After the longest shutdown in history, the House passed a bill last night to fund the government through Jan. 30, and President Trump signed it, reopening the federal government, which had been shut since Oct. 1.

The deal to resume government functions came together after eight Democratic senators broke ranks, allowing Republicans to pass a funding bill without extending the enhanced healthcare subsidies Democrats were fighting for. The package also included reinstatement of federal workers who were laid off during the shutdown and a controversial provision allowing some Republican senators to sue over investigations related to Jan. 6, 2021. Six Democrats also voted with Republicans in the House.

Some things will quickly resume with the government back up and running:

• About 800,000 federal employees who had been furloughed or working without pay will start receiving a paycheck again and get back pay.
• The spending package restores full funding for SNAP benefits through next September. Some of the nearly 42 million Americans who rely on the program should receive funds within 24 hours, but the timeframe will vary by state.

But…it could be a while until everything is back to normal

The FAA started cutting flights to ease pressure on temporarily unpaid air traffic controllers last week, causing travel disruptions that peaked on Sunday with nearly 3,000 flight cancellations and 11,000 delays. With the shutdown over, the FAA said the cuts would remain at 6% this week, rather than rising to 10% as planned, and will be lifted once it is safe to do so.

However, National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels said earlier this week that it took over two months for staffing levels to rebound after the last shutdown ended in 2019.

And government data will be weird for a while. There will be delays, and the White House said inflation and jobs data from October, which the government has not been collecting, may never be released. That would leave the Fed without critical information when deciding whether or not to cut interest rates in December.—MM

Jeffrey Epstein said Trump “knew about the girls” in an email. The late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein suggested in emails released publicly by House Democrats yesterday that he believed President Trump was aware of his misbehavior. In an email from 2011, Epstein said one victim had “spent hours at my house with” Trump—though Republicans later identified that victim as Virginia Giuffre, who has said Trump was not involved in wrongdoing. In another from 2019, he said that Trump “knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop,” seemingly referencing Ghislaine Maxwell’s recruitment of girls from Mar-a-Lago. Later in the day, Republicans released 23,000 pages of documents related to Epstein. And there could be more information made public: House Speaker Mike Johnson said there would be a vote next week on forcing the DOJ to release all its files, after he swore in a new Democratic rep who provided the final signature necessary to force such a vote.

Waymo hops on the freeway. Yesterday, Waymo became the first robotaxi provider to offer rides on US highways, making it more competitive with traditional taxis—at least for customers who don’t enjoy chatting with their driver. Customers who want to see a self-driving car vroom faster can now opt in for ride routes that include freeways in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, the company said. This could reduce ride times by as much as 50%, per Waymo. It plans to roll the feature out to other areas in the future.

Toyota opens US battery plant. The Japanese automaker declared its $14 billion North Carolina battery-making facility open yesterday, pledging an additional $10 billion investment in US manufacturing over the next five years as it hits the gas on its strategy to sell hybrid cars. While competitors shifted their focus to full EVs, Toyota bet on hybrids, a move that has proven lucrative as hybrid use ticks up and EV interest wanes. The new factory is Toyota’s 11th US manufacturing facility, but its first battery production site outside Japan. The plant will let it step up hybrid production, supplying hybrids and EVs with batteries while saving on shipping and tariff costs.—AR

The Disney–YouTube TV dispute that prevented many college football fans from watching 2–7 Northern Illinois take on 0–9 UMass last night is costing the House of Mouse $4.3 million a day, according to Morgan Stanley analysts.

Live sports have garnered most of the attention during the two-week dispute over carrier fees, which has resulted in the blacking out of ESPN for all YouTube TV subscribers. Some cord-cutters have even resorted to using an antenna to watch Monday Night Football. But the real sticking point for Google-owned YouTube TV is the cost to carry Disney’s ABC, not ESPN, Awful Announcing reported:

• ABC increasingly simulcasts live sports that were once exclusive to ESPN. Disney’s stance is that the increased availability of live sports on ABC should justify the higher costs.
• Distributors like YouTube TV argue that they’re already paying for the same content on ESPN, so why should they pay for the same unwatchable Eagles–Packers game twice? But YouTube is also asking Disney for lower rates than it’s received before.

It’s also bad PR for YouTube: Last week, a survey showed that 24% of YouTube TV subscribers said they canceled or planned to cancel the service as the Disney blackout entered its second week. On Sunday, YouTube TV began offering a one-time $20 credit to subscribers (YouTube TV is $82.99 per month).

The end may be near: With Disney reporting its quarterly earnings this morning, Morgan Stanley expects the companies to reach a deal to bring Pat McAfee back into YouTube subscribers’ lives by the end of the week.—DL

Coming soon to Facebook Marketplace: Penny molds, pre-loved, pickup in Pennsylvania. The US Mint has a bunch to spare now that it pressed its final circulating penny yesterday in Philadelphia, marking the end of one-cent coin production in the US after more than 200 years.

Though the last penny was just produced, penny shortages started mounting around Labor Day, following the US Treasury’s May announcement that it would wind down penny-minting.

Retailers are scrambling. Businesses haven’t figured out the best way to give cash payers exact change:

• Some grocery chains asked shoppers to exchange their pennies for gift cards of double the value in an attempt to stockpile one-cent pieces.
• Many retailers will round cash purchases to the nearest five-cent denomination. Convenience chain Kwik Trip opted to round down at penny-less locations, which will cost it a couple million dollars annually, a company spokesman told CNN.

Though retailers generally agree that the penny is obsolete, many feel its discontinuation has been too fast and loose. Trade groups want federal legislation that standardizes rounding rules for cash transactions, which would protect businesses against lawsuits from consumers who may feel shortchanged by price rounding.

Another complication: Federal law requires that SNAP recipients—who pay with debit cards—not be charged more than other customers. This could pose an issue for stores that round out cash transactions.—ML

Getting into Harvard is known to be hard unless you’re Elle Woods or the child of a wealthy donor, but now the university is fretting that things might not be hard enough for the selected undergrads once they make it to campus, with professors doling out too many top grades.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a report by the Ivy League university’s dean of undergraduate education found that:

• Last year, ~60% of all grades were A’s, compared to around 25% in the 2005–2006 school year. And the median GPA for students at graduation has risen to 3.83 from 3.29 when shoulder pads were all the rage for students in 1985.
• And it’s not because Harvard students are hitting the books much more: The average time spent studying outside of class last spring was 6.3 hours per week, compared to 6.08 hours in fall 2006.

The 25-page report contains recommendations for reining in grade inflation. But not all Harvard students believe things need to change—especially since the admissions office has become even more selective. “You admitted these students because they have straight A’s, and now they’re getting a lot of A’s, and it’s, like, ‘This is a problem,’” one senior told the WSJ.—AR