Up First from NPR - House Vote on Debt Ceiling, Purdue Pharma Ruling, Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting Trial

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

The House of Representatives is set to vote on the deal to suspend the nation's debt limit. A federal appeals court ruled that the Sackler family be sheltered from opioid lawsuits linked to their company Purdue Pharma and Oxycontin painkillers. And, a trial is underway in the case of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting which left eleven worshippers dead.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The House of Representatives is set to vote on the debt ceiling bill. It's advance of the floor despite reservations from both sides of the aisle. This bipartisan bill is not perfect. So what's it going to take for the House to pass it? I'm Leila Faldin, that's A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. A court ruling will shield Purdue Pharma's owners from lawsuits. The Sackler family has long been at the center of the opioid crisis for the company's marketing of the addictive painkillers. The Sacklers get immunity, but what do victims get?

And the trial of the man accused of killing 11 worshipers and injuring six at a Pittsburgh synagogue is now underway. He's charged with 63 federal counts, including hate crimes for the 2018 shooting. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. Now, Our Change will honor 100 years of the Royal Canadian Air Force and their dedicated service to communities at home and abroad. From the skies to our change, this $2 commemorative circulation coin marks their storied past and promising future. Find the limited edition Royal Canadian Air Force $2 coin today. The House of Representatives is on track to vote today on

the deal to suspend the nation's debt limit. Yeah, but several ultra conservative and progressive lawmakers are unhappy with the compromise bill. Supporters, though, argue the deal is necessary to avoid a catastrophic debt default. Here's NPR's congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh. Is this bill passing today? So Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his allies have repeatedly said they're confident it will pass tonight. This deal is similar to ones that we have seen before in divided government. It has modest spending reforms in exchange for increasing the debt ceiling. The debt limit is raised for two years past the 2024 presidential election. spending cuts the Speaker and President Biden negotiated, they agreed not to include Social Security and Medicare as part of the talks and to protect defense programs. So McCarthy said yesterday that limited what this deal could address. We couldn't get everything we wanted. And when we have this debate, you couldn't talk about the whole budget. So in essence,

we are only able to focus on about 11 percent of the budget. And the Speaker keeps saying it's going to take votes from both parties to pass it tonight. All right. So what about Democrats then? Are they getting on board with the deal that President Biden helped make? You know, many are. The president's been making a lot of calls to Democrats on the Hill, but a lot of progressives say the president shouldn't have negotiated on the debt ceiling at all with the House Republicans. Some are still upset about the policy provisions that were added

to the bill. One would reform how new energy projects get approved. Another would add some new work requirements for adults without dependents who receive assistance like food stamps. Those new requirements would be in place through 2030. But the White House did get agreement to exclude some groups of people, veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and some others who get aid from federal safety net programs from any work requirements. So in the end, more people could receive these benefits. One Democrat, Pennsylvania, Congressman Brendan Boyle, wasn't enthusiastic about backing this deal, but he summed up where Democrats find themselves right now. This bipartisan bill is not perfect. In fact, I've yet to meet one person who loves it. Perhaps that is a sign that it is a fair compromise between a narrowly Republican House

and a narrowly Democratic Senate, and of course, a Democratic White House. So to what Boyle is saying, there are more than a few House Republicans that do not love it, Deirdre. Could this threaten McCarthy's job as Speaker? For now, no one is pushing to remove him. Remember, part of the deal McCarthy cut to get the votes to be elected Speaker in January was to agree to a rules change that would allow just any one member to offer a resolution to remove the House Speaker. Texas Republican Chip Roy argued no Republican should vote for this debt deal.

He warned yesterday there would be consequences without mentioning the Speaker by name. No matter what happens, there's going to be a reckoning about what just occurred unless we stop this bill. But McCarthy says he believes his job is secure. So if McCarthy is right and the deal passes tonight, the Senate still has to take it up. When would that happen? It needs to happen quickly. Some senators are pushing for amendments, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he's going to keep the Senate in this weekend to vote on it. The Treasury Secretary says the U.S. could run out of money to pay its bills as soon as Monday, June 5th, so they need to act

by then. That's NPR congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh. Talk again soon. Thank you. A federal appeals court ruling shelters members of the Sackler family who own Purdue Pharma from all civil lawsuits linked to their role in the opioid crisis. The ruling comes as part of the company's bankruptcy settlement deal. It's seen as a major legal victory for the Sacklers. And while the family will be protected, the court paved the way for the company to settle thousands of legal claims. NPR addiction correspondent Brian Mann is here. Brian, what do you make of this ruling? I mean, was it a surprise? And what this means is the Sacklers will walk away from their family's role in this deadly opioid crisis with immunity from civil lawsuits. That despite a paper trail that shows some of them aggressively pushed opioid sales, in exchange, they will pay roughly $6 billion and give up control of their company, Purdue Pharma.

So that's the deal with the Sacklers. Who else is going to benefit? Yeah, under terms of this deal, billions of dollars will be paid out by Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers to help fund addiction and healthcare programs around the U.S. over the next two decades. Also, victims of OxyContin addiction will share roughly $750 million in settlement money. Ryan Hampton lost years to addiction after being prescribed OxyContin, and he helped negotiate this deal. He told me he's not happy the Sacklers get legal immunity, but he does think it's time to settle. The system is far from perfect. We have known that for some time. But the true injustice is going to be if this continues to linger on and victims don't get their speedy recovery. Now, in theory, this ruling could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court,

but the legal experts I've been speaking to, they just don't think that's likely to happen. What are the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma saying about the ruling? Members of the Sackler family and the company sent NPR statements yesterday praising this decision. It's important to note that while their company, Purdue Pharma, pleaded guilty twice to federal criminal charges for illegal marketing of OxyContin, the Sacklers have never been personally charged with a crime. They've never admitted any wrongdoing. And the way this deal is structured, they will now keep much of their wealth. If Sacklers want protection from a bankruptcy court without actually filing for bankruptcy, does that set a precedent? This is interesting.

Federal courts around the U.S. are wrestling with this question. Should bankruptcy courts have the power to approve deals like this that allow wealthy people or companies to pay cash as part of settlements in exchange for protection from lawsuits. A lot of the richest companies in the country are now trying legal maneuvers similar to what the Sacklers did here. Bankruptcy experts I talked to say this ruling does open the door to this legal strategy a little wider. Okay, so clearly a legal victory for the Sacklers. What about the reputations, though, Brian? Yeah, that's a really different story. Just a few years ago, remember, the Sacklers were among the most respected philanthropists in the world, but activists focused a huge amount

of attention on their role, the role the Sackler family played leading Purdue Pharma, pushing OxyContin sales while addiction and overdose deaths surged. Shame on Sackler! Shame on Sackler! And protests like that one worked. Now museums and universities all over the world, they've stripped the Sackler family name from their galleries. Some critics say that's not enough. They want to see the Sacklers prosecuted criminally, but legal experts I talked to say that's very unlikely to happen. NPR addiction correspondent Brian Mann. Brian, thanks for your reporting on this. Thank you. Trial's underway for the man accused of killing 11

worshipers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh back in 2018. Six people were also injured that day in what's considered to be the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. The defendant is charged with 63 federal counts, including hate crimes. Oliver Morrison of member station WESA was in court. Oliver, why is the trial just starting now, I mean, four years after the attack? Well, the trial was delayed in part because of COVID. And so that's had an impact because during interviews of potential jurors, which took about a month, many of the jurors couldn't even remember very basic details of what happened.

But they were sworn in yesterday and they started to hear those details very quickly. The defense and prosecution both gave their opening arguments. And then we heard from a few of the witnesses, including some very graphic 911 phone calls. All right. So what did the prosecution and the defense say in their opening statements? So the prosecution basically laid the scene of what happened that day. They talked about the many congregants arriving at the synagogue and introduced them to the jury. And then they switched to talking about Robert Bowers and the many anti-Semitic comments that he'd made online, talked about how he showed up and began hunting them. They argued that even though it was a tragedy, there were many acts of heroism from

the witnesses that will be testifying during the trial. Now, the defense took a different tact. They didn't dispute that Bowers was the one that killed everyone, and they didn't even dispute that it was horrible. This didn't come as a total surprise because Bowers had tried to plead guilty in the trial in exchange for life in prison, but the prosecution rejected that effort. They want to seek the death penalty. So the defense basically had two tacks that they tried. One was to say that Bowers, it wasn't really a hate crime because Bowers wasn't trying to hurt Jews specifically. Bowers, right before he went in, had made a comment about a refugee resettlement group. One of the congregations at the Tree of Life synagogue had supported a refugee resettlement group, and so he was actually acting with animus towards the

refugees, not towards Jews in particular. They also said that these kinds of statements and actions that didn't line up sort of were an example of the irrationality that they're hoping to prove during the course of the trial. Now, has the jury heard from any witnesses? Well, yeah, there were several witnesses, and one of them in particular made a big impact at the end of the day yesterday. The Tree of Life rabbi, Jeffrey Myers, many of the people that were there that day were very elderly. When he first realized what was happening, he was able to help them lay down on the ground

and get out of the studio. And then he fled upstairs into a little bathroom. And in that bathroom, there was no lock on the door. So he called 911. And from that bathroom, it was just holding the door handle. And the gunshots were getting louder and louder. And so he was pretty convinced that he, you know, his life was about to end. And so he didn't want

to call his wife because he, you know, he didn't want to put her through that. So he decided what he should do is say a Jewish prayer to ask for forgiveness, especially for the congregants that day who he thought might not have a chance to say the prayer themselves. So a vivid scene of him sort of gripping this doorknob, ready to fight if the shooter came in, but just quietly accepting his fate and what he thought was going to happen. Oliver Morrison of member station WESA. Oliver, thank you. Thank you.

And that's Up First for Wednesday, May 31st. I'm Ian Martinez. And I'm Leila Faldel. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Krishna Dev Kalamar, Andrea Deleon, Alice Wolfley, and Amar Pashich. It was produced by Claire Marishima, Ziad Butch, and Lindsay Toddy. We get engineering support from Trey Watson, and our technical director is Zach Coleman. Start your day here with us tomorrow. And if you like your news on demand, and I know that you do, check out the NPR One app. It makes a local, national and international news wherever you go and whenever you want it.

And you can hear podcasts based on the stuff you like. So download NPR One at that app store. NPR One.