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New York Times
29-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Sues White House to Block Board Firings
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, accusing it of illegally trying to fire three members of the company's board. In the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, the media organization said that the White House emailed three of the company's five directors on Monday, telling them that their positions had been terminated. The administration did not offer any justification for the dismissals. The lawsuit argues that President Trump does not have the authority to fire directors from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was created by an act of Congress more than a half-century ago. The suit asks the federal court to block the firings. 'The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is not a government entity, and its board members are not government officers,' the Corporation for Public Broadcasting said in a statement. 'Because C.P.B. is not a federal agency subject to the president's authority, but rather a private corporation, we have filed a lawsuit to block these firings.' Directors for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for six-year terms. The members of the board were all nominated to their current terms by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. A representative for the White House had no immediate comment. The lawsuit is the latest sign of tension between Republican politicians and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which spends more than $500 million annually on organizations like PBS, NPR and radio and TV stations across the U.S. Republicans argue that the government should not fund news programming that they believe has a liberal bias. Katherine Maher, the chief executive of NPR, and Paula Kerger, the chief executive of PBS, both defended their organizations during a fiery congressional hearing in March. Republicans have threatened to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for decades, but lately that pressure has intensified. Legislation has been introduced in Congress to eliminate taxpayer funding of public media, and the White House is planning to ask lawmakers to claw back more than $1 billion earmarked for public broadcasting in the United States. According to the lawsuit, the White House's emails to directors on Monday went to Laura G. Ross, Diane Kaplan and Thomas E. Rothman. The email told them they were being removed 'on behalf of President Donald J. Trump.' 'I am writing to inform you that your position on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is terminated effective immediately,' read the email, which according to the lawsuit was sent by Trent Morse, the deputy director of presidential personnel for the executive office of the president. 'Thank you for your service.' Mr. Trump's efforts to shake up the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting reflects his aggressive approach to remake Washington institutions. The president has made similar attempts at Voice of America and the U.S. Institute of Peace, and both have been met with legal resistance. In its lawsuit, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting asks the court for a temporary restraining order that prohibits the White House from interfering with the company's governance or operations. A hearing on the complaint has been scheduled in Washington for Tuesday afternoon.
New York Times
15-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Trump Seeks to Lower Drug Prices Through Medicare and Some Imports
President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday outlining a series of actions intended to lower drug prices, including helping states import drugs from Canada. The policies were more modest than proposals to reduce drug prices that Mr. Trump offered in his first term. And one of his new directives could increase drug prices. It calls for the Trump administration to work with Congress to change a 2022 law in a way that could defang a negotiation program meant to reduce Medicare's spending on commonly used or costly drugs. Such a change has the potential to increase costs for the government, because it would most likely delay the existing timetable for some drugs to become eligible for Medicare price cuts. Depending on how it is structured, it could increase Medicare's drug spending by billions of dollars compared with outlays under the current law. The negotiation program was approved by a Democratic-controlled Congress and supported by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The executive order says that changes to the Medicare price negotiation program should be 'coupled with other reforms to prevent any increase in overall costs to Medicare and its beneficiaries.' Drug pricing experts said that with the exception of the Medicare negotiation proposal, other directives in the executive order had the potential to save money for patients and government programs. None of the actions represented major changes that would lead to huge savings. One provision would lower the co-payments that some people on Medicare face when they undergo treatments like chemotherapy infusions at certain clinics and at outpatient hospital sites. Another would give certain lower-income people access to heavily discounted insulin and epinephrine injections. Tuesday's executive order was the most prominent move Mr. Trump's second administration has made so far on drug pricing. It followed Mr. Trump's decision to move closer to imposing tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals, which manufacturers are likely to try to pass on. That could force government programs, employers and patients to pay more for some medications and could exacerbate shortages of critical drugs. Some of the directives, like changing the Medicare negotiation program, would require congressional approval. The pharmaceutical industry has fiercely opposed some of the ideas in the executive order while supporting others. Mr. Trump has long complained that the United States pays much more than other wealthy countries for the same drugs. Notably absent from the order was a reprise of a most favored nation pricing policy, which he proposed in his first term aimed at making U.S. drug prices closer to those that peer countries pay. Like several of Mr. Trump's first-term policies on drug prices, his most favored nation plan was halted by federal courts. Last fall, Mr. Trump's presidential campaign walked back the proposal. Here's a breakdown of some of the most notable parts of Mr. Trump's executive order. Eliminating the 'pill penalty' The order directs Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, to work with Congress to address a difference in how certain types of drugs are treated in the Medicare negotiation program. Under the law, pills and other drugs produced through synthetic processes do not become eligible for price cuts until they have been on the market for nine years. Drugs known as biologics — created from living cells and often given as an infusion — would not be eligible for 13 years. Drugmakers, who unsuccessfully sued the federal government over the program, bitterly call the difference a 'pill penalty.' They say it discourages them from developing medications, because they have less time to build up sales before the price cuts kick in, depriving patients of new treatments. They have lobbied for pills to be exempted from the price cuts for 13 years instead of nine. Lawmakers have introduced legislation that would change the law to treat the two types of drugs equally. The president's order does not specify how many years each type of drug should be exempt from Medicare price cuts. Biden officials oversaw the first round of negotiations in the program, resulting in price cuts that will go into effect in 2026. The Trump administration is overseeing negotiations this year for lower prices in 2027 for drugs including the blockbuster weight-loss medication sold as Ozempic and Wegovy. The White House said in a fact sheet on Tuesday that it wanted to capture more savings for the government with the Medicare negotiation program than the Biden administration did last year. That would be difficult to do if Congress reduces the time during which Medicare can obtain lower prices. Importing drugs from Canada The executive order directs the Food and Drug Administration to improve the process by which states can apply to import lower-cost drugs from Canada. In his first term, Mr. Trump created a pathway enabling states to pursue these imports. Under the Biden administration, the F.D.A. approved one importation program, in Florida. As of late last year, Florida had not yet begun importing drugs from Canada. The pharmaceutical industry opposes the idea because it would cut into its profits. If Mr. Trump follows through on imposing tariffs on pharmaceuticals, importing drugs from Canada would be unlikely to offer the same savings as in the past. Different co-pays at different clinics The order calls for rules to equalize the fees doctors are paid to administer drugs to patients across settings. Currently, many medical practices owned by hospitals can charge higher fees to Medicare than independent practices can, even for the exact same services. Because Medicare beneficiaries are often responsible for a percentage of their medical bills, those higher costs for the visits are passed along in the form of co-payments. Efforts to equalize such payments broadly have been under bipartisan discussion for years in Congress but have faced opposition from hospitals, who say they require the higher payments. Legislation passed during the Obama administration addressed some of these payment differences. Encouraging cheaper copycats Mr. Trump directed the F.D.A. to make recommendations for streamlining approvals for generic drugs and biosimilars, which are lower-priced copycats of biologic drugs. The first biosimilar was approved in 2015, with dozens more approved since. There was widespread hope that biosimilars would displace patent-protected brand-name biologics, such as Humira for conditions like arthritis, that sent drug costs soaring. But patients have been slow to switch over, and savings have not materialized as quickly as many wanted. Insulin for the poor Mr. Trump revived an executive order from his first term directing community health clinics to provide insulin and epinephrine injections at heavily discounted prices to certain lower-income people, including the uninsured. The clinics balked when Mr. Trump first proposed the idea in 2020. The Biden administration soon froze the regulation, saying it created too much of an administrative burden for the clinics.
New York Times
10-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Pressuring Migrants to ‘Self-Deport,' White House Moves to Cancel Social Security Numbers
Since taking office, the Trump administration has moved aggressively to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were allowed into the country under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Now, the administration is taking drastic steps to pressure some of those immigrants and others who had legal status to 'self-deport' by effectively canceling the Social Security numbers they had lawfully obtained, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with six people familiar with the plans. The goal is to cut those people off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts and credit cards, along with their access to government benefits. The effort hinges on a surprising new tactic: repurposing Social Security's 'death master file,' which for years has been used to track dead people who should no longer receive benefits, to include the names of living people who the government believes should be treated as if they are dead. As a result, they would be blacklisted from a coveted form of identity that allows them to make and spend money. The initial names are limited to people the administration says are convicted criminals and 'suspected terrorists,' the documents show. But officials said the effort could broaden to include others in the country without authorization. Their 'financial lives,' the Social Security Administration's acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, wrote in an email to staff, would be 'terminated.' The move is the latest in an extraordinary series of actions by the Trump administration, pushed by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to harness personal data long considered off limits to immigration authorities in order to advance President Trump's vision for a mass migrant crackdown. This week, several top officials at the Internal Revenue Service moved to resign after the tax agency said it would help locate undocumented immigrants. In another previously unreported development, Mr. Dudek in February reached an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security that would provide the last known addresses of 98,000 people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency responsible for deporting undocumented immigrants, other documents and interviews show. Personal information held by Social Security had been closely guarded under previous administrations, according to 12 current and former senior officials who said the agency had not engaged in such widespread data sharing with immigration authorities before. By using Social Security data to blacklist immigrants, the administration is conscripting a broadly popular agency — one that exists to send benefits primarily to retired Americans and people with disabilities — in its effort to unwind what Mr. Trump has derided as the 'open border' policies of his Democratic predecessor. The new enforcement role for Social Security is raising fears that faulty data could result in people, including American citizens, mistakenly or improperly being placed on the list, upending their financial lives, according to interviews with current and former employees. 'Immigration enforcement is not within the scope of the Social Security Administration,' said Jason Fichtner, who held several senior positions at Social Security, where he was appointed by President George W. Bush. 'The potential for errors can be very consequential.' Elizabeth Huston, a White House spokeswoman, said the changes at Social Security would help advance the president's immigration goals. 'President Trump promised mass deportations, and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport,' she wrote in a statement. 'He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people.' Many changes at the Social Security Administration are being driven by Mr. Musk, who has spouted unfounded conspiracy theories about fraud perpetrated by undocumented immigrants, and about the agency sending billions of dollars to dead people. Mr. Trump has picked up many of those claims. The billionaire, a top adviser to Mr. Trump, has also said without evidence that Democrats used the agency to grant immigrants Social Security numbers, making them eligible for benefits that kept them in the United States so they could shift the country's demographics. At the same time, Mr. Musk's DOGE team has targeted the Social Security agency for cuts, alarming beneficiaries. Staff reductions have hobbled some local field offices, and recipients say it has become harder to receive services. Now, under Mr. Trump, the agency is taking on an additional mission of immigration enforcement, including those who entered under the Biden administration, according to a senior White House official not authorized to speak publicly. Mr. Biden allowed many migrants to enter the country temporarily as a way to incentivize them to avoid crossing into the country illegally. Those people became eligible to work in the United States, receive Social Security numbers and in some cases receive federal benefits. More than 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti came under one of the so-called parole programs during the Biden administration that allowed them to fly into the country, if they had financial sponsors and passed security checks. Another 900,000 migrants used CBP One, a phone application used by the Biden administration, to enter at ports of entry and were given the opportunity to remain and work in the United States. The Trump administration has targeted both programs. The program allowing migrants to fly in is scheduled to end later this month — and with it legal status for migrants already here, pending court challenges. Trump administration officials have also begun to revoke the parole of migrants who entered with the app. On Tuesday, Aram Moghaddassi, a software engineer working for DOGE, sent Mr. Dudek the first batch of names to be added: a list of more than 6,300 immigrants Homeland Security officials had identified as having temporary legal status but who were now either on what he described as 'the terrorist watch list,' or had been flagged as having 'F.B.I. criminal records,' the documents show. The people's parole status had been revoked that same day, Mr. Moghaddassi wrote. The list included a 13-year-old and seven other minors, raising fears inside the agency that it was overly broad, according to one employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. Mr. Moghaddassi did not respond to a request for comment. Although the agency has renamed the death list the 'ineligible master file,' according to the documents reviewed by The Times, it has not developed a new way to mark people as being ineligible for benefits. For now the immigrants added are being given supposed dates of death, according to two people familiar with the process. Andrew Biggs, who served at the agency during the George W. Bush administration, suggested that such changes would help enact Mr. Trump's immigration policy. 'If you favor immigration enforcement, this makes sense,' he said. Trump administration officials have presented the change as a way to fight crime. In a memo addressed to Mr. Dudek on Monday, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, wrote that the plan would 'prevent suspected terrorists who are here illegally' from accessing 'privileges reserved for those with lawful status.' She did not say how the administration was determining if someone was a 'suspected terrorist.' The Death List The Social Security agency's death list is one of its most important data sets. Officials maintain it by collecting death records from state health records, funeral homes and family members, with roughly 3 million new death reports added each year. That prevents improper payments from going out. Officials also share that information with other federal agencies to ensure that people who are dead no longer get benefits. And the Department of Commerce sells a version of the list to banks, credit bureaus and other financial institutions that want to avoid operating accounts for scammers using stolen Social Security numbers. Those who have been put on the list mistakenly while still alive have reported calamitous effects, such as having their homes foreclosed and bank accounts canceled. In order to be removed, they have to go to field offices to try to prove their identity, a process known internally as 'resurrection.' But even then the problem can take months to fix, or longer. The repurposing of the death list, as well as the agency sharing addresses with immigration authorities, could face challenges under the federal tax and privacy laws that govern the maintenance of Social Security data, according to former officials and agency experts. 'The Social Security Administration has a legal obligation to keep accurate data to administer its programs, and strict laws govern the use and exchange of that data,' said Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. Trump officials have said that they want to modernize the nation's deportation system by combining sets of data held by different agencies that have long been siloed, part of a broader effort to link personal data about the public scattered across the government. Documents reviewed by The Times show that DOGE is playing an important role in that process, including in the agreement to share addresses that was struck in February. Under the terms of that arrangement, immigration officials agreed to send thousands of Social Security numbers to the Social Security Administration, which would match them with personal data and send back associated addresses. ICE collects as much information as possible to target, surveil and detain undocumented immigrants, although addresses in their records can sometimes be outdated. Mr. Dudek gave permission to DOGE engineers and ICE leaders to use his agency's data for law enforcement, the documents show. Michael Russo, the Social Security Administration's then-chief information officer and a member of Mr. Musk's team, also asked for the information to be sent to D.H.S. urgently. Neither agency would confirm if the data had been sent. Social Security regulations state that the agency may disclose information for law enforcement purposes in certain circumstances, including when a person has been indicted or convicted of 'violent crimes,' and to investigate entitlement fraud. During the first Trump administration, the homeland security department, which oversees ICE, also pushed for broad access to Social Security data, but was rebuffed based on privacy concerns, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. Among the DOGE associates privy to the data-sharing agreement were Akash Bobba, a recent college graduate who gained access to the Social Security systems in early February, according to court records; Scott Coulter, who was named as Social Security's chief information officer last month; and Marko Elez, an engineer who resigned from his government positions earlier this year after being linked to an X account with racist posts that pushed for immigration policies based on eugenics. After Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance called for him to be brought back into DOGE, Mr. Elez was quietly rehired.
New York Times
07-04-2025
- Automotive
- New York Times
‘The Tsunami Is Coming': China's Global Exports Are Just Getting Started
For decades, the world's largest car factory was Volkswagen's complex in Wolfsburg, Germany. But BYD, the Chinese electric carmaker, is building two factories in China, each capable of producing twice as many cars as Wolfsburg. Recent data from China's central bank shows that state-controlled banks lent an extra $1.9 trillion to industrial borrowers over the past four years. On the fringes of cities all over China, new factories are being built day and night, and existing factories are being upgraded with robots and automation. China's investments and advances in manufacturing are producing a wave of exports that threatens to cause factory closings and layoffs not just in the United States but also around the globe. 'The tsunami is coming for everyone,' said Katherine Tai, who was the United States Trade Representative for former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. President Trump's steep tariffs announced on Wednesday, which have caused stocks in Asia and elsewhere to plunge, were the most drastic response yet to China's export push. From Brazil and Indonesia to Thailand and the European Union, many countries have already moved more quietly to increase tariffs as well. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
04-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Russia Executes P.O.W.s Without Caring Who Watches, Ukraine Says
On a Monday morning last fall, Ukrainian drone pilots watched what had become a familiar scene unfold on a drone's live feed: Russian soldiers pointed their guns at two Ukrainians, who seemingly surrendered. Then, the footage showed, the Russians shot them point blank. The video, provided by a pilot who said he had witnessed the killing on the feed, was verified by The New York Times and the Centre for Information Resilience, a nonprofit organization. It appeared to show the Ukrainian prisoners executed near the village of Novoivanovka in the Kursk region of Russia. 'There were no polite words spoken among us — we were filled with rage and an intense desire for revenge,' said the pilot, 26, who served with the 15th Mobile Border Guard and asked to be identified by his call sign of 'One Two' in accordance with military protocol. As the United States embraces Russian talking points in its push for a cease-fire in Ukraine, many Ukrainians wonder whether allegations of Russian war crimes will simply be forgotten. President Trump has indicated that he would like to re-establish ties with Russia and end the war — or at least, wind down the U.S. commitment to Ukraine made under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The U.S. informed European officials recently that it is withdrawing from a multinational group created to investigate allegations of war crimes against senior Russian leaders and allies responsible for launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Biden administration joined the group in 2023. The U.S. State Department has also ended funding for the tracking of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia. While both sides have been accused of committing war crimes, Russia has faced far more allegations, not only from Ukraine but also human-rights groups and the United Nations. In recent months, Ukrainian and international human-rights officials have accused Russian troops of executing Ukrainian soldiers who have surrendered instead of taking them as prisoners of war, as required under the Geneva Conventions treaties that outline how nations should treat enemy forces and civilians during armed conflict. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
