The Latest: Key Medicaid provision in Trump’s bill found to violate Senate rules
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 strategy 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 rule which includes tax reductions Medicaid cuts and perimeter enforcement passed by July Here s the latest Food stamp cuts are back in Trump s big bill The Republican proposal to shift the costs of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Initiative 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 commented plans to make certain immigrants ineligible for food aid were also accepted This paves the way for essential reforms that improve efficiency and management of SNAP he reported But the panel s top Democrat Sen Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota declared 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 physical condition care coverage requirements The Friday ruling rejected a challenge from Christian employers to the provision that affects a few million Americans The - ruling comes in a lawsuit over how the governing body decides which healthcare 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 stated the process is unconstitutional because a volunteer board of physiological 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 explained board members don t need Senate approval because they can be removed by the wellness 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 preeminence 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 th 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 commerce without giving details And Trump mentioned he expects to soon have a deal with India Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick notified 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 reported late Thursday Lutnick declared the deal was signed and sealed two days earlier It was unclear if the latest agreement was different from the one Trump revealed two weeks earlier that he reported would make it easier for American industries to obtain much-needed needed magnets and rare earth minerals That pact cleared the way for the deal 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 announced Friday the two sides had further verified the details of the framework But its message didn t explicitly mention U S access to rare earths Read more about arrangement 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 in May compared with a year ago up from just in April the Commerce Department commented Friday Excluding the volatile food and strength categories core prices rose from a year earlier an increase from the previous month Both figures are modestly above the Federal Reserve s target At the same time Americans cut back on spending for the first time since January as overall spending fell The inflation figures suggest President Trump s broad-based tariffsare still having only a modest effect on prices The costs of certain 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 attentively crafted to capture the attention and fancy of Trump or those who know his inclinations The flurry legal experts revealed 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 people including countless political allies former GOP officeholders and hundreds charged or convicted in the 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 a m Trump receives an intelligence briefing in the Oval Office p m Trump will meet with foreign ministers from Congo and Rwanda in the Oval Office Source
