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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a stopgap spending bill Thursday that avoids a short-term shutdown and funds the federal government through Feb. 18 after leaders defused a partisan standoff over federal vaccine mandates. The measure now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. “I am glad that in the end, cooler heads prevailed. The government will stay open and I thank the members of this chamber for walking us back from the brink of an avoidable, needless and costly shutdown,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The Senate approved the measure by a vote of...

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is planning to bring President Biden's social and climate spending bill to the floor as soon as the week of Dec. 13, a source familiar confirmed to The Hill. Schumer's plan is to bring the bill, known as Build Back Better, to the Senate floor once Democrats finish their conversations with the parliamentarian, who provides guidance on what can be included in a bill passed through budget reconciliation. "As soon as the necessary technical and procedural work with the Senate parliamentarian has been completed... the Senate will take up this legislation," Schumer told reporters...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday warned senators that failing to reach a deal on raising the debt limit could "eviscerate" the U.S. economy recovery. Yellen gave this message while addressing the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. She has issued similar notices in the time since the Senate reached a short-term debt hike to last until Dec. 15. Speaking to the committee, Yellen noted November job numbers that showed around 531,000 were added in the past month and stated, "Our economic recovery is on track."

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stated that the Biden administration is “trying to help people deal with the consequences of rising prices, whether it’s increasing the SNAP benefit or whether it’s making sure that the child tax credit is available to folks or whether it’s rebuilding the infrastructure of this economy” to fix supply chain issues. Vilsack said, “I think it’s — the key here is that we’re also trying to help people deal with the consequences of rising prices, whether it’s increasing the SNAP benefit or whether it’s making sure that the child...

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) met on Thursday as they look for an off-ramp from a looming fight over the debt ceiling. “We had a good discussion about several different issues that are all extant as we move toward the end of the session,” McConnell told reporters. “We agreed to kind of keep talking, working together to try to get somewhere,” McConnell added.

President Biden on Monday signed into law a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill at a boisterous ceremony outside the White House, sealing a major accomplishment of his first term. Weeks of talks and two trips to the Capitol from Biden culminated earlier this month in a bipartisan vote, with the House passing the bill 228-206. Thirteen Republicans crossed the aisle to support the measure, and six progressive Democrats bucked Biden and party leaders to oppose it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi celebrated the passing of Biden’s Squander bill (aka, the infrastructure bill) in this concise discussion. The bill includes $110 billion in funding for roads, bridges and major projects, as well as $39 billion to modernize and make public transit more accessible to the disabled and elderly. Significant chunks of that money will go to major city transit systems, like New York City’s, based on federal funding formulas. (Taxpayers paying for something that even New Yorkers aren’t willing to pay for??) Here is the Biden and Pelosi family and crony personal enrichment bill: https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/e/a/ea1eb2e4-56bd-45f1-a260-9d6ee951bc96/F8A7C77D69BE09151F210EB4DFE872CD.edw21a09.pdf The deal also...

@ChadPergram Infrastructure vote still open. But it has enough votes to pass on a bipartisan basis

The U.S. budget deficit totaled $2.77 trillion for 2021, the second highest on record but an improvement from the all-time high of $3.13 trillion reached in 2020. The deficits in both years reflect trillions of dollars in government spending to counteract the devastating effects of a global pandemic. The Biden administration said Friday that deficit for the budget year that ended Sept. 30 was $360 billion lower than 2020, as a recovering economy boosted revenues, helping to offset government spending from pandemic relief efforts. Before the deficit ballooned during two years of a global pandemic, the biggest deficit had been...

The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the United States hit a seven-year high this week according to the latest data from AAA showing the going rate is $3.22 per gallon, a cost not seen since this month in 2014. In some states, the cost per gallon is even higher like in California where the average price is now $4.42. In certain metropolitan areas, gas is more than $5 per gallon. Just one year ago, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded was only $2.18, according to AAA. The current spike in prices to...

Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat who is blocking a massive social welfare spending passage, said he would consider raising the cost of the measure from his proclaimed limit of $1.5 trillion to as high as $2.2 trillion in order to reach a compromise that can satisfy party lawmakers in both chambers. Manchin told reporters in the Capitol he won’t rule out a measure that costs between $1.9 trillion and $2.2 trillion, which is the range President Joe Biden recommended to House Democrats in a closed-door session last week. Last week, Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, announced he would...

White House press secretary Jen Psaki picked up where President Joe Biden left off Monday in hammering Senate Republicans for blocking Democratic efforts to raise the debt ceiling before the October 18 deadline. 'This is a period of time where we could easily solve this in the next two days, and easily do that through allowing Democrats to be the adults in the room, despite the fact that Republicans spent like drunken sailors for the last four years before President Biden took office,' Psaki said at the afternoon press briefing. Earlier, Biden lashed out at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell...

We're all gonna die—and it's all the Republicans' fault! With some slight exaggeration, that was CNN's message this morning regarding Republican reluctance to raise the debt limit. Mugging a petrified look [see screencap] New Day co-host John Berman opened the show by predicting nothing short of "the potential collapse of the U.S. economy," because "Republicans have voted against paying U.S. debts." Moments later, Berman fearmongered: "The week from hell could turn into the economic calamity from hell if the U.S. defaults on its debts, which Republicans, for now, have voted to let happen." CNN economics commentator Alexis Glick took the...

The battle over the federal debt ceiling that's currently being fought by government officials and legislators is yet another example of the political posturing that's so prevalent these days. On one side, you have Democrats, who believe that the debt ceiling should be increased automatically or removed altogether, no matter what level of debt Uncle Sam accumulates, and that it should be done with the support of Republicans. On the other side, you have Republicans, who occasionally remember that they are against big government spending, especially if they're in the minority when the debt ceiling needs to be raised. Consider...

Some of the biggest names in business virtually attended the annual Morgan Stanley Laguna conference last week and warned about the complex nature of soaring inflation. Much of the discussion was centered around the soaring cost of raw materials, labor, and logistical nightmares. Corporate leaders from 3M Company to Trane Technologies to General Electric Co., among others, all warned about increasing inflationary pressures, according to Bloomberg. 3M’s Chief CFO Monish Patolawala shocked attendees by calling inflation “unprecedented.” He said the impact of higher commodity prices and soaring freight prices would impact its 2021 earnings. Trane Technologies Plc’s CFO Chris Kuehn...

“We are not broke as a nation. We are not bankrupt. We can’t go bankrupt. We absolutely cannot go bankrupt because we have the power to create as much money as we need to spend to serve the American people,”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday warned the USA could hit its debt limit by next month, warning Congress that she will run out of maneuvering room.In a letter to leaders of Congress, Yellen said she can’t provide a specific date for when she’ll be not able to keep the federal government funded unless the chamber raises the debt limit. Should that happen, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, funding for Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicare will likely be halted.“Given this uncertainty, the Treasury Department is not able to provide a specific estimate of how long...

The Senate approved the framework of a $3.5 trillion budget plan in a key procedural vote on Wednesday morning, allowing the body to move towards a final vote on the issue.Senators voted to advance the framework 50-49 along party lines, with Senator Mike Rounds (R., S.D.) absent. The vote came just before 4 a.m. following a “vote-a-rama,” during which senators introduced amendments for largely symbolic votes designed to test the level of Senate support for various issues.The plan provides for universal pre-kindergarten, free two-year community college, tax incentives for clean-energy sources to fight climate change, and an expansion of Medicare...