Senators adopt resolution to withhold their own pay during government shutdowns
The U.S. Capitol Building dome, on May 12, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Graeme Sloan/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Senators adopted a resolution by unanimous consent on Thursday to withhold their own pay during government shutdowns.
The legislation, which won’t take effect until after the November 2026 election, instructs the secretary of the Senate to place senators’ paychecks on hold during the duration of any future federal government shutdowns.
Those payments would be released to lawmakers only after the government reopens.
The Senate resolution does not need to be passed by the House or signed by President Donald Trump. While multiple similar House bills have been introduced, it’s unclear if legislation in the lower chamber will pass.
The measure in the Senate was introduced by Republican John Kennedy and advanced in a unanimous 99-0 vote on Wednesday.
“Take your brain with you, because this is about shared sacrifice. This is about putting our money where our mouth is,” Sen. Kennedy said on the Senate floor ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
Kennedy’s resolution comes after federal workers faced a historic 43-day government shutdown late last year caused by a deadlock between parties over Affordable Care Act subsidies.
During that time, approximately 670,000 federal workers were furloughed, 60,000 workers outside the federal government lost their jobs and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients lost out on benefits all while members of Congress continued to get paid — highlighting the disparity of financial pain endured by members of Congress and the people they serve.
Calls for withholding pay from members of Congress continued to grow this year during the record 75-day partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Transportation Security Administration agents, Coast Guard members and other department employees went without pay as a stalemate played out on Capitol Hill over immigration enforcement funding and oversight reforms.
National Guard members Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe. (U.S. Department of Justice)
(WASHINGTON) – -The two West Virginia National Guard members shot in November will receive the Purple Heart, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday while addressing troops at the base of the Washington Monument.
Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her injuries on Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe was shot in the head and remains in recovery, with skull reconstruction surgery scheduled for March.
“One lost, one recovering, both soon to be Purple Heart recipients,” Hegseth said, “because they were attacked by a radical.”
The suspected gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who previously worked with the CIA in Afghanistan, was arraigned on nine charges Wednesday, including first-degree murder, assault with intent to kill and illegal possession of a firearm.
Prosecutors say they are seeking additional charges that would make Lakanwal eligible for the death penalty. He has pleaded not guilty.
Purple Hearts are typically reserved for troops wounded or killed by clearly identified enemy combatants in war zones, with awards for attacks on American soil relatively rare.
The question of eligibility resurfaced after the 2015 shootings in Chattanooga, Tennessee, when Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire on a Navy Reserve center and a nearby recruiting station. Four Marines and a sailor died, Abdulazeez was killed by law enforcement.
For months, that attack sat in a bureaucratic gray zone for the Purple Heart. FBI Director James Comey eventually determined the shootings were motivated by foreign terrorist propaganda.
The determination cleared the way for then- Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to announce Purple Hearts would be awarded to the victims of the shooting.
The Trump administration has labeled Lakanwal a terrorist, though it has not publicly produced evidence tying him to any designated terrorist organization.
Lakanwal was among thousands of Afghans evacuated to the United States after the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, and his asylum application was approved in 2025 during the Trump administration.
In Afghanistan, Lakanwal was affiliated with a so-called Zero Unit that worked closely with the CIA and elite special operations units, ABC News reported in December.
Officials with direct knowledge of the matter said he was considered a trusted member of the unit, which carried out American counterterrorism missions.
Investigators also believe Lakanwal was under financial strain after his work permit expired and may have been experiencing a mental health crisis.
“This announcement brings long-overdue honor to their service, offers meaning and reassurance to their families, and stands as a solemn reminder that West Virginia will never forget those who sacrifice in defense of others,” West Virginia GOP Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who called for Purple Hearts to be awarded after the ambush, said in a statement to ABC News.
President Donald Trump speaks to announce that the U.S. had begun “major combat operations” in Iran, on the day Israel and the U.S. conducted strikes on Iran, Feb. 28, 2026. (The White House)
(WASHINGTON) — An Iranian plot to kill then-candidate Donald Trump was clearly on the president’s mind when he ordered the attack that killed Iran’s supreme leader.
“I got him before he got me,” Trump Sunday night, not long after he announced Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed. “They tried twice. Well, I got him first.”
President Trump was referring to an Iranian plot to kill him during the 2024 presidential campaign. During the summer of 2024, U.S. intelligence believed the Iranian government was plotting to kill then-candidate Trump.
The plot was not tied to the assassination attempts against the candidate in Butler, Pennsylvania, or West Palm Beach, Florida, but Trump was briefed on the threat and additional resources were added by the Biden administration to his Secret Service detail.
When I spoke with President Trump late Sunday night after he had returned to the White House from a weekend overseeing military operations in Iran from his club in Mar-a-Lago, he sounded like a president who is feeling invincible.
He said he believes the military operation has been an unmitigated success.
“Nobody else could have done this but me, and you know that,” Trump told me.
Trump told me the Iranians had made significant concessions in the last round of talks. He suggested his decision to cut off talks those and order the attack was driven in part by the success of the military operations to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, whom the U.S. said was an illegitimately elected president , and to strike the Iranian nuclear facilities last summer in coordination with Israel.
“A year ago, it would have been great to accept that deal for me,” he said on Sunday, “but we have become spoiled.”
Trump told me that someone in the Iranian government reached out to him, but he would not say who.
“I probably shouldn’t tell you,” he said. “One of the few remaining people who are still alive. He doesn’t report to the Supreme Leader anymore.”
Before the attacks, the administration had identified possible leaders of a post-Khamenei Iran, but Trump said they are all gone. Khamenei was killed on Saturday alongside around 40 senior Iranian officials, the Israel Defense Forces said.
“The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,” Trump said. “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.”
When asked about his statement earlier in the day that there would be more American casualties.
“It’s war and you have casualties in war,” he said.
Trump marveled at the level of American losses so far, pointing to last summer’s attack and the operation against Maduro in Venezuela as evidence of his administration’s military precision.
“All the things we went through and we lost three people. We lost three,” he said. “But if you ask Iran how many they lost, they can’t count that high.”
U.S. Central Command on Monday said another member of the U.S. military had been killed during the operation against Iran, bringing the total known U.S. deaths to four people. At least 555 people have been killed in Iran in U.S.-Israeli strikes, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said in a statement on Monday.
When asked on Sunday how long the war would go on, Trump said, “We always thought it was a four-to-five-week deal.”
Was he prepared to go longer?
“Sure. We have a lot of ammunition,” he said. “It could also go less.”
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference in the National Response Coordination Center at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters, January 24, 2026 in Washington. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Monday, two sources told ABC News, as the administration faces fallout over federal agent operations in Minnesota and the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti.
Noem’s top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and White House communications director Steven Cheung were also present, according to sources.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who had called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” without evidence, was not at the meeting, sources said.
Sources said the meeting lasted about two hours and came at the request of Noem. The White House declined to comment.
The New York Times was the first to report on the meeting.
Much of the scrutiny inside the administration has been directed toward Noem over her initial response to the killing of Pretti, sources said. After Pretti was killed Saturday, Noem — like Miller — was quick to call him a “domestic terrorist” without evidence.
Asked by ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce if the president agreed with that characterization, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt distanced the president from those comments.
“Look, as I’ve said, I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti in that way,” Leavitt said during the White House press briefing on Monday. “However, I have heard the president say he wants to let the facts in the investigation lead itself.”
While sources said Noem is expected to keep her job as of now, her focus is expected to shift to other priorities.
Trump, as he left the White House on Tuesday afternoon to travel to Iowa for an economic speech, told reporters that Noem would not be stepping down.
“I think she’s done a very good job. The border is totally secure,” Trump said.
But sources described a rift between Noem and Trump’s border czar Tom Homan — a frosty relationship that existed prior to the shooting in Minneapolis.
Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Noem is “very happy” Homan will be overseeing the actions on Minneapolis.
“Secretary Noem will continue to oversee the Department of Homeland Security, and she is very happy that Tom Homan, who is a great asset to the president, has a great depth of experience and insight, will be overseeing Minneapolis,” she said during an interview on Fox News Tuesday morning.
Homan was also at the White House on Monday before heading to Minnesota at the direction of Trump — bypassing the normal chain of command where Noem and Customs and Border Protection commander-at-large Greg Bovino had been overseeing ICE operations. Bovino is now returning to El Centro, California, to resume his duties as chief of that sector, multiple sources told ABC News.
Trump said on Monday that Homan would report directly to him.
Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz met with Homan on Tuesday morning. The two spoke about a number of items, including a “significant reduction in the number of federal forces in Minnesota, and an end to the campaign of retribution against Minnesota,” according to the governor’s office.
Trump said on Tuesday that Homan would also be meeting with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, also a Democrat.
“I hear that’s all going very well,” Trump said Tuesday.
The decision to send Homan into the state came as a relief to several Republicans on Capitol Hill who had personally reached out to the president and other White House officials directly about the response. Criticism has grown from congressional Republicans over the Pretti shooting and Minnesota ICE operation, with more than two dozen GOP lawmakers calling for a thorough investigation.
A person familiar with the planning said Homan will likely focus on more targeted immigration enforcement efforts.
Noem and her top adviser, Lewandowski, have pushed for a harder line immigration approach including street sweeps. Bovino rankled some who felt his direct reporting to the Homeland Security secretary was problematic, and bypassed Rodney Scott, the chief of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, sources said.
“The President’s entire immigration enforcement team — including Secretary Noem and Border Czar Homan — are on the same page. They are working together seamlessly to implement the President’s agenda, protect the American people, and deport criminal illegal aliens,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
ABC News’ Isabella Murray contributed to this report.
