Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson, and this is five things you need to know Wednesday the 17th of May 2023.

Today, Biden will shorten an overseas trip to focus on debt ceiling talks.

Plus, we look at a Florida bill banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at the state's public universities.

And why are more and more students refusing to go to school?

President Joe Biden will shorten a planned trip overseas this week as debt ceiling talks continue.

He'll travel to Japan today for a group of seven summit, but will cancel the second half of his trip, including stops in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

White House aides have been optimistic about Biden's ability to finalize a deal.

But Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy previously said there needs to be a deal by the end of the week for approval in Congress before a possible default, which would bring economic chaos.

Biden met yesterday with McCarthy and other congressional leaders, a previous meeting between them failed to produce a breakthrough, but McCarthy said after the Tuesday meeting that it is still possible to get a deal by the end of the week.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter to McCarthy on Monday that the U.S. is still on track to run out of money by early June.

A whistleblower at the IRS, which is investigating Hunter Biden for potential tax violations, told lawmakers Monday that his entire team was removed from the probe, according to a letter from his lawyers obtained by USA Today.

The IRS Commissioner Daniel Wurful testified last month that no one at the agency would be retaliated against, but lawyers for the whistleblower disagreed, calling the move clearly retaliatory, and that it might also constitute obstruction of a congressional inquiry.

Hunter Biden announced in late 2020 that he was under investigation for tax issues. Meanwhile, House Republicans have been investigating him for alleged influence pedaling from lucrative business deals in Ukraine, Romania, and China.

Biden's lawyers and the White House have dismissed the accusations as baseless in UN Doe.

Florida Governor Rhonda Santis has signed a bill pulling all state funding from diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at the state's public universities.

That's drawn criticisms from many, including USA Today columnist Rex Hopke in a recent opinion piece.

Rex, thanks for coming on five things.

Great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Rex, what does this bill do specifically?

It basically defunds any state money that was going to state run universities in Florida to fund diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

There's also other language in the bill that impacts the way that professors can teach issues relating to race and gender and that sort of thing as well.

It all ties in a lot with the general push that we've been seeing from DeSantis in Florida to kind of go after any discussion of race, slavery, gender, these sorts of things.

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