FBI Director Kash Patel will testify before Senate Judiciary on Sept. 16.

The committee noticed an annual hearing on oversight of the FBI Tuesday, and a spokesperson confirmed Patel would appear for questioning from lawmakers.

The hearing comes as leaders of the FBI and the Department of Justice face renewed scrutiny over their handling of the case against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In July, DOJ and FBI announced they would not release further information on the matter, prompting a sweeping campaign uniting Republicans and Democrats to compel greater transparency in the case.

Patel is also slated to appear for questioning before the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 17.

House Republicans are planning a vote to repeal two laws that authorized military force in the Middle East, amid broader concerns by Democrats and some in the GOP that President Donald Trump is using U.S. troops in inappropriate ways.

The House Rules Committee voted Tuesday to allow debate on an amendment to annual defense policy legislation rescinding the congressional authorizations that in 1991 green-lit military operations against Iraq in the Gulf War and the 2003 invasion that deposed the regime of Saddam Hussein. Critics of the laws argue they rob Congress of its war-declaring authority and allow abuses by the president.

Democrats, especially, point to Trump’s use of the Iraq War authorization to justify a 2020 drone strike that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.

Votes to repeal the authorizations for long-ended wars would prove a small but decisive win for advocates of more congressional control. The move comes as Trump expands the military’s role at home and abroad, including bombing Iranian nuclear facilities, striking an alleged “drug-carrying” boat near the Caribbean and deploying National Guard troops to Washington.

The measure, sponsored by Republicans Chip Roy of Texas and top House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrat Gregory Meeks of New York, has backing from both parties.

“Our bipartisan coalition represents the American people who are tired of forever wars and dropping bombs on other countries without public debate, strategy, or congressional authorization,” Jacobs posted on X about the effort. “We’re on the right side of history and we won’t stop until we repeal these outdated” laws.

Lawmakers plan to begin debating the annual National Defense Authorization Act on Tuesday. The Rules Committee granted nearly 300 amendments, including the proposal.

The House is expected to adopt the measure, which has won bipartisan support in previous sessions. It could also win approval in the Senate, which passed the measure in 2023. But the provision would likely face tougher odds with the upper chamber as it has seen less bipartisan agreement on war powers.

The provision may also complicate negotiations on a final defense bill, which has become law each year for more than six decades. The House could choose to drop the measure in negotiations with the Senate, if the upper chamber pushes back hard on the proposal.

Previous Democratic House majorities voted to repeal both war laws several times, including as part of broader defense bills. But no such measure has cleared the House and Senate to become law.

Congressional Republicans say they don’t believe that the materials from the estate of the late Jeffrey Epstein demonstrate close ties between the convicted sex offender and Donald Trump — caught between the president’s furor and a base clamoring for answers around the Justice Department’s handling of the case.

The White House has continued to deny that Trump wrote a note in the so-called birthday book celebrating Epstein’s 50th birthday, which was subpoenaed by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a released in full Monday. The image in the book, bearing what appears to be Trump’s signature, resembles the outline of a woman’s body and includes the text, “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.”

Speaker Mike Johnson, when asked if he believed the letter was indeed written by Trump, replied, “I don’t. They say it’s not.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune similarly dodged the question: “There’s a dispute about whether that’s really his signature,” he said. “So it’s just going to be argued back-and-forth.”

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the committee had not brought in handwriting experts to verify Trump’s signature on the letter, nor was that an important issue for his committee.

“The focus, again, is on trying to provide justice to the victims,” he told reporters.

Trump has, for years, been dogged by questions about his connections to the disgraced financier. He has insisted the two men ended their friendship long before Epstein’s subsequent arrest in 2019 on additional sex trafficking charges, and continues to call the campaign for answers in the Epstein case a “hoax.”

The White House also has been lobbying against a separate, bipartisan measure that would force a floor vote to compel the Justice Department to release materials in the Epstein case within 30 days.

At the same time, GOP leadership has championed the House Oversight probe into the Justice Department’s handling of the case, which has already resulted in some document production but not much that hasn’t already been previously disclosed.

Meredith Lee Hill and Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

The White House sent Congress a list Tuesday of special exceptions it wants lawmakers to include in any funding stopgap to keep agencies open past the upcoming Sept. 30 government shutdown deadline.

The move to send the “anomalies” was confirmed by two congressional officials granted anonymity to describe the private transmittal as well as by Rachel Cauley, an aide to White House budget director Russ Vought.

Now three weeks out from the deadline, GOP leaders and top appropriators on Capitol Hill have been waiting on the request, which was not immediately made public. That guidance from President Donald Trump is crucial to writing any short-term spending bill that continues current funding levels, since it informs lawmakers about what funding and authority the White House wants Congress to alter.

House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said in a brief interview early Tuesday morning that lawmakers were still “waiting” to see the list, which could determine how contentious funding negotiations get in the coming weeks. Trump administration requests for more immigration funding or federal law enforcement resources, for instance, could spark a partisan confrontation with Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune urged Monday that any funding patch should be kept relatively “clean” and slim on special exceptions in order to maximize the odds of a bipartisan spending compromise in the coming months.

Speaker Mike Johnson, addressing House Republicans behind closed doors just three weeks before the government is set to shut down, said he and other GOP leaders are waiting on direction from the White House for next steps on government funding.

In particular, appropriators are waiting on “anomaly” requests from President Donald Trump’s budget aides, Johnson said, according to three people in the room who were granted anonymity to describe the private remarks.

That’s a reference to departures from prior-year funding levels that would need to be embedded in a stopgap measure to address current spending needs.

Johnson was conspicuously silent on one contentious aspect of an expected short-term punt: how long it would last.

Democrats and GOP appropriators are eyeing November or December, buying time for further negotiations on fiscal 2026 funding and other matters, while conservative hard-liners and some in the White House want an extension into next year — in part, to avoid what they believe could be an unsavory bipartisan deal with Democrats.

Johnson said he prefers to enter a conference negotiation with the Senate over full-year bills — three of which have already passed in each chamber. But he said he is ready to move a continuing resolution instead to avoid a shutdown, the people said.

House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) also spoke, telling colleagues there had been “good discussions” with Democrats and Senate counterparts on a compromise “minibus” package of three fiscal 2026 bills. That package could be attached to a CR keeping other departments and agencies open past the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline.

Senate Republicans are ready to “go nuclear” this week after failing to reach a deal with Democrats to clear a backlog of some 150 of President Donald Trump’s nominees.

Majority Leader John Thune filed a resolution Monday to simultaneously confirm 48 bipartisan executive branch nominees, paving the way for a Thursday vote. Republicans expect it to fail since it will be subject to 60 votes, at which point they will move to overrule the chair and invoke cloture on Thune’s resolution at a majority threshold instead.

If that’s successful, Republicans will be able to start confirming most of the president’s executive branch nominees in groups. They plan to confirm this first batch of nominees next Wednesday and clear the entire nomination backlog before a mid-October recess.

The first group includes low- and mid-level nominees — including the nominations of Kimberly Guilfoyle (Donald Trump Jr.’s ex-girlfriend) and Callista Gingrich (former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s wife) as ambassadors to Greece and Switzerland, respectively. Cabinet nominees and federal judges would not be eligible for group confirmations under the new precedent, Republicans say.

In a floor speech Tuesday, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso will argue the updated process will apply to positions “that in the past never required independent Senate floor action.”

“America needs these men and women working — not stuck in a procedural traffic jam,” Barrasso will say, according to excerpts shared exclusively with Inside Congress.

Democrats are effectively powerless to prevent the rule changes if nearly all GOP senators stick together — and their objections have been relatively muted as they deal with the upcoming shutdown and other political distractions.

It’s a change from the pitched battles around past fights over confirmation rules for judges and executive branch nominees that left a bitter cloud over the chamber.

About the strongest warning came from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who told Republicans Monday, “If you go nuclear, it’s going to be a decision you will come to regret.”

Schumer’s comments serve as a reminder that turnabout will be fair play under a Democratic president with a Democratic Senate majority. But that’s a reality Republicans seem willing to accept.

“You always think about when the shoe is on the other foot, and that is ultimately going to happen at some point,” Barrasso told reporters last week. “But we’re trying to get back to the way this has been previously.”

What else we’re watching:   

— Developments in shutdown talks: Top appropriators huddled this week in the first bipartisan, bicameral meeting in pursuit of a government funding deal ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline.

— House to consider NDAA: The House will vote to begin consideration of the annual defense authorization bill at 1:30 p.m. It ran into an unexpected hiccup in Rules on Monday night regarding amendments dealing with foreign aid and federal recognition of the Lumbee tribe.

Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report. 

New video footage shows there was more to the skirmish last week between a protester and Rep. Tim Burchett, which ended with the Tennessee Republican forcefully shoving the man.

Burchett characterized the encounter at the time as a heated verbal exchange that grew physical when the demonstrator got in the lawmaker’s face and “bumped” him. But a recording of the incident, reviewed by POLITICO, shows that prior to the two of them coming face to face, Burchett taunted the man, saying “come over here.”

After a tense back-and-forth, the protester appeared to move away from Burchett, but the lawmaker stepped toward him again and escalated the interaction, mocking the man for “quivering.”

The video footage adds more context to the physical altercation that resulted in Capitol Police separating the two men.

“The guy got in the congressman’s face,” Will Garrett, a Burchett spokesperson, said Monday. “They bumped stomachs and the congressman removed him from his face. People have a protected First Amendment right to protest and say whatever filthy and nasty stuff they want to the congressman, but they don’t have the right to physically bump into the congressman and the congressman acted in self-defense.”

The Capitol Police, Garrett continued, “asked us if we wanted to press charges, but we said no.”

A Capitol Police spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

POLITICO reviewed two similar videos of the incident — including one filmed by Burchett’s staff — that shows multiple protestors of the Israel-Hamas War walking alongside the lawmaker and shouting at him. In one of those videos, Burchett, responding to one of the protesters, says “come over here, weenie,” which prompted the protester to step toward him, get in the lawmaker’s face and say, “you just came to me dodo brain.”

Burchett makes a reference to the protestor being paid by the liberal philanthropist George Soros, after which the protestor appears to begin walking away from Burchett, turning his back on the Congressman. Burchett then pursues the man and says he appears to be “quivering,” prompting the protester to wheel back around and respond, “I’m quivering?” In the abrupt turnaround, the man’s torso makes contact with Burchett, who then shoves him with both hands.

As the crowd reacts to the shove, the protester begins yelling, “I didn’t touch him. I didn’t touch him.” Onlookers include Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.).

“With political violence on the rise, no representative should have to tolerate someone aggressively closing in on them. Frankly, I thought Rep. Burchett showed a lot of restraint,” McCormick said in a statement. Burchett went into the Longworth House Office Building while the protester was questioned and ultimately let go by the Capitol Police.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said he was compelled to publicly dress down Vice President JD Vance, a fellow Republican and former colleague, over the “disdain for human life” shown Saturday in an online post praising a deadly strike on alleged drug traffickers.

After Vance said the strike on a small Venezuelan boat was the “highest and best use of our military,” Paul lashed out Saturday night: “What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial,” he wrote on X.

Paul told reporters Monday that the message was in keeping with his long criticism of unchecked U.S. military power and questioned whether the attack, which reportedly killed 11, was legally or morally justified.

“Maybe [the boat] was coming here. Maybe it wasn’t. But nobody’s even asking whether we need to prove that. We just blow them up,” he said, adding: “I got no love lost for these people. But at the same time, is this the new Coast Guard policy? … Almost none of the boats we’ve interdicted does it end up with us blowing up the boat.”

“But I think what really ticked me off and got me going,” Paul continued, referring to Vance, “was for someone to glorify the idea of killing people without any due process and saying he just didn’t give a shit what anybody who was going criticize him was going to say. That to me was a disdain for human life and a disdain for processes.”

Paul said he had not heard from Vance or anyone at the White House about his post. He also demurred on the possibility of holding a hearing on the strike in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which he chairs.

“Hearings aren’t always the answer to everything,” he said. “But at the same time … you know, what is the evidence?”

Paul also responded to accusations that his criticism is tantamount to supporting drug traffickers.

“It doesn’t mean I’m pro-fentanyl because I think we should figure out if someone actually is a drug dealer before we kill them,” he said. “No, that just means that I’m pro having some kind of process before you kill people.”

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

House Republicans are inching closer together on a plan to fund the government, with a key GOP hard-liner suggesting he could tolerate a short-term punt before funding runs out Sept. 30.

Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus and for weeks has pushed for a year-long continuing resolution, said in a brief interview Monday he could support a shorter stopgap plan that Appropriations Chair Tom Cole is backing — if Cole has the votes.

Some in the Freedom Caucus ranks have declared themselves as “hard no” on Cole’s plan, which doesn’t currently have the votes to pass. But Harris said he would not necessarily oppose a shorter CR that would expire before the winter holidays — allowing time for more negotiations between the two parties and chambers.

“No, if they have the votes for it, I think we’ll support it, but we prefer it to be into next year,” Harris said.

Cole wants the stopgap into November, with three full-year funding bills included. Harris himself chairs an Appropriations subcommittee. Other senior appropriators have indicated they will dig in to block a longer-term stopgap into 2026.

Asked about his push for a shorter punt, Cole said Monday, “I think it is getting a little steam” and noted that talks were moving “in the right direction.”

Speaker Mike Johnson has yet to make a decision on how to handle the looming Sept. 30 expiration of government funding, with senior GOP aides believing President Donald Trump needs to publicly weigh in as well.

House GOP leaders laid out several options to fund the government in private meetings with senior Republicans Monday but mostly asked for additional input, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the conversations.

“Lot of strong agreement that we need more discussions,” one of the people said of those conversations.

While White House officials have privately noted the benefits of pushing another funding vote into next year, Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have already discussed a shorter funding punt into November or December.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that it was “in everybody’s interest” to keep any stopgap “as clean as possible” to allow for further negotiations on full-year spending bills under a “normal appropriations process.”

He also kept the door open for a possible deal with Democrats to extend key federal health insurance subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. Any agreement along those lines, he said, would have to have Trump’s blessing.

Thune added that the onus was on Democrats to “come forward with a solution” that would extend the subsidies at a lower cost. “This a problem … of their making,” he said, referring to the subsidies that were created under former President Barack Obama and expanded under Joe Biden.

GOP leaders and senior Republicans also discussed at their Monday meeting the need to develop a plan to address the subsidies, according to the two people. How they would address the growing political problem is still under discussion.

Passing a stopgap into November could allow Republicans to continue work on their funding bills while also providing a vehicle for a possible bipartisan deal on the expiring tax credits — something that poses a serious political problem for the White House going into a midterm election year.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, warned the GOP not to take Democratic votes for granted as the shutdown deadline approaches.

“This week we need to see signs from Republicans that they are serious about avoiding a shutdown or time will run out,” he said in a floor speech. “And the American people will know Republicans will be responsible if a shutdown happens.”