# Senate passes Republican spending bill, averting government shutdown – as it happened

## 21h ago

### Closing summary

The Guardian’s live blog is closing. Thank you for reading along today. Here are the top stories of the day in .

- **The US Senate has passed a six-month spending bill on a 54-46 vote, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown.** The bill is now headed to Donald Trump’s desk for signing.
- **The family of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s  last year**, has released a video of his arrest by plainclothes immigration officers. The video, recorded by his wife Noor Abdalla, who is eight months pregnant, shows immigration agents confronting Khalil and informing him that he is ‘going to be under arrest’ and ordering him to ‘stop resisting’.
- **The US Senate passed the Halt Fentanyl Act on Friday on a roll call vote of 84-16.** The act would impose harsher penalties on people who traffic the drug and would reclassify fentanyl as a schedule one substance, a classification for drugs that have a high potential for abuse.
- **Donald Trump is cancelling the construction of a new FBI headquarters in Maryland.** The FBI is currently based in downtown Washington DC, but has long been eyeing a move to the city’s suburbs.
- **Speaking to reporters after a meeting with G7 foreign ministers in Canada,** **secretary of state Marco Rubio has warned that more visas of anti-war protesters who are on temporary status in the US will be revoked**, Reuters reports.
- **The family of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s  last year**, has released a video of his arrest by plainclothes immigration officers. The video, recorded by his wife Noor Abdalla, who is eight months pregnant, shows immigration agents confronting Khalil and informing him that he is ‘going to be under arrest’ and ordering him to ‘stop resisting’.
- **The Justice Department is investigating whether Columbia University concealed ‘illegal aliens’ on its campus**, according to a top US justice department official. Agents with the Department of Homeland Security searched two university residences with a warrant Thursday evening.
- **Donald Trump just made a little bit of local news: he’s cancelling the construction of a new FBI headquarters in Maryland.** The FBI is currently based in downtown Washington DC, but has long been eyeing a move to the city’s suburbs. After years of wrangling by the congressional delegations of Maryland and Virginia, the federal government selected the former as the site of the new HQ, but Trump says he’ll put a stop to that:
  > You have that big FBI building, and it’s a very big building, and they were going to build an FBI headquarters three hours away in Maryland, a liberal state, but that has no bearing on what I’m about to say. But we’re going to stop it, not going to let that happen. We’re going to build another big FBI building right where it is, which would have been the right place, because the FBI and the DoJ have to be near each other.

### 23h ago

### The ten Democrats who voted to advance the spending bill

Ten democrats just voted to advance the government spending bill, the Associated Press reports. They are:

- Senate Democratic Leader **Chuck Schumer**
- Sen **Dick Durbin** of Illinois, the second highest-ranking Senate Democrat
- Sen **Angus King** of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats
- Sen **Catherine Cortez Masto** of Nevada
- Sen **John Fetterman** of Pennsylvania
- Sen **Gary Peters** of Michigan
- Sen **Kirsten Gillibrand** of New York
- Sen **Brian Schatz** of Hawaii
- Sen **Maggie Hassan** of New Hampshire
- Sen **Jeanne Shaheen** of New Hampshire

### 1d ago

### Spending bill clears key Senate hurdle

**A spending bill to avert a partial government shutdown has narrowly cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate, paving the way for passage as a midnight deadline looms.**

Ten Democrats joined with Republicans to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the measure. Democrats confronted two painful options Friday as a midnight deadline loomed. They could allow the passage of a bill they believe gives President  vast discretion on spending decisions.

Or they could vote no and let funding lapse. The top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said  really didn’t have a choice because a shutdown would have far worse consequences for Americans.

### 1d ago

### DoJ investigating whether Columbia University hid 'illegal aliens' on campus

**The US Justice department is investigating whether Columbia University concealed “illegal aliens” on its campus**, according to a top US justice department official. Agents with the Department of Homeland Security searched two university residences with a warrant Thursday evening.

No one was arrested, and it was unclear whom the authorities were searching for. But by Friday afternoon US officials had announced developments related to two people they had pursued in connection with the demonstrations.

A Columbia doctoral student from India whose visa was revoked by the  fled the US on an airliner. A Palestinian woman who had been arrested during the protests at the university last April was arrested by federal immigration authorities in Newark, New Jersey.

### 1d ago

### Donald Trump accuses Biden administration of using justice department 'to terrorize the innocent and reward the wicked'

With the niceties out of the way, **Donald Trump** is laying into **Joe Biden** and his attorney general **Merrick Garland**, airing a mostly familiar list of grievances about their administration.

“ Trump said.

Turning to his familiar rhetoric over immigration, Trump said of Biden: “They imported illegal alien murderers, drug dealers and child predators from all over the world to come into our country, while putting elderly Christians and anti-abortion activists on trial for singing hymns and for saying prayers.”

While Biden did preside over large levels of undocumented border crossings, there’s no evidence they encouraged them to enter, and it was  as a political liability for the president.

And as he often does, Trump has also repeatedly referenced  ****’ laptop.

### 1d ago

### Trump’s team at the justice department

**With the niceties out of the way,** **Donald Trump** is laying into **Joe Biden** and his attorney general **Merrick Garland**, airing a mostly familiar list of grievances about their administration.

“ Trump said.

“ Trump said.

### 1d ago

### Donald Trump’s team at the justice department

**With the niceties out of the way,** **Donald Trump** is laying into **Joe Biden** and his attorney general **Merrick Garland**, airing a mostly familiar list of grievances about their administration.

“ Trump said.

“ Trump said.

### 1d ago

### Donald Trump’s team at the justice department

**With the niceties out of the way,** **Donald Trump** is laying into **Joe Biden** and his attorney general **Merrick Garland**, airing a mostly familiar list of grievances about their administration.

“ Trump said.

“ Trump said.

### 1d ago

### Donald Trump’s team at the justice department

**With the niceties out of the way,** **Donald Trump** is laying into **Joe Biden** and his attorney general **Merrick Garland**, airing a mostly familiar list of grievances about their administration.

“ Trump said.

“ Trump said.

### 1d ago

### Donald Trump’s team at the justice department

**With the niceties out of the way,** **Donald Trump** is laying into **Joe Biden** and his attorney general **Merrick Garland**, airing a mostly familiar list of grievances about their administration.

“ Trump said.

“ Trump said.

### 1d ago

### Donald Trump’s team at the justice department

**With the niceties out of the way,** **Donald Trump** is laying into **Joe Biden** and his attorney general **Merrick Garland**, airing a mostly familiar list of grievances about their administration.

“ Trump said.

“ Trump said.

### 1d ago

### Donald Trump’s team at the justice department

**With the niceties out of the way,** **Donald Trump** is laying into **Joe Biden** and his attorney general **Merrick Garland**, airing a mostly familiar list of grievances about their administration.

“ Trump said.

“ Trump said.

### 1d ago

### Donald Trump’s team at the justice department

**With the niceties out of the way,** **Donald Trump** is laying into **Joe Biden** and his attorney general **Merrick Garland**, airing a mostly familiar list of grievances about their administration.

“ Trump said.

“ Trump said.
```