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Schumer says ‘good night for American people’ after Senate passes bill averting government shutdown

The Senate passed a continuing resolution (CR) late Wednesday night to fund federal agencies into early next year, temporarily averting a government shutdown just before the holiday season.

The bill passed with a vote of 87-11, with 10 Republicans voting no and only one Democrat. GOP Sens. John Cornyn and Tim Scott were absent for the vote.

The CR passed in the House of Representatives on Tuesday by an overwhelming majority of 336-95.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., described Wednesday as “a very, very good night for the American people” before announcing a government shutdown has been avoided.

HOUSE PASSES BILL TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, SPEAKER JOHNSON NOTCHES FIRST BIG LEGISLATIVE WIN

Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., proposed a plan on Saturday creating two separate deadlines for funding different parts of the government to set up more targeted goals to work toward in an effort to prevent Congress from lumping all 12 spending bills into a massive “omnibus” package.

SPEAKER JOHNSON ROLLS OUT PLAN TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, PREVENT ‘SPENDING MONSTROSITY’

Bills concerning military construction and Veterans Affairs; Agriculture; Energy and Water; Transportation and Housing and Urban Development must be worked out by Jan. 19 while the remaining eight appropriations bills must be decided upon by Feb. 2.

House and Senate leaders agreed another short-term extension was needed to determine the government’s spending priorities for the 2023 fiscal year in order to meet the deadline of midnight on Friday.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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Biden defends Israel incursion into al-Shifa hospital against Hamas ‘headquarters’

President Biden on Wednesday put his support behind Israel’s incursion into al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, saying that Hamas had committed the first war crime by making the health facility a command center of its military operations. 

“You have a circumstance where the first war crime is being committed by Hamas by having their headquarters, their military, hidden under a hospital. And that’s a fact, that’s what’s happened,” the president said at a press conference following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California. 

Biden said he was absolutely confident that what U.S. and Israeli officials have described as a command center around and underneath the hospital was true, even as he declined to detail that intelligence and evidence that he had.

Israeli forces on Wednesday published photos and videos from inside the hospital in the Gaza Strip purporting to show numerous weapons caches hidden behind an MRI machine, in the closets of hallways and in rooms in the hospital. 

Israel said that it had battled and killed Hamas fighters as part of their incursion into the medical facilityl, but that it was also bringing medical experts, Arabic speakers, medical supplies like incubators and baby food.

Reuters reported that witnesses inside the hospital and who spoke to the newswire described an at times tense situation as Israeli troops moved between buildings, with sporadic shooting heard but no reports of anyone hurt inside the grounds.

The White House earlier on Wednesday said Israel’s carrying out a military operation into the hospital was not the “main focus” of a phone call between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week. But Biden on Wednesday said that he had discussed with the Israelis the need to be “incredibly careful” as they entered the health facility.  

“You have a circumstance where, you know, there is a fair number of Hamas terrorists. Hamas has already said publicly that they plan on attacking Israel again, like they did before, cutting babies heads off to burning women and children alive,” the president said, detailing some of the gruesome atrocities that Hamas carried out in its Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel. 

“Israel did not go in with large number of troops, did not raid and did not rush anyone down,” the president said, citing discussions he’s had with his national security team of how the events unfolded. 

The president further said he’s “mildly hopeful” that negotiations to free hostages being held by Hamas will yield results, an estimated 240 — babies, children, women, the elderly and sick — that Hamas kidnapped in their assault on Israel last month. 

Still, Biden gave no end timeline for Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, where thousands of Palestinians have been killed amid Israel’s military assault on the narrow strip of land, and more than one million told to evacuate from the zone of conflict. 

The humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip is wearing down Americans’ support for Biden’s position.

But the U.S. has held back calling for Israel to agree to a ceasefire, in particular as negotiations for hostages continue. 

Biden has instead pushed for tactical humanitarian pauses to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and the exit of foreign nationals, and the potential safe transfer of hostages. Still, the U.S. on Wednesday abstained from a United Nations Security Council Resolution that called for a humanitarian ceasefire, opposing that the measure did not condemn Hamas. 

“With regards to when is this going to stop? I think it’s going to stop when Hamas no longer maintains the capacity to murder and abuse and, and just do horrific things to the Israelis,” Biden said.

“They plan on doing the same thing again, what they did on the 7th. They’re going to go in, they want to slaughter Israelis. They want to do it again.”

Go to Source: Administration News | The Hill

Senate Republicans fail to stop Biden’s new student loan income-driven repayment plan

Senate Republicans failed in their efforts to pass a resolution to overturn President Biden’s new student loans income-driven repayment (IDR) plan.

In a 49-50 vote, all Republicans and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) voted in support of a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would have halted the Saving on Valuable Education (SAVE) IDR plan, which went into effect this fall.

The CRA makes it so only 50 votes would have been needed to pass the resolution instead of the 60 that is typically needed to beat a filibuster.

“This is irresponsible. This is deeply unfair,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said of Biden’s plan before the vote. 

The SAVE plan is being implemented in two parts. This fall, borrowers are seeing a rise in income exemption for student loan payments from 150 percent to 225 percent above the federal poverty guidelines. Borrowers will also not see their unpaid interest grow. 

Next year, borrowers will receive other benefits such as monthly payments getting cut from 10 percent of discretionary income to 5 percent. 

Republicans highlighted in their efforts to overturn the plan that it will cost taxpayers $559 billion, saying individuals who never went to school or already paid off their student loans would wind up paying for others. 

Previously, opponents in both the Senate and House were able to pass a CRA measure against Biden’s broader student debt relief program before the plan was struck down by the Supreme Court over the summer, but that resolution was ultimately vetoed by the president. 

Democratic Sens. Manchin and Jon Tester (Mont.) and Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) all voted in support of the resolution to stop the student debt relief plan back in June.

Go to Source: Administration News | The Hill

Biden again calls Xi Jinping a ‘dictator’ as China vows to be ‘unstoppable’ in retaking Taiwan

President Biden repeated his reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator” on Wednesday just hours after a spokeswoman for the Chinese government vowed her country would be “unstoppable” in eventually retaking Taiwan.

Biden’s comments came at his press conference concluding the U.S.-China summit in San Francisco when a reporter asked if he would still refer to Xi using the term, which he used for the first time in June.

“Well, look, he is. He’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country, that is based on a form of government that is totally different than ours,” Biden said.

CHINA’S XI AND BIDEN COOK UP A GIANT ‘NOTHING BURGER’ WITH ALL THE FIXINGS

Biden’s first reference to Xi as a “dictator” came amid the aftermath of a Chinese spy balloon traversing the continental U.S., which caused an uproar after the president waited until it was off the coast of South Carolina before giving the order to bring it down.

“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it was he didn’t know it was there. That’s a great embarrassment for dictators when they didn’t know what happened,” Biden said.

At the time, his comments incited outrage from the Chinese government, who referred to them as “extremely absurd and irresponsible.”

BIDEN MEETS XI, SAYS THERE IS ‘NO SUBSTITUTE’ FOR ‘FACE-TO-FACE DISCUSSION’ ON ISSUES FACING US, CHINA

Amid his summit with Xi on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying issued a blunt warning about America’s friendly relations with Taiwan, referring to the “Taiwan question” as “the most important and most sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations.”

“The U.S. side should take real actions to honor its commitment of not supporting ‘Taiwan independence’, stop arming Taiwan, and support China’s peaceful reunification. China will realize reunification, and this is unstoppable,” she wrote in a post on X.

However, when asked about Taiwan in his press conference Biden reiterated America’s commitment to the “One China” policy, and made no mention of the island nation.

BIDEN HANDS CHINA BIG WIN WITH MILITARY DEAL, EXPERTS SAY: ‘INCREDIBLY POOR DECISION’

In his concluding press conference, Biden also referenced deals he said the two governments reached regarding fentanyl supplies coming into the U.S. from Asia and plans to improve communications between the American and Chinese militaries.

Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich and Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to thief report.

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DeSantis trolls Nikki Haley with new campaign merch mocking her comments about social media verification

EXCLUSIVE: Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rubbed salt on the wound Wednesday by trolling his opponent, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, over her heavily scrutinized vow to require all social media users be verified.

DeSantis’ campaign announced new merchandise mocking Haley’s comments, including a t-shirt with the phrase, “Always Watching,” and a quote from Haley saying that “every person on social media should be verified by their name.”

Another item is a dystopian-themed “Official Internet Identification Card” fashioned after something that might be required by a science-fiction authoritarian regime.

CRITICS RIP NIKKI HALEY OVER VOW TO REQUIRE ALL SOCIA MEDIA USERS BE VERIFIED: ‘BLATANTLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL’

Haley’s comments came during a Tuesday appearance on Fox News when she said the first things she would do if elected president would be to force social media companies to show their algorithms, in addition to the verification requirement.

“First of all, it’s a national security threat. When you do that, all of a sudden people have to stand by what they say. And it gets rid of the Russian bots, the Iranian bots and the Chinese bots. And then you’re going to get some civility when people know their name is next to what they say, and they know their pastor and their family members are going to see it,” she said.

DeSantis was quick to rip Haley for the proposal, joining a wave of critics blasting it as “unconstitutional.”

KARI LAKE GETS ANOTHER BIG BOOST WHILE GOP INCREASINGLY SEES HER AS STANDARD-BEARER FOR MAJOR SENATE FLIP

“You know who were anonymous writers back in the day? Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison when they wrote the Federalist Papers. They were not ‘national security threats,’ nor are the many conservative Americans across the country who exercise their Constitutional right to voice their opinions without fear of being harassed or canceled by the school they go to or the company they work for,” DeSantis wrote.

He went on to call her proposal “dangerous,” and said it would be “dead on arrival” in a DeSantis administration.

Haley walked back those comments on Wednesday, telling CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that while she didn’t mind “anonymous American” free speech, she didn’t support anonymous free speech for actors in Russia, Iran and China.

BIDEN’S APPROVAL RATING SINKS OVER ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR; SUPPORT FOR TRUMP IN 2024 RISES: POLL

“What I know, what anyone in intelligence [knows]… Russia, Iran and China, North Korea too, know that the cheapest form of warfare is to spread misinformation. Look at what happened with Israel. You want to know where all this pro-Hamas information is coming from? It is coming from foreign actors that are sowing chaos and division,” she said. 

“I want freedom of speech for Americans. I don’t want freedom of speech for Russia and Hamas, and that’s what’s happening right now. So the way you fix that is we need our social media companies to verify everybody,” she said.

Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.

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