Politics and views in the United States.

The Senate fails to extend ACA subsidies all but ensuring higher premiums in January, Indiana lawmakers vote not to change their congressional map, and West Virginia clergy call for a moratorium on immigration detentions during the holidays.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

There's nobody who's saying the healthcare in America is terrific, but Republicans today have taken a system that's already struggling and broken it down even more.

Democratic Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock says more than a million people in his state alone will see their healthcare premiums skyrocket next month after the Senate failed to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Four Republicans joined Democrats in voting to renew the tax credits for three years, but most agreed they're too expensive.

A GOP plan to create health savings accounts was also voted down.

Democrats note three-quarters of the folks using the subsidies, often farmers, ranchers or small business owners, live in red states.

House lawmakers have voted to reinstate collective bargaining rights for workers at more than two dozen federal agencies.

At least 22 Republicans broke with their party to overturn a presidential executive order placing restrictions on public sector unions.

Indiana state senators narrowly voted against redrawing the state's congressional map ahead of next year's midterms.

Republican Ron Alting voted yes, but says a White House pressure campaign may have backfired.

Hoosiers got great values, and the threats and all that to my colleagues on the other side has been nothing but making them dig in even stronger.

Missouri election officials are moving ahead with a new map there in spite of a possible referendum.

A grassroots coalition opposing what it calls a partisan power grab has turned in more than 300,000 signatures to get a repeal on the next ballot.

Richard Von Glahn with the group People Not Politicians Missouri says the gerrymander is very unpopular.

This work has been done by over 2,000 Missourians who volunteered their time to get trained on how to gather signatures to go out and talk to Missourians from all across the state.

Testifying to a House committee, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended sending more than 100 people to a notorious Salvadorian megaprison.

But a federal judge has ordered the release of Maryland resident Kilmar Obrego-Garcia, who was deported there before being returned to the U.S.

And clergy in West Virginia are asking the governor to issue a holiday moratorium on detentions of undocumented migrants.

Clarksburg Catholic priest Paul Hudock says hundreds of men taken from their families means real personal and financial stress.

These men who are typically breadwinners are taken out of their homes.

Usually they have wives, partners, families.

And finally, a grand jury has again declined to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud.

It's the latest setback for prosecutors aiming to revive cases against President Donald Trump's adversaries.

I'm Katherine Carley for Pacifica Network Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.

The bill not only fails to extend the tax credits, it increases costs, adds tons of new abortion restrictions for women, expands junk fees, and permanently funds cost-sharing reductions.

The House has passed the $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act.

Despite bipartisan support, this year's huge defense budget faces opposition over specific items added or left out, some even coming from other federal agencies.

Jennifer Homendy with the National Transportation Safety Board opposes a provision reversing safety standards put in place after a midair collision earlier this year in Washington, D.C.'s airspace.

"We should be working together in partnership to prevent the next accident, not inviting history to repeat itself by recreating the same conditions that were in place on January 29th."

Texas college students and professors told a House Democratic caucus meeting that Republican-backed anti-DEI bills at the state legislature are a threat to free speech and academic freedom.

UT Austin professor Karma Chavez says a lot of students tell her they plan to leave the state right after graduation because they don't feel safe.

Hostility to academic freedom translates to hostility to creatives, truth lovers, innovators, and pioneers.

And we will be left paying the bill of an investment into potential that we have abandoned because we have also abandoned academic freedom and free speech.

Chavez says after one student mocked the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Governor Greg Abbott called for their expulsion and others called for the "ninja" to face a firing squad. or use "strange fruit tactics" to make blacks afraid again.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.