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Senate voting on foreign aid package after falling short on border deal
Washington — The Senate is taking a procedural vote Thursday on a foreign aid package that brought the chamber to a standstill Wednesday night, as Republicans, fresh off of opposing a bipartisan plan to address border security, squabbled over how to move forward.
The supplemental funding package would provide tens of billions of dollars in aid to U.S. allies, including Ukraine and Israel. Its consideration comes months after the White House initially made the supplemental funding request. At the time, Republicans insisted that the foreign aid package must be tied to enhanced border security measures. But after former President Donald Trump came out against the border security agreement reached by Senate negotiators, the party fell in line.
Still, part of the impasse Wednesday night, as the chamber was set to vote on the motion to move forward with the foreign aid bill, appeared to be that some Senate Republicans wanted an opportunity to add border security provisions back into the legislation with amendments, among other desired adjustments to the legislation.
Even Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina defense hawk whose been a vocal advocate for Ukraine aid, said on Thursday that he would vote against the foreign aid bill because “we have not done all we can to secure our southern border.”
“We should not rush this process because Senators want to go on a break — it is too important,” Graham said in a statement.
Kent Nishimura/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Senators are running up on a planned recess at the end of the week. But some members have suggested that they should remain in session through the weekend and into the break to resolve the foreign aid issue.
“If I were the majority leader, I’d keep us here until this is disposed of, period,” Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, told reporters.
It remains unclear if the slimmed-down supplemental funding bill can gain the 60 votes needed to move forward in the chamber. But a deal on amendments could help flip some Republican votes. Senate Republicans met Thursday morning to iron out their differences and find a route forward.
Should the package make its way through the Senate, whether the House would even consider it remains to be seen. House Speaker Mike Johnson was noncommittal on Wednesday, saying that the lower chamber would wait to see how things shake out in the Senate.
“We’re allowing the process to play out and we’ll handle it as it is sent over,” Johnson told reporters. “We spend a lot of time on the House side awaiting the Senate’s action.”
Alan He contributed reporting.
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Wisconsin school shooter was in contact with California man plotting his own attack, court documents say
The shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin brought two guns to the school and was in contact with a man in California whom authorities say was planning to attack a government building, according to authorities and court documents that became public Wednesday.
Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Associated Press Wednesday. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
A Southern California judge issued a restraining order Tuesday under California’s gun red flag law against a 20-year-old Carlsbad man. The order requires the man to turn his guns and ammunition into police within 48 hours unless an officer asks for them sooner because he poses an immediate danger to himself and others.
Carlsbad is located just north of San Diego.
According to the order, the man told FBI agents that he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, the Wisconsin shooter, about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives. The order doesn’t say what building he had targeted or when he planned to launch his attack. It also doesn’t detail his interactions with Rupnow except to state that the man was plotting a mass shooting with her.
CBS’ San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported that law enforcement searched the man’s home Tuesday night after the order was signed by the judge.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes told the AP.
Police don’t know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said. Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.
“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”
On a Madison city website providing details about the shooting, police disclosed Wednesday that two guns were found at the school, but only one was used in the shooting. A law enforcement source previously told CBS News the weapon used appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.
Barnes told the AP that he did not know how the suspected shooter obtained the guns and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.
No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes told the AP.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school that offers prekindergarten classes through high school. About 420 students attend the institution.
The Dan County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the two people killed Wednesday as 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara.
An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.”
West’s exact position with the school was unclear.
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