Government shutdown averted as Senate sends Biden funding bill: Live

Most of the time, Congress works in staggered cycles and the House members can go home, talk to constituents, rest, cool their tempers, have a drink and then come back refreshed. But the inability of Congress to even pick a speaker meant they were stuck with each other longer than normal.

With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching and a deal on funding in the books, the best thing now might be to allow Congress to go home for a nap and a bottle as if they were infants in a daycare centre.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is not happy about the House’s vote to shelve her articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, specifically naming her GOP colleagues who voted against the articles in an email and in numerous tweets.

The Georgia Republican forced the impeachment vote on 13 November. Eight Republicans joined to support the Democrats’ motion — in a vote of 209-201 — to send the resolution to the Homeland Security Committee.

Ms Greene’s team sent an email blast, calling out her Republican colleagues who joined the Democrats “to KILL my Articles of Impeachment” by naming each of them: Reps Ken Buck, Darrell Issa, Tom McClintock, Patrick McHenry, John Duarte, Virginia Foxx, Cliff Bentz and Mike Turner.

She then took to X to livestream her gripes about the vote. Rep Greene said the vote sent her resolution back to committee, “where articles of impeachment go to die.”

“We’ve seen how bad it is at the border but we can’t get Republicans to impeach Secretary Mayorkas? This is outrageous,” she continued. Ms Greene also accused Mr Mayorkas of “willfully breaking our laws and allowing the invasion to happen.”

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Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel renamed the Capitol Hill livestream C-SPAN “UFC-SPAN” after a series of fights between members of the Republican party this week.

On Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday night, Mr Kimmel poked fun at a fight that broke out between Senator Markwayne Mullin and Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, during a Senate Committee hearing earlier in the day.

In the dramatic moment, Mr Mullin – a former cage fighter – took to his feet to challenge Mr O’Brien to a physical fight.

Branding Mr O’Brien a “moron”, he challenged him to “stand your butt up”, to which the union leader replied “you stand your butt up”.

Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders, the chairman of the hearing, was forced to intervene and play peacemaker, yelling at Mr Mullin to sit down and banging his gavel several times.

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A former campaign staffer who helped George Santos get elected last year plead guilty to wire fraud on Tuesday.

Sam Miele, a 27-year-old GOP operative who worked as a fundraiser for Mr Santos in 2022, appeared in court and admitted to impersonating an aide to another member of Congress. News reports have indicated that he pretended to be working for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy when on the phone with potential donors soliciting contributions.

According to The New York Times, Mr Miele’s attorney declined to say on Tuesday whether his client had agreed to testify against his ex-boss for federal prosecutors. Mr Santos, a serial liar who spread falsehoods about massive portions of his background, has been charged separately by the Justice Department with a host of crimes including identity theft, misuse of public funds and money laundering. He has denied all guilt and vowed to fight those charges, while admitting to fabricating most of his resume.

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More Democrats than Republicans voted in the US House of Representatives for a temporary stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown.

Some 209 Democrats voted for the bill while 127 Republicans voted for a “laddered” continuing resolution that would keep parts of the government funded until 19 January 2024 and other parts until 2 February 2024.

The vote is a win for newly-elected Speaker Mike Johnson, who proposed the two-tiered approach as a means to avoid passing an “omnibus” spending bill, but rather to pass 12 individual spending bills, a demand from right-wing members of the House Republican conference.

The vote came after House Democratic Leadership – including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar – announced their support for the legislation. Democratic leaders said they supported the legislation because it did not include any steep cuts.

“To that end, House Democrats have repeatedly articulated that any continuing resolution must be set at the fiscal year 2023 spending level, be devoid of harmful cuts and free of extreme right-wing policy riders,” they said in a joint statement. “The continuing resolution before the House today meets that criteria and we will support it.”

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The reason the US is in “such trouble” with federal debt is because Congress is “addicted” and “obsessed” with deficit spending, speaker Mike Johnson said on Tuesday, 14 November.

Speaking at the Capitol, the Republican said his recently passed “clean” spending bill is the best solution.

Rep Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told The Independent that she appreciated the fact that the bill did not include any spending cuts.

“I think this whole idea of a two-part process is ridiculous, but at least we’re not shutting down government and there’s no spending cuts and there’s no poison pills,” she said.

The legislation now goes to the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed openness to the bill despite his criticisms. Mr Schumer said during his press conference on Tuesday that Mr Johnson agreed to the parameters that Mr Schumer requested.

“One, not making the heartbreak cuts that the MAGA right demands,” he told reporters. “And second, making sure that if they’re going to do this sort of goofy ladder, that defence is in the second part of the ladder, not the first.”

The House of Representatives has closed down until after Thanksgiving with no votes until 28 November after Speaker Mike Johnson failed to pass another spending bill following the passage of a funding passage to likely avoid a shutdown with the help of the Democrats.

Texas Rep Chip Roy told CNN that going ahead with the spending bill without cuts and passing it under suspension with the help of hundreds of members from across the aisle was “strike one and strike two”.

“The Swamp won and the speaker needs to know that,” Mr Roy told the network. “We’ll go figure out what’s next but I can tell you Republican voters are tired of promises to fight. We want to actually see change. And so you know, we’ll see what happens but, but our approach shouldn’t be assumed when they’re needed and then get rolled on a suspension.”

The Texan told CNN’s Manu Raju that the third strike would be moving ahead with a border security measure that he doesn’t think is good enough alongside Ukraine aid.

Members of the House GOP took down their own party’s spending bill on Wednesday just a day after Speaker Mike Johnson enlisted hundreds of Democrats to pass a bill that will likely avert a shutdown ahead of the 17 November deadline pending senate passage and a signature from President Joe Biden.

The Republican leadership cancelled the rest of the votes for this week and sent the chamber home early ahead of Thanksgiving recess.

About 20 Republicans sided with the Democrats and voted against debating a funding bill for the Commerce and Justice departments.

Rightwingers said that voted against the measure after Mr Johnson looked to Democrats to help pass a short-term funding bill and opposition to amendments, according to Politico.

“We had concerns about the bill itself … in addition to concerns relative to what happened yesterday,” Rep Bob Good told the outlet.