Vice President JD Vance speaks with ABC News while appearing on This Week, Oct. 12, 2025. ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — As the government shutdown continues and the impacts become more widespread, the Senate will not vote again on the clean funding bill until Tuesday night.
It is expected to fail for an eighth time.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, President Donald Trump announced that he ordered the Pentagon to use “all available funds” to pay some 2 million service members on Oct. 15 to avoid missing a paycheck as the shutdown drags on.
“The Department of War has identified approximately $8 billion of unobligated research development testing and evaluation funds (RDTE) from the prior fiscal year that will be used to issue mid month paychecks to service members in the event the funding lapse continues past October 15th. We will provide more information as it becomes available,” the Department of War said in a statement on Sunday.
It remains unclear what would happen to future paychecks if the government shutdown were to continue for an extended period of time.
Vice President JD Vance said on Fox News that “a lot” of that pay would come from income tax revenue, with some additional revenue from tariffs.
“Some of it will come from tightening the belts in other areas but, Maria, this is exactly right. A lot of this will come from incoming revenues to the Internal Revenue Service,” Vance said on Sunday. “Tariff revenue, but also income tax revenue that is going to make it possible for us to pay our troops.”
Trump’s tariffs are being challenged in court.
The Supreme Court will decide whether Trump’s sweeping global reciprocal tariffs are an illegal use of emergency authority granted by Congress – and whether tens of billions of dollars collected so far must be refunded.
Vance touted Trump’s maneuvers to pay the military, saying the White House is confident in the legality of their actions.
“We’re doing some pretty non-conventional things, as President Trump often does, to ensure that our troops are able to get paid. We are confident we’ve identified the legal pathways in order to do this, but it’s really important for the president of the United States even though (Senate Minority Leader Chuck) Schumer has shut down the government, he doesn’t want our troops to suffer because of it, of course,” Vance said.
Last week, the White House followed through on its threat to lay off federal employees. Vance warned that “deeper” and “painful” cuts would happen the longer the shutdown goes.
Mass firings have hit the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hard.
The nation’s special education services have been significantly impacted after Friday’s mass layoffs within the Department of Education and it could have an immediate impact on children with disabilities, education department sources told ABC News.
“Do people realize that this is happening to this population of vulnerable students?” one education department leader told ABC News.
Vance said on Sunday that the job cuts are legal.
“Of course, we always follow the law, and we always follow court cases, and we think that we have the authority to do what we need to do. I’m sure that some people will sue, and that will get figured out in court,” Vance told Fox News.
Trump said at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting that he’s going to be cutting “only” Democratic programs as a result of the shutdown.
“And we’ll be making cuts that will be permanent, and we’re only going to cut Democrat programs. I hate to tell you, I guess that makes sense, but we’re only cutting Democrat programs, but we’re going to start that,” Trump said
Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought announced $8 billion in green energy projects had been canceled. The projects were in 16 states that voted for Democrats in the last election.
The impacts of the shutdown are also hitting popular attractions in Washington, D.C. Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo were closed temporarily starting on Sunday.
ABC News’ Jay O’Brien spoke to one employee who may have to find another job and get by for now on the minimal savings he has.
“I need to support my family. I need to do anything to bring the money in the house…to pay the bills. You know, because bills, they can’t wait. Rent can’t wait. The mortgage can’t wait,” the worker told ABC News.
A plane heading to Jamaica to help with storm relief crashed in a waterway in a community in Coral Springs, Florida, Nov. 10, 2025. (Obtained by ABC News)
(CORAL SPRINGS, Fla.) — Two people died when a small plane heading to Jamaica for Hurricane Melissa relief efforts plunged into a waterway in a Coral Springs, Florida, neighborhood, according to local officials.
The Beech B100 went down at about 10:19 a.m. on Monday behind some homes, according to the National Transportation Safety Board and the Coral Springs Fire Department.
No one on the ground was injured and no houses were hit, fire officials said.
The plane went down about five minutes after takeoff from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport and was heading to Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica, for relief efforts, according to Fort Lauderdale city officials.
Jamaica is working to rebuild after the massive destruction caused by Hurricane Melissa. The storm made landfall on the island on Oct. 28 as a Category 5 hurricane, one of the most powerful landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin.
There were more than 30 deaths in Jamaica from Melissa and 100,000 housing structures were damaged, according to the United Nations.
A photo of Taylor Taranto from a detention memo released by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. (U.S. District Court)
(WASHINGTON) — A day after the Justice Department withdrew a sentencing memo that described the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as being carried out by “thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters,” the convicted Jan. 6 participant accused in the case is scheduled to appear at a sentencing hearing Thursday.
Federal prosecutors Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White were informed Wednesday that they would be put on leave after filing the memo in the case of Taylor Taranto, who was convicted on firearms and threat charges related to a June 2023 arrest near the home of former President Barack Obama, after Taranto was pardoned by President Donald Trump over his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
“On January 6, 2021, thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol while a joint session of Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election,” the prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum said. “Taranto was accused of participating in the riot in Washington, D.C., by entering the U.S. Capitol Building.”
The memo also detailed how Taranto traveled to former President Obama’s home only after a Truth Social post from then-former President Trump that included Obama’s address.
It’s unclear if Valdivia or White were given a reason for their suspensions, though the moves come following months of turmoil in the Washington, D.C., U.S. attorney’s office where multiple career prosecutors faced removals or demotions related to their involvement in prosecuting the more than 1,500 defendants charged in connection with the Capitol attack.
Late Wednesday, the Justice Department, in a highly unusual move, withdraw the original sentencing memo and replaced it with one in which the references to Jan. 6 and Trump’s Truth social account were eliminated.
Taranto was scheduled to appear at Thursday’s sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump-appointed judge who has described the Jan. 6 attack in serious terms.
Following Trump’s reelection victory in November, Judge Nichols said it would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing” if Trump were to pardon Jan. 6 defendants.
Trump subsequently granted sweeping pardons and commutations to all Jan. 6 defendants on his first day in office.
