Bill and Hillary Clinton were scheduled to give depositions this week on Capitol Hill about their ties to Jeffrey Epstein, but their appearances have been officially punted into January.

It sends a strong signal members of Congress will continue to investigate the late, convicted sex offender — even as the Justice Department is due to release a trove of materials related to the Epstein case by Friday.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer, who is leading the congressional investigation into Epstein, announced the delay in a letter to an attorney for the Clintons, obtained by POLITICO.

In that letter, Comer maintained that former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton must appear before his committee Jan. 13 and Jan. 14, respectively, or risk being held in contempt of Congress.

“If your clients do not comply with these new dates, the Committee will move immediately to contempt proceedings,” Comer, a Kentucky Republican, wrote.

Comer noted that the Clintons’ attorney had said previously the Clintons were unable to testify this week due to a funeral but declined to provide alternative dates for their depositions, prompting him to unilaterally assigned the former first couple new dates early next month.

The attorney for the Clintons did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesperson for Bill Clinton has said the former president disassociated himself with Epstein prior to Epstein’s 2019 arrest and had no knowledge of his crimes.

Bill Clinton was also featured in a picture as part of a recent trove of photographs handed over to the Oversight committee by the Epstein estate. Oversight Democrats released select photos to the public Friday.

The House GOP’s flagship legislation to speed up the federal permitting process for energy projects could have a smoother ride on the chamber floor Tuesday, after the House Rules Committee agreed to allow votes on amendments demanded by hard-liners.

The Rules Committee advanced a resolution Monday night that would set parameters for floor debate on the permitting bill. As part of consideration of that bill, Republican leaders agreed to let House members vote on three amendments from conservative foes of offshore wind, who had otherwise threatened to oppose the measure.

One of those amendments would strip language from the underlying legislation that would limit the president’s power to revoke approved permits for energy projects. House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman added that provision to the bill during his committee’s markup in an attempt to win over more votes from Democrats concerned about President Donald Trump’s attacks on renewable energy endeavors.

Another amendment would exempt offshore wind from core elements of the bill to streamline permitting reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act and limit judicial challenges against projects. The Republican authors of the amendments — House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris of Maryland and Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey — argued the language making it harder for the executive branch to cancel permits would “undermine” the Trump administration’s anti-offshore wind agenda.

Harris had been threatening to oppose the rule, which would prevent the House from being able to debate and vote on the actual permitting bill. Allowing consideration of these amendments, even though they are largely expected to fail, could keep him and others at bay at a time when leaders cannot afford even modest defections from within their party’s ranks given their razor-thin majority.

A bipartisan group of nearly two dozen senators huddled Monday night to work out an 11th-hour health care deal to extend Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of this month.

At a meeting convened by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), the senators discussed a two-year extension of the Obamacare tax credits that would be coupled with a new income eligibility cap and fraud prevention language. The subsidies at issue were beefed up under former President Joe Biden.

Beyond the income cap, the senators discussed further changes aimed at lowering the cost of health care during the second year of the extension, including cost-sharing reductions and more flexibility for health savings accounts, according to lawmakers in attendance.

The group is aiming to announce a framework this week. If the group is able to reach a deal it wouldn’t come up for a vote until January.

“Obviously we only have four more days left so our goal would be to try to announce a plan,” Collins said after the meeting. “The reality of the end of the year and the fact that the enhanced premium tax credits are going to expire hits hard.”

The meeting included roughly 20 senators, including many of the same members of the Senate Democratic Caucus who voted to end the shutdown last month. Among them were Sens. Jeanne........

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