Washington, DC

1. Dems demand Iran hearings
2. Airport politics arrive
3. Food prices on deck
4. Mississippi grudge match
5. Live Nation settles
6. $5 trillion question

Never mind! Oil closes back below $100.

Welcome to the brand-new afternoon edition of Semafor Washington, DC! This new briefing will land every weekday around 4:30 pm ET, with a sharp snapshot of the day’s developments driving Washington and a clear-eyed preview of the narrative shaping the next 12 hours. We’ll have scoops and expertise from a Semafor DC team you know well — including Burgess, Shelby, Dave, Eleanor, Nick, and Morgan — as well as insights from around Semafor into the financial and global news that matters to DC. We love feedback, so please keep in touch to tell us how we can make this new briefing most useful to you.

— Ben Smith and Elana Schor

Democrats want Hegseth, Rubio to testify

Senate Democrats are threatening to force repeated votes on the war with Iran if Republicans don’t schedule public hearings, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. Democrats are tired of closed-door, classified briefings and they’re planning to “use the tools of the Senate to hold this public debate and a series of votes on the administration’s war powers on the floor of the Senate,” according to an aide briefed on the plan. Five Democratic senators — Cory Booker of New Jersey, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Adam Schiff of California, Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut — filed War Powers resolutions last week. They will ripen for procedural votes as soon as next week. Will the war still be going on then? President Donald Trump just told CBS that the Iran war is “very complete.”

TSA lines bring shutdown to life

The stalemate over funding the Department of Homeland Security has played out largely out of public view — but that’s beginning to shift. Across the country, TSA lines are growing. In Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans, and Charlotte, airports warned travelers to arrive up to five hours before their flight to clear lines. Republicans are already blaming Democrats for the situation, though they’ve balked at that accusation. Travel disruption has historically served as a flashpoint in shutdown fights, creating tangible headaches for Americans and visuals for news outlets. Congressional Democrats want concessions from the White House on immigration enforcement policy in exchange for funding the agency. Republicans had hoped Kristi Noem’s ouster would thaw negotiations, but as of last week it hadn’t changed Democrats’ calculus.

Food prices at stake in Iran war

Crude oil continues to rise as the conflict in Iran spreads regionally, but that’s not the only commodity to watch. Nearly a third of the world’s fertilizer travels through the shuttered Strait of Hormuz. As farmers across the Northern Hemisphere prepare to plant spring crops, they fear supply chain disruptions will send their costs soaring. In the US, where fertilizer can account for 30% of the cost to grow key crops, farmers have already faced higher prices recently because of Trump’s tariffs. USDA officials are trying to assure them that “price gouging” won’t occur. The White House has struggled to stabilize the flow of oil out of the Gulf and control domestic gas prices; it’s likely to face similar challenges as fertilizer costs pressure food prices.

A grudge match in Mississippi

Scott Colom wouldn’t be in a Senate race against Mississippi GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith if she’d greenlit his judicial nomination. Instead, she blocked it — and Colom said she will have second thoughts soon enough, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. “She’s really going to regret it when we win on Nov. 3,” Colom told Semafor. “That’s when the regret’s really going to hit her.” Reality check: This is a red state where Democrats haven’t won a Senate race since 1982. Trump has won it handily three times. National Democrats are watching the race closely — they think the state’s large Black population could make it interesting in November under the right circumstances. “I’m bullish,” Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., told Semafor. “Scott Colom is an excellent candidate, and I could see how he could build a coalition to win in Mississippi, same way I worked to.”

Live Nation cuts deal with DOJ

Live Nation reached a tentative settlement with the Department of Justice on Monday — a long-expected outcome which had already prompted the ouster of the US’ top antitrust enforcer and outraged dozens of states attorneys general and venue operators. Now, it’s rankling the federal judge overseeing the trial, who suggested that both the DOJ and Live Nation had misled him in the days before the deal was announced. “It is absolutely unacceptable,” Judge Arun Subramanian said. Live Nation had tapped heavyweights to negotiate a deal directly with top DOJ brass, sidestepping Gail Slater and her office, Semafor previously reported. Those efforts have paid off, with a settlement coming despite widespread popular support for a breakup of Ticketmaster and Live Nation.

— Rohan Goswami

Gulf clout hinges on war length

Gulf states have amassed $5 trillion in their sovereign wealth funds, fueling their leaders’ global influence in recent years, particularly in the United States. Those funds are expected to swell once the Strait of Hormuz reopens and oil flows resume from the region — at much higher prices. But whether the funds will position states for even greater global power depends on timing, Semafor’s Saudi Arabia Bureau Chief Matthew Martin writes. If oil continues to stall, Gulf states could face a cash crunch and leverage sovereign reserves to bolster defense spending and offset losses from curbed tourism, rather than benefit from a surge.

White House

• A year after DOGE, federal hiring is ramping up under new rules that give the White House more sway over the bureaucracy. — WaPo
• FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson has prioritized bringing cases against President Trump’s political rivals and liberal critics. — WSJ
• Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are backing a new drone company to meet the Pentagon’s growing demand, as first reported by the WSJ. Eric Trump confirmed the news on X while taking a jab at the paper.
• Anthropic is suing federal agencies over the Trump administration’s “supply chain risk” designation.

Congress

• Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., announced he would formally leave the Republican Party and become the sole independent member of the House.

Immigration

• Homeland Security officials are helping Republicans with PR problems around construction of warehouse-style immigration detention facilities. — WaPo
• DHS picked untested contractors to retrofit warehouses to detain immigrants. — WaPo

Campaigns

• Audio of the late Bobby Rush was restored by AI for a new campaign ad for Jesse Jackson Jr. — Politico
• Kamala Harris wants to keep open the possibility of running for president in 2028, but Democrats aren’t showing the same interest. — Politico Magazine
• Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., says his daughter is his preferred successor if he retires.

Geopolitics

• The US carried out a boat strike in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing six people accused of smuggling drugs.
• The crisis in Cuba could be nearing a diplomatic resolution. — USA Today
• Russia is benefiting from the war in Iran. — AP News
• Two men arrested in connection with a homemade bomb thrown near NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence are accused of having links to ISIS.

— A plaque honoring law enforcement for their service on Jan. 6, 2021, which was quietly installed at the Capitol this weekend without a formal ceremony.