Live updates: Senate advances bill to reopen government; Trump pardons Giuliani and others over 2020 efforts – NBC News

Local NBC News stations report on how the air travel chaos is being felt in their regions across the country as travelers continue to face fallout from the effects of the government shutdown.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is objecting to a quick Senate vote on a bill to reopen the government because of a hemp provision in one of the full-year spending bills being considered with the short-term funding measure, three people familiar with conversations said.

Speeding up the timeline for consideration of the legislation requires the agreement of all 100 senators. 

Paul has consistently voted against funding the government. The provision he is now objecting to would close a loophole created by the 2018 farm bill that has allowed unregulated THC products to be sold around the country, regardless of state cannabis laws.

Paul has long pushed to keep the loophole and privately threatened GOP leadership that he wouldn’t give his “consent” for legislation unless they preserve it, according to two of the sources said. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.,said House Democrats will “continue to wage this fight” over health care costs when the Senate sends the amended short-term government spending bill back to the House, adding that the eight Democratic senators who voted with Republicans last night to take up the measure owe their constituents an explanation. 

“I’m not going to explain what a handful of Senate Democrats have decided to do, that’s their explanation to offer to the American people,” Jeffries told reporters. “What we’re going to continue to do as House Democrats, partnered with our allies throughout America, is to wage the fight.”

Jeffries also referred to House Republicans who in recent weeks have said, like Democrats have, that Affordable Care Act tax credits need to be extended, saying “now is their chance.”

Jeffries stood by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., after some House Democrats called for new leadership following yesterday’s vote. When asked if he thinks Schumer is effective and should keep his job, Jeffries said “yes and yes.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is endorsing Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan for retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith’s seat.

Flanagan, who serves as lieutenant governor under Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, wrote in a post on X, “@BernieSanders has fought for working families since Day One. He’s built a movement that is taking on special interests and fighting for an economy that works for everyone. I’m honored to have earned his endorsement of my campaign for US Senate.”

The independent senator reposted Flanagan’s message on Instagram.

The Supreme Court appeared unlikely this morning to allow a devout Rastafarian to bring a damages claim against Louisiana prison officials who cut his dreadlocks in violation of his religious rights.

Based on the morning argument, a majority of the justices did not appear to think Congress specifically allowed for state officials to be sued under a federal law called the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, or RLUIPA.

The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, is often solicitous toward religious claims, although the bulk of recent cases have involved cases brought by conservative Christians.

Read the full story here.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., laid out a potential timetable for the House schedule this week, including a vote on a government funding bill, during a conference call with House Republicans this morning, four sources on the call said.  

Johnson said he’s hoping to vote as soon as Wednesday on the Senate’s deal to re-open the government, although that will depend on how quickly the Senate is able to move, the sources said. Although the vote timing is fluid, members were encouraged on the call to start getting back to Washington as soon as possible given the air travel delays.  

The speaker also vowed that before the House votes, he will swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., who won a special election on Sept. 23. Following her swearing-in, the House will then vote on a rule for the Senate deal, followed by final passage, and then the House will leave town again, Johnson told members on the call.  

While the vote is expected to be tight, and leadership is still in the process of doing a whip check, Johnson expressed confidence that they would be able to pass the Senate’s government funding package, the sources said.

Christine Pelosi, the daughter of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced today that she is running for a state Senate seat, ending speculation that she might run for her mother’s seat in the House.

“I’m running to represent you, San Francisco, in Sacramento,” she said in her announcement video. “Fighting for consumer rights, women’s rights, gun violence survivors, immigrants and our most vulnerable communities against the threat we face.”

Nancy Pelosi announced last week that she would not seek re-election. Her daughter is a Democratic strategist and attorney and is running for the seat currently held by state Sen. Scott Wiener, who is seeking Pelosi’s congressional seat.

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani named his appointments for key administration roles this morning, tapping campaign manager Elle Bisgaard-Church as chief of staff and public service veteran Dean Fuleihan for deputy mayor.

Fuleihan, who has decades of experience in New York politics, is a more conventional choice for a top post. He was director of New York City’s Office of Management and Budget under Mayor Bill de Blasio and served as de Blasio’s first deputy mayor from 2018 to 2021.

“I will turn to Dean for council, not only for his wealth of managerial experience, but also because of the similarity between our visions for this city,” Mamdani said.

Bisgaard-Church managed Mamdani’s primary and general election campaigns. She also worked as his chief of staff during his time as a state representative in Albany, N.Y.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., announced she will not run for re-election in 2026 after her sixth term concludes.

Watson Coleman, 80, was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2014 making her the first African American woman from New Jersey to do so, her office noted in a news release. Before being elected to Congress, she served as majority leader of the New Jersey General Assembly.

In a statement, Watson Coleman said she made the decision after much reflection and conversations with her family.

“I have always stood on the frontlines in the fight for principled progressive policies and my work has centered on the belief that there must be a floor below which we should never allow any child, family, or person to fall,” she said, adding that her legislative record on issues such as criminal justice, health care, poverty and the economy reflected those priorities. 

“I hope we will see, in this district and districts across the nation, representatives who, in the words of my dear former colleague and friend, Congressman John Lewis, stand ready to, ‘Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America,’” she said.  

In a post to Truth Social, Trump slammed air traffic controllers who took time off during the shutdown and also recommended bonuses for those who stayed on the job.

“For those Air Traffic Controllers who were GREAT PATRIOTS, and didn’t take ANY TIME OFF for the ‘Democrat Shutdown Hoax,’ I will be recommending a BONUS of $10,000 per person for distinguished service to our Country,” Trump said in a post.

“For those that did nothing but complain, and took time off, even though everyone knew they would be paid, IN FULL, shortly into the future, I am NOT HAPPY WITH YOU,” he added.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., this morning urged House members to begin traveling back to D.C. to vote on legislation to reopen the government.

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Johnson said he would issue an official 36-hour notice before votes in the House. 

“There’ll be long days and long nights here for the foreseeable future to make up for all this lost time that was imposed upon us,” Johnson said of the work to be done when the House returns.

The House could have stayed in session during the shutdown, which is now the longest in U.S. history, but he chose to designate every week since Sept. 19 a district work period. 

Senators reached a bipartisan agreement yesterday to advance a bill that would end the shutdown, NBC has reported.

U.S. forces struck two more boats allegedly operated by drug cartels in the eastern Pacific yesterday, killing six people, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement.

The latest in a string of similar operations against what the U.S. government calls “designated terrorist organizations,” the two strikes were carried out in international waters and three men were aboard each vessel, Hegseth said.

“These vessels were known by our intelligence to be associated with illicit narcotics smuggling, were carrying narcotics, and were transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route in the Eastern Pacific,” Hegseth said on X.

Read the full story here.

China announced today that it has dropped countermeasures on U.S.-linked vessels for a year as trade tensions ease between Washington and Beijing.

Effective at 12:01 ET today, the Chinese Transport Ministry suspended its port fees and investigations related to American ships following the U.S. move to pause investigations into China’s maritime industry.

The suspension was part of a consensus reached by U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators in Kuala Lumpur last month, the ministry said.

Beijing also dropped sanctions targeting five U.S. subsidiaries of the South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean.

Trump’s attorneys sent a letter to the British Broadcasting Corp. over the weekend demanding a retraction and threatening to seek $1 billion in damages from the broadcaster.

The move comes amid a growing controversy over edits to the president’s infamous Jan. 6 ellipse speech in a documentary that aired on the BBC. Two top BBC executives have already resigned. 

The White House referred NBC News’ request for comment to an outside legal team.

“The BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally and deceitfully editing its documentary in order to try and interfere in the Presidential Election,” a spokesman for the president’s outside legal team told NBC News. “President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in lies, deception, and fake news.”

Israel returned the remains of 15 Palestinians to Gaza today in the latest step forward for a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, as a top White House envoy met with Israeli leaders to discuss the next stages of the fragile agreement.

Israel returned the bodies after Palestinian militants released the remains of a hostage yesterday. With the latest exchange, only four bodies of hostages remained in Gaza.

As the first stage of the agreement reached its waning days, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, according to a photo released by the premier’s office.

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Taking up a contentious election issue with nationwide implications, the Supreme Court this morning agreed to consider whether federal law bars states from counting mail-in ballots that are received after Election Day.

The case pits Republican-led Mississippi, defending its election law that allows for mail-in ballots received after Election Day to be counted, against the Republican National Committee and the state’s own Republican Party. The Libertarian Party of Mississippi also joined the challenge in opposing the law.

If the RNC’s argument were applied nationwide, it would upend election law in many states, which count ballots that come in after an election as long as they were postmarked on time. Many of those laws were designed to ensure that overseas military members who submit ballots from afar have their votes counted.

Read the full story here.

The Supreme Court this morning turned away a long-shot attempt to overturn the landmark 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Without comment, the justices rejected an appeal brought by Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky who was sued in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses because of her opposition to same-sex marriage based on her religious beliefs.

Her latest appeal in the case, brought a decade later, had attracted considerable attention amid fears that the court could overturn the 2015 same-sex marriage decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, in the aftermath of the 2022 ruling that overturned the landmark abortion rights decision, Roe v. Wade.

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Ghislaine Maxwell, the co-conspirator of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is in the process of seeking a commutation of her 20-year prison sentence from President Donald Trump, a whistleblower has told House Democrats.

The whistleblower came forward with the information to Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee and alleges Maxwell is getting preferential treatment in prison.

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Trump became the first sitting president to attend a regular-season NFL game since Jimmy Carter in 1978, appearing yesterday at the Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders matchup.

In the third quarter, Trump appeared on the Fox broadcast, answering questions about his time as a football player at New York Military Academy, opining on quarterbacks and more.

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The Supreme Court will hear arguments today on whether a devout Rastafarian can bring a damages claim against Louisiana prison officials who cut his dreadlocks in violation of his religious rights.

The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, is often solicitous toward religious claims, although the bulk of recent cases have involved cases brought by conservative Christians.

Prior to the 2020 incident at the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center, Damon Landor had not cut his hair for almost 20 years, following a practice known as “the Nazarite vow.”

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A group of Senate Democrats is pushing for an investigation into the Trump administration’s use of federal agency websites and emails to post partisan messages blaming Democrats for the government shutdown.

In a letter obtained by NBC News, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and other Democrats are asking the Government Accountability Office to open a probe into whether the political messages violated federal appropriations laws.

The lawmakers point specifically to a rule that prohibits the executive branch from using funds for “purely partisan” purposes. They are asking for more information from the GAO to see if several agencies violated laws that pertain to ethics and partisan political activity.

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The Oval Office is a long way from Abu Ghraib.

When he’s greeted by Trump today, Ahmad al-Sharaa will have completed his journey from jihadist leader to head of state receiving a warm White House welcome.

Since toppling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Syria‘s interim leader has spent the past year transforming his global image while tackling deep divisions at home.

Now, al-Sharaa, who has thrown off his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, will make history as the first Syrian president to visit the White House.

Read the full story here.

A federal appeals court late yesterday allowed a judge’s order to stand that directs the Trump administration to fully fund this month’s food aid benefits for 42 million low-income Americans during the ongoing government shutdown.

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to halt Thursday’s decision by a Rhode Island judge requiring the U.S. Agriculture Department to spend $4 billion set aside for other purposes to ensure Americans receive full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits.

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Trump has pardoned Rudy Giuliani and scores of others accused of involvement in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the president’s pardon attorney said late last night.

Ed Martin posted a proclamation on X, which says Giuliani and scores of others will be pardoned for alleged activities linked to the 2020 election. Martin was replying to his own X message from May in which he said “No MAGA left behind.”

Trump has yet to comment publicly. NBC News has asked the White House for comment.

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Senators struck an agreement Sunday, projecting confidence that it will be sufficient to end the lengthy U.S. government shutdown, three sources with direct knowledge of the details told NBC News.

The agreement, reached by a group of Democrats who teamed up with Republicans, cleared the first hurdle on a vote of 60-40 to advance in a late-night Senate vote. If it’s approved, it would then need to pass the House and gain Trump’s signature to become law and reopen the government.

Even if it has enough support to clear those hurdles, the process is expected to take days.

Read the full story here.