Senators

The firestorms that broke out in January ravaged two distinctly different stretches of Los Angeles County: one with grand views of the Pacific Ocean, the other nestled against the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

But so far, a push from congressional Republicans to investigate the Jan. 7 firestorm and response has been focused almost exclusively on the Palisades fire, which broke out in L.A.’s Pacific Palisades and went on to burn parts of Malibu and surrounding areas.

In a letter to City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, two U.S. senators this week intensified that investigation, saying they want an enormous trove of documents on Los Angeles Fire Department staffing, wildfire preparations, the city’s water supply and many other topics surrounding the devastating blaze.

U.S. Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) asked for records related to several issues raised during and after the Palisades fire, including an empty reservoir and the failure to fully extinguish a previous fire that was later identified as the cause.

In contrast, the letter only briefly mentions the Eaton fire, which broke out in the unincorporated community of Altadena and spread to parts of Pasadena. That emergency was plagued by delayed evacuation alerts, deployment issues and allegations that electrical equipment operated by Southern California Edison sparked the blaze.

Both fires incinerated thousands of homes. Twelve people died in the Palisades fire. In the Eaton fire, all but one of the 19 who died were found in west Altadena, where evacuation alerts came hours after flames and smoke were threatening the area.

Scott and Johnson gave Harris-Dawson a deadline of Nov. 3 to produce records on several topics specific to the city of L.A.: “diversity, equity and inclusion” hiring policies at the city’s Fire Department; the Department of Water and Power’s oversight of its reservoirs; and the removal of Fire Chief Kristin Crowley by Mayor Karen Bass earlier this year.

Officials in Los Angeles County said they have not received such a letter dealing with either the Palisades fire or the Eaton fire.

A spokesperson for Johnson referred questions about the letter to Scott’s office. An aide to Scott told The Times this week that the investigation remains focused on the Palisades fire but could still expand. Some Eaton fire records were requested, the spokesperson said, because “they’re often inextricable in public reports.”

The senators — who both sit on the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs — opened the probe after meeting with reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who lost a home in the Palisades fire and quickly became an outspoken critic of the city’s response to the fire and subsequent rebuilding efforts. At the time, the senators called the Palisades fire “an unacceptable failure of government to protect the lives and property of its citizens.”

The investigation was initially billed as a look at the city’s emergency preparations, including the lack of water in a nearby reservoir and in neighborhood fire hydrants the night of the fire. The Times first reported that the Santa Ynez Reservoir, located in Pacific Palisades, had been closed for repairs for nearly a year.

The letter to Harris-Dawson seeks records relating to the reservoir as well as those dealing with “wildfire preparation, suppression, and response … including but not limited to the response to the Palisades and Lachman fires.”

Officials have said the Lachman fire, intentionally set Jan. 1, reignited six days later to become the Palisades fire. A suspect was recently arrested on suspicion of arson in the Lachman fire. Now, the senators are raising concerns about why that fire wasn’t properly contained.

The sweeping records request also seeks communications sent to and from each of the 15 council members and or their staff that mention the Palisades and Eaton fires. At this point, it’s unclear whether the city would have a substantial number of documents on the Eaton fire, given its location outside city limits.

Harris-Dawson did not provide comment. But Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, who serves on the council’s public safety committee, made clear that he thinks the senators are confused by Southern California’s geography — and the distinctions between city and county jurisdictions.

“MAGA Republicans couldn’t even look at a map before launching into this ridiculous investigation,” he said. “DEI did not cause the fires, and these senators should take their witch hunts elsewhere,” he said in a statement.

Officials in L.A. County, who have confronted their own hard questions about botched evacuation alerts and poor resource deployment during the Eaton fire, said they had not received any letters from the senators about either fire.

Neither Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger — who currently serves as board chair — nor Supervisor Lindsey Horvath had received such a document request, according to their aides. Barger represents Altadena, while Horvath’s district includes Pacific Palisades, Malibu and unincorporated communities affected by the Palisades fire.

Monday’s letter also seeks records “referring or relating to any reports or investigations of arson, burglary, theft, or looting” in fire-affected areas, as well as the arrest of Jonathan Rinderknecht, the Palisades fire arson suspect. It also seeks documents on the council’s efforts to “dismantle systemic racism” — and whether such efforts affected the DWP or the Fire Department.

Alberto Retana, president and chief executive of Community Coalition, a nonprofit group based in Harris-Dawson’s district, said he too views the inquiry from the two senators as a witch hunt — one that’s targeting L.A. city elected officials while ignoring Southern California Edison.

“There’s been reports that Edison was responsible for the Eaton fire, but there’s [nothing] that shows any concern about that,” he said.

Residents in Altadena have previously voiced concerns about what they viewed as disparities in the Trump administration’s response to the two fires. The Palisades fire tore through the mostly wealthy neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Malibu — home to celebrities who have since kept the recovery in the spotlight. Meanwhile, many of Altadena’s Black and working-class residents say their communities have been left behind.

In both areas, however, there has been growing concern that now-barren lots will be swiftly purchased by wealthy outside investors, including those who are based outside of the United States.

Scott, in a news release issued this week, said the congressional investigation will also examine whether Chinese companies are “taking advantage” of the fire recovery. The Times has not been able to independently verify such claims.

Oct. 17 (UPI) — The federal shutdown will last at least a few more days as the Senate expects to hold no votes until Monday. Meanwhile, lawmakers are questioning the legality of how the Trump administration plans to pay the military.

Senate Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota sent senators home for the weekend, so the government will stay closed. The Senate will return at 3 p.m. Monday.

Three Democrats have voted for the Republican bills to reopen the government, but five more are needed to reach the 60 votes needed to pass the stopgap funding bill.

Meanwhile, some Republican senators are questioning the legality of President Donald Trump‘s move to shift Defense Department funds to pay for military paychecks during the shutdown.

They say they’re glad the service members are getting paid, but aren’t sure where the funds are coming from and whether the money shift is legal.

Normally, the White House would need to ask Congress to reappropriate federal funding, then the Appropriations Committee must approve it before moving funds around.

Senators interviewed by The Hill say they aren’t aware of any requests. Trump ordered Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds” to ensure troops got their paychecks.

“That’s a concern of not just appropriators, it seems broader than that,” an unnamed Republican senator told The Hill.

The lawmaker said Republican colleagues have asked the administration for more information about exactly which funds are getting shifted and what legal authority the White House is using to justify its action.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she wants more information from the White House.

“We’ve been given two different explanations. One, is that it’s unobligated balances. One, is that it’s taken from certain research and technology programs. But we don’t have the specifics. We have asked for the specifics,” Collins said.

Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said: “I get that they say for the military pay for this pay period it comes out of … research and development technology [fund] but where? Is that taking it from projects that we have already identified? Maybe something’s really important to me. Where’s it coming from? We haven’t seen that,” she said.

On Wednesday, Trump signed a memo expanding his administration’s authority to repurpose unspent funds to pay service members during the shutdown.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said Trump’s reallocation of funds was, “probably not legal.” On Face the Nation on Sunday, he said the “White House’s understanding of United States law” was “pretty tentative to say the best.”

Oct. 7 (UPI) — Attorney General Pam Bondi testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, and refused to answer questions on several topics.

Bondi declined to answer questions about the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey regarding her discussions with President Donald Trump as well as the firings of Department of Justice attorneys who worked on Jan. 6 cases and her refusal to prosecute certain cases of Trump’s allies.

Bondi also avoided questions about the files of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and Trump’s alleged friendship with him. She responded that the Democrats should explain their own relationships with him, CNN reported.

Sen Richard Blumenthal, D-N.Y., said Bondi’s testimony was a new low for attorneys general.

“Her apparent strategy is to attack and conceal. Frankly, I’ve been through close to 15 of these attorney general accountability hearings, and I have never seen anything close to it in terms of the combativeness, the evasiveness and sometimes deceptiveness,” Blumenthal told reporters after leaving the hearing. “I think it is possibly a new low for attorneys general testifying before the United States Congress, and I just hope my Republican colleagues will demand more accountability than what we have seen so far.”

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., agreed with Blumenthal.

“She was fully prepared for, with specific and personal comebacks, accusing various of my colleagues, of challenging their integrity or challenging their basis for their questions in a way I’ve not ever seen,” Coons said.

The White House has already praised Bondi’s performance.

“She’s doing great,” a White House official told CNN. “Not only is the AG debunking every single bogus Democrat talking point, but she’s highlighting the Democrats’ own hypocrisy and they have no response.”

Bondi, along with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, criticized the judge in the case of Sophie Roske, the woman who planned an attack on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Roske, who called the police on herself before making contact with Kavanaugh, was sentenced to eight years in prison for the plot.

“My prosecutors did an incredible job on that case,” Bondi said. She said the Justice Department would appeal the sentence, which was 22 years below the federal guidelines and the minimum sentence prosecutors wanted. “The judge also would not refer to the defendant by his biological name,” Bondi said. Roske is transgender.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., asked Bondi what conversations she has had with the White House about investigations into Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Comey. Bondi again declined to answer.

“I’m not going to discuss any conversations,” Bondi said to Klobuchar, CBS News reported.

Klobuchar asked her about a Truth Social post by Trump last in which he asked Bondi why she hadn’t brought charges against Comey, Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“President Trump is the most transparent president in American history, and I don’t think he said anything that he hasn’t said for years,” Bondi said.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., pressed her on whether the FBI found any pictures of Trump “with half-naked young women,” saying that Epstein was reported to have shown them around.

“You know, Sen. Whitehouse? You sit here and make salacious remarks, once again, trying to slander President Trump, left and right, when you’re the one who was taking money from one of Epstein’s closest confidants,” Bondi responded, referring to tech entrepreneur and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who has said he regretted his contacts with Epstein, CBS reported.

Since Bondi took over at the Justice Department, she and her team have fired prosecutors who worked on capitol riot cases and pushed out career FBI agents.

The Public Integrity Section is nearly empty now, and more than 70% of the lawyers in the Civil Rights Division are also gone, NPR reported.

In a letter Monday, nearly 300 former Justice Department employees asked the Oversight Committee to closely monitor the department.

“We call on Congress to exercise its oversight responsibilities far more vigorously. Members in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle must provide a meaningful check on the abuses we’re witnessing,” the letter said.

The letter also alleged poor treatment of staff.

“As for its treatment of its employees, the current leadership’s behavior has been appalling. … And demonizing, firing, demoting, involuntarily transferring, and directing employees to violate their ethical duties has already caused an exodus of over 5,000 of us — draining the Department of priceless institutional knowledge and expertise, and impairing its historical success in recruiting top talent. We may feel the effects of this for generations.”

Bondi said the DOJ stands by the “many terminations” in the department since Trump took office. “We stand by all of those,” she said.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in an opening statement, “What has taken place since Jan. 20, 2025, would make even President Nixon recoil.”

Durbin said Bondi has left “an enormous stain in American history.”

“It will take decades to recover,” he said.

The hearing is just two weeks after she sought and secured an indictment of Comey at the direction of the president. Democrats have said she’s weaponizing the Department of Justice, breaking with the longstanding tradition of keeping the department independent of political goals.

Comey was indicted on one count each of lying to Congress and obstructing justice for his testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020. Before the indictment, U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert refused to indict because of a lack of evidence against Comey. Trump accused him of waiting too long to indict and nearly allowing the statute of limitations to run out. Siebert resigned under pressure from the administration.

Last week, Durbin said the targeting of Trump’s political enemies is “a code-red alarm for the rule of law” in a floor speech, The Washington Post reported.

“Never in the history of our country has a president so brazenly demanded the baseless prosecution of his rivals,” he said. “And he doesn’t even try to hide it.”

But Republicans claim that Bondi’s leadership is necessary after years of what they say was politicized attacks from the Justice Department under the President Joe Biden administration.

“If the facts and the evidence support the finding that Comey lied to Congress and obstructed our work, he ought to be held accountable,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chair of the Judiciary Committee.

During her confirmation hearing, Bondi vowed that weaponization of the Justice Department is over.

“I will not politicize that office,” Bondi said at the time. “I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation.”

WASHINGTON — America’s public health system is headed to a “very dangerous place” with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his team of anti-vaccine advisors in charge, fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Susan Monarez warned senators on Wednesday.

Describing extraordinary turmoil inside the nation’s health agencies, Monarez and former CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry described exchanges in which Kennedy or political advisors rebuffed data supporting the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

Monarez, who was fired after just 29 days on the job following disagreements with Kennedy, told senators deadly diseases like polio and whooping cough, long contained, are poised to make a comeback in the U.S.

“I believe preventable diseases will return, and I believe we will have our children harmed by things they don’t need to be harmed by,” Monarez said before the Senate health committee.

Monarez describes her firing by RFK Jr.

Monarez said she was ordered by Kennedy to resign if she did not sign off on new vaccine recommendations, which are expected to be released later this week by an advisory panel that Kennedy has stocked with medical experts and vaccine skeptics. She said that when she asked for data or science to back up Kennedy’s request to change the childhood vaccination schedule, he offered none.

She added that Kennedy told her “he spoke to the president every day about changing the childhood vaccination schedule.”

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician who chairs the powerful health committee, listened intently as Monarez and Houry described conversations with Kennedy and his advisers.

“To be clear, he said there was not science or data, but he still expected you to change schedule?” Cassidy asked.

Cassidy carefully praised President Trump for his commitment to promoting health policies but made it clear he was concerned about the circumstances surrounding Monarez’s removal.

Houry, meanwhile, described similar exchanges with Kennedy’s political advisors, who took an unprecedented role in preparing materials for meetings of the CDC’s advisory vaccine panel.

Ahead of this week’s meeting of the panel, Houry offered to include data around the hepatitis B shot that is administered to newborns to prevent spread of the deadly disease from the mother. She said a Kennedy advisor dismissed the data as biased because it might support keeping the shots on the schedule.

“You’re suggesting that they wanted to move away from the birth dose, but they were afraid that your data would say that they should retain it?” Cassidy asked.

Critical vaccine decisions are ahead

During the Senate hearing, Democrats, all of whom opposed Monarez’s nomination, also questioned Kennedy’s motives for firing Monarez, who was approved for the job unanimously by Republicans.

“Frankly, she stood up for protecting the well-being of the American people, and for that reason she was fired,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats.

Monarez said it was both her refusal to sign off on new vaccination recommendations without scientific evidence and her unwillingness to fire high-ranking career CDC officials without cause that led to her ousting.

Kennedy has denied Monarez’s accusations that he ordered “rubber-stamped” vaccine recommendations but has acknowledged he demanded firings. He has described Monarez as admitting to him that she is “untrustworthy,” a claim Monarez has denied through her attorney.

While Senate Republicans have been mostly loath to challenge Trump or even Kennedy, many of them have expressed concerns about the lack of availability of COVID-19 vaccines and the health department’s decisions to scale back some childhood vaccines.

Others have backed up Kennedy’s distrust of the nation’s health agencies.

Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, a doctor, aggressively questioned Monarez about her “philosophy” on vaccines as she explained that her decisions were based on science. Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville said Trump was elected to make change and suggested Monarez’s job was to be loyal to Kennedy.

“America needs better than this,” Tuberville said.

The Senate hearing was taking place just a day before the vaccine panel starts its two-day session in Atlanta to discuss shots against COVID-19, hepatitis B and chickenpox. It’s unclear how the panel might vote on the recommendations, though members have raised doubts about whether hepatitis B shots administered to newborns are necessary and have suggested COVID-19 recommendations should be more restricted.

The CDC director must endorse those recommendations before they become official. Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, now serving as the CDC’s acting director, will be responsible for that.

“I’m very nervous about it,” Monarez said of the meeting.

Seitz and Jalonick write for the Associated Press. AP writers Mike Stobbe in New York and Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed to this report.

The June issue of Glamour magazine has national affairs editor David France writing about a word association game he played in New York City with campaigning Texas Gov. George W. Bush. France reports the game took a “dark turn” when Bush, a lock for the GOP presidential nomination, was asked to respond to “Sex and the City,” an urbane, ribald comedy series that chronicles the libidinous adventures of four single females in New York City.

“The face of the man who would be president, blistered in purple fury,” France writes. “He turned toward me for the first time, only to narrow his eyes and glower. He was giving me the politician’s equivalent of a pro wrestling belly-butt!”

Why in the world had Bush “snapped,” France wondered, given that he had been clueless about “Sex and the City” and had to be informed by an aide that the target of his wrath was “an HBO television show?” Was it hearing “sex” mentioned that set him off? In retrospect, France speculates that Bush thought he was being asked to comment on sexual activity in New York.

In any case, this got me to thinking about four U.S. senators who last week gave TV a belly-butt in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission assailing the “rapidly declining standards of broadcast television” through a “rising tide of glorified violence and increasingly explicit sexual content.”

The senators say they are concerned primarily about TV seen by the nation’s children, and their sincerity is not at issue. Nor is that some Americans find much of television as revolting as they do and agree with them that broadcasters should should be strongly nudged by the Feds to do more in the public interest instead of counting their profits and treating the publicly owned airwaves as their private golden goose.

Putting aside for the moment whether the senators’ charges are justified, however, I wondered why they were not explicit about the non-cable television they were indicting so broadly.

Although listing as sources recent studies by the Center on Media and Public Affairs, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Parents Television Council, their five-page report mentions no show titles or specifics about the “rising tide” beyond noting the mention of Fox’s “Beverly Hills, 90210” in a New York Times article about TV’s emphasis on teenage sex.

Why so vague?

Was it possible that they had gathered no empirical evidence of their own, and were working entirely from surveys and viewing TV through the eyes of their staffs and others? Was it possible that, like Bush in New York, they hadn’t seen what they were attacking? And if so, shouldn’t they have, given their unique influence as senators and the ferocity of their protests in lobbying the FCC to “reexamine the public interest standard and the license renewal process” under which broadcasters operate?

Is this the way things are meant to operate in the nation’s great pantheon of lawmakers?

Phoning the foursome on this topic, I got callbacks from Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.). An aide to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) promised to check his schedule, but never got back to me. An aide to Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.) said the veteran senator was too busy to comment on the strongly worded plea for reform he had signed. No doubt he was tied up in research, watching more of those squalid shows.

Shortly before rushing off to participate in a Senate vote, Brownback said on the phone that the PTC survey “quantifies what everybody sees.” What he sees?

“I’ve seen some of the World Wrestling Federation [UPN’s ‘WWF Smackdown!’],” he said. “I will watch some of Sunday evening [TV]. I’ve seen clips that we pulled from some [offending] shows.” Could he be specific?

“I’m not remembering the shows that the clips were out of,” he said.

Brownback said the TV his children watch on Friday nights is “just replete” with “sexually suggestive content.” He couldn’t recall the names of those shows, either, but added: “I’m seeing this as a parent sitting there watching in disgust. The message given to my children is that sex is recreational, it’s fun, it’s without consequence.”

Then why allow his children to watch, and why, if he’s so disgusted, does he watch with them? “We don’t regularly,” he said. “I’ll just sit there till things get to a certain point.”

Along with McCain, meanwhile, Lieberman has been among the Senate’s most vociferous critics of TV. Yet he too is an infrequent viewer. “There’s only so much I watch myself,” he said from a cell phone in his car.

As one of the nation’s most influential, most quoted TV critics, so to speak, shouldn’t he more closely monitor the medium he consistently faults?

Lieberman didn’t sound pleased by the tone of the question: “Forgive me,” he said, “I’m busy! I flip the dials. I read some of the reports on content.”

Just the same, maybe these guys should see for themselves if they’re going to be talking the talk.

Not that the letter to the FCC isn’t on the mark in demanding more from broadcasters, who are required by law to serve “the public interest, convenience and necessity.” The senators correctly urge that the public get something in exchange for the epic freebie–rights to additional digital-channel spectrum space–granted broadcasters by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. That $70-billion gift has no strings attached. And for what reason–good conduct?

On the other hand, if the majority of Americans agree with the senators about TV becoming, for the most part, a moral moonscape that harms children, they have a strange way of showing it.

Take the vile “WWF Smackdown!,” where growling 250-pounders are sent flying across the ring by punches that miss by half a foot. “There is a case where these kids watch violent acts that are presumably faux and artificial,” said Lieberman, “but they can’t distinguish that.” Yet support for this series alone has lifted UPN from network oblivion.

The means is available for parents to block such fare from their homes. That would be the V-chip, a law-mandated gizmo for new TV sets that allows viewers to electronically bar from their homes programs they find objectionable. Goodbye, “WWF Smackdown!”

Yet the V-chip–which could settle TV’s hash for good if it didn’t shape up the way its critics want it to–has generated little interest among the public. And if most parents don’t give a damn, why should anyone else?

*

Howard Rosenberg’s column appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He can be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].

US senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley condemned violence against Palestinians as they visited the historic church of St George in the occupied West Bank, which was attacked by Israeli settlers in July.

July 9 (UPI) — Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on Wednesday met with a bipartisan group of U.S. senators and the Defense Department while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., works to end funding for Israel.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., were among more than a dozen senators who met with Netanyahu while the prime minister was still visiting the U.S. Capitol this week.

The meeting occurred after Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump on Monday and Tuesday evening to discuss Iran and Gaza.

Tuesday’s meeting with Trump mostly focused on Gaza and efforts to secure a cease-fire and an eventual end to hostilities in Gaza that began after Hamas attacked, killed and kidnapped Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023.

Celebrating the end of the war with Iran

In addition to meeting with senators on Wednesday, Netanyahu also toured the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, while celebrating the end of the 12-day war with Iran.

“Absolute thanks, gratitude and admiration for [Central Command], for the U.S. military, for the secretary of defense and the president of the United States,” Netanyahu said, as reported by the Department of Defense.

Netanyahu told Hegseth the Israeli people, the Israeli government and others around the world are grateful for the June 21 Operation Hammer U.S. aerial strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities.

Hegseth lauded “the skill of your professionals” in Israel’s military for softening Iran’s defenses and establishing aerial superiority that enabled the successful attacks.

“What was accomplished was absolutely incredible,” Hegseth told the prime minister. “It was an honor to be part of it.”

Netanyahu said the “entire world took note” of the strength of the alliance between Israel and the United States.

“It was like the roar of two lions,” he said, “and it was heard around the world.”

Greene seeks end of U.S. military funding for Israel

Despite the military success in Iran, Greene on Wednesday sought to end financial support for Israel’s military.

Greene told former Trump administration chief strategist Steve Bannon that she will introduce amendments to remove funding for Israel from the National Defense Authorization Act.

“There are some parts of this NDAA that I cannot support, and that’s continued foreign aid and foreign funding,” Greene told Bannon while being interviewed on his “War Room” podcast, The Hill reported.

Greene said she will introduce amendments that would eliminate $500 million in defense funding for Israel, which she said already gets $3.4 billion in annual funding from the United States.

She called Israel a “nuclear-armed” country that doesn’t need another $500 million from the United States for defense spending.

June 25 (UPI) — White House budget director Russell Vought on Wednesday urged U.S. senators to approve the Trump administration’s proposed cuts of $8.3 billion in foreign assistance and $1.1 billion for public broadcasting.

Vought testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The cuts, which are from the Department of Government Efficiency, are a tiny fraction of the nearly $7 trillion the federal government spends each year

The House last week voted 214-212 to advance the request that reduces funds for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has largely been dismantled, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps to fund NPR and PBS.

Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate. A simple majority is needed for passage.

A group of protesters disrupted the meeting, saying “Vought’s Cuts Kill,” and “Vought Lies, People Die!”

Capitol Police officers forcibly removed some protesters from the room, with at least one hitting his head on the floor.

During his opening remarks, Vought touted the cuts as part of Trump’s “steadfast commitment to cutting wasteful federal spending antithetical to American interests.”

“Most Americans would be shocked and appalled to learn that their tax dollars, money they thought was going to medical care, was actually going to far-left activism, population control and sex workers,” Vought said. “To be clear, no lifesaving treatment will be impacted by this rescissions package.”

If Congress approves the cuts, the AIDS program would lose $400 million, and another $500 million would be stripped from global health programs that support child and maternal health, AIDS care and prevention of infectious diseases.

Lawmakers from both parties have criticized the proposed cuts.

“There’s no way that President Trump’s administration would allow such wasteful and questionable spending,” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, told Vought.

“So, I am puzzled why you would be cutting funds that the president signed in March as part of the continuing resolution.”

Trump signed legislation in March to keep the government open through September.

Vought responded the costs are “largely multiyear funding,” and that “there is some expiring funds with regard to fiscal year ’25, but the way that this was structured was to find the waste.

“We are $37 trillion in national debt,” Vought said. “Our view is to see, when we look at these programs, can we do it cheaper, as evidenced by what we find, and then to reflect that, with some savings to the taxpayer.”

Collins also questioned the administration’s proposed cuts targeting the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.

“These are not only the right thing to do for humanitarian reasons, but they’re incredible instruments of soft power,” she said. That includes “lifesaving multivitamins for pregnant mothers and the food supplement that’s used for malnourished children.”

Collins held up a packet of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food used to treat malnutrition in babies and young children.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican serving South Carolina, said he was surprised that millions of dollars were being spent to support abortions and gender care under PEPFAR. The AIDS-fighting program has been credited for saving millions of lives since President George W. Bush launched it more than 20 years ago.

Graham said he would approve the measure though he backs the program.

“And to my Democratic colleagues: There is a consequence to this crap,” Graham said. “The first thing I thought about: How is PEPFAR fraud, waste and abuse? Well, I had no idea there was one dollar spent like this.”

GOP members in the House and Senate have voiced concerns about the potential impact cuts would have on local stations and rural radio.

“We have Native American radio stations in South Dakota. They get their funding through NPR,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said during the hearing. “Ninety-some percent of what they use.”

The director called PBS and NPR “radical far-left networks,” and “there is no longer any excuse for tax dollars to subsidize” them.

Decades ago, Pete Wilson did something unusual. The U.S. senator came home to run for California governor.

The path to power typically goes the opposite direction, with governors trading the statehouse for the (perceived) influence and prestige of being one of just 100 members of a club that fancies itself — not so humbly or precisely — as “the world’s greatest deliberative body.”

Wilson bucked that sentiment.

“It is a much more difficult role,” he said of being governor, and one he came to much prefer over his position on Capitol Hill.

It turns out that Wilson, a Republican who narrowly prevailed in a fierce 1990 contest against Democrat Dianne Feinstein, was onto something.

Since, then five other lawmakers have left the Senate to become their state’s governor. Several more tried and failed.

Although it’s still more common for a governor to run for Senate than vice versa, in 2026 as many as three sitting U.S. senators may run for governor, the most in at least 90 years, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Clearly, the U.S. Senate has lost some of its luster.

There have always been those who found the place, with its pretentious airs, dilatory pacing and stultifying rules of order, a frustrating environment to work in, much less thrive.

The late Wendell Ford, who served a term as Kentucky governor before spending the next 24 years in the Senate, used to say “the unhappiest members of the Senate were the former governors,” recalled Charlie Cook, founder of the eponymous political newsletter. “They were used to getting things done.”

And that, as Cook noted, “was when the Senate did a lot more than it does now.”

What’s more, the Senate used to be a more dignified, less partisan place — especially when compared with the fractious House. An apocryphal story has George Washington breakfasting with Thomas Jefferson and referring to the Senate as a saucer intended to cool the passions of the intemperate lower chamber. (It helps to picture a teacup filled with scalding brew.)

These days, both chambers are bubbling cauldrons of animosity and partisan backbiting.

Worse, there’s not a whole lot of advising going in the Senate, which reflexively consents to pretty much whatever it is that President Trump asks of the prostrated Republican majority.

“The Senate has become an employment agency where we just have vote after vote after vote to confirm nominees that are are going to pass, generally, 53 to 47, with very rare exceptions,” said Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat who’s running to be governor of his home state.

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, is the front-runner in his bid to be the state’s next governor.

(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)

The other announced gubernatorial hopeful is Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican who’s made no secret of his distaste for Washington after a single term. Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn, a fellow Republican fresh off reelection, is also expected to run for governor in her state.

Bennet arrived in the Senate 16 years ago and since then, he said, it’s been “really a one-way ratchet down.”

“You think about the fact that we’re really down to a couple [of] bills a year,” he said this week between votes on Capitol Hill. “One is a continuing resolution that isn’t even a real appropriations bill … it’s just cementing the budget decisions that were made last year, and then the defense bill.”

Despite all that, Bennet said he’s not running for governor “because I’m worn out. It’s not because I’m frustrated or bored or irritated or aggravated” with life in the Senate, “though the Senate can be a very aggravating place to work.” Rather, working beneath the golden dome in Denver would offer a better opportunity “to push back and to fight Trumpism,” he said, by offering voters a practical and affirmative Democratic alternative.

Try that as one of 47 straitjacketed senators.

When Wilson took office in January 1991, he succeeded the term-limited George Deukmejian, a fellow Republican.

He immediately faced a massive budget deficit, which he closed through a package of tax hikes and spending cuts facilitated by his negotiating partner, Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. Their agreement managed to antagonize Democrats and Republicans alike.

Wilson didn’t much care.

After serving in the Legislature, as San Diego mayor and a U.S. senator, he often said being California governor was the best job he ever had. There are legislators to wrangle, agencies to oversee, natural disasters to address, interest groups to fend off — all while trying to stay in the good graces of millions of often cranky, impatient voters.

“Not everybody enjoys it,” Wilson said when asked about the prospect of Kamala Harris serving as governor, “and not everyone is good at it.”

Harris, who served four years in the Senate before ascending to the vice presidency, has given herself the summer to decide whether to run for governor, try again for the White House or retire from politics altogether.

California’s next governor will probably have to take some “very painful steps,” Wilson said, given the dicey economic outlook and the likelihood of federal budget cuts and other hostile moves by the Trump administration. That will make a lot of people unhappy, including many of Harris’ fellow Democrats.

How would she feel about returning to Sacramento’s small stage, wrestling with intractable issues such as the budget and homelessness, and dealing with the inevitable political heat? We won’t know until and unless Harris runs.

THE family of Minnesota Senator John Hoffman has revealed how his wife Yvette used her body as a shield when a gunman opened fire in their home.

Both Hoffman and Yvette were seriously injured when they were targeted in an attempted assassination at their home in Champlin around 2 am on Saturday morning.

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Less than two hours later, the gunman, suspected to be 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter, shot and killed DFL speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark at their home in Brooklyn Park.

Hoffman, 60, and his wife underwent surgery at the Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids and are stable.

The pair were shot 11 times by the crazed gunman who posed as a police officer, their nephew Mat Ollig shared in an update on Facebook.

He revealed how Yvette heroically threw herself in front of their daughter Hope to shield her from the bullets.

Hope, who is in her 20s, was not injured in the horror attack.

Senator Hoffman was shot six times and Yvette five, Ollig said.

“My aunt threw herself on her daughter, using her body as a shield to save her life,” he wrote.

“They are both out of surgery and stable. These two are the kindest, most giving and caring people I know.”

He called the horror attack “a political act of terrorism” carried out by a “vile piece of s*** dressed as a cop”.

“I am beyond sick,” Ollig wrote as he shared pictures of the family.

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One of the bullets that struck Hoffman narrowly missed his heart, local outlet KARE11 reported.

Images from the scene show the Hoffmans’ front door riddled with bullet holes.

Boelter was named as a suspect for the shootings on Saturday afternoon sparking a major manhunt.

As the search continues into its second day, cops are tightening the net around the 57-year-old who allegedly wore a creepy latex mask when he gunned down his victims.

They have located a vehicle of interest and the cowboy hat they believe Boelter was wearing when he was last seen in the Twin Cities area.

These were found on Highway 25 roughly half way between Green Isle, where Boelter has a property, and Belle Plaine, KARE 11 reported.

State patrol confirmed they found a black vehicle on the side of the road that is of interest in the hunt for the suspect.

They also found a cowboy hat matching the one Boelter was seen wearing in the last CCTV footage of him lying in the open on the side of the road.

About 100 yards away from the road, is a property that KARE 11 says has a major police presence around it as part of the manhunt.

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It has not been confirmed if Boelter is still in the area.

The FBI has issued a $50,000 reward for information that leads to his arrest and a conviction.

Hours after the double shooting, at around 6 am, Boelter’s roommate and best friend David Carlson received a string of chilling text messages from him in which Boelter said “I may be dead shortly”.

“I made some choices, and you guys don’t know anything about this, but I’m going to be gone for a while,” he said to his friends David and Ron.

“May be dead shortly, so I just want to let you know I love you guys both and I wish it hadn’t gone this way.”

Officials have said that they believe Boelter may have been trying to flee.

His wife Jenny was detained after a traffic stop during which cops found she was carrying weapons, cash, and passports, KTSP reported, citing law enforcement officials.

She was not arrested and officers have warned that as the search continues, Boelter should be considered armed and dangerous.

Officials have urged the public to send in tips and call 911 if they see him.

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June 10 (UPI) — The federal minimum wage would rise to $15 per hour, with annual cost-of-living increases based on inflation, in a proposed bipartisan measure.

Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., co-sponsored the bill that they have named the “Higher Wages for American Workers Act” and would increase the federal minimum wage from its current $7.25 per hour for non-exempt workers.

“For decades, working Americans have seen their wages flatline,” Hawley said on Tuesday in a joint press release with Welch.

“One major culprit of this is the failure of the federal minimum wage to keep up with the economic reality facing hardworking Americans every day,” Hawley added.

Welch said inflation and rising costs are making it too hard for families to afford basic necessities.

“We’re in the midst of a severe affordability crisis, with families in red and blue states alike struggling to afford necessities like housing and groceries,” Welch said.

“A stagnant federal minimum wage only adds fuel to the fire,” he continued. “Every hardworking American deserves a living wage that helps put a roof over their head and food on the table — $7.25 an hour doesn’t even come close.”

“Times have changed, and working families deserve a wage that reflects today’s financial reality,” Welch added.

Hawley said the current federal minimum wage is less than what a worker earned in 1940 when adjusted for inflation.

If the proposed federal minimum wage increase is passed into law, it would take effect on Jan. 1 and allow cost-of-living increases that match inflation in subsequent years.

Many states have respective minimum wage laws that exceed the current and proposed federal minimum wage, but a dozen still were at the federal minimum wage in 2024.

Many large employers also have higher minimum wages, including Walmart, which has paid its workers at least $14 an hour and often more since 2023.

President Joe Biden in 2021 ordered the federal government to pay contract workers at least $15 an hour.

California lawmakers in 2022 raised the state’s minimum wage for many fast-food workers to up to $22 an hour.

California’s two U.S. Senators pushed top military officials Tuesday for more information about how hundreds of U.S. Marines were deployed to Los Angeles over the objections of local leaders and what the active-duty military will do on the ground.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla asked the Pentagon to explain the legal basis for deploying 700 active-duty Marines amid ongoing protests and unrest over immigration raids across Southern California.

“A decision to deploy active-duty military personnel within the United States should only be undertaken during the most extreme circumstances, and these are not them,” Schiff and Padilla wrote in the letter. “That this deployment was made over the objections of state authorities is all the more unjustifiable.”

California is challenging the legality of the militarization, arguing in a lawsuit filed Monday that the deployment of both the National Guard and the Marines violated the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which spells out the limits of federal power.

Schiff and Padilla asked Hegseth to clarify the mission the Marines will be following during their deployment, as well as what training the troops have received for crowd control, use of force and de-escalation.

The senators also asked whether the Defense Department received any requests from the White House or the Department of Homeland Security about “the scope of the Marines’ mission and duties.”

Hegseth mobilized the Marines Monday from a base in Twentynine Palms. Convoys were seen heading east on the 10 Freeway toward Los Angeles on Monday evening.

Schiff and Padilla said that Congress received a notification from the U.S. Northern Command on Monday about the mobilization that said the Marines had been deployed to “restore order” and support the roughly 4,000 members of the state National Guard who had been called into service Saturday and Monday.

The notification, the senators said, “did not provide critical information to understand the legal authority, mission, or rules of engagement for Marines involved in this domestic deployment.”

The California National Guard was first mobilized Saturday night over Newsom’s objection.

The last time a president sent the National Guard into a state without a request from the governor was six decades ago, when President Lyndon B. Johnson mobilized troops in Alabama to defend civil rights demonstrators and enforce a federal court order in 1965.

Trump and the White House have said the military mobilization is legal under Section 12406 of Title 10 of the U.S. Code on Armed Forces. The statute gives the president the authority to federalize the National Guard if there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States,” but also states that the Guard must be called up through an order from the state’s governor.

Trump has said that without the mobilization of the military, “Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.”

Days of protests have included some violent clashes with police and some vandalism and burglaries.

“It was heading in the wrong direction,” Trump said Monday. “It’s now heading in the right direction. And we hope to have the support of Gavin, because Gavin is the big beneficiary as we straighten out his problems. I mean, his state is a mess.”

On Tuesday morning, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said city officials had not been told what the military would do, given that the National Guard is already in place outside of federal buildings.

“This is just absolutely unnecessary,” Bass said. “People have asked me, ‘What are the Marines going to do when they get here?’ That’s a good question. I have no idea.”

On Tuesday, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta sought a restraining order to block the deployment.

WASHINGTON — President Trump wants his “big, beautiful” bill of tax breaks and spending cuts on his desk to be signed into law by the Fourth of July, and he’s pushing the slow-rolling Senate to make it happen sooner rather than later.

Trump met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the White House early this week and has been dialing senators for one-on-one chats, using both the carrot and stick to nudge, badger and encourage them to act. But it’s still a long road ahead for the 1,000-page-plus package.

“His question to me was, How do you think the bill’s going to go in the Senate?” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said about his call with Trump. “Do you think there’s going to be problems?”

It’s a potentially tumultuous three-week sprint for senators preparing to put their own imprint on the massive Republican package that cleared the House late last month by a single vote. The senators have been meeting for weeks behind closed doors, including as they returned to Washington late Monday, to revise the package ahead of what is expected to be a similarly narrow vote in the Senate.

“Passing THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL is a Historic Opportunity to turn our Country around,” Trump posted on social media. He urged them Monday “to work as fast as they can to get this Bill to MY DESK before the Fourth of JULY.”

Thune, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, has few votes to spare from the Senate’s slim, 53-seat GOP majority. Democrats are waging an all-out political assault on GOP proposals to cut Medicaid, food stamps and green energy investments to help pay for more than $4.5 trillion in tax cuts — with many lawmakers being hammered at boisterous town halls back home.

“It’d be nice if we could have everybody on board to do it, but, you know, individual members are going to stake out their positions,” Thune said Tuesday.

“But in the end, we have to succeed. Failure’s not an option. We’ve got to get to 51. So we’ll figure out the path forward to do that over the next couple of weeks.”

At its core, the package seeks to extend the tax cuts approved in 2017, during Trump’s first term at the White House, and add new ones the president campaigned on, including no taxes on tips and others. It also includes a massive build-up of $350 billion for border security, deportations and national security.

To defray the lost tax revenue to the government and avoid piling onto the nation’s $36-trillion debt load, Republicans want to reduce federal spending by imposing work requirements for some Americans who rely on government safety net services. Estimates are 8.6 million people would no longer have healthcare and nearly 4 million would lose Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits.

The package also would raise the nation’s debt limit by $4 trillion to allow more borrowing to pay the bills.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump’s bill “is ugly to its very core.”

Schumer said Tuesday it’s a “lie” that the cuts won’t hurt Americans. “Behind the smoke and mirrors lies a cruel and draconian truth: tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy paid for by gutting healthcare for millions of Americans,” said the New York senator.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to soon provide an overall analysis of the package’s impacts on the government balance sheets, particular its rising annual deficits. But Republicans are ready to blast those findings from the congressional scorekeeper as flawed.

Trump on Tuesday switched to tougher tactics, deriding the holdout Republican senators to get on board.

The president laid into Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the libertarian-leaning deficit hawk who has made a career of arguing against government spending. Paul wants the package’s $4-trillion increase to the debt ceiling out of the bill.

“Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!).” Trump posted.

The July 4 deadline is not only aspirational for the president, it’s all but mandatory for his Treasury Department. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned Congress that the nation will run out of money to pay its bills if the debt ceiling, now at $36 trillion, is not lifted by mid-July or early August to allow more borrowing. Bessent has also been meeting behind closed doors with senators and GOP leadership.

Thune acknowledged Tuesday that lifting the debt ceiling is not up for debate.

“It’s got to be done,” the South Dakota senator said.

The road ahead is also a test for Thune, who, like Johnson, is a newer leader in Congress and among the many Republicans adjusting their own priorities with Trump’s return to the White House.

While Johnson has warned against massive changes to the package, Thune faces demands from his senators for adjustments.

To make most of the tax cuts permanent — particularly the business tax breaks that are the Senate priorities — senators may shave some of Trump’s proposed new tax breaks on automobile loans or overtime pay, which are policies less prized by some senators.

There are also discussions about altering the $40,000 cap that the House proposed for state and local deductions, known as SALT, which are important to lawmakers in high-tax New York, California and other states, but less so among GOP senators.

“We’re having all those discussions,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another key voice in the debate.

Hawley is among a group of senators, including Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, who have raised concerns about the Medicaid changes that could boot people from health insurance.

A potential copay of up to $35 for Medicaid services that was part of the House package, as well as a termination of a provider tax that many states rely on to help fund rural hospitals, have also raised concerns.

“The best way to not be accused of cutting Medicaid is to not cut Medicaid,” Hawley said.

Collins said she is reviewing the details.

There’s also a House provision that would allow the auction of spectrum bandwidth that some senators oppose.

Mascaro and Jalonick write for the Associated Press. AP writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.

Senators accuse US President Donald Trump of engaging in ‘corruption of US foreign policy’ with defence deals.

A group of United States senators is trying to halt $3.5bn in weapons sales to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar over concerns that the deals will personally benefit the family of US President Donald Trump.

Two “resolutions of disapproval” were submitted on Thursday in the US by Democratic Senators Chris Murphy, Chris Van Hollen, Brian Schatz and Tim Kaine, along with Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who often votes with Democrats.

The legislators also issued statements accusing President Trump, who is concluding a trip to the Middle East, of actively engaging in the “corruption of US foreign policy” over the timing of the sales and recent investment deals.

The Department of State this week approved the $1.6bn sale to the UAE of Chinook helicopters and equipment, F-16 aircraft components, and spare and repair parts to support Apache, Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters. Initial reporting cited the figure as close to $1.3bn, but the $1.6bn figure was used in a statement from the legislators. The lawmakers are also seeking to block $1.9bn in sales to Qatar of MQ-9B Predator drones and associated equipment, which was approved by the State Department in March.

The legislators accuse Trump of accepting favours in exchange for the deals, citing news from April that the Emirati investment firm MGX would use a stablecoin – a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to another asset – issued by the Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial to finance a $2bn investment in the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

The Trump family is reported to have made millions off niche cryptocurrencies like the $TRUMP “meme coin” since the president returned to the White House in January.

I know Trump’s crypto scams can seem hard to understand. So I went the Senate floor to break down the most outrageous one.

A foreign government is investing $2 billion in Trump’s coin to get favorable treatment from the Administration. A wild corruption.

Here’s how it works. pic.twitter.com/pxLSlZH2QN

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) May 13, 2025

In addition to business dealings, the senators also expressed fears that US weapons sent to the UAE could end up in the hands of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which is allegedly backed by the UAE and has played a critical role in Sudan’s civil war.

“The US should not be delivering weapons to the UAE as it aids and abets this humanitarian disaster and gross human rights violations,” Van Hollen said, citing Sudan’s civil war.

The senators also cited Qatar’s offer of a Boeing 747 jumbo for the president’s temporary use as Air Force One. The offer has drawn criticism from both Democrats and some Republicans because it would be the most expensive foreign gift ever exchanged between a foreign government and an elected US official.

“There’s nothing Donald Trump loves more than being treated like a king, and that’s exactly why foreign governments are trying to buy his favour with a luxury jumbo jet and investments in Trump’s crypto scams,” Murphy said in a statement.

When asked about the offer of the aircraft, Trump blamed Boeing’s lack of progress in building a new Air Force One and said he would be “stupid” to refuse a free plane.

“It’s not a gift to me, it’s a gift to the Department of Defense,” he said.

It is unclear when a vote will happen on the joint “resolutions of disapproval”, but the US political news outlet The Hill said that due to the nature of the bills, Democrats will likely force them to the floor of the Senate.