Good morning. It is Friday, May 22nd, 2026, and this is your Morning Brief.

COHOST: This morning has a real pre-holiday split-screen feel. Washington is leaving several important fights unresolved, markets are trying to decide whether lower oil is enough to calm things down, and here in Ohio the local pressure points are getting more practical, not less.

HOST: We start in Washington, where the clearest fresh development is not a bill passing, but a priority collapsing. Reuters reports Senate Republicans abandoned plans to vote on a seventy-two billion dollar immigration enforcement bill before recess after an internal revolt over two Trump-backed add-ons: a one point eight billion dollar fund for people the administration says were victims of government weaponization, and another one billion dollars for a White House ballroom.

HOST: That matters because yesterday this still looked like a question of trimming a problematic provision and salvaging the core border money. This morning the story is bigger than that. The whole vote is slipping to June. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is now openly admitting the package became more complicated than it was supposed to be, which is a polite Washington way of saying leadership lost control of a bill it had tried to frame as simple and urgent.

COHOST: And that turns this from a messaging problem into a functional one. If Republicans cannot move the cleanest version of an immigration funding package before a recess, it tells you the party's governing margin is thinner than the branding suggests.

HOST: Exactly. The continuity from yesterday still matters, but the story advanced. This is no longer just Republican discomfort with a ballroom line item. It is now a broader sign of GOP infighting, Trump fatigue inside his own conference, and real questions about whether the president's personal political demands are making it harder for his party to execute one of its core policy priorities.

HOST: The second national story is another congressional delay, but on a much more serious question. Associated Press reports House Republican leaders called off a vote on legislation that would compel President Trump to withdraw from the war with Iran after it became clear they might not have the numbers to defeat it. That pushes the issue into June and adds to the evidence that support for the war is getting less automatic on Capitol Hill.

COHOST: That is a notable shift. Earlier in this conflict, the story was whether congressional resistance would amount to anything. Now the story is that leaders are actively managing around the risk of losing.

HOST: Right. This matters in two ways. First, politically, it shows more Republicans are at least willing to make leadership sweat over a war the president began without congressional approval. Second, economically, every sign of continued instability around Iran still feeds directly into the things households actually notice: gasoline, shipping, inflation pressure, and bond yields.

HOST: If you are looking for the immediate watch item heading into the holiday weekend, it is not whether Congress ends the war today. It will not. It is whether more lawmakers decide the White House has not given them a convincing enough endgame, and whether that rising discomfort keeps energy markets on edge even during moments of temporary calm.

HOST: The biggest technology policy move in the last twenty-four hours comes from the Trump administration's attempt to export more of the American AI stack abroad. Reuters reports the White House is launching a program through the U.S. Export-Import Bank to provide billions in financing to foreign buyers of American AI tools. The idea is straightforward: make it easier for other countries and companies to buy U.S. systems, while requiring Commerce Department sign-off for sensitive technologies like advanced chips.

COHOST: So this is both industrial policy and strategic competition. Washington is not just trying to control who gets the best chips. It is also trying to subsidize the spread of the American version of AI before China can fill that gap.

HOST: That is the key point. The fresh angle is not another warning about AI risk or another theoretical executive order. It is a concrete export and financing push. In plain English, the administration wants U.S. firms to sell more AI capacity abroad, but on terms Washington can still supervise. That has implications for Nvidia, for cloud companies, for allies deciding whose infrastructure to buy, and for places like Central Ohio that keep absorbing more of the physical footprint of the AI economy through data centers and utility demand.

HOST: Which takes us directly to Nvidia, because the market is still using that company as a live referendum on how durable the AI boom really is. Reuters reported Nvidia again beat expectations, forecast second-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates, and announced an eighty billion dollar buyback. But the market reaction stayed restrained enough to send the same message we talked about yesterday, only louder today: the company can still deliver huge numbers and investors will still ask whether the numbers are huge enough.

COHOST: That is what happens when one company stops being judged like a normal stock and starts being judged like the scoreboard for an entire theme.

HOST: Exactly. Nvidia is no longer just reporting earnings. It is testing whether the market still believes AI spending can outrun valuation pressure, higher yields, and geopolitical noise. The answer this morning looks like a cautious yes, but not an easy yes. The stock story is still strong. The confidence story is a little more fragile.

HOST: Closer to home, the most important Columbus story still moving through the system remains the Columbus City Schools budget fallout. WOSU reported this week that the board voted to cut two hundred ninety-nine positions to close the final part of a fifty million dollar gap, with one hundred twelve people actually losing jobs and one hundred four of those being building substitutes.

COHOST: And this is where the conversation gets more concrete for families. The vote happened. Now the only question that matters is where the thinner staffing shows up first.

HOST: Right. District leaders say many of the eliminated roles were vacant and that attrition softened the blow, but that does not erase the practical concern. Building substitutes, counselors, custodial support, mechanics, and other day-to-day staffing roles are the connective tissue of a school system. Families may not think about those jobs every morning, but they definitely notice when coverage gets worse, response times slip, or support services become less reliable.

HOST: One reason this stays on the active list is timing. Schools are now moving from the budget decision into summer planning, staffing assignments, and fall readiness. So the next several days are likely to bring more detail about where the district thinks it can absorb the cuts and where it cannot. That is the real continuity language this morning: the budget vote is over, but the consequences are just starting to become legible.

HOST: A second Ohio story moved onto the watch list yesterday evening. The Statehouse News Bureau reports the Ohio Supreme Court will decide whether Governor Mike DeWine had the authority to end the federal three-hundred-dollar-a-week pandemic unemployment supplement early in 2021. Roughly three hundred thousand Ohioans are seeking what they say is about nine hundred million dollars in unpaid benefits.

COHOST: This is one of those stories that sounds old until you realize the legal and political stakes are very current. It is really a fight over executive authority, state obligations, and whether money that people were promised can still be reached years later.

HOST: Exactly. The state argues the case is moot because the federal program ended long ago. The plaintiffs argue DeWine lacked authority to leave the program early and that the money remained available. Even if the court takes time to rule, the fact that the case is back at the center of Ohio's legal conversation gives it immediate relevance. It is a reminder that pandemic-era decisions are still working their way through the system, especially when they involved cash, state power, and labor-market politics.

HOST: On housing and home lending, the broad message is still that better inventory has not yet translated into easier monthly payments. Reuters reported pending home sales rose for a third straight month in April, but economists still expect demand to remain subdued because borrowing costs are high, household budgets are strained, and entry-level supply remains tight. Freddie Mac's latest published weekly survey had the average thirty-year fixed mortgage at six point three six percent as of May 14th.

COHOST: And Central Ohio is basically living that exact national pattern in local form.

HOST: It is. WOSU reported Central Ohio April closed sales fell thirteen point six percent from a year earlier to two thousand two hundred two, while inventory rose and the median sales price climbed to three hundred forty-six thousand five hundred dollars. So yes, buyers have more options than they did in the frenzy years. But the extra choice is being offset by financing that still makes the payment math tough. That is why the cleanest phrase for this market remains frustrated demand, not dead demand.

HOST: If rates were meaningfully lower, this much inventory improvement would feel like relief. With rates still above six percent, it mostly feels like more listings to look at before deciding the payment is still too high.

HOST: The markets snapshot re...