This article was first published in the On the Hill newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox on Friday mornings here.
Hello, friends. We are one week out from Thanksgiving, which is my favorite holiday of the year.
Congress was back for its first full week of work since reopening the government and, as the kids put it, we are sooo back. But not in the most productive way. There was a lot of interpersonal drama in the House, and the Senate is still trying to plot a path forward on meeting all of its end-of-year deadlines.
More on that below. But first, a check-in on our Utah delegation as they face some big decisions of their own: where to run in Utah’s new congressional map.
— Cami Mondeaux
The Big Idea: How Utah lawmakers are coordinating reelection decisions
After new boundaries were set by a judge for Utah’s congressional districts, it set off a firestorm for Democratic candidates to jump into the race in the new 1st District. But the new map leaves major questions for the four House Republicans currently in office on where they’ll go next.
None of the four have publicly shared their plans for next year. But you can be assured they are discussing it with each other behind closed doors.
Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, told me this week that conversations to address the 2026 map began months ago when 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson first ruled that the current boundaries would be thrown out. Those conversations continued when there were five maps under consideration and again when Gibson approved boundaries establishing a heavily Democratic seat.
“We’ve got a lot of practice at not only talking to each other, but also just holding on and watching the process play out, because it keeps changing,” Maloy told me.
As of now, she told me it was “way too soon” for them to decide who is running where. But we’re likely to see some maneuvering thanks to the updated numbering system and the Democratic seat that could force an incumbent-on-incumbent primary elsewhere.
“We have four different personalities, four people with their own strengths and weaknesses, but we do coordinate with each other to try to make sure we’re using all of our strengths for Utah,” Maloy told me. “It’s something we have a lot of practice at. So when it comes to something like redistricting that’s potentially thorny, we are already in the habit of talking to each other and talking about, you know, how to take care of Utah.”
Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, similarly told me it was too soon for the delegation to begin discussing their 2026 plans. I asked him if he was likely to switch to what is now the 2nd District, which covers much of the same ground he currently represents in the 1st District — but he said he and the delegation have agreed to hold off on any announcements.
“The current district in northern Utah is largely intact, and that’s been where I’ve spent every ounce of my effort the last five years or six years when I first ran. But as a delegation, we’re just holding off on communicating out what the plans are,” he told me this week. “Because we don’t know. … I mean, they’ve changed so much in the last few months and weeks.”
I’ll be keeping an eye on how things shape up on that front.
— Cami Mondeaux
Stories driving the week
- Shutdown hindsight: Utah voters were more likely to say that congressional Democrats were responsible for the record-long shutdown that ended earlier this month, but a substantial number of respondents said both parties are to blame, according to new polling.
- Epstein files are coming: Congress passed a resolution compelling the Department of Justice to release its full investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, marking an about-face for GOP leaders after months of intense pushback from the White House. The bill passed both chambers nearly unanimously.
- House overturns Senate law: The House voted to overturn a controversial provision approved in the spending package to reopen the government last week, but Republican leaders in the Senate are slow-walking a commitment to fully repeal the measure.
A dramatic week in the House
The House is back for the first time in weeks. If you remember, they left on Sept. 19 and were gone for the entirety of the shutdown — so they didn’t come back until last Wednesday to reopen the government, and then leave again.
But this was their first full week back. And well, it went just about how you’d expect.
And by that, I mean we saw a lot of the typical interpersonal fights and drama — some of it even within their respective parties.
We saw Rep. Marie Glusenkamp Perez, D-Wash., bring forward a resolution to disapprove of her colleague Rep. Chuy Garcia, D-Ill., over accusations he announced his retirement after the filing deadline for his seat passed — paving the way for his chief of staff to run unopposed. That ended up passing in a 236-183 vote despite Democratic leadership urging against it.
Then we saw Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., go after fellow Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida with a censure resolution over alleged ethical violations and to remove him from his committee assignments. That resolution failed, but Mills is now being investigated by the House Ethics Committee.
Three other censure resolutions have been floated in the House just this week against other lawmakers.
To highlight how unusual that is: Censure resolutions have typically been saved as serious disciplinary measures in the House. There have only been 28 censures in the history of Congress. But it’s become more commonplace in recent years — three of those 28 happened in 2023 alone against Democratic members who were in the minority.
It’s gotten some members thinking about whether they should raise the threshold for those types of resolutions from the current simple majority to possibly a 60% minimum, according to a Dear Colleague letter led by Reps. Don Beyer, D-Va., and Don Bacon, R-Neb., sent on Thursday.
We could see some real appetite for that in the coming weeks as members suggest the retaliatory measures are just partisan distractions.
— Cami Mondeaux
Quick Hits
From the Hill: House Democrat indicted over stealing FEMA money to fund campaign. … Sen. Mike Lee wants ‘flight risk’ classification for noncitizens who commit crimes. … Why Mike Lee wants more local control over public lands in Utah and the West.
From the White House: NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to meet with Trump at White House. … President Trump signs bill to release Epstein files. … New information released on would-be Trump assassin.
From the courts: Judge rules Texas can’t use GOP-friendly maps in blow to Trump’s midterm strategy. … What does Trump’s H-1B policy mean for India? … Newly released Amelia Earhart documents offer details — but few surprises.
What’s next
The House and Senate are out next week for the Thanksgiving holiday. When they return, they have a long list of appropriations and other year-end deadlines to meet.
As always, feel free to reach out to me by email with story ideas or questions you have for lawmakers. And follow me on X for breaking news and timely developments from the Hill.