Senate votes down funding bill; Palm Bay leaders seek councilman’s removal

The U.S. Senate failed to pass a stopgap funding bill for the fourth time Friday, and the Palm Bay City Council has voted to ask Gov. Ron DeSantis to remove a councilman from the governing body.

The Senate on Friday once again failed to pass a short-term funding bill to reopen the federal government, making it likely that the shutdown now in its third day will stretch into a second week.

Two Democratic senators and one independent who caucuses with Democrats crossed party lines to join all but one Republican in backing the bill, which passed the GOP-House earlier this month and seeks to keep the government funded through mid-November. The same three also joined with the GOP in backing the bill two previous times. Two senators, one Democrat and one Republican, did not vote. Friday’s vote marked the Senate’s fourth attempt at ushering the funding measure through the upper chamber. 

Republican leader Sen. John Thune of South Dakota signaled earlier that he would save the next try for next week, telling reporters at a press conference “hopefully over the weekend they’ll have a chance to think about it,” referring to Democrats. After Friday’s vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana declared that Tuesday of next week through the following Monday would be a district work period, meaning lawmakers in his chamber will not return to the Capitol. 

Per Senate rules, Republicans need 60 votes for the bill to pass, meaning seven Democrats — or eight if Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky continues to vote no — need to support the measure. 

Along with the GOP-supported, short-term funding patch, senators have also rejected a counter bill Democrats offered that would reopen the government and address their health care concerns. 

The shutdown has the potential to impact the economy, with hundreds of thousands of workers expected to be furloughed. And President Donald Trump has marveled at the “unprecedented opportunity” he says Democrats in Congress handed him to enact potentially permanent layoff and cuts to “Democrat Agencies” during the shutdown. 

The president said he was meeting with his Office of Management and Budget chief, Russ Vought, to discuss just that.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who referred to the potentially permanent layoffs as an “unfortunate consequence” of the shutdown at Friday’s press briefing, said earlier this week that the firings were “imminent” and could be in the thousands. 

“Unfortunately, we’re having to do a massive review of the bureaucracy to be good stewards of the American taxpayer dollar, and it’s the Democrats who have forced the White House and the president into this position to shut the government down,” Leavitt said Friday. 

A major topic of discussion during Thursday’s Palm Bay City Council meeting was about one of their council members, Chandler Langevin, and whether he should keep his position after making multiple derogatory social media comments about people in the Indian and Indian American communities. 

Hundreds of people showed up at the meeting to share their thoughts on the matter. Dozens also filled an overflow room and waited outside of the City Council chambers, listening to the meeting on speakers as they waited to get inside. 

Seventy-six people signed up for public comment on the topic of Langevin, leading to several hours of discussion, with some feeling that the disdain is being pointed in the wrong direction.

“Tonight shouldn’t be about the resignation of Councilman Langevin, it should be about the resignation of each and every one of you to who failed this community and ignoring multiple accusations of discrimination and done nothing,” Former Palm Bay Deputy Chief Lance Fisher. “Nothing to prevent tonight from happening.”

Some of his comments on X, previously known as Twitter, include: “Deport every Indian immediately.” And “Indians are destroying the South.”

The majority, however, pointed to this not being the first time that Langevin has spoken negatively about a racial group, and they questioned him about his comments. Earlier in the year, he made comments about Muslims and their faith, saying in one post, “Islam is neither peaceful nor strictly a religion.”

“Do you want your legacy to be that of an elected official whose overheated words incited and justified violence against the harmless, the innocent and law-abiding citizens,” said former Brevard County Judge Alli Majeed.

Several federal and state legislators have also weighed in and condemned Langevin’s comments.

That mindset was felt by multiple speakers at the meeting as they asked for an apology and for the council to make sure that these types of actions never happen again.

“So, please make sure that nothing like this ever happens,” Mike Shah said. “Nobody should make comments like this, not in Brevard County, not in the United States, and I would like to see apologies from the person who said that.”

About an hour before the meeting, Langevin did post a statement on X, saying that he was willing to talk and work with the Indian community to solve issues at a local and national level.

Just before 11 p.m., the Palm Bay City Council voted 4-1 to move forward with drafting a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis, asking him to remove Langevin from his position on the council as they do not have the power to do it themselves.

As part of that vote, the council moved to censure Langevin and remove him from his appointments and outside boards for the city of Palm Bay. They’re also planning to send an ethics violation letter to State Sen. Debbie Mayfield (R) so she can send it to the governor.

After the vote, Langevin took to X again, posting, “For every lefty looney that came to yell at me tonight there are thousands of normal Americans that live in my city that don’t come to meetings because they know I will represent them.”