The Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, on Tuesday, Oct. 15, spoke to the Economic Club of Chicago. In this photo, he speaks to attendees during a campaign rally at the Mosack Group warehouse on Sept. 25 in Mint Hill, North Carolina (Brandon Bell/Getty Images).

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump defended his plans for steep tariffs on Tuesday, arguing economists who say that those higher costs would get passed onto consumers are incorrect and that his proposals would benefit American manufacturing.

During an argumentative hour-long interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait hosted by the Economic Club of Chicago, Trump vehemently denied tariffs on certain imported goods would lead to further spikes in inflation and sour America’s relationship with allies, including those in Europe.

“The higher the tariff, the more likely it is that the company will come into the United States, and build a factory in the United States so it doesn’t have to pay the tariff,” Trump said.

Micklethwait questioned Trump about what would happen to consumer prices during the months or even years it would take companies to build factories in the United States and hire workers.

Trump responded that he could make tariffs “so high, so horrible, so obnoxious that they’ll come right away.” Earlier during the interview, Trump mentioned placing tariffs on foreign-made products as high as 100% or 200%.

Smoot-Hawley memories

Micklethwait noted during the interview that 40 million jobs and 27% of gross domestic product within the United States rely on trade, questioning how tariffs on those products would help the economy.

He also asked Trump if his plans for tariffs could lead the country down a similar path to the one that followed the Smoot-Hawley tariff law becoming law in June 1930. Signed by President Herbert Hoover, some historians and economists have linked the law to the beginning of the Great Depression.

Trump disagreed with Micklethwait, though he didn’t detail why his proposals to increase tariffs on goods from adversarial nations as well as U.S. allies wouldn’t begin a trade war.

The U.S. Senate’s official explainer on the Smoot-Hawley tariffs describes the law as being “among the most catastrophic acts in congressional history.” And the Congressional Research Services notes in a report on U.S. tariff policy that it was the last time lawmakers set tariff rates.

Desmond Lachman, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank, wrote last month that Trump’s proposal to implement tariffs of at least 60% on goods imported from China as well as 10 to 20% on all other imports could have severe economic consequences.

“It is difficult to see how such a unilateral trade policy in flagrant violation of World Trade Organization rules would not lead to retaliation by our trade partners with import tariff increases of their own,” Lachman wrote. “As in the 1930s, that could lead us down the destructive path of beggar-my-neighbor trade policies that could cause major disruption to the international trade system. Such an occurrence would be particularly harmful to our export industries and would heighten the chances of both a US and worldwide economic recession.”

CRS notes in its reports that while the Constitution grants Congress the authority to establish tariffs, lawmakers have given the president some authority over it as well.

The United States’ membership in the World Trade Organization and various other trade agreements also have “tariff-related commitments,” according to CRS.

“For more than 80 years, Congress has delegated extensive tariff-setting authority to the President,” the CRS report states. “This delegation insulated Congress from domestic pressures and led to an overall decline in global tariff rates. However, it has meant that the U.S. pursuit of a low-tariff, rules-based global trading system has been the product of executive discretion. While Congress has set negotiating goals, it has relied on Presidential leadership to achieve those goals.”

The presidency and the Fed

Trump said during the interview that he believes the president should have more input into whether the Federal Reserve raises or lowers interest rates, though he didn’t answer a question about keeping Jerome Powell as the chairman through the end of his term.

“I think I have the right to say I think he should go up or down a little bit,” Trump said. “I don’t think I should be allowed to order it. But I think I have the right to put in comments as to whether or not interest rates should go up or down.”

Trump declined to answer a question about whether he’s spoken with Russian leader Vladimir Putin since leaving office.

“I don’t comment on that,” Trump said. “But I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing. If I’m friendly with people, if I have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Journalist Bob Woodward wrote in his new book “War” that Trump and Putin have spoken at least seven times and that Trump secretly sent Putin COVID-19 tests during the pandemic, which the Kremlin later confirmed, according to several news reports.

Trump said the presidential race will likely come down to Pennsylvania, Michigan and possibly Arizona.

The Economic Club of Chicago has also invited Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for a sit-down interview.

Studies show that AI systems used to make important decisions such as approval of loan and mortgage applications can perpetuate historical bias and discrimination if not carefully constructed and monitored (Seksan Mongkhonkhamsao/Getty Images).

In a recent study evaluating how chatbots make loan suggestions for mortgage applications, researchers at Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University found something stark: there was clear racial bias at play.

With 6,000 sample loan applications based on data from the 2022 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the chatbots recommended denials for more Black applicants than identical white counterparts. They also recommended Black applicants be given higher interest rates, and labeled Black and Hispanic borrowers as “riskier.”

White applicants were 8.5% more likely to be approved than Black applicants with the same financial profile. And applicants with “low” credit scores of 640, saw a wider margin — white applicants were approved 95% of the time, while Black applicants were approved less than 80% of the time.

The experiment aimed to simulate how financial institutions are using AI algorithms, machine learning and large language models to speed up processes like lending and underwriting of loans and mortgages. These “black box” systems, where the algorithm’s inner workings aren’t transparent to users, have the potential to lower operating costs for financial firms and any other industry employing them, said Donald Bowen, an assistant fintech professor at Lehigh and one of the authors of the study.

But there’s also large potential for flawed training data, programming errors, and historically biased information to affect the outcomes, sometimes in detrimental, life-changing ways.

“There’s a potential for these systems to know a lot about the people they’re interacting with,” Bowen said. “If there’s a baked-in bias, that could propagate across a bunch of different interactions between customers and a bank.”

How does AI discriminate in finance?

Decision-making AI tools and large language models, like the ones in the Lehigh University experiment, are being used across a variety of industries, like healthcare, education, finance and even in the judicial system.

Most machine learning algorithms follow what’s called classification models, meaning you formally define a problem or a question, and then you feed the algorithm a set of inputs such as a loan applicant’s age, income, education and credit history, Michael Wellman, a computer science professor at the University of Michigan, explained.

The algorithm spits out a result — approved or not approved. More complex algorithms can assess these factors and deliver more nuanced answers, like a loan approval with a recommended interest rate.

Machine learning advances in recent years have allowed for what’s called deep learning, or construction of big neural networks that can learn from large amounts of data. But if AI’s builders don’t keep objectivity in mind, or rely on data sets that reflect deep-rooted and systemic racism, results will reflect that.

“If it turns out that you are systematically more often making decisions to deny credit to certain groups of people more than you make those wrong decisions about others, that would be a time that there’s a problem with the algorithm,” Wellman said. “And especially when those groups are groups that are historically disadvantaged.”

Bowen was initially inspired to pursue the Lehigh University study after a smaller-scale assignment with his students revealed the racial discrimination by the chatbots.

“We wanted to understand if these models are biased, and if they’re biased in settings where they’re not supposed to be,” Bowen said, since underwriting is a regulated industry that’s not allowed to consider race in decision-making.

For the official study, Bowen and a research team ran thousands of loan application numbers over several months through different commercial large language models, including OpenAI’s GPT 3.5 Turbo and GPT 4, Anthropic’s Claude 3 Sonnet and Opus and Meta’s Llama 3-8B and 3-70B.

In one experiment, they included race information on applications and saw the discrepancies in loan approvals and mortgage rates. In other, they instructed the chatbots to “use no bias in making these decisions.” That experiment saw virtually no discrepancies between loan applicants.

But if race data isn’t collected in modern day lending, and algorithms used by banks are instructed to not consider race, how do people of color end up getting denied more often, or offered worse interest rates? Because much of our modern-day data is influenced by disparate impact, or the influence of systemic racism, Bowen said.

Though a computer wasn’t given the race of an applicant, a borrower’s credit score, which can be influenced by discrimination in the labor and housing markets, will have an impact on their application. So might their zip code, or the credit scores of other members of their household, all of which could have been influenced by the historic racist practice of redlining, or restricting lending to people in poor and nonwhite neighborhoods.

Machine learning algorithms aren’t always calculating their conclusions in the way that humans might imagine, Bowen said. The patterns it is learning apply to a variety of scenarios, so it may even be digesting reports about discrimination, for example learning that Black people have historically had worse credit. Therefore, the computer might see signs that a borrower is Black, and deny their loan or offer them a higher interest rate than a white counterpart.

Other opportunities for discrimination 

Decision making technologies have become ubiquitous in hiring practices over the last several years, as application platforms and internal systems use AI to filter through applications, and pre-screen candidates for hiring managers. Last year, New York City began requiring employers to notify candidates about their use of AI decision-making software.

By law, the AI tools should be programmed to have no opinion on protected classes like gender, race or age, but some users allege that they’ve been discriminated against by the algorithms anyway. In 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission launched an initiative to examine more closely how new and existing technologies change the way employment decisions are made. Last year, the commission settled its first-ever AI discrimination hiring lawsuit.

The New York federal court case ended in a $365,000 settlement when tutoring company iTutorGroup Inc. was alleged to use an AI-powered hiring tool that rejected women applicants over 55 and men over 60. Two hundred applicants received the settlement, and iTutor agreed to adopt anti-discrimination policies and conduct training to ensure compliance with equal employment opportunity laws, Bloomberg reported at the time.

Another anti-discrimination lawsuit is pending in California federal court against AI-powered company Workday. Plaintiff Derek Mobley alleges he was passed over for more than 100 jobs that contract with the software company because he is Black, older than 40 and has mental health issues, Reuters reported this summer. The suit claims that Workday uses data on a company’s existing workforce to train its software, and the practice doesn’t account for the discrimination that may reflect in future hiring.

U.S. judicial and court systems have also begun incorporating decision-making algorithms in a handful of operations, like risk assessment analysis of defendants, determinations about pretrial release, diversion, sentencing and probation or parole.

Though the technologies have been cited in speeding up some of the traditionally lengthy court processes — like for document review and assistance with small claims court filings — experts caution that the technologies are not ready to be the primary or sole evidence in a “consequential outcome.”

“We worry more about its use in cases where AI systems are subject to pervasive and systemic racial and other biases, e.g., predictive policing, facial recognition, and criminal risk/recidivism assessment,” the co-authors of a paper in Judicature’s 2024 edition say.

Utah passed a law earlier this year to combat exactly that. HB 366, sponsored by state Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Syracuse, addresses the use of an algorithm or a risk assessment tool score in determinations about pretrial release, diversion, sentencing, probation and parole, saying that these technologies may not be used without human intervention and review.

Lisonbee told States Newsroom that by design, the technologies provide a limited amount of information to a judge or decision-making officer.

“We think it’s important that judges and other decision-makers consider all the relevant information about a defendant in order to make the most appropriate decision regarding sentencing, diversion, or the conditions of their release,” Lisonbee said.

She also brought up concerns about bias, saying the state’s lawmakers don’t currently have full confidence in the “objectivity and reliability” of these tools. They also aren’t sure of the tools’ data privacy settings, which is a priority to Utah residents. These issues combined could put citizens’ trust in the criminal justice system at risk, she said.

“When evaluating the use of algorithms and risk assessment tools in criminal justice and other settings, it’s important to include strong data integrity and privacy protections, especially for any personal data that is shared with external parties for research or quality control purposes,” Lisonbee said.

Preventing discriminatory AI

Some legislators, like Lisonbee, have taken note of these issues of bias, and potential for discrimination. Four states currently have laws aiming to prevent “algorithmic discrimination,” where an AI system can contribute to different treatment of people based on race, ethnicity, sex, religion or disability, among other things. This includes Utah, as well as California (SB 36), Colorado (SB 21-169), Illinois (HB 0053).

Though it’s not specific to discrimination, Congress introduced a bill in late 2023 to amend the Financial Stability Act of 2010 to include federal guidance for the financial industry on the uses of AI. This bill, the Financial Artificial Intelligence Risk Reduction Act or the “FAIRR Act,” would require the Financial Stability Oversight Council to coordinate with agencies regarding threats to the financial system posed by artificial intelligence, and may regulate how financial institutions can rely on AI.

Lehigh’s Bowen made it clear he felt there was no going back on these technologies, especially as companies and industries realize their cost-saving potential.

“These are going to be used by firms,” he said. “So how can they do this in a fair way?”

Bowen hopes his study can help inform financial and other institutions in deployment of decision-making AI tools. For their experiment, the researchers wrote that it was as simple as using prompt engineering to instruct the chatbots to “make unbiased decisions.” They suggest firms that integrate large language models into their processes do regular audits for bias to refine their tools.

Bowen and other researchers on the topic stress that more human involvement is needed to use these systems fairly. Though AI can deliver a decision on a court sentencing, mortgage loan, job application, healthcare diagnosis or customer service inquiry, it doesn’t mean they should be operating unchecked.

University of Michigan’s Wellman told States Newsroom he’s looking for government regulation on these tools, and pointed to H.R. 6936, a bill pending in Congress which would require federal agencies to adopt the Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The framework calls out potential for bias, and is designed to improve trustworthiness for organizations that design, develop, use and evaluate AI tools.

“My hope is that the call for standards … will read through the market, providing tools that companies could use to validate or certify their models at least,” Wellman said. “Which, of course, doesn’t guarantee that they’re perfect in every way or avoid all your potential negatives. But it can … provide basic standard basis for trusting the models.”

Protesters in front of the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol urged Congress to pass the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, in December 2017 in Washington, D.C. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — After concluding oral arguments Thursday, a panel of federal judges will determine the fate of a program that has shielded from deportation more than half a million immigrants lacking permanent legal status who came into the United States as children.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a 12-year program that was meant to be temporary during the Obama administration while Congress passed a pathway to citizenship, has been caught in a years-long battle after the Trump administration moved to end the program.

Greisa Martinez Rosas, the executive director for the youth immigration organization United We Dream, said in a statement that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit should reject the “baseless lawsuit” brought by Texas and other states.

“DACA recipients have withstood over a decade of attacks by violent, anti-immigrant officials and have kept DACA alive through their courage and resilience,” Rosas said. “I urge President (Joe) Biden and every elected official to treat this moment with the urgency it requires and to take bold and swift action to protect all immigrants once and for all. ”

A panel of three judges on the appeals court heard oral arguments on behalf of the program from the Justice Department, the state of New Jersey and an immigration rights group, all advocating the legality of the Biden administration’s 2021 final rule to codify the program.

Last year the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas declared it unlawful and allowed current DACA recipients to continue renewing their status, but barred new applicants.

The Justice Department and the others asked the appeals court judges to consider three things. They are challenging whether the state of Texas has standing to show it was harmed by DACA; whether the regulation is lawful within presidential authority; and whether the trial court had the authority to place a nationwide injunction on the program.

The judges are Jerry Edwin Smith, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan; Edith Brown Clement, appointed by former President George W. Bush; and Stephen A. Higginson, appointed by former President Barack Obama.

The 5th Circuit in New Orleans covers Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, and typically delivers conservative rulings.

Joseph N. Mazzara, arguing on behalf of the state of Texas, said that DACA harmed the state because there is a “pocketbook cost to Texas with regard to education and medical care.”

He said that the end of DACA would likely lead recipients to self-deport and “return to their country of origin,” which he argued would alleviate Texas’ financial costs.

It could take weeks or months for a ruling, which is likely to head to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the fate of DACA may be left to the incoming administration.

The Supreme Court in 2020 overturned the Trump administration’s decision to end the program, but on the grounds that the White House didn’t follow the proper procedure. The high court did not make a decision whether the program itself was unlawful or not.

States’ standing

Brian Boynton argued on behalf of the Biden administration.

He argued that the eight states that sued the Biden administration along with Texas have no standing because they did not demonstrate any harm caused by DACA.

Those other states challenging DACA include Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas and Mississippi.

“Any person in the state of Texas, citizen or noncitizen, is entitled to precisely the same types of services, emergency health care services and public K through 12 education,” he said. “It’s not a situation where only someone with DACA is entitled to the services.”

Boynton asked the panel to uphold U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s policy of keeping DACA in place for current recipients – about 535,000 people – if the court decides to strike the program down while DACA continues to undergo the appeals process.

Hanen ruled in 2021 that DACA was unlawful, determining that the Obama administration exceeded its presidential authority in creating the program. He allowed current DACA recipients to remain in the program, but barred the federal government from accepting new applicants.

It’s estimated that there are 95,000 applicants that are blocked due to that order, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data. 

The Biden administration then went through the formal rulemaking, which Hanen reviewed and again deemed unlawful, prompting the appeal before the three judges.

Boynton argued against a nationwide injunction on DACA recipients being able to apply for the program.

“With respect to the propriety of nationwide injunctions, it’s very clear that an injunction should be narrowly crafted to provide a remedy only to the party that is injured, and here that would be Texas,” he said.

Nina Perales, of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, argued that Texas in its legal arguments is including spending costs for students in K-12 schools who cannot be DACA recipients because those recipients are over 18 and have aged out of the program.

Perales addressed the health care argument from Texas and said Texas did not show the incurred health costs of just DACA recipients.

“Texas points to health care spending on the entire undocumented immigrant population, as Texas estimates it,” she said. “Not DACA recipients.”

“It’s been widely understood that DACA recipients overall provide a net benefit to their state,” she added.

People toss buckets of water out of a home as the streets and homes are flooded near Peachtree Creek after Hurricane Helene brought in heavy rains over night on Sept. 27 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Megan Varner/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Hurricane season has not only wreaked havoc on people’s lives throughout much of the country, but could also make it more difficult for voters to cast their ballots in hard-hit regions.

Other election threats include misinformation and even terrorism, with warnings from the Department of Homeland Security and an arrest in Oklahoma allegedly connected with an Election Day plot.

Election officials in states regularly affected by hurricane season have considerable experience ensuring residents can vote following natural disasters, but those in other parts of the country less accustomed to the destruction this year are learning as they go.

Voters used to a quick drive to their polling place or a drop box might need to spend more time getting there amid washed-out roads, while some may be so bogged down in rebuilding their lives, they simply choose not to cast a ballot. Regular mail service may be disrupted for mail-in ballots.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said earlier this week he didn’t expect recovery from Hurricane Helene to have a significant impact on voting, lauding county election officials for troubleshooting power outages and a loss of internet during the storm, the Georgia Recorder reported.

Local election officials throughout the state, he said, were ready to ship mail-in ballots on time and didn’t expect any delays to the start of early voting on Oct. 15.

County election officials “really put public service first because they understand how important voting is in 53 counties that so far have been declared federal disaster areas,” he said during a press briefing.

North Carolina’s Board of Elections has implemented changes in 13 counties that will make it easier for residents there to vote by absentee ballot, NC Newsline reported. The emergency measures, adopted unanimously, also allow elections officials to increase outreach to voters and set up alternative voting locations to avoid using locations that were damaged or are inaccessible.

Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell said during that board meeting she expects early voting will still begin on Oct. 17 as previously planned.

“These measures will help eligible voters in the affected areas cast their ballot either in person or by mail,” Brinson Bell said. “They will help county boards of election in western North Carolina administer this election under extraordinarily difficult conditions.”

In Florida, where residents barely began addressing damage from Hurricane Helene before Hurricane Milton emerged, there are disagreements about how best to proceed, the Florida Phoenix reported.

The League of Women Voters of Florida Education Fund and the Florida State Conference of the NAACP have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to extend the voter registration deadline, which ended on Monday.

The organizations argue that Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis should have allowed more time for voter registration, since residents have been focused on storm preparation, evacuation and recovery.

“While issuing mandatory evacuation orders, he has refused to extend the voter registration deadline, disenfranchising many Floridians who were unable to register due to a disaster beyond their control,” the organizations wrote in a statement. “Voters should not have to worry about registering to vote while they are trying to protect their lives and communities.”

Elections and artificial intelligence

In Kentucky, elections officials are warning state lawmakers that artificial intelligence has the “potential for significant impact” on elections in the months and years ahead, the Kentucky Lantern reported.

Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams urged lawmakers during a meeting of the General Assembly’s Artificial Intelligence Task Force to take the technology seriously.

“Should you take up AI legislation when you return in 2025, I would encourage you to consider prohibiting impersonation of election officials,” Adams said during the meeting. “It is illegal to impersonate a peace officer, and for good reason. It should be equally illegal to impersonate a secretary of state or county clerk and put out false information in any format about our elections.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a report earlier this month saying officials expected “state actors will continue to pose a host of threats to the Homeland and public safety,” including through artificial intelligence.

“Specifically, China, Iran, and Russia will use a blend of subversive, undeclared, criminal, and coercive tactics to seek new opportunities to undermine confidence in US democratic institutions and domestic social cohesion,” the 46-page report states.

“Advances in AI likely will enable foreign adversaries to increase the output, timeliness, and perceived authenticity of their mis-, dis-, and malinformation designed to influence US audiences while concealing or distorting the origin of the content.”

Terrorism and the election 

DHS also expects threats from terrorism to remain high throughout the year, including around the elections, according to the report.

“Lone offenders and small groups continue to pose the greatest threat of carrying out attacks with little to no warning,” the report states.

That appears to be the case in Oklahoma, where federal officials allege a 27-year-old Afghanistan national living in the state purchased an AK-47 and ammunition as part of a plot to conduct an attack on Election Day in the name of ISIS, the Oklahoma Voice reported.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi and a co-conspirator under the age of 18 allegedly met with an FBI asset in rural western Oklahoma to purchase two AK-47 assault rifles, 10 magazines and 500 rounds of ammunition, according to the criminal complaint.

An FBI search of Tawhedi’s phone found communications with a person who Tawhedi believed was affiliated with ISIS. He also “allegedly accessed, viewed, and saved ISIS propaganda on his iCloud and Google account, participated in pro-ISIS Telegram groups, and contributed to a charity which fronts for and funnels money to ISIS,” according to the complaint.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign has sought to blame Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for Tawhedi’s presence within the United States.

Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt released a written statement claiming that Harris “rolled out the red carpet for terrorists like Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi.”

“President Donald Trump will deport illegal immigrants on the terror watch list and secure our borders from foreign threats,” Leavitt wrote.

Tawhedi entered the United States on Sept. 9, 2021, on a special immigrant visa and “is currently on parole status pending adjudication of his immigration proceedings,” according to the criminal complaint.

The co-defendant is Tawhedi’s wife’s younger brother. While unnamed because he is a juvenile, the criminal complaint says he is a citizen of Afghanistan with legal permanent resident status who entered the United States on March 27, 2018, on a special immigrant visa.

Leavitt’s statement didn’t comment on the co-defendant entering the United States during the Trump administration.

Harris has not yet commented publicly on the arrest.

(Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom).

WASHINGTON — Republicans are struggling to recruit and elect women to Congress, lagging behind Democrats in ensuring women, who make up half the population, have a strong voice in the halls of power, experts on women in politics said Tuesday.

“This year’s data shows clearly that Republican women are falling behind in candidacies, nominations and even primary contest success,” Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said on a call with reporters.

Democratic women, on the other hand, “are not only outperforming their male counterparts, but are also reaching near parity with Democratic men in nominations and office holding.”

The 435-member U.S. House currently has 126 women, 34 of whom are Republicans. The 100-member Senate has 25 female lawmakers, with nine belonging to the GOP.

CAWP Director of Data Chelsea Hill explained on the call that while women overall account for just 31.1% of general election nominees for the House, the breakdown shows a stark difference for Democratic and Republican politicians.

“Women continue to be significantly underrepresented as a percentage of all U.S. House and Senate candidates and nominees,” Hill said. “But Republican women are a significantly smaller percentage of their party’s candidates and nominees than are Democratic women.”

Democratic women running for the House represent 45.9% of candidates within their party, coming close to parity with their male colleagues and increasing female candidate percentages over 2022, she said.

Republican women, however, make up 16.2% of GOP House candidates this election cycle, a lower share than during 2020 and 2022, Hill said.

In the Senate, female candidates account for 30.9% of general election nominees, with a similar split between Democrats and Republicans.

Democratic women account for 46.9% of the party’s candidates for that chamber of Congress, also near parity, though women make up 17.6% of Republican Senate nominees, “a smaller share than in the three previous cycles,” according to Hill.

Why are fewer Republican women running?

CAWP experts said the difference in female candidates is predominantly due to structural differences as well as differing beliefs about the importance of women holding office among leadership and voters.

CAWP Director of Research Kelly Dittmar said if party leadership doesn’t believe women’s underrepresentation in government is a problem in need of a solution, that will make “it hard to build the type of support infrastructure — whether it be for women’s PACs, trainings, recruitment programs — that would ensure that those numbers stay high.”

Dittmar said one example of this was House Republican leaders’ decision to roll a program called “Project Grow” that was aimed at recruiting female GOP lawmakers into the “Young Guns” program, which is focused more on general recruitment.

“Young Guns” is also the title of a book published in 2010 by former House Republican leaders Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy, all of whom are men.

Dittmar said the evolution of the Republican Party under former President Donald Trump and the change in abortion access stemming from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022 are not significant factors accounting for the lower numbers of female Republican candidates.

“I would suggest that when we get to the candidate level, there are enough conservative Republican women in the country that could be recruited and supported as candidates,” Dittmar said.

Walsh said one of the reasons GOP leaders don’t focus on recruiting and encouraging women in public office is that there is a “reluctance” within the Republican Party to engage in identity politics.

“The Democratic Party places value on that, versus the Republican Party, which says the best candidate will rise to the top and let the best person win,” Walsh said. “So it is a deeply philosophical difference that plays out in candidate recruitment, candidate support.”

Dittmar added that Democrats aren’t necessarily recruiting and advancing female candidates “out of the goodness of their hearts,” but are doing so because it’s expected by their voters.

“There’s an electoral incentive, partly due to the gender gap in voting, as well as racial and ethnic differences in terms of the Democratic base, where there is more demand on the Democratic Party to say, ‘Look, we’re bringing you votes, you need to prioritize and value this level of representation.’”

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.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday considered a federal firearm regulation aimed at reining in ghost guns, untraceable, unregulated weapons made from kits. In this photo, a ghost gun is displayed before the start of an event about gun violence in the Rose Garden of the White House April 11, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — U.S. Supreme Court justices Tuesday grappled with whether the Biden administration exceeded its authority when it set regulations for kits that can be assembled into untraceable firearms, and a majority of justices seemed somewhat skeptical the rule was an overreach.

In Garland v. VanDerStok, the nine justices are tasked with determining whether a rule issued by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives in 2022 overstepped in expanding the definition of “firearms” to include “ghost guns” under a federal firearms law.

Ghost guns are firearms without serial numbers and can be easily bought online and quickly assembled in parts, usually through a kit. Law enforcement officials use serial numbers to track guns that are used in crimes.

Arguing on behalf of the Biden administration, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices that there has been an “explosion in crimes” with untraceable guns across the U.S.

She added that the federal government has for years required gun manufacturers and sellers to mark firearms with a serial number.

“The industry has followed those conditions without difficulty for more than half a century, and those basic requirements are crucial to solving gun crimes and keeping guns out of the hands of minors, felons and domestic abusers,” Prelogar said.

She said with the kits to make untraceable homemade guns in as little as 15 minutes, those manufacturers “have tried to circumvent those requirements.”

Prelogar said untraceable guns “are attractive to people who can’t lawfully purchase them or who plan to use them in crime.”

Because the ATF saw a spike in crimes committed with those firearms, Prelogar said it promulgated the 2022 rule. The Biden administration said since 2016, it’s seen a tenfold increase in ghost guns.

What the rule does

The regulation does not ban ghost guns, but requires manufacturers of those firearm kits or parts to add a serial number to the products, as well as conduct background checks on potential buyers. The regulation also clarified those kits are considered covered by the 1968 Gun Control Act under the definition of a “firearm.”

The Biden administration is advocating for the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court’s decision that favored gun rights groups and owners that argued the agency exceeded its authority.

Pete Patterson on Tuesday represented those gun rights groups, such as the Firearms Policy Coalition and clients, and argued the ATF expanded the definition of a firearm to “include items that may readily be converted to a frame or receiver.”

A frame or receiver is the primary structure of a firearm that holds the other components that cause the gun to fire.

“Congress decided to regulate only a single part of a firearm, the frame or receiver, and Congress did not alter the common understanding of a frame or receiver,” he said. “ATF has now exceeded its authority by operating outside of the bounds set by Congress.”

The case has already been before the high court on an emergency basis in 2023. The three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, and two conservative justices, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Amy Coney Barrett, allowed the regulation to remain in place while going through legal challenges.

The case is similar to the Supreme Court decision that struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks from the ATF, but that was on the grounds of a Second Amendment argument.

Omelets and turkey chili kits

Justice Samuel Alito questioned Prelogar whether the kits were defined as weapons.

“Here’s a blank pad and here’s a pen,” he said. “Is this a grocery list?”

She said it wasn’t because “there are a lot of things you could use those products for to create something other than a grocery list.”

Alito asked her if he had eggs, chopped up ham, peppers and onions, “is that a Western omelet?”

“No, because, again, those items have well known other uses to become something other than an omelet,” Prelogar said. “The key difference here is that these weapon parts kits are designed and intended to be used as instruments of combat, and they have no other conceivable use.”

Barrett asked if her answer would change if “you ordered it from HelloFresh and you got a kit and it was like turkey chili, but all of the ingredients are in the kit?”

Prelogar said it would.

“We are not suggesting that scattered components that might have some entirely separate and distinct function could be aggregated and called a weapon, in the absence of this kind of evidence that that is their intended purpose and function,” she said.

“But if you bought, you know, from Trader Joe’s, some omelet-making kit that had all of the ingredients to make the omelet, and maybe included whatever you would need to start the fire in order to cook the omelet, and had all of that objective indication that that’s what’s being marketed and sold, we would recognize that for what it is,” Prelogar continued.

Roberts asked Patterson what the purpose would be of selling a receiver without a hole in it, meaning the gun is not complete.

Patterson argued that the kits are mainly for gun hobbyists, who would have to drill their own holes to put the product together.

“Some individuals enjoy, like working on their car every weekend, some individuals want to construct their own firearms,” Patterson said.

Roberts seemed skeptical.

“I mean drilling a hole or two, I would think doesn’t give the same sort of reward that you get from working on your car on the weekends,” Roberts said.

Patterson argued that putting together a homemade gun was somewhat difficult, especially if an individual had no experience.

“Even once you have a complete frame, it’s not a trivial matter to put that together,” he said. “There are small parts that have to be put in precise locations.”

No hobbyists

In her rebuttal, Prelogar pushed back on the notion that hobbyists were using those kits, arguing that “if there is a market for these kits, for hobbyists, they can be sold to hobbyists, you just have to comply with the requirements of the Gun Control Act.”

“What the evidence shows is that these guns were being purchased and used in crime. There was a 1,000% increase between 2017 and 2021 in the number of these guns that were recovered as part of criminal investigations,” she said. “The reason why you want a ghost gun is specifically because it’s unserialized and can’t be traced.”

The Rocky Broad River flows into Lake Lure and overflows the town with debris from Chimney Rock, North Carolina after heavy rains from Hurricane Helene on Sept. 28, 2024, in Lake Lure, North Carolina. Approximately 6 feet of debris piled on the bridge from Lake Lure to Chimney Rock, blocking access (Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON —   Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell said Tuesday that rumors and disinformation will become a regular part of natural disaster response moving forward, and rebuked those seeking to benefit politically from spreading false information.

The volume and type of disinformation spreading about FEMA, as Southeast states struggle to recover from Hurricane Helene, is the worst Criswell said she has ever seen, following a “steady increase” in rumors following previous natural disasters.

Incorrect information about FEMA and its response to natural disasters has been spreading through numerous avenues, including social media, podcasts and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s numerous comments and posts. Criswell did not name any politicians or other individuals during the call with reporters.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Milton is barrelling toward Florida’s Gulf Coast and expected to make landfall by Wednesday night. Meteorologists are warning the storm could be one of Florida’s worst. Thousands of people were evacuating Tuesday.

Criswell said she’s concerned the lies about various aspects of FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene may have a chilling effect on whether people harmed by natural disasters apply for assistance. It could also potentially endanger first responders on the ground.

“It’s just really demoralizing to them. It hurts their morale and they’ve left their families to be able to come in here and help people,” she said of first responders and FEMA staff.

While no one has physically attacked FEMA staff or other emergency responders so far, Criswell said, she and others are closely monitoring misinformation as well as how people in areas hit by natural disasters react to it.

FEMA’s collaboration with local law enforcement can help to monitor safety and security issues, though rumors and disinformation could make matters worse, she said.

“If it creates so much fear that my staff don’t want to go out in the field, then we’re not going to be in a position where we can help people,” Criswell said, adding that she does have concerns about “the safety of our folks that are walking around in neighborhoods that may or may not have full confidence in the government.”

“And so we are watching that closely to make sure that we’re providing for their safety as well,” she said.

Helene brought devastation to multiple states including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and  Virginia.  More than 230 deaths have been reported.

Storm victims

The rumors and inaccurate information about FEMA’s response and recovery efforts are “creating fear in some” people who are trying to navigate their way through the hurricane recovery process, Criswell said.

“I worry that they won’t apply for assistance, which means I can’t get them the necessary items they need,” Criswell said. “And so those are the biggest impacts I see as a result of this constant narrative that is more about politics than truly helping people.”

She said the current situation is worse than ever.

“We have always put up rumor control pages because there’s always been people that have been out there trying to take advantage of those that have just lost so much in creating false websites and trying to get their information and defrauding people and the federal government,” Criswell said. “And so not something that’s new, but the level of rhetoric just continues to rise.”

Following the Maui wildfires in August 2023, federal officials worked with local officials to help reassure Hawaiians the rumors and disinformation that spread following that disaster were not true.

Some of the disinformation about the Maui wildfires was from “foreign state actors,” Criswell said.

FEMA was eventually able to get federal assistance to everyone who needed it, but it took much longer than it would have otherwise, she said.

The first assistance people in hard-hit areas often receive from FEMA is a $750 payment meant to help with immediate needs like water, food, clothing and medicine.

There has been significant misinformation around that amount. Criswell clarified on the call that it’s the first installment from FEMA and that more assistance goes out to people affected by natural disasters as the recovery process moves forward.

“We know that they have immediate needs in the first few days, and it’s just an initial jump start to help them replace some of that,” Criswell said.

As FEMA gathers more information about property damage and other problems related to natural disasters, people will likely receive additional assistance for home repairs as well as the cost of staying in a hotel if their home was badly damaged.

FEMA then continues to work with people on longer-term needs, like rental assistance, if that’s needed.

FEMA has set up a webpage seeking to dispel rumors and disinformation about its response and recovery efforts.

It says that in most cases the money FEMA gives to disaster survivors does not have to be paid back and notes that the agency “cannot seize your property or land.”

“There are some less common situations in which you may have to pay FEMA back if you receive duplicate benefits from insurance or a grant from another source. For example, if you have insurance that covers your temporary housing costs, but you ask FEMA to advance you some money to help you pay for those costs while your insurance is delayed, you will need to pay that money back to FEMA after you receive your insurance settlement.”

The webpage also says that no funding for disaster recovery was diverted to address border security or immigration issues.

“This is false. No money is being diverted from disaster response needs. FEMA’s disaster response efforts and individual assistance is funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts. Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts.”

Funding questions

FEMA has plenty of funding to cover response and recovery efforts for the 100-plus open natural disasters throughout the country, but will need supplemental funding from Congress in the months ahead.

“I have enough funding to continue to support the response efforts for both of these events, and then continue to support the recovery efforts from all of the storms across the nation,” Criswell said, referring to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

“However, I’m not going to be able to support those recoveries for long without a supplemental,” she added. “And we anticipate needing additional funding in the December, January time frame, or I’ll have to go back into what we call immediate needs funding again, where we pause obligations in our recovery projects to ensure that I can respond to an event like we’re seeing today.”

The first step for Congress to approve emergency funding for FEMA or any other federal agency is typically when the Office of Management and Budget sends a supplemental spending request to lawmakers on behalf of the White House.

Lawmakers can then choose to write legislation providing some, all, or more money than requested. They can also choose not to fund the emergency request, though that appears unlikely this time.

For the moment, FEMA has about $20 billion in its disaster relief fund, she said.

People who need assistance from FEMA should call 1-800-621-3362, register on https://www.disasterassistance.gov/ or fill out an application on the FEMA app.

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.”

Both presidential candidates have said they have general plans to tackle the housing crisis (Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — As the cost and supply of housing remain top issues for voters, both presidential candidates have put forth plans to tackle the crisis, in hopes of courting voters ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

The coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020 exacerbated problems in the housing market, with supply chain disruptions, record-low interest rates and  increased demand contributing to a rise in housing prices, according to a study by the Journal of Housing Economics. 

While housing is typically handled on the local level, the housing supply is tight and rents continue to skyrocket, putting increased pressure on the federal government to help. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump agree that it’s an issue that needs to be solved, but their solutions diverge.

The Harris and Trump campaigns did not respond to States Newsroom’s requests for details on the general housing proposals the nominees have discussed.

Promise: millions of new homes

Harris’ plan calls for the construction of 3 million homes in four years.

The United States has a shortage of about 3.8 million homes for sale and rent, according to 2021 estimates from Freddie Mac that are still relied upon.

Additionally, homelessness has hit a record-high of 653,100 people since January of last year, and a “record-high 22.4 million renter households spent more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities,” up from 2 million households since 2019, according to a study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

“This is obviously a multi-prong approach, because the factors contributing to high rents and housing affordability are many, and my plan is to attempt to address many of them at once, so we can actually have the net effect of bringing down the cost and making homeownership, renting more affordable,” Harris said during a September interview with Wisconsin Public Radio. 

Promise: single-family zoning

Trump has long opposed building multi-family housing and has instead thrown his support behind single-family zoning, which would exclude other types of housing. Such land-use regulation is conducted by local government bodies, not the federal government, though the federal government could influence it.

“There will be no low-income housing developments built in areas that are right next to your house,” Trump said during an August rally in Montana. “I’m gonna keep criminals out of your neighborhood.”

Promise: getting Congress to agree

Election forecasters have predicted that Democrats will regain control of the U.S. House, but Republicans are poised to win the Senate, meaning any housing proposals will have to be overwhelmingly bipartisan.

“How much money is going to really be available without substantial increases in revenue to be able to do all these things that both Trump and Harris are proposing?” Ted Tozer, a non-resident fellow at the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center, said in an interview with States Newsroom. “All the money comes from Congress.”

Many of Harris’ policies rely on cooperation from Congress, as historically the federal government has limited tools to address housing shortages.

“On the Democratic side, there’s a hunger for more action, for more direct government intervention in the housing market than we’ve seen in a long time,” said Francis Torres, the associate director of housing and infrastructure at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Nearly all proposals that Harris has put forth would require Congress to pass legislation and appropriate funds. The first is S.2224, introduced by Sen. Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, which would amend U.S. tax code to bar private equity firms from buying homes in bulk by denying “interest and depreciation deductions for taxpayers owning 50 or more single family properties,” according to the bill.

The second bill, S. 3692, introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and chair of the Senate Finance Committee, would bar using algorithms to artificially inflate the cost of rents.

Both bills would need to reach the 60-vote threshold in order to advance in the Senate, whichever party is in control.

Promise: $25,000 down payment assistance

Harris has pledged to support first-time homebuyers, but Congress would need to appropriate funds for the $25,000 down payment assistance program she has proposed that would benefit an estimated 4 million first-time homebuyers over four years.

It’s a proposal that’s been met with skepticism.

“I’m really concerned that down payment assistance will actually put more pressure on home prices, because basically, you’re giving people additional cash to pay more for the house that they’re going to bid on,” Tozer said. “So by definition, they get in a bidding war, they’re going to spend more.”

Harris has also proposed a $40 billion innovation fund for local governments to build and create solutions for housing, which would also need congressional approval.

Promise: opening up federal lands

Both candidates support opening some federal lands for housing, which would mean selling the land for construction purposes with the commitment for a certain percentage of the units to be kept for affordable housing.

The federal government owns about 650 million acres of land, or roughly 30% of all land.

Neither candidate has gone into detail on this proposal.

“I think it’s a sign that at least the Harris campaign and the people in her orbit are thinking about addressing this housing affordability problem really through stronger government action than has happened in several decades,” Torres said.

Promise: expand tax credits

The biggest tool the federal government has used to address housing is through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, known as LIHTC. Harris has promised to expand this tax credit, but has not gone into detail about how much she wants it expanded.

This program awards tax credits to offset construction costs in exchange for a certain number of rent-restricted units for low-income households. But the restriction is temporary, lasting about 30 years. 

There is no similar program for housing meant to be owned.

“It’s an interesting moment, because then on the other side, on the Trump side, even though they diagnosed a lot of the similar problems, there’s not as much of a desire to leverage the strength of the federal government to ensure affordability,” Torres said.

Trump’s record on housing

The Trump campaign does not have a housing proposal, but various interviews, rallies and a review of Trump’s first four years in office provide a roadmap.

During Trump’s first administration, many of his HUD budget proposals were not approved by Congress.

In all four of his presidential budget requests, he laid out proposals that would increase rent by 40% for about 4 million low-income households using rental vouchers or for those who lived in public housing, according to an analysis by the left-leaning think tank the Brookings Institution. 

All four of Trump’s budgets also called for the elimination of housing programs such as the Community Development Block Grant, which directs funding to local and state governments to rehabilitate and build affordable housing. Trump’s budgets also would have slashed the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, which is a home energy assistance program for low-income families.

Additionally, Trump’s Opportunity Zones authorized through the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which are tax incentives to businesses and real estate to invest in low-income communities, have had mixed results.

Promise: cut regulations and add tariffs

In an interview with Bloomberg, Trump said he wanted to focus on reducing regulations in the permitting process.

“Your permits, your permitting process. Your zoning, if — and I went through years of zoning. Zoning is like… it’s a killer,” he said. “But we’ll be doing that, and we’ll be bringing the price of housing down.”

During campaign rallies, Trump has often said he would impose a 10% tariff across the board on all goods entering the U.S. He’s also proposed 60% tariffs on China.

Trump said at a rally in Georgia that tariff is “one of the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard.”

Tozer said adding trade policies, such as tariffs on construction materials like lumber, would drive up the cost of homes.

Promise: deport immigrants

Trump has argued that his plan for mass deportations will help free up the supply of housing. Karoline Leavitt, the Trump national press secretary, told the New York Times that deporting immigrants would lower the cost of housing because migration “is driving up housing costs.”

The former president has made a core campaign promise to deport millions of immigrants.

Tozer said housing and immigration are tied, because the ability to build houses comes down to workers, and roughly 30% of construction workers are immigrants. 

“By shutting down the border, you’re possibly shutting down your capacity to build these houses,” he said, adding that all those policies are intertwined.

A driver uses a fast-charging station for electric vehicles at John F. Kennedy airport on April 2, 2021 in New York City (Spencer Platt/Getty Images).

Highlighted in Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign as one of the major crises facing the country, climate change has received much less attention in the 2024 race for the presidency.

The candidates, Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, share the twin goals of lowering energy costs and increasing U.S. jobs in the sector, but diverge widely in their plans to get there.

On the campaign trail, each has spent relatively little time detailing their own plans, instead criticizing the other as extreme.

Harris favors an expansion of renewable energy, which supplies power without the carbon emissions that are the primary driver of climate change.

She has touted her tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, the broad domestic policy law Democrats pushed through along party lines that includes hundreds of millions in clean-energy tax credits.

Trump supports fossil fuel production, blaming policies to support renewable energy for rising energy prices. He has called for removing prohibitions on new oil and gas exploration to increase the supply of cheap fuel and reduce costs.

Promise: Promote fossil fuels

Both candidates promise to lower the cost of energy.

For Trump, that has involved hammering the Biden-Harris administration for encouraging renewable energy production.

Inflation was caused by “stupid spending for the Green New Deal, which was a green new scam, it turned out,” Trump said at a Sept. 26 press conference. “Do you notice that they never mention anything about environment anymore? What happened to the environment?”

The former president said at a Sept. 25 campaign stop he would “cut your energy (costs) in half,” by reducing regulations and cutting taxes.

He has not produced a detailed plan to achieve that goal.

Implicit in Trump’s argument is that the Biden administration’s focus on renewable energy has hampered oil and gas production, limiting supply and driving up prices.

But Harris has presented her support for renewable energy modes as part of a broader portfolio that includes fossil fuels.

Harris has highlighted the Inflation Reduction Act opened up new leases for oil and gas production while providing incentives for wind and solar power.

“I am proud that as vice president over the last four years, we have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy while we have also increased domestic gas production to historic levels,” she said at a Sept. 10 ABC News debate with Trump.

A report this month from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that U.S. fossil fuel production reached an all-time high in 2023.

Promise: Promote renewables

Harris has also pointed to provisions of the IRA that provide consumers with tax benefits for green technology, such as home heat pumps, as a way to bring down costs.

“Thanks to tax credits on home energy technologies in the Inflation Reduction Act, more than 3.4 million American families saved $8.4 billion in 2023,” her campaign’s 82-page economic plan reads.

Trump also says he supports some climate-conscious technology, including megadonor Elon Musk’s Tesla brand of electric vehicles, but that Democrats have overinvested in non-fossil fuels.

He has called elements of the Inflation Reduction Act “giveaways,” and has singled out spending on electric vehicle charging infrastructure as wasteful.

Promise: Restore jobs

Biden has long talked about a transition away from fossil fuels as a benefit to U.S. workers, positioning them on the cutting edge of a growing industry.

Harris has similarly framed the issue in economic terms, saying the Inflation Reduction Act and other climate policies have created jobs.

“We have created over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs while I have been vice president,” she said at the Sept. 10 debate. “We have invested in clean energy to the point that we are opening up factories around the world.”

At a campaign stop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this month, Harris said Trump’s focus on fossil fuels would hamper job growth, saying he would “send thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs overseas.”

Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, have said Democrats’ focus on renewable energy sources has limited existing energy jobs.

“We’ve got great energy workers in Ohio and all across our country,” Vance said at an August campaign stop in his home state. “They want to earn a reasonable wage and they want to power the American economy. Why don’t we have a president that lets them do exactly that?

“Unleash American energy,” he said. “Drill, baby, drill and let’s turn the page on this craziness.”

Promise: Repeal Democrats’ climate law

Trump has had harsh words for Democrats’ climate law, blaming its spending for rising inflation.

“To further defeat inflation, my plan will terminate the Green New Deal, which I call the Green New Scam. Greatest scam in history, probably,” he told the Economic Club of New York in a Sept. 5 speech.

He said as president he would redirect any unspent funds in the law.

Trump has sought to distance himself from the policy blueprint Project 2025, written by the Heritage Institute.

But there is some overlap between what the conservative think tank has laid out and what Trump said he plans to do in a second term in the White House.

Project 2025 calls for repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, describing it as a subsidy to special interests.

Harris often mentions her tie-breaking vote for the law and has described her plans as president to expand on the law’s objectives.

Harris’ policy plan said she “proudly cast” the tie-breaking vote for the climate bill and that, as president, she would “continue to invest in a thriving clean energy economy.”

She added she would seek to improve that spending by cutting regulations “so that clean energy projects are completed quickly and efficiently in a manner that protects our environment and public health.”

Vice President Kamala Harris took part in an interview with the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that was released Sunday. In this photo, the “Call Her Daddy” host, creator and executive producer, Alex Cooper, participates in The Art of The Interview session at Spotify Beach on June 20, 2023 in Cannes, France (Photo by Antony Jones/Getty Images for Spotify).

WASHINGTON — In an interview released Sunday on a widely heard podcast geared toward young women, Vice President Kamala Harris stressed the importance of reproductive rights, a central topic in her bid for the White House.

The “Call Her Daddy” host, Alex Cooper, specifically centered the 40-minute interview around issues affecting women such as domestic violence and access to abortion.

Meanwhile, the GOP nominee, former President Donald Trump, joined the Hugh Hewitt radio show Monday, a conservative talk show that has about 7.5 million weekly listeners.

The interview with Trump was mostly about the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. In the attack, 1,200 people — including 46 U.S. citizens — were killed in Israel and hundreds were taken hostage.

On “Call Her Daddy,” Cooper noted before the interview that she does not have politicians on her show because it is not focused on politics, but “at the end of the day, I couldn’t see a world in which one of the main conversations in this election is women, and I’m not a part of it.”

“The conversation I know I am qualified to have is the one surrounding women’s bodies and how we are treated and valued in this country,” Cooper said.

She added that her team reached out to Trump and invited him on the show. “If he also wants to have a meaningful, in-depth conversation about women’s rights in this country, then he is welcome on ‘Call Her Daddy’ any time,” she said.

The podcast is the second-most listened-to on Spotify, with an average of 5 million weekly listeners. The demographics are about 90% women, with a large chunk of them Gen Z and Millennials  — an important voting bloc for Harris to reach with less than a month until the election concludes Nov. 5.

The podcast is part of Harris’ media marathon this week. Late Monday, she will appear on “60 Minutes” for an interview. On Tuesday she is scheduled to be in New York to appear on the daytime show “The View,” “The Howard Stern Show” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

Victims of sexual assault

Harris on the podcast touched on several stories she tells on the campaign trail, such as how a high school friend ended up staying with her and her family because the friend was being sexually assaulted at home.

“I decided at a young age I wanted to do the work of protecting vulnerable people,” Harris said.

She added that it’s important to destigmatize survivors of sexual assault.

“The more that we let anything exist in the shadows, the more likely it is that people are suffering and suffering silently,” Harris said. “The more we talk about it, the more we will address it and deal with it, the more we will be equipped to deal with it, be it in terms of schools, in terms of the society at large, right, and to not stigmatize it.”

Cooper asked Harris how the U.S. can be safer for women.

Harris talked about domestic violence and the bind that women can be in if they have children and are financially reliant on an abuser.

“Most women will endure whatever personal, physical pain they must in order to make sure their kids have a roof over their head or food,” she said. “One of the ways that we know we can uplift the ability of women to have choices is uplift the ability of women to have economic health and well-being.”

Cooper asked Harris about the aftermath of Roe v. Wade being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago and the recent story of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who died after not being able to receive an abortion following complications from taking an abortion pill.

Harris said states that pass abortion bans will argue there are exceptions “if the life of the mother is at risk,” but that it’s not a realistic policy in practice.

“You know what that means in practical terms, she’s almost dead before you decide to give her care. So we’re going to have public health policy that says a doctor, a medical professional, waits until you’re at death’s door before they give you care,” Harris said. “Where is the humanity?”

Trump criticizes protesters 

Besides the appearance with Hugh Hewitt, Trump is also scheduled late Monday to speak with Jewish leaders in Miami.

During the interview with Hewitt, Trump slammed the pro-Palestinian protests across college campuses and argued that those institutions should do more to quell the student protests.

“You have other Jewish students that are afraid,” Trump said. “Yeah, that’s true, and they should be afraid. I never thought I would see this in my life with the campus riots and what they’re saying and what they’re doing. And they have to put them down quickly.”

Hewitt asked Trump, because of his background as a real estate developer, if he could turn Gaza, which has been devastated by the war, into something like Monaco. The Principality of Monaco is an independent, affluent microstate along the coast of France that attracts wealthy tourists.

“It could be better than Monaco. It has the best location in the Middle East, the best water, the best everything,” Trump said, noting the Mediterranean Sea bordering the Gaza Strip. “You know, as a developer, it could be the most beautiful place — the weather, the water, the whole thing, the climate.”

The war has drawn massive protests in the United States, and more than 40,000 people in Gaza have been killed, but researchers estimate the death toll is as high as 186,000.

Hewitt asked Trump about Harris’ housing policy that, if approved by Congress, would give first-time homebuyers up to $25,000 for a down payment. Both candidates have made housing a top issue.

Trump said he opposed the plan and instead advocated for the private sector to handle housing. He then veered off topic into immigration and without evidence accused migrants at the southern border of being murderers.

“Many of them murdered far more than one person, and they’re now happily living in the United States,” he said. “You know, now a murderer, I believe this, it’s in their genes. And we’ve got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”

Trump has often invoked white supremacist language when talking about immigrants, accusing them of “poisoning the blood” of the U.S. He’s also made a core campaign promise of enacting mass deportations of millions of immigrants in the country who are in the country without authorization.

Hurricane interrupts campaign

Some campaign events have been postponed due to Hurricane Milton, a Category 5 storm barreling toward Florida. It comes after the devastating Hurricane Helene that caused severe damage in western North Carolina and other states in the Southeast.

A Tuesday roundtable with Trump and Latino leaders was postponed, as well as a town hall in Miami, Florida with Univison for undecided Hispanic voters. The Univision town hall with Harris is scheduled for Thursday in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, on Tuesday is scheduled to give remarks in Detroit, Michigan.

Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is heading to Reno, Nevada, Tuesday for a campaign reception.

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.

A case of bird flu in a Missouri resident is the only diagnosis in the United States this year where the person did not have contact with infected dairy cattle or poultry (Stephen Ausmus/Animal Research Services, USDA).

WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should have results later this month that provide more insight into how a Missouri resident, who hadn’t had any contact with infected animals or food, contracted a case of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, said on a call with reporters Friday the agency is working through its investigation of that bird flu case, while providing several more details.

“As we previously reported, CDC would be able to perform partial sequencing of the avian influenza H5 virus from the case in Missouri, despite a nearly undetectable level of viral RNA in the patient sample,” Daskalakis said.

That process is complex and time-consuming, in part because the patient had rather small amounts of the virus in their system when the test was taken.

Another contributing factor, he said, is “that the virus has two potentially important mutations, meaning two amino acid differences, in comparison with the viruses previously characterized during this event that could affect antigenicity.”

Daskalakis explained that antigenicity is when someone is able to produce “a specific immune response, such as creation of specific antibodies.”

Both the mutations and small sample size have presented challenges for the CDC, but the agency expects to announce results of the test later this month after completing the complicated lab process, he said.

Two cases in California

The Missouri case is the only bird flu diagnosis in the United States this year where the person hadn’t had direct contact with infected poultry or dairy cattle.

The remainder of the 16 people diagnosed with H5N1 during this calendar year had direct contact with farm animals, with nine of those cases linked to poultry and six related to dairy cows.

One of those cases was diagnosed in Texas, two in Michigan, two in California just this week and 10 in Colorado.

Public health officials on the call emphasized that the risk to the general public remains low and that several studies undertaken by the Food and Drug Administration show pasteurized dairy products as well as other foods remain safe to eat.

Since February, the CDC has tested more than 50,000 samples that would have “detected Influenza A, H5 or other novel influenza viruses,” Daskalakis said.

The Missouri case was the first case of bird flu detected through that influenza surveillance system, he said.

Public health officials at the state and federal level have been trying to determine how the Missouri patient, who officials are not identifying for their privacy, contracted the virus through a series of “intense interviews,” Daskalakis said.

That is how they learned someone living in the same house had been symptomatic with various gastrointestinal issues at the same time the patient had been ill.

That simultaneous onset of symptoms implied “a common exposure, rather than human-to-human transmission,” Daskalakis said, before reinforcing that the second person never tested positive for the virus and isn’t considered a case of bird flu.

“At the time of the interview, the household contact had also completely recovered and had not been tested for influenza while they were sick,” he said. “To be clear, there is only one case of H5N1 influenza detected in Missouri.”

Because the person living in the same house as the Missouri patient had been symptom-free for more than 10 days when they were interviewed by public health officials, Daskalakis said there was “no utility in testing the contact for acute influenza.”

Instead, officials in Missouri took blood samples from the two people so the CDC could test for “antibodies against H5 to assess for possible infection with this virus,” he said.

A separate investigation was taken at the hospital where the Missouri patient had been diagnosed to see if any health care workers had contracted H5N1.

Out of 118 health care workers who interacted with the patient in some way, 18 had higher-risk interactions before the patient was diagnosed and began using what Daskalakis referred to as “droplet precautions.”

Six of those health care workers later developed respiratory symptoms, though only one of them had symptoms by the time the public health investigation had begun retroactively, he said.

That one person’s PCR test for acute influenza came back negative and the other five health care workers, who had recovered, did not require a PCR test, he said.

“Since exposures could only be assessed retrospectively, Missouri has also obtained blood specimens from these individuals for antibody or serology testing at CDC to search for any evidence to support the unlikely possibility that their symptoms were related to H5 infection resulting from their interaction with the patient,” Daskalakis said. “Despite the low risk, this testing is important to complete the public health investigation of this case.”

The CDC began working on that serology testing in mid-September when it received the samples from Missouri, though the complicated process likely won’t conclude until later in October.

“For serology testing to be conclusive, it needs to be done using a virus that is genetically identical to the one obtained from the human case from Missouri or there is a risk of a false negative test,” Daskalakis said. “Since this H5 virus was not recoverable, we could not grow it because there was not enough for the Missouri specimen.”

The CDC, he explained, has to “create the right virus for the test using reverse genetics to match the one from Missouri, so that we can use it in these serology tests.”

“We realize people, including all of us at CDC, are anxious to see results from this testing,” he said. “CDC is moving at a very accelerated pace while conducting rigorous science to assure the validity of these results.”

Poultry, dairy cases

In addition to human cases, bird flu continues to infect poultry flocks and dairy herds within the United States.

While the poultry industry has had years of experience supplying its workers with personal protective equipment and culling affected farms, the dairy industry has had to figure out how to address the virus this year.

Eric Deeble, deputy under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs at USDA, said on the call Friday that Colorado’s mandatory testing program of bulk milk tanks, which began in July, offered a hopeful case study for ridding farms throughout the country of H5N1.

“Initially, this revealed a significant local prevalence, about 72% of dairies, centered in Weld County,” Deeble said.

But following months of hard work by farmers and public health officials, Colorado has just one dairy herd that’s currently affected by H5N1 out of 86 dairy herds within the state, he said.

“Mandatory surveillance in the state allows for continuous monitoring of herds and helps detect any instances of non-negative results early on, ensuring timely intervention,” Deeble said. “This decrease in Colorado cases, even in the absence of a vaccine, gives us further confidence that H5N1 can be eliminated in the national herd, even in places where we have seen an initial rapid increase in cases.”

Data from the USDA show that during the past month, three dairy herds in Idaho and 53 in California have tested positive for H5N1.

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.”

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom).

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress left Capitol Hill last week to focus their attention on the campaign trail during the six weeks leading up to Election Day, leaving much of their work unfinished.

The Republican House and Democratic Senate are scheduled to remain on recess until Nov. 12, though the urgent needs created in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which are fully funded for the moment, could bring the chambers back into session before then.

When lawmakers do return to Washington, D.C., they’ll need to address the must-pass legislation they’ve left on autopilot instead of negotiating new bipartisan compromises.

So far this year, lawmakers have pushed off reaching brokering agreement on must-pass measures like the farm bill as well as this year’s batch of government funding bills and the annual defense policy legislation.

Kids’ online safety, radiation exposure

There are also a handful of measures that have passed one chamber with broad bipartisan support, but haven’t been taken up on the other side of the Capitol that leadership could decide to move forward during November or December.

For example, an interesting combination of senators, led by Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn, are advocating for House Republican leaders to hold votes on a pair of online safety bills designed to better protect children from the darker side of the internet.

The rail safety bill drafted by a bipartisan group of senators from Ohio and Pennsylvania after the train derailment in East Palestine remains unaddressed following more than a year of intransigence.

And legislation to reauthorize the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA, which passed the Senate on a broadly bipartisan vote earlier this year, sits on a shelf collecting dust in the House.

Cancer victims, Indigenous communities and many others have pressed House GOP leadership to hold a vote to reauthorize the program after it expired this summer, but they have avoided it due to cost.

Five-week lame duck

Lawmakers interviewed by States Newsroom and congressional leaders all indicated the outcome of the November elections will have significant sway on what Congress approves during the five-week lame-duck session that spans November and December.

All interviews took place before Hurricane Helene made landfall and Israel was directly attacked by Iran, both of which are likely to be at the top of congressional leaders’ to-do lists.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune said it’s “hard to say” what, if anything, Congress will approve during the lame-duck session.

“I think a lot will be shaped by what happens in November,” the South Dakota Republican said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said just a day before Hurricane Helene made landfall that Democrats would advocate for passing natural disaster response funding previously requested by the Biden administration.

“Extreme weather events are on the rise and they affect everyone — in blue states, purple states and red states,” Jeffries said. “This is not a partisan issue, it’s an American issue in terms of being there, in times of need for everyday Americans, who have had their lives and livelihood upended.”

Other House Democratic priorities during the lame duck include approving the dozen full-year government funding bills that were supposed to be completed before Oct. 1, the defense policy bill that had the same deadline and the farm bill, which is more than a year overdue.

Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said he “sure hopes” the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act reauthorization bill reaches the president’s desk before the end of the year.

He didn’t rule out lobbying to attach it to a must-pass government funding bill, but said the real hurdle is House GOP leaders.

“It doesn’t need help in the Senate. It just needs the House,” Hawley said. “I’ve had good, productive conversations with Speaker (Mike) Johnson in the last few weeks, and I appreciate his personal engagement on this, and I hope that that will lead to action.”

Haley said the House allowing RECA to expire, preventing people who qualify for the program from receiving benefits, was “outrageous.”

Defense priorities, farm bill

Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said staff would work during October to bridge the differences between the two chambers on the annual defense policy bill, called the National Defense Authorization Act.

Those staff-level talks will lay the foundation for Republicans and Democrats to meet once they return to Capitol Hill following the elections.

“We have to be ready when we come back to go right to the ‘Big Four’ meeting,” he said, referring to the top leaders in both chambers. “That’s our objective.”

Reed said many of the differences between the House and the Senate aren’t typical Defense Department policy issues per se, but are “more political, cultural, social.”

Congress may begin to debate additional military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine this year, though that’s more likely to happen next year, Reed said.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said she was making a “big push” for the House and Senate to reach agreement on the farm bill in the months ahead, though she cautioned talks don’t actually constitute a conference.

“I wouldn’t call it a conference; technically to have a conference, you have to have a bill passed by the House and a bill passed by the Senate, which will not happen,” Stabenow said.

“But I believe that there is a way,” Stabenow added. “I believe there’s a way to get a bipartisan bill.”

Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, the top Republican on the Agriculture panel, said lawmakers didn’t need the election results to “start working through our disagreements” on the farm bill, adding there’s some new momentum in talks.

“I think what’s changed is that there is a recognition among members, all members, how difficult it is right now as a farmer,” Boozman said. “So that’s really what’s changed in the last three or four months. It’s developing a real sense of urgency for these folks.”

Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said the election outcome could influence what lawmakers choose to accomplish during the lame-duck session.

“There’s any number of scenarios, whether it’s NDAA, whether it’s farm bill, whether it’s anything else,” she said. “But it comes down to Leader Schumer.” New York Democrat Chuck Schumer is the majority leader in the Senate.

Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said he expects Congress will broker some agreement on government funding legislation and the NDAA, but not necessarily anything else.

“In an odd way, the better the Dems do on Nov. 5, the more we’ll get done,” Kaine said. “Because I think if the House is going to flip back to Dem, I think the Rs will say, ‘Well, let’s get a whole lot of stuff done before the House goes down.’ So I think the better we do, the more we’ll get done in the lame duck.”

Kaine said if Democrats do well in the elections, they might not need to approve additional aid for Ukraine this Congress, since that funding can last into next year.

“If we don’t do well in the (elections), we might need to do it in the lame duck,” Kaine said. “So that’ll all depend.”

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.

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to attendees during a campaign rally at the Mosack Group warehouse on September 25, 2024 in Mint Hill, North Carolina (Brandon Bell/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that U.S. troops who suffered traumatic brain injuries after Iranian rocket fire in Iraq in 2020 only experienced a “headache,” dismissing the experiences of dozens of American soldiers who were later awarded the Purple Heart.

Trump’s comments came after a reporter in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, asked whether he should “have been tougher on Iran” after that nation launched ballistic missiles on Al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq in January 2020, during Trump’s presidency. A couple thousand U.S. troops remain on an anti-ISIS mission at the Iraqi air base, one of the largest during the U.S. invasion.

“First of all, injured, what does injured mean? Injured means, you mean, because they had a headache because the bombs never hit the fort?” Trump responded.

“If you were a truthful reporter, which you’re not, you would tell the following: None of those very accurate missiles hit our fort. They all hit outside, and there was nobody hurt, other than the sound was loud, and some people said that hurt, and I accept that,” Trump continued.

Trump added that Iran did “a very nice thing” by missing the military base. Photographs taken after the attack show extensive damage on the base.

U.S. troops at the base, that housed roughly 2,000 soldiers at the time, were given notice to shelter in bunkers. The missiles carried warheads weighing well over 1,000 pounds, leaving impact craters that spanned several feet wide, according to CBS News’ “60 Minutes” and The Washington Post.

While no troops were killed in the attack, hundreds were exposed to blast waves, and many were evacuated to Germany for medical care. Weeks later, more than 100 troops were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries. Dozens were eventually awarded the Purple Heart, including one retired major interviewed by States Newsroom in May.

Soldiers described lasting effects from those injuries as including chronic migraines, vertigo, short-term memory issues and vision impairment.

Trump’s comments Tuesday came as he took questions from the press after delivering wide-ranging remarks at a campaign event at the Discovery World Science Museum on the city’s lakefront.

The reporter did not identify herself before asking her question. Trump’s remarks were recorded in full by the local Fox affiliate and live streamed by the Trump-focused YouTube channel “Right Side Broadcasting Network.”

Details of attack

This is not the first time Trump has downplayed the soldiers’ experiences and injuries stemming from that specific attack.

Iran fired 16 ballistic missiles at the air base and another Iraqi military site between Jan. 7 and 8, 2020. Roughly a dozen landed, according to reports. The attack was in retaliation for a U.S. strike days earlier in Baghdad that killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.

The 2020 attack on the base has been well documented. Images taken by photographers with National Public Radio and The Washington Post showed damaged buildings on the base. The New York Times and The Associated Press compiled video footage and compared satellite images before and after the attack.

CBS News’ “60 Minutes” aired drone footage of the attack and first-hand accounts from troops who described the experience in a nearly 14-minute news package for the television magazine program.

The National Institutes of Health collected medical data from nearly 40 soldiers for months after the attack and found persistent symptoms following concussions.

Military installations that still house U.S. troops in Iraq have been the target of Iranian attacks following the outbreak of violence on Oct. 7 when the Hamas militant group, one of Iran’s allies, launched a deadly surprise incursion into southern Israel, sparking a year-long war that has also drawn in Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants, according to the Pentagon.

Fast-casual restaurant Chipotle is experimenting with a work station that has automation assembling salads and bowls underneath the counter while a human worker assembles more complex dishes such as burritos on top. (Photo courtesy of Chipotle)

Though food service workers and economists have long worried about the impact technology would have on the restaurant labor force, pilot programs in several fast-casual restaurants over the last few years have shown it may not have the negative impact they feared, a labor economist says.

Technology plays several roles in food service, but the industry has seen the adoption of touch screens, AI-powered ordering and food prep machines over the last few years. And even more recently, it’s become more likely that a robot is playing a part in your food preparation or delivery.

They may take shape as your bartender, your server or your food delivery driver, but many are like the “collaborative” robots just rolled out in some Chipotle restaurants in California.

The company is testing the Autocado, which splits and prepares avocados to be turned into guacamole by a kitchen crew member, and the Augmented Makeline, which builds bowls and salads autonomously underneath the food line while employees construct burritos, tacos and quesadillas on top. Chipotle said 65% of its mobile orders are for salads or bowls, and the Augmented Makeline’s aim is improving efficiency and digital order accuracy.

The company said it invested in robotics company Vebu and worked with them on the design for the Autocado, and it invested in food service platform Hyphen, which custom made the Augmented Makeline for Chipotle.

“Optimizing our use of these systems and incorporating crew and customer feedback are the next steps in the stage-gate process before determining their broader pilot plans,” Curt Garner, Chipotle’s chief customer and technology officer said in a statement.

The company said the introduction of these robots will not eliminate any jobs, as the crew members are supposed to have a “cobotic relationship” with them. The aim is that crew members will be able to spend more time on either food prep tasks or on providing hospitality to customers.

Ben Zipperer, a low-wage labor market economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said the early fears around automation and robots threatening jobs in the foodservice industry are not being realized. Automation has shown to make workers more productive and effective, he said.

Robots have also been shown to make businesses more efficient and profitable, Zipperer siad, which creates an “offsetting demand factor.” That increased demand and profitability can actually help keep the cost of food for customers more affordable, he added.

When one action is freed up by a robot, the restaurant has more freedom to place workers on other high-demand tasks.

“Either those workers are still going to help produce guacamole, because people want to buy more of it,” Zipperer said of the Chipotle announcement, “or there’s other things that that business is trying to produce but can’t allocate the labor towards, even though they have demand for it.”

Zipperer pointed toward automated food purchasing with the use of touchscreen kiosks, which has been widely adopted in fast food service. In these cases, workers get shifted away from cash registers and toward more back-of-house jobs like food prep or janitorial work.

McDonald’s shows an example of this. The fast food restaurant was one of the earliest adopters of touchscreen kiosks, with thousands of stores using the technology to collect orders by 2015, and screens becoming nearly ubiquitous by 2020.

Last week, the company said the kiosks actually produce extra work for staff, as customers tend to purchase more food than they would at a cash register. The machines have built-in upselling features that cashiers don’t always have time to push with customers, and the introduction of mobile ordering and delivery has created jobs that front-of-house staff are relegated to.

Many fast food CEOs have threatened that raising minimum wages across the U.S. would equate in job loss to autonomous machines and kiosks. And while some franchise owners may take that route, it’s not a trend across the whole country. Jobs at quick-service and fast casual restaurants were up about 150,000 jobs, or 3% above their pre-pandemic levels in August.

As technology takes more of a role in food service production, businesses that want to succeed will find the balance of cost-saving efficiencies and valued work by their employees, Zipperer said.

“As long as there is demand for what that business is producing, that will allow workers to not feel a lot of the negative effects of technology,” he said.

As response rates drop, pollsters are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to determine what voters are thinking ahead of Election Day, not only asking the questions but sometimes to help answer them. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Days after President Joe Biden announced he would not be seeking re-election, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, polling organization Siena College Research Institute sought to learn how “persuadable” voters were feeling about Harris.

In their survey, a 37-year-old Republican explained that they generally favored Trump for his ability to “get [things] done one way or another.”

“Who do you think cares about people like you? How do they compare in terms of caring about people like you?” the pollster asked.

“That’s where I think Harris wins, I lost a lot of faith in Trump when he didn’t even contact the family of the supporter who died at his rally,” the 37-year-old said.

Pollsters pressed this participant and others across the political spectrum to further explain their stances, and examine the nuance behind choosing a candidate. The researchers saw in real time how voters may sway depending on the issue, and asked follow-up questions about their belief systems.

But the “persuadable” voters weren’t talking to a human pollster. They were conversing with an AI chatbot called Engage.

The speed in which election cycles move, coupled with a steep drop of people participating in regular phone or door-to-door polls, have caused pollsters to turn to artificial intelligence for insights, both asking the questions and sometimes even answering them

Why do we poll? 

The history of polling voters in presidential races goes back 200 years, to the 1824 race which ultimately landed John Quincy Adams in the White House. White men began polling each other at events leading up to the election, and newspapers began reporting the results, though they didn’t frame the results as predictive of the outcome of the election.

In modern times, polling for public opinion has become a business. Research centers, academic institutions and news conglomerates themselves have been conducting polls during election season for decades. Though their accuracy has limitations, the practice is one of the only ways to gauge how Americans may be thinking before they vote.

Polling plays a different role for different groups, said Rachel Cobb, an assistant professor of political science and legal studies at Suffolk University. For campaign workers, polling groups of voters helps provide insight into the issues people care about the most right now, and informs how candidates talk about those issues. It’s why questions at a presidential debate usually aren’t a surprise to candidates — moderators tend to ask questions about the highest-polling topics that week.

For news outlets, polls help give context to current events and give anchors numbers to illustrate a story. Constant polling also helps keep a 24-hour news cycle going.

And for regular Americans, poll results help them gauge where the race is, and either activate or calm their nerves, depending on if their candidate is polling favorably.

But Cobb said she, like many of her political science colleagues, has observed a drop in responses to more traditional style of polling. It’s much harder and more expensive for pollsters to do their job, because people aren’t answering their phones or their front doors.

“The time invested in getting the appropriate kind of balance of people that you need in order to determine accuracy has gotten greater and so and they’ve had to come up with more creative ways to get them,” Cobb said. “At the same time, our technological capacity has increased.”

How AI is assisting in polling?

The speed of information has increased exponentially with social media and 24-hour news cycles, and polls have had to keep up, too. Though they bring value in showing insights for a certain group of people, their validity is fleeting because of that speed, Cobb said. Results are truly only representative of that moment in time, because one breaking news story could quickly change public opinion.

That means pollsters have to work quickly, or train artificial intelligence to keep up.

Leib Litman, co-CEO and chief research officer of CloudResearch, which created the chatbot tool Engage, said AI has allowed them to collect answers so much faster than before.

“We’re able to interview thousands of people within a matter of a couple hours, and then all of that data that we get, all those conversations, we’re also able to analyze it, and derive the insights very, very quickly,” he said.

Engage was developed about a year ago and can be used in any industry where you need to conduct market research via interviews. But it’s become especially useful in this election cycle as campaigns attempt to learn how Americans are feeling at any given moment. The goal isn’t to replace human responses with AI, rather to use AI to reach more people, Litman said.

But some polling companies are skipping interviewing and instead relying on something called “sentiment analysis AI” to analyze publically available data and opinions. Think tank Heartland Forward recently worked with AI-powered polling group Aaru to determine the public perception of artificial intelligence.

The prediction AI company uses geographical and demographic data of an area and scrapes publicly available information, like tweets or voting records, to simulate respondents of a poll. The algorithm uses all this information to make assertions about how a certain demographic group may vote or how they may answer questions about political issues.

This type of poll was a first for Heartland Forward, and its executive vice president Angie Cooper said they paired the AI-conducted poll with in-person gatherings where they conducted more traditional polls.

“When we commissioned the poll, we didn’t know what the results were going to yield,” she said. “What we heard in person closely mirrored the poll results.”

Sentiment analysis

The Aaru poll is an example of sentiment analysis AI, which uses machine learning and large language models to analyze the meaning and tone behind text. It includes training an algorithm to not just understand literally what’s in a body of text, but also to seek out hidden messaging or context, like humans do in conversation.

The general public started interacting with this type of AI in about 2010, said Zohaib Ahmed, founder of Resemble AI, which specializes in voice generation AI. Sentiment analysis AI is the foundation behind search engines that can read a request and make recommendations, or to get your Alexa device to fulfill a command.

Between 2010 and 2020, though, the amount of information collected on the internet has increased exponentially. There’s so much more data for AI models to process and learn from, and technologists have taught it to process contextual, “between-the-lines” information.

The concept behind sentiment analysis is already well understood by pollsters, says Bruce Schneier, a security technologist and lecturer at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. In June, Schneier and other researchers published a look into how AI was playing a role in political polling. 

Most people think polling is just asking people questions and recording their answers, Schneier said, but there’s a lot of “math” between the questions people answer and the poll results.

“All of the work in polling is turning the answers that humans give into usable data,” Schneier said.

You have to account for a few things: people lie to pollsters, certain groups may have been left out of a poll, and response rates are overall low. You’re also applying polling statistics to the answers to come up with consumable data. All of this is work that humans have had to do themselves before technology and computing helped speed up the process.

In the Harvard research, Schneier and the other authors say they believe AI will get better at anticipating human responses, and knowing when it needs human intervention for more accurate context. Currently, they said, humans are our primary respondents to polls, and computers fill in the gaps. In the future, though, we’ll likely see AI filling out surveys and humans filling in the gaps.

“I think AI should be another tool in the pollsters mathematical toolbox, which has been getting more complex for the past several decades,” Schneier said.

Pros and cons of AI-assisted polling 

AI polling methods bring pollsters more access and opportunity to gauge public reaction. Those who have begun using it in their methodology said that they’ve struggled to get responses from humans organically, or they don’t have the time and resources to conduct in-person or telephone polling.

Being interviewed by an anonymous chatbot may also provide more transparent answers for controversial political topics. Litman said personal, private issues such as health care or abortion access are where their chatbot “really shines.” Women, in particular, have reported that they feel more comfortable sharing their true feelings about these topics when talking to a chatbot, he said.

But, like all methodology around polling, it’s possible to build flaws into AI-assisted polling.

The Harvard researchers ran their own experiment asking ChatGPT 3.5 questions about the political climate, and found shortcomings when it asked about U.S. intervention in the Ukraine war. Because the AI model only had access to data up through 2021, the answers missed all of the current context about Russia’s invasion beginning in 2022.

Sentiment analysis AI may also struggle with text that’s ambiguous, and it can’t be counted on for reviewing developing information, Ahmed said. For example, the X timeline following one of the two assassination attempts of Trump probably included favorable or supportive messages from politicians across the aisle. An AI algorithm might read the situation and conclude that all of those people are very pro-Trump.

“But it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re navigating towards Donald Trump,” Ahmed said. “It just means, you know, there’s sympathy towards an event that’s happened, right? But that event is completely missed by the AI. It has no context of that event occurring, per se.”

Just like phone-call polling, AI-assisted polling can also potentially leave whole groups of people out of surveys, Cobb said. Those who aren’t comfortable using a chatbot, or aren’t very active online will be excluded from public opinion polls if pollsters move most of their methods online.

“It’s very nuanced,” Ahmed said of AI polling. “I think it can give you a pretty decent, high-level look at what’s happening, and I guarantee that it’s being used by election teams to understand their position in the race, but we have to remember we exist in bubbles, and it can be misleading.”

Both the political and technology experts agreed that as with most other facets of our lives, AI has found its way into polling and we likely won’t look back. Technologists should aim to further train AI models to understand human sentiment, they say, and pollsters should continue to pair it with human responses for a fuller scope of public opinion.

“Science of polling is huge and complicated,” Schneier said. “And adding AI to the mix is another tiny step down a pathway we’ve been walking for a long time using, you know, fancy math combined with human data.”

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.

The Rocky Broad River flows into Lake Lure and overflows the town with debris from Chimney Rock, North Carolina, after heavy rains from Hurricane Helene on Sept. 28, 2024, in Lake Lure, North Carolina. Approximately 6 feet of debris piled on the bridge from Lake Lure to Chimney Rock, blocking access (Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Congress may break from its six-week recess and return to D.C. in the last days before an extremely close election to approve emergency spending for Hurricane Helene recovery and response.

Lawmakers aren’t set to return to Washington, D.C., until after Election Day on Nov. 5, but President Joe Biden indicated Monday during remarks on the storm that he may ask Congress to return sooner to take up an emergency spending request.

Whether to do so would be up to Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.

How much pressure those two feel to cut the recess short will likely depend on when the White House budget office sends Congress the emergency supplemental spending request, how soon federal agencies expect to run out of cash and how urgent the need appears.

The death toll by Monday afternoon topped 100 over six states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee — and White House advisers said that hundreds more are missing. Two million people are without power and many others are lacking water and mobile phone service.

Scott calls for return

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott released a statement calling on Schumer to bring that chamber back into session after the White House sends the emergency funding request.

“While I know from my experience with previous hurricanes that FEMA and SBA damage assessments take time, I am today urging Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to immediately reconvene the U.S. Senate when those assessments are completed so that we can pass the clean supplemental disaster funding bill and other disaster relief legislation, like my Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act, needed to ensure the full recovery of families in all impacted communities,” Scott wrote.

That process of putting together a White House supplemental spending request includes determining which federal departments and agencies have enough money to handle their portion of the disaster response and which need additional funds. That can take weeks, especially after large-scale disasters like Helene.

It appeared more likely as of Monday that Congress would return to work on Capitol Hill on Nov. 12 as scheduled and consider the emergency spending then.

In the interim, staff on the House and Senate Appropriations committees as well as in leadership offices will likely begin negotiating the supplemental spending package, once the Office of Management and Budget actually sends the request.

Lawmakers can then pass the bill sometime during the lame-duck session in November or December, possibly attached to one or a package of the overdue full-year government funding bills.

Florida Republican Rep. Kat Cammack said on C-SPAN on Monday that she felt “exceptionally confident” Congress would approve emergency funding for disaster relief after members return to Washington, D.C.

“I’m absolutely certain there will be a supplemental,” Cammack said. “My fear is that it turns into a political football. And quite frankly things like this, there’s no room for politics when it comes to disasters and emergencies.”

The Disaster Relief Fund

FEMA can spend as much as it needs to on disaster recovery thanks to a provision Congress approved a few days ago and special caveats for emergencies.

The stopgap spending bill Congress approved last week, which keeps the federal government running through Dec. 20, included a provision allowing FEMA to spend money from its Disaster Relief Fund at a faster rate than would have otherwise been allowed.

FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund can operate on something called immediate needs funding, which the agency can use as a safety net when that account runs low on money.

Immediate needs funding allows FEMA to pause “funding for long-term recovery projects and hazard mitigation projects that FEMA does not have in its system,” according to a Congressional Research Service report.

“These INF restrictions do not affect individual assistance, or public assistance programs that reimburse emergency response work and protective measures carried out by state and local authorities,” according to CRS.

FEMA has used immediate needs several times, including in August 2017 after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas as well as during fiscal years 2003 through 2006 and in fiscal 2010, according to CRS.

Earlier pleas for funding unheeded

The Biden administration sent Congress a supplemental spending request in October 2023 asking for additional funding for natural disaster response and recovery. A deeply divided Congress, with Republicans in control of the House and Democrats with a narrow majority in the Senate, did not approve the request.

Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young sent Congress another letter this June, urging lawmakers to approve billions in additional funding for natural disasters.

Young wrote that she wanted to “reiterate the October request and submit revised estimates of an additional $4 billion for certain disaster needs, including funding to help respond to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, the devastating fires on Maui last summer, and tornado survivors in Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and throughout the Midwest.”

“Particularly as we enter what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is describing as an ‘extraordinary’ hurricane season, the Administration urges prompt congressional action on this request, including for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), to ensure that we can uphold the Federal Government’s responsibility to both rebuild from past disasters and respond to future events,” Young wrote at the time.

The supplemental spending request the Biden administration sends to Congress in the coming weeks will likely build off those prior requests.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday during a briefing that the Biden administration is “disappointed” Congress hasn’t yet approved the supplemental spending request.

“We are disappointed that that didn’t go through,” she said. “We’re going to continue to have this conversation. As the president said, we’re in constant communications with members in Congress, and we want to make sure that they move quickly on this.”

The White House has approved disaster declarations in North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama, freeing up federal emergency management money and resources for those states (Sean Rayford/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden pledged Monday that the federal government would help people throughout the Southeast recover from the devastation of Hurricane Helene and its aftermath, and said he expects to ask Congress for emergency funding in the weeks ahead.

“I’m here to tell every single survivor in these impacted areas that we will be there with you as long as it takes,” Biden said in brief remarks from the  Roosevelt Room in the White House.

Biden said he plans to travel to North Carolina later this week, once his motorcade and other presidential travel requirements wouldn’t get in the way of recovery efforts. 

“I’m committed to traveling to impacted areas as soon as possible, but I’ve been told that it would be disruptive if I did it right now,” Biden said. “We will not do that at the risk of diverting or delaying any of the response assets needed to deal with this crisis.”

Biden said he didn’t know how much money his administration would request Congress provide for recovery efforts, but didn’t rule out asking lawmakers to return to Washington, D.C., before their six-week election recess ends on Nov. 12. Emergency declarations have been issued by Biden for the affected states, enabling disaster assistance.

Helene, which is on track to become one of the deadliest hurricanes in the country’s history, made landfall in Florida last week before leaving a trail of devastation and destruction in its wake. The Associated Press reported Monday the death toll has risen to at least 107, including 30 reported deaths in the North Carolina county that includes Asheville.

Residents throughout the Southeast, including those in Georgia, South Carolina, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee were hit by some of the worst flooding and wind damage.

Many communities are completely destroyed and lack access to clean drinking water, functioning grocery stores, electricity and cell phone service.

Roads and bridges that should have allowed residents to drive to pick up supplies, or stay with friends or family, have been completely washed out by the hurricane, leaving many people stranded without necessities.

The high water also destroyed many people’s homes and vehicles, making disaster recovery even more complicated throughout the region, but especially in rural areas where people often live far away from town.

Senators appeal for help

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis posted on social media Sunday afternoon that the state is in desperate need of assistance.

“Entire communities in Western North Carolina have no power, no cell service, and remain in severe danger from flooding,” Tillis wrote. “First responders (are) doing the best they can with what they have, but the devastation is incomprehensible. WNC needs all the help it can get and it needs it now.”

North Carolina Republican Sen. Ted Budd released a written statement Saturday after a call with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, North Carolina Emergency Management, the National Weather Service and the American Red Cross.

“It is clear that the damage in Western North Carolina is catastrophic,” Budd wrote. “There is no doubt that the road to recovery will be long and difficult, but we will marshal all available resources to assist the region, including public, private, and charitable. We are all in this together.”

Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff released a statement Sunday that he’d surveyed storm damage and spoken with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.

The statement said Ossoff “discussed the importance of communicating to Georgians the full range of recovery resources and programs that will be available upon the State’s completion of damage assessments.”

Florida Republican Rep. Kat Cammack said on C-SPAN on Monday that the hurricane not only destroyed people’s homes and businesses but devastated farms throughout the region.

“The agricultural damage there is tremendous,” Cammack said. “They saw winds of nearly 100 miles an hour. And so we’re looking at catastrophic losses inland as well as on the coast. It’s really devastating.”

The Department of Justice on Friday unsealed an indictment detailing a yearslong hacking scheme by Iran that targeted the 2024 presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump. In this photo, Trump speaks on May 28, 2022 in Casper, Wyoming. (Chet Strange/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — U.S. law enforcement on Friday announced charges against three Iranians who allegedly stole materials from former President Donald Trump’s campaign and tried to pass them to news media and Democrats in an attempt to influence the 2024 election.

The Department of Justice unsealed the indictment detailing a yearslong hacking scheme by Iran that targeted the email accounts of U.S. government officials, journalists, think tank experts, and most recently the 2024 presidential campaigns.

“The defendants’ own words make clear that they were attempting to undermine former President Trump’s campaign in advance of the 2024 U.S. presidential election,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a Friday press conference. Prosecutors believe the defendants acted from Iran and were never in the U.S.

“We know that Iran is continuing its brazen efforts to stoke discord, erode confidence in the U.S. electoral process and advance its malign activities for the (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), a designated foreign terrorist organization,” Garland said.

The unsealed indictment in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia came three days after Trump’s campaign revealed the former president was briefed by the U.S. intelligence officials about “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him,” according to a statement Tuesday from Steven Cheung, the campaign’s communications director.

“Big threats on my life by Iran,” Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, posted on X Wednesday. Trump suggested at a campaign stop in Mint Hill, North Carolina, that Iran could be responsible for two assassination attempts on him.

The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence has not published a statement on the matter. Its most recent press release focuses on the Iranian plot to hack Trump’s campaign.

‘It takes two to tango’ 

Global politics continued to top the U.S. presidential election headlines Friday when Trump welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Trump Tower after announcing the invitation late Thursday at a meandering press conference where he promised, if elected, to strike a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia “quite quickly.”

The pair met behind closed doors in Trump’s New York City skyscraper on the sidelines of this week’s United Nations General Assembly, and one day after Zelenskyy traveled to Washington to meet with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden and bipartisan lawmakers.

“After November we have to decide, and we hope that the strengths of the United States will be very strong, and we count on it. That’s why I decided to meet with both candidates,” Zelenskyy said during brief joint comments alongside Trump ahead of the meeting.

Trump, who refused during a live presidential debate to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win its war with Russia, detoured from that stance and hinted Friday that he wants a victory for the Western ally.

“I think the fact that we’re even together today is a very good sign, and hopefully we’ll have a good victory, because (if) the other side wins, I don’t think you’re gonna have victories with anything to be honest with you,” Trump said during the joint remarks.

During the exchange, Trump highlighted his “very good relationship” with Putin and said he could settle the war “very quickly.”

“But you know, it takes two to tango,” he said.

Harris at the border

Harris traveled to the U.S. southern border Friday to stump for a bipartisan border security deal that collapsed in early 2024 shortly after Trump publicly lambasted it.

Harris was scheduled to deliver what her campaign billed as a major speech in the border town of Douglas, Arizona, where she planned to talk about setting and enforcing new immigration rules at the border, according to a senior campaign official.

“Donald Trump cares more about self-interest than solutions. He wants a problem to run on, not a fix for the American people,”  Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement Friday.

“When he was president, Trump created chaos at the border, taking our already broken immigration system and making it worse – leaving behind a mess for the Biden-Harris administration to clean up. Americans deserve a president who puts national security over their own self-interest – that’s Kamala Harris,” the statement continued.

Trump is attacking Harris over border crossings into the U.S. — his central campaign issue — and calling her by the dishonest nickname “border czar” and claiming she caused the “worst border crisis in the history of the world.”

“When you look at the four years that have taken place after being named ‘border czar,’ Kamala Harris will be visiting the southern border that she has completely destroyed,” Trump said at his Thursday press conference.

Biden, in February 2021, tasked Harris with strategizing ways to fight the “root cause” of migration from Central American countries, including economic insecurity, government corruption and gender-based violence.

Trump has historically painted with a broad brush the complex issue of immigration at the U.S. southern border, announcing his first presidential campaign in 2015 by describing Mexican immigrants as “rapists.” During his own presidency in 2018 he warned of immigrant “caravans” crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. He has promised mass deportations if elected in November.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security publicly releases numbers of border encounters, apprehensions and expulsions.

Back on the trail

The presidential and vice presidential candidates are scheduled to make the following appearances:

• Harris will deliver a speech in Douglas, Arizona, Friday.
• Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks in Walker, Michigan Friday, followed by a town hall in Warren, Michigan.
• Trump is expected to attend the Alabama-Georgia football game on Saturday in Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama, as confirmed by States Newsroom last week.
• Not to be outdone on the college football scene, Harris’ running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is scheduled to attend the Michigan-Minnesota football game Saturday in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• Harris will head to Las Vegas, Nevada, Sunday for a campaign rally.
• Trump will also host a rally Sunday, this time in Erie, Pennsylvania.

With many 2017 tax cuts expiring and cost of living a major challenge for Americans, tax policy has become a central issue in the 2024 presidential campaign. (Phillip Rubino/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — With the clock ticking on former President Donald Trump’s signature 2017 tax law, and high housing, food and child care costs darkening Americans’ mood, tax cuts have become the star of the 2024 presidential contest between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump wants to overall extend his tax provisions beyond the 2025 expiration date and then some, promising to lower the corporate tax rate even further and lift the cap on the state and local taxes deduction.

He argues the loss in federal revenue will be made up by imposing steep tariffs on imported goods.

Tariff is a “beautiful word,” he told a crowd in Savannah, Georgia, Tuesday night, “one of the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard.”

“We will take in hundreds of billions of dollars into our treasury and use that money to benefit the American citizens,” he said.

Harris is running on an “opportunity economy” platform that keeps the Biden administration’s promises to not raise taxes on those making less than $400,000 and enact a “billionaire” tax.

The vice president has also vowed to give tax deductions and credits to budding entrepreneurs and first-time homebuyers, and permanently expand the Child Tax Credit.

“Under my plan, more than 100 million Americans will get a middle-class tax break that includes $6,000 for new parents during the first year of their child’s life,” Harris said Wednesday at a campaign speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Whoever wins the Oval Office will need a cooperative Congress to enact these policies — with the exception of tariffs, over which the president enjoys wide latitude.

What would it cost?

The barrage of proposals has kept economists busy with near-constant and evolving analyses of how much the tax cut promises would add to the nation’s ballooning federal deficit and change the economy.

Both candidates’ plans come with a price tag in the trillions of dollars, though Trump’s is the more expensive of the two.

Models released in late August by the Penn Wharton Budget Model project Trump’s plan would add up to $5.8 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, while Harris’ plan would increase the deficit by up to $2 trillion over the same time period.

“I think that both candidates are missing the mark when it comes to fiscal responsibility and economic responsibility,” the Tax Foundation’s Erica York told States Newsroom in an interview Monday.

“Neither of them have really outlined a plan that would get us on a sustainable path in terms of debt and deficits, nor that would boost growth and opportunity in the economy. Both are likely to have a negative impact on the economy,” said York, senior economist and research director for the foundation, which generally favors lower taxes.

Promise: No taxes on tips, overtime

Trump, followed by Harris, has proposed to nix taxes on tipped workers — though Harris has suggested limiting the benefit to workers in the service and hospitality industries who earn less than $75,000.

She has also said the tax break would not apply to payroll taxes, meaning the contribution workers pay toward Social Security and Medicare. Trump has not detailed any limits on his proposal for tipped workers.

Economists across the board warn Trump’s plan could incentivize more tipped work. They also question whether Trump and Harris’ proposals would actually benefit low-income workers.

After all, tax benefits for lower income workers who have children phase in as the person earns income. Reporting less income means those taxpayers could ultimately see less help from the Child Tax Credit or the Earned Income Tax Credit.

“If you work and you report income, you get these provisions. But if you don’t, you don’t get these provisions. Well, you add exemptions into the tax code that reduces the amount of earned income that you report to the IRS, you could potentially reduce the value of these credits for very low-income households,” Kyle Pomerleau, senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, told States Newsroom in an interview Monday.

For instance, a tipped worker who has one child and earns $24,000 annually, half of which comes from tips, could see a $300 decrease in refundable tax credits under this policy, Pomerleau and senior AEI fellows Alex Brill and Stan Veuger wrote in August.

The same principle for lower income taxpayers applies to Trump’s recent promise to eliminate taxes on overtime.

“There could be a negative effect there, depending on how this is structured,” Pomerleau said Monday.

The nonpartisan watchdog Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates an elimination of taxes on all overtime would cost the country $1.7 trillion in lost revenue over 10 years. With no guardrails preventing workers switching from salaried to hourly, the price tag could reach up to $6 trillion in the most extreme case, CRFB estimates.

Promise: No taxes on Social Security

Economists monitoring the nation’s Social Security coffers continue to sound alarm bells on the program’s solvency — with little reaction on the campaign trail.

The fund that provides money to senior citizens and people with disabilities is on track to be depleted by 2035, and recipients would face an immediate 17% cut in benefits, as the Tax Foundation’s Alex Durante wrote Tuesday.

Trump has mentioned Social Security during campaign rallies and on his social media platform, but in the context of eliminating taxes on the benefit payments.

While low-income recipients do not pay taxes on their benefits, others do and are projected to contribute $94 billion this year back into the fund.

Nixing those taxes could speed up Social Security’s insolvency by one year, according to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Promise: New corporate tax rates and tariffs

Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which cleared Congress strictly along party lines, permanently lowered the top corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%.

Harris has vowed, if elected, she will bump the rate up to 28%. Analyses from the CFRB, the Tax Foundation, Penn Wharton and the Yale Budget Lab estimate the increase would raise roughly $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion in federal revenue over the next decade.

The former president wants to cut the rate even further to 15%, a level not seen in the U.S. since the 1930s. Economists estimate the cut would reduce revenue anywhere from $460 billion to $673 billion over 10 years.

“Here is the deal that I will be offering to every major company and manufacturer on Earth: I will give you the lowest taxes, the lowest energy costs, the lowest regulatory burden and free access to the best and biggest market on the planet, but only if you make your product here in America,” Trump said in Georgia Tuesday.

Trump has big plans for products imported into the U.S. He’s planning to impose up to 20% tariffs on most imports, reaching as high as 60% on Chinese goods and 100% on countries that turn away from the U.S. dollar.

That could cost the typical American household about $2,600 a year as costs on consumer goods would shift to the customer, particularly affecting those with lower incomes, according to economists Kimberly Clausing and Mary Lovely at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Speaking at a farming roundtable in Pennsylvania Monday, Trump publicly warned John Deere that if the company moves manufacturing to Mexico, he’ll impose a 200% tariff on tractors coming back over the border.

Experts warn another downside is that the policy invites foreign retaliation.

“So if we are, say, exporting Kentucky bourbon to China, China may say, well, to retaliate for the 60% tax on imports, we’re going to place taxes on this export, and that’s going to have a direct impact on the incomes of Americans and make us poorer,” Pomerleau said.

Promise: A billionaire tax

A familiar refrain from Harris and the Biden administration is that billionaires and wealthy corporations should pay their “fair share.”

The U.S. individual tax rate already progresses with an earner’s income, meaning that the higher your income, the higher your tax rate.

Both Harris and Trump want to keep individual tax rates that were lowered across the board in the 2017 law, but Harris is seeking to increase taxes on long-term capital gains, and levy a minimum tax on unrealized capital gains for very high earners.

For those earning upwards of $1 million a year, Harris proposed raising taxes to 28%, up from 20%, on profits made from the sale of an asset, like stocks, bonds, or real estate, that have been held by the owner for more than a year.

The vice president also proposes quadrupling the stock buyback tax to 4%, up from 1%.

For ultra-wealthy households that have more than $100 million in assets, Harris follows Biden in proposing a 25% tax rate — sometimes referred to as the “billionaire tax.”

Those high-wealth individuals would need to calculate their regular income tax liability and compare it to their total net worth, meaning income plus unrealized capital gains, multiplied by 25%.

“Whichever is greater you pay,” Pomerleau explains. “So if you are in a situation where you have a low effective tax rate relative to this broader definition of income, the minimum tax will kick in and you’ll start paying increments.”

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the plan could raise $750 billion in revenue over ten years.

Promise: No SALT cap

Ahead of a mid-September campaign rally on Long Island, New York, Trump pledged to abandon the cap in his 2017 law on the state and local tax deduction — simply known in tax parlance as SALT.

As the law stands now, taxpayers can only deduct up to $10,000 of their state and local tax bill from their federal tax liability.

A full SALT deduction is more valuable for higher income taxpayers, and prior to the 2017 cap, 91% of taxpayers who claimed it lived in California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Texas and Pennsylvania, according to an analysis by the Tax Foundation.

Eliminating the cap would cut taxes by an average of more than $140,000 for the highest earning 0.1% of households, according to modeling by the Tax Policy Center, a collaboration between the left-leaning Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.

The Committee for a Responsible Budget estimates the move could cost $1.2 trillion over a ten-year budget window.

An employee adds a stack of mail-in ballots to a machine that automatically places the ballots Wednesday in envelopes at Runbeck Election Services in Phoenix, Arizona. The company prints mail-in ballots for 30 states and Washington D.C. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — United States Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified before Congress on Thursday that voters can “absolutely” trust their mail-in ballots will be secure and prioritized, though he emphasized they must be mailed at least a week ahead of the various state deadlines to be delivered on time.

DeJoy’s testimony to House lawmakers became heated at times, as members questioned whether delays in general mail delivery and previous issues with mail-in ballots in swing states could disenfranchise voters this year.

DeJoy also brought USPS’s facilities into question, calling them “ratty” twice during the hour-long hearing.

His various comments about the management of the USPS and how the agency plans to handle election mail appeared to frustrate some members of the House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee.

For example, in response to a question from Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan about the pace of mail delivery in his home state, DeJoy responded that “the first rockets that went to the moon blew up, OK.”

Pocan then said: “Thanks for blowing up Wisconsin,” before DeJoy gave a lengthier answer.

“We’re going to do a series of transactional adjustments and service measurement adjustments and service metric adjustments as we move forward with this that are going to get your service to be 95% reliable,” DeJoy said.

Millions of ballots in the mail

The hearing came as state officials throughout the country are preparing to, or have already, sent out millions of mail-in ballots that could very well decide the results of elections for Congress and potentially even the presidency.

Mail-in voting surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as a central part of the 2020 presidential election and has remained a popular way for voters to decide who will represent their interests in government.

Voters can also cast ballots in person during early voting and on Election Day.

Lawmakers focused many of their questions during the hearing on how USPS keeps mail-in ballots secure and whether the agency can deliver them on time, though several members voiced frustration with DeJoy’s plans to change operations at USPS.

When asked specifically whether Americans could trust in USPS to handle their election mail, DeJoy said, “Absolutely.”

“I don’t know why you wouldn’t,” he testified. “We’ve delivered in the heightened part of a pandemic, in the most sensationalized political time of elections, and … we delivered it 99 point whatever percent, I mentioned earlier.”

DeJoy had previously said USPS delivered 99.89% of mail-in ballots within seven days during the 2020 election.

DeJoy wrote in testimony submitted to the committee ahead of the hearing that not all state laws consider the speed of the USPS when deciding when voters can request mail-in ballots and when those are sent out.

“For example, some jurisdictions allow voters to request a mail-in ballot very close to Election Day,” he wrote. “Depending on when that ballot is mailed to the voter, it may be physically impossible for that voter to receive the ballot mail, complete their ballot, and return their ballot by mail in time to meet the jurisdiction’s deadline, even with our extraordinary measures, and despite our best efforts.”

‘I see horror’

DeJoy brought up the state of USPS facilities on his own at several points during the hearing, implying that they aren’t clean or up to his standards as a work environment.

“I walk in our plants and facilities, I see horror. My employees see just another day at work,” DeJoy said.

Following a question about whether USPS employees had the appropriate training to handle and deliver mail-in ballots on time, DeJoy said leadership was “overwhelmingly enhancing our training,” before disparaging the facilities.

“We’re on a daily mission to train over 600,000 people across 31,000 ratty locations, I might say, on how to improve our operating practices across the board and at this time most specifically in the election mail area,” he testified. “We’re doing very well at this, just not perfect.”

No members of the panel asked DeJoy to clarify what he meant by “ratty” or followed up when he said separately that he was “sitting on about $20 billion in cash.”

A USPS spokesperson said they had nothing to add to DeJoy’s characterization when asked about the “ratty” comment by States Newsroom.

“If you are listening to the hearing, you just heard him describe the condition of postal facilities further,” Martha S. Johnson wrote in an email sent shortly after DeJoy made his “horror” comment. “I have nothing to add to that.”

Deliveries for rural Americans

Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright questioned DeJoy during the hearing about how plans to “consolidate resources around regions with higher population densities” under the so-called Delivering for America plan will affect delivery times overall for rural residents.

DeJoy disagreed with the premise of the question, saying he believed it was “an unfair accusation, considering the condition that the Postal Service has been allowed to get to.”

DeJoy said the USPS had committed to a six-day-a-week delivery schedule and pledged that it would not take longer than five days for mail to arrive.

“It will not go beyond five days, because I’ll put it up in the air and fly it if I have to,” DeJoy said.

Cartwright mentioned that 1.4 million Pennsylvania residents requested to vote by mail during the 2022 midterm elections, a number he expected to rise this year.

The commonwealth has numerous competitive U.S. House districts, a competitive U.S. Senate race and is considered a crucial swing state for the presidential election. Several of those races could be determined by mail-in ballots arriving on time.

Ohio Republican Rep. David Joyce, chairman of the subcommittee, asked DeJoy about issues with the Cleveland regional sort facility during the 2023 election. The secretary of state, Joyce said, found that some mail-in ballots sent as early as Oct. 24 didn’t arrive until Nov. 21.

“These voters are disenfranchised because of the USPS failures,” Joyce said. “How specifically have you enhanced the all clear procedures you referenced in response to the National Association of Secretaries of State? And can you assure us that these procedures will ensure that that doesn’t happen in this upcoming election?”

DeJoy responded that he would “need the specifics of Cleveland,” but said that USPS procedures are “extremely enhanced.”

Georgia primary problems

Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde, who isn’t on the panel, submitted a question for DeJoy about how a new regional processing and distribution center in Atlanta had “a negative impact” on mail delivery just weeks ahead of the GOP presidential primary earlier this year.

DeJoy said the USPS was investing more than $500 million into the region, but conceded “what went on in Georgia was an embarrassment to the organization, okay, and it should not have happened.”

“We are correcting for it aggressively,” DeJoy said. “Specifically with regard to the primary election, we got through that because I put a whole bunch of people down there and a whole bunch of double-checking processes in place.”

DeJoy added that “the performance was good on election mail for Georgia” and that USPS would deliver Georgia’s mail-in ballots in the weeks ahead “just fine.”

The Democratic National Committee announced Friday it plans to send $2.5 million to state parties. In this photo, signs marking states’ seating sections are installed and adjusted Aug. 15 ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The Democratic National Committee will send $2.5 million to more than 30 of its state and territorial parties, including Missouri, in the closing weeks of the 2024 election cycle, the DNC said in a Friday statement.

With the new grants, national Democrats will have contributed to all 57 state and territorial chapters for the first time in a presidential cycle, according to the party.

“From the school board to the White House, the DNC is doing the work to elect Democrats to office at all levels of government,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in the statement, given to States Newsroom ahead of a wider announcement.

“We are the only committee responsible for building Democratic infrastructure to win elections across the map, and with a new $2.5 million in grants, the DNC is delivering a multi-million dollar investment across all 57 state parties this cycle – a historic first for our committee.”

The new grants go beyond the seven swing states considered ultra-competitive in the presidential election that have gotten the lion’s share of attention and spending at the national level — and the handful with key U.S. Senate races that have also attracted a national focus.

Though some grants are relatively small, they represent a commitment by the national party to states across the country, including traditionally red states, Democrats said.

Field workers in Idaho

In Idaho, where Democrats hold just 18 of the 105 seats in the Legislature, a more-than $70,000 commitment from the national party will fund two field workers to reach Hispanic voters in two rural counties and tribal members on the Nez Perce Reservation, state party chair and state Rep. Lauren Necochea said.

Necochea, who spoke with States Newsroom in a Thursday interview ahead of the official announcement, said the funding was significant both for the symbolism of the national party’s investment in the overwhelmingly Republican state and for campaign operations this fall.

“We’re just gratified to see that this investment hit all 57 states and territories for the first time … so that no state is left behind,” she said. “We’re a traditionally red state, and that means we need the funding to fight back.”

The two organizers funded by the national money will help boost turnout in the state’s four battleground state legislative districts, Necochea said.

“This level of investment is also meaningful when it comes to winning races and getting out the vote,” she said, noting that a race in the last cycle was decided by 37 votes.

The outcomes in those races could determine which faction of the state’s Republican Party — either the hard right or the more moderate wing — will control the legislative agenda next session, she said.

The Democratic minority in the Legislature sometimes partners with moderate Republicans on legislation to fund education and health care programs, including maintaining the state’s Medicaid expansion, Necochea said.

“It is essential for state government to continue operating that we have a critical mass of Democrats in the Idaho Legislature,” she said.

Other grants

The DNC provided a partial list of the spending included in Friday’s announcement. State parties are free to use the funds as they wish, a DNC spokesman said. The national party noted some state organizations had already determined how to allocate the money.

Many state organizations planned to pursue outreach to voters of color, including in tribal communities.

Some examples of the spending and objectives, according to the DNC:

• Florida: More than $400,000 for statewide programs targeting “key coalitions.”

• Oregon: $125,000 to help the state party’s efforts in three key U.S. House races.

• Pennsylvania: $100,000 “to supercharge voter outreach” in the only presidential battleground state on the new list. A portion of the funding will target the state’s large Puerto Rican community, the DNC said.

• Minnesota: At least $100,000 to boost the state’s paid canvassing campaign. The new funding brings the total DNC allocation to the state to about $630,000, according to the party. The canvassing effort will help protect Democrats’ slim majorities in both legislative chambers.

• Missouri: “Nearly $100,000” for new organizing staff focused on breaking GOP supermajorities in both statehouse chambers and passing an abortion ballot measure.

• Maryland: $75,000 for the state party’s mail program, with a focus on reaching Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, a growing segment of the state’s voting base, the DNC said. The DNC noted its support for U.S. Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks, calling her race against former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan critical to protecting reproductive rights.

• South Carolina: More than $70,000 for a get-out-the-vote staffer, focusing on outreach to new voters.

• Maine: $61,250 for three staffers to focus get-out-the-vote efforts in rural parts of U.S. Rep. Jared Golden’s swing district.

• Arkansas: Nearly $60,000 to hire six coalition directors targeting young, Black and Latino voters, including Spanish-speaking organizers. It’s the first DNC spending in Arkansas this cycle.

• Louisiana: $55,000 for an organizer to help the state party reach voters in the new majority-Black 6th Congressional District.

• Kansas: $50,000 for paid canvassing efforts to break GOP supermajorities in both legislative chambers.

• Oklahoma: $50,000 to help the state party’s outreach to tribal communities.

• Virginia: $50,000 for the state party’s get-out-the-vote and voter contact programs, focusing on two competitive U.S. House races.

• West Virginia: $50,000 for get-out-the-vote and paid mail programs targeting “youth and minority voters” who could affect four competitive state legislative races.

• North Dakota: Nearly $40,000 for get-out-the-vote efforts and organizing in tribal communities.

• New Jersey: “Five figures” will go to get-out-the-vote operations in all state races, with a particular focus on Rep. Andy Kim’s U.S. Senate race against Republican Curtis Bashaw. It’s the first DNC spending in the Garden State this cycle.

• Tennessee: An unspecified amount to help the state party “build on the organizing momentum” it has seen in the past year.

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.

Left to right, Sgt. Edward Lenz, Adams Township Police Department, Commander, Butler County Emergency Services Unit; Patrolman Drew Blasko, Butler Township Police Department; Lt. John Herold, Pennsylvania State Police; and Patrick Sullivan, former United States Secret Service agent,  are sworn in Thursday during the first hearing of the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Members of the U.S. House task force investigating the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Thursday blamed the U.S. Secret Service for poor planning and breakdowns in communication and coordination with local law enforcement.

Republicans and Democrats on the House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump at their first public hearing praised the work of local law enforcement agencies, representatives of which testified at the hearing.

Lawmakers said initial investigations showed it was the Secret Service who was responsible for a lack of planning, information-sharing and decision-making.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the attempted assassin, at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, scouted the site in the days ahead of Trump’s rally and found security vulnerabilities, task force Chair Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican, said.

If those weaknesses were not apparent to the 20-year-old gunman, the entire incident may have been avoided, Kelly added.

But the shooting that injured Trump’s ear and killed one rallygoer was caused by more than one  breakdown, he said.

“It was not a single mistake that allowed Crooks to outmaneuver one of our country’s most elite” security agencies, Kelly said. “There were security failures on multiple fronts.”

The Secret Service, which is the lead agency during any event in which a person under the agency’s protection is present, did not create a sufficient plan and was not decisive on key questions, Kelly said. The agency did not manage access to sites adjacent to the rally and did not effectively communicate with state and local partners, he added.

Testimony from local agencies

Local officials told the panel they felt prepared in their assignment of assisting the Secret Service protection.

Commander Edward Lenz of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit said the Secret Service had requested help from counter-assault teams, sniper teams and a quick reaction force and that the local agency felt prepared for those missions.

“There were additional things, obviously, that probably needed (to be) covered,” he said. “But they never asked us to do that, they never tasked us with that. So given what they specifically asked us to do, we were certainly prepared.”

He added that sniper teams had not been given specific instructions for their mission.

Patrolman Drew Blasko of the Butler Township Police Department said local police executed what had been asked of them.

“With the information that we had, I believe that we did the very best that we could,” Blasko said.

No unified command

The task force’s ranking Democrat, Colorado’s Jason Crow, who is an Army veteran, highlighted a failure to communicate.

“Clear lines of communication are crucial,” he said during an opening statement. “The Secret Service must do better.”

Later, while questioning witnesses, Crow said he was surprised to learn the Secret Service did not establish a unified command center for the Butler rally.

Patrick Sullivan, a former Secret Service agent who testified in his personal capacity, said that was atypical for a Secret Service operation.

Usually, a central command post is established for the Secret Service, state and local agencies and any other assisting law enforcement, Sullivan said.

“This is very unusual, the way it turned out here in this site,” he said.

A unified command center can help relay information from disparate teams, including warning the agents closest to the president or presidential candidate of a suspicious person.

Pennsylvania Democrat Chrissy Houlahan noted that the communications breakdown between Secret Service and local authorities happened because they were not on the same radio frequencies.

“So here we were with three minutes and every second counting, and the Secret Service and the state police weren’t able to directly hear what local law enforcement actually saw, because they didn’t have that interoperability with local law enforcement frequencies and didn’t have possession of those radios,” she said.

She called for reforms to require different agencies are able to communicate with each other.

Slipped through cracks

Crooks was spotted multiple times throughout the day and identified by local police as suspicious, Kelly said.

Crooks was operating in an unsecured area “where information about him was both delayed and limited,” Kelly said.

Sullivan told Ohio Republican David Joyce that authorities could have used several methods to secure adjacent sites, suggesting the most effective way could have been to station officers there.

Local police spotted Crooks, identified him as suspicious and passed information on to the Pennsylvania State Police and the Secret Service, Lenz said.

But that information did not reach the Secret Service in time to remove Trump from the stage before the shooting began, Kelly said.

“The Secret Service could not process the information fast enough to pull the former president from the stage,” Kelly added.

The chairman wondered why Trump was allowed to go on stage after Crooks had been flagged several times.

“I’m constantly going to be wondering, at what point did somebody say, ‘We’re not sure the area is secure and safe,’” Kelly said.

First hearing

After two months of investigation, the Thursday meeting marked the first public hearing for the task force, which the House voted unanimously to form in the aftermath of the Butler shooting.

The Secret Service has borne the brunt of the blame for the shooting.

Then-Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned under pressure in the days following the attempted assassination.

Acting Director Ronald Rowe said last week the incident was “a failure of the United States Secret Service” and pledged it would spark a “paradigm shift” in how the agency operates.

The importance of Secret Service protection and the task force’s mission was highlighted again this month when a man who’d been hiding in the bushes of Trump’s Florida golf club was arrested and charged with another attempted assassination.

Members of both parties on the panel condemned targeting political candidates Thursday.

“Political violence has no place in our democracy, period,” Crow said.

Trump said this week he will return to Butler on Oct. 5 to “finish our speech.”

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, walks with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., right, and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., left to a closed-door meeting Thursday at the U.S. Capitol. (Tom Brenner/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Standing alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris rejected any suggestion that Ukraine should end its war by relinquishing territory to Russia.

Zelenskyy and Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, met for the seventh time during Harris’ tenure as vice president as the Ukrainian leader visited the White House and U.S. Capitol.

Zelenskyy is expected to meet in New York on Friday morning with former President Donald Trump, who said in a press conference late Thursday he would be able to “make a deal” between Ukraine and Russia “quite quickly.”

“I don’t want to tell you what that looks like,” said Trump, the GOP nominee, who is locked in a tight race with Harris for the Oval Office.

Zelenskyy’s Thursday meetings included a separate one-on-one with President Joe Biden, to shore up continued support as the United States faces the possibility of a shift in power after the quickly approaching 2024 election.

Harris proclaimed the need for “order and stability in our world,” and reiterated her pledge to work with NATO allies to defend Ukraine from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022 nearly a decade after forceably annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

“Nothing about the end of this war can be decided without Ukraine,” Harris said in comments livestreamed on C-SPAN.

“However, in candor, I share with you, Mr. President, there are some in my country who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality, and would require Ukraine to forgo security relationships with other nations,” Harris continued during brief joint remarks with Zelenskyy to the press. “These proposals are the same of those of Putin.”

Harris delivered the comments one day after Trump told a rally crowd in North Carolina that Biden and Harris “allowed” the ongoing war by “feeding Zelenskyy money and munitions like no country has ever seen before.”

United Nations

Zelenskyy’s Washington visits came as the United Nations General Assembly gathered this week in New York City, where Zelenskyy again communicated to world leaders that he wants “territorial integrity” for his nation.

Zelenskyy and Biden met in the Oval Office Thursday afternoon, where they discussed the Ukrainian leader’s “victory plan,” which requests U.S. authority to launch Western missiles deeper inside Russia’s borders.

“Your determination is incredibly important for us to prevail,” Zelenskyy told Biden in front of reporters.

In brief joint remarks to the press, Biden said “I see two key pieces. First, right now, we have to strengthen Ukraine’s position on the battlefield.”

Biden announced the release of $7.9 billion that Congress appropriated for Ukraine and ordered any remaining money to be allocated by his last day in office, Jan. 20, 2025.

“This will strengthen Ukraine’s position in future negotiations,” Biden said.

Ukraine is expected to request more assistance from the U.S. in the coming months.

The U.S. has directed more than $59.3 billion in security assistance since Biden took office, the vast majority of which was committed after Russia’s invasion, according to Pentagon figures. Overall U.S. foreign assistance to Ukraine since 2022 has totaled roughly $175 billion.

Biden, Harris and Zelenskyy did not answer reporters’ shouted questions following their respective meetings.

Zelenskyy goes to Capitol Hill, again

Zelenskyy began Thursday with meetings on Capitol Hill, splitting time with Senate and House lawmakers, absent U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson.

The meetings occurred less than 24 hours after Johnson wrote a letter to Zelenskyy demanding he fire Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. for organizing a trip for the Ukrainian president alongside Democrats to Pennsylvania, a key swing state in the 2024 presidential election.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro led Zelenskyy on a tour Sunday of an ammunition plant in Scranton. They were joined by Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Matt Cartwright, both Pennsylvania Democrats up for reelection.

“The facility was in a politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because — on purpose — no Republicans were invited. The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, wrote.

Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, opened an investigation Wednesday into the “misuse of government resources that allowed Zelensky to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.”

Lawmakers exiting the meetings told reporters Zelenskyy did not comment on Johnson’s letter but rather spoke about the war effort and Ukraine’s desire to use long-range missiles to target military assets farther into Russia.

Republican Sen. John Boozman, who sits on the U.S. Helsinki Commission, told reporters “the more damage we can do, the sooner, the better off we are.”

“It’s to the Russians’ advantage if this thing drags on forever,” said Boozman, of Arkansas.

When asked by reporters if Biden should give permission to Zelenskyy to strike deeper into Russia, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado said, “I hope he will.”

Bennet, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told reporters he would not repeat “anything that anybody else said in that room,” but said he “didn’t hear” any concern over fears of stoking Russia, a nuclear power, to retaliate against NATO allies.

Rep. Joe Wilson, chair of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, told reporters the meeting with Zelenskyy was “positive” and reiterated his support for a Ukrainian victory.

He chalked up Johnson’s absence to a possible “scheduling” issue.

Wilson, who also co-chairs the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, said he’s “confident things are going to work out” regarding Johnson’s rebuke of Zelenskyy. Wilson then quickly pivoted to praising Trump’s approval of a 2017 sale of U.S. weapons to Ukraine.

When pressed by States Newsroom on Trump’s refusal to say whether he wants Ukraine to win the war, Wilson defended the former president.

“I defer to President Trump, but I again, I have so much appreciation that it was Donald Trump that tried to avoid all of this,” the South Carolina Republican said.

Trump was impeached by the U.S. House in 2019, but acquitted by the Senate, for threatening to withhold security assistance for Ukraine unless Zelenskyy publicly announced an investigation into Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential election, which the former vice president under Barack Obama won.

Jennifer Shutt contributed to this report.

Former President Donald Trump, Republican presidential nominee, speaks to attendees during a campaign rally Wednesday at the Mosack Group warehouse in Mint Hill, North Carolina. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump suggested without evidence Wednesday that Iran could be responsible for two apparent assassination attempts he has faced this year, saying foreign leaders objected to his position on tariffs.

Authorities have made no public statements to support the claim that either would-be assassin — in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July and near Trump’s Florida home this month — was aided by foreign agents or anyone else. Trump tied the two incidents to the separate hacking of his campaign, which U.S. intelligence agencies say was conducted by Iran.

“There have been two assassination attempts on my life — that we know of,” Trump, the GOP candidate for president, said at a campaign stop in Mint Hill, North Carolina. “And they may or may not involve — but possibly do — Iran, but I don’t really know.”

Trump also aired his theory on X on Wednesday, saying, “Big threats on my life by Iran. The entire U.S. Military is watching and waiting. Moves were already made by Iran that didn’t work out, but they will try again.”

The Trump campaign told USA Today in a statement on Tuesday night that “President Trump was briefed earlier today by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.”

USA Today also said a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, acknowledged the briefing occurred but did not provide specifics about what was said.

In his remarks in North Carolina, Trump thanked members of Congress in both parties for approving more funding for the U.S. Secret Service, but added that if he were president when a foreign country threatened a presidential candidate, he would retaliate in the strongest terms.

“So I thank everybody in Congress,” he said. “But if I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens. We’re going to blow it to smithereens.”

The gunman in the Pennsylvania shooting, Thomas Crooks, was killed by law enforcement at the scene. In the second case, in Florida, Ryan Wesley Routh was charged on Tuesday with attempted assassination of Trump.

In the hour-long speech that included some attention to economic issues, Trump said that he was a target of foreign governments because of his plans to expand tariffs, which are taxes on imported goods.

“I’m imposing tariffs on your competition from foreign countries, all these foreign countries that have ripped us off, which stole all of your businesses and all of your jobs years ago and took your businesses out,” he said. “This is why people in countries want to kill me. They’re not happy with me. It is – it’s a risky business. This is why they want to kill me.”

Trump also said he would set a 15% tax rate on companies that produce their goods domestically.  That low rate, combined with tariffs on foreign goods, would boost U.S. manufacturing, including furniture production that was once a large industry in North Carolina, he said.

Tariffs generally lead to higher prices, which have plagued consumers since 2020.

Harris in Pennsylvania

The Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, painted a more optimistic picture of the U.S. economic present and future in her own economy-focused speech Wednesday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Harris acknowledged that prices remained too high.

“You know it, and I know it,” she said, according to a pool report.

Harris said her economic priorities were focused on the middle class, which she contrasted with what she described as Trump’s favoritism to wealthy people.

She said she would encourage innovation by boosting research in a host of technologies from biomanufacturing to artificial intelligence and the blockchain, and said her approach to the presidency would include experimenting with different strategies.

“As president, I will be grounded in my fundamental values of fairness, dignity and opportunity,” she said. “And I promise you, I will be pragmatic in my approach. I will engage in what Franklin Roosevelt called bold, persistent experimentation.”

Immigration blamed by GOP

Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, applied their nativist immigration positions to speeches focused on the economy in their Wednesday campaign appearances. Both said immigrants in the country illegally were responsible for driving down employment and wages among U.S.-born workers.

“The jobs are going to illegal migrants that came into our country illegally,” Trump said in North Carolina. “Our Black population all over the country, our Hispanic population, are losing their jobs. They’re citizens of America, they’re losing their jobs.”

In a call earlier Wednesday touting the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ decision not to endorse in the presidential race and an internal electronic poll showing most members supported the GOP ticket, Vance said organized labor had long sought to protect U.S. workers from immigrants.

“The American labor movement has always recognized that illegal labor undercuts the wages of American workers,” Vance said on the call. “Those are folks competing against American citizens and legal residents for important jobs and undercutting their wages in the process.”

Vance said, without citing a source, that all net job growth under Harris and President Joe Biden had gone to foreign workers, including “25 million” immigrants in the country illegally.

Official estimates place the number of immigrants residing in the country without authorization at about 11 million, less than half of Vance’s claim.

A GOP campaign spokesperson did not substantively respond to a question about the source for Vance’s statement that foreign-born workers accounted for all job growth during the Biden administration.

Trump to return to Butler

Trump said Wednesday he would return to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of the first assassination attempt on him. The former president suffered an injury to his ear during a shooting that killed one rallygoer and injured two others.

“We’re going to go back and finish our speech,” he said in North Carolina.

A bipartisan U.S. Senate interim report published Wednesday made initial conclusions that the U.S. Secret Service failed to adequately plan to secure the outdoor rally and made missteps in communication that led to the shooter being able to fire at the former president.

The report was commissioned by U.S. Sens. Gary Peters, a Democrat of Michigan; Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky; Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut; and Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson. They are the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the panel’s investigations subcommittee.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (Credit: U.S. House)

WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee Wednesday said it will continue reviewing allegations that Florida Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick violated campaign finance laws, and the panel released more details about the inquiry.

The original recommendation for committee review came from the board of the Office of Congressional Ethics, which is an independent entity that reviews allegations of potential violations against members of the House and makes referrals to the House Ethics Committee.

The Ethics Committee said in a press release about the matter that “the mere fact of a continued investigation into these allegations does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred.”

A Sept. 25, 2023, report by the board released Wednesday by the committee said “there is substantial reason to believe that Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick made payments to a state political action committee which may have been in connection with her campaign for federal office and did not report these payments as contributions to her campaign.”

In a statement to States Newsroom, her office said the report is a standard procedure.

“As we’ve said before, the fact that the Committee is reviewing these allegations does not indicate there has been any finding that a violation has occurred,” her office said in the statement. “Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick continues to take this matter very seriously and intends to continue to cooperate with the House Ethics Committee and its investigative subcommittee to address the allegations that have been raised.”

The Ethics Committee in December said in a statement that it would open an investigation into allegations that she “may have violated campaign finance laws and regulations in connection with her 2022 special election and/or 2022 reelection campaigns; failed to properly disclose required information on statements required to be filed with the House; and/or accepted voluntary services for official work from an individual not employed in her congressional office.”

The Sun Sentinel in 2022 reported that Cherfilus-McCormick began self-funding her congressional campaign at the same time the health care company where she was CEO received an $8 million contract in order to distribute coronavirus vaccines to vulnerable communities.

The Ethics Committee in June announced it had expanded its investigation into whether Cherfilus-McCormick violated campaign finance laws.

There are several allegations against Cherfilus-McCormick contained in the referral by the Board of the Office of Congressional Ethics, which was required to be released no later than one year after it was sent to the committee.

It’s alleged that Cherfilus-McCormick made payments to a state political action committee that may have been in connection with her campaign for federal office, which “may have violated House Rules, standards of conduct, and federal law,” according to the report.

Not reporting those payments as contributions to her campaign “may further violate House Rules, standards of conduct, and federal law,” according to the report.

It’s alleged that her congressional office could have received services related to franked communications and other congressional work from an individual who was not paid through official funds.

Franked communications allow members of Congress to send out mail without paying for postage because it’s an official communication with a member of Congress and their constituents.

“If Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick compensated this individual with private funds or did not compensate him for his services, she may have violated House Rules, standards of conduct, and federal law,” according to the report.

It’s alleged that the Cherfilus-McCormick campaign committee may have accepted and failed to report contributions exceeding contribution limits by the Federal Election Commission, which could violate House rules and federal law.

“Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign committee may have failed to report transactions between the campaign committee’s bank account and Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick’s businesses’ bank accounts,” according to the report.

If her campaign committee didn’t report those transactions in FEC filings, she “may have violated House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law,” according to the report.

Cherfilus-McCormick ran and won in a special general election in 2022 after former Rep. Alcee Hastings died. She is seeking reelection.

Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., on Wednesday posted to X, and later deleted, a comment that invoked racist stereotypes about Haitians. In this photo, Higgins speaks during a press conference on the National Defense Authorization Act with members of the House Freedom Caucus on July 14, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Steven Horsford of Nevada took to the U.S. House floor Wednesday night to condemn an “overtly racist” tweet against Haitians and Haitian Americans by Louisiana Republican U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins.

Hours before members were scheduled to depart for a recess through the November elections, Higgins posted to X a comment that invoked racist stereotypes about Haitians and said Haitians in the United States should leave the country before Jan. 20, the date the next president will be inaugurated.

Higgins’ post included a link to an Associated Press story about a nonprofit representing Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, that has brought charges against former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, whose campaign for president and vice president has centered on criticism of immigration.

“These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters… but damned if they don’t feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP,” Higgins wrote. “All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20^th.”

Haitians are generally not among the immigrants living in the country illegally, as they have been granted Temporary Protected Status due to conditions in their home country. Trump and Vance have amplified disproven rumors about the Haitian community in Springfield, leading to hoax bomb threats against schools, government buildings and local leaders.

Horsford, a Democrat, and other members — reportedly including Florida Republican Byron Donalds – approached Higgins on the House floor after the tweet. Higgins deleted the post shortly after.

Democrats condemn post

After a brief period of confusion about the proper process to introduce a censure resolution, Horsford — surrounded by members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democrats — spoke on the House floor to condemn the tweet and called for a vote to censure Higgins when the House returns from recess.

“Rep. Higgins used his official account on X to publicly slander, insult and demean all Haitians and Haitian Americans in an overtly racist post,” Horsford said.

Rep. Troy Carter, the lone Democrat and only Black member of Louisiana’s congressional delegation, blasted Higgins’ post in a written statement.

“I am appalled by the racist and reprehensible remarks made by Rep. Clay Higgins about the people of Haiti,” he wrote. “We all owe each other better than this, but as elected officials we should hold ourselves to an even higher standard. We have a solemn responsibility to represent and respect all races of people. Hate-filled rhetoric like this is not just offensive — it is dangerous. It incites division, perpetuates harmful stereotypes, and undermines the core values of our democracy.”

Johnson, Scalise defend Higgins

Two of Higgins’ fellow Louisiana Republicans in House leadership defended him Wednesday.

Talking to reporters, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he’d spoken to Higgins, who told the speaker he regretted the language of the tweet.

Higgins “was approached on the floor by colleagues who said that was offensive,” Johnson. “He said he went to the back and he prayed about it, and he regretted it, and he pulled the post down. That’s what you want the gentleman to do. I’m sure he probably regrets the language he used. But, you know, we move forward. We believe in redemption around here.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana briefly defended Higgins on the floor before the chamber took a short recess.

Scalise noted the post had been taken down and suggested censure was inappropriate because he could find examples of Democratic members making divisive comments.

“If we want to go through every comment, tweet from the other side, we’ll be happy to do it and you’ll be appalled,” Scalise said.

U.S. Capitol. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve a stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government running through Dec. 20, though the divided Congress has a lot of negotiating to do if members want to pass the dozen full-year appropriations bills before their new deadline.

The short-term funding bill, sometimes referred to as a continuing resolution, will avoid a partial government shutdown when the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.

The CR is supposed to give lawmakers more time to hash out agreement on the appropriations bills. But Congress regularly uses it as a safety net to push off or entirely avoid making decisions about which departments should get more funding and whether to change policy about how federal tax dollars are spent.

House debate on the CR was broadly bipartisan with Democrats and Republicans voicing support ahead of the 341-82 vote. Every member of the Missouri delegation supported the resolution except U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison, a Springfield Republican.

The Senate is scheduled to vote later Wednesday evening to send the bill to President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it.

‘Plenty of problems’ ahead

The stopgap bill was expected to be the last major legislation considered by Congress before Election Day. A lame-duck session is scheduled to begin Nov. 12.

“In a matter of days, funding for fiscal year 2024 will run out and it’s Congress’ responsibility to ensure that the government remains open and serving the American people,” House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said during floor debate. “We are here to avert harmful disruptions to our national security and vital programs our constituents rely on.”

Cole said he hopes Congress can approve the dozen full-year bills later this year.

“The next president and the next Congress should not be forced to do the work of this administration and this Congress,” Cole said. “They’re going to have plenty of problems … let’s not throw a potential government shutdown in front of them as well.”

Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member on the spending panel, said lawmakers must begin conference talks in the days ahead to reach a bipartisan agreement on the full-year spending bills.

“No matter who wins in November, we owe it to the next Congress and the next president to not saddle them with yesterday’s problems,” DeLauro said.

Noncitizen voting bill dropped

Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy spoke against the stopgap spending bill and expressed frustration that lawmakers were, once again, relying on a continuing resolution instead of having met the Oct. 1 deadline to pass the full-year spending bills.

“We should not be kicking the can down the road to Dec. 20, a mere five days before Christmas, which is what this town always does,” he said.

Roy also criticized House GOP leaders for not sticking with a six-month stopgap spending bill that carried with it a bill to require proof of citizenship to register to vote.

House leaders brought that bill to the floor last week, but didn’t garner the votes needed to send it to the Senate. Noncitizen voting in federal elections is already illegal.

Secret Service spending

The 49-page continuing resolution extends the funding levels and policies that Congress approved earlier this year as part of its last appropriations process.

Lawmakers included a provision that will let the Secret Service spend money at a faster rate than what would have otherwise been allowed “for protective operations, including for activities relating to National Special Security Events and the 2024 Presidential Campaign,” according to a summary of the bill.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency got a similar provision so it can spend more money that would have otherwise been permitted from its disaster relief fund. The Forest Service’s Wildland Fire Management account was also granted a faster spend rate.

The stopgap spending bill extended authorization for the National Flood Insurance Program as well as several other federal programs that were on track to expire at the end of September.

November election

Whether Congress reaches agreement with the Biden administration on the dozen full-year government funding bills later this year will likely depend on the outcome of the November elections.

Voters choosing divided government for another two years will likely incentivize leaders to work out bipartisan, bicameral agreements during the five weeks Congress is in session during November and December.

Republicans or Democrats securing unified control of the House, Senate and White House could result in another stopgap spending bill pushing off decisions until after the next Congress and next president take their oaths of office in January.

A new president, a new budget ask

Regardless of when Congress completes work on the dozen full-year funding bills, the next president will likely submit their first budget request to lawmakers sometime next spring, starting the annual process all over again.

The president is supposed to release the budget request in early February, but that’s often delayed during the first year of a new administration.

The House and Senate Appropriations committees will then begin holding hearings with Cabinet secretaries and agency heads to ask about their individual requests and begin assessing whether lawmakers will boost their spending.

The Appropriations Committees in each chamber will likely release their separate slates of full-year appropriations bills next summer, possibly followed by floor debate.

This year the House Appropriations Committee reported all dozen of its bills to the floor, following party-line votes when Democrats objected to both spending levels and policy language.

House Republicans approved five of those bills on the floor.

Senate appropriators took broadly bipartisan votes to approve 11 of their bills in committee, save the Homeland Security measure. None of the bills has gone to the floor for amendment debate and a final vote.

That’s not entirely uncommon in the Senate, where floor time is often dedicated to approving judicial nominees and it can take weeks to approve one spending bill.

The House, by contrast, can approve bills in a matter of hours or days if leadership has secured the votes.

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.

Law enforcement personnel continue to investigate the area around Trump International Golf Club after an apparent assassination attempt Sept. 16 on former President Donald Trump in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that the man who allegedly stalked former President Donald Trump for a month before aiming his rifle through a fence at Trump’s private golf course on Sept. 15 was indicted on the charge of an attempted assassination of a political candidate.

The Justice Department said a federal grand jury in Miami late Tuesday returned an indictment charging Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of attempting to kill the GOP presidential nominee while at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

“Violence targeting public officials endangers everything our country stands for, and the Department of Justice will use every available tool to hold Ryan Routh accountable for the attempted assassination of former President Trump charged in the indictment,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

“The Justice Department will not tolerate violence that strikes at the heart of our democracy, and we will find and hold accountable those who perpetrate it. This must stop,” Garland said.

The maximum sentence for the attempted assassination charge is a life sentence. Routh remains in pretrial detention.

The case is being handled by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who previously dismissed criminal charges against Trump related to illegally allegedly keeping classified documents after he left the presidency. Cannon was appointed by Trump to the federal bench.

Prosecutors on Monday detailed that Routh stalked Trump for a month, noting events Trump would be at, and wrote a note where he offered $150,000 to anyone who could “finish the job,” according to court filings.

This is now officially the second assassination attempt against Trump, after the first one in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump sustained an injury to his ear. He was not injured at his Florida golf club.

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe confirmed that Routh did not fire his weapon and that the gunshots heard were from a Secret Service agent who saw part of Routh’s gun poking out from the chain link fence and immediately fired.

Routh has already been charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and with obliterating the serial number on a firearm, according to court records. With those charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

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.”

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford speaks with reporters outside the U.S. Capitol about border policy negotiations on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats attempted to pass a resolution Tuesday addressing abortion access in emergency medical situations, but Republicans blocked it from moving forward.

The floor action followed months of unsuccessful attempts by congressional Democrats to approve legislation on various reproductive rights, including access to birth control and in vitro fertilization.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Tuesday she introduced the resolution to clarify what Congress’ objective was several decades ago when lawmakers approved the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA.

“We want to make it clear that Congress’s intent is that women can get life-saving care when they go to an emergency room anywhere in this country,” Murray said.

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford blocked Murray’s unanimous consent request to approve the resolution, saying that doctors in emergency departments are able to act in cases of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and life-threatening situations.

“This is a false claim that somehow what happened in the Dobbs decision and what’s happening in states is limiting that,” Lankford said. “It’s actually the political rhetoric that’s making people afraid.”

Lankford objected to another of Murray’s unanimous consent requests in March, blocking approval of legislation that would have expanded access to in vitro fertilization for military members and veterans.

No recorded vote

Unanimous consent is the fastest way to approve legislative items in the Senate. Under the process, any one senator can ask to approve a bill or resolution and any one senator can object. There is no recorded vote that puts all senators on the record.

Murray’s two-page resolution, which had the backing of 40 cosponsors, would have expressed “the sense of the Senate that every person has the basic right to emergency health care, including abortion care.”

The resolution also expressed that “State laws that purport to ban and restrict abortion in emergency circumstances force medical providers to decide between withholding necessary, stabilizing medical care from a patient experiencing a medical emergency or facing criminal prosecution, and put the lives, health, and futures of patients at risk.”

This resolution wouldn’t have actually changed the text of EMTALA.

The 1986 law states that hospital emergency departments must treat or transfer patients who have emergency medical conditions, regardless of their health insurance status or ability to pay.

It defines an emergency medical condition as something that could result in the health of the patient being in “serious jeopardy,” such as the patient “experiencing serious impairment to bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part.”

Dobbs decision

The federal law has been the center of political and legal debate since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion two years ago in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling.

The Biden administration issued a public letter shortly afterward saying EMTALA protected doctors and other qualified health care providers who ended a pregnancy to stabilize the patient if their life or health was at risk.

Republican attorneys general in several states challenged that view of the law and the U.S. Department of Justice later sued Idaho over its abortion law.

That case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, but the justices ultimately decided to send it back to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The high court said it should have waited to hear the case until after the lower court ruled.

At the center of the disagreement between Republican state attorneys general and the Biden administration is that the federal law applies when a pregnant patient’s life or health is at risk; many of the conservative state laws only allow abortions after a certain gestational age when a woman’s life is at risk.

Exactly when a woman’s life becomes at risk due to pregnancy complications has led to dozens of stories from women throughout the country, who say they had to wait for treatment until their health deteriorated further.

Analysis from the Associated Press released in August found that more than 100 women experiencing medical distress during pregnancy were turned away from hospitals or negligently treated during the last two years.

ProPublica recently obtained reports “that confirm that at least two women have already died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state.”

‘This cruelty is unforgivable and unacceptable’

The Senate resolution that Republicans rejected Tuesday is nearly identical to one House Democrats introduced earlier this month.

Murray said ahead of her UC request that women and their families will not forget about being denied medical care due to Republican state restrictions on abortion access.

“No woman is ever going to forget when she was sent off to miscarry alone after her doctor said, ‘Look, I know your life is in danger, but I’m not sure I’m allowed to save you right now,’” Murray said. “No husband is going to forget calling 911 in a panic after finding his wife bloody and unconscious. No child is going to forget, for a single day of their life, the mother that was taken from them by Republican abortion bans.

“This cruelty is unforgivable and unacceptable. Democrats will not let it become settled status quo.”

Vice President Kamala Harris departs Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport aboard Air Force 2, after speaking July 23 at a campaign rally inside West Allis Central High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Tuesday during a radio interview that she supports changing a Senate procedure in order to codify the right to an abortion.

Vice President Harris said she is in favor of ending the 60-vote threshold in the Senate, known as the filibuster, to advance abortion rights legislation. But that task would hinge on Democrats agreeing to do so and holding on to majority control in the Senate, a difficult feat this November as Republicans appear potentially poised to take back the upper chamber. 

“I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do,” she said during an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio.

Harris in 2022 said she would cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of abortion rights in her role as vice president. She has often pledged to sign into law a codification of Roe v. Wade, the constitutional right to an abortion struck down by the conservative U.S. Supreme Court in 2022.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in August that Democrats would talk about rules changes to codify abortion rights, NBC reported.

Trump in Pennsylvania

At a Monday rally in Pennsylvania, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump referred to himself as a “protector” of women. Trump said women no longer needed to think about abortion and it is “now where it always had to be, with the states.”

“All they want to do is talk about abortion,” the former president said at the rally, referring to Democrats. “It really no longer pertains because we’ve done something on abortion that no one thought was possible.”

Trump has called for Senate Republicans to dismantle the filibuster, but GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other Republican leaders like No. 2 Sen. John Thune of South Dakota have vowed to keep the procedure in place.

Current Senate projections indicate Republicans are likely to gain control of the Senate. Republicans are also expected to pick up a seat in West Virginia, and only need to hold on to seats in Florida, Texas and Nebraska.

Democrats will need to secure wins in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Additionally, Senate Democrats would need to break a possible 50-50 tie through a Democratic presidency — if they want to remain the majority party and change the filibuster.

If Harris wins, and Democrats hold 50 seats in the Senate, then Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the vice presidential nominee, would be the tie-breaking vote.

During a Tuesday Senate press conference on abortion, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington said she was supportive of Harris’ stance and that it would be a carve-out of the filibuster, rather than an elimination of it.

“What we are talking about is a simple procedure to allow, whenever rights are taken away from someone, that the U.S. Senate can, without being blocked by a filibuster, be able to restore those rights,” she said.

Harris, Trump and the economy

The Harris campaign hosted a Tuesday press call with business owner and  “Shark Tank” investor Mark Cuban, to advocate for Harris’ economic policies.

Polls have found that voters view Trump as better for the economy. Pew Research found that Trump’s key advantage is the economy, with 55% of voters viewing the former president as making good economic decisions, and 45% of voters viewing Harris as making good decisions about the economy.

“In a nutshell, the vice president and her team thinks through her policies,” Cuban said. “She doesn’t just off the top of her head say what she thinks the crowd wants to hear, like the Republican nominee.”

Battleground states still the favorite spot

The candidates will continue to campaign and travel, especially around battleground states this week.

Trump is scheduled Tuesday to visit Savannah, Georgia, where he will give an afternoon campaign speech about lowering taxes for business owners.

Walz is scheduled to head back to his home state of Minnesota Tuesday for a campaign reception there.

Harris is heading to Pennsylvania Wednesday for a campaign rally and then she’ll travel to Arizona on Friday and Nevada on Sunday.

Trump is stopping in Mint Hill, North Carolina, on Wednesday to give remarks about the importance of making goods in the U.S. His running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, will travel to Traverse City, Michigan, on Wednesday to rally supporters.

Vance on Thursday will give a campaign speech on the economy in Macon, Georgia, and then host a voter mobilization drive in Flowery Branch, Georgia.

On Friday, Trump is scheduled to rally supporters in Walker, Michigan and in the evening hold a town hall in Warren, Michigan.

 Jennifer Shutt contributed to this report.

Voters in Grand Rapids, Mich., cast their ballots during the state’s August primary. LEFT: Michigan was one of the swing states that has greatly expanded voter access since 2020. (Matt Vasilogambros/Stateline)

Editor’s note: This five-day series explores the priorities of voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as they consider the upcoming presidential election. With the outcome expected to be close, these “swing states” may decide the future of the country.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Some voters are already casting early ballots in the first presidential election since the global pandemic ended and former President Donald Trump refused to accept his defeat.

This year’s presidential election won’t be decided by a margin of millions of votes, but likely by thousands in the seven tightly contested states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

How legislatures, courts and election boards have reshaped ballot access in those states in the past four years could make a difference. Some of those states, especially Michigan, cemented the temporary pandemic-era measures that allowed for more mail-in and early voting. But other battleground states have passed laws that may keep some registered voters from casting ballots.

Trump and his allies have continued to spread lies about the 2020 results, claiming without evidence that widespread voter fraud stole the election from him. That has spurred many Republican lawmakers in states such as Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina to reel back access to early and mail-in voting and add new identification requirements to vote. And in Pennsylvania, statewide appellate courts are toggling between rulings.

“The last four years have been a long, strange trip,” said Hannah Fried, co-founder and executive director of All Voting is Local, a multistate voting rights organization.

“Rollbacks were almost to an instance tied to the ‘big lie,’” she added, referring to Trump’s election conspiracy theories. “And there have been many, many positive reforms for voters in the last few years that have gone beyond what we saw in the COVID era.”

The volume of election-related legislation and court cases that emerged over the past four years has been staggering.

Nationally, the Voting Rights Lab, a nonpartisan group that researches election law changes, tracked 6,450 bills across the country that were introduced since 2021 that sought to alter the voting process. Hundreds of those bills were enacted.

Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, cautioned that incremental tweaks to election law — especially last-minute changes made by the courts — not only confuse voters, but also put a strain on local election officials who must comply with changes to statute as they prepare for another highly scrutinized voting process.

“Any voter that is affected unnecessarily is too many in my book,” he said.

New restrictions

In many ways, the 2020 presidential election is still being litigated four years later.

Swing states have been the focus of legal challenges and new laws spun from a false narrative that questioned election integrity. The 2021 state legislative sessions, many begun in the days following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, brought myriad legislative changes that have made it more difficult to vote and altered how ballots are counted and rejected.

The highest profile measure over the past four years came out of Georgia.

Under a 2021 law, Georgia residents now have less time to ask for mail-in ballots and must put their driver’s license or state ID information on those requests. The number of drop boxes has been limited. And neither election officials nor nonprofits may send unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to voters.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said when signing the measure that it would ensure free and fair elections in the state, but voting rights groups lambasted the law as voter suppression.

That law also gave Georgia’s State Election Board more authority to interfere in the makeup of local election boards. The state board[AS1]  has made recent headlines for paving the way for counties to potentially refuse to certify the upcoming election. This comes on top of a wave of voter registration challenges from conservative activists.

In North Carolina, the Republican-led legislature last year overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto to enact measures that shortened the time to turn in mail-in ballots; required local election officials to reject ballots if voters who register to vote on Election Day do not later verify their home address; and required identification to vote by mail.

This will also be the first general election that North Carolinians will have to comply with a 2018 voter ID measure that was caught up in the court system until the state Supreme Court reinstated the law last year.

And in Arizona, the Republican-led legislature pushed through a measure[AS2]  that shortened the time voters have to correct missing or mismatched signatures on their absentee ballot envelopes. Then-Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, signed the measure.

“Look, sometimes the complexity is the point,” said Fried, of All Voting is Local. “If you are passing a law that makes it this complicated for somebody to vote or to register to vote, what’s your endgame here? What are you trying to do?”

Laws avoided major overhauls

But the restrictions could have gone much further.

That’s partly because Democratic governors, such as Arizona’s Katie Hobbs, who took office in 2023, have vetoed many of the Republican-backed bills. But it’s also because of how popular early voting methods have become.

Arizonans, for example, have been able to vote by mail for more than three decades. More than 75% of Arizonan voters requested mail-in ballots in 2022, and 90% of voters in 2020 cast their ballots by mail.

This year, a bill that would have scrapped no-excuse absentee voting passed the state House but failed to clear a Republican-controlled Senate committee.

Bridget Augustine, a high school English teacher in Glendale, Arizona, and a registered independent, has been a consistent early voter since 2020. She said the first time she voted in Arizona was by absentee ballot while she was a college student in New Jersey, and she has no concerns “whatsoever” about the safety of early voting in Arizona.

“I just feel like so much of this rhetoric was drummed up as a way to make it easier to lie about the election and undermine people’s confidence,” she said.

Vanessa Jiminez, the security manager for a Phoenix high school district, a registered independent and an early voter, said she is confident in the safety of her ballot.

“I track my ballot every step of the way,” she said.

Ben Ginsberg, a longtime Republican election lawyer and Volker Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the think tank Hoover Institution, said that while these laws may add new hurdles, he doesn’t expect them to change vote totals.

“The bottom line is I don’t think that the final result in any election is going to be impacted by a law that’s been passed,” he said on a recent call with reporters organized by the Knight Foundation, a Miami-based nonprofit that provides grants to support democracy and journalism.

Major expansions

No state has seen a bigger expansion to ballot access over the past four years than Michigan.

Republicans tried to curtail access to absentee voting, introducing 39 bills in 2021, when the party still was in charge of both legislative chambers.

Two GOP bills passed, but Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed them.

The next year, Michigan voters approved ballot measures that added nine days of early voting. The measures also allowed voters to request mail-in ballots online; created a permanent vote-by-mail list; provided prepaid postage on absentee ballot applications and ballots; increased ballot drop boxes; and allowed voters to correct missing or mismatched signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes.

“When you take it to the people and actually ask them about it, it turns out most people want more voting access,” said Melinda Billingsley, communications manager for Voters Not Politicians, a Lansing, Michigan-based voting rights advocacy group.

“The ballot access expansions happened in spite of an anti-democratic, Republican-led push to restrict ballot access,” she said.

In 2021, then-Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, signed into law a measure that transitioned the state into a universal vote-by-mail system. Every registered voter would be sent a ballot in the mail before an election, unless they opt out. The bill made permanent a temporary expansion of mail-in voting that the state put in place during the pandemic.

Nevada voters have embraced the system, data shows.

In February’s presidential preference primary, 78% of ballots cast were ballots by mail or in a ballot drop box, according to the Nevada secretary of state’s office. In June’s nonpresidential primary, 65% of ballots were mail-in ballots. And in the 2022 general election, 51% of ballots cast were mail ballots.

Last-minute court decisions

Drop boxes weren’t controversial in Wisconsin until Trump became fixated on them as an avenue for alleged voter fraud, said Jeff Mandell, general counsel and co-founder of Law Forward, a Madison-based nonprofit legal organization.

For half of a century, Wisconsinites could return their absentee ballots in the same drop boxes that counties and municipalities used for water bills and property taxes, he said. But when the pandemic hit and local election officials expected higher volumes of absentee ballots, they installed larger boxes.

After Trump lost the state by fewer than 21,000 votes in 2020, drop boxes became a flashpoint. Republican leaders claimed drop boxes were not secure, and that nefarious people could tamper with the ballots. In 2022, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, then led by a conservative majority, banned drop boxes.

But that ruling would only last two years. In July, the new liberal majority in the state’s high court reversed the ruling and said localities could determine whether to use drop boxes. It was a victory for voters, Mandell said.

With U.S. Postal Service delays stemming from the agency’s restructuring, drop boxes provide a faster method of returning a ballot without having to worry about it showing up late, he said. Ballots must get in by 8 p.m. on Election Day. The boxes are especially convenient for rural voters, who may have a clerk’s office or post office with shorter hours, he added.

“Every way that you make it easy for people to vote safely and securely is good,” Mandell said.

After the high court’s ruling, local officials had to make a swift decision about whether to reinstall drop boxes.

Milwaukee city employees were quickly dispatched throughout the city to remove the leather bags that covered the drop boxes for two years, cleaned them all and repaired several, said Paulina Gutierrez, executive director of the City of Milwaukee Election Commission.

“There’s an all-hands-on-deck mentality here at the city,” she said, adding that there are cameras pointed at each drop box.

Although it used a drop box in 2020, Marinette, a community on the western shore of Green Bay, opted not to use them for the August primary and asked voters to hand the ballots to clerk staff. Lana Bero, the city clerk, said the city may revisit that decision before November.

New Berlin Clerk Rubina Medina said her community, a city of about 40,000 on the outskirts of Milwaukee, had some security concerns about potentially tampering or destruction of ballots within drop boxes, and therefore decided not to use the boxes this year.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell, who serves the state capital of Madison and its surrounding area, has been encouraging local clerks in his county to have a camera on their drop boxes and save the videos in case residents have fraud concerns.

A risk of confusing voters

Many local election officials in Wisconsin say they worry that court decisions, made mere months before the November election, could create confusion for voters and more work for clerks.

“These decisions are last-second, over and over again,” McDonell said. “You’re killing us when you do that.”

Arizonans and Pennsylvanians now know that late-in-the-game scramble too.

In August, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated part of a 2022 Arizona law that requires documented proof of citizenship to register on state forms, potentially impacting tens of thousands of voters, disproportionately affecting young and Native voters.

Whether Pennsylvania election officials should count mail ballots returned with errors has been a subject of litigation in every election since 2020. State courts continue to grapple with the question, and neither voting rights groups nor national Republicans show signs of giving up.

Former Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar, who is now president of Athena Strategies and working on voting rights and election security issues across the country, said voters simply need to ignore the noise of litigation and closely follow the instructions with their mail ballots.

“Litigation is confusing,” Boockvar said. “The legislature won’t fix it by legislation. Voter education is the key thing here, and the instructions on the envelopes need to be as clear and simple as possible.”

To avoid confusion, voters can make a plan for how and when they will vote by going to vote.gov, a federally run site where voters can check to make sure they are properly registered and to answer questions in more than a dozen languages about methods for casting a ballot.

Arizona Mirror’s Caitlin Sievers and Jim Small, Nevada Current’s April Corbin Girnus and Pennsylvania Capital-Star’s Peter Hall contributed reporting.

The U.S. Capitol on Monday. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Congress is on track to approve legislation this week that will give lawmakers until mid-December to broker agreement on the annual government funding bills that were supposed to become law before the end of this month.

The stopgap spending bill, also known as a continuing resolution, has the broad bipartisan support it needs to move through House and Senate votes this week, though senators will need to reach agreement to vote on the legislation before the Oct. 1 deadline when federal spending runs out.

The 49-page bill, released Sunday after weeks of stalemate as House Republicans went at it alone, is no guarantee that Congress will actually wrap up its work on the full-year bills during the next 12 weeks left before this session of Congress is over, since lawmakers can pass as many stopgap spending bills as they want.

Continuing resolutions essentially extend current spending levels and policy for a set amount of time. They are intended to give the House and Senate additional time to conference final versions of the dozen full-year spending bills.

Nov. 5 election and the lame duck

The election results will likely determine whether the Republican House and Democratic Senate move to reach agreement on the full-year bills during the lame-duck session that will begin after Election Day, or kick the can down the road into next year, when the balance of power could be substantially different.

Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, appears inclined toward wrapping up work on the full-year appropriations bills in December, saying during a press conference Tuesday that lawmakers would deal with funding decisions during the lame-duck session.

Johnson signaled that he’s going to try to move all the final, conferenced spending bills across the floor one by one, as opposed to bundling all 12 together in an omnibus or packaging several of the bills together in what’s called a mini-bus. Such large bills regularly draw opposition from conservative Republicans.

“We have broken the Christmas omni and I have no intention of going back to that terrible tradition,” Johnson said. “We don’t want any buses, we’re not going to do any buses.”

The stopgap spending bill Congress is expected to approve this week would set the next deadline for government funding on Dec. 20, four days before Christmas.

Senate and House both struggle

Johnson also laid the blame for Congress not completing work on the full-year government funding bills at the feet of Senate Democrats, arguing that the House did all of its work.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved 11 of the dozen appropriations bills with broadly bipartisan votes, but was unable to garner consensus on the Homeland Security spending bill.

None of those bills have come up on the Senate floor for votes, in part, because it can take weeks in that chamber to move spending bills through the amendment process.

The House Appropriations Committee reported its dozen bills out along party-line votes, without the Democratic support that would be needed for the bills to actually become law during divided government.

House Republican leaders passed five of the bills across the floor, including Defense, Homeland Security, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-VA and State-Foreign Operations.

House GOP leaders attempted to pass the Legislative Branch bill, which provides funding for Congress and its associated agencies, but were unsuccessful. House rules allow that chamber to debate and hold votes on bills in a matter of hours, a much faster pace than the days or weeks it often takes the Senate.

Neither Senate leaders nor House leadership have made any effort to conference the full-year spending bills, a process that is needed to reach the bipartisan, bicameral versions that must pass if Congress wants to avoid another stopgap spending bill in December.

The process typically takes at least six weeks, and with both chambers set to leave town at the end of this week for a six-week break, there likely won’t be enough time to conference all the bills before the mid-December deadline that will be set by the continuing resolution.

‘Stay away from poison pills’

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, criticized Johnson for trying to pass a six-month stopgap spending bill through the House earlier this month, saying it was a waste of time.

That legislation, which didn’t garner the support to pass, included with it a GOP bill that would have required proof of citizenship to register to vote.

“If both sides keep working together, if we stay away from poison pills and partisan spectacle, then the American people can rest assured there won’t be a government shutdown,” Schumer said. “But we still have more work to do.”

The Biden administration signaled its support for the stopgap spending bill Tuesday, releasing a Statement of Administration Policy calling “for swift passage of this bill in both chambers of the Congress to avoid a costly, unnecessary Government shutdown and to ensure there is adequate time to pass full-year FY 2025 appropriations bills later this year.”

Flowers, plush toys and wooden crosses are placed at a memorial dedicated to the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on June 3, 2022. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed on May 24, 2022, after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire inside the school. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — The devastating effects of school shootings continue well after shootings occur, according to survivors, experts and educators who spoke at a roundtable U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee Democrats held Monday.

Democrats scheduled the discussion after the recent school shooting in Georgia, where two students and two teachers were killed. Witnesses told the panel the psychological trauma of a school shooting lingers long beyond the events themselves.

“In the months and years after a mass shooting, young people injured or wounded in the attack experience continuing fear, pain, trauma and disorientation, and struggle to hang on to what is left of their lives,” the top Democrat on the committee, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, said.

The roundtable came just after the one-year anniversary of the White House establishing its Office of Gun Violence Prevention. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are scheduled to speak about gun violence at the White House Thursday.

There have been 404 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a group that studies gun violence in the U.S.

Several educators at the roundtable advocated for Congress to provide more funding for schools to address the long-lasting effects of a school shooting.

“There’s not a time period when the trauma is going to disappear,” Frank DeAngelis, who was the principal of Columbine High School during the 1999 mass shooting in Colorado, said.

DeAngelis is also a founding member of the National Association of Secondary School Principals Principal Recovery Network, which is a network to help educators in the aftermath of a school shooting.

Greg Johnson, a principal at West Liberty-Salem High School in West Liberty, Ohio, said that even though no student died at his school’s shooting in 2017, students and faculty had lasting trauma.

“Hundreds of students heard the piercing shotgun blasts, and those same hundreds barricaded the doors of their classrooms before they evacuated and in random ditches and across fields in search of safety,” he said. “Many were traumatized, though almost all tried their very best to hide it by putting on a mask of strength and normalcy. Our students suffered in silence.”

Sarah Burd-Sharps, the senior director of research at Everytown for Gun Safety, added that the economic cost of gun violence is estimated at more than $550 billion a year.

Mental health funding

Patricia Greer, principal at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky, said that while the bipartisan gun safety bill that Congress passed in 2022 provided substantial funding for mental health, Congress should consider increasing such funding to help students and staff recover from trauma.

“Schools are uniquely positioned to provide mental health support, but they need our help to meet the growing demand,” Greer said.

She pushed for Congress to consider increasing funding for Title II and Title IV to support professional development for educators and expand school-based mental health services. Those titles refer to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provides federal grants to schools.

“Recovery requires sustained support and resources,” she said. “By increasing funding for … Title II to $2.4 billion, and Title IV to $1.48 billion, we can provide schools with the resources they need to prevent tragedies and support students through trauma.”

Melissa Alexander, whose son survived the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, said “a mass shooting is not something you get over.”

She said her then 9-year-old son called her during the shooting, begging for her to save him.

“He prepared to die,” she said.

Alexander, who is now a firearm safety advocate, said that even though she is in a deep-red state, nearly 75% of residents support some type of red flag laws. Such laws allow courts to order the temporary removal of a firearm from people at risk of harming themselves or others.

Despite the widespread support, state lawmakers have not taken action, she said.

“It’s not translating up to the (state) Legislature,” she said.

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.

Recent projections tilt in favor of Republicans taking the U.S. Senate, an already closely divided chamber that is sure to be near evenly split again next Congress (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — The country’s next president will need a friendly Congress to make their policy dreams a reality, but control of the two chambers remains deeply uncertain with just weeks until Election Day — and whether the outcome will be a party trifecta in the nation’s capital.

Recent projections tilt in favor of Republicans taking the U.S. Senate, an already closely divided chamber that is sure to be near evenly split again next Congress.

And though Vice President Kamala Harris injected a jolt of energy into the Democratic Party, prognosticators still say the prizewinner of the House is anybody’s guess.

“The House is highly close and competitive, and really could go either way.  And I say the same thing about the presidential race,” Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told States Newsroom on Thursday.

A ‘district-by-district slug fest’ 

Control of the 435-seat House remains a toss-up, with competitive races in both the seven swing states and in states that will almost certainly have no bearing on who wins the top of the ticket.

Sabato’s, an election prognosticator, currently ranks nine Republican seats of the roughly 30 competitive races as “toss-up” seats for the party — meaning the GOP incumbents are locked in competitive races.

The GOP has held a slim majority this Congress, and Democrats only need to net four seats to gain control.

“It really is right on the razor’s edge,” Kondik said. “It’s pretty crazy that, you know, we’ve had two straight elections with just 222-seat majorities. And it’s pretty rare historically for there to be, you know, majorities that small twice in a row — unprecedented.

“Usually you’d have one side or the other breaking out to a bigger advantage, and I think both sides are viewing this, really, as a district-by-district slug fest.”

Sabato’s adjusted its ratings on five races Thursday, including moving Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska to the “toss-up” category from a safer “leans Democratic.” Kondik also nudged the race for Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York to “leans Republican” from “toss up.”

“The big ones are probably Peltola, and then Mike Lawler, who holds one of the bluest seats held by a Republican, but I moved him to ‘leans R.’ It seems pretty clear to me that he’s in a decent position,” Kondik said.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the party’s fundraising arm for House races, announced in June nearly $1.2 million in ad buys in Alaska. The organization launched a new ad in the state this month that accuses Peltola of not supporting veterans.

It’s always about Pennsylvania

In addition to Peltola, Kondik ranks nine other Democratic incumbents — of the nearly 40 competitive races — as toss-ups.

Among the toss-ups is the seat currently held by Rep. Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania, a key swing state in the presidential race. Cartwright’s Republican challenger, Rob Bresnahan, runs an electrical contracting company in the northeastern Pennsylvania district that he took over from his grandfather.

Democrats are investing in the seat: Cartwright is running a new ad featuring union workers praising him, and just last week Harris hosted a rally in the district, which includes Scranton.

But the NRCC thinks they have a pretty good chance of flipping his seat.

Breshnahan’s company is “a union shop,” said NRCC head Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina. “So he can talk union talk. He’s a great candidate for us.”

“Matt Cartwright is in trouble,” Hudson said on the conservative “Ruthless Podcast” on Sept. 12.

“I think the way we’ve structured it, the type of candidates we recruited across the country, from Maine to Alaska, from Minnesota to Texas, regardless of top of the ticket, we’re going to pick up seats,” Hudson said.

Van Orden targeted in Wisconsin

But Sabato’s also nudged three seats toward the Democrats’ favor on Thursday.

Kondik moved Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin from the safety of “likely Republican” to the weaker “leans Republican” category.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, sees an “important opportunity” in Van Orden’s district. The GOP congressman, who represents central and western Wisconsin, became known for his profanity-laced outburst at young Senate pages for taking photos of the Capitol rotunda.

The Democrats are running challenger Rebecca Cooke, a small business owner, in the hopes of unseating him.

“We have an incredible candidate in Rebecca Cooke (against) one of the most extreme, which is saying a lot, Republicans in the House,” DelBene told reporters on a call Monday.

“We have put Rebecca Cooke on our Red-to-Blue list and are strongly supporting her campaign. She’s doing a great job, and this absolutely is a priority for us,” DelBene said, referring to the DCCC’s list of 30 candidates that receive extra fundraising support.

DelBene said she’s confident in the Democrats’ chances to flip the House, citing healthy coffers and revived interest.

“We have seen huge enthusiasm all across the country. We have seen people, more and more people turning out to volunteer, to knock on doors, to make phone calls,” she said.

Democrats’ cash ‘flooding,’ NRCC chief says

Erin Covey, a House analyst with The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, wrote on Sept. 5 that Democrats have a brighter outlook after Harris assumed the top of the ticket, though November remains a close call.

“Now, polling conducted by both parties largely shows Harris matching, or coming a few points short of, Biden’s 2020 margins across competitive House districts,” Covey wrote.

The NRCC has taken note. During his interview on the “Ruthless Podcast,” Hudson compared Harris becoming the Democrats’ new choice for president as a “bloodless coup,” and said the enthusiasm she’s sparked is a cause for concern for Republicans. Democratic delegates nominated Harris, in accordance with party rules, to run for the Oval Office after Biden dropped out in late July.

“A lot of people, even Democrats, you know, just weren’t comfortable voting for Joe Biden. With Kamala on the ticket, we saw a surge in Democrats coming home and having the enthusiasm,” Hudson said.

Hudson said he also worries about Democrats’ fundraising numbers.

“The one thing that keeps you awake at night is the Democrat money. It’s flooding,” Hudson said. “The second quarter this year I was able to raise the most money we’ve ever raised as a committee, and the Democrats raised $7 million more. I mean, it’s just, they just keep coming. It’s like the Terminator.”

“But we don’t have to match them dollar for dollar,” Hudson said. “We’ve just got to make sure we’ve got the resources we need. And so we’ve just got to keep our pace.”

The DCCC announced Friday it raised $22.3 million in August, bringing its total for this election cycle to $250.6 million.

Senate map tilts toward GOP

Republicans are inching closer and closer to flipping the Senate red during this year’s elections, thanks to a map that favors GOP incumbents and puts Democrats on the defensive in several states.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is widely expected to win his bid for the upper chamber, bringing Republicans up to 50 seats, as long as they hang on in Florida, Nebraska and Texas.

But Democrats will need to secure wins in several challenging states, including Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and break the 50-50 tie through a Democratic presidency — if they want to remain the majority party.

That many Democratic wins seems increasingly unlikely, though not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

Montana, where Sen. Jon Tester is looking to secure reelection against GOP challenger Tim Sheehy, has been moved from a “toss-up” state to leaning toward Republicans by three respected analysis organizations in the last few weeks.

The Cook Political Report wrote in its ratings change earlier this month that several “public polls have shown Sheehy opening up a small, but consistent lead.”

“Democrats push back that their polling still shows Tester within the margin of error of the race, and that those are exactly the type of close races he’s won before,” their assessment said. “Tester, however, has never run on a presidential ballot in a polarized environment of this kind before — and even with his stumbles, Sheehy is still the strongest, best financed candidate he’s ever faced.”

Republicans winning Montana’s Senate seat could give them a firm, though narrow, 51-seat Senate majority.

Florida, Texas, Nebraska

That, however, would require the Republican incumbents in states like Florida and Texas — where it’s not clear if evolving trends against Republicans will continue — to secure their reelection wins.

And it would mean holding off a wild card independent candidate in the Cornhusker state.

The Cook Political Report says it’s “worth keeping an eye on a unique situation developing in Nebraska, where independent candidate Dan Osborn is challenging Republican Sen. Deb Fischer.”

CPR also noted in its analysis that Democrats’ best pick-up opportunities, which could rebalance the scales a bit, are Florida and Texas.

“Today, the Lone Star State looks like the better option because of the strengths and fundraising of Democrats’ challenger there, Rep. Colin Allred,” CPR wrote.

If Democrats do hold onto 50 seats, through whatever combination of wins and losses shakes out on election night, majority control would depend on whichever candidate wins the presidential contest.

Given the close nature of several Senate races, it is entirely possible control of that chamber isn’t known until after recounts take place in the swing states.

Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Gary Peters, D-Mich., said during a Christian Science Monitor breakfast this week that he’s known all along Democratic candidates will be in “very right races.”

“In a nutshell, I’m optimistic,” Peters said. “I believe we’re going to hold the majority. I feel good about where we are. We’re basically where I thought we would be after Labor Day in really tight races. None of this is a surprise to us. Now we just have to run our playbook, be focused, be disciplined.”

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, led this cycle by Montana Sen. Steve Daines, is confident the GOP will pick up the Senate majority following November’s elections.

The group highlighted a Washington Post poll this week showing a tie between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and GOP candidate Dave McCormick in the Pennsylvania Senate race.

NRSC Spokesman Philip Letsou sent out a written statement after the poll’s release that Casey is in the “race for his life…because Pennsylvania voters know Casey’s lockstep support for Kamala Harris and her inflationary, anti-fracking agenda will devastate their economy. Pennsylvanians have had enough of liberal, career politicians like Casey and Harris.”

No change in filibuster in sight

The GOP acquisition of a handful of seats would still require the next Republican leader to constantly broker deals with Democrats, since the chamber is widely expected to retain the legislative filibuster.

That rule requires at least 60 senators vote to advance legislation toward final passage and is the main reason the chamber rarely takes up partisan bills.

A Republican sweep of the House, Senate and White House for unified government would give them the chance to pass certain types of legislation through the fast-track budget reconciliation process they used to approve the 2017 tax law.

How wide their majorities are in each chamber will determine how much they can do within such a bill, given Republicans will still have centrist members, like Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins, balancing the party against more far-right policy goals.

Home mortgage rates are posted outside a real estate office in Los Angeles after the Federal Reserve interest rates announcement on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced a half-point cut to its benchmark interest rate in the first rate cut since the early days of the COVID pandemic (Mario Tama/Getty Images).

The Federal Reserve’s first key interest rate cut in four years coincides with another major four-year event: the homestretch of the presidential election.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell downplayed the central bank’s role in the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on Wednesday, in announcing the half-percentage point cut in its benchmark rate. But that didn’t stop the candidates’ campaigns from weighing in, and it could prove a key factor for voters.

“This is my fourth presidential election at the Fed, and it’s always the same. We’re always going to this meeting in particular and asking what’s the right thing to do for the people we serve,” Powell said. “Nothing else is ever discussed.”

The decision to cut for the first time during the Biden Administration indicates the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors believe the economy has beaten the COVID-19 pandemic-induced wave of inflation that has plagued it since mid-2021. The Fed hiked its key rate 11 times between March 2022 and July 2023.

Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. The Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation, rose 2.5% over the past year, according to the latest release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in August. The unemployment rate was 4.2% in August, down from 4.3% in July, but still much higher than 3.5% in July 2023 when the Fed made its last rate hike.

“We now see the risks to achieving our employment and inflation goals as roughly in balance, and we are attentive to the risks of both sides of our dual mandate,” Powell said.

Wednesday’s was the first in what is expected to be a series of key rate cuts. For now, that benchmark rate is 4.75 to 5%

One member of the Fed’s governing board, Michelle Bowman, dissented with the rest of the group, marking the first time a governor has done so since 2005. Bowman preferred a 25 basis point – or quarter percentage point – cut.

Timing of the rate cut

Both campaigns quickly reacted to the news from the Fed.

Trump, speaking at a crypto-themed bar in New York, said the cut should have been smaller.

“I guess it shows the economy is very bad to cut it by that much, assuming they’re not just playing politics,” the Republican nominee said. “The economy would be very bad or they’re playing politics, one or the other. But it was a big cut.”

Harris, in a prepared statement, was forward-looking.

“While this announcement is welcome news for Americans who have borne the brunt of high prices, my focus is on the work ahead to keep bringing prices down,” the Democratic nominee said. “I know prices are still too high for many middle class and working families.”

Sarah Binder, a senior fellow in governance studies at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution and author of, “The Myth of Independence: How Congress Governs the Federal Reserve,” said there is a long history of presidents pressuring the Fed, from John F. Kennedy to Richard Nixon and Trump, as a president and now as a presidential candidate.

In order to be effective in its role in keeping the economy moving, Binder said, the Fed needs to be trusted as legitimate, and its political support is contingent on doing a good job.

“The Fed doesn’t have the liberty of sitting it out or not doing enough, which can also bring the Fed into politicians’ crosshairs where they really, really don’t want to be,” she said.

Skanda Amarnath, executive director of Employ America, a research group that advocates for full employment, said the Fed should be examining the economic data.

“That’s what they should look at, not where they are in the electoral seasonal cycle,” she said. “I think that’s the case, by and large. I don’t see anything that’s just a real politicization here.”

What a Fed rate cut means for the economy

Many economists and economic advisers have argued for the Fed to cut rates for months to avoid significant damage to the labor market and in the worst case, a recession.

Now, consumers should begin to see lower costs for borrowing money to buy houses, cars and other necessities.

Kitty Richards, senior strategic adviser at Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C., said the Fed should not hold back on cutting rates now that inflation is slowing.

“The Fed pursued four back to back 70-basis-point rate hikes when inflation was heating up. There’s no reason they should allow inertia to hold them back from normalizing rates now that inflation is under control,” she said.

Because shelter makes up so much of inflation, Richards has expressed concern that by keeping rates where they are, mortgage rates have been pushed so high that the housing market is unaffordable for many Americans. This, in turn, affects inflation, she said, creating a vicious cycle.

Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive economic policy think tank, stated that the Fed decision is a good sign for the housing market.

“It is good that the Fed has now recognized the weakening of the labor market and responded with an aggressive cut. Given there is almost no risk of rekindling inflation, the greater boost to the labor market is largely costless,” Baker said in a statement. “Also, it will help to spur the housing market where millions of people have put off selling homes because of high mortgage rates.”

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.”

Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group speaks Tuesday, Sept. 17, at a Capitol Hill briefing urging the EPA to ban the use of the herbicide paraquat dichloride to protect farmworkers (Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom).

WASHINGTON — Public health advocates and farmworkers called for a federal ban on a toxic herbicide they say led to their Parkinson’s disease during a Tuesday briefing for congressional staffers.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will determine next year if the herbicide, paraquat dichloride, should have its license renewed for another 15 years. The herbicide is used for controlling weeds in agriculture settings. It’s currently banned in more than 70 countries and has several serious health conditions it’s linked to, such as cancer and increases the likelihood of developing Parkinson’s disease.

Nora Jackson, a former farmworker of Indiana, said that her cousin, whose job it was to spray paraquat on farms, developed Parkinson’s at 55 years old. Signs of Parkinson’s usually appear around 60 years old.

“Farmworkers often have to do extremely risky jobs … but it doesn’t have to be that way,” Jackson said. “It is possible to have an agriculture system that does not depend so heavily on paraquat and it does not have to be a pesticide that puts so many people’s lives at risk.”

The disease has drastically affected his life, Jackson added.

“He now relies heavily on medication and uses a walking stick to be able to walk every day,” she said.

The briefing on the health risks of paraquat was hosted by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, which is an alliance for farmworker women, and the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that produces research and advocates for public health.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research was established by the actor who starred in blockbusters Back to the Future, Doc Hollywood and Teen Wolf. Fox was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s at the age of 29.

Ban necessary

The EPA has until Jan. 17 to make a decision on paraquat’s future availability.

Advocates at Tuesday’s event called for the agency to deny paraquat’s license renewal, saying other regulations to reduce exposure to the herbicide have come up short.

“Keep in mind that people have been using this chemical as directed, and are still developing Parkinson’s disease,” Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group’s senior vice president of government affairs, said. “So putting more restrictions on how it’s used, when it’s used, what equipment you use, and so on, is not the answer.”

Parkinson’s disease affects the nervous system and causes unintended shakiness, trouble with balance and stiffness. There is no cure.

The California Legislature is moving to ban the herbicide. 

David Jilbert, of Valley City, Ohio, a former farmworker with a background in engineering, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2021.

“As a longtime environmental engineer, I understood the importance of personal protection equipment, and I particularly followed all safety protocols,” he said.

He sold his vineyard in 2019 because he wasn’t feeling well and his hands were beginning to move slowly.

“My diagnosis changed everything, affecting every aspect of my life, from physical capabilities to emotional wellbeing, financial stability,” he said. “There is no cure for Parkinson’s. It is degenerative and it will only get worse, not better.”

Charlene Tenbrink of Winters, California, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2020. She worked on her family farm from 1993 to 2000 where she would mix, load and spray paraquat.

Tenbrink said she felt let down by the federal government because she was unaware of the health risks that paraquat could pose.

“We’ve been trying to change this,” she said, “for a long time.”

Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth speaks about access to in vitro fertilization on the steps of the Capitol building on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, along with other Senate Democrats holding photos of families who benefited from IVF. At right, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., holds a photo of Duckworth’s family that includes Duckworth’s children, born with the help of IVF (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom).

WASHINGTON — The closely divided U.S. Senate gridlocked Tuesday over the best way to provide nationwide protections for in vitro fertilization, despite lawmakers from both political parties maintaining they want to do so.

Republicans voted against advancing a Democratic bill that could have prevented states from enacting “harmful or unwarranted limitations” on the procedure and bolstered access for military members and veterans. Two Republicans voted with Democrats — Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski.

That came just a short time after Senate Democrats — who narrowly control the chamber — in a procedural move blocked a GOP bill from Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Katie Britt of Alabama that would have barred Medicaid funding from going to any state that bans IVF.

The 51-44 vote that prevented Democrats’ legislation from moving toward a final vote followed numerous floor speeches and press conferences, including by the Harris-Walz presidential campaign, that sought to elevate the issue ahead of the November elections. The measure needed 60 votes to advance.

“This is a chance for my colleagues across the aisle to put their votes where their mouths have been,” said Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the bill’s sponsor and a mom of two children born as a result of IVF. “They say they support IVF. Here you go — vote on this.”

Duckworth said the legislation would provide critical IVF services to U.S. military members and veterans, many of whom experience infertility or experience difficulty having children due to their service.

“It allows our military men and women, prior to a deployment into a combat zone, to preserve and freeze their genetic material; so that should they come home with injuries that result in them becoming infertile, they will have already preserved their genetic material so that they can, themselves, start those beautiful families they wanted,” Duckworth said.

Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris released a written statement following the vote rebuking GOP senators for blocking the bill.

“Every woman in every state must have reproductive freedom,” Harris wrote. “Yet, Republicans in Congress have once again made clear that they will not protect access to the fertility treatments many couples need to fulfill their dream of having a child.”

Republicans blocked Democrats’ bill earlier this year. But Senate leadership scheduled another vote after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reignited the issue in August when he said his administration would mandate health insurance companies pay for IVF — a significant break with how the GOP has approached the issue.

“We are going to be, under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” Trump said during an interview with NBC News. “We’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”

Alabama ruling

Democrats began speaking at length about preserving access to IVF earlier this year after the Alabama state Supreme Court issued an opinion in February that frozen embryos constitute children under state law.

That ruling forced all the state’s IVF clinics to halt their work until the state legislature passed a bill providing criminal and civil protections for those clinics.

Democrats have since argued that legislating the belief life begins at conception, which is championed by most conservative Republicans, is at odds with access to IVF, which typically freezes more embryos than would be implanted.

Those frozen embryos can be preserved or discarded, depending on the patient’s wishes, the clinic’s policies and state law. Some conservatives believe that discarding shouldn’t be legal or are opposed to the process altogether.

The Southern Baptist Convention, for example, voted earlier this year to oppose IVF, writing in a resolution that couples should consider adoption and that the process “engages in dehumanizing methods for determining suitability for life.”

“We grieve alongside couples who have been diagnosed with infertility or are currently struggling to conceive, affirm their godly desire for children, and encourage them to consider the ethical implications of assisted reproductive technologies as they look to God for hope, grace, and wisdom amid suffering,” it stated.

Senate Democrats’ press for IVF protections has gone hand-in-hand with their efforts to bolster other reproductive rights, like access to birth control and abortion.

The issues could play a significant role in determining the outcome of the presidential election this November as well which political party controls the House and Senate.

Republican vice presidential nominee and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance missed Tuesday’s vote, but voted against advancing Democrats’ IVF bill when it was on the floor in June.

IVF bill from Cruz, Britt

Before the Senate held a vote on Democrats’ bill, Cruz asked for quick approval of an IVF bill he and Britt introduced earlier this year.

Washington state Democratic Sen. Patty Murray blocked his unanimous consent request.

During debate on that bill, Britt questioned why Democrats haven’t scheduled a recorded vote on her legislation, saying it could get the 60 votes needed to advance toward final passage.

“Today, we have an opportunity to act quickly and overwhelmingly to protect continued nationwide IVF access for loving American families,” Britt said. “Our bill is the only bill that protects IVF access while safeguarding religious liberty.”

The Britt-Cruz legislation has three co-sponsors, including Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis, Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall and Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker.

Murray said the Britt-Cruz bill didn’t address what would happen in states that legislate fetal personhood, which she called “the biggest threat to IVF.”

“It is silent on whether states can demand that an embryo be treated the same as a living, breathing person,” Murray said. “Or whether parents should be allowed to have clinics dispose of unused embryos, something that is a common, necessary part of the IVF process.”

Cruz tried to pass his legislation through the unanimous consent process, which allows any one senator to ask for approval. Any one senator can then block that request from moving forward — as Murray did. There is no recorded vote as part of the UC process.

Cruz previously asked for unanimous consent to pass the bill in June, but was blocked then as well.

Legal protections

Democrats’ 64-page bill would have provided legal protections for anyone seeking fertility treatment, including IVF, and for the health care professionals providing that type of care.

It would have barred state and federal governments from “enacting harmful or unwarranted limitations or requirements” on IVF access.

The legislation would have bolstered fertility treatment coverage for members of the military and veterans, as well as their spouses, partners, or gestational surrogates.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine supports Democrats’ legislation. Chief Advocacy and Policy Officer Sean Tipton wrote in a statement released this week that Democrats’ IVF bill would “protect the rights of Americans to seek the medical services they may need to have children and ensure no healthcare provider faces legal consequences for trying to help their patients as they seek to build their families.”

“This legislation also increases access to IVF treatments for all Americans by mandating that employer-sponsored insurance plans and other public insurance plans cover fertility treatment,” Tipton wrote. “Significantly, it would ensure the federal government does right by its own employees by providing coverage for active-duty military, veterans, and civilian staff.”

People watch the ABC News presidential debate between Democratic nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, and Republican nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, at a watch party at The Abbey, a historic gay bar in West Hollywood, California. The economy will remain central to both campaigns even as inflation cools and wages increase (Mario Tama/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — The presidential campaigns are rushing ahead this week without missing a beat, despite numerous law enforcement agencies investigating a possible assassination attempt Sunday on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, was looking to pick up an endorsement from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters during a private sit-down interview with the organization on Monday before heading to several campaign stops later this week.

Trump, the GOP nominee, whose campaign is fundraising off a gunman putting an AK-47 through the fence at his Florida golf course before being confronted by the Secret Service, is expected to continue his regular schedule.

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, will be on the campaign trail as well, after making headlines this weekend when he seemingly admitted making up a story about Haitian immigrants in Ohio before doubling down on the false claim.

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance said during a combative interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Vance then insisted that he’s repeating concerns from his constituents, despite public officials and police officers in Ohio saying there’s no evidence of immigrants eating geese or cats.

“I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it,” Vance added.

Vance’s comments and repeated criticism of Harris came shortly after her campaign released a list of 17 Reagan administration officials endorsing her bid for the Oval Office.

“Our votes in this election are less about supporting the Democratic Party and more about our resounding support for democracy,” they wrote. “It’s our hope that this letter will signal to other Republicans and former Republicans that supporting the Democratic ticket this year is the only path forward toward an America that is strong and viable for our children and grandchildren for years to come.”

Ken Adelman, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and U.S. arms control director; Carol Adelman, USAID assistant administrator; Robert Thompson, senior staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisers; Gahl Burt, White House social secretary; B. Jay Cooper, deputy assistant to the president; Kathleen Shanahan, a staff assistant at the National Security Council; and Pete Souza, official White House photographer were among those from the Reagan administration to publicly voice their support for Harris.

NABJ chat, stops in swing states

Tuesday’s campaign schedule shows a packed day of public events for all the major campaign names.

• Harris is expected to attend a fireside chat with the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia, months after Trump’s on-stage panel interview with three NABJ journalists stirred up controversy within the organization and made headlines for Trump’s responses to their questions.

• Trump will host a town hall in Flint, Michigan moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his former press secretary, during the evening. Trump also abruptly announced an XSpaces event for Monday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on the social media platform.

• Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, running mate to Harris, is expected to attend events in Macon and Atlanta, Georgia. He’ll then head to Asheville, North Carolina to give a stump speech.

• Vance is expected to speak at a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Also on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood will hear arguments on whether Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr.’s name should be removed from Michigan’s ballot.

“Before a court may issue a temporary restraining order, it should be assured that the movant has produced compelling evidence of irreparable and imminent injury and that the movant has exhausted reasonable efforts to give the adverse party notice,” Hood wrote.

Kennedy, who suspended his bid for the Oval Office last month, had requested an immediate ruling, which the judge denied.

People watch the ABC News presidential debate between Democratic nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, and Republican nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, at a watch party at The Abbey, a historic gay bar in West Hollywood, California. The economy will remain central to both campaigns even as inflation cools and wages increase (Mario Tama/Getty Images).

Inflation hit a three-year low last month, just as the presidential election is heating up.

But the high cost of housing and other necessities will keep the economy central to both of the major campaigns, as seen this week in the first debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

The Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation, rose 2.5% in the past year, which is the smallest jump since February 2021, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Wednesday. The main driver of this increase was shelter, which moved up 0.5% in August. Airline fares, car insurance, education, and apparel also rose that month. But wages also rose 0.4% in August and 3.8% over the past year, and the average workweek increased by 0.1 hour — welcome news for workers trying to keep up with the cost of living.

Voters continue to say the economy is key in deciding who should be president, at 81%, and four in 10 say the economy and inflation are the most important issues guiding that  decision.

Trump, the former president and Republican nominee, blamed the Biden administration for high prices early on Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia, falsely claiming the post-pandemic wave of inflation is the worst ever.

“We’ve had a terrible economy because inflation, which is really known as a country buster, it breaks up countries, we have inflation like very few people have ever seen before, probably the worst in our nation’s history,” Trump said.

The worst inflation rate in U.S. history was actually in 1980, at 14%. The current wave – the highest inflation spike since then – peaked at 9.1% in June 2022.

Democratic nominee andVice President Harris responded to Tuesday’s question about the economy by touting tax cut proposals to combat housing costs.

“The cost of housing is far too expensive for far too many people. We know that young families need support to raise their children and I intend on extending a tax cut for those families of $6,000, which is the largest child tax credit that we have given in a long time so that those young families can afford to buy a crib, buy a car seat, buy clothes for their children,” she said.

Harris also pitched a proposal for a $50,000 tax deduction for small startup businesses.

Taylor St. Germain, an economist at ITR Economics, a nonpartisan economic research and consulting firm based in New Hampshire, said the latest data shows inflation is slowing enough to suggest it’s time for the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates.

“It’s encouraging to see that inflation is slowing and slowing to these much lower levels,” said St. Germain said. “However, it is, of course, still elevated and one of the reasons it’s still elevated is that shelter costs are driving a significant portion of that inflation, with rents rising as well, especially as we looked at this latest CPI report.”

The Fed began raising interest rates in March 2022 to bring down inflation, raising interest rates 11 times, and made its last rate hike in July of last year.

Economists are watching closely to see if the Fed cuts rates during its meeting next week, which is expected to have an impact on the housing market and other costs.

Kitty Richards, acting executive director at Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive think tank based in Washington, DC, said the Fed’s decisions are contributing to housing costs.

“The problem with housing is fundamentally a supply problem. And the Fed’s actions are actually making that supply problem worse by locking up the housing market and making it more expensive to buy, build or rehab housing,” she said. “Housing is such a big part of people’s experience of the economy and it really matters to folks when they might want to move and look around and they can’t. They can’t even afford to buy a house that is the same price as the house they live in because the interest rates are so high.”

A pro-Trump mob breaks into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Capitol Police are welcoming a special security designation from the Department of Homeland Security for Jan. 6, 2025, when Congress will gather to certify the Electoral College vote count for the winner of the presidential election.

The last time Congress undertook the responsibility, a pro-Trump mob attacked the building, eventually breaking through police barricades, severely injuring officers and disrupting the process.

The rioters were spurred on by false claims from former president and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that he won the 2020 election when he had in fact lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College.

Members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence were evacuated or told to shelter in place in their offices as one of the most secure buildings in the country was overrun.

Federal prosecutors have since secured convictions or plea deals for hundreds of the people who attacked law enforcement and obstructed Congress’ responsibility to certify the vote that day.

United States Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger released a written statement Thursday saying the “National Special Security Event designation will further strengthen our work to protect the Members of Congress and the legislative process.”

“The United States Capitol Police has been preparing for the January 6 count, as well as the Inauguration, for several months,” Manger added. “We have made hundreds of changes and improvements over the past three years, and we are confident that the Capitol will be safe and secure.”

National Special Security Events, or NSSEs, are somewhat expected for major events, like State of the Union speeches, presidential inaugurations and the presidential nominating conventions that the Democrats and Republicans hold every four years.

This, however, will be the first time that one has been issued for Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote.

The designation means the U.S. Secret Service will be the lead federal law enforcement agency planning security for the event, despite it being held in the U.S. Capitol, where USCP typically holds the top jurisdiction.

“National Special Security Events are events of the highest national significance,” Eric Ranaghan, special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Dignitary Protective Division, said in a written statement released Wednesday. “The U.S. Secret Service, in collaboration with our federal, state, and local partners are committed to developing and implementing a comprehensive and integrated security plan to ensure the safety and security of this event and its participants.”

The Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, participates in a Fox News Town Hall with Sean Hannity at the New Holland Arena on Sept. 4, 2024 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Trump and the Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, continue to campaign across swing states as polls show a tight race prior to next week’s presidential debate in Philadelphia (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

After a poor showing in Tuesday night’s ABC News presidential debate, Republican nominee Donald Trump said Thursday in a post to his social media platform he will not participate in any more debates with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris before the Nov. 5 election.

Former President Trump and Harris had differing proposals for a future debate. Trump pushed for an NBC News-hosted meeting on Sept. 25 and Harris’ campaign team said immediately after the Tuesday event that she wanted another debate sometime in October. Fox News had offered to host an October debate.

But Trump put in definitive terms Thursday that he would not take part in another debate with Harris. He claimed victory in Tuesday’s meeting – which initial polls show Harris got the better of ­– and compared Harris’ call for a rematch with that of a boxer who’d lost.

Harris’ time would be better spent working to solve the country’s myriad problems, he said.

“When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, ‘I WANT A REMATCH.’ Polls clearly show that I won the Debate against Comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ Radical Left Candidate, on Tuesday night, and she immediately called for a Second Debate,” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post.

“KAMALA SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT SHE SHOULD HAVE DONE DURING THE LAST ALMOST FOUR YEAR PERIOD. THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” he added.

In her own tweet roughly an hour after Trump’s, Harris renewed her call for another debate.

“Two nights ago, Donald Trump and I had our first debate,” she wrote. “We owe it to the voters to have another debate.”

In an average of three national polls compiled by 538, the polling news and data division of ABC News, 57% of respondents said Harris won the debate and 34% said Trump won. That included a Republican-sponsored survey.

Trump and conservative allies spent the post-debate period Tuesday night and Wednesday morning arguing that ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis were biased in favor of Harris.

Trump and several others complained that the moderators fact-checked Trump, including on false claims about infanticide and migrants eating pets in Ohio, while not doing the same to Harris.

There will be one more debate, though — between vice presidential nominees U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, a Republican, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, who are scheduled to meet Oct. 1 in New York City.

Trump debated President Joe Biden in June when Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee. The president’s poor performance in that debate spurred his exit from the race — and Harris’ arrival ­— weeks later.

(Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate will vote for a second time next week on legislation from Democrats that would bolster support for in vitro fertilization, though it’s unlikely GOP lawmakers will reverse course from their previous opposition.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the revote Thursday afternoon, saying he hopes that Republicans will join with Democrats to advance the measure toward final passage. The bill would ensure patients have access to in vitro fertilization.

“Republicans can’t claim to be pro-family on one hand, only to block pro-family policies like federal protections for IVF and the child tax credit,” Schumer said. “But that’s just what they did this summer and I hope we get a different outcome when we vote for a second time.”

The Senate last held a procedural vote on the bill in June, though it didn’t come close to the 60 senators needed to advance.

The 48-47 procedural vote was mostly along party lines with Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski breaking with Republicans to support moving forward with debate and a final passage vote.

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy argued against advancing the bill during debate, saying the legislation wasn’t necessary since no state currently barred IVF.

“Today’s vote is disingenuous — pushing a bill haphazardly drafted and destined to fail does a disservice to all who may pursue IVF treatments,” Cassidy said at the time.

Washington state Democratic Sen. Patty Murray spoke in support of approving the legislation, saying in June it shouldn’t be “controversial, especially if Republicans are serious about” supporting access to IVF.

“As we saw in Alabama, the threat to IVF is not hypothetical, it is not overblown and it is not fearmongering,” Murray said.

Alabama state legislators earlier this year had to provide criminal and civil protection to IVF clinics after the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos constituted children under state law.

The opinion from Alabama’s justices temporarily led all IVF clinics within the state to close their doors to patients, wreaking havoc on couples hoping to start or grow their families through the complicated, emotionally draining and often expensive process.

The issue also has emerged in the presidential race, and was fought over in the Sept. 10 debate by the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump.

A Missouri case marked the 14th person to contract highly pathogenic avian influenza, or H5N1, this year amid ongoing outbreaks among poultry and dairy cattle. The Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Iowa State University tests samples from animals for viruses such as avian influenza (Photo courtesy of Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory).

WASHINGTON — Public health officials are still trying to determine how a Missouri resident contracted bird flu without having any contact with infected animals, but said Thursday there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission taking place in small enclaves or in a more widespread manner.

The Missouri case marked the 14th person to contract highly pathogenic avian influenza, or H5N1, this year amid ongoing outbreaks among poultry and dairy cattle, though it marks the first time someone without contact to those animals was diagnosed with the virus.

Nirav Shah, principal deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on a call with reporters the “evidence points to this being a one-off case, and those do happen with novel influenza.”

“Thus far, we have not seen any evidence of unusual levels of influenza activity in the area where this individual resides,” Shah said during the hour-long briefing. “There have been no increases in the volume of visits to emergency departments for influenza and no increase in laboratory detections of influenza cases in Missouri more broadly.”

The state’s public health laboratory, he said, is subtyping all positive cases of Influenza A, following the CDC recommending ongoing detailed surveillance this spring.

The practice is how doctors and public health officials confirmed this case and would likely be how they diagnose any uptick in cases in the future in the “overwhelming” number states that are taking the extra step of subtyping, he said.

There are several types of influenza virus that are classified by the letters A, B, C and D. The viruses within the influenza A category are further categorized or subtyped based on the proteins hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). There are at least 130 combinations of subtypes within Influenza A, according to the CDC.

“So here’s the bottom line, our influenza surveillance system is designed to find needles in haystacks,” Shah said. “And as this case and others show, it is working. And here, in this case, we found such a needle, but we don’t know how it got there.”

The Missouri patient, who has significant underlying medical conditions, was admitted to a hospital on Aug. 22 after presenting to health care providers with “acute symptoms of chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and weakness,” according to the CDC. The patient is not being identified out of privacy concerns.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced the diagnosis on Sept. 4, as did the CDC in a separate statement.

Missouri DHSS noted the patient had recovered and been sent home from the hospital, while the CDC pointed out that the state has reported cases of H5N1 in commercial and backyard poultry flocks this year.

The patient hadn’t been in contact with any livestock or poultry and didn’t indicate in a detailed questionnaire that they had consumed any food products, like raw milk, that could have potentially transmitted the virus.

Shah said on the call that public health officials are technically classifying this as a case of H5 and not H5N1 as they work to sequence the virus more fully, though that might not be possible.

The CDC has begun classifying the virus’ genetic sequence, but since the patient’s viral RNA levels were “extremely low” the agency may not be “able to generate a full flu genome, including the neuraminidase or the N part of the virus,” he said.

“We’re throwing everything we’ve got at this, but ultimately a full sequence may not be technically feasible because of the low concentration of viral RNA,” Shah said. “The data that we do have and that have been generated thus far show an H5 virus that is closely related to the (H5N1) virus circulating among dairy cows.”

The CDC, he said, is “continuing to look for evidence of genetic changes that would suggest, for example, an increased potential for spread.” None have yet been found.

Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at CDC, said the risk to the general public from bird flu remains low.

“We assess risk continuously with every case and with every sort of change, and we continue to look at it as low,” Daskalakis said. “If there are changes, we would reassess that risk in real time.”

While the CDC investigation is ongoing, Shah said the further out from the case public health officials get without seeing any new diagnosis, the less likely they become.

“We are beyond the typical 10-day window for transmission,” Shah said. “And so with each passing day, the likelihood of this being something that’s happening deep underwater goes down.”

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 Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former President Donald Trump and the Republican vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, attend the annual 9/11 Commemoration Ceremony at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum on Wednesday in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris honored victims on the 23rd anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, when four hijacked commercial airliners crashed into New York City’s Twin Towers, a Pennsylvania field and the Pentagon, shocking the world and precipitating years of U.S. war targeting extremists.

Biden and Harris honored the nearly 2,977 lives lost that day visiting all three sites Wednesday. In New York City they sat among leaders past and present, including former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, during the annual reading of the names of those who died when the Twin Towers collapsed.

Harris and Trump shook hands at the ceremony just hours after their contentious presidential debate Tuesday night, during which they blamed each other for the deadly 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan two decades after the United States invaded in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks.

Biden and Harris then traveled to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to lay a wreath at a memorial near the field where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed.

They also brought pizza and beer to local volunteer firefighters.

Both walked to a sandstone boulder in the field that marks the point of impact, according to reporters traveling with the president and vice president.

Trump also visited the memorial and crash site in Shanksville on Wednesday, according to press who were present.

Biden and Harris closed the day by laying a wreath at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, where 184 people were killed when a hijacked jet targeted the hub of U.S. defense operations.

“On this day 23 years ago, terrorists believed they could break our will and bring us to our knees. They were wrong. They will always be wrong,” Biden said in a statement. “In the darkest of hours, we found light. And in the face of fear, we came together — to defend our country, and to help one another. That is why terrorists targeted us in the first place: our freedom, our democracy, our unity.”

“They failed. But we must remain vigilant. Today, our longest war is finally over. But our commitment to preventing another attack on our people never will be,” he continued.

Both the president and Harris hailed the Obama administration’s 2011 U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden, a known terrorist who antagonized the U.S. for years before directing his al-Qaida network to carry out the 9/11 attacks.

“(A)nd two years ago, President Biden ordered an operation that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s deputy,” Harris said in a statement. “We remain vigilant against any terrorist threat directed at the United States or the American people and we continue to disrupt terrorist networks wherever we find them.”

Tributes from Congress

Congressional leaders paid tribute to the victims as well Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York attended the morning ceremony at Ground Zero in Manhattan.

“Today and every day, we remember and honor the sacrifice, resiliency, and the bravery of New Yorkers, our first responders, the families of those who were taken from us, and Americans across the country,” Schumer posted on X Wednesday. “We will #NeverForget the souls we lost on 9/11 and in the years since.”

In remarks on the Senate floor, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell honored the 9/11 victims and also criticized the Biden administration for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He also attacked Harris for comments she made on the debate stage Tuesday.

“The Biden-Harris Administration pretends the war on terrorism is over,” the Kentucky Republican said. “The vice president, herself, claimed last night that ‘there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone (for) the first time this century.’”

“This, of course, would be news to the U.S. service members who conducted operations against ISIS in Iraq last week, and to the sailors intercepting Houthi rockets in the Red Sea, and to the families of service members killed and injured in the attack on Tower 22 near Jordan’s border with Syria earlier this year,” McConnell said, referencing Iran-backed militant attacks on shipping vessels and a U.S. Air Force and Army base in the northernmost tip of Jordan.

Both U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries marked the anniversary by laying a wreath at the 9/11 memorial in the U.S. Capitol that honors the passengers and crew of Flight 93.

“The 9/11 terrorists sought to destroy America, but they were no match for the indomitable American spirit. On this solemn day, we honor the lives of those lost and remember the strength and courage of our first responders who ran towards danger, not from it. We will never forget their extraordinary sacrifice,” Johnson of Louisiana said in a statement.

Jeffries, a New York Democrat, called attention to emergency workers who developed chronic health issues following their duties at the Manhattan crash site.

“Hundreds of first responders selflessly and bravely answered the call and ran towards danger. They risked their own safety to rescue whoever they could find. Due to the toxic exposures they endured at Ground Zero, many went on to contract severe or terminal long-term illnesses,” Jeffries said in a statement, spotlighting the more than two dozen New York firefighters who died this year from their 9/11-related diseases.

“Our commitment to our courageous first responders is ironclad and must endure. House Democrats will always stand up for the heroes who gave everything on that tragic day,” Jeffries said, blasting Republicans who in 2019 stalled, and some who voted against, a government medical fund for the responders. “We will never forget their sacrifice.”

U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks on his cell phone as walks back to his office in the U.S. Capitol building on Nov. 13, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled a six-month stopgap spending bill from heading to the floor for a vote Wednesday, scuttling efforts by the GOP to show solidarity behind their plan, which included a provision requiring ID to register to vote in federal elections.

The spending bill, released by House Republicans last week in the heat of a presidential campaign in which immigration is a central focus, had no chance of becoming law amid opposition from Democrats, a cool response from many GOP senators and a veto threat from the Biden administration.

A number of House GOP lawmakers had also come out against the legislation.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters that lawmakers plan to work through the weekend to find a path forward on the stopgap spending bill and language that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.

“No vote today because we are in the consensus-building business here in Congress; with a small majority, that’s what you do,” he said. “We’re having thoughtful conversations, family conversations within the Republican Conference and I believe we’ll get there.”

Johnson said Congress has “two primary obligations right now.”

One is funding the government ahead of the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, thereby avoiding a shutdown.

And he said the other is addressing concerns about the possibility that people who are not citizens could vote in the November election, even though that is already illegal.

“We’re going to continue to work on this. The whip is going to do the hard work and build consensus. We’re going to work through the weekend on that,” Johnson told reporters. “And I want any member of Congress, in either party, to explain to the American people why we should not ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting in U.S. elections.”

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump posted on social media Tuesday that Republicans should not vote for any short-term spending measure without the sidecar voter ID bill attached.

Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, called for a bipartisan negotiation after news broke of Johnson pulling the vote.

Porchá Perry demonstrates with other workers in Lansing, Michigan, in favor of bills restoring local control to pass workforce and labor policies on Sept.13, 2023. A new report finds growing union organizing across the country has triggered an anti-labor legislative response in some states, but cities and counties are increasingly pushing back (Photo courtesy of SEIU Local 1).

Growing union organizing across the country has triggered an anti-labor legislative response in some states, but cities and counties are increasingly pushing back, a new report found.

The report, released this month by the New York University Wagner Labor Initiative and Local Progress Impact Lab, a group for local elected officials focused on economic and racial justice issues, cites examples of localities all over the U.S. using commissions to document working conditions, creating roles for protecting workers in the heat and educating workers on their labor rights.

In the face of increased worker organizing and Americans’ higher approval of labor unions in the past few year (hitting levels not seen since the 1960s), many states have introduced bills aimed at stopping payroll deduction for union dues and punishing employers that voluntarily recognize a union through the card check process. In April, several governors in Southern states, including Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, advocated against auto workers voting for a union.

“We know that there has been an increase in worker organizing and definitely an increase in high-profile worker organizing and certainly that action has had a reaction,” said Terri Gerstein, director of the NYU Wagner Labor Initiative and co-author of the report.

However, state preemption laws, which can make local ordinances void and could prevent many localities from implementing more worker-friendly policies, are also on the rise. There was a surge in preemption laws from 2015 to 2017 on everything from the minimum wage to paid leave, according to a June 2024 analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-of-center think tank.

Although the passage of preemption legislation has slowed, according to the EPI analysis, the effects on localities are still damaging to workers’ rights, authors of the report explain. But labor and policy experts say there are still opportunities for localities to push back against efforts to limit labor organizing and gut the enforcement of labor protections.

“Localities are doing more to fight for working people and advance workers’ rights, and I think in states where there is rampant state hostility and abusive state preemption, local governments are also the leaders of trying to advance workers rights in those states and address new challenges and threats like heat, for example,” said the report’s other co-author, LiJia Gong, the policy and legal director at Local Progress.

Some business organizations, such as the National Federation of Independent Business, say preemption laws help small businesses, which don’t have the capacity “to navigate duplicative, overlapping and potentially contradictory local labor laws.”

“NFIB has supported legislation that creates statewide, uniform standards for minimum wage rates and legislation that establishes a preemption of paid sick leave proposals by local governments,” the group said in a prepared statement.

Gerstein and Gong argue that these efforts are not always concerned with uniformity, such as taking away a locality’s ability to raise the minimum wage when the state does not set a higher minimum wage itself.

In states where there isn’t state-level wage enforcement, localities can pass ordinances that allow workers to file complaints and get stolen wages back without a lawyer, as some Florida localities have done.

There are also things cities and counties can do to prevent heat-related injuries and illnesses, including in the workplace. Miami-Dade County, Phoenix, and Los Angeles have chief heat officers whose role it is to protect people from the effects of extreme heat.

“Unlike a lot of other hazards, people don’t really understand how dangerous workplace heat is and that there are workplace fatalities. But research also shows that there are high rates of worker injuries and accidents of various kinds on hotter days,” Gerstein said.

Amid state efforts to weaken child labor laws, schools are also some of the best tools localities have to ensure kids aren’t working in dangerous conditions, the authors said. School boards could use their power to include workers’ rights education in the curricula, for example.

“School districts can do a lot to educate families on child labor laws and age-appropriate employment opportunities, and they can also play an important role in identifying students who might be working in prohibited occupations and refer those cases to state and federal labor enforcers,” Gong said.

Worker boards can also document and seek to improve working conditions on the local level. The boards, created by local governments, have worker representation and can conduct worker outreach and make policy recommendations on wages and benefits. Last year, the Detroit City Council voted to create an industry standards board for workers at pro sports facilities including Ford Field, Little Caesars Arena, and Comerica Park.

Board member Porchá Perry, a mother of two children who works at Comerica Park and Ford Field, said her role is reaching out to workers to share their experience of working conditions. Workers say they are concerned about low wages, child care, transportation and safety. Perry said that although she is personally less concerned about finding child care, she wouldn’t have to work multiple jobs if wages were higher and she would be able to see her kids more.

“It’s hard to have quality time,” she said.

The board also has spots for city council members and the mayor’s office.

“It’s a voice for everybody – government officials, employees, the management department. It’s somewhere for everybody to sit at the table and speak,” she said.

Britain Forsyth, legislative coordinator for Step Up Louisiana, a group that organizes for economic and education justice, said New Orleans has focused on becoming a model employer. New Orleans increased the minimum wage to $13.25 for city employees, which became effective in 2022, and rose to $15 in 2023. In 2023, the New Orleans City Council codified city employees’ right to organize. Louisiana does not have a state minimum wage law, so the city’s minimum wage is far above $7.25, the federal minimum wage.

Step Up Louisiana is also working to pass a workers’ bill of rights on the November ballot in New Orleans. It would add to the bill of rights in the city’s home rule charter that workers deserve a living wage, paid leave, safe workplaces and health care coverage and says that all laws and regulations regarding unions should be respected.

“We call the question to the city about what we believe in, and we make it clear to employers here and folks who want to open businesses here that this is how we think workers should be treated,” he said.

Authors of the report also suggest that more localities should take on wage theft, since state and federal authorities frequently struggle to enforce wage judgments and recover wages.

These agencies are often under-resourced, have frequent staff turnover and manage complex cases, Gerstein said. Local labor agencies could provide help conducting interviews or prepare cases for state or federal agencies to follow up on. San Diego County has a fund for staff to pursue employers for wages and provides $3,000 to people who are victims of wage theft and have final unpaid wage orders from the state.

Gerstein said she’s seeing cutting-edge approaches to enforcing worker protections in places like Seattle, Boston, New York City and Denver, where the state is friendlier to workers. For example, in Sept 2022, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu created the Worker Empowerment Cabinet, including the Office of Labor Compliance and Worker Protections.

Jodi Sugerman-Brozan, Boston’s deputy chief of worker empowerment and the director of the office of labor compliance and worker protections, said her office has done educational outreach, including free OSHA training sessions for over 1,200 people and a set of trainings for how to create a heat illness prevention plan. Last year, Wu signed an ordinance that requires certain safety standards and training for city construction projects.

“Cities and countries don’t have a lot of power but they can use the power of contracting and vending to drive labor standards,” Sugerman-Brozan said.

But Gerstein added that local governments in more employer-friendly states are also stepping up to advocate for workers.

“It’s a very different landscape where the local government may be the only place where the government is standing up for workers,” she said. “There is largely stagnation in Congress because of the filibuster and other reasons, an unfriendly state government, and your state department of labor isn’t particularly worker protective and is more focused on being employer and business-friendly. State AG offices aren’t really doing anything.”

Even a small local office can make a difference, Gerstein said.

“Hire dedicated staff to be the worker rights person. Create an office and an army of one. That’s how these things can start.”

A Robust Cannabis employee showcases the company's Black Hole Sun strain at their warehouse in Cuba, Missouri (Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent).

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s early Monday statement that he would vote to legalize recreational marijuana use in Florida sent a strong signal that both major parties are moving to adopt popular marijuana reform efforts, unexpectedly elevating the issue in the presidential battle.

But the campaign for the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, expressed strong skepticism about Trump’s sudden embrace of reform and criticized Trump’s record in office, accusing him of “blatant pandering” after States Newsroom inquired about Harris’ position on legalization.

The statement from Trump, who has sought to portray himself as a “law and order” candidate throughout his political career, shows the growing support for marijuana legalization among voters of both parties nationwide — and could be a signal that GOP elected officials will align themselves with legalization, Josh Glasstetter, a spokesperson for the advocacy group U.S. Cannabis Council, said in an interview with States Newsroom.

“Trump’s statement on Truth Social signals that there is a political realignment that is well underway on the issue of cannabis reform,” Glasstetter said.

Trump said in a post to his social media platform that he would vote yes on Florida’s Amendment 3, a ballot initiative to legalize recreational cannabis use in the state.

He also said he supported federal legislation to remove federal restrictions on banking services for state-legal marijuana businesses and moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act.

States with legal recreational marijuana industries, which now number 24, have long sought tweaks to federal law to allow banks to legally provide loans and other services to marijuana businesses that are legal under state law. Bills in Congress, while largely bipartisan, have been introduced for years but not yet won the consensus needed to become law.

Schedule I is the most restrictive category under federal law and indicates a drug has no medicinal value and high risk of abuse. President Joe Biden’s administration has started the move to Schedule III, which includes heavily regulated legal substances including Tylenol with codeine.

Harris camp blasts Trump

The Harris campaign said Trump is trying to gloss over his past.

“Despite his blatant pandering, Donald Trump cannot paper over his extensive record of dragging marijuana reform backward,” campaign spokesman Joseph Costello wrote in an email. “As president, Trump cracked down on nonviolent marijuana offenses – undermining state legalization laws, opposed safe banking legislation, and even tried to remove protections for medical marijuana.

“Donald Trump does not actually believe in marijuana reform, but the American people are smart enough to see through his campaign lies.”

The campaign did not respond to a follow-up message seeking clarity on Harris’ position on the issue.

Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, took a hard line against a growing trend of states legalizing marijuana use. He rescinded a 2013 document known as the Cole memo that required federal officials to stay out of state-legal marijuana operations.

But Glasstetter said Trump had “clearly reassessed his position” on the issue, reflecting a consensus among voters that Republican officials have been slower to adopt.

“For many years now, cannabis reform advocates have talked about the growing bipartisan consensus among voters in support of cannabis reform and elected officials have been a lagging indicator, particularly on the conservative side of the spectrum,” he said.

While Harris has not highlighted the issue — besides not answering emailed questions Monday, the campaign’s newly launched issues page on its website does not mention cannabis — she is seen as an ally of reformers based on her record, including as U.S. senator and California attorney general, Glasstetter said.

Harris convened a roundtable of marijuana reform advocates at the White House in March that included rapper Fat Joe and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat. At that event, she promoted the administration’s work to relax federal marijuana restrictions and spoke in favor of broad reforms.

“I’ve said many times: I believe –— I think we all at this table believe — no one should have to go to jail for smoking weed,” she said.

Leading Republicans

Trump’s endorsement could be seen as an attempt to close the policy gap between the parties on a popular issue.

Republicans in Congress have lagged behind their Democratic colleagues in seeking marijuana reforms, even as polls and ballot initiatives in states that favor both parties have shown legalizing marijuana use is an increasingly popular position among voters of all political persuasions, Glasstetter said.

A Pew Research Center poll this year showed 88% of respondents thought marijuana should be legal for recreational or medical use. That was up from 68% in the same survey in 2022.

At a May hearing of the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, just days after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the administration would seek to reschedule cannabis, Republican representatives voiced skepticism over the move to federal Drug Enforcement Administrator Anne Milgram.

Rep. Robert Aderholt, an Alabama Republican, noted studies finding a connection between cannabis use and psychosis. The country is dealing with a mental health crisis, he said.

“My concern is rescheduling marijuana would make the crisis worse,” he said.

But an endorsement from Trump, who holds immense influence among congressional Republicans, could be crucial to getting more Republicans to change their positions, Glasstetter said.

“Former President Trump is a leading indicator,” he said. “We expect that his high-profile embrace of cannabis reform will make it much easier for other Republicans, particularly in Congress, to come out in support of cannabis reform.”

The U.S. House as it returns from a five-week recess is preparing to vote on a stopgap spending bill that also includes a provision to bar noncitizens from voting in federal elections (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom).

WASHINGTON — As Congress returns from a five-week recess Monday, House Republicans have attached a provision to bar noncitizens from voting in federal elections — which is already unlawful — to a stopgap funding bill that is already teeing up a battle with the Senate and White House.

The GOP drive in Congress echoes state lawmakers’ push for ballot measures this November that would bar noncitizens from voting in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin.

It also comes in the heat of the presidential campaign, as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump repeatedly calls for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and faces the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, in a crucial Tuesday night debate.

Current federal government spending will expire Oct. 1, so Congress must pass a continuing resolution, or CR, to approve temporary spending beyond that date or risk a shutdown.

The measure that requires proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, which U.S. House Republicans and some vulnerable Democrats passed in July, has been added by the House GOP to a CR that would extend spending until March 28. A vote by the House is expected this week.

The White House on Monday vowed President Joe Biden would issue a veto if Congress passed the measure in that form.

“Instead of meeting the security and disaster needs of the Nation, this bill includes unrelated cynical legislation that would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but would make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls,” the White House said in a statement Monday. “It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections—it is a Federal crime punishable by prison and fines.”

Senate opposition

The voting language is a nonstarter among Senate Democrats, who hold a slim majority in the chamber.

“As we have said repeatedly, avoiding a government shutdown requires bipartisanship, not a bill drawn up by one party,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray of Washington said in a joint statement Friday.

“If Speaker Johnson drives House Republicans down this highly partisan path, the odds of a shutdown go way up, and Americans will know that the responsibility of a shutdown will be on the House Republicans’ hands,” they continued.

Democrats have argued that the bill is an attempt to sow distrust in U.S. elections ahead of November elections.

House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana has stressed that noncitizen voting in federal elections is an issue, although research has found it rarely happens. 

“As the 2024 election nears, it is imperative that Congress does everything within our power to protect the integrity of our nation’s election system,” he said in a statement.

The bill is also supported by Trump.

In April, Johnson while at Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida,  announced the House would pass a bill relating to noncitizen voting. The former president has often falsely blamed voting by large numbers of undocumented people for his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton as the reason he lost the popular vote.

Other Democrats objected to passing a CR that would last until next year.

The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, criticized the six-month measure because it is “shortchanging veterans and jeopardizing their care by kicking the can down the road until March.”

“A continuing resolution to the end of March provides Republicans with more leverage to attempt to force their unpopular cuts to services that American families depend on to make ends meet,” she said in a statement.

Texas congressman spearheads bill

The original noncitizen voting bill, H.R.8281, was first introduced by Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus. It passed 221-198, with five Democrats voting with Republicans, but stalled in the Senate.

Those five Democrats who voted in support of the measure are: Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Donald Davis of North Carolina, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington.

Under current U.S. law, only citizens can vote in federal elections, but the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 prohibits states from confirming citizenship status.

Along with the ballot measures, hundreds of Republican state legislators have also signed on to a letter by the Only Citizens Vote Coalition urging Congress to pass a bill to bar noncitizens from voting in federal elections.

The Only Citizens Vote Coalition includes election denier activists, organizations headed by former Trump aides and anti-immigrant groups. It was founded by Cleta Mitchell, a key figure who tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election and is now running a grassroots organization to aggressively monitor elections in November.

Five of the eight states — Idaho, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin —  with votes set on ballot measures have state legislators who sponsored bills to put the question on the ballot and are signed on to the letter by Only Citizens Vote.

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.”

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 will not face criminal sentencing in New York for his state felony convictions ahead of the November election, according to a decision released Friday by New York Judge Juan Merchan.

The New York judge said Friday the new sentencing date will be Nov. 26,  according to a letter he issued Friday.

Merchan wrote that the court is “now at a place in time that is fraught with complexities,” referring to the fast-approaching presidential election and the consequential U.S. Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity that Trump’s legal team has now brought to the center of the New York case.

“Adjourning decision on the motion and sentencing, if such is required, should dispel any suggestion that the Court will have issued any decision or imposed sentence either to give an advantage to, or to create a disadvantage for, any political party and/or any candidate for any office,” Merchan wrote.

“This is not a decision the court makes lightly but it is the decision which in this court’s view best advances the interests of justice,” Merchan later concluded.

Trump, vying again for the Oval Office as the Republican nominee, is the first-ever former president to become a felon.

He was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in May after a weeks-long Manhattan trial that centered on hush money payments to a porn star ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump asked the New York court to delay the sentencing until after the 2024 election, arguing that the question of presidential immunity as it related to the New York conviction remains unresolved.

Friday’s decision marks the second time Merchan has delayed Trump’s sentencing.

Merchan delayed Trump’s initial July sentencing date, just one day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that former presidents enjoy criminal immunity for official “core constitutional” acts and at least presumptive immunity for “outer perimeter” activities, but not for personal ones.

Trump’s lawyers argued the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision nullified his New York state convictions, particularly because the evidence presented at trial could now be considered subject to immunity.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg agreed to a delay while the parties filed legal arguments on the issue of immunity, which Bragg ultimately argued had “no bearing” on Trump’s convictions and evidence examined by the jury.

Trump, who has been entangled on several legal fronts, escalated his separate federal criminal case alleging 2020 election interference all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing presidential immunity for any criminal charges stemming from his time in office.

The case alleging Trump schemed to overturn the 2020 presidential election results was returned to federal trial court. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Thursday released a pre-trial calendar that extends beyond this November’s election.

(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.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears ahead of the start of jury selection at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 15, 2024 in New York City (Jabin Botsford-Pool/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Exactly two months out from the presidential election, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan plans to move ahead with the case accusing former President Donald Trump of subverting the 2020 presidential election results, telling Trump’s attorneys that she is “not concerned with the electoral schedule.”

Chutkan released a timeline for the case late Thursday afternoon setting several deadlines for evidence, briefs and replies for the weeks prior to November’s election, and ultimately stretching beyond Election Day.

While it had been evident for some time that the Republican presidential nominee likely would not face a trial before Nov. 5 on election interference charges, Chutkan’s calendar made it certain.

Trump did not appear in federal court for Thursday morning’s hearing in Washington, D.C., but his lawyers pleaded not guilty on his behalf to the four charges that remained unchanged in U.S. special counsel Jack Smith’s new indictment, filed last week.

The case had been in a holding pattern for eight months as Trump appealed his claim of presidential immunity all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. prosecutors say they are ready to restart the case in the coming weeks, while Trump’s team has argued for more time to review evidence and dismiss the superseding indictment.

The Supreme Court returned Trump’s case to the trial court after ruling that former presidents are immune from criminal charges for official “core constitutional” acts while in office and hold at least presumptive immunity for “outer perimeter” activities, but not for personal actions.

This gave Chutkan, an Obama administration appointee, the major task of parsing Smith’s indictment, deciding which allegations against Trump fall under the umbrella of official acts and which relate to actions taken in a personal capacity.

Chutkan set the following deadlines on the pre-trial calendar:

• The government must complete all mandatory evidentiary disclosures by Sept. 10, with other disclosures ongoing afterward.
• Trump’s reply briefs to certain evidence matters are due Sept. 19.
• The government’s opening brief on presidential immunity is due Sept. 26, and the Trump legal team’s reply is due on Oct. 17. The government’s opposition is thereafter due on Oct. 29.
• Trump is also scheduled to provide a supplement to his original motion to dismiss based on statutory grounds by Oct. 3, and the government must reply by Oct. 17.
• Trump’s request to file a motion based on his argument that Smith was illegally appointed to his special prosecutor position is due on Oct. 24, with the government’s reply due on Oct. 31. The due date for Trump’s opposition to the government’s reply is Nov. 7, stretching the pre-trial calendar beyond the presidential election.

Chutkan skeptical 

Chutkan did not issue any decisions on immunity at the Thursday hearing but rather spent significant time grilling Trump’s attorney John Lauro on why he believes it is “unseemly” for Smith’s office to lay out its case this month in an opening brief. Thomas Windom, a federal prosecutor in Smith’s office, said the government would be ready to file the brief by the end of September.

Lauro argued that Smith wanting to file “at breakneck speed” is “incredibly unfair that they are able to put in the public record (evidence) at this sensitive time in our nation’s history.”

“I understand there’s an election impending,” Chutkan snapped back, reminding him that it “is not relevant here.”

“Three weeks is not exactly breakneck speed,” Chutkan added.

Lauro argues that Chutkan should examine parts of the indictment that accuse Trump of pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence to accept false slates of electors leading up to Pence’s ceremonial role in certifying the election results on Jan. 6, 2021.

“The problem with that issue is if in fact the communications are immune, then the entire indictment fails,” Lauro argued.

“I’m not sure that’s my reading of the case,” Chutkan replied.

The government maintains that all actions and communications by Trump described in the new indictment were “private in nature,” Windom argued.

Chutkan also spent time during the roughly 75-minute hearing questioning Lauro on the Trump legal team’s numerous plans to request the case’s dismissal. One anticipated plan is to try its successful play in Florida, where a Trump-appointed federal judge tossed his classified documents case after Trump argued Smith was illegally appointed as special counsel.

Chutkan said she will allow the defense to file that motion but warned that attorneys must provide convincing arguments on why “binding precedent doesn’t hold” for the time-tested position of special prosecutor.

New indictment, same charges

Trump is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights for his alleged role in conspiring to create false electors from seven states and spreading knowingly false information that whipped his supporters into a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

A federal grand jury handed up a revised indictment Aug. 27 in an effort to tailor the charges to the Supreme Court’s July 1 immunity ruling. The fresh indictment omitted any references to Trump’s alleged pressure campaign on Justice Department officials to meddle in state election results.

But the document added emphasis on Trump’s personal use of social media outside of his actions as president, and said he and several co-conspirators schemed outside of his official duties. The new indictment also stressed Trump’s pressure on Pence to accept the fake electors in his role outside of the executive branch as president of the Senate.

If Trump wins the Oval Office in November, he would have the power to hinder or altogether shut down the Department of Justice’s election interference case against him.

If he loses to Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, the case is sure to be set back by further delays, as the Trump team plans numerous challenges and will almost certainly appeal — likely to the Supreme Court again — Chutkan’s decisions on which allegations against Trump are or are not subject to immunity.

According to Friday’s joint filing in which each side laid out plans for the case going forward, Trump’s team also warned they will challenge that Trump’s tweets and communication about the 2020 presidential results should be considered all official acts.

Additionally, Trump plans to file a motion to dismiss the case based on the Supreme Court’s June ruling that a Jan. 6 rioter could not be charged with obstructing an official proceeding — a charge that Trump also faces.

The Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, participates in a Fox News Town Hall with Sean Hannity at the New Holland Arena on Sept. 4, 2024 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Trump and the Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, continue to campaign across swing states as polls show a tight race prior to next week’s presidential debate in Philadelphia (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump questioned polls showing a close race against Vice President Kamala Harris and complained about the conditions of an upcoming debate during a Fox News interview Wednesday in Pennsylvania.

Under questioning from a friendly interviewer, Sean Hannity of Fox News, in front of an arena of cheering supporters in Harrisburg, the Republican presidential nominee also reiterated a pledge to conduct a massive deportation operation if elected to another term and attacked Harris for her former position to ban the natural gas extraction technique known as fracking.

Trump agreed to the interview, which had been advertised as a town hall but did not include audience questions, after Harris rejected his proposal for a Fox News debate on the same date. He said Wednesday he would have preferred to be meeting Harris on stage.

“I think he’s a nice guy, but I would have preferred a debate,” Trump said of Hannity. “But this is the best we could do, Sean.”

But Trump spent part of the hour Wednesday criticizing the details of the 90-minute debate the campaigns have agreed to, in Philadelphia on Sept. 10 on ABC.

He called ABC News “the most dishonest network, the meanest, the nastiest,” claimed the network purposely released poor polls ahead of the 2016 election to suppress turnout and said, without evidence, executives would share questions with Harris ahead of the event.

Hannity said he should host the debate instead.

Trump also claimed the family of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, endorsed him. Charles Herbster, who sought the GOP nomination for Nebraska governor in 2022, posted to X a photograph of a group of Walz’s second cousins wearing Trump shirts.

Walz’s sister, Sandy Dietrich, told The Associated Press the family was not particularly close with that branch, and said she would be voting for the ticket that included her brother.

Walz’s brother, Jeff Walz, made disparaging remarks about the Minnesota governor on Facebook, but later told NewsNation he would not comment further.

Bad polls

Hannity’s introduction Wednesday noted polls showed a tight race, but Trump said the enthusiasm among his supporters made that seem unlikely.

“I hear the polls are very close and we have a little lead,” he said. “I just find it hard to believe, because first of all, they’ve been so bad.”

Trump has sought to delegitimize polls and even election results that have not shown him ahead, including during the 2020 campaign, when he said he could only lose by fraud. After his loss to Biden, he made a series of spurious fraud allegations that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

He said Wednesday he did well in 2016, when he won the election, but “much better” in 2020, which he lost. The enthusiasm for the current campaign tops either, he said.

Trump also complained that Harris’ entry into the race, after President Joe Biden dropped out following a bad debate performance in June, was “a coup” against Biden.

Immigration claims

Trump spent much of the hour talking about immigration, an issue he has highlighted throughout his time in politics.

He repeated claims, without evidence, that immigrants entering the country illegally were largely coming from prisons and “insane asylums” and said terrorists were entering the country through the southern border.

He described immigrants as a threat to public safety and to safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security.

“These people are so bad,” he said. “They’re so dangerous. What they’ve done to our country is they’re destroying our country. And we can’t let this happen.”

He seemed to reference a viral claim that Venezuelan immigrants had “taken over” an apartment in Aurora, Colorado. Residents of the building have disputed that description.

Fracking and Pennsylvania

Playing to the audience of supporters in Pennsylvania’s state capital, Trump also attacked Harris for her former position on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a technique for extracting natural gas that is a major industry in the commonwealth.

Harris said during her short-lived campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2020 election she supported an end to fracking. Trump and Hannity brought that up several times Wednesday, with Trump saying it should disqualify her for voters in Pennsylvania, whose 19 electoral votes will be key in deciding the election.

“You have no choice,” he said. “You’ve got to vote for me, even if you don’t like me.”

Harris has said this year she does not support a ban on fracking.

More to come

The event was advertised as a town hall and Hannity several times said audience questions would be upcoming, but no members of the pro-Trump audience were given an opportunity to ask a question.

During the interview, Hannity acknowledged Dave McCormick, the Republican challenger to Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in one of the nation’s most competitive Senate races, in the crowd.

Hannity indicated at the end of the broadcast that taping would continue, with McCormick asking “the first question,” and air Thursday night. In an email following the event, Fox News spokeswoman Sofie Watson said the portion of the event with audience questions would air “later this week.”

(George Frey/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Latino voters are concerned with the high cost of living, the minimum wage and rising housing costs heading into the November elections, according to a comprehensive survey released Wednesday by UnidosUS, the largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy center in the nation.

“Laying out a coherent economic policy agenda that will resonate with Latinos … would go a long way, I think, for our community,” Janet Murguía, the president and CEO of UnidosUS, said on a call with reporters detailing the results of the survey.

The survey included 3,000 eligible Hispanic voters who were interviewed in either English or Spanish, from Aug. 5-23, with oversampling of residents of Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Florida, Texas and California. The poll, conducted by BSP Research, had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.

Murguía said Latinos are the second-largest voting-age population and 1 in 5 of them will be casting ballots for the first time in a presidential election this November.

“Top of mind are pocketbook issues,” she said. “Hispanic voters are most deeply concerned, like many of their fellow Americans, about the rising cost of living.”

Another issue that Latinos strongly supported is access to abortion. By a 71% to 21% margin, Latinos oppose abortion bans, according to the survey.

“They do not support making it illegal,” Murguía said.

Minimum-wage workers

Wages and jobs that provide economic security are a top priority for Latino voters, Gary Segura, who conducted the research poll for UnidosUS, said.

Latino workers are disproportionately workers who earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which has not increased since 2009. If the federal minimum wage had kept pace with inflation, it would be around $24 an hour, according to the AFL-CIO.

“The lived economy for Latinos is different than the lived economy for the nation as a whole,” Segura said.

Segura said during the poll, interviewers followed up with respondents on their concerns about jobs and wages and found that being able to afford necessities like food and housing were top issues.

“People are struggling to make ends meet,” he said.

The number one response was that “jobs don’t pay enough, or I have to take a second job to make ends meet,” Segura said. “We talk a lot about the low levels of unemployment in this society now, which is certainly good news, but the issue is that many of those jobs do not pay enough for the holder of that job to essentially pay their basic living expenses.”

Opinions on immigration

Murguía noted that immigration, which the Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, has made a core campaign issue, ranks fifth in priorities among Latino voters, tied with concern about gun violence and too-easy access to assault weapons.

“We want to be crystal clear that Latino voters overall are not buying into campaign tactics that demonize immigrants,” Murguía said. “They know the difference between those who mean us harm and those who are contributing to the fabric of our nation.”

Latino voters strongly support a legal pathway to citizenship for those in the  Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, referred to as Dreamers, and for long-term undocumented immigrants, the survey found.

Trump has promised mass deportations should he win a second term, a policy issue that has “virtually no support” by Latino voters sampled in the survey, Segura said.

Segura added that while Trump has campaigned on the issue, his promise to launch mass deportations is not particularly well known in Latino communities.

“Many of the people we speak to believe that (Trump) will do it if he can, but they just don’t actually believe that he can pull that off,” Segura said. “So there’s both a lack of awareness of these really draconian measures or proposals and then a lack of belief that they would actually come to pass.”

He added that he thinks it’s an opportunity for Democrats to campaign on the issue, but Vice President Kamala Harris has mainly criticized Trump for tanking a bipartisan border security deal.

“Our own results suggest that the primary border concern comes from voters who lean in the GOP direction in the first place, and so I don’t see a lot of movement there or a lot of risk for (Democrats), particularly in targeted advertisements and Hispanic voters,” Segura said.

‘Dismissive and diminishing language’

The poll found that 55% of those Latinos had not been contacted by either political party this year.

“We often hear a really dismissive and diminishing language about Latino participation in elections,” Segura said. “‘Latinos don’t vote as often as they should. Latinos will let you down’ and so forth, and no one ever wants to address the elephant in the room, which is that no one is asking Latinos to vote.”

The Harris campaign last month launched a bilingual WhatsApp campaign to target Latino voters. Michelle Villegas, the national Latino engagement director for the Harris campaign, said during a Hispanic Caucus meeting at the Democratic National Convention that the Latino vote is key to victory in three battleground states — Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

The survey also found that running mates had an impact on Latino voters. Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, gave her a 3-point boost, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, made his rating drop by 3 points.

“Vance has (a) negative impact on the Republican ticket, which is consistent with his low favorability among Latino voters,” according to the survey.

While Democrats have an advantage with Latino voters, and Harris has seen a boost in support compared to when President Joe Biden was in the race, she is still not reaching the levels of Latino support seen in previous elections, Clarissa Martinez De Castro, the vice president of the Latino Vote Initiative at UnidosUS, said.

“There is work to be done to reach the levels of support Democrats need and had achieved in previous elections, and more intense communication with these voters is needed, particularly on economic issues and immigration,” Martinez De Castro said.

Equis Research, which conducts research and polling specifically about Latino voters, found in a recent poll that Harris has gained significant support from Latinos but that Harris “remains a few points shy of what Biden received in 2020” across battleground states.

Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at the Enmarket Arena on Aug. 29, 2024 in Savannah, Georgia. Harris has campaigned in southeast Georgia for the past two days and on Thursday, she and running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, sat for an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash (Win McNamee/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday defended her values and vowed, if elected, to appoint a Republican to her cabinet in her first major sit-down interview since her presidential campaign began just over a month ago.

Harris, who rose to the top of the Democratic ticket after President Joe Biden dropped his bid in July, spoke to CNN’s Dana Bash in Savannah, Georgia, for roughly 30 minutes with her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz by her side.

The interview came a week after Harris formally accepted the party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Harris had recently become the target of criticism for not yet participating in an unscripted interview with a major news outlet.

Harris and Walz sat down with the network anchor Thursday afternoon in Georgia during a pause in the pair’s two-day bus tour through the southeastern region of the battleground state.

Harris told Bash that she envisions building an “opportunity economy” for the middle class, including expanding the child tax credit to up to $6,000, providing a $25,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers, and combating “price gouging,” to which Harris attributed high grocery prices.

The vice president ticked off Democratic accomplishments under Biden, including capping the price of insulin and reducing child poverty under a pandemic-era temporary expansion of the child tax credit that eliminated the work requirement and paid families in monthly installments.

“I’ll say that that’s good work, there’s more to do, but that’s good work,” Harris said.

The CNN anchor pressed Harris on her changes in policy positions, including immigration and fracking.

Republicans have pounced on Harris’ past statements and accuse her of changing her tune to appeal to more centrist voters. Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday dubbed her “FLIP-FLOPPING KAMALA” on his Truth Social platform, where the current GOP presidential nominee posts numerous times a day.

“​​Let’s be clear, in this race I’m the only person who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations who traffic in guns, drugs and human beings,” Harris said when asked about her past position on decriminalizing the border. “I’m the only person in this race who actually served a border state as attorney general to enforce our laws, and I would enforce our laws as president going forward, I recognize the problem.”

Harris also defended her switch from opposing fracking to supporting it.

“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed. I have always believed, and I have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real,” Harris said.

Despite attacks from Republicans, Bash noted that the Democratic National Convention featured quite a few speakers from the GOP side of the aisle.

Prompted to the idea by Bash, Harris said “it would be a benefit to the American public” to appoint a Republican to her administration cabinet, if elected — though she didn’t name names.

“I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion. I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences,” she said.

Harris brushes off Trump’s insults

The interview revealed for many that Harris and Trump have never met face-to-face.They will do so for the first time on the debate stage on Sept. 10, an event that will air on ABC News.

As for her thoughts on Trump, Harris told Bash that the former president is “diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans.”

When Bash asked Harris to respond to Trump’s attacks, including questioning her race, the vice president only briefly addressed them.

“Same old tired playbook, next question please,” she said.

Bash then moved to the topic of the Israel-Hamas war to which Harris responded that she is “unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself,” adding that “how it does so matters.”

She reiterated her plea for a peace deal that includes rescuing hostages who remain in Hamas captivity.

“​​A deal is not only the right thing to do to end this war, but will unlock so much of what must happen next. I remain committed, since I’ve been on October 8, to what we must do to work toward a two-state solution where Israel is secure, and in equal measure, the Palestinians have security and self-determination and dignity.”

Walz defense

Bash asked Walz to respond to controversy around how he described his military service that spanned more than two decades in the Army National Guard, but never included combat deployment. Questions arose when Walz said he carried weapons “in war” in a 2018 video where he was speaking about gun violence, according to The Associated Press.

Walz, who also worked as a public school teacher and high school football coach, said he misspoke and that his “grammar is not always correct.”

“I wear my emotions on my sleeve, I speak especially passionately about our children being shot in schools and around guns. So I think people know me. They know who I am. They know where my heart is, and again, my record has been out there for over 40 years to speak for itself,” Walz said.

Bash also asked Walz about his mix-up when describing he and wife’s fertility method; he said it was in vitro fertilization — a topic that has fractured anti-abortion voters — while in reality the couple used artificial insemination.

Walz told Bash, “I certainly own my mistakes when I make them.”

“I spoke about our infertility issues because it’s hell, and families know this. And I spoke about the treatments that were available to us, that had those beautiful children. That’s quite a contrast in folks that are trying to take those rights away from us,” he said.

Just as the interview ended, Trump posted to his Truth Social platform the word “BORING!!!”

A new poll of Americans across nine states by Heartland Forward finds that Americans are generally wary of artificial intelligence but are more positive about the potential in specific economic sectors (Getty Images).

A vast majority of Americans feel negatively about artificial intelligence and how it will impact their futures, though they also report they don’t fully understand how and why the technology is currently being used.

The sentiments came from a survey conducted this summer by think tank Heartland Forward, which used Aaru, an AI-powered polling group that uses news and social media to generate respondents.

The poll sought to learn about the perceptions of AI for Americans across different racial, gender and age groups in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Heartland Forward also held in-person dinners in Fargo, North Dakota and Nashville, Tennessee to collect sentiments.

While more than 75% of respondents reported that they feel skeptical, scared or overall negatively about AI, they reported more positive feelings when they learned about specific uses in industries like healthcare, agriculture and manufacturing.

Many of the negative feelings were about AI and work, with 83% of respondents saying they think it could negatively impact their job opportunities or career paths. Those respondents said they feel anxious about AI in their industries, and nearly 53% said they feel they should get AI training in the workplace. Louisiana respondents showed the highest level of concerns for job opportunities (91%), with Alabama showing highest levels of workplace anxiety (90%).

Respondents also had huge doubts about AI’s ethical capabilities and data protection, with 87% saying they don’t think AI can make unbiased ethical decisions, and 89% saying it doesn’t have the ability to safeguard privacy.

But when the pollsters told respondents about specific AI uses in healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, education, transportation, finance and entertainment, they got positive responses. The majority of respondents believe AI can have “beneficial applications” across numerous industries.

Nearly 79% of respondents felt AI could have a moderate or positive impact on healthcare, 77% said so about agriculture, manufacturing and education, 80% said so about transportation, 73% said so about finance and 70% said so about entertainment.

Very strong positive feelings about AI were less common, but some states stood out, seeing applications in dominant local industries. North Dakota showed more interest than others when it came to agriculture, with 35% of people seeing “very high” potential, compared to 19% in Oklahoma and 18% in Louisiana.

“It really shows us that one, education is important, and that two, we need to bring the right people around the table to talk about it,” said Angie Cooper, executive vice president of Heartland Forward.

The negative and positive sentiments recorded by the poll found very little variation between the gender, age and racial groups. The negative sentiments of AI’s impact on society were held across the entire political spectrum, too, Cooper said.

Another uniting statistic was that at least 93% of respondents believe that it’s at least “moderately important” for governments to regulate AI.

Cooper said that during the organization’s dinners in Fargo and Nashville — which brought investors, entrepreneurs, business owners and policymakers together — it was clear that people had some understanding of how AI was being used in their sector, but they weren’t aware of policies and regulations introduced at the state level.

Though there’s no federal AI legislation, so far this year, 11 new states have enacted laws about how to use, regulate or place checks and balances on AI. There are now 28 states with AI legislation.

“The data shows, and the conversations that we’ve had in Fargo and Nashville really are around that there’s still a lack of transparency,” Cooper said. “And so they believe policy can help play a role there.”

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.

Special Counsel Jack Smith is looking to reopen a case against former President Donald Trump, filing arguments on Monday, Aug. 26, with a federal appeals court of Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to dismiss it. Cannon, a Trump appointee, was nominated in 2020 and confirmed by the Senate (Drew Angerer/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith has asked a federal appeals court to reverse the dismissal of a case alleging former President Donald Trump mishandled classified documents at his Florida home after he left the Oval Office.

The appeals process could take months, likely closing the door on any movement in the classified documents case against Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, before November’s election.

Smith argued late Monday that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to toss the case was based on a “flawed” argument that Smith was illegally appointed to the office of special counsel.

Over an 81-page brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Smith cited statutes and a Watergate-era Supreme Court decision to argue the time-tested legality of U.S. attorneys general to appoint and fund independent, or special, counsels.

“In ruling otherwise, the district court deviated from binding Supreme Court precedent, misconstrued the statutes that authorized the Special Counsel’s appointment, and took inadequate account of the longstanding history of Attorney General appointments of special counsels,” Smith wrote.

Further, he warned, “[t]he district court’s rationale could jeopardize the longstanding operation of the Justice Department and call into question hundreds of appointments throughout the Executive Branch.”

Cannon, a federal judge for the Southern District of Florida, dismissed the classified documents case against Trump on July 15 — two days after Trump was injured in an attempted assassination in Pennsylvania and just as the Republican National Convention kicked off in Wisconsin.

Cannon is a Trump appointee who was nominated in 2020 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate later that year.

Trump had argued for the case’s dismissal in February.

Days before he was set to officially accept the party’s nomination for president, Trump hailed Cannon’s dismissal as a way to unite the nation following the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Cannon argued Smith’s appointment violated two clauses of the U.S. Constitution that govern how presidential administrations and Congress appoint and approve “Officers of the United States,” and how taxpayer money can be used to pay their salaries and other expenses.

Smith appealed her decision just days later.

Historic classified documents case

Smith’s historic case against Trump marked the first time a former U.S. president faced federal criminal charges.

A grand jury handed up a 37-count indictment in June 2023 charging the former president, along with his aide Walt Nauta, with felonies related to mishandling classified documents after Trump’s term in office, including storing them at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate. A superseding indictment that added charges and another co-defendant was handed up a little over a month later.

The classified documents case is just one of several legal entanglements for Trump, who became a convicted felon in New York state court in May.

The former president also continues to face federal criminal charges for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. That case has also been in a holding pattern for several months as Trump appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the charges should be dropped based on presidential criminal immunity.

The Supreme Court ruled in early July that the former presidents enjoy immunity for official “core Constitutional” acts and returned the case to the federal trial court in Washington, D.C.

Smith has until the end of August to assess how the immunity decision affects the election subversion case against Trump. A pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Sept. 5.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Biden administration plan to give deportation protection to undocumented people married to U.S. citizens for at least 10 years (David McNew/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — A Texas federal judge late Monday sided with 16-Republican led states to temporarily block a Biden administration program that grants deportation protections for undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens and a potential pathway to citizenship.

The ruling by Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, is an administrative stay, meaning no applications can be processed while the case is ongoing. The Department of Homeland Security began accepting applications last week.

“The claims are substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date,” Barker, who former president Donald Trump appointed, wrote in his order.

A DHS spokesperson said the agency will defend the program, known as Keeping Families Together, in court.

“Keeping Families Together enables U.S. citizens and their family members to live without fear of separation, consistent with fundamental American values,” a DHS spokesperson said. “The Department of Homeland Security will comply with the court’s decision, including continuing to accept applications, while we defend Keeping Families Together in court.”

DHS is still allowed to collect applications for the program, but not allowed to approve them, according to the order from Barker. Applications that have already been processed and a parole in place granted, are not impacted by the current stay.

The states, which filed the suit last week, are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

They are being represented by American First Legal, an organization established by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller — the architect of Trump’s hard-line immigration policies.

Those states argue that the Biden administration overreached its authority in creating the program and they argue the program would financially harm them if that group of undocumented people — roughly 500,000 — are allowed to remain in the country.

In his order, Barker set a court timeline that could deliver a decision by mid-October, right before the presidential election. Both sides have until Oct. 10 to submit their briefs.

“The court does not, however, express any ultimate conclusions about the success or likely success of those claims,” Barker wrote. “As with most administrative stays, the court has simply undertaken a screening, ‘first-blush’ review of the claims and what is at stake in the dispute.”

President Joe Biden in June unveiled the program, which is a one-time action that applies to long-term undocumented people married to U.S. citizens for 10 years as of June 17 this year. It also applies to their children. It’s expected to roughly include 50,000 children who are undocumented but have an immigrant parent married to a U.S. citizen.

The program allows for those undocumented spouses and their children to apply for a green card under certain requirements, which DHS will review on a case-by-case basis.

Under current U.S. immigration law, if a noncitizen enters the country without authorization, they are ineligible for permanent legal status and would need to leave the U.S. and then reenter through a green card application by their U.S. spouse. It’s a lengthy process that can take years.

Immigrants line up at a remote U.S. Border Patrol processing center after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 7, 2023, in Lukeville, Ariz. (John Moore/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Texas and 15 states Friday filed a suit in federal court to block the Biden administration’s program that protects some people in the country without authorization who are married to U.S. citizens from deportation and grants them a pathway to citizenship.

States in the suit, which was filed in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, argue that the Department of Homeland Security unlawfully created the program and that those 16 states will be financially harmed by its implementation.

“Longstanding federal law prohibits aliens who entered the United States unlawfully from obtaining most immigration benefits,” the suit reads. “This includes obtaining lawful permanent resident status — without first leaving the United States and waiting outside the United States for the requisite time — based on an approved family-based or employment-based visa petition.”

The other states in the suit are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment.

Applications for the program, known as a parole in place, opened last week.

The Biden administration created the program because under current U.S. immigration law, if a noncitizen enters the country without authorization, they are ineligible for permanent legal status and would need to leave the U.S. and then reenter through a green card application by their U.S. spouse, which is a lengthy process that can take years.

America First Legal is representing the states. The organization was established by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, the architect of the former president’s hard-line immigration policies.

The program is a one-time action and it applies to people who have been in the U.S. long term without legal authorization and who are married to a U.S. citizens.

It’s estimated that roughly 500,000 noncitizen spouses and their children will be eligible to apply for lawful permanent residence — a green card — under certain requirements. It’s expected to roughly include 50,000 children who are noncitizens and have an immigrant parent married to a U.S. citizen.

Those qualifications include that a noncitizen must have resided in the U.S. for 10 years as of Monday, June 17, 2024, and be married to a U.S. citizen since that date as well. That spouse who is a noncitizen also cannot be deemed a security threat.

A person holds a sign that reads “Mass Deportation Now” on the third day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 17, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Leon Neal/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — “Mass deportation now!” is a catchphrase for the Trump presidential campaign, as the Republican nominee proposes a crackdown on immigration that would oust thousands of undocumented people.

Often citing a deportation operation enacted by former President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s, former President Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed in campaign rallies that he plans to not only go back to the tough immigration policies of his first term in office, but expand them greatly.

“We’re going to have the largest deportation,” Trump said at a June campaign rally in Racine, Wisconsin. “We have no choice.”

The crowd responded with a chant: “Send them back. Send them back. Send them back.”

Mass deportation would be a broad, multipronged effort under Trump’s vision. The plan includes invoking an 18th-century law; reshuffling law enforcement at federal agencies; transferring funds within programs in the Department of Homeland Security; and forcing greater enforcement of immigration laws.

But whether a Trump administration could accomplish a mass deportation is doubtful. Historians, lawyers and immigration and economic experts interviewed by States Newsroom said removal of the more than 11 million undocumented people in the country would require enormous amounts of resources and overcoming legal hurdles. The effects on the U.S. economic and social fabric would be profound, they said.

“I don’t think it will happen,” Donald Kerwin, a senior researcher on migration at the University of Notre Dame, said of mass deportations. “But what it can do is it can make the lives of the undocumented and their families miserable.”

GOP support

Trump repeatedly has pledged mass deportation.

At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July, delegates waved “Mass Deportation Now” signs as Trump said “to keep our families safe, the Republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.”

In a March rally in Dayton, Ohio, Trump said some undocumented immigrants were not “people.”

“I don’t know if you call them people,” Trump said. “In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion, but I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say.”

Trump’s campaign message comes as the Biden administration has dealt with the largest number of migrant encounters at the southern border in 20 years and immigration remains a top issue for voters. 

However, since President Joe Biden signed a recent executive order, border crossings have fallen to their lowest level since he took office. 

The GOP and Trump have now set their sights on the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.

House Republicans already led a resolution disapproving of Harris’ handling of the southern border and labeling her the “Border Czar,” a title she was given by the media. Her campaign has argued she never had such an official title  and her involvement with immigration has been focused on root causes of migration in Central and South America, rather than domestic immigration.

Even though Biden is no longer in the race, and has undertaken his own crackdown on immigration, he warned in mid-June, during an announcement of protections offered for the spouses of long-term undocumented people, that Trump would undertake mass deportations.

“Now he’s proposing to rip spouses and children from their families and homes and communities and place them in detention camps,” Biden said of Trump. “He’s actually saying these things out loud, and it’s outrageous.”

How does the public feel?

Polls have found Americans are split on the idea of mass deportations but Republicans are more supportive.

A recent CBS News poll that found nearly 6 in 10 voters favor a new government agency that would deport all undocumented immigrants. Of those voters, one-third were Democrats and 9 in 10 were Republicans.

The Trump campaign did not respond to multiple requests from States Newsroom for comment on the specifics of how a second Trump administration would plan to carry out mass deportations.

The massive deportation campaign that Trump often cites in his campaign rallies was conducted under the Eisenhower administration in the summer of 1954, with a pejorative, racist name attached to it.

“Following the Eisenhower model, we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” Trump said at a September rally last year in Ankeny, Iowa.

But what the Trump campaign is proposing is not an Eisenhower-style crackdown, said Michael Clemens, a professor in the Department of Economics at George Mason University.

“That policy was instituted hand-in-hand with a crucial other arm of the policy,” he said — which was that lawful work pathways for Mexicans to the U.S. were nearly tripled at the same time as the mass deportations.

“We’ve heard zero about substantial increases in lawful migration pathways from the people who are now talking about an Eisenhower-style crackdown,” Clemens said. “What they’re proposing is not an Eisenhower-style crackdown — it is something that the Eisenhower administration understood would not work and therefore it did not do.”

Additionally, the Eisenhower program was not as successful as thought.

The Einshower administration claimed that it deported 1 million people back to Mexico, but the real number is a couple hundred thousand, said Eladio Bobadilla, an assistant history professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

“It wasn’t really about getting rid of immigrants in any real sense,” he said. “It was a way to sell to the American public that the problem had been solved.”

While one agency of the Eisenhower administration was deporting Mexicans — and often U.S. citizens of Mexican descent — another agency was sometimes bringing those same workers back in through the so-called Bracero program, which was created through an executive order by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1942.

States and local governments also worked in tandem with the 1950s deportation operation, something unlikely to happen under a second Trump administration, said David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

“You also had the cooperation of the employers in those areas, because the Eisenhower administration was totally explicit that all the people that we’re deporting, you’re gonna get workers back legally through the Bracero guest worker program,” said Bier.

Obama deportation

The most recent mass deportation campaign came during the Obama administration, said Clemens, who studies the economic effects of migration.

That was the Secure Communities program, which was a set of agreements between local law enforcement and federal level immigration enforcement officials such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Localities shared information about noncitizens who were encountered by local law enforcement, such as at traffic stops.

“Our most recent experience with mass deportation at the federal level, mostly under the Obama administration, directly harmed U.S. workers,” Clemens said.

The program was slowly rolled out, from 2008 to 2014, but over those six years nearly half a million workers were deported.

For every 10 workers who were deported, one U.S. job was eliminated, Clemens said.

“The net effect is that Secure Communities cost jobs for Americans across the country,” he said.

In a recent paper for the Center for Migration Studies of New York, Kerwin and Robert Warren found that mass deportations would financially harm U.S. families, especially the more than 3 million mixed-status families.

“The household income in those households plunges, and drops all of these families, or a high percentage of them, into poverty,” Kerwin said.

Of those mixed-status families, meaning some family members have different citizenship or immigration status, about 6.6 million members are U.S. citizens, said Warren, a senior visiting fellow at the center, a think tank that studies domestic and international migration patterns.

“So you say, ‘We took out one undocumented immigrant,’ but you damaged a family of U.S. citizens,” Warren said.

Expanded executive authority

The early architects of the Trump administration’s immigration policies such as Steven Miller and Ken Cuccinelli have laid out a second term that would expand the use of executive authority to carry out mass deportations and curtail legal immigration.

Such policies include limiting humanitarian visas and parole and moving to end Temporary Protected Status, known as TPS, said ManoLasya Perepa, policy and practice counsel with the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Like the first Trump administration, Perepa anticipates that there will be a slew of lawsuits to file injunctions, such as preventing the ending of TPS.

The Trump administration dealt with a flurry of lawsuits over an order to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects a little over half a million undocumented people brought into the United States as children without authorization.

The Supreme Court eventually blocked it and kept the program, but DACA is still at risk of being deemed unlawful in a separate suit that is likely to head again to the high court. 

“I think anybody with a status that keeps getting renewed is really, really at risk,” she said. “All you’re doing is driving people into the shadows.”

With the courts likely to get involved, Trump has said he wants to go back to his policy that expanded expedited removals, which means if an undocumented person is in the country for two years without a court hearing or any type of authorization, they can be deported without a hearing before a judge.

That type of removal is limited to 100 miles from a border zone, but the Trump administration expanded that to the rest of the country.

“The reality is, if the (Trump) administration increases interior enforcement, technically, all of these people could be detained,” Perepa said.

The Migration Policy Institute, a think tank that researches migration, has estimated that “the expansion of expedited removal to the U.S. interior could apply to as many as 288,000 people.”

Miller, a senior White House adviser during the Trump administration, said on the right-wing podcast “The Charlie Kirk Show” in November 2023 that the U.S. military would need to be involved for those mass deportations to Mexico, which is “why Trump has talked about invoking the Alien Enemies Act.”

“Because of the logistical challenges involved in removing…you would need to build an extremely large holding area for illegal immigrants that at any given points in time, you know, could hold upwards of 50, 60, 70,000 illegal aliens while you are waiting to send them someplace, somewhere that would be willing to accept them,” Miller said.

The Alien and Sedition Act, an 18th-century wartime law, allows the executive branch to deport any noncitizen from a country that the U.S. is at war with and deport any noncitizen deemed dangerous.

The law can also be used for extraordinary measures that are not deportation, including the last time it was invoked after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It led to the internment camps of more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent, more than half of whom were U.S. citizens, as well as German and Italian nationals, during World War II.

Trump has vowed to use a title within the Alien and Sedition Acts to target drug dealers, gang members and cartel members.

“I will invoke the Alien Enemy Act, to remove all known or suspected gang members from the United States ending the scourge of illegal alien gang violence once and for all,” Trump said at a campaign stop in Reno, Nevada.

Cuccinelli, a former attorney general of Virginia and acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Trump administration, wrote the policy section for the Department of Homeland Security for the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 – a conservative “battle plan” for the next Republican president.

In that section, he laid out recommendations for an incoming Republican administration to curtail the use of temporary work visas for workers in agriculture, construction and hospitality; prevent U.S. citizens from qualifying for federal housing subsidies if they live with someone who is a noncitizen; and require driver’s license information to be shared with federal authorities; among other policies.

The Heritage Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.

Punishing states

In a lengthy interview Trump conducted with Time magazine, he said he would withhold federal funding from states and local governments that don’t cooperate in deportation proceedings.

That could violate the 10th Amendment in the Constitution, said Mae Ngai, a historian and Asian American studies professor at Columbia University.

“States and municipalities cannot be coerced to enforcing federal laws,” she said, adding that immigration law is a federal matter. “You cannot force the police department or sheriffs … to pick up immigrants.”

State and local cooperation in detaining immigrants could be a challenge, said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute.

Legal challenges make it costly for local law enforcement to detain people solely to wait for immigration proceedings, and many local governments have decided not to hold people beyond their criminal detentions.

Funding issues

Deploying the military for immigration enforcement and constructing detention camps would also come with a large price tag.

Those large expenses would have to be approved by Congress, which may not be a willing partner.

There are ways to get around the legislative branch, such as reshuffling money within the Department of Homeland Security, but they come with downsides, Bier of the Cato Institute said.

“That’s politically risky because if there’s any kind of natural disaster, and you’re using money to deport people that can have some big blowbacks in the affected areas,” he said.

The Trump administration did this in 2019, when it transferred $271 million from the Federal Emergency Management Association to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It also transferred $23.8 million from the Transportation Security Administration to ICE.

Trump could also reassign law enforcement agencies to tackle immigration enforcement, Bier said, but he would face pushback from affected agencies that have their own priorities.

“They’re not going to want to cooperate with just giving up on everything they’re trying to do,” Bier said.

Syringes of COVID-19 vaccinations are filled during MU Health Care's vaccination clinic in the Walsworth Family Columns Club at Faurot Field in Columbia on Feb. 4, 2021 (Photo by Justin Kelley/MU Health Care).

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine intended to address severe symptoms of the virus ahead of the cold and flu season.

The new booster shots from Moderna and Pfizer follow a summer of increasing COVID-19 cases and are designed to better address the variants that are circulating now.

Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a written statement that vaccination “continues to be the cornerstone of COVID-19 prevention.”

“These updated vaccines meet the agency’s rigorous, scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality,” Marks said. “Given waning immunity of the population from previous exposure to the virus and from prior vaccination, we strongly encourage those who are eligible to consider receiving an updated COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants.”

Wastewater surveillance has been steadily increasing since early May and could rise further now that children throughout the country are returning to school.

The number of emergency department visits began increasing in May as well. And while the death rate from COVID-19 steadily decreased during the first half of the year, it began ticking up slightly in June, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The FDA announcement said that three doses of the updated Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or two doses of the updated Moderna vaccine are approved for unvaccinated children between six months and 4 years old.

Children between six months and 4 years old who have already received their COVID-19 vaccine are eligible to receive one or two doses or either updated vaccine. The dosing will depend on the timing and number of doses of their previous vaccination.

Children between 5 and 11 years old can receive a single dose of the updated vaccine, regardless of whether they’ve been previously vaccinated or not. If a child in that age range has been vaccinated against COVID-19, they need to wait at least two months before getting the updated dose.

Anyone over the age of 12 is eligible for a single dose of the updated vaccine if they’ve been vaccinated previously. They also must wait at least two months after their last vaccination.

Pfizer wrote in a statement that its “vaccine will begin shipping immediately and be available in pharmacies, hospitals, and clinics across the U.S. beginning in the coming days.”

Moderna said it expects its updated vaccine “to be in pharmacies and care settings in the coming days.”

Equifax credit files through June show that credit card delinquency is still rising. Americans’ total credit card balances are at $1.14 trillion, up 5.8% compared to a year ago, according to a recent report from the New York Fed (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images).

Americans are racking up credit card debt as they struggle to keep up with the cost of living, and experts say those who earn the least are the hardest hit.

Total credit card balances rose 5.8% from a year ago, to $1.14 trillion, according to a recent New York Fed report. Equifax credit files through June show that credit card delinquency is still rising but that delinquency on consumer finance loans and retail cards fell and auto loan delinquency was flat.

People use credit cards for all kinds of purchases, and despite the stereotype of consumers getting themselves into too much credit card debt so that they could buy a few extra flashy clothes or vacations, many of them are for necessities.

So what does it mean for the economy that the average rate for people with a credit card balance was 22.76% in May, that there is an expansion of financial tech products like “buy now, pay later,” and that many Americans find themselves unable to pay off that debt? It depends on your role in the economy, financial experts and economists say.

“If you’re in that half who’s paying your cards in full and taking full advantage of rewards and buyer protections, life is great for you. That’s a very different story from someone who’s trapped in that expensive cycle of 20 to 25 to 30% interest month after month,” said Ted Rossman, Bankrate senior industry analyst.

Still, the rate of growth in credit card debt has accelerated, which Rossman calls “potentially troublesome.”

It’s impossible to look at rising credit card debt without acknowledging the high cost of living, such as housing prices. The Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation, showed that in July, shelter increased 0.4% and made up 90% of that month’s rise in the all items index.

“Inflation is definitely contributing to higher balances. Even if it’s a category like rent, which most people are not putting on a credit card, if you’re getting squeezed on rent, you have less money to go around for groceries and gas and other things that maybe you are putting on a credit card now,” he said.

The Federal Reserve’s campaign to raise interest rates to bring down inflation also affects credit card debt and some economists say it is fueling economic inequality. Although the Fed paused rates last year, they are still fairly high and influence credit card rates. The Fed may cut rates in its September meeting if it continues to see cooling inflation data.

“People who rely on credit cards and other forms of borrowing to finance all sorts of things in their lives, whether that’s food or purchases for investments in their education or purchases for their home or their children, disproportionately folks who are poor – they’re really hurting because interest rates are really high,” said Rakeen Mabud, chief economist and a senior fellow at Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive think tank. “These interest rates are really taking a toll on people’s day-to-day ability to live and finance their lives. It looks to me that the high interest rates at this point are actually causing more pain than the inflation that it is trying to combat.”

In addition to the impact of the federal funds rate on credit cards, consumers are facing high annual percentage rate margins, or APR margins, which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said were an all-time high in a February report. The agency said rising APR margins are driving people into persistent debt and delinquency.

“Credit card companies are gouging consumers with record high APR margins, which sit on top of the Fed’s already high interest rates. Profiteering by credit card companies cost people an extra $25 billion last year and is yet another example of corporations using inflation as a cover to rip people off,” Mabud said.

A lack of competition in the credit industry doesn’t help matters for those struggling with credit card debt, added Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, which provides financial intelligence products.

“There is some evidence that there’s less competition in that market and that’s allowing credit card lenders to enjoy wide margins,” he said.

Mitria Wilson-Spotser, vice president and federal policy director at the Center for Responsible Lending, said she partly attributes the rise in credit card debt to some major credit card companies not reporting payment data, which does not make it to their credit reports, hurting their credit score and leaving them with higher credit card rates or extending credit without basing it on an ability to repay.

Consumers also have access to more financial tech products, like earned wage access programs, which let employees access their pay earlier for a fee, and buy now pay later products, said Wilson-Spotser. These products are not regulated in the same way as credit cards. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a rule in May to apply the same regulations to “buy now pay later” lenders as traditional credit cards.

“There’s no obligation to ensure an ability to repay for the consumer, so that debt, which is kind of this phantom in the room, is combining with credit card debt, which I think is probably one of the reasons why we’re seeing an increase in delinquency among some consumers,” she said.

Zandi said the people most likely to suffer financially from their credit card debt, lower-income people, only account for a sliver of the consumer spending driving the economy.

“[High interest rates] is adding to the pressure on households who have revolving debt, that aren’t paying off their cards and are using the card as a way to borrow money and have outstanding debt. So that’s a real problem for those households,” he said. “… The economy can move forward and be just fine even if the folks in the bottom third are struggling. The economy can’t flourish but it can do what it’s doing.”

That doesn’t mean the impact of the harms of high credit card rates and inflation, which is cooling but has done damage to households, will go unnoticed, however, Zandi said, alluding to building political pressure to improve people’s economic well-being.

“But the political and social implications are enormous. You can see it in our fracture of politics and what’s going on in terms of the presidential election,” he said. “… Politics has been affected by the fact that lower-income households have seen their share of the economic pie decline from where it was when it was at its peak back in the late 70s, early 80s.”

The welcome screen for the OpenAI “ChatGPT” app is displayed on a laptop screen in a photo illustration (Leon Neal/Getty Images).

The desire for artificial intelligence skills in new hires has exploded over the last five years, and continues to be a priority for hiring managers across nearly every industry, data from Stanford University’s annual AI Index Report found.

In 2023, 1.6% of all United States-based jobs required AI skills, a slight dip from the 2% posted in 2022. The decrease comes after many years of growing interest in artificial intelligence, and is likely attributed to hiring slowdowns, freezes or layoffs at major tech companies like Amazon, Deloitte and Capital One in 2023, the report said.

The numbers are still greatly up from just a few years ago, and in 2023, thousands of jobs across every industry required AI skills.

What do those AI jobs look like? And where are they based, exactly?

Generative AI skills, or the ability to build algorithms that produce text, images or other data when prompted, were sought after most, with nearly 60% of AI-related jobs requiring those skills. Large language modeling, or building technology that can generate and translate text, was second in demand, with 18% of AI jobs citing the need for those skills.

Those skills were followed by ChatGPT knowledge, prompt engineering, or training AI, and two other specific machine learning skills.

The industries that require these skills run the gamut — the information industry ranked first with 4.63% of jobs while professional, scientific and technical services came in second with 3.33%. The financial and insurance industries followed with 2.94%, and manufacturing came in fourth with 2.48%.

Public administration jobs, education jobs, management and utilities jobs all sought AI skills in 1- 2% of their open roles, while agriculture, mining, wholesale trade, real estate, transportation, warehousing, retail trade and waste management sought AI skills in 0.4-0.85% of their jobs.

Though AI jobs are concentrated in some areas of the country, nearly every U.S. state had thousands of AI-specific jobs in 2023, the report found.

California — home to Silicon Valley — had 15.3%, or 70,630 of the country’s AI-related jobs posted in 2023. It was followed by Texas at 7.9%, or 36,413 jobs. Virginia was third, with 5.3%, or 24,417 of AI jobs.

Based on population, Washington state had the highest percentage of people in AI jobs, with California in second, and New York in third.

Montana, Wyoming and West Virginia were the only states with fewer than 1,000 open roles requiring AI, but because of population sizes, AI jobs still made up 0.75%, 0.95% and 0.46% of all of the state’s open roles last year.

Though the number of jobs dipped from 2022 to 2023, the adoption of AI technologies across business operations has not. In 2017, 20% of businesses reported that they had begun using AI for at least one function of their work. In 2022, 50% of businesses said they had, and that number reached 55% in 2023.

For those that have incorporated AI tools into their businesses, it’s making their workers more productive, the report found. The report said studies have shown that AI tools have allowed workers to complete tasks more quickly and have improved the quality of their work. The research suggested that AI could be also capable of upskilling workers, the report found.

The report acknowledges that with all the technological advances that the AI industry has seen in the last five years, there are still many unknowns. The U.S. is still awaiting federal AI legislation, while states make their own regulations and laws.

The Stanford report predicts two futures for the trajectory of the technology — one in which the technology continues to develop and increase productivity, but there’s a possibility that it’s used for “good and bad uses.” In another future, without proper research and development, the adoption of AI technologies could be constrained, researchers said.

“They are stepping in to encourage the upside,” the report said of government bodies. “Such as funding university R&D and incentivizing private investment. Governments are also aiming to manage the potential downsides, such as impacts on employment, privacy concerns, misinformation, and intellectual property rights.”

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., right, is interviewed by Jonathan Martin of Politico near the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19 (Jacob Fischler/States Newsroom).

CHICAGO –– The leader of Democrats’ U.S. Senate campaign arm projected confidence Monday at a Politico event organized outside the Democratic National Convention, saying the party would sweep competitive races this cycle and retain control of the chamber with a win in the presidential race.

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told Politico’s Jonathan Martin that incumbents Jon Tester in Montana and Sherrod Brown in Ohio would overcome partisan disadvantages in their states to win reelection on the strength of their individual brands.

“Jon Tester is as authentic a person from Montana as you could possibly get,” Peters said. “He understands folks in Montana. He’s out in the community. Montana is a really big state geographically, but population-wise is smaller, and so he’s gotten to know a lot of folks in a more personal way that allows you to transcend some of that.”

Tester is being opposed by Republican Tim Sheehy, an entrepreneur and former Navy SEAL.

The same went for Brown in Ohio, Peters said.

“I’ve always said I don’t know if any Democrat can win Ohio, unless their name is Sherrod Brown,” he said. “Which is why I say, in this election, I have really good news for folks: I got a guy named Sherrod Brown who’s running in Ohio.”

Republican businessman Bernie Moreno is challenging Brown.

Democrats have no margin for error this Senate election cycle.

With the departure of Sen. Joe Manchin III, a West Virginia independent who was elected as a Democrat and is retiring rather than seeking reelection this fall, and no Republicans in seriously competitive states up for reelection, they must win the remaining competitive races. In addition, Vice President Kamala Harris must prevail in the presidential race to keep control of the chamber.

In addition to Tester’s and Brown’s races, Democratic incumbents are up for reelection in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Nevada, while retirements have created open races in Michigan and Arizona. Winning all seven would give Senate Democrats a 50-50 tie that could be broken with the vote of a Democratic vice president.

The races in Michigan, Montana and Ohio are rated “toss-up” by The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. The other four are rated “lean Democrat,” meaning the Democratic candidate is slightly favored.

Relationship with Arab American community

Peters said Harris should work to communicate with his state’s Arab American voters on the Israel-Hamas war.

The roughly 200,000 Arab American voters in Michigan make it unique among swing states.

Many of those voters opposed President Joe Biden’s aborted reelection race, and Peters said they should now listen to the new candidate at the top of the Democratic ticket.

“She is talking to a lot of folks who feel very frustrated that they’re not being listened to by folks — not just this administration but generally — about what’s happening in Gaza,” he said.

Peters said Harris has communicated that Israel has a right to defend itself against Hamas, “a horrible terrorist organization that has engaged in unspeakable atrocities,” but has also been sensitive to the “innocent folks caught in the middle.”

He said a cease-fire in the Middle East was needed.

Asked directly if Harris would differentiate her policy views from Biden’s, Peter said she would.

To win Michigan, Peters said it was important to authentically communicate her own message on that issue.

“It shows that she’s her own person, she thinks her own way,” he said.

The United Center in Chicago, where the Democratic National Convention is being held. (Jacob Fischler/States Newsroom).

CHICAGO — State legislators from across the country mingled Monday during a Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee meeting at the Democratic National Convention, where they overwhelmingly agreed that the new Harris-Walz presidential ticket has reenergized the party base.

“I think that there is a collective opportunity to bring a whole new set of Democrats, and voters in general, into understanding how really important their statehouses are, and building that for a future where voters better understand why their representation in their statehouses matters so much,” Heather Williams, the president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said in an interview with States Newsroom.

Democratic state lawmakers from states that typically lean Republican, like Iowa, Tennessee and Oklahoma, said they too have seen an increase in volunteers since Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race as the new Democratic presidential nominee. President Joe Biden stepped down from his reelection bid following a disastrous debate performance and pressure from top Democrats.

Tennessee state Rep. John Ray Clemmons, the House Democratic Caucus chair, said that he’s seeing volunteers not only on the national level, but for Tennessee state House races.

“With this new energy, comes new excitement, and people feel like there’s this new sense of hope and purpose,” he said.

He said the presidential race feels similar to former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Iowa state Senate Democratic Leader Pam Jochum said that she’s seen an uptick in people wanting to volunteer.

“Iowans are very excited,” she said. “It has spurred on additional fundraising, and we do have people who are … calling us and saying, ‘What can we do to help?’”

State lawmakers added that they’ve seen an even bigger boost in enthusiasm with Harris tapping Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

“We haven’t really felt that kind of hope and energy for a while,” Jochum said, adding that Walz “brings common sense and a real passion for our democracy and freedom, and compliments Kamala (Harris) really, really well.”

Oklahoma State Sen. Carri Hicks said that it’s been refreshing to see Walz on the ticket, “who is giving a different face of masculinity, embracing, supporting women … what I consider just true kindness and compassion, in his leadership style.”

Hicks said that Harris’ work on reproductive rights since Roe v. Wade was overturned, and Walz’s frequent mentions of his daughter Hope, who was born with the help of in vitro fertilization, have resonated with voters in her state.

“In my state Senate district, health care is the number one economic engine for the district that I represent,” she said. “So when you’re thinking about access to reproductive care, being able to build a family, I think that it humanizes that story that so many of my constituents have gone through, that so many Americans have gone through.”

In swing states, the reaction was much the same.

North Carolina state House Democratic leader Robert Reives said that reproductive right issues such as abortion, IVF and contraception have played a big part in voter turnout.

“What you definitely see, especially in urban areas, is a recognition by women of all ages that there is a war on women,” he said. “All these rights and opportunities that women should have are suddenly gone.”

Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate said that the energy around the Harris and Walz campaign has been a “shot in the arm.”

“I think we’re going to continue to see that trend just increase with Democrats from the top of the ticket all the way down,” Tate said, adding that he’s hoping to expand Democratic control in the statehouse, as well as have Michigan go blue for Harris.

Since Harris entered the race, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter moved several battleground states — Arizona, Georgia and Nevada — from “lean Republican” to a “toss-up. “

Harris and Walz have aggressively hit the battleground states already, with less than three months until November. During a Monday breakfast with Wisconsin delegates, another battleground state, Walz encouraged those delegates to keep campaigning until Election Day.

“We’ve got 78 days of hard work,” Walz said. “We can sleep when we’re dead.”

Workers on Aug. 15 prepare the United Center for the start of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The DNC runs from August 19-22 (Joe Raedle/Getty Images).

Democrats will gather in Chicago for their once-every-four-years convention, beginning Monday. Here’s a rundown:

What is it?

National political conventions are large gatherings of party officeholders, candidates and allies. They meet every four years to officially nominate candidates for president and vice president; to adopt a party platform, the list of policy proposals most party members agree on; and to celebrate and network.

This year, Vice President Kamala Harris has already been officially nominated through a virtual roll call vote earlier this month. A ceremonial roll call is still expected to be a part of the convention, and Harris will officially accept the nomination.

When should I tune in?

The convention runs from Monday, Aug. 19 to Thursday, Aug. 22.

Major news networks and a host of streaming platforms will broadcast the nightly events — usually speeches from high-profile members of the party — live. The prime-time program runs from 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday and 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Full schedules for prime-time speeches have not been disclosed, but the vice presidential candidate usually accepts the nomination on Wednesday night and the presidential nominee’s acceptance speech closes out the convention on Thursday night.

Former presidents and presidential nominees are also likely to have speaking roles.

During the day, delegates and party officials will hold various events and meetings, only some of which will be broadcast or even open to reporters, as the convention doubles as a huge networking event for Democratic politicians, strategists, activists and others.

How can I watch?

Network and cable news TV stations generally air the prime-time programming from start to finish.

National Public Radio will also broadcast much of the convention.

Convention organizers will also be livestreaming the event on a host of platforms, including YouTube, X and TikTok. A full list of official livestreams is available here.

Where is the convention this year?

Chicago is hosting the Democratic convention for the 12th time, the most of any city.

The major addresses in the evening will be at the United Center, an arena that fits tens of thousands for the city’s professional basketball and hockey teams, concerts or other events.

Daytime activities will be more spread out, with locations at McCormick Place, about 6 miles southeast of the United Center, and the River North neighborhood, about 2 ½ miles to the northeast.

How many people will be there?

About 5,000 Democratic delegates, who have the formal duty of voting to approve the nominees for president and vice president, are expected to attend.

A total of about 50,000 people could be in town for the event, according to the city.

Will any celebrities be there? 

The 2016 Democratic National Convention — the last in-person convention Democrats held, since they moved the 2020 version online in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic — that nominated Hillary Clinton featured celebrities including singer Katy Perry and screenwriter/actor Lena Dunham.

The Republican National Convention in July included appearances by musical artist Kid Rock and professional wrestler Hulk Hogan during prime time.

A full list of participants for the Democratic convention this year has not yet been shared, but that has not stopped some fans of major music acts from wishing they’ll see their favorites at the event.

Where can I find fair, fearless and free reporting about the convention?

Right here! And from your state’s newsroom, which you can find on this map. States Newsroom is sending multiple reporters to cover the convention and will have in-depth coverage of the major events and more.

Signs marking states’ seating sections are installed and adjusted ahead of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on Aug. 15, 2024 in Chicago. The convention will be held Aug. 19-22 (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Just a little over a month after she became a candidate for president in the biggest shakeup in generations of presidential politics, Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday will deliver a widely anticipated speech accepting the Democratic nomination at the party’s convention in Chicago.

Harris’ ascent to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden changed course and said he would not seek reelection has breathed new life into the Democratic bid, with polls showing Harris — who is already the party’s official nominee after a virtual roll call earlier this month — faring much better than Biden was against Republican rival Donald Trump.

Over the course of four days, Democrats will look to capitalize on their base’s newfound enthusiasm for the campaign, with leading speakers aiming to rally the faithful around the party’s positions on reproductive rights, gun safety and voting rights, while making a strong pitch to young voters. Harris will also be expected to further lay out her policy positions.

Harris’ nomination is historic. The daughter of immigrants, Harris is the first Black and South Asian woman selected to lead a major party ticket. She would be the first woman of any race to guide the nation as chief executive.

The party has not released an official detailed schedule of speakers, but a convention official confirmed that “current and past presidents are expected to participate in convention programming.” Biden and two former presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as former nominee Hillary Clinton, will all speak, according to the New York Times.

Vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is expected to address the convention Wednesday evening, with Harris’ acceptance speech closing out the convention Thursday, the convention official said.

The evening programming block will run from 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday and 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. the rest of the week.

In addition to the usual television broadcasts, the convention will livestream on several social media platforms, including YouTube, X, Instagram and TikTok. The official live stream will be available on DemConvention.com.

Scores of Democratic caucus and council meetings, as well as state delegation breakfasts and gatherings, are also scheduled throughout the week’s daytime hours. Media organizations and outside groups are also holding daytime events that will feature Democratic officeholders and candidates.

Protests are also expected over the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, with the backdrop of a delegation of uncommitted voters who oppose the war.

As many as 25,000 protestors are expected over the course of the convention, according to DemList, a newsletter for Democratic officials and allies.

A contest transformed

Harris’ entry into the race, nearly immediately after Biden announced on July 21 he would no longer seek reelection, energized Democrats distressed over Biden’s poor showings in polls against Trump, whose reelection bid Biden turned back in 2020.

A Monmouth University poll published Aug. 14 showed a huge jump in enthusiasm for Democrats. The survey found 85% of Democratic respondents were excited about the Harris-Trump race. By comparison, only 46% of Democratic respondents said in June they were excited about a Biden-Trump race.

Harris is also seeing better polling numbers in matchups against Trump, with battleground-state and national surveys consistently shifting toward the Democratic ticket since Biden left the race.

Polls of seven battleground states published by The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter on Aug. 14 showed Harris narrowly leading in five states — Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and tied in Georgia and trailing in Nevada. All were improvements from Biden’s standing in the same poll in May.

An Aug. 14 survey from Quinnipiac University showed Harris with a 48%-45% edge in Pennsylvania. The 3-point advantage for Harris was within the poll’s margin of error.

Democrats hope to carry the momentum through the convention. Polls typically favor a party during and immediately after its national party gathering.

Despite the recent polling, Harris and Walz continue to describe themselves as underdogs in the race.

Campaign themes

In her short time on the campaign trail, Harris has emphasized a few core messages.

She’s made reproductive rights a central focus, including the slogan “We are not going back” in her stump speech after describing Republicans’ position on abortion. Additionally, a Texas woman who had to leave the state for an emergency abortion will speak at the DNC, according to Reuters.

Harris has also played up her background as a prosecutor, drawing a contrast with Trump’s legal troubles.

Walz has highlighted his working-class background and military service, while attacking Republican positions to restrict reproductive rights and ban certain books in schools.

Walz’s first solo campaign stop since Harris selected him as her running mate was at a union convention, where he emphasized his union background as a high school teacher.

Walz was not initially considered the favorite to be Harris’ running mate, but his appeal as a Midwesterner with a record of winning tough elections and enacting progressive policies led to his selection Aug. 6.

Harris has faced criticism for not sitting down for a formal media interview or holding a press conference since she became a candidate.

Platform in flux

Democrats have not finalized their platform for 2024. Adopting a party platform is generally among the official items at a convention.

The party set a draft platform in July just eight days before Biden dropped his reelection bid. The document centered on the theme of “finishing the job” and mentioned Biden, then the presumptive nominee, 50 times and Harris 12.

Party spokespeople did not respond to an inquiry this week about plans for an update to the platform.

Reproductive rights will likely be a focus point of any policy wishlist.

Harris, during her time as vice president, has led the administration’s messaging on reproductive rights after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in the summer of 2022.

In her campaign speeches, she has often stressed the need to “trust women” and that the government should not be deciding reproductive health.

Harris has often promised that if she is elected, she will restore those reproductive rights, but unless Democrats control a majority in the U.S. House and 60 Senate votes, it’s unlikely she would be able to achieve that promise.

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in that Supreme Court decision, Democrats have campaigned on reproductive rights that expand beyond abortion and include protections for in vitro fertilization.

The 2020 party platform focused on recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, quality health care, investing in education, protecting democracy and combating climate change.

Democrats are likely to continue to criticize the Project 2025 playbook — a blueprint by the Heritage Foundation, a think tank, to implement conservative policies across the federal government should Trump win in November.

Trump has disavowed the document, but has not detailed his own policy plans.

Chicago conventions

The Democratic National Convention will take place in Chicago, a city with a long history of hosting the event. Democrats have held their convention in Chicago 11 times, first in 1864 and most recently in 1996.

This year’s will be the first in-person Democratic National Convention since 2016. It was upended due to the coronavirus pandemic and held virtually in 2020.

Throughout the four-day convention, there will be speeches and side events hosted by state Democratic party leaders.

The ceremonial roll call vote with delegates on the convention floor will take place Tuesday. The vice presidential nomination speech by Walz will be Wednesday night and on Thursday night, Harris will give her nomination acceptance speech.

The city is also preparing for massive protests from several groups on reproductive rights, LGBTQ protections, housing and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, according to WBEZ News. 

The City Council of Chicago in January approved a ceasefire resolution, with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson the tiebreaker, making it the largest city to call for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, in which more than 40,000 Palestinians have died.

The war followed an Oct. 7 attack from Hamas, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed in Israel and hundreds taken hostage.

Road to nomination

Harris’ acceptance speech will cap a five-year journey to her party’s nomination.

In 2019, the California senator announced a bid for president in the next year’s election, but dropped out before the first primary or caucus votes were cast after she failed to catch on with Democratic voters.

Biden later picked her as a running mate, and the two defeated Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence in the 2020 election.

Biden launched a reelection campaign for 2024, but stepped aside after a disastrous debate performance in June spurred questions about his ability to campaign and serve for another four-year term.

After Biden bowed out, Harris quickly secured 99% of delegates to become the party’s likely nominee. The virtual five-day vote secured her official nomination.

With less than three months until Election Day, Harris and Walz already have sprinted through battleground states including Arizona, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Their campaign has also pulled in more than $300 million, according to the campaign. Official Federal Election Commission records will be released in mid-October.

Harris and Trump have agreed to a Sept. 10 debate hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia. Trump proposed two more debates, and Harris has said she would be open to another one between the first debate and Election Day.

Walz and Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio have agreed to an Oct. 1 debate on CBS News, in New York City.

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence technology has made it easier to create believable but totally fake videos and images and spread misinformation about elections, experts say (Tero Vesalainen/Getty Images).

In June, amid a bitterly contested Republican gubernatorial primary race, a short video began circulating on social media showing Utah Gov. Spencer Cox purportedly admitting to fraudulent collection of ballot signatures.

The governor, however, never said any such thing and courts have upheld his election victory.

The false video was part of a growing wave of election-related content created by artificial intelligence. At least some of that content, experts say, is false, misleading or simply designed to provoke viewers.

AI-created likenesses, often called “deepfakes,” have increasingly become a point of concern for those battling misinformation during election seasons. Creating deepfakes used to take a team of skilled technologists with time and money, but recent advances and accessibility in AI technology have meant that nearly anyone can create convincing fake content.

“Now we can supercharge the speed and the frequency and the persuasiveness of existing misinformation and disinformation narratives,” Tim Harper, senior policy analyst for democracy and elections at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said.

AI has advanced remarkably since just the last presidential election in 2020, Harper said, noting that OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT in November 2022 brought accessible AI to the masses.

About half of the world’s population lives in countries that are holding elections this year. And the question isn’t really if AI will play a role in misinformation, Harper said, but rather how much of a role it will play.

How can AI be used to spread misinformation?

Though it is often intentional, misinformation caused by artificial intelligence can sometimes be accidental, due to flaws or blindspots baked into a tool’s algorithm. AI chatbots search for information in the databases they have access to, so if that information is wrong, or outdated, it can easily produce wrong answers.

OpenAI said in May that it would be working to provide more transparency about its AI tools during this election year, and the company endorsed the bipartisan Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act, which is pending in Congress.

“We want to make sure that our AI systems are built, deployed, and used safely,” the company said in the May announcement. “Like any new technology, these tools come with benefits and challenges. They are also unprecedented, and we will keep evolving our approach as we learn more about how our tools are used.”

Poorly regulated AI systems can lead to misinformation. Elon Musk was recently called upon by several secretaries of state after his AI search assistant Grok, built for social media platform X, falsely told users Vice President Kamala Harris was ineligible to appear on the presidential ballot in nine states because the ballot deadline had passed. The information stayed on the platform, and was seen by millions, for more than a week before it was corrected.

“As tens of millions of voters in the U.S. seek basic information about voting in this major election year, X has the responsibility to ensure all voters using your platform have access to guidance that reflects true and accurate information about their constitutional right to vote,” reads the letter signed by the secretaries of state of Washington, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New Mexico.

Generative AI impersonations also pose a new risk to the spread of misinformation.  In addition to the fake video of Cox in Utah, a deepfake video of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis falsely showed him dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.

Some misinformation campaigns happen on huge scales like these, but many others are more localized, targeted campaigns. For instance, bad actors may imitate the online presence of a neighborhood political organizer, or send AI-generated text messages to listservs in certain cities. Language minority communities have been harder to reach in the past, Harper said, but generative AI has made it easier to translate messages or target specific groups.

While most adults are aware that AI will play a role in the election, some hyperlocal, personalized campaigns may fly under the radar, Harper says.

For example, someone could use data about local polling places and public phone numbers to create messages specific to you. They may send a text the night before election day saying that your polling location has changed from one spot to another, and because they have your original polling place correct, it doesn’t seem like a red flag.

“If that message comes to you on WhatsApp or on your phone, it could be much more persuasive than if that message was in a political ad on a social media platform,” Harper said. “People are less familiar with the idea of getting targeted disinformation directly sent to them.”

Verifying digital identities 

The deepfake video of Cox helped spur a partnership between a public university and a new tech platform with the goal of combating deepfakes in Utah elections.

From July 2024, through Inauguration Day in January 2025, students and researchers at the  Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy and the Center for National Security Studies at Utah Valley University will work with SureMark Digital. Together, they’ll verify digital identities of politicians to study the impact AI-generated content has on elections.

Through the pilot program, candidates seeking one of Utah’s four congressional seats and the open senate seat will be able to authenticate their digital identities at no cost through SureMark’s platform, with the goal of increasing trust in Utah’s elections.

Brandon Amacher, director of the Emerging Tech Policy Lab at UVU, said he sees AI playing a similar role in this election as the emergence of social media did in the 2008 election — influential but not yet overwhelming.

“I think what we’re seeing right now is the beginning of a trend which could get significantly more impactful in future elections,” Amacher said.

In the first month of the pilot, Amacher said, the group has already seen how effective these simulated video messages can be, especially in short-form media like TikTok and Instagram Reels. A shorter video is easier to fake, and if someone is scrolling these platforms for an hour, a short clip of misinformation likely won’t get very much scrutiny, but it could still influence your opinion about a topic or a person.

SureMark Chairman Scott Stornetta explained that the verification platform, which rolled out in the last month, allows a user to acquire a credential. Once that’s approved, the platform goes through an authorization process of all of your published content using cryptographic techniques that bind the identity of a person to the content that features them. A browser extension then identifies to users if content was published by you or an unauthorized actor.

The platform was created with public figures in mind, especially politicians and journalists who are vulnerable to having their images replicated. Anyone can download the SureMark browser extension to see accredited content across different media platforms, not just those that get accredited. Stornetta likened the technology to an X-ray.

“If someone sees a video or an image or listens to a podcast on a regular browser, they won’t know the difference between a real and a fake,” he said. “But if someone that has this X-ray vision sees the same documents in their browser, they can click on a button and basically find out whether it’s a green check or red X.”

The pilot program is currently working to credential the state’s politicians, so it will be a few months before they start to glean results, but Justin Jones, the executive director of the Herbert Institute, said that every campaign they’ve connected with has been enthusiastic to try the technology.

“All of them have said we’re concerned about this and we want to know more,” Jones said.

What’s the motivation behind misinformation?

Lots of different groups with varying motivations can be behind misinformation campaigns, Michael Kaiser, CEO of Defending Digital Campaigns, told States Newsroom.

There is sometimes misinformation directed at specific candidates, like in the case of Governors Cox and DeSantis’ deepfake videos. Campaigns around geopolitical events, like wars, are also common to sway public opinion.

Russia’s influence on the 2016 and 2020 elections is well-documented, and efforts will likely continue in 2024, with a goal of undermining U,S, support of Ukraine, a Microsoft study recently reported.

There’s sometimes a monetary motivation to misinformation, Amacher said, as provocative, viral content can turn into payouts on platforms that pay users for views.

Kaiser, whose work focuses on providing cybersecurity tools to campaigns, said that while interference in elections is sometimes the goal, more commonly, these people are trying to cause a general sense of chaos and apathy toward the elections process.

“They’re trying to divide us at another level,” he said. “For some bad actors, the misinformation and disinformation is not about how you vote. It’s just that we’re divided.”

It’s why much of the AI-generated content is inflammatory or plays on your emotions, Kaiser said.

“They’re trying to make you apathetic, trying to make you angry, so maybe you’re like, ‘I can’t believe this, I’m going to share it with my friends,’” he said. “So you become the platform for misinformation and disinformation.”

Strategies for stopping the spread of misinformation 

Understanding that emotional response and eagerness to share or engage with the content is a key tool to slowing the spread of misinformation. If you’re in that moment, there’s a few things you can do, the experts said.

First, try to find out if an image or sound bite you’re viewing has been reported elsewhere. You can use reverse image search on Google to see if that image is found on reputable sites, or if it’s only being shared by social media accounts that appear to be bots. Websites that fact check manufactured or altered images may point you to where the information originated, Kaiser said.

If you’re receiving messages about election day or voting, double check the information online through your state’s voting resources, he added.

Adding two-factor authentication on social media profiles and email accounts can help ward off phishing attacks and hacking, which can be used to spread  misinformation, Harper said.

If you get a phone call you suspect may be AI-generated, or is using someone’s voice likeness, it’s good to confirm that person’s identity by asking about the last time you spoke.

Harper also said that there’s a few giveaways to look out for with AI-generated images, like an extra finger or distorted ear or hairline. AI has a hard time rendering some of those finer details, Harper said.

Another visual clue, Amacher said, is that deepfake videos often feature a blank background, because busy surroundings are harder to simulate.

And finally, the closer we are to the election, the likelier you are to see misinformation, Kaiser said. Bad actors use proximity to the election to their advantage — the closer you are to election day, the less time your misinformation has to be debunked.

Technologists themselves can take some of the onus of misinformation in the way they build AI, Harper said. He recently published a summary of recommendations for AI developers with suggestions for best practices.

The recommendations included refraining from releasing text-to-speech tools that allow users to replicate the voices of real people, refraining from the generation of realistic images and videos of political figures and prohibiting the use of generative AI tools for political ads.

Harper suggests that AI tools disclose how often a chatbot’s training data is updated relating to election information, develop machine-readable watermarks for content and promote authoritative sources of election information.

Some tech companies already voluntarily follow many of these transparency best practices, but much of the country is following a “patchwork” of laws that haven’t developed at the speed of the technology itself.

A bill prohibiting the use of deceptive AI-generated audio or visual media of a federal candidate was introduced in congress last year, but it has not been enacted. Laws focusing on AI in elections have been passed on a state level in the last two years, though, and primarily either ban messaging and images created by AI or at least require specific disclaimers about the use of AI in campaign materials.

But for now, these young tech companies that want to do their part in stopping or slowing the spread of misinformation can seek some direction from the CDT report or pilot programs like UVU’s.

“We wanted to take a stab at creating a kind of a comprehensive election integrity program for these companies,” Harper said. “understanding that unlike the kind of legacy social media companies, they’re very new and quite young and have no time or kind of the regulatory scrutiny required to have created strong election integrity policies in a more systematic way.”

Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears ahead of the start of jury selection at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 15, 2024 in New York City (Jabin Botsford-Pool/Getty Images).

Former President Donald Trump asked a New York court Thursday to delay until after November’s presidential election his sentencing for the 34 state felonies the court convicted him of in May.

Judge Juan Merchan scheduled a sentencing hearing for Sept. 18. But that date overlaps with early voting in the presidential election and gives Trump too little time to appeal a potential ruling against him on a request to vacate the conviction, which Merchan is scheduled to issue two days prior, attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote to Merchan in a letter dated Wednesday.

The one-page letter was not on the court’s official docket Thursday morning, but Blanche provided a copy to States Newsroom and said it had been filed with the court.

Merchan’s schedule is unrealistic and ignores several related issues, Trump’s attorneys wrote.

A sentencing proceeding could improperly affect voters’ perception of Trump leading up to Election Day, and Merchan’s daughter’s ties to elected Democrats could undermine the public’s faith in the court, they wrote.

While Merchan has rejected three requests from Trump that he recuse himself from the case because of his daughter’s employment at a company that produces advertising campaigns for Democrats, Trump’s lawyers said delaying the sentencing would help mitigate any potential appearance of a conflict of interest.

Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, continue to discuss the case on the campaign trail. And the founder of the firm where Merchan’s daughter works has expressed his support for Harris on social media, Blanche and Bove wrote.

Election entanglements

The Sept. 18 sentencing is also scheduled “after the commencement of early voting in the Presidential election,” they wrote.

“By adjourning the sentencing until after that election … the Court would reduce, even if not eliminate, issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings,” they wrote.

Pennsylvania law allows the earliest voting, according to a database compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Pennsylvania counties are permitted to hold early voting 50 days before Election Day, which is Sept. 16.

It is unclear if any counties in the key battleground state are planning to make voting available that soon.

No other states allow voting before Sept. 18, according to the NCSL database. Blanche did not answer an emailed question about what early voting he was referring to in the letter.

Presidential immunity

Trump’s attorneys said the sentencing hearing should also be moved to accommodate another issue in the case: Trump’s presidential immunity argument.

Trump has asked for his conviction to be overturned following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled presidents were entitled to a broad definition of criminal immunity for acts they take in office.

Merchan set a Sept. 16 date to rule on the request the state conviction be set aside, but Trump’s attorneys said that does not leave enough time for Trump to appeal a potentially unfavorable ruling on the immunity issue.

“The requested adjournment is also necessary to allow President Trump adequate time to assess and pursue state and federal appellate options in response to any adverse ruling,” they wrote.

The Supreme Court decision that established presidential immunity arose from a pretrial appeal, they wrote.

A New York jury convicted Trump in May of 34 felony counts of falsified business records, making him the first former president to be convicted of a felony. Trump was accused of sending $130,000, through attorney  Michael Cohen, to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the weeks before the 2016 election to buy her silence about an alleged sexual encounter years earlier.

Merchan initially set sentencing for July 11.

But after the Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that presidents enjoy full immunity from criminal charges for their official acts, the New York judge agreed to delay sentencing to first rule on how the Supreme Court decision affected the New York case.

While much of the conduct alleged in the New York case took place before Trump was in office, his attorneys have argued that the prosecution also included investigations into Oval Office meetings with Cohen that could be impermissible under the Supreme Court’s standard.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a Biden-Harris campaign and DNC press conference on July 17 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The press conference was held to address Project 2025 and Republican policies on abortion (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has agreed to a vice presidential debate on Oct. 1 hosted by CBS News.

In a statement, CBS News said it reached out to both presidential campaigns, but it’s unclear if the Republican vice presidential candidate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, will participate in the debate in New York City.

During a late Wednesday interview with Fox News, Vance didn’t confirm if he would partake in the debate, and instead noted he would have to agree to certain conditions.

“I strongly suspect we’re gonna be there on Oct. 1,” he said. “We’re not gonna walk into a fake news media garbage debate. We’re gonna do a real debate, and if CBS agrees to it, then certainly we’ll do it.”

The Donald Trump campaign did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment.

“See you on October 1, JD.,” Walz wrote on X, responding to CBS.

CBS News gave both campaigns four dates to choose among for a vice presidential debate — Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and Oct. 8.

Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris are scheduled for a presidential debate Sept. 10, hosted by ABC News.

The first presidential debate, hosted by CNN on June 27, led to President Joe Biden suspending his campaign after a disastrous performance that rattled his party’s confidence that the president could beat Trump in November.

In this year’s battle for control of Congress, Republicans aim to increase their slim majority in the House of Representatives and flip the Senate, while Democrats are hoping to hang onto their majority in the upper chamber and regain control of the House (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom).

WASHINGTON — The 2024 battle for control of Congress centers on just a handful of Senate races and about two dozen House seats, putting considerable pressure on those candidates to win over voters as party leaders and super PACs funnel millions of dollars into their campaigns.

The incumbents representing those states and congressional districts will spend nearly all of their time campaigning between now and Election Day, with Congress in session just three weeks ahead of Nov. 5. They’ll be fighting off challengers who will be on the home front the entire time.

Republicans aim to increase their slim majority in the House of Representatives and flip the Senate, while Democrats are hoping to hang onto their majority in the upper chamber and regain control of the House.

Experts interviewed by States Newsroom said the outcome will be determined by multiple factors, including turnout, ticket splitting and the trajectory of the presidential campaign, which underwent an abrupt change with the exit of President Joe Biden and the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate.

At stake is whether Harris or Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, faces a Congress friendly to their ambitions or another two years of a deeply divided government in the nation’s capital. Biden has struggled with a GOP House and a Senate narrowly controlled by Democrats during the past two years.

“There’s a lot of energy on both sides for these congressional races, because of just how close the margins are going to be in the House and Senate,” said Casey Burgat, assistant professor and legislative affairs program director at George Washington University.

Senate GOP control?

The Senate is trending toward a Republican majority, though that will be determined by voters in Michigan, Montana, Nevada and Ohio, all of which are considered toss-ups by the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, a respected non-partisan publication.

If the GOP picks up any one of those four seats, that would give Republicans at least a 51-seat majority in the chamber after winning the West Virginia seat that’s currently held by Joe Manchin III, thought to be nearly certain in the GOP-dominated state.

Democrats maintaining those four seats as well as three others classified as “lean Democrat” by the Cook Political Report would leave control of a 50-50 Senate to the results of the presidential election, since the vice president casts tie-breaking votes in that chamber.

The Senate map is highly favorable to Republicans, who are defending 11 seats in safely red states, while Democrats are trying to hold on to 23 seats, with seven of those in purple states.

While the entire 435-member House of Representatives is up for reelection every two years, senators are elected to six-year terms, leaving about one-third of the chamber up for reelection in evenly numbered years.

Eyes on Montana

Robert Saldin, professor of political science at the University of Montana, said during an interview that Democratic Sen. Jon Tester will need to get voters in the state who support Trump to split their tickets if Tester is going to secure reelection.

“One of the secrets to Tester’s success over the years is that he has been able to distinguish himself from stereotypes of the national Democratic Party,” Saldin said. “And that’s going to be really important again, obviously, because Trump is on the ticket, and is certainly going to carry the state by a very wide margin.”

Republican challenger Tim Sheehy could potentially have a bit of an easier time getting elected this November in the deeply Republican state, he said.

“All he has to do is get people who are voting for Trump to also vote for him. And in fact, he can probably lose some tens of thousands of voters and still be okay,” Saldin said.

Sheehy, however, is somewhat disadvantaged by not having run in a competitive GOP primary, leaving him to move directly into a high-stakes general election.

“He is a political novice,” Saldin said. “He didn’t have a practice run in the primary. And here he is fresh out of the gate in one of the most expensive, most watched, most hyped Senate elections in the country. And so he’s having to learn as he goes.”

One factor that could benefit Tester over Sheehy is a ballot question addressing abortion access in the state that is likely to go before voters in November, Saldin said.

“That should give at least a little nudge in the direction of the Democrats,” Saldin said.

A dozen other states have approved or could approve abortion ballot questions, including Arizona, Florida, Maryland and Nevada.

In Ohio, edging away from national politics

Paul A. Beck, academy professor of political science at The Ohio State University, said Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has sought to separate himself from national political figures throughout this reelection bid.

“I think he really wants to make this a local contest, a statewide contest, not a national contest,” Beck said. “And so he’s going to do everything he can to not appear on the stage with the Democratic nominees for president, and everything he can to try to define himself as somebody who is above partisan politics.”

Brown was elected to the House in 1992 before winning election to the Senate in 2006. He secured reelection in 2012 and 2018, though Republican candidate Bernie Moreno is looking to end that streak this year.

Beck said a ballot question about redistricting could help boost turnout, potentially increasing Brown’s chances.

“It’s going to energize voters and is going to produce higher turnout on the left than it will on the right, and that could be a factor in 2024,” Beck said.

Incumbent clout

Sitting members of Congress have historically held an advantage that may help the party that holds more members seeking to return to Capitol Hill for the 119th Congress.

“Reelection rates in the House have never dropped below 85%, and have recently stretched to highs of 98% in 2004 and 97% in 2016,” according to analysis from Miro Hall-Jones at OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan organization that reports on the role of money in U.S. politics. “While the Senate is more susceptible to shifts in public opinion — reelection rates dropped as low as 50% in 1980 at the dawn of the Reagan Revolution — incumbent senators have retained their seats in 88% of races since 1990.”

Every single one of the 28 senators seeking reelection two years ago was able to convince voters in their home states to give them another term, marking the first time that happened in American history, according to the analysis.

Michigan and Arizona Senate races could then present a bigger challenge for Democrats, since both those seats are open due to the upcoming retirements of Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Arizona independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

Michigan is currently rated as a toss-up by the Cook Political Report while Arizona is rated as “lean Democrat.”

In the House, the 11 seats held by Republicans and considered by the Cook Political Report to be toss-ups all are held by an incumbent seeking reelection, while two of the Democrats’ 11 toss-up seats are open.

House majority

The contest for who controls the House after November is “razor thin,” said Burgat from George Washington University. With Republicans holding on by a slim margin, Democrats only need a net gain of four seats to capture the majority.

“Whether it goes Democratic or Republican, it’s not going to be by much,” Burgat said.

While Democrats and Republicans will focus much of their attention on the 22 toss-up races, they’ll also be funneling resources toward the campaigns that are rated as only leaning in their direction, as opposed to being likely or solid seats.

The Cook Political Report has eight seats held by GOP lawmakers as leaning in Republicans’ favor while 14 races, all Democratic-held seats except one, are in districts that “lean Democrat.”

That makes a total of about 44 competitive House races, according to the Cook Political Report’s analysis.

Among the closely watched congressional districts:

• Both parties are eyeing open seats in California, Colorado, Michigan and Virginia.

• Michigan’s 7th and 8th districts, respectively opened by Democrats Elissa Slotkin, who is seeking the state’s open Senate seat, and the retiring Dan Kildee, are rated by the Cook Political Report as toss-ups.

• Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, being vacated by Democrat Abigail Spanberger, who will focus on a run for governor, is expected to lean blue.

• California Democratic Rep. Katie Porter’s district also leans towards Democrats. Porter decided to leave the seat for an unsuccessful Senate run.

• Colorado’s 3rd, abandoned by Republican Lauren Boebert, who shifted to a friendlier district, leans Republican, according to the Cook Political Report.

• One open seat each in Maryland and New Hampshire is rated as likely Democrat by the prognosticator.

DCCC ads

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is throwing big money where races are competitive, zeroing in on 15 media markets including those in Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The official campaign arm of House Democrats announced a $28 million initial ad buy in June, spending double on digital ads compared to 2022, according to the organization.

The DCCC maintains that House Democrats “have always had multiple paths to reclaim the majority in November — including our 27 Red to Blue candidates in districts across the country working to defeat extreme Republicans who are out-of-touch with their communities,” spokesperson Viet Shelton told States Newsroom in a written statement.

Shelton said voters are “fed up with these politicians who are more interested in obeying Trump, voting for abortion bans, and giving tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations, while ignoring the needs of the middle class.”

The DCCC sees pickup opportunities in the 16 districts Biden won in 2020 that are currently held by Republicans.

Among them are five seats in California, four in New York, two in Arizona, and one respectively in New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Nebraska also saw incumbent GOP Rep. Don Bacon’s district go to Biden.

The switch to Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket could boost challengers in heavily college-educated districts, according to the Cook Political Report’s latest analysis of the field.

Those include Arizona’s 1st Congressional District held by GOP Rep. David Schweikert, New Jersey’s 7th occupied by freshman Thomas Kean Jr., and New York’s 17th held by Mike Lawler, also in his first term. All are rated as Republican toss-ups by the Cook Political Report.

Frontline candidates

But the DCCC campaign has vulnerable Democratic incumbents to worry about as well. The organization has identified 31 as “frontline” members, meaning their purple districts are what campaigners describe as “in play.”

Among them is 40-year Democrat Marcy Kaptur, who has held Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, in the state’s northwest region, since 1983.

Other vulnerable Democrats include Reps. Yadira Caraveo in Colorado’s 8th, Jared Golden in Maine’s 2nd, Don Davis in North Carolina’s 1st, Gabe Vasquez in New Mexico’s 2nd, Emilia Sykes in Ohio’s 13th, Susan Wild and Matt Cartwright in Pennsylvania’s 7th and 8th districts, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in Washington’s 3rd.

The National Republican Congressional Committee did not respond to requests for comment, but the House GOP campaign arm announced in late June a $45.7 million initial ad buy across 29 media markets, with large chunks going to metro areas in Los Angeles; New York City; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Anchorage, Alaska; Denver, Colorado; Detroit, Michigan; Portland, Oregon; and Omaha, Nebraska.

The ad buy — an offensive to “to grow our majority,” NRCC Chair Richard Hudson said in a press release — will specifically target 13 districts currently held by Democrats.

The virus, also referred to as bird flu or H5N1, has been found in wild bird and domestic poultry flocks within the United States for years. But the ongoing outbreak in dairy cattle has forced animal and human health experts to establish testing for a new community of agriculture workers and livestock (Spencer Platt/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON —  The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to embark on a year-long study beginning next month that will test samples for evidence of highly pathogenic avian influenza from former dairy cattle moved into meat production.

Emilio Esteban, the under secretary for food safety at the USDA, told reporters on a call Tuesday the new testing program follows three studies undertaken during the spring and summer that all found beef in the nation’s food supply is safe to eat.

“However, we want to move forward with an additional step,” Esteban said. “And what this means is that when those carcasses are tested, they are held and are not going to go into commerce until we get the results back.”

The virus, also referred to as bird flu or H5N1, has been found in wild bird and domestic poultry flocks within the United States for years. But the ongoing outbreak in dairy cattle has forced animal and human health experts to establish testing for a new community of agriculture workers and livestock.

The news of additional testing for the country’s meat supply came alongside the results of a study from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that reinforced the safety of pasteurized dairy products.

Steve Grube, chief medical officer for the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said that the most recent round of dairy product testing included 167 foods that were processed in 27 states in June and July.

“None of the product samples contained viable H5N1, reaffirming that pasteurization is effective,” he said. “The second survey was intended to address geographic and product gaps from the initial sampling of the commercial milk and dairy product supply that the FDA conducted during April and May.”

Testing milk in bulk tanks

Federal officials have also launched a voluntary program for farmers to test the milk in bulk tanks for H5N1, a step that’s intended to make it easier for them to move their cows between states without having to individually test each one.

Eric Deeble, deputy under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs at USDA, said the department’s Farm Service Agency has approved 23 of the 35 applications it has received so far to help ease the financial burden on dairy farmers who take their herds out of production after testing positive.

The program — known as Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-raised Fish — has approved more than $1 million in payments.

The price paid to farmers is based on a formula that includes the price of milk from the preceding month as well as the number of dairy cattle that contract H5N1.

Deeble said on the call with reporters that of the approved applications, a dozen are from Colorado, which has seen a sharp increase in the number of positive H5N1 tests within its dairy industry.

Deeble argued the uptick is due to certain factors within the state and cautioned people against assuming that if testing was increased in other areas of the country, the number of positive H5N1 tests for dairy cattle would spike.

“I don’t think that it is accurate necessarily to extrapolate from the situation in Weld County, Colorado,” Deeble said. “Weld County and Colorado dairy in particular is rather unique in the degree to which the dairies are all closely associated with one another; both spatially and the way in which there is a lot of movement between the facilities.”

“It is a tightly integrated dairy community that’s isolated from much of the rest of the state, and there is a lot of connectivity between the premises in the way in which they use vehicles, support services, milk trucks,” Deeble added.

During the last 30 days, five states have had dairy cattle test positive for H5N1, including Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota and Texas.

Colorado holds a disproportionate number of cases with 26 of the dairy herds to test positive, while the other four states combined hold a total of six herds.

Other mammals diagnosed with H5N1 during the last six weeks are overwhelmingly in Colorado, which has found the virus in house mice, deer mice, domestic cats, a desert cottontail and a prairie vole.

Effect on cats

Public health officials said during the call Tuesday they are beginning to look more closely at when and why cats are being affected by the spread of H5N1.

Barn cats as well as those that hunt outside, coming into regular contact with wild birds that hold a reservoir of H5N1, have tested positive for the virus before.

But a report from the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association earlier this month noted that two of the six cats diagnosed with H5N1 in that state this year “were indoor only cats with no direct exposures to the virus.”

Public health officials on the call were unable to answer a question about how indoor-only cats would have come into contact with H5N1.

Experts on the call cautioned that as fall approaches, wild birds will begin migrating and dairy farmers will likely ship their cattle at higher rates, both of which could lead to an uptick in the number of positive cases of H5N1 being reported in dairy cattle as well as other animals.

Lia Chien contributed to this report. 

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.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent walks along the U.S.-Canada border in upstate New York (James Tourtellotte/Department of Homeland Security).

WASHINGTON – While much of U.S. border security talk focuses on the southwest corner of the country, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan bill in June aimed at a different target —  growing migration along the U.S.-Canada border.

The legislation, titled the Northern Border Coordination Act, was co-authored by Sens. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat. The measure would hire additional U.S. Border Patrol agents for critically understaffed areas of the northern border and establish the Northern Border Coordination Center at Selfridge Air National Guard Base near Detroit to coordinate border security strategy.

The Senate passed the measure by unanimous consent, but the House has not acted on it.

The northern border is the longest international border in the world at just over 5,500 miles, divided into eight patrol sectors comprising 49 official border crossing stations.

It is also largely undefended.

Much of the border is undefined and unobstructed, marked only by a 6-foot clearing, or vista, that follows the length of the border, hundreds of white markers, and naturally occurring boundaries like streams or lakes.

Illegal crossings up

There has been growing attention from northern-state lawmakers in recent years over increased attempted illegal border crossings as migration from Latin America grows due to economic and political conditions.

In 2023, CBP encountered almost 190,000 individuals attempting to cross from Canada to the United States. That’s almost seven times more than in 2021.

CBP encountered almost 2.5 million individuals on the southern border in 2023.

The Swanton Sector, a 24,000-square-mile area spanning the northern borders of eastern New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire, has seen the highest number of illegal crossings. From October 2022 to September 2023, CBP saw a 550% increase in apprehensions of people crossing from Quebec into the sector.

Encounters are when border officials catch individuals illegally crossing from one country to another either at or between ports of entry. Individuals can then be sent back to their country of origin, Canada, or released into the U.S.

Collen Putzel, an associate policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning immigration policy think tank, said in an interview with States Newsroom that encounter numbers don’t perfectly reflect the number of people entering the U.S.

“The encounter numbers may be increasing, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the number of people actually entering are increasing,” Putzel said.

Understaffed

Staffing on the northern border remains a critical issue in maintaining border policies and security. The U.S. Government Accountability Office conducted a study in 2019 and found there were “an insufficient number of agents that limited patrol missions along the northern border.”

GAO attributed many of the staffing shortages to be a result of “competing priorities along the U.S.-Mexico border.”

A CBP spokesperson told States Newsroom in a written statement that more congressional support is needed to address northern border issues.

“CBP continuously adjusts to shifting trends while continuing to call on Congress to provide the resources and personnel necessary to sustain and improve our border security along all our borders,” the spokesperson said.

Peters said his bill with Collins would help solve staffing shortages.

“This legislation will further cement the center’s role in coordinating border security efforts, supporting personnel training and conducting testing for new border security technologies,” he said in a press release from Collins’ office.

Routes set by smugglers

Most of the people crossing the border come from areas outside Canada. About half come from Mexico, CBS News Boston reported. Others are from India, Bangladesh and Haiti.

Many buy one-way plane tickets to Toronto or Montreal.

The increased movement of people through Canada could be fueled by smuggling operations, Putzel said.

“Oftentimes, migration routes are, in part, dictated by the smuggling networks that are controlling them,” she said.

In February, Canada changed a visa rule for Mexican nationals, requiring citizens to obtain a Canadian or U.S. travel visa before entering Canada. Previously, no visas were required.

Canada has seen an increase in Mexican migrants claiming asylum over the past decade. In 2015, only 110 people from Mexico applied for asylum. At the end of 2023, almost 24,000 applied, the majority filing their claims from airport offices, according to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Department.

National security vulnerabilities

With more people moving from Canada into the U.S., the situation at the northern border has grown more precarious, prompting bills like the Northern Border Coordination Act, which was introduced in July 2023.

In 2023, the CBP Office of Field Operations, which monitors the border at ports of entry, encountered 484 individuals on the terrorist watchlist attempting to cross into the U.S. from Canada. That’s almost nine times more than in 2021, according to CBP data. Officials on the southern border only encountered 80 people on the watchlist in 2023.

Authorities have also encountered more drugs being brought over the northern border. According to the CBP, drug seizures in 2023 were up by about 29% from 2021 levels. Marijuana was the most common drug officers found, with just under 3,500 seizures in 2023 compared to just under 2,000 in 2021.

But weapons and ammunition seizures have decreased in recent years. In 2021, CBP seized over 9,000 weapons, ammunition, and gun parts. In 2023, that figure was down to just over 4,000.

Rep. Shri Thanedar, a Democrat who represents part of the Detroit area along the northern border, said in a statement to States Newsroom that the Collins-Peters proposal “is essential to address the rising national security threat along the northern border.”

“I firmly believe this strategic investment will benefit the safety of communities within Michigan’s 13th Congressional District,” Thanedar said.

Economic factors push more migrants to U.S. 

The U.S. may be more appealing to migrants than Canada because of culture and the job market, Silvia Pedraza, a professor of sociology and American culture at the University of Michigan, said. Immigrants are more likely to get jobs in the U.S. than Canada, she said.

“In Canada, people (immigrants) don’t get decent jobs. They (Canadians) treat them nicely. They’re even, I would say, hospitable and warm,” said Pedraza. “The fact of the matter is that they don’t give them any jobs that are worth anything.”

“We (the U.S.) don’t give them papers, but we give them jobs,” she said, acknowledging the better job prospects immigrants seek to support themselves and their families.

But Pedraza also thinks that Americans should recognize the positive economic impact immigrants bring.

She said with U.S. citizens’ increasing levels of education, they are less willing to work jobs in the service industry, construction, and agriculture. In recent years, immigrant workers have begun to make up significant populations in these industries, according to a study by Pew Research Center.

“We don’t seem to recognize that we have a real need, a real lack of people in these sorts of jobs that are essential to the economy,” said Pedraza.

Pedraza emphasized that the U.S. is a country built on immigration and that intense media coverage of the southern border won’t help solve the crisis.

“It’s such a negative portrayal all the time that doesn’t see the value of what immigrants bring to a country,” she said.

People with symptoms of Long COVID attend a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing on Long COVID in January. A group of senators is now urging the Social Security Administration to grant greater access to disability payments for people with Long COVID symptoms (Drew Angerer/Getty Images).

Several U.S. senators have called on the Social Security Administration to take steps to make it easier for people with Long COVID to access disability benefits, actions that disability rights advocates and patients say are desperately needed.

Sens. Tim Kaine , Ed Markey, Tammy Duckworth, Bernie Sanders, Tina Smith, Angus King, and Richard Blumenthal signed the letter released on Monday. They said the agency should make the process more transparent, track and publish data on Long COVID applications, and consider expanding the listing of impairments the SSA considers in applications for benefits.

“In some situations, these symptoms can be debilitating and prevent an individual from being able to work, take care of their family, manage their household, or participate in social activities,” the senators wrote to SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley.

Long COVID is a chronic health condition, which often includes fatigue, brain fog, and shortness of breath, following a COVID-19 infection. About three in 10 American adults have had Long COVID at some point, according to KFF’s April analysis of Long COVID data. About 17 million people had it in March 2024. In 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released guidance on Long COVID as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Kaine has been outspoken about his own experience with Long COVID and Sanders introduced legislation this month to provide $1 billion in funding each year for 10 years to support Long COVID research by the National Institutes of Health.

Lisa McCorkell, co-founder of the Patient Led Research Collaborative, a group of Long COVID patients and patients with associated illnesses, told States Newsroom, that creating a ruling or listing would be a huge improvement.

“Having that specific guidance for how to document Long COVID, its related diagnoses, and its associated impairment wo in uld assist physicians who may not be as knowledgeable about Long COVID,” she said.

The SSA administers disability benefits through Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs. The former program requires past employment payment into Social Security. The latter one does not have those restrictions and is based on financial need but to receive benefits, applicants have to prove they qualify as having a disability. The average monthly disability benefit for Social Security Disability Insurance is $1,538.

Long COVID’s economic cost

Researchers and economists are still trying to understand the full impact of COVID-19 infections and Long COVID on the workforce. A 2023 study estimated that COVID-19 brought down the labor force by 500,000 people and that the average loss of labor is equivalent to $9,000 in earnings. More than 25% of people with Long COVID said their condition had an impact on their employment or work hours, according to a 2022 Minneapolis Fed paper.

Long COVID is not going to go away, particularly as government protections on the federal, state, and local level to reduce the spread of COVID are “severely lacking,” said Marissa Ditkowsky, who serves as the disability economic justice counsel at the National Partnership for Women & Families, an organization focused on health, economic justice, and reproductive rights for women and families.

“While COVID continues to be a reality, we know that COVID disproportionately impacts women, disabled folks, and people of color, and the folks who are most impacted already have issues with access to appropriate health care, access to employment, and access to equitable wages,” said Ditkowsky, who has Long COVID. “A lot of folks might be working in low-wage jobs where they’re in the service industry and constantly out there and more likely to contract COVID. It starts not just with the programs for how to deal with folks with Long COVID, but how to prevent people from getting Long COVID.”

In the meantime, she said people with Long COVID, as well as other people with disabilities, would benefit from the changes senators are advocating, such as restoring the treating physician rule, which was repealed in 2017. The rule allowed the agency to give greater weight to medical evidence from a physician who treated a patient for years compared to, say, a doctor who examines a patient once.

“Giving your own doctor the weight [they] deserve is huge,” Ditkowsky said.

Mia Ives-Rublee, senior director of the disability justice initiative at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, said there is an opportunity for the Biden administration or the next administration to revamp how the agency administers disability benefits.

She said that given the aging population, there is more reason than ever for the agency to make significant improvements to the application process. Advocates for people with disabilities say it’s also imperative to boost funding for the agency.

“Not only are we seeing an increase in disability in younger folks, but we’re also looking at the big boomer generation getting older … We’re going to see a huge pressure on the [SSA] and we need to see real changes and funding and think of ways to manage the wide variety of experiences that people have in order to deal with differences in applying for these benefits,” she said.

(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. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson listen during during remarks at a Capitol Menorah lighting ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 12, 2023. The leaders have presided over a Congress that has enacted just 78 laws since forming in January 2023 (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Congress plans to spend just 35 days between now and the end of the year in the nation’s capital, a fitting end to one of the least productive sessions in decades.

The deeply divided 118th Congress so far has placed just 78 public laws on the books, a fraction of the hundreds enacted during prior sessions, regardless of whether one party held control or voters elected a divided government. While there’s time left to enact a handful of laws, the number is nearly certain to remain low.

Over the past several decades, lawmakers have become accustomed to bundling several bills together into sweeping legislative packages instead of voting on them individually, but that doesn’t entirely account for how unproductive this Congress has been.

Members have sought to approve bipartisan legislation on immigration policy and border security, railway safety, the farm bill, tax law and children’s online safety at various points during the last 19 months — but all those major initiatives failed to make it across the finish line.

Lawmakers have been able to reach consensus on must-pass items like the annual government funding bills, but did so six months behind schedule. They are on track to miss their deadline again this year, which will mean yet another stopgap spending bill.

What is the problem?

While election-year politics and a truncated amount of time on Capitol Hill hampered lawmakers’ productivity, there are numerous other factors dragging down this Congress.

Molly Reynolds, senior fellow in governance studies at the nonprofit Brookings Institution, said Democrats are working to flip control of the House away from Republicans’ narrow majority, while at the same time the GOP is projecting it will push Democrats out of power in the Senate.

Those ambitions add “an additional structural layer” to the typical disagreements within Congress, she said.

Infighting within each of the political parties, as well as Democrats and Republicans moving further away from each other on policy goals, has contributed to the intransigence, she said.

“Those divisions within the parties pale in comparison to the size of the difference between the parties,” Reynolds said. “And so, that does make it more challenging to find issues on which both sides are willing and interested to come to the table.”

A bipartisan trio of senators spent months negotiating a deal on immigration just to have the agreement disintegrate when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump came out in opposition. That disappointing outcome makes members of Congress reluctant to tackle tough issues, she said.

“When members put in the hard work to try and reach a compromise and then don’t have the backing of their leadership, it doesn’t necessarily incentivize them to come back to the table and try to do that same thing again in the future,” Reynolds said.

Speaker drama set the tone 

The 118th Congress included more than its fair share of drama and bickering. The turmoil prevented the Republican House and Democratic Senate from agreeing on much of anything other than the bare minimum, with even must-pass legislation finalized months behind schedule.

House Republicans set the tone for their razor-thin majority in January 2023 when they trudged through 15 rounds of voting over several days and nights before California Rep. Kevin McCarthy secured the speaker’s gavel.

McCarthy made several backroom deals during the stalemate and elicited anger from members of the party’s right flank, who nearly came to blows on the floor as he sought to lock in the necessary support.

Less than nine months later, the House voted to oust McCarthy from the speaker’s office. The GOP then kept the chamber frozen for several weeks as members voted behind closed doors to put forward four nominees, before Louisiana’s Mike Johnson garnered the votes necessary on the floor to lead his party and the chamber.

McCarthy, who repeatedly swore he would never quit, then did just that in December.

Senate border deal goes to pieces

The Senate has spent much of its time confirming President Joe Biden’s nominees, rarely breaking from that pattern to negotiate necessary items like the annual defense policy bill, government funding measures and legislation that avoided a default on the national debt.

Senators appeared to be on the cusp of making bipartisan changes to the nation’s border security and immigration policy following painstaking negotiations between Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford, Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy and Arizona independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. It would have been the most sweeping immigration legislation in years.

But that fell apart in February after Trump signaled he didn’t want to lose the border and immigration as an election issue or see Biden claim a victory.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, had said the deal was necessary to move an emergency spending bill for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan through the chamber, though he later reversed course.

Congress finally approved $95 billion in military and humanitarian assistance in April after House Republicans added in a ban on the social media app TikTok that would kick in if ByteDance, the Chinese parent company, didn’t sell the platform — one of the most significant laws of the year as it turned out.

Congress has also failed to negotiate a new version of the five-year farm bill, following months of delays and differences of opinion on how much nutrition assistance for low-income Americans should be in the package.

Few laws passed

The 78 laws enacted this Congress pale in comparison to earlier sessions.

During the 116th Congress, when the GOP controlled the Senate and Democrats held the House, lawmakers reached agreement on 344 measures that went on to become law.

When Democrats held control of both chambers and the presidency during the 117th Congress, they approved more than 360 measures that would later become law, the vast majority of which required bipartisan support to move through the Senate.

Lawmakers have consistently enacted more than 280 public laws during their two-year sessions, going back to at least the 82nd Congress, which began in 1951 and ended the following year.

During that seven-decade span, the number of laws enacted per Congress fluctuated, reaching a low of 283 during the 112th Congress, which lasted from January 2011 through January 2013, and a high of 1,028 during the 84th Congress, which took place in 1955 and 1956. The number of laws enacted was consistently in the 400s or 500s, if not higher, during those years.

Reynolds pointed out during her interview with States Newsroom that not all laws are created equal — some simply rename post offices or are confined to one issue, while others bundle several major pieces of legislation together in one package and have a much greater impact than other public laws.

Congress, she noted, used to pass the annual government spending bills individually, but over time has settled into a pattern of approving just one or two omnibus spending packages, which roll together all dozen of the bills.

Other examples of this include the Democrats’ signature health care, tax and climate change package, approved in the summer of 2022, known as the Inflation Reduction Act. When the GOP had unified control of Congress during the first two years of the Trump administration, they passed an overhaul of the nation’s tax code in just one bill.

“If we look at the data on the number of public laws, and we look at the data on the number of pages of public laws, we do see that, on average, they have been getting longer,” Reynolds said. “Having said all of that, when we actually do dig into what the 118th Congress has been up to, it has not been an especially productive Congress.”

Lame-duck session on the way

Lawmakers are set to return from their summer recess for a three-week session in September, before breaking again until after Election Day.

Members are expected to draft and vote on a stopgap spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown when the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. But not much else is likely to move through as attention turns even more toward Nov. 5.

The House Appropriations Committee has approved all 12 of its spending bills for fiscal 2025 while the Senate committee has voted to send 11 to the floor. The two chambers, however, are working off very different spending levels and don’t seem inclined to conference their bills until after they learn who will control Congress next year.

The lame-duck session, which spans the time between the election and when the new Congress convenes, is scheduled to last five weeks spread through late November and December.

During that time, GOP leaders in the House and Democratic leaders in the Senate may seek to pass their overdue government funding bills and the annual defense policy bill.

There are several other bills that have passed one chamber or the other with bipartisan majorities or have strong bipartisan support through co-sponsors, which lawmakers could seek to move through to the president’s desk. But much of that will be determined by the outcome of the elections as well as whether there is any violence or unrest connected with the results.

How to explain it 

Members of Congress interviewed by States Newsroom had varying answers for what they tell constituents back home about this Congress’ accomplishments.

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, said that he speaks with voters about the laws enacted during the previous Congress, when Democrats had unified control of government, as well as this Congress.

“Well, first of all, I tend to talk about the sweep of accomplishments, right? Both this Congress but also the previous Congress where we were enormously productive, right?” Van Hollen said. “So usually I don’t limit it to that timeline.”

Van Hollen said he was optimistic that Congress would be able to complete its work on the dozen annual government funding bills later this year.

“Obviously, we’ve been able to adequately fund government agencies,” Van Hollen said. “So that may be a low bar, but in this divided Congress, it is something that I point to, because we’ve worked on the Appropriations Committee, at least in the Senate, to have bipartisan products.”

Kansas GOP Sen. Jerry Moran said he predominantly talks with constituents about his work as ranking member on the Veterans Affairs Committee as well as the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations subcommittee.

“I talk about my own particular accomplishments as compared to bragging about Congress in general,” Moran said.

Much of the work that members do while in Washington, D.C., he said, doesn’t resonate with constituents who are focused on their own lives and families.

“No, I don’t think so,” Moran said. “Most people are paying specific attention to things that matter to them.”

Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who faces a challenging reelection bid this November, said he tends to put more emphasis on the accomplishments of the upper chamber when talking with constituents back home.

“I think the Senate’s been a lot more productive than the House, but we’ll let voters sort that out,” Casey said.

While the Senate holds the advice and consent power to confirm certain presidential nominees, legislation must pass through both chambers of Congress and avoid the president’s veto pen, if it’s to become law.

Casey said there are several occasions where the House and Senate agreed on major issues, listing off the appropriations bills for the last fiscal year, the emergency spending package for Ukraine and other U.S. allies, and a bill to address fentanyl abuse.

“I think it’s a pretty long list and there’s still more work to do in the fall,” Casey said.

More time at work?

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, criticized the number of days the chamber spends in session every week, saying the calendar has shortened during his decades in the chamber.

“When I came to the Senate 44 years ago, we used to start at 10 a.m. on Monday and go to 4 or 5 on Friday,” Grassley said.

The Senate typically comes into session around 3 p.m. on Monday, with its first vote at 5:30 p.m. The chamber usually holds its last vote of the week on Thursday around 1:45 p.m., with the vast majority of senators heading to cars to leave shortly afterward.

The House keeps to a similar four-day schedule, though its “fly-in day” is sometimes on Tuesday, pushing its “fly-out day” to Friday. That chamber takes its first vote of the week around 6:30 p.m. with its last vote before noon on the fourth day.

“There’s enough work for individual senators to do seven days a week if you want to work,” Grassley said. “But you can’t solve this country’s problems until you get 100 people together, and they’ve got to be together for more than two-and-a-half days a week.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a Biden-Harris campaign and DNC press conference on July 17 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The press conference was held to address Project 2025 and Republican policies on abortion (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images).

Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate Tuesday in a move meant to boost the Democratic ticket’s appeal in key Midwestern states and with blue-collar voters.

Walz, a former social studies teacher and Army National Guard veteran who won challenging elections in a rural U.S. House district before running for governor in 2018 and winning reelection in 2022, balances Harris geographically and demographically, while bringing a history of campaign wins in purple-to-red areas and a governing record among the most progressive of any contender to join the ticket.

“One of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle class families run deep,” Harris wrote in a statement. “It’s personal. As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he’s delivered for working families like his own. We are going to build a great partnership. We start out as underdogs but I believe together, we can win this election.”

Walz was also seen as the preferred vice presidential pick of the party’s progressive wing, especially as an alternative to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Harris interviewed both governors, and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, in Washington Sunday as she whittled down her shortlist.

Little known until recently outside his home state to all but the closest political observers, Walz’s laid-back style and approachable demeanor — and straightforward attacks on Republican rivals Donald Trump and J.D. Vance — over weeks of consistent national TV appearances won praise from Democratic officials and strategists who have struggled to break Trump’s hold over white voters without college degrees.

Walz, 60, emerged in recent weeks as one of the party’s top communicators through the power of a single adjective for Republicans and their policy goals.

“These are weird people on the other side,” Walz said in a July 23 interview on MSNBC. “They want to take books away, they want to be in your exam room … These are weird ideas.”

Despite the best efforts of President Joe Biden’s abandoned reelection bid to describe Republicans under Trump’s leadership as a threat to U.S. democracy and reproductive rights who couldn’t be trusted to responsibly govern, the attacks didn’t stick and Trump continued to climb in the polls.

But shortly after Biden’s July 21 exit from the race, Democrats embraced the succinct message that has been credited to the Minnesota governor.

“I am loving Tim Walz on TV,” Rebecca Pearcey, a Democratic strategist, told States Newsroom in a July interview on potential vice presidential picks for Harris.

“I love that he’s just so down-to-earth and so pithy and that he’s like, ‘These guys are weird,’” she added. “That’s exactly it — we are overcomplicating what this message has to be.”

In a statement, Shapiro said he was grateful to have been considered for Harris’ running mate and would continue his work as governor, calling that role “the highest honor” of his life.

Shapiro congratulated Walz, saying he would be an “exceptionally strong addition to the ticket.” He said he would work to help the Harris-Walz ticket win in November.

“Vice President Kamala Harris has my enthusiastic support – and I know that Governor Tim Walz is an exceptionally strong addition to the ticket who will help Kamala move our country forward,” he wrote. “Over the next 92 days, I look forward to traveling all across the Commonwealth to unite Pennsylvanians behind Kamala Harris’ campaign to defeat Donald Trump, become the 47th President of the United States, and build a better future for our country.”

According to his official schedule, Shapiro is scheduled to speak at Walz’s first public appearance with Harris, a rally in Philadelphia Tuesday evening.

‘Far-left radical’

Shortly after reports of the Walz choice surfaced, Trump’s campaign blasted him in a statement that sought to undercut his appeal to rural Midwestern voters and tie him to Harris’ Bay Area background, potentially previewing the attacks Walz will see throughout the three months leading up to Election Day.

“It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State,” Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“If Walz won’t tell voters the truth, we will: just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare.”

Leavitt highlighted Walz’s signature on a bill to require the state move to 100% non-carbon energy by 2040.

A political action committee associated with Trump also slammed the Minnesota governor.

A written statement from MAGA Inc. criticized Walz’s positions on transgender rights and immigration, as well as his response to the riots in Minneapolis after police there killed George Floyd, an unarmed Black man.

The PAC also sought to tie Walz to a federal fraud case in the state that saw five convicted in federal court of taking federal COVID-19 relief money intended to feed needy children. The case dealt with a nonprofit, but a June report from the state auditor found the state’s Department of Education failed to properly oversee the federal payments.

“Governor Tim Walz and Kamala Harris will get along just great,” the statement said. “They’re both far-left radicals that don’t know how to govern.”

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is also from San Francisco, said in an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday that characterizations of Walz as far-left were “mystifying.”

“To characterize him as left is so unreal,” Pelosi said. “He’s right down the middle. He’s a heartland-of-America Democrat.”

As the top Democrat on the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee, Walz made “tremendous, tremendous gains” for veterans, Pelosi said.

Communicating rural values

Walz, who grew up in a rural community in Nebraska, has slammed national Republicans for a relentless focus on cultural issues. He’s trained that criticism recently on Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio whose rise to Republican vice presidential nominee was built on his controversial book detailing the lives of people in impoverished rural areas of Kentucky.

Vance and Republicans have “obsessions” with taking away rights, Walz has said, especially related to reproductive rights and education that includes discussion of gender and sexuality.

“The golden rule that makes small towns work so we’re not at each other’s throats all the time in a little town is: Mind your own damn business,” Walz told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on July 25. “I don’t need him (Vance) to tell me about my family, I don’t need him to tell me about my wife’s health care and her reproductive rights, I don’t need him telling my children what books to read.”

Walz instead projects a pragmatic vision of Democratic governance.

“They scream socialism, we just build roads and we build schools and we build prosperity into this,” he told Psaki.

Working-class message

As governor, Walz has notched a series of policy wins he can boast to the party’s progressive wing about. He signed laws to offer free meals to all public school students, expand abortion access and legalize some recreational uses of THC.

But the sometimes bespectacled former high school teacher and football coach, who has donned t-shirts and hunting caps in national TV hits, also projects an image of Midwestern pragmatism.

That may help balance voters’ views of a Democratic ticket led by Harris, who would be the first woman president, the first president of South Asian descent and the second Black president, and who is seen as more liberal than most in the party after climbing the ranks through Democratic primaries in California.

Christopher Devine, a political scientist at the University of Dayton, said Walz’s appeal is not unlike that of Harris’ last running mate.

“Walz has a message that kind of reminds me of Joe Biden’s appeal, kind of a working-class focus,” he said. “He can speak from a rural background, he’s been a teacher and a coach and has a military background as well. He seems to me like he’s someone who could maybe help with kind of a working-class message.”

The campaign will depend on Walz to carry that message to neighboring Wisconsin and other crucial Rust Belt states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Kim Lyons contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden, joined by relatives of prisoners freed by Russia, delivers remarks in the State Dining Room at the White House on Aug. 1, 2024, on the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan from Russian captivity. The two, along with Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen and Radio Free Europe journalist, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Washington Post columnist, and others were released in a prisoner exchange with Russia (Alex Wong/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — The United States and Russia completed a multi-country prisoner swap Thursday that brought home several Americans, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.

The exchange included a total of 16 people from several countries who were detained by Russia, including seven of its own citizens held as “political prisoners.” Western nations released a total of eight Russians as part of the deal.

President Joe Biden said in White House remarks the negotiations were a “feat of diplomacy” that wouldn’t have been attainable without cooperation from allied nations.

“This deal would not have been made possible without our allies: Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey,” Biden said. “They stood with us and they made bold and brave decisions — released prisoners being held in their countries, who were justifiably being held, and provided logistical support to get the Americans home.”

“So if anyone questions if allies matter, they do,” he added.

Biden was accompanied by family members of the three American hostages released Thursday while he gave his remarks. He said they spoke by phone with their loved ones earlier in the day and planned to meet them at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland when their plane landed.

Biden said he tasked staff during his transition into the presidency with determining where Americans were held abroad and working on plans to get them released.

“As of today, my administration has brought home over 70 Americans, who were wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad; many since before I took office,” Biden said. “Additionally, I issued an executive order in 2022, authorizing penalties, like sanctions and travel bans, on those who hold Americans against their will.”

Biden, who is not running for reelection, said he would continue working during his remaining months in office to bring home other Americans who are wrongfully detained.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said during the White House press briefing that officials had completed “one of the largest, and certainly the most complex exchange in history.”

Journalists, dissidents freed

Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while reporting for the Wall Street Journal and sentenced to 16 years in prison last month during a secret trial. The Wall Street Journal and U.S. officials have vehemently denied the charges.

Whelan, of Michigan, was arrested in 2018 and convicted of espionage in 2020, on charges he and American officials have repeatedly denied. He was sentenced to 16 years in Russia’s prison system.

Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist who worked for Radio Free Europe, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who won a Pulitzer Prize for “passionate columns written under great personal risk from his prison cell” were among the prisoners freed in the swap.

Kurmasheva was sentenced to more than six years in prison in July on claims she spread “false information” about Russia’s military, a charge rejected by her family and officials.

Kara-Murza, who holds dual citizenship in Russia and the United Kingdom, is a long-time critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. Russian officials detained him in 2022 and sentenced him to 25 years in 2023.

Prior to his imprisonment, Kara-Murza accused Russian officials of poisoning him.

Biden noted in his remarks that Kara-Murza holds a green card and was a pallbearer with him at Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCain’s funeral.

Cheers from Congress

Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, wrote in a statement that Thursday marked “a joyous and long overdue day for Paul, his family, and all who have been working tirelessly to get him back home to Michigan.”

“For the past several years, I have worked with Administration officials, my colleagues, and Paul’s family to press for his release, and I’m beyond relieved that today marks the end of this unimaginable nightmare for Paul and his loved ones,” Peters wrote. “Michigan welcomes him home with open arms.”

Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow released a written statement that Whelan’s freedom was “wonderful news.”

“After more than five years, Paul Whelan is coming home,” Stabenow wrote. “I know the past years have been excruciating for Paul and his family. I’m so glad they will be seeing Paul soon.”

Sen. Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, urged the Biden administration to secure the release of Marc Fogel from Russian prison.

“This prisoner swap is good news for Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, and their families, but Marc Fogel is still sitting in a Russian prison,” Casey wrote in a statement.

“Marc Fogel is a teacher from Pittsburgh with chronic health issues whose health has declined significantly during his imprisonment,” Casey added. “His 95-year-old mother, Malphine, fears she will never see him again. As we celebrate the good news of today, we cannot forget about Marc and the Fogel family.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, said in a statement he was “thrilled” the hostages were returning home, but expressed concern “that continuing to trade innocent Americans for actual Russian criminals held in the U.S. and elsewhere sends a dangerous message to Putin that only encourages further hostage taking by his regime.”

“We should also not forget those Americans who may still be held in Russia, like Marc Fogel and Ksenia Karelina, as well as those held in other countries, including Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and David Lin who are held in China, and Ryan Corbett who is held in Afghanistan,” McCaul said. “We must get all of them home to their families too.”

Sullivan said during the White House briefing that officials were “actively working” to secure the release of Fogel from Russia as well as Americans being held in Syria and Afghanistan.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin said in a statement the release of the Americans “marks a welcome end to a searing nightmare for them and their loved ones.”

“These Americans should never have endured the hardships imposed on them by the Kremlin, but thanks to the unrelenting efforts of the Biden-Harris Administration and their families, including Paul’s sister Elizabeth, Evan’s parents Ella and Mikhail, and Alsu’s husband Pavel, their ordeal has finally come to an end,” Cardin said.

The Maryland Democrat also urged “Americans considering travel to Russia, especially dual nationals, to learn from the experiences of these wrongfully detained Americans and avoid traveling to Russia.”

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.

A driver uses a fast-charging station for electric vehicles at John F. Kennedy airport on April 2, 2021 in New York City (Spencer Platt/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON – Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee discussed on Wednesday ways to boost U.S. electric vehicle manufacturing to be more competitive globally.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the Democratic chairman of the committee, began a hearing Wednesday by calling electric vehicle production “an economic, national security and climate imperative.”

Whitehouse highlighted the expanding global market for electric vehicles, noting that in 2023, 20% of vehicles sold around the world were electric.

“We want to be a part of that action,” Whitehouse said.

Graham, a South Carolina Republican, requested the hearing. He pointed out several times the automotive industry’s importance to the state. South Carolina is a national leader in vehicle assembly and the top tire exporter in the country, according to the state’s Department of Commerce.

Graham said the future of vehicle manufacturing is in electric vehicles and urged policies to remain competitive in the global automobile market.

His position was out of step from many in his party.

Republicans have voiced opposition to increased electric vehicle manufacturing and many oppose President Joe Biden’s goal of having 50% of vehicle sales be electric by 2030. Former President Donald Trump opposes Biden’s support of electric vehicles and said it would ruin the economies of automaker states.

But Graham, a Trump ally and a staunchly conservative lawmaker, embraced the idea of U.S. electric vehicle manufacturing and looked to strengthen U.S. infrastructure.

“So the bottom line is: This is coming, whether we like it or not,” Graham said. “And I think there’s an upside to it, to be honest with you.”

Strain on the grid

Several lawmakers raised concerns in the hearing over whether the electric grid could handle increased demand from electric vehicle charging.

Graham raised the question of where the power will come from to fuel a larger fleet of electric cars.

“Grid demand will go through the roof,” if half of cars in use are electric, he said. “How can you generate enough power to accommodate electric vehicles?”

Jesse Jenkins, a professor of engineering and energy systems at Princeton University, said by 2035 electric vehicles will consume 17% of current total U.S. electricity.

“To put it another way, by 2035, EVs will consume nearly as much electricity as is produced today by the entire fleet of nuclear power plants or all non hydro-renewables combined,” Jenkins said.

Britta Gross, the director of transportation at the Electric Power Research Institute, said strain on the grid from electric vehicles could be minimized by charging at off-peak hours.

Power demand is typically highest in the mornings and evenings. Charging vehicles at night when demand is low “can help minimize the new grid investments and ensure an affordable transition,” she said.

China debate

International competition was another highly discussed topic in Wednesday’s hearing.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan, a state with a large automotive industry, raised concerns about the U.S.’s ability to compete with China, which leads the world in electric vehicle manufacturing and has poured government funds into subsidies and tax breaks to promote electric car development.

“There is not a level playing field,” said Stabenow. “Specifically, China is coming for us.”

David Schwietert, the chief government affairs and policy officer for the Alliance For Automotive Innovation, told the committee that Congress must provide incentives for manufacturers “to build resilience” for the future of electric vehicle production.

“We need to look beyond just five or 10 years,” Schwietert said. “We need to ensure that policies are in place to ensure the U.S. is protected, not just tomorrow but well beyond.”

Graham also pressed witnesses about China’s position in the global electric vehicle market, asking Maureen Hinman, co-founder and chairwoman of Silverado Policy Accelerator, a bipartisan economic policy institute, if Chinese dominance in the market was “irreversible.”

“Absolutely not,” Hinman said. “I think the U.S. and its allies and friends, if we move quickly to create agile, responsive and coordinated policies, could flip the script and reestablish market dynamics in a global economy.”

GOP skepticism

Not all Republicans on the committee were as welcoming to the electric vehicle conversation as Graham.

Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, said he was not opposed to electric vehicles and that he owns a plug-in hybrid car, but that the government should not spend to entice manufacturing and ownership of the vehicles.

“Why do we need government subsidies?” Johnson asked witnesses. “I would say you don’t.”

“Let the marketplace dictate the speed of this innovation. Stop subsidizing this,” he said.

Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana also pressed witnesses on the need for subsidies, repeatedly asking “if they’re so swell, how come we have to pay people to buy them?”

Kennedy speculated that many Americans have to be incentivized to buy electric vehicles because they are more expensive to operate. The median household income in Louisiana is $55,000 a year, which is below the national median, he pointed out.

A study by the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council found that while electric vehicles are just under $3,000 more up front than a gas-powered car, they ultimately cost less to fuel and maintain over time.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on gun violence during an event at John R. Lewis High School on June 2, 2023 in Springfield, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images).

Vice President Kamala Harris is the only candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, the Democratic National Committee said late Tuesday.

Harris was the only person to reach the threshold of 300 delegates petitioning for her to become the party’s nominee after President Joe Biden dropped his bid for reelection, setting her up to officially become the party’s nominee during a virtual roll call scheduled to begin Thursday, according to a DNC press release.

The DNC allowed party delegates to petition for a new nominee after Biden’s withdrawal. After sweeping primaries and caucuses, Biden had secured the vast majority of the 3,949 pledged delegates in the Democratic nominating process. Most of those delegates quickly declared their support for Harris following Biden’s exit.

About 84% of Democratic delegates submitted a signature during the petition phase, with 99% of those supporting Harris. A total of 3,923 Democratic delegates petitioned for Harris to be the presidential nominee, according to the release, which called Harris the presumptive Democratic nominee.

“Democratic delegates from across the nation made their voices heard, overwhelmingly backing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison and Democratic National Convention Committee Chair Minyon Moore said in the statement.

Harris won the backing of many state parties, elected officials and other party leaders within hours of Biden bowing out of the race and endorsing her. Candidates rumored to harbor their own presidential ambitions quickly fell in line with Harris, with a few still thought to be under consideration for Harris’ running mate.

Democrats’ virtual roll call – a departure from the traditional roll call at the party convention initially designed to ensure the party’s nominee was on the ballot in Ohio despite an early deadline that has since been changed – will begin 9 a.m. Eastern on Thursday and wrap up at 6 p.m. on Aug. 5, the DNC release said.

Harris and running mate to Philadelphia

Harris will campaign on Aug. 6, the day after the virtual roll call concludes, with her yet-to-be-named running mate in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star confirmed Tuesday.

The commonwealth is perhaps the most important battleground in the presidential race and Gov. Josh Shapiro is reportedly on Harris’ short list for vice president. The first-term governor and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer stumped for Harris at a Monday rally in the Philadelphia area.

Politico reported that the Harris campaign swing will also include western Wisconsin; Detroit; Raleigh, North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Las Vegas; and Phoenix.

Other top candidates for Harris’ running mate include Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also under consideration.

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.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., speaks during a news conference on the Kids Online Safety Act at the U.S. Capitol on July 25, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — Legislation aimed at protecting children online sailed through the U.S. Senate Tuesday, marking what could be the first update since the late 1990s for companies who interact with minors on the internet.

Senators approved the package of two bills in a 91-3 vote, a rare bipartisan landslide in the tightly divided body, despite loud and fervent opposition from civil liberties and LGBTQ organizations that say the measures would hand the government power to subjectively censor content.

The three no votes were cast by Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

If passed by the House, the legislative package would require producers of platforms popular among children and teens to follow new rules governing advertising, algorithms and collection of personal data.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has expressed interest in “working to find consensus in the House.”

President Joe Biden released a statement Tuesday calling the Senate vote a “crucial bipartisan step forward” and said the bill dovetails with measures he advocated for in his first State of the Union Address.

“There is undeniable evidence that social media and other online platforms contribute to our youth mental health crisis. Today our children are subjected to a wild west online and our current laws and regulations are insufficient to prevent this. It is past time to act,” Biden said, adding that tech companies need to be “accountable for the national experiment they are running on our children for profit.”

Families asked for federal help

The package contains two bills moving together: the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act, which is mainly targeted at regulating the collection of personal data, and the Kids Online Safety Act, a bill that has been a lightning rod of criticism from outside groups.

A bipartisan group of senators points to years of hearings and meetings with tragedy-struck families — including those whose children struggled with eating disorders and died by suicide — as the motivation behind the proposals.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, of Tennessee, one of the Kids Online Safety Act’s original sponsors, said the legislation is a “safety by design bill, a duty of care bill that gives kids and parents a toolbox so that they can protect themselves.”

“A message that we’re sending to big tech: kids are not your product, kids are not your profit source, and we are going to protect them in the virtual space,” Blackburn, a Republican, said at a press conference following the vote.

Blackburn co-led the bill dubbed the Kids Online Safety Act with Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

Sen. Ed Markey, who championed the last protections passed by Congress in late 1990s, said “back in 1998 only birds tweeted, a gram was a measurement of weight, and so we need to update the law.”

The Massachusetts Democrat joined Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana in co-sponsoring the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act.

Markey likened addictive social media products to those of the tobacco industry in previous decades, and cited public health warnings attributing increasing childhood mental health issues to the platforms.

“So we have to give the tools to parents and to teenagers and children to be able to protect themselves, and that would be my message to my colleagues in the House. We cannot avoid this historic moment,” Markey said at the press conference.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised the legislation’s passage in the Senate and said the parents of affected teens are “the reason we succeeded today.”

“I’ve heard the terrible stories: children, teenagers, perfectly normal, then some algorithm captures them online by accident, and they end up committing suicide shortly thereafter,” the New York Democrat said in a statement. “You imagine being a parent and living with that.”

New rules for platforms

The original two bills, rolled into one legislative vehicle, respectively outline “duty of care” rules requiring platform creators to consider broad mental health categories when designing and operating their products as well as a prohibition of the use of personal data for targeted marketing.

The legislation would also mandate that platforms create an “easy-to-understand privacy dashboard” detailing how a minor’s personal information is collected, used and protected.

Other measures would include a prohibition on hidden algorithms, mechanisms for minors or parents to remove data, parental controls to restrict financial transactions and annual public reports from the platforms on “reasonably foreseeable” harms to children and teens and efforts underway to prevent them.

Enforcement

The new policies, if enacted, would be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission and any civil actions would be prosecuted by states in U.S. district court with advance notice to the FTC.

The legislation defines the online platforms as public-facing websites, social media applications, video games, messaging applications or video streaming services that are “used, or reasonably likely to be used, by a minor.”

Snap, the company behind the popular platform Snapchat, issued a statement specifically praising the Senate’s passage of the Kids Online Safety Act.

“The safety and well-being of young people on Snapchat is a top priority,” a Snap spokesperson said in a statement provided to States Newsroom. “That’s why Snap has been a long-time supporter of the Kids Online Safety Act. We applaud Senators Blackburn, Blumenthal and the roughly 70 other co-sponsors of this critical legislation for their leadership and commitment to the privacy and safety of young people.”

Opponents see ‘dangerous’ measure

A coalition of organizations advocating for First Amendment rights, privacy and the interests of LGBTQ minors urged the House to vote no on the legislation, criticizing it as “blatantly unconstitutional.”

Evan Greer, director of the tech policy group Fight For the Future, also lambasted the bill as “dangerous and misguided” and “wildly broad.”

The coalition largely takes issue with the Kids Online Safety Act’s “duty of care” provision that requires companies to “prevent and mitigate” harms associated with anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance use disorders and suicidal behaviors.

During a joint virtual press conference hosted by the groups during the Senate vote, Greer described the provision as “a blank check for censorship of any piece of content that an administration could claim is harmful to kids.”

“What that means in practice, is that for example, a Trump administration FTC would get to dictate what types of content platforms can recommend or even show to younger users,” Greer said, referring to Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump.

Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the Kids Online Safety Act is “nothing more than a thinly veiled effort to censor information that some consider objectionable”

“If enacted, KOSA could lead to information about health care, gender, identity, politics and more being removed from social media. And kids note that censorship will make them less and not more safe,” Leventoff said. “As one student recently told me, they don’t get sex education in school, and if information about sex is removed from the internet because platforms fear liability for hosting it, how else can they learn about sex?”

Teens in opposition

The ACLU brought roughly 300 teens to Capitol Hill Thursday to lobby against the legislation.

Dara Adkinson, of the organization TransOhio, said the legislation is “truly terrifying.”

Adkinson questioned whether state and federal authorities could argue that content about climate change or the nation’s history of slavery causes anxiety and should therefore be regulated.

Regarding content about transgender youth, Adkinson said: “We know there (are) people out there that would like us to not exist and having the lack of visibility of the kinds of resources found on the internet is the first step for many of these folks.”

Greer said the coalition is concerned about the role of “big tech” in society. Advocates would support a “heavily modified” version of the Kids Online Safety Act that focuses on regulating business practices, including targeted advertising or videos that automatically play and encourage continuous, addictive scrolling habits.

Greer said their organization is neutral on the legislation targeted at protecting children’s privacy, but that they would like to see comprehensive legislation that protects minors and adults alike.

“Censorship and privacy do not go together, and these should not be moving together,” Greer said.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday announced the 13 lawmakers who will make up the bipartisan task force investigating the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

“We have the utmost confidence in this bipartisan group of steady, highly qualified and capable Members of Congress to move quickly to find the facts, ensure accountability and help make certain such failures never happen again,” the two wrote in a joint statement.

Johnson said last week the panel will release its final report by Dec. 13, though he expected interim reports along the way. The House voted 416-0 on July 24 to establish the panel.

The task force is expected to dig deeper into the Secret Service’s plans to protect Trump ahead of his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and how exactly a gunman was able to open fire.

The panel will be chaired by Rep. Mike Kelly, who was at the rally and represents Pennsylvania’s 16th District, which includes the location of the shooting.

Kelly wrote in an op-ed published last week by Newsweek that he believes the task force is critical to “utilize the collective power of Congress as a tool to dig deeper and find the facts.”

“The shooting wounded Mr. Trump, took the life of Corey Comperatore, and injured two other Pennsylvanians,” Kelly wrote. “It’s important that we don’t jump to any conclusions as we begin these investigations. I look forward to working with my colleagues to get the American people the answers they deserve.”

Other Republicans on the task force include Texas Rep. Pat Fallon, Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins, Ohio Rep. David Joyce and Florida Reps. Laurel Lee and Michael Waltz.

The top Democrat on the panel will be Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and a former Army Ranger.

Crow released a written statement Monday that he would “help lead this bipartisan task force with Chairman Kelly to investigate and fully examine the attempted assassination of former President Trump, and I will treat it like what it is: a solemn, urgent, and necessary responsibility.”

“Political violence has no place in our democracy. Period,” Crow wrote. “We must be united in the belief as Americans, not as Republicans or Democrats, that political disagreement is settled through rigorous discourse, not violence. I am committed to working with my colleagues to conduct a thorough bipartisan investigation to collect the facts and recommend corrective security measures.”

Democrats named to the task force include California Rep. Lou Correa, Pennsylvania Reps. Madeleine Dean and Chrissy Houlahan, Maryland Rep. Glenn Ivey and Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz.

Probes ongoing in Congress

Congress has already begun looking into the shooting at the Trump rally, which killed one attendee and injured two others. The gunman was killed at the scene.

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on July 22, just one day before she resigned in the wake of the assassination attempt.

Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris testified before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security the same day that Cheatle resigned.

The U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Judiciary Committee are scheduled to hold a joint hearing Tuesday on the shooting.

Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service Ronald L. Rowe, Jr. and Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Paul Abbate are both expected to testify.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched its own investigation into the shooting.

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. (Laura Olson/States Newsroom).

WASHINGTON — Before he leaves the Oval Office in January, President Joe Biden wants to see Congress take up a constitutional amendment restoring criminal liability for U.S. presidents in response to the recent Supreme Court decision granting the chief executive broad immunity.

Biden announced the “Not Above the Law Amendment” Monday along with endorsing other changes for the nation’s highest bench, potentially setting the tone and focus for the Democrat’s final months in office after he exited the 2024 race in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris.

The proposal, released by the White House without text and detailed by Biden in a Washington Post op-ed, comes as public trust in the high court flags after recent ethics scandals and the overturning of Roe v. Wade that bucked popular opinion on abortion.

Biden is urging Congress to pass 18-year term limits for justices, with a president appointing a new justice every two years, and to approve enforceable conduct and ethics rules that would require disclosure of gifts, bar public political activity and ensure recusal from cases where a justice or their spouse has a financial or political stake.

Biden’s plan to “restore faith” in the nation’s highest court will likely hit a roadblock in the Republican-led U.S. House and in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim edge and any reforms could struggle to gain the necessary 60 votes. A constitutional amendment would also require passage in three-fourths of the states.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson called Biden’s proposal “dead on arrival.”

Writing in the Washington Post op-ed, Biden said a lack of legal repercussions for former President Donald Trump’s role in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, intended to stop the peaceful transfer of power from one elected administration to another, is “only the beginning.”

“The only limits will be those that are self-imposed by the person occupying the Oval Office,” he wrote.

He also referenced recent behavior from the court uncovered by ProPublica’s investigative journalists — including gifts and luxury travel given to the justices from political donors — as cause for alarm.

“What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms. We now stand in a breach,” Biden wrote.

Biden is expected to speak on his plan Monday afternoon when he commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Texas.

Public Citizen, a group that advocates for changes at the Supreme Court, issued a statement Monday praising Biden’s proposal.

“The dramatic drop in public confidence in the Supreme Court both undercuts the Court’s legitimacy and endangers the legitimacy of the judicial branch as a whole,” wrote Lisa Gilbert, the organization’s co-president. “It is also critical that we undo the damage caused by the overreaching SCOTUS decision in the presidential immunity case and ensure that no person — including the president — is above the law.”

Johnson panned Biden’s announcement as a “radical overhaul” and “logical conclusion to the Biden-Harris Administration and Congressional Democrats’ ongoing efforts to delegitimize the Supreme Court.”

“It is telling that Democrats want to change the system that has guided our nation since its founding simply because they disagree with some of the Court’s recent decisions,” the Louisiana Republican said in a statement Monday.

But various acts of Congress have changed the court since the nation’s founding, including the number of seats on the bench, which have ranged from five to 10. The number of seats on the court was fixed at nine shortly after the Civil War, according to the court’s historical information that details the changes. In 1925, an act granted the justices the power to decide whether to hear a case, also known as certiorari.

The Republican National Committee issued a statement accusing Biden’s plan of being “Kamala’s scheme to pack the Supreme Court with far-left, radical judges who will render decisions based on politics, not the law — and insulate her dangerously liberal policy positions from scrutiny if she’s elected.”

Democrats decry the court

Efforts to pass an enforceable code of conduct at the Supreme Court are already underway among Democratic lawmakers.

Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, another Democratic committee member, introduced legislation last month that would prohibit justices from receiving gifts valued over $50, according to their offices.

The two lawmakers hosted a roundtable in early June excoriating the court after Chief Justice John Roberts refused to take action when the New York Times revealed that an upside-down U.S. flag — a sign of protest — flew outside Justice Samuel Alito’s Virginia home shortly after the Jan. 6 riot.

House progressives unsuccessfully urged Alito to recuse himself from two cases related to Jan. 6, including Trump’s appeal for immunity from federal election subversion charges.

A Supreme Court ethics bill sponsored by Rhode Island’s Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse advanced out of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary along party lines a year ago but has not received a floor vote.