76 days after eight Senate Democrats voted to end the longest government shutdown in American history, more than half are primed this week to sink a six-bill minibus that would lead to another partial funding lapse.

And they won’t be alone: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced his caucus would withhold its votes on the appropriations package if it includes a measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

I’m sure you know the pretext by now: Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol on Saturday fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen.

DHS claims Pretti approached agents with a 9-millimeter handgun, and agents fired defensive shots after attempts to disarm him. The agency also alleged violent resistance from Pretti.

But multiple bystander videos show Pretti holding a phone—not a gun—as he appeared to try to help someone who an agent pushed before Pretti is sprayed with mace, wrestled to the ground and shot. (Pretti had a carry permit and no serious criminal history beyond traffic infractions.)

Before the shooting, the expectation was that the minibus would sail through the Senate by the Thursday-night deadline, with Democratic defections limited to the progressive flank of the caucus.

But because the House combined the final four fiscal 2026 bills it passed last Thursday, plus two from the previous week, into one package, Democrats are now faced with an excruciating choice: Fund an agency it believes is acting with impunity or oppose a measure filled with labor, healthcare, education, military, transportation and housing priorities they helped negotiate.

“Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill,” Schumer, who will also oppose the package, said in a statement. “But because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE.”

Theoretically, the Senate could decouple the DHS bill from the package, as Schumer called for in a follow-up statement this afternoon. But that would require unanimous consent, which Republicans are unlikely to grant. Even in the improbable event they did, the House would have to pass the revised package, another doubtful outcome since the House is on recess this week and GOP leadership is disinclined to bring members back to pass a package they already approved. By the time the chamber is scheduled to vote again, the government would be more than 66 hours into a partial shutdown.

So we’re kind of back where we were at the end of September: Democrats weaponizing a must-pass bill to extract policy concessions on an issue Hill Republicans and the Trump administration are uninterested in compromising on. And as with health care then, and an unchecked ICE now, Democrats feel like public opinion is on their side. And that’s enough for them to pick this fight.

DHS holds line; GOP signals oversight

The administration’s response is what you’ve come to expect from Trump 2.0. DHS described the incident as self-defense during an enforcement operation and continues to defend the agents’ actions while characterizing Pretti as a threat.

Local authorities have contested DHS’s narrative and accused the agency of blocking access to the scene. A judge issued a restraining order prohibiting the feds from altering and destroying evidence.

But congressional Republicans have taken a more restrained approach.

House Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) said in a statement that he expects a full investigation and that his panel will closely monitor it. He also invited ICE, CBP and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials to testify before the committee in the coming weeks. Garbarino provided dates between February and mid-March for the testimony.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) called the shooting “disturbing” and said the credibility of ICE and DHS is at stake, while also supporting a full joint federal and state investigation.

“We can trust the American people with the truth,” Cassidy added. (FWIW: President Donald Trump endorsed a challenger in Cassidy’s reelection campaign last weekend. You have to wonder if and how that will play into future votes and decisions.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) also called for a “thorough and impartial investigation” and said that any administration official who rushed to judgment or attempted to shut down a probe would be doing a disservice to the nation and Trump’s legacy. Tillis is retiring at the end of his term next January, so he’s another Republican whose maverick streak could force reforms to DHS.

As for Trump, he hosted a screening of the film MELANIA at the White House the evening of the shooting. Earlier today, he posted a lengthy missive to his social media platform about White House ballroom under construction. Meanwhile, former President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama described the Pretti killing as a national “wake-up call,” and said federal agents must act lawfully and with accountability and in partnership with state and local officials.

And while Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will enjoy a reprieve from the Hill press corps this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) will be bombarded with questions on the shooting from the moment he arrives at the Capitol this week.

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A shutdown side plot: Arctic Frost and the week ahead

In other shutdown news, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law will meet Tuesday morning for a hearing on accountability for the telecommunications carriers involved in Arctic Frost—the Justice Department’s internal name for the criminal investigation opened in April 2022 into President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including the fake electors scheme and pressure on state and federal officials.

The Senate tucked a provision into the continuing resolution that ended the government shutdown last November that dramatically expanded lawmakers’ ability to sue the Justice Department, allowing a group

of senators to seek monetary damages of $500,000 or more if they claim the DOJ improperly interfered with or delayed compliance related to congressional oversight or litigation.

And last Thursday, the House got its payback: It unanimously approved a procedural amendment offered by House Rules Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) in a 427–0 vote that rolled back the Arctic Frost provision, underscoring the broad, cross-party desire of the lower chamber to undo the liability language. The fix mirrored a bipartisan bill the House cleared without objection last November. And since the amendment included language that automatically applied the changes to the minibus, it eliminates the need for a separate vote and becomes law if and when it passes.

Below are the rest of the week’s committee hearings I’ll have my eye on:

• Tuesday*:

  • The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. to examine the front lines of connectivity, focusing on FirstNet’s role in public safety.

  • The Senate Intelligence Committee will hold a hearing at 3 p.m. on the nomination of Lieutenant General Joshua Rudd to be director of the National Security Agency.

  • The Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Disaster Management, District of Columbia and Census will hold a hearing at 3 p.m. to examine fraud in federal and state programs.

  • The Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing at 3 p.m. to consider the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act, which would establish a federal regulatory framework for digital asset intermediaries under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

• Wednesday:

  • The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on improving the federal environmental review and permitting process.

  • The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on educational choice in America.

  • The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on U.S. policy towards Venezuela.

  • The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing at 10:15 a.m. on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and executive accountability.

  • The Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigations will hold a hearing at 2 p.m. on one year after the Palisades fire.

  • The Senate Small Business Committee will hold a hearing on integrity in small business programs.

  • The Senate Indian Affairs Committee will hold a hearing at 2:30 p.m. on justice and safety for native children.

  • The Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Technology, and Data Privacy will hold a hearing at 2:30 p.m. on the live entertainment industry.

  • The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee will hold a hearing at 3:30 p.m. on efforts to restructure the Veterans Health Administration.

• Thursday:

  • The Senate Aging Committee will hold a hearing at 9:30 a.m. on truth in drug labeling.

* The Senate postponed its Monday vote until Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. due to the winter storm (more below). It is possible that many of these hearings may be rescheduled or canceled.

👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Sunday, coming to you a day late due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. I hope yours was filled with rest and reflection.

The House is scheduled this week to take up two bills backed by the anti-abortion movement that would promote alternatives to abortion care through the social safety net and higher education policy.

The first would explicitly empower states to use TANF funding to support crisis pregnancy centers, nonprofit organizations that present themselves as reproductive health clinics but exist primarily to persuade women from seeking abortion care. The second measure would require colleges and universities that receive federal student aid to share information on rights, accommodations and resources for pregnant students and those who may become pregnant, a mandate critics of the bill view as indirect anti-abortion policy because it focuses on carrying a pregnancy to term.

Anti-abortion politics is much more unifying for the Republican Party than the labor issues that led a handful of House GOPers to sink an anti-worker bill and leadership to pull two more from the schedule. Still, while Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) holds just a two-seat margin on paper, it’s practically nonexistent due to a recent unexpected death and health emergencies for Republican members and their loved ones.

There’s no telling if Speaker Johnson will be able to bring these messaging bills to the floor, let alone muster the votes to pass them. Johnson’s tricky floor math has also given small blocs of holdout members effective veto power over leadership priorities and allowed them to extract concessions on unrelated policies they otherwise wouldn’t have received. This is a dynamic worth watching.

House Republicans will also move to undo federal land protections in northern Minnesota under the Congressional Review Act—a mid-1990s law that allows Congress to overturn recent agency rules with a simple majority vote in both chambers and presidential sign-off. (Once a rule is overturned, the agency generally can’t reissue a substantially similar rule without new statutory authority.)

The Biden administration pulled certain federal lands off the table for mining and development projects, a rule Republicans oppose because it locked up land without buy-in from local stakeholders and stunted job growth and economic development. Critics of the resolution argue that land protections prevent pollution, safeguard water systems and preserve tribal lands.

The House may also consider a resolution sponsored by Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) to prevent President Trump from conducting military operations in Venezuela that Congress hasn’t authorized under the War Powers Resolution. A similar resolution advanced in the Senate earlier this month, only to be blocked last week by the Trump administration and GOP leadership, which convinced two Republicans to block it from receiving a floor debate, amendment process, and final vote.

Congress faces FY26 funding crunch as DHS bill remains in flux

The next government funding deadline is in 11 days and Congress still has its work cut out for it. The House is out next week, leaving senators with only the balance of this week to process the four remaining fiscal year 2026 funding bills.

House Republican leaders hoped to clear the deck with a final package of three measures for health, education, housing, transportation and defense agencies and programs—already a heavy lift on their own. But appropriators dropped the Department of Homeland Security funding bill from what was supposed to be a separate three-piece last week. Bipartisan consensus in support of the bill fell apart amid Democratic demands for reforms to the agency after Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minnesota earlier this month.

House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Ranking Member Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) told me last week that her panel has been drafting a list of what constitutes meaningful reforms, including like preventing ICE agents from wearing masks, requiring a warrant for an arrest, banning DHS from using private detention facilities and mandating the government to share information with state and local law enforcement officials around independent investigations for accountability.

“So there are a number of things that we have identified that are really all critically important because the abuses are so widespread and occur in so many different places,” Jayapal told me. “We have to address all of them. And I think it is important for us to understand that one small fix to some meaningless provision does not constitute serious accountability.”

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, which Jayapal previously chaired for two terms, announced last week that it adopted an official position opposing new funding for DHS immigration enforcement until significant reforms are enacted.

Party leaders and appropriators would prefer to avoid a long-term continuing resolution for DHS or any of the other bills for which House Republicans can’t muster the votes. But they’re each navigating delicate politics on a volatile issue that could be compromised with positions viewed as too extreme by base and independent voters.

Across the Capitol, the Senate is out this week. In addition to the final four funding bills the House sends to the Senate this week, it must also take up two measures on national security and financial regulation that the House advanced last week. Before skipping town, it passed a trio of bills to fund core justice, infrastructure, energy and environmental priorities that now await President Trump’s signature.

One more note: Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) have spent weeks hailing this year’s appropriations process as a success—pointing to the fact that Congress avoided a year-end, Christmastime omnibus and defining their tenures as the top two Hill Republicans as a return to regular order. But the fiscal year ended 111 days ago and we’re weeks from President Trump releasing his FY 2027 budget request, the official kickoff to the annual appropriations season. Against this backdrop, the praise feels a bit premature.

Senate Dems to move against Trump’s tariff threats tied to Greenland gambit

Senate Democrats are expected to introduce legislation this week to block President Trump from carrying out his threat to impose a 10% tariff on all goods from eight NATO-aligned European countries on Feb. 1, until Greenland is sold to the U.S.

The tariff would jump to 25% on Jun. 1 if the purchase of the world’s largest island, situated within Denmark between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans near North America.

Trump announced his threat in a Truth Social post on Saturday, claiming that the U.S. has subsidized Denmark and the European Union for decades by not imposing tariffs and that America is the only country that can protect Greenland.

The president views Greenland as a massive, strategically located asset that’s rich in resources and military value. But Danish leaders have repeatedly and publicly said Greenland is not for sale. Not to mention, acquiring it isn’t a priority for most Americans.

70% of Americans in a new CBS News poll disapprove of buying Greenland with U.S. funds and the data shows overwhelming opposition to using military force to take the island. Most Americans disapprove of President Trump’s tariff policy (62% according to a new CNN poll and 51%, per fresh polling from The Wall Street Journal). And 59% of Americans, according to a recent CNN poll, said Trump has gone too far in expanding U.S. power abroad. In comparison, 64% say the president hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important domestic problems.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide soon whether President Trump can use an emergency-powers law to impose sweeping tariffs on imports without clear congressional approval.

Johnson takes the global stage for major U.K. address

Speaker Johnson will deliver a speech to the U.K. Parliament on Tuesday morning (4:30 a.m. Eastern Time for the insomniacs and political obsessives out there), at the invitation of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to mark America’s 250th anniversary. The moment gives Johnson a rare, statesmanlike platform abroad where he’s expected to link the U.S. to its democratic roots and burnish his standing as a national figure—even as his grip on the House back home remains fragile and deeply constrained.

Paris Hilton to join AOC in lobbying for DEFIANCE Act House vote

Paris Hilton will be back on the Hill this Thursday afternoon to join Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) and advocates and other members to ask Speaker Johnson to put the DEFIANCE Act on the House floor for a vote.

The Senate unanimously passed the legislation last week, which members of both parties say would help confront the spread of nonconsensual, sexually explicit AI-generated deepfake videos. Women and girls are the overwhelming targets of this type of abuse.

Ocasio-Cortez told me last Tuesday that she planned to speak to Johnson and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) about the path forward. She was spotted chatting with Johnson on the House floor the next day during a vote series.

The bill, which was led in the Senate by Dick Durbin of Illinois, the number-two Democrat and highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), would give victims the right to bring civil lawsuits against people who knowingly create, distribute, or traffic in explicit digital forgeries made without consent.

Hilton is no stranger to child-safety advocacy. She has spent years pushing for stronger protections for young people in residential treatment programs, beginning with her 2021 testimony before Utah lawmakers about being emotionally and physically abused during an 11-month stay at an involuntary treatment center when she was 17. That fall, she joined Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) to call for a children’s bill of rights, later testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on child-welfare reforms, and in 2023 backed bipartisan legislation signed into law by former President Joe Biden to expand oversight and data transparency for institutional youth treatment facilities.

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Oversight, health care and housing dominate a volatile week of House hearings

The House Oversight Committee will vote on Wednesday morning whether to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Contempt of Congress for their refusal to comply with subpoenas as part of the committee’s broader effort to cast the Epstein scandal as a cover-up involving Democratic elites and to pressure the Justice Department to release or explain withheld files. The Clintons argued that the subpoenas were politically motivated, overly broad, and duplicative of existing records—and that neither had been accused of wrongdoing or shown to have relevant firsthand knowledge warranting compelled testimony.

The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing the next day with health insurance CEOs, at a moment when Congress is weighing whether to shore up, rein in, or fundamentally rethink insurers’ role in the U.S. health care system. In the middle of fights over ACA subsidies, coverage costs, and corporate consolidation, hauling CEOs before the committee could force insurers to publicly defend pricing, profits, and patient outcomes as lawmakers decide what kind of health system they want to preserve or change. The House Budget Committee will also hold a hearing this week on skyrocketing health care costs within the context of America’s fiscal future. And the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health will meet for a hearing on health insurance affordability.

Housing policy will remain a hot topic this week, as the House Financial Services Committee will hear testimony from Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner on his agency and the Federal Housing Administration. The House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs will also hold a hearing on housing affordability and the preservation of the American Dream.

Below are the rest of the week’s committee hearings I’ll have my eye on:

• Tuesday:

  • House Rules will meet to prepare the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act, Pregnant Students’ Rights Act and Bureau of Land Management CRA for floor debate and a vote (3 p.m.).

• Wednesday:

  • House Homeland Security will hold an oversight hearing of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, TSA and Science and Technology Directorate (10 a.m.).

  • The House Small Business Subcommittee on Rural Development, Energy, and Supply Chains will hold a hearing on empowering rural America through investment and innovation (10 a.m.).

  • The House Small Business Subcommittee on Rural Development, Energy, and Supply Chains will hold a hearing on addressing fraud and the theft of taxpayer dollars (10 a.m.).

  • The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare will hold a hearing on strengthening the child support enforcement program (3 p.m.).

• Thursday:

  • House Judiciary will hold an oversight hearing on the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith (10 a.m.).

  • House Administration will hold an oversight hearing of the Government Publishing Office in the digital-first era (2 p.m.).

  • The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa will hold a hearing on advancing peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda through President Trump’s Washington Accords (2 p.m.).

  • House Small Business will hold a hearing on how franchising is a pathway to entrepreneurship (2 p.m.).

Nikema Williams was surprised to learn last week that President Donald Trump had announced his administration was taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes—a move he said would curb Wall Street’s role in the housing market so more ordinary buyers could have a fair shot at owning a home.

After all, it was just three years ago when the Georgia Democrat introduced a bill to require hedge funds to sell at least 10% of the total number of single-family homes they currently own to families per year over a decade. The legislation, which Williams, who serves on the House Financial Services housing subcommittee, co-led with Reps. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.), would completely ban all hedge funds from owning any single-family homes after a 10-year full phase-out.

“It would be great if he would say, ‘Congresswoman Williams has a bill for this. Let’s elevate it and get it passed’,” she told me on Friday morning. “But what happens is we have solutions for many of the problems that we’re hearing our constituents face in the housing supply.”

Those solutions collect dust in committee, often without a vote or discussion, which Williams argued allows Trump to take credit for ideas lawmakers have been proposing on Capitol Hill for years.

“All of a sudden, it’s like someone reinvented the wheel and found this problem,” she added. “But instead of doing an executive order, how about we make these policies into law and pass the legislation that has already been sitting there waiting to address the needs of the American people?”

Trump’s announcement came during a flurry of news that signals Washington is finally treating the affordable housing crisis with the urgency Americans have been pleading for in recent years.

On the same day of Trump’s proposal, Senate Democrats last Wednesday released a report making the case that Americans can’t afford to rent or buy a home in Trump’s economy.

It featured some frightful findings, including that the median age of first-time homebuyers is 40, a record high. Foreclosures ballooned 21% last year, and mortgage delinquencies are at a four-year high. More than 22 million families are paying more than 30% of their income on rent. Five-plus million households are behind on rent. Filed evictions eclipsed one million last year.

The report was released hours before Senate Banking Committee Democrats and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) held a roundtable with groups working on housing affordability and accountability—the first event in the Democrats’ broader initiative to lower costs and address the economic pressures working families face.

“Housing is the single biggest cost for American families and the single biggest lost opportunity when people don’t have a chance to buy a home and build more economic security,” Warren told me when I asked why Senate Democrats kicked off their affordability campaign with housing.

Days later, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte walked back Trump’s unpopular idea of 50-year mortgages, which would result in even higher total interest paid and slower equity build-up than the common 30-year fixed term.

“I think we have other priorities,” Pulte told reporters at the White House on Friday when asked if the idea was still under consideration within the administration.

Instead, Trump is reviewing a list of 30 to 50 housing affordability solutions compiled by himself and other top administration officials, an ironic outcome given that the president has dismissed the cost-of-living concerns Democrats have prioritized over the last year as a “hoax.”

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) introduced a bill last week that would require the president to declare a national housing emergency and invoke the Defense Production Act to spur domestic production of building materials and accelerate the construction or rehabilitation of four million new homes.

Warren, Schumer, and most Senate Democrats back the ROAD to Housing Act, the first bipartisan, comprehensive housing package to advance out of the Banking Committee in over a decade, before it was stripped from the annual defense policy bill late last year. So I was curious why she felt her approach was superior.

“Think about all the things that the president has declared an emergency on. I mean, he’s declared an emergency vis-à-vis Canada, and we haven’t declared a housing emergency, which is much, much more relevant to the average Michigander,” she told me. “So I’m interested in these other pieces, including what Trump did, which is really what [former Vice President Kamala] Harris did, but that’s too small. They’re thinking too small.”

Unsurprisingly, 2026 has opened with housing front and center in Washington, given how central the issue will be to voters ahead of the November midterm elections. Polling and political reporting have shown that affordability concerns—including rents and home pricing—helped fuel Democratic wins in some state and local elections in 2025. That dynamic hasn’t faded, and both parties are fine-tuning their messages to persuade voters they have the better plan for affordability.

Other Democrats underscored how deeply housing policy is tied to racial wealth gaps. In Boston, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), another member of the HFSC’s housing panel, noted that the median net worth of a Black family is just $8, compared with $247,500 for a white family—a disparity she said is inseparable from who has access to stable, affordable housing and who does not.

Pressley argued that Trump’s moves to cut funding for programs like Continuum of Care and Section 8 would only widen that divide, even as Democrats are pushing to expand paths to homeownership and protect families from eviction. She also drew a contrast on oversight, pointing out that when Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) last chaired the Financial Services Committee, Democrats held 25 housing-focused hearings during the 117th Congress, compared with just seven held by Republicans so far—evidence, she said, that housing has been deprioritized despite being top of mind for many constituents.

“Housing isn’t just a roof over your head—it is stability, security, dignity, and a human right. It’s the first, second, and third issue I hear from people in my district,” Pressley told me in a statement. “I am hopeful as we continue working together with Republicans to pass a much-needed housing package, but we also need to continue doing more to protect consumers and fund critical housing programs.”

Democrats will likely continue to emphasize supply solutions, tenant protections, and direct financial support, which resonate especially with younger, urban, and working-class voters who see housing costs as a barrier to economic stability and family formation. For Republicans, messaging has leaned on homeowner-friendly moves (like blocking corporate investors) and economic framing (blaming inflation or past policies) to connect with suburban and middle-income homeowners who are also squeezed. But it remains to be seen whether either party sees any political upside to compromising enough of their policy prescriptions to cut a deal before folks head to the polls.

After successfully forcing floor votes in recent months to compel the release of the Epstein files, restore federal workers’ collective bargaining rights and extend the expired Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.J.) told me that housing would be among the legislative priorities House Democrats would focus on next.

“We’re just getting started. And at the beginning of the Congress, we all said, listen, we’ll work with our Republican colleagues in good faith if they’re interested in solving problems for everyday Americans and addressing the high cost of living,” he told me. And we’ll continue to operate from the principle that life has gotten far too expensive in this country. Donald Trump has made it worse. Republican policies are a complete and total disaster, and this Congress should start acting to make life better for the American people, as opposed to focusing on subsidizing the lifestyles of the rich and shameless, which has been the GOP’s objective from Day One.”

Looking Ahead

House GOP leadership could call up another package of fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills as lawmakers race to fully fund the government ahead of the Jan. 30 deadline.

The expectation heading into the weekend was that leaders would combine the bills for national security and financial regulation with the Homeland Security measure to create the third of four trios. But ace budget reporters Aris Folley and Aidan Quigley at Roll Call scooped earlier today that lawmakers are no longer planning to include the DHS bill in the package. This was a foreseeable outcome after Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent last week in Minnesota, which has inflamed partisan tensions over immigration enforcement and made funding for Homeland Security a much harder sell in negotiations right now.

Members are back on Monday evening to consider several bills under suspension of the rules. The House will also take up several bills to tilt federal labor and workplace rules in favor of employers, including measures to narrow when training time counts as paid work, keep child-care benefits out of overtime calculations, loosen how tipped wages are defined, limit the ability of retirement plans to consider non-financial factors and sharply restrict when companies can be held jointly responsible for workers’ pay and conditions.

Supporters of the legislation argue it reduces red tape, lowers costs, and provides businesses with the flexibility to offer benefits without legal risk. Expect labor-aligned Democrats to blast the bills as part of a pattern of chipping away at wage protections, overtime pay, collective bargaining leverage and worker power at a moment when affordability and job quality are already under strain.

The House Rules Committee will meet at 4 p.m. on Monday to prepare the bills for floor consideration.

The Senate is also back tomorrow afternoon, with a vote to cut off a filibuster on taking up the three-bill minibus that the House passed last week to fund core justice, infrastructure, energy and environmental priorities.

Senators are also expected to resume consideration of a war powers resolution led by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to restrict President Trump from conducting further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval.

The resolution was discharged from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week in a 52–47 vote after four Republicans joined Paul and all Senate Democrats to advance it to the floor. The next vote will likely be on a motion to proceed, which will be decided by a simple majority. Then a debate and possibly an amendment process before final passage.

Senate GOP leaders planned to dedicate this week’s floor time to passing the second minibus, with the Senate scheduled to be on recess next week for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, followed by just one more legislative week in January to pass the remaining half-dozen bills. There were even warnings that the war powers resolution could disrupt the appropriations process to the point that it increases the likelihood of another continuing resolution since the WPR will require a week of floor time without a unanimous consent agreement.

Schumer told me last week that he was “absolutely” confident the Senate could stay on schedule.

“We will work with Sen. Kaine so we can do both,” he said of the resolution and minibus.

Below are the committee meetings and hearings I’ll be watching:

— Tuesday, January 13:

• The Senate Armed Services Committee will receive a closed briefing on the military operation President Trump ordered last weekend to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife (9:30 a.m.).

• The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence will hold a hearing on financial technology innovations and regulations (10 a.m.).

• The House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education will hold a hearing on how employers, educators and parents are solving America’s child-care crunch (10:15 a.m.)

• The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade will hold a hearing on maintaining American innovation and technology leadership (2 p.m.).

• The House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations will hold a hearing to examine innovative tools to direct and prevent fraud in federal programs (2 p.m.)

— Wednesday, January 14:

• The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on winning the AI arms race against China (9:30 a.m.).

• The House Science Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions will hold a hearing to evaluate the operations of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) (10 a.m.).

• The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on medication abortion (10 a.m.).

• The House Education and the Workforce Committee will hold a hearing on building an AI-ready America (10:15 a.m.).

• The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will hold a hearing on the Federal Communications Commission (10:15 a.m.).

• The House Select Subcommittee to Investigate the Remaining Questions Surrounding January 6, 2021, will hold a hearing to examine the investigation into the DNC and RNC pipe bombs (2 p.m.).

— Thursday, January 15:

• The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the impact of technology on America’s youth (10 a.m.).

And mark your calendars because the 2026 primary season is on the horizon:

• 52 days until the Arkansas, North Carolina and Texas primaries

• 59 days until the Mississippi primary

• 66 days until the Illinois primary

What you may have missed last week

Why Democrats distrust Trump’s Venezuela briefers: A look inside classified briefings that left Democrats skeptical of the administration’s credibility — and why Venezuela is emerging as an early test of congressional oversight in Trump’s second term.

→ Read the full report

How Congress marked five years since Jan. 6: From a somber House Democratic hearing to raw, emotional recollections from members who lived through the attack, lawmakers reflected on Jan. 6 amid renewed tension over Trump’s pardons and history itself.

→ Read the full story

Democrats brush off Trump’s impeachment warning: House Democratic leaders make clear they’re focused on oversight, not impeachment theatrics—and explain why bread-and-butter issues matter more to swing-district voters heading into 2026.

→ Read more

GOP cries fraud as ACA subsidies head to the Senate: Republicans leaned into fraud claims as Democrats forced a vote to extend ACA subsidies, setting up a high-stakes Senate showdown over health care costs, accountability, and election-year politics.

→ Catch up here

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Most lawmakers traveled home for the holidays last month with the expectation that they would return to a full legislative agenda to kick off the new year.

The immediate orders of business are to finish a long-overdue funding deal to keep the government open, pressing the Justice Department over its missed deadline to release unclassified Epstein-related records, and grappling with the fallout after 22 million Americans lost health coverage when enhanced ACA subsidies expired without congressional action.

All of this is more than enough to consume the 12 legislative days the chambers are expected to be in session this month. But now there’s the aftermath of Operation Absolute Resolve—the roughly two-and-a-half-hour military mission President DONALD TRUMP ordered on Saturday morning in Venezuela to capture the South American country’s President NICOLÁS MADURO and his wife on several charges related to transnational criminal violence.

House Democrats held an emergency virtual caucus meeting this afternoon to discuss the latest developments. A source on the call told me leadership’s message was to be clear-eyed about the current reality.

“This is a war,” the source said. “There are boots on the ground. Oil companies are on the scene. He’s deciding who he likes to be his puppet.” (According to public reporting and official statements so far, the U.S. is not currently occupying Venezuela with ground forces, and U.S. officials have said the U.S. will not be governing the country. Trump has suggested troops could be used and a strong U.S. military posture remains in the region, but the Venezuelan interim government and local forces are still in control on the ground.)

The Trump administration carried out the operation without advance notice to Congress, a move that has drawn scrutiny from U.S. officials, international law experts, the United Nations, and foreign governments over whether the strike was legal.

Secretary of State MARCO RUBIO said the administration called members of Congress immediately after the operation but said it was a “trigger-based mission” that met dynamic conditions. Meanwhile, Trump seemed to suggest without evidence that members would have leaked the attack had they been notified.

Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER (D-N.Y.) rejected the administration’s defense as an excuse to conduct the operation in secrecy.

“I believe they use that as a total excuse to keep Congress—all of Congress—in the dark. And on something as serious as this, that is just outrageous,” Schumer told me this weekend. “One of the reasons we have hearings, we have consultation with Congress is so that there would be debate, discussion, different points of view before something so momentous happens and they’re just ripping up that part of the Constitution.”

Sen. TIM KAINE (D-Va.) will force a vote in the Senate this week on resolution to stipulate that the U.S. Schumer, who with Sen. RAND PAUL (R-Ky.) is a co-sponsor on the bill, told reporters he would work to ensure it received sufficient floor time for debate and discussion.

The top Senate Democrat said he spoke with the ranking Democrats on the relevant committees to begin reviewing how their panels can act to hold the administration accountable. But this effort will be as Republicans allow, since they control the gavels.

Schumer and House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-N.Y.) also demanded an immediate Gang of Eight briefing from the administration, followed by all-member briefings in both chambers early this week. I’m told the leaders haven’t received a response.

In a separate statement, Jeffries said his unanswered questions included whether strikes were about seizing foreign oil to benefit Trump allies and why Trump pardoned the former Honduran president convicted of narcotrafficking, but risks war in Venezuela over similar allegations against Maduro.

In the months leading up to the attack, the administration sent mixed signals by repeatedly assuring wary lawmakers that it was not pursuing regime change or military action, then carrying out a large-scale strike, capturing Maduro, and Trump openly talking about the U.S. “running” Venezuela, which critics of the operation argue undermines its credibility and raises questions about intent and transparency that should be answered in a secure briefing.

“I believe there are inconsistencies and want to learn where fissures are,” a House Democrat told me. “The administration is not disciplined enough.”

Among the questions the lawmaker is seeking answers to are how much Venezuelan oil has been seized and to what extent are oil companies involved in the economic outcomes of any seizures, whether China or Russia were involved in the attack and what impact it has on the war in Ukraine.

Despite the urgency the situation in Venezuela demands, Democratic sources told me they won’t lose momentum on making the case that the president has failed to address the affordability and health care crises facing millions of Americans, including those who voted for Trump because he promised to address the high cost of living.

“We are in another flood-the-zone moment,” the House Democrat told me. “But the thread is that [Trump] is not making the lives of the American people better with any of this.”

Looking Ahead

SENATE FLOOR ACTION: The Senate will meet at 3 PM on Monday and vote at 5:30 PM to confirm KEITH BASS to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense.

It’s unclear if Thune will attempt to move forward this week on a “minibus” package of five funding bills to cover everything from the military and law enforcement to health care, education, housing, infrastructure and public lands.

Flashback: Thune hoped to clinch a deal to set up floor action on the mini before the holiday break, which had been stalled for weeks. Senate rules require unanimous consent to combine individual funding bills into a single measure. GOP leaders had finally cleared all of the holds from conservatives who oppose steering federal dollars to specific projects back home.

As Democratic leaders checked for objections and amendment requests from their members, it became clear that Sens. MICHAEL BENNET (D-Colo.) and JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D-Colo.) would block the package from advancing in response to reports that the Trump administration planned to dismantle a research and development center headquartered in Boulder. (This isn’t the only issue Colorado lawmakers have with Trump, as you’ll read below.)

FWIW, the top appropriators in each chamber—Sen. SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine) and Rep. TOM COLE (R-Okla.)—reached an agreement over the break on the overall spending limit for the remaining nine funding bills, but have not agreed on the allocations for each measure. Collins and Cole are aggressively lobbying Republican leaders to move the funding bills before the end of the month to avoid another government shutdown or full-year continuing resolution that would lock in outdated policy priorities and sideline Congress’s power of the purse.

HOUSE FLOOR ACTION: The House will return on Tuesday evening with a vote scheduled at 6:30 p.m. to start the second session of the 119th Congress.

Refrigerator Week déjà vu? Republican leaders will focus on a measure to rewrite the statutory definition of showerheads to relax federal water-efficiency regulations, and another to repeal a Biden-era regulation that empowered the Energy Department to enforce federal energy-efficiency standards on manufactured housing. Democrats will likely compare these bills to the so-called Refrigerator Week agenda from April 2024, when the House GOP planned to vote on a series of bills related to home appliance energy efficiency standards, which it said limited consumer choice and increased upfront costs.

That’s not all: The House may also consider the Jeffries discharge petition on a three-year extension of ACA tax credits, action on two bills President Trump vetoed last week that Congress had passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. One would have funded the completion of a long-planned water pipeline to bring clean drinking water to rural Colorado towns, while the other would have expanded the Miccosukee Tribe's land control in the Florida Everglades.

The political undercurrent: Some Republicans like Rep. LAUREN BOEBERT and the state’s congressional delegation said they think Trump’s veto of the Colorado water bill was politically motivated because Boebert had backed forcing the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files Trump didn’t want out, and because Trump has publicly blasted Colorado’s governor for not freeing convicted election denier TINA PETERS from state prison. Boebert is the sponsor of the water bill and was one of four GOP votes that forced the release of the files.

The House could also move on its own 2026 funding bills this week, but we’ll see. One more approps flag; Cole told reporters before Christmas that a five-bill minibus is too big to pass the House since Freedom Caucus types will feel jammed into voting for what they think is an omnibus (one big bill rolling several funding measures into one). His preference is to move three sets of trios each week the House is in this month. It’s unclear which bills would go first, but the Pentagon bill and the measure that funds most major domestic priorities (Labor-HHS) would likely go last.

The Rules Committee will meet Tuesday evening to prepare the showerhead and home-manufacturing bills for floor consideration. Below are a few other committee hearings I’ll be watching this week:

Wednesday: House Oversight will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on fraud and misuse of federal funds in Minnesota.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on competition and consumer choice in digital streaming. Related: I wrote in September about how the streaming era has made sports fandom so damn expensive. Read it if you missed it.

The House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions will hold a hearing at 10:15 a.m. on modernizing retirement policy for today’s workforce.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts will hold a hearing at 2:30 p.m. on holding rogue judges accountable.

Thursday: The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing at 10:15 a.m. on legislative proposals to support patient access to Medicare services.

MTG RETIREMENT WATCH: Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE’s unexpected retirement will become official on Monday at 11:59 PM, capping a messy exit fueled by her public break with President Trump over his failure to address the affordability crisis, fulfill his “America First” agenda and treat to support a primary challenger over her decisive vote on the Epstein files.

The Georgia Republican also expressed anger at Speaker Johnson for keeping the House sidelined during the government shutdown a few months ago. (You may recall Johnson survived a Greene-led motion to vacate his speakership in May due in part to Democratic opposition to her effort.) The New York Times published a profile of Greene last week on her break with Trump and MAGA. And I wrote in my weekly COURIER column in October about how Democrats felt about her criticism of GOP leadership and her surprising call for Republicans to extend the ACA premium subsidies.

The clerk read Greene’s retirement letter during a non-voting session on Friday morning. Once it’s official, the total number of the House will be 432 (219 Republicans and 213 Democrats), with two Democratic vacancies plus Greene’s.

Georgia Gov. BRIAN KEMP is required by state law to call a special election within 10 days of Greene’s vacancy to take place at least 30 days after it is called. All candidates will run on one ballot, with a runoff between the top two if none receive more than 50% of the vote. The Cook Political Report rates her northwest Georgia seat 19 points more Republican than the nation as a whole based on how it voted in the previous two elections.

ICYMI

Before I went on holiday hiatus, I wrote a series of deeply reported pieces that will help you contextualize the days, weeks and months ahead as Congress grapples with the ramifications of failing to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits, whether Republicans will pursue another party-line megabill and Democrats seek to win back Congress and provide a check on President Trump’s final two years in office. Here’s a roundup:

• Hakeem Jeffries notched the most significant tactical win in his three years as the top House Democrat when he successfully secured a bipartisan majority of signatures on a procedural measure to force a vote on legislation that would extend the expiring Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits for three years. Here’s how he did it.

• EVAN TURNAGE has only ever voted for one man to represent his hometown of Jackson, Miss., in Congress—and that’s Homeland Security Ranking Member BENNIE THOMPSON. But now Chuck Schumer’s former top lawyer is campaigning to unseat Thompson and deliver the economic prosperity and democracy reform he says the district deserves. Read my profile of Turnage on how he plans to beat a 32-year incumbent.

• During the House Democrats’ final caucus meeting of the year, they were presented with polling data that showed a 13% swing among independent voters against Trump, driven by the perception that the president is only helping himself and the billionaire class. Here’s what that means now that we’re in an election year.

• I broke the news that the Congressional Black Caucus is tracking how 2028 presidential hopefuls engage with its priorities, including support for CBC incumbents, responsiveness during high-stakes moments, and a willingness to show up beyond safe or symbolic gestures, all of which are expected to factor into the caucus’s political calculus as the next presidential cycle unfolds. Go inside the CBC’s thinking on 2026, 2028 and beyond.

• By now, you know Rep. JASMINE CROCKETT is running for Senate in Texas. But do you know why she called her viral launch video a “work of art,” the parallels she sees between her campaign and Obama’s 2008 presidential bid and how she feels about her pastor running to succeed her in the House? If not, then be sure to read what she told me about it.

If you want a daily dose of valuable scoops, sharp analysis and smart context you can’t get anywhere else, join thousands of political professionals and obsessives who trust Congress Nerd to provide the legislative intelligence they need to create the change they want to see.

Your subscription unlocks direct delivery of the evening edition of this newsletter straight to your inbox each Monday–Thursday with the inside track on the political storylines, policy particulars, and power moves shaping the legislative process—before the next day unfolds.

It costs less than 30 cents per day—and not only will you be among the smartest people in the group chat, but you’ll also ensure this scrappy, independent newsroom of one continues to punch above its weight.