Latest news with #SenateAppropriationsSubcommittee
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Sen. Moran tries to protect NWS meteorologists from federal hiring freezes
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas congressman on Friday introduced legislation to exempt National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists from federal hiring freezes. U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) – both members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies – introduced the Federal Operational Resilience in Emergency Conditions and Storm Tracking (FORECAST) Act. Multiple cars damaged in fire on Aspiria campus in Overland Park If passed, it would exempt certain NWS employees from any executive order or memorandum imposing a hiring freeze. Click to read the full legislation. The roles included in the exemption include positions responsible for issuing weather and flood warnings, maintaining critical observational equipment and protecting life and property. Additionally, this legislation requires the Secretary of Commerce to submit a report after one year of enactment on staffing levels at the NWS for those covered positions. 'Staffing National Weather Service offices, particularly in rural parts of the country, is a constant challenge, and recent staffing shortages have led to some offices, including in Kansas, being unable to provide 24/7 weather forecasting,' Sen. Moran said in a news release. 'As we work to install new technology and modernize the National Weather Service, it is important the NWS is able to continuously fill critical public safety roles as they become vacant to make certain communities across the country receive timely, accurate weather data.' Sen. Peters said the bill would help protect 24/7 weather monitoring in the Upper Peninsula and ensure communities are kept informed and protected. 'We know that in the Upper Peninsula, weather can change on a dime,' Peters said. 'That's why we need a team of full-time meteorologists working around the clock to notify the public when extreme weather impacts the region.' Sen. Moran said he recently secured a national exemption from the federal hiring freeze to enable the NWS to hire meteorologists and weather forecasters. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Dem senator takes aim at Trump's viewpoint diversity policy, calls it 'micromanaging' colleges
Education Sec. Linda McMahon defended President Donald Trump's efforts to reform Harvard University during a Tuesday hearing on Capitol Hill. McMahon appeared before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee and faced lengthy criticism from Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., over the administration's actions against Harvard. Murphy began by arguing the Trump administration's instructions to Harvard were contradictory. "You told [Harvard] that they had to end all of their diversity programs, but then that they had to institute viewpoint diversity," Murphy said. "That doesn't make sense." Trump Admin Asking Federal Agencies To Cancel Remaining Harvard Contracts "How do you tell them to end all their diversity programs…while instituting viewpoint diversity?" he asked. Read On The Fox News App "No, the diversity programs we've asked and demanded to be eliminated were the DEI, where those programs were actually pitting one group against another," McMahon responded. "Isn't viewpoint diversity a diversity program?" Murphy pressed. "Viewpoint diversity is an exchange of ideas," McMahon retorted. "Now here, because Harvard only has 3%, by its own numbers, conservative faculty. Do you think they are allowing enough viewpoint diversity?" Murphy then shifted to the authority underpinning the Trump administration's effort, demanding to know what stature allowed them to "micromanage" Harvard's policies. "The statute is Title VI," McMahon says after a number of confused exchanges. "That is why we filed a case and defunded, or stopped the funding for a while, for Harvard as well as we did Columbia." Elite University Eliminates Dei Hiring Requirement: 'They Don't Work' "I don't understand any conception of civil rights law to give you the authorization to micromanage viewpoint diversity on campus. That's not authorized under the civil rights title provided to you by the United States Congress," Murphy said, closing out his questioning. The Trump administration is threatening to pull all federal funds from Harvard, amounting to a staggering $100 million in contracts, if it does not comply with the administration's reforms. So far, Harvard has remained article source: Dem senator takes aim at Trump's viewpoint diversity policy, calls it 'micromanaging' colleges
Toronto Sun
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
U.S. to revoke Chinese student visas in escalating crackdown
Published May 29, 2025 • 6 minute read Marco Rubio, U.S. secretary of state, during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs hearing in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. Photo by Nathan Howard / Bloomberg The U.S. plans to start 'aggressively' revoking visas for Chinese students, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, escalating the Trump administration's push for greater scrutiny of foreigners attending American universities. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Rubio said in a statement that students affected would include 'those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.' The U.S. will also enhance scrutiny 'of all future visa applications from the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong,' he added. China had the second most students in the U.S. of any country in 2024, behind India. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning accused the U.S. of taking its decision 'under the pretext of ideology and national security' at a regular briefing in Beijing on Thursday, adding that it would harm people-to-people relations. 'Such a politicized and discriminatory move lays bare the U.S. lie behind the so-called freedom and openness that the U.S. touts,' she added. 'It will only further undermine its image in the world and national reputation.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The decision comes just weeks after the U.S. and China negotiated a truce in their tariff war. The issue of revoking visas could now emerge as another flashpoint between the world's two biggest economies, potentially upending progress made on trade. It will also add to heightened tensions over sales to China of sophisticated chips and Beijing's determination to limit U.S. access to rare earths, which have been simmering even after the breakthrough agreement in Geneva to sharply lower tariffs for 90 days as officials try to strike a broader deal. 'This action intends to build a wall between two countries,' said Wu Xinbo, director at Fudan University's Center for American Studies in Shanghai. 'I don't think it will help facilitate the forthcoming trade talks between two sides.' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The move followed Rubio's order a day earlier instructing U.S. embassies worldwide to stop scheduling interviews for student visas as the administration weighs stricter vetting of applicants' social-media profiles. It marks yet another effort by President Donald Trump's push to restrict foreign students' entry to American schools over claims that they might threaten U.S. national security. The White House has waged a high-stakes battle with universities that initially focused on elite universities such as Harvard and Columbia over antisemitism. That has turned into a bigger attack over the role of U.S. higher education and the foreign students whose tuition is a crucial source of income for schools around the country. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'For the ones that really can make a contribution, want to make a difference, we want to make it possible for them to come here and bring their great ideas, bring their great intellect and help us build a great America,' Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. 'I think the administration is all in on that and I don't think anything they have said changes that.' The scrutiny of Chinese students and researchers in the U.S. in recent years dates back to Trump's first term, as part of a broader attack on China's ties in the U.S. The Trump administration announced in 2020 that the Confucius Institute U.S. Center, a program funded by the Chinese government that's dedicated to teaching Chinese language and culture in the US, had to register as a 'foreign mission,' making it subject to administrative requirements similar to those for embassies and consulates. Later the same year, the U.S. revoked the visas of more than 1,000 Chinese students and researchers for national security reasons. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In 2018, the Justice Department created a project to investigate and prosecute Chinese and Chinese-American researchers it said were stealing American secrets while hiding their links to the government in Beijing and to the People's Liberation Army. Known as the 'China Initiative,' the program was shut down four years later after coming under intense criticism for fanning discrimination against Asian-Americans. The visa restrictions announced on Wednesday extend a broader crackdown underway since Trump reclaimed the White House this year. Hours earlier, the U.S. president said Harvard should cap foreign student enrollment at 15%, escalating his campaign to force policy changes at the elite institution. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The State Department extended its scrutiny of those at Harvard beyond student visas to all visa holders, including those with business and tourist documents, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Rubio told senators last week that the number of revoked student visas is 'probably in the thousands at this point,' adding that 'a visa's not a right — it's a privilege.' International students accounted for 5.9% of the total U.S. higher education population of almost 19 million. In the 2023-2024 school year, more than 1.1 million foreign students came to the US, with India and China accounting for about half, according to the Institute of International Education. Last year, America sold a net $32 billion in services to China — including education, travel and entertainment — more than double the amount in 2022 and accounting for 11% of the nearly $300 billion global total. Almost a third of U.S. services exports to China were related to education, coming from tuition and living expenses for the Chinese students studying in the US. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The number of Chinese students has declined in the U.S. — it fell 4% to about 277,000 students in 2024 — amid increased tension between the two adversaries. The FBI has warned that China has sought to exploit 'America's deeply held and vital culture of collaboration and openness on university campuses.' The State Department is also clamping down more on foreigners seeking to come to the U.S. more broadly as part of Trump's crackdown on immigration. Earlier Wednesday, Rubio announced visa restrictions on foreign officials and other individuals who 'censor Americans,' including those who target American technology companies. Taking action against people with links to the Chinese Communist Party is a sweeping measure, given the role it plays in the lives of Chinese people and institutions, including universities and enterprises. While just under 100 million people count as members of the party, its reach is so pervasive that the number of those who can be said to have ties with it runs into multiples of that figure. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. What happens next is less clear. During his visit to the U.S. to meet with then President Joe Biden, Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to bring 50,000 young Americans to China to stabilize ties over a period of five years. That he's lent his name to such an effort could suggest China will be less inclined to engage in tit-for-tat by targeting American students in China. Even if it did, that number is minuscule, with the U.S. State Department saying in April last year the figure was fewer than 900 students. In the past, the two sides vented their fury at one another by closing consulates. China shuttered the U.S. consulate in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu. That came just days after the U.S. government forced their Chinese counterparts out of their mission in Houston in 2020. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. But this time, China has other options. Neil Thomas, a fellow for Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis, said a possible response may be indirect, such as new export controls on critical minerals. 'Beijing is increasingly realizing the power of its export control regime to apply pressure on global supply chains and Western political leaders,' he said. 'Beijing will be angry and ask more questions about how successful the Geneva talks really were at laying the groundwork for a US-China deal.' — With assistance from James Mayger, Derek Wallbank, Yasufumi Saito and Philip Glamann. Sunshine Girls Toronto & GTA Sunshine Girls Columnists Tennis
Yomiuri Shimbun
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
2 Staff Members of Israeli Embassy Killed in Shooting near Jewish Museum in DC, Noem Says
AP Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrives for a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security oversight hearing, Thursday, May 8, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. WASHINGTON (AP) — Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening near a Jewish museum, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. Noem announced the deaths in a post on X after the shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum, which is located steps away from the FBI's field office in the nation's capital. Attorney General Pam Bondi said she was at the scene with former judge Jeanine Pirro, who serves as the U.S. attorney in Washington. Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, called the shooting a 'depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.' Police offered no details late Wednesday night on a potential motive for the shooting. A news conference was expected later Wednesday. 'We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act,' Danon said in a post on X. 'Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives — everywhere in the world.'
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
JJ and Alison Holmes ensure Floridians with disabilities are heard
Every year, the Orlando Sentinel asks community members to help us identify the heroes who make the biggest difference in local lives: The ones whose leadership, innovation and courage provide an inspiration to others. And from these nominees, we choose a group, those whose talents and dedication demand recognition, to honor as Central Floridian of the Year finalists. Over the coming weeks, we'll introduce you to these remarkable individuals — and at the end, we'll introduce you to our choice for Central Floridian of the Year. Every time JJ and Alison Holmes set off for Tallahassee, he says the same thing: This will be the last time. It's a long trip, particularly at the crack of dawn. And JJ and his mother know that all this work — finding parking, negotiating their way into the Capitol, getting into the committee room where they intend to testify — will buy them each a minute or maybe three to make their sharpest and most focused pitch, to politicians who likely have no intention of doing what they ask. It's a trek they've made at least five times in the current legislative session. It's a grueling trip. JJ, who has severe cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair and has little use of his hands or his voice, communicating with words chosen by tapping a tablet with his nose. But that doesn't stop him from speaking out. And along the way, their combined voices — Alison's lilting Scottish accent and the mechanical voice that utters JJ's chosen words — have made a powerful impact on state leaders. 'They are incredibly well-regarded in Tallahassee,' says veteran political consultant Steve Schale, who has known JJ since he was 12 years old. 'JJ understands he has a story, and if he leans into his story he can make change.' The pair were on point at an April 15 meeting of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, where Alison Holmes offered a statistic-packed condemnation of state services for Floridians with disabilities and her son providing the grand slam hit. 'My name is JJ Holmes,' he said. I'm a 21-year-old college student and I spent almost my whole life sitting on a waiting list — not because I wanted to, but because Florida decided that services for people with developmental disabilities should be harder to get than front-row Taylor Swift tickets. But now, after finally getting the help I waited so long for, Florida wants to switch us all to managed care. Do you know that managed care companies actually get a bonus from the Legislature each year as long as they don't spend their whole budget? To me that's like paying firefighters a bonus if they use less water when they're putting out fires, even if it means letting some of the houses burn to the ground. I didn't wait nearly two decades just to get auctioned off to a managed care company that knows the more help I need, the less money they make. … I've worked really hard to figure out a life for myself in a world that wasn't built for me. And I'm here begging you not to take it away from me. When you let a managed care company decide what I'm worth, they're not looking at my potential, they're just checking out my price tag — and if the numbers don't add up, they'll cut corners and contract with the cheapest providers they can find. If you think the (health care program for people with disabilities) needs some improving, start by talking to the people living it instead of the ones trying to cash in on it. On the four-hour trip home, Alison knows what to listen for. Maybe they'll make one more trip, JJ says. It was power, promise and Pride that gave Orlando its first major league championship Sadaf Knight and the Florida Policy Institute persuade by sticking to the facts Defending elections integrity cost Alan Hays some friendships. It was worth it, he says Every hero has an origin story, and for JJ Holmes, it started at the age of 12. He'd watched Donald Trump — at the time, campaigning for his first term as president — mocking a reporter with a physical disability. He heard Trump was coming to Tampa for a rally. He wanted to go. And he did not intend to be polite. 'My teachers always taught me to stand up to bullies,' he says. 'Whether it's a fellow student or the president of the United States.' So when he rolled into the rally, he was equipped with a Hillary Clinton sign and an anti-Trump message. What happened next made national headlines: Inside the rally, he was greeted with hostility. Trump himself singled him out for mockery and then called for both Holmes to be ousted. On the way out, Alison says, Trump fans jeered and jostled his wheelchair. The story quickly got out, with a local reporter contacting people close to President Barack Obama — including Schale, who was one of the people who helped arrange a meeting between the Holmes family and Obama at an Orlando appearance the next day. Schale took a photo of the meeting, and it's hard to say who was beaming the most — the president, or the boy he had his arm wrapped around. Now JJ Holmes is a man, but his passion for advocacy hasn't abated. He's studying political science, and says he's not ruling out a run for office himself. That's a future local politicians — who have been listening to JJ and Alison Holmes for years — can easily foresee. 'He's smart, he's funny, and he's not afraid to be critical,' says state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat who accompanied JJ when he first registered to vote. Both JJ and his mother are worried about the future. Caring for her son has taken a toll on Alison's health, and it bothers him to see her in pain, he says. Cruelly, she is also denied access to affordable health care: She can't afford health insurance, but makes too much to qualify for Medicaid. So that's their next big battle. Mother and son are actively supporting a proposed amendment to Florida's Constitution that would command state leaders to expand coverage for those who fall into that gap. As with their legislative advocacy, they know this will be a challenge. Florida lawmakers have consistently raised the bar for citizen initiatives to make the ballot. But the Holmes duo has faced barriers before. And they say they will keep fighting — as long as they can, any way that they can. 'I only have one life,' JJ Holmes says. 'Why not live it in joy?' kfluker@
