WASHINGTON (AP) — Key senators unveiled a short-term spending bill on Sunday that would keep federal agencies funded past the midterm elections and into early December as they look to avoid a government shutdown during the middle of campaign season.
The Senate is likely to vote on the measure before leaving Washington at week's end for its traditional August recess, a period that many lawmakers want to spend shoring up their reelection prospects rather than working in the nation's capital.
The bill generally funds the federal government at current levels though Dec. 11. The House has passed a similar measure, but it did not include various exceptions sought by the White House. Senators have been spending recent days negotiating which of those exceptions to include.
One exception that did not make it into the bill, Democrats noted, was the administration's request to include $1 billion to build “Trump-class” battleships.
In another major difference with the House bill, Democrats say they also were able to include language that will ensure the administration cannot transfer funds from other programs to the Border Patrol.
The late-summer action on a funding fix is unusual. Normally, Congress waits until the final days or hours of a funding deadline to pass short-term funding extensions, but this time senators are acting two months before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said passing the measure was his top priority going into the August recess. He noted that the American people have already experienced two record-breaking government shutdowns in the past 10 months.
“We need to ensure that they do not face a third,” Thune said.
A short-term funding extension is needed because Congress has struggled to get the dozen annual appropriations bills negotiated and approved before the Sept. 30 deadline. By extending government funding now, lawmakers can use the ensuing months to work out their differences on full-year funding.
It won't be an easy lift as Republicans seek a dramatic increase in defense spending while cutting non-defense spending. Trump proposed a 10% cut in non-defense programs overall. Meanwhile, he called for boosting defense spending by some 44%.
A potential shutdown before voters go to the polls is a scenario that both parties are looking to avoid, as polling indicated that neither party evaded blame for last fall's record 43-day shutdown. Democrats sought to extend an expiring health insurance tax credit and refused to go along with a short-term spending bill that did not include that priority. But Republicans said that was a separate policy fight to be held at another time.
A second spending battle over funding for the Department of Homeland Security took 76 days to resolve when Democrats refused to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol without changes to those operations.
Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, along with Democratic senators, are seeking to block a proposed rule from President Donald Trump's administration related to grants. The rule would require a senior political appointee at each agency to review grant proposals through criteria that include “ensuring that discretionary awards advance the President's policy priorities.”
Collins and Sen Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said the rule would not take effect during the course of the stopgap spending bill. Collins said she advocated for significant changes to the rule, “citing its potential to politicize grants and harm small, rural communities, families, and biomedical research.”
Democrats want to kill the administration's effort altogether. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said it was a “disgraceful” effort that would “further politicize all federal grants.”
“While Republicans rejected killing the proposed rule outright, I’m going to keep fighting to put a stop to it once and for all, and I will keep pressing my Republican colleagues to do exactly that,” Murray said.
Democrats fear Trump would turn federal grants into a cudgel to punish perceived political foes and reward allies, while also undermining Congress's constitutional power of the purse. The White House Office of Management and Budget says its effort is about improving accountability to ensure taxpayer dollars aren't wasted or misused.
The sun sets behind the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, July 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian attacks triggered power and water outages for hours Wednesday across Kyiv and surrounding regions while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the death toll in a stricken village in southern Ukraine rose to 40 in one of the deadliest strikes there in nearly five years of war.
On Monday, multiple Russian guided bombs slammed into a former school and nearby shelter in the village of Komyshuvakha, near the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region, as residents waited for humanitarian aid.
In addition to those killed, Zelenskyy said 30 more people could still be buried in the rubble.
“Unfortunately, there has been very little reaction from the world to this insane attack," he said in a post on X. "But it, like thousands upon thousands of other war crimes Russia has committed against Ukraine and Ukrainians, demands a strong response. Evil always goes further if it is left unanswered.”
Elsewhere, Moscow showed no signs of letting up its aerial assaults.
Before water and power were restored, residents in the capital of Kyiv were urged to use public drinking water fountains. Emergency centers were set up hastily in the worst-hit areas, offering hot tea and power for people seeking to charge electrical devices.
Russia attacked overnight with 310 drones, including 81 jet-powered drones, according to Ukraine’s air force. In its daily social media report, the air force said it downed or suppressed 272 drones of various types.
Such attacks are a regular feature of wartime life in Ukraine despite arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court in 2024 for two senior Russian officers whom prosecutors accuse of overseeing strikes on civilian infrastructure.
Officials from the United States, Germany, France, Britain, NATO, the World Bank and the European Union met Wednesday at the European Commission’s headquarters in Brussels to discuss the massive reconstruction effort that will be required once the war ends.
The commission said in a brief statement after the closed-door meeting that it “focused on refining the scenarios for Ukraine’s postwar economic development and prosperity.”
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she wanted the meeting to discuss European demands for Russian concessions in any negotiations. She said previous talks have been focused only on “what Ukraine should give away or what concessions they should make.”
The Brussels talks came ahead of a new round of U.S.-brokered peace negotiations next week, more than 4 1/2 years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
Russian drones were hampering the search for victims in the village of Komyshuvakha, said Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the regional military administration, but he added that operations there would continue.
Ivan Fedorov, co-chair of the regional defense council, said 12 bodies pulled from the rubble had been identified so far. The National Police of Ukraine said in a Telegram post that visual identification of some bodies was not possible and that specialists were working with relatives of the dead to collect DNA samples.
Body camera footage recovered from a police officer killed in the attack shows the devastating impact of the Russian guided bomb. The video was recorded Monday as the officer descended stairs into the shelter after the nearby aid distribution center was struck.
In the video, the officer speaks to survivors of the initial attack, urging them to seek shelter. “Go down! Why are you gathering here?” he is heard saying.
Moments after the officer enters a low-ceilinged underground room, a brief rumble is heard as the video cuts to black.
On Tuesday, Baptist pastor Vladyslav Makhovskyi joined the search for survivors. But as the day wore on, bodies wrapped in white plastic sheets were carried from the ruins and laid in rows as smoke drifted across the shattered landscape.
“When the bombs hit, people could no longer get out," Makhovskyi told The Associated Press. “I understand that many were killed immediately. Even if some were still alive, they probably couldn’t breathe."
The attack followed the end of a six-day ceasefire in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in the southwestern Ukrainian region of Kherson. It was the most significant truce between Kyiv and Moscow since 2022, and allowed the evacuation of residents from the shattered city.
Zelenskyy awarded U.S. first lady Melania Trump the Order of Princess Olga, 1st class — an honor for women who have made an outstanding contribution to the Ukrainian state.
She was recognized for her humanitarian support, including human rights and charitable activities aimed at helping Ukrainian children, according to the presidential website.
She was credited with brokering the ceasefire to allow those trapped in Oleshky to leave.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, expressed hope that U.S. President Donald Trump will continue his efforts to end the war in Ukraine regardless of the outcome of the midterm elections that saw Democrats take control of Congress, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine said Wednesday it had uncovered a criminal plot involving senior officials from the country’s security service, prosecutor general’s office and national police who were alleged to have taken kickbacks from the criminal underworld in exchange for protecting fraudulent call centers, drug sales and illegal cigarette and currency operations.
It was the latest in a series of graft scandals that have plagued Zelenskyy's presidency.
In September, former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko resigned after investigators accused one of his subordinates of running a scheme linked to fraudulent call centers.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said that it shot down 709 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The major online retailer Ozon said that a drone attack caused a fire to break out at its logistics center in Adygeysk, in Russia’s Adygea region, but that there were no casualties.
Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands. Associated Press writers Derek Gatopoulos in Kyiv, Elise Morton in London and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.
People walk past a billboard which features Russian soldiers from the World War II and the current military action in Ukraine, which reads 'Each era has its own heroes', in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers a speech at the Berlin Security Conference in Berlin, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
A damaged residential building is seen after a Russian air attack in Dnipro, Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo)
An underground school lies destroyed after a Russian airstrike in Komyshuvakha, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo)
Rescuers carry a body of a person killed by a Russian airstrike on underground school of Komyshuvakha, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (AP Photo)
