The surprise of the first hearing of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets wasn’t about the identify of who shot John F. Kennedy. Instead it was about who wrote a conspiratorial book about it.

The Capitol Hill hearing held Tuesday in the aftermath of the 80,000-page document dump by the Trump administration last month about the 1963 assassination, came to a cringeworthy pause more than halfway through Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) asked filmmaker Oliver Stone about a book he wrote alleging that Lyndon Baines Johnson was behind the Kennedy assassination.

Stone, who made the 1991 movie JFK which alleged a wide-ranging conspiracy behind the assassination but not focused on Kennedy’s vice president seemed confused by the question. Eventually another witness, former Washington Post reporter Jefferson Morley, worked out that Boebert had confused Oliver Stone with Roger Stone, the political consultant and longtime Trump confidante.

Boebert sheepishly paused and said “I may have misinterpreted that. I apologize.”

The hearing was chaired by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) only minutes after her triumph over Speaker Mike Johnson in an effort to force a vote on her proposal to allow proxy voting for new parents in Congress. Stone was urging the committee to fully investigate the 62-year-old crime.

Luna, who has indicated deep skepticism about Lee Harvey Oswald being the lone assassin, hailed the hearing as an “historical day in our nation’s history” and described to her efforts to uncover the truth about the death of the 35th president as crucial to ensuring that “what happened to President Kennedy can never happen again.”

Democrats though were less focused on Kennedy and more focused on Donald Trump. They took shots at the slapdash nature of the document release by the White House, which left the personal information of a number of former congressional staffers exposed, as well as taking shots at the Trump administration over the fallout of top officials communicating via Signal.

The top two Democratic congressional leaders stressed unity during their first joint appearance since a government funding fight put them on opposing sides and exposed deep rifts within the party.

“We are standing together in defense of the American people,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters, adding that “House and Senate Democrats are united in defending Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits and nutritional assistance.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke after Jeffries: “We are all on the same page. Donald Trump is taking away things working people vitally need all to do tax cuts for the billionaires.”

The event was the first side-by-side appearance for Jeffries and Schumer since last month’s tussle over whether to advance a GOP-drafted government funding bill or trigger a government shutdown. Jeffries and all but one of his members voted “no” on the bill, while Schumer took a procedural vote to advance the legislation past a Senate filibuster. He ultimately voted against it.

Jeffries initially did not comment on whether he had lost confidence in Schumer, fueling rumors of a rift, then later indicated that he supports Schumer’s continued leadership.

On Tuesday, Schumer and Jeffries joined members of their leadership and the senior Democrats on the House and Senate Committees on Finance, Budget and Appropriations met to discuss their party’s strategy as Republicans prepare to move forward toward the “one big, beautiful bill” envisioned by President Donald Trump through the partisan, filibuster-skirting reconciliation process.

Senate Republicans are hoping to adopt a budget blueprint to pave the way for the reconciliation bill this week and send it to the House to be adopted before a two-week break. The House and Senate have to approve identical budget resolutions to be able to pass the eventual bill with a simple majority in the Senate.

A key Republican threw cold water Tuesday on calls by GOP colleagues to impeach federal judges, suggesting the proposals were politically symbolic but were unlikely to pass.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said some House Republicans may be introducing impeachment bills “because they were popular and felt strongly within their district, whether or not they were moving anywhere.”

Issa, the chair of a House Judiciary subcommittee on the courts, asked former Speaker Newt Gingrich if he agreed with that assessment. Gingrich, who was testifying as a former congressional leader, concurred that impeachment proposals have little chance of passing.

“They’re political symbols, not legislative symbols,” Gingrich responded, grinning.

The exchange came during a hearing Tuesday, chaired by Issa, on what Republicans claim has been “judicial overreach” during the early weeks of the Trump administration. Despite calls by President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and a small band of allies in Congress — frustrated by dozens of court orders that have declared key Trump policies illegal or unconstitutional — there’s been little momentum among House GOP leaders, who have privately insisted such efforts are going nowhere in the closely divided Capitol.

Issa instead sought to rally support for his own legislation that would limit the ability of judges to impose nationwide blocks on presidential policies they deem improper. He emphasized that, despite Democrats’ remarks, impeachment was not the focus of the hearing.

Without the votes in the House for impeachment, GOP leadership has been looking for an outlet for the fervor within the party’s conservative flank to target specific judges who have drawn Trump’s fury. Issa argued during the hearing that district court judges have far exceeded their constitutional powers, calling their rulings “the new resistance to the Trump administration.”

“Time and time again, rogue judges have asserted as though they were five of the nine members of the Supreme Court,” Issa said. “The reality is, every judge is considering himself not to be an associate justice, not to even be the chief justice, but, in fact, to be a combination of the justice and the president of the United States. This demands that we take a, make a change and make it quickly.”

Democrats, however, argued that the courts were functioning as a legitimate and necessary check on a president who has pushed the boundaries of the law and Constitution in unprecedented ways. It’s no accident, they argued, that Trump has faced more judicial resistance than his predecessors, who tailored policies to survive court scrutiny.

They repeatedly asked Republicans to speak to the calls from the right flank of the party for impeachments, as GOP lawmakers in the hearing shied away from the topic. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said Republicans’ calls for impeachment have devolved into threats against and intimidation of federal officials.

“I call on my colleagues right now to call off the campaign to impeach federal judges for doing their jobs,” he said.

There was some skepticism from at least one House Republican to GOP efforts to limit the power of lower courts to issue nationwide injunctions. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) noted that Republicans cheered nationwide injunctions during the Biden administration when judges blocked several of his most sweeping policy efforts.

“This is a double-edged sword. He did unlawful and unconstitutional things during Covid that were stopped with nationwide injunctions,” Massie said. “I’m torn on this.”

Nine House Republicans voted with Democrats Tuesday to reject Speaker Mike Johnson’s bid to block a GOP member from allowing lawmakers who are new parents to cast their votes by proxy vote.

House Republican leaders inserted language into a procedural measure that would effectively kill Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s proxy-voting proposal, which is due to come to the floor later this week. Luna had circumvented party leaders by successfully pursuing a discharge petition.

That measure failed on a 222-206 vote, with eight Republicans joining Luna to block it.

Approving the “rule,” as the measure is known, would have tabled the discharge petition and blocked future similar proposals, leading Luna and other Republicans to line up against it. Luna and 11 other House Republicans had signed onto the discharge petition to force consideration of the proxy-voting measure.

The proposal has roiled House Republicans, with Luna opting to leave the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus over the dispute.

GOP leadership, with the support of conservative hard-liners, has opposed the proxy-voting proposal, calling it unconstitutional.

But the failure of Tuesday afternoon’s vote spells trouble for the rest of the House GOP’s plans this week. In addition to blocking Luna’s bill, the rule would have teed up the rest of the legislative agenda, including a closely watched measure to rein in federal judges who have opposed President Donald Trump.

Capitol Police arrested a staffer for Sen. Cory Booker for allegedly carrying a pistol without a license, the department announced Tuesday.

Authorities arrested the staffer, named by Capitol Police as Kevin Batts, Monday evening after Batts told officers outside the Senate galleries he was armed, the department said. Batts had been led by Booker around security screening at a Senate office building earlier in the day, according to the department.

“All weapons are prohibited from Capitol Grounds, even if you are a retired law enforcement officer, or have a permit to carry in another state or the District of Columbia,” the department said.

Lawmakers are given broad leeway to request bypasses of security screening for staffers and guests who accompany them into Capitol buildings, though the department frowns on the practice.

Booker has been giving a marathon speech on the Senate floor in protest of President Donald Trump’s administration and Hill Republicans.

“Senator Booker’s office employs a retired Newark police detective as a New Jersey-based driver who often accompanies him to events,” said Jeff Giertz, a spokesperson for Booker. “We are working to better understand the circumstances around this.”

NOTUS earlier reported the arrest.

Speaker Mike Johnson’s clash with a fellow Republican over allowing proxy voting for new parents in the House is set to play out on the floor Tuesday.

The House Rules Committee approved a measure that would effectively kill Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s proxy-voting effort, which was set to come to the floor for a vote this week under a discharge petition.

The Rules measure, which was advanced out of the panel Tuesday morning on a party-line 9-4 vote, includes language tabling Luna’s legislation and blocking consideration of any future legislation that is “substantially the same.”

GOP leadership — at the urging of conservative hard-liners — has lined up against the proxy-voting proposal, which Johnson has called unconstitutional. House Republicans railed against proxy voting when it was employed on a large scale by the Democratic majority during the Covid pandemic from 2020 through 2022, filing an unsuccessful lawsuit challenging its legitimacy.

“We’re not going to let it come up on the floor,” Johnson said Tuesday in a brief interview. He later told House Republicans in a closed-door conference meeting today that his plan would allow for “more time” to discuss the matter, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private remarks.

For Johnson’s plan to succeed, House Republicans will have to stay almost entirely united on a planned midday vote to approve the Rules measure. Johnson and his team spoke with Luna and other Republicans this morning about the way forward.

Luna said Monday she would vote no if the language was included. If she can rally opposition among the 11 other Republicans who supported the discharge petition, she could potentially derail the midday vote — spelling trouble not only for Johnson’s bid to spike her initiative but also for the House GOP’s floor plans this week.

GOP senators could deliver a stinging rebuke of Donald Trump Tuesday, with several indicating they plan to join Democrats in opposing the president’s plan to hike tariffs on Canada.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Thom Tillis signaled Monday they intend to back Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine’s resolution that would block Trump’s 25 percent across-the-board tariffs on the nation’s northern neighbor and leading trade partner. The resolution would terminate the national emergency Trump declared last month over fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration to justify the tariffs.

They’ll join GOP Sen. Rand Paul, a cosponsor of Kaine’s resolution and a strong opponent of tariffs. Sen. Chuck Grassley — one of many farm-state Republicans who has raised particular concerns about the Canadian tariffs — said Monday he hadn’t decided whether to oppose the president.

Collins is worried about potential disruptions to key economic drivers in her home state of Maine, whose economy is closely integrated with Canada’s — for instance: lobstering, pulp and paper, potatoes and blueberries.

“Imposing tariffs on Canada, which is our closest neighbor, [a] friendly ally, is a huge mistake and will cause disruption in the economies of both countries,” said Collins, pointing to the Canadian flag pin she was wearing on her lapel alongside one of the American flag.

Four Republicans would need to join all 47 Senate Democrats in backing Kaine’s resolution for it to win approval, and it’s still unclear if supporters will hit that number. If they do, it would be the GOP Congress’s biggest break with Trump since he took office in January — and it would serve as a warning shot as his economic policies roil markets and threaten core industries across the country.

Still, the resolution has no teeth — it is ultimately a political statement. Any show of opposition in the Senate is likely to die in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson has already moved to block the ability of tariff critics to force a floor vote on ending the types of national emergencies Trump is leaning on to levy his tariffs.

What else we’re watching

• Proxy voting fight: House GOP leadership is working to use a Rules Committee maneuver to block a discharge petition from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) that would force a vote to allow proxy voting for new parents. Luna is preparing to fight back.
• GOP budget trouble: House Republican fiscal hawks are lining up against the Senate GOP’s emerging budget plan, threatening another delay in the party’s ability to enact Trump’s legislative agenda.
• Caine hits the hot seat: Retired Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, Trump’s pick to chair the joint chiefs, will appear before Senate Armed Services Tuesday for a confirmation hearing. Caine’s nomination follows Trump’s firing of Gen. C.Q. Brown in February, part of a broader purge of senior Pentagon leaders.

Sen. Cory Booker is planning to hold the Senate floor for as long as he can in an effort to protest actions by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans.

The New Jersey Democrat took to the Senate floor on Monday evening, wearing a black suit and armed with a thick binder, and is expected to speak through the night and as far into Tuesday as he can manage. Other Democratic senators are expected to join him on the floor throughout his planned talk-a-thon.

Booker said Monday he is speaking “because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis” and invoked the legacy of the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).

“Tonight I rise with the intention of getting in some good trouble — I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able,” he said.

Booker’s marathon session comes as Senate Republicans plan to move forward this week to take their next step in advancing President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” merging together an overhaul of the tax code with border, energy and defense policies.

It also comes as Democrats are under pressure, from inside Congress and outside, to show that they are willing to fight and use the limited leverage they have given that Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

Depending on how long he is able to go, he could disrupt Senate business on Tuesday, though his speech technically isn’t a filibuster — the chamber is currently in a limited period of debate time for Matthew Whitaker’s nomination as ambassador to NATO. Booker previously held the floor for roughly 15 hours in 2016 with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) to discuss gun violence.

Booker is expected to cite Wall Street Journal editorials, the Cato Institute and Republican voices to address several issues including “rule of law,” tariffs, corruption and the GOP’s forthcoming reconciliation bill.

Former Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina holds the Senate record for longest solo speech, at 24 hours and 18 minutes — an unsuccessful filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.