Former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra decried the Trump administration's "skinny budget" request unveiled Friday, lambasting it as not a budget proposal but a "demolition plan." In the proposal, President Trump called for cutting $33.3 billion or 26.2 percent of the HHS's discretionary funding. These requested cuts included a $3.6 billion reduction...
{beacon} PRESIDENT TRUMP SENT the first budget request of his second term to Republican appropriators in Congress on Friday, exposing new GOP divisions on spending. Office of Management Budget director Russell Vought outlined the steep cuts Trump seeks for non-defense spending in a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine). "This...
The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to let the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access millions of Americans’ personal data stored by the Social Security Administration (SSA) while it appeals an order that iced the advisory group out. The emergency application asks the justices to lift a Maryland federal judge’s injunction blocking DOGE from...
The attorneys for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, filed a Thursday motion seeking to dismiss state charges against him. Lead lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, argued that dueling federal charges would amount to double jeopardy for her client. If the charges aren’t dropped, Friedman Agnifilo has asked a judge to...
More than 70 House Democrats are requesting the Smithsonian inspector general to kickstart an investigation into President Trump’s executive order targeting Smithsonian museums, arguing the president’s action is encroaching on the institution’s independence. Seventy-one House Democrats, led by Reps. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Paul Tonko (N.Y.) are criticizing Trump’s March 27 executive order, which says...
The latest measles update from the CDC reports a total of 935 confirmed cases — the vast majority of which are among patients who are unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination statuses.
Planned Parenthood chapters have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging new terms that would hinder their continued participation in a long-standing program aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) disproportionately benefited the working and middle classes, as evidenced by IRS data which shows that the TCJA made the federal tax code more progressive, with lower-income earners paying a smaller share of the total income tax burden.
Utah's "Military City" is struggling with affordable housing for its military personnel, prompting bipartisan mayors and business leaders to push for legislation to make housing affordable again.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she has “serious objections” to the defense funding proposals in President Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget request, while also taking issue with some of the nondefense programs being targeted. In a statement on Friday, Collins called Trump’s request “simply one step in the annual budget process," adding the...
President Trump proposed shuttering the disinformation offices and programs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), alleging in the White House budget request that they contributed to the censorship of the president and his supporters. The president's budget proposal, released Friday, claimed CISA's disinformation offices and programs "functioned as a hub in the Censorship...
A group of 42 Democratic lawmakers wants the Pentagon’s watchdog to look into billionaire Elon Musk's role in the contracting process for the "Golden Dome" missile defense shield, a project pushed by President Trump meant to protect the U.S. homeland from incoming missiles. In a letter sent to the Defense Department inspector general on Thursday, the House...
