The House passed a short-term spending measure on Tuesday to fund the federal government into early December, voting 370-48 to avoid a shutdown during campaign season. The Senate has already approved the bill by a wide margin, so it now goes to President Donald Trump for his signature. Lawmakers needed to act before the fiscal year ends on September 30. The stopgap does not settle the twelve annual appropriations bills, and House appropriators say Senate Democrats have slowed progress. Congress also faces unresolved questions about the cost of the war with Iran, which the Congressional Budget Office puts above $38 billion.
The US Supreme Court late on Monday rejected the Trump administration's plan to give the Postal Service a central role in deciding who can receive a mail ballot, clearing the way for normal mail voting in the November 3 midterms. The 7-2 ruling followed a months-long legal fight and a second federal judge's order blocking the same rules. The plan would have required states to adopt a uniform ballot envelope and upload lists of eligible voters to a federal portal, and the Postal Service could have refused to deliver ballots that failed its checks. A whistleblower report warned millions of ballots might never have been sent.
A federal judge ruled that a Department of Homeland Security plan to cut the Federal Emergency Management Agency's workforce by 50 percent was unlawful. The ruling, issued Friday, is a setback for an administration that has pushed to shrink the disaster agency. A review council had already stepped back from the 50 percent figure in its final report, recommending a staffing review instead. The case lands as Congress weighs bipartisan FEMA reform and as Democrats press claims of political bias in disaster aid.
A new Carolina Journal poll shows former Democratic governor Roy Cooper widening his lead over Republican Michael Whatley in North Carolina's open Senate race. Cooper leads independents 55% to 34% and holds 91% of Democrats, while Whatley takes 81% of his own party. The finding worries GOP strategists defending a seat in a state President Donald Trump won twice. Whatley used the Republican midterm convention in Dallas to tie himself to Trump. High gas prices and climbing mortgage rates are complicating the party's national message.
President Donald Trump arrived in Ireland on Saturday for his first state visit since Catherine Connolly became president, meeting Ireland's leaders in Dublin before heading to his Doonbeg golf resort for the final rounds of the Amgen Irish Open. He said relations between the two countries have never been better and told reporters a united Ireland would be 'fantastic'. Large crowds protested in Dublin and a demonstration was planned in Doonbeg, where Irish authorities mounted one of the largest security operations in the state's history. Trump delayed his arrival to stay in the US for the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
President Donald Trump told CBS News Texas that he does not think Congress would need to approve his plan to send $5,000 to every adult American if Republicans hold the House and Senate. He unveiled the idea during the first Republican midterm convention in Dallas. The payments could cost more than a trillion dollars, and it is not clear what legal authority the president has to send them. Legal experts, economists and some fellow Republicans say the plan faces practical obstacles and long odds in Congress. Party officials in competitive districts have said their candidates will not campaign on the proposal, even as Trump presents it as a way to rescue Republican prospects in November.
A federal appeals court upheld a block on the Trump administration's restrictions on mail-in voting, leaving the rules frozen while the Supreme Court considers whether to intervene before November's midterm elections. Three judges on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with District Judge Indira Talwani, who barred the Postal Service from carrying out the executive order. The order would withhold mail ballots from states that do not provide lists of voters who should receive them. Talwani wrote there was no evidence of fraudulent mail voting to support the directive and has blocked it three times. Further appeals are expected.
New Hampshire voters chose a general election matchup that could help decide control of the U.S. Senate. Former senator John E. Sununu won the Republican nomination, and U.S. Representative Chris Pappas won the Democratic side, NBC News projected. Sununu, endorsed by President Trump, defeated former Massachusetts senator Scott Brown. Pappas cleared a crowded Democratic field. The seat is open because Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen is retiring. New Hampshire has not elected a Republican senator since 2010, and the November race is seen as one of the GOP's best chances to flip a Democratic-held seat. Polls show Pappas ahead, and the outcome could shape which party controls the chamber after the midterms.
Lonnie Bunch III, the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, will step down by the end of the year, he announced Tuesday. Bunch, 73, is the first Black person and the first historian to lead the world's largest museum organization. His departure follows months of mounting pressure from the Trump administration, including an executive order seeking the removal of what it called improper ideology and an August 28 letter warning that federal agencies may stop working with the Smithsonian unless its leadership changes. Bunch, who has worked at the Smithsonian for 38 years, said the decision was his own and not tied to that pressure. Senator Alex Padilla said Congress must defend the institution's independence.
The share of Republicans who strongly approve of President Donald Trump and his handling of the Iran war has dropped sharply in recent months, according to a new NBC News Decision Desk Poll. The survey found that Trump's pool of most ardent supporters is shrinking as Americans give him low marks on his overall job performance and on the war. Across the full electorate, 66 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump's actions in the conflict, while 33 percent approve. The findings signal growing political risk for the White House as the military campaign in Iran continues with no clear endpoint, and they arrive as the administration faces legal fights and an active election season at home.