawlessness of ICE and Border Patrol.”

President Donald Trump moved to pay all DHS employees who were reporting to work without pay during the shutdown, despite Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer vowing that Republicans would get the blame for a prolonged funding lapse. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

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But Trump has already teed up a counter, and plans to pay DHS employees through an executive order.

“Because the Democrats are fully and 100% committed to the Radical Left Policy of Open Borders and Zero Immigration Enforcement (which will hopefully cost them dearly in the Midterms!), allowing Murderers and Criminals of all types into our Country, totally unchecked and unvetted, I will soon sign an order to pay ALL of the incredible employees at the Department of Homeland Security,” Trump said on Truth Social.

The 48-day Department of Homeland Security shutdown is one step closer to ending after the Senate moved to fund most of the department Thursday morning.

The Senate agreed via voice vote to send a bipartisan deal funding the whole department except for President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement and border security efforts to the House for consideration.

The chamber is not expected to vote on the legislation until House lawmakers return to Washington on April 13. 

The Senate vote follows GOP leaders endorsing a two-track approach to funding DHS on Wednesday, with President Donald Trump giving lawmakers a hard deadline to end the record-breaking funding lapse. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is expected to take up the Senate’s DHS bill after rejecting it last week. (Getty Images)

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES RAGE AGAINST SENATE DHS SHUTDOWN DEAL

The Senate bill accomplishes the first phase of the plan by working with Democrats to fund as much of DHS as possible on a bipartisan basis. However, it would zero out funding for ICE and much of the Border Patrol, save for $11 billion in customs funding going to the agency. Additionally, $10 billion teed up for ICE won’t be funded under the measure.

As for ICE and the Border Patrol, Republicans have said they will seek three full years of funding for both of these agencies in a party-line budget reconciliation package that will bypass Democrats’ opposition. Trump says he wants the forthcoming bill on his desk by June 1.

“We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won’t be able to stop us,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. 

The Senate bill’s passage on Thursday was a déjà vu moment for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who helped steer the same measure through the upper chamber last week.

But House GOP leadership sharply rejected it, calling the measure’s exclusion of ICE and CBP money a “crap sandwich” and warning about the risks of funding those entities using the budget reconciliation process. The chamber then put forward a rival proposal that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., made clear was “dead on arrival” in the Senate. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appeared to relent Wednesday after Trump issued a statement outlining an end to the shutdown that appeared to side with Thune’s two-part approach to funding the department. 

President Donald Trump has appeared to side with Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s two-track approach to funding the Department of Homeland Security and end the record-breaking shutdown. (Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

GOP INFIGHTING, DEMOCRATS’ UNMET DEMANDS AND A CLEAR WINDFALL: WHO’S WINNING AND LOSING THE DHS SHUTDOWN

As the DHS shutdown drags on, Trump and congressional Republicans are gambling that budget reconciliation will be the way to fund immigration enforcement for several years to come. Some Republicans have floated funding ICE not just through Trump’s term, but up to a decade.

The GOP used the same process to fund ICE last year, teeing up $75 billion for enforcement operations for the next four fiscal years.

But the party-line process comes with a host of challenges that could test Republican unity in an election year.

GOP lawmakers will have to identify spending cuts to pay for it. When Republicans used the process to pass Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025, lawmakers nearly stumbled at the finish line over disagreements on cuts to federal Medicaid spending and food assistance programs.

Without a looming deadline like the expiration of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts that Republicans extended in July 2025 through the “big, beautiful bill,” some GOP lawmakers have voiced concern that the party will stay unified.

Republicans have proposed adding other issues into the reconciliation mix, including supplemental funding for the Iran war, affordability measures, the president’s tariff regime and pieces of the election integrity-focused SAVE America Act.

The budget reconciliation process allows a party with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress to pass tax and spending priorities with a simple majority threshold, though the process is governed by stringent requirements for what is eligible to be included.

Punting ICE and CBP money to a future spending bill could also negatively affect support staff employed by both agencies who have not been paid during the seven-week shutdown.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., claimed victory on Wednesday for forcing Republicans to fund President Donald Trump’s border security and immigration enforcement agenda outside the normal appropriations process. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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Democrats have repeatedly blocked funding for ICE and the Border Patrol in the Senate since the beginning of the shutdown in mid-February. Though none of their proposals to reform immigration enforcement have been adopted, Democratic leaders claimed victory on Wednesday. 

“Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday. “We were clear from the start: fund critical security, protect Americans, and no blank check for reckless ICE and Border Patrol enforcement. “We were united, held the line, and refused to let Republican chaos win.”

The Senate deal funding most of DHS could still face roadblocks in the House. A handful of conservatives have already said they will vote “no” while using the same messaging employed by House GOP leadership to oppose the bill last week.

“Let’s make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., wrote on social media Wednesday. “If that’s the vote, I’m a NO.”

FIRST ON FOX – A leading conservative issue advocacy group aligned with House Speaker Mike Johnson is shelling out big bucks to highlight the tax cuts in the so-called “Working Families Tax Cuts Act.”

The American Action Network (AAN) on Tuesday is launching what it says is a $10 million ad blitz that will run nationally through April 15, which is the tax filing deadline.

The campaign, which was shared first with Fox News Digital, spotlights the tax cuts in the massive domestic policy measure, which was passed nearly entirely along party lines by the GOP-controlled House and Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump last summer.

The law is stuffed full of Trump’s 2024 campaign trail promises and second-term priorities, including extending the president’s signature 2017 tax cuts and eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay. 

FIRST ON FOX: HOUSE REPUBLICANS LAUNCH MAGA MAJORITY PROGRAM IN MIDTERM BATTLE 

President Donald Trump, joined by Republican lawmakers, signs the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act into law during an Independence Day military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 04, 2025 in Washington, D.C.  (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

With tax filing season in full swing, Republicans are spotlighting the cuts, which they insist will give them a political bounce with voters as they aim to hold their fragile congressional majorities in this autumn’s midterm elections.

“Republicans secured the largest tax cut in history and stood up for working families—a win that will be reflected in tax returns nationwide. American Action Network will continue to showcase the conservative policies that lower costs for the hardworking men and women across this country,” AAN President Chris Winkelman told Fox News Digital.

TRUMP BOOSTS HOUSE GOP’S WARCHEST AS MIDTERMS IN BATTLE FOR CHAMBER’S MAJORITY

And Winkelman added, “As Tax Day approaches, we are reminding Americans that every single Democrat voted to raise their taxes.”

Highlighting the tax cuts has become a major part of the congressional Republicans’ messaging as the midterms heat up.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., announces the final vote total after the House of Representatives passed President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and program cuts after an all-night session at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Thursday, May 22, 2025. ( Television via AP)

“Hardworking families will see the LARGEST tax cuts in American history….putting more money in their pockets, thanks to Congressional Republicans and President Donald J. Trump Working Families Tax Cuts,” Johnson touted recently in a social media post.

And National Republican Congressional Committee chair Rep. Richard Hudson told Fox News Digital a month ago that “as we move into tax season…folks who work overtime, folks who work for tips, they’re going to see a lot more money in their pocket thanks to no tax on tips, no tax on overtime.”

GOP lawmakers and the White House rebranded the measure, which was originally known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” to emphasize the tax cut provisions in the law.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS EXPAND REPUBLICAN TARGET LIST IN MIDTERM SHOWDOWN

Republicans are battling stiff political headwinds as the party in power in the nation’s capital traditionally loses seats in the midterms. And they also face a rough political climate fueled by economic concerns over persistent inflation, an unpopular war with Iran and Trump’s underwater approval ratings.

Democrats have repeatedly taken aim at the law, which they call the GOP’s “big ugly bill.”

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Suzan DelBene told Fox News Digital that “the policies that Republicans have prioritized, have been favoring the wealthy and the well-connected, tax breaks for the wealthy and the well-connected, but hurting working families across the country. People are feeling that, and we’re going to continue to call that out and stand up against it.”

And CJ Warnke, communications director for the House Majority PAC, argued that “House Republicans voted to give the elite a massive tax break — all while raising prices, cutting health care, and hiding the Epstein Files. Americans won’t forget their betrayal, and Democrats will take back the House in November.” 

AAN says its national ad campaign includes broadcast, digital advertising and streaming across 37 congressional districts.

One of the spots will thank Republicans for passing the tax cuts.

It will run in the districts of GOP Reps. Nick Begich of Alaska, Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, David Valadao of California, Jeff Crank and Gabe Evans of Colorado, Anna Paulina Luna, Laurel Lee and Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida, Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn of Iowa, Bill Huizenga and Tom Barrett of Michigan, Brad Finstad of Minnesota, Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey, Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler of New York, Ryan Mackenzie, Rob Bresnahan, and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Monica De La Cruz of Texas, Michael Baumgartner of Washington State, and Bryan Steil and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin.

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A separate spot criticizes Democratic lawmakers for voting for what AAN calls “the largest tax hike in American history.”

It will run in the districts of Democratic Reps. Adam Gray of California, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Kristen McDonald Rivet of Michigan, Dina Titus and Susie Lee of Nevada, Nellie Pou of New Jersey, Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, Tom Suozzi, Laura Gillen, and Josh Riley of New York, Don Davis of North Carolina, Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, and Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez of Washington State.

House Republicans passed a short-term funding patch for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the fierce objections of Democratic lawmakers late Friday evening.

But the 42-day shutdown that has snarled air travel and left tens of thousands of federal employees without pay is far from over.

House lawmakers voted 213-203 largely along party lines to approve a two-month funding extension for the beleaguered department, which has been operating without full-year appropriations since the funding lapse began on Feb. 14. 

Reps. Don Davis, D-N.C., Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, crossed party lines to support the measure. More than a dozen lawmakers did not vote.

DEMOCRATS RIP TRUMP’S ICE AIRPORT MOVE AS SHUTDOWN NEARS 40 DAYS: ‘NO REASON’

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., successfully passed a two-month funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security, but the measure faces long odds of passing the Senate.  (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The House-passed DHS measure faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where Democrats have filibustered GOP-authored legislation that includes immigration funding for the past six weeks. 

Both chambers are scheduled to leave Washington for an Easter recess without ending the funding standoff, paving the way for the partial government shutdown to become the longest in history. 

“In those eight weeks, we will figure this out with Democrats and figure out a couple of reforms or whatever they need to make sure that we do this right, but we are going to protect the homeland. We have to,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on the Ingraham Angle on Friday evening. “It’s the most important and most basic function of Congress, and Democrats don’t want to do that.”

Democratic lawmakers, who have repeatedly voted against DHS spending bills funding President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown absent reforms, echoed the same position Friday. 

“House Republicans have decided that they would rather inconvenience you, create chaos for you and for your families so that they can continue to jam their extreme right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people so they can continue to spend billions of dollars for ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to brutalize and kill American citizens,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said during a news conference Friday. 

The vote came after House GOP leadership and the conservative House Freedom Caucus unequivocally rejected a Senate-passed deal earlier on Friday. The agreement, which passed the Senate unanimously, would have funded the vast majority of DHS sub-agencies minus ICE and parts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The National Border Patrol Council endorsed the House bill late Friday, arguing the Senate’s failure to fund all of DHS is “completely unacceptable and should not stand.”

The House Freedom Caucus sharply criticized the Senate-passed deal on Friday, arguing the upper chamber turned its back on federal immigration officers. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

JAYAPAL DOUBLES DOWN ON ANTI-ICE TERROR CLAIMS AS DHS SHUTDOWN TRIGGERS HISTORIC TRAVEL CHAOS

Senate Republicans have teased a second “big, beautiful” bill to give additional funding to ICE and the Border Patrol, though that could be a difficult feat in an election year with slim majorities in both chambers.

“It wasn’t good. It wasn’t appropriate,” Trump told Fox News in an interview Friday, referring to the Senate agreement. “You can’t have a bill that’s not going to fund ICE.”

House GOP leadership has also voiced concern about funding ICE and the Border Patrol through a second budget reconciliation package.

“That’s a very difficult task. It is a high-risk gamble for us to assume that we could do that,” Johnson told the Ingraham Angle. “And in the meantime, people are still going unpaid in this. We’ve got to make sure that we take care of those who take care of ourselves.”

President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., both criticized a Senate DHS spending bill on Friday for failing to include funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo; Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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The most pressing pain point of the shutdown — a shortage of Transportation Security Administration employees at airports nationwide — is set to be alleviated. The staffing constraints had created hours-long wait times at TSA security checkpoints, leading to travel disruptions and missed flights.

Trump, through an executive order, directed DHS to pay the more than 50,000 TSA personnel who had been reporting to work without compensation since the start of the shutdown to cover their salaries. The agents are expected to receive their first full paychecks in more than six weeks on Monday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson chastised congressional Democrats Friday, saying Republicans will not be part of any effort to reopen America’s borders and stop the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants. 

Johnson held a two-hour conference call with House Republicans Friday, saying they were all “united” in the party’s position to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to end the partial government shutdown that has injected chaos into air travel. 

“They have taken hostage the funding processes of government so that they can impose their radical agenda on the American people,” Johnson told reporters of Senate Democrats.  

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: GOP EYES DHS DEAL FUNDING ICE PROBES, BUT NOT REMOVALS, AS SHUTDOWN DRAGS

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks as House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., right, listens during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Friday in which he blamed Democrats for the partial government shutdown.  (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)

“The Senate Democrats have foisted upon this appropriations process their radical, crazy agenda,” he added. “We call it crazy because that’s what it is. They want to reopen the borders, and they want to stop the deportation of dangerous criminal illegal aliens. We have to do these basic functions of government.”

On Friday, the Senate advanced a bill to fund much of DHS, except for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol.

“The only thing standing between ending this chaos or not are House Republicans,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. “There’s a bipartisan bill that emerged from the Senate with uniform support, and it should be brought to the floor immediately so we can pay TSA agents, so we can end the chaos at airports across the country and stop inconveniencing millions of Americans.”

Democrats have refused to fully fund DHS unless Republicans agree to new restrictions on federal immigration authorities. 

JOHNSON TURNS UP HEAT ON SCHUMER AS DHS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON, AIRPORT DELAYS MOUNT

Travelers experienced extensive wait times Sunday, March 22, 2026, at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (left, middle) and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (right) due to the partial government shutdown. (WVUE)

“This gambit that was done last night is a joke,” Johnson said of the bill. “It is unconscionable to me that the Democrats would force some sort of negotiation at three o’clock in the morning and try to hoist this upon the American people and then get on their jets and go home for their holiday and pretend and think that we’re going to go along with that.”

Lawmakers have come under increased pressure to strike a deal to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents after many have resigned and lines at airports across the country have swelled daily because of staffing issues. 

On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to pay TSA agents despite Congress having not appropriated the funds for it. 

Johnson said Republicans will put forward a continuing resolution for all agencies under DHS to keep operating at their current funding levels. 

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“The reason that we can’t accept this ridiculousness is because we’re not going to risk not funding the agencies that keep the American people safe,” he said. 

The shutdown began in February, weeks after federal agents shot and killed two people in separate incidents during immigration raids in Minnesota. Democrats have demanded changes to ICE and DHS and have refused to fund the agencies. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is calling for a national framework to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) — but cautioned it should not go too far.

“America will win the AI race. We will win it, if two things happen —  if government resists the siren song of control, and if industry steps up as our patriotic partner,” Johnson said. “I think we can do both of those things.”

The leader of the House of Representatives spoke at the Hill & Valley Forum on Tuesday, an annual bipartisan meeting of lawmakers and private sector leaders to discuss American AI innovation.

TRUMP SAYS EVERY AI PLANT BEING BUILT IN US WILL BE SELF-SUSTAINING WITH THEIR OWN ELECTRICITY

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., praises President Donald Trump’s policies and agenda ahead of his State of the Union speech, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

He told attendees on Capitol Hill that Congress had “three things” it needed to accomplish regarding AI.

“The first thing is, we have to deliver a single national framework that protects children, safeguards communities, supports creators, and avoids a patchwork of state regulations,” Johnson said. “We recognize that constant shifts in policy don’t just confuse the market, they run contrary to our national interest.”

He said lawmakers “will utilize existing structures to establish safeguards and rules of the road, so to speak, without smothering the whole marketplace with red tape.”

The Grok application appears on a smartphone screen in this photo illustration in Athens, Greece, on October 2, 2025. (Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The second thing, Johnson said, was to treat AI technology as a matter of national security in keeping it in the hands of the U.S. and its allies rather than the country’s adversaries.

CHINA RACES AHEAD ON AI —TRUMP WARNS AMERICA CAN’T REGULATE ITSELF INTO DEFEAT

The final task the speaker mentioned is a duty to “move at the speed that victory demands.”

It comes days after President Donald Trump released his own framework for AI regulations that includes more guardrails against self-harm and sexual exploitation for AI platforms accessed by children, streamlining permitting for AI data centers, and preventing AI from being used to silence free speech, among other measures.

President Donald Trump speaks during the swearing in for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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The proposal would need to be drafted as legislation by congressional lawmakers and passed by both chambers to be able to affect any meaningful change.

Trump also issued a moratorium on states’ abilities to enact their own AI regulations late last year.