The Latest: Social Security cost-of-living increase announcement delayed by government shutdown

The ongoing government shutdown is delaying the announcement of the annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for tens of millions of beneficiaries. Originally scheduled for Wednesday, the 2024 Social Security COLA announcement will now be Oct. 24. It is timed to the September Consumer Price Index, which also has not yet been released.

The agency adjusts its benefits every year based on inflation. The postponement of the announcement is the most recent example of how the government shutdown, entering its third week and with little progress made toward a resolution, has made it more difficult for people to plan out their finances.

Projections by Senior Citizens League and the AARP anticipate a COLA increase of roughly 2.7%. About 70.6 million people, including retirees, disabled people and children, get Social Security benefits.

The Latest:

Trump’s public schedule, according to the White House

— 3 p.m. ET: Trump will hold an Oval Office press conference with FBI Director Kash Patel

— 7:30 p.m.: Trump will host a dinner related to his plans to build White House ballroom

Bessent says U.S. President still expects to meet Chinese leader

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said President Donald Trump still expects to speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea during APEC week.

Resurgent trade tensions have threatened ongoing negotiations over tariffs between the U.S. and China.

Bessent made the comments at a press conference, Wednesday.

China last week expanded export controls on key rare earth minerals, and Trump then announced a 100% tariff on Chinese goods set to take effect on November 1.

Bessent says the shutdown is costing the economy $15B per day

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made the comment at the CNBC Invest in America Forum on Wednesday morning.

“The only thing slowing us down here is the shutdown,” he said.

Early crowd indicates big interest

The crowd outside the Supreme Court before the Voting Rights Hearing was already larger than other crowds long before the doors opened.

Faye Gaskin, 64, with the Mt. Moriah AME Church in Annapolis said she was “here fighting for my grandchildren and the generations to come. If we do nothing, it’ll be a loss. I won’t be able to look myself in the mirror. Much blood has been shed and many lives lost for this.”

Her fellow church goer Linda Nevils, 72, said she was there to try to protect the vote “for our people. Everything comes from that. Where we eat, where we live, where we work.”

The impact reaches beyond congressional districts

The impact of the section of the Voting Right Acts being argued before the Supreme Court isn’t just in how to draw the boundaries for election districts.

It’s often whether to draw them for local offices.

J. Morgan Kousser, a retired history professor at the California Institute of Technology who works on the issue, has tallied 1,363 cases since 1965 where plaintiffs using Section 2 have prevailed in court or reached settlements.

Of those, 937 have been to change at-large elections for local offices to make them district-based. That’s a way to increase minority representation for seats on town councils, school boards, sanitation districts and other government bodies.

The court is hearing the case for a second time

A second round arguments is rare at the Supreme Court and can presage a big change in the law.

The court’s 2010 decision in the Citizens United case that opened the floodgates to independent spending in political campaigns came after two rounds of arguments.

Arguments will go well beyond the allotted hour

Since returning to the courtroom following the Covid-19 pandemic, the justices have routinely gone beyond the time set aside for arguments.