Democratic Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger won’t seek reelection to the Maryland House seat he’s held since 2003, he announced Friday.

“This was an incredibly difficult decision for me because, now more than ever, Congress needs thoughtful, end-game representatives like me — members who care more about constituents and our country and less about cable news hits,” Ruppersberger (D-Md.) said in a statement. “But it is time to pass the torch to a younger generation of leaders and I am looking forward to spending more time with my family.”

He’s hardly alone in a Maryland delegation seeing significant turnover in the 2024 cycle. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) won’t seek reelection, while Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) seeks a promotion to the Senate and Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) also heads for the exits.

His seat, which includes parts Carroll and Baltimore counties and a small portion of Baltimore City, is heavily favored to remain in Democratic hands and Ruppersberger has won reelection comfortably in recent cycles.

House Democrats are ramping up their criticism of a GOP-led effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ahead of next week’s committee vote.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the top Democrat on the Homeland Security panel, sent a letter to Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.), accusing him of breaking House precedent and denying Mayorkas due process as the chair moved toward marking up articles of impeachment.

The letter, obtained exclusively by POLITICO, underscores how Democrats are likely to respond during next week’s committee vote and as Republicans move toward a floor vote as soon as the week of Feb. 5, on what would be a historic recommendation to oust a Cabinet secretary.

Read the full letter.

“This unserious impeachment is a testament to partisan politics over rules and reason,” Thompson wrote.

“Given the grave importance of impeachment — which you once described as ‘probably the most extreme remedy that our constitution affords for taking someone out of office’ — this Committee should do better. At the very least, it should follow the rules and practices established over more than two centuries of congressional history,” he added.

Thompson, in his letter, laid out several points of contention, including the House not formally authorizing an impeachment inquiry into Mayorkas. Instead, the House voted last year to send an impeachment resolution from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to Green’s committee, which had been doing a months-long investigation into Mayorkas and his handling of the border.

Thompson also accused Republicans, among other things, of violating ethics rules, denying Mayokras the chance to testify and denying Democrats’ hearing request.

Republicans and DHS have gone back-and-forth over Mayorkas’ testimony. Green has accused the secretary of refusing to testify as part of the impeachment investigation and also asked him to submit written testimony as a backup. A DHS spokesperson said earlier this month that Mayorkas had offered to testify publicly, but “the Committee failed to respond to DHS to find a mutually agreeable date.”

The committee is expected to vote to impeach Mayorkas along party lines next week after every Republican on the panel released a joint statement backing the step. Republicans will then need to work over a handful of skeptical members within their own ranks, given their razor-thin, two-vote majority on the floor.

“After our nearly year-long investigation and subsequent impeachment proceedings, and having exhausted all other options to hold him accountable, it is unmistakably clear to all of us — and to the American people — that Congress must exercise its constitutional duty and impeach Secretary Mayorkas,” Republicans on the panel said in a joint statement.

Speaker Mike Johnson is delivering his most clear warning yet to senators negotiating a border deal, saying in a letter Friday that it could be “dead on arrival” in the House.

“I wanted to provide a brief update regarding the supplemental and the border, since the Senate appears unable to reach any agreement. If the rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway,” Johnson wrote in the letter to his colleagues, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO.

Johnson didn’t explicitly rule out taking up a Senate bill, as the bipartisan group of negotiators hope to unveil text next week. But following Senate drama this week that shook confidence in negotiations, he repeated a point he’s made frequently in recent weeks: if House Republicans don’t feel like it goes far enough to crack down on the border, it won’t go anywhere in the chamber.

“I am emphasizing again today that House Republicans will vigorously oppose any new policy proposal from the White House or Senate that would further incentivize illegal aliens to break our laws,” Johnson wrote.

Senators left town this week without a long-awaited agreement, which is expected to link new border funding to aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. But Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.), who are negotiating the deal along with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), said they expect to release the text of the bill early next week.

Johnson and other conservative Republicans have frequently warned that they don’t like the rumors they’re hearing about what’s included in the deal, the details of which have been kept secret. Lankford has said that certain points are being misrepresented.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spent the week combatting skepticism within his own ranks over the deal, with former President Donald Trump and some of his allies on Capitol Hill working to scuttle an agreement. Some Republicans have privately theorized it’s better to wait, so they can use the border as a cudgel against President Joe Biden heading into November.

The dynamics of passing a border-foreign aid deal are guaranteed to get tricky in the House, regardless of what the deal includes. A growing number of House Republicans are skeptical of new Ukraine cash, even if it comes with increased border security, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has threatened to try to oust Johnson if he brings it to the floor.

House Republicans have long demanded that if they are going to pass any Ukraine funding it has to be paired with stricter border measures. They passed a sweeping border bill last year that would, among other changes, overhaul the asylum system and restart the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall. They’ve insisted that any new border deal needs to closely resemble that bill, a nonstarter for Senate Democrats.

The Biden administration has made its next move in an extended back-and-forth with House Republicans over Jan. 6 select committee transcripts, offering to share unredacted testimony the GOP has been seeking for months — under certain conditions.

Richard Sauber, a member of the White House Counsel’s Office, said the administration would permit Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) — who has been leading a review of the Capitol attack and the previous committee’s work in investigating it — the chance to examine, but not keep, the unredacted transcripts.

“We will make the unredacted transcripts available to you for review in camera, provided that you agree in writing to abide by the commitments made on a bipartisan basis by the Select Committee — to maintain the anonymity of the four witnesses consistent with the conditions under which the witnesses agreed to appear before the Select Committee, and to prevent the disclosure of ‘operational details and private information,’” Sauber wrote in a two-page letter to Loudermilk, which was obtained by POLITICO.

The Georgia Republican has pushed for the administration to hand over the records for months, which he has characterized as interviews with White House employees that were in or around the Oval Office during the attack. The Jan. 6 select committee publicly released the vast majority of its evidence, but withheld a handful of transcripts of White House aides and Secret Service officials. Those were sent to the White House and Department of Homeland Security for further review and redaction under the terms of an agreement struck in order to interview witnesses in the first place.

The committee has access to the redacted White House transcripts, but Republicans have complained that key portions were blacked out, and have openly speculated that the transcripts include information that would undermine some of the Jan. 6 committee’s findings. House Republicans have repeatedly flirted with efforts to discredit the panel’s previous work and downplay the Capitol attack.

If Loudermilk accepts the offer, it will give House Republicans access to a tranche of unredacted testimony that has so far been unavailable to them and to the public. Sauber described the witnesses as individuals who “worked at the White House on January 6, 2021, during the Trump Administration, serving in non-partisan roles, including in positions with national security responsibilities.”

A spokesperson for Loudermilk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the White House’s letter. In a brief interview last week, he said his “speculation” about those interviews is they “didn’t go the way [Democrats] were hoping.”

The interviews were referenced in the select committee’s final report, using descriptors like “a White House employee with national security responsibilities” or simply a “White House employee.” One witness corroborated others who described Trump’s “heated” reaction to then-Vice President Mike Pence during their final conversation on Jan. 6. Another said they overheard top Trump lawyers lamenting that the then-president didn’t want to help stop the violence unfolding at the Capitol.

Loudermilk sent a letter to the White House last week reiterating his request that the administration hand over unredacted copies of the transcripts to the committee. If the White House didn’t hand over the records, Loudermilk warned that the committee would “have no other choice” than to subpoena the documents. In the recent interview, Loudermilk also threatened to subpoena previous Jan. 6 committee witnesses.

The batch is not expected to include some of the prominent interviews the select committee conducted with high-level Secret Service officials, which are currently held by the Department of Homeland Security. Those include transcripts of interviews with the head of Trump’s Secret Service detail, Robert Engel, and the driver of Trump’s presidential SUV on Jan. 6.

Republicans have also requested former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson — a star select committee witness who delivered a string of bombshell revelations — turn over any records she previously shared with the Jan. 6 committee.

Loudermilk has become the House’s point-man on efforts to review the work of the Jan. 6 select committee, which interviewed hundreds of witnesses connected to Trump’s attempt to retain power despite losing the 2020 election.

The Georgia Republican has at times described his role as a gatekeeper, rejecting fringe conspiracies espoused by a handful of members of the GOP conference. But he has also helped trigger some of those same misleading claims, alleging without proof that the Jan. 6 committee “deleted” evidence in a bid to stymie Republicans.

That was immediately amplified by Trump and other high-profile Republicans, sparking a rebuke from Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chaired the previous select committee and said the House Administration Committee already has all of its archived records.

“I cannot assist your attempts to keep the January 6th conspiracy theories alive with your subcommittee’s misrepresentations and continued fishing expeditions, all in the service of your and Donald Trump’s political interests,” Thompson said in a letter to Loudermilk about his investigation.

Conservative Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has a message for Hollywood: Honor “the victims of America’s nuclear testing” programs as it prepares to hail the critically acclaimed “Oppenheimer.”

The film, which is up for 13 award nominations at the March 10 Oscars, tells a “compelling story” of these nuclear testing programs, Hawley writes in a letter to the governors of the Academy Awards, but “does not tell the story of the Americans left behind — still reckoning with the health and financial consequences of America’s nuclear research, after all these years.”

“These victims deserve justice through fair compensation from their government — and you can help by telling their stories,” Hawley added.

The letter is Hawley’s latest attempt to gain national attention for victims of radiation exposure — including those harmed by a nuclear waste site near St. Louis — as he fights for federal compensation. He threatened last year to hold up passage of the must-pass national defense policy bill without a reauthorization of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which is due to expire in June 2024.

Speaker Mike Johnson has endorsed GOP state Rep. Derek Merrin in his bid to oust longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur from her northwest Ohio seat, taking sides in a contentious Republican primary.

“Derek is a proven conservative and demonstrated leader with a backbone who will prioritize economic growth, safer communities, and America First policies,” Johnson said in a statement.

Merrin was a last-minute recruiting win for Republicans left reeling after their initially preferred candidate, Craig Riedel, was caught on tape bashing former President Donald Trump. The other Republican in the race, 2022 nominee J.R. Majewski, lost badly to Kaptur after being accused of misrepresenting his military service record.

Senate Democrats are officially over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership.

While no senators outright called for him to resign, many pointed out significant problems with Netanyahu’s tenure Thursday, saying he’s mishandled the war against Hamas after the October terrorist attack. Their pointed comments, which include both lawmakers typically critical of Israeli governance and others normally more reserved, show how much Democratic faith in the long-time Israeli leader has eroded, even as President Joe Biden and the White House continue to tread carefully

“I’m looking forward to the time when he is no longer the leader,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), the No. 3 Senate Democrat, said in an interview. “I don’t think his leadership is what’s needed right now.”

“Why do you think I ever had confidence in Prime Minister Netanyahu?” asked Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who unsuccessfully pushed for a human rights report on the Israel-Hamas war. “I think he has cobbled together the right-wing, extremist government to stay in power. And I think what he is doing in Gaza is inhumane.”

Senate Armed Forces Chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.) argued that Netanyahu’s tenure allowed Hamas to accumulate weapons and that his push for judicial reforms — and looming personal corruption issues — have impeded his ability to govern.

“He has so many personal issues involved, it complicates his leadership of the nation,” Reed said in a brief interview.

Other senators made clear that they wouldn’t wade into Israel’s domestic politics, even as they questioned Netanyahu’s handling of the ongoing conflict. The prime minister stirred up further ire last week after he publicly rejected a two-state solution, the longstanding U.S. policy in the region.

“Israel gets to pick its own prime minister,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). But “he’s made Israel dramatically less safe by ignoring the Palestine question and deflecting attention from it by doing everything he could, and bragging about delaying — and killing — the idea of a two-state solution.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said the focus shouldn’t be on Netanyahu but on the war effort itself.

“There’s a war. The war has an objective. We support that objective,” he said. “There are consequences of the war that we want to be engaged in: humanitarian needs and hostages, etc. … So that’s what we’re focusing on.”

On Wednesday, all but two members of the Senate Democratic conference backed an amendment from Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) reiterating support for a two-state solution, a rebuke to Netanyahu’s recent comments.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who’s proposed an amendment to condition aid to Israel, argued the prime minister is putting his own political interests ahead of pursuing a durable peace.

“It’s clear that Prime Minister Netanyahu is placing his own personal political ambitions over the interests of Israel and the United States and other partners,” Van Hollen said in an interview. He added that the Israeli prime minister has “repeatedly rebuffed requests from the president of the United States” on measures such as reducing the number of civilian casualties, increased humanitarian assistance in Gaza and securing the release of hostages held by Hamas.

Added Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.): “He is eroding his credibility at an astonishing rate and increasingly seeming to appear as an obstacle to progress in the Middle East.”

Joe Gould contributed to this report. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said during a private party meeting on Thursday that he still supports pursuing a border security deal linked to Ukraine funding, according to two GOP senators who attended.

McConnell caused a stir on Wednesday by outlining to fellow Republicans the challenges posed by former President Donald Trump’s dominance in the presidential primary, given Trump’s desire to avoid any dealmaking on the border before the election. The Senate GOP leader’s remarks a day later dispelled any doubts about his commitment to ongoing bipartisan border talks.