(FRI 9/30/22)
UPDATE: House Passes CR -- The House passed the continuing resolution extending the current fiscal year budget beyond its Friday midnight expiration, to December 16. President Biden will have signed it ASAP.
Here are the 10 House Republicans who joined all the Democrats in the House of Representatives to pass the bill, according to The Hill: Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Garret Graves of Louisiana, Chris Jacobs of New York, John Katko of New York, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, Hal Rogers of Kentucky, Fred Upton of Michigan and Steve Womack of Arkansas.
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New Sanctions on Russia as Putin Claims Four Territories – The White House announced a new round of sanctions on Russian government and military officials and their families, per The Hill, in response to President Vladimir Putin’s forced annexation through sham referenda of four regions of Ukraine. The sanctions by the Treasury, Commerce and State departments target the governor of Russia’s Central Bank and former Putin advisor Elvira Sakhipzadovna Nabiullina, more than 100 members of Russia’s Duma, members of the country’s National Security Council, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, among others. In addition, 57 entities will be restricted from obtaining key technologies and other materials.
Meanwhile: Ukrainian military forces say they have surrounded enemy troops in Lyman, hub of the Russian military in Donetsk, one of four eastern and southeastern regions Putin claimed in a ceremony Friday, according to the Daily Beast, which calls it Putin’s most humiliating defeat by Ukraine yet. It “could be one of the most serious Russian military losses of the war so far,” according to the report.
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House’s Turn – The Senate Thursday passed a continuing resolution funding the federal government at current levels through December 16, and now it’s the House’s turn. Failure to do so before midnight Friday, the end of the fed’s fiscal year, would shut down key Social Service, IRS services and national parks, The Washington Post notes.
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Cannon v. Dearie – Federal Judge Aileen Cannon Thursday overruled Special Master Raymond Dearie’s order that Donald J. Trump’s attorneys clarify whether they believe the former president’s claims that the FBI lied in its seizure of government documents at Mar-a-Lago August 8 (WaPo again).
Upshot: Dearie’s ruling last week would have forced Trump’s lawyers to deny his claims that more than 100 documents in the seizure were not classified or face potential perjury. As the judge who appointed Dearie the special master in Mar-a-Lagogate, Cannon has the power to do that. Trump’s appointment of Dearie as lame duck after he lost the 2020 election is paying off for him, and is continuing to slow the case well past the midterms and toward a possible GOP takeover of House and Senate majority rule.
--Edited by Todd Lassa