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This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Stephanie welcome to the newshour. Im stephanie sy. The u. S. House is voting right now on the debt ceiling deal, after republicans got some help from democrats to pass a crucial hurdle. The vote follows weeks of heated negotiations and criticism from the right and the left. Lisa desjardins has been tracking it all on capitol hill and joins me now. Finally, the vote has begun. Where do things stand as you see them . Lisa as our viewers know, the delivery of this particular proposal has been very complicated and labored over the last few weeks. This is the final step in the house of representatives. Just looking right out the vote total, we so far in early numbers see bipartisan support for this bill. But it remains to be seen with the final totals were. I do believe it has the votes to pass. One of the things we will be watching very carefully is whether or not kevin mccarthy, the republican speaker of the house, is able to get a majority of his conference. That could have impcations for his job security down the road. We will see. It does seem like many of the undecided votes today have been starting to lean yes. What is interesting about his vote is its bipartisan nature. Neither party seems to be ecstatic about this bill. But as you listened to floor speeches today, it was clear also everyone had support for amongst their misgivings. Stephanie take us through the drama of the last day. What sorts of things have seemed to sway members . Lisa thats right. There have been a number of dramatic turns today. One of them was one the procedural vote to actually bring this up for debate made it through the house. This is something i usually would not talk about but it was a fascinating moment because usually the majority party, republicans, would be entirely responsible for the votes to start the debate. But there were a few dozen republicans who are still opposed to this bill and tried to block it. What happened . Very unusually, democrats had to get on board in the middle of the vote, change their votes, so that they could support this and get it through in a bipartisan way. It was really interesting listening to the speeches right before that. When you listened to leaders from both parties, you could hear both sides had misgivings. It is not a perfect bill, but it does represent a compromise between the administration and congress thats necessary in divided government. Nobody got everything they wanted, but the end result is a truly historic bill. There is no perfect negotiation when you are the victims of extortion. Nobody likes to pay a ransom note, and thats exactly what tonights vote is. Our payment on the ransom of the american people. Lisa the one thing you can gather from all of this, bipartisanship is indeed unusual, something we have not seen in washington offer mise washington offer. Neither side is satisfied but for the most part they have come to the middle. Stephanie so what are the concerns of those still planning to vote no . Lisa there will be significant groups on both sides of the aisle voting no. Lets take a look at those concerns in terms of what is at stake. Lets look at what is at stake exactly. If you go through the bill, of course number one, this is about spending and the federal spending dollars for the next two years. In addition, food benefits for hundreds of thousands of people are on the line. Some who would lose benefits, some who would gain benefits. This also has major proposals in it that would affect very largescale energy projects. That is something the pro energy forces like, but environmental groups say they are worried about what this does to the extent of Environmental Review processes. They believe perhaps this bill limits those environmental processes too much. Republicans say the bill doesnt cut spending enough, some dont think it cuts it at all. Democrats meanwhile believe some cuts to food beneficiaries, snap, are something they feel. I spoke to the head of the progressive caucus, she is a no tonight. And jahana hayes, a connecticut representative, used to be National Teacher of the year. She told me she was really thinking of the faces in her community. She especially thought new food benefit changes would affect older women, women of color. She told me those constituents of mine have no lobbyists, they only have me. Stephanie thank you forutting a face on all of this. I know you want to get back into that room where this is all happening. Lisa desjardins with an update for us on the capital. Thank you. Lisa youre welcome. Stephanie in the days other headlines, the kremlin accused ukraine of striking more targets inside russia, including Oil Facilities and a border town. The governor of Russias Belgorod region reported crossborder shelling. To the south, officials in krasnodar said drone attacks hit two refineries. Social media footage showed a huge fire at one of the refineries lighting up the sky. Ukraine did not confirm or deny any involvement in the attack. The u. S. And south korea today condemned north koreas attempt to launch its first spy satellite. The north admitted the launch failed, but vowed to try again. South koreas military said it located wreckage after the missile plunged into the sea. Official photos showed a white metal cylinder described as part of the rocket. In washington, National SecurityCouncil Spokesman john kirby warned the launch is a threat, regardless of the outcome. Mr. Kirby with each and every one of these launches, whether it fails or succeeds, kim jong un and his scientists and engineers, they learn, and they improve, and they adapt, and they continue to develop military capabilities that are a threat not only on the peninsula but to the region. Stephanie in south korea, the launch triggered air raid sirens and an evacuation alert in seoul. Officials said later the alert was sent in error. Sudans army is suspending peace talks with a Paramilitary Force its been battling for six weeks. The military accused the rival group today of repeatedly violating ceasefires. The conflict has killed hundreds of people and forced 1. 6 million from their homes. Back in this country, republican governors are responding to Texas Governor greggs abbotts request for troops at the southern border. The leaders of south carolina, virginia, and West Virginia announced today they were ordering National Guard troops to texas. Abbott had said it was to deal with an increase in Human Trafficking and fentanyl smuggling. California Utility Company pg e avoided trial for the deadly 2020 zogg wildfire today after a judge dismissed criminal charges, including involuntary manslaughter. As part of a settlement to avoid trial, the Company Agree to pay 50 million to local entities in shasta county. Calfire investigators blamed the start of the fire on a tree making contact with a pg e power line. Four people were killed. Also, in california, governor gavin newsom has announced that the state will provide up to 4500 in Financial Assistance to undocumented immigrants who were impacted by last winters series of destructive storms. They are not eligible for federal disaster assistance. They have one year to apply or until funding runs out. Still to come on the newshour, a new antigay law in uganda that threatens the Death Penalty sparks international outcry. Judy woodruff examines tested strategies to bridge americas partisan divide. And a brief but spectacular take on transforming the foster care system. This is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the Walter Cronkite school of journalism at Arizona State university. Geoff a federal Appeals Court has ruled that the billionaire owners of Purdue Pharma, the Sackler Family, will be protected from civil lawsuits linked to the Opioid Crisis in exchange for a 6 billion settlement. Purdue, which filed for bankruptcy in 2019 amid thousands of lawsuits, made drugs like oxycontin and is blamed for fueling the opioid epidemic. William brangham has more. William geoff, purdues opioid sales earned the Sackler Family billions of dollars. And the 6 billion that they will pay in this settlement will be given to states, cities, and individuals harmed by opioid addiction and overdoses. It also requires that the sacklers give up control of Purdue Pharma. In total, drug manufacturers, pharmacies, and distributors have pledged around 54 billion to state, local, and tribal governments for their respective role in the opioid epidemic. So, to understand where that money might be spent, we are joined by Aneri Pattani. She is tracking all of this for kff health news. Welcome to the program. Just remind us of the contours of this deal, the sackler settlement, what it means for the sacklers and what it means for the people who are suing them. Aneri so, this deal has been in the works for a long time. Theres been almost a year that folks have been waiting on this next step in the bankruptcy. And with the federal judge in new york clearing this for the next round, what it means is that the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy for the company can move forward. And when the bankruptcy moves forward, for people who filed lawsuits for the governments, state and local governments, they will be getti payouts from a total of 6 billion about. And what it means for the sacklers is that the individual Sackler Family members are protected from any lawsuits against them. So that was sort of the tradeoff in moving this deal forward that the judge okd. William i mean, it seems like there are these two competing forces here, the very demonstrable anger against the Sackler Family, for which theres a good documentary evidence that they knew how bad this crisis was and yet kept going forward, and yet also this desire on behalf of all these states and communities to get that money to try to ameliorate. Thats a very difficult tension to navigate. Aneri yes, i think i have been hearing this from a lot of folks, where people have been waiting for this bankruptcy to move forward for a long time. Individual families want the money, right . I hear from grandparents who are raising their grandkids because their sons or daughters died of the Opioid Crisis. And those bills are coming in now, right, like the caring for them, their school, their health, whatever it is, families that are dealing with funeral costs for people who have died of overdoses, so they need the money now. And then there you talk about the governments that want to start Addiction Treatment programs or recovery housing. But, at the same time, the way this money is moving forward and actually getting out to people is by protecting the Sackler Family from any personal responsibility. And those same family members who want the money and the same communities that need it also feel like there should be some personal responsibility for what happened. William right. And, like, i guess thats just what theyre going to have to live with now, that the money comes and it comes with this other stipulation. As you and many others have been reporting, the sackler money is just part of this other bit bigger pot of money from a lot of different from pharmacies, from distributors, from other manufacturers, 50 billionplus thats out there. Give us a sense of how that money is going to be spent, generally speaking. Aneri right. So the money, as you said, is coming from a lot of different companies. And they each have slightly different settlement agreements. Most of them require that at least 85 of the money that any state gets be spent on whats called opioid remediation, essentially, programs that will address addiction as it exists now or prevent it in the future. Bt what that actually looks like is really varying from ate to state. There are some state and local governments that are investing heavily in Mental Health programs, in prevention in schools, in Addiction Treatment for people who are uninsured, in naloxone. There are others that are investing in their law enforcement, in Police Efforts and criminal justice, drug courts, things like that. So it really runs the gamut and kind of depends on each local entity, what they think is important when it comes to addressing the Opioid Crisis. William i mean, which, on some level, you can understand. You want to give communities the flexibility to say, hey, we really need the money for this. But there are no stipulations as far as the term that you used as far as how this money has to be spent. Theres no it doesnt have to always go to what we most directly think of as Drug Prevention and drug treatment. Aneri yes, so the settlement agreements have this list called exhibit e that puts out potential strategies that local governments might want to use. And it includes a lot of the things that i just listed, but its nonexhaustive. So, if youre a government official, you can choose to use the money in something thats not on that list either. And this is where you get into the loose interpretation sometimes. So, there are some governments i reported on one local county in tennessee that used a lot of the money to pay back their debt and their Capital Projects fund because they said, for years, we have been paying for improvemen to the jail because its been housing people largely due to addictionrelated crimes. And so how folks interpret what is related to the Opioid Crisis really varies widely. William this is kind of what the concern was back in the 1990s with the big Tobacco Settlement too, that we dont know we think that money is going to go to tobacco prevention and smoking cessation, but not always. And most of that money didnt go to tobacco or antismoking programs at all. In fact, the campaign for tobaccofree kids, which tracks it, says about 3 of the annual payout. William 3 . Aneri yeah. The rest of it has gone to everything you can imagine, like filling state budget gaps, transportation, paving roads and filling potholes. In north carolinand south carolina, they actually used it to subsidize tobacco farmers. The one difference i will mention, though, is, the Tobacco Settlement didnt have any requirements for the money to be spent on it, so sort of assumed that because the money was coming because of the Public Health crisis caused by cigarettes that it would be used for that. But it wasnt actually a legal requirement. In the opioid settlements, it does have that requirement that 85 of the money be spent on opioid remediation. I think theres still a lot of questions about how that will be enforced and if that will really come true. But that clause was in there because people did not want to see a repeat. William interesting. So, if im an individual or someone in a community, and i have been perhaps part of one of these suits and have been harmed in some very direct way, i dont really have a mechanism to say, hey, we need to be spending this money on this versus that . Aneri you may. It really depends where youre located. So, first, i want to clarify, because i know a lot of people ask this, are the families getting money directly . From the purdue bankruptcy, yes, and from one other mallinckrodt bankruptcy, they there are payments to individuals who filed claims. But the vast majority of that 54 billion we talked about with opioid settlements is going to governments. And so individuals can reach out to their county commissioners, can reach out to their elected officials, can reach out to their attorney generals offices and say, i think it should be spent in this way, but they wont have direct control over that. William Aneri Pattani of kff health news, thank you so much. Aneri thanks for having me. F nds tee of the worlds harshest antilgbtq laws. Samesex relations were already illegal in uganda, but a new law goes much further, including life imprisonment for anyone convicted of homosexuality, and, in some cases, it mandates the Death Penalty. As stephanie sy reports, the new provisions have upended the lives of gay ugandans, who now feel in danger. Stephanie the signing of the new antigay law by president Yoweri Museveni ushers in a dangerous time for ugandas lgbtq people. The a