Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) has faced a wave of calls for his resignation from fellow Democratic colleagues since his indictment on bribery and corruption charges on Sept. 22. He has remained adamant, however, that he is innocent and has pledged not to yield to demands for him to step down. 

As questions mount about his political future, it is worth taking a look at the fates of some of the most recent sitting members of Congress who have faced federal indictments.

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.)

Santos was indicted on 13 federal counts in May over accusations that he misled donors and misrepresented his finances to the public and to government agencies. He pleaded not guilty to seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to the House. 

Santos agreed to pause the clock for the federal criminal trial for “engagement in continuing plea negotiations.” A status conference was postponed from earlier this month to Oct. 27.  

Santos faced calls for his resignation from members of both parties as allegations began surfacing, but he has remained defiant that he would not step down. He even launched a reelection campaign. Santos survived a vote on his expulsion, but the House voted instead to send the measure to the Ethics Committee, which had already been investigating the congressman. 

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) 

Fortenberry was indicted on three charges in October 2021, and he was convicted in March 2022 on one charge of concealing information and making false statements to federal authorities who were investigating illegal contributions made by a foreign national to his 2016 reelection campaign, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who was House GOP leader at the time, asked for his resignation, and Fortenberry complied. Fortenberry avoided prison time but was sentenced to two years of probation. 

Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.)

Collins was arrested for insider trading in August 2018 and charged with conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud and making false statements to the FBI, according to the DOJ. 

He was charged with his son and his son’s father-in-law. Collins resigned from Congress on Sept. 30, 2019, a day before he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and lying to federal law enforcement agents.

He was sentenced in 2020 to more than two years in federal prison. He started serving his prison sentence and was soon after granted a full pardon by then-President Trump.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) 

Hunter was indicted in August 2018 with his wife, Margaret E. Hunter, on charges “that they converted more than $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for personal expenses and filed false campaign finance records with the Federal Election Commission,” according to the DOJ.

Hunter pleaded guilty to one charge in December 2019, before resigning from Congress in January 2020. He was sentenced to 11 months in March 2020, and was pardoned that year by Trump as well.

Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.)

Brown was indicted on fraud charges in July 2016 in a case related to an education charity. The next month, she lost her reelection bid in the primary. In 2017, she was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.

Sen. Bob Menendez

Menendez, of course, went through a similar scenario in the past and survived — ultimately getting reelected to represent New Jersey in the Senate in 2018 by a comfortable margin. Menendez had been indicted in 2015 on corruption charges, but the case ended in a mistrial in November 2017, after the jury could not reach a decision.

In January 2018, the DOJ dismissed the charges and opted not to retry the case, after some of the evidence was ruled inadmissible. The Senate Ethics Committee said in early 2018 that Menendez broke the law and violated Senate rules, and the committee ordered him to pay back the gifts. Menendez won reelection that November.

Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.)

Fattah was indicted in 2015 in a case alleging that he participated in a racketeering conspiracy, which, according to the DOJ, involved “several schemes intended to further his political and financial interests by misappropriating federal, charitable and campaign funds, among other things.”

Fattah was convicted in June 2016 on charges of racketeering, bribery, wire fraud and money laundering, among other charges. He lost his primary and subsequently resigned from his seat. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in December 2016. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday he expects Ukraine aid will not be separated from border funding as Congress tried to figure out a path forward after a shutdown bill left Ukraine out.

"To those who say we need to fix our border, you're right," Graham said on CBS News's "Face The Nation." "To those who say we need to help Ukraine, you're right. To those who say we need to do the border, not Ukraine, you're wrong."

Graham said he believes Ukraine aid will not be a "standalone" bill and that the "vast majority" of Senate Republicans would support a combination of border security, Ukraine funding and disaster aid.

"We got to fix asylum, we need border security agent increases, we need more detention beds," Graham said. "I think there's Democratic support for major border security reform, but we have to attach it to Ukraine to those who say we need to fix our border."

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Saturday offered a bill to keep the government open that did not include funding for Ukraine, despite the fact that similar legislation in the Senate with Ukraine aid was moving forward.

McCarthy had argued Ukraine aid should not be part of a stopgap measure, and a number of Republicans in the House oppose it.

The Senate ended up agreeing to the House-approved move, even though some said the lack of support for Ukraine was essentially a victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an interview minutes earlier on CBS News, McCarthy said he is committed to helping Ukraine, but that addressing the crisis at the border is a bigger priority. When asked if he would link Ukraine aid to a border bill vote, McCarthy said the American border "matters."

"He [McCarthy] worked to avoid a shutdown, he will help Ukraine, but he's telling everybody in the country, including me, 'You better send something over the border for me to help Ukraine,' and he's right to make that demand," Graham said.

The South Carolina Republican said the Senate will have a "strong" border security measure while pushing for up to $60 or $70 billion in Ukraine funding for the next year, a far higher payout than the White House's request of $24 billion.

Pressed over the large supplemental, Graham said it's "because we need it."

"We haven't lost one soldier in the Ukraine war, spent less than 5 percent of our military budget. Fifty percent of the Russian army has been destroyed by the Ukrainians, so they would be at Crimea already if the administration hadn't been so slow and given weapons," Graham said.

The House and Senate cleared a “clean” stopgap spending bill on Saturday, averting a government shutdown and capping off a chaotic three weeks in the Capitol that brought Washington hours away from a lapse in funding.

The continuing resolution funds the government at current spending levels until Nov. 17 and provides $16 billion in disaster relief.

 It does not include any funding for Ukraine — which the White House and Democrats sought — or GOP provisions addressing border security, two items that had been central to government funding fights of the past month. Members of both parties criticized the lack of Ukraine aid, and conservatives howled about border security being left on the cutting room floor.

Here are the political winners and losers from the first quarter of the funding fight.

Winners

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)

McCarthy will surely take heat from hardline conservatives for putting a clean stopgap on the floor, and he dealt with weeks of turbulence from within his own conference.

But McCarthy proved those in both parties who predicted a shutdown wrong. And he got one of his biggest articulated conditions for the stopgap: No aid to Ukraine.

McCarthy secured swift agreement from Congressional Democrats and the Senate on the plan he unveiled just Saturday morning, and he avoided the upper chamber jamming the House with a stopgap that included Ukraine aid.

 “I think Speaker McCarthy has been magnificent. He's pulled a rabbit out of the hat a couple of times best I can count,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said.

The majority of House Republicans supported the clean stopgap, and he protected them – and himself – from bearing the blame for a shutdown.

And he is calling the bluff of those threatening to oust him through a motion to vacate the chair, when it was 21 hardline Republicans who sunk a far more conservative stopgap plan and kneecapped his attempt to extract concessions on border policy.

“If somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it. There has to be an adult in the room,” McCarthy said Saturday.

Ukraine aid opponents

Hardline conservatives did not get many wins from the clean stopgap, but getting Ukraine aid out of it was a clear victory.

More lawmakers in Congress support Ukraine than oppose it, but the Senate and House Democrats — and Senate Republicans who ardently back Ukraine aid including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — agreed to a stopgap without money for Kyiv hours before the funding deadline to avert a shutdown.

More than half of House Republicans opposed a $300 million Ukraine funding measure earlier in the week, putting GOP leaders in a tricky spot to approve the billions more that the White House has requested.

Middle ground

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

The funding fight was a mixed bag for the Senate GOP leader who have said throughout recent weeks and months that a government shutdown was a bad idea with no winners — something he has learned multiple times during his time in power. 

Congress avoided a shutdown, but at a major cost to McConnell personally as he has been the most outspoken top Republican in support of aid for Ukraine in their ongoing war with Russia. The Kentucky Republican has visited the war-torn nation and had been on the diplomatic front lines pushing for Sweden and Finland’s inclusion in NATO.

McConnell is known for being well-attuned to the feelings of his conference, and many of them wanted to move on the 47-day stopgap funding bill. He followed suit, with many pro-Ukraine members promising a fight for robust support for the nation ahead of the mid-November deadline to keep the government’s lights on. 

Congressional Democrats

Democrats in both the House and Senate wanted to avoid a government shutdown — and they got their wish on Saturday.

But the caucuses also took a hit by having to clear a stopgap bill that did not include funding for Ukraine, which has been a key priority for the party and was included in a supplemental request from the White House.

“I’m disappointed and I’ve made my disappointment, made clear to Mr. McCarthy and others that leaving Ukraine out was bad policy and a bad message,” Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said ahead of Saturday's vote. “It’s a bad message to Putin and it’s a bad message to the Ukrainians. So I think it’s a mistake.”

The decision by Democrats to support the bill is what put McCarthy’s proposal over the finish line — saving the Speaker from what would have been an embarrassing defeat and averting a shutdown that he would have been blamed for, which Democrats likely would have relished in.

But it also saved them from taking any of the blame that could have come their way from voting against a clean CR.

President Biden

Similar to Democrats on Capitol Hill, Biden wanted to send more money to Kyiv, especially after he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last week. The White House included $24 billion in a supplemental request over the summer.

The exclusion of the funding is a bruising loss to the president, who has made support for Kyiv a priority throughout his term. But in the end, the stopgap bill staved off a shutdown which the president wanted — especially amid his sagging poll numbers — even though he was likely ready to use the lapse in funding as a cudgel to go after House Republicans.

And Biden was able to stay on the sidelines during the tumultuous funding fight, protecting him from taking any serious political hits amid the House GOP infighting and chamber-versus-chamber battle.

Losers

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)

Gaetz has for weeks threatened to make a motion to oust McCarthy if he put a “clean” CR on the floor, and been the most vocal opponent of any kind of stopgap measure.

But ahead of the vote on Saturday, Gaetz indicated that such a move was not imminent, telling reporters he was focused on averting a shutdown by advancing full-year appropriations bills.

He also earned more enemies over the week, with his GOP colleagues calling him out by name after a GOP-only stopgap failed – and it is not clear what he gained.

“There’s only one person to blame for any potential government shutdown, and that’s Matt Gaetz,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said on Friday. “He’s not a conservative Republican. He’s a charlatan.”

Fiscal conservatives

Fiscal conservatives in the House have for months been looking to the government funding deadline as their opportunity to force deep spending cuts and policy concessions.

They lost that fight miserably.

After 21 conservatives sunk a GOP-only stopgap bill, McCarthy ditched partisan strategies and rolled out a stopgap bill that continues funding at current levels, turning longtime conservative worries into reality. It cleared the chamber with more support from Democrats than Republicans.

Fiscal conservatives did, however, get agreement from GOP leadership for further spending cuts across the 12 regular appropriations bills, and a schedule to consider more of them through October that includes a canceled two-week recess. All of that funding will still need eventual agreement from the Senate, though – and the conservatives fear they will get rolled again.

Ukraine funding

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington, D.C. and met with congressional leaders just a week ago. But in a major blow to the Biden administration, supporters of funding were not able to push a bill through. 

With opposition to Ukraine funding ticking up among House Republicans, the move raises questions about how funding will move forward in the future.

McCarthy said Sunday that the Biden administration needs to come talk to Republicans about what victory would be in Ukraine, and to ensure that the aid is accounted for.

President Biden on Saturday night signed a stopgap funding bill, avoiding a government shutdown right before the midnight deadline.

The continuing resolution (CR), passed by both the House and Senate by wide margins earlier in the day, will continue funding the government at its current spending levels into mid-November. It includes $16 billion in disaster relief, but no aid for Ukraine or changes to border policy.

"Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans," Biden said in a statement shortly after the Senate passed the CR. "This bill ensures that active-duty troops will continue to get paid, travelers will be spared airport delays, millions of women and children will continue to have access to vital nutrition assistance, and so much more. This is good news for the American people."

Biden signing the bill into law caps a chaotic few weeks in Congress, and a day full of surprises in the Capitol.

Lawmakers entered Saturday morning largely expecting a shutdown.

But after a failed vote on a GOP stopgap bill Friday, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) brought up an idea for the “clean” spending bill Saturday morning. It passed the House in a bipartisan 335-91 vote.

“Just moments ago on the House floor we passed by overwhelming numbers the ability to keep government open for the next six weeks,” McCarthy said in a press conference in the wake of the vote.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) praised the work of his party to pass the bill.

“This spending bill was a complete and total victory for the American people. And a total defeat for the extreme MAGA Republicans,” Jeffries said in a press conference.

The bill then overwhelmingly passed the Senate in an 88-9 vote.

Averting a shutdown has major ramifications for government operations and the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

It ensures military service members are paid, that no federal workers will be furloughed, food assistance programs will continue uninterrupted, national parks will remain open and travel will not be impacted.

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D) expressed his frustration with the recent state of Congress in the wake of the Senate voting to approve a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded Saturday.

“I voted at 8:30pm on a Saturday night, that’s my job,” Fetterman said in a statement “But the American people should never have to worry about their government shutting down. Pushing the snooze button solves nothing, because these same losers will try to pull the same s— in 45 days.”

“I voted yes tonight to keep the government open, but I’m done normalizing this dysfunction,” Fetterman continued. “This is not entertainment, it’s governance. We must not allow the Freedom Caucus to turn our government into The Steve Wilkos Show.”

In an 88-9 vote, the Senate approved the CR to keep the government funded after the House passed it earlier in the day. The bill aims to fund the government at its current levels through mid-November and features $16 billion in relief for natural disaster victims.

Congressional approval of the bill followed weeks of chaos in Congress and uncertainty by some that the government wouldn’t be able to remain open. 

“Our bipartisan work in the Senate set the tone for the bill we’re about to pass,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said after the vote. “Our bipartisanship made this possible and showed the House that they had to act.”

“We will keep the government open for 45 days with a clean CR at current funding levels,” Schumer continued. “And we avoided all of the extreme, nasty and harmful cuts MAGA Republicans wanted.”

The Senate voted to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded Saturday night after the House had previously passed the measure.

While a small group of nine Republican senators voted against the bill, an overwhelming majority of their colleagues, a total of 88 senators, voted for it. 

“Our bipartisan work in the Senate set the tone for the bill we're about to pass,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said after the vote. “Our bipartisanship made this possible and showed the House that they had to act.”

“We will keep the government open for 45 days with a clean CR at current funding levels,” Schumer continued. “And we avoided all of the extreme, nasty and harmful cuts MAGA Republicans wanted.”

Here are the nine Republicans who voted against the continuing resolution:

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.)

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.)

In a Saturday night post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) said he “made very clear that I wouldn’t support any short-term funding bill that didn’t include serious border-security measures to help put an end to the Biden Border crisis."

“My colleagues know that I’ve worked my heart out to this end, and I look forward to working with them over the next 45 days to accomplish this critical goal,” Hagerty continued in another post. 

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) 

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas)

In a post on X on Saturday night, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) said the CR “does nothing to address our most immediate national security threat- our open southern border & the fentanyl pouring in.”

“With a $33 trillion debt crisis, it’s never been more clear America can’t afford to continue these spending levels for one more day, let alone, 45,” he added.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

Sen. Eric Schmitt (Mo.) 

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio)

Congress has averted a shutdown with just hours to spare, capping a dramatic day that started with a lapse in government funding appearing all but inevitable.

The Senate voted 88-9 to pass a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) that funds the government at current levels through Nov. 17 and gives the Biden administration $16 billion it requested to assist victims of natural disasters. The House had earlier passed the measure in a bipartisan 335-91 vote.

The CR notably lacks any funding for Ukraine, spending cuts or border policy changes.

The bill now heads to President Biden’s desk for his signature before midnight, with both sides claiming victory. 

“Bipartisanship, which has been the trademark of the Senate, has prevailed. And the American people can breathe a sigh of relief," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

The vote came together after a hectic day on both sides of the Capitol. 

House Republicans huddled in the morning and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — having exhausted all options to pass a GOP-only stopgap plan — made a sharp shift in strategy and announced the clean CR, dealing a blow to hardline conservatives who have stymied leadership at every turn in recent weeks. 

On Friday, 21 Republicans sank the House GOP’s own stopgap that included steep spending cuts and border policy changes. Leaders tried to see if they could adjust the plan to secure support from the hardliners, but were left with six holdouts who refused to support the measure — enough to tank any partisan bill in the narrow majority.

“Let me tell you, today wasn't a choice we wanted to have. We tried to pass the most conservative stopgap measure possible,” McCarthy said after Saturday’s vote. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have 218 Republicans.”

But it wasn’t immediately clear the measure would get the Democratic votes it needed to pass.

A several-hour standoff of dueling delay tactics ensued with Ukraine aid as the key sticking point. 

House Democrats attempted to stall a vote on the CR — which contained the majority of their demands, with the exception of funding for Ukraine — in the hopes the Senate would move first on its own clean CR.

Republicans in the upper chamber countered with their own tactics, stalling — and eventually scrapping — a planned procedural vote on the upper chamber’s bipartisan clean bill that included Ukraine funding and disaster relief. Instead, they deferred to the House’s legislation.

They noted that if Schumer had opposed the House bill, GOP members were set to brand the potential shutdown as one created by the Democratic leader despite the issues created by conservatives throughout recent weeks. 

After weeks of dread and hours of delays, things started moving very quickly.

Senate Republicans went all in with their chips on the House’s stopgap measure. In the House, only one Democrat voted against the bill and it sailed through.

“I’m really always optimistic, and I was really pessimistic until about an hour ago,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told reporters shortly after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters about the GOP plan. “I think it shows that the No. 1 priority is no shutdown and what a disservice it is.”

Multiple Senate Republicans acknowledged that Saturday marked the first time in months that they and their House colleagues were on the same page.

They also pointed to the key roles Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) played in recent days in trying to get the sides to sing the same tune as GOP leaders attempted to back Democrats into supporting the 45-day measure. 

Mullin, a six-term House member prior to his Senate win last year and is an ally of McCarthy, was spotted speed-walking back and forth between the two chambers numerous times in recent days. 

Averting a shutdown has major ramifications for government operations and the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

It ensures military service members are paid, that no federal workers will be furloughed, food assistance programs will continue uninterrupted, national parks will remain open and travel will not be impacted.

But the fight over government funding is sure to continue as each chamber works to pass 12 full-year appropriations bills.

Senators are expected to reconsider their efforts to pass funding packages with three appropriations bills included at a time, also known as a “minibus.” 

House Republicans have vowed to move their bills one at a time through regular order, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing so far. The chamber has passed four full-year bills, but hardline conservatives have also forced leaders to delay votes multiple times and tanked procedural votes to advance legislation — an exceedingly rare occurrence — twice earlier this month before striking a deal with leadership to move several bills forward. 

Adding to the looming tension, the House and Senate are crafting their appropriations bills at different spending levels. The Senate is sticking to the caps agreed to by President Biden and McCarthy in a debt ceiling deal earlier this year, while hard-line conservatives have pushed the House to craft bills at far lower levels.

In addition, Senate Republicans who are staunchly behind a new tranche of funding for Ukraine believe they will have a better chance at moving that through Congress next month. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters that he is hopeful to advance a supplemental centered on aid for Ukraine and border security that can potentially garner enough support from House Republicans. 

Lawmakers in support of Ukraine argued they will only have one chance in these spending fights to win funding for their continued war against Russian aggression, and that there’s enough money to tide over Ukraine until mid-November. 

“Nobody wants to help Ukraine more than I do,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters. “You’ve just got to do it in the way to get the most votes to make it sustainable. A lot of Republicans say, ‘I can’t vote for Ukraine unless I do something about the border,’ which makes sense to me. So let’s do that.” 

Senate Democrats, however, were unnerved by McConnell’s decision to back away from the Senate’s bill, especially after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent visit to Capitol where he pleaded with leaders to greenlight funding for the war. 

“McConnell and others have walked away from the deal that they had agreed to,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) lamented to reporters about the Ukraine funding state of play.

It also prompted a last-minute snag as Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) held up a vote on final passage over the exclusion of Ukraine funding. Bennet told reporters that he felt it was necessary to send the message that members are still fighting for Ukraine.

“I know how important moments are like this for the United States to lead the rest of the world,” Bennet said. “There’s nobody else to lead this. … We cannot fail.”

Schumer said in his floor remarks that he and McConnell “have agreed to continue fighting for more economic and security aid for Ukraine."

Senate negotiators had discussed attaching a border security-related amendment to the body’s spending proposal in recent days, but it never came together because the provisions likely wouldn't have been strong enough for House conservatives.

The other open question hanging over Saturday is whether House GOP hard-liners make good on their threats to oust McCarthy for putting a clear CR on the floor.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has for weeks been threatening to make a motion to vacate the chair – a move to force a vote on ousting the Speaker – if McCarthy brought up a clean CR, and several other Republicans have openness in supporting that move. Whether it would succeed would depend largely on House Democrats.

But a defiant McCarthy dared his detractors to make a motion to vacate the floor as he pushed to keep the government up and running.

“If somebody wants to remove [me] because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try,” McCarthy told reporters Saturday morning. “If I have to risk my job for standing up for the American public, I will do that.”

Emily Brooks contributed.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said fellow New Yorker Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D) should “strongly consider” resigning if he pulled a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building Saturday.

“That any member of Congress would think it's appropriate to pull a fire alarm to try and delay Congress from doing its business is shameful, it’s unbecoming, and he should strongly consider resigning from Congress if he did that,” Lawler said on Fox News.

Bowman reportedly pulled the fire alarm before the House passed a stopgap funding bill to keep the government funded. The New York congressman’s actions resulted in the building’s evacuation.

“Congressman Bowman did not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote,” a Bowman spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill. “The Congressman regrets any confusion.”

Other Republicans have slammed Bowman for the incident, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)

“This should not go without punishment,” McCarthy said at a press conference.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also offered a similar take on the situation.

“I’m demanding that the Department of Justice prosecute him using the same way they prosecuted January 6 defendants. It’s the exact same law,” Greene said.

The House’s bill attempts to keep the government funded at the same levels it already is through mid-November. It also features $16 billion in disaster relief, but no aid to Ukraine or changes in border policy.

Entrepreneur and 2024 GOP presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy expressed his negative view of the recently passed stopgap funding bill to keep the government funded on Saturday.

"My first reaction is the reaction it's been for the last several days, which is this whole debate is a farce. It's a deflection," Ramaswamy told reporters following his speech at the California GOP convention.

He added, "Even if the government were gonna shut down, we know what happens every time. They get the back pay, it comes back bigger every time. We need to stop the artificial debate about fake government shutdowns and start having a real debate — how to achieve a true shutdown of the administrative state."

His answer comes a few days after a recent GOP presidential primary debate in which he fell in support behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, according to a Washington Post survey of people who watched the debate.

The House’s bill attempts to keep the government funded at the same levels it already is through mid-November. It also features $16 billion in disaster relief, but no aid to Ukraine or changes in border policy.

“Just moments ago on the House floor we passed by overwhelming numbers the ability to keep government open for the next six weeks,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in a press conference in the wake of the vote.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y) praised the work of his party to pass the bill.

“This spending bill was a complete and total victory for the American people. And a total defeat for the extreme MAGA Republicans,” Jeffries said in a press conference.

The House on Saturday approved a “clean” stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown, sending the legislation to the Senate for consideration hours before the midnight funding deadline.

The measure would keep the government funded at current spending levels for 45 days and it includes $16 billion in disaster relief — matching the figure the White House included in a supplemental request. It does not include Ukraine aid or border policy changes.

The chamber cleared the stopgap bill in an overwhelmingly bipartisan 335-91 vote hours after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) rolled out the proposal.

The plan marked a stark shift in his posture when it comes to government funding. And it could spell trouble for his Speakership as conservatives heighten their threats to confiscate his gavel.

At the same time, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Senate Republicans would not allow the upper chamber's bipartisan continuing resolution (CR) to advance, deferring to the House plan.

That proposal would keep the government funded through Nov. 17 and it includes $5.99 billion in disaster relief and $6.15 billion in Ukraine aid.

McCarthy told members of his conference earlier this week that he would not bring the Senate measure to the floor for a vote after a number of conservatives voiced concern with the inclusion of Ukraine funding and the lack of border security provisions. Support for Ukraine has become a hot-button issue in the House GOP conference.

McCarthy bringing a clean stopgap bill to the floor was a departure from his previous stance on government funding.

The Speaker in recent weeks had been pushing his conference to coalesce around a GOP-crafted stopgap bill that includes border security, a move that was designed to give Republicans greater leverage in negotiations with Senate Democrats and the White House. He had brushed aside the possibility of working with Democrats to avert a shutdown, underscoring the importance of getting border security provisions in any funding measure.

But on Friday, a band of 21 conservatives voted down that GOP stopgap bill, leaving McCarthy with few options to avert a shutdown ahead of the looming deadline. Hours after the failed vote, the Speaker floated a “clean” stopgap bill without Ukraine, following through with that idea Saturday morning.

While the Saturday vote brings the country one step closer to averting a shutdown, it also puts McCarthy at a greater threat of losing his gavel. Hard-line Republicans for weeks had been publicly warning that the Speaker could face a vote on his ouster if he worked with Democrats to fund the government.

“If Kevin McCarthy puts a continuing resolution on the floor, it’s going to be shot, chaser; continuing resolution, motion to vacate,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), one of McCarthy’s foremost adversaries, said earlier this month.

McCarthy, for his part, brushed aside those threats on Saturday.

“If someone wants to remove because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try,” he told reporters.

“But I think this country is too important. And I will stand with our military. I’ll stand with our border agents. I’ll stand with those that have to get their medicine from government as well,” McCarthy added. “I think that’s too important.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Senate Republicans will vote against advancing the chamber’s bipartisan stopgap spending bill as members see an emerging bill coming from the House as the main way to avoid a government shutdown.

McConnell told reporters that the House bill, which is a 45-day continuing resolution that includes disaster aid funding but no money for Ukraine, is the preferred option of his members, and that they will overwhelmingly vote against cloture in order to focus on that option.

“I’m fairly confident that most of my members — our members — are going to vote against cloture,” McConnell said. “Not necessarily because they are opposed to the underlying bill. But to see what the House can do on a bipartisan basis, and then bring it over to us.”

“Under these circumstances, I’m recommending a ‘no’ vote,” McConnell continued. “Even though I very much want to avoid a government shutdown.”

DEVELOPING.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky left Washington last week with a dire warning, that Russia is counting on eroding U.S. support to win its war against his country.

“It’s not about some kind of weapon, or some money, it’s not about it, because… we will have some help,” Zelensky told a small group of news outlets in Washington last week, including The Hill. “But in two or three months, if we will lose some support, it means that we can lose the war.”

Zelensky’s appearance seemed to make a difference with GOP leaders, particularly in the Senate, which is moving forward with a stopgap spending measure that includes $6.15 billion in support for Ukraine despite the vocal opposition of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has threatened to hold up the legislation over the issue.

Senate Republicans also think it will be easier to get funding for Ukraine passed by Congress if it is included in must-pass legislation.

But Ukraine is complicating matters in the House, where dozens of Republicans oppose continued funding for Ukraine.

On Friday night, hours after his conference rejected his previous proposal to keep the government open, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) floated the idea of a "clean" two-week stopgap measure with no aid for Ukraine.

“I think if we had a clean one without Ukraine on it, we could probably be able to move that through,” McCarthy said after a lengthy GOP conference meeting on Friday when asked about a clean continuing resolution. “I think if the Senate puts Ukraine on there and focuses Ukraine over America, I think that could cause real problems.”

McCarthy's comments underline the importance Ukraine aid is now taking in the fight over the shutdown.

There have been signs this week of increasing opposition to funding for Ukraine in the House GOP.

In a series of votes on Wednesday, a majority of GOP House lawmakers rejected efforts to cut back on funding for Ukraine, voting down a trio of amendments to a Pentagon appropriations bill that would have curtailed Washington’s financial support for Kyiv.

But on Thursday night, more than half of Republicans in the House voted against $300 million in aide to Ukraine. The aid did pass in a 311-117 vote. McCarthy at the last minute stripped the aid from the defense bill — the provision had been included since 2016 — so it could pass on a GOP-only vote, while pushing through the Ukraine funding separately on the back of Democrats. 

Zelensky during his visit last week said he believed that McCarthy supported Ukraine but understood he faces challenges, saying the process would not be “simple.”

McCarthy is under a constant threat from various conservatives to unseat him through a procedural motion known as a “motion to vacate the chair” which would lead to a vote to end his Speakership.

McCarthy’s moves this week do suggest he is trying to maintain support for Ukraine, but even before floating the Ukraine-free measure on Friday night, he'd insisted the issue should be kept out of the stopgap measure and dealt with on its own as a supplemental.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a McCarthy ally who has repeatedly backed Kyiv in House votes, criticized the decision to include Ukraine money in the Senate stopgap, calling it a “strategic political mistake” and “so dumb” to bring Ukraine funding into the government spending fight. 

McHenry specifically blamed the Biden administration in his public comments, but the decision to do so was backed by Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his leadership team.

Opponents of Ukraine funding in the House feel like they are gaining momentum.

The House vote on providing $300 million in assistance to Ukraine on Thursday night received 117 GOP “no” votes, more than a similar vote on Wednesday night.

A similar phenomenon played out with an amendment proposed by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fl.) that called for prohibiting any U.S. assistance for Ukraine. The amendment failed in a vote Wednesday night but it had 93 Republicans voting in favor, an increase from the 70 GOP members who voted for the amendment in July. 

Matthew Tragesser, communications director for Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), told The Hill that the congressman’s “colleagues in the House are finally starting to realize that the United States should not be funding another never-ending war overseas.”

Some GOP critics of U.S. assistance for Ukraine say the Biden administration has failed to explain what their goals are in supporting Kyiv. President Biden has said the U.S. will be with Ukraine “as long as it takes” for it to survive Russia’s aggression.

Zelensky’s visit last week certainly didn’t change the views of lawmakers who have long opposed U.S. support for Ukraine.

“I just don’t think that continuing to spend money without any clear plan … is wise, I mean that’s been my position for a long, long time, I didn’t hear anything that changed that,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told The Hill.

Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said it's important that Congress provide more money for Ukraine in the wake of Zelensky's visit as a sign of the United States' continuing commitment to supporting its war against Russia. 

“I think it's a message to the world if we interrupt that flow of support so I think it's very important that we continue those resources,” he said. “To interrupt it would do grave damage to our relationship with the world.”

Hickenlooper said “there's significant support in the House and the Senate” for backing Ukraine. 

“I think he knew that we were coming together with a budget and he came to make his case before we did the budget,” Hickenlooper added. “I think he was coming to thank us. He was profuse in his gratitude but also to say, ‘We can win this.’”

Emily Brooks and Alexander Bolton contributed to this report.

Congress has less than a day to find a way to fund the government and a shutdown is looking likely.

House Republicans are meeting Saturday morning to find a way forward after conservatives voted down a proposed short-term solution Friday, leading to finger-pointing and frustration within the conference.

The Senate is set to vote at 1 p.m. on its proposed stopgap, but Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has not committed to bringing it to the House floor.

Follow along with live updates below.

Congress is lurching toward a shutdown that would begin early Sunday morning, with House Republicans battling one another and the Senate moving forward with a bipartisan plan that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has not committed to bringing to a vote in the House.

Senators are poised to vote Saturday afternoon on a bill to fund the government until Nov. 17. The legislation includes $6.15 billion for Ukraine and $6 billion for disaster relief.

McCarthy has drawn a line in the sand on Ukraine funding, and floated the idea Friday night of a "clean" measure that would not include funding for Ukraine.

A number of conservatives in McCarthy's conference would oppose such a measure, and it would need Democratic support to pass.

The Senate bill, if approved by the upper chamber, would likely pass the House if it were given a vote on the floor.

But a majority of the House GOP conference voted against a measure Thursday on Ukraine aid, and bringing the bill to the floor could come with political pain for McCarthy, who is working under the threat of a "motion to vacate" from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and other opponents that would essentially be a vote to remove him as Speaker.

McCarthy, who refuses to work with House Democrats, hasn’t been able to pass a government funding stopgap with just Republican votes because a small group of conservatives has refused to go along with his spending strategy.  

The Speaker suffered yet another setback on the House floor Friday when 21 Republicans voted with Democrats to defeat a House GOP-drafted proposal to fund the government until Oct. 31 but implement steep cuts to federal spending outside the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security.  

It was the latest aborted attempt to pass a continuing resolution through the House. House leaders canceled a procedural vote on a stopgap funding measure last week because of divisions in their conference.  

That's put the ball in the Senate's court, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is sticking to his plan of passing a six-week government funding bill with money for Ukraine and disaster relief, which he described as a “bridge” to give leaders more time to negotiate a longer-term spending deal.  

The Senate is scheduled to convene at noon Saturday and will then vote to advance a 79-page continuing resolution unveiled earlier in the week.  

Schumer hasn’t announced the precise timing of that vote in part because Republican senators are trying to craft an amendment to the bill with the help of independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) to stem the flow of migrants over the U.S.-Mexico border.  

The potential amendment, however, had yet to be drafted when GOP senators discussed it at a lunch meeting Friday and negotiators were in the process of checking with the Senate parliamentarian to ensure it could be adopted with only a simple majority under the Senate rules.  

The big question ahead of Saturday’s vote in the Senate is whether the continuing resolution will muster the 60 votes it needs to advance, something made more complicated by the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who was expected to vote for the bill.  

Several Republicans have already indicated they plan to support the legislation, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Appropriations Committee vice chair Susan Collins (R-Maine).  

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee have also signaled they support the stopgap. 

“Shutting down the government doesn’t help anybody politically. It doesn’t make any meaningful progress on policy. And it heaps unnecessary hardships on the American people as well as the brave men and women who keep us safe,” McConnell warned Thursday afternoon.   

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who’s involved in the talks on adding border security to the bill, said he hopes the funding measure will pass the Senate even if the border amendment fails to secure enough votes to ride along.  

Some possible swing votes, such as Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairwoman Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said they hoped something could be done to address the border situation.  

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned on Thursday that it would be hard for him to vote for a stopgap without changes to improve border security. 

Senate conservatives are trying to whip up opposition to the bill, arguing that it has little chance in the House and instead proposing a two-week stopgap funding measure without money for Ukraine or disaster relief.  

“The only thing that I think will pass the House and the Senate is a clean CR without Ukraine funding on it,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has vowed to drag out the floor consideration of the Senate bill for as long as possible if it includes money for Ukraine.   

McCarthy on Friday afternoon told reporters a clean continuing resolution passed by the Senate could come to the floor in the House, offering a possible last-minute path to avoid a shutdown. 

“I think if we had a clean one without Ukraine on it we could probably be able to move that through. I think if the Senate puts Ukraine on there and focuses Ukraine over America, I think that could cause real problems,” he said.  

Any such bill, however, would need significant support from House Democrats to offset the group of House conservatives who don’t want to vote for a short-term funding measure under any circumstances. 

So far, Democrats don’t appear at all keen to pass a two-week funding measure without Ukraine money, which was a proposal that Republican senators discussed on Friday.  

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) objected to Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) request on the Senate floor to pass a two-week funding resolution without Ukraine or disaster money. 

“We can’t be back here in this same situation in two weeks. We need a CR that gives us the actual time to get through our bipartisan spending bills,” she said, referring to the 12 annual appropriations bills that passed through her committee earlier this year.  

“I would love to say we can get them done in two weeks but we know that’s not realistic,” she said.  

She also criticized Johnson's proposal for not reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, which she warned would mean “chaos for air travel." She also argued it wouldn't extend Ukraine aid or disaster relief. 

A two-week stopgap funding measure is getting more attention from House conservatives. Some of them are now proposed shortening the span of the failed House GOP-drafted resolution to fund government until Oct. 31.

Emily Brooks contributed. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is faced with a difficult decision over who will fill the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) seat after her passing Friday at age 90. 

Feinstein, the longest-serving woman in the Senate, died after three decades in the upper chamber. The pressure is now on Newsom to appoint a replacement to temporarily serve as senator for the Golden State until voters elect their next choice in 2024.  

Newsom has said he will pick a Black woman to fill the seat, though he has also signaled he wants to stay above the fray in next year's Senate race — drawing rebukes from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), one of the declared candidates, in the process. 

“He has a big political calculation to make,” California-based Democratic strategist Kate Maeder said of Newsom’s “huge task at hand” in picking a replacement to follow Feinstein’s “titan” legacy representing her state.  

“Choosing her replacement is no easy task, and I think generally people understand how challenging this decision is for him, both politically and personally,” Maeder said of Newsom.  

Feinstein’s absence now puts Democrats down one member in the upper chamber they hold by a slim margin, adding urgency for Newsom to quickly select a temporary successor. It also draws attention to an already intense battle for her seat.  

California Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter launched bids for Feinstein’s seat before the senator announced in February she would not seek reelection. Lee announced her run shortly after, becoming the third candidate to jump into the competitive race.  

Newsom has said he won’t appoint any of the candidates currently running in the primary, instead appointing someone to serve essentially as a caretaker of the seat until the next election.  

“Interim appointment. I don't want to get involved in the primary,” Newsom told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” earlier this month.  

Pressed on whether he’d appoint anybody who has already filed for the race, the governor said, “It would be completely unfair to the Democrats that have worked their tail off” and that he doesn’t “want to tip the balance” of the upcoming primary.  

Newsom made no mention of any appointment plans in his statement on Feinstein's passing on Friday. 

In March, Newsom pledged to appoint a Black woman as Feinstein’s replacement if she retired from her role. But that pledge on top of his decision not to draw from the pool of current primary candidates has “troubled” Lee, who is Black. 

“I am troubled by the governor’s remarks,” Lee said this month. “The idea that a Black woman should be appointed only as a caretaker to simply check a box is insulting to countless Black women across this country who have carried the Democratic Party to victory election after election.” 

Who Newsom will pick is “a big question mark” at this point, said Steven Maviglio, a Sacramento-based Democratic strategist. “There’s been a lot of speculation with a lot of names,” he said, but no clear favorite. Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell are among the names some are floating.

“There’s great Black women serving in office … but do any of these women want to be a caretaker?” Maviglio said.  

Though the front-runner isn’t clear, strategists say Newsom’s likely looking for someone who can give the Democrats another solid blue vote for the next year and a half until the 2024 election.  

Newsom has dismissed the idea that he could be a possible 2024 presidential contender, making the rounds instead as an outspoken supporter of Biden and Harris running for reelection. Some consider him a possible White House hopeful in 2028 or beyond.  

“Everything that the governor does is through the prism of how it’s going to reflect on him and his future ambitions, and I think this is no different,” Maviglio said of the impending appointment choice. 

Given the timing of the Senate seat vacancy, he’ll likely have to move more quickly for the Feinstein seat appointment than he had to as he picked Padilla to replace Harris, said Democratic strategist David Thomas — though exactly when he would need to make the appointment isn't clear. 

The timing also means that a special election for who will serve out the remainder of Feinstein’s unexpired term — after Newsom makes an interim appointment — will likely be grouped in with next year’s primary and general elections, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The California secretary of state’s office was still figuring out what a timeline for an appointment or special election would look like on Friday, Politico reported. 

“I’m sure he views this as an opportunity again not just to appoint somebody to represent California,” Thomas said of Newsom. “But also to make another historic choice.”  

National Security adviser John Kirby went after Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) on Friday for his comments disparaging equal opportunity in the military, saying the senator is “just flat out wrong.”

Tuberville opposed the confirmation of Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. to replace Gen. Mark Milley as the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arguing that the military “is not an equal opportunity employer."

His comments come after Brown encouraged more diversity among military ranks. 

“The United States Department of Defense and the military, is, and appropriately is, an equal opportunity employer,” Kirby said in a CNN interview Friday. “It’s because of that diversity, it is because we provide equal opportunities for all Americans to serve their country and defend this country that we are better at doing it.”

“I strongly push back on this idea that the military is not an equal opportunity employer," he added. "It absolutely is. It should be. It makes you a better, stronger military. He’s just flat-out wrong."

Tuberville has been the target of major scrutiny as he continues to block the Senate from advancing senior military promotions due to his objections to what he calls “woke” aspects of the military — including policies allowing leave for abortion care.

Despite attempts by Republicans to get Tuberville to back down, the senator has refused. The blockade has forced the Senate to prioritize promotions and vote on confirmations one at a time — instead of bulk voting by unanimous consent, as is tradition.

About 300 promotions have been paused by Tuberville’s blockade.

Brown was confirmed last week in an 83-11 vote — just one week before Milley's retirement.

The Senate lost one of its giants when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) died at her home in Washington, DC, at the age of 90, ending a long, storied political career that helped pave the way for women to rise to new heights of political power in America. 

Feinstein passed away at age 90 late on Thursday night, only hours after she cast the final vote of her illustrious career, which senators praised and reminisced about during hours of floor speeches throughout Friday. 

Several senators teared up on the floor as they talked about their cherished colleague, standing only a few feet away from Feinstein’s Senate desk, which was draped with a black shroud and decorated with a crystal vase full of white flowers. 

“She was smart, she was strong, she was brave, she was compassionate,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor on Friday morning, his voice choking up at times with emotion.

Schumer declared that his colleague’s “integrity” was “the trait that stood out most.” 

“Her integrity was a diamond. Her integrity shone like a beacon across the Senate and across the country for all to see and hopefully emulate,” Schumer said. 

The longtime California Democrat broke glass ceilings throughout her career.

She was the first woman to represent California in the Senate, the first woman to chair the Senate Judiciary, Rules and Intelligence Committees and the first woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco. 

She was a member of the historic class of women elected to the Senate in 1992, which became the “Year of the Woman” after Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and former Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.) also won election to the upper chamber.  

As a result, the number of women in the Senate grew from two to six. That number later grew to 25 by the start of the 118th Congress, with many citing Feinstein as a significant influence. 

“I followed her long before I ever got to call her my colleague. She was a role model to many, but when I joined the Senate … she always reached out,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) told The Hill in a brief interview, adding that she was “especially good” at gathering members away from Capitol Hill to help grow relationships on a bipartisan basis, especially among the women of the Senate. 

“She’s a trailblazer in every sense of that word,” Baldwin added.

Feinstein ultimately became the longest-serving woman in the history of the Senate at the time of her death, with members mentioning her name in the same sentence as the likes of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) as titanic figures of the upper chamber. 

Federal Assault Weapons Ban

Perhaps her greatest legislative achievement was the passage of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which then-President Clinton signed into law and prohibited the sale and manufacture of assault-style weapons for a decade. 

Schumer, who led the efforts to pass gun-control legislation in the House in the mid-nineties, recalled the intense opposition Feinstein faced from the National Rifle Association at the time. 

“The NRA was a relentless and often mean-spirited and chauvinistic foe,” Schumer recalled. “They didn’t scare her. They didn’t stop her and they failed against her. Like most of her opponents, they failed against her.” 

The weapons ban expired in 2004 and one academic study published in 2020 found evidence showing the number of mass shootings increased after it lapsed. 

Even so, the effectiveness of the assault weapons ban has been fiercely debated and the proposal itself became a rallying cry for the gun-rights movement. 

Congress never came close to passing another assault weapons ban even after high profile shootings with AR-15-style weapons at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012 and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas in 2022.

Global war on terror

Feinstein also spearheaded the fight against the U.S. government’s use of torture during the global war on terror that following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. 

That culminated in her release of the Intelligence Committee’s report in 2014 documenting the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” against detainees, such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation, among other harsh methods. 

The report cast serious doubts on the effectiveness of those tactics in collecting intelligence. 

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) recounted the bruising fight with the Central Intelligence Agency to get the report done and the executive summary published. 

“She had to get through massive counterattacks from the CIA on her and on our Intelligence Committee staff,” he said. 

Her committee’s report later became the basis of a movie in which Annette Bening played her on screen. 

“Dianne Feinstein showed the courage to stand up and not just say ‘no,’ but ‘hell no,’” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said, referring to her probe into torture techniques. 

Feinstein wasn’t afraid to buck her own party’s leaders at times. She did so in 2009 when she broke with party leaders who were reluctant to seat Roland Burris (D-Ill.) as former Sen. Barrack Obama’s replacement in the Senate because of ethical scandal swirling around then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s handling of the appointment. 

Feinstein, however, argued it would undermine gubernatorial power, a stance that may have helped preserve California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s power to now appoint her successor. 

Her willingness to doggedly pursue policy goals and her ability to take a political punch and return one just as sharp prompted former President George W. Bush’s to nickname her and Boxer, California’s other senator “Ali and Frazier.” 

Longtime senators remembered how Feinstein’s personal touch softened the hard edges of Washington politics throughout her career.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) recalled the dinner Feinstein hosted for he and his wife, who was pregnant at the time with twins, and their lively banter about books at the meal. The topic was a natural talker because Wyden’s wife owns the famed Strand bookstore in New York City.

Colleagues say Feinstein always knew how to be gracious. 

Murray spoke on the floor about a time when she complimented one of Feinstein’s purses, only for Feinstein to order one and have it delivered to Murray’s home. 

“That was Dianne. … “I’m so sorry I didn’t hug her when she went back out that door yesterday,” Murray said in conclusion.

Senate Republicans are discussing a short-term government funding measure, perhaps lasting only two weeks, that would not include any significant money for Ukraine or disaster relief as part of a last-ditch effort to avoid a government shutdown.  

Senate Republicans at lunch debated proposing a clean two-week continuing resolution (CR) to buy more times for themselves to draft a border security amendment.  

“There’s the idea of a short-term two-week CR,” said one Republican senator who attended the Friday lunch meeting. “It would have the salutary effect of keeping the government going."  

“I think some people are warming up to it, otherwise we’re going to shut the government down tomorrow night,” the senator said.  

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) said he thought Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) would take the two-week CR "to the floor shortly to see how it flies.”

Other Senate conservatives spoke up in favor a short-term funding measure without Ukraine money. 

"There is a fair amount of chaos and uncertainty. There is a pretty broad agreement that a short-term CR is a much better solution than the long-term CR plus Ukraine funding,” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said.

“The one takeaway from lunch is that the majority of the conference I think would be much more open to a clean CR," he added.  

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) predicted a clean short-term government funding stopgap could pass both chambers because it would move without money for Ukraine, which is a poison pill for many conservative Republicans.  

“I think the most important thing is the CR with the Ukraine funding won’t pass the House,” he said. “Everybody needs to know that. That’s what they’ve said in the House."

“The only thing that I think will pass the House and the Senate is a clean CR without Ukraine funding on it,” he added. “I will allow consent on any clean CR without Ukraine.”

President Joe Biden ordered flags across the nation to be flown at half-staff in honor of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) following her death.

“As a mark of respect for the memory of Senator Dianne Feinstein, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, on the day of interment,” Biden said in a proclamation. 

“I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations,” Biden’s proclamation continued.

Feinstein died Thursday at her home in Washington, D.C., according to her chief of staff James Sauls. She was considered a trailblazer for women in American politics by many.

“Her passing is a great loss for so many, from those who loved and cared for her to the people of California that she dedicated her life to serving,” Sauls’ statement read.

Feinstein achieved many firsts for women in public office, including becoming the first woman mayor of San Francisco and the first woman senator from California. She made her last vote Thursday morning. 

In a statement, Biden called Feinstein a “pioneering American.” He said she “made her mark on everything from national security to the environment to protecting civil liberties.” 

“Often the only woman in the room, Dianne was a role model for so many Americans — a job she took seriously by mentoring countless public servants, many of whom now serve in my Administration. She had an immense impact on younger female leaders for whom she generously opened doors,” Biden said.

“Dianne was tough, sharp, always prepared, and never pulled a punch, but she was also a kind and loyal friend, and that’s what Jill and I will miss the most,” Biden continued. 

The Senate saw an outpouring of support for Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Calif.) family on Friday following her death, with colleagues from both parties sharing memories of the longtime lawmaker and praising her tenure.

Dozens of senators touted Feinstein's pioneering legacy rising through California politics and breaking ground as the first woman to hold key roles in the Senate, as well as her legacy working on issues such as women's rights and gun violence.

"I know how we always refer to each other as ‘my friend from’ whatever state it is. Honestly, frequently that’s not true. But Elaine and I were actual friends of Dick and Dianne," Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said in a statement, referring to his wife and Feinstein's late husband.

“Those of us fortunate to call Senator Feinstein our colleague can say we served alongside the longest-serving female Senator in American history," McConnell added. "Dianne was a trailblazer, and her beloved home state of California and our entire nation are better for her dogged advocacy and diligent service."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), in a speech on the Senate floor, choked up when lauding Feinstein, calling her "a friend, a hero for so many … a leader who changed the nature of the Senate and who changed the fabric of the nation, America, for the better."

Feinstein, 90, broke ground for women in politics. She was elected in 1992 in the Senate’s “year of the woman,” with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and former Sens. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) elected that year as well.

Her political tenure included a number of firsts, including becoming the first woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco, the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate from California and the first woman to chair the powerful Senate Rules and Intelligence committees.

“She was an icon to me — for her strength, how she threw open the Senate doors for women,” Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith (D) said in an X post, adding Feinstein "has been part of my political consciousness since I was a young woman at Stanford.”

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) called her "a trailblazing titan in the U.S. Senate and in our nation’s history," having "paved the way for countless women and girls to stand up and make a difference. We’ll always cherish her life and legacy, and we'll miss her dearly.”

“In the face of tragedy and tribulations throughout her career, she was fearless,” wrote Alabama Sen. Katie Britt (R).

Many colleagues praised the moderate California Democrat for her congeniality and willingness to work closely with members across the aisle.

“We didn’t agree politically, but she was a delight to serve with," Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who led the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development with Feinstein and served alongside her on the Judiciary panel, wrote on X.

Sen. Marco Rubio, who served with Feinstein on the Appropriations and Intelligence committees, remembered her as "intelligent" and "hard working," adding she "always treated everyone with courtesy & respect."

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) called her a "very gracious person."

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) dubbed her a “giant of the Senate.”

The Senate's oldest member, Feinstein cast her final vote on Thursday morning, hours before she died: a "yes" vote on a measure to proceed to a bill to prevent a government shutdown.

She announced in February that she would retire at the end of her term, and made her way around the Capitol using a wheelchair in recent months after battling shingles earlier this year.

Several colleagues praised Feinstein for helping newer members over the years navigate life in the upper chamber, including on the Judiciary Committee. She was the first woman to serve on the committee and the first woman to be ranking Democrat on the panel.

“When I first came to the Senate in 2010 and joined her on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dianne was a gracious and welcoming colleague," Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) wrote on X.

“No one was more welcoming when I came to the Senate than she, and no one was a better example,” added Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “She was tough, incredibly smart, and effective. Always willing to work across the aisle to get things done, she was a person of unquestioned integrity. I admired her and will miss her in the Senate.”

Numerous colleagues praised her work on particular issues, with North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis (R) calling her “one of the most effective legislators in recent memory.”

Feinstein was “a trailblazer in every sense of the word,” wrote Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), adding “her legacy on everything from women's rights to gun safety to national security is tremendous.”

“She was an extraordinary advocate for San Francisco, for California, and for the West,” wrote Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wrote in a post that despite their differences, "I enjoyed our work together to protect songwriters and take on Big Tech.”

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said he was "grateful" to work with Feinstein on immigration reform legislation and praised her for having "passionately defended civil rights."

"She leaves behind an incredible legacy — breaking barriers for women and taking real action against gun violence," Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) wrote.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the longest-serving Senate Republican, reflected on the pair's "wonderful working relationship" spanning decades.

"She’s a true public servant I’ll miss her," he wrote.