A shutdown fight and Epstein drama await as Congress returns to Washington

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said: “Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.”

Collins has issued similar warnings in the past, which have been ignored by the White House and GOP leaders, who embraced Trump’s previous round of “rescissions” to undo funding approved by Congress.

Hard-right Republicans are also demanding that spending be kept low.

“Spending has got to stay flat or go down. I mean, that’s the deal,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said. “Whatever format that takes … but it needs to stay flat or go down.”

Pressure builds on Epstein files

In July, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a conservative Trump antagonist, rolled out a resolution to force the Justice Department to release the Epstein files, predicting pressure would build throughout the August recess and reach a boiling point by the time Congress returns this week.

But Massie and the Democratic co-author of the legislation, Rep. Ro Khanna of California, are leaving nothing to chance. On Wednesday, they plan to host a Capitol news conference featuring sexual abuse survivors of Epstein, the convicted sex offender who took his own life in 2019, and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in recruiting and trafficking minors for sex.

Khanna said he believes they’ll have the requisite 218 member signatures needed for their discharge petition — a process that would circumvent GOP leadership and force a floor vote to release the files.

“The testimonials from Epstein’s victims are going to be explosive on Sept. 3, and I am confident all 212 Democrats will sign it and we will have more than six Republicans sign,” Khanna told NBC News.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has opposed the discharge push. During an appearance on CNN, he called it a “moot point” and “not necessary” because the House Oversight Committee already has been reviewing a tranche of documents provided by the Justice Department.

But Massie and Khanna say the Trump administration is not moving fast enough. The Oversight panel subpoenaed the DOJ for its investigative files in the Epstein case, which total roughly 100,000 pages. The panel said it received about a third of those documents last Friday and that more would be turned over in the future.