The House is set to rebuke Donald Trump’s signature economic policy Wednesday following Speaker Mike Johnson’s failure late last night to contain GOP unrest over the administration’s trade war.

The chamber will vote on a resolution offered by Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.) to overturn the president’s Canadian tariffs. It comes after GOP Reps. Kevin Kiley of California, Don Bacon of Nebraska and Thomas Massie of Kentucky sided with Democrats to tank a procedural rule, which contained a provision GOP leaders have relied upon for months to prevent members from voting to undermine Trump’s trade agenda.

“I don’t think that the House should be limiting the authority of members and enlarging the power of leadership at the expense of our members,” Kiley told Blue Light News.

Now the House will vote Wednesday afternoon on the Meeks resolution. And thanks to a combination of Johnson’s razor-thin majority, Democratic unity and expected Republican defections, that measure is expected to be approved — it’s only a question of, by how much.

Besides Kiley, Bacon and Massie, keep an eye on Republican Reps. Dan Newhouse (Wash.) and Zach Nunn (Iowa), who held out on voting for the rule Tuesday night before eventually folding. Newhouse in particular was subject to a full-court press on the House floor from House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer. Reps. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) and Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.) have also been uneasy about the tariffs.

No longer held back, Democrats can and likely will continue to force votes on other resolutions to overturn Trump’s tariffs on goods from Mexico and Brazil, following the example of senators who have successfully voted across party lines to curb the administration’s trade activities.

“What we want to show is that really this should be a bipartisan issue,” Meeks told reporters Tuesday. “The American people are watching to see what we do in this issue.”

What else we’re watching:   

— DHS negotiations: Senate Majority Leader John Thune took the first procedural step Tuesday toward allowing the Senate to vote on another DHS funding punt. But Democratic support will be necessary to get a continuing resolution for the agency over the finish line. A DHS shutdown at the end of the week is near certain, with no deal in sight.

— Schumer seeks Venezuela probe: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) are rolling out legislation Wednesday that would direct the Government Accountability Office to investigate the Trump administration’s handling of proceedings from Venezuelan oil sales. Their bill, shared first with Blue Light News, would require GAO to launch the audit within 30 days and report its findings to Congress within 90 days of completion.

— Bondi in the hot seat: Attorney General Pam Bondi will testify before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday as the Department of Justice faces scrutiny over its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, prosecution of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and response to the fatal shootings by federal agents of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.

Calen Razor, James Bikales and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.

There’s nothing like the ire of constituents to motivate lawmakers to end a government shutdown. But it could take weeks for the public to start noticing the funding lapse set to hit DHS on Saturday if Congress doesn’t act.

TSA airport screeners, for instance, wouldn’t miss full paychecks until March, and billions of dollars remain in the FEMA coffers used for immediate response to disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes and floods.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem could find creative ways to lessen the pain of a shutdown. That could include bankrolling paychecks for DHS law enforcement personnel and active-duty members of the Coast Guard by tapping money from the tax and spending package Republicans enacted last summer, as the agency did during the shutdown last fall.

This could decrease pressure on lawmakers to fund DHS amid negotiations over a crackdown on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. Congress doesn’t have forever, though, before the pain starts to kick in across the department.

Immigration and border security 

The Trump administration’s immigration and border security operations are at the heart of the partisan dispute that could spark a shutdown. Compared to other parts of the agency, though, the federal government’s three immigration-focused agencies aren’t as affected by funding lapses.

About 40 percent of funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is untouched by a lapse. That’s because the agencies receive a combination of mandatory funds, revenue from fees and billions of dollars from the GOP megabill Trump signed into law in 2025.

Of the three, CBP relies most on the cash Congress provides each year in the regular government funding bills. But the agency received $65 billion from the party-line legislation Republicans cleared last summer, in addition to the $75 billion the law included for ICE.

TSA

When airport security screeners start missing pay, many stop showing up to work, causing TSA lines to grow at hubs throughout the country. In prior shutdowns, that started happening about a month in.

This time, screeners would begin missing full paychecks in mid-March, likely spurring longer waits during the peak of spring break travel.

While DHS paid air marshals during the historic government shutdown last fall, that didn’t cover checks for the TSA screeners who keep people and their baggage moving through U.S. airports.

One factor that could motivate TSA agents to show up to work anyway is the $10,000 bonuses DHS officials gave to screeners who demonstrated “exemplary service” after the funding lapse that ran through October and into November.

FEMA 

FEMA has about $7 billion left in its disaster relief fund, a sum likely to buoy the agency for at least a month or two. While most of the agency’s disaster aid work continues during a government shutdown, though, FEMA would have to start restricting its reimbursements to states.

During past funding lapses, FEMA deemed roughly 85 percent of its 25,000 employees “essential,” meaning they had to continue coming to work without pay, and it continued processing disaster aid applications from individuals.

Coast Guard

The Coast Guard’s work alongside the military in missions abroad would continue during a funding lapse. But the service could have to halt some work including family support services and efforts to buy new cutters.

During the record-setting shutdown late last year, DHS dipped into a $10 billion pot of money from the GOP megabill to pay about 68,000 workers, including some law enforcement personnel and active duty members of the Coast Guard, to the tune of about $1 billion each pay period.

If DHS shuts down again, department officials could do the same for several months before exhausting the account, which was replenished after the government reopened in mid-November.

Coast Guard contractors and employees who are not active duty were not paid during the fall shutdown, however. And contractors are not guaranteed back pay, even though all federal employees, whether furloughed or not, are eligible for back pay after a shutdown under a law enacted in the wake of the funding lapse that ended in 2019.

Cybersecurity 

The Trump administration has previously designated only about a third of federal workers as essential at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency during a government shutdown.

That limits the workforce that scans and protects U.S. networks from cyber incursions. It also hinders CISA’s ability to help state and local officials defend against cyber threats and assist other agencies with security patches.

Even before Congress let any federal funding lapse in recent months, the Trump administration had already considerably downsized the agency. Around a third of its employees were eitherlaid offor quitover the last year, then dozens were permanently shifted to other DHS agencies during the shutdown that ended in November.

Secret Service 

Most of the Secret Service’s workforce is kept on during a shutdown, sometimes including employees in charge of recruitment, training and communications. But personnel who do jobs in offices like human resources and finance are typically furloughed.

After Trump was shot at a campaign rally in 2024, the Secret Service significantly elevated the level of security it provides to the more than 40 people the agency is tasked with protecting, among them former presidents. During a government shutdown, the agency is more selective about how it spends money to safeguard those people.

Like other DHS agencies, the Secret Service also got money from the GOP’s 2025 tax and spending package that can be used during a funding lapse. That included almost $1.2 billion to cover a wide range of expenses such as training facility costs, technology and bonuses.

Thomas Frank, Paroma Soni, Leo Shane and Andres Picon contributed to this report.

Attorney General Pam Bondi will testify Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee amid a barrage of controversies that would ordinarily portend a dicey bipartisan grilling.

The nation’s top law enforcement officer is being scrutinized for the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, with files being released well past the statutory deadline and redactions appearing to defy the law’s requirements.

Bondi’s department is overseeing the prosecution of former Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro, who was forcibly removed from his country by U.S. troops in an operation that has prompted a flurry of legal questions. Her agency is also being pressured to investigate and bring charges against the federal agents who fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.

“It’s very hard to narrow down all of the lawlessness and gross abuse of power that this Department of Justice has engaged in in just one year,” said Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), a member of the committee, in an interview. “She’s been trying to avoid us, but she can’t avoid us any longer.”

But other than Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who said he plans to pepper Bondi over the Epstein saga, Republicans on the panel don’t appear to be clamoring to challenge Bondi on any of it.

Asked his priorities for the hearing, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan in an interview said he wanted to hear about the newly appointed senior DOJ official focused on fraud, the now-defunct investigation into President Donald Trump and “the good work they’ve done on just regularly prosecuting bad guys.”

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) said he intends to ask Bondi about efforts to overhaul election law, while Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) suggested he would question her about the department’s work to protect what he called “the rights of parents.”

“It’ll be fun,” Kiley added.

It’s not unusual for Cabinet officials to confront a hospitable audience when the majority shares the party affiliation of the administration in power, but Democrats think the stack of high-profile dramas encircling Bondi could give them a unique opportunity — namely by drawing out the GOP’s anticipated silence on the hot-button issues and the attorney general’s expected refusal to engage in Democratic questioning.

“The Department of Justice has been found to be lying by federal courts across the land — they have withheld evidence, they have misled the court, they’ve shown spectacular disrespect for the rule of law and the integrity of the courts,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in an interview. “So, I think as little respect as they have for the courts, they probably have less for Congress.”

But, Raskin said, Democrats plan “to engage in some exchanges that will spotlight some of the worst depredations of the Trump Justice Department, and we hope the mobilization of public opinion will allow us to make some progress in some areas.”

He told reporters that Democrats will ask about the DOJ’s process for releasing the Epstein files that “produced such flawed results” in its production of the materials.

Democrats also say they’re ready for Bondi to deflect member questions by personally attacking lawmakers.

When she appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in October, she told Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to “apologize” for trying to impeach Trump and accused Sen. Dick Durbin of being unwilling “to protect your citizens” when the Illinois Democrat asked about National Guard deployment to his state.

She also punted a question on Epstein back to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) over campaign donations of which there is no record with the Federal Election Commission, then levied a bizarre charge that he had pushed legislation that would subsidize his wife’s company.

“We’ve all noticed that at prior hearings, when she’s afraid to answer a question, she attacks the members of Congress,” Rep. Ted Lieu of California, a member of House Democratic leadership who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview. “So if she starts doing that, you know she’s afraid to answer a question, and she’s engaged in a cover-up, so the American people will be able to see what she does on Wednesday.”

Bondi could go after Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a longtime vocal foe of the Trump administration who is now running for governor and has drawn past scrutiny for an alleged connection to a suspected Chinese spy. House Republicans removed him from the Intelligence Committee, but the Ethics Committee abandoned its investigation into the matter in 2023.

It’s possible Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee offer veiled criticism of the Justice Department’s immigration policies following the violent confrontations in Minnesota. House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) said at a hearing with some of the Trump administration’s top immigration officials Tuesday that “when officials or elected leaders rush to conclusions about law enforcement or their fellow Americans, public trust suffers.”

But most of the Republicans who sit on the House Judiciary dais are staunch Trump loyalists unlikely to be out of lockstep with Bondi. Massie, who Trump is now trying to primary out of office after multiple defections, could be the sole exception.

“It probably wouldn’t surprise you or her that it’s probably going to be Epstein-focused,” Massie said of his plans for questioning Bondi. But he wouldn’t offer any previews: “I don’t want her to know.”