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In today's issue:

▪ T-minus 14 legislative days until shutdown

▪ Lawmakers to meet with Epstein victims

▪ What’s next for Trump’s big budget bill?

▪ Xi-Putin-Modi alliance challenges Trump

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LAWMAKERS ARE BACK in Washington after their month-long recess and face a mountain of legislative work as GOP powerbrokers contend with a litany of thorny political fights.

At the top of Congress' to-do list: reaching an agreement to fund the government beyond the current Sept. 30 deadline.

While funding is set to expire in exactly one month, the House and Senate have just 14 legislative days to reach an agreement on a stopgap bill to avert a shutdown.

And the worst-case scenario is growing more likely after President Trump last week signaled his plans to unilaterally claw back nearly $5 billion in foreign aid funds without Congressional approval, a move Democrats have lambasted.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought aims to move forward with a “pocket rescission” that would bypass congressional spending authority altogether, with neither chamber expected to act on the proposal before federal funding lapses.

▪ The Hill: Trump’s pocket recissions add a landmine to the funding fight.

▪ CNN: White House red lines and Democratic demands set up shutdown showdown.

Former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) told The Hill’s Alexander Bolton that “keeping the government open” is “going to be a really heavy lift this time.”

“With the extremely virulent atmosphere that is dominating Washington in a partisan way, it would be hard for a lot of Democrats to cast a favorable vote for a continuing resolution,” he said. “I’m not sure that we’re not at a point where the antagonisms are so deep and so virulent that you can’t get a continuing resolution.”

Democratic leaders have called Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to hold a “four corners” meeting to chart a path forward.

EPSTEIN, NOMINEES, NATIONAL GUARD: Lawmakers returned to a Washington with noticeable changes from the city they left just weeks ago. Though several of the political fights remain exactly where they left them.

National Guard troops and federal agents are now patrolling streets around the National Mall, Union Station and in neighborhoods across D.C., a heightened policing apparatus trumpeted by the president as a model for cracking down on urban crime.

Troops are also picking up trash and landscaping federal parks.

Lawmakers are sure to have plenty of opinions about the deployment. (Expect lots of social media content from members around town.)

Back at the Capitol, Thune will have to grapple with advancing a backlog of Trump nominees, with tensions in the Senate still simmering a month after the chamber was unable to break a logjam before going on recess after Democrats held up hundreds of lower-level picks.

GOP senators will need to walk a tightrope this month amid calls to change the rules to quickly confirm nominees. Trump’s firing last week of the Senate-confirmed head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has caused upheaval at the health agency, is hanging over the push.

“He’s going to have a full plate,” one Senate Republican told The Hill’s Al Weaver about Thune.

Johnson will also have his share of issues to contend with immediately.

The list includes disputes among Republicans on the structure and length of a stopgap funding bill — with Democrats holding the power to force a shutdown — as well as revelations about the case surrounding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

GOP lawmakers are also planning to press their leaders on hot-button issues like stock trading while addressing demands from Trump on crime and beyond, The Hill’s Emily Brooks reports.

As they race to address the funding deadline, Republicans will have less margin for defections on party-line votes given two special elections this month that almost certainly will add a pair of Democrats to the House.

Special elections will be held to fill the seats left vacant by the deaths of Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.). Virginia’s special election is Sept. 9, and Arizona’s is Sept. 23.

“Time is ticking, and I think that’s the biggest challenge,” said Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), who sits on the House Appropriations Committee. “We’ve put ourselves in a position where we’re racing against the clock to get an appropriations package done. … It’s going to be a very busy four weeks.”

▪ The Hill: The House and Senate are headed for a tussle this fall over the annual, must-pass defense spending bill as the upper chamber’s version stands at odds with the Trump administration’s defense budget as well as the House’s.

▪ The Hill: Trump and Republican lawmakers passed their major tax-and-spending cut bill earlier this summer, faster than almost anyone was expecting. Now, they’re planning their second act.

▪ The Hill: Here is where key states stand on mid-decade redistricting.

3 Things to Know Today

1. Trump says he will sign an executive order to require voter ID in national elections and exclusive use of paper ballots as he pushes for a ban on mail-in voting.

2. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served as Trump’s personal lawyer during high-profile legal battles over the 2020 election results, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Trump announced. Giuliani left the........

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