Today’s Big Story

It’s About Time!

Senate passes package to end record government shutdown, now it heads to the House

On the 41st day of a record-long government shutdown, the U.S. Senate voted 60 to 40 to approve a continuing resolution to reopen the government. The measure would fund much of the government through Jan. 30 and provide funding for some agencies through the end of next September.

After a long holdout, eight Democrats broke with their party in support of a bipartisan deal that would undo federal layoffs and hold a vote on extending ACA enhanced subsidies. But the shutdown will not end right away. The measure will now head to the House, which is expected to take it up later this week after staying away from Washington for more than 50 days. And then President Donald Trump can sign it into law.

But the White House supports the deal, meaning the government is expected to officially reopen this week.

“I could spend an hour talking about all the problems we’ve seen, which have snowballed the longer this shutdown has gone on,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a floor speech Monday. “But all of us, Democrat and Republican, who voted for last night’s bill are well aware of the facts, and I am grateful that the end is in sight.”

The funding package includes language to reverse more than 4,000 federal layoffs the Trump administration attempted to implement earlier in the shutdown, protections against further layoffs through the end of January, backpay for federal employees and a trio of appropriations bills, including one that will fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, through Sept. 30, 2026. Keep those fingers crossed.

Who President Trump Pardoned, and Why?

The sweeping 2020 election pardons raised some alarms ahead of the midterms

President Donald Trump this week pardoned former aide Rudy Giuliani, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and many others accused of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, Trump’s pardon attorney confirmed. The announcement came after recent clemency grants from Trump to former U.S. Rep. George Santos and an ex-CEO of a cryptocurrency exchange.

However, the pardons are largely symbolic as none of the 77 people listed were convicted of federal crimes, which the presidential pardon covers. And several of those pardoned had already had their charges dropped by state courts. But Politico points out that many see sweeping pardons for dozens of alleged co-conspirators in the plot to subvert an election sent an unmistakable signal: If you do it again, I’ll protect you.

While former President Joe Biden still holds the record of 4,245 clemency actions, Trump's second-term pardons and commutations are notable for their political and personal connections to the president, Bernadette Meyler, a professor of constitutional law at Stanford University tells NPR. “There’s more of a sense of the insider pardon than we've seen previously.”

Stock Up on Italian Pasta

The Trump administration is set to impose duties of 107% on the imports

Several popular imported pasta brands could vanish from American grocery shelves if the proposed tariffs introduced by President Donald Trump take effect, multiple media outlets reported Monday. The Wall Street Journal reports that Italy’s biggest pasta exporters say import and antidumping duties totaling 107% on their pasta brands will make doing business in America too costly and are preparing to pull out of U.S. stores as soon as January. The combined tariffs are among the steepest faced by any product targeted by the Trump administration.

According to Newsweek, pasta imports have long been a staple on American grocery shelves, representing both a key culinary link and a major trade relationship between the United States and Italy. This escalation follows an anti-dumping probe by the Department of Commerce into whether Italian pasta producers are exporting at rates that undercut U.S. companies.

Last year, the Department of Agriculture launched an investigation after two U.S. pasta manufacturers called for a review of Italian exporters. As part of the probe, the American government requested information from two brands, Pasta Garofalo and La Molisana, which denied the allegations. The feds accused the businesses of being “uncooperative”—allegedly sending over documents with untranslated Italian words and undefined acronyms—and applied the steep tariff to all 13 companies, assuming the behavior of those two brands was reflective of the whole group. And now we’ve got this mess.

Get Ahead of the Holiday Rush

Save up to 25% on sweaters, shirts and accessories that make perfect gifts

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Let it go.