WASHINGTON — It may now be fall, but that doesn’t mean Congress finished its summer homework.
After taking August off, Congress returns this week to face basically the same teetering stack of unfinished business that was on its plate at the end of July.
A government shutdown looms, even as the Jeffrey Epstein scandal threatens to doom President Donald Trump and the stack of nominees before the Senate has only grown longer.
Buckle up. It’s promising to be a feisty fall in the nation’s capital.
Smoke, mirrors, subpoenas
While the Epstein scandal seems to have united Democrats around a common enemy, on the GOP side of the aisle many on the far right blame fellow Republicans for attempting to bury the story.
That has veteran Republicans fuming — in their sedate congressional way.
“I see us being able to get our work done, the question is, do others?” 14-term Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) told Raw Story.
“I am a person who goes to fix, not fight. You know that. We need to understand that we've got to see the bigger picture, and that is the job the American people also sent us here to do.”
When it comes to the far right, the answer remains no — especially when it comes to Epstein.
GOP leaders’ heads are likely pounding but their lingering, months-long headaches should be a surprise to no one, especially after Speaker Mike Johnson caved to pressure from Trump and recessed the House early in July, to avoid a vote on whether to release the Epstein files.
At the time, rank-and-file Republicans were wondering why the party’s big plan was to effectively kick the can down the road.
“Does leadership really think this issue isn't going to be front and center when y'all come back in September?” Raw Story asked veteran Freedom Caucus member Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC).
“No,” Norman said. “Nothing's going to change.”
“You made a promise to your people?” Raw Story asked.
“And the promise is going to be kept,” Norman said, “should it be in 30 days or should it be in 45.”
That doesn’t mean GOP leaders haven’t tried to wag the dog. For example, August brought an announcement from House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) that the committee had “issued deposition subpoenas to Bill and Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Merrick Garland, Robert Mueller, William Barr, Jeff Sessions, and Alberto Gonzales for testimony related to horrific crimes perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein.”
Smoke, mirrors and subpoenas may not work this time, though.
Raw Story asked: “Do you think your leadership believes that we're not going to be asking these same questions in September?”
“I don't know what they think. They’re attorneys, I'm not. That's the difference,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said, before a horse broke his rib during the August recess.
“I’m over it,” he said. “We need to get on with it.”
Nothing’s really changed.
“Your position on forcing release of Epstein files (that don’t endanger victims) hasn’t changed since July, right?” Raw Story texted Burchett, in August.
“Right,” replied the congressman — who in October 2023 was one of eight Republicans who ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
‘Not good for the country’
Democrats seem to have exploited the Epstein drama to their political advantage, but rank-and-file members say the extended, GOP-induced impasse isn’t about scoring a win.
Since leaving town in July, they haven’t taken their eyes off the ball.
Raw Story asked: “When you guys come back in September, are we going to be having the same conversation?”
“Yes,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI).
“How frustrating is that?” Raw Story pressed. “Or is it good? Does it mean you guys are–?”
“I don't think it's good,” Dingell interjected. “I don't think it’s good policy. It's not good for the country.
“The budget expires September 30th and people are going to talk about the budget all August. They're going to talk about Epstein all August. And we're going to come back and people are going to be demanding files.”
When it comes to trying to avert a government shutdown at the end of September, Dingell said, she and her fellow Democrats will still be smarting from the Trump administration's rescissions package, which gutted foreign aid programs and left many local public media outlets struggling for survival — even after large bipartisan swaths of the 118th Congress approved those spending levels.
Additionally, Dingell didn't know then about Trump's hugely controversial “pocket rescission” of $4.9bn in foreign aid, announced at the end of August, to uproar and predictions of a shutdown for sure.
But she said her party hasn’t forgotten about Trump's charred-earth approach to spending conventions.
“There's already a debate happening within the Democratic Party about whether to allow a shutdown or whether you all should salvage it,” Raw Story pressed. “Is that the wrong debate you guys are having?”
“No it's not,” Dingell said. “If you don't have an appropriations process that's real, that if what you're going to do is going to get rescinded, why the f––– should you vote for it?”
'No trust at this point'
At least one former Trump cabinet secretary has a few reasons why Democrats should avert a shutdown at all costs.
During Trump’s first term, proud cowboy hat-wearing Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) served as Interior Secretary.
Zinke vividly remembers how whenthe government runs out of congressionally approved cash, as it did twice during Trump’s first term, cabinet members swiftly amass new powers.
“I had a lot of latitude of what was ‘key and essential’ — I didn't shut down the parks,” Zinke told Raw Story. “I could’ve. The previous administration did. The previous administration brought concertina wire and chain link fence around the monuments and the [National] Mall. Remember that?”
Last spring, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) faced blowback from both the party’s progressive wing and rank-and-file electeds for voting to keep the government funded, even as Democratic priorities weren’t included in the spending measure.
While many Democrats are itching for a fight with Trump, Zinke says they should think twice before withholding their support from this fall’s government funding package.
"So there is an argument that shutting it down is going to give the Trump administration more power,” Zinke said.
“I think it's more power but for a shorter amount of time, because you really can't sustain a long-term government shutdown. The consequences are too great, but you can do it for a short period of time and it gives you an enormous amount of executive power."
While Democrats fear empowering President Trump and his cabinet even more, many don’t view him, Johnson and Vice President JD Vance as honest negotiating partners.
“You guys have no trust at this point?” Raw Story asked.
“No,” Dingell replied.
“What can they do to regain your trust or is it just gone?”
“Let's see,” Dingell sighed. “We'll see.”