Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral services take place in DC
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on April 27, 2026, in Washington, DC. Republican senators gathered to introduce legislation to fund construction of a White House ballroom as a secure alternative event space following the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, DC Saturday night. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — National political leaders and prominent figures from around the globe will remember South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham with a ceremony on Capitol Hill and a funeral service in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
Graham is first being recognized with a ceremony in the Capitol rotunda. His casket was brought to the Capitol, where he is being honored by his fellow senators.
The ceremony includes remarks from Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Vice President JD Vance, according to the program.
Graham served more than two decades in the Senate, becoming one of the chamber’s most recognizable Republicans and one of President Donald Trump’s closest friends and advisers. He advised the president on foreign matters, including the recent war in Iran, and was a prominent fixture of the Senate’s powerful Judiciary Committee.
He died suddenly and unexpectedly on July 11 at the age of 71. Preliminary findings from the Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia said that the senator died due to “aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.”
Later Tuesday, there will be a funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral. Trump is expected to speak at the service, according to the office of Darline Graham, the late senator’s sister who was sworn in earlier this month to finish out the rest of his term.
The cathedral funeral is expected to be attended by a number of world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Graham worked closely with both men as a staunch ally to both nations. Graham spent some of his final days in Ukraine and met with Zelenskyy just before he died.
Graham’s casket will return to South Carolina on Wednesday, where further memorial services are set for Columbia, the state’s capital, and Pickens County, where Graham grew up and part of the district he represented.
The U.S Supreme Court is seen on June 25, 2026 in Washington, DC. . (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rolled back longstanding limits on the amount of money political parties can spend in coordination with individual candidates for federal office — a ruling that could unleash a wave of new spending before the midterms. The Supreme Court said the spending limits violate the First Amendment.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The names of enslaved people who lived in the President’s House are carved into a monument in Independence National Park on August 9, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration revealed the list of materials that the National Park Service removed from parks across the country that relate to civil rights, diverse populations, science and the environment.
The list was made public on Wednesday as part of a court filing brought by various organizations. The Interior Department is appealing a federal judge’s order to restore those materials ahead of America 250 celebrations on July 4.
Included in the list are vague descriptions of the materials that were removed and their location. The list, however, does not provide images of the content that NPS found objectionable.
Examples of items that were removed include signs about climate change at parks like Acadia National Park in Maine and Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York; materials involving civil rights at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and at the Medgar and Myrtle Evans Home National Monument in Jackson, Mississippi; materials involving slavery at the President’s House in Philadelphia and materials on women’s rights at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge at the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York.
The list also includes reasons for the removals.
“Disparages Americans past or living” appears to be the reason provided by NPS for the removal of items related to civil rights, diverse communities, slavery and atrocities committed by the United States against Native Americans.
“Unrelated to beauty, abundance and grandeur of the national landscape” was listed as the reason for the removal of items related to science and the environment.
A spokesperson for the Interior Department confirmed to ABC News in a statement that the government is appealing the judge’s order to restore the items.
“We fully believe politically charged language denigrating our Founding Fathers is inappropriate and only further divides Americans,” the spokesperson said. “Through President Trump, we have encouraged Americans to visit our cultural and historic sites and engage in meaningful conversations about the moments that have shaped our country.”
The spokesperson added that the government seeks to “strengthen our shared understanding and ensure that future generations inherit not just the land we love, but the truth of the journey that brought us here.”
ABC News reached out to the Interior Department and NPS for further comment.
U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley ordered the restoration of the materials in a Friday ruling and cast their removal by NPS as “a dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization.” She ordered the government to restore all items by July 3.
The federal government has filed a motion asking for an emergency stay pending appeal, which would block the restoration as the appeals court considers the case. In the motion, the government argued that the restoration of the materials would cause “irreparable harm.”
In response, Kelley ordered the government to produce the list of changes and the condition of the materials, writing that this information was necessary for her to consider the government’s argument.
The removal of materials, which relate to civil rights, diverse communities, science and the environment, was made in compliance with a March 27, 2025, executive order in which President Donald Trump ordered the Interior Department to remove content that cast the United States’ “founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”
The complaint filed in February challenges the removal of the materials and was brought by a coalition of organizations committed to preserving history, the parks and the environment.
“National parks belong to the American people and censorship of any kind goes against the values these places represent,” said Alan Spears, a senior director ” said Alan Spears, a senior director at the National Parks Conservation Association, one of organizations suing NPS. “Americans count on national parks to help us understand our full, rich history. Stories of triumph and tragedy alike deserve to be told out loud at parks.”
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at a ‘Rose Garden Club’ dinner for National Police Week in the Rose Garden at the White House on May 11, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Republicans are punting on plans to advance a $70 billion immigration bill, retreating after meeting with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to address concerns about the administration’s anti-weaponization fund.
The move pushes the process until at least after their weeklong Memorial Day recess after the House and Senate were sent home Thursday afternoon.
Earlier, Senate Republicans were poised to try to rein in two of President Donald Trump’s controversial spending wishes: $1 billion for the East Wing expansion and nearly $1.8 billion for an “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” two people familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
Blanche canceled pre-scheduled travel to go up to Capitol Hill to attempt to quell the growing Republican outrage over the “anti-weaponization fund,” which would be used to compensate allies who say they have suffered injustices at the hand of the Biden administration. But Blanche’s meeting seems to have completely backfired.
There was yelling in the room, multiple sources told ABC News, with some senators — even some vocal Trump supporters — telling Blanche they believed they’d lose the Senate majority over the fund.
Blanche even tried to placate Republican senators by releasing a fact sheet earlier Thursday that stated they themselves can apply to receive money from the fund.
Republicans are looking at ways to use the bill to impose guardrails on Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund.
On Wednesday afternoon, some Republicans told reporters that the $1 billion for White House security — including funding for the ballroom — would likely be removed from the bill because there was a lack of GOP support.
Because the text of the new bill hasn’t been made public, it’s not yet clear exactly what restrictions Republicans may try to impose on the “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” the core of the settlement between the Department of Justice and Trump to resolve his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.
The taxpayer-funded pool of money will be administered by a five-person commission appointed by the acting attorney general with little oversight aside from the president, who could remove members.
Senators were working on potential provisions to address their concerns on the fund, but by Thursday afternoon, those discussions still appeared to be very far apart.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins said “no,” Blanche did not change her mind about the weaponization fund.
Republican Sen. John Hoeven said the “consensus building process” on the matter is “going to require more work.”
“We just don’t have the right configuration where we know we have 50 votes,” he said.
Republicans could try to embed guardrails for the fund in the actual bill, or they could instead try to offer an amendment addressing the fund once the bill is on the Senate floor.
However, if Republicans don’t do something, it is widely expected that Democrats will certainly try to.
Senate Republicans are aiming to muscle the $70 billion immigration enforcement package through using a budget tool called reconciliation, which will allow them to pass the bill with a simple majority of votes in the Senate instead of the usual 60 votes that it takes to approve most legislative matters.
But before the bill can pass, there will be a voting marathon known as a vote-a-rama, during which lawmakers are able to offer unlimited amendments to the bill.
Democrats are powerless to block this package from passing if Republicans stick together, but Democrats could put forward a number of amendments that force Republicans to take politically tricky votes.
If Republicans do not come up with a clear way to address the “anti-weaponization” fund in their underlying bill or in an amendment that is popular with Republicans who oppose the fund, Democratic-led amendments that look to restrict the fund could very well get the necessary GOP support to pass on the Senate floor.
Some Senate Republicans who Trump has publicly scorned in recent weeks have become the fund’s most outspoken critics, including Sen. Bill Cassidy, who lost his primary race in Louisiana after Trump endorsed his opponent.
Cassidy spoke out on Wednesday night, bashing the fund.
“People are concerned about paying their mortgage or rent, affording groceries and paying for gas, not about putting together a $1.8 billion fund for the President and his allies to pay whomever they wish with no legal precedent or accountability. This is adding to our national debt. If there needs to be a settlement, the administration should bring it to Congress to decide,” Cassidy wrote in a post on X.
Regardless of what Republicans do, Democrats are expected to use the vote-a-rama to force a number of votes that they hope will pin down Republicans on the fund.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal told ABC News on Wednesday that he intends to force votes on amendments to “stop this illegal abhorrent slush fund” during the vote-a-rama.
With enough GOP support, Democrats could have a real chance of putting restraints on — or even eliminating — this fund as part of the massive package. Depending on how Democrats craft their amendments surrounding the IRS fund, it could take as few as four Republican supporters to pass some of them.
What happened to the ballroom funding?
The $1 billion that was intended for White House security, including the security aspects of Trump’s ballroom, is being scrapped by Republicans, according to some GOP lawmakers. The Republican lawmakers are saying there isn’t enough support in their conference to move forward with the funding.
The Senate’s rule keeper said over the weekend that $1 billion could not be included in the bill under the Senate rules. Even though some Republicans initially said they’d redraft the measure, a number of GOP senators came out forcefully against the $1 billion allocation and threatened to tank the entire bill if it was not removed.
Democrats were expected to call up a number of amendment votes to try to strip the ballroom funding out of the bill. Those amendments only would have needed the support of four Republicans and likely would have passed.
