(The Center Square) – Calls for repercussions and firings of those who celebrated or mocked the killing of Charlie Kirk have occurred across the country over the past week.
Reading Time: 7minutesClick here to read highlights from the story
Alverno College, Herzing University, Gateway Technical College and Mount Mary University could lose millions of dollars in aid after the U.S. Department of Education announced plans to end grant programs it deemed unconstitutional.
The grant programs offer federal aid to colleges and universities where designated shares of students are Black, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Asian American or Pacific Islander.
The Wisconsin colleges that would see the greatest impact are Hispanic-serving institutions, which means at least 25% of their students are Hispanic, among other requirements.
Experts say the grant programs were meant to level the playing field, and colleges often created supports with the federal funding that affect students of all demographics.
In addition, several Wisconsin colleges that could soon become Hispanic-serving institutions told Wisconsin Watch they plan to continue to pursue the designation.
Wisconsin colleges and universities with significant Hispanic and Latino populations could lose millions after the U.S. Department of Education announced last week that it plans to end several long-standing grant programs it says violate the Constitution.
In Wisconsin, the change would affect Alverno College, Herzing University, Gateway Technical College and Mount Mary University.
The seven grant programs in question award money to minority-serving schools for things like tutoring, research opportunities, counseling or campus facilities.
The funds are available only to schools where a designated share of students are Black, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Asian American or Pacific Islander, though the money can be used for initiatives that serve students of all demographics at those schools.
“Discrimination based upon race or ethnicity has no place in the United States,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement Wednesday. “The Department looks forward to working with Congress to reenvision these programs to support institutions that serve underprepared or under-resourced students without relying on race quotas.”
The $350 million previously allocated for grants for the 2025-26 school year will be “reprogrammed” to programs that “advance Administration priorities,” the department said.
The department will also discontinue existing grants, meaning schools that were previously awarded multi-year funding will not receive any remaining payments.
The largest share of the affected schools are Hispanic-serving institutions, including four in Wisconsin. More than 600 colleges hold that designation, which the Department of Education has awarded for about 30 years to colleges that meet several qualifications including having an undergraduate student body that’s at least 25% Hispanic.
The announcement does not affect funding for tribal colleges or historically Black colleges. The Department of Education announced Monday $495 million in additional one-time funding for historically Black colleges and for tribal colleges.
It’s unclear how much funding Wisconsin’s schools stand to lose in total. The newest on the list, Gateway Technical College, applied for funding for the first time in July, seeking $2.8 million over five years, spokesperson Lee Colony said. The school was still waiting for a decision when the department announced it was canceling the program.
Wisconsin’s other three Hispanic-serving institutions did not answer questions from Wisconsin Watch.
The list also includes both of Wisconsin’s women-only schools, Mount Mary University and Alverno College, the latter of which has recently faced money troubles. Its board of directors declared a financial emergency in 2024. After cutting 14 majors, six graduate programs and dozens of staff and faculty, the school and its accreditor say it’s now in a stronger financial position, but the school did not respond to further questions.
The cuts could be especially consequential in Wisconsin because the state’s minority-serving institutions are smaller schools with smaller budgets, said Marybeth Gasman, executive director of the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions.
“If they lose funding, it will hurt students — especially low-income and first-generation college students,” Gasman said.
But the announcement doesn’t necessarily seal the fate of these grant programs. Gasman anticipates lawsuits over the funds that were already awarded to institutions, on the grounds that the administration can’t rescind funds that Congress has allotted.
“My hope is that Congress will step in and support these important institutions,” Gasman said.
Meanwhile, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities released a statement Wednesday calling the decision “an attack on equity in higher education” that “erases decades of progress and hurts millions of students.”
The organization said it would “continue to fight alongside students and institutions to defend these essential programs and ensure that opportunity, equity and investment in higher education are not rolled back.”
The case for HSIs
More than two-thirds of all Latino undergrads attend a Hispanic-serving institution, according to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. Proponents of the grant program say it helps a group of students who haven’t always been well supported in U.S. schools and colleges, and that, in turn, helps the economy.
“There are communities that have been excluded from educational opportunity, and they deserve the right to a high-quality education. That’s what democracy looks like,” said Anthony Hernandez, an education policy researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies Hispanic-serving institutions.
“By concentrating these federal resources, we can help them gain momentum to get into white-collar pathways and imagine that they could become nurses, they can become doctors, captains of industry, they can become scientists,” he said.
Hernandez disputes the Department of Education’s claim that it’s discriminatory to set aside funds specifically for minority-serving institutions.
“For most of U.S. history, minority students were either explicitly excluded from higher education or funneled into segregated, underfunded schools,” Hernandez said.
Minority-serving institutions were created to level the playing field, which remains slanted by bias, economic inequality and disparities in funding across K-12 schools, he said.
“This policy change presents itself as a defense of fairness, but effectively punishes institutions that were created to repair unfairness,” Hernandez said. “It withdraws critical support from communities still facing barriers and undermines the very schools helping to expand opportunity and strengthen the economy.”
He argues the program should be grown, not dismantled. The number of Hispanic-serving institutions has soared, he said, and the available funds haven’t kept up.
“They’ve constantly had to fight for funding,” Hernandez said. “They’ve never been adequately funded.”
If the Department of Education succeeds at cutting these grant programs, he anticipates that graduation and transfer rates at these schools will drop.
The cuts so far don’t affect grants issued to minority-serving institutions by other departments, including the Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation. But Hernandez worries more cuts could be coming.
“We imagine that that is eventually going to encompass all of the different arteries of the federal government that dole out monies to the minority-serving institutions,” Hernandez said. “I don’t think it’s finished.”
Gasman agrees. “I think the Trump administration is challenging the entire MSI framework, which has had bipartisan support in Congress,” Gasman said.
Wisconsin colleges serve growing Hispanic population
Watching from the sidelines are eight other Wisconsin colleges that have spent years trying to become Hispanic-serving institutions. At those schools, designated by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities as “Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institutions,” at least 15% of full-time undergrad students are Hispanic.
In the 2023-24 school year, there were 425 such schools in the U.S. In Wisconsin, the group includes a mix of private colleges, public universities and technical colleges.
They say they’ll keep up working to better serve Hispanic students even if the federal funds disappear.
Jeffrey Morin, president of the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. (Courtesy of the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design)
The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design joined the Emerging list in 2021, and its Hispanic enrollment has risen each year since, President Jeffrey Morin said.
About 19% of the incoming freshman class is Hispanic, and the city of Milwaukee is 20% Hispanic.
“For us, it is a natural reflection of the community that we serve,” Morin said, though he notes that the school selects students based on their academic record and a portfolio of their work, not their demographics.
“We are not sculpting a freshman class. We are serving the people who want to join our community,” Morin said. “And when a … noticeable portion of our population comes from a particular background, we want to make sure that we meet the needs of that population.”
Being designated as an Emerging Hispanic-serving institution hasn’t brought new funds to the school, but it “puts us in a community with other regional higher ed institutions so that … we can discuss and discover best practices and trends,” Morin said.
The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design is an Emerging Hispanic-serving institution. (Courtesy of the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design)
Hispanic students are the fastest-growing group in higher education. As their numbers boom, more Emerging schools could meet the 25% benchmark and become full-fledged Hispanic-serving institutions.
That’s the plan at the institute, Morin said, adding that the funds would help non-Hispanic students too. For example, he said, many Hispanic students are also the first in their families to go to college. The grant funds could be used for programs that would support first-generation students, regardless of their race or ethnicity.
“A rising tide lifts all boats,” Morin said. “The funding support that would come in to help one population will help other populations as well.”
‘Emerging’ schools not deterred
Despite recent news, MIAD officials say the school isn’t changing its plans. Supporting Hispanic students is particularly important now, Morin said, as the national rhetoric around immigrants grows increasingly hostile.
“What changes is that we’ll lose particular opportunities to partner (with the federal government) in service to the Hispanic community,” Morin said. “What doesn’t change is our commitment to serving the Hispanic community. We will simply look for new partners in that work.”
A student at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design uses virtual reality goggles in a studio on the college’s campus. (Courtesy of the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design)
Several other Emerging institutions expressed similar sentiments.
The mission of the federal program “aligns with our Catholic, Jesuit mission to keep a Marquette education accessible to all,” said Marquette University spokesperson Kevin Conway. The university announced in 2016 that it intended to become a Hispanic-serving institution. Since then, the Hispanic share of its student body has grown from 10% to about 16% in fall 2024.
“Like all colleges and universities, Marquette is monitoring changes in the higher education landscape and the resources available to help the students we serve,” Conway said. “One thing that will not change is Marquette’s commitment to its mission and supporting our community.”
A spokesperson for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where about 15% of students are Hispanic, said the school “remains steadfast in its access mission, ensuring higher education is attainable for all, regardless of background or income.”
Milwaukee Area Technical College, meanwhile, announced last year that it was “on the verge” of achieving full HSI status with 23.4% of its full-time students identifying as Hispanic.
“We’re very, very close,” MATC President Anthony Cruz said at the time.
Asked about the latest developments, spokesperson Darryll Fortune said the school “will continue to pursue HSI status regardless.”
This story was updated to include an announcement made Monday by the Department of Education that the agency will award historically Black colleges and tribal colleges $495 million in one-time funding.
Free speech advocates say the bill is likely unconstitutional and the government shouldn't decide which groups get federal funding based on employees' private comments.
The Green Bay Area Public School District is searching middle and high schoolers’ backpacks when they come to school after a 16-year-old was arrested last week for bringing a loaded gun to school.
The state's health department put out a standing order for the COVID vaccine. The goal is to ensure that Wisconsinites can get the jab at pharmacies across the state even without a prescription.
Environmental advocates are suing the city of Racine to force the release of data on projected water use in the first phase of Microsoft’s $3.3 billion data center campus in Mount Pleasant.
If you’re in recovery from addiction, finding a sober community that’s a good fit for your new lifestyle can be a struggle. Especially if you also happen to be a person of color living in Wisconsin.
In this photo illustration, a pharmacist holds a COVID-19 vaccine. States and clinicians are working on getting correct information on vaccines to vulnerable groups amid shifting federal guidance. (Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The state health department is recommending COVID-19 vaccines for all Wisconsinites 6 months and older and authorizing pharmacies to give the vaccine without an individual prescription.
In addition, Wisconsin’s insurance regulator issued guidance to health insurance companies that the shots are to be provided without a patient co-payment.
At the Department of Health Services (DHS), Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer and state epidemiologist for communicable diseases, issued astanding medical order recommending the vaccine for all eligible Wisconsin residents this fall. With the order, no prescription is needed, DHS said.
The health department said its recommendation for the vaccine follows guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
States, public health organizations and agencies have been stepping in torecommend the vaccines for COVID-19 and for other communicable diseases following a shift at the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) away from vaccine recommendations under the administration of President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy, who has long embraced anti-vaccine views, has replaced the members of a CDC committee on vaccination with vaccine skeptics, and the body is expected to consider softening or eliminating some recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine and some childhood immunizations.
The Food and Drug Administration has narrowed its recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine to people 65 or older, while public health advocates have called for maintaining the vaccine schedule for all ages.
The DHS order states it “is also intended to authorize vaccination for other groups for whom professional society guidance supports vaccination — such as children, adolescents, pregnant people, and healthy adults under 65 — even though these uses are considered ‘offlabel.’”
“Everyone in Wisconsin should be able to make the choice to protect themselves and their families against COVID-19, and that choice should be based on the best available science and medical recommendations,” DHS Secretary Kirsten Johnson said in a department statement. “As the federal government limits access to the vaccine, we want to reassure Wisconsinites that recommendations from our nation’s leading medical associations are clear, and we will work every day to support access to care and resources to help families make the best decisions on how to protect themselves from illness and disease.”
The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI)said in a bulletin that based on “the evidence-based guidance” from DHS and state laws against discrimination in insurance coverage, “the commissioner continues to expect that all governmental self-funded and fully insured group health plans and individual health plans will cover, without cost sharing, all costs associated with administration of COVID-19 vaccinations for all policyholders.”
As power-hungry data centers proliferate, states are searching for ways to protect utility customers from the steep costs of upgrading the electrical grid, trying instead to shift the cost to AI-driven tech companies. (Dana DiFilippo/New Jersey Monitor)
Two environmental groups are warning state residents about the amount of energy and water that is set to be used following the construction of AI data centers in southern Wisconsin.
In an analysis released Tuesday, Clean Wisconsin found that two data centers approved for construction in Ozaukee and Racine counties will consume enough energy to power 4.3 million homes — nearly double the 2.8 million housing units in the state.
The first AI data warehouse, operated by Microsoft, is set to open next year in Mount Pleasant. The company has promised it will support 500 jobs. The $3.3 billion project is located at the site initially planned for Foxconn’s massive manufacturing plant.
Further north in Ozaukee County, Denver-based Vantage Data Systems has acquired 700 acres of land in rural Port Washington. The company has planned a campus that will hold 11 data center buildings and five substations, according to concepts approved by the local government.
Clean Wisconsin’s analysis found that these two projects will require a combined 3.9 gigawatts of power and hundreds of thousands of gallons of water to keep the buildings cooled.
“To put this in perspective, that is more than three times the power production capacity of Wisconsin’s Point Beach nuclear plant,” Paul Mathewson, Clean Wisconsin science program director, who conducted the analysis, said in a statement. “And because only two of the data center projects have disclosed their power needs, we know this is really just a fraction of what the energy use would be if all those data centers are ultimately built.”
The power needs of the two sites are just the tip of the iceberg for the energy and water needs of data centers, which house the servers used to host chatbots such as Chat GPT, stream video and use social media. Microsoft has plans for a smaller data center in Kenosha County. Work is also underway on a data center on 830 acres in Beaver Dam reportedly for Facebook owner Meta. In addition, a Virginia-based company has eyed a site in Dane County, Wisconsin Rapids has plans for a $200 million data center and Janesville is seeking to build a center in a former General Motors assembly plant.
A proposed project in Caledonia has been delayed following local resistance to the project’s proposed rezoning of 240 acres of farmland. The community’s plan commission postponed a July vote on the proposal until later this month.
Environmental advocates say local officials and the state’s power companies are rushing to attract data centers to Wisconsin based on the ambiguous promise of jobs without accounting for the effect they could have on a community’s water sources and energy needs. Increases in the amount of power used by the state could result in the state relying more heavily and for longer periods on non-renewable sources of energy and raise energy rates for households.
‘More questions than answers’
“If data centers come to Wisconsin, they must benefit — not harm — our communities. But right now, we have far more questions than answers about their impacts. How much energy and water will a project use? How will those demands be met? Will there be backup diesel generators on site and how often will they be fired up for testing? Our communities don’t have the transparency they need and deserve,” Chelsea Chandler, Clean Wisconsin’s climate, energy and air director said.
Data centers also often emit a constant humming sound as the servers work inside, creating an irritating noise pollutant for neighbors.
Both the Mount Pleasant and Port Washington projects are close to Lake Michigan, raising further complications about the centers’ use of water and the protection of the Great Lakes. The Foxconn site in Mount Pleasant was already at the center of a controversial plan to divert 7 million gallons of water per day from Lake Michigan.
“There has been very little transparency about the amount of water that will be used on site at these proposed data center campuses. Add to that a lack of transparency about energy use, and it’s impossible to know what the impact on Wisconsin’s water resources will be,” Sarah Walling, Clean Wisconsin’s water and agriculture program director said. “Communities need to know what the on-site demand will be on the hottest, driest days of the year when our water systems are most stressed. And we need to understand how much water will be needed off site to meet a data center’s enormous energy demands.”
Demanding water-use information from Racine
Earlier this week, Midwest Environmental Advocates filed a lawsuit against the city of Racine for records about the Mount Pleasant center’s projected water usage. Water for the center will be provided by the Racine Water Utility under an agreement with the village of Mount Pleasant.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Milwaukee Riverkeeper, is seeking to force Racine to hand over information about projected water usage requested through an open records request in February. In a news release, MEA noted that many companies constructing data centers across the country require that local governments sign non-disclosure agreements.
The legal advocacy group noted that data centers can use as much water as a small to medium sized city and the public has a right to know the scale of water use.
“Wisconsin law requires public officials to respond to public records requests ‘as soon as practicable and without delay.’ Yet more than six months after making their request, our clients are still waiting,” MEA legal fellow Michael Greif said. “This blatant disregard for the Public Records Law violates their rights and deprives them of the transparency they deserve. Community members have a right to know how much water a data center will use before it is built.”
Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray announces charges against Tyler James Robinson, 22, including aggravated murder, a capital offense, in the death of conservative commentator and activist Charlie Kirk. The charges were announced during a news conference at the Utah County Health & Justice Building in Provo, Utah on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
Gray called Kirk’s death “an American tragedy” at a news conference in Provo on Tuesday, calling the shooting an offense against the state of Utah. He also expressed his concern for all those who were in the crowd at Utah Valley University and witnessed the attack.
Robinson has been charged with multiple crimes, including one count of aggravated murder, which is a capital felony. If convicted, Robinson could face the death penalty — a sentence that Gray said he plans to pursue.
“I do not take this decision lightly, and it is a decision I have made independently as county attorney based solely on the available evidence and circumstances and nature of the crime,” Gray said.
Robinson is facing several penalty enhancements if convicted, including a “victim targeting” penalty that prosecutors are seeking because “Robinson intentionally selected Charlie Kirk because of (Robinson’s) belief or perception regarding Charlie Kirk’s political expression,” according to charging documents.
Prosecutors also charged Robinson with two counts of obstruction of justice, second-degree felonies, and two counts of tampering with a witness, third-degree felonies. Robinson is accused of attempting to hide the rifle he allegedly used to shoot Kirk, disposing of his clothes and trying to encourage his roommate to “stay silent” if questioned by police, the charges say.
Robinson is being held at the Utah County Jail without bail. He made his first court appearance at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, joining the virtual call with attorneys and Fourth District Judge Tony Graf from a jail cell.
During the court appearance, Robinson only spoke once to state his name, sitting still and expressionless. While the judge read the charges that had been filed against him, Robinson at times nodded his head slightly, remaining stone-faced.
The judge, after reviewing Robinson’s declaration of financial status, deemed him indigent, and he provisionally appointed a public defender to represent him in a case that could make Robinson the next inmate on Utah’s death row.
Tyler Robinson, 22, who has been charged in the shooting death of Charlie Kirk, makes his initial court appearance virtually from Utah County Jail before 4th District Judge Tony Graf on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025 in Provo, Utah. (Pool photo by Scott G Winteron/Deseret News)
Texts with roommate after shooting
Charging documents say police interviewed Robinson’s roommate, who told police about messages from Robinson. Officials haven’t named the roommate, who Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said “has been very cooperative with authorities.”
On Sept. 10, the roommate received a text message from Robinson that said, “drop what you are doing, look under my keyboard.”
“The roommate looked under the keyboard and found a note that stated, ‘I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I’m going to take it,’” the charging documents state.
After reading the note, the roommate responded in a text message: “What?????????????? You’re joking, right????”
Robinson replied that he would be stuck in Orem, Utah, for a while because he needed to retrieve his rifle, the documents state.
When the roommate asked Robinson why he shot Kirk, charging documents say Robinson responded, “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
As the exchange went on, Robinson also said he had been planning to shoot Kirk for over a week, discussed engraving the bullets, talked about changing his clothes, and told his roommate to delete the text messages and not talk to media or police, according to the charging documents.
Law enforcement is positioned on a nearby rooftop before Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray hosts a press conference to announce charges against Tyler Robinson, who is accused of killing Charlie Kirk, at the Utah County Health & Justice Building in Provo on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
What parents told police
The charges also describe Washington County Sheriff’s Office investigators’ interviews with Robinson’s parents, who both saw photos law enforcement officials released of the suspected shooter during their 33-hour manhunt for Kirk’s killer.
The day after the shooting, Sep. 11, Robinson’s mother saw the photos and “thought the shooter looked like her son.”
“Robinson’s mother called her son and asked him where he was,” charging documents say. “He said he was home sick and that he had also been at home sick on September 10th. Robinson’s mother expressed concern to her husband that the suspected shooter looked like Robinson. Robinson’s father agreed.”
Robinson’s mother also told police that “over the last year or so, Robinson had become more political and had started to lean more to the left.”
The charges also say that in one conversation with his parents before the shooting, Robinson mentioned that Kirk was expected to hold an event at Utah Valley University, “which Robinson said was a ‘stupid venue’ for the event.”
Robinson’s father told investigators that he also believed that the rifle that police suspected the shooter used matched a rifle that was given to his son as a gift. Based on Robinson’s text messages with his roommate included in the charging documents, that gun once belonged to his grandfather.
Robinson’s father contacted his son and asked him to send a photo of the rifle, according to the charges.
“Robinson did not respond. However, Robinson’s father spoke on the phone with Robinson,” the charges say. “Robinson implied that he planned to take his own life. Robinson’s parents were able to convince him to meet at their home.”
While talking with his parents, charges say, “Robinson implied that he was the shooter and stated that he couldn’t go to jail and just wanted to end it.”
“When asked why he did it, Robinson explained there is too much evil and the guy (Charlie Kirk) spreads too much hate,” charging documents say. “They talked about Robinson turning himself in and convinced Robinson to speak with a family friend who is a retired deputy sheriff. At Robinson’s father’s request, the family friend met with Robinson and his parents and convinced Robinson to turn himself in.”
On Sept. 11, Robinson went to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in southern Utah with his parents and the family friend.
Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray, at the lectern, announces charges against Tyler James Robinson, 22, including aggravated murder, a capital offense, in the death of conservative commentator and activist Charlie Kirk. The charges were announced during a news conference at the Utah County Health & Justice Building in Provo, Utah on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
This story was originally produced by Utah News Dispatch, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin | Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom
WASHINGTON — A trio of Senate Democrats urged Republican lawmakers at a Tuesday press conference to extend and make permanent the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire at the end of 2025.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, along with Sens. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, warned that the expiration of these credits would lead to “skyrocketing” costs for millions of enrollees unless the GOP-controlled Congress takes action.
The credits are used by people who buy their own health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.
Stopgap spending bill
The extension is among congressional Democrats’ broader health care demands in order to back any stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown before the next fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
House GOP leadership did not negotiate with Democrats on the seven-week stopgap funding bill released on Tuesday.
Schumer, alongside House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, said in a joint statement Tuesday that “the House Republican-only spending bill fails to meet the needs of the American people and does nothing to stop the looming healthcare crisis.”
They added that “at a time when families are already being squeezed by higher costs, Republicans refuse to stop Americans from facing double-digit hikes in their health insurance premiums.”
At the press conference, Baldwin called for legislation she and Shaheen introduced earlier this year that would make the enhanced premium tax credits permanent to be included in the stopgap government funding bill.
“Time is of the essence — families and businesses are planning for next year, and we need to get this done,” Baldwin said. “The only question is whether Republicans will join us and stand for lower costs for families or not.”
Shaheen said that “as we near the deadline for government funding, I hope that our colleagues here in Congress will join us, that they will act to extend these tax credits and to keep health insurance affordable for millions of Americans.”
Premiums expected to soar without action
The enhanced premium tax credits, established by Democrats in 2021 as part of a massive COVID-19 relief package, were extended in 2022 through the Inflation Reduction Act. They are set to expire at the end of 2025.
Premiums, on average, for enrollees would soar by more than 75% if the credits expire, according to the nonpartisan health research organization KFF.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday at a press conference that “Republicans have concerns” about the credits because they have no income cap and certain high-income people can qualify for them. He also said Congress has until the end of the year to decide what to do.
At the Democrats’ press conference, Schumer said President Donald Trump “has taken a meat ax to our health care system,” adding that “it’s vicious, it’s cruel, it’s mean” and pointing to some of the repercussions of the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut law on Medicaid recipients.
Meanwhile, open enrollment begins in November, meaning Congress would have to act before the end of the calendar year to avoid premium spikes.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson answers reporters' questions during a press conference in the Rayburn Room inside the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. Also pictured, from left to right, are California rancher and former president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Kevin Kester; Wisconsin Republican Rep. Tony Wied; Republican Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.; and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republican leaders released a seven-week stopgap government funding bill Tuesday that’s intended to avoid a shutdown when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
But GOP leaders opted not to negotiate the legislation with Democrats, who may be needed to approve the bill in the House and will be required to get past the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster.
Democrats for weeks have called on Republicans to address what they view as critical health care issues, including the expiration of expanded Affordable Care Act tax credits at the end of the calendar year and the effects of the GOP’s “big, beautiful” law on Medicaid recipients.
Speaker Mike Johnson said during a press conference shortly before the bill was released that he views the ACA tax credits as “a December policy issue, not a September funding issue,” even though open enrollment begins in November.
“They don’t expire until the end of the year and so we have until the end of December to figure all that out,” Johnson said. “But I can tell you that there’s real concern. I have concerns. Republicans have concerns about those policies.
“If you look at how much they’ve been abused, in my estimation, in some ways. There’s no income cap on it. People who make $600,000 a year get a government subsidy for their health care. I don’t think that’s going to be a popular measure when people understand how that works. There’s a relatively small number of people that are affected by it. But that policy has real problems.”
The tax credits are used by people who purchase their own health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.
Schumer: Republicans ‘want to shut things down’
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said during a floor speech before the bill was publicly released that GOP leaders shouldn’t expect Democrats to help them advance any legislation they didn’t negotiate in a bipartisan way.
“They can try and play the blame game, but their actions tell a different story. Their actions show clearly they want to shut things down because they don’t want to negotiate with Democrats,” Schumer said. “And it’s more than that. It means Republicans don’t want to help the American people with the crisis they’ve created raising people’s costs, particularly their health care costs.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the stopgap spending bill, which would keep the government running through Nov. 21, is needed to give lawmakers more time to work out final, bipartisan versions of the dozen full-year government funding bills.
“The goal here should be to fund the government the way it was intended to be funded — through the normal appropriations process,” Thune said.
House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., issued a joint statement shortly after the bill’s release, saying they’re ready to keep working with their Republican counterparts — House Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Senate Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine — on a bipartisan stopgap spending bill.
“Instead of continuing to work through important issues with us on the continuing resolution and government funding to help the middle class and the working class, House Republican leadership has walked away from negotiations and are now threatening a shutdown by trying to jam through a funding bill on their terms alone,” DeLauro and Murray wrote.
Security for members of Congress
The 91-page stopgap spending bill also includes $30 million in additional funds to bolster safety and security for members of Congress following an increasingly violent year that included the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, the killing and attempted killing of Democratic state lawmakers in Minnesota as well as some of their family members and arson at the Democratic Pennsylvania governor’s mansion.
Members of Congress, their staff and their families are subject to thousands of threats each year, according to data from the U.S. Capitol Police.
Johnson told reporters shortly after his press conference that he views the member security funding as a start and that there will be “more to come” in the full-year Legislative Branch funding bill.
Johnson said he expects the House will vote on the stopgap bill before Friday, when both chambers of Congress are set to leave on a week-long break for the Rosh Hashanah holiday week.
Lawmakers aren’t expected to return to Capitol Hill until Sept. 29, with just hours to avoid a partial government shutdown if they cannot approve a stopgap bill in the days ahead.
The legislation includes an additional $30 million for the U.S. Marshals Service, which is responsible for the safety of federal judges and courthouses, as well as $28 million “for the protection of the Supreme Court Justices.” A GOP summary of the bill says the Marshals Service funding will go toward “Executive Branch protective services.”
Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell, left, administers the oath of office to Lisa Cook, right, to serve as a member of the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve System during a ceremony at the William McChesney Martin Jr. Building of the Federal Reserve May 23, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — An appeals court late Monday rejected the Trump administration’s request to move ahead with firing Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook, as the president tries to pressure the independent board to lower interest rates.
The 2-1 decision will allow Cook to partake in Tuesday’s Federal Reserve meeting, where the board will vote on whether to adjust interest rates.
The Trump administration is likely to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
If Trump is successful in removing Cook and is able to nominate a replacement, he could have a majority of Fed members who are aligned with his desire to lower interest rates to boost the economy.
Trump nominee approved
Cook, appointed by former President Joe Biden, is the first Black woman appointed to the Fed, and she has consistently voted against lowering interest rates since joining the board in 2022. Her term ends in 2038.
Late Monday, the U.S. Senate also approved Trump’s nominee for an open spot at the Fed, Stephen Miran, in a 48-47 vote.
While the Fed is an independent agency, Miran will continue to serve as the head of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers.
In a social media post Monday, the president called out Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, and pressed that he “MUST CUT INTEREST RATES, NOW, AND BIGGER THAN HE HAD IN MIND. HOUSING WILL SOAR!!!.”
Appeals court splits
In the appeals court decision on Cook, D.C. Circuit Judge Gregory G. Katsas, whom Trump appointed in 2017, split with Judges J. Michelle Childs and Bradley N. Garcia, both appointed by Biden.
Last week a federal judge ruled to keep Cook in her position, determining that Trump administration allegations of mortgage fraud lacked evidence and did not meet the threshold for removing Cook under “just cause.”
Katsas agreed with the Trump administration’s argument that the president has the right to remove a Fed member for “just cause.”
“This broad definition ‘give[s] the President more removal authority than other removal provisions’ imposed by Congress or reviewed by the Supreme Court,” Katsas wrote in his dissent.
Childs and Garcia did not address the “just cause” argument but said the lack of due process Cook received in her removal warranted blocking Trump’s attempt to fire her.
“Because Cook’s due process claim is very likely meritorious, there is no need to address the meaning of ‘for cause’ in the Federal Reserve Act in this emergency posture,” the majority wrote in the opinion.
A Trump official referred Cook to the Department of Justice, accusing her of improperly filing paperwork about her residence that allowed her to get a more favorable mortgage rate. Reuters obtained Cook’s paperwork and found no evidence of tax rule violations.
Login
www.thecentersquare.com - RSS Results in wisconsin of type article
Wisconsin Watch
WPR
Wisconsin Examiner
