House GOP Pass H.R. 1, The One Big Brutal Bill Act

Posted by Brad Johnson on 05/22/2025 at 11:46AM

The Republican budget-reconciliation omnibus, H.R. 1, the OBBB Act, passed 215-214-1 at 6:55 am Thursday morning. After a marathon Rules Committee markup concluded late Wednesday night, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) moved the legislation directly to the floor.

Two Republicans voted against the bill, one Republican voted present, and two did not vote. All 212 Democrats voted against the legislation.

The bill, which extends and expands Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, repeals most of the Inflation Reduction Act, gives the Office of Management and Budget $100 million to kill regulations, and fast-tracks oil, gas, coal, logging, and mining projects across the nation, was broadly backed by American corporations.

Trump Official: We're Not Bound By Past Laws

Posted by Brad Johnson on 05/15/2025 at 02:17PM

In a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin laid out the radical argument that the Trump administration is not bound by laws passed under previous Congresses. He argued vociferously with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) that his agency’s defiance of statutory obligations and subsequent court rulings were acceptable, saying that the Trump administration is bound only by the rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court.

And then in a telling exchange with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) about the Clean Water and Drinking Water Revolving Funds, which the Trump administration has proposed to dismantle, he promised only to follow specific directives in laws passed by the current Congress.

Zeldin’s specious and wildly unconstitutional argument is that the presidential election acted as a reset for federal statutes.

Congress appropriates funding, and then the agency distributes that funding as it's required to under the law. That doesn't mean from one administration to the next, that the Trump administration is going to come in agreeing with the policy priorities of the prior administration that just left office. There might be a disagreement of opinion between administrations. And we come in towards the beginning of a fiscal year. The way that funding will go out the course of a fiscal year might be applying the new administration's priorities, as the American public voted for last November.

Transcript:

FEMA Administrator Fired After Defending FEMA

Posted by Brad Johnson on 05/08/2025 at 06:18PM

Acting FEMA Administrator Cam Hamilton has been fired by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, a day after he testified in defense of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In a Senate appropriations hearing this morning, Noem reiterated her stance that FEMA should be eliminated.

"President Trump has been very clear since the beginning that he believes that FEMA and its response in many, many circumstances has failed the American people, and that FEMA, as it exists today, should be eliminated in empowering states to respond to disasters with federal government support."

David Richardson, the acting DHS Assistant Secretary, Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, has been named the new acting FEMA Administrator.

Tags:

Full Text of H. Res. 353: Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors

Posted by Brad Johnson on 04/29/2025 at 12:44PM

Introduced by Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.). Reps. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), and Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) were original co-sponsors, but withdrew after learning Democratic leadership did not support the resolution. Nadler indicated his name was added as a cosponsor after a conversation with Thanedar but without his explicit approval. The retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) then co-sponsored the resolution, and then withdrew.

Articles of impeachment:

H. RES. 353

Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

April 28, 2025

Mr. Thanedar (for himself, Mr. Mfume, Mr. Nadler, and Ms. Kelly of Illinois and Ms. Schakowsky) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

RESOLUTION

Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Resolved, That Donald John Trump, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the Senate:

Article of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America, against Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America, in maintenance and support of its impeachment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors.

ARTICLE I: OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE, VIOLATION OF DUE PROCESS, AND A BREACH OF THE DUTY TO FAITHFULLY EXECUTE LAWS

The Constitution provides that the House of Representatives “shall have the sole Power of Impeachment” and that the President “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors”. Further, Article II of the Constitution states that the President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”, the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution states that “The right of the people … against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated”, and the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution states “No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”. In his conduct of the office of President of the United States—and in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed—Donald John Trump has abused the powers of the Presidency in a manner offensive to, and subversive of, the Constitution, in that:

Using the power of his high office, Donald John Trump has engaged in this scheme or course of conduct through the following means:

Federal Employees to Schumer: The Government Is Already Being Shut Down

Posted by Brad Johnson on 03/14/2025 at 03:09AM

The following is a letter sent to every U.S. Senator by Everett B. Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

March 12, 2025

Dear Senator:

On behalf of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (AFGE), which represents more than 800,000 federal and D.C. workers, I strongly urge you to oppose H.R. 1968, the spending measure that the Senate will consider this week. Please vote NO. As AFGE clearly stated in its March 3 letter to Senate members, AFGE’s support for a third continuing resolution is contingent on maintaining funding for all federal programs at Fiscal Year 2024 levels and including provisions to ensure the administration spends appropriated funds as stipulated by Congress.

AFGE’s decision to oppose the spending measure is not taken lightly. AFGE’s position until this year has been that although continuing resolutions are far from ideal, they are better than an outright government shutdown. During past budget stalemates, AFGE has always reluctantly supported passage of CRs.

This year is different. Hard experience has forced AFGE to break from past practice and oppose H.R. 1968. The Trump administration has repeatedly demonstrated over the last seven weeks that it will not spend appropriated funds as the law dictates, including funds provided under the current continuing resolution that was enacted in December with AFGE’s support. Our members, and hundreds of thousands of other federal employees who benefit from our representation, are suffering as a consequence: at USAID, at the Department of Agriculture, and at the Social Security Administration, to name just three prominent agencies in the news. AFGE is particularly struck that even as the Senate prepares to debate and vote on H.R. 1968, the Trump administration has announced its intention to effectively destroy the Department of Education regardless of whether Congress approves or disapproves of that decision. How support for H.R. 1968, which under Title IX of the bill would appropriate funds to the Department, can be reconciled with the certainty that the administration will not actually spend the money as provided in law requires a suspension of logic in which AFGE refuses to participate.

As if this were not bad enough, just last week Department of Homeland Security cancelled the collective bargaining agreement with the Transportation Security Administration and declared the TSA to be union-free, citing as justification a string of outright lies designed to cast TSA employees in the worst possible light. The Department’s action stripped the workplace rights of 25,000 Transportation Security Officers who have exercised them not for the purpose of negotiating wages and benefits, which Title 5 prohibits, but simply to achieve the basic workplace rights and protections that have applied to the rest of the civil service since 1978. The nation depends on TSOs to safeguard the nation’s skies, ports, and rail systems from terrorist attacks, a job they have done admirably since 9/11. The chilling loss of rights makes one of the most difficult jobs in the country even less tenable. A vote for H.R. 1968 would, in AFGE’s view, be an expression of support for, or at best indifference toward, the administration’s campaign to openly bust labor unions. Last week’s action against TSOs is almost certainly just the first salvo in a broader campaign to destroy unions across the government, likely using national security as a pretext, and then turn to attack private sector unions as well.

We urge the defeat of any bill – including the current House Republican CR – that fails to undo the Administration’s reckless, punitive, dangerous action last week at TSA.

With thousands of federal workers either fired, placed on administrative leave, or at immediate risk of losing their jobs, AFGE members have concluded that a widespread government shutdown has been underway since January 20 and will continue to spread whether senators vote yes or no on H.R. 1968. Under the current CR, federal workers are being treated no better than they will be if government funding ceases Friday night. Yes, it is true that workers who have not yet been fired are at least drawing a paycheck – for now. But if H.R. 1968 becomes law – a measure that ignores the administration’s brazen refusal to carry out duly enacted laws of Congress and further erodes Congress’s power of the purse – AFGE knows that DOGE will dramatically expand its terminations of federal workers and double down on its campaign to make federal agencies fail because there will be nothing left to stop the Administration for the balance of Fiscal Year 2025, if ever.

Only a return to the negotiating table can prevent the government-wide debacle that we see every day. A yes vote on H.R. 1968 eliminates one of the last opportunities for Congress to assert any rights under Article I of the Constitution.

AFGE is certainly doing its part in federal court to challenge the administration’s unlawful actions against the federal workforce and will continue to do so with the same vigor it has since January 20, whether or not Congress reaches a responsible spending agreement by March 15. Deeply regrettable though a government shutdown would be, it would not impair the federal judiciary’s ability to hear AFGE’s suits or our willingness to argue them in court.

We have no doubt the administration’s refusal to follow the law will go into overdrive if H.R. 1968 becomes law, and that the more than 70 agencies for which our members work will suffer the same fate of USAID and other agencies. We question whether the bill should even be considered a “continuing resolution” given its gratuitous $1 billion cut to the District of Columbia’s budget and unjustified interference in DC’s home rule and its ability to spend its own tax revenues. The spending measure amounts to a blank check to the administration for the rest of Fiscal Year 2025 and an abdication of Congressional authority that will long outlive the debates of this week.

AFGE categorically rejects any claim that voting no on the CR is a vote for a government shutdown. First of all, Congress still has ample time to adopt a short-term CR over the weekend, if there is the will to do so. Second, we only find ourselves in the current predicament because of the Republican leadership’s steadfast refusal to engage in sincere bipartisan negotiations on this or any issue since December – a stark contrast to how Congress handled the debt ceiling crisis in 2023. Third, the minority in both chambers has proposed an actually “clean” short-term CR, which would likely easily pass in Congress if Republican leaders allowed a vote.

Thank you for your consideration of our views.

Sincerely,

Everett B. Kelley
National President

Tags: , ,

Evangelical W Appointee Ward Brehm Fights DOGE and J6 to Save International Aid Agency

Posted by Brad Johnson on 03/07/2025 at 10:16PM


President George W. Bush stands with Ward Brehm after presenting him with the 2008 Presidential Citizens Medal Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008, in the Oval Office of the White House.

Someone in the federal government is actually fighting DOGE, and it’s a deeply Christian, lifelong Republican businessman.

Conservative evangelical Minnesota businessman Ward Brehm has been a member of the board of the US African Development Foundation (USADF) since 2004, when he was appointed by George W. Bush. He was reappointed by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2010. With no replacement after his term expired in 2017, Brehm continued to serve on the board to the present day.

Now Brehm and the rest of the Senate-confirmed leadership of USADF, created by an act of Congess in 1980, is fighting DOGE to survive. The chair of USADF is former congresswoman and ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, confirmed in March and sworn in on April 30 2024; the vice chair Dr. John O. Agwunobi, confirmed to the board in 2008; and the other board members Morgan Davis, confirmed with Agwuboni in 2008 and John Leslie Jr., confirmed in 2016. There are two seats reserved for federal African affairs employees; Mary Catherine Phee’s nomination to succeed Linda Thomas Greenfield, who resigned in 2021, was ignored by the Senate multiple times. It is unclear if former Assistant Administrator for Africa for the U.S. Agency for International Development Linda Etim, who was confirmed in 2016, ever resigned from the board.

In February, Trump announced he wanted the congressionally chartered corporation shut down. DOGE hackers came to the independent agency and tried to take over the servers, but the staff challenged their authority and refused access. Then the Office of Presidential Personnel tried to fire the entire board and install January 6th insurrectionist Pete Marocco, which is how they eliminated the Inter-American Foundation

OPP deputy director Trent Morse tried to send emails to board members informing them of their firing, but did not send them to correct email addresses.

The USADF board held an emergency meeting on Monday, elected Brehm as USADF president and CEO, and told Congress they had done so.

President Brehm refused the DOGE crew and Marocco entry into the US ADF HQ on Wednesday; they then forced their way in on Thursday with the help of US Federal Marshals; Brehm immediately filed suit; and the judge—a W appointee—issued an emergency stay keeping Brehm on the job

The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday at Courtroom 18 on the 6th floor of the Prettyman DC District Courthouse at 3 pm, 333 Constitution Ave NW.

The text of Brehm’s letter to DOGE hacker Nate Cavanaugh:

House Democrats Decry DOGE Invasion of NOAA

Posted by Brad Johnson on 02/10/2025 at 07:25PM

Today, fifteen Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to Vice Admiral Nancy Hann, acting Administrator of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), demanding answers about efforts by President Trump and Elon Musk to unlawfully dismantle the crucial agency. In their letter, the representatives cite multiple reports of drastic planned cuts and the related invasion of the agency by Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) lieutenants, including 30-year-old Twitter engineer Nikhil Rajpal, now listed in the NOAA directory at [email protected].

In their letter, the members state:

“There have been credible reports of DOGE personnel disregarding security checkpoints, rifling through personal belongings, demanding access to computers, emails, and other sensitive information, and adding employees’ names to lists on their clipboards if they are perceived to have resisted. While this is happening at core NOAA facilities in the Washington, D.C. region, our constituents who work at NOAA labs and regional facilities across the nation fear for their jobs and their families’ futures.”

“Our constituents and the American people deserve answers from the Trump administration as to what their plan is and what authorities the administration is using to bully and intimidate NOAA employees with the ultimate goal of dismantling the agency.”

The letter was led by U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee Ranking Member Val Hoyle. The other signatories were Jimmy Panetta, Frank Pallone, Salud Carbahal, Seth Magaziner, Sarah Elfreth, Suzanne Bonamici, Raúl Grijalva, Mike Levin, Ed Case, Joe Neguse, William Keating, Kathy Castor, and Jamie Raskin.

House Science ranking member Zoe Lofgren has also sent a letter to acting administrator Hann.

There will be a rally in support of NOAA at the Department of Commerce on Tuesday afternoon.

Full text of the letter:

Tags: ,

Trump EPA Again Freezes All Biden-Era Programs

Posted by Brad Johnson on 02/10/2025 at 06:28PM

On Friday night, an email anonymously sent from “Budget and Planning,” apparently within the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, re-froze spending on programs related to climate, clean energy, and civil rights in defiance of multiple judicial restraining orders. Programs frozen range from the Clean School Bus Program to Grants to Reduce Air Pollution at Ports.

The full text is below.

Members of Congress at EPA headquarters
Democratic members of Congress turned away from EPA headquarters, Feb. 6, 2025

To review:

On January 27th, Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director of the White House Office Management and Budget, issued a memorandum demanding a government-wide freeze on all programs related to climate, the environment, civil rights, and reproductive health.

On Tuesday, January 28th, the EPA froze all spending:

“The agency is temporarily pausing all activities related to the obligation or disbursement of EPA Federal financial assistance at this time. EPA is continuing to work with OMB as they review processes, policies, and programs, as required by the memorandum.”

On January 29th, the Senate confirmed Lee Zeldin as Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with the Democratic senators from Arizona, Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, as well as John Fetterman (D-Pa.) joining all Republicans in support.

That same day, Judge Loren AliKhan issued a restraining order against the funding freeze.

On January 31st, Judge John McConnell issued another restraining order against the funding freeze.

On February 3rd, Judge Loren AliKhan issued a strengthened restraining order against the Trump administration’s wide-ranging freeze on funding obligations related to climate and civil rights.

On February 4th, the 24-year-old Elon Musk acolyte and effective-altruism cultist Gaultier Cole Killian was officially designated an EPA employee at [email protected].

That same day, the EPA’s acting chief financial officer, Gregg Treml, announced compliance with the restraining order:

“Consistent with the Order, the agency’s financial system will now enable the obligation of financial assistance. This includes programs within the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, including federal financial assistance in the State and Tribal Assistance Grants, Brownfields, and Superfund.”

On February 6th, Democratic members of Congress were blocked by security guards from entering EPA headquarters. They then spoke to the press with environmental leaders from civil society in front of the building.

That same day, a review of financial assistance programs was announced by EPA acting deputy administrator Chad McIntosh, a former Ford environmental executive appointed to the EPA in the first Trump administration.

Email text:

Tags: ,

The Democratic National Committee Elections

Posted by Brad Johnson on 01/29/2025 at 04:55PM

As an openly eco-fascistic Republican Party works to dismantle the democratic experiment of the United States of America, the Democratic Party is one of the last remaining bulwarks, but only if it abandons the failed tools of neoliberalism and becomes a revitalized opposition party built upon civic democratic principles, capable of regaining the mantle of the working-class party in order to win against increasingly stark odds at the local level and the national stage.

The 448-odd members of the Democratic National Committee are gathering this week at National Harbor, Maryland to elect new leadership for the Democratic Party on Saturday morning. On Thursday, the candidates will gather in person at Georgetown University for a final forum, with the DNC chair candidates running in prime time with MSNBC anchors Jen Psaki, Symone Sanders, and Jonathan Capehart.

MSNBC guest anchor Luke Russert will moderate the forum for Vice Chair of Civic Engagement and Voter Participation candidates, and Mo Elleithee, Executive Director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service, a Fox News contributor and DNC at-large member, will moderate the forums for Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and National Finance Chair candidates. As a voting DNC member, Elleithee has pledged not to vote for the offices he is moderating and has avoided participating in the process (e.g. by signing nominating petitions or conversing with candidates).

After an opening reception Wednesday night, the standing committees meet Thursday morning, with council meetings in the afternoon, overlapping with the candidate forum an hour away. According to the proposed schedule, the only full open meeting of the committee will take place early Friday morning, followed by caucus and council meetings. The resolutions committee will consider submitted resolutions, and the credentials committee will recommend a determination for the status of the disputed Alabama delegation.

The order of elections on Saturday, according to the proposed rules of procedure, is: Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, National Finance Chair, Vice Chair for Civic Engagement and Voter Participation, and the three other Vice Chairpersons, all of whom are members of the DNC executive committee. The fifth vice chair, the head of the Association of State Democratic Committees (ASDC), will be elected at a later date.

Chair

The race to succeed Jaime Harrison as DNC chair appears to be a two-man contest between Ken and Ben.

Tags:

In 1971, The New York Times Published The First Climate Denial Op-Ed

Posted by Brad Johnson on 10/15/2024 at 09:50AM

The public mockery of “environmentalists” for concern about climate pollution began with a The New York Times op-ed by an Ayn Rand acolyte on August 28, 1971. Published with the headline “No, Breathe Easier,” mining executive and propagandist Eugene Guccione falsely claimed that “we are winning the war on pollution” and then called the greenhouse effect “idiocy”.

Unaware that particulate concentration is decreasing, “environmentalists” talk about the New Ice Age Theory. The build-up of dust in the air, so goes the argument, will screen out the sun and we’ll all be turned into ice.

Then there is the Greenhouse Effect Theory. The build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, so goes this particular idiocy, will cause a temperature increase throughout the planet… and we’ll drown in the tidal wave resulting from the melting of the polar ice caps, or roast to death.

These so-called theories contradict each other. We cannot both freeze and roast at the same time. It’s either or. But relax. It’s neither. We won’t freeze because there is no such thing as a build-up of particulates in the air, as lots of tests indicate. Nor will we roast because at the present level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere it would take about 957 years to triple the current level. Such speculations have no more scientific validity than the prediction that my puppy dog, at his present growth rate, would be fifteen feet long and weigh 900 pounds at age five.

The next week, the Times published a response from climate scientist Stephen Schneider, noting Guccione’s op-ed was both factually wrong and dangerously optimistic about the threat of pollution-induced climate change.

Guccione, a chemical engineer who embraced the ideology of free-market economists such as Friedrich Hayek and Alan Greenspan, was then the editor of Engineering & Mining Journal. He later edited Mining Engineering journal and chaired the Mountain States Lime cement plant in Utah as well as the free-market Committee for Monetary Research and Education. He continued to rail against environmental legislation for impeding the coal and oil industries, argued for subsidizing the domestic oil industry to compete with the Soviet Union, and fulminated against taxation as a form of mugging.

By the 1980s, the Times was running regular climate-denial advertorials from Mobil (and after a merger, ExxonMobil) on its op-ed pages into the 2000s. The tradition continued in the Internet age with dynamic greenwashing Web campaigns co-developed by the Times and ExxonMobil.

Full text of the Guccione op-ed: