Congress returns to a messy fall with Democrats ready to fight

CNN Congress is bracing for a politically bruising fall as lawmakers return to Washington on Tuesday with massive fights upcoming on authorities 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 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 strategy law but White House leaders say they re in no mood to yield to those demands and expect Democrats to help keep the authorities 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 event material And because they re using a tactic to circumvent party leaders known as a discharge petition all they need is 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 Complaint Control where Trump fired an official that the Senate proven 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 certain senators are likely to make the event 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 reported 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 votes It s gonna be a sh tty fall one House member commented summing up the fights over administration spending the Epstein files and Trump s policing push Authorities funding Democrats were already preparing for a brawl with Trump over September s funding deadline Then came the White House s decision to cancel nearly 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 House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries calling it a brazenly unlawful scam to undermine Congress and describing Trump as a wannabe king In a letter to Senate Democrats Tuesday morning Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reported he and Jeffries are aligned on our shared priorities as Congress returns put the onus on Republicans and the White House to work with them in a bipartisan manner to avert a shutdown and argued the GOP should stand up to the White House s push against legislative powers Senate Democrats have shown firsthand that we are willing to work in a bipartisan way to keep our administration open by advancing bipartisan appropriations bills However the Trump administration is waging an all-out war against Congress Article I authority and the constitutional balance of power Senate Republicans must decide stand up for the legislative branch or enable Trump s slide toward authoritarianism Schumer wrote The White House however is downplaying Democrats threats and insisting that they will ultimately agree to keep the governing body 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 executive shutdown a White House official noted Epstein files Massie and Khanna the House duo that has loudly beat the drum on Epstein transparency will hold a press conference on Wednesday that will feature people who say they were casualties 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 casualties are speaking out publicly Khanna informed CNN on Friday The two will be working to collect the 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 explained publicly they believe all Democrats will sign on and that they will get the necessary six Republicans to reach I m confident we ll get Democrats to sign this by the end of the week Khanna notified CNN adding that he s working with Jeffries But it s not clear how a great number of Republicans will be willing to sign on Rep Jeff Van Drew a New Jersey Republican who is a cosponsor of the Massie-Khanna bill informed CNN he was not willing to sign onto the discharge petition I think it has lost a little bit of momentum Van Drew narrated CNN when petitioned about the Epstein transparency push adding I sponsorship releasing whatever we can but not forcing by discharge Massie revealed earlier this month that he hopes the press conference and the fact that multiple casualties will be addressing the population 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 several of your friends if you vote against this Massie in an interview with anti-vaccine group Children s Soundness 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 mentioned it contained little new information The panel has demanded more documents from the Epstein estate that are expected to come by September as well but Khanna stated he believes lawmakers aren t willing to wait for that deadline Oversight Committee Chair James Comer has mentioned the panel plans to meet with Epstein casualties and their attorneys on Tuesday as they work through complicated issues around making more information general Senate will confront new Trump firings Lawmakers who exercise oversight of key administration positions will return to grapple with modern 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 explained 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 required 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 latest new ground but I don t know whether the law allows it or not I haven t studied that law he revealed Senators of both parties will likely ratchet up pressure on Robustness and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr after Monarez and other top CDC representatives left the agency amid clashes with the administration over vaccine safety GOP Sen Bill Cassidy a therapeutic practitioner who chairs the Senate Strength Guidance Labor and Pensions Committee announced the departures would require oversight from his panel Cassidy cast the pivotal vote to confirm Kennedy earlier this year after he reported he received assurances that Kennedy would not dismantle federal help 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 doable Kennedy is also expected to testify before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday about Trump s soundness care agenda Russia sanctions As Washington awaits a possible 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 ordinance 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 reported 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 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 endorsement 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 expeditiously 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 explained 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 recounted CNN he s satisfied with Trump s efforts on Russia-Ukraine and thinks they re moving in the right direction Required whether Congress should pass sanctions Johnson mentioned it may come to that and he s in favor of that