On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: Senate passes $1.7 trillion costs bundle
USA TODAY Reporter Sarah Elbeshbishi discusses what made the cut, as a federalgovernment shutdown is prevented. Plus, arctic air chills most of the nation, USA TODAY Consumer Travel Reporter Zach Wichter looks at the weathercondition’s effect on holiday travel this weekend, there’s a instructor shortage in parts of the nation, and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” strikes streaming. Director Rian Johnson and star Janelle Monáe get you delighted.
Podcasts: True criminalactivity, extensive interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good earlymorning. I’m Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you requirement to understand Friday, the 23rd of December2022 Today the Senate passes a brand-new costs bundle. We appearance at what made the cut. Plus Arctic air chills much of the nation as vacation travel is sensation the effect.
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The Senate extremely passed a $1.7 trillion costs bundle theotherday that consistsof record quantities for domestic programs and defense toppriorities. But what precisely is in it? Producer PJ Elliott spoke with USA TODAY Reporter Sarah Elbeshbishi to discover the response.
PJ Elliott:
Sarah, veryfirst off, thanks for signingupwith 5 Things.
Sarah Elbeshbishi:
Of course, delighted to be here.
PJ Elliott:
So the Senate passed the $1.7 trillion costs costs on Thursday. It now heads to the House. Can you go into what made the cut?
Sarah Elbeshbishi:
Some of the things that we’re looking at are the Electoral Count Act, which is legislation to reform the 1887 Electoral Count Act. It’s to do things like enhance and plainly state that the Vice President’s function in managing the electoral count is simply ritualistic and that any appeals to the election or anything like that would be sentout straight to the US Supreme Court. So this is kind of an effort to avoid anything from January 6th, 2021 from takingplace onceagain.
The other thing we see is catastrophe help. Lawmakers authorized approximately $40 billion to assistance neighborhoods recuperating from a variety of nationwide catastrophes, consistingof Hurricanes Ian and Fiona. So they consistedof, for example, $1.67 billion for wastewater treatment and drinking centers harmed by those cyclones.
PJ Elliott:
What about this restriction on TikTok? Why is that an product in the Bill?
Sarah Elbeshbishi:
So the issue there is that the social media platform’s momsanddad business is Chinese-based. And so it’s worrying and there’s been cautions that the Chinese federalgovernment might need this momsanddad business to supply user information gathered by the social media app. And so with stress inbetween the United States and China, legislators and state authorities are simply worried about the possibility of the app gathering information off of federalgovernment provided gadgets.
PJ Elliott:
So on the other side of things, the kid tax credit was left out of this. What does that indicate?
Sarah Elbeshbishi:
It was a leading toppriority for Democrats to get in there, however it was a momentary step when it veryfirst was instated and they desired to restore it and broaden it. And so basically what it did in the American Rescue Plan, it reduced the eligibility requirements so that lower and some of the mostaffordable earnings households might certify for the complete credit. This Bill was currently a little controversial in the sense that there was some issue that they weren’t even going to get it on the flooring to be passed.
Both the Senate and the House last week had to pass continuing resolutions to fund the federalgovernment an additional week so that they might bring the Bill to this week and vote on it by Friday. So they extended the duedate that they required. And some leading Republicans stated that they were not going to vote on the Bill unless they got it done this week, or else they were just ready to do another momentary step and fund it upuntil the next year when they come back into session. So this Bill is a bipartisan effort and it was legislators from both sides of the aisle negotiating. And so that was one of the things that kind of got left off on the Democrat side.
PJ Elliott:
Sarah, truly value the time. Thanks so much.
Sarah Elbeshbishi:
Of course. Have a excellent day.
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Taylor Wilson:
A blast of Arctic air hit much of the UnitedStates theotherday, dropping temperaturelevels drastically and bringing blizzard conditions to some locations. More than half of UnitedStates states will see minimum wind chill temperaturelevels in the unfavorable double digits in the coming days. And near freezing temperaturelevels this Christmas weekend in Florida might incapacitate iguanas and cause them to fall out of trees. As for people, hypothermia is the concern. That takesplace when the body loses heat faster than it can be produced, triggering the body to usage up energy and drop in temperaturelevel. Symptoms consistof sleepiness, confusion, and eventually unconsciousness.
But Dr. Deborah Diercks informed USA TODAY that hypothermia deaths are not typically