House Republican leaders on Wednesday withstood a standoff with renegade members over expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies and passed a GOP health care bill with conservative priorities that wouldn't renew the aid.
Why it matters: The 216-211 vote all but assures that out-of-pocket premiums will more than double on average for roughly 20 million ACA enrollees when the enhanced subsidies expire Jan. 1.
Dan Bongino said Wednesday he'll leave his role as FBI deputy director in January, hours after President Trump told reporters the former conservative commentator "wants to go back to his show."
The big picture: Bongino's roughly nine-monthtenure at the bureau has been marked by controversy over his public comments and recent clashes with the Justice Department.
The big picture: Discharge petitions have been around for decades and have been mostly seen as a "Hail Mary." But recently, they've become more of a QB sneak, to mostly positive results.
A group of House Republican centrists defied House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday and helped House Democrats secure the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Why it matters: It's an extraordinary revolt against GOP leadership that ensures the House will vote on extending the credits for three years.
Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), one of just two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump in 2021 over the Jan. 6 riot, said Wednesday he won't seek reelection to Congress next year.
Why it matters: Newhouse joins a growing bloc of House Republicans fleeing for the exits ahead of what some in the party expect will be a bruising 2026 midterm.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in his Wednesday Senate testimony that the agency he governs "is not an independent agency, formally speaking." During his testimony, the word "independent" was removed from the FCC's mission statement on its website.
Why it matters: The extraordinary statement speaks to a broader trend of regulatory agencies losing power to the executive branch during the Trump era.
Seesawing government policy can wreak havoc on companies.
Exhibit A: Ford Motor Co., which has written off tens of billions in stranded investments over the past 15 years.
Why it matters: Big shifts in political power tend to lead to extreme regulatory swings, too, as policymakers try to steer consumer markets in one direction or another.
Billionaire Ray Dalio will make a "generous contribution" to the "Trump accounts," giving approximately 300,000 children in Connecticut $250 each, or roughly $75 million.
Why it matters: The news came alongside the launch of a website that signaled how White House officials envision the government, corporations and billionaires contributing to the accounts, aimed at improving kids' financial prospects.
Why it matters: The Boulder lab is one of the world's leading institutions for Earth systems and climate research, playing a crucial role in weather forecasting and climate modeling, and its absence would significantly impact U.S. scientific capabilities.
The big picture: Trump has shattered presidential traditions and seized expansive executive power in his first year back in office with a sprawling list of unilateral actions.
Crude prices bounced upward early Wednesday from four-year lows following President Trump ordering a blockade of U.S. sanctioned oil tankers going in and out of Venezuela.
Why it matters: The risk of a disruption in supply has stopped — for now — a long slide that steepened this week.
Europe must quickly acknowledgea "new reality" in which it must "take responsibility for its own security," Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal said at the Washington edition of the Aspen Security Forum.
"After decades of sleep," he added, "hesitation is a luxury Europe cannot afford."
Why it matters: The appeal comes directly from the front lines of war with Russia — a country already sabotaging projects across Europe — and amid uneasy transatlantic attitudes.
Both Kyiv and Brussels have felt the whiplash of America's security-aid rollercoaster.
Apex wants to be the Toyota or Ford of space, according to chief executive Ian Cinnamon. President Trump's hemispheric missile shield could be its golden ticket.
The big picture: Ask around and you'll hear it repeated: The next war will be fought in space.
That's one reason for the surge of speeches, spending and startups focusing on the domain.
The House of Representatives will vote this week on two bills to restrict transgender youths' access to gender-affirming care, including legislation led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that would criminalize providing certain procedures or medications.
The big picture: Even if the bills pass the House, they likely will die in the Senate. But the votes will serve as a barometer of how far Republican lawmakers are willing to go to strip access to gender-affirming care and showcase the issue during the midterms.
The conservative Salem Radio Network is tapping CNN commentator Scott Jennings and Breitbart News' Alex Marlow to fill its national midday slot formerly held by slain activist Charlie Kirk.
Why it matters: The noon–3pm ET block — once commanded by Rush Limbaugh — is a staple of conservative talk radio. Stepping into that window will elevate both men from prominent commentators to central players in the MAGA media ecosystem.
Among executives and investors, confidence in the economy is at four-year highs, two new surveys find.
Why it matters: It's a sign that companies are ready to spend money and hire — good news for the economy heading into a new year — but it's also the kind of optimism that in the past has preceded economic slowdowns.
The Financial Services Forum (FSF), a trade association of the country's largest eight banks, is creating a new nonprofit to spend "tens of millions" of dollars to help inform voters and tell the banking industry's story on its terms, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Chastened by the 2008 financial crisis, America's biggest banks have mostly avoided the limelight in Washington and have tried to work behind the scenes.
Voters swung left in every major election this year since President Trump's return to power in January.
Why it matters: The off-cycle election results — combined with low approval ratings on Trump's handling of the economy — are red flags for Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms.
President Trump designated Venezuela a "foreign terrorist organization" Tuesday and formally ordered a blockade of all U.S. sanctioned oil tankers servicing the country.
Why it matters: Trump's newest escalation, backed by a giant U.S. armada, exerts unprecedented pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro's regime, threatening to bankrupt the country's already struggling economy.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor's shooting death at his home near Boston is being treated as a homicide, authorities said Tuesday.
The big picture: Nuno Gomes Loureiro, 47, a nuclear science and engineering professor, was taken to a hospital Monday evening with "apparent gunshot wounds" and died Tuesday morning, the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office said on social media.
Moderates are furious at Speaker Mike Johnson ahead of tomorrow's big health care day on the House floor.
"It's idiotic, it's political malpractice," Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) told reporters today of Johnson refusing to give them an ACA extension vote.
Why it matters: The speaker is stuck between conservatives who'll never support an ACA extension — and moderates who could be facing pain in 2026.
Johnson met with centrists today in a lunch that got heated.
Outside the room, we could hear Lawler yelling. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) described it as "tense."
Zoom in: Lawler, along with Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), didn't rule out signing on to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' discharge petition.
Democratic lawmakers are privately raising concerns about a little-noticed provision in Rep. Josh Gottheimer's (D-N.J.) discharge petition to extend the Affordable Care Act's premium tax credits for one year, Democratic aides told us.
Why it matters: The discharge petition would also empower a 20-member bipartisan group to draft a health care reform package that would be guaranteed a floor vote next summer — right ahead of the midterm elections.
Discharge petitions, by design, take control of the House floor away from the majority party.
Gottheimer's proposal goes a step further, giving a group of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans the authority to effectively write the health care bill — and set the terms of the debate heading into the election season.
Speaker Johnson and Minority Leader Jeffries — joined by Virginia's delegation — unveiled the newest contribution to the Capitol today.
A statue of the late Barbara Rose Johns, a teenage civil rights activist who protested school segregation in the early 1950s, replaces the Confederate general Robert E. Lee, whose statue was removed in 2020.
Virginia's other statue — each state gets two — is of George Washington.
Members of Congress and Virginia politicians at the unveiling ceremony for a statue of Barbara Rose Johns. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
