Congress
Comer subpoenas Attorney General Pam Bondi over Epstein files
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) issued a subpoena to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday, demanding she testify before lawmakers over her handling of the Epstein files.
The move came after five Republicans on the committee joined their Democratic colleagues in supporting Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-S.C.) motion to call on Bondi to testify earlier this month.
In a letter to Bondi, Comer wrote that “the Committee has questions regarding the Department of Justice’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his associates” and its compliance with a law passed by Congress last year compelling the DOJ to release the documents.
“As Attorney General, you are directly responsible for overseeing the Department’s collection, review, and determinations regarding the release of files pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and the Committee therefore believes that you possess valuable insight into these efforts,” he wrote.
Comer’s committee has subpoenaed former President Bill Clinton and former first lady Hillary Clinton as a part of its ongoing investigation into Epstein, as well as other influential individuals named in the files.
Congress
House members to get classified briefing on expiring spy law
Trump administration officials will hold a classified briefing for House members Wednesday on the upcoming spy powers expiration, according to two people granted anonymity to announce the plans ahead of an announcement.
Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing to hold a vote on an 18-month reauthorization of the surveillance authorities known as Section 702 next week, ahead of the April 20 expiration, but he’s facing down a potential rebellion from GOP hard-liners rebellion who want changes made to the spy law and to attach an unrelated elections bill.
House GOP leaders are arguing that the national security implications of the reauthorization are more important than ever given President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran and the threats posed by the widening war in the Middle East.
The briefing is set for 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The 18-month extension is likely to come direct to the floor next week without action first in the House Intelligence Committee, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter and a brief interview with panel Chair Rick Crawford (R-Ark).
“I don’t think we’ll mark it up,” Crawford said — a decision that could further exacerbate the internal tensions between party leaders and the hard-right lawmakers who oppose a clean extension.
Congress
Democrats deliver latest DHS funding offer to White House
Senate Democrats sent over their latest proposal for immigration enforcement changes at the Department of Homeland Security as a shutdown of the vast department drags into its second month.
The offer, confirmed by a White House official and two other people with knowledge of the matter, is the latest of several the two parties have traded since the funding lapse began Feb. 14. Little progress has been made since toward an agreement that would fund agencies including TSA, FEMA, ICE and the Coast Guard.
Democrats have vowed to block funding until the administration agrees to immigration enforcement changes in the wake of federal agents killing two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. Republicans, meanwhile, have rejected Democrats’ efforts to lop off immigration enforcement agencies and fund the rest of DHS.
The White House is “currently reviewing” the offer, the official said. But a top GOP aide immediately cast doubt of the seriousness of the proposal.
“It took 18 days for them to hit ‘Ctrl C’ and ‘Ctrl V,’” Ryan Wrasse, a spokesperson for Majority Leader John Thune wrote on X, referring to the copy-and-paste function on a personal computer.
Congress
Capitol agenda: House hard-liner headaches ahead
House Republicans are heading into a chaotic two-week sprint to try and make real legislative headway before a subsequent two-week recess — and prove that their narrow and deeply fractious majority can still get something done.
Hard-liners are already signaling this exercise won’t be easy. Here are the revolts to watch in the next two weeks:
— First, there’s FISA: Republican leaders want to pass a straightforward extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, next week, to give the Senate enough time to reauthorize the key spy authority before the April 20 deadline. The White House supports this path forward.
But conservatives want to add additional privacy guardrails to the existing law that allows the government to collect the data of noncitizens without a warrant.
Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford to lose one Republican on party-line procedural votes without grinding floor operations to a halt. At least two of his members, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Keith Self of Texas, aren’t ruling out opposing a “clean” FISA bill.
“We’ve got several must-pass bills, all of which need amending,” Self told Blue Light News. “And FISA is one of them.”
— Housing challenges: Hard-liners are also posing problems for the GOP’s ability to respond to voter concerns about higher costs of living as the midterms approach. Many are refusing to advance a Senate-passed affordable housing package because it doesn’t contain key policies they fought for on their side of the Capitol, such as a permanent ban on a central bank digital currency.
Now these holdouts want a bicameral conference to negotiate changes and strip out “socialist” provisions secured by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — an unrealistic demand that would serve as a de facto death knell for the entire effort.
“I don’t have anything to add to what’s been discussed already,” House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) told Blue Light News on Monday when asked about the status of talks.
— The “SAVE” revolt: Hanging over all these quagmires are threats from some hard-line Republicans to oppose any Senate-passed bill, for any reason, until the Senate passes the SAVE America Act — the GOP’s partisan elections package that stands little chance of becoming law (more on this below).
“I don’t care what the bill is,” Luna told Blue Light News. “If they can’t do their job, they can’t pass bills.”
She plans to start her blockade Tuesday by voting against a Senate-backed measure on the House floor that would extend the Small Business Innovation Research program.
What else we’re watching:
— “SAVE” debate begins: The Senate is set Tuesday to launch a dayslong debate over the SAVE America Act, which President Donald Trump calls his “No. 1 priority.” But don’t expect a “talking filibuster” that some conservatives hope would force Democrats to relent to a simple majority final passage despite their unified opposition. Instead, Republicans will start with a vote to begin consideration of the House-passed bill that would institute new citizenship and photo ID requirements in order to participate in elections.
— Friends of Ireland on Blue Light News: The speaker will host Trump and Taoiseach Micheál Martin for the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon at noon.
— AIPAC on the ballot: Tuesday’s primary elections in Illinois will serve as a critical test of whether the historically powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee still has clout.
Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Elena Schneider and Shia Kapos contributed to this report.
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