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The Latest: Congress makes effort to protect immigrant children

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the final days of the congressional session (all times local):

1:15 p.m.

A bipartisan group of senators wants to help immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children and granted work permits by President Barack Obama.

Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina are sponsoring a bill as a remedy for those immigrants in case President-elect Donald Trump rescinds the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, which has extended work permits and temporary deportation relief for those people.

During the campaign Trump pledged to terminate Obama’s executive actions on immigration, but he said in a Time Magazine interview this week that he will “work something out” for DACA.

Graham and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are co-sponsors of the legislation. It’s unclear how many other Republicans would support it. The lawmakers plan to push the bill next year.

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12:50 p.m.

A Montana Democrat says he wants to curb the power that members of Congress and top-level bureaucrats can wield once they’ve left the federal government for jobs in the private sector.

On a conference call with reporters Friday, Sen. Jon Tester says he’ll be introducing legislation early next year to enforce President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to “drain the swamp” in the nation’s capital of lobbyists, donors and political cronies.

Tester says he hopes Trump will support his bill. But the senator says he’s worried the president-elect is actually “bringing in more gators” by tapping a host of insiders and campaign contributors for jobs in his administration.

Tester says his bill would ban ex-lawmakers and certain While House officials from doing any lobbying for five years after leaving civil service.

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12:37 p.m.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia says he and other coal-state Democrats will continue fighting for retired miners next year if they lose their current fight to extend benefits in a short-term spending bill.

Manchin says Democrats “will carry the momentum” of the current political standoff “and win the fight in January.”

Manchin told reporters on a conference call that he is still seeking to find a solution in the short-term spending bill to keep the federal government operating beyond Friday’s midnight deadline. But he said that regardless of what happens, retired miners will get at least four months of benefits.

The spending bill has stalled in the Senate as Democrats fight for a one-year extension for the miners’ health benefits rather than the temporary fix.

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10:27 a.m.

The Senate’s top Republican is seeking to turn the tables on the coal-state Democrats standing in the way of swift passage of a stopgap spending bill over health benefits for retired miners.

Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Friday the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress have waged a “war on coal” that has created economic hardships for miners.

The spending bill to keep the federal government operating through April is stalled in the Senate as Democrats facing re-election in 2018, including West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, are fighting for a one-year extension for the miners’ health benefits rather than the temporary, four-month fix in the bill.

Manchin has called the short fix “horrendous” and “inhumane.”

McConnell says the temporary extension is the best they’re going to get.

He says “this is a good time to take yes for answer.”

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