The uproar and debate over the Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation are complicating efforts for House lawmakers to vote on a spending cuts package. CBS News congressional correspondent Nikole Killion reports.

Washington

Efforts in the U.S. House of Representatives to vote on a $9 billion spending cuts package have been delayed due to ongoing debate over the Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The package, which includes significant cuts to public broadcasting and foreign aid, was narrowly approved by the Senate but now faces procedural hurdles in the House.

Some House Democrats have threatened to introduce an amendment related to the public release of files concerning Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender. This has caused a holdup in the Rules Committee, with both Democrats and Republicans debating the issue. Speaker Mike Johnson has expressed support for transparency but wants the spending cuts bill to proceed independently of the Epstein matter. If the House does not vote on the package within the required timeframe, the proposed funding cuts will not take effect.

House vote on spending cuts stalled over Epstein files

We begin with a live look at Capitol Hill right now. The uproar and debate over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation is complicating efforts for House lawmakers to vote on a spending cuts package. Today, the House is expected to take up a measure narrowly approved by the Senate. The House is voting on a bill that cuts $9 billion in funds previously approved by Congress. The cuts include $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, and $8 billion in foreign aid. CBS News Congressional Correspondent, Nicole Killian, is on Capitol Hill for us. Nicole, tell us a little bit more about what's holding up this bill. Well, we have seen many holdups this week here in the House on a variety of bills, but with respect to this rescissions package, of course, we saw overnight the Senate approved that $9 billion package to cut funding from foreign aid and public broadcasting. Because they made some changes to that bill, it now moves to the House, which has to vote again on this package. But before they can have that final vote, they have to approve a rule to move forward on it. And so that is what we are waiting on to see if, in fact, a rule is approved so that they can then bring this up for a vote on the House floor. The wrinkle in all of this is that, in the Rules Committee, there are some Democrats who have threatened to bring up an amendment related to Jeffrey Epstein. Of course, here on Capitol Hill, there has been a huge clamoring from both Democrats and Republicans to publicly release the files related to Jeffrey Epstein, who was a convicted sex offender who committed suicide in federal custody. And so many are calling for additional information about that, and because they know this is a must-pass package, that could potentially be a reason why some Democrats are bringing this up here. Speaker Mike Johnson earlier told reporters that while he does support full transparency around this issue, at the same time, he believes that these are completely separate things. And so he wants to bring this rescissions package up independent of Jeffrey Epstein, because obviously these two things are completely unrelated. So that is what the holdup is right now. We are hearing both Democrats and Republicans in the Rules Committee kind of go back and forth on this. And so again, presuming they can reach some type of resolution, ultimately, we will see potentially this vote on the rescissions package. Time is of essence, though, because they have to vote on this by Friday. Congress only has 45 days. Once they get that rescissions request, we're nearing the end of that window until Congress does not move on this package by then, then the federal funding for these programs would remain in place rather than being clawed back. Sounds like it's gonna be a very late night for you, Nicole. Thanks so much for sticking around for us.

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