Authorities shutdown looms as Congress returns with simply three weeks to keep away from it

WASHINGTON — After a six-week summer time recess, lawmakers return to the Capitol on Monday dealing with a modified political panorama however a vexing, very acquainted downside: determining the best way to avert a shutdown.

They’ve simply three weeks to take action. Funding for the federal government runs out on the finish of the fiscal 12 months on Sept. 30, and former President Donald Trump is urging Republicans to pressure a shutdown until sure calls for are met. A shutdown would shut federal companies and nationwide parks, whereas limiting public providers and furloughing tens of millions of employees simply weeks earlier than the election.

The presidential race looms over the ultimate stretch for Congress; it’s anticipated to go away once more on the finish of the month and return after Election Day. When the Home left town for its summer time break on July 25, President Joe Biden had simply dropped out of the presidential race, Democrats have been making ready to select Vice President Kamala Harris as their new standard bearer, and Republicans have been speeding to attract up a brand new playbook towards Harris.

Home Republicans have now settled on some traces of assault, which they will spotlight in politically charged GOP hearings and investigations into each Harris and her working mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on points from border safety to the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Right here’s what to anticipate throughout Congress’ remaining three-week dash earlier than it returns to the marketing campaign path in October.

One other shutdown risk

The one largest process for Congress is to fund the federal government by the Sept. 30 deadline. It’s a foregone conclusion that lawmakers will want a stopgap invoice to maintain the federal government open previous the election — they’re nowhere near settlement on a full-year funding measure. However the particulars and size of the invoice are a supply of consternation.

Beneath stress from Trump and right-wing members, the Republican-led Home released a stopgap bill that will preserve cash flowing by means of March 28 and tie it to the SAVE Act, a GOP-led invoice to overhaul voting laws nationwide by requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Democrats oppose the latter measure, noting that it’s already unlawful for noncitizens to vote, with hefty penalties that make the follow very rare. Additionally they say it may deter People from voting, as many lack quick access to passports or delivery certificates.

Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., mentioned Home Republicans are “taking a critically necessary step to maintain the federal authorities funded and to safe our federal election course of.” But when the invoice passes the Home, it’s going nowhere within the Democratic-led Senate, and Johnson should resolve whether or not to again off or maintain agency, because the GOP dangers being blamed for a shutdown because the social gathering that instigated the standoff.

“If Speaker Johnson drives Home Republicans down this extremely partisan path, the chances of a shutdown go method up, and People will know that the accountability of a shutdown might be on the Home Republicans’ arms,” Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., mentioned in a joint assertion Friday after the discharge of the invoice.

Additionally expiring on Sept. 30 is the farm invoice for agriculture packages, which has already been punted as soon as and is predicted to be prolonged on a stopgap foundation with a seamless decision.

Home GOP probes

After spending a lot of the 118th Congress centered on investigating Biden, Home Republicans at the moment are shifting their focus to Democrats’ new presidential ticket.

The Home Schooling Committee subpoenaed Walz final week for details about how his administration responded to a big pandemic fraud scheme in Minnesota. Whereas the committee has been investigating this challenge since 2022 and had beforehand requested data from the state Schooling Division, this subpoena was the primary outreach to Walz himself.

The Home Oversight Committee, in the meantime, launched an investigation final month into contact Walz has had with Chinese language Communist Social gathering entities and officers, relationship to the early Nineties, when Walz was a instructor main scholar teams on instructional journeys to China.

Republicans are additionally focusing on the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which the Trump marketing campaign has criticized Harris over. McCaul has threatened to carry Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt until he agrees to testify about Afghanistan on Sept. 19.

Home Republicans even have a full lineup of hearings this week centered on the “Biden-Harris administration.” There’s a Judiciary Committee listening to on “The Biden-Harris Border Disaster: Sufferer Views.” An Vitality and Commerce subcommittee is holding one referred to as “From Fuel to Groceries: People Pay the Value of the Biden-Harris Vitality Agenda.” And the Veterans Affairs Committee has a listening to titled “Accountable or Absent?: Analyzing VA Management Beneath the Biden-Harris Administration.”

Whereas the Home committees conducting the impeachment investigation of Biden launched a report in August saying that the president dedicated impeachable offenses, it’s unlikely the total Home will try and vote to question the president given the GOP’s razor-thin majority and skepticism from some rank-and-file members. Johnson solely thanked the committees and inspired People to learn the report in an announcement on the time.

Democrats strike again

Home Democrats have launched their very own investigations into the GOP presidential nominee, Trump, although they lack subpoena energy within the minority.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the highest Democrat on the Oversight Committee, and Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the highest Democrat on the panel’s subcommittee for nationwide safety, the border and international affairs, sent a letter to Trump final week asking him to point out proof he had by no means acquired any cash from Egypt.

The highest Democrats mentioned they have been probing a potential “$10 million money bribe from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi” to Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign, after The Washington Post reported on Aug. 2 a couple of secret Justice Division probe into the alleged bribe; NBC Information has not independently verified that report.

“Certainly you’ll agree that the American folks should know whether or not a former president — and a present candidate for president— took an unlawful marketing campaign contribution from a brutal international dictator,” the Democrats wrote.

The Trump marketing campaign responded by calling the story “faux information.”

Within the Senate, Schumer has put members on discover that they may vote to substantiate nominees and Biden-picked federal judges for the rest of this 12 months — together with within the lame duck session after the election.