Good evening. I'm Jeff Bennett.

And I'm Amna Nawaz. On the news hour tonight, Congress returns to Washington to face a looming budget battle to avoid a government shutdown and tension over the Epstein files.

The Pentagon authorizes hundreds of military lawyers to serve as immigration judges and the Trump administration's push to deal with a massive backlog in cases.

And we speak to the wife of a woman who came to the U.S. as a child and is now being detained by immigration authorities.

It should be very concerning to everyone that ISIS is knowingly holding someone who has protection from deportation under DACA and is claiming that their DACA status doesn't matter.

Welcome to The News Hour.

Congress is back in Washington tonight, and the clock is already ticking.

Lawmakers have less than one month to avoid a government shutdown.

On the table, a fierce fight over billions in spending cuts,

a push to release the Jeffrey Epstein case files and Senate Republicans moving to fast-track President Trump's nominees.

Our congressional correspondent Lisa Desardin joins us now, Lisa, it's always great to see you.

So let's start with this possible government shutdown at the end of the month.

First of all, is possible the right word still?

I mean, how likely is this?

Yeah, I think possible is the right word, and I mean, how likely is this? Yeah, I think possible

is the right word, and I would say it's very possible, whatever that means, but it is something

that is clearly in the air over Congress. Now, let's take you through exactly how this would work,

where we are right now. Now, Congress has until September 30th to fund most of government.

Any deal needs 60 Senate votes. That means at least some

Democrats, probably at least seven Democrats. So what's happening now is Democrats in the House

and Senate are working together to see what they might be able to extract in order to get

on board some kind of funding deal. Hakeem Jeffries, is the Democratic leader in the House today, spoke to reporters.

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