Senate again fails to pass DHS funding bill as shutdown nears a month
The Senate again failed to pass a funding bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), amid a partial shutdown that has lasted almost a month.
By a vote of 51-46, mainly along party lines, lawmakers in the upper chamber remain at an impasse over stronger guardrails on federal immigration enforcement.
Only one Democrat, senator John Fetterman, broke with his party to vote for the appropriations bill that would fund DHS through September.
This is the fourth time the Senate has failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass a DHS funding bill this year.
Key events
George Chidi
Lines have doubled the normal clearance time for security checkpoints at Miami International Airport in the hours following the Senate’s rejection of a bill to fund TSA agent salaries, guaranteeing that agents will miss a paycheck.
Asked how many of his coworkers had called out, one agent replied, “Not enough. Nothing happens until the public feels some pain.”
Nonetheless, the checkpoints remained staffed.
Praharsha Pinninti, a recent college graduate heading home to Raleigh, found the pay issue “insane”.
“I think that’s extremely unfair.” Department of Homeland Security agents who will go unpaid, the traveler noted, “are the first line people that greet people coming into our country. You want them to be the most well paid, or at least paid on time.”
Pinninti described the legislative standoff as “a test of time, and it’s a test of patience, and it’s a test of our integrity as an issue.”
Lauren Gambino
The suspect who killed one person and injured two others at Old Dominion University on Thursday was identified by authorities as Mohamed Jalloh, a former member of the army national guard who pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State.
Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk field office, told reporters the suspect had attempted to commit an “act of terrorism” and shouted “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire. He was subdued and killed by members of the university’s ROTC program in a university classroom, she said, praising them for demonstrating “extreme bravery and courage” and preventing further loss of life. (ROTC is a college-based program that allows students to train to become a US military officer while also earning a college degree.)
Kash Patel, the FBI director, said the bureau was investigating the incident as an “act of terrorism”.
“Earlier today, an armed individual opened fire at Old Dominion University, leaving one person dead and two others wounded,” Patel said on social media. “The shooter is now deceased thanks to a group of brave students who stepped in and subdued him – actions that undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement.
Evans did not provide further details on how the suspect died except to confirm the gunman was not shot. She said the ROTC students “rendered him no longer alive”, adding: “I don’t know how else to say it.”
FBI says Michigan synagogue attack being investigated as ‘a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community’
The FBI special agent in charge of its Detroit field office, Jennifer Runyan, just said at a news conference on the man who rammed his vehicle into a Michigan synagogue on Thursday that the bureau is “leading the investigation right now as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community”.
“There was one subject involved in this incident who is now deceased,” Runyan added. “We’ve had no victim fatalities.”
She declined to address the suspect’s potential motivation, saying that it remains under investigation.
As our colleague Lucy Campbell reports on the Guardian’s Middle East crisis live blog, US Central Command, which oversees the offensive on Iran from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, said in a press release that a US refueling plane has crashed in Iraq.
“US Central Command is aware of the loss of a US KC-135 refueling aircraft,” the Pentagon statement says. “The incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury, and rescue efforts are ongoing. Two aircraft were involved in the incident. One of the aircraft went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely.”
The US military statement insisted that the crash “was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire”.
Trump celebrates Trump at Women’s History Month event
The White House celebration of Women’s History Month, which ended a few minutes ago, was unusual in that the spotlight was mainly focused on a man: Donald Trump.
The president, who spoke for about half an hour after his wife, Melania Trump, made introductory remarks of less than four minutes, turned the event into a celebration of what he calls his legislative achievements and used it an opportunity to air grievances, like his claim that he did not lose the 2020 election to Joe Biden, despite getting 7 million fewer votes, and losing every swing state.
The president who seized the spotlight at Thursday’s event was previously found liable of sexually abusing one woman, the writer E. Jean Carroll, in court, and convicted of falsifying business records to conceal from voters that he paid hush money paid to a porn actor, Stormy Daniels, who said they slept together just after his wife gave birth to their son.
While Trump invited a series of women to make brief remarks from the podium on Thursday, they were all carefully chosen to celebrate aspects of his domestic policy agenda, giving the event the feel of a midterm campaign rally.
At the end of the remarks, the president signed a proclamation described as a celebration of women’s history but the text was mainly devoted to celebrating Trump administration domestic policies.
As he did so, he repeated a wisecrack intended to belittle Joe Biden, by pointing out to the attorney general, Pam Bondi, he previously urged to investigate his predecessor for using an autopen to sign some documents, that he was not using that device. “No autopen, right Pam? Am I allowed? No autopen,” Trump said.
In fact, as video of the 2024 White House event for Women’s History Month shows, Biden also sat down to personally sign that year’s proclamation, on camera. In contrast to Trump, Biden spoke at that event for about 10 minutes, after about 30 minutes of remarks from his vice-president, Kamala Harris, his first lady, Jill Biden, and the former first lady of California, Maria Shriver.
At the end of Thursday’s event, Trump could be seen wading into the crowd of female supporters and aides to show them the medal gifted to him by the US Olympic bobsledder, Kallie Humphries.
Olympic athlete gives medal to Trump at Women’s History Month event
In a surprising twist, the White House event in honor of Women’s History Month ended with a medal being presented to… Donald Trump.
The president was gifted an Order of Ikkos medal, which is an honor presented by a US Olympic of Paralympic medal-winning athlete to someone who has been instrumental to their success, usually a coach, mentor or family member.
The award was presented to Trump by the US Olympic bobsledder Kaillie Humphries, who won a pair of bronze medals at this year’s games.
Before Trump called Humphries up to speak, he admitted that until he walked into the room he didn’t know who would be speaking with him, since he didn’t prepare for the event, but claimed he recognized the bobsledder. “I didn’t read … if I prepare my speeches I won’t time to get things done,” the president said, “but I walked in and I saw this beautiful woman with the blond hair.”
He then looked down and said, “I don’t know how the hell you do it… Kaillie.”
An emotional Humphries, who switched from representing Canada to the US, said that she was proud to have done so “as a legal immigrant,” with stress on the word legal, after having given birth through IVF.
After presenting Trump with the medal, she added that it was partly in honor of his determination to keep trans women from competing in competitions.
“I want to recognize the support and the impact you’ve had on women’s sports throughout the Olympic movement, specifically standing up to keep biological women in women’s sports, to keep the field of play safe and allow for fair competition,” Humphries said. “Furthermore, because your policies are creating greater access to IVF so families like mine can continue to grow as I look to become and expand my family again.”
Earlier in his remarks, Trump had suggested that it was up to him to decide the eligibility criteria for the upcoming 2028 Olympics. “We have put the world on notice that America will not allow men to compete against women in the 2028 Olympics,” Trump said. “We have the Olympics, he explained.
“We have the World Cup coming up,” he added, mentioning another competition he meddled with on Thursday, when he warned Iran that its national men’s football team would not be safe in the United States, where it is scheduled to play three matches in June.
Three months ago, Trump was also given a medal by the Fifa president Gianni Infantino, when the US president who bombed Iran last summer, and started a war with the same nation two weeks ago, was named the winner of the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize during the World Cup draw.
Trump uses Women’s History Month event to promote his tax and spending law
After saluting a series of women in his administration who are present at the Women’s History Month event in the White House, Donald Trump focused his remarks on boasting about what he called the great accomplishments of the massive tax and spending law he signed last year.
“The Trump administration is working every single day to make America better, safer, and more prosperous for women and men,” the president said, before introducing a series of female supporters to agree with Trump that his policies have been a boon to them personally.
The women invited to make brief remarks at the podium by the president were chosen as examples of people who have benefited from cuts in taxes for workers making tips, overtime pay and inheriting family farms.
Trump says he has been fully briefed on synagogue attack in Michigan
At the start of his remarks celebrating Women’s History Month at the White House, Donald Trump said he has been fully briefed on the incident at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, where a man rammed his vehicle into a synagogue.
“Before we begin, I want to send our love to the Michigan Jewish community and all of the people in Detroit, Detroit area, following the attack on the Jewish synagogue early today,” the president said.
“I’ve been briefed, fully briefed,” Trump said. “It’s a terrible thing, but it goes on. We’re going to be right down to the bottom of it. It’s absolutely incredible that things like this happen,” the president said.
Without making a connection between the attack on a synagogue and the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran, the president claimed that “the situation with Iran is moving along very rapidly” and said, again, that the US is “doing what has to be done” to deal with “a nation of terror and hate”.
House Democrats also push Hegseth for answers on Iran school bombing and use of AI in ongoing war
In a letter signed by more than 120 Democratic members of Congress to defense secretary Pete Hegseth, lawmakers are demanding answers about the strikes on an Iranian girls’ school that killed at least 175 people. It’s a similar letter to the one sent by nearly all Democrats in the Senate that we reported on earlier.
House representatives are also asking the Pentagon to detail the role of artificial intelligence in “selecting targets, assessing intelligence, and making legal determinations” during Operation Epic Fury.
They also want to know how defense officials are working with Israeli forces mitigate civilian harm following the bombing of the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school near a naval base in Minab.
A reminder, on Wednesday the New York Times reported that a preliminary investigation shows the US is to blame for the strikes.
US Navy could escort vessels in Strait of Hormuz with international coalition, Bessent says
Lucy Campbell
The US Navy, perhaps with an international coalition, will escort vessels through the strait of Hormuz when it is militarily possible, treasury secretary Scott Bessent has told Sky News.
My belief, that as soon as it is militarily possible, the US Navy, perhaps with an international coalition, will be escorting vessels through.
The plan to escort ships would go ahead as soon as the US has “complete control of the skies and … [Iran’s] rebuilding capabilities for the missiles completely degraded,” he said.
Bessent added:
There are, in fact, tankers coming through now, Iranian tankers, I believe some Chinese flag tankers have come through. So we know that they have not mined the straits.
Earlier, energy secretary Chris Wright told CNBC that the navy cannot escort ships through the strait of Hormuz now – but it was “quite likely” that could happen by the end of the month.
US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s subsequent response have paralysed shipping through the critical waterway, disrupting vital oil and gas flows and sending global energy prices soaring.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, has criticized ABC News’ reporting that the FBI warned California police departments that Iran could retaliate against US attacks by launching drones at the west coast.
The outlet cited a reviewed alert that was distributed at the end of February.
“They wrote this based on one email that was sent to local law enforcement in California about a single, unverified tip,” Leavitt said in a post on X. “TO BE CLEAR: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did.”
Here’s a recap of the day so far
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The Senate failed to pass a funding bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), amid a partial shutdown that has lasted almost a month. By a vote of 51-46, mainly along party lines, lawmakers remain at an impasse over stronger guardrails on federal immigration enforcement.
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The upper chamber did, however, pass a landmark housing bill, aimed at boosting the housing supply and lowering costs, by a huge bipartisan margin. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, written by Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren and Republican Tim Scott, won 89 votes – a rare bipartisan breakthrough. Nine GOP senators and one Democrat voted against it.
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In a Truth Social post, Donald Trump suggested that the skyrocketing price of oil would ultimately be beneficial for Americans, who are already facing increased fuel prices at the pump. “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” the president – who campaigned on bringing down costs – wrote.
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US defense officials told senators on the armed services committee that the cost of the war on Iran totaled more than $11.3bn in the first six days alone, according to multiple reports. The New York Times was first to break the news about the conflict’s price tag, citing three people familiar with the closed-door briefing on Tuesday.
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Meanwhile, energy secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Thursday that the Navy cannot escort ships through the strait of Hormuz now but it was “quite likely” that could happen by the end of the month. This comes as oil prices jumped almost 10%, above $100 a barrel, before dropping to $98 a barrel amid renewed fears about supply disruption.
Senate again fails to pass DHS funding bill as shutdown nears a month
The Senate again failed to pass a funding bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), amid a partial shutdown that has lasted almost a month.
By a vote of 51-46, mainly along party lines, lawmakers in the upper chamber remain at an impasse over stronger guardrails on federal immigration enforcement.
Only one Democrat, senator John Fetterman, broke with his party to vote for the appropriations bill that would fund DHS through September.
This is the fourth time the Senate has failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass a DHS funding bill this year.
Richard Luscombe
Local and national media report that a male suspect was killed and there were no casualties following a shooting at a synagogue in a Detroit suburb.
A large police response followed the incident at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield township, a prosperous suburb in Oakland county.
Michael Bouchard, the Oakland county sheriff told reporters at the scene that security guards that were already in place at the synagogue confronted the suspect as he approached the building and “engaged him in gunfire”.
Bouchard then added: “We’re not getting any active stimulus at the moment,” indicating that the initial emergency was over.
“At least one individual came to the temple, security saw him, engaged him in gunfire at the scene,” he said.
Bouchard was unable to identify who fired the shots, and said nobody was in custody. But he added: “Nobody at the moment has confirmed to be hurt, except maybe the shooter.”
He said “everybody has been moved out” of a school contained within the synagogue complex.
Tom Ambrose
Iranian security chief Ali Larijani said Thursday that his country would not give up fighting until the US came to regret the “grave miscalculation” of launching its war against the Islamic republic.
“Trump says he is looking for a speedy victory. While starting a war is easy, it cannot be won with a few tweets. We will not relent until making you sorry for this grave miscalculation,” Larijani said on X.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/mar/12/republicans-trump-iran-senate-majority-leader-john-thune-voter-id-bill-save-america-act-politics-live-news-updates
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