Author: Daniel

NASA has confirmed that after a pause in communications with Voyager 1 in late October, the spacecraft has regained its voice and resumed regular operations.

Voyager unexpectedly turned off its primary radio transmitter, known as its X-band, before turning on its much weaker S-band transmitter in October.

The interstellar spacecraft is currently located about 15.4 billion miles away from Earth and the S-band had not been used in over 40 years.

Communication between NASA and Voyager 1 has been spotty at times and the switch to the lower band prevented the Voyager mission team from downloading science data and information about the spacecraft’s status.

NASA RECONNECTS WITH INTERSTELLAR VOYAGER 1 SPACECRAFT USING TECHNOLOGY NOT USED IN DECADES

Earlier this month, the team was able to reactivate the X-band transmitter and resume collection of data from the four operating science instruments onboard Voyager 1.

Now that the data can be collected and communications have resumed, engineers are finishing a few remaining tasks to return Voyager 1 back to the state it was in before the issue came up. One task is to reset the system that synchronizes Voyager 1’s three onboard computers.

The S-band was activated by the spacecraft’s fault protection system when engineers activated a heater on Voyager 1. The fault protection system determined the probe did not have enough power and automatically turned off systems that were not necessary to keep the spacecraft flying in order to keep providing power to critical systems.

VOYAGER 1 DETECTS ‘HUM’ WHILE IN INTERSTELLAR SPACE: REPORT

But in the process, the probes turned off all nonessential systems except for science instruments, NASA said, turning off the X-band and activating the S-band, which uses less power.

Voyager 1 had not used the S-band to communicate with Earth since 1981.

NASA PUBLISHES NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS OF ‘RAVIOLI’ MOON ORBITING SATURN

Voyager 1′s odyssey began in 1977, when the spacecraft and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched on a tour of the gas giant planets of the solar system.

After beaming back dazzling postcard views of Jupiter’s giant red spot and Saturn’s shimmering rings, Voyager 2 hopscotched to Uranus and Neptune. Meanwhile, Voyager 1 used Saturn as a gravitational slingshot to power itself past Pluto.

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There are 10 science instruments on each spacecraft, and according to NASA, four are currently being used to study the particles, plasma and magnetic fields in interstellar space.

A homeowner in New York uncovered a complete mastodon jaw in their backyard in what officials are calling a “remarkable discovery.” 

The jaw of the extinct mammal, which was similar to an elephant, and several bone fragments were excavated from a property in Scotchtown by researchers from the New York State Museum and SUNY Orange. 

“The fossils – discovered by a curious homeowner – will undergo carbon dating and extensive scientific analysis to determine the mastodon’s age, diet, and habitat,” the New York State Museum said in a statement. “Once preserved and studied, the jaw and related findings will be showcased in public programming in 2025, offering visitors a glimpse into New York’s rich Ice Age history.” 

The Albany-based Museum said the homeowner first noticed the jaw when they spotted “two unusual teeth concealed by plant fronds and, intrigued, dug a bit deeper to uncover two more teeth just inches beneath the surface.” 

ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNEARTH 13,000-YEAR-OLD MASTODON SKULL IN IOWA 

“When I found the teeth and examined them in my hands, I knew they were something special and decided to call in the experts,” the museum quoted the homeowner as saying. “I’m thrilled that our property has yielded such an important find for the scientific community.” 

The discovery is also being described by the museum as the first of its kind in New York in 11 years, and a “prehistoric treasure.” 

480-YEAR-OLD FIREARM DISCOVERED IN ARIZONA DESCRIBED BY RESEARCHERS AS THE ‘OLDEST’ FOUND IN THE US 

“Excavation efforts by the New York State Museum and SUNY Orange unearthed a full, well-preserved mastodon jaw belonging to an adult individual,” it said. “Alongside the jaw, researchers also recovered a piece of a toe bone and a rib fragment, offering valuable additional clues about the mastodon’s life and environment.” 

Museum officials said 150 mastodon fossils have been found across New York, but a third of them have come from Orange County, where the jaw was discovered. 

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“While the jaw is the star of the show, the additional toe and rib fragments offer valuable context and the potential for additional research,” Cory Harris, Chair of SUNY Orange’s Behavioral Sciences Department, said in a statement. “We are also hoping to further explore the immediate area for more bones that may have been preserved.” 

This week, NASA finalized its strategy for sustaining a human presence in space. A document emphasized the importance of maintaining the ability for extended stays in orbit after the International Space Station is retired.

“NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Microgravity Strategy will guide the agency toward the next generation of continuous human presence in orbit, enable greater economic growth, and maintain international partnerships,” the document stated.

The commitment comes amid questions of whether the new space stations will be ready to go. With the incoming Trump administration’s effort to cut spending through the Department of Government Efficiency, there are also fears NASA could face cuts.

INTERSTELLAR VOYAGER 1 RESUMES OPERATIONS AFTER PAUSE IN COMMUNICATIONS WITH NASA

“Just like everybody has to make hard decisions when the budget is tight, we’ve made some choices over the last year, in fact, to cut back programs or cancel them all together to make sure that we’re focused on our highest priorities,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.

Commercial space company Voyager is working on one of the space stations that could replace the International Space Station when it de-orbits in 2030. The company applauded NASA’s strategy to keep humans in space.

“We need that commitment because we have our investors saying, ‘Is the United States committed?’” said Jeffrey Manber Voyager’s president of international and space stations.

President Reagan first launched the effort to keep humans in space at a permanent residence. He also warned of the need for private partnerships.

“America has always been greatest when we dared to be great. We can reach for greatness,” Reagan said during his 1984 State of the Union address. “The market for space transportation could surpass our capacity to develop it.”

The first piece of the ISS was launched in 1998. Since then, it has hosted more than 28 people from 23 countries. For 24 years, humans have occupied the ISS continuously.

The Trump administration released a national space policy in 2020 that called for maintaining a “continuous human presence in earth orbit” and also emphasized the need to transition to commercial platforms. The Biden administration maintained that policy.

NASA ROVER CAPTURES SILHOUETTE OF A MARTIAN MOON IN STUNNING VIDEO

“Let’s say we didn’t have commercial stations that are ready to go. Technically, we could keep the space station going, but the idea was to fly it through 2030 and de-orbit it in 2031,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in June.

In recent months, there have been questions whether the policy would be maintained.

“I just want to talk about the elephant in the room for a moment, continuous human presence. What does that mean? Is it continuous heartbeat or continuous capability? While we kind of originally hoped that this would just sort of emerge from this process, we’re still having conversations about that and understanding it,” Melroy said at the International Astronautical Congress in October.

NASA’s finalized strategy took into account concerns from commercial and international partners over what it would mean to lose the ISS without a commercial station ready to go.

“Almost all of our industry partners agreed. Continuous presence is continuous heartbeat. And so that’s where we stand,” Melroy said. “I think this continuous presence, it’s leadership. Today, the United States leads in human spaceflight. The only other space station that will be in orbit when ISS de-orbits, if we don’t bring a commercial destination up in time, will be the Chinese space station. And we want to stay and remain the partner of choice for our industry and for our goals for NASA.”

Three companies, including Voyager, are working with NASA to develop commercial space stations. Axiom signed an agreement with NASA in 2020. The agency awarded contracts to Nanoracks, now part of Voyager Space, and Blue Origin in 2021.

“We’ve had some challenges, to be perfectly honest with you. The budget caps that were a deal that was cut between the White House and Congress for fiscal year (2024 and 2025) have left us without as much investment. So, what we do is we co-invest with our commercial partners to do the development. I think we’re still able to make it happen before the end of 2030, though, to get a commercial space station up and running so that we have a continuous heartbeat of American astronauts on orbit,” Melroy said.

Voyager says it is not behind in the development process and is still planning to launch their starship space station in 2028.

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“We’re not asking for more money. We’re going ahead. We’re ready to replace the International Space Station,” Manber said. “Everyone knows SpaceX, but there’s hundreds of companies that have created the space economy. And if we lose permanent presence, you lose that supply chain.”

Additional funds have been provided for the three companies since the initial space station contracts. A second round of funding could be crucial for some projects. NASA could also award funding for new space station proposals. One prospect is Long Beach, California’s Vast Space. The company recently unveiled concepts for its Haven modules. It plans to launch the Haven-1 as soon as next year.

“We absolutely think competition is critical. This is a development project. It’s challenging. It was hard to build the space station. We’re asking our commercial partners to step up and do this themselves with some help from us. We think it’s really important that we carry as many options going forward to see which one really pans out when we actually get there,” Melroy said.

Recent photos taken by India’s Space Research Organization moon orbiter, known as Chandrayaan 2, clearly show the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 landing sites more than 50 years later. 

The photos were taken by the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter in April 2021 and were reshared on Curiosity’s X page – which posts about space exploration – on Wednesday. 

“Image of Apollo 11 and 12 taken by India’s Moon orbiter. Disapproving Moon landing deniers,” Curiosity wrote on X, along with the overhead photos that show the landing vehicles on the surface of the moon. 

Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, making Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first men to walk on its surface. 

US PREPARES TO DEORBIT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION AMID CHINA COMPETITION 

Astronaut Michael Collins, the third man on the Apollo 11 mission, remained in orbit while Aldrin and Armstrong walked on the moon. 

The lunar module, known as Eagle, was left in lunar orbit after it rendezvoused with the command module Collins was in the next day and Eagle eventually landed back on the moon’s surface. 

Apollo 12 was NASA’s second crewed mission to land on the moon on Nov. 19, 1969, in which Charles “Pete” Conrad and Alan Bean became the third and fourth men to walk on its surface.  

The Apollo missions continued until December 1972, when the program was shut down and astronaut Eugene Cernan became the last man to walk on the moon. 

NASA FINALIZES STRATEGY FOR HUMAN PRESENCE IN SPACE

The Chandrayaan-2 mission launched on July 22, 2019, exactly 50 years after the Apollo 11 mission and two years before it captured images of the 1969 lunar landers. 

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India also launched Chandrayaan-3 last year, which became the first mission to successfully land neat the moon’s south pole. 

Elon Musk’s sense of humor is out of this world. 

Seven years after the SpaceX CEO launched a Tesla Roadster into orbit, astronomers from the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts confused it with an asteroid earlier this month. 

A day after the astronomers with the Minor Planet Center registered 2018 CN41, it was deleted on Jan. 3 when they revealed that it was in fact Musk’s roadster. 

The center said on its website that 2018 CN41’s registry was deleted after “it was pointed out the orbit matches an artificial object, 2018-017A, Falcon Heavy Upper stage with the Tesla Roadster. The designation2018 CN41 is being deleted and will be listed as omitted.”

 DEBRIS FROM SPACEX STARSHIP STREAKS THROUGH THE SKY

SpaceX launched the Tesla Roadster on the maiden flight of SpaceX’s huge Falcon Heavy rocket in February 2018. 

The roadster was expected to go into elliptical orbit around the sun, going a little beyond Mars and back toward Earth, but it apparently exceeded the orbit of Mars and kept going to the asteroid belt, according to Musk at the time. 

When the roadster was mistaken for an asteroid earlier this month, it was less than 150,000 miles from Earth, which is closer than the moon’s orbit, according to Astronomy Magazine, meaning that astronomers would want to monitor how close it gets to Earth. 

POWERFUL WEBB TELESCOPE CAPTURES PHOTOS OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST SUPERNOVA EVER SEEN

Center for Astrophysics (CfA) astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told Astronomy magazine that the mistake shows the issues with untracked objects. 

“Worst case, you spend a billion launching a space probe to study an asteroid and only realize it’s not an asteroid when you get there,” he said.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to SpaceX for comment. 

• A new study links a particular gene and a protein variant found only in humans to the origins of spoken language.
• Researchers used CRISPR gene editing to replace the NOVA1 protein found in mice with the type exclusively found in humans, and it changed the way the animals vocalized when they called out to each other.
• The author of the study, Dr. Robert Darnell, hopes the recent work could lead to new ways to treat speech-related problems.

Why did humans start speaking? Scientists suggest genetics played a big role – and they say the evolution of this singular ability was key to our survival.

A new study links a particular gene to the ancient origins of spoken language, proposing that a protein variant found only in humans may have helped us communicate in a novel way. Speech allowed us to share information, coordinate activities and pass down knowledge, giving us an edge over extinct cousins like Neanderthals and Denisovans.

The new study is “a good first step to start looking at the specific genes” that may affect speech and language development, said Liza Finestack at the University of Minnesota, who was not involved with the research.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER ANCIENT ‘CITY OF THE DEAD’ IN ITALY: ‘PERFECTLY PRESERVED’

What scientists learn may someday even help people with speech problems.

The genetic variant researchers were looking at was one of a variety of genes “that contributed to the emergence of Homo sapiens as the dominant species, which we are today,” said Dr. Robert Darnell, an author of the study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

Darnell has been studying the protein – called NOVA1 and known to be crucial to brain development – since the early 1990s. For the latest research, scientists in his lab at New York’s Rockefeller University used CRISPR gene editing to replace the NOVA1 protein found in mice with the exclusively human type to test the real-life effects of the genetic variant. To their surprise, it changed the way the animals vocalized when they called out to each other.

Baby mice with the human variant squeaked differently than normal littermates when their mom came around. Adult male mice with the variant chirped differently than their normal counterparts when they saw a female in heat.

Both are settings where mice are motivated to speak, Darnell said, “and they spoke differently” with the human variant, illustrating its role in speech.

‘DRAGON MAN’ CLAIMED AS POTENTIAL NEW HUMAN SPECIES AFTER ANALYSIS OF CHINA SKULL

This isn’t the first time a gene has been linked to speech. In 2001, British scientists said they had discovered the first gene tied to a language and speech disorder.

Called FOXP2, it was referred to as the human language gene. But though FOXP2 is involved in human language, it turned out that the variant in modern humans wasn’t unique to us. Later research found it was shared with Neanderthals. The NOVA1 variant in modern humans, on the other hand, is found exclusively in our species, Darnell said.

The presence of a gene variant isn’t the only reason people can speak. The ability also depends on things like anatomical features in the human throat and areas of the brain that work together to allow people to speak and understand language.

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Darnell hopes the recent work not only helps people better understand their origins but also eventually leads to new ways to treat speech-related problems.

University of Minnesota’s Finestack said it’s more likely the genetic findings might someday allow scientists to detect, very early in life, who might need speech and language interventions.

“That’s certainly a possibility,” she said.

Mars’ distinctive red color comes from the mineral ferrihydrite, which only forms in the presence of cool water, a new study claims. 

Ferrihydrite also forms at a lower temperature than other minerals that make up the aptly-named red planet’s surface, like hematite, which had previously been considered the main reason for its rouge hue.

“This suggests that Mars may have had an environment capable of sustaining liquid water before it transitioned from a wet to a dry environment billions of years ago,” NASA said in a news release this week. 

NASA partially funded the study. 

GRIFF JENKINS: ‘THE RACE TO MARS IS ON’

Researchers in the study, published in Nature Communications this week, analyzed data from several Mars missions, including several Mars’ rovers, and the findings were compared to lab experiments “where the team tested how light interacts with ferrihydrite particles and other minerals under simulated Martian conditions,” NASA said.

“The fundamental question of why Mars is red has been considered for hundreds if not for thousands of years,” the study’s lead author Adam Valantinas said in a statement. 

Valantinas is a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University who began the study as a Ph.D. student at Switzerland’s University of Bern. 

He continued, “From our analysis, we believe ferrihydrite is everywhere in the dust and also probably in the rock formations, as well. We’re not the first to consider ferrihydrite as the reason for why Mars is red, but we can now better test this using observational data and novel laboratory methods to essentially make a Martian dust in the lab.”

NASA’S MARTIAN HELICOPTER PROMISES UNPRECEDENTED VIEWS OF THE RED PLANET

Senior author of the study, Jack Mustard, called the study a “door-opening opportunity.” 

“It gives us a better chance to apply principles of mineral formation and conditions to tap back in time,” Mustard, a professor at Brown University, said. “What’s even more important, though, is the return of the samples from Mars that are being collected right now by the Perseverance rover. When we get those back, we can actually check and see if this is right.”

The research shows that Mars likely had a cool but wet and potentially habitable climate in its ancient past.

Mars’ atmosphere is too cold and then to support life now, but billions of years ago the planet had an abundance of water, NASA said, which is also evidenced in the ferrihydrite found in its dust. 

“These new findings point to a potentially habitable past for Mars and highlight the value of coordinated research between NASA and its international partners when exploring fundamental questions about our solar system and the future of space exploration,” Geronimo Villanueva, Associate Director for Strategic Science of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, and co-author of the study, said. 

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Valantinas said what the researchers “want to understand is the ancient Martian climate, the chemical processes on Mars — not only ancient — but also present.”

He continued, “Then there’s the habitability question: Was there ever life? To understand that, you need to understand the conditions that were present during the time of this mineral’s formation. What we know from this study is the evidence points to ferrihydrite forming and for that to happen there must have been conditions where oxygen from air or other sources and water can react with iron. Those conditions were very different from today’s dry, cold environment. As Martian winds spread this dust everywhere, it created the planet’s iconic red appearance.”

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson on Saturday dismissed President Donald Trump’s plan to send federal troops to Oregon’s largest city, claiming there is no lawlessness or violence there.

Trump announced Saturday morning he plans to send troops to Portland at the request of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The president said he directed War Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide “all necessary troops to protect war-ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” adding he was authorizing full force, if necessary.

Hours later, Wilson said during a news conference the number of necessary troops is “zero” in Portland, “and any other American city.”

TRUMP VOWS ‘FULL FORCE’ AS HE PLANS TO SEND TROOPS TO PORTLAND AMID ANTI-ICE PROTESTS

“This is an American city,” Wilson said. “We do not need any intervention. This is not a military target.”

The mayor alleged the president would “not find” lawlessness or violence in the city, claiming video footage showing violence in the city was from five years ago was “recycled and then recycled again.”

“If President Trump came to Portland today, what he would find is people riding their bikes, playing sports, enjoying the sunshine, buying groceries or produce from a farmers’ market,” Wilson said. “We’ve had hard conversations, and we’ve done important work in the years since that footage was taken, we reformed our public safety system. We’ve refocused our community and on our economy, and we’ve redoubled our efforts to help our most vulnerable.”

Since June, protests have erupted near an ICE facility in Portland, where city officials cited land use violations, including improper detainee holding times and boarded-up windows. 

PORTLAND RAMPS UP PRESSURE ON ICE BUILDING WITH LAND USE VIOLATION NOTICE

The building has been vandalized with anti-ICE graffiti and clashes between protesters and federal agents have occasionally turned violent, leading to the use of rubber bullets, tear gas and flash bangs. 

Video obtained by Fox News Digital confirmed another violent protest in August, with footage showing protesters rolling out a guillotine, lighting fires and fighting with authorities — forcing law enforcement to disperse the crowd with munitions.

PORTLAND MAYOR WARNS CITY TO FIX HOMELESS PROBLEM BEFORE TRUMP ‘DEPLOYS BULLDOZERS’

Instead of sending troops to protect the federal facility, Wilson suggested the president send “hundreds of engineers, or teachers, or outreach workers” to Portland instead of a “short, expensive and fruitless show of force.”

“I am so deeply disappointed with the federal government’s irresponsibility,” he said. “At the end of the day, this may be a show of force, but that’s all it is. It’s a big show, and after the big show, everyone goes home. That’s what I want to happen here today in Portland. We have a long and proud tradition of peaceful protest. We have a long and proud track record of being at the forefront of positive social change.”

“There are new risks today, risks that we do not yet fully understand,” he continued. “The administration has refused to elaborate on what they mean when they say they will deploy full force against our city and citizens.”

In his announcement on Saturday, Trump did not say he would deploy full force against the city of Portland and its citizens, as Wilson claimed. 

The president said he would send “all necessary troops” to protect the city and its ICE facilities, authorizing full force against domestic terrorism “if necessary.”

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Portland, a sanctuary city since 2017, has resisted federal immigration enforcement, making it a focal point during the administration’s immigration enforcement initiative.

In August, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Wilson, warning the city’s sanctuary policies undermine U.S. interests. She demanded Portland affirm compliance with federal law and end practices that obstruct immigration enforcement.

The City of Portland did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

President Donald Trump plans to meet with congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle on Monday, as a possible government shutdown looms, a White House official confirmed to Fox News. 

The meeting comes after the president canceled one last week with Democrats, claiming they had “unserious and ridiculous demands.” 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., were set to meet with Trump on Thursday to discuss a path forward to avert a partial government shutdown before the Sept. 30 deadline.

SPEAKER JOHNSON FLIPS SCRIPT ON DEM LEADERS WITH STAUNCH WARNING AGAINST GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Schumer and Jeffries will now meet with Trump, along with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. 

Schumer and Jeffries put out a joint statement on Saturday on the rescheduled meeting. 

“President Trump has once again agreed to a meeting in the Oval Office,” the statement said. “As we have repeatedly said, Democrats will meet anywhere, at any time and with anyone to negotiate a bipartisan spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people. We are resolute in our determination to avoid a government shutdown and address the Republican healthcare crisis. Time is running out.”

The Senate is expected to return on Sept. 29 following the Jewish new year, and the House is expected to be out until the deadline to keep the government funded passes.

In a lengthy post on Truth Social last week, Trump blasted Schumer and Jeffries for pushing “radical Left policies that nobody voted for.” 

“I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” Trump added at the time. 

The now-canceled meeting with Trump came on the heels of a letter from Schumer and Jeffries sent over that weekend where the top congressional Democrats laid the possibility of a shutdown on his and Republicans’ feet.

They argued that the Trump-backed short-term extension was “dirty,” which would mean it had partisan policy riders or spending attached to it, and panned it for continuing “the Republican assault on healthcare,” ignoring expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium subsidies, and possibly leading to the closure of hospitals and other healthcare facilities across the country.

TOP HOUSE DEM EXPOSES PARTY’S STRATEGY TO BLAME REPUBLICANS FOR LOOMING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

“With the September 30th deadline fast approaching, Republicans will bear responsibility for another painful government shutdown because of the refusal of GOP congressional leadership to even talk with Democrats,” they wrote at the time.

But Trump argued that their bill would allow for the nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts in his “Big, Beautiful Bill” to be repealed, and also blasted the Democratic continuing resolution (CR) for ending his bill’s $50 billion rural hospital fund. 

“We must keep the Government open, and legislate like true Patriots rather than hold American Citizens hostage, knowing that they want our now thriving Country closed,” he said. 

“I’ll be happy to meet with them if they agree to the Principles in this Letter,” Trump continued. “They must do their job! Otherwise, it will just be another long and brutal slog through their radicalized quicksand. To the Leaders of the Democrat Party, the ball is in your court. I look forward to meeting with you when you become realistic about the things that our Country stands for. DO THE RIGHT THING!”

Without any action, a shutdown would start at 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

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Johnson said last week that he had encouraged Trump to cancel the meeting last Thursday. 

“He and I talked about it at length yesterday and the day before. I said, look, when they get their job done, once they do the basic governing work of keeping the government open, as president, then you can have a meeting with him,” Johnson said on the “Mike & McCarty Show.” “Of course, it might be productive at that point, but right now, this is just a waste of his time.”

Fox News’ Alex Miller and Elizabeth Elkind and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: As the Sept. 30 government funding deadline looms, the Trump administration is warning that millions of Americans could lose flood insurance coverage if Democrats refuse to back a House-passed spending bill that also extends the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

The White House supports the continuing resolution (CR) approved by House Republicans, which would avert a shutdown and reauthorize the NFIP. 

Administration officials said they worked to ensure NFIP was part of the current funding package, reflecting what they call the urgency of protecting millions of policyholders during hurricane season.

Democrats have said they will not support the measure, citing broader spending disputes. Trump administration officials argue the standoff puts homeowners, the housing market and disaster recovery funds at risk just as peak storm season arrives.

GOP SENATOR BLASTS SCHUMER, DEMS AS ‘FORCING’ SHUTDOWN WHILE DEMANDING PRICE TAG REPORT

“In an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital, a White House official said: ‘The NFIP is a vital program utilized by millions of Americans, and it’s not a hard call to extend it – which is exactly why the administration supports the House-passed CR that would do so. Unfortunately, Democrats are happy to shut down the government and hurt the many thousands of Americans who rely on this program in the process.’”

According to administration figures reviewed by Fox News Digital, a lapse in NFIP authorization could disrupt about 1,300 property sales every day. That’s roughly 40,000 closings in a single month, all in areas where flood insurance is required to secure a mortgage.

More than 400,000 policies are set to expire in October. Officials say about 152,000 of those have been prepaid, but more than 250,000 households could still lose coverage if the program stalls.

TRUMP-APPROVED PLAN TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN SCUTTLED BY SENATE

Administration officials also pointed to October 2024 as a warning sign. That month saw more than 427,000 new or renewed policies. Roughly 41,000 homeowners bought new policies while about 33,000 dropped coverage, leaving a net gain of nearly 9,000. Officials warn that similar growth this year could collapse if NFIP lapses.

Administration officials told Fox News Digital that FEMA currently has $2.6 billion available to pay valid claims, including $1.5 billion in the National Flood Insurance Fund and $1.1 billion in reserves. But they warned the agency would be unable to borrow additional money from the Treasury if a major disaster exceeded those reserves, a scenario they described as “dangerous and avoidable.”

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) echoed those concerns. 

“Past disruptions of the NFIP have caused immediate and widespread negative impacts on property sales, home values and consumer confidence,” NAHB said in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital.

“Home sales would cease in areas where flood insurance is mandatory in order to obtain a mortgage. What the housing market needs now is stability and certainty. NAHB calls upon the House to act quickly to continue to fund the operations of the federal government including the extension of the NFIP.”

The NFIP has a long history of stopgap extensions. Since 2017, Congress has reauthorized the program more than 30 times, often through short-term measures. Lawmakers have typically made coverage retroactive to prevent permanent gaps, but even brief lapses have stalled real estate closings and left homeowners in limbo. The program currently serves about 4.5 million policyholders nationwide.

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Unless lawmakers strike a deal, FEMA will be barred from selling or renewing flood insurance policies starting Oct. 1, a lapse that could leave millions of homeowners in limbo as Washington hurtles toward a shutdown. Administration officials argue the risk is especially acute this year as hurricane season continues.

FEMA, Schumer and Jeffries did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.