WASHINGTON — The U.S. House approved a bill Saturday that would stave off a government shutdown until at least mid-November, though the measure doesn’t include Ukraine aid backed by both Republicans and Democrats.

The bipartisan 335-91 vote to send the bill to the Senate took place with less than 10 hours until funding expired. Senators were expected to vote on the measure as soon as possible and it appeared Congress could narrowly avert the midnight deadline for a government shutdown.

The legislation does not provide any additional funding for military relief or humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The Senate bill had included $6.1 billion, which was significantly less than the $24 billion the Biden administration requested in August. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this month traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers to reiterate the need for continued aid to support his country’s fight against the Russian invasion.

Just before the House vote, Senate Republicans announced they would not support moving ahead with a bipartisan bill written in their chamber that included assistance for Ukraine. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been a vocal proponent of additional military and humanitarian aid for the country.

The Kentucky Republican told reporters that he had instructed GOP senators to vote against advancing the Senate’s own stopgap spending bill toward final passage.

“It looks like there may be a bipartisan agreement coming from the House,” McConnell said. “So I’m fairly confident that most of my members, our members, are going to vote against cloture — not necessarily because they’re opposed to the underlying bill, but to see what the House can do on a bipartisan basis, and then bring it over to us.”

McConnell did not answer questions about the future of aid for Ukraine.

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-Louisiana, joined three Republican members of his state delegation in voting for the short-term spending measure.

“Funding the government is a fundamental responsibility of elected officials,” Carter said in a statement. “This extension protects Louisiana jobs, safeguards important programs that people rely on, and provides much-needed disaster relief. Republicans were forced to do the right thing because of mounting pressure from Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Caucus, and most importantly the American people. This is a victory.

“A bipartisan compromise is the only way forward. This short-term solution gives us time to find that compromise.”

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A motion to adjourn, a fire alarm and a ‘magic minute’

House passage of the 45-day continuing resolution, or CR, came amid a hectic day on Capitol Hill.

Republicans began the morning huddling in a basement room of the Capitol to plot a path ahead, after failing to pass a separate stopgap spending bill Friday.

GOP leaders then brought the floor into session, giving just 40 minutes for debate on a new stopgap spending bill and infuriating Democrats, who argued they hadn’t been given time to read the 71-page measure.

“We have had 15 minutes to review a 71-page document,” House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro said. “A document that was filed before midnight last night. There hasn’t been any time for staff to review a 71-page document on such an important issue.”

House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, of Massachusetts, got more time for lawmakers to read the legislation before the House took the final vote by making a motion to adjourn.

Democrats were able to extend what should have been a 15-minute vote by waiting until it was almost over, then lining up on the House floor to vote on paper cards one-by-one, instead of electronically with their voting cards.

The final vote, which took about an hour, rejected the motion to adjourn, 0-427 after Democrats voted with Republicans to stay in session.

“We have just received a 71-page bill that is about keeping open our federal government, something the Democrats have been pushing for months,” Clark said before the vote began. “We are asking for 90 minutes to be able to read this bill and come to the floor with an informed vote. That has been denied. We have serious trust issues, so at this point in time, I am making a motion to adjourn.”

Adding to the feeling of chaos, New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman pulled a fire alarm in one of the House office buildings around noon as the vote on the motion to adjourn was beginning, causing the alarm to go off and for the building to be evacuated. The U.S. Capitol Police weren’t able to clear the building for reopening until more than an hour later.

His chief of staff said in a written statement posted to X that “Congressman Bowman did not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote. The Congressman regrets any confusion.”

After the vote on adjourning wrapped up, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, delivered a so-called “magic minute” floor speech. As a member of leadership he can speak as long as he wants and it only subtracts one minute from Democrats’ total debate time.

The tactic has been used by both Democratic and Republican leaders to bring attention to an issue or to delay a final vote. Slowing down the vote on Saturday was intended to give Democrats more time to read the bill and appeared to also give congressional leaders time to determine how to move forward on the new continuing resolution.

The speech lasted about an hour, after which the House debated the legislation a bit longer, before sending it over to their Senate colleagues with just hours to go.

Far-right members of the House Republican Conference have been threatening to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy if he relied on Democrats to pass a short-term spending bill. But none of those members brought up the so-called motion to vacate on Saturday. The House after its vote adjourned until Monday.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, speaks with reporters about a stopgap government funding bill inside the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

Disaster relief, FAA extension

Senators had been slowly advancing their own bipartisan spending bill since releasing it Tuesday, though without the agreement of all 100 lawmakers in that chamber, the bill wouldn’t have become law before the Saturday midnight deadline.

The 71-page stopgap bill in the House released Saturday would fund the government through Friday, Nov. 17 and extend the authorization for the Federal Aviation Administration through Dec. 31.

It would provide $16 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund, the primary account for disaster relief and response. Wildland firefighters would not see a pay cut that was scheduled to begin on Oct. 1.

House Appropriations Chair Kay Granger, a Texas Republican, urged support for the legislation, saying during floor debate that while “a continuing resolution is not ideal, it prevents a harmful government shutdown.”

“It gives us more time to pass the appropriations bills on the floor of the House and allows us to start negotiations on final, full-year bills with the Senate,” Granger said.

Pay raise argument

DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, sharply criticized House Republicans for not adding a provision to the bill that bars members of Congress from getting a cost of living increase, calling it a pay raise.

“The Senate bill includes the blocking or prohibition on a member pay raise. That has been dropped from the bill that has just been proposed,” DeLauro said.

Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei, chairman of the panel that funds Congress, said that was an incorrect reading of the legislation. But he later said the bill could be amended to include a paragraph explicitly prohibiting a cost-of-living adjustment for members of Congress.

“I guess, being generous here, out of an abundance of caution and respect for those bill-drafting experts in the Senate, fixing that to include the Senate’s genius language in this measure is something that’s imminently doable in short order,” he said.

The change was quickly agreed to on the House floor without any vote.

Creative Commons Republished from lailluminator.com

Many Middle Tennesseans have of late been riveted by the saga of Franklin mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson, a sitting alderman who has been busted for lie upon lie, all of which contradict her professed claims of a campaign run on “transparency” and “family values.”

Hanson, who was elected in 2021, made little news until March, when she began to raise Cain about permitting the third annual Franklin Pride festival. While she admitted she hadn’t attended the first two events, she claimed a drag performer had behaved in a grossly inappropriate way. 

She whipped up outrage — and a horde of speakers — at an April Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting to discuss Pride, at which she made the absurd allegation that drag queens eat human hearts.

Gabrielle Hanson, Franklin, Tenn., Board of Mayor and Aldermen. (Photo: Franklintn.gov)

Investigative journalist Phil Williams with Nashville NewsChannel 5 has exposed Hanson for numerous falsehoods and contradictions, including that she encouraged her husband to walk in a Chicago LGBTQ+ Pride parade wearing nothing but an American flag print men’s bikini-style swimsuit and sandals, an apparent conflict with her current anti-Pride stance. 

Williams traced court records that showed Hanson was arrested twice in the 1990s for promotion of prostitution. He found that women in a photo featured on her campaign Facebook page at an event purportedly in Franklin were, in fact, women at a 2016 Chicago event, some of whom said they’ve never met Hanson. 

At a Wednesday mayoral forum, Hanson was caught on audio by an attendee telling her supporters to keep Williams from entering. A Hanson supporter confronted Williams, striking him twice as a police officer told her she could be arrested. 

In different times, this pile of hooey would have cost Hanson the election — if she didn’t drop out from shame first — but now, in these very strange times, she may be helped rather than hurt by the exposes.

Hanson is the latest outgrowth of the dis- and misinformation era that grew out of former President Donald Trump’s election and the “revelations” of QAnon. 

QAnon, a conspiracy movement that originated on the far right in 2017, gave rise to all sorts of bizarre theories, including one that has taken hold in the imaginations of Q-followers: that Democratic politicians, high-ranking government officials and media stars, among others, are operating a child sex-trafficking cabal. 

Trump associates, including several involved with attempting to overturn the 2020 election — including retired U.S. Army Gen. Michael Flynn and lawyer Sidney Powell — have promoted QAnon theories. 

The term “QAnon” has become as synonymous with far-right nuttiness as “Kleenex” is with facial tissue. To be clear, Hanson has not explicitly supported QAnon theories, but her accusations of LGBTQ Tennesseans and her pattern of lies are of a kind with the QAnon movement that so loves Trump.

The movement sowed the seeds of ignorance and fear that have been nurtured by Republican officials too scared of losing reelection to fight back, and what we have to show for it is elected officials like U.S. Reps. George Santos, R-New York, and Tennessee’s own 5th District Rep. Andy Ogles.

U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles. (Photo: John Partipilo)

The latter two are the poster boys for how lying can lead to political success. Santos has lived under several different names — much as Hanson, whom Williams showed to have created an alias to purchase a home in Florida — lied about his employment, his education and even his health. Ogles similarly inflated claims about his work, claiming to have earned a college degree in economics and to have worked as, among other claims, an international expert in sex trafficking. 

Put simply, lying leads to political success these days, at least on the Republican side of the aisle.

It’s easy for people who don’t live in Franklin or Williamson County to chuckle over Hanson’s antics at the expense of residents: the county is the predominantly-white wealthiest county in Tennessee and home to several of the state’s leading Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Gov. Bill Lee. 

But the 2024 election cycle commences soon and Trump, the ringleader of dishonest politicians, is very likely to be the Republican presidential nominee. Members of the media will be working overtime to fact check not only Trump, but his disciples at all political levels. 

Never mind that Hanson is taking on incumbent Mayor Ken Moore, an affirmed Republican regularly lauded by state leaders for running a tight municipal ship. Voter turnout in Franklin is no better than in the rest of the state: only 6% of registered voters went to the polls in the 2019 municipal elections and Hanson’s motivated supporters are likely to show up en masse. 

So laugh away at the very real predicament Franklin residents face of having a mayor elected by a small and vocal group of conspiracy theorists. Say it’s what an affluent and conservative-leaning community deserves. Tell yourselves it won’t happen in your community. 

But it can. As long as people like Trump, Santos, Ogles and possibly Hanson can get elected, more like them will be emboldened. And eventually, they will be running for office in your town.

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Creative Commons Republished from tennesseelookout.com

Max Gruver spent the early morning hours of Sept. 14, 2017, heavily intoxicated and passed out on a couch inside the Phi Delta Theta chapter house at Louisiana State University.

He had been forced to repeatedly chug 190-proof Diesel liquor in a hazing ritual called “Bible Study,” during which pledges are quizzed on fraternity facts. The incident caused Gruver, a freshman majoring in political communications, to inhale his own vomit into his lungs.

By the time fraternity members finally sought medical aid the next morning, Gruver’s pulse was weak and they couldn’t tell if he was breathing. Gruver’s blood alcohol level was 0.495, more than six times Louisiana’s legal driving limit, when he died from what an autopsy concluded was “acute alcohol intoxication with aspiration.” He was 18.

As college students begin a new semester this fall, many will participate in rituals to bring in new members of a Greek fraternity or sorority, a sports team or other club. Sometimes, the initiations involve heavy alcohol use or physical assaults. Although awareness of hazing and its dangers has grown significantly, it still happens.

In June, New Mexico State University agreed to pay $8 million to settle a lawsuit over hazing allegations in the men’s basketball program. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she will be introducing anti-hazing and abuse legislation next year. In July, Northwestern University fired its head football coach after an investigation found widespread hazing on the team. And Boston College suspended its swim and dive team this month following hazing allegations.

At least 44 states and the District of Columbia have anti-hazing laws in place, most recently Ohio in 2021 and Pennsylvania in 2018. Kentucky and Washington strengthened their laws this past legislative session. Six states — Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and Wyoming — have none, according to StopHazing, an anti-hazing advocacy and research organization.

But state anti-hazing laws, most of which were approved in the past 15 years, differ in their definitions and the criminal penalties they impose. Depending on the state, participating in hazing activities may result in a fine, misdemeanor charge or a felony charge if the hazing results in serious bodily harm or death.

Some experts and anti-hazing advocates say the penalties in some states aren’t harsh enough to deter organizations from participating in hazing. And even in states that have laws, incidents like the one that left Max Gruver dead don’t necessarily lead to serious criminal charges.

Four former LSU students and ex-members of Phi Delta Theta were indicted in connection with Gruver’s death. Three of them faced misdemeanor hazing charges, while the fourth faced a felony charge of negligent homicide. The university also banned Phi Delta Theta from its campus until at least 2033.

Gruver’s parents — Rae Ann and Stephen Gruver — pressed for stiffer penalties for hazing, prompting Louisiana to enact the Max Gruver Act in 2018, which made hazing that results in serious bodily harm or death a felony; introduced a statewide definition of hazing; and mandated that hazing incidents and disciplinary actions taken against members of student groups be reported to the respective host institutions.

“It’s unfortunate that with the death of our son — it took that to get Louisiana to change their laws,” Stephen Gruver told Stateline. “It’s something that can be prevented; this never should have happened to our son.”

Since then, the Gruvers, along with parents of other hazing victims, have advocated for stricter state and federal penalties for hazing and greater transparency when such incidents occur.

“If you don’t have a strong enough law, it’s not a deterrent for these kids and they’re just going to keep on being bad actors because they just don’t care,” Stephen Gruver said.

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Hazing’s wide reach

Hazing, a practice rooted in tradition and camaraderie, has long been a controversial and pervasive issue on college campuses. While hazing incidents have garnered significant national attention over the past decade, the earliest account of hazing is believed to date back to the fourth century — when Plato observed young boys playing “practical jokes” on other students in school, according to a book written by journalist and anti-hazing advocate Hank Nuwer. The first anti-hazing law in the United States was enacted in New York in 1894.

In the U.S., more than 280 people allegedly have died due to hazing since 1838, according to the U.S. Hazing Deaths Database. The database is maintained by Nuwer. Hazing deaths are not currently tracked by any U.S. government entity.

In 2017, the year of Gruver’s death, at least six other young adults also died a result of alleged hazing activities. Between 2018 and 2021, at least 23 people allegedly died due to hazing activities. No hazing deaths were reported in 2022.

The more that people are aware, and willing to talk about it and willing to report what they see, that will start to change that culture of secrecy to something that holds people accountable and also is transparent in terms of what’s happening across states.

– State Rep. Mari Leavitt, D-Washington

According to a 2008 study by two University of Maine professors, more than half of college students involved with student organizations experience hazing, which often involves “alcohol consumption, humiliation, isolation, sleep-deprivation, and sex acts.” The study, which is considered the most comprehensive analysis of hazing in the United States, also found that about 47% of students come to college having already experienced hazing.

“Hazing is prevalent throughout society. It’s not just a college thing. It’s really seen anywhere that there’s a differing power dynamic,” Todd Shelton, the executive director of the Hazing Prevention Network, told Stateline. Hazing appears in settings such as high schools, other student groups, the military and professional workplaces.

In many states, hazing carries misdemeanor charges — a fact that some advocates argue does little to effectively deter hazing incidents.

“Where hazing is a minor misdemeanor, it’s not taken seriously by law enforcement because it’s not worth the effort to prosecute,” Shelton said. “One of the biggest hurdles is getting the penalty or statute to match the seriousness of the crime.”

In Kentucky, Lofton’s Law was signed into law in March, increasing the penalty for hazing that leads to death or serious physical injury to a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. Reckless participation in hazing can result in a misdemeanor.

And in Washington state, the Sam Martinez Stop Hazing Law, which was passed unanimously and signed into law in May, makes hazing a gross misdemeanor instead of a misdemeanor; if the hazing results in substantial bodily harm, it rises to a felony. The law bumps up penalties for hazing from a maximum of 90 days to up to a year — and up to five years for the felony charge.

Washington became the 15th state to elevate hazing to a felony if it causes severe injury or death.

LSU handles alcohol, drug violations only with arrests, unlike other Louisiana universities

“For the first time we’re talking about hazing in a very real way. There’s been a culture of secrecy, in my view, of hazing for many, many years,” Rep. Mari Leavitt, a Democrat who wrote the bill, said in an interview with Stateline. “Students will recognize that there is a pretty significant consequence for choosing to behave in these barbaric activities and it can change the trajectory of their lives.”

The new law follows the passage of Sam’s Law in 2022, named after the same student, which updated the definition of hazing and required universities and colleges, as well as fraternity and sorority chapters, to make hazing investigation records public.

“The more that people are aware, and willing to talk about it and willing to report what they see, that will start to change that culture of secrecy to something that holds people accountable and also is transparent in terms of what’s happening across states,” Leavitt said.

Former New Mexico State NCAA college basketball player Deuce Benjamin breaks down in tears while speaking at a news conference in Las Cruces, New Mexico, May 3, 2023. Benjamin and former Aggie player Shak Odunewu discussed the lawsuit they filed alleging teammates ganged up and sexually assaulted them multiple times, while their coaches and others at the school didn’t act when confronted with the allegations. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

Anti-hazing movement

In 15 states, a major weakness in the anti-hazing law, according to StopHazing, is the absence of a “consent clause,” which asserts that an individual’s willingness to participate in potentially hazardous actions — as when a student agrees to a certain activity — does not protect those involved from hazing charges. Some anti-hazing laws explicitly spell out that consent is not a defense.

“The consent clause … is really important in terms of documenting hazing and having policy be really effective,” said Elizabeth Allan, the principal of StopHazing and a professor of higher education at the University of Maine. Allan co-wrote the 2008 national study on hazing.

Advocacy groups also have been pushing for national anti-hazing legislation to establish uniform definitions and penalties.

Proposed federal legislation, originally known as the Report and Educate About Campus Hazing Act, or REACH Act, was initially introduced in Congress in 2021. This year, it is set to be reintroduced under a new name, the Stop Campus Hazing Act. The legislation encompasses a range of transparency and prevention measures, including mandatory public reporting of hazing incidents and the implementation of comprehensive prevention programs.

“Hazing is often underreported, underrecognized and it’s really not being taken as seriously as it should be given the harmful impact that it has on individuals and communities,” said Jessica Mertz, the executive director of the Clery Center, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting campus safety.

Among Greek fraternities and sororities, discussions around cracking down on hazing have gained momentum. Still, critics argue that most state anti-hazing laws should impose tougher penalties on national Greek life organizations and institutions, rather than individuals.

“As a founding member of the Anti-Hazing Coalition, the North American Interfraternity Conference and our member fraternities advocate for stronger federal and state hazing laws to increase criminal penalties and provide greater transparency to hold individuals accountable when found to be involved in hazing,” Judson Horras, CEO of the North American Interfraternity Conference, said in a statement.

“While in this partnership, we have seen stronger state laws passed in over a dozen states and are encouraged by the introduction of the bipartisan Stop Campus Hazing Act in the 118th Congress last week,” the statement said.

A 2020 paper by a Penn State University professor and published in the Journal of College and University Law underscores this argument. Law professor Justin J. Swofford argues that for legislation to be most effective in deterring future hazing injuries and deaths, there must be greater criminal and civil penalties imposed on both schools and fraternities.

However, some voices within the Greek life community question whether genuine change is achievable. Lucy Taylor, who disaffiliated from Alpha Phi at the University of Maryland and hosts “SNAPPED,” a podcast exploring Greek life, suggests that change within Greek organizations can often appear performative.

These initiatives may encompass disciplinary committees, mandatory anti-hazing programs or even the hiring of security teams, Taylor said.

“They make it seem like change is happening, but those things that they’re doing to create change don’t actually have any power. If they wanted hazing to be gone, it would have been gone years ago,” Taylor said. “They don’t do anything or they don’t do what they’re intended to do, and the hazing culture just becomes even more secret.

“The more secret it becomes, the worse it gets.”

This story was first published by Stateline, part of the States Newsroom nonprofit news network that includes the Louisiana Illuminator. It’s supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: [email protected]. Follow Stateline on Facebook and Twitter.

Creative Commons Republished from lailluminator.com

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein died Thursday night in her home in Washington, D.C.

The California Democrat was 90 and had announced in February she would not run for reelection in 2024.

“She left a legacy that is undeniable and extraordinary,” her chief of staff, James Sauls, said in a statement. “Senator Feinstein was a force of nature who made an incredible impact on our country and her home state.”

Feinstein last voted early Thursday, but missed votes later in the day. Her death was first reported by Punchbowl News.

President Joe Biden said that Feinstein “was a historic figure, and a great friend,” according to White House pool reports.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, holding back tears, said that the Senate is grieving, and praised Feinstein for her work as the longest-serving woman in the Senate.

“The sign of a leader is someone who dedicates the whole of their spirit for a cause greater than themselves,” he said on the Senate floor. “Dianne Feinstein was all of this and more — a friend, a hero for so many, a leader who changed the nature of the Senate, and who changed the fabric of the nation, America for the better.”

Her death brings Senate Democrats’ slim majority to 50, and, until her replacement is named, could make it difficult for the Biden administration to continue approving federal judges. Feinstein served on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

As Congress scrambles to avert a looming partial government shutdown, two more Democratic senators — Tina Smith of Minnesota and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan — are isolating from testing positive for COVID-19. More than two dozen Senate Democrats this week have called for Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey to resign following a federal indictment to charges of bribery, although he has said he will not step down.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said that people and the Senate will “remember Dianne’s devoted public service.”

Feinstein was first elected to Congress in 1992. She served as the first woman to chair the Senate Rules Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee. She also wrote the 1994 federal assault weapons law that temporarily led to a 10-year ban on certain semi-automatic weapons.

In May, she returned to the Senate after suffering an extended case of shingles and using a wheelchair, among calls from some Democrats that she retire due to her poor health. She rejected that criticism. “I have returned to Washington and am prepared to resume my duties in the Senate,” she said at the time.

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom will pick her replacement until the 2024 election.

“She was a political giant, whose tenacity was matched by her grace. She broke down barriers and glass ceilings, but never lost her belief in the spirit of political cooperation,” Newsom wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Newsom has promised that if he were to pick a replacement for Feinstein’s seat, it would be a Black woman, as there currently is not a Black woman serving in the U.S. Senate. There are currently three House Democrats running for her seat, Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.

The House Rules Committee met Friday morning on a bill to temporarily fund the government to avoid a partial government shutdown. GOP Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma held a moment of silence for the California senator. Government funding is set to expire Saturday at midnight.

The top Democrat on the committee, James McGovern of Massachusetts, praised Feinstein’s career, which began in the1960s.

“She was a great leader, a great fighter for the rights of women, for all people in this country,” he said.

Members of Congress quickly took to social media to commend Feinstein for her work. Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee gave their condolences on X, formerly Twitter.

“Senator Feinstein was a political pioneer with a historic career of public service,” Rubio wrote. “Intelligent, hard working & always treated everyone with courtesy & respect.”

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who worked with Feinstein for years on the Senate Judiciary Committee, praised her work as a member of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control.

“During the time I was Judiciary chairman and she was the ranking Democrat we had a wonderful working relationship,” he said in a statement. “She was a true public servant. Barbara and I send our condolences and prayers to the Feinstein family.”

Feinstein was also the first woman to sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Several senators called Feinstein a “trailblazer.”

Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins said Feinstein’s career was filled with many firsts.

Feinstein was the first woman to be president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the first woman to be mayor of San Francisco, and the first woman elected to the Senate from California.

She became the mayor of San Francisco after Mayor George Moscone was assassinated in 1978.

“She was a pioneer and a strong and dignified leader,” Collins said. “Dianne was the longest-serving woman in the Senate history, had a career marked by many firsts.”

Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray of Washington noted that Feinstein’s last vote was to advance a key spending bill to keep the government funded past the Saturday midnight deadline.

“She voted to make sure that our country would continue to move forward and not shut down,” Murray said. “That was Dianne … she cared about her country.”

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Creative Commons Republished from lailluminator.com

LANSING, Michigan — Two more plants, employing 7,000 workers, are joining the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike at noon Friday, UAW President Shawn Fain announced Friday morning on Facebook Live. This brings the total number of workers who will have walked off the job to 25,000.

The strike against Detroit Three auto manufacturers Ford, General Motors and Stellantis started two weeks ago after contract negotiations failed.

Fain said as he was gearing up for the planned livestream, Stellantis showed progress in negotiating with the union for a better contract, so the union did not target additional plants at the company.

Fain did call on Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant, as well as GM’s Lansing Delta Township facility to stand up and go out on strike at noon Friday. Fain offered those who have already been called to strike a message of encouragement.

“Keep showing the company’s that you’re ready to stand up when you’re called. When we win this fight, when we right the wrongs of the past 15 years and longer. And when we set a new course for future generations, it won’t be because of any president, not the UAW president, not the president of the United States. It will be because ordinary people did extraordinary things,” Fain said.

At Fain’s invitation, President Joe Biden on Tuesday visited a UAW picket line in Belleville, Mich., telling workers, “Wall Street didn’t build the country; the middle class built the country. … And unions built the middle class.”

Although Biden said he marched in UAW picket lines when he was a U.S. senator, he’s noted taking pride in doing it as president. It is believed that this is the first time in modern history that a sitting president has visited an active strike site.

Fain did not note former President Donald Trump’s Wednesday speech at a non-union Macomb County plant. The union president declined to meet with Trump, saying he was part of the problem of the “billionaire class.”

“They [the UAW] have to endorse Trump [in 2024], because if they don’t, all they’re doing is committing suicide,” Trump said at the event at Drake Enterprises in Clinton Township.

The UAW has not endorsed in the 2024 election. Michigan is again considered a pivotal swing state.

Even with Biden’s support for the striking workers, Fain noted UAW members are still facing obstacles, noting a hit-and-run incident Tuesday afternoon on the picket line at General Motors’ Flint Processing Center. The incident, where it’s reported a driver leaving the facility hit five members of the picket line, wasn’t the only violence Fain said has occurred.

“We’ve had guns pulled on us. Trucks and cars ran through us and violent threats hurled at us. And I want to be absolutely clear. We will not be intimidated into backing down by the companies or their scabs,” Fain said. “Our solidarity is our strength and right now, our strength is the hope of working class people everywhere. Let’s stand up and win this thing for ourselves, for our families, for our communities, for our country, and for our future.”

The UAW is using a staggered approach to its strike, called a “Stand Up Strike” plan, where instead of all the plants striking together, select plants are periodically informed to “stand up and walk out.”

Prior to Friday, a total of 41 locations were called to strike across 21 states, with 14 of the locations being in Michigan.

This is bigger than even the Detroit Three, Fain said, noting several other labor actions that have occurred since the UAW went on strike against the automakers. Notably, the Detroit Casino Council (DCC) UNITE HERE workers at Detroit’s three casinos — MGM Grand Detroit, Motor City Casino and Hollywood at Greektown — will vote Friday on whether to authorize their own strike.

This article was first published by Michigan Advance, part of the States Newsroom network of news bureaus with the Louisiana Illuminator. It’s supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: [email protected]. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.

Creative Commons Republished from lailluminator.com

WASHINGTON — A sweeping government shutdown appeared inevitable on Friday, with the U.S. Senate stuck in a procedural holding pattern on its bipartisan stopgap bill and divided U.S. House Republicans unable to pass their short-term spending bill.

Both chambers of Congress must approve and President Joe Biden must sign government funding legislation before midnight on Saturday, otherwise a funding lapse would begin on Oct. 1.

But mid-afternoon Friday, a month-long funding bill packed with steep spending cuts drafted by some of the more conservative members of the House GOP failed to pass, 198-232. Twenty-one Republican members opposed it. The measure would have had no future in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

House leaders following that vote announced they will be in session and voting on Saturday, though on what was not immediately clear ahead of a GOP conference meeting in the late afternoon.

The mood lagged in the U.S. Capitol on Friday, where workers and law enforcement chatted in the hallways and cafeterias about the prospect of working without pay.

More than 3.5 million federal employees would either work without pay or be furloughed if the government shuts down. Federal employees would receive back pay after the shutdown ends, though that provision has not extended to federal contractors in the past.

U.S. troops, roughly 1.3 million people, would be required to work without pay until the shutdown ended.

A partial government shutdown wouldn’t have broad impacts on so-called mandatory spending programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, because those accounts are not predominantly funded through the annual appropriations process.

A shutdown would have varying effects on the dozens of departments and agencies that do rely on Congress to approve new spending bills each year.

Those include the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs. Almost all services for veterans would continue, however.

Other activities were affected as well by the looming shutdown — former President Jimmy Carter’s 99th birthday party at the Carter Center in Atlanta was moved up to Saturday instead of Sunday.

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Border security and spending cuts

During debate on the failed GOP bill, Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan said the legislation would fund the government, cut spending and “secure the border.” GOP lawmakers attached a border security bill they passed earlier this year to the short-term funding bill.

“Three simple, common sense things, but the most important of those three is … the border situation,” Jordan said.

Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the stopgap spending bill would be a “gift basket to far-right extremists” that will “slingshot” the federal government into a shutdown.

“The gutting cuts in this bill do not continue current funding like we’ve historically done in continuing resolutions,” she said. “Instead, this so-called CR slashes cancer and Alzheimer’s research, defunds the police, undercuts allies like Israel and Ukraine.”

House Republicans’ stopgap spending bill would have cut funding below current levels, resulting in billions less available for federal departments and agencies. The departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs would have been exempted from those cuts.

White House budget director Shalanda Young argued during a Friday briefing that Speaker Kevin McCarthy should stick to the spending deal he and the president brokered in May.

“The speaker wanted to set toplines, we set them,” Young said.

Young criticized House Republicans for not agreeing to the Senate stopgap bill that would last through Nov. 17 to give lawmakers more time to come to an agreement to pass the 12 appropriations bill into law.

“This is not hard,” Young said. “It is not meant to come back and negotiate and redo things we just agreed to do three months ago. It is to keep the government open to give congressional negotiators more time on long-term bills.”

McCarthy, a California Republican, said during a press conference before the House vote that he would likely keep trying to pass a short-term funding bill ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline.

“You have watched me time and again — have you ever known me to quit after one time if it doesn’t succeed?” McCarthy said. “I don’t stop.”

Senate working on stopgap

The Senate released a broadly bipartisan stopgap spending bill earlier this week and has since taken two procedural votes to advance the measure.

But that chamber’s rules don’t allow the Senate to vote on final passage before the Saturday midnight deadline without the consent of all 100 lawmakers.

Kentucky’s GOP Sen. Rand Paul has said he won’t allow a vote as long as the $6.1 billion in additional aid for Ukraine is in the legislation. But party leaders in the Senate aren’t seriously considering removing the Ukraine money.

And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the senior GOP senator from Kentucky, warned against forcing a government shutdown Thursday, saying it would be “an actively harmful proposition.”

“Instead of producing any meaningful policy outcomes, it would actually take the important progress being made on a number of key issues and drag it backward,” McConnell said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol following a meeting on the debt ceiling with President Joe Biden and other congressional leaders at the White House on May 9, 2023. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

Republican senators are trying to draft an amendment to the stopgap bill that would increase spending on border security and make policy changes, a move they hope would encourage House GOP leaders to put the bill on the floor.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said Friday that everything was still “up in the air,” but that he was “hopeful” senators would work out an agreement before the deadline.

“I still think there’s something that can get through here before the deadline tomorrow night,” Thune said. “What exactly it looks like, I think, is still not totally resolved.”

Indiana Republican Sen. Mike Braun said following a closed-door meeting Friday afternoon that “nothing’s really coming together” because there are “too many moving parts at this stage.”

It wasn’t clear if there would be enough GOP support for the bipartisan Senate CR to move past a procedural hurdle Saturday that requires at least 60 votes, Braun said.

“It looks like probably what’s going to have to happen is something with clarity is going to have to come out of the House,” Braun said. “And I don’t know what that would be, because there was a vote that just didn’t work.”

The stalemate, he said, is at the “worst point” since he’s been a senator.

Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt said senators want to make sure whatever they vote on is “compatible” with their House Republican colleagues.

“So we’ll see what they come up with in the morning. In the meantime, we’re going to continue to work on these measures,” Britt said. “We want to be prepared.”

Veterans health, WIC, SNAP, parks

Among agencies, the Department of Veterans Affairs would be largely exempt from the impacts since the VA is funded in advance, a rare exception to how Congress typically handles federal funding for so-called discretionary programs, which make up about one-third of annual federal spending.

The VA says that about 15,620 of its 450,000 employees would be furloughed during a shutdown and several of its programs would be put on hold, including the education call center or GI Bill hotline, career outreach and permanent headstone installations at veterans’ cemeteries.

Veterans would continue receiving health care as well as education and pension benefits.

Almost 7 million people within the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also called WIC, could lose access to the program during a partial government shutdown.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Monday that the “vast majority of WIC participants would see an immediate reduction and elimination of those benefits, which means the nutrition assistance that’s provided would not be available.”

Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, said that USDA has a contingency fund for WIC, but that it would only last a day or two.

He added that another nutrition program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, has enough funding to last the month of October in the event of a government shutdown. There are about 40 million low-income people who rely on SNAP.

“Now, if the shutdown were to extend longer than that, there would be some serious consequences to SNAP,” Vilsack also said on Monday.

Vilsack added that amid a partial government shutdown, it will be nearly impossible for Congress to pass a new farm bill. Every five years, lawmakers must write a sweeping farm bill to set policy and funding levels for farm, food, nutrition and conservation programs.

This year’s farm bill is set to expire Sept. 30, but lawmakers typically finish it by the end of the year. The 2018 farm bill was signed into law in December of that year.

National Park officials would need to close off access to most of the country’s 425 parks, recreation areas and national historic sites during a shutdown.

Nearly all national park sites to close during government shutdown

The IRS would continue processing certain payments, maintaining its computer networks and printing and designing tax forms for the upcoming year. However, some taxpayer services will cease during the non-filing season. Call sites that respond to taxpayer questions will be closed during a funding lapse.

Several sources of federal aid to states will also be affected, Tim Storey, the CEO of the National Conference of State Legislatures, said in a written statement Friday.

“A shutdown creates uncertainty for states and impedes access to vital federal programs,” Storey said. “While states may not feel the immediate effects, critical state services that receive federal funding such as (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), disaster relief efforts, cybersecurity and child nutrition may be put in jeopardy if Congress does not come to an agreement quickly.”

Road projects on track

Most federal funding for highways and transit, including the daily reimbursements to state departments of transportation and transit agencies, will continue without interruption.

Those programs are funded through the Highway Trust Fund, not annual appropriations. The trust fund was reauthorized in the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. The law also provided five years of advanced appropriations for highway and transit spending, meaning that the workers at the U.S. Department of Transportation who process those payments can remain at work with pay through a partial shutdown.

That means federal money for construction of roads, bridges and transit would continue to flow to state coffers.

“If it’s a highway or mass transit project everybody should be at work and fully funded and able to do all of the things on Oct. 2 that they were able to do on Sept. 29,” Jeff Davis, a senior fellow at the national transportation think tank Eno Center for Transportation, said on a Friday webinar.

An American Airlines plane takes off from Los Angeles International Airport on Oct. 1, 2020. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Air turbulence ahead

Air travel, meanwhile, could see disruptions.

Air traffic controllers, considered essential to protect life and safety, would be required to work without pay.

Federal employees were scheduled to receive a regular paycheck Friday, before a potential partial shutdown. The first paycheck they miss would be Oct. 13, if the partial shutdown is still ongoing then.

If a funding lapse persists that long, the air traffic controllers could begin work slowdowns, leading to air travel delays and cancellations.

Air traffic controllers are forbidden by law from striking, but the last partial shutdown saw several call in sick rather than work without pay.

“Imagine the pressure that a controller is already under every time they take their position at work,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at a Sept. 27 news conference. “And then imagine the added stress of coming to that job from a household with a family that can no longer count on that paycheck.”

In addition to hurting morale in the short-term, a shutdown would ruin training programs for air traffic controllers, Buttigieg said.

“We would immediately have to stop training new air traffic controllers and furlough another 1,000 controllers who are already in the training pipeline,” he said. “The complexity of the hiring and training process means even a shutdown lasting a few days could mean we will not hit our staffing and hiring targets next year.”

Other employees that would be required to work during the partial government shutdown include those in the Transportation Security Administration under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Of the nearly 61,000 TSA employees, the agency expects nearly 58,000 to continue security checks across the nation’s airports.

In addition to funding lapses for most federal programs, the authorization for the Federal Aviation Administration expires at midnight Saturday, meaning that the trust funds that operate outside the normal appropriations process could not fund operations as they do for highways.

Even a short-term funding bill without an FAA extension is in practice the same as not having a short-term bill, Davis said.

“The budget authority is not available because the underlying trust fund from which it’s drawn doesn’t exist at the moment,” he said.

Parks to shutter

Almost all National Park Service sites that they are physically able to block access to would close.

“At NPS sites across the country, gates will be locked, visitor centers will be closed, and thousands of park rangers will be furloughed,” the Interior Department, which oversees the NPS, said Friday.

States and nonprofit groups can work with the federal government to fund park operations. The governors of Arizona and Utah have said they will seek such agreements this year. But even those sites may see a disruption in access as agreements are finalized and funding is secured.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, for example, was closed for the first three days of the 16-day shutdown in 2013. After a blizzard, the park reopened for the last three days of the shutdown with the help of nonprofit donations and an agreement with South Dakota’s state government, Cheryl Schreier, the former Mount Rushmore superintendent, said in a Friday interview.

Park sites stayed open with a minimal workforce during the 2018-2019 shutdown. U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking Republican John Barrasso of Wyoming called for the Interior Department to do the same this year and criticized the decision to close parks.

“The Biden administration has the ability to keep our nation’s parks open and accessible,” he said in a statement. “Instead, they’re deliberately trying to make a government shutdown as painful as possible for American families and visitors alike.”

But the Government Accountability Office said the decision to keep parks open during the shutdown was illegal. And park advocates have said remaining open without enough workers created problems.

Visitors to Mount Rushmore during the 2018-2019 shutdown “were very confused,” Schreier said. Trash and even human waste piled up as visitors couldn’t find open bathrooms.

Law enforcement officials, not visitor services employees, comprised most of the workforce.

“It makes it difficult when you don’t have, obviously, the adequate staff,” Schreier said.

The U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, . (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

Historic, cultural sites to close

Public tours of the U.S. Capitol will cease, as the Congressional Visitor Center would close down during a funding lapse. This includes tours of the complex’s storied dome.

U.S. Capitol Police will continue to report to work to secure the complex, but they will do so without pay.

“I’ve sent my membership updates to prepare for a shutdown if it happens, which it looks like it will,” said Gus Papathanasiou, chairman of the USCP Labor Committee. “I’m hoping a shutdown doesn’t happen because with the cost of living higher than ever, this shutdown will create an enormous hardship.”

Workers with the Architect of the Capitol, the office charged with maintaining the Capitol buildings and grounds, will continue to work in a limited capacity without pay.

USCP officers and Capitol maintenance staff will receive back pay upon the end of a shutdown.

The Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo will remain open until at least Oct. 7, even if a partial government shutdown is triggered this weekend, according to the institution’s contingency plan released Thursday.

The institution, which employs nearly 4,000 across its several locations, will continue to use fund balances from prior years until they are exhausted.

Just over 1,100 Smithsonian workers will remain on the job during the shutdown to care for animals, continue lab experiments, maintain library archives and secure the facilities.

Student loan repayments

Federal student loan repayment officially begins Oct. 1, and regardless of a shutdown, those payments are still due.

“Even if extreme House Republicans needlessly shut down the government, loan payments will continue to be due starting this month,” a spokesperson from the Department of Education said in a statement to States Newsroom.

The Biden administration did launch a one-year on-ramp program where borrowers with federal student loans won’t be faulted for not repaying their loans. However, interest will still accrue.

Student debt relief scams on the rise. Here’s what borrowers need to know.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, in a contingency plan, said the department would furlough 90% of its staff. There are about 4,000 full-time and part-time employees.

Programs that would still run because they are mandatory include Pell Grants and Federal Direct Student Loans.

Some programs that would lapse include the development and awarding of grants. The Office for Civil Rights would pause its reviews and investigations and guidance and regulatory actions.

Creative Commons Republished from lailluminator.com

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-Louisiana, has introduced legislation to require the federal Department of Education to provide grants to schools with minimal athletics budgets, a move he believes will create equity between athletics departments at HBCUs and schools with majority white student bodies. 

The grants would be available to any school with an endowment lower than $900 million and an athletic department that brings in less than $20 million annually. 

“Supporting athletic programs at HBCUs would attract talented student-athletes and sports administrators by offering them the best athletic and academic experiences possible,” Carter said in a press release. “In turn, HBCUs would generate more revenue to provide the support and resources that their students deserve.” 

Carter compared the athletics programs at LSU, a primarily white institution, and Southern University, a historically Black university. Both are in Baton Rouge, which is partially in Carter’s district. 

LSU’s athletic department has an operating budget of nearly $200 million, enabling it to build state of the art facilities. Southern, which has been historically underfunded by the state, has an $18.5 million athletics budget. Despite this disparity — and the fact LSU is one of the few athletic departments in the nation to turn a profit — LSU has still successfully looked to the state for help paying for its athletic facilities. 

“HBCUs cannot compete with these programs given their current budgets,” Carter said. “Talented student athletes often opt for PWIs (predominantly white institutions) when making their college decisions because of the difference in athletic program offerings.” 

Southern played LSU in football for the first time last year, despite the campuses being just 15 minutes apart from each other. The Tigers drubbed the Jaguars, 65-17.

While the LSU athletic department is capable of being self-sufficient, more than half of Southern’s sports budget comes from institutional support and student fees. 

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Carter’s grant program would provide minimum grants of $250,000 that could be used to build, maintain or enhance athletics facilities or to purchase equipment or uniforms. 

His bill faces extremely long odds of making it through a divided Congress, but comes at an interesting time in higher education where state and federal leaders, as well as private donors, are trying to right historical wrongs. 

Historically Black institutions play an important role in educating Black Americans, offering a community to many, but were created to further a segregated society. 

Across the nation, HBCUs have been historically underfunded. While LSU and Southern are both land grant universities, established by states that received federal land to create schools with a focus on teaching agriculture, science, engineering and military science, the state has often failed to meet its federal matching requirements for Southern, leaving the institution to try to do more with less. 

In 1972, tensions over that inequity spilled out onto the football field, with student protestors interrupting a Southern game. Protests continued to disrupt university operations in the subsequent days, culminating in the death of two students at the hand of law enforcement officers whose identities were never determined. 

In the half a century since the tragedy, Louisiana has made small efforts to try to close the funding gap but has struggled with political and budgetary issues. 

Carter’s legislation is cosponsored by Democratic Reps. Alma Adams of North Carolina, James Clyburn of South Carolina, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Shelia Jackson Lee of Texas, Yvette Clarke of New York, Hank Johnson of Georgia, Terri Sewell of Alabama, Donald Payne of New Jersey, Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, Dwight Evans of Pennsylvania, Donald Davis of North Carolina, Glenn Ivey of Maryland, David Scott of Georgia and Jennifer McClellan of Virginia. 

Creative Commons Republished from lailluminator.com

The Virginia League for Planned Parenthood received extra funds from the federal government that it will give to a Tennessee and North Mississippi group for pregnancy services, a move that raised the hackles of Gov. Bill Lee and TennesseeRight to Life.

About $3.9 million for low-cost birth control, contraceptive counsel, sexually-transmitted disease treatment, breast and cervical cancer screenings, pre-pregnancy care and other treatment will go to Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi. The move comes after Tennessee declined to meet federal Title X grant requirements and provide accurate and accessible medical care, including counseling for abortion, according to the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood.

Tennessee has received up to $7.5 million for those services. But the state Legislature outlawed abortion a year ago when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, then passed a law this year allowing abortions only in limited circumstances to save the lives of women involved in dangerous pregnancies.

Our governor jeopardized access to birth control, STI testing and treatment and cancer screenings when he refused to comply with Title X requirements for unbiased patient information.

– Ashley Coffield, Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi

Ashley Coffield, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, said, “Victory is rare in Tennessee” but noted the group is celebrating the “return of nonjudgmental access to Title X programs.”

“Our governor jeopardized access to birth control, STI testing and treatment and cancer screenings when he refused to comply with Title X requirements for unbiased patient information,” Coffield said in a statement this week.

The shifting of funds to Tennessee and Mississippi through Virginia upset Right to Life and Lee the same week as Senate and House leaders created a study group to look into rejecting about $1.89 billion in federal education money.

Tennessee Right to Life, which lobbied against abortions for rape victims and most cases in which a pregnant woman’s life is in danger, characterized the federal move as “retaliation” for the state’s “strong pro-life law.”

“The Biden Administration is in cahoots with the largest abortion business in the world,” Tennessee Right to Life President Stacy Dunn said. Her husband, former Rep. Bill Dunn, a proponent of the governor’s education voucher program, was hired to work for the Department of Education after leaving the Legislature.

Even though Title X money can’t be used for abortion services, the money will be directed to promote “the deadly agenda of the abortion industry,” Stacy Dunn said.

Lee two weeks ago announced $200 million worth of grants to community organizations, including crisis pregnancy centers, which counsel women against abortion.

The governor told reporters this week the state approved more funding for pregnancy services than Title X was providing after the federal government cut off the money.

“The federal government has now funneled those dollars that were coming to our state into political agencies, frankly, and this is an issue that ought to rise above politics. I think it’s the wrong decision,” Lee said.

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Creative Commons Republished from tennesseelookout.com

Almost all National Park Service sites will be inaccessible during a partial federal government shutdown likely to start this weekend, the U.S. Interior Department said Friday.

The agency will bar access to most of the nation’s 425 parks, recreation areas, national historic sites and other units, according to a fact sheet from the Interior Department, which oversees the NPS.

“At NPS sites across the country, gates will be locked, visitor centers will be closed, and thousands of park rangers will be furloughed,” the fact sheet reads. “Accordingly, the public will be encouraged not to visit sites during the period of lapse in appropriations out of consideration for protection of natural and cultural resources, as well as visitor safety.”

Units that “by their nature, are physically accessible to the public,” such as the National Mall in Washington, D.C., will remain open. Likewise, areas of some parks that are physically accessible, including park roads, trails, campsites and open-air memorials, will remain accessible, the department said.

But areas that remain open will operate with “significantly reduced” services, the department said.

Interior had not previously revealed its plans for dealing with a funding lapse, though advocates expected reduced access.

Some state governments have pledged to use state funds to keep parks in their states open.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, said she’d use state lottery revenue to maintain access to Grand Canyon National Park.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said Thursday “the state has identified short-term funding options” to keep its five national parks open. Both states made similar moves during the 2013 shutdown, the last time parks closed for a lapse in funding.

The fact sheet said National Park Service Director Charles F. Sams III would have to approve any such agreement. Interior and the NPS have not said if Sams has approved such plans.

Cox said the department had not authorized his plan.

Agreements between states and the Park Service could take a few days from the onset of a shutdown.

A senior Interior official said Thursday the NPS and Interior were “prepared to engage in those discussions with states.” The official spoke with reporters by phone on the condition he not be named.

The deadline for Congress to fund government programs is Saturday at midnight. The U.S. Senate is set to vote near the deadline on a continuing resolution to keep the government funded at existing levels.

But the U.S. House — where several far-right members oppose a short-term funding bill — has not shown progress toward a deal that would avoid a partial shutdown.

Procedures to close the parks would begin Sunday and likely continue into Monday, the official said.

The plan to close access to parks is similar to the approach the Obama administration took in 2013 but differs from the Trump administration’s in 2018 and 2019.
Under President Donald Trump, the Park Service used visitor fees to fund operations, but also deeply cut services. The approach was “reckless,” according to parks advocates and incurred lasting damage to park sites.

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Creative Commons Republished from lailluminator.com