Happy Thursday! President Joe Biden visited Poughkeepsie, New York, where he again touted the benefits of the CHIPS and Science Act he signed into law in August, which provided $52 billion in federal subsidies for semiconductor manufacturing, among other provisions. Biden today pointed to a $20 billion investment in semiconductors, mainframe technology and quantum computers that IBM is making over 10 years. "Folks, we need to make these chips here in America to bring down everyday cost and create good-paying American jobs," Biden said.
Here's what else is happening while we await tomorrow’s start of Major League Baseball’s postseason.
This Year’s Lame Duck Will Be Spicy
The need to provide tens of billions of dollars in Hurricane Ian relief money for Florida will add to what was already going to be a busy post-election lame duck session of Congress, which will include a December 16 deadline to fund the government and avoid a partial shutdown.
The Politico team notes that FEMA has enough money to cover immediate needs for Florida, meaning there’s less time pressure to pass a supplemental funding bill — but that hurricane aid, and a host of other measures, could be packaged with the must-pass bill to fund the federal government after December 16.
Among the other legislative priorities that could be bundled with the spending bill: Covid and monkeypox aid, a renewal of the Democrats’ enhanced Child Tax Credit that expired last year and a tax break for businesses’ research expenses. Oh, and then there’s the government’s debt limit, which will need to be raised within months and could be the subject of a risky partisan showdown if Republicans control the House in 2023.
The must-pass government funding legislation could also be the subject of some political maneuvering depending on the election results. "[I]f Republicans do wrest back control of the House, there’s growing chatter among some conservatives about derailing that bill until after New Year’s to maximize their leverage," Politico reports.
A sequester scuffle? Roll Call’s Paul M. Zrawzak points to another wrinkle in the potential budget drama during the lame duck session: A 2010 budgeting law could result in more than $100 billion in automatic spending cuts if lawmakers don’t step in to prevent those "sequester" cuts as they have done repeatedly in previous years. "At stake are as much as $37 billion in cuts to Medicare payments next year, on top of other scheduled cuts to health care providers that have hospital and physician groups up in arms," Krawzak writes. "Other at-risk funds include $12 billion in payments to the military retirement fund for veterans who also receive disability benefits, $11 billion for farm price supports and much more, according to analysts at Piper Sandler, an investment bank."
Blocking those automatic cuts requires 60 votes in the Senate, and it’s not clear yet — and may not be clear until after the elections —what kind of pressure Republicans will face to avert the blunt spending cuts. The Piper Sandler analysts reportedly told clients recently that lawmakers aren’t likely to be in a compromising mood for the lame duck session, but that a delay in the sequester cuts of a few months to a year may be the most likely outcome.
Read more at Roll Call or Politico about what may or may not happen during the lame duck session.
Numbers of the Day
$290 Million: The Department of Health and Human Services said this week that it has spent $290 million purchasing a supply of the drug Nplate, which is used to treat people exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. The department said it made the purchase as "part of long-standing, ongoing efforts to be better prepared to save lives following radiological and nuclear emergencies." There was no mention of the war in Ukraine or recent threats by President Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons, but it’s hard not to make the connection. Fierce Pharma’s Fraiser Kansteiner writes that the move "could be a troubling sign of the times."
$240 Million: The U.S. will spend $240 million on humanitarian assistance to "help meet the needs of refugees and migrants throughout our hemisphere," Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Thursday at a meeting of the Organization of American States in Lima, Peru. The additional funding will help pay for health care, housing, education and legal assistance for migrants, as well as provide law enforcement with resources to "help partner governments find criminals and human traffickers who prey on vulnerable people." The Biden administration reportedly is focused on addressing the root causes of immigration in the region, including poverty and corruption in many of the countries that migrants are fleeing.
25,465: According to the State Department, the U.S. resettled 25,465 refugees in the country during the 2022 fiscal year, well short of President Joe Biden’s goal of 125,000, but more than twice the 11,000 refugees resettled the year before. About half of the resettled refugees came from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria. The numbers do not reflect the recent influx of thousands of refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine, many of whom are in the U.S. under conditions of temporary "humanitarian parole," and some percentage of whom will likely end up resettled in the U.S. following a lengthy review process.
News
- Buckle Up, Congress: A ‘Very Lame’ Lame Duck Is Coming After the Election – Politico
- Concerns Grow About Lame-Duck Appetite to Stop Steep Budget Cuts – Roll Call
- Biden to Pardon All Federal Offenses of Simple Marijuana Possession in First Major Steps Toward Decriminalization – CNN
- I.M.F. to Lower Global Outlook as Recession Risks Rise – New York Times
- The Fed Wants to Quash Inflation. But Can It Do It More Gently? – New York Times
- Fed’s Bostic-Daly Double Team Fails to Quash 2023 Rate Cut Bets – Bloomberg
- Yellen Warns of Acute ‘Spillover’ Effects of Interest Rate Hikes on Developing Countries – The Hill
- Treasuries Liquidity Problem Exposes Fed to ‘Biggest Nightmare’ – Bloomberg
- Blinken Pledges $240 Million in New Aid for Migrants and Refugees – Bloomberg
- Ukraine Reworks Its Weapons Wish List as Winter Approaches – Politico
- Critic of Biden Border Policy in Line to Oversee DHS Budget – Roll Call
- Current Rules Stymie Opioid Studies, Researchers Say – Politico
- More Than 2.5 Million US Middle and High School Students Say They Currently Use E-Cigarettes, Research Finds – CNN
- Sasse to Retire From Senate, Become University of Florida President – The Hill
- She’s a Doctor. He Was a Limo Driver. They Pitched a $30 Million Arms Deal – New York Times
Views and Analysis
- What a Dream Scenario September Jobs Report Would Look Like – Neil Irwin, Axios
- The Fed Might Just Break the Global Economy – Eric Levitz, New York
- The Political Impacts of Rising Gas Prices – David Dayen, American Prospect
- Blue America Tells Florida, ‘You’re Welcome’ – Paul Waldman, Washington Post
- Young Versus Old Will Define Fight Over Public Pensions – Aaron Brown, Bloomberg
- World's Economy Needs a Supply-Side Revolution – Allison Schrager, Bloomberg
- They Wanted to Blow Up Britain’s Economy, and Liz Truss Let Them – Sam Bright, New York Times
- One of the Most Famous Ideas in Economics Is Wrong – Jacob Soll, Politico
- Americans Are Exhausted From Dealing With Inflation. 6 Experts Offer Ideas for Helping Them Cope – CNN Opinion
- Fully Fund America’s International Affairs Budget – Patrick Murphy and Blair Milo, Defense One
- We Can Kick Our Coal-Burning Addiction. Here Are Some Ideas – Joseph Curtin, New York Times