Evening Report — US nears (another) government shutdown

Heard this one before? A government shutdown is, once again, looming, and lawmakers are up against the clock.

This, of course, just happened earlier this month, but here it is again (though with a different slate of agencies whose budgets are at risk).

Lawmakers were scheduled Sunday to release their plan for averting a shutdown, which included “five appropriations bills and a continuing resolution to fund the [Department of Homeland Security] through the end of the fiscal year,” according to The Hill’s Mychael Schnell.

But they struggled over the weekend on funding negotiations, with Republicans wanting an extension on funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention and enforcement efforts, while Democrats wanted more funding for pay equity for the Transportation Security Administration.

The stopgap bill passed earlier this month is set to run out Friday, putting several departments and agencies at risk, such as:

• Defense
• State
• Homeland Security
• Transportation Security Administration
• IRS

If a government funding deal is not passed by 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, March 23, the government will partially shut down. (The Hill)

More coverage:

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• The No. 3 Hamas leader was killed in an Israeli airstrike last week, according to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. 

   

• The organizers behind an award named after Ruth Bader Ginsburg have canceled a ceremony honoring the award’s recipients Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch after backlash from the late Supreme Court justice’s family and friends.  

• Inhalers are about to be less expensive for many people.

Former President Trump’s lawyers say that he is unable to secure the full $464 million bond due in a New York fraud case that’s being appealed.

“Defendants’ ongoing diligent efforts have proven that a bond in the judgment’s full amount is ‘a practical impossibility,’” the lawyers wrote, citing an affidavit signed by an insurance broker.

Trump’s attorneys claim they have spent “countless hours unsuccessfully negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world” and have fruitlessly approached 30 companies to back the bond.

“The amount of the judgment, with interest, exceeds $464 million, and very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in their appeal.

Trump has been ordered to pay $464 million in a verdict that he’s currently appealing over alleged fraud over altering valuation of his assets.

Trump’s lawyers claim that he cannot put up property for collateral as part of the bond because of the massive sum. (The Hill)

Related: Trump’s team is firing back at claims that he called for a “blood bath” over the November presidential election.

The Hill’s Niall Stange breaks down the states where the Trump-Biden rematch could come to a head. (The Hill)

Days until a potential government shutdown.

President Biden spoke Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, marking the first time the two have spoken since Biden said the Israeli leader was “hurting Israel more than helping.”

Thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing Gaza conflict after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and limited humanitarian aid has gotten into the area.

The two leaders discussed “the latest developments in Israel and Gaza, including the situation in Rafah and efforts to surge humanitarian assistance to Gaza,” the White House said in a readout.

Biden was caught on a hot mic after his State of the Union address on March 7 saying he planned to have a “come-to-Jesus meeting” with Netanyahu.

Former CNN host Don Lemon had his vaunted show on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, abruptly shuttered after he crossed wires with the site’s famous billionaire owner Elon Musk over the weekend.

Musk has been known to promote questionable conspiracy theories including ones about Jewish people, the “great replacement theory” and alleged anti-white racism.

“I don’t have to answer these questions,” Musk said when questioned about the controversial statements on his platform. “Don, the only reason I’m doing this interview is because you’re on the X platform, and you asked for it. Otherwise I wouldn’t do this interview.”

Lemon announced last week that the Musk had ended their working agreement.

Musk has said Lemon is welcome to post episodes of “The Don Lemon Show” on X and “build viewership … along with everyone else.”

The Hill’s Dominick Mastrangelo has more here.

Online orders for Opill, the first federally approved over-the-counter birth control pill, began Monday. While the product is currently only available on Amazon and Opill.com, it will eventually be sold in stores like Walgreens and Walmart.

(The Hill)

“A somber, divided Catholic Church heads into Easter,” writes John Kenneth White, professor of politics at The Catholic University of America.

“Russia’s economy is better than expected, but not out of the woods,” writes Nicholas Sargen, economic consultant for Fort Washington Investment Advisors.

119 days until the Republican National Convention. 

154 days until the Democratic National Convention.  

231 days until the 2024 general election.