What to know today
- SHUTDOWN STATUS: A bipartisan bill to end the government shutdown heads to the House after the Senate passed the measure last night with support from eight Democrats and the backing of President Donald Trump. The House could vote as soon as tomorrow, the 43rd day of the shutdown.
- SNAP BENEFITS: The Supreme Court this evening extended a freeze on a federal judge’s ruling that would require the Trump administration to fully fund the SNAP food program in November. That pause could be moot if the bill to reopen the government, which includes full SNAP benefits through September, is signed into law in the next couple of days.
- TRUMP APPEALS CARROLL VERDICT: Trump asked the Supreme Court to review a $5 million civil judgment that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
- UTAH REDISTRICTING: A Utah judge late last night rejected new congressional district lines drawn by Republican state lawmakers, instead approving a new map drawing a solidly Democratic seat with voters from Salt Lake City that’s likely to flip in next year’s midterms.
Trump says H-1B visas help 'bring in talent' that the U.S. lacks
Trump defended H-1B visas during part of a Fox News interview that aired tonight, even as his administration has moved to make the visas costlier for qualified workers from abroad to obtain.
Asked whether his administration would prioritize the visas, Trump said the U.S. has to "bring in talent."
When pressed by Fox News host Laura Ingraham about existing talent in the U.S., Trump responded: "No, you don't have — you don't have certain talents. And you have to — people have to learn."
Trump has at times offered contradictory remarks on immigration. While he often suggests that immigration has allowed "criminals" into the country, other times he has acknowledged the role it plays in economic growth and innovation.
Trump signed a proclamation in September requiring companies to pay a $100,000 fee to obtain H-1B worker visas in a move that marked a win for immigration hardliners on Capitol Hill, but that posed a costlier hurtle to tech executives seeking qualified workers from abroad.
JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon and other CEOs set to visit the White House tomorrow
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and other CEOs will visit the White House tomorrow for a dinner with Trump, a person familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The dinner would be the latest in a series of high-profile events that Trump has held with top business executives.
In September, he hosted a dinner that included Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
The White House said that discussion "centered on harnessing artificial intelligence to propel the U.S. to the forefront of global innovation."
To influence Trump on Colombia, Sen. Bernie Moreno brought a fake image of the country’s president
When Trump hosted Republican senators for lunch at the White House on Oct. 21, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, came prepared.
Moreno, who was born in Colombia, has become a key voice on policy involving the Latin American nation — and one that’s deeply critical of the current left-wing president, Gustavo Petro.
Two days before the lunch, Trump, at odds with Petro for months, posted on social media that Petro was “an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs” in Colombia. Trump said he was stopping all U.S. aid to the country and told reporters he would soon announce new tariffs on Colombia.
Moreno wanted to encourage Trump to take a more targeted approach — directly aimed at Petro. To do so, the senator brought along a document titled “The Trump Doctrine For Colombia and the Western Hemisphere.” In addition to five policy ideas, the one-page outline featured large images of Petro and Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, in orange prison jumpsuits. The images appear to be generated by artificial intelligence. NBC News obtained the memo from a person familiar with the episode.
Supreme Court extends temporary pause on $4 billion in SNAP payments for November
With a potential end to the government shutdown in sight, the Supreme Court tonight extended a freeze on a federal judge’s ruling that would require the Trump administration to fully fund the SNAP food program in November.
The decision means the government, for now, does not have to distribute about $4 billion in additional SNAP funding as required by Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge John McConnell. The Supreme Court block remains in place until midnight on Thursday.
The case would likely become moot if the shutdown ends, as the bipartisan bill to reopen the government would fully fund the SNAP program through September of next year. The House is expected to vote tomorrow on the Senate-passed measure to end the record-long shutdown.
Nearly 42 million people rely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps.
Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva to be sworn in tomorrow
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is scheduled to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva tomorrow — nearly two months after the Arizona Democrat won her late father’s seat in a special election.
Johnson has consistently said he would administer the oath of office to Grijalva when Democrats vote to reopen the government. The Senate passed a bipartisan measure to do just that last night, with the House expected to vote on the legislation tomorrow.
When Grijalva is sworn in, the House breakdown will be 219 Republicans to 214 Democrats.
Grijalva is expected to be the 218th signature on the discharge petition to force a House floor vote requiring the Justice Department to publicly release all the files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case. There is still an additional waiting period of seven legislative days before any of the signers of the petition can force a vote on it. The House speaker then has two legislative days before he must call up the measure for a vote on the floor.
Trump calls for a salary cap for NCAA sports. One already exists.
During a phone interview today on ESPN's "Pat McAfee Show," Trump suggested that "colleges are all going to go out of business, no matter how rich they are" unless "very powerful caps" are created to limit the salaries of collegiate athletes.
A type of salary cap already exists in the NCAA, however.
In June, a judge approved the landmark House settlement between the NCAA and Division I athletes that allows universities to share revenue gained from athletics and directly pay their athletes for the first time. Universities can disburse up to $20.5 million during the 2025-26 school year. That cap will increase by an estimated 4% annually over the lifespan of the decade-long deal.
The payments are on top of scholarships and other financial benefits the athletes can receive. Schools that have elected to pay athletes under the revenue-sharing cap have devised different models for dividing the payments. Of the $20.5 million this year, Texas Tech University projected sharing 74% with players on its football team. The University of Missouri, by comparison, has reportedly elected to spend a smaller percentage on football, while paying out more to its men's basketball and baseball teams.
Trump said he was concerned that the payouts would lead schools to eliminating "lesser sports."
“It is a very serious problem because even football, when they give quarterbacks $12 million, $13 million, $14 million, I read a couple of them, and all of a sudden you’re going to see it’s going to be out of control, and even rich colleges are going to go bust," Trump said.
House Rules Committee will meet tonight to set rule for floor debate on the bipartisan government funding bill
The House Rules Committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. to take up the Senate-passed funding package to reopen the government.
The rules panel is a necessary step before the legislation can make it to the House floor. The committee will create a rule that will dictate how floor debate goes tomorrow, including how long it takes.
Trump administration tells judge that CFPB will run out of funding early next year
The Justice Department today notified U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who oversaw the lawsuit on the dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, that the independent agency may be out of money as soon as early 2026.
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau anticipates exhausting its currently available funds in early 2026,” DOJ attorneys wrote. They cited an Office of Legal Counsel opinion out this week that says beyond Dec. 31, 2025, “there are no funds available from CFPB’s congressionally authorized source of funding.”
“Because the only lawful source of funding from the Federal Reserve has dried up, the proper method for additional funds is to request them from Congress pursuant to the Appropriations Cause, not to draw from the Federal Reserve without a congressional appropriation,” T. Elliot Gaiser of the Office of Legal Counsel wrote this week.
In light of the Office of Legal Counsel opinion, the DOJ writes, “the Acting Director of the Bureau anticipates preparing a report to the President and to congressional appropriations committees, as statutorily required, identifying the funding needs of the Bureau.”
“The Bureau does not know whether and the extent to which Congress will appropriate funding to pay the expenses of the Bureau,” the Justice Department added.
Trump lauds Department of Veterans Affairs' efforts to cut benefits backlog
Trump claimed in his remarks at Arlington National Cemetery today that his administration has made headway in addressing a yearslong backlog of veterans' benefit requests, saying the department has reduced unprocessed claims by half since he took office in January.
"That’s a big achievement, and Doug is going to get it down to zero," Trump said, referring to Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins.
Trump vowed to eliminate "100% of that backlog. We’re moving at that pace, and already we processed more than 3 million backlog claims," he said.
In August, the VA said that it had processed about 2.5 million claims this fiscal year and was "completing them 17.8% faster" than in fiscal 2024 despite what it said was a 10% uptick in claims.
Asked for more recent figures, VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz shared a graph that he said supports Trump's claim. Kasperowicz said there were 264,717 claims still not processed at the end of the Biden administration. While the graph shows that figure is down to 134,000, Kasperowicz said the graph lags the latest number, which he said is now less than 120,000.
USS Gerald R. Ford joins U.S. military operations against drug cartels
The aircraft carrier strike group that the Defense Department deployed as part of the administration's military actions against drug cartels has arrived in the Latin American region.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement today that the enhanced presence in the region "will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to move last month from the Mediterranean Sea to the Caribbean to support Trump's efforts to dismantle alleged drug-carrying operations.
The strike group's area of responsibility is known as SOUTHCOM, which encompasses Latin America south of Mexico, the waters next to Central and South America, and the Caribbean, according to the Pentagon.
