NPR News: 12-09-2025 7AM EST
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Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theschmidt.org.
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. Tax credits for people on Affordable Health Care Act policies will expire at the end of this year. Prices will skyrocket for many, unless Congress acts. NPR's Elena Moore reports a Democratic plan would extend these subsidies.
The Senate is expected to vote on the Democrats' proposal later this week, which would extend these COVID-era health care subsidies for three more years. That plan doesn't have Republican buy-in. And though several GOP lawmakers are working on counter-proposals that include things like income caps to qualify, the party hasn't united around one plan. Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley says it needs to.
What signal will it send if Republicans say, we're going to say no to the Democrats' plan, but we're not going to offer anything? The message that we'll send is, good luck to the American people. We don't really care.
The existing tax credits currently benefit more than 20 million people across the country. Elena Moore, NPR News, the Capitol.
President Trump has announced a $12 billion payment to farmers. The payments are for those who've suffered losses as a result of his global tariffs. NPR's Anusha Mathur reports.
2025 has been a rough year for farmers. Mike Lavender from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition says tariffs were a big reason why.
Unprecedented instability, whether you want to call it tariff wars, trade wars, uncertainty in international markets for agricultural products.
After Trump slapped big tariffs on imports, China largely stopped buying American farm products, including soybeans. That hit hard.
Farmers are an indispensable national asset, part of the backbone of America. I've always felt it so strongly.
President Trump says this latest relief package will help them.
The tariffs are taking in hundreds of billions of dollars and we're giving some up to the farmers.
Farmers can start applying for relief this month. Anusha Mathur, NPR News.
The U.S. Supreme Court has heard arguments over a case asking whether the president has the power to fire members of independent agencies. At issue is a Democrat whom Trump fired as a commissioner from the Federal Trade Commission. Congress declared that a president can only fire members for cause. such as neglect of duty. But President Trump argues he should be able to pick whomever he wants for jobs in the executive branch. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports the justices seem concerned that the separation of powers among the branches of government has gotten murky.
You know, it seems like everyone agreed that independent agencies like the FTC and many others are not purely executive in function. Their board members and commissioners make rules and decide cases. Their actions affect people and businesses all over the country. And Solicitor General John Sauer, who was representing the Trump administration, argued that's why it's a problem that they're not accountable to the president.
NPR's Andrea Hsu reporting. On Wall Street and pre-market trading, Dow futures are higher. This is NPR. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans will pay at least $230 million to hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse. A federal judge has approved the money as part of a settlement. The New Orleans diocese declared bankruptcy more than five years ago instead of handling each abuse claim separately. People who reported the abuse say that meant the church did not have to reply to allegations in court. The New Orleans Archbishop has apologized for the church this week. A new study finds that this is a golden era for discovering the variety of life on Earth. We have details from NPR's Nate Rott.
There are 2.5 million unique species on Earth that we humans have discovered and categorized, but that number is constantly growing. A new study published in the journal Science Advances looks at the history of species discovery and how it's changing, and it finds that on average, humans are now discovering 17,000 new species every year.
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