Atop to-do list for Congress after summer break: acting to avoid another shutdown
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are streaming back to Capitol Hill after their summer vacation for an abbreviated September session in which feuding Democratic and Republican leaders promise action to prevent a government shutdown while holding votes aimed at defining the parties for the fall campaign.
Republicans control the House and want to pad their 17-vote majority, so they intend to follow this simple rule: first, do no harm.
Last fall, they sparked a partial government shutdown over the implementation of President Barack Obama’s health law. Now, Republicans are pressing for drama-free passage of a temporary spending bill to prevent a shutdown at month’s end and fund government agencies into mid-December.
The Senate is sure to go along if the measure is kept free of objectionable add-ons.
House Republicans also plan votes aimed at drawing attention to legislation they say would boost jobs and energy production.
After friendly fire incident, Border Patrol asks militias to leave law enforcement to the pros
RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas — Not long ago, the U.S. Border Patrol was the only law enforcement agency monitoring the mesquite thickets and sugarcane fields along the Rio Grande, and an agent’s challenge was to distinguish between an exhausted immigrant and a threat.
Now the thick brush is teeming with hundreds of state troopers, National Guardsmen and civilian militia members, all heavily armed and often wearing tactical vests and camouflage.
Since illegal immigration spiked in the Rio Grande Valley this summer, the Border Patrol has dispatched more agents, the Texas Department of Public Safety has sent more troopers and Gov. Rick Perry deployed as many as 1,000 guardsmen to the area. Officials have refused to release exact numbers, but Texas is spending $1.3 million a week on state troopers and about $12 million a month on the guardsmen.
Field communication among the various armed agents is fragmented, and a recent friendly fire incident involving a militia member prompted the Border Patrol this week to urge that law enforcement be left to the professionals. Meanwhile, in border communities, some locals fear that the increased security presence is more of a threat.
Coordination is challenging among the law enforcement entities alone. They use different radio equipment, which complicates direct communication in the field. So their representatives sit side by side in a 24/7 command center to avoid surprises — “deconfliction” in law enforcement parlance. Each shift of Border Patrol agents is briefed on the presence and activities of other entities before going into the field.
9/11 museum shows SEAL’s shirt from bin Laden raid, CIA officer’s coin marking manhunt’s end
NEW YORK — The shirt a Navy SEAL wore in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and a special coin given to a CIA officer who played a key role in finding him are being displayed at the Sept. 11 museum, adding potent symbols of the terrorist attacks’ aftermath days before their anniversary.
The items are going on view Sunday at the ground zero museum, where leaders see them as an important and moving addition to a collection that often uses personal artifacts to explore the events and impact of 9/11.
“The death of Osama bin Laden is a huge part of the history, and we have an absolute obligation to tell it,” National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum President Joe Daniels said Saturday. The display, he said, “allows millions of visitors the chance to recognize the extraordinary bravery of the men and women who sacrifice so much for this country at home and abroad.”
The shirt and coin will join an existing display with a brick from the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where the terrorist at the helm of the attacks was killed.
By wire sources
