The House is back in session after a five-week recess with a vote expected on a Senate-passed, short-term funding bill to keep the government open. CBS News' Taurean Small has more.
Page A9From§Eachthe supper edition — 31 August 2026
Supreme Court clears the White House ballroom as the House scrambles to prevent a shutdown.
As it ran on the front
Two headlines landed the same stretch and if you read them back to back you get the whole racket in one breath. The Supreme Court clears the West Wing's new ballroom—construction can proceed, no more foot-dragging—while over in the House they're racing back into session to keep the lights on before the government runs out of money. One of these projects has a green light from the highest court in the country. The other one needs a vote just to keep existing.
I'm not saying the ballroom caused the shutdown fight. I'm saying look at the order things happened in. The building project that nobody voted on got cleared by nine justices. The thing that actually keeps paychecks going out to federal workers, keeps the lights on at the VA, keeps food inspectors on the clock—that's a scramble, a photo op of Congress 'returning' like they left the building on fire. You don't get to tell me there's no time and no money for the stuff that keeps people fed, and then watch a ballroom sail through the courts on schedule.…
…(cont) This is the shell game in real time. When it's a program that helps regular people, it's 'we have to find the money,' it's continuing resolutions, it's a countdown clock on cable news. When it's a room with the President's name near it, the Court doesn't even blink—divided, sure, but it proceeds. That's not a coincidence, that's a budget priority wearing a legal opinion as a costume.
Here's what it costs you: every dollar and every hour of political capital spent making sure a ballroom clears the courts on schedule is a dollar and an hour not spent making sure the government doesn't grind to a halt on people who live paycheck to paycheck off federal contracts, federal benefits, federal jobs. They found the votes, they found the lawyers, they found the time for the room. Remember that the next time somebody tells you funding your kid's school lunch program is complicated. The room got built. The lunch program gets a vote, if it's lucky, and only after everybody agrees the clock is close enough to force one.
“One project gets cleared by nine justices, no vote needed. The other one—the thing that keeps paychecks and food inspectors going—needs Congress to sprint back into session at the last minute. That's not a coincidence, that's a budget priority wearing a legal opinion as a costume.”
The receipts
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Monday that construction of the White House ballroom can continue, lifting a block on above-ground work as President Trump asserts the project is necessary for national security. It halts a lower court ruling…
The court split 5-4 to block lower court rulings that would have put the project on hold amid challenges to the president’s authority over the construction.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.