New budget takes effect in New Hampshire — and the state university system is already feeling it
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Provencher said she and fellow leaders are committed to seeking cost-savings and 'strategic sources of revenue' to balance their budget.
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'We know that these are unprecedented times in higher education as we compete for fewer high school graduates and as federal funding for research and student aid is shifting,' she wrote.
In her own note to the UNH community, President Elizabeth S. Chilton said leaders must recognize the university will almost certainly be smaller in five years than it is now.
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'This is a time to decide what our strengths are and how we can invest in those areas in the next chapter of our history,' she wrote, calling for creativity and coordination.
In addition to requiring a minimum delay of 120 days before vacancies can be filled with new hires, Chilton said she has asked each academic and administrative unit at UNH to prepare for across-the-board spending reductions of 3 percent to begin this summer.
'While I have said repeatedly that we should try to avoid across-the-board cuts whenever possible, this was the best option available given the urgency of our current fiscal challenges,' she wrote, noting that there will still be 'significant work' ahead for the university system to balance its shrinking budget amid other headwinds.
In a message to the Keene State community, President Melinda D. Treadwell noted that leaders are also working with legal counsel to understand the impacts of budget provisions related to
While policymakers acknowledged from the outset that this budget cycle would be tighter than those in recent memory, some GOP lawmakers also cited ideological motivations for certain decisions, such as suggesting that cutting university funding would help to curb left-leaning '
Steven Porter can be reached at
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43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
A voter targeted by Judge Griffin in 2024 NC Supreme Court race testifies before Congress
Mary Kay Heling of Raleigh testifies before Congress about ending up on NC Judge Jefferson Griffin's list of people whose votes he wanted discounted despite the fact that she had supplied all required registration information and showed her license to vote. (Photo: Screenshot from video) GOP Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin's attempt to throw out more than 60,000 votes to win a Supreme Court seat landed in the national spotlight on Tuesday, this time through congressional testimony from one of the people he targeted. Mary Kay Heling, a Raleigh resident, told the Committee on House Administration that she ended up on Griffin's list last year even though she had voted without problems in primaries and general elections since 2016. The committee hearing was focused on maintaining accurate voter rolls. While Republicans said states could get away with not doing much to ensure only qualified voters were on their lists, Democrats warned that legal voters were being caught in Republican purges. Part of Griffin's challenge was based on the claim that voters failed to provide a partial Social Security number or driver's license number on their voter registration forms. Heling said she provided the last four digits of her Social Security number on the registration form and presented her driver's license at polling places when state law required voter ID. 'Never once did I doubt my vote was valid,' she said. After the November election, she received a postcard from the state GOP saying her vote might be challenged. She scanned the QR code on the postcard and spent more than an hour searching unsuccessfully for her name among thousands of others. It was later, searching a more user-friendly database, that she found she was on Griffin's list. She went to the Wake Board of Elections office to identify and correct any problem. 'It took work and persistence,'' she said. 'It was frustrating and time consuming.' Though state appellate courts ruled in favor of elements of Griffin's lawsuits, a federal judge ended Griffin's attempt to overturn Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs' victory. Griffin's election lawsuit mirrored a Republican National Committee and state GOP lawsuit that sought to have more than 225,000 voters purged from the rolls before last year's election, claiming the missing numbers meant those voters were not legally registered. The House committee also heard testimony about maintaining accurate voter lists from two conservative group representatives, J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, and Justin Riemer, president and CEO at Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections. They said the National Voter Registration Act's standards for voter roll maintenance are too low. Riemer encouraged the committee to eliminate or modify the 90-day 'blackout period' found in federal law that prohibits the systematic removal of voters from the rolls 90 days before a primary or federal general election. Relying on U.S. Postal Service change of address information is insufficient, he said, because it fails to capture everyone who has moved. Federal law should require states to exchange registration information with one another, he added. 'This is wholly inadequate given the multitude of data sources available to election officials today,' he said. A nonprofit organization called ERIC was established to help states maintain voter registration files. It offers members reports on people who have moved within state, out of state, and identifies duplicate voter registrations. Conservatives, however, grew suspicious of ERIC and Republican-run states pulled out of the group. North Carolina passed a law prohibiting membership. NPR reported that the far-right website Gateway Pundit started the Republican rush to leave ERIC. Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the committee's chairman, said voter list maintenance is crucial to election integrity. 'Inaccurate voter rolls could open the door to election fraud,' he said. 'It can hinder public confidence in our elections.' States can avoid properly maintaining their voter lists because federal standards are low, Steil said. Democrats on the committee used Heling's experience as an example of how difficult it is for voters to defend themselves when they are wrongfully targeted. Though Griffin's lawsuit failed, Democrats representing other states said registrations of legal voters had been erased in voter purges. It's voter purges that undermine confidence in elections, said U.S. Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the committee's senior Democrat. 'The Trump administration's dangerous, false rhetoric' going back to the 2020 election erodes democracy and threatens the voting rights of all Americans, he said. He called Griffin's effort to cancel Heling's vote 'part of a concerted effort to concentrate partisan power.' Proper voter list maintenance is important to secure elections, he said. 'But systematic voter purges, often illegally conducted in the run-up to federal elections, pose a real threat to voters.' The U.S. Department of Justice sued the North Carolina Board of Elections over the missing numbers in the voter database. In consultation with the DOJ, the state Board of Elections developed a plan to collect the information. Last week, elections officials vowed that no voters would be removed from the rolls. People who have not supplied the numbers will be required to vote provisionally. If they don't put the information on the provisional ballot application, their votes in state races won't count. Republicans have taken the majority on the state Board of Elections and hired Republican Sam Hayes, former general counsel to GOP House Speaker Destin Hall, to run the state elections office. North Carolina U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy (R- 3rd District), a member of the committee, said the previous election board administration failed to address the problem of missing identification numbers. 'I'm happy to say now the legislature has taken control of the Board of Elections and turned it over to Republican control,' Murphy said. 'And now, the Republicans have begun the Registration Repair Project to ensure that all eligible voters have accurate, complete information on file.' Morelle referred to the lawsuit against North Carolina as an example of Trump's weaponization of the Justice Department that is putting 200,000 people at risk of not being able to vote. The Board of Elections is keeping an updated list of people who need to supply ID numbers. As of Tuesday evening, about 101,000 people were on it.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Trump grip on GOP tested amid Epstein scandal
12:30 Report is The Hill's midday newsletter. Click here to subscribe or use the box below: Happy Thursday. Tennis star Venus Williams is playing at the Mubadala Citi DC Open tonight!! 🎾 She gave a hilarious interview the other day after winning her match. Keep scrolling for my favorite quote. In today's issue: DOJ interviews Epstein's accomplice House panel votes to subpoena files Hulk Hogan dies at age 71 Laura Trump passes on Senate bid Trump's controversial document dump 📃 THE EPSTEIN SAGA The Ghislaine Maxwell interview is happening today: A top Department of Justice (DOJ) official is interviewing Jeffrey Epstein's longtime associate and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in Tallahassee, Fla., today, according to ABC News. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche reportedly arrived at the courthouse around 9 a.m. Maxwell's attorneys were also seen at the courthouse. 📸 Scroll down for the photos Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted of sex trafficking and other charges. Keep in mind: 'Ghislaine Maxwell did not testify during her 2021 trial and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is set to meet with Maxwell, said earlier this week that no government official had attempted to contact Maxwell for information until the Trump administration.' (The Hill) 🗨️ Meanwhile in DC — a House panel dropped a little grenade and left: The House left town early and won't return until September. Republican leaders canceled today's session to avoid messy, high-risk votes related to the Epstein scandal. But a House panel dropped a little grenade on its way out, exposing deep divisions within the GOP. A House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee voted to issue several subpoenas, including demanding the Justice Department turn over files related to the investigation surrounding Epstein. The vote: Democrats and Republicans on the committee teamed up, voting 8-2. Republican Reps. Nancy Mace (S.C.), Scott Perry (Pa.) and Brian Jack (Ga.) joined Democrats in voting 'yes' to the subpoenas. Which former GOP officials were subpoenaed to testify?: Former Attorney General Bill Barr and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who both served in Trump's first term, and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who served under former President George W. Bush. But to soften the blow: They also issued subpoenas for several high-profile Democratic officials, including former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among others. The list includes several other familiar names: Former FBI Director James Comey Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch Former Attorney General Eric Holder Former Attorney General Merrick Garland Former FBI Director and special counsel Robert Mueller 💡 This has put Trump in a bind: While the president maintains a strong grip on congressional Republicans, the Epstein scandal is exposing some cracks. Lawmakers face enormous pressure from the base to make good on years-long promises for transparency surrounding the disgraced financier and sex offender. Trump has struggled to contain the controversy and has pressed his party to drop it. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House GOP leadership have tried to honor that wish by grinding the House to a halt to avoid those sticky votes. But Johnson could only do so much. How does the Senate feel about all of this?: Senators are pretty angry with how House conservatives have handled this. GOP senators argue this matter should be left to Trump and his administration, reports The Hill's Alexander Bolton. Instead, in the eyes of some senators, conservatives have hijacked the congressional agenda, wasting two weeks while they could have been focused on September's government funding deadline. ➤ TRUMP KNOWS HIS NAME IS MENTIONED IN THE FILES: The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that when Attorney General Pam Bondi and her team reviewed the documents related to Epstein, they discovered that President Trump 's name was mentioned several times. She informed Trump about this in May. 'They also told Trump that senior Justice Department officials didn't plan to release any more documents related to the investigation of the convicted sex offender because the material contained child pornography and victims' personal information, the officials said. Trump said at the meeting he would defer to the Justice Department's decision to not release any further files.' This is important: Trump's name being mentioned does not equate to any wrongdoing. The documents contained hundreds of other names, per the Journal. Why this is particularly newsy: Trump 'previously denied that Ms. Bondi had told him that he is in the files. The week of June 7, the White House received an inquiry from ABC News about the May briefing, according to administration officials. A week later, an ABC journalist asked Mr. Trump during a quick gaggle with reporters if Ms. Bondi had told him his name appeared in the files. He replied, 'No, no,' and said she had told him about the 'credibility' of various things in the files. He went on to claim that they contained material manufactured by Democrats.' 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Here are three ways the White House is hoping to shift the narrative: 1) DOCUMENTS DUMP: The Trump administration has been releasing a series of documents from controversial past investigations. Last week: 'Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released 114 pages of documents related to the investigation into Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 election.' On Monday: 'Attorney General Pam Bondi released an Office of Inspector General review into Hillary Clinton's private email server, sharing it with Congress.' Oh, and then: 'Bondi and Gabbard released 230,000 pages related to the investigation into the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.' On Wednesday: Gabbard released another previously classified House Intelligence Committee report on the 2016 election, a move sharply criticized by Democrats. 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This is closed to press. 4 p.m. Trump visits the Federal Reserve. 🐝 INTERNET BUZZ 🍋 Celebrate: Today is National Tequila Day. 🎾 LOL, this is so real: Tennis star Venus Williams played her first WTA Tour tennis match since March 2024 — and chose Washington, D.C., for her return! She was asked why she returned to tennis. 'I had to come back for the insurance because they informed me earlier this year I'm on COBRA,' she said. 'And let me tell you, I'm always at the doctor's [office], so I need this insurance.' 📹 Watch the interview — it's a pretty entertaining interview. 👋 AND FINALLY… Let's all take a moment to recognize this dog's struggle. I don't want to be the one to have to explain why he can't rest his head on the water.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
$22B in clean energy projects canceled so far this year: Analysis
Thousands of jobs and billions in investments have been ditched in the first half of this year as President Trump's administration has pushed back on new green energy investments, according to a new report. 'These cancellations aren't just numbers on a balance book,' Michael Timberlake, spokesman for E2, said in a statement Thursday on the nonpartisan economic and environmental group 's latest report. 'They're jobs, paychecks and opportunities in communities that were counting on these clean energy projects to drive economic growth. And now they're gone.' 'By effectively ending clean energy incentives, Congress is turning its back on thousands of American workers and dozens of communities that were ready to build our energy future and strengthen America's competitiveness,' he added. The latest E2 analysis, which found $22 billion in clean energy projects had been canceled during the first half of this year, didn't cover the time through the final passage of Trump's agenda-setting 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' but it took into consideration items from the House and Senate that made it into the law. Trump has railed against government incentives for green energy projects, calling them a 'giant SCAM' as some Republicans sought to keep protections for projects in their districts. E2's analysis showed that about $2 billion such projects were canceled in all of last year, costing about 7,500 jobs. Cancellations this June were led by major automakers scaling back EV production investments, after the Trump administration pushed a rollback of EV tax credits, the report found. General Motors cancelled a $4.3 billion expansion of a Michigan plant to build new electric pickups, and Toyota scaled back a $2.2 billion plan to retool an Indiana manufacturing site that was slated to build electric SUVs last month. Republican congressional districts were hit particularly hard so far this year, the E2 report found, with more than $11.7 billion in investments and 11,700 jobs cancelled, delayed or closed in GOP-controlled areas in the first half of 2025. In Democratic districts, the cuts impacted $6.1 billion in investments and nearly 4,000 jobs. According to the report, rising uncertainty prompted businesses to change plans for major battery, storage and electric vehicle (EV) factories in Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, New York and Oregon. More than 5,000 jobs were lost to the changes in June, pushing the total number of job loses in 2025 to 16,500, E2 found. Congress approved new clean energy tax credits in August 2022 through the Biden administration's 'Build Back Better' stimulus package after the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump's massive tax and spending overhaul, which Republicans in Congress approved and Trump signed into law earlier this month, reversed some of those environmental initiatives.
