WSJ What’s News - House to Vote on GOP Bill to Avert a Shutdown

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

A.M. Edition for Sept. 19. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are looking to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month, as they vote on a short-term spending bill today. Plus, President Trump looks to use a $550 billion Japanese investment fund to revive U.S. manufacturing. The WSJ’s Jason Douglas says the proposed plan is receiving mixed reviews as Trump exerts growing influence on the private sector. Plus, a cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover brings its production lines to a grinding halt. Kate Bullivant hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Viking, committed to exploring the world in comfort. Journey through the heart of Europe on an elegant Viking longship with thoughtful service, cultural enrichment, and all-inclusive fares. Discover more at Viking.com. The Trump administration looks to ramp up U.S. manufacturing with help from Japan. Plus, Congress heads for a shutdown brawl today with razor-tight votes in the House and Senate. Well, time is running out. On October 1st, government funding lapses. Hopefully they will deliver the votes that are necessary for us to keep the government open, keep the lights on.

And production at Jaguar Land Rover is stuck in neutral after a major cyber attack. It's Friday, September 19th. I'm Kate Bullivant for the Wall Street Journal. And here is the AM edition of What's News. The top headlines and business stories moving your world today. President Trump is once again looking to revive US manufacturing, this time with the help of a $550 billion Japanese investment fund. According to documents and people familiar with the discussion, the plan to spur domestic factory construction would give priority to sectors

such as semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, energy, ships and quantum computing. The journal's Jason Douglas is with us now. Jason, tell us a bit more about this $550 billion investment fund from Japan. What does it involve? So this is part of the trade agreement between the United States and Japan. So Japan got lower tariffs on cars and steel and some other things. And in return, it has promised to invest an awful lot of money in the United States over the next few years of Trump's presidency.

The way it works is a little bit controversial, particularly in Japan. So the United States has really quite a lot of discretion over what projects will get funded. And then the Japanese have the choice to either invest or not invest. If they don't invest, there's the risk that tariffs get reimposed at a higher level. So the incentive for the Japanese side, at any rate, is very much to get involved in these investments. And as you said, they are in sectors that the Japanese government and Japanese companies are very interested in things like semiconductors and energy and so on. So far Trump has already secured a. government stake in Intel and negotiated a so-called golden share in US steel. Does this plan mark

another example of Trump making inroads into the private sector? I think that's fair. Yes. I mean, President Trump has made no secret of his desire to revitalise US manufacturing and he's pulling all the levers that he can to do it. And if that involves directing pretty large sums to particular enterprises to particular projects chosen by the government, then he will do that. It certainly gives the government, you know, a very central role in reshaping, rebuilding US manufacturing, for sure. Jason Douglas, thank you very much. My pleasure. The details of how such a far-reaching program would be implemented are still being ironed out, and those with direct knowledge of the negotiations caution that the plans could change. On Capitol Hill, House lawmakers

are set to vote on a short-term spending bill that would fund the government through mid-November. Democratic leaders are adamantly opposed and are threatening a government shutdown if Republicans don't let them have a say on the measure with some democratic support needed to get the bill over the line. If it does, the bill moves on to the Senate for a vote later. However, neither side shows signs of budging

despite the desire to a looming government shutdown on October 1st. Speaking at a press conference, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said time is running out. Democrats are clear. We need Republicans to step up, not say, oh, maybe we'll look at it down the road. We need them to step up now, now, to protect the needs of the American people. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Republicans have given Democrats every opportunity to avoid a government shutdown. So I'm hoping that notwithstanding what Senator Schumer is saying that there are Democrats out there who think it's a really bad idea like they did last year to shut down the government. In a sign the votes could be a close call, President Trump weighed in yesterday, urging Republicans to pass the bill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed confidence he has the votes to pass the bill in the House. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine panel. has voted to no longer recommend a combined shot for measles, mumps, rebella and varicella or chicken pox for children under age four. Under new guidance, parents are instead recommended to get their young children one vaccine for chicken pox and a second MMR vaccine. The committee chairman said the goal was to reduce seizures following the combined vaccine, though they are very rare, arguing that fewer adverse reactions will build trust in the vaccine schedule. Others said the decision risked scaring parents.

According to immunisation experts, combination vaccines mean fewer shots and visits to the doctor, making it more likely that children get fully immunised and protected against diseases. The panel is today expected to vote on changing recommendations for COVID-19 shots. President Trump has said that broadcast networks that are against him might have their licenses taken away by the FCC.

It comes after Disney suspended Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show indefinitely, following remarks about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said any decision on whether to revoke licenses would be up to FCC chair, Brendan Carr. They give me only bad publicity or press. I mean, they're getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away. It will be up to Brendan Carr.

I think Brendan Carr is outstanding. He's a patriot. He loves our country. And he's a tough guy. So we'll have to see. In a rare rebuke, former President Barack Obama said on X that the Trump administration had taken cancel culture to a, quote, new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies.

Unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators, it doesn't like, unquote. And while the Trump administration, has blamed the radical left for Kirk's shooting, groups that track political violence in the US generally find that right-wing and jihadist violence has been more prevalent than left-wing violence in recent decades. That said, the landscape is evolving, with researchers saying more acts are being committed by those holding either explicitly leftist views, no dominant political views or a mix of fringe ideologies. That includes the alleged gunman in the fatal shooting of a united Health Care Executive in December

and the suspect in the killing of two Israeli diplomats in Washington in May. Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old Utah man, charged with murdering Charlie Kirk, had grown political and left leaning over the past year, according to his mother, a registered

Republican. Coming up, a major hack forces Jaguar Land Rover to slam the brakes on production. That story after the break. Boardrooms love buzzwords. AI, climate, resilience. But what do they actually mean for CFOs and execs trying to survive the next earnings call? That's where the pre-read comes in.

Real experts and real talk. Subscribe to the pre-read, presented by Workiba. Every day, hundreds of high-end SUVs usually roll off Jaguar Land Rover's production lines in England. But no more. A cyber attack discovered late last month. has effectively crippled the company, which manufactures popular vehicles, including the rangerover. It couldn't come at a worse time for the automaker, known as JLR. President Trump's tariffs have effectively halved its profits, and one external estimate says the hack could cost

the company almost $7 million a day. Our Caitlin McCabe spoke to Stephen Wilmot, who covers automakers for the journal. Well, it's already dragging into a third week this week, so essentially they haven't been producing vehicles all month. As soon as they found the hack out, they shut down their IT systems, which meant that they've essentially shut down their production operations. They did manage to continue selling through their dealer network throughout, but by using manual workarounds. So it's a very difficult situation for them, and it's unclear when it will be resolved. They're currently saying they're going to start back up next Wednesday, but they previously said it would be this Wednesday. So it's a bit of a moving feast. And the lesson of previous

hacks is that these things take time. Once you shut down your IT operation and starting them up in a safe manner is seemingly extremely complex. So big issue for the company here. Has anyone taken responsibility for this attack? Yes. We've seen some notorious groups that communicate through telegram that go by names such as lapsus, dollar, shiny hunters and scattered spider, take credit in a kind of oblique way through their communication channels. We don't know how seriously to take these. These are groups of young hackers that have seemingly come out of the gaming community, transferred their gaming skills to criminal activity, often demanding ransom, but in other

cases simply having fun. We know very little from JLR. They're being very tight-lipped as they investigate the situation alongside law enforcement authorities in the UK. Yeah, some interesting names associated with these groups. Do we know anything about previous hacks that they might have been involved in? Scattered Spider was definitely responsible for the MGM hack in 2003 in Las Vegas. Again, manual workarounds were the only way for the company to operate, had to kind of check people in buy pen and paper, that kind of thing. And we know more about that because the company spoke about it. And there it was an IT system was compromised just through what they call social engineering or essentially impersonation of an employee. That was also

the case at a M&S hack, Marx and Spencer, the British retailer, earlier this year. And this could to be an explanation for what's going on at JLR, but we don't know yet. And what are the broader implications for JLR here? Obviously, it's a very tough backdrop at the moment for automakers. Yes, I mean, JLR was doing pretty well and actually reported its best profit in 10 years for the year through March. But then in April, President Trump introduced higher tariffs on shipments from Europe to the U.S. or from everywhere to the U.S.

And of course, the U.S. is JLR's most important market, and it doesn't have U.S. production facilities, so that left it in a bit of a pickle. And in the most recent quarter, its profit almost halved. I think your story notes that JLR is also Britain's second largest vehicle manufacturer by volume. What is the context here for Britain and the supply chain through the country? The auto industry is such an economically important one for most countries that produce cars, that there's a wide. impact. They're buying parts from a broad network of suppliers across the West Midlands region of the UK. And so there's a concern in the UK. And the company's talking to the government on a daily basis about whether it needs a COVID-style bailout, not the company itself, but its suppliers who are often in a much more fragile financial situation. That's Stephen Wilmot. Stephen, thanks for being here. Thank you very much.

And that's it for what's news for this Friday morning. Today's show. was produced by Daniel Bark. Our supervising producer is Sandra Kilhoff, and I'm Kate Bullivant for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back tonight with a new show. Until then, have a nice weekend, and thanks for listening. This message comes from Viking, committed to exploring the world in comfort. Journey through the heart of Europe on an elegant Viking long ship with thoughtful service, destination-focused dining and cultural enrichment on board and on shore. And every Viking voyage is all-inclusive with no children and no casinos. Discover more at Viking.com.