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Hello, friends. We’re preparing for a major winter storm here on the East Coast, with some projections predicting up to 20 inches of snow.
It would be my first major snowstorm since moving to D.C. five years ago, but my Utah heart is hoping for some major snow action. Best of luck to all in the Midwest and on the East Coast who are included in the forecast.
Also: Congrats to Rep. Celeste Maloy for being unanimously elected as chairwoman of the Congressional Western Caucus this week, which I scooped for DNews.
— Cami Mondeaux
The Big Idea: Both parties have an Epstein problem
Congress seems to be at a crossroads. Despite a major (bipartisan!) win last year to force the Justice Department to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, it still feels like both parties are fighting over what the end goal is.
Both want to pin some sort of messaging win against the other, and so far … it’s only resulted in a game of political tennis. For this week’s newsletter, I want to break down the competing dynamics at play.
Let’s start with the big news of this week on Capitol Hill this week. The House Oversight Committee advanced two resolutions to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress, which both passed along bipartisan lines.
More Democrats voted to hold Bill Clinton in contempt, with nine supporting the measure to refer the former president to the DOJ. Only three voted to refer Hillary.
The committee subpoenaed the couple last summer, but the two have refused to testify over arguments they don’t have relevant information — and accusing Republicans of unfairly targeting them. As you can imagine, Republicans are seizing on that to accuse Democrats of not being serious about getting to the bottom of the Epstein investigation.
“No witness — not a former president or a private citizen — may willfully defy a duly issued congressional subpoena without consequence,” Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky, said in his opening remarks on Wednesday. “But that is what the Clintons did, and that is why we are here today.”
But a majority of Democrats on the committee, including the top ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia, accused Republicans of advancing those resolutions as political retribution.
Their argument is that Republicans are cracking down on noncompliance, but only from the Democratic side. Garcia then pointed to the fact that the DOJ hasn’t released all of the Epstein files yet despite the law — passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump last year — required all materials to be made public by Dec. 19.
“To the extent that anyone should be held in criminal contempt, it is the attorney general of the Department of Justice,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters on Thursday.
DOJ officials have said that hundreds of officials are going through the files to redact certain information, but it’s not yet clear when the full tranche of documents will be released.
But that competing dynamic of who is complying vs. who is skirting their responsibilities came to an ugly head during the Oversight hearing on Wednesday.
Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona opened a line of questioning by suggesting the panel should instead hold Bondi in contempt for violating her own subpoena.
Comer shot back with: “She has complied and turned over documents”
Ansari: “One percent (of documents) is not compliance.”
Comer: “You all complained that the first document dump didn’t have enough redactions and the second document dump had too many redactions.”
Ansari: “She said last year they have the documents and they are ready to go. The committee subpoenaed them in July.”
Comer: “Nobody on our side is defending Pam Bondi.”
Ansari: “Then she should be held in contempt.”
Democrats did attempt to hold a vote during that hearing to hold Bondi in contempt, but it was rejected.
So, yeah. Messy back and forth these days, which I suppose could be expected for such a sensitive topic.
Next steps: The DOJ is continuing to go through documents, although we don’t know when we could get them all. A full House vote to hold the Clintons in contempt is expected in early February.
— Cami Mondeaux
Stories driving the week
- That’s my jam: The House on Thursday unanimously approved an amendment by attaching it to the final spending package that must be passed by the Senate next week to avoid a partial government shutdown — essentially jamming the upper chamber to overturn a disputed law.
- SAVE Act saved? Republican leaders are ramping up efforts to ban noncitizens from voting in federal elections by reviving a bill from Utah Sen. Mike Lee to implement stricter identification requirements.
- AI enters the chat: Republicans have developed an AI tool “trained on thousands of Byrd Rule documents” to help generate compliant legislation that can withstand challenges from the parliamentarian. That tool, they argue, will help them avoid having policies stripped out — or to assist in challenging the parliamentarian if needed, some Republicans say.
Shutdown (almost) avoided
Congress is on track to avert a partial government shutdown at the end of this month, thanks to some fast action in the House this week.
The House passed its final tranche of spending bills on Thursday, including the highly contentious funding package for the Department of Homeland Security that narrowly passed with just seven Democrats voting in favor.
Those bills will be stitched together with the spending package that was advanced by the House last week, and they’ll be sent in one mega-bill to the Senate when it returns on Monday. That was designed to expedite the process in the Senate, which has more complicated procedural hurdles that could have delayed passage past the Jan. 30 deadline.
Assuming those bills get through the upper chamber without much drama — a good possibility, considering they were negotiated by bipartisan appropriators — Congress can breathe a sigh of relief they’ve avoided another shutdown disaster.
And House lawmakers managed to get some payback on their Senate colleagues by reversing a provision that senators snuck into the last funding bill. Read more on that here.
What’s next? Well, it’s time to start getting the budget together for the next fiscal year!
The process typically starts really early in the year when the president sends (or, well, is supposed to send) his requested budget to Congress in February so they can get drafting. That was delayed last year because of early personnel shifts in the administration as well as the main focus being on Trump’s massive tax package.
But Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., who sits on the House Appropriations Committee told a group of us that he’s feeling more confident in the 2027 fiscal year bills than he did from this last year (which, by the way, is four months late).
“I expect to get a budget on time and a complete budget, which is very, very helpful,” Diaz-Balart said, telling reporters the 2027 process will begin “immediately.”
— Cami Mondeaux
Quick hits
From the Hill: Who is Michele Tafoya, the Republican running for Senate in Minnesota? … Congressional Democrats push to include ICE guardrails in DHS funding bill. … Top House Republican looks to ‘calm the waters’ amid Trump’s push to seize Greenland.
From the White House: U.S. presents plans for ‘New Gaza’ at global conference. … Poll finds Utah split in two over Trump immigration agenda. … Trump says ‘framework of a deal’ in place on Greenland.
From the courts: Supreme Court appears doubtful of Trump’s case to fire Federal Reserve governor. … Federal judge dismisses Phil Lyman’s voter-records case for lack of standing.
What’s next
The chambers are switching places next week. The Senate will return on Monday (barring weather delays from the expected snowstorm). The House is out. Government funding runs out next Friday.
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.