President Donald Trump signed the $1.2 trillion Senate-revised funding package Tuesday afternoon, ending a partial government shutdown.
"I'm thrilled to sign the Consolidated Appropriations Act to immediately reopen the federal government and fund the vast majority of operations through the rest of the fiscal year," he said at an Oval Office event where he was flanked by Republican lawmakers who helped pass the measure in the House just a couple hours earlier by a 217-214 vote.
The legislation funds most of the federal government through Sept. 30 and the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks as lawmakers negotiate potential changes for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
—Spectrum News' Susan Carpenter
A U.S. Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday, threatening to ramp up tensions as the Trump administration warns of possible military action to get Iran to the negotiating table.
The drone "aggressively approached" the aircraft carrier with "unclear intent" and "continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces operating in international waters," Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said in a statement Tuesday.
The shootdown occurred within hours of Iranian forces harassing a U.S.-flagged and U.S.-crewed merchant vessel that was sailing in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. military said.
—The Associated Press
Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finalized an agreement with House Republicans on Tuesday to testify in an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein this month, bowing to the threat of a contempt of Congress vote against them.
Hillary Clinton will testify before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 26, and Bill Clinton will appear on Feb. 27. It will mark the first time that lawmakers have compelled a former president to testify.
The arrangement comes after months of negotiating between the two sides as Republicans sought to make the Clintons a focal point in a House committee's investigation into Epstein, a convicted sex offender who killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019.
—The Associated Press
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on a committee overseeing national intelligence, on Tuesday called on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to appear before a congressional committee to testify about her attendance at the FBI’s search last week of a Georgia election center.
Gabbard said in a letter posted to social media Monday that the president had requested she be present and that she had accompanied FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey and FBI Atlanta acting Special Agent in Charge Peter Ellis in observing the execution of a search warrant.
In a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Warner raised concerns about Gabbard’s presence at the search, as well as a call that Gabbard said she had arranged for the president to “thank the agents personally for their work.”
—Spectrum News' Christina Santucci
• Every Homeland Security officer in Minneapolis is now being issued a body-worn camera, Noem says
• Trump hosts Colombia's Petro just weeks after insulting him as a 'sick man' fueling the drug trade
• U.S.-based Haitians are buoyed but wary after a judge stops Trump from ending their protections