Phillip Swagel, the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, told lawmakers at an oversight hearing Tuesday morning before the House Budget Committee that the “sophisticated cyberattack” against his agency two weeks ago has been contained and there is currently no “further evidence of unauthorized access to CBO email.”

It’s the first time he has spoken out publicly about the breach.

Swagel said the investigation is “extensive and ongoing” as the agency receives assistance from both federal security partners and private sector security specialists.

He stressed that as more information becomes available about the nature of the attack — including “the threat actor’s activities” and what can be done to strengthen CBO’s systems — he will provide lawmakers updates “in a closed-door setting.”

He warned that sharing some things during a public hearing “might hinder remediation or investigation” but insisted that CBO is now “operating as normal … without interruption.”

In advance of the hearing, House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington praised the CBO’s handling of the incident.

“They notified everybody, and all hands were on deck to address it, remediate it, and make sure that no further information was breached,” the Texas Republican said in an interview Monday night. “I thought they handled that responsibly and there was a great sense of urgency and concern, which is what I would expect.”

Rep. Chuy García has denied purposely clearing a path for his chief of staff to take his seat without facing a primary, but a document filed with Illinois elections officials shows he was the first to sign her nominating petitions, days before he announced his retirement.

García said Tuesday in a note to Democratic colleagues obtained by POLITICO that he “did not circulate petitions for any Congressional campaign except my own.” But that obscures his apparent knowledge of the effort by his top aide, Patty Garcia, to get on the ballot.

A petition signature page submitted by Patty Garcia to the Illinois Board of Elections shows the representative and his closest allies, whom Chuy García has also helped get elected over the years, signed their names. They include Cook County Commissioner Alma Anaya, Illinois state Sen. Celina Villanueva, state Reps. Aaron Ortiz and Norma Hernandez, and Chicago City Council members Jeylú Gutiérrez and Michael Rodriguez.

The form is dated Nov. 1, two days before the filing deadline and three days before Chuy García formally announced his retirement. Patty Garcia ultimately filed nearly 3,000 signatures toward the required 2,500 to qualify for the Democratic primary ballot. The two are not related.

Fabiola Rodriguez-Ciampoli, a spokesperson for Chuy Garcia, said signing a petition is not the same as circulating them. “He did not circulate petitions” for his chief of staff’s campaign, she said.

The House is set to vote Tuesday afternoon on a measure brought by Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) rebuking Chuy García’s move, which essentially ensured that Patty Garcia will succeed him as Democratic nominee and likely winner of the 2026 election.

Democratic leaders have signaled they are backing the veteran Chicago lawmaker and are whipping against the measure.

“We disagree with the resolution that’s being offered, and we should be talking about issues that affect the American people,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), the third-ranking House Democrat.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the once steadfast ally of Donald Trump who has since fallen out with the president, said the saga around convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has “ripped MAGA apart.”

Greene made her comments while flanked by some of Epstein’s victims outside the Capitol on Tuesday, just hours before the House is set to vote on a bill that would force the Justice Department to release Epstein case files.

The White House led an aggressive campaign to pare back Republican support for the effort, but Trump ultimately gave a nod of approval for the measure after Greene and three other Republicans joined Democrats to force it to the House floor.

Trump, however, has angrily withdrawn his support for Greene — an early supporter of Trump and his Make America Great Again movement — and called her Marjorie “Traitor” Greene.

“This has been one of the most destructive things to MAGA — is watching the man that we supported early on, three elections,” oppose the bill, she told reporters. “Watching this actually turn into a fight has ripped MAGA apart.”

The back-and-forth battle over releasing the files has certainly driven some Republicans into contortions — not least of whom is Speaker Mike Johnson.

He told reporters Tuesday that he plans to vote for the bill authored by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) even as he stood by his longtime claim that it’s “recklessly flawed” because it does not sufficiently protect victims and whistleblowers in his view. He told GOP members in a private conference meeting earlier that morning to vote their “conscience,” according to four people in the room granted anonymity to describe the private meeting.

“I think it could be a near-unanimous vote,” Johnson said.

Tuesday’s vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act is the culmination of a monthslong bipartisan effort. Speaking at the news conference, Massie accused Trump of “trying to protect friends and donors” by opposing the legislation for so long. The victims, meanwhile, shared none of Johnson’s concerns that its passage would threaten their well-being.

Other members of GOP leadership are also signaling they will vote for the bill. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise confirmed his vote in a brief interview Tuesday morning, and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), the GOP conference chair, issued a statement saying she would also support it.

Both Johnson and Scalise have suggested the Senate might revise the bill later, but there is likely to be little appetite in the other chamber for prolonged consideration of a measure that most Republicans want to put quickly behind them.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune isn’t expected to announce what the Senate will do until after the House passes the bill, but there’s growing support among Senate Republicans to pass the resolution in the wake of Trump’s shift — potentially by unanimous consent this week.

Johnson and Massie continued to snipe at each other, meanwhile, with the speaker saying Tuesday he got the “middle finger” from the bill sponsors when GOP leaders asked to make revisions, while Massie said in an interview Monday that Johnson’s “concerns were never warranted.”

“If he actually wanted the Epstein files released, he could have offered his suggestions four months ago and brought it to the floor,” Massie said. “Instead he … spread lies about our legislation he now supports because the president told him to.”

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

A senior White House official said the Trump administration intends to put forward a health bill and left open the possibility of using the fast-track legislative process of reconciliation for passage of health or tariff legislation.

“We’re going to have the health care conversation. We’re going to put some legislation forward,” White House deputy chief of staff James Blair said Tuesday at a Bloomberg Government policy breakfast.

He expressed interest in a bipartisan health plan but said that “if that path is foreclosed, there is the partisan path of reconciliation as well.”

Such a move would allow Republicans to advance a health plan with a simple majority, a path they unsuccessfully attempted in Trump’s first term to repeal Obamacare but successfully used earlier this year on the megabill.

“The president probably would like to go bigger than the Hill has the appetite for, so we’ll have to see how that, you know, works out,” Blair added, hinting at potential friction between the White House and congressional Republicans.

Several GOP lawmakers have said privately that they expect the White House to put forward a framework that revisits long-standing Republican goals — including reducing insurance costs, expanding health savings accounts and unwinding parts of the Affordable Care Act — though it remains unclear how sweeping Trump hopes to go.

If a reconciliation bill moves soon, Blair indicated that the administration would also want to include “probably the Trump tariff dividends and … interest in locking in tariffs.”

Senate Republicans have been privately discussing a second reconciliation package. Budget Committee Republicans are tentatively looking at early next year for finalizing a budget resolution that would tee up the party-line package, according to senators on the committee.

Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) previously told POLITICO that the party could use a second bill to tackle health care, spending and tax policy.

But there’s plenty of skepticism, including within top members of the House and Senate GOP conferences, about doing another party-line bill, which would require near unity from their thin majorities. GOP senators, in a recent closed-door lunch, noted that many of their health care ideas left out of the “big, beautiful bill” wouldn’t comply with the Senate’s strict rules for what can be included under reconciliation, according to one attendee granted anonymity to disclose private discussions.

Two big votes are hitting the House floor Tuesday afternoon, with each party caught between unity and accountability.

ON THE GOP SIDE — The House is expected to easily pass a resolution calling on the DOJ to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein after a monthslong battle by President Donald Trump and GOP leaders to block the vote.

Trump said Monday he would sign the bill if it lands on his desk, giving political cover for Republicans to vote for the measure. The House will vote under suspension of the rules Tuesday, limiting debate and requiring a two-thirds majority.

What we’re really watching is the Senate. Last night, Republicans advanced rule language that effectively forces Speaker Mike Johnson to send the bill across the Rotunda. If he doesn’t, the original discharge petition remains in force, triggering another House vote.

Senate GOP leaders haven’t committed to putting a vote on the floor, but Trump’s new endorsement has changed the dynamic.

Johnson said he wants the Senate to amend the measure to include more protections for victims and whistleblowers. But that would require another House vote, further extending a saga most Hill Republicans want to move past as quickly as possible.

ON THE DEM SIDE — The House is also expected to vote at Tuesday’s 2 p.m. series on a resolution condemning Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.) for a move in which he retired and functionally guaranteed his chief of staff would succeed him.

The resolution, triggered by Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), forces Democrats to choose between sticking by a longtime colleague and condemning a hardball move many find difficult to stomach.

García defended himself on the floor Monday night, saying he chose to put family first by retiring and suggesting that what goes around might come around: “One day you might be the one making that choice, and you shouldn’t have to debate it on the House floor.”

But one House Democrat, granted anonymity to speak candidly, estimated to POLITICO that “a not insignificant number of Democrats” will support the disapproval measure after only Gluesenkamp Perez and Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) opposed a motion to table Monday. Keep an eye on more moderate Democrats like Nevada Rep. Susie Lee, who told POLITICO “it was questionable, the timing,” while many others in the caucus hold their nose.

“It’s an unpleasant one,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), who said he will vote against it Tuesday. “Chuy García is a friend and a great guy. But I don’t like the optics of this.”

What else we’re watching:   

— ACA latest: House GOP leaders will lead a high-level discussion in their conference meeting Tuesday morning on how to address rising health care costs. It comes as Senate Republicans are quickly developing their own legislative proposals and some House Republicans fret they could get jammed by the upper chamber.

— CBO hearing: Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel is set to testify Tuesday morning before the House Budget Committee. The oversight hearing will be the first chance GOP lawmakers have to air their grievances over the agency’s analysis of their party’s megabill since the legislation was enacted in July.

— NDAA crunch time: House and Senate lawmakers have a critical week ahead to reach a compromise on major defense policy legislation if they want to have a deal ready to hit the floor after the Thanksgiving break for an early December vote.

Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney, Nicholas Wu, Shia Kapos, Calen Razor, Benjamin Guggenheim, Katherine Tully-McManus and Connor O’Brien contributed to this report.