Morning Report — Government funding up in the air

Lawmakers in the House are launching plan B to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) failed to pass plan A, a six-month stopgap bill with a non-citizen voter ID measure sought by former President Trump, through the lower chamber Wednesday, prompting House GOP leadership to shift gears. Top appropriators have already started bipartisan talks in both chambers, and senior lawmakers said they expect the funding patch will extend current spending into December while excluding the more stringent voter-eligibility rules.

That bill would have widespread Democratic support, after the party indicated the GOP’s noncitizen voting bill was a nonstarter.

“The aim here is to be pretty minimal, as close to a clean [stopgap] as we can do. Have anomalies that both sides can agree on,” said House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.). “Everybody wants to wait and see what happens in the election, and we’re pretty serious about trying to get something done by the end of the year.”

IN THE SENATE, there’s plan C. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday took steps to give the upper chamber the option to set up a vote on a government funding extension next week, even though funding bills typically originate in the House.

“Both sides are going to spend the next few days trying to figure out the best path remaining for keeping the government open,” Schumer announced on the Senate floor.

The timing of the House bill remains unclear. Negotiators still have a number of details to iron out, including questions surrounding so-called anomalies and whether Congress will address emergency aid for natural disasters as part of the package. But congressional aides say they expect Johnson and his allies to release the text of the stopgap Sunday. Some House GOP appropriators said time is of the essence because they think the bill’s price tag will grow significantly if the Senate moves first. 

“The quicker, the faster that we get this done, there’s less risk that the Senate will make it very bloated,” said Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.), a senior appropriator. 

Lawmakers in both chambers have floated Dec. 13 as a possible end date for the funding patch, which would set up yet another preholiday standoff over funding.

The Hill: The Senate approved a $3 billion patch for the Veterans Affairs Department by voice vote Thursday, following approval by the House. The emergency funding measure goes to the president’s desk for his signature before today’s deadline.

DEALING WITH A HOUSE IN DISARRAY, a bipartisan group of rank-and-file members led by Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) pulled off a rare feat Thursday: drawing enough support through a procedural maneuver known as a discharge petition to steer around leadership and force a disaster relief bill to the floor for just the third time in more than 20 years.

“My district got hit by Hurricane Ian in October of 2022, and enough is enough,” Steube told The New York Times. “I kept getting stonewalled by my own leadership.”

LEADING THE DAY

© The Associated Press / Mike Stewart | The election is now. Early voting in the presidential race begins today in Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia.

POLITICS & CAMPAIGNS

Remember these numbers today: 46, 47, 47 and 4.

There are 46 days until Election Day. And nationally, the presidential race is deadlocked between Vice President Harris and Trump, 47 percent support to 47 percent, according to the latest surveys sponsored by The New York Times, Siena College and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Journalists are running out of election synonyms for “really, really close.” Thus, there was plenty of attention Thursday focused on the number four. That’s the percentage-point lead Harris has over Trump in Pennsylvania (50 to 46), according to a new poll there. It’s a bit of a surprise because it suggests Trump is doing better nationally than Harris, while the Democratic nominee is positioned more favorably in Northern battleground states. The New York Times calls the national vs. battleground differential a bit of a “puzzle” that will have to play out before being sorted out.

Harris earned plaudits from voters for her debate performance Sept. 10, but that clash with Trump did not appreciably change the race, as measured in surveys. She has vulnerabilities that have not eased, including voters’ perceptions that she’s too liberal and perhaps persistently a blank slate.

Trump’s favorability ratings remained steady at 37 percent while 50 percent of American adults view Harris favorably, according to a survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted before Trump’s brush with another assassination attempt.

Because voters will ultimately determine the ending of this cliffhanger in 46 days, it’s worth noting they can get started immediately. Voters can fill out their ballots in-person beginning today in Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia. (Pennsylvania was scheduled to start early in-person voting Monday but has not yet begun because of legal challenges.)

The Hill: Five takeaways from the latest flurry of Trump-Harris polls.

Harris, during a virtual town-hall style event in Michigan Thursday with Oprah Winfrey, stuck to a campaign script about reproductive rights and immigration policy. She reaffirmed her support for a Senate bipartisan border security bill, which stalled under the weight of prominent opposition from Republicans, including Trump. 

“When I am elected as president of the United States, I will make sure that bill gets to my desk and I will sign it into law,” Harris said. The “Unite for America” event reached voters through simultaneous streaming platforms on social media.

Trump on Thursday in Washington spoke to Jewish voters at a campaign event about “fighting antisemitism” hosted with Miriam Adelson, a conservative megadonor, and then spoke at a conference hosted by the Israeli-American Council, a pro-Israel group. 

He questioned why he lacks commanding support from Jewish voters and suggested they would have “a lot to do” with a loss in November if their support for his campaign does not grow. 

“I’m not going to call this a prediction, but, in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss if I’m at 40 percent,” Trump said, citing an unnamed poll. 

Trump also criticized the college protest movement against Israel’s handling of the war with Hamas. “My first week back in the Oval Office, my administration will inform every college president that if you do not end antisemitic propaganda, they will lose their accreditation and federal tax credit support,” he said.

GOP TREMORS IN SWING STATE NORTH CAROLINA: Controversial and socially conservative Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson — commenting Thursday after a CNN article described his alleged inflammatory comments on a “Nude Africa” website before he entered politics — vowed to remain in the gubernatorial contest and denied writing posts that featured praise for transgender pornography and support for slavery. Robinson is competing against North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, the Democratic nominee. 

The state’s deadline for a candidate to drop out was Thursday and the deadline to remove a candidate’s name from the ballot has passed. Absentee ballots in North Carolina will be mailed beginning today.

Seizing a political opening, the Harris campaign quickly posted video clips on social media of Trump praising Robinson. During a March rally, the former president said of the lieutenant governor, “I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.”

Recent polls in North Carolina found Trump and Harris basically tied within the margin of error.

Martin Luther King III blasted Robinson for his reported characterization in 2011 of the late civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as a “commie bastard” and “worse than a maggot.” 

Several members of North Carolina’s Republican congressional delegation quickly distanced themselves from Robinson Thursday, reports The Hill’s Jared Gans. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) told The Hill as he walked into the House chamber that his reaction to the allegations is “not good.” 

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), who is the chair of the House GOP’s campaign arm, called the reports “very concerning.” He said, “my hope is that the lieutenant governor can reassure the people of North Carolina that the allegations aren’t true,” adding Robinson should have a chance to demonstrate the reporting is false. 

Republicans are on record as worried about Robinson’s viability as a candidate because of his known catalog of derogatory and eyebrow-raising statements about various groups. Polls prior to CNN’s reporting showed the lieutenant governor down by double digits. 

Candidate security: Trump is both a former president and a candidate, meaning his Secret Service protection is extensive under two categories of security, and it has been fortified based on the existing threat level. But a part of this week’s political debate focused on whether Trump is eligible for a carbon copy of intensive protection that surrounds a sitting president who leads the nation. The Speaker said he phoned the White House this week to demand that Biden “supply for President Trump the same degree of protection that a sitting president has.”  

Security investigations: Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis this week stepped into the spotlight by launching a state investigation into Sunday’s presumed assassination attempt on Trump at his golf course in Palm Beach. The effort is concurrent with a Justice Department investigation and a congressional task force probe. DeSantis suggests that because the Justice Department is prosecuting Trump for unlawfully taking national security and classified White House documents to Mar-a-Lago after his loss to Biden (and then allegedly obstructing a federal investigation), the department cannot be trusted to investigate an assassination attempt on the GOP’s presidential nominee. DeSantis issued an executive order assigning the case to prosecutors from the office of Ashley Moody, the Florida attorney general

ZOOM IN

© The Associated Press / Evan Vucci | Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Biden will meet again next week at the White House. 

ADMINISTRATION

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit the White House next week and meet separately with both President Biden and Harris to discuss the state of the war against Russia. The Biden administration has made its support for Ukraine, and its push for allies to back Kyiv in its war against Russia, central to its foreign policy. 

The administration has requested Congress include an extension of the presidential drawdown authority for sending weapons to Ukraine through 2025, to make approximately $5.8 billion available beyond the end of the current fiscal year (The Hill).

“The President and Vice President will emphasize their unshakeable commitment to stand with Ukraine until it prevails in this war,” press secretary Karine Jeanne-Pierre said in a statement.

🎤 Biden, during a speech to the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., on Thursday, praised the Federal Reserve 50-point interest rate cut Wednesday and endorsed the independence of the central bank. The president said he was not declaring victory over inflation, but rather marking economic progress since the grip of the pandemic (ABC News).

ELSEWHERE

© The Associated Press / Hassan Ammar | Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday vowed retaliation against Israel for attacks that caused the group’s pagers and walkie-talkies to explode in Lebanon and Syria.

INTERNATIONAL

SPREADING WAR? Israel launched airstrikes against Hezbollah targets Thursday and today as the group’s leaders in Lebanon threatened war. The Israeli military stepped up strikes on southern Lebanon, flew warplanes over Beirut and approved plans for the next stage of the conflict along the border. The United Nations urged de-escalation today after the Israeli military struck roughly 100 sites across southern Lebanon overnight, the latest signal that the slow-boiling conflict could escalate into full-scale war.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that two days of deadly blasts linked to pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon this week are an “act of war” by Israel. “They will face a severe reckoning and just retribution, whether they expect it or not,” Nasrallah said of Israel, without elaborating on the details of the planned attack.

As the world warns against further escalation after months of devastating violence in Gaza, Israel indicated its focus had shifted to the border with Lebanon, declaring a “new phase” to the conflict with Hezbollah.

CEASE-FIRE? After months of saying a cease-fire and a hostage-release deal in Gaza was close at hand, senior U.S. officials are now privately acknowledging they don’t expect an agreement before the end of Biden’s term, The Wall Street Journal reports. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin postponed a scheduled trip to Israel following the rise in fighting on the Israeli-Lebanese border, Axios reports. 

THE CLOSER 

© The Associated Press / Susan Walsh | Uniformed Secret Service officers (pictured in 2014) guard the White House and its occupants.

And finally … 👏👏👏 Kudos to this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners! Invited to puzzle through some questions about the U.S. Secret Service, readers delivered.

🕶️ Here’s who went 4/4: Richard E. Baznik, Stan Wasser, Pam Manges, Richard O. Fanning, Peter Sprofera, Jay Rockey, Kelly Colmer, Joe Atchue, Tim Abeska, Lynn Gardner, Chuck Schoenenberger, Tom Chabot, Robert Bradley, Lori Benso, Luther Berg, Jack Barshay, Terry Pflaumer, Carmine Petracca, Savannah Petracca and Mark R. Williamson.

​​Former President Trump was in danger as he played golf Sunday in Florida, according to authorities. Secret Service agents did not sweep the golf course for security before Trump arrived to play. They did not bring down a suspected gunman hiding for nearly 12 hours in shrubbery (the suspect fled when shots were fired). Trump was escorted off the course before the sixth hole, so he did not continue playing 18 holes. Thus, the answer we looked for was “all of the above.”

The U.S. Secret Service was established in 1865 by President Lincoln to crack down on counterfeiting of currency. From its inception date, three U.S. presidents were assassinated before Congress added protection of the president to duties performed by the Secret Service (Lincoln in 1865, James Garfield in 1881 and William McKinley in 1901). 

Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who helped protect former Presidents George W. Bush and Obama, ran for Congress as a Republican and lost three times. He subsequently built a successful career as a conservative commentator and podcaster. 

The late Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) had a role in the top-grossing 1993 thriller about a Secret Service agent, “In the Line of Fire.” 

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