Government shutdown live updates: Senate passes funding bill; Trump gives campaign-style speech at DOJ

Federal wildland firefighters secured a permanent pay raise today after years of waiting for Congress to answer their plea.

Included in the spending bill approved by Congress is a new pay scale and incident-response premium pay, which would apply to employees assigned to active fires.

The bill next goes to Trump to sign into law.

The new pay scale means firefighters will keep their temporary pay raises of either $20,000 annually or 50% of their base salary, enacted in 2021 under the Biden administration.

Read the full story here.

Trump today suggested that the new FBI headquarters will not be built in Maryland, despite the General Services Administration saying in 2023 it had selected a 61-acre site in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The president said during a speech at the Justice Department that his administration will build a new FBI building at its existing location in Washington, D.C.

Following Trump’s remarks, Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation said in a joint statement that they will continue to bring the agency’s headquarters to Maryland.

“The FBI needs a new headquarters that meets its mission. The GSA selected Greenbelt for the new, consolidated FBI headquarters based on the fact that it is the best site and it offers the lowest price and the best value to the taxpayers," the statement said. "What’s more, it ensures that the FBI can move to a facility that will finally meet its mission and security needs as soon as possible. We will continue working to bring the headquarters to Maryland, following the final decision that was made to do so in 2023.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that South Africa's Ambassador to the United States Ebrahim Rasool is "no longer welcome in our great country," after Rasool criticized Trump during remarks at a foreign policy summit.

"Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS," Rubio wrote in a post on X. "We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA."

The South African Embassy in Washington did not immediately return a request for comment.

Rubio made the post in response to Rasool's criticism of Trump during an address to the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection in Johannesburg.

Vice President JD Vance acknowledged today that Elon Musk has made “mistakes” while executing mass firings of federal employees and emphasized that he believes there are “a lot of good people who work in the government.”

“Elon himself has said that sometimes you do something, you make a mistake, and then you undo the mistake. I’m accepting of mistakes,” Vance said in an interview with NBC News.

“I also think you have to quickly correct those mistakes. But I’m also very aware of the fact that there are a lot of good people who work in the government — a lot of people who are doing a very good job. And we want to try to preserve as much of what works in government as possible, while eliminating what doesn’t work.”

Vance’s gentler tone represented a contrast from the chainsaw approach that Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, has taken as he leads Trump’s initiative to slash federal spending and reorient the federal bureaucracy. The firings of thousands of government employees has been the centerpiece of Musk’s work over the first seven weeks of Trump’s second White House administration, with the cuts yielding lawsuits and pushback from judges. Musk has broadly characterized federal workers as “fraudsters“ who can’t be trusted to do their jobs.

Read the full story here.

The Senate unanimously passed a bill tonight that aims to fix language in the government funding legislation that, if left untouched, would restrict how Washington, D.C., spends local tax dollars.

The bipartisan bill, introduced by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., would authorize the District of Columbia to continue spending its local funds this fiscal year. The newly passed government funding bill that avoids a shutdown includes a provision requiring the city to return to last year’s budget levels, which would lead to D.C. losing about $1 billion of its own taxes.

A spokesperson for Collins said she spoke to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser about the fix Thursday.

Washington’s budget is typically based on its own revenue and not dictated by federal appropriations bills, raising questions about whether the language that resulted in this cut might have been an oversight.

Read the full story here.

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, defended his vote this week in favor of the Republican funding bill, arguing Democrats had no leverage and that they would likely have had to make even greater concessions to reopen the government following a shutdown.

"The fact of the matter is, there was no leverage here," Golden said during an interview today on NBC News' "Meet the Press NOW."

"If Republicans needed the votes, then we would have had leverage. Fact of the matter is they didn’t," he said.

Golden, the lone House Democrat to support the bill, also defended Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who is taking heat from Democrats for voting with Republicans to advance the bill.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols ruled today that he will not at this stage prevent 10 detained immigrants with final removal orders for deportation and who are concerned about a potential transfer to Guantánamo Bay from being transferred to the notorious military base in Cuba.

Nichols said while delivering his decision this afternoon in Washington that the pure “possibility” of being transferred to Guantánamo is not the “likelihood” he would need in order to issue the emergency stay that the plaintiffs had requested.

There was a failure to establish “immediate irreparable harm,” Nichols said, a requirement for obtaining the stay, and said it was “almost impossible” for plaintiffs to succeed in that request because there are no immigrants currently detained at Guantánamo Bay, and therefore any harm faced by the immigrants in this case is speculative in nature.

The Senate voted 54-46 to pass a GOP-crafted government funding bill, sending the measure to Trump’s desk for his signature just hours before funding is set to expire at the end of today.

The bill, which funds the government through Sept. 30, only needed a simple majority to pass. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., crossed the aisle to vote for the measure, while Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., bucked his party and opposed the legislation.

Several more Democrats voted to advance the bill earlier today.

Trump defended his allies today while calling for his political opponents to be jailed during a speech at the headquarters of the Justice Department that was prosecuting him just months ago.

Trump called U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who helped dismiss his classified documents case, a “brilliant” judge, while condemning “horrible human beings” whom he accused of disparaging Cannon.

“It’s totally illegal what they do. I just hope you can all watch for it, but it’s totally illegal, and it was so unfair what they were doing to her,” Trump said.

After deeming the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 as “the most humiliating time in this history of our country,” Trump called for the people behind the decision, officials from the Biden administration, to be imprisoned.

Read the full story here.

The Senate cleared a key 60-vote threshold to advance the House-passed Republican-crafted government funding bill.

Ten Democrats joined all but one Republican — Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — in the 62-38 vote.

The Democrats who voted yes include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.; and Sen Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

A vote on final passage is expected this evening, hours before the midnight deadline to avoid a shutdown.

Trump, in remarks at the Justice Department this afternoon, praised federal Judge Aileen Cannon, who oversaw his classified documents case, against claims that she had favored Trump in her rulings and lacked the experience necessary to conduct the trial, which she ultimately dismissed.

"We had an amazing judge in Florida, and her name is Aileen Cannon, and I didn’t know her," Trump began. "I don’t believe I ever spoke to her, even during the trial, but I did appoint her federal judge."

Trump claimed Cannon was disparaged by "horrible human beings" attempting to influence the outcome of his trial.

Trump praised Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., today for saying he would advance a Republican bill to fund the government through September and stave off a shutdown this weekend.

"I have great respect, by the way, for what Schumer did," Trump said during remarks at the Justice Department. "He went out and he said that they have to vote with the Republicans because it's the right thing to do. I couldn't believe what I heard, but, you know, I think he's going to get some credit for it."

Schumer has faced fierce backlash from congressional Democrats for saying he would advance the Republican funding measure and abandoning a pitch by Democratic lawmakers to instead support a shorter-term funding bill.

The Senate is now voting on cloture, a key motion needed to advance the House-passed Republican-crafted government funding bill. Cloture requires 60 votes.

With Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., saying he will vote "no," eight Democrats need to join the other 52 Republicans to advance this bill to a final vote.

Vice President JD Vance expressed confidence Friday that a deal to sell TikTok and keep the social media app running in the U.S. would largely be in place by an April deadline.

“There will almost certainly be a high-level agreement that I think satisfies our national security concerns, allows there to be a distinct American TikTok enterprise,” Vance, whom President Donald Trump has asked to help broker the deal, said in an interview with NBC News aboard Air Force Two. 

TikTok’s fate in the U.S. has been in doubt since last year, after then-President Joe Biden signed bipartisan legislation that forces the app’s Chinese-based owner, ByteDance, to sell the app to a non-Chinese buyer or face a nationwide ban. Vance is working with national security adviser Michael Waltz to find a U.S.-based buyer. 

The scale of the Trump administration’s legal battles continued to expand this week, with a federal judge ordering the government to rehire potentially thousands of probationary workers and the administration turning to the Supreme Court to combat the large number of nationwide injunctions slowing its agenda.

The orders by U.S. District Judges William Alsup and James Bredar on Thursday were among the largest-scale rulings against the administration to date out of the more than 100 lawsuits it’s facing as a result of its efforts to reshape the government. The orders give at least a temporary reprieve to tens of thousands of fired workers.

The administration, meanwhile, has clearly grown frustrated with the repeated intervention from the courts. It went to the Supreme Court on Wednesday to challenge three nationwide orders barring President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship from being implemented — and asking the court to “declare that enough is enough” when it comes to such orders.

Here’s a look at the biggest legal developments of the past week.

Read the full story.

Moments after being sworn in, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney firmly dismissed the prospect of Canada becoming a part of the United States as Trump and his allies continue to pitch the idea.

"We will never, ever, in any way, shape or form, be part of the United States. America is not Canada," Carney told reporters. "We are very fundamentally different countries."

On the sidelines of a G7 gathering today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged the "disagreement" between Trump and the Canadian government on the topic. He described Trump as believing Canada would benefit economically by becoming a part of the United States.

Carney called that idea "crazy."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean McCauley resigned from the Justice Department this week, calling his work on Jan. 6 cases the "opportunity of a lifetime" and the attorneys within the now-defunct Capitol Siege Section of the U.S. Attorney's Office some of "the finest, brightest attorneys in the country" who created a historic record of the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol by Donald Trump supporters who bought into the president's lies about the 2020 election.

Trump pardoned more than 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants on the day of his inauguration and appointed Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin to take over as the city's chief prosecutor. Multiple assistant U.S. attorneys who worked worked Capitol cases were soon fired, and Martin more recently demoted key leaders to entry-level positions.

McCauley wrote that the work of the Capitol Siege Section will help generations of Americans understand the truth of the Jan. 6 attack.

During a press conference on Capitol Hill, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., dismissed multiple questions about his confidence in Senate Minority Leader Schumer, saying “next question” twice and then eventually accusing a reporter of playing “parlor games” to take the focus off the American people.

When asked whether Schumer had acquiesced to Trump, he said it was a question best addressed by the Senate — and that there are still Senators who have not decided or declared how they'll vote on the GOP-led continuing resolution. Jeffries added that he and his colleagues “anxiously await that vote.” 

Asked if — like some of his Democratic colleagues — he feels betrayed, he responded, “The vote hasn’t happened. There are undecided and undeclared Democratic senators who are evaluating what is the right thing to do for the American people.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., faces a moment of turmoil after retreating from his initial vow to block a six-month government funding bill written by Republicans, a move that infuriated fellow Democrats in the House and liberal advocates — and raised questions about his effectiveness as party leader in the Senate.

Schumer, who has served as Democrats’ leader in the Senate for eight years, has typically managed to find consensus within his party. But he now finds himself on the defensive in one of the first major legislative fights of the second Trump administration, even drawing rebukes from longtime allies.  

In an extraordinary move, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on Senate Democrats to defy him and reject the GOP bill, while continuing to push for a shorter-term bill to keep the government funded ahead of a midnight deadline. 

“Democratic senators should listen to the women,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Appropriations leaders Rosa DeLauro and Patty Murray have eloquently presented the case that we must have a better choice: a four-week funding extension to keep [the] government open and negotiate a bipartisan agreement. America has experienced a Trump shutdown before — but this damaging legislation only makes matters worse.”

Read the full story.

Trump’s dizzying tariffs rhetoric has caught the economy flat footed.

While Trump has long lauded trade duties as a solution to a host of economic woes, it has been the tariffs’ erratic roll-out — and shifting rationales — that has alarmed investors.

Below is a play-by-play of how Trump’s trade rhetoric — and responding measures by the nations he has targeted — has played out.

Read the timeline.

Eight years ago, Trump spoke about the U.S.-Canada relationship in glowing terms.

He hosted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House in February 2017 for one of his first joint appearances alongside a foreign leader. Trump opened by noting the nations “share much more than a border,” highlighting “the special bonds that come when two nations have shed their blood together — which we have.”

“America is deeply fortunate to have a neighbor like Canada,” Trump said. “We have before us the opportunity to build even more bridges, and bridges of cooperation and bridges of commerce.”

Fast-forward to Thursday, weeks after Trump initiated a full-scale trade war with Canada, and it’s clear the president doesn’t believe the U.S. should share a border — or much else — with its Canadian neighbors.

Read the full story.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, a political legend whose quick wit bridged partisan gaps in the years before today’s political acrimony, has died. He was 93.

Simpson died early Friday after struggling to recover from a broken hip in December, according to a statement from his family and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, a group of museums where he was a board member for 56 years.

“He was an uncommonly generous man,” Pete Simpson, his older brother, said in the statement. “And I mean generous in an absolutely unconditional way. Giving of his time, giving of his energy — and he did it in politics and he did it in the family, forever.”

Along with former Vice President Dick Cheney, Simpson was a towering Republican figure from Wyoming, the least-populated state. Unlike Cheney, Simpson was famous for his humor.

“We have two political parties in this country, the Stupid Party and the Evil Party. I belong to the Stupid Party,” was among Simpson’s many well-known quips.

Read the full story.

A Republican member of Congress is set to introduce a bill that bars Chinese citizens from obtaining student or research visas, citing concerns that they could spy for Beijing.

Rep. Riley Moore, a first-term congressman from West Virginia, is the bill's only confirmed sponsor so far.

“Every year, we allow nearly 300,000 Chinese nationals to come to the U.S. on student visas. We’ve literally invited the CCP to spy on our military, steal our intellectual property, and threaten national security,” Moore said in a statement, according to Fox News, referring to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

China is the second-biggest source of foreign students in the U.S. after India, accounting for more than 24% in the 2023-24 academic year, according to a survey sponsored by the State Department. Many U.S. schools, especially public universities, have become heavily dependent on the higher tuition paid by international students from China and elsewhere.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said in a post on X that he has decided to sell his Tesla because he “doesn’t want to drive a car built and designed by an a--hole.”  

“When I bought this thing, I didn’t think it was going to become a political issue,” Kelly said in a video posted on X. "Every time I get in this car, for the last 60 days or so, it reminds me of how much damage Elon Musk and Donald Trump are doing to our country.”  

NBC News asked Kelly earlier this week if he was considering selling his car after Elon Musk called him a “traitor” for visiting Ukraine. Kelly said on Tuesday that he was “looking into it,” noting that he thinks the interior is “a little janky” but that he loves the performance.  

Kelly said in Friday's post that his “new ride” is coming soon. 

Trump touted his “great relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as he once again called the U.N.-sanctioned state a “nuclear power.”

“I have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un, and we’ll see what happens, but certainly he’s a nuclear power,” Trump, who had three in-person meetings with Kim during his first term in office, said yesterday from the Oval Office.

Trump referred to North Korea as a nuclear power on his first day back in office, drawing a rebuke from South Korea. U.S. officials have long refrained from using the phrase as it could signal recognition of North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.

At the time, South Korea said the North “can never be recognized as a nuclear-armed state,” stressing that denuclearization remains a “consistent” principle upheld by the international community. 

A White House official later told NBC News that “President Trump will pursue the complete denuclearization of North Korea, just as he did in his first term.”

More than 50 universities are being investigated for alleged racial discrimination as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs that his officials say exclude white and Asian American students.

The Education Department announced the new investigations Friday, one month after issuing a memo warning America’s schools and colleges that they could lose federal money over “race-based preferences” in admissions, scholarships or any aspect of student life.

“Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “We will not yield on this commitment.”

A U.S. Postal Service spokesperson confirms to NBC News that, on March 12, the independent agency signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and the General Services Administration to help it continue efforts to find efficiencies beyond what USPS has already executed over the last four years as part of its rehabilitation plan.  

The Postmaster General revealed the information in a letter to Congress on Thursday, updating members on the progress of the USPS rehabilitation plan created in 2021.

The spokesperson also confirmed that USPS projects 10,000 workers will take the agency’s voluntary retirement incentive by the end of April.

The incentive is not related to DOGE's efforts to downsize the federal government. This particular workforce reduction program is part of the agency’s efficiency efforts announced before Trump took office in January.

WASHINGTON — With Democrats divided and pointing fingers, the GOP-controlled Senate will press forward Friday afternoon with a key procedural vote to advance a stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown before a midnight deadline.

If enough Democrats join Republicans to cross the 60-vote threshold, the Senate will move to a final vote on the six-month funding extension, where a simple majority is needed for passage. The bill cleared the House on a party-line vote earlier this week.

Under pressure from his left flank and House Democrats to block the GOP funding package, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., had kept his cards close to the vest about his shutdown strategy throughout the week.

But on Thursday, Schumer said he would vote to advance the funding bill, giving cover to other Democrats to do the same and significantly lowering the threat of a catastrophic shutdown amid broader economic uncertainty.

Read the full story.

Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., faced a rowdy crowd at a town hall with constituents last evening, the latest such event to go viral on social media as Republicans face backlash over Trump’s mass layoffs of federal workers and budget cuts.

In video captured by NBC News affiliate WYFF, Edwards spoke in front of a packed auditorium in Asheville, North Carolina — until he was drowned out by the jeers of attendees.

“I was proud to vote recently for the House budget resolution, which provides the framework” — Edwards told the crowd before cutting himself off as boos washed over him, while other attendees raised their hands to give him a thumbs-down.

The U.S. Marshals Service was sued today by a group seeking information about the deputization of Elon Musk's private security detail and reports that a marshal visited the chambers of federal judges to ask about the release of Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by Trump on his first day in office.

The suit, filed by Democracy Forward in federal court in Washington today, seeks records regarding reports that U.S. Marshals Service officials "had communicated inappropriately with federal judges regarding their actions on pending cases related to January 6th," that individuals "associated with the U.S. DOGE Service (“DOGE”) have repeatedly invoked threats to engage USMS when seeking questionable access to agency buildings and information," and that "DOGE leader Elon Musk’s private security guards have been deputized by USMS."

Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said that the Marshals Service "plays a critical role in enforcing court orders, which couldn’t be more important as the courts continue to serve as a bulwark against the Trump administration’s abuses of power."

"The American people deserve for the USMS to fulfill its role protecting their interests, not for it to act as the personal security force in DOGE and Elon Musk’s campaign of government overreach," Perryman said.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump’s nominee to lead the Social Security Administration, testified about his past health advocacy and qualifications during his opening statement at his Senate confirmation hearing.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says she has ordered an investigation into “politically motivated leaks” from inside the intelligence community and is also probing internal chat rooms for any misconduct or unprofessional behavior by employees. 

“Politically motivated leaks undermine our national security and the trust of the American people and will not be tolerated,” Gabbard said in a statement. “Unfortunately, such leaks have become commonplace with no investigation or accountability. That ends now. We know of and are aggressively pursuing recent leakers from within the Intelligence Community and will hold them accountable.” 

Gabbard has said she planned to restore trust in the intelligence agencies, arguing that the spy services were misused as political weapons against Trump.

Judge Carl Nichols today denied a temporary restraining order that would have stopped USAID from destroying vital documents. Nichols says, in his order, the documents that were being destroyed were either old, or existed somewhere else. 

“USAID is only destroying duplicated, aged documents that are preserved either by other agencies or in an electronic format, in a manner that USAID represents is consistent with the Federal Records Act,” Nichols writes, citing a declaration from a USAID official. “Permitting that process to continue will not harm the PSCA or the public, but interfering with it could hinder the agency’s decommissioning process.”

USAID’s acting executive secretary, Erica Carr, earlier this week ordered staff to shred or burn classified and personnel documents remaining in USAID’s offices in the Ronald Reagan building.

Another group of plaintiffs who are already in USAID-related litigation also asked for a temporary restraining order to prevent the destruction of pertinent records. But those plaintiffs withdrew their motion yesterday, citing representations made by Carr.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is surprising a lot of Democrats with his move to vote for the Republican funding bill to avoid a looming government shutdown. Moderator of "Meet the Press" Kristen Welker joins "TODAY" to break down why he made this decision and the blowback from some in his own party.

Vice President JD Vance was booed upon arriving at the Kennedy Center theater last night, according to a video captured and posted on X by a reporter from The Guardian.

"Shear Madness" was the only show on the theater's calendar last night.

Last month, Trump removed appointees from the center's board and installed allies, who elected him as chair.

Several events and shows at the Kennedy Center have since been canceled, including one that featured the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., and the National Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Broadway musical "Hamilton," which was set to come to the D.C. stage next year.

Newsmax agreed to pay Smartmatic $40 million as part of a settlement last year following the voting technology company’s election defamation lawsuit against the right-wing news outlet, according to a new regulatory filing.

The settlement, reached in September, included a cash payment and an option to purchase stock in Newsmax, the media company said in its filing. Newsmax said payments totaling $20 million have already been made, with the rest coming before July.

Read the full story.

Two federal courts are ruling that the firings of probationary federal workers were improper and that tens of thousands of those employees must be immediately reinstated. The Trump administration is calling the ruling absurd and unconstitutional and is vowing to fight back. NBC’s Garrett Haake reports for "TODAY."

WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., indicated yesterday he would vote to advance Republicans’ six-month funding bill that passed the House to avert a government shutdown tonight.

The move is a major concession from Schumer, yielding to the GOP measure just one day after he vowed that Democrats wouldn’t allow it to pass. It means the bill is likely to find enough votes to clear the 60-vote threshold and eventually pass with a simple majority, even as a growing number of Senate Democrats came out in opposition to it yesterday.

“There are no winners in a government shutdown,” Schumer said in a floor speech. “It’s not really a decision; it’s a Hobson’s choice: Either proceed with the bill before us or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown.

Read the full story.

Jennifer Gilkerson never imagined that her West Virginia farm’s freeze-dried fruits would get caught up in political fights in Washington, D.C. 

But last Friday, she learned that funding for a U.S. Agriculture Department program that helps schools and food banks buy products from local farmers like her had been cut. Without those federal dollars, Gilkerson no longer expect local schools to be able to buy her freeze-dried fruits, which she has already spent thousands of dollars preparing to produce.

“We’re just in such a state of shock. We just don’t really even know how to respond to all this. We thought that this was sacred and really untouchable. So it’s just quite a shock and very devastating,” Gilkerson said. “Everyone thinks all farmers voted for this, but we did not vote for this.”

From funding cuts to tariffs, farmers have found themselves caught in the middle of Trump’s escalation of trade wars and efforts to slash billions of dollars in spending, leaving a growing number now struggling to find markets for their products and facing the risk of steep losses for the year ahead.

Read the full story.

Democratic campaign committees and state parties are partnering to host a series of town halls in Republican-held districts after congressional Republicans were advised against holding more town hall-style events in person following tense interactions that went viral.

The list of districts where Democrats plan to hold events includes several that are held by GOP lawmakers who are expected to have close House races next year: Rep. Juan Ciscomani in Arizona's 6th District, Rep. Gabe Evans in Colorado's 8th District, Rep. Zach Nunn in Iowa's 3rd District, Rep. John James in Michigan's 10th District, Rep. Don Bacon in Nebraska's 2nd District, and Reps. Ryan Mackenzie and Rob Bresnahan in Pennsylvania's 7th and 8th districts, respectively.

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a statement that Republican lawmakers are "terrified to be in the same room as the people who sent them to Washington."

"If they won’t talk to their own voters, then Democrats will. That’s why we’ll be hosting People’s Town Halls in all 50 states across the country, starting now with vulnerable GOP-held target districts. Working families deserve to have their voices heard, even if Republicans want to ignore them," Martin added.