Senate Ends Brazil Tariffs Amid Funding Deadlock, Premium Surge
The Burdened Hearth Beneath the Shadowed Sky by DALL-E 3
Senate Ends Brazil Tariffs Amid Funding Deadlock, Premium Surge
Bread and Circus: The Complete Record of American Governance
Today’s newsletter covers official U.S. government happenings from the executive, legislative, and judicial branches yesterday, as well as key economic indicators. Below, you’ll find concise summaries of each document, with links to the original sources for further reading.
What Happened Yesterday:
🦅 Executive Branch: No activity
🏛️ Legislative Branch: 3 documents (1 Congressional Record - Daily Digest, 1 Congressional Record - House Section, 1 Congressional Record - Senate Section)
⚖️ Judicial Branch: No activity
📊 Economic Indicators: No activity
Total words condensed: 53,068 into 816
The Big Picture
On October 28, 2025, the Senate took several important steps that could affect trade, government operations, and public awareness. They narrowly passed a resolution to end special tariffs on goods from Brazil, which may lower costs for American consumers and businesses relying on Brazilian imports. The Senate also recognized October as National Dyslexia Awareness Month and designated the last week of October as Bat Week, signaling a focus on health and environmental awareness. Meanwhile, the Senate confirmed a new federal judge and advanced other judicial nominations, which will shape the federal court system going forward.
However, the Senate did not advance a bill to continue government funding, leaving the risk of a government shutdown unresolved. This ongoing impasse has real consequences: federal workers remain unpaid, nutrition programs are running out of money, and millions of Americans face rising healthcare costs. Senators highlighted alarming premium increases, with some families facing hikes as steep as 175 to 500 percent starting this Saturday during open enrollment. These developments underscore a tense political environment where legislative gridlock is contributing to economic uncertainty and potential hardship for many households.
Pattern to Watch
A clear pattern emerging from recent Senate activity is escalating political deadlock around government funding and healthcare costs. The repeated blocking of a clean continuing resolution to fund the government, now in its fourth week, signals deep partisan divisions that risk prolonging the shutdown and worsening economic strain on federal workers and vulnerable populations. At the same time, sharply rising health insurance premiums—some increasing by hundreds of percent—point to a growing healthcare affordability crisis that could become a major political and economic issue in the coming months. Continued failure to pass funding bills or address healthcare costs would likely deepen uncertainty and hardship, while any breakthrough on these fronts would be a critical signal of easing tensions.
🦅 Executive Branch
No activity today.
🏛️ Legislative Branch
Congressional Record
On October 28, 2025, the Senate took several important steps. They passed a resolution (S.J.Res.81) by a close vote of 52 to 48 to end special tariffs (extra taxes) on goods from Brazil, which affects trade and prices. The Senate also agreed to recognize October 2025 as National Dyslexia Awareness Month and declared the last week of October as Bat Week to raise awareness. They continued work on a bill (H.R.5371) to keep government funding going for the new fiscal year but did not agree to move forward with it yet. The Senate confirmed Jordan Emery Pratt as a federal judge by a 52 to 47 vote and moved forward with other judicial nominations, including Edmund G. LaCour, Jr. They used procedural votes like motions to proceed and cloture (which limits debate) to manage how bills and nominations were considered. These actions matter because they affect trade policy, government funding, public awareness campaigns, and the federal court system, all of which impact daily life and government operations. Read full document →
Random excerpts from the Senate
The far-left activists wanted a showdown with President Trump, and so Democrats have shut down the government and have forced hard-working Americans to live in uncertainty for 4 weeks--4 weeks and counting. Even as nutrition programs are running out of money and Federal workers are lining up at food banks, Democrats continue--continue--to reject every opportunity to end the shutdown or mitigate its pain. They now blocked a clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution 12 times--12 times. A clean resolution is sitting right there to open up the government, get everybody paid, get Federal employees back to work. That thing sitting at the desk that funds the government doesn’t have a single new Republican policy in it. It doesn’t have a single partisan policy rider. It simply extends current government funding.
— Sen. John Thune (R-SD)
Americans are on the brink of a healthcare crisis unlike we have seen in our lifetimes. Never before have we been in a situation where more than 20 million Americans can see their insurance premiums more than double, on average, in the blink of an eye. That is just the average because for many people it is worse. Yesterday, the State of New Jersey also announced the average New Jersey family would see premium hikes of 175 percent--175 percent. In Upstate New York, the average family with a plan costing $280 a month today is about to pay $1,700 a month for the same plan next year, a 500-percent hike, and that starts this Saturday with open enrollment. This crisis will be felt in every community and by nearly every single household, red, blue, purple, and everything in between.
