Good Tuesday evening. Congress is back — and so are we! In this edition: Lawmakers return to looming government funding deadline; and Trump announces Space Command's HQ will move to Alabama.
Plus, National Guard, Chicago, Ernst, Nadler, Tren da Aragua and Putin–Xi.
Congress
Lawmakers returned from their August recess with a long list of items to get done before the end of the year, chief among them: averting a government shutdown that will be triggered on Oct. 1 absent a funding bill.
Given the fast-approaching deadline, Republicans are expected to introduce a stopgap funding measure, known as a continuing resolution (CR), but its length has yet to be determined.
Republicans are often loath to support CRs, but since there are only 14 legislative days left for Congress to fund the government, that's the only realistic option.
Democratic votes will be required to get the CR over the finish line in the Senate, setting up a high-stakes shutdown showdown that's been complicated by the White House's recent "pocket rescissions" move.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Democrats were open to negotiating with Republicans to avert a shutdown but that they would not support a "partisan" measure.
House Democrats voted in lockstep against the last CR in March, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and several other Democrats voted to keep the government open, arguing it was the better of two bad options.
Sen. Schumer's decision was met with fierce backlash from the party's base and created a rift between him and his House counterpart.
This time around, congressional Democrats say they're on the same page, demanding bipartisan, bicameral talks to stave off a shutdown as their base itches for a fight with the White House.
"We're not going to find ourselves in a situation where Republicans at the 11th hour present a partisan spending bill that hurts everyday Americans … and then Republicans expect that we are just going to fall in line," Rep. Jeffries said. "That's not happening."
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who met with Rep. Jeffries last week, has not yet said what funding strategy Republicans will pursue but put the onus on Democrats to keep the government open.
"We've been moving forward on appropriations," he told reporters. "We do not believe it's in the nation's interest to close the government down. So, if Schumer and the Democrats have that in mind, I think that's deeply regrettable."
Congress has a host of other issues to tackle this fall, including the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which the Senate voted 84–14 to advance this afternoon.
Republicans are also expected to change the Senate's rules to get through the massive backlog of nominations, including potentially allowing nominees to be confirmed in groups.
Lawmakers may also consider several other pieces of legislation, including a potential crime bill, second reconciliation package, congressional stock trading ban and expiring health subsidies.
Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, is also expected remain an issue on the Hill for the foreseeable future.
The House Oversight Committee this afternoon released the first batch of documents related to its investigation of Mr. Epstein, though most of what was published has already been publicly released.
Separately, and much to the chagrin of Republican leadership, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) filed a discharge petition to try to force a vote to compel the Justice Department to release all files related to Mr. Epstein.
The congressman can now begin to collect the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on the matter — and he's projecting confidence that he'll get there.
President Trump announced that he will move the U.S. Space Command's headquarters to Alabama, reversing a Biden-era decision to keep it at its temporary headquarters in Colorado.
"I am thrilled to report that the U.S. Space Command headquarters will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama, forever to be known from this point forward as Rocket City," he said in the Oval Office alongside Alabama leaders.
The decision follows years of jockeying between the two states as the best place for the headquarters, which is expected to provide a major boost to the local economy.
"We had a lot of competition for this and Alabama's getting it," the president said. "They fought harder for it than anybody else."
Huntsville, known for its role in building the first rockets for the U.S. space program, is already home to the Army's Redstone Arsenal and Space and Missile Defense Command as well as NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
The Air Force identified Redstone Arsenal as its preferred location for the new headquarters in 2021, but President Biden announced two years later that it would remain in Colorado Springs, where it has been temporarily located.
The history of the combatant command, which is tasked with leading national security operations in space, dates back to 1985 but its operations were folded into U.S. Strategic Command in 2002.
President Trump reestablished Space Command in 2018 amid a renewed emphasis on the importance of space operations, particularly in the face of China's growing ambitions in the domain.
A federal judgeruled the Trump administration violated federal law with its use of the National Guard in Los Angeles, concluding the troops carried out domestic law enforcement actions in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. The troops were deployed in early June to respond to protests against federal immigration enforcement actions. The district judge did not require the 300 remaining troops to be pulled back but prohibited them from performing police functions, like arrests and crowd control.
President Trumpsaid he intends to send the National Guard into Chicago as part of his crackdown on crime in Democrat-run cities. "We're going in. I didn't say when. We're going in," he told reporters in the Oval Office. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) blasted the move, calling it politically motivated. "The Trump administration is looking for any excuse to deploy armed military personnel to Chicago," he said at a press conference.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) confirmed she will not seek reelection in 2026 after months of speculation about her plans. She becomes the second Senate Republican to call it quits — after Sen. Thom Tillis (NC) — as the party tries to retain its majority in the midterms. The former No. 4 Senate Republican became Iowa's first woman elected to Congress in 2014, when she succeeded longtime Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin. Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) quickly announced she will run for the open seat.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) announced he will not seek reelection next year, telling the New York Times there was a need for generational change in the party after "watching the Biden thing." Rep. Nadler, 78, was first elected to Congress in 1992 and is the most senior member from New York in the House. The liberal stalwart served as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee for six years.
President Trumpsaid the U.S. military killed 11 alleged members of the Tren da Aragua gang aboard a suspected drug boat originating from Venezuela. "Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!" he wrote on social media. The strike marks the first known operation since his administration's recent deployment of warships to the southern Caribbean.
Russian President Vladimir Putinsaid his country's ties to China were at an "unprecedented" high as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a summit in Beijing. The meeting came ahead of a Wednesday military parade to mark the end of World War II, which will be attended by more than two dozen world leaders, including North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
For your radar…
World War II veterans participate in a ceremony Wednesday in Washington, DC, marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II. Watch LIVE on C-SPAN at 11am ET.
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