| | | |  | | By Eli Okun and Rachel Umansky-Castro | | Presented by |  | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | ANOTHER ONE: “U.S. carries out new strike against alleged drug vessel near Venezuela,” Reuters
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OMB Director Russ Vought announced more frozen federal money. | Mariam Zuhaib/AP | HURRY UP AND WAIT: As day three of the government shutdown stretches on, Democrats and Republicans still look no closer to landing a deal to end it — and OMB Director Russ Vought is still taking a chainsaw to federal spending. Vought of confidence: The White House’s latest move to pressure Dems by freezing money to blue states came this morning from Vought, who announced that the administration is pausing $2.1 billion for two big transit projects in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune’s A.D. Quig and colleagues report. Vought and the Transportation Department specifically cited the need to ensure that racial diversity did not play a role in contracts for the projects. If the administration doesn’t ultimately unfreeze the money, it “could be the death knell for the Red Line extension,” which aims to expand transit access to the city’s Far South Side, per the Tribune. Up next: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is briefing now, followed by Senate votes at 1:30 p.m. on the parties’ competing continuing resolutions to fund the government. Watch to see if any senators on the margins change their minds — but observers don’t expect a different outcome than the previous failed attempts. The blame game: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries held firm on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that President Donald Trump’s actions this week have been “unhinged and unserious.” Republicans, he added, “have shown no interest in doing anything responsible to address the health care crisis that they’ve created.” And Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said she’d demand a written commitment from Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Affordable Care Act credits to end the shutdown, per Punchbowl’s Samantha Handler. Republicans look unlikely to agree to that: Johnson said on Fox Business that Democrats want to add $1.5 trillion to the debt and that ACA talks have months to take place. And the GOP feels they have the upper hand as the party pushing for a “clean” continuing resolution. “There is nothing to negotiate,” and GOP leaders won’t put commitments in writing, Thune said, per POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill and Benjamin Guggenheim. The White House is also trying to get prominent business and labor groups to pressure Dems, Axios’ Alex Isenstadt scooped. The credits in question: A new KFF poll shows that Americans want Congress to extend the expiring, enhanced credits by a whopping margin of 78 percent to 22 percent — a remarkable political entrenchment for subsidies that were a heavy political lift for Democrats a few years ago. The subsidies disproportionately benefit Republican congressional districts, Bloomberg’s Caitlin Reilly reports. Meanwhile, the NRCC is encouraging Republicans to lean harder into the very misleading, largely debunked claim that Democrats are seeking health care money for undocumented immigrants, the Washington Examiner’s Rachel Schilke scooped. The impact: Experts tell WaPo’s Matthew Choi and Mariana Alfaro that under the shutdown, federal money for the WIC nutrition program for women and children could run out within two weeks. One to watch: “Government flying partially blind to threats after key cyber law expires,” by POLITICO’s Maggie Miller and Dana Nickel JOBS DAY … JK: Ordinarily, the Labor Department’s September jobs report would have led this edition of Playbook PM. But with the data on pause due to the shutdown, traders and investors whistled past the typical 8:30 a.m. release without information, Reuters’ Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Suzanne McGee report. It’s the first missing data point, and likely won’t be the last. The data we might have gotten: Economists had expected 53,000 new jobs in September, a slower pace compared to the 64,000 average over the previous six months, per Bloomberg’s Julia Fanzeres. Other recent data points from the private sector, which economists must now rely on more, broadly indicate a cooling labor market. Happy Friday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop us a line at eokun@politico.com and rumansky-castro@politico.com.
| | | | | A message from PhRMA: The biopharmaceutical industry is answering President Trump's call to put America first. PhRMA member companies are investing $500B in new U.S.-based manufacturing and infrastructure, providing financial assistance to 10 million patients annually, and announcing AmericasMedicines.com to connect patients with manufacturer direct purchase programs. Learn more about our investments and commitment to American patients and workers. | | | | | | | | | 8 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | 1. TRUMP UPS PRESSURE ON HAMAS: Trump announced on Truth Social that Hamas has a deadline of Sunday at 6 p.m. to make a decision on the Gaza peace deal that the U.S. has set forth and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to. Trump warned that if the agreement is not met, “all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas.” Trump also urged that “all innocent Palestinians immediately leave this area of potentially great future death for safer parts of Gaza.” Multiple outlets have reported that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are trapped in Gaza City without the financial or logistical means to leave. More from POLITICO’s Eli Stokols Also on board: Gulf nations have a growing consensus in support of Trump’s Gaza plan, regardless of Hamas’ response, as the best option since the start of the war, Bloomberg’s Fiona MacDonald and Pete Martin report. 2. SCOTUS WATCH: The Supreme Court said it will hear a major gun rights case over a Hawaii law that bans possessing handguns on private property unless the property owner has consented, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein reports. It’s the latest effort from the Supreme Court “to sort through the fallout from their 2022 ruling that looked at the ‘history and tradition’ of gun regulation to strike down New York’s restrictive laws for issuance of handgun permits.” Also on the docket: The court agreed to hear a case about an easier process to sue for Cuban property that was taken by Fidel Castro’s government, along with “accepting two appeals with potentially billions of dollars in stakes for US companies,” Bloomberg’s Greg Stohr reports. 3. IMMIGRATION FILES: After the Trump administration axed roughly 100 immigration judges earlier this year, it is now launching training for Army Reserve and National Guard lawyers to step into the roles on a temporary basis, AP’s Julie Watson and Amy Taxin report. Immigration courts are bogged down in backlogs, and adding hundreds more from the military could ease the strain. But some experts worry that Trump is expanding the military’s role with less experienced judges than those who were fired, judges who will make decisions over thousands of people’s lives. 4. KASH FLOW: FBI Director Kash Patel is ending all bureau connections to the Southern Poverty Law Center, following a similar move this week against the Anti-Defamation League, The Daily Signal’s Tyler O’Neil scooped. The stalwart civil rights watchdog organization has long drawn conservative anger for its listings of hate groups and extremists, with Patel alleging that the SPLC has now become a “partisan smear machine.”
| | | | Introducing Global Security: POLITICO’s weekly briefing on the policies, regulatory battles and industrial shifts shaping defense and security across continents. We connect what happens in Washington, Brussels and beyond to what gets funded, what gets built and who benefits. Subscribe now to access the free preview edition. | | | | | 5. RED-LIGHT REDISTRICT: Momentum may be gathering among Maryland Democrats to attempt a deeper partisan gerrymander, in an effort to counter in part Republicans’ unprecedented mid-decade power grab in other states. State House Speaker Adrienne Jones told The Baltimore Banner’s Brenda Wintrode she agrees with Gov. Wes Moore that “now is the time” to have conversations about it. Moore has “a ready and an eager and a willing partner in me,” Jones said. Back on the campaign trail: Progressive former Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) is seeking a return to Congress, announcing that she’ll launch a primary challenge against Rep. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.) after he ousted her last year, per POLITICO’s Gregory Svirnovskiy. … EMILY’s List endorsed Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton in the state’s Senate Democratic primary — a notable pick given that Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) is also running, NBC’s Alexandra Marquez reports. 6. CARNEY VISITS AGAIN: Canadian PM Mark Carney’s office announced that he’ll be at the White House on Tuesday to discuss trade and security, per Bloomberg. Canada is eyeing a potential agreement with Trump on sector-specific tariffs as the U.S., Canada and Mexico plan a review of the North American free trade deal next year. 7. BLEEDING CUTS: “Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived,” by ProPublica’s Ruth Talbot and Nicole Santa Cruz: “The true loss is likely greater, food banks said, because not all of the year’s deliveries had been scheduled. … USDA records indicate that food banks were expecting more than 27 million pounds of chicken, 2 million gallons of milk, 10 million pounds of dried fruit and 67 million eggs that never arrived.” 8. TALKER: Slate’s Jacqueline Sweet and Marisa Kabas raise questions about MAGA influencer Jack Posobiec’s voting record, reporting that he has voted in Pennsylvania for years despite appearing to live in Maryland. He listed a home address in Maryland on political contributions last year, and a 2017 divorce complaint listed an apartment in Maryland as his residence. Posobiec has for years touted false claims of Democratic election fraud. He has not been charged with any law-breaking, and he didn’t respond to Slate’s questions.
| | | | A message from PhRMA:  
Investing $500B in U.S. biopharma manufacturing and infrastructure, thousands of new jobs, and improved access to affordable medicines, see how we're putting America first. | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | IN MEMORIAM — “Ann Fagan Ginger, Tireless Defender of Civil Liberties, Dies at 100,” by NYT’s Clay Risen: “She was among the last of a generation of activists and lawyers who weathered the Red Scare, and then helped train a new cohort in the decades that followed.” OUT AND ABOUT — The Aspen Institute’s Philosophy & Society program and Wisdom of Crowds held a conversation on “Liberalism at the Limits” at Butterworth’s last night with Tyler Cowen, Damir Marusic and Samuel Kimbriel. SPOTTED: Shadi Hamid, Christine Emba, Luis Parrales, Kelly Chapman, Nicole Patrice De Member, Kendrick Frankel, Sarah Beth Spraggins, Harry Cole, Jon Levine, J.P. Freire, Maria Copeland, Chris McCaffery, Vienna Scott, Hamid Bendaas, Diana Brown, Mikra Namani and Oliver Traldi. TRANSITION — Brian Nelson is now a partner at Cooley, leading its global litigation department’s national security practice. He most recently worked at the Treasury Department. WEDDING — Claudia Hissong, assistant director of state affairs at Kansas Farm Bureau, and Max Ontjes, Midwest sales representative for Dunning Golf Apparel, got married Sept. 13 at Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan, Kansas, which is where they met. Pic … Another pic WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Jack Aldrich, a director at BlackRock, and Astrid Parenty, an art director in the luxury space, welcomed Mathieu Joseph Aldrich-Parenty on Sept. 8. He joins big brother Gaël. — Colin Reed, co-founder of South and Hill Strategies, and Andrea Woods, deputy director of public affairs at the Energy Department, welcomed Olive Elizabeth Reed on Wednesday. Pic … Another pic Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath. Correction: Yesterday’s Playbook PM misspelled Dawn Kopecki’s name.
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