The Latest: Social Security cost-of-living increase announcement delayed by government shutdown

Projections by Senior Citizens League and the AARP anticipate a COLA increase of roughly 2.7%. About 70.6 million people, including retirees, disabled people and children, get Social Security benefits.

The Latest:

Shutdown shows Education Department isn’t needed, McMahon says

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the federal shutdown offers evidence that her agency is “unnecessary.”

In a social media post on Wednesday, McMahon said the shutdown has forced agencies to evaluate what work is really needed. She made the comment days after her department started firing hundreds of workers amid mass layoffs across the government.

“Two weeks in, millions of American students are still going to school, teachers are getting paid, and schools are operating as normal,” McMahon said.

McMahon said no federal education funding was affected by the layoffs.

Advocates say the firings threaten to disrupt the flow of federal money to America’s schools. The cuts eliminated teams that disburse federal money and answer questions on federal education laws.

Democrats, and one Republican, push back on White House budget office’s argument on pay for furloughed employees

More than 150 congressional Democrats, along with Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, are sending a letter to White House budget director Russell Vought to push back on his argument that furloughed federal employees may not receive backpay once the government reopens.

The lawmakers quote a 2019 law — signed by President Donald Trump during his first term — that states furloughed employees “shall be paid” once the lapse in funding ends.

“The law is clear: all impacted government employees, regardless of excepted or furloughed status, are entitled to back pay after a government shutdown ends,” the lawmakers write.

Senator calls for investigation on whether airport video violates a federal ethics law

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is calling on an office focused on political corruption to investigate whether the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security is violating federal law by airing a video in airports blaming Democrats for a government shutdown.

In the video, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem says Democrats in Congress are refusing to fund the government, “and because of this, many of our operations are impacted, and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.”

Cantwell said the video violates a law known as the Hatch Act, which restricts certain political activities by federal employees.

The video, Cantwell says is “intended to misleadingly malign the Trump Administration’s political opponents, convince Americans to blame “Democrats in Congress” for the ongoing government shutdown, and influence their future votes — all while omitting the fact that Republicans currently control the White House, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives.”

Several airports around the country have refused to air the video.

Vance comments on Politico report about offensive messages from Young Republicans’ members: ‘Kids do stupid things, especially young boys’

The vice president instead said people should focus on the messages that Virginia Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones wrote in 2022 suggesting that a prominent Republican get “two bullets to the head.”

Vance said Jones’ comments are “1000 times worse than what a bunch of young people, a bunch of kids say in a group chat, however offensive it might be” and that anyone ”distracted” by the Politico story should, “Grow up.”

“Focus on the real issues. Don’t focus on what kids say,” he said.

Politico reported that in a trove of messages, leaders of Young Republican groups around the country reportedly said, ‘I love Hitler’ and talked about raping enemies, along with other racist or offensive comments.

“The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys,” Vance said. “They tell edgy, offensive jokes. Like, that’s what kids do. And I really don’t want to us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke, telling a very offensive, stupid joke is cause to ruin their lives.”

Vice President JD Vance will appear on Turning Point USA’s college tour

Vance appeared as a guest Wednesday on The Charlie Kirk Show, where he discussed his friendship with the assassinated activist who encouraged young voters to embrace conservatism.

Vance said he will join Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, at Turning Point USA events at the University of Mississippi on Oct. 29 and Auburn University in Alabama on Nov. 5.

House Democrats tap constituents to make their case on shutdown

To make their case that Congress must address health care as part of funding the government, House Democrats turned Wednesday to a nurse, a Medicaid recipient and a recipient of health insurance coverage provided through the Affordable Care Act.

The trio joined House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and other Democrats on the Capitol steps as the shutdown extended to its 15th day.

Heather Brauth, a nurse from Connecticut and the first of the three guest speakers, said a health care crisis is just around the corner because of looming cuts to Medicaid and the expiration of enhanced tax credits for those who get coverage through ACA exchanges. She said up to 15 million people could lose coverage and millions more see higher premiums.

“It’s clear that the cuts coming down the pike have the capacity to dismantle and destabilize our currently understaffed and struggling health care system,” Brauth said.

Illinois governor suggests feds violated ruling limiting use of tear gas

Gov. JB Pritzker suggested federal agents may have violated a ruling by a federal judge last week that said they could not use tear gas, pepper spray and other weapons on journalists and peaceful protesters after a coalition of news outlets and protesters sued over the actions of federal agents during protests outside a Chicago-area ICE facility.

Pritzker said he expected attorneys involved to “go back to court to make sure that is enforced against ICE.

“ICE is causing this mayhem,” he said Wednesday. “They’re the ones throwing tear gas when people are peacefully protesting.”

Pritzker previously denounced Border Patrol agents for using tear gas on protesters who gathered Tuesday after a high-speed chase on a residential street on Chicago’s South Side.

Pritkzer acknowledged that while he tried to “Trump-proof the state as best we could, there are limits to what a state can do” about the federal immigration crackdown. He called conflicts over the crackdown and National Guard deployment “constitutionally difficult to overcome.”

County judge in Chic

ago area bars ICE from arresting people at court

Cook County’s top judge signed an order barring ICE from arresting people at court. Cook County includes Chicago, which has seen a federal immigration crackdown in recent months.

This has been a common tactic for federal agents, who have been stationed outside the county courthouse for weeks, making arrests and drawing crowds of protesters. Local immigration and legal advocates, including the county’s public defender’s office have called for an order like this, saying clients were avoiding court out of fear of being detained.

The order, which takes effect Wednesday, bars the civil arrest of any “party, witness, or potential witness” while going to court proceedings.

Cook County Circuit Chief Judge Timothy Evans said justice “depends on every individual’s ability to appear in court without fear or obstruction.”

House Speaker says military pay will run out

Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., says the Pentagon was able to find funds to make Wednesday’s payday, but it’s “not an enduring solution.”

“We will run out of the funds,” the speaker said at the Capitol. Johnson said he was with Trump late Tuesday in the Oval Office, and also spoke with budget chief Russ Vought, and he said they are prioritizing pay for troops and law enforcement.

Trump’s public schedule, according to the White House

— 3 p.m. ET: Trump will hold an Oval Office press conference with FBI Director Kash Patel

— 7:30 p.m.: Trump will host a dinner related to his plans to build White House ballroom

Bessent says U.S. President still expects to meet Chinese leader

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said President Donald Trump still expects to speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea during APEC week.

Resurgent trade tensions have threatened ongoing negotiations over tariffs between the U.S. and China.

Bessent made the comments at a press conference, Wednesday.

China last week expanded export controls on key rare earth minerals, and Trump then announced a 100% tariff on Chinese goods set to take effect on November 1.

Bessent says the shutdown is costing the economy $15B per day

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made the comment at the CNBC Invest in America Forum on Wednesday morning.

“The only thing slowing us down here is the shutdown,” he said.

Early crowd indicates big interest

The crowd outside the Supreme Court before the Voting Rights Hearing was already larger than other crowds long before the doors opened.

Faye Gaskin, 64, with the Mt. Moriah AME Church in Annapolis said she was “here fighting for my grandchildren and the generations to come. If we do nothing, it’ll be a loss. I won’t be able to look myself in the mirror. Much blood has been shed and many lives lost for this.”

Her fellow church goer Linda Nevils, 72, said she was there to try to protect the vote “for our people. Everything comes from that. Where we eat, where we live, where we work.”

The impact reaches beyond congressional districts

The impact of the section of the Voting Right Acts being argued before the Supreme Court isn’t just in how to draw the boundaries for election districts.

It’s often whether to draw them for local offices.

J. Morgan Kousser, a retired history professor at the California Institute of Technology who works on the issue, has tallied 1,363 cases since 1965 where plaintiffs using Section 2 have prevailed in court or reached settlements.

Of those, 937 have been to change at-large elections for local offices to make them district-based. That’s a way to increase minority representation for seats on town councils, school boards, sanitation districts and other government bodies.

The court is hearing the case for a second time

A second round arguments is rare at the Supreme Court and can presage a big change in the law.

The court’s 2010 decision in the Citizens United case that opened the floodgates to independent spending in political campaigns came after two rounds of arguments.

Arguments will go well beyond the allotted hour

Since returning to the courtroom following the Covid-19 pandemic, the justices have routinely gone beyond the time set aside for arguments.

With questions for four lawyers, the session could even stretch into early afternoon. Arguments will begin shortly after 10 a.m., Eastern time.

Ruling for Louisiana could affect wider re-districting fight

The outcome of the case could have ramifications for an ongoing battle on congressional redistricting that’s already playing out across the nation, starting after Trump urged Texas and other GOP-controlled states to redraw the districts so the party could keep control of the House.

If the court sides with Louisiana, more than a dozen districts could be re-drawn in a way that could benefit Republicans, the Democratically aligned voting-rights groups Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter have estimated.

The court is expected to make its decision by June, which could lead some states to speedily redraw districts before the midterm elections.