Senate fails again to pass short term funding bill as government shutdown enters eighth day
The Senate has rejected a House-passed funding bill that would keep the government funded until 21 November.
This is the sixth attempt to pass an extension, as the shutdown enters its eighth day.
With a vote of 54-45, lawmakers in the upper chamber failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the bill.
Again, the same three lawmakers broke ranks with the Democratic party and voted “yes” on the continuing resolution written by Republicans. Only one GOP senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted “no”.
The Senate also rejected the Democrats’ version of the funding patch, which includes several health care provisions. Failing to pass the dueling bills leaves Washington in gridlock.
Key events
Independent senator Angus King, of Maine, issued a new statement about his decision to vote for the House-passed funding bill. King caucuses with the Democrats, who have made health care provisions – particularly the extension of expiring ACA subsidies – a key part of their pushback against Republicans.
“As serious as the health insurance crisis is, I believe the shutdown itself and the additional powers it conveys to Donald Trump and his henchmen, is the greater risk. The greatest challenge our country faces right now is the accelerating slide toward authoritarianism,” King said.
He added that the decision to break from the party was not easy: “I have determined that preserving our democracy has to be the highest priority. I hope I’m wrong about this risk, but the stakes are too high to take that chance.”
Senate fails again to pass short term funding bill as government shutdown enters eighth day
The Senate has rejected a House-passed funding bill that would keep the government funded until 21 November.
This is the sixth attempt to pass an extension, as the shutdown enters its eighth day.
With a vote of 54-45, lawmakers in the upper chamber failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the bill.
Again, the same three lawmakers broke ranks with the Democratic party and voted “yes” on the continuing resolution written by Republicans. Only one GOP senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted “no”.
The Senate also rejected the Democrats’ version of the funding patch, which includes several health care provisions. Failing to pass the dueling bills leaves Washington in gridlock.
Joaquin Castro, a Democratic representative of Texas, has urged the senate to vote on a resolution introduced by California’s senator Adam Schiff and Virginia’s senator Tim Kaine to halt the US military from attacking vessels near Venezuela.
In a statement on Wednesday, Castro said:
“Over the last few months, the Trump administration has pursued illegal military action in the Caribbean and are preparing for what looks like a regime change military operation in Venezuela. Without a vote and without public debate. Later today, the Senate will have the opportunity to vote for @SenAdamSchiff and @SenTimKaine‘s resolution to prevent Trump from taking us into yet another endless war. I urge Senators to vote yes.”
The resolution, which was introduced under the War Powers Act, would stop US military strikes against vessels in the area which Donald Trump has accused of being illegal drug-trafficking boats.
On Saturday, US forces struck another alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela, marking the latest attack in at least four strikes in the Caribbean against such suspected vessels.
George Chidi
The US supreme court is hearing arguments in a lawsuit challenging an Illinois law governing how the state counts mailed-in absentee ballots received after election day.
Arguments center on who has standing to challenge the law, not whether the practice itself is constitutionally valid.
Republicans have been eager to challenge mail-in ballots, with Donald Trump centering it in his attacks on the electoral process. Mike Bost, a Republican representative from Illinois, filed the suit to argue that the Illinois law allowing ballots to be counted up to two weeks after election day if they are postmarked by the deadline unconstitutionally allows an extension of the election period.
Lower courts threw Bost’s suit out, ruling that the conservative congressman in his fifth term did not suffer an injury and had no standing to sue. The appeal argues that the cost of staffing a campaign past election day is a financial injury giving him sufficient standing to challenge the law.
“[C]andidates have standing to challenge the rules that govern their elections,” the appeal argues, “especially when … the challenged rule produces an inaccurate final tally.”
For the full story, click here:
Dharna Noor
Donald Trump has placed dozens of people with ties to the fossil fuel sector in his administration, including more than 40 who have directly worked for oil, gas or coal companies, according to a new analysis.
The report from Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy and ethics non-profit that has been critical of the Trump administration, alongside the Revolving Door Project, a corporate watchdog, analyzed the backgrounds of nominees and appointees within the White House and eight agencies dictating energy, environmental and climate policy. That includes the Environmental Protection Agency, the interior and energy departments and others.
The analysis comes as Trump wages broad attacks on climate and energy policies and on renewable energy. The president’s so-called one big beautiful act, for instance, opened swaths of federal land to drilling and mining and enshrined the rapid phaseout of incentives for renewable energy.
For the full story, click here:
Johnson says federal workers should receive back pay, despite White House mixed messaging
House speaker Mike Johnson said today that he does believe furloughed federal workers should and will get paid, despite mixed messaging from the White House which has suggested that employees might not be guaranteed to back pay.
“There is some other legal analysis that’s floating around, I have yet had time to dig into and read that. But it has always been the case that is tradition, and I think it is statutory law that federal employees be paid,” Johnson said.
He went on to further chastise congressional Democrats, saying that their decision to hold out on passing the Republican-written continuing resolution, leaves them responsible for certain groups of federal workers not getting paid. “They voted that they did not want the troops to be paid. They did not want TSA agents to be paid. They did not want air traffic controllers, border patrol agents and all the rest. They live with that vote. They made that decision,” Johnson said. “The House is done. The ball is now in the Senate’s court. It does us no good to be here dithering on show votes. We did it. We sent the product over. It is clean.”
‘This madness needs to end’ say House Republicans, as shutdown enters eighth day
At a press conference, several House Republicans spoke to reporters as the government shutdown enters its eighth day. “This madness can end. This madness needs to end with sanity finally emerging,” said majority leader Steve Scalise, while continuing to blame Senate Democrats for not passing a House-passed funding bill. “Chuck Schumer, if you can’t do the right thing because you’re so afraid of your political job, think about the jobs of millions of families out there who don’t want to have that suffering inflicted on them.”
Throughout the conference, a number of lawmakers continued to push misleading claims that Democrats are “fighting to give illegals health care”. Undocumented immigrants remain ineligible for federally funded health care, except for emergency Medicaid – which is required under federal law.
The arraignment of James Comey is now over, according to reporters in the courtroom. The former FBI director’s lawyers are also moving to dismiss the case, arguing that the federal prosecutor who brought the charges against Comey, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed.
A reminder that Trump installed Halligan after he pressured her predecessor, Erik Siebert, to resign. The former US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia had said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Comey and other political adversaries of the president.
Outside the courthouse today, a small group of demonstrators gathered ahead of Comey’s appearance in court to protest against the criminal charges brought against the former FBI director.
Judge Nachmanoff has set a trial date for 5 January 2026, according to reporters in the courtroom.
James Comey pleads ‘not guilty’ at arraignment
Former FBI director James Comey has pleaded ‘not guilty’ during his arraignment at a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia. His attorneys have also requested a trial by jury.
Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff read Comey the charges he’s facing: one count of making a false statement and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding. Both are in relation to his testimony before the Senate judiciary committee in 2020.
Senate to hold sixth vote on stopap funding bills amid government shutdown
The US Senate will hold its sixth vote on the dueling short-terms spending bills to reopen the government at 12pm EST today.
Both bills are set to fail, yet again, as lawmakers continue to dig their heels in and trade barbs, blaming the other party for the shutdown, which has now lasted a full week.
A reminder that on Monday, only three senators broke ranks with the Democratic party, and voted “yes” on the House-passed continuing resolution to maintain government funding until 21 November. This still leaves Republicans nowhere near the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the bill.
GOP leaders in congress have continued to say that the Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, is being pressured by the progressive arm of his party into rejecting the funding extension, which mirrors the bill that he signed back in March.
Democrats, meanwhile, say that their colleagues across the aisle have avoided any negotiations about their proposal, which includes several healthcare provisions – including an extension of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year and could increase insurance premiums for millions of Americans.
As we prepare to you bring you the latest from James Comey’s arraignment in less than an hour, it’s worth noting the last time that a former FBI director was criminally charged was in 1978. When L. Patrick Gray, who actually served as the acting head of the bureau during the Watergate scandal, was indicted for conspiring to violate Americans’ constitutional protections by allowing unauthorized federal raids – as agents searched for members of Weather Underground, the left-wing militant group. The charges against Gray were dropped.
Trump says Chicago mayor ‘should be in jail’ for not protecting Ice officers
The president is already posting on Truth Social. As Texas national guard troops descend on Chicago today, Trump wrote that the mayor – Brandon Johnson – “should be in jail” for “failing” to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents.
Johnson signed an executive order this week, that stops federal immigration agents from using city property.
In his post, the president added that Illinois governor JB Pritzker should also be in jail.
A federal judge has set a hearing for Thursday, regarding the lawsuit that city and state officials in Illinois filed against the administration, to block the deployment of the military.
Donald Trump has few public engagements on his schedule today. But we’ll hear from him at around 3pm EST, when he attends a round table on Antifa at the White House. We’ll bring you the latest lines as we get them.
A reminder that the president designated the left-wing activist group a “domestic terrorist organization” last month, following the murder of his ally and conservative activist, Charlie Kirk.
Notably, officials haven’t established a link between Tyler Robinson, the man charged with killing Kirk, and Antifa.
Rubio to attend Paris meeting on Gaza transition – report
US secretary of state Marco Rubio is expected to attend a ministerial meeting to be held on Thursday in Paris with European, Arab and other states to discuss the post-Gaza transition, three diplomatic sources told Reuters.
The meeting, which will happen in parallel to negotiations between Israel, Hamas and mediators in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, aims to discuss how to implement a plan proposed by Donald Trump and assess collective commitments from countries.
The US embassy in Paris was not immediately available for comment.
National guard troops are outside Chicago and could be in Memphis soon
National guard troops are positioned outside Chicago and they could be in Memphis by Friday, the Associated Press reports, as the Trump administration pushes ahead with an aggressive policy toward big-city crime whether local leaders support it or not.
National guard members from Texas had settled in at an Army Reserve center in Illinois by early Wednesday, despite a lawsuit and vigorous opposition from Democratic elected leaders. Their exact mission was not clear, though the Trump administration has an aggressive immigration enforcement operation in the nation’s third-largest city, and protesters have frequently rallied at an immigration building outside Chicago in Broadview.
The president has called Chicago a “hell hole” of crime, although police statistics show significant drops in most crimes, including homicides.
In Memphis, Tennessee, police Chief Cerelyn Davis said a small group of commanders were already in the city, planning for the arrival of guard troops.
Republican governor Bill Lee has said troops will be deputized by the US Marshals Service to “play a critical support role” for local law enforcement, though that role hasn’t been precisely defined yet.
Democrats introduce bill to help federal workers cover childcare costs during shutdown
Michael Sainato
Congressional Democrats are introducing a bill that would provide childcare relief to federal workers affected by the shutdown of the federal government, as it drags on through a second week.
Parents would be reimbursed for fees paid to childcare facilities during the shutdown under plans initiated by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Any federal employee who has been furloughed, or remains working through the shutdown without pay, would be entitled to support under the Federal Worker Childcare Protection Act of 2025.
The bill authorizes the General Services Administration to receive official documentation for childcare expenses from federal workers to apply for reimbursement.
“When you talk to federal workers right now, a lot of them are exhausted. They’re proud of what they do, but they’re tired of being treated like their lives are expendable,” Omar said in a statement on the bill.
“This administration has made it clear it’s not interested in standing up for workers – but I am,” she added. “As a working parent, I know the importance of having reliable childcare. This bill is a small but necessary way to show that their work and their families matter.”
About 100 childcare centers previously operated in GSA-managed federal spaces, providing childcare for thousands of children daily, but the so-called “department of government efficiency” eliminated the GSA office that managed these facilities earlier this year.
Co-sponsors of the bill include the congressional Democratic representatives Pramila Jayapal, Summer Lee, Gregory Meeks, Jerry Nadler, and Rashida Tlaib.
Edward Helmore
Six former US surgeons general – the top medical posting in Washington – warned in an opinion column published on Tuesday that policy changes enacted by the health and human services (HHS) secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, are “endangering the health of the nation”.
The surgeons general – Jerome Adams, Richard Carmona, Joycelyn Elders, Vivek Murthy, Antonia Novello and David Satcher – who served under both Republican and Democrat administrations, identified changes in vaccine policy, medical research funding, a shift in priorities from rationality to ideology, plunging morale, and changes to staffing as areas of concern.
Referring to their oaths of office, both Hippocratic as physicians and as public servants, the former officials wrote in the Washington Post that they felt “compelled to speak with one voice to say that the actions of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are endangering the health of the nation”.
“Never before have we issued a joint public warning like this. But the profound, immediate and unprecedented threat that Kennedy’s policies and positions pose to the nation’s health cannot be ignored,” they said, adding that they could not ignore the “profound, immediate and unprecedented threat” of his policies.
Under a “Make America Healthy Again” (Maha) agenda, Kennedy has accelerated vaccine policy changes despite opposition from scientists, including narrowing eligibility for Covid-19 vaccine shots and dismissing members of a vaccine advisory panel.
He has cut federal funding for mRNA vaccine research for respiratory illnesses and instituted a review of vaccine recommendations. Kennedy also sought the dismissal of Dr Susan Monarez, former head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Monarez testified before Congress last month that her firing by Donald Trump came after refusing a request from Kennedy to dismiss CDC vaccine experts “without cause”.
