Washington, DC

1. Agency shutdown ends
2. 60-days dispute
3. Bipartisan prediction markets bill
4. Our AI economy
5. Redistricting rush
6. Mills drops out

S&P 500 notches best month ▲ in five years, while oil ▲ to four-year high.

Homeland Security shutdown ends

The end of the longest-ever shutdown in US history was anticlimactic. The House unanimously passed a bill to reopen most of the Department of Homeland Security this afternoon, after clearing a budget blueprint to fund immigration enforcement and border patrol through the end of Donald Trump’s presidency late last night. Conservatives who have vented for weeks about the two-track process to reopen the agency didn’t stand in the way today. “We weren’t going to win that vote. So we decided to go and let it go by voice vote,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas. The House’s legislative mess also imperiled the extension of foreign surveillance powers, which Congress was forced to punt for another 45 days, after the House added language in a longer-term extension that Senate Republicans said was dead on arrival.

— Nicholas Wu

Hegseth disputes 60-day war powers deadline

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth floated a novel interpretation of the War Powers Act today. Tomorrow is widely considered the statutory deadline for Trump to ask Congress for approval to continue the war in Iran — 60 days from the start of the conflict. Hegseth disagrees: “We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses, or stops, in a ceasefire,” he said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, leaving unclear whether the president would ever seek authorization. Meanwhile, Trump has signaled the war could drag on: He’s vowed to keep the US blockade in place until Iran agrees to a nuclear deal. Trump was scheduled to be briefed today by Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, which Axios reported is prepared to execute a “short and powerful” wave of strikes.

Bipartisan pair of senators introduces prediction markets bill

Sens. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., introduced legislation today that would strengthen the Trump administration’s claim of federal jurisdiction over prediction markets by creating a new regulatory framework. The bill, shared first with Semafor, comes as Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Mike Selig argues in courts across the country that his agency should regulate the markets as derivatives exchanges, taking authority from states that want to treat them like casinos. The proposal would specifically define terms like event contracts while also requiring exchanges to implement safeguards against advertising, illicit finance, and fund segregation. It would ban lawmakers and administration officials from trading and create an Office of the Retail Advocate, as well as a consumer protection council and innovation committee, at CFTC. “This legislation gives these markets the clear rules they need to grow responsibly [and] protects everyday investors,” McCormick said.

— Eleanor Mueller and Liz Hoffman

AI investments drive growth as consumers feel squeeze

It’s an AI economy now. A surge in business investment in technology drove the rise in the US’ gross domestic product — the value of all goods and services produced across the economy — to an adjusted 2% annual rate in the first three months of the year, according to data released by the Commerce Department today. Meanwhile, consumers are starting to feel the squeeze: The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge rose to 3.2% in March, the highest it’s been since 2024, while the US savings rate fell to 3.6%, the lowest it’s been since 2022. The data doesn’t capture the effects of rising gas prices in April, which surged 27 cents in the last week to an average of $4.30 per gallon. Crude prices hit a wartime high today.

Supreme Court sparks a bipartisan redistricting rush

The Supreme Court’s weakening of the Voting Rights Act has kicked off a new redistricting rush, with Republicans and Democrats endorsing plans to wipe out their rivals in the states they control, Semafor’s David Weigel reports. Some changes being discussed could come this summer. Others are being planned for next year. And unlike the first round of congressional remapping that Trump launched last year, this time there are few voices urging caution in either party. “All states that have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said. Democrats, whose seats in Republican-led Southern states had been protected by the VRA, mourned the ruling. But many also urged blue states to take advantage of it by drawing maps that would eliminate as many Republican seats as possible — even if that meant some Black Democrats would run in more competitive districts.

Democrats get behind Maine’s Platner

Democrats embraced Graham Platner as their Senate candidate in Maine, after Gov. Janet Mills unexpectedly ended her campaign for the seat. “We’re all eternally grateful for her service to the state of Maine,” Platner said at a stop in Augusta, ahead of the weekend state party convention. Democratic campaign committees immediately recognized Platner as their challenger to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, with DNC leaders calling him this morning to offer support. Platner, who entered the race months before Mills, held a commanding lead in polls, which didn’t diminish even after Mills ran ads attacking offensive Reddit posts he’d made (and apologized for). Despite their concerns about Platner’s past, Democrats were pleased to forgo weeks of primary campaign spending and what might have been ugly debates.

— David Weigel

Congress

• The Senate filed cloture today on Kevin Warsh’s nomination to lead the Federal Reserve, keeping him on track for confirmation before Jerome Powell’s term as chair expires May 15.
• Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., doubled down on his promise not to confirm anyone for attorney general who has “equivocated” on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. — Politico
• The House Ethics Committee has started an investigation into unspecified allegations against Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., who holds a seat Democrats consider prime for flipping in November. — Axios

White House

• President Trump pulled the nomination of wellness entrepreneur Casey Means to be US surgeon general and tapped Dr. Nicole Saphier instead.
• China’s top trade official expressed “serious concerns” about recent US trade and economic restrictions to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a phone call today, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with his Chinese counterpart in a separate call about the war in Iran and Taiwan. — Bloomberg

Politics

• The GOP and Koch-aligned super PAC Americans for Prosperity Action warned in an internal memo that the Senate is at risk of flipping to Democrats. — Politico

Economy

• Applications for US unemployment benefits plunged to the lowest level in decades, signaling the job market remains a low-firing environment, despite high-profile companies announcing cuts. — Bloomberg

World

• European counterterrorism officials are investigating a little-known group that has claimed more than a dozen attacks on Jewish communities over the past two months, with suspected links to Iran.
• An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen to study embedding electronics in the human brain. — Reuters
• American Airlines resumed flights to Venezuela after a seven-year hiatus.
• Russia is importing more than 90% of its sanctioned technology through China.

Defense

• The NSA has been testing the capabilities of Anthropic’s Mythos model to find cybersecurity vulnerabilities in American software. — Bloomberg
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei an “ideological lunatic” and brushed off fears of fully AI-controlled weapons as a “classic Anthropic talking point.”

Media

• News publishers are jointly pushing back on a nonprofit web archive, Common Crawl, that captures their content and lets chatbots train on it. — Bloomberg

WHCD

• US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said she will bring “many more charges” against Cole Allen in the White House Correspondents’ Dinner case.

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