Congress is trying to stop a potentially devastating railroad strike.

That's where we're starting the seven from the Washington Post.

I'm Jeff Pierre. It's Thursday, December 1st. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories.

The House passed a bill yesterday that would force unions to accept a controversial deal with freight companies.

A big sticking point is paid sick days, which was excluded in that deal.

But then another version was passed that includes

paid sick leave. One of those bills now needs to pass the Senate where its future is

less predictable. Without a deal in place, unions could strike as early as December 9th.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke about what a strike would mean for the country yesterday

before the vote.

Let me be clear, and that nationwide rail shutdown would be catastrophic.

A shutdown would grind our economy to a halt and every family would feel the strain.

As many of 765,000 workers,

including many union members, would lose their jobs

in just the first two weeks.

A strike could affect food and energy supplies,

train travel, and even drinking water.

Number two, an appeals court has decided to keep President Biden student loan forgiveness program on pause.

Yesterday's ruling was the latest legal setback for the plan.

It would forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans for millions of people.

So what now?

The court still needs to issue a full ruling on the program.

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