NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-21-2025 6AM EST

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. The Senate has adopted a budget resolution on a 52-48 party line vote this morning. Senators wrapped up business just about an hour ago after pulling an all-nighter. Republicans are using the resolution to address items on President Trump's agenda. But Trump has said he prefers the House's approach to his agenda rather than the Senate measure. NPR's Barbara Sprunt explains. The Senate and the House are pursuing different strategies in helping the White House get more

funding for the southern border and extend the 2017 tax cuts. The House wants to tackle the components in one big bill. The Senate thinks it's more expeditious to split it into two bills, one for now and one later this year. The Senate is undertaking what's known as a votorama, where lawmakers bring amendments often aimed at making members of the other party take challenging votes. Barbara Sprunt and Peer News, The Capitol. The Senate has also voted to confirm Cash Patel as the new director of the FBI. NPR's Ryan Lucas reports Patel's controversial nomination was adopted despite fierce opposition from Democrats.

The Republican-led Senate confirmed Patel by a vote of 51 to 49 to lead the FBI, the nation's most powerful law enforcement agency. Two Republican senators, Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, joined all Senate Democrats in opposition. Patel is a former prosecutor and was a national security official in Trump's first term. He's also a Trump loyalist and fierce critic of the FBI. His Republican supporters say he will fix what they argue is the politicization of the FBI against conservatives. Patel's critics, meanwhile, say he lacks the necessary

experience and temperament to lead the Bureau and worry that he will use the FBI's vast powers to make good on his repeated threats to go after his and Trump's perceived enemies. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington. A federal judge is allowing the Trump administration to proceed with its mass firings of federal workers. The judge says his court does not have the jurisdiction for this lawsuit. Several unions, meanwhile, have just brought a separate lawsuit on the matter to another

court. A federal judge has again warned Trump officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development that they must start paying the agency's global partners. NPR's Frank Lankford has more. For the second time in a week, D.C. federal district judge Amir Ali pressed USAID to pay up. He repeated that failing to pay the many millions of dollars owed to aid organizations is doing, quote, irreparable harm. The judge, though, stopped short of finding the government

in contempt of court. The government says it has the right to eliminate USAID programs contract by contract. But plaintiff's attorney, Lauren Bateman of Public Citizen Litigation Group, says the government is running out of road. So now the government's choice is clear. Comply immediately or risk constitutional crisis. The judge wants the government to respond Friday. Frank Langford, NPR News. On Wall Street stock, futures are trading higher.

This is NPR. Israeli authorities say one of the bodies handed over by Hamas yesterday as part of the ceasefire agreement is not the body of a hostage. The body of Shiri Bebas was supposed to be handed over yesterday. The bodies of her two young sons were positively identified as was that of a fourth hostage. Israel's military says this development is a violation of the utmost severity by Hamas. Tomorrow, Hamas is supposed to free six living hostages. The Trump administration has cut protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians.

NPR's Jasmine Garst reports this puts them on track to be deported this summer. Temporary protected status, or TPS, allows people from certain designated countries where there is armed conflict, environmental disaster, or political turmoil to live in the US. Around half a million Haitians living in the US are eligible for TPS status. Before he left office, President Joe Biden granted them an extra 18 months of protection from getting deported.

But Homeland Security Secretary Christine Noem has now signed an order revoking that extension. Jasmine Garst, NPR News, New York. New York Governor Kathy Hochul says she won't remove embattled New York Mayor Eric Adams from office. She says she'll work to create guardrails around him. Mayor Adams has been accused of corruption, charges he denies. But the Trump administration has moved to drop the federal case against him. Mayor Adams has been accused of corruption, charges he denies, but the Trump administration has moved to drop the federal case against him. Several

federal prosecutors have quit, alleging the administration is doing this in exchange for Adams' help on immigration matters. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.