Congress returns to battles over DHS, expelling lawmakers and the Iran war

WASHINGTON — After a two-week recess, Congress returns Monday to a growing agenda.

It needs to fund the still-shuttered Department of Homeland Security, for which Republicans want to pass a separate, party-line bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol.

And there’s a push in the House to expel up to four members, including Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, who ended his campaign for governor of California over the weekend after multiple women accused him of sexual assault and misconduct. Swalwell has said the sexual assault allegations are “false” and apologized for “mistakes in judgment.”

There will also be a debate about President Donald Trump’s ongoing war in Iran, which faces an uncertain future as he says he’s deploying U.S. assets to the region to challenge Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil flow.

DHS funding, a GOP-only ICE bill and FISA

The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for a record 58 days, though Trump recently signed an executive order aimed at paying all employees.

Democrats will not vote for funding for ICE and Customs and Border Protection without substantial reforms to immigration enforcement. So, Republicans plan to go it alone. It hasn’t been easy.

House and Senate Republicans clashed bitterly over the path forward before the Easter break, but since then, House GOP leaders have acquiesced to the Senate’s approach: fund all of DHS except ICE and Border Patrol through the regular bipartisan process, and fund those two entities in a Republican-only bill.

Still, there is uncertainty on the road ahead.

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House Republicans want to see Senate action on the bill for ICE and Border Patrol before they vote on the Senate-passed bill funding the rest of DHS and send it to the president.

That could come in the form of the Senate advancing a budget resolution to begin the process, which Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wants to adopt on the floor by the end of April.

Republicans are planning to hit the gas on a party-line budget bill to bypass a Senate filibuster, known as “reconciliation.” That would allow them to advance portions of their agenda, like funding for ICE and Border Protection, without Democrats.

“The reconciliation train is on the tracks,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the Budget Committee chair, said Friday after meeting with Trump.

And Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who attended the meeting, said Republicans are “united and ready to deliver” on Trump’s request to pass the bill by June 1.

It’s unclear whether the package will include military or war funding. Graham told NBC News it would have to be “a very tailored, focused package” to get the votes. He added that he may skip committee action and send the budget straight to the floor.

Another legislative task at hand is the expiration of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on April 20. The law empowers the government to conduct warrantless surveillance of foreigners living abroad. Civil liberties advocates in Congress have pushed for years to add privacy protections as the existing program sometimes sweeps up data on Americans.

Possible expulsions

Lawmakers’ bad behavior also will be in the spotlight this week. There may be efforts to expel four House members — two Democrats and two Republicans — in the coming days as politicians try to send a message that sexual harassment and assault, as well as other illegal behavior, will not be tolerated.

Swalwell saw his political career implode over the weekend after a former staffer alleged that she had a sexual encounter with him while he was her boss and that he later twice sexually assaulted her while she was too intoxicated to consent. He dropped out of the governor’s race after other women raised sexual misconduct allegations and scores of supporters on and off the Hill abandoned his campaign.

Members of both parties say they will support expelling Swalwell from Congress, as well as Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who has admitted to having an extramarital relationship with a staffer — a violation of House rules. The staffer died by suicide last year. And another woman, a former top campaign aide, said he had sent her sexually explicit text messages while she worked for him and aggressively urged her to have sex with him.

Gonzales said he made a “mistake” regarding the affair and his office did not respond to requests for comment on the texts allegedly sent to the former top campaign aide.

In either case, it’s unclear if the votes will hit the two-thirds threshold required to expel a member of Congress, particularly before an Ethics Committee investigation has concluded. Expulsion is extremely rare and last happened when Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., was thrown out of office in late 2023 after a scathing House Ethics report and a 23-count criminal indictment.

Other lawmakers are targeting scandal-plagued Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., who is facing an ethics investigation focused on allegations of campaign finance violations; sexual misconduct and dating violence; and abusing his position regarding a federal contract.

Finally, the House could vote to expel another Floridian, Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, whom a special House Ethics subcommittee found guilty of 25 ethics charges just before lawmakers departed for the spring recess.

The vote capped a three-year ethics and criminal probe into allegations she stole millions of dollars in federal relief funds and funneled some of that to her successful 2022 congressional campaign. Cherfilus-McCormick has said she is innocent and pleaded not guilty in a related federal criminal case.

The full Ethics panel will meet on April 21 to determine what sanctions to recommend, but it’s possible the House could hold a vote before that.

Iran war votes

The Senate is expected to face another vote to block Trump from taking military action against Iran without prior approval from Congress, which has the constitutional power to declare war.

Democrats have coalesced against the war, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., promised to force another vote this week to end it.

Republicans have previously blocked those efforts. But that was before Trump threatened to wipe out “a whole civilization” if Iran didn’t accede to his demands, before proclaiming a ceasefire that has been on shaky grounds.

“This war has made us worse off today than before it started,” Schumer told reporters last week. “This is one of the very worst military and foreign policy actions that the United States has ever taken. Ever taken.”

A CBS News poll released Sunday found that 60% of U.S. adults disapprove of the U.S. taking military action against Iran, while 40% approve. The survey found that 61% of Americans believe the war is going badly, 66% say he hasn’t clearly explained U.S. goals in the conflict, 64% say the stated objectives are changing, and 62% say Trump “does not have a clear plan” for the war.

Democrats have also seized on rising gas prices and disruptions in food supply chains after the attacks by U.S. and Israel led Iran to shut down the Strait of Hormuz.

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