The Excerpt podcast: House passes temporary spending plan to avoid government shutdown

On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: The House has passed a temporary plan to avoid a government shutdown. Israeli forces raid Gaza's largest hospital. USA TODAY Congress, Campaigns and Democracy Reporter Sudiksha Kochi looks at the impact of Black voters on elections. I-10 remains closed in Los Angeles after a fire that's under investigation as an act of arson. USA TODAY Health Reporter Karen Weintraub breaks down the link between climate change and your health.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Tuesday, November 15th. This is The Excerpt. Today, the House passes a temporary plan to avoid a government shutdown, plus Israeli forces enter a Gaza City hospital. And we look at the role Black voters might play in the 2024 presidential election.

♦

The House yesterday approved a temporary measure to fund the government and avoid a catastrophic shutdown. The move kicks the can down the road again for Congress to later pass a longer term deal to keep the government open. The stopgap bill passed the House with a bipartisan vote of 336 to 95. Newly installed House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leaders have touted the so-called continuing resolution as a conservative victory. But leading up to and after the House passed the measure, ultra-conservative GOP lawmakers expressed frustration toward Johnson for passing what's known as a clean continuing resolution because it maintains government funding at current levels. That disappointment shows that deep divisions remain among house Republicans, divisions that could signal more rocky times ahead for the House as it works to pass 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the government on a long-term basis.

For now, the short-term legislation moves to the Senate where it's expected to easily clear the chamber and moved to President Joe Biden's desk for his signature. A shutdown would've upended the lives of hundreds of thousands of federal employees, threatening furloughs and some food assistance programs and other crucial benefits could have been delayed.

♦

Israeli forces raided Gaza's largest hospital, al-Shifa, earlier today, in an operation targeting Hamas forces. Hundreds of patients, including newborn babies, have been stranded there with limited supplies and no electricity as the Israeli military extends control across Gaza City. The Biden administration said for the first time that the US has information that Hamas is concealing military operations and hiding hostages under hospitals. Both al-Shifa Hospital staff and Hamas deny the allegations.

Israel accuses Hamas of using Palestinians as human shields in the war, while Palestinians and rights groups accuse Israel of endangering Palestinian civilians as it seeks to eradicate Hamas. Inside Gaza, the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees says its relief efforts will have to end soon because its fuel storage facility in Gaza is empty. The Israeli military said that forces raiding al-Shifa Hospital are also searching for some of the 240 or so hostages taken by Hamas in an attack on Israel last month. In the US, thousands of Israel supporters gathered yesterday for a rally in Washington with many calling for more attention to the hostages' struggles and demanding their immediate release.

♦

Black voters had a major impact on elections across the country earlier this month, and they'll play an important role in picking the next president. I spoke with USA Today Congress, Campaigns and Democracy Reporter Sudiksha Kochi, for more. Sudiksha, always great to have you on.

Sudiksha Kochi:

Thank you so much for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

Sudiksha, let's talk about Ohio to start and the vote to enshrine abortion rights there. What role did the Black vote play in this outcome?

Sudiksha Kochi:

Yeah. So, the Black vote actually played a huge role in the outcome. An NBC news exit poll found that more than 8 in 10 Black voters, a bigger proportion than white and Latino voters, supported the measure. And for those that don't know what the measure is, Ohio voters on November 7th had approved a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights until viability, which is typically around 24 weeks gestation, and the right to access contraception, fertility treatment and other services.

The result actually also came after Republicans tried to raise the threshold for amending the state constitution from 50% to 60% earlier this year and against the backdrop of increasingly restrictive voting measures. Prentiss Haney, co-executive director of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, told USA Today that what they saw is of course, an issue that really matters to the Black community that is finally on the ballot, that they didn't have to wait for a politician to deliver a policy for them, they could deliver it through direct democracy for themselves. So in this case, Black voters did play a huge role in the Ohio measure.

Taylor Wilson:

And Kentucky rejected a Black Republican for governor. Sudiksha, what happened in this election and how did the Black vote play a role here?

Sudiksha Kochi:

So in Kentucky, what ended up happening is incumbent Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, beat Daniel Cameron, who is a Black Republican running in Kentucky, by more than 60,000 votes. While campaign officials say it's too early to know how Black voters turned out compared with other groups of voters, clues actually point to an increase. So, we actually gathered data from the Black Voters Matter Fund and they estimated that in Jefferson County, which includes Louisville, the state's biggest city, estimated voter turnout was 41% compared with the state average of 38%.

Taylor Wilson:

And in Mississippi, Black people make up 40% of the state's population. They often vote Democrat, though the state reelected a Republican governor this fall. What did we learn from this election?

Sudiksha Kochi:

I think the biggest thing we learned from this election was how voter suppression could potentially play a role in elections, but also what sort of investment or what sort of attention is being given to the Black voter community. State data hasn't been released yet. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, however, estimates that Black voter turnout decreased in this year's race compared with 2019 as an overall statewide turnout.

There were a series of mishaps on election day in Mississippi that could have played a role. In Hinds County, a ballot shortage actually left many residents unable to vote. There were also reports of improper voter purges ahead of election day. Charles V. Taylor Jr. executive director of the Mississippi NAACP, said that regardless of what the outcome of the election was in Mississippi, it is one of the hottest states in the country and they're trying to do everything they can to change laws and create awareness. So overall, what we found in Mississippi is that there are issues that are animating Black voters, but candidates need to play a better role in reaching out to the Black voter community if they want to get their platforms and their presence across in the community.

Taylor Wilson:

And Sudiksha, what does all this tell us about the Black vote and its potential impact for the presidential race going into next year in 2024?

Sudiksha Kochi:

Black voters actually make up a core part of the Democratic coalition and they appear to be in play more than ever. But recent polls have actually shown that President Joe Biden is losing Black voters' support. Though he won 92% of Black support in 2020, a September poll found that only 66% of Black voters would choose him if the 2020 election were held that month. So, I think that shows that Democrats have a long way to go when it comes to regaining support among Black voters, but also it shows what policies and what issues are animating Black voters to go towards the poll. The biggest one seems to be abortion and reproductive rights, as we saw with Virginia and Kentucky and Ohio.

But the other issue, I think that Democrats need to focus on a little bit more is the economy. A recent poll, it found that Donald Trump was pulling support from a shocking 22% of Black voters in six key battleground states. And so, I think that shows that Democrats do have some work to do when it comes to regaining that Black voter support in 2024.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Sudiksha Kochi, great insight, as always. Thanks for making the time.

Sudiksha Kochi:

Thank you so much.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Residents in Los Angeles will have to wait three to five weeks before they can again access the Interstate 10 freeway. California will be making repairs to the freeway's bridge deck and columns after a massive fire damaged 100 columns. The state's fire marshal said this week that the fire was set intentionally and maliciously, and the case is under investigation as an act of arson.

I-10 acts as a major thoroughfare in the LA metro area, and its closure will severely impact commuters in and out of the city's downtown area. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is urging commuters to take public transportation or work from home during the closure. No arrests have been made in the arson and Governor Newsom said that investigators are trying to determine if more than one person was involved.

♦

Climate change affects your health in a number of ways. Several new international reports are underscoring the health consequences of a warming climate. I spoke with USA Today Health Reporter Karen Weintraub, about one of the new papers from the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, to get a better sense of the connection between the two and what we can do about it. Karen, good to have you back on.

Karen Weintraub:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Karen, what did this Lancet paper find about the impact global warming is having on the health of Americans?

Karen Weintraub:

So, it looked at the link between climate change and health and found that a lot of the health consequences that we're really seeing in our everyday lives are due to climate change. So, allergy, I know I have a lot of allergy symptoms and they seem to be getting worse and lasting longer, and that's potentially due to climate change. The Canadian wildfires that ruined the air this summer in a lot of parts of the United States, the horrible fire in Hawaii that killed 93 people, things that are going on in our world are most likely connected to warming and certainly the heat waves this summer. It's hard to connect any specific event to climate change, but in combination they're almost certainly connected to global warming.

Taylor Wilson:

And so, what's the prognosis for the future at this point, be it near term or long-term?

Karen Weintraub:

What everybody says is that it's not too late yet, but we're getting close. We really need to take action now. We know what to do. As somebody said, it's really a matter of political will right now. We have the technology, we have the know-how, we just need to do it, and we can all do it. There's obviously a lot that needs to be done at the national level, that our political leaders need to do, but there's also stuff that can be done at the community level and even it doesn't feel like maybe your recycling bin is doing much to help the world, but if we all do something, it might make a difference.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. I want to get into that a little more specifically. I mean, what can individuals do to protect their health amid climate disaster? And what bigger picture solutions for health-centered climate action are being proposed at this point?

Karen Weintraub:

Yeah. I mean, some numbers that jumped out at me that I didn't know before reporting this, switching one bus from diesel gasoline to electric power can help a child's asthma improve by 30% within a month. So, that means fewer asthma attacks, fewer visits to the ER. And so, encouraging your school district or your city to switch from diesel to an electric bus might make a difference.

Increasing the tree coverage in a city. So, there's something called the urban heat island when a city, a lot of concrete, not a lot of trees, causes a lot of warmth. The sun beats down on the concrete, heats it up, and just adding a tree can help reduce that heat. And investing a dollar in planting trees saves about $5 in ER costs from excess heat. Seemingly simple things like that can have pretty big payoffs.

Taylor Wilson:

And Karen, these reports come out ahead of COP 28 later this month. Can you just remind our listeners what this summit is and what it hopes to achieve?

Karen Weintraub:

COP 28 is a meeting of the countries participating in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These are the countries that agreed to limit global climate increases, temperature increases to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. They're meeting beginning November 30th in Dubai to talk about what comes next, what they can do next. And as these reports indicate, it's getting pretty serious, we don't have a lot more time to waste now before we really crack down on limiting climate temperature increases.

Taylor Wilson:

Karen Weintraub covers health for USA Today. Thank you, Karen.

Karen Weintraub:

Thanks so much for having me.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.