Morning Rundown: A reality check for the Trump economy, air travel mayhem to intensify, and the rise of social media apartment scams
U.S. flights and energy payment assistance for low-income households could become the latest casualties of the spending impasse between Republicans and Democrats.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz presented the 10 elected members of the Security Council yesterday with a draft resolution on the Gaza peace plan, a U.S. official tells NBC News.
The resolution backs the proposed Board of Peace, an international body to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, and authorizes the peacekeeping forces outlined in Trump’s 20-point peace plan, said a spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the U.N.
Waltz was joined by representatives of Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates in what the U.S. official described as “showing clear regional support.”
The elected members of the Security Council include Algeria, Denmark, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Somalia. It wasn’t immediately clear if the U.S. had shared the draft with permanent members Russia and China, who would be able to veto the resolution’s passage.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the U.S. was working on a possible United Nations resolution to support the proposed international peacekeeping force as part of the U.S. brokered peace agreement, which some countries have said is a requirement for their participation.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly in September that his country was ready to deploy peacekeeping forces to the territory.
“If and when the Security Council and this assembly decide, we are ready to deploy 20,000 or even more of our sons and daughters to help secure peace in Gaza or elsewhere in Palestine as part of a united multilateral force so that the two-state solution, so that peace in both Palestine and Israel, can become real, not just envisioned,” Subianto said.
The Federal Aviation Administration will begin cutting the number of flights in the “high-traffic” parts of the country as the government shutdown grinds on and local airports have reported staffing shortages, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said yesterday.
“There is going to be a 10% reduction in capacity at 40 of our locations,” Duffy said. “This is about where’s the pressure and how do we alleviate the pressure.”
He said the reduction in capacity would start tomorrow.
The development comes as the shutdown has entered its second month and in the wake of a weekend during which dozens of American airports reported hundreds of delays.
Read the full story here.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., warned in a statement yesterday that a federal program aimed at assisting low-income households with paying their energy bills could run dry “by the end of this week” if the government shutdown persists.
“This is a life-or-death issue, and it is unconscionable not to fund it,” Burchett said. “I am calling on Senate Democrats to reopen the government and stop elderly Americans from being left out in the cold this winter.”
The $4.1 billion Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program helps pay heating costs during colder months. The program, known by its acronym LIHEAP, serves 5.9 million households, according to the Office of the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services.
NBC News reported in April that the Trump administration terminated the entire staff that was responsible for providing oversight and technical assistance for the program at HHS.
Trump again encouraged Republicans to do away with the filibuster during a Fox New interview that aired last night.
“I think that if we got rid of the filibuster, we would approve so many good things, common sense things, wonderful things, that it would be hard to beat us. If we don’t, it’s always going to be a slog,” Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier.
“I would say absolutely without question, I have no doubt in my mind, get rid of it, and the Republicans should do it,” he added.
Trump’s effort to terminate the filibuster, in an effort to reopen the government without support from Democrats, hit a roadblock with some Republican lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who said that he would work to ensure the legislative filibuster was kept intact during his leadership.
Trump made a similar plea in a video statement posted on Truth Social tonight.
“It’s now time for the Republicans to play their trump card and go for what’s called the nuclear option. Get rid of the filibuster and get rid of it now,” Trump said.
An official with the Agriculture Department told a federal court last night that allotments to SNAP beneficiaries for November will be 65% of their normal rate instead of the 50% previously estimated by the Trump administration.
The administration had told a federal judge Monday that it would use more than $4 billion in contingency funds to distribute half of the monthly benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, during the ongoing government shutdown.
The revised figures mean a family of four in the lower 48 states will receive about $646 for the month.
Read the full story here.
NBC News