FBI Director Kash Patel Heads to the Hill: Starting Line

Patel on the Hill

FBI Director Kash Patel is on Capitol Hill today for the first of two oversight hearings this week.

He’s first up before the Senate Judiciary Committee, then tomorrow it’ll be their House counterparts’ turn for questioning.

The killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the FBI’s involvement in the arrest of suspect Tyler Robinson is likely to come up during the hearings. Patel said it took 33 hours from the shooting for Robinson to be taken into custody. He also noted the agency’s rapid push for public assistance that generated more than 11,000 leads in two days.

Democrats are likely to use the hearings to delve into President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard, FBI, and other federal agencies to crack down on crime in US cities. Trump yesterday signed a presidential memorandum to establish the Memphis Safe Task Force, adding “we’re going to be doing Chicago probably next.”

Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), sent a letter last month to Patel and other agency heads in which they “strongly” objected to such plans, calling them “political posturing.”

Durbin will also likely question Patel on the firings of FBI executives and agents, saying they have a disparate impact on personnel who are women or persons of color. Durbin has asked the Department of Justice’s acting inspector general, William Blier, to investigate what he calls “short-sighted and politically motivated personnel decisions.”

Miran’s First Day

Stephen Miran will join the Federal Reserve governors at today’s meeting, after the Senate confirmed him by a 48-47 vote Monday.

The Federal Open Market Committee is expected to drop interest rates during its two-day session. How much they’ll cut rates is a bigger question.

Investors and economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect Fed officials to lower rates by a quarter percentage point on Wednesday. Trump predicted a “big cut” from the central bank.

It isn’t all coming up roses for Trump today, though. Lisa Cook won in a federal appeals court the right to attend the committee meeting, too.

The court blocked Trump from removing Cook from her post while her lawsuit challenging the dismissal proceeds, backing a lower court’s ruling. Read More

Also Read: Fate of Fed Intertwined With FTC Democrat, Supreme Court Told

Reject Policy Norms, Think Like a Startup

Calling all “policy entrepreneurs”!

Too many traditional trade associations are slow-moving and bogged down by outdated governance, writes Adam Kovacevich, formerly with Google’s Washington office and now the founder/CEO of Chamber of Progress.

Here’s what you should know if you want to start your own advocacy organization: Read More.

The Blame Game

Washington lawmakers are pointing fingers over who should be blamed for a government shutdown that hasn’t happened yet.

With a looming Oct. 1 deadline to keep the government open, Republicans say Democrats will take the blame if they block a “clean” funding bill that keeps the government running at current levels. Democrats say the GOP, which holds every lever of power, will bear responsibility if they don’t agree to a policy fix to stop health care costs from spiking, Jonathan Tamari reports.

Not everyone falls into those neat buckets. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, has warned GOP colleagues they’ll take heat regardless, Jack Fitzpatrick reports. In some ways, he even agrees with the Democrats.

“Their concern right now, and it’s a legitimate concern, is that, how can we agree to any deal when our OMB director will just impound the funds and say we’re not going to spend them there,” Simpson said at a Bloomberg Government roundtable Monday.

A shutdown isn’t a forgone conclusion yet, Simpson says. Still, lawmakers have fewer than seven working days scheduled before the fiscal year ends. Read More

Bloomberg Government subscribers can read more in todays BGOV Budget and Congress Tracker newsletters.

Lower Tariff, Who’s This?

A lower 15% tariff rate on imports of automobiles and auto parts from Japan begins today in the US, a relief for the foreign nation whose auto sector is a major economic driver.

The overall trade deal, reached earlier this month, also included a promise from Japan to create a $550 billion US investment fund, a key concession that helped secure the lower rate. But the nations describe the investment pledge differently.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has cautioned that Japan faces higher import taxes if it doesn’t fund Trump’s investment decisions Read More

Trump separately teased a “big deal” with China Monday. He’s planning to speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping about it Friday, he told reporters.

TikTok could provide a way to bring the US closer to China, Trump said. US and Chinese officials reached a framework deal on keeping the TikTok app running in the US in Madrid this week.

Also Read: US Trade, Defense Teams in New Delhi to Revive Trade Talks

Before You Go

Israel Moving on Gaza: Israel started a long-threatened push into the heart of Gaza City after Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Hamas there’s a “very short window” for negotiations to end the war. Israel’s Army Radio reported that Israeli forces planned to encircle the city within days. Read More

Surgeon General’s Ethics Disclosures: Trump nominated Casey Means four months ago for US surgeon general, a post that still remains open. Now Means, a Stanford University-trained physician and wellness influencer who focuses on functional medicine, shared how she’ll avoid actual or apparent conflicts of interests. Read More

Corporate Concentration: Senators led by Iowa’s Chuck Grassley want an Agriculture Department inquiry into whether consolidation of the fertilizer industry “has had any anticompetitive impacts,” according to legislation set to be introduced today, Skye Witley reports. Read More

California Sparrin': Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is ramping up his opposition to incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to redraw California’s congressional map, urging voters to oppose a referendum on the November ballot, John Gittelsohn reports. Read More

CDC Orders: Ousted CDC director Susan Monarez plans to tell senators at a hearing tomorrow that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy directed that all policy decisions be cleared by political staff, and that she commit in advance to approving a vaccine advisory panel’s recommendations “regardless of the scientific evidence.” Read More

Trump v. Times: Trump filed a $15 billion defamation and libel lawsuit against The New York Times, citing among other things the paper’s “deranged” front-page endorsement of rival Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024. In a social media post, Trump said the paper had spend decades “lying about your Favorite President (ME!), my my family, business, the America First Movement, MAGA, and our Nation as a whole.” Read More

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