Epstein saga hangs over Congress's sprint to summer recess

The Hill

5 days ago

The controversy surrounding the Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files is poised to dominate the conversation on Capitol Hill this week, as Congress sprints to August recess — and prepares to dive into government funding conversations.
The House returns to Washington on Monday for its last week before breaking for the long summer recess, while the Senate is in session for its penultimate week, a final stretch that will be inundated by conversations surrounding Epstein, whether the documents related to him should be released and how the Justice Department has dealt with the current uproar.
The situation has been a difficult one for Congressional Republicans, who are weighing listening to the MAGA base and calling for the release of the documents against President Trump, who has urged his party to drop the matter.
Aside from Epstein, Congress this week will spend some time focusing on government funding, as the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline inches closer. The Senate is expected to consider its first of 12 full-year funding bills, though that effort could be complicated after Republicans passed a bill to claw back $9 billion in federal funding.
Also this week, the Senate is scheduled to vote on a number of Trump nominees as the president urges the upper chamber to cancel its August recess. And House Republicans are slated to select a new chair of the Homeland Security Committee following former Chair Mark Green's (R-Tenn.) departure from Congress.
Lawmakers confront lingering Epstein scandal
The outcry over the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files is likely to continue this week, as Republicans await the grand jury testimony Trump directed for release and some continue to call for the release of all the documents in the case.
Adding to the controversy is a potential — though unlikely — vote in the House on a non-binding resolution, prepared by Republicans, that calls for the release of some materials from the case but gives Attorney General Pam Bondi the ability to exempt some parts.
The House Rules Committee advanced the resolution after hours of deliberations last week, delaying a vote on a package to claw back $9 billion in federal funding.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), however, has not committed to holding a vote on the measure, a posture that will likely spark criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans who want the documents to see the light of day.
'We'll determine what happens with all that,' Johnson said when asked if he will put the Epstein resolution on the floor. 'There's a lot developing. The president made his statements this afternoon, he's asked the attorney general to release the information, I'm certain that she will, and everybody can make their own decisions about that.'
Pressed on if he would commit to staging a vote on the legislation, Johnson again stopped short, telling reporters: 'We will see how all this develops.'
'We're in line with the White House, there's no daylight between us,' he added. 'We want transparency, and I think that will be delivered for the people.'
Johnson suggested that the vote was a way to give Republicans on the Rules Committee cover after they voted against a different measure last week calling for the release of the documents.
In the meantime, reaction is likely to continue rolling in about The Wall Street Journal's reporting that Trump, in 2003, allegedly sent Epstein a 'bawdy' letter for his birthday. Republicans have slammed the report, and Trump sued the outlet and Rupert Murdoch, an owner of the outlet.
And lawmakers are awaiting the grand jury transcripts that Trump directed Bondi to release.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who has called for the release of the Epstein files, said, 'I believe that will pretty much cover everything,' referring to the transcripts, but he noted that he still wants all the files to be released.
Democrats, meanwhile, are downplaying the importance of the transcripts, arguing that they will only pertain to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex offender who is serving time for wrongdoing in connection to Epstein.
Hanging over the entire controversy is a bipartisan effort, led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), to force a vote on a resolution that calls for the disclosure of Epstein files. The pair is vowing to file a discharge petition for the measure, which already has 10 other GOP supporters.
Government shutdown deadline inches closer
This week marks the final one that both the House and Senate are in session at the same time before August recess — and before Congress returns to a government funding sprint in September.
With less than 10 weeks to go until the shutdown deadline — and less than 20 legislative days until the cliff — Congress is behind the eight ball, staring down a mountain of work that has to be done before funding runs out in Washington. The House has only passed two out of 12 full-year appropriations bills, while the Senate has approved none of the dozen.
The upper chamber will try to chip away at their to-do list this week, with an initial procedural vote expected on Tuesday on the bill to fund military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs and related agencies.
Votes on the measures in each chamber, however, are unable to bring Congress closer to averting a government shutdown, since the full-year measures are written at different levels.
Adding to the dilemma is the bill Republicans approved this month to claw back $9 billion in federal funding, targeting foreign aid and public broadcasting. Democrats warned that passage of that package would tarnish the appropriations process, setting the stage for a high-stakes stretch to Sept. 30.
Earlier this month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said clearing the legislation — known as a rescissions bill — 'would be an affront to the bipartisan appropriations process.'
'That's why a number of Senate Republicans know it is absurd for them to expect Democrats to act as business as usual and engage in a bipartisan appropriations process to fund the government, while they concurrently plot to pass a purely partisan rescissions bill to defund those same programs negotiated on a bipartisan basis behind the scenes,' he wrote in a letter to colleagues, later adding: 'This is beyond a bait and switch — it is a bait and poison-to-kill.'
The current dynamics are making the possibility of a continuing resolution in September more-and-more likely.
Senate to vote on nominees as Trump calls for canceling recess
The Senate this week is slated to continue churning through Trump's nominees, as the president puts pressure on the upper chamber to confirm more of his picks — and urges Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to cancel recess for that reason.
The focus on nominations comes after the Senate spent considerable floor time on the 'big, beautiful bill' and legislation to lock in cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which monopolized recent weeks.
The Senate will vote on Joshua M. Divine's nomination to be U.S. district judge for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri, Cristian M. Stevens's nomination to be U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Missouri, Aaron Lukas's nomination to be principal deputy director of national intelligence, Bradley Hansell's nomination to be undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, Arielle Roth's nomination to be assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information, and John Hurley's nomination to be undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes.
The focus on confirming Trump's picks comes after the president over the weekend encouraged Thune to nix the chamber's August recess, which is set to begin at the end of next week and run through the month.
'Hopefully the very talented John Thune, fresh off our many victories over the past two weeks and, indeed, 6 months, will cancel August recess (and long weekends!), in order to get my incredible nominees confirmed. We need them badly!!! DJT' Trump wrote on Truth Social.
It remains unclear if Thune will heed the president's advice and cancel recess. While Republicans want to continue confirming Trump's nominees, they are also eager to head home for the month to sell the 'big, beautiful bill' to constituents, which they see as vital as the midterm elections inch closer.
House GOP to select new Homeland Security Committee chair
House Republicans will vote on a new chairman for the Homeland Security Committee this week, after Green officially resigned from Congress.
Republican Reps. Michael Guest (Miss.), Andrew Garbarino (N.Y.), Carlos Gimenez (Fla.) and Clay Higgins (La.) are all vying for the leadership position.
The Republican Steering Committee — a group of Republican leaders and regional representatives — is scheduled to meet Monday and recommend a candidate for the job, who will likely be rubber-stamped by the conference later in the week.
The four candidates each bring different qualities to the table.
Guest, currently serving as chairman of the House Ethics Committee, is a former prosecutor who has held stints as vice chair and a subcommittee chair on the Homeland Security panel. The Mississippi Republican has also underscored that he was an impeachment manager when the House penalized then-Homland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Garbarino has pointed to his New York roots, arguing that the panel should turn back to its focus on counterterrorism, which was the focal point after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
Gimenez, a former mayor and firefighter, has said that his background dealing with emergency planning in Florida, a state prone to hurricanes, has uniquely prepared him for the role. He has also said there should be 'nuance' in some of Trump's immigration policies.
And Higgins, a former police officer, is the most senior of the candidates running, giving him a leg up in an environment where seniority is taken into consideration. A number of Louisiana Republicans, however, are already in leadership — Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), for example — which could work against him.
Johnson said the candidates have created 'quite a horse race.'