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Trump calls Sen Bill Cassidy ‘very disloyal’ and urges Louisiana voters to replace him over nominee fight

April 30, 2026 3:32pm EDT / Fox News

Trump nominated Dr Nicole Saphier to replace Dr Casey Means and called her ‘a STAR physician’

By Louis Casiano Fox News

President Donald Trump announced his nomination of Dr. Nicole Saphier to be the next surgeon general after his former nominee, Dr. Casey Means, faced pushback from the Senate.

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President Trump accused Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., on Thursday of being “very disloyal” and playing “political games” over his opposition to the confirmation of the commander-in-chief’s second Surgeon General nominee.

The President concluded his remarks by urging voters to replace the Louisiana Republican. In a Truth Social post, Trump assailed Cassidy over the failure to secure D. Casey Means’ confirmation.

“For months, Senator Bill Cassidy (of the GREAT State of Louisiana!), a very disloyal person whose ‘TRUMP’ Endorsement got him elected, but later voted to impeach ‘President Trump’ on what has now proven to be a total Hoax and Scam, has stood in the way of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Nominee, Casey Means, for the important position of U.S. Surgeon General,” Trump wrote.

He described Means as a “strong MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) Warrior” who “will continue to fight for MAHA on the many important health issues facing our Country.”

TRUMP BLASTS GOP WAR POWERS DEFECTORS, SAYS THEY ‘SHOULD NEVER BE ELECTED TO OFFICE AGAIN’

Dr. Casey Means appears at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 25, 2026. She is the nominee for medical director in the Regular Corps of the Public Health Service and U.S. surgeon general.(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Means’ brother, Calley Means, who serves as a White House advisor, also blamed Cassidy for the failed nomination.

“Bill Cassidy is a mindless avatar for his donors and a blind defender of the status quo system that is profiting from American sickness,” he wrote on X. “At every turn during Casey’s confirmation, Bill Cassidy worked to delay her and smear her. For several months last year, Bill Cassidy knew Casey’s due date. He demanded to schedule her hearing on her due date, and at the last minute scheduled it two days later.”

“He could have scheduled it weeks before,” he added. “Casey ended up having her baby the hour her first hearing was scheduled.”

TRUMP PRESSURES 4 GOP SENATORS AHEAD OF ANTI-CANADIAN TARIFF VOTE, ACCUSING THEM OF ‘TDS’

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., holds his head as Dr. Casey Means testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee confirmation hearing for U.S. Surgeon General on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 25, 2026. Trump heavily criticized Cassidy over the failure of Means to secure Senate confirmation.(Tom Brenner/AP)

In a subsequent post, Trump announced the nomination of Dr. Nicole Saphier, a former Fox News Channel contributor. He called her “a STAR physician” who has spent her career guiding women through breast cancer diagnoses while “tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention for both men and women.”

Trump further urged voters to replace Cassidy, who faces primary challenges from Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming and Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La.

President Donald Trump announced Dr. Casey Means as his nominee for surgeon general.(Getty Images/AP Newsroom)

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Means had previously appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which Cassidy chairs. During the proceeding, Cassidy raised concerns regarding her views on vaccinations.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Cassidy’s office for comment.

Louis Casiano is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to louis.casiano@fox.com.

Congress votes to reopen key parts of DHS, after House GOP caves on ICE funding

2026-04-30T18:08:03.824Z / CNN

Congress votes to reopen key parts of DHS, after House GOP caves on ICE funding

By Margaret Given, CNN

Published 2:08 PM EDT, Thu April 30, 2026

CNN’s Manu Raju joins Boris Sanchez and Brianna Keilar live from Capitol Hill on Congress voting to reopen key parts of the Department of Homeland Security – including the Transportation Security Administration – after weeks of GOP infighting that prolonged a record shutdown of the critical agency.

5:28 • Source: CNN

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Trump pulls Casey Means’ nomination as surgeon general, naming Nicole Saphier as replacement

April 30, 2026 / 1:40 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — President Trump on Thursday said he is nominating Dr. Nicole B. Saphier to be the next U.S. surgeon general, replacing his nomination of Casey Means, whose bid has stalled in the Senate for months.

The president announced the shuffle in a pair of posts on Truth Social. In the first, he blamed Sen. Bill Cassidy for Means’ nomination stalling in the wake of her confirmation hearing in February, saying the Louisiana Republican “has stood in the way” of his pick.

“I nominated Casey, a strong MAHA Warrior, at the recommendation of Secretary Kennedy, who understands the MAHA Movement better than anyone, with perhaps the possible exception of ME!” he wrote. “Nevertheless, despite Senator Cassidy’s intransigence and political games, Casey will continue to fight for MAHA on the many important Health issues facing our Country.”

Minutes later, Mr. Trump said he’s nominating Saphier, a radiologist and director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Monmouth. She was a Fox News Channel medical contributor until her nomination. In 2020, she wrote the book, “Make America Healthy Again: How Bad Behavior and Big Government Caused a Trillion-Dollar Crisis.” She hosts a health and wellness podcast called “Wellness Unmasked.”

“Nicole is a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments,”the president wrote. “She is also an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans.”

Means’ confirmation hearing was Feb. 25, but since then, the process stalled as she struggled to receive sufficient support in the Senate.

Among a handful of notable moments during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health Committee, Means in her testimony wouldn’t directly say if she would encourage mothers to vaccinate their children. Cassidy, who is a doctor, and others on the committee have stressed the value of many vaccines in saving lives. When asked about vaccines and any potential link to autism, Means told the committee the “science is never settled.”

Means also publicly acknowledged experimenting with psychedelic drugs in her 30s.

Means, who was educated as a physician, does not have a currently active medical license, something that was pointed out in her confirmation hearing. The president nominated Means in May 2025, but her confirmation hearing was delayed when she gave birth to her first child.

FCC chair says White House did not pressure him to open Disney review

2026-04-30T16:27:00.47Z / Reuters

By David Shepardson

April 30, 2026 4:27 PM UTC Updated 31 mins ago

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) – The head of the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday denied that the White House pressured him to open ​an early license review of Disney’s eight ABC television stations.

The highly unusual ‌reviews were announced a day after President Donald Trump urged ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

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“This is a decision that we made inside this building,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said, adding that, “there ​was no pressure from the outside…. There was no call for agency action ​from the outside.”

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Carr said the review was prompted by Disney and ABC’s ⁠diversity practices, not content that has aired. “The FCC should not operate as the speech ​police,” Carr said.

Carr opened an investigation in March 2025 into Disney’s diversity practices and he ​said Disney submitted documents last week in the probe that he felt were insufficient. He also said he is planning to open another early review and he declined to say if a similar review ​of diversity practices at Comcast and NBC could lead to an early review there.

Brendan Carr, FCC Chairman, attends the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) USA 2026 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, in Grapevine, Texas, U.S., March 27, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Cole/File Photo

Democratic ​FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said the Disney license fight could take years of litigation to resolve. She ‌said ⁠the diversity issue was clearly a pretext.

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“This should be a lesson to every media company watching — capitulation does not mean protection. This administration will keep coming back, demanding more. The only answer is to stand up, fight back and defend the First Amendment,” Gomez ​said.

On April 23, Kimmel, ​whose late-night TV ⁠program airs on Disney’s ABC, did a send-up of the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, joking that First Lady Melania Trump ​had “a glow like an expectant widow.”

The joke was made three days ​before the ⁠actual black-tie dinner, celebrating press freedom and free speech, in Washington. The president and first lady were rushed from the dinner following an assassination attempt.

Kimmel said Monday the “expectant widow” comment “obviously ⁠was a ​joke about their age difference,” that had been misconstrued. Trump ​will be 80 in June, and his wife turned 56 this month.

“It was not by any stretch of ​the definition a call for assassination,” Kimmel said.

Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Hugh Lawson

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Obama ripped for SCOTUS hot take after support for Virginia ‘gerrymander’

2026-04-30T15:36:45-04:00 / Fox News

The 6-3 decision declared Louisiana’s congressional map an illegal racial gerrymander favoring a majority-Black district

By Charles Creitz
Fox News

Published April 30, 2026 3:36pm EDT

Democrats decry Supreme Court ruling that rolls back key provision of voting rights act

Fox News chief legal correspondent Shannon Bream reports on the Supreme Court decision that limits the use of race in congressional redistricting on ‘Special Report.’

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Former President Barack Obama was lambasted for rebuking a new Supreme Court ruling against race-based redistricting in Louisiana, just days after cutting ads for a Virginia effort to transform that state’s map into a 10-1 Democratic-advantaged landscape.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against Louisiana’s 2024 mid-decade redistricting that produced a serpentine district represented by Rep. Cleo Fields of Baton Rouge, calling it an “illegal” racial gerrymander, while Obama argued the decision weakened a Voting Rights Act provision prohibiting race-based discrimination.

“Today’s Supreme Court decision effectively guts a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act, freeing state legislatures to gerrymander legislative districts to systematically dilute and weaken the voting power of racial minorities — so long as they do it under the guise of ‘partisanship’ rather than explicit ‘racial bias’,” Obama said.

“Unless it’s Virginia. In that case, it’s great to have a 10-1 gerrymander,” retorted Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer in a post on X.

SPANBERGER FACES ‘BAIT-AND-SWITCH’ BACKLASH IN FINAL HOURS BEFORE REDISTRICTING REFERENDUM

Former President Barack Obama campaigns for Rep. Mikie Sherrill, Democratic candidate for New Jersey governor, in Newark on Nov. 1, 2025.(Adam Gray/Bloomberg)

Fleischer was joined by former North Carolina Congressman and ex-Trump aide Mark Meadows, who addressed Obama to say his rebuke was “beneath you.”

Former DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin also weighed in, remarking that to the former president, “disenfranchising millions of voters and forcing 45% of Virginians to be represented by one congressional district and 55% represented by 10 is now ‘standing up for Democracy.’”

“Is that ‘equity’? What a farce.”

Obama went on to slam the current makeup of the Supreme Court and its conservative majority, saying their decision in the case is another example of “abandoning its vital role in ensuring equal participation in our democracy and protecting the rights of minority groups against majority overreach.”

Other critics noted Obama has been mum on his own home state’s gerrymandered map, which features several zigzagging districts connecting disparate neighborhoods and suburbs of Chicago, while other Democratic strongholds form serpentine districts around the interior of the state to connect cities like Champaign, Springfield and Moline with other Democratic areas.

The Virginia redistricting map was approved narrowly by voters late week in a special election that the Virginia Supreme Court allowed to be held amid a legal fight over the ‘ramming’ through of mid-decade redistricting.(Virginia Legislative Information System)

Other critics noted how Democrats control every congressional district in New England plus Hawaii — citing reported figures that all of those states have Republican populations between 32% and 48% but none of those voters have like-minded representation in Washington.

The 44th president added that setbacks like that can be overcome, calling on Americans who respect “democratic ideals” to vote in record numbers to outweigh any electoral changes brought on by the court’s decision.

In his own reading of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Justice Sam Alito said that when “correctly understood, [it] does not impose liability at odds with the Constitution, and it should not have imposed liability on Louisiana for its 2022 map.”

Just days earlier, Obama was front and center in the largely Democratic-led “Vote Yes” campaign in Virginia, where the commonwealth’s Democratic legislative majority and Gov. Abigail Spanberger backed a voter referendum to implement their own mid-decade redistricting that would favor their party for at least the next four years.

DEMOCRATS WIN VIRGINIA REDISTRICTING FIGHT, THREATING REPUBLICAN HOUSE MAJORITY

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6394218802112

Sen Ted Cruz: Democrats will do anything to stay in power

The approved map would transform Virginia’s 6-5 Democratic congressional majority into a likely 10-1 split by redrawing rural districts to include Washington, D.C., suburbs or the Richmond-Petersburg metro area, which proponents like Obama said is needed to restore fairness on a national level.

“By voting yes, you have a chance to do something important, not just for the commonwealth but for our entire country. By voting yes, you can push back on the Republicans trying to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms.”

Obama claimed in a pro-Yes ad that supporters could “level the playing field.”

CARVILLE AND CO-HOST LAMENT THAT TRUMP SPARKED A REDISTRICTING WAR, MAKING BOTH PARTIES LOOK CYNICAL

Then-Louisiana State Sen. Cleo Fields speaks during the swearing in of the state Legislature in Baton Rouge, La., on Jan. 8, 2024.(Gerald Herbert/Associated Press)

While largely a Democratic concern, and as newly drawn districts in Louisiana and Alabama favored Democrats, Virginia’s “yes” campaign did have support from a handful of non-Democrats such as anti-Trump former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.

Like Louisiana’s map, Virginia’s plan has been subject to dueling litigation, including a recent move by a circuit judge in Tazewell County in the western mountains to place a hold on certification of the “Yes” vote, while the state Supreme Court considers a case over the referendum’s legislative process and legitimacy.

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In a statement, Fields said Wednesday’s high court decision “dismantled” decades of settled law and was not a “neutral reading” of the Voting Rights Act.

“Today’s majority has resurrected exactly that standard — and the practical effect is to make it far harder for minority communities to challenge redistricting maps that dilute their political voice,” Fields said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Obama for comment on criticisms.

Fox News’ David Spunt contributed to this report.

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.

Illinois commission recommends local prosecutors investigate federal agents in immigration blitz

2026-04-30 16:18:42 UTC / Reuters

By Emily Schmall

April 30, 2026 4:18 PM UTC Updated 1 hour ago

节点运行失败

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker speaks during the National Action Network (NAN) National Convention in New York City, U.S., April 9, 2026. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

• Summary

• Commission cites excessive force, urges local prosecutors to investigate federal agents
• White House criticizes Illinois sanctuary laws, linking them to recent violent crime
• Judge Castillo and Governor Pritzker call for accountability over Operation Midway Blitz actions

CHICAGO, April 30 (Reuters) – An independent commission created by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker in the wake of an aggressive immigration crackdown in the Chicago ‌area last year has recommended that local prosecutors investigate federal agents for misconduct.

The Illinois Accountability Commission, led by retired U.S. District Judge Rubén Castillo, issued a report on Thursday documenting what it described as a pattern of “unjustified and excessive force,” and the “indiscriminate use of chemical agents” by federal officers.

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The commission, which took witness testimony and reviewed a trove of ​court evidence and media reports, recommended further investigation by Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, other local prosecutors and police as well as ​federal law enforcement agencies with the authority to obtain additional evidence.

The report and video footage contained “plenty of stuff that ⁠can be prosecuted,” Judge Castillo told a news conference.

The Trump administration’s crackdown, which it dubbed Operation Midway Blitz, led to thousands of arrests and violent ​confrontations between federal immigration agents and protesters from September until December. Agents shot two people, including one person fatally, and threatened to shoot others, body-cam footage ​shows.

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Agents deployed tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets at protesters outside an immigration holding center in suburban Broadview, Illinois, repeatedly during near-daily demonstrations and across many Chicago neighborhoods.

“If JB Pritzker spent this much time and energy addressing crime and supporting the arrest of criminal illegal aliens instead of providing them with sanctuary, Illinois residents would be much safer,” said Abigail ​Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, in response to the report.

She referred to the case of a Chicago student who authorities say was fatally ​shot in March by a Venezuelan migrant, who has pleaded not guilty to the shooting. After the commission’s report was published Thursday, Judge Castillo described the October 4 shooting of Marimar Martinez, a ‌U.S. citizen ⁠and Montessori school teacher in suburban Oak Park, by Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum.

“You would think that she was shot by some gang member on the South Side of Chicago. And she was. But guess what? That gang was Customs and Border Patrol. And the person who sent that gang to Illinois and to Chicago? Someone living on Pennsylvania Avenue in the White House,” Castillo said.

Martinez survived the shooting and faced criminal charges by the U.S. Attorney’s ​Office in one of dozens of cases ​that were later dropped.

The federal government ⁠initially said that Martinez had tried to ram the agents with her car, but later withdrew its case against her. Martinez’s lawyer said that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Bend, Indiana, was investigating Exum for misconduct, but ​a spokesperson on Thursday said that she could not confirm the existence of an open investigation.

Pritzker, a Democrat ​and the billionaire ⁠heir of the Hyatt fortune, has become an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump and accused him of authoritarianism. During the immigration blitz last fall, Trump called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Pritzker, a possible contender for the presidential election in 2028.

“Our hope is that law enforcement agencies will review this evidence and take ⁠any steps ​in their power to deliver justice to Illinoisans impacted by Operation Midway Blitz, including Marimar ​Martinez and Silverio Villegas Gonzales,” Pritzker said Thursday, referring to a Mexican immigrant who was fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent during the operation. “We can’t let people forget the atrocities that ​happened here in our cities and the erosion of our democracy happening in the United States.”

Reporting by Emily Schmall; Editing by Mark Porter and Deepa Babington

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How Trump’s crusade against Jerome Powell backfired

2026-04-30 1:35 PM ET / CNN

Analysis by

Aaron Blake

2 hr ago

PUBLISHED Apr 30, 2026, 1:35 PM ET

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference at the Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, DC, on April 29.

Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

One of the biggest questions about President Donald Trump’s retribution crusade is how much of it is driven by strategy — i.e. making cautionary tales out of his foes — and how much if it is driven by personal grievance and pique.

The case of Fed Chair Jerome Powell would seem to suggest it’s largely the latter.

Because it has now backfired spectacularly thanks to Trump’s inability to let it go.

The president continued his campaign against Powell long after it started looking politically unwise. And now, Powell, whose term as chair ends on May 15, has decided to stay on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors because of that.

To sum up: Powell on Wednesday become the first chair since 1948 to opt to stay on the Fed board after his tenure as chair expires. His term as governor ends in 2028, so he’s well within his rights to do that. But it’s unusual.

His decision deprives Trump of a Fed board majority made up of his own appointees, at least for now. (Powell was elevated to chair by Trump but initially nominated by Barack Obama.)

And Powell made it abundantly clear that his motivation was Trump’s attempts to legally target him and the Fed (based on remarkably thin evidence). The president has attacked and targeted Powell for years over the Fed failing to lower interest rates like he wants.

“My concern is really about the series of legal attacks on the Fed which threaten our ability to conduct monetary policy without considering political factors,” Powell said Wednesday. He called the legal attacks “unprecedented in our 113-year history” and cited “ongoing threats of additional such actions.”

Powell added: “I’m literally staying because of the actions that have been taken. I had long planned to be retiring. And, you know, the things that have happened in, really, in the last three months have, I think, left me no choice.”

While Powell didn’t say it directly, it seems possible that he might want to stay on in order to insulate himself.

Trump’s Department of Justice recently closed its criminal investigation and left the issue to an inspector general, after GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina demanded the investigation be closed before he would vote to confirm Kevin Warsh, Trump’s pick, as the new Fed chair.

But you could understand if Powell might be concerned about the DOJ one day picking the case back up. Resigning would rob him of leverage in that circumstance.

Tillis has said the DOJ informed him the case wouldn’t be rekindled without a criminal referral from the IG. But Trump last week insisted the matter hadn’t been “dropped” and continued attacking Powell over the cost of renovations to the Fed building.

It was a telling comment from the president. The administration was trying to move past the issue and get Warsh confirmed, but Trump wouldn’t let it go.

That’s been a theme.

For years — dating back to Trump’s first term — Powell has made it abundantly clear that he wouldn’t buckle to the president’s pressure.

That was evident when Powell corrected Trump’s false claims about the Fed renovations in real time last year while standing next to him. It was evident when Powell attended Supreme Court oral arguments over Trump’s attempt to fire fellow Fed Governor Lisa Cook over similarly thin allegations. And it was perhaps most evident in the defiant video Powell released shortly after his criminal investigation became public in December.

But even as his tenure as chair wound down and the utility of pressuring him became less and less, Trump kept pushing.

As recently as April 15 — exactly one month before Powell’s tenure expires — Trump was on Fox Business Network threatening to fire him if he stayed on the Fed board. (It’s not clear Trump has this power.)

Then during an appearance last week on CNBC, Trump-friendly host Joe Kernen played a role often played by Fox News’ Sean Hannity. He gently suggested that maybe Trump should take a different, more politically expedient course — by letting go of Powell so Warsh could get confirmed.

In a five-minute exchange, Kernen repeatedly floated the idea, only to have Trump shrug it off.

“And somehow – no,” Trump said while talking over Kernen. “But, Joe, somehow we have to find out how this can happen.”

Kernen eventually said: “I’m just trying to look for an off-ramp to get for you –”

Trump responded: “Well, it is and it isn’t, Joe. You have to find out why a thing like that could happen.” And he plowed forward.

Then, after the DOJ seemed to heed Kernen’s advice a few days later and ended its Powell probe, Trump insisted the matter wasn’t finished.

His attempts at retribution against his foes have largely gone poorly. The initial indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were vacated. Comey has now been reindicted, but for something few expect to hold up in court. The DOJ has failed repeatedly to re-indict James. It failed to indict six Democratic lawmakers for telling servicemembers to disobey illegal orders. Other efforts to scrutinize the likes of Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California have failed to bear fruit.

But even if none of these efforts at retribution results in a conviction, there’s something to be said for merely making people’s lives hell. Others who might blow the whistle or stand in your way will see that and perhaps reconsider their choices.

At the same time, if Trump’s pursuits keep fizzling, that could hurt him politically, given people were never too keen on his retribution crusade in the first place.

(Polls have shown Americans saw the initial charges against Comey and James as less legitimate than the charges against Trump, which – despite MAGA’s complaints – majorities of Americans generally approved of.)

And when it comes to certain Trump targets, the president’s efforts can apparently steel their spine and make them even more of a thorn in his side.

That appears to be what’s happening with Powell. Trump’s pressure didn’t work, and now he gets to deal with Powell for even longer.

House approves Senate bill to fund DHS and end record-setting 76-day shutdown

April 30, 2026 / 3:45 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — The House on Thursday unanimously approved a Senate-passed bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, a move that will soon end the 76-day shutdown that has left many critical agencies struggling to maintain operations and pay employees.

The chamber approved the bill by voice vote Thursday afternoon with little fanfare, a sign that lawmakers were finally ready to put the impasse behind them. The House’s action sends the legislation to President Trump’s desk, and the shutdown will end once he signs the bill into law.

The department has been shut down since Feb. 14, making it the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history. Democrats have objected to funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, the two agencies under DHS that have led the charge on enforcing Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The Senate unanimously passed legislation to fund the rest of DHS last month. But House Republicans rejected that plan, arguing that the bill would be caving to Democratic demands to defund the president’s immigration agenda.

Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and President Trump eventually coalesced around a plan to fund the entirety of DHS on two parallel tracks. The first would involve the House passing the Senate DHS bill to immediately reopen the department. The second involves funding ICE and Border Patrol through the budget reconciliation process, which will allow Republicans to approve a bill without support from Senate Democrats.

The president ordered DHS to redirect money to pay employees in March. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned that funding to make payroll would dry up by the beginning of May, increasing pressure on lawmakers to pass the Senate bill.

House leaders had been waiting for the reconciliation process to move forward before bringing up the Senate legislation. Both chambers took the first step toward crafting the reconciliation package this week, adopting a budget plan that instructs the relevant committees to write legislation to fund the immigration agencies.

“We held the homeland bill, the underlying funding bill, because we had to ensure that they could not isolate and eliminate those two critical agencies,” Johnson told reporters after Thursday’s vote. “We are getting those done now. We passed the resolution first. That was critically important for us to do, to ensure that we’re going to protect the homeland, even though Democrats are unwilling to do it. So now that that box is checked, we’re allowed then to proceed and go through with the rest of it.”

Mr. Trump has said he wants the reconciliation package on his desk by June 1.

Both ICE and Border Patrol received tens of billions of dollars in funding in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, meaning their operations have continued mostly unimpeded during the shutdown.

The brunt of the funding lapse has thus been felt by other DHS components like the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency. Adm. Kevin Lunday, the commandant of the Coast Guard, told CBS News in an exclusive interview that his workforce was “furious” that the impasse had dragged on so long, calling it “incredibly frustrating.”

Jaala Brown contributed to this report.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/coast-guard-officers-are-going-into-debt-to-follow-orders-during-shutdown-chief-says/

Democrats fail to shatter Republicans’ resolve on eve of crucial Iran deadline

2026-04-30T15:11:25-04:00 / Fox News

Top Pentagon official revealed the Iran war has cost $25B

By Alex Miller Fox News

Published April 30, 2026 3:11pm EDT

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6393112638112

Democrats push for new Iran war powers vote

Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports on Democrats’ push to force a vote to end the Iran war and the ongoing DHS funding battle on ‘Special Report.’

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Senate Democrats again failed to splinter Republicans’ unified support for President Donald Trump’s conflict with Iran amid the looming Friday deadline to curb his war powers.

The vote marks the sixth time Republicans have rejected a Democrat-led resolution aimed at handcuffing the president’s authority and halting the conflict. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., made one final push to limit Trump ahead of the deadline requiring Congress to decide whether the U.S. should or should not continue fighting in the Middle East.

Sixty days after Trump’s first notification to Congress of his strikes in Iran is when lawmakers are supposed to either authorize or halt the war. That deadline hits Friday, May 1, when lawmakers are expected to be gone from Washington, D.C., for a weeklong recess.

HEGSETH TESTIFIES AT SENATE AS IRAN WAR’S $25B PRICE TAG AND 60-DAY WAR POWERS DEADLINE LOOM

U.S. President Donald Trump waves after landing at Joint Base Andrews as he returns to Washington on April 25, 2026 in Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.(Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)

While some Republicans have raised issue with extending the conflict past the 60-day mark, and are mulling an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), Schiff said that side effort was “too late.

“The mere introduction of one is not sufficient,” Schiff said. “And there’s no way that’s going to pass both houses and get signed by the president today.”

Meanwhile, Republicans argue that Trump has unilateral authority, without Congress’ explicit say-so, to continue the war for 30 more days. However, that window is meant to be a drawdown period to pull out military assets and prevent a sudden and possibly chaotic exit rather than continue a raging and active conflict.

So far, Trump’s move to indefinitely extend the ceasefire in the region has held.

AFTER THIRD ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, DEBATE GROWS OVER WHETHER TRUMP ATTACK WARRANTS ANOTHER INVESTIGATION

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., appears on “Meet the Press” in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 5, 2025.(Shannon Finney/NBC)

For now, it appears there isn’t a desire to put an authorization vote on the floor. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.S.D., has deferred that decision to his Republican colleagues, rather than unilaterally force the issue.

“At this point, I don’t see that,” Thune said. “I mean, I think they’re, you know, obviously getting readouts from our military leadership on a somewhat regular basis that, I think, will be helpful in terms of shaping the views of our members about how comfortable they are with … everything that’s happening there and the direction heading forward. But as of right now, I’m not hearing that.”

The decision to punt Congress’ authority comes as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth this week made his first appearance on Capitol Hill since the war began.

REPUBLICANS EYE PICKING UP $400M TAB FOR TRUMP’S BALLROOM AS SOME DEMS OPEN TO ‘DISCUSS’ IDEA

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks at a press conference with Senate Republican leaders following a policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on April 21, 2026.(Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Though his hearings before the House and Senate Armed Services committees were billed as an opportunity to dig into the Pentagon’s eye-popping $1.5 trillion budget request, lawmakers instead used their time to grill Hegseth on the Iran war.

One made-for-TV back-and-forth included the revelation that the war has so far cost taxpayers $25 billion.

Democrats contend that figure doesn’t add up and argue that the money could be spent elsewhere to combat rising costs for Americans.

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said it was past time for Republicans to break from the administration, and he blamed Trump and Hegseth for the ongoing war.

“Our greatest challenge in Iran is Donald Trump and Secretary Hegseth, and Americans know it,” Schumer said. “The war is unpopular. They blame Trump for it, of course.”

“The greatest obstacle to peace is the incompetence of the Secretary of Defense and of the President of the United States,” he continued.

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

FISA: What to know about the government’s key spy powers on the verge of expiration

2026-04-30 1:58 PM ET / CNN

By Annie Grayer

A visitor captures a cell phone image of the Washington Monument, near the US Capitol on September 29, 2021.

Tom Brenner/Reuters/File

The deadline to renew a powerful surveillance law has exposed deep divisions in the Republican Party and left US national security officials scrambling as the potential for blind spots in intelligence collection becomes an ever increasing possibility.

For months, House Republicans have been trying to find a path forward to reauthorize the controversial spy powers. The law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), allows authorized US officials to gather phone calls and text messages of foreign targets, but can also scoop up the data of Americans in the process.

Here’s what to know as lawmakers face a midnight deadline to re-up the authority.

How does the government use FISA?

Under updates to the FISA law enacted in 2008, the government has the ability to compel US phone companies and internet providers to provide access to communications across the “backbone” of the internet. The government can also compel access to phone information that can allow it to obtain the content of calls and also require email providers and others to provide communications from a specific address.

And according to a September 2023 public oversight report by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board – which was formed to periodically assess the program – in addition to the above methods of collecting data, the board refers to an additional “highly sensitive technique” that was only authorized in 2022.

The trove of data, including a large portion of US internet traffic, is meant to provide US intelligence agencies with quick access to data regarding foreigners in other countries.

As CNN has reported, a good portion what what appears in the Presidential Daily Brief has some data that comes from the 702 program, according to the National Security Agency.

What’s at risk if it expires?

It depends who you ask.

Senior national security officials have for years said Section 702 is critical to thwarting terror attacks, stemming the flow of fentanyl into the US and stopping ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure.

The authority is now more critical than ever, officials say, amid the delicate ceasefire in the US war with Iran and a heightened threat environment.

Civil liberties groups on the left and the right, meanwhile, argue the surveillance authority risks infringing on Americans’ privacy. The program is currently warrantless, in large part because it is aimed at foreigners not Americans, but US citizens do get swept up in the surveillance when they are interacting with targets abroad.

The law, which is on the verge of expiration, has in recent months become embroiled in the broader Republican battle over the reach of the government’s surveillance powers.

And some Democrats who have previously supported the spy program are now concerned about renewing the it under a Trump administration that they do not trust, making the margins Republicans have to rely on even smaller.

At first, the Trump administration did not weigh in on how they wanted Republican lawmakers to handle the renewal of the law, allowing divisions to build and fester. The president and his supporters have previously conflated the law with other legal methods used to investigate Russian interference in US elections and allegations that people associated with the Trump campaign in 2016 were connected to those Russian efforts.

But earlier this month, President Donald Trump called for a clean reauthorization of the law for 18 months. That did not sway conservative Republicans who have insisted that the bill include reforms like warrants before querying Americans’ communications.

How long could the law be extended?

After countless meetings and listening sessions failed, House Speaker Mike Johnson put forward a proposed three-year extension of the law.

Conservatives stood firm and withheld their votes until the speaker obliged and attached on an unrelated crypto measure to the must-pass spy powers bill that made it dead on arrival in the Senate.

Senate leaders, who looked on from across the US Capitol, were left scrambling and ultimately suggested another short-term extension, which will only prolong the drama since they do not want the crypto provision attached.

Congress has until midnight to clear that extension.

That will serve as a temporary patch, but the problem isn’t going away because in 45 days lawmakers will be right back where they started.

CNN’s Zachary Wolf contributed to this report.