House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer launched an investigation on Wednesday into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent visit to an ammunition factory in Pennsylvania.

House Republicans have already cried foul on the visit, which Zelenskyy took to thank the workers at a factory that has supplied critical munitions in Ukraine’s war with Russia, because several Democrats joined him for a public appearance. Comer took a different tack on Wednesday, instead focusing on Zelenskyy visiting a presidential battleground state.

The Kentucky Republican sent letters on Wednesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and White House counsel Edward Siskel, accusing the administration of having facilitated potential meddling in the 2024 presidential election. Comer attempted to contrast the trip with former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, which focused on his attempt to push Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden.

Read Comer’s letters here:

Garland
Austin
Siskel

Congress has locked in plans to leave town Wednesday, as lawmakers move to quickly fund the government and then get out of town for six weeks of campaigning.

The House and Senate are both poised to pass a short-term funding bill that will fund federal agencies through Dec. 20 and avert a government shutdown next week.

The House: The chamber will vote Wednesday evening on the stopgap funding bill. It will come up under an expedited process that requires two-thirds of the House to vote in favor for passage, but it is expected to clear that hurdle with ease.

The question is not if it will pass, but how many defections emerge within the House GOP conference among those frustrated by Speaker Mike Johnson relying on Democratic votes to fund the government.

The Senate: Earlier this week, weekend work was on the table. But that has been set aside: The Senate is set to move swiftly Wednesday night on the spending measure after House passage. On Tuesday night, the upper chamber locked in a time agreement to expedite debate time and speed towards a final vote. Once they receive the House-passed bill, the Senate will debate for up to two hours and then vote.

“I appreciate the work of all the leaders to move forward with this CR. This is how things should be done. Without brinkmanship, without delay,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the announcement of the time agreement.

Post-passage, lawmakers in both chambers will be headed to the airport and won’t be back in Washington until after the November election.

In December, they’ll go through the process again. With election outcomes and party control of each chamber in the next Congress decided, lawmakers will hash out new funding levels for the rest of the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

“I hope — I truly hope — we will continue to see this same bipartisanship in the Senate when we return and we work to fund the government,” Schumer said.

Sweeping failures by the Secret Service directly contributed to a gunman’s ability to carry out an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at his July 13 rally, according to an interim Senate report released Wednesday.

The bipartisan report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee pointed to multiple critical failures by the Secret Service, including ones related to planning for the event, communications and crucial security decisions.

“Every single one of those failures was preventable and the consequences of those failures were dire,” Chair Gary Peters (D-Mich.) told reporters.

The panel accused the Secret Service of failing to clearly lay out responsibilities or plan security. Agency personnel denied to the committee that they were individually responsible or deflected blame, according to the report.

The committee added that the communication failures between the various layers of law enforcement “remain unaddressed” and that they were a “contributing factor” to the attack on July 13. Secret Service agents were working with local law enforcement to provide security during the rally.

In one example included in the report, the Secret Service special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field office did not have a working radio with him during the July 13 rally, after giving the lead advance agent his original radio because hers was malfunctioning.

The committee also found that the Secret Service did not properly ensure that the building where the gunman accessed the roof was secured during the rally; one counter sniper had an obstructed view of the roof. Local law enforcement, according to the report, told the Secret Service in advance of the rally that they did not have the manpower to cover the building.

A Secret Service official responsible for countering unauthorized drones told the Senate committee that he also requested additional equipment and personnel but those requests were denied. Trump’s Secret Service detail, according to the report, also requested certain assets for July 13 that were not approved.

“What happened here was really an accumulation of errors that produced a perfect storm of stunning failure,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “A lot of these individual failings, if corrected at the time, might have prevented this tragedy.”

According to the committee’s interim report, Secret Service personnel were notified of a suspicious person with a rangefinder around the building roughly 27 minutes before the shooting. But the Secret Service’s lead advance agent, site agent and site counterpart all told the committee that they did not receive that information until after shots were fired.

And a Secret Service counter sniper told the committee that they also saw local law enforcement running toward the building where the shooter was located with their guns drawn, but that it “did not cross [his] mind” to alert Trump’s protective detail to get him off the stage.

As part of its interim report, the committee is making a series of recommendations, including increasing planning for protective events and designating a single individual responsible for approving all plans. They are recommending that Congress require the Secret Service to record radio transmissions for all protectee events, as well as having the agency send additional resources and assets to future events.

Countersnipers were sent to the rally in response to a “credible intelligence” of a threat, according to the report. But the committee noted that “nearly all” of the Secret Service personnel interviewed by the committee said they were not aware of any credible intelligence of a threat.

Even as the committee released its interim report, it made clear that it still has a long list of questions that it wants answered. It also knocked the FBI, which it said had only produced 27 pages of documents. And they are still seeking information from Trump’s team, more information on known threats before July 13, and information related to the crime scene.

“We’ve put a lot of meat on the bones here, but we are a long way from getting the information we need,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the top Republican on the investigative subcommittee.

The House and Senate are both set to pass a stopgap funding bill on Wednesday to head off a government shutdown early next week and punt the spending deadline into late December.

Senate leaders reached an agreement Tuesday night to fast-track debate on the funding patch, which will keep federal agencies running on current budgets through Dec. 20. The House will vote first on passage, freeing lawmakers early for a six-week recess in their final stretch of campaigning ahead of Election Day.

Senate passage will clear the bill for President Joe Biden’s signature, avoiding a funding lapse come Tuesday, the first day of the new fiscal year. Whether a final deal can be reached in December to cement new funding levels will depend on Election Day outcomes for party control of the House, Senate and White House.

Just weeks after a second attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the Senate cleared legislation boosting Secret Service protections for major presidential party nominees.

“This bill will now go to President [Joe] Biden’s desk, and I hope he acts quickly to sign it into law,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), as he secured its unanimous passage on the floor.

The move, which comes days after the bill also cleared the House unanimously, sends the measure to Biden for his signature. It would apply to all major nominees going forward, not just Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I don’t think it does anything meaningful to change how the Secret Service does its job,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), calling for a “more holistic” discussion about security for political figures and efforts to address access to weapons.

He also urged Republicans to support additional resources for the Secret Service through the short-term government funding patch, but did not ultimately object to the bill’s passage.

Nine House Republicans are demanding information on U.S. taxpayer funds spent on security and support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to an ammunition factory in Pennsylvania over the weekend — clearly irked that the visit seemed to benefit Democrats in a swing state.

“If taxpayer dollars were used to facilitate this visit in a way that may violate federal laws or ethical guidelines, it is essential that Congress and the public receive a full accounting of those expenditures and the motivations behind the visit,” the lawmakers, led by Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas), wrote in a letter released Tuesday.

Zelenskyy, who’s attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week and is due to visit Capitol Hill on Thursday, made the Sunday visit to the factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania to thank the workers who are producing one of the most critically needed munitions for his country’s war with Russia.

However, he was flanked by Democratic officials like Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Matt Cartwright, and the latter two face competitive reelection bids. And Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are neck-and-neck in the critical swing state. Trump and some other Republicans have been bearish about providing additional aid to Ukraine in their ongoing war.

The Ukrainian leader will be on Capitol Hill on Thursday for a bipartisan meeting with senators hosted by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Zelenskyy has further raised eyebrows this trip by calling Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance “too radical” in an interview with The New Yorker and saying “the idea that the world should end this war at Ukraine’s expense is unacceptable.” Vance has been particularly vocal about ceasing additional aid to Ukraine.

The nine Republican lawmakers raised concerns that Zelenskyy flew in a C-17 military aircraft and received Secret Service protection during his visit, though foreign leaders routinely fly in U.S. military aircraft while traveling within the United States. They directed their request for information to the inspectors general of the Defense and Justice departments.

Zelenskyy hailed “the dedication of the workers, which is truly inspiring — they are helping Ukraine stand strong in our fight for freedom” in a post following his visit to the factory.

Casey told POLITICO on Tuesday he was unaware of how the visit came together. But he said it was important as the U.S. continues to support Zelenskyy’s Ukraine in its war with Russia.

“I was damn proud he was there,” the Pennsylvania Democrat said. “Those workers have been making those shells and saving a lot of lives on the battlefield in Ukraine, so we’re very proud of those union workers in Scranton.”

Speaker Mike Johnson made his final pitch on his bipartisan short-term spending bill to skeptical House Republicans on Tuesday. It didn’t do much to appease his critics.

Johnson has embraced a “clean” plan to avert a looming government shutdown deadline on Oct. 1, punting the deadline to Dec. 20. It’s expected to pass the House on Wednesday, despite some GOP opposition, given widespread Democratic support.

But GOP fiscal hawks are concerned that kicking the spending fight into December means they’ll get jammed right before the holidays with a so-called omnibus — a massive funding bill that lumps all 12 individual pieces of spending legislation together, typically negotiated by congressional leaders with little input from rank-and-file members. Those types of funding bills are widely unpopular, among Republicans especially, but commonly used when leaders are running up against a tight deadline.

The Louisiana Republican sought to assuage those concerns in a private House GOP meeting Tuesday morning. He committed to not doing an omnibus, as well as any so-called minibus, which combines some but not all of the 12 spending bills.

“We have broken the Christmas omni and I have no intention of going back to that terrible tradition,” Johnson told reporters at a press conference following the members-only meeting. “We don’t want any busses. We’re not going to do any busses.”

Additionally, Johnson used polling to try to convince a band of conservatives — who have called for Johnson to shut down the government unless Congress clears a bill that requires proof of citizenship to vote, known as the SAVE Act — that a shutdown this close to the election would be a terrible idea, according to three people in the room.

He argued that independent voters, both men and women, as well as so-called ticket-splitters — people who will vote for one party for president but another in down-ballot races — have a strong negative view about shutdowns. That could impact their standing with key swing voters just weeks before Election Day, he said. Johnson also noted that border patrol officers, U.S. troops, and other groups often heralded by the GOP would suffer if they failed to act.

The speaker blamed the Senate for failing to act on appropriation bills, but also pointed out that he had tried last week to move a conservative-favored spending bill, which the House failed to pass. More than a dozen Republicans ultimately voted against that plan, which combined with Democratic opposition was enough to tank the bill.

His pitch didn’t do much to move his critics. While no GOP member is publicly talking about retribution against Johnson in the upcoming congressional leadership elections, there are concerns that his right flank could be privately plotting some payback: tanking a package of unrelated bills as soon as Tuesday.

Conservatives are skeptical that he’ll stick to his word about avoiding an omnibus. And some say they expect that Johnson would move a year-end spending deal onto the floor as at least two separate bills, thereby technically avoiding an “omnibus.”

The GOP irritation about the new mid-December deadline isn’t universal, however. Some Republicans do want to clear the spending decks before the next Congress, allowing lawmakers and a new president to focus on other priorities in the new year. Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) made that case to reporters after the closed-door meeting.

“They’re going to have to have a budget by the end of February. They’re going to have to get their people in place. … So the idea that we would give them a funding fight and a potential government shutdown in the first couple of months seems to me to be the height of irresponsibility,” Cole said.

Republicans largely agreed that Tuesday morning’s conference meeting was tame, despite being the first full GOP member meeting since Johnson laid out his Plan B on spending. In fact, the main point of contention was a separate discussion about an effort to force a vote on a bipartisan bill, led by Reps. Garret Graves (R-La.) and Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.).

Their so-called discharge petition, which has enough signatures to force a floor vote, would go around leadership to force a House vote on their Social Security Fairness Act bill, which advocates say would eliminate two provisions that “unfairly reduce or eliminate earned Social Security benefits for approximately 2.8 million Americans who’ve devoted much of their careers to public service.”

That has sparked frustration from some corners of the conference, who believe Graves is only bucking the conference because he’s leaving the House after a nasty redistricting fight in his state left him out in the cold, with no good options to try to stay in Congress.

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) argued against people signing on during the meeting, while Reps. Clay Higgins (R-La.) and Graves pushed back. Johnson, according to a person in the room, told Higgins that no one approached him for a floor vote.

That person, granted anonymity to detail private discussions, called it a bit of a “Cajun throwdown.”

Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

House Republicans moved Tuesday to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress over claims he obstructed their investigation into the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

House Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) had subpoenaed Blinken, requiring him to testify on Tuesday. But the secretary of state responded he’d be in New York for events surrounding the U.N. General Assembly. Blinken reiterated “I am willing to testify” but said he is “profoundly disappointed” by the committee’s insistence on unilateral dates “during which I am carrying out the President’s important foreign policy objectives.”

That argument didn’t sway McCaul.

“I hereby adjourn this hearing and intend to proceed with a markup to begin the formal process of holding the secretary in contempt of Congress,” McCaul said at the outset of the meeting — noting Blinken’s absence.

In a draft report, McCaul said Blinken failed to comply with his Sept. 18 subpoena.

Blinken would be the third of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet to face a formal floor rebuke by the GOP-led House. Lawmakers held Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress back in June and impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in February. The Senate swiftly dispensed with the charges against Mayorkas and the Justice Department declined to prosecute Garland.

House Republicans are planning more actions related to the Afghanistan withdrawal this week, highlighting what is generally regarded as a Biden administration failure just weeks before the election. Lawmakers are scheduled to vote on a resolution to condemn 15 Biden officials, including Blinken and Vice President Kamala Harris, for “decisionmaking and execution failures throughout the withdrawal.”

House GOP leaders are switching up their strategy for passing a stopgap funding patch to head off a government shutdown, after conservative opposition threatened to block floor debate.

A funding lapse remains unlikely, since the compromise spending bill is still expected to pass the House and Senate with bipartisan support before federal funding expires at midnight Monday.

But the House’s pivot on the first procedural step is another hiccup in Speaker Mike Johnson’s weekslong effort to balance centrist calls for averting a pre-election shutdown with former President Donald Trump’s support for a funding standoff over noncitizen voting restrictions.

House Republican leaders now plan to “suspend the rules” for passing the bill midweek, shrinking debate to 40 minutes and requiring a two-thirds threshold for passage. This comes as conservative lawmakers were threatening to oppose teeing up debate.

“One way or the other, the bill is going to get to the floor, in my opinion. And when it does, it’ll pass,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters Monday night as the House panel that sets up floor debate was preparing to scrap the initial plan for passage.

“It’ll pass with a big, bipartisan vote,” Cole added.

The nearly 12-week funding patch, which will punt the government shutdown deadline to Dec. 20, is also expected to pass the Senate with overwhelming support. But the measure could be delayed for days once the House sends it across the Capitol, where Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will need to clinch a time agreement to speed up debate if the measure is going to clear Congress before the Monday night deadline.

The Senate’s top Republican appropriator, Maine’s Susan Collins, said it’s difficult to predict timing for final passage. “My goal is to prevent a government shutdown,” Collins told reporters Monday night. “And to do that, we need to fast-track” the funding patch.

There will be “plenty of time” for lawmakers to debate funding issues once final funding negotiations begin after Election Day, Collins said.