the DON JONES
INDEX…
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GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED 2/13/26… 15,785.82 1/30/26… 15,758.86 6/27/13... 15,000.00 |
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(THE DOW JONES INDEX: 2/13/26... 48,908.72; 1/30/26... 49,071.56; 6/27/13… 15,000.00) |
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LESSON
for FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6th, 2026
– “D.A.C.O.?... or D.A.C.K.O.?”
The second government shutdown of the Trump 2.0 administration was,
compared to the 34 day first, a shortdown;
itself shut down after only four days when Democrats in Congress
capitulated to His Majesty and, as in the first (when they chickened out on
healthcare), this time threw immigrants and people who didn’t want to get
murdered by the police (or by ICA, National Guard or the military) under the
tank by sending the field commander in the White house a variation of their
demands (as retained only a promise to allow body cameras on migrant hunters:
no masks, no home invasion warrants and, of course, no departure from
Minneapolis nor commitments not to repeat their murderous ICEcapades
elsewhere... the Olympics, the Superbowl, Mardi Gras or (as of late) even the
migrant traps on lobster piers of Maine!
It was a sordid and useless adventure – angering Democratic voters
who’d hoped that the ongoing stagflation and inequality would pressure their
purported politicians to grow spines; Republicans who feared that the D.A.C.O.
(“Democrats (or donkeys) Always Chicken Out”) manifestation might still not
overcome the next Kent/Jackson stately murder of immigration protesters,
journalists or curious bystanders in the leadup to midterm elections (now one
full term pregnancy of nine months distant) and compel all but the most rabidly
partisan to have to choose disgust and disappointment over hate and fear – if indeed,
they even ventured out to the polls, given new Trump dictatorquest.
Ultimately, Congress went D.A.C.K.O (Democrats Always Can Kick Out) so
– perhaps slightly later than the 4:30 PM that SecPress
Karoline Leavitt promised (but, in any event, before the CBS notice at 4:43, Wednesday afternoon, President Donald J. Trump
signed a House-approved six month plus bipartisan $1.2 trillion funding package
on February 3, 2026, previously passed by the Senate. The bipartisan 217-214 vote, ending a
four-day partial government shutdown, funds most agencies through September 30,
2026, but only extends Department of Homeland Security funding through February
13, 2026, according to the Conference
Board, setting up further negotiations. DHS, alone
faces a shutdown on February 13, 2026, if new funding is
not approved. (AI Overview)
"Very important
day," Mr. Trump said. "This bill is a great victory for the American
people. Instead of a bloated and wasteful omnibus monstrosity full of special
interest handouts, we've succeeded in passing a fiscally responsible package
that actually cuts wasteful federal spending while supporting critical programs
for the safety, security and prosperity of the American people."
Mr. Trump was flanked by
GOP members of Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson, who put on a red hat
with a new message: "America is
back!"
"This is a big
thing," Johnson said.
That
the actual passage of the DHS funding bill (along with other collateral
annoyances) was so sparsely covered by the broadcast electronic media...
including Fox and the transitioning-to-MAGA Bari Weissguys
and gals at the Peacock who either let it pass without notice or reduced it to
a caption on the crawl beneath the screen of news programming was, perhaps,
either a manifestation of media and mainstream exasperation with the shutdown
song and dance, or grudging anticipation of Shutdown 3.0 beginning Friday next.
Shutdown
1.0 over Halloween (some attributing it to a thirty five day or even forty three day stranger interlude) was a far more
massive event – and more impactful to Don Jones on account of the near-totality
of the bureaucratic eclipse (a few necessary departments remaining functional
as they did last week)
PBS reported that the House, on Tuesday, passed a
roughly $1.2 trillion spending package to end the partial government shutdown,
sending the measure to President Donald Trump and setting the stage for a
debate in Congress over Homeland Security funding after Democrats went D.A.C.O.
on all but the body cameras and a promise of more talks over their D.A.C.K.O.
next fortnite (oh... and the scalp of WACKO migrant
hunter Gregory Bovino...
not podcaster Bongino...
replaced by doubly dutiful border czar Tom Hogan).
The vote was 217-214, and wrapped up congressional work on
11 of the 12 annual appropriations bills, funding the vast majority of the
government for the budget year ending Sept. 30.
“The last bill still to be worked out covers the Department of Homeland
Security where Democrats are demanding more restrictions on enforcement
operations.” (PBS, ATTACHMENT ONE)
“Speaker Mike Johnson needed near-unanimous support from his
Republican conference to proceed to a final vote. He narrowly got it during a
procedural vote that was held open for nearly an hour as leaders worked to gain
support from a handful of GOP lawmakers who were trying to advance other
priorities unrelated to the funding measure.
"We
have to work through individual members' concerns. That's the game here. It's a
consensus building operation. We do it every day," Johnson said.
"There
can be NO CHANGES at this time," President Trump warned Republican holdouts
on Monday dismissing, for the time, the necessity of inveigling at least a few
Democrats in the Senate.
"We
will work together in good faith to address the issues that have been raised,
but we cannot have another long, pointless, and destructive Shutdown that will
hurt our Country so badly — One that will not benefit Republicans or Democrats.
I hope everyone will vote, YES!," Trump wrote on
his social media site.
The
House had previously approved the final package of spending bills, but, PBS
reported, the Senate “broke up that package so that more negotiations could
take place for the Homeland Security funding bill.” Democrats demanded changes
in response to events in Minneapolis, where two American citizens were shot and
killed by federal agents.
Channelling Wilson Pickett, House
Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La said: "We always work till the
midnight hour to get the votes."
What
ultimately emerged was that Speaker Mike kept his slender man majority in the
House while Senate donkeys chickened out, their only gain being language
requiring ICE body cams (the masks will remain) with further details to be
worked out in two more weeks.
Essentially
– a can kick of the can kick.
Congress
had supported (and Trump signed) the original can kick to February 1st,
at which time the funding for 2026 and part of 2027 would be determined. Despite the gripes and grimaces, a coalition
of collusives and collaboration among asses in the
House and Senate with a near-totality of eclipse-wary Republicans, Djonald UnDefeated signed the
kick and the partisans went back to their sniping and... for most of the
interim... their vacations (celebrations for the winners; excuses and
bitterness from the losers) with, of course, fundraising for both.
The Republicans had
previously passed six
of the 12 annual appropriations bills that fund federal agencies and programs;
including “important programs such as nutrition assistance and fully operating
national parks and historic sites,” which are funded through Sept. 30. The
remaining bills passed Tuesday represent roughly three-quarters of federal
spending set annually by Congress, including the Defense Department.
Democrats wanted changes to DHS immigration enforcement
operations, “including requirements that agents record on body cameras (their
sole victory) and not wear masks to conceal their faces (rejected).
They’d also demanded changes in funding to DHS in light of
the fatal shootings in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti and
Renee Good, the BBC reported (ATTACHMENT TWO) on and advocated for “changes to
protocol” – likely to be at issue during the next round of can kicking before Washington’s birthday – divided
donkeys approving enough money to keep DHS running for two weeks while
lawmakers work out disputes over its long-term budget.
The Democrats insisted on a two-week window," said
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). "I don't understand the
rationale for that. Anybody who knows this place knows that's an
impossibility."
The limited shutdown, although far less extensive than the
Halloween halting, affected numerous government services, “forcing thousands of
Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic control workers to either stay
home on furlough or work without pay.”
It also delayed the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly jobs
report - used by political leaders, investors and everyday Americans “to
understand how the economy is faring.”
It’s far too early for whatever repercussions a rising
jobless rate... which, after today’s closings of Eddie Bauer and hundreds of
Pizza Huts, as also the mass firings at the WashPost,
is likely to aggravate and irritate opponents of an increasingly “fire, no
hire” ethos... will have in November, but the undertakers and
polltakers, the survey monkeys and gamblers taking note of the falling favor
proffered to Trump, to ICE and the DHS and to persons concerned are already
seeing bad signs ahead for Republicans (as well, perhaps, as for some of the
conflicted and afflicted turnabout Democrats who pivoted to the President, as
they said, so as to ease the pain on constituents.
The January 23-26, 2026 Economist/YouGov Poll (ATTACHMENT THREE) had
already declared that confidence in ICE is falling, half of Americans
support cutting its funding and that Donald Trump's support from Independents hit a new low – “67% now say they have very little confidence in the agency, up from 49% in December.
Nor do foreigners, even our
ostensible allies from Europe where ICE targeting is not a problem... the ICE
invasion, even in a presumedly innocent capacity as “guards” for the American
Olympic delegation, is raising eyebrows in Rome (New York Times, Jan. 27th,
ATTACHMENT FOUR) despite D.H.S. contentions that their assignment will be “to vet and mitigate
risks from transnational criminal organizations” – especially against visitors
like Veep Vance and SecState Rubio.
The Times interviewed Antonio Tajani,
Italy’s foreign minister, who told reporters that ICE agents would not be
allowed to deploy on Italian streets. He added that “public order during the
Olympics” would be done only by the Italian national and local police but
stopped short of saying that U.S. agents would be limited to operational rooms.
Giuseppe Sala, the
mayor of Milan, said in a telephone interview that the Italian government
should “say no to Trump.”
Mr. Sala added:
“Bringing to Milan a militia which distinguished itself — this is not my
opinion — with criminal acts, which kills, which enters in the homes of
American citizens without authorization, I do not think that that is a good
idea.”
Elly Schlein, leader of the country’s center-left Democratic
Party, said in an interview that she was concerned about the arrival in Italy
of “an armed militia that is not respecting the law on American soil.” She
added: “And so there is the concern that they would not respect them on Italian
soil either.”
Matteo Piantedosi, Italy’s interior
minister, however, told reporters on Monday that the situation was “a
controversy over nothing,” and that foreign delegations had the right to choose
who staff their security teams. “I don’t
see what the problem is.” He added that it was “absolutely forbidden” for
foreign officers “to carry out police or similar activities on our soil,
especially if they are related to combating immigration.”
Even so, writing in La Stampa, an Italian newspaper, journalist Francesco Malfetano described ICE as an institution that “for many,
not only across the Atlantic, is synonymous with fear.”
Shutdown
2.0 crept up like a spider on the wall with Joneses not consumed with
distractions; the upcoming Winter Olympics... with ICE joining the American
team as its “security” to do as they will (round up Italians in Milan and
deport them to – where?)... the Super Bowl (there was
good news, of a sort this week when DHS, DoJ, DoD (or
DoWar), the military and vigilante forces more or
less agreed that spectators paying at least $5,000 for the cheap seats would
not be accosted, arrested and deported to a concentration camp before halftime
on the premise that any undocumented alien so enjoined was probably rich enough
not to have to sell drugs (at least on the street) or steal cars or mow
lawns... the Tabloid Tillies following celebrity romances and divorces or the
other ice, the black or shiny stuff together with the howling winds, blowing blizzareds and deep freeze (-50° in Minnesota) keeping us
disbelieving in the danger until it was on the doorstep.
Despite
assurances of peace and quiet at least through January, Olympian migrants of
Milan, like Minnesota... legal or illegal, as well as citizens whose skin color
offends certain people of privalage (Italy, like most
of Europe has the greater problem of asylum seekers from the wars and
starvation of Africa and the MidEast) so maybe the
American ICEmen can find gig jobs there,
supplementing or assisting Decreto Flussi police at the behest of Georgia Meloni,
the Trumpish PM in Rome (if not the Pope) since,
while tickes thereto will also be prohibitly
expensive (lotta lira, variable with
the venue) there’s enough alien overflow in the streets before the Games begin
tomorrow.
ICE,
ICE BABY
As
shutdown 1.0 recedes for most and the Christmas freeze numbed minds and
membranes of the eastern two thirds of America, the “season to be jolly” soured
within the broader partisan divisions on not only immigration, but foreign
affairs and the efficacy of diplomacy and multinational groupings... the EU,
NATO and, of course, the United Nations.
With Joneses counting their Christmas finances, the kitchen table issues
were back on the kitchen table with – as ever – debt, crime and the cultural
wars afflicting the naughty and nice.
Partisanship
divided even families, but did have the effect of shunting Americans off
towards one side of another, even splintering once-homogeneous categorizations
like race, class, religion, region and culture as the politicization that had
enabled Trump 1.0 returned with the same cries for vengeance resonating even
over the holidays.
There
were, also, anomalies.
In
staid, left-leaning New England, some of Maine’s RINO Republicans put on their
MAGA hats, picked up their lobster traps and marched off to war alongside ICE
as the Portland Press-Herald. (ATTACHMENT FIVE)
For many
conservatives, the increased immigration enforcement was a welcome sight — the
PPH talking to residents and businesspeople in and about Down East. Pete Harring, a
former Tea Party organizer and strong supporter of President Donald Trump said
he believed ICE was only targeting hardened criminals. As he put it, “I just
think people should be coming through the front door instead of climbing over
our back fence.”
“I don’t like people jumping
the line,” said Mike Gallant, who added he has family that came to the country
from Albania.
“It took them years
and years (to legally immigrate),” added Gallant, 38. “It was a big long
process. Why does someone else just get to cut the line by crossing the border
and staying here?”
Other respondents said
“(if) you don’t like it, then vote for somebody else in the next election,” and
that “it’s naive to think there are not criminals getting into the
country.” Support for ICE is also
bolstered by “the ferocity of the opposition to it,” with supporters receiving
insults and death threats. Some said
they hoped ICE would arrest Democrats and other politicians they dislike.
“Bullying happens way
too much on both sides of the aisle,” said a veteran and farmer who lives in
Benton. “And I’m not OK with it either way.”
Conversely
the Libertarian factionalistas – safely right-wing on
economic issues (despite their support of sex and drug criminalities) spoke out
against ICE in their tabloid bible Reason (ATTACHMENT SIX) as did conservatives
at Forbes, liberals like Nick Miroff at The Atlantic
and moderates at the presumably moderate mainstream broadcast media.
Most
cited the murders of Petti and Renee Good as their reason for lessening or even
entirely withdrawing their support for ICE.
Reason’s Joe Lancaster even said that the shooting of Good by ICE
Officer Jonathan Ross may have been on voiced or unvoiced orders from the
President “to create content for
social media” as might, spun the Wash Post, “...help legitimize the
administration's aggressive stance."
If, indeed, a plot was
hatched and nurtured, it hasn’t thrived.
Last month, on its
official X account, Trump's DHS "publicly announce[d] its
dream to somehow eliminate 100 million people, the majority of whom would need to be citizens to
hit that number, whose ancestry is seen as 'third world,'" writes Reason's
Brian Doherty.
"There were fears
at the time of DHS's founding, including on the political right, that the
government was creating an authoritarian monster," The Atlantic's
Miroff added. "The United States had never had
the kind of all-encompassing domestic-security apparatus common in autocracies,
whose interior departments function as political
police. DHS skeptics worried that civil liberties would be vulnerable to abuse
if the government began assembling national databases and an expanded federal
police force."
And yet, that's
exactly what happened. "ICE has routinely shown itself to be an
overreaching and unaccountable agency," Fiona Harrigan wrote in the December 2024 issue
of Reason.
A
further complication for the administration is that, unlike as in the unifying
epoch of Trump 1.0, factions within the
political parties tend towards quarrelsomeness unless and until The Man puts
his foot down – and even then, often temporarily... on one occasion (the
burgeoning Miller/Noem feud) within hours.
On
Tuesday, Jan. 27th, President Trump and his shadow prince combined
to dis... and maybe even deMAGAfy dogkilling
HomeSec Kristi over her stumbling protégés...
bumbling Bongino and lover Lewandowski... in a Daily
Beast updated dispatch at 8:13 AM only to pivot at 1:45 that afternoon in The
Hill, supporting roamin’ Noem’n
and giving Steve-O the kiss-off.
The
Beastly boys (ATTACHMENT SEVEN) noted that “ICE Barbie” (Noem)
was on “thin ICE” with Trump and
Miller after Bovino, Noem’s “commander at large,” whom she chose to serve
as the public face of the president’s immigration blitz. Bovino
had repeatedly raised eyebrows with his aggressive tactics even before members
of his “Green Machine” were filmed on Saturday throwing 37-year-old VA nurse Pretti to the ground and unloading bullets into him,
horrifying the U.S. public.
His replacement by
border czar Tom Homan was “a move widely seen as a snub to Homeland Security
Secretary Noem and her chief adviser and
rumored lover, Corey Lewandowski.”
“Bovino
is Corey’s guy,” said one source, a claim that would explain why Bovino immediately went on TV to back up Noem’s assertion that Pretti was
to blame for his own death, which Trump has notably stopped short of doing.
Other Beastly sources
said that, while “Good’s killing—and the massive ICE surge into Minnesota that
followed—is said to have made it politically impossible for Noem
to walk,” because “it would have looked like she was being forced out over
Good” and, so, reflecting badly on Trump, the Pretti
shooting, now, “is seen by many as a second act that may put her departure back
on track.”
But, only a few hours
later, Julia Manchester of the Hill (ATTACHMENT EIGHT) reported that President Trump had
voiced support for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid
increased pressure from both Democrats and Republicans over her initial
response to the shooting of Alex Pretti in
Minneapolis.
“While on his way to
Iowa to deliver a speech on the economy, Trump plainly said “no” when asked if Noem would step down amid the uproar over Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol operations in Minnesota,”
Manchester reported.
“I think she’s doing a
very good job,” the President replied – resorting to his favorite sidestep: the
wickedness and/or incompetence of Sad Old Joe.
“The border is totally secure. You know, you forget we had a border that
I inherited where millions of people were coming through. Now we have a border
where no one is coming through. They come into our country only legally,” Trump
told reporters on the White House South Lawn.
“Trump’s comments,”
the Hill added, came after Noem requested a meeting
with Trump and the two met in the Oval Office on Monday for two hours.
“Notably, Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the
administration’s chief immigration hawk (who’d referred to Pretti
as a “would-be assassin” who “tried to murder federal law enforcement,” did not
attend.
On Monday, White House
press secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to distance
Trump from both Noem’s and Miller’s comments by
saying she had not heard the president “characterize Mr. Pretti
in that way.”
On Tuesday, when Trump
was asked if Pretti’s death was justified, he said:
“Well you know, we’re doing a big investigation. I want to see the
investigation. I’m going to be watching over it. I want a very honorable and
honest investigation. I have to see for myself.”
“I’m looking at that
whole situation. I love everybody. I love all of our people. I love his family.
And it’s a very sad situation,” he said when asked about Pretti’s
family.
When asked if he
thought Pretti acted as an assassin, Trump said “no.”
With
directions from Father being so ephemeral, some of the Republicans who publically supported but privately opposed... or at least
questioned ICE tactics (Time, Jan. 26th ATTACHMENT NINE)
Repeating
polling data from YouGov (Above, Attachment Three), Time also added scrutinies from the New York Times/Siena, CNN/SSRS, Ipsos,
Pew and Quinnipiac pollsters – all of which found disillusion or even outright
despair over Trump 2.0.
The Pew Research Center survey taken in February, 2025, for instance,
“found that 59 percent of U.S. adults said they approved of Trump increasing
efforts to deport people.” This December, in contrast, Pew found that 53
percent of Americans said he was doing “too much” to deport illegal immigrants,
“with that sentiment rising among both Democrats and Republicans.”
There being no need for polling upon liberal reaction, MS
Now (formerly MSNBC... Jan. 28th, ATTACHMENT TEN), stormed forth in
its determination to terminate not only the tactics, but the agency and even
the anti-migration mission - calling out conservative (or, at least, cautious)
donkeys even before it became clearer that the huge funding increase for ICE
might provoke another shutdown was possible.
Even
after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Good
earlier this month, carrying out the behest of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and
her closest allies in carrying out President Donald Trump’s cruel purge of
immigrants – (popular revenge and retribution) seemed untouchable. Good’s death
only prompted a mediocre package of reforms to
be included in the bill funding the Department of Homeland Security for the
rest of the year, none of which would truly restrain federal officers from
carrying out mass deportation efforts.
The
hubble-bubble pot boiled over anew during the last weekend in January after
several ICE agents battled a Minneapolis citizen and VA nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday morning as he tried to help a woman
being beaten and arrested at the now-inevitable protests. Two of the agents shot Pretti
between six and ten times... some details remain under investigation or
withheld... and the DHS funding issue oozed its toxic fumes beyond even the
borders of America.
The Homeland Security funding bill is currently tied
together with five other House-passed appropriations bills as “an
all-or-nothing package,” MS Now reported on Wednesday, Jan. 27th. At least seven Democratic votes being needed
to ensure passage, correspondent Hayes Brown opined that Pretti’s
death “has made the chance that it will reach Trump’s desk unchanged low at
best.” Instead, Senate Democrats are now pressing their GOP counterparts
to strip the DHS funding from the
“minibus” to allow the other bills to pass and prevent a larger partial shutdown.
(Senate Republicans pressed ahead regardless,
intending to call a potential bluff and setting the stage for a crucial vote Thursday.)
MS
Now’s Brown listed other donkey dreams – including wholesale reformations of
ICE, impeaching Noem (and why not Trump!), open
borders and sanctuary cities greenlighted and a “stable pathway to citizenship”
enacted.
None
of which, despite the rhetoric, have happened... nor are likely to happen
before a new Congress takes office; more likely not until 2029.
Abroad,
it was not only the Italian Olympics organizers but a wide swath of foreign
officials and media that discoursed upon the potential for ICE funding
provoking Shutdown 2.0... much to the delight, no doubt, of the Russians,
Chinese and Iranians.
Their
confidence in America shaken, but not stirred the BBC (ATTACHMENT ELEVEN) cited
anonymous “US media reports” that
the White House and Senate Democratic leadership were “nearing an agreement
which would meet Democratic demands to introduce new restrictions on federal
immigration agents”, meaning that “five of the six outstanding spending bills
could be passed before the Friday deadline,” while DHS funding “would get a
short-term extension to allow time for more discussion on the proposed new
restrictions, like around the use of masks by agents.
“If no deal is struck,” the BBC reported, “the second
shutdown within months will begin at one minute after midnight on Friday 30
January.”
It wasn’t and it did.
Explaining that passage required 60 Senate votes, with only 53
Republicans on hand, the BBC’s Bernd Debusmann Jr.
took note of Schumer’s absolute “No!” unless ICE was “reined in and overhauled”
and differentiated the effects upon some agencies which would not be
impacted... like the FBI and Department of Veterans Affairs... from those that
would “...including the defence department, health
and human services, the treasury and the federal court system.”
Employees "essential" to the functioning of
impacted agencies would continue to work, but would not be paid until funding
is restored – “unless the government finds other sources - as Trump did with military personnel last year.”
Given
that tensions, including possible military action, were rising with Iran and
Cuba, the American shutdown dilemma was of particular interest to MidEastern parties... from the Israelis to Saudis and Gulf
States and, correspondingly, to Al Jazeera which, on Thursday a week ago,
warned that the United States “could be careening toward another government
shutdown, in which federal agencies are forced to close because Congress cannot
pass legislation to fund them.” (Jan. 29th,
ATTACHMENT TWELVE)
Lawmakers in the Senate
would now have until midnight Friday (05:00 GMT on Saturday) to find a
solution.
Splitting DHS off from
five other spending bills would require returning to House for new votes, and
the Jazzies reported that, with the House “currently
in the middle of a weeklong recess”, Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, was
“unlikely to call his chamber’s representatives back to Washington for a second
vote.”
In the run-up to
Friday’s shutdown deadline, Democrats in the Senate were bracing for a similar
fracture among their party members.
Several had been
expected to hold their nose and vote to support the spending bill, in part
fearing the political optics of another government shutdown.
On January 20,
Democratic Senator Patty Murray argued against shutting down the government yet
again, calling it an ineffective tactic to curb ICE.
“ICE must be reined in,
and unfortunately, neither a [continuing resolution] nor a shutdown would do
anything to restrain it, because, thanks to Republicans, ICE is now sitting on
a massive slush fund it can tap whether or not we pass a funding bill,” she
wrote in a statement.
Murray called on her
party to instead focus its efforts on winning the upcoming midterm elections.
“The hard truth is that Democrats must win political power to enact the kind of
accountability we need,” she said.
But, after the Pretti
killing, Al Jazeera reported that Senator Murray “was among those who shifted
her stance in the wake of the killing. Her response was unequivocal.”
“I will NOT support the
DHS bill as it stands,” she wrote in a post on the social media
platform X. “Federal agents cannot murder people in broad daylight and face
zero consequences.”
“Left-wing senators Catherine Cortez Masto,
Jacky Rosen and Angus King” also announced they would not vote in favour of the funding bill as is, “despite having broken
from party ranks to end the last shutdown in November.”
Reforms floated by
Democrats listed by Al Jazz include “requiring judicial warrants for
immigration arrests, doing away with the Trump administration’s detention
quotas, and mandating that federal agents unmask themselves and wear
identification,” as well as “prohibiting border patrol agents from being
deployed within the interior of the US and requiring that local and state
authorities be involved in use-of-force investigations.”
If the government shuts
down yet again, Senator Dick Durbin warned during a floor speech on Wednesday,
“it will be because congressional Republicans refuse to place guardrails on
this reckless president and the ICE agency?”
Claude Pegram, opining
in the Fox News “Hitchhiker’s Guide” (ATTACHMENT THIRTEEN, Jan 28th)
brought up “an old trick which may help you divine the length of a prospective government
shutdown”... the pay schedule for federal workers.
“The
government last paid many federal workers on January 21. That,” Pegram noted,
“was one day later than usual because of the Martin Luther King federal
holiday.
“However,
the next batch of checks is due to go out on Monday, February 2. This paycheck
covers the work period running through Thursday, February 5.” Fox, however, was told that workers would at
least receive a partial paycheck for work completed through Friday, January 30.
That’s the last day that the government is funded. “So those checks still go
out on February 2. But they don’t cover work for next Monday through Thursday
if there’s a lapse in appropriations.
“Any
money dealing with expenditures beginning on January 31 is illegal. It’s a
violation of the Antideficiency Act. The executive
branch is spending money not appropriated by
Congress.
“So the weekend gives lawmakers a bit of a breather to figure
things out. And the next day to cut many federal checks doesn’t fall until
Tuesday, February 17. That is one day later than usual because of Presidents'
Day on Monday, February 16.
“Missing
any portion of a paycheck is not optimal. But the upside is that Congress and
the executive branch have nearly three weeks to solve this before most federal
workers miss an ENTIRE paycheck.”
FAA
and ATC workers would receive partial paychecks thereafter, but, Pegram asked:
“One wonders if there’s any goodwill left among those workers to show up on the
job gratis since Congress and the executive branch still can’t get their acts
together.”
Deals
and steals still percolated through January with (Fox, Jan. 29th,
ATTACHMENT FOURTEEN) opining on A.P reports that “irate Senate Democrats” had laid out a list of even more
demands ahead of a Thursday morning test vote – “denying Republicans the votes they need to
pass it and triggering a shutdown at midnight on Friday.”
Unlike the Halloween shutdown, ending in a D.A.C.O. after Good,
“...there’s a lot of “unanimity and shared purpose” within the Democratic
caucus, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith said after a lunch meeting Wednesday.
“Boil it all down, what we are talking about is that these
lawless ICE agents should be following the same rules that your local police
department does,” Smith said. ”There has to be
accountability.”
Senate Majority Leader Thune, acknowledging his subordinate
status, told Minority Leader Schumer and his equines to go the White House “to
talk and find agreement.”
Even occasioniolly negotiable
Republicans like Sen. Thom Tillis (NC) vetoed the Democrats’ proposal to
require the immigration enforcement officers to “unmask and show their faces,”
even as he blamed Noem for decisions that he said are
“tarnishing” the agency’s reputation.
“You know, there’s a lot of vicious people out there, and
they’ll take a picture of your face, and the next thing you know, your children
or your wife or your husband are being threatened at home,” Tillis said. ”And that’s just the reality of the world that we’re in.”
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas added that “what
happened over the weekend is a tragedy,” but Democrats shouldn’t punish
Americans with a shutdown and a “political stunt.”
Democrats said they wouldn’t back down.
“It is truly a moral moment,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal,
D-Conn. “I think we need to take a stand.”
Also on Thursday morning, Time’s opinionator Philip Elliott
opined (ATTACHMENT FIFTEEN) that Democrats seemed surprisingly unified as they “steer(ed) into
another shutdown, this time tied to President Donald Trump’s dragnet operation
against immigrants instead of an end to subsidies for health insurance used by
roughly 20 million Americans.”
But
now, “Trump allies have beseeched his advisers to pare back the over-the-top
efforts in Minnesota before they completely turn off voters heading into
midterm elections that Republicans are already bracing to go badly. Even inside
the MAGAverse, there is a queasiness over a Trumpist show that now has a tangible bodycount.
Yes, Trump has long had strong public support to tighten the border and to
deport violent criminals but he does not have anywhere near that support to
storm communities with armed agents carrying no ID or warrants.
“In
the fall,” Elliott recalls, as Congress faced the choice of extending Obamacare
subsidies or allowing health insurance costs to soar for millions of Americans,
polls found an extension was broadly supported,
regardless of party. “It was the
textbook example of an 80-20 issue, a no-brainer of a reason for Democrats to
step in and shut down the government unless the dollars were extended, and a
winning issue for the minority party on an issue most closely associated with
their branding.
“But
Republicans did not budge and Democrats, after 43 days, realized they could not out-stubborn Trump.
“Those
supportive of the strategy will point out that Republicans took the bigger
chunk of blame for that standoff. Others will note that Democrats have nothing
to show for the extended drama—the subsidies are now gone. Nonetheless, they
are on the verge of following the same playbook again.”
Elliott
contended that Pretti’s killing “dramatically moved
the needle” in the polls, the press and among the public. Aides said the Pretti
death was such a clarifying moment for their bosses that inaction was no longer
an option; without their demands met, Democrats said they would not fall in
line to keep the lights on past Friday. So it now feels a lot more like where we were a few months
earlier, Eliott concluded “when everything but the
most urgent of government functions got mothballed. Much as before, the public
is with Democrats. Also much as before, Trump remains
indifferent to popular opinion and thinks he can out-wait his opposition.”
Then again, Sam Sifton
in the New York Times believed that the shutdown might be averted – due to a deal being worked
out between Trump and Schumer. (Jan. 29,
ATTACHMENT SIXTEEN)
The President may have realized that he had a problem... “(h)is
Optimistic
to the end... at least in public... the President, in an address to his Cabinet
of Curiosities, said "(h)opefully we won't
have a shutdown... (w)e're working on that right now.
I think we're getting close. The Democrats, I don't believe want to see it
either. So, we'll work in a very bipartisan way." (USA Today, ATTACHMENT SEVENTEEN)
But, USAT reported
later Thursday afternoon, a Senate test vote to avoid a partial government
shutdown failed – “signaling Democrats, Republicans and the White House are
still at odds.”
A waiting game began
after Thursday's failed Senate vote.
“It's unclear how long
it will take for Democratic lawmakers to finalize a deal with the White House,”
wrote Zachary Schermele and Kathryn Palmer. “But the main sticking point seems to be
centered around exactly how long a short-term funding measure for DHS would
be.”
SHUTDOWN TEST VOTE
FAILS 55-45
Fifty-five senators,
including all Democrats and seven Republicans, voted against advancing the
funding package.
“Democrats' concerns
were uniformly about ICE and DHS,” USA Today’s autopsy concluded, “while the
GOP no votes consisted of conservatives angry about what they perceived to be
wasteful spending in the half-dozen appropriations bills.”
The
bell clapper rung down on what some Republicans and almost all Democrats deemed
a bummer of a year and the parties fled Washington’s wild weather seeking,
despite the fragrance of failure, some rest and relaxation (if not
recreation).
While Congressthings and Senatelings
relaxed and money chinga chinged
from donors classy and un-, busy Speaker Mike, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”,
expressed “confidence” that the partial government shutdown would conclude by Tuesday,
“despite procedural snarls and Democratic leadership declining to guarantee
critical votes,” the New York Post reported (Jan. 1, 8:31 PM – ATTACHMENT
EIGHTEEN)
The
government entered a partial shutdown at 12:01 a.m. Saturday after Senate
Democrats decided at the last minute to rebuff a bipartisan funding deal that
had been in the works, demanding reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE).
“Let’s
say I’m confident that we’ll do it at least by Tuesday,” Johnson (R-La.) told
the Pressers.
“No one wanted to put that pain on the
American people again. The Democrats forced it. We were insistent that we would
not allow that to happen,” the speaker added. “…Republicans are going to do the
responsible thing.”
After
Senate Minority Leader Schumer demanded that the Trump administration “tighten
its use of warrants, end roving patrols, enforce better “accountability” on
immigration officers, force masks off officers and use body cameras, Speaker
Mike responded that requiring masks off and agents to wear some form of ID were unacceptable demands, recounting a
conversation border czar Tom Homan had had with Schumer, also telling him that
wasn’t acceptable.
“Those
two things are conditions that would create further danger,” a busy Johnson
told “Fox News Sunday.”
“We
have a logistical challenge of getting everyone in town and because of the
conversation I had with Hakeem Jeffries,” Johnson lamented, “I know that we’ve
got to pass a rule and probably do this mostly on our own. I think that’s very
unfortunate.”
The far, far right’s insistence on stacking the pack with
more doozleberries, “They’re intentionally trying to
sabotage the DHS approps bill, purely on politics,
not policy,” Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales told The Washington Times. (ATTACHMENT NINETEEN)
“Republican policies on immigration
enforcement have been a complete and total failure,” House Minority Leader
Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, said. “Taxpayer dollars should not be spent
to brutalize and kill American citizens.”
The
budget bill... including revisions on body cameras (but not masks)... went back
to the House floor on Tuesday afternoon, February 2nd (CNN, 2:32 pm, ATTACHMENT
TWENTY) when... after the Office
of Personnel Management (OPM) updated
its shutdown guidance to remove references to the
guarantee of back pay for furloughed federal employees (Federal News Network,
6:25 PM, ATTACHMENT TWENTY ONE) and “telling agencies they (were) allowed to
take performance-based adverse actions against
employees during a shutdown, as long as the action was determined to be exempt
or excepted, House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro
(D-Conn.) said Monday that she plans to vote in favor of the spending package.
“We need to take these next 10 days to work to radically
reform ICE,” DeLauro said at a House Rules Committee hearing on the spending
deal.
“We can take the amended bill, or we can leave it. My view
is that we should take it,” Cole said.
A State Department employee told the FNN that agency
leadership is directing management “to be liberal about determining what work
should continue.” The employee said the department, by contrast, “very strictly
construed” what work was allowed to continue during last year’s record shutdown.
Rachel Gittleman, president of
American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, said in a statement that
the department’s work is now largely “on hold,” and that employees are either
furloughed or working without pay.
“The hardworking public servants at the Department will once
again not receive paychecks because they are either furloughed or working
without pay,” Gittleman said. “This comes nearly
three months after the end of the historic 43-day shutdown, which forced some
of our members to borrow money or use public assistance to put food on the
table.”
A
few minutes later... while the House debate was still ringing bells and raising
hell over masking (as if in a childish 1950’s argument over facial covering was
better, Zorro’s or the Lone Ranger’s... a set of USA Today mini-takeaways
(Tuesday, Feb. 2, 6:41 PM, ATTACHMENT TWENTY TWO)
dating back to Thursday’s kerfluffel between Speaker
Mike and a few further-right Republicans who wanted even more murderous
repression of the Minneapolis protests and/or some special personal passions
fulfilled.
Scrolling social media,
USAT discovered and disclosed that Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Florida, stated
that the “price” for her vote on the funding legislation is amending it to
incorporate the SAVE Act, a voter ID bill. Rep. Eric Burlison,
R-Missouri, agreed, writing that: “If Dems want to play games, no spending
package should come out of the House without the SAVE Act attached.”
These
were eventually mollified by bribes of donor directions and local legislation
supplemented by warnings by the one and only man who feared mothering, yet was
feared by all... Trump
insulting renegade congressman Thomas Massie's wife in a post on Truth Social
and the colluder in the Epstein Files Transparency Act, of being an
"absolutely terrible and unreliable" Republican.
February
first... under a barrage of outraged inquiries and questions... the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CFRB) assured Joneses
that, while certain gumment functions would be
impacted, essentials like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and amenities
like National parks and food inspection services would continue. Immigration enforcement officers, as well as
prison staff and active-duty members of the military would continue working...
getting backpay but not receive an immediate paycheck for working through the
closure – as would 14,000 air traffic controllers
and ten thousand Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) either going home on furlough or
working without pay, again as warned one of the takeaways in The Hill,
(Attachment “E” below)
And the IRS said it would
continue operating for five business days “by using funds it was granted
through the Inflation Reduction Act.”
Many more chutes and
ladders were noted in the lettered Attachments from February second and
third... PBS first airing (Feb. 3rd.
10:36 AM), then updating the House passage of the spending package to end the partial government shutdown. (2:33
PM, Attachment One, above)
The BBC (ATTACHMENT TWENTY
THREE) explained the details of any DHS deal, which they called “the most fraught component of the package” - lawmakers, even
within each of the parties, unable to agree on how to handle HomeSec and its multiple subsidiary agencies, including
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP),
the Coast Guard and Secret Service.
Democrats are demanding changes to DHS immigration
enforcement operations, including requirements that agents record on body
cameras (negotiable) and not wear masks to conceal their faces (not negotiable,
according to Trump and legislators noted in the takeaway lettered Attachments..
They have also demanded changes in funding to DHS in light of
the fatal shootings in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti and
Renee Good, and have advocated for changes to protocol.
Both chambers of the US Congress – the House and Senate – must
trek back to Congress and vote to approve any legislation before it can be
signed into law by the president; this during a long weekend that includes
Valentines’ Day, President’s Day, Mardi Gras and the Chinese New Year (with the
Fire Horse replacing the Snake).
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he was concerned
about the two-week timing in part because members of the Republican conference
remain in "very different places".
"Once we start, we have a very short timeframe in which
to do this, which I lobbied against, but the Democrats insisted on a two-week
window," Thune said. "I don't understand the rationale for that.
Anybody who knows this place knows that's an impossibility."
Then again, the Fire Horse represents ability
and strength, and it’s the end of the Year of the Snake – so, who knows,
harmony and common sense might break out.
ATTACHMENTS – COLORED by
SOURCE, LETTERED by DATE (2.2 AND 2.3) & TIME
GREEN – from THE HILL
BLACK – from USA TODAY
PURPLE – from NBC
RED – from CBS
BLUE – from AP NEWS
ORANGE – from CNN
BROWN – from FOX
FEBRUARY
2nd
0600
9 HOURS AGO
In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Briefing,” Sen. John
Fetterman (D-Penn.) defended agents wearing masks and warned protesters in
Minnesota against doxing federal immigration agents
Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President Kennedy,
wrote Sunday evening on the social platform X that “Trump can take the Kennedy
Center for himself. He can change the name, shut the doors, and demolish the
building. He can try to kill JFK.”
“But
JFK is kept alive by us now rising up to remove Donald Trump, bring him to
justice, and restore the freedoms generations fought for.”
6:59 AM EST Since Republicans would have needed roughly 70
Democrats to help pass the package if it came under suspension the Rules
Committee will now try to advance the funding package. This means Republicans
will likely need to approve the rule and the package on their own.
6:59 AM EST
Rep. Ro Khanna says he’s a ‘firm no’ on reopening the federal
government amid ICE funding dispute adding, “I just don’t see how, in good
conscience, Democrats can vote for continuing ICE funding when they’re killing
American citizens.”
0700
7:19 AM EST announces yesterday that he has determined that the
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington should close for about two
years “totally subject” to approval by his handpicked board The center will close July 4
7:26 AM EST
Trump says if Iran doesn’t agree to nuclear deal, ‘we’ll find
out’ whether U.S. attack would spark a regional war
8 HOURS AGO
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Sunday it has
locked down the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas amid a
measles outbreak.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said two additional arrests were made
in connection to a church disruption led by protesters in Minnesota last month.
Updated 7:55 AM / February 2, 2026
House Rules Committee to take up funding package Monday afternoon
where at least one Republican, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, has said he has his own
demands for DHS funding. Second, if it advances out of the committee, there are
questions about whether Johnson can keep his party united in a procedural vote
before final passage.
Updated 7:55 AM / February 2, 2026
House Democrats conveyed to GOP leadership over the weekend that
they wouldn't provide the votes to help pass the funding package under
suspension of the rules — a maneuver that would fast track the legislation's
passage.
Updated 7:55 AM / February 2, 2026
Johnson says he expects House to fund the government by Tuesday
0800
8:01 AM Speaker Johnson faces tough
choices on partial government shutdown and debate over ICE deepens
8:05 AM EST
Trump says
US is ‘starting to talk to Cuba’ as he moves to cut its oil supplies
8:06 AM EST
Trump hails U.S. surpassing Japan in steel production in a
“social media post”.
8:08 AM EST
Top Justice Department
official plays down chance for charges arising from Epstein files revelations
8:09 AM EST
Kennedy Center will close
for 2 years for renovations, Trump says, after performers’ backlash
7 HOURS AGO
A partial shutdown affecting much of the federal government
began Saturday, but it is unlikely to last long.
The shutdown is hitting huge parts of the government, including
the Pentagon, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of
Homeland Security.
Rove on Trump economy boasts: 'Making the same mistake Joe Biden
made'
8:38 AM EST
Trump threatens lawsuit and
to ‘have fun’ with Trevor Noah after Grammys
8:50 AM / February 2, 2026
House Homeland Security Committee Democrats urge colleagues to
oppose funding package
8:54 AM Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issues a
warning that any attack on the country by the United States would lead to a
“regional war.”
0900
9:24 AM EST
Trevor Noah’s Epstein Island
joke wasn’t his only dig at Trump during the Grammy Awards
9:29
AM Trump posts on Truth Social that he’ll sue Trevor Noah who says artists want
Grammies “almost as much as Trump wants Greenland,”
Noah said. “Which makes sense, I mean, because Epstein’s Island is gone, he
needs a new one to hang out on with Bill Clinton.” There is no comment from Clinton regarding
whether he’d join Trump in litigation
6 HOURS AGO
Father of 5 year old Adrian Conejo
Arias denies he abandoned the boy. GOP
Rep. Carlos Gimenez (Fla.) said the Trump administration has been too slow to
alter the way it conducts immigration enforcement operations, warning it could
cost Republicans politically.
9:35 AM EST
Artists must decide whether
to join growing cultural revolt against Trump’s immigration enforcement
9:59 AM EST
5-year-old and his dad
return to Minnesota from ICE facility in Texas
1000
10:02 AM EST
Family’s lawyer said Liam’s
dad did nothing illegal
10:07 AM EST
Liam’s back home, but what
about 10-year-old Elizabeth Zuna?
10:12
AM British
Prime Minister Keir Starmer calls on Andrew
Mountbatten-Windsor to testify in front of the American Congress. Meanwhile,
some Epstein survivors say they’re frustrated with the way some private
information was not redacted in the release.
5 HOURS AGO
Medical examiner Dr. Andrew Baker rules Pretti
death a homicide. One Federal Court
allows five offshore wind projects blocked by Trump to resume construction and
another blocks Trump’s ban on limiting lawmakers from conducting unannounced
visits to immigration detention facilities, “ruling that it likely runs afoul
of oversight measures that Congress implemented.”
10:46 AM In addition to DHS, funding for other major departments and
their subagencies has lapsed. They include:
Defense Department
State Department
Department of Labor
Department of Health and Human Services
Department of Education
Department of Transportation
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Treasury Department
10:53 AM EST
Here’s what Democrats and
Republicans want in the ICE legislation
1100
11:02 AM EST
Key Gaza border crossing reopens at Rafah reopens, “a step
forward in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.”
11:23 AM EST
Polls show Trump facing challenges
this year
11:25 AM EST
Americans want Trump to
focus more on the economy, polls show
11:26 AM EST
Most voters see ICE as too
aggressive
4 HOURS AGO
Trump urges House Republicans, Democrats to work together to end
shutdown as the Hill reports on Nancy Guthrie and Epstein victims’ doxxing complaints.
11:38 AM EST
Democratic senator blasts Trump’s
plan to close Kennedy Center
11:41 AM EST
Trump is losing support for
his overall policies
11:42 AM EST
Republicans
increasingly question Trump’s mental fitness
11:48 AM EST
Many want Trump focused less
on foreign issues
11:52 AM EST
Fulton County to sue Trump administration over seizure of 2020
election records
11:59 AM EST
Trump creating ‘Project
Vault,’ a strategic reserve for rare earths elements
1200
12:09 PM EST
Attorney General announces 2
more arrests in St. Paul church protest
12:18 PM EST
12:29 PM EST
Trump says he plans to lower
tariffs on India to 18% after India agreed to stop buying Russian oil
12:30 PM Speaker Mike says he’s not asking Trump to pressure
far-right Republican holdouts. Rather he will deal with demands from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-La.) that the panel add
on to the funding package the SAVE America Act, which would implement voter ID
requirements and require proof of citizenship to vote.
12:38 PM EST
Trump touts lower crime on ex-FBI No. 2 Dan Bongino's
relaunched podcast while attacking Minnesota's Democratic governor, Tim Walz,
whom he calls "a disaster."
1239 Schumer
says adding SAVE Act to funding package would cause prolonged shutdown
12:40 PM EST
Senate Democratic Leader
Schumer warns against GOP adding SAVE Act to appropriations package
12:50 PM EST The U.S. jobs report for
January, which was scheduled to be released this Friday, will be delayed until
further notice because of the government shutdown. "The
Employment Situation release for January 2026 will not be released as scheduled
on Friday, February 6, 2026," a spokesperson for the agency said in a
statement.
1300
1:00 PM EST
Government delays jobs
report because of shutdown
1309 Jobs report this
week will be delayed by shutdown, Labor Department says
1:30 PM EST U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb of the District of
Columbia blocked the Trump administration from requiring
members of Congress to provide seven days' advance notice before conducting
oversight visits at immigrant detention and holding centers.
13:30 After consulting with White House border czar Tom Homan, acting
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons and Customs and
Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott, DHS Noem
agrees that Immigration officers in Minneapolis will now wear body cams.
1:48 PM EST
Chicago
mayor wants city police to probe alleged wrongdoing by immigration agents
1400
2:10 PM EST
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi agreed during a phone call to stop buying Russian oil for his
country and to a trade agreement between the two countries.
2:19 PM EST
Trump loyalist Ed Martin is out of his role as the Justice
Department’s “weaponization” czar, according to two people familiar with the
discussions.
2:30 PM
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Monday said the process of funding
the government will “be a clown circus for a few days” on Wolf Blitzer’s
“Situation Room”. “The only bill that will not pass is the Department of
Homeland Security budget, and frankly, I don’t know if it’s possible to pass
that bill,” he added.
2:52
PM Clintons
reverse course, agree to testify in House Epstein inquiry
1500
3:25 PM President
Trump urged lawmakers to support the funding agreement as it stands, saying the
House should "send it to my desk WITHOUT DELAY," while noting that
there should be "NO CHANGES at this time."
3:27 PM Introduction from The Hill in which Trump adds: “We will work together in good faith to address the issues that
have been raised, but we cannot have another long, pointless, and destructive
Shutdown that will hurt our Country so badly — One that will not benefit
Republicans or Democrats.” (ATTACHMENT “F”)
3:39 PM EST
Trump demands ‘NO CHANGES’
to funding deal as House returns
3:51 PM EST
John Thune says “shocking” state Senate defeat in Texas means GOP
must 'up our game'.
1600
1611 Christian
Menefee, new Texas Democrat, to be sworn in Monday evening, giving Democrats
214 seats in the House, compared to Republicans' 218. That means Johnson will
be able to afford just one defection on the shutdown
1614 After
meeting with Johnson, House Rules Committee takes up funding package, Clinton
contempt resolutions
4:16 PM EST
Trump says he was never ‘friendly’ with Epstein on Truth Social,
blaming “a SLEAZEBAG lying ‘author’ named Michael Wolff, (who) conspired in
order to damage me and/or my Presidency.”
4:25 PM EST
Justice Department says it’s
taken down Epstein-related files that may have had victim information
1630 GOP
majority narrows as Johnson swears in Texas Democrat Christian Menefee
1632 House reconvenes to debate bills unrelated to funding package
4:32 PM EST
Hegseth says military is ‘prepared’
if Iran doesn’t negotiate
4:32 PM EST
Trump says Republicans should ‘nationalize’ elections on Bongino podcast despite Article 1 of the Constitution say(ing) that “the times, places, and manner of holding
elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state
by the legislature thereof.”
4:32 PM EST
Hegseth says military is ‘prepared’
if Iran doesn’t negotiate
1633 House reconvenes to debate bills unrelated to funding
package
4:39 PM EST
Trump company deal avoided
ethics ban by a few days
1646 Johnson still confident about passing government funding by
Tuesday
4:48 PM EST
Trump compares new rare
earth stockpile to Strategic Petroleum Reserve
4:49 PM EST
4:52 PM EST
Trump says he won’t tear
down Kennedy Center
4:55 PM EST
Trump says Pirro will take Powell investigation ‘to the end’
1700
1702
Introduction from CBS – ATTACHMENT “C”
5:05 PM EST
Every Homeland Security
officer in Minneapolis is now being issued a body-worn camera, Noem says
5:06 PM EST
Why were federal law
enforcement officers not previously required to wear body cameras?
1708 Rep.
Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations
Committee, said she plans to vote for the funding package on the House floor.
5:18 PM EST
Trump says he’s a ‘big
crypto person’ but isn’t involved in family’s World Liberty Financial
5:37 PM EST
Trump says Kennedy Center renovations could cost around $200
million – saying that it’s “in very bad shape, it’s run down, it’s dilapidated”
and that a renovation with superior quality could not be done without
temporarily closing it.
5:55 PM EST
Former FBI deputy Dan Bongino returns
to podcasting with a defense of the FBI’s handling of the Epstein files
promising to combat “grifters” trying to sow division in the MAGA ranks.
1800
1841
Introduction from USA TODAY, ATTACHMENT “B”
The government shutdown entered its third day on Monday as
lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill in hopes of making the funding lapse a brief
one.
1900
7:08 PM 25 min ago
Texas Democrat takes oath of
office, shrinking GOP majority in House
7:16 PM 17 min ago
7:24 PM 9 min ago
Federal judge blocks Trump
administration from ending temporary legal status for Haitians in the US
7:33
PM EST, February 2, 2026
As
Republican leadership in the House hopes to begin the process of reopening the
government by advancing a funding package on Monday that passed
the Senate last week, President Donald Trump urged lawmakers not to oppose the
deal.
7:35
PM EST Introduction from NBC (ATTACHMENT “D”) with Maryland gerrymander, House
Rules Committee preparation and Trump’s slander suit against Grammy host joker
Trevor Noah.
FEBRUARY
3rd
0700
7:55 AM In an 8-4 vote
along party lines, the House Rules Committee advances the funding package
Monday night, teeing it up for a floor vote Tuesday and quelling a push by some
House conservatives to attach an elections-related bill known as the SAVE Act
to the funding package Monday, which threatened to stall the effort to reopen
the government.
0900
9:28 AM In negotiations
between Senate Democrats and the White House, Democrats secure the two-week
extension of DHS funds that they had sought, giving them time to negotiate
reforms to the administration's approach to immigration enforcement. The short
timeline means lawmakers will have to move swiftly, but Republicans and
Democrats have expressed optimism about reaching a compromise... despite
criticism that negotiations that just gain more negotiations is “chickening
out”.
1000
10:31 AM Speaker Mike expresses optimism
that Republicans will remain united and approve the rule for the funding
package this morning. He said he does not expect any GOP defections. “The Republican Party is sticking together
because the stakes are so high."
He
added: "Democrats, all they do, every single day here, is obstruct."
1100
11:11
AM Senate
Majority Leader John Thune casts doubt on the short timeline to reach an
agreement on DHS funding. The temporary funding measure gives lawmakers until
Feb. 13 to approve long-term funding for the department, or another stopgap
measure.
11:46
AM House begins
vote on rule for funding package.
11:56
Two Republicans — Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and John Rose of Tennessee —
have voted against moving ahead with the funding package. The vote on the rule
is still open, meaning members can change their votes. If the current outcome
holds, the rule will fail.
11:58
AM In a post on
X before the House vote on the rule, Rose, also a candidate for Governor of
Tennessee who is one of the two current GOP no votes, urges his colleagues to
oppose moving forward if the package doesn't include the SAVE Act, the
Republican election bill.
1200
12:10 PM Four
Republican members have yet to cast a vote: Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Troy Nehls of
Texas and Byron Donalds of Florida. The current tally stands at 212 yeas to 216 nays. Johnson needs all four outstanding GOP
members to vote yes and for one of the GOP nays to flip for the rule to be
adopted.
12:18
PM Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Victoria Spartz
of Indiana have now voted yes. The tally stands at 214 yeas
to 216 nays. GOP leaders need the two
remaining Republicans who have not voted to vote in favor of advancing the
package. They also need to flip one of the two no votes so far.
12:26
PM Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas votes in favor of advancing the funding
measure. Just one Republican, Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, has not voted. GOP leaders still need to flip one no vote to
advance the package.
12:36
PM House
Republicans narrowly advance the funding package in a 217 to 215 vote, with all
but one Republican in favor of the procedural vote. Rep. Thomas Massie of
Kentucky is the sole Republican to vote against it. Rose of Tennessee, does a
RACO – flips his vote from no to yes – setting up the vote on final passage
later this afternoon. Speaker Mike
denies a deal was made on the flip flopper’s gubernatorial ambitions.
12:42
PM The House is
now debating the funding package before a vote on final passage set for later
this afternoon. The chairman and ranking member of the Appropriations Committee
— GOP Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut
— are leading the debate for their respective parties.
1300
1318 The
House is now voting on final passage of the funding package. The package funds
the Pentagon, the State Department, the Education Department, the Treasury
Department and more agencies and programs through September. It also funds the
Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 13, giving lawmakers time to
negotiate over reforms to immigration enforcement.
1329 Speaking from
the House floor, Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland urges his colleagues
to vote in favor of the funding package so as to
keep the government operating — “to make sure that our federal employees come
to work and do their job for the American people and get paid for it,” while
acknowledging the concerns among members of the Democratic caucus.
1330
Speaker Mike tells
reporters after the rule vote that he expects the funding package to easily
pass and that Mr. Trump "was not involved" in pressuring GOP holdouts
to support the rule. "The president
didn't have any role," he said.
1350 In
a 217 to 214 bipartisan vote, the House approved the funding package, sending
it to the president's desk for his signature.
1400
1412 Introduction from CBS – ATTACHMENT “F” The
legislation includes five full-year spending bills and an extension of DHS
funding through Feb. 13. Democrats are
demanding reforms to how immigration enforcement agencies like ICE conduct
their operations, an issue that will now become the focus of negotiations on
Capitol Hill. However, the immigration
agencies won't be affected by another lapse, since they received a separate
influx of money last year.
1426 Introduction from USA Today – ATTACHMENT “G”
1500
3:57 PM The House is now voting on final passage of the funding
package.
Though Democrats are seeking the reforms to ICE in the wake of two
deadly shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis, many have acknowledged the
need to fund the government.
1600
4:29 PM In a 217 to
214 bipartisan vote, the House approved the funding package, sending it to the
president's desk for his signature.
|
IN the NEWS: JANUARY 30th, 2026 to FEBRUARY 5th,
2026 |
|
|
|
Friday, January 30, 2026 Dow: 48,892.27 |
Senate kicks much-kicked can on ICE funding after another deal falls
apart and Sen. Schumer and Graham return to partisan scrapping. In the ruins of the White House, President
Trump names nonentitical Kevin Warsh
to replace Jerome Powell as Fed Chair when he leaves in May... or sooner if
POTUS and his pet Supremes can do something about that damned Constitution.
Wishy washy Warsh still faces a hostile confirmation
battle, despite his bland record but has the President’s backing as long as
he follows through on pledge to cut interest rates. Blanche (DOJ deputy Todd)
drops some three million pates of Epstein documents on Congress, the courts
and the people with another three million being held back. The docs have plenty of references to
Presidents Trump and Clinon, associate politicians
like Lucky Lutnick, celebrities already documented
and some new ones... Stephen Hawking
is a very smart man, but a dream catch for a 13 year olds?... and, of course, Prince Andrew – seen
panting atop a presumed lady (face redacted).
Other victims whose names and faces weren’t redacted are being trolled and threated and running to
lawyers. Despite the crypto bribe to
allies in Dubai, the Saudis say they will not help Trum
in military adventures in Iran but he presses on, despite talks of talks on
trade and protester massacres; also threatening Cuba and Mexico for
continuing to buy and sell with Tehran, Moscow and... on and off again...
Beijing. The disappointed Don tries to
cheer himself up with a premiere to the “Melania” movie whose director Brett
Ratner, returns to work after his sex scandal. No Epstein disclosure in this batch of
docs, but there’s still 3M to go... oops, the BBC publishes a photo of Ratman
in a photo in bed with Jeffy and an apparently
happy hooker. |
|
|
Saturday, January 31, 2026 Dow: Closed |
President Trump does a New Years Eve pivot
and says he now will keep “a full contingent” of ICEmen
on the job in Minnesota to “finish” that job and maybe let them rack up a few
more kills. They arrest journalist
(but decide not to kill) journalist Don Lemon - doing his job at an ICE OUT church protest (the pastor moonlighting as
a doomlighting goon for the agency) and SecJust Pam Bondi says the arrest was in defense of the
First Amendment freedom of religion clause.
MAGA supporters say that Lemon “went into the church and occupied
space.” With Epstein file victims
(and a few families like that of Virginia Giuffre who killed herself out of
shame and trauma despite winning a ginormous financial settlement)
increasingly as more names and photos go to the social media along with
background brass like home phones and addresses after the release (42 days
late and still incomplete Dems say).
In predatory pivots, Lucky Lutnick calls his
journey to Jeffy’s little girl/Little Saint James
“disgusting”, Richard Branson calls Epstein “abhorrant”,
NY Giants’ owner Steven Tisch “terrible” and even Prince Andrew turns on his
BFF (best f**King friend). At the stroke of the Midnight
House, the “limited” shutdown begins with 42M Americans unfriended. Veterans will lose benefits, poor children
the food mommies buy with SNAP benefits – seniors will have have to work 20 hours a week or
starve as well as the homeless and persons with disabilities. Djonnie DeLighted does a little happy dance as UN SecGen says American aid cutbacks will push that agency
to the brink of bankruptcy as Don Junior and Eric merch Daddy’s crypto and
Bill O’Reilly says: “Let’s make America sleep again... with Relaxium.” |
|
|
Sunday, February 1, 2026 Dow: Closed |
Daylight dawns on Talkshow Sunday under a
full Snow Moon (plenty of that in BosWash corridor)
plus minus 50° in Dylantown, Minnesota while SoCal bakes
under 85° full
sun. Black History Month begins with
black ice on the road, white ICE men hauling an elderly migrant out into the
snows in his tidy whities, travel troubles and
diplomacy... Russian talksmen fly to Florida
thinking sunny thoughts, only to shiver and be bopped on the head by falling
iguanas so the pranked Russkis bomb more Ukrainian power stations while
Israel keeps up by droning Gaza. Here, Dep. DoJsec Blanche denies releasing names of Eppy victims to trolls and tabloids on ABC; says doubting
Thomas like Massie and vomitose, flucked upchuck like Schumer are lying because the
Administration has nothing to hide, there’s just so much stuff... there are
just so many illegal aliens flooding our country and their presence here is a
crime, so “we have to find them one by one” even criminals like five year old Liam don’t deserve bail and Trump “is making
America safe again.” In reaction, House minority
leader Hakeem Jeffries says migrants like Liam are “law abiding” (or too
young to commit violent crimes, despite the age drop on killer kids). He wants ICE masks off and body cameras on
and asks when will Republicans have enough “with this failed Presidency”? Talk show liberal Donna Brazile says the protesters in Minnesota “want what
America wants” and are not being
paid – ICE is making Joneses hate and fear the police. Former Republican Senator Christie says ICE
actions, even the murders, are legitimate but “the optics” are offending
voters while NY Times designated conservative Michelle Cottle says this is the
fight Democrats want to have... “tweaking the mantra” on soft-on-crime
accusations while Trump dials the chaos down as opposed to being what Doug Heye calls “a chaos agent.” MAGA Mesa Mayor says he’s not
racist (Face the Nation), he celebrates the Days of the Dead. |
|
|
Monday, February 2, 2026 Dow: 49,407.66 |
Punxsatawny Phil sees his shadow, meaning six more weeks of winter despite
respite for a few days from January ice that freezes a woman to death in
Lanett, Alabama. But there’s finally
snow in the West... the bad news is that Lindsay Vonn crashes and may miss
Olympics. The shadow of death hangs
over America as MAGA blames “radical leftist unions” for the shutdown while Dogkill Kristi Noem and Lindsay
Graham call for banning sanctuary cities.
President Trump, doubling down on White House ballroom renovations and
angered by artists like Philip Glass and the National Opera cancelling at the
now TRUMP/Kennedy Center orders the “tired and broken” building closed for
two years for more renovations after Maria Shriver says “no one wants to
perform there anymore.” Crime also rising with
temperatures... persons unknown kidnap Savannah Guthrie’s 84
year old mother Nancy from her home in Tucson, separating her from her
medicines and generating a torrent of random demands by pranksters and
scammers. Vile Vegas vials of unknown
poison brewed by Chinese maybe-terrorists confiscated by authorities. Five shot,
including 6 year old presumed citizen at Louisiana Mardi Gras parade, another
child killed by driverless Waymo and speedy trackstar
Sha’carri Richards gets a speeding ticket (in her
car) and wild turkeys attack a (sober) mailman in Wisconsin, But, on the bright side, a
humanitarian (or reckless) judge orders five year old
Liam released from the measles infested child detention center and flown
back, with his father to home and family. To... Minnesota! |
|
|
Tuesday, February 3, 2026 Dow: 49,240.99 |
President Trump ramps up pressure on House Republicans to stand
together, end the shutdown before a plane crashes or something, and support
his ICE funding policy. And then he
tosses a new wrinkle into the laundry... calling for “nationalization” of
state and local elections, under the direction of... yes... Himself! Non-ICE but also cold casers storm the
Georgia elections bureau to seize voter lists and begin prosecutions, Democrats
say he can’t get over losing in 2020. On the military front, he
reminds Iran of the past attack on Fodrow nuke
facilities and shoots down a drone over his armada, but talks resume after
being moved from Turkey to Muscat, Oman under ever-wishful Witkoff and son-in-law Jared. But, over his warnings, Mexico starts
sending supplies to Cuba to prevent the collapse of Communism under 94 year old Raul Castro. With Disney CEO Bob Iger retiring in peace March 18th and being
replaced with longtime aide Josh D’Amoro, ABC
interviews the both. “Disney isn’t
just a company,” Iger says, “it’s a cultural
institution.” D’Amoro
touts their new theme park in Abu Dhabi while both praise
proposed pioneer female Chief Creative Officer Dana Walden. (More minutes for Minnie?) Off his Grammy gold haul (as
the metal’s value rises and falls with Fed news) Bad Bunny turns political,
calling for ICE out and saying: “I know it’stough
not to hate on these days... but the hate (sic) get
more powerful with more hate.” Haters
want him thrown off the Superbowl halftime show but, so far, the NFL stands
defiant. In awards glut, see Grammies go to Bad Bunny, Lady Gaga and Olivia Dean (see
the list here), while Penny the Dobe wins at Westminster. |
|
|
Wednesday, February 4, 2026 Dow: 49,015.60 |
And it’s D.A.C.O Day (on National Tornado
Day) as foul winds blow through the House and Senate - finally passing a
budget (with the only ICE concession being body cameras, no exodus or even
unmasking) and President Trump signs the bill... then goes off the rails,
demanding control of all future elections. In legal news, the courts
sentence failed Presidential assassin Ryan Routh to life without for hiding
in the bushes of Mar-a-Lago. And overseas, the Royal
Family declares that they are fed up with Randy Andy after the EpFiles show photos of him atop a woman that might or
might not be Virginia Giuffree and evict him from
the palace. He has to go to a couch on
his brother’s country home. With no solid news (but
plenty of despicable ransom scammers about), Savannah and the rest of the
Guthrie family turn to a video appeal to the kidnappers of 84
year old Nancy to release her or at least make a deal before lack of
medicines kill her while authorities say that blood found on the doorstep is
hers. And in animal news, an
endangered baby Asian elephant is born at the DC Zoo... a naming contest for
her begins. |
|
|
Thursday, February 5, 2026 Dow: 49,071.56 |
The budget passed and signed, Djonald UnSatisfied moves on to his next obsession... yanking
power to regulate elections away from states (like corrupt Georgia) and
putting them under control of... Himself.
He declares that corrupt elections rule in fifteen states... all of
which voted blue... on the Dan Bongino podcast
where he says he needed to win in 2024 “for my ego” and then goes to the
National Prayer breakfast (he trolls Speaker Mike and says that he doesn’t
say grace before eating) and unveils his Trump RX drug distributorship. He also tells a (female)
reporter to smile when discussing the Epstein files and expresses grateful
astonishment upon realizing that referencs to “us”
can also be to the United States. While Prince Andrew is
getting the boot, other EpFiles culpable are either
apologetic (like Bill Gates), some resign (like banker Paul Weiss) and still
others are silent (Woody, Lutnick, Elon, Branson). The week’s weather ends as
wicked as it began for the East.
Billings, Montana is warmer than Miami; Lake Placid, New York is minus
36°,
-17° in New York and Philadelphia. And in Michigan, a woman donates a human
skull to Goodwill. |
|
|
Plenty of people found plenty of jobs, so the Don jumped up. |
|
|
|
THE
DON JONES INDEX CHART of
CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000 (REFLECTING… approximately…
DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013) Gains in indices as improved are noted in GREEN. Negative/harmful
indices in RED as are their designation. (Note – some of the indices where the total
went up created a realm where their value went down... and vice versa.) See a
further explanation of categories HERE |
|
ECONOMIC INDICES |
(60%) |
|
|||||||||
|
CATEGORY |
VALUE |
BASE |
RESULTS by PERCENTAGE |
SCORE |
OUR SOURCES and COMMENTS |
|
|||||
|
INCOME |
(24%) |
6/17/13 revised 1/1/22 |
LAST |
CHANGE |
NEXT |
LAST WEEK |
THIS WEEK |
THE WEEK’S CLOSING STATS... |
|
||
|
Wages (hrly. Per cap) |
9% |
1350 points |
12/11/25 |
+1.13% |
2/26 |
1,986.14 |
1,986.14 |
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/average-hourly-earnings
39.30 |
|
||
|
Median Inc. (yearly) |
4% |
600 |
1/30/26 |
+0.07 |
2/13/26 |
1,115.72 |
1,116.52 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 51,626 663 |
|
||
|
Unempl. (BLS – in mi) |
4% |
600 |
1/30/26 |
+4.55% |
2/26* |
530.25 |
530.25 |
|
|||
|
Official (DC – in mi) |
2% |
300 |
1/30/26 |
+5.09% |
2/13/26 |
196.81 |
206.82 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 7,951 566 |
|
||
|
Unofficl. (DC – in mi) |
2% |
300 |
1/30/26 |
+3.56% |
2/13/26 |
232.48 |
240.76 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 14,743 236 |
|
||
|
Workforce Participation Number Percent |
2% |
300 |
1/30/26 |
+0.062% +0.046% |
2/13/26 |
298.46 |
298.60 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ In
164,153 254 Out 103,419 559 Total: 267,613 61.349
61.377 |
|
||
|
WP % (ycharts)* |
1% |
150 |
1/30/26 |
+0.16% |
2/26* |
150.95 |
150.95 |
https://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate 62.40 nc |
|
||
|
OUTGO |
(15%) |
|
|||||||||
|
Total Inflation |
7% |
1050 |
1/30/26 |
+0.3% |
2/26* |
924.67 |
924.67 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.3
|
|
||
|
Food |
2% |
300 |
1/30/26 |
+0.7% |
2/26* |
260.75 |
260.75 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.7 |
|
||
|
Gasoline |
2% |
300 |
1/30/26 |
-0.5% |
2/26* |
256.39 |
256.39 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm -0.5 |
|
||
|
Medical Costs |
2% |
300 |
1/30/26 |
+0.4% |
2/26* |
273.10 |
273.10 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
+0.4 |
|
||
|
Shelter |
2% |
300 |
1/30/26 |
+0.4% |
2/26* |
240.63 |
240.63 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
+0.4 |
|
||
|
WEALTH |
|
|
|||||||||
|
Dow Jones Index |
2% |
300 |
1/30/26 |
-0.33% |
2/13/26 |
378.55 |
379.82 |
https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/ 49,071.56 8.908.72 |
|
||
|
Home (Sales) (Valuation) |
1% 1% |
150 150 |
1/30/26 |
+5.33% +1.19% |
2/13/26 |
127.62 264.86 |
134.42 268.00 |
https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics Sales
(M): 4.13 4.35
Valuations (K): 409.2 404.4 |
|
||
|
Millionaires (New
Category) |
1% |
150 |
1/30/26 |
+0.075% |
2/13/26 |
136.25 |
136.35 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 24,011 029 |
|
||
|
Paupers (New Category) |
1% |
150 |
1/30/26 |
+0.041% |
2/13/26 |
135.36 |
135.42 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 36,702 717 |
|
||
|
|||||||||||
|
GOVERNMENT |
(10%) |
|
|||||||||
|
Revenue (trilns.) |
2% |
300 |
1/30/26 |
+0.17% |
2/13/26 |
467.43 |
468.48 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 5,356 365 |
|
||
|
Expenditures (tr.) |
2% |
300 |
1/30/26 |
+0.06% |
2/13/26 |
293.45 |
293.28 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
7,072 076 |
|
||
|
National Debt tr.) |
3% |
450 |
1/30/26 |
+0.03% |
2/13/26 |
349.82 |
349.93 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 38,670 658 |
|
||
|
Aggregate Debt (tr.) |
3% |
450 |
1/30/26 |
+0.12% |
2/13/26 |
373.84 |
373.40 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 106,401 526 |
|
||
|
|||||||||||
|
TRADE |
(5%) |
|
|||||||||
|
Foreign Debt (tr.) |
2% |
300 |
1/30/26 |
+1.03% |
2/13/26 |
258.38 |
255.71 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
9,380 477 |
|
||
|
Exports (in billions) |
1% |
150 |
1/30/26 |
-3.28% |
2/26* |
181.79 |
181.79 |
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 292.1 |
|
||
|
Imports (in billions)) |
1% |
150 |
1/30/26 |
+5.02% |
2/26* |
147.87 |
147.87 |
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 348.9 |
|
||
|
Trade Surplus/Deficit (blns.) |
1% |
150 |
1/30/26 |
-48.24% |
2/26* |
249.66 |
249.66 |
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 56.8 |
|
||
|
The
December 2025 release for U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services
originally scheduled for February 5, 2026 has been rescheduled for release on
February 19, 2026. For more information, see the Economic
Indicators Release Schedule. |
|
||||||||||
|
SOCIAL INDICES |
(40%) |
|
* reporting impacted
by last shutdown and, potentially, by next |
|
|||||||
|
ACTS of MAN |
(12%) |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
World Affairs |
3% |
450 |
1/30/26 |
+0.2% |
2/13/26 |
470.55 |
471.49 |
President Trump
lowers tariffs on India after they stop shopping for Russian oil even tho’ Indian gold bar scammers are fleexing
ignorant and greedy Americans. British
royals evict Prince Andrew from castle after EpFile
photos. Hemispheric reversal sparks
“historic” wildfires in Argentina.
Australian boy (13) swims 2 ½ miles in “shark infested” waters to call
rescuers for family on sunken kayak. |
|
||
|
War and terrorism |
2% |
300 |
1/30/26 |
-0.1% |
2/13/26 |
285.73 |
285.44 |
More investigations
of Chinese run Vegas biolab. Wars drag
on despite talks; Putin bombs Uke train, killing 15, Israel continues killing
suspected terrorists and Gaza civilians but allows a tiny escape route at
Rafah border with Egypt. Islamic
terrorists kill 150 in Nigerian village.
|
|
||
|
Politics |
3% |
450 |
1/30/26 |
nc |
2/13/26 |
458.38 |
458.38 |
ICE
protesters target Target stores for collusion with
DHS. DoJ
releases 3M pages of Epfiles, leaving only 3M more
to go. Clintons agree to testify
before Congress on EpFiles, in which Trump leads in
mentions with 489, Lutnick garnering only 178. |
|
||
|
Economics |
3% |
450 |
1/30/26 |
-0.1% |
2/13/26 |
432.22 |
431.79 |
ESPN to
purchase NFL Network,
Eddie Bauer goes broke, Pizza Hut will close 250 outlets and
the WashPost fires 1/3 of its staff. Winners include WalMart
(which tops $1T valuation, losers (besides the above) include Chipotle. Credit Suisse reports over 900 “Nazi linked
accounts”. |
|
||
|
Crime |
1% |
150 |
1/30/26 |
-0.2% |
2/13/26 |
207.25 |
206.84 |
Massive womanhunt for Savannah Guthrie’s mother Nancy, kidnapped
in Tucson at risk due to lack of meds.
Nebraska pedo exploits Roblox to kidnap two
Florida sisters – arrested in flight in Georgia. North Arizona fratboys
arrested in hazing death. Denver drunk
driver arrested with three children in trunk.
Despite failure for a wannabee Mangione jailbreaker armed with a pizza
cutter – he’ll escape the death penalty, as well as one bad dad who fed his 5 year old to alligators and another kills 3 year old son
in Vegas. Jill Biden’s first husband
William Stevenson (77) arrested for killing present wife in a wild week of
senior and junior stabbings... Colorado woman (73) convicted of stabbing
husband in nursing home, 84 year old knifer arrested
in New York nursing home, while, at the other end, a ten year old slices up a
teen girl in Houston. More
age-appropriate murders in Jacksonville, FL, N. Braddock, PA and in St. Louis
where a good Samaritan is shot driving a woman to the warming shelter. |
|
||
|
ACTS of GOD |
(6%) |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
Environment/Weather |
3% |
450 |
1/30/26 |
-0.1% |
2/13/26 |
281.95 |
280.82 |
On Friday,
after last week’s Lesson, it’s 85° in LA; weatherpeople count 85 Eastside Americans frozen to death
and warn: “stay inside this weekend.”
(If you have an inside.) NYC
freeze forces zoo penguins to be brought indoors. Fortunately, the (black) ice, blizzards and
negative 50° temps
begin to moderate by Wednesday. |
|
||
|
Disasters |
3% |
450 |
1/30/26 |
-0.2% |
2/13/26 |
462.64 |
460.79 |
“Swarm” of
small SF earthquakes in Superbowl San Francisco. Wild weather causes 59 car pileup in hot but foggy California, 4,000 airline delays
and cancellatons.
Search ends for seven Gloucester, Mass. fishermen on sunken Lili
Ann. Heavyweight boxer loses toupee in
ring. |
|
||
|
LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE INDEX |
(15%) |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
Science, Tech, Education |
4% |
600 |
1/30/26 |
-0.1% |
2/13/26 |
614.91 |
614.30 |
NASA Chief
Howard Hu says Artemis heatshield is defective. Then, it’s postponed until March due to
“issues”. Trump threatens full Star Wars
on Canadian aerospace facilities. |
|
||
|
Equality (econ/social) |
4% |
600 |
1/30/26 |
-0.2% |
2/13/26 |
673.72 |
672.37 |
Disney
appoints pioneer female creative director Dana Walden. Cop handcuffs and marches off HBCU Tuskeegee coach after argument with other HBCU Morehouse
athletes. Nike accused of
discrimination against white people. |
|
||
|
Health |
4% |
600 |
1/30/26 |
-0.2% |
2/13/26 |
417.55 |
416.71 |
Obamacare
repeal means 42M low-income Americans lose healthcare, especially pediatric
care in rural areas. Nutella, Cheerios
and Pringles sued for extra ingredients: rat shit… peanut M&M’s for…
peanuts! Mitch McConnell hospitalized
for flu while measles rages through ICE detention centers, but... |
|
||
|
Freedom and Justice |
3% |
450 |
1/30/26 |
+0.1% |
2/13/26 |
482.08 |
482.56 |
...out of detention, 5 year old bad
bunny-hatted Liam Conejo Ramos and papa put on a
plane home (to Minnesota!) , says he’s looking
forward to pizza after concentration camp meals and is given a blue hat to
replace the one ICE stole. Black hat
white cop Sean Grayson gets 20 years for shooting white hat black suspect
Sonya Massey, while Epstein victims sue for doxxing. Failed Trump assassin Richard Routh and AuPair killer Brendan Banfield found guilty, new
charges against Timothy Busfield but Federal
judge drops death penalty to speed up trial for Luigi Mangione |
|
||
|
CULTURAL and MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS |
(6%) |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
Cultural incidents |
3% |
450 |
1/30/26 |
+0.2% |
2/13/26 |
578.60 |
579.76 |
Sports sparkle
with Superbowl Sundary and Milan Olympics beginning
tomorrow and even... gasp!... MLB spring training (among Miami ice and
falling lizards). Elena Rybakina and Carlos Alcarraz
win at the Australian Open. MAGA wants
Bad Bunny fired from Super Bowl, but there are the Backstreet Boys (now Main
Street Middle Aged Men). “Send Help” wins weak week at the box
office but “Melania”
grossing a modest $8M is best in years for documentaries that aren’t concert
films. R(etire) in
Peace: Kelly Clarkson. RIP: Three Dog Nighter Chuck Negron, Fifth Dimensional Lamont McLamoreDemond (“Sanford and Son”) Wilson and actress
Katherine O’Hara (“Beetlejuice”. “Best in Show”) and Minute Maid frozen juice
(at 80). |
|
||
|
Miscellaneous incidents |
4% |
450 |
1/30/26 |
+0.1% |
2/13/26 |
547.26 |
547.81 |
Consumer
Reports names Honda Civic Top Car.
Nobody names Top Cat, but Westminster offers tribute to O’Hara, then
crowns Penny the Doberman as Top Dog.
Top Rodent Punxsatawny Phil sees his shadow,
Superbowl bound Bad Bunny is Best Wabbit at Grammys while baby Asian elephant
born at DC zoo. Grammy tributes to
Roberta Flack and Ozzy, lifetimer Cher mistakes of
Luther Vandross for Kendrick Lamar,
Other winners are Olivia Dean, Jelly Roll and Lady Gaga; unkind gag...
ah... causing President Trump to sue host
Trevor Noah. See winners here. |
|
||
|
|||||||||||
PBS
WATCH LIVE: HOUSE
PASSES BILL ON GOVERNMENT FUNDING TO END PARTIAL SHUTDOWN
Published on Feb 3, 2026 10:36 AM EST Updated on Feb 3, 2026 2:33 PM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Tuesday passed a
roughly $1.2 trillion spending package to end the partial government shutdown,
sending the measure to President Donald Trump and setting the stage for a
debate in Congress over Homeland Security funding.
The vote was 217-214, and wraps up congressional work on 11
of the 12 annual appropriations bills, funding the vast majority of the
government for the budget year ending Sept. 30. The last bill still to be
worked out covers the Department of Homeland Security where Democrats are
demanding more restrictions on enforcement operations.
Trump has said he will sign the bill when it reaches his
desk.
Speaker Mike Johnson needed near-unanimous support from his
Republican conference to proceed to a final vote. He narrowly got it during a
procedural vote that was held open for nearly an hour as leaders worked to gain
support from a handful of GOP lawmakers who were trying to advance other
priorities unrelated to the funding measure.
"We
have to work through individual members' concerns. That's the game here. It's a
consensus building operation. We do it every day," Johnson said.
Trump
had weighed in Monday in a social media post, calling on Republicans to stay
united and telling holdouts "There can be NO CHANGES at this time."
"We
will work together in good faith to address the issues that have been raised,
but we cannot have another long, pointless, and destructive Shutdown that will
hurt our Country so badly — One that will not benefit Republicans or Democrats.
I hope everyone will vote, YES!," Trump wrote on
his social media site.
The
measure once signed will end the partial government shutdown that began
Saturday. In addition to funding most of
the federal government through Sept. 30, it includes a short-term funding patch
for the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 13 as lawmakers negotiate
potential changes for the agency that enforces the nation's immigration laws —
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Running Trump's 'play call'
The
House had previously approved the final package of spending bills, but the
Senate broke up that package so that more negotiations could take place for the
Homeland Security funding bill. Democrats are demanding changes in response to
events in Minneapolis, where two American citizens were shot and killed by
federal agents.
Johnson
said on Fox News Channel's "Fox News Sunday" it was Trump's
"play call to do it this way. He had already conceded he wants to turn
down the volume, so to speak." But GOP leaders sounded as if they still
had work to do in convincing the rank-and-file to join them as House lawmakers
returned to the Capitol on Monday after a week back in their congressional
districts.
"We
always work till the midnight hour to get the votes," said House Majority
Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. "You never start the process with everybody on
board. You work through it, and you could say that about every major bill we've
passed."
KEY DIFFERENCES FROM THE LAST SHUTDOWN
The
path to the current partial shutdown differs from the fall impasse, which
affected more agencies and lasted a record 43 days.
Then,
the debate was over extending temporary coronavirus pandemic-era subsidies for
those who get health coverage through the Affordable Care Act. Democrats were
unsuccessful in getting those subsidies included as part of a package to end
the shutdown.
Johnson says no quick
House vote to end partial shutdown, blames Democrats for their ICE demands
Congress
has made important progress since then, passing six of the 12 annual
appropriations bills that fund federal agencies and programs. That includes
important programs such as nutrition assistance and fully operating national
parks and historic sites. They are funded through Sept. 30. The remaining bills
passed Tuesday represent roughly three-quarters of federal spending set
annually by Congress, including the Defense Department.
BBC
PARTIAL
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENDS AFTER US HOUSE VOTE
34 minutes ago
By Max Matza and Kayla Epstein
The US House of Representatives has ended a partial
government shutdown after President Donald Trump urged Republicans to press
ahead with a vote despite concerns with the new spending plan.
Democrats and Republicans disagreed over funding for the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is under intense scrutiny after
federal immigration agents shot and killed two US citizens in Minneapolis last
month.
Brokered in the US Senate at Trump's urging, the deal funds
the government and buys lawmakers more time to haggle over the future of DHS.
The deal, which passed in a narrow 217-214 vote, keeps DHS
running for two weeks while lawmakers consider future funding and reforms to the
agency.
DHS funding is the most fraught component of the package -
lawmakers, even within each of the parties, do not agree on the best way to
move forward.
The DHS encompasses multiple subsidiary agencies, including
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP),
the Coast Guard and Secret Service.
Democrats want changes to DHS immigration enforcement operations,
including requirements that agents record on body cameras and not wear masks to
conceal their faces.
They have also demanded changes in funding to DHS in light
of the fatal shootings in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti
and Renee Good, and have advocated for changes to protocol.
Both chambers of the US Congress – the House and Senate –
must vote to approve legislation before it can be signed into law by the
president.
Senators had agreed to a package of five spending bills, but
stripped out a sixth bill funding DHS.
The Senate instead approved enough money to keep DHS running
for two weeks while lawmakers work out disputes over its long-term budget.
That is the same agreement the House passed on Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune had said he was concerned
about the two-week timing in part because members of the Republican conference
remain in "very different places".
"Once we start, we have a very short timeframe in which
to do this, which I lobbied against, but the Democrats insisted on a two-week
window," Thune said. "I don't understand the rationale for that.
Anybody who knows this place knows that's an impossibility."
President Donald Trump called on lawmakers to send a bill to
his desk "without delay".
"We will work together in good faith to address the
issues that have been raised, but we cannot have another long, pointless, and
destructive Shutdown that will hurt our Country so badly," he wrote on his
social media platform, Truth Social.
The limited shutdown affected numerous government services,
forcing thousands of Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic control
workers to either stay home on furlough or work without pay.
It will also delay the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly
job's report. The report is used by political leaders, investors and everyday
Americans to understand how the economy is faring.
FALLING CONFIDENCE IN ICE,
INDEPENDENTS TURN ON TRUMP, CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS SLUMP, AND FOREIGN POLICY:
JANUARY 23-26, 2026 ECONOMIST/YOUGOV POLL
Confidence in ICE is falling and half of Americans support cutting its
funding
Donald Trump's support from Independents hits a new low
By Taylor Orth January
27, 2026, 1:34 PM GMT-5
A growing of Americans say they lack confidence
in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). More support cuts to spending on
ICE than do for any of nine other types of federal government spending asked
about.
What you need to know
about Americans' views on ICE, as of the January 23 - 26, 2026 Economist /
YouGov Poll:
·
55% of Americans say they have very little
confidence in ICE, an increase of 10 percentage points since mid-December
·
Confidence in ICE has declined most among
Independents: 67% now say they have very little confidence in the agency, up
from 49% in December
·
Three-quarters of respondents started this
week's survey after the shooting of Alex Pretti
·
More Americans say they have very little
confidence in ICE than say so about any of the 10 other entities asked about in
this week's survey: television news, big business, newspapers, the church or
organized religion, the United Nations, the medical system, banks, NATO,
organized labor, and small business
·
Americans are also more likely to support cuts
to ICE than to other types of federal government spending: 51% want ICE funding
to be decreased a lot or a little. Fewer than half are in favor of decreasing
spending in each of nine other areas asked about: foreign aid, national
defense, food stamps, the environment, education, Medicare, Medicaid, Social
Security, and veterans
·
Majorities of Democrats (80%) and Independents
(56%) want ICE spending to be decreased
·
Most Republicans (55%) support increasing
spending on ICE and only 17% support spending cuts
See other recent YouGov
polling on ICE and immigration enforcement:
·
Today more Americans support than
oppose abolishing ICE
·
How Americans feel about 10 recent
Department of Homeland Security social media posts
·
How watching video of the Minneapolis
ICE shooting affects Americans' polarized views
·
After the shooting in Minneapolis, majorities of
Americans view ICE unfavorably and support major changes to the agency
·
More Americans view the ICE shooting
in Minnesota as unjustified than say it is justified
OUTCRY IN ITALY AS U.S. SAYS ICE AGENTS WILL
JOIN OLYMPICS DELEGATION
The Italian government
said it had requested clarification from American diplomats after D.H.S. said
that ICE agents would help secure the U.S. Olympic delegation next week in
northern Italy.
By Motoko Rich Reporting from Rome Jan. 27, 2026
ICE will accompany the
U.S. delegation to the Winter Olympics in Italy next month, the Department of
Homeland Security confirmed on Tuesday, stoking a backlash among Italians
angered by the conduct of ICE agents in Minneapolis.
U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement agents will join a security team from the State Department
at the Olympics “to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal
organizations,” D.H.S. said in a statement attributed to Tricia McLaughlin, the
department’s assistant secretary for public affairs.
“All security
operations remain under Italian authority,” the statement said, adding that ICE
“does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries.”
Vice President JD
Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expected to attend the start of
the games on Feb. 6, and 232 American athletes are set to compete in the
events.
In a statement
Tuesday, the State Department said that “as in previous Olympic events,
multiple federal agencies are supporting the Diplomatic Security Service,
including Homeland Security Investigations, ICE’s investigative component.”
Despite the caveats by
U.S. officials, news of the agency’s involvement has spurred outcry in Italy,
particularly after the killing by ICE and Border Patrol agents of two American citizens during
recent protests in Minneapolis.
The Italian government
said on Tuesday that it was seeking clarification from American diplomats after
reports emerged over the weekend that ICE would attend the Games in Italy.
Antonio Tajani, Italy’s foreign minister, told reporters that ICE
agents would not be allowed to deploy on Italian streets. He added that “public
order during the Olympics” would be done only by the Italian national and local
police but stopped short of saying that U.S. agents would be limited to
operational rooms.
The Italian
government’s intervention followed growing outrage from Italian politicians
over the agency’s presence at the Games.
Giuseppe Sala, the
mayor of Milan, said in a telephone interview that the Italian government
should “say no to Trump.”
Mr. Sala added:
“Bringing to Milan a militia which distinguished itself — this is not my
opinion — with criminal acts, which kills, which enters in the homes of
American citizens without authorization, I do not think that that is a good
idea.”
Elly Schlein, leader of the country’s center-left Democratic
Party, said in an interview that she was concerned about the arrival in Italy
of “an armed militia that is not respecting the law on American soil.” She
added: “And so there is the concern that they would not respect them on Italian
soil either.”
After the first
reports on the subject emerged over the weekend, Matteo Piantedosi,
Italy’s interior minister, told reporters on Monday that the situation was “a
controversy over nothing,” adding that the U.S. government had not yet
confirmed that ICE officers would join the American delegation. “But I specify
— whatever the communication will be, ICE, as such, will never operate in
Italy,” Mr. Piantedosi said.
In separate remarks
over the weekend, Mr. Piantedosi said that foreign
delegations had the right to choose who staff their security teams, and that “I
don’t see what the problem is.” He added that it was “absolutely forbidden” for
foreign officers “to carry out police or similar activities on our soil,
especially if they are related to combating immigration. Anyone who, while
engaging in institutional politics, ignores these basic rules and claims otherwise
is either incompetent or acting in bad faith.”
Mr. Piantedosi’s weekend comments generated a furor. Writing in
La Stampa, an Italian
newspaper, journalist Francesco Malfetano described
ICE as an institution that “for many, not only across the Atlantic, is
synonymous with fear.”
U.S. law enforcement
had a more limited role in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Homeland Security
Investigations, a branch of ICE, collaborated with
French law enforcement to “ best practices” ahead of the
games.
On Tuesday afternoon,
Mr. Piantedosi met with U.S. ambassador to Italy,
Tilman J. Fertitta, to discuss the presence of ICE agents at the Games. In a
statement, Mr. Piantedosi said the Italian
authorities would coordinate with the U.S. agents “for the protection of American
athletes and delegations in the coming weeks,” and reiterated that “ICE agents
will have no external public order function.”
WHY
SOME MAINERS SUPPORT ICE’S INCREASED ENFORCEMENT IN THE STATE
Homeland
Security’s ‘Operation Catch of the Day’ has found vocal and widespread support
among Maine’s conservatives, though some are expressing concern over the
federal agents’ tactics.
By
Dylan Tusinski and
Rachel Ohm Updated January 23
Federal agents arrived
in Maine this week to carry out a statewide immigration enforcement operation
targeting more than 1,000 people the Department of Homeland Security has
described as illegal criminal aliens.
Some Mainers say it’s
about time.
Intensified
immigration sweeps began in Portland and Lewiston on Tuesday as federal
agents kicked off what they are calling “Operation Catch of
the Day.” The group is targeting
what federal officials have described as “the worst of the worst” criminals
residing in the U.S. illegally.
On day 2 of ICE operation,
Portland officials decry enforcement tactics
Democratic officials
have been quick to condemn the operation, saying Immigration and Customs
Enforcement officers are waging a “war of terror” on
Maine communities.
But for many
conservatives, the increased immigration enforcement is a welcome sight —
though some said they have reservations about ICE’s tactics.
‘I DON’T LIKE PEOPLE JUMPING THE LINE’
Pete Harring, a resident of the small Knox County town of
Washington, has been a fixture in Maine’s conservative circles for years. A
former Tea Party organizer, Harring described himself
as a strong supporter of President Donald Trump and his pledge to carry out
mass deportations.
For Harring, the issue is about illegal immigration, not
immigration altogether. Harring and others
interviewed by the Portland Press Herald this week say they believe ICE is only
targeting hardened criminals. As he put it, “I just think people should be
coming through the front door instead of climbing over our back fence.”
“At the end of the
day, we are a nation of laws. And I support enforcing the laws that we have on
the books,” Harring said.
Mike Gallant, of
Lewiston, said he supports legal immigration and the enforcement actions going
on.
“I don’t like people
jumping the line,” said Gallant, who added he has family that came to the
country from Albania.
“It took them years
and years (to legally immigrate),” added Gallant, 38. “It was a big long
process. Why does someone else just get to cut the line by crossing the border
and staying here?”
Gallant said
immigration enforcement has happened under previous administrations, but what’s
going on currently is under more scrutiny because of social media.
And he said American
taxpayers are subsidizing too many services for immigrants, like health care
and interpreters.
“Why do we provide
interpreters for people in our country?” he said. “Why are we paying for that
service? … If you had to go to the doctor in Mexico, they wouldn’t provide you
with transportation and an interpreter. They wouldn’t do any of that.”
JUST DOING THEIR JOBS
Travis Robinson, a
retired army veteran from Augusta, considers himself an ardent ICE supporter
and has no issues with their tactics.
Robinson views ICE’s
operations as a campaign promise by Trump that’s being fulfilled.
“People need to step
back and let the officers do their job,” he said. “If you don’t like it, then
vote for somebody else in the next election.”
Crystal Nichols, of
Greene, said that officers have a job to do and she supports them doing it, as
long as due process is followed. She said people who see ICE officers out in public
are only seeing one step in the process of whatever case they’re working on and
should be cautious about making assumptions.
“I think it’s naive to think there are not
criminals getting into the country,” said Nichols, 54. “If they do that on the
backs of people who are honestly trying to get in and trying to have a good
life, I suppose it’s the government’s job to find these people.”
ICE TACTICS HAVE DRAWN SCRUTINY
In Maine and across
the country, federal immigration agents have begun employing more aggressive
tactics since ramping up enforcement this year. Officers often wear face masks
and drive unmarked cars. Agents have been empowered to enter suspects’
property without a judicial
warrant. And hundreds of U.S. citizens have
been detained in the midst of it all.
Gov.
Mills blasts ICE, calling it ‘secret police’ in Portland remarks
Some of those tactics
are drawing scrutiny from supporters of ICE’s broader mission, including
Tiffany Levasseur, a veteran and farmer who lives in Benton.
Levasseur usually
votes Republican but said she “hasn’t fully jumped on the Trump train.” Some of
the president’s rhetoric around immigration gives Levasseur pause, as does U.S.
citizens and legal residents being caught up in sweeps.
“You never want to see
people locked up for no reason,” she said. “Mistakes do happen, and they’re
unfortunate. And I’m not trying to sound mean, but I understand it. You can’t
make 100 arrests and have all 100 cases go perfect.”
Related
ICE detains
18-year-old USM student in Westbrook
Part of Levasseur’s
support for ICE comes from the ferocity of the opposition to it. After writing
a Facebook comment offering ICE agents a home-cooked meal if they need it, she
said other commenters hurled insults and death threats her way, prompting her
to file a formal police report.
Indeed, much of the
online discussion about “Operation Catch of the Day” has been wrapped in
vitriol. In conservative Facebook groups and X accounts, photos and videos of
apparent ICE raids were met with comments like “Get them all!” and “Good
riddance!” Others said they hoped ICE would arrest Democrats and other
politicians they dislike.
“Bullying happens way
too much on both sides of the aisle,” Levasseur said. “And I’m not OK with it
either way.”
AS ICE CRACKS
DOWN HARDER, SUPPORT FOR ABOLISHING ICE SURGES
A plurality of Americans now say they'd like to end the agency.
By
Joe Lancaster | 1.20.2026
1:10 PM
Donald Trump was reelected
to the presidency in 2024 after pledging to
carry out the "largest deportation operation in American history." In
the first year of his second term, he followed through on his promise,
weaponizing the agencies of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and
deploying thousands of federal troops into major U.S. cities like an occupying
army.
Earlier this month,
the death of Renee
Good at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jonathan
Ross brought overly aggressive federal law enforcement into public view. As a
result, more Americans than ever now think we should get rid of it.
"More Americans
now support the abolishment of ICE, in a major change since July and in Donald
Trump's first presidency," Forbes' Mike Stunson wrote last week,
"as the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal officer has led to a
wave of backlash against the agency."
Stunson cited a January 2026 poll conducted
by The Economist and YouGov, which found that 46 percent
of respondents support abolishing ICE, with 43 percent opposed. The same poll
found 50 percent felt Good's shooting was "not justified," while only
30 percent said it was justified.
A separate poll by
Civiqs found 43 percent of respondents support ending
ICE, with 49 percent opposed. Notably, though, this represents a dramatic shift
since only a few months ago. In September 2024, only 19 percent supported, and
66 percent opposed, abolishing the agency.
It was also the
highest number in favor of abolition, and the lowest number against, since Civiqs began asking the question in July 2018, when the
#AbolishICE movement began in earnest.
(At that time, respondents favored keeping the agency intact by a 2–to–1
margin.)
And an Associated Press/NORC poll shows
61 percent of Americans now oppose Trump's handling of immigration; as recently
as March 2025, respondents were evenly split.
The reason for the
shift is clear: Americans are suddenly confronted with the reality of what ICE
is doing, and they don't like what they see.
"Trump has
deployed 3,000 federal officers and agents to Minneapolis this month, the
largest operation in DHS history," Nick Miroff wrote last week in The
Atlantic. "Many of the ICE officers and Border Patrol agents are
outfitted in tactical gear and wear body armor and masks, and they're using the
technological tools that the department acquired to protect the country's
borders: surveillance drones, facial-recognition apps, phone-cracking software.
Powered by billions of dollars in new funding, they are making immigration
arrests and grabbing protesters who try to stop them."
In August 2025,
ICE announced a
major recruitment push, offering perks like a $90,000 salary and a signing
bonus of as much as $50,000. DHS recently announced that
in just four months, ICE more than doubled its ranks, from 10,000 to 22,000.
Those numbers may not
be accurate: NOTUS' Jackie Llanos writes that
according to the government's official employment statistics, since Trump took
office in January 2025, ICE "has hired 7,114 employees" but 1,746
have left in the same period, "placing the net growth of employees at
5,368."
Still, a 50 percent
increase in one year is substantial. And such a quick expansion doesn't come
without tradeoffs: "ICE reduced training requirements to meet hiring
targets," Military.com reports,
"though the agency has not been transparent about the criteria used to
determine which recruits qualified for abbreviated training pipelines or how
those changes were evaluated internally."
For example, NBC News'
Julia Ainsley reports that
due to a technical glitch, about 200 recruits with no law enforcement
experience were placed in a fast-tracked training process for experienced
officers.
The results are plain
to see: ICE officers assaulting U.S.
citizens, smashing windows
and dragging them from their cars, going door-to-door without
a warrant or even reasonable suspicion. In October, ProPublica reported ICE
had arrested at least 170 Americans—in many cases using considerable
force—including some who were detained for multiple days without
being allowed to contact their families or an attorney.
Ross was apparently
even recording Good with his cellphone when he pulled his weapon and shot her.
Soon after her death, media outlets released the
footage; the shooting is not depicted, but afterward, someone can be heard
saying, "Fucking bitch."
Social media is full
of videos of ICE raids gone wrong, but the government has also saturated the
internet with footage of its own.
"During President
Donald Trump's second term, ICE's public affairs arm has rapidly transformed
into an influencer-style media machine, churning out flashy videos of tactical
operations and immigration raids," The Washington Post reported last month.
Citing internal chat logs, the Post added that this team
"coordinate[s] with the White House" to generate "brash content
showing immigrants being chased, grabbed and detained" with "video
edits that might help legitimize the administration's aggressive stance."
"In President
Trump's second term, content is governing and governing is content," added NPR.
This may explain why
Ross was filming Good when he drew his gun and shot her: to create content for
social media.
And much of that
content is distasteful: Last month, on its official X account, Trump's DHS
"publicly announce[d] its
dream to somehow eliminate 100 million people, the majority of whom would need to be citizens to
hit that number, whose ancestry is seen as 'third world,'" writes Reason's
Brian Doherty.
And in recent months,
the DHS and ICE have posted recruitment
ads with white nationalist imagery—including an Instagram post two
days after Good's death that used a song popular with neo-Nazis.
It's clear the more
that Americans are exposed to ICE and its methods and tactics, the less they
think the agency should continue to exist. And this is not an extreme position:
Both ICE and the DHS are quite new, established in the early 2000s.
And it's not like
either was without controversy, even in the aftermath of 9/11. "There were
fears at the time of DHS's founding, including on the political right, that the
government was creating an authoritarian monster," The Atlantic's
Miroff added. "The United States had never had
the kind of all-encompassing domestic-security apparatus common in autocracies,
whose interior departments function as political
police. DHS skeptics worried that civil liberties would be vulnerable to abuse
if the government began assembling national databases and an expanded federal
police force."
And yet, that's
exactly what happened. "ICE has routinely shown itself to be an
overreaching and unaccountable agency," Fiona Harrigan wrote in the December 2024 issue of Reason.
"Georgetown University's Center on Privacy and Technology found that ICE
has scanned the driver's license photos of one in three American adults and
could access the driver's license data of three in four American adults."
"ICE's current
powers and central deportation mission are neither appropriately sized nor
easily reformed," Harrigan added. "It would be much better for the
government to extend an olive branch to nonviolent undocumented immigrants,
reassign ICE's useful functions elsewhere, and let the agency go once and for
all."
"Leaving
immigration restrictions more to the states would bring us closer to the
Constitution's original meaning," agrees George
Mason University law professor Ilya Somin. "We
may not be able to fully restore the original meaning of the Constitution on
this score. But abolishing ICE and shifting more law enforcement resources to
state and local governments would bring us closer to it. It would also
simultaneously curtail ICE abuses and reduce crime."
The U.S. went nearly
its entire existence without ICE; it could do so again. And the more that
Americans become familiar with the agency and see what it does, the more they
seem to agree.
REASONABLE LIBERTARIAN REFS:
Gregory Bovino's Legacy: Lies,
Violence, and Unchecked Federal Power
Autumn Billings | 1.28.2026 5:43 PM
Trump Says States Are Required To
Enforce Federal Immigration Laws. He's Wrong.
Joe Lancaster | 1.28.2026
5:05 PM
The Killing of Alex Pretti Is a
Reminder That All State Laws Are Backed Up by Violence
Christian Britschgi | 1.28.2026 4:50 PM
Jacob Sullum | 1.28.2026
4:05 PM
D.C. Public Schools Still Closed as City Struggles To Clear Roads and Sidewalks
Jack Nicastro | 1.28.2026
12:30 PM
Recommended
Border patrol agents killed Alex Pretti.
Why are they in Minneapolis at all?
Democrats plan to block DHS funding after the Alex Pretti killing. Republicans should join them.
ICE turns lawyers away at Minneapolis detention facility
Podcast: When did Republicans stop caring about gun
rights?
Trump backpedals from portraying Alex Pretti
as a 'would-be assassin'
ICE BARBIE ON THIN ICE WITH TRUMP
AND MILLER OVER BOVINO ‘MISCALCULATION’
‘LIABILITY’: Fatal
shootings and warring lieutenants have turned Trump’s deportation drive into a
crisis.
By Tom Latchem Updated Jan. 27 2026 8:13AM
EST Published Jan. 26 2026 1:52PM EST
President Donald
Trump’s senior leadership team is blaming Kristi Noem
for their nightmare in Minneapolis after they say her incompetence as Homeland
Security secretary paved the way for Saturday’s shooting of yet another U.S.
citizen.
At the heart of their
frustrations is Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino,
Noem’s “commander at large,” whom she chose to serve
as the public face of the president’s immigration blitz. Bovino
had repeatedly raised eyebrows with his aggressive tactics even before members
of his “Green Machine” were filmed on Saturday throwing 37-year-old VA nurse
Alex Pretti to the ground and unloading bullets into
him, horrifying the U.S. public.
Polls suggest voters
were already weary of seeing Bovino’s masked and
armed federal agents marauding around the country, violently detaining people,
including children, and brutalizing demonstrators.
The public blowback
saw Trump, 79, send his
border czar, Tom Homan, to the city on Monday to oversee on-the-ground
immigration enforcement operations, in a move widely seen as a snub to Homeland
Security Secretary Noem, 54. “He
has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people
there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me,” Trump said of
the decision to send Homan to Minneapolis.
It comes after
well-placed DHS sources told the Daily Beast that both the president’s chief of
staff, Susie Wiles, 68, and his immigration policy lead, Stephen Miller, 40,
have fully turned against Noem and her chief adviser
and rumored lover, Corey Lewandowski, 52.
According to two
senior officials, Miller is furious that Bovino, 55,
and his hardcore “turn and burn” tactics were chosen to become the focal point
of the nationwide blitz.
The decision to do so,
they said, was made by Lewandowski and supported by Noem.
“Bovino
is Corey’s guy,” said one source, a claim that would explain why Bovino immediately went on TV to back up Noem’s assertion that Pretti was
to blame for his own death, which Trump has notably stopped short of doing.
However, the elevation
of Bovino and Border Patrol over ICE was “a
miscalculation on Lewandowski’s part that led to declining support” for the
mission, another insider said.
The result has seen a
splintering among the Trump administration’s senior leadership. While Wiles,
68, simply “doesn’t like” Noem, Miller now views Noem, Lewandowski, and Bovino as
a “liability,” the official said. Homeland
Security Secretary Kristi Noem (was) given the
nickname ICE Barbie for her habit of dressing up for photo ops.
The administration
finds itself in a bind, though, because its senior officials believe Noem is incapable of running DHS without Lewandowski at her
side—and that unwinding the whole trio risks making Trump look like he is
retreating, which immigration hardliner Miller is keen to avoid.
Noem and Lewandowski are
thought to have been due to leave of their own volition this month before the
Jan. 7 killing of protester Renee Nicole Good, 37, by ICE agent Jonathan Ross,
43, changed everything.
Officials believe Noem had informally agreed with Trump to step down after
roughly a year—taking Lewandowski and their ally, former ICE Deputy Director
Madison Sheahan, 28, with her—so the White House could claim she had finished
building the deportation machine he demanded.
“Then Renee Good was
shot dead, and it threw everything in the air,” one source told the Beast.
Sheahan abruptly announced her resignation in
the wake of that shooting, saying on Jan. 15 that she was leaving to launch a
House run in Ohio—a move ICE staffers “rejoiced” over, according to multiple
DHS officials.
Her rapid exit—and the
quiet sidelining of her “minions”—was read as the opening act of the Noem and Lewandowski clear-out.
One well-placed source
pointed to Sheahan’s slick launch video for her congressional bid as evidence
of a planned, Trump-blessed, coordinated exit.
Inside DHS, the mood
was summed up by a source as “one down, two to go.”
“It’s important to remember
that while Madison was often the face of Noem’s DHS
havoc, she was only a symptom, not the cause. The cause is the failed
leadership of Noem and Lewandowski,” they said. A
second added, “Their power ran through Madison.”
However, Good’s killing—and the massive ICE surge into Minnesota that
followed—is said to have made it politically impossible for Noem
to walk, the sources say. If she had stepped aside then, it would have looked
like she was being forced out over Good.
Now, the Pretti shooting is seen by many as a second act that may
put her departure back on track.
When reached for
comment, the White House directed the Daily Beast to a statement White House Press Secretary
Karoline Leavitt made to reporters on Monday: “Secretary
Noem still has the utmost confidence and trust of the
President of the United States, and she’s continuing to oversee the entire
Department of Homeland Security and all of the immigration enforcement that’s
taking place across the whole entire country.”
Leavitt added that,
“Border Czar Homan is in a unique position to drop everything and go to
Minnesota to continue having these productive conversations with state and
local officials.”
The Daily Beast has
contacted the Department of Homeland Security, Lewandowski, and Bovino for comment.
TRUMP OFFERS SUPPORT FOR EMBATTLED NOEM AMID ICE UPROAR
by Julia Manchester - 01/27/26 1:45
PM ET
President Trump on
Tuesday voiced support for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid
increased pressure lobbed by Democrats and Republicans over her initial
response to the shooting of Alex Pretti in
Minneapolis.
While on his way to
Iowa to deliver a speech on the economy, Trump plainly said “no” when asked if Noem would step down amid the uproar over Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol operations in Minnesota.
“I think she’s doing a
very good job. The border is totally secure. You know, you forget we had a
border that I inherited where millions of people were coming through. Now we
have a border where no one is coming through. They come into our country only
legally,” Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn.
“As soon as you
accomplish something, it goes into history and nobody ever wants to talk about
it,” he continued.
Trump’s comments come
after The New York Times reported Noem requested a
meeting with Trump and the two met in the Oval Office on Monday for two hours.
Notably, Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the administration’s chief
immigration hawk, did not attend, but he was traveling with Trump to Iowa on
Tuesday.
In addition to Miller,
Trump traveled with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, deputy chief of staff James Blair,
and the president’s executive assistant Natalie Harper.
Noem has come under fire for initially saying Pretti “attacked” federal law enforcement while
“brandishing” a firearm and saying the incident was an example of “domestic terrorism.”
Meanwhile, Miller referred to Pretti as a “would-be
assassin” who “tried to murder federal law enforcement.”
But Noem has so far gotten the brunt of criticisms from an
array of lawmakers as her agency leads immigration enforcement efforts across the
country
On Monday, White House
press secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to distance
Trump from both Noem’s and Miller’s comments by
saying she had not heard the president “characterize Mr. Pretti
in that way.”
On Tuesday, when Trump
was asked if Pretti’s death was justified, he said:
“Well you know, we’re doing a big investigation. I want to see the
investigation. I’m going to be watching over it. I want a very honorable and
honest investigation. I have to see for myself.”
“I’m looking at that
whole situation. I love everybody. I love all of our people. I love his family.
And it’s a very sad situation,” he said when asked about Pretti’s
family.
When asked if he
thought Pretti acted as an assassin, Trump said “no.”
SUPPORT FOR ABOLISHING ICE IS SURGING
AMONG REPUBLICANS
By Rebecca
Schneid Jan 26, 2026 2:33 PM ET
In the wake of the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal agents amid the Trump
Administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, voters’ support
for abolishing
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is
spiking—including among President Donald Trump’s own party.
A new YouGov poll taken on Saturday, the day of Pretti’s fatal shooting, showed 19 percent of Republicans
and 48 percent of American adults across the political spectrum voicing support
for abolishing ICE.
That marks a notable shift from when YouGov pollsters asked the same question last June, as Trump was
ramping up his immigration crackdown. At that time only 9 percent of
Republicans and 27 percent of Americans overall backed abolishing ICE. Support
for shuttering the agency has also surged among independents, with 47 percent
backing its elimination in the Saturday poll compared to 25 percent in June.
Good and Pretti’s fatal shootings have
heightened scrutiny of the aggressive tactics being used by federal immigration
agents under Trump’s second Administration. Following Pretti’s
killing, several congressional Republicans have joined Democrats in calling for an investigation into the incident.
Other recent polls have shown support declining for how Trump is
carrying out the mass deportation effort that he successfully campaigned on in
2024 as ICE’s operations in the interior U.S. come under fire.
A New York Times/Siena
poll conducted from January 12 to 17, after Good’s
killing on January 7, found that a majority of voters disapproved of Trump’s
handling of several issues—immigration included—and 49 percent said the country was worse off than
a year ago, compared with 32 percent who said it was better off.
Regarding immigration specifically, 58 percent of respondents
disapproved of how Trump was handling the issue, up from 52 percent in a
previous Times/Siena poll conducted in September. A larger
portion of around half of respondents backed the Administration’s deportation
of illegal immigrants and the President’s handling of the U.S.’s southern
border in the recent poll. But the reality of ICE’s enforcement tactics drew
censure from most Americans: 61 percent—including 19 percent of Republicans,
compared to 94 percent of Democrats and 71 percent of independents—said that
ICE tactics had “gone too far.”
Trump attacked the Times/Siena
poll on Truth Social the day it was released, calling
the results “fake” and “heavily skewed toward Democrats.” (Among the registered
voters who responded to the poll, 45 percent identified as Democrats or
Democratic-leaning compared to 44 percent who identified as Republicans or
Republican-leaning.) In a separate post, he said that “Fake and
Fraudulent Polling should be, virtually, a criminal offense.”
Yet, the poll is part of a larger trend of surveys that have
documented growing disapproval of ICE’s tactics, especially after Good’s deadly
shooting, which sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the country, and follows a longer decline in
support for Trump’s handling of immigration.
A poll conducted for CNN by SSRS from January 9 to 12
found that 56 percent of respondents said that the shooting was an
"inappropriate use of force” by federal officers, and 51 percent said that
ICE enforcement actions were making cities less safe rather than safer. More
than half of independent respondents were among those who said that ICE
enforcement was making cities less safe. And while a majority of Republicans—56
percent—said the shooting represented an appropriate use of force, 21 percent
said it was an inappropriate use of force, with 7 percent saying it was
inappropriate but an isolated incident and 14 percent saying it was both
inappropriate and reflected a bigger problem with ICE’s operations.
Another survey, taken by Ipsos January 16 to 18, similarly found that 52
percent of Americans felt Good’s shooting marked an excessive use of force,
including 19 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of independents.
And a separate poll by Quinnipiac conducted from January 8 to 12 found
that 57 percent of registered voters disapproved of ICE’s handling of
immigration enforcement, including 64 percent of
independents and 12 percent of Republicans.
Backing for Trump’s broader handling of immigration had also
been falling for months even before the recent shootings, according to a number
of polls. Recent approval numbers on the issue differ markedly from polling
taken in the weeks after Trump took office last year. A Pew Research
Center survey taken last February, for instance, found
that 59 percent of U.S. adults said they approved of Trump increasing efforts
to deport people. In December, in contrast, Pew found that 53 percent of
Americans said he was doing “too much” to deport illegal immigrants, with that
sentiment rising among both Democrat sand
Republicans.
That approval of Trump’s immigration agenda was already waning by the spring and summer. An
Ipsos poll from April 2025 found Americans slightly more disapproving (53
percent) than approving (46 percent) of his handling of immigration.
FROM MS NOW
THE TIME FOR DEMOCRATS TO START DISMANTLING ICE IS NOW
A key
vote this week to fund the Department of Homeland
Security hinges on what demands Senate Democrats place on the table.
Calls for accountability for
ICE run amok puts Noem in the hot
seat/ 03:23
By Hayes Brown Jan.
28, 2026, 6:00 AM EST
Even
after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Good
earlier this month, carrying out the behest of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her closest allies in carrying out
President Donald Trump’s cruel purge of immigrants – (popular revenge and
retribution) seemed untouchable. Good’s death only prompted a mediocre package of reforms to be included in the bill
funding the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the year, none of
which would truly restrain federal officers from carrying out mass deportation
efforts.
But
the Border Patrol officer who fired round after round into Alex Pretti’s
body, the second homicide carried out in less than a month on
the streets of Minneapolis, did so one week before the Senate’s deadline to
pass that bill.
There’s
little room for error or delay to prevent the rot within DHS from metastasizing
further.
The Trump administration is now on its
back foot, and even Republican lawmakers have raised questions about
whether Pretti really deserved to die, as though the
first inklings of shame have finally begun creeping back into their bodies. The
swiftly shifting political headwinds have left Democratic lawmakers, who had seemed sure to begrudgingly
fund DHS later this week, looking to press their advantage.
Given
the stakes, and what is likely to be a brief window for action, there’s little
room for error or delay to prevent the rot within DHS from metastasizing
further.
The Homeland Security funding bill is
currently tied together with five other House-passed appropriations bills as an
all-or-nothing package. At least seven Democratic votes are needed to ensure
passage, but Pretti’s death has made the chance that
it will reach Trump’s desk unchanged low at best. Instead, Senate Democrats are
now pressing their GOP counterparts to strip the DHS funding from the
“minibus” to allow the other bills to pass and prevent a larger partial
shutdown. (Senate Republicans are pressing ahead regardless, intending to call a potential bluff
and setting the stage for a crucial vote Thursday.)
According
to NBC News, Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer, D-N.Y., told his caucus on a call Sunday “the message had to be to
‘restrain, reform and restrict ICE.’” It’s more of a mouthful than “abolish
ICE,” but it still marks a major departure from a previous reluctance to
withhold support from federal law enforcement. The move is backed by a growing number of polls showing
Americans swiftly souring on ICE, with almost half of respondents in a recent YouGov poll saying that the agency should be
dismantled entirely.
Exactly
what Schumer and his fellow Democratic senators intend to propose was still up in the air, though, as of Tuesday evening. Sen.
Chris Murphy, D-Conn., provided a rough list of potential demands during an
interview with The New Republic’s Greg Sargent,
including requiring judicial warrants for immigration arrests, effectively
ending what Murphy called the “street-by-street sweeps, the ‘show me your
papers’ practice, and the home-to-home confrontations.”
, 2026 / 03:23
Also
on the table, according to Murphy, are items requiring federal agents to wear
identification and body cameras during enforcement operations, ensuring that
states can investigate cases like Good’s and Pretti’s
killings when they occur, and restricting ICE and Border Patrol from operating
in schools and churches.
Those
potential reforms would mostly square with a list the Congressional Progressive
Caucus circulated last week, which also included barring the arrest quotas the
White House has imposed on ICE and banning federal agents from wearing masks
during operations. Notably, neither set of proposals specifically calls for Noem’s resignation, despite a growing swell
of support for her removal from
atop DHS.
AN
UNDUE FOCUS ON NOEM, THOUGH, WOULD BE AN IRONIC SHADOW OF THE CONSERVATIVE
ETHOS
Noem
herself is an understandable target, given her visibility and callousness when
confronted with evidence of DHS agents’ culpability. A resolution calling for
her impeachment in the House is racking up signatures, with more than 140 Democrats now on board. Accordingly,
despite being in the minority, House Democrats have launched an investigation into Noem’s
conduct,
laying the groundwork for a future expansion should they take back a majority
in this fall’s midterm elections. There’s every chance, in that case, that Noem would see articles of impeachment against her drawn up
swiftly next January — if she survives in the job that long.
An
undue focus on Noem, though, would be an ironic
shadow of the conservative ethos, looking to solve problems at the individual
level rather than taking on the system. As Republicans ignored as they targeted
Noem’s predecessor, Biden administration DHS chief Alejandro Mayorkas, she is dutifully following orders
coming from the president. Even in the highly unlikely event of her removal in
a Senate trial, there’s no doubt that the overarching deportation policy would
remain the same so long as Trump wills it. While two-thirds of the upper
chamber voting to show Noem the door would make for a
stunning political rebuke, it would be all too easy to confuse that shiny
trophy as a true victory.
The
reforms pushed by Murphy and other Democrats are likewise important but, as
Murphy himself recognized, still only scratch the surface of how we reached
this point in the first place.
True
immigration reform has been desperately needed for almost 20 years now. Without
a stable pathway to citizenship for
the millions of undocumented people already here, the pendulum remains free to
swing back toward the kind of cruelty that Trump unleashed. And simply calling
for better training and oversight for ICE and other cogs in the deportation
machine fails to recognize that making a squad of unaccountable kidnappers more
efficient doesn’t make the country safer.
As
much as Pretti’s death has rattled the powers that
be, the fever gripping the country didn’t suddenly break after a year of
Trump’s mass deportation campaign. But opponents of the violence, chaos and
cruelty on display now find themselves on more solid footing than what seemed
possible only days ago, to begin dismantling a system designed to dehumanize
and oppress anyone caught in its crosshairs. It is imperative, then, that the
moment not be lost and that the first bricks in ICE’s eventual crypt be laid
before the foundation has a chance to crack.
TALKS RAMP
UP TO AVERT US GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN AFTER MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING
By Bernd Debusmann Jr.
Democrats are pushing to remove funding for the DHS from a
spending bill unless additional oversight is added.
Talks to avert a US government shutdown have intensified in
Washington DC, with officials reportedly moving towards an agreement in
negotiations over the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operation.
Democrats have been pushing to remove funding for the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from a $1.2tn (£870bn) government
spending package following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday.
US media report that the White House and Senate Democratic
leadership are nearing an agreement which would meet Democratic demands to
introduce new restrictions on federal immigration agents.
It would mean five of the six spending bills could be passed
before the Friday deadline, while the DHS one would get a short-term extension
to allow time for more discussion on the proposed new restrictions, like around
the use of masks by agents.
If no deal is struck, the second shutdown within months will
begin at one minute after midnight on Friday 30 January.
HOW LIKELY IS A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN?
The spending bill has already passed in the House of
Representatives, but needs 60 Senate votes to advance.
Among the changes Democrats are seeking are requirements
that federal agents obtain warrants before making arrests and clearer rules
governing how they identify themselves, according to US media reports.
There are only 53 Republican senators in the 100-member
body, meaning that passing the bill will require at least some support from
Democratic members.
Earlier this week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
said: "I will vote no on any legislation that funds ICE until it is reined
in and overhauled, and Senate Democrats are overwhelmingly united on this
issue."
Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said that
"productive" negotiations are ongoing.
If changes are made, the bill will need to be re-approved by
the House, which is currently on recess.
On Wednesday, some Senate Democrats escalated their demands,
expressly calling for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's
removal, and structural changes to both Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) and US Border Patrol.
"This madness," Schumer said, "this terror
must stop."
Some Republicans pushed back, with Texas's John Cornyn
saying that "any changes must not come at the expense of shutting down the
government".
AVERTING A SHUTDOWN WILL REQUIRE REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS
TO COME TO AN AGREEMENT
What is a 'partial shutdown' and who
could be impacted?
The entirety of the US federal government will not be
impacted by a shutdown if it does occur this weekend.
Already, legislation has been passed to fund dozens of
agencies through the end of the 2026 fiscal year, which ends on 30 September.
Those agencies - including the justice department, FBI and
Department of Veterans Affairs - will not be impacted.
But other branches are included in the same spending bill as
DHS, including the defence department, health and
human services, the treasury and the federal court system.
In practice, that could mean that a prolonged shutdown could
see court operations, medical research disrupted or labour
statistics delayed.
The Internal Revenue Service is also among the agencies that
would be impacted, meaning that tax processing - including refunds - could be
affected.
DHS is also a sprawling department encompassing multiple
agencies, including ICE, the Coast Guard, Secret Service and Customs and Border
Protection.
Employees that are "essential" to the functioning
of impacted agencies would continue to work, but will not be paid until funding
is restored - unless the government finds other sources - as Trump did with military personnel
last year.
HOW LONG WAS THE LAST SHUTDOWN?
The most recent shutdown in the latter half of 2025 lasted
43 days between 1 October and 12 November, making it the longest in US history.
Democrats had initially refused to support the funding bill,
demanding that Republicans agree to extend health insurance subsidies for
low-income Americans that are set to expire at the end of the year.
Eventually, eight Democrats broke with their party
colleagues and helped pass the bill.
That shutdown left around 1.4 million federal employees on
unpaid leave or working without pay. Food aid was also left in limbo, and air
travel was severely disrupted across the US.
There have been a total of 16
government shutdowns since 1981, although some only lasted days.
AL JAZEERA
WILL KILLINGS
BY IMMIGRATION AGENTS CAUSE ANOTHER US GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN?
The death of Alex Pretti has
prompted a shift among Democratic senators, who are willing to risk a shutdown
for reforms.
By Joseph Stepansky Published
On 29 Jan 2026
The United States could
be careening toward another government shutdown, in which federal agencies are
forced to close because Congress cannot pass legislation to fund them.
That was not always the
case. At first, it seemed like Friday’s deadline to pass a new spending package
would pass without much fuss.
Minnesota candidate
bows out over Republican response to Pretti shooting
US witnessed many
ICE-related deaths in 2026. Here are their stories
Minnesota judge orders
ICE chief to appear in court
But an impasse has
emerged in the waning days before the deadline. The shift came amid public
outrage at the latest shooting death resulting from President Donald Trump’s
immigration enforcement drive.
In the days since immigration agents killed US
citizen Alex Pretti in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, Democrats have drawn a stark line.
They have pledged to
approve no funding increases for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),
which oversees the agencies spearheading Trump’s deportation drive, unless it
agrees to place guardrails on its use of force.
On Thursday, Tom Homan,
the US border security chief, said immigration agents would shift their
approach in Minnesota but vowed to maintain a continued presence in the
state.
Lawmakers in the Senate
now have until midnight Friday (05:00 GMT on Saturday) to find a solution.
Here’s how we got here and what comes next:
WHAT’S
IN THE LEGISLATION?
Republicans will need
to reach a 60-vote threshold in the 100-seat Senate to pass the funding
legislation. They currently control 53 seats, meaning they will need the
support of at least seven members of the Democratic caucus.
All told, the
legislation includes six separate bills to fund the Department of Defense, the
Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the
Department of Education, the Department of Transportation, the Department of
Housing and Urban Development, the Department of the Treasury, and most
notably, DHS.
The bills are all
linked in a sprawling $1.2 trillion package passed by the US House of
Representatives last week. Without the funding, non-essential services in those
departments would grind to a halt.
WHY
NOT VOTE SEPARATELY ON DHS FUNDING?
Any changes to the
House-approved package — including voting separately on DHS funding — would
require overcoming lengthy procedural hurdles in the Senate.
Then, the legislation
would have to return to the House of Representatives for a new vote.
The House is currently
in the middle of a weeklong recess, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, a
Republican, is unlikely to call his chamber’s representatives back to
Washington for a second vote.
HOW
MUCH FUNDING IS THERE FOR DHS?
Compared with last
year, the new spending package would add $400m more to the detention budget for
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and $370m more for its enforcement
budget.
That is on top of a
$170bn windfall for DHS included in last year’s sprawling tax-and-spending law,
known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” It earmarked about $75bn for
ICE over the next four years.
Why
is the funding controversial?
Rights advocates
have condemned the current funding
bill for providing yet more funding to ICE, the agency at the heart of Trump’s
deportation drive.
Just this month, ICE
has been connected to two high-profile shooting deaths in Minneapolis: Pretti’s killing on Saturday and the shooting of Renee
Nicole Good on January 7. Both were US citizens.
Still, a handful of
Democrats have broken with their party to vote for the spending package. On
January 22, seven Democrats backed the funding legislation, while 206 opposed
it.
The vote was ultimately
220 to 207, with Republican Thomas Massie joining the majority of the Democrats
in opposition.
This latest budget
fight comes less than three months after a record-breaking, 43-day-long government
shutdown came to a close on November 12, 2025. Polls show such disruptions are
widely unpopular across the political spectrum.
WHAT
WERE THE EXPECTATIONS LEADING UP TO THIS WEEK?
In the run-up to
Friday’s shutdown deadline, Democrats in the Senate were bracing for a similar
fracture among their party members.
Several had been
expected to hold their nose and vote to support the spending bill, in part
fearing the political optics of another government shutdown.
On January 20,
Democratic Senator Patty Murray argued against shutting down the government yet
again, calling it an ineffective tactic to curb ICE.
“ICE must be reined in,
and unfortunately, neither a [continuing resolution] nor a shutdown would do
anything to restrain it, because, thanks to Republicans, ICE is now sitting on
a massive slush fund it can tap whether or not we pass a funding bill,” she
wrote in a statement.
Murray called on her
party to instead focus its efforts on winning the upcoming midterm elections.
“The hard truth is that Democrats must win political power to enact the kind of
accountability we need,” she said.
WHY
HAS DEMOCRATIC SENTIMENT CHANGED?
Pretti’s killing on Saturday
changed the dynamic for Democrats.
The ICE shooting was followed by a swarm
of baseless claims from the Trump
administration, accusing Pretti — a nurse who treated
US veterans — of being a “domestic terrorist”. That,
in turn, fuelled further outrage at his death.
Senator Murray was
among those who shifted her stance in the wake of the killing. Her response was
unequivocal.
“I will NOT support the
DHS bill as it stands,” she wrote in a post on the social media
platform X. “Federal agents cannot murder people in broad daylight and face
zero consequences.”
Chuck Schumer, the top
Democrat in the Senate, also abandoned earlier assurances that a shutdown would
be avoided.
Left-wing senators
Catherine Cortez Masto, Jacky Rosen and Angus King have also announced they
will not vote in favour of the funding bill as is,
despite having broken from party ranks to end the last shutdown in November.
In a post on Wednesday on X,
Schumer showed little sign of yielding.
“In the wake of ICE’s
abuses and the administration’s recklessness, Senate Democrats will NOT pass
the DHS budget until it is rewritten,” he wrote.
WILL
THE PARTY REMAIN UNITED?
To date, only one
Democrat — Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — has committed to voting in favour of the funding package in the wake of Pretti’s killing.
However, the party has
yet to present a list of demands to Republicans, who remain largely united
against a shutdown, though some have voiced dismay over the events in
Minnesota.
Reforms floated by
Democrats include requiring judicial warrants for immigration arrests, doing
away with the Trump administration’s detention quotas, and mandating that
federal agents unmask themselves and wear identification.
Other proposed measures
involve prohibiting border patrol agents from being deployed within the
interior of the US and requiring that local and state authorities be involved
in use-of-force investigations.
State officials in
Minnesota have complained in recent weeks that they have been shut out of the
federal investigations into the killings of Good and Pretti.
While Trump has distanced himself from his
administration’s comments calling Pretti a
“terrorist”, his more conciliatory tone has not
extended to Democratic officials.
On Wednesday, he again
blamed Democrats for escalating tensions in Minnesota and warned that
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was “playing with fire” for failing to fall in
line with his immigration policies.
Top Democrats, in turn,
have dismissed any promises for reform not codified in law.
“If the government
shuts down yet again, it will be because congressional Republicans refuse to
place guardrails on this reckless president and the ICE agency,” Senator Dick
Durbin said during a floor speech on Wednesday.
FOX
THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO FEDERAL PAY DATES TO WATCH IF THERE’S A PARTIAL
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
Partial government shutdown affecting
78% of federal spending set to begin Saturday at 12:01 am
By Chad Pergram
Published January 28, 2026 4:49pm EST
There
is an old trick which may help you divine the length of a prospective government
shutdown.
The
signpost to watch is the pay schedule for federal workers.
Let’s
start with the basics. This potential partial shutdown would impact six areas of
the government and hits 78 percent of all federal spending. It’s set to begin at
12:00:01 a.m. ET on Saturday, January 31.
But
since it’s over the weekend, some call this a "lapse in
appropriations."
DEMS RELENT, SENATE SENDS $174B
SPENDING PACKAGE TO TRUMP'S DESK AS SHUTDOWN LOOMS OVER DHS FUNDING
For
starters, that technicality of a "lapse in appropriations" is a
shutdown by another name. But it does give lawmakers wiggle room to resolve the
issue before 9 am ET on Monday, February 2. That’s when most federal workers
return to the job.
But
the real barometer to watch is the federal paycheck schedule.
The
government last paid many federal workers on January 21. That was one day later
than usual because of the Martin Luther King federal holiday.
However,
the next batch of checks is due to go out on Monday, February 2. This paycheck
covers the work period running through Thursday, February 5. But the government
cuts the checks on Monday, ahead of the completion of the pay period.
CONGRESS ROLLS OUT $80B SPENDING BILL AS DEMS THREATEN DHS
FUNDING AMID SHUTDOWN FEARS
But, Fox is told that workers would at least
receive a partial paycheck for work completed through Friday, January 30.
That’s the last day that the government is funded. So those checks still go out
on February 2. But they don’t cover work for next Monday through Thursday if
there’s a lapse in appropriations.
Any
money dealing with expenditures beginning on January 31 is illegal. It’s a
violation of the Antideficiency Act. The executive
branch is spending money not appropriated by Congress.
So the weekend gives lawmakers a bit of a
breather to figure things out. And the next day to cut many federal checks
doesn’t fall until Tuesday, February 17. That is one day later than usual
because of Presidents' Day on Monday, February 16.
Missing
any portion of a paycheck is not optimal. But the upside is that Congress and
the executive branch have nearly three weeks to solve this before most federal
workers miss an ENTIRE paycheck.
However,
there are some anomalies.
Workers
at the FAA (which includes air traffic controllers, but not TSA) are scheduled
to be paid on Tuesday, February 3. Fox is told that FAA employees will receive
a full paycheck. That’s because the FAA pay period ended on Saturday, January
24. Thus, that work was completed before the shutdown deadline and Congress
appropriated money for that pay. Therefore, payment on February 3 is NOT a
violation of the Antideficiency Act.
That
said, the next FAA pay period ends on February 7. Paychecks are due to be sent
on February 17. FAA and air traffic controllers would receive a PARTIAL
paycheck at that point. That’s because some work was performed prior to the
shutdown. This scenario mirrors what happened during the fall shutdown. Air
traffic controllers received some of their paycheck because of the staggered
pay schedule.
But
that doesn’t diminish the paycheck PTSD from which many air traffic controllers
and TSA employees suffer. They were asked to report to work during the last
shutdown, doing stressful work for six weeks without getting paid.
One
wonders if there’s any goodwill left among those workers to show up on the job
gratis since Congress and the executive branch still can’t get their acts
together.
SENATE DEMS REVOLT AGAINST DHS FUNDING BILL AMID
MINNEAPOLIS CHAOS, HIKING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN RISK
Lawmakers
will watch these pay calendars closely if this gets to be a drawn-out fight.
However, a minimal "partial" shutdown over the weekend provides
lawmakers with a bit of cushion to find a solution.
Fox
is told that it’s unlikely that Republicans and Democrats achieve some sort of
"breakthrough" on government funding before a likely failed test vote
on the original spending bill tomorrow. Senate Democrats have now laid down
their demands to rein in ICE. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer,
D-N.Y., says Democrats insist on an end to roving patrols. They want a uniform
code of conduct for ICE officers which (would be) similar to local and state
police. Finally, Democrats want masks off and body cameras on.
After
the prospective failed vote, things suddenly get real for everyone. The
deadline looms and they don’t have a fix. However, the test vote gives
Democrats the opportunity to put a "nay" vote on the scoreboard and
show the other side – plus their progressive base – that they mean business when
it comes to ICE.
Congress
only seems to work on a deadline. Finding an off-ramp before that 11:59:59 pm
et deadline on Friday is tough. But the Senate often conducts some of its most
productive business on Thursdays and Fridays – especially when staring at the
specter of a weekend session.
But
the weekend – and its special payment schedules – give lawmakers some agility.
In fact, one Democratic source told Fox that a weekend "lapse in
appropriations" may help the party politically if they score the ICE
reforms that Democrats want. Then they can demonstrate to their base just how
far they are willing to push – again. Especially if they extract concessions
from the White House.
Schumer
still wants Senate Majority Leader John Thune, (R-SD), to rip apart the
six-bill spending package and treat DHS funding as a separate animal.
Thune didn’t rule that out. But Thune made it clear that the "best path
forward is to keep the package intact." Thune noted that splitting the
bill was challenging in the Senate. But even if the Senate is successful, the
measure must return to the House – after the funding deadline.
"Who
knows what happens with it over there," said Thune.
Meantime,
Lisa Desjardins of the PBS NewsHour asked Schumer if he was willing to
"accept a separate bill outside of the appropriations bills that would
contain some of your demands?"
Schumer
was vague in his response, saying he needed to hear "concrete ideas"
from the White House.
It’s
unknown if the sides could even avoid a shutdown with a handshake agreement.
But
either way, there’s not much time to figure this out. Either the Senate whirls
like a dervish during the day Friday. Or there’s a lot of scrambling over the
weekend to avoid a shutdown before the reality of Monday morning sets in.
FOX (and the AP)
DEMOCRATS
POISED TO TRIGGER GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IF WHITE HOUSE WON’T MEET DEMANDS FOR ICE
REFORM
By MARY CLARE JALONICK, KEVIN FREKING and LISA MASCARO
Associated Press
Published: Jan. 29, 2026 at 9:14 AM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are threatening to block
legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and several
other agencies Thursday, potentially bringing the government a step closer to a
partial shutdown if Republicans and the White House do not agree to new
restrictions on President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement.
As the country reels from
the deaths of two
protesters at the hands of federal agents in
Minneapolis, irate Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands ahead of a
Thursday morning test vote, including that officers take off their masks and
identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest. If those are not met,
Democrats say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending
bill, denying Republicans the votes
they need to pass it and triggering a shutdown at midnight on Friday.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that
Democrats won’t provide needed votes until U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement is “reined in and overhauled.”
“The American people support law enforcement, they support
border security, they do not support ICE terrorizing our streets and killing
American citizens,” Schumer said.
There were some signs of possible progress as the White
House has appeared open to trying to strike a deal with Democrats to avert a
shutdown. The two sides were talking as of Wednesday evening, according to a
person familiar with the negotiations who requested anonymity to speak about
the private talks. One possible option discussed would be to strip the funding
for the Homeland Security Department from the larger bill, as Schumer has
requested, and extend it for a short period to allow time for negotiations, the
person said. The rest of the bill would fund government agencies until
September.
Still, with no agreement yet and an uncertain path ahead,
the standoff threatened to plunge the country into another shutdown just two
months after Democrats blocked a spending bill over expiring federal health
care subsidies, a dispute that closed the government for 43 days as Republicans
refused to negotiate.
That shutdown ended when a small group of moderate Democrats
broke away to strike a deal with Republicans, but Democrats are more unified
this time after the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents.
DEMOCRATS LAY OUT THEIR DEMANDS
There’s a lot of “unanimity and shared purpose” within the Democratic
caucus, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith said after a lunch meeting Wednesday.
“Boil it all down, what we are talking about is that these
lawless ICE agents should be following the same rules that your local police
department does,” Smith said. ”There has to be
accountability.”
Amid the administration’s immigration crackdown, Schumer
said Democrats are asking the White House to “end roving patrols” in cities and
coordinate with local law enforcement on immigration arrests, including
requiring tighter rules for warrants.
Democrats also want an enforceable code of conduct so agents
are held accountable when they violate rules. Schumer said agents should be
required to have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper identification,
as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies.
The Democratic caucus is united in those “common sense
reforms” and the burden is on Republicans to accept them, Schumer said, as he
has pushed for the Homeland spending to be separated out to avoid a broader
shutdown.
Senate Majority Leader Thune has indicated that he might be
open to considering some of the Democrats’ demands, but he encouraged Democrats
and the White House to talk and find agreement.
MANY OBSTACLES TO A DEAL
As the two sides negotiated, it was still unclear whether
they could agree on anything that would satisfy Democrats who want Trump’s
aggressive crackdown to end.
The White House had invited some Democrats for a discussion
to better understand their positions and avoid a partial government shutdown, a
senior White House official said, but the meeting did not happen. The official
requested anonymity to discuss the private invitation.
The House passed the six
remaining funding bills last week and sent them to the Senate as a package,
making it more difficult to strip out the homeland security portion as
Democrats have demanded. Republicans could break the package apart with the
consent of all 100 senators or through a series of votes that would extend past
the Friday deadline.
Even if the Senate can resolve the issue, House Republicans
have said they do not want any changes to the bill they have passed. In a
letter to Trump on Tuesday, the conservative House Freedom Caucus wrote that
its members stand with the president and ICE.
“The package will not come back through the House without
funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” according to the letter.
REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION
Several Republican senators have said they would be fine
with Democrats’ request to separate the Homeland Security funds for further
debate and pass the other bills in the package. But it might be more difficult
for Democrats to find broad GOP support for their demands on ICE.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he’s OK with separating
the bills, but is opposed to the Democrats’ proposal to require the immigration
enforcement officers to unmask and show their faces, even as he blamed Homeland
Security Secretary Kristi Noem for decisions that he
said are “tarnishing” the agency’s reputation.
“You know, there’s a lot of vicious people out there, and
they’ll take a picture of your face, and the next thing you know, your children
or your wife or your husband are being threatened at home,” Tillis said. ”And that’s just the reality of the world that we’re in.”
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said that “what
happened over the weekend is a tragedy,” but Democrats shouldn’t punish
Americans with a shutdown and a “political stunt.”
Democrats say they won’t back down.
“It is truly a moral moment,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal,
D-Conn. “I think we need to take a stand.”
TIME
DEMOCRATS
REVIVE SHUTDOWN PLAYBOOK—THOUGH THE LAST FIGHT WAS NO TRIUMPH
By Philip Elliott Jan 29, 2026 7:00 AM ET
The wisdom of the all-but-certain government shutdown on the horizon is
dictated by a simple question: Was last year’s record-breaking version worth
it?
Democrats
seem surprisingly unified as they
steer into another shutdown, this time tied to President Donald Trump’s dragnet
operation against immigrants instead of an end to subsidies for health
insurance used by roughly 20 million Americans. Republicans seem equally as
united to stand again behind Trump’s policies—even after federal agents killed
two Americans in Minneapolis.
The
White House has publicly brushed off the outrage over Trump's aggressive crackdown on immigration with
the same steely indifference it deployed last year as it refused to bend to
public opinion backing those Obamacare subsidies. But Trump allies have
beseeched his advisers to pare back the over-the-top efforts in Minnesota
before they completely turn off voters heading into midterm elections that
Republicans are already bracing to go badly. Even inside the MAGAverse, there is a queasiness over a Trumpist
show that now has a tangible bodycount. Yes, Trump
has long had strong public support to tighten the border and to deport violent
criminals but he does not have anywhere near that support to storm communities
with armed agents carrying no ID or warrants.
So
as Washington barrels toward another shutdown—it's second in four months—the
question of whether Democrats are making the smart play depends on whether the
last one was deemed successful for the minority party.
In
the fall, as Congress was faced with the choice of extending Obamacare
subsidies or allowing health insurance costs to soar for millions of Americans,
polls found an extension was broadly
supported, regardless of party. It was the textbook example of an 80-20 issue,
a no-brainer of a reason for Democrats to step in and shut down the government
unless the dollars were extended, and a winning issue for the minority party on
an issue most closely associated with their branding.
Republicans
did not budge and Democrats, after 43 days, realized they could not
out-stubborn Trump.
Those
supportive of the strategy will point out that Republicans took the bigger
chunk of blame for that standoff. Others will note that Democrats have nothing
to show for the extended drama—the subsidies are now gone. Nonetheless, they
are on the verge of following the same playbook again.
But
the polling central to this current spending fight is not like Obamacare, which
has support from about two-thirds of all adults. The underlying issue in play
this week—ICE and its tactics—is trending in Democrats’ direction, but still
remains far less popular, and with a wider partisan
divide.
To
be sure, the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a
nurse at a veterans’ hospital, dramatically moved the needle. Almost instantly,
polls showed a real shift in public opinion on
the primary agency carrying out Trump’s crackdown on immigration, with a
majority of Americans telling YouGov pollsters ICE’s tactics are
too forceful, and more now saying they support eliminating Immigration and
Customs Enforcement entirely than those who want to keep it.
Democrats
rushed to a new footing. Their take-your-medicine defeatism from just last
month morphed into fast action. On Wednesday, Senate Democrats emerged from their weekly
lunch with the kind of unity that, frankly, they had not been able to muster
since Trump’s election. Aides said the Pretti death
was such a clarifying moment for their bosses that inaction was no longer an
option.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has
the least enviable job on Capitol Hill, emerged from that session with three
main demands in exchange for
keeping the government open beyond Friday: more coordination between ICE and
local law enforcement—including getting warrants in some cases, a new code of
conduct for agents, and requiring they ditch the masks and always wear body
cameras while working.
Barring
a bipartisan agreement—through legislation, no Trump-signed executive
orders—Democrats said they would not fall in line to keep the lights on past
Friday.
At
the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader John Thune took himself out of the mix even
as he rejected calls to pass everything but the Homeland Security spending
package and deal with it as a stand-alone question. “I think right now the
conversation should be between the White House and Democrats,” Thune said,
pushing the issue to Trump.
And
at the White House, aides reached out to offices of the handful of Democrats
who voted in December to join Republicans to keep funding the government. Those
lawmakers declined even a meeting.
So,
it seems like the impasse is more durable than it appeared even a week ago. It
now feels a lot more like where we were a few months earlier, when everything
but the most urgent of government functions got mothballed. Much as before, the
public is with Democrats. Also much as before, Trump
remains indifferent to popular opinion and thinks he can out-wait his
opposition.
·
Here’s Why Both Sides Expect to ‘Win’ the Shutdown
·
We May Be a Month Away From
Republicans Shutting Down a Government They Control
·
Republican and Democratic Lawmakers React to
Government Shutdown as Blame Game Ensues
·
What Is a Filibuster and Why Does Trump Want to
‘Terminate’ It?
·
This Is Now the Longest Government Shutdown Ever
·
Trump Touts Meeting With
Vought to Discuss Cuts to ‘Democrat Agencies’ as Shutdown Impasse Continues
THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Sam Sifton
Good
morning. The government may avoid a partial shutdown. President Trump and
Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, discussed a deal yesterday.
And
the Department of Homeland Security is facing a crisis after the killing of Alex Pretti. I’ll start with that.
SECOND
THOUGHTS?
The
federal government’s response to the killing of Alex Pretti
has come in two phases. First there were the justifications. Then came the
recriminations.
Yesterday,
the Department of Homeland Security said the two agents involved in the shooting had been placed on leave.
Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s top aides, said they “may not have been
following” protocol before they shot Pretti, who was
on the ground, restrained and disarmed.
Is
it a sign that the administration is reconsidering what it’s doing in
Minneapolis?
IN THE WHITE HOUSE
Trump,
my colleagues who cover the White House reported, came to realize over the
weekend that he had a big problem on his hands. His usual strategy of
blustering his way through a crisis — or creating diversions — could not
overcome the optics of a second American dead at the hands of federal agents
during the same operation.
The
government had said Pretti attacked the federal
agents, that he was an “assassin,” a “terrorist.” But videos directly
contradict this idea, and Trump could see it plain. “Nobody understands TV
better than him,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told The Times. The
videos led to a change in Trump’s approach.
He
sent Tom Homan, his border czar, to Minneapolis and ordered Gregory Bovino, the aggressive Border Patrol official who was
directing operations there, to leave. (“Bovino is
pretty good, but he’s a pretty out-there kind of guy,” Trump told Fox News.
“Maybe it wasn’t good here.”) He softened his language about the shooting and
spoke with Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, whom he had falsely accused of
inciting violent protests.
IN THE STATES
Democratic
lawmakers are “redoubling their efforts to restrict and challenge federal
immigration tactics in their states,” reported David Chen, who covers state legislatures.
He
described new bills put forward in Colorado, Delaware and California to hamper
the administration’s deportation efforts. The measures would let people sue
federal agents for civil rights violations, for instance, or prevent commercial
airlines from getting tax exemptions on the jet fuel they use to transport
migrants detained by ICE without warrants and due process.
A
bill in Washington State would keep federal agents out of day care centers,
hospitals and election sites without a warrant or a court order. And in
Maryland, David reports, one lawmaker wants to bar ICE agents recruited by the
Trump administration from working at any of the state’s law enforcement
agencies.
“We
are starting to see legislators who, last session, were afraid of being a thorn
in the side of an ascendant Trump administration — they were so afraid of
poking the bear,” an immigration policy advocate for the American Civil
Liberties Union said. “The tide is now turning, and maybe they feel that
they’ve got nothing to lose.”
Legislators
in states controlled by Republicans, David found, are going in the opposite
direction. In South Carolina, a new bill would require county sheriffs to work
with ICE. In Tennessee, a proposal would force the government to verify the
legal status of residents seeking public assistance and to verify the
immigration status of schoolchildren, despite a decades-old Supreme Court
ruling that found schools cannot do that.
ON THE HILL
The
unrest in Minneapolis has also emerged as a sticking point in the latest
congressional budget battle.
Senate
Democrats don’t want to bankroll Trump’s aggressive immigration operations, so
they’re threatening a partial shutdown — much of the government runs out of
money early Saturday morning — unless Republicans agree to significant changes
at the Department of Homeland Security.
They
want to regulate the behavior of the agency’s officers. And they want to add
restrictions to the no-strings-attached slush fund the Republican Congress
delivered to ICE last year, which made it the highest-funded federal law
enforcement agency. Democrats at the time warned that the money — $75 billion —
would mean growth for the agency, and no checks on its processes.
The
Democrats can’t act on any of it alone, though, as my colleague Michael Gold
reported. Any changes to the spending measure that keeps the government open
would require the cooperation of enough Republicans to allow it to pass.
MOVING FORWARD
Although
some members of the Trump administration and the political coalition behind it
may have second thoughts about the tactics in Minneapolis, the overall strategy
there is not in doubt. Pam Bondi, the attorney general, announced yesterday
afternoon that she was “on the ground in Minneapolis” and said that federal
agents had arrested 16 “rioters” who had been “resisting and impeding our
federal law enforcement agents.”
The
president was also quick to dismiss the attack on Ilhan Omar, the Muslim
American member of Congress from Minnesota, after someone attacked her with a
brownish liquid smelling of vinegar at a town-hall event on Tuesday night.
Trump, who for years has bashed Omar, a Democrat, said she should be deported
and backed a baseless conspiracy theory that she had married her brother to
commit immigration fraud. (Annie Karni, our
congressional reporter, explains the Trump-Omar history here.) Omar “probably
had herself sprayed, knowing her,” he told ABC News.
And
Trump seemed for a moment to have given Kristi Noem,
the homeland security secretary, a slap on the wrist: With Homan in Minneapolis
reporting directly to him, she appeared out of the chain of command.
But
he also had a two-hour meeting in the Oval Office with her on Monday evening,
attended by her closest aide, Corey Lewandowski, an on-again, off-again member
of the president’s orbit. Afterward, Trump had a message for reporters: “I
think she’s doing a very good job,” he said.
|
USA TODAY
WILL THE GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN THIS WEEKEND? LIVE
UPDATES
By Kathryn Palmer Updated Jan. 29, 2026, 11:51 a.m. ET
The country is hurtling toward another partial shutdown as lawmakers wrestle over a massive spending package that must pass by Friday, Jan. 30.
Just last week, the
six-measure bill appeared poised to clear Congress, but the killing of a second Minnesotan by federal agents has thrown
Capitol Hill into chaos as Senate Democrats demand that funding for the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) be removed from the package.
Hours after ICU
nurse Alex Pretti, 37, was fatally
shot by at least one federal agent during a protest in Minneapolis on Jan. 24,
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Democrats wouldn't
support the spending package unless the DHS funding provision was revised or
removed from the package to allow time for future negotiations.
Pretti's death was the second
fatal shooting this month by federal agents in the Twin Cities, who were deployed
as part of President Donald Trump's aggressive
immigration action. On Jan. 7, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent
killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old poet, at a protest.
DEAL TO AVERT A
SHUTDOWN IS ‘GETTING CLOSE,’ TRUMP SAYS
President Donald Trump
said believes the White House and members of Congress are “getting close” to a
deal to avert a shutdown.
"Hopefully we
won't have a shutdown," Trump said at a Cabinet meeting with his
secretaries. "We're working on that right now. I think we're getting
close. The Democrats, I don't believe want to see it either. So, we'll work in
a very bipartisan way."
– Joey Garrison
Thune: Shutdown talks 'trending in the
right direction'
Senate Majority Leader
John Thune, R-South Dakota, told reporters that talks between Senate Democrats
and the White House were "trending in the right direction" but
"not quite there yet."
"Right now, I
think it's still a bit o a work in progress," he
said.
– Zachary Schermele
Why is the government approaching a
shutdown?
For weeks, Congress has
been staring down a Jan. 30 deadline to pass a collection of appropriation
bills that would keep the government running.
The U.S. House of
Representatives voted Jan. 22 to send the spending package to the Senate;
however, Democratic discontent around the DHS funding provision had been
simmering for weeks in response to Good's death. Republicans largely backed the
DHS funding bill, aided by seven Democrats.
But Pretti's
killing tipped the scales for Senate Democrats, who are now refusing to back
more funding for the agency, which oversees federal immigration enforcement and
has played a leading role in Trump's aggressive immigration tactics.
It was already an eleventh-hour scramble in Congress to get the last
of its appropriations bills passed in less than a week by the Jan. 30 deadline.
Even before news broke of Pretti's death,
weather-related disruptions had squeezed the timeline − a Senate vote on
Monday, Jan. 26, was canceled due to the winter storm.
What do Senate Democrats want?
Senate Democrats on
Wednesday, Jan. 28, outlined three main demands for reforming DHS, including
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection
(CBP).
They are demanding
greater accountability for ICE and Border Patrol, including independent
investigations and stricter standards for the use of force. Senate Democrats
also want sweeping immigration checks known as "roving patrols" to
end, and for officers to turn their body cameras on and operate without wearing face masks.
Schumer and the
president were reportedly in talks the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 28, to try to
reach a deal to avert a shutdown, according to reports from the New York Times and Politico.
The standoff between
both parties place the other five bills in jeopardy. They bankroll
important government agencies, from the Pentagon to the Department of Health
and Human Services.
More: As shutdown looms, Democrats unveil
demands to address Pretti killing
SENATE TO VOTE TO
ADVANCE BILL
The Senate is slated to
vote on whether it will advance the funding package at 11:30 a.m. Eastern on
Thursday, Jan. 29.
WHEN WOULD GOVERNMENT
SHUTDOWN BEGIN?
If lawmakers are unable
to reach a deal by the end of the week, the government will partially shut down
at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31.
It's been less than
three months since the government reopened after a record-breaking 42-day full
shutdown last fall.
USA TODAY
SHUTDOWN INCHES CLOSER AS SENATE VOTE FAILS. LIVE
UPDATES
By Zachary Schermele and Kathryn Palmer
Updated
Jan. 29, 2026, 3:47 p.m. ET
Which agencies face
funding jeopardy in shutdown scenario?
What are Senate
Democrats' three demands for DHS reform?
How many prior
shutdowns occurred under Trump's administration?
Which agencies face
funding jeopardy in shutdown scenario?
What gangs is Thomas
Moss affiliated with?
A Senate test vote on
Thursday to avoid a partial government shutdown failed, signaling Democrats,
Republicans and the White House are still at odds amid their negotiations on
Department of Homeland Security funding in the massive spending package that must pass by
end of day Friday.
Just last week, the
six-measure bill appeared poised to clear Congress. But the killing of a second Minnesotan by federal agents has thrown
Capitol Hill into chaos as Senate Democrats demand a DHS spending bill be
stripped from the broader package while they work out reforms to the agency.
No deal had been
reached as of that morning, according to a source familiar with the
discussions. But talks between the two parties are picking up steam. GOP
senators in recent days have expressed an openness to passing a short-term
funding measure for DHS while lawmakers come up with a compromise.
Democrats want that funding extension to be as short as possible, likely a
matter of weeks.
Alex Pretti's death was the second
fatal shooting this month by federal agents in the Twin Cities, who were
deployed as part of President Donald Trump's aggressive
immigration action. On Jan. 7, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent
killed Renee Nicole Good, a
37-year-old poet, at a protest.
Second-term
curse? Watch Trump's troubles on Greenland,
immigration
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT AFTER SENATE VOTE FAILED?
A waiting game began
after Thursday's failed Senate vote.
It's unclear how long
it will take for Democratic lawmakers to finalize a deal with the White House.
But the main sticking point seems to be centered around exactly how long a
short-term funding measure for DHS would be.
"I've talked to
administration officials," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut,
adding he hoped their "better angels would prevail."
A partial shutdown is
likely, regardless of whether a Senate agreement is struck soon. That's because
the House of Representatives will almost certainly have to come back and
approve it.
SHUTDOWN TEST VOTE
FAILS 55-45
Fifty-five senators,
including all Democrats and seven Republicans, voted against advancing the
funding package.
Democrats' concerns
were uniformly about ICE and DHS, while the GOP no votes consisted of
conservatives angry about what they perceived to be wasteful spending in the
half-dozen appropriations bills.
PENDING SHUTDOWN COULD
SLOW TAX SEASON
A shutdown could put a damper on tax season, which formally began
on Monday, Jan. 26, for some Americans.
The IRS halted most of its major
functions five days into the October 2025 shutdown, furloughing about 50%
of its employees.
Automated e-filing and
telephone calls still went through, but other services, including paper
processing, appeals and payments, were stalled or slowed. Refunds are not paid
during an IRS shutdown due to funding lapses, according to the agency, except in the
case of error-free, e-filed applications linked to direct deposit accounts.
The April 15 tax
submission deadline does not change in the event of a government shutdown, said
the IRS in 2025. The Trump administration did extend the deadline once in 2020
during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is unclear if such an
extension would be granted again in the event of a shutdown.
– Mary
Walrath-Holdridge
DEAL TO AVERT A SHUTDOWN IS ‘GETTING
CLOSE,’ TRUMP SAYS
"Hopefully we
won't have a shutdown," Trump said at a Cabinet meeting with his
secretaries. "We're working on that right now. I think we're getting
close. The Democrats, I don't believe want to see it either. So, we'll work in
a very bipartisan way."
– Joey Garrison
THUNE: SHUTDOWN TALKS 'TRENDING IN THE
RIGHT DIRECTION'
Senate Majority Leader
John Thune, R-South Dakota, told reporters that talks between Senate Democrats
and the White House were "trending in the right direction" but "not
quite there yet."
"Right now, I
think it's still a bit o a work in progress," he
said.
WHEN WOULD GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
BEGIN?
If lawmakers are unable
to reach a deal by the end of the week, the government will partially shut down
at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31.
It's been less than
three months since the government reopened after a record-breaking 43-day full
shutdown last fall.
WHY IS THE GOVERNMENT APPROACHING A
SHUTDOWN?
For weeks, Congress has
been staring down a Jan. 30 deadline to pass a collection of appropriation
bills that would keep the government running.
The U.S. House of
Representatives voted Jan. 22 to send the spending package to the
Senate; however, Democratic discontent around the DHS funding provision had
been simmering for weeks in response to Good's death. Republicans largely
backed the DHS funding bill, aided by seven Democrats.
But Pretti's
killing tipped the scales for Senate Democrats, who are now refusing to back
more funding for the agency, which oversees federal immigration enforcement and
has played a leading role in Trump's aggressive immigration tactics.
It was already an eleventh-hour scramble in Congress to get the last
of its appropriations bills passed in less than a week by the Jan. 30 deadline.
Even before news broke of Pretti's death,
weather-related disruptions had squeezed the timeline − a Senate vote on
Monday, Jan. 26, was canceled due to the winter storm.
What do Senate Democrats want?
Senate Democrats on
Wednesday, Jan. 28, outlined three main demands for reforming DHS, including
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection
(CBP).
More: As
shutdown looms, Democrats unveil demands
to address Pretti killing,
They are demanding
greater accountability for ICE and Border Patrol, including independent
investigations and stricter standards for the use of force. Senate Democrats
also want sweeping immigration checks known as "roving patrols" to
end, and for officers to turn their body cameras on and operate without wearing face masks.
Schumer and the
president were reportedly in talks the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 28, to try to
reach a deal to avert a shutdown, according to reports from the New York Times and Politico.
The standoff between
both parties place the other
five bills in jeopardy.
They bankroll important government agencies, from the Pentagon to the
Department of Health and Human Services.
NEW YORK POST
MIKE JOHNSON
‘CONFIDENT’ GOV’T SHUTDOWN WILL END TUESDAY – AS HE SHOOTS DOWN DEM DEMANDS
By Ryan King
Published Feb. 1, 2026, 8:31 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON
— House Speaker Mike Johnson is “confident”
that the partial government shutdown will conclude by Tuesday,
despite procedural snarls and Democratic leadership declining to guarantee
critical votes.
The
government entered a partial shutdown at 12:01 a.m. Saturday after Senate
Democrats decided at the last minute to rebuff a bipartisan funding deal that
had been in the works, demanding reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE).
“Let’s
say I’m confident that we’ll do it at least by Tuesday,” Johnson (R-La.) told
NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“No
one wanted to put that pain on the American people again. The Democrats forced
it. We were insistent that we would not allow that to happen,” the speaker
added. “…Republicans are going to do the responsible thing.”
The
dynamic of the current government shutdown is very different from the 43-day
record-breaking one last year, when the two sides deadlocked for weeks without
a clear path out of it.
Last
month, the House passed a bundle of six funding bills to keep the government
open for the duration of the fiscal year. Senate Democrats rejected that in the
wake of Border Patrol’s shooting
of Alex Pretti, 37, in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.
Instead,
a deal was struck to pass five of those six bills and essentially put the sixth
one, which covers the Department of Homeland Security, on autopilot for two
weeks to allow negotiations to play out.
Because
the House was out of Washington, DC, last week on recess, it was unable to pass
that new, $1.2 trillion deal. Congress previously passed the other six of the
necessary 12 appropriations bills to fund the government. As a result,
operations not covered by those bills have been forced to shut down.
Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has demanded that the Trump administration
tighten its use of warrants, end roving patrols, enforce better
“accountability” on immigration officers, force masks off officers and use body
cameras.
Johnson
said that requiring masks off and agents to wear some form
of ID are unacceptable demands, recounting a conversation border czar Tom Homan
had with Schumer, telling him that wasn’t acceptable.
“Those
two things are conditions that would create further danger,” Johnson told “Fox
News Sunday.”
“Some
of these conditions and requests that they’ve made are obviously reasonable and
should happen. But others are going to require a lot more negotiation,” Johnson
added on “Meet the Press.”
Already,
Trump has begun adjusting his crackdown on Minnesota under Operation Metro
Surge, tapping Homan to be the point person there, with the border czar revealing plans to draw down federal personnel.
Despite
those overtures, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) privately told
Johnson that he can’t guarantee Democratic support for the compromise deal to
reopen the government. Publicly, he’s been noncommittal.
Of
particular concern for Republicans is that Democrats won’t assist in
fast-tracking passage of the funding deal via a process known as suspension of
the rules, which requires a two-thirds vote.
Given
the likely GOP defections and threadbare majority, the speaker will need dozens
of Democrats to get it across the finish line through that process.
Because
that is likely to fail, Johnson is expected to turn to the more time-consuming
traditional process and try to wrangle it through the House Rules Committee
before taking it to the floor.
The
rules panel is set to weigh the government funding deal on Monday.
“We
have a logistical challenge of getting everyone in town and because of the
conversation I had with Hakeem Jeffries,” Johnson lamented, “I know that we’ve
got to pass a rule and probably do this mostly on our own. I think that’s very
unfortunate.”
WASHINGTON TIMES
HOUSE GIVES
FINAL APPROVAL TO SPENDING PACKAGE TO END PARTIAL SHUTDOWN, SENDS IT TO TRUMP’S
DESK
By Lindsey McPherson - The
Washington Times - Tuesday, February 3, 2026
The House narrowly voted Tuesday to clear a spending package
that ends a four-day partial government shutdown and keeps most agencies funded
through the remainder of the fiscal year.
But the Department of Homeland Security is only funded
through Feb. 13 as Democrats say they will not support a full-year
appropriations bill without guardrails on President Trump’s deportation force.
“They’re intentionally trying to sabotage the DHS approps bill, purely on politics, not policy,” Texas GOP
Rep. Tony Gonzales told The Washington Times.
The 217-214 House vote sends the package to Mr. Trump for
his signature. He said he would sign the bill “immediately” after receiving it.
“Republican policies on immigration enforcement have been a
complete and total failure,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York
Democrat, said. “Taxpayer dollars should not be spent to brutalize and kill
American citizens.”
All but 21 House Democrats voted against the Senate-amended
package that added the DHS stopgap because of their opposition to U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
There were also 21 House Republicans who voted against the
measure over a myriad of concerns about excessive spending.
In addition to the DHS stopgap, the legislation provides delayed
fiscal 2026 funding for the departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human
Services, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, State, Treasury and
Transportation — bills that had broad bipartisan support when they previously
passed the House.
Mr. Trump agreed to the spending deal because he did not
want “another long, pointless and destructive” government shutdown, which he
said would hurt the country and not benefit either party.
He has not publicly commented on Democrats’ demands for the
full-year funding bill, which includes ending roving immigration patrols,
requiring agents to wear body cameras and identification and mandating
independent investigations of use of force incidents.
Congressional Republicans have panned some of the Democrats’
demands, such as requiring ICE to obtain judicial warrants for arrests and
banning federal agents from wearing masks. Several are skeptical that a
bipartisan deal is possible or even Democrats’ actual goal.
Mr. Gonzales, who serves on both the Appropriations and
Homeland Security committees, said Democrats’ demands are “unrealistic” and
show they are not interested in an outcome. He pointed out that the Trump
administration has already made moves to turn down the temperature, like
working with local officials in Minneapolis and equipping agents there with
body cameras.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
FEDERAL NEWS NETWORK
OPM REMOVES LANGUAGE
ON BACK PAY FOR FURLOUGHED FEDS FROM SHUTDOWN GUIDANCE
OPM's shutdown guidance also added a section stating that
performance-based adverse actions against employees are allowed in some cases
during a funding lapse.
By Jory Heckman@jheckmanWFED
and Drew Friedman@dfriedmanWFED
February 2, 2026 6:25 pm
With a partial government shutdown underway, the Office of
Personnel Management has updated
its shutdown guidance to remove references to the guarantee
of back pay for furloughed federal employees once a funding lapse ends.
OPM’s previous
shutdown guidance from September 2025 stated that
furloughed employees will get paid once a lapse in appropriations ends, at the
earliest date possible. The September guidance also referenced the 2019
Government Employee Fair Treatment Act (GEFTA), a law meant to ensure
retroactive compensation for both excepted and furloughed federal employees
during government shutdowns.
After President Donald Trump signed GEFTA
into law in 2019 during his first term, both OPM and the Office of Management
and Budget affirmed that excepted and furloughed employees would be given back
pay as soon as possible, once any current or future shutdown ends.
But during last fall’s government shutdown, OMB
officials backtracked on
the guarantee of back pay for furloughed employees. Still, the spending deal
that Congress passed to end the previous shutdown in November 2025 ensured
that both furloughed and excepted federal employees would be retroactively
compensated.
OPM’s more recent update to its shutdown guidance in
January, however, revised several sections to remove references to back pay for
furloughed employees, including in sections on federal retirement, health
insurance and unemployment benefits. OPM’s guidance now states that “Congress
will determine via legislation whether furloughed employees receive pay for
furlough periods.”
The newly revised shutdown guidance also removed sections
explaining the pay rates for both furloughed and intermittent federal
employees. Language stating that “an employee is entitled to receive his or her
rate of basic pay for the furlough time to the extent that he or she would have
been in a basic pay status but for the lapse in appropriations” no longer
appears in the OPM document.
Additionally, guidance previously clarifying that there will
be no effect on the accrual of annual and sick leave for furloughed employees
was removed as part of OPM’s update. The new guidance also no longer contains
references to reductions in force (RIFs), which were initially added during the
shutdown last fall.
An OPM spokesperson referred all questions on the changes to
the shutdown guidance to OMB. OMB did not immediately respond to Federal News
Network’s request for comment.
OMB recently made some changes to its
own shutdown guidance, which now states that furloughed
employees will receive retroactive pay “when specific appropriations for such
payments are enacted.”
Along with the revisions regarding furloughed employees, OPM
added a new section on “performance and conduct” to its guidance, telling
agencies they are allowed to take performance-based adverse actions against
employees during a shutdown, as long as the action is determined to be exempt
or excepted. OPM said deciding whether to take adverse actions during a
shutdown should be made on a case-by-case basis.
“Agencies should consider the unique circumstances
surrounding each situation, presidential priorities, the agency’s mission, and
Office of Management and Budget shutdown furlough guidance,” OPM wrote in the
January guidance. “An adverse action could potentially be an excepted activity
where an employee’s performance or conduct immediately threatens life,
property, or an ongoing exempt or excepted activity. In other circumstances —
for example, where the subject employee has demonstrated a long pattern of poor
performance that is not impacting or preventing the agency from carrying out
excepted activities — it is less likely that taking such an action would
qualify as an excepted activity.”
A partial government shutdown began last week, impacting
employees at some executive branch agencies. The Senate on Friday approved
a spending package based on a compromise reached between
Trump and congressional Democrats over funding for the Department of Homeland
Security. The House is expected to vote on the group of appropriations bills on
Tuesday.
Over the weekend, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
(D-N.Y.) said House Republicans should not count on House Democrats to pass the
spending deal. But House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro
(D-Conn.) said Monday that she plans to vote in favor of the spending package.
“We need to take these next 10 days to work to radically
reform ICE,” DeLauro said at a House Rules Committee hearing on the spending
deal.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.)
said during the hearing that “funding these missions isn’t optional.”
“We can take the amended bill, or we can leave it. My view
is that we should take it,” Cole said.
IMPACTED EMPLOYEES NOTIFIED OF
FURLOUGH STATUS
Federal employees at agencies impacted by the partial
shutdown have been notified of their furlough status. Federal employees
impacted by a government shutdown are typically given up to four hours to carry
out standard shutdown activities.
The State Department notified employees about their status
last Friday, but instructed all employees to show up to work on Monday,
regardless of their designation.
“Today, you should have received a message providing you
with your individual status, noting whether you are in an excepted or
non-excepted position. However, at this time, I am directing all personnel,
regardless of whether you are excepted or not, to report to work on your next
scheduled workday as normal,” the department’s Under Secretary for Management
Jason Evans told employees in a memo last Friday.
In a follow-up memo on Monday, Evans directed all employees
to “report to work on your next scheduled work day and continue normal duties
until otherwise directed.” A State Department spokesperson declined to comment.
According to the agency’s updated
contingency plans, a majority of State Department personnel —
nearly 70% of its workforce — are “excepted,” meaning they work without pay
during a government shutdown, but typically receive back pay once the shutdown
ends.
Evans told employees that the Trump administration
“continues to work closely with Congress on appropriations for FY 2026,” and
that his office would provide another update on Monday regarding “orderly
shutdown plans, if needed.”
A State Department employee told Federal News Network that
agency leadership is directing management “to be liberal about determining what
work should continue.” The employee said the department, by contrast, “very
strictly construed” what work was allowed to continue during last year’s record
shutdown.
During last year’s 43-day shutdown, the State Department directed
passport services employees to keep working without pay, even though this part
of the agency is fee-funded and can normally pay staff on time during a lapse
in congressional funding.
The Education Department has furloughed about 87% of its
workforce, according to its contingency
plans from last year.
Rachel Gittleman, president of
American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, said in a statement that
the department’s work is now largely “on hold,” and that employees are either
furloughed or working without pay.
“The hardworking public servants at the Department will once
again not receive paychecks because they are either furloughed or working
without pay,” Gittleman said. “This comes nearly
three months after the end of the historic 43-day shutdown, which forced some
of our members to borrow money or use public assistance to put food on the
table.”
BBC
PARTIAL
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENDS AFTER US HOUSE VOTE
By Max Matza and Kayla Epstein
The US House of Representatives has ended a partial government
shutdown after President Donald Trump urged Republicans to press ahead with a
vote despite concerns with the new spending plan.
Democrats and Republicans disagreed over funding for the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is under intense scrutiny after
federal immigration agents shot and killed two US citizens in Minneapolis last
month.
Brokered in the US Senate at Trump's urging, the deal funds
the government and buys lawmakers more time to haggle over the future of DHS.
The deal, which passed in a narrow 217-214 vote, keeps DHS
running for two weeks while lawmakers consider future funding and reforms to
the agency.
DHS funding is the most fraught component of the package -
lawmakers, even within each of the parties, do not agree on the best way to
move forward.
The DHS encompasses multiple subsidiary agencies, including
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP),
the Coast Guard and Secret Service.
Democrats want changes to DHS immigration enforcement
operations, including requirements that agents record on body cameras and not
wear masks to conceal their faces.
They have also demanded changes in funding to DHS in light
of the fatal shootings in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti
and Renee Good, and have advocated for changes to protocol.
Both chambers of the US Congress – the House and Senate – must
vote to approve legislation before it can be signed into law by the president.
Senators had agreed to a package of five spending bills, but
stripped out a sixth bill funding DHS.
The Senate instead approved enough money to keep DHS running
for two weeks while lawmakers work out disputes over its long-term budget.
That is the same agreement the House passed on Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune had said he was concerned
about the two-week timing in part because members of the Republican conference
remain in "very different places".
"Once we start, we have a very short timeframe in which
to do this, which I lobbied against, but the Democrats insisted on a two-week
window," Thune said. "I don't understand the rationale for that.
Anybody who knows this place knows that's an impossibility."
President Donald Trump called on lawmakers to send a bill to
his desk "without delay".
"We will work together in good faith to address the
issues that have been raised, but we cannot have another long, pointless, and
destructive Shutdown that will hurt our Country so badly," he wrote on his
social media platform, Truth Social.
The limited shutdown affected numerous government services,
forcing thousands of Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic control
workers to either stay home on furlough or work without pay.
It will also delay the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly
job's report. The report is used by political leaders, investors and everyday
Americans to understand how the economy is faring.
TIME
FEDERAL IMMIGRATION AGENTS WILL BE ISSUED BODY CAMERAS, NOEM PLEDGES AMID BACKLASH
By Connor
Greene Feb 2, 2026 6:53 PM ET
Body-worn cameras are being issued to federal agents
in Minneapolis and will be provided to officers around the U.S. when funding is
available, the Trump Administration announced, following a push from Democrats
and expressions of support from some Republicans as the Administration’s
immigration crackdown draws widespread outcry.
“Effective immediately we are deploying body cameras to
every officer in the field in Minneapolis,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on
X on Monday.
“As funding is available, the body camera program
will be expanded nationwide. We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to
DHS law enforcement across the country,” Noem added.
She said that she had spoken with White House border czar Tom Homan, who is
overseeing federal immigration operations in the Minnesota city; Immigration
and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons; and Customs and Border Protection
Commissioner Rodney Scott.
Democratic leaders have named requiring officers to
wear body cameras as one of their demands to be included in a Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill in their push for reforms following the
fatal shootings of two people by federal agents in Minneapolis in recent weeks.
Some Republican lawmakers have backed such a mandate, while opposing other
changes their Democratic counterparts have pushed for.
“I don’t have a problem with that personally,” Sen.
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a member of the upper chamber’s Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee, told host
Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” this weekend.
President Donald Trump on Monday also signaled his
backing for officers wearing body cameras, saying, “It tends to be good for law
enforcement, because people can’t lie about what happened.” But he said
deploying the cameras to agents in Minneapolis “wasn’t my decision” and that he
would “leave it” to Noem.
Read more: ‘ICE
Out’ Gains Momentum as Cities Across the Country Take Action
The Trump Administration’s aggressive immigration
enforcement operations have faced fierce backlash across the U.S. after federal
agents killed Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti
within less than three weeks of one another last month. Amid the outcry,
funding for DHS—which houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs
and Border Protection—has become the center of a standoff that has partially
shut down the government after appropriations for multiple agencies expired
after midnight on Friday.
The Administration has defended federal agents’
actions in both Good and Pretti’s shootings as “self defense.” But video of both incidents contradicts
federal officials’ accounts.
Democratic lawmakers have refused to approve an
annual appropriations bill for DHS unless significant reforms are included.
In addition to a requirement for officers to wear
body cameras, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said last week that
Democrats would demand that agents be prohibited from wearing masks and be
required to carry proper identification, that roving patrols in Minneapolis
stop, that agents be mandated to obtain a judicial warrant before entering
people’s homes, and that a code of conduct governing agents’ use of force be
established. Schumer called these requirements “commonsense reforms.”
“If Republicans refuse to support them, they are
choosing chaos over order, plain and simple,” Schumer said when outlining the
demands.
Senate Democrats and Trump agreed to a deal late last
week that would pass spending bills funding wide swaths of the government for
the rest of the fiscal year and buy two additional weeks to negotiate DHS
funding. The Senate passed the bipartisan package on Friday, but with the House
out of session, the government entered a partial shutdown hours later.
The shutdown is set to continue until at least
Tuesday, as a final vote in the House is not expected to happen until then at
the earliest.
It remains to be seen if Speaker Mike Johnson will be
able to pass the procedural rule necessary to bring the funding bill to the floor
and then garner enough GOP support for the bill to pass in the chamber, which
Republicans control by an extremely thin majority.
HOUSE VOTES TO REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT – SETTING UP A FIGHT OVER ICE
The Senate
and the White House will now negotiate guardrails for ICE and CBP agents after
the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti
By
Eric Garcia in
Washington, D.C. Tuesday 03 February
2026 22:30 GMT
The House of Representatives voted
to reopen major parts of the U.S. government Tuesday afternoon, setting up a
major fight between the White House and Senate Democrats to enact changes to
the way the federal government is conducting immigration enforcement.
The House voted 217-214 to pass
legislation the Senate passed last week, with 21 Republicans
voting against it, but 21 Democrats voting for it. President Donald Trump
signed the legislation shortly thereafter.
The legislation would fund the
Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, Housing and Urban
Development, Education and Transportation for the rest of the fiscal year. But
it would only fund the Department of Homeland Security – which houses
Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection –
for two weeks.
Democrats hope to use this
two-week span to negotiate changes to the way ICE and CBP conduct themselves
after ICE officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good and CBP
officials shot
and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month.
In the hours after, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem
called Pretti a domestic terrorist, which triggered
even some Republicans to say she needed to resign. Both killings, and the
government responses, sparked protests and calls for reform for Trump’s
deportation plan.
Despite the funding passing the
house, many Democrats, including those from Minnesota, opposed it.
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“Look, we need to put guardrails
in place. But short of Kristi Noem’s ICE getting the
hell out of Minnesota, I'm not voting for a damn penny to ICE,” Rep. Angie
Craig of Minnesota told The Independent. Craig, who is running for
the state’s open Senate seat, said that her brother-in-law, who is Latino, was
surrounded by ICE agents because he is Latino.
“Until that kind of s***stops, I
won't vote for a damn penny,” she said.
President Donald Trump had dispatched
ICE to Minneapolis under the guise of cracking down
after a massive welfare fraud scandal involving some Somali-Americans. But it
has also led to some U.S. citizens and those with pending immigration in the
United States legally being detained.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer made his demands clear last week, saying that he wanted to end roving
patrols throughout American cities, a removal of masks for ICE and CBP agents,
and body cameras for agents.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson
pushed back on the idea that ICE officers needed to remove masks.
“Because unlike your local law
enforcement in your hometown, ICE agents are being doxxed
and targeted,” he told The Independent.
In
response to the killings in Minneapolis, the White House
sent “border czar” Tom Homan to Minneapolis, and he reportedly told Schumer
that removing masks would put his agents at risk.
“And if you unmask them, and you
put all their identifying information on their uniform, then they will
obviously be targeted, they and their families, probably,” he said. “many of the complaints that some of the Democrats have had
about all this, I think, will be mooted now that you have, you have him in
charge.”
But even if the government had
shut down, ICE would likely still have impunity to operate thanks to the fact
that Republicans voted to give the agency $75 billion in the “One Big,
Beautiful Bill” that Trump signed last year.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of
New York said that would be the next step for Democrats in the near future.
“Now it’s our task to figure out
how to claw back what has essentially supercharged this agency into a
relentless domestic paramilitary,” she told The Independent on
Monday evening.
NY
TIMES
‘MELANIA’ ARRIVES WITH STRONG BOX OFFICE SHOWING FOR A
DOCUMENTARY
Amazon backed up the Brink’s trucks for the vanity
film, resulting in weekend ticket sales of about $7 million in North America,
enough for third place.
By Brooks Barnes,
Jan. 31, 2026
Amazon’s gold-plated rollout for Melania Trump’s
documentary resulted in opening-weekend ticket sales of $7 million in the
United States and Canada, box office analysts said on Sunday. That gave “Melania” the best start for a documentary
(excluding concert films) in 14 years.
It was a face-saving result for the first lady — last
week, ticket sales were pacing at about $5 million — but not for Amazon, which
spent an exorbitant $75 million to
buy distribution rights to “Melania” and market its release in 1,778 domestic
theaters. Theater owners keep roughly 50 percent of ticket sales, meaning that
Amazon will end the weekend with about $3.5 million to show for its investment.
On Saturday, analysts projected roughly $8 million in
domestic ticket sales for the nearly two-hour film. The actual amount, $7
million, suggests that opening day was front loaded with Mrs. Trump’s fans.
(Analysts projected the $8 million by collecting Friday sales data from various
theater circuits, measuring presales for Saturday and Sunday and extrapolating
from there.)
ATTACHMENTS
“A”through “F” – FEBRUARY
SECOND
ATTACHMENT
“A” – FROM the ASSOCIATED PRESS
7:24 PM 9 min ago
Federal judge blocks Trump administration from ending temporary legal
status for Haitians in the US
7:16 PM 17 min ago
7:08 PM 25 min ago
Texas Democrat takes oath of office, shrinking GOP majority in House
5:18 PM EST
Trump says he’s a ‘big crypto person’ but isn’t involved in family’s
World Liberty Financial
5:06 PM EST
Why were federal law enforcement officers not previously required to wear
body cameras?
5:05 PM EST
Every Homeland Security officer in Minneapolis is now being issued a
body-worn camera, Noem says
4:55 PM EST
Trump says Pirro will take Powell investigation
‘to the end’
4:52 PM EST
Trump says he won’t tear down Kennedy Center
4:49 PM EST
4:48 PM EST
Trump compares new rare earth stockpile to Strategic Petroleum Reserve
4:39 PM EST
Trump company deal avoided ethics ban by a few days
4:32 PM EST
Hegseth says
military is ‘prepared’ if Iran doesn’t negotiate
4:25 PM EST
Justice Department says it’s taken down Epstein-related files that may
have had victim information
3:39 PM EST
Trump demands ‘NO CHANGES’ to funding deal as House returns
1:48 PM EST
Chicago mayor wants city police to probe alleged wrongdoing by
immigration agents
1:00 PM EST
Government delays jobs report because of shutdown
12:40 PM EST
Senate Democratic Leader Schumer warns against GOP adding SAVE Act to
appropriations package
12:29 PM EST
Trump says he plans to lower tariffs on India to 18% after India agreed
to stop buying Russian oil
12:18 PM EST
12:09 PM EST
Attorney General announces 2 more arrests in St. Paul church protest
11:59 AM EST
Trump creating ‘Project Vault,’ a strategic reserve for rare earths
elements
11:48 AM EST
Many want Trump focused less on foreign issues
11:42 AM EST
Republicans increasingly question Trump’s mental fitness
11:41 AM EST
Trump is losing support for his overall policies
11:38 AM EST
Democratic senator blasts Trump’s plan to close Kennedy Center
11:26 AM EST
Most voters see ICE as too aggressive
11:25 AM EST
Americans want Trump to focus more on the economy, polls show
11:23 AM EST
Polls show Trump facing challenges this year
10:53 AM EST
Here’s what Democrats and Republicans want in the ICE legislation
10:07 AM EST
Liam’s back home, but what about 10-year-old Elizabeth Zuna?
10:02 AM EST
Family’s lawyer said Liam’s dad did nothing illegal
9:59 AM EST
5-year-old and his dad return to Minnesota from ICE facility in Texas
9:35 AM EST
Artists must decide whether to join growing cultural revolt against
Trump’s immigration enforcement
9:24 AM EST
Trevor Noah’s Epstein Island joke wasn’t his only dig at Trump during the
Grammy Awards
8:38 AM EST
Trump threatens lawsuit and to ‘have fun’ with Trevor Noah after Grammys
8:09 AM EST
Kennedy Center will close for 2 years for renovations, Trump says, after
performers’ backlash
8:08 AM EST
Top Justice Department official plays down chance for charges arising
from Epstein files revelations
8:05 AM EST
Trump says US is ‘starting to talk to Cuba’ as
he moves to cut its oil supplies
8:01 AM EST
Speaker Johnson faces tough choices on partial government shutdown and
debate over ICE deepens
X11 from ap news
@begin
7:33 PM 2/2
7:24 PM 9 min ago
Federal judge blocks Trump administration from ending temporary legal
status for Haitians in the US
7:16 PM 17 min ago
7:08 PM 25 min ago
Texas Democrat takes oath of office, shrinking GOP majority in House
5:18 PM EST
Trump says he’s a ‘big crypto person’ but isn’t involved in family’s
World Liberty Financial
5:06 PM EST
Why were federal law enforcement officers not previously required to wear
body cameras?
5:05 PM EST
Every Homeland Security officer in Minneapolis is now being issued a
body-worn camera, Noem says
4:55 PM EST
Trump says Pirro will take Powell investigation
‘to the end’
4:52 PM EST
Trump says he won’t tear down Kennedy Center
4:49 PM EST
4:48 PM EST
Trump compares new rare earth stockpile to Strategic Petroleum Reserve
4:39 PM EST
Trump company deal avoided ethics ban by a few days
4:32 PM EST
Hegseth says
military is ‘prepared’ if Iran doesn’t negotiate
4:25 PM EST
Justice Department says it’s taken down Epstein-related files that may
have had victim information
3:39 PM EST
Trump demands ‘NO CHANGES’ to funding deal as House returns
1:48 PM EST
Chicago mayor wants city police to probe alleged wrongdoing by
immigration agents
1:00 PM EST
Government delays jobs report because of shutdown
12:40 PM EST
Senate Democratic Leader Schumer warns against GOP adding SAVE Act to
appropriations package
12:29 PM EST
Trump says he plans to lower tariffs on India to 18% after India agreed
to stop buying Russian oil
12:18 PM EST
12:09 PM EST
Attorney General announces 2 more arrests in St. Paul church protest
11:59 AM EST
Trump creating ‘Project Vault,’ a strategic reserve for rare earths
elements
11:48 AM EST
Many want Trump focused less on foreign issues
11:42 AM EST
Republicans increasingly question Trump’s mental fitness
11:41 AM EST
Trump is losing support for his overall policies
11:38 AM EST
Democratic senator blasts Trump’s plan to close Kennedy Center
11:26 AM EST
Most voters see ICE as too aggressive
11:25 AM EST
Americans want Trump to focus more on the economy, polls show
11:23 AM EST
Polls show Trump facing challenges this year
10:53 AM EST
Here’s what Democrats and Republicans want in the ICE legislation
10:07 AM EST
Liam’s back home, but what about 10-year-old Elizabeth Zuna?
10:02 AM EST
Family’s lawyer said Liam’s dad did nothing illegal
9:59 AM EST
5-year-old and his dad return to Minnesota from ICE facility in Texas
9:35 AM EST
Artists must decide whether to join growing cultural revolt against
Trump’s immigration enforcement
9:24 AM EST
Trevor Noah’s Epstein Island joke wasn’t his only dig at Trump during the
Grammy Awards
8:38 AM EST
Trump threatens lawsuit and to ‘have fun’ with Trevor Noah after Grammys
8:09 AM EST
Kennedy Center will close for 2 years for renovations, Trump says, after
performers’ backlash
8:08 AM EST
Top Justice Department official plays down chance for charges arising
from Epstein files revelations
8:05 AM EST
Trump says US is ‘starting to talk to Cuba’ as
he moves to cut its oil supplies
8:01 AM EST
Speaker Johnson faces tough choices on partial government shutdown and
debate over ICE deepens
AP NEWS -
TEXTS
LIVE
UPDATES: TRUMP DEMANDS ‘NO CHANGES’ TO HOUSE FUNDING BILL
House
Speaker Mike Johnson faces tough days ahead trying to pass a federal funding
package and prevent a prolonged partial government shutdown.
EDITED BY
BRIDGET BROWN, MICHAEL WARREN, LUENA RODRIGUEZ-FEO VILEIRA AND CURTIS YEE
Updated
7:33 PM EST, February 2, 2026
As
Republican leadership in the House hopes to begin the process of reopening the
government by advancing a funding package on Monday that passed the Senate last
week, President Donald Trump urged lawmakers not to oppose the deal.
“We need to
get the Government open, and I hope all Republicans and Democrats will join me
in supporting this Bill, and send it to my desk WITHOUT DELAY. There can be NO
CHANGES at this time,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in sharp contrast to last
year’s record-breaking shutdown.
Under the
plan approved by the Senate, the Department of Homeland Security would be
funded temporarily to Feb. 13, setting up a deadline for Congress to try to
find consensus on new restrictions on ICE operations.
The bill faces
pushback from lawmakers in both parties, with Democrats broadly opposing it and
some Republicans raising new demands that could put passage in jeopardy.
Other news
we’re following:
• Homeland Security officers in
Minneapolis will be issued body-worn cameras: Secretary Kristi Noem made the announcement Monday in the latest fallout
after the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal agents. Noem said the body-worn camera program is being expanded
nationwide as funding becomes available.
• Judge blocks administration from ending
temporary legal status for Haitians: Roughly 350,000 Haitians live and work in
the U.S. under the legal status. A judge paused the termination while a lawsuit
challenging it proceeds. Temporary Protected Status can be granted by the
Homeland Security secretary if conditions in home countries are deemed unsafe,
but it does not provide a legal pathway to citizenship.
• Kennedy Center to close for 2 years for
renovations in July after performers’ backlash: It’s the president’s latest
proposal to upturn the storied venue since returning to the White House.
Trump’s announcement on Sunday of the closure follows a wave of cancellations
by leading performers, musicians and groups since he ousted the previous
leadership and added his name to the building.
Federal
judge blocks Trump administration from ending temporary legal status for
Haitians in the US
BY LUIS
ANDRES HENAO
U.S.
District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington granted a request to pause the
termination of temporary protected status for Haitians, which was scheduled for
Feb. 3.
Without
that protection, Haitian TPS holders in the U.S. could face deportation back to
Haiti.
Temporary
protected status is a designation that can be granted by the Homeland Security
secretary if conditions in home countries are deemed unsafe for return due to a
natural disaster, political instability or other dangers.
Trump has
sought to end the protections for migrants from many countries.
▶ Read more
about temporary protected status for Haitians
7:16 pm 17
min ago
JUST IN:
Federal judge blocks the Trump administration from ending legal protections for
350,000 Haitians
BY THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
7:08 pm 25
min ago
Texas
Democrat takes oath of office, shrinking GOP majority in House
BY KEVIN
FREKING
Christian
Menefee became the newest member of Congress on Monday when the Texas Democrat
took the oath of office after winning a special election on Saturday.
Menefee
will complete the term of the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, a former Houston
mayor, who died in March 2025.
Menefee in
a brief speech on the House floor noted that it’s been more than 330 days since
his district had a voice in Congress.
“I stand
here today understanding that there’s very, very big shoes to fill,” Menefee
said.
Democratic
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, also from Texas, introduced Menefee to colleagues, telling
them, “This is a district with a long legacy of fighters — fighters for justice
— and I’m confident that Christian Menefee will carry on that tradition.”
5:18 PM EST
Trump says
he’s a ‘big crypto person’ but isn’t involved in family’s World Liberty
Financial
BY MEG
KINNARD
Trump was
asked about reporting by The Wall Street Journal that the royal family of Abu
Dhabi had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in World Liberty Financial,
a cryptocurrency venture in which the Trump family is a major investor,
securing a 49% stake.
Two months
after a meeting over the deal, according to the paper, the Trump administration
committed to give the Gulf monarchy access to around 500,000 of the most
advanced AI chips a year.
Turning to
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to support his
thesis, Trump on Monday touted cryptocurrency, saying “if we don’t do crypto,
then China’s going to do it.”
The
president stressed that his sons are handling World Liberty Financial. Trump
helped launch the venture in a streaming event just ahead of the 2024
presidential election.
5:06 PM EST
Why were
federal law enforcement officers not previously required to wear body cameras?
BY REBECCA
SANTANA
President
Joe Biden ordered in 2022 that federal law enforcement officers wear body
cameras as part of an executive order that included other policing reform
measures. President Trump had rescinded that directive after starting his
second term.
5:05 PM EST
Every
Homeland Security officer in Minneapolis is now being issued a body-worn
camera, Noem says
BY REBECCA
SANTANA
Every
Homeland Security officer on the ground, including Immigration and Customs
Enforcement officers, will be immediately issued body-worn cameras, Secretary
Kristi Noem said Monday.
Noem made the
announcement on the social media platform X. She said the body-worn camera
program is being expanded nationwide as funding becomes available.
“We will
rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the
country,” Noem said in the social media post.
The news of
the body cameras comes as Minneapolis has been the site of intense scrutiny
over the conduct of immigration enforcement agents. There have been increased
calls by critics of Homeland Security to require all of the department’s
officers who are responsible for immigration enforcement to wear body cameras.
4:55 PM EST
Trump says Pirro will take Powell investigation ‘to the end’
BY MEG
KINNARD
Asked by
reporters in the Oval Office on Monday if he wanted to see the probe into
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell dropped, Trump said Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, will
“figure out what happened.”
Trump said,
“I feel badly” for Kevin Warsh, his nominee to
replace Powell, “because he may not have an office for four years.”
Last month,
Powell said that subpoenas had been served on the central bank related to his
Senate testimony regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office
buildings, a project that Trump has criticized as excessive.
Trump has
long railed against Powell and the independent agency he directs for not
cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers.
4:52 PM EST
Trump says
he won’t tear down Kennedy Center
BY DARLENE
SUPERVILLE
The
president said the work he envisions would cost about $200 million but that the
performing arts center needs to be shut down because the work can’t be done
with patrons coming and going from shows and other performances.
“I’m not
ripping it down ... but when it opens it will be brand new and beautiful,”
Trump said while answering questions from reporters during an Oval Office
appearance.
Trump’s
comments, though, suggested that he intends to gut the interior.
“The steel
will all be checked out because it will be fully exposed,” the president said.
He
announced Sunday on social media that he intends to close the Kennedy Center
for about two years starting on July 4.
4:49 PM EST BREAKING NEWS
UPDATES
JUST IN:
Homeland Security Secretary Noem says every DHS
officer deployed to Minneapolis is now being issued a body-worn camera
BY THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
4:48 PM EST
Trump
compares new rare earth stockpile to Strategic Petroleum Reserve
BY MORIAH
BALINGIT
As Trump
announced the creation of a stockpile of rare earth elements essential for
manufacturing, he compared the initiative, “Project Vault,” to the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve, created to safeguard against an oil shortage.
There are
parallels between the two programs.
The SPR was
created in 1970s when an Arab oil embargo led to a disruptive shortage of gas.
“Project Vault,” which will create a reserve of minerals and elements used to
make electronics, automobiles and phones, was created after China, which mines
70% of the globe’s rare earths, restricted the export of them to the U.S. in
the heat of trade negotiations.
4:39 PM EST
Trump
company deal avoided ethics ban by a few days
BY BERNARD
CONDON
The Trump
family could have missed out on hundreds of millions of dollars if a deal by
one of its companies with a United Arab Emirates fund had been delayed even a
few days.
The Trump
family last year agreed not to strike deals directly with foreign governments
to avoid the president’s finances shaping policy but the ban took effect only
after he took office.
The Wall
Street Journal recently reported that a Trump crypto venture, World Liberty
Financial, had received $500 million from a U.A.E. state fund four days before
inauguration. Months later Trump gave the U.A.E. access to U.S. chips long
denied it because of fears the technology would leak to China.
A World
Liberty spokesman said there was no connection between the U.A.E. investment and
the chips. The Trump family didn’t respond to requests for comment on the deal
or if there were other undisclosed arrangements before the inauguration.
4:32 PM EST
Hegseth says
military is ‘prepared’ if Iran doesn’t negotiate
BY
KONSTANTIN TOROPIN
Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth said that while the U.S.
military is prepared to take action against Iran, that isn’t what the Trump
administration favors.
Asked by
reporters Monday about a possible deal over Iran’s nuclear program, Hegseth said, “Iran will not have nuclear weapons
capability and so they can either negotiate on that front, or we have other
options.”
He says he
and President Trump “don’t want to go that route.” Asked if “regime change” was
possible, Hegseth said, “Not right now.”
“Our job is
to be prepared. And Iran has a choice, about whether or not they want to
negotiate on their nuclear capabilities or not,” Hegseth
told reporters during a trip to Florida.
Turkey is
trying to organize a meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials. The U.S. military
has moved forces, including an aircraft carrier strike group, into the Middle
East.
4:25 PM EST
Justice
Department says it’s taken down Epstein-related files that may have had victim
information
BY MICHAEL
R. SISAK, LARRY NEUMEISTER
A document
with an email chain from Jeffrey Epstein illustrates the amount
of redactions of personally identifiable information that the U.S. Department
of Justice was required to do before release of Epstein documents, is
photographed Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
The Justice
Department said Monday that it had taken down several thousand documents and
“media” that may have inadvertently included victim-identifying information since
it began releasing the latest batch of documents related to disgraced financier
Jeffrey Epstein on Friday.
It blamed
the release of sensitive information that drew an outcry from victims and their
lawyers on mistakes that were “technical or human error.”
In a letter
to the New York judges overseeing the sex trafficking cases brought against
Epstein and confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton wrote that
the department had taken down nearly all materials identified by victims or
their lawyers, along with a “substantial number” of documents identified
independently by the government.
Read more
3:39 PM EST
Trump
demands ‘NO CHANGES’ to funding deal as House returns
BY JOEY
CAPPELLETTI
Republican
leadership in the House is hoping to begin the process of reopening the
government by advancing a funding package on Monday that passed the Senate last
week.
But the
bill faces pushback from lawmakers in both parties, with Democrats broadly
opposing it and some Republicans raising new demands that could put passage in
jeopardy.
As members
returned to Washington, Trump urged lawmakers not to oppose the package in a
post on Truth Social.
“We need to
get the Government open, and I hope all Republicans and Democrats will join me
in supporting this Bill, and send it to my desk WITHOUT DELAY. There can be NO
CHANGES at this time,” Trump wrote.
Trump’s
push to swiftly reopen the government marks a shift from last year’s
record-breaking shutdown. He warned against “another long, pointless, and
destructive Shutdown that will hurt our Country so badly.”
1:48 PM EST
Chicago
mayor wants city police to probe alleged wrongdoing by immigration agents
BY SOPHIA
TAREEN
Chicago
Mayor Brandon Johnson says he’ll direct city police to document and investigate
alleged wrongdoing by federal immigration agents.
The mayor
of the nation’s third-largest city signed an executive order over the weekend
that he says will lay the groundwork for prosecuting agents with Immigration
and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection.
It comes
after an immigration crackdown unfolded last year in the Chicago area where one
suburban man was fatally shot by agents. Multiple lawsuits have been filed
alleging other wrongdoing by federal officers.
“Nobody is
above the law,” Johnson said in a statement. “There is no such thing as
‘absolute immunity’ in America.”
Johnson
says his office will forward its findings to the Cook County state’s attorney’s
office to bring charges. The state’s attorney’s office says it’s reviewing the
executive order.
1:00 PM EST
Government
delays jobs report because of shutdown
BY PAUL
WISEMAN
Because of
the partial federal government shutdown, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
will not release the January jobs report as scheduled on Friday.
“Once
funding is restored, BLS will resume normal operations and notify the public of
any changes to the news release schedule,’’ BLS said in a statement.
It is also
delaying the Tuesday release of the December report on U.S. job openings.
12:40 PM
EST
Senate
Democratic Leader Schumer warns against GOP adding SAVE Act to appropriations
package
BY MATT
BROWN
Schumer,
the Democratic minority leader, argued the legislation would lead to “voter
suppression” and vowed to oppose its passage.
“I have said
it before and I’ll say it again, the SAVE Act would impose Jim Crow type laws
to the entire country and is dead on arrival in the Senate,” Schumer said in a
statement.
Some House
Republicans have called on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to include the
SAVE Act in the latest government funding package, which is returning to the
House for a vote this week after a bipartisan deal was brokered in the Senate.
Schumer
predicted that if House Republicans added the conservative election legislation
to the package it would “lead to another prolonged Trump government shutdown.”
“It is a
poison pill that will kill any legislation that it is attached to,” the New
York Democrat warned.
Senate
Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has expressed support for the SAVE Act,
which stands little chance of passage because of the Senate’s filibuster rules.
12:29 PM
EST
Trump says
he plans to lower tariffs on India to 18% after India agreed to stop buying
Russian oil
BY JOSH
BOAK, AAMER MADHANI
President
Donald Trump said Monday that he plans to lower tariffs on goods from India to
18%, from 25%, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to stop buying
Russian oil.
The move
comes after months after Trump pressing India to cut its reliance on cheap
Russian crude. India has taken advantage of slacked Russian oil prices as much
of the world has sought to isolate Moscow for its February 2022 invasion of
Ukraine.
Trump said
that India would also start to reduce its import taxes on U.S. goods to zero
and buy $500 billion worth of American products.
“This will
help END THE WAR in Ukraine, which is taking place right now, with thousands of
people dying each and every week!” Trump said in a Truth social post announcing
the tariff reduction on India.
▶ Read more
about tariffs on India
12:18 PM
ESTBREAKING NEWS UPDATES
JUST IN:
Trump says he plans to lower tariffs on India to 18% after call where he said
Modi agreed to stop buying Russian oil
BY THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
12:09 PM
EST
Attorney
General announces 2 more arrests in St. Paul church protest
BY STEVE
KARNOWSKI
Pam Bondi
announced it on social media without providing details. Nine people have now
been arrested following a protest inside a Minnesota church. They were named in
a grand jury indictment unsealed Friday.
Independent
journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were among four people arrested Friday,
following the arrest of local activist Nekima Levy Armstrong.
A grand
jury in Minnesota indicted all nine on federal civil rights charges of
conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshippers
during the Jan. 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul, where a pastor at
the church doubles as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.
The protest
generated strong objections from the Trump administration.
▶ Read more
11:59 AM
EST
Trump
creating ‘Project Vault,’ a strategic reserve for rare earths elements
BY JOSH
BOAK
The Trump administration
plans to deploy nearly $12 billion to create the stockpile, which could counter
China’s ability to use its dominance of these hard-to-process metals as
leverage in trade talks.
The White
House confirmed on Monday that “Project Vault” would initially be funded by a
$10 billion loan from the US Export-Import Bank and nearly $1.67 billion in
private capital. The minerals kept in the reserve would help to shield the
manufacturers of autos, electronics and other goods from any supply chain disruptions.
During
trade talks spurred by Trump’s tariffs last year, the Chinese government
restricted its exports of rare earths needed for jet engines, radar systems,
electric vehicles, laptops and phones. China represents about 70% of the
world’s rare earths mining and 90% of global rare earths processing.
11:48 AM
EST
Many want
Trump focused less on foreign issues
BY LINLEY
SANDERS
In the past
few weeks alone, Trump has mulled taking control of Greenland, pushed for U.S.
control of Venezuelan oil, andpenalized Iran for
killing thousands of peaceful protesters. He’s predicted that the Cuban
government is r
ATTACHMENT “B” – FROM USA
TODAY
WHEN WILL THE GOVERNMENT
SHUTDOWN END? LIVE UPDATES AND LATEST NEWS
By Zachary Schermele, Nicole Fallert, Zac
Anderson and Bart Jansen Updated Feb.
2, 2026, 6:41 p.m. ET
What role did Alex Pretti's case play?
What is House's next step
to end shutdown?
How does this shutdown
compare to 2025?
What role did Alex Pretti's case play?
What You Need to Know
A partial federal shutdown
entered its third day in early February 2026, affecting agencies such as the
TSA, IRS and air traffic controllers, while Senate leaders have reached a
spending deal and the House, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, works to pass
appropriations by early Tuesday.
WASHINGTON – The
government shutdown entered its third day on Monday as lawmakers returned to
Capitol Hill in hopes of making the funding lapse a brief one.
Only a partial shutdown,
the political impasse is already less sweeping compared to last year's
record-breaking crisis, which affected the entire federal government. Still,
it's touching important programs and services, such as air traffic controllers
and the IRS. Many federal workers started the week furloughed.
Rep. Tom Cole, an
Oklahoma Republican and chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said
Monday that it was "Groundhog Day, both literally and figuratively."
It's less likely this
shutdown will drag on indefinitely as the last one did. Senate Democrats quickly
negotiated a deal with the White House last week to pass a revised spending
package while reworking a Department of Homeland Security funding bill amid
concerns with immigration enforcement since Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti's killing.
Next, the House has to
approve a funding deal. Appropriations bills are often bipartisan, making them
easier to pass. But a razor-thin GOP margin in the lower chamber and
conservative hardliners could turn a party-line vote into a challenge for
Republicans, prolonging the shutdown.
A House committee met to
consider advancing the rest of the government's funding bills. A larger vote,
potentially sending the package to President Donald Trump's desk, could come as
soon as Tuesday.
TRUMP SAYS GOP 'PRETTY
CLOSE' TO RESOLVING SHUTDOWN
President Donald Trump
told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon that he's spoken to GOP
leaders in the House and Senate. "And I think they're pretty close to a
resolution," he said.
He also said he spoke to
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer multiple times. "And I don't think
they want to see a shutdown, either," he said of Democratic lawmakers.
– Francesca Chambers
DEMOCRAT SUPPORTS
TEMPORARY HOMELAND SECURITY FUNDING TO CHANGE ‘ROGUE, LAWLESS AGENCY’
The top Democrat on the
House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, said she
would support the spending package moving through the lower chamber to allow
more time for changes to enforcing immigration laws.
Five of the six bills in
the spending package have broad bipartisan support. But the one funding the
Department of Homeland Security has become a lightning rod for criticism of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection after
officers fatally shot two U.S. citizens during protests against the
administration’s deportation crackdown.
DeLauro said the two
weeks of funding for DHS in the legislation would allow time for changes to
what she called a “rogue, lawless agency.” She wants officers to wear body
cameras and not wear masks, among other reforms.
“This has to stop,”
DeLauro said of the killings.
Stark partisan divide
over immigration enforcement funding
Leaders of the House
Rules Committee, which determines how much time will be spent and whether
amendments to the spending package will be allowed, revealed a sharp partisan
divide.
Rep. Virginia Foxx,
R-North Carolina, said the House never flirted with a government shutdown, but
she said the Senate “torpedoed” a previous spending package. She encouraged
quick approval of the measure to allow lawmakers to work on other matters.
“To describe this as
disappointing would be an understatement,” Foxx said. “This process should have
been over and done with by now.”
Foxx said she spoke with
House Speaker Mike Johnson, which delayed the start of the Rules Committee
meeting. But she didn’t disclose what Johnson had to say.
The top Democrat on the
committee, Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, opposed the spending legislation
for the Department of Homeland Security after the fatal shootings of Renee
Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
“I’m not voting to fund
this agency for two seconds let alone two weeks,” McGovern said. “They are
terrorizing our communities and acting like they’re above the law.”
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY
29: U.S.
HOUSE CONSERVATIVES PUSH
FOR CHANGES TO GOVERNMENT FUNDING BILL
House Speaker Mike
Johnson is facing pressure from some conservatives as he attempts to pass
government funding legislation through the House and avoid an extended
shutdown.
Some GOP lawmakers are
calling for an amendment to the legislation, which would require it to go back
to Senate for a vote, something President Donald Trump opposes.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna,
R-Florida, wrote on social media that the “price” for her vote on the funding
legislation is amending it to incorporate the SAVE Act, a voter ID bill. Rep.
Eric Burlison, R-Missouri, agreed, writing on social
media that “If Dems want to play games, no spending package should come out of
the House without the SAVE Act attached.”
The comments illustrate
the difficulty Johnson could have getting the funding measure through the House
with a narrow GOP majority. Trump wrote on social media on Feb. 2 that “There
can be NO CHANGES” to the bill.
Trump rips into
congressman despite need for shutdown votes
President Donald Trump
continued his attacks against Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, even
as he implored all House GOP lawmakers to vote this week to fully open the
government as soon as possible.
He insulted the
congressman's wife in a post on Truth Social and accused Massie, who helped
author the Epstein Files Transparency Act, of being an "absolutely
terrible and unreliable" Republican.
The invective isn't new,
but it's notable given that Trump needs every Republican he can get to help end
the shutdown – especially amid pushback from conservative hardliners and yet
another Democratic lawmaker set to be sworn in Monday night.
What happens next?
Now, the ball is in the
House of Representatives' court. Republican Speaker Mike Johnson said on NBC's
"Meet the Press" the chamber could pass the appropriations bills
needed to end the shutdown by Tuesday.
He expressed doubt,
though, about how much help Republicans could get from House Democrats, who
haven't been entirely in lockstep with their counterparts in the Senate on
shutdown tactics.
"I’m confident that
we’ll do it at least by Tuesday," he said. "We have a logistical
challenge of getting everyone in town, and because of the conversation I had
with Hakeem Jeffries, I know that we’ve got to pass a rule and probably do this
mostly on our own. I think that’s very unfortunate."
Monthly jobs data delayed
due to shutdown
The federal monthly jobs
report will be delayed, again, due to the partial government shutdown, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
January nonfarm payrolls
data were due at 8:30 a.m. ET on Feb. 6, and no new date has been set yet for
the release. This is the second time in five months this data are being delayed due to a government shutdown. Last
October, the government shutdown for a record-breaking stretch and caused
numerous reports, including key jobs and inflation, to be delayed.
The delay comes as the
Federal Reserve paused interest rate cuts last week that were prompted to boost
a slowing job market. Economists are split if and when the Fed will resume
lowering rates and were looking forward to the jobs report for some clarity.
RSM Chief Economist Joe
Brusuelas had forecast an increase in total employment of 60,000 jobs for
January with the unemployment rate holding at 4.4%, but was looking forward to
the annual benchmark revisions to nonfarm payroll employment, hours and
earnings.
"Fed Chair Jerome
Powell has repeatedly stated that those downward revisions will be close to
60,000 per month inclusive of the dates covered by the benchmark,"
Brusuelas said.
– Medora Lee
Shutdown? What shutdown?
For DC, just another day at the office
A view of the U.S.
Capitol dome on day two of a partial government shutdown in Washington, D.C.,
U.S., February 1, 2026.
Is Social Security,
Medicare, Medicaid impacted?
No, mandatory spending
that is not subject to annual appropriations, including Social Security,
Medicare, and Medicaid, does not close during a partial shutdown, according to
the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
National parks and food
inspection services are running as normal, too, the CRFB says.
But the partial closure
can mean certain federal operations are stopped or scaled back to ensure only
essential work is happening.
For example, guidance
from the Department of Education ahead of the lengthy 2025 shutdown said
investigations into civil rights complaints would be paused. The Health and
Human Services Department says in its contingency plan for the fiscal year it
will not be able to process public information requests, and the National
Institutes of Health will not admit new patients in clinical research trials.
But it said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would continue
monitoring for outbreaks.
Latest on closures,
agencies: How does the government shutdown impact you?
ICE IS STILL AT WORK
Political divisions over
Trump's continued immigration enforcement are driving this shutdown. Many Democrats
have laid out demands for reforms at DHS, which Congress is expected to hash
out in coming weeks.
Immigration enforcement
officers, as well as prison staff and active-duty members of the military are
among the federal employees expected to continue working. They'll get backpay
but will not receive an immediate paycheck for working through the closure.
Don't pause your tax
plans
The IRS says it will
continue operating for five business days by using funds it was granted through
the Inflation Reduction Act.
Tax refunds can be
impacted, but don't avoid filing: The April 15 tax submission deadline does not
change in the event of a government shutdown unless explicitly stated
otherwise.
ATTACHMENT “C” – FROM CBS
GOVERNMENT
SHUTDOWN LIVE UPDATES AS FUNDING FIGHT TURNS TO THE HOUSE
By Caitlin Yilek, Kaia Hubbard Updated on: February 2, 2026 / 5:02 PM
EST / CBS News
What to know
about the partial government shutdown:
The House is
back in Washington on Monday to begin considering a revised funding package to
end the partial government shutdown that began over the weekend.
The lower
chamber is working to pass a five-bill package to fund the departments of
Defense, State, Treasury and others, as well as a two-week extension of funding
for the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS funding has been at the center
of the impasse, with Democrats demanding reforms to how immigration enforcement
agencies like ICE conduct their operations.
House Speaker
Mike Johnson faces an uphill task in uniting the GOP conference to advance the
plan. Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Johnson over the weekend that
Democrats would not supply the votes needed to fast-track passage, meaning
Republicans will need to get the bills across the finish line mostly on their
own. President Trump urged Republicans to vote for the package without
amendments in a post Monday afternoon.
The House Rules
Committee is meeting to consider the funding package, the first step before it
reaches the floor on Tuesday. You can watch the meeting in the video player at
the top of this page.
4:30 PM
GOP majority
narrows as Johnson swears in Texas Democrat
On Monday
night, Johnson administered the oath of office to Rep. Christian Menefee, a
Texas Democrat, narrowing Republicans' majority in the lower chamber.
Democrats now
have 214 members compared with Republicans' 218. Johnson can now lose just one
Republican vote, if all members are present and voting along party lines.
"Congratulations,"
Johnson told Menefee after he was sworn in.
Menefee then gave
brief remarks on the floor, noting that his district has been without
representation for nearly a year and he has "very big shoes to fill."
Menefree replaces
Democrat Sylvester Turner, who died last March.
By Caitlin Yilek
5:08 PM /
February 2, 2026
DeLauro, top
Democratic appropriator, says she will support final passage of funding package
Rep. Rosa DeLauro
of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said
she plans to vote for the funding package on the House floor.
"I will
support this package," she told the House Rules Committee.
She said the
two-week extension of DHS funding gives Democrats
"leverage" to secure the reforms to immigration enforcement that they
are demanding.
"For if we
do not do that, we will not be able to bring the kinds of pressure that is
necessary to make sure that ICE does not continue to terrorize our
communities," she said.
Crucially,
DeLauro did not say she would vote to approve the rule governing debate over
the final package. That procedural hurdle could prove to be Johnson's biggest
obstacle on Tuesday, since Democrats are expected to be united in opposing the
rule.
By Caitlin Yilek
4:46 PM /
February 2, 2026
Johnson still
confident about passing government funding by Tuesday
After meeting
with Republicans on the House Rules Committee, Johnson said he was confident
the lower chamber will pass the funding package Tuesday.
"I think
we'll get it done by tomorrow," Johnson told reporters.
Johnson also
pushed back on demands from some conservatives to attach the SAVE Act to the
funding package, saying "this is a funding package right now and I don't
think we need to be playing games with government funding."
"We've got
to get the job done," he said.
Johnson said he
had not asked the president to call conservatives who have expressed concerns.
By Caitlin Yilek, Jaala Brown
4:33 PM /
February 2, 2026
House
reconvenes to debate bills unrelated to funding package
The House
reconvened at 4:30 p.m. to debate half a dozen bills unrelated to the funding
package. Votes are slated to begin around 6:30 p.m. on the legislation.
The funding
package isn't expected to see floor action until Tuesday at the earliest.
By Caitlin Yilek
4:32 PM /
February 2, 2026
Jeffries:
"Hard to imagine a scenario" where Democrats help advance funding
package
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
maintained that Democrats do not plan to help Republicans advance the funding
package during a procedural vote if it falls short of GOP support.
"Republicans
have a responsibility to move the rule," the New York Democrat said in
response to a question from CBS News, adding that it's "hard to imagine a
scenario" where Democrats step in.
"On rare
occasions have we stepped in to deal with Republican dysfunction,"
Jeffries told reporters.
Jeffries,
however, did not rule out Democratic support on final passage. He said
Democrats have a leadership meeting later Monday to discuss next steps and
noted there's "strong" Democratic support for the five bipartisan
funding bills that comprise the package.
By Caitlin Yilek, Nikole Killion
4:14 PM /
February 2, 2026
After meeting
with Johnson, House Rules Committee takes up funding package, Clinton contempt
resolutions
The House Rules
Committee convened shortly after 4 p.m. to take up the funding package, which
includes a two-week extension for DHS funding, and the contempt resolutions
against former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton.
Before the
meeting began, Johnson met with GOP members of the committee.
"The
speaker came by for an impromptu meeting," Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx
of North Carolina, who leads the committee, said as the meeting began.
The committee
is the first House procedural hurdle that the funding package will have to
clear before final passage, and Monday's meeting could last for hours.
By Caitlin Yilek, Jaala Brown
4:11 PM /
February 2, 2026
Christian
Menefee, new Texas Democrat, to be sworn in Monday evening
Democratic
Rep.-elect Christian Menefee, who won a special election in Texas over the
weekend, will be sworn in as a member of the House at 6:45 p.m. ET, according
to a notice from Johnson's office.
Menefee's
swearing-in will give Democrats 214 seats in the House, compared to
Republicans' 218. That means Johnson will be able to afford just one defection,
assuming all members are present and voting and Democrats remain united.
By Stefan
Becket
3:25 PM /
February 2, 2026
Trump urges
lawmakers to support funding package without changes
President Trump
urged lawmakers to support the funding agreement as it stands, saying the House
should "send it to my desk WITHOUT DELAY," while noting that there
should be "NO CHANGES at this time."
"I am
working hard with Speaker Johnson to get the current funding deal, which passed
in the Senate last week, through the House and to my desk, where I will sign it
into Law, IMMEDIATELY!" Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social Monday
afternoon.
The post comes
as some House Republicans have pushed to attach to the funding package the SAVE
Act, which would require Americans to show proof of citizenship in person to
register to vote in federal elections. The president suggested the issue can be
addressed at a later date.
"We will
work together in good faith to address the issues that have been raised, but we
cannot have another long, pointless, and destructive Shutdown that will hurt
our Country so badly — One that will not benefit Republicans or
Democrats," Mr. Trump said. "I hope everyone will vote, YES!"
By Kaia Hubbard
1:09 PM /
February 2, 2026
Jobs report
this week will be delayed by shutdown, Labor Department says
The Department
of Labor won't issue its report on U.S. hiring in January on Friday as planned
because of the partial government shutdown.
"The
Employment Situation release for January 2026 will not be released as scheduled
on Friday, February 6, 2026. The release will be rescheduled upon the
resumption of government funding," a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the unit that compiles the monthly unemployment report, told CBS
News in an email.
The disruption in
jobs data comes amid questions about the strength of the labor market, with
large corporations such as Amazon and UPS announcing major job cuts in recent
weeks.
By Aimee Picchi
12:39 PM /
February 2, 2026
Schumer says
adding SAVE Act to funding package would cause prolonged shutdown
Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer warned that attaching an elections-related bill known as
the SAVE Act to the funding package, like some House Republicans have demanded,
would doom the legislation in the upper chamber. The bill would require
Americans to show proof of citizenship in person to register to vote in federal
elections.
"I have
said it before and I'll say it again, the SAVE Act would impose Jim Crow type
laws to the entire country and is dead on arrival in the Senate," Schumer
said in a statement Monday. "It is a poison pill that will kill any
legislation that it is attached to. If House Republicans add the SAVE Act to
the bipartisan appropriations package it will lead to another prolonged Trump
government shutdown."
Some
conservatives in the House, like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, have
demanded that the legislation be attached to the funding package to reopen the
government. It passed the House in April but hasn't been taken up in the
Senate.
Schumer argued
that the SAVE Act is "not about securing our elections," but about
"suppressing voters."
"The SAVE
Act seeks to disenfranchise millions of American citizens, seize control of our
elections, and fan the flames of election skepticism and denialism," Schumer
said. "Democrats will go all out to defeat the SAVE Act and defend free
and fair elections."
By Kaia Hubbard
11:21 AM /
February 2, 2026
New House
Democrat expected to be sworn in soon, shrinking GOP majority
Rep-elect
Christian Menefee won a special election to represent Texas in the House on
Saturday and is expected to be sworn in soon, shrinking the Republican majority
in the lower chamber.
Menefee is
filling a vacancy left by the late Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner, who died
in March weeks after taking office.
The party
breakdown in the House currently stands at 218 Republicans to 213 Democrats,
with four vacancies. Once Menefee is sworn in, House Speaker Mike Johnson will
only be able to lose one vote and still command a majority — making the task of
shepherding a funding package and negotiating on DHS funds even more
precarious.
By Kaia Hubbard
10:46 AM /
February 2, 2026
Here are the
departments affected by the government shutdown
In addition to
DHS, funding for other major departments and their subagencies has lapsed. They
include:
Defense
Department
State
Department
Department of
Labor
Department of
Health and Human Services
Department of
Education
Department of
Transportation
Department of Housing
and Urban Development
Treasury
Department
Several of the
departments have notices on their websites about the funding lapse. "Due
to a lapse in appropriations, website updates will be limited until full
operations resume," the State Department's site says. The Labor
Department's homepage includes a notice that "[u]pdates
to the site will start again when the Federal government resumes
operations."
By Stefan
Becket
10:27 AM /
February 2, 2026
Lawmakers face
short timeline to negotiate DHS funding with ICE reforms
Beyond the
immediate task of funding the government, the approach is also setting up a
short timeline to negotiate funding for the Department of Homeland Security,
which has been at the center of the spending fight.
The two-week
funding measure for DHS, which Democrats advocated for, means both parties have
little time to come to an agreement over how to reform the administration's
approach to immigration enforcement.
In the wake of
two deadly shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis, Democrats have demanded
a number of reforms, including an end to roving patrols and tightening of the
rules governing the use of warrants, along with requiring ICE to coordinate
with state and local law enforcement. They've also demanded a uniform code of
conduct and accountability to hold federal agents to the same use-of-force
policies as state and local law enforcement and a "masks off, body cameras
on" policy for federal agents.
Republicans had
pushed for a longer timeline for negotiations, with up to a six-week continuing
resolution for DHS. And Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters after
the Senate approved the funding package last week that it's going to be
"really, really hard to get anything done."
"We'll
stay hopeful but there are some pretty significant differences of
opinion," Thune said.
Johnson
appeared more optimistic Sunday that a resolution can be reached in the short
timeline.
"I've got
to get everybody in a room and work this out. I think we can," Johnson
said on "Fox News Sunday."
The speaker
outlined that some of the demands Democrats have made are supported by
Republicans, like on ending roving patrols and requiring body cameras. But
other issues, like requiring federal agents not to wear masks and to identify
themselves, would meet opposition.
"The head
of DHS and the head of the operations in Minnesota and the president himself
have said that we're close to getting there," Johnson said of
negotiations. "We can agree to some of these conditions, because
everybody, all the American people, want the law to be enforced and done in a
meaningful and efficient and effective way."
By Kaia Hubbard
8:50 AM /
February 2, 2026
House Homeland
Security Committee Democrats urge colleagues to oppose funding package
House Homeland
Security Committee Democrats, led by Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, sent
a letter to their Democratic colleagues on Sunday urging them to vote against
the government funding package that includes a two-week continuing resolution
to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
"Democrats
must act now to demand real changes that protect our communities before
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) receive another dollar in funding," the Democrats wrote in the
letter. "This is what our constituents elected us to do — to hold ICE and
this administration accountable when they fail to adhere to the Constitution or
follow the law."
The Democrats
outlined a number of changes they're seeking, including bringing an end to the
immigration operation in Minneapolis and clawing back funds ICE and CBP
received in President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year. They added
that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem "must go."
By Jaala Brown
Updated 7:55 AM
/ February 2, 2026
Johnson says he
expects House to fund the government by Tuesday
Johnson
expressed confidence in a pair of interviews Sunday that the House will pass
the funding package to reopen the government by Tuesday, despite a number of
hurdles ahead.
"We have a
logistical challenge of getting everyone in town," Johnson said Sunday on
"Meet the Press." "And because of the conversation I had with
Hakeem Jeffries, I know that we've got to pass a rule and probably do this
mostly on our own."
Johnson, a
Louisiana Republican, said "Republicans are going to do the responsible
thing and fund the government." But he acknowledged that he may face some
opposition among members of his own party as well.
"I have a
lot of conversations to have with individual Republican members over the next
24 hours or so," Johnson said on "Fox News Sunday."
Still, Johnson
added, "we'll get all this done by Tuesday, I'm convinced."
"I don't
understand why anybody would have a problem with this," Johnson said,
noting that the bulk of the funding package has already passed the House.
Johnson said
"we're going to do it again," calling the approval a "formality
at this point."
By Kaia Hubbard
Updated 7:55 AM
/ February 2, 2026
House Rules
Committee to take up funding package Monday afternoon
With the House
back in Washington, the package will first go to the Rules Committee, which is
set to meet Monday afternoon to consider the legislation after Democrats
informed GOP leadership that they would not help fast-track the bill.
Though the
Rules Committee route requires a simple majority for passage on the House
floor, the legislation will need to pass several procedural hurdles where votes
are typically along party-lines.
First, it's
unclear whether the funding package can clear the Rules Committee, where at
least one Republican, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, has said he has his own demands
for DHS funding. Second, if it advances out of the committee, there are
questions about whether Johnson can keep his party united in a procedural vote
before final passage.
On the floor,
Johnson can only afford to lose two votes if all members are present and
voting. Attendance has already created issues for Republicans this year.
Rep. Anna
Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, has said that she'll withhold her support
unless legislation that would require Americans to show proof of citizenship in
person to register to vote in federal elections is attached.
Any changes to
the package would require sending it back to the Senate, prolonging the
shutdown.
By Caitlin Yilek
Updated 7:55 AM
/ February 2, 2026
House Democrats
not expected to help GOP fast-track funding deal
House Democrats
conveyed to GOP leadership over the weekend that they wouldn't provide the
votes to help pass the funding package under suspension of the rules — a
maneuver that would fast track the legislation's passage.
"We need a
full and complete debate," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on
MSNOW Saturday. "And what I've made clear to House Republicans is that
they cannot simply move forward with legislation taking a 'my way or the
highway' approach."
House Speaker
Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke Saturday, two
sources familiar with the conversation confirmed to CBS News.
Johnson
acknowledged on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that after his call
with Jeffries, he expects Republicans will "probably do this mostly on our
own."
The dynamic
means Johnson will have to shepherd the legislation through the Rules Committee
before it goes to the floor for a simple majority vote. GOP leaders, with a
narrow majority in the chamber, must have near unanimous support among
Republicans — and could still face hurdles from conservatives on the Rules
Committee and otherwise.
By Kaia
Hubbard, Nikole Killion
Updated 7:55 AM
/ February 2, 2026
Here's what's
behind the partial government shutdown
The Trump
administration's approach to immigration enforcement has been the focus of this
funding fight.
Since the
longest shutdown in U.S. history last fall, lawmakers have been working to pass
individual spending bills to fund federal agencies through September 2026.
Congress has passed six of those bills already, and they have been signed by
the president. The other six are the focus of the current funding fight.
While the
funding measures had been on track to pass ahead of the deadline earlier this
month, the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti by federal
immigration agents in Minneapolis changed things for Democrats. They came out
fiercely against funding for DHS without further reforms, and in the Senate,
Democrats pledged not to provide the votes to move forward on the funding
package unless the DHS money was stripped out.
Read more here.
By Caitlin Yilek, Kaia Hubbard
ATTACHMENT
“D” – FROM NBC
Trump
administration live updates: House plans to vote tomorrow on government funding
bill amid partial shutdown
The House
Rules Committee is taking up the legislation today, the final step before it
can go to the floor for a vote by the full chamber.
February
02, 2026, 7:35 PM EST
What to
know today ...
• GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: The House Rules
Committee is meeting today about setting up a floor vote on the government
funding package. A vote on final passage is expected tomorrow. The federal
government partially shut down over the weekend after senators advanced the
bill without Department of Homeland Security funding.
• TRUMP THREATENS SUIT: President Donald
Trump is threatening to sue comedian Trevor Noah over a joke at last night’s
Grammy Awards, saying overnight on Truth Social that Noah’s crack claiming he
visited Jeffrey Epstein’s island was “false and
defamatory.”
• TEXAS DEMOCRAT ELECTED: After a special
election in Texas’ 18th Congressional District, a new Democrat will join the
House. Once Rep.-elect Christian Menefee is sworn in, the House will be
composed of 218 Republicans and 214 Democrats.
NEW UPDATES
9m ago /
7:35 PM EST
Maryland
House passes new congressional map, setting up a showdown with the state Senate
Jane C.
Timm
The
Maryland House approved legislation today to redraw the state’s congressional
map, sending it to the state Senate, where its future is uncertain.
The bill
passed on a vote of 99-37 after hours of heated debate.
The
proposed map, which could allow Democrats to pick up an additional seat in this
year’s midterm elections, has been pushed by Gov. Wes Moore and national
Democrats. But Maryland’s Democratic Senate president, Bill Ferguson, has
remained staunchly opposed to the effort.
Maryland is
one of Democrats’ few options in the national redistricting arms race in which
both parties have scrambled for new electoral opportunities in their battle for
the House majority.
14m ago /
7:31 PM EST
Bill and
Hillary Clinton agree to testify in House Epstein probe ahead of planned
contempt vote
By Monica
Alba and Raquel Coronell Uribe
Former
President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have
agreed to testify in a House investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Angel Ureña, a spokesperson for Bill Clinton, responded in a post
today to a letter from House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky.,
saying the Clintons had “negotiated in good faith” and that Comer “had not.”
“They told
you under oath what they know, but you don’t care,” Ureña
wrote. “But the former President and former Secretary of State will be there.
They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone.”
It was not
immediately clear when and where the Clintons will testify.
2h ago /
6:33 PM EST
House eyes
vote tomorrow to reopen the government and end brief shutdown
By Sahil Kapur and Kyle Stewart
House
Republican leaders plan to vote tomorrow to pass a government funding package
approved by the Senate, three days after a shutdown began.
Funding
lapsed Saturday amid divisions in Congress over changes to the Department of
Homeland Security after agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.
House
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pushed the vote back by one day after, he said,
Democrats conveyed to him that they won’t provide enough votes to skip the
procedural hurdles.
“I think
we’ll get it done by tomorrow,” Johnson said today.
2h ago /
5:55 PM EST
Dan Bongino returns to podcasting with a defense of the FBI’s
handling of the Epstein files
By Dareh Gregorian
Former FBI
co-deputy director Dan Bongino made a fiery return to
podcasting today, defending the agency’s review of the Jeffrey Epstein case,
attacking his critics and interviewing Trump.
“It’s been
a crazy year,” Bongino said of his time as the No. 2
official under FBI Director Kash Patel. Of how the office
handled the Epstein files, he called it a “level 10 problem” — one with no good
solution.
“It was
never going to please everyone,” he said.
Bongino, who
officially stepped down last month, said that he’d always planned to stay on
the job for a year and that he intends to use his podcast to combat the
“grifters” he said were trying to sow division in the MAGA ranks.
3h ago /
5:37 PM EST
Trump says
Kennedy Center renovations could cost around $200 million
By Raquel Coronell Uribe
Trump said
the Kennedy Center renovations scheduled to start this year could cost “around
$200 million.”
Trump
characterized the conditions at the iconic performing arts venue as hazardous,
saying that it’s “in very bad shape, it’s run down, it’s dilapidated” and that
a renovation with superior quality could not be done without temporarily
closing it.
Trump, who
announced that the center would close for two years for renovations starting
July 4, reiterated that the renovation is fully financed, without elaborating
on the source of the funding.
3h ago /
5:19 PM EST
Tulsi Gabbard
accused of trying to ‘bury’ whistleblower complaint
By Dan De
Luce and Monica Alba
A U.S. intelligence
official has alleged wrongdoing by National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard in a whistleblower complaint filed last year,
according to the official’s lawyer and Gabbard’s office.
Andrew Bakaj, the attorney for the intelligence official, said
today that the complaint was filed in May with the intelligence community’s
inspector general but has not been fully shared with Congress. He accused
Gabbard of trying to hide the complaint from Congress.
“After
nearly eight months of taking illegal actions to protect herself, the time has
come for Tulsi Gabbard to comply with the law and
fully release the disclosure to Congress,” Bakaj said
in a statement released by Whistle Blower Aid, a nonprofit group that
represents government and private-sector employees seeking to expose
wrongdoing.
“The
Inspector General’s independence and neutrality is non-existent when the
director of national intelligence illegally inserts herself into the process,”
he said.
4h ago /
4:37 PM EST
Rep.-elect
Christian Menefee to be sworn in tonight
By Kyle
Stewart
House
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will swear in Rep.-elect Christian Menefee,
D-Texas, this evening.
The event
is scheduled to take place at 6:45 p.m. on the House floor.
The new
party breakdown in the House will be 218 Republicans and 214 Democrats after
the swearing-in ceremony. That means Republicans can afford only one GOP
defection and still pass bills on party-line votes. If two Republicans vote
against something with all Democrats, the measure would fail.
4h ago /
4:32 PM EST
Trump says
Republicans should ‘nationalize’ elections
By Jane C.
Timm
Trump said
today that Republicans should “take over the voting” from states as he repeated
his disproven claims of voter fraud.
“The
Republicans should say: ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting
in at least — many, 15 places.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the
voting,” Trump said in an appearance on former Deputy FBI Co-Director Dan Bongino’s podcast.
The
statement marks a dramatic escalation of Trump’s stance on election
administration, advancing a position that Democrats had warned he could stake
out with his calls for stricter voting rules and investigations of allegations
of fraud.
Article 1
of the Constitution says that “the times, places, and manner of holding
elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state
by the legislature thereof,” though Congress can pass federal regulations, too.
4h ago /
4:16 PM EST
Trump says
he was never ‘friendly’ with Epstein
By Dareh Gregorian
Trump said
on Truth Social that he wasn’t “friendly” with Epstein, despite years of
evidence to the contrary.
“Not only
wasn’t I friendly with Jeffrey Epstein but, based upon information that has
just been released by the Department of Justice, Epstein and a SLEAZEBAG lying
‘author’ named Michael Wolff, conspired in order to damage me and/or my
Presidency,” Trump wrote in a post in which he again denied that he’d ever gone
to visit Epstein’s island.
There’s no
evidence that Trump ever visited Epstein’s island, but
there is substantial evidence that they were friendly.
“I’ve known
Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002, before
there were any public allegations of wrongdoing against Epstein. “He’s a lot of
fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do,
and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys
his social life.”
4h ago /
4:15 PM EST
Illinois
Gov. JB Pritzker spends $5 million to boost his pick for Senate in his state
By Scott
Wong and Bridget Bowman
Illinois
Gov. JB Pritzker has given an infusion of cash to a super PAC backing the
underdog Senate campaign of his lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, who is
competing in next month’s Democratic primary for an open seat.
Pritzker,
the billionaire Democratic governor and potential 2028 presidential contender,
contributed $5 million in December to Illinois Future PAC, according to campaign
finance reports filed over the weekend. His cousin Jennifer Pritzker and her
spouse gave another $1.1 million. Together, they accounted for almost all of
the super PAC’s $6.3 million in fundraising last year.
The
pro-Stratton super PAC said it has continued fundraising in 2026 and has now
raised a total of more than $10 million. The source of those additional
millions won’t be reported until March.
The group
is in the middle of a weekslong ad campaign supporting Stratton’s Senate bid
and touting her partnership with Pritzker.
4h ago /
3:51 PM EST
John Thune
says state Senate defeat in Texas means GOP must 'up our game'
By Sahil Kapur
Senate
Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said today that Republicans need to do a
better job after his party suffered a shocking defeat in a Texas state Senate
race in an area that Trump handily won in 2024.
Asked about
the results of that race, Thune told reporters: "The message is: We've got
to up our game and make sure that we're doing everything to give people, particularly
voters in the middle of the electorate who decide these types of elections, a
reason to vote for our candidates. And I believe we will do that.
"We
are raising really good resources, and we got a great slate of candidates in
all the relevant races around the country, at least where the Senate is
concerned," he added. "And I think we've got a record of
accomplishment to run on, which needs to be communicated better."
6h ago /
2:19 PM EST
Trump
loyalist Ed Martin out as 'weaponization' czar
Ryan J. Reilly
Trump
loyalist Ed Martin is out of his role as the Justice Department’s
“weaponization” czar, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
Asked
whether Martin still served in the role, a Justice Department spokesman told
NBC News that he continued to serve in a separate role, as pardon attorney.
“President
Trump appointed Ed Martin as Pardon Attorney and Ed continues to do a great job
in that role,” according to the spokesman.
6h ago /
2:18 PM EST
Sen. Tina
Smith endorses Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan for Senate
Rebecca Shabad
Sen. Tina
Smith, D-Minn., endorsed Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan today to succeed her in the
Senate.
"I
know that right now there is no one I trust more than Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan,
and that is why I’m endorsing Peggy to be the next Minnesota United States
senator," Smith, who is not running for re-election, said in a video
posted on social media standing next to Flanagan.
In the
video, Smith referred to the surge of federal agents in Minnesota
"terrorizing" their community and the fatal shootings by immigration
officials of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
6h ago /
2:10 PM EST
Trump touts
talks with Modi on trade and not buying Russian oil
By Rebecca Shabad
Trump said
in a post on Truth Social today that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed
during a phone call to stop buying Russian oil for his country and to a trade
agreement between the two countries.
"We
spoke about many things, including Trade, and ending the War with Russia and
Ukraine," Trump wrote. "He agreed to stop buying Russian Oil, and to
buy much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela. This will
help END THE WAR in Ukraine, which is taking place right now, with thousands of
people dying each and every week!"
Trump said
he and Modi also agreed to lower the U.S. reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods
from 25% to 18% in exchange for a reduction in Indian tariffs and nontariff
barriers on U.S. goods.
Asked about
Trump's claim that Modi agreed to stop buying Russian oil, a spokesperson for
India's U.S. embassy pointed NBC News to a post Modi made on X referring to the
tariffs agreement, which did not address Russian oil.
7h ago /
1:30 PM EST
Judge again
blocks DHS policy requiring lawmakers give advance notice of detention center
visits
By Gary Grumbach and Rebecca Shabad
A federal
judge is again temporarily blocking the Trump administration from requiring
members of Congress to provide seven days' advance notice before conducting
oversight visits at immigrant detention and holding centers.
U.S.
District Judge Jia M. Cobb of the District of Columbia granted a motion for a
temporary restraining order today as part of a lawsuit by a group of House
Democrats challenging the administration's access policies.
Homeland
Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued a memorandum
earlier this month that reinstated the seven-day-notice requirement that Cobb
had previously blocked.
Noem said in
the memo that the policy would be reinstated using money from the sweeping tax
cut and spending package dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill, not a separate
congressional appropriations bill, claiming that the policy therefore was not
in violation of the judge's original order. That previous judicial order cited
language in the appropriations bill that barred restrictions on congressional
access to the Department of Homeland Security facilities.
7h ago /
12:50 PM EST
Friday's
jobs report to be delayed because of shutdown
Steve Kopack
The U.S.
jobs report for January, which was scheduled to be released this Friday, will
be delayed until further notice because of the government shutdown, the Bureau
of Labor Statistics confirmed to NBC News.
Employees
at the Bureau of Labor Statistics are on leave and therefore aren't collecting
or compiling the report.
"The
Employment Situation release for January 2026 will not be released as scheduled
on Friday, February 6, 2026," a spokesperson for the agency said in a
statement.
"The
release will be rescheduled upon the resumption of government funding,"
the spokesperson added.
Barron's
was first to report the delay in the jobs report.
During the
last government shutdown, the September jobs report, which was supposed to be
issued on Oct. 3, was delayed until Nov. 20.
8h ago /
12:38 PM EST
Trump touts lower crime on ex-FBI No. 2 Dan Bongino's
relaunched podcast, makes false election claims
Dareh Gregorian
The
president phoned into former FBI No. 2 Dan Bongino's
relaunched podcast today, touting the nation's decreasing crime numbers while
attacking Minnesota's Democratic governor, Tim Walz.
"We're
doing much better," Trump said, claiming those numbers would be even
better still if not for "terrible" mayors and governors like Walz,
whom he called "a disaster."
The
president also falsely claimed he'd won Minnesota the three times he's run for
office. No Republican has won the state in a presidential election since
Richard Nixon in 1972.
Trump told Bongino, who officially stepped down from his role as
co-FBI deputy director last month, that "I was very unhappy when you left
the FBI, but I was very happy that you have your show, which does so
good."
"I
call it a net neutral," Trump said.
8h ago /
11:52 AM EST
Fulton
County to sue Trump administration over seizure of 2020 election records
Joe Kottke and Rebecca Shabad
Lawyers for
Fulton County, Georgia, are planning to file a lawsuit in federal court today
against the FBI and Justice Department over a search warrant that the FBI
executed at an election hub last week seeking records related to the 2020
presidential election.
Fulton
County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. announced in a news release that the county
plans to file a motion in the Northern District of Georgia challenging “the
legality of the warrant and the seizure of sensitive election records, and
force the government to return the ballots taken,” the release said.
“I’ve asked
the county attorney to take any and all steps available to fight this criminal
search warrant,” Arrington said in a statement. “The search warrant, I believe,
is not proper, but I think that there are ways that we can limit it. We want to
ask for forensic accounting, we want the documents to stay in the State of
Georgia under seal, and we want to do whatever we can to protect voter
information.”
9h ago /
11:02 AM EST
Key Gaza
border crossing reopens, a step forward in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire
Yuliya Talmazan
The Rafah
border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt partially reopened today, a
significant step in the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The limited
reopening will allow some movement of people in and out of the Palestinian
enclave, enabling small numbers in need of medical aid to leave Gaza and
letting some others return to the territory.
The
reopening the crossing in both directions is a key pillar of Trump’s peace plan
for Gaza and comes just days after the remains of the last hostage held in the
enclave were returned to Israel.
A
spokesperson for the Israeli military agency COGAT, Shimi
Zuaretz, confirmed to NBC News that the crossing had
reopened at 2 a.m. ET. He was unable to say how many people had crossed so far.
COGAT had said yesterday the crossing would reopen only for the movement of
people. It earlier warned that the crossings at Rafah would be limited and
would involve security clearance by Israel.
10h ago /
10:12 AM EST
British
prime minister urges former Prince Andrew to testify in Epstein case
The
millions of pages of documents in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation released by
the Justice Department show a web of connections between the convicted sex
offender and powerful people throughout the world, including references to
former Prince Andrew. Now, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
is calling on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to testify in front of Congress.
Meanwhile, some Epstein survivors say they’re frustrated with the way some
private information was not redacted in the release. NBC’s Hallie Jackson
reports for "TODAY."
11h ago /
9:29 AM EST
Trump
threatens to sue Trevor Noah over joke about Epstein’s island
Megan Lebowitz
Trump is
threatening to sue comedian Trevor Noah over a joke at last night’s Grammy
Awards, saying in an overnight post on Truth Social that Noah’s crack claiming
he visited Jeffrey Epstein’s island was “false and
defamatory.”
Noah, who
hosted the awards show, had poked at Trump’s relationship with the late sex
offender and the president’s ambitions for the U.S. to take over Greenland.
“That is a
Grammy that every artist wants almost as much as Trump wants Greenland,” Noah
said. “Which makes sense, I mean, because Epstein’s Island is gone, he needs a
new one to hang out on with Bill Clinton.”
In the post
on Truth Social, Trump said that he has never visited Epstein’s
island, “nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory
statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the Fake News
Media.” Epstein had also previously denied that former President Bill Clinton
had ever visited his island.
11h ago /
8:54 AM EST
Iran’s
supreme leader warns of 'regional war’ if U.S. attacks
Iran’s
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a warning that any attack on the
country by the United States would lead to a “regional war.” It comes as two
Iranian government officials say their president is ready to negotiate and
believe that a deal can be reached if it is focused on preventing Iran from
developing a nuclear weapon. NBC’s Richard Engel reports for "TODAY"
from Tehran.
12h ago /
8:06 AM EST
Trump hails
U.S. surpassing Japan in steel production
By Jennifer
Jett
Trump
celebrated the United States overtaking its ally Japan as the world’s
third-largest steel producer, with his administration crediting his trade policies.
“Just
think? It has just been announced that the United States of America made more
Steel last year, 2025, than the Great Country of Japan, a major Steelmaker.
Thank you President Trump!” Trump said in a social
media post, after making similar comments in a Cabinet meeting last week.
U.S. steel
crude production grew 3.1% last year to 82 million tons, according to the World
Steel Association, putting it third behind China and India. It was the first
time the U.S. had surpassed Japan since 1999.
Crude steel
production in Japan fell 4% to 80.7 million tons, the association said, in part
because of an influx of cheap steel from China, where domestic demand has
fallen amid a slump in the property sector. Japan also faces a U.S. tariff of
50% on its steel products.
13h ago /
7:26 AM EST
Trump says
if Iran doesn’t agree to nuclear deal, ‘we’ll find out’ whether U.S. attack
would spark a regional war
Megan Lebowitz
The
president said yesterday that if Iran does not make a deal regarding its
nuclear program, “we’ll find out” whether Iran’s supreme leader was correct to
predict that a U.S. attack on the country would spark a regional war.
Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei’s remarks yesterday on a potential war come as Trump has weighed
military action against Iran in response to the country’s nuclear ambitions and
the government’s bloody crackdown on protesters.
Asked by a
reporter about Khamenei’s remarks, Trump said, “Of course he would say that.”
“But we
have the biggest, most powerful ships in the world over there, very close,
couple of days, and hopefully we’ll make a deal,” he continued. “We don’t make
a deal, then we’ll find out whether or not he was right.”
Tensions
have been high after the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear facilities in June, and in
recent weeks Trump has blasted Iran’s crackdown on protesters.
13h ago /
7:21 AM EST
Trump
endorses John Sununu in New Hampshire Senate race
Raquel Coronell Uribe
The
president endorsed John Sununu in the New Hampshire Senate race yesterday,
backing him over other Republican opponents, including Scott Brown, as the GOP
seeks to flip the seat held by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a
retiring Democrat.
Trump
called Sununu an “America First Patriot” on Truth Social yesterday and said he
had Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement.”
“John is
strongly supported by the most Highly Respected Leaders in New Hampshire, and
many Republicans in the U.S. Senate and, as your next Senator, he will work
tirelessly to advance our America First Agenda,” Trump wrote.
Sununu, who
has served in Congress as a representative and a senator, lost his Senate
re-election bid to Shaheen in 2008. Sununu has
criticized Trump in the past, including calling him a “loser” in a 2024 op-ed
published in the New Hampshire Union Leader supporting Republican presidential
primary candidate Nikki Haley.
Sununu’s
campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s
endorsement.
13h ago /
7:19 AM EST
Trump says
Kennedy Center will close for two years for renovations
Raquel Coronell Uribe and Megan Shannon
Trump
announced yesterday that he has determined that the Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts in Washington should close for about two years.
The
president, who wrote on Truth Social that the decision is “totally subject” to
approval by his handpicked board, said that the center will close July 4 and
that “financing is completed, and fully in place.” He did not elaborate on
where the funding came from. The White House did not immediately respond to a
request for comment on questions about the funding.
Trump added
that the decision was made based on a review that involved “Contractors,
Musical Experts, Art Institutions, and other Advisors and Consultants,” who
were weighing construction with closure and reopening or partial construction
while entertainment operations continued.
A
spokesperson for the Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request
for comment about Trump’s announcement, what the center’s board thinks of the
issue or what would happen to the center’s existing programming.
13h ago /
6:59 AM EST
Rep. Ro
Khanna says he’s a ‘firm no’ on reopening the federal government amid ICE
funding dispute
Alexandra
Marquez
Rep. Ro
Khanna, D-Calif., yesterday called on House Democrats to vote against a measure
that would reopen parts of the federal government today, saying a vote in favor
would support the tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I’m a firm
no, and I’m going to advocate with colleagues that they vote no,” Khanna told
NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” adding, “I just don’t see how, in good conscience,
Democrats can vote for continuing ICE funding when they’re killing American
citizens.”
Several
federal agencies entered a partial government shutdown Saturday, days after
President Donald Trump and Senate Democrats reached a deal to avert an extended
government shutdown.
13h ago /
6:59 AM EST
House Rules
Committee will meet today on government funding package
Kyle
Stewart and Ryan Nobles
Reporting
from Washington
The House
Rules Committee has added the Senate-approved government funding package to its
4 p.m. meeting today, according to an advisory from the panel.
The
announcement comes after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority
Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., spoke on the phone Saturday, according to a
spokesperson for Johnson. The spokesperson said that Jeffries indicated that
House Democrats would not help Republicans pass the government funding package
under suspension of the rules, a fast-track process that requires a two-thirds
vote on the floor.
The call
was first reported by Punchbowl News. NBC News reached out to spokespeople for
Jeffries on Saturday afternoon, but they did not respond.
Republicans
would have needed roughly 70 Democrats to help pass the package if it came
under suspension. Instead, the Rules Committee will now try to advance the
funding package. This means Republicans will likely need to approve the rule
and the package on their own.
On
Thursday, Jeffries said he had spoken with Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer, D-N.Y., and Johnson about the funding talks but that he was not
involved in talks with the White House.
Jeffries
said “the White House understands that the only group of people that speak for
House Democrats are House Democrats. So, we’ll evaluate whatever comes out of
the Senate.”
Johnson
said on "Meet the Press" yesterday that it’s his goal to pass the
package by tomorrow on the H
ATTACHMENT
“E” – FROM THE HILL
LIVE
UPDATES: TRUMP PRESSES HOUSE TO BACK FUNDING PACKAGE ENDING PARTIAL SHUTDOWN
by The Hill
Staff - 02/02/26 3:27 PM ET
President Trump
on Monday urged House Republicans and Democrats to support the funding package
to end the partial government shutdown.
“We need to
get the Government open, and I hope all Republicans and Democrats will join me
in supporting this Bill, and send it to my desk WITHOUT DELAY,” he wrote on
Truth Social. “There can be NO CHANGES at this time.”
“We will
work together in good faith to address the issues that have been raised, but we
cannot have another long, pointless, and destructive Shutdown that will hurt
our Country so badly — One that will not benefit Republicans or Democrats,”
Trump added. “I hope everyone will vote, YES!”
But House
GOP leaders still face an uphill battle as they work to get the measure across
the finish line, with Democrats stating they will not support fast-tracking the
package. The lower chamber is expected to vote Tuesday.
GOP
lawmakers are also fighting over what reforms to make to Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies after two fatal shootings
of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers.
The
shutdown, meanwhile, has furloughed more than 10,000 Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) workers and left almost 14,000 air traffic controllers
working without pay, again.
Earlier
Monday, Trump announced that the U.S. has reached a deal with India on trade,
stating Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to stop purchasing Russian oil – a
key sticking point amid the president’s efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
In turn, Trump said he reduced tariffs on India from 25 percent to 18 percent.
35 MINUTES
AGO
Clintons
reverse course, agree to testify in House Epstein inquiry
The news marks
a stunning about face that came after months of negotiations and as the House
Rules Committee was preparing to tee up floor votes holding the two in contempt
of Congress. The House Oversight Committee had voted last month to advance the
contempt resolutions.
“They
negotiated in good faith. You did not. They told you under oath what they know,
but you don’t care,” Clinton spokesperson Angel Ureña
wrote on X responding to a post from Oversight Committee Chair James Comer
(R-Ky.). “But the former President and former Secretary of State will be there.
They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone.”
Read the
developing story here.
AN HOUR AGO
Senate
Republican on government funding: 'It'll be a clown circus for a few days'
TARA SUTER
Sen. John
Kennedy (R-La.) on Monday said the process of funding the government will “be a
clown circus for a few days” amid a partial government shutdown.
“I think
that by the end of the week, the House and the Senate will have passed 11 of
the 12 appropriations bills. Now, it’ll be a bumpy road for the House. It’ll be
a, it’ll be a clown circus for a few days, but I think they’ll ultimately
pass,” Kennedy told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.”
“The only
bill that will not pass is the Department of Homeland Security budget, and
frankly, I don’t know if it’s possible to pass that bill,” he added.
“Because?”
Blitzer asked.
Read more
here.
2 HOURS AGO
Noem:
Immigration officers in Minneapolis will now wear body cams
Noem wrote on
the social platform X that she spoke with White House border czar Tom Homan,
acting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons and
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott on the move,
which she noted is “effective immediately.”
3 HOURS AGO
Johnson not
asking Trump to call GOP holdouts on funding package
EMILY
BROOKS
Johnson
said he thinks the House will approve the funding package by Tuesday as he left
a meeting with Republicans on the House Rules Committee.
The Rules
Committee is meeting Monday to tee up procedural legislation to consider the
funding bills amid demands from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-La.) that the panel
add on to the funding package the SAVE America Act, which would implement voter
ID requirements and require proof of citizenship to vote.
Read more
here.
3 HOURS AGO
Sean Spicer
sounds alarm over Texas special election: 'This is a big deal'
TARA SUTER
Former
White House press secretary Sean Spicer sounded the alarm for the GOP over a
recent Texas special election, saying, “this is a problem.”
“I’ve
always said that special elections are special, so I texted a bunch of Texas
folks, elected officials, etcetera, and said, ‘Okay, tell me how much I should
be concerned about this?’ To a T, to a T, every one of them said, ‘This is a
problem.’” Spicer said on “The D.C. Huddle” livestream show Monday.
“One
person’s direct quote was, ‘This is 8.5 on the Richter scale.’ This is a big
deal. And you know, for those people who go, ‘Oh, you’re being a baby again,
and you don’t, you’re —,’ go read General Mike Flynn. You think he’s a wuss? Go
read his tweets. He’s sounding the alarm, right? This is, if you look at what
happened in terms of the turnout, this is a problem,” he added, in comments
highlighted by Mediaite.
Read more
here.
3 HOURS AGO
Shutdown
will delay January jobs report: BLS
SARAH DAVIS
Last
month’s employment data was scheduled to be released this upcoming Friday,
according to the BLS website.
BLS is one
of the government agencies whose funding lapsed on Saturday after Congress
failed to pass a funding package ahead of last Friday’s shutdown deadline. The
agency has paused operations until the government reopens, and the jobs report
release will be rescheduled, a BLS spokesperson told The Hill on Monday.
Read more.
3 HOURS AGO
Ed Martin
out as DOJ ‘weaponization’ group head: Reports
ELLA LEE
Trump ally
Ed Martin no longer heads the Justice Department’s “weaponization” initiative
focused on reviewing probes into President Trump and his allies, according to
multiple reports.
A Justice
Department spokesperson told The Hill he continues to serve as pardon attorney.
“President
Trump appointed Ed Martin as Pardon Attorney and Ed continues to a great job in
that role,” the spokesperson said.
Martin did
not immediately respond to a request for comment. He joined the Justice
Department last year after Trump tapped him as interim U.S. attorney for
Washington, D.C.
Read more
here.
4 HOURS AGO
Trump urges
House Republicans, Democrats to work together to end shutdown
JULIA
MANCHESTER
President
Trump urged House Republicans and Democrats to work together to reopen the
federal government on Monday, saying that “no changes” should be made to the
Senate-passed legislation “at this time.”
“I am
working hard with Speaker Johnson to get the current funding deal, which passed
in the Senate last week, through the House and to my desk, where I will sign it
into Law, IMMEDIATELY!” Trump wrote in a TruthSocial
post.
“We need to
get the Government open, and I hope all Republicans and Democrats will join me
in supporting this Bill, and send it to my desk WITHOUT DELAY. There can be NO
CHANGES at this time,” he continued.
The
president’s post comes as a partial government shutdown is hitting major parts
of the government, including the Pentagon, the Department of Health and Human
Services, and the Department of Homeland Security.
4 HOURS AGO
What's
known about the search for 'Today' host Savannah Guthrie's mother
DOMINICK
MASTRANGELO
SARAH
FORTINSKY
Nancy
Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, was
reported missing this weekend after she didn’t show up to church Sunday morning
near her home in the Tucson, Ariz., area.
Read here
everything we know about the disappearance and investigation so far.
4 HOURS AGO
DOJ:
Epstein files that may have had victim information taken down
TARA SUTER
The Department
of Justice (DOJ) said in a Monday letter that it took down a swath of recently
released files linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that may have
had information about victims.
“The
Department now has taken down several thousands of documents and media that may
have inadvertently included victim-identifying information due to various
factors, including technical or human error,” the DOJ said in a letter to two
U.S. District Court judges with the Southern District of New York.
5 HOURS AGO
Medical
examiner rules Pretti death a homicide
MAX REGO
The
Hennepin County Medical Examiner has ruled that Alex Pretti,
the Minneapolis nurse who was shot and killed by Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) agents in Minneapolis last month, died by homicide.
The report
from Dr. Andrew Baker, posted to the county medical examiner’s public database,
said that Pretti died in the emergency room at
Hennepin County Medical Center after he was shot multiple times by federal
agents on Jan. 24.
Read more.
5 HOURS AGO
Judge sides
with Democrats against Trump, nixing latest limits on lawmakers’ access to ICE
facilities
ZACH
SCHONFELD
A federal
judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration’s latest bid to limit
lawmakers from conducting unannounced visits to immigration detention
facilities, ruling that it likely runs afoul of oversight measures that
Congress implemented.
It’s the
second time U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb has sided with the group of Democratic
lawmakers suing.
5 HOURS AGO
Courts
allow all five offshore wind projects blocked by Trump to resume construction
RACHEL
FRAZIN
A federal
court on Monday halted the last of five stop work orders issued by the Trump
administration in December to block major offshore wind farms, giving the wind
energy industry five legal wins in a row over the government.
Reagan
appointee Royce Lamberth granted an injunction
against the administration’s stop work order against Sunrise Wind, a project
that would provide power to New York.
6 HOURS AGO
Comer
declines latest Clinton offer, setting up contempt vote
MAX REGO
House
Oversight and Government Reform Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) on Monday rejected
the latest offer from lawyers for former President Clinton and former Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton regarding their clients’ testimony regarding the
panel’s probe into Jeffrey Epstein.
Ashley
Callen and Katherine Turner, attorneys for the Clintons, offered on Saturday
for the former president to participate in a four-hour transcribed interview in
lieu of a deposition under oath. They also proposed that the former Secretary
of State provide a sworn declaration instead of testifying.
Comer
called the offers “unreasonable” in a letter to Callen and Turner and said the
Clintons’ “desire for special treatment is both frustrating and an affront to
the American people’s desire for transparency.”
Read more
here.
6 HOURS AGO
Florida
Republican: Immigration efforts needed ‘course correction a long time ago’
SARAH DAVIS
“We thought
that there should have been a course correction a long time ago, and now I
guess it’s going to be forced on us by the Democrats,” Gimenez said.
“Unfortunately, we could have done it ourselves. We should have done it
ourselves, but that didn’t happen.”
Read more.
6 HOURS AGO
Father of
5-year-old detained in Minnesota denies reports he abandoned child
SARAH DAVIS
The father
of a 5-year-old boy detained in Minnesota is denying claims from the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) that he abandoned his son.
In an
exclusive interview with ABC News that aired Monday, Adrian Conejo
Arias denied deserting his son after officers arrived in their driveway to
detain him several weeks ago. The father said he was simply attempting to find
help.
“I love my
son too much,” he told ABC. “I would never abandon him.”
Read more
here.
7 HOURS AGO
Rove on
Trump economy boasts: 'Making the same mistake Joe Biden made'
MAX REGO
GOP
strategist Karl Rove on Sunday criticized President Trump for touting the
economy in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
In the
lengthy op-ed published on Friday, the president argued that his tariff
policies have “created an American economic miracle, and we are quickly
building the greatest economy in the history of the world.”
Trump also
slammed his predecessor, former President Biden, and said his own agenda
“deserves credit for this explosion of growth and good news, including our
record tax cuts, unprecedented regulation cuts, pro-American energy policies
and much more!”
Read more
here.
7 HOURS AGO
Trump says
he's reached a trade deal with India after Modi commits to not buying Russian
oil
JULIA
MANCHESTER
President
Trump announced a trade deal with India on Monday after he said the country’s
Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to not but U.S. and “potentially”
Venezuela oil, and not oil from Russia.
Trump wrote
in a TruthSocial post that it was “an honor” to speak
to Modi on Monday morning, noting that the two leaders discussed trade and
ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Trump and
Modi are seen above during an earlier meeting at the White House last year.
7 HOURS AGO
Sen. Tina
Smith endorses Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota Senate race
JULIA
MUELLER
Sen. Tina
Smith (D-Minn.) on Monday endorsed Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D) as her
successor, wading into the closely watched Minnesota Senate primary.
“I know
that right now there is no one that I trust more to stand with Minnesota than Lt.
Gov. Peggy Flanagan, and that is why I’m endorsing Peggy to be the next
Minnesota United States Senator,” Smith said in a video alongside Flanagan.
“She
understands that right now what we need are fierce fighters, people who are
willing to stand up to the status quo, people who won’t be intimidated,” Smith
said, referencing the federal government’s immigration crackdown and the recent
pair of fatal shootings in Minneapolis.
Flanagan is
running against Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) for the party’s nomination to
replace Smith, who announced last year that she would not run for reelection.
The primary election is Aug. 11.
7 HOURS AGO
Whitmer
launching Substack amid 2028 speculation
SARAH DAVIS
Michigan
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) started a Substack on
Monday as speculation swirls about a potential 2028 presidential bid.
In her
first post on Monday, titled “The Way Forward in 2026,” the governor
acknowledged the “heavy” state of the country and said she began the page to
“offer some perspective and maybe even a path forward right now.”
Whitmer is
currently serving out her final term as Michigan’s governor. During her time
leading the state, which President Trump won in 2026 and 2024, and former
President Biden won in 2020, she has emphasized the need for bipartisan
solutions and worked with the Trump administration on several issues.
Read more
here.
7 HOURS AGO
What to
know about the partial government shutdown
SARAH
FORTINSKY
A partial
shutdown affecting much of the federal government began Saturday, but it is unlikely
to last long.
The
shutdown is hitting huge parts of the government, including the Pentagon, the
Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland
Security.
Here’s what
you need to know about the shutdown.
8 HOURS AGO
Sheriff: 'Crime
scene' at home of Savannah Guthrie's mother
DOMINICK
MASTRANGELO
Authorities
in Arizona say they are conducting a criminal investigation at the home of
Nancy Guthrie, the mother of TODAY Show host Savannah Guthrie, who went missing
over the weekend.
“We believe
now, after we processed that crime scene, that we do in fact have a crime
scene, that we do, in fact have a crime. And we‘re
asking the community‘s help,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said during a
news conference on Monday. “This is a 84-year-old lady who suffers from some
physical ailments, has some physical challenges, is in need of medication;
medication that if she doesn‘t have in 24 hours, it
could be fatal.”
Nancy
Guthrie was last seen around 9:30 p.m. Saturday at her home in the Tucson area,
with her family reporting her missing around noon Sunday.
Read more
here.
8 HOURS AGO
2 more
arrests made in Minnesota church disruption: Bondi
ASHLEIGH
FIELDS
Attorney
General Pam Bondi on Monday said two additional arrests were made in connection
to a church disruption led by protesters in Minnesota last month.
The Justice
Department has promised to crack down on a group that stormed into a church in
St. Paul, Minn., where a local pastor has ties to Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), and disrupted the service.
“If you
riot in a place of worship, we WILL find you,” Bondi wrote in a post on the
social media platform X.
“We have made
two more arrests in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in
St. Paul, Minnesota: Ian Davis Austin and Jerome Deangelo
Richardson,” she added.
Read more.
8 HOURS AGO
Texas House
Republican blames special election stunner on winter storm
SARAH DAVIS
Rep. Pete
Sessions (R-Texas) is blaming his party’s loss in a weekend special election
for a state Senate seat on a winter storm in Texas.
Democratic
candidate Taylor Rehmet handily defeated his
Republican opponent, Leigh Wambsganss, in the
Saturday election for a vacant senate seat in North Texas’s 9th district by a
14-point margin.
Read more
here.
8 HOURS AGO
ASHLEIGH
FIELDS
Aides for
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard
attacked the Wall Street Journal over a Monday article spotlighting a
whistleblower report accusing the Trump Cabinet official of wrongdoing.
The Journal
reported the whistleblower’s complaint is so “highly classified” that it is
“said to be locked in a safe” because its contents are so critical to national
security. The whistleblower’s attorney has not seen the complaint, nor has
Congress, a situation described in the report as “without known precedent.”
Read more
here.
8 HOURS AGO
DHS locks
down detention center hit by measles outbreak
MAX REGO
The
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Sunday it has locked down the Dilley
Immigration Processing Center in South Texas amid a measles outbreak.
DHS
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told NewsNation,
The Hill’s sister network, that the Texas Department of State Health Services
(DSHS) confirmed Saturday that two detainees at the center had contracted
measles.
McLaughlin
added that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Health Service Corps
“immediately took steps to quarantine and control further spread and infection,
ceasing all movement within the facility and quarantining all individuals
suspected of making contact with the infected.”
“Medical
staff is continuing to monitor the detainees’ conditions and will take
appropriate and active steps to prevent further infection,” she said. “All
detainees are being provided with proper medical care.”
Read more
here.
9 HOURS AGO
DeSantis:
Democrat’s win in Texas ‘not something that can be dismissed’
SARAH DAVIS
Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is warning a Democratic candidate’s victory in a Texas
state Senate race could have implications for the Republican Party in the
upcoming midterm elections.
In a
shocking win on Saturday evening, Democratic candidate Taylor Rehmet defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss
by 14 percentage points, garnering over 13,000 more votes than his opponent,
who was backed by President Trump.
Read more
here.
9 HOURS AGO
What Kennedy
family members are saying about Trump’s closure of Kennedy Center for
renovations
MAX REGO
Multiple
members of the Kennedy family are criticizing President Trump for announcing
that the Kennedy Center will close in July for a two-year renovation.
Jack
Schlossberg, the grandson of former President Kennedy, wrote Sunday evening on
the social platform X that “Trump can take the Kennedy Center for himself. He
can change the name, shut the doors, and demolish the building. He can try to
kill JFK.”
“But JFK is
kept alive by us now rising up to remove Donald Trump, bring him to justice,
and restore the freedoms generations fought for,” the Democratic New York
congressional candidate added.
Read more
here.
9 HOURS AGO
Fetterman
warns anti-ICE protesters: 'Don't ever, ever dox people'
SARAH DAVIS
Sen. John
Fetterman (D-Penn.) warned protesters in Minnesota against doxing federal
immigration agents amid the Trump administration’s crackdown in the state.
In an
interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Briefing,” the Pennsylvania Democrat defended
agents wearing masks during the immigration operation, pointing to efforts to
“dox those people.”
“That’s a
serious concern, too. Absolutely,” Fetterman said. “They could target their
families and they are organizing these people to put their names out there, so
don’t ever, ever dox people and target their families, too.”
Read more
here.
9 HOURS AGO
House
Democrat on Kennedy Center renovation: Trump 'acted with a total disregard for
Congress'
ASHLEIGH
FIELDS
Rep. Joyce
Beatty (D-Ohio) on Sunday condemned the Trump administration’s decision to
close the Kennedy Center for renovation this summer, citing concern for
employees and contracted artists.
“Once
again, Donald Trump has acted with total disregard for Congress. The Kennedy Center
is congressionally funded, and Congress should have been consulted on any
decision to shut down its operations or undertake major renovations, especially
for a two-year period,” Beatty, an ex-officio Kennedy Center board member,
wrote in a statement.
“Countless
employees, artists, and others have existing contracts and agreements with the
Center. What happens to them? Has Trump or his handpicked Board given any
consideration to their livelihoods or futures? This is precisely why
congressional oversight is essential,” she added.
1 of 2
X Trump
undercuts GOP push to attach SAVE Act to shutdown bill as conservatives
threaten mutiny
Johnson
faces pressure to add voter ID legislation that Schumer has vowed to block in
Senate
FEBRUARY THIRD
ATTACHMENT “F”
– FROM CBS
GOVERNMENT
SHUTDOWN LIVE UPDATES AS HOUSE APPROVES FUNDING PACKAGE, ENDING STANDOFF
By Caitlin Yilek and Kaia Hubbard Updated on: February 3, 2026 / 2:12
PM EST / CBS News
What to know
about the partial government shutdown:
• The House on Tuesday voted 217 to 214 to
fund major parts of the government and end the partial shutdown, bringing an
end to a four-day standoff while teeing up a new fight over funding for the
Department of Homeland Security.
• President Trump urged Republicans to
back the legislation, and he is expected to sign it soon. Getting the bill
across the finish line presented some challenges earlier in the day for Speaker
Mike Johnson, who ultimately convinced a handful of GOP holdouts to advance the
measure to a final vote.
• The legislation includes five full-year
spending bills and an extension of DHS funding through Feb. 13. Democrats are
demanding reforms to how immigration enforcement agencies like ICE conduct
their operations, an issue that will now become the focus of negotiations on
Capitol Hill.
• However, the immigration agencies won't
be affected by another lapse, since they received a separate influx of money
last year.
22m ago
House approves
funding package in 217 to 214 vote
In a 217 to 214
bipartisan vote, the House approved the funding package, sending it to the
president's desk for his signature.
With passage of
the measures to fund the government, the partial government shutdown that began
on Saturday will be brought to an end in short order. But a fight over how to
fund the Department of Homeland Security, which will only be funded through
Feb. 13, is far from over.
If lawmakers
are unable to reach an agreement to fund DHS, with Democrats seeking reforms to
the administration's immigration enforcement operation, another partial
shutdown could occur later this month.
By Kaia Hubbard
54m ago
House begins
vote on final passage
The House is
now voting on final passage of the funding package. The package funds the
Pentagon, the State Department, the Education Department, the Treasury
Department and more agencies and programs through September. It also funds the
Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 13, giving lawmakers time to
negotiate over reforms to immigration enforcement.
The package is
expected to sail to passage with support from Republicans along with many
Democrats. Though Democrats are seeking the reforms to ICE in the wake of two
deadly shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis, many have acknowledged the
need to fund the government.
By Kaia Hubbard
1:30 PM
Johnson expects
smooth passage in final vote
Johnson told
reporters after the rule vote that he expects the funding package to easily
pass.
"It should
be fine," he told reporters, adding that he does not expect any more speed
bumps.
Johnson also
insisted Mr. Trump "was not involved" in pressuring GOP holdouts to
support the rule.
"The
president didn't have any role," he said.
Asked how GOP
leaders flipped Rep. John Rose from "no" to "yes" on the rule,
Johnson said "no promises" were made and described the conversation
as focused on Rose's gubernatorial bid in Tennessee.
By Nikole
Killion, Patrick Maguire
1:29 PM
Hoyer argues
"there will be time" for ICE debate while backing final passage
Speaking from
the House floor, Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland urged his colleagues
to vote in favor of the funding package, while acknowledging the concerns among
members of the Democratic caucus.
Hoyer, the
former majority leader under then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said five of the
bills "are not controversial." He urged his colleagues to "vote
for them to keep the government operating — to make sure that our federal
employees come to work and do their job for the American people and get paid
for it."
But Hoyer
acknowledged concerns about funding the Department of Homeland Security, though
the package would only do so through Feb. 13.
"There is
one bill in this package that is very controversial," Hoyer said.
"There is one bill in this package that the overwhelming majority of our
side thinks should not be in the bill. But I remind my colleagues — that bill
is funded for the next 10 days, or six legislative days. And during that period
of time we intend to raise very substantial concerns
about the operations that are being carried out not only in Minneapolis but in
other parts of our country by the Immigration Customs and Border Patrol
agents."
Hoyer cited the
belief among many of his Democratic colleagues that voting against the package
will "make a strong statement about the conduct that we see being carried
out" by ICE and CBP. But he argued that Democrats "need to have focus
on that issue," while noting that the other five bills will fund around
76% of the government, and represent "things that we have agreed
upon."
"After
they pass, after they're signed by the president, there will be a lot of time
to debate the operations of Homeland Security and, in my view, the laws that
they are breaking, the Constitution that they are not respecting and the human
rights that they are underlining," Hoyer said. "There will be time
for that debate. There will be time for that action. Today is a time to fund
the majority of government for the American people."
By Kaia Hubbard
12:42 PM
House debates
funding measures before vote on final passage
The House is
now debating the funding package before a vote on final passage set for later
this afternoon.
The one hour of
debate time is equally divided between Republicans and Democrats. The chairman
and ranking member of the Appropriations Committee — GOP Rep. Tom Cole of
Oklahoma and Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut — are leading the
debate for their respective parties.
By Kaia Hubbard
12:36 PM
House narrowly
advances funding package with 1 GOP defection
House Republicans
narrowly advanced the funding package in a 217 to 215 vote, with all but one
Republican voting in favor of the procedural vote. Rep. Thomas Massie of
Kentucky was the sole Republican to vote against it.
The vote was
open for more than 45 minutes as Johnson and GOP leaders worked their members
to support the measure. One Republican, Rep. John Rose of Tennessee, flipped
his vote from no to yes.
Republicans had
to move the bill forward on their own after Democrats said they wouldn't help
fast-track the package, which would have required around 70 votes from
Democrats. Some Democrats are still expected to support the bill later Tuesday.
The procedural
vote tees up a vote on final passage later this afternoon.
By Kaia Hubbard
12:26 PM
Nehls votes yes,
leaving Ogles as last member to vote
Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas voted in favor of advancing the funding
measure. Just one Republican, Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, has not voted.
GOP leaders
still need to flip one no vote to advance the package.
By Kaia Hubbard
12:18 PM
Donalds and Spartz vote yes
Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Victoria Spartz
of Indiana have now voted yes. The tally stands at 214 yeas
to 216 nays.
GOP leaders need
the two remaining Republicans who have not voted to vote in favor of advancing
the package. They also need to flip one of the two no votes so far. The vote
has been open for more than 30 minutes.
By Kaia Hubbard
12:10 PM
4 GOP members
haven't voted
Four Republican
members have yet to cast a vote:
• Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee
• Rep. Victoria Spartz
of Indiana
• Rep. Troy Nehls
of Texas
• Rep. Byron Donalds
of Florida
The current
tally stands at 212 yeas to 216 nays. Johnson needs
all four outstanding GOP members to vote yes and for one of the GOP nays to
flip for the rule to be adopted.
Johnson and
Majority Leader Steve Scalise are huddling with members on the House floor as
the vote continues.
By Stefan
Becket
11:58 AM
Rose urged
members to "hold the line" and insist on SAVE Act before rule vote
In a post on X
before the House vote on the rule, Rep. John Rose of Tennessee — one of the two
current GOP no votes — urged his colleagues to oppose moving forward if the
package doesn't include the SAVE Act, the Republican election bill:
By Stefan
Becket
11:56 AM
Massie, Rose
currently voting against advancing funding package, with vote ongoing
So far, two
Republicans — Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and John Rose of Tennessee — have
voted against moving ahead with the funding package. The vote on the rule is
still open, meaning members can change their votes. If the current outcome
holds, the rule will fail.
A handful of
members have not yet cast their votes.
Johnson has
been speaking with members of his conference's right flank on the floor,
including Reps. Keith Self of Texas, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andrew Clyde
of Georgia, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Chip Roy of Texas and Victoria Spartz of Indiana.
GOP leaders
regularly succeed in getting their members to flip their vote on the House
floor.
By Kaia Hubbard
11:46 AM
House begins
vote on rule for funding package
The House is now
voting on approving the rule governing debate for the funding package, which
will require a simple majority to succeed. If the rule is passed, the chamber
is expected to vote on final passage at 1 p.m.
By Stefan
Becket
11:11 AM
Thune calls
2-week timeframe to negotiate funding for DHS an "impossibility"
Senate Majority
Leader John Thune cast doubt on the short timeline to reach an agreement on DHS
funding. The temporary funding measure gives lawmakers until Feb. 13 to approve
long-term funding for the department, or another stopgap measure.
"Once we
start, we have a very short timeframe in which to do this, which I lobbied
against, but the Democrats insisted on a two-week window," Thune said.
"I don't understand the rationale for that. Anybody who knows this place
knows that's an impossibility."
Thune, a South
Dakota Republican, said he's hopeful there will be a "sense of urgency
around, if there's a path forward, what it might look like and what individual
component pieces might be included." But he noted that members of the
Republican conference remain in "very different places."
By Kaia Hubbard
10:31 AM
Johnson:
"We're going to pass the rule today. It was never in doubt to me"
At a press
conference at the Capitol, Johnson expressed optimism that Republicans will
remain united and approve the rule for the funding package this morning. He
said he does not expect any GOP defections.
"We're
going to pass the rule today. It was never in doubt to me. The Republicans are
going to do the responsible thing. I did talk to Hakeem Jeffries over the
weekend, and he informed me that they would not be assisting in this endeavor.
And I just think that's crazy," Johnson said. "I mean, I just think
that everybody needs to look at what's happening here: one party is moving
forward — by the way, with the smallest margin in U.S. history, we now have a
one vote margin. We are still sticking together. The Republican Party is
sticking together because the stakes are so high."
He added:
"Democrats, all they do, every single day here, is obstruct."
He said
Democrats are in a "family squabble" and suggested that Jeffries, the
House Democratic leader, was "upset, offended that Chuck Schumer presumed
to speak for House Democrats" in his negotiations with the White House.
By Stefan Becket
9:28 AM
Democrats may
back final passage of funding package, despite refusal
to fast-track bill
Dozens of House
Democrats could end up voting in favor of the funding package later Tuesday,
despite a pledge from Democratic leaders over the weekend not to help
Republicans fast-track the legislation.
House Democrats
conveyed to GOP leaders days ago that they wouldn't provide the votes to help
pass the funding package under suspension of the rules — a maneuver that would
speed the legislation's passage and would have required support from around 70
Democrats. Instead, Johnson had to maneuver the bill through the Rules
Committee, and later Tuesday morning will have to keep his conference together
on a partisan vote to move forward with the measure.
With a 218 to
214 majority, Johnson can only afford to lose one vote. A two-vote swing would
result in a 216-216 tie, which means the rule would fail.
"Republicans
have a responsibility to move the rule," Jeffries said Monday, adding that
"it's hard to imagine a scenario where Democrats are going to provide
Republicans" with votes.
Still, a number
of Democrats could opt to support the measure on final passage.
Though the
measure was negotiated between Senate Democrats and the White House, Democrats
secured the two-week extension of DHS funds that they had sought, giving them
time to negotiate reforms to the administration's approach to immigration
enforcement. The short timeline means lawmakers will have to move swiftly, but
Republicans and Democrats have expressed optimism about reaching a compromise.
In a sign that
the package could pick up support among Democrats, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of
Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said
Monday that she plans to support it.
Jeffries said there
are a "diversity of perspectives" among the Democratic caucus, while
noting that outside of the temporary funds for DHS, there's "strong"
Democratic support for the five bipartisan funding bills that comprise the
package.
By Kaia Hubbard
Updated 7:55 AM
SAVE Act
demands pushed aside — for now
Republican
leaders appeared to successfully quell a push by some House conservatives to attach
an elections-related bill known as the SAVE Act to the funding package Monday,
which threatened to stall the effort to reopen the government.
Conservatives
have long rallied behind the SAVE Act, which would require Americans to show
proof of citizenship in person to register to vote in federal elections. The
bill passed the House in April but hasn't been taken up in the Senate.
The push, led
by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, threatened passage of the funding
package, since House GOP leaders can only afford to lose a single vote on a
party-line procedural vote ahead of a vote on final passage.
Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer warned Monday that attaching the legislation would doom
the funding package in the upper chamber. Hours later, President Trump weighed
in on Truth Social, urging lawmakers to support the funding agreement and
"send it to my desk WITHOUT DELAY," while noting that there should be
"NO CHANGES at this time."
After a meeting
at the White House, Luna and Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee told reporters
later Monday that they will vote "yes" on the procedural vote to
advance the funding package, while pointing to assurances they said they
received about passing the measure in the Senate.
Whether and how
the measure moves forward in the upper chamber remains to be seen.
By Kaia Hubbard
Updated 7:55 AM
First vote
expected around 11:15 a.m.
The procedural
vote to adopt the rule, which governs debate, is expected to begin around 11:15
a.m. ET.
Once
Republicans overcome the procedural vote, the House can begin an hour of debate
on the funding package, which is equally divided between Republicans and
Democrats.
A vote on final
passage is expected after 1 p.m.
By Caitlin Yilek
Updated 7:55 AM
House Rules
Committee tees up funding package for floor vote
In an 8-4 vote
along party lines, the House Rules Committee advanced the funding package
Monday night, teeing it up for a floor vote Tuesday.
Before final
passage, Johnson will face a crucial test in a procedural vote that Republicans
will have to clear without any Democratic support. Johnson is operating with a
one-vote margin.
ATTACHMENT “G” – FROM USA
TODAY
CONGRESS PASSES LEGISLATION TO END GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN. LIVE UPDATES
A government funding package that was delayed over immigration
enforcement concerns has passed the House and Senate. President Trump will sign
it, ending the shutdown.
By Zachary Schermele and Zac Anderson Updated Feb. 3, 2026, 2:26 p.m. ET
What's everyone clicking on today?
Who was the only Republican to vote against the funding package?
What caused the partisan divide over DHS funding?
When does the next DHS funding deadline occur?
WHAT'S EVERYONE CLICKING ON TODAY?
WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a
legislative package ending the partial government shutdown, sending it to
President Donald Trump's desk for his signature.
Most Republicans and some Democrats supported the measure, which brought
a relatively swift resolution to a brief funding lapse amid widespread concern
with federal immigration enforcement since Alex Pretti's
killing.
The vote was 217-214. Most Republicans and 21 Democrats supported fully
reopening the government, while 21 Republicans voted with most Democrats not to
end the shutdown.
The race is now on for lawmakers to reach a deal in just over a week
over reforms to the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE and
Border Patrol. That agency's funding now runs out next Friday, Feb. 13.
The small extension was meant to buy time for Democratic lawmakers to
negotiate with the GOP and White House over changes to DHS in the wake of the
fatal shootings of Pretti and Renee Good in
Minneapolis last month.
Whether that agreement will rapidly come to fruition on such a tight
timeline is looking increasingly difficult – especially amid disunity among
House and Senate Democrats.
"The Democrats are in a family squabble," Republican House
Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday.
MASSIE ONLY GOP “NO” VOTE TO ADVANCE FUNDING PACKAGE
Johnson could only spare one Republican defection in advancing the
government spending package to end the four-day partial government shutdown.
That's exactly what happened, but not without some drama first.
Republicans Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, and John Rose, R-Tennessee,
initially voted against advancing the legislation. Four GOP lawmakers initially
abstained during the voting. Had they not changed their minds, the vote would
have failed 212-216 after every Democrat voted against the measure. Instead, Republican
leaders kept the vote open and worked to convince the holdouts.
The four lawmakers who initially abstained – Byron Donalds,
R-Florida, Andy Ogles, R-Tennessee, Victoria Spartz,
R-Indiana and Troy Nehls, R-Texas – eventually voted
to advance the bill and Rose flipped his vote, leaving Massie the only no vote.
The measure advanced 217-215.
-Zac Anderson
JOHNSON SCRAMBLES AMID GOP HOLDOUTS
Johnson huddled with several Republican holdouts on the House floor on
Tuesday afternoon as a high-stakes procedural vote to end the shutdown seemed
to be on thin ice.
The drama underscored just how thin Republicans' majority is in the
House, making virtually any piece of legislation a chance for lawmakers to flex
their political leverage.
– Zach Schermele
JOHNSON LOOKS AHEAD TO DEBATE OVER ICE REFORMS
Ahead of a vote on government funding legislation, Speaker Johnson laid
out the fight ahead over immigration issues that will quickly consume lawmakers
if the House passes the spending bill.
The funding measure only extends Department of Homeland Security
spending for another week while lawmakers debate immigration enforcement
issues. Trump has been negotiating with Senate Democrats on ICE reforms, but
Johnson said the House Republicans would engage on the issue as well and won’t
“go down the road of amnesty.”
“You can’t in any way lighten the enforcement requirement of federal
immigration law,” Johnson said in a press conference. “We have to enforce our
immigration law. The American people made that their number one issue in the
last election.”
– Zac Anderson
CONSERVATIVES BACK OFF THREAT TO VOTE DOWN FUNDING BILL
Republican lawmakers have dropped their threat to vote against the government
funding bill unless it is amended to incorporate voter ID legislation.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Florida, wrote on social media that the
“price” for her vote was amending the legislation. But she later told reporters Feb. 2 that she
and fellow GOP lawmaker Tim Burchett, R-Tennessee, had dropped their demand and
would vote to advance the legislation when it comes up for a procedural vote
this morning.
"As of right now, with the current agreement that we have, as well
as discussions, we will both be a yes on the rule," Luna said, according
to Fox News. (@PLACO)
Trump had pushed back against lawmakers demands for changes to the
funding bill in a social media post, and Luna said Senate Majority Leader John
Thune agreed to hold a vote on the voter ID bill, according to Fox News. The
GOP opposition to the legislation threatened its chances of passing in a
chamber where Republicans hold a slim majority.
– Zac Anderson
VOTES TO END SHUTDOWN MAY HINGE ON TIGHT MARGIN
Tuesday's votes – one around 11:15 a.m. and another at approximately 1
p.m. – may hinge on a tight margin, depending on how many Democrats get on
board.
While House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, signaled Monday
that Democrats wouldn't be voting en masse for the
shutdown-ending funding package, signs emerged this week that others in his
party were taking a different tack. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, who
represents Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, said she'd be
supporting the bills. The shift was notable given she was a no vote when the
House first sent the initial versions of the measures, which she played a big
role in negotiating and originally fully funded DHS, over to the Senate.
– Zach Schermele
STARK PARTISAN DIVIDE OVER IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT FUNDING
Leaders of the House Rules Committee, which moved the shutdown-ending
funding package forward on Monday night, revealed a sharp partisan divide.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, said the House never flirted with
a government shutdown, but she said the Senate “torpedoed” a previous spending
package. She encouraged quick approval of the measure to allow lawmakers to
work on other matters.
“To describe this as disappointing would be an understatement,” Foxx
said. “This process should have been over and done with by now.”
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts,
spoke for many Democrats in opposing the spending legislation for DHS, citing
the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti
last month.
“I’m not voting to fund this agency for two seconds let alone two
weeks,” McGovern said. “They are terrorizing our communities and acting like
they’re above the law.”
IS SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, MEDICAID IMPACTED DURING GOVERNMENT
SHUTDOWN?
No, certain types of mandatory spending that are not fully subject to
the annual appropriations process, including Social Security, Medicare, and
Medicaid, do not completely stop during a partial shutdown, according to the
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (though they can still be impacted
by disruptions).
National parks and food inspection services typically run as normal,
too, the CRFB says.
But a partial closure can mean certain federal operations are stopped or
scaled back to ensure only essential work is happening.
ATTACHMENT
“H” – FROM THE A.P.
LIVE
UPDATES: HOUSE PASSES BUDGET BILL TO END PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
Follow the
latest news on President Donald Trump and his administration
Edited By BRIDGET BROWN,
MICHAEL WARREN and LUENA RODRIGUEZ-FEO VILEIRA
Updated
2:37 PM EST, February 3, 2026
The House
has passed a roughly $1.2 trillion spending package to end the partial government
shutdown Tuesday afternoon, cleared by a bipartisan vote under the insistence
of President Donald Trump.
The measure
funds most of the federal government through Sept. 30, while providing the
Department of Homeland Security with short-term funding for two weeks.
Lawmakers will return to negotiate potential changes for U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement as Democrats demand more restrictions on its operations.
Earlier in
the afternoon, Speaker Mike Johnson managed to secure the near-unanimous GOP
support needed to pass the bill through a procedural vote, despite some members
of the party trying to tack unrelated priorities onto the funding package.
Trump
called on Republicans to stay united in a social media post Monday, telling
holdouts, “There can be NO CHANGES at this time.”
He has said
he will sign the bill when it reaches his desk.
Other news
we’re following:
• US military says it shot down Iranian
drone that approached aircraft carrier: U.S. Central Command said Tuesday that
a Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that “aggressively approached”
the aircraft carrier with “unclear intent” despite “de-escalatory measures
taken by U.S. forces.” The U.S. military says the shootdown occurred within
hours of another incident where Iranian forces harassed a U.S. merchant vessel
in the Strait of Hormuz.
• Clintons agree to testify in House
Epstein investigation: Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton agreed late Monday to testify in a House investigation into
convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as the chair of the House Oversight
Committee continued to press for criminal contempt of Congress charges against
both Clintons.
• Seeking shelter from Trump’s fury, U.S.
trade partners reach deals with each other: U.S. trade partners are cutting
deals among themselves — sometimes discarding old differences to do so — in a
push to diversify their economies away from a newly protectionist United
States. Central banks and global investors are dumping dollars and buying gold.
Together, their actions could diminish U.S. influence and mean higher interest
rates and prices for Americans already angry about the high cost of living.
LEAVITT
SAYS TRUMP’S DEMAND TO ‘NATIONALIZE’ ELECTIONS WAS A REFERENCE TO LEGISLATION
By NICHOLAS
RICCARDI
The White
House spokeswoman tried to clarify the president’s statements after they
sparked an uproar.
Trump on a
podcast Monday called for Republicans to “take over” and “nationalize”
elections.
The
comments came in the wake of an FBI raid on a Georgia election office that has
been the target of Trump’s often-debunked conspiracy theories to explain away
his loss in the 2020 presidential election.
Leavitt
said Trump was referring to the SAVE Act, legislation tightening proof of
citizenship requirements that some Republicans want to bring up for a
congressional vote. House Republicans also introduced a second bill last week
to change election procedures nationwide.
9 min ago 2:28 PM
WHAT TO
KNOW ABOUT THE PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
By MEG KINNARD,
KEVIN FREKING
The partial
government shutdown is vastly different from the record closure in the fall.
That is
mostly because this shutdown, which started Saturday, does not include the
whole of government and may not last long, even as it now drags into the new
week.
Congress
already has passed half this year’s funding bills, ensuring that several
important federal agencies and programs continue to operate through September.
Nutrition assistance programs, for example, should be unaffected.
Funding is lapsing,
at least temporarily, for the Pentagon and agencies such as the departments of
Homeland Security and Transportation. Essential functions are continuing, but
workers could go without pay if the impasse drags on. Some could be furloughed.
▶ Read more
21 min ago
WHITE HOUSE
PRESS SECRETARY ASSAILS CELEBRITIES WHO CRITICIZE ICE
By MORIAH
BALINGIT
Leavitt
criticized Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny for using his Grammy
acceptance speech to speak out against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying
celebrities don’t face the same dangers as ordinary Americans.
“Look, I
think it’s very ironic and frankly sad to see celebrities who live in gated
communities with private security, millions of dollars to spend protecting
themselves, trying to just demonize, again, law enforcement, public servants to
work for the United States government to enforce our nation’s laws,” Leavitt
said.
On Sunday, when
the Puerto Rican artist accepted a Grammy for album of the year, he began his
acceptance speech by saying “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE
out.”
It marked
the first time a Spanish-language album had garnered the honor.
28 min ago
HOUSE
PASSES BILL TO END THE PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, SENDING THE MEASURE TO
TRUMP
By KEVIN
FREKING
The House
on Tuesday passed a roughly $1.2 trillion spending package to end the partial
government shutdown, sending the measure to President Donald Trump and setting
the stage for a debate in Congress over Homeland Security funding.
The vote
was 217-214, and wraps up congressional work on 11 of the 12 annual
appropriations bills, funding the vast majority of the government for the
budget year ending Sept. 30. The last bill still to be worked out covers the
Department of Homeland Security where Democrats are demanding more restrictions
on enforcement operations.
Trump has
said he will sign the bill when it reaches his desk.
▶ Read more
2:07
PM 30 min ago
JUST IN:
House passes bill to end partial shutdown, sending measure to Trump and setting
stage for Homeland Security debate
By THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
30 min ago
Trump
‘unsurprised’ by Russia resuming assault on Ukraine energy grid
By AAMER
MADHANI
The president
on Thursday said Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to cease strikes
for a week on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities amid a bitter cold snap in the
region.
But Russia
carried out a major overnight attack on Ukraine in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
said Tuesday was a broken commitment to halt striking energy infrastructure
even as the countries prepared for more talks on ending Moscow’s 4-year-old
full-scale invasion.
Leavitt
said Trump was “unfortunately unsurprised” by Moscow’s move.
She added
that Witkoff and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner will
take part in talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials in Abu Dhabi set for
Wednesday that are aimed at making headway at ending the brutal war.
“Special
envoy Witkoff and Jared Kushner and President Trump
made the impossible possible with respect to peace in the Middle East,” Leavitt
said. “And I know they’re looking to do the same with respect to the
Russia-Ukraine war as well.”
48 min ago
Warner says
intel chief should stay out of election case
By DAVID
KLEPPER
The top
Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee says Director of National
Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s attendance at an FBI
search of a Georgia election office is eroding longstanding barriers separating
intelligence work from domestic law enforcement.
Sen. Mark
Warner of Virginia on Tuesday rejected Gabbard’s argument that she participated
in the search because President Donald Trump asked her to be there, saying she
should be focused on international threats to the U.S. instead of amplifying
Trump’s disproven conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
“It raises
serious legal and constitutional questions and politicizes an institution that
must remain neutral,” Warner said at a press conference at the Capitol,
speaking of the nation’s intelligence service. “She has no role in executing
search warrants.”
Gabbard
defended her role at the search in a letter to lawmakers, arguing that she
regularly works with the FBI and is authorized to investigate any threat to
election security.
50 min ago
White House
still wants talks with Iran in Turkey even as tensions mount
By AAMER
MADHANI
White House
press secretary Karoline Leavitt in an exchange with reporters acknowledged
that Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff has been
planning to hold talks with Iranian officials in Turkey later this week.
It was the
first direct acknowledgement of the talks by the White House.
“These
talks, as of right now, are still scheduled,” Leavitt said in response to
whether the latest developments with Iran could impact Witkoff’s
planned talks with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
“President
Trump is always wanting to pursue diplomacy first, but obviously it takes two
to tango,” Leavitt said. “You need a willing partner to achieve diplomacy. and
that’s something that special envoy Witkoff is intent
on exploring and discussing.”
Leavitt’s
comments came soon after U.S. Central Command announced that a U.S. Navy
fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching the aircraft
carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea.
Leavitt
added, “As always, though, of course, the president has a range of options on
the table with respect to Iran.”
12:53 PM
EST
US shoots
down Iranian drone that approached aircraft carrier, military says
By THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
U.S.
Central Command says a U.S. Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that
was approaching the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea.
In an
emailed statement Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said the drone “aggressively
approached” the aircraft carrier with “unclear intent” and it “continued to fly
toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces operating
in international waters.” The U.S. military says the shootdown also occurred
within hours of another incident in which Iranian forces harassed a
U.S.-flagged and U.S. crewed merchant vessel that was
sailing in the Strait of Hormuz.
The
Shahed-139 drone was shot down by an F-35C fighter jet from the Lincoln, which,
according to U.S. Central Command, was sailing about 500 miles (800 kilometers)
from Iran’s southern coast. The military’s statement noted that no American
troops were harmed and no equipment was damaged.
12:44 PM
EST
Petro
extradites drug lord hours before White House meeting
By MANUEL
RUEDA
Shortly
before the meeting between Petro and Trump, Colombia’s government offered a
diplomatic olive branch to the United States by announcing the extradition of
drug trafficker Andres Felipe Marin Silva.
Extraditions
have become a contentious issue between both countries as Petro holds back some
extradition requests involving members of rebel groups, whom he has argued need
to stay in Colombia to facilitate peace negotiations with his government..
Some
officials in Petro’s cabinet have also argued that extraditing drug traffickers
to the United States hinders efforts to seek truth and reconciliation for their
victims.
In today’s
meeting Petro is attempting to improve relations between his government and the
Trump administration as both sides look for ways to cooperate in the fight
against drug trafficking.
12:42 PM
EST BREAKING NEWS UPDATES
JUST IN: US
military says it shot down an Iranian drone that approached an aircraft carrier
in the region with ‘unclear intent
By THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
12:40 PM
EST
BILL TO END
SHUTDOWN CLEARS KEY PROCEDURAL VOTE IN HOUSE
By KEVIN
FREKING
It took
about an hour of negotiations, but the House is now on a glidepath for ending a
partial government shutdown after Republicans used their majority to clear a
critical procedural hurdle.
A final vote
is expected in the afternoon, which would wrap up congressional work on 11 of
the annual appropriations bills that fund the government for the 2026 fiscal
year ending Sept. 30.
The last
bill to be worked out covers the Department of Homeland Security where
Democrats are demanding more restrictions on ICE operations. The measure before
the House includes a short-term funding patch for the department through Feb.
13.
President
Donald Trump has said he will sign the bill when it reaches his desk.
12:26 PM
EST
In critical
meeting with Trump, Colombian President goes with suits
By MANUEL
RUEDA
In his
meeting with Donald Trump, Colombian President Gustavo Petro sported a dark
suit with a white shirt and a golden tie, attire that the left
wing leader tends to reserve for special occasions like his own
inauguration, or military parades.
The
Colombian president tends to dismiss formal attire, and in national broadcasts
he is often seen donning more professorial attire such as cardigans, sweaters
or white linen shirts known as guayaberas, which he has also used at the UN
General Assembly.
However,
Petro also has used suits in regional economic forums and in meetings with
heads of state like the President of Panama or the King of Spain.
The meeting
takes place as both nations try to renew cooperation in the fight against the
drug trade, following months of tensions that included threats by Trump to
intervene in Colombia.
12:10 PM
EST
Colombia
releases first photos of Petro with Trump
By ASTRID
SUÁREZ
The
Colombian presidency released the first images of President Gustavo Petro’s
meeting with Donald Trump.
One photo
captures the two leaders walking through the White House corridors alongside
Ambassador Daniel García-Peña, who is seen carrying a copy of Trump’s book, “The
Art of the Deal.”
12:09 PM
EST
SOME STATES
STILL SCRAMBLING TO GERRYMANDER IN HOPES OF CONTROLLING US HOUSE
Trump hoped
redistricting could help House Republicans hold on to their slim majority in
November’s midterm elections. But the GOP so far has only a slight edge, and
it’s unclear whether that will make any difference in determining control of
Congress.
It began
last summer when Trump urged Republicans in Texas to redraw the state’s
congressional districts for political gain. Democrats countered with their own
gerrymandering in California. More states soon followed.
The
unconventional mid-decade redistricting contest has now shifted to the
Democratic-led states of Maryland and Virginia, with Republican-led Florida set
to undertake it this spring. Ongoing court challenges could affect boundaries
in New York, Louisiana and elsewhere.
▶ See more
about states that have adopted or considered new House districts.
12:06 PM
EST
REPUBLICANS
STRUGGLE TO MOVE AHEAD ON GOVERNMENT FUNDING PACKAGE
By THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A key
procedural vote to take up the bill is being held open as Republicans leaders
try to wrangle the votes.
Two
Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and John Rose of Tennessee — have
voted against moving forward with the bill.
Republicans
can only afford 1 defection, as they control the House 218-214. Four other
Republicans have not yet voted.
All 214
House Democrats have voted no.
Rose, in a post
on X, said Republicans must “hold the line” and get a commitment from Senate
Republicans to move forward with voting legislation.
12:04 PM
EST
THE
COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT CAME BEARING GIFTS
By AAMER
MADHANI
In a
diplomatic gesture amid the acrimony, Colombian officials said Petro brought
gifts, including a signature Wounaan indigenous
basket from Colombia’s Chocó region for Trump, and a handmade gown crafted by
indigenous artisans from Nariño for first lady Melania Trump.
11:43 AM
EST
Petro
laments most of his children live outside Colombia
By ASTRID
SUÁREZ
Speaking
minutes before meeting with Trump at the White House, Petro described himself
as a politician who has denounced and prosecuted drug traffickers.
Accompanied
by one of his daughters and his granddaughter, he lamented that most of his
children live outside of Colombia, in exile, due to the fight against drug
trafficking, “because we have truly suffered its effects directly.”
Trump has
called the Colombian leader a “drug kingpin” and criticized him for not doing
enough to shut down “cocaine factories” in Colombia.
11:16 AM
EST
Colombia’s
president is at the White House to meet with Trump
By MORIAH
BALINGIT
Colombian
President Gustavo Petro arrived just before their scheduled meeting. The Oval
Office sit-down with Trump comes just weeks after Trump threatened military
action against the South American country and accused Petro of pumping cocaine
into the United States.
11:15 AM
EST
SENATE
MAJORITY LEADER THROWS COLD WATER ON TRUMP’S CALL TO TAKE OVER ELECTIONS IN
STATES
By STEPHEN
GROVES
“I’m not in
favor of federalizing elections,” Sen. John Thune told reporters, pointing to
Constitutional requirements that states conduct their own elections.
The
president said in a Monday podcast interview that Republicans should “take
over” elections in as many 15 states. Trump’s calls come amid a push among
Republicans in Congress to tighten voting requirements nationwide.
“I’m a big
believer in decentralizing and distributing power,” Thune added.
However,
the South Dakota Republican said he is supporting legislation known as the SAVE
Act, which would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote in
federal elections. The House has already passed the bill, but Republicans have
not been able to overcome the 60-vote threshold required by the Senate’s
filibuster rules.
10:40 AM
EST
HOUSE
REPUBLICANS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT ENDING PARTIAL SHUTDOWN
By KEVIN
FREKING
Republican
leaders in the House are sounding confident they’ll have the votes to pass a
package of spending bills that would end a partial government shutdown.
“We passed
these bills once before and we will pass them again” said House Majority Whip
Tom Emmer of Minnesota.
The package
awaiting a House vote funds various government agencies and programs such as
the Department of Defense through Sept. 30. The bill also includes a
short-term, two-week funding patch for the Department of Homeland Security.
Republicans
have a razor-thin majority and can afford few defections, but that was looking
increasingly unlikely Tuesday morning,
“The
Republicans are going to do the responsible thing,” said House Speaker Mike
Johnson.
10:37 AM
EST
Wait, which
election is this? Texas governor’s schedule led to overlapping votes
By THOMAS
BEAUMONT, JUAN A. LOZANO
Because
Abbott scheduled the vacancy elections so late in 2025 and 2026, they ended up
colliding with the start of the 2026 midterm elections, for the next term that
will start in 2027.
So not only
were voters seeing campaign signs for the March 3 primary before the Saturday
runoff, Harris County began sending out mail-in ballots for the new district
primary two weeks before the runoff was finished.
“You
literally had people who could vote in two different elections at the same
time,” said Amanda Edwards, a former Houston city councilwoman. “These
elections aren’t just back to back. They overlap.”
Menefee
said he’s been trying to encourage people to stay engaged.
It has
“definitely made people feel like they can be a pawn in a game,” he said. “I
think it has demoralized some people.”
10:30 AM
EST
3 ELECTIONS
IN 4 MONTHS AND NEW US HOUSE MAP LEAD TO CONFUSION IN HEAVILY DEMOCRATIC
HOUSTON
By THOMAS
BEAUMONT, JUAN A. LOZANO
Rep. Christian
Menefee started work Monday as the newest member of Congress, and has just four
weeks to convince voters he deserves reelection.
The
candidate Menefee defeated on Saturday, Amanda Edwards, is running again in
next month’s Democratic primary. So is Rep. Al Green, whose longtime home was
redrawn into the 18th District. The situation is spinning heads in heavily
Democratic Houston.
The 18th
went nearly a year without representation after the Rep. Sylvester Turner died
in March 2025. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott set an all-party primary for eight
months later. That gave Republican leader Mike Johnson more time to pass House
legislation with a thin GOP majority. Then, the Texas Legislature redrew
congressional maps, raising concerns about disenfranchising voters in the
predominantly Black and Hispanic district.
“We’re not
going to say they want to steal elections, but they make it very hard for the
Black and brown communities to vote,” voter Shampu
Sibley said.
9:50 AM EST
GOP
ELECTIONS BILL A LAST-MINUTE OBSTACLE TO ENDING SHUTDOWN
By KEVIN
FREKING
Some House
Republicans have demanded that the funding package include the SAVE Act, which
among other things would require Americans to prove their citizenship before
voting in elections. But Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., appeared to drop this
demand late Monday, writing on social media that she had spoken with Trump
about a “pathway forward” for the voting bill in the Senate that would keep the
government open.
The Brennan
Center for Justice, a think tank focused on democracy and voting rights issues,
said at least 21 million voters lack ready access to their passport or birth
certificate.
“The SAVE
Act is not about securing our elections. It is about suppressing voters,”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. Including it in the bipartisan
funding bill, he said, “will lead to another prolonged Trump government
shutdown.”
9:38 AM EST
Democrats
say GOP won’t have their help to take up bill ending shutdown
By KEVIN
FREKING
Some
Democrats are expected to vote for the final bill, but not for Tuesday’s
initial procedural measure setting the terms for the House debate.
Democratic
leader Hakeem Jeffries has made clear that Democrats wouldn’t help Republicans
out of their procedural jam, even though Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer
helped negotiate the funding bill. That’s because the procedural vote covers a
variety of issues most Democrats oppose.
“If they have
some massive mandate,” Jeffries said of Republicans, “then go pass your rule,
which includes toxic bills that we don’t support.”
9:01 AM EST
Don Lemon
describes his arrest by a dozen federal agents
By AUDREY
MCAVOY
Don Lemon
said they handcuffed him at the elevator of his Los Angeles hotel, ignoring his
offer to turn himself in to face federal civil rights charges over covering an
anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a Minnesota church service.
ABC
late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said his Monday night guest “was arrested for
committing journalism.”
“I went
there to be a journalist. I went there to chronicle and document and record
what was happening. I was following that one group around, and so that’s what I
did. I reported on them,” Lemon said.
Lemon said
the arresting agents wouldn’t let him make a phone call or talk with his
lawyer, but one did agree to take his diamond bracelet, which kept getting
caught in his handcuffs, up to his husband in their hotel room. “And that’s how
my husband found out. Otherwise, no one would have known where I was,” Lemon
said.
8:51 AM EST
WHAT TO
EXPECT WHEN TRUMP AND COLOMBIA’S PETRO MEET
By AAMER
MADHANI
Trump is
set to welcome Colombian President Gustavo Petro to the White House on Tuesday
for talks only weeks after threatening military action against the South
American country and accusing the leader of pumping cocaine into the United
States.
U.S.
administration officials say the meeting will focus on regional security
cooperation and counternarcotics efforts. And Trump suggested Monday that Petro
— who has criticized Trump and the U.S. operation to capture Venezuela’s
Nicolás Maduro — has “changed his attitude.”
“Somehow
after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice,” Trump told reporters.
Yet, bad
blood between the leaders overshadows the sit-down. The conservative Trump and
leftist Petro are ideologically far apart, but both leaders share a tendency
for verbal bombast and unpredictability, setting the stage for a White House
visit with an anything-could-happen vibe.
8:45 AM EST
TRUMP
THREATENS HARVARD AGAIN, SAYING HE WANTS $1 BILLION
By BILL
BARROW
The
president overnight accused Harvard University of not meeting his
administration’s demands and said he wants a $1 billion settlement from the
school rather than the previous $500 million he sought.
On Truth
Social, the president said, “Harvard has been, for a long time, behaving very
badly!”
He repeated
his assertions that Harvard is “Strongly Antisemitic” and said university
President Alan Garber has done “a terrible job.”
Garber is
Jewish and talks openly about his faith.
“He was
hired AFTER the antisemitism charges were brought - I wonder why???” Trump
wrote of the Ph.D. economist, physician and researcher who had been Harvard
provost for 13 years before becoming president.
Trump’s
outburst came followed a New York Times report saying the president had dropped
his demands that the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university pay a federal
fine as other elite institutions have done. Trump called the Times’ reporting
“a lot of nonsense.”
8:02 AM EST
Trump says
he won’t tear down the Kennedy Center arts venue but it needs to be closed for
repairs
By DARLENE
SUPERVILLE
Trump said
Monday that he’s “not ripping down” the Kennedy Center but insisted the
performing arts venue needs to shut down for about two years for construction
and other work without patrons coming and going and getting in the way.
The comments
strongly suggested that he intends to gut the John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts as part of the process.
Such a
project would mark the Republican president’s latest effort to put his stamp on
a cultural institution that Congress designated as a living memorial to
President Kennedy, a Democrat. It would also be in addition to attempts to
leave a permanent mark on Washington through other projects, the most prominent
of which is adding a ballroom to the White House.
Trump
announced Sunday on social media that he intends to temporarily close the
performing arts venue on July 4 for about two years “for Construction,
Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding,” subject to board approval.
▶ Read more
8:00 AM EST
SEEKING
SHELTER FROM TRUMP’S FURY, U.S. TRADE PARTNERS REACH DEALS WITH EACH OTHER
By PAUL
WISEMAN, JOSH BOAK, ELAINE KURTENBACH
Bullied and
buffeted by Trump’s tariffs for the past year, America’s longstanding allies
are desperately seeking ways to shield themselves from the president’s impulsive
wrath.
U.S. trade
partners are cutting deals among themselves — sometimes discarding old
differences to do so — in a push to diversify their economies away from a newly
protectionist United States. Central banks and global investors are dumping dollars
and buying gold. Together, their actions could diminish U.S. influence and mean
higher interest rates and prices for Americans already angry about the high
cost of living.
Last summer
and fall, Trump used the threat of punishing taxes on imports to strong-arm the
European Union, Japan, South Korea and other trading partners into accepting
lopsided trade deals and promising to make massive investments in the United
States.
But a deal
with Trump, they’ve discovered, is no deal at all.
The
mercurial president repeatedly finds reasons to conjure new tariffs to impose
on trading partners that thought they had already made enough concessions to
satisfy him.
7:53 AM EST
CLINTONS
AGREE TO TESTIFY IN HOUSE EPSTEIN INVESTIGATION AHEAD OF CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS
VOTE
By STEPHEN
GROVES
Former
President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed
late Monday to testify in a House investigation into convicted sex offender
Jeffrey Epstein, but the Republican leading the probe said an agreement had not
yet been finalized.
Rep. James
Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, continued to press for
criminal contempt of Congress charges against both Clintons Monday evening for
defying a congressional subpoena when attorneys for the Clintons emailed staff
for the Oversight panel, saying the pair would accept Comer’s demands and “will
appear for depositions on mutually agreeable dates.”
The
attorneys requested that Comer, a Kentucky Republican, agree not to move
forward with the contempt proceedings. Comer, however, said he was not
immediately dropping the charges, which would carry the threat of a substantial
fine and even incarceration if passed by the House and successfully prosecuted
by the Department of Justice.
“We don’t
have anything in writing,” Comer told reporters, adding that he was open to
accepting the Clintons’ offer but “it depends on what they say.”
7:48 AM EST
GOP LEADERS
LABOR FOR SUPPORT AHEAD OF KEY TEST VOTE ON ENDING PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
By KEVIN
FREKING
Speaker
Mike Johnson’s ability to carry out Trump’s “play call” for funding the
government will be put to the test Tuesday as the House holds a procedural vote
on a bill to end the partial shutdown.
Johnson
will need near-unanimous support from his Republican conference to proceed. He
can afford to lose only one Republican on party-line votes with perfect
attendance, but some lawmakers are threatening to tank the effort if their
priorities are not included. Trump weighed in with a social media post, telling
them “There can be NO CHANGES at this time.”
The measure
would end the partial government shutdown that began Saturday, funding most of
the federal government through Sept. 30 and the Department of Homeland Security
for two weeks as lawmakers negotiate potential changes for the agency that
enforces the nation’s immigration laws — United States Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, or ICE.
ATTACHMENT “I” – FROM CNN
HOUSE PASSES GOVERNMENT FUNDING PACKAGE TO REOPEN
GOVERNMENT
Trump says Republicans 'should take over the
voting'
Updated 2:32 PM EST, Tue February 3, 2026
What we're covering
• Government shutdown: The House passed a
massive funding bill that will fully reopen the government. It now heads to
President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.
• Petro in Washington: Colombian President
Gustavo Petro met with Trump today, a visit comes after a yearlong public
quarrel between the two leaders over immigration and drug trafficking.
• Trump’s call to “nationalize” voting: In
comments slammed by Democrats, Trump said Republicans should “take over”
elections in at least 15 states ahead of the midterms. The White House claims
Trump was referring to support for a voter ID law.
• Iran tensions: Talks between the US and Iran
will still be held at the end of the week, despite changes requested by Tehran,
according to the White House. It comes as a US carrier shot down an Iranian
drone in the Arabian Sea and armed boats threatened a US tanker in the Strait
of Hormuz.
All Shutdown
41 Posts
11 min ago
Senior Democrat says Tulsi
Gabbard is part of Trump admin effort to undermine elections
From CNN's Sean Lyngaas
The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence
Committee said Tuesday that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s presence at an FBI search of an elections
office in Georgia is part of a broader Trump administration effort to interfere
in free and fair elections in the US.
“When you put all of this together, it is
clear that what happened in Fulton County is not about revisiting the past,”
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “It’s
about shaping the outcome of future elections, and quite honestly dismantling
the very guardrails that were put in place to keep them free and fair.”
“I am deeply concerned about it spreading to
other states,” he added.
Gabbard last week put President Donald Trump
on the phone with some of the FBI agents who conducted the search.
“He did not ask any questions, nor did he or I
issue any directives,” Gabbard wrote in a letter this week to Warner and the
top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. She said her office’s general
counsel found her actions to be within her lawful authority.
Gabbard argued that she had “broad statutory
authority” to coordinate, integrate and analyze intelligence related to
election security.
“That phone call alone should concern every
American because it didn’t occur in a vacuum,” Warner said. “Broad authority to
analyze intelligence is not a license to participate in a sham investigation.”
“I want to underscore a core legal boundary:
US intelligence agencies are structured to operate overseas, not on domestic
soil,” Warner said Tuesday.
A classified whistleblower complaint alleging
wrongdoing by Gabbard had yet to be transmitted to Congress, the Wall Street
Journal reported Monday. Gabbard’s office has called the complaint “baseless
and politically motivated.”
Warner said Tuesday that he expected to
receive the complaint “today or tomorrow.”
29 min ago 2:03 PM
House passes funding bill to reopen government
and sends it to Trump for his signature
From CNN's Sarah Ferris
The House on Tuesday passed a sprawling
spending package that will end the partial government shutdown — but created
another funding cliff for the Department of Homeland Security in two weeks.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign the
funding bill quickly, ending the shutdown after three days. Trump and GOP
leaders had pushed hard for their GOP members to fall in line despite their own
private grumblings about the bill, eager to avoid a debilitating shutdown like
the one that paralyzed Washington for 43 days last fall.
The vote was a hard-fought victory for both
Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, who had to cajole the fractious GOP
conference to back a deal that only temporarily funds DHS and excludes certain
conservative priorities.
45 min ago
Trump tapped Gabbard to oversee election
security, White House says
From CNN's Samantha Waldenberg
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt
told reporters Tuesday that President Donald Trump tapped Director of National
Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to oversee election
security while describing her unusual involvement in an FBI search of a Georgia
elections office.
“Tulsi Gabbard has
been tapped by the president of the United States to oversee the sanctity and
the security of our American elections. She’s working directly alongside the
FBI director, Kash Patel,” Leavitt said.
“This is a coordinated whole-of-government
effort to ensure that our elections again are fair and transparent moving
forward. I don’t see anything wrong with the president tasking a Cabinet member
to pursue an issue that most people want to see solved,” she added.
Some background: After the administration gave
conflicting accounts on Gabbard’s involvement in the controversial search, the
DNI in a letter released Monday night said she had accompanied top FBI agents
at Trump’s request. She also said she facilitated a call between the president
and some of the FBI agents involved — while claiming the conversation included
no questions or directives from Trump or her.
The director of national intelligence oversees
all foreign intelligence collection. Their traditional role in US elections is
to protect them from foreign interference.
42 min ago
US Attorney Jeanine Pirro
clarifies her support for the Second Amendment
From CNN's Hannah Rabinowitz
After widespread pushback over comments
suggesting she will target gun owners in Washington, DC, for prosecution, US
Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a video that she is
focused on taking firearms “out of the hands of criminals.”
Pirro found herself in hot water after saying in a
Fox News interview Monday evening that “you’re going to jail” if you bring a
gun into DC, whether or not you have a license in another district.
DC requires gun owners to register their
firearms with the district and does not recognize concealed carry permits from
other states.
In the video posted on X Tuesday, Pirro said that she wanted to be “crystal clear” about her
support for the Second Amendment.
“However, you need to be responsible,” Pirro said, “and every responsible gun owner that I know
makes sure that they understand the laws where they are going and understand
whatever registration requirements there might be.”
She concluded, “You’re responsible, you follow
the laws, you’re not going to have a problem with me.”
56 min ago
NOW: House voting on funding package to end
government shutdown
From CNN's Hill Team
The House is voting now on a sprawling funding
package that will end the partial government shutdown.
President Donald Trump, who supports the
package, is expected to sign the bill quickly.
The bill funds a number of critical
departments, but also creates another funding cliff for the Department of
Homeland Security in two weeks.
58 min ago
Trump "unsurprised" by Russian
assault on Kyiv, even after arranging temporary pause, White House says
From CNN's Kevin Liptak
President Donald Trump was “unsurprised” by
Russia’s major missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, the White
House said Tuesday, even after he took credit for convincing President Vladimir
Putin to temporarily pause such assaults.
Speaking to reporters at the White House,
press secretary Karoline Leavitt said planned negotiations between Russia and
Ukraine would proceed later this week in Abu Dhabi, with the US in a mediating
role.
“I spoke with the president about it this
morning, and his reaction was, unfortunately, unsurprised,” she said when asked
about the fresh round of bombardment. “These are two countries who have been
engaged in a very brutal war for several years, a war that have would have
never started if the president were still in office.”
The overnight assault cut heat to tens of
thousands of people and ended a brief reprieve agreed to by Moscow and
Washington as Ukrainians grapple with plummeting winter temperatures.
Trump had taken credit for arranging the
pause, saying he made a personal request to Putin to stop striking Ukrainian
cities amid a cold snap.
But Tuesday’s assault made clear the break was
short-lived. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s attack was
focused on energy facilities across at least six regions and involved 70
missiles and 450 attack drones.
“Taking advantage of the coldest days of
winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than turning to
diplomacy,” Zelensky said.
54 min ago
Trump's "nationalize the voting"
call referred to support for voter ID law, White House says
From CNN's Adam Cancryn
The White House said Tuesday that President
Donald Trump was talking about the need for a national voter ID requirement
when he called on Republicans to “nationalize the voting.”
“What the president was referring to is the
SAVE Act,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, adding that Trump
had spoken with GOP congressional leaders about the legislation, which would
require proof of citizenship to register to vote. “It provides very commonsense
measures for voting in our country, such as voter ID.”
Trump, in a radio interview that aired Monday,
also advocated for Republicans to take over the voting in “at least” 15 places.
Leavitt said that was also tied to his desire for a voter ID law, insisting he
was referring to states where he believes there’s been a “high degree” of
election fraud.
Some House conservatives pushed to attach the
SAVE Act to a government funding bill ahead of a vote on the package today. But
Trump declined to support that effort over concerns about a lengthy shutdown.
Leavitt said he’ll instead push for a separate vote on the measure.
“There are millions of people who have
questions about that,” she said of alleged election fraud. “He wants to make it
right, and the SAVE Act is a solution to doing it.”
The SAVE Act: Critics have warned that the
bill threatens to restrict voting access by creating unnecessary hurdles that
will make it harder to register to vote and wrongfully disenfranchise
legitimate voters.
It is already against the law for people who
aren’t US citizens to vote in federal elections, and experts say it rarely
happens.
1 hr 9 min ago
White House says Iran talks still on after
Tehran requested changes
From CNN's Kevin Liptak
Talks between the US and Iran will proceed
this week, despite changes requested by Tehran to the venue and format,
according to the White House.
“I just spoke with special envoy (Steve) Witkoff, and these talks, as of right now, are still
scheduled,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in the White House
driveway.
“President Trump is always wanting to pursue
diplomacy first, but obviously it takes two to tango,” she went on. “You need a
willing partner to achieve diplomacy, and that’s something that special envoy Witkoff is intent on exploring and discussing.”
The planned talks hit a snag Tuesday after
Tehran requested they be relocated to a different
city, that regional participants be excluded and that the scope of the
discussions be limited to just the country’s nuclear program, CNN reported
earlier.
The new demands could complicate efforts by
Middle Eastern allies of the United States to broker a diplomatic solution to
sky-high regional tensions.
Leavitt said Trump was still keeping open the
option of military strikes if diplomacy fails.
“The president has a range of options on the
table with respect to Iran as commander in chief,” she said.
1 hr 19 min ago 1:13 PM
WHITE HOUSE "EXTREMELY OPTIMISTIC"
GOVERNMENT WILL REOPEN
From CNN's Samantha Waldenberg
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt
on Tuesday expressed optimism that the government will reopen and that the
president will sign Congress’ funding deal later today.
“We’re extremely optimistic the government is
going to reopen, that all Republicans are going to stick together and vote
accordingly, and that bill to reopen the government will be right here at the
White House, we hope in just a few short hours, to the president’s desk for
signature,” Leavitt said on Fox News.
Leavitt’s comments came shortly after the
House GOP cleared a key procedural vote on the massive funding bill, putting
Congress on a path to reopen the government within hours. It follows a fierce
lobbying push by President Donald Trump on Republican holdouts.
1 hr 24 min ago
US aircraft carrier shoots down Iranian drone
that "aggressively approached" the ship, military says
From CNN's Natasha Bertrand
A US aircraft carrier shot down an Iranian
drone that “aggressively approached” the ship in the Arabian Sea today, hours
before two gunboats operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
approached a US-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and threatened to board
and seize the ship, according to a US military spokesperson.
The two incidents occurred days before US and
Iranian officials are due to meet Friday for diplomatic negotiations meant to
avert a military clash.
In the first incident: US forces shot down an
Iranian drone “as the unmanned aircraft aggressively approached” the USS
Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which was transiting the Arabian Sea about
500 miles from Iran’s southern coast, said Capt. Tim Hawkins, a US Central
Command spokesperson.
“The Iranian drone continued to fly toward the
ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by US forces operating in
international waters,” Hawkins said. An F-35C fighter jet from the Lincoln shot
down the drone to protect the carrier and its personnel, he said.
“No American service members were harmed
during the incident, and no U.S. equipment was damaged,” Hawkins said.
The second incident: Hours later, two Iranian
gunboats approached the M/V Stena Imperative — a chemical tanker operated by
Americans flying under the US flag in the Strait of Hormuz — passing the ship
three times at high speeds as an Iranian Mohajer
drone also flew overhead, said Hawkins. During one of their passes, the
Iranians threatened via radio call that they would board and seize the tanker.
The tanker was in international waters, Hawkins said.
US military forces operating in the area
responded when they learned of the Iranian threats. The USS McFaul destroyer
escorted the tanker away from the area along with defensive air support from
the US Air Force, Hawkins added. The situation de-escalated as a result.
1 hr 43 min ago
Top Democrat on House Oversight says public
testimony from Clintons would be “good for the American people”
From CNN's Alison Main
Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the
House Oversight Committee, backed Bill and Hillary Clinton’s request to testify
publicly to the panel.
“They’ve also requested that the hearings be
public hearings. They just made that request today. I strongly support that. I
think the idea of moving that deposition from being a private to public, is
good for the for the American people. And I support that,” he told reporters on
Tuesday.
The Clintons reached an agreement on Tuesday
to appear for depositions before the House oversight committee.
The former president is scheduled to appear on
February 27 and the former Secretary of State to appear on February 26.
1 hr 38 min ago
Atlanta newspaper obtained body-camera video
of FBI search at Fulton County election office
From CNN's Jason Morris
Fulton Police Department body-camera video,
obtained exclusively by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, shows a chaotic scene
in the hours after the FBI arrived at the Fulton County elections warehouse
last Wednesday.
The FBI served a warrant at the Fulton County
election office, near Atlanta, taking 700 boxes of election materials as it
probes alleged voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
“All right so we were given very limited
information,” the unidentified Fulton Police officer told Peter Ellis, acting
special agent in charge at the FBI’s Atlanta field office after the two men
exchanged a handshake.
“So we have a search
warrant for this like, one for the like entire location,” Ellis told the
officer.
“But now we’re getting it, we may need another
search warrant for another location,” he told the officer. “So
we’ll have that soon.”
The Fulton police officer asked if the warrant
had to do with “election stuff.”
“Well you know why
we’re here, right? So we can’t, I can’t discuss more,”
Ellis responded.
Another FBI employee, who is not named in the
video, told the officer that the warrant will be adjusted.
The FBI staffer told the Fulton officer that
he wanted election warehouse employees to help them unlock gates in the
building so they didn’t have to “breach it.”
“Because one way or another the records are
coming with us today,” he said.
An FBI spokesperson at the scene on Wednesday
told CNN that the materials would be taken to the FBI Central Records Complex
in Virginia.
1 hr 44 min ago
Iran asks for changes to planned talks with
US, throwing new wrench in diplomatic efforts
From CNN's Kevin Liptak, Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood
Talks between the US and Iran planned for
later this week hit a snag Tuesday after Tehran requested
they be relocated, that regional participants be excluded, and that the
discussions’ scope be limited to the country’s nuclear program, according to
three sources familiar with the matter.
The new demands could complicate efforts by
Middle Eastern allies of the United States to broker a diplomatic solution to
sky-high regional tensions.
The talks had been set for Istanbul, with
foreign ministers from Egypt, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates also expected to attend.
Tehran is now asking for an alternate
location: Oman, the small Gulf sultanate that has previous hosted talks between
the US and Iran.
Iran is also stipulating the talks be
conducted bilaterally, without the other nations’ representatives.
And it has requested the scope of the
discussions be limited to the nuclear issue. The US has said its demands for
Iran extend beyond an end to its nuclear program to curbing its ballistic
missiles and ending support for regional proxy groups.
What the changes — first reported by Axios — portend for the diplomatic efforts wasn’t clear.
Already, some American officials had privately warned that Iran may be using
diplomacy to play for time in preventing military action.
The two US participants in the discussions —
foreign envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — arrived in the region on Tuesday for talks
with Israeli officials.
Trump said Monday that talks were ongoing but
continued to point to the large military buildup in the region as evidence of
his willingness to order strikes.
“Right now we’re
talking to them. We’re talking to Iran, and if we can work something out
that’ll be great, and if we can’t, probably bad things would happen,” he said.
2 hr 4 min ago
HOUSE GOP CLEARS KEY HURDLE TOWARD ENDING
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
From CNN's Sarah Ferris and Veronica Stracqualursi
Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday successfully
quelled a conservative rebellion within his own party that threatened to block
a massive funding bill, putting Congress on a path to reopening the government
within hours.
Johnson and his leadership team – with help
from President Donald Trump — convinced all but one Republican, Rep. Thomas
Massie of Kentucky, to back the procedural vote on the floor Tuesday. The House
will vote on final passage of the funding package early Tuesday afternoon.
Trump and his team leaned hard on those rogue
Republicans who had vowed to block the funding bill unless GOP leaders agreed
to attach a strict voter ID bill to the package.
1 hr 59 min ago
Clintons will appear for depositions in
Epstein probe, staving off contempt vote
From CNN's Annie Grayer
House Oversight Chair James Comer has agreed
to the dates Bill and Hillary Clinton proposed for depositions in the panel’s
Jeffrey Epstein probe, putting an end to the contempt of Congress proceedings
that had been moving forward against them.
The former president is scheduled to appear on
February 27 and the former Secretary of State to appear on February 26 under
the terms that Comer had previously set.
Two sources had earlier told CNN that the
Clintons agreed to appear for depositions on the panel’s terms, but also
suggested they wanted public hearings.
2 hr 12 min ago
Senate Democrats slam Trump's call to
"nationalize" elections
From CNN’s Morgan Rimmer,
Arlette Saenz and Rebekah Riess
Several senior Senate Democrats this morning
slammed President Donald Trump’s call to “nationalize” elections as an
unconstitutional attempt to control the outcome of future elections.
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal argued
that “it’s grounds for impeachment.”
“Trump shouts the quiet part out loud,”
Blumenthal said in a post on X. “Nationalizing elections would be brazenly
unconstitutional & totalitarian—the threat itself deeply chilling (…)
America should be afraid, very afraid.”
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on
the Senate Judiciary Committee, agreed with Blumenthal’s warnings, though he
did not go so far as to suggest impeachment.
“Outrageous and not unexpected. He’s been
building up to this. He wants to put his enforcers, whoever they may be, ICE or
National Guard, that are loyal to him, at the polling places, to intimidate
voters in the next election,” Durbin said.
“What it tells us is he’s very worried about
the outcome of that election.”
GOP Rep. Don Bacon also expressed his
opposition to the idea. “I opposed nationalizing elections when Speaker (Nancy)
Pelosi wanted major changes to elections in all 50 states. I’ll oppose this now
as well,” the congressman from Nebraska said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley
downplayed the president’s remarks, telling reporters he believed Trump was
pushing for a Republican-led voter ID law known as the SAVE Act, rather than
saying that the federal government should administer elections.
“Everybody understands that the states are in
charge of administering the elections. The Constitution says that, but the due
process clause, as well as other federal statutes, provide some ground rules
about what you can and cannot do, and Congress has been legislating basic
ground rules for federal elections since Reconstruction,” he told reporters.
2 hr 22 min ago
HOUSE GOP LEADERS SCRAMBLING TO FLIP HOLDOUTS
DURING KEY PROCEDURAL VOTE TO REOPEN GOVERNMENT
From CNN's Ellis Kim and Veronica Stacqualursi
GOP leaders are working their members on the
House floor, as a key procedural vote on the funding package to reopen the
federal government is underway.
With the full Democratic caucus currently
voting against the package, House Speaker Johnson can only afford to lose one
Republican vote. The little wiggle room has left Johnson and his leadership
team scrambling to win over needed lawmakers.
GOP Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and John
Rose of Tennessee cast “no” votes and several members of the conference’s right
flank were holding out their votes altogether.
Lawmakers can ultimately change their votes
until the vote on the rule is closed.
If leaders can clear the procedural hurdle,
the House will vote on passage of the government funding package later this
afternoon.
2 hr 16 min ago
Senate GOP leader won't commit to changing
filibuster rules for bill requiring stricter voter ID
Form CNN's Ted Barrett and Rebecca Legato
Senate GOP Leader John Thune says he supports
components of the SAVE Act, a bill to require only citizens to vote and photo
IDs at polling places, that some House Republicans have suggested could prompt
Thune to change filibuster rules to pass his chamber.
“I’m supportive of, you know, only citizens
voting and showing ID at the polling places. I think that makes sense, which is
what the bill that is under consideration would do. But I’m not in favor
federalizing elections, no,” he said.
Thune said he and members of his conference
will discuss the SAVE Act and the desire of some to change filibuster rules at
their weekly policy lunch today, but said he’s made no commitments to those
House members on changes to the filibuster. Some House members said they switched
their positions in favor of voting for a massive federal funding bill based on
their belief Thune would do so.
“So, we’re going to have a conversation about
that but there weren’t any commitments made, no,” Thune said.
GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is advocating
changing the filibuster by requiring senators to stand or talk during a
filibuster and not simply block action by verbally objecting to moving forward.
But Thune said the complicated rules of the
proposal could mean the filibuster “would go on for an indefinite period of
time,” possibly two to three months before a final vote.
“It ties up the floor indefinitely. So, it
means you’re not doing other things. So, there’s always an opportunity cost,”
he said. “There are some important things that we do want to do.”
Thune did promise to force a floor vote on the
SAVE Act, though unless the filibuster rules are changed, it won’t get the 60
votes it would need to advance because Democrats strongly oppose it.
“We will have that vote. Exactly when I can’t
give you a hard answer on that,” he said.
2 hr 22 min ago
Petro is on the US government’s "Clinton
list." Here’s what that means
From CNN’s Mitchell McCluskey
A farm laborer pours mulched coca leaves into
a bucket mixed with solvents and chemicals as part of the process in making a
coca base, in southwestern Colombia, in August 2024.
As Colombian President Gustavo Petro meets
with President Donald Trump in the White House, get caught up on what led to
him being sanctioned last year.
Petro and Trump had public clashes over drugs
and migration, and Petro was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department
sanctioned in October 2025.
Trump accused Petro of playing a role in the
global illicit drug trade, encouraging narcotics production, and of being an
“illegal drug leader,” allegations that the Colombian president has repeatedly
rejected.
“Since President Gustavo Petro came to power,
cocaine production in Colombia has exploded to the highest rate in decades,
flooding the United States and poisoning Americans,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the time the sanctions were announced.
The move added Petro to the government’s list
of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), which is maintained by the US Treasury
Department Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).
The list was established in 1995 via an
executive order from then-President Bill Clinton, with the goal of fighting
money laundering from narcotics traffickers in Colombia. It is known informally
as the “Clinton list.”
The SDN List targets entities and individuals
who act on behalf of countries that are adversarial to the US, along with
US-designated terrorists and criminals.
Petro’s wife and son, and Colombia’s interior
minister were also added to this list, which includes Russian President
Vladimir Putin and Venezuela’s ousted former leader Nicolas Maduro.
2 hr 24 min ago
Trump and Petro start Oval Office meeting
From CNN's Michael Rios and Mauricio Torres
US President Donald Trump and his Colombian
counterpart Gustavo Petro have started their meeting at the Oval Office,
Colombia’s presidency said.
They are joined by other officials including
US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Colombian Foreign
Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio, Ambassador Daniel García-Peña and Defense
Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Follow live coverage of the meeting in Spanish
here.
2 hr 27 min ago
Swing district GOP Rep. Malliotakis
says “a lot of people question” Noem’s ability to
lead
From CNN's Alison Main, Manu Raju and Casey
Riddle
GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis
suggested she’s open to a change in leadership at the Department of Homeland
Security, expressing concerns about how Secretary Kristi Noem
has run the agency.
“I do, and I have concerns just in general,”
she told CNN when asked if she’s concerned about Noem.
The New York Republican highlighted her
efforts last year to restore funding for the NYPD counterterrorism unit after
it was stripped due to the administration’s sanctuary city policies.
“We worked with the president, got that money
restored. But things like that, these, these decisions that are being made,
sometimes they are questionable,” she said, adding that sending White House
border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis has “really brought down the temperature.
Asked by CNN if Trump should consider a change
in leadership at DHS, Malliotakis responded “look,
that’s the president’s decision. I’ll just say that’s the president’s decision,
and perhaps he should be looking at all options.”
Malliotakis didn’t directly answer whether she has
confidence in Noem, but said, “I think that a lot of
people question her ability to lead this agency, particularly after what has
happened.”
The New York Republican said DHS stripping
funds from the NYPD counterterrorism unit was a “horrific decision.”
“Now, I’m not saying she should be necessarily
replaced but I think that all options need to be on the table to find the best
person, if there’s somebody better,” she continued.
2 hr 31 min ago
CNN's Jake Tapper explains why Trump is making
a push to "nationalize" voting
From CNN’s Jake Tapper
President Donald Trump called on Republicans
to “nationalize the voting” in an interview with former deputy FBI director Dan
Bongino that aired yesterday.
2 hr 51 min ago 11:30 AM
NOW: HOUSE BEGINS VOTING ON GOVERNMENT FUNDING
PACKAGE
From CNN's Hill Team
The House is taking a key procedural vote
ahead of a final vote on the funding package to end the partial government
shutdown.
Known as a “rule” vote, it’s a critical step
in the process that – if successful – will set up a final vote on the package
this afternoon.
2 hr 47 min ago
House speaker defends Trump's call to nationalize
elections but suggests it won't happen
From CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi
and Manu Raju
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday defended
President Donald Trump’s call for Republicans to “nationalize” elections, but
suggested it’s unlikely to happen.
“The president is expressing his frustration
about the problems we have in some of these blue states where election
integrity is not always guaranteed,” he told CNN.
“So we have to, we
have to figure out solutions to that problem,” he said, arguing that passing
the SAVE Act into law would accomplish that.
He did not say whether he supports the
president’s calls to “take over” the voting in some states.
3 hr ago 11:10 AM
JOHNSON REJECTS KEY DEMOCRATIC DEMAND ON ICE,
SIGNALING TOUGH ROAD AHEAD TO CUT DHS DEAL
From CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi
and Manu Raju
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday argued
that requiring US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to obtain a
judicial warrant for apprehensions is an “unworkable proposal” – rejecting a
key demand from Democrats ahead of a fight over Department of Homeland Security
funding.
“I’ll tell you what the Democrats want to do
and what we cannot do, and that is, they want to add an entirely new layer of
warrant requirement,” Johnson said during a press conference on Tuesday.
The House is expected to pass a spending
measure that would provide short-term funding for DHS and allow for further
negotiations over ICE. Democrats are pushing for reforms to ICE that include
officers remove their masks, end roving patrols, tighten parameters around
warrants for searches.
But Johnson said Tuesday that Republicans are
“never going to go along with adding an entirely new layer of judicial
warrants,” a sign that reaching a deal within two weeks before DHS funding runs
out will be difficult.
“It is unimplementable. It cannot be done, and
it should not be done. It’s not necessary,” Johnson said.
He argued that an administrative warrant,
issued by an immigration judge, is “sufficient legal authority” to apprehend an
individual in the United States illegally.
He also argued that requiring ICE to go
through the process of obtaining a judicial warrant would take “decades” and
accused Democrats advocating for this provision of not wanting immigration
enforcement.
“The controversy has erupt
(sic) where if someone is, you know, they’re going to be apprehended and they
run behind a closed door and lock the door. I mean, what is ICE supposed to
do?” he argued.
Read more
2 hr 32 min ago 10:40 AM
House Republicans won't hold up funding
package, but concerned about "leverage" in DHS funding talks
From CNN's Alison Main, Manu Raju and Casey
Riddle
House Republicans made clear today that while
they don’t plan on standing in the way of advancing a package to end the
partial government shutdown, lawmakers face an uphill battle to reach a bipartisan
compromise to fund the Department of Homeland Security and reform immigration
enforcement in two weeks.
GOP Rep. Eric Burlison,
a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said he plans to vote against the bill,
though he will not block it from coming to the floor.
The Missouri Republican said he fears losing
“leverage” against Democrats in upcoming negotiations over DHS funding, calling
it “foolish” to pass a two-week bill to keep the department open while
lawmakers attempt to reach a compromise.
“I think in two weeks, it’s we’re going to be
taking a lot of the Democrat demands, because we have no leverage,” he said,
adding that he thinks requiring immigration agents to wear body cameras is
“pretty reasonable.”
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis,
who represents a swing state in New York, said she thinks some of Democrats’
demands to reform ICE are “reasonable,” and “there is a
ability here to come to an agreement where … we can protect our law
enforcement, we can protect the immigrant community, and we can protect the safety
of the public.”
However, Malliotakis
said the “biggest sticking point” is Democratic mayors and governors not
cooperating with federal agents and “handing over criminals,” noting her own
city’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani vowing to protect
undocumented immigrants against ICE raids.
“If that was done, instead of, instead of
having to go on the street to find these individuals, which makes it less safe
for everybody involved, you’d be able to get the individuals directly from the
jails,” she said.
GOP leaders have indicated that targeting
sanctuary city policies will be a key demand they’ll make in DHS funding
negotiations.
Read more
3 hr 11 min ago
Top Senate Democrat criticizes Trump for his
call to "nationalize" elections
From CNN's Aileen Graef
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
criticized President Donald Trump’s call to “nationalize the voting,” calling
it “dangerous autocratic poison.”
“Never in American history have we had a
president so hostile to democratic traditions. Even worse, never have we had a
president who breaks the norms that have made this country strong and held them
together for centuries,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
His comments come after Trump told Dan Bongino, the former deputy director of the FBI, in a
podcast appearance that “Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Schumer also criticized his Republican
colleagues for their silence on the issue.
“Republican senators are silent, quaking in
their boots that they can never criticize Donald Trump, no matter how outrageous
what he says,” Schumer said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
criticized President Donald Trump’s call to “nationalize the voting,” calling
it “dangerous autocratic poison.”
“Never in American history have we had a
president so hostile to democratic traditions. Even worse, never have we had a
president who breaks the norms that have made this country strong and held them
together for centuries,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
His comments come after Trump told Dan Bongino, the former deputy director of the FBI, in a podcast
appearance that “Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Schumer also criticized his Republican
colleagues for their silence on the issue.
“Republican senators are silent, quaking in
their boots that they can never criticize Donald Trump, no matter how
outrageous what he says,” Schumer said.
“Republicans ought to fiercely condemn Donald
Trump’s vicious attacks against our democratic systems. They’re not only
vicious, they’re dangerous,” he added.
2 hr 52 min ago
Colombian President Petro arrives at the White
House to meet Trump
From CNN's Michael Rios
A car carrying Colombian President Gustavo
Petro arrives at the White House on Tuesday. CNN
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has arrived
at the White House for his meeting with US President Donald Trump, following a
turbulent year between the two countries.
Petro arrived at 10:55 a.m. ET in a US Secret
Service vehicle bearing the Colombian flag. It entered the White House grounds
via West Executive Avenue.
Among the topics both leaders are expected to
discuss are drugs and the sovereignty of Latin American countries.
Ahead of the meeting, Petro said he’s
determined to continue to strengthen bilateral ties. He asserted that both
nations share the common goal of fighting drug trafficking “from an approach
that prioritizes life and peace in our territories.”
CNN en Español’s reporters contributed to this report
Follow live coverage of the meeting in Spanish
here.
3 hr 15 min ago
Ahead of today's Petro meeting, officials said US-Colombia anti-drug partnership remains strong
From CNN's Evan Perez, David Culver and Abel
Alvarado
The US government’s counter-narcotics
partnership with Colombia is still considered one of the closest in South
America despite a public feud the countries’ leaders had last year.
Officials at the Colombian National Police’s
anti-narcotics directorate and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
have told CNN they have a close working relationship that includes the exchange
of intelligence and having US agents embedded with Colombian forces. The
result, they say, is record drug seizures and increased pressure on cocaine
producers and trafficking organizations.
Colombian Brig. Gen. Ricardo Sánchez-Silvestre
told CNN last month that the country seized 446 tons of cocaine hydrochloride last
year.
In recent years, the DEA presence in Colombia
has grown to become the agency’s largest foreign operation, and agents say that
has yielded fruit as Colombia has boosted drug seizures and arrests.
DEA agents highly regard the Colombian
National Police, including its specialized DIRAN anti-narcotics unit, which has
DEA agents embedded for joint missions, current and former law enforcement
officials told CNN.
Sánchez says stopping the cooperation would be
damaging to both countries.
“Well, if this cooperation between our two
countries did not exist, criminal organizations dedicated to drug trafficking
would definitely be the ones winning. They would strengthen their finances and
their armed groups, and that would be catastrophic,” he said.
Read more
3 hr 58 min ago
What you need to know about Colombian
President Gustavo Petro
From CNN's Rebekah Riess
President Donald Trump and Colombian President
Gustavo Petro are scheduled to meet in the White House at 11 a.m. ET today. In
October, Trump called Petro a “thug,” but yesterday said he was looking forward
to a “good meeting” between the two.
Petro became Colombia’s first leftist leader
after winning the country’s presidential race in 2022. He won by a slim margin
after two failed presidential bids in 2010 and 2018, overcoming hesitation from
voters who once saw him a radical left-wing outsider.
More about him: Born in the rural north
Colombian town of Ciénaga de Oro, he spent his youth
in the ranks of a leftist guerrilla movement, the 19th of April Movement (M19)
— founded to protest allegations of election fraud in 1970. He was released
from military jail in 1987, two years after being detained by police for
concealing weapons.
Petro said he later realized that an armed
revolution was not the best strategy to win popular support.
A key moment: Today’s meeting with Trump comes
at an important moment for Petro. His government intends to prove to Washington
that it has an effective grip on drug trafficking following the unprecedented
US military operation in neighboring Venezuela to capture President Nicolás
Maduro, whom the US accused of cartel ties.
The US Treasury Department in October had
announced sanctions against the Colombian leader, accusing him of playing a
role in the global drug trade.
Petro is also aiming to have those sanctions
against him overturned. He has repeatedly rejected accusations by the Trump
administration, blaming him for the production of illicit drugs that reach the
United States.
CNN’s Uriel Blanco, Gonzalo Zegarra, Michael Rios and Stefano Pozzebon
contributed to this reporting.
Read more
4 hr 5 min ago 10:30 AM
DC US ATTORNEY JEANINE PIRRO SUGGESTS JAIL
TIME FOR BRINGING A GUN TO WASHINGTON
From CNN's Logan Schiciano
Washington, DC, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro last night suggested her office could prosecute
people for carrying firearms in the nation’s capital, before appearing to partly
walk back her comments this morning.
“You bring a gun into the district, you mark
my words, you’re going to jail,” Pirro said on Fox
News during an interview focused on crime in the nation’s capital. “I don’t
care if you have a license in another district, and I don’t care if you’re a
law-abiding gun owner somewhere else.”
Pirro’s comments are the latest example of officials
in President Donald Trump’s orbit seemingly contradicting Republicans’
historically strong support for the Second Amendment in the wake of Alex Pretti’s killing in Minnesota by immigration officers last
month.
Pretti was lawfully carrying a handgun in a holster
before federal agents disarmed him and then fatally shot him. After the
killing, Trump told reporters, “You can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with
guns. You just can’t,” seeming to blame the death on the fact that Pretti was armed. And administration officials, like FBI
Director Kash Patel, have backed up his argument.
Several Republicans pushed back on Pirro’s remarks on social media. The National Association
for Gun Rights wrote that the comments were “unacceptable and intolerable.”
Pirro appeared to partly walk the comment back this
morning, writing on X, “Let me be clear: I am a proud supporter of the Second
Amendment. … We are focused on individuals who are unlawfully carrying guns and
will continue building on that momentum to keep our communities safe.”
DC requires gun owners to register their
firearms with the district and does not recognize concealed carry permits from
other states.
Read more
4 hr ago c. 10:30 AM
WHEN THE HOUSE WILL VOTE ON THE FUNDING
PACKAGE
From CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi
The House is expected to hold crucial votes
today on a funding bill that would end the partial government shutdown. Here’s
the timing of what’s expected:
• The
House is expected to vote around 11:15 a.m. ET on whether to advance the
funding bill.
• If
passed, the House moves to debate on the funding bill.
• The
House is expected to consider final passage of the funding bill at 1 p.m. ET.
2 hr 26 min ago c. noon
Speaker Johnson expects spending bill to pass
but acknowledges DHS funding talks will be "intense"
From CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi
House Speaker Mike Johnson said today that he
expects “we’ll have the votes” to pass a spending bill and end the partial
government shutdown.
“Never doubted it,” he told reporters, adding
that he expects full attendance from his members for the crucial vote.
He acknowledged, however, that coming
negotiations over Department of Homeland Security funding will be “intense” and
that the “two sides are pretty far apart.”
Asked whether Congress will need to pass
another short-term measure for DHS funding, Johnson said, “I hope not. I hope
that we can get together and work it out. I’m always an optimist as you know.
But there are real challenges here, so we’ll see.”
NON-CHRONOLOGICAL ATTACHMENT...
ATTACHMENT “J” – FROM FOX
By Alex Miller, Elizabeth Elkind Fox News Published February 2, 2026 4:51pm EST
President Donald Trump is trying to quell a growing rebellion against
the funding deal he negotiated with Senate Democrats as a growing number of
House conservatives threaten to sink the legislation if a key demand is not
met.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is walking a tightrope with House
Republicans demanding the inclusion of election integrity legislation to the
Trump-backed deal, which he negotiated with Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer, D-N.Y., last week.
The government is in its third day of a partial shutdown. Adding the
Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, to the package would send
the legislation back to the Senate, where Schumer has already vowed to block
it.
That would likely extend what was intended to be a temporary closure.
SCHUMER NUKES GOP PUSH FOR 'JIM CROW-ERA' VOTER ID LAWS IN TRUMP-BACKED
SHUTDOWN PACKAGE
Trump took to Truth Social to lower the temperature among House
Republicans, and noted that he was "working hard with Speaker Johnson to
get the current funding deal, which passed in the Senate last week, through the
House and to my desk, where I will sign it into Law, IMMEDIATELY!"
"We need to get the Government open, and I hope all Republicans and
Democrats will join me in supporting this Bill, and send it to my desk WITHOUT
DELAY," Trump said. "There can be NO CHANGES at this time."
HOUSE DEMOCRATS MUTINY SCHUMER’S DEAL WITH WHITE HOUSE, THREATENING
LONGER SHUTDOWN
"We will work together in good faith to address the issues that
have been raised, but we cannot have another long, pointless, and destructive
Shutdown that will hurt our Country so badly — One that will not benefit
Republicans or Democrats," he continued. "I hope everyone will vote,
YES!"
A cohort of House Republicans, led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla.,
wants to see the SAVE Act attached to the five-bill funding package plus
short-term extension for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
It would require states to obtain proof of citizenship in-person when
people register to vote and remove non-citizens from voter rolls.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital on Monday that he was
leaning against voting to advance the funding deal if the SAVE Act was not
attached. Reps. William Timmons, R-S.C., and Eric Burlison,
R-Mo., have foreshadowed similar threats.
It’s legislation that has long been shelved since advancing from the
House last year. Its passage in the upper chamber is even more unlikely because
of the 60-vote filibuster threshold and Senate Democrats’ reticence to even
consider supporting it.
'OPENING PANDORA'S BOX': MIKE JOHNSON BACKS TRUMP AFTER WARNING WHITE
HOUSE ABOUT DEAL WITH DEMOCRATS
Their demands come as the House Rules Committee, the final gatekeeper
for most legislation to get a chamber-wide vote, is set to meet Monday evening to
consider the funding deal. Johnson met with Rules Committee members on Monday
afternoon ahead of their scheduled meeting.
Tacking on the SAVE Act would likely kill any chance of the spending
deal earning support from House Democrats, who are already resistant to the
deal.
And if it were to make it to the Senate, Democrats in the upper chamber
are primed to block it.
Without it, however, the group of House conservatives could kill the
spending deal during a procedural hurdle called a "rule vote." The House
Rules Committee advancing the bill sets up a chamber-wide rule vote, which if
successful would unlock debate and set up a final vote on passage.
Rule votes generally fall along partisan lines. And with a one-vote
majority after the swearing-in of a new House Democrat who won a special
election in Texas over the weekend, Johnson can afford little dissent.
Schumer laid out an edict on Monday against the idea, where he accused
Republicans of pushing legislation "reminiscent of Jim Crow-era
laws," that he argued would act as a means to suppress voters rather than
encourage more secure elections.
"It is a poison pill that will kill any legislation that it is attached
to," Schumer said in a statement. "If House Republicans add the SAVE
Act to the bipartisan appropriations package it will lead to another prolonged
Trump government shutdown."