The U.S. government will pay private Medicare Advantage plans more money next year than it originally proposed in January, a major win for insurance companies that have faced increasing scrutiny in Washington.

Medicare Advantage plans will see payments increase by an average of 5.06%, more than double the rate the government proposed in January. The increase means the government will pay private Medicare insurers at least $25 billion more next year than current rates. That’s a huge improvement over rates first proposed in the final days of the Biden administration.

The industry has been awaiting Monday’s decision about payment rates as an early look at the White House’s approach to the program. President Donald Trump has been seen as more favorable to Medicare Advantage, but the newly confirmed appointee to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mehmet Oz, said at a Senate hearing in March that some plans were engaging in fraud to boost payments.

Health insurance companies had been pushing for higher levels, with a lobbying group writing in February that the proposed reimbursement rates didn’t keep up with the rise in health care costs.

In the past two years, the U.S. has tightened payments to Medicare Advantage plans and tried to restrict some tactics that insurers use to boost their revenue. Some health insurers have slashed benefits and retreated from less profitable markets in response.

Over half of Medicare patients, or more than 30 million people, are enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans, and the government paid them about $494 billion last year. Watchdogs and regulators have accused companies of inflating payments by saying patients are sicker than they actually are. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, a nonpartisan congressional adviser, estimates the program will cost $84 billion more this year than it would cost to cover the patients in traditional Medicare.

DHS waives regulations for building border wall

A waiver issued Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security allows the federal government to bypass environmental regulations and begin construction to add more barriers along the U.S-Mexico border in Southern California even as illegal crossings have plummeted.

Homeland Security said in a statement that the waiver signed by Secretary Kristi Noem will “cut through bureaucratic delays.” Environmentalists decried the move that will forego dozens of laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to evaluate the effects of their actions on the environment.

It’s the first environmental waiver of President Donald Trump’s second term. Officials said the decision will fast-track U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s construction of about 21/2 miles of the wall about 70 miles southeast of San Diego near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif.

Hegseth: Canal faces threats from China

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the Panama Canal faces ongoing threats from China, but that together the U.S. and Panama will keep it secure.

Speaking at a ribbon cutting for a new U.S.-financed dock at the Vasco Nuñez de Balboa Naval Base after a meeting with Panama President José Raúl Mulino, Hegseth said the U.S. will not allow China or any other country to threaten the canal’s operation.

“To this end, the United States and Panama have done more in recent weeks to strengthen our defense and security cooperation than we have in decades,” he said.

Hegseth alluded to ports at either end of the canal that are controlled by a Hong Kong consortium, which is in the process of selling its controlling stake to another consortium including BlackRock Inc.

Hegseth met with Mulino for two hours Tuesday morning before heading to the naval base that previously had been the U.S. Rodman Naval Station.

Homeland Security offering staff buyouts

The Department of Homeland Security is offering buyouts and early retirement options to staffers, as the Trump administration pushes forward with efforts to reduce and reshape the federal workforce, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press.

In the email, titled “Reshaping of the DHS Workforce,” Secretary Kristi

Noem said the department would give staffers who want to leave three options: deferred resignation, early retirement and a voluntary separation payment. The email, which was sent Monday night, said the last option offers a lump-sum payment of up to $25,000 in some cases.

Staff have until April 14 to decide on whether to apply for the offer.

Report: China recruiting fired federal workers

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned on Tuesday that China’s intelligence services were using deceptive efforts to recruit current and former U.S. government employees.

The center, along with the FBI and the Pentagon’s counterintelligence service, said in an advisory that foreign intelligence agencies were posing as consulting firms, corporate think tanks and other organizations to recruit former U.S. officials.

The U.S. government has long said that China uses social networks to secretly recruit people. But former U.S. officials say China now sees an opportunity as the Trump administration shuts down agencies, fires probationary employees and pushes out people who had worked on diversity issues.

The warning advised former officials who have security clearances of their “legal obligation to protect classified data” even after they leave the government. It added that China and other foreign countries were targeting a variety of former officials.

Former officials said other outreach from foreign intelligence services has targeted agents let go from the FBI and military officers who have retired.

Administration to defy N.Y. traffic agreement

The Trump administration said Tuesday that it’s not backing off its latest deadline for New York to end its $9 congestion toll on drivers entering the most traffic-snarled parts of Manhattan, despite a court filing Friday that indicated the charge would remain at least through the summer.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who called the toll a “slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” originally told the state to end the tolling program by March 21. When state officials refused, federal authorities set a new deadline of April 20. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul had said the state intended to ignore that deadline, too.

Lawyers for the two sides reached an agreement that appeared to slow things down, according to a joint letter dated Friday and signed by an MTA lawyer to the judge in the case. They proposed a briefing schedule that allows for court filings through the end of July and possibly into October, while government lawyers indicated they wouldn’t seek an injunction to stop the tolls.

Vatican ambassador pick defends aid cuts

President Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the Vatican defended many of the administration’s foreign-aid cuts at a Senate hearing Tuesday, even while saying Catholic charitable groups are well-equipped to deliver such aid efficiently.

Brian Burch — whose Chicago-based organization, CatholicVote, endorsed Trump in the 2024 election and helped lead a successful effort to boost Catholic support for the Republican winner — testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in preparation for a Senate confirmation vote.

Burch, who has echoed some of the criticisms of Pope Francis voiced by other American Catholic conservatives, referred briefly to the pontiff in his opening remarks, thanking Americans for their prayers for Francis during his recent hospitalization.

He spoke more generally of the Vatican as having a unique role in foreign affairs: “The moral witness of the Holy See, together with its global influence, make it a key partner for an array of U.S. interests,” he said, including the promotion of peace and defending the poor and vulnerable.

U.S. freezes funding for Cornell, Northwestern

The Trump administration has frozen more than $1 billion in funding for Cornell University and $790 million for Northwestern University amid civil rights investigations into both schools, two administration officials said.

The funding pause involves mostly grants and contracts with the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the decision.

The moves are the latest in a rapidly escalating campaign against the nation’s elite universities that has resulted in more than $3.3 billion in federal funds suspended or canceled. The other schools that have had funds frozen include Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Penn and Princeton.

Representatives for Cornell and Northwestern did not respond to requests for comment.

— From news services