Transcript of Senate Shutdown Breakthrough, SNAP Legal Battle, COP30 Climate Summit Starts

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One way or another, you're always with me, Layla. The federal government shutdown may soon be over. I am optimistic that after almost six weeks of this shutdown, we finally will finally be able to end it.

With the funding bill that passed the Senate didn't include Democrats key demand on health care. Was it a surrender?

I'm Steve Inskeep with Layla Fadel and this is up first from NPR News. If you're having trouble following the court battle over SNAP benefits, you're not alone. A late night ruling gives the Trump administration two days to restore full payments. Millions of families are still wondering when their food assistance will actually arrive.

And the world's climate leaders are meeting in Brazil. But it seems the US Is planning not to attend. What happens to global global unity on climate goals if one of the biggest polluters isn't at the table? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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A group of Senate Democrats have defected to agree to a deal with Republicans to reopen federal agencies and shutdown on.

The first procedural step. On Sunday night, The plan received 60 votes in the Senate, which was exactly enough. John Thune, the Republican leader, is looking to work through Senate procedures in days to come. I am optimistic that after almost six weeks of this shutdown, we finally will finally be able to end it. Most Democrats still voted no, saying the agreement gives them no assurance on their central demand, which was extending subsidies for health insurance.

NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales has been following this and joins us now. Good morning, Claudia.

Good morning, Layla.

Okay, so for weeks we've seen fits and starts of talks, blame games. Both sides dug in. Now this group of rank and file Senate Democrats is breaking with leadership to move this deal forward. What's actually in the agreement?

Well, the package includes a stopgap measure to fund the government through the end of January. It also includes full year appropriations funding plans for some federal agencies and services. It will pause planned cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as snap. It also reverses federal worker layoffs installed by the Trump administration during the shutdown and protects the workforce from more cuts. For a few months to the end of January, Democrats who defected also got a promise of a vote on health care. As you remember, the party has fought a Republican stopgap measure to reopen the government to address expiring Affordable Care act subsidies that spiking premiums. But they didn't quite get there.

Okay, but that was the main demand, right? I mean how did this group of Democrats get to yes if they didn't get their top demand to protect Affordable Care act credits?

Right. They've been separately negotiating with Republicans for some time now and they said that they could not get this deal from Republicans. They were pretty adamant. So the impacts and the chaos growing for federal agencies or workers. And then we saw flight delays and cancelations across the country. This also created new pressures for Democrats, these who defected. And the group also argued that growing numbers of people were being hurt. And the plan includes a long list of wins for their party. So in the end, seven Democrats and one independent joined Republicans to get this plan across this key procedural hurdle.

But they broke with leadership. Right. And most Democrats voted no. And what did the rest of the party say then about what they did?

Well, some were pretty furious. This defection came after an hours long meeting for Senate Democrats and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who voted no. He argued that regardless of the outcome, Democrats have put a spotlight on health care.

We are going to fight legislatively, fight back home, fight in the courts and bring this fight in the elections.

You could also say there's a political calculus here with Schumer and other leaders voting against this deal. They're hoping they're insulated from blowback from their party, but that remains to be seen. After Democrats left that meeting last night, I heard the angriest response from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. She said this was a terrible mistake. And when she was asked if Schumer did a good job leading the caucus on this, this, she said, I think the American people want us to stand and fight for health care. Obviously, that is not happening. So this was always going to be an ugly ending. Democrats could come out of this pretty bruised, but some would argue Republicans will not be left unscathed either.

So what happens next? When can travelers expect to see their flights resume and people's food benefits to be paid in full?

Well, the Senate still has a few more hurdles before final passage, but if that happens, the House will take it up in the coming days and we could see those flights and food benefits get back to business in the coming week or so.

That's NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisanis. Thank you.

Thank you.

Now, there's still a lot of uncertainty about what a deal would mean for federal SNAP food assistance.

Yeah, the supplemental nutrition funding normally helps families pay for food. We've heard the voices of some parents and others doing without on Morning Edition. The administration has declined to pay during the shutdown.

NPR's Tovia Smith has been following the drama and joins us now. Good morning, Tovia.

Good morning.

Okay, so there's been so much back and forth on SNAP benefits, and it only seems to be getting more confusing, especially these past few days. Can you just catch us up?

Yeah. It really has been like whiplash following this, and this latest round was especially fast and furious. So most recently, just last night at midnight, a federal appeals court refused a Trump administration request to pause a lower court order, which means the administration now has two days to pay SNAP benefits at a full 100%, not 65%. But the administration could ask the Supreme Court to get involved again. That would be the second time in just a few days. And meantime, another battle is boiling over around the states who already paid out full benefits. They did that in the short window. That was after the federal judge ordered it and before the Supreme Court said, not so fast. The Trump administration says those payments were unauthorized and it's threatening that states may have to pay the federal government back for any payments over 65%. The states say that could cost them hundreds of millions of dollars and could be catastrophic. And of course, any more delay would also mean continued hardship for all those people struggling to feed their families.

But with the news of this deal, Tovia, that could reopen the government and restart SNAP benefits, do these legal battles then become moot?

So there's no precedent for anything like this. So no certainty. But the expectation has been that when the government reopens and Congress can appropriate SNAP funding for this fiscal year, full benefits would be restored. So, yes, much of this may become moved.

Okay, but the big question, right, for people who need these benefits is when that would happen after a government reopening. When could they expect that?

Again, no certainty here, but we can see that in this last round, states who were motivated to get benefits flowing did so very quickly in a matter of days. So it seems doable, especially if states are going back to full benefits, which by all accounts are easier to do than trying to calculate partial benefits.

Okay, so that sounds like it'd be welcome news to the millions of Americans who've been riding the roller coaster on this, really anxious about how much of their benefits would be coming and when.

Yeah, I'm already hearing some sense of relief and cautious optimism. As one SNAP recipient said to me, I'll believe it when I see it. But I'll add that even a quick resumption of SNAP benefits, there may still be longer term ramifications from this lapse. First, in a concrete, practical way, for example, a food bank CEO told me she thinks she's going to be short on stock for months, not only because people who ran their cupboards bare may be buying more than usual to get back to normal, but also because food orders that food banks get from the government couldn't happen during the shutdown. And, and it may be too late now, for example, to get deliveries, say, for January. And also there may be intangible implications, like I'm hearing a lingering sense of uncertainty or insecurity. As one SNAP recipient told me, now that it's happened once, they'll worry it can happen again.

NPR's Tovia Smith, thank you for your reporting, Tovia.

Thank you.

World leaders are gathering this week in Belen, Brazil, for the annual UN Climate conference.

And hanging over the talks this year is a question, is the United States even going to show up?

Joining me now is Julia Simon from NPR's Climate Desk, who will be covering the talks. Julia, welcome.

Thank you, Layla.

So on his first day back in office, Trump said he's pulling the US out of the Paris climate agreement, the landmark global agreement to try to limit global warming. Second time he's done that. Does anyone think the Trump administration will show up the next few weeks at the UN Climate conference?

The administration says that they're not sending a high level delegation. In an emailed statement, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers says President Trump will not jeopardize our country's economic and national security to pursue vague climate goals.

Okay, Julia, so that sounds like they're unlikely to show up.

Unlikely, yes. And look, if the US doesn't show up, some world leaders would actually sigh with relief because some have been concerned that the US Might hamper the talks. The US recently used these really hardball tactics to block new pollution taxes on the global shipping industry. But in the past, notably under Obama, the US did help move these climate negotiations along. That almost certainly won't happen in Brazil. And look, the US Is the second biggest polluter in the world, so the US Will eventually need to come on board to cut climate emissions. As for the other G20 countries, G20 countries aren't 80% of emissions. They're going to have to step up.

In the meantime, whether the US Shows up or not, the conference is happening. What are they trying to achieve?

Yeah, well, the Paris agreement was a decade ago, so now countries have to actually act on their plans to cut emissions. This conference is about pivoting from negotiation to implementation. Donor countries need to step up and give money to developing countries to help them adapt to global warming. But we're at this moment when the US and also the eu, they're pulling back from international aid. The US Is pulling back from the UN. Kaveh Ghalempour of the center for Climate and Energy Solutions says this year there's a bigger question about the state of multilateralism. That is countries coming together to achieve a common goal.

What ministers from around the world have been consistently saying this year is that COP30 has not only to deliver an outcome for climate, but it needs to show that multilateralism itself is still the way forward to deal with global common problems.

Okay, so some big stakes and big challenges for sure. Yeah. And then we're seeing already global temperature records broken, dangerously warm oceans, and die offs of coral reefs. What's this all mean for the fight to slow global warming?

So when it comes to tackling climate change, there are really these two big driving forces. On the one side, there's the politics, like this UN Climate conference, but then there's the other driving force, the economics. Here's Li Shuo of the Asia Society.

The other very important dimension is the green economic transition.

The green economic transition. And that's really where a lot of the good news for the planet is right now. Layla, a lot of this good news is coming from China. China is not only building massive, massive amounts of solar, wind, batteries, electric vehicles, they're also making this tech more affordable, exporting it around the world. And with all this new renewable energy, China's climate emissions seem to have peaked or are nearing their peak. So we will see what happens at this climate conference. But despite the political challenges, Li Shuo says the green economic transition, Leila, it's marching on around The World.

That's NPR's Julia Simon. Thank you, Julia.

Thank you, Layla.

Okay, so Steve, there's another story that we're following, which is news of apparent pardons from President Trump that were announced on X last night.

Yeah. We're a little hesitant here because all we have is a tweet. It's from Ed Martin, who is the president's pardon attorney. And he's shared this document that appears to cover anybody who may have been involved in in the specific effort having to do with so called fake electors trying to overturn the 2020 election. And there's a whole list of names.

Right. The list of some 80 people includes some of Trump's closest allies, Rudy Giuliani, Trump's former lawyer, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, campaign aides who allegedly worked to submit names of these fake electors to Congress and other co defendants in the president's case in Georgia for efforts to overturn the state's results.

None of these have been federally charged, but it blocks any future administration from any federal prosecution. This is, I guess we should note, in addition to the giant pardon that the president did when he first came into office.

Yeah. And he cleared more than a thousand people convicted for the January 6 attack on the Capitol in that one.

So this is what we have according to the president's pardon attorney on X. And we'll bring you more as we learn.

And that's up first for Monday, November 10th. I'm Layla Fauld.

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