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Year: 2025

Gridlock crumbles as Senate advances spending bills in race against shutdown

Gridlock crumbles as Senate advances spending bills in race against shutdown

The Senate advanced a package of spending bills late Friday night, breaking a partisan gridlock that threatened to derail the government funding process. Moving the three bills, including funding bills for military construction and Veterans’ Affairs, agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the legislative branch, appeared on ice for much of the week as lawmaker after lawmaker on either side of the aisle looked to block the bills. But a path forward was found, and the bills were put on the floor, and after several votes on amendments, the final package passed. However, the bill to fund the legislative branch was added to the package separately in response to a roadblock by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who ultimately relented to allow the bill to hit the floor.  He announced his plan to vote against that piece of the package because the bill increased spending, like the others, but specifically for Congress.  SCHUMER, DEMOCRATS TRY TO SAVE FACE, BLAME GOP FOR POSSIBLE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN “I just think we need to set an example, and when we’re increasing our spending 6% and others less,” Kennedy said on the Senate floor. “We’re sending a message that we’re special, and I don’t think we are.” Now it heads to the House, where Republicans are already incensed that the Senate’s bills go over their approved spending levels.  The advancement of the bills is a victory for members of the Senate Appropriations Committee and for Republican leadership, who are working to ward off a possible government shutdown as tensions over the “big, beautiful bill” and President Donald Trump’s $9 billion clawback package linger. It’s also the first time since 2018 that the upper chamber passed spending bills before September.  SENATE WEATHERS DEM OPPOSITION, ADVANCES FIRST GOVERNMENT FUNDING BILL “These bills all mean a great deal to each of us,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said on the Senate floor. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., previously threatened that if Republicans went through with the rescissions package, it would have grave effects on the forthcoming sprint to fund the government. But, with the deadline to fund the government by Sept. 30 — or to pass a short-term funding extension — fast-approaching, neither party wants to carry the blame for blowing up the appropriations process, at least for now. CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS FACE BRUISING BATTLE TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN While passing the spending package out of the upper chamber proved a bright spot, lawmakers are still looking for a path forward in confirming a slew of Trump’s nominees. The president re-upped his call for Senate Republican leadership to cancel recess to pass each nominee on the Senate’s calendar, which has now ballooned to over 150 picks, as Democrats continue their blockade of the process. Lawmakers are set to vote on a trio of nominees Friday night and are expected to run through nearly a dozen more over the weekend, unless a deal is made. 

WATCH: Trump says he is hopeful Hillary Clinton will be investigated for election fraud

WATCH: Trump says he is hopeful Hillary Clinton will be investigated for election fraud

Speaking with reporters on Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump expressed that he is hopeful that former presidential opponent Hillary Clinton will finally be investigated for election fraud.  Shortly before departing for New Jersey, Trump was asked by a reporter, “Will Hillary Clinton finally be investigated for election fraud?” Trump answered, “I hope so, I hope so. I don’t know whether or not that’ll happen, but I hope so.”  During his brief exchange with reporters outside the White House, Trump also repeatedly criticized Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, whom he recently removed. The president connected his recent decision to fire McEntarfer, whom he accused of falsifying jobs report numbers, to efforts to sway previous elections against him.  TRUMP CLASHES WITH REPORTER OVER TARIFFS, CITING PANDEMIC AND ‘FIGHTING LUNATICS’ “You have to have honest reports and when you look at those numbers or when you look at just before the election and then after the election, they corrected it by 8 or 900,000 jobs,” he said.  “Why should anybody trust numbers? You go back to election day. Look what happened two or three days before with massive, wonderful jobs numbers, trying to get him elected or her elected, trying to get whoever the hell was running because you go back and they came out with numbers that were very favorable to Kamala,” he went on. “And then on the 15th of November or thereabouts, they added 8 or 900,000 overstatement reduction right after the election.”  Addressing a reporter directly, Trump added, “It didn’t work, because, you know who won, John? I won.”  Trump’s comments regarding Clinton hearken back all the way to his first presidential campaign during which he warned that if he were president he would get his attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her behavior. In one of the 2016 debates, Trump famously quipped to Clinton that if he were president: “you’d be in jail.” CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ANNOUNCES IT WILL SHUT DOWN AFTER TRUMP, CONGRESS CUT FUNDING As president, however, Trump has not moved to prosecute Clinton, who served as former President Barack Obama’s secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.  This July, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released evidence that she said suggests the Obama administration promoted a “contrived narrative” that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.   “There is irrefutable evidence that details how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew was false,” Gabbard said. “They knew it would promote this contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump win, selling it to the American people as though it were true. It wasn’t.”  “We have referred and will continue to refer all of these documents to the Department of Justice and the FBI, to investigate the criminal implications of this for the evidence,” Gabbard said. “The evidence that we have found, and that we have released, directly point to President Obama leading the manufacturing of this intelligence assessment. There are multiple pieces of evidence and intelligence that confirm that fact.” FEDERAL APPEALS COURT WEIGHS TRUMP BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ORDER AS ADMIN OUTLINES ENFORCEMENT DETAILS In a July interview, Trump described the Russiagate allegations against Obama and members of his administration as “serious treason.”  “What they’ve done is so bad for this country. And it really started right at the 2016 election,” Trump claimed of Gabbard’s findings. “And there’s a difference when you know it — and when you know it, and it’s all written down for you. I mean, it’s all there. It’s right there. The orders, the memos, the whole thing. It’s right there.”