The Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, on Tuesday announced a proposal on long-term care under Medicare focused on the “sandwich generation,” which refers to Americans who are caring for their children while also caring for aging parents (Getty Images).

Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled a plan Tuesday that would strengthen Medicare coverage to include long-term care for seniors in their homes, tackling one of the biggest challenges in U.S. health care.

The Democratic presidential nominee revealed the proposal while on “The View” — one of several high-profile media appearances this week as she and the GOP presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, sprint to the November finish line.

“There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle: They’re taking care of their kids and they’re taking care of their aging parents, and it’s just almost impossible to do it all, especially if they work,” Harris said during the live interview. “We’re finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income, not to mention the emotional stress.”

Harris is focusing on the “sandwich generation,” which refers to Americans who are caring for their children while also caring for aging parents.

Under the plan, Medicare — the nation’s health insurance program for people 65 and older and some under 65 with certain disabilities or conditions — would cover an at-home health benefit for those enrolled in the program, as well as hearing and vision benefits, according to her campaign in a Tuesday fact sheet.

Medicare for the most part now does not cover long-term care services like home health aides.

The benefits would be funded by “expanding Medicare drug price negotiations, increasing the discounts drug manufacturers cover for certain brand-name drugs in Medicare, and addressing Medicare fraud,” per her campaign.

Harris also plans to “crack down on pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs) to increase transparency, disclose more information on costs, and regulate other practices that raise prices,” according to her campaign, which said she will also “implement international tax reform.”

The campaign did not cite a price tag but noted similar plans have been estimated to cost $40 billion annually, “before considering ​​savings from avoiding hospitalizations and more expensive institutional care, or the additional revenues that would generate from more unpaid family caregivers going back to work if they need to.”

The proposal comes along with the nominee’s sweeping economic plan, part of which involves cutting taxes for more than 100 million Americans, including $6,000 in tax relief for new parents in the first year of their child’s life.

Trump responds

In response to the proposal, the Trump campaign said the former president “will always fight for America’s senior citizens — who have been left behind by Kamala Harris,” per a Tuesday news release.

The campaign also cited Medicare Advantage policies extended by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Trump’s first term.

The campaign reiterated the 2024 GOP platform’s chapter on protecting seniors, saying Trump will “prioritize home care benefits by shifting resources back to at-home senior care, overturning disincentives that lead to care worker shortages, and supporting unpaid family caregivers through tax credits and reduced red tape.”

Harris and Howard Stern

While appearing live on “The Howard Stern Show” on Tuesday shortly after “The View,” Harris dubbed Trump an “unserious man,” saying the consequences of him serving another term are “brutally serious.”

She also again criticized Trump for nominating three of the five members to the U.S. Supreme Court who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022 — a reversal that ended nearly half a century of the constitutional right to abortion.

“And it’s not about abortion, you have basically now a system that says you as an individual do not have the right to make a decision about your own body. The government has the right to make that decision for you,” she said.

Harris, who said she would appoint a Republican to her Cabinet if elected, was asked whether she would choose former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney.

Cheney was the vice chair of the U.S. House Jan. 6 committee tasked with investigating the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Harris did not disclose a preference, but said Cheney is “smart,” “remarkable” and a “dedicated public servant.”

Cheney is among some prominent Republicans to endorse Harris. She campaigned with the veep in Ripon, Wisconsin — the birthplace of the Republican Party — just last week.

Trump talks with Ben Shapiro

Meanwhile, Trump said Harris is “grossly incompetent” during an interview that aired Tuesday on “The Ben Shapiro Show.”

“Biden was incompetent, she is equally incompetent and in a certain way, she’s more incompetent,” Trump told Shapiro, a conservative political commentator and co-founder of The Daily Wire, referring to President Joe Biden.

Trump also criticized Harris’ Monday interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” saying the veep “answers questions like a child.”

“She’s answering questions in the most basic way and getting killed over it,” Trump added.

Look ahead for Harris, Trump campaigns

Harris was also set to also appear on CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday night. She will also appear at a Univision town hall in Las Vegas, Nevada, that airs Thursday.

Trump was slated to participate in a roundtable with Latino leaders and a Univision town hall on Tuesday in Miami, but both events were postponed due to Hurricane Milton.

Trump is set to give remarks Wednesday in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Later that day, he will continue campaigning in the Keystone State with a rally in Reading.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have widely divergent views on education. In this photo, students are shown in a classroom (Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images).

As former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris sprint to the November finish line, one sprawling policy area has largely fallen out of the spotlight — education.

Though the respective GOP and Democratic presidential candidates have spent comparatively more time campaigning on issues such as immigration, foreign policy and the economy, their ideas surrounding K-12 and higher education vastly differ.

Trump’s education platform vows to “save American education,” with a focus on parental rights, universal school choice and a fight for “patriotic education” in schools.

“By increasing access to school choice, empowering parents to have a voice in their child’s education, and supporting good teachers, President Trump will improve academic excellence for all students,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary, said in a statement to States Newsroom.

Trump “believes students should be taught reading, writing, and math in the classroom — not gender, sex and race like the Biden Administration is pushing on our public school system,” Leavitt added.

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign has largely focused on the education investments brought by the Biden-Harris administration and building on those efforts if she is elected.

“Over the past four years, the Administration has made unprecedented investments in education, including the single-largest investment in K-12 education in history, which Vice President Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to pass,” Mia Ehrenberg, a campaign spokesperson, told States Newsroom.

Ehrenberg said that while Harris and her running mate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, “will build on those investments and continue fighting until every student has the support and the resources they need to thrive, Republicans led by Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda want to cut billions from local K-12 schools and eliminate the Department of Education, undermining America’s students and schools.”

Harris has repeatedly knocked the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 — a sweeping conservative agenda that includes education policy proposals like eliminating Head Start, ending time-based and occupation-based student loan forgiveness and barring teachers from using a student’s preferred pronouns different from their “biological sex” without written permission from a parent or guardian.

Trump has fiercely disavowed Project 2025, although some former members of his administration crafted the blueprint.

Closing the U.S. Department of Education

Trump has called for shutting down the U.S. Department of Education and said he wants to “move education back to the states.” The department is not the main funding source for K-12 schools, as state and local governments allocate much of those dollars.

In contrast, Harris said at the Democratic National Convention in August that “we are not going to let him eliminate the Department of Education that funds our public schools.”

Living wage for school staff; parental bill of rights

Trump’s education plan calls for creating a “new credentialing body to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values, and understand that their job is not to indoctrinate children, but to educate them.”

He also wants to implement funding boosts for schools that “abolish teacher tenure” for grades K-12 and adopt “merit pay,” establish the direct election of school principals by parents and “drastically cut” the number of school administrators.

In contrast, the Democratic Party’s 2024 platform calls for recruiting “more new teachers, paraprofessionals and school related personnel, and education support professionals, with the option for some to even start training in high school.”

The platform also aims to help “school-support staff to advance in their own careers with a living wage” and improve working conditions for teachers.

Trump also wants to give funding boosts to schools that adopt a “Parental Bill of Rights that includes complete curriculum transparency, and a form of universal school choice.”

He’s threatening to cut federal funding for schools that teach the primarily collegiate academic subject known as “critical race theory,” gender ideology or “other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”

The Democrats’ platform opposes “the use of private-school vouchers, tuition tax credits, opportunity scholarships, and other schemes that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from public education,” adding that “public tax dollars should never be used to discriminate.”

Title IX 

Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris administration released a final rule for Title IX extending federal protections for LGBTQ+ students.

The updated regulations took effect Aug. 1, but a slew of GOP-led states challenged the measure. The legal battles have created a policy patchwork and weakened the administration’s vision for the final rule.

The updated regulations roll back Title IX changes made under the Trump administration and then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Trump vowed to terminate the updated regulations on his first day back in office if reelected.

Student debt and higher education 

Harris has repeatedly touted the administration’s record on student loan forgiveness, including nearly $170 billion in student debt relief for almost 5 million borrowers.

The administration’s most recent student loan repayment initiative came to a grinding halt in August after the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan.

Although little is mentioned about education in Harris’ extensive economic plan, the proposal makes clear that the veep will “continue working to end the unreasonable burden of student loan debt and fight to make higher education more affordable, so that college can be a ticket to the middle class.”

She also plans to cut four-year degree requirements for half a million federal jobs.

Trump — who dubbed the Biden-Harris administration’s student loan forgiveness efforts as “not even legal” — sought to repeal the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program during his administration.

His education platform also calls for endowing the “American Academy,” a free, online university.

Trump said he will endow the new institution through the “billions and billions of dollars that we will collect by taxing, fining, and suing excessively large private university endowments.”

Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, joined by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks at the Capitol on Sept. 29, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans shortly after Election Day will face a major decision for their chamber as well as the national party when they pick a new leader.

Once the dust from the election clears and the balance of power in the Senate is decided, senators will gather behind closed doors to choose who will lead their conference. Come January, that person will step into one of the more important and influential roles in the U.S. government, as well as becoming a prominent figure for messaging and fundraising for the GOP.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Florida Sen. Rick Scott and South Dakota Sen. John Thune have all publicly announced they’re seeking the post. Thune is currently the minority whip, the No. 2 leader in the Senate GOP, and Cornyn held the whip job before him.

The lawmaker who secures the support of his colleagues will replace Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who since 2007 has led his party through three presidencies, numerous votes on natural disaster aid packages, the COVID-19 pandemic, two impeachments and the Jan. 6 insurrection.

McConnell, who served as majority leader when Republicans controlled the Senate, has been at the center of dozens of pivotal negotiations and ensured his position was a boon for his home state of Kentucky.

The Republican who takes his place will have to navigate choppy political seas in the years ahead as the GOP continues to hold onto the Reagan-era policies many still value, while adjusting to the brand of conservatism that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump champions.

States Newsroom interviewed Republican senators to find out what characteristics they believe the next GOP leader needs to have to earn their vote, and about the challenges that person will face in the years ahead.

While only one senator would volunteer an opinion on a favorite candidate, many said they are interested in a leader who will emphasize moving legislation through the chamber, listen closely to members and forge strong ties with what they hope is a Trump administration.

In search of a workhorse 

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said he’s looking for a “competent” Republican leader who will listen to members and work behind the scenes.

“I don’t want to see leaders on television commercials, I don’t want to see them featured in Senate races, I don’t want them as the deciding factor days before an election,” Hawley said. “I want somebody who is going to be a workhorse and who’s going to work with members to achieve our priorities and then get stuff accomplished.”

West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said the next GOP leader should hold the line on conservative priorities while also being able to negotiate bipartisan deals during what is expected to be a divided government. Democrats narrowly control the Senate, but Republicans are projected to possibly take the majority in the election.

“I would like somebody who can be strong in the face of opposition, present a strong argument, not afraid to take it to the other side when needed, but then also somebody that could get in the room and negotiate right when it gets tough,” she said.

Capito acknowledged the outcome of the presidential election could have an impact on who becomes the next Republican leader.

“(It) just depends on who wins,” she said.

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall said his choice will “be the most important vote that I take.”

“You vote for the president, that’s important, but mine is one vote out of 150 million votes, or whatever it is. But this vote will be one out of, hopefully 53, so I think it has a lot of weight,” Marshall said. “And I think it’s really important that we elect a majority leader that shares the same priorities as, hopefully, President Trump.”

Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty said the overarching criteria for the next GOP leader is their “ability to get along well with President Trump and the incoming administration.”

“The first 100 days are going to count, and we need to have very close alignment to make certain we’re successful,” Hagerty said.

There is no guarantee that voters will elect Trump as the next president during this year’s presidential election. The next Senate GOP leader could end up working with an administration led by the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.

That would require whomever Republican senators elect to walk a tightrope on Cabinet secretary confirmation votes, judicial nominees, must-pass legislation and potentially a Supreme Court nominee.

Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said he’s vetting the candidates based on which one would be the most savvy, strategic, patient and inclusive.

That person, Kennedy said, must also be “willing to test his assumptions against the arguments of his critics and willing to ask God for money if necessary.” McConnell has been known as a prodigious fundraiser for Republicans.

Chairmanship clout

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, said she’ll vote for the candidate willing to devote significantly more floor time to debating and voting on bipartisan legislation.

“I think that’s a real problem,” Collins said. “I’d like us to go back to the days where power was vested in the committee chairs. And if they and their ranking members are able to produce a bill, that it gets scheduled for floor consideration.”

Collins, a moderate in a Senate conference packed with more conservative members, said she wants the next Senate Republican leader to recognize “that we’re a big tent party and that we need to be inclusive in our approach.”

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, said he wants a GOP leader to follow “regular order on appropriations.”

“We get them through committee with bipartisan votes, but they’re not getting to the floor,” Hoeven said of the dozen annual government funding bills. “We need to get them to the floor, there needs to be an amendment process, and we need to act on the bills and get back to voting on bills and that’s called regular order. And I think that’s the biggest key for our next leader is to be able to do that.”

Alabama Sen. Katie Britt has begun talking with the candidates and is evaluating their plans for the Senate floor schedule, especially for bringing the annual government funding bills up for debate and amendment.

“I want to know how we’re going to get the appropriations process back working; like, how we’re actually going to move the ball down the field on that,” Britt said. “I want to know how we’re going to actually embolden the committees and the committee process.”

Britt, ranking member on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, expressed frustration with how much floor time goes toward confirming judicial nominees, something that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, and McConnell have both championed.

Senate floor procedures are much more time-consuming than the rules that govern debate in the House. Legislation can take weeks to move through the filibuster process, which requires 60 votes for bills to advance, and for leaders to negotiate which amendments will receive floor votes.

The Senate, unlike the House, is also responsible for vetting and confirming executive branch nominees, like Cabinet secretaries, as well as judicial nominees. With a new president in place, 2025 will mean many confirmation votes.

“When we have a leader that really knows how to lead, they’ll put appropriations bills on the floor, they’ll figure out how to embolden members,” Britt said, adding that “a weak leader consolidates all the power, and that’s, unfortunately, what I think we have right now when it comes to Chuck Schumer.”

‘Getting stuff done’

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford said whomever he votes for needs to “be successful at getting stuff done, finished, completed.”

“We have to be able to get our committees working and get legislation up, negotiated and moved,” Lankford said.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst said whoever takes over as the next GOP leader must be able to communicate well with senators.

That person “needs to be someone that has strategy, and knows how to work the floor, certainly. And then, also fundraising is a portion of that, too.”

Arkansas Sen. John Boozman said his vote will go to the person he believes can best build consensus and listen to members, though he hasn’t yet decided which of the three contenders he’ll support.

“I’m a true undecided,” Boozman said. “I think the reality is most members just want to get the election over. They don’t want to deal with this until then.”

Boozman said the results of the battle for control of the Senate in the November elections could influence which candidate he and his colleagues pick to lead them during the next Congress.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said that the next GOP leader should be in tune with Republican voters and the issues important to them.

“It’s someone who I think has an affinity and is in touch with where our voters are,” Rubio said.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley declined to list off any characteristics he believes the next leader needs, saying he doesn’t want any of the three to figure out his choice.

“I wouldn’t want to tell you that, because this is what I told all three people that came to my office — I said, ‘I’m not going to tell either one of you. You’re all friends of mine. You ain’t going to know who I vote for,’” Grassley said. “And if I answered your question, they’re going to start figuring out who I’m going to vote for.”

Grassley said the next leader’s first major challenge will be negotiating a tax bill during 2025 that addresses expiring elements from the 2017 Republican tax law.

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran said character matters in determining who he’ll vote for, but said he hadn’t created a score sheet just yet.

“I’ll have an idea of who I’m voting for before the November election,” Moran said. “Those characteristics that I think are important would be important regardless of what the makeup of the House, Senate and the White House is.”

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson threw his support behind Scott for GOP leader, saying he prefers someone who previously served as a governor and worked in the private sector. He was the only senator interviewed by States Newsroom to reveal his vote, which will be conducted via secret ballot.

He said that Scott “is willing to tackle tough issues.”

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said that Republicans have “a lot of good choices” among the three men and that he wants someone who can carry the GOP message.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (photo submitted).

The Biden administration was hit with the latest blow to its student debt relief efforts on Thursday after a federal judge in Missouri temporarily blocked the administration from putting in place a plan that would provide student debt relief to millions of borrowers.

The ruling further hinders the administration’s efforts to promote its work on student loans ahead of the November election and comes amid persistent Republican challenges to President Joe Biden’s student debt relief initiatives.

The administration, which unveiled the plans in April, said these efforts would provide student debt relief to more than 30 million borrowers. The proposals were never finalized.

In a September lawsuit, Missouri led Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota and Ohio in challenging the administration over the plan.

Their suit, filed in a Georgia federal court, came just days after a separate student debt relief effort — the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan — continued to be put on pause after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to lift a block on the plan in late August.

Following the September filing of the suit, U.S. District Judge J. Randal Hall of Georgia paused the plan through a temporary restraining order on Sept. 5 and extended that order on Sept. 19 while the case could be reviewed.

But on Wednesday, Hall let that order expire, dismissed Georgia from the suit and moved the case to a Missouri federal court.

Once the suit moved to Missouri and the restraining order was not extended, the remaining six states in the case quickly sought a preliminary injunction.

U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp granted the states’ request on Thursday, writing that the administration is barred from “mass canceling student loans, forgiving any principal or interest, not charging borrowers accrued interest, or further implementing any other actions under the (debt relief plans) or instructing federal contractors to take such actions.”

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey praised Schelp’s decision, saying in a Thursday post on X that it’s a “huge win for transparency, the rule of law, and for every American who won’t have to foot the bill for someone else’s Ivy League debt.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said the agency is “extremely disappointed by this ruling on our proposed debt relief rules, which have not yet even been finalized,” per a statement.

“This lawsuit was brought by Republican elected officials who made clear they will stop at nothing to prevent millions of their own constituents from getting breathing room on their student loans,” the spokesperson said.

The department will “continue to vigorously defend these proposals in court” and “will not stop fighting to fix the broken student loan system and provide support and relief to borrowers across the country,” they added.

The Student Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group, also lambasted the Missouri decision.

“With this case, the Missouri Attorney General continues to put naked political interest and corporate greed ahead of student loan borrowers in Missouri and across the country,” Persis Yu, deputy executive director and managing counsel for the advocacy group, said in a Thursday statement.

“This is a shameful attack on tens of millions of student loan borrowers and our judicial system as a whole,” Yu said. “We will not stop fighting to expose these abuses and ensure borrowers get the relief they deserve.”

Vice President and Democratic nominee for President Kamala Harris speaks at an event hosted by The Economic Club of Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University on Sept. 25 in Pittsburgh (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images).

Former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney will campaign with Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday in Ripon, Wisconsin — the birthplace of the Republican Party.

As Nov. 5 rapidly approaches, the Democratic presidential nominee continues to rack up support from prominent Republicans as she and former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, battle it out for the Oval Office in a tight contest.

Thursday’s campaign event also coincides with two dozen Wisconsin Republicans endorsing the veep in an open letter.

“We, the undersigned, are Republicans from across Wisconsin who bring the same message: Donald Trump does not align with Wisconsin values,” they wrote. The group included a sitting GOP district attorney for the Badger State’s Buffalo County as well as everyday Wisconsinites, former state lawmakers and elected officials.

“To ensure our democracy and our economy remain strong for another four years, we must elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to the White House,” the letter said, adding that the choice for Republicans in November is “a choice between the Wisconsin values of freedom, democracy, and decency that Vice President Harris and Governor Walz represent, and Donald Trump’s complete lack of character, divisive rhetoric, and extremism.”

Wisconsin is a critical swing state that’s flipped between red and blue in recent elections — with Biden narrowly winning in 2020 after Trump secured a GOP victory in 2016.

Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, endorsed Harris last month, saying: “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this, and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”

Cheney — a vocal Trump critic  — served as vice chair of the U.S. House Jan. 6 committee tasked with investigating the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

She lost her reelection bid for Wyoming’s lone House seat to Harriet Hageman in 2022 during the state’s GOP primary.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, father of Liz Cheney, also said he would vote for Harris. The prominent GOP figure served as veep during the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2009.

More GOP endorsements

Harris has received endorsements from over 230 Bush-McCain-Romney alums and more than 100 Republican national security officials, per the Harris campaign, a backing they describe as a “historic GOP mobilization for Harris.”

Part of the growing group of Republicans backing Harris includes Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump.

During an interview on MSNBC Wednesday night, Hutchinson said she’s “really proud, as a conservative, to have the opportunity to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in this election.”

Hutchinson also disclosed that she’ll be voting for Democrats in the House and Senate, saying she thinks it’s “so important that we get past this period of Donald Trump for America to begin healing.”

Trump in Michigan

Meanwhile, Trump is also heavily campaigning in swing states. He was set to hold a Thursday afternoon rally in Saginaw, Michigan.

The Democratic National Committee released multiple billboards in Michigan ahead of his rally, with a focus on Trump and his running mate, Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance, continuing to deny the 2020 election results.

During Tuesday’s vice presidential debate between Vance and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vance circumvented a question on whether Trump lost the 2020 election, saying he, himself, is “focused on the future.”

Walz, who posed the question to Vance, called his response a “damning non-answer.”

A version of the DNC billboard is also set to debut in the coming days in Wisconsin and North Carolina to coincide with Trump’s upcoming rallies in those swing states.

A sign reminding people to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — better known as FAFSA — appears on a bus near Union Station in Washington, D.C. (Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom).

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education is launching the first testing period for its phased rollout of the 2025-26 form to apply for federal financial student aid on Tuesday, with more students set to partake in this beginning testing stage than initially expected.

The department announced in August it would be using a staggered approach to launch the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid — or FAFSA — in order to address any issues that might arise before the form opens up to everyone by Dec. 1. The number of students able to complete the form will gradually increase throughout four separate testing stages, with the first one beginning Oct. 1.

The phased rollout makes the form fully available two months later than usual and comes as the 2024-25 form — which got a makeover after Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in late 2020 — faced a series of highly publicized hiccups that the department has worked to fix.

Earlier in September, the department announced six community-based organizations chosen to participate in the first testing period: Alabama Possible; Bridge 2 Life, in Florida; College AIM, in Georgia; Education is Freedom, in Texas; the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara, in California; and the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria, in Virginia.

“Thanks to the wonderful organizations, we expect closer to 1,000 students in Beta 1 as opposed to the 100 we initially thought,” FAFSA executive adviser Jeremy Singer said on a call with reporters Monday regarding the 2025-26 form.

During this first testing stage, U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal said the department will process students’ FAFSAs, “give students an opportunity to make corrections, if needed, and send the records to colleges and state agencies.”

“Colleges will be able to use these same records when it’s time for them to make financial aid offers,” said Kvaal, who oversees higher education and financial aid, including the Office of Federal Student Aid.

Three more testing periods

The department on Monday also named 78 community-based organizations, governmental entities, high schools, school districts and institutions of higher education to participate in its three subsequent testing periods for the 2025-26 form.

Three of the community-based organizations chosen to take part in the first testing period — Florida’s Bridge 2 Life; Texas’ Education is Freedom; and Virginia’s  Scholarship Fund of Alexandria — will also participate in subsequent testing stages.

To help students and families prepare for the 2025-26 application cycle, the department said this week it’s releasing a revised Federal Student Aid Estimator, updated resources for creating a StudentAid.Gov account, including a “parent wizard,” as well as an updated prototype of the 2025-26 FAFSA.

Last week, the department released a report outlining 10 steps it’s taking to improve the FAFSA application process. Part of those efforts include the department strengthening its leadership team and working to address issues for families without Social Security numbers when completing the form, in addition to vendors adding more than 700 new call center agents.

Vice President and Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris speaks Wednesday at an event hosted by The Economic Club of Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Harris gave details about her economic platform, including ways to support small businesses and making home ownership more attainable, among other policy proposals. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

The Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, laid out more of her economic vision Wednesday during her first one-on-one cable TV interview.

Harris and former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, are laying out dueling economic agendas this week as the two vie for the Oval Office in an extremely close race.

“I really love and am so energized by what I know to be the spirit and character of the American people — we have ambition, we have aspirations, we have dreams, we can see what’s possible, we have an incredible work ethic, but not everyone has the access to the opportunities that allow them to achieve those things, but we don’t lack for those things, but not everyone gets handed stuff on a silver platter,” Harris told MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle.

“My vision for the economy — I call it an opportunity economy — is about making sure that all Americans — wherever they start, wherever they are — have the ability to actually achieve those dreams and those ambitions, which include, for middle-class families, just being able to know that their hard work allows them to get ahead,” she said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Harris touted her economic plans in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at Carnegie Mellon University. During her MSNBC interview later in the day, she reiterated her plan to cut taxes for more than 100 million Americans, including $6,000 in tax relief for new parents in the first year of their child’s life.

In that first year, Harris said these parents are going to “need help buying a crib, buying a car seat, and we all benefit when they’re actually able to do what they naturally want to do to take care of their child.”

Part of her economic agenda also includes as much as $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers and an up to $50,000 tax break for first-time small businesses.

She also took jabs at Trump when it comes to the economy, saying he’s “just not very serious about how he thinks about some of these issues.”

The Trump campaign clapped back at her MSNBC appearance on Wednesday, saying “it was (another) reminder why she never does interviews,” and that she’s “not competent enough — and she has no plans to offer Americans.”

Trump pitched his economic plan earlier this week in Georgia, part of which includes levying tariffs on exported goods, and he vowed to place a 100% tariff on cars imported from Mexico.

Harris to visit southern border 

Harris also touched on immigration, telling Ruhle “we do have a broken immigration system, and it needs to be fixed.”

She also said she would bring back and sign into law a major bipartisan border security bill from earlier this year while pinning its legislative failure on Trump.

“He killed a bill that would have actually been a solution because he wants to run on a problem instead of fixing the problem, and that’s part of what needs to be addressed,” Harris said.

The veep is set to visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday for the first time since becoming the Democratic nominee. Her Douglas, Arizona, visit comes as she’s faced repeated criticism and backlash from both sides of the aisle for her efforts surrounding immigration.

In a Truth Social post earlier this week regarding her upcoming visit, Trump again dubbed Harris a “border czar,” saying “what a disgrace that she waited so long, allowing millions of people to enter our Country from prisons, mental institutions, and criminal cells all over the World, not just South America, many of those coming are terrorists, and at a level never seen before!”

President Joe Biden tapped Harris back in 2021 to help address the “root causes” of migration in Central America, but he did not give her the title of “border czar.” The Department of Homeland Security is in charge of border security.

What’s next for Harris, Trump campaigns

Harris was set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday afternoon.

The meeting between the two leaders “serves as a reminder that the Vice President has been a champion for the United States, advancing our security and prosperity on the world stage and standing up to dictators and autocrats,” her campaign said in a Thursday press release.

This will be her seventh meeting with Zelenskyy, according to her campaign, which noted that as vice president, “she helped rally a global coalition of 50 allies and partners to help Ukraine defend itself.”

Trump is set to deliver remarks in Walker, Michigan, on Friday. Later in the day, he will also host a town hall in Warren, Michigan.

And in the thick of the college football season, Trump is set to attend the Alabama-Georgia football game on Saturday in Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama confirmed to States Newsroom last week.

Harris’ running mate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is set to attend the Michigan-Minnesota football game Saturday in Ann Arbor, the Harris-Walz campaign announced.

He’s also slated to campaign there and will “speak with students about the power of their vote and the importance of registering to vote ahead of the November election,” per the announcement.

Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump, left, wears a bandage to cover his wound from a July 13 assassination attempt as he attends the Republican National Convention with his vice presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance. Trump will hold another rally at the site where the assassination attempt took place. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, is slated to speak in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5 at the site of the first assassination attempt against him, his campaign announced Wednesday.

Trump will return to the Butler Farm Show, where law enforcement officials say 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks killed one rallygoer, injured two others and shot Trump’s ear on July 13. The attack prompted a slew of federal probes as well as a bipartisan congressional task force to investigate.

The imminent rally also comes as authorities investigate a second suspected assassination attempt against Trump. On Tuesday, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh with attempting to kill Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks regarding the former president’s security. At a press briefing last week, the federal agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that it failed to protect Trump during the Butler rally.

Days after the first assassination attempt, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he would “be going back to Butler, Pennsylvania, for a big and beautiful rally, honoring the soul of our beloved firefighting hero, Corey, and those brave patriots injured,” adding “what a day it will be — fight, fight, fight!”

The Trump campaign said the former president will “honor the memory of Corey Comperatore, who heroically sacrificed his life to shield his wife and daughters from the bullets on that terrible day,” per the Wednesday announcement.

Trump is also set to recognize the two rallygoers who were wounded in the shooting: David Dutch and James Copenhaver.

Trump will also “express his deep gratitude to law enforcement and first responders, and thank the entire community for their outpouring of love and support in the wake of the attack,” his campaign added.

Close-up of federal financial aid application. (Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Months after the rollout of the streamlined form to apply for federal financial student aid faced a series of highly publicized hiccups that prompted processing delays and frustrated students and families, a government watchdog offered some additional explanation Tuesday of what went wrong and recommendations for the U.S. Education Department going forward.

Members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development expressed frustration Tuesday over the botched rollout and its repercussions for students and families at a hearing that coincided with the release of a pair of findings from the Government Accountability Office on the major issues that plagued the rollout of the 2024-25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

Though the application got a makeover after Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act, advocates have shared concerns over processing delays as a result of the form’s failure to adjust for inflation, its formula miscalculation and its tax data errors. Major issues also initially prevented parents without Social Security numbers from completing the form.

The department has worked to fix issues surrounding the 2024-25 form and reevaluated the implementation of the 2025-26 form, taking into account feedback from students, families and stakeholders.

On Monday, the department released a report reviewing implementation of the 2024-25 form as well as the progress it’s making to try to improve the user experience since the streamlined form launched.

Part of those efforts include the department using a phased rollout of the 2025-26 form in an effort to address any problems that might arise before opening to everyone by Dec. 1. The staggered approach will make the 2025-26 FAFSA fully available two months later than usual.

Members of both parties criticized the 2024-25 form’s rollout at Tuesday’s hearing.

Subcommittee Chairman Burgess Owens said the “FAFSA rollout was mired in delays, errors, frustration — and for some of our most vulnerable students — the loss of their dreams for a higher education.”

The Utah Republican said the “impact of the Biden administration’s failure on real lives has been devastating.”

Rep. Frederica Wilson, ranking member of the subcommittee, said implementation of the FAFSA Simplification Act “has been derailed by a series of mistakes made by the Department of Education, leading to delays and ongoing setbacks in the rollout of the new application.”

The Florida Democrat expressed frustration that “aside from the dozens of letters Congress has sent, this is not the first hearing we’ve had this year about this same issue, nor is this the first application cycle with these issues.”

Lack of information

In one of the two GAO reports released Tuesday, the watchdog found that about 432,000 fewer people submitted a FAFSA compared to last year — marking a 3% decrease as of late August.

The decline in submissions was “most pronounced among lower income students and families,” per GAO.

The investigators also found that the department did not consistently provide students with timely information on processing delays, changes in their student aid eligibility, or “solutions to technical barriers they encountered during the application process.”

Melissa Emrey-Arras, a director at GAO who oversees work on education, said at the Tuesday hearing that delays “significantly hindered (students’) ability to choose a college, thinking wisely about their finances and whether they could afford a school.”

“Can you imagine? It’s like buying a house but not knowing how much aid you’re gonna get and having to make a commitment right then and there,” Emrey-Arras said.

Understaffing leads to unanswered calls

The government watchdog also found that, as a result of understaffing, nearly three-quarters of all calls to the call center went unanswered in the first five months of the 2024-25 rollout — totalling 4 million out of 5.4 million calls.

As for the communication with schools, GAO found that the department “consistently failed to meet promised deadlines and provide colleges with sufficient notice” of timeframe changes throughout the 2024-25 FAFSA rollout.

Marisol Cruz Cain, a GAO director who oversees work on information technology, said the Office of Federal Student Aid “did not fully test the system, leading to numerous performance problems.”

Cruz Cain said that after the initial deployment, “FSA identified 55 defects, which was almost twice as many as were identified when testing the system as a whole prior to launch.”

Improvement plan

In a Monday letter to college and university presidents regarding progress on the 2025-26 form, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the department “has worked tirelessly to completely overhaul a system that had largely remained untouched for over four decades and itself included twenty different sub-systems that required significant changes — a wholesale transformation to enable the most sweeping changes to federal financial aid eligibility and processes in years.”

The department outlined in its report Monday 10 steps it has taken to improve the FAFSA application process, such as increasing the number of call center agents — with more than 700 new agents added. The department is also working to address issues families without Social Security numbers faced when completing the form.

The department’s efforts also include strengthening its leadership team and offering “additional outreach and support for students and families who need the most help completing the form.”

In a statement responding to Tuesday’s hearing, a spokesperson for the department said that “after the first major overhaul of the FAFSA system in more than four decades, there are more than 500,000 more students eligible for Pell Grants than there were at this time last year.”

“We have sought advice from students and families, colleges, and partners and provided more than 1,000 documents to the Government Accountability Office,” the spokesperson added. “Thanks to this input, along with community partnerships, we have now narrowed the FAFSA completion gap to about 2% compared to this time last year — down from 40% in March.”

CAPTION: Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he arrives to court for his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30 in New York City (Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump said Thursday night that if he loses the election in November to Vice President Kamala Harris, Jewish voters “would really have a lot to do with that.”

As the first anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel nears and the war in Gaza continues, the GOP presidential nominee spoke at back-to-back events in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, where he promised Jewish Americans that with their vote, he would be their protector, defender and “the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House.”

He and Harris, the Democratic candidate, are vying for the Oval Office in a close race that is just 46 days away and in which early in-person voting has already kicked off in multiple states.

“The current polling has me with Jewish citizens, Jewish people — people that are supposed to love Israel — after having done all that, having been the best president, the greatest president by far … a poll just came out, I’m at 40%,” Trump said at an event with Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson on combating antisemitism in America.

“That means you got 60% voting for somebody that hates Israel, and I say it — it’s gonna happen,” he said. “It’s only because of the Democrat hold, or curse, on you.”

During the presidential debate earlier this month, Harris echoed her commitment to giving Israel the right to defend itself and said “we must chart a course for a two-state solution, and in that solution, there must be security for the Israeli people and Israel and an equal measure for the Palestinians.”

She called for an immediate end to the war, saying “the way it will end is we need a cease-fire deal, and we need the hostages out.”

Trump also addressed the Israeli-American Council National Summit, where he said Israel would face “total annihilation” if Harris is elected. At the earlier event, he said any Jewish person who votes for Harris or any Democrat, “should have their head examined.”

Trump also committed to combating antisemitism at universities across the country, saying that if reelected, during his first week in office his administration would inform every college president that if they don’t “end antisemitic propaganda,” they will lose their accreditation and all federal support.

Harris ad ties Trump to N.C.’s Robinson

Trump made no mention Thursday of North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson,  the state’s Republican gubernatorial nominee. The Trump ally vowed to stay in the race following a scathing CNN investigation published Thursday.

Part of the bombshell CNN report included Robinson referring to himself as a “black NAZI” and writing that “slavery is not bad” in messages posted on pornographic forums in 2010.

The North Carolina Republican, who has a history of making controversial remarks, has become an issue in the presidential race in the crucial swing state.

Trump is set to speak at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday regarding the CNN investigation.

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign launched a TV ad in North Carolina on Friday that seeks to tie the former president to Robinson. Part of the 30-second ad includes Trump saying Robinson has been an “unbelievable lieutenant governor” and that he’s “gotten to know him” and “(Robinson) is outstanding.”

Per the Harris campaign, the ad also seeks to highlight Robinson’s “extreme anti-abortion views.”

Harris addresses reproductive rights

The ad announcement came ahead of Harris’ Friday remarks in Georgia, where she repeated her commitment to reproductive freedom in response to a recent ProPublica investigation linking the state’s restrictive abortion law to the deaths of two Georgia women — Amber Thurman and Candi Miller.

Harris also highlighted the repercussions of “Trump abortion bans” following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade, which ended the constitutional right to abortion after nearly half a century. Trump appointed three of the five U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe.

“Now we know that at least two women — and those are only the stories we know — here in the state of Georgia, died because of a Trump abortion ban,” Harris said.

The mother and sisters of Thurman attended a livestreamed event Thursday night in Michigan, where Harris joined Oprah Winfrey.

Harris also made headlines at Thursday’s event when, reiterating she is a gun owner, said that if somebody were to break into her house, “they’re getting shot.” Laughing, the vice president said she “probably should not have said that” and her staff will “deal with that later.”

The Democratic presidential nominee said Thursday she’s in favor of the Second Amendment, but also supported assault weapons bans, universal background checks and red flag laws, calling them “just common sense.”

Harris is also set to speak at a campaign rally Friday night in Madison, Wisconsin.

Trump to attend Alabama-Georgia game 

Trump plans to attend the Alabama-Georgia football game in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 28, the University of Alabama confirmed to States Newsroom.

Security for the former president has been under intense scrutiny, especially after what’s being investigated as the second assassination attempt against Trump in recent weeks.

The university said “the safety of our campus is and will remain our top priority, and UAPD will work closely with the U.S. Secret Service and other law enforcement partners to coordinate security.”

The Secret Service acknowledged Friday that it failed to protect the former president during a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which was the site of the first assassination attempt.

Control of Congress

As the presidential race remains a tight contest, so do races that will determine control of each chamber of Congress.

The Senate map favors Republicans, with several seats now held by Democrats in play. Democrats would likely need to sweep the elections in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and win the presidential race — to keep control of the chamber.

Elections forecasters consider the House more of a toss-up, with nearly 40 races likely to determine which party controls the chamber.

Students eat lunch at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in South Salt Lake, Utah, on March 12 (Spenser Heaps/Utah News Dispatch).

WASHINGTON — Amid persistent child hunger and food insecurity in the United States, lawmakers and advocates on Wednesday stressed the importance of school meal programs during a U.S. Senate Agriculture subcommittee hearing.

Hunger severely impacts kids’ emotional and physical well-being and can lead to negative outcomes in school, research has shown. Last year, 47.4 million people lived in food-insecure households, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Federally funded efforts, such as the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, provide free and reduced-cost meals to students across the country.

Advocates say these programs play a crucial role in helping to reduce child hunger and urged the panel to expand them.

“School lunch should always be free and definitely free of judgment,” said Sen. John Fetterman, who chairs the Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics, and Research.

Missouri set to start distributing new summer food aid for children

“Honestly, it shouldn’t be a conversation — it would be like asking the kids to pay for the school bus every morning or to pay for their own textbooks at school,” Fetterman said.

Fetterman and fellow Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. Bob Casey introduced two bills in June aiming to expand free or reduced-price meals access for kids. Part of the initiatives also call for amending the Community Eligibility Provision, which allows schools and school districts in low-income areas to offer free meal options to all students.

Fetterman also sponsored the Universal School Meals Program Act, an effort introduced by independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders last May, which would “provide free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to every student — without demanding they prove they are poor enough to deserve help getting three meals a day,” according to Sanders’ summary of the bill. U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, introduced a companion bill.

Subcommittee ranking member Mike Braun of Indiana said he introduced the American Food for American Schools Act last July with Ohio Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown in an effort “to better prioritize and support the use of American food in school meal programs.”

That bipartisan bill would increase requirements for school meals to include U.S. products.

States a model

Crystal FitzSimons, interim president of the Food Research & Action Center, pointed out that eight states have implemented policies that offer school meals to all students, regardless of one’s household income. Those states are California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont.

The national nonprofit aims to reduce poverty-related hunger in the U.S. through research, advocacy and policy solutions.

“While those eight states are showing us what is possible, there are critical steps the subcommittee and Congress should take to enhance the reach and impact of school meals nationwide,” FitzSimons said.

As one piece of the puzzle, FitzSimons said Congress can “ensure that all children nationwide are hunger-free and ready to learn while they are at school by allowing all schools to offer meals to all their students at no charge” and the Universal School Meals Program Act “creates that path.”

Meg Bruening, professor and department head at Pennsylvania State University’s Department of Nutritional Sciences, said “the school meal programs in the U.S. provide a critical safety net for almost 30 million children with meals each year” — comprising 60% of children in the country.

Bruening said these school meal programs align closely with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, “ensuring a variety of healthy foods are offered to children while at school, where children spend most of their waking and eating hours.”

The guidelines, developed by the USDA and the Health and Human Services Department, are updated every five years.

Summer EBT 

Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock underscored how child hunger increases in the summer months when kids lack access to regular meals at school.

Thirty-seven states, the District of Columbia and multiple territories and tribal nations opted in this year to a new effort, known as Summer EBT, to feed kids during the long summer months.

Also called Sun Bucks, the USDA initiative provides low-income families with school-aged children a grocery-buying benefit of $120 per child for the summer.

But 13 states, including Georgia, chose not to participate in the program in 2024. The USDA said states have until Jan. 1 to submit a notice of intent if they plan to participate in the program next year.

Warnock said he hopes state leaders reverse their position on Summer EBT.

“Unfortunately, my home state — the state of Georgia — has not opted in to Sun Bucks, with some officials saying it does not result in higher nutritional outcomes for students, and that existing programs are ‘effective,’” he said.

“I heard our state leadership say: ‘We don’t need it,’” he added. “I’m still trying to figure out who this ‘we’ is — for whom are you speaking when you say: ‘We don’t need it?’”

A spokesperson for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has said the governor has concerns about the program’s dietary standards and cost.

(Catherine Lane/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — As private student loan companies take heat over accusations of predatory behavior and deception, members of a U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs panel and student advocates voiced concerns over the industry at a hearing Tuesday.

The Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection hearing came as the broader student debt crisis impacts millions, with more than $1.74 trillion in outstanding student loans as of the second quarter of 2024, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Subcommittee Chairman Raphael Warnock said he and his staff analyzed some of the myriad complaints the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau received related to private student loans and federal student loan servicing in roughly the last year and were “struck by the sheer scope and magnitude of the problem.”

“Private lenders and servicers routinely misled or deceived borrowers, and the stories are frustrating and heartbreaking,” the Georgia Democrat said.

Some borrowers have found loans offered by private lenders to be extraordinary burdens, Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director at the Student Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group, told the panel.

“Student loans were supposed to grant all families — regardless of race and economic status — the chance to unlock the promise of a higher education,” she said.

“But for too many, student debt has become a life sentence, holding borrowers back from buying a home, starting a small business and even starting or growing a family,” Canchola Bañez said.

Canchola Bañez said “the absence of comprehensive data in the private student loan space has too often left borrowers, policymakers and advocates in the dark” and that “this has allowed for significant gaps in protections for the millions of Americans forced to take on private student loan debt and has made it harder for policymakers and law enforcement officials to protect borrowers.”

Dalié Jiménez, a law professor and director of the Student Loan Law Initiative at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, said the private student loan industry had transformed in the last decade.

“New financial products have emerged, offering alternatives to traditional loans, but they’ve come with added risks that we’re only beginning to understand,” Jiménez said, adding that “many are offered by schools that provide dubious value in return for costly credit.”

Troubled industry

Major student loan servicers, such as Navient, have been at the center of legal issues and scrutiny in recent years. Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reached a $120 million settlement with Navient that bans the company from federal student loan servicing.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and member of the subcommittee, has led investigations into Navient for nearly a decade.

Warren said Tuesday that “Republican extremists want to return to the days where borrowers were just at the mercy of predatory servicers like Navient” and that “the Biden-Harris administration has a different vision.”

Warren added that it’s “long past time for Navient to do the right thing by their countless defrauded borrowers and cancel out these loans for the private student loan borrowers as well.”

On the other side of the aisle, GOP Sen. Cynthia Lummis defended the industry’s basic mission.

“While individual cases of malfeasance certainly exist in the private loan market — as they do in any market — private lenders fill a crucial gap in higher education financing and equip borrowers with the tools to meet the barriers to education in place today,” Lummis said.

Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, also noted that the private student loan market only accounts for 8% of outstanding loans and that the vast majority of loans are federal loans.

Beth Akers, senior fellow at the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, pointed out that while “private student loan origination and servicing, both for federal and private loans, hasn’t been perfect” and “lending institutions and those that service loans are fallible,” these private entities supporting student lending “don’t deserve the ire of lawmakers looking for a quick fix or even a scapegoat for what is happening more broadly in student lending.”

The U.S. Education Department will open up the phased rollout of the new federal financial aid form to high schools, districts and other organizations (Catherine Lane/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education named the first six organizations to participate in the phased rollout of the 2025-26 form to apply for federal financial student aid Wednesday, and opened up the interest form for high schools, school districts and other entities to get involved in its next three testing periods.

In August, the department said it would take a staggered approach to launching the application period for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — better known as FAFSA — in an effort to address any problems prior to the updated form opening up to everyone by Dec. 1.

The phased rollout will make the application fully available two months later than usual.

The first testing period beginning Oct. 1 will include six community-based organizations. The department on Wednesday said it selected Alabama Possible; Bridge 2 Life, in Florida; College AIM, in Georgia; Education is Freedom, in Texas; the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara, in California; and the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria, in Virginia; to participate.

The six organizations will provide access to the new form to hundreds of participants in the first testing period. The form will gradually open up to tens of thousands of students in the subsequent testing stages.

“Each of these orgs have committed to recruit 100-plus students and contributors, which will allow us to test the FAFSA system end-to-end from the submissions process, to processing, to ingestion of the (Institutional Student Information Records) by colleges and possibly even state agencies,” FAFSA executive adviser Jeremy Singer said on a call with reporters Wednesday.

Singer said each of the community-based organizations will host an in-person FAFSA event over the first few days of October.

“We will send some of our team members to these sites to observe and learn from our experienced partners, seeing how students and families are interacting with the application, what’s working for them, what’s challenging, what’s clear, what’s less clear,” said Singer, who heads FAFSA strategy within the department’s Office of Federal Student Aid.

Next phases

Singer said the second testing period would launch in mid-October, with the third debuting in early November and the fourth period beginning in mid-November.

Community-based organizations, high schools, school districts and institutions of higher education have from Wednesday until Sept. 20 to submit an interest form to be part of the next three testing periods.

The department said it plans to notify those selected to participate in the second testing period by Sept. 24 and inform those chosen to take part in the third and fourth testing periods shortly afterward.

The department has also worked to close the gap in FAFSA submissions compared to the prior cycle. In March, the department said it received roughly 40% fewer FAFSA applications than the same time last year.

But as of this week, the gap had fallen to approximately 2.3%, the department said.

The department also said that as of early September, roughly 500,000 more FAFSA applicants are eligible for Pell Grants compared to the same time in 2023.

The updates to the rollout of the 2025-26 form come as the department has worked to resolve the 2024-25 form’s multiple glitches and errors, which advocates voiced concerns over. The application got a makeover following the December 2020 passage of the FAFSA Simplification Act.

The Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program, known as Summer EBT, popped up in 37 states, the District of Columbia and multiple territories and tribal nations this year and is intended to feed hungry kids (Inti St. Clair/Getty Photos)

A U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative to feed hungry kids during the long summer months is mostly winding down, with advocates calling it a success despite some hiccups — and the federal government and many states are already working to bring the permanent program back in 2025.

The Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program — or Summer EBT — has popped up in 37 states, the District of Columbia and multiple territories and tribal nations this year. Advocates say that despite the program’s fair share of challenges, especially given its first year of implementation, the program emerged as an important resource in the fight against kids’ summer hunger.

Summer EBT, also known as SUN Bucks, provides low-income families with school-aged children a grocery-buying benefit of $120 per child. Children are automatically enrolled in Summer EBT if already enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known as TANF; or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, per the USDA.

Students might also be automatically enrolled if their school offers the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program and their family qualifies for free or reduced-price school meals, according to the USDA. Most states’ deadlines to apply for the benefit this summer have already passed, and many have already issued the benefit for the summer months.

Allan Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the USDA, said it’s too early to say just how many children have been served through the program so far this summer, but based on the participating states, territories and tribes, an estimated 21 million children are eligible to receive the benefits.

‘Critical support to families’

Kelsey Boone, senior child nutrition policy analyst at the Food Research & Action Center, told States Newsroom that “like any new program, there are challenges with Summer EBT.”

The national nonprofit works to reduce poverty-related hunger through research, advocacy and policy solutions.

“That has included tight implementation timelines, logistical complexities and the need to raise awareness among eligible families,” Boone said.

Despite those challenges, Boone said the program is “definitely worth it” and “provides critical support to families by ensuring children have access to nutritious foods during the summer months, bridging the gap when school meals are unavailable.”

Boone said “we are still in the midst of implementation, so there aren’t hard statistics on how the programs are really rolling out at this point.”

She added that “some states have had to return to USDA and ask for … higher amounts of benefits, and that is due to the fact that they are streamline certifying, or automatically giving benefits to more students than they expected, and that is a very big positive for the streamlined certification process.”

Boone noted that some states have been delayed in issuing the benefits, “which means some families will not be receiving benefits until September or even October or November.”

Still, Boone said that despite the importance of receiving the benefits during crucial summer months when school meal programs are not an option, “it is also going to be helpful no matter what.”

Over a dozen states opted out  

But 13 states — all with Republican governors — chose not to partake in the program this year, including Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. Multiple tribal nations in Oklahoma are participating despite the state opting out.

Rodriguez said the department expects that even more states and tribes will provide SUN Bucks next year.

States have until Jan. 1 to submit a notice of intent if they plan to participate in Summer EBT for 2025, according to the USDA. Alabama has already allocated millions of dollars in funding for the program next summer.

“We recognize that standing up a new program in a very short time period is no easy task,” Rodriguez said, adding that “potential challenges may include making systems changes, identifying sufficient staff, and securing financial resources to cover program administration, particularly (states’) responsibility for covering 50% of the administrative costs associated with operating the program.”

The USDA “is committed to working closely with all states, U.S. territories, and eligible tribes to support our shared goal of ensuring children have access to critical nutrition in the summer months through SUN Bucks,” Rodriguez added.

Justin King, policy director at Propel — a financial technology company helping low-income Americans track Electronic Benefit Transfer balances, like Summer EBT, through an app — said “there’s a lot of frustration and disappointment among folks who feel left out because their state has chosen not to participate this year.”

The company, which has partnered with the Biden administration, serves more than 5 million households each month.

King said “the big takeaway from looking at Summer EBT is that while there might be inevitable hiccups and challenges, Summer EBT can work, and it does make a difference for the households that it serves.”

“The comments that we’ve gotten from households who’ve received the benefit this year are overwhelmingly positive about it making a real difference in their ability to keep their kids healthy and fed in summertime.”

(Getty stock photo).

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will take the stage next week in the only planned debate between the respective Democratic and GOP presidential candidates between now and November.

It’s the first presidential debate since President Joe Biden bowed out of the race following his own disastrous debate performance in late June against Trump. Biden, who faced mounting calls to resign, passed the torch to Harris back in July.

The veep has embarked on an unprecedented and expedited campaign as she and Trump vie for the Oval Office. The election is just two months away.

Though the Harris and Trump campaigns clashed over debate procedures in recent weeks, both candidates have agreed to the finalized rules. ABC News, host of the debate, released the rules Wednesday.

When and where is the debate? 

The debate will be Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 9 p.m. Eastern time at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The debate will be 90 minutes long and include two commercial breaks, according to ABC.

The Keystone State — where both Harris and Trump have spent a lot of time campaigning — could determine the outcome of the presidential election. The battleground state has narrowly flip-flopped in recent elections, with Biden turning Pennsylvania blue in 2020 after Trump secured a red win in 2016.

How can I watch the debate? 

The debate will air live on ABC News and will also be streaming on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.

ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate the debate.

Harris and Trump will each have two minutes to answer questions and two minutes to give rebuttals. They will also be granted one additional minute to clarify or follow up on anything.

Will the mics be muted? 

Microphones will be muted when it’s not a candidate’s turn to speak, just like the previous debate between Biden and Trump in June.

The candidates will not give opening statements. Trump won a coin flip to determine the order of closing statements and podium placement. Trump, who selected the statement order, will give the final closing statement.

Each closing statement will be two minutes long.

Harris and Trump are not allowed to bring any props or prewritten notes to the debate stage. They will each receive a pen, a pad of paper and a water bottle.

Will there be a live audience? 

There will be no live audience at the National Constitution Center, as was the case in the last presidential debate.

Harris and Trump are not permitted to interact with their campaign staff during the two commercial breaks.

Trump slams ABC ahead of debate

Trump went on the attack over the details of the debate, telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity during an interview Wednesday in Pennsylvania that “ABC is the worst network in terms of fairness” and “the most dishonest network, the meanest, the nastiest.”

He accused the network of releasing poor polls on purpose ahead of a previous election to drive down voter turnout.

Trump also claimed, without evidence, that Harris would get the questions in advance of the debate. ABC’s debate rules state that no candidates or campaigns will receive any topics or questions ahead of the event.

Meanwhile, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance will battle it out at the vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1 in New York City.

The U.S. Department of Education said it would use a phased rollout to launch the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — more commonly known as FAFSA — in an attempt to address any issues before the form is available to everyone (Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — With the U.S. Department of Education using a staggered approach in opening up the 2025-26 application period for federal financial student aid, the agency said Tuesday it will partner with a small number of community-based organizations to participate in the first testing period beginning Oct. 1.

Earlier in August, the department said it would use a phased rollout to launch the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — more commonly known as FAFSA — in an attempt to address any issues before the form is available to everyone.

The form will be open to hundreds of students and contributors during the first beta testing period this fall, increasing to tens of thousands by the final testing stage and available to everyone by Dec. 1.

Community-based organizations interested in participating in the initial testing can fill out an interest form from Tuesday until Sept. 5.

The department said it will select two to six of those groups and notify them by Sept. 9.

“In our prep, just to give some confidence, we’ve hit every milestone so far on time,” Jeremy Singer, FAFSA executive adviser, said on a call with reporters regarding the framework for the 2025-26 FAFSA testing period. “That bodes well for us being able to meet the beta testing period and a solid path to actually open it up to real users on October 1.”

Singer, who leads FAFSA strategy within the department’s Office of Federal Student Aid, said “each (community-based organization) will recruit students to participate in the beta, and then they’ll host FAFSA night in very early October.”

He said these organizations will also identify a partner college that will receive Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) and that the goal is to “test the system end-to-end.”

Singer said that in later beta tests, the department will also partner with high schools and higher education institutions.

In March, the department said it received roughly 40% fewer FAFSA applications than the same time period in 2023, but as of Tuesday, the gap is now under 3%.

The 2024-25 FAFSA form witnessed its share of hiccups, both when the form soft launched last December and officially debuted this past January. The 2024-25 form got a makeover after the FAFSA Simplification Act passed in December 2020.

The department has worked to fix a series of glitches and errors, including concerns from advocates over the form’s failure to adjust for inflation, its formula miscalculation and its tax data errors.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends a pre-trial hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court on Feb. 15, 2024, in New York City. Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records last year, which prosecutors say was an effort to hide a potential sex scandal, both before and after the 2016 presidential election (Brendan McDermid-Pool/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Special counsel Jack Smith was granted more time on Friday before having to give an outline on the next steps his office is taking in the 2020 election interference case against former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee.

The delay pushes the case proceedings further into the thick of the presidential race, as Trump vies for the Oval Office against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

The D.C. case is one of several legal hurdles facing the former president, who became a convicted felon in May.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered both parties to submit a joint status report that proposes “a schedule for pretrial proceedings moving forward” by Aug. 9 and set a pretrial meeting for Aug. 16 to determine how the case should proceed.

But on Thursday, prosecutors asked to have until Aug. 30 to file another joint status report and to delay the status conference hearing until next month.

Chutkan granted that request on Friday and pushed back the pretrial meeting to Sept. 5.

Prosecutors asked for this delay to further examine the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month, which found that presidents are granted full immunity from criminal charges for any official “core constitutional” acts, though they have no immunity for any unofficial acts.

In the report, prosecutors wrote that “the Government continues to assess the new precedent set forth last month in the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States, including through consultation with other Department of Justice components.”

“Although those consultations are well underway, the Government has not finalized its position on the most appropriate schedule for the parties to brief issues related to the decision,” Smith’s office wrote.

“The Government therefore respectfully requests additional time to provide the Court with an informed proposal regarding the schedule for pretrial proceedings moving forward,” they added.

Lawyers for Trump did not object to the prosecutors’ Thursday extension request.

Rejection of immunity claim

The election subversion case was on pause for months while the former president’s immunity claim played out in the courts. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously rejected Trump’s immunity claim back in February, prompting the former president to take the presidential immunity fight to the nation’s highest court.

But the July 1 Supreme Court ruling forced prosecutors to reexamine how they want the election subversion case to go forward.

Chutkan is now tasked with determining whether Trump’s alleged conduct regarding the 2020 election results constitutes “official” presidential acts.

Trump was indicted in August 2023 on four counts relating to his alleged role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

He was charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S.; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.

The former president has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and has denied wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, the former president was found guilty in a New York court in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. His sentencing was originally scheduled for mid-July, but has been delayed until at least September following the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.

(Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education said Wednesday it will use a phased rollout to launch the 2025-26 form to apply for federal financial student aid, which will make the application fully available two months later than usual.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid — better known as FAFSA — will be available to hundreds of students on Oct. 1, gradually ramping up to be available to all by Dec. 1. The staggered approach is an attempt to fix any issues before the form is open to everyone.

The phased rollout came after the 2024-25 form, which got a makeover following Congress passing the FAFSA Simplification Act in late 2020, witnessed its share of hiccups and glitches during the soft launch in December and past the official debut in January.

Though advocates expressed concerns regarding the form’s failure to adjust for inflation, its formula miscalculation and its tax data errors, which prompted processing delays, the department has worked to fix these issues.

“As we rolled out the 2024-2025 FAFSA cycle, we met various challenges in its first year,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said during a call with reporters Wednesday.

Cardona said “these challenges — rooted in a federal student aid department that was also in desperate need of modernization — resulted in frustration for many students, families, education leaders and policy makers from the Hill.”

The Education secretary added that over the last 10 months, the department has “spent lots of time with these stakeholders to ensure their experience and their input influences our work moving forward,” noting that the new rollout process reflects the extensive feedback the department has received.

Jeremy Singer, who leads FAFSA strategy within the department’s Office of Federal Student Aid, said hundreds of students will participate in the testing period beginning Oct. 1.

Singer said that availability will expand to thousands of students in mid-October and then to tens of thousands of students in early November, all prior to the form opening up to all students and families by Dec. 1.

Hearing from many students, families, schools and organizations, Singer said some of the most common demands included a concrete launch timeline and ability to track progress on that timeline, the launch of a form that’s fully functioning and assurance that there will be no major defects once the form is launched.

Senior department officials said states and schools have told them that no determination of financial aid will be made before the system opens for all students in December.

U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal, who oversees higher education and financial aid, including the  Office of Federal Student Aid, said that in March, the department received nearly 40% fewer FAFSAs than they had on the same date a year prior.

But now that gap is under 4% and they “continue to close it every week,” Kvaal said.

The department is inviting volunteers to take part in the testing period and said it will release more information in the coming weeks on how students and other partners can get involved in this initial process.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona speaks with families at the Mattie Rhodes Center in Kansas City (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).

WASHINGTON — Though the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX extending federal protections for LGBTQ students went into effect nationwide Thursday, a slew of legal challenges has temporarily blocked over half of all states from enforcing the updated regulations.

After the Department of Education released the final rule in April, 26 states — all with GOP attorneys general — rushed to challenge the measure. Given the myriad legal challenges, the updated regulations only went into effect Thursday in 24 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, celebrated the final rule on Thursday during a briefing.

Cardona said the updated regulations “are the culmination of a lengthy and thorough process that included unprecedented public input from students, parents, educators, administrators, experts and other stakeholders.”

“These regulations make crystal clear that everyone has the right to schools that respect their rights and offer safe, welcoming learning environments,” he added.

Lhamon said it’s “a very fluid legal environment” and the department continues “to defend the rule we believe in in these cases, with the Department of Justice as our counsel in the courts.”

“We anticipated this moment when we were finalizing the 2024 regulations, and we know they are legally sound,” she said, noting that the department has appealed the injunctions that have so far been issued and sought clarification of their application.

“While the appeals of these rulings are pending, we have asked the United States Supreme Court to allow the unchallenged provisions — which are the bulk of the final rule —  to take effect in the enjoined states as scheduled,” Lhamon said.

But the Supreme Court has yet to decide on that emergency request, which came in a pair of filings from U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar last week.

Discrimination protection

The final rule “protects against discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics,” per the department. The updated regulations are also aimed at “restoring and strengthening full protection from sexual violence and other sex-based harassment.”

The administration initially scored a legal win Tuesday when an Alabama federal judge rejected an attempt by Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to halt enforcement of the final rule. But a federal appeals court granted the states’ request for an administrative injunction Wednesday, which temporarily blocked the final rule from taking effect in those Southern states.

Judge Jodi W. Dishman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma also halted the final rule from taking effect in the state on Wednesday after the state individually sued the administration back in May.

The final rule is temporarily blocked in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Challenges affect more schools 

But the challenges to Title IX span beyond the 26 states that initially sued the administration — affecting schools across the country.

Judge John Broomes of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas expanded the temporary blockage to also include “the schools attended by the members of Young America’s Foundation or Female Athletes United, as well as the schools attended by the children of the members of Moms for Liberty.”

These groups sued alongside Kansas, Alaska, Utah and Wyoming earlier this year.

House GOP tries to stop rule

Congressional Republicans have fiercely opposed the final rule.

In July, the GOP-controlled House passed a measure to reverse the updated regulations under the Congressional Review Act — a procedural tool Congress can use to overturn certain actions from federal agencies.

But the measure is unlikely to find success in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and President Joe Biden has vowed to veto the legislation should it land on his desk.

LGBTQ students

LGBTQ advocacy groups have pushed back against GOP-led efforts to block the final rule from taking effect.

“Every student in this country deserves access to an education without fear of bullying and discrimination,” Brandon Wolf, national press secretary for the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, said in an emailed statement to States Newsroom.

“But MAGA politicians, promoting blatant discrimination, have fueled eight preliminary injunctions blocking enforcement of the Biden administration’s new Title IX rules in 26 states.”

Wolf added that “we must continue to fight for LGBTQ+ students across the country because everyone deserves a safe educational experience — full stop.”

Meanwhile, the department has yet to decide on a separate rule establishing new criteria regarding transgender athletes.

Acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. testifies before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees on July 30, 2024. Senators grilled Rowe and Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate about the events leading to the July 13 attempted assassination of former U.S. President Donald Trump (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — When acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. visited the site of the campaign rally where a gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, he went up to the roof, lying flat on his stomach, to evaluate the shooter’s line of sight that mid-July day.

“What I saw made me ashamed,” Rowe told U.S. senators Tuesday. “As a career law enforcement officer and a 25-year-veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”

Rowe recounted his trip to Butler, Pennsylvania, which he said took place after being named acting director July 23, at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees examining the security failures that led to the assassination attempt. Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate also testified.

It was the first Senate hearing on the attempted assassination since a shooter killed one rallygoer, injured two others and shot Trump’s ear using an AR-15-style rifle during a campaign event in Butler on July 13. The 20-year-old gunman was killed at the scene.

“Let me be clear: This was an attack on our democracy,” said Sen. Gary Peters, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

“Americans should be able to attend a political rally and express their political beliefs without fear of violence, and political candidates for our nation’s highest office should be confident that their safety will never be compromised for their service,” the Michigan Democrat added.

Peters launched a bipartisan investigation into the security failures leading to the assassination attempt alongside ranking Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky. It’s one of several congressional inquiries examining the failures of law enforcement that day.

Rowe stepped into his post after Kimberly Cheatle resigned as director last week. The day before her resignation, Cheatle testified in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, where lawmakers on both sides of the aisle berated her over the agency’s failures to prevent the attempted assassination of Trump.

Facing heavy criticism, many lawmakers called on Cheatle to resign. House Oversight Chairman James Comer of Kentucky and ranking member Jamie Raskin of Maryland also urged her to step down in a joint letter shortly after that hearing.

Rowe said the attempted assassination was “a failure to imagine that we actually do live in a very dangerous world where people do actually want to do harm to our protectees.”

“I think it was a failure to challenge our own assumptions — the assumptions that we know our partners are going to do everything they can, and they do this every day,” he added.

More details on the shooter

Senators sought to uncover what went wrong, what policies are in place to facilitate real-time information sharing between the Secret Service and local law enforcement during an event and whether the Secret Service is developing a security plan for the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago that takes into account what they learned from the July shooting.

Neither the Secret Service counter sniper teams nor members of Trump’s security detail “had any knowledge that there was a man on the roof of the … building with a firearm,” according to Rowe.

Rowe said “prior to that, they were operating with the knowledge that local law enforcement was working an issue of a suspicious individual prior to the shots being fired.”

Abbate noted that despite not having any definitive evidence as to how the gunman got the weapon onto the roof, they believe based on what they have gathered thus far that he likely had the rifle in a backpack.

Social media account associated with shooter

Meanwhile, Abbate said the FBI uncovered a social media account believed to be associated with the shooter, though they are still working to verify that the account belonged to him.

More than 700 comments were posted from the social media account “in about the 2019, 2020 timeframe,” when the shooter would have been in his mid-teens, and some of the comments “appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature,” Abbate said.

Abbate said though nothing has been ruled out, the FBI’s investigation has not identified any motive, co-conspirators or people with advanced knowledge. The FBI has so far held more than 460 interviews, received over 2,000 tips from the public, executed search warrants and seized electronic media.

Congressional efforts 

Tuesday’s hearing came the day after U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced 13 lawmakers comprising a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination. The resolution creating the panel requires a final report by mid-December.

Rep. Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican whose district includes Butler, will chair the task force.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada introduced bipartisan legislation last week that would require Senate confirmation of Secret Service directors and limit them to one term of 10 years.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the American Federation of Teachers’ 88th National Convention on July 25, 2024 in Houston, Texas. The American Federation of Teachers was the first labor union to endorse Harris for president since announcing her campaign (Montinique Monroe/Getty Images).

Vice President Kamala Harris — the likely 2024 Democratic presidential nominee — outlined on Thursday some of her “vision of the future” while touting the administration’s education record in her keynote address to the American Federation of Teachers national convention in Houston.

Harris has quickly drawn the support of major unions like the AFT in the fast-moving four days since President Joe Biden bowed out of the presidential race and passed the torch to her. The unprecedented move could make the 59-year-old the first woman to serve as president if formally nominated and elected in the race against GOP nominee former President Donald Trump.

“Today, we face a choice between two very different visions for our nation: one focused on the future, and the other focused on the past, and we are fighting for the future,” Harris said to an enthusiastic crowd of teachers at the convention.

“In our vision of the future, we see a place where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead — a future where no child has to grow up in poverty, where every senior can retire with dignity, and where every worker has the freedom to join a union,” she said.

Harris also took jabs at the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 — a nearly 900-page proposal that sets forth a sweeping conservative agenda if Trump is elected — calling it a “plan to return America to a dark past.”

Despite Trump distancing himself from the platform, some former members of his administration helped write it.

Harris said Trump and his allies want to “cut Medicare and Social Security, to stop student loan forgiveness for teachers and other public servants … They even want to eliminate the Department of Education and end Head Start.”

She also boasted about the administration’s student loan forgiveness, which has now provided almost $169 billion in debt relief to nearly 4.8 million borrowers, according to the Department of Education.

Harris also blasted “extremists,” saying to the teachers that while they “try to create safe and welcoming places where our children can learn, extremists attack our freedom to live safe from gun violence.”

“We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books,” she added.

The Trump campaign sent out a statement on Thursday reiterating his education platform, including civil rights investigations into any race-based discrimination, firing “radicals who have infiltrated the federal Department of Education” and instituting funding boosts for schools that do things like implement the direct election of school principals by parents.

Union support 

Harris promised that she and Biden would sign the PRO Act into law, which would offer protections for workers when unionizing or collectively bargaining.

The AFT, one of the largest teachers unions in the country, threw its support behind Harris shortly after she declared her intent to earn the Democratic nomination.

Harris, who said she is a “proud product of public education,” thanked AFT’s 1.8 million members for their service to the country.

“From the public service workers and higher education faculty, to the school bus drivers and the custodians, to the school nurses and our teachers — you all do God’s work educating our children,” Harris said.

She’s also received the support of some of the country’s biggest labor unions, and the National Education Association, the largest labor union, endorsed Harris this week.

Some of those recent endorsements include the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, known as AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME and the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU.

Meanwhile, the prominent union UAW has not endorsed Harris as of Thursday.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris attends a moderated conversation with former Trump administration national security official Olivia Troye and former Republican voter Amanda Stratton on July 17, 2024 in Kalamazoo, Michigan (Chris duMond/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Sunday endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the new Democratic presidential nominee, passing the torch to the California native who has helmed administration initiatives on reproductive rights and gun control.

A former U.S. senator from California who vied for her party’s presidential nomination in the 2020 primaries, Harris, 59, would represent a new generation at the top of the ticket after Biden, 81, withdrew from the race under pressure from Democratic leaders following a disastrous late June debate performance.

Harris, the nation’s first woman vice president, now has a chance to become the first woman president, depending on what Democrats decide. She is also the first Black vice president and first person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president.

Some in the party publicly floated her as a potential replacement for Biden following the debate. Biden initially refused to end his reelection bid despite a growing number of calls within the Democratic Party for him to step aside. He bowed out on Sunday.

“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this,” Biden said in a Sunday post on X.

Policy initiatives 

During her time as vice president, Harris became a leading voice in the administration’s fight for reproductive rights and abortion access — often seen as Democrats’ strongest issue since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, which ended nearly half a century of the federal constitutional right to abortion.

Harris launched a “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour in early 2024, bringing her to several swing states. And after touring a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota, Harris was believed to be the first sitting president or vice president to tour an abortion clinic.

Harris has also focused on gun safety throughout her vice presidential tenure. She announced the launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center in March to assist states, local governments and others in “optimizing the usage of red flag laws,” according to the White House.

She also called on states to pass so-called red flag laws — which enable law enforcement to petition civil courts to take away firearms from those who could pose a danger to themselves or others — and use Bipartisan Safer Communities Act funding to “to help implement laws already enacted.”

The administration championed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Biden signed into law in June 2022. The measure was regarded as the most comprehensive federal gun safety legislation in almost 30 years.

She’s also been a sharp opponent, alongside Biden and other Democrats, of Project 2025 — the nearly 900-page document from the Heritage Foundation that proposes a sweeping conservative agenda if former President Donald J. Trump is elected. Though Trump has distanced himself from the platform, some former members of his administration helped write it.

Harris has also drawn criticism on both sides of the aisle for her efforts surrounding immigration. Biden tapped her in 2021 to help address the “root causes” of migration in Central America.

She visited the U.S.-Mexico border in June 2021 after making stops in Guatemala and Mexico earlier that month, the first international trip for her as vice president.

Republicans have repeatedly called her a “border czar” despite her focus being on migration’s “root causes” in Central American countries.

During the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida was one of several speakers who dubbed her a “border czar,” adding the barb that “appointing Kamala Harris to oversee the border is like appointing Bernie Madoff to oversee your retirement plan.”

Harris also holds the record for the highest number of tie-breaking votes cast in the U.S. Senate.

Public polling and perception

Since the fallout from the June 27 debate, a slew of polls have offered mixed outcomes as to whether voters would choose Harris over Trump if the two were up against each other.

An Economist/YouGov poll conducted July 13-16 shows both Harris and Biden narrowly behind Trump, with Biden performing slightly better than Harris.

Only 39% said they would choose Harris, compared to 44% who would vote for Trump. Similarly, 41% said they would vote for Biden, compared to 43% choosing Trump.

As of mid-July, her approval ratings also appeared dim, with 50.4% of Americans disapproving of her and 38.6% approving.

California background

Prior to serving as vice president, Harris was a U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021. With a long career in law enforcement, she served as the attorney general of California and was also the district attorney of San Francisco.

Harris vied for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential election before ultimately withdrawing her candidacy months later and subsequently endorsing Biden. She dropped out prior to the Iowa caucuses, ending her bid in December 2019, despite being initially viewed as a top Democratic contender.

She was born in Oakland, California, in 1964 to immigrant parents. She is married to Doug Emhoff, who is the first Jewish spouse of either a U.S. president or vice president, according to the White House. He’s also the first second gentleman in U.S. history.

Harris is an alumna of Howard University, a historically Black institution, and received her law degree from the University of California, Hastings.

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., listens during the third hearing by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on June 16, 2022 in Washington, D.C. Schiff on Wednesday became the 20th congressional Democrat to call for President Joe Biden to withdraw from his reelection race (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — The intraparty effort to convince President Joe Biden to end his reelection bid resurfaced Wednesday, when prominent U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff of California became the latest Democratic member of Congress to go public with his concerns.

Leading Democrats also set an early August window for a virtual roll call to officially name Biden as the party’s 2024 presidential nominee. Members opposed to Biden’s renomination have raised concerns a virtual roll call ahead of the party’s late August convention would ease the president’s path.

Biden’s disastrous debate performance in late June has now led 19 U.S. House Democrats and one senator to publicly call for him to drop his reelection bid, and several more have expressed serious concerns about his candidacy.

Still, Biden, 81, has refused to back down, saying, “I’m the best qualified to govern and I think I’m the best qualified to win.”

Democratic calls regarding Biden’s reelection bid had quieted since the assassination attempt against former President Donald J. Trump over the weekend, which killed one rally goer and left two others injured during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Biden tested positive for COVID-19 after a campaign event in Nevada on Wednesday, according to a statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Biden cancelled a later Nevada event and planned to continue working in isolation at his Delaware home, Jean-Pierre said.

Virtual roll call 

Also Wednesday, in a letter obtained by States Newsroom, the co-chairs of the Democratic National Convention Rules Committee wrote to committee members that no virtual roll call voting to determine the party’s nominee will take place prior to Aug. 1.

DNC officials, including Chair Jaime Harrison, said a virtual roll call ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which would typically be the site of an official nomination, was necessary because of an Ohio law requiring nominees to be named at least 90 days before Election Day, making the deadline Aug. 7.

Ohio lawmakers later moved that deadline to September, but Wednesday’s DNC  letter notes that law doesn’t take effect until September. To avoid any risk of lawsuits over ballots in the Buckeye State, the party is moving ahead with a virtual roll call to beat that deadline, the letter said.

The letter specified that the Rules Committee “will not be implementing a rushed virtual voting process, though we will begin our important consideration of how a virtual voting process would work.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has pressed for the DNC to delay the virtual roll call, an individual speaking on background told States Newsroom. Schumer’s push came after he spoke with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and both agreed on delaying the virtual roll call.

Prominent House member

Schiff, a former House Intelligence Committee chair and the lead impeachment manager in the first impeachment of Trump, is perhaps the most well-known nationally of those who have called for Biden to withdraw.

Schiff, who is favored to win a U.S. Senate seat in California after clinching the Democratic nomination in the blue state, called for Biden to step down in a statement Wednesday.

He noted that “while the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch. And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.”

Schiff said Biden has “been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history, and his lifetime of service as a Senator, a Vice President, and now as President has made our country better.”

Schiff vowed to do everything he can to help whoever the Democratic Party ends up nominating succeed.

“There is only one singular goal: defeating Donald Trump. The stakes are just too high,” he said.

Dems want Biden out

Meanwhile, polling continues to point unfavorably for Biden’s reelection bid.

Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say they want Biden to step down from the race and let the party select someone else, according to an AP-NORC poll published Wednesday.

Three-quarters of Democratic respondents between the ages of 18 and 44, and 57% of those 45 or older favored Biden stepping aside.

On the flip side, 73% of Republicans believe Trump — whom Republicans officially nominated at their convention this week — should continue his bid for the White House. Only a little over one-quarter of Republicans want him to withdraw.

Debate performance repercussions 

Since the shaky debate performance nearly three weeks ago, a slow but steady progression of congressional Democrats has urged Biden to withdraw from the race.

U.S. Sen. Peter Welch is the only senator within the Democratic Party who has called for the president to drop out, a stance he took in a Washington Post op-ed.

“For the good of the country, I’m calling on President Biden to withdraw from the race,” the Vermont Democrat wrote last week.

So far, the public calls have come from members of Congress who represent Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Vermont and Washington.

A spokesperson for the Biden-Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Sen. Cory Booker and other Democrats told federal officials Tuesday they need to put resources into outreach so DACA recipients can access health insurance provided under the Affordable Care Act. (Danielle Richards for New Jersey Monitor)

WASHINGTON — Worried about the outcome of the 2024 election, a slew of congressional Democrats called on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday to take steps to ensure Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program recipients can actually access health insurance provided under the Affordable Care Act when they become eligible this year.

The Biden administration published a final rule in May, set to go into effect on Nov. 1, that will allow DACA recipients to “apply for coverage through HealthCare.gov and state-based marketplaces, where they may qualify for financial assistance to help them purchase quality health insurance.”

But for DACA recipients to take full advantage of the expansion as early as possible, HHS needs to put resources into outreach, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas and 86 other Democrats said in a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and provided first to States Newsroom.

The lawmakers praised the recently finalized rule, while noting that “for this expansion to be successful, HHS must ensure that every newly eligible individual is fully informed and supported during the enrollment process.”

A total of 73 U.S. representatives, including U.S. Reps. Cori Bush of St. Louis and Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, and 15 U.S. senators from across the country signed the letter. The letter is dated Monday, when members agreed on the final language, and the lawmakers sent it to HHS on Tuesday.

With DACA recipients eligible for health insurance benefits as early as December if enrolled by Nov. 15, the lawmakers want to ensure that the recipients are “able to navigate the registration process so that they can take full advantage of their new access to medical care.”

The lawmakers pressed Becerra on the actual implementation of this imminent accessibility, including how the department plans to minimize barriers to enrollment for a group that has historically faced challenges in verifying their identity.

They also asked the secretary to address what steps the department will take to make sure the recipients are aware of the special enrollment period, what resources will be allocated for media outreach, how the department will ensure the information is shared to this group and how they will help prevent instances of scams or fraud targeting the recipients throughout the enrollment period.

HHS did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Future of DACA in the balance 

The letter comes as DACA’s future remains unknown.

Former President Donald J. Trump — officially nominated Monday as the 2024 GOP presidential nominee — tried to end the program during his first term.

Recipients of DACA are awaiting a court case to determine the legality of the program after Trump sought to end it.

DACA — an Obama-era program created in 2012 — was designed to protect children who were brought into the country illegally from deportation. The Biden administration said that its final rule released in May is set to help more than 100,000 uninsured young people.

Representatives for the 2024 Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday regarding DACA.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas speak Monday at the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C. The press briefing focused on the assassination attempt on Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump and the U.S. Secret Service response. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — As the nation reels from the attempted assassination against former President Donald J. Trump and the Secret Service comes under intense scrutiny, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday said “we are in a heightened and very dynamic threat environment.”

The former president and official 2024 GOP presidential nominee survived a shooting on Saturday that killed one person and left two others injured at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“Both President Biden and former President Trump are constantly the subject of threats,” Mayorkas said during a White House press briefing in which he defended the performance of the Secret Service. Members of Congress are organizing hearings to examine whether security lapses occurred.

“The United States Secret Service, we, including the FBI and our other partners across the federal government, take the threats very seriously and adjust security measures as warranted,” Mayorkas said. He added that “maintaining the safety and security of the president, the former president and their campaign events, is one of our most vital priorities.”

Mayorkas said that in light of the shooting, Biden ordered Secret Service protection for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate.

The secretary also said that “both prior to and after the events of this past weekend, the Secret Service enhanced former President Trump’s protection based on the evolving nature of threats to the former president and his imminent shift from presumptive nominee to nominee.”

Trump is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the Republican National Convention, where he was officially nominated as the GOP presidential candidate on Monday alongside his newly chosen running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.

Mayorkas also echoed Biden’s pledge Sunday for an independent review, saying it will “examine the Secret Service’s and other law enforcement actions before, during and after the shooting, to identify the immediate and longer term corrective actions required to ensure that the no-fail mission of protecting national leaders is most effectively met.”

In the aftermath of the shooting, Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro identified the person killed as Corey Comperatore, who was a former fire chief. Shapiro said Comperatore “died a hero” and “dove on his family to protect them” the night of the shooting.

The FBI is continuing its criminal investigation into the incident and has identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Crooks was killed at the scene.

Mayorkas expressed support for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.

“I have 100% confidence in the director of the United States Secret Service. I have 100% confidence in the United States Secret Service and what you saw on stage on Saturday, with respect to individuals putting their own lives at risk for the protection of another, is exactly what the American public should see every single day. It is what I indeed do,” he said.

Pressed on CNN whether it was a security failure, Mayorkas said, “When I say something like this cannot happen, we are speaking of a failure.”

Congressional investigations multiply 

Meanwhile, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for investigations into the attempted assassination of Trump.

The Secret Service is set to brief members of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Tuesday.

The committee will also hold a hearing at the beginning of next week, once Congress returns from its week-long recess, with Cheatle set to testify.

“We are grateful to the brave Secret Service agents who acted quickly to protect President Trump after shots were fired and the American patriots who sought to help victims, but questions remain about how a rooftop within proximity to President Trump was left unsecure,” Rep. James Comer, chairman of the committee, said in a statement Monday.

“Americans demand answers from Director Kimberly Cheatle about these security lapses and how we can prevent this from happening again,” said Comer, a Kentucky Republican.

In a statement on Monday, Cheatle said the Secret Service understands the “importance of the independent review announced by President Biden yesterday and will participate fully.”

“We will also work with the appropriate Congressional committees on any oversight action,” she said.

Cheatle also noted that the “Secret Service is working with all involved Federal, state, and local agencies to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again.”

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green wrote a letter Sunday to Mayorkas requesting multiple documents, saying “the seriousness of this security failure and chilling moment in our nation’s history cannot be understated.”

“No assassination attempt has come so close to taking the life of a president or presidential candidate since President Reagan was shot in 1981,” said Green, a Republican from Tennessee.

Senators also plan probes

Efforts to conduct investigations into the attempted assassination are also ramping up in the Senate.

Michigan Sen. Gary Peters and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — the respective chairman and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — said Monday that the committee is launching a bipartisan investigation and plans to hold a hearing soon to look into the “security failures” leading to the attempted assassination of Trump.

The two sent a letter to Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray asking for a briefing for committee members and requesting information from the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They also asked that either Mayorkas, Wray or an “appropriate designee” appear at a committee hearing on the matter by Aug. 1.

“There is no place for political violence in our nation, and Saturday’s shocking attack should never have been allowed to happen,” Peters said in a statement on Monday.

“Our committee is focused on getting all of the facts about the security failures that allowed the attacker to carry out this heinous act of violence that threatened the life of former President Trump, killed at least one person in the crowd, and injured several others,” he said.

Additionally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, led fellow GOP members of the panel on Monday in urging Chairman Dick Durbin to “hold a hearing into the circumstances that led to this tragedy.”

Graham and nine fellow Republicans also asked the Illinois Democrat to invite Cheatle, Mayorkas and Wray to testify in front of the committee.

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Thursday, March 14 (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom).

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House on Thursday passed a measure to reverse an Education Department rule seeking to extend federal discrimination protections for LGBTQ students, though President Joe Biden has vowed to veto the legislation should it land on his desk.

House passage of the resolution on a party-line vote, 210-205, is part of a barrage of GOP pushback at the state and federal levels to the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX since its April release. For all schools that receive federal funding, the rule protects against discrimination for students based on “sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.”

Twenty-six states with GOP attorneys general have sued to block the rule, and courts have temporarily blocked it from going into effect in 14 states on August 1.

The 14 states with temporary blocks are: Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Illinois GOP Rep. Mary Miller introduced the legislation in early June. A week later, the Republican-controlled House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved it. Miller’s resolution seeks to reverse the rule through the Congressional Review Act, a procedural tool Congress can use to overturn certain actions from federal agencies.

In the Senate, Mississippi Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith also introduced legislation in June to try to block the final rule under the same tool. The Senate version has gathered over 30 Republican cosponsors.

Rep. Virginia Foxx — chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and a fierce opponent of the administration’s final rule — said during the floor debate Wednesday that she wanted to preserve Title IX, which helped equalize funding for women’s sports and education programs beginning in 1972.

“Title IX ushered in a golden era for women’s competition and education,” the North Carolina Republican said. “There is sanctity in the community and tradition of these memories, these spaces and these opportunities for young girls.”

Regardless of whether the attempt to roll back the measure is successful in the Democratic-controlled Senate, Biden’s veto threat leaves virtually no possibility it could be adopted this year.

Democrats, LGBTQ advocates in opposition 

Democrats and LGBTQ advocates have described the effort to overturn the rule as motivated by misinformation and fear.

“Unfortunately, this resolution has been clouded by misinformation, unfounded fears and with some, just hatred of transgender individuals,” said Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat and ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, during the debate.

Oregon’s Rep. Suzanne Bonamici — ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education — said the resolution was “another attempt to undercut this administration’s efforts to empower survivors and protect all Americans from discrimination.”

“If Republicans truly cared about protecting women and children, they would stop this prejudiced rhetoric and take action on bills that would actually protect women from discrimination and harassment and defend women’s reproductive health care, make child care more affordable, preserve opportunities in workplaces for all parents, especially women,” Bonamici said.

Scott called on the House to “reject these narratives and focus on real issues of safety and equity.”

Final rule blocked in more states 

Meanwhile, challenges to the rule are playing out in a handful of federal courts.

Last week, Judge John Broomes of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas temporarily blocked the measure from taking effect in the Sunflower State, along with Alaska, Utah and Wyoming.

Broomes also halted the rule from taking effect in “the schools attended by the members of Young America’s Foundation or Female Athletes United, as well as the schools attended by the children of the members of Moms for Liberty,” all groups that sued alongside the four states, per the order.

Under Broomes’ order, the rule is also halted in an Oklahoma public school attended by a minor who is one of the plaintiffs.

In June, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana issued a temporary injunction barring the final rule from taking effect there, along with Idaho, Mississippi and Montana.

In Kentucky federal court, Chief Judge Danny Reeves temporarily blocked the final rule in the Bluegrass State, plus Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Virginia. Reeves rejected the department’s request for a partial stay of the injunction while its appeal plays out, per a Wednesday court filing.

The Education Department has confirmed it is appealing the other two rulings but did not have an update Wednesday on whether it is filing a notice of appeal on the most recent ruling in the Kansas federal court.

The spokesperson reiterated earlier this week that the agency has “asked the trial courts to allow the bulk of the final rule to take effect in these states as scheduled, on August 1, while the appeals are pending.”

LGBTQ advocacy groups push back on GOP effort

Allen Morris, policy director for the advocacy group National LGBTQ Task Force, said the vote was part of a pattern of anti-LGBTQ policy measures.

“When you look at the rise in hatred and the rise in violence and the rise of young LGBTQ individuals not having the support that they need, where suicide rates are high, it is disappointing to see our opposition go against us with such a high level of intention,” he said.

Morris told States Newsroom that “a lot of what is happening with this extremism is not founded in truth.”

“It is founded in ways to spew hate and to spew fear. It is a lot of fear mongering, and it’s anything to make people feel like their backs are up against the wall, or as if they don’t have the power,” he said.

Echoing a previous statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said it “does not comment on pending legislation” and emphasized that all schools receiving federal funding are obligated to comply with the new regulations as a condition of receiving those funds.

The department has yet to finalize a separate rule establishing new criteria for transgender athletes.

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters as he leaves a meeting at the U.S. Capitol on July 08, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Jeffries reiterated his support for President Joe Biden, saying the party is backing Biden to defeat the Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats appeared to quell some inner tumult over supporting President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, after highly anticipated internal meetings Tuesday showed the president retained considerable support from the Congressional Black Caucus and other lawmakers in public statements.

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Democrats from both chambers largely declined to detail their closed-door conversations. But they said they are lining up behind Biden, nearly two weeks after his debate performance set in motion prolonged speculation about his fitness for office. The party meetings among lawmakers were the first since the June 27 debate.

Biden issued a defiant letter to party members Monday saying that he will not exit the race, and Democrats interviewed by States Newsroom insisted they are uniting as the party heads toward his official nomination later this summer.

Lawmakers left open whether perfect harmony was achieved — a New Jersey Democrat at day’s end joined a handful of other Democrats urging Biden to drop out — but one message was clear: They do not want to see former President Donald Trump in the Oval Office again.

Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada briskly exited the House chamber and said Democrats are focused on “beating Donald Trump and electing Democrats to the House majority.” The CBC met with Biden virtually Monday night.

When asked whether Biden’s unsteady debate performance and the anxiety it’s caused presents an obstacle for House colleagues running in tight races, Horsford answered, “The president is the nominee.”

Another defection

While a steady stream of Democrats said they would back Biden, New Jersey Democrat Mikie Sherrill became the seventh House Democrat urging Biden to drop out of the race.

“I know President Biden cares deeply about the future of our country. That’s why I am asking that he declare that he won’t run for reelection,” Sherrill posted on social media shortly before 5 p.m. Eastern.

Those who spoke out against Biden’s reelection bid in previous days included Angie Craig of Minnesota, Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Mike Quigley of Illinois and Adam Smith of Washington.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, of New York, who was among those calling for Biden to exit the race in a private call on Sunday, walked back his comments Tuesday when he told reporters “we have to support him.”

At the White House briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said expressions of support from members of the Congressional Black Caucus were key to solidifying Biden’s backing among Hill Democrats.

“We respect members of Congress,” Jean-Pierre said. “We respect their view. But I also want to say there’s also a long list of congressional members who have been very clear in support of this president.”

Jean-Pierre cited strong statements of support from CBC members Joyce Beatty of Ohio and Troy Carter of Louisiana following the caucus’ virtual meeting with Biden on Monday.

Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia said Tuesday members had an opportunity to “express themselves” during the closed-door House Democratic meeting.

“Leadership listened, and I think what needs to happen is we need to all come together to decide that we’re not going to be a circular firing squad with Joe Biden in the middle,” Johnson said. “We are going to abide by his decision, and if his decision, as he has previously stated, is to stay in, then he’s gonna be our nominee and we need to all get behind him.”

When asked by States Newsroom whether House Democrats in vulnerable seats now face more potholes on the road to November, potentially costing the party a chance to flip the House, Johnson replied, “No, I think (Biden’s) got a strong record to run on, and the opposition, Donald Trump, has to run against that strong record. So we need to start running on our record, and against the nominee of the other party. And the American people know the difference.”

‘We concluded that Joe Biden is old’

Democratic senators, leaving a nearly two-hour private lunch meeting later Tuesday, had similar comments to their House counterparts, reiterating the president is their nominee, though worries remained.

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said that everyone knows about Biden’s age, but that alone won’t lead the party to bump him out as their nominee.

“We concluded that Joe Biden is old, and we found out, and the polling came back that he’s old,” Fetterman said. “But guess what? We also agreed that, you know, like, he’s our guy, and that’s where we’re at.”

Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a longtime friend and close ally of Biden, argued that Trump is a far worse choice than Biden.

“Donald Trump had a terrible debate,” Coons said. “Donald Trump said things on that debate stage over and over and over that were outright lies filled with vengeance, violated the basic standards of our democracy, and yet we are spending all of our time talking about one candidate’s performance and not the other. Donald Trump’s performance on that debate stage should be disqualifying.”

Coons said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke during the meeting, saying “broadly constructive things, just sort of setting the groundwork of our discussion.”

Coons said he was “not gonna get into the private conversation we just had in the caucus” when asked whether anyone at the meeting called for Biden to not be the nominee. But he added that “folks expressed a range of views in ways that I think were constructive and positive.”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ viability as a potential replacement for Biden didn’t come up during the meeting, Coons said.

Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock underlined his support for Biden following the meeting, saying “what I think is most important right now is what the American people think.”

“We’re getting feedback on that. I think it’s important for the president in this moment, in any moment, to hear what the people are saying. That’s what democracy is all about,” Warnock said. “Donald Trump, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to believe much in democracy. He said he wants to be a dictator on day one, and with their ruling several days ago, the Supreme Court is setting the table for him to continue to be a dictator. That’s what’s at stake in this election: democracy itself.”

Asked whether Biden is the best person to defeat Trump, Warnock said Biden is “making that case as campaigns do” and “hearing back from the American people.”

Asked whether Biden can win Georgia, he said: “I can tell you that no one thought I could win Georgia but I did.”

Project 2025 fears

Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont told States Newsroom that House Democrats’ meeting led to some cohesion.

“The unity as it exists is that we’re all completely committed to making sure that Trump is not the next president,” Balint said. “That’s the unity, and the unity of wanting the president to be out campaigning vigorously on his record.”

Balint, holding in her hand a copy of the Stop the Comstock Act, said, tearing up, that she worries about a nationwide abortion ban and other priorities in the far-right Project 2025 publication.

The nearly 1,000-page policy roadmap is a product of the Heritage Foundation in anticipation of Republicans gaining control of the White House and Congress. Trump and his campaign have repeatedly distanced themselves from the document.

“Trump is a demagogue, I am the child of a man whose father was killed in the Holocaust. I’m really like ‘What can I do day in and day out to make sure we don’t lose the House?’ because we are the blue line,” Balint said.

The Comstock Act is an 1873 law that could provide an avenue for a future Republican presidential administration to ban the mailing of abortion medications. Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced companion bills to repeal the sections of the law that could hinder abortion access.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told States Newsroom that Biden has “actively thrown weight behind the lawmaking and policy ideas of younger and progressive members,” and that she remains committed to supporting him.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said after the Democratic senators’ meeting that he wasn’t “even gonna get into that,” when asked whether he wants Biden to remain the nominee.

“The fact is, the president has said he is running,” Wyden said. “So, that’s the lay of the land today.”

Swing state senators

Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, who faces a challenging reelection bid this November, said he didn’t want to characterize what other senators said about Biden during the meeting.

Casey said it’s up to political pundits and analysts to determine how Biden remaining the presidential nominee might affect the Pennsylvania race as well as others.

“I’ve got to continue to do my work in the Senate and also to be a candidate, so I can’t sit around being an analyst,” Casey said.

When back home in the Keystone State, he said, voters tend to talk to him more about issues they’re concerned about, including reproductive rights and the cost of living.

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly declined to comment on Democrats’ meeting and referred to his prior statements about Biden.

Kelly on Monday evening told reporters that the differences between Biden and Trump “could not be clearer.”

Biden, he said, has “delivered to the American people over and over again,” on climate change, prescription drug prices, infrastructure, and semiconductor manufacturing.

“On the other hand, you have Donald Trump, a convicted felon and now a criminal who has no business running for president,” Kelly said.

“Joe Biden is our nominee. Millions of people voted for Joe Biden to be on the ballot,” Kelly said. “He’s on the ballot, and I truly believe he’s gonna win in November.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said when asked about Biden during a press conference that “as I’ve said before, I’m with Joe.”

Schumer declined to answer questions about Democrats potentially nominating a different presidential candidate and about Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray’s statement Monday night critical of Biden.

“As I’ve said before, I’m with Joe,” Schumer reiterated.

Murray’s statement said Biden “must seriously consider the best way to preserve his incredible legacy and secure it for the future.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, deferred a question about Biden’s debate performance to Democratic leadership.

Maryland, New Mexico senators comment

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said he had to leave the lunch early for a previously scheduled meeting with the Dutch prime minister, but said he doesn’t have concerns Biden will make the right choice on whether to stay in the race.

“Look, as I’ve said, I trust the president’s judgment, he understands the stakes in this election and he’s in the best position to make this decision,” Van Hollen said.

New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján said Democrats discussed several issues during the closed-door meeting, but declined to talk about what was said, though he reiterated his support for Biden’s candidacy.

“I look forward to voting for President Joe Biden to be president of the United States,” Luján said.

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff said the meeting was “a constructive caucus discussion,” and that he supports Biden’s reelection campaign.

Delaware Sen. Tom Carper said he spoke during the meeting, but declined to specify what his comments were.

Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper said the lunch went “fine,” but declined to opine on where the party was moving on Biden’s nomination nor his own beliefs about the president’s ongoing candidacy.

Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed declined to answer any questions after the lunch.

House Republicans: ‘Democrats had misled us’

House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana on Tuesday accused the Democratic Party of covering up Biden’s “glaring problem.”

“The Democrats had misled us. They need to be held accountable for that,” he said, during the House GOP’s regularly scheduled press conference.

Johnson also said the 25th Amendment “is appropriate” in this situation. If Biden’s Cabinet declares he is unfit for office, Vice President Kamala Harris would take over presidential duties.

“The notion that the 25th Amendment would be appropriate here is something that most Republicans and frankly, most Americans would agree with,” he said.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota and Elise Stefanik of New York, chair of the House Republican Conference, echoed Johnson’s concerns.

Stefanik called Biden “unfit to be our commander in chief” and accused the Democratic Party of concealing Biden’s mental acuity. “The cover-up is over and accountability is here.”

Jacob Fischler contributed to this report.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson leads a panel discussion Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in the U.S. Capitol on “protecting Title IX and women’s sports” with (left to right) Betsy DeVos, former U.S. Education secretary; Riley Gaines, former NCAA swimmer; Heather Higgins, chairwoman of the Independent Women’s Forum; and U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom).

WASHINGTON — Prominent members of the GOP on Wednesday strongly criticized the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX, including U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx and former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

As the fate of a key Biden administration effort to protect LGBTQ students from discrimination in schools hangs in the balance, Republicans at the state and federal levels are ramping up their attempts to stop the measure from taking effect.

“As you know, the Department of Education … has gone about its effort to rewrite Title IX, and it’s having a very devastating effect. It’s something that is a great alarm to all of us,” said Johnson during a panel discussion at the U.S. Capitol on “protecting Title IX and women’s sports” to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of its adoption.

“There’s much more to do, and Congress is not just sitting around,” Johnson added, noting that the House would vote soon on legislation to reverse the final rule.

The speaker hails from Louisiana, one of 10 states that has so far temporarily blocked the administration’s final rule for Title IX from taking effect on Aug. 1.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana issued a temporary injunction barring the final regulation from taking effect in the state, plus in Idaho, Mississippi and Montana.

Separately, Chief Judge Danny Reeves of the U.S. District Court in Eastern Kentucky also temporarily blocked the final rule in the Bluegrass State, as well as in Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Virginia.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education confirmed that it is appealing both of these rulings, saying the agency has “asked the trial courts to allow the bulk of the final rule to take effect in these states as scheduled, on August 1, while the appeals are pending.”

Republican attorneys general from 26 states have quickly scrambled to challenge the Biden administration’s final rule, with states banding together against the new regulation. Some states’ attorneys general, like Texas and Oklahoma, have sued the administration individually.

Rule issued in April

In April, the U.S. Department of Education released its final rule for Title IX, which “protects against discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.”

Part of the final rule also “promotes accountability by requiring schools to take prompt and effective action to end any sex discrimination in their education programs or activities, prevent its recurrence, and remedy its effects,” per the department.

The updated regulations would roll back controversial changes to Title IX that DeVos oversaw while she was Education secretary during the Trump administration and were a major part of her legacy. Advocacy groups fought for years against the Trump administration rule.

“It is time to return to the original intent of Title IX and have common sense prevail again,” said DeVos, who is also the former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, during the panel discussion.

Wednesday’s panel also featured Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer, and Heather Higgins, chairwoman of the conservative Independent Women’s Forum.

Gaines, who competed for the University of Kentucky, is a leading voice in opposing transgender athletes’ participation in sports that align with their gender identity.

House vote expected 

A measure to block the rule from taking effect is set for a full House vote after the House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved legislation earlier in June that would reverse the rule under the Congressional Review Act. This is a procedural tool Congress can use to overturn certain actions from federal agencies.

Rep. Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican and the committee’s vice chair, introduced the measure, which already has over 70 GOP cosponsors.

Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, said Miller’s Congressional Review Act resolution would “roll back these new rules put out by the Biden administration that negate most of the work that was done under (Education) Secretary DeVos, which was extraordinarily thoughtful and well done.”

Republicans’ efforts have also ramped up in the Senate, where U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi Republican, introduced legislation earlier in June seeking to block the final rule via the same procedural tool. Over 30 of Hyde-Smith’s GOP colleagues are cosponsors.

Regardless of whether attempts to block the measure are successful in the House and Democratic-controlled Senate, President Joe Biden is likely to issue a veto.

LGBTQ advocacy group weighs in 

“Sadly, it’s no surprise that Speaker Johnson and MAGA Republicans are once again attacking transgender kids,” David Stacy, vice president of government affairs for the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, said in an emailed statement to States Newsroom.

Stacy said that while DeVos was Education secretary under Trump, she “rolled back protections for LGBTQ students and did nothing to ensure they could be safe from bullying, harassment and discrimination in school.”

“Every student deserves to be safe and respected in school, something Johnson and DeVos clearly don’t care about at all. All they have to offer the American people are cruel and cynical political attacks that are a desperate attempt to salvage their dysfunctional House majority,” Stacy added.

Department of Education defends rule

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said the agency “crafted the final Title IX regulations following a rigorous process to give complete effect to the Title IX statutory guarantee that no person experiences sex discrimination in federally-funded education,” echoing an earlier statement.

The spokesperson reiterated that all schools receiving federal funding are obligated to comply with the final rule as a condition of obtaining those funds.

The department has not yet finalized a separate rule that establishes new criteria for transgender athletes.

CAPTION: John Arthur, a teacher at Meadowlark Elementary in Salt Lake City, Utah, testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in Washington, D.C., on Thursday (Screenshot from committee webcast)/

WASHINGTON — The only reason John Arthur is able to be a public school teacher is because his wife makes much more money than he does.

Arthur —  the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year  — testified on Thursday at a hearing in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the challenges facing public school teachers.

Arthur, who is also a member of the National Education Association and holds National Board Certification, pointed to pay as the main reason for both teachers leaving the profession and parents not wanting their children to become teachers.

“The No. 1 solution to addressing the issues we face must be increasing teachers’ salaries,” said Arthur, who teaches at Meadowlark Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Gemayel Keyes, a teacher at Gilbert Spruance Elementary School in Philadelphia, told the committee that even as an educator, he still has an additional part-time job.

The special education teacher spent most of his career in education as a paraprofessional. At the time he moved into that role, the starting annual salary was $16,000 and the maximum was $30,000.

“It’s still pretty much the same,” he said.

Minimum teacher salary 

Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, introduced a bill in March 2023 that would set an annual base salary of $60,000 for public elementary and secondary school teachers.

“We understand that the children, young people of this country, are our future and there is, in fact … nothing more important that we can do to provide a quality education to all of our young people, and yet, for decades, public school teachers have been overworked, underpaid, understaffed, and maybe most importantly, underappreciated,” Sanders said in his opening remarks.

“Compared to many other occupations, our public school teachers are more likely to experience high levels of anxiety, stress and burnout, which was only exacerbated by the pandemic,” he said.

Sanders said 44% of public school teachers are quitting their profession within five years, citing “the extremely low pay teachers receive” as one of the primary reasons for a massive U.S. teacher shortage.

For the 2023-24 school year, a whopping 86% of K-12 public schools in the country documented challenges in hiring teachers, according to an October report from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Maryland sets $60,000 minimum  

But a minimum annual teacher salary of $60,000 is not far off for every state.

In Maryland, the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future raises the starting salary for teachers to $60,000 a year by July 2026.

William E. Kirwan, vice chair of Maryland’s Accountability and Implementation Board, said the multi-year comprehensive plan, passed in 2021 in the Maryland General Assembly, “addresses all aspects of children’s education from birth to high school completion, including most especially, the recruitment, retention and compensation of high quality teachers.”

Kirwan said the “Blueprint’s principle for teacher compensation is that, as professionals, teachers should be compensated at the same level as other professionals requiring similar levels of education, such as architects and CPAs.”

An “allocation issue”  

Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member of the committee, dubbed Democrats’ solution of creating a federal minimum salary for teachers as a “laudable goal.”

But he noted that “the federal government dictating how states spend their money does not address the root cause of why teachers are struggling to teach in the classroom.”

“More mandates and funding cannot be the only answer we come up with. We must examine broken policies that got us here and find solutions to improve,” the Louisiana Republican said.

Nicole Neily, president and founder of Parents Defending Education, a parents’ rights group, argued that “schools don’t have a resource issue” but rather an “allocation issue.”

“There’s a saying: ‘Don’t tell me where your priorities are, show me where you spend your money, and I’ll tell you what they are.’ Education leaders routinely choose to spend money on programs and personnel that don’t directly benefit students,” said Neily.

Neily pointed to a 2021 report from the Heritage Foundation, which found that “standardized test results show that achievement gaps are growing wider over time in districts with (chief diversity officers).” Such staff members commonly encourage efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion in schools.

Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said “higher pay does not ease the burden we place on teachers or add hours to their day.”

“By all means, raise teacher pay, but do not assume that it will solve teacher shortages or keep good teachers in the classroom. Poor training, deteriorating classroom conditions, shoddy curriculum and spiraling demands have made an already challenging job nearly impossible to do well and sustainably,” he added.

The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Thursday approved a measure that would roll back a final rule by the Biden administration on Title IX. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Republicans in Congress got one step further in their efforts to reverse the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX after the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved a measure on Thursday that would overturn the updated regulations.

The U.S. Department of Education’s final rule — which seeks to protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination in schools and is set to take effect Aug. 1 — has been met with a wave of GOP backlash. But even if attempts to roll it back succeed in the House and Senate, President Joe Biden is likely to issue a veto.

Nearly 70 House GOP lawmakers are cosponsoring legislation that Rep. Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican and the committee’s vice chair, introduced last week. The measure seeks to reverse the final rule through the Congressional Review Act — a procedural tool Congress can use to overturn certain actions from federal agencies.

The legislation is headed for a vote in the full House after the Republican-led committee approved the measure in a party-line vote, 24-16.

“Title IX has paved the way for our girls to access new opportunities in education, scholarships and athletics. Unfortunately, (President) Joe Biden is destroying all that progress,” said Miller during Thursday’s markup.

Supporters of Miller’s legislation voiced their opposition to the new regulations during the markup, including committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, as well as Reps. Lisa McClain of Michigan, Bob Good of Virginia and Nathaniel Moran of Texas.

“To be clear, this rule is not about protecting LGBTQ students from sexual harassment. Title IX already does that. I’m gonna repeat that: Title IX already protects LGBTQ students,” said Foxx, a North Carolina Republican.

Good said that “with the stroke of a pen, the Biden administration destroyed Title IX’s promises of equal opportunity to women and eradicated sex-protected spaces like bathrooms, locker rooms and campus housing for students from kindergarten through grad school.”

A slew of Republican attorneys general also quickly challenged the final rule that the federal agency released in April. It has racked up a number of legal challenges in various federal courts as GOP-led states attempt to block the rule from taking effect.

Democratic opposition

Meanwhile, Democratic members of the committee stood against the Republican-led measure.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, of Oregon, said “invoking the Congressional Review Act is not only unnecessary but deeply harmful.”

Bonamici said the new Title IX rule “strengthens protections for vulnerable student populations, including the LGBTQ+ community, and for the first time, Title IX explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Virginia’s Rep. Bobby Scott, ranking member of the committee, said he found it baffling that the committee spent six months and more than five years “investigating the existence of hostile learning environments in education settings and then decides to bring the CRA bill to the committee for reasons they have publicly stated.”

GOP efforts in the Senate 

In the Senate, more than 30 Republicans, led by Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, introduced legislation this week that also seeks to reverse the final rule by invoking the Congressional Review Act. Only a majority vote is required in the Senate.

At a Wednesday press conference announcing the legislation, Hyde-Smith called the rule “backward,” saying it “only hurts women and girls by stripping away opportunities and rights they have enjoyed for decades.” She added that the rule would have “dramatic implications beyond the classrooms.”

“Title IX has been about making sure women have a fair shake relative to men. The new Biden rule radically overhauls Title IX, injecting a progressive gender ideology that removes longstanding protections for women and girls,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and lead cosponsor of the legislation, said in a statement this week.

“This is the death of Title IX as we know it,” he added.

Education Department’s response 

In response to these congressional efforts, a spokesperson for the Department of Education echoed an earlier statement, saying the department does not comment on pending litigation.

The spokesperson added that “as a condition of receiving federal funds, all federally funded schools are obligated to comply with these final regulations.”

The spokesperson also said the department looks forward to “working with school communities all across the country to ensure the Title IX guarantee of nondiscrimination in school is every student’s experience.”

The department has not yet decided on a separate rule establishing new criteria regarding transgender athletes.

Members of Congress are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media companies and their algorithms, while also giving parents more controls in trying to protect their kids online (Peter Cade/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Attempts to get kids off of their phones are ramping up in Congress, despite intense lobbying by social media giants and pushback by those worried about violations of First Amendment speech rights.

Lawmakers are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media companies and their algorithms, while also giving parents more controls in trying to protect their kids online.

A bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators, led by Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, introduced a new version of a bill that would set a minimum age of 13 to access social media platforms.

It would also block the use of “addictive algorithms” on social media platforms for those under 17 and limit social media use in schools. In late April, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, but the committee said it does not have a markup date.  

TikTok divestment

Major social media platforms, such as TikTok and Meta’s Instagram, have been criticized for their algorithms that can influence kids’ and teens’ mental health.

In late April, President Joe Biden signed a bill that forces TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance within the next year or face a possible ban in the United States. The law — baked into a massive foreign aid package — grew primarily out of privacy and national security concerns. The app and its parent company have both sued to block the potential ban.

Responding to the unhappiness among parents, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized in January to distraught family members of social media victims during a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee surrounding child safety online.

Yet Meta and ByteDance have also invested significantly in their lobbying efforts, according to an April report from the group Issue One.

The nonpartisan nonprofit found that in the first quarter of 2024, Meta spent a whopping $7.64 million on lobbying and had one lobbyist for every eight Congress members. Similarly, ByteDance spent $2.68 million and had one lobbyist for every 11 members of Congress.

Kids online safety bill

Other bipartisan congressional efforts are also targeting the algorithms of social media companies to protect kids’ safety online.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, introduced a new version of their legislation, the Kids Online Safety Act, in May 2023. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approved the bill, and in December it was placed on the Senate legislative calendar.

Part of the revised measure, which has garnered the support of over half the U.S. Senate, would require platforms to give minors the option to “protect their information, disable addictive product features, and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations” and allow for certain parental controls to “spot harmful behaviors.”

The bill would also provide a platform for parents and teachers to report such behavior. Lawmakers in the U.S. House introduced a companion bill in April. A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee forwarded the bill to the full committee in late May.

Free speech worries 

But attempts to either tailor or limit minors’ interactions on social media have been met with objections tied to potential First Amendment violations.

“Any government limits on what we can say or see online are likely to be unconstitutional,” said Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit that defends free speech rights.

Terr said many of these types of bills “hit an unconstitutional trifecta,” where “they threaten the First Amendment rights of the platforms to disseminate speech, the First Amendment rights of minors to access lawful content and the rights of adults to speak or access content anonymously because they may have to provide information about their identity in order to prove their age.”

“Parents are in the best position to set rules about their kids’ social media use, and the government shouldn’t usurp parental authority,” Terr said. He also noted that when it comes to laws attempting to regulate social media or speech in general, “one-size-fits-all approaches don’t work.”

“A problem with these laws, too, is who decides what’s ‘appropriate’? There’s vagueness issues with these laws, and the problem with that is that it gives the government a lot of discretion to just insert its own subjective determination of what they consider is appropriate and substituting its judgment for that of private platforms and the people who use them,” he added.

Warnings about kids’ health 

In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy publicly warned that, despite more research needed to grasp social media’s impact and some evidence outlining potential benefits for kids and teens, “there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”

Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School, told States Newsroom that the science is clearest around sleep.

“When kids are using media for long periods of time, or when it’s upsetting and kind of makes them more alert or kind of dysregulated or when it’s used in the evening hours — all of those are linked with worse sleep, and sleep is so essential for child development,” said Radesky, chair of the Council on Communications and Media at the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP is among the over 200 organizations supporting the Kids Online Safety Act.

“We don’t want to pursue legislation that somehow is regulating the content that can show up online because that’s a real First Amendment problem, so you don’t want to have something that’s a law that says this sort of content can’t show up in kids’ feeds. But what we are asking is for some accountability,” said Radesky.

Radesky said so much of the work of making sure kids have safe experiences online falls on their parents. “That’s exhausting, and it’s something we don’t all know how to do,” she said.

She said parents should feel free to talk to their members of Congress and say: “Listen, parenting is hard enough right now. Please do something to clean up the digital ecosystem, so that this can be easier, and the default experience for kids can lean more towards healthy and positive and less towards these risks that have been documented over the past five to 10 years.”

Phones in the classroom

At the state level, there is also a push to get kids off their phones in the classroom, with several states either passing or introducing bills barring students from using their phones while in class, as Stateline reported in March.

Last year, Florida became the first state to require public schools to prohibit students from using their cell phones in class.

Indiana has also followed with similar action. Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill into law earlier this year that — with some exceptions — requires schools to bar the use of wireless communication devices during class.

Some lawmakers in Congress have also sought concrete studies regarding the use of cell phones in schools, including Sens. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, and Tim Kaine, of Virginia.

The two introduced legislation in November that would require the U.S. Department of Education to “conduct a study regarding the use of mobile devices in elementary and secondary schools, and to establish a pilot program of awarding grants to enable certain schools to create a school environment free of mobile devices.” In November, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

The Biden administration on Wednesday said it will provide funding to help school districts purchase clean school buses, most of them electric. Shown is a yellow electric school bus plugged into a charging station. (TW Farlow/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — As part of its ongoing effort to replace diesel-fueled school buses, the Biden administration on Wednesday said it will provide approximately 530 school districts across nearly all states with almost $1 billion to help them purchase clean school buses.

The initiative, part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program rebate competition, will give funds to school districts in 47 states and the District of Columbia to help them buy over 3,400 clean school buses. Alaska, Hawaii and Nevada are not part of this round of funding.

Nearly all of the clean school buses purchased will be electric, at 92%, according to the administration.

“This announcement is not just about clean school buses, it’s about the bigger picture,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said during a call with reporters on Tuesday, prior to the announcement. “We are improving air quality for our children, reducing greenhouse gas pollution and expanding our nation’s leadership in developing the clean vehicles of the future.”

Low-income, rural and tribal communities — accounting for approximately 45% of the selected projects —  are slated to receive roughly 67% of the total funding, per the administration.

In Missouri, the funding will go to 17 school districts and a charter school. They will receive $18.1 million to replace 56 buses, with all the new buses to be electric.

Regan noted how “low-income communities and communities of color have long felt the disproportionate impacts of air pollution leading to severe health outcomes that continue to impact these populations.”

As for business and economic opportunities, Regan pointed to the development of new, well-paying manufacturing jobs and investment in local businesses stemming from the increasing demand for these clean school buses.

“As more and more schools make the switch to electric buses, there will be a need for American-made batteries, charging stations and service providers to maintain the buses supercharging and reinvigorating local economies,” he added.

The Clean School Bus Program has now collectively awarded nearly $3 billion to fund approximately 8,500 electric and alternative fuel buses for over 1,000 communities across the United States, according to the administration.

The program started through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden, which includes $5 billion over five years to transform the country’s existing school buses with “zero-emission and low-emission models,” per the EPA.

Among many negative health and environmental effects, especially for communities of color, diesel exhaust exposure can lead to major health conditions such as asthma and respiratory illnesses, according to the EPA.

Exposure to diesel exhaust can also “worsen existing heart and lung disease, especially in children and the elderly,” the agency said.

From left, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts; Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island; Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power; and U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Democrat from California, urge big oil companies be held accountable for high gas prices on Thursday, May 23, 2024, outside of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom).

WASHINGTON — As Democrats continue to ramp up their push against the oil industry, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and others on Thursday called out big oil companies and their executives for high gas prices heading into the heavily traveled Memorial Day weekend.

Republicans in turn have blamed President Joe Biden’s energy policies for high gas prices, with the potency of the issue for both parties illustrated by a new poll in seven battleground states that shows the economy and cost of living at the top of voters’ minds in the 2024 campaign for the presidency.

The Biden administration earlier this week said 1 million gallons of oil will be released from reserves in the northeastern United States, in an effort to curb prices ahead of summer driving. And officials with the Biden campaign pointed out Thursday a Wall Street Journal report that prices are trending downward even before the weekend.

The national average price of a gallon of gas was $3.615 Thursday, according to automotive group AAA, down from an all-time high of $5.016 in June 2022.

The Democratic lawmakers at Thursday’s press conference outside the U.S. Capitol included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and U.S. Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island; House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse of Colorado; and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nanette Barragán and Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, both of California.

“Instead of working to lower gas prices for Americans ahead of a busy Memorial Day weekend, Big Oil companies, executives, are huddling to find ways to keep prices high and keep their profits soaring,” Schumer said. The press conference was co-hosted by Climate Power, a strategic communications organization in the climate space and the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group.

Earlier in May, the Federal Trade Commission alleged that Scott Sheffield, the CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources, “attempted to collude with the representatives of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a related cartel of other oil-producing countries known as OPEC+ to reduce output of oil and gas, which would result in Americans paying higher prices at the pump, to inflate profits for his company.”

During Thursday’s event, Schumer said he would be sending a letter to the U.S. Justice Department next week “calling on them to investigate and prosecute collusion and price fixing that may have increased gasoline, fuel and energy costs, based on the report done by the FTC, when they unfortunately allowed (Exxon) Mobil to … merge with Pioneer (Natural Resources), which I thought was a bad idea.”

Schumer added that “the federal government must use every tool at our disposal to investigate the oil industry, hold accountable liable actors and illegal activities. There’s something wrong — very wrong — when big oil companies rake in the cash by polluting the atmosphere and at the expense of the American people.”

Trump and oil companies

The Senate majority leader and his fellow Democratic lawmakers also called out former President Donald Trump over recent media reports saying Trump engaged in a quid pro quo offer with major oil companies’ CEOs in April.

Schumer said “one of the ways big oil companies spend their time these days is cozying up to Donald Trump, who, as we all know, is no enemy to big oil.”

Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president, setting him up for a rematch with Biden.

Separately on Thursday, Whitehouse, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, and Oregon U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said their respective committees launched a joint investigation into Trump’s “quid pro quo offer to big oil.”

The senators are asking nine oil and gas companies and their trade associations for information and documents pertaining to the purported quid pro quo proposed by Trump.

Neguse, a Colorado Democrat, said that for him, “all of this boils down to three words: polluters over people.” He noted that “over the last 16, 17 months, we have witnessed in the House an extreme MAGA Republican majority that has taken every opportunity to pass bill after bill to give giveaways to oil companies and to corporate polluters near and far.”

Republicans blame Biden

Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group, is seeking to turn the arguments back on Democrats. The group this week announced a series of events across the country where it will partner with local gas stations to roll back gasoline prices to what they were when Biden took office.

In March, the House GOP Conference said “the surging prices at the pump Americans are facing are a direct result from Joe Biden’s unprecedented war on American energy, which Biden launched on his first day in office in an attempt to appease his Far Left base by implementing his radical Green New Deal agenda.”

Republicans cited the U.S. Energy Department’s move to pause approvals of new exports of liquified natural gas to all countries without a free trade agreement with the United States, as well as the decision early in Biden’s tenure to kill the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline.

Meanwhile, also Thursday, polling and analysis released by The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, in collaboration with Democratic polling firm BSG and Republican polling firm GS Strategy Group, found “the defining issue for this contest is a more traditional one: the economy.”

Over half of likely voters from swing states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, viewed inflation and the cost of living as the “worst/weakest” part of the economy, according to the report. In seven states combined, Trump led Biden 47% to 44% in a head-to-head matchup. Trump led in all states except Wisconsin.

Neither a spokesperson for the Trump Organization nor his 2024 presidential campaign immediately responded to a request for comment Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, calls on the U.S. Education Department to cut ties with Missouri student loan servicer MOHELA on Wednesday, May 22, 2024, outside the U.S. Capitol (Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom).

WASHINGTON — A group of advocates and progressive Democratic lawmakers called on the U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday to end its contract with MOHELA, a Missouri-based student loan servicer.

U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Greg Casar of Texas and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts urged the department to cut ties with MOHELA, also known as the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri, during a press conference hosted by the Debt Collective, which advocates for canceling student debt.

Advocates and the lawmakers accused MOHELA of being a predatory loan service and failing student borrowers, citing mismanagement, administrative failures and hours-long wait times for assistance.

“It is time to stop their contract, it is time to fire them, it is time to listen to the borrowers that have been speaking up about the struggles that they are facing, and it is time for us to do the right thing,” Omar said. “We are asking the administration to take this step forward because it is past time that we listen to the borrowers that have been suffering under the incompetence of MOHELA.”

The Education Department did not respond on the record to a request for comment Wednesday.

In moves it has characterized as bolstering protections for borrowers, the department launched a new accountability initiative in November and has transitioned to new loan servicing contracts.

‘Nothing short of a nightmare’

MOHELA is at the center of two class-action lawsuits in recent months accusing the nonprofit of a “failure to timely process and render decisions for student loan borrowers enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.”

One of the lawsuits names MOHELA alone, while the other names both the nonprofit and the U.S. Education Department.

The student loan servicer has also taken heat from the Student Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group, and the American Federation of Teachers, a major teachers’ union. In a report from February, the two entities accused the nonprofit of failing “to perform basic servicing functions.”

They also claimed that “more than four in ten student loan borrowers MOHELA services have experienced a servicing failure since loan payments resumed in September 2023.”

In March, MOHELA sent a cease and desist letter to the Student Borrower Protection Center, accusing its report of making “false, misleading and sensationalized claims and insinuations regarding MOHELA and its business activities.”

A spokesperson for MOHELA said in an emailed statement Wednesday that “borrowers are not better off when outside groups spread false and misleading information about our work as a federal contractor for FSA.” The spokesperson added that MOHELA remains “committed to continuing to provide the highest quality of customer service to the borrowers that we serve.”

Student loan servicers are companies contracted by the federal government to handle billing and other administrative tasks regarding federal student loans, according to Federal Student Aid.

MOHELA services nearly 8 million borrowers after winning a contract in 2022 to handle the Education Department’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, said during Wednesday’s event that “at every step,” MOHELA has “failed student loan borrowers.”

“They’ve lost paperwork, they’ve given people the runaround,” Pierce said while standing next to an exhibit displaying what appeared to be a nine-hour hold time when trying to reach one of MOHELA’s customer service representatives.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, at Wednesday’s press conference said MOHELA has a “call-deflection scheme.”

“When it is critical for people to be on the phone with someone, they can’t get on the phone with someone,” Weingarten said.

Shamell Bell, a member of the Debt Collective, said her interactions with the student loan servicer have been “nothing short of a nightmare.”

Bell said she was in a “labyrinth of just false information, false promises and failures that are not just administrative errors” but also “systemic obstacles that jeopardize the financial stability and mental wellness of countless borrowers like myself.”

More student loan forgiveness 

Meanwhile, the Biden administration said earlier Wednesday that it had approved an additional $7.7 billion in student debt relief for 160,500 borrowers. The bulk of the relief — more than $5 billion — went to nearly 67,000 borrowers partaking in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Wednesday’s move brought the administration’s total loan forgiveness to $167 billion for 4.75 million Americans.

“The Biden-Harris Administration remains persistent about our efforts to bring student debt relief to millions more across the country, and this announcement proves it,” U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “One out of every 10 federal student loan borrowers approved for debt relief means one out of every 10 borrowers now has financial breathing room and a burden lifted.”

Guard Caitlin Clark #22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes listens as the crowd cheers after breaking the NCAA women’s all-time scoring record during the game against the Michigan Wolverines at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Feb. 15, 2024 in Iowa City, Iowa. Clark now plays in the WNBA (Matthew Holst/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — A congressional watchdog in a new report called on the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to improve its enforcement of Title IX compliance in college athletics.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office in the report issued Thursday appeared critical of the OCR’s oversight in expanding opportunities for women in college athletics, saying the office “conducts few proactive activities.” Women take part in college sports at lower rates than men, even though they enroll at higher rates, the report found.

The criticism also arrives at a time when women’s college sports, particularly basketball, have recently gained more popularity and viewership. The prominence of Caitlin Clark, the former guard for the University of Iowa women’s basketball team who became the NCAA Division I’s all-time leading scorer across women’s and men’s basketball, has helped propel the momentum.

During the 50 years since its adoption, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 has prohibited discrimination based on sex in activities or programs receiving federal funding. The federal law also mandates “schools to provide equal opportunity based on sex.” The department’s OCR is tasked with enforcing compliance of Title IX.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, released the GAO report with U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.

“Every student who wants to play a sport in college should have a fair and equal opportunity to do so,” said Scott, a Democrat from Virginia.

“Regrettably, today’s GAO report confirms that while female college enrollment numbers outpace male enrollment, opportunities for female athletes significantly lag behind their male counterparts,” he said.

Bonamici, a Democrat from Oregon, said the federal law “sets a standard of equal opportunity that too many schools have failed to meet.” She added that the GAO report “shows that women enroll in college at a higher rate than men but consistently participate in college athletics at a lower rate than men.”

Gap in women’s and men’s sports participation 

The report highlighted the persistent gap in college sports participation between women and men. Approximately 93% of colleges saw lower athletic participation rates for women relative to their enrollment rate during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Title IX also requires schools receiving federal funding to have participation numbers of men and women in college sports to be “substantially proportionate to their overall enrollment,” according to the Department of Education.

Yet, women’s overall athletic participation rate fell 14 percentage points behind their enrollment rate in the 2021-2022 academic year, the GAO found.

Communication delays

The GAO noted that the OCR made “limited use of available data for oversight purposes” and did not “always communicate with colleges in a timely way during monitoring.”

On average, it took half a year for the OCR to respond to colleges after “they submitted their Title IX athletics monitoring reports,” per the GAO.

The congressional watchdog found “years-long delays in communication between OCR and some colleges.” In 10 of 26 cases, it took at least a year or longer for the OCR to communicate with a college. In one case, it took nearly seven years for the OCR to approve the college’s proposed methodology for assessing whether it complied with Title IX athletics requirements, the GAO said.

In response to the report, Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights at the department, said the department is “fully committed to work with GAO to ensure the recommendations are implemented, to the extent possible.”

The attention paid to women’s sports is on the rise, thanks in part to Clark’s popularity on the court. Clark now plays for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever.
In April, the women’s basketball championship garnered more viewers compared to the men’s championship game for the first time in NCAA history, according to Nielsen, which measures media audiences.