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House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, will not seek re-election in 2026.

The senior Republican lawmaker will have finished serving a decade in Congress when he leaves at the end of next year.

‘I have a firm conviction, much like our founders did, that public service is a lifetime commitment, but public office is and should be a temporary stint in stewardship, not a career,’ Arrington said.

And the conservative Texan told Fox News Digital he felt he was leaving on a high note, having played a key role in crafting President Donald Trump’s big, beautiful bill.

‘It was a very unique, generational impact opportunity, to be almost ten years into this and to have the budget chairmanship, and to lead the charge to successfully pass that and to help this president fulfill his mandate from the people,’ Arrington said. ‘It just seems like a good and right place to leave it.’

He cited multiple legislative items across his tenure as Budget Committee chair when asked what he took pride in, but added, ‘It’s more of changing the narrative and the culture in Congress and in my party that I’m most proud of.’

‘I’m from a rural district and I can tell you, raising the profile among urban and suburban members as to the unique challenges of rural America and the unique contributions of rural America — like food security and energy independence and how much the nation depends on these plow boys and cowboys in rural areas — that’s another thing I’m proud of,’ he said.

Arrington said he had faith Republicans in Washington would pick up his mantle of fiscal hawkishness, or as he’s often called it, ‘reversing the curse’ of public debt.

‘The president’s committed to it, he talks about it all the time. He’s actually doing something about it with very difficult decisions, not politically popular decisions. This is all about political will,’ Arrington said. ‘Trump’s doing it. Mike Johnson is committed to it… And we have a growing number of fiscal hawks who are absolutely dogged on this issue.’

But he said he would continue to push for further fiscal reforms for his remaining year on Capitol Hill, including another budget reconciliation bill to follow up on the big, beautiful bill.

‘I don’t know where the Senate Republicans are. I don’t know where the president is and can’t speak for the White House. But the House is at the ready,’ Arrington said. ‘It’s been our most consequential tool to support the president and the strength of the country, and I don’t see any reason we wouldn’t utilize it to its fullest extent.’

The West Texas Republican said he had not given much thought to what he would do next but said he wanted to ‘remain in the fight,’ adding he would seek a ‘new leadership challenge’ that ‘allows me to make the biggest difference on as many people as I can.’

‘And then I would say…I am looking forward to quality time with my wife and kids and focusing on my leadership and service, not in the people’s house, but in my own house,’ Arrington said.

He said he hoped to ‘make a difference’ in the lives of his two young sons and daughter.

Arrington’s Lubbock-anchored district leans heavily Republican, meaning it’s unlikely to flip to blue in the 2026 midterms.

And come the end of his time next year, the conservative lawmaker said he would leave with no regrets.

‘I’m thankful that God called me and gave me the grace to succeed and to achieve the things that we’ve achieved,’ Arrington said.

‘His grace looks like the members of Congress that I’ve been doing battle with, my budget hawks who I’ve been in the trenches with, my constituents who I run into in the grocery store, who want to pray with me right there in the aisle while I’m checking out. The grace of God looks like my wife being both mom and dad about two-thirds of the time, because I’m in Washington doing battle for the country.’

He finished, ‘Did I make my share of mistakes? You bet. Did I learn along the way? You bet I did. But we left [the country] better than we found it, and it gives me great satisfaction.’

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The House of Representatives appears to be on a glide path to ending the longest government shutdown in history, with lawmakers racing back to Capitol Hill after six weeks out of session.

The House Rules Committee will meet to consider the Senate’s amended federal funding plan sometime after 5 p.m. Tuesday, two sources told Fox News Digital.

In other words, the 42-day shutdown — which has led to thousands of air travel delays, left millions of people who rely on federal benefits in limbo, and forced thousands of federal workers either off the job or to work without pay — could come to an end before the end of this week.

The House Rules Committee is the final hurdle for most legislation before it sees House-wide votes. Lawmakers on the key panel vote to advance a bill while setting terms for its consideration, like possible amendment votes and timing for debate.

The funding bill at hand is expected to advance through the committee on party lines. Democrats on the panel are likely to oppose the measure in line with House Democratic leaders, while Republicans have signaled no meaningful opposition.

Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Ralph Norman, R-S.C., the two Republicans on the committee who have most often opposed GOP leaders’ legislation for not being conservative enough, both suggested they would be supportive of the funding measure.

Roy told Fox News Digital on Monday night that he would vote ‘yes’ on the bill on the House floor, meaning he would likely not oppose it in the House Rules Committee.

The Texas Republican is currently running to be attorney general of the Lone Star State.

Norman told Fox News Digital via text message Tuesday morning, when asked about both his Rules Committee and House floor votes, ‘My support is based on READING the FINE PRINT as it relates to the 3 bills especially VERIFYING the top line spending limits as we previously passed.’

‘If ‘THE FINE PRINT MATCHES’ what’s being reported, I will be a yes,’ Norman said.

The South Carolina Republican, who is running for governor, was referring to three full-year spending bills that are part of the latest bipartisan compromise passed by the Senate on Monday night.

Terms of the deal include a new extension of fiscal year (FY) 2025 federal funding levels through Jan. 30, in order to give congressional negotiators more time to strike a longer-term deal on FY 2026 spending.

It would also give lawmakers some headway with that mission, advancing legislation to fund the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration; the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction; and the legislative branch.

They are three of 12 individual bills that are meant to make up Congress’ annual appropriations, paired into a vehicle called a ‘minibus.’

In a victory for Democrats, the deal would also reverse federal layoffs conducted by the Trump administration in October, with those workers getting paid for the time they were off.

It also guarantees Senate Democrats a vote on legislation extending Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic, which are set to expire at the end of this year.

Extending the enhanced subsidies for Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was a key ask for Democrats in the weekslong standoff.

No such guarantee was made in the House, however, so Democrats effectively folded on their key demand in order to end the shutdown — a move that infuriated progressives and left-wing caucus leaders in Congress.

The full House is expected to take up the measure sometime after 4 p.m. on Wednesday, according to a notice sent to lawmakers.

There will first be a ‘rule vote’ for the bill where lawmakers are expected to green-light debate on the House floor, followed by a vote on the measure itself sometime Wednesday evening.

House schedules for both Tuesday and Wednesday were left intentionally fluid to allow for lawmakers to return to Washington amid nationwide flight delays and cancellations, mostly imposed by the shutdown.

The House was last in session on Sept. 19, when lawmakers passed legislation to keep the government funded through Nov. 21.

It passed with support from one House Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and opposition from two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Victoria Spartz, R-Ind.

No further House Republicans have signaled public opposition to the new measure so far.

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Senators believe that after reaching a deal to end the longest shutdown on record, they won’t be in the same position early next year.

The bipartisan package that advanced from the Senate late Monday night would, if passed by the House this week, reopen the government until Jan. 30. Lawmakers believe that extension would give them enough time to fund the government the old-fashioned way, making another shutdown a moot point.

But that all depends on whether they can complete work on spending bills, find agreement with the House, and get them on President Donald Trump’s desk before the new deadline.

There’s also the possibility that if the guarantee for a vote on expiring Obamacare subsidies does not go how Senate Democrats want, that could significantly hamper Congress’ ability to avert yet another shutdown.

‘We’ll take them one day at a time,’ Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said. ‘Obviously, it’s another deadline we have to deal with. But the immediate objective is to get the government open and enable those conversations to commence.’

‘There are Democrats and Republicans who are both interested in trying to do something in the healthcare space,’ he continued. ‘And clearly, there is a need. I mean, there is an affordability issue on healthcare that has to be addressed, and the current trajectory we’re on isn’t a sustainable path.’

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told Fox News Digital that Democrats needed to be united in their demand that ‘Republicans be held to their promise of having a vote on the healthcare subsidies in December.’

Thune reiterated his guarantee on Sunday and teed up the second week of December as the deadline for getting a Democratic proposal to the floor.

‘The future is unpredictable, but we need to continue our fight unequivocally, unyieldingly, for affordable healthcare insurance through extending the subsidies and other measures under the [Affordable Care Act],’ Blumenthal said. ‘Republicans have a reflexive obsession with repealing or destroying the ACA.’

The hope is that funding the government with appropriations bills will be the key to preventing another shutdown.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said that she anticipated Thune to tee up a new package of spending bills, this one combining the defense, labor, transportation and housing bills into one chunk.

‘The more appropriations bills that we’re able to pass, the better off we’re going to be, the better off the American people will be served,’ she said.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was unsure if lawmakers would be in the same spot again come January.

But he believed that the desire to move forward with spending bills, spurred largely by the bipartisan deal struck to reopen the government, was a good start.

‘It makes it a whole lot easier not to have a shutdown again,’ he said.

Despite the rancor and frustration from the Democratic side of the aisle over the collapse of their healthcare demand, they also want to pass bipartisan funding bills, largely in a bid to push back against cuts made by the Trump administration.

However, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., predicted that it would be quite difficult to pass a long-term bipartisan budget.

‘We cannot sign on to a long-term budget that does nothing on healthcare and has nothing to stop the destruction of our democracy,’ he said. ‘You know, there are no real protections in the short-term spending bill against Trump’s illegality.’

For now, some see the January deadline as ‘light years away,’ like Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., while others aren’t ready to make a prediction about what comes next.

‘Just one step at a time,’ Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told Fox News Digital.

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Frustration is boiling over among Democratic ranks against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., after walking away from the longest government shutdown on record largely empty-handed.

Some argue that Schumer squandered key leverage and failed to steer his caucus through the chaos to victory. 

‘I think that people did what they could to get us out of the shutdown, but what has worked in the past isn’t working now,’ Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said. ‘And so, we need to meet the moment, and we’re not doing that.’

Slotkin, like others in the Senate Democratic caucus, ‘wanted something deliverable on the price of healthcare.’ The core of their shutdown strategy was to force Republicans and President Donald Trump to make a deal on expiring Obamacare subsidies, but that didn’t happen. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., argued that getting rid of Schumer would be difficult. 

‘Chuck Schumer is part of the establishment,’ Sanders told MSNBC. ‘You can argue, and I can make the case, that Chuck Schumer has done a lot of bad things, but getting rid of him — who’s going to replace him?’

Other Democrats weren’t so resigned.

Graham Platner, a Democratic Senate candidate running to replace Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, placed the collapse of Senate Democrats’ unified front squarely on leadership. 

‘The Democratic Party at the leadership level has become entirely feckless,’ Platner said in a video posted by Our Revolution, a political action organization started as an offshoot of Sanders’ presidential campaign. 

‘What happened last night is a failure of leadership in the most clear terms,’ he said after the Senate passed the bipartisan deal Monday, sending it to the House. ‘Sen. Schumer is the minority leader. It is his job to make sure his caucus is voting along the lines of what’s going to be good for the people of the United States. He could not maintain that.’ 

Schumer and congressional Democrats walked away from the shutdown stalemate in the Senate largely empty-handed, save for some victories on ensuring furloughed federal workers would receive back pay, the reversals of firings made by the Trump administration during the shutdown and future protections for workers.  

Still, they fell far short of their goal to extend the expiring subsidies, which are set to sunset at the end of this year. 

Those subsidies, initially passed as an emergency response to COVID-19 in 2021, were always supposed to be temporary. But Democrats fear that their sudden expiration could leave millions of policyholders with substantially higher premiums overnight if allowed to expire.

But as mounting pressure grew — and no sign of Republicans wavering on the subsidies — eight Democrats voted to put the government on the path to reopening. 

To some onlookers, Schumer had held the party line for as long as possible.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., one of the eight Democrats who voted with Republicans to reopen the government, said she respected Schumer’s leadership.

‘He’s done a good job,’ Masto said. ‘He kept us in the loop and was open to our conversations.’

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., argued that the problem wasn’t Schumer, it was his colleagues. 

‘Sen. Schumer didn’t want this to be the outcome, and I pressed hard for it not to end like this,’ Murphy said. ‘He didn’t succeed, let’s not sugarcoat that. But the problem is, the problem exists, inside the caucus. The caucus has to solve it.’

Republicans, however, spent much of the shutdown arguing that Schumer had waged the shutdown to appease his base — a base that had wanted to see some sort of resistance to Trump.

‘This is how it always would end,’ Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on Monday evening. ‘Chuck Schumer has a political problem. He’s afraid of being primaried from the left. And so, the Democrats inflicted this shutdown on the American people in order to prove to their radical left-wing base that they hate Donald Trump.’

‘I think a lot of Americans have suffered as a result of this political stunt,’ Cruz added.

On the other hand, many Democrats made it clear they believed Schumer had failed to effectively mount resistance to Trump’s agenda on healthcare.

CNN data analyst Harry Enten compiled polls dating back to 1985 comparing the popularity of Democratic leaders among Democratic voters. Schumer, he found, was the least popular of them all. 

‘Chuck Schumer — his days are over. If he cannot keep his caucus together, he needs to go,’ Sunny Hostin, a co-host of ‘The View,’ told audiences on Monday.

‘Chuck Schumer has not met this moment, and Senate Democrats would be wise to move on from his leadership,’ Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom summed up his thoughts in a one-word post to X. 

‘Pathetic,’ Newsom said.

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Tensions flared at a House hearing to advance legislation aimed at ending the government shutdown on Tuesday night, with two senior lawmakers on opposite sides of the aisle trading barbs over the fallout.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., clashed with Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee repeatedly at the outset of the hearing. Cole accused Democrats of derailing the federal government, while McGovern railed against the GOP’s refusal to attach provisions extending expiring enhanced Obamacare subsidies to its funding bill.

‘This is the stuff you said you would never do. ‘We would never shut down the government. We would never do this.’ That’s exactly what you’ve done,’ House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said a short while later. ‘You’re putting thousands of people out of work.’

McGovern, who said emphatically that his constituents were ‘getting screwed,’ said, ‘You tried over 50 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act,’ Obamacare’s formal name.

He said he was getting calls from constituents who were ‘out of their minds’ trying to figure out how to pay for healthcare without the subsidies.’

‘Well the most immediate crisis in my district are the thousands of workers that you and your colleagues have put out of work, that aren’t getting a paycheck,’ Cole said.

‘They’re the ones that keep the airplanes flying. They’re the ones that do the national weather center. They’re wondering why they’re not getting paid.’

McGovern shot back, ‘You get no calls about healthcare?’

‘We could have had these debates, we could have had these arguments. Why are they being held hostage?’ Cole continued.

‘The healthcare issue you’re talking about is a subsidy you passed on your own, you said it was COVID-related…The most immediate crisis in my district, you’ve created. My people aren’t getting paid thanks to you and your colleagues.’

McGovern, who tried to interject multiple times, said, ‘So nobody in your district is complaining about healthcare?’

Cole conceded, ‘People complain everywhere about everything, but you asked me what the most important calls I get —’

McGovern cut him off with, ‘—We have a chance to do something about this.’

‘— is, ‘Why am I not getting paid? Why am I being forcibly furloughed?’’ Cole continued.

‘We have a chance to do something to help millions of people afford their health insurance. And what you’re all telling me is you’re not interested,’ McGovern said.

House Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., was ignored as she banged her gavel multiple times in an attempt to call order.

Cole, meanwhile, said the subsidies ‘have nothing to do with the work of my committee.’

‘But you’re willing to hijack my committee,’ he continued, before McGovern cut him off again, accusing Republicans of voting to ‘cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires’ in the GOP’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ earlier this year.

‘But you could not extend these for people?’ McGovern asked.

The House Rules Committee is the final hurdle for most legislation before it sees House-wide votes. Lawmakers on the key panel vote to advance a bill while setting terms for its consideration, like possible amendment votes and timing for debate.

The funding bill at hand is expected to advance through the committee on party lines. Democrats on the panel are likely to oppose the measure in line with House Democratic leaders, while Republicans have signaled no meaningful opposition.

The vast majority of House Democrats have threatened to oppose the bill over its exclusion of the enhanced Obamacare credits, despite the legislation netting support from eight members of their own party in the Senate.

Republican leaders have signaled a willingness to discuss reforms to the system, which they have criticized as flawed. However, they’ve rejected any notion of pairing a healthcare extension with a federal funding bill that is otherwise largely free of partisan policy riders.

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A senior federal judge in Massachusetts who was appointed by former President Reagan announced he has resigned in protest against President Donald Trump, who he says has been ‘using the law for partisan purposes.’

U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf, 78, resigned on Friday and explained that the Trump administration’s actions that he described as threatening the rule of law compelled him to speak out.

In a piece for The Atlantic, Wolf wrote that he had looked forward to serving for the rest of his life when Reagan appointed him in 1985 but decided to step down last week because of Trump’s ‘assault on the rule of law’ that he finds ‘so deeply disturbing.’

‘I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom,’ the former judge wrote. ‘President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment. This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench. The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence, for me, is now intolerable.’

‘When I accepted the nomination to serve on the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, I took pride in becoming part of a federal judiciary that works to make our country’s ideal of equal justice under law a reality,’ he continued. ‘A judiciary that helps protect our democracy. That has the authority and responsibility to hold elected officials to the limits of the power delegated to them by the people. That strives to ensure that the rights of minority groups, no matter how they are viewed by others, are not violated. That can serve as a check on corruption to prevent public officials from unlawfully enriching themselves. Becoming a federal judge was an ideal opportunity to extend a noble tradition that I had been educated by experience to treasure.’

Wolf added that he now wants to do ‘everything in my power to combat today’s existential threat to democracy and the rule of law.’

The former judge noted that Trump cannot replace him with a nominee of his own, as former President Obama named Judge Indira Talwani as his successor in 2013.

Wolf criticized the Department of Justice’s prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey and Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James. The former judge also took issue with Trump’s social media post in which he asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey, James and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

He also said that even if a prosecution ends in an acquittal, it ‘can have devastating consequences for the defendant.’

Wolf also wrote that the DOJ must ensure prosecutors do not seek an indictment unless they have ‘sufficient admissible evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.’

‘Trump has utterly ignored this principle,’ Wolf wrote.

Wolf blasted Trump’s ‘unconstitutional or otherwise illegal’ executive orders, criticized the president’s calls for judges to be impeached for ruling against him, said there was ‘corruption by [Trump] and those in his orbit’ and emphasized that attacks on the courts have led to actual threats against judges.

‘I resigned in order to speak out, support litigation, and work with other individuals and organizations dedicated to protecting the rule of law and American democracy,’ Wolf wrote. ‘I also intend to advocate for the judges who cannot speak publicly for themselves.’

‘I cannot be confident that I will make a difference,’ he added. ‘I am reminded, however, of what Senator Robert F. Kennedy said in 1966 about ending apartheid in South Africa: ‘Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.’ Enough of these ripples can become a tidal wave.’

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts said Wolf’s ‘steadfast commitment to the rule of law, determination in wrestling with novel issues of fact and law, and dedication to making fair, equitable and legally sound decisions without fear or favor are the hallmarks of his time on the bench.’

‘His many opinions on complex issues of law in notable cases have had a great impact on jurisprudence,’ Chief Judge Denise J. Casper said in the statement. ‘In addition, his tenure as Chief Judge led to the increased engagement with the bar and community, including the initiation of the Court’s bench/bar conference and his continued support of the Court’s Fellowship Programs. I, along with my colleagues and this Court community, applaud his years of dedicated service.’

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The House will vote on reopening the federal government Wednesday after lawmakers’ funding bill survived a key hurdle earlier in the morning.

The bipartisan deal to end the 42-day government shutdown advanced through the House Rules Committee overnight Wednesday, with all Republicans supporting the measure and all Democrats against.

It now moves to the full House for consideration, where multiple people familiar with GOP leaders’ conversations told Fox News Digital they believe it will pass with nearly all Republicans on board.

Passage through the House Rules Committee is a meaningful step toward ending the shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history by roughly a week.

The panel’s hearing to advance the bill lasted more than six hours, kicking off Wednesday evening and ending shortly after 1 a.m. on Thursday.

Democrats attempted to force votes on amendments dealing with COVID-19-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year and other issues opposed by the GOP, though all failed.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., made a notable surprise appearance at one point, testifying in favor of his own amendment to extend those subsidies for another three years.

The lengthy hearing saw members on opposite sides of the aisle clash several times as well, with Democrats repeatedly accusing Republicans of robbing Americans of their healthcare and taking a ‘vacation’ for several weeks while remaining in their districts during the shutdown.

‘I am sick and tired of hearing you all say we had an eight-week vacation,’ House Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said at one point. ‘I worked every day. I don’t know about you. I don’t want to hear another soul say that.’

Democrats and some Republicans also piled on a provision in the funding bill that would allow GOP senators to sue the federal government for $500,000 for secretly obtaining their phone records during ex-Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation.

‘I think there’s gonna be a lot of people, if they look and understand this, they’re going to see it as self-serving, self-dealing kind of stuff. And I don’t think that’s right,’ Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said.

‘I’m trying to figure out what we can do to force the Senate’s hand to say, ‘You’re going to repeal this provision and fix it,’ without amending it here.’

The bill will now get a House-wide ‘rule vote,’ a procedural test that, if it passes, allows lawmakers to debate the legislation itself.

Lawmakers are expected to then hold a final vote sometime on Wednesday evening on sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.

Trump signaled he was supportive of the legislation in comments to reporters on Monday.

‘We’ll be opening up our country very quickly,’ Trump said when asked if he backed the deal.

The Senate broke through weeks of gridlock on Monday night to pass the legislation in a 60-40 vote, with eight Democrats joining the GOP to reopen the government.

Meanwhile, travel disruptions have been causing chaos at U.S. airports, with air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers being forced to work without pay since last month. Many of those employees had been forced to take on second jobs to make ends meet, fueling staffing shortages and flight delays that threatened to overshadow the Thanksgiving holiday.

Millions of Americans who rely on federal food benefits were also left in limbo amid a partisan fight over whether and how to fund those programs during the shutdown.

The bill would extend fiscal year (FY) 2025 federal funding levels through Jan. 30 to give negotiators more time to strike a longer-term deal for FY 2026.

It would also give lawmakers some headway with that mission, advancing legislation to fund the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration; the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction; and the legislative branch.

They are three of 12 individual bills that are meant to make up Congress’ annual appropriations, paired into a vehicle called a ‘minibus.’

In a victory for Democrats, the deal would also reverse federal layoffs conducted by the Trump administration in October, with those workers getting paid for the time they were off.

A side-deal struck in the Senate also guaranteed Senate Democrats a vote on legislation extending Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic, which are set to expire at the end of this year.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., however, has made no such promise in the House.

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Uncertainty over the autonomy of the Federal Reserve under US President Trump echoes historical executive overreach, and is boosting gold’s safe-haven appeal.

In its annual Precious Metals Investment Focus report, published on October 25, Metals Focus highlighted a number of factors amplifying gold’s safe haven appeal and driving prices above US$4,000 per ounce.

One of the factors was fears over the independence of the Fed. As the agency tasked with setting the country’s monetary policy, the Fed is coming under increasing political pressure by Trump to lower interest rates.

“Concerns over the Fed’s independence and the challenges concerning US fiscal policy have eroded confidence in the US dollar, while geopolitical risks have also provided support,” stated the firm “These factors have boosted demand for gold for portfolio diversification, with gold’s strong price performance further enhancing its appeal to investors.”

The Fed’s independence has long been a cornerstone of US monetary policy. Its purview includes managing the country’s money supply, setting interest rates as well as buying and selling of US Treasury securities on the open market.

In order to protect both democracy and the integrity of the capital market system from political pressures, the Fed must be free to conduct these operations independently from the president or Congress.

Trump spars with Powell over interest rates

Trump appointed Powell as Fed chair during his first presidential term, but nevertheless took to Twitter in August 2019 to ask, “who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?”

The statement came after Powell made comments at an annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, suggesting Trump’s trade policies vis-à-vis China were weighing on economic growth.

More recently, in April of this year, the president blasted Powell for keeping interest rates unchanged: ‘The Fed really owes it to the American people to get interest rates down, that’s the only thing he’s good for.”

While the Fed has cut rates twice this year, it only amounts to 50 basis points, with rates now in a range of 3.75 to 4 percent. Powell has publicly balked at the idea of making deeper cuts — further stoking Trump’s ire.

Following the first rate cut in September, a Politico reporter asked Powell what may signal to Americans that the Fed is no longer acting nonpartisanly. “We don’t frame these questions at all or see them in terms of political outcomes. In another part of Washington, everything is seen through the lens of does it help or hurt this political party, this politicians,” Powell said. “That’s the framework. People find it hard to believe that’s not at all the way we think about things at the Fed. We take a longer perspective, we’re trying to serve the American people as best as we can.”

What history tells us about political pressure, the Fed and stagflation

“There’s no secret as to the president’s feelings towards Chairman Powell. Trump wants lower interest rates and a more accommodative Fed, and has been very vocal in saying that, to the extent that everyone is now saying Fed independence is at risk. And look, it might be, but it’s not like we haven’t been here before,” he said.

A prime example, said Rozencwajg, occurred alongside the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s. President Lyndon B. Johnson bullied Fed Chair William Martin (the longest tenured Fed chair and a man whose father helped draft the Federal Reserve Act) into keeping interest rates low to help the government fund not only the Vietnam War but also social welfare programs at home without the need to upset the voting public with tax hikes.

When Martin didn’t get on board with Lyndon’s “guns and butter” economic policies, the then-president reportedly threatened to replace Martin as Fed chair, cut the Fed’s budget and suffocate it with audits.

At first stalwart in his fight to preserve the value of the dollar, Martin eventually capitulated by delaying further hikes before eventually cutting rates and keeping them low. In doing so, he planted the seed for what’s now called the “Great Inflation.” Between 1965 and 1980, the annual average US inflation rate rose from 1.6 percent to a peak of 13.5 percent.

Lyndon’s successor Richard Nixon is another prime example of a US president bullying the Fed to lower rates in order to advance politically with disastrous consequences.

This time the Fed chair was Arthur Burns, another believer in the importance of Fed independence. However, Nixon felt Burns owed him a debt of loyalty for making him an economic advisor and later appointing him as Fed chair. Heading into the 1972 election season, Nixon wanted Burns to lower rates in order to juice the economy in the short-term.

“I respect Burns’s independence. But I hope that independently he will conclude that my views are the ones that should be followed,” said Nixon, who also used US Treasury Security John Connally to further put the squeeze on Burns.

Like Martin, he would eventually cave by slashing rates and expanding the money supply far above the Fed’s stated targets. This led to what’s known as the “Nixon Shock,” which brought about the collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates and ended the convertibility of US dollars into gold.

This resulted in the devaluation of the US dollar and ultimately sank the economy deeper into the Great Inflation to the point that stagflation (inflation + no economic growth) took hold.

“(Arthur Burns) had a tough job and was under a huge amount of pressure, and was a very astute economist and Fed chairman,” said Rozencwajg. “But nevertheless, he probably wins the award for the worst Fed chairman in history, just because he was there and it all happened under his watch.”

Once decoupled from the dollar, the price of gold surged from the decades-long fixed price of US$35 per ounce under the Bretton Woods system to more than US$600 by the spring of 1980. The gold price would manage to retain that level for much of the year before starting a downward slide to half that value by mid-1982. The yellow metal would not achieve that high again until the spring of 2006 on renewed inflationary fears and a weaker US dollar.

To tame the inflation beast of the 1970s, Fed Chair Paul Volcker (serving from 1979 to 1987) had to raise interest rates to 20 percent. While his plan, known as the “Volker Shock,” did eventually curb inflation down to 3 percent by 1983, it also brought about two recessions and unemployment over 10 percent.

Trump to replace Powell with political loyalist

A modern day example of the executive branch threatening the independence of the Fed is now playing out for us to watch in real time. Today, the players are Trump and Powell. This time, the president is pushing the Fed chair to lower rates at a faster pace in order to support his tariff-based economic policies as the threat of stagflation looms.

Powell’s comments following the 0.25 percent rate cut on October 29 show he isn’t likely to play ball. “In the committee’s discussions at this meeting, there were strongly differing views about how to proceed in December,” he said. “A further reduction in the policy rate at the December meeting is not a foregone conclusion. Far from it.”

Rozencwajg believes Powell wants to be remembered in the same vein as Volcker, not as Burns. “But there’s a third option, which I don’t think anyone’s really considered, which is that he’ll go down as Martin, the guy who tried his best and ultimately was pressured out and whose views were then completely undone in the chairmanship after,” he added.

By the end of this year, Trump intends to announce a replacement for Powell, whose term expires in May 2026. Echoing LBJ and Nixon’s threats to the Fed, Trump exclaimed at a business leaders dinner in Tokyo in October, “We have an incompetent head of the Fed … but he’ll be out of there in a few months, and we’ll get somebody new’.

US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent has announced a shortlist of candidates to take the stop spot, including Fed Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) executive Rick Rieder.

“In the 1970s they didn’t believe that the money supply was responsible for higher prices in the economy, and the current Fed doesn’t believe that their own policies of printing money are responsible for increased prices,” he said. “There were some very dovish people appointed to the Fed in the 1970s who allowed politicians to strong arm them into dovish low interest rate policies … President Obama, President Biden and now President Trump are loading up the Federal Reserve with monetary doves who will cut interest rates and expand the money supply at the drop of a hat.”

Regardless, Powell’s days at the Fed are numbered. “President Trump’s going to replace him with another dove, who’s going to be even more aggressive with monetary policy,” said Thornton.

Both Thornton and Rozencwajg believe the bull market for gold has much further to go. With another dove at the helm of the Fed, lower interest rates are on the horizon. Lower interest rates make gold a much more attractive investment option than yield-bearing assets. The promise of higher inflation and continued economic uncertainty will also likely continue incentivizing both investors and central banks to pile into safe-haven gold.

Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

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Chile’s state-owned copper giant Corporación Nacional Del Cobre de Chile (Codelco) and local lithium producer Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM) (NYSE:SQM) cleared the final major hurdle for a long-planned partnership after China’s antitrust regulator granted conditional approval to the venture.

The green light allows the joint venture to move forward, pending formal authorization from Chile’s comptroller, which is widely expected by year-end.

The joint venture will operate in Chile’s Salar de Atacama, one of the richest lithium brine sources globally, to provide critical components for electric vehicles and battery storage.

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement that Codelco and SQM must continue supplying Chinese customers on “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” terms, honoring existing commitments.

The regulator also required the companies to avoid sharing sensitive information with competitors and to follow specified corporate governance practices.

“In the event of a major supply change, both sides should make reasonable and best efforts to continue the supply of lithium carbonate products to Chinese customers … they should not turn down, restrict or delay supply to Chinese clients,” the statement added. Details of the conditions were kept confidential.

The joint venture will operate in two phases. SQM will oversee management through 2030, after which Codelco will take control for the remaining 30 years.

Codelco will contribute a production quota of up to 300,000 metric tons to the venture, while current output remains below 200,000 metric tons. Production gains are expected to come from technological improvements and efficiency measures rather than expanded brine extraction.

Analysts say the partnership could provide greater supply certainty to battery makers, even as lithium prices remain more than 80 percent below their late-2022 peak amid a global surplus.

Chile’s Economy Minister Álvaro Garcia said in August that he expected the deal to close before the current administration leaves office in 2026.

Multiple international regulators, including those in the European Union, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, have already signed off.

For China, securing supply from Chile remains critical. The antitrust conditions reflect Beijing’s interest in maintaining steady imports while preventing the venture from disrupting market prices.

Currently, China is the world’s largest battery metal consumer and a major buyer of Chilean lithium.

Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

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Investor Insight

Australia’s ongoing energy supply challenges continue to highlight the need for innovative, low-carbon energy solutions. BPH Energy’s strategic investments in natural gas, hydrogen and emerging technologies position it to participate in this transition and capture value from a rapidly expanding clean energy market.

Overview

Australia is on the verge of an energy crisis. Inaction by the Australian government on gas and energy security has resulted in a gas market that is very nearly running on empty, with extreme price hikes and the possibility of significant losses in employment and capital. Against the backdrop of a global clean energy transition, natural gas represents a critical fuel for this transition. The switch to renewable energy cannot occur overnight, and natural gas offers an avenue for a gradual transition.

Natural gas represents a low-carbon, low-emission alternative to traditional energy sources, and could even be leveraged for sustainable energy.

BPH Energy (ASX:BPH) intends to do precisely that. An investment company headquartered in Western Australia, BPH has already invested in two highly promising businesses in the energy sector. The first, Advent Energy, is an unlisted oil and gas exploration and production company.

The second, Clean Hydrogen Technologies, has developed a CO2-free method of processing gas into hydrogen and conductive carbon.

BPH has a diversified portfolio with an investment in medical technology company Cortical Dynamics, providing yet another avenue for potential growth.

In the financial year ended 30 June 2025, BPH remained profitable, reporting a 49 percent increase in net profit after tax to AU$6.8 million. The improvement was driven by fair value gains from its strategic investments, particularly in Clean Hydrogen Technologies and Cortical Dynamics. The company’s net tangible asset backing also rose to 3.2 cents per share, reflecting stronger asset valuations and a solid balance sheet position

Company Highlights

  • BPH Energy holds a 35.8percent interest in Advent Energy, and together with Advent holds a combined 20.5 percent interest in Clean Hydrogen Technologies. It also holds 16.4 percent interest in Cortical Dynamics.
  • Clean Hydrogen Technology is in the process of upscaling into a much larger commercial operation.
  • Cortical Dynamics has the potential to expand its technology not just into the EU marketplace, but globally thanks to a licence and cooperation agreement with Philips.
  • Due to the predicted gas supply shortfall, Advent Energy’s PEP11 asset has generated significant interest among investors and displays the potential for a significant uplift in value.
  • PEP11 also has the potential to fill the gap represented by the impending gas shortage.
  • Cortical Dynamics’ BARM system has received FDA 510(k) clearance in the USA for version 1, and the company has now completed development of its next-generation AI-enhanced BARM 2.0, with clinical trials and regulatory submissions now being initiated.internationally.
  • Delivered strong FY2025 financial performance, with net profit up 49 percent to AU$6.8 million and higher net tangible assets per share.

Key Investments

Advent Energy

An unlisted oil and gas exploration company based in Western Australia, Advent maintains two major assets: Retention Lease 1, an onshore permit in the Bonaparte Basin, and the offshore Petroleum Export Permit 11 (PEP11) in the Sydney Basin, representing its most compelling asset.

Jointly owned by Advent subsidiary Asset Energy (85 percent) and Bounty Oil & Gas NL,(15 percent) the exploration area covers 4,649 square kilometers.

PEP11’s estimated prospective recoverable gas resources is 5.7 trillion cubic feet. With this resource alone, BPH and Advent could potentially fulfill the energy needs of most of Victoria and New South Wales for the next several decades.

While PEP-11 remains a key asset within BPH’s energy portfolio, the permit has been subject to an extended regulatory process and legal review regarding its renewal. Advent, through Asset Energy, has lodged a judicial review application in the Federal Court challenging the Joint Authority’s January 2025 decision to refuse renewal of the permit. The Court has suspended that decision pending a full hearing, now scheduled for February 2026. PEP-11 remains in force during this process.

Highlights:

Well-positioned Assets: PEP11 is situated less than 50 kilometers from the Sydney-Newcastle greater metropolitan area. In addition to this:

  • The Sydney Basin is a proven hydrocarbon basin with excellent potential for further discovery of natural gas.
  • It represents the closest potential carbon storage (geosequestration) area to NSW carbon sources which collectively represent 30 percent of Australia’s total CO2 output.
  • PEP11 may also have potential as a CCS (geosequestration) project in the Sydney Basin.

A Proven Petroleum Basin: Ongoing hydrocarbon seeps have been confirmed in PEP11 along with geophysical indications of escaping gas. The asset’s prospectivity is supported by the seismically-indicated gas features historically observed by Advent and a 2011 geochemical report.

Clean Hydrogen Technologies

Based in the United States, Clean Hydrogen Technologies (CHT) continues to advance its proprietary thermo-catalytic pyrolysis process, which converts natural gas into hydrogen and conductive carbon without producing CO₂ emissions.

Following successful pilot operations in India, CHT has entered the commercialization phase, designing production plants in both India and the United States. The company plans to begin limited hydrogen and carbon composite output within months of securing final project funding.

Highlights:

• Patents: Two comprehensive US patents filed, with additional filings planned as part of ongoing R&D.

• Expansion: Commercial facilities under design in India (Maharashtra) and the US (likely Louisiana).

• Ownership: BPH Energy now holds a 16.2 percent direct interest in CHT, and together with Advent Energy (4.3 percent) holds a combined 20.5 percent stake in the company.

Medical Technology Investment: Cortical Dynamics

Cortical Dynamics is an Australian neurotechnology developer and medical device manufacturer focused on developing the next generation brain function monitors by employing the latest theories and technologies in the field.

Headquartered in Perth, Western Australia, Cortical Dynamics is focused on commercializing its core product, the Brain Anaesthesia Response Monitor System (BARM), which was developed with the objective of better detecting the effect of anesthetic and analgesic agents on human brain activity. BARM aids anesthetists in keeping patients optimally anesthetized and pain-free during operations using general anesthesia.

BARM was specifically developed to solve several problems associated with anesthetic and analgesic delivery in the operating theater and negative post-operative consequences. Its proprietary algorithms are based on innovative developments in understanding how the brain’s rhythmic electrical activity or EEG is produced.

Highlights:

  • Physiology-based algorithm: Unlike other monitors, BARM’s algorithms are based on the individual patient’s physiological processes that produce electrical activity in the brain, providing more interpretable and personalized monitoring of their response to anesthetic agents.
  • Global patents: Cortical has an extensive and growing global patent portfolio, and has secured FDA 510(k) clearance in the USA for its flagship technology, the Brain Anaesthesia Response Monitor or BARM system version 1.
  • Regulatory Approvals: BARM version 1 is approved by regulatory bodies in Australia, the European Union and Korea.
  • Recent Progress: Cortical has completed technical development of its next-generation AI-enhanced BARM 2.0 system, which unifies hypnotic depth and pain response monitoring. Clinical trials are now plannedin the US and the Netherlands, to be followed by global regulatory submissions.
  • World-class Team: A team of experienced researchers, biomedical engineers and corporate financiers make up Cortical Dynamics, with a global network of key opinion leaders and clinicians advising the company on the development of the BARM technology based on real challenges they face in the operating room.
  • Philips Partnership: Cortical Dynamics has a non-exclusive license and cooperation partnership with global medical industry player Philips Electronics North America to interface the BARM system with Philips’ operating theater monitors.

Management Team

David Breeze — Managing Director and Executive Chairman

David Breeze is a corporate finance specialist with extensive experience in the stock broking industry and capital markets. He has been a corporate consultant to Daiwa Securities, manager of corporate services for Eyres Reed McIntosh, and state manager and associate director for the stock broking firm BNZ Norths. Breeze is a fellow of the Institute of Company Directors of Australia. He has published in the Journal of Securities Institute of Australia and has also acted as independent expert under the Corporations Act. He has worked on the structuring, capital raising and public listing of more than 70 companies involving more than $300 million, covering a range of areas including oil and gas, gold, food, manufacturing and technology. Breeze is chairman of Grandbridge Limited, a public investment and advisory company and MEC Resources, a public company investing in exploration companies that target potentially large energy and mineral resources. He is also chairman of Advent Energy.

Tony Huston

Tony Huston has been involved for over 35 years in engineering and hydrocarbon industries for both on and offshore exploration/development. His early career experience commenced with Fitzroy Engineering, primarily working on the development of onshore oil fields. In 1996, Huston formed his own E&P company on re-entry of onshore wells primarily targeting shallow pay that had been passed or ignored from previous operations. This was successful and the two plays opened up 15 years ago and are still in operation. His focus over the last 10 years has been to utilize new technology for enhanced resource recovery, which has been demonstrated in various fields, including US, Mexico, Oman, Italy and Turkmenistan.

Charles Maling

Charles Maling was formerly the communications officer for the Office of the Western Australian State Government Environmental Protection Authority, advising the chairman of the EPA on media issues. Maling has worked with the Western Australian State Government Department of the Environment for 14 years and a further eight years for the EPA. His administrative roles included environmental research (including a major study on Perth Metropolitan coastal waters and Western Australian estuaries) environmental regulation and enforcement, and media management.

Dr Sunil Nagaraj – Chief Scientist (Cortical Dynamics)

Dr. Sunil Belur Nagaraj obtained his master’s degree from the University of Victoria in Canada in 2010; and doctoral degree from University College Cork, Ireland in 2015. His doctoral research centered around the development of AI-based real-time brain monitoring, utilising EEG recordings to monitor brain activity. After a role as a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital in the USA. Nagaraj assumed the position of an assistant professor of medicine at the University Medical Centre Groningen in The Netherlands for two years. Concurrently, he dedicated three years to working as a scientist at Royal Philips, where he specialised in sleep disorders at the Innovation Forum, highlighting its potential to provide future insights into heart-brain connectivity.

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