The Senate’s holiday recess, scheduled to begin last week, is on hold as the chamber works toward an agreement on border policy, a major sticking point in passing a package also including aid to Ukraine, Israel and more.

• Senate and White House negotiators worked through the weekend, with senators providing no consensus on when they expect a deal to be reached.
  
  
• While Republicans generally push for tougher border measures than Democrats support, there have been signs of tension within the Democratic Party as well around how much ground to give.

Several House Democrats signed a letter calling on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from a case reviewing former President Trump‘s immunity defense in the federal case into efforts to overturn 2020 election results. From the letter:

“If you want to show the American people that the Supreme Court’s recent Code of Conduct is worth more than the paper it is written on, you must do the honorable thing and recuse yourself from any decisions in the case of United States v. Trump.”

Senate Democrats sent Thomas a similar letter last week. Lawmakers in both chambers noted that Ginni Thomas, the justice’s wife, supported Trump’s unfounded election fraud claims.

Other court news: Trump makes fresh bid to toss Georgia election interference charges

“Mandatory return-to-office will mean an older, less diverse federal workforce”

“The US is suffering from chronic drug shortages — Congress must act”