President Trump went down to Georgia today after attending the dignified transfer of four U.S. service members killed in the war with Iran. The president's event in Marietta, Georgia, was meant to tout the new Trump investment accounts for children and his administration's efforts to improve economic conditions. But Trump is who he is, so his pitch inevitably turned into more of a wide-ranging campaign-style rally in which the president again mocked talk of affordability, which he again dismissed as "a made-up word." Meanwhile, the House of Representatives had a doozy of a day. Here's your evening update.
House Republicans Adopt $95B Budget Framework, Pass Defense Policy Bill
Speaker Mike Johnson chalked up a series of wins on Wednesday as House Republicans skirted intraparty blowups and managed to pass a series of bills, including a $95 billion party-line budget blueprint and an annual defense policy bill. Wednesday's votes came after the House GOP late Tuesday also passed a government funding extension meant to avert a potential shutdown at the end of September.
The GOP's budget resolution passed in a 216-214 vote that had appeared to be threatened by complaints from some House conservatives that the plan lacks cuts to offset the new spending. Ultimately, two Republicans, Reps. Warren Davidson and Thomas Massie, and one independent, Rep. Kevin Kiley, voted against the measure, along with 211 Democrats.
Adopting the resolution is a key step toward Republicans' third party-line reconciliation bill this Congress, a process that allows the GOP to bypass the threat of a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. The resolution allows for $60 billion in funding for the Pentagon and the war in Iran, another $13 billion for intelligence services, $12 billion in farm aid and $10 billion for election-related measures meant to incentivize the adoption of voter ID requirements.
Johnson and his House leadership team said in a statement that the resolution puts the GOP "on a path to enacting two fundamentally simple and crucial goals: securing American elections and strengthening our homeland by providing supplemental funding requested by the Administration to support our national defense and protect our nation's food supply."
Democrats blasted the GOP budget plan. "What we should be doing in this Congress is actually using our taxpayer dollars to make life more affordable for the American people," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. "President Trump and Republicans in this House continue to act indifferent to the economic well-being of the American people and to actively do things that are hurting everyday Americans financially, like this reckless and costly war of choice, which is why we stand aggressively against it."
The Senate would still need to adopt the same framework before Republicans can draft and seek to pass the reconciliation package. Senate GOP leaders reportedly may look to increase the military and farm funding provided in the package, while fiscal hawks remain concerned about the lack of pay-fors to offset the new spending. Any changes made in the Senate would have to be voted on again in the House.
Party leaders are already promising those deficit hawks a fourth party-line bill after the midterm elections focused on deficit reduction and combatting fraud in federal programs - a promise that has reportedly met with considerable skepticism.
House approves 2027 NDAA: The House also narrowly passed a $1.15 trillion defense policy bill for fiscal year 2027. The 216-212 vote saw six Democrats join with 209 Republicans in favor of the measure, while seven Republicans and 205 Democrats voted against it.
The annual bill setting the Pentagon's priorities, called the National Defense Authorization Act, typically passes with strong bipartisan support. This year's bill, however, failed to garner significant Democratic support as the two parties clashed over the White House's push to boost defense spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, to a total of $1.5 trillion, including the $1.15 discretionary budget request and a partisan $350 billion supplemental boost.
Among its provisions, the NDAA would provide service members with pay raises ranging from 5% to 7%, depending upon their rank. It would also formally rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War.
Republicans also set up the defense bill to be merged with the SAVE America Act, the package of new voter restrictions that President Trump has made his top priority, before the legislation is sent to the Senate.
"This legislation provides our brave servicemembers with an overdue pay raise, strengthens our nuclear deterrence and missile defense - including construction of the Golden Dome - cuts $30 billion in wasteful spending, and revitalizes America's defense industrial base to secure our safety, security, and prosperity," Johnson said.
House approves CR to December 4: The House last night approved a Republican plan to extend federal funding to December 4, potentially bypassing the threat of a government shutdown at the beginning of the new fiscal year on October 1, weeks before the midterm elections. Six Democrats joined with nearly all Republicans to approve the bill, known as a continuing resolution, in a 220-205 vote.
Republican leaders reportedly took up the stopgap funding bill well ahead of the September 30 deadline in hopes of putting Democrats on the defensive in the inevitable government funding fight ahead of the elections. Republicans have said that Democrats are preparing to shut down the government. Democrats, meanwhile, are fuming over a Republican funding plan that was crafted without their input and lacks language to ensure that no new money goes toward the Trump administration's controversial immigration enforcement crackdown.
Yet the House GOP plan also faces an uncertain outlook in the Republican-led Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune has made clear his plans don't align with Johnson's. Thune told reporters Tuesday that Senate appropriators are working on their own continuing resolution. Unlike the House bill, that plan would include "anomalies" to adjust funding for certain key programs. The White House sent a list requesting dozens of such exceptions to lawmakers this week.
Thune also told reporters that he would bring the Senate stopgap to a vote before the chamber's August recess, though he also threatened to fund the government via a party-line reconciliation bill if Democrats don't cooperate. That leaves the budget reconciliation plan on hold until government funding is settled.
Stock-trading ban cleared: The House also passed a bill to end stock trading by members of Congress. That bill, which was approved in a 232-198 vote, also included provisions requiring voter ID and proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote in federal elections.
Trump Plans 200% Tariff on Generic Drugs
President Trump announced Tuesday evening that he plans to impose a major tariff on generic drugs imported to the United States in two years, with the goal of bringing drug manufacturing back into the country.
Writing on his social media platform, Trump said a 100% tariff will take effect in August 2028, with the tariff doubling to 200% a year later.
"This is done in order to RESHORE Generic Pharmaceutical Production into America, with a penalty to those Companies that decide not to build Plant and Equipment within the stated period of time given to them," Trump said. He provided no details on the "penalty" that companies that do not manufacture domestically would have to pay.
The White House reportedly said the tariffs would be imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The law empowers the president to impose tariffs and other restrictions on trade based on national security concerns.
No more cheap generics? U.S. consumers currently have access to a broad array of inexpensive generic drugs, including antibiotics, painkillers and cholesterol drugs, most of which are made elsewhere by manufacturers working with slim margins. Per Bloomberg, India is the largest supplier of generics to the United States, with exports worth $10.5 billion in 2024-25. Forcing drugmakers to manufacture in the United States will likely raise retail prices for those generic products, given higher labor costs and the need to build new facilities.
Alternatively, manufacturers will remain overseas and raise prices to cover the cost of the tariffs. Marta Wosińska, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center on Health Policy, told CBS News that Trump's strategy is unlikely to have the intended effect. "A tariff can be part of a broader strategy, but is not going to by itself lead to onshoring," she said.
John Murphy III, the head of the Association for Accessible Medicines, which represents generic drugmakers, said Trump's announcement took the industry by surprise, though it's not entirely clear what it means yet. Murphy told Bloomberg that he assumes there will be negotiations on the matter before the tariffs take effect. "It's a tweet, it's a catalyst, and we'll see what happens," he said.
A law to limit tariffs: Sen. Ron Wyden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, introduced a bill Wednesday that would limit the president's ability to impose tariffs unilaterally and require Congress to approve new tariffs imposed under certain legal authorities.
"Donald Trump has abused every trade authority at his disposal, and he is now excavating a law from the Great Depression to once again impose vast, unilateral tariffs on products from one of our closest allies and trading partners," Wyden said Tuesday, after Trump threatened to impose 50% tariffs on some Canadian imports earlier this week. "This is yet another shakedown that will raise the cost-of-living for Americans, their families, and small businesses across the country. Trump cannot be trusted with tariff authority."
The Congressional Trade Powers Reform Act of 2026 would require the president to get approval from Congress for tariffs imposed under three legal authorities: Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which focuses on unfair trade practices; Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974, which focuses on threats to domestic industries; and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which focuses on national security and was invoked by Trump in the case of generic drugs.
Wyden's bill would also eliminate two existing tariff authorities: Section 122 of the 1974 trade law, which focuses on problems revolving around international payments; and Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which focuses on discriminatory trade practices.
The bill would also establish a new joint committee on trade tasked with reviewing and approving the president's tariff proposals, and would move the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative out of the executive office.
The bill faces long odds in a Senate controlled by the president's party, but it could become more relevant next year if Democrats win congressional control in the November elections.
Chart of the Day: Sinking SNAP Enrollment
Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has fallen by more than 4.5 million people, or roughly 11%, since Republicans slashed funding and tightened eligibility rules in their reconciliation bill last summer, according to a new analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The effects vary in each state. In Arizona, the most severely affected state, the number of people receiving benefits dropped by 48% between July 2025 and June 2026. Louisiana saw a 21% decline, while Florida recorded a 19% drop.
Although the data is missing for some states, children appear to have been hit hard. "In the 19 states with available data, the number of children receiving SNAP food assistance has fallen by 1 million since July 2025," CBPP analysts say. "Put another way, children account for nearly half of the 2.4 million people who are no longer receiving SNAP in those states."
Overall, CBPP estimates that 1.5 million children have lost SNAP benefits since July 2025.
Fiscal News Roundup
- House Republicans Adopt $95 Billion Package for the Iran War and Trump's Priorities – Associated Press
- House Votes to Adopt Department of War Renaming in Annual Defense Bill – Associated Press
- Funding Extension Passes House, Heads for Senate Rewrite – Roll Call
- Appropriators Ponder Alternatives to Annual Shutdown Threats – Roll Call
- Arrington, Eager to Appease Fiscal Hawks, Proposes $28B Boost to Health Fraud Busting – Politico
- Trump Plans Generic Drug Tariffs From 2028 With Two-Year Delay Testing U.S. Onshoring Push – CNBC
- Sen. Wyden Introduces Bill to Curb Trump's Tariff Powers – CNBC
- Trump Trade Chief Downplays Fallout From Canada Tariffs: 'This Is Business' – Politico
- Cornyn Threatens to Block Trump's Ambassadors Over AIDS Prevention Funding – Politico
- Senate Panel Advances Legislation Capping Private Insurance Insulin at $35 – The Hill
- Trump Administration Steers $5B Toward AI Research – Politico
- 'A Politically Impossible Situation': New Poll Shows Trump Voters Losing Patience With Iran War – Politico
- U.S. Strikes Unlikely to Move Iran, Intelligence Reports Say – Washington Post
- Trump Approves Landmark Nuclear Deal With Saudi Arabia in Big Win for Kingdom – Wall Street Journal
- Trump's Manufacturing Boom Claim Collides With Federal Jobs Data – Newsweek
Views and Analysis
- Why the Budget Process Is Broken – Jessica Riedl, The Dispatch
- The US Has Collected About $13 Billion of Venezuela's Oil Money. Where Is It? – Geoff Dyer, Chris Cook and Ana Rodríguez, Financial Times
- In the House, All Roads Lead to the SAVE America Act – Michael Gold, New York Times
- What to Know About Trump's Tariffs on Canada, and What's Next – Ian Austen, New York Times
- Trade Deficit Derangement Syndrome – Bill Wilby, Wall Street Journal
- Trump's 100% Generic Drug Duty Threatens US Low-Cost Supply – Amber Tong and Laura Curtis, Bloomberg
- Trump's Generic Drug Tariffs Will Drive Up Pharmaceutical Prices – Washington Post Editorial Board
- The Trade-Offs of a Quieter Fed Chief – Neil Irwin, Axios
- Coveted US Nuclear Deal Is a Coup for Saudi Crown Prince – Vivian Nereim, New York Times
- Jon Ossoff Is Proving Democrats Don't Need to Punch Left – Bill Scher, Washington Monthly
- John Fetterman's Party-Switch Calculus – Ed Kilgore, New York