The White House News

The Senate is expected to send a temporary spending package known as a Continuing Resolution (CR) to the White House, averting a government shutdown before the Nov. 17 deadline with partial extensions until Jan. 19 and Feb. 2.

The passage could come as quickly as Wednesday evening or Thursday, sources familiar told Fox News Digital. The Biden administration told Fox News Digital in an email that if the Senate approves the CR, Biden “will sign this continuing resolution that maintains current funding levels and has no harmful policy riders.”

“Looking ahead, House Republicans must stop wasting time on extreme, partisan appropriations bills that break the bipartisan agreement two-thirds of them voted for and instead work quickly with Democrats on full-year appropriations bills,” a Biden spokesperson said. “Congress must also address urgent national security and domestic needs – including funding for Israel, Ukraine, humanitarian assistance, border security, WIC, and other critical priorities that have bipartisan support.”

A Senate aide told Fox News Digital on Wednesday there are currently discussions to speed up the procedure to get the CR to a full vote by Thursday night.

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In a press conference Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said both he and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., “want to avoid a shutdown – so getting this done, obviously, before Friday midnight.”

“You know, the Senate has lots of arcane rules, but McConnell and I are going to work together – we talked about this yesterday – to get it done as quickly as possible,” he said.

But the process may not be as straightforward as leaders hope if Republicans introduce amendments. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has voiced his opposition to the CR, which GOP hardliners argue does not include enough spending cuts.

“I will oppose the CR and instead offer a CR with reduced spending levels,” Paul posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday night. 

A second Senate aide, however, told Fox News Digital “the amendment would obviously be expected to fail,” and the CR will likely still be passed with bipartisan support. 

Aside from Paul, sources told Fox News Digital that other GOP members may not “have an appetite” to introduce amendments that will drag out the approval past the deadline just a week before Thanksgiving. 

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“I think there’s a different story when we get into those January and February staggered deadlines for funding,” the aide said. “I think those are gonna be a lot more difficult and people will have a lot to say and a lot to change on those.”

The House of Representatives passed the CR to avert a pre-holiday season government shutdown on Tuesday night along strong bipartisan lines.

It passed 336 to 95, well over the two-thirds margin it needed to get the measure over the line. Just two Democrats voted against the bill, along with 93 Republicans. 

The bill’s passage was the first big legislative test for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who took on the role less than a month ago shortly after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted.

Despite more Democrats voting for it than Republicans, Johnson did net a win in getting a majority of his GOP Conference to support the CR.

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Fiscal year 2023 government funding was previously extended until Friday to give Congress more time to pass 12 individual appropriations bills, setting up the next year’s spending priorities. But faced with another looming deadline, House and Senate leaders agreed another short-term extension was needed.

“Every Democrat is going to vote for it,” another source familiar said. “And McConnell said he supports it, too, so that’s every Democrat plus one and there will certainly be more than one that follows, so they have the votes to just pass it as is.”

Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report. 

The meeting scheduled between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will address hard issues such as fentanyl supplies coming in from Asia and a lack of military communication.

Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich spoke with NSC Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific Kurt Campbell this week — Campbell was just recently nominated to become Deputy Secretary of State.

“I can tell you that President Biden intends to make very clear to President Xi to get ready. He’s going to be dealing with President Biden for the next five years,” Campbell told Fox News Digital.

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“These are tough diplomatic encounters,” he continued. “President Biden has a lot of experience. They’ve known each other a long time. This is an important meeting. It’ll be intense.”

Biden and Xi are scheduled to meet in San Francisco’s Bay Area on Nov. 15, according to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. One key talking point for the two world leaders is the ongoing fentanyl crisis in the United States.

“The president tasked us several months ago to try to come up with some sort of progress on one of the most terrible things that is a blight on America, the fentanyl crisis,” Campbell told Fox News Digital. “So we’ve worked over the course of several months with Chinese interlocutors demanding progress on cutting off support from precursors that are produced by Chinese companies and then shipped largely to Latin America. And then they make their way up into the United States.”

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“We’re going to have to see how it’s implemented,” Campbell continued. “But so far, we believe the Chinese are going to take consequential steps that will essentially help us get a handle on really one of the most terrible drug epidemics the United States has ever faced. There’s a back and forth on this. If they, in fact, make these arrests and shut down these companies, then we will be lifting a few sanctions.”

Another major concern to be addressed between Biden and Xi is the trend of increasingly common incidents between the Chinese and U.S. military.

“We see lots of activities, Chinese pilots and ships that are operating unsafely and that risk American servicemen that are forward deployed in the Indo-Pacific,” Campbell said.

Government officials have reported that communications between China and U.S. military commands has become difficult, with Chinese military leaders refusing to meaningfully converse with their U.S. counterparts.

“We seek to establish responsible mechanisms that can deal with communications in a crisis to prevent escalation and inadvertence. And I believe that the Chinese will come around to see that some of this is also in their best interest as well,” Campbell added.

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday said that the number of illegal immigrants evading Border Patrol agents and escaping into the country is a source of “great concern” for the agency — as he told lawmakers that threats from the other side of the border are “consuming” FBI field offices.

Wray testified to lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee about “worldwide threats” to the U.S. Chairman Mark Green asked Wray about the numbers of gotaways — illegal immigrants at the border who evaded Border Patrol — which have exceeded 600,000 in FY 23. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources tell Fox News there have been over 47,000 gotaways since the beginning of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.

Green said the number of gotaways since the beginning of the Biden administration could be well over two million.

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“Can the FBI guaranteed American people that known or suspected terrorists, including any from Hamas or other terror groups, are not amongst those gotaways?” he asked.

“Well, certainly the group of people that you’re talking about are source of great concern for us. That’s why we’re aggressively using all 56 of our joint terrorism task forces,” Wray said.

He later said that “any time you have a group of people in the United States that we don’t know nearly enough about, that is a source of of concern for us from a perspective in our lane of protecting Americans.”

He testified that there have been an increase in the number of known or suspected terrorists attempting to cross the border in the last five years — the number of those encountered on the terror watchlist hit record numbers in FY 23.

He said he couldn’t speak to why that is but added “I can you that the threats that come from the other side of the border are very much consuming all 56 of our field offices, not just in the border states.”

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The testimony comes amid renewed concern, particularly from Republicans but also from within the Biden administration, about the potential for terrorists to use the border to gain access to the United States, particularly as Border Patrol agents are dealing with record migrant numbers.

There were over 249,000 migrant encounters in October alone, after an FY23 which broke records for migrant encounters. Republicans have pinned the blame on the Biden administration for its policies, while the administration says it needs immigration reform and more funding to address a “broken” immigration system.

Those concerns about terrorism have been renewed in the wake of the Hamas terror attack on Israel. Green told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that the United States is at “heightened risk,” and said the “open door policy” at the border is largely to blame.

Wray has previously told lawmakers in the Senate that the threat of a terror attack against Americans has been raised to a “whole other level” due to ongoing conflict in the Middle East. He said the most immediate concern includes homegrown violent extremists who are inspired by foreign terrorist organizations, or by domestic violent extremists who are targeting Muslim or Jewish targets.

A Customs and Border Protection memo which warned fighters from Hamas, Hezbollah and other groups may seek entry into the U.S., although the agency said last month they have had no indication of fighters attempting to enter the U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security’s FY 24 threat assessment warned that agents have encountered a growing number on the watch list and warned that “terrorists and criminal actors may exploit the elevated flow and increasingly complex security environment to enter the United States.”

“Individuals with terrorism connections are interested in using established travel routes and permissive environments to facilitate access to the United States,” the assessment also said.

Fox News’ Aubrie Spady and Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.
 

FIRST ON FOX: Top House lawmakers are investigating the breadth and depth of the digital wealth owned by terror groups like Hamas just over a month after the Gaza-based organization’s surprise attack on Israel.

“Reports indicate that Hamas-linked digital wallets received about $41 million and Palestinian Islamic Jihad-linked digital wallets received about $93 million between August 2021 and June 2023. Yet, it remains unclear how much, if any, of the publicly identified digital assets are accessible to or remains in the possession of Hamas,” the lawmakers wrote to President Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

“According to reports, Hamas shut down its digital asset fundraising campaign in April 2023 citing the ability of government officials to identify and prosecute donors.”

The bipartisan letter is led by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., Digital Asset subcommittee Chairman French Hill, R-Ark., and Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y.

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“We request the White House and the Treasury to utilize the open blockchain ledger to assess the footprint of Hamas’ digital asset fundraising campaign. In doing this, Congress can better understand the United States’ available tools and capabilities to target bad actors on blockchain and support legitimate digital asset use and innovation,” Emmer told Fox News Digital.

Hamas militants launched a surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people – mostly civilians.

In the wake of the attack, Israeli authorities reportedly seized thousands of dollars of cryptocurrency and other digital assets from accounts accused of fundraising for Hamas. It also froze multiple accounts, according to the Financial Times. 

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The letter also pointed out that several platforms accused of hosting Hamas’ digital assets are based in countries like Russia and China. 

In addition to digital wallets owned by Hamas, however, the lawmakers asked Biden and Yellen to look into the scope of digital assets run by terror groups like Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.

Their letter is seeking answers on the timeframe of their digital fundraising campaigns, and what – if any – action the U.S. has taken in response, including seizing or blocking the assets.

“Please respond no later than November 29, 2023. If the answers to these questions cannot be provided in an unclassified manner, we request that a classified briefing be scheduled in a timely manner on the matter,” it said.

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Traders of cryptocurrency and other digital assets are able to maneuver with relative anonymity, making the sphere a hotbed for illicit financing. It’s also a way to evade traditional sanctions on trade and currency.

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The U.S. Treasury sanctioned 10 entities linked to Hamas terrorists last month, including a Gaza-based cryptocurrency platform, in response to the attack on Israel. 

“This action targets members managing assets in a secret Hamas investment portfolio, a Qatar-based financial facilitator with close ties to the Iranian regime, a key Hamas commander, and a Gaza-based virtual currency exchange and its operator,” the Treasury’s Oct. 18 press release said.