NPR News: 07-20-2026 11AM EDT

Libby Casey· Host0:00

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Libby Casey. The US House has just one more week of work in Washington before lawmakers head home for the August recess, and in four months they'll face voters at the polls. NPR's Eric McDaniel says Republicans are thinking about what message they'll take home.

Eric McDaniel0:17

President Trump is again escalating his war with Iran. More American troops have died. Gas prices as of this morning are again over four dollars according to AAA, and polling shows the cost of living and affordability are Americans' chief concerns. And that's the context that Republicans have with maybe a two-vote margin in the House when they're hoping to take votes on the president's priorities before they head home to sell their record to constituents in hopes of getting reelected this fall.

Libby Casey· Host0:42

On House Speaker Mike Johnson's agenda, increasing defense spending and President Trump's election integrity bill, which would tighten voter ID laws. There's also a bill in play that would ban stock trading for lawmakers and a proposal to extend government funding through the November election. Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls Cuba the leading sponsor of radical leftism in the United States, and he's naming organizations that he says have been working with Cuban intelligence. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports.

Michelle Kellerman1:11

Just days after Secretary Rubio hosted a conference on what he describes as a resurgence of left-wing political violence, he's issuing a seventy-page report detailing what he sees as Cuba's history of an ideological battle against the United States starting in the nineteen sixties. He says Cuba's,