Transgender bathroom bill added to Texas flood-relief special session
When Gov. Greg Abbott initially called for a special session in June, it was to tackle six bills he had vetoed during the regular session, among them a contentious measure that would have banned hemp products containing THC. But after flash floods overwhelmed parts of central Texas on July 4 — resulting in at least 120 deaths with many more still missing — the intended focus shifted to flood relief.
However, when the governor's 18-point agenda was released last week, it included far more than flood-related measures. In addition to considering bills that would restrict hemp products, Abbott has also asked lawmakers to consider legislation 'further protecting unborn children and their mothers from the harm of abortion' and legislation 'protecting women's privacy in sex-segregated spaces.'
On Monday, the first day lawmakers were able to file bills for the special session, none of the 82 measures filed mentioned the deadly July 4 floods, according to KXAN-TV, NBC's Austin affiliate.
Republican state Rep. Valoree Swanson introduced the so-called bathroom bill, which would require transgender people to use bathrooms that correspond to their birth sex in public schools, government buildings and correctional facilities. If House Bill 32, known as the Texas Women's Privacy Act, becomes law, public entities that violate the measure could face financial penalties and be subject to civil lawsuits.
Currently, 19 states across the country restrict which bathrooms and other sex-segregated facilities transgender people can use, according to Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank.
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NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
Bipartisan government funding is at risk of dying in Trump's Washington
WASHINGTON — For many years, final decisions over how much the U.S. government spends, and how, have required sign-off from leaders of both parties, no matter who controlled the White House or Capitol Hill or the level of polarization. Now, that last vestige of the bipartisan funding process is at risk of dying after a one-two punch by President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress. The 'appropriations' process, whereby both parties pass detailed funding bills for various federal agencies every year, has been in a slow decline for decades. But recent moves by the Trump-era GOP to disrupt past funding agreements have accelerated that decline — and, in the view of Democrats and even some weary Republicans, undermined Congress' power of the purse in deference to the White House. First, Republicans passed a $300 billion hike in military spending and immigration enforcement as part of Trump's megabill; and second, they cut $9 billion in domestic money and foreign aid under a rarely used 'rescission' process, allowing the GOP to cancel already approved bipartisan spending with a party-line vote. A Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government or risk a shutdown will test whether a bipartisan deal is still possible, particularly as Trump's top budget aide publicly calls for a more partisan approach. House Republicans have undermined the bipartisan path for years by slamming the resulting deals as 'swamp' creations by a 'uniparty' that is addicted to spending. Now, GOP lawmakers in both chambers are going it alone, suggesting they'll bring more rescissions packages to undo past bipartisan spending agreements because the existing process is failing. 'We don't have an appropriations process. It's broken. It's been broken for a while,' said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee. He said Congress will likely fall back on continuing resolutions, which largely maintain the status quo, and rescission packages for the remainder of Trump's presidency. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a senior appropriator, said the once-respected government funding process has 'disappeared,' calling the latest rescissions package 'a step backwards.' 'It's basically saying: No matter what you decide on, the president is going to be able to change the bill, even for money that's been appropriated,' Durbin said. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, insist the process is alive and well. They will test that theory this week as Thune plans to bring at least one — if not more — appropriations bills to the Senate floor. He has argued that the $9 billion cut hits a tiny portion of the federal budget and shouldn't dissuade Democrats from working toward a deal. 'I would hope, at least for the functioning of our government, that they would be willing to work with us on some things,' Thune said Wednesday on Fox News. 'They haven't been so far.' But even some GOP proponents of the bill admit it adds to the challenges. 'The rescission package — of course, I understand that could complicate things,' said Rep. Robert Aderholt of Alabama, a senior Republican on the House Appropriations Committee. Vought weighs in Just after the Senate overcame objections in both parties to approve the $9 billion spending-cut bill requested by Trump, a comment from White House budget director Russell Vought dropped like a bomb on Capitol Hill. 'The appropriations process has to be less bipartisan,' Vought told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Thursday. 'It's not going to keep me up at night, and I think will lead to better results, by having the appropriations process be a little bit partisan.' He added that more rescission packages would be coming. The backlash was fierce. Senate Republicans responsible for crafting the government funding bills were taken aback by his candor. 'Mr. Vought's lack of respect and apparent lack of understanding of how Congress operates is baffling, because he's served in government before,' Collins told NBC News. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Vought 'disrespects' the appropriations process in Congress with his 'dismissive' comments. 'I think he thinks that we are irrelevant,' she said. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Thursday called on Trump to 'fire Russell Vought immediately, before he destroys our democracy and runs the country into the ground.' The series of clashes escalates tensions leading up to the fall deadline, with top Democrats warning ahead of the vote that they would have little incentive to provide the 60 votes to cut a deal. 'It is absurd to expect Democrats to play along with funding the government if Republicans are just going to renege on a bipartisan agreement by concocting rescissions packages behind closed doors that can pass with only their votes,' Schumer warned in a recent speech. The debate over the demise of individual lawmakers getting to dictate where federal funding is allocated came to a head during a recent meeting of the Senate Appropriations Committee, with many senators arguing that the work they were doing in that moment may just be overridden by congressional leadership and the president. 'The one thing we all agree on is the appropriations process is broken,' former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., lamented, describing how during his 18 years leading the GOP conference he helped oversee a shift away from government funding levels being decided by committees and instead being negotiated by only the highest levels of leadership and the White House. 'I concluded our failure to pass our bills empower every president, regardless of party, because I've been in those discussions at the end, the big four and the guy with the pen, and that makes all of our requests irrelevant,' McConnell said. Collins has repeatedly blamed the decline of the process on Schumer's refusal to put appropriations bills on the Senate floor. That has also been a slow-moving trend: McConnell and former Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also short-circuited the process on the floor when in charge. Rising partisanship has weakened committees broadly and placed more power in the hands of leadership. In the context of government funding, that led to 'omnibus' spending bills and continuing resolutions — or CRs — negotiated by party leaders and jammed through Congress, often with an impending deadline to pressure holdouts to fall in line quickly. But House Republicans raised hell, torching the massive bills negotiated behind closed doors as a betrayal to their constituents. In recent years, they have successfully steered their leadership away from that approach. And it leaves few options going forward. 'What the math tells us' Durbin, who is retiring after a 30-year Senate career, reminisced about when the process was at the peak of its powers — last century. The last time Congress completed it through 'regular order' was in the 1990s. 'There was a time when we called 12 appropriation bills to the floor, open for amendment! Can you imagine that?' Durbin said. 'I remember. And you had to do your job in the committee. You had to have a subcommittee lined up on a bipartisan basis, a full committee lined up on a bipartisan basis. And the committee stood together. And you could find enough to support it to pass something. That, I think, really reflected the best of the Senate.' He attributed the change to the growing discord between the parties and the declining 'reputation of the Appropriations Committee,' although he credited Collins and Vice Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., with trying to restore the bipartisan spirit of the panel. Collins, notably, is on an island as the only GOP senator who voted against both attempts to rewrite government funding — in the megabill and rescissions package. Collins is also up for re-election next year in a Democratic-leaning state that Trump lost in 2024. Sarah Binder, a political scientist at George Washington University and the Brookings Institution, said the megabill's changes to GOP spending priorities 'undermines the rough parity between defense and nondefense discretionary spending that until recently made bipartisan deals possible.' She added, 'The Trump OMB's aggressive impoundments of enacted appropriations severely threatens Congress' power of the purse and with it the authority and expertise of and oversight by appropriators.' Yet even as Republicans find new ways to go around the Senate's 60-vote threshold, Thune has promised he won't abolish the filibuster. He distanced himself from Vought's remarks. 'Well, that runs contrary to what the math tells us around here,' he said. 'So, we need 60 on approps bills. And it's going to take 60 to fund the government.' The path to a new funding law is murky, at best. And Collins, for now, maintains confidence in the bipartisan appropriations process. When asked if she has any concerns about its future, Collins told NBC News, 'None whatsoever.'
The Herald Scotland
6 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Trump: Epstein grand jury records unlikely to satisfy critics
"Nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request," the president wrote. "It will always be more, more, more. MAGA!" More: $10 billion lawsuit. More documents coming. Here's the latest on Trump and Epstein. Trump previously accused the Biden administration of hiding a list of Epstein clients. The Department of Justice teased that more files would be coming out, but then on July 7, Attorney General Pam Bondi said there was no client list and no further disclosure was needed. That led to a wave of backlash from Trump's MAGA base. "No one believes there is not a client list," Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, a close Trump ally, posted on X July 8. On July 18, federal prosecutors asked a federal court in Manhattan to unseal grand jury transcripts in the criminal cases against Epstein and his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein's federal sex-trafficking case was still pending when he was found dead in a jail cell in 2019. "Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval," Trump wrote on social media. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who filed legislation to release all the government's Epstein records, wrote in social media post that Trump's move indicates the pressure campaign is "working." "But we want all the files," Massie added. It could take time for the courts to release any records, and the grand jury documents are just a portion of the unreleased files. "What about videos, photographs and other recordings?" Democratic Rep. Daniel Goldman, a former prosecutor, wrote on social media in response to Bondi saying she'd seek the release of grand jury testimony. "What about FBI... (witness interviews)? What about texts and emails?" Contributing: Zac Anderson, Aysha Bagchi, Joey Garrison.
The Herald Scotland
6 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Alligator Alcatraz is cruel distraction from Trump's failure
"This place needs to be shut the hell down," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, said on a press call with the Naples Daily News and other outlets. According to a report from The New York Times, only about 60% of the detainees have criminal convictions. That means 40% did nothing wrong. The facility currently houses about 900 men sleeping in tents. Alligator Alcatraz is a cruel reminder that Trump will do whatever he wants to vulnerable populations in the United States, and only a few Democrats seem willing to call him out on it. It's also cruel for a reason: to appease the MAGA base and keep them from realizing that Trump isn't making good on any of his other promises. And never forget that none of this would be happening if not for Republican support. Trump continues to fail us on the economy Take the economy, for example. Trump campaigned on a promise that he would make it easier for the average family to afford the cost of living, only for his tariff plan and cuts to federal funding to send the economy into a tizzy. The "Big Beautiful Bill," Trump's fiscal agenda, is projected to harm working-class families because of cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits. His tariff agenda is leading to an increase in inflation and consumer prices, something that will ultimately cost the average American household at least $1,000. Polling on Trump's handling of the economy has consistently been negative, according to Gallup. While it improved slightly in June, it's still much lower than the economic confidence during Trump's first term. Opinion: Republicans hurt rural Americans with their beautiful bill. Then they clapped. Going after immigrants does nothing to solve the unfolding economic crisis in our country. In fact, the pursuit of the Trump administration's strict immigration agenda is likely to harm the economy, thanks to the way it is affecting businesses that rely on undocumented labor. But Trump hopes you don't notice that, and Republicans know this was never about improving an economy that was already thriving in a global market. America's foreign policy is a global joke. US is no longer a force for good. Foreign relations are another area where Trump is failing - likely because he was making promises he couldn't keep. He claimed he would end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza - only for both conflicts to continue. He claimed there would be no wars under his leadership, then conducted airstrikes in Iran and nearly plunged the United States into another war. New reporting suggests his bragadocious messaging after those Iran strikes was nonsense. Opinion: White House wants us to see Trump as Superman. We all know he's the villain. He's just now realizing that Russian leader Vladimir Putin can't be trusted, and has finally decided to help Ukraine. Other countries are no longer seeing America as a force for good, according to Ipsos polling over the last six months. Pew Research Center polling shows a lack of confidence in Trump's international leadership abilities. He threatened to annex Greenland and Canada - things that there was no way he'd be able to achieve. He has damaged relationships with allies due to his tariffs and ambitious plans, making the United States an international laughingstock and causing tourism to the country to plummet. But sure, let's brutalize immigrants. The Epstein files mess is engulfing the Trump administration Or consider the Jeffrey Epstein files, which have become a source of contention for the MAGA movement. Back in February, Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed the files existed and were sitting on her desk. Then, in July, she claimed there were no such files. Trump doubled down on this and demanded that everyone stop talking about Epstein, "somebody that nobody cares about." At first, this led to a huge backlash among MAGA supporters and conspiracy theorists who wanted answers. Right-wing personality Laura Loomer said in a July 16 interview that this could "consume" the presidency in the same way Trump's ties to Russia did during his first term. Other pundits, like Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, have dropped the conversation altogether. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. But Trump really, really doesn't want you to focus on the fact that he said he wanted to declassify the Epstein files on the campaign trail. It's best if you just focus on the immigrants who are being treated no better than livestock. After all, Trump says they're the root of the problem in this country, and we should believe that, right? In all seriousness, the cruelty is not the point for a Republican Party that is both successful in pushing its agenda and failing in convincing Americans it's worth pushing. The Trump administration is busy producing smoke and mirrors to pacify its political base by targeting immigrants while failing to improve the lives of the working class. The needless meanness is merely a comforting distraction for an entire political party that can't be bothered to actually help Americans. Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeno on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno
