(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump unlawfully removed a member of a federal office that protects government employees from partisan interference, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras granted a permanent injunction reinstating Cathy Harris to the Merit Systems Protection Board, delivering the Trump administration another legal defeat as they attempt to reshape the federal workforce.
Contreras found that Harris’ removal broke the law because Trump failed to provide cause for her removal when the White House communicated last month that her role had been terminated in a one-sentence, late-night email. Contreras noted that Harris had actually been “efficient and effective” in her role, clearing the board’s massive 3,800-case backlog.
“Because the President did not indicate that he sought to remove Harris for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office, his attempt to terminate her was unlawful and exceeded the scope of his authority,” Contreras wrote.
Harris, the board’s chairman, was nominated by then-President Joe Biden in January 2022 for a term not set to expire until March 2028. She was confirmed by the Senate in May 2022. Contreras’ ruling says Harris must now remain in the role through the end of her term, unless she is removed for cause.
The board only consists of three members, with the law stating no more than two can be from the same political party. In removing Harris, Trump had announced the Republican member, Henry Kerner, would take over the role as chair. Raymond Limon, also a Democrat like Harris, served as vice chair until he resigned last week on the final day of his term.
Trump’s attempt to remove Harris comes as the Merit System Protection Board — a little-known office that protects federal employees from abuses by management and prohibited practices — grows in significance as the Trump administration slashes thousands of federal employees. Some judges have turned down lawsuits by noting that the correct avenue for the employees’ claims would be the Merit System Protection Board, rather than a federal court.
On Saturday, another federal judge issued a permanent injunction reinstating special counsel Hampton Dellinger, who was similarly removed without cause by the Trump administration.
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Richard Hudson, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, encouraged House Republicans to do more virtual events over in-person town halls, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting.
The plea comes as multiple House Republicans have faced fiery constituents at recent in-person town halls concerning cuts to the federal workforce and the impact Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has had on communities.
Hudson told members that communicating with constituents via Facebook Live, tele-town halls and other virtual avenues would be more effective, allowing them to screen questions and have better control over the events.
“Chairman Hudson supports members reaching and helping as many of our constituents as possible, using technology makes this a heck of lot easier. Chairman Hudson opposes attention-seeking MoveOn and Indivisible activists hijacking these events,” Will Kiley, NRCC’s spokesman, told ABC News.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., claimed tele-town halls are “more productive than if you just go to an open forum right now,” accusing Democratic activists, without evidence, of showing up to in-person town halls to portray Republicans in a negative light.
“Look, these are their people who do this as a profession,” Johnson said at the GOP press conference. “They’re professional protesters. So why would we give them a forum to do that right now? The best thing that our members can do is communicate directly, frequently, consistently, with their constituents, and there are other avenues to do it than just going in to try to give the other side sound bites.”
This comes after President Donald Trump made accusations, without evidence, that “paid troublemakers” were interrupting GOP town halls, not constituents.
Outside Tuesday’s GOP conference meeting, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., claimed she experienced safety concerns in her district, saying that virtual events were safer and more effective.
“I’ve done many tele-town halls, and I think those are very productive and we can reach 1,000s more people than we ever could in person,” she said. “And so, I think that that is a great strategy, but for me personally, it’s just not safe to do an in person town hall because I don’t know what to expect.”
Meanwhile, some Democrats said that if Republicans won’t host town halls, they will.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said on Tuesday that he’d soon go out to red districts in his state to speak out against DOGE layoffs.
“Starting March 24th, I will be going to three red districts in California to speak out against DOGE’s mass firings and the Republicans’ Medicaid cuts,” Khanna wrote in an op-ed in The Prospect published on Tuesday.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, posted on X Tuesday morning that he’d host events in districts where Republican representatives won’t meet constituents.
“If your Republican representative won’t meet with you because their agenda is so unpopular, maybe a Democrat will,” he said. “Hell, maybe I will. If your congressman refuses to meet, I’ll come host an event in their district to help local Democrats beat ’em.”
Pete Kiehart for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Donald Trump, six weeks into a historic comeback to the White House, on Tuesday heads to Capitol Hill to address Congress and the nation as a reinvented president relentlessly testing the limits of executive power.
Trump will step up to the dais at 9 p.m. ET to lay out his goals for the next four years and tout the actions he’s taken so far, many of them challenging constitutional restraints on his authority versus Congress and the courts.
The president teased on Monday it would be a “big night” and House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News over the weekend to expect “fireworks.”
The theme of his address will be the “Renewal of the American Dream,” a White House official told ABC News.
Trump will focus, the official said, on his record thus far, the economy, border security, and what the official called the president’s plans for “peace around the globe.”
He will push Congress to pass more border security funding for deportations and the border wall, the official said, and on foreign policy, he’s expected to touch on his efforts to help broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
“President Trump has accomplished more in one month than any president in four years – and the renewal of the American Dream is well underway,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “In his Joint Address to Congress, President Trump will celebrate his extraordinarily successful first month in office while outlining his bold, ambitious, and common sense vision for the future. President Trump’s Joint Address will be MUST-SEE TV.”
The speech comes as Trump moves with lightning speed to enact his agenda, including an immigration crackdown and radical overhaul of the federal government — the latter with the help of his unelected enforcer Elon Musk, who will be in the House chamber looking on.
As some of the dust settles from that blitz, a 538 analysis of public opinion polls found Trump himself to be more popular than many of his administration’s policies. And his approval rating, while higher than at this same point in his first term, is still underwater at 45%, according to Gallup.
Promises kept?
Trump has signed 76 executive orders since his inauguration, according to the Federal Register.
Barbara Perry, co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said she expects Trump’s speech to start off on the theme of “promises made, promises kept.”
“I suspect there will be some chest-pounding and drawing attention to the fact that historically, this is one of the most active and productive first 100 days and we’re not even at the 100-day mark yet,” Perry said. “They’re off the blocks really quickly.”
His executive actions include many of the culture war issues he campaigned on — such as ending federal DEI programs, making English the country’s official language, declaring the government will only recognize a person’s sex assigned at birth and banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.
On immigration, Trump could promote border crossings dropping significantly in January and the Department of Homeland Security arresting thousands of migrants illegally in the country. But his “border czar,” Tom Homan, has expressed frustration with the pace of deportations so far, and the administration abruptly cleared migrants from Guantanamo Bay after pledging to use the military base to house the “worst of the worst.” Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship, another signature 2024 pledge, has been temporarily blocked by the courts.
On foreign policy, in addition to his efforts to start peace talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war, the White House official said he can be expected to talk about the Middle East, although his brazen Gaza takeover plan has little public buy-in from regional power players and the administration’s reversal of American policy toward Russia and away from Ukraine has prompted concern among European allies.
On the economy, Trump can be expected to highlight tariffs he’simposed against Canada and Mexico that went into place on Tuesday, as well as additional taxes against China. But inflation continues to be a persistent problem, with some economists predicting tariffs could raise prices more, and the cost of eggs have skyrocketed amid the prevalence of avian flu.
But the Trump initiative that’s been the most controversial is the slashing of the federal bureaucracy, which is being largely overseen by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The dismantling of agencies like USAID, wholesale firings of federal workers and cutting of funds already appropriated by Congress is prompting widespread confusion and several legal challenges. Trump has defended Musk so far, including in his first Cabinet meeting last week where Musk spoke despite not being a Cabinet member.
His message to Congress?
Trump will address Congress as Republicans hold majorities in both the House and Senate. Despite the trifecta, Trump is pushing an expansive view of executive power that questions the role of Congress and the courts to serve as a check over federal agencies.
How aggressively he articulates that stance in front of the lawmakers and Supreme Court justices in attendance will be something to watch, said Philip Wallach, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
“I think the big question is, what does he feel like he needs from Congress? The general sense of the second Trump administration has been to come out of the gates guns blaring, wanting to accomplish everything themselves,” Wallach said. “In some ways, it seems like they mostly want Congress to stay out of their way and to cheer them on in their effort to transform the government.”
“But it’s not clear just how far they can go without new laws from Congress, including some that go ahead and dismantle previous programs,” Wallach noted.
The first big legislative test will be the budget reconciliation bill that will fund much of Trump’s agenda, though more pressing will be averting a government shutdown next week.
Back in 2017, during his first-ever joint address to Congress, Trump made a pitch for unity. It was generally regarded as one of his best political speeches, said University of Michigan speech and debate expert Aaron Kall.
Kall doesn’t expect the same tone for Tuesday night’s address, contending Trump views himself as having a “mandate” from voters after winning both the electoral college and popular vote (though data shows the victory isn’t the total landslide Trump has often portrayed it as).
“I think it will be very totalizing, very self-assured and very partisan in tone,” Kall said of Trump’s upcoming address. “This will be more in the ilk of a campaign speech.”
(WASHINGTON) — A potential government shutdown looms large as President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night — where he’s sure to face a divided audience following his sustained effort to slash the U.S. bureaucracy.
Top Congressional leaders have not yet struck a deal to keep the lights on in the nation’s capital ahead of the March 14 deadline to fund the federal government — and time is running short.
As Democrats look to defend civil servants from mass firings, its leaders have pushed for language to be inserted in a government funding bill to ensure the Trump administration properly directs funds appropriated by Congress, an effort to push back against Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency efforts.
But Republicans have made clear they won’t accept those demands — calling them unprecedented.
To illustrate the gargantuan gulf between them, many Democrats are bringing recently fired federal workers to attend Trump’s address to showcase the impact of Musk’s slashing of federal agencies.
Of his five guests, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., invited two fired federal workers, including a USAID worker and a disabled Army veteran.
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona invited Kyle Rahn, a disabled Army veteran who served three tours in Iraq before working at the Department of Homeland Security, from which he was fired last month.
Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois invited Adam Mulvey, a 20-year Army veteran who served several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and was fired from his role at Lovell Federal Health Care Center in Spring Grove, Illinois, on Feb. 13.
House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested that DOGE cuts should be part of fiscal 2026 government funding negotiations — kicking the proverbial can to another year.
But the speaker said the GOP-controlled House is eyeing a short-term clean government funding bill that would extend current spending levels through the end of September 2025, but the specifics of his strategy remain unclear.
A short-term measure would “make sure that the government can stay open while we begin to incorporate all these savings that we’re finding through the DOGE effort and these other sources of revenue that President Trump’s policies are — bringing to the table,” Johnson argued on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Trump endorsed this plan last week, calling for a clean continuing resolution — even as hardline Republicans pressure Johnson not to band together again on a bipartisan bill with Democrats, who aren’t inclined to help Trump with anything.
Some Republicans have already raised concerns, including Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales, who says he is a no vote on any continuing resolution.
“I am a NO on the CR. Congress needs to do its job and pass a conservative budget! CR’s are code for Continued Rubberstamp of fraud, waste, and abuse,” Gonzales posted on X.
Nebraska moderate GOP Rep. Don Bacon raised concern about a clean measure since military funding would be held flat.
“A continuing resolution (CR) is bad for our military and weakens our national security. A CR means new weapons programs cannot get started. A year-long CR means we are not serious about building a military that will deter China, Russia and Iran,” Bacon said on X.
Johnson can only afford to lose one Republican if all members are present and vote and will almost certainly need to rely on Democratic votes to avert a shutdown. Eighty-two Republicans voted against the current 3-month funding measure that’s set to expire in less than two weeks, illustrating the patently obvious need for bipartisanship on the brink of a shutdown.
Meanwhile, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Republicans of walking away from negotiations — rejecting the speaker’s characterization of the situation.
“House Democrats are committed to funding the government in a manner that promotes the economic well-being, health and safety of everyday Americans,” Jeffries said in a statement Sunday.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump will deliver a joint address to Congress on Tuesday evening during which he’ll no doubt try to highlight the ways he is delivering on the “mandate” that he and Republicans say they were given by Americans during the 2024 election.
Democrats hope to have a response to that from one of the Senate’s newest initiates: Michigan freshmen Elissa Slotkin.
Slotkin made her name during her six years serving in the House of Representatives as a moderate unafraid to, at times, challenge her party’s conventions. She has promised a rebuttal to Trump’s speech focused on economic and national security.
“I’m looking forward to speaking directly to the American people next week. The public expects leaders to level with them on what’s actually happening in our country,” Slotkin said in a statement announcing her speech last week. “From our economic security to our national security, we’ve got to chart a way forward that actually improves people’s lives in the country we all love, and I’m looking forward to laying that out.”
She is also expected to take on Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal government. Democrats have invited a number of fired federal workers as their guests for the speech.
Slotkin’s guest will be Andrew Lennox, who served as a Marine in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria and was fired from his job with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“You spend 10 years trying to defend your country in terms of honesty, integrity, and justice and then you come back and get copy and pasted the same email as 10,000 other people about performance,” Lennox told ABC News.
Slotkin’s speech comes as Democrats look to collect themselves after a punishing 2024 campaign cycle that saw Trump handily defeat then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for the White House. Democrats didn’t fare much better down ballot, losing control of the Senate and failing to recapture the House.
As Democratic leadership tries to zero in on a new strategy to reach moderate voters, they’re looking to beam the spotlight onto Slotkin, who pulled off a narrow win in purple Michigan this November, beating Republican nominee Mike Rogers, who had served seven terms in the House, in a race for the state’s open Senate seat, even as Trump won Michigan by 80,000 votes.
Her focus on reproductive rights and economic issues like lowering costs for families, coupled with her track record in the House, helped her eke out a narrow victory in the Senate race. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries took notice in selecting her to deliver the Democrats’ response.
Schumer called Slotkin a “rising star” of the Democratic Party.
“As you know, Elissa is a rising star in our party. The American people are going to love what she has to say. She’s just great — on both economic and national security. I’m excited, I think we’re all excited,” Schumer said following the formal announcement that Slotkin would deliver the response to Trump.
Slotkin is a former CIA agent who worked as a Middle East analyst. She served three tours in Iraq in this role. She then worked at the White House and Pentagon during the Bush and Obama administrations before launching a bid for the House.
She won her seat in the House of Representatives in 2018, ousting a two-term GOP incumbent. During her tenure, she flexed her national security bona fides, serving on the Armed Services, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs committee.
During her time in the House, Slotkin was consistently ranked among the most bipartisan members of the chamber. She occasionally voted across party lines and, in her earliest votes in the Senate, demonstrated a willingness to continue that bipartisan streak. She was one of 12 Democrats who voted in favor of the Republican-led Laken Riley Act earlier this year, helping to send the bill to Trump’s desk.
(WASHINGTON) — At his address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday, President Donald Trump is expected to face dozens of civil servants fired from their positions across the executive branch as congressional Democrats make a concerted effort to bring terminated bureaucrats as their guests.
Of his five guests, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., invited two fired federal workers, including a USAID worker and a disabled Army veteran.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who will deliver the Democratic response to Trump’s address, is bringing Andrew Lennox, who was fired from his administrative position at the Department of Veterans Affairs last month without notice. Lennox served as a Marine in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona invited Kyle Rahn, a disabled Army veteran who served three tours in Iraq before working at the Department of Homeland Security, from which he was fired last month.
Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois invited Adam Mulvey, a 20-year Army veteran who served several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and was fired from his role at Lovell Federal Health Care Center in Spring Grove, Illinois, on Feb. 13.
The dynamic is sure to create tension in the chamber as the president looks to highlight his administration’s actions over his first 44 days in office.
While ABC News has confirmed that Elon Musk, who Trump has empowered to slash the federal workforce and budgets, is expected to attend, it’s not yet known whether he’s a guest of the first lady or a member of Congress or the precise circumstances of his attendance.
Several lawmakers are also bringing guests related to the Israel-Hamas war, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has invited Noa Argamani, who was released by Hamas after 245 days in captivity. Schumer also invited Orna Neutra, whose daughter Omer was killed in captivity by Hamas.
Iowa Republican Rep. Mary Miller-Meeks is bringing Riley Gains, the former All-American swimmer at the University of Kentucky who has been at the forefront of the effort to defend women’s sports and advocate for policies that protect female athletes.
Some Democrats are opting to invited constituents who rely on Medicaid and are worried that the GOP’s budget reconciliation plans could impact their benefits. There also appear to be a significant group of farmers invited to attend the address.
(WASHINGTON) — The website of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency provided its third weekly update of federal government cost-cutting Sunday night, claiming total government savings of $105 billion, up from the $65 billion it claimed in last week’s update — but the figure remains unverifiable as the site still says it’s posted only a fraction of the receipts supporting this total.
In its latest update to its “Savings” page, DOGE continued to update — and in some cases delete — contracts that it had previously listed as having saved up to billions of dollars in federal funds, after media outlets, experts and others publicly questioned details of the contracts.
In all, DOGE listed a total of 2,334 canceled contracts on its latest “Wall of Receipts,” with the savings from those contracts amounting to $8.8 billion.
The amount is actually lower than the $9.6 billion in claimed savings from 2,299 contracts posted on its “Wall of Receipts” last week, reflecting the difficulty in pinpointing exactly what DOGE is cutting and by how much.
Similar to last week, DOGE claims in this week’s update that the $105 billion figure is based on a “combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions.”
The site, however, only provides receipts for a fraction of that number. In addition to the $8.8 billion alleged savings in canceled contracts, the new data on the site lists $660 million worth of real estate leases under the GSA that were canceled, and, for the first time, it lists federal government grants that have been terminated, totaling $10.3 billion.
Among the contracts that have been deleted from DOGE’s latest “Wall of Receipts” is the biggest contract it had listed as having canceled last week: a seven-year blanket purchase agreement from the IRS with $1.9 billion cap for “IT strategy and modernization.”
The website removed this contract from its “Wall of Receipts” after the vendor, financial management and IT company Centennial Technologies, told the New York Times last month that the contract was actually canceled last fall, under the Biden administration.
The previous week, DOGE had to revise down its largest claimed savings contract from $8 billion to $8 million after the contract’s vendor explained that the $8 billion listed on it procurement record was likely a clerical error.
Another contract that was removed from DOGE’s “Wall of Receipts” in the latest updated was a five-year $150 million USAID contract under the Asia Futures Activity initiative, aimed at serving the USAID’s Asia Bureau to solve “interconnected challenges of economic growth, democratic governance, and resilience in the face of increasing health, climate, and food security threats.”
Representatives for the Cadmus Group, which had received that contract, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
DOGE also deleted from its latest “Wall of Receipts” what appeared to be a $149 million National Institute of Health contract awarded to software company Advanced Automation Technologies.
Last week, the DOGE website listing that contract linked to a different NIH contract for leasing and maintaining refrigerated gas tanks. An NIH contract with Advanced Automation Technologies that shares the same contract ID is capped at just $1.4 million — not the $149 million figure that had been listed by DOGE.
Other terminated contracts listed in this week’s data include a USAID contract for the Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative with a $256 million ceiling, from which DOGE claims to have saved $170 million that has yet to be obligated to the contractor.
Another newly listed canceled contract is the USAID’s Global Health Training, Advisory, and Support Contract program, a multi-year program that started in 2021 and was capped at $682 million through 2029. DOGE claims to have saved $284 million by terminating this program.
The single biggest contract listed this week is a seven-year IT services contract from the USAID to the vendor Salient CRGT Inc., with a $597 million ceiling.
Similar to last week’s data, DOGE now lists more than 940 contracts where contract obligations have already been fully delivered — meaning that 40% of the contracts they claim to have terminated will not actually result in saving any money.
Asked about contracts that list $0 in savings last week, a White House official told ABC News that they’re using a conservative methodology of calculating savings because they subtract the contracts’ obligated dollars from the ceiling amounts. However, for many contracts the ceiling dollars are much higher than what is actually expected to be spent.
For the $10.3 billion in federal grants the sites says it’s terminated, DOGE lists each of the 3,389 grants with the name of the awarding agency and the amount of each grant, but does not lists the grant’s name or purpose.
So far, much of the claimed savings from these grants have come from the USAID — totaling $8.7 billion — followed by $1.1 billion from the State Department, $472 million from the Education Department and $61 million from the EPA.
DOGE has also updated its list of real estate leases that have been terminated, totaling $660 million. But much of the data is now missing information regarding which agency the leases were under, whereas the site previously listed leases from across more than 40 agencies.
The current data shows $143 million worth of real estate leases under the GSA that were terminated, and the rest of the terminated leases– totaling $516 million — do not list their agencies.
DOGE said last week that it would begin updating its website twice a week, but the current update, like the first two, came after a week.
Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — WWE co-founder Linda McMahon was confirmed as the U.S. secretary of education Monday night by a party line vote of 51-45.
Four senators — Republicans Cynthia Lummis and Shelley Moore Capito and Democrats Elissa Slotkin and Peter Welch — missed the vote.
Moments after being confirmed, McMahon was sworn in at the Department of Education.
In a post on X, McMahon said she intended to “make good” on President Donald Trump’s promises to make U.S. education the best in the world, return education to the states and free students from bureaucracy through school choice.
McMahon, who previously served as the head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, will be tasked with shutting down the federal agency she was confirmed to lead.
At a White House event last month, Trump said, “I told Linda, ‘Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job. I want her to put herself out of a job, Education Department.”
“I want the states to run schools, and I want Linda to put herself out of a job,” Trump added.
Sources told ABC News the president is expected to sign an executive order as soon as this week calling for McMahon to diminish the education department and work with Congress to pass legislation that would eliminate it. The move would fulfill Trump’s campaign promise of returning education back to the states.
However, Trump’s directive will not stand without congressional approval, according to experts who’ve spoken to ABC News. Any proposed legislation would likely fail without 60 votes in the Senate.
The Trump loyalist and donor acknowledged she needed Congress to carry out the president’s vision.
“We’d like to do this right,” McMahon said during her February confirmation hearing, adding, “that certainly does require congressional action.”
McMahon, 76, earned her teaching certification from East Carolina University. She is a champion of apprenticeship and workforce training programs, school choice, and parental rights.
McMahon also had two stints serving on the Board of Trustees at Sacred Heart University, where she is currently the Treasurer. She served on the Connecticut State Board of Education in 2009.
She also co-founded World Wrestling Entertainment with her husband Vince McMahon.
McMahon allies believe the secretary will be an agent of change, a disrupter, and the dismantler that the Department of Education needs. Department skeptics also stress that the federal agency spends too much on education without adequate academic results.
House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Rep. Tim Walberg, who said he met with McMahon last week for roughly 30 minutes, celebrated her victory.
“Secretary McMahon has demonstrated she is a fierce advocate for our youth,” Walberg said in a statement to ABC News. “Her leadership and experience both in education and business will help ensure we are setting our students up for successful futures.”
Across Capitol Hill, there was sobering reaction from opponents to the business executive and wrestling legend’s confirmation.
“I’m highly concerned that her interest in destroying the Department of Education will mean children with special needs will not be able to access individualized education plans, that our lower-income students will be able to afford college and higher education, and that our school districts will lose out on critical funding to meet the needs and well being of their students,” Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said after the vote.
Public education advocate Bernie Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate’s education committee, told ABC News that McMahon’s confirmation could be potentially devastating for Americans.
“If you are a working-class person, if you are a low income person, the help that your community is now getting will likely be killed,” Sanders said.
And critics labeled McMahon as a disastrous choice for the students and educators across the U.S. who rely on the statutorily authorized education programs, like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Title I funding for low-income families. Dozens of civil rights groups opposed McMahon’s confirmation, including the NAACP.
“This is an agency we cannot afford to dismantle,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson wrote in a statement to ABC News.
“Her confirmation brings us one step closer to losing our Department of Education — the agency that not only funds public schools, but advocates for our teachers and enforces essential civil rights laws.”
Meanwhile, in her quest to diminish the agency Secretary McMahon assured lawmakers that she is not cutting the public school funding for 50 million American students. McMahon said she is looking into moving the department’s essential functions, like civil rights protections and its non-discrimination laws for students with disabilities, to other agencies.
“Why do you think that it is better to stick the functions dealing with children with disabilities in a huge department that will not have the same priorities,” Sen. Democratic Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester asked during McMahon’s confirmation hearing.
“The bottom line is, because it’s not working,” McMahon said.
“The Department of Education was set up in 1980 and since that time, we have spent almost a trillion dollars. We have watched our performance scores continue to go down. I do believe that it is a responsibility to make sure that our children have equal access to excellent education. I think that is best handled at the state level,” she added.
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democratic leaders stood in support of Social Security benefits on Monday in the wake of the Social Security Administration’s announcement it’s planning to cut 7,000 jobs as part of “significant workforce reductions.”
“Now we know that something we Senate Democrats have feared for a long time is coming true. Social Security is under attack and at risk,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a Capitol Hill news conference.
Schumer, Senate Finance Committee’s Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., also at the news conference, said that the Social Security workforce cuts are just a pitstop Republicans are making on the road to privatizing the critical benefits system.
“DOGE’s attack on Social Security, in my view, is a first step on the path to privatizing Social Security,” Wyden said, referring to Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.
The leaders also blasted Musk’s recent characterization of Social Security as a ‘Ponzi scheme.’
“Elon Musk says it’s a Ponzi scheme. The richest man in the world is telling Americans that earned benefits that they depend on and they paid into are a scam. They are not a scam. And if Americans know it,” Schumer said.
Asked about the Biden-appointed former Social Security commissioner Martin O’Malley’s recent prediction that a system collapse and an interruption of benefits could come within the next 30-90 days, Murray responded that the recent cuts to workforce and offices would be a “disaster.”
“Yeah, I mean, when you’re firing this many people, closing that many offices — don’t have people to write the checks, you are looking for disaster,” Murray said.
A government-funding connection?
Asked if Democrats would insist on preventing the cuts as part of a deal to bring a temporary funding (‘CR’ or continuing resolution) bill up for a vote, to keep the government open, Murray said “We are looking at a number of different” things pertaining to a funding deal.
“I’ll just say this. The only one who wants a shutdown right now is Elon Musk … nobody else wants a shutdown. We are all working to get this done,” Murray said.
Murray said that the best way to fund the government and avoid a shutdown would be through a CR.
“In my opinion, the best way to do this is to do a short-term CR. Our committees are capable of getting this done with this short term CR, and ready to go to work.”
She also said the White House sending an “anomalies” list to Congress was “completely inadequate” and then reaffirmed that Democrats were “at the table” and “ready” to pass a short-term CR.
Working with House Democrats to block Social Security cuts
Schumer referenced former President George W. Bush’s proposed cuts to Social Security programs in 2005, likening his current plans to work with House members in order to block any rollbacks to the work he did with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid 20 years ago.
“We got together. We said we’re going to fight it, and we won. I will tell the American people, we’re getting together, House and Senate Democrats, we’re going to fight it, and guess what? We’re going to prevent the cuts,” Schumer said.
“But we need your help,” he said. “We need every person who’s a recipient or would-be recipient who would like to get this benefit to call their congressmen– their Republican congressman and senators — and give one simple sentence. ‘Hands off my Social Security.'”
President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have insisted that Republicans won’t try to cut Social Security benefits or benefits from other entitlement programs.
(WASHINGTON) — Conservative legislators are increasingly speaking out against the Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 ruling on same-sex marriage equality.
Idaho legislators began the trend in January when the state House and Senate passed a resolution calling on the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision — which the court cannot do unless presented with a case on the issue. Some Republican lawmakers in at least four other states like Michigan, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota have followed suit with calls to the Supreme Court.
In North Dakota, the resolution passed the state House with a vote of 52-40 and is headed to the Senate. In South Dakota, the state’s House Judiciary Committee sent the proposal on the 41st Legislative Day –deferring the bill to the final day of a legislative session, when it will no longer be considered, and effectively killing the bill.
In Montana and Michigan, the bills have yet to face legislative scrutiny.
Resolutions have no legal authority and are not binding law, but instead allow legislative bodies to express their collective opinions.
The resolutions in four other states echo similar sentiments about the merits of the Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which established the right to same-sex marriage under the equal protection clause and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
Some legislators behind the resolutions argue that the legality of gay marriage should be left to states to decide, while others argue that marriage should be reserved for one man and one woman.
LGBTQ advocates and allies have criticized the efforts, arguing that the majority of Americans approve of same-sex marriage and say the efforts undermine “personal freedoms.”
A 2024 Gallup poll found that 69% of Americans continue to believe that marriage between same-sex couples should be legal, and 64% say gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable.
In Michigan, state Rep. Josh Schriver unveiled his own anti-gay marriage resolution on Feb. 25, arguing that restrictions on gay marriage are important to “preserve and grow our human race,” he said at a press conference announcing the resolution.
“Michigan Christians follow Christ’s definition of marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman, an institution established to glorify God and produce children,” said Schriver.
In a press release, he added: “The new resolution urges the preservation of the sanctity of marriage and constitutional protections that ensure freedom of conscience for all Michigan residents.”
Local Democratic leaders denounced the resolution, arguing that it discriminates against the rights of LGBTQ Americans and distracts from more pressing issues facing Michigan residents.
“At a time when Michiganders are looking to their leaders to address pressing issues like lowering costs and protecting our economy, House Republicans are choosing to focus on undermining the personal freedoms of Michigan residents,” state Rep. Mike McFall said.
“This resolution is not only a blatant attempt to roll back the clock on civil rights, but it is also out of step with the values and priorities of our state.”
The Michigan resolution has been referred to the Committee on Government Operations and has not yet been put to a vote.
The handful of resolutions come after Associate Justice Clarence Thomas expressed interest in revisiting the Obergefell decision in his concurring opinion on the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 decision on the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that overturned the federal right to abortion.
He wrote: “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents,” such as Obergefell. “Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents,” Thomas said.
Thomas had issued a dissenting opinion in 2015 against same-sex marriage equality.
More than two dozen states have some kind of restriction on same-sex marriage that could be triggered if the Supreme Court one day overturns its 2015 decision, according to legislative tracking group Movement Advancement Project. This is because marriage equality has not yet been codified and enshrined into law nationwide.
However, the Respect for Marriage Law signed by former President Joe Biden in 2022 guarantees the federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages in the event of an overturned Supreme Court decision.
It requires all states to recognize legally certified marriages, even if they were done in a state where it is later banned or done in another state entirely.
