Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Brittany Pettersen (Colorado 7th District)
Today, U.S. Representative Brittany Pettersen (CO-07) released the following statement after voting against Republicans’ Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Department of Defense funding bill:
“At a time when the United States should be showing strength and moral leadership on the global stage, this bill does the exact opposite. It abandons our allies, hands Putin a strategic win, and jeopardizes our military readiness with divisive policies and culture wars.
“Women and LGBTQ+ servicemembers make the same sacrifices all of our servicemembers make to defend our freedom, they all deserve our full respect. But Donald Trump has proven time and again that he does not support our troops – from calling them suckers and losers, to the devastating cuts he has made at the VA. This bill is yet another example of Trump’s horrific leadership as the Commander in Chief. This unserious funding bill is an attack on women and LGBTQ+ servicemembers, and serves as another example of Trump and his congressional leadership prioritizing culture wars instead of funding the support our troops need and deserve.
“Despite including two of my amendments that would benefit Colorado, I could not in good conscience vote for a bill that otherwise undermines our values, weakens our global standing, and fails to support the servicemembers who put their lives on the line for this country.”
Specifically, Republicans’ FY 26 Department of Defense spending bill:
Weakens Ukraine and empowers Russia by eliminating support for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
Undermines democracy at home and abroad by allowing disinformation and extremist views to flourish.
Limits women’s access to abortion by preventing service personnel from traveling to seek reproductive health care.
Harms our military readiness with divisive provisions that undermine morale and fail to support our service personnel, by:
Continuing DOGE and the Administration’s cuts to vital civilian positions;
Attacking the LGBTQ+ community with hateful policies; and
Banning funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
Two of Rep. Pettersen’s amendments were included in the FY 2026 Defense bill:
Pettersen’s amendment advances cutting-edge aerospace research and strengthens national security through lunar technology.
Pettersen’s other amendment supports using quantum computing to predict and prevent threats to our electrical grid, bolstering national security and grid resilience.
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To access downloadable, high-quality photos, click here. To stay up-to-date on what Pettersen is doing in Congress, follow her on Twitter here, Facebook here, or Instagram here. Residents can also sign-up for her e-newsletter subscription here.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to the nomination of Jim Murphy and Scott Mayer to be Board members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Claude Cummings Jr., President of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union, issued the following statement:
Trump’s anti-worker agenda and disrespect for the rule of law continue to be on full display. President Trump is seeking to replace National Labor Relations Board Member Gwynne A. Wilcox, an experienced Black woman who is well steeped in labor law, with two anti-worker men, who have elevated corporate interests above workers’ rights for decades. It’s way past time to return Gwynne A. Wilcox to her rightful position at the NLRB, to implore Congress members to confirm only fully qualified individuals committed to the NLRB’s mission and to actually represent the interests of American workers and their families, to urge the Supreme Court to respect and preserve the Constitution and full separation of powers of the three branches of government, and to call out the President for his anti-worker and unlawful actions.
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About CWA: The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Lois Frankel (FL-21)
Representatives Lois Frankel, Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security, Department of State, and Related Program, Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Grace Meng, Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus International Women’s Rights Task Force, issued a statement on their introduction of legislation to ensure U.S. taxpayer-purchased foreign aid commodities reach their intended beneficiaries rather than go to waste or be destroyed.
According to recent reports, the Trump administration plans to destroy more than $9 million worth of family planning supplies and incinerate 500 metric tons of emergency food assistance that expired after officials refused for months to authorize delivery. The food alone could have fed approximately 1.5 million children for a week, or 27,000 people for an entire month. The contraceptives, depending on the method mix, represent millions of doses and other essentials—enough to support the reproductive health needs of hundreds of thousands of women and families. These commodities—meant for some of the world’s most vulnerable people—were purchased with taxpayer dollars but left to rot or burn.
“The Trump administration is incinerating critical U.S.-purchased commodities—like contraceptives and emergency food—denying women health care, keeping meals from starving families, and literally sending millions of taxpayer dollars up in smoke,” said the Members. “This cruel and senseless destruction is a textbook example of the very waste, fraud, and abuse the administration claims to oppose.
Our legislation prohibits the destruction of food and medical supplies purchased with taxpayer funds unless every effort has been made to ensure those supplies can be used as intended. That’s common sense—and the humane thing to do—for American taxpayers and for vulnerable communities around the world.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State Department, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Ranking Member Brian Schatz introduced the bill in the Senate last week.
The full text of the legislation is available here.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Julia Brownley (D-CA)
Washington, DC – Today, Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-CA) joined her Democratic Women’s Caucus colleagues, including Congresswoman Nanette Barragán (D-CA), Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (D-TX), Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA), Congresswoman Deborah Ross (D-NC), and Congresswoman Norma Torres (D-CA), in urging the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Government Accountability Office, and the Warden of Richwood Correctional Center to conduct an immediate investigation into the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s mistreatment of women in their custody. The Members raised serious concerns about ICE and CBP’s disturbing patterns of abuse, mistreatment, and medical neglect of women, including pregnant and postpartum women. Reports detail cases of women being violently detained, denied medical care, and subjected to inhumane treatment while in detention.
Specifically, the Members highlighted the troubling cases of Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus and Cary López Alvarado. Monterroso-Lemus, a pregnant detainee, suffered a stillbirth after ICE repeatedly denied her requests for medical care. Doctors later concluded her baby’s death was a result of the lack of prenatal care, which she had repeatedly sought.
López Alvarado, a U.S. citizen who was nine months pregnant at the time, was violently shoved by an ICE agent after identifying herself as pregnant while trying to protect her husband. She was hospitalized with sharp pains after her release and received no documentation about the incident.
“Disregard for women’s health and safety is not just a one-time instance, the abuse and neglect are part of a larger, systemic failure to treat women with dignity, compassion, and basic medical care,” the members explained in the letter.
The Democratic Women’s Caucus is demanding transparency, accountability, and immediate action from the administration. The Members are calling for a full investigation into Monterroso-Lemus’ pregnancy loss and broader patterns of mistreatment of women in ICE and CBP custody, particularly pregnant and postpartum individuals.
“Over and over again, women are being mistreated by ICE, CBP, and contractors from detainment to detention. These horrifying stories are the result of systemic neglect, cruelty, and policy failures that we must confront head-on. We demand answers, accountability, and action. Your administration cannot claim to ‘protect women’ when your agents are on video ripping babies out of women’s arms and pushing them to the ground aggressively.”
The letter was also signed by Representatives Alma Adams, Yassamin Ansari, Suzanne Bonamici, Shontel Brown, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Judy Chu, Yvette Clarke, Jasmine Crockett, Diana DeGette, Maxine Dexter, Sarah Elfreth, Valerie Foushee, Lois Frankel, Laura Friedman, Sylvia Garcia, Pramila Jayapal, Summer Lee, Teresa Leger Fernández, Doris Matsui, April McClain Delaney, Betty McCollum, Gwen Moore, Kelly Morrison, Eleanor Norton, Ilhan Omar, Brittany Pettersen, Chellie Pingree, Delia Ramirez, Luz Rivas, Andrea Salinas, Janice Schakowsky, Rashida Tlaib, Jill Tokuda, Norma Torres, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Nikema Williams, and Frederica Wilson.
The full letter can be found here and below:
The Honorable Kristi Noem Secretary Department of Homeland Security 2707 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE Washington, DC 20528-0525
The Honorable Gene Dodaro U.S. Comptroller General Government Accountability Office 441 G St., NW Washington, DC 20548
The Honorable Joseph V. Cuffari Inspector General Department of Homeland Security 245 Murray Lane SW Washington, DC 20528-0305
Ms. Lisa Bowen Warden Richwood Correctional Center 180 Pine Bayou Circle Monroe, LA 71202
Dear Secretary Noem, Inspector General Cuffari, Comptroller General Dodaro, and Mr. Deville:
As members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, we write with grave and urgent concern about the treatment of women in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. Too many disturbing stories have emerged from women’s interactions with ICE agents over the last few months–even elected officials have encountered aggressive, unprovoked, and unacceptable treatment. In addition to this aggression, we are deeply concerned about women’s access to health care, especially maternal health care, in ICE detention. The reported assaults, medical neglect, and overall mistreatment of women by ICE agents and contractors demands immediate and thorough oversight and accountability, and this abuse must stop immediately. We request an immediate and in-depth investigation into the violations against women while in ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody.
These accounts of abuse are horrifying but not new. In September 2020, during Trump’s first term, a complaint was filed at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) regarding the unethical treatment of detainees at ICDC – medical neglect and a concerningly high rate of women undergoing gynecological procedures without proper informed consent. It was also reported that ICDC staff downplayed the health concerns from detainees. These reports were confirmed in an investigation in 2022. It is beyond our comprehension that women were unknowingly sterilized without their consent while in government custody. Although the facility was shut down, this was not an isolated case; rather, this is a consistent pattern perpetrated by this administration.
We also know that this is an intentional action by the administration and not an unintended consequence to mass detention. In May, CBP quietly repealed protections for pregnant and postpartum women in custody, removing requirements for appropriate medical care, lactation accommodations, and basic supplies like diapers and baby formula. Your disregard for women’s health and safety is not just a one time instance, the abuse and neglect are part of a larger, systemic failure to treat women with dignity, compassion, and basic medical care.
In May 2025, Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus, a pregnant woman, was arrested in Lenoir City, Tennessee and taken into ICE custody. Throughout her detainment, Monterroso-Lemus repeatedly requested medical care but was denied. Monterroso-Lemus reported experiencing pain and no fetal movement for three days, yet she was ignored. She told reporters on a phone call, “They didn’t give me medical attention — nowhere. Not in Louisiana, not in Alabama. I was in Alabama too, sleeping on the floor.” After multiple transfers and too many pleas, she was finally admitted to a hospital on April 29th, where she delivered a stillborn baby. The doctors noted that her loss was a result of not receiving prenatal care – the care she asked for repeatedly.
In the same facility that Monterroso-Lemus was overlooked and neglected during her pregnancy pains, multiple reports surfaced that highlighted Richwood’s horrific conditions. In 2020, the National Immigrant Justice Center alongside several other organizations released a report that found numerous reports of delayed care and medical neglect at the Richwood Correctional Center. For example, the medical staff interviewed admitted that treatment for a broken arm could take a week. In 2023, the Office of Inspector General conducted an investigation and found that the detention center violated and compromised the health, safety, and rights of detainees. Richwood Correctional Center was found not to have a reliable system for detainees to file grievances and denied detainees the right to file medical grievances. How can women like Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus seek justice and reconciliation if the facility refuses to permit a system of accountability?
In addition to the treatment of women in detention, we are deeply worried about the aggression ICE agents have shown when arresting people, particularly women. Earlier this month Cary López Alvarado, a nine-months pregnant U.S. citizen was detained by agents in Harthorne while trying to protect her undocumented husband and co-worker on private property. Agents accused her of obstructing an arrest, despite her repeatedly stating she was pregnant and unable to resist. During the confrontation, she was shoved by an officer, falling to the ground. Following her release from ICE detention, López Alvarado was hospitalized for sharp pains and monitored due to concerns of her and her baby’s well being, as her due date was only a week away. She was told agents would contact her regarding the obstruction allegations, but received no documentation or citation related to the incident.
Over and over again, women are being mistreated by ICE, CBP, and contractors from detainment to detention. These horrifying stories are the result of systemic neglect, cruelty, and policy failures that we must confront head-on. We demand answers, accountability, and action. Your administration cannot claim to ‘protect women’ when your agents are on video ripping babies out of women’s arms and pushing them to the ground aggressively. We request a response to the following questions within 60 days of receipt:
What concrete and immediate steps will this administration take to protect the rights, health, and lives of women in detention?
How will you ensure transparency, accountability, and oversight across bodies responsible for their care?
How will you uphold women and their babies’ basic human dignity and ensure their health needs are met without delay or discrimination?
We demand a full, transparent investigation into the pregnancy loss of Iris Dayana MonterrosoLemus’s and the broader mistreatment of pregnant and postpartum women in ICE and CBP custody. We request a report that outlines the incident, accountability, and corrective actions.
The Democratic Women’s Caucus will not stay silent while women, many of them mothers, many of them fleeing violence and hardship, are mistreated and neglected in government custody. Again, we request a prompt and thorough investigation into the treatment of women within ICE and CBP custody.
On 15 July 2025, Commission officials gave an update on the ongoing trade negotiations between the EU and the US, focusing on the most recent round, which was abruptly interrupted over the weekend of 12–13 July 2025, following President Trump’s announcement of a 30% tariff on all EU imports. They emphasized the serious impact such a measure would have on the EU Single Market, given the high level of economic integration between the two regions.
While negotiations continue, Commission officials (DG GROW) confirmed that it is preparing a second list of products–beyond steel and aluminium–that could be subject to EU counter-tariffs, aiming to minimise the negative impact on the internal market.
Members questioned the EU’s negotiation approach, which appears to reflect the lowest common denominator among Member States, even in areas where the Commission has full competence to act independently. They also asked whether a Digital Services Tax could be introduced as a retaliatory measure.
Additionally, Members expressed concern over media reports suggesting that possible compromises under discussion might weaken EU legislation. The Commission reassured them that preserving the EU’s regulatory autonomy remains a non-negotiable principle and that all options remain on the table should talks fail.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mark Alford (Missouri 4th District)
Today, Congressman Mark Alford (MO-04) was joined by Congressmen Tony Gonzales (TX-23) and Don Davis (NC-01) in introducing a House Resolution to congratulate the Airmen of the 509th and 131st Bomb Wings for successfully completing Operation Midnight Hammer.
“Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, Operation Midnight Hammer was executed with unparalleled coordination, precision, and competence to decapitate Iran’s nuclear program,”said Congressman Alford.“The men and women of the 509th and 131st Bomb Wings out of Whiteman Air Force Base showed their exemplary dedication and skill. They deserve the recognition of the American people’s elected representatives. That’s why I’m proud to introduce this Resolution to honor their service and success.”
“The B-2s’ historic precision strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities highlighted the unparalleled capability of the United States military, as well as the exceptional bravery of the bomber and fighter pilots, crew members, and maintenance teams who flawlessly executed the mission,”said Congressman Davis.“These individuals are our heroes who have effectively worked to protect America and our allies in response to increasing threats from the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies.”
“During my 20 years of military service, including multiple campaigns in the Middle East, I served side by side with the finest troops in the world. No matter what the mission is, American servicemembers always rise to the challenge, and Operation Midnight Hammer in Iran is no exception. There is no other military in the world that could have executed a precision strike on nuclear sites with such excellence, and the men and women who made it happen deserve full recognition for their efforts,”said Congressman Tony Gonzales.
Read the full text of the resolutionhere.
The resolution is also cosponsored by Rep. John Carter (TX-31), Rep. Sam Graves (MO-06), and Rep. Juan Ciscomani (AZ-06).
Missouri’s Fourth Congressional District, which Congressman Alford represents, includes Whiteman Air Force Base, home of the B-2 Stealth Bomber, the Air Force’s 509th Bomb Wing, and the Air National Guard’s 131st Bomb Wing. Congressman Alford is also the Co-chair of the Congressional Long Range Strike Caucus.
Congressman Moran Votes to Strengthen National Defense and Support America’s Servicemembers
The FY26 Defense Appropriations Bill Reins in Wasteful Spending and Invests in Military Readiness
Washington, D.C., July 18, 2025
Congressman Nathaniel Moran (R-TX-01) released the following statement after voting in favor of the Fiscal Year 2026 Defense Appropriations Act (H.R. 4016), which passed the U.S. House of Representatives today:
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we’re finally rebuilding the strength and resolve of our Armed Forces. This bill reflects that effort—by investing in servicemembers, eliminating waste, countering foreign threats like China and Iran, and ensuring our defense dollars are focused on combat readiness, not left-wing social experiments.
“The FY26 Defense Appropriations Act supports our troops, prioritizes taxpayer accountability, and delivers critical investments for military families across East Texas. I was proud to vote for this bill and will continue standing with those who defend our nation.”
Securing Texas Wins
Increases funding for pay and benefits for active-duty military and reserve personnel across all branches, including over $10.2 billion for the Army National Guard and $5.3 billion for the Air National Guard, both with strong Texas footprints.
Delivers $575+ million for environmental restoration across Army, Navy, and Air Force installations, including former sites in Texas.
Provides over $36.9 billion for shipbuilding and naval modernization, supporting Gulf Coast industrial jobs tied to defense manufacturing.
Maintains support for hypersonic and next-generation weapons research, much of which is based in Texas institutions.
Cutting Waste, Refocusing Defense Priorities
Saves taxpayer dollars by reducing inefficient Pentagon programs and bureaucratic offices.
Blocks efforts to consolidate legislative liaison offices that reduce transparency and Congressional oversight.
Securing the Border and Combating Terrorism
Fully funds $357 million for the Counter-ISIS Train and Equip Fund, including tight vetting restrictions to prevent funding terrorist-linked individuals or groups.
Expands National Guard and Reserve Equipment Procurement by $800 million, bolstering homeland defense and disaster response readiness.
Allocating approximately $13 billion for missile defense and space programs to augment and integrate in support of the Golden Dome effort.
Deterring China, Iran, and Other Foreign Adversaries
Increases funding for DOD’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program ($282 million) to reduce chemical, biological, and nuclear risks, particularly from regimes like Iran and North Korea.
Provides new authority and funding for DOD-led cybersecurity and supply chain risk reduction to block Chinese espionage and hacking efforts.
Ensuring Oversight & Accountability
Requires quarterly public reporting to Congress on use of funds for foreign military assistance and classified operations.
Expands restrictions on use of funds for procurement from countries hostile to U.S. national security interests.
You can learn more about the FY26 Defense Appropriations Act HERE.
Washington, D.C.— U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said today he has joined Senate colleagues in condemning the Trump administration for its recent decision to terminate the consent order against Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU), effectively excusing it from accountability for charging millions in illegal surprise overdraft fees to their members – primarily active-duty service members, veterans, Department of Defense employees, and their families.
“In 2024, the CFPB found that between 2017 and 2022, NFCU charged overdraft fees on ATM withdrawals and debit card purchases – even when accounts showed sufficient funds,” the senators wrote in a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Acting Director Russell Vought. “In response, the Bureau issued a consent order requiring NFCU to pay $95 million in penalties and restitution: $80.6 million directly to harmed consumers and $15 million to the CFPB’s victims relief fund.”
That order was rescinded on July 1, 2025.
“As former CFPB officials have noted, this decision raises serious concerns about whether the Bureau is still capable – or even willing – to fulfill its legal mandate,” the senators continue. “At a minimum, the public and Congress deserve answers.”
The letter was led by U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. In addition to Wyden, the letter was cosigned by U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md.
“The Trump-era CFPB cannot reverse this consent order and simultaneously claim that it is prioritizing the interests of servicemembers,” said Adam Rust, Director of Financial Services for the Consumer Federation of America. “This action has diverted millions of dollars owed to military families—an unacceptable breach of trust. Acting Director Vought owes the public a clear and immediate explanation.”
Source: United States Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore)
July 18, 2025
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said today he has joined Senate colleagues in condemning the Trump administration for its recent decision to terminate the consent order against Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU), effectively excusing it from accountability for charging millions in illegal surprise overdraft fees to their members – primarily active-duty service members, veterans, Department of Defense employees, and their families.
“In 2024, the CFPB found that between 2017 and 2022, NFCU charged overdraft fees on ATM withdrawals and debit card purchases – even when accounts showed sufficient funds,” the senators wrote in a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Acting Director Russell Vought. “In response, the Bureau issued a consent order requiring NFCU to pay $95 million in penalties and restitution: $80.6 million directly to harmed consumers and $15 million to the CFPB’s victims relief fund.”
That order was rescinded on July 1, 2025.
“As former CFPB officials have noted, this decision raises serious concerns about whether the Bureau is still capable – or even willing – to fulfill its legal mandate,” the senators continue. “At a minimum, the public and Congress deserve answers.”
The letter was led by U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. In addition to Wyden, the letter was cosigned by U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md.
“The Trump-era CFPB cannot reverse this consent order and simultaneously claim that it is prioritizing the interests of servicemembers,” said Adam Rust, Director of Financial Services for the Consumer Federation of America. “This action has diverted millions of dollars owed to military families—an unacceptable breach of trust. Acting Director Vought owes the public a clear and immediate explanation.”
The full text of the letter is here.
A bipartisan measure to reverse President Trump’s executive order that denies collective bargaining rights to millions of federal workers is making headway — and we need your help to win for working families.
Federal sector workers in the IAM Union and the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM), along with allies in labor and Congress, are pushing for a discharge petition that would put the Protect America’s Workforce Act on the House floor for a vote.
“An attack on our federal workers is an attack on all workers, and we can’t let this administration trample on our right to join a union,” said IAM Union International President Brian Bryant. “Let’s pass the common-sense Protect America’s Workforce Act and restore the rights of this essential workforce.”
NFFE-IAM National President Randy Erwin recently appeared alongside House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) to call for an immediate vote on the Protect America’s Workforce Act.
“Our civil service has been stressed to an unprecedented degree, and the critical services federal employees provide, and the American people rely on, are at risk as long as this assault on collective bargaining rights goes unchecked,” said Erwin. “I call on every House member to sign this discharge petition today — to reinforce an essential right of working Americans protected by the Constitution.”
Call 202-224-3121 to tell your Representative to sign the discharge petition and put the Protect America’s Workforce Act to a vote today.
The post 🚨 TAKE ACTION : Tell Your Representative to Restore Federal Worker Collective Bargaining Rights appeared first on IAM Union.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio watch Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on television after the House passed the bill on July 3, 2025.Joyce N. Boghosian/White House via AP
As a legal scholar who studies how taxes increase the gap in wealth and income between Black and white Americans, I believe the law’s provisions make existing wealth inequalities worse through broad tax cuts that disproportionately favor wealthy families while forcing its costs on low- and middle-income Americans.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, for example, predicted that low-income taxpayers would gain US$70 a year from the 2017 tax cuts. But that figure did not include the results of eliminating the individual mandate that encouraged uninsured people to get health insurance through the federal marketplace. That insurance was heavily subsidized by the federal government.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico speaks during a news conference at the Capitol focused on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, on June 3, 2025. AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr.
Wealth-building for whom?
Perhaps the most revealing part of the bill is how it turns ideas for helping low-income families on their head. They are touted as helping the poor – but they help the wealthy instead.
A much publicized feature of the bill is the creation of “Trump Accounts,” a pilot program providing a one-time $1,000 government contribution to a tax-advantaged investment account for children born between 2025 and 2028.
While framed as a “baby bonus” to build wealth, the program’s structure is deeply flawed and regressive. Although the first $1,000 into the accounts comes from the federal government, the real tax benefits go to wealthy families who can avoid paying taxes by contributing up to $5,000 per year to their children’s accounts.
As analysts from the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive economic and social policy think tank, have pointed out, this design primarily benefits affluent families who already have the disposable income to save and can take full advantage of the tax benefits.
For low-income families struggling with daily expenses, making additional contributions is not a realistic option. These accounts do not address the fundamental barrier to saving for low-income families – a lack of income – and are more likely to widen the wealth gap than to close it.
This regressive approach – regressive because the wealthy get larger benefits – to wealth-building is mirrored in the bill’s renewal and enhancement of the New Markets Tax Credit program. Although extended by the “big, beautiful bill” to drive investment into low-income communities by offering capital gains tax breaks to investors, the program subsidizes luxury real estate projects that do little to benefit existing low-income residents and accelerate gentrification and displacement. Studies show that there is very little increase in salaries or education in areas with these benefits.
A harsh new rule
The child tax credit is another part of the bill that purports to help the poor and working classes while, in fact, giving the wealthy more money.
A family can earn up to $400,000 and still get the full $2,200 tax credit per child, which reduces their tax liability dollar for dollar. In contrast, a family making $31,500 or less cannot receive a tax credit of more than $1,750 per child. And approximately 17 million children – disproportionately Black and Latino – will not receive anything at all.
More significantly, the law tightens eligibility by requiring not only the child but also the taxpayer claiming the credit to have a Social Security number. This requirement will strip the credit from approximately 4.5 million U.S. citizen children in mixed-status families – families where some people are citizens, legal residents and people living in the country without legal permission – where parents may file taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number but lack a Social Security number, according to an April 2025 study.
President Donald Trump, joined by Republican lawmakers, holds a gavel after signing the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, on July 4, 2025 in Washington, DC. Eric Lee/Getty Images
A burden on the poor
Perhaps most striking is the law’s “pay-fors” – the provisions designed to offset the cost of the tax cuts.
The law imposes new monthly “community engagement” requirements, a form of work requirement, for able-bodied adults to maintain Medicaid coverage. The majority of such adults enrolled in Medicaid already work. And many people who do not work are caring full time for young children or are too disabled to work. The law also requires states to conduct eligibility redeterminations twice a year.
Redeterminations and work requirements have historically led to eligible people losing coverage. For SNAP, the bill expands work requirements to some Americans who are up to 64 years old and the parents of older children and revises benefit calculations in ways that will reduce benefits.
By funding tax cuts for the wealthy while making cuts to essential services for the poor, the bill codifies a transfer of resources up the economic ladder.
In my view, the “big, beautiful bill” represents a missed opportunity to leverage fiscal policy to address the American wealth and income gap. Instead of investing in programs to lift up low- and middle-income Americans, the bill emphasizes a regressive approach that will further enrich the wealthy and deepen existing inequalities.
Beverly Moran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Salud Carbajal (CA-24)
Carbajal Slams Republicans’ Passage of President Trump’s Cuts to Public Broadcasting & Other Essential Programs
Washington, July 18, 2025
U.S. Representative Salud Carbajal (D-CA-24) released the statement below following the House passage of President Trump’s request to cancel $9 billion in congressionally appropriated funding. The canceled funding includes $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) — which oversees public media networks like NPR, PBS, and their member stations — and about $7 billion in foreign aid.
“Just weeks after ramming through a reckless budget that slashes food assistance and health care for millions of Americans, while also ballooning our national debt — all to give billionaires big tax breaks — Republicans are back at it with another disastrous bill,” said Rep. Carbajal. “This package guts public media, threatening the local radio stations that keep Central Coast families informed, especially during wildfire season. And it doesn’t stop there. The bill’s extreme cuts to foreign aid will cause needless suffering around the world and weaken our country’s national security. As Republicans turn their backs on these public institutions, I will work with my Democratic colleagues to defend the critical programs working families rely on.”
Headline: Justice Department Publishes Proposed Rule to Grant Relief to Certain Individuals Precluded from Possessing Firearms
WASHINGTON — President Trump directed the Department of Justice to address the ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens—all of them. Federal law disables the firearms rights of many citizens who have been convicted of crimes without regard to whether they actually pose a threat of violence. But federal law also empowers the Attorney General to restore Second Amendment rights to individuals who are not “likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety.” Today, the Department of Justice submitted to the Office of the Federal Register a proposed rule regarding the exercise of the Attorney General’s authority under 18 U.S.C. 925(c) to grant relief to individuals who are otherwise precluded from possessing firearms.
WASHINGTON — President Trump directed the Department of Justice to address the ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens—all of them. Federal law disables the firearms rights of many citizens who have been convicted of crimes without regard to whether they actually pose a threat of violence. But federal law also empowers the Attorney General to restore Second Amendment rights to individuals who are not “likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety.” Today, the Department of Justice submitted to the Office of the Federal Register a proposed rule regarding the exercise of the Attorney General’s authority under 18 U.S.C. 925(c) to grant relief to individuals who are otherwise precluded from possessing firearms.
“For too long, countless Americans with criminal histories have been permanently disenfranchised from exercising the right to keep and bear arms—a right every bit as constitutionally enshrined as the right to vote, the right to free speech, and the right to free exercise of religion—irrespective of whether they actually pose a threat,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “No longer.”
The proposed rule will provide citizens whose firearm rights are currently under legal disability with an avenue to restore those rights, while keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals and illegal aliens. Ultimate discretion to grant relief will remain with the Attorney General, and she will exercise that discretion on a case-by-case basis in light of all available facts and evidence that bear on an individual’s application. But absent extraordinary circumstances, violent felons, registered sex offenders, and illegal aliens, in particular, will remain presumptively ineligible for relief.
“General Bondi’s support of the rebooted 925(c) program is consistent with President Donald J. Trump’s promise to the American people to support the beautiful Second Amendment,” said U.S. Pardon Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. “My team and I are developing a 925(c) program landing page with a sophisticated, user-friendly platform for Americans petitioning for the return of their gun rights, which will make the process easier for them.”
The Justice Department welcomes comments from communities that could be affected by a final rule including law enforcement, victims’ advocates, elected officials, and individuals who would like to apply to have their gun rights restored. Because this proposed rule is intended to create a fair and thoughtful system to evaluate applications for the restoration of firearms right, the Justice Department recommends that individuals seeking the restoration of their firearm rights review and comment on the proposed process rather than submit applications at this time.
View the proposed rule as it was submitted to the Office of the Federal Register HERE. An official copy will be published next week.
Historian and podcaster Adam Tooze says we are at a turning point in history – as the Trump administration upends decades of assumptions on geopolitics, trade and the economy. Coinciding with the dawn of artificial intelligence, the rise of China, and demographic shifts are adding to transformative changes for us all.
CNBC anchor Chery Kang joins us in the studio at AMNC25 to co-host the episode.
The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Dale Strong (Alabama)
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressional Golden Dome Caucus Co-Chairs, U.S. Representatives Dale Strong (AL-05) and Jeff Crank (CO-05) released the following statement after the Senate’s unanimous confirmation of Gen. Michael A. Guetlein to lead the Department of Defense’s Golden Dome project:
“President Trump’s decision to have General Guetlein serve as the Golden Dome Czar is a strategic move to strengthen our national defense at a critical time. I applaud the Senate for swiftly taking up his nomination, and I look forward to working with him to defend our homeland and advance the Golden Dome’s mission to keep Americans safe,” said Representative Dale Strong.
“Congratulations to General Guetlein on his confirmation. I am confident that under his leadership, President Trump’s vision to innovate our homeland missile defense through Golden Dome will soon become a reality – creating a strong deterrence against our adversaries. I look forward to working with General Guetlein to ensure Congress is providing as much support as possible for this essential program,” said Representative Jeff Crank.
BACKGROUND:
The Congressional Golden Dome Caucus was established in June 2025, following President Trump’s Executive Order, issued on January 27, 2025, directing the implementation of a “next-generation missile defense shield for the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks.”
Guetlein is no stranger to North Alabama, having served as the Program Executive for Programs and Integration within the Missile Defense Agency at Redstone Arsenal from April 2017 – June 2019.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Don Beyer (D-VA)
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today reported that the unemployment rate in Virginia rose again in June, to 3.5 percent. The BLS report notes that “Virginia had the only rate increase” in the month of June. This was the sixth consecutive increase in Virginia’s unemployment rate, the first time the Commonwealth’s unemployment has continuously risen over half a year since the Great Recession job losses of 2008-2009.
Virginia’s rising unemployment rate comes amid the Trump Administration’s purges of thousands of federal workers and contractors across the Commonwealth, many of which are not captured in this data because they will not take effect until subsequent months. CNBC just downgraded Virginia in its annual “Top State for Business” rankings to the lowest point in nearly a decade, specifically citing “federal job cuts.” Recent mass firings by the Trump Administration are likely to substantially increase these cuts even further in coming months.
The rising unemployment rate in Virginia may also be an early indicator of broader damage to the Commonwealth’s economy which Virginia-based forecasters warn could be severe. Yet despite these warnings and increasingly threatening strains on local governments, Governor Youngkin and Lieutenant Governor Earle-Sears have so far continued to support the Trump Administration’s mass layoffs and broader cuts to the federal government’s footprint in Virginia.
Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA), who serves as the top House Democrat on the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, said:
“With six monthly unemployment increases in a row and the only June increase in America, this can no longer be waived away: Virginia’s unemployment rate is clearly rising in a sustained way, and it is a certainty that this increase is being driven by the Trump Administration’s policies. Trump’s mass firings and cuts are draining Virginia’s economy, while also hurting the services Virginians depend on, and many of those cuts are not even showing up in the data yet. I fear it will only get worse as the number of workers purged rises and the economic damage spreads further to other sectors of our economy.
“Governor Youngkin took office in 2022 at a time of historic job growth in Virginia, with an unemployment rate of 2.7 percent the day he was sworn in. Youngkin and Sears are presiding over a worrying increase in Virginia unemployment, but rather than stand up and fight for Virginians, they are cheering it on for purely political reasons. It’s hard to imagine a worse indictment of their leadership, and Virginians deserve better.”
Historical economic data, including unemployment rates for states including Virginia, is tracked by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED).
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) is the Senior House Democrat on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, and serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means, which has jurisdiction over major economic levers include tax policy, trade, and Social Security. He previously served as Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor from 1990-1998.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jared Huffman Representing the 2nd District of California
July 18, 2025
Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressional Freethought Caucus Co-Chairs Jared Huffman (CA-02) and Jamie Raskin (MD-08) led their colleagues in a letter to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Billy Long expressing concerns regarding the Trump administration’s recent court filing that undermines the constitutional separation of church and state.
The filing signals that Trump can allow churches to endorse or oppose political candidates from the pulpit – blatantly violating the 70-year-old Johnson Amendment while still maintaining their tax-exempt status. The motion is a strikingly inaccurate reinterpretation of current U.S. laws that help reconcile and harmonize our nation’s core principles of free speech, free exercise of religion, and the separation between church and state.
In their letter to Commissioner Long, the lawmakers demand that the IRS immediately reconsider its motion and remedy its failure to enforce the Johnson Amendment in accordance with longstanding legal interpretations and statutory requirements.
“As members of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, we urge you to reconsider the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) decision to propose the deeply flawed proposed settlement in the matter of National Religious Broadcasters Association et al v. Long. We strongly disagree with the stunningly inaccurate reinterpretation of the Johnson Amendment adopted in this proposed settlement,” the lawmakers wrote. “Congress passed the Johnson Amendment 70 years ago to reconcile and harmonize our nation’s core principles of free speech, free exercise of religion and the separation between church and state. This proposed settlement now threatens to upend and unravel that careful and delicate balance.”
The lawmakers continued, “When writing the tax code in 1954 to establishguardrails around organizational tax exemption, Congress included the Johnson Amendment without any extended discussion or debate. It was noncontroversial and widely supported precisely because it established reasonable boundaries between partisan politics and tax-exempt religious exercise. Under the Johnson Amendment, houses of worship are protected from government interference by securing tax exemptions while taxpayers are protected from being compelled to subsidize religious institutions’ political speech.”
“It is therefore deeply troubling that the IRS, in supporting the flawed arguments made by the plaintiffs in this case, accepts the false opposition that the religious Right has tried to create between the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses,” the lawmakers added.
In addition to Reps. Huffman and Raskin, the letter was signed by Reps. Yassamin Ansari, Becca Balint, Suzanne Bonamici, Julia Brownley, Greg Casar, Sean Casten, Lizzie Fletcher, Laura Friedman, Robert Garcia, Pramila Jayapal, Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mark Pocan, Delia C. Ramirez, Emily Randall, Andrea Salinas, Rashida Tlaib, and Nydia Velázquez.
The Congressional Freethought Caucus is an interfaith group of Members dedicated to advocating for religious freedom, church-state separation, and public policies based on science and reason.
Home Newsroom Labrador Letter: Supreme Court tees up perfect chance to fully protect women’s sports
Op-Ed: Supreme Court tees up perfect chance to fully protect women’s sports by Attorney General Raúl Labrador In 2019, the University of Montana allowed a runner named June Eastwood, a biological male who had adopted a female identity, to compete against women. Among Eastwood’s competitors were two young women attending Idaho State University, Madison Kenyon and Mary Kate Marshall, who were unjustly defeated by Eastwood on multiple occasions. The following year, the Idaho Legislature passed HB 500, making Idaho the first state in the nation to protect women and girls from losing to men in their own sports. The years since have brought both setbacks and breakthroughs. Gender identity activists at the ACLU immediately sued Idaho to block the law, and so far, the courts have agreed. Meanwhile, cases like UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas — who became the first man to win an NCAA women’s swimming title — kept the national debate intensifying. By the 2024 election, President Trump made this issue a centerpiece of his campaign, exposing the Democratic Party’s radical stance on gender identity issues. His victory paved the way for this February’s executive order with a clear message echoing Idaho’s law: Men don’t belong in women’s sports. The mounting cases of men taking medals from women shifted public opinion decisively. A New York Times/Ipsos poll revealed that 79 percent of Americans agree that women’s sports should be for women only. This groundswell of support gave Trump’s executive order real momentum, prompting even the NCAA to abandon its policy allowing males to compete against women. Yet despite this national shift, Idaho remains unable to enforce its own pioneering law, for now. It’s time to end this historic violation of equal opportunity for women and let Idaho guarantee fairness to all of our female athletes. Idaho wasn’t alone in this fight. West Virginia passed similar protections, and predictably, the ACLU sued to block its law, too. Recognizing the need for national clarity, both states joined with attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom to petition the Supreme Court. On July 3 — the 135th anniversary of Idaho’s statehood — the court granted review in both cases, giving us the chance to secure nationwide fairness for women and girls who simply want to compete on a level playing field. This is an important moment for all of us who are fighting to preserve safety, dignity, and fair competition in women’s sports. While Trump’s executive order pushed the ball forward for branches of the federal government, the Supreme Court’s pending review in Little v. Hecox (Idaho’s case) and West Virginia v. BPJ leaves open the question of whether states can pass laws that preserve the integrity of women’s sports. The Supreme Court’s recent decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti offers an encouraging precedent. That ruling upheld Tennessee’s law preventing medical professionals from subjecting children to dangerous, experimental transition drugs and surgeries. That decision also allowed Idaho to enforce our own child-protection law. However, Skrmetti left the women’s sports question unresolved. Both Idaho and West Virginia urged the court to address this gap by reviewing our cases alongside that precedent. The justices’ decision to grant review suggests they recognized the need for comprehensive clarity. If the Supreme Court agrees with our arguments, that means states will be free to ensure female athletes enjoy a level playing field for competition. Girls will once again be free to become champions in their own sports and pursue collegiate and professional opportunities without fear of losing to the opposite sex. We couldn’t have gotten here without the brave women who took a stance for their sports, such as the four high school athletes in Connecticut who said enough is enough, or the young women in West Virginia who intervened to preserve their state’s law, or the aforementioned Madison and Mary Kate, who intervened to protect Idaho’s law. There’s still much more work to be done before we can fully guarantee that women’s sports are fully protected, but there are many signs of hope for a brighter future. As we’ve recently seen, UPenn, which had allowed a male to compete and steal medals from women, changed its tune (thanks to pressure by the Trump administration) by apologizing and preventing any more men from competing and restoring the records of female athletes affected by his participation. By granting our cases, the Supreme Court is giving West Virginia, Idaho, and many other states the opportunity to cross the finish line. But more importantly, it’s giving every girl in America a fair chance to win. This op-ed originally ran in The Hill on July 10, 2025
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Rachael Eastham, Lecturer in Young People’s Health Inequalities, Division of Health Research, Lancaster University
Homabay, Kenya, in February 2025.Rachael Eastham, CC BY
My phone wouldn’t stop ringing – nurses, social workers, young mothers – all begging for help. ‘I’ve lost my job,’ ‘I have no food,’ ‘What do we do now?’ I felt helpless.
These are the words of Rogers Omollo, founder and CEO of Activate Action – a youth-led non-profit organisation that supports young people with HIV and disabilities in Homa Bay, a town in west Kenya on the shores of Lake Victoria.
As specialists in youth and sexual and reproductive health, we were on a field trip to learn from Omollo and others like him. We wanted to find out about the work they were doing to tackle HIV, stigma and health inequalities.
But our time there was dominated by one thing: President Donald Trump’s executive order which put almost all international spending by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on pause for a 90-day review and subsequently took a wrecking ball to all international aid programmes funded by the US.
In July, research published in The Lancet medical journal found that the US funding cuts towards foreign humanitarian aid could cause more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, with a third of those at risk of premature deaths being children. Davide Rasella, who co-authored the report, said low- and middle-income countries were facing a shock “comparable in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict”.
In the immediate aftermath, we saw firsthand the profound impact the “pause” had in this community. Activate Action is not directly funded by USAID, but as we followed in the footsteps of our host, Omollo, meeting the organisation’s collaborators and beneficiaries, the true extent of the funding freeze became shockingly apparent.
Places like Homa Bay relied heavily on USAID funding to keep hospitals and clinics running, to ensure access to essential medicines, and to support reproductive health and HIV programmes. The executive order, in principle, resulted in the immediate halting of over US$68 billion (£51 billion) in foreign aid, a substantial portion of which supports lifesaving reproductive health and HIV programmes worldwide.
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As we walked through abandoned offices and healthcare facilities speaking to bewildered people out of work and in need of critical services in February 2025, the chilling reality set in. Omollo reflected:
People who have spent years saving lives are now struggling to survive. The clinics are empty, the hope in their voices fading. It broke my heart. I wanted to scream, to fix it, but the truth hit hard – we can’t depend on one lifeline. If funding stops, lives should not. We must build something stronger, something that lasts.
So, before we even set off on our research trip to unite sexual and reproductive health advocates and collaborate with African partners, we knew we were swimming against this tide.
Final figures remain unclear but in early 2025, the abrupt suspension of an estimated US$500 million of funding to Kenya was suggested by Amnesty International to have led to the layoff of 54,000 community health workers – many of whom had been part of robust, locally led responses to HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.
The decision to do this was driven by US audit and efficiency “reevaluations” over 8,000 miles away in Washington. Decisions were made and implemented by small numbers of people within the Trump administration including Elon Musk, whose estimated individual wealth far exceeds the gross domestic product of many entire east African nations, including Kenya.
Despite years of progress in community-based healthcare systems managed by Kenyans just like Activate Action, these cuts by one external donor disrupted critical services overnight. This also demonstrated that African health systems, no matter how effective, remain subject to profound external control.
Our project was funded in October 2024, before Trump’s re-election. One week of activities in the UK, one week in Kenya. By the time Activate Action visited Lancaster, in the north of England, in January 2025, we had already started to raise eyebrows as our colleagues began receiving communications from USAID-funded initiatives about pausing projects. Two weeks later, by the time we gathered in Kenya, the immediate human cost was clear to see.
‘The field has been eviscerated’
We sat at the back of a meeting observing training for an Activate Action initiative that would see community health champions offer peer support for their neighbours on safer sex and HIV prevention. In a building that was usually busy and populated by USAID-funded staff, the lights remained on in only one room.
Before visiting Homa Bay, we knew of its reputation when it came to the so-called triple threat of gender-based violence, HIV infection and teenage pregnancy rates – all of which disproportionately affects this semi-rural county in west Kenya.
As we watched the training, a colleague based in Europe (who was instrumental in connecting some of the members of our group) texted after learning we were in Kenya, saying:
It’s terrifying. Document it. No one gets it. The field has been eviscerated.
So, what did this evisceration look like?
Staff directly affected by the order were either not permitted to talk about what was happening on the record or didn’t feel safe doing so. We spoke to at least five people who told us directly they couldn’t “speak out” and were nervous about us taking any photographs.
An Activate Action event on International Condoms Day in February 2023. Rogers Omollo, CC BY
We saw how scores of people were served their notice to cease projects, backdated and effective immediately – a stop work order, followed by (for reasons with cloudy legal foundations) official terminations to contracts. Their economic and professional futures left hanging in the balance.
As we navigated workshops and meetings, Omollo (now unexpectedly advantaged through Activate Action not being USAID-funded) continued to receive multiple texts, calls and emails from people seeking work.
A researcher we know working on a USAID supported HIV and maternity care project described doing frantic overtime in the face of uncertainty. She needed to put in hours of extra (unpaid) work to communicate with research participants as it would not be ethical to abruptly disappear on people currently engaged in an active research programme.
She had no way to manage expectations with those she spoke to and no way of knowing if they were saying a final “thank you and goodbye” to the people she had been working with for months. Despite the descriptions of USAID project funds being “paused”, she was quickly served a full termination of employment notice.
In east Africa, where this sudden and mass unemployment of vital technical and administrative staff is happening, more than half of young people aged 15-35 are unemployed. The rate is even higher among young women in rural areas (up to 66%.)
A greater horror unfolds when you consider who these unemployed workers are usually paid to help because they serve communities with some of the highest needs related to HIV, teenage pregnancy and gender-based violence.
The youth health facility we visited, for example, was locked up when we arrived. We sat in stunned silence in an empty three-roomed building with a youth HIV counsellor. We were shown photographs that showed how it was once a vibrant and busy place.
Locked up youth health facility. Rachael Eastham, CC BY
Here, the free services and information on HIV, contraception and mental health was being delivered by skilled and non-judgmental youth specialists. But it was closed down from January 20, 2025 and its future remains uncertain. A free condom dispenser outside lay empty, all supplies given out on closure day in a last ditch attempt to help young people remain safe over the coming weeks.
In Homa Bay, huge achievements have been made in addressing teenage pregnancy and adolescent HIV infection in recent years. There has been a remarkable decline in prevalence rates, new infections, and HIV-related deaths, aided by robust treatment programmes that contribute to better health. People have been living with HIV at undetectable levels, therefore unable to transmit infection. But this “safe” status requires ongoing treatment with antiretroviral medication.
What now in the absence of USAID?
But at the time of our visit, the delivery of antiretroviral therapy was becoming more restricted and would require collection by the user every three weeks, rather than the usual three months, therefore lasting the user a shorter time. To service providers we spoke to, this increase in the frequency of collection of medication was known to be a significant barrier for people having to travel long distances more frequently without transport to get their supply replenished.
Omollo explained to us that Homa Bay is also a medication hub, of sorts. People come here from other communities where, due to stigma, the risks of being identified as someone who is HIV positive in their own communities are much higher.
Every conversation we had yielded new information about the reality. Gender-based violence projects were also suspended, in part because of the Trump administration’s intentions to end “gender ideology”. A service provider joked despondently during a presentation how: “I got sacked for saying gender.”
In Kenya, femicide (the murder of women or girls because of their gender) has been described as a “crisis” requiring urgent action. In Homa Bay specifically, the sexual and gender-based violence statistics are higher than national averages and have been on the rise, especially among young people.
This follows alarming countrywide coverage about femicide across Kenya including high profile and horrifying cases such as that of the Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei.. Official figures are unclear but there are currently widespread protests and calls to action related to this injustice.
Activate Action had recently won one USAID award focusing on men living with HIV and substance use problems (factors that are both implicated in gender-based violence). Since the USAID funding freeze this offer has instantly been dissolved with no expectation of reinstatement.
Meanwhile, the fight against cervical cancer – the leading cause of cancer death in Kenya – has also been hit. Human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination campaigns across the county have stalled, despite the fact the vaccines help prevent cervical cancer.
At one point, a 23-year-old mother of three small children asked us directly if we found it troubling (as she did) that she will not be able to receive maternal healthcare and her contraception. The list of effects is grim and feels endless.
Collateral damage
When our group convened for a workshop at a community venue with sexual and reproductive health and rights staff from across the area, the chatter was similarly focused on the effects of the USAID funding freeze, but this time in the direct shadow of operations.
Next door, four-wheel drive Jeeps had been recalled and locked behind USAID premises gates, gathering dust instead of being out in the field delivering HIV outreach services. They represented the stasis of operations more widely.
Dr Peter Ibembe, from a party of service providers visiting from Uganda, was formerly a Programme Director for the non-governmental organisation Reproductive Health Uganda where he was in charge of service delivery. He spoke to us about the atmosphere:
An eerie tone of quiet has descended on the place. Many have been suddenly rendered jobless; creating mental stress, depression, anxiety. But there has also been an indirect effect on the wider community through the entire value chain: landlords, banks and other credit institutions; food vendors; gas stations; transportation facilities and companies; hotels, restaurants and lodges; schools hospitals and the like.
Everyone has been left in limbo. Kenya, despite gradual improvements, is a lower middle income country. Poverty identified by the World Bank as a key development challenge for the nation with, in 2022, over 20 million Kenyans identified as living below the poverty line. So these knock-on effects can be drastic.
At an organisational level we also saw clearly how the boundaries of any one project running within any organisation cannot be neatly drawn, nor can projects be plucked from this matrix discretely in the way we might imagine when we hear how “USAID projects” have been suspended. This way of thinking profoundly undermines the reality of what these cuts mean because many projects are interdependent and interrelated. Omollo added:
Whilst Activate Action was not directly funded by USAID, the overall reduction in health services affects the community they serve. The lack of support for HIV prevention, mental health and economic empowerment programmes placed additional strain on grassroots organisations like us … which have had to fill gaps with limited resources.
Omollo taking a selfie with Activate Action on International Condoms Day in February 2023. Rogers Omollo, CC BY
Services the world over, especially community based services, usually operate with multiple funding streams each providing different projects. Naturally the people, resources and activities overlap. To stress, this is not evidence of the “corruption” the Trump administration claims it wants to weed out, but it is the reality of how services reliant on external funding work.
It is usual that a patchwork of project grants function together to keep the doors open and the lights on. In fact, the sharing of operational resource is what bolsters an organisation’s capacity to serve its communities most effectively.
Considering “USAID projects” as single discretely bounded entities belie the messy complexity of how community and healthcare services work.
For another example of this kind of inter-connection, look no further than “table banking”. Table banking has been described as a “microcredit movement by women and for women” – effectively a DIY bank. We saw table banking used at Activate Action’s Street Business School, an initiative that tackles HIV through training women and building economic sustainability so they do not become trapped in poverty which may force them into have transactional sex. From a seated circle under trees, we watched as the collective pay in and take out loans to support their businesses from a central informal “bank account”.
Beneficiaries from this project continue to come together every Thursday, pooling finances and taking loans to sustain their business needs for the coming week (for example, buying stock for their market stalls). They told us how they are planning to collaborate on a catering business which will mean the older, sicker members of the group remain able to work and earn.
Similarly, Omollo told us how “a bit like table banking”, among his friends and colleagues, they also pool finance on a weekly basis to tick off items on a collective shopping list. He said: “One week we buy for one person, the next week, the next person and so on, until we all have a microwave.”
These demonstrations of microfinance arguably present, however idealistic, inspiration for a more financially sustainable future whereby its principles offer a “light of hope” at grassroots level, possibilities for nations in meeting sustainable development goals and, crucially in this context, freedom from dependency on external donors.
Social dictators of health
When we planned this exchange project, we wanted to work with Activate Action because of our shared interests.
Its explicit focus on the “social determinants of health” (the non-medical factors that affect health) is a refreshing departure from so many health programmes that seek to intervene on a person’s behaviour without attending to how it may be shaped by the wider social system.
For example, in the case of Homa Bay, Activate Action works to address root causes, such as poverty. Poverty means that transactional sex (which could be sex for food or period products) is common. Unsafe sex can be a hallmark of these sexual encounters, increasing HIV risk and transmission. Helping women build businesses, earn their own money to buy food and make their own period pads, reduces the need to trade sex for necessities.
As we sat discussing the various ways the cancelling of USAID would have devastating effects on different programmes and so the lives of different people, we realised how myriad social determinants – such as income, unemployment and healthcare services – are overwhelmingly contingent on distant regimes. Regimes run by people who seem to demonstrate little regard for the lives of disadvantaged and minoritised people.
No period of consultation, no management of expectations – a profound example of how bigger systems that govern our social lives can, in fact, dictate the outcomes of our health.
Antiretroviral drugs for HIV literally keep people alive and prevent transmission to others. Efforts to critique the USAID freeze by the inspector general of USAID, Paul Martin, saw him sacked. Again, no reason was given, and the White House did not have any comment.
When we were trying to explore whether termination notices for staff in Kenya were even legal, one media report about a judicial effort to halt the USAID stop work order noted that Trump has a “high threshold for legal risk”. An insight into what type of threats we may need to consider when trying to understand risks to and protections for health in the future.
Dr Ibembe, who provided closing remarks to our workshop, highlighted how “the effect of USAID cuts on the east African development landscape has been nothing short of seismic. It has created an environment of uncertainty, fear and stress. In some instances, up to 80% of health-related initiatives are donor supported. The funding and operational gap created is almost insurmountable.”
This reliance on external financial support and limited domestic financing in Kenya and other sub-Saharan African countries is common. This makes a nation vulnerable. Kenya also experiences substantial “donor dependency” especially across the health system which makes it harder to absorb the shock of a donor pulling funds.
In other words, this is a highly precarious system that is going through a shock which it will find incredibly difficult to withstand.
The situation is a stark reminder of just how unfair the power dynamics are that dictate African health governance and sovereignty.
Conversations about reducing the dependence of countries like Kenya on external donors have been going on for a long time. Throughout it has been acknowledged that any transition away from donor dependence needs to be carefully managed to avoid upsetting all the gains that have been made through initiatives like those funded by USAID. This has been completely impossible given the pace of change since January 2025 when the USAID stop work order came into play.
African solutions to African problems
The question now is not merely how African institutions will survive these disruptions but how they will leverage them as an impetus for change. Discussions about donor dependency arguably contribute to the framing of African states and institutions that are economically vulnerable and a “risk”. This in turn creates a negative bias that has recently been identified as costing African nations billions in lost or missed investment opportunities.
While financial constraints are a reality, the dominance of stereotypes also means we may overlook the effective strategic responses and resilience demonstrated by African organisations over the years. The challenge is not simply to reduce donor reliance but to reposition African institutions as key architects of health solutions through approaches that emphasise ownership, sustainability and regional integration.
Omollo talking to The Street Business School in January 2023. Rogers Omollo, CC BY
The Afya na Haki (Ahaki) institute provides a clear example of this shift towards what they refer to as “Africentric” models of health governance. The aim is to build African solutions to African problems.
This approach is anchored on four key pillars: amplifying positive African narratives; strengthening engagement with African regional institutions; supporting and fostering collaboration among African non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other organisations; and bringing together African experts and communities to create knowledge that reflects local realities and needs.
Yet, restrictive policies that pre-date the USAID cuts such as the global gag rule which means NGOs are prohibited from receiving any US government funding if they provide, advocate for, or even refer to abortion services, have significantly disrupted this work, forcing institutions to rethink their operational strategies. An Ahaki staff member told us how their core focus on empowering Africans has been “thrown into disarray”.
Research that puts African stories and priorities front and centre is crucial – not just for shaping policies but for shifting the focus from dependence on external aid to African-led solutions and self-determination.
‘Hope hasn’t disappeared’
Within days of the USAID executive order on January 20, the USAID website was unreachable and our colleagues in Homa Bay sat reeling. By February 14, just after our visit, it was confirmed that a federal judge had successfully blocked the funding suspensions, although the relevance of this for people and projects like those we met in Homa Bay, whose contracts had already been terminated, was limited.
This executive order is one of many that has triggered global shockwaves. But for every action there is a reaction and we have also witnessed international resistance, from protests of USAID and nonprofit workers in Washington, to 500 Kenyan community workers demanding their unpaid salaries.
Musk’s company Tesla has been subject to widespread boycott and coordinated protest by “Tesla Takedown” in over 250 cities around the world. Canada has also made strides to reject American imports and strengthen its domestic markets, building greater independence from the USA, echoing desires of many African nations in relation to US donor dependence.
Musk suggested that USAID needs “to die” due to widespread corruption – an assertion that remains unsubstantiated. However, the violence and damage of this sentiment is being realised. As the sites we visited remain eerie and empty, gathering dust, our immediate concern is for the people and communities that agencies once funded by USAID represent and serve.
Omollo, and others like him, are now finding new ways to navigate these problems. The ripple effects of the USAID funding freeze have hit hard, programs have stalled, uncertainty has grown and communities are feeling the strain.
“But in the cracks, we’ve found ways to adapt,” he said. “At Activate Action, we’ve leaned on local partnerships, stretched every resource, and kept showing up for young people. Hope hasn’t disappeared; it’s just become something we fight for daily.”
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We would like to acknowledge the specific contribution of Rogers Omollo from Activate Action in developing this article.
Christopher Baguma works with Afya na Haki as a Director of Programmes.
Imagine waking up to the news that a deadly new strain of flu has emerged in your city. Health officials are downplaying it, but social media is flooded with contradictory claims from “medical experts” debating its origin and severity.
Hospitals are filled with patients showing flu-like symptoms, preventing other patients from accessing care and ultimately leading to deaths. It gradually emerges that a foreign adversary orchestrated this panic by planting false information – such as the strain having a very high death rate. Yet despite the casualties, no rules define this as an act of war.
This is cognitive warfare, or cog war for short, where the cognitive domain is used on battlefields or in hostile attacks below the threshold of war.
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A classical example of cog war is a concept called “reflexive control” – an art refined by Russia over many decades. It involves shaping an adversary’s perceptions to your own benefit without them understanding that they have been manipulated.
In the context of the Ukraine conflict, this has included narratives about historical claims to Ukrainian land and portraying the west as morally corrupt.
Cog war serves to gain advantage over an adversary by targeting attitudes and behaviour at the individual, group or population level. It is designed to modify perceptions of reality, making “human cognition shaping” into a critical realm of warfare. It is therefore a weapon in a geopolitical battle that plays out by interactions across human minds rather than across physical realms.
Because cog war can be waged without the physical damage regulated by the current laws of war, it exists in a legal vacuum. But that doesn’t mean it cannot ultimately incite violence based on false information or cause injury and death by secondary effects.
Battle of minds, bodily damage
The notion that war is essentially a mental contest, where cognitive manipulation is central, harks back to the strategist Sun Tzu (fifth century BC), author of The Art of War. Today, the online domain is the main arena for such operations.
The digital revolution has allowed ever-more tailored content to play into biases mapped through our digital footprint, which is called “microtargeting”. Machine intelligence can even feed us targeted content without ever taking a picture or recording a video. All it takes is a well-designed AI prompt, supporting bad actors’ pre-defined narrative and goals, while covertly misleading the audience.
Such disinformation campaigns increasingly reach into the physical domain of the human body. In the war in Ukraine, we see continued cog war narratives. These include allegations that the Ukrainian authorities were concealing or purposefully inciting cholera outbreaks. Allegations of US-supported bioweapons labs also formed part of false-flag justifications for Russia’s full-scale invasion.
During COVID, false information led to deaths when people refused protective measures or used harmful remedies to treat it. Some narratives during the pandemic were driven as part of a geopolitical battle. While the US engaged in covert information operations, Russian and Chinese state-linked actors coordinated campaigns that used AI-generated social media personas and microtargeting to shape opinions at the level of communities and individuals.
Fake image of Donald Trump being arrested. wikipedia
The capability of microtargeting may evolve rapidly as methods for brain-machine coupling become more proficient at collecting data on cognition patterns. Ways of providing a better interface between machines and the human brain range from advanced electrodes that you can put on your scalp to virtual reality goggles with sensory stimulation for a more immersive experience.
Darpa’s Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) program illustrates how these devices may become capable of reading from and writing to multiple points in the brain at once. However, these tools might also be hacked or fed poisoned data as a part of future information manipulation or psychological disruption strategies. Directly linking the brain to the digital world in this way will erode the line between the information domain and the human body in a way never done before.
Legal gap
Traditional laws of war assume physical force such as bombs and bullets as the primary concern, leaving cognitive warfare in a legal grey zone. Is psychological manipulation an “armed attack” that justifies self-defence under the UN charter? Currently, no clear answer exists. A state actor could potentially use health disinformation to create mass casualties in another country without formally starting a war.
Similar gaps exist in situations where war, as we traditionally see it, is actually ongoing. Here, cog war can blur the line between permitted military deception (ruses of war) and prohibited perfidy.
Imagine a humanitarian vaccination programme secretly collecting DNA, while covertly used by military forces to map clan-based insurgent networks. This exploitation of medical trust would constitute perfidy under humanitarian law – but only if we start recognising such manipulative tactics as part of warfare.
Developing regulations
So, what can be done to protect us in this new reality? First, we need to rethink what “threats” mean in modern conflict. The UN charter already outlaws “threats to use force” against other nations, but this makes us stuck in a mindset of physical threats.
When a foreign power floods your media with false health alerts designed to create panic, isn’t that threatening your country just as effectively as a military blockade?
While this issue was recognised as early as 2017, by the groups of experts who drafted the Tallinn Manual on cyberwarfare (Rule 70), our legal frameworks haven’t caught up.
Second, we must acknowledge that psychological harm is real harm. When we think about war injuries, we picture physical wounds. But post-traumatic stress disorder has long been recognised as a legitimate war injury – so why not the mental health effects of targeted cognitive operations?
Finally, traditional laws of war might not be enough – we should look to human rights frameworks for solutions. These already include protections for freedom of thought, freedom of opinion and prohibitions against war propaganda that could shield civilians from cognitive attacks. States have obligations to uphold these rights both within their territory and abroad.
The use of increasingly sophisticated tactics and technologies to manipulate cognition and emotion poses one of the most insidious threats to human autonomy in our time. Only by adapting our legal frameworks to this challenge can we foster societal resilience and equip future generations to confront the crises and conflicts of tomorrow.
David Gisselsson Nord receives funding from the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Cancer Society and the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation. He has also received a travel grant from the US Department of Defence.
Alberto Rinaldi has received funding from the The Raoul Wallenberg Visiting Chair in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and the Swedish Research Council.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Chee Meng Tan, Assistant Professor of Business Economics, University of Nottingham
Political and economic pressures might force Chinese president and overall leader Xi Jinping to delegate some of his powers to his deputies in a highly significant move. This has prompted some observers and media outlets to speculate that Xi’s grip on power may be waning.
A major part of why this is happening is likely to stem from Xi’s difficulties in dealing with China’s economic woes, which began from a real estate crisis in 2021. For years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has relied on providing economic prosperity to legitimise its rule over the country.
But the continuously lacklustre performance of the Chinese economy over the past four years coupled with Trump’s trade war with Beijing is making recovery a difficult task. And this is likely to be a factor that undermines Xi’s rule.
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These rumours about Xi started just after the latest meeting, on June 30, of the politburo (the principal policy making body of the party), which brings China’s top leaders together to make major decisions.
For people who don’t follow Chinese politics, the idea of Xi delegating some authority might seem nothing special. However, in understanding China, it’s important to understand that Xi has massive power, and it seems the politburo is signalling there are some changes on the horizon.
What are the clues?
Symbolism and indirect language play an important role in how the communist party communicates with Chinese people. The way it is done comes through slogans or key phrases, which are collectively known as “tifa (提法)”’.
This method of information is important since it shapes political language and debate, and influences how a Chinese, and international, audience understands what’s going on. At first glance, the politburo’s call for enhancing “policy coordination” and the “review process” of major tasks may appear to indicate that the central government is seeking to ensure local officials follow through with Beijing’s agenda.
For experienced China watchers there are hints here that this powerful decision-making body is making a veiled threat against Xi for holding on to too much power. But the opaque nature of China’s elite decision-making process, where a great deal of backroom politics occurs behind closed doors, means that decoding its messages isn’t always easy.
China’s president Xi Jinping on a public outing, after several weeks when he was not seen in public.
Because of all of this, there is increasing speculation that a power struggle is in progress. This isn’t entirely surprising given Xi’s purge of many senior party officials through anti-corruption campaigns and dominance over the highest levels of government is likely to have earned him many enemies over the years.
Another sign that all isn’t going well with Xi’s regime is the removal of some his allies from key positions within the government. Xi began his anti-corruption campaign in 2012 when he became China’s leader. On paper, while officially framed as a drive to clean up corruption, evidence suggests that the campaign may have been used to remove Xi’s political rivals.
The problem for Xi is that the campaign is being used against his loyalists as well. In October 2023, defence minister Li Shangfu, who was considered a Xi ally, was sacked due to what was later confirmed in 2024 to be from due to corruption charges. But the dismissals of Xi loyalists continued.
But even if it weren’t and the purges are part of a concerted effort to stamp out corruption, Xi’s campaign will not only cast aspersions on his ability to appoint the right people into government, but also create a climate of fear among allies and potentially create further enemies. Either scenario puts Xi on the spot. But since Xi became China’s head of state in 2013, he and his loyalists have taken over leadership of many key national commissions, making him the most powerful Chinese leader since the time of Chairman Mao.
But it looks like Xi is about to delegate some of his power, and there are some other decisions that may indicate a shift. For the first time since coming into power in 2012, Xi skipped the annual summit organised by the Brics group (named after Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Instead, from July 5 to 7 this year, Chinese premier Li Qiang, led a delegation to Rio de Janeiro.
This isn’t the first time that Li has represented Xi in high-profile conferences abroad. In September 2023, Li attended the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, and has taken part in Asean summits.
But the Brics appearance alongside with Li’s increasingly prominent role in economic policy making may suggest that his influence is on the rise, while Xi’s is declining. Watch this space.
Chee Meng Tan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Pollution causes more illness and early death than any other environmental threat, accounting for one in six deaths worldwide. For decades, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD) has driven many of the biggest advances for safeguarding human health and ecosystems from chemicals.
But that changed when a recent Supreme Court ruling gave the Trump administration the green light to proceed with widespread redundancies and the total elimination of ORD.
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Now, in so doing, the US is not just gutting its own scientific foundation. It’s also putting decades of global progress in chemical safety, pollution control and public health at risk.
ORD is the EPA’s independent science arm, conducting research that supports clean air, water and land. From detecting pollutants and assessing health risks to guiding environmental cleanup, it ensures EPA decisions are grounded in credible, evidence-based research. ORD develops this science under intense scientific, policy, political and legal scrutiny, which means it produces the best available science that is credible and robust.
While most scientists focused on known pollutants, ORD used advanced screening tools to detect GenX, a little-known synthetic “forever chemical”. Despite evidence that GenX was contaminating the river basin since the 1980s, not much was known about its potential to harm living systems.
Forever chemicals were found to be polluting North Carolina’s Cape Fear River in the US. Kosoff/Shutterstock, CC BY-NC-ND
ORD rapidly filled this void, linking GenX to decreased birth weight and increased mortality in newborn rats, prompting swift regulatory action against the manufacturer to ensure cleaner, safer water for local communities. No other government agency in the world delivers this kind of rapid, science-led response.
It’s not just the strength of ORD’s science that sets it apart, but also its visionary thinking. Among ORD’s most influential ideas is a model that maps out how a chemical is causing harm.
This works like a chain of building blocks, linking tiny effects (like a chemical disrupting a hormone) to much bigger problems, such as cancer or even extinction. Each step shows how one change leads to another until it reaches something we truly care about. This approach helps scientists detect danger early, before it leads to irreversible damage.
Then there’s the EPA’s groundbreaking work in computational toxicology. Nearly two decades ago, leading scientists warned that chemical safety testing relied too heavily on outdated methods and animal experiments.
In response, ORD built ToxCast, a system that uses tiny cells and computer models to screen thousands of chemicals for effects like endocrine disruption or cell damage. It’s faster, cheaper and more humane, and helps scientists predict which substances may pose serious risks.
These scientific breakthroughs don’t come from policy offices. They require researchers with the independence to explore and innovate.
Beyond the US
Europe has bold goals to phase out animal testing. Much of the science driving this shift comes from ORD.
Tools like Ecotox (the world’s largest chemical toxicity database) and the CompTox dashboard (a platform that links predictive models and non-animal test data for over a million substances) are widely used across the EU and UK. Without ORD, these vital resources, hosted by EPA, could disappear, stalling global progress toward safer, more ethical chemical testing.
ORD is a leading scientific institution with global reach. Its tools and ideas have shaped how governments detect hazardous chemicals, understand their effects, and protect people and the planet. From toxicity databases to modern, non-animal testing methods, ORD underpins how we respond to pollution. Eliminating it would create a dangerous void, just as chemical and climate threats are accelerating.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
North Carolina State University receives funding from the California Air Resources Board for a research project for which Dr. Frey is a co-principal investigator. H. Christopher Frey served from 2022 to 2024 as Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development, and as Science Advisor, at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Tamara Tal previously worked at the US EPA in the Office of Research and Development.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11)
WASHINGTON, DC —Today, Rep. Mikie Sherrill issued the following statement condemning the Trump Administration for the decision to use Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst for DHS detention operations:
“It is unacceptable that Secretary Hegseth has approved the use of property at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst for DHS detention operations.
“This is a blatant misuse of one of New Jersey’s most critical military assets and reduces a vital national security installation to a stage for political theater, which flies in the face of an apolitical military. Using the base for detention operations risks degrading operational capacity, places an inappropriate burden on our servicemembers, and harms civil-military relations.
“The administration has diverted funding away from supporting our troops for this effort in other states, which is another reason I am strongly opposed to this plan. If DHS needs additional capacity for immigration enforcement, it should seek appropriate funding and resources from Congress, not rely on the military to fill the gap.
“The administration should immediately reverse this decision and respect the essential role our servicemembers and military bases play in defending the nation.”
CARNEGIE, PA – Today, Congressman Chris Deluzio (PA-17) announced that $194,000 in NeighborWorks America Flexible Impact Grants have been awarded to NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania network sites headquartered in Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District. The grant will support efforts to help new homeowners, with the goal of lowering the cost of housing, building stronger and safer communities, and creating jobs.
“Housing is a ripoff for way too many people. So many who bust their butts at work still cannot afford a decent home,” said Congressman Deluzio. “This grant is about getting more housing options that don’t break the bank for families in Western PA. I’m proud to support efforts to invest in solid housing that folks can afford.”
The funding was awarded byNeighborWorks America, a congressionally chartered nonprofit, that works to help millions of Americans secure and sustain affordable homes through counseling and education for first-time homebuyers, and downpayment assistance loans for these buyers. The funding came in three installments of $57,000, $50,000, and $87,000 through theirFlexible Impacts Grants program.
The Trump Administration’s efforts to freeze funding and pause federal grants has created significant uncertainty for grantees, varying by agency and program. As of now, the courts have paused many of these freezes. However, Congressman Deluzio will continue to monitor these developments and fight to make sure this congressionally-authorized funding continues going to projects that make life better for Western Pennsylvanians. If you are the recipient of a federal grant and have been notified that this funding is no longer available to you or are experiencing other issues accessing your lawfully appropriated funds, please share your concerns with Congressman Deluzio’s office atPA17Grants@mail.house.gov.
WASHIGNTON, D.C. – Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham today praised the passage of digital asset legislation by the House of Representatives. “This week marks a significant milestone in the Trump Administration’s commitment to embrace the promise of digital assets and make America the crypto capital of the world. The GENIUS Act, which is now headed to the President’s desk, will open a new chapter in financial services. The House also took an important step forward in advancing the CLARITY Act, a long-awaited framework for the regulation of digital asset markets. “Under President Trump’s strong leadership and clear vision, Crypto Week is the beginning of America’s golden age of digital asset innovation. The CFTC stands ready to fulfill our mission and oversee our markets that enable U.S. economic growth and competitiveness. The future is bright. “Congratulations to House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman, as well as Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill, Senators Bill Hagerty and Cynthia Lummis, Representatives Bryan Steil and Dusty Johnson, and Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Majority Leader John Thune, their staffs and all who played a role in making this week possible.”
LAFAYETTE, La. – Acting United States Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Eric Delaune, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Tapp, and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Demetrius Hardeman, announced that a federal grand jury in the Western District of Louisiana has returned an indictment charging five individuals, including law enforcement officers and a central Louisiana business owner, with conspiracy and fraud charges. Those charged in the indictment and a list of their charges are as follows:
Defendant Name
Charges
Chandrakant Patel a/k/a “Lala,” of Oakdale, LA
Conspiracy to Commit Visa Fraud (1 count)
Bribery (1 count)
Mail Fraud (24 counts)
Money Laundering (8 counts)
Chad Doyle, Chief of Police for the City of Oakdale, LA
Conspiracy to Commit Visa Fraud (1 count)
Visa Fraud (6 counts)
Mail Fraud (6 counts)
Money Laundering (1 count)
Michael Slaney a/k/a “Freck,” Marshal of the Ward 5 Marshal’s Office in Oakdale, LA
Conspiracy to Commit Visa Fraud (1 count)
Visa Fraud (6 counts)
Mail Fraud (6 counts)
Money Laundering (2 counts)
Glynn Dixon, Chief of Police for the City of Forest Hill, LA
Conspiracy to Commit Visa Fraud (1 count)
Visa Fraud (6 counts)
Mail Fraud (6 counts)
Money Laundering (1 count)
Tebo Onishea, former Chief of Police for the City of Glenmora, LA
Conspiracy to Commit Visa Fraud (1 count)
Visa Fraud (6 counts)
Mail Fraud (6 counts)
The 62-count indictment alleges that from on or about December 26, 2015, and continuing until at least July 15, 2025, Patel, Doyle, Slaney, Dixon, and Onishea conspired together to commit Visa fraud, namely a nonimmigrant U-Visa, which defendants knew to be procured by means of false claims and statements and otherwise procured by fraud and unlawfully obtained by the defendants.
The indictment alleges that Patel, Doyle, Slaney, Dixon, Onishea, and others, authored, facilitated, produced and authenticated false police reports in several central Louisiana parishes. Each report listed several victims of purported armed robberies in the central Louisiana area and the defendants produced false police reports so that the purported victims of the robberies could apply for U-Visas.
Congress created the U nonimmigrant status (“U-Visa”) with the passage of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act in October 2000. The legislation was intended to strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute crime while also protecting victims of crimes who are willing to help law enforcement authorities in the investigation or prosecution of the criminal activity. Foreign nationals are eligible for a U-Visa if they meet certain criteria, including but not limited to, if they were a victim of qualifying criminal activity that occurred in or violated laws of the U.S., or possessed information about the criminal activity. Qualifying crime victims could apply for U-Visa status by submitting a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) Form I-918, Petition for U Nonimmigrant Status; a Form I-918, Supplement B, U Nonimmigrant Status Certification (“I-918B”) (requires signature of an authorized official of a certifying law enforcement agency confirmation that individual was a victim of a qualifying crime); and evidence to establish each eligibility requirement.
The indictment alleges that as part of this conspiracy to defraud, individuals seeking U-Visas (“aliens”) would contact Patel, or another facilitator who would then contact Patel, to be named as “victims” in police reports alleging that an armed robbery had occurred, so that they could submit applications for U-Visas. The indictment also alleges that aliens paid Patel thousands of dollars to participate, and in exchange, Patel would ask his co-conspirators, including Doyle, Slaney, Dixon, and Onishea, to write false police reports naming the Aliens as victims of alleged armed robberies and provide certification and attestation of U-Visa I-918B supporting documents as representatives of their respective law enforcement agencies.
It is also alleged in the indictment that Patel did corruptly give, offer, and agree to pay an agent of the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office the sum of $5,000 on February 18, 2025, intending to influence and reward said agent in exchange for a fraudulent police report from the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office.
The indictment further alleges that from approximately September 27, 2023 until December 26, 2024, Doyle, Slaney, Dixon, and Onishea did knowingly submit false statements with respect to material facts in immigration applications by signing I-918B forms as certifying officials stating that individuals were cooperating victims of crimes, which statements the defendants knew to be false and that the individuals were never victims of the crimes alleged in the I-918B forms.
In addition, the indictment alleges that for the purpose of executing the above-described scheme and artifice to defraud, Patel, Doyle, Slaney, Dixon, and Onishea did commit mail fraud by knowingly placing or causing to be placed in an authorized depository for mail matter, to be sent and delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, a private interstate carrier, or a commercial interstate carrier false Form I-918B created and submitted to USCIS.
Also included in the indictment are money laundering charges and forfeiture allegations against each defendant seeking forfeiture of various bank accounts, real property, and vehicles.
If convicted, the defendants each face a sentence of up to 5 years in prison on the conspiracy charge; up to 10 years on the visa fraud charges; up to 20 years on the mail fraud charge; and Patel faces up to 10 years on the bribery charge. In addition, they could be ordered to pay a fine of up to $250,000 on each count.
This case is being investigated and prosecuted by the Homeland Security Task Force (“HSTF”) as part of Operation Take Back America. HSTFs, which were established by President Trump in Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion, are joint operations led by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Operation Take Back America is a nationwide federal initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).
The case is being investigated by the Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services – Fraud Detection and National Security Division, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys John W. Nickel and Danny Siefker.
An indictment is merely an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Source: United States Senator for Idaho Mike Crapo
$3,600 to $6,400 increase in wages, 35,000 jobs protected
Washington, D.C.–According to estimates from the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) will raise real wages in Idaho by $3,600 to $6,400 over the next four years. The CEA also finds hundreds of thousands of Idahoans will benefit from the bill’s tax benefits for seniors, no tax on tips and no tax on overtime. The legislation will also protect 35,000 jobs in Idaho that would have been at risk if the Trump tax cuts had expired.
Idaho wages and take-home pay:
OBBB will raise wages in Idaho by an inflation-adjusted range of about $3,600 to $6,400 over the next four years.
A typical family with two children in Idaho can expect to see higher take-home pay of about $7,200 to $10,200 with OBBB compared to if it had not passed.
300,000 seniors in Idaho could benefit from tax relief for seniors in the legislation.
Around 24 percent of all employees in Idaho regularly work overtime and could benefit from the no tax on overtime.
Idaho jobs, businesses and housing:
OBBB will protect about 35,000 full-time equivalent jobs in Idaho over the next four years, relative to if the Trump tax cuts had expired.
41,000 firms in Idaho could be eligible for the law’s permanent small business deduction, or about 45 percent of all firms.
OBBB makes the Opportunity Zone program permanent, which will lead to increased investment in low-income communities across Idaho.
Read the CEA’s summary HERE on how the OBBB will help Idaho.
Click HERE to learn more about the Finance Committee provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Source: US Congressman Ryan Zinke (Western Montana)
Congressman Zinke voted to pass the Big Beautiful Bill after successfully leading an effort to remove public land sales from the legislation
Washington, D.C – On July 3rd, Western Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke voted to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), a historic piece of legislation delivering major wins for Montana families, workers, seniors, and small businesses. The bill was signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4th, cementing expanded tax relief, protection for critical healthcare and food security programs, strengthened border security, and a growth economy for Montanans and all American citizens.
“From protecting Montana jobs to increasing take-home pay and supporting small businesses, the One Big Beautiful Bill will deliver real results for Montana,” said Zinke. “This bill not only prevented the largest tax hike in American history but expanded tax relief for Social Security recipients, overtime earners, and tipped service industry workers. It reflects the core American promise: if you work hard, you should get what you earn. This legislation keeps that promise, while also reaffirming our support for those who need it most.”
Key Wins for Montana in the OBBB:
Wage Growth – Due to legislative provisions and tax cuts in the bill, wages in Montana will rise by an inflation-adjusted amount of $3,400 to $6,100 over the next four years.
Take Home Pay – A typical family with two children can expect $7,000 to $9,900 more in take-home pay with the OBBB in place.
Jobs Protected – The bill helps safeguard 22,000 full-time Montana jobs that would have been at risk if previous tax cuts were allowed to expire.
No Taxes on Social Security – With new deductions, the average Montana senior will pay zero taxes on their Social Security benefits, delivering tax relief to over 200,000 seniors in the state.
No Taxes on Overtime – Roughly 24% of Montana workers regularly work overtime and will see real benefits in their paychecks. As much as 64% of Montana workers are eligible for this relief.
No Taxes on Tips – About 4% of Montana’s labor force work in tipped industries and will see direct tax relief.
Death Tax Relief – The bill extends higher estate tax exemptions, protecting Montana’s family farms, ranches, and small businesses from being unfairly taxed at death.
No Sale of Public Lands – Congressman Ryan Zinke was successful in stripping a provision selling more than 450,000 acres of public land from the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”.
Protecting Healthcare Access and Food Security for Rural and Vulnerable Montanans:
No Cuts to Medicare – The OBBB does not touch Medicare benefits. Not a single dollar is cut from services seniors rely on.
Strengthening Medicaid and SNAP– The bill protects Medicaid and SNAP for pregnant women, children, seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families. By removing illegal aliens from the rolls and requiring able bodied adults to work part time to receive benefits, it eliminates pathways for fraud and abuse, ensures only eligible Americans receive coverage, and strengthens the system for the truly vulnerable, not illegal immigrants and fraudsters.
Support for Rural Hospitals – OBBB includes expanded protections for rural hospitals with $50 billion in targeted rural health grants under the “Rural Health Transformation Program” and gives states flexibility to support local providers, ensuring continued access to care in small towns and underserved areas.
Boosting Montana’s Economy:
Small Business Support – The bill extends the 199A small business tax deduction to about 29,000 Montana firms, nearly 45% of all businesses in the state.
Manufacturing Incentives – Targeted provisions support Montana’s manufacturing sector, which makes up 5% of total employment.
Opportunity Zones Made Permanent – Montana has 25 Opportunity Zones, including 10 on tribal land, which have already created 3,000 jobs and led to the construction of 500 new housing units.
Protecting the Northern and Southern Borders:
Tackles the Opioid Epidemic – Fights the flow of illicit fentanyl and deadly drugs across the southern border, helping combat the opioid crisis devastating Montana families and tribal communities.
Builds and Secures the Border Wall – Constructs hundreds of miles of new border wall and barriers to stop drug smuggling and human trafficking operations that reach Montana communities and Tribal Nations.
Funds Immigration, Customs, and Border Agencies at Record Levels – Provides resources for over 18,000 new frontline enforcement personnel, including 10,000 new ICE officers, 5,000 Customs officers, and 3,000 Border Patrol agents. This will helping secure both the southern and northern borders, which were left dangerously exposed under the Biden administration.
For additional information on the OBBB, visit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/obbb/
(July 18, 2025) WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) voted in favor of the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act, two landmark bills that lay the foundation for a safer, more innovative, and forward-looking financial future.
The CLARITY Act creates a long-overdue regulatory framework for digital assets by prioritizing consumer protection, offering market certainty, and supporting American innovation through clear oversight and stronger safeguards.
The GENIUS Act establishes a federal structure for payment stablecoins, aiming to protect consumers, encourage innovation, and strengthen the U.S. dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency.
Congressman Kean said, “Clear and responsible rules around digital assets, are essential to helping them reach their full potential while keeping American consumers safe. I am glad to see these bipartisan bills move forward and pass the House with support from both sides of the aisle. They provide the confidence and transparency businesses need to innovate, create new opportunities, and grow—in New Jersey and across the nation. With strong safeguards in place, we can ensure that America remains a global leader in the future of finance and digital payments. I look forward to seeing these bills reach President Trump’s desk and be signed into law.”
