The Senate parliamentarian has advised that a Medicaid provider tax overhaul central to President Donald Trump’s tax cut and spending bill doesn't adhere to the chamber’s procedural rules, delivering a crucial blow as Republicans rush to finish the package this week. Republicans were counting on big cuts to Medicaid and other programs to offset trillions of dollars in Trump tax breaks, their top priority.
The attention falling on Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough’s ruling reflects a broader change in Congress: Lawmakers are increasingly trying to wedge top policy priorities into bills that can’t be filibustered. That process comes with special rules designed to deter provisions unrelated to spending or taxes, and that’s where the parliamentarian comes in, offering analysis of what does and doesn’t qualify.
Trump wants the legislation, which includes tax reductions, Medicaid cuts, and border enforcement, passed by July 4.
Here's the latest:
State Department scaling down its evacuation flights for American citizens from Israel
That’s due to a sharp decline in demand as an Israeli-Iranian ceasefire appears to be holding and commercial airlines are resuming service.
In an internal notice obtained by The Associated Press, the department said the US embassy in Jerusalem had canceled two government flights from Tel Aviv to Athens, Greece, that had been scheduled for Friday “due to a lack of passengers.” It added that only five U.S. citizens had departed on a final charter flight to Rome on Friday and that there had been a significant reduction — by at least one-third, to 89 — in the number of Americans seeking information about departure options since Wednesday.
Since the embassy started evacuation flights last Saturday, roughly 650 Americans left Israel on government flights, although more than 14,650 had contacted the State Department to seek information about departing or to report their departure by either plane, ship or overland travel to Jordan or Egypt, the notice said.
Tentative SALT deal is, in fact, tentative
The White House and House Republicans have narrowed on a plan for one outstanding issue in Trump’s big bill — the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT.
As it stands, they’ve tentatively agreed to the House-passed terms of a $40,000 cap on deductions — but for five years, instead of 10.
The SALT deduction has been a key holdup as lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states negotiate. They want to quadruple what’s now a $10,000 cap. Senate Republicans argued that’s too generous.
One GOP holdout, Rep. Nick LaLota of New York, says he can’t support the compromise.
House Speaker Mike Johnson says ‘very close’ to finishing Trump’s big bill
“We would still like to meet that July 4th, self-imposed deadline,” Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said at the Capitol.
“The president likes that idea. I certainly like that idea” and so does Senate Majority Leader John Thune,” he said. “We are very, very close.”
Trump plans a news conference to celebrate ruling at the Supreme Court
The president posted on his Truth Social media network that it was a “GIANT WIN.”
“Even the Birthright Citizenship Hoax has been, indirectly, hit hard. It had to do with the babies of slaves (same year!), not the SCAMMING of our Immigration process,” Trump said in the post.
He announced he plans to have a news conference at 11:30 a.m. at the White House.
Food stamp cuts are back in Trump’s big bill
The Republican proposal to shift the costs of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, has been accepted by the Senate parliamentarian.
Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Nutrition, and Forestry Committee that handles food aid, said plans to make certain immigrants ineligible for food aid were also accepted.
“This paves the way for important reforms that improve efficiency and management of SNAP,” he said.
But the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, said her party will “keep fighting these proposals that raise grocery costs and take food away from millions of people, including seniors, children, and veterans.”
Supreme Court preserves key part of Obamacare preventive health care coverage requirements
The Friday ruling rejected a challenge from Christian employers to the provision that affects some 150 million Americans.
The 6-3 ruling comes in a lawsuit over how the government decides which health care medications and services must be fully covered by private insurance under former President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare.
The plaintiffs said the process is unconstitutional because a volunteer board of medical experts tasked with recommending which services are covered isn’t Senate approved.
President Trump’s administration defended the mandate before the court, though the Republican president has been a critic of his Democratic predecessor’s law. The Justice Department said board members don’t need Senate approval because they can be removed by the health and human services secretary.
▶ Read more about the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act
Trump’s big bill back on track in the Senate
A flurry of overnight actions appear to be putting the sprawling package of tax breaks and spending cuts in place as senators race for weekend votes.
The Senate parliamentarian accepted a number of revisions to Republican plans that had stalled progress this week.
Senators hope to begin voting this weekend, in time for Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.
Supreme Court limits nationwide injunctions, but fate of Trump birthright citizenship order unclear
A divided Supreme Court on Friday ruled individual judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions, but the decision left unclear the fate of President Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship.
The outcome was a victory for Trump, who has complained about individual judges throwing up obstacles to his agenda.
But a conservative majority left open the possibility that the birthright citizenship changes could remain blocked nationwide. Trump’s order would deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of people who are in the country illegally.
Birthright citizenship automatically makes anyone born in the United States an American citizen, including children born to mothers in the country illegally. The right was enshrined soon after the Civil War in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
▶ Read more about Trump’s order on birthright citizenship
Tax breaks for gun silencers and school vouchers violate rule, Senate parliamentarian says
But steep cuts to SNAP food stamps and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have been revised by Republicans and are now accepted by the parliamentarian as complying with the procedures for Trump’s big bill.
The package is getting back on track after several setbacks as senators race toward a weekend session for votes to deliver by Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.
Trump says US has signed a deal with China on trade, without giving details
And Trump said he expects to soon have a deal with India.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg TV the deal was signed earlier this week. Neither Lutnick nor Trump provided any details about the agreement.
“We just signed with China the other day,” Trump said late Thursday.
Lutnick said the deal was “signed and sealed” two days earlier.
It was unclear if the latest agreement was different from the one Trump announced two weeks earlier that he said would make it easier for American industries to obtain much-needed needed magnets and rare earth minerals. That pact cleared the way for the trade talks to continue, while the U.S. agreed to stop trying to revoke visas of Chinese nationals on U.S. college campuses.
China’s Commerce Ministry said Friday the two sides had “further confirmed the details of the framework.” But its statement didn’t explicitly mention U.S. access to rare earths.
▶ Read more about trade between the U.S. and China
A key inflation move higher in May while Americans cut back on their spending
It’s the latest sign that prices remain stubbornly elevated.
Prices rose 2.3% in May compared with a year ago, up from just 2.1% in April, the Commerce Department said Friday. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.7% from a year earlier, an increase from 2.5% the previous month. Both figures are modestly above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
At the same time, Americans cut back on spending for the first time since January, as overall spending fell 0.1%.
The inflation figures suggest President Trump’s broad-based tariffsare still having only a modest effect on prices. The costs of some goods, such as toys and sporting goods, have risen, but those increases have been partly offset by falling prices for new cars, airline fares, and apartment rentals, among other items.
▶ Read more about consumer spending
Pardon applications are being crafted with one man in mind: Donald Trump
The White House and the Justice Department have received a wave of clemency requests — all carefully crafted to capture the attention and fancy of Trump or those who know his inclinations.
The flurry, legal experts said, has been sparked by Trump’s frequent and eyebrow-raising grants of clemency since retaking office in January. The Republican president has pardoned and commuted the sentences of more than 1,600 people, including many political allies, former GOP officeholders and hundreds charged or convicted in the 2021 Capitol riot. He even pardoned a pair of reality TV stars who were serving time for bank fraud and tax evasion.
In doing so, Trump has largely cast aside a process that historically has been overseen by nonpolitical personnel at the Justice Department who spent their days poring over clemency applications.
▶ Read more about pardon applications to Trump
Trump’s schedule, according to the White House
11 a.m. — Trump receives an intelligence briefing in the Oval Office
3 p.m. — Trump will meet with foreign ministers from Congo and Rwanda in the Oval Office
The Associated Press
