The Trump administration announced Thursday it was easing sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry, as the U.S. aims to ramp up production in the South American country following the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.

The U.S. Treasury said it is authorizing transactions involving the government of Venezuela and state-owned oil company PdVSA that are ‘ordinarily incident and necessary to the lifting, exportation, reexportation, sale, resale, supply, storage, marketing, purchase, delivery, or transportation of Venezuelan-origin oil, including the refining of such oil, by an established U.S. entity.’

The new license includes significant carve-outs, with sanctions remaining fully intact for persons or entities in Russia, Iran, North Korea or Cuba.

It also excludes transactions with blocked vessels, Chinese-owned or controlled entities operating in Venezuela or the U.S., and debt swaps, gold payments, or cryptocurrency payments, including Venezuela’s petro.

The announcement came as President Donald Trump pushes for the expansion of oil production in Venezuela.

‘We have the major oil companies going to Venezuela now, scouting it out and picking their locations, and they’ll be bringing back tremendous wealth for Venezuela and for the United States and the oil companies will do fine too.’ Trump said during a cabinet meeting Thursday.

Trump also announced during the meeting that commercial airspace over Venezuela would reopen, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released an emergency notice earlier this month blocking civil flight operations by U.S. aircraft over the South American country.

‘I just spoke to the president of Venezuela and informed her that we’re going to be opening up all commercial airspace over Venezuela,’ Trump said. ‘American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela, and they’ll be safe there and be safe. It’s under very strong control.’

 Earlier Thursday, Venezuela’s government approved opening the nation’s oil sector to privatization, with Acting President Delcy Rodríguez signing the reform into law — a move that reverses a core principle of the socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades.

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump warned the U.K. Thursday against strengthening ties with China, hours after Prime Minister Keir Starmer met President Xi Jinping in Beijing to reset relations after a long period of strain.

Trump’s remarks came as Starmer and Xi had called for a renewed ‘strategic partnership,’ highlighting the pressures facing them amid global instability.

Speaking to Fox News while traveling to Florida for the premiere of first lady Melania Trump’s documentary, Trump was asked about the U.K. ‘getting into business with China.’

‘Well, it’s very dangerous for them to do that,’ Trump said. ‘And it’s even more dangerous, I think, for Canada to get into business with China.’

Trump added that China was not the solution for Western economies despite his personal relationship with Xi. ‘I know China very well. I know President Xi is a friend of mine, and I know him very well, but that’s a big hurdle to get over,’ he said, before joking that Beijing might ban Canada from playing ice hockey. 

‘That’s not good. Canada’s not going to like that,’ he added. 

Trump had previously criticized Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney after Carney’s visit to China and warned then that ‘China will eat Canada alive.’

Trump’s latest comments followed an 80-minute meeting in Beijing between Starmer and Xi in which the leaders sought to thaw relations after several years of diplomatic chill.

The Associated Press reported that neither leader mentioned Trump directly in their discussions Thursday.

‘In the current turbulent and ever-changing international situation, China and the United Kingdom need to strengthen dialogue and cooperation to maintain world peace and stability,’ Xi told Starmer, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Xi also warned that if major powers failed to uphold international law, the world risked sliding into a ‘jungle.’

Starmer said cooperation on climate change and global stability was ‘precisely what we should be doing,’ The Associated Press also reported.

The outlet also reported that Starmer described the meeting as ‘very productive,’ and mentioned progress on whisky tariffs, visa-free travel to China for British citizens and cooperation on migration.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, Starmer sought Xi’s help to disrupt the supply of China-made small boat engines that the U.K. leader’s office says are used to smuggle people across the English Channel.

He also raised human rights concerns and the Iran nuclear program.

Starmer is the first British prime minister to visit China in eight years and the fourth U.S.-allied leader to do so this month, signaling a push by Beijing to re-engage Western partners.

The visit also came as the U.K. navigates trade alignment with the U.S., defense cooperation in Arctic regions and negotiations over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands.

In November, the U.S. and China reached a deal easing some tariffs and export controls, boosting U.S. agricultural exports, curbing fentanyl precursor flows and relieving pressure on American semiconductor and shipping companies.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

President Donald Trump on Thursday declared a national emergency via an executive order over Cuba, accusing the communist regime of aligning with hostile foreign powers and terrorist groups while moving to punish countries that supply the island nation with oil.

Thursday’s executive order states that the policies and actions of the Cuban government constitute ‘an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.’

To address that threat, Trump ordered the creation of a tariff mechanism that allows the U.S. to impose additional duties on imports from foreign countries that ‘directly or indirectly sell or otherwise provide any oil to Cuba,’ according to the order.

The White House said the move marks a significant escalation in U.S. pressure on the Cuban government, aimed at protecting American national security and foreign policy interests.

In the order, Trump said Cuba aligns itself with and provides support for ‘numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States,’ naming Russia, China, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.

The administration said Cuba hosts Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility, which the order states attempts to steal sensitive U.S. national security information. The order also says Cuba continues to deepen intelligence and defense cooperation with China.

According to the order, Cuba ‘welcomes transnational terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah and Hamas.’

Trump also cited the Cuban government’s human rights record, accusing the regime of persecuting and torturing political opponents, denying free speech and press freedoms, and retaliating against families of political prisoners who protest peacefully.

‘The United States has zero tolerance for the depredations of the communist Cuban regime,’ Trump said in the order, adding that the administration will act to hold the regime accountable while supporting the Cuban people’s aspirations for a free and democratic society.

Under the order, the Commerce Department will determine whether a foreign country is supplying oil to Cuba, either directly or through intermediaries. The State Department, working with Treasury, Homeland Security, Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative, will decide whether and how steep the new tariffs should be if so.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is tasked with monitoring the national emergency and reporting to Congress, while the Commerce Department will continue tracking which countries are supplying oil to Cuba.

In a fact sheet, the White House said the order is designed to protect U.S. national security and foreign policy from the Cuban regime’s ‘malign actions and policies,’ and described the move as part of Trump’s broader effort to confront regimes that threaten American interests.

The administration said the action builds on Trump’s first-term Cuba policy, which reversed Obama-era engagement and reinstated tougher measures against the communist government.

The executive order is set to take effect Friday.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for additional comment.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently revoked Iranian senior officials and their family members’ privilege to travel to the U.S., citing ongoing oppression by the regime.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime is accused of killing more than 6,200 protesters since Dec. 28, with nearly 17,100 additional arrests as internet communications remain halted, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

‘As the people of Iran continue to fight for their basic rights, [Rubio] took action this week to revoke the privilege of Iranian senior officials and their family members to be in the United States,’ the State Department wrote in an X post. ‘Those who profit from the Iranian regime’s brutal oppression are not welcome to benefit from our immigration system.’

In addition to the potential civil rights violations in Iran, tensions have flared between Khamenei and President Donald Trump, as the U.S. attempts to strike a nuclear deal.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi warned on Wednesday the nation’s military is ‘prepared—with their fingers on the trigger—to immediately and powerfully respond to ANY aggression against our beloved land, air, and sea.’

Araghchi claimed that Iran has ‘always welcomed’ a mutually beneficial, fair and equitable nuclear deal that would ensure Iran’s rights to peaceful nuclear technology, and guarantee no nuclear weapons.

Trump fired back on Truth Social, warning a ‘massive’ armada was heading to Iran ‘with speed and violence, if necessary.’

‘Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!’ Trump wrote in a post. ‘As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again.’

The president said Thursday night it would be ‘great’ if the U.S. did not have to use the military fleet.

The State Department on Wednesday also demanded Tehran overturn the death penalty for 19-year-old Saleh Mohammadi, a decorated Iranian wrestler who was arrested while peacefully protesting against the regime earlier this month.

Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.

House conservatives are expressing skepticism after Senate Democrats and the White House announced a deal had been reached to fund the government without a long-term Department of Homeland Security funding bill. One House member warned that Republicans should not give in to demands to ‘handcuff ICE.’  

With any deal reached in the Senate needing approval in the House of Representatives, Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital, ‘[Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer’s current demands, compounded by a lack of conservative priorities, are an absolute non-starter’ in the lower chamber.  

‘With Chuck Schumer’s demands to handcuff ICE and his Democrat colleagues threatening to shut down the government over it, this is yet another example of the radical left prioritizing criminals over American citizens,’ said Harris.

Schumer, D-N.Y., and President Donald Trump labored over a deal from late night Wednesday into Thursday evening after the top Senate Democrat unleashed several funding demands and the White House accused Schumer of blocking a meeting with rank-and-file Democrats.

‘The separation of the five bipartisan bills the Democrats asked for, plus the two-week DHS [continuing resolution] has been agreed to,’ Schumer said in a statement. 

In response, one House conservative remarked to Fox News Digital, ‘We’re still looking at what is being discussed in the deal, but 14 days is awfully short.’

‘We sure think we should be getting something out of this deal when it’s Democrats who are threatening a shutdown, not Republicans,’ the House member said.

Not all House Republicans were against the compromise. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., reacted on X, ‘I stand with @POTUS, a shutdown will only hurt the American people. I will vote YES on this package should it make it through the Senate!’ 

In a Truth Social post on Thursday evening, Trump urged the GOP to agree to the deal, saying, ‘Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much-needed bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote.’

The president added that the ‘only thing that can slow our Country down is another long and damaging Government Shutdown.’ 

‘I am working hard with Congress to ensure that we are able to fully fund the Government, without delay,’ Trump said. ‘Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security (including the very important Coast Guard, which we are expanding and rebuilding like never before).’

The deal brokered between the two would see the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill stripped from the broader six-bill package. Schumer and Democrats have been adamant that if the bill is sidelined, they’d vote for the remaining five, which includes funding for the Pentagon. 

Their agreement also tees up a short-term funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), for two weeks to keep the agency funded while lawmakers negotiate restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

If passed in the Senate, the deal would still need to pass the House again. With lawmakers there not expected back in Washington until Feb. 2, three days after the Jan. 30 funding deadline, a brief partial government shutdown is all but certain.

Tensions have been boiling over in the House over the prospect of the Senate’s compromise on DHS.

Caucus member Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital via text message on Thursday, ‘THE HOUSE DID OUR JOB BY PASSING THE REMAINING SIX APPROPRIATION BILLS TO THE SENATE AND THERE IS NO RATIONAL REASON TO REMOVE DHS FROM THE APPROVAL PROCESS.’

Norman accused Democrats of trying to ‘demonize’ and ‘bludgeon’ DHS, adding, ‘IF THE DEMOCRATS WANT TO SHUT THE GOVERNMENT DOWN, ‘DO IT’!!’

Meanwhile, Mark Bednar, a GOP strategist and former spokesperson for then Speaker Kevin McCarthy, told Fox News Digital, ‘President Trump wants to ensure that our troops, air traffic controllers and DHS patriots are on the job and get paid, and this path will help ensure they do that.

‘It’s now on Democrats to negotiate in good faith with President Trump so that the homeland is secured with a long-term funding bill — because that’s what the American people want and deserve.’

Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, accusing the agency of unlawfully leaking his confidential tax returns in a politically motivated violation of federal privacy laws.

A spokesman for Trump’s legal team told Fox News ‘a rogue, politically motivated’ IRS employee disclosed private and confidential tax information involving Trump, his family and the Trump Organization to outlets, including The New York Times and ProPublica.

The suit claims the disclosures were illegal and harmed millions by violating federal privacy laws.

That contractor at the heart of the leak, Charles Littlejohn, pleaded guilty in October 2023 to a single felony count of unauthorized disclosure of tax return information and is serving a five-year prison sentence.

Littlejohn admitted to stealing and leaking Trump’s tax records to The New York Times and to disclosing confidential tax data involving wealthy individuals to ProPublica.

According to the lawsuit, Littlejohn testified in a 2024 deposition that the Trump materials he leaked included information on all of Trump’s business holdings.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, Littlejohn refused to testify before Congress, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights while appealing his sentence.

According to a June 2025 Judiciary Committee press release, DOJ prosecutors said Littlejohn’s disclosures were ‘unprecedented in its scope and scale.’ 

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Senate Democrats and the White House reached a deal to fund the government, but lawmakers aren’t out of the woods yet in averting a partial shutdown. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and President Donald Trump labored over a deal from late night Wednesday until Thursday evening after the top Senate Democrat unleashed several funding demands and the White House accused Schumer of blocking a meeting with rank-and-file Democrats. 

‘The separation of the five bipartisan bills the Democrats asked for + the two-week DHS [continuing resolution] has been agreed to,’ Schumer said in a statement. 

Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said that the ‘only thing that can slow our Country down is another long and damaging Government Shutdown.’ 

‘I am working hard with Congress to ensure that we are able to fully fund the Government, without delay,’ Trump said. ‘Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security (including the very important Coast Guard, which we are expanding and rebuilding like never before).’ 

‘Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much-needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote,’ he continued. 

The deal brokered between the two would see the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill stripped from the broader six-bill package. Schumer and Democrats have been adamant that if the bill were sidelined, they’d vote for the remaining five, which includes funding for the Pentagon. 

Their agreement also tees up a short-term funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), for two weeks to keep the agency funded while lawmakers negotiate restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

Trump and Schumer’s bipartisan truce comes after Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Republicans barreled ahead with a test vote on the funding package that was ultimately torpedoed by Senate Democrats and a cohort of seven Republicans earlier in the day. 

Republicans again have the opportunity to bring the package back to the floor, but to speed up the process, they would need consent from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

And they are still working out the kinks on their own end through the hotline process, where the package is scrutinized by every Senate Republican before being given the go-ahead for a floor vote. 

Speedig up the process may prove tricky, given that several of the Republican defectors, including Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Ted Budd, R-N.C., were upset with earmarks baked into the bill. 

And Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., wants an amendment vote on his provision to strip the bill of millions in ‘refugee welfare money‘ and signaled that he may slow the process down if he doesn’t. 

Many Senate Republicans recognize that stripping the DHS bill is not the best outcome but contended that it was better than not funding the government and entering into yet another shutdown.

‘That’s the only way we’re going to get through this without a long government shutdown,’ Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said. 

To his point, despite lawmakers reaching an agreement that will likely see the remaining bills passed and keep DHS funded for a month, the House will have to agree. They don’t return until next week, and fiscal hawks are already publicly panning the plan.

With the future of Congress and President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda on the line in this midterm election, the Honest Elections Project is warning of critical loopholes in the voting system, including the expansion of noncitizen voting and foreign influence.

With many state legislatures convening their final sessions before the 2026 midterms, HEP believes they have ‘one last opportunity’ to pass the ‘critical reforms’ needed to close loopholes breaking down legitimacy and trust in the electoral process.

In a report shared first with Fox News Digital, HEP identified 14 key electoral integrity vulnerabilities it says must be remedied ahead of the midterms.

Among these vulnerabilities is hundreds of millions in foreign-linked money that have helped shape ballot measures in 26 states, according to HEP.

The report says that while foreign individuals are banned from donating to political candidates, bad actors have found a legal loophole by contributing both directly and indirectly to ballot measure campaigns that can include initiatives changing constitutions and election laws. The report refers to these campaigns as a ‘Trojan Horse for foreign influence,’ including from ‘hostile foreign powers like China and Russia.’

To combat this, HEP laid out model legislation called the Prohibiting Foreign Funding from Ballot Measures Act to bar direct and indirect foreign funding, including through intermediary nonprofits, of ballot initiatives. In addition to this, the legislation requires that donors and ballot committees affirm they are free of foreign money to qualify and imposes strict penalties for violations.

The report also warns of a ‘growing number’ of blue cities, including Washington, D.C., and New York that it says have been working to enfranchise noncitizens and illegal aliens. HEP said that most state constitutions grant voting rights to ‘any’ or ‘every’ citizen, open-ended language that it says allows ‘liberal activists [to] argue permits localities to authorize noncitizen and even illegal alien voting.’

According to HEP, this problem is further compounded by current federal law that allows dishonest individuals to simply check a box to claim they are citizens on the National Mail Voter Registration Form.

To push back on this, HEP urges states to amend their constitutions to explicitly permit only citizens to vote. The group said that such language was passed by wide margins in 15 states: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota, Ohio, Iowa, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin.

Additionally, HEP is urging states to pass the Documentary Proof of Citizenship Act, requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship to participate in state and local elections. The bill also makes it a criminal offense for noncitizens to apply to register to vote or for election officials to register a voter without proof of citizenship or to count illegal votes. This is an approach HEP believes is ‘consistent with Federal law and serves to protect the integrity of state-level voting processes.’

HEP lays out another five pieces of model legislation: The Interstate Voter Assistance Act, the Never Resided Act, the Procedural Election Audits Act, the Uniform Election Dates Act and a bill to prohibit government entities from using donations or in-kind goods or services from a private or non-governmental entity for election administration.

Addressing the issues, HEP Executive Director Jason Snead said, ‘Many states have made tremendous strides in making it easy to vote and hard to cheat in recent years, but there is still more work to be done.

‘State lawmakers have one last opportunity to shore up their election laws ahead of the extremely important 2026 midterms,’ Snead added. ‘Honest Elections Project is proud to provide a roadmap for lawmakers to continue promoting election integrity across the country.’

U.S. appeals courts have overturned or stayed lower court rulings blocking President Donald Trump’s policy priorities at a rate far higher than during the Biden administration, a disparity Trump allies point to as evidence of the president’s strong track record in higher courts.

The contrast was highlighted by Chad Mizelle, a former senior Justice Department official, who noted that district court rulings against the Trump administration are being reversed or paused on appeal far more frequently than similar rulings issued during President Joe Biden’s time in office — even when the relief is temporary.

‘Over 4 years of the Biden administration, 9 district court rulings against the administration were later overturned on appeal,’ Mizelle said in a post on X. ‘About 2.25 per year.’

Mizelle compared that average to Trump’s first year back in office in 2025, when he said that ’32 district judges issued 133 rulings against the Trump administration that were stayed or overturned on appeal,’ adding: ‘Simplified, district judges are now issuing rulings that ultimately fail on appeal at more than 50x the rate compared to the previous presidency.’

His post comes as senior Trump officials have blasted district court judges who have blocked or paused the president’s most sweeping policy initiatives in his first year back in office, arguing that what they call ‘activist judges’ have overstepped their bounds and are intruding on the president’s executive authority.

As court watchers have previously pointed out to Fox News Digital and other outlets, the post presents a somewhat incomplete picture of the legal landscape during Trump’s second term. While Trump’s appeals court wins indeed far outpace those of his predecessors, they were also issued in response to an unprecedented surge of executive orders and actions.

Trump spent much of his first year in office signing hundreds of executive orders aimed at enacting his biggest policy priorities, including slashing government spending, cracking down on illegal immigration and eliminating many diversity and equity initiatives enacted under the Biden administration. Those actions also triggered a torrent of lawsuits seeking to block or pause his policies from taking effect, teeing up a high-stakes showdown over how far Trump can push his Article II powers before the courts can or should intervene.

Many of the early lawsuits filed sought relief by way of temporary restraining orders and universal injunctions, which paused or blocked executive action temporarily to give the court time to hear the case on its merits.

Other lawsuits sought a longer-lasting form of relief via preliminary injunctions, which require plaintiffs to satisfy a higher legal burden in court.

The Supreme Court in June narrowed the ability of district court judges to issue so-called ‘universal injunctions’ blocking a president’s policy from taking effect nationwide. The high court’s 6-3 ruling allowed district courts to issue injunctions only in limited instances.

As of this writing, 597 lawsuits have been filed against the Trump administration’s actions, according to Just Security’s litigation tracker.

Few cases have been fully adjudicated by the lower courts. Rather, the temporary rulings are almost always appealed by the Trump administration to a higher appeals court for relief — often in the form of an emergency or temporary stay.

As Fox News Digital previously reported, the Trump administration has indeed seen a record number of Supreme Court victories in the last 12 months. 

That trend is overwhelmingly due to the so-called emergency or ‘shadow docket’ challenges, which allowed the administration to appeal cases to the court’s 6-3 conservative supermajority for immediate intervention.

Mizelle concluded the post by touting Trump’s Supreme Court ‘win rate,’ which he said ‘is roughly 90%,’ though he appeared to be referring to the same practice. 

Though they are not intended to be permanent, the Supreme Court ‘shadow docket’ rulings have allowed the Trump administration to proceed with a wide range of its policies, including its ban on transgender service members in the military, its termination of millions of dollars in Education Department grants and DEI funding, among many other things.

Attorney General Pam Bondi touted similar numbers during a Cabinet meeting last month. ‘We have been sued 575 times,’ she said then. ‘More than every administration going back to Reagan combined.’ 

She also echoed similar numbers shared by Mizelle. ‘Twenty-four Supreme Court wins, President Trump,’ Bondi told the president in December. ‘A 92% success rate.’ 

A cohort of Senate Republicans broke ranks with their leadership on Thursday to help Senate Democrats tank a massive funding package, and most aren’t planning on changing their minds. 

Seven GOP lawmakers joined Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and all Senate Democrats to torpedo the six-bill funding package geared toward averting a partial government shutdown. 

The gang of seven have varying issues with the package, including billions in earmarks, lack of legislation to prevent future shutdowns and the fact that the White House and Republican leadership are leaning toward splitting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill from the broader funding bunch. 

Among the group was Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Rand Paul, R-Ky., Rick Scott, R-Fla., Ted Budd, R-N.C., Ashley Moody, R-Fla., Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.

Johnson told Fox News Digital, ‘There’s a bunch of reasons, [I] don’t even want to get into it,’ on why he voted no. When pressed, he said that billions in earmarks were a major problem and noted that the GOP conference had an agreement to not include any in funding bills.

‘Here we are in the majority,’ Johnson said, ‘and we’re loading it up.’ 

He was also unhappy with the DHS bill likely being stripped out from the package and angered over his legislation, the No Shutdown Fairness Act, not being included or even considered on the Senate floor.

‘I mean, we haven’t taken care of that yet,’ Johnson said. ‘Without addressing the root cause here, it’s like, you know, why do we continue to allow these shutdowns to even occur?’

‘I’m tired of it,’ he continued. 

Scott was similarly incensed over earmarks, as was Budd.

A spokesperson for Budd told Fox News Digital that the lawmaker ‘has expressed longstanding concerns with earmarks in the Labor-HHS title, including multiple earmarks for both abortion providers and facilities that perform gender transitions on children.’

While some stew over the current state of the funding package, Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans are going back and forth on the length of a possible short-term funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), specifically for the DHS bill. 

Sources familiar with negotiations told Fox News Digital that Republicans are looking for a longer, six-week patch for the agency, while Democrats want a two-week CR. The hope is negotiations between Schumer and the White House land somewhere in between.

If a deal is struck, that means that the funding package would come back to the floor at some point on Thursday. From there, lawmakers could procedurally fast-track the process and wrap up late Thursday night, well ahead of the funding deadline.

But, that requires agreement from everybody, and the GOP rebels may not allow the process to move swiftly in order to strike deals on amendment votes.

Paul, who perennially votes against funding packages big and small, signaled he may slow down any momentum, unless he gets a vote on an amendment to carve out millions in ‘refugee welfare money.’ 

‘If we get at least a vote on that, we’ll agree to condense time,’ Paul said.