Latest news with #HouseSubcommitteeonDeliveringonGovernmentEfficiency
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ted Cruz thinks trans athletes make fencing unfair, dangerous. Two Olympians disagree
Lee Kiefer is a three-time Olympic gold medalist. At 30, she is still in her prime and widely considered the best at her sport. So, I had to ask the question burning inside the heart of every American: Are trans women holding you back? Kiefer may have been chatting with me on the phone, but if the top-ranked foil fencer in the world followed me to Capitol Hill and gave me a quick shank to my arteries, I wouldn't blame her. Fencing may be a niche sport, the kind that even its ardent American followers pay closest attention to every four years at the Summer Games. But since an unranked fencer named Stephanie Turner knelt in protest during a scheduled bout with Red Sullivan, her also-unranked transgender opponent in a low-stakes regional competition, Republicans have recast USA Fencing's gender inclusivity as the latest example of an existential threat to women athletes. But female athletes such as Kiefer, who, unlike the unranked and D-rated Turner, arguably have something to lose if a supposed onslaught of men blocked their title chances. And they have a wildly different narrative about their sport. 'It's just, like, crazy,' Kiefer said. 'All these politicians, they don't care about sports, and they specifically don't care about fencing.' Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has made this a wedge issue, accusing USA Fencing, the sport's governing body, of 'demeaning women and denying them a chance to succeed.' 'I do not think she gives a [expletive] about fencing,' Kiefer told me. 'And I do not agree with her statement whatsoever.' She says the same of the others, like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who called for a federal investigation into USA Fencing. Cruz told me that trans fencers made it 'fundamentally unfair to force a girl to compete against a boy or to force a woman to compete against a man in sports.' The GOP has made USA Fencing into a political priority, with Greene leading the charge over the future of the sport. Greene, chair of the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, or DOGE, subpoenaed USA Fencing board chair Damien Lehfeldt to testify. During the hearing, Greene and other Republicans accused Lehfeldt of endangering the women in USA Fencing's purview, demanding he resign from his role. Rep. Nancy Mace — the South Carolina Republican who once tweeted 326 times in 72 hours about trans women using women's bathrooms — accused Lehfeldt of being a 'groomer,' a term referring to those who manipulate children into falsely consenting to sexual abuse. Flower Mound's Brandon Gill cut multiple videos of his exchange with Lehfeldt, saying the board chair was 'hell-bent on destroying women's sports.' Though Ken Paxton was not present at the hearing, Turner's match with Sullivan was in Maryland, and neither fencer resides in Texas, the Texas attorney general inserted himself in the national crusade by launching a state investigation into USA Fencing, vowing to 'never back down from defending the integrity of women's sports.' If men (or 'men') were destroying women's sports, fencing is the worst possible example. Lehfeldt told Congress that through USA Fencing's mixed bouts, men competing with women comprise a 'plurality' of its supervised competition. Lehfeldt also noted that one week before Turner's protest, she competed in a mixed gender tournament, defeating four opponents bearing the dreaded and deadly XY chromosome. The absolute normalcy of women and men — err, 'biological males' — fencing each other was one of my first observations upon encountering the sport. While profiling 2021 Olympian Curtis McDowald for GQ, I watched the tall, lanky epeéist mow down Northwestern University's Pauline Hamilton, treating a late-night sparring match with the same intensity as a gold medal match in Tokyo. Some studies indicate differences in physical capacity between cisgender and transgender women — even after undergoing hormone therapy. But until Cruz, Gill, Greene and other Republicans campaigned against trans inclusion, and Turner successfully got them to pivot their gaze in her direction, this culture war was not USA Fencing's problem. But Turner twisted her anxieties and mediocrities into a pogrom, a charge she resents. In her opening statement to Congress, she dismissed the notion she should seek to improve instead of complain, calling the suggestion 'unbelievably demeaning to female fencers.' She failed to mention that some of those 'female fencers' are not only adamant about transgender inclusion, but they also credit their careers to fencing against anybody who wanted that smoke. 'When I was coaching and fencing there, typically I'd beat [Turner] significantly,' said Ambika Singh, a former Division I champ at Princeton University who told me she used to coach at the same Philadelphia gym where Turner trained. According to Singh, Turner inquired how to get to her level. 'I fenced mainly with men growing up, and that's how I got faster and stronger,' she recalled telling Turner, then advised her to 'fence guys [and] fence girls.' (Turner did not respond to my request for comment in time for publication.) 'I truly, from the bottom of my heart, don't think that I would have ever made an Olympic team had I not been training with men,' said Monica Aksamit, a 2016 bronze medalist in saber fencing. Aksamit said she started training with grown men at 15 and attributes much of her growth to Olympians like Keeth Smart and Ivan Lee 'teaching me all the things that I know.' She says the only injuries she's ever sustained from fencing were, believe it or not, from other cisgender women. 'When I was younger, I would fence a lot of regional mixed tournaments,' Kiefer said. 'I thought that was a great environment for me to become a better competitor.' Though Kiefer is a lithe 5'4' — visually imposing on the fencing strip and perhaps nowhere else — she told me that she has never been injured competing against men. Kiefer and Aksamit have proved, definitively, that they are among the best Americans to ever fence. But instead of turning to experts, congressional Republicans demand we treat Turner like the Rosa Parks of a sport they don't understand. If Republicans approached fencing with enough curiosity to survey women who actually accomplished something, we could have had an interesting and nuanced discussion about fairness. Maybe we could have heard Congress discuss how to protect Title IX — the landmark civil-rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in education (including sports) — a policy that Cruz told me he valued for expanding 'opportunity for millions of girls and women.' The Republicans on the DOGE subcommittee failed to mention that the Trump administration has defunded the federal agency tasked with ensuring girls are treated fairly in sports. For now, Kiefer's message to Cruz, Greene and the rest of the party is simple: 'I don't need their help,' Kiefer said. 'They should put their energy elsewhere.' So, I ask again — if not trans people, who is holding women's sports back? 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Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Marjorie Taylor Greene Threatens Funds For 'Communist' NPR And PBS At Hearing
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) accused the executives of NPR and PBS of pushing 'some of the most radical left positions,' and 'brainwashing and trans-ing children' while using federal funds to pursue 'their progressive, or Communist, agenda' during a Wednesday hearing on Capitol Hill. 'NPR and PBS have increasingly become radical leftwing echo chambers,' she said, going on to suggest the federal funds granted to both outlets be cut back. Greene serves as the chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, which was created this year to support billionaire Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Her hearing comes at a time when President Donald Trump, a longtime critic of press freedoms, has ramped up his attacks. NPR CEO Katherine Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger listened with neutral expressions throughout. At the hearing, Greene and her Republican colleagues argued that the radio network and public broadcaster were no longer relevant due to the popularity of podcasts and YouTube. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) pushed back, saying that platforms like YouTube were filled with ads that can be inappropriate for children, whereas PBS is not. Garcia also used his 5-minute time allotment to have some fun. 'The American people want to know: Is Elmo now, or has he ever been, a member of the Communist Party of the United States?' he asked Kerger of the 'Sesame Street' character. She said no. 'Are you sure, Ms. Kerger? Because he is red,' Garcia replied. He went on to grill the PBS executive on Bert and Ernie, two other puppets accused of being part of an 'extreme homosexual agenda.' 'They're friends. They're supportive of each other. Now, that might be triggering to our chairwoman and some on this committee, [and] perhaps that's also why we're here today,' Garcia said. Garcia and other Democrats argued that Musk's activities should be scrutinized, not those of public broadcasters. Much of the funding for NPR and PBS comes from individual donors and corporate sponsors, but both receive additional funds from the federal government. The outlets were formed under the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a publicly funded nonprofit that receives an approximately $500 million appropriation from Congress each year. Maher said specifically that NPR received around $11 million from the federal government last year, which was primarily spent to maintain the broadcast systems used by public radio stations nationwide. She fielded the most accusations of bias from Republicans on the panel. She said that she regretted posting fiery political tweets about conservatives in America before taking her job at NPR last year, and agreed when Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) suggested NPR's editors should include more Republicans. Kerger highlighted the broad public support for PBS, known primarily for its children's programming. 'For over two decades, the American public has consistently ranked public television as one of the best investments the government makes,' she said in her opening statement. At one point, Greene accused PBS of featuring a drag queen — a 'monster,' as the congresswoman put it — in an educational video, but Kerger quickly corrected her. The video was never aired on PBS, but rather briefly uploaded by a New York member station by mistake. It was created in partnership with PBS for the New York City Department of Education. Other notable moments included Green's mispronunciation of the national motto, 'E Pluribus Unum;' Rep. James Comer's (R-Ky.) incredulous reaction to the idea NPR would have 'editorial standards' because he thought the term referred to political opinions; and Comer's acknowledgment that HuffPost has the right to exist.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE subcommittee holds first hearing slamming $36T national debt, as House Republicans declare 'war on waste'
The House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency held its first ever hearing Wednesday, as Republicans criticized the soaring $36 trillion national debt, as well as Democrats' condemnation of Elon Musk's effort to slash waste. In her opening statement, Chairwoman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-S.C., said the committee must be "brutally honest about how this massive debt came to be in the first place – it came from Congress and from elected presidential administrations." "We as Republicans and Democrats can still hold tightly to our beliefs, but we are going to have to let go of funding them in order to save our sinking ship," Greene said. "This is not a time for political theater and partisan attacks. The American people are watching. The legislative branch can't sit on the sidelines. In this subcommittee, we will fight the war on waste shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, Elon Musk and the DOGE team." Greene said, "enslaving our nation in debt" is one of the "biggest betrayals against the American people's own elected government" and vowed that her subcommittee, operating under the House Oversight Committee, would work with President Donald Trump's newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is spearheaded by Musk as part of the executive branch. Doge Slashes Over $100M In Dei Funding At Education Department: 'Win For Every Student' "The federal government, government employees, and unelected bureaucrats do not live by the same rules as the great American people and private businesses," Greene said. "The federal government's income is the American people's hard-earned tax dollars. Their literal blood, sweat and tears and taxes are collected by law at gunpoint. Don't pay your taxes and you go to jail. The federal government does not have to provide excellent customer service to earn its income. It takes your money whether you like it or not. And federal employees receive their paycheck no matter what." Read On The Fox News App The subcommittee's highest ranking Democrat, Rep. Melanie Stanbury of New Mexico, used her opening statement to slam Trump and Musk's efforts, despite agreeing to a bipartisan approach to "digging into the more than $236 billion in improper payments that we see going out the door every single year," as well as "putting into place rigorous oversight and controls to prevent fraud and abuse, and, of course, to go after bad actors." "We can't just sit here today and pretend like everything is normal and that this is just another hearing on government efficiency," Stanbury said. "Because while we're sitting here, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are recklessly and illegally dismantling the federal government, shuttering federal agencies, firing federal workers, withholding funds vital to the safety and well-being of our communities, and hacking our sensitive data systems." One of the witnesses, Stephen Whitson of the Foundation for Government Accountability, testified that DOGE's efforts have exposed $59 million paid to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal immigrants, $1.5 million to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia's workplaces, $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru, $10 million worth of food assistance funneled to al Qaeda and "the list goes on." "But rather than applauding the work of DOGE, the left has launched a coordinated campaign to try to demonize Mr. Musk with the hope of shifting focus away from the disastrous waste, fraud and abuse that occurred on Biden's watch. But guess what? It's not working," Whitson said. He shifted to the focus of Wednesday's subcommittee hearing, Medicaid waste and fraud, testifying that more than 80% of improper Medicaid payments are due to eligibility errors, which Congress must address. Whitson testified that one in five dollars spent on Medicaid is improper, and Medicaid fraud and mismanagement is on track to cost U.S. taxpayers $1 trillion in the next 10 years. 'Obama Bros' On Doge: 'Some Of The Stuff We Should've Done' Whitson also offered Congress three ways to support Trump's DOGE effort. The first is for Congress to strengthen the Medicaid program through legislative action. He testified that both the Biden and Obama administrations issued rules and guidance that made it harder for states to verify eligibility for Medicaid. He said repealing Biden's Medicaid streamlining rule, which restricts eligibility verification that states can perform, would save $164 billion over 10 years. In a later exchange, Whitson said the Biden-era rule prohibits states from verifying eligibility more than once a year and prohibits in-person or phone call interviews to verify the recipient's identity. It also opens "lengthy reconsideration periods," opening the door for illegal immigrants to receive benefits. "A state has to wait at least 90 days" before verifying whether a recipient is an illegal immigrant, Whitson said. "And actually what we're seeing is it's let some states to wait as long as 13 years." Secondly, Whitson said Congress could help DOGE by "ensuring that entrenched partisan bureaucrats don't stand in the way of reform." To do that, Congress must codify the president's authority "to fire unproductive or insubordinate agency employees as needed," as well as grant the president authority to permanently eliminate vacant positions and consolidate nonessential positions across agencies and departments to help promote efficiency, Whitson said. "Personnel is policy, and without competent staff to faithfully execute the president's agenda, the DOGE project will fail," he said. Thirdly, Whitson called on Congress to pass the REINS Act to "make President Trump's DOGE cost-cutting and de-regulatory reforms permanent." "There's only one big problem with the DOGE effort. Most of its work can be undone by a future president with the stroke of a pen," he said, adding that the REINS Act would "return Article One budgetary power of the purse to Congress while promoting deregulation. It would also help lock in the DOGE reforms and cement President Trump's legacy as the most consequential de-regulatory and cost-cutting president in U.S. history." At another point in the hearing, Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., played out archived video of former President Bill Clinton in 1997 and former President Barack Obama in 2011 pledging to reduce the federal workforce and close hundreds of government offices outside of Washington. Obama spoke in 2011 of his administration's "Campaign to Cut Waste," saying at the time, "We thought that it was entirely appropriate for our governments and our agencies to try to root out waste, large and small, in a systematic way." From the Oval Office, Obama added that "a lot of the action is in Congress and legislative, but in the meantime, we don't need to wait for Congress in order to, do something about wasteful spending that's out there." Burlison said the video was meant to "remind my Democratic friends at a point in which you once had the majority of the American people on your side."Original article source: DOGE subcommittee holds first hearing slamming $36T national debt, as House Republicans declare 'war on waste'
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House Dem Explains Why he Showed Musk ‘D*** Pic' During DOGE Hearing
Rep. Robert Garcia defended his decision to show a 'd--k pic'—in the form of Elon Musk's face—during the first meeting of the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Wednesday. Appearing on CNN's News Central after that morning's events, anchor Brianna Keilar asked the California Democrat if he believed he was creating 'effective messaging.' 'Do you think that calling Elon Musk a d--k is effective messaging for confronting what is a potentially irreversible transformation of the U.S. Government?' she asked. Garcia replied in the affirmative. 'Well, he is a d--k, and I think he's also harming the American public in an enormous way,' Garcia said. 'And what I think is really important and what the American public want is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy, for the future of this country, and it's important to push back on the chairperson of this committee,' he continued, referencing how Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shared X-rates images of Hunter Biden during a 2023 House Oversight Committee hearing. 'Marjorie Taylor Greene talks about having decorum, about bipartisanship. This is the person that lies more than anybody else in the entire Congress,' Garcia said. 'And so if she is going to make a mockery of hearings, I want to make sure that us as Democrats are bringing that same level of energy.' Garcia then recapped what other ground he covered during Wednesday's hearing. 'After those comments, we went into exactly what Elon Musk is trying to do—dismantling the Department of Labor, dismantling the Department of Education, dismantling all of our consumer protection agencies,' he explained. 'And so it's all important, but it's also important to get the attention of the American public and call Elon Musk out for what he is, and to make people know that Marjorie Taylor Greene is not a serious legislator, and she shouldn't be treated as such.'
Politico
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Dems fail to land viral moment at DOGE hearing
The highly anticipated first meeting of the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, or DOGE, came and went on Wednesday with scarce political drama. Democrats sought to cast the subcommittee — a complementary effort to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk — as an extension of what they see as a corrupt executive branch plot to destroy the federal bureaucracy. But Republicans largely sidestepped those attacks, arguing they were in the business of eliminating government waste while Democrats had little interest in engaging earnestly on the subject. It was a surprising twist for a panel filled with political firebrands and chaired by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who just a few years ago was stripped of her committee assignments for controversial actions like suggesting she supported the assassination of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And on Wednesday, Democrats seemed at times keen on provoking Greene, known for viral spats and sparring with fellow lawmakers. At one point, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) announced he'd decided to bring a 'dick pic,' after Greene showed explicit images of Hunter Biden in a House Oversight Committee hearing in the previous Congress. Garcia then displayed a photo of 'President Elon Musk.' 'We should in no way be cooperating with House Republicans who want to shut down the Department of Education and destroy Medicare and Medicaid,' said Garcia at the hearing. And Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), who last year said during a spat with Greene during an Oversight Committee hearing that her colleague had 'bleach blonde, bad built, butch body,' said Wednesday that Greene's leadership of the DOGE subcommittee was notable, given her absence from a number of past hearings dealing with 'improper payments.' Greene has marketed her panel as a serious partner in Musk's efforts to reduce government waste. On Wednesday, she said her subcommittee would soon release a report with legislative solutions to the problems raised at the hearing, titled 'The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud.' 'This is not a time for political theater and partisan attacks. The American people are watching. The legislative branch can't sit on the sidelines,' Greene said in her opening remarks. She also announced that the subcommittee had finalized a date to hold a hearing on whether the federally-funded public news outlets PBS and NPR are engaging in political bias in their coverage, and convene to discuss the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the administration is moving to dismantle. 'In this subcommittee,' Greene said, 'we will fight the war on waste shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, Elon Musk and the DOGE team.'
