#congressional-negotiations

#congressional-negotiations

The interchamber tensions between Democrats are becoming a regular feature of funding fights in the second Trump term. Lawmakers, strategists and voters alike exploded in anger last March when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and a handful of colleagues allowed a spending package to move forward amid the Elon Musk-led DOGE assault on federal agencies. In November, tempers again flared when a handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to end a record 43-day shutdown.

As the window for Americans to enroll in an Affordable Care Act health plan closes in most states today, millions of Americans remain in limbo as Congress weighs whether to extend tax subsidies designed to lower the cost of Obamacare insurance. Congress has been locked in a showdown for months over the fate of the enhanced ACA premium tax credits, which expired on Dec. 31. The fight over the subsidies was central to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history,

"Trump 2028," they said, situated across from the seated lawmakers, Vice President JD Vance and several untouched Diet Cokes. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries leaned over to Vance, himself a potential 2028 contender, and quipped, "Hey, bro, you got a problem with this?" The room chuckled in response. "It was the randomest thing in the world, because we're sitting there, we're having a serious conversation, and all of a sudden these two red hats appear," Jeffries recalled later at the Capitol.

immediately meet upon our return to Congress next week