Senate passes bill to avoid a government shutdown, ending funding fight at the 11th hour
By Scott Wong, Sahil Kapur, Ali Vitali, Julie Tsirkin, Kyle Stewart and Kate Santaliz The Senate gave final passage to a bill early Saturday morning to keep the government open for three more months, sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk to end the threat of a government shutdown during the holidays. The vote was 85-11. The Republican-controlled House passed the bill hours earlier. Although the final vote technically went past the midnight deadline to avert a shutdown, the White House said that Biden would sign the bill Saturday and avoid forcing U.S. troops, Border Patrol agents, air traffic controllers and millions of other federal workers to work without
Employers lobby to keep health care prices transparent in hopes of containing costs
By Julie Appleby It seems simple: Require hospitals and insurers to post their negotiated prices for most health care services and — bingo — competition follows, yielding lower costs for consumers. But nearly four years after the first Trump administration’s regulations forced hospitals to post massive amounts of pricing information online, the effect on patients’ costs is unclear. And while President Joe Biden added requirements to make pricing information more user-friendly, Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House has raised questions about what’s next, even though posting prices is an area of rare bipartisan agreement. The uncertainty of what
Eric Adams’ aides head to Hill today as he faces legal woes at home
By Emily Ngo New York City Mayor Eric Adams is heading today to Albany, New York, while several of his top deputies are due in Washington, all seeking to advance Adams’ state and federal priorities amid the political backlash of his criminal indictment. The outreach in the state and nation’s capitals, confirmed to POLITICO by a spokesperson for Adams, comes as the Democratic mayor warms to the GOP president-elect. And it comes a day after the city’s Campaign Finance Board voted to deny Adams $4.5 million in public funds, his closest aide disclosed she expects to be indicted on alleged corruption charges and Donald Trump said
House Dems move forward with generational shake-up on key panels
By Nicholas Wu House Democrats have solidified the generational shake-up at the top of their committees, after significant behind-the-scenes influence from both current and former leaders of the caucus. The caucus faced tough races for the Agriculture, Oversight and Natural Resources Committees. Rep. Angie Craig (Minn.) won the nod for the top party spot on Agriculture, beating incumbent Rep. David Scott (Ga.), who’d faced long-standing questions about his health, and Rep. Jim Costa (Calif.). Rep. Gerry Connolly (Va.) won the Oversight recommendation over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.). And Rep. Jared Huffman (Calif.) earned the nod for the Natural Resources Committee
Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Eric Adams’ top and longest-serving aide, resigns
By Jeff Colton Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who engineered Eric Adams’ rise from police captain to mayor of the nation’s largest city, is abruptly resigning from City Hall. Her departure, which takes effect immediately, comes at a precarious time for the mayor: He is heading to trial for a five-count federal indictment to which he pleaded not guilty, and is up for reelection next year. Lewis-Martin herself is being eyed by local law enforcement in a separate matter. Prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office have presented evidence about her to a grand jury, and could bring an indictment as soon as this
The Biden overtime rule was struck down. Now, some workers are losing pay raises
By Andrea Hsu Imagine getting a pay raise, only to be told weeks later: Sorry, we’re taking it back. That’s what’s happening to 306 employees at The Ohio State University now that a federal court has struck down the Biden administration’s overtime rule. Finalized in April, the rule would have made some 4.3 million salaried workers nationwide newly eligible to earn 1.5 times their regular pay when they work more than 40 hours a week. “One of the basic principles of the American workplace is that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay,” wrote Jessica Looman, head of the
Trump ‘can’t guarantee’ Americans won’t pay more if tariffs enacted
By Mia McCarthy President-elect Donald Trump said he “can’t guarantee anything” when asked whether his proposed tariffs would increase prices for American families, in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday. “I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow,” Trump said, when host Kristen Welker asked if he can guarantee American families won’t pay more under his tariff plan. “But I can say that if you looked at my — just pre-Covid, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. And I had a lot of tariffs on a lot of different countries, but
Biden is on track to appoint more federal judges of color than any other president
By Char Adams As President Joe Biden makes a final push to confirm judicial nominees before his term in office ends, he is on track to have appointed more federal judges of color than any president before him. On Monday, the Senate confirmed Biden’s judicial nominee for the Northern District of Georgia, Tiffany Johnson, making her the 40th Black woman he has appointed to lifetime federal judgeships — more than any president in a single term. Overall, about 60% of Biden’s 233 appointees are people of color, according to figures the White House shared with NBC News. Benjamin Cheeks and Serena
Tennessee State Interim President Resigns Under Pressure
By Sara Weissman The interim president of Tennessee State University, Ronald Johnson, abruptly announced plans to resign on Wednesday after leading the historically Black land-grant institution for less than six months, as The Tennessean first reported. Dakasha Winton, chair of the university’s Board of Trustees, implied in a statement that the board pressured Johnson to leave. The board’s “job is to ensure the future strength of the school through thoughtful and decisive governance,” she wrote. “In service of this commitment, and as board chair, I spoke with interim president Dr. Johnson on Tuesday about separating from the university. He has chosen
Biden shrinks from view ahead of Trump’s return to Washington
By Adam Cancryn Joe Biden is president of the United States for 42 more days. But within the Democratic Party, on Capitol Hill — and even within his own administration — it feels like he left the Oval Office weeks ago. Biden has effectively disappeared from the radar in the wake of Democrats’ bruising electoral loss. Since Nov. 5, he’s largely stuck to prepared remarks, avoided unscripted public appearances or press questions and opted to sit out the raging debate over Donald Trump’s victory, policy conversations in Congress and the Democratic Party’s future. “He’s been so cavalier and selfish about