Congress to dive into Trump feuds, agenda upon return to Washington

Congress returns to Washington on Monday after a week-long recess that featured controversial moves from the White House, raucous town halls in districts across the country and discussions about the future of the Democratic Party — all of which are expected to dominate the conversation on Capitol Hill over the coming days.

In the House, a Republican push to impeach Judge James Boasberg — who directed flights carrying Venezuelan migrants to be turned around — is likely to take center stage, as President Trump, Elon Musk and GOP lawmakers lobby for him to be removed. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) signaled over the weekend that the House may vote on a bill that would place limitations on the ability of district court judges to issue injunctions.

On the Senate side, Republicans are expected to turn to the effort to pass Trump’s legislative agenda, as GOP lawmakers work to reconcile the separate House and Senate budget resolutions. A top item on the to-do list is figuring out how to make the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent.

And throughout the Capitol, Democrats are sure to discuss the future of their party after this month’s shutdown showdown, which split the group — including the chamber’s two top leaders — and has left lawmakers sparring with one another over the best strategy and message to combat the second Trump administration.

Also this week, the Senate is set to confirm more of Trump’s cabinet nominees.

Lawmakers react to judicial impeachment push, Education Department moves

The Republican-led effort to push back on Boasberg is likely to take center stage this week, especially as the Trump administration stares down a March 25 deadline to hand over more information about the deportation flights to El Salvador.

Johnson announced over the weekend that he is moving ahead with the No Rogue Rulings Act, sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), which would place limitations on district court judges issuing orders providing injunctive relief decisions that affect the entire country outside their districts.

“The House is working overtime to limit the abuses of activist federal judges. Our @JudiciaryGOP will expose the worst offenders in a high profile hearing & we are preparing urgent legislative action, like the @repdarrellissa bill to stop unfounded nationwide injunctions,” he wrote on X.

It remains unclear when the bill is scheduled to come to the floor. The House Judiciary Committee advanced the legislation earlier this month.

Johnson’s decision to consider Issa’s bill could be an alternative to pursuing Boasberg’s impeachment, which several Republicans are opposed to.

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) introduced an impeachment resolution for “abuse of power” against Boasberg last week, alleging that he “knowingly and willfully use his judicial position to advance political gain while interfering with the President's constitutional prerogatives and enforcement of the rule of law.” The measure has 16 co-sponsors, including a number of hardline conservatives.

It also has the backing of Trump, who called for Boasberg’s impeachment on Truth Social and has since fundraised on the matter.

But the support is far from universal. Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) cast doubt on the effort when asked by The Hill last week, and a House GOP source said “dozens of Republicans behind the scenes have expressed reservations about this approach.”

The dynamics are creating a muddy path forward for Johnson, as he grapples with the push by Trump, Musk and hardliners to impeach Boasberg, while taking into account the apprehension many in his ranks have.

Thus far, the Speaker has not indicated where he stands on the matter.

“Activist judges with political agendas pose a significant threat to the rule of law, equal justice, and the separation of powers,” a Johnson spokesperson said in a statement. “The Speaker looks forward to working with the Judiciary Committee as they review all available options under the Constitution to address this urgent matter.”

Aside from judicial impeachment, the conversation on Capitol Hill this week will likely include reaction to Trump’s executive order aimed at dismantling the Department of Education. Fully doing away with the agency, however, would require an act of Congress, which some lawmakers are already voicing support for. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) announced last week that he would introduce legislation to shut down the department “as soon as possible.”

Lawmakers are also returning to the Capitol after a week that featured a number of raucous town halls — for both Democrats and Republicans — and constituents across the country raise concerns with rising prices, Musk’s power and potential cuts to Medicaid, among other topics.

Budget resolution talks continue

Republicans on Monday are kicking off the first week of a critical three-week stretch as they look to pass a large chunk of Trump’s legislative agenda — headlined by an extension of the president’s 2017 tax cuts.

The Senate last month adopted a budget resolution for the first of two bills full of Trump’s domestic policy priorities, with the initial package addressing border and defense. The House, meanwhile, advanced its own budget resolution out of the chamber for “one big, beautiful bill” of Trump’s agenda items shortly after, putting the two chambers on opposite paths.

Top lawmakers across the Capitol have since been trying to reconcile the two blueprints, an effort that is expected to ramp up this week, then over the following two.

“The plan right now is we’ll go back in session next week, we’re gonna try to iron out the things that we need to address in the House-passed bill, as far as that budget reconciliation resolution, then hopefully the week after next, we’ll get it to the floor,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said on Fox News on Sunday. “Again, that’s an opportunity that Democrats will get to offer all their amendments, we’ll have what’s called vote-a-rama, it will probably go all night, but then we should be able to pass that House budget resolution.”

“We hope to get it done before Memorial Day,” he said of the effort.

A large topic of conversation as Republicans work towards a budget resolution compromise is how to extend the Trump tax cuts indefinitely, a detail that the president has said he wants included. One way to do that is by implementing a budgetary gimmick known as “current policy baseline,” which assumes that the tax cut extension would not add to the deficit.

Republican leaders have expressed support for the gimmick, but it remains an open question if the Senate parliamentarian will allow it to be used. Senate Republicans are expected to meet with the parliamentarian over the next three weeks.

Democratic infighting returns to Capitol Hill

The fallout from this month’s effort to avert a government shutdown is still reverberating in the Democratic Party, a dynamic that is poised to continue this week as lawmakers return to the Capitol for the first time since the fiasco.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has taken a ton of heat since he helped advance a GOP-crafted government funding bill that avoided a shutdown, with House Democrats and even some progressives in the Senate criticizing his decision to support the effort.

Despite that disapproval, however, Schumer has made it clear he does not plan to relinquish his leadership position, sticking by his argument that a shutdown would have been more dangerous than the impact of the Republican stopgap.

“I'm not stepping down,” Schumer said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “And let me just say this, Kristen. I knew when I cast my vote against the C – against the government shutdown that it would be – that there would be a lot of controversy. And there was. But let me tell you and your audience why I did it, why I felt it was so important. The CR was certainly bad, you know, the continuing resolution. But a shutdown would be 15 or 20 times worse.”

Senate Democrats are scheduled to huddle for their weekly lunch this week, marking the first time the group will be together since the vote earlier this month.

Adding to Schumer’s woes, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) embarked on their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour last week, arguing that the party needs to fight harder — a veiled swipe at Schumer.

Those comments drew pushback from Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who has emerged as a centrist Democrat in his first term in the Capitol. Fetterman helped advance the GOP funding bill earlier this month.

“Fight ‘harder’—a stunt that would have harmed millions and plunged us into chaos. We kept our government open. Deal with it,” he wrote on X.

In a good sign for Schumer heading into the week, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters last week he has confidence in his Senate counterpart, a change from when he refused to comment days earlier. 

Senate continues Trump cabinet confirmation votes

The Senate is set to confirm more of Trump’s cabinet this week, as the upper chamber looks to fill out the ranks of the president’s second administration.

On Monday at around 5:30 p.m., the Senate is scheduled to vote on the confirmation of John Phelan to be secretary of the Navy, and Christopher Landau to be deputy secretary of State.

The upper chamber could consider other nominees that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) filed cloture on, including Michael Kratsios to be director of the Office of Science and Technology, Jayanta Bhattacharya to be director of the National Institutes of Health, Martin Makary to be commissioner of food and drugs at the Department of Health and Human Services, James Bishop to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Aaron Reitz to be assistant attorney general.