Important Takeaways:
- As members of Congress and guests chanted, “U-S-A, U-S-A,” President Donald Trump addressed the nation as he recounted his achievements since his inauguration.
- With a strong show of support from the Republican-controlled chamber, Trump stated, “Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden age of America. From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years.”
- President Trump continued with a long list of accomplishments, starting with the creation of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) headed by Elon Musk.
- “The Government Accountability Office, a federal government office, has estimated annual fraud of over $500 billion in our nation. And we are working very hard to stop it.”
- In his first 43 days, the president has signed at least 81 executive orders, ranging from requiring federal workers’ return to the workplace, bringing back free speech by removing government censorship, making English America’s official language, and ending Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (D.E.I.) policies while removing critical race theory from public schools.
- He also addressed transgender controversies, reminding the nation, “There are only two genders, male and female.”
- He brought up the ban on transgender athletes playing in women’s sports and the criminalizing of sex changes performed on children.
- He stated, “A message to every child in America is that you are perfect. Exactly the way God made you.”
- On the topic of immigration, the chief executive introduced a new way successful migrants can buy a path to U.S. citizenship. “We have developed in great detail what we are calling the Gold Card, which goes on sale very, very soon for $5 million,” he said.
- Throughout his speech, the president honored regular Americans, including the family of Laken Riley, a nursing student killed by an illegal migrant while jogging last year.
- One of the most emotional moments of the night came when the president honored D.J. Daniel, a 13-year-old brain cancer survivor who at one time was given five months to live. His dream was to be in law enforcement. On Tuesday night, his dream became a reality.
- Trump announced, “D.J., we’re going to do you the biggest honor of them all. I am asking our new Secret Service Director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service.”
- The 47th president concluded his speech with a list of promises to the American people, including fixing the economy for people still struggling under the burden of high prices.
- “Fellow Americans, get ready for an incredible future,” he exhorted. “Because the Golden Age of America has only just begun. It will be like nothing that has ever been seen before. Thank you. God bless you, and God bless America.”
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Important Takeaways:
- The order forces major regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to report new policy priorities to the executive branch for approval, which will also have a say over their budgets.
- In a fact sheet, the White House described the move as, “ensuring that all federal agencies are accountable to the American people, as required by the Constitution”.
- “The Order notes that Article II of the US Constitution vests all executive power in the President, meaning that all executive branch officials and employees are subject to his supervision,” the fact sheet said. The order will also apply to the Federal Reserve but will exempt the central bank’s authority over monetary policy.
- The Trump order aligns with campaign promises to make independent agencies accountable to the president and a pledge Vought made in 2023: “What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them.”
- The move comes as the White House has attempted to fundamentally reshape the US government, including by seizing Congress’s “power of the purse”.
- The administration has argued it can refuse to spend funds allocated by Congress, in defiance of the Impoundment Act of 1974, which explicitly bars the practice.
- The president has also summarily fired the independent watchdogs of government agencies; attempted to end birthright citizenship; dismantled the foreign aid agency USAid; ordered severe cuts to biomedical research funding; and imposed a funding freeze, among the many executive orders made in Trump’s first few weeks in office which contravene congressional authority, and are now being litigated.
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Important Takeaways:
- Congress revoked an additional $20 billion from the Internal Revenue Service last week when lawmakers averted a government shutdown, a cut that may undo many of President Joe Biden’s efforts to improve customer service at the tax agency and train fresh scrutiny on wealthy tax cheats.
- Biden and congressional Democrats gave the IRS $80 billion in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, but Congress rescinded $20 billion as part of a 2023 budget deal. Shortly afterward, Republicans vowed they’d be back for more IRS cuts.
- And because of the way lawmakers extended government funding into March, an additional $20 billion in cuts came automatically.
- When Congress approved a stopgap funding bill, called a continuing resolution, all the existing policy from the previous fiscal year was carried forward unless new text was specifically added to the bill to change it.
- There was no language in the bill to undo last year’s cut, so it repeated in the new law.
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Important Takeaways:
- A 1,547-page spending deal was released Tuesday night will give members of Congress a raise.
- Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the top Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, explained in 2023 that the so-called “Member Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) automatically takes effect unless it is blocked.”
- “News flash: a COLA is a pay increase for Members of Congress,” she stated unequivocally.
- Congress often cleverly rebrands politically toxic items like congressional pay raises, as when they began referring to earmarks as “congressionally directed spending.”
- This is not the first time in recent memory Congress has taken advantage of a last-minute lame-duck spending bill to benefit itself.
- In the 2022 lame-duck spending bill, Congress snuck in a provision to allow reimbursement for a number of living expenses, including lodging, food, and travel while on the job in Washington, DC.
- According to the New York Times, individual members could be reimbursed up to about $34,000 in the first year.
- Most members of Congress earn $174,000 annually, although some in leadership positions receive higher salaries. The Speaker of the House receives $223,500, while the Senate president pro tempore receives $193,400.
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Important Takeaways:
- In a statement, the Israeli Government Press Office said:
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, last night (Tuesday, 23 July 2024), in Washington, met with US evangelical community leaders.
- The Prime Minister expressed his appreciation to the community leaders for their strong and constant support of Israel but especially in these complicated times.
- Minister Netanyahu heard from them about their prayers for the return of the hostages, the wellbeing of the soldiers and the security of the State of Israel.
- The Prime Minister also thanked the evangelicals for their vigorous activity among the community’s young people to encourage continued support for Israel.
- Prime Minister Netanyahu added that he is well aware of their deep commitment to Israel and how strong their support is for the truth and our common values.
- Netanyahu is set to address Congress on Wednesday afternoon, before meetings with President Joe Biden and (separately, and privately) Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
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Important Takeaways:
- Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin will preside over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress on Wednesday as he faces calls to boycott the speech.
- The Maryland office of Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, urged the Maryland senator to boycott what the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization referred to as Netanyahu’s “war criminal” address to Congress.
- “It is deeply troubling that Sen. Cardin would choose to lend legitimacy and support to a war criminal who is responsible for egregious violations of human rights and international law,” said CAIR’s Maryland Director Zainab Chaudhry.
- Netanyahu arrived Monday in Washington, D.C., where he will hold meetings with the Biden administration and will address the joint session of the House and Senate on Wednesday, as he seeks bipartisan support for Israel just days after President Joe Biden announced he would end his re-election bid.
- As Netanyahu addresses the joint Congress on Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson has warned lawmakers that there will be a “zero-tolerance” policy for anyone who disrupts the speech and that law enforcement “will remove … offending visitors from the gallery and subject them to arrest.”
- On Tuesday, hundreds of members of the group Jewish Voice for Peace were arrested during a demonstration inside the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C., according to the group.
- “Arrests are beginning as over 400 American Jews refuse to leave Congress, but we won’t leave until our government stops arming Israel and ends the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza!” the group wrote Tuesday in a post on X.
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Important Takeaways:
- Erin Fox has tracked drug shortages for more than 20 years, and she sees no easy solutions for what has become a record run.
- Total active shortages hit an all-time high of 323 in this year’s first quarter, according to the University of Utah Drug Information Service. That’s up about 86% from a 10-year low of 174 last reached in 2017.
- There were 48 new shortages recorded this year through March, according to the data, published by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
- Q: Is there any good news?
- A: Last year, Congress held four hearings on shortages. They’re still very interested. People are really starting to talk about doing hard work both on the policy side but also maybe a little bit of Congressional action to really try to move this problem forward.
- I’ve been leading our efforts to provide data on drug shortages since 2001. This is truly the most interest I’ve ever seen.
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Important Takeaways:
- Iranian Opposition Leader and former political prisoner Vahid Beheshti called on the American leadership and decision-makers to wake up, directly face the threat of the Iranian regime, and act to defeat it.
- “Israel knows that they are not fighting Hamas solely, they are fighting Iran. Without Iran, Hamas wouldn’t have survived a few weeks”
- Beheshti explained that the massacre and hostage-taking on October 7th were inspired by the Iranian success in gaining access to significant funds by releasing the Islamic Republic’s Western hostages.
- “Three weeks before October 7th, the current U.S. administration released $6 billion in exchange for five hostages. Of course, they will push Hamas to take 250 hostages, imagine what they can get for that many hostages.”
- “If we don’t defeat it now, soon it will be too late when they gain nuclear weapons capability. They will use it.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Campaign opens for performance-based congressional pay and 70% raise
- A campaign has started to raise the salaries of House and Senate members by 70% to $294,000 from the current $174,000 in return for better “performance.”
- Federal analyst Steven Kopits, the president of Princeton Policy Advisors, argued that since most members are lawyers, salaries should at least be equal to what first-year associates in Manhattan receive, plus a 20% bump up.
- “Most legislators are lawyers by trade, and we — or at least I — would hope that the public would prefer the best and the brightest to become members of Congress. First year law associates in New York are the best and brightest of their year, typically from Ivy League universities, and their salaries are tied to the market for premium legal services in the U.S. Therefore, if we believe we would like to recruit top-line legal professionals to serve in Congress, then first year associate salaries are a plausible comparable,” Kopits said in a memo.
- “I would argue that a senator should make considerably more than a first year lawyer, perhaps twice as much, but the political equilibrium seems to fall considerably lower. Even so, a congressman should make at least 20% more than a first year lawyer, about the same ratio as in the 1980s. If we apply that metric, congressional salaries should be set at $294,000 for 2024, a 70% increase over the current pay level,” he said.
- “It’s one thing to bad mouth your opponents when it’s costless. But when your bonus depends on using money wisely, well, people find a way to cooperate. If you’re a burn-it-to-the-ground MAGA Republican, the most revolutionary thing you could do is introduce a performance-based bonus. Democrats might have to go along with it. After all, they want a pay raise, too,” Kopits argued.
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Important Takeaways:
- Shocking report from Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, indicates that federal law enforcement agencies wanted financial institutions to identify potential extremists by flagging otherwise benign purchases and search terms affiliated with former President Donald Trump in the wake of the incident at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
- On Wednesday, Jordan sent an alarming letter to Noah Bishoff, the former director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations Division of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, better known as FinCEN. According to the letter, Jordan’s committee and select subcommittee have collected documents which suggest that FinCEN was targeting law-abiding Americans “on the basis of protected political and religious expression.”
- One FinCEN document referenced in the letter allegedly urged financial institutions to query “Zelle payment messages” for terms such as “TRUMP” and “MAGA.” Another FinCEN analysis mentioned in the letter apparently suggested that these same institutions could identify possible “Lone Actor/Homegrown Violent” extremists by examining customers’ transactions, looking for the purchase of “religious texts” — including the Bible, Jordan said — or “bus tickets, rental cars, or plane tickets, for travel areas with no apparent purpose.”
- The letter also alleges that Key Bank created presentation slides about merchant category codes and keywords that financial institutions could use that might identify “potential active shooters” or other “dangerous International Terrorists / Domestic Terrorists / Homegrown Violent Extremists (‘Lone Wolves.’)” The MCCs Key Bank suggested supposedly included “3484: Small Arms” and “5091: Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies,” and the keywords supposedly included the names of notable national gun stores, such as “Cabela’s” and “Bass Pro Shops.”
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