Philippine Senate Chief Favors Dropping VP Duterte's Impeachment Case
'The decision of the Supreme Court is clear: the impeachment complaint is null and void,' Senator Francis Escudero said at a media briefing on Tuesday.
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The Hill
14 minutes ago
- The Hill
Senate approves more than $180 billion in 2026 funding before August recess
The Senate on Friday passed its first tranche of government funding bills for fiscal year 2026 ahead of its upcoming August recess, but Congress is bracing for a potentially messy fight to prevent a shutdown when they return in September. The chamber approved three bills that provide more than $180 billion in discretionary funding for the departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), military construction, legislative branch operations and rural development. The bills passed in two parts: on an 87-9 vote for military construction, VA, agriculture and FDA funding; and an 81-15 vote for legislative branch funding. The votes cap off days of uncertainty over whether the Senate would be joining the House on a monthlong recess with any of its 12 annual funding bills passed out of the chamber. Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), who heads the subcommittee that crafted the full-year VA funding bill, said Friday that he sees the first batch of bills as more of a 'test run.' 'It's just been so long since we've done our appropriations bills. A lot of people just [forgot] the procedures,' he told The Hill, noting that in the previous congressional session senators 'really didn't do bills.' Appropriators say the vote marks the first time since 2018 that the Senate has passed funding legislation before the August recess. 'It's really a matter of just kind of legislating again, and the more we do it, the easier, the easier it'll be as we go back,' Boozman said. In the past week, senators had gone through several iterations of their first funding package of the year, as leaders on both sides worked through frustrations in their ranks over proposed spending levels and actions by the Trump administration that incensed Democrats. Well over half of the funding approved Friday is included in the annual VA and military construction bill, which calls for upwards of $153 billion in discretionary funding for fiscal 2026. That includes about $133 billion for the VA and roughly $20 billion for the Department of Defense military construction program. More than $113 billion in discretionary funding would go toward VA medical care. The annual agricultural funding plan calls for $27 billion in discretionary funding for fiscal 2026. It includes $8.2 billion for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), about $7 billion in funding for the Food and Drug Administration, roughly $1.7 billion for rental assistance, and nearly $1.23 billion for the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Democrats have also highlighted $240 million in funding in the bill for the McGovern-Dole Food for Education program, which was targeted in President Trump's latest budget request. The annual legislative branch funding plan calls for about $7 billion for House and Senate operations, the U.S. Capitol Police and agencies like the Library of Congress (LOC), the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and the Architect of the Capitol. Capitol Police would see a boost under the plan, along with the CBO, while funding for the LOC, the CRS and the GAO would be kept at fiscal 2025 levels. Lawmakers also agreed to $44.5 million in emergency funds aimed at beefing up security and member protection, citing safety concerns following the shootings of Minnesota lawmakers earlier this year. Republicans had previously been uncertain about whether the third bill would be passed as part of the package this week until Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a senior appropriator, said a deal was worked out to allow him to vote on the measure separately from the other bills. Kennedy has criticized the legislative branch funding bill for its proposed spending levels. 'It just doesn't seem appropriate for us to be spending that much extra while everybody else has to take a cut,' he told reporters in late July. 'Now, some of my colleagues point out, yes, but the extra spending is for member security.' 'If you're going to spend extra money on member security, find a pay-for within the bill. I just think the optics are terrible and the policy is terrible,' he said. 'We ought to hold ourselves to the same standard we're holding everybody else, and that's why I'm going to vote no.' Republicans also blame Sen. Chris Van Hollen's (D-Md.) resistance to the Trump administration's relocation plans for the FBI's headquarters for weighing down efforts to pass the annual Justice Department funding bill. Senators had initially expected that bill, which also funds the Commerce Department and science-related agencies, to be part of the package until those plans fell apart earlier this week amid a clash over Trump administration plans to relocate the FBI headquarters. Speaking from the Senate floor on Thursday, Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the subcommittee that crafted the annual funding deal, said he had been pushing for an amendment aimed at ensuring the FBI would 'have a level 5 security headquarters.' He noted his previous attempt during committee consideration that temporarily led to the adoption of an amendment to the DOJ funding bill that sought to block President Trump's plans to keep the FBI's headquarters in Washington, D.C. However, the change was later scrapped after staunch GOP opposition threatened to tank the bill. 'It didn't happen because members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Republicans and Democrats, didn't think that was the right thing to do – to preserve what we had set out before and make sure that the men and women [of the FBI] have a level 5 security headquarters,' he said. 'We did it because the President of the United States was going to throw a fit if that provision stayed on.' Van Hollen said he hopes the bill will be able to 'get back on track' in September. However, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), chair of the subcommittee alongside Van Hollen, offered a rather gloomy outlook for the bill's next steps after recess. He argued much of the focus in September is likely to be on getting a deal on a funding stopgap, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), to keep the government funded beyond the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline. 'When we get back from recess, we'll move to working on the CR to get us so I would guess if the CJS has a path, it's probably just the CR and will continue,' Moran said. 'All the work that we've done goes away, and we'll go back to CR and fund those agencies at the same level and same way that we did last year.' 'Every time we say we want to do appropriation bills, then there's someone who has a reason that, 'Not this time,' 'Not this one,' 'Not – because I didn't get what I want,'' he said. 'And this time we're arguing over an amendment that was allowed to the senator who's objecting, but he wanted a commitment that he get the outcome he wants.' 'And he didn't win in committee, and he wouldn't win on the Senate floor, but he can, I wouldn't think, but he can make his case. But he rejected that option,' he said.
NBC News
15 minutes ago
- NBC News
Colombian ex-President Álvaro Uribe is sentenced to 12 years house arrest for bribery
BOGOTA, Colombia — Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was sentenced Friday to 12 years of house arrest for witness tampering and bribery in a historic case that gripped the South American nation and tarnished the conservative strongman's legacy. The sentence, which Uribe said will be appealed, followed a nearly six-month trial in which prosecutors presented evidence that he attempted to influence witnesses who accused the law-and-order leader of having links to a paramilitary group in the 1990s. 'Politics prevailed over the law in sentencing,' Uribe said after Friday's hearing. Uribe, 73, has denied any wrongdoing. He faced up to 12 years in prison after being convicted Monday. His attorney had asked the court to allow Uribe to remain free while he appeals the verdict. Judge Sandra Heredia on Friday said she did not grant the defense's request because it would be 'easy' for the former president to leave the country to 'evade the imposed sanction.' Heredia also banned Uribe from holding public office for eight years and fined him about $776,000. Ahead of Friday's sentencing, Uribe posted on X that he was preparing arguments to support his appeal. He added that one must 'think much more about the solution than the problem' during personal crises. The appeals court will have until early October to issue a ruling, which either party could then challenge before Colombia's Supreme Court. The former president governed from 2002 to 2010 with strong support from the United States. He is a polarizing figure in Colombia, where many credit him for saving the country from becoming a failed state, while others associate him with human rights violations and the rise of paramilitary groups in the 1990s. Heredia on Monday said she had seen enough evidence to determine that Uribe conspired with a lawyer to coax three former paramilitary group members, who were in prison, into changing testimony they had provided to Ivan Cepeda, a leftist senator who had launched an investigation into Uribe's alleged ties to a paramilitary group. Uribe in 2012 filed a libel suit against Cepeda in the Supreme Court. But in a twist, the high court in 2018 dismissed the accusations against Cepeda and began investigating Uribe. Martha Peñuela Rosales, a supporter of Uribe's party in the capital, Bogota, said she wept and prayed after hearing of the sentence. 'It's an unjust sentence. He deserves to be free,' she said. Meanwhile, Sergio Andrés Parra, who protested against Uribe outside the courthouse, said the 12-year sentence 'is enough' and, even if the former president appeals, 'history has already condemned him.' peace talks that led to the disarmament of more than 13,000 fighters in 2016.
CBS News
15 minutes ago
- CBS News
House GOP offers to postpone Ghislaine Maxwell deposition as Supreme Court weighs her appeal
The chair of the House Oversight Committee said Friday he's willing to postpone convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell's deposition until the Supreme Court reviews the appeal she filed in her criminal case. Maxwell, a longtime friend and associate of Jeffrey Epstein, was convicted in 2021 on five federal counts related to sex trafficking. The committee, which is chaired by Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, subpoenaed Maxwell last week, ordering her to sit for a deposition on Aug. 11. The move came as the Trump administration faces bipartisan scrutiny over its handling of the Epstein case, with lawmakers calling on the government to release records on Maxwell and Epstein. In a letter to Maxwell obtained by CBS News, Comer said the committee is "willing to delay" the Aug. 11 deposition date while the Supreme Court weighs taking up her case. Maxwell — who is serving a 20-year prison sentence — is challenging her conviction, arguing she should've been covered by a non-prosecution deal that federal prosecutors in Florida offered to Epstein and any co-conspirators almost two decades ago. The Supreme Court indicated this week it will consider whether to hear Maxwell's case in September, and Comer said her deposition can take place after the court decides on whether to take the case. Comer also said the committee will "engage in good faith negotiations" around the deposition, but is "unwilling to grant you congressional immunity" and will not send her its questions in advance — rejecting two requests by Maxwell's attorney. Her lawyer, David Oscar Markus, told the committee earlier this week she will plead the Fifth at her deposition unless she's granted immunity or President Trump pardons her, arguing that any testimony to Congress could endanger her appeal to the Supreme Court. The oversight panel said in a statement this week it would not consider giving Maxwell immunity. Last week, Maxwell sat for a separate two-day interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Markus said his client was "asked maybe about 100 different people" and "answered questions about everybody." And in recent days, Maxwell was transferred from a low-security prison in Florida to a smaller, all-female minimum-security facility in Texas, CBS News learned Friday. No reason was given for the move, which outraged some Epstein and Maxwell accusers. The Trump administration has faced weeks of fallout since the Justice Department and FBI published a review of Epstein's case that stood by the finding that the accused sex trafficker died by suicide in 2019 and didn't have an incriminating "client list." Critics, including some Trump loyalists, weren't satisfied by the review's findings and are demanding more information. The administration responded last month by asking judges to unseal grand jury transcripts from Maxwell's and Epstein's criminal cases. A Florida judge rejected a request to unseal transcripts from Epstein's case in the 2000s, and requests to release materials from Epstein and Maxwell's 2019 and 2020 cases are still being considered by judges in New York. Mr. Trump has encouraged his followers to drop the matter, referring to it as a "hoax."Scott MacFarlane contributed to this report.
