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House Republicans move to avoid government shutdown amid intraparty opposition
Washington — House Republicans will fast-track a short-term spending bill after sidestepping the lower chamber’s Rules Committee as the bipartisan measure to keep the government open faced opposition from the panel’s conservative members.
House Republicans are expected to bring up the three-month funding bill for a floor vote under a procedure known as suspension of the rules, meaning it will need a two-thirds majority for passage. It puts House Speaker Mike Johnson in a position of, once again, needing to rely on Democrats to pass legislation.
The plan is to bring up the bill for a vote on Wednesday, according to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican.
The House Rules Committee was set to vote on approving the measure for a floor vote on Monday night, but nixed the rule vote after Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said they would not support it. Had the measure come up for a floor vote under a rule, it would have needed a simple majority to pass.
“Republicans need Democrats in order to keep the government open,” said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the committee’s top Democrat.
House conservatives have for months pushed the lower chamber to pass the dozen individual appropriations bills that fund the government. The short-term bill, they argue, sets up Congress to pass a massive spending bill, called an “omnibus,” at the end of the year as lawmakers are eager to ditch Washington for the holidays.
“I would encourage people not to vote for this,” Massie said. “Why do we want to set up a shutdown crisis the week before Christmas? Why would we even want to set up a shutdown crisis next spring? We shouldn’t. We should fund the whole thing for a year.”
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, unveiled the latest plan Sunday after the House last week rejected his initial plan that paired a six-month funding bill with a measure requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.
The new plan would fund the government at current levels through Dec. 20, punting the fight over spending to after the November election. But it also risks spoiling lawmakers’ December holidays if they can’t reach another agreement to extend funding into next year.
In a letter to his colleagues, Johnson said Sunday the three-month measure is “the only option that remains.”
“Our legislation will be a very narrow, bare-bones [continuing resolution] including only the extensions that are absolutely necessary,” he wrote, adding that it prevents “the Senate from jamming us with a bill loaded with billions in new spending and unrelated provisions.”
While continuing resolutions usually don’t alter funding levels, the three-month bill includes about $230 million in additional funding for the Secret Service, which comes after a second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump. The voting measure that was part of the six-month funding legislation, which Democrats opposed, is no longer attached.
“While this is not the solution any of us prefer, it is the most prudent path forward under the present circumstances,” Johnson wrote. “As history has taught and current polling affirms, shutting the government down less than 40 days from a fateful election would be an act of political malpractice.”
Trump had called for a government shutdown if lawmakers could not get the voting measure, known as the SAVE Act, passed, despite it already being illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. Johnson signaled Friday that Trump could soften his calls for a shutdown, saying the former president “understands the situation that we’re in.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, both from New York, praised the bipartisan negotiations that resulted in the funding agreement. Schumer said in a statement Sunday that he was hopeful that Congress could pass the legislation this week.
“This agreement could have very easily been reached weeks ago, but speaker Johnson and House Republicans chose to listen to Donald Trump’s partisan demands, instead of working with us from the start,” Schumer said Monday on the Senate floor.
Nikole Killion and
contributed to this report.
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Washington — The man arrested after he was allegedly spotted by Secret Service with a high-powered rifle at a golf course owned by former President Donald Trump was charged with attempted assassination of a political figure.
A federal grand jury in Miami indicted Ryan Wesley Routh on Tuesday on a charge of attempting to kill Trump on Sept. 15, according to the Justice Department. The charge carries a maximum potential sentence of life in prison.
Routh was charged last week with two federal firearms charges. A Secret Service agent spotted him and the barrel of a gun in the bushes along the fence at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while Trump was playing golf at the course.
No shots were fired at the former president, but the Secret Service agent fired at the suspect, who fled and was later arrested.
Months ago, according to a court filing, Routh had left a handwritten letter with a man that said: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster.”
The court filing also revealed that Routh had a list of dates and places in his vehicle where Trump had appeared or was expected to appear, as well as a cellphone that had searched for directions from West Palm Beach to Mexico.
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been accused of raping a woman at a New York City recording studio with his bodyguard at the time and recording the alleged attack over 20 years ago in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The litigation comes about a week after Combs, 54, was indicted on federal charges alleging he used his business empire as a criminal enterprise, with prosecutors accusing him of sexually and physically abusing women through so-called “freak offs.” He faces charges including sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
He was denied bail twice after pleading not guilty in federal court in New York City.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accuses him of raping Thalia Graves in 2001, when she was 25 and dating one of his employees. CBS News Los Angeles does not typically identify potential victims of sexual assault but Graves identified herself publicly Tuesday, speaking to reporters at a news conference in L.A. Tuesday alongside her attorney, Gloria Allred.
In court filings, the lawsuit alleges Combs and another man, described in the suit as his bodyguard and head of security at the time, allegedly gave her a drink “likely laced with a drug that eventually caused her briefly to lose consciousness” at a Bad Boy Records studio.
“She awoke to find herself bound and restrained,” the lawsuit alleges, saying Combs “mercilessly raped her.”
Two attorneys for Combs did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Shareif Ziyadat /Getty Images for Sean “Diddy” Combs)
According to the lawsuit, Graves first learned that the alleged assault had been video-recorded on Nov. 27, 2023, and that Combs and the other man had allegedly shown the video to multiple other men — “seeking to publicly degrade and humiliate” both her and her boyfriend. That same month, Combs had reached a settlement agreement with singer Cassie Ventura.
It was reached just a day after Ventura filed a lawsuit accusing him of raping and physically abusing her over a period spanning years. At the time, Combs denied the allegations through an attorney.
“Just so we’re clear, a decision to settle a lawsuit, especially in 2023, is in no way an admission of wrongdoing,” Ben Brafman, an attorney for Combs, said in a statement to CBS News.
As she spoke to reporters Tuesday, Graves said the alleged attack — and recording of it — have left her “emotionally scarred” as she deals with conditions including PTSD, depression and anxiety as a result.
“It’s a pain that reaches into your very core of who you are,” she said through tears. “Being blamed, questioned and threatened has often made me feel worthless, isolated and sometimes responsible for what happened to me.”
The lawsuit alleges she has faced multiple threats that made her stay silent in the years since.
“For decades, she remained silent and did not report the crime out of fear that Defendants would use their power to ruin her life, as they had repeatedly, explicitly threatened to do,” the lawsuit states, adding that she “still lives in fear of Defendants.”
“On information and belief, Defendants continued to show the video of the rape to others over the years and through to the present and/or sold the video as pornography,” the lawsuit later alleges.
When Combs was indicted last week, federal prosecutors said his alleged crimes date back to 2008 and were part of a broader criminal enterprise that involved multiple other people.
“The indictment alleges that between at least 2008 and the present, Combs abused, threatened and coerced victims to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams told reporters last week. “As alleged in the indictment, to carry out this conduct, Sean Combs led and participated in a racketeering conspiracy that used the business empire he controlled to carry out criminal activity.”
Williams said that federal agents raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami earlier this year and discovered firearms, ammunition and other evidence. Combs has been accused of crimes such as trafficking, kidnapping and obstruction of justice.
Federal prosecutors have alleged he threatened victims and accused him of using recordings of alleged attacks as “collateral.”
“He used the embarrassing and sensitive recordings he made of the ‘freak offs’ as collateral against the victims, and the indictment alleges that he maintained control over the victims in several ways, including by giving them drugs, by giving and threatening to take away financial support or housing, by promising them career opportunities, by monitoring their whereabouts and even by dictating their physical appearance,” Williams said.
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