Shutdown Staredown Explained
Faced with a possible federal government shutdown in March, some Democrats worried about handing the White House too much power. That was because if the government shut down, the executive branch got to decide which agencies were essential enough to keep open.
This time around, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries describes a minority party with less to fear.
“There are no guardrails that Donald Trump has respected,” Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg Government. The president and his administration are “completely and totally out of control,” even “outside of the context of a shutdown,” he said.
Jonathan Tamari outlines the highlights from our sit-down in the US Capitol in this morning’s Congress Tracker, and you can get more details in our team coverage:
- Jeffries Says Democrats Will Not Compromise On ACA Tax Credits
- Jeffries Says Trump Silence on California Redistricting Telling
- GOP ‘Irresponsible’ to Recess Ahead of Shutdown, Jeffries Says
- Top House Democrat Backs Bipartisan Lawmaker Security Bill
See Also: White House Tells Agencies To Prepare for Job Cuts in Shutdown
TikTok and Turkey
A busy day’s shaping up in the Oval Office. Another head of state is visiting, and Trump plans to sign an executive order approving a deal to sell TikTok’s US operations to a consortium of US investors.
That deal is intended to give Americans control of TikTok’s recommendation software in the US. It calls for TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, to divest and lease a copy of the algorithm to the new owners of the US-based TikTok. Data from US users would be stored in a secure cloud managed by Oracle with controls established to keep out foreign adversaries, including China.
And look for another deal to be announced when Trump meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkey is looking to buy everything from Lockheed Martin Corp. fighter jets and Boeing Co. planes to liquefied natural gas worth more than $50 billion. Erdogan also sees the meeting as a chance to reset ties that have been shaken by Turkey’s purchases of Russian arms, diplomatic spats and retaliatory tariffs. Read More
See Also:
- Trump Asks UN for Investigation Into Alleged ‘Sabotage’ at UNGA
- Threats to Trump Aides Sparked Secret Service SIM Card Probe
K Street Quandary
Innundated by dues-paying members with a big federal problem, the nation’s largest business lobby is trying to figure out its strategy for opposing the administration’s new $100,000 application fee for skilled-worker visas.
This week, the US Chamber of Commerce polled member companies over whether they’d support going to court to challenge the new H-1B visa demand. The lobbying group has avoided any direct showdowns with Trump this year, even opting not to join the legal fight against the new tariffs. Just considering a legal challenge is a departure. Read More
See Also: Corporate America Waits to See What Happens With H-1Bs
Eye on the Economy
Fresh data coming out today will show how much the US economy expanded between April and June.
It’s the final update of the quarter’s gross domestic product, which tallies the net value of goods shipped abroad and everything bought by American businesses, consumers, and the government. It’s part of the information that policy-makers at the Federal Reserve will pay attention to as they decide next month whether the economy would benefit from a small or medium reduction in interest rates.
Seven Fed officials have speeches scheduled today, so we’ll also get new insight into what they’re thinking.
More Tariffs
The Trump administration is setting the stage for fresh duties on imported robotics, industrial machinery, and medical devices. The Department of Commerce is conducting investigations of those sectors under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which allows the president to add levies on goods deemed critical to national security.
The new probes are in addition to investigations into imports of pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, aircraft, critical minerals, medium- and heavy-duty trucks, and other products. Trump already used the law to impose levies on automobiles, copper, steel, and aluminum. Read More
Before You Go
Comey Charges?: The Justice Department is preparing to ask a grand jury as soon as today to indict former FBI Director James Comey on allegations that he lied to Congress in 2020, with a statute of limitations for bringing charges due to hit next week, The Associated Press reports, citing two sources.
Gearing Up: Disney is confident it will win if Trump goes after its broadcast licenses in retaliation for putting late-night host Jimmy Kimmel back on the air, two people familiar with the company’s thinking said. The FCC had little success in past attempts to control critical speech. Read More
Data Risk: Democrats on a Senate oversight committee say DOGE staffers uploaded a database containing sensitive information including Social Security numbers for millions of Americans to a cloud server where private companies or “foreign bad actors” could have been given access, Ian Kullgren reports. Read More
Self-Regulation: The trade association for pharmacy benefit managers is working on a plan to voluntarily change some industry practices to show Washington that no new regulations are needed on medicine middlemen. Read More
Wrong Justification: A federal judge told the Trump administration it can’t withhold disaster-relief grants from states that don’t promise to assist with federal immigration enforcement, Megan Crepeau reports. DHS “engaged in a wholly under-reasoned and arbitrary process” in putting immigration-related conditions on the federal funding, wrote Judge William Smith of the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island. Read More
Presidential: A wall alongside the Rose Garden now shows a series of black and white images of former presidents in gold frames , with pictures of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama among those visible in videos posted on social media. But in the spot for former President Joe Biden, there is a picture of an autopen signing his name. Read More
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Ian Kullgren in Washington also contributed to this story.
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