The House is expected to approve President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion in already appropriated funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid Thursday evening.
The White House had described the rescissions package as a test case and said that if Congress went along, more would come. The House’s approval would mark the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted a rescissions request to Congress.
Opponents voiced concerns not only about the programs targeted, but about Congress ceding its spending powers to the executive branch as investments approved on a bipartisan basis are being subsequently cancelled on a party-line basis. No Democrats supported the measure when it passed the Senate in the early morning hours Thursday, 51-48, and two Republicans also voted no.
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House stalls on $9 billion spending cuts as GOP scrambles over Epstein files
The House came to a standstill late in the day when GOP concerns over the clamor to release the Epstein files complicated swift passage of another item — Trump’s request to claw back $9.4 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid.
House Speaker Mike Johnson huddled privately with key Republicans trying to forge a solution that could include a resolution supporting the release of “credible” files pertaining to Epstein and his activities.
“The House Republicans are for transparency, and we’re looking for a way to say that,” Johnson said.
“We agree with the president,” he said. “All the credible evidence should come out.”
Johnson acknowledged that Republicans “have been taking incoming criticism” after Democrats on the House Rules Committee forced votes to release the files. The GOP lawmakers on the panel mostly rejected the amendments on procedural grounds.
Chinese embassy credits Xi-Trump phone call for correcting the course for bilateral economic and trade ties
The Chinese embassy on Thursday said the phone calls between the two leaders have set the economic and trade relationship on the right path.
“President Xi Jinping and President Trump corrected that course during their phone calls,” said Chen Zhenghong, an embassy official. Xi and Trump talked over the phone in early June when tensions were rising over trade restrictions the two governments placed on each other.
After the phone call, senior U.S. and Chinese officials met in London and reached a framework agreement before both sides took steps to ease trade restrictions. It was the first phone call between the two men after Trump returned to the White House in January. They also spoke on the phone just days before Trump was sworn in.
In their most recent phone call, Xi welcomed Trump to visit China.
Interior Department order requires Burgum to sign off on all wind and solar projects
All solar and wind energy projects on federal lands and waters must be personally approved by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum under a new order that authorizes him to conduct “elevated review” of activities ranging from leases to rights-of-way, construction and operational plans and biological opinions.
The enhanced oversight on clean-energy projects is aimed at “ending preferential treatment for unreliable, subsidy-dependent wind and solar energy,” the Interior Department said in a statement Thursday.
Clean-energy advocates said the action could hamstring projects that need to be underway quickly to qualify for federal tax credits that are set to expire under the Republican tax-cut law.
Schumer calls on Trump to fire key aide
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is calling on the White House to fire Russell Vought after the Office of Management and Budget director said the appropriations process in Washington “has to be less bipartisan.”
Schumer has long said that it takes both parties working together to pass spending bills that keep the federal government running. That’s because it generally takes 60 votes to advance spending measures in the Senate. He said he’s furious with Vought.
“Donald Trump should fire Russell Vought immediately before he destroys our democracy and runs the country into the ground,” Schumer told reporters.
Vought said the federal government has racked up $37 trillion in debt under the current spending process. He said over time a more partisan appropriations process will eventually lead to more bipartisanship.
Schumer’s call for Vought’s firing follows the Senate passing a bill early Thursday to roll back about $9 billion in previously approved public broadcasting and foreign aid funds. Vought helped lead the effort, which Democrats unanimously opposed.
State Department lowering security alert level for staffers at US embassy and consulate in Iraq
The State Department says it is ending its ordered departure status for U.S. diplomats and other government employees at its embassy and consulate in Iraq.
Spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided Thursday to lower the security alert level for staffers at the Baghdad embassy and consulate in Irbil. The security advice for private American citizens remains at level four — or do not travel.
The State Department had ordered the departure of non-essential diplomats and other government employees from Baghdad and Irbil last month, shortly before Israel and then the U.S. launched airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, fearing that Iranian proxies in Iraq might retaliate against American interests.
Lawmakers seek review of US intelligence sharing with Spain
Top lawmakers are urging a review of U.S. intelligence sharing with Spain following reports that it hired the Chinese firm Huawei to provide services related to national security wiretaps.
Sen. Tom Cotton and U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford wrote to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Thursday seeking the review. The letter cited media reports in Spain that the Ministry of the Interior selected Huawei to provide technical services for its wiretap system.
Huawei’s close ties to China’s government have prompted tight restrictions on its businesses in the U.S. and many American allies.
Cotton and Crawford lead the Senate and House intelligence committees. The two Arkansas Republicans wrote in their letter to Gabbard that given national security concerns about Huawei, American spy agencies should ensure that any information shared with Spanish authorities is redacted of information that could be exploited by China.
More than 20 states sue the federal government over a new health insurance rule
More than 20 Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging a new federal health insurance rule that tightens restrictions for enrolling in marketplace plans through the Affordable Care Act and bans coverage requirements for gender-affirming care.
The lawsuit led by New Jersey, California, and Massachusetts, also involves 18 other states. They argue that the new rule could strip coverage from millions of Americans, drive up health care costs and harm state health systems.
The rule set to take effect in August shortens open enrollment windows, eliminates year-round enrollment for low-income Americans and adds verification requirements. It also prohibits states from including gender-affirming care in the ACA’s list of essential health benefits.
On its website, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says the rule “finalizes additional safeguards to protect consumers from improper enrollments and changes to their health care coverage, as well as establishes standards to ensure the integrity of the ACA Exchanges.”
White House doing own probe of Biden autopen
The White House said Thursday that it has launched its own investigation into former President Joe Biden’s use of the autopen to sign presidential documents.
The counsel’s office has requested information from the National Archives, Leavitt said Thursday.
“We deserve to get to the bottom of it,” the press secretary said.
Press secretary botches name of NYC mayoral candidate
While answering a question about Trump weighing in on New York City’s mayoral race, Leavitt got the name of Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani wrong, calling him “Zemdhani.”
It is unclear whether the flub was intentional. Leavitt did not acknowledge the mistake before moving on.
Trump spoke with Netanyahu about Israelis striking church in Gaza
Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express his frustration with Israel’s military striking the Holy Family Church in Gaza, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Leavitt said Trump did “not” have a “positive reaction” to the strike and that Netanyahu “agreed” to put out a statement as part of the conversation.
She said that Netanyahu relayed to Trump that it had been a mistake to hit the church.
Trump does not support special prosecutor for Epstein case
Asked about the possible appointment of a special prosecutor for a full probe into the federal sex trafficking case of late financier Jeffrey Epstein, Leavitt confirmed that Trump does not support such a move.
“The president would not recommend a special prosecutor in the Epstein case, she said.
White House planning signing ceremony for crypto legislation
The White House is putting together a signing ceremony for crypto legislation on Friday afternoon.
The House is working its way through the so-called Genius Act, which would regulate a form of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins. The Senate has already passed the legislation, meaning it would go to Trump for his signature once the House passes it.
“This piece of legislation is going to make America the crypto capital of the world,” Leavitt said.
Trump got a health checkup over swollen legs and bruised hand
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt read a doctor’s letter on Thursday that was intended to dispel health concerns about the swelling in Trump’s ankles and a makeup covered hand.
Leavit said that Trump noticed “mild swelling” in his lower legs and was evaluated by the White House medical unit. She said the tests showed “no evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease,” but that Trump has blood pooling in his veins that she said are common in individuals over than 70.
She said that the bruising on Trump’s hand covered up by makeup is “consistent” with irritation from his “frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin.”
Leavitt said “the president remains in excellent health.”
Trump to travel to Scotland
The White House confirmed Thursday that the president will travel to Scotland later this month.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump will be in Turnberry and Aberdeen from July 25 to July 29. During that visit, Trump will meet with British prime minister Keir Starmer to follow up on the U.S.-U.K. trade deal that the two nations struck earlier this year.
Trump owns two golf courses in Scotland — one in Turnberry and the other in Aberdeen.
Leavitt also said Trump and first lady Melania Trump will head back to the United Kingdom for a state visit Sept. 17 to Sept. 19. That trip had already been confirmed by Buckingham Palace earlier this month. The visit marks the second state visit for Trump and is unprecedented. No U.S. president has been invited for a second state visit.
Columbia University and White House are negotiating
University officials met with administration officials to discuss ways to restore federal funding that has been withheld from the school. That’s according to a person familiar with the meeting who requested anonymity to disclose a private conversation.
Columbia is one of the universities that has been targeted by Trump.
More sanctions against Tren de Aragua leaders
New measures announced by the Treasury and State departments on Thursday designate the gang’s chief, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero, and five other top leaders as members of a transnational criminal organization, blocking their property and assets.
A reward of $5 million for information leading to Guerrero’s arrest or conviction was offered more than a year ago. Tren de Aragua has already been designated a “foreign terrorist organization” by the State Department for its involvement in the illicit drug trade, extortion, money laundering, human smuggling and trafficking, and the sexual exploitation of women and children.
Some alleged gang members who had been imprisoned in the U.S. have been deported to a high-security prison in El Salvador.
Former Fox News host advanced as top federal prosecutor in DC
The Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to be the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital.
The committee’s Republican members voted unanimously Thursday to send Pirro’s nomination to the Senate floor after Democrats walked out to protest Emil Bove’s nomination to become a federal appeals court judge.
Pirro has served as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia since May. Trump withdrew his first pick, Ed Martin Jr., after a key Republican senator said he could not support him, given Martin’s outspoken support for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Before she replaced Martin, Pirro cohosted the Fox News show “The Five” on weekday evenings. She was elected as a judge in New York’s Westchester County Court in 1990 before serving three terms as the county’s elected district attorney.
A previous Border Patrol hiring spree offers lessons as ICE expands
As Immigration and Customs Enforcement prepares to add 10,000 employees in five years to enable Trump’s mass deportations, the Border Patrol’s torrid expansion in the early 2000s serves as a cautionary tale. Hiring and training standards were loosened, arrests for employee misconduct rose and attrition spiked.
“If they don’t uphold pretty rigorous standards and background checks, you can end up hiring the wrong people, and then you pay a huge price in how the public perceives them,” said Gil Kerlikowske, who ran Customs and Border Protection from 2014 to 2017.
ICE is set to get $76.5 billion, nearly 10 times its annual budget, under the bill Trump signed. “The unprecedented funding for ICE will enable my hard-working officers and agents to continue making America safe again by identifying, arresting and removing criminal aliens from our communities,” acting ICE director Todd Lyons said.
▶ Read more about what happened the last time ICE tried rapid expansion
More than a million US children could be displaced. HUD secretary says helping them is wasteful
Amid a worsening national affordable housing and homelessness crisis, Trump’s administration is determined to reshape HUD’s expansive role providing stable housing for low-income people, which has been at the heart of its mission for generations.
At a June congressional budget hearing, HUD Secretary Scott Turner argued that imposing a two-year limit on rental assistance will fix waste and fraud in public housing and Section 8 voucher programs.
“It’s broken and deviated from its original purpose, which is to temporarily help Americans in need,” Turner said. “HUD assistance is not supposed to be permanent.”
▶ Read more from the AP’s examination of proposed limits on rental assistance
Trump’s proposed HUD time limit could evict 1.4 million of nation’s poorest renters
More than 1 million low-income households — most of them working families with children — who depend on the nation’s public housing and Section 8 voucher programs could lose government-subsidized homes under the Trump administration’s proposal to impose a two-year time limit on rental assistance.
New research from New York University obtained exclusively by The Associated Press the limit could affect as many as 1.4 million households helped by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The NYU report published Thursday predicts “enormous disruption and large administrative costs,” for public housing authorities that “would have to evict all of these households and identify new households to replace them.”
Democrats walk out as Republicans advance judicial nomination of Emil Bove
The uproar started when Republican Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley moved to vote on the nomination of Bove, a top Justice Department official, to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker expressed frustration that not all voices had been heard yet, prompting the rest of the Democrats on the committee to walk out before Republicans advanced his nomination to the floor.
Bove, who along with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche served as a criminal defense lawyer for Trump, has been behind some of the most scrutinized Justice Department actions since Trump returned to office, including the dismissal of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case.
A former Justice Department lawyer accused Bove of suggesting the department might have to defy court orders. Bove denied that claim.
Blanche wrote in a piece published by Fox News Wednesday that Bove’s “legal acumen is extraordinary, and his moral clarity is above reproach.”
‘Hamilton’ 10th anniversary is a fundraiser for immigration services
Lin-Manuel Miranda plans to use the 10th anniversary Broadway performance of “Hamilton” to raise about $3 million for the Immigrants: We Get the Job Done Coalition, a group of 14 nonprofits including the National Immigration Law Center.
Miranda told The Associated Press that he remains surprised by the joyous audience reaction to the “Immigrants: We get the job done” line that’s shared in the show by Hamilton and French military officer Marquis de Lafayette. “It’s one of the things that just heartens me and gives me hope. In these dark times, it still gets a big cheer,” Miranda said.
“It’s the same reason why that No Kings protest vastly outnumbered the military parade happening on the same day: There are still a lot of people who believe in basic decency and treating people who come here — often from really tough situations — with humanity.”
OMB chief applauds rescissions package, says another will come ‘soon’
Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, says the imminent passage of a new package of spending cuts shows “enthusiasm” for getting the nation’s fiscal situation under control.
“We’re happy to go to great lengths to get this thing done,” Vought said during a Thursday breakfast with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
In response to questions about the relatively small size of the cuts — $9 billion — Vought said it’s because “I knew it would be hard” to pass in Congress, and that more are coming.
Another rescissions package is “likely to come soon,” Vought said. “But we’re not there yet.”
House tees up vote to claw back foreign aid, public broadcasting funds
The House is expected to take up Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for foreign aid and public broadcasting on Thursday evening.
“We can’t be spending taxpayer funds overseas, engaging in all sorts of nefarious activities. That’s what this rescissions package is about, to stop that,” Speaker Mike Johnson said. “We need to get back to fiscal sanity and this is an important step.”
The Senate approved the package in the early morning hours Thursday. If the House does the same, the bill would go to Trump’s desk for his signature. Supporters of the foreign aid spending say it’s miniscule for the amount of good it does in saving lives and enhancing the standing of the United States around the world.
Fired State Department employees say Americans aren’t being told the truth
They spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals as they remain on the payroll until September.
“The American people aren’t getting all of the facts about what the department has done,” said one officer working in intelligence. This person said their team’s work had been transferred to office that lacks capacity to handle the sensitive material.
Others were tasked with maintaining U.S. energy dominance, “a centerpiece of our foreign policy,” Rubio said at his confirmation hearing. “The fact that they got rid of all the energy experts who would promote oil and gas sales overseas clearly undermines everything that they’re saying,” the official said.
The list also includes intelligence analysts who specialize in Russia and Ukraine, and experts with deep institutional and cultural knowledge of China, leaving the U.S. exposed to a country Rubio labeled “the most significant long-term risk to the United States.”
Trump’s State Department says it needs to be nimble
The dismissals are a major concern for staffers being tasked with additional duties to make up for losses in key areas like intelligence and research, consular affairs, diplomatic security, energy, and international and educational organizations. Deeply skeptical Democratic lawmakers predict a devastating impact on U.S. diplomacy.
But Michael Rigas, the State Department official who sent employees the layoff notices, tried Wednesday to allay such concerns, denying that the cuts were made in a haphazard and irresponsible manner to the detriment of national security.
Rigas told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that the department had grown to more than 76,000 employees worldwide and a massive reorganization was needed to keep it relevant and nimble to respond to foreign crises and policy challenges.
The department “became large and began to lose its way,” becoming “ineffectual bureaucratically,” spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters Wednesday.
Where the State Department cuts are hitting
According to a list that current and former foreign service officers compiled and sent to Congress, the layoffs include:
1. more than 100 people whose work in the Bureau of Consular Affairs is self-funded from passport and visa fees. They investigated passport fraud and people who oversaw contracts to provide American citizen services including processing passport applications,
2. experts responsible for dealing with visa fraud and money laundering in Russia and Eastern Europe, transnational criminal organizations and migrant worker visa fraud in Mexico and Central America.
3. A small team in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs that supported the Secretary of State’s trip to Malaysia last week and were fired as Marco Rubio was flying back to Washington.
“There’s no one left to do what we were doing,” said a laid-off employee with more than 30 years of experience.
The Associated Press
