Senate Republicans block bill to avert government shutdown – as it happened

That’s it for me tonight. Thanks for joining us through the afternoon. Here’s some of what we covered:

• Some states imposing mandatory vaccination rules on healthcare workers are fearing staff shortages amidst pushback.
• California — the most populous state — has passed a bill ensuring every registered voter will continue to receive a mail-in ballot with the postage already paid.
• Military officials are scheduled to testify in Congress this week about the evacuation and withdrawal from Afghanistan.
• The GOP blocked the spending bill in the Senate today, putting the country on a precarious path to another government shutdown if the stalemate continues.

Have a good night!

Ford announced today that it’s planning to spend $11.4 billion to expand its offerings of electric cars and trucks, a move the company said would put more than a million electric vehicles on the road each year.

The investment will include three new factories and an electric truck plant in the US, adding 11,000 new jobs over the next four years.

“The transformative commitments and action from leading U.S. automakers such as Ford and @GM have made the transition to clean transportation inevitable,” Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp tweeted in support of the news.

“What we need now is smart policy and investment from Washington to accelerate it and to invest in U.S. manufacturing jobs for American workers today and for generations to come. Congress has a once in a century moment – right now – to ensure that these clean vehicles are made in America,” he continued.

The Detroit-based auto manufacturer is partnering with SK Innovation to complete two sites in Tennessee and in Kentucky, and is planning for half of its vehicles to go fully electric in the next decade.

“This is our moment — our biggest investment ever — to help build a better future for America,” Ford CEO Jim Farley told Yahoo Finance. “We are moving now to deliver breakthrough electric vehicles for the many rather than the few. It’s about creating good jobs that support American families, an ultra-efficient, carbon-neutral manufacturing system, and a growing business that delivers value for communities, dealers and shareholders.”

The Senate failed to pass the spending bill today, setting the government on a path toward shutdown this week, and financial calamity if the lawmakers continue to face an impasse on whether to increase a limit on federal debt.

With only days left until the Thursday deadline to agree on funding the government, Republicans refused to raise the debt limit and support the $3.5 trillion bill, which carries key parts of President Biden’s agenda.

The measure failed by 2 votes — 48 to 50— after GOP leaders dug their heels. The bill included funds for hurricane recovery and aid to Afghan refugees, along with a slew of other priorities set by the president.

“We will support a clean continuing resolution that will prevent a government shutdown,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a speech on the chamber floor according to the Washington Post. “We will not provide Republican votes for raising the debt limit.”

Democrats said that the country’s financial position was influenced by last December’s Covid stimulus package, and that they had helped raise the debt ceiling under President Trump, despite their objections to his policy priorities.

Here’s more analysis from the New York Times:

Republicans who had voted to raise the debt cap by trillions when their party controlled Washington argued on Monday that Democrats must shoulder the entire political burden for doing so now, given that they control the White House and both houses of Congress. Their position was calculated to portray Democrats as ineffectual and overreaching at a time when they are already toiling to iron out deep party divisions over a $3.5 trillion social safety net and climate change bill, and to pave the way for a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure measure whose fate is linked to it.

A federal judge has given California officials two weeks issue mandatory Covid vaccinations for prison guards, ruling against the wishes of the state’s governor and the prison guard union. Inmates who leave the prisons for work or who receive in-person visitors will also be included in the mandate, the Sacramento Bee reports.

“The question of mandatory vaccines is complex,” US District Judge Jon S. Tigar wrote in the 22-page order. “In this case, however, the relevant facts are undisputed. No one challenges the serious risks that COVID-19 poses to incarcerated persons.”

Hundreds of prisoners have died from the virus and more than 50,000 have been infected in the state, Tigar noted in his ruling.

“We respectfully disagree with the finding of deliberate indifference, as the department has long embraced vaccinations against COVID-19, and we continue to encourage our staff, incarcerated population, volunteers, and visitors to get vaccinated,” The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement, adding that the agency was still determining next steps. They also noted that 76% of those incarcerated have been fully vaccinated along with 57% of staff.

“This is uncharted territory that we’re in in this proceeding,” Gregg Adam, with the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which represents roughly 28,000 correctional officers, told the Sacramento Bee. “There is no precedent for a court ordering employees to be vaccinated in order to keep their job under any circumstances.” The organization has vowed to fight the orders.

The ruling followed a 27-page report issued in August from Receiver J. Clark Kelso on the increased risks to prisons posed by the Delta variant. Since the report was released 11 correctional workers have died from the disease.

Lawyers representing inmates concerned for their safety and Covid spread viewed the order as a victory, saying, “it’s pretty much everything we could have hoped for.”

Military officials are set to speak to Congress this week, marking the first testimony given since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, and Gen. Frank McKenzie will appear publicly before Senators tomorrow, CNN reports, as criticism continues to mount over the military’s handling of the evacuation from Kabul, the Afghan capital.

They will likely face questions on the events and orders that resulted in a drone strike that killed 10 civilians — 7 of them children. They are also expected to be asked about continuing counter-terrorism missions in the country now ruled by the Taliban.

Californians are officially switching to vote-by-mail. Today Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will ensure every registered voter will get their ballot in the mailbox, complete with prepaid postage.

The Golden State joins 7 others that have already made the move, but in the most populous state in the nation, the shift is a notable one.

The new law will be implemented in January with ballots going out for statewide and local elections in June and November. Officials are hopeful this will increase turnout.

“Last year we took unprecedented steps to ensure all voters had the opportunity to cast a ballot during the pandemic,” Newsom said in a statement, “and today we are making those measures permanent after record-breaking participation in the 2020 presidential election.”

Gabrielle Canon here, taking over for the afternoon from the west coast. Thanks for reading along!

As deadlines near for healthcare workers to comply with mandatory vaccination laws issued in several states, some hospitals and nursing homes fear that staff shortages are imminent, The Associated Press reports.

This week in states like New York, California, Rhode Island, and Connecticut the front-line workers will have to get a shot or walk.

In New York, where some suspensions are already being rolled out, hospitals have started creating contingency plans, cutting back on some services, and curbing new entries to nursing homes. The state has also prepared to call in medically-trained members of the National Guard to lend a hand.

“How this is going to play out, we don’t know. We are concerned about how it will exacerbate an already quite serious staffing problem,” California Hospital Association spokesperson Jan Emerson-Shea told AP, emphasizing that the organization is in full support of the mandate.

Roughly a dozen states have issued the requirements for health care workers, with some offering medical or religious exemptions.

From the AP:

States that have set such requirements tend to have high vaccination rates already. The highest rates are concentrated in the Northeast, the lowest ones in the South and Midwest.

The Biden administration also will require the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid to be fully vaccinated under a rule still being developed.

That has worried some hospital officials, particularly in rural communities where vaccination rates tend to be lower.

“We are looking at the need to reallocate staff, in some cases just to maintain services that are essential, and there are going to be some delays” in care, said Troy Bruntz, president and CEO at Community Hospital in McCook, Nebraska.

Here’s quick summary of everything that’s happened so far today:

• Joe Biden got his Covid-19 booster shot on live television. In remarks before his shot, Biden outlined who is eligible to receive booster shots and encouraged people to get their shots if eligible.
• The Biden administration is moving to continue Daca protections by placing “Dreamers” in the back of the deportation line as the Obama-era program is fought in the courts.
• Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said that Republicans are prepared to vote against a measure to raise the debt ceiling. The measure is attached to a spending bill that would prevent a government shutdown at the end of the week.
• In the midst of a hectic week in Congress, Kyrsten Sinema, one of the key Democrats in the debate over the $3.5tn social and climate funding bill, is holding a fundraiser on Tuesday with lobbyists. Meanwhile, Joe Manchin, another key negotiator, has indicated he’s in no rush to pass the legislation.

Stay tuned for more live updates.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation released a statement on the release of John Hinckley, who attempted to assassinate Reagan 40 years ago.

“The Reagan Foundation and Institute is saddened to hear of the decision,” the foundation wrote in a statement. “We believe John Hinckley is still a threat to others and we strongly oppose his release.”

27 Sept 202116.35 EDT

Julian Borger

Senior CIA officials during the Trump administration discussed abducting and even assassinating Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, according to a US report citing former officials.

The discussions on kidnapping or killing Assange took place in 2017, Yahoo News reported, when the fugitive Australian activist was entering his fifth year sheltering in the Ecuadorian embassy. The then CIA director, Mike Pompeo, and his top officials were furious about Wikileaks’ publication of “Vault 7”, a set of CIA hacking tools, a breach which the agency deemed to be the biggest data loss in its history.

Pompeo and the CIA leadership “were completely detached from reality because they were so embarrassed about Vault 7”, Yahoo cites a former Trump national security official as saying. “They were seeing blood.”

Some senior officials inside the CIA and the Trump administration went as far as to request “sketches” or “options” for killing Assange. “There seemed to be no boundaries,” a former senior counterterrorist official was quoted as saying.

The CIA declined to comment.

As Congress negotiates on the $3.5tn reconciliation bill that contains many of Joe Biden’s campaign promises on social and environmental policies, Kyrsten Sinema, the moderate Democrat from Arizona, is planning to host a fundraiser with five business lobbying groups in the middle of Congress’ busy week. Many of the groups invited are staunchly opposed to the bill.

The bill’s livelihood in the Senate largely hinges on Sinema and her moderate counterpart Joe Manchin from West Virginia. Both have expressed skepticism over the bill’s high price tag. Sinema has specifically said she is disinclined to support the corporate and individual tax rate increases included in the bill to fund the policies.

Meanwhile, Manchin indicated today that he’s in no rush to pass the reconciliation bill, saying that he’s given Democrats in Congress “no commitments” on the bill.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said that Republicans would kill a Democratic measure to raise the debt ceiling tonight, saying “we will not provide any Republican votes” for the measure.

Senate Democrats included the measure, which raises the amount of money the US government can borrow, in a funding bill for federal agencies that must be passed by the end of the week to avoid a government shutdown.

McConnell also told the Senate floor that he received his Covid-19 booster shot and encouraged others to get it, saying it was an “easy decision”.

McConnell, who survived polio as a child, has been one of the more vocal advocates for the Covid-19 vaccine among Republicans, releasing ads encouraging people to get vaccinated. The Senate minority leader has not gone so far as to clash with the members of his party who have criticized vaccine mandates, including his counterpart in the House, minority leader Kevin McCarthy.

Earlier today, a federal judge said John Hinckley Jr, who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan 40 years ago, can be freed from all remaining restrictions next year if he continues to follow those rules and remains mentally stable.

The US district court judge, Paul L Friedman, said in Washington during a 90-minute court hearing that he would issue his full ruling this week.

“If he hadn’t tried to kill the president, he would have been unconditionally released a long, long, long time ago,” Friedman said. “But everybody is comfortable now after all of the studies, all of the analysis and all of the interviews and all of the experience with Mr Hinckley.”

27 Sept 202115.11 EDT

Martin Pengelly

Earlier, the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, pleaded with healthcare workers to get vaccinated against Covid-19 before an end-of-day deadline which could bring staff shortages at hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities.

View image in fullscreen

“To those who’ve not yet made that decision, please do the right thing,” Hochul said, while speaking to reporters in New York City.

“A lot of your employers are anxious to just give you the jab in the arm and say you’re part of the family, we need your help to continue on.

“This is simple common sense. It’s just doing the right thing because it’s so obvious.

“We’re not relenting. We’re not backing off. This is important.”

Some New York hospitals began taking action against holdout workers before Monday, deadline day. Thousands of workers were thought to be holding out. Hochul said she would sign an executive order to allow her to call in national guard members and retirees, or workers from outside the state.

All healthcare system workers in New York – not just doctors and nurses – are required to be vaccinated with at least one dose by the end of Monday. The state’s largest healthcare provider, Northwell Health, has begun removing unvaccinated workers.

About 84% of more than 450,000 hospital workers in New York were fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, according to state data. Nursing home data showed about 89% fully vaccinated. New York City hospitals reported 95% for nurses, higher for doctors.

Workers can apply for a religious exemption. On 12 October, a federal judge will consider whether such exemptions are constitutionally required.

27 Sept 202114.52 EDT

Dreamers move 'bulletproofs' existing protections – expert

Martin Pengelly

The Biden administration’s announcement of a new approach to protecting Dreamers from deportation is meant to “bulletproof” existing measures guarding against litigation, a leading expert said.

“Dreamers” are undocumented migrants living in the US who were brought to the country as children. Their fate has long been held in limbo by deadlock in Congress over immigration reform.

A move to provide a path to citizenship was included in the mammoth spending and budget bill currently at issue in Congress, only for the Senate parliamentarian to rule that it could not be passed under reconciliation rules, which allow Democrats to pass budgetary measures via a simple majority in the Senate.

Republicans have used the usual 60-vote requirement in the 50-50 chamber to block immigration reform and other Democratic priorities.

The Department of Homeland Security announced its new approach to the Dreamers issue earlier today, proposing a rule that would move an estimated 700,000 people to the back of the line to be deported.

The proposal is meant to “preserve and fortify” the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program which launched in 2012 under Barack Obama but was recently ruled illegal by a Republican-appointed judge.

Under Daca, Dreamers receive work authorisation, access to driver’s licenses and access to financial aid for education – but not a path to citizenship.

Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law practice at Cornell Law School, told the Associated Press the proposal carries no major changes and “is an effort to bulletproof the existing program from litigation challenges”.

Yale-Loehr had a busy morning, telling Reuters: “While Democrats will try to find other ways to provide a path to a green card for Dreamers, the proposed rule could be a temporary safety net for Dreamers if legislation fails.”

Here’s a quick summary of everything that’s happened so far today:

• Joe Biden got his Covid-19 booster shot on live television. In remarks before his shot, Biden outlined who is eligible to receive booster shots and encouraged people to get their shots if eligible.
• The Biden administration is moving to continue DACA protections by placing “Dreamers” in the back of the deportation line as the Obama-era program is fought in the courts.
• Congress is undergoing one of its busiest weeks as it works through three major spending bills, including one that would prevent a government shutdown. The White House said that Biden is working to rally Democrats around the bill and is “doing everything we can to prevent” a shutdown.

Stay tuned for more live updates.

In her daily press briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the Biden administration is “doing everything we can to prevent” a government shutdown but that the White House has started making “contingency plans” in the event of a shutdown. She noted that public health officials “for the most part” would be exempt from a shutdown.

A shutdown is looming at the end of the week as Democrats in Congress race to pass three spending bills, including one that would give temporary funding to various federal agencies.

Psaki declined to comment on specifics of how negotiations are going but said that “there’s no disagreement about the fundamentals of what we’re trying to achieve” between Democrats.