SEATTLE (AP) — In what appears to be the first major challenge to the new $100,000 fee required for H-1B visa applications, a coalition of health care providers, religious groups, university professors and others filed a federal lawsuit Friday to stop the plan, saying it has “thrown employers, workers and federal agencies into chaos.”
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Sept. 19 requiring the new fee, saying the H-1B visa program “has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.” The changes were slated to go into effect in 36 hours, which caused panic for employers, who instructed their workers to return to the U.S. immediately.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, said the H-1B program is a critical pathway to hiring healthcare workers and educators. It drives innovation and economic growth in the U.S., and allows employers to fill jobs in specialized fields, the lawsuit said.
“Without relief, hospitals will lose medical staff, churches will lose pastors, classrooms will lose teachers, and industries across the country risk losing key innovators,” Democracy Forward Foundation and Justice Action Center said in a press release. “The suit asks the court to immediately block the order and restore predictability for employers and workers.”
They called the new fee “Trump’s latest anti-immigration power grab.”
Messages seeking comment from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which are named as defendants along with Trump and the State Department, were not immediately returned.
The H-1B visa program was created by Congress to attract high-skilled workers to fill jobs that tech companies find difficult to fill. About a third of H-1B workers are nurses, teachers, physicians, scholars, priests and pastors, according to the lawsuit.
Critics say the program is a pipeline for overseas workers who are often willing to work for as little as $60,000 annually, well below the $100,000-plus salaries typically paid to U.S. technology workers.
Historically, H-1B visas have been doled out through a lottery. This year, Seattle-based Amazon was by far the top recipient of H-1B visas with more than 10,000 awarded, followed by Tata Consultancy, Microsoft, Apple and Google. Geographically, California has the highest number of H-1B workers.
The $100,000 fee will discourage the best and brightest minds from bringing life-saving research to the U.S., said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors.
Mike Miller, Region 6 Director of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, said Trump’s plan “prioritizes wealth and connections over scientific acumen and diligence.”
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, contends the “exorbitant fee” invites corruption and is illegal. Congress created the program and Trump can’t rewrite it overnight or levy new taxes by executive order, the groups said.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House before signing an executive order regarding childhood cancer and the use of AI, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court in Boston ruled on Friday that the Trump administration cannot withhold citizenship from children born to people in the country illegally or temporarily, adding to the mounting legal setbacks for the president’s birthright order.
A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals became the fifth federal court since June to either issue or uphold orders blocking the president’s birthright order. The court concluded that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claims that the children described in the order are entitled to birthright citizenship under the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The panel upheld lower courts’ preliminary injunctions, which blocked the birthright order while lawsuits challenging it moved ahead. The order, signed the day the president took office in January, would halt automatic citizenship for babies born to people in the U.S. illegally or temporarily.
“The ‘lessons of history’ thus give us every reason to be wary of now blessing this most recent effort to break with our established tradition of recognizing birthright citizenship and to make citizenship depend on the actions of one’s parents rather than — in all but the rarest of circumstances — the simple fact of being born in the United States,” the court wrote.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose state was one of nearly 20 that were part of the lawsuit challenging the order, welcomed the ruling.
“The First Circuit reaffirmed what we already knew to be true: The President’s attack on birthright citizenship flagrantly defies the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and a nationwide injunction is the only reasonable way to protect against its catastrophic implications,” Bonta said in a statement. “We are glad that the courts have continued to protect Americans’ fundamental rights.”
In July, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the third court ruling blocking the birthright order nationwide after a key Supreme Court decision in June. Less than two weeks later, a federal judge in Maryland also issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the order. The issue is expected to move quickly back to the nation’s highest court.
The justices ruled in June that lower courts generally can’t issue nationwide injunctions, but they didn’t rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states.
A federal judge in New Hampshire later issued a ruling prohibiting Trump’s executive order from taking effect nationwide in a new class-action suit, and a San Francisco-based appeals court affirmed a different lower court’s nationwide injunction in a lawsuit that included state plaintiffs.
In September, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to uphold its birthright citizenship order. The appeal sets in motion a process at the high court that could lead to a definitive ruling from the justices by early summer on whether the citizenship restrictions are constitutional.
“The court is misinterpreting the 14th Amendment. We look forward to being vindicated by the Supreme Court,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
At the heart of the lawsuits challenging the birthright order is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which includes a citizenship clause that says all people born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to U.S. jurisdiction, are citizens.
Plaintiffs in the Boston case — one of the cases the 1st Circuit considered — told Sorokin that the principle of birthright citizenship is “enshrined in the Constitution,” and that Trump does not have the authority to issue the order, which they called a “flagrantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands of American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage.”
Justice Department attorneys argued the phrase “subject to United States jurisdiction” in the amendment means that citizenship isn’t automatically conferred to children based on their birth location alone.
In a landmark birthright citizenship case, the Supreme Court in 1898 found a child born in San Francisco to Chinese parents was a citizen by virtue of his birth on American soil.
President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives at the White House, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
WASHINGTON — The White House still employs 45 staffers for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency despite the Tesla Inc. CEO’s departure in May — and they’re exempt from being furloughed during the government shutdown.
The arrangement was revealed in a memo released Thursday from the White House Office of Administration detailing the staffing plan while funding from Congress remains in limbo.
The White House shutdown plan also highlights a pattern of shifting definitions of essential and non-essential workers under President Donald Trump, who has furloughed 514 fewer White House staffers than he did during the last government shutdown under his watch in 2018.
Under the earlier plan, which former President Joe Biden also adopted but never had to implement, about 61% of staff in the Executive Office of the President were temporarily laid off. The current plan furloughs only 32% of the staff.
Despite keeping more of the White House staff on-the-job during the shutdown, Trump has said he is looking to lay off federal workers, instead of just furloughing them. The White House has said the cuts could number in the “thousands.”
Among the offices fully open despite the shutdown is DOGE, the government cost-cutting operation once led by Musk before he and Trump had a falling out over the president’s support of a deficit-expanding tax cut bill.
After Musk’s departure in May, the White House said DOGE had been decentralized, and that its teams throughout the government would report to their presidentially appointed agency heads. But the shutdown plan reveals that 45 DOGE staffers still work in the US DOGE Service, a component within the Executive Office of the President.
The memo from Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House Office of Administration, did not explain why the DOGE staffers were exempt from furloughs. But DOGE’s predecessor office, the US Digital Service, was able to function through previous shutdowns because it had a separate source of funding from fees it charged other government agencies for its work.
Other parts of the White House are also seeing fewer furloughs this time. The Office of Management and Budget keeps 437 employees on duty, compared with 161 under the 2018 plan. The tax cut law — dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill — provided $100 million in long-term funding for the budget office.
The White House Office itself — the president’s immediate staff — holds on to 175 aides, slightly more than the 156 in the last shutdown. And Trump has almost doubled the number of retained workers in the executive residence to 40.
At the same time, Trump officials have signaled they will use the lapse in funding to pare back or shutter programs they oppose — especially in states that voted for his opponent last year. And the White House has threatened to permanently fire thousands of federal employees in the coming days, citing the lack of congressional funding.
The White House press office did not respond to a request for comment on the shutdown plan, but instead sent an automated out-of-office reply echoing the administration’s political talking points.
“Due to staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown, the typical 24/7 monitoring of this press inbox may experience delays,” the message said. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
US Capitol Police officers stand at a security checkpoint at the US Capitol building on the third day of the US government shutdown in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 3, 2025. The US government shutdown appeared likely to stretch into next week as senators prepared Friday to vote for a fourth time on a funding fix proposed by Donald Trump’s Republicans that has little… (Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to strip legal protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants.
The justices issued an emergency order, which will last as long as the court case continues, putting on hold a lower-court ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco that found the administration had wrongly ended temporary protected status for the Venezuelans. The three liberal justices dissented.
Trump’s Republican administration has moved to withdraw various protections that have allowed immigrants to remain in the United States and work legally, including ending TPS for a total of 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians who were granted protection under President Joe Biden, a Democrat. TPS is granted in 18-month increments.
In May, the Supreme Court reversed a preliminary order from Chen that affected another 350,000 Venezuelans whose protections expired in April. The high court provided no explanation at the time, which is common in emergency appeals.
“The same result that we reached in May is appropriate here,” the court wrote Friday in an unsigned order.
Some migrants have lost their jobs and homes while others have been detained and deported after the justices stepped in the first time, lawyers for the migrants told the court.
“I view today’s decision as yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote. “Because, respectfully, I cannot abide our repeated, gratuitous and harmful interference with cases pending in the lower courts while lives hang in the balance, I dissent.”
Congress created TPS in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters, civil strife or other dangerous conditions. The designation can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary.
Chen found that the Department of Homeland Security acted “with unprecedented haste and in an unprecedented manner … for the preordained purpose of expediting termination of Venezuela’s TPS” status.
In earlier denying the Trump administration’s emergency appeal, Judge Kim Wardlaw wrote for a unanimous three-judge appellate panel that Chen determined that DHS made its “decisions first and searched for a valid basis for those decisions second.”
Solicitor General D. John Sauer, the administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, had argued in the new court filing that the justices’ May order should also apply to the current case.
“This case is familiar to the court and involves the increasingly familiar and untenable phenomenon of lower courts disregarding this Court’s orders on the emergency docket,” Sauer wrote.
The result, he said, is that the “new order, just like the old one, halted the vacatur and termination of TPS affecting over 300,000 aliens based on meritless legal theories.”
Michigan’s new budget will channel $203 million toward increasing the compensation of public school employees, a move supporters are hailing as a win for the state’s teachers.
The Republican-led House and Democratic-controlled Senate approved the new annual funding proposal for state operations early Friday morning. It is expected to be signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the coming days.
Embedded within one of the bills was a provision to repurpose $203 million that had been previously allocated to provide financial assistance to educators who were repaying student loans, but which had gone unused.
Now, the dollars will be given to schools “to increase compensation” for employees and the pay bumps must be on top of “any existing compensation negotiated in a collective bargaining agreement” between a school district and union representing educators or support staff, according to the budget blueprint.
Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, said the $225 million student loan forgiveness program, authorized in 2023, didn’t work as he intended and he wanted the dollars to now be used for financial relief for school employees who are facing rising health care costs.
“It was important to put more money back in the pockets of our educators,” Camilleri said.
In addition to teachers, the new initiative will benefit a wide array of school employees covered by union contracts, including librarians, counselors, social workers, custodians, bus drivers and literacy coaches, according to the bill.
Camilleri, a former teacher and the top Senate Democrat on the K-12 budget, said it will be up to districts and local unions to negotiate how the money will be handed out.
There will likely be one-time payments to staff at some point this school year, Camilleri said.
Somewhere around 381,000 people work for K-12 schools in Michigan, according to state data. It’s not clear how many of them would qualify for the new compensation. If they all did, which is not likely, and everyone got the same amount, an individual would receive $532.
“It should be a good one-time bonus,” Camilleri said.
The Michigan Education Association, which represents school staff in many districts across the state, touted the $203 million allocation in a statement on the budget Friday.
“Most critically, it provides $200 million in funding to directly put money in the paychecks of public school employees — whose pay increases are being consumed by skyrocketing out-of-pocket health insurance costs,” said Chandra Madafferi, president and CEO of the state’s largest teacher union.
4th grade reading and writing teacher Stephen Taft, interacts with his students during a geology lesson in class at Riddle Elementary on Feb. 10 in Lansing. Educators across the state are poised to share a portion of $203 million in state funding aimed at boosting pay for public school employees and offsetting rising health care premiums. (Clarence Tabb Jr./The Detroit News)
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Trump administration said Friday that it would pay migrant children $2,500 to voluntarily return to their home countries, dangling a new incentive in efforts to persuade people to self-deport.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t say how much migrants would get or when the offer would take effect, but The Associated Press obtained an email to migrant shelters saying children 14 years of age and older would get $2,500 each. Children were given 24 hours to respond.
The notice to shelters from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Administration for Families and Children did not indicate any consequences for children who decline the offer. It asked shelter directors to acknowledge the offer within four hours.
ICE said in a statement that the offer would initially be for 17-year-olds.
“Any payment to support a return home would be provided after an immigration judge grants the request and the individual arrives in their country of origin,” ICE said. “Access to financial support when returning home would assist should they choose that option.”
ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and the Health and Human Services Department did not immediately respond to questions about the amount of the payment and age eligibility.
ICE dismissed widespread reports among immigration lawyers and advocates that it was launching a much broader crackdown Friday to deport migrant children who entered the country without their parents, called “Freaky Friday.”
The administration has also offered $1,000 to adults who voluntarily leave the country. Advocates said $2,500 may prevent children from making informed decisions.
“For a child, $2,500 might be the most money they’ve ever seen in their life, and that may make it very, very difficult for them to accurately weigh the long-term risks of taking voluntary departure versus trying to stay in the United States and going through the immigration court process to get relief that they may be legally entitled to,” said Melissa Adamson, senior attorney at the National Center for Youth Law.
Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, echoed concerns about the offer, saying it “pressures children to abandon their legal claims and return to a life of fear and danger without ever receiving a fair hearing.”
U.S. border authorities have arrested children crossing the border without parents more than 400,000 times since October 2021. A 2008 law requires them to appear before an immigration judge before being returned to their countries.
Children have been spending more time in government-run shelters since the Trump administration put them under closer scrutiny before releasing them to family in the United States to pursue their immigration cases.
The additional scrutiny includes fingerprinting, DNA testing and home visits by immigration officers. Over the summer, immigration officers started showing up and arresting parents.
The average length of stay at government-run shelters for those released in the U.S. was 171 days in July, down from a peak of 217 days in April but well above 37 days in January, when Trump took office.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicle is parked outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025, in Broadview, Ill. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
When we started working on MichMash this week, it was past the Oct. 1 deadline and a state budget for the 2026 fiscal year had yet to be passed. In this week’s first episode, WDET’s Cheyna Roth and Gongwer News Service’s Alethia Kasben speculate when a budget might get passed and what would happen in the meantime.
Then early Friday morning, Michigan lawmakers finally passed the budget — 3 days late. So in this bonus episode, Cheyna and Alethia discuss the details of the budget with Crain’s Detroit Senior Reporter Dave Eggert.
One-of-a-kind podcasts from WDET bring you engaging conversations, news you need to know and stories you love to hear. Keep the conversations coming. Please make a gift today. Give now »
Funding for arts and culture grants in Michigan is preserved in the state budget for fiscal year 2026.
Last week, Governor Whitmer, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks and House Speaker Matt Hall announced they had agreed on a framework for the state budget and it would be passed before October 1. The state budget was passed early Friday morning, with state funding for arts and culture grants preserved.
Last month’s budget proposal passed by the Republican-led State House eliminated all funding for arts and culture grants from the state.
The entity that administers arts and culture grants for the state is the Michigan Arts and Culture Council (MACC). In 2025, MACC grants awarded totaled over $10.5 million.
The council distributes grant funds to arts and culture programs throughout the state, providing funding for things like K-12 arts programs, cultural festivals and museums.
To better understand what arts and culture grants from the state fund, Cary Junior II spoke with Lauren Ward, director of the Cultural Advocacy Network of Michigan. They spoke on Thursday, before the final state budget had been passed for fiscal year 2026.
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When Mike Duggan was sworn in as Detroit’s mayor more than a decade ago, much of the city was in the dark. Four out of every 10 streetlights didn’t work. His administration rebuilt the grid and relit neighborhoods block by block.
Blight became another target. Crews tore down thousands of abandoned houses that posed safety risks. With hundreds of millions in federal relief, Duggan stabilized the budget and funded neighborhood programs. Meanwhile, the city’s violent crime rate eased: just over 200 homicides last year, the lowest number since the mid-1960s.
Other markers point to momentum. Detroit’s population has inched up for two years in a row — rare for a city that has seen decades of decline. Moody’s even restored Detroit’s investment-grade bond rating.
Duggan highlights these milestones when he calls himself “a fixer.”
The broader picture is mixed: while downtown investment is visible, many neighborhoods still face population loss and a lack of basic infrastructure.
Still, compared with the Detroit Duggan inherited in 2014, the city holds more promise today, and much of that transformation happened under his watch.
Now Duggan wants to take his record statewide. He’s running for governor of Michigan in 2026 as an independent — and asking voters across the state to buy into his version of Detroit’s turnaround.
The mayor joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss how he thinks his strategies can scale statewide.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
By AAMER MADHANI and LISA MASCARO, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and says the United States is now in a “non-international armed conflict,” according to a Trump administration memo obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, after recent U.S. strikes on boats in the Caribbean.
A person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly said the Congress was notified about the designation by Pentagon officials on Wednesday.
The move comes after the U.S. military last month carried out three deadly strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean. At least two of those operations were carried out on vessels that originated from Venezuela.
Pentagon officials could not provide a list of the designated terrorist organizations at the center of the conflict, a matter that was a major source of frustration for some of the lawmakers who were briefed, according to the person.
Democrats have been pressing Trump to go to Congress and seek war powers authority for such operations.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What the administration laid out at the closed-door classified briefing was perceived by several senators as pursuing a new legal framework that raised questions particularly regarding the role of Congress in authorizing any such action, the person familiar with the matter said.
As the administration takes aim at vessels in the Caribbean, senators and lawmakers of both major political parties have raised stark objections. Some had previously called on Congress to exert its authority under the war powers act that would prohibit the administration’s strikes unless they were authorized by Congress.
The first military strike, carried out on Sept. 2, on what the Trump administration said was a drug-carrying speedboat, killed 11 people. Trump claimed the boat was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang, which was listed by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year.
The Trump administration has justified the military action as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.
But several senators, Democrats and some Republicans, as well as human rights groups questioned the legality of Trump’s action. They called it potential overreach of executive authority in part because the military was used for law enforcement purposes.
By claiming his campaign against drug cartels is an active armed conflict, Trump appears to be claiming extraordinary wartime powers to justify his action.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
By MICHAEL PHILLIS and MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is cancelling $7.6 billion in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects in 16 states, all of which voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election.
The cuts were announced in a social media post late Wednesday by Russell Vought, the White House budget director: “Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled.”
These cuts are likely to affect battery plants, hydrogen technology projects, upgrades to the electric grid and carbon-capture efforts, among many others, according to the environmental nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council.
The Energy Department said in a statement Thursday that 223 projects were terminated after a review determined they did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs or were not economically viable. Officials did not provide details about which projects are being cut, but said funding came from the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and other DOE bureaus.
The cuts include $1.2 billion for California’s hydrogen hub that is aimed at accelerating hydrogen technology and production, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. The private sector has committed $10 billion for the hydrogen hub, Newsom’s office said, adding that canceling the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems threatens over 200,000 jobs.
“Clean hydrogen deserves to be part of California’s energy future — creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs and saving billions in health costs,” the Democratic governor said.
California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla called cancelation of the project “vindictive, shortsighted and proof this administration is not serious about American energy dominance.”
The DOE said it has reviewed billions of dollars awarded by the Biden administration after Trump won the presidential election last November. More than a quarter of the rescinded grants were awarded between Election Day and Inauguration Day, the department said. The awards totaled more than $3.1 billion.
“President Trump promised to protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy. Today’s cancellations deliver on that commitment,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said.
The Trump administration has broadly targeted climate programs and clean energy, and is proposing to roll back vehicle emission and other greenhouse gas rules it says can’t be justified. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed overturning a 2009 finding that climate change threatens public health. Many climate scientists have criticized the EPA effort as biased and misleading.
Democrats and environmental organizations were quick to slam the latest cuts, saying they would raise energy costs.
“This is yet another blow by the Trump administration against innovative technology, jobs and the clean energy needed to meet skyrocketing demand,” said Jackie Wong, a senior vice president at NRDC.
Vought said the projects being cut are in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state.
The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
Russell Vought, Office of Management and Budget director, listens as he addresses members of the media outside the West Wing at the White House in Washington, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and STEPHEN GROVES, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gathered in the unusually quiet halls of the U.S. Capitol, Republican leaders faced the cameras for a second day and implored Democrats to reopen the government.
“We want to protect hardworking federal workers,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday morning, before criticizing his counterparts. “Democrats are the ones who have decided to inflict the pain.”
It’s a striking role reversal. Budget standoffs for years have been the bane of Republican congressional leaders who had to wrestle with conservatives on their side ready to shut down the government to get their policy demands. Democrats often stood as willing partners to keeping the government open, lending crucial votes to protect programs they had championed.
“Both parties have completely flip-flopped to the opposite side of the same issue that hasn’t changed,” said GOP Sen. Rand Paul. “Congress has truly entered the upside down world.”
The change is happening in large part because President Donald Trump exercises top-down control over a mostly unified GOP — and faces little internal resistance to his budget priorities. The shift is unfolding as the shutdown threatens government services, forces the furlough of federal workers and gives the Trump administration another opportunity to remake the federal government.
Democrats, meanwhile, have been left scrambling for leverage in the first year of Trump’s second term, using the funding fight to exert what influence they can. It’s an awkward posture for a party that has long cast itself as the adults in the room during shutdown threats — something not lost on Republicans.
At a Wednesday morning news conference, Republicans looped an old clip of New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declaring, “It’s not normal to shut down the government if we don’t get what we want.”
A new GOP consensus on short-term spending
Short-term government funding legislation — known as continuing resolutions on Capitol Hill – once roiled hardline conservatives who viewed them as a dereliction of their duty to set the government’s funding levels. That fight became so bitter in 2023 that right-wing lawmakers initiated the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker after he relied on Democrats to pass a “clean” continuing resolution.
But now, Paul of Kentucky has been the lone Republican to join Senate Democrats in opposing a short-term funding measure backed by GOP leaders that would keep government funding generally at current levels through Nov. 21. In explaining his vote, Paul said the measure “continues Biden spending levels” which Trump had previously pledged to roll back.
Many of Paul’s previous fiscal hawk allies, however, have changed their tune.
“We need to reopen the government. Let’s fix America’s problems, let’s work together to solve them, but let’s reopen the government,” Vice President JD Vance said Thursday.
When he was in the Senate, Vance never voted in favor of final passage of a continuing resolution. Instead he argued that the leverage should be used to gain significant policy wins.
“Why shouldn’t we be trying to force this government shutdown fight to get something out of it that’s good for the American people?” Vance said last September on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast.
This week, Vance said: “You don’t have policy disagreements that serve as the basis for a government shutdown.”
Trump’s budget director, Russ Vought, has also taken a new tack now that he is back in the White House. While Joe Biden was president, Vought directed a conservative organization called The Center for Renewing America and counseled Republicans in Congress to use the prospect of a shutdown to gain policy concessions.
Yet this week, he charged that Democrats were “hostage taking” as they demanded that Congress take up health care policy.
In retaliation, Vought has threatened to initiate mass layoffs of federal workers and Wednesday announced that the White House was withholding funding for already approved projects in some blue states.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Mn., center, with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., from right, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel ,Balce Ceneta)
Trump’s tight grip unifies the GOP on the surface
The shutdown, which began Wednesday, shows no sign of resolution. Republicans appear increasingly comfortable with their position, reflecting Trump’s firm control on the party’s agenda.
In a striking contrast to the internal division that once plagued GOP spending fights, party leaders displayed unity on the Capitol balcony on the first day of the shutdown.
“The President, House Republicans, Senate Republicans, we’re all united on this,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said at the gathering, while holding the pages of the Republicans’ continuing resolution that has already passed the House. That bill would reopen the government if it passed the Senate.
Trump’s second term has seen far less resistance from Republicans than his first. His major tax and spending proposal, along with his personnel appointments, have largely moved forward unchallenged — a break from his first term when GOP lawmakers frequently pushed back against his proposals and actions.
Still, tensions remain just below the surface. The Republican administration’s push for aggressive spending cuts — and its resistance to renewing certain health care subsidies — has sparked quiet concern inside the party.
Signs of Republican unease
One of the biggest flashpoints is the impending expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Some Republicans are sympathetic to the Democratic demands for an extension of the tax credits. If they allowed to expire, there will be large rate increases for many people who purchase their health care coverage on the marketplace. It would add financial stress to key Republican constituencies like small business owners, contractors, farmers and ranchers.
When Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, floated a one-year extension to the health care subsidies during a Senate floor vote Wednesday, it attracted attention from Democrats and Republicans alike.
“Sometimes there’s a misunderstanding that we’re divided on the ACA credits, we’re not. So now we’re moving forward to eliminate the fraud and also find a way back to pre-pandemic levels,” Rounds said.
There’s also a growing unease with how the Trump administration is leading Republicans through the shutdown. GOP lawmakers feel they hold the political advantage in the fight, but some are beginning to express doubts as the president and his budget director prepare to unleash mass layoffs and permanent program cuts.
Trump’s penchant for hurling insults at Democratic lawmakers – many who will be crucial to leading Congress out of the spending impasse – has also undercut the messaging of Republican leaders. When Johnson was asked Thursday what he thought about Trump posting doctored videos of House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero, he offered a bit of advice for his Democratic counterpart.
“Man, just ignore it,” Johnson said.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., and GOP leaders, from left, Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., speak during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
On Monday, YouTube became the latest media and tech company to settle one of President Donald Trump’s lawsuits.
The Google-owned streamer agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit Trump filed after his account was banned following the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol. That brings Trump’s haul from media and tech companies to more than $90 million in the last year.
Some of these suits deal with conflicts the president has experienced with news networks such as ABC and CBS. Others confront the fallout from the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Some of the settlement money will pay for renovations to a presidential library Trump is building on 2.6 acres of waterfront property in Miami. Other funds will go to the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall, with the intention of building a Mar-a-Lago-style ballroom, which is expected to cost $200 million overall.
Here’s a rundown of the payouts:
YouTube: $24.5 million
After the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, YouTube suspended the president’s account on the platform because of Trump’s alleged role in the insurrection. At the time, the company had cited “concerns about the ongoing potential for violence” and violation of its “policies for inciting violence.”
Trump’s lawsuit, filed in 2021 at the U.S. District Court in Northern California, argued the account’s suspension was “censorship.” Before the case was settled, YouTube had already lifted its suspension on Trump in March 2023, in light of the then-upcoming presidential race.
In court documents filed Monday, Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube and Google, did not admit any wrongdoing in the matter. The company did not agree to make any policy or product changes in the deal.
Of the $24.5 million, $22 million is going to Trump, who will contribute the money to the Trust for the National Mall, which is “dedicated to restoring, preserving, and elevating the National Mall” as well as supporting the construction of the White House State Ballroom, according to the filing.
Alphabet will also have to pay an additional $2.5 million to other plaintiffs in the case, including the American Conservative Union and writer Naomi Wolf.
Meta and Twitter (X): $35 million
Social media platforms Facebook (now Meta) and Twitter (now X) had suspended Trump’s accounts over Jan. 6, 2021. At the time, Twitter put out a statement, saying that recent tweets from his “account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter” had to be suspended to avoid “the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Mark Zuckerberg of Meta also posted a statement on Facebook after banning Trump’s Meta accounts. He wrote, “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.”
In July of that year, Trump sued the companies for “censorship.”
By January 2023, Meta had reinstated Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, as had X in 2022.
Shortly before Trump was going to take office for his second term, in January 2025, Meta decided to pay the incoming president $25 million to settle the lawsuit. Elon Musk, who had purchased Twitter and renamed it “X” in the interim, agreed to pay $10 million to settle its Trump case.
Paramount Global: $16 million
Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to resolve Trump’s legal salvo against “60 Minutes” over the editing of an interview with his 2024 opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump claimed “60 Minutes” edited an interview with Harris to make her look better and bolster her chances in the election. CBS denied the claims, saying the edits were standard and the case was viewed as frivolous by 1st Amendment experts.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that CBS “did everything possible to illegally elect Kamala, including completely and corruptly changing major answers to Interview questions, but it just didn’t work for them.”
Last May, CBS offered $16 million to settle the civil suit filed in Texas. The lump sum included the president’s legal fees and an agreement that “60 Minutes” will release transcripts of interviews with future presidential candidates.
Less than a month after the settlement, the FCC approved Skydance Media’s acquisition of Paramount, which owns CBS.
Disney: $16 million
Earlier this year, ABC news anchor George Stephanopoulos appeared on the network’s “This Week” news program and asserted that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. In May 2023, a jury in New York declined to find Trump liable for rape, but did find him liable for sexual abuse of Carroll.
Trump responded to the on-air comments with a defamation lawsuit filed in federal court in Florida. The lawsuit was settled by ABC News, owned by Disney, last December. Disney agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library and $1 million of Trump’s legal fees.
The settlement also included an editor’s note, posted on the ABC News website, expressing regret for Stephanopoulos’ comments.
(Los Angeles Times staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.)
President Donald Trump departs the White House for a quick flight to Quantico, Virginia, where he will meet with a gathering of generals and admirals on Sept. 30, 2025. (Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press Wire/TNS)
The Trump administration is continuing its push to revise federal guidelines to delay the hepatitis B vaccine newborn dose for most children. This comes despite a failed attempt to do so at the most recent meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Both President Donald Trump and some newly appointed ACIP members have mischaracterized how the liver disease spreads, according to medical experts, including those working at the CDC. The ACIP panel’s recommendations can determine insurance coverage for immunizations.
At a White House press conference on Sept. 22, Trump, in advocating for delaying the newborn vaccine dose, falsely claimed that hepatitis B is solely a sexually transmitted infection.
“Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted. There’s no reason to give a baby that’s almost just born hepatitis B. So I would say wait till the baby is 12 years old and formed and take hepatitis B,” Trump said.
Hepatitis B is a highly infectious virus that attacks the liver and is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids, including blood. It can also be passed from mother to baby.
A reporter asked if Trump had spoken with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the CDC, about making the change, and Trump said he had, as Kennedy looked on.
Although hepatitis B is often associated with high-risk behaviors such as injection drug use or having multiple sexual partners, health experts, including career CDC scientists, note that the virus can be transmitted in ordinary situations too, including among young children.
At the latest ACIP meeting, held Sept. 18 and 19, members debated postponing the hepatitis B newborn dose until 1 month of age.
CDC scientist Adam Langer outlined research showing incidences of unvaccinated children born in the U.S. to mothers who tested negative, later becoming infected with hepatitis B. Langer serves as acting principal deputy director for the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention.
Langer told the vaccine advisory panel that the virus can survive for over seven days outside the body on surfaces. During that time, contact with even microscopic traces of infected blood on a school desk or on playground or sporting equipment is enough for a child to be infected. This means unvaccinated children not considered at high risk can still be exposed in everyday environments, or by an infected caregiver.
“We do have data that says that it can happen and that it is likely to happen,” he said. Though the exact cause of infection may not be clear in documented cases of children of hepatitis B-negative mothers becoming infected, “I can tell you that it didn’t come from the mother and it didn’t come from injection drug use and it didn’t come from sexual contact, so that means that it had to have been some kind of casual contact,” Langer said.
Yet during the debate, some members gave little credence to the risk of transmission to children through household contact.
“This is a very, very important vaccine that should be given to the high-risk populations,” said ACIP voting member Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “The high-risk populations seem to be babies born to hep B-positive mothers, drug addicts, and other populations at high risk,” he said, despite Langer’s presentation highlighting other avenues of possible transmission.
Contrary to research that was presented, Levi later said the risk of not vaccinating children of hepatitis B-negative mothers was “probably close to zero” in the first few years of life.
The CDC estimates 2.4 million people in the U.S. have hepatitis B and half do not know they are infected. The disease can range from an acute, mild infection to a chronic infection, often with few to no symptoms. The disease has no cure and, if left untreated, can lead to serious conditions like cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer later in life.
During debate on the vote to delay the newborn dose, ACIP member Joseph Hibbeln said that the proposed one-month gap would leave some children vulnerable to the virus, even if their mothers test negative for hepatitis B.
“This assumes implicitly that all the infections are coming from moms,” Hibbeln said. “You can’t decide on that simply by the mother’s status. You would have to look at the entire household’s status.”
ACIP member Evelyn Griffin, an obstetrician and gynecologist, asserted that doctors could ascertain an entire household’s hepatitis B status by asking the mother.
“How are they going to know?” Hibbeln said. “If 50% of people don’t know that they are hepatitis B-positive, you can ask all you want, and nobody knows.”
The committee members, all handpicked by Kennedy, ultimately decided to table the vote on whether to delay the newborn dose after Hibbeln brought up inconsistencies in the wording of the text of the resolution.
“The notion that hepatitis B is only confined to transmission for prostitutes, drug users, etc. is such an ignorant and uninformed way of approaching infectious disease,” internist Jason Goldman, the president of the American College of Physicians and its liaison to ACIP, said when reached after the meeting.
“The virus does not care what your behavior or lifestyle is. The virus goes from person to person through bodily fluids,” Goldman said. It can be transmitted when an unvaccinated person touches infected bodily fluids on common surfaces and then accidentally touches the eyes or mouth. “What if someone was in a car accident and got exposed to blood?”
“It is not only mother-to-fetus transmission, it is not only certain risk groups,” he said. “This is why it’s universal; everyone should get this for their protection, and it is unfortunate that it is being politicized into a sexually transmitted disease and that’s it. That’s not an appropriate way to evaluate science.”
Pediatric vaccination recommendations are widely credited with nearly eliminating the virus in American-born children.
Babies infected at birth have a 90% chance of developing chronic hepatitis B, and a quarter of those children go on to have severe complications, like liver cancer, or to die from the disease.
In 1991, federal health officials determined newborns should receive their first dose of a hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth, which can block the virus from taking hold if transmitted during delivery. From 1990 to 2022, case rates of hepatitis B declined by more than 99%. While parents may opt out of the shots, many day care centers and school districts require proof of hepatitis B vaccination for enrollment.
The next meeting of the ACIP is scheduled to begin Oct. 22. Agendas are usually posted weeks in advance, but so far, no information on the substance of the upcoming meeting has appeared on the CDC’s website. The agenda for the September meeting was posted less than a week before the meeting’s start.
Evelyn Griffin is seen during a meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Sept. 19, 2025, in Chamblee, Georgia. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images North America/TNS)
By PAUL WISEMAN and CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) — Shutdowns of the federal government usually don’t leave much economic damage. But the one that started Wednesday looks riskier, not least because President Donald Trump is threatening to use the standoff to permanently eliminate thousands of government jobs and the state of the economy is already precarious.
For now, financial markets are shrugging off the impasse as just the latest failure of Republicans and Democrats to agree on a budget and keep the government running.
“Everyone seems quite complacent about the shutdown, assuming the Democrats and Republicans will come to terms and life will go on, as has been the case in past shutdowns,” the independent economist Ed Yardeni wrote in a commentary Thursday. “History could certainly repeat, especially with a man known for dealmaking sitting in the Oval Office.”
But given the chasm separating the two political parties, Yardeni added, “the lack of caution is somewhat surprising.”
The U.S. government has now shut down 21 times in the past half century. The last of those shutdowns was the longest — stretching five weeks in December 2018 into January 2019 during Trump’s first term.
Even that one barely left a mark on the world’s biggest economy: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it shaved just 0.02% off 2019 U.S. gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services.
The economic impact of shutdowns is usually fleeting. Federal workers get furloughed and the federal government delays some spending while they last. When they’re over, federal workers go back to their jobs and collect back pay, and the government belatedly spends the money it had withheld. It’s pretty much a wash.
“Government shutdowns are inconvenient and messy,″ said Scott Helfstein, head of investment strategy at the investment firm Global X. ”But there is little evidence that they have a significant impact on the economy. Typically, the lost economic activity, if meaningful in the first place, is recovered in the following quarter.″
Government benefit payments that provide crucial income support for millions of Americans, such as Social Security, and health care programs such as Medicare, won’t be disrupted by the shutdown.
Data from previous shutdowns have shown little impact on U.S. GDP unless they are extended, according to CBO Director Phillip Swagel. “The impact is not immediate, but over time, there is a negative impact of a shutdown on the economy,” he recently told The Associated Press.
The damage could be worse this go-around.
First, some government agencies dodged the 2018-2019 shutdown because they’d received funding in advance and could just continue operating. That hasn’t happened this time: The CBO estimates that about 750,000 federal employees could be temporarily laid off.
Trump is also considering something more destructive: His budget office has threatened the mass firing of federal workers this time, not just putting them on temporary furlough.
A “reduction in force” would not only lay off employees but eliminate their positions, threatening more upheaval for a workforce that’s already been purged by Trump. “We’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected, and they’re Democrats. They’re going to be Democrats,” the president said Tuesday.
Thomas Ryan of Capital Economics wrote in a commentary that “it is reasonable to assume that (Trump’s mass layoff threat) is political bluster, aimed at pressuring Democrats to approve a funding extension without concessions.” But, he added, “if followed through, it could have longer-term consequences, prolonging government downsizing and keeping the sector as a drag on payrolls into next year.”
Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, estimates that the shutdown and temporary loss of income for federal workers could shave 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points from the nation’s annual growth rate in the fourth quarter for each week the government is closed. Some of that will be recovered once it reopens.
“The economic costs of government shutdowns are normally minimal unless they last for several weeks,” Sweet wrote.
The showdown also comes at a time when the job market is already under strain, damaged by the lingering effects of high interest rates and uncertainty around Trump’s erratic campaign to slap taxes on imports from almost every country on earth and on specific products — from copper to foreign films.
Labor Department revisions earlier this month showed that the economy created 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the year that ended in March. That meant that employers added an average of fewer than 71,000 new jobs a month over that period, not the 147,000 first reported. Since March, job creation has slowed even more — to an average 53,000 a month. During the 2021-2023 hiring boom that followed COVID-19 lockdowns, by contrast, the economy was creating 400,000 jobs a month.
The September jobs report was supposed to come out Friday — forecasters had expected to see 50,000 new jobs last month — but has been delayed indefinitely by the shutdown.
The economy is sending mixed signals, however. GDP growth came in at a strong 3.8% annual pace from April through June, reversing a 0.6% drop in the first three months of the year. But it’s not yet clear if that solid growth can continue, or if it will spur a rebound in hiring.
“The economy is very much on a ‘knife’s edge,’” said Michael Linden, senior policy fellow at the left-leaning Washington Center for Equitable Growth. “The economic data is pointing in different directions right now. Second-quarter GDP growth was strong, but how much of that was merely a bounce back from incredibly weak first quarter GDP is hard to know. What we know for sure is that the economy is creating fewer jobs, wage growth is slowing, and middle-class consumers are feeling pinched.”
Associated Press Writer Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this story.
The US. Capitol is photographed, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Detroit is known for its cars, but it’s also known for creating a lot of space for those cars.
Wide roads with many lanes cross the city and its suburbs.
But there’s a real push from Detroit planners to change that — to make our streets more compatible and safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and to slow down motorists.
Three years ago, Detroit published a “Streets for People” report about how to improve its streets.
And earlier this week, a city official told The Metro that Detroit plans to make a series of truck route restrictions in Southwest. That regulation is meant to prevent big trucks from navigating neighborhood blocks.
Producer Sam Corey spoke with Wayne State Urban Planner Eric Bettis about why Detroit has wide roads, and whether the city is trying to durably change that.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans and Democrats spent the first day of the federal government shutdown blaming each other for the dysfunction, as iconic sites representing the nation’s core identity — from the Liberty Bell in Pennsylvania to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii — were temporarily closed.
The Trump administration enlisted Vice President JD Vance for an appearance in the White House briefing room to argue, falsely, that Democrats refused to keep the government funded because they were trying to extend health coverage to people in the country illegally.
Neither side said it would budge, but, as the finger-pointing persisted, the economic pain became more likely to spread — potentially putting hundreds of thousands of jobs and basic services at risk.
‘We are going to have to lay people off’
Callers to the White House comment line heard a recorded message from press secretary Karoline Leavitt stating: “Democrats in Congress have shut down the federal government because they care more about funding health care for illegal immigrants than they care about serving you, the American people.” Several federal agencies posted overtly partisan messages on their websites blaming Democrats for the shutdown.
The White House underscored its argument by reviving a deepfake video posted by President Donald Trump of House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries in a fake mustache and sombrero, a meme that Jeffries described as bigoted. They played it on repeat in the White House briefing room, though Vance promised that the “sombrero memes will stop” when the government reopens.
Jeffries responded with a meme of his own superimposing an image of Vance with a fat head and curly, long hair. “JD Vance thinks we will surrender to the Republican effort to gut healthcare because of a Sombrero meme. Not happening Bro,” Jeffries wrote in a post on X.
Vance said he couldn’t predict how long the shutdown might go on, but also said he didn’t believe it would be lengthy because some moderate Senate Democrats might soon vote with GOP colleagues to restore funding.
“Let’s be honest, if this thing drags on for another few days or, God forbid, another few weeks, we are going to have to lay people off,” Vance said.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said that Trump has refused to negotiate in good faith and that the claims of Democrats closing the government for immigrants in the country illegally is a lie.
“Donald Trump says it loud and clear: He is using the American people as pawns, threatening pain on the country as blackmail,” Schumer said.
The White House’s key policy priorities, including an aggressive deportation agenda, may continue with few disruptions. But education, environmental and other services may eventually sputter. The economic fallout could further imperil an already weakening job market, as a jobs report Wednesday by payroll processor ADP showed that private employers cut 32,000 jobs last month.
The Trump administration has also begun targeting funding projects in Democratic states.
White House budget director Russ Vought announced Wednesday a hold on roughly $18 billion in payments to build the Hudson Rail Tunnel and the Second Avenue subway line in New York City, two projects dear to Schumer. He later announced that almost $8 billion in green energy projects would be withheld for 16 states, all states represented by two Democrats in the Senate.
Mixed polling
The last government shutdown came in late 2018 and early 2019, during Trump’s first administration. It centered on a fight between both parties over funding for a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border and lasted more than 30 days. But Congress had already passed separate funding measures then that ensured that shutdown only partially affected government services, and wasn’t as widespread as this one might be.
Trump took most of the blame for the last shutdown, with an AP-NORC poll conducted during it, showing about 7 in 10 Americans said Donald Trump had “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility.
This time, about two-thirds of registered voters in a recent New York Times/Siena poll conducted before the shutdown said the Democrats should not allow the government to halt even if their demands were not met.
Still, Republicans as the party in power could also face blowback. About one-quarter of registered voters in that poll said they would blame Trump and the Republicans in Congress if a shutdown happened, while about 2 in 10 said they would place blame on congressional Democrats. About one-third said they’d blame both sides equally.
Shutdown starts taking hold
Federal courts will remain fully operational at least through Oct. 17, and potentially life-saving forecasting by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its National Weather Service haven’t been disrupted.
But tours of the Liberty Bell were scrapped, and St. Louis’ Gateway Arch and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston closed. Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Hawaii began Wednesday shuttered, though officials were working with nonprofit partners to get it reopen.
At Acadia National Park in Maine, which gets 4 million visits a year, would-be hikers in search of trail maps checked empty receptacles outside the closed visitors center. With no park rangers in sight, Jim Feather of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, and his wife were unsure about trying to tackle Cadillac Mountain, with its panoramic views of the North Atlantic coast.
“It’s frustrating that they’re playing politics in D.C.,” Feather said. “Their job is to pass a budget. And if they’re not doing their job, what are they doing down there?”
Associated Press writers Lindsay Whitehurst and Darlene Superville in Washington, Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu, Alexa St. John in Detroit and Robert F. Bukaty at Acadia National Park contributed to this report.
A sign announces that the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center is closed, on the first day of a partial government shutdown, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The U.S. government is taking a minority stake in Lithium Americas, a company that is developing one of the world’s largest lithium mines in northern Nevada.
The Department of Energy will take a 5% equity stake in the miner, which is based in Vancouver. It will also take a 5% stake in the Thacker Pass lithium mining project, a joint venture with General Motors.
Thacker Pass is considered crucial in reducing U.S. reliance on China for lithium, a critical material used to produce the high tech batteries used in cell phones, electric vehicles and renewable energy. Both Republicans and Democrats support the project and narrowing the production gap. China is the world’s largest lithium processor.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement that the deal with Lithium Americas “helps reduce our dependence on foreign adversaries for critical minerals by strengthening domestic supply chains and ensures better stewardship of American taxpayer dollars.”
Thacker Pass is expected to produce 40,000 metric tons of battery-quality lithium carbonate per year in its first phase, enough to help power 800,000 EVs.
Lithium Americas said Wednesday that it reached a non-binding agreement in principle with the DOE to advance the first draw of $435 million on the federal loan. The DOE has agreed to defer $182 million of debt service over the first five years of the loan.
FILE – An “Access Restricted” sign is displayed at the Lithium Nevada Corp. mine site at Thacker Pass, April 24, 2023, near Orovada, Nev. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
FILE – Construction continues at the Lithium Nevada Corp. mine site Thacker Pass project, April 24, 2023, near Orovada, Nev. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
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FILE – An “Access Restricted” sign is displayed at the Lithium Nevada Corp. mine site at Thacker Pass, April 24, 2023, near Orovada, Nev. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
The White House and Canada’s Lithium Americas seemed to be moving forward with the deal late last month, as both parties agreed on changes to an approximately $2.3 billion federal loan that could allow the project to move forward to extract the silver-white metal used in electric vehicle batteries. GM has pledged more than $900 million to help develop Thacker Pass, which holds enough lithium to build 1 million electric vehicles annually.
Dan Ives, an analyst with Wedbush, called Thacker Pass is a “massive opportunity” for the U.S. to reduce its reliance on China and other foreign adversaries for lithium.
“Despite having some of the largest deposits, the U.S. produced less than 1% of the global lithium supply but this deal helps reduce dependence on foreign adversaries for critical minerals strengthening domestic supply chains and ensuring better stewardship of American taxpayer dollars with lithium production set to grow exponentially over the coming years,” he wrote.
Shares of Lithium Americas spiked more than 30% Wednesday.
FILE – Construction continues at the Lithium Nevada Corp. mine site Thacker Pass project, April 24, 2023, near Orovada, Nev. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A week after her decisive win in an Arizona special election, Adelita Grijalva arrived at the U.S. Capitol, where her father had served for decades.
But as she roamed the familiar halls, she said she could not help but feel like a tourist. With the House out of session, her swearing in has been delayed. That left her without an office, a desk, staff — something of an unofficial new member of Congress.
“It’s very frustrating,” she told The Associated Press after from a late evening meeting of House Democrats. She said it’s unfair to the residents she will be serving in the Arizona’s seventh district, with “no one voting for them, no constituent services, no support.”
The delay plays out as Republicans pursue President Donald Trump’s agenda in Congress, where they hold slim majorities in both the House and Senate, leading to intense partisan battles — including the government shutdown.
Grijalva’s presence, once she is sworn in, would narrow the margins and give Democrats, in the minority, more power as they confront Trump and the GOP agenda.
House Speaker Mike Johnson says it’s “standard practice” to swear in new members once the House is in session, and Grijalva is expected to be sworn in when the chamber resumes business next week. But two Republican congressmen who were elected earlier this year in special elections were sworn in a day after winning their seats, and when the House was not in session.
“I don’t know why the rules are different for me,” Grijalva said.
Democrats accuse Johnson of delaying Grijalva’s swearing-in because it improves their chances of forcing a vote for the release of the Justice Department files on the sex trafficking investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein. Grijalva has pledged to back that effort and would be the last signatory needed for a petition to force that vote, joining Democrats and some Republicans.
“The Republicans are blocking her from her position because they want to protect pedophiles. It’s a disgrace,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from the same state, said in a post on X.
Earlier this week, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts sent a letter to Johnson, criticizing his cancelation of previously scheduled votes Tuesday and Wednesday, saying the decision jeopardized negotiations to avoid a government shutdown and delayed the swearing-in of Grijalva.
Clark charged that “common practice” for special elections in which results are not in doubt is for the swearing-in to take place “at the earliest opportunity.”
“Any delay in swearing in Representative-elect Grijalva unnecessarily deprives her constituents of representation and calls into question if the motive behind the delay is to further avoid the release of the Epstein files,” Clark wrote in the letter.
The speaker’s office sent the AP a statement saying Johnson intends to schedule the swearing-in next week.
“As is standard practice, with the House now having received the appropriate paperwork from the state, the Speaker’s Office intends to schedule a swearing in for the Representative-elect when the House returns to session,” a spokesperson said.
Both chambers of Congress were out of session last week and part of this week in observance of the Jewish holy days.
Arizona Democratic candidate Adelita Grijalva speaks to supporters after being declared the winner against Republican Daniel Butierez to fill the Congressional District 7 seat held by the late U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva in a special election Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Grijalva was elected to replace her father, the late U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a progressive Democrat who represented the state for more than two decades in Congress before his death in March.
The newcomer won the seat in southern Arizona last week with more than double the votes of her Republican opponent, making her the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress.
The congressional office closed the day after the election, she said, and there are no services being offered at the moment for constituents of the district, which hugs almost the entire length of Arizona’s border with Mexico.
Grijalva was in the Capitol this week, and the chamber did open briefly as some Democrats gathered to push their demands to save health care funds as part of a deal to keep the government funded.
“There’s no justification to further delay the representative-elect from being sworn in as a member of the House,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Wednesday, saying he expects it to happen next Tuesday.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who has pushed for the release of the Epstein files, had said he was looking forward to Grijalva’s arrival.
“I encourage Speaker Johnson to follow applicable laws and House precedent to ensure Rep.-elect Grijalva is sworn in at her earliest eligibility,” Massie said in a statement provided to the AP. _______ Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Matt Brown contributed to this report from Washington.
Arizona Democratic candidate Adelita Grijalva listens to her children speak at the stage podium after being declared the winner against Republican Daniel Butierez, to fill the Congressional District 7 seat held by the late U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva in a special election Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
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