Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton.
The Senate is in the midst of an all-day series of votes, as Republicans attempt to pass
“three years of funding for immigration enforcement.”
The effort has been complicated by the president's nearly $2 billion fund to pay out taxpayer
money to people who claim to have been targeted by what President Trump calls a weaponized to federal government. And PR's Eric McDaniel has more. The $70 billion package is meant to fund the immigration and customs enforcement, as well as border patrol for the rest of the president's time in the White House.
Republicans thought they'd found a path to pass it on a party-line vote, Democrats don't support the funding, but some GOP lawmakers are now demanding an end to President Trump's self-allocated anti-weaponization fund before they advance the package. Trump's acting attorney general told Congress, "The fund can be used to pay insurrectionists to threaten lawmakers and attack the capital building on January 6th, 2021."
Recent conflicting statements from the administration on whether it's decided to unilaterally end the payout fund have not helped matters. Amendment votes and negotiations will continue into the evening.
Eric McDaniel and PR news the capital.
“President Trump said today he's building a pedestrian bridge to connect the Lincoln Memorial”
to the Potomac River. It would be yet another onelist of building and renovation projects the President's undertaking around Washington, D.C. and PR's Danielle Kurtzleben has more. Trump teased the latest plan from the Oval Office. Interior Secretary Doug Bergom explained that the bridge would go over the roads that separate
the Lincoln Memorial from the nearby river. Neither Trump nor Bergom said how much the project would cost or where the funding would come from. This year, Trump has also torn down the White House East Wing to build a ballroom that he has said will include a military complex underneath.
He has also set in motion plans to build a massive arch across the river from the Lincoln Memorial. Danielle Kurtzleben and PR news the White House. A major gun control group is suing the federal government over its refusal to hand over records.
The group wants information that shows who are the largest sellers of guns used in crime in the U.S. and PR's Jacqueline Diaz reports. The gun control group Brady is suing the Bureau of Alcohol to Backo Firearms and Explosives and the Justice Department. Brady is demanding the federal government release information tied to something called
demand letter 2's. These are letters ATF sends to gun dealers and other sellers who have been identified as selling a lot of guns recovered at crime scenes. Josh Sharf is Brady's general counsel and senior director of programs.
“He says this information is important to monitor how the federal government keeps tabs”
on gun dealers. It's information that we need to improve public safety in this country. The DOJ and ATF did not respond to the loss we get. Jacqueline Diaz and PR news. The Dow soared nearly one and three quarters of a percent today.
This is NPR news. June is Pride Month but some Republican controlled states are rebranding it in Diana and Tennessee are calling June nuclear family month in Alabama. It's a strong family's month and Utah and Arkansas declared it a "fidelity" month. Pride organizations say the efforts won't affect their parades and other celebrations
of LGBTQ lives, families and culture. There have been a wave of proposals to limit screens in classrooms over the last year, but as NPR's genocchi meta reports some students with disabilities feel their needs are being left behind. California 9th Greater Sarai Martin loves creative writing.
She says stories come naturally to her. But words are different. I have dyslexia, so I've struggled with that my whole life. She'd resisted using assistive technology like dictation software until last year because she just didn't want to feel single doubt at school, but then it changed everything.
I started getting really good grades and it made me feel more confident in myself. Now a screen limit policy is a rolling out quickly across the country, disability advocates worry assistive technology built into cell phones, laptops and tablets could be unintentionally swept up too. They hope state and school leaders slow down to include disabled voices in the national
conversation. Chinocchi meta and PR news. Construction crews were installing a fence near the North Dakota governor's residence when they discovered human remains and coffin fragments.
The North Dakota monitor reports the areas part of Bismarck's first cemetery.
Though many of those burials were re-interred in the 1880s using ground penetrating radar archaeologists believe they have identified nine additional graves in the project area. This is NPR news. Hundreds of thousands of people came to the US as small children as the only home they've ever known.
And although they weren't citizens, many got special protections to keep living and working here. Now though, they find themselves in legal limbo as the Trump administration tightens the screws on immigrants. Listen to NPR's code switch podcasts in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
