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  • MIL-OSI USA News: Restoring Gold Standard Science

    Source: The White House

    By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7301 of title 5, United States Code, it is hereby ordered:
    Section 1.  Policy and Purpose.  Over the last 5 years, confidence that scientists act in the best interests of the public has fallen significantly.  A majority of researchers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics believe science is facing a reproducibility crisis.  The falsification of data by leading researchers has led to high-profile retractions of federally funded research.  
    Unfortunately, the Federal Government has contributed to this loss of trust.  In several notable cases, executive departments and agencies (agencies) have used or promoted scientific information in a highly misleading manner.  For example, under the prior Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued COVID-19 guidance on reopening schools that incorporated edits by the American Federation of Teachers and was understood to discourage in-person learning.  This guidance’s restrictive and burdensome reopening conditions led many schools to remain at least partially closed, resulting in substantial negative effects on educational outcomes — even though the best available scientific evidence showed that children were unlikely to transmit or suffer serious illness or death from the virus, and that opening schools with reasonable mitigation measures would have only minor effects on transmission.  
    The National Marine Fisheries Service justified a biological opinion by adopting an admitted “worst-case scenario” projection of the North Atlantic right whale population that it believed was “very likely” wrong.  The agency’s proposed actions could have destroyed the historic Maine lobster fishery.  The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently overturned that opinion because the agency’s decision to seek out the worst-case scenario skewed its approach to the evidence.  
    Similarly, agencies have used Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenario 8.5 to assess the potential effects of climate change in a “higher” warming scenario.  RCP 8.5 is a worst-case scenario based on highly unlikely assumptions like end-of-century coal use exceeding estimates of recoverable coal reserves.  Scientists have warned that presenting RCP 8.5 as a likely outcome is misleading.
    Actions taken by the prior Administration further politicized science, for example, by encouraging agencies to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion considerations into all aspects of science planning, execution, and communication.  Scientific integrity in the production and use of science by the Federal Government is critical to maintaining the trust of the American people and ensuring confidence in government decisions informed by science.
    My Administration is committed to restoring a gold standard for science to ensure that federally funded research is transparent, rigorous, and impactful, and that Federal decisions are informed by the most credible, reliable, and impartial scientific evidence available.  We must restore the American people’s faith in the scientific enterprise and institutions that create and apply scientific knowledge in service of the public good.  Reproducibility, rigor, and unbiased peer review must be maintained.  This order restores the scientific integrity policies of my first Administration and ensures that agencies practice data transparency, acknowledge relevant scientific uncertainties, are transparent about the assumptions and likelihood of scenarios used, approach scientific findings objectively, and communicate scientific data accurately.  Agency use of Gold Standard Science, as set forth in this order, will spur innovation, translate discovery to success, and ensure continued American strength and global leadership in technology.

    Sec. 2.  Definitions.  For the purposes of this order:
    (a)  “Employee” has the meaning given that term in 5 U.S.C. 2105.
    (b)  “Scientific information” means factual inputs, data, models, analyses, technical information, or scientific assessments related to such disciplines as the behavioral and social sciences, public health and medical sciences, life and earth sciences, engineering, physical sciences, or probability and statistics.  This includes any communication or representation of knowledge such as facts or data, in any medium or form, including textual, numerical, graphic, cartographic, narrative, or audiovisual forms.
    (c)  “Scientific misconduct” means fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, reviewing, or reporting the results of scientific research, but does not include honest error or differences of opinion.  For the purposes of this definition;
    (i)    “fabrication” is making up data or results and recording or reporting them;
    (ii)   “falsification” is manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record; and
    (iii)  “plagiarism” is the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.
    (d)  “Senior appointee” means an individual appointed by the President (or an individual performing the functions and duties of an individual appointed by the President) or a non-career member of the Senior Executive Service.
    (e)  “Weight of scientific evidence” means an approach to scientific evaluation in which each piece of relevant information is considered based on its quality and relevance, and then transparently integrated with other relevant information to inform the scientific evaluation prior to making a judgment about the scientific evaluation.  Quality and relevance determinations, at a minimum, should include consideration of study design, fitness for purpose, replicability, peer review, and transparency and reliability of data.

    Sec. 3.  Restoring Gold Standard Science.  (a)  Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP Director) shall, in consultation with the heads of relevant agencies, issue guidance for agencies on implementation of “Gold Standard Science” in the conduct and management of their respective scientific activities.  For the purposes of this order, Gold Standard Science means science conducted in a manner that is:
    (i)     reproducible;
    (ii)    transparent;
    (iii)   communicative of error and uncertainty;
    (iv)    collaborative and interdisciplinary;
    (v)     skeptical of its findings and assumptions;
    (vi)    structured for falsifiability of hypotheses;
    (vii)   subject to unbiased peer review;
    (viii)  accepting of negative results as positive outcomes; and
    (ix)    without conflicts of interest.
    (b)  Upon publication of the guidance prescribed in subsection (a), each agency head, as necessary and appropriate and in consultation with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB Director) and the OSTP Director, shall promptly update applicable agency policies governing the production and use of scientific information, including scientific integrity policies, to implement the OSTP Director’s guidance on Gold Standard Science and ensure that agency scientific activities are conducted in accordance with this order.
    (c)  Each agency head shall, to the extent practicable, incorporate the OSTP Director’s guidance on Gold Standard Science and the requirements of this order into the processes by which their agency conducts, manages, interprets, communicates, and uses scientific or technological information prior to the finalization of the updated policies under this section.
    (d)  Within 60 days of the publication of the guidance prescribed in section 3(a), agency heads shall report to the OSTP Director on the actions taken to implement Gold Standard Science at their agency.

     Sec. 4.  Improving the Use, Interpretation, and Communication of Scientific Data.  No later than 30 days after the date of this order, agency heads and employees shall adhere to the following rules governing the use, interpretation, and communication of scientific data, unless otherwise provided by law:
    (a)  Employees shall not engage in scientific misconduct nor knowingly rely on information resulting from scientific misconduct.
    (b)  Except as prohibited by law, and consistent with relevant policies that protect national security or sensitive personal or confidential business information, agency heads shall in a timely manner and, to the extent practicable and within the agency’s authority:
    (i)  subject to paragraph (ii), make publicly available the following information within the agency’s possession:
    (A)  the data, analyses, and conclusions associated with scientific and technological information produced or used by the agency that the agency reasonably assesses will have a clear and substantial effect on important public policies or important private sector decisions (influential scientific information), including data cited in peer-reviewed literature; and
    (B)  the models and analyses (including, as applicable, the source code for such models) the agency used to generate such influential scientific information.  Employees may not invoke exemption 5 to the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(5)) to prevent disclosure of such models unless authorized in writing to do so by the agency head following prior notice to the OSTP Director.
    (ii)  risk models used to guide agency enforcement actions or select enforcement targets are not information that must be disclosed under this subsection.
    (c)  When using scientific information in agency decision-making, employees shall transparently acknowledge and document uncertainties, including how uncertainty propagates throughout any models used in the analysis.
    (d) Where employees produce or use scientific information to inform policy or legal determinations they must use science that comports with the legal standards applicable to those determinations, including when agencies evaluate the realistic or reasonably foreseeable effects of an action.
    (e)  Employees shall be transparent about the likelihood of the assumptions and scenarios used.  Highly unlikely and overly precautionary assumptions and scenarios should only be relied upon in agency decision-making where required by law or otherwise pertinent to the agency’s action.
    (f)  When scientific or technological information is used to inform agency evaluations and subsequent decision-making, employees shall apply a “weight of scientific evidence” approach.
    (g)  Employees’ communication of scientific information shall be consistent with the results of the relevant analysis and evaluation and, to the extent that uncertainty is present, the degree of uncertainty should be communicated.  Communications involving a scientific model or information derived from a scientific model should include reference to any material assumptions that inform the model’s outputs.
    (h)  Once the guidance on Gold Standard Science is established and promulgated pursuant to section 3 of this order, it shall, among other things, form the basis for employees’ evaluation of all scientific and technological information called for in this order except where otherwise required by law.

    Sec. 5.  Interim Scientific Integrity Policies.  (a)  Until the issuance of updated agency scientific integrity policies pursuant to section 3 of this order, and except where required by law:
    (i)    scientific integrity policies in each agency shall be governed by the scientific integrity policies that existed within the executive branch on January 19, 2021, except that in the event of a conflict between such policies and the policies and requirements of this order, the policies and requirements of this order control; and
    (ii)   agency heads shall take all necessary actions to reevaluate and, where necessary, revise or rescind scientific integrity policies or procedures, or amendments to such policies or procedures, issued between January 20, 2021, and January 20, 2025.
    (iii)  each agency head shall promptly revoke any organizational or operational changes, designations, or documents that were issued or enacted pursuant to the Presidential Memorandum of January 27, 2021 (Restoring Trust in Government Through Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking), which was revoked pursuant to Executive Order 14154 and shall conduct applicable agency operations in the manner and revert applicable agency organization to the same form as would have existed in the absence of such changes, designations, or documents.
    (b)  In updating applicable scientific integrity policies pursuant to section 3 of this order, agencies should ensure they:
    (i)    encourage the open exchange of ideas;
    (ii)   provide for consideration of different or dissenting viewpoints; and
    (iii)  protect employees from efforts to prevent or deter consideration of alternative scientific opinions.
    (c)  Agencies, unless prohibited by law, shall review agency actions taken between January 20, 2021, and January 20, 2025, including regulations, guidance documents, policies, and scientific evaluations and take all appropriate steps, consistent with law, to ensure alignment with the policies and requirements of this order.

    Sec. 6.  Scope and Applicability.  (a)  The policies and rules set forth in this order apply to all employees involved in the generation, use, interpretation, or communication of scientific information, regardless of job classification, and to all agency decision-making, except where precluded by law.
    (b)  Agency heads and employees shall, to the extent practicable and consistent with applicable law, require agency contractors to adhere to these policies and rules as though they were agency employees.  
    (c)  The policies and rules set forth in this order govern the use of science that informs agency decisions but they are not applicable to non-scientific aspects of agency decision-making.

    Sec. 7.  Enforcement and Oversight.  (a)  Each agency head shall establish internal processes to evaluate alleged violations of the requirements of this order and other applicable agency policies governing the generation, use, interpretation, and communication of scientific information.  Such processes shall be the responsibility, and administered under the direction, of a senior appointee designated by the agency head and shall provide for taking appropriate measures to correct scientific information in response to violations, consistent with the requirements and procedures of section 515 of the statute commonly known as the Information Quality Act, Public Law 106-554, appendix C (114 Stat. 2763A-153).  The designated senior appointee may also forward potential violations to the relevant human resources officials for discipline to the extent the potential violation also violates applicable agency policies and procedures.  The designated senior appointee may consult appropriate officials with scientific expertise when establishing such processes.  
    (b)  The processes created under this section are, unless otherwise required by applicable law, the sole and exclusive means of evaluating and, as applicable, addressing alleged violations of this order and other agency policies governing the use, interpretation, and communication of scientific information.

    Sec. 8.  Waivers.  (a)  An agency head may request in writing that the OMB Director, in consultation with the OSTP Director, waive any of the requirements of this order for good cause shown.  Such request must explain how the requested waiver is consistent with the policies and purposes of this order.
    (b)  Notwithstanding any other provision of this order, the policies and requirements of this order shall apply to agency actions that pertain to foreign or military affairs, or to a national security or homeland security function of the United States, only to the extent that the applicable agency head, in his or her sole and exclusive discretion, determines they should apply.

    Sec. 9.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
    (i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
    (ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
    (b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
    (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
    (d)   The Office of Management and Budget shall provide funding for publication of this order in the Federal Register.

                                   DONALD J. TRUMP

    THE WHITE HOUSE,
        May 23, 2025.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Cheapest Memorial Day Weekend Gas Prices in Years

    Source: The White House

    It’s the Trump Effect in action: gas prices this Memorial Day weekend will be the cheapest since 2021 — and “if you adjust for inflation and rising wages, Americans are actually going to spend the least amount filling up this Memorial Day since 2003, excluding COVID,” according to GasBuddy.

    The national nightmare that was Biden’s war on American energy is over. After President Donald J. Trump declared a National Energy Emergency on his first day in office, his administration has taken relentless action to revive the nation’s energy capabilities and undo the Biden-era stranglehold on American energy production.

    The news is being celebrated across the country:

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: President Trump is Right About What’s Happening in South Africa

    Source: The White House

    Today, President Donald J. Trump showed the world the shocking treatment of white farmers in South Africa — including with a video montage that highlighted the discrimination and violence targeted at the innocent minority victims.

    President Trump was exactly right.

    • “We left because of the attacks. You can’t stay on a farm as a white person in South Africa. You know you’ll be killed,” said one South African refugee.
    • New York Post: White South African couple say they’re victims of racial attacks — and can’t wait to be in Trump’s America
    • The Daily Mail: Why white South Africans are fleeing surging violence and ‘racist’ laws for new lives in America
    • BBC: ‘I didn’t come here for fun’ – Afrikaner defends refugee status in US
    • Breitbart: Trump Vindicated as South Africa Considers Bill to Redistribute Land on Racial Lines
    • BBC: South African president signs controversial land seizure law
      • The law is vague, stating that expropriation is allowed in circumstances where it is “just and equitable and in the public interest” to do so.
    • BBC: “Close to 70,000 South Africans have expressed interest in moving to the US following Washington’s offer to resettle people from the country’s Afrikaner community, a business group has said.”
    • The New York Times: ‘Kill the Boer’ Song Fuels Backlash in South Africa and U.S.
      • “The political rally was winding down when the brash leader of a leftist South African party grabbed the microphone and began to stomp and chant. Thousands of supporters joined in, and when he reached the climax, they pointed their fingers in the air like guns. ‘Kill the Boer!’ Julius Malema chanted, referring to white farmers. The crowd in a stadium in Johannesburg on Saturday roared back in approval.”
    • The New York Times: Killing of White Farmer Becomes a Flash Point in South Africa
    • Sky News: ‘Anti-white racism’: Farmers being targeted in South Africa
    • news.com.au: South Africans trapped ‘like frogs in boiling water’ as racial violence escalates
    • The Independent: South Africa: Taking farms from whites is justified because ‘it’s not really their land’, says EFF spokesman
    • New York Sun: From Murdered White Farmers to ‘Racially Disfavored Landowners’: Why Trump and Musk Are Targeting South Africa
    • The Independent: Farmers in South Africa claim they are being targeted in ‘horrific’ attacks
    • news.com.au: South Africa farm attacks: Brutal crimes landowners face
    • The Daily Mail: There’s been a murder a week on farms in South Africa this year. Now a race-baiting Marxist who loves singing Kill the Boer is set to become Vice President
    • Fox News: South African political leader calls for violence against White citizens at rally: ‘Kill the Boer, the farmer’

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: ICYMI: ‘Angel families’ urge Republicans to pass ‘big beautiful bill’ and secure border to prevent tragedies: ‘There must be change’

    Source: The White House

    Angel Families — whose lives have been shattered by illegal immigrant criminals with no right to be in the country — are calling on Congress to pass President Donald J. Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill, the New York Post reports.

    “’Angel families’ whose loved ones have been killed by illegal immigrants and gang members are urging congressional Republicans to pass President Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ to seal the border and fast-track deportations, The Post can exclusively reveal.

    ‘We write to you not as politicians or pundits, but as parents — mothers and fathers who have buried our children because the United States government failed to secure its border,’ they said in an open letter to Congress. ‘There can be no justice for our children, but there can be accountability. There can be action. And there must be change,’ they added.

    ‘We urge every member of Congress to support the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ and vote to secure the border, protect our communities, and prevent the next American family from living our nightmare.’

    More than 60 angel relatives co-signed the letter, including the mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, whose 12-year-old daughter was allegedly murdered by two illegal migrants, and the family of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was killed by a Tren de Aragua gang member from Venezuela. […]

    In their letter, the ‘angel families’ said that for too long they ‘have been ignored, dismissed, or labeled as political props.’

    ‘Every single one of us is living with a permanent hole in our lives because an illegal immigrant, who never should have been in this country, was allowed to stay and take an innocent life,’ they said.

    ‘These were preventable tragedies. And yet, year after year, Washington offers excuses instead of solutions. That must end now.’”

    Click here to read the full story.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: President Donald J. Trump Signed S. 146 into Law

    Source: The White House

    class=”has-text-align-center”>On Monday, May 19, 2025, the President signed into law:

    S. 146, the “Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act”, or the “TAKE IT DOWN” Act provides for criminal prohibition on intentional disclosure of nonconsensual intimate visual depictions and requires covered platforms to remove such depictions, and for other purposes.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: ICYMI: President Trump Signs TAKE IT DOWN Act into Law

    Source: The White House

    Today, President Donald J. Trump signed the TAKE IT DOWN Act into law — a key initiative of First Lady Melania Trump and a landmark step in the fight to protect victims of digital exploitation.

    The signing of this critical bill received bipartisan praise on Capitol Hill and beyond:

    Sen. Ted Cruz: “The TAKE IT DOWN ACT is an historic win for victims of revenge porn and deepfake image abuse. Predators who weaponize new technology to post this exploitative filth will now rightfully face criminal consequences, and Big Tech will no longer be allowed to turn a blind eye to the spread of this vile material. This day stands as a powerful testament to the bravery and dedication of Elliston Berry, Francesca Mani, Breeze Liu, and Brandon Guffey, whose relentless advocacy made this law possible. I am deeply grateful to my legislative partners, particularly Sen. Amy Klobuchar and First Lady Melania Trump, for their collaboration in advancing this critical legislation to protect every American’s privacy and dignity online.”

    Sen. Amy Klobuchar: “Big news: my bipartisan TAKE IT DOWN Act w/Sen. Cruz was signed into law by the President today.  It protects victims of online abuse and set some rules of the road for social media and AI. Thank you to the First Lady for her support and to the advocates who made this possible.”

    Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar: “Before this law, victims were ignored. Schools couldn’t act, police had no tools, and Big Tech looked away. With TAKE IT DOWN, that changes. Platforms must respond — and predators will face justice. Now, victims have the power and the law behind them.”

    X CEO Linda Yaccarino: “Honored to be at the @WhiteHouse today as @POTUS signed the Take It Down Act. Grateful to @FLOTUS for her dedication to ensuring safety. @X will continue to work alongside @SenTedCruz @MarshaBlackburn @RepNancyMace and @NCMEC to do everything possible to make the internet safer, especially for children.”

    South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson: “No one should have to live in fear of their most private moments being weaponized against them. Revenge porn is a cruel and deeply violating crime, and for too long, the law has lagged behind the technology. Today, with President Trump’s leadership, we’re now bringing that fight to the national stage, by standing up for survivors, holding predators accountable, and making it absolutely clear: digital abuse is real abuse, and it will be met with real consequences.”

    National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: “Today, @NCMEC_CEO, Michelle DeLaune and NCMEC’s Chief Legal Officer, Yiota Souras attended the TAKE IT DOWN Act bill signing ceremony at the White House. We’re grateful for @POTUS and @FLOTUS prioritizing this critical legislation and shining a light on child exploitation. This groundbreaking new law closes a dangerous gap by targeting the distribution of both real and digitally altered exploitative content involving children – content that may fall outside existing CSAM definitions – and requires social media platforms to take this imagery down. As the Congressionally designated national clearinghouse on missing and exploited children issues, we will continue to work with Congress and the Administration to identify evolving threats in child sexual exploitation and look forward to continuing our work together to protect children online.”

    National Organization for Women President Christian F. Nunes: “Today, President Donald Trump signed into law the Take It Down Act—the first bipartisan legislation that zeroes in on one of the most pernicious threats to women’s health and safety—the theft of our bodily autonomy through deepfake images used to harass and exploit women and girls … Today’s signing shows how much can be done when we get out of the silos that separate us from issue to issue and work together on the values and common goals that unite us despite those differences. When it comes to protecting women and girls from online abuse, this work is just beginning.”

    Sen. Marsha Blackburn: “I was pleased to be at the White House to witness the signing of The Take It Down Act, which will criminalize the distribution of nonconsensual intimate imagery. I will be working to get the Kids Online Safety Act to President Trump’s desk next to hold Big Tech accountable for failing to protect innocent children from online harms.”

    Sen. Shelley Moore Capito: “I am proud to be an original cosponsor on the TAKE IT DOWN Act. This important legislation will protect victims of digital exploitation by making non-consensual, explicit images shared online against the law. Thank you to @FLOTUS for your work on this issue and for @POTUS signing it into law today.”

    Sen. John Cornyn: “I was honored to join @POTUS + @FLOTUS at the @WhiteHouse today for the signing of the TAKE IT DOWN Act. This bill will help punish predators & protect kids from exploitation by requiring online platforms to remove explicit images, including AI generated deepfakes, within 48 hours. Happy to see this commonsense bill signed into law!”

    Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto: “I’m glad Pres. Trump signed our bipartisan TAKE IT DOWN Act today. We’ve seen how technology can deliver incredible innovations but there have to be guardrails to keep people safe. That’s why I supported this bill to protect and empower victims of real and deepfake revenge porn.”

    Sen. Roger Wicker: “The U.S. must lead in AI innovation and accountability. Today, President Trump signed the Take It Down Act. This new law protects people from AI deepfakes which often target families and children.”

    Sen. Todd Young: “Glad to see @POTUS sign our TAKE IT DOWN Act into law today to protect victims—especially young women and children—from harmful deepfakes.”

    House Majority Whip Tom Emmer: “Glad to see @POTUS sign the Take It Down Act into law. Deepfake sexual exploitation has sadly become more common with technological advancements. Thankfully, this law will hold perpetrators accountable and protect the victims of these depraved crimes.”

    House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain: “In America, we will not tolerate the exploitation of our children. This law will protect our children and families from becoming targets of digital predators. I’m proud to have stood alongside President Trump when he signed this important legislation into law. I look forward to continuing to support his administration and the First Lady’s efforts to hold those who create harmful content accountable, ensure that platforms take responsibility, and keep our children safe in the digital age.”

    Rep. Rick Allen: “✅ SIGNED INTO LAW: The Take It Down Act As a grandfather of 14, I was proud to support this bill in @HouseCommerce and on the House floor. Thank you to @FLOTUS for your tireless work to create a safer digital future and protect our kids from online exploitation.”

    Rep. Vern Buchanan: “President Trump has signed the TAKE IT DOWN Act into law, which protects children and victims of revenge porn from online exploitation. I was proud to help introduce this bill and vote for its passage in support of those who have been subject to this horrific violation.”

    Rep. Kat Cammack: “Glad to support the Take It Down Act and to see it signed into law today by @POTUS.”

    Rep. Ben Cline: “President Trump just signed the bipartisan TAKE IT DOWN Act into law—a major step toward removing non-consensual AI-generated deepfakes on social media. Grateful for @FLOTUS’s leadership in getting this across the finish line and protecting every American from these harmful images.”

    Rep. Debbie Dingell: “The TAKE IT DOWN ACT is now law. This is a huge win for women and children across the country. Grateful for my partners in the House and Senate who helped get this bill across the finish line and passed into law.”

    Rep. Randy Feenstra: “Thank you to President Trump for signing the TAKE IT DOWN Act to deliver the harshest punishment possible for criminals who take advantage of our kids.”

    Rep. Laura Gillen: “I was proud to vote for the bipartisan Take It Down Act and glad to see it signed into law today. No one should have to endure such a violation of privacy without protection. #TakeItDown”

    Rep. Morgan Griffith: “For me, voting for the Take It Down Act was easy. This commonsense bill protects our kids from nonconsensual online distribution of sexually explicit images.”

    Rep. Brett Guthrie: “I want to thank President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for their steadfast leadership, as well as the millions of Americans affected by online exploitation, for their courage. As the Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, I am proud that we delivered on our commitment to advance this important legislation to protect victims of online exploitation. I want to honor Eli Heacock, and express my gratitude to his mom, Shannon Cronister-Heacock, for having the courage to share her son’s devastating story. The scourge of sexual exploitation online has upended the lives of innocent victims all across our country. The TAKE IT DOWN Act is an important step forward in protecting kids from new, 21st century threats to their well-being. This bill would not have been possible without the bravery of families like the Heacocks, and the TAKE IT DOWN Act works to ensure tragedies like this never happen again.”

    Rep. Pat Harrigan: “A few weeks ago, I voted for the TAKE IT DOWN ACT in the House. Today, it’s the law! Justice is here for the victims, and a reckoning is coming for those who thought they could get away with preying on the vulnerable.”

    Rep. Diana Harshbarger: “The Take It Down Act is a crucial step in protecting our children from predatory behavior online. I was proud to support this important legislation!”

    Rep. Kevin Hern: “I’m honored to be at the @WhiteHouse today to witness @POTUS sign the Take It Down Act into law! Earlier this year, @FLOTUS came to Capitol Hill for a roundtable that I was grateful to be a part of. We heard directly from teenagers whose lives had been destroyed by malicious AI-generated pornographic images shared on social media. This legislation will require social media sites to act as quickly as possible to remove such images from their platforms. The First Lady has been an incredible advocate for this legislation, helping to garner bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. Congratulations!”

    Rep. Young Kim: “Good news! The TAKE IT DOWN Act is now the law of the land to protect kids from online exploitation. I was proud to vote in favor of this historic, bipartisan bill on the House floor.”

    Rep. Barry Loudermilk: “Today, @POTUS signed the TAKE IT DOWN Act into law. As AI advances, so do the risks involved with it. This legislation will help children and their families to remove explicit or defamatory images posted online. In the digital age, privacy and security are vital and this is a major step.”

    Rep. Nancy Mace: “We’re at the @WhiteHouse as the Take It Down Act is signed into law. Thank you, President Trump. With the rise of AI and deepfake a*use, women and children have been left vulnerable for too long. The Take It Down Act finally gives victims real protection, and makes exploitation a crime, not a loophole.”

    Rep. Ryan Mackenzie: “Proud to attend today’s signing of the Take it Down Act. As a Pennsylvania State Representative, I helped to lead efforts to remove harmful deepfake images. Now, this law takes that fight nationwide and protects young people throughout our nation from AI-generated online exploitation.”

    Rep. Nicole Malliotakis: “Today @POTUS signed the Take It Down Act, bipartisan legislation I co-sponsored, into law! Together we’re protecting women (and men) from becoming victims of digital exploitation.”

    Rep. August Pfluger: “I just witnessed @POTUS sign the TAKE IT DOWN Act into law! This is a major step forward in protecting innocent victims and restoring online accountability, and I was proud to co-lead this legislation alongside @RepMariaSalazar.”

    Rep. Roger Williams: “Today @POTUS signed the bipartisan TAKE IT DOWN Act into law. This law will hold abusers accountable and empower victims of online abuse to have deepfake content or explicit material shared without their consent removed. We will not tolerate the exploitation of our children.”

    Attorney General Pam Bondi: “I was proud to stand with @POTUS as he signed the Take It Down Act. Thank you @FLOTUS for your work in safeguarding children from deepfake exploitation.”

    Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner: “As @FLOTUS’ Take it Down Act is signed into law, @POTUS highlights $25 million to support foster youth aging out of the foster care system. I am proud to partner with the First Lady to provide young adults with the assistance and foundation they need to transform their lives.”

    Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler: “Congratulations to @FLOTUS on the official signing of the Take It Down Act. This nation is so grateful for your advocacy and commitment to protecting America’s children!”

    House Republican Conference: “The Take It Down Act was signed into LAW by @POTUS!
    Congratulations to @FLOTUS, @RepMariaSalazar, and Chairman @RepGuthrie. Thank you for leading this effort to protect children from exploitation online.”

    House Energy & Commerce Committee: “This bill will protect countless Americans from entirely preventable harm online.”

    Republican Study Committee: “This is a huge win. The TAKE IT DOWN Act is critical to protecting children from non-consensual deepfakes online and holds AI abusers accountable. Thank you, President Trump!”

    Department of Homeland Security: “Thank you @POTUS Trump for continuing to prioritize America’s children by signing into law the “Take It Down Act,” to protect children from extortion. DHS is at the forefront fighting predators who try to harm and exploit our children. Make America Safe Again!”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: ICYMI: New projection signals good news for families, workers in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

    Source: The White House

    President Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill will raise take-home pay by as much as $13,300 and wages by as much as $11,600, according to a new report from the Council of Economic Advisers.

    From Fox News:

    “A key U.S. economic agency is projecting that President Donald Trump’s tax policy in his ‘one big, beautiful bill’ will lead to increased take-home pay for American families and higher wages for U.S. workers.

    The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), which advises the White House on economic policy, released a report on Monday morning that said, ‘Taken as a whole, the CEA estimates that the tax cuts in the President’s proposals and the One Big Beautiful Bill will substantially boost investment and GDP relative to if expiring provisions from the [Tax Cuts and Jobs Act] are not extended.’ […]

    ‘For workers and families, the CEA forecasts that wages will be about $6,100 to $11,600 higher, with family take-home pay $7,800 to $13,300 higher because of the increase in wages and reduction in tax obligations,’ the new analysis said.

    The CEA said the added deduction for seniors, meanwhile, would increase the average take-home pay for qualifying seniors by approximately $400 to $450 per year.

    If passed, the policies would also boost U.S. investment in the long run from 4.9% to 7.5%, according to the projection, and could save or create as many as 4.2 million full-time equivalent jobs in the long run.

    It also estimated that Trump’s ‘no tax on tips’ proposal alone would increase tipped workers’ pay by an average $1,675 per year, while eliminating the tax on overtime wages ‘will cause overtime workers to increase their overtime hours by 4.7 percent, leading to a 0.2 percent increase in aggregate labor supply while the provision is in effect.’

    ‘As a result, the level of GDP increases by 0.1 to 0.2 percent in the short run. The average overtime worker receives a tax cut of between $1,400 and $1,750 per year,’ the projection said.”

    Click here to read the full story.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Remarks by Director Kratsios at the National Academy of Sciences

    Source: The White House

    class=”has-text-align-center”>Remarks by Director Kratsios at the National Academy of Sciences

    REINVIGORATING AMERICA’S SCIENTIFIC ENTERPRISE

    AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY

    Washington, D.C.

    May 19, 2025

    THE DIRECTOR: Thank you, Dr. McNutt, for that kind introduction, and for hosting me here today, in what can only be called a temple of science.

    I speak to you this morning as the President’s Science and Technology Advisor, who has been given three interconnected tasks in pursuit of a Golden Age of Innovation: to maintain American technological leadership; to ensure all Americans enjoy the fruit of transformative advances in science and technology; and, a mission I believe we all share, to revitalize America’s scientific enterprise.

    In a speech last month, I explained how America’s dominant position in technology can only be maintained through a strategy of both promotion and protection. Today, I’d like to speak a little bit about our shared mission of furthering scientific advancement.

    To empower America’s researchers to achieve groundbreaking discoveries and to reinvigorate our national science enterprise, we must scrutinize our existing approach and recommit ourselves to best practices. That is my commitment to you, but also what I ask of you, to ensure America sets the Gold Standard for science in this century and the next.

    ***

    The American story has been one of exploration and discovery, inseparable from the pioneering work of America’s scientists. From the tinkering inventor at his workbench to the great teams of men and women in white lab coats working across the country in common pursuit, they have labored to uncover the mysteries of creation and enabled us to build a free and prosperous republic.

    The sweep of relentless U.S.-led scientific progress in the twentieth century flowed from Vannevar Bush’s 1945 “Science, The Endless Frontier” report, the blueprint for America’s joint Federal, corporate, and academic research effort. Bush not only provided a peacetime plan for furthering the technological developments of WWII, but planted a banner in the national imagination that in less than 25 years would become an American flag on the surface of the moon.

    But as Dr. McNutt said in her inaugural State of the Science Speech last year, there is cause for declining confidence in continued American scientific leadership. While certain fields have seen tremendous advances in recent years, from the invention of transformers and CRISPR to the observation of graphene and gravitational waves, recent studies have found that papers and patents across the sciences have become less disruptive since 1980.

    We are seeing diminishing returns. For example, despite biomedical research budgets soaring since the 1990s, scientific progress has stalled—new drug approvals have flatlined or even declined, more researchers are needed to achieve the same outputs, and workforce training has stagnated. More money has not meant more scientific discovery, and total dollars spent has not been a proxy for scientific impact.

    As in scientific inquiry, when we uncover evidence that conflicts with our existing theories, we revise our theories and conduct further experiments to better understand the truth. This evidence of a scientific slowdown should spur us to experiment with new systems, new models, new ways of funding, conducting, and using science. As Dr. McNutt pointed out last year, since Dr. Bush’s report in 1945, the scientific enterprise has changed.

    ***

    In particular, there has been a profound shift in the balance of scientific funding. Today, industry spends more than three times on R&D than does the federal government, even self-funding more basic research than the Federal government funds at universities.

    Even as it alters the model that defined the last century, private money’s growing place in America’s scientific enterprise presents opportunities. In particular, in a period of fiscal constraints and geopolitical challenges, an increase in private funding can make it easier for federal grantmaking agencies to refocus public funds on basic research and the national interest.

    What we target is what we measure, and what we measure is what we get more of. To get more bang for America’s research bucks, we need to enhance the creativity and precision of our funding. Spending more money on the wrong things is far worse than spending less money on the right things.

    Prizes, challenges, public-private partnerships, and other novel funding mechanisms, can multiply the impact of targeted federal dollars. We must tie grants to clear strategic targets, while still allowing for the openness of scientific exploration, and so shape a general funding environment that makes clear what our national priorities are.

    The money that goes to basic and blue-sky science must be used for that purpose, not to feed the red tape that so often goes along with funded research. We cannot resign our research community and the laboratory and university staff who support them to die the death of a thousand ten-minute tasks. To assist the nation’s scientists in their vocation, we will reduce administrative burdens on federally funded researchers, not bog them down in bureaucratic box checking.

    ***

    But in addition to taking a hard look at how we fund and supervise science, we should also consider how we, the people who make up the national discovery enterprise, can recapture that spirit of relentless focus and passionate pursuit of truth that underlies all our scientific progress.

    Two brief cases will illustrate a need to recommit to what may be named Gold Standard Science. By this I mean research conforming to the principles to which we know great scientists aspire, but that are too often distorted by professional incentives and social pressures.  

    A painful episode involving Alzheimer’s research illustrates our vulnerability to scientific misconduct, especially when we fail to prioritize reproducibility, communication of error, and skepticism.

    In 2009, a celebrated biotech executive published a paper in Nature that promised to revolutionize the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. In December of 2023, the journal retracted the research, acknowledging a number of anomalies and errors, but denying conscious fraud. The retraction came after almost 15 years of questions about the original paper being ignored and suppressed, during which the paper racked up over 800 citations, misdirected huge quantities of money, and helped the researcher become president of a premier university. The paper’s irreproducibility had been demonstrated by 2012, but it took a decade to be fully addressed.

    Our scientific enterprise should celebrate and incentivize checking each other’s work, rather than discourage questioning claims of progress.

    Meanwhile, the decision to shut down schools during the COVID-19 pandemic showed a failure to confront uncertainties or to integrate the knowledge of colleagues across multiple specializations. The best available scientific evidence indicated children were neither at high disease risk nor significant infection vectors. There was every reason to anticipate remote classes and masked communication would hurt children’s development. But a closed-ranks attitude led to policies that harmed America’s students.

    Biased interpretation of science leads to bad decision making and undermines the public’s trust.

    ***

    The first step to restoring trust in America’s scientific establishment, and rebuilding a strong foundation for breakthrough discoveries, is a return to Gold Standard Science. 

    Scientific progress advances in community and in the open, as findings are rigorously tested by others. Gold Standard Science is, therefore, first of all, reproducible and transparent. We cannot allow mistakes to persist unaddressed, poisoning the well of apparent knowledge for everyone else seeking to build on a given finding, as in the Alzheimer’s research case. To further enable this, researchers must proactively communicate errors and uncertainties. Only through this openness can each generation stand firmly on the shoulders of the giants that came before it.

    The best environment for truly groundbreaking basic research, moreover, is collaborative and interdisciplinary. As the accumulated body of general science grows decade over decade, basic epistemic humility requires relying on the expertise of colleagues outside one’s particular specializations. But even with confidence in the skill and knowledge of collaborators, the best scientist remains skeptical of a team’s findings and is conscious of the ever present need to interrogate one’s assumptions. Better practice of these principles might have saved America’s children the catastrophic disruption of pandemic school closures.

    To reinforce all of these individual virtues, Gold Standard Science is structured for falsifiability, subject to unbiased peer review, accepting of negative results as positive outcomes, and closed to conflicts of interest. Funders of research, whether in government, the academy, or industry, need to come alongside our best researchers to ensure that projects conform to these highest standards.

    ***

    At the heart of the practices that make up Gold Standard Science is a suspicion of blind consensus and a celebration of informed dissent. For the crisis of confidence in scientists stems from fear that political biases are displacing the vital search for truth.

    DEI initiatives, in particular, degrade our scientific enterprise. DEI represents an existential threat to the real diversity of thought that forms the foundation of the scientific community. Diversity of thought is essential to scientific inquiry, empowering us to challenge entrenched assumptions and offer novel approaches to solving complex problems.

    As we seek new paradigms in fundamental science, we cannot afford for America’s scientists to be in the business of scoring points for an ideological agenda. A closed-minded political fashion preoccupied with symbolic victories divides colleagues and distorts grant application and research design.

    For example, until recently at NASA—an institution whose mission is to explore the unknown in air and space, innovate for the benefit of humanity, and inspire the world through discovery—research proposals were required to include plans for furthering “inclusion goals.” Evaluation panels for these proposals were to be 50 percent “DEI professionals.” Such requirements undermine merit-based assessment of scientists, add to administrative burdens, and distract from essential, productive work.

    Science cannot be subject to ideology, nor should scientists march blindly in lockstep.

    Blindly trusting in The Science, with a capital T and capital S, is inimical to free inquiry and open debate and is thus the enemy of scientific progress. The beginning of knowledge is the knowledge of ignorance. We seek to know, despite human limitations, and to move upward from mere opinion to the truth. It is convention, dogma, and intellectual fad that resist revision and correction.

    ***

    I believe all of us in this room share the same mission. We want America’s scientists to be the best in the world. We want to empower them to make the awe-inspiring breakthroughs that will solve tough challenges and inspire our young people to follow in their footsteps, and we want to help repair the relationship between the scientific establishment and our fellow citizens.

    I believe that this is not something that government, or industry, can do alone; the pioneering scientific enterprise Vannevar Bush built still depends on a partnership, and America’s national laboratories and universities are its crown jewels.

    We will have to work together to restore this partnership, and revitalize America’s scientific enterprise.

    With a renewed focus on Gold Standard Science, we can take the first steps to revolutionizing the way America conducts the business of discovery. And though this is a call to excellence for all of America’s scientists—in labs, in the field, and in offices across the country—it begins with me and my colleagues in government. Implementing Gold Standard Science starts in the policies and programs of Federal agencies.

    If we in government enable scientists to spend less time in the office completing administrative tasks and more time in the lab exploring scientific frontiers; if we adjust to new realities and creatively partner with industry and philanthropy; if we reject political fads and recommit ourselves to the truth: I believe we will reignite the American spirit that lit the world with Edison’s bulb, lifted the Wright brothers into the sky, and landed Armstrong on the moon.

    Thank you.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: The Inaugural Address

    Source: The White House

    U.S. Capitol
    Washington, D.C.

    12:10 P.M. EST

    THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you very much, everybody.  (Applause.)  Wow.  Thank you very, very much.

    Vice President Vance, Speaker Johnson, Senator Thune, Chief Justice Roberts, justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and my fellow citizens, the golden age of America begins right now.  (Applause.)  
     
    From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world.  We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.  During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first.  (Applause.) 
     
    Our sovereignty will be reclaimed.  Our safety will be restored.  The scales of justice will be rebalanced.  The vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end.  (Applause.)  
     
    And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous, and free.  (Applause.)

    America will soon be greater, stronger, and far more exceptional than ever before.  (Applause.) 
     
    I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success.  A tide of change is sweeping the country, sunlight is pouring over the entire world, and America has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before.  
     
    But first, we must be honest about the challenges we face.  While they are plentiful, they will be annihilated by this great momentum that the world is now witnessing in the United States of America. 
     
    As we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust.  For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair.  
     
    We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home while, at the same time, stumbling into a continuing catalogue of catastrophic events abroad. 
     
    It fails to protect our magnificent, law-abiding American citizens but provides sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals, many from prisons and mental institutions, that have illegally entered our country from all over the world.  
     
    We have a government that has given unlimited funding to the defense of foreign borders but refuses to defend American borders or, more importantly, its own people. 
     
    Our country can no longer deliver basic services in times of emergency, as recently shown by the wonderful people of North Carolina — who have been treated so badly — (applause) — and other states who are still suffering from a hurricane that took place many months ago or, more recently, Los Angeles, where we are watching fires still tragically burn from weeks ago without even a token of defense.  They’re raging through the houses and communities, even affecting some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country — some of whom are sitting here right now.  They don’t have a home any longer.  That’s interesting.  But we can’t let this happen.  Everyone is unable to do anything about it.  That’s going to change. 
     
    We have a public health system that does not deliver in times of disaster, yet more money is spent on it than any country anywhere in the world.  

    And we have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves — in many cases, to hate our country despite the love that we try so desperately to provide to them.  All of this will change starting today, and it will change very quickly.  (Applause.)
     
    My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all of these many betrayals that have taken place and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy, and, indeed, their freedom.  From this moment on, America’s decline is over.  (Applause.)
     
    Our liberties and our nation’s glorious destiny will no longer be denied.  And we will immediately restore the integrity, competency, and loyalty of America’s government. 
     
    Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history, and I’ve learned a lot along the way. 
     
    The journey to reclaim our republic has not been an easy one — that, I can tell you.  Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and, indeed, to take my life. 
     
    Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear.  But I felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason.  I was saved by God to make America great again.  (Applause.)
     
    Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

    Thank you very much.  (Applause.)
     
    That is why each day under our administration of American patriots, we will be working to meet every crisis with dignity and power and strength.  We will move with purpose and speed to bring back hope, prosperity, safety, and peace for citizens of every race, religion, color, and creed. 
     
    For American citizens, January 20th, 2025, is Liberation Day.  (Applause.)  It is my hope that our recent presidential election will be remembered as the greatest and most consequential election in the history of our country.  
     
    As our victory showed, the entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda with dramatic increases in support from virtually every element of our society: young and old, men and women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, urban, suburban, rural.  And very importantly, we had a powerful win in all seven swing states — (applause) — and the popular vote, we won by millions of people.  (Applause.) 

    To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote.  We set records, and I will not forget it.  I’ve heard your voices in the campaign, and I look forward to working with you in the years to come. 
     
    Today is Martin Luther King Day.  And his honor — this will be a great honor.  But in his honor, we will strive together to make his dream a reality.  We will make his dream come true.  (Applause.)
     
    Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)
     
    National unity is now returning to America, and confidence and pride is soaring like never before.  In everything we do, my administration will be inspired by a strong pursuit of excellence and unrelenting success.  We will not forget our country, we will not forget our Constitution, and we will not forget our God.  Can’t do that.  (Applause.)
     
    Today, I will sign a series of historic executive orders.  With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense.  It’s all about common sense.  (Applause.)
     
    First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border.  (Applause.)
     
    All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.  We will reinstate my Remain in Mexico policy.  (Applause.)
     
    I will end the practice of catch and release.  (Applause.)
     
    And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.  (Applause.)
     
    Under the orders I sign today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.  (Applause.)
     
    And by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities.  (Applause.) 
     
    As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do.  We will do it at a level that nobody has ever seen before.
     
    Next, I will direct all members of my cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices.  (Applause.) 
     
    The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices, and that is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency.  We will drill, baby, drill.  (Applause.)
     
    America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have — the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth — and we are going to use it.  We’ll use it.  (Applause.)
     
    We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world.  (Applause.) 
     
    We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it. 
     
    With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers.  (Applause.)
     
    In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice.
     
    We will build automobiles in America again at a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago.  And thank you to the autoworkers of our nation for your inspiring vote of confidence.  We did tremendously with their vote.  (Applause.)  
     
    I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families.  Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.  (Applause.)
     
    For this purpose, we are establishing the External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, duties, and revenues.  It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our Treasury, coming from foreign sources. 
     
    The American dream will soon be back and thriving like never before.  

    To restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government, my administration will establish the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency.  (Applause.)
     
    After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I also will sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.  (Applause.)
     
    Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents — something I know something about.  (Laughter.)  We will not allow that to happen.  It will not happen again.
     
    Under my leadership, we will restore fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.  (Applause.)
     
    And we are going to bring law and order back to our cities.  (Applause.) 
     
    This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.  (Applause.)  We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.  (Applause.)  
     
    As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.  (Applause.)
     
    This week, I will reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the COVID vaccine mandate with full back pay.  (Applause.)
     
    And I will sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments while on duty.  It’s going to end immediately.  (Applause.)  Our armed forces will be freed to focus on their sole mission: defeating America’s enemies.  (Applause.)
     
    Like in 2017, we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen.  We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end — and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.  (Applause.)  
     
    My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.  That’s what I want to be: a peacemaker and a unifier.
     
    I’m pleased to say that as of yesterday, one day before I assumed office, the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families.  (Applause.)
     
    Thank you.
     
    America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world. 
     
    A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America — (applause) — and we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs.  (Applause.)
     
    President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent — he was a natural businessman — and gave Teddy Roosevelt the money for many of the great things he did, including the Panama Canal, which has foolishly been given to the country of Panama after the United Spates — the United States — I mean, think of this — spent more money than ever spent on a project before and lost 38,000 lives in the building of the Panama Canal. 
     
    We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made, and Panama’s promise to us has been broken. 
     
    The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated.  American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape, or form.  And that includes the United States Navy.
     
    And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal.  And we didn’t give it to China.  We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.  (Applause.)
     
    Above all, my message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor, and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization. 
     
    So, as we liberate our nation, we will lead it to new heights of victory and success.  We will not be deterred.  Together, we will end the chronic disease epidemic and keep our children safe, healthy, and disease-free.  
     
    The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation — one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons.  
     
    And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.  (Applause.)
     
    Ambition is the lifeblood of a great nation, and, right now, our nation is more ambitious than any other.  There’s no nation like our nation.
     
    Americans are explorers, builders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneers.  The spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts.  The call of the next great adventure resounds from within our souls. 
     
    Our American ancestors turned a small group of colonies on the edge of a vast continent into a mighty republic of the most extraordinary citizens on Earth.  No one comes close.
     
    Americans pushed thousands of miles through a rugged land of untamed wilderness.  They crossed deserts, scaled mountains, braved untold dangers, won the Wild West, ended slavery, rescued millions from tyranny, lifted billions from poverty, harnessed electricity, split the atom, launched mankind into the heavens, and put the universe of human knowledge into the palm of the human hand.  If we work together, there is nothing we cannot do and no dream we cannot achieve.  
     
    Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback.  But as you see today, here I am.  The American people have spoken.  (Applause.)
     
    I stand before you now as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do.  In America, the impossible is what we do best.  (Applause.)
     
    From New York to Los Angeles, from Philadelphia to Phoenix, from Chicago to Miami, from Houston to right here in Washington, D.C., our country was forged and built by the generations of patriots who gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom.  
     
    They were farmers and soldiers, cowboys and factory workers, steelworkers and coal miners, police officers and pioneers who pushed onward, marched forward, and let no obstacle defeat their spirit or their pride.  
     
    Together, they laid down the railroads, raised up the skyscrapers, built great highways, won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism, and triumphed over every single challenge that they faced. 
     
    After all we have been through together, we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history.  With your help, we will restore America promise and we will rebuild the nation that we love — and we love it so much.  
     
    We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God.  So, to every parent who dreams for their child and every child who dreams for their future, I am with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you.  We’re going to win like never before.  (Applause.)
     
    Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

    Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

    In recent years, our nation has suffered greatly. But we are going to bring it back and make it great again, greater than ever before. 
     
    We will be a nation like no other, full of compassion, courage, and exceptionalism.  Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent, and totally unpredictable. 
     
    America will be respected again and admired again, including by people of religion, faith, and goodwill.  We will be prosperous, we will be proud, we will be strong, and we will win like never before. 
     
    We will not be conquered, we will not be intimidated, we will not be broken, and we will not fail.  From this day on, the United States of America will be a free, sovereign, and independent nation. 
     
    We will stand bravely, we will live proudly, we will dream boldly, and nothing will stand in our way because we are Americans.  The future is ours, and our golden age has just begun. 
     
    Thank you.  God bless America.  Thank you all.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you very much.  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  

    Thank you.  (Applause.)

    END  12:40 P.M. EST

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: The One Big Beautiful Bill Will Crack Down On Illegal Immigration

    Source: The White House

    The One Big Beautiful Bill is a historic piece of legislation that empowers ICE to deport the millions of illegal immigrants that entered under Joe Biden, ensures illegal immigrants do not receive food stamps or Medicaid, taxes money illegal aliens send out of the country, and permanently secures the border.

    The Big Beautiful Bill includes tens of billions of dollars in expanded ICE detention and calls for hiring a minimum of 10,000 new ICE agents. The House Judiciary Committee says the bill “provides funding for at least 1 million annual removals, 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel, and detention capacity sufficient to maintain an average daily population of at least 100,000 aliens.”

    As NumbersUSA said in a statement: “For decades Congress has promised to secure the border and failed to deliver. The House Reconciliation bill delivers on the promise of building the border wall, 10,000 ICE officers, detention beds, historic funding for Customs and Border Patrol and a tax on money illegal aliens send out of the country. The Trump Administration needs this funding to deport illegal aliens, millions of whom entered the country over the last four years.”

    Even opponents of the President’s agenda acknowledge that this historic legislation will allow ICE to “ramp up mass deportation operations to a level never before seen in American history.”

    Put simply, The Big Beautiful Bill will empower Big Beautiful Deportations.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: President Donald Trump Names Advisory Board Members to the Religious Liberty Commission

    Source: The White House

    Today, President Donald Trump has designated the following individuals to serve on the advisory boards of the Religious Liberty Commission. On May 1st, the President signed an Executive Order establishing the Religious Liberty Commission. He designated Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as chair and Dr. Ben Carson as vice chair, as well as 11 other commission members. Today, he has designated individuals to serve on the three advisory boards comprised of religious leaders, legal experts, and lay advisors, respectively.

    Advisory Board of Religious Leaders

    1. Bishop Salvatore Cordileone. Salvatore Cordileone is the Archbishop of San Francisco and a member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth and also of its Committee for Canonical Affairs and Church Governance. 
    2. Pastor Jentezen Franklin. Jentezen Franklin is the Senior Pastor of Free Chapel, a multi-campus church based in Gainesville, Georgia. He has written multiple books including the bestseller, Fasting: Opening the door to a deeper, more intimate, more powerful relationship with God.
    1. Archbishop Elpidophoros of America. Archbishop Elpidophoros is the eighth Archbishop of America elected since the establishment of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in 1922. He has been an active member of the World Council of Churches and has advanced religious freedom for decades.
    1. Father Thomas Ferguson. Father Thomas Fergusonis the pastor of Good Shepherd Parish in Alexandria, Virginia. He is the author of Catholic and American: The Political Theology of John Courtney Murray.
    1. Rabbi Mark Gottlieb. Rabbi Mark Gottlieb is Chief Education Officer of Tikvah and founding dean of the Tikvah Scholars Program. Prior to joining Tikvah, Rabbi Gottlieb served as head of school at Yeshiva University High School for Boys and principal of the Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts. Rabbi Gottlieb is a trustee of the Hildebrand Project and serves on the Editorial Committee of Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought.
    2. Pastor Jack Graham. Jack Graham is Senior Pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, and author of multiple books, including The Jesus Book: Reading and Understanding the Bible for Yourself. Dr. Graham has served as Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer and has helped lead various national prayer initiatives. From 2002-2004, he served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention.
    3. Rabbi Yaakov Menken. Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Executive Vice President of the Coalition for Jewish Values. He previously co-founded and edited Cross-Currents.com, an online journal of Orthodox Jewish thought and opinion. Rabbi Menken is a fellow of the Amud Aish Memorial Museum, focusing upon the study of modern anti-Semitism, and author of The Everything Torah Book.
    4. Bishop Thomas Paprocki.  Thomas Paprocki is the Bishop of Springfield, Illinois. He coined the “Fortnight for Freedom,” a campaign of American Bishops to defend religious liberty. The episcopal board chair for the Catholic Athletes for Christ, Bishop Paprocki has completed 24 marathons and authored Running for a Higher Purpose and Holy Goals for Body and Soul.
    5. Bishop Kevin Rhoades.  Kevin Rhoades is the Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana. He currently chairs the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Religious Liberty. In addition to his religious liberty work, Bishop Rhoades sits on the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, ad hoc Committee against Racism, and served on the board of directors for the National Eucharistic Congress.
    6. Rabbi Eitan Webb. Rabbi Eitan Webb co-founded the Chabad House of Princeton in 2002, with his wife Gitty and has served as a Jewish Chaplain at Princeton University since 2007. In addition to his service to university students, Rabbi Webb serves on the board of directors of the Chabad on Campus International Foundation and of the Sinai Scholars Society. 
    7. Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel. Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel is the Executive Vice President of Agudath Israel of America, an American organization that represents Orthodox Jews. In 2020, he helped organize one of the largest gatherings of Orthodox Jews in U.S. history.

    Advisory Board of Legal Experts

    1. Francis Beckwith. A Professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies, Affiliate Professor of Political Science, and Associate Director of the Graduate Program in Philosophy at Baylor University, Dr. Beckwith teaches and publishes in the areas of religion, jurisprudence, politics, and ethics. A graduate of Fordham University (Ph.D. and M.A. in philosophy) and the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis (Master of Juridical Studies), he has published over 100 academic articles, book chapters, reviews, and reference entries.
    2. Jason Bedrick. Jason Bedrick is a Research Fellow in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation, where he focuses on policies that promote education freedom, religious liberty, classical education, and restoring the primary role of families in education. Bedrick is the co-editor and co-author of two books, including Educational Freedom: Remembering Andrew Coulson, Debating His Ideas and Religious Liberty and Education: A Case Study of Yeshivas vs. New York.
    3. Josh Blackman. A national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court, Blackman serves as a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston where he holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law. Blackman was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30” in Law and Policy and is the President of the Harlan Institute.
    4. Gerald Bradley. Gerard Bradley is professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches Legal Ethics and Constitutional Law. He directs the Natural Law Institute and co-edits The American Journal of Jurisprudence, an international forum for legal philosophy. Bradley has been a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and a senior fellow of the Witherspoon Institute, in Princeton, New Jersey. His most recent books are an edited collection of essays titled, Challenges to Religious Liberty in the Twenty-First Century.
    5. Alyza Lewin. Alyza Lewin is the President of The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. Lewin is also a co-founder and partner in Lewin & Lewin, LLP where she specializes in litigation, mediation and government relations. Her experience includes criminal defense, civil litigation and anti-discrimination matters. Lewin served as President of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists from 2012 – 2017.
    6. Kristen Waggoner. Kristen Waggoner is the CEO, president, and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom: the world’s largest legal organization advancing every person’s God-given right to live and speak the truth.

    Advisory Board of Lay Leaders

    1. Abigail Robertson Allen. An on-air reporter for over ten years, Abigail Robertson is the co-host of Heaven Meets Earth, a podcast of the Christian Broadcasting Network that highlights modern-day miracles and divine encounters. 
    2. Gene Bailey. Gene is a host on The Victory Channel, a faith-based Christian television network. He is known for hosting programs like FlashPoint, which discusses current events and prophecy, and Revival Radio TV, which explores historical and modern-day spiritual awakenings.
    3. Mark David Hall.  A professor at Regent University in the Robertson School of Government, Dr. Hall is a scholar of early America. Prior to Regent, he was the Herbert Hoover Distinguished Professor of Politics at George Fox University. Hall has written or edited a dozen books including, Did America Have a Christian Founding?: Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth, Great Christian Jurists in American History, and Faith and the Founders of the American Republic.
    4. Alveda King.  Building upon the efforts of her father, Rev. A.D. King, and her uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Alveda King has dedicated her life to the civil rights issues of our time. King is Chair of the Center for the American Dream at the America First Policy Institute and Board Member to Priests for Life. She previously served on the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Commission.
    5. Christopher Levenick.  Director of the Program for Civic Renewal with the Connelly Foundation, and the editor-in-chief of Philanthropy Magazine, Levenick has explored religion in the United States throughout his career. Writing for Claremont, AEI, and other publications, Levenick has long traced strands of the Founding manifesting themselves in the character of American Christianity, compared the principles of constitutional interpretation with those of scriptural exegesis, and explored the implications of pluralism on the exercise of religion in the public square.
    6. Sameerah Munshi. Sameerah has courageously spoken out against forcing children to learn radical gender ideology in schools. She testified before the Montgomery County School Board, in a case that is currently before the Supreme Court, and has worked with the Coalition of Virtue and the Religious Freedom Institute.
    7. Ismail Royer. Ismail Royer serves as Director of the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team for the Religious Freedom Institute. Since converting to Islam in 1992, he has studied religious sciences with traditional Islamic scholars and spent over a decade working at non-profit Islamic organizations. Royer has worked with nonprofits to promote peace between faiths. His writing has appeared in multiple publications and he co-authored an article on Islam on Religious Violence Today: Faith and Conflict in the Modern World.
    8. Ryan Tucker. Ryan Tucker serves as senior counsel and director of the Center for Christian Ministries with Alliance Defending Freedom. He oversees all litigation efforts to maintain and defend the constitutionally protected freedom of churches, Christian ministries, and religious schools to exercise their rights under the First Amendment.
    9. Shaykh Hamza Yusuf.  Sheikh Hamza is one of the leading proponents of classical learning in Islam and is a co-founder of Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the United States. He is an advisor to the Center for Islamic Studies at Berkeley’s Graduate Theological Union. For almost a decade, Hamza was consecutively ranked as “The Western world’s most influential Islamic scholar” in The 500 Most Influential Muslims. During the first Trump administration, he served on the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: The One, Big, Beautiful Bill is a Once-in-a-Generation Chance

    Source: The White House

    Here are five reasons why President Donald J. Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill is a generational opportunity to deliver the long-term changes Americans voted for:

    1. It’s the largest tax cut in American history.

    • It delivers PERMANENT tax cuts and bigger paychecks. This means an extra $5,000 in Americans’ pockets with a DOUBLE-DIGIT percent DECREASE to their tax bills. Americans earning between $30,000 and $80,000 will pay around 15% less in taxes.
    • It includes NO TAX ON TIPS and NO TAX ON OVERTIME. This makes good on two of President Trump’s cornerstone campaign promises and benefits hardworking Americans where they need it the most — their paychecks.
    • It provides historic tax relief to Social Security recipients. It slashes taxes on seniors’ Social Security benefits.

    2. It protects Medicaid for Americans by removing 1.4 million illegals.

    • It kicks illegal immigrants off taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits. This bill eliminates waste, fraud, and abuse by ending benefits for at least 1.4 million illegal immigrants who are gaming the system.

    3. It makes President Trump’s border security permanent.

    • It funds President Trump’s border wall. As a result, 701 miles of primary wall, 900 miles of river barriers, 629 miles of secondary barriers, and 141 miles of vehicle and pedestrian barriers will be constructed — along with cutting-edge technology that will secure our homeland for generations to come.
    • It boosts Border Patrol and ICE agents on the frontlines. It will empower border officials with adequate resources to finally carry out their core mission by funding at least one million annual removals and hiring 10,000 new ICE personnel, 5,000 new customs officers, and 3,000 new Border Patrol agents.

    4. It finally modernizes air traffic control.

    • It fulfills President Trump’s plan to completely overhaul the systems that keep Americans flying safely and efficiently. This will allow President Trump to update our air traffic control systems and act where the Biden Administration failed (despite repeated warnings).

    5. It ends taxpayer-funded sex changes for minors.

    • The One, Big, Beautiful Bill restores sanity to government. It prohibits Medicaid funding for gender transition procedures for minors.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: President Trump’s Policies Keep Paying Off

    Source: The White House

    While President Donald J. Trump is in the Gulf region securing over a trillion dollars’ worth of investments in U.S. companies, deals on the home front keep coming:

    • Sanofi announced it will invest at least $20 billion over the next five years in manufacturing and research and development.
    • Kraft Heinz announced a $3 billion investment to upgrade its U.S. factories — its largest investment in its plants in decades.
    • Carrier announced an additional $1 billion investment in manufacturing, innovation, and workforce expansion, which will create 4,000 new jobs.
    • Anheuser-Busch announced a $300 million investment in its manufacturing facilities across the country.
    • Siemens Healthineers announced a $150 million investment to expand production, including relocating manufacturing operations for its Varian company from Mexico to California. 

    That’s in addition to the trillions of dollars already secured in President Trump’s second term — investments that will bring tens of thousands of new, high-paying jobs to communities across the country as President Trump ushers in the new Golden Age.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Secures Historic $1.2 Trillion Economic Commitment in Qatar

    Source: The White House

    MAKING AMERICAN MANUFACTURING AND INNOVATION GREAT AGAIN: Today in Qatar, President Donald J. Trump signed an agreement with Qatar to generate an economic exchange worth at least $1.2 trillion. President Trump also announced economic deals totaling more than $243.5 billion between the United States and Qatar, including an historic sale of Boeing aircraft and GE Aerospace engines to Qatar Airways.   

    • The landmark deals celebrated today will drive innovation and prosperity for generations, bolster American manufacturing and technological leadership, and put America on the path to a new Golden Age.
    • Since President Trump took office, his commitment to American manufacturing and innovation has attracted trillions of dollars in investments and global commercial deals. Allies like Qatar are partnering in the United States’ success. 
    • The following represent just a few of the many groundbreaking deals secured in Qatar:
      • Boeing and GE Aerospace secured a landmark order from Qatar Airways, a $96 billion agreement to acquire up to 210 American-made Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X aircraft powered by GE Aerospace engines. This is Boeing’s largest-ever widebody order and largest-ever 787 order. This historic agreement will support 154,000 U.S. jobs annually, totaling over 1 million jobs in the United States during the course of production and delivery of this deal.
      • McDermott has a strong partnership with Qatar Energy in advancing critical energy infrastructure, with seven active projects worth $8.5 billion. As the sole provider of offshore components for Qatar’s major LNG expansion, McDermott’s work directly supports thousands of U.S. energy sector jobs.
      • Parsons has successfully won 30 projects worth up to $97 billion. These high-value engagements have fueled significant company growth, supporting thousands of jobs across the United States and reinforcing American leadership in cutting-edge engineering and innovation.
      • Quantinuum finalized a Joint Venture Agreement with Al Rabban Capital, a prominent Qatari company, to invest up to $1 billion in state-of-the-art quantum technologies and workforce development in the United States, supporting U.S. jobs and leadership in this critical emerging technology.  
    • Today’s signings mark President Trump’s intent to accelerate Qatar’s defense investment in the U.S.-Qatar security  partnership—enhancing regional deterrence and benefitting the U.S. industrial base.
      • The defense deals secured today lock in Qatar’s procurement of state-of-the-art military equipment from two leading U.S. defense companies.
      • Raytheon, an RTX business, secured a $1 billion agreement for Qatar’s acquisition of counter-drone capabilities, signed by the U.S. and Qatari governments. This deal establishes Qatar as the first international customer for Raytheon’s Fixed Site – Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aerial System Integrated Defeat System (FS-LIDS) designed to counter unmanned aircraft. The deal directly supports high-skilled manufacturing and engineering jobs in the United States and reinforces America’s leadership in innovative defense technologies.
      • General Atomics secured a nearly $2 billion agreement for Qatar’s acquisition of the MQ-9B remotely piloted aircraft system, signed by the U.S. and Qatari governments. This deal will strengthen the U.S.-Qatar bilateral relationship and provide the Qatari Armed Forces with the most advanced multi-mission remotely piloted aircraft in the world, powered by U.S. products made in America.
      • The United States and Qatar also signed a statement of intent to further strengthen our security partnership, outlining over $38 billion in potential investments including support for burden-sharing at Al Udeid Air Base and future defense capabilities related to air defense and maritime security.
    • These new agreements and instruments aim to drive the growth of the U.S.-Qatar bilateral commercial relationship, create thousands of well-paying jobs, and open new trade and investment opportunities for both countries over the coming decade and beyond.

     
    CATALYZING PROSPERITY THROUGH GREATER TRADE AND INVESTMENT: The United States and Qatar have a long history of trade and a strong commercial relationship, including significant long-term aviation, critical infrastructure, information technology, and consulting deals. 

    • Qatar’s strategic goals outlined in Qatar National Vision 2030 create opportunities for U.S. businesses in multiple sectors.
    • The United States had a $2 billion trade surplus with Qatar in 2024 and has had a positive trade balance with Qatar since 2003.
      • In 2024, U.S.-Qatar trade totaled $5.64 billion, with $3.8 billion in U.S. exports and $1.8 billion in Qatari imports.
      • Qatar’s greenfield investment in the United States totaled $3.3 billion in 2023, focused on hotels and tourism, information technology, advanced manufacturing, financial services, and oil and gas.
    • This visit advances opportunities for U.S. companies to expand long-standing partnerships and for Qatari entities to embrace U.S. technologies, adopt best practices, and finalize new agreements for significant sales and investments.
      • Qatar has made significant investments in the United States across hotels and tourism, financial services, technology, healthcare, and energy, with plans to invest even more over the next five years. These investments strengthen the U.S. economy by supporting good-paying jobs for millions of American workers, expanding U.S. exports, and funding research and development. 
      • Qatar has the third largest proven reserves of natural gas in the world, and has invested in American energy infrastructure, directly contributing to U.S. energy security and industrial resilience.
      • Starting in 2019, QatarEnergy initiated $18 billion in investments in the U.S. energy sector with ExxonMobil’s Golden Pass LNG Terminal ($10 billion) and Chevron Phillips Chemical’s Golden Triangle Polymers Plant ($8 billion), both located on the Texas Gulf Coast.
    • Qatar is our 12th largest Foreign Military Sales partner with active cases valued at more than $26 billion.
    • Qatar’s expansive investment in and trade with the United States contribute to U.S. and Qatari economic growth and prosperity, and Qatar’s choice of U.S. industry’s best-fit solutions supports the U.S. strategic goal of growing our industrial presence throughout the Gulf and the region as a whole.   

     
    THE ART OF THE DEAL: President Trump is securing billions in investments to revitalize American manufacturing, delivering on his promise to bring back “Made in America” and usher in a new Golden Age of prosperity.

    • Today’s announcement builds on yesterday’s $600 billion investment commitment secured in Saudi Arabia.
    • It also follows the announcement of an historic trade agreement with the United Kingdom and a joint agreement with China to reduce reciprocal tariffs. 
    • By securing these investments, President Trump is spurring a manufacturing renaissance, driving economic growth, and creating high-paying jobs across the nation.
    • Prior to this historic deal, President Trump had already attracted trillions in U.S.-based investments, laying the foundation for an era of unprecedented American prosperity.
    • President Trump is building on his record of success with Qatar, exemplified by his leadership in the 2019 GE Aerospace GEnx engine sale to power Qatar Airways’ then-newly acquired Boeing 787-9 aircraft—a monumental purchase in the history of both companies.
    • As the dealmaker in chief, President Trump’s latest achievement in Qatar is another win for America.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: In Riyadh, President Trump Charts the Course for a Prosperous Future in the Middle East

    Source: The White House

    President Donald J. Trump just wrapped up a major address in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he outlined an optimistic vision for the future of the Middle East and his approach to achieving a more stable region and peaceful world.

    Here are the top moments:

    • “Exactly eight years ago this month, I stood in this very room and looked forward to a future in which the nations of this region would drive out the forces of terrorism and extremism … and take your place among the proudest, most prosperous, most successful nations anywhere in the world as leaders of a modern and rising Middle East.” (Watch)
    • “Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts and tired divisions of the past, and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos; where it exports technology, not terrorism; and where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together — not bombing each other out of existence.” (Watch)
    • “This great transformation has not come from Western interventionists … giving you lectures on how to live or how to govern your own affairs. No, the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation-builders,’ ‘neo-cons,’ or ‘liberal non-profits,’ like those who spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad, so many other cities. Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought about by the people of the region themselves … developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions, and charting your own destinies.” (Watch)
    • “In the end, the so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built — and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.” (Watch)
    • “After so many decades of conflict, finally it is within our grasp to reach the future that generations before us could only dream about — a land of peace, safety, harmony, opportunity, innovation, and achievement right here in the Middle East.” (Watch)
    • “I am here today not merely to condemn the past chaos of Iran’s leaders, but to offer them a new path and a much better path toward a far better and more hopeful future.” (Watch)
    • “As I have shown repeatedly, I am willing to end past conflicts and forge new partnerships for a better and more stable world, even if our differences may be very profound.” (Watch)
    • “My preference will always be for peace and partnership, whenever those outcomes can be achieved. Always.” (Watch)
    • “In recent years, far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins … I believe it is God’s job to sit in judgement — my job [is] to defend America and to promote the fundamental interests of stability, prosperity, and peace.” (Watch)
    • “Following repeated attacks on American ships and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the United States military launched more than 1,100 strikes on the Houthis in Yemen. As a result, the Houthis agreed to stop … We hit them hard, we got what we came for — and then we got out.” (Watch)
    • “My administration stands ready to help Lebanon create a future of economic development and peace with its neighbors.” (Watch)
    • “In Syria, which has seen so much misery and death, there is a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace.” (Watch)
    • “If the responsible nations of this region seize this moment, put aside your differences and focus on the interests that unite you, then all of humanity will soon be amazed at what they will see right here in this geographic center of the world … and the spiritual heart of its greatest faiths.” (Watch)

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: FOUR-YEAR LOW: Prices for Essentials Fall as Workers See Relief in President Trump’s Economy

    Source: The White House

    Inflation has fallen to the lowest level in more than four years as April’s Consumer Price Index smashes expectations for the third straight month in President Donald J. Trump’s Golden Age.

    Here’s what you need to know:

    • Grocery prices saw their largest decline in nearly five years.
    • Gas prices fell for the third month in a row.
    • Egg prices saw the largest one-month decline in more than four decades.
    • Workers’ real wages are up 1.9%, increasing each of the last three months.
    • Prices for airfare, energy, hotels, and used vehicles are all down compared to last year.

    Here’s what they’re saying:

    • Bloomberg’s Augusta Saraiva: “US inflation rose by less than forecast in April amid tame prices for clothing and new cars, suggesting little urgency so far by companies to pass along the cost of higher tariffs to consumers.”
    • Investopedia Editor-in-Chief Caleb Silver: “The smoke was much worse than the fire … A big part of that was the drop in gasoline prices. This is very significant for households … That drop in gasoline and energy prices — a big deal.”
    • Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo: “Oil is down, eggs are down, food is down. We’re seeing that reflected, so all that hysteria over tariffs is not showing up in these numbers.”
    • USA TODAY: Inflation eased to 4-year low in April as Trump’s tariffs took effect, CPI report shows
      • “Prices for groceries, including eggs, used cars and airfares all fell sharply.”
    • Bloomberg: US Consumer Prices Rose Less Than Expected in April
      • “The pace is the slowest since the sprinsg of 2021 when inflation broke out in earnest.”
      • “Grocery prices were down 0.4% on the month, and eggs fell 12.7%, the most since 1984, validating some of President Donald Trump’s messaging.”
    • NBC News: April consumer price index report shows inflation dropped to slowest pace since 2021

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Secures Historic $600 Billion Investment Commitment in Saudi Arabia

    Source: The White House

    STRENGTHENING STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS FOR ECONOMIC PROSPERITY:
    Today in Saudi Arabia, President Donald J. Trump announced Saudi Arabia’s $600-billion commitment to invest in the United States, building economic ties that will endure for generations to come. The first deals under the announcement strengthen our energy security, defense industry, technology leadership, and access to global infrastructure and critical minerals. 

    • The deals celebrated today are historic and transformative for both countries and represent a new golden era of partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
    • From day one, President Trump’s America First Trade and Investment Policy has put the American economy, the American worker, and our national security first.
    • The following represent just a few of the many transformative deals secured in Saudi Arabia:
      • Saudi Arabian DataVolt is moving forward with plans to invest $20 billion in AI data centers and energy infrastructure in the United States.
      • Google, DataVolt, Oracle, Salesforce, AMD, and Uber are committing to invest $80 billion in cutting-edge transformative technologies in both countries.
      • Iconic American companies including Hill International, Jacobs, Parsons, and AECOM are building key infrastructure projects like King Salman International Airport, King Salman Park, The Vault, Qiddiya City, and much more totaling $2 billion in U.S. services exports.
      • Additional major exports include GE Vernova’s gas turbines and energy solutions totaling $14.2 billion and Boeing 737-8 passenger aircraft for AviLease totaling $4.8 billion.
      • In the healthcare sector, Shamekh IV Solutions, LLC will be investing $5.8 billion, including a plant in Michigan to launch a high-capacity IV fluid facility.
      • Investment partnerships include several sector-specific funds with a strong emphasis on U.S. deployment—such as the $5 billion Energy Investment Fund, the $5 billion New Era Aerospace and Defense Technology Fund, and the $4 billion Enfield Sports Global Sports Fund—each channeling substantial capital into American industries, driving innovation, and creating high-quality jobs across the United States.
    • Underscoring our commitment to strengthening our defense and security partnership, the United States and Saudi Arabia signed the largest defense sales agreement in history—nearly $142 billion, providing Saudi Arabia with state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services from over a dozen U.S. defense firms.
      • The sales that we intend to complete fall into five broad categories: (1) air force advancement and space capabilities, (2) air and missile defense, (3) maritime and coastal security, (4) border security and land forces modernization, and (5) information and communication systems upgrades. 
      • The package also includes extensive training and support to build the capacity of the Saudi armed forces, including enhancement of Saudi service academies and military medical services.
      • This deal represents a significant investment in Saudi Arabia’s defense and regional security, built on American systems and training.
    • The United States and Saudi Arabia celebrate these and many other deals today as a result of the growing momentum of the last four months. The total package has quickly built to more than $600 billion–the largest set of commercial agreements on record between the two countries.

    UNLOCKING NEW OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH DEEPER ALLIANCES: The strategic partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia has grown increasingly robust over the past eight decades since the meeting between King Abdulaziz Al Saud and President Franklin D. Roosevelt on board the USS Quincy, the 80th anniversary of which was celebrated earlier this year.

    • Saudi Arabia is one of the United States’ largest trading partners in the Middle East.
      • Saudi direct investment in the United States totaled $9.5 billion in 2023, focused on the transportation, real estate, and automotive sectors.
      • In 2024, U.S.-Saudi Arabia goods trade totaled $25.9 billion, with U.S. exports at $13.2 billion, imports at $12.7 billion, and a trade surplus in goods of $443 million. 
    • The United States and Saudi Arabia share a commitment to deeper economic integration, underscoring the Kingdom’s pledge of expanding cooperation in critical sectors such as health, energy, and science.
      • The U.S. Department of Energy and the Ministry of Energy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have concluded an agreement for cooperation in the field of energy.  This agreement builds upon their strong existing relationship; it will focus collaboration on examining the potential for innovation, development, financing, and deployment of energy infrastructure.
      • The Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Department of Energy of the United States of America have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to collaborate on mining and mineral resources.  The agreement contributes to economic development and the diversification and resilience of critical mineral supply chains.
      • NASA and the Saudi Space Agency have signed an agreement for a CubeSat to fly on NASA’s Artemis II test flight. Saudi Arabia’s CubeSat will measure aspects of space weather at a range of distances from Earth and deploy in high Earth orbit from a spacecraft adapter on the Space Launch System rocket after the Orion spacecraft is safely flying on its own with its crew of four astronauts.
      • The United States and Saudi Arabia recently agreed to modernize the Air Transport Agreement to allow U.S. airlines to carry cargo between Saudi Arabia and third countries without needing to stop in the United States, an important right for cargo hub operations. Saudi carriers will have the same rights to serve the United States.
    • The United States and Saudi Arabia further underscored their commitment to deeper cultural, educational, and scientific partnerships through the signing of agreements between the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art and the Royal Commission for AlUla on collaborative research and an exhibition focused on artifacts from ancient Dadan in AlUla, and between the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and the Royal Commission for AlUla to support the conservation of the endangered Arabian leopard through creation of a dedicated exhibit in Washington, D.C.
    • Saudi Arabia remains our largest Foreign Military Sales partner with active cases valued at more than $129 billion.
      • Our defense relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is stronger than ever under President Trump’s leadership, and the package signed today, the largest defense cooperation deal in U.S. history, is a clear demonstration of our commitment to strengthening our partnership.
      • The agreement opens the door for expanded U.S. defense industry participation and long-term sustainment partnerships with Saudi entities.
    • The deepening United States-Saudi Arabia partnership reflects a joint vision for long-term prosperity and employment opportunities in both nations.

    BUILDING ON A RECORD OF WINNING AT HOME AND ABROAD: President Trump is delivering on his promise to Make America Great Again by catalyzing investment and negotiating fair trade deals to accelerate American employment and prosperity.

    • President Trump is the dealmaker in chief, and he has once again secured a historic deal that strengthens America’s economic dominance and global influence. 
    • This comes just one week after President Trump announced a U.S.-UK trade agreement that levels the playing field, creates jobs, and opens market access with the United Kingdom.
    • Leading up to this historic deal, President Trump had already secured trillions in U.S.-based investments, setting the stage for a new era of American prosperity.
    • The $600 billion in Saudi investment in the United States builds on President Trump’s record in 2017 of securing billions in commercial deals and agreements with Saudi Arabia for the defense, energy, technology, and infrastructure sectors.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week, 2025

    Source: The White House

    class=”has-text-align-center”>By the President of the United States of America
     
    A Proclamation 
     

    On Peace Officers Memorial Day and during Police Week, we honor our brave officers who serve on the front lines to protect our families, safeguard our communities, and shoulder a burden of responsibility that most Americans cannot fathom.  This week and always, we honor the courageous men and women serving in law enforcement and memorialize those who sacrificed their lives defending the thin blue line. 
    A nation in chaos ceases to be a citadel of liberty.  Tragically, the previous administration allowed lawlessness to permeate our country, making it harder for our law enforcement officers to do their jobs.  Their reckless, soft-on-crime policies emboldened criminals and thugs; wreaked havoc on the sanctity of our homes, businesses, and public spaces; instilled fear; and jeopardized public trust.
    As your 47th President, I am fulfilling my promise to make America safe again by reclaiming sovereignty on the border and restoring the rule of law in communities nationwide.  We will utilize every available means to equip and train law enforcement, retain qualified officers, and recruit on the basis of meritocracy. 
    The oath to serve and protect comes with extraordinary risk and sacrifice, and we are indebted to those who choose this righteous profession.  That is why I have asked the Congress to codify my Executive Order mandating the death penalty for the murder of a police officer — sending an unequivocal message that barbaric acts of violence and blatant disregard for the lives of our Nation’s heroes will not be tolerated — and to pass a crime bill with enhanced protections for police officers.
    I stand in steadfast solidarity with those who defend our freedoms and the families who love and support them.  We pray for those who grieve the fallen and pledge that their lives, legacies, and sacrifices will forever be remembered by our grateful Nation.
    By a joint resolution approved October 1, 1962, as amended (Public Law 87-726, 76 Stat. 676), and by Public Law 105-225 (36 U.S.C. 136-137), the President has been authorized and requested to designate May 15 of each year as “Peace Officers Memorial Day” and the week in which it falls as “Police Week.”
    NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 15, 2025, as Peace Officers Memorial Day and May 11 through May 17, 2025, as Police Week.  I call upon all Americans to observe this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities.  I also call on the Governors of the States and Territories and officials of other areas subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day.
    IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty‑five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.

                                   DONALD J. TRUMP

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Presidential Message on the National Women’s Health Week, 2025

    Source: The White House

    During National Women’s Health Week, we promote and support the health and well-being of our Nation’s mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, and friends.  
     
    From my first day in office, my Administration has worked to protect women and girls from gender extremism and has brought common sense and biological reality back to America. Moreover, the Make America Healthy Again Commission was established to address the root causes of our Nation’s health crisis—from poor nutrition and chronic diseases to preventable conditions – issues impacting women across the nation.  By advancing food transparency, promoting physical fitness, and restoring health education, we are working to give women, and all Americans, stronger futures and better quality of life.
     
    My Administration is confronting the high cost of healthcare, which places a tremendous toll on American families.  We are working to improve price transparency, stop surprise billing, and ensure patients have clear information about their coverage before receiving care.  Historic steps have been taken to lower prescription drug prices, including capping the cost of insulin and expanding access to low-cost generics.  By holding providers accountable and putting patients first, we are lowering costs, improving care delivery, and restoring fairness to the American healthcare system. 
     
    This week, we reaffirm our commitment to improve women’s health so that they may live fuller and healthier lives, ensuring that all generations of American women thrive and continue to drive the success of our Nation.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Secures a Historic Trade Win for the United States

    Source: The White House

    SECURING ANOTHER HISTORIC DEAL: Today, on the heels of the brand-new deal with the United Kingdom, President Donald J. Trump reached an agreement with China to reduce China’s tariffs and eliminate retaliation, retain a U.S. baseline tariff on China, and set a path for future discussions to open market access for American exports.

    • Today, the United States issued the first joint statement on trade in many years with China after successful negotiations over the weekend in Geneva, Switzerland.
    • Both parties affirmed the importance of the critical bilateral economic and trade relationship between both countries and the global economy.
    • For too long, unfair trade practices and America’s massive trade deficit with China have fueled the offshoring of American jobs and the decline of our manufacturing sector.
    • In reaching an agreement, the United States and China will each lower tariffs by 115% while retaining an additional 10% tariff. Other U.S. measures will remain in place.
    • Both sides will take these actions by May 14, 2025.
    • This trade deal is a win for the United States, demonstrating President Trump’s unparalleled expertise in securing deals that benefit the American people.

    CHINESE ACTIONS: China will remove the retaliatory tariffs it announced since April 4, 2025, and will also suspend or remove the non-tariff countermeasures taken against the United States since April 2, 2025.

    • China will also suspend its initial 34% tariff on the United States it announced on April 4, 2025 for 90 days, but will retain a 10% tariff during the period of the pause.

    AMERICAN ACTIONS: The United States will remove the additional tariffs it imposed on China on April 8 and April 9, 2025, but will retain all duties imposed on China prior to April 2, 2025, including Section 301 tariffs, Section 232 tariffs, tariffs imposed in response to the fentanyl national emergency invoked pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and Most Favored Nation tariffs. 

    • The United States will suspend its 34% reciprocal tariff imposed on April 2, 2025 for 90 days, but retain a 10% tariff during the period of the pause.
    • The 10% tariff continues to set a fair baseline that encourages domestic production, strengthens our supply chains and ensures that American trade policy supports American workers first, instead of undercutting them.
    • By imposing reciprocal tariffs, President Trump is ensuring our trade policy works for the American economy, addresses our national emergency brought on by our growing and persistent trade deficit, and levels the playing field for American workers and producers.
    • Unlike previous administrations, President Trump took a tough, uncompromising stance on China to protect American interests and stop unfair trade practices.

    WORKING TOWARDS A REBALANCING: When these changes come into effect, both nations agreed to establish a mechanism to continue important discussions about trade and economics.

    • The U.S. goods trade deficit with China was $295.4 billion in 2024—the largest with any trading partner.
    • Today’s agreement works toward addressing these imbalances to deliver real, lasting benefits to American workers, famers, and businesses.
    • As our nations continue these discussions, China will be represented by He Lifeng, Vice Premier of the State Council.
    • The United States will be represented by Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury, and Jamieson Greer, United States Trade Representative.

    ADDRESSING THE FENTANYL CRISIS: The United States and China will take aggressive actions to stem the flow of fentanyl and other precursors from China to illicit drug producers in North America.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: U.S. Announces China Trade Deal in Geneva

    Source: The White House

    Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent:“I’m happy to report that we made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks. First, I want to thank our Swiss host. The Swiss government has been very kind in providing us this wonderful venue, and I think that led to a great deal of productivity we’ve seen. We will be giving details tomorrow, but I can tell you that the talks were productive. We had the vice premier, two vice ministers, who were integrally involved, Ambassador Jamieson, and myself. And I spoke to President Trump, as did Ambassador Jamieson, last night, and he is fully informed of what is going on. So, there will be a complete briefing tomorrow morning.”

    U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer:“This was, as the Secretary pointed out, a very constructive two days. It’s important to understand how quickly we were able to come to agreement, which reflects that perhaps the differences were not so large as maybe thought. That being said, there was a lot of groundwork that went into these two days. Just remember why we’re here in the first place — the United States has a massive $1.2 trillion trade deficit, so the President declared a national emergency and imposed tariffs, and we’re confident that the deal we struck with our Chinese partners will help us to work toward resolving that national emergency.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Presidential Message on the 250th Anniversary of the First Convening of the Second Continental Congress

    Source: The White House

    On this day 250 years ago, a mighty assembly of statesmen, thinkers, lawyers, and patriots gathered at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to formally convene a revolutionary body to guide America to its independence. On May 10, 1775, our Nation’s forefathers convened the Second Continental Congress—a historic body that would go on to adopt the Declaration of Independence, the grandest and most important political document ever put to pen.
     
    Following the famous “shot heard ‘round the world” at the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775—the first major armed hostilities of the Revolutionary War, in which the British Army attempted to seize American military supplies and arrest American leaders—it became clear to the patriots that their conflict with the British Crown had escalated beyond mere disagreement.  Despite the colonists’ tireless efforts on behalf of peace, war was all but certain.  In the wake of the Boston Massacre, the imposition of the Intolerable Acts, and the lasting injustice of taxation without representation, Americans had formed the First Continental Congress in the fall of 1774 to seek redress for their grievances.  By the spring of 1775, following the lives taken at Lexington and Concord, a new Congress was convened—and America’s righteous crusade for independence was formally underway.
     
    Comprised of true American titans like John and Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, James Madison, John Jay, and George Washington—whom Congress later appointed as the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army—the Second Continental Congress was made up of some of the boldest, fiercest, and most visionary men ever to walk the face of the Earth.  This remarkable body would go on to preside over the Revolutionary War, establish critical international alliances, and maintain unity among the 13 Colonies as America secured its independence and ultimately emerged as a new Nation.
     
    The Second Continental Congress set in motion our independence, our venerated political traditions, and the birth of the greatest Republic ever created.  As we commemorate 250 years since its first convening, we recommit to the ideals of our Nation’s founding.  We summon the courage of our Founding Fathers.  Above all, as we approach 250 years of glorious independence, we proudly invoke the spirit of 1776 to build a proud, hopeful, and radiant future.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Tracing radiation through the Marshall Islands: Reflections from a veteran Greenpeace nuclear campaigner

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace

    We’ve visited Ground Zero. Not once, but three times. But for generations, before these locations were designated as such, they were the ancestral home to the people of the Marshall Islands.

    As part of a team of Greenpeace scientists and specialists from the Radiation Protection Advisers team, we have embarked on a six-week tour on board the Rainbow Warrior, sailing through one of the most disturbing chapters in human history: between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated 67 nuclear bombs across the Marshall Islands — equivalent to 7200 Hiroshima explosions.

    During this period, testing nuclear weapons at the expense of wonderful ocean nations like the Marshall Islands was considered an acceptable practice, or as the US put it, “for the good of mankind”.

    Instead, the radioactive fallout left a deep and complex legacy — one that is both scientific and profoundly human, with communities displaced for generations.

    The Rainbow Warrior coming into port in Majuro, Marshall Islands. Between March and April 2025 it embarked on a six-week mission around the Pacific nation to elevate calls for nuclear and climate justice; and support independent scientific research into the impacts of decades-long nuclear weapons testing by the US government. Image: © Bianca Vitale/Greenpeace

    Between March and April, we travelled on the Greenpeace flagship vessel, the Rainbow Warrior, throughout the Marshall Islands, including to three northern atolls that bear the most severe scars of Cold War nuclear weapons testing:

    • Enewetak atoll, where, on Runit Island, stands a massive leaking concrete dome beneath which lies plutonium-contaminated waste, a result of a partial “clean-up” of some of the islands after the nuclear tests;
    • Bikini atoll, a place so beautiful, yet rendered uninhabitable by some of the most powerful nuclear detonations ever conducted; and
    • Rongelap atoll, where residents were exposed to radiation fallout and later convinced to return to contaminated land, part of what is now known as Project 4.1, a US medical experiment to test humans’  exposure to radiation.

    This isn’t fiction, nor the distant past. It’s a chapter of history still alive through the environment, the health of communities, and the data we’re collecting today.

    Each location we visit, each sample we take, adds to a clearer picture of some of the long-term impacts of nuclear testing—and highlights the importance of continuing to document, investigate, and attempt to understand and share these findings.

    These are our field notes from a journey through places that hold important lessons for science, justice, and global accountability.

    As part of the Marshall Islands ship tour, a group of Greenpeace scientists and independent radiation experts were in Rongelap to sample lagoon sediments and plants that could become food if people came back. Image: © Greenpeace/Chewy C. Lin

    Our mission: why are we here?
     With the permission and support of the Marshallese government, a group of Greenpeace science and radiation experts, together with independent scientists, are in the island nation to assess, investigate, and document the long-term environmental and radiological consequences of nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands.

    Our mission is grounded in science. We’re conducting field sampling and radiological surveys to gather data on what radioactivity remains in the environment — isotopes such as caesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium-239/240. These substances are released during nuclear explosions and can linger in the environment for decades, posing serious health risks, such as increased risk of cancers in organs and bones.

    But this work is not only about radiation measurements, it is also about bearing witness.

    We are here in solidarity with Marshallese communities who continue to live with the consequences of decisions made decades ago, without their consent and far from the public eye.

    Stop 1: Enewetak Atoll — the dome that shouldn’t exist

    The Runit Dome with the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in the background. Image: © Greenpeace/Chewy C. Lin

    At the far western edge of the Marshall Islands is Enewetak. The name might not ring a bell for many, but this atoll was the site of 43 US nuclear detonations. Today, it houses what may be one of the most radioactive places in the world — the Runit Dome.

    Once a tropical paradise thick with coconut palms, Runit Island is capped by a massive concrete structure the size of a football field. Under this dome — cracked, weather-worn, and only 46 centimetres thick in some places — lies 85,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste. These substances are not only confined to the crater — they are also found across the island’s soil, rendering Runit Island uninhabitable for all time.

    The contrast between what it once was and what it has become is staggering. We took samples near the dome’s base, where rising sea levels now routinely flood the area.

    We collected coconut from the island, which will be processed and prepared in the Rainbow Warrior’s onboard laboratory. Crops such as coconut are a known vector for radioactive isotope transfer, and tracking levels in food sources is essential for understanding long-term environmental and health risks.

    The local consequences of this simple fact are deeply unjust. While some atolls in the Marshall Islands can harvest and sell coconut products, the people of Enewetak are prohibited from doing so because of radioactive contamination.

    They have lost not only their land and safety but also their ability to sustain themselves economically. The radioactive legacy has robbed them of income and opportunity.

    Measuring and collecting coconut samples. Image: © Greenpeace/Chewy C. Lin

    One of the most alarming details about this dome is that there is no lining beneath the structure — it is in direct contact with the environment, while containing some of the most hazardous long-lived substances ever to exist on planet Earth. It was never built to withstand flooding, sea level rise, and climate change.

    The scientific questions are urgent: how much of this material is already leaking into the lagoon? What are the exposure risks to marine ecosystems and local communities?

    We are here to help answer questions with new, independent data, but still, being in the craters and walking on this ground where nuclear Armageddon was unleashed is an emotional and surreal journey.

    Stop 2: Bikini — a nuclear catastrophe, labelled ‘for the good of mankind’

    Aerial shot of Bikini atoll, Marshall Islands. The Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior can be seen in the upper left. Image: © Greenpeace/Chewy C. Lin

    Unlike Chernobyl or Fukushima, where communities were devastated by catastrophic accidents, Bikini tells a different story. This was not an accident.

    The nuclear destruction of Bikini was deliberate, calculated, and executed with full knowledge that entire ways of life were going to be destroyed.

    Bikini Atoll is incredibly beautiful and would look idyllic on any postcard. But we know what lies beneath: the site of 23 nuclear detonations, including Castle Bravo, the largest ever nuclear weapons test conducted by the United States.

    Castle Bravo alone released more than 1000 times the explosive yield of the Hiroshima bomb. The radioactive fallout massively contaminated nearby islands and their populations, together with thousands of US military personnel.

    Bikini’s former residents were forcibly relocated in 1946 before nuclear testing began, with promises of a safe return. But the atoll is still uninhabited, and most of the new generations of Bikinians have never seen their home island.

    As we stood deep in the forest next to a massive concrete blast bunker, reality hit hard — behind its narrow lead-glass viewing window, US military personnel once watched the evaporation of Bikini lagoon.

    Bikini Islanders board a landing craft vehicle personnel (LCVP) as they depart from Bikini Atoll in March 1946. Image: © United States Navy

    On our visit, we noticed there’s a spectral quality to Bikini. The homes of the Bikini islanders are long gone. In its place now stand a scattering of buildings left by the US Department of Energy: rusting canteens, rotting offices, sleeping quarters with peeling walls, and traces of the scientific experiments conducted here after the bombs fell.

    On dusty desks, we found radiation reports, notes detailing crop trials, and a notebook meticulously tracking the application of potassium to test plots of corn, alfalfa, lime, and native foods like coconut, pandanus, and banana. The potassium was intended to block the uptake of caesium-137, a radioactive isotope, by plant roots.

    The logic was simple: if these crops could be decontaminated, perhaps one day Bikini could be repopulated.

    We collected samples of coconuts and soil — key indicators of internal exposure risk if humans were to return. Bikini raises a stark question: What does “safe” mean, and who gets to decide?

    The US declared parts of Bikini habitable in 1970, only to evacuate people again eight years later after resettled families suffered from radiation exposure. The science is not abstract here. It is personal. It is human. It has real consequences.

    Stop 3: Rongelap — setting for Project 4.1

    The abandoned church on Rongelap atoll. Image: © Greenpeace/Chewy C. Lin

    The Rainbow Warrior arrived at the eastern side of Rongelap atoll, anchoring one mile from the centre of Rongelap Island, the church spire and roofs of “new” buildings reflecting the bright sun.

    n 1954, fallout from the Castle Bravo nuclear detonation on Bikini blanketed this atoll in radioactive ash — fine, white powder that children played in, thinking it was snow. The US government waited three days to evacuate residents, despite knowing the risks. The US government declared it safe to return to Rongelap in 1957 — but it was a severely contaminated environment. The very significant radiation exposure to the Rongelap population caused severe health impacts: thyroid cancers, birth defects such as “jellyfish babies”, miscarriages, and much more.

    In 1985, after a request to the US government to evacuate was dismissed, the Rongelap community asked Greenpeace to help relocate them from their ancestral lands. Using the first Rainbow Warrior, and over a period of 10 days and four trips, 350 residents collectively dismantled their homes, bringing everything with them — including livestock, and 100 metric tons of building material — where they resettled on the islands of Mejatto and Ebeye on Kwajalein atoll.

    It is a part of history that lives on in the minds of the Marshallese people we meet in this ship voyage — in the gratitude they still express, the pride in keeping the fight for justice, and in the pain of still not having a permanent, safe home.

    Greenpeace representatives and displaced Rongelap community come together on Mejatto, Marshall Islands to commemorate the 40 years since the Rainbow Warrior evacuated the island’s entire population in May 1985 due to the impacts of US nuclear weapons testing. Image: © Greenpeace/Chewy C. Lin

    Now, once again, we are standing on their island of Rongelap, walking past abandoned buildings and rusting equipment, some of it dating from the 1980s and 1990s — a period when the US Department of Energy launched a push to encourage resettlement declaring that the island was safe — a declaration that this time, the population welcomed with mistrust, not having access to independent scientific data and remembering the deceitful relocation of some decades before.

    Here, once again, we sample soil and fruits that could become food if people came back. It is essential to understand ongoing risks — especially for communities considering whether and how to return.

    This is not the end. It is just the beginning

    The team of Greenpeace scientists and independent radiation experts on Rongelap atoll, Marshall Islands, with the Rainbow Warrior in the background. Shaun Burnie (author of the article) is first on the left. Image: © Greenpeace/Chewy C. Lin

    Our scientific mission is to take measurements, collect samples, and document contamination. But that’s not all we’re bringing back.

    We carry with us the voices of the Marshallese who survived these tests and are still living with their consequences. We carry images of graves swallowed by tides near Runit Dome, stories of entire cultures displaced from their homelands, and measurements of radiation showing contamination still persists after many decades.

    There are 9700 nuclear warheads still held by military powers around the world – mostly in the United States and Russian arsenals. The Marshall Islands was one of the first nations to suffer the consequences of nuclear weapons — and the legacy persists today.

    We didn’t come to speak for the Marshallese. We came to listen, to bear witness, and to support their demand for justice. We plan to return next year, to follow up on our research and to make results available to the people of the Marshall Islands.

    And we will keep telling these stories — until justice is more than just a word.

    Kommol Tata (“thank you” in the beautiful Marshallese language) for following our journey.

    Shaun Burnie is a senior nuclear specialist at Greenpeace Ukraine and was part of the Rainbow Warrior team in the Marshall Islands. This article was first published by Greenpeace Aotearoa and is republished with permission.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Military Spouse Day, 2025

    Source: The White House

    class=”has-text-align-center”>By the President of the United States of America
     
    A Proclamation 
     

    Military spouses are the heart and soul of our Armed Forces.  Their unwavering devotion and profound influence enrich our fighting forces and the communities in which they serve.  On Military Spouse Day, we proudly honor the wives and husbands who embrace this noble calling.
    Every day, military spouses share their loved ones with a demanding, no-fail mission.  Yet their own mission is no less daunting — frequent relocations to destinations not of their choosing; heart-wrenching separations; parenting, often alone; and career continuity within a nomadic and uncertain life.  Their ongoing sacrifices are intrinsically linked to family morale, readiness, and retention.  We cannot maintain the world’s most lethal fighting force without the love, selflessness, and support of the military spouses who navigate the unique and challenging demands in life.
    Employment is a critical challenge.  Military spouses face a 21 percent unemployment rate — one of the highest demographics in the country — and a 25 percent wage gap compared to their civilian counterparts.  Frequent relocations hinder job placements, career advancements, and tenures, regardless of their education and experience.  During my first Administration, we made significant strides to improve military spouse employment by enhancing job opportunities within the Federal Government, expanding licensure portability, and increasing remote and flexible job options that provide continuity and financial stability for military spouses.  Earlier this year, I issued a categorical exemption for military spouse employees following the return-to-office directive for Federal civilian employees, and we pledge to pursue additional innovative solutions to help military spouses thrive.
    It takes uncommon devotion and steadfast love to stand alongside those who wear our Nation’s uniform.  Yet, generation after generation, military spouses stand in spite of the uncertainty, global threats, increasing demands, long hours, and the deployments that last months or even years.  They stand –with resilience and resolve — not in the shadow of their loved ones in uniforms, but side by side as an invaluable mission partner and a force multiplier integral to our national defense.  The First Lady and I are in admiration of these volunteer patriots, heroes, and warriors.  Military spouses have our unwavering support, our prayers, and the respect of a grateful Nation.
    NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 9, 2025, as Military Spouse Day.  I call upon the people of the United States to honor military spouses with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
    IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
    ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.
     
     
     
                                   DONALD J. TRUMP

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Protecting the Great Lakes from Invasive Carp

    Source: The White House

    MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
                   THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
                   THE SECRETARY OF THE ARMY
                   THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
                          AGENCY

    SUBJECT:       Protecting the Great Lakes from Invasive Carp

    My Administration is committed to protecting the Great Lakes — the world’s largest surface freshwater system, and a highly valued shipping avenue, resource for fishing and recreation, and source of high-quality drinking water — from the economic and ecological threat of invasive carp.  This threat affects every State that borders the Great Lakes:  Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.  Curbing this threat requires immediate and effective deployment of resources, infrastructure, and expertise.  The Federal Government is prepared to do its part, but the States where preventative measures can be taken must cooperate.

    For several decades, invasive species of Asian carp have steadily migrated and expanded from the Southeast northward through streams, rivers, and lakes in the Mississippi River and Midwest region.  Asian carp, which can exceed 100 pounds in weight, spread rapidly by outcompeting native fish populations for food and space.  They also reduce water quality.  These invasive carp are nearing the entry point to the Great Lakes, which, if breached, would irreparably damage native fish species like walleye, yellow perch, and lake whitefish.  This poses a significant risk to Great Lakes fishing, boating, recreation, and tourism, which support tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of commerce annually. 

    The Brandon Road Interbasin Project near Joliet, Illinois, was authorized for construction in the Water Resources Development Act of 2020 (Public Law 116-260) and would provide multiple layers of innovative technological deterrents designed to prevent invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes.  It is a joint project involving the United States Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) and the States of Illinois and Michigan.

    The Federal Government has provided $274 million for this project, has undertaken design work, has started site preparation, and is ready to begin construction of deterrent measures.  In February 2025, however, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker decided to delay the State’s acquisition of property, which is necessary for construction to begin.  Once Illinois acquires the land, it must also issue the Army Corps a State-level permit to begin construction.

    My Administration fully supports preventing the spread of invasive carp.  The State of Illinois, where the Brandon Road Interbasin Project is located, must cease further delay in cooperating with this effort, for the sake of its own citizens and economy and for the sake of all of the Great Lakes States. 

    I am directing my Administration to achieve maximum speed and efficiency at the Federal level.  Specifically, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of the Army, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall determine and expeditiously implement the most effective mechanisms, barriers, and other measures to prevent the migration and expansion of invasive carp in the Great Lakes Basin and the surrounding region.  This includes supporting the Brandon Road Interbasin Project, through deadline-oriented investments of taxpayer dollars, to ensure the State of Illinois does not stand in the way of its construction. 

    Specifically, for this project to remain on schedule so that it can effectively fulfill its purpose and constitute a worthy investment of taxpayer resources, the State of Illinois should acquire the necessary land to begin construction of the Brandon Road Interbasin Project by July 1, 2025, and the State of Illinois and any applicable localities should grant all permits or approvals required to facilitate Army Corps construction within 30 days of such permits or approvals becoming ripe for consideration by the State or locality and should streamline all permitting and environmental reviews to the maximum degree.  Federal agency heads shall similarly streamline any permitting and environmental reviews and issue any requisite Federal permits or approvals as quickly as possible.

    Additionally, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall prioritize support for infrastructure projects to remove invasive carp from the Upper Illinois Waterway near Lake Michigan and for maintenance on existing infrastructure to block invasive carp from reaching and entering the Great Lakes Basin.

    The Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, through their joint operation of the Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force, shall prioritize support for research and management concerning the prevention, removal, and management of aquatic invasive species in the Great Lakes, including invasive carp.  The Administrator of NOAA shall also prioritize this objective through the Great Lakes Aquatic Nuisance Species Information System and NOAA’s research and information-sharing work related to the growth and spread of aquatic invasive species.

                                   DONALD J. TRUMP

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Increasing Efficiency At the Office of the Federal Register

    Source: The White House

    By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

    Section 1.  Purpose.  Deregulation is a critical priority for my Administration.  We will foster prosperity by freeing Americans from the heavy burden of Federal regulations accumulated over decades.  Although the decision about which regulations to eliminate is sometimes complex, the administrative process of removing a regulation from the Code of Federal Regulations through a rulemaking should be simple.  It is not.
    The Office of the Federal Register frequently takes days or, in some cases, even weeks to publish new regulatory actions.  Such delay is unwarranted.  The Office of the Federal Register receives final documents that are fully executed by the relevant decisionmakers — all that remains is publication.  Yet despite those delays, executive departments and agencies are charged $151-$174 per column of text to publish each rule in the Federal Register.  These inefficiencies inhibit my Administration’s deregulatory agenda and waste taxpayer money.

    Sec. 2.  Increasing Efficiency in the Federal Register.  (a)  The Archivist of the United States (Archivist), acting through the Office of the Federal Register, shall work with the Director of the Government Publishing Office to reduce publication delays to the greatest extent feasible, including by modernizing computer systems and eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy. 
    (b)  Within 15 days of the date of this order, the Archivist, acting through the Office of the Federal Register, shall submit a report to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reflecting average publication times for different categories of documents. 
    (c)  Within 45 days of the date of this order, the Archivist, acting through the Office of the Federal Register, shall review the fee schedules for publication in the Federal Register and, working with the Director of the Government Publishing Office, take steps to ensure that fees are based on the actual costs of publication and account for increased efficiencies achieved as a result of this order.  The Archivist, acting through the Office of the Federal Register, shall promptly file a report with the Director of OMB calculating the percentage difference in fees between any proposed new fee schedule and the prior one.
    (d) No later than August 22, 2025, the Archivist, acting through the Office of the Federal Register, shall submit a second report to the Director of OMB reflecting average publication times between July 15, 2025, and August 15, 2025, for the same categories of documents on which the Office of the Federal Register reported under subsection (b) of this section.

    Sec. 3.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
    (i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
    (ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
    (b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
    (c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
    (d)  The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the National Archives and Records Administration.

                                   DONALD J. TRUMP

    THE WHITE HOUSE,
        May 9, 2025.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Rescission of Useless Water Pressure Standards

    Source: The White House

    MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF ENERGY
    THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
    THE DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS

    SUBJECT:       Rescission of Useless Water Pressure Standards

    By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby direct:

    Water conservation requirements for faucets, showers, bathtubs, and toilets — promulgated by the Department of Energy pursuant to the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-486) — make bathroom appliances more expensive and less functional.  “Efficiency” standards render other American appliances like clothes washers and dishwashers less useful, more breakable, and more expensive to repair.  The Federal Government should not impose or enforce regulations that make taxpayers’ lives worse.

    To address these unnecessary radical green agenda policies, I direct the Secretary of Energy to consider using all lawful authority to rescind — or, as appropriate, amend to revert to the standards required by statute — the regulations found in 10 C.F.R. 430.32(f), relating to water and energy use in dishwashers; 10 C.F.R. 430.32(o), relating to water use in faucets; 10 C.F.R. 430.32(p), relating to water use in showerheads; 10 C.F.R. 430.32(q), relating to water use in water closets; 10 C.F.R. 430.32(r), relating to water use in urinals; the definitions of “automatic clothes washer,” “clothes washer,” “dishwasher,” “faucet,” “other clothes washer,” “semi-automatic clothes washer,” “urinal,” and “water closet” contained in 10 C.F.R. 430.2; the residential washing machine efficiency standards contained in 10 C.F.R. 430.32(g); and the commercial washing machine efficiency standards contained in 10 C.F.R. 431.156.

    Furthermore, I direct the Secretary of Energy to publish in the Federal Register a notice clarifying the Waiver of Federal Preemption of State regulations covered by the application of “Energy Efficiency Program for Consumer Products:  Waiver of Federal Preemption of State Regulations Concerning the Water Use or Water Efficiency of Showerheads, Faucets, Water Closets and Urinals,” 75 Fed. Reg. 80289 (December 22, 2010).

    I further direct the Secretary of Energy not to enforce any of the regulatory provisions listed in this memorandum, pending rescission or reversion of such provisions; the provisions of 42 U.S.C. 6295(j) and (k); or energy and water efficiency standards for washing machines, including the provisions in 42 U.S.C. 6295(g) and 42 U.S.C. 6313(e).

    Finally, I direct the Secretary of Energy and the Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs to jointly prepare and submit recommendations to the President, within 60 days of the date of this memorandum, through the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council, for the Congress to rescind, insofar as each relates to the subject matter of this memorandum, 42 U.S.C. 6295(g), (j), (k), and (o) and 42 U.S.C. 6313(e), or to repeal the Energy Policy Act of 1992 in its entirety.

    This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

                                  DONALD J. TRUMP

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Keeping Promises to Veterans and Establishing a National Center for Warrior Independence

    Source: The White House

    By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

    Section 1.  Purpose and Policy.  Our Nation’s security, prosperity, and freedom would not be possible without our veterans.  Many service members paid the ultimate sacrifice.  Many others bear visible and invisible wounds from their service.  Too many veterans are homeless in America.  Each veteran deserves our gratitude.

    Yet the Federal Government has not always treated veterans like the heroes they are.  During the previous administration, unaccountable bureaucrats treated them shamefully, failing veterans when they needed help most and betraying the taxpayers who rightfully expect better.

    The story of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center is indicative of this failure.  More than one hundred years ago, Senator John Percival Jones and Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker generously donated hundreds of acres of land that they owned in West Los Angeles on the condition that it be used to house disabled veterans.  The campus once featured a chapel, billiard hall, 1,000-seat theater, and housed about 6,000 veterans, but the Federal Government has since allowed this crown jewel of veteran care to deteriorate over the last few decades.  

    The Department of Veterans Affairs (Department) leased parts of the property to a private school, private companies, and the baseball team of the University of California, Los Angeles, sometimes at significantly below-market prices.  As of 2024, there were approximately 3,000 homeless veterans in Los Angeles, more than in any other city in the country and accounting for about 10 percent of all of America’s homeless veterans.  Many of these heroes live in squalor in Los Angeles’s infamous “skid row.”

    During my first term, I signed legislation to increase accountability and expand benefits and choices for veterans in accessing care, and my second term will build on those efforts.  Accountability will return to the Department.  Veterans around the Nation will have more choices in care, benefits, and services.  The VA campus in West Los Angeles will become the National Center for Warrior Independence with facilities and resources to help our veterans earn back their self-sufficiency.

    Sec. 2.  Establishing the National Center for Warrior Independence.  The Secretary of Veterans Affairs (Secretary) shall take all appropriate action to:

    (a)  designate a National Center for Warrior Independence on the West Los Angeles VA Campus in which homeless veterans in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and around the Nation can seek and receive the care, benefits, and services to which they are entitled;

    (b)  work with other municipalities and VA facilities to ensure that homeless veterans outside the Los Angeles metropolitan area who want to avail themselves of the National Center for Warrior Independence are provided the means to do so;

    (c)  in coordination with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the heads of any other relevant executive departments or agencies, ensure that funds that may have been spent on housing or other services for illegal aliens are redirected to construct, establish, and maintain this National Center for Warrior Independence;

    (d)  work to restore self-sufficiency and the warrior ethos among homeless veterans through any guidance, requirements, or services needed to ensure that homeless veterans can access housing, receive substance abuse or addiction treatment, and return to productive work and community engagement; and

    (e)  within 120 days of the date of this order, present an action plan to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, to meet these directives and restore the capacity to house up to 6,000 homeless veterans at the National Center for Warrior Independence by January 1, 2028.

    Sec. 3.  Voucher Program.  The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall, in consultation with the Secretary, use vouchers to support homeless veterans in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and around the Nation with respect to this effort.

    Sec. 4.  Restoring Accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs.  The Secretary shall take the following steps to restore accountability and excellent service at the Department:

    (a)  take appropriate action against individuals who have committed misconduct, making full use of and in accordance with the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 (Public Law 115-41); and

    (b)  investigate and take steps to rectify the previous administration’s decision to rehire and reinstate back pay for employees previously fired for misconduct and direct such savings back toward care, benefits, and services for veterans, in accordance with all applicable laws.

    Sec. 5.  Providing Choices and Excellence to Veterans.  The Secretary shall take steps to increase the excellence of and options for care, benefits, and services for veterans including:

    (a)  within 60 days of the date of this order, submitting a report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, with a plan to reduce wait times for Veterans Health Administration appointments that explores options like expanding office hours, offering weekend appointments, and increasing the use of virtual healthcare options;

    (b)  within 30 days of the date of this order, directing a feasibility study at the Manchester VA Medical Center and within 180 days of this order, submitting to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, an action plan to expand services to support a full-service medical center in New Hampshire so that it is no longer the only State in the contiguous United States without such a center; and

    (c)  in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, developing a strategy to improve the delivery and quality of the Department’s healthcare services in a more efficient and effective manner to support veterans; the strategy shall initially prioritize implementation of actions to reduce access times and improve service delivery, to include options for offering treatment to veterans at select military treatment facilities and military beneficiaries at VA facilities with appropriate reimbursement.

    Sec. 6.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

    (i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or

    (ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

    (b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

    (c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

    (d)  The Department of Veterans Affairs shall provide funding for this order’s publication in the Federal Register.

                                  DONALD J. TRUMP

    THE WHITE HOUSE,

        May 9, 2025.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Keeps Promises to Our Veterans and Establishes New Center for Homeless Veterans

    Source: The White House

    KEEPING OUR PROMISE TO OUR VETERANS: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to provide better care to our veterans, improve accountability for such care, and establish a National Center for Warrior Independence for homeless veterans.

    • The Order directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish the National Center for Warrior Independence on the Veterans Affairs West Los Angeles Campus.
      • Homeless veterans in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and around the nation can avail themselves of this Center to seek and receive the care, benefits, and services to which they are entitled.
      • Funds previously spent on housing or other services for illegal aliens will be redirected to construct, establish, and maintain this Center.
      • The Center will promote self-sufficiency through housing, substance abuse treatment, and support for productive work for the veterans housed there.
      • The goal is to house up to 6,000 homeless veterans at this Center by 2028.
    • The Order directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to use vouchers to support homeless veterans with respect to this effort.
    • It instructs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to restore accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This includes taking action against individuals who have committed misconduct and investigating and rectifying the previous administration’s decision to rehire and reinstate back pay for employees previously fired for misconduct.
    • The Order ensures that veterans will have access to increased options for care, benefits, and services.
      • This includes reduced wait times for Veterans Health Administration appointments through options such as expanded hours, weekend appointments, and virtual healthcare. 
      • It orders a feasibility study at the Manchester VA Medical Center to expand services to support a full-service medical center in New Hampshire.

    TREATING VETERANS LIKE THE HEROES THEY ARE: President Trump strongly believes that every veteran deserves our gratitude, and that the federal government should treat veterans like the heroes they are.  

    • Previous administrations have failed veterans by allowing the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center—hundreds of acres in Los Angeles given to the Federal Government more than a century ago to help veterans—to fall apart.
      • Parts of the property are leased to a private school, private companies, and the baseball team of the University of California, Los Angeles—sometimes at rock-bottom prices.
    • Los Angeles has approximately 3,000 homeless veterans—more than any other city in the country and accounting for about 10% of all homeless veterans in America.
    • Many of these heroes live in squalor in Los Angeles’s infamous “skid row.”
    • The new National Center for Warrior Independence will help them and other veterans like them rebuild their lives.

    CONTINUING A RECORD OF REFORM: This Executive Order builds on the historic reforms and achievements of President Trump’s first term, which transformed the Department of Veterans Affairs and expanded care and opportunities for our nation’s heroes.

    • During President Trump’s first term, he signed legislation to increase accountability and expand benefits and choices for veterans in accessing care.
    • He also signed legislation to remove thousands of VA workers who failed to give our vets the care they so richly deserve.
    • President Trump improved the efficiency of the VA and modernized medical records.
    • President Trump signed and implemented the Forever GI bill, allowing veterans to use their benefits to get an education at any point in their lives.
    • He eliminated every penny of federal student loan debt owed by American veterans who are completely and permanently disabled.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Protects the Great Lakes from Invasive Carp

    Source: The White House

    STOPPING INVASIVE CARP: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a presidential memorandum to protect the Great Lakes from invasive carp.

    • The memorandum directs his administration to expeditiously implement the most effective mechanisms, barriers, and other measures to prevent the migration and expansion of invasive carp in the Great Lakes Basin and the surrounding region.
    • It supports construction of the Brandon Road Interbasin Project, which would provide multiple layers of innovative technological deterrents designed to prevent invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes, provided that the states involved are willing to cooperate and meet deadlines so that the federal investment pays off and the project can be completed in a timely, effective fashion.  This project was authorized in the Water Resources Development Act of 2020 but has recently been delayed by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.
      • It sets a deadline of July 1, 2025, for Illinois to acquire necessary land to begin construction and 30-day deadlines for local permits to be granted to facilitate Army Corps construction.
      • Federal agencies are similarly directed to streamline their permitting and environmental reviews.
    • It instructs the Environmental Protection Agency to prioritize infrastructure projects to remove invasive carp from the Upper Illinois Waterway near Lake Michigan and maintain existing barriers to prevent their entry into the Great Lakes Basin.
    • It tasks NOAA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to prioritize research and management for the prevention, removal, and control of invasive carp and other aquatic invasive species in the Great Lakes.

    PROTECTING THE GREAT LAKES: President Trump understands that swift action is essential to safeguard the Great Lakes from the growing threat of invasive carp.

    • The Great Lakes are the world’s largest surface freshwater system, and a highly valued shipping avenue, resource for fishing and recreation, and source of high-quality drinking water.
    • For several decades, invasive species of Asian carp have steadily migrated and expanded from the Southeast northward through streams, rivers, and lakes, nearing the Great Lakes entry point.
    • Asian carp, which can exceed 100 pounds in weight, spread rapidly by outcompeting native fish populations for food and space, threatening species like walleye, yellow perch, and lake whitefish.
    • Their potential entry into the Great Lakes would irreparably damage fishing, boating, recreation, and tourism, which supports tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in commerce annually.
    • Immediate action is needed as the Federal Government has already invested $274 million in the Brandon Road project, but Illinois’ recent delays in land acquisition and permitting threaten this critical defense against an ecological and economic disaster.

    SAFEGUARDING AMERICA’S NATURAL ABUNDANCE: President Trump has consistently demonstrated a commonsense dedication to protecting America’s natural resources, environment, and outdoor recreation areas.

    • President Trump has championed improved forest management in order to prevent forest fires that are devastating communities and ecosystems across the country.
    • By pausing the expansion of windmills, President Trump recognized their detrimental environmental impact, particularly on wildlife, often outweighs their benefits.
    • President Trump signed the Save Our Seas Act to preserve and protect our beautiful waters and oceans from being littered with garbage. 
    • President Trump stands committed to sportsmen and anglers, ensuring they have access to thriving natural lands and waters for hunting and fishing.

    MIL OSI USA News –