Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump coasted to a strong victory in Monday’s Iowa caucuses which, despite depressed turnout amid brutal weather, saw him embraced by a majority of the state’s Republican base.

Now he’s gearing up to battle directly with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in New Hampshire, looking to quash what appears to be her best hope at beating him in his quest for a third straight presidential nomination, sources in Trump’s orbit told ABC News, offering a glimpse into his immediate next moves on the trail.

“The game plan is always to win. And whether it’s ‘scorched earth’ or highlight the major deficiencies in her record, that’s what we can expect the next week,” said one former campaign official who remains in touch with Trump’s current team and who asked not to be named to share internal discussions. (Spokespeople for Trump and Haley did not respond to requests for comment for this story.)

“Donald Trump has a chance of ending this race and putting the final nail in the coffin of this presidential primary in New Hampshire,” the former official said. “He’s not one to leave artillery in the gun.”

Monday night’s results saw Trump clinch a thorough victory in Iowa, taking more than 50% of the vote and winning every county except for one.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Haley, who were separated by only a couple of points for second and third place, respectively, ultimately trailed Trump by about 30% each despite months of pitching themselves as better alternatives to win the White House.

Allies of DeSantis and Haley were quick to note the results came out of just one state at the start of the 2024 race (though it is one state that receives outsized attention) and arguably few voters were making their voices heard.

Around 110,000 people voted in the Republican caucuses, which was about 60% of the turnout in the last contested caucuses, in 2016.

And even as the vote totals and entrance polls suggested Trump continues to have problems with more moderate and younger voters and in more educated and less rural areas, his win showed that the base of the party remains with him.

Trump is favored to win upcoming primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, but both states offer different quirks that theoretically provide openings for Haley on a narrow path toward competing with him through the rest of the primary season, observers and experts said.

Independents and people registered as undeclared — who typically lean more moderate — are allowed to vote in New Hampshire’s primary and South Carolina, where Trump has a 30-point edge in 538’s polling average, is seen as potentially more hospitable to Haley than Iowa, given her existing connection to voters as a former governor there.

Trump and Haley have already engaged in tit-for-tat attacks, with Trump casting aspersions on Haley’s intelligence and labeling her a “globalist” and the South Carolinian depicting the former president as an agent of “chaos” — while still saying she would pardon him if she’s elected and he’s convicted of a crime (he denies wrongdoing) and declining to rule out if she’d be his running mate.

Sources around Trump forecasted that the attacks from his team and allies will be escalating after Iowa to several notches above what Haley has already faced.

“I think she’s a significant opponent and in a primary, she’s earned the right to get clobbered,” said one source in Trump’s orbit.

“This is a roller coaster she’s only heard of, and she had the seat in the very last row,” said a second person, who like the other Trump sources quoted here asked not to be named because of ongoing relationships.

The former president is already planning on upping his campaign schedule in New Hampshire in the coming days, where one source said an anti-tax message could jive with the state’s “life free or die” mantra.

“I think the most important thing is obviously, taxes [are] going to be a part of the conversation. New Hampshire is a no-tax type of state, that’s their political philosophy,” the former campaign official said, arguing Trump “delivered on one of the largest tax cuts in American history.”

Another line of attack from Trump could focus on some of Haley’s wealthy donors, including those who have given to Democrats — a charge she has also faced from DeSantis and tried to play down.

Haley’s allies told ABC News she’s ready to fight back.

“She is tough. There is nothing the Trump folks can say that she hasn’t already heard. Of course, we have to leave room for the probability he will just make stuff up. In that case, she will just have to correct the record,” said Eric Levine, an attorney and donation bundler for her.

Haley, too, appeared to be ramping up her responses this week, including linking Trump to President Joe Biden in the most explicit terms yet.

“Both are consumed by chaos, negativity and grievances of the past,” a narrator says in a new ad running in New Hampshire.

“Our campaign is the last best hope of stopping the Trump-Biden nightmare,” Haley added in remarks after the caucuses.

“Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. That’s nothing to be proud of,” she said then.

Supportive outside groups, like SFA Fund Inc., the super PAC backing Haley, and the Koch-aligned Americans for Prosperity are also launching attacks on the former president.

Andrew Smith, the director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, said Haley is well-positioned to absorb attacks before next week’s primary, pointing to past jabs from entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — who dropped out on Monday and endorsed Trump — on Haley’s family that ended up falling flat.

“You saw what happened when Ramaswamy went after Haley in the debates: The more he attacked her and accused her of things, the smaller he looked, and she just sat back and absorbed it with a smile on her face,” Smith said.

“I think if [Trump] says, ‘Yeah, she just does well with the moderates, those moderates, you can’t trust those people, they’re not all MAGA’ … That’s probably the best way to do it,” Smith added. “I don’t know if it would necessarily work.”

Haley throughout the campaign has urged voters to move on from Trump, whom she attacks on some major issues like raising the national debt. But she has tempered her comments about her former boss. One frequent line is that he was “the right president at the right time.”

She has also defended his right to be on the 2024 ballot in light of challenges citing the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection” clause in connection with Jan. 6. (More openly anti-Trump candidates, like Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, have already left the 2024 race.)

That balancing act underscores the difficulty for Haley or anyone else going against Trump, some experts said. In trying to undercut him with Republican voters, they risk just making themselves smaller.

“Obviously, Trump is still the favorite” in New Hampshire, Smith said. “I don’t think that’s changed at all. I think that Haley has a distant chance.”

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(WASHINGTON) — As the Republican presidential candidates jockeyed for votes during the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses on Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris was in South Carolina, shoring up support in a state that will kick off Democrats’ primary season next month.

“It’s good to be back,” Harris, who was making her second trip to South Carolina since the start of the new year, said before getting in her motorcade.

ABC News was granted exclusive access to the vice president during her trip, getting a rare, behind-the-scenes look as the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign kicks into high gear. ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce followed Harris as she traveled on Air Force Two, delivered a speech outside the South Carolina State House and met with supporters.

Harris has taken an expanded role on the campaign trail, traveling to at least 18 states over the last six months — taking on political fights over abortion access, race and voting rights.

This, as many voters say President Joe Biden’s age is a top concern. The oldest-ever sitting president, Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term. A new ABC News/Ipsos poll shows only 28% of those surveyed say Biden has the mental sharpness to serve another four years, down from about 50% in May 2020.

Bruce pressed Harris on how the campaign plans to change that perception.

“I’ll tell you, the reality of it is, and I’ve spent a lot of time with Biden, be it in the Oval Office, in the Situation Room and other places — he is extraordinarily smart. He has the ability to see around the corner in terms of what might be the challenges we face as a nation or globally,” Harris said.

Harris added: “Well, I mean, listen, you’re here with me in South Carolina. You saw every room we went in. The numbers of people who are there, applauding quite loudly, and they’re applauding for me and they’re applauding for Joe Biden and for what we as an administration have accomplished. They’re there because they believe in what we’re doing and they want to see us continue to do this work.”

On Monday, Harris spoke to a crowd of hundreds outside the state Capitol to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day and laid out what she saw was at stake in the coming election.

“As vice president of the United States, I’d say, at this moment, in America, freedom is under profound threat,” Harris said. “Today, in fact, we are witnessing a full-on attack on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms.”

South Carolina has played a critical role in Democratic primary politics. Most voters who participate in the state’s Democratic primary are Black — the party’s base. It also revived Biden’s campaign in 2020 after he came in fourth in Iowa, and fifth in New Hampshire.

In a nod to South Carolina’s role in Biden’s 2020 win, the Democratic National Committee changed its 2024 presidential primary calendar to elevate South Carolina to be the first state to vote while demoting Iowa and New Hampshire, which national Democrats argue are not representative of their voter base or of the country, despite sharp outcry from both states.

“We’re not going to wait and parachute into these communities at the last minute and ask them for their vote, we’re going to earn their vote,” deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told reporters on a call earlier this month.

“Well, that’s why I’m out here,” Harris told Bruce in an interview before departing Columbia. “We’ve done really good work, our challenge will be to let people know who brung it to them.”

She added: “We have done the work that has been about bringing down unemployment, Black unemployment, to some of the lowest numbers we’ve ever seen … What we’ve done on student loan debt, we have now erased student loan debt for over three-and-a-half million people and with more to do, so we’ve delivered.”

An area where they have not delivered, according to the ABC News/Ipsos poll, is on immigration, a critical issue for voters. Just 18% approve of Biden’s handling of the border.

Biden assigned Harris the responsibility of addressing the root causes of migration at the southern border.

Democrats and Republicans are negotiating on Capitol Hill as the country faces record-shattering numbers of encounters at the southern border. Some Democrats are pressing the administration to do more, including New York Mayor Eric Adams, who has chided Washington for lacking urgency on the issue.

“Does your administration bear responsibility for that?” Bruce pressed the vice president.

“It is no secret for anyone that we have a broken immigration system, and it needs to be fixed and it would be great if we could get some bipartisan consensus to do just that,” Harris responded.

Harris has also taken a leading role when it comes to abortion rights. The California native will be embarking upon a nationwide “Reproductive Freedoms Tour” next week to highlight the administration’s fight for abortion access.

While the White House has said it wants to codify the rights previously guaranteed under Roe v. Wade, without Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, its ability to act is limited.

“What can you realistically promise the American people you would do to protect these reproductive rights?” Bruce pressed.

“Well, we’re gonna continue to do what we’ve been doing, and so that includes what we’re doing through the court system, what we’re doing to ensure emergency care and protection for all people in terms of access to emergency care, what we’re doing to protect access to contraception is another big piece of this,” Harris said.

“But here’s the bottom line: From Kansas to California from, from Ohio to Virginia. When this issue has been on the ballot, the American people have voted in favor of freedoms,” she added.

With a potential Biden-Trump rematch on the horizon, the Biden-Harris campaign says in the coming months voters will be presented with a stark choice involving “democracy and freedom.” Harris told Bruce the campaign is gearing up for a tough fight.

“Well, I mean, we’re talking about an election for president of the United States, vice president of the United States, and we have to earn that reelect. I mean, these are challenging times,” she said. “I have been traveling our country, and it is clear to me that there is an intent to attack these most fundamental freedoms and liberties.”

Bruce asked Harris if a rematch with former President Donald Trump, who went on to handily win the Iowa caucuses later on Monday, was a foregone conclusion.

“I don’t know,” Harris said. “But look, if it is Donald Trump, we’ve beat him before and we’ll beat him again.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Chuck Grassley, the oldest serving member of the United States Senate, is receiving antibiotic infusions at a hospital to treat an infection, according to a statement from his office.

The Iowa Republican is 90 years old.

His office says the senator is in good spirits and will return to work “as soon as possible following doctors’ orders.”

Intravenous infusions of antibiotics are usually used for a serious infection or one that can’t be or was not successfully treated with oral antibiotics.

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(WASHINGTON) — ABC News has obtained a copy of the 911 call requesting an ambulance for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who was transported from his Virginia home to Walter Reed Hospital after suffering complications from a surgery to treat prostate cancer.

In the call, placed on Jan. 1 and obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, a federal employee working for Austin asks the operator for the ambulance to be discreet.

“Can I ask — that the ambulance not show up with lights and sirens? We’re trying to remain a little subtle,” the employee said.

According to local law, ambulances are required to run sirens and lights on primary roads but on secondary roads aren’t mandated to do so.

During the 911 call, made at 7:15 p.m. from Austin’s home, he was described as awake, alert and oriented. An ambulance arrived seven minutes later at 7:22 p.m.

Austin, who underwent elective surgery on Dec. 22, but was hospitalized New Year’s Day due to complications, was released from the hospital on Monday after a two-week stay.

The secretary and his department faced extensive criticism for their handling of his hospitalization — keeping the nation in the dark about it for several days. Austin also did not immediately disclose the hospitalization to President Joe Biden, whose Republican rivals have used the lapse in judgment as ammunition against the White House.

In a statement announcing Austin’s release from the hospital, the Department of Defense said “The Secretary continues to recover well and, on the advice of doctors, will recuperate and perform his duties remotely for a period of time before returning full-time to the Pentagon.”

“He has full access to required secure communications capabilities,” it continued.

Austin, in his own statement, said he will continue to “recuperate and perform my duties from home” and looked forward to returning to the Pentagon as quickly as possible.

ABC News’ Brittany Gaddy and Shannon K. Crawford contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — A new, bipartisan tax framework unveiled by lawmakers Tuesday would enhance the popular Child Tax Credit to benefit millions of American families.

The proposal, released by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and Republican Rep. Jason Smith, would boost the refundable portion of the credit people can claim, allow low-income families with multiple children to receive more of the benefit and adjust the credit for inflation.

“Fifteen million kids from low-income families will be better off as a result of this plan, and given today’s miserable political climate, it’s a big deal to have this opportunity to pass pro-family policy that helps so many kids get ahead,” Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement.

The tax package also includes new low-income housing tax credits, disaster tax relief and tax benefits for Taiwan.

Smith, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, called the proposal a “common-sense tax package that will strengthen Main Street businesses, rebuild communities, support American families, and boost our competitiveness with China.”

The legislation’s fate in Congress, however, is unclear.

Lawmakers are already struggling to coalesce on spending measures to keep the government open and operating before Friday’s partial shutdown deadline.

Also, notably absent from Tuesday’s announcement of the tax agreement was Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, and Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Wyden said it was his goal to pass the package before the start of tax season, which is Jan. 29.

Past impact of the expanded Child Tax Credit

The changes to the federal Child Tax Credit enacted in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan had a significant impact on families.

According to Census Bureau data, 3 million children were lifted out of poverty because of the expanded credit. The child poverty rate in 2021 dropped to a record low.

The policy significantly increased the dollar amount that families with children received from $2,000 to $3,600 per year for kids under the age of 6 and $3,000 per year for kids between 6 and 18 years old. Checks were sent out monthly instead of once a year, which helped many households meet day-to-day expenses.

The expanded credit expired at the end of 2021 amid opposition to its price tag from Republicans and notably Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. The cost of the one-year expanded credit was estimated to be about $105 billion.

After it ended, the child poverty rate more than doubled in 2022.

Since then, Democrats have advocated for renewing the policy. President Joe Biden included an enhanced Child Tax Credit in his 2024 budget proposal, which was dead-on-arrival in Congress largely due to its tax increases on wealthy Americans and corporations.

The White House said Tuesday Biden “remains committed to fighting for the full expanded Child Tax Credit” in their response to the proposed tax deal.

“We appreciate Chairman Wyden and Chairman Smith’s work toward increasing the Child Tax Credit for millions of families and supporting hundreds of thousands of additional affordable homes, and look forward to reviewing the full details of their agreement,” said White House spokesperson Michael Kikukawa.

What’s in the new proposal

While the proposal is not a return to the expanded Child Tax Credit implemented by Biden in 2021, lawmakers say it would make the program more generous — especially for low-income households.

According to the framework, the maximum refundable portion of Child Tax Credit would increase from the current level of $1,600 per child to $1,800 in tax year 2023, $1,900 in tax year 2024, and $2,000 in tax year 2025.

It would also change the way the credit is phased in to ensure benefits are “applied fairly to families with multiple children.”

Other changes include adjusting the credit for inflation starting in 2024, and allowing parents to use current or prior-year income to calculate their credit.

The nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in a report released Tuesday, said the changes would allow a single parent with two children who earns $13,000 to see their credit double in the first year, or a married couple earning $32,000 to see a $975 gain.

The CBPP estimated overall the change could lift as many as 400,000 children above the poverty line in its first year, and 500,000 children or more when fully in effect.

ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will host top lawmakers at the White House on Wednesday to discuss his national security supplemental funding request, which includes urgent aid for Ukraine and Israel.

The $106 billion request made by Biden in October has been stalled amid fierce debate on immigration policy, with Republicans demanding stricter protocols on asylum and parole.

“President Biden will host congressional leaders from the Senate and the House along with key committee leaders and ranking members at the White House to discuss the critical importance of his national security supplemental request,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Tuesday afternoon.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell all received invitations to attend, sources told ABC News.

Biden’s supplemental aid request sets aside $14 billion for border enforcement, including the hiring of more than a 1,000 additional border patrol agents and asylum officers. It also includes $1.2 billion to combat the flow of fentanyl.

But Republicans are demanding more sweeping changes to U.S. immigration policy, pointing to the influx of migrants at the southwest border.

Jean-Pierre, speaking to reporters during Tuesday’s press briefing, said they believed ongoing border talks are “headed in the right direction” despite the inability for both sides to come to an agreement.

Negotiations have been going on for months, and were carried on throughout the holiday recess by a bipartisan group of senators, but so far to no avail.

House Speaker Johnson has grown more insistent that the House should not accept the Senate’s work, and should instead continue to insist upon H.R. 2, a House-Republican backed bill filled with border policies the Democratic-controlled Senate wouldn’t support and that the White House would likely veto.

“We’re gonna continue to say Congress should act, they should act quickly,” Jean-Pierre said. “You know, this is about securing our border. This is about our national security and the consequences of congressional inaction would be severe. So, the president is going to have this all-important conversation.”

The debate has resulted in continued delay in aid to Ukraine in it war against Russian invaders. It’s been over a year since Congress approved major funding for the Eastern European nation, and the administration has said it is quickly running out of funds to continue providing aid to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a visit to Washington in mid-December to push for the aid, telling lawmakers he was fighting “our freedom and yours.”

Congress will spend this week working through a short-term funding bill aimed at buying lawmakers more time to keep the government open and avert a shutdown. But neither the short-term funding bill nor the longer-term appropriations bills lawmakers hope to complete by March are slated to include any funding for Ukraine or Israel.

The supplemental aid package would include $61 billion for Ukraine and $14.3 billion for Israel.

Schumer and McConnell, in remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday, discussed the need to provide the aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

“At stake is the security of our country the security of our friends abroad including Ukraine and Israel and nothing less than the future of Western Democracy,” Schumer said. “We cannot afford to let these issues go unaddressed.”

McConnell called the package “our chance to expand our capacity to meet the national security challenges we face.”

ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — ABC News and WMUR are canceling their planned Republican primary debate in New Hampshire on Thursday, citing a lack of candidate participation.

“Our intent was to host a debate coming out of the Iowa caucuses, but we always knew that would be contingent on the candidates and the outcome of the race,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement. “As a result, while our robust election coverage will continue, ABC News and WMUR-TV will not be moving forward with Thursday’s Republican presidential primary debate in New Hampshire.”

The decision comes shortly after a deadline set by ABC News and New Hampshire TV station WMUR for both former President Donald Trump and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley to respond to their invitations to the debate by Tuesday afternoon.

Neither campaign confirmed they would attend.

Four Republicans had qualified for the debate under previously announced criteria. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie previously confirmed participation — then Christie left the race last week.

Earlier on Tuesday, in the wake of Trump dominating the Iowa caucuses, Haley said in a statement that she would debate only Trump or President Joe Biden — suggesting she would skip a showdown with rival DeSantis in New Hampshire ahead of its Jan. 23 primary.

“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign,” the former South Carolina governor said. “Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them. He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.”

Haley’s statement came after a third-place showing in Iowa’s caucuses where she got 19% of the vote — behind DeSantis with 21% and Trump with 51%.

MORE: Trump dominates with Republicans, and 5 other takeaways from Iowa caucuses
After Haley’s statement, DeSantis fired back, posting on X that Haley “is afraid to debate because she doesn’t want to answer the tough questions.”

“The reality is that she is not running for the nomination, she’s running to be Trump’s VP,” DeSantis wrote.

Appearing on CNN later on Tuesday, Haley echoed her statement. “If he’s [Trump] on that stage, I’m there.”

Trump has not participated in any of the GOP debates so far, saying he saw no point given his large polling lead.

“President Trump’s statement was that he would not attend the debates,” adviser Chris LaCivita said after the second GOP debate. “Plural … And that’s his position until it’s not.”

Instead, Trump has favored counterprogramming events such as rallies or televised interviews.

The South Carolina Republican has seen a consistent bump in polling since September, including recent polls that showed her narrowly ahead of DeSantis in Iowa and one that had her closing the gap with Trump in New Hampshire.

The narrow divide in Monday’s caucus results between her and DeSantis means that no candidate can claim the clear mantle of Trump alternative.

Haley has turned her focus to New Hampshire, where the GOP primary is set for Jan. 23. Haley’s campaign is betting big on a performance next Tuesday that could propel her campaign forward.

Both Haley and DeSantis vowed to carry on after losing to Trump in the Iowa caucuses.

“We’re gonna make you proud, and we’re off to New Hampshire,” Haley told supporters Monday night.

On Monday night, Haley’s campaign released a memo that said she would take on Trump and Biden and “go the distance in a long campaign.”

“The Iowa results and the New Hampshire polls show Donald Trump is more vulnerable than commonly believed. He is the polarizing figure he has long been,” campaign manager Betsy Ankeny wrote in the memo. “Trump and Biden are the two most disliked politicians in America.”

ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The snowstorms pummeling much of the country — including D.C. — will keep the majority of the federal government at home Tuesday, but not the Senate, whose members are expected to brave the weather to cast the first in a series of votes that they hope will stave off a partial government shutdown at week’s end.

Though travel delays may prevent many senators from participating in Tuesday night’s vote, time is not a luxury this Congress has as the shutdown looms — meaning many will have to lace up their snow boots.

The procedural vote the Senate will take Tuesday night will be on a stopgap funding bill that lawmakers hope will buy them more time to complete work on yearlong appropriations. It comes just three days before funding for four of the 12 bills that fund the government are slated to run out.

Details of the short-term plan were announced jointly by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday.

The short-term bill, if passed, will move the deadlines to fund the government by more than a month: the four funding bills that were set to expire this Friday would run out of funding on March 1; the remaining eight bills currently set to expire on Feb. 2 would run out on March 8.

This stopgap spending bill should have relatively little trouble clearing the Senate, where it’s expected to receive bipartisan support. Still, things could potentially come down to the wire in the Senate where passage of bills can require multiple procedural votes and multiple days of work.

Passing the stopgap bill before funding partially runs out on Friday night will require the cooperation of all senators. The objection of any one senator to expediting passage of the bill could cause a final vote to potentially bleed into the weekend. That’s why the Senate can’t afford a snow day.

Johnson will need Democrats’ help

In the House, the short-term extension should also sail to passage relatively easily once it’s brought up for a vote. However, Johnson will be in the unenviable position of having to rely on the votes of Democrats to pass it, a move that leaves him vulnerable to his right flank.

Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, was ousted from his role as speaker for relying on Democrats to pass a similar short-term extension of government funding. While there’s been less of a groundswell of Republicans threatening to oust Johnson so far, he’ll likely have some hell to pay with hard-right Republicans.

Unlike the Senate, the House leaders called off votes in the lower chamber Tuesday night because of the storms. The House will need to wait for the Senate to complete its work on the short-term bill before its members can consider it.

This is the third time Congress will seek to kick the can on funding this fiscal year.

Congressional leaders hope this latest deadline extension will buy lawmakers the time they need to finally complete their work on and pass annual appropriations bills that will fund the government through the end of September.

The top-line spending deal reached by Schumer and Johnson last weekend was a major step forward toward finalizing those spending bills, but leaders are calling for this short-term funding bill to buy them a bit more time to finalize legislative text based on that deal.

That agreement holds constant spending levels previously agreed to by President Joe Biden and then-Speaker McCarthy during negotiations that raised the federal debt limit.

“The bipartisan topline funding agreement reached ensures that America will be able to address many of the major challenges our country faces at home and abroad,” Schumer said in a statement. “It is clear that a Continuing Resolution is necessary to give the Appropriations Committee additional time to finish drafting their bills to reflect the new agreement.”

Johnson, while touting the $6 billion in COVID funds and expediting a $10 billion cut in funding to the IRS in the top-line spending deal, also said the stopgap spending bill that the Senate will work to advance Tuesday would be necessary.

“Because the completion deadlines are upon us, a short continuing resolution is required to complete what House Republicans are working hard to achieve: an end to governance by omnibus, meaningful policy wins, and better stewardship of American tax dollars,” Johnson said in the statement.

Johnson has previously said he would not take up any additional short-term bills, and many in his right flank are angry about the underlying top-line deal Johnson struck, contending it does not do enough to secure steep cuts they wanted.

The House Freedom Caucus took only moments to make their objection to the stopgap funding bill known.

“This is what surrender looks like,” the House Freedom Caucus posted on X moments after Schumer and Johnson announced their intent to hold votes to move the funding deadlines.

ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The U.S. has carried out another airstrike targeting a Houthi missile facility in Yemen, according to a U.S. official.

Tomahawk missiles were used to strike at the site that housed anti-ship missile cruise missiles being used in the Houthis attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the official said.

On Thursday night, the U.S. and United Kingdom used Tomahawk missiles and fighter aircraft to strike at nearly 30 Houthi locations associated with the Houthi drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping.

The U.S. carried out a second night of retaliatory strikes on Friday night following a Houthi missile attack on a commercial that failed after the missile landed in the ocean.

News of the new airstrike was first reported by Reuters.

This is a developing story, Please check back for updates.

 

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(NEW YORK) — The two U.S. Navy SEALs missing in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia were on a mission to board a dhow that led to the seizure of Iranian-made ballistic and cruise missile components headed to Houthi militants in Yemen, according to U.S. Central Command.

The risky nighttime mission last Thursday to board the dhow in rough waters continued even after one of the SEALs fell into the water and the second SEAL, following protocol, jumped into the water to rescue his teammate.

Search and rescue operations for the two missing SEALs are continuing in the Gulf of Aden with U.S. Navy aircraft and ships participating in the search.

For years the U.S. Navy has intercepted dhows, the name for small fishing or cargo vessels used in the region, believed to be carrying Iranian-made weapons to the Houthis.

During these missions, boarding teams typically pull aside the dhows to undertake a “flag verification” mission if the dhow is unflagged or has replaced its flag to mask their smuggling mission.

This latest seizure was the first since the Houthis began to carry out the more than 30 drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, most of which have been repelled by U.S., French, and British warships.

On Thursday, Jan. 11 “Navy forces conducted a night-time seizure of a dhow conducting illegal transport of advanced lethal aid from Iran to resupply Houthi forces in Yemen as part of the Houthis’ ongoing campaign of attacks against international merchant shipping,” said a CENTCOM statement.

The SEALs were operating from the expeditionary sea base USS Lewis B Puller (ESB 3), a converted freighter topped with landing decks for helicopters and capable of releasing small watercraft used by SEALs when they approached the dhow.

With helicopters and drones flying overhead they “executed a complex boarding of the dhow near the coast of Somalia in international waters of the Arabian Sea seizing Iranian-made ballistic missile and cruise missiles components.”

They included components for propulsion, guidance, and warheads for Houthi medium range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles, as well as air defense associated components.

“Initial analysis indicates these same weapons have been employed by the Houthis to threaten and attack innocent mariners on international merchant ships transiting in the Red Sea,” said CENTCOM.

The seizure marked the first time since November, 2019 that the U.S. Navy has seized Iranian-made ballistic missile and cruise missile components headed for the Houthis.

Nighttime ship boardings by boat, carried out in pitch black, are some of the most difficult missions that a SEAL can undertake and require constant training according to a retired SEAL commander

“You have the the risk of of your boat capsizing in close proximity to larger vessels, you have to establish a solid ladder point, you have to climb a ladder at night over the open ocean between two ships, they’re smashing into each other, and then get on board,” said Eric Oehlerich, an ABC News contributor.

“And then your problem starts with what you’re going to do it with whomever is on board that boat,” he added.

Oehlerich said the risk to SEALs undertaking these missions in the Gulf of Aden and the Somali Basin increases during this time of year when ocean waves are especially high.

“In the wintertime, the sea state is typically eight to 12 feet,” said Oehlerich. “The horizon is flat, so 8-12 feet is eight feet above the flat horizon, and then eight feet, it’s like a 16 foot wave.”

After the dhow’s seizure it was deemed unsafe and sunk by U.S. naval forces, the fate of the 14 crewmembers is still to be determined.

“It is clear that Iran continues shipment of advanced lethal aid to the Houthis. This is yet another example of how Iran actively sows instability throughout the region in direct violation of U.N. Security Resolution 2216 and international law,” said CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla,

“We will continue to work with regional and international partners to expose and interdict these efforts, and ultimately to reestablish freedom of navigation,” he added.

 

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