博客

The partial government shutdown is in its 4th day

By Elizabeth Elkind, Alex Miller | Fox News

Published February 3, 2026 2:14pm EST

The House of Representatives passed a federal funding bill aimed at ending the partial government shutdown on Tuesday, which will bring the four-day standoff to a close shortly after the legislation gets to President Donald Trump’s desk.

The funding bill, which passed the House 217-214, is a compromise struck between Senate Democrats and the White House that would fund roughly 97% of the federal government through the end of fiscal 2026.

Trump played an integral role in hashing out the new deal and quelling a subsequent rebellion by conservative lawmakers to get it over the finish line.

[image_1]

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., signaled he was strongly against the plan, despite his Senate counterpart’s role in putting it together. But 21 Democrats bucked his concerns in the end to vote in favor of it.

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES THREATEN EXTENDED SHUTDOWN OVER ELECTION INTEGRITY MEASURE

[image_2]

The House of Representatives sent a bill to end the government shutdown to President Donald Trump’s desk after several Democrats bucked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ warnings the left would not support it.(Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Jeffries and his top lieutenants in the House Democratic Caucus all voted against the bill, however.

On the GOP side, 21 Republicans voted against the legislation while 196 were in favor.

Democrats had initially walked away from a bipartisan House deal to finish funding the federal government through the end of fiscal 2026 on Sept. 30, rebelling against a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over Trump’s handling of unrest in Minneapolis.

Their mutiny left roughly 78% of the government’s yearly funding hanging in the balance because the DHS bill was lumped into a wider package authorizing budgets for the departments of War, Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Education.

The deal struck between Senate Democrats and the White House would fully fund those remaining areas while only extending current funding levels for DHS through Feb. 13, in order to give Democrats and Republicans time to hash out a longer-term bipartisan plan.

[image_3]

‘OPENING PANDORA’S BOX’: MIKE JOHNSON BACKS TRUMP AFTER WARNING WHITE HOUSE ABOUT DEAL WITH DEMOCRATS

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters on Tuesday that the legislation would succeed, though he hinted at some dissatisfaction with how negotiations played out.

“This is not my preferred route. I wanted to keep all six bills together,” Johnson said. “But listen, the president agreed with Schumer that they would separate Homeland, and we’ll do that, and we’ll handle it.… The Republicans are going to do the responsible thing.”

The Senate’s federal funding deal survived an important hurdle late Tuesday morning, clearing a House-wide “rule vote” to allow for lawmakers to debate the measure and set up a vote on final passage by early afternoon.

[image_4]

House Speaker Mike Johnson walks from the chamber to speak with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Nov. 12, 2025.(J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

SENATE REPUBLICANS PUSH FOR HOUSE GOP REBELLION AGAINST FUNDING PACKAGE, VOTER ID LEGISLATION

It comes after a pair of House conservatives announced they would be backing off their threats to sink the legislation during the rule vote if the legislation was not paired with an unrelated election integrity bill called the SAVE America Act.

Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., warned they would not support the bill during the rule vote without the SAVE America Act attached but pivoted on Monday night after a conversation with the White House.

[image_5]

“As of right now, with the current agreement that we have, as well as discussions, we will both be a yes on the rule,” Luna said. “There is something called a standing filibuster that would effectively allow Sen. Thune to put voter ID on the floor of the Senate. We are hearing that that is going well, and he is considering that… so we are very happy about that.”

GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN AGAIN AFTER DEMOCRATS REVOLT OVER DHS FUNDING

The SAVE America Act would require voter ID at the polls and create a new proof of citizenship mandate in the voter registration process.

But it appears Luna’s insistence that Thune had embraced the standing filibuster, a little-known and antiquated legislative maneuver, was not quite accurate.

Still, Thune said there were Senate Republicans who “expressed an interest in that, so we’re going to have a conversation about it. But there weren’t any commitments made.”

He noted that forcing the standing filibuster to try and pass the SAVE America Act, or any of its variations coming from the House, would be a massive drain on time in the Senate.

[image_6]

Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks at a press conference following a policy luncheon in Washington, Oct. 28, 2025.(Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Doing so “ties up floor time indefinitely,” Thune said. That’s because of rules that guarantee any senator gets up to two speeches on a bill. That, coupled with the clock being reset by amendments to the bill, means that the Senate could effectively be paralyzed for months as Republicans chip away at Democratic opposition.

[image_7]

“There’s always an opportunity cost,” Thune said.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“Well, at any time there’s an amendment offered, and that amendment is tabled, it resets the clock,” he continued. “The two-speech rule kicks in again. So let’s say, you know, every Democrat senator talks for two hours. That’s 940 hours on the floor.”

It’s not immediately clear when Trump will sign the funding bill, but it’s expected the White House will want to move fast. The longest government shutdown in history, which lasted 43 days, just ended in November.

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com

Measles cases in South Carolina rise by 29 to 876, state health department says

By Reuters

Feb 3 (Reuters) – South Carolina reported 876 measles cases on Tuesday, state health data showed, including 29 additional infections since Friday, as officials warned the widening outbreak could last weeks or months amid lagging vaccine uptake.

There are 354 people in quarantine and 22 in isolation. The latest end of quarantine for these is February 24, the state health department said.

Sign up here.

The outbreak, which began in October, has been centered in the northwest part of the state, which includes Greenville and Spartanburg, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Health.

The health department confirmed a case of measles in a Sumter County resident but could not say whether this new case was linked to the outbreak centered around Spartanburg County or if the exposure was from measles occurring in other locations.

Of those infected, 800 were unvaccinated, 16 were partially vaccinated with one of the recommended two-dose measles-mumps-rubella vaccines, 22 were fully vaccinated and 38 had unknown vaccination status.

Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Trump seeks $1 billion from Harvard as deal proves elusive | Reuters

By Rishabh Jaiswal, Shivani Tanna and Helen Coster

• Summary

• Harvard and other universities face government probes
• Columbia and Brown reached settlements with Trump administration
• Rights advocates concerned about free speech amid Trump probes

Feb 3 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration was seeking $1 billion from Harvard to settle probes into school policies, after a news report that said Trump had dropped his demand for a payment from the Ivy League school.

The Trump administration has been threatening to withhold federal funds from Harvard and several other universities over issues including pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, campus diversity and transgender policies.

Sign up here.

Trump has said Harvard and other universities allowed displays of antisemitism during pro-Palestinian protests.

“We are now seeking One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, without specifying how he arrived at that figure or what damages exactly he was referring to.

Trump’s post came in response to a New York Times report, citing sources, saying the Trump administration has dropped its demand for cash from Harvard in ongoing talks to strike a deal. Trump dismissed the report.

Trump officials and Harvard have engaged in months of talks. Trump said in September a deal was close and would involve a $500 million payment by Harvard. He said two weeks ago his administration may have reached a deal with the university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Harvard did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

NEW YORK TIMES DEFENDS STORY

In social media posts late Monday and Tuesday, Trump reprised his criticism of the New York Times and said the reporting on Harvard was not accurate.

The Times said its story was based on extensive reporting with multiple sources, including Trump administration officials.

“President Trump and the administration have demonstrated a pattern of criticizing accurate reporting that illuminates new facts about their efforts,” the Times said in a statement.

The government has settled its probes with some universities. Harvard sued the Trump administration last year and a judge later ruled the government had unlawfully terminated some grants for the university.

Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly equates criticism of Israel’s attacks on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories with antisemitism, and advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.

Rights advocates have also raised concerns about free speech and academic freedom over Trump’s probes.

Several other Ivy League schools, including Columbia University and Brown University, have reached agreements with the administration and accepted certain government demands. Columbia agreed to pay more than $220 million to the government and Brown said it will pay $50 million to support local workforce development.

Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal and Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Stephen Coates, Susan Fenton, Rod Nickel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

FIRST ON FOX: A group led by conservative moms is stepping into the fight against illegal Chinese-made vapes, inspired by the Trump administration’s efforts, and announcing it will be mounting an “aggressive” 2026 campaign to educate parents on the dangers of illegal e-cigarettes.

Moms for America Action, the nation’s largest conservative mothers organization, announced in a press release it will make combating illegal Chinese vapes a top priority in the 2026 election cycle, mobilizing parents and placing ads nationwide to demand tougher enforcement and accountability for manufacturers flooding the U.S. market with illicit products.

The group says the action is in line with the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal vape products manufactured in China that are marketed to children with a variety of flavors.

“For moms, this is personal,” Emily Stack, executive director of Moms for America Action, said in the press release.

[DISPOSABLE VAPES MORE TOXIC AND CARCINOGENIC THAN CIGARETTES, STUDY SHOWS]

President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign event, Dec.19, 2025, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.(Alex Brandon/The Associated Press)

“Illegal Chinese vapes are showing up in our schools, our neighborhoods, and our homes every single day. Moms are fed up, and we’re taking action to stop these products from targeting our kids.”

Moms for America Actions says it will “mobilize moms” to “advocate for stronger enforcement, accountability for foreign manufacturers, and protections for children and families.”

In the press release, the group points out that many illicit Chinese vapes are “deliberately designed” to appeal to children and says that will be a main focus of their campaign’s pushback.

“This is not an accident; it’s by design,” Stack explained. “China has built a billion-dollar industry on addicting American kids to illegal products that have no place in our communities. Moms are fed up, and we fully support the Trump administration’s aggressive actions to shut down this black market.”

[PRESSURE MOUNTS ON MAMDANI TO ‘CONTINUE THE FIGHT’ ON ILLICIT CHINESE VAPES FLOODING NYC]

Moms for America Actions said Chinese vape cigarettes are deliberately designed to appeal to children.(iStock)

The group’s efforts are in line with the Trump administration’s push to combat illicit Chinese vapes, highlighted by an $86.5 million seizure of illegal vapes in Chicago last year that accompanied “Operation Vape Trail,” an operation by Trump’s Drug Enforcement Agency to stem illegal vape sales.

“The Chinese are getting richer while our children get sicker,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.posted on X last September. “We’re putting an end to that.”

“We are targeting illegal Chinese vapes, and we will stop them from poisoning our children.”

[CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP]

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during an international business meeting on March 28, 2025, in Beijing, China.(Ken Ishii – Pool/Getty Images)

China’s vape industry is estimated at $28 billion, and despite federal restrictions, government data indicates that two-thirds of its products reach U.S. consumers. More than 80% of vapes sold nationwide are illicit and not authorized for sale.

“President Trump’s actions send a clear message: profiting off the addiction of our children will not be tolerated,” Stack said. “Moms want safe communities, honest enforcement of the law, and leaders who put American families first. We are committed to making sure these dangerous products are removed from our schools and neighborhoods for good.”

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.

Judge appears likely to side with Mark Kelly in case challenging Pentagon’s efforts to punish him over ‘illegal orders’ video

Published Feb 3, 2026, 5:54 PM ET | CNN Politics

By

[Devan Cole]
,
Austin Culpepper

8 min ago

[Mark Kelly] in the Democratic senator’s case alleging the Pentagon is [violating his First Amendment rights] through its effort to punish him over his urging of US service members to refuse illegal orders.

During a high-stakes hearing in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Senior US District Judge Richard Leon seemed troubled by the Trump administration’s suggestion that he take the unprecedented step of expanding existing loopholes to First Amendment protections for active-duty service members to also cover retirees such as Kelly.

“You’re asking me to do something the Supreme Court or the DC Circuit has never done,” Leon told a Justice Department lawyer defending the Pentagon’s efforts. “That’s a bit of a stretch.”

Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said he would likely issue a decision on Kelly’s request for a court order blocking the Pentagon’s efforts by February 11.

The hearing was the latest flashpoint in the Trump administration’s campaign to use the levers of government to punish high-profile critics of the president. In several other cases involving Donald Trump’s perceived political enemies, federal judges have stymied the president’s retribution crusade, [killing criminal cases] brought against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James and ruling against the president’s efforts to hamstring the work of Mark Zaid, a notable whistleblower attorney.

Kelly’s case, brought last month, came just after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Pentagon would pursue administrative action against the senator, including reducing his last military rank, which would lower the pay he receives as a retired Navy captain, and issuing a letter of censure.

Hegseth and Trump have publicly attacked Kelly over a by the Arizona lawmaker – and five other Democrats with a history of military service – urging service members not to obey unlawful orders that could be issued by the Trump administration.

“When viewed in totality, your pattern of conduct demonstrates specific intent to counsel servicemembers to refuse lawful orders. This pattern demonstrates that you were not providing abstract legal education about the duty to refuse patently illegal orders. You were specifically counseling servicemembers to refuse particular operations that you have characterized as illegal,” Hegseth wrote to Kelly last month in the censure letter.

But lawyers for the senator argue the Pentagon’s actions run afoul of his First Amendment rights and that his comments are protected by the Constitution’s Speech and Debate Clause, which states that a sitting member of Congress is protected from certain inquiries and procedures that originate outside of Congress. Additionally, they say the moves violate his due process rights, describing them as “foreordained decisionmaking.”

CNN’s Haley Britzky, Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.

No plans for ICE immigration operations at Super Bowl, officials say

By Max A. Cherney

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 3 (Reuters) – National Football League and federal law enforcement officials said on Tuesday there were no planned Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations for Sunday’s Super Bowl or the events leading up to it.

“There are no planned ICE or immigration enforcement operations that are scheduled around the Super Bowl or any of the Super Bowl-related events,” NFL head of security Cathy Lanier said at a press conference in San Francisco, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

Sign up here.

Concerns about the potential for immigration enforcement operations had escalated ahead of Sunday’s game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots.

Department of Homeland Security agent Jeffrey Brannigan, who is coordinating security efforts among the different agencies, said federal law enforcement had a strict and specific purpose to support Super Bowl security.

Brannigan said in the days ahead there would be a significant increase in federal law enforcement across the region that would work directly to support security at the Super Bowl.

DHS will send a variety of different agencies to the Super Bowl that do not include ICE, Lanier said, adding that she had met with DHS leadership over the last week and was confident there would be no ICE operations.

“There is not ICE deployed with us at the Super Bowl and I don’t believe there has been in the last several,” Lanier said.

Planning for Super Bowl LX security began roughly 18 months ago and involves 35 federal, state and local agencies, Lanier said.

Officials expect about 1.3 million visitors for the Super Bowl and events surrounding it.

The NFL and various law enforcement agencies involved in Super Bowl security plan to use artificial intelligence to aid their efforts, Lanier said. Lanier declined to provide details about how the emerging technology would be deployed.

“There are very few technologies that we use that don’t have some element of AI,” she said.

President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies have come under scrutiny after the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota last month by federal agents, sparking protests across the U.S.

The star of this year’s Super Bowl halftime show will be Puerto Rican rapper and 2026 Grammy winner Bad Bunny , who skipped performing in the continental United States on his recent concert tour, saying he feared federal agents would arrest his fans.

Reporting by Max A. Cherney in San Francisco Editing by Toby Davis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

GOP senator jabs Jeffries as ‘butt hurt’ over Trump-Schumer deal

House Democrats, including Jeffries, largely voted against the 5-bill package to reopen the government

By Alex Miller
Fox News

Published February 3, 2026 4:35pm EST

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., criticizes what is ‘unconscionable’ to him and addresses the state of immigration after the House passes the funding bill.

A Senate Republican suggested Wednesday that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., had his feelings hurt by not being included in the Trump-Schumer deal to fund the government.

The House passed the five-bill funding package, along with a two-week funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), on Tuesday. Jeffries and most House Democrats, save for 21, voted against it as the partial government shutdown entered its fourth day.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said it was because Jeffries was “butt hurt” that he was not looped into the deal brokered between Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and President Donald Trump.

[HOUSE SENDS BILL ENDING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN TO TRUMP’S DESK AFTER 21 DEMS BREAK WITH JEFFRIES]

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2025.(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“He’s butt hurt that President Trump didn’t call him, too,” Marshall told Fox News Digital. “But I think that’s on Schumer.”

Marshall described the scene in the Oval Office last week, where top-ranking Senate Republicans met with Trump as the funding deadline neared, and Senate Democrats were digging in deeper into their demands to renegotiate the DHS funding bill.

“The president says, ‘Get Schumer on the phone.’ They get Schumer on the phone. They broker a deal,” Marshall said.

[SENATE REPUBLICANS PUSH FOR HOUSE GOP REBELLION AGAINST FUNDING PACKAGE, VOTER ID LEGISLATION]

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., accused House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., of being “butt hurt” over the Trump-Schumer deal to fund the government.(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

“So really, it’s on Schumer that [he agreed to this deal,] really, before bringing Hakeem in,” he continued. “And really it comes down to that Hakeem’s feelings are butt hurt, and to him, he’s fighting for his political life and really struggling.”

While the deal does fund 11 out of the 12 agencies under Congress’ purview, DHS remains an open question.

Senate Democrats, following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti during an immigration operation in Minneapolis, demanded that the bipartisan bill to fund the agency be sidelined in order to cram in more restrictions and reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Turning to a two-week continuing resolution (CR) to further negotiate the bill has Republicans concerned that they will end up in the same position within the next few days, given the truncated timeframe to hash out major issues with one of the most politically perilous funding bills.

[HAKEEM JEFFRIES SAYS DEMS WILL NOT BACK FUNDING BILL FOR ‘KILLING MACHINE’ DHS EVEN IF NOEM IS FIRED]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks at a press conference with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii., following the passage of government funding bills at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 30, 2026.(Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that negotiations with Senate Democrats would be carried out by Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who chairs the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.

He acknowledged, however, that Trump would be the deciding factor.

“Ultimately, that’s going to be a conversation between the President of the United States and the Democrats here in the Senate,” he said.

[CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP]

But Schumer insisted that Thune needed to be in on the negotiations.

“If Leader Thune negotiates in good faith, we can get it done,” Schumer said. “We expect to present to the Republicans a very serious, detailed proposal very shortly.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer and Jeffries for comment.

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

Small Business Administration shuts out non-U.S. citizens from its main lending program

Updated on: February 3, 2026 / 4:18 PM EST / CBS News

The Small Business Administration is barring green card holders and other non-U.S. citizens from applying for loans from the agency’s main lending program.

Starting March 1, only U.S. citizens or nationals who have their chief residence in the U.S. or legal territories will be eligible to borrow money under the agency’s 7(a) program.

“SBA is requiring that 100% of all direct and/or indirect owners of a small business applicant be U.S. Citizens or U.S. Nationals who have their Principal Residence in the United States, its territories or possessions,” the SBA said Monday in a policy notice.

Under a previous SBA notice released in December, up to 5% of a small business could be owned by foreign nationals or legal permanent residents and still legally qualify for a loan.

The SBA said the new rules align with President Trump’s January 2025 executive order, called the “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” that the White House said at the time was aimed at enforcing U.S. immigration laws and ensuring public safety.

Maggie Clemmons, a spokesperson for the SBA, said the agency’s new guidance is intended to create job opportunities for U.S. citizens.

“The Trump SBA is committed to driving economic growth and job creation for American citizens – which is why, effective March 1, the agency will no longer guarantee loans for small businesses owned by foreign nationals,” she said in a statement to CBS News. “Across every program, the SBA is ensuring that every taxpayer dollar entrusted to this agency goes to support U.S. job creators and innovators.

“To that end, we expect to be able to offer them even more capital in the near future pending legislation to increase SBA loan limits for small businesses that are hiring, building and producing in America,” Clemmons added.

The 7(a) program provides loan guarantees to lenders serving small businesses, according to the SBA. It allows business owners to borrow up to $5 million to use as working capital, refinance debt, purchase equipment, and buy or upgrade real estate and buildings, among other purposes.

New policy draws fire

Advocates for small businesses and immigrants slammed the new SBA rules, saying they could stymie entrepreneurship. Carolina Martinez, CEO of CAMEO Network, a network of small business support groups, said that immigrants start new enterprises at twice the rate of U.S.-born residents, citing research from the University of California and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

“The SBA’s decision to bar legal permanent residents from accessing SBA loans jeopardizes business creation and hurts the economy,” Martinez said in a statement Tuesday. “America thrives because people come here from around the world to follow their dreams, bringing new ideas and building businesses.”

CAMEO Network said it plans to work with lawmakers to fight the guidance, which it characterized as discriminatory.

Democratic members on the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship also criticized the SBA policy, calling it a “devastating attack on immigrant entrepreneurs.”

“The Trump administration is stoking the flames of hatred, spreading fear and confusion among immigrants and small business owners,” Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Nydia Velázquez of New York said in a joint statement on Monday. “Rather than support hardworking legal immigrants to start or expand a business, the Trump SBA is choosing hatred by barring green card holders from receiving an SBA loan. The administration’s message to immigrants is clear: You are not welcome to pursue the American Dream.”

Edited by Alain Sherter

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/how-trumps-tariffs-could-impact-american-small-businesses/

Mexico to send US minimum water volume per year, US officials say

By Jasper Ward and Brendan O’Boyle

WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Mexico has agreed to deliver at least 350,000 acre-feet of water per year to the United States, the U.S. secretaries of state and agriculture said in a joint statement on Tuesday, after U.S. and Mexican officials met recently to negotiate deliveries under a water treaty.

“The agreement reached makes it possible to strengthen the orderly management of water resources in the Rio Grande basin and to move toward planning with greater predictability and shared responsibility in the face of the effects of drought,” the Mexican foreign ministry said in a statement.

Sign up here.

As a result of negotiations, Mexico has also committed to a detailed plan to fully repay all outstanding water debt accrued during the previous cycle, according to the U.S.

Mexico and the U.S. will hold monthly meetings to ensure timely, consistent deliveries and prevent future deficits.

Mexico said it agreed to guarantee delivery of a minimum annual volume of water, noting that deliveries will depend on hydrological conditions and that human consumption and agriculture would be prioritized.

“The Department of State, Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission have worked to secure Mexico’s commitment to meet its obligations under the 1944 Water Treaty, while also providing a plan to eliminate the deficit from the prior cycle, strengthening water security for Texas communities and U.S. agriculture,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

In December, U.S. President Donald Trump accused Mexico of violating the 1944 agreement governing water sharing through a network of dams and reservoirs. The treaty requires Mexico to deliver 1.75 million acre-feet of Rio Grande water to the United States every five years.

The Latin American country, the largest trading partner of the U.S. in 2024, has at times struggled to make its deliveries, citing drought conditions fueled by climate change and local demand.

U.S. officials said Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum discussed the treaty when they spoke last week and reaffirmed their commitment to resolving longstanding water management challenges and supporting communities and producers on both sides of the border, according to the joint statement.

Reporting by Jasper Ward and Brendan O’Boyle, Writing by Christian Martinez, editing by Susan Heavey, Rod Nickel

Intelligence watchdog shares whistleblower complaint involving Gabbard with Congress after monthslong delay

February 3, 2026 / 5:32 PM EST / CBS News

An intelligence community watchdog has handed over a highly classified whistleblower complaint that includes an allegation of wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to top congressional leaders, following months of delay tied to classification disputes, a government shutdown, and leadership turnover at Gabbard’s office, CBS News has learned.

File: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard at the White House, Oct. 23, 2025. Alex Wong / Getty Images

In a Feb. 2 letter to the leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees, intelligence community Inspector General Christopher Fox said he received final approval on Jan. 30 from Gabbard to share the material with a tight circle of lawmakers. The complaint had originally been filed eight months earlier, on May 21, 2025.

According to Fox’s letter, which was labeled as approved for public release on Feb. 3 and obtained by CBS News, the complaint was “administratively closed” by the intelligence community Inspector General’s office in June 2025, under prior leadership, and no further investigative steps were taken – a fact Fox said undercut notions that the matter was an “urgent concern” requiring prompt congressional notification.

“[I]f the same or similar matter came before me today, I would likely determine that the allegations do not meet the statutory definition of ‘urgent concern,’” Fox wrote.

Fox hand-carried the highly classified complaint to Congress on Monday evening, according to a spokesperson for his office. During that engagement, several members and staff of the Gang of Eight — the small group of congressional leaders who oversee the intelligence community — reviewed the complaint on a “read-and-return” basis. They also received copies of former Acting intelligence community Inspector General Tamara Johnson’s original and supplemental determination memos, the spokesperson said.

The whistleblower complaint, filed last May by an intelligence community employee, alleged that a highly classified report was deliberately limited in distribution for political reasons. It also alleged that an intelligence agency’s legal office failed to refer a potential crime to the Justice Department, again for political reasons, according to Fox’s letter.

The handover of the complaint comes one day after public news reports revealed its existence, first detailed by The Wall Street Journal. News of the holdup sparked immediate questions about whether political considerations delayed action and sidestepped oversight of a legally protected whistleblower complaint involving the nation’s top intelligence official.

In a statement, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford, an Arkansas Republican, said he and Ranking Member Jim Himes had, along with staff, reviewed the complaint.

“After doing so, I concur with the conclusion that the Biden-era IC IG, Tamara Johnson, reached regarding the non-credible nature of the complaint and the re-review that the current IC IG, Chris Fox, conducted, reaching the same conclusion,” Crawford said. “The ensuing media firestorm—fed by speculation and little fact—was an attempt to smear Director Gabbard and the Trump Administration.”

Speaking earlier in the day to the press, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner said he would view the complaint “imminently” and criticized Gabbard for the months-long delay.

Rachel Cohen, a spokesperson for Warner’s office, added, “This timeline makes unmistakably clear that Director Gabbard does not understand the basic obligations of her role – the predictable result of placing someone out of her depth in one of the nation’s most sensitive positions.”

“During her confirmation hearing, Director Gabbard pledged under oath to protect whistleblowers and respect Congress’s oversight role, commitments that come with this office whether she understands them or not,” she said.

Spokespeople for Himes and Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Tom Cotton declined to comment.

Fox, who was nominated by President Trump and previously served as an aide to Gabbard, was narrowly confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate to his role in a 51-47 vote split along party lines in late October. His predecessor, Tamara Johnson, was a career official who had served as the intelligence community acting inspector general in an interim role during the Biden administration. She is still employed by the inspector general’s office.

At the time the complaint was submitted, Johnson determined that the complaint met the legal definition of an “urgent concern” if the allegations were true, but said she could not determine whether they were credible.

That determination gave the whistleblower the right under federal law to take the complaint directly to Congress.

Three days later, after receiving additional information, Johnson issued a follow-up memo concluding that the first allegation was not credible and that she still could not assess the second. (The later finding did not change the whistleblower’s legal right to notify Congress.)

According to the timeline Fox set forth in the letter, the complaint sat for months while his office sought clearance for legal officials within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to view the highly classified material. Other reasons for the delay, he wrote, included what he called “complexity in the classification,” a 43-day government shutdown that began Oct 1, 2025, and leadership changes at ODNI, including the confirmation of a new general counsel.

After gaining access to the complaint in late October, Fox said he was held up by clearance issues from discussing it with ODNI’s top lawyer, Jack Dever, who was unable to view the complaint until Dec. 1.

On Dec. 4, Fox and Dever raised the issue directly with Gabbard. According to the letter, Gabbard said at the time that she had not previously been told that clearance to share the complaint with Congress was pending, but would provide it as soon as possible. Later that day, Dever indicated the guidance was forthcoming, “pending a review by the White House Counsel for a potential assertion of executive privilege.”

Almost two months later, on Jan. 30, the DNI’s security guidance came through, according to Fox’s letter.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fox stressed that the intelligence underlying the complaint was exceptionally sensitive. He said only one previous whistleblower case, in 2020, required such tightly controlled delivery to Congress, and that the information at issue would normally be shared only through oral briefings to senior congressional leaders.

On Tuesday, before news emerged that the complaint had been handed over, the whistleblower’s attorney, Andrew Bakaj, told CBS News ODNI had been withholding it from Congress without explanation.

“If this was challenging initially to get to members of congress, all that had to be done was somebody picking up the phone, alerting the Hill that, ‘Hey, we got something that’s coming your way. We’re trying to figure out how to get it to you because of, you know, some complexities.’”

“But the process can move. It does move. It does not take eight months to get something like this to the Hill,” he said.

Read the full letter here:

Intelligence community inspector general letter shared with Congress

Whistleblower’s lawyer on Tulsi Gabbard

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/whistleblowers-lawyer-says-tulsi-gabbard-has-stalled-review-of-complaint-for-months/

Whistleblower’s lawyer says Tulsi Gabbard has stalled review of complaint for months

(05:49)