The Congressional Budget Office estimates an increase of 10.9 million people without health insurance under President Donald Trump’s big bill, including 1.4 million who are in the country without legal status in state-funded programs. The package would reduce federal outlays, or spending, by $1.3 trillion over that period, the budget office said.
Meanwhile, Trump has promised to hike nearly all of his tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum to a punishing 50% on Wednesday, a move that would hammer businesses from automakers to home builders, and likely push up prices for consumers.
Here's the latest:
Judge tosses Democratic committees’ lawsuit over the Federal Election Commission’s independence
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to block President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing an executive order that Democratic Party officials claim could undermine the independence of the Federal Election Commission.
U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali in Washington ruled late Tuesday that there’s insufficient evidence that the Republican administration intends to apply a key portion of Trump’s executive order to the FEC or its commissioners.
“This Court’s doors are open to the parties if changed circumstances show concrete action or impact on the FEC’s or its Commissioners’ independence,” the judge wrote.
The Democratic Party’s three national political committees sued after Trump signed the executive order in February. The order was intended to increase his control of the entire executive branch, including over agencies such as the FEC, a six-person bipartisan board created by Congress to independently enforce campaign finance law.
▶ Read more about Federal Elections Commission
Trump renegotiating CHIPS Act awards
The Trump administration is renegotiating some grants previously awarded to companies under a law design to reinvigorate semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed in a hearing on Wednesday.
When asked at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing about delays in doling out CHIPS Act funding awarded to some companies, Lutnick said they have been reworking some agreements to try and generate additional domestic investment.
“Are we renegotiating? Absolutely, for the benefit of the American taxpayer, for sure,” Lutnick said. “All the deals are getting better. And the only deals that are not getting done are deals that should have never been done in the first place.”
The CHIPS Act, a law passed in 2022 with bipartisan support, was designed to revive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing while sharpening the U.S. edge in military technology and minimizing future supply chain disruptions.
But recent tariffs and export limitations paired with the administration’s threats against the CHIPS Act, could dramatically slow its goal of ensuring the U.S. maintains a competitive edge in artificial intelligence development.
Homeland Security says its cracking down on visa overstays after attack left several injured in Boulder, Colorado
The Department of Homeland Security says it will be going after people who stay in the U.S. once their visas expire after an Egyptian man who overstayed his visa was charged with injuring several people in Boulder, Colorado.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, is among hundreds of thousands of people known to overstay their visas each year in the United States.
In a news release Wednesday, Homeland Security said that U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are ramping up their reviews of immigration records.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warned that anyone aiming to come to America and “advocate for antisemitic violence and terrorism” was not welcome and would be prosecuted.
Homeland Security has said that Soliman entered the country in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023. Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that also expired.
Trump says he spoke about Iran with Putin and they agreed that country ‘cannot have a nuclear weapon’
Trump says part of his call with Putin was focused on Iran and “the fact that time is running out on Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons, which must be made quickly!”
Trump said in a post on his social media site that he told Russia’s president “that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement.”
He said Putin suggested “that he will participate in the discussions with Iran” and could perhaps “be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion.”
Trump previously boasted that a major announcement on Iran was coming -- but none has materialized.
He suggested in his latest post that Iran has been slow-walking their decision “and we will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time!”
British Prime Minister says deal exempting UK from US metals tariffs will be in place before deadline
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he is confident a trade deal exempting the U.K. from U.S. metals tariffs will be in force before a July 9 deadline set by President Donald Trump.
Starmer and Trump announced a trade agreement on May 8 that will eliminate import taxes on U.K. steel and aluminum, but it has yet to come into force. Trump raised the tax on imported steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% starting Wednesday, but said it would stay at 25% for the U.K.
He reserved the right to hike the rate if the deal isn’t in force by July 9.
Starmer told lawmakers in the House of Commons that the agreement would be implemented “in just a couple of weeks.”
“We are the only country in the world that isn’t paying the 50% tax on steel and that will be coming down,” Starmer said. “We are working on it to bring it down to zero, that is going to happen.”
Gareth Stace, head of the industry body U.K. Steel, said Trump’s decision to keep tariffs on British steel at 25% was a “welcome pause” but warned that continuing uncertainty was making American customers “dubious over whether they should even risk making U.K. orders.”
Trump says Putin told him Russia will respond to Ukrainian attack on airfields
President Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin told him “very strongly” in a phone call Wednesday that he will respond to Ukraine’s weekend drone attack on Russian airfields.
The U.S. president said in a social media post that “It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.”
The call that lasted for an hour and 15 minutes was Trump’s first known with Putin since May 19.
Trump said he and Putin also discussed Iran’s nuclear program.
▶ Read more about Russia’s war in Ukraine
African history classes are safe if they teach ‘both sides,’ McMahon says
Education Secretary Linda McMahon made the comment Wednesday while facing questions by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Asking about the Trump administration’s push to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Democratic Rep. Summer Lee asked if courses on African American history should be permitted.
“I do not think that African studies or Middle East studies or Chinese studies are part of DEI if they are taught as part of the total history package,” McMahon said. “If you’re giving the facts on both sides, of course they’re not DEI.”
Lee responded that “I don’t know what both sides of African American history would be.”
Lee posed the same question about lessons on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. “I’d have to get back to you on that,” McMahon said.
Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has a book coming out this fall
The book promises a close look at President Joe Biden’s decision not to run for reelection and calls for thinking beyond the two-party system.
Jean-Pierre herself has switched her affiliation to independent after working in two Democratic administrations, according to Legacy Lit, a Hachette Book Group imprint that will publish “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines” on Oct. 21.
Jean-Pierre was criticized at times for being evasive about Biden’s physical condition. Wednesday’s announcement from Legacy Lit says she’ll take readers “through the three weeks that led to Biden’s abandoning his bid for a second term and the betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to his decision.”
▶ Read more about Karine Jean-Pierre’s upcoming book
House Speaker Mike Johnson says he called Elon Musk to discuss Musk’s posts criticizing tax bill
“I called Elon last night and he didn’t answer, but I hope to talk to him today,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday. He added, “I hope he comes around. I’d love to talk to him this week and I hope he calls me back today.”
Johnson said he and Musk spoke at length Monday about the bill.
“Elon was encouraged by that conversation. We had a great, it was a very friendly, very fruitful conversation together, and he and I talked about the midterm elections, and he said, ‘I’m going to help,’” Johnson said.
“Then yesterday, you know, 24 hours later, he does a 180 and he comes out and opposed the bill and it surprised me, frankly,” he added.
A Democrat responds to the Congressional Budget Office’s forecast on Trump’s tax bill
“Republicans cry crocodile tears over the debt when Democrats are in charge — but explode it when they’re in power,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
“In the words of Elon Musk,” Boyle said, reviving the billionaire and former Trump aide’s criticism of the package, “this bill is a ‘disgusting abomination.’”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise criticizes the Congressional Budget Office
At a news conference Wednesday with House leadership, Scalise said the office has continuously failed to take economic growth into account.
“You don’t need to go back that far to see how wrong the CBO has been,” Scalise said. “When it comes time to make prognostications on economic growth, they’ve always been wrong.”
Asked later if the budget office should be done away with, Scalise did not shoot down the idea.
“I think it’s very valid to raise these concerns that CBO has missed the problems that come with making false estimates,” he said. “Economic growth has been their Achilles heel.”
Pennsylvania sues the USDA over cutting funding to $1 billion food aid program
The state says the agency under Trump illegally cut off funding to it through a program designed to distribute more than $1 billion in aid to states to buy food from farms for schools, child care centers and food banks.
The lawsuit in federal court was announced by Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, and comes three months after states received notices of termination from the Department of Agriculture saying the pandemic-era assistance program no longer reflects agency priorities.
“I don’t get what the hell their priorities are if not feeding people and taking care of our farmers,” Shapiro said at a news conference at a food bank warehouse in Philadelphia.
The loss to Pennsylvania is $13 million under a three-year contract, money the state planned to use to buy food from farms to stock food banks. States also use the money to buy food from farms for school nutrition programs and child care centers.
World Pride opening speaker says she was denied entry to US ahead of human rights conference
Just days before she was set to give opening remarks at World Pride’s human rights conference in Washington, Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, the co-founder of UK Black Pride widely known as Lady Phyll, said she was denied entry to the U.S. after her visa was revoked due to her travels to Cuba earlier this year.
Many LGBTQ+ travelers have expressed concerns or decided to skip the gathering due to anxieties about safety, border policies and a hostile political environment. Several countries, including Denmark, Finland and Germany, issued cautions for LGBTQ+ travelers visiting the U.S. for World Pride.
Speaking over a livestream, Opoku-Gyimah said she applied immediately for a non-immigrant visa, but the earliest date she was given was in September.
“I’ve called. I’ve written. I’ve pleaded,” she said. “And the answer was a cold, bureaucratic ‘No.’”
Budget office estimates increase of 10.9 million people without health insurance under Trump’s bill
That would include 1.4 million who are in the country without legal status in state-funded programs. The package would reduce federal outlays, or spending, by $1.3 trillion over that period, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said.
The analysis comes at a crucial moment in the legislative process as Trump is pushing Congress to have the final product on his desk to sign into law by Fourth of July.
Trump’s big bill will cut taxes by $3.7T and add $2.4T to deficit, nonpartisan budget office says
The analysis comes at a crucial moment as President Trump is pushing to have the final product on his desk by Fourth of July.
The White House and GOP leaders have been sowing doubt on the Congressional Budget Office’s work. But its findings as the official scorekeeper of legislation will be weighed by lawmakers and others seeking to understand the budgetary effects of the sprawling 1,000-page plus package.
▶ Read more about Trump's bill in Congress
Voters in northern Virginia will pick successor to Rep. Gerry Connolly, who died last month
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the special election to fill the Congressional seat representing the state’s most populous county would be set for Sept. 9. Both parties must choose their nominees by July 11.
Connolly, a fixture of Democratic politics in a deep blue district, died weeks after announcing he wouldn’t seek reelection. Before his death, he endorsed his former chief of staff and Fairfax County Board Supervisor James Walkinshaw, largely seen as a frontrunner among a crowded field of Democrats vying for the party’s nomination.
State Sen. Stella Pekarsky, state Del. Irene Shin and six other local Democrats have also filed to run. Three local Republicans and an independent have additionally launched their campaigns.
The special election takes place amid a busy year for Virginia voters in which candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and all 100 House of Delegates seats will be up for election in November.
Wall Street stalls following a potentially discouraging report on the US job market
U.S. stocks are drifting in tentative trading following a potentially discouraging signal on the job market and economy.
The S&P 500 edged up 0.2% Wednesday and lost some some momentum after a big rally drove it back within 3% of its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 53 points, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.3%.
The action was stronger in the bond market, where Treasury yields fell after a report suggested employers outside the government hired far fewer workers than expected last month. That could bode ill for Friday’s more comprehensive jobs report coming from the Labor Department.
Trump to participate in a ‘summer soirée’ at the White House
Scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on the South Lawn, the event is billed as a way for Trump to thank and celebrate the work of hundreds of political appointees in his administration.
People in those jobs are chosen by the president and range from his staff at the White House to Cabinet secretaries and agency heads.
Trump’s Wednesday schedule, according to the White House
2 p.m. — Trump will receive his intelligence briefing
3 p.m. — Trump will sign proclamations
7 p.m. — Trump will participate in the “Summer Soirée” at the White House
Trump and Thune are meeting Wednesday to discuss budget bill
The president, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee that oversees tax policy are meeting at the White House this afternoon to discuss Trump’s “one big beautiful” tax cut and spending bill.
That’s according to a person familiar with the schedule who was granted anonymity to confirm a private meeting.
The Republican-controlled House recently passed the bill by one vote, but it’s now facing resistance from a handful of Senate Republicans who want even deeper spending cuts.
Trump adviser Elon Musk has also blasted the bill as a “disgusting abomination.”
The centerpiece of Trump’s legislative agenda, the bill would extend $4.5 trillion in expiring tax cuts, spend more money on immigration and border enforcement and find savings by cutting Medicaid, food stamps and green energy investments.
— Seung Min Kim and Darlene Superville
Wall Street ticks quietly higher in premarket as Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs due to kick in
Futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq all rose 0.2% in light trading before the bell Wednesday morning.
The European Union’s top trade negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, met Wednesday with his American counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Šefčovič said talks were “advancing in the right direction at pace.”
There’s been no official update on the status of the steel and aluminum tariffs as of early Wednesday morning. Those tariffs are expected to hit a broad range of businesses hard and likely push up prices for consumers.
▶ Read more about the financial markets
While you were asleep: Trump’s overnight posts range from China’s president to Biden’s autopen
Trump was active on his social media site in the 2 a.m. ET hour.
“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL,” he said in one post.
The Republican president said last week that he’ll stop being “Mr. NICE GUY” with China on trade after he accused the country of breaking an agreement with the U.S.
Trump and Xi are expected to speak by telephone this week.
In another overnight post, Trump criticized the use of an automatic pen by by his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, calling it a “scandal.”
Ukraine’s backers meet to drum up arms and ammo. The Pentagon chief is absent
Senior officials from nearly 50 nations gathered Wednesday, with the Pentagon’s chief absent for the first time since the group organizing the military aid was set up three years ago.
The Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at NATO headquarters is going to be chaired by the United Kingdom and Germany. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would only arrive in Brussels after it’s over. He’ll participate in a meeting of NATO defense ministers Thursday.
His absence is the latest in a series of steps Washington has taken to distance itself from Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.
Before Wednesday’s meeting, the U.K. said that it plans a tenfold increase in drone production to help Ukraine. Drones have become a decisive factor in the war, now in its fourth year.
▶ Read more about efforts to support Ukraine
Europe and the US are meeting in Paris to negotiate a settlement of a tense tariff spat
The European Union’s top trade negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, met Wednesday with his American counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
“We’re advancing in the right direction at pace,” Šefčovič said at a news conference. He said ongoing technical meetings between EU and U.S. negotiators in Washington would be soon followed by a video conference between himself and Greer to then “assess the progress and charter the way forward.”
Brussels and Washington are unlikely to reach a substantive trade agreement in Paris. The issues dividing them are too difficult to resolve quickly.
President Trump regularly fumes about America’s persistent trade deficit with the European Union, which was a record $161 billion last year, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.
▶ Read more about tariff negotiations between the U.S. and Europe
Environmentalists criticize Trump administration push for new oil and gas drilling in Alaska
Top Trump administration officials — fresh off touring one of the country’s largest oil fields in the Alaska Arctic — headlined an energy conference led by the state’s Republican governor on Tuesday that environmentalists criticized as promoting new oil and gas drilling and turning away from the climate crisis.
Several dozen protesters were outside Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s annual Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference in Anchorage, where U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin were featured speakers. The federal officials were continuing a multiday trip aimed at highlighting Trump’s push to expand oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in the state.
Calls for additional drilling — including Trump’s renewed focus on getting a massive liquefied natural gas project built — are “false solutions” to energy needs and climate concerns, protester Sarah Furman said outside the Anchorage convention hall, as people carried signs with slogans such as “Alaska is Not for Sale” and “Protect our Public Lands.”
▶ Read more about environmentalists’ reactions
Trump administration revokes guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would revoke guidance to the nation’s hospitals that directed them to provide emergency abortions for women when they are necessary to stabilize their medical condition.
That guidance was issued to hospitals in 2022, weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court upended national abortion rights in the U.S. It was an effort by the Biden administration to preserve abortion access for extreme cases in which women were experiencing medical emergencies and needed an abortion to prevent organ loss or severe hemorrhaging, among other serious complications.
Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, emergency rooms that receive Medicare dollars to provide an exam and stabilizing treatment for all patients. Nearly all emergency rooms in the U.S. rely on Medicare funds.
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would no longer enforce that policy.
The move prompted concerns from some doctors and abortion rights advocates that women will not get emergency abortions in states with strict bans.
▶ Read more about the administration revoking guidance on emergency abortions
Trump formally asks Congress to claw back approved spending targeted by DOGE
The White House on Tuesday officially asked Congress to claw back $9.4 billion in already approved spending, taking funding away from programs targeted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
It’s a process known as “rescission,” which requires Trump to get approval from Congress to return money that had previously been appropriated. Trump’s aides say the funding cuts target programs that promote liberal ideologies.
The request, if it passes the House and Senate, would formally enshrine many of the spending cuts and freezes sought by DOGE. It comes at a time when Musk is extremely unhappy with the tax cut and spending plan making its way through Congress, calling it on Tuesday a “disgusting abomination” for increasing the federal deficit.
White House budget director Russ Vought said more rescission packages and other efforts to cut spending could follow if the current effort succeeds.
“We are certainly willing and able to send up additional packages if the congressional will is there,” Vought told reporters.
▶ Read more about Trump’s request to Congress
The Associated Press
