Government Shutdown Threat. Epstein Cover-Up. We’re Fighting Back.

Friends-

Congress is back in session, and I'm back in Washington, D.C.

And once again, House Republicans' policies are steering us in the wrong direction.

We are less than a month away from a potential government shutdown. Conservatives are doubling down on a funding level that would gut programs everyday Americans rely on. This is on top of the cuts they already rammed through in Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill."

And now, in an unprecedented move, the White House has announced it will try to unilaterally cut funding for programs that Congress has already approved. The Constitution gives Congress the "power of the purse." So it's no surprise that even some Senate Republicans are calling this unconstitutional.

So let's be clear about what's going on here: Conservatives want us to vote for a funding bill-one that further slashes funding for health care and education-and then allow them to go back and erase the parts they don't like?

I don't think so.

On the Appropriations Committee, I'm fighting to stop these reckless cuts because Trump's policies are already doing enough damage to our economy.

In just the past month:

• Trump fired the head of the agency that produces labor statistics. This came after the agency released dismal jobs numbers for July that Trump characterized as being "RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad."
• He's attempting to fire Fed officials. Trump has indicated support for the Fed lowering interest rates, a move that could send inflation soaring.
• And a court just ruled that most of Trump's tariffs are illegal-but those tariffs will stay in place and continue raising prices while he appeals.

How does any of this help working Americans?

Firing civil servants for doing their jobs? Launching trade wars that are raising prices? Who asked for this?

And meanwhile, there's something else conservatives clearly hope we forget about: the Epstein files.

Well, we haven't forgotten.

I join my colleagues in Congress in demanding the Trump administration release the full Epstein files.

We know Trump's Attorney General, Pam Bondi, said there was a client list on her desk-then denied it existed-then briefed Trump that his name was in the files.

Additionally, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released photos of a birthday card provided by Jeffrey Epstein's estate in which Trump allegedly wrote lewd messages. We also learned that some victims worked at Mar-a-Lago.

And last week, as nearly a dozen victims of Epstein's heinous crimes stood outside the Capitol Building demanding the White House release the Epstein files, Trump said "It's really a Democrat hoax, because they're trying to get people to talk about something that's totally irrelevant to the success we've had as a nation since I've been president."

The release of the Epstein files isn't about politics. It's not about Republicans or Democrats.

It's about the sexual abuse and trafficking of children.

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell ran the operation-but their clients, the powerful people who enabled and participated in that abuse, have escaped accountability for decades.

Trump recently said "We're going in. I didn't say when, we're going in" in response to questions about the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago. A court just found that his deployment of the Guard in California was illegal.

Meanwhile, my Democratic colleagues and I will remain focused on holding perpetrators of all kinds of crimes accountable.

The victims deserve justice, and the American people deserve the truth. They deserve a government dedicated to their interests, not the interests of the president.

Sincerely,

Jim