The Latest: House returns to vote on ending the shutdown after nearly 2 months kept away

Almost no one will be satisfied. Democrats didn’t get the health insurance provisions they demanded added to the spending deal. And both polls and election results show that Republicans, who control the levers of power in Washington, didn’t escape blame.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has extended its order blocking full SNAP payments. The chaotic situation comes with no explanation on the court’s thinking and will expire just before midnight Thursday. People who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to feed their families in some states have received their full monthly allocations, while others have received nothing.

The Latest:

New House member to be sworn in, paving the way for an Epstein files vote

Democrat Adelita Grijalva will be sworn in as its newest member, nearly seven weeks after winning a special election in Arizona.

Speaker Johnson had previously declined to seat her until the chamber reconvened.

For Grijalva, it’s the end of a weekslong delay that she and other Democrats said was intended to prevent her signature on a petition to eventually trigger a vote to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

Small grocers and convenience stores feel an impact as customers go without SNAP benefits

A little more than a year ago, Ryan Sprankle welcomed President Donald Trump to one of the three grocery stores his family owns near Pittsburgh. Trump was on the campaign trail; they talked about high grocery prices, and the Republican nominee picked up a bag of popcorn.

But these days, Sprankle would have a different message if Trump or any lawmakers visited his store. He wants them to know that delayed SNAP benefits during the government shutdown hurt his customers and his small, independent chain.

“You can’t take away from the most needy people in the country. It’s inhumane,” Sprankle said. “It’s a lack of empathy and it’s on all their hands.” Read more about how denying food aid depresses local economies

House eyes evening vote to reopen the government

Members of the House are racing back to Washington after nearly eight weeks out of session to vote on legislation to end the government shutdown.

The House gavels into session at noon, but a final vote on government funding isn’t expected until around 7 p.m. The schedule in the House often slips.

If the bill is approved, it will be sent to the president for his signature. Democrats are expected to mostly oppose the bill because it lacks an extension of tax credits for health insurance offered under the Affordable Care Act.

Treasury secretary says price drops coming on coffee and bananas

Scott Bessent says the Trump administration will soon be making “substantial announcements” about steps it will take to reduce the price of food items not grown in the United States. He cited coffee, bananas and other fruits he didn’t name.

“Things like that that will bring the prices down very quickly,” Bessent said during an interview of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.”

Bessent’s announcement comes as Trump insists costs are down since he took office nine months ago, despite economic data that shows otherwise.

US Mint in Philadelphia to press its final penny

The U.S. Mint has been making pennies in Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace, since 1793, a year after Congress passed the Coinage Act. Back then, a penny could get you a biscuit, a candle or a piece of candy. These days, many sit in drawers or glass jars and are basically cast aside or collected as lucky keepsakes. But their luck is about to run out.

On Wednesday, the mint is set to strike its last circulating penny. Trump has canceled the 1-cent coin, as costs climb to nearly 4 cents per penny. Although billions remain in circulation, pennies are rarely essential for financial transactions in the modern economy or the digital age.

▶ Read more about the demise of the copper-plated coin

The shutdown blame game

Roughly 6 in 10 Americans say Trump and Republicans in Congress have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility for the shutdown, while 54% say the same about Democrats in Congress, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. And at least three-quarters of Americans believe each deserves at least a “moderate” share of blame, underscoring that no one was successfully evading responsibility.

Both parties looked to the Nov. 4 elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere to see how the shutdown was influencing public opinion. Democrats took comfort in their overwhelming successes. Trump called it a “big factor, negative” for Republicans. But the GOP still refused to negotiate with Democrats: Instead, Trump urged Republicans to end the Senate filibuster, which would pretty much eliminate the need for the majority party to ever negotiate with the minority.

Wall Street is on track to open higher Wednesday as an end to the shutdown appears closer

The shutdown has tripped up an economy already under stress. More than a million federal workers haven’t been paid since Oct. 1. Thousands of flights have been canceled, a trend that’s expected to continue this week even if the U.S. government re-opens. Many food aid recipients have seen their benefits interrupted. And the Congressional Budget Office estimated that fourth-quarter growth would be reduced by about 1.5 percentage points.

The shutdown also cut off the flow of economic data on unemployment, inflation, and retail spending that the Federal Reserve depends on to monitor the economy’s health. This could mean the Fed won’t deliver a third interest rate cut, widely expected before the shutdown, at its December meeting.