Steve Forbes: What's Ahead

President Donald Trump will sign an order instructing the Department of Homeland Security to pay Transportation Security Administration officers during the partial government shutdown, he announced Thursday, though it is unclear where the money is coming from and what authority Trump will use to enact the order.

KEY FACTS

BIG NUMBER

Nearly $1 billion. That is how much money in payroll has not been paid to TSA agents in a timely manner this fiscal year, according to a Wednesday testimony from Ha Nguyen McNeill, a senior administrator for the TSA. Employees of the agency have gone without pay for about 40 days during the partial government shutdown.

KEY BACKGROUND

At the heart of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown and accompanying disorder at some major airports across the U.S. is disagreements over the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act stuck in the Senate. The measure proposes making changes to the voting process in the U.S. and includes a requirement for voter identification. Democrats have pushed back on the legislation for weeks, seeking to implement guardrails on ICE operations after federal agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti amid January protests in Minnesota. Democrats have countered Republican proposals with offers that include pay for TSA agents, but those measures have failed to gain traction. In the meantime, TSA officers have quit their jobs and called out of work at high rates while passengers at airports like Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport have been stifled with hours-long security wait times.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google, the parent companies of Instagram and YouTube, liable of negligence by designing a purposefully addictive app that ultimately contributed to a young girl’s mental health issues. Constitutional attorney Chris Murray, who is also a partner at First & Fourteenth, joins "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the landmark verdict.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Forbes explains why the California state legislature must pass the Building an Affordable California Act to end the bureaucratic maze caused by the California Environmental Quality Act and spur much-needed infrastructure growth.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Forbes issues an epic takedown of Paul Ehrlich's catastrophic mass starvation prediction, which not only failed to come true but completely ignored the ingenuity of human civilization.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Forbes slams Fed Chair Jerome Powell for refusing to cut rates, and calls out Powell's claim that he can stay on as head of the Federal Reserve should the Senate not confirm his successor before the end of his term.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On "Forbes Newsroom," Janatan Sayeh, an Iran research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, spoke about the impact of deaths of top Iranian security and government officials.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus Episode: It appears the next country that President Donald Trump has set his sights on is Cuba. Earlier this week, he told reporters that he believes he's going to have "the honor of taking" the country. He said it's a "weakened nation" that's essentially running on "fumes." Those comments came as Cuba was once again thrust into an islandwide blackout. Dr. Brian Fonseca, director of the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University, joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the dual economic and energy crises Cuba is currently facing, as well as Trump's remarks on the island nation.

Follow the Forbes Newsroom at https://open.spotify.com/show/4AP8Adwgblg8ButwBL7xBb?si=0b97c742a3444356

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Forbes celebrates the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” and encourages today’s leaders to heed its timeless principles of prosperity, low taxes, free trade, stable money anchored by gold.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger's playbook to win the Virginia Governor's mansion could be the new playbook for left-wing politicians—campaign as a centrist, but then govern as a leftist—and Republicans, and voters, have to be prepared.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Forbes explains why the bipartisan 21st Century Road to Housing Act, co-sponsored by Republican Senator Tim Scott and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, fails to truly fix the housing crisis and could cause problems all its own.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices