Senate Democrats are preparing to return to D.C. on Monday and hope to finalize negotiations on linking border security with Ukraine funding next week, according to senators and people briefed on a party meeting.

The Senate was scheduled to start recess as soon as Thursday, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer indicated to Democrats at a caucus meeting that border negotiations are progressing enough to warrant keeping the chamber in session. Ukraine and U.S. officials have urgently pushed to pass additional aid to the country by the end of the year, which Republicans say they won’t approve without significant changes to border policy.

“The expectation after this caucus meeting is we’re going to come back next week and try to finish this thing … and hopefully have something to vote on,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). Negotiators are expected to continue talking this week and over the weekend.

Rep. Richard Hudson, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, is projecting confidence ahead of the 2024 elections that Republicans will gain House seats.

“The environment is really strong for Republicans right now and we’ve got great candidates,” Hudson (R-N.C.) told reporters as the House left for the holidays. “We’re gonna grow the majority.”

He added: “Biden’s polling low everywhere.”

In the 2022 cycle, confident projections of a “red wave” of GOP gains ultimately didn’t come to pass, though Republicans did narrowly regain control of the House. The chamber is currently led by Republicans with a narrow 221-213 advantage. (Former Rep. George Santos’ seat is vacant after his expulsion.)

Hudson went on to say he’s “disappointed” by a decision this week from New York’s highest court on redistricting that could net Democrats several additional seats in the Empire State.

“We’ll see how it plays out,” he said.

Congress will soon have the sole power to hire and fire the architect of the Capitol, clawing back longtime presidential authority over a sweeping role that oversees everything from historical tours to buildings, grounds and some security.

The conferenced version of the annual defense policy bill includes text of an amendment from Senate Rules and Administration Chair Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) that would change how the architect of the Capitol is hired and fired, making it a Congress-only process and cutting out presidential involvement.

“This bill is a win. Passing the AOC Appointment Act will bring greater accountability to our oversight of legislative branch entities,” House Administration Chair Bryan Steil told POLITICO in a statement. “This bill gives Congress the sole responsibility in selecting new leadership and, when necessary, the authority to hold bad actors accountable.”

“Given the far-reaching scope of the role, it’s essential for Congress to have the authority to appoint and remove the architect through a bipartisan, majority vote,” Klobuchar added.

The timing is crucial, as the search is already underway for a new architect of the Capitol. Brett Blanton was ousted in February after infuriating lawmakers with testimony about avoiding Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, and a damning inspector general’s report that alleged misuse of his authority.

A bicameral, bipartisan commission of 14 lawmakers, which is already assembling candidates to present to the president, would simply choose the new architect by bipartisan majority vote. The same group could remove the architect.

Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who rose to prominence testifying about the horrors of the Jan. 6 insurrection, is set to resign from the department, he confirmed to POLITICO.

Dunn testified in the Jan. 6 select committee’s first public hearing in July 2021 along with three other officers from the Capitol Police and D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department.

Dunn shared the racial epithets hurled at him by rioters as the officers recounted the violence they saw on Jan. 6. He and the other three officers — Michael Fanone of the MPD, Daniel Hodges of the MPD and Aquilino Gonell of USCP — went on to attend all of the Jan. 6 select panel’s public hearings.

Since then, Dunn has been outspoken about the lasting trauma he and other officers faced after Jan. 6 and his desire for accountability for those responsible for the Capitol insurrection. He also unsuccessfully ran to be the head of the Capitol Police’s union in Nov. 2021. He released a book this fall about his experiences and has expressed some interest in running for the congressional seat soon to be vacated by retiring Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.)

Roll Call earlier reported Dunn’s planned departure.

Rep. Drew Ferguson announced Thursday he would not seek reelection to his safely Republican House seat in Georgia.

In a statement, Ferguson said he and his wife “look forward to spending more time with our children and grandchildren while continuing to work to keep Georgia the best state in America to live and do business” without providing other specifics on his departure. He said Georgia is “calling us home.”

Ferguson served as chief deputy whip for Republicans from 2019 through 2023, and had been mulling a run for a GOP leadership role as recently as October. His attempt to rise to the position of majority whip raised the hackles of then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year after Republicans regained control of the chamber.

His district outside of Atlanta is solidly Republican and will likely remain in GOP hands.

Members of Congress from Maryland and D.C. were caught off guard by the decision to move the Washington Capitals and Wizards to northern Virginia — and they’re concerned about the impact on a downtown Washington still reeling from the impacts of Covid.

Virginia leaders led by GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the move, which took many in the area by surprise, during a Wednesday press conference in the Potomac Yard neighborhood where the new arena complex for the professional hockey and basketball teams will be located.

“They weren’t going to stay in Washington,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) in a brief interview. “So I guess we will have to see whether this new move will enhance them as they try to draw fans.”

Norton added she was concerned about the impact of the decision on the Gallery Place neighborhood, where both teams currently play.

It’s the latest in a series of local battles over regional institutions, with Maryland prevailing over Virginia last month in a bitter battle to secure the new headquarters of the FBI.

Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), whose district is poised to land the stadiums, said he’d “been hearing the rumors for weeks” of the relocation “so we knew it was coming if they could make a deal.”

“It’s gonna be a mixed blessing. On the one hand it’s a beautiful place to put it. … And it’ll be a great economic boon for both Arlington and Alexandria,” he said in an interview with POLITICO. “The downside, of course, is we don’t know how much it will change some of the precious neighborhoods — I say precious in the positive sense — Del Ray is special.”

Beyer, who acknowledged he’d not spoken with Mayor Muriel Bowser about the situation, said his impression was “keeping the [Washington] Commanders was a more important priority” for her, referring to the local football team currently playing in Maryland.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told POLITICO he was unaware of the negotiations and surprised by the announcement, saying he’d yet to speak with Mayor Muriel Bowser or Ted Leonsis, the owner of both teams.

“I worry about its impacts on the city,” Van Hollen said of the move.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) declined to comment.

The House voted Wednesday to condemn antisemitism on college campuses and urge two elite university presidents to resign.

The nonbinding measure earned the two-thirds majority it needed for adoption, with the House voting 303-126 to approve.

Three Democrats voted “present” on the resolution: Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.) Julia Brownley (Calif.) and Jimmy Gomez (Calif.). Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was the lone Republican voting against the measure.

Democrats were divided over the resolution, as they have been on multiple messaging measures about the Israel-Hamas war.

House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) led the effort, along with two Jewish Democrats, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Jared Moskowitz of Florida.

The move follows testimony last week from the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania, during which each dodged questions about whether or not students calling for the genocide of Jews violated the schools codes of conduct or warranted punishment.

The resolution encourages Harvard President Claudine Gay and MIT President Sally Kornbluth to resign. Penn President Elizabeth Magill resigned last week over her testimony. Harvard’s highest governing body said Tuesday that Gay would remain in her role.

“There is a reason why the testimony at the Education and Workforce Committee garnered 1 billion views worldwide,” Stefanik, a Harvard alum and the fourth-ranking GOP leader, said at a news conference. “And it’s because those university presidents made history by putting the most morally bankrupt testimony into the Congressional Record, and the world saw it.”

The resolution adopted Wednesday states that since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, “Jewish and Israeli students have faced physical violence, hate-filled disruptions in the classroom, calls from students and faculty advocating for the elimination and destruction of Israel, and other forms of persistent harassment.”

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, also a Jewish Democrat, spoke against the resolution, calling the language about the two college presidents “a dramatic and unprecedented departure” from congressional history and “an academic scarlet letter and a professional death sentence.” He said previous resolutions adopted since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel condemning antisemitism and groups supporting Hamas on college campuses accomplished the primary goal.

House Republicans on Wednesday formally greenlit an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, their biggest step to date toward trying to remove the president from office.

Every Republican supported the 221-212 vote, which legally will further empower House GOP subpoenas. It comes at a critical juncture: The conference is preparing to make a decision as soon as January about whether or not to draft articles of impeachment.

It’s a win for Speaker Mike Johnson, who managed to unify his conference after battleground-district Republicans spent months resisting a formal inquiry — leading his predecessor to backtrack and start the investigation unilaterally.

“This is an important step. The impeachment power resides solely with the House of Representatives. If a majority of the House now says we’re in an official impeachment inquiry … that carries weight. That’s going to help us get these witnesses in,” Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said ahead of the vote.

Republicans are months into their impeachment probe, which has largely focused on the business deals of Joe Biden’s family members. While they’ve found evidence of Hunter Biden using his last name to bolster his own influence and poked holes in some previous statements by the White House and the president, they have yet to find direct evidence that the president’s official decisions were meant to benefit family businesses.

Even as Republicans inch toward making Biden the fourth president to ever be impeached, they are trying to draw a bright line between their vote on Wednesday and any eventual vote on impeachment articles.

Instead, GOP leaders have rallied their ranks behind the formal inquiry. That’s in part because of a letter the White House recently sent to congressional Republicans, citing a Trump-era Justice Department opinion to state that their requests are invalid without a formalization vote.

At the time, the Trump DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel was pushing back on then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) decision to launch an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump without initially voting on it. Republicans blasted Pelosi’s strategy at the time.

“I was reluctant to do the inquiry because he was providing information. Now, if he’s going to stop providing the information, I think we have no choice but to do it.,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.).

Republicans got unexpectedly complete unity on Wednesday as Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), a conservative who is retiring at the end of next year, supported a move that he had publicly criticized.

Buck has been one of the most vocal critics of his conference’s investigation, calling it “impeachment theater” and reiterating this week that he still does not believe his colleagues have found a direct link from Joe Biden to Hunter Biden’s business deals. Still, he voted yes.

He said after the vote that he still doesn’t see a link between Hunter Biden’s business activities and Joe Biden, but that he spoke with other members who stressed the vote was about investigating, not impeaching.

“I’m irritated that the White House sent that letter back. … I’m irritated that Hunter Biden comes to the Capitol and then doesn’t go in,” Buck said.

The vote to formalize the inquiry comes just hours after Hunter Biden skipped a closed-door deposition for which Republicans had subpoenaed him to appear. Instead, he spoke briefly with reporters outside of the Capitol, but did not take any questions — reiterating his offer to testify in public and slamming Republicans.

“Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” Joe Biden said in a statement after the vote. “Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts.”

Now that Republicans have formalized their inquiry, investigators say they will try to compel Hunter Biden a second time to appear behind closed doors. They’re also vowing to hold him in contempt of Congress if he continues to resist the subpoena, as they prepare to get pulled into a court battle over their investigation.

Republicans are planning to sue to enforce their subpoenas against two DOJ tax officials, and they could also end up in court over their push to talk to a former White House counsel. In addition, the party is still waiting for documents it sought from the National Archives, which turned over new records just this week.

The White House has defended its compliance, noting in a recent memo that — between the administration, banks and private individuals — Republicans have received tens of thousands of financial documents and conducted dozens of hours of interviews.

Democrats are criticizing Republicans for moving forward to formalize their inquiry when some of their own members have acknowledged they haven’t yet met the bar for impeachment.

“A mountain of evidence and deluge of independent reporting, including from numerous conservative outlets, have discredited every single allegation leveled by Republicans against President Biden in their painstaking and fruitless inquiry,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), his party’s top member on the Oversight Committee.

Olivia Beavers contributed.

Sen. Michael Bennet has placed a hold on the National Defense Authorization Act, hoping to keep the Senate in town to finish entrenched border negotiations that would unlock Ukraine aid. And he’s looking into delaying more legislation if necessary, according to a person close to him.

The Colorado Democrat is concerned that Congress might soon leave without finishing its work to increase border security, discussions that are now tied directly to Ukraine aid. Without agreement from all 100 senators, the annual defense policy bill’s next vote would happen around midnight. Bennet is also considering holding up a Federal Aviation Administration extension, which needs to pass before the end of the year. He will not delay confirmation of nominees, the person said.

There’s new life in those border talks, as the White House and Senate leaders get more firmly engaged and bipartisan negotiators say they are continuing to move forward. But the House is preparing to leave town on Thursday until the new year, with little indication they’ll stick around to pass a supplemental spending bill that includes more cash for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the border.

Many Republicans say once the House leaves it will become impossible to pass a new foreign aid law this year. Still, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said “we should stay here until we reach an agreement or agree that we can’t.”

“My hope is that we stay,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the top Democratic border negotiator. “We made progress yesterday and we continue to try to make progress today.”

Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.