Government Executive - Management

USPS nominations test the future of bipartisan boards

Erich Wagner and Jory Heckman — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 17:42:47 -0400

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gary Peters, D-Mich, asked Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., this week to put a hold on the current slate of USPS nominees until the administration identifies Democratic nominees to also serve on the board.

The USPS Board of Governors, which currently has two Democratic members, one Republican member and one independent member. The board has five vacancies, and Trump has submitted four Republican nominees. By law, no more than five members of the USPS board can belong to the same political party.

“This imbalance in representation would be unprecedented and would undermine public confidence in the Board’s ability to serve the public interest above any partisan political aims,” Peters wrote.

Trump submitted a mix of Democratic and Republican nominees to the USPS board during his first administration and consulted with congressional leaders from both political parties, keeping with the tradition of prior administrations.

“Unfortunately, President Trump has departed from this long-standing practice and has not engaged in any consultation with the Senate Minority Leader or the Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs,” Peters wrote.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the top Democrats on several Senate committees sent a letter to the White House last month pushing back on the administration’s broader lack of Democratic nominees for independent agenices.

Peters’ letter comes less than a month after the Supreme Court’s decision in Slaughter v. Federal Trade Commission stripped removal protections from members of independent boards and commissions. Though that decision does not explicitly address instances when Congress has required the president nominate members of the other political party, Chief Justice John Roberts said Congress may not “saddle him with those with whom he cannot work.”

Trump has been more personally involved in USPS operations than his recent predecessors. He signed an executive order in March directing states to send USPS a list of voters who vote by mail, and to refuse to mail ballots to unlisted voters. State governments have the primary responsibility of carrying out elections.

Early in Trump’s second term, USPS agreed to work with Census Bureau this year on a test of the upcoming decennial count. Trump also considered merging USPS with the Commerce Department.

In his first term, Trump threatened to withhold pandemic relief funds from USPS unless it agreed to charge Amazon higher rates to deliver its packages. A Treasury Department task force also recommended privatizing some postal operations.

Paul Steidler, a senior fellow at the Lexington Institute, said it’s important to consider the nominations “in the broader context of the Trump administration’s views about Democratic appointments” and the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that gave the administration sweeping authority to fire members of independent agencies.

“It’s important to see the president’s actions in light of the Slaughter decision, and in light of the fact that the Supreme Court has backed up his ability to remove board members that he doesn’t want to have in place,” Steidler said.

Steidler said the postmaster general “has a ton of power, relative to the board,” and that the board’s political composition shouldn’t distract from the broader issue of postal reform and keeping USPS from running out of cash.

“Whether you like it or not, this gives Trump and the Republicans ownership of fixing the Postal Service,” Steidler said. “The focus has to be in reengineering the Postal Service. Part of that should be having a stronger, independent board that can look into what’s going on, and raise the alarm bells when there are serious issues that should be of concern to the American people.”

A spokesman for the American Postal Workers Union told Government Executive that the union is concerned the Trump administration has submitted nominees without any postal or logistics background. APWU will hold a national day of action outside post offices next Tuesday urging senators to reject these nominees.

“None of the current nominees have any experience in the Postal Service, or even in the wider logistics and delivery industry. Instead, what they share in common is experience in big business, finance, and management consulting,” APWU wrote in a fact sheet.

It’s not unusual for lawmakers to scrutinize the political makeup of the USPS board. In 2014, when the USPS board lacked enough members to hold a quorum, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., put a hold on two of the Obama administration’s Republican nominees for the USPS board, who were already serving on the board and were tapped to serve another term.

Republicans, in turn, placed holds on the administration’s Democratic nominees to serve on the USPS board.

A USPS official who spoke on condition of anonymity said “it’s never good to not confirm nominees,” and that any attempts to hold up confirmations would be “counterproductive.”

“Is the Postal Service going to be any better or worse if we don’t approve these nominees? I know it’ll be worse off if they don’t. Because we’ll end up directionless again, which is what got us in this malaise in the first place,” the official said.

Experts warned that if the Senate moves forward on the USPS nominees, the maneuver may be just an opening salvo in a broader push to clear out Democrats from bipartisan boards. Many positions previously held by Democratic appointees before their 2025 firings remain vacant, such as at the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Slaughter decision could spur renewed purges of those that remain, such as the recent termination of members of the Election Assistance Commission.

“It’s more than a trial balloon, I think,” said Don Kettl, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland and former dean of its School of Public Policy. “This is a broader, conscious effort brick by brick and step by step to expand presidential power. They’ll continue to do it until the courts say stop . . . This is about much more than the Postal Service just as Slaughter was about much more than the FTC.”

Michael Fallings, managing partner at Tully Rinckey PLLC, a law firm specializing in federal employment issues, said one-party rule over quasi-judicial boards like the MSPB and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission would hurt not just those appealing adverse actions, but the case law these agencies produce.

“If you have just one line of thinking, then those decisions have the potential not to be correct, not to look at the full facts, and generally be one-sided,” he said. “Even if it’s just through a dissent to a decision, that can be reviewed and evaluated for future cases as well.”

Jay Lerner, an adjunct professorial lecturer at American University’s School of Public Affairs and former inspector general of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, said that while Slaughter has effectively short-circuited many of the laws aimed at insulating agencies from presidential power, a Congress looking to reassert its authority could establish new ways of influencing who the president can nominate for multi-member agency boards and commissions. One avenue could be strengthening often vague language requiring nominees to be “qualified” for their posts.

“Congress, depending on how strong it is now or in the next session, could voice objections and apply political pressure. It could pass different laws—not so much focusing on removal authorities, but on how appointees actually perform while in office. I think that Congress could enact laws requiring experts to identify performance standards for individuals holding a particular position. If there’s more specificity to those standards, then at least there are some concrete elements by which to assess an official's performance.”

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Trump appointees confirmed by the Senate are exiting their jobs in record numbers, report finds

Sean Michael Newhouse — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 15:05:00 -0400

Updated at 4:50 p.m. ET July 23

Senate-confirmed officials in the second Trump administration are leaving their positions at record rates, a good government nonprofit found in an analysis published Wednesday that warns the trend could hurt congressional input on who runs agencies.

“Though his first term was seen as turbulent regarding personnel, Trump has seen nearly two and a half times as many departures this administration as his first,” wrote Chris Piper of the Partnership for Public Service.

In total, 27 Senate-confirmed officials, 11.4%, have left the administration to date. That number includes three Cabinet secretaries as well as the heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and IRS.

To compare, 11 Senate-approved officials departed their jobs by this point in Trump’s first term. The average across the first 18 months of the Bush, Obama and Biden administrations was 4.3 departures.

The Partnership reported that the former officials’ average tenure was eight months. Researchers also noted that these individuals waited an average of nearly five months to be confirmed, and 30% spent more time going through the Senate approval process than they did in their positions.

“These departures also squander the time and resources it takes to find, vet and confirm officials,” Piper wrote.

In addition to the record exits, the Partnership found that Trump is making fewer nominations — the lowest since Reagan. Researchers posited that this might be because the administration appears to have relatively fewer White House staffers focused on personnel.

But the result is an increase in acting officials who are not subject to Senate approval.

“Turnover on this scale does not just thin the government’s leadership ranks — it concentrates power in the president,” Piper wrote. “Each seat left to an acting official is one the president can fill on his own terms without the Senate’s advice and consent: no vetting, no confirmation hearing, no vote.”

Piper further cautioned that, because interim agency leadership is not always announced, it can obfuscate who is running agencies. And he warned that a reliance on temporary officials can impede long-term planning.

In response to a request for comment, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said: "The president and his entire administration will continue to tirelessly implement the Trump agenda and achieve tremendous results for the American people.”

This story has been updated with a statement from the White House.

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As FEMA's future hangs in the balance, Senate advances nominee to lead the agency

Jennifer Shutt, States Newsroom — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 06:00:00 -0400

The Senate on Wednesday moved one step closer to confirming the first administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency since President Donald Trump took office last year.

The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 8-4 to send Cameron Hamilton’s nomination to the floor, though it was not immediately clear whether the full Senate would vote before it breaks for its August recess.

Hamilton led FEMA in an acting role at the beginning of 2025 but was fired that May after testifying before Congress that he personally did "not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency."

Trump has said repeatedly during his second administration he would like to reduce the size and scope of the federal government's disaster management role, shifting more responsibility to state and local governments.

Trump created a FEMA Review Council last year to propose substantial changes to the agency, which is housed within the Department of Homeland Security. That group released its recommendations in early May, though neither the administration nor Congress has taken steps to implement those proposals.

Hamilton said during his confirmation hearing in June that if confirmed by the Senate he would ensure FEMA is "objective" and "fair."

He said he believes the agency's "disaster declaration process and also the federal mentorship that goes into it needs to be improved."

"I believe states need to receive better customer service. I have full faith and confidence in the FEMA workforce, but we can do better," Hamilton said. "And there's a significant amount of areas where that process should be simplified, better understood and we owe you answers, I think, much faster."

Hamilton wrote in the ethics paperwork that is a required part of the confirmation process that after being fired from FEMA in May 2025, he worked as a senior adviser at the Education Department until August.

After that, he was hired as the senior vice president of response and recovery at LTS, Inc., in Virginia, where he worked from August until April, when he became a senior adviser/senior counselor at the Department of Homeland Security.

Hamilton reported a salary of $247,916 and a bonus of $350,000 during the roughly eight months he worked at LTS, Inc. He expects to receive another bonus from the company valued between $250,001 and $500,000 at some point in the future.

LTS, Inc., writes on its website that it is "an award-winning enterprise consulting" firm that focuses on emergency response, automated health care solutions and occupational health services.

In the ethics agreement filed with the government, Hamilton wrote that he transferred ownership of his consulting business, Onward Operations LLC, to his spouse in March. He transferred ownership of his retail coffee business, Onward Valor LLC, to his spouse in January.

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Lawmakers look to avoid government shutdown, and reconsider getting rid of them entirely

Jory Heckman — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 17:23:15 -0400

Ahead of this year’s midterm elections, congressional leaders are taking earlier-than-usual steps to avoid a government shutdown this fall.

Federal employees faced the longest government shutdown in history last year, followed by the longest partial shutdown, which impacted the Homeland Security Department. Both shutdowns led to federal workers missing paychecks.

The House passed a continuing resolution on Tuesday that would keep the federal government funded through Dec. 4. The bill passed roughly along party lines in a vote of 220-205, with Republicans overwhelmingly voting in favor of the bill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters on Tuesday that Republicans are looking to avoid a government shutdown ahead of “a very consequential midterm election.”

“If the Democrats can't support this basic principle, then they alone are going to own the chaos that ensues if the government shuts down after September 30,” Johnson said.

House Democratic leaders rejected the stopgap spending bill, calling it a “premature and desperate attempt by Republicans to abdicate their responsibility to govern while there are still several months left to negotiate a bipartisan agreement.”

Congress hasn’t passed a comprehensive spending deal on time in decades, and often passes a last-minute continuing resolution to continue deliberations.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Tuesday that Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, is working with Democrats on the committee to keep the federal government funded “past the November elections, so that we don’t have the specter of a government shutdown.”

“The disruption, the chaos that creates is just something that both sides ought to be willing to try and avoid. And so I think it's going to be really important that we figure out a path forward to get a bipartisan agreement to fund the government that will keep the government open and ensure that government employees are getting paid,” Thune said.

Meanwhile, the House Appropriations Committee is revisiting legislation that would permanently eliminate the threat of government shutdowns.

The Prevent Government Shutdowns Act led by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., would trigger an automatic two-week continuing resolution any time a lapse in congressional appropriations occurs. Lankford initially introduced a version of this bill in 2019 along with Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.

The bill would require Congress and Office of Management and Budget staff to remain in Washington, D.C., until a spending deal is reached. The continuing resolution would remain in effect beyond the initial two weeks if lawmakers don’t reach a deal by then.

Lankford told the committee that the bill puts the burden on Congress to reach a spending deal, and would no longer treat federal employees as a bargaining chip in these negotiations.

“Federal workers and their families should not suffer when Congress has not finished their appropriation work – but they do,” Lankford said.

Lankford said his bill wouldn’t result in a "perpetual CR,” but would instead hold lawmakers accountable for reaching a bipartisan spending plan.

“If we have to be here every day, we will get our work done, because we will find a way to be able to solve the problem,” he said.

The American Federation of Government Employees supports the bill. AFGE National President Everett Kelley wrote in a letter to the committee that “there are no concrete signs that the regular appropriations process will advance spending measures that are enacted in time” to avoid a shutdown on Oct. 1.

“AFGE is growing increasingly concerned that for a second consecutive year federal agencies and departments that depend on annual appropriations will go unfunded, and federal workers unpaid,” Kelley wrote.

Several Republicans on the committee showed support for the bill. Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said the government shutdowns should not “become an accepted norm in the appropriations process.”

“Government shutdowns are reckless, and they do nothing other than create chaos and uncertainty,” Cole said.

Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, chairman of the interior, environment and related agencies subcommittee, said the risk of government shutdowns is greater with narrow majorities in the House and Senate.

“They’re getting worse and worse. And when you get narrower and narrower majorities, they’re going to become more frequent,” Simpson said.

Democrats on the committee, however, pushed back on the idea of automatic continuing resolutions.

Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said CRs “can be helpful when used sparingly,” and can be important to facilitate full-year funding agreements, but said they “should not be our first choice” to avoid government shutdowns.

“I am sympathetic for the goal of reducing government shutdowns. But the permanent funding proposals we will discuss here today would, in my opinion, create far more problems than they would solve,” DeLauro said.

Democrats have used government shutdowns to push back on the Trump administration’s impoundment and recission of congressionally appropriated funds. DeLauro said automatic CRs would “cement nearly complete control over government funding within the White House.”

“Why would we voluntarily forfeit that authority?” she said.

Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., said automatic CRs “fail to meet the changing needs of our districts.”

“They do not protect federal workers. They do not protect federal resources,” Underwood said.

Shalanda Young, the OMB director under the Biden administration, told the committee that “what we currently have is unacceptable,” but added that shutdowns are “one of the many symptoms of what is broken” in Congress.

“For too long, congressional dysfunction has been the norm, while congressional leadership uses workarounds as substitutes for the difficult work of legislating,” Young said.

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ICE ramps up arrests as deportation effort expands

Tim Henderson, Stateline — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Immigration arrests reached 1,593 per day in early July in a new push to detain and deport immigrants that has led to deaths in traffic stops. There were more than 43,000 arrests in June, the highest recorded by the Trump administration, according to statistics released Monday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reflecting new bookings into detention facilities.

The June monthly total surpassed the 42,000 arrests in December, which included Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis. If the rate for the first 11 days of July continues for a month it could be even higher, about 49,000 arrests.

Arrest numbers reached as high as 2,000 per day over a five-day period in late June, according to a New York Times report. The Department of Homeland Security has said it is “delivering on President Trump’s promise to the American people to arrest and deport pedophiles, murderers, rapists, and other criminals,” though less than a third of current detainees have a criminal conviction and 40% have never been accused of anything but non-criminal immigration violations, according to the statistics.

The Department of Homeland Security posted a list Monday of 15 immigrants previously convicted of serious crimes it said were arrested “while Americans enjoyed the weekend and the FIFA World Cup Finals.”

The statistics also show that about 2,000 detainees a month have been freed by court-ordered bond hearings, as many federal judges, even many Trump appointees, rule against the administration’s policy of mandatory detention for many immigrants. The U.S. Supreme Court is likely to rule on the legality of the policy in its October term.

Two immigrants were shot and killed during enforcement traffic stops in Texas and Maine this month. After a brief pause, President Donald Trump ordered traffic stops to continue. ICE officers will wear body cameras during such stops, according to border czar Tom Homan.

A man from Mexico, apparently on a valid tourist visa for a vacation, was also killed in traffic in Florida after an encounter with ICE in July. Arrests in New York City immigration courts have also continued despite a court order banning the practice.

Some of the unusual arrests that have come to light in the current crackdown include a nun from Nigeria walking to church in Texas (she was released the same day) and an Alaska state attorney from China.

Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@stateline.org.

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Former Education officials warn agency transfers could undermine core functions

Shauneen Miranda, States Newsroom — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 06:00:00 -0400

Former Education Department officials in Republican and Democratic administrations sounded the alarm Monday over the agency’s efforts to outsource its special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., convened the former officials, along with advocates and educators, at a virtual press conference to blast those sweeping moves, which are part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to dismantle the 46-year-old Education Department.

Murray rebuked the transfers as “outrageous” and “completely unacceptable,” noting that while she is fighting “tooth and nail” against any effort to dismantle the agency, she is “especially concerned about what this could mean for all students, especially students with disabilities.”

The agency in June said the Department of Health and Human Services will administer programs under Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, or OSERS, while civil rights enforcement under its Office for Civil Rights will be transferred to the Department of Justice.

The Education Department had announced 10 earlier interagency agreements, or IAAs, with HHS, Labor, Interior, State and Treasury, which transfer several of Education’s responsibilities to those agencies.

The department has said it “will continue to perform all statutorily required duties and responsibilities” involving special education programs and civil rights enforcement.

OSERS is responsible for administering the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which guarantees a free public education for students with disabilities. The umbrella unit OSERS includes the Office of the Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education Programs and the Rehabilitation Services Administration.

The civil rights office is tasked with investigating complaints from students and families.

"Learners, not patients"

Katy Neas, CEO of The Arc of the United States, an advocacy group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said that the transfers “would split apart the offices responsible for making disability rights real in schools, leaving families chasing answers across the federal government instead of getting accountability from one education agency.”

Neas was the deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary at OSERS during the Biden administration.

“The stakes have never been higher,” she said. “If we allow the Department of Education to be dismantled, we not only undo decades of progress, we also risk abandoning the promise that every child deserves a chance to try and to succeed.”

Catherine Lhamon, executive director of the Edley Center on Law and Democracy at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law said the “new interagency agreement between the Department of Education and the Department of Justice is what someone would create if the person were designing a system to fail.”

Lhamon served as assistant secretary for civil rights during the Obama and Biden administrations.

“The principal harm of this new agreement is that it guarantees lengthier continued silence from the federal government on the classic kinds of discrimination cases families experience,” Lhamon said. Examples include restraining or secluding students, she said.

It raises “the core question (of) whether students with disabilities have the free appropriate public education to which the law entitles them,” Lhamon added.

Stephanie Smith Lee, co-director of policy and advocacy at National Down Syndrome Congress, pointed out that “IDEA is an education and civil rights law, not a healthcare program.”

“Students with disabilities are learners, not patients,” added Lee, who served as director of the Office of Special Education Programs under the George W. Bush administration.

“Moving special education and vocational rehabilitation to the Department of Health and Human Services would separate them from the rest of federal education policy and weaken the expertise and coordinated oversight that students, families and states depend on,” she said.

Savannah Newhouse, a spokesperson for the Education Department, dismissed the criticism, saying in a statement to States Newsroom that Murray and the former officials were part of a failing status quo.

“As Senator Murray is well aware, the Department of Education’s interagency partnerships do not alter the Trump Administration's dedication to students with disabilities and federal civil rights laws,” she wrote. “These agreements simply ensure that well-positioned agencies can support the workload, pool their expertise, and ultimately strengthen protections for students.”

House bills "dead" in Senate

Meanwhile, earlier in July the House Committee on Education and Workforce advanced a package of 10 bills permanently transferring several of Education’s functions to other departments and largely reflecting many of the earlier IAAs.

Notably, that package does not include any efforts to transfer Education’s responsibilities regarding special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies.

“As long as this former preschool teacher is a United States senator, every one of those bills is dead on arrival,” Murray said.

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CDC shifts HIV prevention funds away from groups tackling this work

Jory Heckman — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 18:25:54 -0400

The Trump administration will not reauthorize millions of dollars in HIV prevention funding that used to go directly to community-based groups, opting instead to redirect that money to state and local health departments.

The money that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously distributed to community-based HIV prevention organizations will now go to states, which will decide whether or not to fund the CBOs. Roll Call first reported on these changes in federal HIV grants.

CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention (NCHHSTP) told staff in an email Tuesday that it will not renew a federal cooperative agreement supporting “Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. through Community-Based Partnerships,” a stream of federal funding that supports dozens of organizations.

CDC employees and nonprofit groups said these changes will result in more administrative costs and will take longer for federal funds to reach community-based groups carrying out HIV-prevention work.

The CDC, in a related funding announcement from December 2020, wrote that “CBOs are uniquely positioned to complement and extend the reach of HIV prevention efforts implemented by state and local health departments and education agencies.”

“They support the optimization of services across public, private, and other community-based organizations to achieve objectives of increased identification of HIV diagnoses, referral for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis (nPEP) services, earlier entry to HIV care, and increased consistency of care,” the agency wrote.

Department of Health and Human Resources Press Secretary Emily Hilliard said in a statement that “CDC remains committed to supporting HIV prevention efforts nationwide, including the critical work of community-based organizations.

“As CDC streamlines HIV prevention funding through health departments, local decision-making will remain central to combatting HIV, ensuring that local data inform local strategies and interventions,” Hilliard said. “CDC will continue to support HIV testing, diagnosis, and linkage to care, expand access to PrEP, and help people living with HIV achieve and maintain viral suppression.”

A CDC employee told Government Executive said that the agency is reverting back to an old model of awarding federal grants that wasn’t as effective at getting funding to the communities hardest hit by HIV.

“The result is more overhead cost for the states, which means less money that ultimately ends up with the CBOs for HIV prevention,” the CDC employee said. “A lot of money gets lost going down to the CBOs, and it helped with CDC being able to coordinate directly with them.”

A second CDC employee said that under this new funding model, state health departments would subcontract these community-based organizations, “leaving gaps in oversight and the loss of technical support provided directly from CDC to CBOs.”

“This is a serious attack on communities, as CBOs are on the boots on the ground for HIV work and losing them would be a major loss,” the second CDC employee said. “Many of the CBOs are run by folks with not only expertise but lived experience – which is critical in the HIV space given trust and stigma."

The second CDC employee said that in the interim, “many CBOs will either be shut down completely or have to lay off staff.”

“Local politics will play a much larger role in what happens with the CBOs [and] if they get funding,” the employee said

CDC employees said the agency was previously planning to renew this federal grant funding for another five-year cycle starting in fiscal 2027. Save HIV Funding, a coalition of over 150 organizations and advocates, said in a statement Monday that community-based organizations currently receiving these awards were provided a three-month extension through September 2026, but have now been informed that a new funding opportunity will not be released.

Jeremiah Johnson, the executive director of PrEP4All and co-founder of the Save HIV Funding campaign, said that some impacted organizations which have spent decades building relationships with communities hardest hit by HIV may have to lay off staff or shut down “if this critical funding stream is discontinued or altered beyond recognition.”

“As we have already seen too many times in the past year, when we lose critical CDC funding and infrastructure, we see more illness and associated healthcare costs in our communities,” Johnson said.

More than 1.2 million Americans are currently living with HIV, according to HIV.gov

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Homan says ICE officers will wear body cameras during traffic stops

Ariana Figueroa, States Newsroom — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:00:00 -0400

In the wake of two fatal shootings in Texas and Maine, Immigration Customs and Enforcement officers will wear “at least one body camera” during traffic stops, Tom Homan, the president’s border czar, said over the weekend.

Homan, who President Donald Trump has tasked with leading his mass deportation campaign, said in a Sunday interview on Fox News that ICE’s acting director has instructed officers to wear a body camera “whenever possible” during vehicle stops.

This month, two immigrants — 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero and 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo — were shot and killed by ICE agents who stopped their vehicles. Neither man was an initial enforcement target, the Department of Homeland Security said.

During Sunday’s Fox and Friends Weekend program, Homan said he supported body cameras because “they exonerate more law enforcement than they convict.”

“I want officers to wear body cameras because I want the American people to see what the officers saw when they took that action,” Homan said.

Federal immigration officers have shot 22 people and killed six, including three U.S. citizens, during the second Trump administration. Most shootings have stemmed from traffic stops, which Homan said officers were continuing.

After the back-to-back shootings of Salgado Araujo in Texas and Guerrero in Maine, DHS instructed agents to pause vehicle stops, but Trump quickly reversed those plans.

Congressional standstill

Homan blamed Democrats for the reason immigration agents don’t have body cameras, pointing to the weeks-long shutdown of DHS. He also accused traffic stops of becoming more dangerous because of Democrats criticizing ICE.

“They're more dangerous now than ever because Democratic members of Congress, Democratic mayors and governors have preached for the past year ‘ICE isn’t a real law enforcement agency. ICE has no authority. Resist,’” he said.

Democrats refused to approve funding for DHS unless restraints were placed on ICE and Border Patrol officers, such as the requirement for body cameras, after two U.S. citizens were killed by federal immigration officers in Minnesota in January.

Congressional Republicans last year used a special legislative maneuver to allocate roughly $175 billion to DHS for immigration enforcement, detainment and deportations, without needing Democratic support.

GOP lawmakers used the same move following the shutdown this year to fund $75 billion for ICE and Border Patrol until September of 2029.

In a separate interview, on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday, Homan again gave his support for body cameras on ICE officers and blamed Democrats for a lack of body cameras.

“I think body cameras are the way to go,” he said.

After the two killings in Minnesota in January, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said DHS would be issuing body cameras to immigration officers.

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Secret Service is examining apparent Iranian video outlining Trump motorcade routes, assassination opportunities

David DiMolfetta — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 15:00:00 -0400

The U.S. Secret Service is examining a video that appears to have been produced by Iranian operatives and aims to identify opportunities to assassinate President Donald Trump, including supposed motorcade routes used by his protective details in Florida and New York.

The video, which was sent to Nextgov/FCW by a U.S. government official, is titled “Where to Kill Trump?!” with the title written in a blood-stained font alongside a bloody silhouette of the president’s side profile. In high-quality, likely AI-generated red, black and white graphics of people, buildings, vehicles, roads and other infrastructure, it claims to show how the president and his Secret Service detail commute from Palm Beach International Airport in Florida to his Mar-a-Lago estate, and from LaGuardia Airport to Trump Tower in New York City.

It has been taken off several sites since reports of it surfaced around the end of last week. The Secret Service is “aware of it and we’re looking into it,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a brief phone interview on Friday.

“Protecting the president and those under our protection is a responsibility we take extremely seriously,” a spokesperson added in a follow-up email. “While we do not comment on the specifics of protective intelligence, our teams work around the clock to assess real-time information and intelligence, ensuring our protective operations remain layered, adaptive, and fully aligned to address the climate.”

The video is narrated in Persian with English captions. “This is no ordinary report,” the captions say. “Based on the most complex security protocols between 2024 and 2026, Donald Trump’s routine movements in the US have been gathered and decoded.”

Almost three minutes long, the video describes the apparent core arrangement of the president’s motorcade, alongside the routes that are supposedly taken in each location. The Florida route also claims to show how Trump is escorted from Mar-a-Lago to the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach during the weekends.

Nextgov/FCW is withholding details of the routes, road closures and security measures described in the video, on grounds that, if its contents are accurate enough, it may expose protective details that could put officials in danger. About halfway through the video, the captions say a specific location along one of the purported routes “seems like a very suitable location for the free people of the world!”

At the end of the video, as it describes supposed street closure arrangements around Trump Tower, the captions tell viewers: “Stay tuned … we are going to get even closer than this.”

It’s not immediately clear how widely the video has been circulated or who specifically produced it, nor when it was completed and disseminated, or whether more follow-up videos exist. Some social media posts last week attributed the clip to Iran’s state-backed Fars News Agency, though this could not be immediately verified.

But if the video's contents are sufficiently precise, it could raise concerns that Iran has expanded its surveillance and targeting efforts against the president, potentially revealing details about the routes and protective measures used by his Secret Service detail.

Tehran has long threatened to assassinate Trump in retaliation for the 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force. Those calls from Iranian leaders have intensified since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli strike earlier this year that began the ongoing Iran war.

The president makes regular trips to Florida to stay at his Mar-a-Lago estate, where he and his team often land at the Palm Beach airport, now officially named President Donald J. Trump International Airport. A Nextgov/FCW analysis of White House travel pool reports shows that the president appears to have only made two trips to New York City via LaGuardia last year. Throughout 2026, Trump made visits to New York, but they appear to not have involved LaGuardia as a destination airport.

Former presidents receive lifelong Secret Service protection. In 2024, while out of office, Trump regularly traveled by Secret Service motorcade from Trump Tower to the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse for his criminal hush-money trial. Trump also used his private Boeing 757, nicknamed “Trump Force One,” to travel between Florida and New York during the trial, including flights into LaGuardia.

Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations did not return a request for comment.

“What’s most telling about this video is what it does not include,” said Paul Eckloff, a former Secret Service official who oversaw presidential protection duties for then President Barack Obama and for Trump in his first term. “Is this video a coded signal to attack things that are not listed?” he said, referring to the fact that presidential routes in Washington, D.C. are not described.

“That would be a concern of mine, that there is another target that they’re trying to steer concern away from. Or is D.C. such a hard target that they wouldn’t attempt it? I don’t know,” Eckloff said. He added that fear is a “primary export” of Iranian groups and opined that even a small attack on the president in D.C. would shake confidence more profoundly than an attack in Florida or New York.

The Secret Service is likely conducting a forensic review of the video with assistance from the intelligence community, Eckloff said.

Investigators would look for distinctive words, phrases or technical clues that could help trace the video to its original source, including the AI model or other tools used to make it. Any credible findings could then be shared with the president’s protective detail, which may adjust motorcade routes or strengthen security along them, he added.

The video illustrates how generative AI is increasingly being used in information operations and modern-day warfare. AI tools can give such content a more polished and realistic appearance, but the apparent use of AI doesn’t necessarily prove whether the routes or scenarios depicted are based on actual gathered intelligence.

“The Secret Service has all sorts of intelligence sources … both in this country and outside, so it’s understandable that they would already have this and be evaluating it in terms of the procedures followed,” said A.T. Smith, a former Secret Service deputy director who served in the agency for nearly 30 years between the Reagan and Obama administrations.

“It’s not uncommon for these sorts of things to pop up when you’re having these kinds of events in the world,” he added. “I’m sure the service is getting information from not only American intelligence agencies and sources, but probably around the world as well.”

Earlier this month, Trump departed the NATO summit in Turkey aboard the older Air Force One instead of the Qatari-donated Boeing 747-8 after U.S. officials received Israeli intelligence warning of a possible Iranian plot to target him, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The video has emerged as the war between the United States and Iran continues to widen, with American forces striking Iranian targets and Tehran retaliating against U.S. personnel and regional allies. At least two U.S. service members were killed Friday while defending against an Iranian missile and drone attack in Jordan, the U.S. military said over the weekend.

“Given Trump’s worsening war in Iran, this video is very concerning, and I hope the Secret Service investigates it properly and adjusts protectee operations as necessary to counter this threat,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee.

“However, I have become increasingly concerned the Secret Service does not have the proper resources to do its job after its funding has been diverted to construction of Trump’s ballroom and it has frequently been forced to devote vast resources to act as a chauffeur for JD Vance and his family,” he said, referring to recent reports that federal funds were redirected toward security work connected to the White House ballroom and that agents have grown frustrated with the Vance family’s frequent, last-minute travel requests.

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Traffic stops become a flashpoint in ICE shootings

Ariana Figueroa, States Newsroom — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:35:42 -0400

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on July 13 killed 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national with legal work authorization, in Maine, making him the 22nd person shot at by federal immigration officers during President Donald Trump’s second term.

Nearly all of those 22 incidents – 19 – involved Department of Homeland Security officers shooting upon people in their vehicles during traffic stops, a crucial nexus, according to a States Newsroom review of news reports and documents. The encounters spanned the nation, from Colorado to Texas to Oregon to New Jersey.

Since Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, where he promised to carry out an aggressive immigration crackdown, federal immigration officers have killed six people, three of them U.S. citizens. Four deaths came during traffic stops.

Following Guerrero’s death, the second immigrant to be killed by ICE officers during a traffic stop in a week, DHS put a pause on traffic stop enforcement. But Trump quickly ordered the department to abandon those plans.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that officers will conduct vehicle-related enforcement stops “in order to continue their deportation campaign.”

The agency has plenty of funding at hand. Congressional Republicans last year used a legislative maneuver to allocate roughly $175 billion to DHS for immigration enforcement, detainment and deportations, without needing Democratic support. GOP lawmakers did the same move this year to fund $75 billion for ICE and Border Patrol until September of 2029.

After the ICE shooting in Biddeford, the entire Maine congressional delegation called for an independent investigation, with Republican Sen. Susan Collins urging an end to vehicle enforcement.

A Thursday report from the American Civil Liberties Union found patterns of misconduct by immigration agents during Trump’s second term, identifying 432 incidents where agents either used or threatened to use force against immigrants and bystanders.

The report reviewed more than 1,200 incidents across eight states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland and New Mexico.

Of the traffic-related enforcement, the ACLU found in 76 instances, people and passengers were pulled from their cars; windows were smashed 47 times; officers 14 times rammed vehicles into people’s cars; and they hit people with cars six times.

What happened afterward

In the moments after those 22 shootings, DHS has quickly accused those who were fired upon of using their vehicles as weapons against immigration officers.

But independent video has often contradicted that narrative.

In at least five cases DHS brought, charges were dismissed after the department accused U.S. citizens and immigrants shot by federal agents as being the aggressors.

In August 2025, Francisco Longoria, a Mexican national, was driving his vehicle in San Bernardino, California, when federal immigration agents in unmarked cars tried to pull him over. He fled and the agents fired upon him.

The Department of Justice charged him with attempting to harm agents, but prosecutors couldn’t defend the DHS actions and charges were dismissed. Longoria was not injured.

Marimar Martinez was labeled a domestic terrorist by DHS and indicted after she was shot in her car five times by Border Patrol agents in October 2025, during the Trump administration's aggressive immigration deportation campaign in Chicago. DOJ dropped its charges against Martinez, a U.S. citizen, after the Trump administration accused her of using her car as a weapon.

When the president initially directed immigration agents to the nation’s capitol, Phillip M. Brown, a U.S. citizen, was pulled over by law enforcement, including an immigration officer who shot into his vehicle. During the October 2025 shooting, Brown was not injured, but charged with fleeing from law enforcement. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute the case.

During the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation drive in Minneapolis in January, that left two U.S. citizens dead, a Venezuelan immigrant, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis was shot by a federal agent while in his home. DHS accused Cesar Sosa-Celis of striking an immigration officer with a broom handle, but Cesar Sosa-Celis denied it and surveillance video contracted the federal government's claim.

The immigration agent who shot Cesar Sosa-Celis was prosecuted by local Minnesota officials and arrested in May for falsely reporting a crime and for assault.

In Houston, on July 7, ICE officers killed 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, saying he tried to run over agents as has been the case in other incidents.

Salgado Araujo was driving several other people to work that morning when immigration officers approached his van. He was not considered a person of interest, DHS has stated.

The FBI has sought a search warrant to seize plastic bags with “crystal-like substances,” to test for methamphetamine, according to the Texas Tribune. One of the lawyers representing Salgado Araujo’s brother, who was in the van during the shooting, said it was granulated salt.

A grim beginning to the year

The most people shot by federal immigration agents was in January. Three of the five people shot by ICE and Border Patrol officers were in Minnesota, with two of them fatalities.

The two deaths were in Minneapolis, where the Trump administration conducted an aggressive deportation campaign that targeted the city, which has a high Somali refugee population.

That month, federal immigration agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens, and shot and wounded Cesar Sosa-Celis.

Good was killed while in her vehicle, which then DHS Secretary Kristi Noem labeled her as a domestic terrorist. DHS accused Good of using her SUV as a weapon, but independent video did not uphold that allegation.

A week later, federal immigration officers shot and killed intensive care unit nurse Pretti, who was recording agents on his phone and helping a woman who was pushed down by them. Noem again labeled him a domestic terrorist and said he was attacking agents, but multiple videos taken from different angles do not show that.

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Energy Department removes more than 1,600 webpages from public website

Kate Yoder, Grist — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:04:55 -0400

If you wanted to save some money by learning how to check your home for air leaks, poor insulation, and power-hungry lightbulbs, the Energy Department website was ready to help. And if you needed an expert, the site guided you to another page for help lining up a professional energy assessment, a well-established first step to cut utility bills and curb pollution at the same time.

That is, until this summer, when both of those resources vanished from the agency’s site, each now redirecting to “Page not found.” They were taken down by July 3, around the same time that the Department of Energy deleted more than 1,600 pages from the Energy Saver section of its site, gutting a resource for people looking to conserve energy and lower bills.

“I can’t remember another time that, with DOE specifically, we’ve seen an entire domain go down the way that [it] has been reported on now,” said Izzy Pacenza, who monitors government websites for the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative. Over a 30-day span this summer, as swaths of the country suffered under heat waves, more than 300 of the webpages had received 160,000 page views, according to an analysis from The Guardian.

The news coverage of the missing websites has focused on the disappearance of one recommendation in particular. Ahead of a heat wave that roasted New York City with 100-degree temperatures earlier this month, Mayor Zohran Mamdani asked businesses and residents to set their AC to 78 degrees to conserve energy, drawing the ire of Republicans who mocked the restrictions as “socialism.” Internet sleuths were quick to notice that similar guidance had vanished from the Department of Energy’s website, which used to direct people to keep their thermostat between 75 and 78 degrees. The timing suggested that the agency might have removed the pages as a rebuke to Mamdani’s advice.

The purge looked suspiciously timed for another reason: On July 2, the Energy Department announced a proposed rule to make it harder for future administrations to approve energy efficiency standards for household appliances, saying it would “permanently end Green New Scam appliance mandates.” The move was part of the Trump administration’s broader attack on energy efficiency requirements.

The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative has argued that Trump’s federal agencies tend to remove information from their websites related to regulatory changes they just announced, which limits access to information people could use to oppose agency proposals during the legally required public comment period. But the facts that would be most relevant here — the agency’s information about its Appliance and Equipment Standards Program — remain on the site, pointed out Andrew deLaski, the executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. “I haven’t seen things come down that are directly related to the appliance standards program,” he said.

The Energy Department did not respond to questions about why it removed the webpages. But the purge could be understood as part of a broader pattern of removing the most accessible, actionable public information about climate change from federal government websites. Last summer brought an abrupt end to the government website that hosted the National Climate Assessment, a series of congressionally mandated reports that broke down how climate change affects the regions where people live. Around the same time, Climate.gov, the widely used site that translated the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s research into easy-to-understand resources, vanished too.

Energy Saver provided a similar service, distilling technical knowledge about conserving energy into advice for ordinary people: shopping for efficient appliances, installing “cool roofs,” and do-it-yourself guides to saving energy and money.

“These things are seen as authoritative resources and tools given to us by the government for us to think about how climate change interacts with our daily lives,” Pacenza said. “And now that interaction, and that relationship, is being broken or interrupted.”

This kind of consumer advice on how to save energy clashes with President Donald Trump’s “energy dominance” framing. The administration has promoted a narrative that energy use, powered by fossil fuels, “is a tenet of American values and of our identity,” Pacenza said. Telling people to be aware of their energy use is in tension with this narrative. Even if the DOE’s website purge wasn’t driven by Mamdani’s statements about conserving energy, a similar impulse may lie behind the decision.

The debate over asking Americans to adjust their thermostats to save energy is actually decades old: During a fuel shortage in the summer of 1979, President Jimmy Carter required retail stores, restaurants, and other public and commercial buildings to keep the thermostat no warmer than 65 degrees in winter and no cooler than 78 degrees in summer (sound familiar?). President Ronald Reagan reversed those restrictions in 1981, calling them “an excessive regulatory burden.”

In general, though, energy efficiency measures used to be in the realm of bipartisan agreement. Reagan went on to sign the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987 into law, establishing minimum efficiency standards for refrigerators, freezers, and other household equipment. But recent years have seen air conditioners, laundry machines, shower heads, and other items get roped into the culture wars. Republicans have argued that government efficiency standards interfere with “consumer choice” and have been undoing regulations passed by Democratic administrations.

“This administration isn’t doing anything to improve efficiency standards — they’re only trying to go backwards,” deLaski said.

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/politics/energy-department-saving-disappear-website/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change.

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Labor nominee defends administration’s strategy for shifting Education Department work

Shauneen Miranda, States Newsroom — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 09:38:08 -0400

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Labor Department on Thursday defended the agency’s major role in a broader drive by the administration to dismantle the Education Department.

Grilled by Senate Democrats, acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling stood behind the multiple interagency agreements, or IAAs, Education has so far signed with Labor, likening his agency’s functions in the transfer to a “firm that’s just consulting and helping them move these programs’ money, but not the actual programs themselves.”

The agreements — also made with the departments of Health and Human Services, State, Treasury, Interior and Justice — are a main part of the Trump administration’s plan to axe the 46-year-old Education Department.

Sonderling appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in his bid to serve as the next Labor secretary, where he touted his extensive Labor Department experience.

“Few people have had the opportunity to experience the department from so many different perspectives, from the outside in private practice, as a policy adviser, as an agency head, as an adjunct professor, as deputy secretary, as acting secretary, and now as the nominee for Labor secretary,” he said. “These experiences have prepared me to lead this department with a deep understanding of its mission, its people, and most importantly, the Americans we serve.”

The Floridian took on the role as acting secretary in April after Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid misconduct allegations.

Sonderling was also named by the president in June to serve as acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and was confirmed by the Senate in March 2025 as deputy labor secretary.

The committee will vote July 23 on whether to advance Sonderling’s nomination to the full Senate.

"It makes zero sense"

At the hearing, a handful of Democrats dug into the Trump administration’s continued dismantling of the Education Department and Labor’s role in several of Education’s programs.

“Right now, you are working with (Education) Secretary (Linda) McMahon to take over the Department of Education programs to help Trump abolish that department,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who noted that Sonderling has built his “own anti-worker record at DOL.”

Murray pointed out that “it makes zero sense that DOL, an agency whose expertise is in supporting wage earners and job seekers, is being tasked now with taking over complex education programs from the Department of Education to help kindergartners and elementary school students.”

Through multiple IAAs, the Department of Labor is taking on expanded roles in administering Education’s programs surrounding elementary and secondary education, postsecondary education and career, technical and adult education.

The Education Department has stressed in fact sheets that it would maintain its statutory responsibilities and oversight of the programs covered by the IAAs.

In the House, a package of 10 bills permanently transferring several of Education’s functions to other departments and largely reflecting many of the earlier IAAs advanced out of the House Committee on Education and Workforce on Wednesday.

Programs still run by "career experts"

Sonderling stood behind the administration’s efforts, saying “it makes a lot of sense” for DOL to handle more grant responsibilities and work with Education.

The nominee also emphasized that the interagency agreements are “not dealing with policy,” but instead with providing the Department of Education “a service.”

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., said the Trump administration’s scattering of education programs across the federal government, including at DOL, creates a system that’s “much more complicated and much less efficient, particularly for states and public school districts.”

But Sonderling argued that those programs “still all remain” at the Education Department and are “being run by career experts” there.

He added that “for efficiency purposes, we’ve moved a few tranches of employees to the Frances Perkins Building (DOL’s headquarters), where they all have their own offices, they all have their own computers, they have parking, and they are working out of that building.”

Pressed by Baldwin on any evidence he would present showing that “transferring these programs to the Department of Labor has made anything better for students, teachers, parents,” Sonderling expressed his commitment to providing the senator with that data.

“There's a right way to do reform — come to the committee and say, ‘Hey, look, this is in statute but there’s a better way to do it, so let’s work on a better way to do it,’” said Sen. Tim Kaine.

“The wrong way to do it is to treat the (Education Department) like it’s a furniture store and having a discount going out of business sale and hand off pieces willy-nilly to agencies that don’t have the expertise to deal with them,” the Virginia Democrat said.

“That’s my concern about what’s happening right now.”

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Trump stretches declassified China intelligence into broader 2020 election claims

David DiMolfetta — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 09:20:00 -0400

President Donald Trump used newly declassified intelligence Thursday night to revive his claims about 2020 election issues, pointing to findings that China possessed or analyzed more than 200 million U.S. voter records. But the documents do not appear to subvert the intelligence community’s prior conclusions that China did not alter votes or interfere with the results of the election.

The declassified records provide substantially more detail about Chinese intelligence collection involving U.S. voter data and reveal internal debate within the intelligence community over how analysts should characterize Beijing’s election-related activities.

But many of the documents reviewed by Nextgov/FCW do not appear to contradict the intelligence community’s longstanding public conclusion that it found no evidence that China altered voting systems, changed ballots or interfered with the mechanics of the 2020 election.

In a speech to the nation, Trump used the disclosure to press Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, casting the records as evidence of broad weaknesses in U.S. election systems and arguing that tighter federal voting requirements are needed ahead of future elections. The SAVE Act would require documentary proof of citizenship to register and photo identification to vote in federal elections, but it faces steep odds in Congress.

“We will be working closely to mitigate any harm, and we’re taking swift action to ensure that sensitive voter data is better protected, so it can never be bought, it can never be hacked, and we can never watch a stolen election again,” Trump said.

The documents suggest Chinese intelligence used U.S. voter-registration information for identity matching and political analysis, while also collecting other large sets of Americans’ personal data. But they do not show that China altered voter rolls, manipulated ballots or changed the election’s outcome.

In April 2020, intelligence agencies concluded that Beijing analyzed several states’ voter registration datasets to conduct public opinion analysis on the 2020 election, but the publicly released intelligence did not establish that China stole the data.

“China has all along adhered to the principle of non-interference in other’s internal affairs. The U.S. election is an internal matter of the U.S. Its outcome is determined by the votes of the American people. China has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the U.S.,” Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Chang said in a statement.

Some of the newly declassified records appear to bolster rather than overturn the intelligence community’s earlier public findings. An August 2020 National Intelligence Council assessment concluded that China preferred Trump’s defeat but “did not intend to try to affect the election,” while separately warning that Russian actors were already amplifying claims that mail-in voting would lead to fraud and that U.S. elections were “rigged” months before Americans cast their ballots.

That same assessment did warn that foreign actors could exploit poorly secured election infrastructure and potentially manipulate vote-counting systems in isolated cases. But it also drew clear limits around that risk: a coordinated effort to change results at scale would be difficult, audits and paper records would likely detect it and attacks on results-reporting systems would probably delay publication rather than affect certified totals.

Trump also said a separate DHS review had identified approximately 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote in federal elections, though it’s not clear how that finding was reached. Federal law already prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, and studies and audits have generally found such voting to be rare.

“Foreign countries have tried to interfere in elections for years. This is not new,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. “His repackaging of old lies with old, cherry-picked intelligence to try to confuse the American people will not change the outcome of the 2020 election, will not change the outcome of the nearly 60 lawsuits rejecting his election fraud claims, and will not change the fact that the 2020 election was secure.”

The U.S. intelligence community has previously disagreed over how to characterize China’s actions during the 2020 election. A declassified intelligence assessment released in 2021 concluded that China considered, but ultimately did not undertake, influence efforts intended to change the presidential election’s outcome.

The assessment also found no indication that China or any other foreign actor attempted to alter election infrastructure like vote tabulation machines. Intelligence agencies instead assessed that Beijing continued longstanding efforts to collect information on U.S. voters, public opinion, political parties and candidates while seeking to shape American policy through economic pressure, lobbying and other traditional tools.

Not everyone inside the intelligence community agreed with the assessment’s conclusion on Chinese influence. The National Intelligence Officer for Cyber issued a minority view concluding that China had taken at least some steps to undermine Trump’s reelection prospects, primarily through social media, official statements and state media. The dissent still agreed there was no information suggesting Beijing tried to interfere with election processes.

At the time, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe — now Trump’s CIA director — backed that minority view in a memorandum attached to the assessment, arguing the broader intelligence community had not fully or accurately described the scope of China’s activity. Ratcliffe cited an intelligence community ombudsman’s findings that analysts had applied terminology inconsistently, that alternative assessments had faced institutional pressure and that some analysts working on the majority view did not have access to all relevant compartmented reporting.

Several of the declassified records focus on the process behind producing intelligence assessments. Emails declassified Thursday night show officials ultimately agreed to publish a separate alternative analysis, placing the dissenting view on the record without holding up the intelligence community’s broader assessment.

Ratcliffe ultimately concluded that China sought to influence the 2020 election. But neither his memorandum nor the minority assessment concluded that Beijing altered votes, manipulated vote counting or interfered with the technical administration of the election.

“I have long publicly highlighted China’s nefarious efforts to influence the 2020 election against President Trump, as evidenced by my dissent to the flawed January 2021 Intelligence Community Assessment. The documents declassified today shed further light on China’s intentions,” Ratcliffe said in a statement after the speech.

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House GOP cancels VA overhaul vote again

Erich Wagner — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 17:24:41 -0400

House Republicans for the second time postponed consideration of a measure overhauling veterans’ benefits and Veterans Affairs Department operations, reportedly due to some GOP members’ concerns regarding a plan to offset the cost of some benefit increases by reducing those associated with two of the most common service-connected disabilities.

The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (H.R. 9237) is a collection of more than 60 bills related to the VA and veteran care, including benefits increases for severely disabled veterans and the families of service members who died in the line of duty. Its centerpiece is the Major Richard Star Act (H.R. 2102), a bill that would allow veterans who were forced to retire early due to a combat injury to collect their full military retirement pay in addition to VA disability benefits.

But Democrats have decried the measure as an effort to take the sails out of an ongoing discharge petition to force a House vote on the Star Act on its own. Packaged with the aforementioned benefit increases are roughly $60 billion in cuts, particularly to disability benefits associated with sleep apnea and tinnitus, as well as plans to further privatize veterans’ health care and reduce the collective bargaining rights of VA psychologists.

Despite narrowly defeating a motion to send the bill back to committee by a 211-210 vote, House leaders postponed final consideration of the measure, the second time since last month. According to Punchbowl News, House Speaker Mike Johnson blamed “misinformation” for the holdup and said he would bring the measure back up for consideration in September.

During floor debate Thursday, House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., argued that the Trump administration would soon move forward with regulations, first proposed under the Biden administration, to potentially reduce sleep apnea and tinnitus benefits later this year. Without passing the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, those benefit cuts would go back to the U.S. Treasury rather than be reinvested, he said.

“This is moving forward regardless,” Bost said. “The question is whether the savings associated with the changes by the VA should remain in their control and the bureaucrats’ control, or do we use our Article I power to reinvest it into veterans and their families.”

Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., questioned the provenance of the news, which broke Wednesday, that the VA would indeed move forward with a plan to change how the VA compensates veterans suffering from hearing loss or sleep apnea. The Biden administration all but abandoned its proposal due to backlash from veterans’ groups, he said, and VA spokesman Quinn Slaven told Government Executive last month that changes were neither “planned or imminent,” and that the original regulatory proposal would need “significant changes” before finalization.

Takano also took issue with Bost’s contention that no current veterans would see their benefits slashed. Although the proposed changes to sleep apnea and tinnitus benefits would not impact veterans who have already received a disability rating associated those conditions, it would impact current soldiers, as well as any veteran who applies for an additional disability benefit.

“[Bost] has been very specific that this bill . . . would not impair current veterans, but I’m not sure if the chairman fully understands how disability benefits, how the system works,” Takano said. “[The] bill can and will lead to cuts for those who already have service-connected disability ratings for sleep apnea or tinnitus. This is because any time a veteran applies for a rating increase or for a new rating for some other condition, the VA can and does review previous ratings, sometimes even lowering them.”

Bost also argued the offsets were necessary in order for the bill to be taken up by the Senate, as the Major Richard Star Act has stalled for years in Congress in part due to its high price tag.

“We’ve sat and looked at these over and over and again,” he said. “We’ve also passed some of these bills but sent them over to the Senate to die because they don’t have an offset.”

But Democrats said appeals to fiscal responsibility ring hollow as House leaders prep $95 billion in supplemental funding to go toward President Trump’s war with Iran. Takano and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., proposed that, instead of changing sleep apnea and tinnitus benefits, Congress should simply earmark $57 billion in already appropriated but unspent Defense Department funds from last year’s budget reconciliation law to cover the cost.

“It is clear Republicans do not have the support they need to pass the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act because of their unacceptable and unconscionable proposal to cut benefits for disabled veterans,” Blumenthal said in statement Thursday. “It is equally clear there is bipartisan momentum behind the Blumenthal-Takano proposal to use unobligated and unspent Department of Defense funds to cover the costs of this bill. There are other viable ways to pay for this legislation, and Republican leaders must now come to the table to engage in meaningful bipartisan discussions about the path forward.”

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DHS plans ‘all-out war’ on immigration scammers as fraud complaints double

J. David McSwane and Naisha Roy, Medill Investigative Lab, ProPublica — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 12:51:35 -0400

The Department of Homeland Security is investigating a sophisticated network of scammers who target people caught in immigration proceedings, bilking them of their savings and causing some to be deported, following a ProPublica report that complaints of such fraud doubled under the second administration of President Donald Trump.

Homeland Security Investigations, the subagency known for tracking international crimes such as human trafficking, has asked about specific cases detailed in the story, including the tale of a woman who, fearful of Trump’s nationwide immigration sweeps, enlisted someone she thought would help her keep her legal status. After the scammers got her money and caused her to miss a court date, she was deported to Nicaragua.

That was one of thousands of cases in which scammers lured their marks through social media posts and sent them through fake court hearings and other official-looking steps, charging large sums along the way. Now, the federal government is ramping up its efforts to track the scams, according to sources involved in the investigation.

A DHS statement said the agency was “declaring an all-out war” on the scammers.

“Immigration scammers contribute to a lawless environment, undermining our immigration system and posing risks to national security and public safety,” the statement said.

DHS is looking for URLs, WhatsApp numbers and identifying information on the payment app Zelle that might trace back to scammers, said sources knowledgeable about the inquiry. The department’s investigation is ramping up as such scams skyrocket.

ProPublica analyzed Federal Trade Commission data and found that victims and advocates reported at least $94.4 million was stolen over five years. The more than 6,200 complaints included everything from fake Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents demanding personal details and threatening deportation to fraudsters asking international students for money by exploiting their visa status.

Scammers often pretend to be lawyers offering ways to avoid in-person court hearings, taking advantage of anxieties among even lawful residents after ICE officers began rounding up people during immigration proceedings.

Experts say the scammers often advertise on places such as Facebook and TikTok before shifting the conversation to the encrypted messaging platform WhatsApp, asking for money in exchange for real-looking immigration filings. Sometimes known as “notario fraud,” these scams often rely on a mistranslation of the word “notary,” which implies legal credentials in many Latin American countries.

In recent weeks, agencies including the New York Department of State, Florida Bar and local police departments issued warnings about these scams. The American Bar Association, which has also warned about impersonators, has recently been in contact with DHS investigators.

In South Florida, immigration attorney Angel Leal encountered hundreds of AI-generated videos of his likeness offering aid on WhatsApp. His office had to hire an anti-piracy agency to remove the content and over 6,000 fake profiles, according to local news reports.

The videos, hundreds across Instagram, are strikingly realistic. “Leal” sits on an office chair, his facial hair and expressions matching that of the real attorney. The AI-generated figure speaks fluent Spanish with enthusiastic hand gestures, a potted plant or mug in the foreground and a law degree behind him. Slight details betray the ruse: some mouth movements don’t match the words, gibberish text appears on documents and objects meld together.

Advocates and law enforcement say people targeted should document all ads, text conversations and payment information. And DHS warns consumers to be wary of lawyers advertising directly on social media, operating on WhatsApp and taking payments over Zelle.

In April, ProPublica spoke to several victims who attended fake court hearings via WhatsApp, recounting their stories to “agents” wearing phony government uniforms. Spanish speakers are the primary targets, experts say, and the scammers often pretend to be affiliated with prominent advocacy groups such as Catholic Charities USA, which has been inundated with reports of fraudsters using their brand to find potential marks.

“Directly reaching out to people via an ad or via WhatsApp and asking for money over Zelle, that is not something Catholic Charities agencies would ever do,” said Kevin Brennan, vice president for media relations at Catholic Charities USA.

Such groups have found it difficult to get imposter ads and accounts removed. Even when they do, it’s cheap and easy for scammers to create new websites and accounts.

“It’s Whac-a-Mole,” said Charity Anastasio of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, another group whose staff and image have been impersonated.

This story was originally published by ProPublica.

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Trump’s intelligence pick pressed on 2020 election, defends handling of New York Times subpoenas

David DiMolfetta — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 06:00:00 -0400

President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence faced pointed pushback from Senate Democrats Wednesday over his answers about the 2020 election results and broader election security concerns ahead of this year’s midterms.

Jay Clayton, who currently serves as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, told lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee that former president Joe Biden was “certified” president in 2020 after the election commenced, but would not outright say Biden won when asked multiple times.

“I’m not an election denier,” Clayton contended in the hearing. But the answer was not satisfactory for multiple senators who got into back-and-forths with Clayton over his responses.

“You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you ask to lead America’s intelligence community?” said Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga. “Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president’s delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question. Why can you not give it?”

Election security has become a flashpoint at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as the agency has grown involved in Trump’s effort to revisit the 2020 election. Former DNI Tulsi Gabbard appeared at a February FBI search of a Georgia election facility and oversaw a review of Puerto Rico voting machines, while Trump more recently authorized acting DNI Bill Pulte to declassify 2020 election records.

The activity has fueled concerns that ODNI, which manages America’s intelligence apparatus that is meant to predominantly track and counter overseas threats, is being drawn further into Trump’s election claims. On Thursday night, the president is expected to unveil what the administration says is evidence of foreign interference in the 2020 election and vulnerabilities in voting machines.

Throughout his testimony, Clayton asserted the job of ODNI is to focus on foreign intelligence threats and not domestic matters.

Days before his June 11 nomination, Clayton spoke on CNBC and appeared to criticize the nation’s election administration processes.

“On the [election] integrity side, we are doing an absolutely terrible job, and the American people are right to question it. How come we can have an audit trail in every other aspect of our lives that’s important?” he said at the time.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, questioned why Clayton opined on those matters.

“For the record, I wish you would share any evidence you have that asserts that there was any problem of voter fraud significant enough to change the results of an election in this country,” King said.

Asked by King whether there is a voter fraud problem in the nation, Clayton said, “I don’t think we can say definitively whether there is or is not until we have better processes.”

On cybersecurity, he said that the topic was a top-of-mind issue for him, especially on election influence matters. He said he would commit to assessing whether ODNI’s cyber and foreign influence components — which were downsized under Gabbard — should be resourced again.

In his current position, Clayton oversees one of the nation’s most prominent prosecutorial offices. He previously chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term, and he spent more than two decades at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, focusing on corporate transactions and capital markets.

Clayton argued that he worked closely with intelligence and law enforcement on terrorism, espionage, cyber threats and illicit finance cases during that work history. He has no prior experience working inside the intelligence community. Clayton’s office is notably prosecuting deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife on narcoterrorism, drug-trafficking and weapons charges following their capture by U.S. forces in January.

If confirmed, he would inherit an intelligence office already undergoing significant workforce changes. Pulte, a major Trump ally who led the administration’s controversial mortgage fraud investigations last year, has initiated multiple rounds of personnel cuts and received broad permission from Trump to declassify records, prompting concerns from former officials about the exposure of sensitive intelligence capabilities.

Clayton was also questioned during the hearing about his office issuing subpoenas last Friday seeking grand jury testimony from four New York Times journalists who reported that Trump returned from a NATO summit aboard an older Air Force One after security officials raised concerns about the Qatari-gifted aircraft that was meant to replace it. The Times reported that the newer plane lacked some of the prior aircraft’s advanced security features, including antimissile capabilities. Some subpoenas were delivered to the journalists’ homes.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., criticized the subpoenas as an attack on press freedom and the First Amendment.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., also questioned how quickly they were issued, arguing that Clayton’s explanation was difficult to reconcile with the fact that security concerns about the Qatari-donated plane had been known for months.

Clayton defended his handling of the matter, saying he was “comfortable” with the process. He declined to discuss specific details because the investigation into the disclosure of classified information remains ongoing, but said he consulted other lawyers before issuing the subpoenas and respects the First Amendment and the press’s role.

“I’m not going to get into the details. But what I can tell you is that we followed the procedures,” he said.

Trump nominated Clayton last month after his decision to install Pulte as acting intelligence chief drew resistance from Democrats and some Republicans. Clayton’s first scheduled hearing was abruptly postponed after Trump said the Senate should first approve his chosen replacement at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and demanded action on unrelated election legislation.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chairman of the intelligence panel, told reporters after the hearing that he was disappointed in Clayton’s responses and has “a lot to think about.” The senator previously noted that he has known Clayton for many years and believes “he is a capable public servant.”

“I was very disappointed with a number of Mr. Clayton’s answers. It’s not in many ways reflective of the person that I’ve worked with over the years,” Warner said. “I worry that there seems to be this criteria that this administration is putting out, about no one who’s put up for any position can tell the truth about the 2020 election. That’s deeply unsettling.”

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FEMA overhaul proposal spotlighted by bipartisan lawmakers

Sean Michael Newhouse — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 16:58:55 -0400

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee used a Wednesday hearing to tout a bipartisan bill that would overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as President Donald Trump also seeks to reform the disaster response and recovery agency.

Representatives from both parties and experts argued that the FEMA Act (H.R. 4669) would enable disaster survivors to receive federal assistance more quickly.

“We make them figure out FEMA instead of building a system around them,” said Craig Fugate, who was the agency’s administrator during the Obama administration. “We are not survivor-centric. We are process- and program-centric.”

The measure, which the panel last year advanced in a 57-3 vote, would create a unified disaster application system and make FEMA an independent, cabinet-level agency. Supporters contended that the agency’s current location under the Homeland Security Department creates unnecessary layers of leadership.

“This needs to be an independent agency with a direct line to the president of the United States,” said Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., one of the bill’s original cosponsors. “It will save time on emergency management proclamations. It will save time in emergency response, and make the whole process much quicker.”

The legislation makes several changes to FEMA’s assistance programs with the goal of expediting payments and streamlining requests.

“For some smaller counties, they just don’t have the staff or the expertise to navigate through some of these application processes,” said Cynthia Lee Sheng, representing the National Association of Counties. “When we make it much more simpler…I think that will greatly help our local capacity.”

While Trump proposed eliminating FEMA at the start of his second term, an administration-backed review council earlier this year instead recommended that state and local governments take a greater share of responsibilities following emergencies.

On Wednesday, committee Chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo., said there’s overlap between the administration’s proposals and the bipartisan bill.

“While there are some differences, the goals and many of the approaches to those recommendations mirror our FEMA Act,” he said. “For example, we all agree reforms must be focused on a system that is state-led, locally executed and federally supported.”

Several speakers expressed a similar sentiment; although, Chuck Chaitovitz, who represented the Chamber of Commerce, added that “empowering local leadership cannot mean weakening the federal role.”

Throughout the hearing, panel Democrats accused Trump of politicizing FEMA, pointing to administration-led staff cuts and a report that the president has approved 89% of disaster funding requests from states with a Republican governor and two Republican senators compared with 23% for states with Democratic leadership.

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CDC nominee faces questions over whether she can lead the agency independently

Jennifer Shutt, States Newsroom — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 15:55:59 -0400

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t appear to secure the support needed to take over the public health agency during a lengthy and often tense confirmation hearing Wednesday.

While Dr. Erica Schwartz told lawmakers on the U.S. Senate Committee that oversees health policy she would “never betray the science,” she didn’t seem to win the trust of Democrats or key Republicans needed to advance.

Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., repeatedly questioned Schwartz about whether she would follow the example set by former CDC Director Susan Monarez, who testified last year that she was fired after refusing to pre-approve vaccine recommendations or fire career officials for no reason.

“We need unbiased leaders who make decisions based upon science, not politics or ideology, and are committed to protecting children's health,” Cassidy said in his opening statement.

More than two hours later, at the end of the hearing, Cassidy told Schwartz he believed administration officials had overprepared her and that some of her answers missed the mark.

“I felt like you were always trying not to answer my question, which was disappointing,” he said.

Cassidy, or any Republican on the committee where the party holds a thin 12-11 majority, could effectively block Schwartz’s nomination if Democrats unanimously oppose it.

Restoring trust

Schwartz, who worked as a Navy occupational medicine physician, earning the rank of admiral, and deputy surgeon general, testified that, if confirmed, she would work to rebuild the CDC’s reputation among all Americans.

“My first priority will be restoring trust in public health institutions through radical transparency and unwavering scientific integrity,” Schwartz said. “As CDC director, my sacred responsibility is to provide the American people with public health guidance that is clear, honest and evidence-based.”

Schwartz said she would work to “modernize the CDC into a near real-time public health enterprise” while ensuring local, state and tribal governments become the “operational backbone of American public health.”

Schwartz testified in response to questions from both Democrats and Republicans on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that she "accept(s) that evidence" that vaccines don’t lead to an autism diagnosis. She said mRNA vaccine “technology is safe and effective."

Tracking abortions

Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley asked Schwartz to look into the possible health implications for people who live close to a data center, saying his constituents regularly ask him about it and he doesn’t know what to tell them.

Schwartz said she didn’t know whether the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which is housed within the CDC, had done any research on potential data center health implications. If confirmed, she committed to working with Hawley and his staff to look into the issue.

Hawley also asked Schwartz if she would ensure the CDC secures data from every state in the country on when and how abortions take place.

“The CDC collects data on abortions that are committed in the United States of America through a system called the Abortion Reporting System,” Hawley said. “This system is voluntary, and so a number of states, not coincidentally large blue states, do not turn over any data, so that it's difficult to get a picture of just how many abortions and under what circumstances are committed in this country.”

Schwartz testified she would look into the issue if confirmed, adding that “abortion surveillance is absolutely a critical component of what the CDC is currently doing.”

“But I also want to also make sure that certain states are not conflating emergency services and hiding abortions in that emergency services case definition,” she said. “We need to make sure we're pulling out true abortions and making sure that we're really having clear case definitions regarding abortions, so the data is actually accurate.”

Cyclosporiasis

Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray asked about the ongoing outbreak of cyclosporiasis and the CDC’s disease monitoring programs during her round of questions.

Schwartz said she believed “that one of the core missions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is tracking outbreaks domestically and also internationally.”

Schwartz said she was unaware the Trump administration moved to make reporting of cyclosporiasis optional last year after Murray asked whether there would be “any scientific or medical justification for CDC having eliminated mandatory reporting of that parasite.”

“The CDC used to conduct surveillance on this very infection through a program called FoodNet, but in July of '25, thanks to Trump, CDC made reporting on that illness optional,” Murray said. “Now we are here a year later, and we're already seeing over 7,000 confirmed or under investigation cases and over 100 hospitalizations with no single cause having yet been identified.”

Schwartz didn’t commit to reinstating mandatory reporting of cyclosporiasis if confirmed to run the CDC, but said she would work with Murray and her staff to understand why that stopped and what the options would be moving forward.

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ICE is pulling back on vehicle stops after 2 fatal shootings

Ariana Figueroa, States Newsroom — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:43:24 -0400

The Homeland Security Department on Tuesday ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to cease vehicle-related enforcement stops following the deadly shootings of two men in their vehicles, according to multiple media reports.

A DHS spokesperson did not respond directly to States Newsroom's question about what some reports characterized as a new nationwide order.

"We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets," the spokesperson said. "We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics."

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is up for reelection in one of the nation's most closely watched races, said on social media Tuesday that she spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Monday night and "urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops." ICE officers killed a 26-year-old Colombian man with legal status in his vehicle in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday.

As the Trump administration aims to carry out mass deportations, aggressive enforcement has occurred across the interior of the country, with at least 21 shootings involving federal immigration agents. At least 10 of those incidents have been deadly.

Monday's shooting in Maine, coupled with another by federal immigration officers who on July 7 killed 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, during a traffic stop in Houston, renewed congressional anger and demands for answers.

Neither man was an initial person of interest for immigration enforcement, DHS said.

Hispanic Caucus calls for abolishing ICE

On Tuesday, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus condemned federal immigration agents for the recent shootings, calling for congressional oversight and the dismantling of ICE.

"An agency that acts as though it is above the law cannot be reformed at the margins," said Rep. Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y. "You cannot put a Band-Aid on a system that is fundamentally broken. We must abolish ICE."

"Here we are again, a brown man, a Latino, killed," said Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said the recent killings reflect a pattern in immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, coupled with conflicting statements from the Department of Homeland Security and independent video recordings of the incidents.

The department came under intense scrutiny after federal immigration officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Minnesota prosecutors announced Monday that they started receiving evidence from the federal government about the killings after the Trump administration initially refused to turn over evidence to local law enforcement.

Espaillat said members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will hold a field hearing in Houston on July 24 with House Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee. Democrats plan to focus the hearing on the killing of Salgado Araujo, a construction worker, husband and father of three U.S. citizen children.

ICE to get billions

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said Congress must not only use its subpoena power to conduct oversight but also freeze hiring at ICE and refuse to fund the agency.

Congressional Republicans funded ICE and Border Patrol with $70 billion through September 2029 through a special legislative process after Democrats refused to fund DHS for fiscal 2026.

Additionally, congressional Republicans last year approved roughly $170 billion for DHS to conduct immigration enforcement and hire more ICE and Border Patrol agents.

"We have to disband ICE in this Congress," Castro said. "Otherwise, these killings will continue. There will be another victim in a few days or a few weeks."

Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, said she has a meeting with Mullin this week, where she plans to ask questions related to the Texas and Maine shootings.

"This is a human life," she said of Salgado Araujo. "He was not the target. He had no criminal record. He may not even be the right man. Those are very troubling questions for everybody."

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What federal officials still haven't explained about the Houston ICE shooting

Alex Nguyen, The Texas Tribune — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 19:02:24 -0400

Nearly a week after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, important details are still unclear.

Federal authorities have offered limited information about the July 7 shooting beyond saying Salgado Araujo tried to hit an agent with his van, prompting calls for an independent investigation and pressure from protestors and Democratic lawmakers for ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, to release evidence.

The Texas Tribune has repeatedly posed detailed questions about the Houston shooting in emails to ICE and Homeland Security, but federal officials have not addressed most of them.

Separately, the FBI’s Houston office — which is leading an investigation into the potential assault on a federal officer — said Monday that it does not discuss ongoing investigations and redirected all questions to Homeland Security.

Here is what we know and still don’t know about the Houston shooting.

What happened during the shooting?

Hours following the shooting, Homeland Security released a statement saying Salgado Araujo had tried to ram an ICE vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands and “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over” an ICE agent before the officer fired his weapon in self-defense.

Three men who were also in the van have since disputed that narrative, saying in written and oral comments that ICE vehicles rammed Salgado Araujo’s work van and the agents were not at risk of being run over. An agent ran toward them from the side and yelled “Stop!” before firing from the van’s passenger side, hitting Salgado Araujo in the abdomen, according to accounts provided to The Washington Post by a lawyer for some of the men, who remain in ICE custody.

As of Monday, no video footage had emerged fully showing what happened during the shooting.

Homeland Security said agents involved in the incident were not wearing body cameras, blaming Democrats for the lack of the equipment. In addition, ICE vehicles had no dashcam footage of the incident, according to U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Houston Democrat who said that information was provided by acting ICE Director David Venturella. The department didn’t respond to the Tribune’s repeated questions about why dashboard camera footage was not available.

Homeland Security also didn’t address multiple detailed questions about the circumstances of the shooting, including how many ICE agents were involved, how many shots were fired at the van and whether an ICE vehicle had rammed Salgado Araujo’s van at any point.

Who killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo?

Homeland Security has refused to identify the ICE agent who fatally shot Salgado Araujo, citing rising violence and threats against federal officers involved in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations.

The Atlantic reported last week that the unidentified agent was “a veteran with more than two decades’ experience,” attributing the information to an unnamed senior ICE official.

It’s also unclear if the agent remains on duty while separate investigations by the FBI and Homeland Security’s inspector general continue. The agencies have either declined to answer this question from the Tribune or ignored it.

Local authorities have similarly been kept in the dark, according to Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, who has launched an independent investigation into the shooting. During a Monday news conference, he said his office would usually know the identity of state or local officers involved in fatal interactions within 12 hours.

“We're almost a week in and no one on the state level knows who they were or where they are right now,” Teare said. “That’s unacceptable.”

Which agency gave the tip to ICE?

In a Thursday statement, Homeland Security said it received a “credible tip” from unspecified “law enforcement partners” that led ICE agents to watch a Houston residence where two white vans had been seen. Salgado Araujo was driving a white van.

The identity of the law enforcement agency remains unclear.

Homeland Security didn’t respond to repeated questions about which agency provided the tip. The Texas Department of Public Safety, the Houston Police Department, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the Precinct 6 constable’s office have told the Tribune that they did not supply the tip.

ICE has also said agents were engaged in a “targeted operation.” The New York Times reported the agency was seeking at least one Guatemalan man with a prior removal order.

The agency has declined to answer questions about its operational plan that day and who it sought to arrest, but Garcia has announced that Salgado Araujo was not the intended target. He had no criminal history and was in the process of obtaining legal authorization to be in the U.S. after being sponsored by one of his U.S. citizen sons, according to his family.

The three other passengers in the white van, which include Salgado Araujo’s brother, were Mexican. They do not have prior deportation orders or a criminal record, according to local congressional staff and available public records. Homeland Security spokespeople did not clarify the criminal or immigration history of the passengers.

Homeland Security officials also did not respond to questions about their situations or the intended target.

Will federal authorities share evidence?

After mounting calls for transparency and accountability, local authorities have vowed to pursue independent investigations of the shooting but caution there are challenges to gaining access to evidence held by federal authorities.

“We’ve attempted to communicate with any number of federal agencies. We’ve had varying success in that,” Teare, the district attorney, said Monday, adding that his office has yet to speak with Homeland Security’s inspector general office.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire said last week that Police Chief Noe Diaz asked the FBI to “start sharing information” and that Diaz has a meeting with the agency’s Houston bureau chief this week.

A spokesperson for the FBI’s Houston office declined to answer whether it would share evidence with local officials, directing the Tribune to Homeland Security, which didn’t respond to the question.

Teare said his investigators have visited the shooting scene, collected surveillance footage from area businesses and fielded “well over 100 communications” from the community. He also is in contact with the Hennepin County attorney’s office in Minnesota, which is investigating the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in January.

“In all likelihood, this will take many, many months — potentially years — before we finally get the answers that we all need,” Teare said. “But we will not rest and we cannot do it without the support of the public and the support of our commissioners.”

This was not the first deadly shooting by federal immigration agents during the second Trump administration in Texas or across the country. It is also not the latest: An ICE agent fatally shot a motorist Monday in Maine.

Lomi Kriel, Uriel J. García and Gabby Birenbaum contributed to this story.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

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Trump empties out election commission leadership just months before midterms

David DiMolfetta — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 16:05:21 -0400

President Donald Trump removed the remaining members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission on Thursday, leaving the independent agency without any sitting commissioners just months before the 2026 midterm elections, according to a White House official.

“The President, and head of the Executive Branch, reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted,” the official said in a statement to Nextgov/FCW. “The Slaughter decision gives the President precedence to do so.”

Democratic commissioners Benjamin Hovland and Thomas Hicks were fired, while remaining Republican commissioner Christy McCormick resigned. VoteBeat first reported the dismissals.

The changes leave the commission, which helps oversee federal voting system certification and election administration programs, without the bipartisan leadership responsible for approving some of its most consequential decisions.

The EAC is perhaps best known as a clearinghouse for administering federal election grants and certifying voting systems under the nation’s voluntary voting system guidelines. While those standards are not mandatory, they have become the benchmark many states rely on when purchasing, testing and deploying election technology.

Although the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency serves as the federal government’s lead agency for protecting election infrastructure from cyber threats, the EAC has become an important partner in the broader election security and election education ecosystem. The commission works with CISA, state election officials and voting system manufacturers on issues like system testing, certification, security guidance and information-sharing.

“The Administration from the start has been working across all agencies and local partners to safeguard elections from fraud and abuse, and investing in a strong infrastructure to sustain that mission especially in the midterm elections,” the White House official said.

The removals could raise questions about how the agency will carry out some of its statutory responsibilities as federal officials, states and voting system vendors prepare for this year’s midterm elections.

Career staff can continue many of the agency’s day-to-day operations. Still, the absence of commissioners would complicate actions that require a formal vote or approval, potentially slowing decisions involving voting system standards, certifications and other matters.

The White House official did not offer a specific reason for Trump’s action. But the commission has previously declined to change the national voter registration form to require applicants to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship, a step Trump called for in a sweeping March 2025 executive order on U.S. elections.

A federal judge later blocked that portion of the order, ruling that it exceeded the president’s authority because the Constitution gives Congress and the states primary responsibility over election administration and oversight. The administration has said it plans to appeal.

The dispute underscored the limits of the White House’s authority over an agency Congress created as an independent, bipartisan commission following disputes during the 2000 presidential election. Under rules set by the 2002 Help America Vote Act, the EAC is led by four commissioners, with no more than two members from the same political party.

It’s unclear when the administration plans to nominate replacements or how long the commission could operate without sitting members. Any new commissioners would require Senate confirmation.

The leadership vacuum comes as election officials continue preparing for the 2026 midterms while confronting cyber threats, foreign influence operations and persistent efforts to undermine public confidence in the security of U.S. elections.

The removals are an “extraordinary step that demands an immediate explanation from the administration and raises profound concerns about political interference in the institutions that support our elections,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who serves as vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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Calls grow for an independent probe into fatal Houston ICE shooting

Katlyn Ma, The Texas Tribune — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Four Houston Democratic members of Congress on Thursday demanded an independent investigation into the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Tuesday in Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood, saying ICE has not released video evidence to support claims that Salgado Araujo “weaponized his vehicle” to try to run over the agent who fired the fatal shot.

In the letter, sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director David Venturella, the lawmakers said the agencies’ account of the incident mirrors statements made after other fatal ICE encounters, including the January killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

"DHS and ICE continue to lose the American people’s trust and confidence. Instead of answers and accountability, DHS and ICE released a statement echoing the same stories we have heard before," the letter says.

U.S. Reps. Sylvia Garcia, Lizzie Fletcher, Al Green and Christian Menefee also argued that the lack of video footage and limited public information on the shooting has left key questions unanswered.

The lawmakers demanded that DHS and ICE provide “complete and unedited” body camera footage for the officer who fired the deadly shot as well as footage from other officers present.

ICE claimed the agents attempted to stop Salgado Araujo’s vehicle as part of an unspecified “targeted enforcement operation,” then he attempted to ram an ICE vehicle and tried to run over the ICE agent.

But Salgado Araujo’s family and local officials dispute that account and say federal authorities have not provided evidence to support it.

His son, Ronaldo Salgado, said at a Wednesday press conference that his father may have panicked after unmarked cars followed him, suspecting that someone was trying to steal his van and his construction tools. The family says there is no eyewitness testimony or released video showing the alleged ramming, and that videos taken in the immediate aftermath of the shooting do not support ICE’s version of events.

Salgado Araujo had no previous criminal record. “Why was he a target?” Garcia asked in an interview with Houston Public Media.

The Democrats’ letter asked what led to the targeted enforcement operation, who authorized it, what evidence supported the sequence of events leading to the shooting and how many DHS, ICE, FBI and other federal officers were in the immediate area.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s office declined to comment on the shooting.

"This is an active investigation and we have nothing to add,” said Andrew Mahaleris, Gov. Greg Abbott’s press secretary, “we are gonna let the investigation play out."

After federal agents killed Good and Pretti in Minnesota, DHS released footage of Good’s shooting three days later and still has not released official video of the events leading up to Pretti’s death.

Disclosure: Houston Public Media has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

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Unions sue to block USDA reorganization, arguing it’s a RIF in disguise

Sean Michael Newhouse — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 18:10:59 -0400

Updated at 11:35 a.m. ET July 8

A coalition of federal employee labor unions, nonprofits and local governments is asking the courts to halt the Trump administration’s reorganization of the Agriculture Department that entails moving thousands of employees away from the Washington, D.C., area to new regional hubs across the country. The plaintiffs are arguing that the pending employee relocations to other areas of the country are an attempt to downsize USDA’s workforce.

“The actions of this administration to reorganize USDA are a ruse for forcing employees to quit because they work on programs — like feeding low-income women and children, protecting our forests or scientific research — that this administration opposes for political reasons,” said Corinne Johnson — a partner at Altshuler Berzon, one of the lead co-counsels representing the plaintiffs — in a statement. “That is unlawful.”

The filing alleges that the USDA reorganization, which officials began to implement this spring, needs congressional approval, as Agriculture’s fiscal 2026 appropriations bill included a provision blocking officials from relocating offices or employees without authorization from the legislative branch. Specifically, the filing is part of an existing lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s reorganization of federal agencies more broadly.

According to the attorneys, USDA employees have started to receive letters ordering them to report to new locations by September or October.

“USDA’s actions will force many of the experienced and dedicated employees who run the agency’s programs to leave, thereby gutting programs, interrupting and eliminating the delivery of important services and harming the employees and their families,” they wrote in a memo. “USDA’s actions will also eliminate locally based services and research. The harms are as certain and as widespread as if USDA had imposed a large-scale reduction-in-force and cut program staff directly.”

One such letter obtained by Government Executive from USDA’s Research, Education and Economics division gave employees until near the end of July to decide whether to accept the relocation assignment. The letter said the department would provide “relocation benefits” but also is offering Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (“early out”) and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (“buyouts”) to impacted REE employees regardless of whether they’re retirement eligible or not.

A USDA spokesperson said in a statement to Government Executive that the department "will not comment on pending litigation." They did not address a question about whether the VERA and VSIP offer is available to impacted employees departmentwide.

Department officials have previously argued that the reorganization would not interrupt “critical” programs and that moving offices to cities across the country would lead to improved service delivery.

According to federal workforce data from the Office of Personnel Management, USDA’s workforce has already decreased from more than 98,000 in 2024 to around 77,500 currently.

This story has been updated with a statement from the Agriculture Department.

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Inside the competing federal efforts behind America’s 250th anniversary plans

Ashley Murray, States Newsroom — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400

Parties, protests, displays of historic documents and odes to the Founding Fathers, along with a large political rally by the president, will mark a divided nation’s 250th anniversary on this Fourth of July.

Pomp and circumstance will abound for the semiquincentennial as the similarly named America250 and Freedom 250 offer different slates of programming on Independence Day and beyond.

A countdown and ball drop will ring in the holiday across the eight time zones in the United States and its territories. The milestone birthday celebration will close with an “unprecedented pyrotechnic spectacle” in the skies above the National Mall, livestreamed.

In Philadelphia, a time capsule, to be opened in 2276, will be buried beneath Independence National Historical Park. The capsule contains contributions from each state and territory, sports memorabilia including an Olympic gold medal, a 1GB digital archive from the Library of Congress and a pocket Constitution signed by each Supreme Court justice, among hundreds of other items.

Visitors to the nation’s capital can watch and anyone across the country and the world can tune in to a live dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence at 10 a.m. Eastern at the National Archives.

The public also will be invited to typically restricted spaces. The Federal Circuit Center for Innovation & Law will open its doors July 3. Guests, who must register ahead of time, will get the opportunity to don a judge’s robe and take part in a mock trial inside the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s courtrooms.

Federal judges will be on hand to answer questions, and Chief Judge Kimberly A. Moore hopes the experience will “show how courts, public service, discovery and history continue to shape the American story,” she told States Newsroom in a statement.

The court complex, which is connected to the residence of first lady Dolley Madison, the wife of President James Madison, will also showcase various highlights of American history. Visitors can see Dolley’s parlor and learn that NASA was headquartered there from 1958 to 1961. Space suits and a 3.9-billion-year-old moon rock will be on display.

America250 vs. Freedom 250

Two separate celebrations of America’s big year are similarly named but feature different programs that stretch beyond Independence Day.

America250, a 24-member bipartisan commission created by Congress a decade ago, has spearheaded nationwide initiatives for school students, corporate employees and young entrepreneurs.

The commission has organized July Fourth events, including the ball drops, time capsule burial and simultaneous block parties in Charleston, South Carolina; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and Milwaukee.

America250 also will host a benefit concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum featuring Chris Stapleton and the Smashing Pumpkins. Tickets are $17.76, and all proceeds go to nonprofit organizations to kick off “Giving 4th,” a nationwide initiative to promote midyear donations.

It is all separate from President Donald Trump’s plans for 2026. Days after beginning his second term, Trump issued an executive order creating Task Force 250, resulting in White House-led programming known as Freedom 250.

Fencing along the Freedom 250 construction site on the National Mall near Madison Drive and 7th Street NW on Monday, June 22, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

Fencing along the Freedom 250 construction site on the National Mall near Madison Drive and 7th Street NW on June 22, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

America250 Chair Rosie Rios said the parallel initiatives are a collaboration to balance events in the nation’s capital and beyond.

“You see a lot of activities that the administration is planning in D.C. It was our agreement that we would focus on ‘sea to shining sea’ and still obviously have opportunities for all Americans to participate across the board,” said Rios, who served as U.S. treasurer under the Obama administration.

State fair, car races, Trump rally

The White House initiative will take over the National Mall.

The president will kick off the Great American State Fair with a speech on Wednesday night. The fair, featuring 150 exhibits from all states and territories, a Ferris wheel and a model of Trump’s proposed “triumphal arch,” will last until July 10.

Winners of the Freedom 250 “American Heroes” student art contest will also be honored at the fair.

As part of the Freedom 250 lineup, Trump will visit North Dakota on July 1 ahead of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opening set for July 3.

A Freedom 250 firework display at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota is also scheduled for the eve of Independence Day.

Trump promised the “most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all” on July Fourth, featuring military bands and orchestras, military flyovers and keynote remarks from the president.

The night will culminate with the “largest fireworks show in history,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform on June 15.

Attendees also can expect an increased National Guard presence as part of the administration’s “summer surge.”

Trump’s Freedom 250 festivities will extend into August with a national high school athletic competition for 14- to 17-year-olds, dubbed “The Patriot Games.” The games are scheduled in Washington, D.C., for Aug. 9-11 and will stream on the ESPN app.

A one-hour primetime finale special will air on ABC the evening of Aug. 13. One female and one male athlete each will win a $250,000 scholarship.

“After the fireworks”

Rios said America250 also has an “after-the-fireworks strategy.”

Winners of essay, art and poetry contests at schools across the U.S. can choose an all-expenses-paid “America’s Field Trip” to one of several locations.

They include a private guided tour of the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.; Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota; or Yellowstone National Park in Montana and Wyoming, among other destinations.

A national contest and expo for young entrepreneurs in San Francisco and another in Washington, D.C., this coming November awarded $25,000 in seed grants under the “America Innovates” startup initiative.

The commission also is aiming to make 2026 the “largest year of volunteer hours ever recorded by our country,” Rios said. A counter on the commission’s website displays the number of “America Gives” hours tracked, and Rios will announce a total on New Year’s Eve in Times Square.

“We’ve had great stakeholders who’ve already made their pledges, so Coca-Cola, for example, made a pledge for 250,000 volunteer hours. Not to be outdone, Rob Manfred from Major League Baseball says, ‘We’re going to do 250,000 volunteer hours,’” Rios said.

“Declaration of Interdependence”

Not all are feeling celebratory.

A coalition of organizers led by those who spearheaded the 2017 Women’s March will host a nationwide mobilization event June 27, calling for change for America’s next 250 years.

“We know the oxygen is going to be consumed by the official Trump-led commemoration on the Fourth. Kicking this off in a proactive way, if we can talk about what we want this country to look like and what it actually does look like ahead of that, it’s important that we go first,” said Angelo Greco, a D.C.-based strategist handling messaging for the event.

Progressive groups including the 50501 movement, All of U.S. 250, Next 250 and Get Free are expecting up to 5,000 people at a flagship march near the White House and thousands more at teach-ins, faith events, art installations and cultural events at 80 locations nationwide.

Organizers are collecting signatures on a “Declaration of Interdependence” outlining four principles for a nation where: “All people are treated with dignity and respect; everybody feels safe in every community; access to clean, green spaces is abundant; and every person who works earns a living wage and benefits that allow families a work-life balance.”

“We’re taking away the spotlight from those in power that want to whitewash our history and instead setting the terms of the debate about what the story of America has been, who we are and who we should become,” said Anthony Vidal Torres, communications director at Get Free.

Activists said they are ready to incorporate any relevant news events into their messaging, including a forthcoming Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship.

The future of a polarized nation

Thought leaders, lawmakers and former administration officials from both parties are marking the nation’s semiquincentennial by sounding the alarm about polarization.

Citing recent statistics, including that only four in 10 Gen Zers are more likely to describe the Founding Fathers as “villains” rather than “heroes,” an advisory board convened by the center-left Progressive Policy Institute launched the American Identity Project to guide policymakers and educators on the future of civics education.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., an adviser on the project, said he worries the liberal patriotism modeled by figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and former President Barack Obama is “vanishingly rare.”

“The central emotion of our time is not patriotic hope about America, but rage against America across the political spectrum,” Torres said at the think tank’s June 11 event.

Linda Chavez, a former Reagan administration official and chair of the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity, said she sees the problem on both the left and right.

“I see kids on the left who find our whole system of government, including democracy, as not important, and they seek to transform the country, they want to throw everything out,” Chavez said.

“And on the right I see young people who are falling under the sway of people like Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens, who want to divide Americans and basically decide what an American is and who gets to count as an American.”

Other current and former lawmakers who advised include Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., and former Sens. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., and Doug Jones, D-Ala., who is Alabama’s current Democratic gubernatorial candidate.

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Slaughter and the expansion of presidential power

Donald F. Kettl — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Immediately after the Supreme Court announced its decision affirming that the president could remove the heads of independent regulatory agencies at will, Trump applauded the majority. “BIG WIN,” he posted on Truth Social. “One of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers.”

The Court voted 6-3, in Trump v. Slaughter, that the president had the legal power to fire Rebecca Slaughter in 2025 as a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission. Although Trump sometimes is prone to exaggeration, that’s not true here. Slaughter truly is one of the most important decisions ever in expanding the president’s power, for three reasons.

1. The case established that independent regulatory commissions are no longer truly independent. Although there are only about 100 officials in independent commissions, the Slaughter decision dismantles a long hands-off tradition when it comes to presidents and their work. During Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, he tried to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission, William H. Humphrey, a Herbert Hoover appointee who had been battling FDR on New Deal programs. In the hallmark case of Humphrey’s Executor – Humphrey had died, and his estate filed suit to get his back pay – the Supreme Court found that the law creating the FTC permitted the president to fire a commissioner only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” and that FDR had acted illegally.

The FTC, established in 1914, followed the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887. They were part of a string of independent regulatory commissions that emerged from the Progressive era (not to be confused with the “progressive” label applied today to left-leaning politicians). Congress made the ICC “independent” of the White House and cabinet agencies because, to be blunt, it didn’t trust the president to avoid meddling with rules trying to bring the railroad monopolies under control.

Western farmers complained that monopolists were gouging them on prices for transporting their products. Congress wanted experts to determine shipping rates and the best routes, and some of its members wanted to pull railroad cash into their own campaigns. They didn’t want the spoils system to tilt power solely to the president.

By the time Congress created the FTC, the civil service had replaced much of the traditional spoils system. Legislators wanted to make it independent like the ICC, and President Woodrow Wilson supported the idea. Since his days as a college professor, Wilson had strongly contended that “administrative questions are not political questions.” He agreed with creating staggered terms for FTC commissioners and limiting the president’s power to remove them. The Supreme Court upheld that position in Humphrey’s Executor.

Trump found himself in the same position as FDR. He wanted to remove Rebecca Slaughter from the FTC, a commissioner who he ironically had appointed during this first term, and he sent letters to her and commissioner Alvaro Bedoya saying their continued service would be “inconsistent with my Administration’s priorities.” This time, the Court agreed with the president. The independent regulatory commissions were no longer independent of the president.

2. The Supreme Court isn’t done yet. The Court is knocking on the door of an even greater expansion of the president’s power.

Slaughter advances the campaign that conservative have been waging behind the scenes to advance the “unitary executive” theory of the Constitution. The theory holds that Congress might pass laws and the Supreme Court might interpret them, but that the president has full control over the executive branch when it comes to implementing them, including the authority to fire federal employees – ultimately all federal employees – at will.

There’s no sign that the founders intended for the president to have such sweeping control over the bureaucracy because, among other things, there was no bureaucracy over which to have sweeping control. As anti-government fervor grew during the Reagan administration, however, conservatives began making the unitary executive argument with far more fervor. Since then, convinced that the left controlled the bureaucracy, they have been building their legal arguments to dramatically increase the president’s power over the bureaucracy. Slaughter marks their biggest victory yet and follows on the heels of a previous decision in 2020, Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which had already chipped away at claims for agency independence.

In his concurring opinion to Slaughter, Justice Neil Gorsuch says very clearly that this is only one more step in the Court’s journey toward expanding presidential power. “It is time to return, all the way, to the Constitution,” he wrote. As he argues at length,

Open-ended delegations of legislative power have not gone away; now they will just be exercised by agency officials who answer to the President. The power to write new regulatory crimes still exists, but now the pen ultimately rests in the President’s hand. The ability to judge disputes in-house remains, but now the house is white.

The Court is sure to be back to ratify an even greater expansion of presidential power.

3. The Federal Reserve might be next. In a separate case decided the same day, the Court tossed out Trump’s effort to fire Lisa Cook, a governor of the Federal Reserve. Trump had charged Cook with fraud in claiming a second home as her main residence to get a more favorable interest rate. The Court’s majority, in the 5-4 decision, said that the administration had not afforded Cook due process and could not then be removed. The administration geared up to press the facts of the case again, and several members of the Court signaled they would be willing to reconsider the ruling with a stronger case.

When Congress created the Fed in 1913, it made its policymaking independent of the president. There’s a good reason for that. Easy money and lower interest rates are always more politically popular, and Congress was afraid that political pressure might lead the Fed to drift constantly into inflation.

That’s just what happened during the Nixon administration, when the president leaned on Fed Chair Arthur Burns to loosen the money supply before the 1972 presidential election. As presidential advisor John Ehrlichman told me, soon after Nixon appointed Burns, he brought him into the Oval Office and lectured him. “You see to it: no recession,” he said. A few weeks later, Nixon told Ehrlichman and advisor Bob Haldeman, “The Fed must loosen—it must risk inflation.” Burns go the message and complied.

This is the stuff of the nightmares that plague Fed chairs: political pressure for easier money going into elections risks inflation that, once unleashed, becomes extraordinarily painful to control. Trump has been pressuring the Fed to lower rates leading into the congressional midterms and dismissed Cook as part of his pressure campaign. A near-majority of the Supreme Court now believes that the president ought to have the power to remove Fed governors at will, and we are tiptoeing up to an even more substantial expansion of presidential power.

4. Trump is right. In arguing that Slaughter is “One of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers,” Trump is right. It pushes aside the last barrier against the president’s power to remove the heads of independent agencies with which he disagrees. That, in fact, makes the agencies no longer independent.

The decision in Cook could well extend presidential power into the most sensitive questions of economic policy. The central banks in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom all operate independently from politicians in setting their monetary policy. That could change in the US on the next case that hits the Thomas Court.

The Supreme Court is paving the road to the unitary executive approach to presidential power and, of all the actions during the Trump administration, this could well prove the most important in the long run.

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