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Texas appeals federal court ruling that blocked new redistricting map, potentially costing Republicans five House seats in upcoming midterm elections.
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SCOTUS Must Save Texas, Restore Sanity to Voting Rights | RealClearPolitics
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Video: Behind the Vote to Release the Epstein Files
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new video loaded: Behind the Vote to Release the Epstein Files
The House approved a bill directing the Justice Department to release all files related to its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, in a near-unanimous vote. Hours later, Senator Chuck Schumer won unanimous agreement for the Senate to pass the measure as soon as it arrived in the chamber.By Annie Karni, Claire Hogan and James Surdam
November 18, 2025
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Annie Karni, Claire Hogan and James Surdam
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Congress Acts Swiftly To Force Release Of Epstein Files, Sending Bill To Trump – KXL
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Both the House and Senate acted decisively Tuesday to pass a bill to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a remarkable display of approval for an effort that had struggled for months to overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.
When a small, bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a petition in July to maneuver around House Speaker Mike Johnson’s control of which bills reach the House floor, it appeared a longshot effort — especially as Trump urged his supporters to dismiss the matter as a “hoax.”
But both Trump and Johnson failed in their efforts to prevent the vote. Now the president has bowed to the growing momentum behind the bill and even said he will sign it. Just hours after the House passed the bill, the Senate agreed to pass the bill with unanimous consent once it is sent to the Senate.
The bill passed the House 427-1, with the only no vote coming from Rep. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican who is a fervent supporter of Trump. He said in a statement that he opposed the bill because it could release information on innocent people mentioned in the federal investigation.
The decisive, bipartisan work in Congress Tuesday further showed the pressure mounting on lawmakers and the Trump administration to meet long-held demands that the Justice Department release its case files on Epstein, a well-connected financier who killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls.
“These women have fought the most horrific fight that no woman should have to fight. And they did it by banding together and never giving up,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as she stood with some of the abuse survivors outside the Capitol Tuesday morning.
“That’s what we did by fighting so hard against the most powerful people in the world, even the president of the United States, in order to make this vote happen today,” added Greene, a Georgia Republican and longtime Trump loyalist.
The bill’s passage would be a pivotal moment in a yearslong push by the survivors for accountability for Epstein’s abuse and reckoning over how law enforcement officials failed to act under multiple presidential administrations.
A separate investigation conducted by the House Oversight Committee has released thousands of pages of emails and other documents from Epstein’s estate, showing his connections to global leaders, Wall Street powerbrokers, influential political figures and Trump himself. In the United Kingdom, King Charles III stripped his disgraced brother Prince Andrew of his remaining titles and evicted him from his royal residence after pressure to act over his relationship with Epstein.
The bill forces the release within 30 days of all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in federal prison. It would allow the Justice Department to redact information about Epstein’s victims or continuing federal investigations, but not information due to “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.”
Trump’s reversal on the Epstein files
Trump has said he cut ties with Epstein years ago, but tried for months to move past the demands for disclosure.Still, many in the Republican base have continued to demand the release of the files. Adding to that pressure, survivors of Epstein’s abuse rallied outside the Capitol Tuesday morning. Bundled in jackets against the November chill and holding photos of themselves as teenagers, they recounted their stories of abuse.
“We are exhausted from surviving the trauma and then surviving the politics that swirl around it,” said one of the survivors.
Another, Jena-Lisa Jones, said she had voted for Trump and had a message for the president: “I beg you Donald Trump, please stop making this political.”
The group of women also met with Johnson and rallied outside the Capitol in September, but have had to wait months for the vote.
That’s because Johnson kept the House closed for legislative business for nearly two months and refused to swear-in Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona during the government shutdown. After winning a special election on Sept. 23, Grijalva had pledged to provide the crucial 218th vote to the petition for the Epstein files bill. But only after she was sworn into office last week could she sign her name to the discharge petition to give it majority support in the 435-member House.
It quickly became obvious the bill would pass, and both Johnson and Trump began to fold. Trump on Sunday said Republicans should vote for the bill.
Yet Greene told reporters that Trump’s decision to fight the bill had betrayed his Make America Great Again political movement.
“Watching this turn into a fight has ripped MAGA apart,” she said.
How Johnson is handling the bill
Rather than waiting until next week for the discharge position to officially take effect, Johnson held the vote under a procedure that requires a two-thirds majority.But Johnson also spent a morning news conference listing off problems that he sees with the legislation. He argued that the bill could have unintended consequences by disclosing parts of federal investigations that are usually kept private, including information on victims.
“This is a raw and obvious political exercise,” Johnson said.
Still, he voted for the bill. “None of us want to go on record and in any way be accused of not being for maximum transparency,” he explained.
Meanwhile, House Democrats celebrated the vote as a rare win. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries described it as “a complete and total surrender.”
Senate plans to act quickly
Even as the bill cleared his chamber, Johnson pressed for the Senate to amend the bill to protect the information of “victims and whistleblowers.” But Senate Majority Leader John Thune showed little interest in that notion, saying he doubted that “amending it is going to be in the cards.”Thune said he would quickly assess senators’ views on the bill to see if there were any objections. He said the bill could be brought forward in the Senate as soon as Tuesday evening and almost certainly by the end of the week.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer also indicated he would attempt to pass the bill Tuesday.
“The American people have waited long enough,” he said.
Meanwhile, the bipartisan pair who sponsored the bill, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., warned senators against doing anything that would “muck it up,” saying they would face the same public uproar that forced both Trump and Johnson to back down.
“We’ve needlessly dragged this out for four months,” Massie said, adding that those raising problems with the bill “are afraid that people will be embarrassed. Well, that’s the whole point here.”
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Trump administration accelerates its plan to shut down the Education Department
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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Tuesday accelerated the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education with a plan to transfer key, legally required functions to other agencies, including oversight of its $18-billion, core anti-poverty program, Title 1.
Critics said the move was politicized and counterproductive and fear future program cuts. California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said vital services to the state and nation’s most vulnerable students were likely to be disrupted.
The steps move toward fulfilling a Trump campaign promise to eliminate the department, which some conservatives have long derided as wasteful, ineffective and unnecessary.
“The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission.”
President Trump called for the department’s elimination in a March executive order. Both he and McMahon have spoken of a broad goal of sparking innovation through local control.
Even before this effort, states provided about 90% of their own funding for education, but federal investment is still crucial, advocates say. In particular, the federal role has focused on ensuring services are provided for overlooked students and students with higher needs, such as those facing discrimination and poverty, and students with disabilities.
While slashing the Education Department workforce, which Trump officials have characterized as a bloated bureaucracy, the president has adopted an interventionist agenda in education as well. He has threatened pulling federal funding if states and schools don’t follow his directives to combat antisemitism, clamp down on campus protests, end diversity, equity and inclusion programs and oppose expanded rights for transsexual students, among other issues in keeping with his agenda.
The strategy behind the moves
The key strategy announced Tuesday creates partnerships with other federal agencies, which will take on Education Department responsibilities. The department would retain legal authority even as the actual work shifts elsewhere.
These partnerships are meant to sidestep federal rules — under the jurisdiction of Congress — that place programs, including Title I, specifically within the Education Department.
Title I is expected to shift to the Department of Labor, which is likely to absorb an unknown number of education workers with the necessary experience and expertise. The long-term goal is to win buy-in from Congress — and then to eliminate the Education Department entirely, which requires congressional approval.
“As we partner with these agencies to improve federal programs, we will continue to gather best practices in each state,” McMahon said.
She also spoke of working “with Congress to codify these reforms,” an acknowledgment that the Department of Education was created by an act of Congress.
Administration officials insist that their actions to date are legal, citing as precedent earlier agreements between federal agencies, including one example from the Biden administration. The scale of the current effort, however, is a much larger order of magnitude.
Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) questioned Trump’s authority to take this action. “Not only is dismantling the education department without congressional approval illegal, but they chose today because they knew the Epstein vote would dominate the headlines. They clearly didn’t want the public to see what they were doing to our kids’ futures.”
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Assn., the nation’s largest teachers union, accused the administration of “taking every chance it can to hack away at the very protections and services our students need.”
How the action affects vulnerable students
The changes will complicate efforts to get money and services where they are needed, Thurmond said.
“This is an unnecessary, disruptive change that is going to harm students, especially the most vulnerable,” Thurmond said. “It is clearly less efficient for state departments of education and local school districts to work with four different federal agencies instead of one.
“Experience also tells us that any time you move expertise and responsibilities, you disrupt services. There is no way to avoid negative impacts on our children and our classrooms with a change of this magnitude.”
But administration officials talked of new efficiencies and synergies, asserting that associating education with workforce development in the Department of Labor would make education more relevant to a student’s employment future.
What happens to other programs?
The Labor Department would oversee almost all grant programs that are now managed by the Education Department’s offices for K-12 and higher education. That includes funding pools for teacher training, English instruction and TRIO, a program that helps steer low-income students to college degrees.
Tuesday’s action leaves in place the Education Department’s $1.6-trillion student loan portfolio and its funding for students with disabilities.
But ultimately moving these programs seems likely if the mission remains to shutter the department.
Another transfer puts Health and Human Services in charge of a grant program for parents who are attending college, along with management of foreign medical school accreditation. The State Department will take on foreign language programs. Interior will oversee programs for Native American education.
Federal officials said states and schools should see no funding disruptions. Liz Huston, White House assistant press secretary, said Tuesday the administration “is fully committed to doing what’s best for American students, which is why it’s critical to shrink this bloated federal education bureaucracy while still ensuring efficient delivery of funds and essential programs.”
The Education Department tested this approach in June, announcing the transfer of adult education programs to the Labor Department. Working out essential details took some five months, officials said Tuesday.
The administration’s plan immediately drew support from Tim Walberg, a Republican who represents a southern Michigan district.
“The past few decades have made one thing clear: The status quo is broken,” Walberg said. “As the bureaucracy swelled, left-wing bureaucrats were emboldened to waste taxpayer dollars on a radical agenda. As a result, our students have been left in the dust. Test scores are plummeting, students can’t read, and college graduates leave school burdened by debt rather than equipped with workforce-ready skills.”
But the Education Department — and its central programs — has bipartisan support.
One Republican expressing concern is Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.
“The United States Congress created the U.S. Department of Education for very good reason,” Fitzpatrick said. “And for millions of families, particularly those raising children with disabilities or living in low-income communities, the Department’s core offices are not discretionary functions. They are foundational. They safeguard civil rights, expand opportunity, and ensure that every child, in every community, has the chance to learn, grow, and succeed on equal footing.”
Feds say programs’ funding will continue
Department officials said programs will continue to be funded at levels set by Congress. But that doesn’t stop programs from running afoul of another portion of the Trump agenda. For example, the Tuesday announcement notes that a program to help with the education of the children of migrant workers will transfer to the Labor Department.
However, on other fronts the Trump administration is trying to eliminate that program. The administration first tried to hold back funding approved by Congress. The administration relented under pressure. But the administration also cut funding for migrant education from its budget proposal for future years.
Officials said they did not yet have details on whether the changes would bring further job cuts at the Education Department, which has been thinned by waves of layoffs and retirements under pressure.
Blume is a Times staff writer. Binkley writes for the Associated Press. Times staff writers Daniel Miller and Michael Wilner contributed to this report.
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Howard Blume, Collin Binkley
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Pence group blasts Trump’s drug pricing plan as ‘socialist’ in new ad campaign
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FIRST ON FOX: A conservative group founded by ex-Vice President Mike Pence is taking aim at a key policy being used by President Donald Trump’s White House.
Advancing American Freedom (AAF) is rolling out a six-figure digital ad campaign Monday criticizing Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) drug pricing as “socialist price controls,” according to AAF President Tim Chapman.
The 30-second advertisement begins, “China is America’s biggest economic competitor. They want, and often steal, what America has — our innovations, our manufacturing capabilities, our high-skilled, high-wage jobs.”
“If politicians in Washington start to place price controls on our most innovative products, like prescription drugs, we’ll be handing over American jobs and life-saving research to China on a silver platter,” the ad continued.
WATCH: PARODY DRUG AD SPOTLIGHTS RFK’S CRACKDOWN ON MISLEADING PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s group, Advancing American Freedom, is criticizing President Donald Trump’s drug price policy. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
It ended with a call to action: “Tell Congress to say ‘no’ to China by saying ‘no’ to MFN price controls.”
And while pressuring the GOP majority on Capitol Hill is the campaign’s main goal, it appears to be a response to Trump rolling out such a policy several times in recent months.
Earlier this month, Trump unveiled agreements between the federal government and two top drug companies aimed at lowering the cost of popular weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, among others.
TRUMP-ALIGNED LEGAL GROUP PROBES BIDEN-ERA ORGAN TRANSPLANT PROGRAM OVER ETHICAL CONCERNS
The partnership with Eli Lilly & Co. and Novo Nordisk will make prices for drugs aimed at helping Americans with obesity, diabetes and heart disease fall by hundreds of dollars, Trump said.
It would also lower prices for Medicare and Medicaid patients who rely on such drugs.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office on Oct. 10, 2025. (Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A White House fact sheet said MFN drug pricing would also apply to “all new medicines that they bring to market.”
It’s one of several similar announcements by Trump in recent months that are aimed at lowering the soaring costs of prescription drugs in the U.S.
The new lower prices will be available at a website called TrumpRx.
Most health insurance plans already help Americans pay less than the list price of prescription prices, but many do not cover the aforementioned drugs — including when used solely for weight loss.
The president called the move “a triumph for American patients that will save lives and improve the health of millions and millions of Americans” in an announcement at the White House.
But a memo released by AAF in September warned that Trump’s drug policies could “mean significant reductions in American research and development” in the pharmaceutical sphere.
Chapman told Fox News Digital of the latest ad buy, “More regulations and red tape will result in fewer cures and life-saving drugs coming to market, ultimately costing American lives.”
“Advancing American Freedom strongly supports the power of free markets. To deliver lower prices for Americans, we need fewer government regulations, not more,” he said.
Three injectable prescription weight loss medicines — Ozempic, Victoza and Wegovy. (Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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It’s not the first time this year that Pence’s group has broken from Trump. AAF also criticized Trump’s use of tariffs as well as his more recent call to end the filibuster in the Senate.
The White House pushed back on AAF’s characterization when reached by Fox News Digital.
“Anyone calling President Trump’s historic drug pricing deals ‘price controls’ is either too stupid or dishonest to be taken seriously. Despite being just four percent of the world’s population, Americans have covered nearly 75 percent of global pharmaceutical research costs by paying several times more for drugs than our peers in other wealthy countries pay,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News Digital.
“President Trump’s deals are equalizing this burden by making other wealthy countries shoulder their fair share for the pharmaceutical innovation that’s saving lives — thereby restoring the free market principles that Mike Pence supposedly support.”
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NBA obtaining cell phones from Lakers, other teams in investigation into illegal gambling scheme: report
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The NBA is reportedly seeking cell phones and other property from multiple teams as part of its investigation into illegal sports gambling.
Los Angeles Lakers assistant trainer Mike Mancias and executive administrator Randy Mims, who each have close ties to superstar LeBron James, have reportedly already cooperated in handing over their cell phones to the outside law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which has been contracted by the NBA to help carry out the investigation, The Athletic first reported.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) shoots as Minnesota Timberwolves guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker (9) defends during the first half in Game 5 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
“The NBA engaged an independent law firm to investigate the allegations in the indictment once it was made public,” an NBA spokesman said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Sunday. “As is standard in these kinds of investigations, a number of different individuals and organizations were asked to preserve documents and records. Everyone has been fully cooperative.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Lakers for comment.
The NBA is in the midst of handling a bombshell scandal that resulted in the federal indictment of Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player and coach Damon Jones for their alleged roles in a criminal gambling scheme, last month.
Congress got involved when the House Committee on Commerce Friday sent a letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver requesting information and a briefing to obtain information related to the scandal. The bipartisan letter was signed by six members of Congress on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The committee is seeking five key points of information from Silver:
“1. Details about the fraudulent, illegal, and alleged betting practices in connection with NBA players, coaches, and officials, including the actions of NBA players and coaches identified in the recent indictment; as well as prior instances, some of which are identified above,” the letter states.
“2. Actions the NBA intends to take to limit the disclosure of nonpublic information for illegal purposes. 3. Whether the NBA’s Code of Conduct for players and coaches effectively prohibits illegal activity, including the disclosure of non-public information for the purposes of illegal betting schemes. 4. An explanation of the gaps, if any, in existing regulations that allow illegal betting schemes to occur. 5. Whether and how the NBA is reevaluating the terms of its partnerships with sports betting companies.”
The letter also references comments made by Silver during an appearance Tuesday on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” where the commissioner expressed support for more federal sports betting regulation.
“I think, probably, there should be more regulation, frankly,” Silver said. “I wish there was federal legislation rather than state by state. I think you’ve got to monitor the amount of promotion, the amount of advertising around it.”
The Department of Justice listed seven NBA games that saw high-stakes wagers after non-public information was disclosed to gamblers.
Rozier’s alleged involvement came in a game March 23, 2023, when he told a childhood friend, Deniro Laster, that he would take himself out of a game early, citing an injury, so Laster could place wagers based on the information. Neither Hornets officials nor betting companies were made aware of Rozier’s plan, according to the indictment, and Rozier was not listed on the team’s injury report.
HEAT’S TERRY ROZIER ARRESTED AS PART OF FBI SPORTS BETTING PROBE
Laster then allegedly sold that information to other co-conspirators, and numerous people placed wagers totaling roughly $200,000 on Rozier’s “under” prop bets to hit in both parlay and straight wagers. After Rozier played just nine minutes and never returned, the bets won. Rozier and Laster counted cash winnings at Rozier’s home in Charlotte roughly a week later, an indictment says.
The DOJ says the player was eventually ruled out with a lower-body injury. LeBron James did not play that night due to an ankle injury that kept him out for two more games. The game in question was played two days after James scored 38 points to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
Another game the DOJ mentioned was a Portland Trail Blazers–Chicago Bulls matchup March 24, 2023, the day after Rozier played nine minutes, and a co-conspirator, “an NBA coach at the time,” allegedly told a longtime friend, who is also a defendant in the rigged poker scheme, that the Blazers would be “tanking” that night for a better draft pick and would sit some of the team’s best players. The resting of the players had not yet been public information.
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Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier (2) looks on during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Sunday, March 31, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
Rozier and Jones were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The NBA announced that Rozier and Billups were placed on immediate leave from their teams, “and we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities.”
“The integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the NBA said.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
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Capitol Hill, White House focus on affordability with new policy initiatives
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From Capitol Hill to here at the White House, lawmakers are zeroing in on affordability. You could see it from the administration here in the last week, from videos to messages and new policy rollouts all designed and aimed at lowering costs for Americans. From 50 year mortgages to $2000 tariff checks, the White House is proposing bold solutions to *** stubborn issue. We’re working overtime on reducing costs. Among the changes, the White House. new trade frameworks with Latin American countries to lower the cost of groceries among other items. September’s inflation data shows coffee, bananas, and beef are among the items up significantly over the past year. We understand that people understand as they look at their pocketbooks that go to the grocery store, that there’s still work to do. It comes as the economy absorbs the damage from the 43 day government shutdown, which the White House says wiped out about $90 billion in economic growth and about 60,000 non-fe. Workers their jobs. Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, many lawmakers tell us affordability is also their priority moving forward. Our constituents are absolutely suffering under the crushing costs of health care cost increases, housing increases, childcare, groceries, gas, you name it. I’m going to be focusing my attention on housing affordability, and for Democrats, the fight that drove the shutdown isn’t over. They’re now racing to restore health care subsidies set to expire at the end of the year. *** lapse that could leave families paying hundreds more each month. We’re working towards bringing another bill to the floor that would actually solve the crisis of affordability in healthcare and bring down healthcare premiums for those 24 million Americans. Senate Republicans have promised *** vote to extend those healthcare subsidies in December, not guaranteeing what that vote outcome would be. However, House Republicans have not promised such *** vote at the White House. I’m Christopher Salas.
The federal government has reopened after the longest shutdown in U.S. history, and the focus is now shifting to affordability, a pressing issue for millions of Americans. From Capitol Hill to the White House, lawmakers are concentrating on reducing costs.The White House is proposing bold solutions to address affordability, including 50-year mortgages and $2,000 tariff checks. Kevin Hassett, National Economic Council director, said, “We’re working overtime on reducing costs.”Among the changes, the White House announced new trade frameworks with Latin American countries to lower grocery costs. September’s inflation data shows significant price increases for coffee, bananas, and beef over the past year. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to eliminate tariffs on a broad swath of commodities, including beef, coffee and tropical fruits.Hassett acknowledged the ongoing challenges, saying, “We understand that people understand as they look at their pocketbooks and go to the grocery store that there’s still work to do.”The economy is absorbing the impact of the 43-day shutdown, which the White House said wiped out $90 billion in growth and cost about 60,000 non-federal workers their jobs. On Capitol Hill, many lawmakers emphasize affordability as their priority moving forward. Rep. Johnny Olszewski, a Democrat from Maryland, said, “Our constituents are absolutely suffering under the crushing costs of healthcare and cost increases, housing increases, childcare, groceries, gas, you name it.” Rep. Mike Flood, a Republican from Nebraska, added, “I’m going to be focusing my attention on housing affordability.”For Democrats, the fight that led to the shutdown continues as they race to restore healthcare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, which could result in families paying hundreds more each month. Rep. Josh Harder, a Democrat from California, said, “We’re working towards bringing another bill to the floor that would actually solve the crisis of affordability in health care and bring down health care premiums for those 24 million Americans.”Senate Republicans have promised a vote to extend healthcare subsidies by December, but the House has not made such a promise. Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that the Trump administration will require SNAP participants to reapply for benefits. A USDA spokesperson stated that the Secretary aims to address “fraud, waste and incessant abuse” in the SNAP program, noting that earlier fraud rates were only assumptions. The USDA plans to use existing recertification processes, review state data, and potentially introduce new regulations as part of this effort. However, the USDA has not specified when a broad reapplication would start, how it would work, or whether families could lose benefits during the process. Further details have been requested.See the latest news from the Washington News Bureau:
WASHINGTON —The federal government has reopened after the longest shutdown in U.S. history, and the focus is now shifting to affordability, a pressing issue for millions of Americans. From Capitol Hill to the White House, lawmakers are concentrating on reducing costs.
The White House is proposing bold solutions to address affordability, including 50-year mortgages and $2,000 tariff checks. Kevin Hassett, National Economic Council director, said, “We’re working overtime on reducing costs.”
Among the changes, the White House announced new trade frameworks with Latin American countries to lower grocery costs. September’s inflation data shows significant price increases for coffee, bananas, and beef over the past year.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to eliminate tariffs on a broad swath of commodities, including beef, coffee and tropical fruits.
Hassett acknowledged the ongoing challenges, saying, “We understand that people understand as they look at their pocketbooks and go to the grocery store that there’s still work to do.”
The economy is absorbing the impact of the 43-day shutdown, which the White House said wiped out $90 billion in growth and cost about 60,000 non-federal workers their jobs.
On Capitol Hill, many lawmakers emphasize affordability as their priority moving forward. Rep. Johnny Olszewski, a Democrat from Maryland, said, “Our constituents are absolutely suffering under the crushing costs of healthcare and cost increases, housing increases, childcare, groceries, gas, you name it.”
Rep. Mike Flood, a Republican from Nebraska, added, “I’m going to be focusing my attention on housing affordability.”
For Democrats, the fight that led to the shutdown continues as they race to restore healthcare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, which could result in families paying hundreds more each month.
Rep. Josh Harder, a Democrat from California, said, “We’re working towards bringing another bill to the floor that would actually solve the crisis of affordability in health care and bring down health care premiums for those 24 million Americans.”
Senate Republicans have promised a vote to extend healthcare subsidies by December, but the House has not made such a promise.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that the Trump administration will require SNAP participants to reapply for benefits. A USDA spokesperson stated that the Secretary aims to address “fraud, waste and incessant abuse” in the SNAP program, noting that earlier fraud rates were only assumptions. The USDA plans to use existing recertification processes, review state data, and potentially introduce new regulations as part of this effort. However, the USDA has not specified when a broad reapplication would start, how it would work, or whether families could lose benefits during the process. Further details have been requested.
See the latest news from the Washington News Bureau:
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Weekly Roundup: Anatomy of a Cave and a $2,000 Check?
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It’s the end of the week that marked the end of a record-breaking government shutdown. Federal workers went back to their jobs yesterday.
Here’s a look at what we covered this week.
Monday
Olivier scrutinized President Donald Trump’s pledge of a $2,000 “dividend” for most Americans from the revenues his import duties have generated.
“We are taking in Trillions of Dollars and will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT, $37 Trillion,” he said on social media. “A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.”
We … have some questions.
“Analysts say the payout could total $300 billion or more,” Olivier wrote. “The Treasury Department’s final fiscal year 2025 report says the government collected $195 billion from all customs duties currently in effect. The Budget Lab at Yale University estimates Trump’s tariffs could generate an average of $260 billion annually through 2035.”
Tuesday
The biggest news of the week was the end of the government shutdown, so Olivier detailed some key features of the deal, including Democrats caving on their primary ask.
“Democrats’ main goal in rejecting Republican spending legislation and shutting down the government had been to force the GOP to negotiate over the renewal of Obamacare subsidies that are due to expire, which would send premiums rocketing skyward for millions of Americans,” Olivier wrote. “What Democrats settled for instead was a promise of a Senate vote on renewing the subsidies.”
Other notable bits include the resumption of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and bringing back air traffic controllers who were furloughed during the shutdown.
But, as always, don’t get too comfortable. The deal only funds the government into January.
Wednesday
Artificial intelligence hasn’t caused vast economy-wide negative effects on jobs… yet.
That’s according to a recent study we examined here from the Budget Lab at Yale University.
“Overall, our metrics indicate that the broader labor market has not experienced a discernible disruption since ChatGPT’s release 33 months ago, undercutting fears that AI automation is currently eroding the demand for cognitive labor across the economy,” the report says.
AI doomer Olivier noted, however, that “just because the report did not find sweeping effects from AI to date, that doesn’t mean that AI won’t eventually bring about those kinds of changes.”
The report acknowledges that “it is too soon to tell how disruptive the technology will be to jobs.”
Thursday
In Olivier’s regional rundown, he detailed the latest development in the GOP’s efforts to push for redistricting in multiple states in an effort to keep their majority in the House. In Utah, a federal judge ruled this week that an electoral map drawn up by legislators to strengthen the GOP hold unfairly favored Republicans.
Meanwhile, a new study on the impact of a cell phone ban at a large urban district in Florida found average test scores rose by 1.1 percentiles in schools with previously high student cell phone usage in 2024-25, the year after a cell phone ban took effect.
Lastly, the Colorado Sun reported this week that the Centennial State’s efforts to grow its wolf population are struggling, hampered by federal regulations and the death of a 10th reintroduced wolf.
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Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder
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The Left Pushes Another Hoax That Makes No Sense | RealClearPolitics
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Democrats are back in Congress after their shutdown to launch another anti-Trump hoax.
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Trump signs bill ending longest government shutdown in US history
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President Donald Trump signed legislation to fund the government again — putting an end to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
Trump signaled Monday the government would open soon, as consequences of a lapse in funding continued to snowball, including missed paychecks for federal workers and airline delays stemming from air traffic controller staffing shortages.
The bill keeps funding the government at the same levels during fiscal year 2025 through Jan. 30 to provide additional time to hash out a longer appropriations measure for fiscal year 2026.
The measure also funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that more than 42 million Americans rely on through September. The program supports non- or low-income individuals or families to purchase groceries on a debit card.
President Donald Trump speaks to journalists aboard Air Force One en route to South Korea on Oct, 29, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
LONGEST GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IN HISTORY NEARS LIKELY END AS HOUSE MOVES ON FUNDING BILL
Additionally, the measure reverses layoffs the Trump administration set into motion earlier in October and pays employees for their absence.
The reopening of the government comes after more than 40 days of a lapse in funding amid a stalemate between Senate Republicans and Democrats over a stopgap spending bill that would have funded the government through Nov. 21.
After a lapse in funding starting Oct. 1, the Senate passed legislation Monday night that would reopen the government by a 60–40 vote margin. A total of eight Democrats voted alongside their Republican counterparts for the measure. The House subsequently passed its version of the measure Wednesday.
The White House is seen the day after President Donald Trump announced U.S. military strikes on nuclear sites in Iran on June 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
THE 5 LONGEST GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS IN HISTORY: WHAT HAPPENED, HOW THEY ENDED
The deal came as fallout from the shutdown came to a head, including travel disruptions at U.S. airports where air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers were required to work and were gearing up to miss a second paycheck.
As a result, these staffers were calling in sick, or taking on second jobs, creating staffing shortages and flight delays.
The standoff between Republicans and Democrats originated over disagreements about various healthcare provisions to include in a potential funding measure. Trump and Republicans claimed Democrats wanted to provide illegal immigrants healthcare, and pointed to a provision that would repeal part of Trump’s tax and domestic policy bill known as the “big, beautiful bill” that reduced Medicaid eligibility for non-U.S. citizens.
Sunrise light hits the U.S. Capitol dome on Thursday, January 2, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN BECOMING LONGEST IN US HISTORY AS DEMOCRATS DIG IN ON OBAMACARE
Democrats pushed back on this characterization, and said they want to permanently extend certain Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of 2025.
The stopgap spending bill that Trump signed does not extend these subsidies by the end of the year, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., agreed to a vote in December on legislation that would continue these credits.
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Even so, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., has not agreed to get on board with that arrangement in the House.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
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House returns, set to end record-breaking government shutdown
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Right now the process is underway to reach that final vote in the House to end this longest government shutdown ever. We also wanted to lay out how it’s currently set to work. Over the last 2 days, House lawmakers have been flying in from across the country as they’ve been on recess during the entire shutdown. Some potentially face shutdown-related flight delays, but they are on their way back to the Capitol. The House agenda today was very specific, swearing in *** new congresswoman from Arizona when the House resumed this. Afternoon then debate and an initial procedural vote scheduled for around 5 p.m. Eastern today. If that passes, the House would debate again and is currently scheduled to hold *** final vote around 7 p.m. Eastern. That vote does not include healthcare subsidies, which started the whole shutdown in the first place. Of course we want to reopen the government. But that we need to decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis, and that begins with extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits. We believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight. It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end, as we said all along. Democrats are largely expected to vote no on this. Republicans who hold *** majority in the House can only afford to lose 2 votes in order to pass this bill. And if that happens, the bill then heads over to President Donald Trump for his signature before the very likely long process of getting the government back up and running again. Reporting on Capitol Hill, I’m Amy Lou.
House returns, set to end record-breaking government shutdown
House lawmakers reconvened in Washington on Wednesday to vote on a bill that would end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
Updated: 2:05 PM PST Nov 12, 2025
House lawmakers raced back to Washington on Wednesday to vote on a bill that could end the 43-day government shutdown, making it the longest in U.S. history. Over the last two days, lawmakers have been flying in from across the country, some facing their own potential shutdown-related delays, to get to Wednesday’s expected final vote. The House’s agenda included swearing in a new congresswoman from Arizona, followed by debate and an initial procedural vote scheduled for early evening. If that passes, the House debates again before holding a final vote on the bill, expected around 7 p.m. ET. The bill currently does not include Affordable Care Act subsidies, which started the shutdown in the first place.Democrats, who are largely expected to vote “no” on the bill, expressed disappointment.”Of course, we want to reopen the government, but we need to decisively address the Republican health care crisis,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said. “That begins with extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits.”House Republicans, who hold a majority in the chamber, were largely expected to pass the measure despite Democrats’ objections, but can only afford to lose two votes for the bill to pass. “We believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said. “It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end, as we said all along.”If the bill clears the House, it will require President Donald Trump’s signature before beginning the likely lengthy process of getting the government back up and running again.However, full Republican support is not clear-cut ahead of the final vote. The bill includes a controversial provision that would ban most hemp products in the U.S. Supporters say it would close a dangerous loophole on unregulated products, but others argue it would destroy the hemp industry for many farmers. In the Senate, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for example, voted against the bill. Similar action in the House on Wednesday could hold up its passage.Watch the latest coverage on the government shutdown:
WASHINGTON —House lawmakers raced back to Washington on Wednesday to vote on a bill that could end the 43-day government shutdown, making it the longest in U.S. history.
Over the last two days, lawmakers have been flying in from across the country, some facing their own potential shutdown-related delays, to get to Wednesday’s expected final vote.
The House’s agenda included swearing in a new congresswoman from Arizona, followed by debate and an initial procedural vote scheduled for early evening. If that passes, the House debates again before holding a final vote on the bill, expected around 7 p.m. ET. The bill currently does not include Affordable Care Act subsidies, which started the shutdown in the first place.
Democrats, who are largely expected to vote “no” on the bill, expressed disappointment.
“Of course, we want to reopen the government, but we need to decisively address the Republican health care crisis,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said. “That begins with extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits.”
House Republicans, who hold a majority in the chamber, were largely expected to pass the measure despite Democrats’ objections, but can only afford to lose two votes for the bill to pass.
“We believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said. “It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end, as we said all along.”
If the bill clears the House, it will require President Donald Trump’s signature before beginning the likely lengthy process of getting the government back up and running again.
However, full Republican support is not clear-cut ahead of the final vote. The bill includes a controversial provision that would ban most hemp products in the U.S.
Supporters say it would close a dangerous loophole on unregulated products, but others argue it would destroy the hemp industry for many farmers.
In the Senate, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for example, voted against the bill. Similar action in the House on Wednesday could hold up its passage.
Watch the latest coverage on the government shutdown:
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Democrat’s swearing-in tips scales for House battle to unseal Epstein documents
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Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., was sworn into office on Wednesday, unlocking the needed support to force the House of Representatives into a vote over the Epstein files.
Now having received the oath of office, Grijalva is free to become the 218th — and final signatory — to advance a discharge petition on a bill to instruct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release its documentation on Jeffrey Epstein. If successful, the petition would bring the bill to the floor over the objection of the chamber’s leadership.
Rep. Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona, speaks to members of the media at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Sept. 30, 2025. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Grijalva, who now fills the seat formerly held by her father, the late Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said signing the petition would be her first act as a member of Congress.
“I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files. It’s past time for Congress to restore its role as the check and balance on this administration and fight for we, the American people,” Grijalva said.
Epstein, a former businessman and financier, died in 2019 while jailed on federal sex-trafficking charges involving minors. During his career, he accrued an impressive social circle that included rich and powerful figures like former President Bill Clinton, President Donald Trump and the United Kingdom’s Prince Andrew.
His sudden death, ruled a suicide by investigators, left unanswered questions about whether he had used his expansive social circle to facilitate illegal sexual encounters for some of his contacts.
SPEAKER JOHNSON HIT WITH DEMOCRAT-LED LAWSUIT OVER DELAYED SWEARING-IN AMID HOUSE SHUTDOWN CHAOS
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were both indicted on federal sex trafficking charges stemming from Epstein’s years of abuse of underage girls. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
After disappointing announcements from the DOJ that the investigation met a dead end earlier this year, lawmakers led by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., demanded Congress vote to force the DOJ to release its documentation on the matter.
Those demands went unheeded by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who said the DOJ was already conducting its own internal evaluation and complying with congressional requests for information.
For Massie and three other Republicans, that wasn’t good enough.
Massie joined Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., — and all House Democrats — in signing the petition, falling just one signatory short of putting it over the needed 218 threshold.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., during a news conference with alleged victims of the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein outside the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 3, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Two of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims joined lawmakers in the House chamber for Grijalva’s swearing in.
“Our democracy only works when everyone has a voice. This includes the millions of people across the country who have experienced violence and exploitation — including Liz Stein and Jessica Michaels, both survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse. They are here in the gallery here this evening,” Grijalva said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said he supports the measure in principle but believes aspects of the legislation are poorly written or may provide insufficient protections for Epstein’s potential victims.
With Grijalva’s support, Democrat leadership believes the petition will come to the floor sometime in December.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., the ranking member on the House Rules Committee, noted that Johnson might try to derail its timeline.
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“It should ripen in early December. That doesn’t mean that the Speaker of the House [won’t] try to do some shenanigans, but if all goes the way we want it to go, early December,” McGovern said.
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A historic shutdown is nearly over. It leaves no winners and much frustration
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The longest government shutdown in history could conclude as soon as today, Day 43, with almost no one happy with the final result.Democrats didn’t get the health insurance provisions they demanded added to the spending deal. And Republicans, who control the levers of power in Washington, didn’t escape blame, according to polls and some state and local elections that went poorly for them.The fallout of the shutdown landed on millions of Americans, including federal workers who went without paychecks and airline passengers who had their trips delayed or canceled. An interruption in nutrition assistance programs contributed to long lines at food banks and added emotional distress going into the holiday season.The agreement includes bipartisan bills worked out by the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund parts of government — food aid, veterans programs and the legislative branch, among other things. All other funding would be extended until the end of January, giving lawmakers more than two months to finish additional spending bills.Here’s a look at how the shutdown started and is likely to end.What led to the shutdownDemocrats made several demands to win their support for a short-term funding bill, but the central one was an extension of an enhanced tax credit that lowers the cost of health coverage obtained through Affordable Care Act marketplaces.The tax credit was boosted during the COVID response, again through Joe Biden’s big energy and health care bill, and it’s set to expire at the end of December. Without it, premiums on average will more than double for millions of Americans. More than 2 million people would lose health insurance coverage altogether next year, the Congressional Budget Office projected.“Never have American families faced a situation where their health care costs are set to double — double in the blink of an eye,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.While Democrats called for negotiations on the matter, Republicans said a funding bill would need to be passed first.“Republicans are ready to sit down with Democrats just as soon as they stop holding the government hostage to their partisan demands,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said.Thune eventually promised Democrats a December vote on the tax credit extension to help resolve the standoff, but many Democrats demanded a guaranteed fix, not just a vote that is likely to fail.Thune’s position was much the same as the one Schumer took back in October 2013, when Republicans unsuccessfully sought to roll back parts of the Affordable Care Act in exchange for funding the government. “Open up all of the government, and then we can have a fruitful discussion,” Schumer said then.Democratic leaders under pressureThe first year of President Donald Trump’s second term has seen more than 200,000 federal workers leave their job through firings, forced relocations or the administration’s deferred resignation program, according to the Partnership for Public Service. Whole agencies that don’t align with the administration’s priorities have been dismantled. And billions of dollars previously approved by Congress have been frozen or canceled.Democrats have had to rely on the courts to block some of Trump’s efforts, but they have been unable to do it through legislation. They were also powerless to stop Trump’s big tax cut and immigration crackdown bill that Republicans helped pay for by cutting future spending on safety net programs such as Medicaid and SNAP, formerly known as food stamps.The Democrats’ struggles to blunt the Trump administration’s priorities has prompted calls for the party’s congressional leadership to take a more forceful response.Schumer experienced that firsthand after announcing in March that he would support moving ahead with a funding bill for the 2025 budget year. There was a protest at his office, calls from progressives that he be primaried in 2028 and suggestions that the Democratic Party would soon be looking for new leaders.This time around, Schumer demanded that Republicans negotiate with Democrats to get their votes on a spending bill. The Senate rules, he noted, requires bipartisan support to meet the 60-vote threshold necessary to advance a spending bill.But those negotiations did not occur, at least not with Schumer. Republicans instead worked with a small group of eight Democrats to tee up a short-term bill to fund the government generally at current levels and accused Schumer of catering to the party’s left flank when he refused to go along.“The Senate Democrats are afraid that the radicals in their party will say that they caved,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said at one of his many daily press conferences.The blame gameThe political stakes in the shutdown are huge, which is why leaders in both parties have held nearly daily press briefings to shape public opinion.Roughly 6 in 10 Americans say Trump and Republicans in Congress have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility for the shutdown, while 54% say the same about Democrats in Congress, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.At least three-quarters of Americans believe each deserves at least a “moderate” share of blame, underscoring that no one was successfully evading responsibility.Both parties looked to the Nov. 4 elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere for signs of how the shutdown was influencing public opinion. Democrats took comfort in their overwhelming successes. Trump called it a “big factor, negative” for Republicans. But it did not change the GOP’s stance on negotiating. Instead, Trump ramped up calls for Republicans to end the filibuster in the Senate, which would pretty much eliminate the need for the majority party to ever negotiate with the minority.Damage of the shutdownThe Congressional Budget Office says that the negative impact on the economy will be mostly recovered once the shutdown ends, but not entirely. It estimated the permanent economic loss at about $11 billion for a six-week shutdown.Beyond the numbers, though, the shutdown created a cascade of troubles for many Americans. Federal workers missed paychecks, causing financial and emotional stress. Travelers had their flights delayed and at times canceled. People who rely on safety net programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program saw their benefits stopped, and Americans throughout the country lined up for meals at food banks.”This dysfunction is damaging enough to our constituents and economy here at home, but it also sends a dangerous message to the watching world,” said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan. “It demonstrates to our allies that we are an unreliable partner, and it signals to our adversaries that we can’t work together to meet even the most fundamental responsibilities of Congress.”
WASHINGTON —The longest government shutdown in history could conclude as soon as today, Day 43, with almost no one happy with the final result.
Democrats didn’t get the health insurance provisions they demanded added to the spending deal. And Republicans, who control the levers of power in Washington, didn’t escape blame, according to polls and some state and local elections that went poorly for them.
The fallout of the shutdown landed on millions of Americans, including federal workers who went without paychecks and airline passengers who had their trips delayed or canceled. An interruption in nutrition assistance programs contributed to long lines at food banks and added emotional distress going into the holiday season.
The agreement includes bipartisan bills worked out by the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund parts of government — food aid, veterans programs and the legislative branch, among other things. All other funding would be extended until the end of January, giving lawmakers more than two months to finish additional spending bills.
Here’s a look at how the shutdown started and is likely to end.
What led to the shutdown
Democrats made several demands to win their support for a short-term funding bill, but the central one was an extension of an enhanced tax credit that lowers the cost of health coverage obtained through Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
The tax credit was boosted during the COVID response, again through Joe Biden’s big energy and health care bill, and it’s set to expire at the end of December. Without it, premiums on average will more than double for millions of Americans. More than 2 million people would lose health insurance coverage altogether next year, the Congressional Budget Office projected.
“Never have American families faced a situation where their health care costs are set to double — double in the blink of an eye,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
While Democrats called for negotiations on the matter, Republicans said a funding bill would need to be passed first.
“Republicans are ready to sit down with Democrats just as soon as they stop holding the government hostage to their partisan demands,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said.
Thune eventually promised Democrats a December vote on the tax credit extension to help resolve the standoff, but many Democrats demanded a guaranteed fix, not just a vote that is likely to fail.
Thune’s position was much the same as the one Schumer took back in October 2013, when Republicans unsuccessfully sought to roll back parts of the Affordable Care Act in exchange for funding the government. “Open up all of the government, and then we can have a fruitful discussion,” Schumer said then.
Democratic leaders under pressure
The first year of President Donald Trump’s second term has seen more than 200,000 federal workers leave their job through firings, forced relocations or the administration’s deferred resignation program, according to the Partnership for Public Service. Whole agencies that don’t align with the administration’s priorities have been dismantled. And billions of dollars previously approved by Congress have been frozen or canceled.
Democrats have had to rely on the courts to block some of Trump’s efforts, but they have been unable to do it through legislation. They were also powerless to stop Trump’s big tax cut and immigration crackdown bill that Republicans helped pay for by cutting future spending on safety net programs such as Medicaid and SNAP, formerly known as food stamps.
The Democrats’ struggles to blunt the Trump administration’s priorities has prompted calls for the party’s congressional leadership to take a more forceful response.
Schumer experienced that firsthand after announcing in March that he would support moving ahead with a funding bill for the 2025 budget year. There was a protest at his office, calls from progressives that he be primaried in 2028 and suggestions that the Democratic Party would soon be looking for new leaders.
This time around, Schumer demanded that Republicans negotiate with Democrats to get their votes on a spending bill. The Senate rules, he noted, requires bipartisan support to meet the 60-vote threshold necessary to advance a spending bill.
But those negotiations did not occur, at least not with Schumer. Republicans instead worked with a small group of eight Democrats to tee up a short-term bill to fund the government generally at current levels and accused Schumer of catering to the party’s left flank when he refused to go along.
“The Senate Democrats are afraid that the radicals in their party will say that they caved,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said at one of his many daily press conferences.
The blame game
The political stakes in the shutdown are huge, which is why leaders in both parties have held nearly daily press briefings to shape public opinion.
Roughly 6 in 10 Americans say Trump and Republicans in Congress have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility for the shutdown, while 54% say the same about Democrats in Congress, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
At least three-quarters of Americans believe each deserves at least a “moderate” share of blame, underscoring that no one was successfully evading responsibility.
Both parties looked to the Nov. 4 elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere for signs of how the shutdown was influencing public opinion. Democrats took comfort in their overwhelming successes. Trump called it a “big factor, negative” for Republicans. But it did not change the GOP’s stance on negotiating. Instead, Trump ramped up calls for Republicans to end the filibuster in the Senate, which would pretty much eliminate the need for the majority party to ever negotiate with the minority.
Damage of the shutdown
The Congressional Budget Office says that the negative impact on the economy will be mostly recovered once the shutdown ends, but not entirely. It estimated the permanent economic loss at about $11 billion for a six-week shutdown.
Beyond the numbers, though, the shutdown created a cascade of troubles for many Americans. Federal workers missed paychecks, causing financial and emotional stress. Travelers had their flights delayed and at times canceled. People who rely on safety net programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program saw their benefits stopped, and Americans throughout the country lined up for meals at food banks.
“This dysfunction is damaging enough to our constituents and economy here at home, but it also sends a dangerous message to the watching world,” said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan. “It demonstrates to our allies that we are an unreliable partner, and it signals to our adversaries that we can’t work together to meet even the most fundamental responsibilities of Congress.”
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Democrats Got a Shutdown They Wanted, and No One’s Happy | RealClearPolitics
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The longest government shutdown in modern American history is about to end, after a handful of Democratic senators this weekend decided to provide Republicans enough votes to pass a short-term funding plan that would keep the government running until the end of January 2026.
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Republicans turn their attention to bashing Obamacare as shutdown enters day 39
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Amid a 39-day government shutdown, Republican after Republican took to the Senate floor on Saturday to blast the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, calling the program a failed approach to addressing the country’s health care needs.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., went as far as to say the current system might need replacing.
“You were promised when Obamacare passed in 2010, President Obama said, that every family in America who participated in this thing would have a $2,500 savings in premium reductions. It’s been like a 100% increase. This thing is unsustainable,” Graham said.
FLASHBACK: TED CRUZ PREDICTS BALLOONING OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES NOW AT CENTER OF SHUTDOWN FIGHT
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham speaks during a press conference on Saint Michael’s Square in the city center on May 30, 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine. A bipartisan delegation from the USA, including Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, arrived in Kyiv for a visit (Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
“We’re going to replace this broken system with something that is actually better for the consumer to meet the goal of lowering health care costs,” Graham added.
Graham wasn’t the only Republican voice to speak out against Obamacare.
“I hate to report that folks on the other side refused to acknowledge the very obvious damage being done across the board by Obamacare,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said. “The problem we have in healthcare is we’ve largely driven free-market principles out of healthcare. That’s because of the faulty design of Obamacare. It’s got to be fixed.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., a former health care executive and longtime critic of the program, joined in.
“It’s all caused by Obamacare. When the government gets involved in things, they often go up in price,” Scott said.
Notably, Republican criticisms of Obamacare on Saturday went beyond the front-and-center issue holding up consideration of government funding.
Where Republicans have advanced a short-term spending package meant to keep the government open through Nov. 21, Democrats have rejected it 14 times, demanding that lawmakers first consider extending COVD-era emergency tax subsidies for Obamacare plan holders.
Republicans, who maintain the temporary subsidies and their expiration have nothing to do with government spending, have largely focused their attention on the shutdown itself instead of engaging in a debate over the COVID-era assistance. They’ve said they will negotiate on the subsidies when the government reopens.
But President Donald Trump changed the picture on Saturday morning in a post to Truth Social by arguing that lawmakers should re-structure the enhanced subsidies so that they go directly to the policyholders instead of insurance companies who currently receive the tax credit payments.
President Donald Trump speaks during a breakfast with Senate and House Republicans in the State Dining Room of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)
In the wake of Trump’s suggestion, lawmakers began blasting Obamacare’s structure.
“Obamacare costs the federal government closer to $150 billion a year. That’s right. We’re spending $150 billion of your tax-earned dollars supplementing other people’s health care,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said.
“When they sold this to the American people, they said it would cost $40 or $50 billion, but we’re triple that. That’s $400 million a day,” he added.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, echoed those comments, arguing that Obamacare had missed the mark on its original design.
“It’s clear that Obamacare has failed to deliver on its promises,” Ernst said. “The answer isn’t throwing more money into a broken system. What we need to do is fix what’s broken. We can end that waste.”
HOUSE REPUBLICANS DIVIDED OVER OBAMACARE AS GOP EYES FIX AFTER SHUTDOWN
Ernst is chairwoman of the DOGE caucus. (Reuters)
Like Ernst and Marshall, Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio., also took to the floor, calling for Congress to evaluate the source of climbing health care costs.
“So, I hope we want to get at the costs and the cause of what’s affecting the unaffordability of health care in this country. Health care has increased since Obamacare started by 6% a year while overall inflation has been 3% or less,” Husted said.
“I hope we will reopen the government and begin serving the American people while we continue the very important conversation of how we make health care more affordable,” he added.
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Although Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has kept the Senate in session over the weekend while lawmakers attempt to break the gridlock, it’s unclear when lawmakers will next consider spending legislation.
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Lawmakers budge, ushering in government shutdown’s potential ‘end of the beginning’
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“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” – Winston Churchill
It’s not an agreement. Just a plan.
But the political ice which has frozen lawmakers and closed the government for 37 days is softening.
Just barely.
THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO WHERE WE STAND WITH A POTENTIAL BREAK IN THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
“There seems to be some indication of a thaw,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
Let’s face it:
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are skittish about the shutdown. They’re agonizing about aviation. There’s increasing worry among bipartisan lawmakers about federal workers not getting paid and the cessation of emergency food benefits known as SNAP. Everyone wants a deal. However, no one knows where to find one.
Any agreement will be about the math. But lawmakers are locked in this shutdown box and can’t find the combination to escape.
There’s movement on the Hill for the first time since the government shut down on October 1 – as Churchill once said, it’s, “perhaps, the end of the beginning.” (Mehmet Eser/Anadolu via Getty Images)
That’s why it’s significant there are at least attempts to turn the wheels of Congress to open the government. But that may take a while.
That’s why it’s notable that, for the first time since October 1, lawmakers are even attempting to turn the gears of government back on.
“I’m optimistic that we should get something done this week,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D. “I think there’s a path forward here.”
Back on Tuesday, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., believed the Senate would vote soon.
“I think it probably could happen Thursday. It might be pushed until Friday. But more than likely Thursday,” said Mullin.
But the Oklahoma Republican offered this caveat.
“I’m just making assumptions,” cautioned Mullin.
OVER ONE MONTH INTO GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN AND NO END IN SIGHT – BUT PREDICTIONS RUN RAMPANT
This is the government shutdown of 2025. And no one knows anything.
Mullin was back on FOX Business on Wednesday, recalibrating what he said a day earlier.
“There’s been a group working in a very strong bipartisan manner, saying once this election is over, we’re going to reopen. And then today, they came back with some of the most ridiculous demands to take authority away from President Trump – wanting us as a Senate to guarantee what the House can and can’t do. And it’s just not feasible,” said Mullin.
Republicans have long known that the House-passed interim spending bill (from September 19) simply doesn’t work anymore. Even if the Senate were to align with the House, that legislation only funds the government through November 21. And that would deposit Congress right back where it started on October 1 with a shutdown.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., says “there’s been a group working in a very strong bipartisan manner,” but “they came back with some of the most ridiculous demands to take authority away from President Trump.” (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
So Republicans began eyeing a longer temporary spending bill running through late January.
“We’ve lost five weeks. So the November 21st, deadline no longer makes a lot of sense,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., referring to the end date of the original spending bill – still not passed by the Senate.
But Republicans need buy-in from Democrats to break a filibuster on any bill to terminate the record-breaking shutdown.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was circumspect when asked what Democrats might support after a lengthy lunch meeting of Democratic senators on Tuesday.
“We had a very good caucus and we’re exploring all the options,” was Schumer’s anodyne reply.
SHUTDOWN SEEN FROM THE PULPIT: INCHING ALONG ON A WING AND A PRAYER
But despite discussions, no one is exactly sure what could court Democratic votes. Especially since Republicans aren’t relenting.
“It seems they’re pretty dug in and they’re okay, screwing people over on their healthcare,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.
Schumer and a group of Senate Democrats incensed House liberals when they helped the GOP avoid a filibuster on a bill to fund the government in March. So it’s natural that House Democrats are leery of getting burned again.
“How much skepticism would there be from House Democrats on any sort of agreement that would come from the Senate?” yours truly asked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
“We said from the very beginning that we will evaluate in good faith any bipartisan agreement that emerges from the Senate,” said Jeffries.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., claims his caucus has said from the start that they’ll “evaluate in good faith any bipartisan agreement that emerges from the Senate.” (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
And that’s why the government likely remains shuttered for a while – even though there are bona fide efforts to solve the crisis.
“I don’t think any of us expected that it would drag on this long,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
But on Thursday, Senate Republicans developed a new plan which they hoped might end the government shutdown.
Or at least liquefy the ice a little more.
OPTIMISM FADES AS SENATE DEMOCRATS DIG IN, HOLD OUT OVER OBAMACARE DEMANDS
Republicans are challenging Democrats to block a test vote on a new gambit which would fund the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects, the Department of Agriculture and Congress itself. That represents three of the 12 federal spending areas which Congress must approve each year. This plan would fund those three sectors until September 30, 2026. Lawmakers would attach another Band-Aid spending bill for the rest of the government until late January. But it was unclear if Democrats would go along.
“I’m less optimistic this morning than I was yesterday,” said Johnson. “What I understand is that Chuck Schumer has pulled them back from that and that they’re being instructed and told they can’t go there.”
And progressives are again leaning on Schumer.
Especially after his decision to help fund the government in March.
“He’s got to keep doing it and we’ve got to deliver a win because we can’t have what happened in the spring happen again,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., to colleague Aishah Hasnie.
Progressives are once again leaning on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Democrats are invigorated after Tuesday’s election results.
“There is no reason to surrender now. Every reason to stand firm,” said Blumenthal. “The message of Tuesday simply confirms what we’ve been hearing again and again and again.”
The plan could include an agreement to hold a vote by a particular date in the future related to healthcare subsidies. That’s the Democrats’ key request. But Democrats want more: a guarantee that Congress will offset spiking ObamaCare costs.
With the House not voting since September 19, Democrats are turning to political guerrilla tactics to make their points about the shutdown.
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Penn., showed up at a press conference by the House Republican leadership on Wednesday and hectored Johnson. U.S. Capitol Police tried to remove Houlahan – until they realized she was a member of Congress.
Johnson called Houlahan’s interruption “beneath her.”
TRAVEL INDUSTRY SOUNDS ALARM OVER HOW SHUTDOWN WILL IMPACT AMERICANS AHEAD OF THANKSGIVING
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., set up a table outside the speaker’s office on Thursday afternoon, promising to answer questions, discuss healthcare and the Epstein files. Ansari says Capitol Police told her she could “get arrested if the table’s not moved.”
Ansari hawked healthcare subsidies as the nation’s air traffic controllers continue to work without paychecks.
“They’re heroes. They keep us safe every single day,” said Ansari of the controllers.
But she added a caveat:
“Is it more important than 24 million Americans losing their health insurance or not being able to afford their rent?” asked Ansari. “No.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., noted that the air travel threatened by the shutdown is “nothing to mess around with.” (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Aviation concerns are gripping the nation. But only one Republican is saying out loud what everyone is thinking.
“All it takes is one little accident. And if people die?” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. “So air travel is nothing to mess around with.”
Even if the Senate votes this week, few expect an immediate breakthrough.
“My hopes and expectations are always that we’re going to have enough Democrats to actually proceed. But I don’t know. We’ll see,” said Thune. “The Dems are having a hard time taking yes for an answer.”
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., offered his own time frame.
“We’re at least seven days and more likely ten and very possibly two weeks away from opening up at best,” said Kennedy.
Democrats are split as to what they want to do. Still, many want an off-ramp. And progressives are ready to rage if moderate Democrats burn them again.
So we are far from the end of the government shutdown saga. But we’re not at the beginning anymore. Perhaps that’s solace to those tracking the shutdown.
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After all, anything which begins – usually ends.
Eventually.
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Commentary: Nancy Pelosi prided herself on cold calculation. She knew it was time
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When Nancy Pelosi first ran for Congress, she was one of 14 candidates, the front-runner and a target.
At the time, Pelosi was little known to San Francisco voters. But she was already a fixture in national politics. She was a major Democratic fundraiser, who helped lure the party’s 1984 national convention to her adopted home town. She served as head of California’s Democratic Party and hosted a salon that was a must-stop for any politician passing through.
She was the chosen successor of Rep. Sala Burton, a short-timer who took over the House seat held for decades by her late husband, Philip, and who delivered a personal benediction from her deathbed.
But at age 49, Pelosi had never held public office — she was too busy raising five kids, on top of all that political moving and shaking — and opponents made light of role as hostess. “The party girl for the party,” they dubbed her, a taunt that blared from billboards around town.
She obviously showed them.
Pelosi not only made history, becoming the nation’s first female speaker of the House. She became the party’s spine and its sinew, holding together the Democrat’s many warring factions and standing firm at times the more timorous were prepared to back down.
The Affordable Care Act — President Obama’s signature achievement — would never have passed if Pelosi had not insisted on pressing on when many, including some in the White House, wished to surrender.
She played a significant role in twice helping rescue the country from economic collapse — the first time in 2009 amid the Great Recession, then in 2020 during the shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — mustering recalcitrant Democrats to ensure House passage.
“She will go down in history as one of the most important speakers,” James Thurber, a congressional expert at Washington’s American University, said. “She knew the rules, she knew the process, she knew the personalities of the key players, and she knew how to work the system.”
Pelosi’s announcement Thursday that she will not seek reelection — at age 85, after 38 years in Congress — came as no surprise. She saw firsthand the ravages that consumed her friend and former neighbor, Dianne Feinstein. (Pelosi’s eldest daughter, Nancy, was a last caretaker for the late senator.)
She was not about to repeat that final, sad act.
Pelosi, who was first elected in 1987, once said she never expected to serve in Congress more than 10 years. She recalled seeing a geriatric House member hobbling on a cane and telling a colleague, “It’s never going to be me. I’m not staying around that long.”
(She never used a cane, but did give up her trademark stiletto heels for a time after suffering a fall last December and undergoing hip replacement surgery.)
Pelosi had intended to retire sooner, anticipating Hillary Clinton would be elected president in 2016 and seeing that as a logical, and fitting, end point to her trailblazing political career. “I have things to do. Books to write; places to go; grandchildren, first and foremost, to love,” she said in a 2018 interview.
However, she was determined to stymie President Trump in his first term and stuck around, emerging as one of his chief nemeses. After Joe Biden was elected, Pelosi finally yielded the speaker’s gavel in November 2022.
But she remained a substantive figure, still wielding enormous power behind the scenes. Among other quiet maneuvers, she was instrumental in helping ease aside Biden after his disastrous debate performance sent Democrats into a panic. He was a personal friend, and long-ago guest at her political salon, but Pelosi anticipated a down-ticket disaster if Biden remained the party’s nominee. So, in her estimation, he had to go.
It was the kind of ruthlessness that gave Pelosi great pride; she boasted of a reptilian cold-bloodedness and, indeed, though she shared the liberal leanings of her hometown, Pelosi was no ideologue. That’s what made her a superb deal-maker and legislative tactician, along with the personal touch she brought to her leadership.
“She had a will of steel, but she also had a lot of grace and warmth,” said Thurber, “and that’s not always the case with speakers.”
History-making aside, Pelosi left an enduring mark on San Francisco, the place she moved to from Baltimore as a young mother with her husband, Paul, a financier and real estate investor. She brought home billions of dollars for earthquake safety, re-purposing old military facilities — the former Presidio Army base is a spectacular park — funding AIDS research and treatment, expanding public transit and countless other programs.
Her work in the 1980s and 1990s on AIDS funding was crucial in helping move discussion of the disease from the shadows — where it was viewed as a plague that mainly struck gay men and drug users — to a pressing national concern.
In the process, she become a San Francisco institution, as venerated as the Golden Gate Bridge and beloved as the city’s tangy sourdough bread.
“She’s an icon,” said Aaron Peskin, a former San Francisco County supervisor and 2024 candidate for mayor. “She walks into a room, people left, right and center, old, young, white, Black, Chinese stand on their feet. She’s one of the greatest speakers we have ever had and this town understands that.”
Pelosi grew up in Baltimore in a political family. He father, Tommy D’Alesandro, was a Democratic New Deal congressman, who went on to serve three terms as mayor. “Little Nancy” stuffed envelopes — as her own children would — passed out ballots and often traveled by her father’s side to campaign events. (D’Alesandro went on to serve three terms as mayor; Pelosi’s brother, Tommy III, held the job for a single term.)
David Axelrod, who saw Pelosi up close while serving as a top aide in the Obama White House, said he once asked her what she learned growing up in such a political household. “She didn’t skip a beat,” Axelrod said. “She said, ‘I learned how to count.’ ”
Meaning when to call the roll on a key legislative vote and when to cut her losses in the face of inevitable defeat.
Pelosi is still so popular in San Francisco she could well have eked out yet another reelection victory in 2026, despite facing the first serious challenge since that first run for Congress. But the campaign would have been brutal and potentially quite ugly.
More than just about anyone, Pelosi knows how to read a political situation with dispassion, detachment and cold-eyed calculation.
She knew it was time.
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Mark Z. Barabak
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Dems’ Big Election Night Scrambles Shutdown Strategy | RealClearPolitics
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Democratic senators hope President Trump’s acknowledgment that the shutdown is hurting the GOP will crack the door open for fuller negotiations.
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Bobic & Delaney, HuffPost
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Nancy Pelosi, first female speaker of the House, won’t seek re-election to Congress
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In a final love letter to San Francisco, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who made history as the nation’s first female speaker of the House and twice served in that top job, said Thursday in a video message she will not seek re-election in 2026.
“I will not be seeking re-election to Congress. With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative,” Pelosi, 85, said in her video message to San Francisco voters, interlaced with sweeping imagery of the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower and other landmarks, as well as photos that captured her storied political career.
The powerful California Democrat led her party in the House for two decades — from 2002 to 2022 — serving as a crucial ally for Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and orchestrating the opposition to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
NBC News reported this week that Democrats in California and on Capitol Hill were preparing for her retirement announcement.
While she had stepped aside as party leader three years ago, she had continued to serve in the House as a rank-and-file member and her Democratic colleagues granted Pelosi the title of “speaker emerita.”
Pelosi had said she would make a decision about her political future after the outcome of California’s Prop 50, the new congressional map drawn by state Democrats to combat GOP redistricting efforts in other states. Upon its passage in Tuesday’s election, Pelosi decided it was time to pass the torch.
Her decision will spark a fierce contest for her liberal, deep-blue San Francisco seat at a moment when Democrats across the country are embracing a new generation of leaders.
“As we go forward, my message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power,” Pelosi said in her video announcement. “We have made history; we have made progress. We have always led the way, and now we must continue to do so by remaining full participants in our democracy, and fighting for the American ideals we hold dear.”
A former chair of the California Democratic Party, Pelosi, was first elected to the House in a special election in 1987 to replace the late Rep. Sala Burton. Since then, Pelosi has won every bid for re-election by wide margins and has been one of her party’s most prolific fundraisers and polarizing figures.
Nancy Pelosi at election headquarters on primary election night, April 7, 1987. (Getty Images) Even before her announcement, at least two Democrats had already launched bids to replace her: state Sen. Scott Weiner, 55, and wealthy former tech executive Saikat Chakrabarti, 39, a co-founder of the progressive outside group Justice Democrats that helped propel Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to political stardom.
Pelosi’s decision is sure to entice others to throw their hats in the ring, given that a competitive congressional race has not been held in San Francisco for nearly four decades.
Pelosi was born into a well-connected political family in Baltimore in 1940. Her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., was a Democratic congressman, and both he and her brother would go on to serve as mayors of Baltimore. Her father lived to see Pelosi, then 47 years old and a mother of five grown children, elected to Congress in June 1987; he died just two months later.
Having learned the family business from her father, Pelosi quickly rose through the ranks on Capitol Hill. She scored plum assignments on the House Appropriations and Intelligence committees, providing her with experience in federal funding and national security matters that would later serve her in leadership.
Her big opportunity came in 2001, when House Minority Whip David Bonior said he was stepping aside from the No. 2 position to run for governor of Michigan. In the hard-fought race to replace him, Pelosi defeated Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. — the two had interned on Capitol Hill together in 1963 — in a 118-95 closed-door vote, making her the highest-ranking female member of Congress in history.
Another opportunity came just a year later. When Democrats failed to capture the majority in the 2002 midterms, Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., announced he was stepping down and to focus on a presidential run. Pelosi trounced then-Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn., in a landslide 177-29 vote for minority leader, making her the top Democrat in the House.
After Democrats took back control of the chamber in the 2006 midterms, Pelosi was elected the first female House speaker in history, shattering one of the highest glass ceilings in all of U.S. politics.
Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Nancy Pelosi waves the speaker’s gavel while surrounded by her own grandchildren and the children of other members of Congress after being elected as the first woman House speaker in 2007.
During her time in Congress, Pelosi was a fierce advocate for finding a cure to HIV/AIDS, which ran rampant in San Francisco during the 1980s and ’90s; for battling climate change and for funding programs for children.
One of her favorite phrases was, “For the children,” which she uttered at nearly every news conference.
But her biggest legislative achievement came after the 2008 election, when Obama and the Democrats took full control of Washington. In 2009 and 2010, she helped shepherd the landmark Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, through the House, and ultimately to the president’s desk, expanding health care coverage for millions of Americans.
Getty Images
Getty Images
President Barack Obama signs the Affordable Health Care for America Act during a ceremony with fellow Democrats in the East Room of the White House on March 23, 2010 in Washington, DC.
When a tea party wave swept Pelosi and House Democrats out of power in the 2010 midterm elections, the California Democrat defied norms and opted to stay in power as minority leader, rather than bow out as others had done before her.
It would prove a fortuitous move for Democrats after Trump shocked the nation by upsetting Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. With Democrats cast into the political wilderness, Pelosi filled the void and became the face of the Trump opposition.
Two years later, after Democrats were propelled back into the House majority, Pelosi beat back an internal rebellion from a bloc of disgruntled Democrats calling for a new, younger leader to guide the party and take on Trump. She was elected speaker for a second time, the first lawmaker to return to the top job since Sam Rayburn reclaimed the prized gavel for a third time in 1955.
Pelosi and Trump’s rocky relationship was marked by a series of public clashes — an Oval Office shouting match that erupted on live television during a fight over Trump’s border wall in late 2018; Pelosi walking out on Trump during a White House meeting the next year; and Pelosi ripping into shreds a copy of Trump’s State of the Union address as she stood behind him on the House dais in 2020.
Patrick Semansky/AP
Patrick Semansky/AP
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., tears her copy of President Donald Trump’s s State of the Union address after he delivered it to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020. Trump’s State of the Union address was a night steeped in tense partisanship, after he appears to snub Pelosi’s handshake and she rips up his speech.
“I eat nails for breakfast,” Pelosi was fond of saying.
She resisted and then led a House impeachment effort against Trump in 2019 over allegations he had withheld U.S. aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate the family of his 2020 rival, Biden.
After the Jan. 6 attack in 2021, Pelosi pushed House Democrats to quickly impeach Trump for his overt efforts to overturn Biden’s election victory and unleash a violent mob of his supporters on lawmakers — and his own vice president — in the Capitol as they prepared to certify the results.
Twice, the Senate voted to acquit Trump.
Later, she partnered with Biden, first on a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package, then on a messy, monthslong legislative process that resulted in the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive climate and health care law.
The Bidens would later have a falling out with Pelosi after she pressured the 81-year-old president to drop out of his race for re-election against Trump last year.
It was far from her first intraparty brawl. After Democrats swept in the 2008 election and prepared to tackle climate change and health care legislation, key Pelosi ally and fellow Californian, liberal Rep. Henry Waxman, jumped in the race to challenge powerful Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich, who was close to her frequent political rival, Hoyer. While Pelosi and Hoyer didn’t take sides publicly, it was clear where they stood; Waxman toppled Dingell in a razor-thin 137-122 closed-door vote.
“She defeated him as chair; it was one of the worst times in my life,” Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who succeeded her husband, John, in Congress in 2015, said in an interview this week. “But when I got elected, I was gonna respect her. We’re both Catholic girls, and she was my leader.”
“She was a very strong leader and did a damn good job leading Democrats,” Dingell added.
After they lost the majority in the 2022 midterms, Pelosi and her two longtime top lieutenants — Hoyer and Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. — had voluntarily stepped aside as the top three Democratic leaders. It marked a changing of the guard, with a trio of younger leaders, Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar, taking over.
In an unusual move, all three leaders opted to stay on as rank-and-file members for another two terms, with Pelosi continuing to fundraise for the party and offering counsel to the new generation of leaders and young members as they battled a second Trump administration.
“Nancy Pelosi is an iconic, legendary, transformational figure who has done so many things over so many years to make life better for so many people,” Jeffries told reporters this week.
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Scott Wong and Jonathan Allen | NBC News
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President Trump urges Republicans to reopen government as shutdown marks longest in US history
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The government shutdown has reached its 36th day, the longest in U.S. history, as President Donald Trump pressures Republicans to end the Senate filibuster in order to reopen the government.”It’s time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that’s terminate the filibuster. It’s the only way you can do it,” Trump told senators Wednesday at the White House.The filibuster is a Senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance most legislation. Ending the filibuster would allow Republicans to pass a bill with a simple majority, but several Republicans warn that when Democrats are in power, they’d be able to do the same thing. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said after breakfast at the White House, “It’s just not happening.”The president also said the shutdown was a “big factor, negative” in Tuesday’s election results.”Countless public servants are now not being paid and the air traffic control system is under increasing strain. We must get the government back open soon and really immediately,” Trump said.The shutdown is hitting home for many Americans, with lines stretching at food banks across the country as SNAP benefits are delayed and reduced for more than 40 million Americans. After-school programs that depend on federal dollars are closing. The Transportation Secretary said, starting Friday, there will be a 10% reduction in flights at 40 airports across the country.Republicans have pushed to reopen the government with a short-term spending bill. Democrats have rejected those bills, arguing that Republicans are leaving out a key provision: restoring expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies that help millions of Americans lower their health-insurance costs. Democrats say passing a short-term bill without those subsidies would leave families facing sudden premium spikes.”The election results ought to send a much needed bolt of lightning to Donald Trump that he should meet with us to end this crisis,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “The American people have spoken last night. End the shutdown, end the healthcare crisis, sit down and talk with us.”Republicans have said they’re willing to negotiate ACA subsidies, but only after the shutdown is over.See more government shutdown coverage from the Washington News Bureau:
WASHINGTON —The government shutdown has reached its 36th day, the longest in U.S. history, as President Donald Trump pressures Republicans to end the Senate filibuster in order to reopen the government.
“It’s time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that’s terminate the filibuster. It’s the only way you can do it,” Trump told senators Wednesday at the White House.
The filibuster is a Senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance most legislation. Ending the filibuster would allow Republicans to pass a bill with a simple majority, but several Republicans warn that when Democrats are in power, they’d be able to do the same thing.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said after breakfast at the White House, “It’s just not happening.”
The president also said the shutdown was a “big factor, negative” in Tuesday’s election results.
“Countless public servants are now not being paid and the air traffic control system is under increasing strain. We must get the government back open soon and really immediately,” Trump said.
The shutdown is hitting home for many Americans, with lines stretching at food banks across the country as SNAP benefits are delayed and reduced for more than 40 million Americans. After-school programs that depend on federal dollars are closing.
The Transportation Secretary said, starting Friday, there will be a 10% reduction in flights at 40 airports across the country.
Republicans have pushed to reopen the government with a short-term spending bill. Democrats have rejected those bills, arguing that Republicans are leaving out a key provision: restoring expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies that help millions of Americans lower their health-insurance costs. Democrats say passing a short-term bill without those subsidies would leave families facing sudden premium spikes.
“The election results ought to send a much needed bolt of lightning to Donald Trump that he should meet with us to end this crisis,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “The American people have spoken last night. End the shutdown, end the healthcare crisis, sit down and talk with us.”
Republicans have said they’re willing to negotiate ACA subsidies, but only after the shutdown is over.
See more government shutdown coverage from the Washington News Bureau:
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