Senate Republicans tried to advance a funding package as their last act of the year, but a last-minute block by Senate Democrats sent lawmakers home frustrated as the deadline to fund the government creeps closer.

Lawmakers have spent the last month since the government shutdown building consensus on a five-bill spending package that would go a long way toward preventing another one come Jan. 30.

The package would have funded the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Commerce, Justice, Interior, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, which represent a massive chunk of Congress’ overall funding responsibilities.

But a deal never materialized, and the lights of the Senate chamber went out for the last time of the year as lawmakers beelined from Washington, D.C., back to their home districts. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., remained hopeful that when the Senate returned, Democrats would cross the aisle to finish the job.

‘The Democrats are indicating that they want to do them, they just didn’t want to do them today,’ Thune said. ‘So hopefully, when we get back, we’ll test that proposition, and hope that we’ll take them to face value, and hopefully we’ll get moving, and get moving quickly, because we’ve got a lot to do.’

Before the last gavel rang through the chamber, however, there was still hope that a deal could be reached.

As the clock ticked deeper into the night and the smell of jet fumes grew stronger in the Senate, top Republicans kept working the phones and trying to negotiate a path forward on the package.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, told Fox News Digital that Republicans had cleared the decks on their end after several weeks of holds on the package from fiscal hawks demanding amendment votes on earmarks, among other thorny issues.

When asked if Senate Democrats would play ball, she said, ‘I don’t know.’

‘I’m about to call one of the people,’ Collins said before ducking into her office.

When she emerged, Collins said that there was only one hold left. And that last remaining blockage appeared to be from Sens. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who were incensed by the Trump administration’s plan to break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought called the facility in a post on X ‘one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country,’ and vowed a comprehensive review was underway and that any ‘vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.’

Hickenlooper suggested that he and Bennet would lift their hold only if they received a guaranteed outcome on an amendment vote — a proposition Republicans have time and again this year for several other Democratic issues that they said they couldn’t do.

‘We need to find some Republican supporters. All we’re trying to do is just protect the budget that was already there,’ Hickenlooper said. ‘So, whatever disagreement there is between the state, the governor of Colorado, and the President of the United States, that shouldn’t affect a scientific institution. Science should be free of that kind of politics.’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was more blunt.

‘What the president did to Colorado is disgusting, and Republicans ought to get him to change,’ Schumer said.

Republicans opted to open the floor late following a signing ceremony at the White House for the annual, colossal defense package in order to finish the confirmation process for a tranche of President Donald Trump’s nominees.

It was a bid to buy time to keep negotiations alive in the hopes of a breakthrough. They even tacked on a handful of extra votes to keep the machine whirring, but in the end, Senate Democrats wouldn’t budge.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, remained hopeful ahead of the vote and said the goal was ‘to stay until we get it finished.’

‘If we want the Senate to matter, we should figure it out,’ Britt said.

Failure to advance the package on Thursday does not guarantee another government shutdown next month, but it does tee up what will likely be a brutal January in the upper chamber.

Lawmakers are still scrambling to find a deal on expiring Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire on Dec. 31, and they will have to contend with the funding deadline at the end of the month. And anything that can pass in the Senate has to make its way through the House and ultimately be approved by Trump.

Despite the inability to move forward with the funding package, for now, it appears that neither side wants to thrust the federal government into another shutdown.

‘I don’t think either side wants to see that happen,’ Thune said. ‘I think that’s toxic for both parties. So I’m hoping that there will be goodwill, and we’ll figure out how to fund the government.’

More than 100 House Republicans are demanding increased oversight of Syria as the U.S. prepares to repeal longstanding sanctions against the country.

Reps. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., and Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., are leading 134 fellow GOP lawmakers in calling for guarantees that the Syrian government will adhere to terms in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that set the stage for repealing those sanctions, while warning the U.S. needs to be prepared to reverse that if Syria falters on its progress.

‘Many Members of Congress, committed to seeking peace, prosperity, and tolerance for religious minorities in the region, worked with the Trump Administration and House leadership to secure assurances that snapback conditions regarding the repeal of Syrian sanctions would be enforced if Syria does not comply with the terms highlighted in the repeal language,’ their joint statement read. 

‘The mass murder of the Syrian Christians, Druze, Alawites, Kurds, and other religious and ethnic minorities must be a thing of the past.’

They said Congress was committed ‘to keeping a watchful eye on the new al-Sharaa Administration to ensure protections for religious and ethnic minorities in Syria.’

It comes after two members of the Iowa National Guard serving in Syria were killed in an ambush by an ISIS gunman.

Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa took power in Syria after the previous government led by Bashar al-Assad was toppled in 2024.

The new leader has sought friendlier relations with the West, even visiting the White House in November of this year.

The House GOP lawmakers said they ‘look forward’ to being invited to Damascus themselves to see that his administration ‘has created a safe environment for the religious and ethnic minorities historically persecuted in the region.’

‘We look forward to confirming that these terms have not been squandered by the Syrian government–whether by their President or by rogue military officials–and seeing for ourselves that the al-Sharaa Administration has created a safe environment for the religious and ethnic minorities historically persecuted in the region,’ they said.

‘As Members of Congress, we understand that the Syrian government’s adherence to the conditions laid out in the NDAA’s sanction repeal language is essential for lasting peace in the Middle East and Syria’s prosperity.’

President Donald Trump signed the NDAA into law on Thursday evening.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused the Trump administration of orchestrating a ‘cover-up’ as the deadline for the release of documents and materials related to the late Jeffrey Epstein arrives.

Schumer on Friday blasted the Department of Justice (DOJ) following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s admission that the administration would not be releasing all the documents in one, massive tranche.

Congress last month passed a law, later signed by President Donald Trump, that compelled the DOJ to dump all the documents, albeit with certain exceptions, including materials that reveal victims’ identities or medical files, child sex abuse materials, information that could jeopardize active investigations, images of graphic death or injury, or classified national security information.

‘This just shows the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, and [Attorney General] Pam Bondi are hellbent on hiding the truth,’ Schumer said in a statement. ‘Senate Democrats are working closely with attorneys for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and with outside legal experts to assess what documents are being withheld and what is being covered up by Pam Bondi. We will not stop until the whole truth comes out.’

‘People want the truth and continue to demand the immediate release of all the Epstein files,’ he continued. ‘This is nothing more than a cover-up to protect Donald Trump from his ugly past.’

Earlier in the week, Schumer warned that failure to release the documents on Friday would result in legal and political ramifications for Trump and the DOJ.

His ire came after Blanche, in an interview with Fox News, said that the DOJ would be following through with releasing hundreds of thousands of documents related to Epstein, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, known associates and entities linked to Epstein and Maxwell, internal DOJ decision-making on the Epstein case, records on destroying or tampering with documents, and all documents on his detention and death.

But, it wouldn’t be every shred of information on the late pedophile.

‘Now the most important thing that the attorney general has talked about, that [FBI Director Kash] Patel has talked about, is that we protect victims,’ Blanche said. ‘And so what we’re doing is we are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story, to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected.’

‘And so I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks,’ he continued. ‘So today, several hundred thousand, and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.’

More than 100 House Republicans are demanding increased oversight of Syria as the U.S. prepares to repeal longstanding sanctions against the country.

Reps. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., and Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., are leading 134 fellow GOP lawmakers in calling for guarantees that the Syrian government will adhere to terms in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that set the stage for repealing those sanctions, while warning the U.S. needs to be prepared to reverse that if Syria falters on its progress.

‘Many Members of Congress, committed to seeking peace, prosperity, and tolerance for religious minorities in the region, worked with the Trump Administration and House leadership to secure assurances that snapback conditions regarding the repeal of Syrian sanctions would be enforced if Syria does not comply with the terms highlighted in the repeal language,’ their joint statement read. 

‘The mass murder of the Syrian Christians, Druze, Alawites, Kurds, and other religious and ethnic minorities must be a thing of the past.’

They said Congress was committed ‘to keeping a watchful eye on the new al-Sharaa Administration to ensure protections for religious and ethnic minorities in Syria.’

It comes after two members of the Iowa National Guard serving in Syria were killed in an ambush by an ISIS gunman.

Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa took power in Syria after the previous government led by Bashar al-Assad was toppled in 2024.

The new leader has sought friendlier relations with the West, even visiting the White House in November of this year.

The House GOP lawmakers said they ‘look forward’ to being invited to Damascus themselves to see that his administration ‘has created a safe environment for the religious and ethnic minorities historically persecuted in the region.’

‘We look forward to confirming that these terms have not been squandered by the Syrian government–whether by their President or by rogue military officials–and seeing for ourselves that the al-Sharaa Administration has created a safe environment for the religious and ethnic minorities historically persecuted in the region,’ they said.

‘As Members of Congress, we understand that the Syrian government’s adherence to the conditions laid out in the NDAA’s sanction repeal language is essential for lasting peace in the Middle East and Syria’s prosperity.’

President Donald Trump signed the NDAA into law on Thursday evening.

As the United Nations adopted a resolution condemning Iran for its execution spree ‘in the strongest terms,’ a leading dissident group released a report accusing Tehran of putting 2,013 Iranians to death under President Masoud Pezeshkian between Jan. 1 and Dec. 15 of this year.

TheMujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) report says this more than doubles the total of 975 executions that the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights counted in 2024. The U.N. noted that the 2024 figure was the highest recorded since 2015. Thegroup counted a similar total of 1,001 executions in 2024.

According to MEK documents provided to Fox News Digital, a free-falling Iranian currency, nationwide protests, factional power struggles, ‘snapback’ U.N. sanctions and fractures among leaders are stoking the increase in executions. The MEK says that this year’s execution total is the highest recorded since the 1980s.

A State Department spokesperson condemned Iran’s continued abuse of human rights, telling Fox News Digital that, ‘We strongly condemn the Iranian regime’s use of execution as a tool of political repression.  For decades, the regime has subjected Iranians to torture, forced confessions, and sham trials, resulting in unlawful executions. Today, innocent civilians are being used as scapegoats for the regime’s military and economic failures.’

The spokesperson continued, ‘The Trump Administration restored the policy of maximum pressure, ending the Biden Administration’s policy of announcing fig-leaf sanctions while handing the regime billions.  Since January, we have designated dozens of people and over 180 vessels in Iran’s shadow fleet to deplete the regime’s coffers.’

Behnam Ben Taleblu, the senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran Program, said there are more steps needed to be taken by Washington. He told Fox News Digital that the U.S. has ‘been lagging behind’ other Western partners who have responded to Iranian human rights violations with sanctions and other measures, most recently Canada, which sanctioned four individuals after a protest in the Iranian city Mashhad in December.

‘The lack of practical measures to support the Iranian people is a strategic own goal,’ Taleblu said. 

Taleblu noted that Iran ‘arrested over 21,000 people’ following the 12-Day War in June, alongside a ‘political repression that is even much more expansive than ever before.’ He said that the Islamic Republic ‘understands how weak it is,’ and any efforts to appear more socially lenient, including regarding hijab laws, are an attempt to ‘retain their oligarchic political position in a post-Khamenei Iran.’

Noting the prior Trump administration’s strong stance on Iran, Taleblu says that ‘it certainly can do better much more cheaply and more cost effectively than it thinks.’ Taleblu said that one ‘simple’ messaging strategy will present itself in March during President Trump’s Nowruz address, when he can ‘give an homage to the most pro-American, the most pro-Israeli population in the heartland of the Muslim Middle East.’

‘The imperative for Washington to support Iranian protesters… stands,’ Taleblu said. ‘But that should be a constant in U.S. foreign policy, given the disposition of the Iranian street, which is almost entirely against the Iranian state. U.S. human rights policy towards Iran should not be limited to merely having social media accounts that are the stenographers for Iran’s decline into failed state status.’ 

The MEK has urged U.S. policymakers to recognize the Iranian people’s right to resist and overthrow the regime, which they claim is the only means for eliminating the country’s theocracy.

On Dec. 10, the European Parliament marked International Human Rights Day by calling for the world to take action against Iran on account of its execution campaign. Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, addressed the parliament with her concerns that Iran is attempting to crush dissent. She urged that ‘all relations with the regime must be conditioned on the halt of executions,’ with members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Intelligence placed ‘on the terrorist list.’

Among those sentenced to death is Zahra Tabari, a 67-year-old engineer and mother who the MEK say was given her sentence after a ‘sham 10-minute trial… without her chosen legal representation.’ MEK documents say Tabari was arrested because she held a banner reading ‘Woman, Resistance, Freedom.’

The total number of executions in Iran has doubled since October. At the time, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that Iran was murdering up to nine prisoners each day, which they called an ‘unprecedented execution spree.’  In response, death row prisoners staged a hunger strike.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not offer comment on the report.