Government judgment, CDC combat, Epstein probe, prohibition of action exchanges dominate the agenda of the congress

The annual spending battle will dominate the September agenda, as well as a possible effort by the Senate Republicans to modify the rules of their room to thwart democratic tactics on appointments. The Senate also debates the opportunity to move forward on legislation that would slap high prices on some of Russia’s business partners, the American pressures of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.

In the House, the Republicans will continue their investigations on former president Joe Biden while President Mike Johnson sails on a split in his conference on the question of whether the Trump administration should publish more files in Jeffrey Epstein’s investigation.

A look at what the congress will then make the legislators come back from the August break:

Keep the government open

The most urgent task for the congress is to avoid a government closure on September 30, when federal funding is exhausted. And it is not clear if the Republicans and Democrats will be able to agree on how to do so.

The congress will have to adopt a short -term expenditure measure to maintain the funded government for a few weeks or months while it tries to complete the annual package. But the Republicans will need democratic votes to adopt an extension, and the Democrats will want significant concessions. The voting of the Democratic leader of the Senate Chuck Schumer with the Republicans to avoid a closure in Marchprompted Furious reactiones within his party.

The Trump administration efforts to recover previously approved expenses could also complicate negotiations. The Republicans have adopted legislation this summer, which canceled around $ 9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting funds and Trump again informed the congress that it will block $ 4.9 billion in foreign aid approved by the Congress.

Democrats have warned that such efforts could land wider negotiations. “Trump is rooted for a closure,” Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Published on social networks on Friday.

Nominations in the Senate are fighting

Senators are expected to return to Washington where they stopped in early August – arguing Trump’s candidates.

The exasperated republicans fled Washington for the month after having made little progress with the Democrats of the Senate concerning their blockade of appointments, which forced delays in confirmations and made Trump because many positions of his administration are not fulfilled. Republican leaders called it after a rare Saturday session which ended with a break in bipartite negotiations and Trump’s publication on social networks that Chuck Schumer could “go to hell!”

Republicans now say that they are ready to try to modify the rules of the Senate to bypass democratic delays, and they should spend the coming weeks to discuss how it could work.

Russian sanctions

The republican senator Lindsey Graham de Caroline du Sud, one of the allies closest to the Congress of Trump, pushed the president for months to support his bill on Bipartisan sanctions which would impose high prices on the countries which fuel the invasion of Ukraine by Russia by buying its oil, its gas, its uranium and other exports. The legislation has the support of 85 senators, but Trump has not yet approved, and the Republican leaders have so far said that they would not move without him.

Graham intensified his calls after Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy last month in the hope of a peace agreement. Since then, Russia has continued to intensify attacks against Ukraine.

“If we do not have this thing that evolves in the right direction when we come back, then I think that plan B must come into play,” said Graham about his bill in an interview with the Associated Press last month.

CDC monitoring

The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, will appear before the Senate committee to discuss his health program Thursday, less than a week after having ousted Susan Monarez as a director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Several other senior officials also resigned to protest.

Kennedy tried to advance anti-vaccine policies which are contradicted by decades of scientific research. Monarerez lawyers said it refused to “stadium non -scientific rubber, reckless guidelines and health experts dedicated to fire”.

The senator of Louisiana, Bill Cassidy, the republican president of the aid committee who supervises the CDC and a member of the finance committee, called on the CDC to delay a meeting of external experts who make recommendations on the use of vaccines until the congress can examine the issue.

Divisions on Epstein

The room left Washington in July in the midst of the disagreements of the Republicans as to whether they should force President Donald Trump’s administration to disclose more information on the survey of sexual traffic in the late Jeffrey Epstein. Pressure for more disclosure could only become intense when legislators return.

California’s Democratic Ro Khanna and Republican representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky pushed the Chamber to take his bill to force the Ministry of Justice to publicly publish his investigation. They plan a press conference this week joined by Epstein Victims. The Chamber’s supervisory committee is also investigating the issue.

Democrats are impatient to continue to support Epstein files, especially after the Trump administration has returned promises of transparency. The case for years has been the subject of online conspiracy theories and speculation on which may have been involved or aware of the abuse of the rich financial.

Investigate

The Chamber’s supervisory committee will return from the recess of August with a list of interviews lined up as part of its investigation into the mental state of former president Joe Biden during his mandate. The committee has already carried out interviews and depositions with nearly a dozen former best aids and members of the president’s inner circle.

The Committee led by Les Républicains will hear the former members of the Top Biden in September like Jeff Zients, the last chief of staff of the Blanche de Biden, Karine Jean-Pierre, the former press secretary of the White House, and Andrew Bates, a press aid.

Surveillance president James Comer, R-KY., Said public hearings and a full report can be expected in the fall.

Prohibition to negotiate actions

Congress has discussed proposals for years to prevent legislators from engaging in the negotiation of individual actions, nodding at the idea that there is a potential conflict of interest when they are often aware of information and decisions that can considerably move the markets.

This thrust is now growing. A senatorial committee approved the legislation of the GOP senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri, which would also extend the prohibition to negotiate actions to future presidents and vice -presidents – while exempting in particular Trump. In the House, several members propose proposals and even threatened to maneuver around the management of the GOP to force a vote.

However, there is a lot of resistance to the idea, including many rich legislators who harvest dividends of their wallets.