Dave Mattingly

This is NPR News from Washington.

Votes in the Senate are expected today on separate Republican and Democratic bills to extend federal health care subsidies beyond the end of the month.

That's when they're set to expire.

Senators say neither proposal will likely pass.

Republican Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina says negotiating an extension of the subsidies is too complicated and too difficult to get done before Congress adjourns for the year.

The subsidies were a focal point for Democratic leaders in the House and Senate during the recent 43-day government shutdown.

NASA says it's lost contact with a spacecraft orbiting Mars.

As Joe Palka reports, the MAVEN has been circling the Red Planet for more than a decade.

More high winds and heavy rains are in the forecast today for the Pacific Northwest.

The National Weather Service says a prolonged atmospheric river is to blame.

Forecasters warn areas of Washington state could see more flooding.

I'm Dave Mattingly, NPR News in Washington.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dave Mattingly.

The Associated Press reports two U.S.

Navy fighter jets flew over the Gulf of Venezuela yesterday in what a defense official describes as a routine training flight.

It lasted more than 30 minutes.

It comes amid a U.S.

military buildup off the coast of Venezuela.

and the Pentagon having ordered airstrikes on suspected drug boats from Venezuela in the Caribbean.

Venezuela's political opposition leader, Maria Machado, is not expected to be in Oslo today when she is awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize.