House speaker rejects Ukraine aid package as senators grind through votes

House Speaker Mike Johnson late Monday sharply criticised a $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other countries, casting serious doubts about the future of the package just as Senate leaders were slowly muscling it ahead in hopes of sending a message that the US remains committed to its allies.

 

The Republican speaker said the package lacked border security provisions, calling it “silent on the most pressing issue facing our country.” It was the latest — and potentially most consequential — sign of opposition to the Ukraine aid from conservatives who have for months demanded that border security policy be included in the package, only to last week reject a bipartisan proposal intended to curb the number of illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border

“Now, in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters,” Johnson said. “America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”

A determined group of Republican senators was also trying Monday with a marathon set of speeches to slow the Senate from passing the package. The mounting opposition was just the latest example of how the Republican Party’s stance on foreign affairs is being transformed under the influence of Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee.

Even if the package passes the Senate, as is expected, it faces an uncertain future in the House, where Republicans are more firmly aligned with Trump and deeply skeptical of continuing to aid Ukraine in its war against Russia.

As Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and 17 other GOP senators have provided the votes to ensure the foreign aid package stays on track to clearing the Senate, Johnson has shown no sign he will put the package up for a vote.

Support for sending military aid to Ukraine has waned among Republicans, but lawmakers have cast the aid as a direct investment in American interests to ensure global stability. The package would allot roughly $60 billion to Ukraine, and about a third of that would be spent replenishing the US military with the weapons and equipment that are sent to Kyiv.

“These are the enormously high stakes of the supplemental package: our security, our values, our democracy,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as he opened the chamber. “It is a down payment for the survival of Western democracy and the survival of American values.”

Schumer worked closely with McConnell for months searching for a way to win favor in the House for tens of billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine. But after the carefully negotiated Senate compromise that included border policy collapsed last week, Republicans have been deeply divided on the legislation.

Sen. JD Vance, an Ohio Republican, argued that the US should step back from the conflict and help broker an end to the conflict with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He questioned the wisdom of continuing to fuel Ukraine’s defense when Putin appears committed to continuing the conflict for years.

“I think it deals with the reality that we’re living in, which is they’re a more powerful country, and it’s their region of the world,” he said.

Vance, along with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and other opponents, spent several hours on the floor railing against the aid and complaining about Senate process. They dug in to delay a final vote.

“Wish us stamina. We fight for you. We stand with America,” Paul posted on social media as he and other senators prepared to occupy the floor as long as they could.

Paul defended his delays, saying “the American people need to know there was opposition to this.”

But bowing to Russia is a prospect some Republicans warned would be a dangerous move that puts Americans at risk. In an unusually raw back-and-forth, GOP senators who support the aid challenged some of the opponents directly on the floor.

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis angrily rebutted some of their arguments, noting that the money would only help Ukraine for less than a year and that much of it would go to replenishing US military stocks.

“Why am I so focused on this vote?” Tillis said. “Because I don’t want to be on the pages of history that we will regret if we walk away. You will see the alliance that is supporting Ukraine crumble. You will ultimately see China become emboldened. And I am not going to be on that page of history.”

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., became emotional as he talked about the drudgery of the Senate and spending time away from his family to get little done. “But every so often there are issues that come before us that seem to be the ones that explain why we are here,” he said, his voice cracking.

Moran conceded that the cost of the package was heavy for him, but pointed out that if Putin were to attack a NATO member in Europe, the US would be bound by treaty to become directly involved in the conflict.

Trump, speaking at a rally Saturday, said that he had once told a NATO ally he would encourage Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to members that are “delinquent” in their financial and military commitments to the alliance. The former president has led his party away from the foreign policy doctrines of aggressive American involvement overseas and toward an “America First” isolationism.

Evoking the slogan, Moran said, “I believe in America first, but unfortunately America first means we have to engage in the world.”

Senate supporters of the package have been heartened by the fact that many House Republicans still adamantly want to fund Ukraine’s defense.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, traveled to Kyiv last week with a bipartisan group that included Reps. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, as well as French Hill, R-Ark., Jason Crow, D-Colo. and Zach Nunn, R-Iowa.

Spanberger said the trip underscored to her how Ukraine is still in a fight for its very existence. As the group traveled through Kyiv in armored vehicles, they witnessed signs of an active war, from sandbagged shelters to burned-out cars and memorials to those killed. During a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the US lawmakers tried to offer assurances the American people still stood with his country.

“He was clear that our continued support is critical to their ability to win the war,” Spanberger said. “It’s critical to their own freedom. And importantly, it’s critical to US national security interests.”

The bipartisan group discussed how rarely used procedures could be used to advance the legislation through the House, even without the speaker’s support. But Spanberger called it a “tragedy” that the legislation could still stall despite a majority of lawmakers standing ready to support it.

“The fact that the only thing standing in the way is one person who does or doesn’t choose to bring it to the floor,” she said. “The procedure standing in the way of defeating Russia — that’s the part that for me is just untenable.”

(AP)

Source link

#House #speaker #rejects #Ukraine #aid #package #senators #grind #votes

US Supreme Court to decide if Trump can be kept off ballots

The Supreme Court said Friday it will decide whether former President Donald Trump can be kept off the ballot because of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, inserting the court squarely in the 2024 presidential campaign.

Issued on:

4 min

The justices acknowledged the need to reach a decision quickly, as voters will soon begin casting presidential primary ballots across the country. The court agreed to take up Trump’s appeal of a case from Colorado stemming from his role in the events that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Underscoring the urgency, arguments will be held on Feb. 8, during what is normally a nearly monthlong winter break for the justices. The compressed timeframe could allow the court to produce a decision before Super Tuesday on March 5, when the largest number of delegates are up for grabs in a single day, including in Colorado.

Trump, speaking at a campaign event in Iowa, said: “All I want is fair. I just hope that they’re going to be fair.”

The court will be considering for the first time the meaning and reach of a provision of the 14th Amendment barring some people who “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office. The amendment was adopted in 1868, following the Civil War. It has been so rarely used that the nation’s highest court had no previous occasion to interpret it.

Colorado’s Supreme Court, by a 4-3 vote, ruled last month that Trump should not be on the Republican primary ballot. The decision was the first time the 14th Amendment was used to bar a presidential contender from the ballot.

Trump is separately appealing to state court a ruling by Maine’s Democratic secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, that he was ineligible to appear on that state’s ballot over his role in the Capitol attack. Both the Colorado Supreme Court and the Maine secretary of state’s rulings are on hold until the appeals play out.

The high court’s decision to intervene, which both sides called for, is the most direct involvement in a presidential election since Bush v. Gore in 2000, when a conservative majority effectively decided the election for Republican George W. Bush. Only Justice Clarence Thomas remains from that court.

Three of the nine Supreme Court justices were appointed by Trump, though they have repeatedly ruled against him in 2020 election-related lawsuits, as well as his efforts to keep documents related to Jan. 6 and his tax returns from being turned over to congressional committees.

At the same time, Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have been in the majority of conservative-driven decisions that overturned the five-decade-old constitutional right to abortion, expanded gun rights and struck down affirmative action in college admissions. 

Some Democratic lawmakers have called on Thomas to step aside from the case because of his wife’s support for Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Thomas is unlikely to agree, and there was every indication Friday that all the justices are participating. Thomas has recused himself from only one other case related to the 2020 election, involving former law clerk John Eastman, and so far the people trying to disqualify Trump haven’t asked him to recuse.

The 4-3 Colorado decision cites a ruling by Gorsuch when he was a federal judge in that state. That Gorsuch decision upheld Colorado’s move to strike a naturalised citizen from the state’s presidential ballot because he was born in Guyana and didn’t meet the constitutional requirements to run for office. The court found that Trump likewise doesn’t meet the qualifications due to his role in the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. That day, the Republican president had held a rally outside the White House and exhorted his supporters to “fight like hell” before they walked to the Capitol.

The two-sentence provision in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states that anyone who swore an oath to uphold the constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it is no longer eligible for state or federal office. After Congress passed an amnesty for most of the former confederates the measure targeted in 1872, the provision fell into disuse until dozens of suits were filed to keep Trump off the ballot this year. Only the one in Colorado was successful.

Trump had asked the court to overturn the Colorado ruling without even hearing arguments. “The Colorado Supreme Court decision would unconstitutionally disenfranchise millions of voters in Colorado and likely be used as a template to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters nationwide,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.

They argue that Trump should win on many grounds, including that the events of Jan. 6 did not constitute an insurrection. Even if it did, they wrote, Trump himself had not engaged in insurrection. They also contend that the insurrection clause does not apply to the president and that Congress must act, not individual states.

Critics of the former president who sued in Colorado agreed that the justices should step in now and resolve the issue, as do many election law experts.

“This case is of utmost national importance. And given the upcoming presidential primary schedule, there is no time to wait for the issues to percolate further. The Court should resolve this case on an expedited timetable, so that voters in Colorado and elsewhere will know whether Trump is indeed constitutionally ineligible when they cast their primary ballots,” lawyers for the Colorado plaintiffs told the Supreme Court.

The issue of whether Trump can be on the ballot is not the only matter related to the former president or Jan. 6 that has reached the high court. The justices last month declined a request from special counsel Jack Smith to swiftly take up and rule on Trump’s claims that he is immune from prosecution in a case charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, though the issue could be back before the court soon depending on the ruling of a Washington-based appeals court.

And the court has said that it intends to hear an appeal that could upend hundreds of charges stemming from the Capitol riot, including against Trump.

(AP)

Source link

#Supreme #Court #decide #Trump #ballots

US Houses approves $14 billion ‘Israel only’ bill

The first substantial legislative effort in Congress to support Israel in the war falls far short of Biden’s request for nearly $106 billion that would also back Ukraine as it fights Russia, along with US efforts to counter China and address security at the border with Mexico.

ADVERTISEMENT

The United States House of Representatives approved a nearly $14.5 billion military aid package Thursday for Israel, a muscular US response to the war with Hamas but also a partisan approach by new Speaker Mike Johnson that poses a direct challenge to Democrats and President Joe Biden.

In a departure from norms, Johnson’s package required that the emergency aid be offset with cuts in government spending elsewhere. That tack established the new House GOP’s conservative leadership, but it also turned what would typically be a bipartisan vote into one dividing Democrats and Republicans. Biden has said he would veto the bill, which was approved 226-196, with 12 Democrats joining most Republicans on a largely party-line vote.

Johnson,  a Republican Congressman from Louisiana, said the package would provide Israel with the assistance needed to defend itself, free hostages held by Hamas and eradicate the militant Palestinian group, accomplishing “all of this while we also work to ensure responsible spending and reduce the size of the federal government.”

Democrats said that approach would only delay help for Israel. Senate Majority Leader and New York Democrat Chuck Schumer has warned that the “stunningly unserious” bill has no chance in the Senate.

The first substantial legislative effort in Congress to support Israel in the war falls far short of Biden’s request for nearly $106 billion that would also back Ukraine as it fights Russia, along with US efforts to counter China and address security at the border with Mexico.

It is also Johnson’s first big test as House speaker as the Republican majority tries to get back to work after the month of turmoil since ousting California representative Kevin McCarthy as speaker. Johnson has said he will turn next to aid for Ukraine along with US border security, preferring to address Biden’s requests separately as GOP lawmakers increasingly oppose aiding Kyiv.

The White House’s veto warning said Johnson’s approach “fails to meet the urgency of the moment” and would set a dangerous precedent by requiring emergency funds to come from cuts elsewhere.

While the amount for Israel in the House bill is similar to what Biden sought, the White House said the Republican plan’s failure to include humanitarian assistance for Gaza is a “grave mistake” as the crisis deepens.

Biden on Wednesday called for a pause in the war to allow for relief efforts.

“This bill would break with the normal, bipartisan approach to providing emergency national security assistance,” the White House wrote in its statement of administration policy on the legislation. It said the GOP stance “would have devastating implications for our safety and alliances in the years ahead.”

It was unclear before voting Thursday how many Democrats would join with Republicans. The White House had been directly appealing to lawmakers, particularly calling Jewish Democrats, urging them to reject the bill.

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, counsellor to the president Steve Ricchetti and other senior White House staff have been engaging House Democrats, said a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.

But the vote was difficult for some lawmakers, particularly Democrats who wanted to support Israel and may have trouble explaining the trade-off to constituents, especially as the large AIPAC lobby and other groups encouraged passage. In all, two Republicans opposed the bill.

Democrat Brad Schneider of Illinois who voted against the package, said: “It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do.”

To pay for the bill, House Republicans have attached provisions that would cut billions from the IRS that Democrats approved last year and Biden signed into law as a way to go after tax cheats. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says doing that would end up costing the federal government a net $12.5 billion because of lost revenue from tax collections. Taken together, the cost of the aid package and revenue reduction adds up to more than $26 billion.

Republicans scoffed at that assessment, but the independent budget office is historically seen as a trusted referee.

Backers said the package would provide support for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system, procurement of advanced weaponry and other military needs, and help with protection and evacuations of US citizens. CBO pegged the overall package at about $14.3 billion for Israel.

Dems call to restore humanitarian aid

As the floor debate got underway, Democrats pleaded for Republicans to restore the humanitarian aid Biden requested and decried the politicization of typically widely bipartisan Israel support.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Republicans are leveraging the excruciating pain of an international crisis to help rich people who cheat on their taxes and big corporations who regularly dodge their taxes,” said Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee.

Dan Goldman of New York described hiding in a stairwell with his wife and children while visiting Israel as rockets fired in what he called the most horrific attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

Nevertheless, Goldman said he opposed the Republican-led bill as a “shameful effort” to turn the situation in Israel and the Jewish people into a political weapon.

“Support for Israel may be a political game for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle,” the Democrat said. “But this is personal for us Jews and it is existential for the one Jewish nation in the world that is a safe haven from the rising tide of antisemitism around the globe.”

The Republicans have been attacking Democrats who raise questions about Israel’s war tactics as antisemitic. The House tried to censure the only Palestinian-American lawmaker in Congress, Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib, over remarks she made. The censure measure failed.

ADVERTISEMENT

Andrew Clyde, a Republican representative from Georgia, said he was “so thankful there is no humanitarian aid,” which he argued could fall into the hands of Hamas.

No chance in the Senate

In the Democratic-controlled Senate, Schumer made clear that the House bill would be rejected.

“The Senate will not take up the House GOP’s deeply flawed proposal, and instead we’ll work on our own bipartisan emergency aid package” that includes money for Israel and Ukraine, as well as humanitarian assistance for Gaza and efforts to confront China.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is balancing the need to support his GOP allies in the House while also fighting to keep the aid package more in line with Biden’s broader request, believing all the issues are linked and demand US attention.

McConnell said the aid for Ukraine was “not charity” but was necessary to bolster a Western ally against Russia.

ADVERTISEMENT

In other action Thursday, the House overwhelmingly approved a Republican-led resolution that focused on college campus activism over the Israel-Hamas war. The nonbinding resolution would condemn support of Hamas, Hezbollah and terrorist organizations at institutions of higher education.

Source link

#Houses #approves #billion #Israel #bill

Gaetz files motion to oust House Speaker McCarthy

It’s a rare and strong procedural tool that has only been used twice in the past century. But in recent years, conservatives have wielded the motion as a weapon against their leaders.

ADVERTISEMENT

Further chaos with the US Republican party as far-right Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz announced he was using a procedural too – called a motion to vacate – to try to strip House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of his office. 

In a speech on the House floor, Gaetz demanded McCarthy disclose the details of a supposed deal with the White House to bring forward legislation to help fund the war in Ukraine after the speaker relied on Democrats to provide the necessary votes to fund the government.

“It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the House already works for and it’s not the Republican Conference,” Gaetz said.

Brushing off the threat, McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol, “I’m focused on doing the work that has to be done.”

McCarthy said there was “no side deal” on Ukraine, noting he has not spoken to Biden. Instead, he said he was asked to ensure the “transferability” of existing funds continues and said if there’s any problem with that, ”we’ll fix it.”

Here’s what to know about how the House can remove a speaker:

What is a motion to vacate?

The rules of the House allow for any single lawmaker — Democrat or Republican — to make a “motion to vacate the chair,” essentially an attempt to oust the speaker from that leadership post through a privileged resolution.

It’s a rare and strong procedural tool that has only been used twice in the past century. But in recent years, conservatives have wielded the motion as a weapon against their leaders.

In January, McCarthy, hoping to appease some on the hard right as he fought to gain their vote for speaker, agreed to give as few as five Republican members the ability to initiate a vote to remove him. But when that wasn’t good enough for his critics, he agreed to reduce that threshold to one — the system that historically has been the norm.

Proponents of allowing a single lawmaker to file the motion said it promotes accountability, noting its long history in the House. The last use of the motion was in 2015, when then-Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a Republican who later became Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, introduced a resolution to declare the speaker’s office vacant. Two months later, Boehner said he would be stepping down.

No speaker has ever been removed from office through a motion to vacate.

How does it work?

At any point in time, a member of the House can introduce a privileged resolution — a designation that gives it priority over other measures — to declare the office of the speaker of the House of Representatives vacant.

Once the motion is introduced, the lawmaker can walk onto the House floor and request a vote. Such a request would force House leaders to schedule a vote on the resolution within two legislative days.

But there are procedural motions that members of either party could introduce to slow down or stop the process altogether. If those tactics were to fail, and the resolution came to the floor for a vote, it would take a simple majority of the House — 218 votes, when no seats are vacant — to remove the speaker.

While it has never been successful, a motion to vacate has been used as a political threat against several speakers throughout history, dating back to Republican Speaker Joseph Cannon — who first invoked the resolution against himself in 1910. The effort failed as his fellow Republicans voted overwhelmingly to keep him as their leader. But by calling the bluff of his detractors, Cannon was able to put them on the record and end the threats against him.

In 1997, Republicans frustrated with then-Speaker Newt Gingrich considered trying to oust him but eventually decided against it. Most recently, the mere whispers of a motion to vacate forced Boehner out of office and set McCarthy on the path to the leadership post he has today.

Why do hard-line Republicans want to get rid of McCarthy?

Just like for Boehner, the call for McCarthy’s removal began with just one man. Gaetz, a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, has been threatening to file the resolution to remove him from the dais ever since McCarthy was nominated speaker by a majority of the conference earlier this year.

Gaetz is among 20 or so members who voted against McCarthy round after round as he fought to become speaker. While others eventually relented and voted in favour of McCarthy or present, Gaetz fought until the very end.

ADVERTISEMENT

“This will all be torpedoed by one person who wants to put a motion to vacate for personal, political reasons, and undermine the will of the conference and the American people, who elected a Republican majority to govern,” Congressman Mike Lawler of New York, a defender of McCarthy, said Sunday on ABC.

Gaetz and other critics of McCarthy say he has failed to be the conservative leader the party needs. They have railed against his deal with the White House over raising the debt limit earlier this year and have demanded the House slash spending levels to new lows. The group has also made sweeping demands to reimagine the U.S. government, which they criticize as “woke and weaponized.”

Does Gaetz have the votes to pass the motion?

As of right now, it is unclear, but there’s reason to be sceptical. No matter how loud or disruptive they may be, the anti-McCarthy faction is only a small minority in a Republican conference that is mostly supportive or amenable to him remaining speaker.

Another problem with the push to remove McCarthy is that there is no clear, consensus candidate to take his place. And lastly, and maybe more importantly, Gaetz would need the support of most Democrats to oust McCarthy if the motion ever came to a vote — and it’s far from certain that they would join him.

“The one thing I agree with my Democrat colleagues on is that for the last eight months, this House has been poorly led and we own that and we have to do something about it,” Gaetz said on the floor last week. “And you know what? My Democrat colleagues will have an opportunity to do something about that, too. And we will see if they bail out our failed speaker.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Gaetz has been speaking to House Democrats from across the ideological spectrum in recent weeks trying to assess what kind of support, if any, he would have from those across the aisle if he were to file his motion and it came to the floor.

“We haven’t had a discussion about any hypothetical motion to vacate,” Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a news conference Saturday. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

What happens next?

The House would enter uncharted territory if a motion to vacate effort against McCarthy were to pass the full House.

The speaker of the House, under the rules of the chamber, is required to keep a list of individuals who can act as speaker pro tempore in the event a chair is vacated. The list, which is oddly written by the sitting speaker at any given time, remains with the House Clerk and would be made public if the speakership were vacant.

The first person on that list would be named speaker pro tempore and their first order of business would be to hold an election for a new speaker. That event requires the House to vote as many times as it takes for a candidate to receive the majority of those present and voting for speaker.

ADVERTISEMENT

For McCarthy, that process took an unprecedented 15 rounds in January.

New candidates for speaker could emerge, but there’s also nothing to stop Republicans from nominating McCarthy again.

Source link

#Gaetz #files #motion #oust #House #Speaker #McCarthy

US Congress passes last-minute bill to avert shutdown

The threat of a federal government shutdown suddenly lifted late Saturday as President Joe Biden signed a temporary funding bill to keep agencies open with little time to spare after Congress rushed to approve the bipartisan deal.

The package drops aid to Ukraine, a White House priority opposed by a growing number of GOP lawmakers, but increases federal disaster assistance by $16 billion, meeting Biden’s full request. The bill funds government until Nov. 17.

After chaotic days of turmoil in the House, Speaker Kevin McCarthy abruptly abandoned demands for steep spending cuts from his right flank and instead relied on Democrats to pass the bill, at risk to his own job. The Senate followed with final passage closing a whirlwind day at the Capitol.

“This is good news for the American people,” Biden said in a statement. 

He also said the United States “cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted” and expected McCarthy “will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment.”


It’s been a sudden head-spinning turn of events in Congress ahead of the midnight funding deadline after grueling days in the House pushed the government to the brink of a disruptive federal shutdown.

The outcome ends, for now, the threat of a shutdown, but the reprieve may be short-lived. Congress will again need to fund the government in coming weeks risking a crisis as views are hardening, particularly among the right-flank lawmakers whose demands were ultimately swept aside this time in favor of a more bipartisan approach. 

“We’re going to do our job,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said before the House vote. “We’re going to be adults in the room. And we’re going to keep government open.”

If no deal was in place before Sunday, federal workers would have faced furloughs, more than 2 million active-duty and reserve military troops would have had to work without pay and programs and services that Americans rely on from coast to coast would have begun to face shutdown disruptions.

“It has been a day full of twists and turns, but the American people can breathe a sigh of relief: There will be no government shutdown,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The package funds government at current 2023 levels until mid-November, and also extends other provisions, including for the Federal Aviation Administration. The package was approved by the House 335-91, with most Republicans and almost all Democrats supporting. Senate passage came by an 88-9 vote. 

But the loss of Ukraine aid was devastating for lawmakers of both parties vowing to support President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his recent Washington visit. The Senate bill included $6 billion for Ukraine, and both chambers came to a standstill Saturday as lawmakers assessed their options.

“The American people deserve better,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, warning in a lengthy floor speech that “extreme” Republicans were risking a shutdown. 

For the House package to be approved, McCarthy was forced to rely on Democrats because the speaker’s hard-right flank has said it will oppose any short-term funding measure, denying him the votes needed from his slim majority. It’s a move that is sure to intensify calls for his ouster. 

After leaving the conservative holdouts behind, McCarthy is almost certain to be facing a motion to try to remove him from office, though it is not at all certain there would be enough votes to topple the speaker. Most Republicans voted for the package Saturday while 90 opposed.

“If somebody wants to remove me because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try,” McCarthy said of the threat to oust him. “But I think this country is too important.”

The White House was tracking the developments on Capitol Hill and aides were briefing the president, who was spending the weekend in Washington.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has championed Ukraine aid despite resistance from his own ranks, is expected to keep pursuing U.S. support for Kyiv in the fight against Russia.

“I have agreed to keep fighting for more economic and security aid for Ukraine,” McConnell, R-Ky., said before the vote.

Late at night, the Senate stalled when Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., held up the vote, seeking assurances Ukraine funds would be reconsidered.

“I know important moments are like this, for the United States, to lead the rest of the world,” Bennet said, noting his mother was born in Poland in 1938 and survived the Holocaust. “We can’t fail.”

The House’s quick pivot comes after the collapse Friday of McCarthy’s earlier plan to pass a Republican-only bill with steep spending cuts up to 30% to most government agencies and strict border provisions that the White House and Democrats rejected as too extreme. A faction of 21 hard-right Republican holdouts opposed it.

“Our options are slipping away every minute,” said one senior Republican, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida.

The federal government had been heading straight into a shutdown that posed grave uncertainty for federal workers in states all across America and the people who depend on them — from troops to border control agents to office workers, scientists and others.

Families that rely on Head Start for children, food benefits and countless other programs large and small were confronting potential interruptions or outright closures. At the airports, Transportation Security Administration officers and air traffic controllers had been expected to work without pay, but travelers could have faced delays in updating their U.S. passports or other travel documents. 

The White House has brushed aside McCarthy’s overtures to meet with Biden after the speaker walked away from the debt deal they brokered earlier this year that set budget levels.

Catering to his hard-right flank, McCarthy had made multiple concessions including returning to the spending limits the conservatives demanded back in January as part of the deal-making to help him become the House speaker. 

But it was not enough as the conservatives insisted the House follow regular rules, and debate and approve each of the 12 separate spending bills needed to fund the government agencies, typically a months-long process. In the Senate, all the no votes against the package came from Republicans.

McCarthy’s chief Republican critic, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, has warned he will file a motion calling a vote to oust the speaker. 

Some of the Republican holdouts, including Gaetz, are allies of former President Donald Trump, who is Biden’s chief rival in the 2024 race. Trump has been encouraging the Republicans to fight hard for their priorities and even to “shut it down.” 

At an early closed-door meeting at the Capitol, several House Republicans, particularly those facing tough reelections next year, urged their colleagues to find a way to prevent a shutdown.

“All of us have a responsibility to lead and to govern,” said Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York.

The lone House Democrat to vote against the package, Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois, the co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, said, “Protecting Ukraine is in our national interest.”

(AP)



Source link

#Congress #passes #lastminute #bill #avert #shutdown

Military whistleblowers’ shock testimony claims UFOs really do exist

Along with detailed descriptions of first-hand encounters with spherical and Tic Tac-shaped objects, witnesses alluded to government intimidation that made them fear for their lives

A US congressional panel has heard testimony from former military servicemen that the American military may know far more about unknown objects spotted in the sky than has previously been disclosed.

The hearing on so-called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAPs – a term coined partly to avoid the stigma of “UFO” – featured several witnesses from military career backgrounds sharing stunning testimony about alleged secret military programmes, as well as personal encounters with unknown objects that appeared to defy known physics and engineering principles while flying in US airspace.

One witness was David Charles Grusch, a former US Air Force intelligence officer and whistleblower who recently went public with claims that the American military may be attempting to reverse-engineer recovered craft of no known earthly origin.

Another, retired US Navy Commander David Fravor, gave a detailed account of an encounter he and other pilots had with a UAP over the Persian Gulf in 2004.

“As we looked around, we noticed some white water off our right side. The weather on the day of the incident was as close to a perfect day as you could ask, clear skies, light winds, calm seas (no whitecaps from the waves) so the white water stood out in the large blue ocean. As all four looked down we saw a small white Tic Tac shaped object…

“As we pulled nose onto the object at approximately ½ of a mile with the object just left of our nose, it rapidly accelerated and disappeared right in front of our aircraft. Our wingman, roughly 8,000ft above us, also lost visual. We immediately turned to investigate the white water only to find that it was also gone.

The object, he said, “was far superior in performance to my brand new F/A-18F, and did not operate with any of the known aerodynamic principles that we expect for objects that fly in our atmosphere.”

Out in the open

There is significant political pressure by US lawmakers to investigate the UAP issue in detail while keeping the debate on it as rational as possible. In that spirit, some of the panel’s members sought to frame the hearing as an exposé of possible extraterrestrial visits to Earth, but an inquiry into a possible cover-up.

“We’re not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing,” said Congressman Tim Burchett. “Sorry to disappoint half of y’all.”

Yet other members emphasised that part of the point of the hearing was, in fact, to understand the meaning of the hundreds or thousands of sightings apparently made by military staff and commercial pilots.

In her own opening remarks, during which she mentioned the infamous Roswell incident, Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna remarked that Congress needs to understand “the magnitude of what this means not just for this nation, but for humanity”.

Thanks to a sporadic sequence of news reports and official disclosures in recent years, beginning with a stunning New York Times story in 2017, there is a greater public understanding than ever about what steps the US has been quietly taking to investigate UAPs, in particular those spotted by military servicemembers.

Millions of dollars of funds quietly allocated by the US Senate are known to have been spent on probing the matter, including via the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force established in 2020, and its successor, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, for which Grusch worked.

News reports, declassified videos and Congressional testimony have made clear that there have been many more encounters than the public has been made aware of, and that there are striking consistencies across the witness accounts that have been gathered.

And even among those who remain steadfastly sceptical of any suggestion that extraterrestrial aviators are visiting Earth, the string of still-partial revelations has raised serious alarm that advanced technology of some kind might be being used in proximity to American military assets – and that if so, it is not clear who has developed and deployed it.

Wednesday’s hearing, however, marks a new turn in the public story.

Fear and danger

Both Grusch and Fravor specifically alluded to the US government’s possible awareness or even possession of craft originating beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.

Grusch’s most striking testimony was indirect, in that he did not claim to have first-hand knowledge of the supposed objects in question. Instead, he testified that in 2019, he was “informed” of “a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program” that was or is operating without Congressional scrutiny.

“I made the decision based on the data I collected, to report this information to my superiors and multiple Inspectors General, and in effect become a whistleblower,” he told the subcommittee.

“As you know, I have suffered retaliation for my decision. But I am hopeful that my actions will ultimately lead to a positive outcome of increased transparency.”

Fravor also voiced concern about the lack of government scrutiny of the reported incidents and the military’s knowledge of them.

“What concerns me is that there is no ‘oversight’ from our elected officials on anything associated with our government possessing or working on craft that we believe are not from this world,” he said in his remarks.

He also reiterated to the committee that the object he and other pilots saw in the Persian Gulf in 2004 was able to perform seemingly impossible manoeuvres that would outpace any US military assert.

“The technology that we faced was far superior than any we had, and you could put that anywhere…it could go someplace, drop down in a matter of seconds, do whatever it wants and leave, and there’s nothing we could do about it.”

Crucially, Grusch and Fravor both stressed that the objects they discussed were not only spotted by pilots visually, but also detected on radar, though that data has not been released.

The strongest running theme of the hearing, however, was that there is currently almost no way for pilots and military personnel to report sightings without attracting the stigma associated with UFO conspiracy theorists – or far darker consequences.

Grusch, for one, confirmed to Luna that he had at times feared for his life since coming forward.

There is also no reporting system at all for civilian aviation pilots. Another witness, former F-18 pilot Ryan Graves, explained that he had helped found the group Americans for Safe Aerospace to support those who had had UAP encounters, and that he had not anticipated how many witnesses would contact him.

The group, he says, has “become a haven for more than 30 UAP witnesses who were previously unspoken due to the absence of a safe intake process. Most do not want to speak publicly. They are afraid of professional consequences. They just want to add their account to the data set.”

Tellingly, the Republican-led subcommittee session featured some of the House of Representatives’ most hardcore right-wing members – Florida’s Matt Gaetz, for instance – along with left-wing figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

That is testament to the fact that the issue of UAPs cuts across party lines like few other topics at a time when Washington, and the House of Representatives in particular, is viciously divided.

As Congressman Jared Moskowitz said in his opening remarks, “it shouldn’t take the possibility of non-human origin to bring us together”.

Source link

#Military #whistleblowers #shock #testimony #claims #UFOs #exist

Mass protests are a ‘tribute’ to Israel’s democracy, President Herzog tells US Congress

Israeli President Isaac Herzog sought to reassure Congress on Wednesday about the state of Israel’s democracy and the strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship, acknowledging “intense and painful debate” at home over actions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government. 

Herzog, whose post in Israel is largely symbolic, became the second Israeli president, after his father, Chaim Herzog, to address Congress. While his speech officially marked modern Israel’s celebration of its 75th year, he also indirectly addressed deep unease in the Biden administration and among Democratic lawmakers over the Netanyahu government’s controversial overhaul of Israel’s judicial system, expanded Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, and other matters.

The divide was reflected in his audience. While lawmakers repeatedly rose to their feet in thundering applause of Herzog’s recounting of Israel’s founding, a handful of leading young progressive Democrats boycotted his speech. 

On the eve of Herzog’s speech to the joint meeting of Congress, the House passed a Republican-led resolution reaffirming its support for Israel with strong bipartisan approval — an implicit rebuke of Rep. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who over the weekend called the country a “racist state” but later apologized.

“Mr. Speaker, I am not oblivious to criticism among friends, including some expressed by respected members of this House. I respect criticism, especially from friends, although one does not always have to accept it,” Herzog said.

“But criticism of Israel must not cross the line into negation of the state of Israel’s right to exist. Questioning the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, is not legitimate diplomacy, it is antisemitism.”

The House resolution, introduced by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, passed with more than 400 lawmakers backing the measure. It did not mention Jayapal by name but was clearly a response to her recent remarks about Israel. The measure was drafted soon after she criticized Israel and its treatment of Palestinians at a conference on Saturday.

Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, walked back the comments the next day, insisting they were aimed at Netanyahu and not at Israel. 

“I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist,” Jayapal said in a statement. “I do, however, believe that Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies and that there are extreme racists driving that policy within the leadership of the current government.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., the only Palestinian-American in Congress, is boycotting Herzog’s speech and criticized the resolution as normalizing violence against those living in the occupied West Bank, given the Netanyahu government’s approval of expanded Jewish settlements there. 

“We’re here again reaffirming Congress’ support for apartheid,” Tlaib said during floor debate Tuesday on the Republican measure. “Policing the words of women of color who dare to speak up about truths, about oppression.” 

After the speech to Congress, Herzog was to return to the White House on Wednesday to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris. Her office said the leaders will announce that both governments intend to spend $70 million over five years to support climate-smart agriculture programs. 

During an Oval Office meeting with President Joe Biden on Tuesday, Herzog sought to assure him that Israel remains committed to democracy amid deepening U.S. concerns over Netanyahu’s plans to overhaul his country’s judicial system.

Netanyahu and his allies say the overhaul is needed to rein in the powers of unelected judges. Opponents say the plan will destroy Israel’s fragile system of checks and balances and move the country toward authoritarian rule. 

Herzog has appealed for a compromise that has thus far proven elusive. Many American Jewish groups and Democratic lawmakers have expressed concerns about the plan.

Herzog’s visit comes weeks after Israeli forces carried out one of their most intensive operations in the occupied West Bank in two decades, with a two-day air and ground offensive in Jenin, a militant stronghold. Senior members of Netanyahu’s government have been pushing for increased construction and other measures to cement Israel’s control over the occupied West Bank in response to a more than yearlong wave of violence with the Palestinians.

U.S. officials have broadly supported Israel’s right to defend itself from militant attacks but have also urged restraint to minimize harm to civilians and have lobbied against additional settlements that would further diminish the chances of securing a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

Just before Herzog’s visit, Biden spoke with Netanyahu by phone and invited him to meet in the U.S. this fall, although the president expressed reservations about several of the policies from Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition.

The Biden administration declined to say whether Biden would host Netanyahu at the White House — as the Israeli leader has hoped — or in New York on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly in September.

White House visits are typically standard protocol for Israeli prime ministers, and the delay in Netanyahu receiving one has become an issue in Israel, with opponents citing it as a reflection of deteriorating relations with the U.S.

On Wednesday, Herzog evoked what are now 28 weeks of large grassroots protests at home against the proposed judicial overhaul by Netanyahu’s government, a mix of ultra-Orthodox and ultranationalist parties.

“Dear friends, it’s no secret that over the past few months, the Israeli people have engaged in a heated and painful debate” while “renegotiating the balance of our institutional powers,” he said.

“In practice, the intense debate going on back home, even as we speak, is the clearest tribute to the fortitude of Israel’s democracy,” Herzog said.

(AP)

Source link

#Mass #protests #tribute #Israels #democracy #President #Herzog #tells #Congress

US House passes bipartisan bill to raise debt ceiling, avoid default

Lawmakers agreed on a bill that looks to avoid a catastrophic default of the United States. The text will now go to the Senate for approval.

Veering away from a default crisis, the House approved a debt ceiling and budget cuts package late Wednesday, as President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy assembled a bipartisan coalition of centrist Democrats and Republicans against fierce conservative blowback and progressive dissent.

The hard-fought deal pleased few, but lawmakers assessed it was better than the alternative – a devastating economic upheaval if Congress failed to act. Tensions ran high throughout the day as hard-right Republicans refused the deal, while Democrats said “extremist” GOP views were risking a debt default as soon as next week.

With the House vote of 314-117, the bill now heads to the Senate with passage expected by week’s end. McCarthy insisted his party was working to “give America hope” as he launched into a late evening speech extolling the bill’s budget cuts, which he said were needed to curb Washington’s “runaway spending.” But amid discontent from Republicans who said the spending restrictions did not go far enough , McCarthy said it is only a “first step.”

Earlier, Biden expressed optimism that the agreement he negotiated with McCarthy to lift the nation’s borrowing limit would pass the chamber and avoid an economically disastrous default on America’s debts. The president departed Washington for Colorado, where he is scheduled to deliver the commencement address Thursday at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

“God willing by the time I land, Congress will have acted, the House will have acted, and we’ll be one step closer,” he said. That wasn’t quite the case – the vote began about an hour and a half after Biden arrived in Colorado.

Biden sent top White House officials to the Capitol to shore up backing. McCarthy worked to sell skeptical fellow Republicans, even fending off challenges to his leadership, in the rush to avert a potentially disastrous US default .

Swift approval later in the week by the Senate would ensure government checks will continue to go out to Social Security recipients, veterans and others and would prevent financial upheaval at home and abroad . Next Monday is when the Treasury has said the US would run short of money to pay its debts.

Biden and McCarthy were counting on support from the political center, a rarity in divided Washington, testing the leadership of the Democratic president and the Republican speaker .

Overall, the 99-page bill restricts spending for the next two years, suspends the debt ceiling into January 2025 and changes some policies, including imposing new work requirements for older Americans receiving food aid and greenlighting an Appalachian natural gas line that many Democrats oppose. It bolsters funds for defense and veterans.

Raising the nation’s debt limit, now $31 trillion, ensures Treasury can borrow to pay already incurred US debts.

Top GOP deal negotiator Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana said Republicans were fighting for budget cuts after Democrats piled onto deficits with extra spending, first during the COVID-19 crisis and later with Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, with its historic investment to fight climate change.

But Republican Rep. Chip Roy, a member of the Freedom Caucus helping to lead the opposition, said, “My beef is that you cut a deal that shouldn’t have been cut.”

For weeks negotiators laboured late into the night to strike the deal with the White House, and for days McCarthy has worked to build support among skeptics. At one point, aides wheeled in pizza at the Capitol the night before the vote as he walked Republicans through the details, fielded questions and encouraged them not to lose sight of the bill’s budget savings.

The speaker has faced a tough crowd. Cheered on by conservative senators and outside groups, the hard-right House Freedom Caucus lambasted the compromise as falling well short of the needed spending cuts , and they vowed to try to halt passage.

A much larger conservative faction, the Republican Study Committee, declined to take a position. Even rank-and-file centrist conservatives were unsure, leaving McCarthy searching for votes from his slim Republican majority.

Ominously, the conservatives warned of possibly trying to oust McCarthy over the compromise. Biden spoke directly to lawmakers, making calls from the White House.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said it was up to McCarthy to turn out at least 150 Republican votes, two-thirds of the majority, even as he assured reporters that Democrats would supply the rest to prevent a default. In the 435-member House, 218 votes are needed for approval.

As the tally faltered in the afternoon procedural vote, Jeffries stood silently and raised his green voting card, signaling that the Democrats would fill in the gap to ensure passage. They did, advancing the bill that 29 hard-right Republicans, many from the Freedom Caucus, refused to back.

“Once again, House Democrats to the rescue to avoid a dangerous default,” said Jeffries, D-NY. “What does that say about this extreme MAGA Republican majority?” he said about the party aligned with Donald Trump’s ”Make America Great Again” political movement.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the spending restrictions in the package would reduce deficits by $1.5 trillion over the decade, a top goal for the Republicans trying to curb the debt load.

In a surprise that complicated Republicans’ support, however, the CBO said their drive to impose work requirements on older Americans receiving food stamps would end up boosting spending by $2.1 billion over the time period. That’s because the final deal exempts veterans and homeless people, expanding the food stamp rolls by 78,000 people monthly, the CBO said.

Liberal discontent, though, ran strong as Democrats also broke away, decrying the new work requirements for older Americans, those 50-54, in the food aid program.

Some Democrats were also incensed that the White House negotiated into the deal changes to the landmark National Environmental Policy Act and approval of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline natural gas project. The energy development is important to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., but many others oppose it as unhelpful in fighting climate change.

On Wall Street, stock prices were down.

In the Senate, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell are working for passage by week’s end. Schumer warned there is ”no room for error.”

Senators, who have remained largely on the sidelines during much of the negotiations, are insisting on amendments to reshape the package. But making any changes at this stage seemed unlikely with so little time to spare before Monday’s deadline.

(AP)

Source link

#House #passes #bipartisan #bill #raise #debt #ceiling #avoid #default

Biden administration declares fentanyl laced with xylazine ‘an emerging threat’ in the US | CNN



CNN
 — 

The White House has declared that the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl combined with xylazine – an animal tranquilizer that’s increasingly being used in illicit drugs – is an “emerging threat” facing the United States due to its role in the ongoing opioid crisis.

Administration officials call the threat FAAX, for fentanyl-adulterated or -associated xylazine.

The move, announced Wednesday, marks the first time in history that any administration has declared a substance to be an emerging threat to the country, said Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The SUPPORT Act of 2018 established that the office has authority to declare such “emerging threats,” and no administration has used it until now. Last year, Congress declared methamphetamine an emerging drug threat but none have been declared by an administration previously. Under other agencies or in separate circumstances, concerns such as bioterrorism, infectious diseases or climate change may be identified as “emerging threats.”

“This drug, which is an animal sedative, is being mixed with fentanyl and is being found in almost all 50 states now,” Gupta said Tuesday. “It’s become an important part for us to make sure that we’re declaring it an emerging threat.”

Now that the administration has declared fentanyl combined with xylazine an emerging threat, it has 90 days to coordinate a national response. “We are working quickly to develop and implement a whole of government nationwide plan, with real deliverable action, that will save lives and will be published within 90 days of this designation,” Gupta said.

Xylazine, also known as tranq or tranq dope, has been linked to an increasing number of overdose deaths in the United States due to its rising illicit use. Between 2020 and 2021, overdose deaths involving xylazine increased more than 1,000% in the South, 750% in the West and about 500% in the Midwest, according to an intelligence report released last year by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

And in some cases, people might not even know that xylazine was in the drug they used.

Just last month, authorities at the DEA issued a public safety alert about the “widespread threat” of fentanyl mixed with xylazine, reporting that in 2022 approximately 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills seized by the DEA contained xylazine.

Fentanyl, which has been driving the opioid crisis, is a fast-acting opioid, and people who use it illicitly say that adding xylazine can extend the duration of the high the drug provides.

Xylazine is not an opioid. It is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use as a tranquilizer in veterinary medicine, typically in horses, but it is not approved for use in humans. And xylazine can do major damage to the human body, including leaving drug users with severe skin ulcers, soft-tissue wounds and necrosis – sometimes described as rotting skin – that can lead to amputation.

“Xylazine is one of the contaminants in fentanyl, but there could be others,” Gupta said. “So, I think with the declaration of an emerging threat, we’re sending a clear message to producers and traffickers of illicit xylazine and illicit fentanyl that we’re going to respond quicker, we’re going to match the challenge of evolution of these drugs supply, and that we’re going to protect lives first and foremost.”

Now that xylazine has been declared an emerging threat, some of President Biden’s $46 billion drug budget request to Congress can be used to respond.

This year, the Biden administration announced that the President has called on Congress to invest $46.1 billion for agencies overseen by the Office of National Drug Control Policy to tackle the nation’s illicit drug crisis.

If the budget request is not approved, there could be the option to reallocate money within the Office of National Drug Control Policy, but “we don’t want to be in a position where moneys that are being utilized for some other important aspect of saving lives has to be moved away for this purpose,” Gupta said Tuesday. “That is the reason we are asking Congress to act.”

Such funds could be used to test drugs on the street for xylazine, collect data on FAAX, invest in care for people exposed to FAAX and develop potential treatments for a xylazine-related overdose.

The medication naloxone, also known as Narcan, is an antidote for an opioid overdose, but people who have overdosed on a combination of opioids and xylazine may not immediately wake up after taking naloxone, as it may not reverse the effects of xylazine in the same way it does opioids.

“We need to recognize, first of all, that there is a shift that is occurring from organic compounds and substances like heroin and cocaine to more synthetics,” Gupta said of the state of the nation’s illicit drug crisis.

“Both the types of drugs have changed – from predominantly organic to predominantly synthetics – but the way drugs are bought and sold have also changed,” he said. “Now, all you need is a phone in the palm of your hand and a social media app to order and buy some of the most dangerous substances on planet Earth.”

Xylazine is just one of the many adulterants – or substances that are typically added to others – found in the nation’s illicit drug supply.

“All of a sudden, you can synthesize hundreds of compounds and kind of mix them together and see what does the best in the market,” Joseph Friedman, a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, told CNN in March. “People are synthesizing new benzodiazepines, new stimulants, new cannabinoids constantly and adding them into the drug supply. So people have no idea what they’re buying and what they’re consuming.”

Some of these adulterants may be as simple as sugar or artificial sweeteners added for taste or additives or fillers that bulk up the drug. Sometimes, they may be contaminants left over from the manufacturing process.

Addicted? How to get help

  • If you’re addicted to prescription drugs, help is available. You can call the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration 24/7 hotline at 1-800-662-HELP(4357) or visit their website.
  • But all of these things can carry real-life health harms, says Naburan Dasgupta, an epidemiologist and senior scientist at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

    Like an opioid, xylazine can depress the respiratory system, so the risk of overdose multiplies when it’s combined with heroin or fentanyl.

    Also, “in the veterinary literature, we know that it causes a really bad severe form of anemia. And so when people are injecting heroin that’s contaminated with xylazine, they can end up with a near-fatal form of blood iron deficiency,” Dasgupta said in March. “We had one person here who ended up going to the hospital needing multiple blood transfusions. And it was all because of the xylazine.”

    US lawmakers are moving to classify xylazine as a controlled substance.

    In March, bipartisan legislation – the Combating Illicit Xylazine Act – was introduced in the House and Senate. It describes illicit xylazine as an “urgent threat to public health and safety” and calls for it to be a Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act, a category on the five-level system for substances with moderate to low potential for physical or psychological dependence. Xylazine would be one level below opioids like fentanyl.

    “Our bipartisan bill would take important steps to combat the abuse of xylazine by giving law enforcement more authority to crack down on the illicit distribution of this drug, including by putting stiffer penalties on criminals who are spreading this drug to our communities,” Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., said in a statement in March.

    The bill would also require manufacturers to send reports on production and distribution to the DEA so the agency can ensure that the product is not being diverted to the black market.

    “This bill recognizes the dangers posed by the increasing abuse of animal tranquilizers by drug traffickers, and provides new tools to combat this deadly trend,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in the statement.

    “It also ensures that folks like veterinarians, ranchers and cattlemen can continue to access these drugs for bona fide animal treatment.”

    Source link

    #Biden #administration #declares #fentanyl #laced #xylazine #emerging #threat #CNN

    New drug shortages in the US increased nearly 30% in 2022, Senate report finds | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    When a pharmaceutical plant in Shanghai that made contrast material for radiological scans shut down last year, half the United States’ supply of the radioactive substance immediately became unavailable. Health care providers had to make difficult choices about who got potentially lifesaving tests.

    “I work in the VA system. This impacted veterans literally overnight, where we needed to make decisions about whether we were going to allow some scans to be done to evaluate someone’s cancer or treat someone’s heart disease,” said Dr. Andrew Shuman, a head and neck surgeon who works at the US Department of Veterans Affairs and is an associate professor at University of Michigan Health. “Veterans deserve better and we should not be reliant on a supply chain that’s that tenuous.”

    Shuman was one of several experts who testified Wednesday in front of the US Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that shortages like these make the US drug and medical supply far too vulnerable and put national security at risk.

    New drug shortages in the US increased nearly 30% between 2021 and 2022, according to a report commissioned by the Senate that was published Wednesday. At the end of 2022, drug shortages experienced a record five-year high of 295 active drug shortages, according to the report. It also found that while the average drug shortage lasts about 1.5 years, more than 15 critical drug products have been in shortage for over a decade.

    Many Americans became aware of national shortages during the Covid-19 pandemic. In one of the most notable examples last year, anxious parents reported going from store to store in search of common pain relievers and antibiotics during an especially rough RSV season.

    Increased demand can cause shortages, but the way drugs are made and sold for the US market is also a large part of the problem, the experts said Wednesday.

    Shortages of common and specialized drugs have been a constant for decades, the report says.

    “Since 2007, the FDA identified an average of over 100 separate drug shortages per year. In 2011, the FDA identified a whopping 267 drugs in short supply and despite possessing the most innovative medical industry in the world, the US is unable to maintain a consistent supply of the most crucial medicines,” ranking committee member Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, said at the hearing.

    Under the current regulatory system, the problem won’t probably get better any time soon, the experts said.

    “Even drugs needed to treat childhood and adult cancers, including some that have simply no alternative treatment, are regularly in shortage. And while some shortages may only be an inconvenience, others have had devastating impacts on patient care,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, who commissioned the new report.

    At its peak last year, there were 295 drugs in shortage, Peters said. In years past, the number has been even higher. The US Food and Drug Administration currently lists 130 drugs in shortage.

    Some common medications like Adderall have been on the list for months. Many others like albuterol sulfate, which doctors use to treat breathing problems, are a staple in hospitals.

    Albuterol has been in short supply since last summer, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and it’s been on the FDA shortage list since October. That particular shortage is expected to get even worse because a major supplier to US hospitals shut down at the beginning of March.

    The albuterol shortage shows how consolidation in the market has been a real problem for a number of drugs, experts say. In a consolidated market, labor issues and manufacturing disruptions can make drugs particularly hard to find.

    Only one company made certain albuterol products used for continuous nebulizer treatment. The manufacturer that shut down, Akorn Operating Co., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2020.

    Lower-priced drugs, generics like albuterol and certain antibiotics like amoxicillin tend to have a higher likelihood of being in shortage, according to an analysis presented at the hearing by US Pharmacopeia, a nonprofit that works to strengthen the global supply chain of medicines and publishes a set of guidelines for medicines. Economics is largely to blame.

    “Manufacturers only receive pennies per dose for some of these drugs,” testified Dr. Vimala Raghavendran, senior director of the pharmaceutical supply chain center at US Pharmacopeia. That means there is little financial incentive for multiple manufacturers to make a generic medicine.

    Another problem is with the suppliers of the ingredients that make the drugs. Nearly 80% of the manufacturing facilities that produce these active pharmaceutical ingredients are outside the US, the Senate report says. And there is no one agency that keeps track of all these manufacturers, so it is difficult to get a big picture of where the next problem will come from, Raghavendran said.

    “Policymakers are flying blind in our understanding of US reliance on other countries for critical ingredients used in the manufacture of medicines,” she said.

    Many ingredient makers are based in China or India. If there are work stoppages there, as during the pandemic, it can affect thousands of products.

    Consolidation in ingredient manufacturing was a problem even before the pandemic. In 2018, regulators discovered that material created by a Chinese-based company, Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical Co., that went into certain heart drugs was contaminated with a potential cancer-causing impurity. Thousands of drugs had to be recalled in dozens of countries, causing shortages around the world.

    In too many cases, the experts said Wednesday, it is not clear why drugs wind up in such short supply. Part of the problem is a lack of transparency about quality results and inspections information. The cause of a specific shortage may be known to regulators, but the information is rarely publicly available.

    “FDA sees really clear quality differences between products and manufacturing sites, but this information is confidential, and it’s not available to people making the purchases. Buyers can’t easily see the reliability of manufacturing operations,” Erin Fox, associate chief pharmacy officer at the University of Utah, said at the hearing.

    Fox urged the government to develop a rating system for pharmaceutical manufacturing reliability. The FDA has been working on quality metrics ratings, but it doesn’t intend to make the scores publicly available, she said.

    Without knowing whether a company is reliable, a health care system can’t always anticipate that a facility is likely to be shut down and create a shortage. A government rating system could help health systems pick more reliable suppliers, Fox said. Because it is so difficult to anticipate what drugs will be in short supply, most health systems must employ someone full-time to exclusively deal with shortage management.

    At Michigan, Shuman said, there are multiple pharmacists whose full-time jobs are to manage drug shortages.

    “Not every hospital has that resource. Patients should not have better access to scarce drugs based on the hospital they go to,” he said.

    Shortages have a direct negative impact on patients and on their providers. Studies show that people often have worse health outcomes when they can’t be treated with the appropriate medication and even, in some cases, when alternative drugs are used.

    “One of the challenges of drug shortages is that it requires hospitals to essentially MacGyver different treatment opportunities and regimens, which is not necessarily evidence for data based,” Shuman said.

    People with sepsis, for instance, had a higher mortality rate when there was a shortage of the drug norepinephrine.

    With shortages of cancer drugs, Shuman described “a tragedy that’s happening in slow motion.”

    He cited etoposide, a medicine used to manage a wide variety of cancers, including those of the prostate, bladder, stomach and lung. It’s a low-cost drug at $50 a vial and has been on the market for more than 40 years.

    In 2018, when a manufacturing delay caused a national shortage, some doctors had to make terrible choices.

    “Which of our patients with cancer should get it? How can we prioritize between American lives? Should our limited vials go to an older woman who was just diagnosed with lung cancer, a young man who’s already been successfully taking it for testicular cancer, or a baby with neuroblastoma and aggressive cancer for which this drug is recommended but others might substitute?” Shuman said. “As a doctor who’s devoted my life to fighting cancer, it’s hard to express how horrible that is.”

    Source link

    #drug #shortages #increased #Senate #report #finds #CNN