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5 min readCongress voted to end the longest shutdown in the history of the Department of Homeland Security, the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, and the rising cost of jet fuel threatens to strain wildfire budgets this summer. These were the dominant developments in the NPR News Now roundup for April 30, 2026.
DHS Funding Finally Passes, Excluding ICE and Border Patrol
The U.S. House approved by voice vote a Senate bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, sending it to President Trump’s desk and capping a two-and-a-half-month standoff. The measure explicitly excludes money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parts of Border Patrol. The shutdown began when funding for DHS became entangled in a bitter debate between Republicans and Democrats over mass deportations and enforcement tactics, which NPR’s Sam Greenglass noted “resulted in the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.” Senate Republicans struck a deal with Democrats, blessed by the White House, to separate ICE and Border Patrol from the rest of DHS so that funding could flow to other agencies like the TSA and Coast Guard. The House sat on that measure for a month before finally acting, as money President Trump had been using to keep DHS paychecks flowing was set to run out. A separate measure to fund ICE and Border Patrol using a pro
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:04) **Congress Ends DHS Shutdown, Excluding ICE and Border Patrol** - The House approves the Senate’s funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, ending a 2.5-month record-long shutdown.
- 2 (01:13) **Supreme Court Ruling Suspends Louisiana House Primaries** - Louisiana’s Secretary of State halts U.S. House primaries after the Court strikes down the state’s congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
- 3 (02:10) **Jet Fuel Prices Surge, Threatening Wildfire Budgets** - The cost of jet fuel has nearly doubled since February amid the Iran war, raising concerns about funding for wildfire fighting this summer.
- 4 (03:01) **Camp Mystic Withdraws Reopening Application After Deadly Flooding** - The Christian girls camp where 27 people died in last year’s central Texas flooding pulls its application to reopen this summer while investigations continue.
- 5 (03:18) **Trump Nominates New Surgeon General After Polled Withdrawal** - President Trump withdraws Casey Means’ nomination for Surgeon General over questions about her views on non-traditional medicines and vaccines, and instead nominates Dr. Nicole Sapphire, a radiologist and Fox News contributor.
- 6 (03:36) **Genome Sequencing Pioneer Craig Venter Dies at 79** - Dr. J. Craig Venter, who played a critical role in sequencing the human genome, dies from complications of cancer treatment.
- 7 Standout Quotes
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