Nancy Marshall-Genzer

Well, during the last shutdown just last fall, ICE agents did work without pay initially, but in mid-October, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced they would be paid.

Laura Blessing is a senior fellow at Georgetown University.

She told me ICE could dip into the Big Beautiful Bill money again to keep paying its agents if there is another shutdown.

Whether or not they would be

paid exactly on time isn't something that I want to speculate about.

That being said, there are funds available for them to be paid again if passed as prologue.

They're pretty good, David.

Senate Democrats do want to insert language into the legislation funding ICE, requiring agents to identify themselves, obtain warrants for arrests, and cooperate with local law enforcement.

I can't resist.

When the moon

Medicare pays big insurers like UnitedHealth Group and CVS Health to manage Medicare Advantage plans for seniors.

Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers Medicare, projected a rate increase for these insurers of slightly less than 1%.

The companies were expecting closer to 4 or 5%.

The government is trying to crack down on companies that read patients' medical charts and conclude they have additional illnesses.

Insurers are paid more when patients are sicker.

Now, Medicare wants to change that, only paying for new illnesses diagnosed during a visit to a doctor's office.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says it's trying to limit growing unnecessary costs from, quote, coding practices that do not lead to better quality coverage.

It'll finalize new rates by this April.

The trade group America's Health Insurance Plan says the proposed low rate could result in benefit cuts and higher costs for seniors.

I'm Nancy Marshall-Genzer for Marketplace.