Congress: One chamber down, one to go (plus snow)

Valerie Yurk and Savannah Behrmann, CQ-Roll Call on Jan 23, 2026

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WASHINGTON — The House left Thursday night after barely shooting down another war powers resolution and passing a last slate of funding bills, leaving it up to the Senate to avert a partial government shutdown by next week’s deadline.

But with a major winter storm predicted to blanket Washington and other swaths of the country in double digits of snow this weekend, senators could instead be facing snow days that make for tight timing.

House heads out

House Republican leadership began the week with some easy floor victories on pregnancy resources bills, conveniently timed a few days before the annual anti-abortion rally in Washington on Friday.

But things heated up for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., as the Rules Committee started to form a plan for floor consideration for the remaining government funding bills. A cohort of corn-state Republicans made a last-minute bid to add an ethanol proposal to the funding package, almost tanking a procedural vote in order to extract various “commitments” from Johnson.

After clearing that hurdle, the House easily passed the funding measures.

Controversy over President Donald Trump’s actions in Venezuela and remarks on Greenland reached the floor Thursday, as House Republicans narrowly beat a resolution to tie Trump’s hands on future military action inside Venezuela. Two GOP members sided with Democrats, citing concern over Trump’s retracted threat to take Greenland with military force and levy punitive tariffs on U.S. allies. If Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, who missed floor action throughout the week, hadn’t caught a last-minute flight to Washington to vote, it would have passed.

Off the floor, a House panel on Wednesday got the ball rolling on a process that could lead to criminal charges against Bill and Hillary Clinton. The Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted to recommend holding the duo in contempt of Congress, citing their failure to appear for separate depositions tied to the panel’s investigation of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

On Thursday, former special counsel John L. “Jack” Smith for the first time outlined his past probe of Trump for members of the House Judiciary Committee — one that led to two criminal charges against the current president. Although Smith stood by his investigation, Republicans slammed him for seeking GOP lawmakers’ phone records.

The chamber also had a star-studded week, with appearances from socialite Paris Hilton, who advocated for a deepfakes bill, and “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Angie Katsanevas, who testified in front of the Small Business Committee.

Senate’s snow dilemma

The Senate’s main focus to close out the month will be to wrap up funding the government before the Jan. 30 deadline. But senators' already tight schedule to pass the remaining six of the 12 annual appropriations measures could be shortened if floor time and votes are disrupted by the impending snowstorm heading for D.C.

Some models show the potential for a foot of snow in the region, plus the possibility of ice and sleet, with effects lingering into Monday. The Senate is scheduled to convene that afternoon.

Senators spent their recess week either back in their home states or abroad on delegations, including a bipartisan group that traveled to both Denmark and Davos, Switzerland, in an effort to defuse some international tensions.

And the focus on developments abroad won’t waver this week, with crucial hearings and attention on the White House as senators seek more details of a “framework of a future deal” on Greenland that Trump said was reached with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

Next Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will appear in front of the Foreign Relations Committee and face questions about the military operation that led to the arrest of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.

His former colleagues will likely press Rubio on the lack of information shared by the administration, as well as future plans in the South American country as Trump eyes its proven oil reserves, the largest in the world.

The hearing comes after Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., sought assurances and clarity from the administration before pulling his support from a Venezuela war powers resolution earlier this month.