Source: United States Senator for Rhode Island Jack Reed
WASHINGTON, DC – This week, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent a directive ordering senior military officials to submit plans to slash defense spending by 8 percent annually, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), the Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned that Hegseth’s arbitrary cuts coupled with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) potential firings of Defense Department personnel could make America less safe and dramatically reduce military readiness.
Reed stated: “These types of hasty, indiscriminate budget cuts would betray our military forces and their families and make America less safe. I’m all for cutting programs that don’t work, but this proposal is deeply misguided. Secretary Hegseth’s rushed, arbitrary strategy would have negative impacts on our security, economy, and industrial base.”
The bipartisan FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorized a Pentagon budget of roughly $850 billion. If the Trump Administration implements an annual 8 percent cut over the next five years it could mean approximately $300 billion less in military spending through fiscal year 2030.
If Secretary Hegseth’s dramatic 8 percent cut to the annual defense budget is enforced, it would also mean the U.S. would fall short of President Trump’s call for all NATO countries to spend at least 5 percent of their gross domestic product on defense. In order for the U.S. to meet that level of defense spending it would have to allocate about $1 trillion annually on the U.S. military budget.
The move also comes less than a year after China raised its annual defense budget by 7.2 percent for 2024 and amidst constant and repeated warning from bipartisan Congressional leaders that the world is more dangerous today and letting America’s national defense atrophy would weaken the nation and invite aggression instead of deterring conflict.
United States President Donald Trump has made a series of high-profile threats against Canada and other countries since his second term began a month ago — but his proposed educational reforms also require serious attention.
The 10 principles for educational revision include “restoring parental rights” by allowing parents to vote to appoint local school principals; abolishing teacher tenure, which will undermine teachers’ unions; and introducing merit pay. In addition, there are plans to “create a credentialing body to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values and support the American Way of Life.”
Trump declared during his inauguration speech that “we have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves — in many cases, to hate our country … All of this will change starting today, and it will change very quickly.”
Evidently, significant educational reform is a high priority.
Reforms to the American education system should be cause for concern for Canadians. The overt attacks on public education that we are seeing in the U.S. are already occurring in Canada, albeit often in more insidious and fragmented ways.
The parental rights movement also aims to undermine school-based sexual health education, which most parents support.
Across provinces
In 2023, Saskatchewan passed a Parents’ Bill of Rights requiring parental consent for children under the age of 16 to use a different pronoun or name in school.
This year, Alberta introduced a more expansive bill banning gender-affirming care for children under the age of 16 and banning trans women and girls from competing in female sports.
The parental rights rhetoric, a dog-whistle for anti-2SLGBTQ+ views, is not new in Canada. However, it seems to be finding renewed energy, especially in conservative-led provinces.
Anti-2SLGBTQ+ rhetoric can also found in recent attempts to advocate for book bans (like in Chilliwack B.C. and in Manitoba in 2022) or in protests against Drag Queen story hours (in Ontario in 2023).
Similarly, attempts to undermine teachers and their unions are occurring.
For example, the Manitoba government recently passed Bill 35. The legislation was introduced under the premise of addressing teacher sexual misconduct, but the bill’s language was broadened to include teacher “competence” and “professionalism.”
Strong public schools rely on qualified teachers whose professional judgment and autonomy is protected and supported, in part, by teacher unions.
The events unfolding in the U.S. should act as a warning to Canadians, calling us to pay close attention to what is happening in our local school districts and school boards.
Being able to understand and identify regressive reform efforts and how they are subverting public education and democracy — as we endeavour to foster and build real relationships in our local school communities — is of urgent and national concern.
Melanie D. Janzen receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and is a volunteer for People for Public Education Manitoba.
Jordan Laidlaw is a volunteer for People for Public Education Manitoba.
A Kansas man pleaded guilty today to operating an internet-based platform that generated false doctors’ orders to defraud Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs of more than $1 billion.
According to court documents, Gregory Schreck, 50, of Johnson County, admitted that he and his co-conspirators targeted hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries to provide their personally identifiable information and agree to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces, pain creams, and other items through misleading mailers, television advertisements, and calls from offshore call centers. Schreck and his co-conspirators owned, controlled, and operated DMERx, an internet-based platform that generated false and fraudulent doctors’ orders for orthotic braces, pain creams, and other items for these beneficiaries. Schreck, a vice president of the company that operated DMERx, admitted that he offered to connect pharmacies, durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, and marketers with telemedicine companies that would accept illegal kickbacks and bribes in exchange for signed doctors’ orders that were transmitted using the DMERx platform. Schreck and his co-conspirators received payments for coordinating these illegal kickback transactions and referring the completed doctors’ orders to the DME suppliers, pharmacies, and telemarketers that paid for them. The fraudulent doctors’ orders generated by DMERx falsely represented that a doctor had examined and treated the Medicare beneficiaries when, in reality, purported telemedicine companies paid doctors to sign the orders without regard to medical necessity and based only on a brief telephone call with the beneficiary, or sometimes no interaction with the beneficiary at all. The DME suppliers and pharmacies that paid illegal kickbacks in exchange for these doctors’ orders generated through DMERx billed Medicare and other insurers more than $1 billion. Medicare and the insurers paid more than $360 million based on these false and fraudulent claims.
Schreck pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting Special Agent in Charge Isaac Bledsoe of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Miami Regional Office; Acting Special Agent in Charge Justin E. Fleck of the FBI Miami Field Office; Special Agent in Charge David Spilker of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG)’s Southeast Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Jason Sargenski of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Southeast Field Office made the announcement.
HHS-OIG, FBI, VA-OIG, and DCIS are investigating the case.
Trial Attorneys Darren C. Halverson and Jennifer E. Burns of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case. Fraud Section Trial Attorneys Andrea Savdie and Shane Butland assisted in the prosecution.
The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,800 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $30 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.
Source: United States Senator for North Dakota John Hoeven
02.20.25
WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven today issued the following statement after the Senate confirmed Kash Patel to serve as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI):
“Kash Patel has served as a public defender, prosecutor, and in leadership positions at the Department of Defense, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and National Security Council. He will focus the FBI on protecting the American people and prioritizing law and order to help make our communities safer. We congratulate Director Patel on his confirmation to lead the FBI.”
A Kansas man pleaded guilty today to operating an internet-based platform that generated false doctors’ orders to defraud Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs of more than $1 billion.
According to court documents, Gregory Schreck, 50, of Johnson County, admitted that he and his co-conspirators targeted hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries to provide their personally identifiable information and agree to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces, pain creams, and other items through misleading mailers, television advertisements, and calls from offshore call centers. Schreck and his co-conspirators owned, controlled, and operated DMERx, an internet-based platform that generated false and fraudulent doctors’ orders for orthotic braces, pain creams, and other items for these beneficiaries. Schreck, a vice president of the company that operated DMERx, admitted that he offered to connect pharmacies, durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, and marketers with telemedicine companies that would accept illegal kickbacks and bribes in exchange for signed doctors’ orders that were transmitted using the DMERx platform. Schreck and his co-conspirators received payments for coordinating these illegal kickback transactions and referring the completed doctors’ orders to the DME suppliers, pharmacies, and telemarketers that paid for them. The fraudulent doctors’ orders generated by DMERx falsely represented that a doctor had examined and treated the Medicare beneficiaries when, in reality, purported telemedicine companies paid doctors to sign the orders without regard to medical necessity and based only on a brief telephone call with the beneficiary, or sometimes no interaction with the beneficiary at all. The DME suppliers and pharmacies that paid illegal kickbacks in exchange for these doctors’ orders generated through DMERx billed Medicare and other insurers more than $1 billion. Medicare and the insurers paid more than $360 million based on these false and fraudulent claims.
Schreck pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting Special Agent in Charge Isaac Bledsoe of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Miami Regional Office; Acting Special Agent in Charge Justin E. Fleck of the FBI Miami Field Office; Special Agent in Charge David Spilker of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG)’s Southeast Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Jason Sargenski of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Southeast Field Office made the announcement.
HHS-OIG, FBI, VA-OIG, and DCIS are investigating the case.
Trial Attorneys Darren C. Halverson and Jennifer E. Burns of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case. Fraud Section Trial Attorneys Andrea Savdie and Shane Butland assisted in the prosecution.
The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,800 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $30 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.
Source: United States Senator for Commonwealth of Virginia Mark R Warner
WASHINGTON – Late yesterday evening, on the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, the United States Senate unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the anniversary of the battle, which began on February 19, 1945, and lasted until March 26, 1945. U.S. Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Todd Young (R-IN) introduced the resolution earlier this month.
“The 80th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima is an opportunity to reflect on the bravery and perseverance of the Greatest Generation, and is an enduring reminder about the power of courage and unity in the face of adversity,” said Sen. Warner. “I am glad to see the Senate pass our resolution in honor of all those who fought at Iwo Jima, a group of brave servicemembers that included my late father, Marine Corporal Robert Warner.”
“For myself, every Marine, and many Americans, Iwo Jima is symbol of duty and sacrifice,” said Sen. Young. “I’m proud this resolution that recognizes the heroic servicemembers who gave their lives at Iwo Jima, honors those who fought in the battle, and reaffirms our reconciled friendship with Japan unanimously passed the Senate.”
The resolution:
Honors the Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, Army Air Crew, and Coast Guardsmen who fought bravely on Iwo Jima;
Remembers the brave servicemembers who lost their lives in the battle;
Encourages Americans to honor the veterans of Iwo Jima; and
Reaffirms the bonds of friendship and shared values that have developed between the United States and Japan over the last 80 years.
In addition to Sens. Warner and Young, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Chris Coons (D-DE), John Boozman (R-AR), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Angus King (I-ME), Rick Scott (R-FL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Jack Reed (D-RI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) also cosponsored the resolution.
Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin
February 20, 2025
In a speech on the Senate floor shortly before the vote on his nomination, Durbin summarizes Kash Patel’s disqualifying behavior
WASHINGTON – In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered his closing argument against the nomination of Kash Patel to serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In his remarks delivered shortly before the vote on Patel’s nomination, Durbin underscored Patel’s extremism, his blind loyalty to President Trump, his dangerous support of January 6 insurrectionists, and his history of peddling lies about the federal government.
“If Senate Republicans confirm Mr. Patel, I believe they will come to regret this vote, probably sooner rather than later. I, for one, am convinced that Mr. Patel has neither the experience, the judgment, nor the temperament to lead this… criminal investigative agency [FBI],” Durbin began. “Let me be clear. This is not a partisan issue. During my time in the Senate, I have voted for four FBI Director nominations before this one. Each one was a Republican, and I voted for them, nevertheless.”
“I oppose Mr. Patel because he is dangerously, politically extreme. He has repeatedly expressed his intention to use our nation’s most important law enforcement agency to retaliate against his political enemies,” Durbin said.
Durbin then began to lay out his justification for opposing Patel’s nomination and warned his Republican colleagues about the potential consequences of allowing an unqualified extremist to lead the nation’s top law enforcement agency. Durbin first pointed to the credible whistleblower allegations that detailed Patel’s direct involvement in the ongoing purge of senior law enforcement officials at the FBI.
“The Director is the only political appointment at the FBI. Congress took steps to ensure that this position remains as apolitical as possible by providing for a single term of 10 years for a director and subjecting the appointment to the advice and consent of the Senate… But as we have seen for weeks now, the Trump Administration’s purge of the FBI is a political exercise that has spread to career officials,” Durbin said. “This purge has dramatically weakened the FBI’s ability to combat national security threats and has made Americans less safe. Senior leaders with collectively hundreds of years of experience have been forced out, creating a leadership vacuum.”
Thousands of FBI agents now fear for their jobs because they were assigned to work on cases related to the January 6 insurrection or President Trump’s long list of legal infractions. Whistleblowers have come forward with evidence that Patel, as a private citizen, called for these agents to be fired—which Patel denied vehemently despite being under oath during his nomination hearing. Further, these career agents now fear for their own and their families’ safety as January 6 insurrections continue to make credible, serious, and public threats against them.
“I have heard directly from FBI agents who now fear for their safety and the safety of their families. To understand why, let me tell you about a January 6 rioter named Edward Kelley. Mr. Kelley was convicted of assaulting law enforcement during the attack on the U.S. Capitol… and he was given a full and unconditional pardon by Donald Trump. But Mr. Kelley has also been convicted in his home state of Tennessee of conspiracy to murder the FBI agents who investigated his role in the January 6 attack. Now he is arguing that President Trump’s blanket pardon should cover his attempt to kill FBI agents,” Durbin said.
“When asked about the possible firings of career FBI officials at his confirmation hearing, Mr. Patel, under oath, said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on right now’ at the FBI. That’s not true. Thanks to multiple brave whistleblowers, we now know that Mr. Patel likely committed perjury in making that statement,” Durbin said. “Even before being confirmed as the FBI Director, Mr. Patel is already directing the ongoing purge of honorable career public servants despite his status as a private citizen.”
Durbin offered several more examples of Patel’s consistent dishonesty, including the string of lies his told during his own confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“At his hearing, Mr. Patel implausibly told me that he could not recall Stew Peters, a man who has been identified as an antisemitic Holocaust denier… This is simply not true, considering that Mr. Patel appeared on Mr. Peters’s podcast eight times. Eight times, and he couldn’t recall the man’s name. And, Mr. Peters has since revealed that he and Mr. Patel directly communicate via their personal cell phones ‘constantly,’” Durbin said.
As Durbin noted in his remarks, Patel continually offered unequivocal support to insurrectionists, producing a recording of January 6 rioters singing in order to raise money. Under oath at his nomination hearing, Patel testified that he was not involved in the project despite being quoted saying, “We got this idea to record the January 6 prisoners who recite the national anthem every night from the D.C. prison… Then we took that to studio… So we mastered and digitized that.”
“Mr. Patel also claimed he ‘didn’t have anything to do with’ the recording of the so-called January 6 Prison Choir, which includes at least six rioters who violently assaulted police officers,” Durbin said. “Mr. Patel has called these violent January 6 rioters ‘political prisoners.’ That includes Guy Reffitt, who was sentenced to 87 months in prison for his role in the January 6 assault.”
“Mr. Reffitt brought a gun to the Capitol on January 6… Mr. Reffitt’s 19-year-old son, Jackson, turned him in to law enforcement after the attack, despite Reffitt’s threats to shoot Jackson and his sister,” Durbin said. “Mr. Reffitt received a full and unconditional pardon from President Trump. Guess where he was on January 30 of this year? Back at the Capitol complex, at Mr. Patel’s confirmation hearing.”
Durbin then pointed to those who have warned against the nomination of Patel to serve as FBI director, including many of President Trump’s former appointees.
“Consider who is warning us about Mr. Patel: former Trump officials who know him, like Attorney General Barr, CIA Director Haspel, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and National Security Advisor John Bolton… All Republican appointees. Mr. Patel has left a long trail of grievances, lashing out at anyone who is not completely aligned with him. He calls Democrats ‘vindictive, evil, [and] vicious,’ and repeatedly attacks Republican Senators who don’t toe the MAGA line,” Durbin said.
“I have read Mr. Patel’s book, Government Gangsters. It includes an enemies list of 60 names, ‘members of the deep state’ in the words of Kash Patel, which includes distinguished public servants from both political parties. What do they all have in common? From Attorneys General Bill Barr and Merrick Garland to former FBI Directors Bob Mueller and Chris Wray, they all have had the misfortune of crossing paths with the vindictive Patel,” Durbin said.
Durbin underscored his final point, reiterating that Patel aims to dismantle the FBI from the inside out.
“Mr. Patel claims he respects law enforcement, but his words and actions demonstrate his disdain for the FBI. He has said that on day one, he plans to ‘shut down’ the FBI headquarters. And he has falsely claimed that the FBI ‘was planning January 6 for a year,’ beforehand. There is no truth to that statement,” Durbin said.
Durbin concluded by emphasizing that Patel will serve as a dangerous, influenceable lackey for President Trump and tarnish the reputation of an independent FBI.
“Mr. Patel’s record demonstrates that he is dangerous, inexperienced, and dishonest. He should not and cannot serve as an effective FBI Director. Mr. Patel has been crystal clear that he plans on using the FBI’s vast surveillance and investigative authority to ‘come after’ the President’s enemies,” Durbin said.
“It is shocking that my Republican colleagues are willing to support Mr. Patel, despite the serious threat he poses to our national security. I’m sorry to say that I believe they will quickly come to regret this vote,” Durbin concluded.
To view Durbin’s questions to Patel in his confirmation hearing click here and here.
Video of Durbin’sremarks on the floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here for TV Stations.
With two months to go before flight, the Apollo 13 prime crew of James Lovell, Thomas Mattingly, Fred Haise, and backups John Young, John Swigert, and Charles Duke continued to train for the 10-day mission planned to land in the Fra Mauro highlands region of the Moon. Engineers continued to prepare the Saturn V rocket and spacecraft at the launch pad for the April 11, 1970, liftoff and completed the Flight Readiness Test of the vehicle. All six astronauts spent many hours in flight simulators training while the Moon walkers practiced landing the Lunar Module and rehearsed their planned Moon walks. The crew for the next Moon landing mission, Apollo 14, participated in a geology field trip as part of their training for the flight then planned for October 1970. Meanwhile, NASA released Apollo 12 lunar samples to scientists and the Apollo 12 crew set off on a Presidential world goodwill tour. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, engineers completed the Flight Readiness Test of the Apollo 13 Saturn V on Feb. 26. The test ensured that all systems are flight ready and compatible with ground support equipment, and the astronauts simulated portions of the countdown and powered flight. Successful completion of the readiness test cleared the way for a countdown dress rehearsal at the end of March.
One of the greatest challenges astronauts faced during a lunar mission entailed completing a safe landing on the lunar surface. In addition to time spent in simulators, Apollo mission commanders and their backups trained for the final few hundred feet of the descent using the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle at Ellington Air Force Base near the Manned Spacecraft Center, now NASA’s Johnson Space Center, in Houston. Bell Aerosystems of Buffalo, New York, built the trainer for NASA to simulate the flying characteristics of the Lunar Module. Lovell and Young completed several flights in February 1970. Due to scheduling constraints with the trainer, lunar module pilots trained for their role in the landing using the Lunar Landing Research Facility at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Haise and Duke completed training sessions at the Langley facility in February.
The astronauts trained for moonwalks with parabolic flights aboard NASA’s KC-135 aircraft that simulated the low lunar gravity, practicing their ladder descent to the surface. On the ground, they rehearsed the moonwalks, setting up the American flag and the large S-band communications antenna, and collecting lunar samples. Engineers improved their spacesuits to make the expected longer spacewalks more comfortable for the crew members by installing eight-ounce bags of water inside the helmets for hydration.
During their 35 hours on the Moon’s surface, Lovell and Haise planned to conduct two four-hour spacewalks to set up the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP), a suite of four investigations designed to collect data about the lunar environment after the astronauts’ departure, and to conduct geologic explorations of the landing site. The four experiments included the:
Charged Particle Lunar Environment Experiment designed to measure the flexes of charged particles
Cold Cathode Gauge Experiment designed to measure the pressure of the lunar atmosphere
Heat Flow Experiment designed to make thermal measurements of the lunar subsurface
Passive Seismic Experiment designed to measure any moonquakes, either naturally occurring or caused by artificial means
As an additional investigation, the astronauts planned to deploy and retrieve the Solar Wind Composition experiment, a sheet of aluminum foil to collect particles from the solar wind for analysis by scientists back on Earth after about 20 hours of exposure on the lunar surface.
With one lunar mission just two months away, NASA continued preparations for the following flight, Apollo 14, then scheduled for October 1970 with a landing targeted for the Littrow region of the Moon, an area scientists believed to be of volcanic origin. Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell and their backups Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Joe Engle learned spacecraft systems in the simulators. Accompanied by a team of geologists led by Richard Jahns, Shepard, Mitchell, Cernan, and Engle participated in a geology expedition to the Pinacate Mountain Range in northern Mexico Feb. 14-18, 1970. The astronauts practiced using the Modular Equipment Transporter, a two-wheeled conveyance to transport tools and samples on the lunar surface.
On Feb. 13, 1970, NASA began releasing Apollo 12 lunar samples to 139 U.S. and 54 international scientists in 16 countries, a total of 28.6 pounds of material. On Feb. 16, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad, Richard Gordon, and Alan Bean, accompanied by their wives and NASA and State Department officials, departed Houston’s Ellington Air Force Base for their 38-day Bullseye Presidential Goodwill World Tour. They first traveled to Latin America, making stops in Venezuela, Peru, Chile, and Panama before continuing on to Europe, Africa, and Asia. The groundbreaking science and discoveries made during Apollo missions has pushed NASA to explore the Moon more than ever before through the Artemis program. Apollo astronauts set up mirror arrays, or “retroreflectors,” on the Moon to accurately reflect laser light beamed at them from Earth with minimal scattering or diffusion. Retroreflectors are mirrors that reflect the incoming light back in the same incoming direction. Calculating the time required for the beams to bounce back allowed scientists to precisely measure the Moon’s shape and distance from Earth, both of which are directly affected by Earth’s gravitational pull. More than 50 years later, on the cusp of NASA’s crewed Artemis missions to the Moon, lunar research still leverages data from those Apollo-era retroreflectors.
Pierre Morel, the first director of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and founding member of WCRP’s Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) Core project, died on December 10, 2024. Pierre began his research as a theoretical physicist. His doctoral thesis examined the existence and properties of a condensed superfluid state of liquid Helium 3 at very low temperature. He lectured on basic physics, geophysical fluid dynamics, and climate science. As his career progressed, he focused his research on studying the circulation of the atmosphere. He was devoted to the development of numerical modelling of atmospheric flow that laid the groundwork for the study of climatology. Pierre’s work played an integral role in the development of tools used to study the atmosphere, many of which are still active today. Examples include Project Éole – an experimental wind energy plant conceived in the 1980s and created in Quebec, Canada that closed down in 1993; the ARGOS satellite, a collaboration between the Centre National d’Études Spatiale (CNES) [French Space Agency], National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and NASA, to collect and relay meteorological and oceanographic data around the world that launched in 1978; the Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking (SARSAT) system, which was developed by the U.S. – specifically NOAA, NASA, and the U.S. Coast Guard and Air Force – Canada, and France, with the first satellite launch in 1982; and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites’ METEOSAT series of geostationary satellites, which launched in 1977 and remain active today. The launch of Meteosat–12 in 2022 was the first METEOSAT Third Generation (MTG) launch. Early in his career, Pierre was the director of the French Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD) before he became the director of the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES). In 1980 he became the first chairman of the WCRP, where he steered a broad interdisciplinary research program in global climate and Earth system science that involved the participation of atmospheric, oceanic, hydrological, and polar scientists worldwide. Pierre was later in charge of planetary programs at NASA and was involved in discussions about the future of NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) in the mid-to-late 1990s. As an example, the Earth Observer article, “Minutes Of The Fourteenth Earth Science Enterprise/Earth Observing System (ESE/EOS) Investigators Working Group Meeting,” includes a summary of a presentation Pierre gave that focused on flight mission planning for the EOS “second series,” which was NASA’s plan at the time although ultimately not pursued, with the “first series” (i.e., Terra, Aqua, Aura) enduring much longer than anticipated. Pierre was the recipient of the 2008 Alfred Wegener Medal & Honorary Membership for his outstanding contributions to geophysical fluid dynamics, his leadership in the development of climate research, and the applications of space observation to meteorology and the Earth system science.
1 / 2Show Caption +Hide Caption –A Kenya Defence Forces service member shows U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, how to use his weapon system during exercise Justified Accord 2025 (JA25) at the Counter Insurgency Terrorism and Stability Operations Center in Nanyuki, Kenya, Feb. 13, 2025. JA25 is the premier U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) exercise in East Africa, designed to enhance multinational combat readiness, strengthen crisis response capabilities and empower allies and partners in the region. Led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) and hosted by Kenya, Djibouti and Tanzania, JA25 integrates high-intensity training scenarios that sharpen warfighting skills, increase operational reach and enhance the ability to execute complex joint and multinational operations. The exercise runs from Feb. 10–21, 2025. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Joskanny J. Lua) VIEW ORIGINAL2 / 2Show Caption +Hide Caption –U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, greet the Somali Danab during exercise Justified Accord 2025 (JA25) at the Counter Insurgency Terrorism and Stability Operations Center in Nanyuki, Kenya, Feb. 13, 2025. JA25 is the premier U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) exercise in East Africa, designed to enhance multinational combat readiness, strengthen crisis response capabilities and empower allies and partners in the region. Led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) and hosted by Kenya, Djibouti and Tanzania, JA25 integrates high-intensity training scenarios that sharpen warfighting skills, increase operational reach and enhance the ability to execute complex joint and multinational operations. The exercise runs from Feb. 10–21, 2025. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Joskanny J. Lua) VIEW ORIGINAL
NAIROBI, Kenya — On the front lines of Somalia’s battle against al-Shabaab, Somali soldiers remain committed to securing their country’s future — and they are not alone.
Somali Sgt. Mubaarak Abdi Mohamed and Sgt. Hussein Dahir Muhammad, infantrymen with the Somali National Army, trained alongside U.S. Army Soldiers at Justified Accord 2025, a multinational exercise led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa. The exercise focuses on strengthening multinational partnerships, enhancing interoperability, and improving regional security capabilities.
Alongside Somali soldiers in Kenya stand paratroopers with Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, who are helping improve partner force readiness. The exercise, hosted by Kenya, brings together 15 nations, including regional partners like the Kenya Defence Forces and the Tanzania People’s Defence Force, to sharpen crisis response and security cooperation efforts.
U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, greet the Somali Danab during exercise Justified Accord 2025 (JA25) at the Counter Insurgency Terrorism and Stability Operations Center in Nanyuki, Kenya, Feb. 13, 2025. JA25 is the premier U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) exercise in East Africa, designed to enhance multinational combat readiness, strengthen crisis response capabilities and empower allies and partners in the region. Led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) and hosted by Kenya, Djibouti and Tanzania, JA25 integrates high-intensity training scenarios that sharpen warfighting skills, increase operational reach and enhance the ability to execute complex joint and multinational operations. The exercise runs from Feb. 10–21, 2025. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Joskanny J. Lua)U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, join the Kenya Defence Forces and Somali Danab in a mass formation during exercise Justified Accord 2025 (JA25) at the Counter Insurgency Terrorism and Stability Operations center in Nanyuki, Kenya, Feb. 13, 2025. JA25 is the premier U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) exercise in East Africa, designed to enhance multinational combat readiness, strengthen crisis response capabilities and empower allies and partners in the region. Led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) and hosted by Kenya, Djibouti and Tanzania, JA25 integrates high-intensity training scenarios that sharpen warfighting skills, increase operational reach and enhance the ability to execute complex joint and multinational operations. The exercise runs from Feb. 10–21, 2025. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Joskanny J. Lua)VIEW ORIGINAL
While Somalia continues its fight against terrorism, exercises like Justified Accord 25 allow Somali Danab forces to train alongside international partners, enhancing their capabilities through scenario-based drills and multinational coordination.
As part of the exercise, forces from across Europe, Africa, and North America will participate in a culminating field training scenario, focused on crisis response and multinational cooperation. Training includes urban operations, joint maneuver tactics, and security force coordination — critical skills for ensuring stability in East Africa.
“They [the U.S.] always give us their precious time,” Hussein Dahir said. “It is nice.”
Running from Feb. 10–21, Justified Accord 25 reinforces the long-standing partnerships between the U.S., African nations, and allied forces. The 173rd Airborne Brigade’s participation underscores the U.S. Army’s commitment to supporting African partners in strengthening security and regional stability.
Steel Cutting ceremony of third of the five Fleet Support Ships (FSS) was held at M/s L&T Shipyard, Kattupalli on 20 Feb 25, in the presence of R Adm Satish Shenai, Flag Officer Commanding Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Naval Area and senior officials from Indian Navy, Hindustan Ship Yard Limited (HSL) and M/s L&T. The Indian Navy had signed a contract with HSL for acquisition of Five Fleet Support Ships (FSS) in Aug 2023, with delivery commencing mid-2027. Showcasing the strength of Public – Private partnership, HSL has contracted part construction of two FSS to M/s L&T Shipyard, Kattupalli to effectively utilise country’s shipbuilding capacity and meet stringent timelines for delivery.
On induction, the FSS will bolster the Blue Water capabilities of the Indian Navy through replenishment of Fleet ships at sea. These ships, with a displacement of more than 40,000 tons, will carry fuel, water, ammunition and stores enabling prolonged operations without returning to harbour, thus enhancing the Fleet’s extended reach and mobility. In their secondary role, these ships would be equipped for Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations for evacuation of personnel and expeditious delivery of relief material during natural calamities.
With a completely indigenous design and sourcing of the majority of equipment from indigenous manufacturers, this project will boost the Indian Shipbuilding Industry and is in consonance with GoI initiatives of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Make in India and Make for the World.
Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command (NMRTC) Lemoore bid farewell to ombudsman Patricia Chambers who was recognized for her service to the command with a commemorative plaque.
Chambers, a retired Navy senior chief with 26 years of military service, served the command as a vital link between the clinic’s leadership and military families for nine months. During her tenure, she worked directly with the command to address any family concerns and spoke at the monthly command orientation. Chambers also provided resources from Fleet and Family Support Center and other community support programs.
The ombudsman program, established in 1970, has served as a cornerstone of Navy family support. Navy ombudsmen play an important role in military communities as volunteers who bridge the gap between commands and service members’ families as official liaisons between command leadership and family members. To become an ombudsmen, spouses or command approved members are trained in coordinating crisis response and emergency preparedness efforts.
Source: United States Senator for Illinois Tammy Duckworth
February 20, 2025
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs (SVAC)—led her fellow Democratic SVAC colleagues Ranking Member Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) in demanding that the Trump Administration and unelected billionaire Elon Musk immediately restart operations at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), specifically sounding the alarm about the dangerous impacts that dismantling the agency would have on Veterans and servicemembers. In their letter to U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought and Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins, Duckworth and her colleagues emphasized that dismantling CFPB would do nothing to advance Musk’s publicly claimed goal of weeding out fraud and abuse but rather leave the men and women who volunteer to serve our country even more vulnerable to financial scams.
The lawmakers wrote that CFPB has been the top cop on the beat protecting our nation’s heroes from financial fraud: “When bad actors target our Veterans and servicemembers, the CFPB operates in their defense, recovering over $180 million since its creation from financial predators and returning that money to Veterans, servicemembers and their families. With a critical mission to protect Veterans and servicemembers from an array of financial fraud – including mortgage scams, pay day lending, high-rate auto loan and fraudulent student loans, as well as excessive credit card late fees, bank account overdraft charges and other predatory tactics by big banks – dismantling the CFPB is harmful and insulting to the men and women who answered the call to defend our country.”
The lawmakers also slammed the Trump Administration and unelected billionaire Elon Musk for leaving our nation’s heroes more vulnerable to fraud and abuse: “President Trump and Musk claim their goal is to cut waste, fraud and abuse, but eliminating the CFPB would do the opposite and lead to more waste, more fraud and more abuse. And it is shameful that our Veterans and servicemembers will pay the price.”
A copy of the full letter is available on the Senator’s website and below:
Dear Director Vought:
We write today to demand you immediately restart operations at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and stop enabling President Trump and unelected billionaire Elon Musk’s bad-faith effort to dismantle this critical consumer-protection agency. These short-sighted actions leave servicemembers and Veterans – who are among the likeliest group to be targeted for financial crimes – vulnerable to fraud and abuse. Furthermore, for servicemembers and Veterans serving our country, identity theft or bankruptcy can mean a loss of a security clearance or an end to a career. It is a direct national security risk to end protections and lose oversight that the CFPB provides.
Congress passed laws to enhance our national security and provide protections for servicemembers and their families, and the CFPB is legally granted the authority and jurisdiction to execute these laws. The CFPB is responsible for taking judicial actions for violations of the Military Lending Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, working closely with the U.S. Department of Justice to safeguard servicemembers and Veterans from financial fraud. Additionally, the CFPB is an active participant in the Veteran Scam and Fraud Evasion Task Force, an interagency group launched under the Biden administration that develops new consumer education initiatives, consolidates fraud reporting processes and improves responses to fraud attempts against Veterans and military personnel. If the CFPB is shuttered, the absence of these critical accountability initiatives will harm those who have volunteered to serve our Nation.
When bad actors target our Veterans and servicemembers, the CFPB operates in their defense, recovering over $180 million since its creation from financial predators and returning that money to Veterans, servicemembers and their families. With a critical mission to protect Veterans and servicemembers from an array of financial fraud – including mortgage scams, pay day lending, high-rate auto loan and fraudulent student loans, as well as excessive credit card late fees, bank account overdraft charges and other predatory tactics by big banks – dismantling the CFPB is harmful and insulting to the men and women who answered the call to defend our country. Indeed, such reckless obstruction as your stop-work order signals to them that their government has abandoned them and has failed to deliver on its promise to protect them.
We know predatory actors will always be looking for opportunities to scam our Veterans, servicemembers and their families from the benefits they have earned and deserve, and your stop-work order is a green light directing them to their next projects. Meanwhile, the CFPB will not be able to publish the list of repeat offenders, companies who have previously violated the law, that it was working to centralize to warn servicemembers and Veterans against those companies. President Trump and Musk claim their goal is to cut waste, fraud and abuse, but eliminating the CFPB would do the opposite and lead to more waste, more fraud and more abuse. And it is shameful that our Veterans and servicemembers will pay the price.
Director Vought, we urge you to reconsider your support for the Trump administration’s dismantling of the CFPB, to protect our Veterans and servicemembers who deserve better than reckless, harmful policies that leave them vulnerable to financial predators.
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IMX 2025 brought together 5,000 personnel from over 30 nations and international organizations committed to preserving the rules-based international order and strengthening regional maritime security cooperation.
The 12-day exercise took participants through several exercise serials across multiple locations at sea in the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, as well as ashore and in the air. Some of the serials included diving, harbor security, mine countermeasures, unmanned systems and artificial intelligence integration, visit, board, search and seizure procedures, and global health management events.
“It’s inspiring to see so many nations working together. The incredible level of international representation is pivotal to our success of safeguarding regional waterways and enabling the free flow of commerce,” said U.S. Navy Vice Adm. George Wikoff, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and U.S. 5th Fleet, in his remarks at the closing ceremony. “IMX 2025 was truly about partnering to strengthen and expand our capabilities.”
“[The] exercise brought forward many viewpoints [about how] to handle a single situation in various different ways. I am confident that the takeaways of this exercise will serve all the participants in planning and executing various exercises in their respective countries,” said Pakistan Navy Commodore Rashid Mahmood Sheikh, who led the CPX exercise for IMX 2025, in his remarks.
IMX 2025 ran in conjunction with a U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa exercise, Cutlass Express 25, with each exercise’s respective maritime operations centers exercising their information sharing capabilities to improve theater-to-theater coordination, reduce regional seams, and strengthen interoperability.
The ninth iteration of the series, IMX began in 2012 as the International Mine Countermeasures Exercise, before changing its name to reflect a more expansive mission set.
The U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations encompasses nearly 2.5 million square miles of water area and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, parts of the Indian Ocean and three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal and Bab al-Mandeb.
For imagery, photos and information on IMX, visit the feature page at: https://www.cusnc.navy.mil/IMX/.
Source: United States Senator for Maine Angus King
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Angus King (I-ME), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) are introducing legislation to fast-track veteran’s access to earned health care benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The Servicemember to Veteran Health Care Connection Act would codify and expand the existing VA pre-transition health care registration process for all servicemembers transitioning to civilian life. This would ensure that the VA, in partnership with Department of Defense (DoD), will pre-register all servicemembers leaving active duty and contact them after their discharge to complete registration if they wish to enroll in VA health care services — all to keep servicemembers from suffering a bureaucratic lag in access to care and benefits.
Every year, more than 200,000 servicemembers transition from military to civilian life. Studies have shown the first year of servicemember’s transition to civilian life is the most difficult and a time when they are at a higher risk of suicide. By providing servicemembers the option to pre-register in VA care, they will have access to the mental and physical care they deserve immediately upon separation — helping to mitigate impacts of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and reducing the risk of suicide.
“Our servicemembers continually put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms and they deserve the very best care and support long after they retire the uniform,” said Senator King. “The Servicemember to Veteran Health Care Connection Act is a simple way to ensure these brave men and women can easily access the health benefits they earned and deserve. By eliminating this bureaucratic lag, we are keeping our promise to deliver timely, quality care to those who served.”
“Veterans represent the best of our country. Our men and women in uniform have made incredible sacrifices so that we can be free, and we have a responsibility to fulfill our commitment to them once their service is complete,” said Senator Rounds. “Many servicemembers are faced with the potential for a lapse in their care when transitioning from the military to civilian life. The Servicemember to Veteran Health Care Connection Act would start the process for servicemembers to enroll in the VA health care program before they officially make the transition out of active duty, making certain there is no lapse in the health care services newly-separated veterans need.”
“As service members in North Dakota and across the U.S. return to civilian life, we must ensure they have access to critical health care services and resources before a time of crisis,” said Senator Cramer. “Our bipartisan legislation will allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to connect with service members as they transition to civilian life, allowing them to more proactively use the benefits they’ve earned.”
“Leaving the military and transitioning to civilian life in the first year presents many challenges for service members, often making it difficult for them to access crucial medical treatment and benefits. DAV would like thank Sens. Angus King and Mike Rounds for their leadership in re-introducing the Servicemember to Veteran Health Care Connection Act,” said Jon Retzer, the Deputy National Legislative Director for Heath for Disabled American Veterans. “This piece of legislation takes a proactive approach by allowing service members to pre-enroll in VA health care before separation, thus eliminating potential delays in receiving care.”
“The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) strongly supports the Servicemember to Veteran Health Care Connection Act, recognizing that the transition period from active duty to veteran status is one of the most critical times for our servicemembers,” said Joy Craig, the Associate Director of Service Member Affairs of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “The Department of Defense and the VA must work together to ensure that no veteran falls through the cracks during this time. By pre-registering transitioning servicemembers for VA health care while they are still on active duty, this legislation helps to streamline the process and reduce unnecessary delays in accessing the care they have earned. The VFW applauds Senators’ King, Duckworth, Rounds and Cramer for prioritizing this vital phase and for taking steps to make the transition smoother, more efficient, and veteran-friendly.”
The Servicemember to Veteran Health Care Connection Act will:
Require VA to pre-register all transitioning servicemembers in VA health care so that if they are eligible and choose to use VA health services, their enrollment and use of those services will be streamlined;
Require VA to do outreach to servicemembers before they leave the military to explain the pre-transition health care registration process;
Require VA to do outreach to discharged servicemembers to help them finish enrollment (if desired) once they have the appropriate discharge paperwork;
Require VA to do outreach to recently discharged and enrolled veterans who have not used VA health care within the first 6 months of discharge and offer to help make them an appointment, if they wish to do so;
Require VA and DoD to discuss the pre-transition health care registration process as part of the DoD Transition Assistance Program (TAP);
Provide a report to Congress on the feasibility of allowing members of the Armed Forces who are close to separation to get one “no-cost” VA health care appointment before they leave the military to familiarize them with the services VA can offer, even before they fully enroll;
Provide additional reports to Congress on: VA’s efforts to identify servicemembers/veterans with a service connected disability and connect them with the pre-transition health care registration process; VA’s efforts to pre-populate relevant VA databases to facilitate the enrollment process and minimize what additional information a servicemember needs to collect to complete enrollment; any challenges VA faces getting timely data and information from DoD regarding transitioning servicemembers; and other relevant information to implementing this registration process.
Representing one of the states with the highest rates of veterans per capita, Senator King is a staunch advocate for America’s servicemembers and veterans. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, he has worked to ensure that veterans have access to jobs and training after separating from military service. In 2024, Congress passed Senator King’s bipartisan legislation to improve veterans’ access to health care and benefits. He has been among the Senate’s most prominent voices on the need to address veteran suicide, and has repeatedly pressed for action from top Department of Defense (DoD) officials on this issue. Last summer, Senator King introduced the Lethal Means Safe Storage for Veteran Suicide Prevention Act to help reduce suicides among veterans by providing firearm lockboxes and bolstering mental health training for VA caregivers. He also contributes to the Veterans History Project, a Library of Congress initiative to collect and preserve the stories of American veterans; he most recently interviewed a 101-year-old World War II veteran from Millinocket, Maine. Senator King uses this interview series to learn and share the stories of the lives, service and sacrifices of Maine’s veteran community. Most recently, Senator King introduced bipartisan legislation alongside Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) to lock into law the Veterans Experience Office within the VA.
Source: United States Senator for New York Kirsten Gillibrand
Fired Workers Include Safety Inspectors And Maintenance Mechanics;
Firings Follow Multiple Deadly Aviation Disasters On Trump’s Watch;
Fired Workers Include At Least Two Who Worked On Long Island, Two Who Worked In Queens
Today, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand held a virtual press conference demanding answers from the Trump administration on its decision to fire hundreds of critical Federal Aviation Administration employees, including safety inspectors and maintenance mechanics.
These firings come amidst longstanding concerns about aviation safety. More than 90% of the country’s air traffic control facilities are understaffed; this has contributed to dozens of narrowly avoided accidents at airports around the country. At two facilities on Long Island that direct air traffic for Newark, J.F.K. and LaGuardia, nearly 40 percent of positions are unfilled. Firing hundreds of additional aviation safety staff will only worsen this crisis and make aviation disasters more likely.
“New York is home to some of the busiest airports in the country. Anything that jeopardizes the safety of the millions of passengers that travel through them each year is unacceptable,” said Senator Gillibrand. “Trump’s reckless firings put us all at risk – the fired employees included technicians who maintain air traffic control infrastructure and help prevent tragic crashes like the one in D.C. last month. I’m demanding answers. The administration must provide comprehensive information about exactly how many workers were fired, what they did, where they worked, and what plan – if any – the administration has to replace them and to keep Americans safe.”
The full text of Senator Gillibrand’s letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is available here or below:
Dear Secretary Duffy:
In light of the midair collision at Reagan Washington National Airport on January 29, 2025 and other recent aviation incidents around the country, I write to express my concern with recent actions taken by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that could impede aviation safety. In particular, I am troubled by the termination of up to 400 employees at the FAA who were on probationary status[1], in addition to the hundreds of employees who accepted the Office of Personnel Management deferred resignation program. Such a drastic change in workforce will inevitably have long-term consequences on the FAA’s efforts to improve and modernize the airspace.
Last December, the aviation industry, including commercial airlines, general aviation, aviation manufacturers, labor, and other users of the sector asked the incoming Administration to address key staffing shortages and provide long-term sustainability to the FAA[2]. I am concerned that these recent staffing actions deteriorate the ability of the FAA to respond to equipment outages and implement modern technologies.
I am particularly concerned about the impact of these terminations on the congested New York airspace. As you know, 75 percent of all delays in the National Airspace system (NAS) occur because of delays in the New York (NY) metropolitan area airspace[3], and I strongly urge you to take efforts to improve the efficiency of this airspace. For example, the FAA could update required navigation performance procedures and multi-airport route separation, update the minimum equipment requirement for users of the NY airspace to optimize precision navigation and spacing between airplanes, and replace the aging equipment used to route airspace in and out of the NY area. However, many of these improvements would require FAA employees who may have been terminated in the last week.
In order for Congress to better understand the employee actions taken by the Department and the FAA, and to abide by the President’s commitment to work with Congress on improving the aviation safety infrastructure, I ask that you provide the following information no later than Thursday, February 27, 2025.
Please provide the total number of employees by position in the FAA who accepted the deferred resignation program or who were on probationary status and have since been terminated. For each employee position, please include the line of business and program office, as well as the city and state in which the employee was based.
For each terminated employee position, please identify if the position will remain unfilled or if a new employee will be hired in the future. For positions that will remain unfilled, please identify how the work functions of those positions will be completed going forward.
What factors did the Department or the FAA consider when determining which employee positions were exempt from the deferred resignation program or probationary status terminations?
What steps did the Department or the FAA take to ensure the continuity and safety of the NAS for the traveling public prior to initiating the probationary employee terminations?
According to recent reports, most of the terminated employees were hired within the Air Traffic Organization’s Technical Operations office. In Fiscal Year 2024, House Report 118-154 and Senate Report 118-70 both required the FAA to develop an annual Technical Operations Workforce Plan to ensure that the hardware and software systems that enable controllers to monitor and communicate with pilots and other air traffic control facilities are appropriately maintained. Will you commit to providing this workforce plan and include the impact of these terminations in this workforce plan?
It has been reported that employees within FAA’s NAS Defense Program, who work with the Department of Defense and other law enforcement agencies to protect the NAS from disruption, damage, and terrorism, were inadvertently terminated[4]. Will you commit to review each individual termination to ensure there is no impact to our country’s national security?
Thank you for your attention to these urgent concerns.
Sincerely,
[1] https://x.com/secduffy/status/1891656952662405304?s=46
[2] https://www.airlines.org/news/airlines-for-america-joins-industry-coalition-urging-new-administration-to-support-modernization-of-air-traffic-control/
[3] https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ara/programs/nyapio
[4] https://apnews.com/article/doge-faa-air-traffic-firings-safety-67981aec33b6ee72cbad8dcee31f3437
Snowden was relieved by Rear Adm. Sean Bailey, commander of Carrier Strike Group 8, after serving as the aircraft carrier’s commanding officer since December 2023. Snowden will be temporarily assigned to Naval Air Forces Atlantic.
The relief occurred after Truman was involved in a collision with the merchant vessel Besiktas-M on Feb. 12, while operating in the Mediterranean Sea in the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt.
The U.S. Navy holds commanding officers to the highest standard and takes action to hold them accountable when those standards are not met. Naval leaders are entrusted with significant responsibilities to their Sailors and their ships.
Capt. Christopher Hill, commanding officer of USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), will temporarily serve as Harry S. Truman’s interim commanding officer.
Dwight D. Eisenhower is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance at Norfolk Naval Shipyard after completing a nine-month deployment to U.S. Central Command and U.S. European Command in July 2024.
There is no impact to Harry S. Truman’s mission or schedule due to the relief. The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier is currently deployed to the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations.
For questions related to this release, contact U.S. Sixth Fleet / Task Force SIX Public Affairs at cne_cna_c6fpao@us.navy.mil
Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Public Affairs
February 20, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Joint Staff Spokesperson Navy Capt. Jereal Dorsey provided the following readout:
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., met with Chief of the Israeli General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi at the Pentagon on Tuesday where they discussed a range of security topics.
Gen. Brown thanked Lt. Gen. Halevi for their excellent working relationship during his time as chairman and congratulated him on a distinguished career. As part of his formal counterpart visit, Lt. Gen. Halevi participated in an Armed Forces Full Honor Arrival ceremony hosted by Gen. Brown at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.
When I first arrived at the top secret Porton Down laboratory, I was aware of very little about its activities. I knew it was the UK’s chemical defence research centre and that over the years it had conducted tests with chemical agents on humans.
But what really happened there was shrouded in mystery. This made it a place which was by turns fascinating and scary. Its association with the cold war, reinforced by images of gas mask-wearing soldiers and reports of dangerous (and in one case fatal) experiments, also made it seem a little sinister.
The shroud of secrecy resulted in it being the subject of some lively fiction, such as The Satan Bug by Alistair MacLean, which revolves around the theft of two deadly germ warfare agents from a secret research facility and in the “Hounds of Baskerville” episode of the BBC drama Sherlock in which the hero uncovers a sinister plot involving animals experiments.
Even Porton’s own publicity material recognises that where secrecy exists imagination can take flight, and attests:
No aliens, either alive or dead have ever been taken to Porton Down or any other Dstl [Defence Science and Technology Laboratory] site.
But it’s also the place where in recent years scientists analysed samples confirming that a Novichok nerve agent had been used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter (coincidentally, just a few miles away). And where an active research programme on Ebola played an important role in the UK’s support to Sierra Leone during the 2014 outbreak.
So what is the truth? Over three years my research took me into the heart of the mystery, as I studied its extensive historical archive. The reality was not as I expected. I came across no aliens, but I did discover records of experiments that ran from the ordinary, through to the bizarre. And sadly, in one isolated case, the lethal.
Arriving at Porton Down, for example, was unexpectedly low key. The main gate is located off a public road on an otherwise quiet stretch between Porton Down village and the A30. It is in many ways visually similar to the entrance to Lancaster University in the north of England where I work as a lecturer in epidemiology.
Bar some signs announcing it as the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (dstl) of the Ministry of Defence, the road is devoid of obvious security. No barriers block entry. This sense of the extraordinary hiding behind the ordinary was reinforced by the undistinguished visitor car park from where it is a short walk to the nondescript single story reception building.
There is also (perhaps unusually for a government chemical weapons research centre) a bus stop next to the main gate, from where you can get the number 66 to Salisbury.
So on my first visit in 2002 I made that short walk from the visitor car park to the reception and announced myself. I was pleased to find I was expected and looked into the security camera as bidden. After a hard stare from the receptionist I was issued, on that my first day, with a temporary pass. On it was written: “MUST BE ACCOMPANIED AT ALL TIMES” in bright red.
My contact, Dawn, arrived and led me through the main gate where security started to become more obvious. An armed policeman gave us a small nod as we passed through, his hands staying firmly on the machine gun strapped to his chest. Dawn paid little attention other than a brief hello and we were inside, heading to the headquarters.
It was from here that the management of Porton Down organised the programmes of testing which had ultimately resulted in my presence there – to research the health effects of chemical experiments on humans.
The Insights section is committed to high-quality longform journalism. Our editors work with academics from many different backgrounds who are tackling a wide range of societal and scientific challenges.
Since its inception in 1916 it has researched chemical weapons, protective measures against chemical weapons, and has recruited over 20,000 volunteers to participate in tests in its research programmes.
Hut 42 – opening the archive
This archive was opened to my colleagues and I after previously being firmly hidden from public view. This shift in approach was the result of government approval for a study into the long-term health of the human volunteers. The action was triggered by complaints from a group of people who had been tested on and who claimed their health had been damaged as a result.
The government was also keen to ward off accusations of cover ups. In 1953 Ronald Maddison, a young RAF volunteer, died in a nerve agent experiment at the site. The original inquest was held in secret and returned a verdict of misadventure. But in 2004 the government ordered a second, public, inquest.
This, along with a police investigation into the behaviour of some of the Porton Down scientists persuaded the government to fund independent research into the health effect of the experiments.
A research group from the department of public health at the University of Oxford won IS WON RIGHT WORD? sk I was part of that group. Porton participated fully and opened its doors and archive to the project. I went ahead of the research team to deal with the practicalities of gaining access. My first task was to set up an office. So Dawn led me onwards to the building that had been put aside for our use.
We passed into the inner, more secure, area. This part of Porton Down was where the main scientific work was carried out. This inner secure area was surrounded by a high chain link fence and there was one principal entry point, next to a guard room.
Inspecting our passes was another armed MoD police officer. Alerted by my red pass he was all for barring my way until Dawn stepped in. Now vouched for, we were waved through and passed onwards to the building that would become my home for the best part of three years – hut 42.
‘People had neat handwriting then’
Hut 42 was a nondescript redbrick, single-story building, which sits next to the main library and information centre and from the outside could be mistaken for a school boiler room. In it were five desks and several metal filing cabinets closed with combination locks.
Our purpose there was to study the historical archive, including the handwritten books of experiment data. We then transferred that material into a database for later analysis. This process took four people two years of hard work, but we were lucky.
Porton Down’s record keeping was excellent. Early on I had worried that handwritten records would be hard to decipher and had asked a Porton Down librarian whether they would be legible. “Definitely”, was the reply. “People had neat handwriting then. It’s the records from the 1970s you’ll have to watch. They’re dreadfully scrappy,” he said.
And so it was proved. The records of tests from an era before computers, carried out with substances such as mustard gas, were routinely neatly and clearly documented.
Porton Down experiment book, showing drop tests to the arms during one of the first nerve agent tests.
A picture of a page in one of the experiment books on which is recorded the first nerve agent test for Tabun on April 10, 1945. Thomas Keegan
I met Porton Down’s resident medical doctor in the archive to start discussing the nature of the experiments. Simon (not his real name) was in his mid-thirties with boyish curly hair and an anorak. “You’ll find everything you’ll need in here, in these cupboards,” he said. “First, I’ll show you how to open the cupboard. It’s like this”, he said. “A five number combination. Five times anticlockwise to reach the first number, four times clockwise for the second, three times anticlockwise for the third and so on.”
There was a pause while he demonstrated. “Sometimes they can be a bit sticky”, he said after the first attempt. He got the cupboard open on the second try.
The archive was a mixture of handwritten experimental and administrative records. The administrative records were essentially lists of attendees with dates and personal characteristics such as age. The experimental records reported the results of the tests with people in a variety of ways. Some were in the form of descriptive text, others used pictograms to record the site visually, for example where a drop of mustard gas was placed on the skin. Many contained tables of data, all hand drawn and as legible as if they had been printed. Our cupboards contained around 140 such books spanning a period from the start of the second world war to the end of the 1980s.
The story the records told was a fascinating one.
In the 50 years following the outbreak of the second world war, Porton Down encouraged over 20,000 men, nearly all members of the UK armed forces, to take part in experiments at the site.
These men (the regular armed forces had yet to admit women) took part in a programme of tests that ran from experiments using liquid mustard “gas” dropped onto bare skin to inhalation of nerve agents. There were also tests with antidotes and other gasses and liquids too.
Chemical experiments
The records show that between 1939 and 1989, over 400 different substances were tested at Porton. Mustard gas, sarin, and nitrogen mustard were frequently tested. These chemicals are known as “vesicants” for their ability to cause fluid filled blisters (or vesicles) on the skin or any other site of contact. First world war soldiers were familiar with the horrors of this gas, which was first used by Germany at the Battle of Ypres in 1915. John Singer Sergeant’s powerful painting Gassed expressed the effect of mustard gas on soldiers exposed in the trenches.
Other major chemical tests were riot control agents, such as CS and CR, these being the only chemicals tested that have been used by UK forces in peacetime, their purpose being crowd control.
Mostly, we were kept far away from anything other than paper records. As Britain had given up its chemical arsenal and any offensive capability in the 1950s, there was, as Simon had explained, no stores of chemical agents at Porton Down, except of course, small amounts of those that were needed to test human defences. By a circuitous route however, I came nearer to some than I was expecting.
‘Would you like a sniff?’
Hut 42, was not, it turned out, wholly for our use. While some Porton staff shared access to the archive and popped in now and then to examine records and take photocopies, the building had one other permanent resident – Porton Down’s in-house historian Gradon Carter. Carter was in his late 70s and had worked at Porton Down as an archivist for more than 20 years. He prided himself on knowing more than anyone alive about the history and administration of the institution.
He wore tweed and had the air of a world weary Latin master, but rather than the accoutrements of his trade being Latin textbooks, his were the paraphernalia of chemical warfare. Around his desk were examples of gas masks from various periods of history, and on the wall, posters inviting people to “always carry your gas mask”.
One of his exhibits was a box, about the size of a packet of breakfast cereal, which contained glass phials, each carefully labelled with the contents. These included mustard gas, lewsite and phosgene.
The box was from the 1940s. It was a training tool to help troops recognise different gasses on the battlefield. “Would you like a sniff of mustard?”, he offered. It so happened I did. Nearly 60 years after it was first bottled, I can report that Carter’s mustard gas had very little smell, but I was reluctant to get close to test any of its other properties. He re-corked it. “Some lewisite?” he suggested.
Lewisite was produced in 1918 for use in the first world war but its production was too late for it to be used. Another vesicant, it causes blistering of the skin and mucous membranes (eyes, nose, throat) on contact.
I declined Carter’s kind offer.
Other chemicals appeared in the records less frequently. There were the lovely vomiting agents, which are designed to winkle their way under your gas mask to make you sick, which will make you take off your gas mask making you vulnerable to the next wave of attack by, for example, nerve agents.
These agents were relatively standard members of a chemical arsenal. In an effort to expand its horizons, Porton Down opened its collective mind in the early 1960s to the usefulness of psychedelics in warfare and tested LSD for its potential as a disruptor of enemy military discipline.
The tests showed that troops became unable to put up much of a fight, but ultimately the chemicals were rejected as means of mass disruption. You can see a video of a test at Porton Down with LSD below.
In the video, a troop of Royal Marines can be seen taking part in an exercise during which they are given LSD. Not long afterwards the men become barely capable of military action and seem to find almost everything funny. One man seems not to know which end of a bazooka to point at the enemy.
The most commonly tested substances at Porton, according to our data, were mustard gas, lewisite and pyridostigmine (more of which later) with thousands of tests undertaken. Less frequently tested were a basket of chemicals including sodium amytal (a barbiturate) and more strangely perhaps, 49 tests with pastinacea sativa – the irritant wild parsnip.
Not all men who took part in tests did so with chemical agents. Many visited Porton Down and were “tested” with substances that were not intended to be harmful but which must have been providing useful information of some kind. Some people were tested with “lubricating oil” (498 people) and “ethanol” (204 people). Many tests were with protective equipment such as materials for protective suits and with respirators.
Nerve agent tests
Around 3,000 people were tested with nerve agents. The number of nerve agents tested was not extensive, with six principal agents recorded. These were tabun, (known as GA), soman (GD), sarin (GB), cyclo sarin (GF), and methylphosphonothioic acid (VX).
The period of nerve agent research ran from the early postwar period to the late 1980s, and coincided with the cold war, when military tension between the Nato countries and the USSR was high.
The archive was rich in information on these tests. The records included detail of the time and place of each test along with details of who took part, noting both staff and volunteer participants. Records on the early tests are especially revealing.
Chambers like this were used to carry out tests on nerve agents. Thomas Keegan
For example, in 1945 nerve agents were not yet known to Porton Down scientists. They had come close to discovering nerve agents when they had worked on PF-3, a chemical of the same organophosphate type as the nerve agents, but they had not thought it sufficiently toxic.
However, these agents were well known to German scientists, and to the German military who weaponised them during the second world war. Despite fears to the contrary, gas was not used in the fighting, though Germany had clearly prepared for chemical warfare.
Nazi agents and gin and tonic
Advancing US forces moving through Germany came across stockpiles of artillery shells in a railway marshalling yard near Osnabrück that contained suspicious liquids. The markings on the shells – a white ring on one type and green and yellow rings on the other – were new to the Americans. The shells were sent to the US and Porton Down for investigation.
After initial analysis, Porton scientists found that the shells with the white ring contained tear gas. The other contained an unknown substance (later it would be named tabun).
Tabun is one of the extremely toxic organophosphate nerve agents. It has a fruity odour reminiscent of bitter almonds. Exposure can cause death in minutes. Between 1 and 10 mL of tabun on the skin can be fatal.
On April 10 1945, after some laboratory tests, the scientists decided to test the new chemical on people. In fact, as Carter pointed out to me, disaster could have struck immediately as the first nerve agent to arrive at Porton for testing was transported to the lab in a test tube stoppered only with cotton wool.
Thinking this was a new variety of mustard gas, they placed drops on the participants’ skin. The scientists also placed drops in the eyes of some rabbits. The records show that before any serious effect to the humans could be noted one of the rabbits died, giving the scientists running the tests a fright.
The chemical was quickly wiped off the men’s arms and the test ended there. According to a brief memoir supplied by Carter, Dr Ainsworth (who was involved in the tests) said that Captain Fairly (the Porton scientist being tested on) had been shaken by the experience but recovered “after a stiff gin and tonic in his office”.
This sporting attitude to self-testing was not uncommon among scientists, however. Dr Ainsworth later tested a method for reducing the effect of a splash of nerve agent on the skin which involved a tourniquet and opening a vein – something he thought worked well.
But he was used to the pioneering methods of the day. “Taste this,” the pharmacologist John (later Sir John) Gaddum had ordered on one previous occasion. Dr Ainsworth sipped the liquid offered and reported that it tasted a little like gin. “That’s strange”, Professor Gaddum said. “I can’t taste anything. It’s diluted lewisite and the rats simply won’t drink it.”
Back at the wartime testing lab they were keen to find out more about what was now understood to be a new type of chemical agent developed by German scientists and weaponsied by their armed forces. The following week, ten people were exposed in a chamber, at the higher concentration of 1 in 5 million. In the pioneering spirit not uncommon at Porton, four of the subjects: Commandant Notley, Major Sadd, Mr Wheeler and Major Curten were Porton staff. Major Curten reported having a tightness of chest, and a slight contraction of the pupils, unlike the commandant who had no reaction but thought the gas smelled of boiled sweets.
An undated photograph of the southern end of the Porton Down campus showing the bus stop outside. The grey building is thought to be one of the exposure chambers. Thomas Keegan
Later that morning the scientists had another go, this time at a higher concentration, 1 in 1 million. The symptoms were now more noticeable, with more than one person vomiting and others needing treatment the following day for the persistent symptoms of headaches and eye pain.
Given what we have since learned about tabun, it seems at the very least cavalier of the scientists to conduct these tests on themselves and others. They were were lucky not to have been seriously injured or even killed, but those were the risks they seemed willing to take.
Fatal consequences
The last entries in the archive for nerve agent tests were for 1989 so newer compounds such as novichok, used in an attempted assassination in nearby Salisbury, were not included. One later nerve agent tested in the 1960s was VX, then a scarily potent new nerve agent.
According to the Centers for Disease Control in the US, VX is one of the most toxic of the known chemical warfare agents. It is tasteless and odourless and exposure can cause death in minutes. As little as one drop of VX on the skin can be fatal.
It was not developed into a weapon by the UK, as by then it had abandoned an offensive capability, but tests were carried out on a relatively small number of volunteers. I mentioned VX to Carter. He recalled that the first sample of VX was first discovered, accidentally, at an ICI chemical factory in the UK and sent to Porton in the regular post. Luckily, nobody was exposed.
In one notorious episode however, the tests of nerve agents on humans did not go as expected.
As I referred to earlier, in 1953, during an early nerve agent experiment, the young airman, Ronald Maddison died. Testing was paused at Porton after an inquiry by the eminent Cambridge academic Lord Adrian and limits on exposures were set after resumption in 1954. A second inquest into the death returned a verdict of unlawful killing in 2004.
One of the founders of the Porton Down Veterans Group, Ken Earl was in the same experiment. He remembered vividly being in the same chamber as Maddison, and while not affected seriously at the time, felt his health issues later in life were directly related to the test. In an interview with the BBC, he attributed the many health problems he suffered through his life, including skin conditions, depression and a heart irregularity, to his experience at Porton Down.
Our research could not establish a direct link to the kind of ill health Earl suffered. But our data on the short-term effects did show a good deal about the immediate aftermath of a nerve agent exposure, similar to the type Earl experienced.
The physiological effect of exposure to nerve agents varies greatly between individuals as our previous research has shown. The strength of symptoms varies too. Five of the six participants in the same test as Maddison did not report adverse effects other than feeling a bit cold.
However, tests before this had shown that certain effects were consistently seen with nerve agent exposures. In July 1951 six people participated in a test with soman. The lab book notes:
5/5 experienced pain in eyes, blinker effect and blurred vision 30 minutes after exposure (these symptoms continued for 24 hours). 1 participant vomited 4 hours after exposure. 2 participants vomited 24 hours after exposure. Eye pain and vision improved after 48 hours but not normal – return to normal after 5 days. 4/5 given multiple doses of atropine.
While these effects must have been unpleasant, it is also shown that participants in nerve agent tests had between one and two “exposures”. Those in tests with other chemicals such as mustard gas may have had many.
To further regulate exposures, strict limits on the amount of nerve agent allowed in tests were imposed after Maddison died. The levels of exposure typically experienced by servicemen induced: pinpoint pupils (miosis), headaches, a tightness in the chest and vomiting. These symptoms recur many times in the records, as does documentation of the drugs used to treat them, typically atropine and pralidoxime.
A new era
Despite the range of agents which have been developed, chemical weapons have rarely been used by states in conflict, perhaps held back by adherence to the Chemical Weapons Convention or by their difficulty of use.
Despite this they were used by Iraq (not then bound by the CWC) in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), who used mustard gas and tabun against Iranian troops. They have also been used by states against civilians – for example by Iraq against its Kurdish population and more than once by Syria against its civilian population between 2014 and 2020.
In 2017, North Korean agents used VX to assassinate Kim Jong-nam, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half-brother in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And more recently the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent. He later recovered only to die in a Russian prison in early 2024.
These are not just remote threats. As I previously noted, a particularly high-profile example of a state using a chemical weapon to kill someone took place in the UK in 2018 when it is alleged that the Russian state tried to kill an ex-KGB spy using small quantities of the then new and especially toxic nerve agent Novichok.
Sergei Skripal, the intended victim, and his daughter Yulia survived the attack.
A public inquiry heard how the Skripals were found slumped in a park in Salisbury. While the presence of nerve agents was not at first suspected, the emergency services noted how the Skripals suffered from a range of symptoms including pinprick pupils, muscle spasms and vomiting. For those experienced with nerve agents these symptoms are typical.
But these symptoms were not known to Nick Bailey, a detective sergeant who had been assigned to check over a house in Salisbury, home to the two people that had recently been found collapsed. This should have been routine but the first indication to DS Bailey that something was amiss was when he looked in the mirror.
His pupils, normally wide open at this time of night, had shrunk into pinpricks. He was also beginning to feel very strange. But it was when Bailey’s vision fractured and he vomited that he knew something was seriously wrong.
It would later become clear that the agents sent to kill Skripal had sprayed the liquid nerve agent onto the door handle of the Skripal house. Sergei and his daughter both used the handle and were poisoned. So was Bailey, who had closed the door and locked it after his checks on the house later that evening.
Four months later, the boyfriend of Dawn Sturgess found a discarded perfume bottle in nearby Amesbury, picked it up and then later gave it to her as a present. Neither could have imagined it had been used to bring Novichok to Salisbury and left behind by the attackers. Sturgess died after spraying the contents onto her skin. Her boyfriend survived.
It was in partnership with experts at Porton Down that the local health services were able to treat the victims. According to the inquiry, a key challenge was for the hospital to work out what had poisoned the Skripals so they could treat them effectively. Porton Down worked nonstop to determine what type of nerve agent had been used. Once the cause was known the hospital was able to save the Skripals’ lives.
That Porton Down is situated just a few miles from Salisbury where the Novichok attack took place was probably useful to those treating victims. The Russian state however, used this proximity to try to muddy the waters of accountability for the poisoning, but there seems little doubt that blame for the nerve agent poisoning lies with Russia.
Despite the efforts of those agents, five out six people poisoned with Novichok survived, not unscathed perhaps, but alive. That they did so is in some way the result of the expertise and knowledge gained over years of nerve agent research at Porton Down.
It seems clear that the more information about the effects of nerve agent exposure that are known outside specialist research circles the better. Though nerve agent attack is extremely rare the events in Salisbury and Amesbury have shown they are not impossible.
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The research study that took Thomas Keegan to Porton Down was led by the University of Oxford and funded by the Medical Research Council.
WASHINGTON – Victor Scott Terrill, 41, of Landover, Maryland, was charged in a 10-count superseding indictment, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court, with first-degree murder while armed and related counts, announced U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean Ryan of the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division, and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department.
The new charges stem from the February 23, 2024, fatal shooting of a man identified as R.C., and the nonfatal shooting of another man, while Terrill was on pre-trial release in a D.C. Superior Court matter.
Terrill was initially arrested on February 29, 2024, for the shooting of a District Housing Authority Police Officer at a Southeast apartment building in Washington’s Navy Yard neighborhood. He was subsequently charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer (felony) while armed and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon, and related offenses for that conduct. A Smith & Wesson .40 caliber handgun, recovered in a trashcan following his arrest, was also linked to the February 23 murder and nonfatal shooting.
With respect to the fatal shooting, Terrill is charged with one count of first-degree murder while armed (premeditated), one count of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon, and one count of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. With respect to the nonfatal shooting of the other man, Terrill is charged with one count of assault with intent to kill while armed, one count of assault with significant bodily injury while armed, and one count of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. Terrill is further charged with committing these offenses while on pretrial release in a Superior Court matter.
This case is being investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Violent Crimes Task Force and the MPD. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ariel Dean, Justin Song, Meredith Mayer-Dempsey and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Horan for the District of Columbia.
A criminal indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Source: United States Senator for Kentucky Mitch McConnell
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor:
“I’ve never liked calling too much attention to today’s date, February 20th. But I figured my birthday would be as good a day as any to share with our colleagues a decision I made last year about how I’ll approach the 119th Congress.
“During my time in the Senate, I’ve only really answered to two constituencies – the Republican conference and the people of Kentucky.
“Over the years, that first group trusted me to coordinate campaigns, to count votes, to steer committees, to take the majority, and on nine occasions, to lead our conference. Serving as Republican Leader was a rare – and, yes, rather specific – childhood dream. And just about a year ago, I thanked my colleagues for their confidence, which allowed me to fulfill it. To the distinguished members of this body I’ve had the privilege to lead, I remain deeply grateful.
“Today, however, it’s appropriate for me to speak about an even deeper allegiance and an even longer-standing gratitude. Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate. Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here. Representing our Commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime.
“I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.
“I’ve been a student of history my entire life. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have a stack of biographies or political memoirs on my nightstand. And I know well how tempting it can be to read history with a sense of determinism: Assuming that, somehow, notorious failures were inevitable…That crowning triumphs were predestined…And in either case, that lives and careers followed orderly paths. This, of course, isn’t how things work. And I’ve never had to look further than my own life to recognize it.
“I’ve never lost sight of the fact that, without my mother’s devoted care, a childhood encounter with polio could have turned out a lot worse…That, unless my father had taken a job in the Bluegrass state, my interest in politics might have run its course somewhere else entirely…That, if it weren’t for an eleventh-hour, outside-the-box idea on the campaign trail, my Senate career might’ve been over before it began…Or that, if not for the people of Kentucky time and again agreeing that leadership delivers and electing to send me back here, it would have been someone else from somewhere else taking that seat at the table where I’ve had the chance to work…and strategize…and fight…and win.
“I grew up reading about the greatness of Henry Clay. But there were times when the prospect of etching my name into his desk in this chamber felt like more of a long-shot than making it in the Major Leagues.
“I got a front-row seat to the greatness of Senator John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky as a summer intern in his office. But at so many moments in my early career, the idea of following in his footsteps here felt more distant than the moon.
“So the only appropriate thing to take away today, apart from a healthy dose of pride, is my immense gratitude – for the opportunity to take part in the consequential business of the Senate and the nation.
“Gratitude to the people I represent: Kentucky’s families and farmers and miners and servicemembers and small business owners. Gratitude to loyal friends, dedicated volunteers, and talented staff who have helped me serve them better. Gratitude to this institution that has repaid my devotion so generously over the years, and to so many colleagues who have become dear friends.
“Gratitude to my family for their support…And particularly to my ultimate teammate and confidante for the past 32 years: Elaine’s leadership and wise counsel, in their own right, have made her the most seasoned Cabinet official in modern history. On top of all that, her devotion to me – and to Kentucky – is much more than I deserve.
“When I arrived in this chamber, I wasn’t coming with a Governor’s statewide executive experience or a House member’s appreciation for Washington dynamics. I knew my hometown of Louisville, and I had spent the previous few years working hard to learn what mattered to folks across the rest of the Commonwealth. And yet, within weeks of swearing the oath, I was here on this floor talking with colleagues from other far-flung corners of the country, discussing solutions to a farm income crisis and infrastructure challenges that affected our different states in similar ways.
“I learned quickly that delivering for Kentucky meant finding the ways the Commonwealth’s challenges were tied to national debates: Seeing to it that major agriculture legislation remembered Kentucky farmers, including when they needed extraordinary assistance, like the tobacco buyout…Making sure that nationwide steps on transportation infrastructure included resources for modernizing the Brent Spence Bridge, which supports billions of dollars in economic activity in Kentucky and the surrounding region every day…And, with the trust of the local community, finishing a task first assigned by President Reagan: the safe destruction of America’s legacy chemical weapons at Blue Grass Army Depot. Efforts like these have spanned the length of my Senate career. And I’ve been humbled by each and every opportunity to help Kentucky punch above its weight.
“Of course, the Senate has to grapple with foundational questions that reach even more broadly across American life…and even further into posterity. We’re trusted, on behalf of the American people, to participate in the appointment of the federal judiciary…To be the final check on the assembly of power in courts, beyond the reach of representative politics…And to ensure that the men and women who preside over them profess authentic devotion to the rule of law above all else.
“When members of this body ignore, discount, or pervert this fundamental duty, they do so not just at the peril of the Senate, but the entire nation. The weight of our power to advise and consent has never been lost on me. And I’ve been honored to perform my role in confirming judges who understand theirs.
“On this floor, there is no place to hide from the obligations of Article One…The Senate’s unique relationship with Article Three…Or our role in equipping the powers of Article Two.
“Here, every debate over agriculture or infrastructure or education or taxes is downstream of the obligations of national security. Every question of policy here at home is contingent on our duty to provide for the common defense.
“One of the first times I spoke at length on this floor as a freshman, I was compelled to join the debate over strengthening the deterrence of America’s nuclear triad. Whether to expand the U.S. military’s hard-target nuclear capability was an interesting question to pose to someone whose most recent job had been running a county government. But there, of course, was the founders’ brilliance at work: The hopes and dreams of every American are tied up in our ability to protect and defend the nation and its interests. Every family traveling abroad, and every worker and small business owner whose livelihood depends on foreign trade – they depend in turn on the credibility of America’s commitments to friends and the strength of her threats to enemies.
“In turn, the safety and success of the men and women who volunteer to serve this great nation in uniform depend on the work we do here to ensure that enemies think twice before challenging them…and never face a fair fight.
“Thanks to Ronald Reagan’s determination, the work of strengthening American hard power was well underway when I arrived in the Senate. But since then, we’ve allowed that power to atrophy. And today, a dangerous world threatens to outpace the work of rebuilding it.
“So, lest any of our colleagues still doubt my intentions for the remainder of my term: I have some unfinished business to attend to.
“In our work, most of us in this body develop an appreciation for the Senate itself – its written rules, its collegial norms, even its pace of play. And yet so often, I’ve watched colleagues depart, venting their frustration at the confines of the institution…or mourning what they perceive to be the decline of its norms.
“Regardless of the political storms that may wash over this chamber during the time I have remaining, I assure our colleagues that I will depart with great hope for the endurance of the Senate as an institution.
“There are any number of reasons for pessimism. But the strength of the Senate is not one of them. This chamber is still the haven where the political minority can require a debate. It is still the crucible in which jurists are tested for their fidelity to upholding the Constitution and laws as they were written. The Senate is still equipped for work of great consequence…And, to the disappointment of my critics, I’m still here on the job.”
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A statement from the Minister for Veterans and People on behalf of the Ministry of Defence
Minister for Veterans and People, Alistair Carns DSO, OBE, MC, said:
Our thoughts remain with Jaysley-Louise Beck’s loved ones at this difficult time. Jaysley was a young and promising soldier who should have had the opportunity to thrive in a supportive and safe environment. Her death was and still is a tragedy, and we are deeply sorry for the failure to protect her. I acknowledge what has been said in this inquest and the Army will now reflect on the evidence heard and the failings identified to learn lessons from the Coroner’s findings.
The Army has accepted the failings identified by the Service Inquiry and responded to the recommendations to improve Service life across its culture, policies, and practices. Our Armed Forces play a vital role in protecting the nation and a range of substantive measures – many already introduced – will help to build a safer, more inclusive environment for our personnel, particularly for new recruits, and ensure that any concerns raised are listened to and swift appropriate action is taken.
Let me be clear: There is no place for any abuse or unacceptable behaviours within the military. This Government has stepped up efforts to bring about crucial reform and provide a place where people are proud to work and have faith in the service justice system. We will honour Jaysley’s legacy by ensuring this is done in the shortest possible time and in the most effective manner.
Anyone – military or civilian – who has been a victim of serious crime in the Defence community can contact our confidential crime line on 0800 085 0658, which is available 24/7.
Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Yuri Trutnev visited the branch of the Voin center in Kalmykia
February 20, 2025
Yuri Trutnev visited the branch of the Voin center in Kalmykia
February 20, 2025
Yuri Trutnev visited the branch of the Voin center in Kalmykia
February 20, 2025
Yuri Trutnev visited the branch of the Voin center in Kalmykia
February 20, 2025
Yuri Trutnev visited the branch of the Voin center in Kalmykia
February 20, 2025
Yuri Trutnev visited the branch of the Voin center in Kalmykia
February 20, 2025
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Yuri Trutnev visited the branch of the Voin center in Kalmykia
As part of a working visit to the Republic of Kalmykia, Deputy Prime Minister – Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev visited the regional branch of the Voin center in Elista. The working meeting was attended by the head of the region Batu Khasikov, deputy chairman of the board of the Voin center, participant in the Time of Heroes program, Hero of Russia Andranik Gasparyan and director of the branch of the Voin center in Kalmykia Chimid Dzhangaev.
“The Voin Center was created by order of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, and its regional branches have been opened in 21 regions. Since its operation in May 2023, more than 56 thousand children have been trained in the regional branches of the center. We try to monitor how the work is going in all territories, meet, watch the work of the instructors, because they pass on their experience, knowledge, and ability to love the Motherland to children. And we believe that this is very important. We were pleased to come to Kalmykia. I know that Kalmykia has established military traditions. There are many heroes here who serve with dignity today in the special military operation zone. I met with the instructors, they are confident people ready to work. A few days ago I was in Khabarovsk and got acquainted with the work of the branch there. Our task is to create a mechanism for transferring traditions, experience and spirit in each center. This is also very important. We came to visit on the eve of Defender of the Fatherland Day, and I am pleased to congratulate everyone who works in the center today, and in general all residents of Kalmykia on this common holiday of ours,” said Yuri Trutnev.
The guests of honor began their visit with an inspection of the Nona airborne combat vehicle, which was recently installed near the branch building. They then attended classes in classrooms and familiarized themselves with the regional branch’s material and technical base.
The guests saw how the cadets hone their skills in UAV control, tactical medicine, and undergo fire and tactical training. After that, they visited the museum of the special military operation, located in the branch building. At the end of the meeting, they discussed with the heads of the training areas the development of the regional branch of the “Voin” center.
A unique patriotic project of the Kalmyk branch on the creation of “Warrior” platoons in the region’s schools was presented. The first such platoon was opened on February 14 at school No. 10 named after V.A. Bembetov, its cadets were 20 students from grades 7-11. The platoon’s work is supervised by the senior instructor-methodologist of the “Warrior” center, veteran of the SVO Dmitry Chulchinov.
“I would like to thank Yuri Petrovich for visiting the regional branch of the Voin center, for his attention, support and communication with the team of instructors. I am pleased, as the one responsible for the development of our branch of the Voin center, with the involvement of our cadets. Not only young people come here, but also active soldiers – guys who participate in a special military operation. This means that what is taught here is in demand, relevant and effective. We will continue this work and will popularize it, because we must live with the motto: “Be prepared for everything”. And, of course, we will also improve the material and technical equipment. We have big plans in this regard,” said the head of the Republic of Kalmykia Batu Khasikov.
The branch of the Voin center in the Republic of Kalmykia opened its doors on May 11, 2023. And during its operation, it was able to become the largest military-patriotic platform in the region. The branch’s arsenal includes advanced simulators, dummies, training machines and mass-dimensional models of weapons, which allow for high-quality training of cadets.
The pride and competitive advantage of the Kalmyk branch of the Voin center are its instructors, many of whom are participants in a special military operation. Batu Khasikov took direct part in their selection.
In 2023, the branch trained 1,500 teenagers aged 14 to 18, including 900 as part of the summer military-patriotic shifts “Time of Young Heroes”.
In 2024, instructors from the Kalmyk branch have already trained 2,015 people, 450 of them during the “Time of Young Heroes” shifts. Significant work was carried out on patriotic education and popularization of military-sports training.
Since the beginning of 2025, 961 teenagers have started classes in the first educational stream at the branch; in total, it is planned to train more than 2 thousand boys and girls. In less than two months of work, a number of patriotic events have already been organized. Among them are “Lessons of Courage”, “Conversations about Important Things”, master classes on the basics of tactical medicine, the basics of UAV piloting and fire training.
The Center for Military-Sports Training and Patriotic Education of Youth “Voin” was created by order of the President of Russia and is already represented in 21 regions of Russia. The “Voin” Center implements programs for schoolchildren and students on patriotic education and military-sports training, including practical training camps and military-sports games and competitions.
In early August 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the Government to involve participants in the special military operation in educational work with young people by developing branches of the Voin center in all regions of the country.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: United States Senator for Washington Maria Cantwell
02.20.25
Cantwell, Colleagues File Amicus Brief Over Illegal Inspectors General Firings
WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, joined 26 Senate Democrats in filing an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit brought by eight inspectors general (IGs) who were illegally fired by President Donald Trump. The Senators noted that the role of an inspector general is to uncover government waste, corruption, or illegal actions by political appointees and ensure the laws enacted by Congress are faithfully executed. In 2022, by a vote of 93 to 1, the Senate voted to strengthen existing IG protections to require that Congress be notified at least 30 days in advance of the removal of any Inspector General.
“Inspectors General (“IGs”) are responsible for uncovering and preventing waste, fraud, and abuse in the administration of federal programs. Their investigations, reports, and audits are crucial tools in uncovering corruption and mismanagement in the executive branch, and IGs are vital to fulfilling Congress’ constitutional oversight responsibilities. For those reasons, Congress requires the President by law to provide notice to Congress, and thus an opportunity for interbranch consultation, before removing an Inspector General from position,” wrote the Senators in the amicus brief.
“IGs are, by design and by law, not partisan political appointees who the President must be able to dispose of at will, lest their faults be attributed to the President,” the Senators continued.
The eight inspectors general who are suing President Trump and other administration officials over their illegal firings are part of a larger group of about 17 independent inspectors general who were illegally fired on January 24. In order to protect the independence of America’s nonpartisan IGs, federal law explicitly requires the President to provide Congress both a 30-day notice and communicate in writing a “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons,” for the termination. However, as the plaintiffs explain in their complaint, and as the Senators describe in their amicus brief, President Trump did not follow the law.
Department of Defense
Veterans Affairs
Health and Human Services
State Department
Department of Education
Department of Agriculture
Department of Labor
Small Business Administration
The amicus brief, led by Senate Minority Leader Schumer (D-NY), and Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Chris Coons (D-DE) was also signed by Senators Welch (D-VT), Schiff (D-CA), Luján (D-NM), Blumenthal (D-CT), Van Hollen (D-MD), Duckworth (D-IL), Hassan (D-NH), Bennet (D-CO), Cortez Masto (D-NV), Heinrich (D-NM), Schatz (D-HI), Shaheen (D-NH), Whitehouse (D-RI), Gallego (D-AZ), Slotkin (D-MI), Warren (D-MA), Gillibrand (D-NY), Kelly (D-AZ), Hirono (D-HI), Klobuchar (D-MN), Durbin (D-IL), Peters (D-MI), Reed (D-RI), Booker (D-NJ), and Rosen (D-NV).
Source: The White House
President Donald J. Trump took office just one month ago, but has already accomplished more than most presidents do in their entire term as he makes good on his promise to usher in the New Golden Age of America.
Here is a non-comprehensive list of President Trump’s wins after just one month:
SECURING OUR HOMELAND:
President Trump declared a national emergency at the border and deployed the military, including the 10th Mountain Division, to secure our nation.
Illegal border crossings have hit lows not seen in decades as U.S. Border Patrol is re-empowered to once again enforce the law.
ABC News: “From Jan. 21 through Jan. 31, the number of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions along the southwest border dropped 85% from the same period in 2024, according to data obtained by ABC News. In the 11 days after Jan. 20, migrants apprehended at ports of entry declined by 93%.”
Illegal aliens have started turning around in droves amid the crackdown.
The Department of Homeland Security announced that arrests of criminal illegal immigrants have doubled under President Trump.
President Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law, which requires illegal immigrants arrested or charged with theft or violence to be detained — honoring the legacy of Laken Riley, a Georgia college student brutally murdered by an illegal alien released into the country.
President Trump ended “catch-and-release,” reversing the dangerous Biden-era policy that released dangerous illegal aliens back into our communities.
President Trump shut down the “CBP One” app, which “paroled” more than one million illegal immigrants into the country.
A migrant shelter in San Diego announced it will shut down after it has received no new arrivals since President Trump took office.
President Trump terminated all taxpayer-funded public benefits for illegal aliens.
President Trump ramped up deportation flights of criminal illegal aliens.
After President Trump announced “urgent and decisive retaliatory measures” against Colombia over its refusal to accept deportation flights from the U.S., the country’s president quickly backtracked — even offering the use of his personal plane for the deportations.
El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele offered to accept deportees of any nationality, including violent American criminals currently imprisoned in the U.S.
President Trump began transferring criminal illegal aliens to Guantanamo Bay ahead of their repatriation back to their own countries.
President Trump re-established the successful “Remain in Mexico” policy.
President Trump restarted construction of the border wall.
The Trump Administration officially declared Tren de Aragua, MS-13, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the United Cartels, the Gulf Cartel, the Northeast Cartel, and the Michoacán Family as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) agreed to allow federal immigration officials to operate on Rikers Island and deport illegal alien criminals following his meeting with Border Czar Tom Homan.
Mexico announced a deployment of 10,000 troops to the border to combat illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking, while Canada announced a flurry of measures to combat fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking following President Trump’s imposition of tariffs on the two countries.
President Trump implemented an additional 10% tariff on imports from China in order to stem the flow of illegal aliens and fentanyl.
President Trump ordered an end to birthright citizenship.
President Trump suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
The Department of Justice filed suit against the State of New York and some of its elected officials over their willful failure to follow federal immigration law and announced that it will take action against so-called “sanctuary cities” for their obstruction of U.S. law.
The Department of Homeland Security “clawed back” tens of millions of dollars in funds paid by rogue FEMA officials to house illegal aliens in luxury New York City hotels.
President Trump reinstated the death penalty for federal capital crimes.
PROTECTING AMERICAN WORKERS AND FOSTERING ECONOMIC GROWTH:
President Trump restored a 25% tariff on steel imports and elevated the tariff to 25% on aluminum imports to protect these critical American industries from unfair foreign competition — a move praised by the Steel Manufacturers Association, the Aluminum Association, and businesses across the country.
Robert Simon, CEO of JSW Steel USA, praised President Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, celebrating them “as a project that will flood the U.S. with jobs as trading partners move their industries to U.S. soil to avoid tariffs.”
Makoto Uchida, the CEO of global automaker Nissan, said President Trump’s tariffs could push the car manufacturer to move its production from Mexico to the U.S.
President Trump unveiled a plan for fair and reciprocal trade, making clear to the world that the United States will no longer tolerate being ripped off.
President Trump secured hundreds of billions of dollars in new investments.
President Trump announced the largest artificial intelligence infrastructure project in history, securing $500 billion in planned private sector investment — with major CEOs agreeing it would not have been possible without President Trump’s leadership.
Saudi Arabia declared its intention to invest $600 billion in the United States over the next four years.
President Trump secured a $20 billion investment by DAMAC Properties to build new U.S.-based data centers.
Taiwan pledged to boost its investment in the United States.
Electronics giants Samsung and LG “are considering moving their plants in Mexico to the U.S.” now that President Trump is back in office.
In February, forecasters from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia revised their economic growth projections for the first quarter of 2025 up from 1.9% to 2.5%, and their unemployment rate projections for the quarter down from 4.2% to 4.1%.
After a meeting with President Trump, Stellantis announced it will reopen its assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois — putting 1,500 employees back to work — and build its next-generation Dodge Durango in Detroit, Michigan. The company also announced new investments in their Toledo, Ohio, and Kokomo, Indiana, facilities.
President Trump laid out a visionary plan to establish a Sovereign Wealth Fund to maximize the stewardship of the $5+ trillion in assets held by the United States.
Following President Trump’s victory, the S&P 500 set a new record as the stock market surged to record highs — while major Wall Street firms like JP Morgan Chase posted their highest ever annual profits.
LOWERING THE COST OF LIVING:
President Trump directed the heads of all executive departments and agencies to “deliver emergency price relief … to the American people and increase the prosperity of the American worker.”
President Trump established the National Energy Dominance Council to maximize use of the U.S.’ extensive energy resources, thereby enabling lower energy prices.
Crude oil prices have fallen over 5% since President Trump took office.
The Department of Energy postponed burdensome Biden-era efficiency standard rules for the following appliances, saving American consumers large sums:
Central air conditioners: Biden rules were slated to make air conditioners $1,100 more expensive, according to Alliance for Consumers.
Gas water heaters: Biden rules were slated to make water heaters $2,800 more expensive.
Clothes washers and dryers: Biden rules were slated to make washers $200 more expensive.
Light bulbs: Biden rules were slated to make light bulbs $140 more expensive.
Walk-in coolers and freezers, commercial refrigeration equipment, and air compressors.
The total cost of federal regulations in 2023 was a record-breaking $2.1 trillion, or $15,788 per U.S. household, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute. By requiring agencies to identify at least ten existing rules, regulations, or guidance documents to be repealed for every one rule they promulgate, President Trump has put the U.S. on track to severely reduce regulatory costs for everyday Americans.
The National Associations of Manufacturers found the cost of federal regulations was even greater — at $3.079 trillion in 2022.
Secretary Sean Duffy’s very first action at the Department of Transportation was to initiate rulemaking resetting Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards — effectively eliminating the Biden-era electric vehicle mandate.
NBER economist Mark R. Jacobsen “estimates that a one-mpg increase in CAFE standards costs consumers of all income levels approximately 0.5% of their income in the first year of the increase. By the 10th year following the increase, however, this cost becomes regressive, as the increase drives up the price of used cars. A one-mpg increase in CAFE standards costs consumers earning less than $25,000 per year 1.12% of their income, but only costs consumers earning more than $75,000 per year 0.41% of their income.”
RE-ESTABLISHING AMERICAN STRENGTH:
President Trump secured the release of six American hostages in Venezuela, two Americans in Afghanistan, an American-Israeli citizen in Hamas captivity, a Pennsylvania teacher in Russian captivity, and an American citizen in Belarus — bringing the total number of American hostages released under President Trump to 11.
President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in pursuit of finally securing peace as negotiations get underway.
President Trump restored maximum pressure on Iran, “sanctioning an international network for facilitating the shipment of millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the People’s Republic of China.”
President Trump redesignated the Iran-backed Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
President Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a visit where he proposed a bold vision for securing lasting peace in Gaza.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman described the proposal as “brilliant, historic and the only idea I have heard in 50 years that has a chance of bringing security, peace and prosperity to this troubled region.”
President Trump hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who announced his intention to “elevate Japan’s investment in the United States to an unprecedented amount of $1 trillion,” import “historic” quantities of LNG from Alaska, and open new auto plants in the U.S.
President Trump hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who announced that the Kingdom will accept 2,000 sick children from Gaza “as quickly as possible.”
President Trump hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a visit where they announced new deals between the two countries on immigration, trade, energy, and artificial intelligence.
President Trump banned funding to UNRWA — a United Nations agency that employed hundreds of Hamas and jihad operatives.
President Trump imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court, which has illegitimately asserted jurisdiction over internal U.S. matters and baselessly targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
President Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy to ensure no taxpayer dollars support foreign organizations that perform, or actively promote, abortion in other nations.
The Department of State ordered embassies worldwide to only fly the American flag — not activist flags.
President Trump declared all foreign policy must be conducted under the President’s direction, ensuring career diplomats reflect the foreign policy of the United States at all times.
The Department of State declared that U.S. foreign policy will be America First going forward.
Following a visit from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino agreed to withdraw from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a debt-trap diplomacy scheme the Chinese Communist Party uses to gain influence over developing nations.
The U.S. rejoined the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which promotes and strengthens opportunities for women and girls around the world, and protects the family as the fundamental unit of society.
President Trump cracked down on anti-Semitism by canceling visas for foreign students who are Hamas sympathizers.
President Trump ordered the immediate dismissal of the Board of Visitors for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard following years of woke ideologies infiltrating U.S. service academies.
The U.S. Army barred transgender people from enlisting and stopped using taxpayer funds for sex change surgeries.
President Trump reinstated, with backpay, U.S. service members who were discharged under the military’s nonsensical COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth restored Fort Liberty, North Carolina, to “Fort Bragg,” in honor of a World War II hero.
President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization.
President Trump paused enforcement of the overregulation of American businesses abroad, which negatively impacted national security.
President Trump proclaimed “Gulf of America Day” after the Department of the Interior officially established it on its mapping databases.
President Trump initiated a process to build a next-generation missile defense shield over the United States.
UNLEASHING AMERICAN ENERGY:
President Trump declared a National Energy Emergency to unlock America’s full energy potential and bring down costs for American families.
President Trump rescinded every one of the Biden Administration’s job-killing, pro-China, anti-American energy regulations.
President Trump empowered Americans with choice in vehicles, showerheads, toilets, washing machines, light bulbs, and dishwashers, and killed Biden-era regulations that restricted water flow and mandated inadequate light bulb standards.
President Trump terminated the job-killing Green New Scam.
President Trump withdrew from the disastrous Paris Climate Agreement, which unfairly ripped off our country.
President Trump paused federal permitting for massive wind farms, which degrade our natural landscapes and fail to serve American consumers.
President Trump reversed bureaucratic regulations that impeded Alaska’s ability to develop its vast natural resources.
President Trump re-opened 625 million acres for offshore drilling, which Biden banned in his waning days, in order to “drill, baby, drill.”
President Trump scrapped an Obama-era rule on greenhouse gases.
President Trump ended the Liquefied Natural Gas pause and approved the first LNG project since the Biden Administration banned them last year.
BRINGING BACK COMMON SENSE:
Health systems across the nation stopped or downsized their sex change programs for minors following President Trump’s “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” executive order.
In Illinois, Chicago’s Lurie Children’s Hospital paused sex-change surgeries for patients under 19 as it “work[s] to understand the rapidly evolving environment.”
In Colorado, Denver Health announced it would stop performing sex change surgeries on minor children, while UCHealth said it was ending so-called “gender-affirming care” for all minors.
In Washington, D.C., Children’s National Hospital “paused” prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapies for minors, while Northwest Washington Hospital did the same.
In Virginia, VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond “suspended” providing transgender-related medication and surgeries for minors, while UVA Health also “suspended” transgender-related services for minors.
President Trump ended the unfair, demeaning practice of forcing women to compete against men in sports — which resulted in the NCAA changing its rules.
The Department of Education launched investigations into the California Interscholastic Federation and the Minnesota State High School League over their failures to comply.
President Trump made it the official policy of the U.S. government that there are only two sexes.
President Trump banned COVID-19 vaccine mandates at schools that receive federal funding.
President Trump rolled back the Biden-era push to mandate paper straws.
President Trump instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to stop production of the penny, which cost 3.69 cents each to make.
President Trump directed full enforcement of the Hyde Amendment, which bars taxpayer dollars from being used to fund or promote elective abortion.
The Department of Transportation terminated the approval for New York City’s burdensome “congestion pricing” scheme.
RESTORING ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNMENT
President Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to maximize government productivity and ensure the best use of taxpayer funds — which has already achieved billions of dollars in savings for taxpayers.
President Trump commenced his plan to downsize the federal bureaucracy and eliminate waste, bloat, and insularity.
President Trump ordered federal workers to return to the office five days a week.
President Trump ordered federal agencies hire no more than one employee for every four employees who leave.
President Trump ended the wasteful Federal Executive Institute, which had become a training ground for bureaucrats.
President Trump ordered the termination of all federal Fake News media contracts.
President Trump ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the brainchild of Elizabeth Warren, which funneled cash to left-wing advocacy groups — to halt operations.
President Trump ordered an end to anti-Christian bias in the Federal Government.
President Trump ordered an examination of all regulations to assess any infringements on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
The Environmental Protection Agency canceled tens of millions of dollars in contracts to left-wing advocacy groups, announced an investigation into a scheme by Biden EPA staffers to shield billions of dollars from oversight and accountability, and put 168 “environmental justice” employees on leave.
President Trump stopped the waste, fraud, and abuse within USAID — ensuring taxpayers are no longer on the hook for funding the pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, such as sex changes in Guatemala.
President Trump ordered an end to the weaponization of the Federal Government against American citizens.
The Department of Justice immediately began rooting out politically motivated lawfare that occurred in the Biden Administration.
President Trump reversed the massive over-expansion of the IRS that took place during the Biden Administration.
President Trump eliminated discriminatory DEI offices, employees, and practices across the bureaucracy alongside a return to merit-based hiring — including at the Federal Aviation Administration, where the Biden Administration specifically recruited individuals with intellectual disabilities and psychiatric issues.
As a result, taxpayer-funded PBS closed its DEI office, Disney dropped two of its DEI programs, Goldman Sachs ended its DEI policy, and Institutional Shareholder Services announced it would no longer consider diversity of company boards when making its voting recommendations.
The Federal Communications Commission opened an investigation into discriminatory DEI policies at Comcast, an entity it regulates.
President Trump ordered an end to all censorship of Americans by the federal government.
President Trump ordered a review of funding for all non-governmental organizations, so taxpayers are no longer funding those that undermine America’s interests.
The Department of State issued a “pause” on existing foreign aid grants to ensure accountability and efficiency.
President Trump lifted last-minute collective bargaining agreements issued by the Biden Administration, which sought to impede reform.
President Trump overrode bureaucratic red tape that limited water availability in California following the failure of the state’s water system during the devastating wildfires.
President Trump terminated the Biden-era electric vehicle mandate.
President Trump suspended the Biden-era EV charging program, which had resulted in just eight charging stations despite $7.5 billion earmarked for the program.
President Trump shut down the wasteful Biden-era “Climate Corps” program.
The Federal Communications Commission took action against a Soros-backed radio station that leaked sensitive information about ICE operations.
President Trump ordered the declassification of documents related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
President Trump opened the White House Press Briefing Room to non-legacy media outlets as the White House sets a new standard for transparency in the digital age.
President Trump reinstated press privileges for roughly 440 journalists who the Biden Administration sought to silence.
President Trump fired members of The Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees amid their obsession with perpetuating radical, left-wing ideology at taxpayer expense.
President Trump revoked the security clearances of the 51 “spies who lied.”
EMPOWERING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
President Trump established the Make America Healthy Again Commission, which redirects the national focus to promoting health rather than simply managing disease.
President Trump took executive action to expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).
President Trump established the White House Faith Office to protect Americans’ religious liberty.
President Trump ordered an end to the radical indoctrination of children in K-12 schools that receive federal funding.
President Trump took executive action to support parents in choosing the best education for their children.
President Trump established the Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets to strengthen U.S. leadership in digital finance.
President Trump granted full and unconditional pardons to 23 pro-life Americans who were unjustly persecuted by the Biden Administration.
President Trump pardoned two Washington, D.C., police officers who were imprisoned simply for doing their jobs of apprehending criminals.
President Trump has had his cabinet confirmed by the Senate at a far faster pace than his predecessors, with a majority of his cabinet earning confirmation in his first month.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s intervention on Discussions on the Global Geopolitical Situation at the G20 Foreign Ministerial Meeting, South Africa
Thank you very much, Ronald (Ronald Lamola, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa) and let me say, my dear brother, what a joy is to see the G20 in Africa at long last. And we thank Brazil for its stewardship last year.
The challenges that we face are truly global.
We will not begin to tackle them unless we harness the potential of this continent, bursting with growth and opportunities and with so many young people, talented young people at its heart.
The starkest challenge we face is escalating conflict, both between and within nations, driving vicious cycles of grievance, displacement and low growth.
Your presidency, Ronald calls for solidarity, and solidarity starts by recognizing and naming the victims of war and injustice.
Innocent Ukrainians enduring bombardment night after night from Odessa to Zaphorizhya, the hostages still cruelly held underground by Hamas, 16 months old on from the trauma of October the 7th, and the Palestinian civilians driven from their homes in Gaza and the West Bank, the Sudanese refugees flee their burning villages to escape across the border to Chad, the overwhelming majority of them, women and children having endured the most unimaginable and indiscriminate violence.
As I said when I visited Chad, there can be no geopolitical stability, whilst there remains a hierarchy of conflicts, with those on this continent finding themselves at the bottom of the global pile.
And that’s why, since starting this job, I’ve made a reset with the so called Global South, a central plank of the UK Foreign Policy, and it’s why I doubled British aid for Sudan, and I prepared a conference in London to push for a political process which will end the fighting and protect civilians.
And that’s why I’ve called out the Rwandan Defence Force operations in the eastern DRC as a blatant breach of the UN Charter which risks spiralling into a regional conflict, and that’s why I will again make clear to President Kagame, that further breaches of DRC’s sovereignty will have consequences.
Because at the heart of my government’s approach to foreign policy lies the belief that regional and geopolitical stability can only be delivered through respect for international law and the principles of the UN Charter.
And as my Canadian, Australian, Japanese colleagues have said, respect for international law must underwrite a free and open Indo Pacific, just as it must underwrite the Euro Atlantic, with the security of those two regions ever more closely linked.
And as we turn to the Middle East, the ceasefire in Gaza is painfully fragile, I’m grateful that so many of us here today are working together to ensure that it holds we must continue to work together tirelessly to secure the release of the remaining hostages, to bolster the Palestinian Authority, and to boost aid into Gaza and to develop a long term plan for governance and security on the strip so that we can advance towards, a two state solution. Which remains the only long term viable pathway to peace.
And finally, in Ukraine, the only just and lasting peace will be a peace that is consistent with the UN Charter, and we want that as soon as possible.
You know, mature countries learn from their colonial failures and their wars, and Europeans have had much to learn over the generations and the centuries.
But I’m afraid to say that Russia has learned nothing.
I listened carefully to Minister Lavrov intervention just now he’s, of course, left his seat, hoping to hear some readiness to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty.
I was hoping to hear some sympathy for the innocent victims of the aggression.
I was hoping to hear some readiness to seek a durable peace.
What I heard was the logic of imperialism dressed up as a realpolitik, and I say to you all, we should not be surprised, but neither should we be fooled.
We are at a crucial juncture in this conflict, and Russia faces a test.
If Putin is serious about a lasting peace, it means finding a way forward which respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and the UN Charter which provides credible security guarantees, and which rejects Tsarist imperialism, and Britain is ready to listen.
But we expect to hear more than the Russian gentleman’s tired fabrications.
NEWPORT, R.I. – Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Lisa Franchetti traveled to New England to meet with area Sailors, civilians, and leadership, tour General Dynamics Bath Iron Works (BIW) and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY), and meet with students and faculty at Navy school houses and the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., Feb. 18-19.
This visit underscores the Navy’s commitment to putting more ready players on the field and prioritizing training with a focus on warfighting, wargaming, and readiness.
At BIW, in Bath, Maine, Franchetti met with two dozen shipbuilders who are working on the new radar and combat suite for Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126), BIW’s first Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. She commended them for their hard work and recognized their vital contributions to the Navy’s shipbuilding efforts.
“I’m focused on warfighting and the warfighters that do that warfighting, and they can’t do that without platforms like this,” said Franchetti to Bath Iron Works shipyard workers aboard DDG-126. “I believe in service both in uniform and out. Your service here, building this amazing warship, is also service to your nation. You’re making sure we have the most ready, capable, and lethal Navy that our Nation needs to be able to protect our national security interests all over the world. That all starts right here.”
Franchetti also met with Sailors from the PCUs Harvey C. Barnum Jr (DDG 124) and Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127), the final DDG Flight IIA being built for the Navy.
“It’s exciting to be the plank owners of ships that are going to serve our Nation for 30 years,” said Franchetti. “At the commissioning ceremony for the first Arleigh Burke destroyer, Adm. Arleigh Burke told the crew, ‘this ship was built to fight. You better know how,’ and I know that’s what this crew thinks about when you go to work every day.”
Franchetti added, “we’ve had 26 warships operating in the Red Sea over the last 15 months, at a level of combat intensity we haven’t seen since World War II. Twelve of those ships were built right here at BIW and have been performing magnificently. That performance is because of our investments in lethal systems, investments in our foundation – shipyards like this one – and investments in Sailors who live and breathe the warrior ethos every day.”
Continuing the visit, CNO took a Quality of Service tour at PNSY where she visited various facilities, including the Bachelor Enlisted Quarters, the Navy Exchange, and the Micromart. During the tour, she engaged in discussions about initiatives focused on improving the quality of life for Sailors. These efforts are part of the ongoing commitment to deliver the high level of service that Sailors deserve and are a key Project 33 target outlined in the CNO’s Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy.
CNO also received updates on ongoing Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program modernization efforts, ship maintenance, and refit timelines at PNSY. She emphasized the need to build readiness and capability now as the Navy partners to scale industrial capacity and expand budgets for future growth—an effort that aligns with another key target in the CNO’s Navigation Plan, to strengthen and modernize the Navy’s industrial base to get platforms in and out of maintenance on time. While at PNSY, she presented the FY24 Battle “E” award to the crew of the Virginia-class fast attack submarine USS North Dakota (SSN 784).
“One of the big tenants of America’s Warfighting Navy is getting more players on the field. That’s platforms with the right capabilities, the right modernization, the right lethality, and people with the right skillset, toolset, and mindset, and you embody that every single day,” Franchetti told the crew. “I’m confident that you’re going to get this player back out on the field as fast as possible because of your very clear commitment to getting after every challenge that comes your way. Your partnership with the shipyard team is second to none, and together, you got left of any barrier that came up. Our submarines are the Apex Predators of the Fleet, and I know the ‘Reapers of the Deep’ are excited to get back out there.”
Following the visit, the CNO went to Newport, R.I., to meet with leadership at the Surface Warfare Schools Command (SWSC) and to speak at the department head graduation. While there she also relayed her charge of command and spoke about standards to the prospective commanding officers.
“You’re going back to the Fleet at a critical time for our Navy and our nation. As you have seen this past year, our Navy-Marine Corps team, and really our surface warfare community, has been in high demand in every region around the globe,” Franchetti said. “We are operating in contested waterways and airspaces to underwrite the global security environment, and to keep the sea lanes of communication open for all to use. There’s no other Navy that operates at this scale, no other Navy can train, deploy and sustain such a lethal, globally deployed, combat credible force at the pace, the scale, and the tempo that we do.”
The CNO then met with leadership from the U.S. Naval War College and received briefs from the college’s Halsey Group advanced research programs, which conduct data collection, research, analysis and wargaming to examine challenges at the operational level of war in the Middle East and East Asia.
To wrap up the visit, CNO met with leadership and students from both the Naval Supply Corps School and the Naval Justice School to thank them for their work delivering warfighting advantage every day.
The Middle East region’s largest maritime exercise, International Maritime Exercise (IMX) 2025, concluded during a closing ceremony here, Feb 20.
IMX 2025 brought together 5,000 personnel from over 30 nations and international organizations committed to preserving the rules-based international order and strengthening regional maritime security cooperation.
The 12-day exercise took participants through several exercise serials across multiple locations at sea in the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, as well as ashore and in the air. Some of the serials included diving, harbor security, mine countermeasures, unmanned systems and artificial intelligence integration, visit, board, search and seizure procedures, and global health management events.
“It’s inspiring to see so many nations working together. The incredible level of international representation is pivotal to our success of safeguarding regional waterways and enabling the free flow of commerce,” said U.S. Navy Vice Adm. George Wikoff, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and U.S. 5th Fleet, in his remarks at the closing ceremony. “IMX 2025 was truly about partnering to strengthen and expand our capabilities.”
“[The] exercise brought forward many viewpoints [about how] to handle a single situation in various different ways. I am confident that the takeaways of this exercise will serve all the participants in planning and executing various exercises in their respective countries,” said Pakistan Navy Commodore Rashid Mahmood Sheikh, who led the CPX exercise for IMX 2025, in his remarks.
IMX 2025 ran in conjunction with a U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa exercise, Cutlass Express 25, with each exercise’s respective maritime operations centers exercising their information sharing capabilities to improve theater-to-theater coordination, reduce regional seams, and strengthen interoperability.
The ninth iteration of the series, IMX began in 2012 as the International Mine Countermeasures Exercise, before changing its name to reflect a more expansive mission set.
The U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations encompasses nearly 2.5 million square miles of water area and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, parts of the Indian Ocean and three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal and Bab al-Mandeb.
SEATTLE, Feb. 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Overland AI, a leader in autonomous ground systems, announced the opening of the Overland AI Factory in South Seattle. Congressman Adam Smith, representing Washington’s Ninth Congressional District, visited yesterday for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tour of the facility, which will significantly enhance the company’s in-house manufacturing and production of autonomous ground vehicles at scale.
Congressman Adam Smith participating in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Overland AI Factory (South Seattle)
The Overland AI Factory is designed for end-to-end development and rapid production of both crewed and uncrewed ground vehicles, integrating sophisticated tooling and scalable workflows. The facility will serve as a hub for Overland AI-designed platforms and the precision upfitting of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) vehicles, enabling mission-ready adaptability for defense and national security applications.
“I’m honored to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony of this new Overland AI Factory,” said Congressman Adam Smith. “By investing in local talent and resources, Overland AI is fostering innovation and creating job opportunities in the Ninth Congressional District to support our national security.”
The Congressman touring Overland AI’s new facility with co-founders Stephanie Bonk (President) and Greg Okopal (Chief Operating Officer)
Located in Seattle’s industrial corridor, Overland AI’s new Factory accelerates the development of ground vehicles powered by OverDrive. With differentiated capabilities like GPS-denied operation and multi-robot coordination, OverDrive-enhanced vehicles are supporting tactical operators today across the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command. The Factory’s strategic location near Joint Base Lewis-McChord, key military airports, and major seaports streamlines defense logistics and the rapid deployment of mission-ready autonomous systems for mission partners.
“This facility marks a new chapter for Overland AI and the future of autonomous ground systems,” said Greg Okopal, co-founder and chief operating officer of Overland AI. “By bringing manufacturing in-house, we are now offering our partners an integrated solution, from remote operator to effect on the battlefield.”
“The Overland AI Factory cements the region’s role as a hub for defense technology and manufacturing,” said Byron Boots, co-founder and chief executive officer of Overland AI. “This opening reinforces our commitment to advancing ground autonomy for national security.”
About Overland AI Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Overland AI is powering ground operations for modern defense. The company leverages over a decade of advanced research in robotics and machine learning, as well as a field-test forward ethos, to deliver advanced autonomy for unit commanders. Hazardous missions in austere and electronically denied environments demand that this technology is reliable and resilient. Overland AI’s autonomy kit and OverDrive stack enable ground vehicles to navigate off-road without GPS or direct operator control, while its OverWatch C2 provides commanders with precisely coordinated capabilities that are vital for complex missions to succeed. Overland AI is developing these capabilities and putting them into the hands of tactical operators today.
Source: United States Senator Pete Ricketts (Nebraska)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, praised the budget resolution as providing the framework to help fund President Trump’s priorities. Ricketts discussed the resolution while on a conference call with Nebraska media:
“Last week, my Senate Budget Committee colleagues and I advanced a budget reconciliation resolution that will lay the groundwork to fund President Trump’s priorities. This week, the plan is to pass it on the Senate floor,” Ricketts said. “This budget resolution represents a significant step forward in giving President Trump the resources he needs to deliver security and prosperity for the American people. It instructs committees of jurisdiction to execute on President Trump’s agenda.”
“The American people elected President Trump to secure the border, restore American strength, and unleash American energy,” Ricketts closed. “This budget resolution provides the blueprint and resources he needs to deliver prosperity and keep Americans safe. I look forward to passing it quickly to help deliver results for Nebraskans and the American people.”
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Watch the video HERE.
TRANSCRIPT:
Senator Ricketts: “Last week, my Senate Budget Committee colleagues and I advanced a budget reconciliation resolution that will lay the groundwork to fund President Trump’s priorities.
“This week, the plan is to pass it on the Senate floor.
“This budget resolution represents a significant step forward in giving President Trump the resources he needs to deliver security and prosperity for the American people.
“It instructs committees of jurisdiction to execute on President Trump’s agenda.
“First, the budget resolution provides a blueprint to secure the border.
“This budget proposal provides a framework to spend roughly 175 billion dollars to finish the border wall and upgrade border technology.
“It envisions increasing the number of detention beds so dangerous criminals aren’t released into our country.
“It envisions increasing the number of ICE officers and Border Patrol agents who work to expedite the removal of criminal illegal aliens.
“It envisions adding more assistant U.S. attorneys to prosecute drug cartels – and more immigration judges to clear our case backlog.
“After four years of Biden’s open border policies, we need resources now to secure the border.
“This framework will help us do that.
“Second, this budget resolution calls for the revitalization of our military.
“This would mean critical new funding – roughly 150 billion dollars – for the Department of Defense to improve readiness.
“It calls for more funds for the continued modernization of our nuclear triad.
“It calls for the strengthening of our defense industrial base to help us build more ships for the Navy.
“The budget resolution also calls on the Pentagon to perform an audit to ensure our tax dollars are being spent effectively.
“These provisions will help us deter adversaries like Communist China.
“It will help keep Americans safe.
“Third, this budget provides a framework for unleashing American energy production.
“That would mean blocking the Biden administration’s natural gas tax.
“That would mean facilitating the development of America’s abundant natural resources.
“And that would mean requiring new oil and gas lease sales.
“These common-sense policies will combat the soaring cost of energy.
“Finally, this budget resolution is fully paid for.
“We save by reversing Biden’s Green New Deal spending.
“We save by rolling back burdensome Biden mandates and regulations.
“The American people elected President Trump to secure the border, restore American strength, and unleash American energy.
“This budget resolution provides the blueprint and resources he needs to deliver prosperity and keep Americans safe.
“I look forward to passing it quickly to help deliver results for Nebraskans and the American people.”
