WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Friday approved Cameron Hamilton to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, giving the agency its first administrator since President Donald Trump took office last year. 

The 51-47 vote confirmed more than 70 nominees as part of one package, including the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and the director of the Indian Health Service. 

The rest of the batch contained a mix of deputy directors, under secretaries, assistant secretaries, ambassadors, U.S. attorneys and judges.

Hamilton’s confirmation vote follows a bit of a rollercoaster for him at FEMA. He ran the agency in an acting capacity for the first few months of 2025 before being fired after testifying to Congress that he personally did “not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”

He then spent several months working as a senior adviser in the Education Department before being hired as the senior vice president of response and recovery at LTS, Inc., a consulting firm in Virginia. He stayed there until April, when he became a senior adviser/senior counselor at the Department of Homeland Security. 

‘Fair and reasonable’

Trump formally nominated Hamilton as his pick for FEMA administrator in May without the hype he’s doled out for some of his other picks.  

Hamilton testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in June that if confirmed to run the agency he wouldn’t provide more resources to Republican regions of the country over Americans who vote for Democrats. 

“What I can tell you is that if confirmed, my focus will be to ensure that FEMA is objective, is fair and reasonable, follows the law, and is consistent in the approach to how we adjudicate and process claims and requests for disasters,” he said. 

Shifting responsibilities to states

During his time away from the federal government, Hamilton spoke about his experiences running FEMA in an acting role on an episode of the “Disaster Tough” podcast released in September.

“I was not hired to abolish FEMA. That was never a part of the conversation and that’s never something that I would have agreed with,” he said at the time. “And I was very clear, I wanted some reform. I wanted to cut wasteful spending. I wanted to downsize the agency. There’s no denying that. And I think most of those things could be done wisely and properly.”

Any offloading of responsibilities from the federal government to states, he said, would include “a gradual phasing out.”

“We needed to give the states some time to see what that entails and to respond accordingly,” he said on the podcast. “Not just, ‘Hey, the water is now shut off. You’re on your own.’ That’s not wise. That’s not being a good partner.”

Trump has spoken throughout his second administration about shifting some of the responsibility for natural disaster preparedness and response to state governments. 

“We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level,” Trump said in June 2025. “We’re moving it back to the states so the governors can handle it. That’s why they’re governors. Now, if they can’t handle it, they shouldn’t be governor.”

Trump established a FEMA Review Council to propose changes, which it did in May, though neither the president nor Congress has taken significant steps in the months since to implement any of the suggestions.

Funding debate

Congress approved a budget of $32 billion for FEMA for the current fiscal year with $26.4 billion of that for the disaster relief fund. 

The Trump administration asked lawmakers to cut funding for non-disaster FEMA grants by $1.3 billion in the spending bill for the upcoming fiscal year, which is set to begin Oct. 1. 

The White House budget office wrote in its proposals that reduced funding for those programs would refocus “the agency on sound emergency management while encouraging States and communities to build resilience and use their unique local knowledge and resources in disaster response.”

House Republicans proposed a total spending level of $34.1 billion for FEMA in fiscal 2027. Of that, $28.39 billion would be dedicated to the disaster relief fund. 

The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to release its annual funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes FEMA. 

WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged during his confirmation hearing to do everything in his “power to put the health of America back on track.”

Kennedy testified that when he worked as a lawyer he “learned that human health and environmental health are intertwined and inseparable.” He referred to the Make America Healthy Again agenda as “one of the most powerful and transcendent movements I’ve ever seen.”

“The nation is ready for change and recognizes that this is a unique inflection moment,” Kennedy said.

Less than two years into his tenure at the helm of the department responsible for the health of millions of Americans, a string of outbreaks has repeatedly made headlines. Public health experts interviewed by States Newsroom said the upswing is the result of several factors, but that Kennedy’s decision to cut back the country’s safety net while spreading misinformation about vaccines has aggravated the problem. 

“We track serious infectious diseases, and over the last year and a half, the number of diseases we’ve had to put on the list has quadrupled,” said Jennifer B. Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center and professor of epidemiology at Brown University.

Old diseases like measles have surged to the highest level in decades after vaccine misinformation left entire communities vulnerable to a virus once eradicated in the United States.

Americans learned about an unfamiliar strain of hantavirus after cruise ship passengers were moved to a quarantine facility in Nebraska and public health officials raced to contact trace those who left the ship before the illness was detected.

Cases of West Nile virus reached the highest level seen in more than two decades as mosquitoes spread that virus as well as several others. Monthly emergency room visits for tick bites spiked in April to their highest level since 2017. And the cyclospora parasite sickened thousands as public health officials struggled to determine the cause.

Disease spread among animals, which could easily become a human health problem if not properly contained, has also cropped up, some more unexpected than others. 

Bird flu continued to decimate poultry flocks and wreak havoc on dairy herds as well as some people, raising concerns about the possibility it would evolve into something more problematic. And New World screwworm reemerged in cattle after more than half a century without a case in this country. 

HHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not agree to interview requests or to send a statement on the cause of the myriad of disease outbreaks. 

Outbreaks growing

Environmental changes like deforestation, people moving into new places that used to belong to wildlife and climate change have all contributed to more disease spread among people. But those factors have been exacerbated by cuts and other policy changes put in place during this administration, Nuzzo said. 

“We don’t have the protections against these outbreaks in place at the level that we used to, which allows them to continue,” she said. “We had bad measles before, but we managed to stop them before we got to the point where we’d lose measles elimination status. We’re going to lose measles elimination status this year.”

The CDC has tried to keep track of it all but the agency has experienced both staffing and funding cuts under Kennedy’s leadership. 

Complicating matters, the CDC had a Senate-confirmed director for just 29 days after Susan Monarez was fired for refusing to pre-approve vaccine recommendations or fire career officials for no reason. 

“Most of the activity for public health exists at the state and local level,” Nuzzo explained. “But the CDC is really important for not just providing funding to those state and local health officials, but also to nudge them. To say, ‘Yes, this is worth prioritizing. Or pay closer attention to this now, because what we see in one place might be happening in another place.’ 

“And the more we can collectively learn and act, the more likely it is to be able to stop it in its tracks.”

In addition to hollowing out certain domestic programs, the administration has cut how the U.S. government monitors and responds to disease outbreaks overseas, which are typically just one airplane flight away. That includes how U.S. officials have handled the outbreak of Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

“The fact that we didn’t hear about this outbreak publicly until nearly 200 cases were identified means that normal checks and balances just weren’t happening,” Nuzzo said. “So that’s the kind of thing where when we contract our overseas presence and our overseas assistance, we lose a protection. 

“Now, do I think Bundibugyo is going to come here? It could. Is it going to spread? No. It’s not going to spread in the same way like a COVID would.”

States stuck with the burden

American Public Health Association CEO Dr. Georges C. Benjamin said public health officials faced severe burnout and “left in droves” following the global coronavirus pandemic.

That has left public health departments to track more disease circulating in their communities with less staff and funding. 

“If you’re in a local or state health department, the same people dealing with measles are the same people that are going to deal with cyclospora, are going to be the same people if you have a Legionella outbreak,” Benjamin said. 

Those challenges were compounded by efforts under the Trump administration to shift more of the responsibility for preventing and containing outbreaks to state governments “without adequate planning,” he said. 

“Half of both state and local health department budgets are from federal dollars. Some whole programs are almost 100% federally funded. Most immunization programs are pretty much federally funded,” Benjamin said. “So when the feds abruptly decide not to fund something, the money just goes out the door. And you just can’t fill that hole overnight.”

The situation doesn’t seem likely to change anytime soon, he said, possibly leading more people to suffer from vaccine-preventable illnesses as well as those that spread from animals to people or from person to person.

“If we don’t pay attention to this, we’re going to be spending more money on the healthcare side of the ledger for people who will be sicker at a higher cost, because we’re not paying attention to the prevention side of the house,” Benjamin said. “I mean, we have the knowledge and tools to mitigate a lot of this stuff. We really do. And the challenge I think we have here is that as a society we’re pretty good at dealing with emergency stuff, but very poor at prevention.”

More infectious diseases expected

Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said there has been progress in recent years on some vaccine-preventable diseases even as there’s been backsliding in others. 

“Now we have RSV vaccines for the elderly, we have RSV vaccines for pregnant women and monoclonal antibodies for babies to protect them against RSV,” he said. 

The American Lung Association writes on its website that respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, “is a common virus that you have undoubtedly been sick with before.” But that it “has the potential to make you really sick.”

Measles, however, isn’t becoming less common as doctors and other healthcare professionals struggle against an undercurrent of misinformation about vaccine safety, including from Kennedy, as they’re trying to treat all the other illnesses circulating. 

“In measles, it’s less about public health burnout, rather, it’s more about the anti-vaccine movement making inroads,” Adalja said. “For cyclospora, that’s always been a threat. We always get cases every year. But the fact that the malaria and parasite division in CDC has basically been gutted does play a role.” 

Overall, he said, the infectious disease trend in the United States has become worse since the coronavirus pandemic. And that’s not likely to change in the near future. 

“If you’re saying, ‘How resilient is the U.S. or should we expect more infectious disease problems in the United States?’ I would say yes,” Adalja said. “But it’s not clear which ones they would be. I definitely would think the vaccine-preventable diseases, the control of them is going to slip. And it’s not just going to be measles.”

Then there are the bugs

Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota Michael T. Osterholm said on his podcast the El Nino weather pattern that leads to warmer temperatures in some parts of the country and heavier rainfall in others can be a “perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.”

“We talked about the El Nino in previous episodes in the context of hantavirus but it can actually play a large role in disease transmission for a number of viruses, West Nile included,” Osterholm said.

That could be one of the reasons the CDC reported in early July it observed “the earliest start to the West Nile virus (WNV) season in the United States with the highest number of human disease cases reported by this time of year since 2004.”

Osterholm said that is likely “a really major underestimation of the true number of infections.”

“Approximately 20% of West Nile infections in humans are symptomatic and less than 1% result in the severe neurologic symptoms for which testing would typically be sought by medical providers,” he said. “I say that not to undermine the public health importance of West Nile, but to highlight that this virus is likely much more widespread than our surveillance data might suggest.” 

Ticks are also leading to more illness among Americans, including Lyme disease and Alpha-gal syndrome.

That second condition, caused by the Lone Star tick, can cause people to become allergic to red meat that contains Alpha-gal sugar. This includes beef, pork, lamb, venison, goat and rabbit, he said. 

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Public Information Officer Lynn Sutfin wrote in a statement that even though “infectious disease threats have been trending up in general, there are several practices and issues that are contributing to the increased awareness of outbreaks.” 

“Outbreak definitions, modernized reporting, investigative capacity, improved diagnostics, genetic sequencing and even declining vaccination rates are all having an impact on disease spread and information about their spread,” Sutfin wrote. “Globally, additional considerations like climate change, antibiotic overuse, modern travel, industrialization and deforestation also need to be considered.”

WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the nation’s most visible public health officials during the coronavirus pandemic, declined to answer questions from a U.S. Senate committee in a tense and confrontational hearing Wednesday, citing his Fifth Amendment rights. 

Fauci said during a brief opening statement he believed Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., was trying to get him to make statements under oath that would lead to criminal charges. 

“Given Senator Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars,’” he said.  

Fauci added that “any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion.” 

“Therefore, although it pains me to do so, because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, to refrain from answering your questions,” he said. 

Fauci was a member of the coronavirus task force during President Donald Trump’s first administration and a chief medical adviser on COVID-19 during President Joe Biden’s term. 

Repeated testimony

Fauci has testified publicly 13 times before Senate committees and 11 times before House committees since January 2020. This was the first time he declined to answer any questions from lawmakers.

Paul noted that former President Joe Biden pardoned Fauci for any actions he might have taken from Jan. 1, 2014 through Jan. 20, 2025. But he said that doesn’t cover any actions since then, including any statements to Congress that may not have been entirely accurate.  

“A pardon may protect a person from criminal prosecution. It doesn’t rewrite history,” Paul said. “It does not erase documents. It does not convert a misleading statement into a truthful one.”

Paul said the committee will hold a vote next week to hold Fauci in contempt for declining to answer questions under a subpoena. 

“There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today,” he said. 

A member of Fauci’s legal team, seated beside him at the witness table, tried to speak several times but Paul refused to recognize him before having U.S. Capitol Police remove that lawyer from the room. 

Paul then said for the record that Fauci would “still have the advice of the other half a dozen attorneys that he brought along today.”

Origins of COVID-19

Paul alleged during his opening statement that Fauci, who was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases when the pandemic began, didn’t give enough credit to theories the COVID-19 virus may have been created in a laboratory in China. 

He asked Fauci a series of questions about the pandemic and the types of research the federal government funded leading up to the outbreak. Each time, Fauci responded, “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer, based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.”

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee ranking member Gary Peters, D-Mich., sought to remind his Republican colleagues that when he ran the panel, there was a bipartisan effort to look into the origins of the pandemic.  

“Rather than building on that work to strengthen our preparedness against future disasters, we are instead relitigating the past,” he said. 

Peters raised concerns that the country would likely face another pandemic at some point and that lawmakers should focus their efforts on the future, making sure public health agencies have the staff and funding they need. 

“COVID-19 exposed serious deficiencies in our nation’s public health infrastructure. We know that. More than one million Americans lost their lives and this committee should absolutely continue to examine how we can better prepare our nation against future biological threats,” he said. “Those are the kinds of forward-looking, life-saving questions that will help our nation be better prepared to protect the health and the safety of Americans when the next emergency occurs.”

Peters then sharply criticized the Trump administration, saying officials’ decisions on funding and staff have eroded the country’s safety net, including at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

“The administration has hollowed out the public health workforce,” he said. “They have fired, pushed out and cut funding for public health personnel, shrinking the CDC workforce by a quarter.” 

Fauci’s decision not to answer questions didn’t stop Republicans and Democrats on the committee from asking him questions and making lengthy statements throughout the three-hour hearing. 

WASHINGTON — Attorneys representing the former Olympic canoeist charged with damaging part of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool have asked the judge in the case to release more information from the grand jury. 

David Hearn’s legal team wrote in a motion that “the Government’s sole grand-jury witness on damages testified that the property was already damaged before Mr. Hearn allegedly touched it; that the same repairs would have been required regardless of Mr. Hearn’s conduct; and that he could not quantify any loss attributable to that conduct.” 

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro charged Hearn, of Bethesda, Maryland, with destruction of property of more than $1,000 for allegedly vandalizing the newly refinished Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 19. President Donald Trump, who has closely overseen the multi-million-dollar renovation of the Reflecting Pool, has blamed vandals for damage to it.

Hearn on July 9 pleaded not guilty during a brief court hearing and was released on his own recognizance. 

In the latest motion, the three lawyers defending Hearn asked the judge to release the legal instructions given to the grand jury and a transcript or notes of all grand jury proceedings in the case. 

Mary L. Dohrmann, principal attorney at Washington Litigation Group, Steve Levin, senior counsel at Steptoe LLP and Norm Eisen, co-founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, wrote in the brief the testimony from the one witness raised questions about whether the grand jury understood the legal standard to charge someone with a felony for destruction of property greater than $1,000. 

While grand jury deliberations are normally private, the lawyers wrote a rule “authorizes disclosure of the grand jury materials needed to determine whether a ground exists to dismiss the indictment.”

They argue in the motion the National Park Service official who testified in front of the grand jury didn’t say that Hearn caused that level of damage. 

“The witness’s testimony established that the pool had substantial preexisting damage requiring repair before any alleged conduct by Mr. Hearn,” the lawyers wrote. “According to the witness, the pool was leaking more than one million gallons of water per week; its expansion joints had exceeded their service life; and the liner already contained a rip.

“The government’s witness further confirmed that repairs were already necessary to address those conditions.”

That NPS official said repairs costing between $6,000 and $15,000 would have been needed regardless of whether Hearn “interacted with the pool,” according to the motion. 

The transcripts prosecutors shared with Hearn’s legal team so far “contain other irregularities that reflect a misleading presentation to the grand jury and a need for review of the entire grand jury record in this matter.”

“For one, the government failed to present the widely available photograph, discussed in Mr. Hearn’s Rule 41(g) Motion, that by the government’s own account was taken by Mr. Hearn before he ever touched the Reflecting Pool—and, accordingly, proves that he caused no damage to the pool,” the legal team wrote. “In addition, the government failed to present its central witness against Mr. Hearn to the grand jury, instead submitting that witness’s hearsay statements through an investigator, who emphasized that it ‘was not a sworn statement’ that he took from the witness.”

Hearn’s legal team added that the information they have so far about the grand jury process “raises the issue of whether the government should have known it was presenting false or misleading testimony to the grand jury.” 

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday called on the U.S. Senate to cancel its five-week August break, keeping lawmakers in session to advance several of his priorities, despite not having the votes.

Trump wrote in a social media post that he wanted Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to keep the chamber open, preventing vulnerable Republicans facing reelection from the campaign trail, to pass a voter identification bill, among other measures. 

“John Thune should not allow the United States  Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of, including a full and deep throated SAVE AMERICA ACT, the Budget, and the ever looming Debt Ceiling disaster, 1929!” Trump wrote. “The Dumocrats will do it on day one, and can’t believe how lucky they got with this Senate leadership. Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!”

Trump followed up with another post about 15 minutes later, writing that whichever political party eliminates the rule that requires at least 60 senators vote to limit debate, known as the legislative filibuster, will hold an advantage in the Senate. 

“Whichever Party Terminates the Filibuster FIRST will be the Party that survives and thrives,” Trump wrote. “If the Dumocrats win this race, however, America will rapidly become nothing more than a Third World Nation!”

SAVE America Act

Thune has said repeatedly that there aren’t enough votes to remove the filibuster or to advance the SAVE America Act, which would require people provide proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and show a photo ID before casting a ballot, among other provisions. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a social media post that there was no path for Republicans’ voter ID bill to become law. 

“It’s a new week in Washington, but one thing remains the same: The SAVE Act is dead on arrival in the United States Senate,” Schumer wrote. “It will not pass—not now, not ever.”

The Senate is set to leave for its recess on Aug. 6 and return on Sept. 14. The House left on July 23 and will return on Aug. 31 for four days before taking a week-long break. Then both chambers will be in session for three weeks before breaking for five weeks in October and early November. 

Trump said aboard Air Force One later in the day that he hasn’t considered trying to have Senate Republicans oust Thune as their leader and replace him with someone else. 

“I haven’t even thought of it,” he said. 

GOP senators

Trump’s comments followed calls from a few Republican senators over the weekend to keep the chamber in session until certain bills make it to the president’s desk.

“.@LeaderJohnThune, I hereby object to any effort to put the Senate into recess in August—at least until such time as the Senate has passed the SAVE America Act—and hereby request a roll call vote,” Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee wrote on Sunday. “Do not assume you have my consent. You do not.”

Lee’s post, however, isn’t actually an objection under Senate procedure. In order to do that, he’ll need to stand on the floor and object when Thune or another Republican asks for “unanimous consent” to break for the August recess. 

Florida Republican Sen. Ashley Moody wrote she believes “there are things we need to get done for the American People.” 

“The Senate needs to stay in session until we can get the SAVE America Act to the floor and passed,” she wrote. 

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott wrote he supports efforts to try to keep the Senate in session. 

“I will vote to stay in session unless we have passed the SAVE America Act,” Scott wrote. “The American people expect us to deliver. They deserve secure elections.”

WASHINGTON — Republicans in the U.S. House on Wednesday approved their outline for the third party-line budget measure of the second Trump administration, though they won’t be able to begin work on that package until they reach agreement with their Senate colleagues on a plan forward. 

The 216-214 vote on a budget resolution sets up a confrontation between GOP lawmakers in Congress over exactly how much funding to provide for the war in Iran and farm assistance as well as whether lawmakers should pay for it by cutting spending elsewhere. 

House Republicans proposed a total of $95 billion in spending in their budget resolution. The instructions in that blueprint would allow four committees to eventually write bills that would spend up to $60 billion on the military, $13 billion on intelligence agencies, $12 billion on agricultural assistance and $10 billion on some sort of grant program for states that implement voter ID laws. 

But work on that package can only begin after Republicans in both chambers vote to approve the same budget resolution with identical sets of reconciliation instructions. 

Third time around

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said during floor debate that the GOP has used the reconciliation process twice to achieve policy goals that wouldn’t garner Democratic support. 

The first time was last year, when Congress approved the “big, beautiful” law. The second occurred earlier this year, when lawmakers approved three years of funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol without new constraints on federal agents. Both were signed into law by President Donald Trump.

“Here we are, reconciliation 3.0, supporting our troops in their time of need,” Arrington said. “Just baseline battlefield readiness. Bullets and bombs to finish the job.”

The yet-to-be-written reconciliation package, he added, would also likely “strengthen our food supply” and “safeguard the integrity of our elections.”

Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle, ranking member on the panel, said that Republicans’ support for the two earlier packages and this budget outline shows they aren’t focused on bringing down costs for Americans. 

Boyle also questioned whether campaign promises from GOP candidates to lower the annual federal deficit were genuine, given that this and the previous party-line laws will have a substantial impact on the national debt. 

“Yes, that’s right, the same crowd that loves to cry crocodile tears about deficit and debt whenever there’s a president in the White House who’s a Democrat — cumulatively now they have added $5 trillion to our national debt, more than any other 18-month period in the history of Congress,” he said. “And they’re about to add $100 billion more.” 

Senate GOP not on board

Senate Republicans don’t fully agree on their House counterparts’ proposed spending level, with some wanting considerably more in defense funding, and others looking for ways to offset the costs. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said during a Tuesday afternoon press conference that he’s unlikely to bring any budget resolution to the floor until after lawmakers figure out a way to fund the government ahead of the Oct. 1 shutdown deadline. 

Congress’ budget resolution is just a blueprint, similar to a blueprint for building a house. It isn’t a bill and never goes to the president for his signature. 

Lawmakers use a completely separate process to fund the government through a dozen annual appropriations bills. 

But since lawmakers are nowhere near close to finishing that appropriations task before the start of the new fiscal year they must agree to some sort of short-term spending bill to avoid another shutdown this fall. 

The House this week passed a stopgap bill that would extend that deadline until Dec. 4, but it doesn’t have the support needed to advance in the Senate, where leaders from both political parties are working toward a bipartisan compromise. 

Thune said he expects the Senate will vote on its stopgap spending bill before leaving for the August recess, which could delay work on a budget resolution until that chamber returns in mid-September.  

“It’s possible that that would be something that would get punted into September,” he said.

That could lead to a significant time crunch for Republicans if they want to use the complex budget reconciliation process to enact their party-line defense and farm aid spending package before the November midterm elections. 

There are just three weeks in September when both chambers are scheduled to be in session before lawmakers depart for their five-week October break.

And while the House can approve the budget resolution and an eventual party-line package without taking up a single amendment on the floor, the Senate process is considerably more arduous. 

The Senate has unlimited amendment debate on both measures, giving Democrats in that chamber dozens of opportunities to challenge Republicans on spending and policy choices.

That’s not necessarily an ideal scenario for Republican Senate leaders, who hope voters will allow the party to hold onto its narrow majority for another two years. 

Shauneen Miranda contributed to this report. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate committee in charge of funding the government spent hours in a hearing room Tuesday, trying to parse out just how much extra spending lawmakers should provide for the military amid the ongoing war in Iran. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators the bombing of Iran has cost $37.5 billion. He said that while the department has about $75 billion in unobligated funds from Republicans’ “big, beautiful” law, that money wasn’t intended to cover the costs of the war. 

Republicans and Democrats on the Appropriations Committee also heard from three of their colleagues about the need for natural disaster recovery funding and the secretary of Agriculture about her request for emergency aid for farmers. 

Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, summed up the multitude of proposals for additional money by saying the “country has many urgent funding needs.”

Collins said that while there were vastly different views among senators on the panel about the war, “the fact remains that there are must-pay bills and urgent requirements facing the department that affect the ability of our troops to be well trained and more broadly of the U.S. military to deter and defend against potential aggressors worldwide.”

Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, ranking member on the committee, said at the beginning of the three-and-a-half hour hearing the United States “is no safer or better off than before the war.”

“In fact, we are considerably less safe. Our stockpiles have been depleted and it will take years of production to fully replenish them no matter how much money is thrown at this problem,” Murray said.

By the end of the hearing, she indicated Democrats may not support any emergency funding for the Defense Department related to the Iran war. 

“Unfortunately, this hearing has done exceptionally little to justify the president’s request or to instill confidence that this administration has an exit plan or a strategy to end the war,” Murray said. “This war has cost us a lot. The last thing we should be doing is rubber stamping another $70 billion to help Trump keep it going.”

Hegseth warns of ‘critical shortfalls’  

Hegseth said that without extra money from Congress, the department would “face critical shortfalls that threaten” its ability to “pay our service members, rapidly replenish equipment and munitions, and sustain vital operations without disruption.”

Hegseth repeatedly defended the Iran war during the hearing, pressing back on criticism from several Democrats that it was similar to earlier wars in the Middle East. 

“President Trump said we’re not fighting stupid wars like that again and he hasn’t,” Hegseth said. “That’s why we haven’t been trying to remake Iranian society, but simply in the realist America First way, ensure they never have a path to a nuclear bomb, full stop.”

He declined to go into detail in a non-classified setting about the aid China and Russia has provided to Iran, but did say those two countries are “enabling some of the things Iran is doing.”

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. John D. Caine said he’d prefer not discuss the intelligence about those two countries. 

“I’d rather not opine on the specifics because that would divulge what we know. And I never want the adversary to know what I know. I just want to know it,” he said. 

Caine also declined to go into any level of detail about whether the administration has contemplated sending ground troops into Iran. 

“I think it’d be unhelpful for me to opine on hypothetical situations on whatever decisions the president may or may not take in the future,” Caine said. 

Trump request to Congress

Congress approved $838.7 billion for the Defense Department in February as part of the annual government funding process. A few weeks later, President Donald Trump began bombing Iran, starting a war that has led to the deaths of 17 U.S. service members — including three in the last few days — and injured more than 445.

The administration sent a supplemental spending request to Congress in late June, asking lawmakers to provide $87.6 billion in emergency funding. It proposed an additional:

• $67.15 billion for the Defense Department
• $11.1 billion for the Agriculture Department to provide aid to farmers
• $3.36 billion for the State Department for diplomatic, security and global health programs
• $2.03 billion for the U.S. Coast Guard
• $1 billion for the Transportation Department to “to assist in the final design and construction of a modernized Penn Station in New York City”
• $1 billion for the Labor Department to “increase the benefit levels for participants of certain pension plans that were sponsored by Delphi Corporation and terminated as a result of General Motors’ bankruptcy in 2009″
• $767.5 million for the Energy Department
• $600 million for the General Services Administration’s federal buildings fund
• $500 million for the National Park Service to upgrade a seawall and improve the World War II Memorial
• $40.26 million for the FBI for its role in the Iran war and “other classified needs”
• $36.18 million for the Treasury Department’s office of terrorism and financial intelligence
• $13.1 million for the Homeland Security Department’s operations and support account that was part of a “classified request.”

House Republicans want to use the complex budget reconciliation process to provide up to $60 billion for the Defense Department and $12 billion for farm aid. 

But that effort hasn’t yet garnered the support from Senate Republicans needed to advance. GOP lawmakers used the same process last year to bolster defense funding by about $150 billion in the “big, beautiful” law. 

That means the most likely path to provide extra money for the war and farmers will be a bipartisan supplemental spending bill, likely written by the Appropriations Committees. 

With the House set to leave Thursday for its August recess and the Senate planning to leave for its break on Aug. 6, the earliest any additional funding would become law is September.

Farm aid

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the administration’s request for emergency funding would help farmers, including those who have experienced extreme weather events. 

Collins, however, questioned the administration’s decision to limit its request for supplemental funding to agriculture losses that took place during the last year. 

“Many of our producers are struggling amid a combination of market volatility and disaster conditions last year, which included excessive rainfall in the spring, followed by a severe drought. They need relief. Yet the administration’s supplemental request does not include funding to address these recovery needs,” Collins said. “It does have $1.1 billion to help Florida agricultural producers rebound from a severe freeze this past winter. But nothing for prior disasters in other states.”

Rollins said she would be in full support of Congress providing more funding than requested for farmers affected by severe weather events. 

Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley asked Rollins to ensure the Office of Management and Budget sends lawmakers a specific request to address ongoing costs related to wildfires. 

“Senators are asking for a number from OMB in order to go forward,” he said. “And when we’re looking at the fires right now, my home state is in the epicenter of the highest risk in the country.”

Rollins said she would “absolutely” get that number to lawmakers, adding it “is a paramount importance, especially in the middle of fire season right now.”

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House approved a stopgap spending bill Tuesday that would keep the government up and running through the fall, sending it to the Senate, where lawmakers expect to rework the measure.

Congress must pass a government funding bill before the new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1 in order to avoid a shutdown just weeks before the November midterm elections.

The 220-205 mostly party-line vote represents House Republicans’ opening salvo in negotiations, though without Democratic support it won’t be able to advance in the Senate. 

House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said during floor debate that GOP leaders hope passing the stopgap spending bill months before the start of the next fiscal year will avoid another shutdown. 

“For anyone questioning this legislation, the facts are simple — it extends the government funding deadline to Dec. 4, denying any party the opportunity to manufacture leverage before elections,” Cole said. “It contains no poison pills or partisan riders. It prevents harmful disruptions to our national security and the vital programs our constituents rely on.”

Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member on the committee, opposed the stopgap, saying it would “allow Homeland Secretary (Markwayne) Mullin to transfer billions of dollars to the Border Patrol.”

Republicans, she said, “refused” to change that aspect of the bill after Democrats “shared language to fix it.”

“We cannot in good conscience allow billions of dollars to flow to these agencies without major reforms to keep our constituents safe from further violence,” DeLauro said. 

Democrats don’t want a government shutdown but also don’t want “to rush” the process and omit the list of anomalies just sent up by the White House, she said. 

Those tweaks to funding levels are commonly added to stopgap spending bills but weren’t included in House Republicans’ measure because it was written before the White House sent a list of requested anomalies to lawmakers Monday. 

“There are over 50 programs listed by the agencies to take some action so that they can be protected during a continuing resolution,” DeLauro said, using the technical term for a short-term funding bill. 

The changes would support wildfire suppression activities, housing assistance for tens of thousands and programs that help people in rural communities afford their utilities.

“Rushing this bill to the floor haphazardly without carefully considering the various needs that must be met is no way to govern,” DeLauro said. “And it is irresponsible.” 

Senate anticipates changes

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said earlier in the day that she was working with the committee’s top Democrat, Washington Sen. Patty Murray, to draft a continuing resolution of their own. 

“It appears that there is good faith on the Democratic side to try to pass the CR and avoid a government shutdown, which is always a disaster,” Collins said. 

Murray said the House’s stopgap spending bill has “problems” that will need to be fixed in order to move through the Senate.

“We just got the anomalies last night and both of us are trying to figure out the best way to get it put together,” Murray said. 

Appropriations status

Lawmakers must lean on a stopgap spending bill because they will, once again, fail to complete work on the dozen annual government funding bills before the deadline. 

The House has passed three of its spending bills. The Senate hasn’t passed any, in part, because the committee hasn’t released a single bill. The two chambers will need to begin negotiations at some point to settle on a total spending level for the 12 bills and how that roughly $1.9 trillion will be broken down among thousands of federal agencies and programs. 

That means the earliest the full-year government spending bills would become law is during the lame-duck session that is set to last for about five weeks between the election and the start of the new Congress in January. 

Lawmakers could also pass a series of stopgap funding bills instead of completing negotiations on the full-year appropriations bills. 

WASHINGTON — A D.C. Superior Court judge on Monday encouraged the Trump administration to preserve the sections of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool that it says a Maryland man damaged to ensure the case moves forward. 

Associate Judge Todd E. Edelman warned during a status hearing in the case against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn that the government may be “operating at its own peril” if it does not preserve the pool for the defense attorneys and their expert to examine and test. 

Edelman questioned why the Trump administration couldn’t “maintain the status quo” for the rest of the week to ensure access to the evidence doesn’t become an “issue in this trial.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Reddington said the Interior Department was in the middle of remedial work on the Reflecting Pool after draining it. 

Reddington said prosecutors “certainly asked them to hold the site as a whole,” but added he doesn’t have control over whether they do. 

Edelman then encouraged the “government to not do anything further” on the Reflecting Pool before denying without prejudice Hearn’s defense team’s motion to dismiss the case. He said the effort was “entirely premature” but didn’t prevent the lawyers’ from filing a different motion to dismiss in the future. 

Mary Dohrmann, a principal at Washington Litigation Group and one of Hearn’s lawyers, wrote in the motion to dismiss the “Constitution simply does not permit the government to charge a man with destroying an object, retain exclusive custody of that object, and then drain, disturb, and alter the object before the defense may examine it, despite a written demand for its preservation.”

“And yet that is what has happened here,” Dohrmann added. “The government’s failure to preserve this evidence, in the face of an express demand no less, has destroyed Mr. Hearn’s ability to collect evidence material to his defense on multiple elements of the charged offense. Dismissal is the only appropriate remedy in view of the government’s actions.”

Edelman scheduled a readiness hearing for Sept. 11 and set the trial to begin on Sept. 28. 

WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that public health officials have linked the ongoing outbreak of cyclosporiasis in five states to shredded iceberg lettuce from Taco Bell restaurants.

The fast food chain wrote in a statement that it plans to remove the “potentially impacted lettuce” from its “supply chain nationwide and will be replaced within 24 hours in select states.”

“While no official advisory has been issued, we believe public health is a shared responsibility among restaurants, their suppliers, and authorities, and we are proud to have consistently acted quickly and proactively to protect our guests,” the statement said. “Taco Bell has taken precautionary action, and we encourage all relevant restaurants, retailers, and foodservice operators to do the same.”

The CDC statement said it had linked the ongoing outbreak to Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. The statement didn’t say whether the lettuce was the cause of the severe gastrointestinal illness caused by a parasite in other states. 

Taylor Farms wrote in a statement that based on information from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “Taylor Farms de Mexico is voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico.”

“While the FDA traceback is indicating a specific independent farm that represents less than 1% of the U.S.’s iceberg lettuce supply as the potential source of the outbreak, we have removed all iceberg lettuce from the region indefinitely,” the statement said. 

Taylor Farms added that none of their “salads or kits are associated with this outbreak.”

The CDC has confirmed more than 1,600 cases in 34 states since the outbreak began. Nearly 150 of those people were hospitalized, though no deaths have been reported so far. 

The CDC writes on a webpage about the outbreak that it expects the number of confirmed cases will continue to increase given the six-week “reporting lag between illness onset and case reporting to CDC.”

WASHINGTON — Republicans on the U.S. House Budget Committee approved their budget resolution Thursday, marking one small step forward in the complicated process that could allow the party to enact a third party-line bill. 

The 20-14 vote followed hours of debate over amendments from Democrats that sought to roll back pieces of the earlier Republican packages and change how the upcoming process would work. None of the Democratic changes were approved. 

Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar and Virgin Islands Democratic Delegate Stacey Plaskett didn’t vote. 

House Republican leaders are likely to bring the budget resolution to the floor next week before that chamber leaves for its five-week August recess, now expected July 23. 

The Senate will be in session for an additional two weeks after that before beginning its summer break, though it isn’t clear if GOP leadership in that chamber will bring the budget measure up for a vote. 

Process to provide funds for defense, farms

Both chambers of Congress must adopt a budget resolution in order to unlock the budget reconciliation process that will allow them to move another bill without Democratic support. 

House Republicans said during committee debate they hope another package would provide up to $95 billion. That currently unreleased measure would bolster aid to farmers, provide more funding to the Defense Department and implement pieces of a voter identification bill they’ve dubbed the SAVE America Act. 

“We are going to use reconciliation to make a run at doing what we think will save this country for our children’s future and for the remainder of this century,” Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said. “I can’t think of a more important thing to work on.”

Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle, ranking member on the committee, criticized Republicans for not focusing on how to make life more affordable for everyday Americans. 

“Over the last 18 months, we have seen where Republicans’ priorities are: trillions of dollars in tax cuts for billionaires, tens of billions of dollars for war and absolutely nothing for the American people,” Boyle said. 

Democratic changes rebuffed

Democrats offered more than a dozen amendments during debate, including one from Vermont Rep. Becca Balint that would have removed the instructions for the Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Republicans’ budget resolution, once approved by both chambers, would allow the Armed Services Committee to spend up to $60 billion and the Intelligence panel to spend up to $13 billion. 

“My colleagues use the deficit as a pretext to excuse increasing hunger and deepening poverty in this country,” Balint said. “They preach fiscal responsibility, and yet, when it comes to approving tens of billions of dollars in additional Pentagon spending, they are a rubber stamp.”

Michigan Republican Rep. Jack Bergman spoke against the proposal, saying the additional defense funding “is necessary to support our troops and supply them with the munitions and anything else they need to fight, win and return home safely.”

In addition to providing instructions for more defense spending, the budget resolution would allow the Agriculture Committee to write a bill that would provide up to $12 billion in additional aid to farmers. 

The Administration Committee would be able to spend up to $10 billion, likely to create a grant program for states that institute voter identification requirements. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Restoring trust

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

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

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

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

Tracking abortions

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cyclosporiasis

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

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

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

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

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

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans released their latest budget resolution Wednesday, the first step in a long and complicated process that could allow Congress to approve a third party-line bill. 

The 47-page document, once adopted by both chambers, would send instructions to four House committees to draft bills that would be bundled into a roughly $95 billion package. 

• The Administration Committee could provide a maximum of $10 billion that would likely create a grant program for states that institute voter identification requirements.
• The Agriculture Committee would be able to spend no more than $12 billion for farm aid.
• The Armed Services Committee could write a bill that gives the Defense Department a maximum of $60 billion to account for increased costs related to the war with Iran and other military actions taken by the Trump administration. 
• The Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence would be able to approve up to $13 billion in new spending.

House floor votes as soon as next week

The House Budget Committee is scheduled to debate and vote on the budget resolution Thursday. It’s possible that is followed by floor debate and a vote to send the resolution to the Senate as soon as next week. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., could hold a floor vote on the budget resolution in that chamber before its lawmakers depart for their August recess, though it wasn’t immediately clear Wednesday whether there is enough support among GOP senators to approve the measure. 

Thune has been skeptical about using for a third time the complex budget reconciliation process the party used to enact its “big, beautiful” law last year and provide $70 billion in additional spending for immigration enforcement earlier this year. 

Senate debate on the budget resolution is significantly different than in the House. It requires a marathon amendment voting session that typically lasts overnight and leads to tough votes for Republican senators facing reelection this November. By contrast, House floor debate likely won’t include votes on any amendments. 

Elections and defense

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., posted to social media shortly after the budget resolution was released that the reconciliation process would provide a way for Congress to change how elections work and appropriate more funding for defense. 

“Safeguarding American elections and strengthening our national defense are the most basic responsibilities of Congress and are supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans,” Johnson wrote, before criticizing Democrats for voting against Republicans’ SAVE America Act.

It’s unlikely Republicans will be able to include the full text of that bill, which would require Americans to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot, given the rules of the budget reconciliation process. 

Every provision in the package must have an impact on federal spending, revenue, or the debt that isn’t deemed “merely incidental” by the Senate parliamentarian.

House Budget Committee ranking member Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., wrote in a statement he plans “to fight like hell to make sure taxpayer dollars are being used to lower costs and make life better for American families, not to bankroll Trump’s giveaways to billionaires and endless wars overseas.”

“Republicans have already made life worse for American families and added trillions to the national debt,” Boyle wrote. “Now, this ‘America Last’ budget would add tens of billions more to the national debt to fund the most unpopular war in American history.” 

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress from both parties indicated Tuesday they will support additional security funding for the U.S. Supreme Court after two justices testified about a sharp rise in threats.

Associate Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett told lawmakers on the House panel that writes the court’s annual funding bill an increase is needed to ensure around-the-clock security wherever they go and for upgrades to the building.

“Maybe I lack imagination, but I didn’t expect that performing this service was going to put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was and why I had to wear one,” Barrett said. 

Kagan told members of the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee during the hearing that the court’s budget has increased, on average, by 15% per year during the last five years, mostly due to safety concerns and inflation. 

“I first joined the court in 2010. Our security was very different at the time. The Supreme Court police focused almost exclusively on protecting the building. And our (information technology) department focused on supporting the latest BlackBerry devices,” Kagan said. “I didn’t have a security team of my own, and I was accompanied by security personnel only when I participated in work-related public events.”

The court, she added, began increasing its security spending around 2017 after members of Congress encouraged the justices to take their safety more seriously. 

Security threats have steadily increased since then. 

“The Capitol Police Chief recently testified that threats against Congress are up 50% this year,” Kagan said. “The Supreme Court police expect a smaller but still very substantial 38% annual increase in threats this year, which follows a 25% increase last year.” 

Proposed $29M increase

Subcommittee Chairman David Joyce, R-Ohio, said that regardless of how the court rules on any given case, the justices “must be able to do their jobs without fear for their safety or their family’s safety.”

Maryland Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer, ranking member on the panel, said that given the “deeply divided country and increasingly violent rhetoric being directed at judges, Congress must provide sufficient funding to ensure the safety of all judicial personnel.”

The House subcommittee, he said, appropriated $207 million for the Supreme Court, which included a $28.9 million increase for security, in the bill it approved earlier this year. That legislation hasn’t yet gone to the floor for a vote. 

The Senate Appropriations Committee hasn’t yet released any of its dozen government funding bills for the next fiscal year ahead of the Oct. 1 shutdown deadline. 

Kagan rejects ‘shadow’ docket label

Lawmakers on the House panel pressed the justices about the court’s ethics policy and raised concerns over the increase in cases it takes up as part of its emergency, or shadow, docket. 

Hoyer said the justices deciding cases without a full briefing or oral arguments and then issuing a ruling with little or no explanation has had a negative impact on Americans’ trust in the court. 

Barrett noted that people “have long had the ability to seek interim relief from the court,” though she agreed with Hoyer that the justices have “seen a big change in the volume and the nature of such requests.”

Kagan responded she doesn’t believe it’s “appropriate” to refer to those cases as the shadow docket instead of the emergency or interim docket because the justices have done “a better job in the recent past” of “explaining ourselves at least to a moderate degree.” 

She added that a year ago she might have answered the question differently because the Supreme Court was providing such little explanation in those specific cases “that lower courts had a great deal of difficulty trying to figure out what” exactly the justices had addressed. 

“I don’t think that that’s so much a problem anymore,” Kagan said. “I think that as we’ve gotten more experienced in these constant requests that are coming to us for emergency relief, that we better recognize that at least sometimes there is a need for additional information. And we have issued opinions and sometimes majority and dissenting opinions accordingly.”

Ethics policy

Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, encouraged the justices to figure out a way to enforce the ethics policy the court instituted in 2023. 

Kagan testified the court “should work hard to try to figure out some enforcement system,” but emphasized any changes need to come from the justices themselves. 

“I will say that that’s an extremely difficult question for a pretty obvious reason, I think, which is that I don’t think that you would want an enforcement system that was controlled by the executive branch or by the legislature,” Kagan said. “And this is because of what you said in your opening statement about the importance of judicial independence.”

Barrett testified she was “completely committed to” the ethics code but that she was “less certain” about whether and how to enforce it. 

“I’m just not quite sure. The judiciary moves slowly. The court moves slowly. We have turtles everywhere because of that,” Barrett said. “And I think that if we had a body to enforce the code it would have to come from within the judiciary. And I just think then it’s a question of who selects the judges, how is the panel comprised. There’s just a lot of complexity.” 

Proposed screening center

The two justices testified before the Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee in the afternoon. And while they addressed many of the same questions and concerns raised during the morning House hearing, they provided some additional details about security. 

The Supreme Court would like Congress to provide $6.5 million to begin the process of building an external security screening center, which Kagan said could be similar to the Capitol Visitor Center that sits underground just east of the building. 

“Right now visitors walk into the court and that’s where they are checked. That’s where they are sent through the magnetometer and checked for weapons and so forth,” Kagan said. 

As far as personnel, Kagan testified the Supreme Court has a goal of reaching 477 police officers but that the justices are “a ways away from that right now.”

“If we include people we get through contracting, we can probably do it within a couple of years,” Kagan said. “But in order to have our own employees get up to that mark, then we’re talking more about six years.”

Kagan was unable to answer a question from Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., about the types of training those police officers must complete and the facilities they would need. 

“I’m confident that the kind of training programs that we’ve put in place are good ones, but I can’t give you a whole lot of detail about that,” she said.  

Barrett told senators the need for more dedicated police officers comes, in part, from the U.S. Marshals Service telling the court months earlier than expected their officers could no longer provide security at the justices’ homes. 

“They themselves were just stretched thin,” Barrett said. “So we had always wanted to take it over ourselves, but we were forced to do that on a quicker timeline. And we are now fully doing it within the Supreme Court police through a combination of our full-time officers and contractors.”

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Monday he would like the South Carolina governor to select the late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sister to fill the Republican’s seat for the remainder of his term.

“I recommended, to Governor Henry McMaster, Lindsey Graham’s wonderful sister, Darline, to serve as interim Senator from the Great State of South Carolina,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly!”

McMaster is scheduled to announce his appointment to the Senate at 4 p.m. Eastern during a press conference. The person selected for the role would serve out the remainder of Graham’s term through early January. Graham was close to his sister, Darline Graham Nordone, after their parents died when she was a teen.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott backed the suggestion, writing on social media that Nordone “would be a fantastic pick to serve out the reminder of the senate term.” 

“After speaking with Darline, there is no one better who understands Lindsey’s love for family, our state, and our country,” Scott wrote.

Graham, 71, died unexpectedly this weekend of an aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to preliminary findings from the District of Columbia’s medical examiner that were shared by Graham’s office. 

Graham’s death has also triggered a special election process in his home state to determine who will advance to the November general election for a full six-year Senate term. 

Graham won the Republican primary in June and was set to face Democratic candidate Annie Andrews later this year. 

The special election to determine which Republican will advance is scheduled for Aug. 11, with a runoff taking place on Aug. 25 if necessary. 

WASHINGTON — The former U.S Olympian charged with damaging a section of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool pleaded not guilty during a brief court hearing Thursday and was released on his own recognizance. 

D.C. Superior Court Associate Judge Carmen Guerricagoitia McLean, who is presiding over the felony case against David C. Hearn, scheduled a status hearing for Aug. 5. McLean was nominated by President Barack Obama and, when that nomination expired, by President Donald Trump.

Mary L. Dohrmann, senior counsel at the Washington Litigation Group and a member of Hearn’s legal team, said during the arraignment hearing that he is an “upstanding citizen and member of the community” and three-time Olympian canoeist who regularly represents the United States in international competitions. 

Dohrmann said it would be a “waste of the court’s resources to impose any conditions” on Hearn ahead of a future trial. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Reddington said prosecutors have “a lot of evidence” in the case and that he wanted the status hearing to be scheduled before a trial. He later said the government wants to “quickly” share its evidence with Hearn’s legal team as part of the required discovery process. 

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro charged Hearn, of Bethesda, Maryland, with destruction of property of more than $1,000 for allegedly vandalizing the newly refinished Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 19. Trump, who has closely overseen the multi-million-dollar renovation of the Reflecting Pool, has blamed vandals for damage to it.

During a brief press conference outside the D.C. Superior Court Building after the hearing, Norm Eisen, co-founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund and a member of Hearn’s legal team, said “every American should be alarmed about this prosecution.”

“This indictment reflects the administration’s effort to scapegoat Davey and to shift blame for their own failures,” Eisen said. 

Federal prosecutors, he said, should never have charged Hearn. 

“It is not a crime to touch the Reflecting Pool, to touch water in the United States of America,” Eisen said. 

Maryland Democratic U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, in whose congressional district Hearn resides, wrote in a statement released during the hearing that “Hearn would never desecrate a federal building or landmark by writing his name on it or affixing his name illegally to it or engaging in any other kind of political graffiti, vandalism or delinquency.”

“I hope—and will do everything I can to guarantee—that Davey gets true due process and a fair trial on these absurdly trumped-up charges,” Raskin added. “It is only a matter of time before an impartial judge and jury recognize that this case has been built on a Kafkaesque arrest and Orwellian charges.”

WASHINGTON — Republicans are campaigning to keep control of Congress for another two years, but their message about being the “grown-ups” in the room keeps getting overshadowed by public feuds that have sidetracked work on major legislation. 

After enacting large swaths of their agenda during the last year and a half, GOP lawmakers can’t seem to agree on what comes next, with senators openly debating each other on social media and a group of far-right House lawmakers blocking work on the floor, forcing the speaker to send them home early for the Fourth of July break. The infighting and limited time in session could prevent Republicans from notching any more wins before voters head to the polls in November.

The disagreements, largely over a voter identification bill known as the SAVE America Act, have held up the annual government funding measures needed to avoid another shutdown and a defense policy package that provides lawmakers one of their best opportunities to shape the country’s military objectives. 

Agreement on a farm bill to address agriculture and food safety net programs is years overdue with few signs of true momentum. And lawmakers are no closer to reauthorizing a foreign surveillance program that lapsed earlier this year for the first time in decades. 

On top of all that, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wants to use the complex budget reconciliation process to pass a third party-line bill, though his Senate counterparts aren’t fully on board with that idea. 

Johnson said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream” in early July that he believes the package could include elements of the voter identification bill, possibly clearing the way for other legislation to move forward. He said the reluctance from some Republican senators “is based upon what they think may be in it.” 

“What we’re planning to do is send over a bill that will be irresistible for any Republican. A really incredible piece of legislation that will get the job done, meaning that we will continue to increase affordability; we will reduce fraud, waste and abuse in government; and we’ll secure elections,” Johnson said. “Every Republican will vote for that if packaged correctly. And that’s what we’re planning to do right now.” 

Lawmakers’ time to get that done will be extremely limited when combined with other work on Congress’ to-do list. 

Both chambers return to the nation’s capital on July 13 but will be out for nearly all of August and October. In total, the House will be in session for about 24 days and the Senate at work on Capitol Hill for approximately 28 days ahead of the November midterm elections. 

GOP argues for keeping majorities

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said during a late June press conference he wants to “get as much done as we can in the amount of time we have left between now and the midterm elections.”

“There are things that I believe will create a record of accomplishment that our candidates can run on that will enable us to take an argument to the American people that will persuade them that they want to keep majorities here in Congress, in the United States Senate and in the House, that are Republican to work with the president to get good things done for this country,” he said.

While GOP senators “have differences of opinion,” Thune said, they agree that their goals should be “to keep the country safe, to put more money in the pockets of the American people and to give them better opportunities to get ahead.”

Republican senators, however, do not agree when it comes to the SAVE America Act that would, among other things, require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot. 

Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee posted to social media in early July that the chamber must pass that package, even if that means changing the rule that requires at least 60 lawmakers vote to cut off debate. Republicans control the chamber with 53 seats.

“History will not look kindly on us if we don’t pass the SAVE America Act,” he wrote. “Neither will voters.”

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn responded in a post of his own: “Then show us the votes!”

Filibuster fight

Michael Thorning, director of structural democracy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said the slim majority in the House and narrow majority in the Senate combined with President Donald Trump’s focus on the voter identification bill has led to “a lot of negotiation between different factions within the party about what is going to be on the agenda.”

While the House can pass bills with a simple majority, the Senate needs bipartisan support for most bills to move past procedural votes. This requires compromise between Republicans and Democrats in the upper chamber on some of the more pressing and politically fraught issues. 

That requirement often results in changes to House-passed bills or an inability to move forward with them at all — leading to considerable tension between GOP lawmakers who want to keep the procedural step and those that want to get rid of it.

The 60-vote threshold gives Democrats a chance to force compromise, but it also gives them a way to slow down or gridlock the Senate during an election year, compounding the challenges Republican leaders face from within their own party. 

This year is no exception. Democratic leaders must balance calling on voters to reject Republican incumbents while on the campaign trail and then work with some of those very lawmakers to negotiate certain must-pass bills when back on Capitol Hill. 

“This, really unfortunately, is a part of a longer term trend that we’ve seen for quite a while in Congress, which is that the minority party does not have a lot of incentive to cooperate with the majority,” Thorning said. “And so, you know, it’s not unusual to see the minority party sort of trying to posture and position itself to deny the majority party perceived legislative wins.”

That calculation is particularly acute on government funding ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline, following three shutdowns of varying impact and length during the last year.

“I would say on appropriations, the difficulty there on funding the government is that it’s never clear which way the blame is going to cut,” Thorning said, adding it would be “a pretty risky assumption” that a funding lapse this year would be blamed on Republicans. 

“If Democrats were to deny the appropriations process from going forward and the government were shut down, it’s not clear who the voters would blame,” Thorning said. “And that would really be happening for the first time ever right up to an election. You know, voters have rarely had the opportunity to weigh in quite that proximate to a government shutdown on who they do or don’t blame. So that’s sort of uncharted territory.”