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In today’s edition, Sahil Kapur dives into the bipartisan housing bill that’s set to pass through Congress this week. Plus, we have the latest on the U.S.-Iran talks to end the war.
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— Adam Wollner
The GOP-led Congress is on the brink of a rare win on costs
Analysis by Sahil Kapur
Congress is on the brink of passing a sweeping housing affordability bill, a rare bipartisan victory in President Donald Trump’s second term.
The Senate is slated to pass the legislation this evening after voting 87-8 to advance it last week. Then it’ll go to the House for one last vote before heading to Trump’s desk.
It’ll be a desperately needed win for Republicans, who have seen their midterm election prospects deteriorate throughout the year as voters believe Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress haven’t done enough to tackle the cost of living.
A new AP-NORC poll of U.S. adults found that Trump’s overall job approval rating is 37%, dragged down by low marks on pocketbook issues: just 33% approve of his handling of the economy.
This bill gives them a tangible victory on a top affordability concern. A deal that was struck last week by key committee chairs and blessed by party leaders brought together an eclectic mix of lawmakers from all over the ideological spectrum. It was written by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.
There’s something in it for just about everyone to like. Republicans have focused on the provisions to cut red tape and boost the supply of housing. Democrats like Warren have celebrated the restraints on institutional investors, saying the bill will stop “private equity from buying up homes” and raising costs for consumers.
Trump had championed the provisions to “ban large Wall Street investment firms” from “buying up in the thousands single family homes,” as he put it in this year’s State of the Union speech. The deal eventually came after months of haggling and House-Senate clashes over other issues, with lawmakers involved getting frustrated by Trump’s mixed signals. Eventually, the negotiators figured it out.
But unfortunately for Republicans who want to draw maximum attention to this achievement, Trump has other plans.
The chaos surrounding his on-again, off-again Iran deal has dominated headlines over the past week, and sparked unusual backlash from within his own party. Capitol Hill is also consumed by Trump’s recent moves that forced the expiration of the FISA Section 702 warrantless surveillance program, and his demand to stall his own nominee for director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton, a key piece of the puzzle to revive the FISA law. There’s also considerable attention on the drama over Trump’s costly — and so far failed — renovation plan for the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Taken together, it’s a series of distractions that Republicans would have preferred to avoid as they eagerly want to appear focused on tackling kitchen-table issues.
“It’s about increasing the supply of housing in this country and making it more affordable, and I think that is something that the American people want to see us working on,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in the run-up to last week’s vote. “I think this bill accomplishes that, and I hope that when it’s all said and done, we will have a big house, a big vote in both the House and the Senate, and a bill that the president has signed into law.”
For subscribers: Trump keeps bringing up the number 22
By Monica Alba and Caroline Kenny
22 fountains. 22 ships. 22 bombers. And 22 Nobel Prize winners.
Donald Trump may be the 80-year-old who is both the 45th and 47th president of the United States, but lately, his favorite number seems to be 22.
U.S.-Iran talks set ‘good foundation’ for deal to end war, Vance says
By Yuliya Talmazan
High-level talks between Iran and the United States resulted in “a lot of good progress,” Vice President JD Vance said today as he left Switzerland, where the two sides agreed on a road map toward a final deal to end the war within 60 days.
“We laid a very good foundation for a successful final deal,” Vance said at a press briefing before departing for the U.S. “The final deal is the house. We set the foundation. We haven’t built the house, but we’ve laid a successful foundation to get to a good place for the American people,” he said.
Technical negotiations were continuing in the mountaintop resort of Bürgenstock after a first round of marathon talks between senior figures from both countries. They had got off to a rough start, first canceled and then shaken by President Donald Trump’s renewed threats.
Vance confirmed that Iran had threatened to walk out over those comments, but he defended Trump. “What we told the Iranians yesterday is when you guys engage in what us millennials might call ‘trash talk,’ you can’t expect the president of the United States not to respond and not to correct the record,” Vance said.
The talks ultimately resulted in a joint statement released by mediators Qatar and Pakistan that struck a similarly positive tone, describing a “constructive atmosphere.” Washington and Tehran agreed to set up new communication lines to ensure the vital Strait of Hormuz is open and end fighting in Lebanon, mediators said.
Vance said that Iran had agreed to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) back into the country.
He also said that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner came up with “a very interesting solution” to unfreezing Iran’s assets that would involve the U.S. and Qatar’s approval and the use of the money for purchases of U.S. soy, corn and wheat. He said this was a “classic Trump deal.”
⛽ Related: Oil falls below $75 for the first time since March as Hormuz traffic begins to recover, by Rob Wile
🗞️ Today’s other top stories
- 🇬🇧 Brexit: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that he will resign, paving the way for the country’s seventh leader in a decade after facing an uprising within his center-left Labour Party. Read more→
- ⚖️ In the courts: A federal judge has quashed subpoenas targeting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other officials, saying there was “no doubt” the subpoenas were issued to harass Trump’s political opponents and coerce them into taking official action. Read more →
- ⚫ RIP: Alan Greenspan, the influential economist who steered U.S. monetary policy during his five terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve under four presidents, died at age 100, according to his wife, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell. Read more →
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Annelise Hanson.
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