Jam-Packed Defense Bill
Paychecks for troops? Up. Pentagon diversity programs? Out.
Military assistance for Israel, Taiwan, Ukraine, and other US partners? Still there. Use of force in Iraq? Permission over.
Those four data points don’t even scratch the surface of what’s included in the new defense authorization bill. The year-long negotiating process hits a major milestone today with a House floor vote to take up the final compromise. Look for some dissent — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she’ll vote no because it authorizes tax money for “foreign militaries and foreign wars” — but the bill is generally considered must-pass legislation.
Among its provisions is a setback for military vendors. The bill doesn’t include permission for the contractors to be reimbursed for interest costs incurred when they finance facility upgrades and other “covered activities,” Roxana Tiron and Tony Capaccio report. Read More
Also in there: A $140 billion boost, to $200 billion, in the funding capacity for the International Development Finance Corp., a government agency that’s taken on a growing role in the Trump administration’s foreign policy, Joe Deaux and Loukia Gyftopoulou report. Read More
BGOV subscribers, you can dig deeper into the details of the $901 billion measure: BGOV Bill Analysis: FY2026 Defense Authorization Agreement
The National Defense Authorization Act is one of Congress’ pieces of must-pass legislation, worth a total of $900.6 billion.
Join BGOV’s reporters and analysts on Dec. 11 at 1 p.m. for a deep dive webinar into the bill, what its policy choices mean going forward, and how it fits into the larger spending debates in Washington. Register Here
Setting Interest Rates
Officials with a vote at today’s Federal Reserve meeting have a Jenga-like job to do: decide how much to tweak interest rates without making pieces of the economy fall down.
They lowered the benchmark rate twice this autumn, and by 1.5 percentage points over the last 15 months. Several Fed policymakers have cautioned against cutting rates again this year because inflation continues to exceed the central bank’s 2% target. If, as is widely expected, they drop the rate down a little more, their goal will be to set rates as close as possible to the point where their action doesn’t trigger a spurt of inflation.
After the vote, listen carefully to what Fed Chair Jerome Powell says — or avoids saying — at the concluding press conference. He may try to avoid raising the expectation of further moves in the near term, as Maria Eloisa Capurro explains in a decision-day guide.
The other Federal Reserve speculation around town is who President Donald Trump will pick to succeed Powell. The latest on that front: the president told reporters yesterday that “I have a pretty good idea of who I want.” Read More
See Also: Trump Floats Autopen Investigation Into Biden’s Fed Nominees
Trump’s Economic Message
Trump was on the road last night, and used a campaign-style rally to tell people in swing-state Pennsylvania that if they understand tariffs then they ought to like them. “It’s the smart people understand it. Other people are starting to learn, but the smart people really understand it,” he said.
He argued that the tariffs had enabled him to provide aid to farmers and forced manufacturers to build plants and data centers in the US.
Trump hit the road as unemployment has ticked higher, and companies shed payrolls in November by the most since early 2023, according to data from ADP Research. Read More
See Also: Trump Urged to Ditch Biden Revenge Tour as GOP Frets Midterms
ACA Votes
Republicans in the Senate figured out their counter-move to the Democrats’ bid to renew expanded Obamacare subsidies that are expiring at the end of the year.
Caitlin Reilly and Erik Wasson report that there’ll be dueling votes tomorrow, and both proposals are doomed to fail because they lack bipartisan backing.
The Democrats are offering a three-year extension so that costs for more than 20 million people don’t spike on Jan. 1. Republican language would offer people in certain high-deductible Obamacare plans up to $1,500 each of the next two years in tax-advantaged health savings accounts. It also would fund cost-sharing reduction payments.
Though they all know the extremely high liklihood of defeat, just holding the vote will let senators tell their constituents that they tried and the other party stood in the way. Read More
There’s a new Affordable Care Act proposal in the House, too, Maeve Sheehey and Erin Durkin report. It would extend the enhanced subsidies for two years with added income limits. Centrist Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) is the lead sponsor, and the bill is co-sponsored by four Democrats and two other Republicans. Read More
The key player in all of this is Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who repeatedly slams the subsidies, which conservatives see as too expensive. House Republicans expect to hear more from their speaker at their weekly caucus meeting this morning, Sheehey and Durkin report in today’s Congress Tracker newsletter.
Before You Go
‘Baloney’ Exclusive: Remember the federal assault case for throwing a submarine sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent? Keith L. Alexander talked to the jurors about their deliberations, and you’ll want to see the details. “It really came down to this whole thing was a bunch of baloney,” said one of the jurors, a 26-year-old Washington architectural designer. Read More
Political Bellweather?: Miami, which hasn’t been run by a Democrat in nearly three decades, voted for a big change, Anna J Kaiser reports. Eileen Higgins won the mayoral runoff, beating a Trump-backed candidate to become the first female mayor-elect. That adds to a recent stretch of Democratic gains, including last month’s wins in New Jersey and Virginia and Zohran Mamdani’s victory as New York mayor — results widely seen as a warning sign for the GOP going into the 2026 midterms. Read More
A Big Deal Here, Too: Lobbyists for Netflix and Paramount are working behind the scenes to sway the Trump administration and lawmakers as their clients compete to take over Warner Bros., Kate Ackley and Katie Arcieri report. Read More
Border Barrier: The US is proposing that foreign visitors, including those from Australia, Germany, Japan and the UK who can now enter without a visa, provide their social media history over the last five years to enter the country, Jon Herskovitz reports. Read More
Union Rights: A House Democrat’s bill reinstating union rights for federal workers that got enough Republican backing to force its consideration will get a vote this week, Sheehey reports. Rep. Jared Golden’s (Maine) bill would roll back a March executive order that curbed collective bargaining rights at federal agencies. Read More
Instead of OSHA: State lawmakers across the country are proposing new requirements for companies to protect their workers from extreme cold, further complicating the existing patchwork of weather-related safety rules for multi-state employers, Tre’Vaughn Howard reports. Read More
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