Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by bnsf railway. And with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff the president and Top Democrats went the rounds today over whether to sit down together and talk about keeping the government operating. As they did, a republican tax reform bill moved another big step forward. Lisa desjardins begins our coverage. Desjardins President Trump criticized senate and House Minority leaders Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi for refusing to meet at the white house today. They decided not to show up. Theyve been all talk and theyve been no action. And now its even worse. Desjardins in a morning tweet, mr. Trump preempted todays scheduled meeting with democratic leaders, writing, i dont see a deal hours later, schumer and pelosi pulled out of that meeting, saying the president s tweet indicated it would be a waste of time. Leader pelosi and i believe the best path forward is to continue negotiating with our republican counterparts in congress instead. Desjardins republicans need at least some democratic votes to pass a government funding bill ahead of next weeks deadline. Meantime, the g. O. P. Also needs votes on tax reform with some eight to 10 key undecided members. We had a good day today. We had a phenomenal meeting with republican senators. It was somewhat of a love fest. Desjardins after the president s visit, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell stressed the complexities of tax reform. Its a challenging exercise. Think of sitting there with a rubiks cube, trying to get to 50. And we do have a few members who have concerns and were trying to address them. Desjardins a group of Democratic Senators said theyre ready to work on a different tax deal if republicans cant get votes on their own. The way you get permanent tax reform is by getting more than 60 votes. And the way you do that is by working in a bipartisan way. What we show here today is that that is possible. It is not only possible, it is probable that that would occur if they would just work with us. Desjardins one final test for republicans . Protesters interrupted the tax bills final committee vote. It was hard to hear, but all republicans on the committee voted yes, sending the bill to the full senate next. Woodruff and lisa, that vote in the Senate Budget committee sent all of the major stock indexes to record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained more than 250 points about 1 to close at 23,836. The nasdaq rose nearly 34 and the s p 500 added 25. Now, we turn again to Lisa Desjardins for more on this days developments. So lisa, we heard the Senate Majority leader call it a rubix cube. The fact is there is still a mad scramble going on behind the scenes to get this done. Thats right. They want to vote on this, judy, in the next couple days. Now were down to oldfashioned horse trading. The truth is eight or nine republican senators are undecided. Some were leaning no a few days ago. Bob corker is man the look at. Hes concerned about the deficit effects of this bill. Well, enter the corker compromise. This is a new idea out today that senator corker says he likes. It would be the idea to try and prevent a deficit hike because of tax cuts by installing a trigger into the bill so that if the economy does not grow by as much as republicans hope, then the tax cuts would be frozen. Now, of course, some people would say, well, that means taxes would go up, but bob corker says he likes it because it protects the deficit. Another key player, judy, senator Susan Collins of maine. We talk about her and her vote a lot. She seems to be warming up to this bill because she feels she has some reason to hope they will include in this bill some protections to stabilize the healthcare markets, to pass a side bill that stabilizes the healthcare markets, and we heard the president say in the lunch today to her that he supports an increase or adding back some of those state and local tax deductions, specifically the house version, a 10,000 property tax. Susan collins likes that. So a lot of addons at this moment, judy. Woodruff and you were telling us that if the changes are made, that could create problems getting other votes. Heres where the rubix cube comes in. You might have red on one side, but the other side looks terrible. I talked to louisiana senator john kennedy. He said this corker compromise, the idea of a trig theyre might lead to a tax change in the future automatically, he is a hard no on that. You gain corkers vote, you lose kennedys vote and also ted cruzs vote maybe. How about Susan Collins idea . You might get that through the senate, but that money she wants to spend to do that is a problem in the house. So all of this is very tricky calculus. Woodruff but are they still looking at a vote this week . They are. Theyre hoping for a vote on thursday. Ill tell you what, judy, the way well know a little bit more is tomorrow. If the senate moves to this bill, if they bring the bill up on the floor tomorrow, that will start 20 hours of debate that would lead the a potential thursday vote. If we dont see the bill come up tomorrow, it means maybe theres more going on behind the scenes and they dont quite have it ready yet. Woodruff so meantime, lisa, while all this work on the tax reform is happening, there accept separately is a problem with funding the government. Theyre ten days from shutting down if they dont come to an agreement. As we saw with leader pelosi and senator schumer, the white house isnt talking to them. Thats right. Theyre not even in the same resume together to discuss how to keep government running. This is a december 8th deadline that congress itself set for when government funding will run out, the end of next week essentially. You know, judy. I talked to a lot of republican senators, the governing party in the senate, and i was surprised to hear many of them say, were actually not worried about it. Its not even on our radar. Were not sure how well figure it out. The idea is that once they get past tax reform, if they do, then theyll figure it out next week. And normally that does work, but i think we have a very situation this year. Many different pieces in play, which is spending deadline, including daca, Childrens Health insurance, and also military spending that i think i walk away from my discussions with leaders today thinking that who knows if well have a shutdown, but it is possible because theyre not seriously addressing it yet. Woodruff well, lee Centennial Park we are lisa, we are counting on you to straighten it all out. Sreenivasan good grief. Ill try. Woodruff Lisa Desjardins reporting from the capital. Thank you. Woodruff and in the days other news, north korea grabbed the worlds attention again with its first missile test in ten weeks. The pentagon says it was likely an intercontinental ballistic missile. It launched from north of pyongyang, flew more than 600 miles, and splashed into japans economic exclusion zone. President trump addressed the launch as he met with republican leaders, the defense secretary and other cabinet officials. I will only tell you that we will take care of it. We have general mattis in the room with us, and weve had a long discussion on it. It is a situation that we will handle. Woodruff the launch came a week after the president put north korea back on a list of states that sponsor terrorism. President trump has won the first round in the legal fight over who runs the Consumer Financial protection bureau. A u. S. District judge today ruled against leandra english, the deputy director. She wanted to bar white house budget chief Mick Mulvaney from taking over. This ruling leaves mulvaney in charge, pending appeals. A federal jury in washington today acquitted the main suspect in the benghazi, libya attacks of all murder charges. Ahmed abu khattala was accused of organizing the 2012 attacks that led to the deaths of the u. S. Ambassador and three other americans. He was convicted today of four lesser counts, and could get 60 years in prison. In kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term as president after a protracted and sometimes violent struggle. Kenyatta addressed an estimated crowd of more than 60,000 in nairobi. He said the turmoil had stretched kenya almost to the breaking point, but he urged the country to put divisions aside. I believe that those who voted for me chose the better vision. This, however, does not invalidate the aspirations of those who did not vote for me. I undertake today to be the custodian of the dreams of all. Woodruff elsewhere in the city, opposition candidate raila odinga called the election illegitimate and rallied supporters. Police fired rifles and tear gas to break up the gathering, and three people were killed. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson today rejected growing reports state department. Ing out the democratic lawmakers, former Department Staffers and others have blamed tillerson for an exodus of Senior Foreign Service officers. Today, in a washington speech, tillerson insisted the critics are doing a disservice to department employees. There is no hollowing out. These numbers people are throwing around are just false, theyre wrong. Im offended on their behalf when people say somehow we dont have a state department that functions, because i can tell you, its functioning very well from my perspective. Woodruff tillerson said he believes the state department can cut spending by 30 and staffing by 8 even as the Trump Administration addresses various overseas conflicts. Another woman is now accusing congressman john conyers of Sexual Harassment. Deanna maher ran a Michigan Office for the detroit democrat from 1997 to 2005. She told the detroit news that he made multiple unwanted advances on her. Conyers is already under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for earlier allegations. Another congressional veteran, and a champion of immigration reform, says he will not seek reelection. Illinois democrat Luis Gutierrez announced today he will leave the u. S. House after 13 terms. He says he wants to focus on immigration issues and on rebuilding hurricaneravaged puerto rico. And, President Trumps nominee to chair the Federal Reserve signaled today that another Interest Rate hike is coming in december. Jerome powell had his Senate Confirmation hearing today, and he made clear the fed will maintain its policy of gradual rate increases. I think that the case for raising rates at our next meeting is coming together. The very low Interest Rates that were appropriate during the crisis and after to support Economic Activity are no longer appropriate. And thats why were raising Interest Rates now on a gradual path and i expect that that will continue. Woodruff powell would succeed janet yellen as fed chair, if confirmed by the full senate. Still to come on the newshour how the tax battle could affect student debt. Papal diplomacy the popes visit to a country plagued by Ethnic Violence. Hard pressed distrust in the media, and the impact on the electorate. And, much more. Woodruff we return to the republican efforts to overhaul the tax code. Both the senate and house tax bills are large and complex pieces of legislation, and they could affect key sectors of the American Economy and society that have not gotten as much attention. One of those is the potential impact on Higher Education, and thats our focus of our weekly making the grade segment. John yang has the story. Yang judy, the senate and the house bills could make Higher Education more expensive for some students, though in different ways. The biggest changes are in the house bill, which would end the deduction for interest paid on Student Loans. Some 12 Million People used that deduction in 2015, the last year reported by the i. R. S. Danielle douglasgabriel covers the economics of education for the Washington Post and she joins us now. Danielle, thanks for joining us. Now, the house bill does away with the deductibility of student loan interest. How does that work under current law . Well, people who are paying down their Student Loans can deduct up to 2,500 worth of interest every year. So folks who have higher balances tend to benefit the most from this. On average people get about maybe 200 worth of a deduction from this particular credit, but it is fairly popular. About three in ten of the 44 million americans who have Student Loan Debt take advantage of this particular benefit. Yang so a lot of people use it, so it sounds like the benefit is relatively small. Fairly. Still, for folks who are paying dunn their loans while paying for a house and taking care of their family, a lot of them say that every little bit helps, so they were pretty disappointed to see the house want the take aim at this. And i think those voices must have been heard in the senate, which decided not to take aim at this particular tax benefit. Yang but it will be on the table when they try to reconcile the two bills . Yes. Yang and then taxing tuition waivers as income, tuition waivers are different from scholarships, right . Yes. So tuition waivers are what universities tend to offer their teaching and Research Assistants in exchange for the work that they do. In addition to offering these students stipends to cover the cost of living and such, they also cover their tuition. Now, what this would mean is someone who is attending a program that costs say 30,000, 40,000 in tuition and also being paid maybe 2,000 of 20,000 a year, would instead of being taxed on that 20,000 stipend, would now be taxed on the full 50,000 to 60,000 of tuition waiver as well as that stipend. So that could be a pretty substantial difference for a lot of graduate students that are barely getting by on the money theyre earning so far. So very many of them are concerned and a lot of them start to mobilize and take their concerns to capitol hill, and i think thats another reason why we saw the waiver not make it into the senate plan . One thing that is in both bills is taxing some universities endowments. Correct. So there is a proposal right now that would impose a 1. 4 excise tax on the net of private universities whose endowments are equal to 250,000 per fulltime student. This pretty much addresses maybe 60 to 70 schools. It was initially when the house proposed this particular tax, they had said 100,000 per fulltime students, which would have affected double the amount of schools, but there has been a lot of lobbying around this issue, because its not only the harvards and princetons and really big, brandname schools affected by this but some small liberal arts colleges that are really concerned about how this is going to affect their bottom line and their ability to offer Financial Aid to their students. Is there a policy goal there . Thats whats unclear there. There was some discussion about taxing endowments a year ago. There were hearings in the house around the idea of perhaps getting universities to ensure that more of their endowments are used to help lower the cost of colleges some this was at that point an affordability issue. Well, that piece is not a part of this legislation whatsoever. Its not like the money that theyre taking from these endowments is going to be used to lower the cost of college by offering more grants and scholarships. Its just going to offset any other kind of Corporate Tax decreases that we might see as a result of these plans. And a lot of people are very concerned about that aspect. Folks could wrap their heads around the idea that we should incentivize universities to spend more of their endowment money on Financial Aid, but they cant necessarily wrap their heads around the idea of imposing this tax for the sake of helping corporations. Yang danielle douglasgabriel of the Washington Post on the tax plans and Higher Education. Thank you very much. Woodruff next, pope francis continued his highstakes visit to myanmar today, amid the Ongoing Campaign of Ethnic Violence against that nations Muslim Rohinga population. William brangham has that story. Brangham the pope flew to myanmars capital today, the second day of his visit to this majority buddhist majority nation. He met with myannmars powerful military leaders yesterday. The pontifff had been warned by the local Catholic Cardinal not to mention the rohingya by name. More than 600,000 Muslim Rohingyas have fled from Rakhine State in myanmar into neighboring bangladesh. Theyre fleeing what they describe as widespread attacks, murders, rapes and burning o