Courts tap brakes on Trump's plans for federal workers
QUICK FIX
THE FRONT LINES: Hundreds of federal workers who are members of the American Federation of Government Employees will be meeting up in downtown D.C. on Monday for the union's annual confab as President Donald Trump has completely upended their lives.
The administration — with help from Elon Musk and his compatriots — has already tried to end the U.S. Agency for International Development and Consumer Finance Protection Bureau as we know it, and even the core functions of Cabinet-level agencies like the Department of Education could also be on the chopping block.
Government workers have vacillated between dejection and defiance as the Trump administration has called into question their work and value.
In some instances, the federal courts have already intervened — as our Kyle Cheney reports — granting several emergency pleas filed by unions and other groups seeking to halt the Trump administration's plans.
A Trump-appointed judge on Friday prevented the White House from placing more than 2,000 USAID workers on leave and ordered reinstatement for hundreds of others. And a judge in New York handcuffed DOGE from accessing a crucial Treasury Department payments system — drawing the disdain of Vice President JD Vance.
However a Republican-appointed judge in D.C. late Friday opted not to immediately restrict DOGE's access to DOL data, despite his misgivings about the possibility of privacy violations as your host reported.
Prior to that ruling, Judge John Bates, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, had urged the Trump administration to hash out a deal with a group of labor unions — including AFGE — who filed the lawsuit that would place guardrails on DOGE while still allowing it to proceed in some fashion. The government appeared open to such an agreement, based on testimony Friday, though talks ultimately broke down that afternoon and Bates' ruling that the unions lacked the necessary legal standing to seek a temporary restraining order suggests they may have overplayed their hand.
A number of congressional Democrats, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Reps. Gerry Connolly(D-Va.),Jamie Raskin(D-Md.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), as well as Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick are scheduled to address the AFGE conference today.
GOOD MORNING. It's Monday, Feb. 10. Welcome back to Morning Shift, your go-to tipsheet on labor and employment-related immigration. Spoons are apparently the new safety pin. Send feedback, tips and exclusives to nniedzwiadek@politico.com and lukenye@politico.com. Follow us on X at @NickNiedz and @Lawrence_Ukenye.
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AROUND THE AGENCIES
LCD LIEUTENANT LATEST: Keith Sonderling, a former top Republican official at the OL and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, made tens of thousands of dollars after leaving outside of the government last year.
Sonderling, who Trump nominated to serve as deputy Labor secretary under Lori Chavez-DeRemer, reported just over $50,000 in consulting fees according to financial documents and an ethics disclosure released over the weekend by the Office of Government Ethics.
He left the EEOC not long after his term expired last summer (agency rules allow commissioners to stay on in so-called holdover status.)
Sonderling met with several senators last week in their Capitol Hill offices ahead of a possible springtime confirmation hearing. Chavez-DeRemer will appear before the Senate HELP Committee on Wednesday.
More agency news: 'U.S. intelligence, law enforcement candidates face Trump loyalty test,' from The Washington Post.
Even more news: 'The Trump Admin Paused a Workplace Safety Council Established Under Federal Law,' from NOTUS.
Smash cut: 'Secret Service airing recruitment ad from Hollywood director Michael Bay during Super Bowl,' from CNN.
In the Workplace
DOWNSTREAM EFFECTS: Working-age immigrants were a key bulwark for the economy under former President Joe Biden, but now economists are fretting what Trump's crackdown means for the job market, our Sam Sutton reports.
The Labor Department reported Friday that U.S. employers added 143,000 jobs in January, with the jobless rate slipping to 4 percent. The growth in payrolls was lifted by new arrivals whose legal status runs the gamut. The labor force participation rate among foreign-born individuals was 66 percent in January, compared with 61.4 percent among native-born workers, according to the release.
'What happens to net immigration over 2025 is a game changer for what we should expect to see in the payroll employment numbers,' said Wendy Edelberg, a former top economist at the Congressional Budget Office who's now the director of The Hamilton Project and a Brookings Institution senior fellow. 'We should get used to much, much smaller numbers than what we've seen over the last couple of years.'
Trump says his sweeping agenda of deregulation, increased oil production and lower taxes will unlock growth and beat back inflation — an argument strongly endorsed by the American people in the election. But a broad-based crackdown on immigrants could slow the economy's expansion and choke off a supply of workers that Kansas City Fed researchers and others say have alleviated staffing shortages and eased wage pressures.
More workplace news: 'The D.C. Neighborhood Bearing the Brunt of Government Job Cuts,' from The Wall Street Journal.
On the Hill
CHASING DOGE'S TAIL: Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, on Friday asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the security of IT systems at a trio of agencies including the Labor Department, our Bianca Quillantan reports for Pro subscribers.
'This is a constitutional emergency,' Scott wrote in a letter. 'Insofar as the Inspectors General of both the Departments of Education and Labor have been fired by President Trump, there is now a void of oversight for a very young and inexperienced team and their leader, the world's richest man who operates with 'autonomy almost no one can control,' as they gain dangerously broad powers.'
NOT AS I DO: Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) flouted House rules by having a surrogate cast his vote while he was out of town to appear as a guest on a comedy TV show, Punchbowl reports.
Donalds is considered a possible gubernatorial candidate in Florida, though as NOTUS reports he is far from the first member of Congress who has bent the rules against having other people cast a vote for them.
One problem: Speaker Mike Johnson has been adamantly against proxy voting — even for members of Congress who have recently given birth, as Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) did last month — in the belief that doing so violates the Constitution.
A judge in Texas last year partially invalidated protections for pregnant workers passed as part of the 2022 omnibus package on the grounds that the House vote utilized proxy voting. That case is set to go before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals later this month.
IN THE STATES
ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL: Trump's assault on the federal workforce could upend the Virginia gubernatorial race where many of these workers reside, The Associated Press reports.
With Virginia and New Jersey as the only states that pick their governor the year after the presidential elections, the contests are often closely watched as a harbinger of the following year's midterms and a referendum on the early days of a presidency.
'And dating to 1977, every time a new president has been elected, the following year Virginia has voted in a governor from the opposite party,' the AP reports.
EMERGENCY (UN-PREPAREDNESS): The Trump administration's federal hiring freeze is hindering efforts to bring in new seasonal firefighters just weeks after the devastation across Southern California, NBC News reports.
'Even though President Donald Trump's Jan. 20 executive order says the freeze does not apply to positions related to 'public safety,' federal firefighters are not exempt, according to a person who works in hiring at the Bureau of Land Management.'
Try transit: 'Expect Chaos Monday as Nearly 17,000 Return to Work at US Navy Yard,' from HillRag.
Immigration
BRAIN DRAIN: Trump's war on immigrants may lead to a sharp drop-off in the number of international students pursuing MBAs at universities in the U.S., Bloomberg reports.
'According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, which conducts an annual survey of business schools, the majority of applicants for the class of 2026 in the US (who enrolled this past fall), 61%, came from abroad. But 20 of the top 30 US schools as ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek reduced the number of foreign students in the enrolled class, an analysis of class profiles and figures provided directly by schools shows.'
Such students are helpful for schools seeking to bolster their reputation abroad, as well as providing an important revenue stream for universities.
WHAT WE'RE READING
— 'Veterans Affairs carves out potentially hundreds of thousands of staffers from 'buyout' offer,' from our Holly Otterbein and Ruth Reader.
— 'The government's computing experts say they are terrified,' from the Atlantic.
— 'DEI Didn't Change the Workforce All That Much. A Look at 13 Million Jobs,' from The Wall Street Journal.
— Opinion: 'I Was a Member of the the NLRB. What Trump's Doing to It Now Is Very Illegal,' from Lauren McFerran for Slate.
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Politico
19 minutes ago
- Politico
The GOP's latest megabill casualties
Presented by IN TODAY'S EDITION:— House GOP to ax some megabill proposals— Mfume now pro-seniority amid Oversight race— MAHA spat between GOP senators, RFK Jr. House Republicans will vote to make difficult changes to the GOP megabill today in an attempt to keep the bill on track in the Senate. The House Rules Committee teed up a provision Tuesday night that would scrub the House-passed bill of problems the Senate parliamentarian flagged as threats to the measure's filibuster-skirting power, our Jennifer Scholtes, Meredith Lee Hill and Katherine Tully-McManus report. The proposals getting axed include: — Cracking down on the fraud-plagued employee retention tax credit created during the pandemic. House Republicans were relying on this for $6.3 billion in savings to offset spending in the bill. — $2 billion for Pentagon military intelligence programs and $500 million to develop missiles. Losing this particularly irked many House GOP lawmakers. — Allowing mining in a protected wilderness area in the Midwest. The contentious provision would have reversed then-President Joe Biden's move to protect the Boundary Waters area. — Part of the policy ending increased food aid for households that also qualify for heating and cooling assistance. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins previously complained about this. — Extending a policy requiring federal agencies to procure a certain amount of biofuels or bio-based products. By cutting these items, the bill retains its ability to pass the Senate with a simple majority, rather than 60 votes. While Senate Republicans are still mulling their own tweaks to the bill, and could seek to restore some of the measures now on the chopping block, these changes need to be fixed now before the Senate votes on it. More policies could get slashed. In the coming weeks, expect Senate Republicans to start getting their first 'Byrd bath' rulings from the parliamentarian on additional GOP proposals under challenge from Democrats. To help avoid a tough whip effort today, House GOP leaders are embedding the fixes in the procedural measure they're using to set up debate on the $9.4 billion rescissions package — legislation that even the most conservative Republicans support. That won't be the case when the bill comes back from the Senate in a few weeks, as leaders hope. GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING. We hope to see you all at the Congressional Baseball Game tonight! Follow our live coverage at the Inside Congress blog at and email your Inside Congress scribes at mmccarthy@ lkashinsky@ bleonard@ and crazor@ THE SKED The House is in session and voting on the rule for the rescissions package that includes special language to amend the reconciliation package at 4:15 p.m. — Democratic Leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer will have a news conference on the GOP megabill at 10 a.m. — Appropriations will have a full committee markup of the fiscal 2026 Agriculture-FDA bill at 10 a.m. — Agriculture will hear testimony from Secretary Brooke Rollins at 10 a.m. — Ways and Means will hear testimony from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at 10 a.m. — The Republican Study Committee will have its weekly lunch at 12:30 p.m. The Senate is in session and voting on ending debate on Billy Long's nomination to be IRS commissioner at noon, on proceeding with landmark cryptocurrency legislation at 2 p.m. and on discharging resolutions that block the sale of certain arms to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates around 4 p.m. — Environment and Public Works will have a hearing on Sean McMaster's nomination to be administrator of the Federal Highway Administration at 10 a.m. — Commerce will have a hearing on Bryan Bedford's nomination for FAA administrator at 10 a.m. — Energy and Natural Resources will have a hearing on the president's fiscal 2026 budget request for the Interior Department at 10 a.m. — Appropriations will have subcommittee hearings on the president's fiscal 2026 budget request for the Defense Department with testimony from Secretary Pete Hegseth at 10 a.m., for the Forest Service with testimony from Chief Tom Schultz at 10:30 a.m., for HUD with testimony from Secretary Scott Turner at 3:30 p.m. and for Treasury with testimony from Bessent at 4 p.m. — Republicans will have a conference meeting at 2:30 p.m. — The Congressional Baseball Game will start at 7:05 p.m. at Nationals Park. The rest of the week: The House will take up the rescissions package and the HALT Fentanyl Act. The Senate will work through Trump's nominations and landmark cryptocurrency legislation. THE LEADERSHIP SUITE FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: MFUME EMBRACES SENIORITY — Kweisi Mfume fled the House three decades ago over frustrations with Democrats' seniority system. Now Mfume, 76, is banking on the age-old practice as he vies for the party's top slot on House Oversight, our Nicholas Wu, Hailey Fuchs and Ben Jacobs report this morning. Mfume's using an old-school sales pitch, too. Rather than provide a detailed agenda for taking on Trump and congressional Republicans, Mfume said he'll aim to build 'consensus' among panel Democrats on the best path forward. He wants to 'moderate' disagreements rather than brawl across the aisle. It's a sharp contrast to a Democratic base that's itching for more aggressive and younger leadership. Some complicating factors for Mfume: He's the oldest in a four-person field that includes two candidates in their forties. Rep. Stephen Lynch, 70, has more seniority on the panel. Rep. Robert Garcia won the Congressional Hispanic Caucus' endorsement. Mfume is unlikely to win official support from the Congressional Black Caucus because another member, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, is also in the race. And Mfume's 2004 departure from the NAACP was marred by sexual harassment allegations, though Mfume denies wrongdoing. Senior Republicans skipping Trump's military bash Top Republicans including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and the chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services committees won't be attending the president's multimillion-dollar military parade Saturday, Lisa, Calen and Mia report. In fact, among 50 Republicans we surveyed this week, only seven said they were staying in town to attend the Army's 250th birthday celebration (which is also Trump's 79th) — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Byron Donalds, Elise Stefanik, Cory Mills, Rich McCormick, John McGuire and Lisa McClain. The White House is shrugging off the absences; an official granted anonymity to discuss planning for the event said senior military leaders and at least 15 Cabinet secretaries are slated to attend. And GOP lawmakers broadly said they support the spectacle that could cost upwards of $40 million, though a few are balking at the price tag. Thune says Trump's tax promises are here to stay Thune said Tuesday that Trump's campaign-trail tax pledges will be included in the Senate's version of the megabill, even as some Republicans mull scaling back key provisions to help expand business tax incentives, our Jordain Carney reports. 'The president, as you know, campaigned hard on no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, social security, interest on car loans,' Thune told reporters. 'They were addressed in the House version of the bill and I expect they will be in the Senate, as well.' Thune also said he'll likely return to the White House for another megabill meeting with Trump before week's end. Meanwhile, as negotiations continue over the Senate's megabill changes, SALT Republicans are seeking a meeting with Thune over the state-and-local-tax deduction, which could happen as soon as today. House Freedom Caucus members Chip Roy and Scott Perry crossed the Capitol Tuesday to meet with fellow deficit hawks Sens. Mike Lee, Rick Scott and Ron Johnson, Jordain scooped. Scalise skeptical of Texas redistricting push Count Scalise among the Republicans unnerved by the White House's push for Texas lawmakers to redraw the state's 38 U.S. House districts. Scalise on Tuesday cautioned that the effort — pitched as a measure to preserve the GOP majority in the midterms — shouldn't inadvertently put incumbents at risk. 'You have to balance a lot of things,' he told reporters. Members of the Texas GOP House delegation didn't show much enthusiasm for the idea in their closed-door meeting Monday night, a person familiar with the discussions told Nicholas. They'll huddle with White House officials Thursday to discuss the redistricting plan further. Johnson backs Trump's military force in LA Speaker Mike Johnson is standing behind Trump's decision to dispatch both the National Guard and the Marines to Los Angeles amid clashes between protestors and law enforcement over ICE. He said there's a 'clear distinction' between condemning violent protesters in California and Trump pardoning rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, though he declined to elaborate. Meanwhile, Collins broke with GOP leadership Tuesday over the issue. 'I would draw a distinction between the use of the National Guard and the use of the Marines,' Collins told reporters. 'Active duty forces are generally not to be involved in domestic law-enforcement operations.' POLICY RUNDOWN SCOOP: MAHA MEETING MELTDOWN — Key farm-state GOP senators had a tense meeting with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other Trump administration officials Tuesday over the Make America Healthy Again report, which criticized pesticide use, four people tell our Grace Yarrow. Senators in the meeting included Agriculture Chair John Boozman, Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee Chair John Hoeven, Chuck Grassley, Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Marshall, along with Kennedy adviser Calley Means. The three other people familiar with Tuesday's discussion described the tone as 'heated.' At one point, Kennedy pounded on the table, one individual said. 'If this was to try to calm people down, they failed miserably,' the person told Grace. SIMPSON BUCKS THE WHITE HOUSE — Rep. Mike Simpson, a senior appropriator, is pushing back on White House budget chief Russ Vought's enthusiasm for so-called 'pocket rescissions,' which would allow the Trump administration to make permanent cuts to federal spending without congressional approval, our Katherine Tully-McManus and Meredith report. 'I think it's a bad idea,' Simpson told reporters Tuesday. 'It undermines Congress' authority.' A pocket rescission refers to when the White House moves to claw back money already approved by Congress with fewer than 45 days left in the fiscal year, then withholds that funding through Sept. 30 in an attempt to cancel it permanently. SENATE GOP SNAPS BACK — Senate Republicans are finalizing a scaled-down plan to shift some federal food aid costs to states as a way to pay for their megabill, five people with direct knowledge of the negotiations told Meredith and Grace. The move to downsize the House-passed plan comes after intense pushback from Republican senators, including some of Trump's closest supporters. They're concerned that red states in particular would be hit with billions of dollars in new costs to administer the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps feed more than 40 million low-income Americans. The reworked Senate plan under consideration would force states with the highest payment error rates to pay 15 percent of SNAP benefits — a lower rate than the House's 25 percent proposal. It also would scale down the costs for states with lower error rates, allowing some of them to avoid footing any of the cost-share for benefits. REPUBLICANS BACK OFF MEDICARE CHANGES — Senate Republicans are bursting their own Medicare bubble after some lawmakers floated making changes to the program to help pay for their megabill, Jordain and Robert King report. Sen. Kevin Cramer, among the first lawmakers to raise the possibility of including Medicare changes in the party-line package, conceded in an interview the concept lacked political momentum: 'There aren't many of us courageous enough to talk about it.' Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E: CAMPAIGN STOP NORTON'S FLIP-FLOP — Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.'s nonvoting House delegate, said Tuesday she would seek reelection, only for her spokesperson to say hours later that the aging representative is 'in conversations' about retirement, Nicholas reports. Norton, who turns 88 this week, has faced increasing concern about her capacity to continue serving in Congress, particularly as D.C. faces a Congress-induced budget shortfall. SHERRILL ADVANCES IN N.J. GOV RACE — Rep. Mikie Sherrill clinched the Democratic nomination for New Jersey governor Tuesday night. The state's electorate leans blue, but the race between Sherrill and Trump-backed Republican Jack Ciattarelli is expected to be competitive. If Sherrill wins in November, there will be a special election to succeed her. Expect a crowded Democratic field there; her district favors Democrats, our Madison Fernandez writes in. Sherrill's the latest House Democrat elected in the party's 2018 wave to seek higher office. TUNNEL TALK DEMS HOPE TO AVOID ANOTHER SHELLACKING — Democrats are looking to break a four-game skid against Republicans in the Congressional Baseball Game tonight after getting blown out last year. It's been ugly: Republicans have outscored Democrats 70-29 in the past four games, including a 20-run victory last year. The game is played at Nationals Park and benefits charities, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington. Names to watch: Rep. Greg Steube has been the GOP's ace pitcher and won the MVP last year for Republicans. Sen. Eric Schmitt and Reps. August Pfluger, Morgan Luttrel and Brad Finstad are all dangerous hitters. For the Democrats, Reps. Chris Deluzio, Peter Aguilar and Jimmy Panetta are among their heavy hitters. They've struggled to find a replacement on the mound for Cedric Richmond, who left the Hill for the Biden administration in 2021, but Aguilar and Deluzio have stepped in to help pitch in recent years. The forecast: Elections analyst Nathaniel Rakich crunched the numbers and says the game is 'likely Republican.' THE BEST OF THE REST New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver indicted following ICE protest, from our Ry Rivard Freedom Caucus chair leads in earmarks, Jack Fitzpatrick and Ken Tran at Bloomberg Government Lawmakers Traded Stocks Heavily as Trump Rolled Out 'Liberation Day' Tariffs, from Katy Stech Ferek, Jack Gillum, James Benedict and Gunjan Banerji at The Wall Street Journal 'Super Cagey': Inside Rep. Mark Green's Mysterious Resignation From Congress, from Reese Gorman at NOTUS CAPITOL HILL INFLUENCE TELEHEALTH TAKEOVER — The American Telemedicine Association's lobbying arm is blanketing more than 40 Capitol Hill offices today in a bid to extend expanded pandemic-era access to virtual health care. Popular and broadly bipartisan telehealth flexibilities that started during the pandemic expire at the end of September. 'We are most definitely not standing by during the budget reconciliation process — there's just too much at stake,' ATA Action executive director Kyle Zebley said in a statement. ALSO FLYING IN — Several trade groups are on the Hill this week to discuss the Trump administration's tariffs, including the National Retail Federation and the American Seed Trade Association, POLITICO Influence reports. Meanwhile CEOs with AdvaMed will meet with lawmakers today to try and win support for a new medtech Medicare coverage bill. JOB BOARD Cally Barry is now senior adviser and comms director for Rep. Ralph Norman. She most recently was comms director for Rep. Morgan Luttrell. Marybeth Nassif is joining Jones Walker as a director in the government relations practice group. She previously was a professional staff member for the House Appropriations Committee. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Former Rep. Mike Conaway … CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz … Kim Oates of the House Radio/TV Gallery … J Street's Jeremy Ben-Ami … Cesar Gonzalez of Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart's office … Tad Devine of Devine Mulvey Longabaugh … Lorissa Bounds … Kristen Thomaselli ... Mary Kate Cunningham … CNN's Morgan Rimmer … Sofia Jones of the House Agriculture Committee … Jonathan Martinez of Haleon … Tamar Epps of the National Head Start Association … Amy Barrera of Thune's office … TJ Adams-Falconer TRIVIA TUESDAY'S ANSWER: Paul Hagner correctly answered that Richard Nixon was the first president to visit all 50 states while in office. TODAY'S QUESTION, from Paul: William Henry Harrison had the shortest tenure as president. Who had the second shortest tenure? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@ CORRECTION: Yesterday's newsletter misstated the time of a House Democratic leaders press conference and misspelled Sang Yi's name — our apologies.
Politico
24 minutes ago
- Politico
Kweisi Mfume is pitching an old-school approach to one of House Democrats' highest-profile jobs
Frustrated by Democrats' seniority system, Kweisi Mfume fled the House three decades ago, saying he could do more to advance civil rights from the outside. Now he's back and trying to reap the benefits of seniority at a moment when many in his party are starting to openly question it. The Baltimore native last month surprised many House colleagues by entering the wide-open race to lead Democrats on the high-profile Oversight Committee, seeking to fill the spot vacated by the sudden death of Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly. Into the void jumped a pair of young, ambitious members — Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Robert Garcia of California — as well as a close Connolly ally, Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. And then there's Mfume, who at 76 is making no bones about this being the capstone of a long career that included stints leading the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP — jobs he took back in the 1990s. 'I started a long time ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth,' Mfume joked in an interview, before describing his old-school approach to legislative relations: 'The first thing you learn is how to count votes, which has never failed me yet,' he said, adding that he would be careful not to alienate colleagues 'by doing something that causes problems for them in their district.' Rather than detail a point-by-point agenda for taking on President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, Mfume said if elected he'd convene the committee's Democrats to decide a course of action. The party, he said, can only move forward with a 'consensus.' That style stands in sharp contrast to a Democratic base that's itching for more aggressive leadership and a more visible fight with Trump — something the other candidates are clearly heeding: Garcia has tangled with the Justice Department over his criticism of Elon Musk; Crockett has broached the prospect of a Trump impeachment inquiry; and Lynch, as the panel's interim top Democrat, attempted last week to subpoena Musk during a panel hearing. The race also threatens to become a proxy fight for broader questions about age and seniority inside the Democratic Party. House Democrats ousted several aging committee leaders at the end of last Congress as they girded for a fight with the Trump administration — and many in the base were disappointed when Connolly triumphed over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. The winner is poised to lead efforts to investigate and thwart the Trump administration if Democrats can retake the House majority next year — and ride herd on a chaotic panel that in recent months has featured intense personal attacks between lawmakers and the display of nude photos. 'It's a street fight every day,' said Rep. Lateefah Simon of California when asked about the panel and what it takes to lead it. 'It's every single day being able to expose the hypocrisy of this administration and to tell the truth.' There was a time when Mfume would have been a natural choice for such a moment. First elected to Baltimore's City Council at the age of 30, he quickly butted heads with legendary Mayor William Donald Schaefer. After longtime Rep. Parren Mitchell retired, Mfume easily won the seat in 1986 and within a few years become a national figure due to his chairmanship of the CBC. Ascending to that role just as Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency, he became an important power broker, forcing key concessions in Clinton's 1993 budget and pushing the White House to restore ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. He also clashed with Clinton at times, including over his decision to pull the nomination of prominent Black legal scholar Lani Guinier to a top Justice Department post. But after Democrats lost their House majority in 1994 — and Mfume lost a quixotic bid to enter the party leadership — he decided two years later to forgo a long climb up the seniority ladder. He instead took the helm at the Baltimore-based NAACP, a job thought to better harness his skills at organizing and oratory. Former Maryland state Sen. Jill Carter said Mfume has long had the 'it factor' and 'charisma' that matters in politics. When Carter ran against Mfume in his 2020 House comeback bid, she got a reminder of how well her rival was known in the district and beyond: 'When some of my people did exit polling, they got the response, 'Oh, we love Jill but, come on, this is Kweisi.'' What's less clear is whether Mfume's reputation in Baltimore, burnished over 45 years in the public eye, makes him the man for the moment as far as his contemporary House colleagues are concerned. He's not known as a partisan brawler, and he said in the interview he doesn't intend to become one. 'There are always going to be fights and disagreements,' he said. 'It's kind of escalated in the last few years to a level that we haven't seen before. I think the main thing is to moderate and to manage the disagreements, because you're not going to cause any of them to go away. How you manage them and how they are perceived by the overall public is what makes a difference.' Mfume is leaning heavily, in fact, on the style and reputation of the man who filled the 7th District seat for the 24 years in between his House stints — the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, who served as top Democrat and then chair of Oversight during Trump's first term and is still spoken of in reverent terms inside the caucus. Mfume concedes that Cummings might have been the better communicator — he 'had a little more preacher in him than I do' — but said they share a similar lofty approach to politics. Like Cummings, he suggested prescription drug prices might be a committee priority. What Mfume is unlikely to have is the official support of the Congressional Black Caucus, a powerful force in intracaucus politics. With two members in the race — Crockett also belongs — Mfume said he does not expect a formal CBC endorsement after an interview process Wednesday. But he still expected to draw support from the bloc — especially its more senior members. Other factors complicate Mfume's candidacy. One is age: He is a year older than Connolly was when he was elected to lead Oversight Democrats last year. For those who prize seniority, Lynch has actually spent more time on the panel. And his 2004 departure from the NAACP was marred by controversy: The Baltimore Sun reported the executive committee of the group voted not to extend his contract under threat of a sexual harassment lawsuit; the NAACP later paid the woman who complained a $100,000 settlement. Mfume strenuously denied any wrongdoing, but while the episode has not emerged as a major issue in the Oversight race, some Democrats have privately expressed reservations about elevating a leader with personal baggage to potentially lead investigations of Trump. 'There's never been one person to corroborate that one allegation — not one,' Mfume said. About the payment, he said, 'I found out about it, quite frankly, after it happened.' Much of the Democratic Caucus remains undecided ahead of the June 24 secret-ballot vote. Candidates will first go before Democrats' Steering and Policy Committee, which will make a recommendation to the full caucus. 'I think that you have a situation where Mfume and Steve Lynch are getting support from folks who put seniority at top, and maybe the other two candidates would probably lean toward members who are newer, and then you got a whole host of folks that's in the middle. And I think that's where the battle is to see where they fall,' said Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.). One younger member said he was swayed by Mfume's experience. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is 48 and had weighed his own bid, said that while other candidates were compelling, the Baltimorean had a 'leg up.' 'Kweisi shows me pictures of him with Nelson Mandela,' he said. 'I was like, I'm not going to run against Nelson Mandela's best friend.'
New York Times
24 minutes ago
- New York Times
Texas Governor Will Deploy National Guard to Immigration Protests
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said late Tuesday that he would deploy National Guard troops across the state, making him the first governor to do so as protests against the Trump administration's immigration crackdown spread across the United States. Mr. Abbott, a Republican and a vocal supporter of President Trump's immigration agenda, said on social media that he would not tolerate violence as protests are planned in San Antonio on Wednesday. The protests that began in Los Angeles last Friday against federal immigration raids have spread to more than a dozen U.S. cities, including Dallas, Austin, Houston and San Antonio. While many of the protests have been peaceful, police have clashed with demonstrators at some of them. Mr. Trump has threatened to override governors who don't want to send National Guard troops to stop protests, like the president did in California, where he sent nearly 5,000 National Guard troops and Marines over the strong objections of state leaders. That has made California ground zero for Mr. Trump's immigration agenda, which includes ramping up deportations of undocumented immigrants with the help of local law enforcement agencies and, in a rare action, active-duty military forces. Mr. Abbott's announcement said that the Texas National Guard will 'use every tool & strategy to help law enforcement maintain order.' 'Peaceful protest is legal,' he added. 'Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest.' The announcement did not specify where and when the troops will be deployed. Mr. Abbott's office, the San Antonio Police Department, the Texas National Guard and U.S. Northern Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Monday night, more than a dozen protesters were arrested in Austin during a demonstration at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Mr. Abbott had said. Law enforcement officials used tear gas and pepper ball projectiles, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
