Friday 5: 1-20-2023

Happy Friday! Ready to catch up on the latest happenings in policy? Hang on tight while we bring you a fast recap on all that you need to know.

SC Lawmakers Unveil Workforce Plan. House Speaker Smith unveiled a major new workforce development bill this week. The bill creates the new Office of Statewide Workforce Development to be housed within the Department of Employment and Workforce (SCDEW). The office is charged with coordinating all statewide workforce development programs, tracking the goals of the programs and implementing a uniform plan for improving and growing the state’s workforce pool.

‘I think I can be that leader’: SC’s Nikki Haley further fuels speculation of 2024 run. Two years ago, Nikki Haley said she wouldn’t run for President in 2024 should former President Trump seek re-election. However, comments made on in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier Thursday night, the former South Carolina governor further fueled speculation that a 2024 presidential run is in her future. She made the comments roughly a week before Trump visits South Carolina for his first public event of the year in the early-voting state “I don’t think you need to be 80 years old to go be a leader in D.C.,” Haley told Baier. “I think we need a young generation to come in step up and really start fixing things.”

SC Statehouse Republicans see their divides aired on full display in contentious day. Statehouse tensions brewing between members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus and their GOP colleagues spilled out into the open Jan. 19 in a fiery floor debate amid conflicting accounts of who is even a legitimate member of the ruling Republican ranks.

Biden, House GOP refuse to budget as key debt ceiling deadline looms. The Biden administration and House Republicans are heading toward an initial Thursday debt ceiling deadline without even a hint of an endgame, ensuring a months-long standoff that’s poised to rattle financial markets amid worries about a recession this year.

Consumer Prices Plateau as Inflation Slows to Prepandemic Levels. The inflation benchmark, measuring price growth over a year, hit a 40-year high in June after months of sustained price increases. Since then, monthly gains have slowed. While December 2022 prices were up 6.5% from a year earlier, a Wall Street Journal analysis of Labor Department data indicates that annual growth has eased to levels that existed before the pandemic. Inflation observed during the past six months would extend to prices rising 1.9% over the course of a year, close to the average annual rate of 1.7% between 2010 and 2020.

Bonus: Senate Ticketmaster Hearing on Taylor Swift Ticket Fiasco Gets a Date. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Jan. 24 at 10 a.m. EST examining the ticketing industry and Ticketmaster’s handling of the Taylor Swift ticket sale, Sen. Amy Klobuchar‘s (D-MN) office announced. Titled “That’s The Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment,” the hearing will look at accusations of anti-competitive behavior in the ticketing space and examine the history of the 2010 Department of Justice consent decree governing the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster.