(WASHINGTON) — The White House credits the drop in gas prices to President Joe Biden’s million-barrels-a-day strategic oil reserve release and his engagement with oil companies.
They say this strategy helped bring gas prices down below $4 a gallon in many parts of the country.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recalled the near-dollar-a-gallon gas price jump this summer.
“This is the fastest decline in gas prices in over a decade,” she touted.
She also hopes this drop in gas prices will have an effect on tomorrow’s Consumer Price Index report. Last month’s report showed inflation at a 40-year high.
(UVALDE, Texas) — The frustrations of a community still reeling from a mass shooting were on full display Monday night as a procession of Uvalde residents confronted school district leaders over their response to the massacre that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers.
Trustees of the Uvalde CISD School Board convened the special session to present plans for the upcoming school year, including upgrading security measures and an announcement that all students K-12 would be offered the opportunity to attend classes virtually.
But during the open forum portion of the evening, attention returned to the fallout from the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School.
“We want results,” one man said. “Has anybody lost their job? Has anyone been terminated?”
“We still need answers,” a woman added.
“This is not going to be swept under the rug,” said another.
More than two-and-a-half months since the shooting, several of the roughly 100 attendees sought basic answers about the law enforcement response, including chain-of-command communication.
When board trustee JJ Suarez, a former police officer who responded to Robb Elementary, told one questioner that he did not remember who told him the shooting was “a barricade situation” and claimed not to have heard gunshots from inside the school, members of the audience heckled him.
“I heard the shots,” one woman shouted before imitating the sound of gun shots. “I still hear that sound.”
Suarez replied that his failure to ask if children were still inside the classrooms will “haunt [him] every day.”
Trustees also faced questions about school district police chief Pete Arredondo and why a decision whether to fire him has not yet been made. The board responded that it is following “due process,” adding that it is considering multiple new dates for a hearing on Arredondo’s future.
Arredondo remains on leave while an investigation into the conduct of law enforcement during the shooting on May 24 marches forward. Last month, the Uvalde school district postponed a closed hearing to consider whether to terminate Arredondo as its police chief and has not yet set a new date.
A special committee in the Texas legislature issued a report last month that found Arredondo had “failed to perform or to transfer to another person the role of incident commander.” Arredondo previously told the Texas Tribune he did not consider himself the on-scene commander during the shooting.
After multiple media outlets, including ABC News, reported on a demotion Arredondo received in 2014 at a prior job, Superintendent Dr. Hal Harrell acknowledged that he made the decision to hire Arredondo and said he contacted previous employers but was not told about the demotion.
Harrell also laid out several new initiatives taken by the board to shore up security across the school district in the coming year. Those updates include:
33 Texas DPS officers being assigned to UCISD
500 cameras being installed across the district
Campus monitor role to be created — this person will walk school grounds throughout the day, noting lock, gate and door statuses on an iPad that the district will then be able to review
Each school will have a single point of entry all students, faculty and guests must utilize
An audit on the district’s Wi-Fi set to be completed Wednesday
Other notable speakers at Monday’s session included a woman who said her daughter with special needs cannot reasonably attend class virtually, and a rising fourth grader in the school district who requested upgrades to school lighting, automatic door locks and the installation of ballistic glass. (Harrell had said earlier in the meeting they were still looking for funds for ballistic glass.)
After fielding concern about the conduct of school administrators and law enforcement moving forward, Harrell said “it’s going to take a while to regain that trust.”
“The trust has been damaged. The trust has been broken,” Harrell said. “It’s going to take all of us to fix it.”
Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration is moving forward with a plan to increase the U.S. monkeypox vaccine supply by as much as five times.
In an announcement Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said he issued a determination, made possible by the public health emergency declared last week, that will allow the Food and Drug Administration to authorize changing the method of injection for the vaccines.
The new approach would produce up to five more doses from each vial by using an injection method that requires less vaccine per shot.
The vaccine would be injected into the second layer of the skin, just below the first, visible layer. Most routine vaccinations are given as intramuscular or subcutaneous shots, which go deeper.
But health experts said the vaccine given intradermally — just under the skin — could be as effective against monkeypox.
“Today’s action will allow FDA to exercise additional authorities that may increase availability of vaccines to prevent monkeypox while continuing to ensure the vaccine meets high standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality,” Becerra said in a press release.
In another release, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said the decision was based on a 2015 study and historical data on the smallpox vaccine, which was once administered intradermally.
The FDA issued an emergency use authorization that allows healthcare providers to move forward with administering the vaccine using the new method. The emergency use authorization also allows children under 18 who are at high-risk of monkeypox to get the vaccine.
“In recent weeks the monkeypox virus has continued to spread at a rate that has made it clear our current vaccine supply will not meet the current demand,” Califf said in a statement.
“The FDA quickly explored other scientifically appropriate options to facilitate access to the vaccine for all impacted individuals. By increasing the number of available doses, more individuals who want to be vaccinated against monkeypox will now have the opportunity to do so,” he said.
Dr. Dan Barouch, the director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, told ABC News the intradermal method “is very effective because there are a lot of immune cells just under the skin, and often lower doses are needed compared with intramuscular vaccination.”
The same technique is already used in tuberculin skin tests, also called a PPD test. More recently, the influenza vaccine against the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009 was tested intradermally in many research studies and was shown to be just as effective at one-fifth the dose of the intramuscular shot.
The announcement comes as many state and local officials have been raising the alarm that there are not currently enough monkeypox vaccines to address the emerging crisis.
Between 1.6 and 1.7 million Americans are currently eligible for a vaccine, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But the U.S. only has enough vaccines to reach around one-third of those people over the next two months, under the current method that doesn’t allow doses to be stretched.
The U.S. has secured a total of 6.9 million doses for an expected delivery of May of 2023, according to Health and Human Services, but to date, 1.1 million of those vaccines have been made available to states for ordering — and because the doses are currently authorized as two-shot regimens, that total only covers about 550,000 people.
This authorization, however, could mean that far more people can be vaccinated with those doses.
It’s part of a heightened approach rolled out by the recent declaration of a public health emergency over the monkeypox outbreak, which Health and Human Services Sec. Xavier Becerra announced last week following widespread calls from health officials and activists across the country.
Globally, more than 30,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported, including nearly 9,000 cases in the U.S. — the most of any country. All but one U.S. state — Wyoming — has now confirmed at least one positive monkeypox case.
The majority of cases in the current monkeypox outbreak have been detected in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. However, health officials have repeatedly stressed that anyone can contract the virus and there is currently no evidence it is a sexually transmitted disease.
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — Police have arrested a suspect in connection with the murders of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Investigators tracked down the Volkswagen sedan with tinted windows allegedly driven by the suspect in the most recent homicide, the Albuquerque Police Department announced Tuesday afternoon.
The driver of the car has been detained and is the “primary suspect” for all four murders, police said.
The most recent murder occurred on Friday, when Naeem Hussain, a 25-year-old native of Pakistan, was found dead from a gunshot wound on Friday near Truman Street and Grand Avenue in Albuquerque’s Highland Business neighborhood, police said.
Mohammad Ahmadi, a Muslim man from Afghanistan, was killed outside a business he ran with his brother last November, police said.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has sent additional state police to provide support to the Albuquerque Police Department and FBI, she announced on Saturday.
The community has “never gone through anything like this before,” Ahmad Assed, president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico, said during a press conference Saturday, Albuquerque ABC affiliate KOAT reported.
“This is really a surreal time for us. We’re in fear of the safety of our children, our families,” Assed said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The House Jan. 6 committee was expected Tuesday to interview Donald Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
ABC News first reported in July that Pompeo was in negotiations to sit with committee investigators behind closed doors. (CNN and The New York Times, respectively, first reported Mastriano and Pompeo’s appearances before the panel.)
Mastriano has not agreed to the terms of his own closed-door interview with investigators. Mastriano’s attorney wants to record the deposition or have access to the committee’s recording after the fact. The committee has not agreed to that.
That has raised the possibility that in his virtual appearance, Mastriano may not answer questions or refuse to proceed. Mastriano has said he would walk out of a deposition with investigators if they didn’t agree to his terms.
Mastriano, who has baselessly challenged the results of the 2020 election, was outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but he has said he left when rioting broke out — calling the violence “unacceptable.”
His attorney previously told the Associated Press that he spoke with the FBI and “told them the truth about everything that happened that day.”
The previous outreach to Pompeo, meanwhile, was an indication of the committee’s continuing interest in gathering information and testimony from high-level Trump administration officials as the panel moved closer toward the release in the fall of a public report on its findings.
The committee’s vice chair, Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, said in late July that the group’s work continued apace after wrapping its public hearings for the summer.
More hearings are expected related to the committee’s report.
“We have a number of many interviews scheduled that are coming up. We anticipate talking to additional members of the president’s Cabinet. We anticipate talking to additional members of his campaign,” Cheney told CNN in July, adding, “We’re very focused as well on the Secret Service and on interviewing additional members of the Secret Service and collecting additional information from them.”
ABC News’ Adam Carlson and Jonathan Karl contributed to this report.
(DALLAS) — Jurors heard closing arguments Tuesday in the capital murder trial of Yaser Said, who is accused of fatally shooting his two teenage daughters, 18-year-old Amina Said and 17-year-old Sarah Said, in a taxi in the Dallas area in 2008.
Said was placed on the FBI’s most-wanted list and evaded arrest for more than 12 years. Said, who had worked as a cab driver, was arrested in August 2020 in Justin, Texas. He entered a not guilty plea and faces an automatic life sentence if convicted.
Prosecutors claim Said, who is Muslim, murdered his daughters because he was upset that the girls were dating.
“He wouldn’t even let these girls go to a movie. He wouldn’t let them date,” a prosecutor said during closing statements Tuesday.
ABC News local affiliate WFAA reported that police have described the murders as “honor killings” — defined as the killing of a relative, especially a girl or woman, who is perceived to have brought dishonor on the family in certain cultures.
During the trial, prosecutors read a December 21, 2007, email Amina wrote to her history teacher 10 days before she and her sister were killed, saying their father “made our lives a nightmare” and that she and her sister wanted to run away.
“I am so scared right now,” Amina wrote, according to prosecutors. “OK, well as you know we’re not allowed to date and my dad is arranging my marriage. My dad said I cannot put it off any more and I have to get married this year.”
“He will, without any drama nor doubt, kill us,” she also wrote.
The girls, along with their mother and their boyfriends, fled their Texas home to Oklahoma on Christmas Day 2007, four days after Amina sent the email. Witnesses said the girls returned to the Dallas area on New Year’s Eve when their mother, Patricia Owens, said Said convinced her to return home.
The girls’ bodies were found on New Year’s Day 2008 in a taxi cab prosecutors said Said drove.
Last Wednesday, the prosecution played the 911 call Sarah allegedly made the night of her death. During the call, a woman can be heard frantically screaming that her father had shot her and that she was dying.
During her testimony in court last Thursday Owens pointed to her ex-husband, calling him “that devil.” She testified that Said was controlling and abusive throughout their relationship, adding that she and her daughters left him several times over the years, but they always returned out of fear.
Owens declined to comment on the case until her ex-husband is convicted, she told ABC News.
In a letter written to the judge overseeing the case, Said said while he disapproved of his daughters’ “dating activity,” he denied killing the girls.
“I was upset because in my culture it’s something to get upset about,” said Said, who took the stand Monday. He testified that he immigrated to the U.S. from Egypt in 1983 and later became a U.S. citizen.
Said told jurors that the evening his daughters were killed, he was taking them to dinner because he wanted to smooth things over and “solve the problem.”
However, Said claims he left the vehicle, fleeing into a wooded area before the girls were killed because he thought someone wanted to murder him, testifying that he spotted an unknown person in a car stalking them while they were driving to dinner.
Said said he did not turn himself in after the murders because he didn’t think he would get a fair trial.
The defense team claims that Said was targeted by law enforcement because of his Muslim faith and cultural beliefs.
“Everybody has a preference and how they discipline their kids, just like they have a preference for what kind of food they eat, what kind of people they date, what religion they want to practice,” Baharan Muse, Said’s defense attorney, said in closing arguments Tuesday. “Discipline does not mean you murdered your children. Your culture does not mean you murdered your children.”
Said’s defense team alleged prosecutors sought to “generalize” and “criminalize an entire culture, to fit their narrative.”
The prosecution rejected the claim that Said was unjustly accused for his religious beliefs.
“If you intentionally or knowingly cause the death of another in Dallas County, we are coming for you. Period. You will be prosecuted. Period. It has nothing to do with your race or religion,” prosecutor Lauren Black said in her closing argument.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a multibillion-dollar bill to boost domestic computer chip manufacturing and more, touting the bipartisan package as “a once-in-a-generation investment in America itself.”
The law — known as the CHIPS and Science Act — spends nearly $53 billion to spur research in and development of America’s semiconductor industry. It is intended to address a nearly two-year global chip shortage that stemmed from supply chain issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Semiconductors are common in everyday items from cell phones to cars to microwaves and more; experts compare them to the “brain” for any machine with a computer system.
Tuesday’s event coincided with GlobalFoundries, Micron and Qualcomm announcing partnerships and investments that total nearly $45 billion.
Micron’s $40-billion investment “will bring the U.S. market share of memory chip production from less than 2 percent to up to 10 percent over the next decade,” the White House said in a statement.
The bill enacted Tuesday also has a national defense angle, its supporter say, as Congress and the White House look to bolster chip production domestically.
According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, a lobbying group focused on semiconductor manufacturing, the U.S. produces 12% of the world’s chips, down from 37% in 1990.
At the signing event, Biden was joined by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“In the last six weeks alone, we passed not only CHIPS and Science, but also veterans’ health care, gun safety, NATO and now the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has passed the Senate,” Schumer said, referring to the recent reconciliation spending bill that Democrats narrowly approved last weekend.
That package had temporarily created turmoil for CHIPS in Congress.
Following a surprise agreement between Schumer and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia that revived the IRA, some Republicans said they felt slighted by the Democratic progress on a party-line reconciliation package mere hours after CHIPS passed the upper chamber with a bipartisan majority.
Despite that consternation, Republican Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Todd Young of Indiana attended Tuesday’s bill signing. Young led the GOP in negotiations on the bill, which ultimately passed the Senate 64-33 on July 27.
“I don’t want to get you in trouble, but you did a hell of a job,” Biden said to the two Republicans.
The president, at times, spoke through a thick, wet cough during the ceremony. The White House has said he repeatedly tested negative for COVID over the weekend, and he subsequently left isolation after a rebound case of the infection.
Biden did not mention the FBI’s Monday search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, which Trump decried as political persecution. (Sources told ABC News the operation was related to the 15 boxes of documents that Trump took when he departed the White House, some of which the National Archives has said were marked classified.)
A White House official previously told ABC News the administration was not aware of the search in advance, referring questions to the Department of Justice.
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES) — The parents of a 12-year-old California girl who died last year after an accident involving an electric bike, or e-bike, say they want to see change.
Kaye and Jonathan Steinsapir, the parents of Molly Steinsapir, have filed a lawsuit against Rad Power Bikes, a Seattle-based e-bike company.
According to the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior County Court, Molly and her 11-year-old best friend were riding a RadRunner bike on Jan. 31, 2021, with Molly riding on the back. As the friends were going down a steep hill, the bike, “began to shake and wobble, causing the bike to crash.”
Molly died on Feb. 15, 2021, after undergoing multiple brain surgeries and spending more than two weeks in the hospital, with her parents by her side.
“I massaged her hands and her feet and sang to her and read to her,” Kaye Steinsapir, whose tweets about Molly’s fight to survive started a following known as “Team Molly,” told ABC News. “I read the book that her class was reading because I didn’t want her to be behind when she woke up.”
In their lawsuit, the Steinsapirs claim that the model of bike Molly was riding, Rad Power Bikes’ RadRunner, has “multiple design defects,” including an issue with the brakes and front wheel that, according to the lawsuit, “in some cases can cause the wheel to come all the way off.”
The family claims in the lawsuit that Rad Power Bikes, “knew or should have known that this was an unsafe and defective design.”
“Rad Power Bikes was aware of this issue or had been made aware of this issue, and they never redesigned their bike,” Jonathan Steinsapir told Good Morning America in his family’s first television interview about the lawsuit. “So this was, what we believe, was preventable.”
E-bikes have a motor and often have more power than a normal bike.
Rad Power Bikes’ RadRunner model is capable of reaching speeds up to 20 miles per hour, according to the lawsuit.
Molly was wearing a helmet while riding the e-bike, according to her parents. The maker of the helmet Molly was wearing, Giro Sport Design, is also named in the lawsuit.
Giro Sport Design did not reply to ABC News’ request for comment.
Rad Power Bikes told ABC News in a statement it “extends its deepest condolences to the Steinsapir family.”
The company said it does not comment on pending litigation.
In the lawsuit, the Steinsapirs claim the owner’s manual for the RadRunner, the type of bike Molly was riding, says in small print on page 49, out of 57 pages, it is “designed for use by persons 18 years and older. The lawsuit alleges that Rad Power Bikes “knows children will operate” the bike since the company’s website includes what the suit describes as “glowing reviews from adults” about buying the bike for their children.
“Let’s be honest, no one reads manuals. We all know that,” Jonathan Steinsapir said. “The first step Rad should have is something on the bike itself warning about age appropriateness.”
The Steinsapirs said they are filing the lawsuit in hopes of preventing tragedy for another family.
“I would much rather just walk away from this and just go on with my life,” Jonathan Steinsapir said. “But you know, the next child who dies or is paralyzed because of this issue that they refuse to address, I mean I couldn’t possibly live with myself with that.”
Added his wife, Kaye, “Every single time I just hear Molly. I hear her voice say, ‘Mom, it’s not okay. It’s not right,’ that that’s who Molly was. She is somebody who stood up for what is right and no matter what the personal cost, and there is tremendous personal cost to us in pursuing this litigation.”
Dr. Charles DiMaggio, a faculty member in the department of surgery, division of trauma and critical care at New York University School of Medicine, told ABC News that e-bikes represent “potentially a revolution” in how people get around, but that they need to be considered with safety first.
“They need to be introduced in a safe way,” DiMaggio said. “Engineering them in a way so that they stop and brake appropriately and safely, so that they are not necessarily going faster than they need to go and by marketing them to the appropriate age groups.”
Greg Billing, executive Director at the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, told ABC News in an interview in 2020 that accidents with e-bikes can and do happen — that’s why it’s imperative for users to practice safety.
“It is a different skill than just riding a bike,” Billing said then. “Which is why we encourage people when they are starting to use e-bikes to really practice and understand how to handle the power of the bike and make sure that they feel comfortable before they get out on the road or on a trail around other people or cars.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate on Sunday narrowly approved a $700 billion-plus tax, climate and health care-pricing bill, capping an unusually jam-packed summer on Capitol Hill and marking another win for Democrats’ fragile congressional majorities before they face a competitive midterm cycle with the GOP eager to retake control.
Over the past 12 weeks, Democrats (joined with some Republicans) have pieced together passage on a slate of legislation for veterans’ health care, the tech manufacturing industry, gun violence prevention and, finally, a social spending bill they have been working on in some form since President Joe Biden took office last year.
The Senate also approved Finland and Sweden joining NATO.
The flurry of activity is tempered by a looming political reality: Despite Democratic achievements, multiple of which were passed with bipartisan majorities, Biden’s approval ratings remain underwater on a number of issues that voters say are top of mind, including the economy and historically high inflation.
As Democrats prepare to face voters in November, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer insisted that Americans will soon begin to see the effects of the Inflation Reduction Act — the tax, health and climate bill passed Sunday — and other legislation, priorities that have proven popular in recent polling.
Having left COVID-19 isolation over the weekend, Biden will sign the PACT and CHIPS Acts — for veterans and computer chip manufacturing, respectively — on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the White House. The House will take up the IRA on Friday before sending it to Biden’s desk for his signature.
Here’s an overview of the notable measures Congress has passed this summer.
The IRA
Democrats’ latest reconciliation spending bill raises taxes on large corporations and the wealthy, allows Medicare to negotiate down some prescription drug costs, extends Affordable Care Act subsidies to make health insurance cheaper, makes major investments in combating climate change and opens millions of acres in federal property to oil and gas drilling, among other things, while cutting hundreds of millions from the federal deficit.
The IRA passed along party lines, 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie. Its passage comes off the heels of turbulent negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. and then the addition of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.; both Manchin and Sinema are centrists in the Democratic caucus whose approval was key in the divided Senate.
The legislation’s tax provisions, prescription drug-pricing reform, as well as boosted IRS tax enforcement measures, are anticipated to raise an estimated revenue of $739 billion — $300 billion of which Democrats say would go toward reducing the deficit.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the bill would have a minimal affect on high inflation in the short-term but would reduce federal budget deficits by $102 billion over 10 years.
“It’s been a long tough and winding road, at last we’ve arrived,” Schumer said on Sunday. “Our bill reduces inflation, lowers costs, creates millions of manufacturing jobs, enhances our energy security and is the boldest climate action in US history.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who led Republicans in uniform opposition to the IRA, took another view: “Democrats’ policies have torn down the savings, the stability, and the lifestyles that families worked and sacrificed for years to build up. The effect of this one-party government has been an economic assault on the American middle class,” he said in a statement.
PACT act
PACT expedites care and disability payments to veterans related to illnesses caused by toxic exposure from so-called “burn pits” during their service.
The proposal initially passed the Senate earlier this year. But after a small fix in the House required the bill to be voted on again, 26 Republican senators then changed their votes and blocked swift passage last week, objecting to a so-called “budget gimmick” they argued could be exploited by Democrats.
Amid outcry from veterans’ advocates, including comedian Jon Stewart, the Senate took up PACT again.
A final 86-11 vote on the passage of the bill came Tuesday, after long hours of emotional lobbying.
“Every so often folks, America lives up to its ideals, and those are days that we savor,” Schumer said at a press conference outside the Senate after the vote.
CHIPS
A bipartisan group in the House passed a bill in late July that boosts the domestic production of crucial semiconductor — computer — chips, along with funding the nation’s science and technology industries with additional research and development.
CHIPS cleared the chamber in a 243-187 vote (with one “present” vote) despite late-hour pushes from GOP leadership against the legislation Twenty-four Republicans joined Democrats in backing the measure out of what would have been additional GOP support, curbed because of the surprise development that Schumer and Manchin had brokered a deal on the IRA, despite many conservatives believing Manchin had killed hopes of a party-line reconciliation bill.
Supporters of the $280 billion proposal highlight the roughly $52 billion it provides to incentivize the creation of semiconductor facilities, increasing American competitiveness in an industry where countries like China dominate.
There’s a nationwide shortage of the needed computer chips, which has caused production delays, stalling industries from automotive to medical and spurring already-punishing inflation rates.
Gun control
In late June, Biden signed the first major piece of federal gun legislation in almost 30 years, after Congress swiftly passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
The Senate approved the anti-gun violence package by a vote of 65-33, including the entire Democratic caucus and 15 Republicans like Minority Leader McConnell.
A group of senators began crafting the legislation in the aftermath of the May mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two teachers.
But the law doesn’t go as far as Democrats — and Biden — wanted, excluding measures such as universal background checks and a reinstating a federal ban on assault-style weapons (as well as banning high-capacity magazines). But it does support the implementation of so-called “red flag” laws to remove firearms from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others, as well as other violence prevention programs.
It also provides funding for a variety of programs aimed at shoring up the nation’s mental health apparatus and securing schools.
“At a time when it seems impossible to get anything done in Washington, we are doing something consequential,” Biden has said.
ABC News’ Alliison Pecorin, Alexandra Hutzler and Trish Turner contributed to this report.
(TRUCKEE, Calif.) — Lindsey Rodni-Nieman got a text late Friday night from her teenage daughter, saying she was planning to leave a party in about 45 minutes and would be coming “straight home.”
“I told her to be safe and that I loved her. And she said, ‘OK, mom, I love you, too,'” Rodni-Nieman recalled in an interview with ABC News on Monday. “She never came home.”
Kiely Rodni, 16, was last seen early Saturday around 12:30 a.m. local time near the Prosser Family Campground in the small, Northern California town of Truckee, some 20 miles north of Lake Tahoe. She was at a party with more than 100 people when she vanished along with her vehicle, a silver 2013 Honda CRV with California license plates.
Her phone has been out of service since then, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the ongoing investigation and search.
“Her cellphone went dead and became virtually untraceable shortly after,” Angela Musallam, public information officer for the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, told ABC News during an interview Monday.
When Rodni’s mother awoke that morning to find her daughter still not home and her car missing from their driveway, panic began to set in.
“I called her and sent her texts too, and she didn’t answer,” Rodni-Nieman said. “That’s when I knew something was wrong.”
She said she doesn’t believe her daughter ran away because all her clothes and belongings are still at home, and “it was already so out of character” for her to not call or text back.
Rodni’s friend, Sami Smith, said she was the last person to speak with her at the party early Saturday.
“She was having a fun time at a party, just being a teenager,” Smith told ABC News during an interview Monday. “Everything she drank, I drank out of, and there was nothing that seemed off about her.”
“I never expected this to happen ever,” she added. “Nobody in this town did.”
With no trace Rodni or her car, detectives are now investigating the case as a possible abduction.
“Our detectives are looking into any and every possibility about Kiely’s whereabouts,” Musallam said. “We are only treating this case as an abduction because we have not yet located her vehicle.”
“We’ve received dozens of leads since early Saturday morning, and our detectives continue to investigate each and every single one of them,” she added. “We have no plans to leave any stone unturned until we get Kiely home.”
Other local, state and federal agencies, including the Truckee Police Department, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office, the California Highway Patrol and the FBI, are assisting the Placer County Sheriff’s Office’s in the investigation, according to Musallam.
On Tuesday, helicopters from the California Highway Patrol and the Placer County Sheriff’s Office continued to conduct aerial searches for the teen and her car.
Authorities, as well as Rodni’s family, are urging anyone who attended the party to cooperate with the investigation. In particular, investigators are asking for any photographs or videos from that night to help them piece together a timeline. A $50,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to Rodni’s safe return.
“We’re just begging, begging for you to please come forward and share your story,” Rodni-Nieman said.
Anyone with information about Rodni or her whereabouts can call the Placer County Sheriff’s Office’s tip line at 530-581-6320 and select option seven. Callers can remain anonymous.
