House Republicans pulled off a near party-line vote on Tuesday to pass their controversial funding bill to curb the looming government shutdown, shipping it off to the Senate, where it still will face an uphill battle to pass.

The Trump-backed bill passed 217 to 213, with the Kentucky representative Thomas Massie casting the sole Republican “no” vote, joining all almost all House Democrats who had come out hard against it for slashing social programs and granting the Trump administration broader federal powers. The Democrat Jared Golden of Maine joined Republicans in backing the measure.

The stopgap bill, revealed by House Republican leadership over the weekend, would fund the government through September and carves $13bn from non-defense spending while adding $6bn to military budgets and preserving a $20bn IRS funding freeze – priorities embraced by Donald Trump but denounced by Democrats as an assault on vulnerable Americans.

The vice-president, JD Vance, in a Tuesday huddle with Republicans on the Hill said the blame would fall squarely on the Republicans should they fail to pass the measure, according to Politico.

The House heads to recess later this week, leaving lawmakers in the Senate with a take-it-or-leave it scenario.

The bill’s priorities align closely with Trump’s agenda, particularly its provisions that could grant the administration broader authority to redirect funds between programs – a power Democrats fear could allow significant reshaping of federal priorities without congressional approval.

House Republicans were rushing to pass the bill before Thursday, when they would then hand the measure off to the Senate before heading home for a week-and-a-half long recess.

Education department layoffs met with swift condemnation from Democratic and progressive officials

Abené Clayton

The announcement that the US Department of Education intends to lay off nearly half of its workforce has been met with swift condemnation from Democratic and progressive officials. The Texas representative Greg Casar wrote in a post on X that those in charge were “Stealing from our children to pay for tax cuts for billionaires”.

In a statement, Rosa DeLauro, the ranking member of the House appropriations committee, said:

Presidents Trump and Musk and their billionaire buddies are so detached from how Americans live that they cannot see how ending public education and canceling these contracts kills the American Dream … If kids from working-class families do not have access to schools, how can they build a future?”

Trump campaigned on a promise to close the Department of Education, claiming it had been overtaken by “radicals, zealots and Marxists”. At education secretary Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearing, she acknowledged that only Congress had the power to abolish the agency but said it might be due for cuts and a reorganisation

Lisa O’Carroll

Taoiseach Micheál Martin is meeting Donald Trump at 10am US time for the annual St Patrick’s Day celebrations, a week early this year because of congressional recess.

He plans to tell Trump that the trade imbalance raised by secretary of state Marco Rubio in a phone call with the Irish foreign minister last week masks the complexity of the relationship.

He will point out that among Boeing’s biggest customers are Ryanair and Aercap, the world’s largest aircraft leasing company, which could now be affected by tariffs.

The US education department said on Tuesday it would lay off nearly half its staff, a possible precursor to closing alltogether, as government agencies scrambled to meet president Donald Trump’s deadline to submit plans for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department’s “final mission,” it said in a press release, alluding to Trump’s vow to eliminate the department, which oversees $1.6tn in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and provides federal funding for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would lead to the department’s dismantling, secretary of education Linda McMahon said “yes,” adding that doing so “was the president’s mandate.” The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 workers, down from 4,133 when Trump took office in January, reports Reuters.

Before announcing the layoffs, the agency ordered offices in the Washington area closed to staff from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters.

An education department spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions by Reuters about the nature of the security issues prompting the closures.
The layoffs are the latest step in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the government, led by Elon Musk and his department of government efficiency (Doge).

All US government agencies have been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several agencies have offered employees payments to retire early to fulfil Trump’s demand, reports Reuters.

Affected education department employees will be placed on administrative leave starting on 21 March, the department said.

More on that in a moment. In other developments:

• The union representing more than 2,800 department workers said it would fight the “draconian cuts” of the education department. “What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, chaos, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this regime has no respect for the thousands of workers who have dedicated their careers to serve their fellow Americans,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

• Donald Trump’s trade war kicked into a higher gear at midnight, as 25% tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum were scheduled to begin. There was widespread confusion about whether the tariffs would be delayed, or increased, amid conflicting statements from the president and his chief trade adviser, but the White House said that the previously delayed tariffs would begin, even as the stock marker plunges.

• The detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident, remains in federal custody, despite being charged with no crime. Khalil’s wife said in a statement before a hearing on Wednesday in Manhattan that he was forced into an unmarked car by immigration officers who refused to show a warrant.

• The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives passed a stopgap funding bill, which would avert a government shutdown if it also passed the Senate before midnight on Friday.

• Ukraine agreed to accept a US proposal for an immediate 30-day ceasefire and to take steps toward restoring a durable peace after Russia’s invasion, according to a joint statement by US and Ukrainian delegations meeting in Saudi Arabia. Russia has not commented.

• Canada’s prime minister-designate Mark Carney said he would not lift retaliatory tariffs on American goods until Washington does the same.

• At Tuesday’s promotional event for Elon Musk’s line of Tesla electric vehicles at the White House, Trump refused to drive one of the cars, and scoffed at the idea that his predecessor, Joe Biden, had done so at a similar event. There is video of Biden doing so, in August 2021, at an event to promote electric vehicles that Musk reportedly was angry at being excluded from over anti-union policies.