Latest news with #Lamberth
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Immigrant student restrictions bill could cause Tennessee Republican conflict in 2026
A move to bring back a bill to bar immigrant children from attending Tennessee public schools could cause friction between House Republican Caucus Chair Jeremy Faison, left, and House Majority Leader William Lamberth, who sponsored the 2025 measure. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) Tennessee House Republican leadership could hit an impasse again in 2026 over a measure designed to restrict immigrant student enrollment in public schools. With the bill on the skids in mid-April at the end of the legislature's session, House Republican Leader William Lamberth asked the U.S. Department of Education whether $1.1 billion in federal funds would be jeopardized by his bill, which would enable school districts to check students' immigration status and charge tuition. Lamberth had not received a response as of May 19, and whether the House moves forward with the bill in January 'depends on the response we receive,' House Republican Caucus spokesperson Jennifer Easton said Monday in response to questions from the Lookout. The Senate version of the bill passed in this year's session despite public outcry. But if Lamberth continues to push the measure in 2026 as he said he would, he's likely to run into a conflict with Rep. Jeremy Faison, chairman of the Republican Caucus. That being said, I still strongly oppose the state passing a bill that puts children, who have zero decision making power, in the middle of a legal battle. – House Republican Caucus Chair Jeremy Faison Faison, of Cosby, told WBIR-TV's 'Inside Tennessee' he was a 'big fat no' on the legislation and challenged the strategy of trying to put the measure before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Tennessee Journal reported. Faison backed off his initial statement in which he called the bill a 'political stunt,' saying he shouldn't have questioned the motives of Lamberth, of Portland, and Sen. Bo Watson, of Hixson, who sponsored the bill. 'That being said, I still strongly oppose the state passing a bill that puts children, who have zero decision making power, in the middle of a legal battle,' Faison told the Lookout. The House version of the legislation would give school districts the option to check students to determine whether they have permanent legal documentation, differing from the Senate version, which would force districts to check students' immigration status and require tuition. Tennessee bill denying immigrant children right to an education dead for year Faison said Monday he supports President Donald Trump's efforts to secure the Southern border and wants to see Congress repair the nation's immigration laws so states don't have to debate policies dealing with federal issues. Yet, he said he never liked the bill dealing with immigrant students. Faison reportedly said on WBIR that Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told him the U.S. Supreme Court would never take up the immigrant student case, which was designed to overturn a 1982 decision that found all children should be allowed to enroll in public schools no matter their immigration status. Federal Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origins in programs that receive federal funds, and violating the law could put the federal funds in danger, according to a state financial analysis. Those deal with the Every Student Succeeds Act — which measures student success —, the Individuals with Disabilities Act, the Carl Perkins Act — named for the late Kentucky Congressman Carl Perkins, it funds career and technical education — and school nutrition. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
American Military News
10-05-2025
- Politics
- American Military News
In emergency ruling, US Appeals Court reverses halt to funding for Radio Free Europe
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission. A US appeals court issued a ruling that advances efforts by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) to secure congressionally mandated funds it sorely needs to keep operations going in the coming weeks, pausing a decision delivered just hours earlier by a three-judge panel of the same new ruling, issued late on May 7 by the full 11-judge bench of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, imposed an 'administrative stay' on the panel's decision to put on hold a lower court's ruling in the case, which pits RFE/RL against its overseer, the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM).RFE/RL has sued USAGM to release frozen budget funds for the second half of the current fiscal year, from April through April 29, US District Judge Royce Lamberth granted RFE/RL a temporary restraining order, ruling that Congress 'ordained that the monies at issue should be allocated to RFE/RL' and that President Donald Trump signed the budget resolution appropriating those funds. His decision ordered payment to be made to RFE/RL for April, about $12 May 7, however, the three-judge appeals court panel issued a 2-1 ruling staying Lamberth's order pending appeal, decreasing RFE/RL's chances of receiving the April funding anytime soon and putting its already substantially scaled-back operations deeper into later, though, the full 11-member court responded to an emergency petition from RFE/RL and imposed a pause on the panel's ruling 'pending further order of the court.'In its decision, which also covered other suits involving USAGM, the court emphasized that the stay was meant to give it 'sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency petitions and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of those petitions.'The ruling, by a 7-4 vote with the court's four Republican-appointed judges dissenting, means that USAGM must comply with Judge Lamberth's April 29 order to pay RFE/ the latest administrative stay is not the court's final ruling, USAGM can appeal it to the US Supreme Court, which could consider the case or decline to do is a private, independent international news organization whose programs on multiple platforms reach a weekly audience of nearly 50 million people in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nations of Central Asia and the has been locked in a legal fight with the USAGM since March 14, when Trump signed an executive order calling for the reduction of USAGM and the broadcasters it oversees – including the Voice of America (VOA), which unlike RFE/RL is a federal entity — to 'the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.' Deprived of funding for April and beyond, RFE/RL has continued to broadcast and publish, but has taken drastic cost-cutting measures to stretch its dwindling savings, including placing hundreds of staffers on furlough and canceling many freelance contracts.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Radio Free Asia lays off most of its staff amid funding battle with Trump
Radio Free Asia is laying off most of its staff and shutting down many of its news broadcasts and streams, amid a funding battle with the Trump administration. Friday's layoff notices are the latest impacts of President Trump's crusade against the international broadcasters the United States has bankrolled for decades. Bay Fang, the CEO of Radio Free Asia, said the cuts are necessary because the Trump administration has withheld its congressionally allocated funding, even though a federal judge sided with the broadcaster last week. Other US-funded international broadcasters are stuck in similar situations. The outlets keep winning favorable court rulings, but the Trump administration is appealing. Meanwhile, the journalists who want to return to their jobs say acute damage is being done. 'Every day that we're not broadcasting is a day that will allow adversaries to spread propaganda unchecked,' Voice of America journalist Patsy Widakuswara, the lead plaintiff in one of the cases, told CNN. Trump moved to shut down Voice of America and strip other broadcasters of federal funding in mid-March. Half a dozen lawsuits have been filed to reverse the moves. On Friday, the heads of Radio Free Asia and two other broadcasters, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, wrote an impassioned letter about the 'irreparable harm' being caused by Trump's actions. The letter was addressed to several officials at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, including Kari Lake, the failed Arizona gubernatorial and Senate candidate whom Trump installed atop the agency earlier this year. 'Our journalists are terrified that the withdrawal of support from their employers will lead to harassment, prison, and worse,' the letter stated. 'We urge you to restore our funding immediately before further irreparable reputational harm is done to the United States — and before innocent lives are needlessly and recklessly lost,' it concluded. In some especially serious cases, staffers who work for the networks may be at risk of deportation back to repressive regimes. Radio Free Asia's layoffs on Friday exempted several of its most vulnerable staffers for that very reason. The organization is trying to keep the proverbial lights on for as long as possible while fighting for funding in court. Staffers were heartened when Radio Free Asia and Voice of America won a preliminary injunction from Judge Royce C. Lamberth last week. But the administration appealed, and on Thursday night a circuit court paused Lamberth's ruling 'to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motions.' The judges said it 'should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of those motions.' Lamberth issued another ruling this week, siding with Radio Free Europe, and the text doubled as a civics lesson about the co-equal branches of government. He defended the role of the courts in the face of accusations that judges are 'fomenting a constitutional crisis, usurping the Article II powers of the Presidency, undercutting the popular will, or dictating how Executive agencies can and should be run.' He pointed out that the current Congress and president 'enacted a law allocating funds' to Radio Free Europe. Thus, Lamberth wrote, 'actors within the Executive Branch do not have carte blanche to unilaterally change course, withhold funds that the President and the Legislature jointly agreed to spend, and functionally dismantle an agency that the President and Legislature jointly agreed to support.' The administration appealed that ruling as well. 'Judge Lamberth has been favorable on all the USAGM cases but the government is still not fully complying,' Voice of America's sidelined press freedom editor Jessica Jerreat told CNN. Jerreat said Voice of America staffers are stuck 'in a holding pattern' in the meantime — paid by the government but not allowed to report.
CNN
02-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
Radio Free Asia lays off most of its staff amid funding battle with Trump
Radio Free Asia is laying off most of its staff and shutting down many of its news broadcasts and streams, amid a funding battle with the Trump administration. Friday's layoff notices are the latest impacts of President Trump's crusade against the international broadcasters the United States has bankrolled for decades. Bay Fang, the CEO of Radio Free Asia, said the cuts are necessary because the Trump administration has withheld its congressionally allocated funding, even though a federal judge sided with the broadcaster last week. Other US-funded international broadcasters are stuck in similar situations. The outlets keep winning favorable court rulings, but the Trump administration is appealing. Meanwhile, the journalists who want to return to their jobs say acute damage is being done. 'Every day that we're not broadcasting is a day that will allow adversaries to spread propaganda unchecked,' Voice of America journalist Patsy Widakuswara, the lead plaintiff in one of the cases, told CNN. Trump moved to shut down Voice of America and strip other broadcasters of federal funding in mid-March. Half a dozen lawsuits have been filed to reverse the moves. On Friday, the heads of Radio Free Asia and two other broadcasters, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, wrote an impassioned letter about the 'irreparable harm' being caused by Trump's actions. The letter was addressed to several officials at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, including Kari Lake, the failed Arizona gubernatorial and Senate candidate whom Trump installed atop the agency earlier this year. 'Our journalists are terrified that the withdrawal of support from their employers will lead to harassment, prison, and worse,' the letter stated. 'We urge you to restore our funding immediately before further irreparable reputational harm is done to the United States — and before innocent lives are needlessly and recklessly lost,' it concluded. In some especially serious cases, staffers who work for the networks may be at risk of deportation back to repressive regimes. Radio Free Asia's layoffs on Friday exempted several of its most vulnerable staffers for that very reason. The organization is trying to keep the proverbial lights on for as long as possible while fighting for funding in court. Staffers were heartened when Radio Free Asia and Voice of America won a preliminary injunction from Judge Royce C. Lamberth last week. But the administration appealed, and on Thursday night a circuit court paused Lamberth's ruling 'to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motions.' The judges said it 'should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of those motions.' Lamberth issued another ruling this week, siding with Radio Free Europe, and the text doubled as a civics lesson about the co-equal branches of government. He defended the role of the courts in the face of accusations that judges are 'fomenting a constitutional crisis, usurping the Article II powers of the Presidency, undercutting the popular will, or dictating how Executive agencies can and should be run.' He pointed out that the current Congress and president 'enacted a law allocating funds' to Radio Free Europe. Thus, Lamberth wrote, 'actors within the Executive Branch do not have carte blanche to unilaterally change course, withhold funds that the President and the Legislature jointly agreed to spend, and functionally dismantle an agency that the President and Legislature jointly agreed to support.' The administration appealed that ruling as well. 'Judge Lamberth has been favorable on all the USAGM cases but the government is still not fully complying,' Voice of America's sidelined press freedom editor Jessica Jerreat told CNN. Jerreat said Voice of America staffers are stuck 'in a holding pattern' in the meantime — paid by the government but not allowed to report.
CNN
02-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
Radio Free Asia lays off most of its staff amid funding battle with Trump
Radio Free Asia is laying off most of its staff and shutting down many of its news broadcasts and streams, amid a funding battle with the Trump administration. Friday's layoff notices are the latest impacts of President Trump's crusade against the international broadcasters the United States has bankrolled for decades. Bay Fang, the CEO of Radio Free Asia, said the cuts are necessary because the Trump administration has withheld its congressionally allocated funding, even though a federal judge sided with the broadcaster last week. Other US-funded international broadcasters are stuck in similar situations. The outlets keep winning favorable court rulings, but the Trump administration is appealing. Meanwhile, the journalists who want to return to their jobs say acute damage is being done. 'Every day that we're not broadcasting is a day that will allow adversaries to spread propaganda unchecked,' Voice of America journalist Patsy Widakuswara, the lead plaintiff in one of the cases, told CNN. Trump moved to shut down Voice of America and strip other broadcasters of federal funding in mid-March. Half a dozen lawsuits have been filed to reverse the moves. On Friday, the heads of Radio Free Asia and two other broadcasters, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, wrote an impassioned letter about the 'irreparable harm' being caused by Trump's actions. The letter was addressed to several officials at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, including Kari Lake, the failed Arizona gubernatorial and Senate candidate whom Trump installed atop the agency earlier this year. 'Our journalists are terrified that the withdrawal of support from their employers will lead to harassment, prison, and worse,' the letter stated. 'We urge you to restore our funding immediately before further irreparable reputational harm is done to the United States — and before innocent lives are needlessly and recklessly lost,' it concluded. In some especially serious cases, staffers who work for the networks may be at risk of deportation back to repressive regimes. Radio Free Asia's layoffs on Friday exempted several of its most vulnerable staffers for that very reason. The organization is trying to keep the proverbial lights on for as long as possible while fighting for funding in court. Staffers were heartened when Radio Free Asia and Voice of America won a preliminary injunction from Judge Royce C. Lamberth last week. But the administration appealed, and on Thursday night a circuit court paused Lamberth's ruling 'to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motions.' The judges said it 'should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of those motions.' Lamberth issued another ruling this week, siding with Radio Free Europe, and the text doubled as a civics lesson about the co-equal branches of government. He defended the role of the courts in the face of accusations that judges are 'fomenting a constitutional crisis, usurping the Article II powers of the Presidency, undercutting the popular will, or dictating how Executive agencies can and should be run.' He pointed out that the current Congress and president 'enacted a law allocating funds' to Radio Free Europe. Thus, Lamberth wrote, 'actors within the Executive Branch do not have carte blanche to unilaterally change course, withhold funds that the President and the Legislature jointly agreed to spend, and functionally dismantle an agency that the President and Legislature jointly agreed to support.' The administration appealed that ruling as well. 'Judge Lamberth has been favorable on all the USAGM cases but the government is still not fully complying,' Voice of America's sidelined press freedom editor Jessica Jerreat told CNN. Jerreat said Voice of America staffers are stuck 'in a holding pattern' in the meantime — paid by the government but not allowed to report.
