Children of ex-federal workers' rally against job cuts
Children of ex-federal workers' rally against job cuts
July 19, 2025 | 11:53 AM GMT
Former federal workers gathered at the Hart Senate Office Building, some accompanied by their children, to speak with Senate staff about the work they once did.
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Politico
22 minutes ago
- Politico
Playbook PM: Waltz advances, Ingrassia gets iced
Presented by THE CATCH-UP BREAKING: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers just announced that he will not seek a third term, creating an open-seat contest atop the state that was the closest in the nation last year. The mild-mannered Democrat helped usher his party out of the wilderness in Wisconsin, vetoing a bevy of GOP bills and striking a bipartisan budget deal this year. With Evers out of the race, lots of ambitious Democrats and Republicans could jump in. His announcement SAVE ME THE WALTZ: Mike Waltz's nomination as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is out of limbo and back on track after a Democrat cut a deal to save him in committee, the latest development in an up-and-down day for some of President Donald Trump's highest-profile nominees. By a whisker: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted no but Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) joined with Republicans to vote yes and advance Waltz out of the Foreign Relations Committee, 12-10. He now goes to the full Senate, where the former national security adviser will likely be confirmed. The partisan swap reflected ideological divides around isolationism: Paul objected to Waltz's vote to keep troops in Afghanistan, while Shaheen said in a statement that despite some concerns (including Signalgate), she saw Waltz as a potential 'moderating force' against the likes of VP JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Elbridge Colby. Some Democrats also worried about who might replace Waltz if his nomination failed. The art of the deal: Crucially, Shaheen said she also worked out a deal with committee Republicans and the State Department to unlock $75 million in lifesaving foreign aid for Haiti and Nigeria, per Axios' Hans Nichols. The money for food and medical assistance had already been authorized. But Shaheen may not necessarily vote for Waltz's confirmation, POLITICO's Jordain Carney and Eric Bazail-Eimil report. Also headed to the Senate floor: The Judiciary Committee advanced Jeanine Pirro's nomination as U.S. attorney for D.C. on a 12-10 party-line vote, along with a number of other U.S. attorney picks. More from Bloomberg Law Not going as smoothly: the nomination of Paul Ingrassia. Trump's pick to lead the Office of Special Counsel was due for a confirmation hearing this morning, but he was yanked from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee schedule indefinitely as senators said they needed more time to examine his record, per POLITICO's Hailey Fuchs. The controversial recent law school graduate — who has reportedly shared a 9/11 conspiracy video, defended Jan. 6 participants and said straight white men are the smartest people — would bring staunch Trump loyalty to a role that has traditionally been an independent watchdog. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said he was principally concerned about Ingrassia's 'statements about antisemitism.' But but but: The White House hasn't pulled his nomination, and it's standing staunchly behind him still. If it's rescheduled, his confirmation hearing could come next month or after the August recess, as Senate Majority Leader John Thune said committee members are 'taking a harder look at it.' Good Thursday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@ 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW 1. BIG NEWS FOR USDA: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins today announced a sweeping transformation of the department with a reorganization plan that will see most of its D.C. buildings shut down and staff moved to other parts of the country, POLITICO's Grace Yarrow, Jordan Wolman and Marcia Brown scooped. Multiple D.C.-area facilities will be closed, including the South building of headquarters, and some 2,600 civil servants could be forced to move to new hubs like Salt Lake City; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Missouri; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Fort Collins, Colorado. (Similar moves at two USDA research offices in Trump's first term led to significant staff departures, vacancies and plummeting morale.) With SCOTUS' blessing: Rollins' moves come after the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to proceed with reorganization plans and mass layoffs, lifting a lower-court block. Rollins has said it's valuable to bring USDA 'closer to the people' across the country. The agency said it is currently 'bloated, expensive, and unsustainable,' and needs to shrink and refocus on its core missions. But major reductions in force are not expected now at USDA, since more than 15,000 employees have already sprung for the deferred resignation plan. 2. THE IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN: 'ICE moves to shackle some 180,000 immigrants with GPS ankle monitors,' by WaPo's Douglas MacMillan and Silvia Foster-Frau: 'U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has directed personnel to sharply increase the number of immigrants they shackle with GPS-enabled ankle monitors, as the Trump administration widens surveillance of people it is targeting for deportation … Currently, just 24,000 of these individuals wear ankle monitors. … [It] marks a significant expansion of a 20-year-old surveillance practice steeped in controversy.' 3. TRADING PLACES: After Japan struck a trade deal with the U.S., South Korea is scrambling to make sure it secures one too before Aug. 1 tariffs kick in, NYT's Lydia DePillis and Ashley Ahn report. The Japan agreement could serve as a template or a starting point, as Seoul and Washington try to hash out disagreements on beef, other agricultural goods, automobiles and more. But a meeting with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and USTR Jamieson Greer that was slated for tomorrow in D.C. has been postponed due to scheduling conflicts, raising more concerns about whether the two sides will be able to reach a deal in time, per Reuters' Jihoon Lee. 4. FACT CHECK: 'Gabbard's claims of an anti-Trump conspiracy are not supported by declassified documents,' by AP's Byron Tau and Eric Tucker: 'The Kremlin's campaign and the subsequent U.S. government response were the subject of at least five major investigations … Those investigations either concluded — or accepted the conclusion — that Russia embarked on a campaign to interfere in the election through the use of social media and hacked material. … The Associated Press has reviewed those reports to evaluate how [DNI Tulsi] Gabbard's claims stack up.' Undeterred: Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) urged AG Pam Bondi to tap a special counsel to probe the newly declassified documents and the Obama administration's Russia election interference investigation, Fox News' Ashley Oliver scooped. Special counsel John Durham already led a three-year review into this matter that began in Trump's first term. 5. WHAT JOHN CORNYN IS TOUTING: 'Texas AG claimed three homes as primary residence. Democrats are being probed for similar issue,' by AP's Brian Slodysko: 'Mortgages signed by [Ken and Angela Paxton] contained inaccurate statements declaring that each of those three houses was their primary residence, enabling the now-estranged couple to improperly lock in low interest rates … It is a federal and state crime to knowingly make false statements on mortgage documents. … Trump has accused two of his political foes — Sen. Adam Schiff of California and New York Attorney General Letitia James — of committing mortgage fraud, though legal experts say the circumstances are less serious.' More from Texas: Bobby Pulido is taking the first step toward a Democratic bid to challenge GOP Rep. Monica De La Cruz, The Texas Tribune's Gabby Birenbaum scooped. The superstar Tejano singer would bring wide name recognition to a bid, but this heavily Latino area of South Texas has swung hard to the right in recent years. (Possible redistricting looms, of course.) Red-light redistrict: Texas, of course, may be ground zero for Republicans' effort to gerrymander several new House seats for themselves. And though Democrats are talking tough about going tit for tat, the reality is that the GOP has more opportunities to win in an all-out mid-cycle redistricting war, Sabato's Crystal Ball's Kyle Kondik writes. Dems would have to go to more effortful lengths to counter GOP gains. And the White House is serious about pushing for a similar redraw in Missouri, Punchbowl's Ally Mutnick and colleagues report. All of this is an effort by politicians to seize power at the expense of voters' wishes: 'Conventional constraints don't exist if we're really driving the car all the way off the cliff,' one professor tells NYT's Nick Corasaniti and Laurel Rosenhall. 6. CLIMATE FILES: 'Boom fades for US clean energy as Trump guts subsidies,' by Reuters' Nichola Groom: 'Singapore-based solar panel manufacturer Bila Solar is suspending plans to double capacity at its new factory in Indianapolis. Canadian rival Heliene's plans for a solar cell facility in Minnesota are under review. Norwegian solar wafer maker NorSun is evaluating whether to move forward with a planned factory in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And two fully permitted offshore wind farms in the U.S. Northeast may never get built.' 7. TROUBLE AT THE NGA: Some Democratic governors are growing angry that the bipartisan National Governors Association hasn't been forceful enough in responding to Trump's actions against state leadership and autonomy, The Atlantic's Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker report. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly intend to stop paying their taxpayer-funded dues. The NGA pushed back, saying that being bipartisan means it won't issue statements unless governors from both parties reach consensus on an issue. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt will assume the chairmanship this weekend, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is expected to be elected vice chair. 8. OUT OF THE DOGE HOUSE: Antonio Gracias has left the Department of Government Efficiency, where he was a top official, and is back in the private sector, NBC's Gretchen Morgenson scooped. Amid questions from Randi Weingarten about his firm's management of public pension funds' assets while working for DOGE, his company said he stopped volunteering for the office at the start of July. Gracias had also made false claims about the Social Security Administration with Elon Musk. 9. NOT JUST ASPEN: 'Pentagon suspends participation in think tank events,' by POLITICO's Jack Detsch: 'It specifically banned attendance at the Halifax International Security Forum … The move would sideline the Pentagon from national security dialogues that it has used for decades to advance its policy and explain the department's rationale.' TALK OF THE TOWN OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a fundraiser for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger, hosted by Nelson Cunningham at his Georgetown home last night and bringing in $80,000: George Vradenburg, Tim Broas, Mark Bergman, Neil Eggleston, Viveca Novak, Roberta Baskin, Robert Hoopes, Adam Schwartz, Scott Wallace, Aaron Williams and John Mullen. — Velocity Partners celebrated the launch of its new creator offering at a dinner last night at The Henri, hosted with #Paid. SPOTTED: Ali Rubin, Kate Meissner, Andrea Riccio, Lisa Hanna, Emilie Simons, Alex Hornbrook, Kelly Langford, Greg Roberts, Kenny Thompson, Francesca Marotti, Dia Marchionne, Olivia Perez-Cubas and Grace Mihalich. MEDIA MOVE — Tanya Simon has been named executive producer of CBS' '60 Minutes,' the first woman and fourth person overall to assume that role across 57 years. She most recently was interim executive producer and has been with the broadcast for 25 years. TRANSITION — James Dougherty is joining McGuireWoods' government contracts group. He most recently was at Offit Kurman. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Republicans plan to use the threat of impeachment as a key midterm issue
WASHINGTON — Impeachment may be nothing that Donald Trump wants, but it is shaping up to be a galvanizing midterm election issue that preserves his party's control of Congress, Republican strategists said. Seldom do sitting presidents pick up seats in midterm congressional elections. Trump faces an especially daunting challenge in that he relies on a devoted electoral base that may feel no compelling reason to vote if his name isn't on the ballot. One way to persuade Trump supporters to turn out is to press the point that he could face impeachment a third time if Democrats wrest control of the House in November 2026, the GOP operatives said. The message to Trump's loyal following is a simple one: If you like Trump and want to protect him from an avenging Democratic majority, vote Republican. Impeachment 'will be the subtext of everything we do, whether it's said overtly or not,' said a senior Republican strategist who is involved in congressional races and speaks to Trump. The strategist, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to speak candidly. John McLaughlin, a Trump pollster, said: 'The Trump voters are happy and complacent right now. And we have to get them fired up for next year. We have a lot of work to do. If President Trump is not on the ballot, it's harder to get them out.' 'We know what the stakes are in the midterm elections,' he added. 'If we don't succeed, Democrats will begin persecuting President Trump again. They would go for impeachment.' As they workshop midterm campaign messages, Democratic leaders are making the opposite calculation. They've concluded impeachment is a losing issue. Through bitter experience, they've seen that impeaching Trump has neither driven him from power nor crippled him politically. Two previous Democratic-led impeachment efforts failed to garner the two-thirds Senate majority needed to convict Trump. Despite those proceedings and a quartet of criminal indictments after he lost the 2020 election, Trump remained sufficiently viable to win again in '24. 'You've got to be careful: You're liable to make him a martyr,' former Rep. Bob Brady, chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic Party, said in an interview. Today, many Democratic leaders say they see impeachment as a distraction from bread-and-butter issues that may have more success in mobilizing voters — chiefly, the cost of living. 'The No. 1 thing that folks want to hear about is what are you doing to lower costs. That's been our top focus,' Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in an interview Wednesday. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who was the Democrats' lead manager in impeaching Trump over the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, said his party's focus is Trump's 'terrible agenda' — not impeachment. 'We've already impeached him twice,' Raskin said. 'So obviously that's not a complete solution, given that he is able to beat the two-thirds constitutional spread. So I don't think anybody thinks that's going to be the utopian solution to our problems.' Despite those demurrals, Republicans take it as a given that Democrats will move to impeach Trump anew if they capture the House. 'The Democrats are so moronic and crackbrained they never learn from their mistakes,' said Steven Cheung, the White House director of communications. 'Instead of actually working for the American people, they are so consumed and obsessed with destroying this country because they suffer from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted their pea-sized brains.' While there is no plausible scenario in which Democrats gain the supermajority needed for conviction in the Senate, impeachment would be a distraction that impedes his agenda in the back half of his term, Republicans said. 'Yeah, impeachment is a concern for the president, and it's a concern for all of us,' said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Trump ally. A Republican strategist involved in Senate races said, 'It's not only the threat of impeachment; it's the idea that the administration won't be able to get anything done for the American people because all the Democrats will be focused on is impeachment.' Republican campaigns will use mailings and text messages to push out that point, targeting voters who might otherwise sit out the midterms, the person said. Trump ultimately sets the tone for his party, and GOP operatives said they don't want to front-run him by marshaling the impeachment argument on their own. But Trump has deployed it in the past. Ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, he also raised the specter of impeachment. Trump told supporters in Montana that year that if he were to get impeached, 'it's your fault, because you didn't get out to vote.' Democrats wound up winning back the House, but Republicans kept control of the Senate. So far in Trump's second term, congressional Democrats have been impeachment-curious but wary of going all-in. In May, Democratic leaders dissuaded Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., from moving forward with plans to seek to impeach Trump. He had sponsored a resolution that accused Trump of a litany of 'high crimes and misdemeanors,' including his threat to annex Greenland, punishment of private law firms and imposition of tariffs. Last month, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, forced an impeachment vote that wound up failing. Democratic leaders helped defeat Green's measure, which sought to oust Trump for launching attacks on Iran without congressional approval. Some Democratic pollsters said there's no need for the party to be so tentative. A party leadership that persists in calling Trump an existential threat to democracy shouldn't shy away from impeachment as a solution, they contend. Surveys and focus groups suggest that impeachment could, indeed, galvanize Democratic voters who don't feel motivated to vote next year, they added. 'One of our biggest problems is the people who are dissatisfied with what is happening under Trump feel they can't do anything and often feel Democrats aren't doing anything,' said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster. Impeachment, she added, 'suggests we can do something: We can make a statement, we can stand up, we can fight.' 'And in that sense, it's a motivator.' A survey at the end of May by Research Collaborative, a strategy group for progressive causes, asked likely voters who disapprove of Trump how they'd like to see Democratic leaders resist his administration and policies. A whopping 86% wanted to articles of impeachment introduced, compared with 14% who said they didn't favor impeachment. 'Voters who are open to voting for Democrats are saying consistently that they want Democrats to match their actions to their words and use every tool available to them to fight the MAGA agenda, including impeachment,' said Tara Buss, senior director of research at the collaborative. 'They want Democrats to stand up and fight,' she added. 'They feel that they're under attack and impeachment is quite literally the only constitutional remedy that can stop the attack.' This article was originally published on
Fast Company
an hour ago
- Fast Company
Trump rollback on clean energy subsidies stalls major solar, wind projects and manufacturing plans
Singapore-based solar panel manufacturer Bila Solar is suspending plans to double capacity at its new factory in Indianapolis. Canadian rival Heliene's plans for a solar cell facility in Minnesota are under review. Norwegian solar wafer maker NorSun is evaluating whether to move forward with a planned factory in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And two fully permitted offshore wind farms in the U.S. Northeast may never get built. These are among the major clean energy investments now in question after Republicans agreed earlier this month to quickly end U.S. subsidies for solar and wind power as part of their budget megabill, and as the White House directed agencies to tighten the rules on who can claim the incentives that remain. This marks a policy U-turn since President Donald Trump's return to office that project developers, manufacturers and analysts say will slash installations of renewable energy over the coming decade, kill investment and jobs in the clean energy manufacturing sector supporting them, and worsen a looming U.S. power supply crunch as energy-hungry AI infrastructure expands. Solar and wind installations could be 17% and 20% lower than previously forecast over the next decade because of the moves, according to research firm Wood Mackenzie, which warned that a dearth of new supplies could slow the expansion of data centers needed to support AI technology. Energy researcher Rhodium, meanwhile, said the law puts at risk $263 billion of wind, solar, and storage facilities and $110 billion of announced manufacturing investment supporting them. It will also increase industrial energy costs by up to $11 billion in 2035, it said. 'One of the administration's stated goals was to bring costs down, and as we demonstrated, this bill doesn't do that,' said Ben King, a director in Rhodium's energy and climate practice. He added the policy 'is not a recipe for continued dominance of the U.S. AI industry.' The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration has defended its moves to end support for clean energy by arguing the rapid adoption of solar and wind power has created instability in the grid and raised consumer prices – assertions that are contested by the industry and which do not bear out in renewables-heavy power grids, like Texas' ERCOT. Power industry representatives, however, have said all new generation projects need to be encouraged to meet rising U.S. demand, including both those driven by renewables and fossil fuels. Consulting firm ICF projects that U.S. electricity demand will grow by 25% by 2030, driven by increased AI and cloud computing – a major challenge for the power industry after decades of stagnation. The REPEAT Project, a collaboration between Princeton University and Evolved Energy Research, projects a 2% annual increase in electricity demand. With a restricted pipeline of renewables, tighter electricity supplies stemming from the policy shift could increase household electricity costs by $280 a year in 2035, according to the REPEAT Project. The key provision in the new law is the accelerated phase-out of 30% tax credits for wind and solar projects: it requires projects to begin construction within a year or enter service by the end of 2027 to qualify for the credits. Previously the credits were available through 2032. Now some project developers are scrambling to get projects done while the U.S. incentives are still accessible. But even that strategy has become risky, developers said. Days after signing the law, Trump directed the Treasury Department to review the definition of 'beginning of construction.' A revision to those rules could overturn a long-standing practice giving developers four years to claim tax credits after spending just 5% of project costs. Treasury was given 45 days to draft new rules. 'With so many moving parts, financing of projects, financing of manufacturing is difficult, if not impossible,' said Martin Pochtaruk, CEO of Heliene. 'You are looking to see what is the next baseball bat that's going to hit you on the head.' About face Heliene's planned cell factory, which could cost as much as $350 million, depending on the capacity, and employ more than 600 workers, is also in limbo, Pochtaruk said in an interview earlier this month. The company needs more clarity on both what the new law will mean for U.S. demand, and how Trump's trade policy will impact the solar industry. 'We have a building that is anxiously waiting for us to make a decision,' Pochtaruk said. Similarly, Mick McDaniel, general manager of Bila Solar, said 'a troubling level of uncertainty' has put on hold its $20 million expansion at an Indianapolis factory it opened this year that would create an additional 75 jobs. 'NorSun is still digesting the new legislation and recent executive order to determine the impact to the overall domestic solar manufacturing landscape,' said Todd Templeton, director of the company's U.S. division that is reviewing plans for its $620 million solar wafer facility in Tulsa. Five solar manufacturing companies – T1 Energy, Imperial Star Solar, SEG Solar, Solx and ES Foundry – said they are also concerned about the new law's impact on future demand, but that they have not changed their investment plans. The policy changes have also injected fresh doubt about the fate of the nation's pipeline of offshore wind projects, which depend heavily on tax credits to bring down costs. According to Wood Mackenzie, projects that have yet to start construction or make final investment decisions are unlikely to proceed. Two such projects, which are fully permitted, include a 300-megawatt project by developer US Wind off the coast of Maryland and Iberdrola's 791 MW New England Wind off the coast of Massachusetts. Neither company responded to requests for comment. 'They are effectively ready to begin construction and are now trapped in a timeline that will make it that much harder to be able to take advantage of the remaining days of the tax credits,' said Hillary Bright, executive director of offshore wind advocacy group Turn Forward.
