CBS News
New wave of calls for Congress to vote on disaster aid before election
There is a new wave of calls for Congress to return to Washington to respond to the growing costs of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Multiple members of Congress from hurricane-ravaged states have issued new calls for the U.S. House and Senate to respond to the depletion of funds from the U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loan fund.
“It’s unacceptable that Congress remains in recess while families and businesses across North Carolina and beyond are in urgent need of assistance,” said Rep. Wally Nickel, a first-term Democrat from North Carolina.
Nickel said, “In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, our communities are struggling to recover and our small businesses are desperate for support as they work to rebuild. Their recovery efforts are stalled without additional funding.”
Congress has returned home through the middle of November, as the entire U.S. House and nearly a third of the Senate face reelection races. Congressional leaders have defied calls for action on the loan funds before the election.
The U.S. Small Business Administration announced Tuesday that it had exhausted the available funds in its disaster loan program, which is used by businesses and homeowners who are affected by natural disasters. According to CBS News reporting earlier this month, the agency had issued warnings to legislators that the hurricanes risked draining needed funds and urged Congress to swiftly approve more money.
The agency said, “Until Congress appropriates additional funds, the SBA is pausing new loan offers for its direct, low-interest, long-term loans to disaster survivors.” The agency said it will continue to urge victims to apply for loans “given assurances from Congressional leaders that additional funding will be provided upon Congress’s return in November.”
Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, said he has urged Senate leaders to reconvene as soon as possible after assessments of damage and the needs of agencies, including the Small Business Administration. In a statement posted on social media, Scott said he has spoken with the Small Business Administration to discuss the needs of his constituents.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat and former state emergency manager, told CBS News, “Thousands of applications are coming in each day for disaster loans following Hurricane Helene and Milton. Congress knew this fund was running low as we left for recess during hurricane season, and we failed to be proactive. We shouldn’t be waiting until mid-November to come back to D.C. and fix this.”
Speaker Mike Johnson’s office did not immediately return a request for comment about Congress returning early to address Small Business Administration funding. On “Face the Nation” Sunday, Johnson addressed questions about whether Congress should return early to respond to calls to bolster funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Johnson said, “Congress can’t meet and just send money on a guess or an estimate of what the damages are. The way supplemental disaster funding is provided is that, you know, the state sends in actual needs. It’s assessed by Congress and then handed out that way. But again, remember, they have billions, tens of billions of dollars that were already sent to FEMA, one day before Helene made landfall. So they have plenty of resources.”
CBS News
China school knife attack kills at least 8, wounds 17, days after fatal car attack killed dozens
Eight people were killed and 17 others wounded Saturday in a knife attack at a vocational school in eastern China, and the suspect — a former student — has been arrested, police said.
The attack took place in the evening at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in the city of Yixing in Jiangsu province, police in Yixing said in a statement, confirming the toll.
This was the second incident of fatal violence in China in a matter of days.
Earlier this week, a 62-year-old man killed 35 people and wounded more than 40 more when he rammed his small SUV into a crowd in the southern city of Zhuhai. The suspect was discovered in the car with a knife, with wounds to his neck thought to be self-harm injuries, according to the police.
Police said the suspect in the knife attack was a 21-year-old former student at the school who was meant to graduate this year, but failed his exams.
“He returned to the school to express his anger and commit these murders,” police said, adding that the suspect had confessed.
In Yixing, police said emergency services were fully mobilized to treat the wounded, and provide follow-up care for those affected by the attack.
Violent knife crime is not uncommon in China, where firearms are strictly controlled, but attacks with such a high death toll are relatively rare.
In recent months, there has been a spate of other attacks.
In October in Shanghai, a man killed three people and wounded 15 others in a knife attack at a supermarket.
And the month before, a Japanese schoolboy was fatally stabbed in the southern city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.
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CBS News
Oklahoma attorney general says state schools superintendent cannot mandate students watch prayer video
The Oklahoma attorney general’s office responded after the state’s education superintendent sent an email this week to public school administrators requiring them to show students his video announcement of a new Department of Religious Freedom and Patriotism. In the video, he prays for President-elect Trump.
Ryan Walters, a Republican, announced the new office on Wednesday and on Thursday sent the email to school superintendents statewide. The new department will be within the state’s Department of Education. Walters said it would “oversee the investigation of abuses to individual religious freedom or displays of patriotism.”
“In one of the first steps of the newly created department, we are requiring all of Oklahoma schools to play the attached video to all kids that are enrolled,” according to the email. Districts were also told to send the video to all parents of students.
In the video, Walters says religious liberty has been attacked and patriotism mocked “by woke teachers unions,” then prays for the leaders of the United States after saying students do not have to join in the prayer.
Sue Ogrocki / AP
“In particular, I pray for President Donald Trump and his team as they continue to bring about change to the country,” Walters said.
The office of state Attorney General Gentner Drummond issued a statement Friday saying Walters has no authority under state law to issue such a mandate.
“Not only is this edict unenforceable, it is contrary to parents’ rights, local control and individual free-exercise rights,” said the attorney general’s office spokesperson Phil Bacharach.
Multiple school districts have also said they had no plans to show students the video.
Walters, a former public school teacher elected in 2022, ran on a platform of fighting “woke ideology,” banning books from school libraries and getting rid of “radical leftists” who he claims are indoctrinating children in classrooms. He already faces two lawsuits over his June mandate that schools incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for students in grades 5 through 12. Several school districts have previously stated that they will disregard the mandate.
One of the lawsuits also notes that the initial request for proposal released by the State Department of Education to purchase the Bibles appears to have been tailored to match Bibles endorsed by now President-elect Donald Trump that sell for $59.99 each.
Earlier this week, Walters announced he had purchased more than 500 Bibles to be used in Advanced Placement government classes. The education department that the 500 Bibles are “God Bless the USA Bibles” and were ordered Thursday for about $25,000. They will arrive “in the coming weeks,” the department said.
