A group of Senate Democrats are urging Israel’s top diplomat to the U.S. to take additional steps to ensure humanitarian aid can reach Palestinians in Gaza amid the ongoing conflict.

“There are concrete and realistic steps Israel can take to accelerate aid delivery and safety for aid workers,” the lawmakers, led by Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), wrote in a letter first obtained by POLITICO.

Their letter specifically requests that Israel improve deconfliction mechanisms, establish humanitarian aid access points in Gaza, offer a plan for repairing critical infrastructure in Gaza and expand deliveries of aid.

Signatories include Welch, Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and Sens. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).

A stopgap government funding bill is on track for release as early as Wednesday, possibly alongside a final deal on new versions of at least some of the dozen annual spending measures.

To head off a partial shutdown just after midnight Saturday morning, lawmakers have been discussing pushing off the approaching deadline to March 8 to buy time to finalize bill text for the four funding bills that are set to expire this week. At the same time, they are also considering a punt to March 22 — the scheduled start of Congress’ Easter recess — for at least some of the other eight measures, according to three people familiar with the negotiations who were granted anonymity to speak candidly.

But the length of certain bills’ extenstions might change, since some of the eight funding bills currently set to expire next week are also close to being finalized.

The measure that funds the Interior Department and the EPA is “ready to go,” according to Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the top Republican in charge of that measure in the Senate.

Murkowski said negotiators are “just literally minutes away from being able to resolve” final disputes over the Interior bill. She added that dealmakers worked through disagreements about close to 130 policy stipulations House Republicans included in their version of that measure, “some of which were really quite problematic.”

The funding bill for the departments of Commerce and Justice, as well as science programs, is also close to being finalized, according to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who chairs the funding panel in charge of that legislation. “We’ve agreed on almost everything in it,” Shaheen said in a brief interview late Tuesday night.

Top lawmakers are making “very good progress” in funding negotiations, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday on the floor. He asked senators to “stay flexible and be ready to act” to head off a partial government shutdown at week’s end.

“We are very close to getting it done,” Schumer said. “I’m hopeful that the four leaders can reach this agreement very soon so we can not only avoid a shutdown on Friday, but get closer to finishing the appropriations process altogether.”

Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said Wednesday that he sees “a path” to passing the first four bills currently set to expire after March 1, which would fund the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Veterans Affairs and Transportation, among others.

Three of those measures have been “pretty carefully vetted” in the Senate, going through an amendment process when the upper chamber passed its own small funding package last fall, he said.

“I think there’s a path to getting that first tranche down,” Thune said. “The second tranche is obviously more complicated and maybe needs more time.”

Jennifer Haberkorn contributed to this report.

GOP Rep. Matt Rosendale will seek reelection to the House, he announced in a statement Wednesday.
Rosendale launched a Senate campaign earlier this month, only to drop it after less than a week following former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of his primary opponent, Tim Sheehy.

But he was undecided on whether or not he would seek reelection to his eastern Montana House seat. Several candidates have filed, believing Rosendale would run for Senate. It’s not clear if they would remain in the primary even if the incumbent ran again.

Among those already in the race: former Rep. Denny Rehberg, state Auditor Troy Downing, state Senate President Pro Tem Ken Bogner and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen.

Rosendale is one of the eight House members who voted to depose Kevin McCarthy from the speakership. McCarthy and his allies have sought to target those incumbents, so Rosendale could experience further turbulence choosing to run again in the House.

Senate GOP leaders, who lined up behind Sheehy, are ecstatic that he will have a clear shot at defeating Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.).

Hunter Biden used his private Wednesday testimony before House investigators to deliver a blistering rebuke of Republicans’ investigation into his father, President Joe Biden.

The president’s son is meeting with members and aides on the House Oversight and Judiciary committees as part of Republicans’ sweeping impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, which has largely focused on the business deals of his family.

In his opening statement, Hunter Biden tried to directly puncture the central premise of the House GOP’s monthslong probe. He said that his focus during what is expected to be an hourslong interview will be driving home “one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business.”

“For more than a year, your Committees have hunted me in your partisan political pursuit of my dad. You have trafficked in innuendo, distortion, and sensationalism — all the while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face. You do not have evidence to support the baseless and MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there isn’t any,” Hunter Biden said in his opening statement, according to a copy obtained by POLITICO.

His appearance behind closed doors results from months of public sparring between his team and House Republicans, who view him as a key witness in their investigation.

Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) first subpoenaed Hunter Biden for a private interview last year. That sparked weeks of barbs between Hunter Biden’s lawyers and House Republicans, culminating in the president’s son skipping his first closed-door deposition in December.

Instead, Hunter Biden spoke briefly to reporters outside of the Capitol and Republicans moved toward holding him in contempt of Congress— a vote that was only scrapped after they reached a deal to schedule his closed-door interview on Wednesday.

Even so, the interview may not provide House Republicans the boost they need as they struggle to get support within their own ranks for their effort to impeach President Joe Biden. Despite pressure from the right flank and the party’s base. Republicans estimate that dozens of their colleagues are so far unconvinced that investigators have shown evidence of a crime — a bar they need to meet in order to support impeachment.

“We have a lot of questions for Hunter Biden specifically revolving around the 100-plus suspicious activity reports he got, specifically around what some of his associates have testified that Joe Bieen communicated frequently with all of these shady characters,” Comer told reporters on Wednesday.

Hunter Biden’s testimony comes the week after Republicans met for hours with James Biden, his uncle and Joe Biden’s brother.

Republican investigators have compiled thousands of pages of bank and financial records and hundreds of hours of interviews with witnesses as they’ve hunted for evidence that would link actions Joe Biden took as president or vice president to his family’s business deals.

While they’ve turned up plenty of instances of Biden’s family members using their last name to try to bolster their own influence, in addition to poking holes in previous statements by Joe Biden and the White House, Republicans have not yet found any proverbial smoking gun.

Devon Archer, one previous associate of Hunter Biden’s, testified that he would put Joe Biden on speaker phone during dinners, or that the now-president stopped by dinners with business associates — but he also underscored that business wasn’t discussed in those moments. Rob Walker, another former Hunter Biden associate, told investigators that Joe Biden wasn’t involved in their business deals.

Even as he recounted how Joe Biden stopped by a lunch with business associates while out of political office in 2017, Walker characterized the appearance as exchanging “pleasantries.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is set to announce on Wednesday that he will not run for another term as leader, ending a record-setting run atop the GOP conference.

The Kentucky Republican has served as party leader since 2007, the longest stint in Senate history.

The leaders of 23 European parliaments are imploring Speaker Mike Johnson to take up and pass additional assistance for Ukraine amid its ongoing war with Russia.

“We believe that thanks to your personal leadership, the Congress will demonstrate historic bipartisan unity in support of the collective effort to assist Ukraine,” they wrote in an open letter. Supporting passage of further aid would “provide Ukraine with the necessary funds to continue its fight,” the leaders added.

The plea comes as Ukraine has repeatedly indicated it’s running low on ammunition amid the ongoing war with Russia. Senate lawmakers have passed a bill providing tens of billions in support for the country, but Johnson has not committed to bringing it up for a vote.

Johnson’s office said in response that “while Speaker Johnson believes we must confront Putin, and is exploring steps to effectively do so, as he said at the White House, his immediate priority is funding America’s government and avoiding a government shut down.”

Significant blocs of Republicans in both chambers are opposed to further aid to Ukraine.

Congressional leaders are talking about kicking the government shutdown deadlines further into March, as part of a broader deal to finalize funding bills as a partial funding lapse looms at week’s end.

A spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday night that leaders would only resort to a stopgap funding patch as part of a larger agreement to finish some of the 12 spending bills. Already negotiators are out of time to finalize bill text for the four measures set to expire just after midnight on Saturday morning, if Johnson is going to remain committed to giving House lawmakers three full days to read bill text before a passage vote.

“Any” continuing resolution “would be part of a larger agreement to finish a number of appropriations bills, ensuring adequate time for drafting text and for members to review prior to casting votes,” a spokesperson for the speaker said in a statement.

Top lawmakers have for days been kicking around the idea of punting to March 22 on any funding bills that aren’t close to being finalized over the next week, while potentially resorting to a shorter punt for the measures they can finish in short order.

“We’re working as hard as we can to get them done. Democrats are willing to do a CR to give us the time,” Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) told reporters Tuesday night.

Negotiators are nearing a final compromise on the four bills set to expire at the end of this week, when funding would lapse for the departments of Transportation, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and Energy, as well as Housing and Urban Development. Several of the other eight funding bills are close to being finalized too, while measures like the Homeland Security funding bill are still plagued by typical partisan disagreements, according to appropriators.

Many Republican senators are openly saying a negotiated settlement will be necessary to end Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia, as Speaker Mike Johnson resists a vote to send additional aid to the key U.S. ally.

“The reality at this point that we have to confront is that that war ends with a negotiated settlement,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “And the question is — when they finally figured that out — when we finally get to that point, who has more leverage — [Russian President Vladimir] Putin or Ukraine?”

It’s a position that was unpopular just months ago, as many lawmakers declined to discuss the possibility that Ukraine might have to give up something, including territory, to end the war. But Rubio isn’t alone now. Other lawmakers, like Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), suggested a negotiated settlement is the most likely outcome regardless of whether the U.S. sends more aid to Ukraine, which he’s opposed.

“Washington always seems to be a few months behind the reality on the ground,” Vance told POLITICO. “[I think there’s a] stalemate probably indefinitely and hopefully that leads to some sort of settlement where Ukraine gets to keep its country and the killing stops.”

The comments, now more than two years after Russia originally invaded Ukraine, reflect a view in many quarters of the GOP that Ukraine’s odds of winning the war outright are low. And, in the meantime, there’s growing Republican resistance to sending the allied country unconditional aid.

“It looks like it could go on for a long, long time,” said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.). “That looks like a line that would take an immense amount of money and time to move off of where it is.”

Republican House leaders have so far refused to call a vote on additional aid to Ukraine amid reports its troops are running low on ammunition against Russia. Some in the Senate GOP are urging that chamber to move expeditiously to send in reinforcements.

“If the House is going to come up with their own compromise, then do it. But don’t just stall this whole thing out,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “Do something.”