By:<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/jennifer-shutt/">Jennifer Shutt</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/ariana-figueroa/">Ariana Figueroa</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/shauneen-miranda/">Shauneen Miranda</a>

WASHINGTON — Congress has roughly two months to find bipartisan agreement to curb rising health insurance costs if lawmakers want to avoid another government shutdown.

That herculean task would be difficult in the best circumstances, but is much more challenging after lawmakers spent the last 43 days criticizing each other instead of building the types of trust that are usually needed for large deals. Democrats maintained they wanted to address skyrocketing premiums for individual health care plans, while Republicans insisted those talks had to occur when the government was open.

At the same time, congressional leaders will try to wrap up work on the nine full-year government funding bills that were supposed to become law before Oct. 1 and weren’t included in the package that reopened the government.&nbsp;

Congress must pass all of those bills or another stopgap measure before the new Jan. 30 deadline, regardless of how well or disastrous talks on a health care bill turn out.&nbsp;

The two-track negotiations will push party leaders to compromise on issues they’d rather not, especially as next year’s November midterm elections inch closer.&nbsp;

House Speaker Mike Johnson said during a Wednesday night press conference the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire at the end of the year are a “boondoggle” and that “Republicans would demand a lot of reforms” before agreeing to extend those in any way.&nbsp;

“We currently have 433 members of the House of Representatives. There’s a lot of opinions in this building. And on our side, certainly, a lot of opinions on how to fix health care and make it more affordable. I have to allow that process to play out,” Johnson, R-La., said.&nbsp;

While Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., made a commitment to hold a vote on a health care bill before the end of December to conclude the shutdown, Johnson has avoided giving a timeline for when he would bring any similar legislation to the floor.&nbsp;

President Donald Trump, aside from throwing insults at Democrats, largely stayed on the sidelines of the shutdown fight, though he suggested the funds used for the tax credits should in some way go directly to individuals instead of large insurance companies.

The shutdown highlighted the stark differences Republicans and Democrats hold on health care as prices for insurance continue to spike, forcing millions of Americans to choose between taking care of themselves and breaking their budgets, States Newsroom found in interviews with members of Congress.&nbsp;

GOP leaders held together throughout the funding lapse and didn’t negotiate on the expiring ACA marketplace tax credits, or anything else.&nbsp;

Now that it’s over, Republicans will need to put something forward.

Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said her sense is that Congress will “probably be in the same place on January 30th that we are now.”

“We have two parties here, two sides,” DeLauro said. “In the past … we’ve had serious negotiation back and forth, and that’s what we need to do, and that’s not happening.”

While Republicans have unified control of government, major legislation needs the support of at least 60 senators to advance in that chamber. Republicans hold 53 seats at the moment, meaning at least some Democrats must support a bill for it to pass.&nbsp;

DeLauro did not rule out another shutdown, saying Democrats plan to take the next few months “one day at a time,” while closely watching what Republicans are willing to do on the nine full-year appropriations bills and health care costs.&nbsp;

Maryland Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer, former House majority leader and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, said Republican leaders keeping that chamber in recess for nearly two months leading up to and during the shutdown significantly delayed work on the full-year government funding bills.&nbsp;

Hoyer said that scheduling decision was a clear “indication they’re not interested in solving the problem.”

“If they were, they would have had members here working on appropriation bills,” Hoyer said. “And the only way you’re going to ultimately solve this problem is to pass appropriation bills.”

Hoyer said the real question facing Congress now isn’t whether there is time to work out agreement on the remaining nine government spending bills, but whether there’s a will to make the types of compromises needed.&nbsp;

The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/government-reopens-after-43-days-trump-signs-bill-ending-record-shutdown" target="_blank">spending package that reopened the government</a>&nbsp;included three of the dozen full-year bills, funding the Agriculture Department, Food and Drug Administration, Legislative Branch, military construction projects and Department of Veterans Affairs.

The remaining appropriations bills will be considerably tougher to resolve, especially because the House and Senate have yet to agree on how much they want to spend across the thousands of programs. Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/trump-asks-congress-cut-163b-non-defense-spending-ax-dozens-programs" target="_blank">proposed major cutbacks</a>&nbsp;in multiple programs in his budget request earlier this year that Democrats have strongly resisted.

The Defense, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS-Education and State-Foreign Operations bills will be some of the more difficult to settle.&nbsp;

Congress could always lean on another stopgap spending bill to keep funding relatively flat for the departments and agencies not covered by a full-year bill before Jan. 30. But lawmakers will need bipartisan support to advance in the Senate.

Washington Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal, former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Republicans don’t seem to grasp how much Americans are struggling with the cost of living, including for health insurance and health care.&nbsp;

“My constituents are already telling me that they’re making that choice between having health insurance or having a house to live in, and they’re going to choose the house,” Jayapal said.&nbsp;

Whether or not a partial government shutdown begins in early 2026 will likely depend on whether Republican lawmakers from swing districts force bipartisanship on a health care bill.&nbsp;

“I really don’t know,” Jayapal said. “I think it depends on these vulnerable House Republicans, who are not going to be able to go back to their constituents without telling them that they’ve done something on health care.”

Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico said she wouldn’t be surprised if Congress is unable to strike a deal on government funding and winds up in a partial shutdown by February.&nbsp;

“Do I think that the Republicans have the political juice to get … the rest of their appropriation bills across the finish line and a health care deal? No,” Stansbury said.&nbsp;

She added that she hopes a handful of Republicans decide to join Democrats on the discharge petition bill that would force a floor vote on a bill to extend the ACA marketplace subsidies for three years.&nbsp;

“We gotta find a few brave Republicans who still have a backbone and some guts to stand up to this administration and actually care for their constituents,” Stansbury said.&nbsp;

But any bipartisan deal to extend those health care tax credits seems fraught, as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed Republicans as having “zero credibility on this issue.”

He pointed to Republicans trying several times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, including their last attempt in 2017, when GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and the late John McCain of Arizona crossed party lines to vote against repealing the 2010 law.

“There’s no evidence that they’re serious about extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries, of New York, said. “Republicans have zero interest in fixing the health care crisis that they’ve created.”

When Democrats controlled both chambers, temporary health care subsidies were originally passed as part of the COVID-19-era American Rescue Plan in 2021 for two years.&nbsp;

With Democrats still controlling both chambers, lawmakers approved the Inflation Reduction Act, the 2022 signature climate policy bill from the Biden administration, that extended those health care subsidies for three years, expiring at the end of December 2025.

The outcome of the just concluded shutdown is shaping some House Democrats’ views.

Virginia Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott said if there is a new shutdown come February, Senate Democrats will have to decide whether they’re going to “cave again, or at least engage in negotiations.”&nbsp;

“When the (Senate) Democrats say: ‘Our strategy wasn’t working,’ it wasn’t working because they assume you’re going to cave, which you just proved,” Scott told States Newsroom. “Their strategy worked — trying to get them to negotiate and talk to you doesn’t because they know you’re going to cave.”

Scott said “there’s no point in taking 41 days to cave,” pointing to the eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus who broke ranks&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-senate-advances-bill-end-record-breaking-government-shutdown" target="_blank">to advance</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-senate-bipartisan-vote-passes-bill-end-record-breaking-shutdown-house-next" target="_blank">later approve</a>&nbsp;the package to reopen the government.&nbsp;

“Why don’t you just cave right at the beginning, on February 2nd?” he said. “If the Republican strategy is: ‘We’re not going to negotiate at all because you’re going to cave,’ you have to show them that you’re not going to cave, then you can have a discussion.”

Scott said the same health care issues will still exist if nothing happens between now and the package’s Jan. 30 government funding deadline.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“By then, we’ll know that several million people don’t have health insurance, we’ll know that rural hospitals are beginning to suffer,” Scott said.&nbsp;

Delaware Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride said that “from today through November (2026) and after, we will continue to be talking about health care, to be fighting for health care.”

“I think what you’ve seen over the last several months, you will continue to see from us through November and then, God willing, once we’re in a majority, we’ll do all that we can to reverse these cuts and restore care and expand access to it,” she said.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/11/1763246330614.png" alt="Image Office of&nbsp; U.S. Senate Democrat Leade" />
 <figcaption>Image Office of&nbsp; U.S. Senate Democrat Leade</figcaption>
 </figure>By:<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/jennifer-shutt/">Jennifer Shutt</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/ariana-figueroa/">Ariana Figueroa</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/shauneen-miranda/">Shauneen Miranda</a>WASHINGTON — Congress has roughly two months to find bipartisan agreement to curb rising health insurance costs if lawmakers want to avoid another government shutdown.That herculean task would be difficult in the best circumstances, but is much more challenging after lawmakers spent the last 43 days criticizing each other instead of building the types of trust that are usually needed for large deals. Democrats maintained they wanted to address skyrocketing premiums for individual health care plans, while Republicans insisted those talks had to occur when the government was open.At the same time, congressional leaders will try to wrap up work on the nine full-year government funding bills that were supposed to become law before Oct. 1 and weren’t included in the package that reopened the government.&nbsp;Congress must pass all of those bills or another stopgap measure before the new Jan. 30 deadline, regardless of how well or disastrous talks on a health care bill turn out.&nbsp;The two-track negotiations will push party leaders to compromise on issues they’d rather not, especially as next year’s November midterm elections inch closer.&nbsp;Early signs were not good.House Speaker Mike Johnson said during a Wednesday night press conference the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire at the end of the year are a “boondoggle” and that “Republicans would demand a lot of reforms” before agreeing to extend those in any way.&nbsp;“We currently have 433 members of the House of Representatives. There’s a lot of opinions in this building. And on our side, certainly, a lot of opinions on how to fix health care and make it more affordable. I have to allow that process to play out,” Johnson, R-La., said.&nbsp;While Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., made a commitment to hold a vote on a health care bill before the end of December to conclude the shutdown, Johnson has avoided giving a timeline for when he would bring any similar legislation to the floor.&nbsp;President Donald Trump, aside from throwing insults at Democrats, largely stayed on the sidelines of the shutdown fight, though he suggested the funds used for the tax credits should in some way go directly to individuals instead of large insurance companies.<h2>Pessimism over progress</h2>The shutdown highlighted the stark differences Republicans and Democrats hold on health care as prices for insurance continue to spike, forcing millions of Americans to choose between taking care of themselves and breaking their budgets, States Newsroom found in interviews with members of Congress.&nbsp;GOP leaders held together throughout the funding lapse and didn’t negotiate on the expiring ACA marketplace tax credits, or anything else.&nbsp;Now that it’s over, Republicans will need to put something forward.Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said her sense is that Congress will “probably be in the same place on January 30th that we are now.”“We have two parties here, two sides,” DeLauro said. “In the past … we’ve had serious negotiation back and forth, and that’s what we need to do, and that’s not happening.”While Republicans have unified control of government, major legislation needs the support of at least 60 senators to advance in that chamber. Republicans hold 53 seats at the moment, meaning at least some Democrats must support a bill for it to pass.&nbsp;DeLauro did not rule out another shutdown, saying Democrats plan to take the next few months “one day at a time,” while closely watching what Republicans are willing to do on the nine full-year appropriations bills and health care costs.&nbsp;Maryland Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer, former House majority leader and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, said Republican leaders keeping that chamber in recess for nearly two months leading up to and during the shutdown significantly delayed work on the full-year government funding bills.&nbsp;Hoyer said that scheduling decision was a clear “indication they’re not interested in solving the problem.”“If they were, they would have had members here working on appropriation bills,” Hoyer said. “And the only way you’re going to ultimately solve this problem is to pass appropriation bills.”Hoyer said the real question facing Congress now isn’t whether there is time to work out agreement on the remaining nine government spending bills, but whether there’s a will to make the types of compromises needed.&nbsp;<h2>Untangling spending bills</h2>The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/government-reopens-after-43-days-trump-signs-bill-ending-record-shutdown" target="_blank">spending package that reopened the government</a>&nbsp;included three of the dozen full-year bills, funding the Agriculture Department, Food and Drug Administration, Legislative Branch, military construction projects and Department of Veterans Affairs.The remaining appropriations bills will be considerably tougher to resolve, especially because the House and Senate have yet to agree on how much they want to spend across the thousands of programs. Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/trump-asks-congress-cut-163b-non-defense-spending-ax-dozens-programs" target="_blank">proposed major cutbacks</a>&nbsp;in multiple programs in his budget request earlier this year that Democrats have strongly resisted.The Defense, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS-Education and State-Foreign Operations bills will be some of the more difficult to settle.&nbsp;Congress could always lean on another stopgap spending bill to keep funding relatively flat for the departments and agencies not covered by a full-year bill before Jan. 30. But lawmakers will need bipartisan support to advance in the Senate.Washington Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal, former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Republicans don’t seem to grasp how much Americans are struggling with the cost of living, including for health insurance and health care.&nbsp;“My constituents are already telling me that they’re making that choice between having health insurance or having a house to live in, and they’re going to choose the house,” Jayapal said.&nbsp;Whether or not a partial government shutdown begins in early 2026 will likely depend on whether Republican lawmakers from swing districts force bipartisanship on a health care bill.&nbsp;“I really don’t know,” Jayapal said. “I think it depends on these vulnerable House Republicans, who are not going to be able to go back to their constituents without telling them that they’ve done something on health care.”<h2>Political juice and a backbone</h2>Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico said she wouldn’t be surprised if Congress is unable to strike a deal on government funding and winds up in a partial shutdown by February.&nbsp;“Do I think that the Republicans have the political juice to get … the rest of their appropriation bills across the finish line and a health care deal? No,” Stansbury said.&nbsp;She added that she hopes a handful of Republicans decide to join Democrats on the discharge petition bill that would force a floor vote on a bill to extend the ACA marketplace subsidies for three years.&nbsp;“We gotta find a few brave Republicans who still have a backbone and some guts to stand up to this administration and actually care for their constituents,” Stansbury said.&nbsp;But any bipartisan deal to extend those health care tax credits seems fraught, as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed Republicans as having “zero credibility on this issue.”He pointed to Republicans trying several times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, including their last attempt in 2017, when GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and the late John McCain of Arizona crossed party lines to vote against repealing the 2010 law.“There’s no evidence that they’re serious about extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries, of New York, said. “Republicans have zero interest in fixing the health care crisis that they’ve created.”<h2>‘No point in taking 41 days to cave’</h2>When Democrats controlled both chambers, temporary health care subsidies were originally passed as part of the COVID-19-era American Rescue Plan in 2021 for two years.&nbsp;With Democrats still controlling both chambers, lawmakers approved the Inflation Reduction Act, the 2022 signature climate policy bill from the Biden administration, that extended those health care subsidies for three years, expiring at the end of December 2025.The outcome of the just concluded shutdown is shaping some House Democrats’ views.Virginia Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott said if there is a new shutdown come February, Senate Democrats will have to decide whether they’re going to “cave again, or at least engage in negotiations.”&nbsp;“When the (Senate) Democrats say: ‘Our strategy wasn’t working,’ it wasn’t working because they assume you’re going to cave, which you just proved,” Scott told States Newsroom. “Their strategy worked — trying to get them to negotiate and talk to you doesn’t because they know you’re going to cave.”Scott said “there’s no point in taking 41 days to cave,” pointing to the eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus who broke ranks&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-senate-advances-bill-end-record-breaking-government-shutdown" target="_blank">to advance</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-senate-bipartisan-vote-passes-bill-end-record-breaking-shutdown-house-next" target="_blank">later approve</a>&nbsp;the package to reopen the government.&nbsp;“Why don’t you just cave right at the beginning, on February 2nd?” he said. “If the Republican strategy is: ‘We’re not going to negotiate at all because you’re going to cave,’ you have to show them that you’re not going to cave, then you can have a discussion.”Scott said the same health care issues will still exist if nothing happens between now and the package’s Jan. 30 government funding deadline.&nbsp;&nbsp;“By then, we’ll know that several million people don’t have health insurance, we’ll know that rural hospitals are beginning to suffer,” Scott said.&nbsp;Delaware Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride said that “from today through November (2026) and after, we will continue to be talking about health care, to be fighting for health care.”“I think what you’ve seen over the last several months, you will continue to see from us through November and then, God willing, once we’re in a majority, we’ll do all that we can to reverse these cuts and restore care and expand access to it,” she said.&nbsp;

As health costs spike, a sour and divided Congress escapes one shutdown to face another

After growing since the end of June, the Mega Millions® jackpot was won for just the fifth time this year on Friday night. 

A single ticket sold in Georgia matched all six numbers in the November 14 drawing – the white balls 1, 8, 11, 12 and 57, plus the gold Mega Ball 7 – to win the estimated $980 million prize ($452.2 million cash),&nbsp; according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. 

 It’s by far the largest prize ever won in the month of November, and the eighth largest jackpot in the history of the game.&nbsp;

Georgia is one of the founding members of Mega Millions, and this is the largest-ever Mega Millions jackpot won in the state, and its first since November 2016.“$980 million is the largest jackpot that’s been won since the Mega Millions game changed back in April,” said Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium. 

“Congratulations to our big winner from Georgia and to all our players who are winning more than ever with this new version of the game.”Indeed, in the 40 drawings since the jackpot was last won at $348 million in Virginia on June 27 – the most drawings in a single jackpot run in the game’s history – there were almost 14.3 million winning tickets at all prize levels. With the new greatly-enhanced prize values, total non-jackpot prizes won were nearly $343.4 million. 

These include 21 second-tier prizes of $2 million or more (won in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia).&nbsp;Also in this jackpot run, a total of 347 third-tier prizes of $20,000 to $100,000 were won in 40 different jurisdictions across the country: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

In the November 14 drawing alone, there were 1,112,941 winning tickets at all prize levels, plus the single jackpot-winning ticket. One ticket, sold in Michigan, matched the five white balls for the second-tier prize; with the 3X multiplier, it is worth $3 million. 

Forty-eight tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball to win the game’s third-tier prize: 22 at 2X (two each in California, Florida, Missouri, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia, plus one each in Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee and Wyoming), 17 at 3X (two each in Georgia, Maryland and Texas, and one each in California, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia), seven at 4X (Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New York and Texas), and two at 10X (New York and Pennsylvania).&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.megamillions.com/Winning-Numbers.aspx">Find complete drawing results here.</a>

<a href="https://www.megamillions.com/Winning-Numbers.aspx"></a>Due to California’s pari-mutuel rules, all prizes in that state will vary from the standard values.The jackpot is the largest won since last December’s whopping $1.269 billion prize awarded in California. Four earlier jackpots were won this year; in addition to the Virginia win on June 27, jackpots were awarded in Ohio ($112 million on April 18), Illinois ($349 million on March 25), and Arizona ($112 million on January 17).<a href="https://www.megamillions.com/About/Jackpot-History.aspx">See the complete Mega Millions jackpot history.</a>The jackpot for the next drawing on Tuesday, November 18, resets to its new starting value of $50 million ($23.1 million cash). This starting jackpot level is another benefit of the game change.

After growing since the end of June, the Mega Millions® jackpot was won for just the fifth time this year on Friday night. A single ticket sold in Georgia matched all six numbers in the November 14 drawing – the white balls 1, 8, 11, 12 and 57, plus the gold Mega Ball 7 – to win the estimated $980 million prize ($452.2 million cash),&nbsp; according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. It’s by far the largest prize ever won in the month of November, and the eighth largest jackpot in the history of the game.&nbsp;Georgia is one of the founding members of Mega Millions, and this is the largest-ever Mega Millions jackpot won in the state, and its first since November 2016.“$980 million is the largest jackpot that’s been won since the Mega Millions game changed back in April,” said Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium. “Congratulations to our big winner from Georgia and to all our players who are winning more than ever with this new version of the game.”Indeed, in the 40 drawings since the jackpot was last won at $348 million in Virginia on June 27 – the most drawings in a single jackpot run in the game’s history – there were almost 14.3 million winning tickets at all prize levels. With the new greatly-enhanced prize values, total non-jackpot prizes won were nearly $343.4 million. These include 21 second-tier prizes of $2 million or more (won in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia).&nbsp;Also in this jackpot run, a total of 347 third-tier prizes of $20,000 to $100,000 were won in 40 different jurisdictions across the country: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.In the November 14 drawing alone, there were 1,112,941 winning tickets at all prize levels, plus the single jackpot-winning ticket. One ticket, sold in Michigan, matched the five white balls for the second-tier prize; with the 3X multiplier, it is worth $3 million. Forty-eight tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball to win the game’s third-tier prize: 22 at 2X (two each in California, Florida, Missouri, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia, plus one each in Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee and Wyoming), 17 at 3X (two each in Georgia, Maryland and Texas, and one each in California, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia), seven at 4X (Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New York and Texas), and two at 10X (New York and Pennsylvania).&nbsp;<a href="https://www.megamillions.com/Winning-Numbers.aspx">Find complete drawing results here.</a><a href="https://www.megamillions.com/Winning-Numbers.aspx"></a>Due to California’s pari-mutuel rules, all prizes in that state will vary from the standard values.The jackpot is the largest won since last December’s whopping $1.269 billion prize awarded in California. Four earlier jackpots were won this year; in addition to the Virginia win on June 27, jackpots were awarded in Ohio ($112 million on April 18), Illinois ($349 million on March 25), and Arizona ($112 million on January 17).<a href="https://www.megamillions.com/About/Jackpot-History.aspx">See the complete Mega Millions jackpot history.</a>The jackpot for the next drawing on Tuesday, November 18, resets to its new starting value of $50 million ($23.1 million cash). This starting jackpot level is another benefit of the game change.

Single ticket wins Mega Millions lottery jackpot of nearly a billion dollars

The U.S. military is reported another deadly strike on a drug boat in the Caribbean.

On Nov. 10, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization, according to the U.S. Southern Command.

 Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. 4 male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed. The vessel was trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea and was struck in international waters

This the U.S. military 20th strike on a boat accused of transporting drugs.

The U.S. military is reported another deadly strike on a drug boat in the Caribbean.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">On Nov. 10, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling,… <a href="https://t.co/eptSZvVF6x">pic.twitter.com/eptSZvVF6x</a>&mdash; U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/Southcom/status/1989457355214409783?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>On Nov. 10, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization, according to the U.S. Southern Command. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. 4 male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed. The vessel was trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea and was struck in international watersThis the U.S. military 20th strike on a boat accused of transporting drugs.

US. conducts another deadly strike on alleged drug-running boat

<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">First Lady Meliania Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/FLOTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FLOTUS</a>: &quot;Fostering the Future, a Be Best initiative, provides individuals from the foster care community with technology-based scholarships to attend colleges and universities&quot; <a href="https://t.co/dv4Z7DoJCN">pic.twitter.com/dv4Z7DoJCN</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1989055916239380642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump signs executive order on supporting older youths transitioning out of foster care. Full video here: <a href="https://t.co/Np7lk6ZRu4">https://t.co/Np7lk6ZRu4</a> <a href="https://t.co/EhNFxxZoLM">pic.twitter.com/EhNFxxZoLM</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1989055991342608503?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/FLOTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FLOTUS</a> sign an Executive Order, Fostering the Future, to expand access to mentorships, scholarships, technology, and workforce training for youth who have experienced foster care ❤️ <a href="https://t.co/s1HPprvsgL">pic.twitter.com/s1HPprvsgL</a>&mdash; Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) <a href="https://twitter.com/MargoMartin47/status/1989060751407849947?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>

First lady launches new effort to support foster care children

By:<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/author/jacob-fischler/">Jacob Fischler</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/author/ashley-murray/">Ashley Murray</a>

WASHINGTON — The record 43-day government shutdown that ended Wednesday night scrambled air travel, interrupted food assistance and forced federal workers to go without a paycheck for weeks.

It also cost the U.S. economy about $15 billion per week,&nbsp;White House Council of Economic Advisers Director Kevin Hassett told reporters Thursday.&nbsp;&nbsp;

As the government began to reopen Thursday, officials were working to untangle those issues and others.

But in some areas, the processes for getting things back to normal after such a lengthy shutdown will also take time.&nbsp;

President Donald Trump on Wednesday night&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/health-costs-spike-sour-and-divided-congress-escapes-one-shutdown-face-another" target="_blank">signed a package</a>&nbsp;passed by Congress reopening the government, which closed on Oct. 1 after lawmakers failed to pass a stopgap spending bill.

Flights back on schedule by Thanksgiving?

The Federal Aviation Administration’s shutdown plan, announced last week by Administrator Bryan Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, was to reduce flights to 40 major airports by 10%.&nbsp;

As of Thursday afternoon, the FAA had not lifted the order restricting flights. But the agency did stop ramping up the percentage of those affected.&nbsp;

The FAA started by asking airlines to cancel 4% of flights Nov. 7. A Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/us-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-faa-administrator-bryan-bedford-freeze-flight" target="_blank">order</a>&nbsp;halted the rate at 6%.

That was enough to cause major disruptions to travel, and it remained unclear Thursday how long it would take to resume normal operations.&nbsp;

In a statement, Airlines for America, the trade group representing the nation’s commercial air carriers, welcomed the end of the shutdown but was vague about how much longer air travelers would see disruptions. The statement noted the upcoming holiday as a possible milestone.&nbsp;

“When the FAA gives airlines clearance to return to full capacity, our crews will work quickly to ramp up operations especially with Thanksgiving holiday travel beginning next week,” the group’s statement said.&nbsp;

The FAA and Transportation Department did not return messages seeking updates Thursday.The reduction in flights was meant to ease pressure on air traffic controllers, who worked through the shutdown without pay.&nbsp;

Many missed work as they pursued short-term jobs in other industries. Duffy said that left the controllers on the job overstressed and possibly prone to costly mistakes.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sought to reward other federal workers at airports, those employed by her department’s Transportation Security Administration, with $10,000 bonuses if they maintained high attendance records during the shutdown.

Noem handed out checks to TSA workers in Houston on Thursday and said more could come.&nbsp;

Federal workers return, with back pay on the way

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers who had been furloughed returned to the office Thursday and those who had been working without pay will continue their duties knowing their next paycheck should be on time.&nbsp;

All workers will receive back pay for the shutdown, in accordance with a 2019&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/24/text" target="_blank">law</a>&nbsp;that states employees “shall be paid for such work, at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”

A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget said the White House has urged agencies to get back pay to employees “expeditiously and accurately.”

Agencies will need to submit time and attendance files, and payroll processors can then issue checks. According to the spokesperson, agencies have different pay schedules and payroll processors, and “discrepancies in timing and pay periods are a result of that.”

The office estimates that workers will receive a “supercheck” for the pay period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1 on the following dates:

Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a statement Wednesday that federal workers across all agencies “should not have to wait another minute longer for the paychecks they lost during the longest government shutdown in history.”&nbsp;

“The anxiety has been devastating as they cut back on spending, ran up credit card debt, took out emergency loans, filed for unemployment, found temporary side jobs, stood in line for food assistance, skipped filling prescriptions and worried about the future. Federal employees should receive the six weeks of back pay they are owed immediately upon the reopening of the federal government,” said Greenwald.&nbsp;

The union represents workers at 38 federal agencies and offices.

States Newsroom&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/shutdown-double-whammy-snap-food-benefits-ending-and-federal-workers-go-unpaid" target="_blank">spoke</a>&nbsp;to several furloughed federal workers who attended a special food distribution event during the shutdown.

The American Federation of Government Employees, one of multiple unions that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/judge-blocks-trump-shutdown-layoffs-citing-political-retribution" target="_blank">sued</a>&nbsp;the Trump administration over layoffs during the shutdown, said its members were used “as leverage to advance political priorities,” according to a statement issued Tuesday by the union’s national president, Everett Kelley.

The AFGE, which according to the union represents roughly 820,000 federal workers, did not immediately respond for comment Thursday.

The shutdown-ending deal reinstated jobs for fired federal employees and prohibits any reductions in force by the administration until Jan. 30.

A statement released Thursday by a group of federal workers across agencies struck a different tone on the shutdown and praised the 40 senators and 209 representatives who voted against the temporary spending bill deal.

“The fight mattered. It changed the conversation. More members of the American public now understand that Trump is shredding the Constitution,” according to the statement issued by the Civil Servants Coalition.

The coalition also noted, “Even though the government is reopening, none of us will be able to fully deliver our agency’s missions. Our work has been exploited and dismantled since January through harmful policies and illegal purges of critical staff.”

The group emailed the statement as a PDF document to an unknown number of government workers and urged them to “channel that frustration toward action” by contacting their representatives.

The government reopening ended&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/shutdown-tug-war-over-snap-benefits-timeline" target="_blank">a drawn-out saga</a>&nbsp;over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps 42 million people afford groceries.&nbsp;

The U.S.Department of Agriculture told states in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/benefit-issuance-nov13" target="_blank">Thursday memo</a>&nbsp;they “must take immediate steps to ensure households receive their full November allotments promptly.”

The guidance also noted that states should prepare for another shutdown as soon as next October by upgrading systems so that they could allow for partial payments.&nbsp;

A key point of dispute between the administration and those seeking SNAP benefits was the lengthy time the administration said it would take to fund partial benefits.&nbsp;

A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/trump-administration-mostly-pay-full-snap-benefits-within-24-hours-shutdown-end" target="_blank">Wednesday evening statement</a>&nbsp;from a department spokesperson said full benefits would be disbursed in most states by Thursday night.&nbsp;

Lauren Kallins, a senior legislative director for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said Thursday&nbsp;“states are all working hard to resume full benefits.”

&nbsp;“But there will likely be logistical challenges, depending on a state’s system’s capabilities and whether the state had already issued partial benefits, that may impact how quickly a state is able to push out” benefits, she wrote.&nbsp;

The program, which is funded by the federal government and administered by states, sends monthly payments on a rolling basis.&nbsp;

That means that the day of the month each household receives its allotment varies. Households that usually receive benefits mid-month or later should see no interruption.&nbsp;

But many of the program’s beneficiaries receive their payments earlier in the month, meaning that, depending on their state, they may have missed their November payments.&nbsp;

Some states, including Democrat-run Wisconsin, Oregon and Michigan, began paying full benefits last week after a Rhode Island federal judge ordered the administration to release full November payments and the department issued guidance to states to do so.

The administration then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause enforcement of the Rhode Island judge’s order and reversed its guidance to states, telling them to “immediately undo” efforts to pay out full November benefits.

The Department of Justice dropped its Supreme Court case Thursday.&nbsp;

“Because the underlying dispute here is now moot, the government withdraws its November 7 stay application in this Court,” U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25A539/384355/20251113113250755_25A539%20Rhode%20Island%20-%20Letter.pdf" target="_blank">wrote</a>&nbsp;to the high court.

In the trial court, the administration cited the USDA guidance and said it would discuss the future of the litigation with the coalition of cities and nonprofit groups that brought the suit.&nbsp;

Tourists in the nation’s capital have been shut out of the Smithsonian Institution’s 17 free museums and zoo for most of the federal shutdown.

The institution on Friday will open the National Museum of American History, the National Air and Space Museum and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the Air and Space Museum located at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, according to a message posted on the Smithsonian’s website.

All other museums and the National Zoo will open on a “rolling basis” by Nov. 17.

Multiple public-facing agencies, including the National Park Service and Internal Revenue Service, did not respond to States Newsroom’s requests for reopening information.

National parks were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/national-parks-public-lands-feared-risk-long-term-harm-shutdown-drags" target="_blank">closed or partially closed&nbsp;</a>during the shutdown.

Several IRS services were reduced or altogether cut as the funding lapse dragged on. Those disruptions included limited IRS telephone customer service operations and the closure of in-person Taxpayer Assistance Centers.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/11/1762445699793.png" alt="Photo Frontier Airlines" />
 <figcaption>Photo Frontier Airlines</figcaption>
 </figure>By:<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/author/jacob-fischler/">Jacob Fischler</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/author/ashley-murray/">Ashley Murray</a>WASHINGTON — The record 43-day government shutdown that ended Wednesday night scrambled air travel, interrupted food assistance and forced federal workers to go without a paycheck for weeks.It also cost the U.S. economy about $15 billion per week,&nbsp;White House Council of Economic Advisers Director Kevin Hassett told reporters Thursday.&nbsp;&nbsp;As the government began to reopen Thursday, officials were working to untangle those issues and others.But in some areas, the processes for getting things back to normal after such a lengthy shutdown will also take time.&nbsp;President Donald Trump on Wednesday night&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/health-costs-spike-sour-and-divided-congress-escapes-one-shutdown-face-another" target="_blank">signed a package</a>&nbsp;passed by Congress reopening the government, which closed on Oct. 1 after lawmakers failed to pass a stopgap spending bill.<h2>Flights back on schedule by Thanksgiving?</h2>The Federal Aviation Administration’s shutdown plan, announced last week by Administrator Bryan Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, was to reduce flights to 40 major airports by 10%.&nbsp;As of Thursday afternoon, the FAA had not lifted the order restricting flights. But the agency did stop ramping up the percentage of those affected.&nbsp;The FAA started by asking airlines to cancel 4% of flights Nov. 7. A Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/us-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-faa-administrator-bryan-bedford-freeze-flight" target="_blank">order</a>&nbsp;halted the rate at 6%.That was enough to cause major disruptions to travel, and it remained unclear Thursday how long it would take to resume normal operations.&nbsp;In a statement, Airlines for America, the trade group representing the nation’s commercial air carriers, welcomed the end of the shutdown but was vague about how much longer air travelers would see disruptions. The statement noted the upcoming holiday as a possible milestone.&nbsp;“When the FAA gives airlines clearance to return to full capacity, our crews will work quickly to ramp up operations especially with Thanksgiving holiday travel beginning next week,” the group’s statement said.&nbsp;The FAA and Transportation Department did not return messages seeking updates Thursday.The reduction in flights was meant to ease pressure on air traffic controllers, who worked through the shutdown without pay.&nbsp;Many missed work as they pursued short-term jobs in other industries. Duffy said that left the controllers on the job overstressed and possibly prone to costly mistakes.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sought to reward other federal workers at airports, those employed by her department’s Transportation Security Administration, with $10,000 bonuses if they maintained high attendance records during the shutdown.Noem handed out checks to TSA workers in Houston on Thursday and said more could come.&nbsp;<h2>Federal workers return, with back pay on the way</h2>Hundreds of thousands of federal workers who had been furloughed returned to the office Thursday and those who had been working without pay will continue their duties knowing their next paycheck should be on time.&nbsp;All workers will receive back pay for the shutdown, in accordance with a 2019&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/24/text" target="_blank">law</a>&nbsp;that states employees “shall be paid for such work, at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget said the White House has urged agencies to get back pay to employees “expeditiously and accurately.”Agencies will need to submit time and attendance files, and payroll processors can then issue checks. According to the spokesperson, agencies have different pay schedules and payroll processors, and “discrepancies in timing and pay periods are a result of that.”The office estimates that workers will receive a “supercheck” for the pay period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1 on the following dates:Nov. 15<ul>
 <li>General Services Administration</li><li>Office of Personnel Management</li>
 </ul>Nov. 16<ul>
 <li>Departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and Defense</li>
 </ul>Nov. 17<ul>
 <li>Departments of Education, State, Interior and Transportation</li><li>Environmental Protection Agency</li><li>NASA</li><li>National Science Foundation</li><li>Nuclear Regulatory Commission</li><li>Social Security Administration</li>
 </ul>Nov. 19<ul>
 <li>Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor and Treasury</li><li>Small Business Administration</li>
 </ul>Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a statement Wednesday that federal workers across all agencies “should not have to wait another minute longer for the paychecks they lost during the longest government shutdown in history.”&nbsp;“The anxiety has been devastating as they cut back on spending, ran up credit card debt, took out emergency loans, filed for unemployment, found temporary side jobs, stood in line for food assistance, skipped filling prescriptions and worried about the future. Federal employees should receive the six weeks of back pay they are owed immediately upon the reopening of the federal government,” said Greenwald.&nbsp;The union represents workers at 38 federal agencies and offices.States Newsroom&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/shutdown-double-whammy-snap-food-benefits-ending-and-federal-workers-go-unpaid" target="_blank">spoke</a>&nbsp;to several furloughed federal workers who attended a special food distribution event during the shutdown.The American Federation of Government Employees, one of multiple unions that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/judge-blocks-trump-shutdown-layoffs-citing-political-retribution" target="_blank">sued</a>&nbsp;the Trump administration over layoffs during the shutdown, said its members were used “as leverage to advance political priorities,” according to a statement issued Tuesday by the union’s national president, Everett Kelley.The AFGE, which according to the union represents roughly 820,000 federal workers, did not immediately respond for comment Thursday.The shutdown-ending deal reinstated jobs for fired federal employees and prohibits any reductions in force by the administration until Jan. 30.<h2>Federal workers speak out</h2>A statement released Thursday by a group of federal workers across agencies struck a different tone on the shutdown and praised the 40 senators and 209 representatives who voted against the temporary spending bill deal.“The fight mattered. It changed the conversation. More members of the American public now understand that Trump is shredding the Constitution,” according to the statement issued by the Civil Servants Coalition.The coalition also noted, “Even though the government is reopening, none of us will be able to fully deliver our agency’s missions. Our work has been exploited and dismantled since January through harmful policies and illegal purges of critical staff.”The group emailed the statement as a PDF document to an unknown number of government workers and urged them to “channel that frustration toward action” by contacting their representatives.<h2>SNAP saga concludes</h2>The government reopening ended&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/shutdown-tug-war-over-snap-benefits-timeline" target="_blank">a drawn-out saga</a>&nbsp;over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps 42 million people afford groceries.&nbsp;The U.S.Department of Agriculture told states in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/benefit-issuance-nov13" target="_blank">Thursday memo</a>&nbsp;they “must take immediate steps to ensure households receive their full November allotments promptly.”The guidance also noted that states should prepare for another shutdown as soon as next October by upgrading systems so that they could allow for partial payments.&nbsp;A key point of dispute between the administration and those seeking SNAP benefits was the lengthy time the administration said it would take to fund partial benefits.&nbsp;A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/trump-administration-mostly-pay-full-snap-benefits-within-24-hours-shutdown-end" target="_blank">Wednesday evening statement</a>&nbsp;from a department spokesperson said full benefits would be disbursed in most states by Thursday night.&nbsp;Lauren Kallins, a senior legislative director for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said Thursday&nbsp;“states are all working hard to resume full benefits.”&nbsp;“But there will likely be logistical challenges, depending on a state’s system’s capabilities and whether the state had already issued partial benefits, that may impact how quickly a state is able to push out” benefits, she wrote.&nbsp;The program, which is funded by the federal government and administered by states, sends monthly payments on a rolling basis.&nbsp;That means that the day of the month each household receives its allotment varies. Households that usually receive benefits mid-month or later should see no interruption.&nbsp;But many of the program’s beneficiaries receive their payments earlier in the month, meaning that, depending on their state, they may have missed their November payments.&nbsp;Some states, including Democrat-run Wisconsin, Oregon and Michigan, began paying full benefits last week after a Rhode Island federal judge ordered the administration to release full November payments and the department issued guidance to states to do so.The administration then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause enforcement of the Rhode Island judge’s order and reversed its guidance to states, telling them to “immediately undo” efforts to pay out full November benefits.The Department of Justice dropped its Supreme Court case Thursday.&nbsp;“Because the underlying dispute here is now moot, the government withdraws its November 7 stay application in this Court,” U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25A539/384355/20251113113250755_25A539%20Rhode%20Island%20-%20Letter.pdf" target="_blank">wrote</a>&nbsp;to the high court.In the trial court, the administration cited the USDA guidance and said it would discuss the future of the litigation with the coalition of cities and nonprofit groups that brought the suit.&nbsp;<h2>Capital area tourist attractions reopen</h2>Tourists in the nation’s capital have been shut out of the Smithsonian Institution’s 17 free museums and zoo for most of the federal shutdown.The institution on Friday will open the National Museum of American History, the National Air and Space Museum and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the Air and Space Museum located at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, according to a message posted on the Smithsonian’s website.All other museums and the National Zoo will open on a “rolling basis” by Nov. 17.Multiple public-facing agencies, including the National Park Service and Internal Revenue Service, did not respond to States Newsroom’s requests for reopening information.National parks were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/national-parks-public-lands-feared-risk-long-term-harm-shutdown-drags" target="_blank">closed or partially closed&nbsp;</a>during the shutdown.Several IRS services were reduced or altogether cut as the funding lapse dragged on. Those disruptions included limited IRS telephone customer service operations and the closure of in-person Taxpayer Assistance Centers.

Air travel, SNAP benefits, back pay at issue as federal government slowly reopens

By:<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/author/ebamer/">Erin Bamer</a> <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

LINCOLN — With the federal government now re-opened, Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services has resumed distribution of food assistance.

DHHS announced Thursday that it had distributed “partial” Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — or SNAP — to Nebraska participants for November. The maximum allotment per household is 65% of the maximum monthly allotment, which could be scaled down based on income, according to the department’s website.

Federally funded SNAP benefits were in limbo during the 43-day government shutdown that came to a close Wednesday after President Donald Trump signed a resolution funding the government through Jan. 30. Federal officials claimed that roughly half of November’s SNAP benefits were still being distributed, but the timeline of that distribution was murky.

The shutdown, which started when Congress failed to pass annual spending laws by Oct. 1, left SNAP without any appropriated funding for November and beyond. A number of lawsuits left the nature of the payments unclear. In Nebraska, about 150,000 low-income and eligible participants, including children, participate in SNAP.

Gov. Jim Pillen made it clear at multiple points during the shutdown that the state would not fund Nebraska’s SNAP program in the meantime.

“Nobody’s going to go hungry,” Pillen said at a Nov. 6 news conference. “We have extraordinary services, from food pantries to engage churches and services across the state.”

DHHS Economic Assistance Director Shannon Grotrian said soon after the shutdown ended that department officials began talks with federal officials to reestablish the benefits.

“After guidance was received from the USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] authorizing partial issuances, the team immediately worked to ensure these payments were issued as soon as possible,” Grotrian said.

Statewide advocacy group Nebraska Appleseed criticized the Trump administration for not funding SNAP during the shutdown.

In a separate press release Wednesday, Eric Savaiano, Nebraska Appleseed’s Food and Nutrition Access Program Manager, claimed the administration could have used its transfer authority to keep the program running.

“Food should not be used as a political tool, and we are glad this unnecessary food crisis is over for now,” Savaiano said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761944916334.png" alt="Post photo" />
 <figcaption>Post photo</figcaption>
 </figure>By:<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/author/ebamer/">Erin Bamer</a> <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN — With the federal government now re-opened, Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services has resumed distribution of food assistance.DHHS announced Thursday that it had distributed “partial” Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — or SNAP — to Nebraska participants for November. The maximum allotment per household is 65% of the maximum monthly allotment, which could be scaled down based on income, according to the department’s website.Federally funded SNAP benefits were in limbo during the 43-day government shutdown that came to a close Wednesday after President Donald Trump signed a resolution funding the government through Jan. 30. Federal officials claimed that roughly half of November’s SNAP benefits were still being distributed, but the timeline of that distribution was murky.The shutdown, which started when Congress failed to pass annual spending laws by Oct. 1, left SNAP without any appropriated funding for November and beyond. A number of lawsuits left the nature of the payments unclear. In Nebraska, about 150,000 low-income and eligible participants, including children, participate in SNAP.Gov. Jim Pillen made it clear at multiple points during the shutdown that the state would not fund Nebraska’s SNAP program in the meantime.“Nobody’s going to go hungry,” Pillen said at a Nov. 6 news conference. “We have extraordinary services, from food pantries to engage churches and services across the state.”DHHS Economic Assistance Director Shannon Grotrian said soon after the shutdown ended that department officials began talks with federal officials to reestablish the benefits.“After guidance was received from the USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] authorizing partial issuances, the team immediately worked to ensure these payments were issued as soon as possible,” Grotrian said.Statewide advocacy group Nebraska Appleseed criticized the Trump administration for not funding SNAP during the shutdown.In a separate press release Wednesday, Eric Savaiano, Nebraska Appleseed’s Food and Nutrition Access Program Manager, claimed the administration could have used its transfer authority to keep the program running.“Food should not be used as a political tool, and we are glad this unnecessary food crisis is over for now,” Savaiano said.

Nebraska DHHS issues partial SNAP food benefits for November after shutdown ends

By Allison Peck | North Platte Post/Sandhills Post

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 12, 2025 — The United States Mint officially ended production of the circulating one-cent coin on Wednesday, marking the end of a 232-year run. United States Treasurer Brandon Beach struck the final penny at a ceremonial event at the Mint’s Philadelphia facility, according to the Mint.

“Today the Mint celebrates 232 years of penny manufacturing,” said Kristie McNally, Acting Mint Director, in a statement from the Mint. “While general production concludes today, the penny’s legacy lives on. Its significance in America’s story will endure.”

The penny, first authorized under the Coinage Act of 1792, has been a fixture in U.S. commerce for more than two centuries. Economic and production factors, combined with changes in consumer behavior, have made continued production unsustainable. According to the U.S. Mint, the cost of producing a single penny has risen over the past decade from 1.42 cents to 3.69 cents.

In Fiscal Year 2024, the Mint produced and shipped approximately 3.2 billion pennies, representing about 57 percent of the Mint’s total circulating coin production of 5.61 billion coins, according to the Mint’s 2024 Annual Report. The Treasury estimates that ending production will save the federal government roughly $56 million annually.

Although circulating production has ceased, the penny remains legal tender. The Mint reports that there are an estimated 300 billion pennies already in circulation, far exceeding the quantity required for everyday commerce. Retailers and businesses may continue pricing goods and services in one-cent increments.

The Mint will continue to produce numismatic versions of the penny in limited quantities for collectors and historical purposes, according to the Mint.

The Secretary of the Treasury has the legal authority to mint coins as necessary, under 31 U.S.C. §§ 5111(a) and 5112, and the Mint has confirmed that suspending circulating penny production is within that authority. According to the 2024 Biennial Report to Congress, research into alternative metals for coins was suspended after the Secretary directed that the penny no longer be produced for circulation.

Former President Donald Trump, in a February 2025 post on his social media platform, said he instructed the Treasury Department to stop producing new pennies, calling the continued production wasteful and noting that each coin costs more to make than its face value. [Embed exact post here]

The U.S. Mint has published a Frequently Asked Questions document for more details on the penny’s retirement and its ongoing collector coin program.

By Allison Peck | North Platte Post/Sandhills Post<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/8/1755018441768.jpg" alt=" " />
 <figcaption> </figcaption>
 </figure>PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 12, 2025 — The United States Mint officially ended production of the circulating one-cent coin on Wednesday, marking the end of a 232-year run. United States Treasurer Brandon Beach struck the final penny at a ceremonial event at the Mint’s Philadelphia facility, according to the Mint.“Today the Mint celebrates 232 years of penny manufacturing,” said Kristie McNally, Acting Mint Director, in a statement from the Mint. “While general production concludes today, the penny’s legacy lives on. Its significance in America’s story will endure.”The penny, first authorized under the Coinage Act of 1792, has been a fixture in U.S. commerce for more than two centuries. Economic and production factors, combined with changes in consumer behavior, have made continued production unsustainable. According to the U.S. Mint, the cost of producing a single penny has risen over the past decade from 1.42 cents to 3.69 cents.In Fiscal Year 2024, the Mint produced and shipped approximately 3.2 billion pennies, representing about 57 percent of the Mint’s total circulating coin production of 5.61 billion coins, according to the Mint’s 2024 Annual Report. The Treasury estimates that ending production will save the federal government roughly $56 million annually.Although circulating production has ceased, the penny remains legal tender. The Mint reports that there are an estimated 300 billion pennies already in circulation, far exceeding the quantity required for everyday commerce. Retailers and businesses may continue pricing goods and services in one-cent increments.The Mint will continue to produce numismatic versions of the penny in limited quantities for collectors and historical purposes, according to the Mint.The Secretary of the Treasury has the legal authority to mint coins as necessary, under 31 U.S.C. §§ 5111(a) and 5112, and the Mint has confirmed that suspending circulating penny production is within that authority. According to the 2024 Biennial Report to Congress, research into alternative metals for coins was suspended after the Secretary directed that the penny no longer be produced for circulation.<div><iframe src="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/113977224933701762/embed" class="truthsocial-embed" style="max-width: 100%; border: 0" width="600" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><script src="https://truthsocial.com/embed.js" async="async"></script></div>Former President Donald Trump, in a February 2025 post on his social media platform, said he instructed the Treasury Department to stop producing new pennies, calling the continued production wasteful and noting that each coin costs more to make than its face value. [Embed exact post here]The U.S. Mint has published a Frequently Asked Questions document for more details on the penny’s retirement and its ongoing collector coin program.

United States Mint Ends 232-Year Production of Circulating Penny

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/starbucks-workers-united-union-lawsuit-israel-palestinian-f212a994fef67f122854a4df7e5d13f5">Starbucks Workers United</a>, the union organizing Starbucks baristas, announced stores in 45 cities will strike beginning Thursday. The cities included are in St. Louis, New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, San Diego,&nbsp; Dallas, Columbus, Ohio, and Seattle. More stores are prepared to join if Starbucks doesn't reach a contract agreement with the union, organizers said.

Starbucks confirmed that the vast majority of its U.S. stores would be open and operating as usual Thursday.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/starbucks-workers-united-union-lawsuit-israel-palestinian-f212a994fef67f122854a4df7e5d13f5">Starbucks Workers United</a>, the union organizing Starbucks baristas, announced stores in 45 cities will strike beginning Thursday. The cities included are in St. Louis, New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, San Diego,&nbsp; Dallas, Columbus, Ohio, and Seattle. More stores are prepared to join if Starbucks doesn't reach a contract agreement with the union, organizers said.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://t.co/gdbL0MxtjX">https://t.co/gdbL0MxtjX</a>&mdash; Starbucks Workers United (@SBWorkersUnited) <a href="https://twitter.com/SBWorkersUnited/status/1988727090007670974?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Starbucks confirmed that the vast majority of its U.S. stores would be open and operating as usual Thursday.

Starbucks workers union launches strike in 45 cities

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/11/1763004356820.png" alt=" " />
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 </figure><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &quot;With my signature, the federal government will now resume normal operations and my administration, and our partners in Congress, will continue our work to lower the cost of living, restore public safety... and make America affordable again for all Americans.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/ybJjiM2lIL">pic.twitter.com/ybJjiM2lIL</a>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1988810732834812391?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &quot;For the past 43 days, Democrats in Congress shut down the government of the United States in an attempt to extort American taxpayers for hundreds of billions of dollars for illegal aliens... Today, we’re sending a clear message that we will NEVER give in to extortion.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/kMKncQPsiL">pic.twitter.com/kMKncQPsiL</a>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1988809270163566995?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &quot;The Democrats shutdown has inflicted massive harm. They caused 20,000 flights to be cancelled or delayed... they deprived more than 1M government workers from their paychecks and cut off food stamp benefits of millions and millions of Americans in need.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/KCdnltt95L">pic.twitter.com/KCdnltt95L</a>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1988810060576031185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>

🎥President Trump signs bill to end the 43 day government shutdown

By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/jennifer-shutt/">Jennifer Shutt</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ariana-figueroa/">Ariana Figueroa</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/shauneen-miranda/">Shauneen Miranda</a>

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House approved a spending package Wednesday evening that will reopen the government and end the longest shutdown in the nation’s history, once President Donald Trump signs the legislation into law.

The White House announced Trump will sign the bill in the Oval Office at 9:45 p.m. Eastern.

The&nbsp;<a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025285?Page=2" target="_blank">222-209 vote</a>&nbsp;marked the first time that chamber took up a bill since mid-September, when Republican leaders recessed after members approved a stopgap spending measure they knew couldn’t advance in the Senate.&nbsp;

That stalemate, centered around sharply rising health care costs, led to a 43-day shutdown that affected nearly every corner of the country through delayed funding for nutrition programs for millions of Americans, no pay for federal workers, flight delays tied to staffing shortages and much more.&nbsp;

But after nearly six weeks of failed procedural votes, seven centrist Senate Democrats and one independent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-senate-advances-bill-end-record-breaking-government-shutdown" target="_blank">broke with party leaders</a>&nbsp;on Sunday to advance the reworked spending package and then voted to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-senate-bipartisan-vote-passes-bill-end-record-breaking-shutdown-house-next" target="_blank">approve the legislation</a>&nbsp;Monday.&nbsp;

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who said throughout the shutdown he was interested in a bipartisan path forward on health insurance costs after the shutdown ended, committed to hold a floor vote on a Democratic bill “no later than the second week in December.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said repeatedly throughout the funding lapse GOP lawmakers have ideas to improve the health care system. However, he didn’t detail any of those publicly and hasn’t committed to a floor vote.&nbsp;

House debate on the spending package that will reopen government was largely along party lines, though Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Greg Steube of Florida voted against the bill.

Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Adam Gray of California, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state and Tom Suozzi of New York voted for passage.&nbsp;

Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., urged support for the legislation, saying “history reminds us that shutdowns never change the outcome.”&nbsp;

“Over the last 43 days the facts did not shift, the votes required did not shift, the path forward did not change,” Cole said. “The only thing that did move was the level of pain Democrats inflicted on the nation.”

Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the spending panel, rejected the legislation and said it does nothing to address the rising cost of health care.&nbsp;

“More than 20 million Americans will have to pay double, even triple, their monthly insurance premium in just a matter of weeks,” DeLauro said. “And this bill leaves families without even a glimmer of hope that their costs might go down.”

The Senate significantly reworked the stopgap bill&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/chance-government-shutdown-rises-us-senate-fails-advance-spending-bill" target="_blank">the House originally passed</a>&nbsp;in mid-September into what is now a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5371/text?s=1&amp;r=1&amp;q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22HR+5371%22%7D" target="_blank">394-page package</a>, adding in three of the full-year government funding bills and changing the date of the stopgap measure to Jan. 30, among many other provisions. The original stopgap was set to last through Nov. 21.&nbsp;

The updated measure gives Congress a couple more months to work out agreement on the remaining nine appropriations bills that were supposed to become law before the start of the current fiscal year on Oct. 1.&nbsp;

Lawmakers could create a partial government shutdown if they’re unable to agree on approving the remaining appropriations bill before the new government funding deadline at the end of January.

Trump will turn his attention toward the rising cost of health care that Democrats highlighted during the shutdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a Wednesday briefing, though she didn’t put a firm timeline on when he’ll release any plans.

“Once the government reopens, the president, as he’s always maintained, is absolutely open to having conversations about health care,” Leavitt said. “And I think you’ll see the president putting forth some really good policy proposals that Democrats should take very seriously to fix, again, the system that they broke.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters following a closed-door meeting that Democrats will try to get the necessary signatures on a discharge petition to force a floor vote on legislation to extend tax credits for three years for people who buy their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

The New York Democrat said the extension mirrors how long the enhanced tax credits were set to last initially in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.&nbsp;

Temporary health care subsidies were originally passed as part of the COVID-19-era American Rescue Plan in 2021 for two years. The Inflation Reduction Act, the signature climate policy bill from the Biden administration, then extended those health care subsidies for three years, expiring at the end of December 2025.&nbsp;

“The legislation that we will introduce in the context of a discharge petition will provide that level of certainty to working-class Americans who are on the verge of seeing their premiums, co-pays and deductibles skyrocket,” Jeffries said.&nbsp;

Democrats will need the support of at least a handful of Republicans in order to get the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on the bill. The&nbsp;<a href="https://clerk.house.gov/DischargePetition/2025111210" target="_blank">discharge petition</a>&nbsp;was released mid-afternoon.

The spending package wraps in several different bills and provisions, such as the three full-year funding bills that cover the Agriculture Department, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Legislative Branch, military construction projects and Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Trump administration issued a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Senate-Amendment-to-H.R.-5371-SAP.pdf" target="_blank">Statement of Administration Policy</a>&nbsp;a few hours before the House voted, saying the administration strongly supports the bill, describing the measure as “a fiscally responsible package that provides the full-year funding necessary to support the Nation’s veterans, farmers, and rural communities.”

The package also “ends disruptions to programs the American people rely on and ensures the thousands of Federal employees who have been forced to work without a paycheck, such as air traffic controllers, will be promptly paid,” the administration added.&nbsp;

The Agriculture and Military Construction-VA spending bills include tens of billions of dollars in earmarks requested by lawmakers from both political parties, important to them as midterm elections loom in 2026.

‘Legislative self-dealing’ in Senate attacked

But not every Republican on Capitol Hill is happy with how the full-year bills turned out.&nbsp;

Speaker Johnson announced mid-afternoon that the House would take a separate vote later this month to remove language from the package that will allow senators to file suit against the federal government if their data is subpoenaed.

“We are putting this legislation on the fast track suspension calendar in the House for next week,” Johnson wrote in a social media post.&nbsp;

The provision, tucked into the full-year Legislative Branch spending bill, is retroactive to January 1, 2022, and would apply to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/combative-ag-pam-bondi-confronts-us-senate-judiciary-over-trump-crackdown" target="_blank">the eight senators who had their cell phone records subpoenaed</a>&nbsp;during a 2023 investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.&nbsp;

The FBI reportedly obtained data for cell phone use between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2021, for Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, as well as Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.&nbsp;

Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said during floor debate the bill “contains the single most corrupt provision for legislative self-dealing that anyone in this chamber today has ever voted on.”

“This provision is an affront to our taxpayers, to the rule of law, to everyone who believes that we in public office must be the servants of the people, not the masters of the people who get special legal rights and privileges and multi-million-dollar payoffs,” Raskin said.&nbsp;

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsg77xQWFM&amp;t=224s" target="_blank">told reporters</a>&nbsp;earlier in the day that he will “definitely” be filing a lawsuit after the new provision becomes law.&nbsp;

“And if you think I’m going to settle this thing for a million dollars? No. I want to make it so painful no one ever does this again,” Graham said, later adding he wasn’t sure if he’d win such a case.

Dissatisfaction among GOP lawmakers with that provision was on full display on social media, where Florida’s Steube responded to Speaker Johnson’s post by writing that the “Senate will never take up your ‘standalone’ bill. This is precisely why you shouldn’t let the Senate jam the House.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/11/1762997095564.png" alt="A view of the House floor as the the result of the vote was announced Wednesday just before 7:30p.m. CST." />
 <figcaption>A view of the House floor as the the result of the vote was announced Wednesday just before 7:30p.m. CST.</figcaption>
 </figure>By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/jennifer-shutt/">Jennifer Shutt</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ariana-figueroa/">Ariana Figueroa</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/shauneen-miranda/">Shauneen Miranda</a>WASHINGTON — The U.S. House approved a spending package Wednesday evening that will reopen the government and end the longest shutdown in the nation’s history, once President Donald Trump signs the legislation into law.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: U.S. House votes to end government shutdown, 222-209. Goes now to the president. <a href="https://t.co/LPySa48qUZ">pic.twitter.com/LPySa48qUZ</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1988780269688541282?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The White House announced Trump will sign the bill in the Oval Office at 9:45 p.m. Eastern.The&nbsp;<a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025285?Page=2" target="_blank">222-209 vote</a>&nbsp;marked the first time that chamber took up a bill since mid-September, when Republican leaders recessed after members approved a stopgap spending measure they knew couldn’t advance in the Senate.&nbsp;That stalemate, centered around sharply rising health care costs, led to a 43-day shutdown that affected nearly every corner of the country through delayed funding for nutrition programs for millions of Americans, no pay for federal workers, flight delays tied to staffing shortages and much more.&nbsp;But after nearly six weeks of failed procedural votes, seven centrist Senate Democrats and one independent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-senate-advances-bill-end-record-breaking-government-shutdown" target="_blank">broke with party leaders</a>&nbsp;on Sunday to advance the reworked spending package and then voted to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-senate-bipartisan-vote-passes-bill-end-record-breaking-shutdown-house-next" target="_blank">approve the legislation</a>&nbsp;Monday.&nbsp;Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who said throughout the shutdown he was interested in a bipartisan path forward on health insurance costs after the shutdown ended, committed to hold a floor vote on a Democratic bill “no later than the second week in December.”House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said repeatedly throughout the funding lapse GOP lawmakers have ideas to improve the health care system. However, he didn’t detail any of those publicly and hasn’t committed to a floor vote.&nbsp;House debate on the spending package that will reopen government was largely along party lines, though Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Greg Steube of Florida voted against the bill.Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Adam Gray of California, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state and Tom Suozzi of New York voted for passage.&nbsp;Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., urged support for the legislation, saying “history reminds us that shutdowns never change the outcome.”&nbsp;“Over the last 43 days the facts did not shift, the votes required did not shift, the path forward did not change,” Cole said. “The only thing that did move was the level of pain Democrats inflicted on the nation.”<h2>Much higher premiums predicted&nbsp;</h2>Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the spending panel, rejected the legislation and said it does nothing to address the rising cost of health care.&nbsp;“More than 20 million Americans will have to pay double, even triple, their monthly insurance premium in just a matter of weeks,” DeLauro said. “And this bill leaves families without even a glimmer of hope that their costs might go down.”The Senate significantly reworked the stopgap bill&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/chance-government-shutdown-rises-us-senate-fails-advance-spending-bill" target="_blank">the House originally passed</a>&nbsp;in mid-September into what is now a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5371/text?s=1&amp;r=1&amp;q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22HR+5371%22%7D" target="_blank">394-page package</a>, adding in three of the full-year government funding bills and changing the date of the stopgap measure to Jan. 30, among many other provisions. The original stopgap was set to last through Nov. 21.&nbsp;The updated measure gives Congress a couple more months to work out agreement on the remaining nine appropriations bills that were supposed to become law before the start of the current fiscal year on Oct. 1.&nbsp;Lawmakers could create a partial government shutdown if they’re unable to agree on approving the remaining appropriations bill before the new government funding deadline at the end of January.<h2>Democratic discharge petition</h2>Trump will turn his attention toward the rising cost of health care that Democrats highlighted during the shutdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a Wednesday briefing, though she didn’t put a firm timeline on when he’ll release any plans.“Once the government reopens, the president, as he’s always maintained, is absolutely open to having conversations about health care,” Leavitt said. “And I think you’ll see the president putting forth some really good policy proposals that Democrats should take very seriously to fix, again, the system that they broke.”House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters following a closed-door meeting that Democrats will try to get the necessary signatures on a discharge petition to force a floor vote on legislation to extend tax credits for three years for people who buy their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act marketplace.The New York Democrat said the extension mirrors how long the enhanced tax credits were set to last initially in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.&nbsp;Temporary health care subsidies were originally passed as part of the COVID-19-era American Rescue Plan in 2021 for two years. The Inflation Reduction Act, the signature climate policy bill from the Biden administration, then extended those health care subsidies for three years, expiring at the end of December 2025.&nbsp;“The legislation that we will introduce in the context of a discharge petition will provide that level of certainty to working-class Americans who are on the verge of seeing their premiums, co-pays and deductibles skyrocket,” Jeffries said.&nbsp;Democrats will need the support of at least a handful of Republicans in order to get the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on the bill. The&nbsp;<a href="https://clerk.house.gov/DischargePetition/2025111210" target="_blank">discharge petition</a>&nbsp;was released mid-afternoon.<h2>What’s in the new bill</h2>The spending package wraps in several different bills and provisions, such as the three full-year funding bills that cover the Agriculture Department, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Legislative Branch, military construction projects and Department of Veterans Affairs.Included are:<ul>
 <li>A stopgap spending bill that will keep the rest of the federal government running through Jan. 30;</li><li>$30 million for the U.S. Capitol Police to enhance protections for lawmakers, $30 million for the U.S. Marshals Service to bolster security for members of the judicial and executive branches, and $28 million for enhanced safety for Supreme Court justices;</li><li>Language requiring the Trump administration to reinstate the thousands of workers it sent layoff notices to during the shutdown and preventing officials from firing those workers through January;</li><li>Provisions mandating the Trump administration provide back pay to all federal workers, including those furloughed during the shutdown. Trump at one point during the shutdown had threatened to yank that back pay, though it is required by law.</li>
 </ul>The Trump administration issued a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Senate-Amendment-to-H.R.-5371-SAP.pdf" target="_blank">Statement of Administration Policy</a>&nbsp;a few hours before the House voted, saying the administration strongly supports the bill, describing the measure as “a fiscally responsible package that provides the full-year funding necessary to support the Nation’s veterans, farmers, and rural communities.”The package also “ends disruptions to programs the American people rely on and ensures the thousands of Federal employees who have been forced to work without a paycheck, such as air traffic controllers, will be promptly paid,” the administration added.&nbsp;The Agriculture and Military Construction-VA spending bills include tens of billions of dollars in earmarks requested by lawmakers from both political parties, important to them as midterm elections loom in 2026.<h2>‘Legislative self-dealing’ in Senate attacked</h2>But not every Republican on Capitol Hill is happy with how the full-year bills turned out.&nbsp;Speaker Johnson announced mid-afternoon that the House would take a separate vote later this month to remove language from the package that will allow senators to file suit against the federal government if their data is subpoenaed.“We are putting this legislation on the fast track suspension calendar in the House for next week,” Johnson wrote in a social media post.&nbsp;The provision, tucked into the full-year Legislative Branch spending bill, is retroactive to January 1, 2022, and would apply to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/combative-ag-pam-bondi-confronts-us-senate-judiciary-over-trump-crackdown" target="_blank">the eight senators who had their cell phone records subpoenaed</a>&nbsp;during a 2023 investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.&nbsp;The FBI reportedly obtained data for cell phone use between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2021, for Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, as well as Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.&nbsp;Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said during floor debate the bill “contains the single most corrupt provision for legislative self-dealing that anyone in this chamber today has ever voted on.”“This provision is an affront to our taxpayers, to the rule of law, to everyone who believes that we in public office must be the servants of the people, not the masters of the people who get special legal rights and privileges and multi-million-dollar payoffs,” Raskin said.&nbsp;South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsg77xQWFM&amp;t=224s" target="_blank">told reporters</a>&nbsp;earlier in the day that he will “definitely” be filing a lawsuit after the new provision becomes law.&nbsp;“And if you think I’m going to settle this thing for a million dollars? No. I want to make it so painful no one ever does this again,” Graham said, later adding he wasn’t sure if he’d win such a case.Dissatisfaction among GOP lawmakers with that provision was on full display on social media, where Florida’s Steube responded to Speaker Johnson’s post by writing that the “Senate will never take up your ‘standalone’ bill. This is precisely why you shouldn’t let the Senate jam the House.”

Government to reopen after 43 days: House sends bill to Trump ending record shutdown

By: Kevin Hardy | Nebraska Examiner

A provision significantly limiting the sale of intoxicating hemp products made its way into legislation to reopen the federal government just a day before the Senate approved the bill. Its inclusion follows years of pressure from states and the marijuana industry.

By: Kevin Hardy | Nebraska Examiner<figure>
 <img src="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/THC-hemp-products.jpg" alt="&nbsp;A bin of THC edible products from Virginia stores is displayed by the state attorney general. While states continue to expand access to legal marijuana, a separate market of hemp-derived intoxicants has blossomed. (Photo by Graham Moomaw/ Virginia Mercury)" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;A bin of THC edible products from Virginia stores is displayed by the state attorney general. While states continue to expand access to legal marijuana, a separate market of hemp-derived intoxicants has blossomed. (Photo by Graham Moomaw/ Virginia Mercury)</figcaption>
 </figure>A provision significantly limiting the sale of intoxicating hemp products made its way into legislation to reopen the federal government just a day before the Senate approved the bill. Its inclusion follows years of pressure from states and the marijuana industry.While states continue to expand access to legal marijuana, a separate market of hemp-derived intoxicants has blossomed. The products, from drinks to gummies, are sold in gas stations and smoke shops. Critics say some companies have exploited a legal loophole from 2018 to manufacture products that get people high — without the safety regulations and taxes facing the legal marijuana industry.That’s led dozens of states to limit or ban certain intoxicating hemp products. Most states also have pushed for federal changes, though some farm states worry the pending federal bill — which the House is expected to vote on as soon as today —&nbsp;goes too far.A bipartisan group of&nbsp;<a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/briefs/new-hampshires-formella-and-38-other-state-ags-ask-congress-to-ban-hemp-thc-products/" target="_blank">39 state attorneys general</a>&nbsp;recently urged Congress to clarify the federal definition of hemp, arguing that the underregulated industry threatens public health and undermines law enforcement.Texas lawmakers this year approved a&nbsp;<a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/billlookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&amp;Bill=SB3" target="_blank">strict ban</a>&nbsp;on intoxicating hemp, but that measure was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/22/texas-thc-ban-bill-greg-abbott-veto-senate-bill-3/" target="_blank">vetoed</a>&nbsp;by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor raised constitutional concerns because federal law allowed the products, but he then issued an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/23/texas-minors-21-age-limit-thc-hemp/" target="_blank">executive order</a>&nbsp;increasing state agency regulations, including age restrictions.This summer, Florida<a href="https://www.fdacs.gov/News-Events/Press-Releases/2025-Press-Releases/Commissioner-Wilton-Simpson-Provides-Update-on-Operation-Safe-Summer-Over-155-000-Illegal-Hemp-Packages-Removed-to-Date" target="_blank">&nbsp;regulators seized</a>&nbsp;tens of thousands of packages of hemp products that failed to meet new child protection standards, including child-resistant packaging, marketing restrictions and enhanced labeling rules. In Tallahassee, the state Senate&nbsp;<a href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/04/09/bill-that-will-regulate-the-hemp-industry-passes-unanimously-in-florida-senate/" target="_blank">approved a ban</a>&nbsp;on hemp-derived THC products, including beverages, but that measure died in the state House. A similar effort last year was&nbsp;<a href="https://flgov.com/eog/sites/default/files/press/Senate_Transmittal_6.7.24.pdf" target="_blank">vetoed</a>&nbsp;by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said it would harm small businesses.Last month, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom&nbsp;<a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billHistoryClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB8" target="_blank">signed legislation</a>&nbsp;strengthening state enforcement of its ban on intoxicating hemp products. Similarly, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine declared an&nbsp;<a href="https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/10/09/ohio-gov-mike-dewine-issues-executive-order-banning-sale-of-intoxicating-hemp-products/" target="_blank">emergency</a>&nbsp;last month in an executive order banning intoxicating hemp products for 90 days while lawmakers debate potential legislation.Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the primary psychoactive component of the cannabis plant. The 39 state attorneys general argue manufacturers are manipulating hemp to produce synthetic THC that can be more intoxicating than marijuana.“In this way, legal, nonintoxicating hemp is used to make Frankenstein THC products that get adults high and harm and even kill children,” the attorneys general wrote.Hemp-derived gummies and beverages are sold without consistent age restrictions or labeling regulations&nbsp;and oftentimes resemble candy. During his announcement, DeWine showcased brightly packaged intoxicating hemp products that resembled name-brand candy products.“Certainly, it’s easy to see how a child will confuse this product with real candy and eat a few gummy bears and ingest enough THC to require hospitalization,” he said, according to the<a href="https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/10/09/ohio-gov-mike-dewine-issues-executive-order-banning-sale-of-intoxicating-hemp-products/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Ohio Capital Journal</a>.Though it has faced mounting restrictions in the states, the hemp industry says the federal change poses an existential threat.On Monday, the U.S. Hemp Roundtable said the legislation pending in Congress would wipe out 95% of the nation’s $28.4 billion hemp industry.“The language will force patients, seniors and veterans who rely on hemp products to break federal criminal law to acquire them,” the trade group&nbsp;<a href="https://hempsupporter.com/news/%f0%9f%9a%a8critical-alert-hemp-banning-language-has-officially-been-added-to-the-legislation-to-open-the-government/" target="_blank">posted online</a>.Jonathan Miller, general counsel for the organization, said the industry has been pushing for regulation rather than outright prohibition. He acknowledged the problem of bad actors, but said those can be addressed with strong regulations like those that exist in Kentucky and Minnesota.“These are good examples of states that have put together robust regulations. But we need to see that at the federal level, and we’ve been supporting legislation to do that for the last seven years,” he told Stateline.Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky’s senior senator, said he included the hemp measure in the bill to close an unintended legal loophole and that the measure would still allow farmers to grow hemp for fiber, oil and drug trials.But fellow Kentucky Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said the move would “eradicate the hemp industry” and could override some state laws. Paul offered an amendment to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/hemp-growers-retailers-targeted-section-government-shutdown-legislation" target="_blank">remove the hemp provision but failed</a>.<h2>The hemp loophole</h2>Hemp derives from the same cannabis species as marijuana, but is legally defined by its lower levels of THC, the psychoactive component of the plant.While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, Congress sanctioned hemp in the 2018 farm bill to allow an agricultural market for hemp-based textiles, animal feeds and human wellness products centered on cannabidiol, or CBD, products. The farm bill allowed cultivation of hemp plants with a THC concentration of 0.3% or lower by dry weight.But that threshold has become essentially meaningless, said Katharine Neill Harris, a fellow in drug policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.That’s because manufacturers have found ways to convert legal hemp plants into potent forms of synthetic marijuana. Aside from the potential of creating very strong products, she said the process requires the addition of solvents and other ingredients that raise many safety questions.“With marijuana products, you can get some very potent products,” she said. “But the psychoactive components to THC are naturally occurring. It naturally occurs in that natural amount. You’re not doing a whole bunch of manipulation to increase the potency of the product and adding ingredients.”Harris has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/mapping-hemp-products-legal-status-across-us-states" target="_blank">tracked</a>&nbsp;the growing number of states regulating the industry: Six states and the District of Columbia now ban all consumable hemp products with any amount of THC. In 24 states, intoxicating hemp products are permitted, though 15 of those states allow only low-potency products.But even states with strict regulations still must contend with legal online markets.“There’s a big part of that activity that you can’t control as a state when something is federally legal, and so that’s one thing that they’re asking for is federal leadership on this issue,” she said. “I think there is a big demand for some sort of industry standards.”If approved by Congress and signed by the president, as expected, the new hemp legislation will likely have uneven impacts across the states.For example, the change likely won’t dramatically alter the legal landscape in&nbsp;<a href="https://alaskabeacon.com/2025/05/29/judge-alaska-limits-on-intoxicating-hemp-products-do-not-violate-the-u-s-constitution/" target="_blank">Alaska</a>, where the regulators have banned all intoxicating hemp products. Marijuana businesses complain those products are still being sold, despite the ban.But in a state like Nebraska, where lawmakers have been&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/05/30/proposal-to-ban-most-thc-consumable-hemp-products-in-nebraska-delayed-until-at-least-2026/" target="_blank">unsuccessful</a>&nbsp;in limiting intoxicating hemp, the change could drastically alter both consumer access and business sales, depending on enforcement.On Monday, Paul said the federal legislation would wipe away hemp regulations in many states, including Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine and Utah.“The bill before us nullifies all these state laws,”<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/hemp-growers-retailers-targeted-section-government-shutdown-legislation" target="_blank">&nbsp;he said</a>.<h2>‘Running with knives’</h2>The hemp industry has argued that a lot of the opposition to it stems from marijuana businesses looking to protect their own markets, noting that campaigns for restrictions are often more organized in states that have legalized marijuana."Everybody is using hemp as a cover to basically sell intoxicating drugs."– Andrew Mullins, president and executive director of the Missouri Cannabis Trade AssociationBut producers of intoxicating hemp are looking for market access without the associated safety regulations and tax structures states have created for marijuana, argued Chris Lindsey, the director of state advocacy and public policy at the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp, an organization representing the legal marijuana industry.“They want to have some kind of regulatory framework that’s somehow different than the one that states already have [for marijuana],” he said.His organization&nbsp;<a href="https://atach.org/atach-thanks-senate-for-addressing-unregulated-synthetic-thc-products/" target="_blank">cheered</a>&nbsp;the Senate’s efforts “to address the dangerous proliferation of unregulated synthetic THC products.”Lindsey said hemp-derived products can contain contaminants, including pesticides. Many hemp products can be sourced cheaply overseas, he said, and with lax oversight, there is no system to recall tainted products here.“To me, that’s like running with knives,” he told Stateline.The Missouri Cannabis Trade Association recently purchased hemp products from gas stations and smoke shops from across the state to test them in an effort to show they need more regulation.In its “<a href="https://missourihemphoax.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Missouri-Hemp-Hoax-Report-Final-11.02.25.pdf" target="_blank">Missouri Hemp Hoax Report,</a>” the organization said independent testing found 53 of the 55 products purchased were actually intoxicating marijuana well above the legal limit of THC. Third-party lab results also showed some of the products contained pesticides and heavy metals.Those results underscore that the products should face the same rules as legal marijuana does, said Andrew Mullins, president and executive director of the cannabis trade association. State law requires marijuana to be grown and manufactured in Missouri, mandates&nbsp;lab testing and allows for sales only at licensed dispensaries.“In my mind, if it’s marijuana, which most of this is, then it should be regulated like marijuana,” Mullins said.He said calling the unregulated products “hemp” is akin to someone selling whiskey and calling it corn: “Everybody is using hemp as a cover to basically sell intoxicating drugs.”Mullins acknowledged the confusion among policymakers and law enforcement. But he said there are already laws — including those against trafficking marijuana without a license — that could help address the issue.Catherine Hanaway, a Republican who was sworn in as Missouri’s new attorney general in September, has vowed action on unregulated hemp products, particularly THC beverages that are&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/27/thc-beverage-boom-faces-missouri-crackdown-amid-regulatory-concerns-safety-risks/" target="_blank">booming</a>&nbsp;in popularity.“Our focus is on the health and safety of Missourians,” James Lawson, her deputy chief of staff, told the<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/27/thc-beverage-boom-faces-missouri-crackdown-amid-regulatory-concerns-safety-risks/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Missouri Independent</a>&nbsp;last month. “This is an unregulated industry that makes untested, unknown substances available to the public without any oversight, including children where we think it’s particularly detrimental.”Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:khardy@stateline.org">khardy@stateline.org</a>.