Congress is bracing for a politically bruising fall as lawmakers return to Washington on Tuesday, with massive fights upcoming on government funding, the Jeffrey Epstein files and President Donald Trump’s policing push.
After a summer of simmering tensions on Trump’s nationwide deportations, National Guard deployment in Washington, DC, and a string of high-profile firings, Democrats are ready to fight back.
And the minority party won’t have to wait long for its opportunity to spar with Trump. Republicans and Democrats are already entering a high-stakes funding standoff ahead of a September 30 funding deadline, which marks Congress’ first bout of bipartisan dealmaking in months. Already, Democrats are signaling they want new checks on Trump’s power and a rollback of the president’s signature domestic policy law, but White House officials say they’re in no mood to yield to those demands and expect Democrats to help keep the government open.
Before Congress hits that end of September deadline, though, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune will be navigating plenty of other partisan battles.
On the House side, that includes a floor fight over the Jeffrey Epstein files that is likely to rankle House Republicans right as lawmakers return this week.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and his Democratic counterpart, Rep. Ro Khanna of California, will begin collecting signatures this week for a closely watched bill that would require the Trump administration to turn over all relevant Epstein case material. And because they’re using a tactic to circumvent party leaders known as a discharge petition, all they need is 218 signatures to force that bill to the floor – creating a political headache for Johnson.
Speaking to CNN on Friday, Johnson called the Massie-Khanna effort “moot,” but he acknowledged “there may be a floor vote of one measure or another,” suggesting without offering details that there could be a separate, leadership-backed resolution that could come to the floor.
On the Senate side, Republicans will be forced to wade into the chaos at the Centers for Disease Control, where Trump fired an official that the Senate confirmed just days before leaving for its August recess. Senators will also be pressed on the escalating drama at the Federal Reserve – which has long been seen as above politics – where ousted Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook is now suing Trump for firing her.
At the same time, Senate GOP leaders will continue to face pressure to change their chamber’s longstanding rules to speed up the confirmation process for Trump nominees, while some senators are likely to make the case to allow the president to make recess appointments – a further extension of his presidential power.
Trump has also personally added more items to Congress’ to-do list in September. He declared last week that he was working with Johnson and Thune on a major crime package that will further stoke partisan battles.
Johnson told CNN on Friday that Republicans would first address crime in Washington, then look to other cities in America, with a focus on addressing what he called a “juvenile crime wave.” And relatedly, Congress will face a vote in mid-September to extend Trump’s authority to bring the National Guard in to assist with DC policing, which faces steep odds in the Senate, where it will need 60 votes.
“It’s gonna be a sh*tty fall,” one House member said, summing up the fights over government spending, the Epstein files and Trump’s policing push.
Democrats were already preparing for a brawl with Trump over this September’s funding deadline. Then came the White House’s decision to cancel nearly $5 billion in foreign aid funding – subverting Congress’ power of the purse in an untested maneuver that will surely be challenged in courts.
Top Democrats’ resolve to fight Trump only strengthened after the White House’s move, with Jeffries calling it a “brazenly unlawful scam” to undermine Congress and describing Trump as a “wannabe king.”
The White House, however, is downplaying Democrats’ threats and insisting that they will ultimately agree to keep the government open without securing any concessions from Trump.
“It’s very hard for me to believe that they are going to oppose a clean (continuing resolution) that would cause them to be responsible for a government shutdown,” a White House official said.
Massie and Khanna, the House duo that has loudly beat the drum on Epstein transparency, will hold a press conference on September 3 that will feature people who say they were victims of the late financier and sex offender’s sex trafficking ring.
“This press conference is going to be explosive. It’s the first time that a lot of these victims are speaking out publicly,” Khanna told CNN on Friday.
The two will be working to collect the 218 signatures needed on their discharge petition to trigger a full vote on the floor, bypassing GOP leaders who do not want to hold the vote. Both Khanna and Massie have said publicly they believe all Democrats will sign on and that they will get the necessary six Republicans to reach 218.
“I’m confident we’ll get 212 Democrats to sign this by the end of the week,” Khanna told CNN, adding that he’s working with Jeffries.
But it’s not clear how many Republicans will be willing to sign on. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican who is a cosponsor of the Massie-Khanna bill, told CNN he was not willing to sign onto the discharge petition.
“I think it has lost a little bit of momentum,” Van Drew told CNN when asked about the Epstein transparency push, adding: “I support releasing whatever we can but not forcing by discharge.”
Massie said earlier this month that he hopes the press conference – and the fact that many victims will be addressing the public for the first time – will help convince more members of the GOP conference to vote to release the files.
“You’re virtually implicating yourself or your donors or some of your friends, if you vote against this,” Massie in an interview with anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense that was posted on its website in August.
The House Oversight panel this month received a spate of documents from the Department of Justice on the Epstein matter but Democrats said it contained little new information. The panel has demanded more documents from the Epstein estate that are expected to come by September 8, as well, but Khanna said he believes lawmakers aren’t willing to wait for that deadline.
Oversight Committee Chair James Comer has said the panel plans to meet with Epstein victims and their attorneys on Tuesday, as they work through “complicated” issues around making more information public.
Lawmakers who exercise oversight of key administration positions will return to grapple with recent dramatic shakeups, including Trump’s push to fire Cook and the ousting of newly installed CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez.
Democrats erupted in outrage after Trump said he fired Cook, drawing questions about the constitutionality of the move that could open a new legal battle over executive authority.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, called it an “authoritarian power grab that blatantly violates the Federal Reserve Act,” adding that “any court that follows the law will overturn it.”
Warren and other Democrats in the committee have asked the chair, Sen. Tim Scott, to postpone Thursday’s planned confirmation hearing for Federal Reserve board nominee Stephen Miran as the legal drama over Cook’s firing plays out.
Republicans have remained mostly mum on the issue, but GOP Sen. Todd Young acknowledged the unprecedented nature of the move when pressed by reporters on Capitol Hill.
“It’s breaking new ground, but I don’t know whether the law allows it or not. I haven’t studied that law,” he said.
Senators of both parties will likely ratchet up pressure on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after Monarez and other top CDC officials left the agency amid clashes with the administration over vaccine safety.
GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said the departures would “require oversight” from his panel.
Cassidy cast the pivotal vote to confirm Kennedy earlier this year after he said he received assurances that Kennedy would not dismantle federal support for vaccines.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the ranking member on the Senate HELP panel, echoed Cassidy’s call for accountability, demanding that Kennedy and Monarez testify to the committee “as soon as possible.”
Kennedy is also expected to testify before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday about Trump’s health care agenda.
As Washington awaits a potential high-stakes meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Congress could decide on its own to ratchet up pressure on the Trump administration to help end the war.
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, who led the bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation that ultimately did not make it to the Senate floor this summer, implored Trump to be “tough,” urging him to implement further sanctions on countries that buy oil and gas from the Kremlin.
He said in an interview on Fox that he intends to push Senate leaders to bring up his bill, cosponsored last year by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, that would designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and make the country “radioactive” until they return the 19,000 children taken from Ukraine.
Graham also encouraged Trump to implement further tariffs on China to “take it to the next level,” arguing that Chinese President Xi Jinping could convince Putin to end the war.
Though Graham had previously lobbied Trump to come out in support of his sanctions bill, he and other GOP lawmakers backed away from demanding a vote before the August recess when Trump threatened to sanction Russia if Putin didn’t end the war quickly, though it is now unclear if or when that will happen.
Pressed on whether he has a sense of a timeline for any of the secondary sanctions he’s encouraging, Graham said it was up to Trump, and that he “trust(s) his judgment.”
Thune, who had floated the idea of bringing Graham’s bill to the floor before recess, vowed to provide Trump with “any economic leverage needed” over Russia as the president met with Zelensky and other European leaders.
Thune’s counterpart, Johnson, told CNN he’s “satisfied” with Trump’s efforts on Russia-Ukraine and thinks they’re “moving in the right direction.” Asked whether Congress should pass sanctions, Johnson said “it may come to that and (he’s) in favor of that.”
