Washington — April 22, 2026. Capitol Hill entered the midweek stretch with two parallel storylines dominating the calendar: Senate Republicans moving a $70 billion immigration-funding package through the reconciliation fast lane as the Department of Homeland Security partial shutdown stretched past six weeks, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sitting before appropriators to defend the administration’s fiscal 2027 budget request. Committee rooms across the Dirksen, Hart, Rayburn, and Longworth buildings were also active with nomination fights, oversight skirmishes, and FY2027 budget reviews. Below is The Investigative Journal’s daily read of the public record.
1. Senate moves to reconciliation on DHS funding; vote-a-rama now expected Thursday
Senate Majority Leader John Thune secured a 52–46 motion to proceed Tuesday on a budget resolution authored by Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that would unlock roughly $70 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection through the budget reconciliation process, according to floor records and reporting from Roll Call. The maneuver allows Republicans to advance DHS-component funding on a simple-majority vote without Democratic cooperation, bypassing the filibuster that has blocked a full-year appropriation since January.
Procedurally, the resolution is now subject to up to 50 hours of debate followed by a vote-a-rama — the unlimited-amendment floor exercise that, per the Senate Parliamentarian’s reference guide, has historically consumed overnight sessions and produced hundreds of recorded votes. Graham told reporters he expects the vote-a-rama to begin Thursday, with final passage of the resolution by week’s end. Reconciliation instructions would then be drafted by the Homeland Security and Judiciary committees for a subsequent bill.
The move follows more than 40 days of a DHS-component lapse in appropriations that has, according to Federal News Network, produced TSA attrition and growing immigration-court backlogs. The Senate had earlier passed a bipartisan stopgap by voice vote in March carving off ICE and CBP from the funding stream, but House Republicans declined to take it up, insisting any DHS package include dedicated enforcement money. Democrats say the reconciliation route violates the regular-order budget process; Republicans counter that the shutdown leaves them no alternative.
2. Treasury Secretary Bessent testifies on FY2027 budget before Senate appropriators
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared Wednesday morning at 10:00 a.m. before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government to defend the President’s fiscal 2027 request for the Department of the Treasury, according to the committee hearing calendar. The hearing is one of a multi-day run of Cabinet budget appearances scheduled this week as appropriators begin assembling the twelve FY2027 bills.
The request covers IRS enforcement, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Treasury’s debt-management operations at a moment of elevated fiscal strain. The Congressional Budget Office’s latest Budget and Economic Outlook projects a fiscal 2026 deficit of $1.9 trillion — 5.8 percent of gross domestic product — with federal debt rising to 120 percent of GDP by 2036. CBO also reports that the federal deficit totaled $1.2 trillion in the first half of fiscal 2026 alone.
Subcommittee members from both parties have telegraphed interest in the sanctions-enforcement and counter-fentanyl workstreams inside Treasury. Records suggest the IRS modernization account, funded in part by Inflation Reduction Act resources that have since been partially clawed back in prior reconciliation rounds, will be a point of disagreement — with Democrats warning that further reductions will erode audit capacity for high-income filers and Republicans pressing on taxpayer-service metrics.
3. Warsh Fed chair confirmation hearing: independence pledge, Tillis hold
Former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh, the President’s nominee to chair the Federal Reserve Board, testified Tuesday before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. According to CNBC’s live coverage and NPR’s takeaways, Warsh pledged he would not be the President’s “human sock puppet” in response to questioning from Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and said he would not adjust rates in response to political pressure.
Warsh called for a “regime change in the conduct of policy” and a “different, new inflation framework,” arguing that the Fed’s post-pandemic inflation response still overhangs the economy. He declined to commit to continuing the current practice of a press conference after every Federal Open Market Committee meeting, signaling a possible shift in communications posture if confirmed.
The immediate obstacle to a committee vote is Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has said he will block Warsh’s advancement until the Department of Justice drops an investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Tillis said at the hearing he otherwise supports Warsh. Records indicate no committee vote has been scheduled. Until Tillis releases his hold — or the Banking Committee’s majority moves around it — the nomination stays parked.
4. Oversight standoff: Bondi subpoena, Clinton-era document requests, Epstein files
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform remains in the middle of an expanding Jeffrey Epstein document investigation that has drawn bipartisan support for compulsory process. Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) issued subpoenas earlier this month to former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Attorneys General, and former FBI directors for records related to federal handling of the Epstein matter, per the committee’s April release.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi did not appear for a scheduled April 14 deposition, according to a statement from Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.). The Justice Department’s position, reported by Axios, is that the subpoena “no longer obligates” Bondi because it was issued to her in her former professional capacity. Committee Democrats warn that contempt proceedings are under consideration if there is no response this week. The subpoena carried bipartisan support when issued.
Separately, Comer has stated that the Justice Department is now complying with the committee’s Epstein records subpoena. The committee’s document review will continue in closed session. This is an active proceeding; allegations made during a congressional deposition are not findings of fact.
5. Senate Appropriations FSGG subcommittee reports FY2027 bill; Military Construction-VA advances
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government reported its FY2027 bill to full committee without amendment this week, according to the committee’s public markup record. The Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies also advanced its FY2027 measure, continuing the chamber’s effort to move all twelve appropriations bills ahead of the September 30 fiscal-year deadline. Details are tracked through the Senate Appropriations Committee’s hearings page.
The FSGG bill funds Treasury, the IRS, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the General Services Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, and the federal judiciary, among other agencies. The MilCon-VA bill funds military base construction, family housing, and the entire Department of Veterans Affairs — typically the least contentious of the twelve bills but politically significant given veteran-care waiting lists and the ongoing Electronic Health Record Modernization program at VA.
Committee records indicate the full Appropriations Committee is expected to mark up both measures in the coming weeks. Whether they reach the Senate floor as standalone bills or are rolled into a larger package will depend in part on how quickly the DHS reconciliation vehicle clears the chamber.
6. House floor schedule: energy, infrastructure, broadband
The House took up a suite of energy and infrastructure bills this week under rules reported by the House Rules Committee, according to the committee’s floor schedule portal. Measures teed up for consideration include H.R. 2289, the “American Broadband Deployment Act of 2026”; H.R. 4690, the “Reliable Federal Infrastructure Act”; and H.R. 5587, the “Harnessing Energy At Thermal Sources Act of 2026,” along with H.R. 1897, the Endangered Species Act Amendments Act of 2025, and a rural-communities resolution.
The broadband measure targets federal permitting timelines for high-speed internet deployment in rural and underserved areas. The thermal-sources bill extends the federal permitting framework for geothermal energy projects on public lands. The Endangered Species Act amendments are the more polarizing of the set, with prior versions drawing split votes in past Congresses. Floor debate began Tuesday, with recorded votes expected through Wednesday and Thursday, per the Majority Leader’s schedule.
Members watching the energy package should note the interaction with pending Senate appropriations language on Interior and EPA staffing — several provisions touch agency permitting offices that are themselves subject to FY2027 appropriations negotiations.
7. ALERT Act clears House 396–10; veterans mental health bill introduced
The House passed the bipartisan ALERT Act 396–10 on April 14, according to the roll call record. The legislation, introduced in the wake of the January 2025 mid-air collision over the Potomac that killed 67 people, mandates that military aircraft install collision-prevention technology by 2031, with exceptions carved out for fighters, bombers, and uncrewed aircraft. The lopsided tally is notable given how rarely defense-related mandates clear the House with three-digit bipartisan margins.
In the Senate, Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) introduced the bipartisan Every State Counts for Veterans Mental Health Act, which would prioritize Staff Sergeant Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program applications from states — including North Dakota — that have not previously received grants under the program. The bill has been referred to the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee; no markup date is set.
Both measures are examples of the narrower bipartisan aperture that remains open in this Congress even as larger fiscal and immigration fights harden along party lines. TIJ will track subsequent committee action.
8. Upcoming: hearings and votes to watch through the end of the week
Looking ahead through April 22–25, Capitol Hill watchers should track: the Senate vote-a-rama on the DHS budget resolution, expected to begin Thursday; continued Cabinet budget hearings before Senate Appropriations subcommittees on FY2027 requests from other departments; a potential Senate Banking Committee markup on the Warsh nomination if the Tillis hold lifts; and further House Oversight action on the Bondi deposition and broader Epstein-records production. Upcoming hearings are posted at the Senate Hearings & Meetings directory and Congress.gov’s weekly committee schedule.
Lawmakers in both chambers also face the longer horizon of the end-of-fiscal-year appropriations deadline of September 30, 2026. With twelve FY2027 bills still to move through full committee in both chambers, a continuing resolution before October is increasingly likely absent an acceleration of markup pace.
TIJ Investigative Beats: what’s relevant
For TIJ’s accountability readership, three items from this week’s activity merit continued monitoring. First, the House Oversight Committee’s bipartisan Epstein-records investigation — a rare instance of cross-party subpoena unity — is now producing compelled document production from the Justice Department, which will test the credibility of both the committee’s process and federal records-custody practices going back multiple administrations.
Second, the Warsh confirmation fight is, in effect, a referendum on the boundary line between executive-branch political pressure and Federal Reserve independence. Any developments on the Tillis hold or on the referenced DOJ investigation of Chair Powell warrant close reading of the public record. Filings indicate no Fed-independence statute has been introduced in this Congress to formalize that boundary.
Third, the reconciliation route to DHS funding is a structural story about how partial shutdowns are now resolved. If Senate Republicans successfully use reconciliation to fund an enforcement portion of a shutdown department, the precedent will shape how future appropriations standoffs are litigated — and whether the regular-order appropriations process continues to function as the default funding vehicle for federal operations.
The Investigative Journal will continue to cover congressional activity daily. Every claim above is sourced to the linked public record. This digest is prepared for informational purposes; allegations described in pending committee investigations are not findings of fact.