The president fumed about the project in a social media post, demanding “Fairness and Respect” from Canada.

The House on Monday night passed its bipartisan housing package aimed at increasing home supply and affordability, setting up an uncertain effort to merge the measure with a Senate housing bill. House lawmakers approved by a vote of 390-9 the Housing in the 21st Century Act under suspension of the rules, a fast-track procedure for non-controversial legislation. The bill includes provisions to modernize local development and rural housing programs, expand manufactured and affordable housing, protect borrowers and those utilizing federal housing programs and enhance oversight of housing providers. The package also contained a recently added section aimed at increasing community bank lending. Congress must now work to get a unified bill to the president’s desk. The Senate passed its own bipartisan housing affordability package in October, which was supported by the White House. Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) — who spearheaded the House bill with ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) — told reporters Monday he plans to negotiate with the administration as well as his counterparts on the Senate Banking Committee to get a final version which both chambers and the White House can support. “We wanted to get [the housing bill and other committee priorities] through the House so that we could work with the Senate to find packages that the President could sign into law, long before the very active summer campaign season,” Hill said. “So I would hope that we could work over the spring and find a way to have a bicameral, bipartisan set of bills.” Hill has previously said the Senate bill, the ROAD to Housing Act, contained a number of provisions that House Republicans would likely not support. Although the House and Senate bills share many similarities, the Senate measure includes a number of grant programs that would expand federal spending. But Senate Banking ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said that she still wants the House to take up the Senate bill, setting the stage for a potential clash. Support from Senate Democrats will likely be necessary to get housing legislation through the upper chamber. “ROAD to Housing is a Jenga tower. Adding or taking things away risks losing the unanimous coalition that we have built in the Senate,” Warren said in an interview. Warren also signaled that she disapproved of the new section added to the House legislation, which would ease regulation on community banks — reflecting Hill’s “Make Community Banking Great Again” agenda. “House Republicans should not hold housing relief hostage to push forward several bank deregulatory bills that will make our community banks more fragile,” Warren said in a statement before Monday’s House vote. Katherine Hapgood contributed to this report. Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie are challenging the Justice Department for redacting the names of six men in the publicly released materials related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — and they could take matters into their own hands to reveal their identities. These omissions, the two lawmakers argued Monday evening outside the Justice Department, could go beyond the scope of redactions that are permitted under the legislation they championed — and which President Donald Trump signed into law in November — to compel the full release of Epstein files within DOJ’s possession. And while they declined to share the names with reporters Monday, Massie, a Kentucky Republican, didn’t rule out taking steps to do so in the coming days. He told reporters he should “probably” broadcast the identity of the shielded individuals “from the floor or in a committee hearing,” where his remarks would be protected from lawsuits through the Speech and Debate Clause. “What we’re after is the men who Jeffrey Epstein trafficked women to,” said Massie, adding he would give DOJ officials the opportunity to “correct their mistakes” and reverse the redactions on their own before reading the names of the six men on the chamber floor or from a committee dais. Massie said at least one of the men was a U.S. citizen, another was a foreigner and the nationalities of others were unclear. He suggested authorities were investigating at least one of them. “There are six men, some of them with their photographs, that have been redacted, and there’s no explanation why those people were redacted,” Khanna, a California Democrat, told reporters. “That’s really concerning.” Khanna and Massie were at a DOJ office building Monday to peruse the unredacted Epstein files, a privilege being afforded to members of Congress following the files’ public release. The lawmakers scrutinized the unscrubbed materials on closely held computers — though Massie complained he was unable to view some documents that have since been taken down from the Justice Department website after being posted publicly. Khanna suggested that some materials may have been redacted before the Justice Department review — potentially by the FBI — complicating the process for complete transparency. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, also viewed the unredacted materials earlier in the day Monday. He said there were about four computers for lawmakers’ use and viewers can only take written notes on what they see. “We didn’t want to see any redactions of the names of co-conspirators, accomplices, enablers, abusers, rapists, simply to spare them potential embarrassment, political sensitivity or disgrace of some kind,” Raskin told reporters. “And yet nonetheless, the Epstein … documents that were released are filled with redactions of names and information about people who clearly are not victims and may fall into that other category.” He pointed to the redaction of Les Wexner’s identity as an example. Wexner, the former CEO of Victoria’s Secret, was an Epstein client and has a deposition scheduled before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee later this month. Raskin also said he saw one redacted document, a message from Epstein’s legal team regarding Trump. He recalled the note mentioned that Trump had identified Epstein as a guest, but not a member, of Mar-a-Lago. “That was redacted for some indeterminate, inscrutable reason,” he said.

But the judge also turned down the federal government’s request to block another California law aimed at abuses in immigration enforcement.

Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie are challenging the Justice Department for redacting the names of six men in the publicly released materials related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — and they could take matters into their own hands to reveal their identities. These omissions, the two lawmakers argued Monday evening outside the Justice Department, could go beyond the scope of redactions that are permitted under the legislation they championed — and which President Donald Trump signed into law in November — to compel the full release of Epstein files within DOJ’s possession. And while they declined to share the names with reporters Monday, Massie, a Kentucky Republican, didn’t rule out taking steps to do so in the coming days. He told reporters he should “probably” broadcast the identity of the shielded individuals “from the floor or in a committee hearing,” where his remarks would be protected from lawsuits through the Speech and Debate Clause. “What we’re after is the men who Jeffrey Epstein trafficked women to,” said Massie, adding he would give DOJ officials the opportunity to “correct their mistakes” and reverse the redactions on their own before reading the names of the six men on the chamber floor or from a committee dais. Massie said at least one of the men was a U.S. citizen, another was a foreigner and the nationalities of others were unclear. He suggested authorities were investigating at least one of them. “There are six men, some of them with their photographs, that have been redacted, and there’s no explanation why those people were redacted,” Khanna, a California Democrat, told reporters. “That’s really concerning.” Khanna and Massie were at a DOJ office building Monday to peruse the unredacted Epstein files, a privilege being afforded to members of Congress following the files’ public release. The lawmakers scrutinized the unscrubbed materials on closely-held computers — though Massie complained he was unable to view some documents that have since been taken down from the Justice Department website after being posted publicly. Khanna suggested that some materials may have been redacted before the Justice Department review — potentially by the FBI — complicating the process for complete transparency. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, also viewed the unredacted materials earlier in the day Monday. He said there were about four computers for lawmakers’ use and viewers can only take written notes on what they see. “We didn’t want to see any redactions of the names of co-conspirators, accomplices, enablers, abusers, rapists, simply to spare them potential embarrassment, political sensitivity or disgrace of some kind,” Raskin told reporters. “And yet nonetheless, the Epstein … documents that were released are filled with redactions of names and information about people who clearly are not victims and may fall into that other category.” He pointed to the redaction of Les Wexner’s identity as an example. Wexner, the former CEO of Victoria’s Secret, was an Epstein client and has a deposition scheduled before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee later this month. Raskin also said he saw one redacted document, a message from Epstein’s legal team regarding Trump. He recalled the note mentioned that Trump had identified Epstein as a guest, but not a member, of Mar-a-Lago. “That was redacted for some indeterminate, inscrutable reason,” he said.

A leader of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement said he wants to preserve the Trump-Kennedy coalition that won in 2024.

The seeming stalemate sets up a clash between the Trump administration and Democrats ahead of a Friday night deadline.

The paper wrote that the U.S. has “gone too far” in normalizing usage of the drug.

House Democrats are meeting to finalize plans to force the vote, after GOP leaders’ procedural block on votes on Trump’s emergency tariffs expired last month. House Democrats are aiming to force a vote on President Donald Trump’s Canada tariffs as early as Wednesday. House Democrats still need to meet and decide when to offer the resolution, but it is likely to come Wednesday, according to two staffers granted anonymity to discuss private plans. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) introduced the resolution last March, but House Republican leaders blocked a vote on the measure and any others disapproving of Trump’s emergency powers to impose tariffs. That block expired in January, after a group of Republicans pushed leadership to allow tariff votes. One of those lawmakers, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), said he is inclined to vote to end the tariffs on Canada. “We have a trade agreement with them, and I don’t like how the White House has treated our neighbor and ally,” Bacon said Monday in an interview. If it is offered, it would force a difficult vote for Republican lawmakers, who have faced sustained pressure from businesses in their districts over the costs and disruptions the tariffs have produced. The Senate has voted twice to block Trump from imposing tariffs on Canada, first in April and then again in October. Four Republican Senators voted with the Democrats each time: Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The votes are largely symbolic — even if Congress disapproves of Trump’s national emergency, the president is likely to veto it, and it would require a two-thirds vote from both chambers to overturn his veto. Trump used his emergency powers to impose a 25 percent tariff on goods from Canada, Mexico and China in February, accusing the three countries of failing to prevent undocumented migrants and fentanyl from flowing into the U.S. The administration exempted the majority of Canadian goods from those tariffs, however, if they comply with the existing U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement. Doug Palmer contributed to this article.

A draft pact, obtained by POLITICO, seeks to help ensure data centers do not raise household electricity prices, strain water resources or undermine grid reliability.

The former House colleagues built their profiles working together on impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.

Top U.S. intelligence agencies are cooperating with Kurt Olsen, who worked with Trump to undermine the results of the 2020 election.

The summit could be the first of four meetings this year between the two leaders.

Bannon already served a four-month prison sentence in 2024 for his conviction on the charges.

Republicans’ evolving stances on AI are offering a preview of the post-Trump debates within the party.

From his clubby Capitol office, the 76-year-old Appropriations chair managed demanding colleagues and political headwinds — and pulled off a seemingly impressive feat.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright is scheduled to be the highest-level Trump administration official to set foot in Venezuela since Nicolás Maduro’s capture.

For an audience of millions, the Puerto Rican superstar put on the NFL’s first-ever Spanish-led show. Trump and his allies said he didn't represent America.

Members of the New York State Nurses Association must now vote to approve the contract agreements.

Recently disclosed records suggest a closer relationship than the Commerce secretary previously indicated. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is facing bipartisan calls to resign after he appeared in a recent batch of files linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) accused Lutnick in a statement Monday of having “lied” about the extent of his connection to Epstein. Lutnick has sought to downplay their relationship, saying in a podcast appearance last year he vowed in 2005 to never again be in the same room as Epstein. But files recently released by the Justice Department suggest he continued his interactions with Epstein, including planning a visit several years later to Epstein’s Caribbean island. “Lutnick’s lies about his business dealings with a convicted child sex offender, raise serious concerns about his judgement and ethics,” Schiff said. “Lutnick has no business being our Commerce Secretary, and he should resign immediately.” The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson previously said that Lutnick had “limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.” House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who is leading an investigation into Epstein and has already subpoenaed multiple associates, did not rule out issuing one for Lutnick. But he said the panel’s outstanding subpoenas take priority for now. “We’re interested in talking to anyone that might have any information that would help us get justice for the survivorship,” he told reporters Monday. Schiff is joining a bipartisan chorus of House members who have called in recent days for Lutnick to either resign or be fired – neither of which appears to be on the precipice of happening. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told CNN during an interview that aired over the weekend that Lutnick should “make life easier on the president, frankly, and just resign.” House Democrats, including top Oversight Committee member Robert Garcia, have also called on Lutnick to go. “It’s now clear that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been lying about his relationship with Epstein,” the Californian posted on X. “Lutnick must resign or be fired. And he must answer our questions.” Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.

In a virtual deposition, Maxwell’s attorney said his client still sought clemency in exchange for testifying freely. The Congressional investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein hit its latest snag Monday morning when Epstein’s longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, declined to answer questions in a sworn deposition. Maxwell, now serving a 20-year sentence for her part in Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme, invoked her Fifth Amendment right over video from a prison camp in Texas, months after she had been subpoenaed by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In a copy of Maxwell’s lawyer’s opening statement obtained by POLITICO, David Oscar Markus reiterated that grant of clemency would facilitate her testimony — a power only President Donald Trump can bestow. He has not ruled out issuing a pardon. “Only she can provide the complete account. Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters,” according to Markus’ prepared remarks. “For example, both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing. Ms. Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation.” He also noted some of Maxwell’s legal proceedings were still ongoing. Democrats accused Maxwell of using the deposition as part of a campaign for clemency from Trump, while Oversight Chair James Comer told reporters he did not believe Maxwell should be granted clemency. “Unfortunately, she had an opportunity today to answer questions that every American has — questions that would be very important in this investigation — and she chose to invoke her Fifth Amendment right,” the Kentucky Republican said. Rank-and-file members of the panel who shuffled into the deposition room Monday morning for Maxwell’s questioning included Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who is running for governor, and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Il.), who is running for Senate. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said he intended to view the unredacted Epstein files from the Justice Department Monday afternoon. He also noted he would be joined by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), with whom Khanna led the effort to force a floor vote on the release of the files. Lead Art: House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) speaks with reporters before the committee deposed Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Feb. 9, 2026. (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images) | AP

Energy Secretary Chris Wright is slated to brief senators on the administration’s Venezuela involvement in a closed-door meeting this week. The meeting comes at the request of Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) and will focus on the Energy Department’s involvement in Venezuela, said a spokesperson for the committee. The panel will hear from Wright Tuesday as the secretary prepares to visit the South American nation, according to an interview with the POLITICO Energy podcast. The briefing follows weeks of uncertainty about the United States’ control over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Following the Trump administration’s invasion of Venezuela and removal of its president last month, Wright said that DOE planned to sell the country’s oil “indefinitely.” But in a public hearing two weeks ago, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the United States looked to only exert control over Venezuela’s oil sector in the “short term.” Wright told POLITICO that despite President Donald Trump’s comments about the U.S. benefiting from Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, U.S. action there was not because of energy. “This was a geopolitical problem of a country that was a threat to all of its neighbors, a threat to the Western hemisphere, and a massive exporter of guns, of drugs, of criminals.It may be a nice coincidence, but it is coincidental that Venezuela’s main product and giant resource is oil,” said Wright. Jordan Roberts, communications director for Energy and Natural Resources Committee Republicans, said about the briefing: “Chairman Lee appreciates the Secretary’s willingness and looks forward to receiving additional information.” Lee, who is generally an ardent defender of President Donald Trump, expressed skepticism about the administration’s military moves in Venezuela in the initial hours of the January operation. But after receiving personal assurances from Rubio, Lee posted on social media that he was confident that the action “likely falls within the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution.”

Nithya Raman stunned the LA political world — and her former ally, Mayor Karen Bass — with her challenge to Bass' reelection bid.

It’s highly unlikely all sides can agree to a full-year Department of Homeland Security revamp by Friday at midnight. With fewer than five days to go before a DHS shutdown, Senate Democrats have put bill text for a full-year funding compromise on the table. But another punt is probably still the best-case scenario, and it’s by no means guaranteed. — What Democrats are pitching: The draft legislation Democrats sent Republicans Sunday would codify the immigration enforcement guardrails outlined by Democratic leaders last week, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss the plans. They include new judicial warrant requirements and limits on masking by federal agents. — Republicans review and prepare for CR: While getting bill text is generally a good thing for the process, after Republicans complained publicly into the weekend about the lack of specifics from Democrats, it hasn’t changed the endgame for this week. Republicans and the White House view some of the ideas as possible areas for negotiation, but it’s just highly unlikely all sides agree to a full-year DHS revamp by Friday at midnight. Senate Republicans expect to begin taking procedural steps Monday to set up consideration of a DHS funding patch. Senate aides still hope there’s a way to prevent a DHS shutdown, and progress on negotiations could dictate how easy it is to get bipartisan buy-in for another CR. Most Democrats will be reluctant to punt. — Shutdown still looks likely: Unless the Senate does the unexpected and clears a new CR for DHS by Wednesday, there probably won’t be enough time for the House to follow suit before the shutdown deadline. House GOP leaders have no plans to cancel next week’s recess absent clearer proof of progress in the Senate, meaning a DHS shutdown could take even longer to resolve. What else we’re watching: — Ghislaine Maxwell deposition: The House Oversight Committee will depose Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell virtually at 10 a.m. Monday. Maxwell is expected to invoke the Fifth Amendment and be uncooperative with questioning. House Judiciary ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) will be reviewing unredacted Epstein files, according to a spokesperson. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) will review the files as well. — House moves on housing package: The House is expected to swiftly pass a sweeping, bipartisan housing supply bill from the Financial Services Committee on Monday afternoon. After that, it’s unclear how the House and Senate will come together on one of the country’s most urgent cost-of-living problems. — DC tax bill advances: Senate Republicans are expected to act early this week to pass a measure that would force the District of Columbia to implement GOP tax cuts. The bill, which the House passed along party lines last week, would block a November D.C. budget law that tossed aside tax provisions from last year’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Jordain Carney, Hailey Fuchs and Cassandra Dumay contributed to this report.