good morning, everyone. i'm jessica dean in washington. jim sciutto is off today. we begin with a travel nightmare for thousands of people stranded at airports across the country as southwest airlines experiences a meltdown. already more than 2,800 flights canceled today, nearly 90% of

those are on southwest. the airline now apologizing, but as you can imagine that's little comfort for people who may miss out totally on seeing their loved ones this holiday season. >> i'm beyond frustrated. and hurt. because i can't see my dad. >> my mom is in the hospital and i wanted to be there for her once she like got discharged. unfortunately because of the situation they are saying that the closest flight is the 29th. >> are you going to make it home today? >> no, likely not. i mean, i heard someone say over the intercom not to expect to get a flight within the next four days. that's definitely not what i wanted to hear. >> people just missing their family and loved ones. the log jam starting with the powerful winter storm that hit western new york the hardest. look at that. this morning people in buffalo struggling to get food, water, medicine, after days of driving bans and closed stores. we are going to take you live there in just a moment.

let's go first to our team covering this ongoing holiday travel chaos after the weekend's deadly snowstorm. we are going to begin with cnn's gabe cohen live at baltimore washington international airport. gabe, good morning to you. we know southwest airlines has canceled thousands of flights across the u.s., especially where you are, bwi of course a big hub for them. help us understand why this is happening, the bad weather has already passed. this is specific to southwest. >> reporter: yeah, jessica, that's right, and that is the million dollar question is why is it happening to them. largely the airline has blamed that winter storm and yet they are the only major u.s. airline that's dealing with this fallout at this point. take a look behind me, you can see just how many cancellations we are talking about. southwest canceling more than 60% of their flights today and they've already canceled more than 60% for tomorrow. the company telling me they will likely only be running just over a third of their scheduled flights in the days ahead.

and take a look behind me here, you will just see how many stranded pieces of lost luggage there are sitting here in baltimore, and this is just a piece of it. these bags cover the entire wall across this room. we spoke to a woman a little bit earlier, she slept in this airport days ago, she was trying to get to her family in new hampshire. finally she arrived a couple days later. last night she was trying to get back, another canceled flight. she took an overnight amtrak, finally arrived here, but she hasn't seen her bags since she was initially trying to get out of here on thursday. she came down searching for t she tells me the folks here have no idea where it is. take a listen to her. >> i'm frazzled and fried. i have no clothes, my luggage is still here, so i never got to give anyone presents. i don't have any luggage. i have a toothbrush and deodorant and gum and this is it since friday. >> reporter: so, again, southwest largely blaming the winter storm but their pilots union says that this is mostly

because of outdated processes and outdated i.t. cnn obtaining a transcript of a message from the ceo of southwest sent on christmas where he said he acknowledged problems with their operations and the need to modernize them. certainly a lot of questions, jessica, and passengers stranded just searching for answers. they can't even get on the phone to a customer service agent for help. >> i can't imagine the frustration and all those bags behind you, gabe. that's just a portion of them. thank you so much for that update. let's go to cnn's adrienne broaddus, she is at chicago's midway international airport, another hub for southwest there. what are you hearing? i see more bags behind you, too. >> reporter: bags on top of bags on top of bags. there is a little bit of organization to the chaos here, jessica. if you look over this way you will notice that luggage is grouped by cities or the airport where they were supposed to go.

we've been speaking with travelers throughout the morning, many of them frustrated. you see some employees going one by one looking at the luggage. travelers we heard from say they can't get their luggage if midway was not their final destination. listen in. >> i am traveling with my son trying to go to a family wedding in miami. the next flight that was offered was in january. and they couldn't even get us home back to pittsburgh. so it has been a very, very stressful night, lots and lots of people sleeping on the floors at the gates. the story right now is that our bags are still going to the original destination, even though we are not traveling there anymore and just trying to get home. they don't really know when they're going to show up there. >> reporter: and mandy who you just heard from has left chicago

midway with two people she met her, they rented a vehicle and they are now traveling to michigan. meanwhile, you see a southwest employee helping a gentleman locate his luggage. likely midway was his final destination because a spokesperson told me if midway was not the final destination for passengers, luggage here would continue on to where it was supposed to go. we also heard from another couple who live with diabetes, they were really struggling because they don't have their medication, their insulin. jessica? >> yeah, not a good situation there. adrienne broaddus in chicago, thanks for that update. passengers aren't the only people frustrated by these delays and cancellations, even southwest employees are running into major obstacles trying to work their next flight. let's listen to what the vp of the pilot's union told cnn this morning.

>> what went wrong is that our i.t. infrastructure for our scheduling software is vastly outdated. it can't handle the number of pilots, flight attendants that we have in the system with our complex route network. we don't have the normal hub and spoke like the other major airlines do. we fly a point to point network, which can put our crews in the wrong places without airplanes, mismatched. that's what happened. we're tired of apologizing for southwest. the pilots of the airline. our hearts go out to all of our passengers, it really does. >> as we were hearing from gabe sometimes it's the airlines saying it's the winter storm but it's the pilot's union saying it's the outdated software. southwest airlines is acknowledging it didn't have the manpower to answer the volume of calls to rescheduled both the passengers and also the crew. here is what a spokesperson said last night. >> with those cancellations and as a result we end up with flight crews and airplanes that

are out of place and not in the cities they need to be in to continue to run our operation. that is where we ended up where we are. we apologize to our customers, we will do everything we need to do to right the challenges we have had right now including while we are willing to offer hotels, ride assistance, vans, whatever that looks like, rental cars to try to make sure these folks get home as quickly as possible. >> here with me to discuss this further is edward russell, the editor at skifs airline weekly. great to see you. i want to lay this out for people. this is as we've talked about a southwest airline specific problem right now. we want to give people some context. according to flight aware nearly 90% of today's flight cancellations are on southwest, that's 2,500 flights. the next highest cancellations is spirit airlines with 82. so that kind of shows you where we are. people haven't only faced these massive flight cancellations, we were just hearing from them, reports of hours long waits on the phone if they can get anyone on the phone, all these lost bags. the crew, the pilots seem frustrated.

what needs to be done to make this right for the travelers? >> i mean, jessica, that is a good question. at this point, i mean, southwest is clearly unable to handle the level of cancellations they are at, it's going to take days if not weeks to fully sort this out. i mean, i recommend for travelers to start looking at other options, whether that's aren'ting a car, as we already heard some people are, looking at other airlines, but unfortunately there is no good option at this point because the system has very little slack in it there's so many people already traveling. >> right. it kind of sounds like it's time to pull the ripcord and maybe drive, find another flight, which is expensive, it's inconvenient and people are missing really important things. you heard that southwest pilot saying scheduling software is to blame for this, and he was also saying that this kind of thing happens to varying degrees every year, this of course being an extreme situation. what do you think can be done to make sure this doesn't happen again? you know, the airline is saying it's weather, they're saying

it's software. what do you think can be done? >> so the airline is correct that weather set this whole cascade of events off, but i have to agree with the union it is software. southwest is known to have used -- to use some older technology systems, particularly for scheduling for some time, and they have been investing, but clearly as we've seen over the last few days the investments have not been enough, especially as the airline has grown significantly in recent years. so the level of investment needs to step up. the truth is the federal government will be looking at this closely. we've already seen secretary of transportation pete buttigieg tweet about, you know, looking into southwest and what happened over the holidays. so it's really -- the pressure is on southwest and they have a new ceo, bob jordan, who took over last year or earlier this year and, you know, he is really going to be under the microscope. actually it's surprising we haven't seen him come out publicly yet and talk about this. >> that is a good point. and it's interesting, too, that we are hearing from the pilots

union, they're pushing back on a lot of this. they seem very upset. do you anticipate that we will see more of that psh and pull between the airline and the pilots union as this continues? >> absolutely. we are in a point where a lot of this angst between labor and management at southwest and other airlines and i expect we're going to see more of that. the pilots of southwest have already been upset over some of the skorki working conditions d the pandemic, this is exacerbating the situation and i expect to see more push and pull between the two. >> edward russell, sounds like your advice is try an alternative way if you are stuck in one of these airports or planning to fly on southwest, right? >> absolutely. if you are traveling over new year's on southwest i would really think hard about that trip. it's better to stay home than be stuck somewhere. >> than get stranded. thanks so much. we appreciate it. let's go now to western new york where people trapped in their homes by the blizzard in the buffalo area are now running

low on food, supplies and medicine. at least 27 people have died in erie county as a result of that storm and most of the deaths were in buffalo where they've seen nearly 50 inches, 5-0 inches of snow over the past three days. emergency crews are focused on calls for help as the city could now see another 8 inches of snow. cnn's polo sandoval joining us now live from buffalo. polo, there's still about 5,000 homes without power in erie county. we're hearing that some grocery stores are finally opening, but we're hearing from people that are saying they're running low on food, the grocery stores had been running low on food because they can't get deliveries. this is serious stuff. >> reporter: it's such an important issue that we have to be talking about right now. in fact, we heard yesterday from erie county officials that they were already flagging that as a potential issue of not only the centers where some of these first responders have been based out of, but also some of the warming centers where people

have been basically riding out this storm and now five days later still there. the issue of food. what we've heard from erie county officials is they are looking at surrounding counties, some of those grocery stores that may still have shelves stocked, that may have had that inventory restocked perhaps right after christmas. hopefully bring in some of that food to some of those locations and then obviously to those also in need. so that is a big priority. also resources coming in from other counties for help with plowing. they need to continue to clear those streets out. that's really what we're hearing from officials. lastly those first responders to go door to door and check in with some of those folks that are still snowed in, jessica. we have to remember that, again, this is five days in and there is certainly a sense of frustration that is building for many people that have been cooped up this whole time and so they are certainly hopeful at least at the county level that as many folks as they could that they stocked up as much as they could by thursday, but still there is a very real worry here on the ground that the longer it

takes to clear out those streets, those highways, the longer folks are going to have to stay in place. that driving ban here in buffalo, it is still in place. this was put in in in the morning, put in friday morning, and they were hopeful maybe they could revisit that today. it remains in place. the death toll sadly is a number that continues to rise. at last check 27 but do not be surprised if that number goes up in the next hour or two as officials fear that as they go door to door that they are encountering situations where the occupants of a home sadly did not survive the last five days of the storm. as far as conditions, they really do speak for themselves. at least we're not getting that snow. there were about 3 to 5 inches expected today, but nonetheless they are certainly making progress. that light at the end of the tunnel, temperatures in the 50s coming friday. >> and they can't come soon enough for the people in buffalo who have been enduring this for

five days and it looks to continue. polo sandoval for us on the ground in buffalo. thank you so much. and several cities across the south are facing serious water issues due to the freezing temperatures. a boil water advisory issued in memphis, tennessee, is expected to last a few more days as utility crews work to repair several water main breaks there. and in jackson, mississippi, a local emergency has been declared, water being distributed to residents as crews work to restore water pressure there. and in georgia boil water advisories have been issued for clayton, forsythe and buds counties due to damaged pipes and low water pressure. up next, a stunning admission from a republican congressman-elect in new york. he now admits he completely fabricated much of what he put on his resumé. what does it mean for george santos' political future? plus, we are live in el paso, texas, as we wait to see if the supreme court will rule today on whether to end trump-era border restrictions. border agents say they are seeing 1,500 migrants crossing

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and help communities thrive. he insisted he did nothing illegal. >> i'm not a fraud. i'm not a criminal who defrauded the entire country and made up this fictitious character and ran for congress. i've been around a long time. i mean, a lot of people know me, they know who i am, have done business dealings for me. i'm not going to make excuses for this but a lot of people overstate in their resumes or

twist a little bit or -- themselves, i'm not saying i'm not guilty of that. i want to make sure if i disappointed anyone by resumé embellishment, i am sorry. >> i mean, resumé embellishment. joining me now is cnn national political reporter eva mckend. he doesn't fully apologize there, but we are talking about just telling untruths. this isn't an embellishment, he didn't work at these places, didn't go to these schools. >> to say that he embellished i think would be the most generous framing possible. this is not ann embellishment, these are pretty bold lies. the only ones that he sort of are guessing up to are the ones that concern his education and work history. he conceded he never, in fact, worked for citi group or goldman sachs. he says that he worked for a company that worked with those financial groups, but who even knows if that's the truth. he does not have a college

degree, he said that he graduated from baruch and nyu. cnn learned through genealogy records that contradict this claim that he is of jewish heritage and that his grandparents survived the holocaust. the irs has no record of a registered charity that he said that he long operated. so it just goes on and on and on. >> yeah, look at that list. i mean, that's not embellishment. those are just lies and false claims about very serious things. it's not just the once you pointed out, he also talked about this discrepancy that he gave regarding the pulse nightclub shooting. >> this is particularly troubling because this extends beyond a personal biography. he says that he -- employees of his, he formerly said the four of them were victims in this terrible pulse massacre that we all of course remember in this country, a deeply sad event.

well, he is now sort of through this word soup salad in this radio interview saying that that is actually not the case. take a listen. >> did anyone who worked for you perish in the pulse nightclub shooting? >> that worked for me directly, no, but we did have people who were being hired to work for the company at the time. >> so,vimccarthy. we have asked him, cnn, several times to comment on this. santos indicates that he is prepared to still serve in congress and we haven't heard any push back from republican leadership to that effect. >> i was on the hill late last week right before the christmas holiday, mccarthy wouldn't answer any questions about -- repeated questions about this. and they've only got that four-seat majority in the house so it will be very interesting to see if they seat him, if mccarthy does anything or if there's an ethics committee violation.

we shall see. thanks so much for that reporting. we are learning new details in the multibillion dollar collapse of cryptocurrency giant ftx. court transcripts showing two business partners of former ceo sam bankman-fried admitted to stealing billions from customers and trying to cover it up. the two have pled guilty and are cooperating with federal prosecutors. brynn gingras is closely following this case. what's new from the court documents? >> reporter: we're learning the extent of the cooperation that these two former business partners are being with the federal government. those names caroline ellison who had an on and off again relationship with sam bankman-fried she is the former ceo of alameda research which was the hedge fund for the cryptocurrency group that those guys ran. she said in court last week according to these new documents that have now been unsealed that she's truly sorry, that she knew what she was doing was wrong.

now, essentially as the ceo of alameda research she says she knew that they were stealing billions of dollars from the ftx crypto exchange and using it to fund the hedge fund and basically pay off loans. remember that money as we have learned was going to pay off large lavish residences, it was going to political contributions and she essentially said that she knew that that was what was happening and she knew that they were hiding it from investors. let me give you a quote from for what she said to the judge in court. i understood that if alameda's ftx accounts had significant negative balances in any particular currency it meant that alameda was borrowing funds that ftx's customers had deposited on to the exchange. now, as for the other person, the other former business partner gary wang, he said in court that he knew and wrote the code that allowed that special privileges as they called it to happen between the

cryptocurrency exchange and the hedge fund. both these guys we know now, jessica, cooperating fully with the government. they were before this cooperation facing several decades of time in prison based on the charges that they have now pled guilty to of course they will continue their cooperation as this case continues to move throughout the courts and we will see what they actually face in prison when they are sentenced next december. >> yes, we will. brynn gingras for us. thanks so much for that update. still ahead, more than 20,000 migrants waiting in mexico to find out if the supreme court will lift the title 42 border policy. could it happen as soon as today? we're live in el paso where more border fencing is going up in anticipation of that ruling. and risk-reward analysis help make trading feel effortless and its customizable scans withth social sentiment help you find d and unlock opportunities in the market with powerful, easy-to-use tools power e*trade makes complex trading easier react to fast-moving markets with dynamic charting

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trump era immigration policy known as title 42 will remain in place. that policy enacted as a public health measure during the covid-19 pandemic allows the federal government to send migrants back to mexico to await their asylum proceedings. right now officials say there are 22,000 people sleeping at various border towns in mexico waiting for a decision. the texas national guard announced last night its built two miles of fencing at its border with mexico and the el paso area and plans to continue to build more. rosa flores is joining me now from el paso. rosa, what are you seeing this morning? >> reporter: jessica, good morning. there's a lot of pain and desperation here. let me show you around while i tell you what's going on.

we're just outside a church that serves as a shelter overnight, but capacity is about 120, 130, so a lot of people end up having to sleep on the street because once capacity -- once the church fills up, then there is no more capacity for more. now, a lot of these migrants say that they have either desperately waited in mexico and got tired because title 42 was never lifted and or they decided to just simply cross over illegally because they felt that they couldn't do anything else. they were so desperate. now, as you look around you'll see that there are also a lot of children here. those are some of the more desperate and heartbreaking stories that we've been hearing out here, just from mothers who say that their child will ask them for food, their child will ask them for something warm and

these mothers don't have anything to provide. they will ask them for a bathroom. there are no facilities around here. now, these scenes are also duplicated on the mexican side. jessica, like you mentioned, we've learned that about 22,000 migrants are waiting in at least three northern mexican cities, that's across the river from the rio grande valley in south texas and tee a w tijuana near san diego. there are officials living either on the streets and in camps and, again, those are the ones who have decided to wait for title 42 to lift. there are many who are not waiting, those are the ones you see around here, those decided to either turn themselves into authorities or to enter the u.s. illegally. >> rosa flores for us in el paso, texas. thank you so much for that reporting, rosa. so far the biden administration has not laid out any kind of

formal plan for this surge of migrants. joining me now is seung min kim white house reporter for the associated press. great to see you. biden is heading out for an end of the year vacation and will be gone until the new year. what happens if the supreme court makes this decision today or in the next few days? >> so we have been asking and the white house has been asked repeatedly what is your plan once title 42 lifts? we thought this was going to happen last week, obviously there has been a delay put in place by the supreme court, but as you said a ruling could come as early as today, any day now. what the white house has laid out is that for now they are surging resources to the border to the limited capacity they can have, they have more processing coordinators. right now earlier this month karine jean-pierre the white house press secretary gave us a figure that 23,000 border patrol agents were down at the southern border working to deal with this impending crisis but they

haven't really laid out a comprehensive strategy for what they will do once title 42 lifts. i have talked to democratic senators who are not pleased with how the administration has been handling this. i talked with mark kelly, the democratic senator from arizona, who is clearly seeing the impact of this -- of this situation in his home state and he said the administration hasn't laid out a clear enough plan for me, and that is the pressure that the biden administration is seeing right now from members of its own party. >> immigration is an issue that's vexed congress for decades. they have not been able to get this done, despite many -- several attempts. at the end of the year there was another attempt from independent senator kyrsten sinema and republican senator thom tillis. we know that the democratic whip dick durbin had wanted to do something on immigration. where does this go from here because just a reminder to everyone the democrats will lose the house in january when republicans take over.

how do you see this playing out in congress if at all? >> it doesn't go too far from where things were left off and we know that republicans are coming in and taking the house majority in just a matter of days and that is a party that has not seen or not shown a lot of interest in doing a comprehensive immigration fix like the types that senator sinema and tillis were talking about, like the types of changes that had been discussed in washington for decades now but congress has really struggled to get there. you do see how, you know, the white house's hands are so tied by congress, even when they are talking about the title 42 situation, you know, when you ask the white house about title 42 and the republican criticisms -- or the criticisms from republicans about the biden administration's border policy, they said, well, congress hasn't fixed this problem, congress for decades could have done something to reform the system both on the security side and on

the legal immigration side, the illegal immigration side and they've done nothing. also remember the white house was also pushing heavily for congress to send them more funding to deal directly with this crisis and they didn't get all that money that they wanted in this latest round of spending talks. so that's making it even tougher tore them. >> even harder. yeah. not a lot of possibility there in the new year for congress to tackle that. seung min kim, thank you so much. we appreciate it. well, travel to and from china will become a lot easier in the new year as the chinese government relaxes covid rules. but it could trigger other countries to put restrictions back in place. we are going to have the latest from beijing, that's next.

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new in morning, chinese health officials say they will scale back how often they report covid-19 data, just one more step the country is taking as it moves rapidly away from its zero covid policy. cnn international correspondent selina wang is in beijing with details on major changes in travel restrictions as well. >> reporter: china is making a major move towards ending the

country's nearly three years of isolation. china is dropping quarantine for all international arrivals from january 8th and promising to gradually restart outbound tourism for citizens. inbound travelers need to get a 48 hour negative covid test before boarding but dropped all the cumbersome requirements. to understand why the changes are such a big deal we have to look at what the reality has been in china during the pandemic. the country has been severely limiting who can go in and out of the country with strict border controls, flights have been very limited and expensive, all arrives had to go through quarantine in government facilities. i went through multiple quarantines myself including 21 days earlier this year. we're talking about harsh quarantines, no choice in where you get sent, no opening your door except for food pickups and covidest tests. all of that is now going away. this new change would effectively end the ban on chinese citizens for going november seas for nonessential reasons but the timing is still unclear. authorities have not said when they will restart issuing

tourist visas or allowing foreigners to apply for business, study or family reunion visas. finally people are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. online searches for popular international travel destinations on china's travel booking site jumped ten times within an hour of when the announcement was made. i have spoken to chinese citizens who have been stuck overseas for years, they are overjoyed and relieved finally there is a way for them to see family but there's also bitterness over how long this has taken. they've already missed so many important moments, family deaths, births, reunions. but in response to this change other countries are starting to issue restrictions on travelers from china. japan announced travelers from the country will be tested for covid upon arrival, japan's prime minister also said the country will restrict plans to increase flights in and out of china. india announced similar covid testing guidelines. authorities in india said the guidelines are aimed at ensuring covid does not spread as quickly as it has been in china. selina wang, cnn, beijing.

thank you. new this morning taiwan is extending its mandatory military service for all eligible men to counter the rising threat from china. the time requirement will jump from four months to a year starting in 2024. that's a major u-turn for taiwan which had previously shortened conscription as recently as 2018. taiwan's president says four months can, quote, no longer suit the needs of taiwan's defense. turning now to russia's war on ukraine. this morning heavy fighting reported in parts of the country including bakhmut and other areas in the donbas. all this as russia demands ukraine abide by its proposed peace talks which includes the demilitarization and so-called denazification of the regime controlled territories. cnn international correspondent will ripley is joining me now live. what's the latest from where you are now? >> reporter: so the air raid sirens have just lifted in lviv,

which is welcome news, although what the ukrainians think what russia is doing is sending strategic bombers up into the air potentially to see how ukraine responds and then plan accordingly because the ukrainians are bracing for a potential attack either on new year's eve or before to try to devastate once again civilian infrastructure targets primarily but also military targets across this battle scarred country. 9 million people have been affected by these blackouts as a result of russian attacks, that's according to ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy who warned of dark, difficult days ahead and also saying the situation on the front lines in the donbas and also to the south continue to be very dark and very painful, which is an unspoken way of referring to likely heavy casualties on both sides as both sides take a relentless pounding from each other, the artillery war on the front lines has been absolutely horrific. also in the cyber realm ukraine says that some 4500 cyber attacks have been waged against this country just in the last

year. that's a threefold increase over just two years ago. the rhetorical escalation of course continues, you heard the russian foreign minister using that word denazification, they love to say that the current government, the democratically elected government here is somehow allied with nazis, that's one of their propaganda messages that they, you know, tell the russian public to try to justify this war. on the ukrainian side its foreign minister is calling for russia to be removed from the united nations security council, it's one of five, you knew, permanent members which gives them veto power to any resolutions to punish them for their brutality against civilians in ukraine. >> will ripley in lviv, thanks for that reporting. still ahead this morning, a cnn exclusive, a new forecast on how much you could be spending at the gas pump next year. are busy spending billions on advertising. at mint we're not into wasting money. so we boughtht this spiffy stock footage for $500.

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a first on scene exclusive this morning. gas buddy now predicting the u.s. will see a $4 a gallon gas as early as may. but don't expect the same chaos at the pump we saw earlier this year.

cnn's matt egan joins us now. what does this mean for americans, bottom line? >> reporter: jessica, after a year of painfully high gas prices this is some encourages news here. gas buddy projects that next year the national average will be $3.49 a gallon. now, that is down roughly 50 cents from this year, and so that means that americans may be spending a little less at the gas station and have a little more money for everything else in life and transfers to about $55 billion less spending by u.s. consumers on gasoline. that translates to almost $300 on average per family for the whole year. so all of that is the good news. in is some bad news, though, here, and that is that gas buddy expects gas prices to go up by this spring and summer as americans hit the road again. they see the national average going from about $3.10 a gallon today to as high as $4.5 a gallon as soon as may and

topping out at $4.25 a gallon next year. gasbuddy does not expect the $5 we saw past june. listen to what i was told what to expect next year. >> 2023 is not going to be a cakewalk for motorists's it could be expensive, and it could be made either better or worse, depending on the luck of the draw that is refineries have been a tremendous story of importance this year, and if anything should disrupt refineries, we could again be seeing prices that are unseasonably high. >> reporter: it's not just refineries here that is is a major wild card. also a risk of hurricanes, war in ukraine. china's rapid reopening from covid potentially that could drive prices higher and on the other hand risk to the down side. if the economy really stumbles this year, some economists warn a recession, and we could see

prices go lower. jessica, end of the day hopefully after a brutal day of inflation americans get some relief in 2023. >> yeah. just a little break least. matt egan for us. thanks for breaking that down. in a few hours president biden leaves for the u.s. virgin islands to celebrate the new year there with his family, but as you can imagine he's not leaving his work behind. it will follow him. cnn's chief white house correspondent phil mattingly at the white house. good to see you. still has to sign that $1.7 trillion spending plan? >> reporter: right. hope he does it for both your job and mine. deadline end of the week. the expectation, it will be signed and serve as a coda for a remarkable turnaround over the course of the last 12 months. you know well, jessica, think back to january and where the president's legislative agenda stood. if you could say standing at all. then flash forward to now. end of a two-year period where

the largest components of president biden's economic and domestic agenda not only have gotten through congress, many in a bipartisan manner and now implemented in a significant way. you talk to white house officials, taking stock of these first two years and look ahead what's next, they believe that will be critical going forward. the implementation of the infrastructure law, manufacturing bills put in place, economic and climate proposal really a cornerstone of that agenda is a focus going forward. no question about it. so will a reshaped washington. when president biden returns from his vacation to saint croix one day later republicans vote on the next speaker of the house. whether kevin mccarthy or somebody else a very different environment than it has been for the first two years. the white house has been preparing for that legislatively on investigations, kind of how things move forward, but that tells a big story of the next two years, of course, and the president deciding about re-election. something he's expected to discuss on this vacation.

>> looming. phil mattingly at the white house. thanks so much. just ahead, thousands of people stranded at airports all across the country as southwest airlines experiences a meltdown. live in chicago, and atlanta, as people try to find a way to get to where they're going. what will you change? ♪ will y you make something better? ♪ will you create something entirely new? ♪ our dell technologies advisors provide you with the tools and expertise you need to do incredible things. because we believe there's an innovator in all of us. there's always a fresh deal on the subway app. like this one! 50% off?! that deal's so good we don't even need an eight-time all-sta to tell you about it. wait what? geit before it's gone on the subway app!

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it is the top of the hour here in washington. good morning. i'm jessica dean, jim sciutto is off today. we begin with a travel nightmare for thousands of people stranded at airports all across the country. already more than 2,800 flights canceled today. nearly 90% of those on southwest airlines. the airline now apologizing. you can imagine, little comfort for so many people who may m