Washington, DC

1. Government reopens
2. Trump’s back pay plan
3. Syrian defector to testify
4. House readies Epstein vote
5. Trump’s check pitch
6. US exodus?
7. Khan’s new post

PDB: Bessent teases tariff cuts

Trump signs executive order … EU finance ministers meet … EU probes Google’s ranking of news sites in search results

Trump signs shutdown deal

President Donald Trump ended the longest-ever US government shutdown Wednesday night when he signed a Senate-crafted deal just one hour after the House passed it, in spite of 11th-hour outrage over a provision poised to enrich members of the upper chamber. Republicans and Democrats alike slammed the language, which would allow some senators to sue the Justice Department after it accessed their phone records. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who panned it as “out of line,” promised a vote next week on scrapping the proposal. That wasn’t enough to appease some, who pointed out the Senate may not take up the bill. But it didn’t matter: Six Democrats voted with all but two Republicans to pass the package of three full-year appropriations bills and an extension of other funding levels through January. Lawmakers now face “a very aggressive calendar,” Johnson said, after missing weeks of session.

— Eleanor Mueller

Furloughed workers to receive back pay

The Trump administration expects to begin sending out checks to federal government workers who missed pay during the shutdown, starting on Saturday, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott scooped. The administration aims to complete its list of payments by Nov. 19, according to an internal memo that offers agency-by-agency projections for the payments. A senior administration official said that the White House “has urged agencies to get their payments out expeditiously and accurately” so workers are not left “waiting longer than necessary.” For affected workers, some of whom had to rely on food banks and other support during the shutdown, the administration’s payment list will come as a relief — particularly after debate among Trump advisers over whether furloughed federal workers were entitled to back pay. Meanwhile, an OMB memo sent out Wednesday directed furloughed workers to return to work today, Bloomberg reported.

‘Caesar’ to testify on Syria sanctions

The former military photographer known as “Caesar,” whose graphic images of the Syrian civil war drove Congress to enact sanctions bearing his name, will return to Capitol Hill next week to tell lawmakers to repeal them, according to plans shared first with Semafor. Farid al-Madhan is slated to testify next Thursday before the 18 members of the Senate and House on the Helsinki Commission. Rabbi Yosef Hamra and Mirna Barq of Syrian Christians for Peace will also appear. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., is still resisting a White House-backed push to include a repeal of the Caesar Act in must-pass defense legislation, people familiar with the talks said. Mast’s Democratic counterpart, Rep. Greg Meeks of New York, told Semafor he wants the lawmakers involved in negotiations to plan a trip to Syria to build consensus: “That makes a difference to get to see certain things on the ground.”

— Eleanor Mueller

Epstein files poised to roil Congress

The House will vote next week on a bill that would force the Justice Department to release all of its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Johnson said Wednesday. Though the legislation faces long odds of enactment, it will nonetheless force congressional Republicans to go on-record mere days after the House Oversight Committee released new emails from Epstein asserting Trump “knew about the girls.” A last-minute lobbying blitz by the president failed to deter four Republicans from joining all Democrats, including newly sworn-in Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, in signing the discharge petition that triggered the vote. But several more, including Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio, are expected to support the legislation on the floor. “I hope all of them” will, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who signed the discharge petition, told Semafor.

— Eleanor Mueller

Trump can’t quit his favorite economic idea

Trump is returning to one of his favorite concepts — giving money directly to Americans — amid signs of voters souring on the US economy, Shelby reports. Recently, Trump has pushed sending $2,000 tariff rebate checks to eligible Americans, and has floated converting money for health insurance tax credits into direct payments. Earlier this year, he had also weighed giving Americans “DOGE dividend” checks. Trump’s first administration even saw him put his name on COVID relief checks sent out to millions. Experts sound skeptical. “Pretty much Fantasyland,” said Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the libertarian Cato Institute. But sending money to Americans is an idea Trump has had for years. When he weighed a run for New York governor in 2014, longtime ally Michael Caputo said, Trump often asked advisers: “Why don’t we just give money to the taxpayer?”

One in five Americans want to leave US

One in five Americans say they want to leave the US permanently, according to Gallup, a figure that’s on par with last year’s record regardless of the shift of power in Washington. Women and girls ages 15-44 are driving the trend, and have increasingly expressed the desire to move from the US to another country — 40% said so in the most recent poll. That sentiment is not completely driven by partisanship; while the percentage of younger women who wanted to leave the country spiked ahead of Trump’s first election in 2016, it continued upward, hitting a record 44% during former President Joe Biden’s last year in office, as women grappled with the effects of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Younger women in the US are more likely to want to move than those living in other wealthy OECD countries, according to Gallup.

Lina Khan’s populist plan for New York

Biden’s progressive antitrust crusader has a new post in New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team. And she’s planning to run the same playbook in NYC as in DC, Semafor’s Liz Hoffman writes: Lina Khan, a Yale-trained lawyer, ran the Biden-era FTC by dusting off forgotten 20th-century laws and wielding them against modern corporations. Since she joined Mamdani’s team, Khan has been scouring city and state laws — some overlooked by past mayors and some too new to have been tested — for legal footing for the Democratic socialist’s priorities. She’s discussed targeting hospitals that bill patients for painkillers available more cheaply at drugstores and stadiums charging nosebleed prices for concessions, sources told Liz. Khan told an event last week that she plans to focus “on things like: how do we make sure that we have a full accounting of all of the laws and authorities that the mayor can unilaterally deploy.”

When now-New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill’s strategists tested her campaign messaging, they saw a major opportunity with a valuable bloc of swing voters: backers of outgoing Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021 who had moved to Donald Trump’s camp in 2024.

Republicans saw potential there for Jack Ciattarelli, their gubernatorial nominee in 2021 and 2025, who embraced the president and dreamed of bringing DOGE to New Jersey. But Democrats’ research showed that none of that was clicking.

“There was already this sense that Trump wasn’t doing what he said he was going to do,” said Angela Kuefler, a campaign pollster who has worked with both Sherrill and Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger since they entered politics.

The Secretary of Health for Maryland, Meena Seshamani, M.D., Ph.D., will join the stage at The Future of Health Forum in Washington, DC on Nov. 18, 2025.

As discussions continue around federal programs such as the ACA subsidies extended under the 2021 Inflation Reduction Act, Americans are facing rising health care costs, shrinking community services, and persistent workforce shortages. Affordability, access, and quality of care remain more urgent concerns than ever. To explore the factors shaping this moment — and potential solutions — Semafor will convene leading experts for a forum on the future of US health care.

Nov. 18 | Washington, DC | RSVP

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: The leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees are getting close to an agreement on the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act and hope to meet next week to finalize details.

Axios: Israel is pursuing a new 20-year security pact with the US — twice the usual length — and is incorporating “America First” provisions aimed at securing the White House’s support.

Playbook: President Trump’s move to wield the Justice Department against his political enemies faces “its biggest test yet” today, as a federal judge weighs claims brought by former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney Gen. Letitia James that Trump’s handpicked prosecutor, interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan, was improperly appointed.

WaPo: “This was a failure,” was the assessment of Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., on how the shutdown went for the Democrats.