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House leadership delays vote on stopgap government funding bill amid GOP opposition
Washington — Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that the House would not proceed with a planned vote on a stopgap measure to keep the government funded past the end of the month, in an acknowledgment of opposition from members of his own party that likely would have doomed the bill to fail.
“No vote today because we’re in the consensus-building business,” Johnson told reporters.
Lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill from their August recess on Monday and have until the end of the month to fund the government, making a short-term measure necessary to avert a government shutdown. House Republican leadership unveiled their opening salvo in the funding fight in recent days with a plan to push for a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through March 28, while attaching a noncitizen voting bill that Democrats generally see as a nonstarter.
The House-passed measure known as the SAVE Act is aimed at targeting illegal voting, which is exceedingly rare. The legislation would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, despite the fact that only U.S. citizens are eligible to vote in federal elections under current law.
The addition of the measure is viewed as a sweetener for House conservatives who often oppose continuing resolutions to keep the government funded. But Democratic leaders in the Senate have made clear that the plan to pair the voting legislation with a stopgap measure is dead on arrival in the upper chamber, and the White House has issued a veto threat.
Kent Nishimura / Getty Images
The Democratic opposition didn’t stop Johnson from pledging to barrel forward with the plan, and he’s suggested there’s no backup. And former President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged GOP lawmakers to pursue the voting legislation in a post on social media, saying, “If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security,” they shouldn’t move forward with a clean continuing resolution to keep the government funded.
House Republicans began expressing their opposition for the funding plan on Tuesday, throwing the vote into question, given the razor-thin GOP majority in the House.
Johnson appeared resolved to move ahead with the vote until Wednesday, with just hours before the planned vote and a number of Republicans from different factions of the party pledging to oppose the measure. The Louisiana Republican said House leadership would delay the vote to work to build consensus through the weekend.
“The American people demand and deserve that we do everything possible to secure the elections,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I want any member of Congress in either party to explain to the American people why we should not ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting in U.S. elections.”
With the plan, the House and Senate remain at an impasse. The upper chamber and the White House are pushing for a short-term measure to keep the government funded until December without any partisan bills attached. But punting the funding deadline to the new year could be more favorable for Republicans should Trump return to the White House in 2025.
Jaala Brown and Laura Garrison contributed to this report.
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. — A New Hampshire woman suffered severe burns on her leg after hiking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park and falling into scalding water in a thermal area near the Old Faithful geyser, park officials said.
The 60-year-old woman from Windsor, New Hampshire, along with her husband and their leashed dog were walking off a designated trail near the Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon when she broke through a thin crust over the water and suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg, park officials said. Her husband and the dog weren’t injured.
The woman was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho for treatment.
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank
Park visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution. The ground in those areas is fragile and thin and there’s scalding water just below the surface, park officials said.
Pets are allowed in limited, developed areas of Yellowstone park but are prohibited on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry and in thermal areas.
The incident is under investigation. The woman’s name wasn’t made public.
This is the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone in 2024, park officials said in a statement. The park had recorded 3.5 million visitors through August this year.
Hot springs have injured and killed more people in Yellowstone National Park than any other natural feature, the National Park Service said. At least 22 people have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around the 3,471-square-mile national park since 1890, park officials have said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Wagon rolls over at Wisconsin apple orchard injuring about 25 children and adults