Elon Musk leaps on stage with Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, during a campaign rally Oct. 5, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

As Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump remain locked in a tight race according to public polling, both campaigns projected confidence Thursday.

With the election just five days away, the Democratic and GOP presidential candidates are making their final pitches to voters and zooming in on swing states — with neither showing a measurable advantage in the polls.

A senior Harris campaign official said Thursday on a call with reporters that they “feel very good about what we’re seeing.” And the Trump campaign sent reporters a memo showing Trump with polling leads in five of seven swing states, based on Real Clear Politics polling averages.

The Trump memo, written by pollster Tony Fabrizio, showed Trump with slim leads in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Nevada and larger advantages in Arizona and Georgia.

More than 63.6 million early votes were documented as of Thursday evening, according to the University of Florida Election Lab’s early voting tracker. Across the states that have data on party registration data, Democrats remained ahead with over 12 million voters registered with that party, compared to over 11.2 million Republicans and more than 7.8 million registered with another party or no party.

Senior Harris campaign officials also suggested that Trump is “clearly worried” about losing the race, noting he is “ramping up baseless claims of election fraud and irregularities.”

They referenced a Truth Social post from the former president on Wednesday in which Trump claimed that “Pennsylvania is cheating, and getting caught, at large scale levels rarely seen before.”

“REPORT CHEATING TO AUTHORITIES. Law Enforcement must act, NOW!” Trump wrote.

The former president’s campaign won a lawsuit Wednesday in the Keystone State over claims that voters in Bucks County were turned away when waiting in line to get mail ballots. A judge extended the mail ballot deadline in Bucks County to the close of business on Friday. The statewide deadline was set for Tuesday at 5 p.m.

“Needless to say, Pennsylvania is not cheating,” a senior Harris campaign official said on the call, adding that “a handful of people were allegedly turned away from early voting lines in Bucks County” and “the county responded by agreeing in court to additional days, not just hours, of early voting.”

A senior Harris campaign official said the system is “working just as it should,” referencing three counties in the Keystone State that identified suspicious registrations and declined to process them while also coordinating with law enforcement.

“All of this is cheating only in the mind of someone who wants to claim he was cheated, and it’s yet another example of how Donald Trump tries to sow doubt in our elections and institutions when he’s afraid he can’t win,” the official said.

Elon Musk’s voter sweepstakes

Meanwhile, a Pennsylvania judge on Thursday placed a lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk and his America PAC on hold while the fate of a federal court taking on the case is up in the air.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sued Musk and his super PAC earlier this week over allegations that the Trump ally’s $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes constitutes an illegal lottery.

Musk’s lawyers argued Wednesday that the state court was not the proper venue for the lawsuit and filed to move the case to a federal court.

Though the world’s richest man was ordered to appear at Thursday’s hearing, he did not show up.

Many voters feeling anxiety, frustration over campaign

Roughly 7 in 10 Americans feel frustrated or anxious about the 2024 presidential campaign, while a little over one-third feel excited, according to an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Thursday.

Nearly 80% of Democrats feel anxious about the race, compared to nearly two-thirds of Republicans and about half of independents, per the poll.

Americans’ feelings about the 2024 presidential campaign are similar to 2020, when, according to the same pollsters, 3 in 10 felt excited, nearly 7 in 10 were frustrated and almost two-thirds said they felt anxious.

Upcoming from the Harris, Trump campaigns

Harris is set to hold a campaign event in the Appleton area of Wisconsin on Friday and a rally and concert in Milwaukee later in the day.

The veep’s running mate, Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, is slated to campaign in Nevada and Arizona over the weekend.

Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, is scheduled to hold rallies Friday in Portage, Michigan, and Selma, North Carolina.

Trump is set to hold Friday rallies in Warren, Michigan, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Harris campaign said Thursday it will host its election night at Howard University in Washington, D.C. — the vice president’s alma mater.

A ballot drop box at the library and recreation center in Wheaton, Maryland, on Oct. 6, 2024. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)

As the United States continues to see election-related violence and lawsuits challenging voters’ eligibility, a democracy watchdog group is aiming to make sure voters are protected when casting their ballots.

A week ahead of the presidential election, in which Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are vying for the Oval Office, the nonpartisan group Common Cause is gathering volunteers across the country to assist Americans in voting without obstruction.

“Right now, we’re seeing litigation ranging from challenging voters’ eligibility, to challenging their completed ballots, challenging long-standing rules around elections, trying to purge voter rolls,” said Sylvia Albert, democracy and representation policy counsel for Common Cause, during a Tuesday media briefing.

“I think most important to know is that this close to an election, individuals cannot rewrite laws by whim or remove people from the voter rolls — there is clear law to protect voters from these kinds of attacks,” she added.

Albert said the organization is keeping an eye on all of the cases where voters’ eligibility or their completed ballots are being challenged and is “working with partners to ensure that somebody is always at the table to protect voters.”

“But, really, the message that we want to get across is that every eligible American should have the freedom to vote and to have their voice heard, and voters should rest assured that they should cast their ballot and know that it will be counted,” she said.

Common Cause state leaders in Florida, as well as in the swing states of North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, also shared some election protection efforts and what they are witnessing in terms of early voter turnout.

Virginia Kase Solomón, president and CEO of Common Cause, cited thousands of election protection volunteers who have signed up and said more are joining daily. The organization co-leads the Election Protection coalition.

“Our coalition is operating field programs in 42 states for the 2024 election,” she said, adding that “our election protection hotlines are open, and they are already assisting voters.” That number is 866-OUR-VOTE.

More than 51.3 million early votes were documented as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the University of Florida Election Lab’s early voting tracker.

Meanwhile, as fears of election-related violence in the U.S. persist, two ballot drop boxes were set ablaze this week in Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon — destroying hundreds of ballots — and authorities believe the incidents are likely connected.

Suzanne Almeida, director of state operations for Common Cause, said “we have not seen a trend coming out of the fires that we saw earlier … that there are ongoing attacks on ballot drop boxes.”

Almeida noted that “vote by mail is still incredibly secure” and “ballot drop boxes are still an incredibly valid way to return your ballot.”

“In fact, at this point in the election cycle, I would not recommend putting your ballot in the mail,” she said, urging people to instead use a ballot drop box or other ballot return system.

Almeida also recommends that any voter in Washington or Oregon who believes their ballot was affected by the fires should track their ballot online at the websites for their local and state elections officials.

“You should reach out to those elections officials and get a reissued ballot,” Almeida said. “We are in no way too late to get those ballots … voted and counted.”

The Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, alongside Philadelphia City Council member Quetcy Lozada, right, and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker greets supporters at Freddy & Tony’s Restaurant, a locally owned Puerto Rican restaurant on Oct. 27, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ?(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris is slated to deliver what the campaign is calling her “closing argument” Tuesday night at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., as she aims to reach undecided voters in the final stretch of the presidential election.

Just a week out from Nov. 5, the Democratic presidential nominee will use her final pitch to voters to “turn the page” from former President Donald Trump, Harris campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a Tuesday morning call with reporters.

The Ellipse, a large grassy area just south of the White House, was the site of Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, remarks urging his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol.

Harris and Trump remain neck and neck in polling, both nationally and in swing states, in a race that could very well be decided by only a handful of voters across those battleground states.

In the press call, the Harris campaign previewed the contents of the veep’s highly anticipated speech, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of people.

For many undecided voters or those who are “questioning whether or not it is worth it to engage in the election at all,” Harris’ speech is an “opportunity for the vice president to intimately speak directly to that segment of the electorate’s sense of frustration, their sense of exhaustion with the way that our politics have played out under the Trump era — and offer them directly a vision that something is different, that something different is possible,” said Michael Tyler, Harris campaign communications director.

The veep is set to focus on “what her new generation of leadership really means, and centering that around the American people, what they care about, and that she’s going to make clear that she’s committed to ensuring that their needs and priorities are her top priority,” said O’Malley Dillon, who noted that Harris will touch on her vision, values and plans.

“You’re going to hear her really speak to middle-class families and what they’re worried about, and what she’s going to do about it, and she is going to very much focus the speech on them, on the American people, unlike what we hear from Donald Trump, which is his focus on himself, and we know that that is a pretty stark contrast,” O’Malley Dillon added.

Harris campaign Co-Chair Cedric Richmond, a former Louisiana congressman, said the veep will “use the powerful symbolism of the location to remind Americans that Trump is someone so all-consumed by his grievances and his power and his endless desire for revenge that he is not focused on the needs of the American people.”

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign continues to face a backlash following comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s series of racist and vulgar remarks during a Sunday night rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, including calling Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.”

“I think just seeing what’s happened over the course of the last 48 hours, the growth of support in some of our targeted Puerto Rican community, and some of our battleground states, obviously we have strength there to come in, but we obviously have seen a lot of movement and growth over the course of the last several days based on the response to what happened with Trump’s event,” O’Malley Dillon said.

With Trump set to hold a Tuesday rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania — a city and state with large Puerto Rican populations — the Democratic National Committee is launching a new billboard campaign across the Keystone State underscoring Hinchcliffe’s remarks.

Catch up on States Newsroom election coverage from all 50 states.

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump attacked rival Vice President Kamala Harris over immigration policy in Austin, Texas, on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. In this photo, Trump looks on during a campaign event on Dec. 19, 2023 in Waterloo, Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump in Austin, Texas, on Friday attacked Vice President Kamala Harris over her approach to immigration and border security, while echoing several false claims.

The respective GOP and Democratic presidential candidates spent one of the final days leading up to the election in the heavily red Lone Star State — not regarded as a battleground in the presidential race — at dueling campaign events.

Polling continues to depict the two in a deadlock nationally, as Nov. 5 rapidly approaches.

While Trump focused on the border and crime, Harris was slated to speak in Houston on Friday night underlining her support for reproductive rights — a key issue for Democrats — in a state with one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

“We’re here today in the great state of Texas … which, under Kamala Harris, has been turned into ground zero for the largest border invasion in the history of the world,” Trump said during a campaign stop at an airplane hangar.

Trump baselessly claimed that “over the past four years, this state has become Kamala’s staging ground to import her army of migrant gangs and illegal alien criminals into every state in America.”

The former president also knocked Harris’ actions surrounding border security, calling her approach “cruel,” “vile” and “absolutely heartless.”

He also again incorrectly dubbed Harris “border czar.” President Joe Biden tasked Harris with addressing the “root causes” of migration in Central America in 2021, but he never gave her the title of “border czar.” The U.S. Department of Homeland Security heads border security.

Trump also echoed his recent rhetoric, saying the U.S. is “like a garbage can for the rest of the world to dump the people that they don’t want.”

Speaking to reporters in Houston on Friday, Harris said this rhetoric is “just another example of how he really belittles our country.”

“The president of the United States should be someone who elevates discourse and talks about the best of who we are and invests in the best of who we are, not someone like Donald Trump, who’s constantly demeaning and belittling who the American people are,” Harris said.

Trump also reiterated his commitment, if reelected, to launching “the largest deportation program in American history” immediately upon taking the oath of office.

“We have to get all of these criminals, these murderers and drug dealers and everything — we’re getting them out, and we’ll put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell out of our country, and we’ll get them out,” he said.

Vance in Michigan?

During a NewsNation town hall in Michigan on Thursday, Trump’s running mate, Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance, fielded a series of questions on topics such as immigration, housing and abortion.

One of those questions came from Trump himself.

“How brilliant is Donald J. Trump?” the former president asked Vance over the phone.

Laughing, Vance replied: “Well, first of all, sir, this is supposed to be undecided voters — I would hope that I have your vote, of all people but … sir, of course, you’re very brilliant.”

The Ohio Republican proceeded to talk about his wife, Usha, and Trump speaking with each other.

Trump, who said he watched the CNN town hall with Harris the night prior, then asked Vance: “How brilliant is Kamala?”

“That’s a very tough one, sir,” Vance said. “I’m supposed to say something,” he added, hesitating.

Vance also defended the baseless claims he’s amplified in recent weeks regarding legal Haitian migrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.

“Well, what I said then, and I’ll say now is, you’re hearing a lot of things from your constituents. They’re telling you things, and I think it’s important for me to listen to the people that are coming to me with their problems,” Vance said.

“Now, do I think that the media certainly got distracted on the housing crisis and the health crisis and the crisis in the public schools by focusing on the ‘eating the dogs and the cats’ things? Yeah, I do, and do I wish that I had been better in that moment? Maybe,” he said.

“But it’s also people in my community, people that I represent, are coming to me and saying, this thing is happening. What am I supposed to do? Hang up the phone and tell them they’re a liar because the media doesn’t want me to talk about it?”

The debunked claims surrounding legal Haitian migrants have prompted a series of bomb threats and closures in Springfield.

Campaign signs for former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the respective GOP and Democratic presidential nominees, appear Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, on Mount Desert Island in Maine. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)

Vice President Kamala Harris faced questions about whether sexism is a factor in the presidential race during a Tuesday interview on NBC News, and said she makes no assumptions about whether voters will make their choices based on race or gender.

Polls depict Harris, the Democratic nominee, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, locked in an extremely close race that has largely been marked by a gender gap in voter preferences. Harris is winning over the votes of women, while Trump is stronger among men, polling is showing.

More than 24.5 million early votes were documented as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the University of Florida Election Lab’s early voting tracker. Among the states with party registration data, Democrats were ahead with about 5.3 million people registered with that party and voting compared to about 4.3 million for Republicans and 2.7 million with no party or another party.

Questioned by NBC News’ Hallie Jackson over whether Harris sees sexism at play in the race, the veep pointed out there are both men and women at her campaign events, “whether it be small events or events with 10,000 people.”

“So, the experience that I am having is one in which it is clear that regardless of someone’s gender, they want to know that their president has a plan to lower costs, that their president has a plan to secure America in the context of our position around the world,” Harris said.

When Jackson asked Harris if she does not see sexism as a factor in the race at all, Harris said: “I don’t think of it that way.”

“My challenge is the challenge of making sure I can talk with and listen to as many voters as possible and earn their vote, and I will never assume that anyone in our country should elect a leader based on their gender or their race,” she said.

Harris, if elected, would become the first woman president, the first Black woman president and the first president of South Asian descent.

Asked whether the country is ready now for a woman and a woman of color to be president, Harris said, “Absolutely.”

“As you know, I started as a prosecutor. I never asked a victim of crime, a witness to crime, ‘Are you a Republican or Democrat?’ The only thing I ever asked them is, ‘Are you okay?’” Harris said.

“And that’s what the American people want to know — regardless of their race, regardless of their gender, their age — they want to know that they have a president who sees them and understands their needs and focuses on their needs, understanding we all deserve to have a president who is focused on solutions and not just fanning the flames of division and hate,” she added.

Asked why she’s been reluctant to talk about the historic nature of her candidacy on the campaign trail, Harris said she’s “clearly a woman” and doesn’t “need to point that out to anyone.”

“The point that most people really care about is, can you do the job and do you have a plan to actually focus on them? That is why I spend the majority of my time listening and then addressing the concerns, the challenges, the dreams, the ambitions and the aspirations of the American people.”

Harris said the country deserves a president who’s “focused on them, as opposed to a Donald Trump who’s constantly focused on himself.”

Biden: ‘We gotta lock him up … politically lock him up’

Meanwhile, speaking at a Democratic campaign office in Concord, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, President Joe Biden sparked controversy when he said “we gotta lock him up” in reference to Trump.

Biden, who drew applause and cheers from the crowd, quickly backtracked, adding: “politically lock him up.”

“Lock him out, that’s what we have to do,” Biden said.

Trump — who was convicted on 34 felony counts in a New York state case earlier this year — has repeatedly made claims of “political persecution.”

In response, Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary, said in a statement Wednesday that “Joe Biden just admitted the truth: he and Kamala’s plan all along has been to politically persecute their opponent President Trump because they can’t beat him fair and square.”

Leavitt said the Biden-Harris administration is “the real threat to democracy” while also calling on Harris to “condemn Joe Biden’s disgraceful remark.”

Kelly remarks on Hitler, fascists stir controversy

In an interview with the New York Times, John F. Kelly — the former president’s longest-serving chief of staff and a former four-star Marine general — said Trump “commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too.’”

Asked whether Trump is a “fascist,” Kelly said Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure,” per the Times.

The Atlantic also published a bombshell story on Tuesday, part of which reports that Trump said: “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.”

In response to the recent reporting, Harris said Wednesday in brief remarks outside the vice president’s residence, before departing for Pennsylvania, that “it is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans.”

“This is a window into who Donald Trump really is, from the people who know him best, from the people who worked with him side-by-side in the Oval Office, and in the Situation Room,” she added.

In a Wednesday statement, the Trump campaign pointed to reporting on the friendship between The Atlantic’s owner and Harris, saying “it’s no surprise that The Atlantic would publish a false smear in the lead up to the election to try to help Kamala Harris’ failing campaign.”

Walz and his family cast their votes?

Harris’ running mate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, cast his ballot Wednesday along with his wife, Gwen, and son, Gus, at the Ramsey County elections office in St. Paul, Minnesota, according to a pool report.

Walz told a woman at the counter that it was 18-year-old Gus’ first time voting and that he’s “pretty excited about it,” per the report.

Vance on schools and immigration

At a campaign event Tuesday in Peoria, Arizona, Trump’s running mate, Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance, claimed Harris “has used programs that are meant to help people who are escaping tyranny, and she’s used it to grant amnesty to millions upon millions of people who have no legal right to be in the country, and that has to stop.”

“I mean, in Arizona schools right now, we have got thousands upon thousands of children who can’t even speak the native, the local language in Arizona, sometimes they don’t even speak Spanish, of course, because we’ve got illegal immigrants coming from all over,” he added.

“What does that do to the education of American children when their teachers aren’t teaching them, but they’re focused on kids who don’t have the legal right to be here? And again, nothing against the children, but we can’t have a border policy that ruins the quality of American education.”

However, the Arizona Republic reported that children who have limited proficiency in English in Arizona are taught in separate classrooms from children who speak English, and bilingual education was eliminated in the state in 2000.

The Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, attends a Fox News town hall with women voters hosted by Harris Faulkner and taped on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024 in Cumming, Georgia. (Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump fielded questions from women voters during a Fox News town hall in Georgia that aired Wednesday, and dubbed himself “the father of IVF” while discussing the fertility treatment that grabbed the spotlight after an Alabama court’s ruling earlier this year.

The GOP presidential nominee — who’s also called himself a “protector” of women — has sought to win over the critical voting bloc as he and Vice President Kamala Harris poll neck and neck in a race that’s largely been marked by a gender gap.

Trump faced a friendly crowd in Cumming, Georgia, an exurb of Atlanta, during the event that Fox News billed as centered on “women’s issues.”

The former president made multiple false claims throughout the town hall hosted by Fox News’ Harris Faulkner and often responded with long-winded answers to questions surrounding the economy, immigration and abortion.

On abortion and IVF

Trump has walked a fine line on abortion in recent months, often zigzagging on his positions, though he currently maintains he would veto a federal abortion ban.

During his administration, Trump nominated three U.S. Supreme Court justices who all voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending nearly half a century of the constitutional right to an abortion.

Asked by an audience member why the government is “involved in women’s basic rights,” Trump said that abortion is now “back in the states.” The conservative justices actually wrote that ending Roe v. Wade meant the “authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,” which includes Congress and the president.

Trump noted that some states’ abortion restrictions are “too tough” and predicted that those measures “are going to be redone because already there’s a movement in those states.”

He said he believes in “exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.”

Trump, in claiming his leadership on IVF, also said “we really are the party for IVF.” Republicans in Congress, however, have prevented the advancement of legislation on in vitro fertilization, including an attempt by U.S. Senate Democrats in March to expand access for military service members and veterans.

In September, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bill that could have prevented states from enacting “harmful or unwarranted limitations” on the fertility procedure and bolstered access for military members and veterans.

But Trump insisted at the town hall his party backs IVF. “We want fertilization, and it’s all the way, and the Democrats tried to attack us on it, and we’re out there on IVF, even more than them, so we’re totally in favor,” he said.

Contrary to Trump’s assertion he is the “father of IVF,” it was pioneered in 1978 by a gynecologist and scientist, one of whom who received the Nobel Prize.

Alabama ruling

The debate over IVF erupted in Alabama earlier this year after the Alabama state Supreme Court issued an opinion in February that frozen embryos constitute children under state law.

That ruling forced the state’s IVF clinics to halt their work until the state legislature passed a bill providing criminal and civil protections for those clinics.

Trump, a few days after the ruling, called on Alabama lawmakers to “find an immediate solution,” and national Republicans running for Congress sought to distance themselves from the controversial Alabama decision as well.

Trump, replaying the timeline of events at the town hall, said: “So I got a call from Katie Britt, a young, just a fantastically attractive person from Alabama. She’s a senator, and she called me up like ‘emergency, emergency’ because an Alabama judge had ruled that the IVF clinics were illegal and they have to be closed.” Britt, a Republican and member of the U.S. Senate from Alabama, was also picked to deliver the State of the Union response to President Joe Biden.

Trump continued, “And I said, ‘explain IVF very quickly,’ and within about two minutes, I understood it. I said, ‘No, no, we’re totally in favor of IVF.’ I came out with a statement within an hour, a really powerful statement, with some experts, really powerful. And we went totally in favor, the Republican Party, the whole party. (The) Alabama Legislature, a day later, overturned, meaning approved it … the judge essentially approved it.”

Harris clapped back at Trump’s description of himself as the “father of IVF” later Wednesday, saying she found it “quite bizarre.”

“And if what he meant is taking responsibility, well then, yeah, he should take responsibility for the fact that 1 in 3 women in America lives in a Trump abortion ban state,” she said.

On immigration and border security?

Immigration was a central topic during the town hall, and Trump repeated several false claims on the issue, including that Harris was made “border czar.”

Though President Joe Biden tasked Harris with addressing the “root causes” of migration in Central America in 2021, he did not give her the title of “border czar.” The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is in charge of border security.

Trump also reiterated his promise to ban all sanctuary cities, saying they’re “really meant for one thing: to protect criminals” and “that’s what they’ve become.” Such cities have declared their resistance to cooperating with federal immigration authorities.

“We’re going to end all sanctuary cities in the United States, and we’re going to go back to normalcy, and we’re going to have law and order … we have to reinvigorate our police,” he said.

On the economy and energy

Trump also said that under his administration, the U.S. had “the greatest economy in the history of our country.”

This claim has been proven false when evaluating factors such as the unemployment rate, annual gross domestic product increases and wage growth during his presidency compared to other administrations, per PolitiFact.

He also reiterated his plans to end taxes on Social Security benefits and to cut energy costs in half if reelected.

Harris campaign pre-buttal?

Ahead of Trump’s town hall, the Harris campaign hosted a press call Tuesday that featured Georgia’s Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, and the family members of Amber Thurman. A ProPublica investigation linked Georgia’s restrictive abortion law to Thurman’s death.

Ossoff said that in Trump, “you have the architect of the nationwide campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade and end decades of protection for the privacy of women’s health care and the ability of doctors to provide necessary care — and in Vice President Harris, you have a clear and leading commitment to stand up for the health of pregnant women and to empower physicians to provide necessary care.”

Harris was set to deliver remarks at a campaign event Wednesday in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She was also set to appear in a sit-down interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, airing Wednesday.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, answers questions at a Univision town hall on Oct. 10, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Felipe Cuevas/TelevisaUnivision)

Vice President Kamala Harris fielded a series of questions from undecided Latino voters on Thursday during an emotional town hall in Las Vegas hosted by Univision.

Harris continues to court this key voting bloc as Election Day rapidly approaches and she and former President Donald Trump vie for the Oval Office in an extremely close race.

Thursday’s town hall — featuring questions on subjects ranging from immigration and health care, to abortion and the economy — came as the Harris campaign launched the “Hombres con Harris” initiative this week to mobilize Latino men in battleground states.

Trump’s town hall with Univision was postponed to next week due to Hurricane Milton.

A ‘broken’ immigration system?

Harris heard from one audience member who said her mother died six weeks ago without being able to obtain legal status and could not get the medical care she needed.

The veep expressed her sympathy and pointed to the country’s “broken immigration system.”

“The reality is that in terms of having access to health care, had your mother been able to gain citizenship, she would have been entitled to health care that may have alleviated her suffering and yours,” she said.

Harris also mentioned her own mother and her immigration to the United States, saying: “I know what it is like to have a hardworking mother who loves you and to lose that, but I know that her spirit is alive.” Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, emigrated from India and was a cancer researcher.

During the town hall, Harris also repeated her vow she would, if elected, bring back and sign into law a major bipartisan border security bill, while blaming its legislative failure on Trump.

She also said she will “do the work of focusing on what we must do to have an orderly and humane pathway to earn citizenship for hardworking people.”

Harris was also asked about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that is currently under threat and designed to protect children — also known as Dreamers — who were brought into the country illegally from deportation.

“I just think it’s important that we recognize who this population of young people are and agree that they have been so productive, they are prepared to do what is necessary by law, and I think it should compel us to agree they should not have to live in fear, but should have an ability to be on a pathway to earn their citizenship,” she said.

“So, it is one of my priorities, and I’ve worked on this in terms of Dreamers for many, many years, and I’ll continue to fight for them.”

Health care, abortion access and the economy?

Harris said she firmly and deeply believes “access to health care is a right and should be a right, and not just a privilege of those who can afford it or have access to it easily” when asked how she plans to improve the health care system.

She also echoed her commitment to reproductive rights, saying if elected, she will “probably sign back into law the protections of Roe v. Wade, which basically just says it’s the person’s decision, not the government’s decision.”

Harris also touched on the broad Medicare plan she unveiled earlier this week that would strengthen the insurance program’s coverage to include long-term care for seniors in their homes.

The plan focuses on the “sandwich generation,” which refers to Americans who are raising their children while also caring for their aging parents.

Asked about how she would help the middle class, Harris highlighted her economic plan, including $6,000 in tax relief for new parents for the first year of their child’s life, as much as $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers and an up to $50,000 tax break for first-time small businesses.

Trump in Aurora, Colorado?

Trump was set to appear at a rally Friday in Aurora, Colorado — which he falsely claims is overrun by Venezuelan gangs.

Last month, Trump pledged to carry out the “largest deportation in the history of our country” if elected — noting that Aurora would be one of the two places he’d start with.

The other, Trump said back in September, would be Springfield, Ohio — the center of false claims he’s made surrounding legal Haitian migrants.

Trump is set to hold several other rallies this weekend, including in: Reno, Nevada, later on Friday; Coachella, California, on Saturday; and Prescott Valley, Arizona, on Sunday.

Medicare open enrollment is underway until Dec. 7. (Photo by Getty Images)

Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled a plan Tuesday that would strengthen Medicare coverage to include long-term care for seniors in their homes, tackling one of the biggest challenges in U.S. health care.

The Democratic presidential nominee revealed the proposal while on “The View” — one of several high-profile media appearances this week as she and the GOP presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, sprint to the November finish line.

“There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle: They’re taking care of their kids and they’re taking care of their aging parents, and it’s just almost impossible to do it all, especially if they work,” Harris said during the live interview. “We’re finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income, not to mention the emotional stress.”

Harris is focusing on the “sandwich generation,” which refers to Americans who are caring for their children while also caring for aging parents.

Under the plan, Medicare — the nation’s health insurance program for people 65 and older and some under 65 with certain disabilities or conditions — would cover an at-home health benefit for those enrolled in the program, as well as hearing and vision benefits, according to her campaign in a Tuesday fact sheet.

Medicare for the most part now does not cover long-term care services like home health aides.

The benefits would be funded by “expanding Medicare drug price negotiations, increasing the discounts drug manufacturers cover for certain brand-name drugs in Medicare, and addressing Medicare fraud,” per her campaign.

Harris also plans to “crack down on pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs) to increase transparency, disclose more information on costs, and regulate other practices that raise prices,” according to her campaign, which said she will also “implement international tax reform.”

The campaign did not cite a price tag but noted similar plans have been estimated to cost $40 billion annually, “before considering ??savings from avoiding hospitalizations and more expensive institutional care, or the additional revenues that would generate from more unpaid family caregivers going back to work if they need to.”

The proposal comes along with the nominee’s sweeping economic plan, part of which involves cutting taxes for more than 100 million Americans, including $6,000 in tax relief for new parents in the first year of their child’s life.

Trump responds

In response to the proposal, the Trump campaign said the former president “will always fight for America’s senior citizens — who have been left behind by Kamala Harris,” per a Tuesday news release.

The campaign also cited Medicare Advantage policies extended by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Trump’s first term.

The campaign reiterated the 2024 GOP platform’s chapter on protecting seniors, saying Trump will “prioritize home care benefits by shifting resources back to at-home senior care, overturning disincentives that lead to care worker shortages, and supporting unpaid family caregivers through tax credits and reduced red tape.”

Harris and Howard Stern

While appearing live on “The Howard Stern Show” on Tuesday shortly after “The View,” Harris dubbed Trump an “unserious man,” saying the consequences of him serving another term are “brutally serious.”

She also again criticized Trump for nominating three of the five members to the U.S. Supreme Court who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022 — a reversal that ended nearly half a century of the constitutional right to abortion.

“And it’s not about abortion, you have basically now a system that says you as an individual do not have the right to make a decision about your own body. The government has the right to make that decision for you,” she said.

Harris, who said she would appoint a Republican to her Cabinet if elected, was asked whether she would choose former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney.

Cheney was the vice chair of the U.S. House Jan. 6 committee tasked with investigating the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Harris did not disclose a preference, but said Cheney is “smart,” “remarkable” and a “dedicated public servant.”

Cheney is among some prominent Republicans to endorse Harris. She campaigned with the veep in Ripon, Wisconsin — the birthplace of the Republican Party — just last week.

Trump talks with Ben Shapiro

Meanwhile, Trump said Harris is “grossly incompetent” during an interview that aired Tuesday on “The Ben Shapiro Show.”

“Biden was incompetent, she is equally incompetent and in a certain way, she’s more incompetent,” Trump told Shapiro, a conservative political commentator and co-founder of The Daily Wire, referring to President Joe Biden.

Trump also criticized Harris’ Monday interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” saying the veep “answers questions like a child.”

“She’s answering questions in the most basic way and getting killed over it,” Trump added.

Look ahead for Harris, Trump campaigns

Harris was also set to also appear on CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday night. She will also appear at a Univision town hall in Las Vegas, Nevada, that airs Thursday.

Trump was slated to participate in a roundtable with Latino leaders and a Univision town hall on Tuesday in Miami, but both events were postponed due to Hurricane Milton.

Trump is set to give remarks Wednesday in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Later that day, he will continue campaigning in the Keystone State with a rally in Reading.

Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, joined by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks at the Capitol on Sept. 29, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans shortly after Election Day will face a major decision for their chamber as well as the national party when they pick a new leader.

Once the dust from the election clears and the balance of power in the Senate is decided, senators will gather behind closed doors to choose who will lead their conference. Come January, that person will step into one of the more important and influential roles in the U.S. government, as well as becoming a prominent figure for messaging and fundraising for the GOP.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Florida Sen. Rick Scott and South Dakota Sen. John Thune have all publicly announced they’re seeking the post. Thune is currently the minority whip, the No. 2 leader in the Senate GOP, and Cornyn held the whip job before him.

The lawmaker who secures the support of his colleagues will replace Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who since 2007 has led his party through three presidencies, numerous votes on natural disaster aid packages, the COVID-19 pandemic, two impeachments and the Jan. 6 insurrection.

McConnell, who served as majority leader when Republicans controlled the Senate, has been at the center of dozens of pivotal negotiations and ensured his position was a boon for his home state of Kentucky.

The Republican who takes his place will have to navigate choppy political seas in the years ahead as the GOP continues to hold onto the Reagan-era policies many still value, while adjusting to the brand of conservatism that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump champions.

States Newsroom interviewed Republican senators to find out what characteristics they believe the next GOP leader needs to have to earn their vote, and about the challenges that person will face in the years ahead.

While only one senator would volunteer an opinion on a favorite candidate, many said they are interested in a leader who will emphasize moving legislation through the chamber, listen closely to members and forge strong ties with what they hope is a Trump administration.

In search of a workhorse?

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said he’s looking for a “competent” Republican leader who will listen to members and work behind the scenes.

“I don’t want to see leaders on television commercials, I don’t want to see them featured in Senate races, I don’t want them as the deciding factor days before an election,” Hawley said. “I want somebody who is going to be a workhorse and who’s going to work with members to achieve our priorities and then get stuff accomplished.”

West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said the next GOP leader should hold the line on conservative priorities while also being able to negotiate bipartisan deals during what is expected to be a divided government. Democrats narrowly control the Senate, but Republicans are projected to possibly take the majority in the election.

“I would like somebody who can be strong in the face of opposition, present a strong argument, not afraid to take it to the other side when needed, but then also somebody that could get in the room and negotiate right when it gets tough,” she said.

Capito acknowledged the outcome of the presidential election could have an impact on who becomes the next Republican leader.

“(It) just depends on who wins,” she said.

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall said his choice will “be the most important vote that I take.”

“You vote for the president, that’s important, but mine is one vote out of 150 million votes, or whatever it is. But this vote will be one out of, hopefully 53, so I think it has a lot of weight,” Marshall said. “And I think it’s really important that we elect a majority leader that shares the same priorities as, hopefully, President Trump.”

Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty said the overarching criteria for the next GOP leader is their “ability to get along well with President Trump and the incoming administration.”

“The first 100 days are going to count, and we need to have very close alignment to make certain we’re successful,” Hagerty said.

There is no guarantee that voters will elect Trump as the next president during this year’s presidential election. The next Senate GOP leader could end up working with an administration led by the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.

That would require whomever Republican senators elect to walk a tightrope on Cabinet secretary confirmation votes, judicial nominees, must-pass legislation and potentially a Supreme Court nominee.

Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said he’s vetting the candidates based on which one would be the most savvy, strategic, patient and inclusive.

That person, Kennedy said, must also be “willing to test his assumptions against the arguments of his critics and willing to ask God for money if necessary.” McConnell has been known as a prodigious fundraiser for Republicans.

Chairmanship clout

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, said she’ll vote for the candidate willing to devote significantly more floor time to debating and voting on bipartisan legislation.

“I think that’s a real problem,” Collins said. “I’d like us to go back to the days where power was vested in the committee chairs. And if they and their ranking members are able to produce a bill, that it gets scheduled for floor consideration.”

Collins, a moderate in a Senate conference packed with more conservative members, said she wants the next Senate Republican leader to recognize “that we’re a big tent party and that we need to be inclusive in our approach.”

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, said he wants a GOP leader to follow “regular order on appropriations.”

“We get them through committee with bipartisan votes, but they’re not getting to the floor,” Hoeven said of the dozen annual government funding bills. “We need to get them to the floor, there needs to be an amendment process, and we need to act on the bills and get back to voting on bills and that’s called regular order. And I think that’s the biggest key for our next leader is to be able to do that.”

Alabama Sen. Katie Britt has begun talking with the candidates and is evaluating their plans for the Senate floor schedule, especially for bringing the annual government funding bills up for debate and amendment.

“I want to know how we’re going to get the appropriations process back working; like, how we’re actually going to move the ball down the field on that,” Britt said. “I want to know how we’re going to actually embolden the committees and the committee process.”

Britt, ranking member on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, expressed frustration with how much floor time goes toward confirming judicial nominees, something that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, and McConnell have both championed.

Senate floor procedures are much more time-consuming than the rules that govern debate in the House. Legislation can take weeks to move through the filibuster process, which requires 60 votes for bills to advance, and for leaders to negotiate which amendments will receive floor votes.

The Senate, unlike the House, is also responsible for vetting and confirming executive branch nominees, like Cabinet secretaries, as well as judicial nominees. With a new president in place, 2025 will mean many confirmation votes.

“When we have a leader that really knows how to lead, they’ll put appropriations bills on the floor, they’ll figure out how to embolden members,” Britt said, adding that “a weak leader consolidates all the power, and that’s, unfortunately, what I think we have right now when it comes to Chuck Schumer.”

‘Getting stuff done’

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford said whomever he votes for needs to “be successful at getting stuff done, finished, completed.”

“We have to be able to get our committees working and get legislation up, negotiated and moved,” Lankford said.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst said whoever takes over as the next GOP leader must be able to communicate well with senators.

That person “needs to be someone that has strategy, and knows how to work the floor, certainly. And then, also fundraising is a portion of that, too.”

Arkansas Sen. John Boozman said his vote will go to the person he believes can best build consensus and listen to members, though he hasn’t yet decided which of the three contenders he’ll support.

“I’m a true undecided,” Boozman said. “I think the reality is most members just want to get the election over. They don’t want to deal with this until then.”

Boozman said the results of the battle for control of the Senate in the November elections could influence which candidate he and his colleagues pick to lead them during the next Congress.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said that the next GOP leader should be in tune with Republican voters and the issues important to them.

“It’s someone who I think has an affinity and is in touch with where our voters are,” Rubio said.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley declined to list off any characteristics he believes the next leader needs, saying he doesn’t want any of the three to figure out his choice.

“I wouldn’t want to tell you that, because this is what I told all three people that came to my office — I said, ‘I’m not going to tell either one of you. You’re all friends of mine. You ain’t going to know who I vote for,’” Grassley said. “And if I answered your question, they’re going to start figuring out who I’m going to vote for.”

Grassley said the next leader’s first major challenge will be negotiating a tax bill during 2025 that addresses expiring elements from the 2017 Republican tax law.

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran said character matters in determining who he’ll vote for, but said he hadn’t created a score sheet just yet.

“I’ll have an idea of who I’m voting for before the November election,” Moran said. “Those characteristics that I think are important would be important regardless of what the makeup of the House, Senate and the White House is.”

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson threw his support behind Scott for GOP leader, saying he prefers someone who previously served as a governor and worked in the private sector. He was the only senator interviewed by States Newsroom to reveal his vote, which will be conducted via secret ballot.

He said that Scott “is willing to tackle tough issues.”

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said that Republicans have “a lot of good choices” among the three men and that he wants someone who can carry the GOP message.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage by U.S. Secret Service agents after being grazed by a bullet during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump will return to the site in Butler on Saturday, Oct. 5 2024 for a rally. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesImages)

WASHINGTON — Saturday marks one month until Election Day, giving the presidential campaigns little time before voting closes to convince voters that their vision for the country offers the best path forward.

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump will spend much of that time attacking each other, though they are also leaning on high-profile allies to support voter turnout efforts and help sway the dwindling number of undecided voters.

Former Democratic President Barack Obama is set to rally supporters in battleground states throughout the next month after starting off in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 10.

Obama is expected to make the case that Harris “is ready for the job.”

“This is a person who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice and a champion,” Obama will say, according to prepared remarks shared by the campaign. “Kamala wasn’t born into privilege. She had to work for what she’s got, and she actually cares about what other people are going through.”

The campaign didn’t disclose which other states Obama is likely to visit, though it’s a safe bet he’ll be traveling to swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Trump is set to rally supporters in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, returning to the location where a gunman climbed onto a roof before taking several shots at Trump in July.

The rally will include numerous members of Congress as well as the family of Corey Comperatore, who was killed by the gunman.

Comperatore’s widow, daughters and sisters are all expected to attend the Trump rally, as are several people who attended the one where the shooting broke out, according to an announcement from the campaign.

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, is expected to attend along with billionaire businessman Elon Musk; Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt; Pennsylvania Reps. Mike Kelly, Dan Meuser, Guy Reschenthaler and Glenn Thompson; Florida Rep. Cory Mills; Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson; and several Pennsylvania officials.

Separately on Saturday, Vice President Harris will travel to North Carolina to receive a briefing on recovery efforts following Hurricane Helene and survey storm damage.

On Sunday, former President Trump is expected to give a speech in Juneau, Wisconsin.

Biden warns of election denial

President Joe Biden said Friday during a surprise appearance at the White House press briefing that he expects the November elections will be fair and free, though he expressed concern about the possibility of violence.

“I don’t know whether it will be peaceful,” Biden said. “The things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time out, when he didn’t like the outcome of the election, were very dangerous.”

Biden criticized Vance for declining to say during this week’s vice presidential debate that he would accept the outcome of the election.

“They haven’t even accepted the outcome of the last election,” Biden said. “So I’m concerned about what they’re going to do.”

Trump has falsely claimed for years that he won the 2020 presidential election, despite multiple lawsuits failing in the court system due to a lack of evidence and numerous Republican officials saying there was no evidence of widespread fraud.

Special counsel Jack Smith is pursuing a case against Trump for attempting to overturn the results of the election that includes actions he took leading up to and during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The latest filing in that case, which included new details, was released this week.

Control of Congress

Democrats and Republicans are also focusing on the race for control of Congress during the final weeks of campaign season.

Republicans are projected to reclaim the Senate, most likely through picking up seats in West Virginia and Montana, with races in Michigan and Ohio ranked as toss-ups by the Cook Political Report with Amy Walters.

The House could also go either way, though Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has repeatedly said he expects to keep that chamber red and increase his razor-thin majority.

There are 26 toss-up races that will determine control of the House for the next two years, according to the Cook Political Report. The remaining 409 House districts are rated as either leaning, likely or solidly favoring Republicans or Democrats.

Which party controls the House and Senate will determine how much the next president can actually accomplish.

Leaders of the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said on a call Friday they are coordinating their efforts to boost Harris and Democratic candidates during the weeks ahead.

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, DSCC Chair Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan and DCCC Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington highlighted some of those efforts to mark nearly one month out from Nov. 5.

“I think we have probably one of the most coordinated efforts we’ve seen, at least in my memory, where three committees are working together to make sure that we use our resources as effectively and as efficiently as possible, to make sure that we win all across the board,” Peters said.

Harrison said party leaders were focused on dozens of races ranging from “the school board to the White House.”

“When I became the chair of the DNC, I committed to a 57-state-and-territory strategy,” Harrison said, adding that he’s proud to say “we’ve taken that commitment to the next levels, rounding out our mission, again, sending electoral investments to all 57 states and territories to bolster down-ballot races in a single cycle.”

A Thursday ruling in federal court in Missouri further hinders the administration’s efforts to promote its work on student loans ahead of the November election. (Photo by Getty Images)

The Biden administration was hit with the latest blow to its student debt relief efforts on Thursday after a federal judge in Missouri temporarily blocked the administration from putting in place a plan that would provide student debt relief to millions of borrowers.

The ruling further hinders the administration’s efforts to promote its work on student loans ahead of the November election and comes amid persistent Republican challenges to President Joe Biden’s student debt relief initiatives.

The administration, which unveiled the plans in April, said these efforts would provide student debt relief to more than 30 million borrowers. The proposals were never finalized.

In a September lawsuit, Missouri led Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota and Ohio in challenging the administration over the plan.

Their suit, filed in a Georgia federal court, came just days after a separate student debt relief effort — the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan — continued to be put on pause after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to lift a block on the plan in late August.

Following the September filing of the suit, U.S. District Judge J. Randal Hall of Georgia paused the plan through a temporary restraining order on Sept. 5 and extended that order on Sept. 19 while the case could be reviewed.

But on Wednesday, Hall let that order expire, dismissed Georgia from the suit and moved the case to a Missouri federal court.

Once the suit moved to Missouri and the restraining order was not extended, the remaining six states in the case quickly sought a preliminary injunction.

U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp granted the states’ request on Thursday, writing that the administration is barred from “mass canceling student loans, forgiving any principal or interest, not charging borrowers accrued interest, or further implementing any other actions under the (debt relief plans) or instructing federal contractors to take such actions.”

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey praised Schelp’s decision, saying in a Thursday post on X that it’s a “huge win for transparency, the rule of law, and for every American who won’t have to foot the bill for someone else’s Ivy League debt.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said the agency is “extremely disappointed by this ruling on our proposed debt relief rules, which have not yet even been finalized,” per a statement.

“This lawsuit was brought by Republican elected officials who made clear they will stop at nothing to prevent millions of their own constituents from getting breathing room on their student loans,” the spokesperson said.

The department will “continue to vigorously defend these proposals in court” and “will not stop fighting to fix the broken student loan system and provide support and relief to borrowers across the country,” they added.

The Student Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group, also lambasted the Missouri decision.

“With this case, the Missouri Attorney General continues to put naked political interest and corporate greed ahead of student loan borrowers in Missouri and across the country,” Persis Yu, deputy executive director and managing counsel for the advocacy group, said in a Thursday statement.

“This is a shameful attack on tens of millions of student loan borrowers and our judicial system as a whole,” Yu said. “We will not stop fighting to expose these abuses and ensure borrowers get the relief they deserve.”

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have widely divergent views on education. In this photo, students are shown in a classroom. (Photo by Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images)

This is one in a series of States Newsroom reports on the major policy issues in the presidential race.

As former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris sprint to the November finish line, one sprawling policy area has largely fallen out of the spotlight — education.

Though the respective GOP and Democratic presidential candidates have spent comparatively more time campaigning on issues such as immigration, foreign policy and the economy, their ideas surrounding K-12 and higher education vastly differ.

Trump’s education platform vows to “save American education,” with a focus on parental rights, universal school choice and a fight for “patriotic education” in schools.

“By increasing access to school choice, empowering parents to have a voice in their child’s education, and supporting good teachers, President Trump will improve academic excellence for all students,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary, said in a statement to States Newsroom.

Trump “believes students should be taught reading, writing, and math in the classroom — not gender, sex and race like the Biden Administration is pushing on our public school system,” Leavitt added.

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign has largely focused on the education investments brought by the Biden-Harris administration and building on those efforts if she is elected.

“Over the past four years, the Administration has made unprecedented investments in education, including the single-largest investment in K-12 education in history, which Vice President Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to pass,” Mia Ehrenberg, a campaign spokesperson, told States Newsroom.

Ehrenberg said that while Harris and her running mate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, “will build on those investments and continue fighting until every student has the support and the resources they need to thrive, Republicans led by Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda want to cut billions from local K-12 schools and eliminate the Department of Education, undermining America’s students and schools.”

Harris has repeatedly knocked the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 — a sweeping conservative agenda that includes education policy proposals like eliminating Head Start, ending time-based and occupation-based student loan forgiveness and barring teachers from using a student’s preferred pronouns different from their “biological sex” without written permission from a parent or guardian.

Trump has fiercely disavowed Project 2025, although some former members of his administration crafted the blueprint.

Closing the U.S. Department of Education

Trump has called for shutting down the U.S. Department of Education and said he wants to “move education back to the states.” The department is not the main funding source for K-12 schools, as state and local governments allocate much of those dollars.

In contrast, Harris said at the Democratic National Convention in August that “we are not going to let him eliminate the Department of Education that funds our public schools.”

Living wage for school staff; parental bill of rights

Trump’s education plan calls for creating a “new credentialing body to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values, and understand that their job is not to indoctrinate children, but to educate them.”

He also wants to implement funding boosts for schools that “abolish teacher tenure” for grades K-12 and adopt “merit pay,” establish the direct election of school principals by parents and “drastically cut” the number of school administrators.

In contrast, the Democratic Party’s 2024 platform calls for recruiting “more new teachers, paraprofessionals and school related personnel, and education support professionals, with the option for some to even start training in high school.”

The platform also aims to help “school-support staff to advance in their own careers with a living wage” and improve working conditions for teachers.

Trump also wants to give funding boosts to schools that adopt a “Parental Bill of Rights that includes complete curriculum transparency, and a form of universal school choice.”

He’s threatening to cut federal funding for schools that teach the primarily collegiate academic subject known as “critical race theory,” gender ideology or “other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”

The Democrats’ platform opposes “the use of private-school vouchers, tuition tax credits, opportunity scholarships, and other schemes that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from public education,” adding that “public tax dollars should never be used to discriminate.”

Title IX?

Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris administration released a final rule for Title IX extending federal protections for LGBTQ+ students.

The updated regulations took effect Aug. 1, but a slew of GOP-led states challenged the measure. The legal battles have created a policy patchwork and weakened the administration’s vision for the final rule.

The updated regulations roll back Title IX changes made under the Trump administration and then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Trump vowed to terminate the updated regulations on his first day back in office if reelected.

Student debt and higher education?

Harris has repeatedly touted the administration’s record on student loan forgiveness, including nearly $170 billion in student debt relief for almost 5 million borrowers.

The administration’s most recent student loan repayment initiative came to a grinding halt in August after the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan.

Although little is mentioned about education in Harris’ extensive economic plan, the proposal makes clear that the veep will “continue working to end the unreasonable burden of student loan debt and fight to make higher education more affordable, so that college can be a ticket to the middle class.”

She also plans to cut four-year degree requirements for half a million federal jobs.

Trump — who dubbed the Biden-Harris administration’s student loan forgiveness efforts as “not even legal” — sought to repeal the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program during his administration.

His education platform also calls for endowing the “American Academy,” a free, online university.

Trump said he will endow the new institution through the “billions and billions of dollars that we will collect by taxing, fining, and suing excessively large private university endowments.”

Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on stage during the final day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on Aug. 22, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney will campaign with Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday in Ripon, Wisconsin — the birthplace of the Republican Party.

As Nov. 5 rapidly approaches, the Democratic presidential nominee continues to rack up support from prominent Republicans as she and former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, battle it out for the Oval Office in a tight contest.

Thursday’s campaign event also coincides with two dozen Wisconsin Republicans endorsing the veep in an open letter.

“We, the undersigned, are Republicans from across Wisconsin who bring the same message: Donald Trump does not align with Wisconsin values,” they wrote. The group included a sitting GOP district attorney for the Badger State’s Buffalo County as well as everyday Wisconsinites, former state lawmakers and elected officials.

“To ensure our democracy and our economy remain strong for another four years, we must elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to the White House,” the letter said, adding that the choice for Republicans in November is “a choice between the Wisconsin values of freedom, democracy, and decency that Vice President Harris and Governor Walz represent, and Donald Trump’s complete lack of character, divisive rhetoric, and extremism.”

Wisconsin is a critical swing state that’s flipped between red and blue in recent elections — with Biden narrowly winning in 2020 after Trump secured a GOP victory in 2016.

Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, endorsed Harris last month, saying: “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this, and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”

Cheney — a vocal Trump critic? — served as vice chair of the U.S. House Jan. 6 committee tasked with investigating the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

She lost her reelection bid for Wyoming’s lone House seat to Harriet Hageman in 2022 during the state’s GOP primary.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, father of Liz Cheney, also said he would vote for Harris. The prominent GOP figure served as veep during the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2009.

More GOP endorsements

Harris has received endorsements from over 230 Bush-McCain-Romney alums and more than 100 Republican national security officials, per the Harris campaign, a backing they describe as a “historic GOP mobilization for Harris.”

Part of the growing group of Republicans backing Harris includes Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump.

During an interview on MSNBC Wednesday night, Hutchinson said she’s “really proud, as a conservative, to have the opportunity to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in this election.”

Hutchinson also disclosed that she’ll be voting for Democrats in the House and Senate, saying she thinks it’s “so important that we get past this period of Donald Trump for America to begin healing.”

Trump in Michigan

Meanwhile, Trump is also heavily campaigning in swing states. He was set to hold a Thursday afternoon rally in Saginaw, Michigan.

The Democratic National Committee released multiple billboards in Michigan ahead of his rally, with a focus on Trump and his running mate, Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance, continuing to deny the 2020 election results.

During Tuesday’s vice presidential debate between Vance and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vance circumvented a question on whether Trump lost the 2020 election, saying he, himself, is “focused on the future.”

Walz, who posed the question to Vance, called his response a “damning non-answer.”

A version of the DNC billboard is also set to debut in the coming days in Wisconsin and North Carolina to coincide with Trump’s upcoming rallies in those swing states.

A sign reminding people to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — better known as FAFSA — appears on a bus near Union Station in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education is launching the first testing period for its phased rollout of the 2025-26 form to apply for federal financial student aid on Tuesday, with more students set to partake in this beginning testing stage than initially expected.

The department announced in August it would be using a staggered approach to launch the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid — or FAFSA — in order to address any issues that might arise before the form opens up to everyone by Dec. 1. The number of students able to complete the form will gradually increase throughout four separate testing stages, with the first one beginning Oct. 1.

The phased rollout makes the form fully available two months later than usual and comes as the 2024-25 form — which got a makeover after Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in late 2020 — faced a series of highly publicized hiccups that the department has worked to fix.

Earlier in September, the department announced six community-based organizations chosen to participate in the first testing period: Alabama Possible; Bridge 2 Life, in Florida; College AIM, in Georgia; Education is Freedom, in Texas; the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara, in California; and the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria, in Virginia.

“Thanks to the wonderful organizations, we expect closer to 1,000 students in Beta 1 as opposed to the 100 we initially thought,” FAFSA executive adviser Jeremy Singer said on a call with reporters Monday regarding the 2025-26 form.

During this first testing stage, U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal said the department will process students’ FAFSAs, “give students an opportunity to make corrections, if needed, and send the records to colleges and state agencies.”

“Colleges will be able to use these same records when it’s time for them to make financial aid offers,” said Kvaal, who oversees higher education and financial aid, including the Office of Federal Student Aid.

Three more testing periods

The department on Monday also named 78 community-based organizations, governmental entities, high schools, school districts and institutions of higher education to participate in its three subsequent testing periods for the 2025-26 form. The Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority will participate in the 2025-26 testing periods.

Three of the community-based organizations chosen to take part in the first testing period — Florida’s Bridge 2 Life; Texas’ Education is Freedom; and Virginia’s? Scholarship Fund of Alexandria — will also participate in subsequent testing stages.

To help students and families prepare for the 2025-26 application cycle, the department said this week it’s releasing a revised Federal Student Aid Estimator, updated resources for creating a StudentAid.Gov account, including a “parent wizard,” as well as an updated prototype of the 2025-26 FAFSA.

Last week, the department released a report outlining 10 steps it’s taking to improve the FAFSA application process. Part of those efforts include the department strengthening its leadership team and working to address issues for families without Social Security numbers when completing the form, in addition to vendors adding more than 700 new call center agents.

Vice President and Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris speaks at an event hosted by The Economic Club of Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University on Sept. 25, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During the speech, Harris gave details about her economic platform, including ways to support small businesses and making home ownership more attainable, among other policy proposals. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

The Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, laid out more of her economic vision Wednesday during her first one-on-one cable TV interview.

Harris and former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, are laying out dueling economic agendas this week as the two vie for the Oval Office in an extremely close race.

“I really love and am so energized by what I know to be the spirit and character of the American people — we have ambition, we have aspirations, we have dreams, we can see what’s possible, we have an incredible work ethic, but not everyone has the access to the opportunities that allow them to achieve those things, but we don’t lack for those things, but not everyone gets handed stuff on a silver platter,” Harris told MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle.

“My vision for the economy — I call it an opportunity economy — is about making sure that all Americans — wherever they start, wherever they are — have the ability to actually achieve those dreams and those ambitions, which include, for middle-class families, just being able to know that their hard work allows them to get ahead,” she said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Harris touted her economic plans in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at Carnegie Mellon University. During her MSNBC interview later in the day, she reiterated her plan to cut taxes for more than 100 million Americans, including $6,000 in tax relief for new parents in the first year of their child’s life.

In that first year, Harris said these parents are going to “need help buying a crib, buying a car seat, and we all benefit when they’re actually able to do what they naturally want to do to take care of their child.”

Part of her economic agenda also includes as much as $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers and an up to $50,000 tax break for first-time small businesses.

She also took jabs at Trump when it comes to the economy, saying he’s “just not very serious about how he thinks about some of these issues.”

The Trump campaign clapped back at her MSNBC appearance on Wednesday, saying “it was (another) reminder why she never does interviews,” and that she’s “not competent enough — and she has no plans to offer Americans.”

Trump pitched his economic plan earlier this week in Georgia, part of which includes levying tariffs on exported goods, and he vowed to place a 100% tariff on cars imported from Mexico.

Harris to visit southern border?

Harris also touched on immigration, telling Ruhle “we do have a broken immigration system, and it needs to be fixed.”

She also said she would bring back and sign into law a major bipartisan border security bill from earlier this year while pinning its legislative failure on Trump.

“He killed a bill that would have actually been a solution because he wants to run on a problem instead of fixing the problem, and that’s part of what needs to be addressed,” Harris said.

The veep is set to visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday for the first time since becoming the Democratic nominee. Her Douglas, Arizona, visit comes as she’s faced repeated criticism and backlash from both sides of the aisle for her efforts surrounding immigration.

In a Truth Social post earlier this week regarding her upcoming visit, Trump again dubbed Harris a “border czar,” saying “what a disgrace that she waited so long, allowing millions of people to enter our Country from prisons, mental institutions, and criminal cells all over the World, not just South America, many of those coming are terrorists, and at a level never seen before!”

President Joe Biden tapped Harris back in 2021 to help address the “root causes” of migration in Central America, but he did not give her the title of “border czar.” The Department of Homeland Security is in charge of border security.

What’s next for Harris, Trump campaigns

Harris was set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday afternoon.

The meeting between the two leaders “serves as a reminder that the Vice President has been a champion for the United States, advancing our security and prosperity on the world stage and standing up to dictators and autocrats,” her campaign said in a Thursday press release.

This will be her seventh meeting with Zelenskyy, according to her campaign, which noted that as vice president, “she helped rally a global coalition of 50 allies and partners to help Ukraine defend itself.”

Trump is set to deliver remarks in Walker, Michigan, on Friday. Later in the day, he will also host a town hall in Warren, Michigan.

And in the thick of the college football season, Trump is set to attend the Alabama-Georgia football game on Saturday in Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama confirmed to States Newsroom last week.

Harris’ running mate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is set to attend the Michigan-Minnesota football game Saturday in Ann Arbor, the Harris-Walz campaign announced.

He’s also slated to campaign there and will “speak with students about the power of their vote and the importance of registering to vote ahead of the November election,” per the announcement.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, is slated to speak in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5 at the site of the first assassination attempt against him, his campaign announced Wednesday.

Trump will return to the Butler Farm Show, where a 20-year-old shooter killed one rallygoer, injured two others and shot Trump’s ear on July 13. A Secret Service sniper killed the shooter. The attack prompted a slew of federal probes as well as a bipartisan congressional task force to investigate.

The imminent rally also comes as authorities investigate a second suspected assassination attempt against Trump. On Tuesday, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh with attempting to kill Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks regarding the former president’s security. At a press briefing last week, the federal agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that it failed to protect Trump during the Butler rally.

Days after the first assassination attempt, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he would “be going back to Butler, Pennsylvania, for a big and beautiful rally, honoring the soul of our beloved firefighting hero, Corey, and those brave patriots injured,” adding “what a day it will be — fight, fight, fight!”

The Trump campaign said the former president will “honor the memory of Corey Comperatore, who heroically sacrificed his life to shield his wife and daughters from the bullets on that terrible day,” per the Wednesday announcement.

Trump is also set to recognize the two rallygoers who were wounded in the shooting: David Dutch and James Copenhaver.

Trump will also “express his deep gratitude to law enforcement and first responders, and thank the entire community for their outpouring of love and support in the wake of the attack,” his campaign added.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks before prominent Jewish donors at an event titled “Fighting Anti-Semitism in America” in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 19. Calling himself the greatest president for Jews in history, Trump said that if he does not win in November, Israel will be “eradicated” within two years. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump said Thursday night that if he loses the election in November to Vice President Kamala Harris, Jewish voters “would really have a lot to do with that.”

As the first anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel nears and the war in Gaza continues, the GOP presidential nominee spoke at back-to-back events in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, where he promised Jewish Americans that with their vote, he would be their protector, defender and “the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House.”

He and Harris, the Democratic candidate, are vying for the Oval Office in a close race that is just 46 days away and in which early in-person voting has already kicked off in multiple states.

“The current polling has me with Jewish citizens, Jewish people — people that are supposed to love Israel — after having done all that, having been the best president, the greatest president by far … a poll just came out, I’m at 40%,” Trump said at an event with Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson on combating antisemitism in America.

“That means you got 60% voting for somebody that hates Israel, and I say it — it’s gonna happen,” he said. “It’s only because of the Democrat hold, or curse, on you.”

During the presidential debate earlier this month, Harris echoed her commitment to giving Israel the right to defend itself and said “we must chart a course for a two-state solution, and in that solution, there must be security for the Israeli people and Israel and an equal measure for the Palestinians.”

She called for an immediate end to the war, saying “the way it will end is we need a cease-fire deal, and we need the hostages out.”

Trump also addressed the Israeli-American Council National Summit, where he said Israel would face “total annihilation” if Harris is elected. At the earlier event, he said any Jewish person who votes for Harris or any Democrat, “should have their head examined.”

Trump also committed to combating antisemitism at universities across the country, saying that if reelected, during his first week in office his administration would inform every college president that if they don’t “end antisemitic propaganda,” they will lose their accreditation and all federal support.

Harris ad ties Trump to N.C.’s Robinson

Trump made no mention Thursday of North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson,? the state’s Republican gubernatorial nominee. The Trump ally vowed to stay in the race following a scathing CNN investigation published Thursday.

Part of the bombshell CNN report included Robinson referring to himself as a “black NAZI” and writing that “slavery is not bad” in messages posted on pornographic forums in 2010.

The North Carolina Republican, who has a history of making controversial remarks, has become an issue in the presidential race in the crucial swing state.

Trump is set to speak at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday regarding the CNN investigation.

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign launched a TV ad in North Carolina on Friday that seeks to tie the former president to Robinson. Part of the 30-second ad includes Trump saying Robinson has been an “unbelievable lieutenant governor” and that he’s “gotten to know him” and “(Robinson) is outstanding.”

Per the Harris campaign, the ad also seeks to highlight Robinson’s “extreme anti-abortion views.”

Harris addresses reproductive rights

The ad announcement came ahead of Harris’ Friday remarks in Georgia, where she repeated her commitment to reproductive freedom in response to a recent ProPublica investigation linking the state’s restrictive abortion law to the deaths of two Georgia women — Amber Thurman and Candi Miller.

As abortion bans delay emergency medical care, this Georgia mother’s death was preventable

Harris also highlighted the repercussions of “Trump abortion bans” following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade, which ended the constitutional right to abortion after nearly half a century. Trump appointed three of the five U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe.

“Now we know that at least two women — and those are only the stories we know — here in the state of Georgia, died because of a Trump abortion ban,” Harris said.

The mother and sisters of Thurman attended a livestreamed event Thursday night in Michigan, where Harris joined Oprah Winfrey.

Harris also made headlines at Thursday’s event when, reiterating she is a gun owner, said that if somebody were to break into her house, “they’re getting shot.” Laughing, the vice president said she “probably should not have said that” and her staff will “deal with that later.”

The Democratic presidential nominee said Thursday she’s in favor of the Second Amendment, but also supported assault weapons bans, universal background checks and red flag laws, calling them “just common sense.”

Harris is also set to speak at a campaign rally Friday night in Madison, Wisconsin.

Trump to attend Alabama-Georgia game?

Trump plans to attend the Alabama-Georgia football game in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 28, the University of Alabama confirmed to States Newsroom.

Security for the former president has been under intense scrutiny, especially after what’s being investigated as the second assassination attempt against Trump in recent weeks.

The university said “the safety of our campus is and will remain our top priority, and UAPD will work closely with the U.S. Secret Service and other law enforcement partners to coordinate security.”

The Secret Service acknowledged Friday that it failed to protect the former president during a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which was the site of the first assassination attempt.

Control of Congress

As the presidential race remains a tight contest, so do races that will determine control of each chamber of Congress.

The Senate map favors Republicans, with several seats now held by Democrats in play. Democrats would likely need to sweep the elections in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and win the presidential race — to keep control of the chamber.

Elections forecasters consider the House more of a toss-up, with nearly 40 races likely to determine which party controls the chamber.

Rice-Eccles Stadium on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City is pictured on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)

WASHINGTON — A GOP measure barring accrediting organizations from requiring colleges and universities to adopt diversity, equity and inclusion policies as a condition of accreditation passed the U.S. House Thursday, though its fate appears dim.

The End Woke Higher Education Act — which succeeded 213-201 — marks one of several so-called anti-woke initiatives and messaging bills from Republican lawmakers to hit the House floor this week.

The higher education measure, which drew fierce opposition from the Biden administration and major associations of colleges and universities, came amid a looming government shutdown deadline and in the heat of the 2024 campaign.

Four House Democrats voted in favor of the GOP measure, including Reps. Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Mary Peltola of Alaska and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington.

Baked into the legislation are two bills introduced by Republican members of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce — the Accreditation for College Excellence Act and the Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act.

Utah Rep. Burgess Owens, chairman of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, introduced the Accreditation for College Excellence Act in May 2023, while New York Rep. Brandon Williams brought forth the Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act in March.

In a statement to States Newsroom, Owens said “House Republicans passed the End Woke Higher Education Act to stand up for academic freedom, defend students’ constitutional rights, and ensure that colleges and universities aren’t forced to bend the knee to activist accreditors pushing political agendas as a condition for federal funding.”

The Utah Republican said the “Biden-Harris administration has injected its far-left ideology — Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Critical Race Theory — into every part of American life, including our higher education system.”

Owens’ bill says accreditation standards must not require, encourage or coerce institutions to support or oppose “a specific partisan, political, or ideological viewpoint or belief” or “set of viewpoints or beliefs on social, cultural, or political issues” or support “the disparate treatment of any individual or group of individuals.”

Meanwhile, Williams’ Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act forces schools to disclose policies regarding free speech to students and faculty as a condition of receiving any Title IV funds.

Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 includes federal student financial aid programs.

Strong opposition?

But the legislation is highly unlikely to be passed in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The Biden administration also strongly opposed the measure, saying in a statement this week that the legislation would “micromanage both public and private institutions, undermining their ability to recognize and promote diversity.”

The legislation “would go beyond Congress’s traditional role in higher education with a wide range of confusing and unprecedented new mandates,” the administration added.

Rep. Bobby Scott — ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce — called the measure a “baseless attempt to inject culture wars into an ever-important accreditation process” during the floor debate Thursday.

The Virginia Democrat said the legislation “attempts to circumvent the First Amendment to establish a whole new scheme to regulate speech and association rights on campus outside of established precedents and practices.”

The GOP measure also drew the ire of leading associations of colleges and universities, who opposed the legislation both individually and collectively.
In a joint letter this week to House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, six major associations led by the American Council on Education took aim at Williams’ portion of the legislation, saying it “would undermine efforts to protect free speech on campus and provide safe learning environments free from discrimination.”

A U.S. Senate panel examined issues in private student lending Tuesday. (Photo illustration via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — As private student loan companies take heat over accusations of predatory behavior and deception, members of a U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs panel and student advocates voiced concerns over the industry at a hearing Tuesday.

The Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection hearing came as the broader student debt crisis impacts millions, with more than $1.74 trillion in outstanding student loans as of the second quarter of 2024, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Subcommittee Chairman Raphael Warnock said he and his staff analyzed some of the myriad complaints the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau received related to private student loans and federal student loan servicing in roughly the last year and were “struck by the sheer scope and magnitude of the problem.”

“Private lenders and servicers routinely misled or deceived borrowers, and the stories are frustrating and heartbreaking,” the Georgia Democrat said.

Some borrowers have found loans offered by private lenders to be extraordinary burdens, Aissa Canchola Ba?ez, policy director at the Student Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group, told the panel.

“Student loans were supposed to grant all families — regardless of race and economic status — the chance to unlock the promise of a higher education,” she said.

“But for too many, student debt has become a life sentence, holding borrowers back from buying a home, starting a small business and even starting or growing a family,” Canchola Ba?ez said.

Canchola Ba?ez said “the absence of comprehensive data in the private student loan space has too often left borrowers, policymakers and advocates in the dark” and that “this has allowed for significant gaps in protections for the millions of Americans forced to take on private student loan debt and has made it harder for policymakers and law enforcement officials to protect borrowers.”

Dalié Jiménez, a law professor and director of the Student Loan Law Initiative at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, said the private student loan industry had transformed in the last decade.

“New financial products have emerged, offering alternatives to traditional loans, but they’ve come with added risks that we’re only beginning to understand,” Jiménez said, adding that “many are offered by schools that provide dubious value in return for costly credit.”

Troubled industry

Major student loan servicers, such as Navient, have been at the center of legal issues and scrutiny in recent years. Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reached a $120 million settlement with Navient that bans the company from federal student loan servicing.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and member of the subcommittee, has led investigations into Navient for nearly a decade.

Warren said Tuesday that “Republican extremists want to return to the days where borrowers were just at the mercy of predatory servicers like Navient” and that “the Biden-Harris administration has a different vision.”

Warren added that it’s “long past time for Navient to do the right thing by their countless defrauded borrowers and cancel out these loans for the private student loan borrowers as well.”

On the other side of the aisle, GOP Sen. Cynthia Lummis defended the industry’s basic mission.

“While individual cases of malfeasance certainly exist in the private loan market — as they do in any market — private lenders fill a crucial gap in higher education financing and equip borrowers with the tools to meet the barriers to education in place today,” Lummis said.

Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, also noted that the private student loan market only accounts for 8% of outstanding loans and that the vast majority of loans are federal loans.

Beth Akers, senior fellow at the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, pointed out that while “private student loan origination and servicing, both for federal and private loans, hasn’t been perfect” and “lending institutions and those that service loans are fallible,” these private entities supporting student lending “don’t deserve the ire of lawmakers looking for a quick fix or even a scapegoat for what is happening more broadly in student lending.”

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks onstage during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 53rd Annual Legislative Conference Annual Phoenix Awards Dinner at Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Sept. 14, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Congressional Black Caucus Foundation)

WASHINGTON —? Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, warned members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Saturday that its vision is “under profound threat.”

Harris, alongside President Joe Biden, cautioned the crowd on what’s at stake if the GOP presidential nominee — former President Donald Trump — takes back the White House in November during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C.

The gala followed a series of events during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual legislative conference this week. According to a pool report, about 3,500 people were in attendance at the dinner at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

“The CBC has always had a vision for the future of our nation, a future where we can see what is possible, unburdened by what has been, a future where we fulfill the promise of America, a promise of freedom, opportunity and justice, not just for some, but for all,” Harris said.

“While we moved and fight to move our nation forward toward a brighter future, Donald Trump and his extremist allies intend to take our nation backward,” she said, adding that “they will give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations, cut Social Security and Medicare and end the Affordable Care Act, which the CBC fought so hard to pass — but we are not going back.”

Harris — who now has the chance to become the first woman president, the second Black president and the first president of South Asian descent — was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus while she served as a member of the U.S. Senate from California.

After Biden passed the torch to Harris following his disastrous debate performance in late June, the veep has conducted an unprecedented and expedited campaign as she and Trump vie for the Oval Office.

“Let’s be clear: there are old ghosts with new garments trying to seize your power and extremists coming for your freedom, making it harder for you to vote and have your vote counted, closing doors of opportunity, attacking affirmative action and the value of diversity, equity and inclusion — banning books, erasing history,” Biden said Saturday.

The president received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award ahead of his remarks. He was praised by Rep. Terri Sewell, an Alabama Democrat and the chair of the board of directors of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and Rep. Steven Horsford, a Nevada Democrat and the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The White House hosted its first-ever brunch in celebration of Black Excellence on Friday, where Biden underscored some of the efforts of his administration in aiming to advance opportunities and equity for Black communities.

Biden on Saturday again denounced the attacks against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, saying “it’s wrong” and “it’s got to stop.”

He added that “any president should reject hate in America” and “not incite it.”

On the other side of the presidential campaign aisle, Trump has been demonizing immigrants, most recently at a rally in Las Vegas on Friday night. He’s made false and baseless claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, and Venezuelan gangs in Aurora, Colorado, while threatening mass deportations if he wins another term.

At a press conference in California on Friday, Trump promised that, if elected, he would carry out the “largest deportation in the history of our country” — and that it would “start with Springfield and Aurora.”

Actress and film producer Marsai Martin delivers remarks during a brunch held to celebrate Black Excellence on the South Lawn of the White House on Sept. 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. President Biden hosted the brunch during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual Legislative Conference this week to recognize achievements in the Black community. At right is Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young. (Photo by Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, in the last months of his four-year term, detailed his administration’s efforts in seeking to advance opportunities and equity for Black communities on Friday during the White House’s first-ever brunch in celebration of Black Excellence.

The event came as the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation hosted its annual legislative conference this week in Washington, D.C.

“Today, we honor this simple truth: Black history is American history, Black excellence is American excellence, and folks, we don’t erase history like others are trying to — we make history,” Biden said to a crowd on the South Lawn that included members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other Black leaders.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre; Trell Thomas, founder of Black Excellence Brunch; Marsai Martin, an actress and producer; and Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, gave brief remarks ahead of Biden.

“I know it because I’ve seen it. I’ve been vice president to the first Black president in American history, a president to the first Black vice president — and God willing, to the first female Black president in American history,” Biden added.

Biden — who originally sought a second term — passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris in mid-July following his disastrous debate performance in June against the Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump.

Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, now has the chance to become the first woman to serve as president, the first Black woman president, and the first president of South Asian descent.

Biden also underscored some of the administration’s key efforts in regard to Black communities, such as achieving the lowest Black unemployment rate on record. As of August, the administration has created 2.4 million jobs for Black workers, according to a White House fact sheet.

He also emphasized the administration’s efforts to ensure that more Black Americans have health care than ever before. The White House says it’s done so by “lowering premium costs by an average of $800 for millions of Americans, increasing Black enrollment in Affordable Care Act coverage by 95%, or over 1.7 million people since 2020,” per the fact sheet.

Biden added that “on this very lawn, in front of the White House built by enslaved people, we hosted the first-ever Juneteenth concert after I made Juneteenth a federal holiday, and on this lawn, we celebrated the first Black woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, the best decision I made: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.”

He also condemned racism toward Haitian migrants to the U.S., saying the community is “under attack in our country right now” and calling it “simply wrong.” Conspiracy theories about migrants and bomb threats continue to rock Springfield, Ohio.

Trump at Tuesday’s presidential debate hosted by ABC News amplified false claims about Haitian migrants there, saying: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” adding that “they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

Appearing to allude to Trump, Biden added that “there’s no place in America. This has to stop, what he’s doing. It has to stop.”

Meanwhile, Biden and Harris are both slated to speak at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards Dinner Saturday in Washington, D.C.

The Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program, known as Summer EBT, popped up in 37 states, the District of Columbia and multiple territories and tribal nations this year and is intended to feed hungry kids. (Stock photo by Inti St. Clair/Getty Photos)

A U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative to feed hungry kids during the long summer months is mostly winding down, with advocates calling it a success despite some hiccups — and the federal government and many states are already working to bring the program back in 2025.

The Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program — or Summer EBT — has popped up in 37 states, the District of Columbia and multiple territories and tribal nations this year. Advocates say that despite the program’s fair share of challenges, especially given its first year of implementation, the program emerged as an important resource in the fight against kids’ summer hunger.

Summer EBT, also known as SUN Bucks, provides low-income families with school-aged children a grocery-buying benefit of $120 per child. Children are automatically enrolled in Summer EBT if already enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known as TANF; or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, per the USDA.

Students might also be automatically enrolled if their school offers the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program and their family qualifies for free or reduced-price school meals, according to the USDA. Most states’ deadlines to apply for the benefit this summer have already passed, and many have already issued the benefit for the summer months.

Allan Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the USDA, said it’s too early to say just how many children have been served through the program so far this summer, but based on the participating states, territories and tribes, an estimated 21 million children are eligible to receive the benefits.

‘Critical support to families’

Kelsey Boone, senior child nutrition policy analyst at the Food Research & Action Center, told States Newsroom that “like any new program, there are challenges with Summer EBT.”

The national nonprofit works to reduce poverty-related hunger through research, advocacy and policy solutions.

“That has included tight implementation timelines, logistical complexities and the need to raise awareness among eligible families,” Boone said.

Despite those challenges, Boone said the program is “definitely worth it” and “provides critical support to families by ensuring children have access to nutritious foods during the summer months, bridging the gap when school meals are unavailable.”

Boone said “we are still in the midst of implementation, so there aren’t hard statistics on how the programs are really rolling out at this point.”

She added that “some states have had to return to USDA and ask for … higher amounts of benefits, and that is due to the fact that they are streamline certifying, or automatically giving benefits to more students than they expected, and that is a very big positive for the streamlined certification process.”

Boone noted that some states have been delayed in issuing the benefits, “which means some families will not be receiving benefits until September or even October or November.”

Still, Boone said that despite the importance of receiving the benefits during crucial summer months when school meal programs are not an option, “it is also going to be helpful no matter what.”

Over a dozen states opted out??

But 13 states — all with Republican governors — chose not to partake in the program this year, including Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. Multiple tribal nations in Oklahoma are participating despite the state opting out.

Rodriguez said the department expects that even more states and tribes will provide SUN Bucks next year.

States have until Jan. 1 to submit a notice of intent if they plan to participate in Summer EBT for 2025, according to the USDA. Alabama has already allocated millions of dollars in funding for the program next summer.

“We recognize that standing up a new program in a very short time period is no easy task,” Rodriguez said, adding that “potential challenges may include making systems changes, identifying sufficient staff, and securing financial resources to cover program administration, particularly (states’) responsibility for covering 50% of the administrative costs associated with operating the program.”

The USDA “is committed to working closely with all states, U.S. territories, and eligible tribes to support our shared goal of ensuring children have access to critical nutrition in the?summer?months through SUN Bucks,” Rodriguez added.

Justin King, policy director at Propel — a financial technology company helping low-income Americans track Electronic Benefit Transfer balances, like Summer EBT, through an app — said “there’s a lot of frustration and disappointment among folks who feel left out because their state has chosen not to participate this year.”

The company, which has partnered with the Biden administration, serves more than 5 million households each month.

King said “the big takeaway from looking at Summer EBT is that while there might be inevitable hiccups and challenges, Summer EBT can work, and it does make a difference for the households that it serves.”

“The comments that we’ve gotten from households who’ve received the benefit this year are overwhelmingly positive about it making a real difference in their ability to keep their kids healthy and fed in summertime.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, will debate Sept. 10 in Philadelphia. (Getty stock photo)

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will take the stage next week in the only planned debate between the respective Democratic and GOP presidential candidates between now and November.

It’s the first presidential debate since President Joe Biden bowed out of the race following his own disastrous debate performance in late June against Trump. Biden, who faced mounting calls to resign, passed the torch to Harris back in July.

The veep has embarked on an unprecedented and expedited campaign as she and Trump vie for the Oval Office. The election is just two months away.

Though the Harris and Trump campaigns clashed over debate procedures in recent weeks, both candidates have agreed to the finalized rules. ABC News, host of the debate, released the rules Wednesday.

When and where is the debate??

The debate will be Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 9 p.m. Eastern time at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The debate will be 90 minutes long and include two commercial breaks, according to ABC.

The Keystone State — where both Harris and Trump have spent a lot of time campaigning — could determine the outcome of the presidential election. The battleground state has narrowly flip-flopped in recent elections, with Biden turning Pennsylvania blue in 2020 after Trump secured a red win in 2016.

How can I watch the debate??

The debate will air live on ABC News and will also be streaming on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.

ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate the debate.

Harris and Trump will each have two minutes to answer questions and two minutes to give rebuttals. They will also be granted one additional minute to clarify or follow up on anything.

Will the mics be muted??

Microphones will be muted when it’s not a candidate’s turn to speak, just like the previous debate between Biden and Trump in June.

The candidates will not give opening statements. Trump won a coin flip to determine the order of closing statements and podium placement. Trump, who selected the statement order, will give the final closing statement.

Each closing statement will be two minutes long.

Harris and Trump are not allowed to bring any props or prewritten notes to the debate stage. They will each receive a pen, a pad of paper and a water bottle.

Will there be a live audience??

There will be no live audience at the National Constitution Center, as was the case in the last presidential debate.

Harris and Trump are not permitted to interact with their campaign staff during the two commercial breaks.

Trump slams ABC ahead of debate

Trump went on the attack over the details of the debate, telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity during an interview Wednesday in Pennsylvania that “ABC is the worst network in terms of fairness” and “the most dishonest network, the meanest, the nastiest.”

He accused the network of releasing poor polls on purpose ahead of a previous election to drive down voter turnout.

Trump also claimed, without evidence, that Harris would get the questions in advance of the debate. ABC’s debate rules state that no candidates or campaigns will receive any topics or questions ahead of the event.

Meanwhile, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance will battle it out at the vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1 in New York City.

The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan provided lower monthly loan payments for borrowers and lessened the time it takes to pay off their debt. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday slashed the Biden administration’s latest efforts to provide student debt relief to millions of borrowers to go forward while the appeals process unfolds.

The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan provided lower monthly loan payments for borrowers and lessened the time it takes to pay off their debt. The program came shortly after the Supreme Court struck down an earlier student loan forgiveness plan from the administration in June 2023 that would have canceled more than $400 billion in debt.

But the SAVE plan was quickly met with a wave of legal challenges from a coalition of GOP-led states in two lawsuits stemming from Missouri and Kansas.

Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma filed a federal lawsuit alongside Missouri in April against the administration over the plan.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed an August ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit that temporarily halted the plan to remain in effect. The appellate decision followed a federal judge in Missouri issuing a preliminary injunction blocking the plan in late June.

In its decision, the nation’s highest court said it expects the 8th Circuit to “render its decision with appropriate dispatch.”

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey praised the Supreme Court’s decision in a statement Wednesday, calling it a “huge win for every American who still believes in paying their own way.”

On the other hand, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education said “we are disappointed in this decision, particularly because lifting the injunction would have allowed for lower payments and other benefits for borrowers across the country,” per a statement shared with States Newsroom.

The spokesperson said the department “will work to minimize further harm and disruption to borrowers as we await a final decision from the Eighth Circuit,” adding that “the Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to supporting borrowers and will continue to fight for the most affordable repayment options for millions of people across the country.”

In a statement, Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, said “in rejecting this appeal, the Supreme Court perpetuates the 8th Circuit’s bogus legal fiction that pausing affordable payments is ‘preserving the status quo.’”

“This is ludicrous. Millions of people were repaying their student loans. Now they are in limbo,” Pierce added.

Meanwhile, Kansas, Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and Utah also filed a lawsuit over the plan in March.

A federal judge in Kansas dismissed eight of those states — allowing only Alaska, South Carolina and Texas to move forward with their challenge — and issued a preliminary injunction.

In late June, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit allowed parts of the SAVE plan to go forward — forcing Alaska, South Carolina and Texas to file an emergency request to the Supreme Court to vacate the stay.

But the Supreme Court rejected this attempt from the states’ attorneys general on Wednesday, saying that “applicants represent that they do not require emergency relief from this Court as long as the Eighth Circuit’s injunction … is in place.”

Close up of federal financial aid application. (Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — With the U.S. Department of Education using a staggered approach in opening up the 2025-26 application period for federal financial student aid, the agency said Tuesday it will partner with a small number of community-based organizations to participate in the first testing period beginning Oct. 1.

Earlier in August, the department said it would use a phased rollout to launch the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — more commonly known as FAFSA — in an attempt to address any issues before the form is available to everyone.

The form will be open to hundreds of students and contributors during the first beta testing period this fall, increasing to tens of thousands by the final testing stage and available to everyone by Dec. 1.

Community-based organizations interested in participating in the initial testing can fill out an interest form from Tuesday until Sept. 5.

The department said it will select two to six of those groups and notify them by Sept. 9.

“In our prep, just to give some confidence, we’ve hit every milestone so far on time,” Jeremy Singer, FAFSA executive adviser, said on a call with reporters regarding the framework for the 2025-26 FAFSA testing period. “That bodes well for us being able to meet the beta testing period and a solid path to actually open it up to real users on October 1.”

Singer, who leads FAFSA strategy within the department’s Office of Federal Student Aid, said “each (community-based organization) will recruit students to participate in the beta, and then they’ll host FAFSA night in very early October.”

He said these organizations will also identify a partner college that will receive Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) and that the goal is to “test the system end-to-end.”

Singer said that in later beta tests, the department will also partner with high schools and higher education institutions.

In March, the department said it received roughly 40% fewer FAFSA applications than the same time period in 2023, but as of Tuesday, the gap is now under 3%.

The 2024-25 FAFSA form witnessed its share of hiccups, both when the form soft launched last December and officially debuted this past January. The 2024-25 form got a makeover after the FAFSA Simplification Act passed in December 2020.

The department has worked to fix a series of glitches and errors, including concerns from advocates over the form’s failure to adjust for inflation, its formula miscalculation and its?tax data errors.

Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gives remarks at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel on Aug. 23, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. Kennedy announced that he was suspending his presidential campaign and supporting the Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Friday he is suspending his campaign and threw his support behind former President Donald Trump — the GOP presidential nominee.

The announcement from the environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist, who has held on to a long-shot presidential bid, comes just a day after Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepted her party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

“It’s with a sense of victory and not defeat that I’m suspending my campaign activities,” Kennedy said in Phoenix, Arizona, during a lengthy news conference.

“Not only did we do the impossible by collecting a million signatures, but we changed the national political conversation forever,” he said, adding that “I can say to all who have worked so hard the last year-and-a-half — thank you for a job well done.”

Kennedy acknowledged that he “cannot, in good conscience, ask my staff and volunteers to keep working their long hours, or ask my donors to keep giving when I cannot honestly tell them that I have a real path to the White House.”

He clarified that he is not terminating his campaign and that his name will “remain on the ballot in most states.”

The third-party candidate said he would remove his name from the ballot in?about 10 battleground states “where my presence would be a spoiler.” He did not specify the states.

He said voters who live in a blue state can vote for him “without harming or helping (former) President Trump or Vice President Harris.”

In response, Trump thanked Kennedy during a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“That was very nice,” the former president said, adding that Kennedy is a “great guy” and “respected by everybody.”

Kennedy drew speculation about withdrawing his candidacy and backing Trump in the days leading up to the Friday announcement. On Thursday, he filed the paperwork to withdraw his name from Arizona’s ballot, per Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes in a post on X.

Kennedy has faced dwindling polling numbers and financial trouble for his campaign while undertaking a monumental task in getting on states’ ballots as an independent candidate. He initially ran as a Democrat but switched to an independent ticket in October 2023.

Kennedy — son of Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of John F. Kennedy — is part of one of the most storied families in Democratic politics. Throughout his campaign, he amplified anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and was seen as a possible spoiler candidate.

Harris-Walz campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said “for any American out there who is tired of Donald Trump and looking for a new way forward, ours is a campaign for you,” per a Friday statement in response to Kennedy suspending his campaign.

“In order to deliver for working people and those who feel left behind, we need a leader who will fight for you, not just for themselves, and bring us together, not tear us apart. Vice President Harris wants to earn your support.”

Meanwhile, Trump is set to speak in Glendale, Arizona, later Friday. His campaign said Thursday that a “special guest” would join him at the rally.

The Frances Perkins Building in Washington, D.C., the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Labor. (Official Department of Labor photograph)

WASHINGTON — Leading Democrats on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and its Workforce Protection Subcommittee demanded answers on Tuesday from Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su regarding allegations that certain state Occupational Safety and Health Administration agencies possibly misused federal funds and gave advance notice to employers of workplace safety inspections.

The letter from the respective ranking members of the committee and subcommittee — Reps. Bobby Scott of Virginia and Alma Adams of North Carolina — came in response to recent news reports over allegations surrounding the state OSHA agencies and employers in California and South Carolina.

“Workers deserve to be protected, not exploited,” Scott and Adams said in a statement Tuesday.

“If these allegations are true, it means that our federal funds, meant to ensure safe and fair workplaces, might be enabling exactly the opposite,” the two said, adding that it’s “crucial that we get to the bottom of this and hold those responsible accountable.”

Scott and Adams highlighted a February report from Cal Matters documenting allegations that staff from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health might be tipping off employers about when inspections are going to occur.

Debra Lee, chief of the state agency who was acting chief at the time of the report, expressed concerns about these allegations and wanted the agency to be informed in order to take appropriate action, according to Cal Matters.

The lawmakers also underscored a series of reports from the New York Times on migrant children working dangerous jobs upon coming to the United States, including a story that sheds light on the dangers for those in roofing — a job that is illegal under the age of 18.

Scott and Adams pointed to the Times’ interview with a crew boss who reportedly “admitted violations of not only federal child labor rules but also OSHA standards that are notionally enforced by South Carolina’s state plan agency.”

The two called this account “particularly alarming,” writing in their letter that “if the employer in this news account is to be believed, this story raises questions not only about South Carolina’s compliance with the OSH Act’s requirements for state plan enforcement but also about the possibility of federal funds being used to help employers evade detection for child labor trafficking and oppressive child labor violations.”

Holly Beeson, counsel to the Office of Communications and Governmental Affairs at the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, told States Newsroom that “whenever a hazard or lack of compliance with an OSHA standard is reported, SC OSHA vets the complaint to determine whether an inspection should follow.”

“Both state and federal law prohibit prior notification of this inspection to an employer, and SC OSHA strictly adheres to this legal mandate,” Beeson said.

Worker safety

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration — part of the Department of Labor — was created through the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. The agency is tasked with ensuring that workers have “safe and healthful working conditions free from unlawful retaliation.”

Several states, including California and South Carolina, have their own OSHA-approved state plan.

As the agency notes, “OSHA covers most private sector employers and workers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the other United States (U.S.) jurisdictions — either directly through OSHA or through an OSHA-approved State Plan.”

Scott and Adams are asking for a response from the Department of Labor by Sept. 20 regarding questions such as how they would address any allegations of unlawful advance notice of inspections and challenges facing the department when trying to monitor and enforce state plans’ compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication on Tuesday.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump walks to speak to the media after being found guilty following his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024, in New York City. (Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Special counsel Jack Smith was granted more time on Friday before having to give an outline on the next steps his office is taking in the 2020 election interference case against former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee.

The delay pushes the case proceedings further into the thick of the presidential race, as Trump vies for the Oval Office against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

The D.C. case is one of several legal hurdles facing the former president, who became a convicted felon in May.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered both parties to submit a joint status report that proposes “a schedule for pretrial proceedings moving forward” by Aug. 9 and set a pretrial meeting for Aug. 16 to determine how the case should proceed.

But on Thursday, prosecutors asked to have until Aug. 30 to file another joint status report and to delay the status conference hearing until next month.

Chutkan granted that request on Friday and pushed back the pretrial meeting to Sept. 5.

Prosecutors asked for this delay to further examine the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month, which found that presidents are granted full immunity from criminal charges for any official “core constitutional” acts, though they have no immunity for any unofficial acts.

In the report, prosecutors wrote that “the Government continues to assess the new precedent set forth last month in the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States, including through consultation with other Department of Justice components.”

“Although those consultations are well underway, the Government has not finalized its position on the most appropriate schedule for the parties to brief issues related to the decision,” Smith’s office wrote.

“The Government therefore respectfully requests additional time to provide the Court with an informed proposal regarding the schedule for pretrial proceedings moving forward,” they added.

Lawyers for Trump did not object to the prosecutors’ Thursday extension request.

Rejection of immunity claim

The election subversion case was on pause for months while the former president’s immunity claim played out in the courts. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously rejected Trump’s immunity claim back in February, prompting the former president to take the presidential immunity fight to the nation’s highest court.

But the July 1 Supreme Court ruling forced prosecutors to reexamine how they want the election subversion case to go forward.

Chutkan is now tasked with determining whether Trump’s alleged conduct regarding the 2020 election results constitutes “official” presidential acts.

Trump was indicted in August 2023 on four counts relating to his alleged role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

He was charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S.; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.

The former president has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and has denied wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, the former president was found guilty in a New York court in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. His sentencing was originally scheduled for mid-July, but has been delayed until at least September following the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in a briefing on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024 discussed the new Title IX regulation that has gone into effect. In this photo, Cardona speaks at the Queen theater on Dec. 23, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo by Joshua Roberts/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Though the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX extending federal protections for LGBTQ students went into effect nationwide Thursday, a slew of legal challenges has temporarily blocked over half of all states from enforcing the updated regulations.

After the Department of Education released the final rule in April, 26 states — all with GOP attorneys general — rushed to challenge the measure. Given the myriad legal challenges, the updated regulations only went into effect Thursday in 24 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Kentucky attorney general leading GOP effort against new Title IX rules over gender

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, celebrated the final rule on Thursday during a briefing.

Cardona said the updated regulations “are the culmination of a lengthy and thorough process that included unprecedented public input from students, parents, educators, administrators, experts and other stakeholders.”

“These regulations make crystal clear that everyone has the right to schools that respect their rights and offer safe, welcoming learning environments,” he added.

Lhamon said it’s “a very fluid legal environment” and the department continues “to defend the rule we believe in in these cases, with the Department of Justice as our counsel in the courts.”

“We anticipated this moment when we were finalizing the 2024 regulations, and we know they are legally sound,” she said, noting that the department has appealed the injunctions that have so far been issued and sought clarification of their application.

“While the appeals of these rulings are pending, we have asked the United States Supreme Court to allow the unchallenged provisions — which are the bulk of the final rule —? to take effect in the enjoined states as scheduled,” Lhamon said.

But the Supreme Court has yet to decide on that emergency request, which came in a pair of filings from U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar last week.

Discrimination protection

The final rule “protects against discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics,” per the department. The updated regulations are also aimed at “restoring and strengthening full protection from sexual violence and other sex-based harassment.”

The administration initially scored a legal win Tuesday when an Alabama federal judge rejected an attempt by Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to halt enforcement of the final rule. But a federal appeals court granted the states’ request for an administrative injunction Wednesday, which temporarily blocked the final rule from taking effect in those Southern states.

Judge Jodi W. Dishman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma also halted the final rule from taking effect in the state on Wednesday after the state individually sued the administration back in May.

The final rule is temporarily blocked in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Challenges affect more schools?

But the challenges to Title IX span beyond the 26 states that initially sued the administration — affecting schools across the country.

Judge John Broomes of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas expanded the temporary blockage to also include “the schools attended by the members of Young America’s Foundation or Female Athletes United, as well as the schools attended by the children of the members of Moms for Liberty.”

These groups sued alongside Kansas, Alaska, Utah and Wyoming earlier this year.

House GOP tries to stop rule

Congressional Republicans have fiercely opposed the final rule.

In July, the GOP-controlled House passed a measure to reverse the updated regulations under the Congressional Review Act — a procedural tool Congress can use to overturn certain actions from federal agencies.

But the measure is unlikely to find success in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and President Joe Biden has vowed to veto the legislation should it land on his desk.

LGBTQ students

LGBTQ advocacy groups have pushed back against GOP-led efforts to block the final rule from taking effect.

“Every student in this country deserves access to an education without fear of bullying and discrimination,” Brandon Wolf, national press secretary for the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, said in an emailed statement to States Newsroom.

“But MAGA politicians, promoting blatant discrimination, have fueled eight preliminary injunctions blocking enforcement of the Biden administration’s new Title IX rules in 26 states.”

Wolf added that “we must continue to fight for LGBTQ+ students across the country because everyone deserves a safe educational experience — full stop.”

Meanwhile, the department has yet to decide on a separate rule establishing new criteria regarding transgender athletes.

A federal appeals court temporarily halted enforcement Wednesday of the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. The decision reversed a Tuesday decision in a lower court. (Photo by Getty Images)

Just a day after a federal judge struck down an attempt by Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to halt enforcement of the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX, a federal appeals court granted the states’ request for an administrative injunction Wednesday — temporarily blocking the updated regulations from taking effect in those Southern states.

The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on the eve of the updated regulations taking effect brings the total number of states where the rule is temporarily blocked to 26.

The administration’s rule — which seeks to extend federal discrimination protections for LGBTQ students — has been met with a wave of GOP pushback since being announced by the Department of Education in April.

The final rule is slated to go into effect Thursday, but faces mounting legal uncertainty.

“This is a big win in our fight to protect children,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement following the appeals court ruling. “We’ve argued that the Biden administration does not have the authority to make this change, and with this temporary injunction, we now have time to make our case in court without our children being put in danger.”

The 11th Circuit decision reversed what had been a victory for the final rule’s advocates in federal court in Alabama on Tuesday.

In a 122-page opinion, Judge Annemarie Carney Axon of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama wrote that “in short, although Plaintiffs may dislike the Department’s rules, they have failed to show a substantial likelihood of success in proving the Department’s rulemaking was unreasonable or not reasonably explained.”

Axon, who was appointed by then-President Donald Trump, also wrote that “the evidentiary record is sparse, and the legal arguments are conclusory and underdeveloped.”

In late April, the group of Southern states, all with GOP attorneys general, sued the administration in federal court in Alabama over the regulations. Multiple organizations also tacked onto the lawsuit, including the Independent Women’s Law Center, the Independent Women’s Network, Parents Defending Education and Speech First.

They quickly appealed Tuesday’s ruling later in the day to the 11th Circuit.

In a statement on Tuesday, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said “we are surprised by district court’s decision today to deny the State’s request to immediately halt Biden’s Title IX degradation.”

He added that “Alabama’s young women deserve better.”

Since the department released the final rule, 26 states in total have signed onto lawsuits seeking to block the updated regulations from taking effect.

Across multiple temporary injunctions, the final rule is also blocked in Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

On Wednesday, Judge Jodi W. Dishman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma halted the final rule from taking effect in the state. Oklahoma individually sued the administration back in May.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond praised the ruling, saying: “Our students deserve the protections that have long been provided by Title IX,” per a statement Wednesday.

To further complicate the matter, when Judge John Broomes of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas temporarily blocked the measure in the Sunflower State, Alaska, Utah and Wyoming earlier in July, he extended it to also include “the schools attended by the members of Young America’s Foundation or Female Athletes United, as well as the schools attended by the children of the members of Moms for Liberty,” all groups that sued alongside those four states.

This means the final rule is blocked in schools across the country, including in states that never challenged the updated regulations. Despite Axon’s Tuesday ruling, the final rule was still set to be halted in any K-12 school or college in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina that is impacted by the earlier Kansas decision.

The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Janelle Stecklein contributed to this report.

A federal judge has struck down an attempt by Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to halt enforcement of the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX. (Photo by Getty Images)

A federal judge has struck down an attempt by Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to halt enforcement of the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX, shortly before the final rule takes effect nationwide on Thursday.

The administration’s updated regulations — which seek to extend federal discrimination protections for LGBTQ students — have been met with a wave of GOP pushback since being announced by the Department of Education in April.

Though the final rule is slated to go into effect on Thursday, it’s now blocked in 22 states and has faced mounting legal uncertainty.

“In short, although Plaintiffs may dislike the Department’s rules, they have failed to show a substantial likelihood of success in proving the Department’s rulemaking was unreasonable or not reasonably explained,” Judge Annemarie Carney Axon of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama wrote Tuesday in a 122-page opinion.

Axon, who was appointed by then-President Donald Trump, also wrote that “the evidentiary record is sparse, and the legal arguments are conclusory and underdeveloped.”

In late April, the group of Southern states, all with GOP attorneys general, sued the administration in federal court in Alabama over the regulations. Multiple organizations also tacked onto the lawsuit, including the Independent Women’s Law Center, the Independent Women’s Network, Parents Defending Education and Speech First.

They quickly appealed Tuesday’s ruling later in the day to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

Since the department released the final rule, 26 states in total have signed onto lawsuits seeking to block the updated regulations from taking effect.

Across multiple temporary injunctions, the final rule is blocked in Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

On Wednesday, Judge Jodi W. Dishman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma halted the final rule from taking effect in the state. Oklahoma individually sued the administration back in May.

To further complicate the matter, when Judge John Broomes of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas temporarily blocked the measure in the Sunflower State, Alaska, Utah and Wyoming earlier in July, he extended it to also include “the schools attended by the members of Young America’s Foundation or Female Athletes United, as well as the schools attended by the children of the members of Moms for Liberty,” all groups that sued alongside those four states.

This means the final rule is blocked in schools across the country, including in states that never challenged the updated regulations. Despite Axon’s Tuesday ruling, the final rule will still be halted in any K-12 school or college in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina that is impacted by the earlier Kansas decision.

The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. testifies before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees on July 30, 2024. Senators grilled Rowe and Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate about the events leading to the July 13 attempted assassination of former U.S. President Donald Trump. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — When acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. visited the site of the campaign rally where a gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, he went up to the roof, lying flat on his stomach, to evaluate the shooter’s line of sight that mid-July day.

“What I saw made me ashamed,” Rowe told U.S. senators Tuesday. “As a career law enforcement officer and a 25-year-veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”

Rowe recounted his trip to Butler, Pennsylvania, which he said took place after being named acting director July 23, at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees examining the security failures that led to the assassination attempt. Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate also testified.

It was the first Senate hearing on the attempted assassination since a shooter killed one rallygoer, injured two others and shot Trump’s ear using an AR-15-style rifle during a campaign event in Butler on July 13. The 20-year-old gunman was killed at the scene.

“Let me be clear: This was an attack on our democracy,” said Sen. Gary Peters, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

“Americans should be able to attend a political rally and express their political beliefs without fear of violence, and political candidates for our nation’s highest office should be confident that their safety will never be compromised for their service,” the Michigan Democrat added.

Peters launched a bipartisan investigation into the security failures leading to the assassination attempt alongside ranking Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky. It’s one of several congressional inquiries examining the failures of law enforcement that day.

Rowe stepped into his post after Kimberly Cheatle resigned as director last week. The day before her resignation, Cheatle testified in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, where lawmakers on both sides of the aisle berated her over the agency’s failures to prevent the attempted assassination of Trump.

Facing heavy criticism, many lawmakers called on Cheatle to resign. House Oversight Chairman James Comer of Kentucky and ranking member Jamie Raskin of Maryland also urged her to step down in a joint letter shortly after that hearing.

Rowe said the attempted assassination was “a failure to imagine that we actually do live in a very dangerous world where people do actually want to do harm to our protectees.”

“I think it was a failure to challenge our own assumptions — the assumptions that we know our partners are going to do everything they can, and they do this every day,” he added.

More details on the shooter

Senators sought to uncover what went wrong, what policies are in place to facilitate real-time information sharing between the Secret Service and local law enforcement during an event and whether the Secret Service is developing a security plan for the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago that takes into account what they learned from the July shooting.

Neither the Secret Service counter sniper teams nor members of Trump’s security detail “had any knowledge that there was a man on the roof of the … building with a firearm,” according to Rowe.

Rowe said “prior to that, they were operating with the knowledge that local law enforcement was working an issue of a suspicious individual prior to the shots being fired.”

Abbate noted that despite not having any definitive evidence as to how the gunman got the weapon onto the roof, they believe based on what they have gathered thus far that he likely had the rifle in a backpack.

Social media account associated with shooter

Meanwhile, Abbate said the FBI uncovered a social media account believed to be associated with the shooter, though they are still working to verify that the account belonged to him.

More than 700 comments were posted from the social media account “in about the 2019, 2020 timeframe,” when the shooter would have been in his mid-teens, and some of the comments “appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature,” Abbate said.

Abbate said though nothing has been ruled out, the FBI’s investigation has not identified any motive, co-conspirators or people with advanced knowledge. The FBI has so far held more than 460 interviews, received over 2,000 tips from the public, executed search warrants and seized electronic media.

Congressional efforts?

Tuesday’s hearing came the day after U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced 13 lawmakers comprising a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination. The resolution creating the panel requires a final report by mid-December.

Rep. Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican whose district includes Butler, will chair the task force.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada introduced bipartisan legislation last week that would require Senate confirmation of Secret Service directors and limit them to one term of 10 years.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the American Federation of Teachers’ 88th National Convention on July 25, 2024 in Houston, Texas. The American Federation of Teachers was the first labor union to endorse Harris for president since announcing her campaign. (Photo by Montinique Monroe/Getty Images)

Vice President Kamala Harris — the likely 2024 Democratic presidential nominee — outlined on Thursday some of her “vision of the future” while touting the administration’s education record in her keynote address to the American Federation of Teachers national convention in Houston.

Harris has quickly drawn the support of major unions like the AFT in the fast-moving four days since President Joe Biden bowed out of the presidential race and passed the torch to her. The unprecedented move could make the 59-year-old the first woman to serve as president if formally nominated and elected in the race against GOP nominee former President Donald Trump.

“Today, we face a choice between two very different visions for our nation: one focused on the future, and the other focused on the past, and we are fighting for the future,” Harris said to an enthusiastic crowd of teachers at the convention.

“In our vision of the future, we see a place where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead — a future where no child has to grow up in poverty, where every senior can retire with dignity, and where every worker has the freedom to join a union,” she said.

Harris also took jabs at the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 — a nearly 900-page proposal that sets forth a sweeping conservative agenda if Trump is elected — calling it a “plan to return America to a dark past.”

Despite Trump distancing himself from the platform, some former members of his administration helped write it.

Harris said Trump and his allies want to “cut Medicare and Social Security, to stop student loan forgiveness for teachers and other public servants … They even want to eliminate the Department of Education and end Head Start.”

She also boasted about the administration’s student loan forgiveness, which has now provided almost $169 billion in debt relief to nearly 4.8 million borrowers, according to the Department of Education.

Harris also blasted “extremists,” saying to the teachers that while they “try to create safe and welcoming places where our children can learn, extremists attack our freedom to live safe from gun violence.”

“We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books,” she added.

The Trump campaign sent out a statement on Thursday reiterating his education platform, including civil rights investigations into any race-based discrimination, firing “radicals who have infiltrated the federal Department of Education” and instituting funding boosts for schools that do things like implement the direct election of school principals by parents.

Union support?

Harris promised that she and Biden would sign the PRO Act into law, which would offer protections for workers when unionizing or collectively bargaining.

The AFT, one of the largest teachers unions in the country, threw its support behind Harris shortly after she declared her intent to earn the Democratic nomination.

Harris, who said she is a “proud product of public education,” thanked AFT’s 1.8 million members for their service to the country.

“From the public service workers and higher education faculty, to the school bus drivers and the custodians, to the school nurses and our teachers — you all do God’s work educating our children,” Harris said.

She’s also received the support of some of the country’s biggest labor unions, and the National Education Association, the largest labor union, endorsed Harris this week.

Some of those recent endorsements include the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, known as AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME and the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU.

Meanwhile, the prominent union UAW has not endorsed Harris as of Thursday.

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on July 22, 2024. The beleaguered leader of the agency has pledged cooperation with all investigations into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, though members of Congress from both parties have called for her to resign. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle berated U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday over the agency’s failures to prevent the attempted assassination against former President Donald J. Trump, urging her to resign amid dissatisfaction with her testimony.

Nine days since a 20-year-old shooter killed one rallygoer and injured two others with an AR-15 style rifle at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a slew of bipartisan investigations and actions have sprung up in an attempt to get to the bottom of the shooting that nearly killed the 2024 GOP presidential nominee.?The gunman was killed at the scene.

“The Secret Service has a zero-fail mission, but it failed on July 13 and in the days leading up to the rally,” Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said in an opening statement to the panel’s lengthy hearing on the attempted assassination.

“The Secret Service has thousands of employees and a significant budget, but it has now become the face of incompetence,” Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said.

Cheatle, who testified after Comer subpoenaed her, said the assassination attempt is “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades” and acknowledged that she has taken, and will continue to take, accountability.

“I am responsible for leading the agency, and I am responsible for finding the answers to how this event occurred and making sure that it doesn’t happen again,” she added.

Both parties critical in questioning

Republicans and Democrats expressed extreme dissatisfaction over Cheatle’s answers, with Comer and ranking Democrat Jamie Raskin of Maryland calling on Cheatle to resign in a joint letter following the hearing.

The two said Cheatle “failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures.”

Lawmakers grilled Cheatle on how the gunman was able to execute the attack and access the roof where he conducted the shooting, how Trump was allowed to enter the stage with a “suspicious person” being identified and why she has not yet resigned from her post.

“Director Cheatle, because Donald Trump is alive —?and thank God he is — you look incompetent. If Donald Trump had been killed, you would have looked culpable,” said GOP Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, who chairs the U.S. House Intelligence Committee.

Cheatle’s testimony

During the hearing, Cheatle noted that she was answering questions she’s able to answer “based on the fact that there are multiple ongoing investigations.”

However, throughout the hearing, Cheatle did disclose that the Secret Service was alerted “somewhere between two and five times” about a “suspicious individual” prior to the shooting.

“You’re full of s— today. You’re just being completely dishonest,” GOP South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace said while asking Cheatle a series of “yes” or “no” questions, including whether this was a “colossal failure.”

Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a New Mexico Democrat, said Cheatle’s answers were “completely unsatisfactory.”

“How could this happen? … We need answers not just for the family members of the gentleman who was killed and those who were injured, but we need answers for our democracy, because as others have stated here today, we are in a highly politically charged environment right now,” she said.

Rep. Byron Donalds was among the myriad lawmakers calling on Cheatle to step down, saying: “You do need to be fired immediately, and it is because this is gross incompetence.”

“This is a joke, and Director, you’re in charge, and that’s why you need to go,” Donalds, a Florida Republican, said.

GOP Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan also voiced her frustration over Cheatle’s answers.

“If you’re gonna lead, you need to lead,” McClain said. “If you wanna be in charge, then answer the question, or step aside and have someone with the courage and the guts to answer to the American people the questions that they deserve answers to.”

Cheatle also took heat after saying that they were targeting an internal investigation to be complete within 60 days — a timeline that did not sit well with the committee.

Cheatle pointed out a number of Office of Inspector General investigations and the FBI’s ongoing criminal investigation remain in progress while the agency conducted its own internal investigation.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, noted that November’s elections are just more than 100 days away.

“So the notion of a report coming out in 60 days when the threat environment is so high in the United States — irrespective of party — is not acceptable,” she said.

Calls for gun control?

Some Democrats, including Raskin, used the hearing to highlight gun violence and pushed for a ban on AR-15s.

He noted another mass shooting the same day as the attempt on Trump’s life killed four and injured at least 10 others at a Birmingham, Alabama, nightclub.

“This means, amazingly, that the Butler attack was not even the deadliest mass shooting to happen in America on that day,” he said. “We have to find the courage and resolve to pass a ban on the AR-15 and other assault weapons.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan pointed out that this year, the committee had?not held a hearing on the “over 260 mass shootings that we’ve had, killing hundreds of people, injuring hundreds, changing their lives forever.”

More investigations

On Monday, members of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, led by Chairman Mark Green, a Republican from Tennessee, visited the site of the rally. The committee also plans to hold a hearing on the assassination attempt in Washington Tuesday.

Republican Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, whose district includes Butler, was also in attendance.

A proposal, submitted by Kelly, to establish a task force on the attempted assassination is scheduled for a vote on the House floor this week.

It would “investigate and fully examine all actions by any agency, Department, officer, or employee of the federal government, as well as State and local law enforcement or any other State or local government or private entities or individuals” related to the attempted assassination.

The task force would also issue a final report on its findings no later than Dec. 13.

Separately, President Joe Biden asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to launch an “independent security review” of the attempted assassination, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday named a bipartisan panel to conduct a “45-day independent review” regarding the actions of the agency and state and local authorities before, during and in the aftermath of the July 13 rally.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris attends a moderated conversation with former Trump administration national security official Olivia Troye and former Republican voter Amanda Stratton on July 17, 2024 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. (Photo by Chris duMond/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Sunday endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the new Democratic presidential nominee, passing the torch to the California native who has helmed administration initiatives on reproductive rights and gun control.

A former U.S. senator from California who vied for her party’s presidential nomination in the 2020 primaries, Harris, 59, would represent a new generation at the top of the ticket after Biden, 81, withdrew from the race under pressure from Democratic leaders following a disastrous late June debate performance.

Harris, the nation’s first woman vice president, now has a chance to become the first woman president, depending on what Democrats decide. She is also the first Black vice president and first person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president.

Some in the party publicly floated her as a potential replacement for Biden following the debate. Biden initially refused to end his reelection bid despite a growing number of calls within the Democratic Party for him to step aside. He bowed out on Sunday.

“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this,” Biden said in a Sunday post on X.

Policy initiatives?

During her time as vice president, Harris became a leading voice in the administration’s fight for reproductive rights and abortion access — often seen as Democrats’ strongest issue since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, which ended nearly half a century of the federal constitutional right to abortion.

Harris launched a “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour in early 2024, bringing her to several swing states. And after touring a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota, Harris was believed to be the first sitting president or vice president to tour an abortion clinic.

Harris has also focused on gun safety throughout her vice presidential tenure. She announced the launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center in March to assist states, local governments and others in “optimizing the usage of red flag laws,” according to the White House.

She also called on states to pass so-called red flag laws — which enable law enforcement to petition civil courts to take away firearms from those who could pose a danger to themselves or others — and use Bipartisan Safer Communities Act funding to “to help implement laws already enacted.”

The administration championed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Biden signed into law in June 2022. The measure was regarded as the most comprehensive federal gun safety legislation in almost 30 years.

She’s also been a sharp opponent, alongside Biden and other Democrats, of Project 2025 — the nearly 900-page document from the Heritage Foundation that proposes a sweeping conservative agenda if former President Donald J. Trump is elected. Though Trump has distanced himself from the platform, some former members of his administration helped write it.

Harris has also drawn criticism on both sides of the aisle for her efforts surrounding immigration. Biden tapped her in 2021 to help address the “root causes” of migration in Central America.

She visited the U.S.-Mexico border in June 2021 after making stops in Guatemala and Mexico earlier that month, the first international trip for her as vice president.

Republicans have repeatedly called her a “border czar” despite her focus being on migration’s “root causes” in Central American countries.

During the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida was one of several speakers who dubbed her a “border czar,” adding the barb that “appointing Kamala Harris to oversee the border is like appointing Bernie Madoff to oversee your retirement plan.”

Harris also holds the record for the highest number of tie-breaking votes cast in the U.S. Senate.

Public polling and perception

Since the fallout from the June 27 debate, a slew of polls have offered mixed outcomes as to whether voters would choose Harris over Trump if the two were up against each other.

An Economist/YouGov poll conducted July 13-16 shows both Harris and Biden narrowly behind Trump, with Biden performing slightly better than Harris.

Only 39% said they would choose Harris, compared to 44% who would vote for Trump. Similarly, 41% said they would vote for Biden, compared to 43% choosing Trump.

As of mid-July, her approval ratings also appeared dim, with 50.4% of Americans disapproving of her and 38.6% approving.

California background

Prior to serving as vice president, Harris was a U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021. With a long career in law enforcement, she served as the attorney general of California and was also the district attorney of San Francisco.

Harris vied for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential election before ultimately withdrawing her candidacy months later and subsequently endorsing Biden. She dropped out prior to the Iowa caucuses, ending her bid in December 2019, despite being initially viewed as a top Democratic contender.

She was born in Oakland, California, in 1964 to immigrant parents. She is married to Doug Emhoff, who is the first Jewish spouse of either a U.S. president or vice president, according to the White House. He’s also the first second gentleman in U.S. history.
Harris is an alumna of Howard University, a historically Black institution, and received her law degree from the University of California, Hastings.

Sen. Cory Booker and other Democrats told federal officials Tuesday they need to put resources into outreach so DACA recipients can access health insurance provided under the Affordable Care Act. (Danielle Richards for New Jersey Monitor)

WASHINGTON — Worried about the outcome of the 2024 election, a slew of congressional Democrats called on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday to take steps to ensure?Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals?program recipients can actually access health insurance provided under the Affordable Care Act when they become eligible this year.

The?Biden administration published a final rule?in May, set to go into effect on Nov. 1, that will allow DACA recipients to “apply for coverage through HealthCare.gov and state-based marketplaces, where they may qualify for financial assistance to help them purchase quality health insurance.”

But for DACA recipients to take full advantage of the expansion as early as possible, HHS needs to put resources into outreach, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas and 86 other Democrats said in a?letter?to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and provided first to States Newsroom.

The lawmakers praised the recently finalized rule, while noting that “for this expansion to be successful, HHS must ensure that every newly eligible individual is fully informed and supported during the enrollment process.”

A total of 73 U.S. representatives and 15 U.S. senators from across the country signed the letter. The letter is dated Monday, when members agreed on the final language, and the lawmakers sent it to HHS on Tuesday.

With DACA recipients eligible for health insurance benefits as early as December if enrolled by Nov. 15, the lawmakers want to ensure that the recipients are “able to navigate the registration process so that they can take full advantage of their new access to medical care.”

The lawmakers pressed Becerra on the actual implementation of this imminent accessibility, including how the department plans to minimize barriers to enrollment for a group that has historically faced challenges in verifying their identity.

They also asked the secretary to address what steps the department will take to make sure the recipients are aware of the special enrollment period, what resources will be allocated for media outreach, how the department will ensure the information is shared to this group and how they will help prevent instances of scams or fraud targeting the recipients throughout the enrollment period.

HHS did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Future of DACA in the balance?

The letter comes as DACA’s future remains unknown.

Former President Donald J. Trump — officially nominated Monday as the 2024 GOP presidential nominee — tried to?end the program?during his first term.

Recipients of DACA are?awaiting a court case?to determine the legality of the program after Trump sought to end it.

DACA — an?Obama-era program?created in 2012 — was designed to protect children who were brought into the country illegally from deportation. The Biden administration said that its final rule released in May is set to help more than 100,000 uninsured young people.

Representatives for the 2024 Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday regarding DACA.

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House on Thursday passed?a measure to reverse an Education Department rule seeking to extend federal discrimination protections for LGBTQ students, though President Joe Biden has vowed to veto the legislation should it land on his desk.

House passage of the resolution on a party-line vote,?210-205, is part of a barrage of GOP pushback at the state and federal levels to the?Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX?since its April release. For all schools that receive federal funding, the rule protects against discrimination for students based on “sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.”

Twenty-six states with GOP attorneys general have?sued to block?the rule, and courts have temporarily blocked it from going into effect in 14 states on August 1.

The 14 states with temporary blocks are: Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Illinois GOP Rep. Mary Miller?introduced the legislation?in early June. A week later, the Republican-controlled House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved it. Miller’s resolution seeks to reverse the rule through the?Congressional Review Act, a procedural tool Congress can use to overturn certain actions from federal agencies.

In the Senate, Mississippi Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith?also introduced legislation?in June to try to block the final rule under the same tool. The Senate version has gathered over 30 Republican cosponsors.

Rep. Virginia Foxx — chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and a fierce opponent of the administration’s final rule — said during the floor debate Wednesday that she wanted to preserve Title IX, which helped equalize funding for women’s sports and education programs beginning in 1972.

“Title IX ushered in a golden era for women’s competition and education,” the North Carolina Republican said. “There is sanctity in the community and tradition of these memories, these spaces and these opportunities for young girls.”

Regardless of whether the attempt to roll back the measure is successful in the Democratic-controlled Senate,?Biden’s veto threat leaves virtually no possibility it could be adopted this year.

Democrats, LGBTQ advocates in opposition?

Democrats and LGBTQ advocates have described the effort to overturn the rule as motivated by misinformation and fear.

“Unfortunately, this resolution has been clouded by misinformation, unfounded fears and with some, just hatred of transgender individuals,” said Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat and ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, during the debate.

Oregon’s Rep. Suzanne Bonamici — ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education — said the resolution was “another attempt to undercut this administration’s efforts to empower survivors and protect all Americans from discrimination.”

“If Republicans truly cared about protecting women and children, they would stop this prejudiced rhetoric and take action on bills that would actually protect women from discrimination and harassment and defend women’s reproductive health care, make child care more affordable, preserve opportunities in workplaces for all parents, especially women,” Bonamici said.

Scott called on the House to “reject these narratives and focus on real issues of safety and equity.”

Final rule blocked in more states?

Meanwhile, challenges to the rule are playing out in a handful of federal courts.

Last week, Judge John Broomes of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas temporarily blocked the measure from taking effect in the Sunflower State, along with Alaska, Utah and Wyoming.

Broomes also halted the rule from taking effect in “the schools attended by the members of Young America’s Foundation or Female Athletes United, as well as the schools attended by the children of the members of Moms for Liberty,” all groups that sued alongside the four states, per the?order.

Under Broomes’ order, the rule is also halted in an Oklahoma public school attended by a minor who is one of the plaintiffs.

In June, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana?issued a temporary injunction?barring the final rule from taking effect there, along with Idaho, Mississippi and Montana.

In Kentucky federal court, Chief Judge Danny Reeves?temporarily blocked the final rule?in the Bluegrass State, plus Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Virginia. Reeves rejected the department’s request for a partial stay of the injunction while its appeal plays out, per a?Wednesday court filing.

The Education Department has confirmed it is appealing the other two rulings but did not have an update Wednesday on whether it is filing a notice of appeal on the most recent ruling in the Kansas federal court.

The spokesperson reiterated earlier this week that the agency has “asked the trial courts to allow the bulk of the final rule to take effect in these states as scheduled, on August 1, while the appeals are pending.”

LGBTQ advocacy groups push back on GOP effort

Allen Morris, policy director for the advocacy group National LGBTQ Task Force, said the vote was part of a pattern of anti-LGBTQ policy measures.

“When you look at the rise in hatred and the rise in violence and the rise of young LGBTQ individuals not having the support that they need, where suicide rates are high, it is disappointing to see our opposition go against us with such a high level of intention,” he said.

Morris told States Newsroom that “a lot of what is happening with this extremism is not founded in truth.”

“It is founded in ways to spew hate and to spew fear. It is a lot of fear mongering, and it’s anything to make people feel like their backs are up against the wall, or as if they don’t have the power,” he said.

Echoing a previous statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said it “does not comment on pending legislation” and emphasized that all schools receiving federal funding are obligated to comply with the new regulations as a condition of receiving those funds.

The department has yet to finalize a separate rule establishing new criteria for transgender athletes.

U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., offered a resolution on July 10, 2024, to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in inherent contempt for refusing to turn over audio tapes of a special counsel’s interview of President Joe Biden. (Screenshot from U.S. House website.)

WASHINGTON — In the latest U.S. House Republican attempt to secure audio tapes from the U.S. Justice Department special counsel’s interview with President Joe Biden, the U.S. House on Thursday rejected Florida Republican?Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s resolution to fine Attorney General Merrick Garland for withholding them.?

The measure — which was turned down?204-210?— would have?levied a daily fine of $10,000?against Garland under the House’s seldom-used “inherent contempt” power until he complies with a subpoena to release the tapes of the interview between?special counsel Robert K. Hur and Biden surrounding his handling of classified documents.

Four Republicans voted against Luna’s measure, including California Reps. John Duarte and Tom McClintock, along with Ohio Reps. David Joyce and Mike Turner.

The resolution is part of a wider effort among Republicans to secure the audio — a drive that’s only intensified since Biden’s?disastrous debate performance?two weeks ago.

During floor debate on Wednesday, Luna described the effort as a way to hold Garland accountable to the legislative branch.

“With Attorney General Garland and the Department of Justice refusing to follow the law, we have been left with no choice but to rely on inherent contempt,” she said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, on Wednesday called the measure “stupid,” and noted Republican leaders’ tepid support for it.

“Republican leadership knows this is a stupid resolution,” he said. “Their own members know this is a stupid resolution, but they’re beholden to the craziest MAGA members in their conference. So, this is what we get: stupid resolutions on the floor because they’re too chicken to stand up to the extremism in their own party.”

The debate was delayed for more than 20 minutes after Virginia Republican Morgan Griffith asked for McGovern’s words to be stricken. After the pause, McGovern conceded to having his words stricken and did not use the word “stupid” for the rest of his remarks.

“I urge a no vote on this –?I’ve got to take this word out now –?on this resolution,” he said.

The Justice Department declined to comment on Luna’s effort?Wednesday.

GOP leadership?

Former President Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, took to?Truth Social?on Wednesday to show his support for Luna’s effort.

“I AGREE with Anna Paulina Luna and the many House Members who think Merrick Garland should be held in INHERENT CONTEMPT for refusing to release the Biden Tapes even though they were subpoenaed!” Trump wrote.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed some skepticism over Luna’s measure, saying at a Tuesday press conference that “as a former constitutional law litigator, my preference is to follow the legal process, the legal proceedings, that protect the institution.”

Johnson, of Louisiana, said he would rather focus on the civil suit from House Judiciary Committee Republicans, though he said that if the Luna measure came to the floor, he would vote for it.

“I’d rather do it in a way that we’ve done in our present litigation, but we’ll let the chips fall where they may,” Johnson said, adding that “every member has the right to bring a privileged motion like that, and Anna’s very committed to this principle and I am, too. We all are. I think every Republican is.”

Luna’s resolution? also signaled a walkback from her?earlier effort?introduced in May, which called for the House sergeant-at-arms to detain Garland.

Historically, Congress has shied away from the lengthy and burdensome inherent contempt move — which has not been used in either chamber since the 1930s — prompting questions about how the House could actually enforce the fine.

Republicans’ push for tapes

Garland has been hit with several attempts by House Republicans to try to secure the audio tapes.

Last month,?House Republicans voted?to hold Garland in contempt of Congress after he agreed with Biden’s assertion of executive privilege over the tapes.

Garland also?faces a civil lawsuit?from the House Judiciary Committee filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which seeks to overturn Biden’s assertion of executive privilege.

House Republicans are still pushing for the audio despite the Justice Department offering up a transcript of the interview between Hur and Biden to the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Garland tapped Hur to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents back in January 2023. Hur, a federal prosecutor during the Trump administration,?wrote in the report?that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.”

However, Hur declined to prosecute the president. He noted that “at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” The octogenarian fiercely rejected the characterization of his memory.

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters as he leaves a meeting at the U.S. Capitol on July 08, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Jeffries reiterated his support for President Joe Biden, saying the party is backing Biden to defeat the Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats appeared to quell some inner tumult over supporting President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, after highly anticipated internal meetings Tuesday showed the president retained considerable support from the Congressional Black Caucus and other lawmakers in public statements.

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Democrats from both chambers largely declined to detail their closed-door conversations. But they said they are lining up behind Biden, nearly two weeks after his debate performance set in motion prolonged speculation about his fitness for office. The party meetings among lawmakers were the first since the June 27 debate.

Biden issued a defiant letter to party members Monday saying that he will not exit the race, and Democrats interviewed by States Newsroom insisted they are uniting as the party heads toward his official nomination later this summer.

Lawmakers left open whether perfect harmony was achieved — a New Jersey Democrat at day’s end joined a handful of other Democrats urging Biden to drop out — but one message was clear: They do not want to see former President Donald Trump in the Oval Office again.

Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada briskly exited the House chamber and said Democrats are focused on “beating Donald Trump and electing Democrats to the House majority.” The CBC met with Biden virtually Monday night.

When asked whether Biden’s unsteady debate performance and the anxiety it’s caused presents an obstacle for House colleagues running in tight races, Horsford answered, “The president is the nominee.”

Another defection

While a steady stream of Democrats said they would back Biden, New Jersey Democrat Mikie Sherrill became the seventh House Democrat urging Biden to drop out of the race.

“I know President Biden cares deeply about the future of our country. That’s why I am asking that he declare that he won’t run for reelection,” Sherrill posted on social media shortly before 5 p.m. Eastern.

Those who spoke out against Biden’s reelection bid in previous days included Angie Craig of Minnesota, Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Mike Quigley of Illinois and Adam Smith of Washington.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, of New York, who was among those calling for Biden to exit the race in a private call on Sunday, walked back his comments Tuesday when he told reporters “we have to support him.”

At the White House briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said expressions of support from members of the Congressional Black Caucus were key to solidifying Biden’s backing among Hill Democrats.

“We respect members of Congress,” Jean-Pierre said. “We respect their view. But I also want to say there’s also a long list of congressional members who have been very clear in support of this president.”

Jean-Pierre cited strong statements of support from CBC members Joyce Beatty of Ohio and Troy Carter of Louisiana following the caucus’ virtual meeting with Biden on Monday.

Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia said Tuesday members had an opportunity to “express themselves” during the closed-door House Democratic meeting.

“Leadership listened, and I think what needs to happen is we need to all come together to decide that we’re not going to be a circular firing squad with Joe Biden in the middle,” Johnson said. “We are going to abide by his decision, and if his decision, as he has previously stated, is to stay in, then he’s gonna be our nominee and we need to all get behind him.”

When asked by States Newsroom whether House Democrats in vulnerable seats now face more potholes on the road to November, potentially costing the party a chance to flip the House, Johnson replied, “No, I think (Biden’s) got a strong record to run on, and the opposition, Donald Trump, has to run against that strong record. So we need to start running on our record, and against the nominee of the other party. And the American people know the difference.”

‘We concluded that Joe Biden is old’

Democratic senators, leaving a nearly two-hour private lunch meeting later Tuesday, had similar comments to their House counterparts, reiterating the president is their nominee, though worries remained.

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said that everyone knows about Biden’s age, but that alone won’t lead the party to bump him out as their nominee.

“We concluded that Joe Biden is old, and we found out, and the polling came back that he’s old,” Fetterman said. “But guess what? We also agreed that, you know, like, he’s our guy, and that’s where we’re at.”

Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a longtime friend and close ally of Biden, argued that Trump is a far worse choice than Biden.

“Donald Trump had a terrible debate,” Coons said. “Donald Trump said things on that debate stage over and over and over that were outright lies filled with vengeance, violated the basic standards of our democracy, and yet we are spending all of our time talking about one candidate’s performance and not the other. Donald Trump’s performance on that debate stage should be disqualifying.”

Coons said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke during the meeting, saying “broadly constructive things, just sort of setting the groundwork of our discussion.”

Coons said he was “not gonna get into the private conversation we just had in the caucus” when asked whether anyone at the meeting called for Biden to not be the nominee. But he added that “folks expressed a range of views in ways that I think were constructive and positive.”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ viability as a potential replacement for Biden didn’t come up during the meeting, Coons said.

Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock underlined his support for Biden following the meeting, saying “what I think is most important right now is what the American people think.”

“We’re getting feedback on that. I think it’s important for the president in this moment, in any moment, to hear what the people are saying. That’s what democracy is all about,” Warnock said. “Donald Trump, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to believe much in democracy. He said he wants to be a dictator on day one, and with their ruling several days ago, the Supreme Court is setting the table for him to continue to be a dictator. That’s what’s at stake in this election: democracy itself.”

Asked whether Biden is the best person to defeat Trump, Warnock said Biden is “making that case as campaigns do” and “hearing back from the American people.”

Asked whether Biden can win Georgia, he said: “I can tell you that no one thought I could win Georgia but I did.”

Project 2025 fears

Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont told States Newsroom that House Democrats’ meeting led to some cohesion.

“The unity as it exists is that we’re all completely committed to making sure that Trump is not the next president,” Balint said. “That’s the unity, and the unity of wanting the president to be out campaigning vigorously on his record.”

Balint, holding in her hand a copy of the Stop the Comstock Act, said, tearing up, that she worries about a nationwide abortion ban and other priorities in the far-right Project 2025 publication.

The nearly 1,000-page policy roadmap is a product of the Heritage Foundation in anticipation of Republicans gaining control of the White House and Congress. Trump and his campaign have repeatedly distanced themselves from the document.

“Trump is a demagogue, I am the child of a man whose father was killed in the Holocaust. I’m really like ‘What can I do day in and day out to make sure we don’t lose the House?’ because we are the blue line,” Balint said.

The Comstock Act is an 1873 law that could provide an avenue for a future Republican presidential administration to ban the mailing of abortion medications. Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced companion bills to repeal the sections of the law that could hinder abortion access.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told States Newsroom that Biden has “actively thrown weight behind the lawmaking and policy ideas of younger and progressive members,” and that she remains committed to supporting him.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said after the Democratic senators’ meeting that he wasn’t “even gonna get into that,” when asked whether he wants Biden to remain the nominee.

“The fact is, the president has said he is running,” Wyden said. “So, that’s the lay of the land today.”

Swing state senators

Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, who faces a challenging reelection bid this November, said he didn’t want to characterize what other senators said about Biden during the meeting.

Casey said it’s up to political pundits and analysts to determine how Biden remaining the presidential nominee might affect the Pennsylvania race as well as others.

“I’ve got to continue to do my work in the Senate and also to be a candidate, so I can’t sit around being an analyst,” Casey said.

When back home in the Keystone State, he said, voters tend to talk to him more about issues they’re concerned about, including reproductive rights and the cost of living.

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly declined to comment on Democrats’ meeting and referred to his prior statements about Biden.

Kelly on Monday evening told reporters that the differences between Biden and Trump “could not be clearer.”

Biden, he said, has “delivered to the American people over and over again,” on climate change, prescription drug prices, infrastructure, and semiconductor manufacturing.

“On the other hand, you have Donald Trump, a convicted felon and now a criminal who has no business running for president,” Kelly said.

“Joe Biden is our nominee. Millions of people voted for Joe Biden to be on the ballot,” Kelly said. “He’s on the ballot, and I truly believe he’s gonna win in November.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said when asked about Biden during a press conference that “as I’ve said before, I’m with Joe.”

Schumer declined to answer questions about Democrats potentially nominating a different presidential candidate and about Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray’s statement Monday night critical of Biden.

“As I’ve said before, I’m with Joe,” Schumer reiterated.

Murray’s statement said Biden “must seriously consider the best way to preserve his incredible legacy and secure it for the future.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, deferred a question about Biden’s debate performance to Democratic leadership.

Maryland, New Mexico senators comment

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said he had to leave the lunch early for a previously scheduled meeting with the Dutch prime minister, but said he doesn’t have concerns Biden will make the right choice on whether to stay in the race.

“Look, as I’ve said, I trust the president’s judgment, he understands the stakes in this election and he’s in the best position to make this decision,” Van Hollen said.

New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján said Democrats discussed several issues during the closed-door meeting, but declined to talk about what was said, though he reiterated his support for Biden’s candidacy.

“I look forward to voting for President Joe Biden to be president of the United States,” Luján said.

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff said the meeting was “a constructive caucus discussion,” and that he supports Biden’s reelection campaign.

Delaware Sen. Tom Carper said he spoke during the meeting, but declined to specify what his comments were.

Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper said the lunch went “fine,” but declined to opine on where the party was moving on Biden’s nomination nor his own beliefs about the president’s ongoing candidacy.

Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed declined to answer any questions after the lunch.

House Republicans: ‘Democrats had misled us’

House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana on Tuesday accused the Democratic Party of covering up Biden’s “glaring problem.”

“The Democrats had misled us. They need to be held accountable for that,” he said, during the House GOP’s regularly scheduled press conference.

Johnson also said the 25th Amendment “is appropriate” in this situation. If Biden’s Cabinet declares he is unfit for office, Vice President Kamala Harris would take over presidential duties.

“The notion that the 25th Amendment would be appropriate here is something that most Republicans and frankly, most Americans would agree with,” he said.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota and Elise Stefanik of New York, chair of the House Republican Conference, echoed Johnson’s concerns.

Stefanik called Biden “unfit to be our commander in chief” and accused the Democratic Party of concealing Biden’s mental acuity. “The cover-up is over and accountability is here.”

Jacob Fischler contributed to this report.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill on June 26, 2024. Luna recently introduced a resolution to fine Attorney General Merrick Garland for not turning over audio tapes of President Joe Biden’s interview with then-Justice Department special counsel Robert K. Hur. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna plans to force a vote as early as next week to invoke the House’s rarely used power of “inherent contempt” to levy a daily fine against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in an attempt to obtain audio tapes from a Justice Department special counsel’s interview of President Joe Biden.

The strategy represents a change from an earlier effort by Luna to pursue a vote to have the House sergeant-at-arms detain Garland.

Luna introduced a resolution on June 28 that would levy a $10,000 daily fine on Garland until he complies with a subpoena to release the tapes of Justice Department special counsel Robert K. Hur’s interview with Biden regarding his handling of classified documents.

The resolution would use the House’s inherent contempt power to levy the fine. That power — which has not been used in nearly a century — has generally been thought to allow Congress to detain and bring to trial someone accused of contempt, leaving questions about how a fine would work.

“While pursuing a fine-based approach eliminates some of the logistical concerns and challenges related to arrest and imprisonment, other questions about how a fine would actually be enforced remain,” Molly Reynolds, senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, told States Newsroom.

Luna’s office did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment about the switch in resolutions.

Following the July 4 recess, the House is scheduled to be in session for just four days before breaking again for more than a week for the Republican National Convention.

House GOP’s push to get audio?

The latest maneuver from Luna is part of a broad attempt by the GOP to obtain the tapes of the Biden-Hur interview.

The effort has only intensified after Biden’s poor performance during the first presidential debate.

Republicans have said Biden isn’t fit to remain in the Oval Office for another four years. After the June 27 debate, even some Democrats raised concerns, with Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas calling Tuesday for the president to withdraw from his reelection campaign.

House Republicans in early June voted to hold Garland in contempt of Congress after he agreed with the president asserting executive privilege over the tapes, but the Department of Justice declined to pursue any contempt charges against Garland.

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee filed a civil lawsuit July 1 against Garland asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to overturn Biden’s assertion of executive privilege.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said last month that Republicans are “looking at all avenues” to obtain the audio tapes.

If the House passes the resolution, it’s unclear how the fine would be implemented or if any legal challenges from the Justice Department would ensue. The department declined to comment on Luna’s efforts.

Luna initially announced she would force a vote on her inherent contempt resolution June 28, but later wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that it would be brought up “this upcoming session” with Johnson’s “full support.”

“It is imperative that we do not let time lapse and that we obtain those tapes,” Luna said during an interview with Fox News that day.

Combative freshman

Luna has clashed throughout her first House term with the Biden administration, co-sponsoring resolutions to impeach officials such as U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Garland.

As a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, she’s grilled the president’s son Hunter Biden over his business ties and if those financial gains benefited the president — something House Republicans have not found any evidence of.

Luna, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, has also rebuffed establishment figures in her own party. She initially voted against former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during his bid for the gavel in January 2023.

With the support of former President Donald J. Trump, Luna’s 2022 campaign flipped Florida’s 13th Congressional District from Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, who forewent his bid for reelection in an attempt to run against Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Luna lost to Crist in 2020.

In June 2023, less than six months into her first term, the 35-year-old, who is the first Mexican American woman elected to Congress from Florida, went after Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California who was the lead House manager in the first impeachment trial against Trump.

Luna led the censure effort against Schiff for comments he made about Trump’s ties to Russia. The House agreed to the censure resolution.

Hur investigation

In January 2023, Garland tapped Hur, who was a federal prosecutor during the Trump administration, to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents.

The Department of Justice has provided a written transcript of Hur’s October 2023 interview with Biden to the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, but House Republicans have pushed for the audio since Hur finished his report earlier this year.

Hur declined to prosecute Biden. He concluded in a 388-report released in February that Biden “willfully retained” classified information during his time as vice president, but depicted Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” with whom jurors would likely sympathize.

Biden, 81, has vehemently rejected the characterization of his memory, but Republicans have sought to gain access to the audio tapes for a more detailed record of the interview.

‘Cumbersome’ and ‘inefficient” process’

Luna has argued the process of inherent contempt would likely be quicker than waiting on a lawsuit to obtain the tapes, which the House Judiciary Committee is also pursuing.

But House parliamentary experts wrote in a massive and detailed guide to the chamber this year that Congress has largely abandoned inherent contempt because it is a lengthy and burdensome process.

The 1,073-page document, written by two former House parliamentarians and the current parliamentarian, notes that the inherent contempt power “has not been invoked by the House in recent years because of the time-consuming nature of the trial and because the jurisdiction of the House cannot extend beyond the end of a Congress.”

The last time either chamber used inherent contempt was 1935, the guide said.

And the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said the procedure is typically a multi-step process that “has been described by some observers as cumbersome, inefficient.”

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson leads a panel discussion Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in the U.S. Capitol on “protecting Title IX and women’s sports” with (left to right) Betsy DeVos, former U.S. Education secretary; Riley Gaines, former NCAA swimmer; Heather Higgins, chairwoman of the Independent Women’s Forum; and U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Prominent members of the GOP on Wednesday strongly criticized the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX, including U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx and former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

As the fate of a key Biden administration effort to protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination in schools hangs in the balance, Republicans at the state and federal levels are ramping up their attempts to stop the measure from taking effect.

“As you know, the Department of Education … has gone about its effort to rewrite Title IX, and it’s having a very devastating effect. It’s something that is a great alarm to all of us,” said Johnson during a panel discussion at the U.S. Capitol on “protecting Title IX and women’s sports” to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of its adoption.

“There’s much more to do, and Congress is not just sitting around,” Johnson added, noting that the House would vote soon on legislation to reverse the final rule.

The speaker hails from Louisiana, one of 10 states that has so far temporarily blocked the administration’s final rule for Title IX from taking effect on Aug. 1.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana issued a temporary injunction barring the final regulation from taking effect in the state, plus in Idaho, Mississippi and Montana.

Separately, Chief Judge Danny Reeves of the U.S. District Court in Eastern Kentucky also temporarily blocked the final rule in the Bluegrass State, as well as in Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Virginia.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education confirmed that it is appealing both of these rulings, saying the agency has “asked the trial courts to allow the bulk of the final rule to take effect in these states as scheduled, on August 1, while the appeals are pending.”

Republican attorneys general from 26 states have quickly scrambled to challenge the Biden administration’s final rule, with states banding together against the new regulation. Some states’ attorneys general, like Texas and Oklahoma, have sued the administration individually.

Rule issued in April

In April, the U.S. Department of Education released its final rule for Title IX, which “protects against discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.”

Part of the final rule also “promotes accountability by requiring schools to take prompt and effective action to end any sex discrimination in their education programs or activities, prevent its recurrence, and remedy its effects,” per the department.

The updated regulations would roll back controversial changes to Title IX that DeVos oversaw while she was Education secretary during the Trump administration and were a major part of her legacy. Advocacy groups fought for years against the Trump administration rule.

“It is time to return to the original intent of Title IX and have common sense prevail again,” said DeVos, who is also the former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, during the panel discussion.

Wednesday’s panel also featured Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer, and Heather Higgins, chairwoman of the conservative Independent Women’s Forum.

Gaines, who competed for the University of Kentucky, is a leading voice in opposing transgender athletes’ participation in sports that align with their gender identity.

House vote expected?

A measure to block the rule from taking effect is set for a full House vote after the House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved legislation earlier in June that would reverse the rule under the Congressional Review Act. This is a procedural tool Congress can use to overturn certain actions from federal agencies.

Rep. Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican and the committee’s vice chair, introduced the measure, which already has over 70 GOP cosponsors.

Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, said Miller’s Congressional Review Act resolution would “roll back these new rules put out by the Biden administration that negate most of the work that was done under (Education) Secretary DeVos, which was extraordinarily thoughtful and well done.”

Republicans’ efforts have also ramped up in the Senate, where U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi Republican, introduced legislation earlier in June seeking to block the final rule via the same procedural tool. Over 30 of Hyde-Smith’s GOP colleagues are cosponsors.

Regardless of whether attempts to block the measure are successful in the House and Democratic-controlled Senate, President Joe Biden is likely to issue a veto.

LGBTQ+ advocacy group weighs in?

“Sadly, it’s no surprise that Speaker Johnson and MAGA Republicans are once again attacking transgender kids,” David Stacy, vice president of government affairs for the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, said in an emailed statement to States Newsroom.

Stacy said that while DeVos was Education secretary under Trump, she “rolled back protections for LGBTQ+ students and did nothing to ensure they could be safe from bullying, harassment and discrimination in school.”

“Every student deserves to be safe and respected in school, something Johnson and DeVos clearly don’t care about at all. All they have to offer the American people are cruel and cynical political attacks that are a desperate attempt to salvage their dysfunctional House majority,” Stacy added.

Department of Education defends rule

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said the agency “crafted the final Title IX regulations following a rigorous process to give complete effect to the Title IX statutory guarantee that no person experiences sex discrimination in federally-funded education,” echoing an earlier statement.

The spokesperson reiterated that all schools receiving federal funding are obligated to comply with the final rule as a condition of obtaining those funds.

The department has not yet finalized a separate rule that establishes new criteria for transgender athletes.

The number of federal student financial aid forms filed by graduating high school seniors is down compared to last year, after glitches and technical errors plagued the process. (Photo by sdominick/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Though the new version of the form to apply for federal financial student aid has had its fair share of highly publicized hiccups, U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal says the department has made a lot of progress in the past couple of months.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid — better known as FAFSA — got a makeover after Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in late 2020. But users faced glitches and technical errors during the Dec. 30 soft launch and past the Jan. 8 official debut for the 2024-25 form, which covers the upcoming school year.

Advocates voiced concerns over the form’s failure to adjust for inflation,?its formula miscalculation and its tax data errors, prompting processing delays the department has worked to fix. The federal agency has also taken steps to address major issues that prevented parents without Social Security numbers from completing the form.

“We’re fixing things at a rapid pace, and we’ve been keeping the community updated. We have an issues guide on the website that lets people know the problems we’re aware of and what the potential solutions are. In almost every case now, there is a way for students to submit the form,” Kvaal told States Newsroom in an interview.

“It may be a customer service experience that is not what we originally designed, and so we’re gonna continue to try and make this process easier and faster for all students, including those whose parents may not have Social Security numbers, but it is possible now for everyone to submit a FAFSA,” Kvaal said.

He oversees higher education and financial aid, including the Office of Federal Student Aid, which is the largest student financial aid provider in the country.

More than 11 million FAFSA submissions

Kvaal said the department has already received more than 11 million FAFSA submissions for the 2024-25 school year.

Last week, the department said it has made “significant progress” in closing the gap in FAFSA submissions to an 8 percent decrease compared to this time last year, down from a nearly 40 percent decrease in March.

For both undergraduate and graduate students, the FAFSA form is a key indicator for financial aid eligibility, which comes in the form of grants, loans, work-study funds and scholarships.

The form is also not exclusive to first-year college students, and those already enrolled must renew their application each academic year.

‘It’s still not perfect for all applicants’?

Though the department has made progress to address major known issues, “the system, certainly six months after it opened, is still not a totally functioning system,” according to MorraLee Keller, senior director of strategic programming at the National College Attainment Network, a nonprofit membership and advocacy organization.

“Right now, the form is working for a lot of applicants, but it’s still not perfect for all applicants,” she added.

The organization monitors FAFSA completion for graduating high school seniors nationally and compares those figures to the previous school year. Keller said “one thing that we’re seeing is the class of ‘24, at this point in time, is almost 13 percentage points behind in the rate at which the seniors have filed a FAFSA” this past academic year.

“We are significantly behind in the number of FAFSAs, particularly for our graduating seniors, so that is ultimately probably going to have an impact in enrollment because completing a FAFSA is a pretty good indicator about whether you plan to enroll in college this fall,” Keller said.

Tennessee, Louisiana, Illinois, Washington, D.C., and Texas have the highest percentages of high school seniors completing the FAFSA form, according to NCAN’s tracker. Nevada, Florida, Arizona, Utah and Alaska have the lowest percentages.

Meanwhile, Kvaal said he thinks “it’s important to note that just about everybody can get their FAFSA through the process now.” He added that “there are some specific instructions that people in certain situations need to follow carefully” and encouraged applicants to pay careful attention to the instructions and help hints.

“The FAFSA is broadly available, and it’s not accurate to say that there are students who can’t get through them,” he said.

New strategy

In early May, the federal agency launched the FAFSA Student Support Strategy, which has now provided more than “$30 million in funding and counting and has reached more than 180 organizations across the country” in an attempt to get more students to complete the form, according to the department.

The department also recently announced that Jeremy Singer, current president of the College Board, would serve as the new FAFSA executive advisor.

In late May, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the department has taken steps aimed at “modernizing” the Office of Federal Student Aid, including the department’s search for a new chief operating officer, per a news release. That person would replace Richard Cordray, who, in the midst of backlash and criticism toward the department over the botched rollout, said in April he would depart.

Part of the department’s efforts, according to Cardona, also include conducting a “full-scale review” of the Office of Federal Student Aid’s “current and historical organization, management, staffing, workflow structures, business processes, and operations” and hiring an independent consulting firm.

The department is also reviewing “contracts and acquisition procedures” in an effort to hold vendors accountable, Cardona said.

If I haven’t filled out the 2024-25 FAFSA form, what should I do??

Though students have until June 30, 2025, to complete the 2024-25 FAFSA form, deadlines vary based on individual colleges and states.

Kvaal encouraged anyone considering college this fall to visit Studentaid.gov and fill out the FAFSA as soon as possible.

“If you had been hearing that there were challenges with the form or people were encountering obstacles, we’ve made a lot of progress in making the form work in recent weeks, and most people, their form is getting through in one to three days, and we’re sending information to colleges that they need to make financial aid offers,” he said.

Keller also encouraged families to not give up on completing the form.

“The time is not gone — get your FAFSA filed this summer if you want to go to school this fall,” she said.

John Arthur, a teacher at Meadowlark Elementary in Salt Lake City, Utah, testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, June 20, 2024. (Screenshot from committee webcast)

WASHINGTON — The only reason John Arthur is able to be a public school teacher is because his wife makes much more money than he does.

Arthur —? the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year? — testified on Thursday at a hearing in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the challenges facing public school teachers.

Kentucky falls to 41st in average teacher pay

Arthur, who is also a member of the National Education Association and holds National Board Certification, pointed to pay as the main reason for both teachers leaving the profession and parents not wanting their children to become teachers.

“The No. 1 solution to addressing the issues we face must be increasing teachers’ salaries,” said Arthur, who teaches at Meadowlark Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Gemayel Keyes, a teacher at Gilbert Spruance Elementary School in Philadelphia, told the committee that even as an educator, he still has an additional part-time job.

The special education teacher spent most of his career in education as a paraprofessional. At the time he moved into that role, the starting annual salary was $16,000 and the maximum was $30,000.

“It’s still pretty much the same,” he said.

Minimum teacher salary?

Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, introduced a bill in March 2023 that would set an annual base salary of $60,000 for public elementary and secondary school teachers.

“We understand that the children, young people of this country, are our future and there is, in fact … nothing more important that we can do to provide a quality education to all of our young people, and yet, for decades, public school teachers have been overworked, underpaid, understaffed, and maybe most importantly, underappreciated,” Sanders said in his opening remarks.

“Compared to many other occupations, our public school teachers are more likely to experience high levels of anxiety, stress and burnout, which was only exacerbated by the pandemic,” he said.

Sanders said 44% of public school teachers are quitting their profession within five years, citing “the extremely low pay teachers receive” as one of the primary reasons for a massive U.S. teacher shortage.

For the 2023-24 school year, a whopping 86% of K-12 public schools in the country documented challenges in hiring teachers, according to an October report from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Maryland sets $60,000 minimum??

But a minimum annual teacher salary of $60,000 is not far off for every state.

In Maryland, the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future raises the starting salary for teachers to $60,000 a year by July 2026.

William E. Kirwan, vice chair of Maryland’s Accountability and Implementation Board, said the multi-year comprehensive plan, passed in 2021 in the Maryland General Assembly, “addresses all aspects of children’s education from birth to high school completion, including most especially, the recruitment, retention and compensation of high quality teachers.”

Kirwan said the “Blueprint’s principle for teacher compensation is that, as professionals, teachers should be compensated at the same level as other professionals requiring similar levels of education, such as architects and CPAs.”

An “allocation issue”??

Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member of the committee, dubbed Democrats’ solution of creating a federal minimum salary for teachers as a “laudable goal.”

But he noted that “the federal government dictating how states spend their money does not address the root cause of why teachers are struggling to teach in the classroom.”

“More mandates and funding cannot be the only answer we come up with. We must examine broken policies that got us here and find solutions to improve,” the Louisiana Republican said.

Nicole Neily, president and founder of Parents Defending Education, a parents’ rights group, argued that “schools don’t have a resource issue” but rather an “allocation issue.”

“There’s a saying: ‘Don’t tell me where your priorities are, show me where you spend your money, and I’ll tell you what they are.’ Education leaders routinely choose to spend money on programs and personnel that don’t directly benefit students,” said Neily.

Neily pointed to a 2021 report from the Heritage Foundation, which found that “standardized test results show that achievement gaps are growing wider over time in districts with (chief diversity officers).” Such staff members commonly encourage efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion in schools.

Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said “higher pay does not ease the burden we place on teachers or add hours to their day.”

“By all means, raise teacher pay, but do not assume that it will solve teacher shortages or keep good teachers in the classroom. Poor training, deteriorating classroom conditions, shoddy curriculum and spiraling demands have made an already challenging job nearly impossible to do well and sustainably,” he added.

Members of Congress are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media companies and their algorithms, while also giving parents more controls in trying to protect their kids online.?(Photo by Peter Cade/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Attempts to get kids off of their phones are ramping up in Congress, despite intense lobbying by social media giants and pushback by those worried about violations of First Amendment speech rights.

Lawmakers are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media companies and their algorithms, while also giving parents more controls in trying to protect their kids online.

A bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators, led by Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, introduced a new version of a bill that would set a minimum age of 13 to access social media platforms.

It would also block the use of “addictive algorithms” on social media platforms for those under 17 and limit social media use in schools. In late April, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, but the committee said it does not have a markup date. ?

TikTok divestment

Major social media platforms, such as TikTok and Meta’s Instagram, have been criticized for their algorithms that can influence kids’ and teens’ mental health.

In late April, President Joe Biden signed a bill that forces TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance within the next year or face a possible ban in the United States. The law — baked into a massive foreign aid package — grew primarily out of privacy and national security concerns. The app and its parent company have both sued to block the potential ban.

Responding to the unhappiness among parents, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized in January to distraught family members of social media victims during a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee surrounding child safety online.

Yet Meta and ByteDance have also invested significantly in their lobbying efforts, according to an April report from the group Issue One.

The nonpartisan nonprofit found that in the first quarter of 2024, Meta spent a whopping $7.64 million on lobbying and had one lobbyist for every eight members of Congress. Similarly, ByteDance spent $2.68 million and had one lobbyist for every 11 congressional members.

Kids online safety bill

Other bipartisan congressional efforts are also targeting the algorithms of social media companies to protect kids’ safety online.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, introduced a new version of their legislation, the Kids Online Safety Act, in May 2023. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approved the bill, and in December it was placed on the Senate legislative calendar.

Part of the revised measure, which has garnered the support of over half the U.S. Senate, would require platforms to give minors the option to “protect their information, disable addictive product features, and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations” and allow for certain parental controls to “spot harmful behaviors.”

The bill would also provide a platform for parents and teachers to report such behavior. Lawmakers in the U.S. House introduced a companion bill in April. A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee forwarded the bill to the full committee in late May.

Free speech worries?

But attempts to either tailor or limit minors’ interactions on social media have been met with objections tied to potential First Amendment violations.

“Any government limits on what we can say or see online are likely to be unconstitutional,” said Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit that defends free speech rights.

Terr said many of these types of bills “hit an unconstitutional trifecta,” where “they threaten the First Amendment rights of the platforms to disseminate speech, the First Amendment rights of minors to access lawful content and the rights of adults to speak or access content anonymously because they may have to provide information about their identity in order to prove their age.”

“Parents are in the best position to set rules about their kids’ social media use, and the government shouldn’t usurp parental authority,” Terr said. He also noted that when it comes to laws attempting to regulate social media or speech in general, “one-size-fits-all approaches don’t work.”

“A problem with these laws, too, is who decides what’s ‘appropriate’? There’s vagueness issues with these laws, and the problem with that is that it gives the government a lot of discretion to just insert its own subjective determination of what they consider is appropriate and substituting its judgment for that of private platforms and the people who use them,” he added.

Warnings about kids’ health?

In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy publicly warned that, despite more research needed to grasp social media’s impact and some evidence outlining potential benefits for kids and teens, “there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”

Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School, told States Newsroom that the science is clearest around sleep.

“When kids are using media for long periods of time, or when it’s upsetting and kind of makes them more alert or kind of dysregulated or when it’s used in the evening hours — all of those are linked with worse sleep, and sleep is so essential for child development,” said Radesky, chair of the Council on Communications and Media at the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP is among the over 200 organizations supporting the Kids Online Safety Act.

“We don’t want to pursue legislation that somehow is regulating the content that can show up online because that’s a real First Amendment problem, so you don’t want to have something that’s a law that says this sort of content can’t show up in kids’ feeds. But what we are asking is for some accountability,” Radesky said.

Radesky added that so much of the work of making sure kids have safe experiences online falls on their parents. “That’s exhausting, and it’s something we don’t all know how to do,” she said.

She said parents should feel free to talk to their members of Congress and say: “Listen, parenting is hard enough right now. Please do something to clean up the digital ecosystem, so that this can be easier, and the default experience for kids can lean more towards healthy and positive and less towards these risks that have been documented over the past five to 10 years.”

Phones in the classroom

At the state level, there is also a push to get kids off their phones in the classroom, with several states either passing or introducing bills barring students from using their phones while in class, as Stateline reported in March.

Last year, Florida became the first state to require public schools to prohibit students from using their cell phones in class.

Indiana has also followed with similar action. Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill into law earlier this year that — with some exceptions — requires schools to bar the use of wireless communication devices during class.

Some lawmakers in Congress have also sought concrete studies regarding the use of cell phones in schools, including Sens. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, and Democrat Tim Kaine, of Virginia.

The two introduced legislation in November that would require the U.S. Department of Education to “conduct a study regarding the use of mobile devices in elementary and secondary schools, and to establish a pilot program of awarding grants to enable certain schools to create a school environment free of mobile devices.” In November, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

The U.S. Capitol is shown on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt)

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans on Tuesday argued that migrants coming from the southern border and into K-12 schools have strained resources and teacher-student ratios while leaving a “staggering” financial impact throughout the United States.

The hearing in the U.S. House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education came the same day as President Joe Biden’s executive order, which will shut down asylum requests at the U.S.-Mexico border when the daily unauthorized crossings surpass 2,500 migrants.

The GOP has made immigration a central part of its platform, and former President Donald Trump —? the presumptive Republican nominee — has committed to cracking down on immigration if he is reelected in November, including mass deportation.

“President Biden has failed to secure the southern border, and the surge of migrants places an immense strain on cities, states and local school districts,” said U.S. Rep. Aaron Bean, chair of the subcommittee and a Republican from Florida.

“If we assume that every (undocumented) immigrant child encountered by border patrol enters the school system, the cost nationwide is easily over $2 billion,” he said. Though Bean did not cite a source, similar statistics appear in a February fact sheet from the Heritage Foundation.

The foundation is advising states to “require school districts to collect enrollment data by immigration status,” make that data publicly available and pass legislation that would require public schools to charge tuition for “unaccompanied migrant children” and children residing in the United States with undocumented parents.

Democrats questioned the intention of the GOP-led subcommittee hearing, pointing out that immigration policies are outside of the committee’s jurisdiction.

Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, a Democrat from Oregon, said the committee should instead focus on “the development and support of our nation’s public education system” and “uphold the fundamental right of all children within our borders to receive a free, quality public education.”

Bonamici and other Democrats referenced the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1982 landmark ruling in Plyler v. Doe, which entitles children in the U.S. to a public education, regardless of their immigration status.

Overcrowded schools

Bean said challenges for schools when educating children who are undocumented include strains on teacher-student ratios, overcrowded classrooms and the need for new facilities.

“Bottom line — it’s wreaking havoc on our school systems across America … Teaching’s hard enough, but without the unknown factor of just massive numbers coming in, it’s almost an impossible task,” Bean said in his closing remarks.

The hearing featured testimony from Danyela Souza Egorov, vice president of New York City’s District 2 Community Education Council; Amalia Chamorro, director of the Education Policy Project at UnidosUS; Sheena Rodriguez, president of Alliance for a Safe Texas; and Mari Barke, trustee for California’s Orange County Board of Education.

Chamorro said “educating immigrant children is a smart economic investment.” UnidosUS is the largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.

Chamorro also said it’s up to Congress to “ensure that schools have the resources they need to support all students” and “address our chronically underfunded public education system.”

But Egorov, Rodriguez and Barke said local problems are mounting.

Rodriguez noted that the “the grim negative impact of the border crisis on public schools reaches far beyond the quality of education and financial strain.”

Barke said “our educational systems in Orange County in California are undeniably strained, and the governor and legislature are preparing to cut billions of dollars in the state budget.”

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, chairwoman of the broader House committee and a Republican from North Carolina, said it is difficult to find English as a Second Language, or ESL, teachers.

Twenty-six states projected a shortage of ESL teachers in the 2023-2024 school year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education.

“I’m from North Carolina, and it’s already hard enough to find any teachers, let alone teachers who can speak other languages in addition to English, and we know that people are coming in from 160 different countries, so it is not just Spanish and English that we need, but it’s lots of different languages,” Foxx said.

May 31 was the the official last day of the pandemic-era Affordable Connectivity Program, which has provided up to $30 in discounts on internet bills for eligible families and as much as $75 on qualifying tribal lands.?(Photo by Mayur Kakade/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — With May 31 marking the official last day of the pandemic-era Affordable Connectivity Program, the Biden administration is spotlighting commitments from over a dozen internet service providers to offer plans at $30 or less to low-income households through 2024.

This comes as Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the short-term program had to end due to a lack of funding, which both she and President Joe Biden are continuing to urge Congress to restore.

For over 23 million households, the Affordable Connectivity Program has provided up to $30 in monthly discounts on internet bills for eligible families and as much as $75 a month for those on qualifying tribal lands.

“The (Affordable Connectivity Program) filled an important gap that provider low-income programs, state and local affordability programs, and the Lifeline program cannot fully address,” Rosenworcel wrote in letters to congressional leaders on Thursday.

“Millions of ACP households nationwide, and households that may be eligible but have not yet enrolled, are looking to Congress to provide the funding needed to keep the ACP up and running.”

Separately, the Lifeline program provides a $9.25 monthly broadband service benefit for eligible households, according to the FCC.

But the commission said this is not an ACP replacement, and that “??not all ACP households will qualify for Lifeline, and by statute, many ACP providers are not eligible to participate in the Lifeline program.”

Rosenworcel has sent monthly letters to congressional leaders outlining the need for additional funding to keep the low-cost internet program running.

Her additional letters on Thursday went to the chairs and ranking members of House and Senate appropriations panels, including Reps. David Joyce of Ohio and Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Sens. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee.

Rosenworcel also sent another round of letters to the chair and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington and Ted Cruz of Texas, and the chair and ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and Frank Pallone of New Jersey.

In her most recent letter, Rosenworcel said it was “regrettable” that the FCC must end the “most successful broadband affordability program in our Nation’s history.”

She highlighted some of the possible impacts of the program ending for many military families and millions of households with school-aged children enrolled in the program.

Additionally, Rosenworcel said “the end of ACP will also impact approximately 3.4 million rural households and over 300,000 households in Tribal areas.”

Meanwhile, the administration said over a dozen providers committed to offering “their current ACP subscribers and other eligible households a high-speed internet plan for $30 per month or less, with no fees and data caps, until the end of 2024.”

The providers include: Allo Fiber; Altafiber (and Hawaiian Telcom); Astound Broadband; AT&T; Comcast; Cox; IdeaTek; Mediacom; MLGC; Optimum; Spectrum (Charter Communications); Starry; Verizon; and Vermont Telephone Company, per the administration, which noted that, together, the providers cover up to 10 million households enrolled in the program.

In October, Biden asked Congress for $6 billion in a supplemental funding request to keep the ACP funding running through the end of 2024.

The Biden administration on Wednesday said it will provide funding to help school districts purchase clean school buses, most of them electric. Shown is a yellow electric school bus plugged into a charging station. (Photo by TW Farlow/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — As part of its ongoing effort to replace diesel-fueled school buses, the Biden administration on Wednesday said it will provide approximately 530 school districts across nearly all states with almost $1 billion to help them purchase clean school buses.

The initiative, part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program rebate competition, will give funds to school districts in 47 states and the District of Columbia to help them buy over 3,400 clean school buses. Alaska, Hawaii and Nevada are not part of this round of funding.

Nearly all of the clean school buses purchased will be electric, at 92%, according to the administration.

“This announcement is not just about clean school buses, it’s about the bigger picture,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said during a call with reporters on Tuesday, prior to the announcement. “We are improving air quality for our children, reducing greenhouse gas pollution and expanding our nation’s leadership in developing the clean vehicles of the future.”

Low-income, rural and tribal communities — accounting for approximately 45% of the selected projects —? are slated to receive roughly 67% of the total funding, per the administration.

Regan noted how “low-income communities and communities of color have long felt the disproportionate impacts of air pollution leading to severe health outcomes that continue to impact these populations.”

As for business and economic opportunities, Regan pointed to the development of new, well-paying manufacturing jobs and investment in local businesses stemming from the increasing demand for these clean school buses.

“As more and more schools make the switch to electric buses, there will be a need for American-made batteries, charging stations and service providers to maintain the buses supercharging and reinvigorating local economies,” he added.

The Clean School Bus Program has now collectively awarded nearly $3 billion to fund approximately 8,500 electric and alternative fuel buses for over 1,000 communities across the United States, according to the administration.

The program started through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden, which includes $5 billion over five years to transform the country’s existing school buses with “zero-emission and low-emission models,” per the EPA.

Among many negative health and environmental effects, especially for communities of color, diesel exhaust exposure can lead to major health conditions such as asthma and respiratory illnesses, according to the EPA.

Exposure to diesel exhaust can also “worsen existing heart and lung disease, especially in children and the elderly,” the agency said.

From left, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts; Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island; Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power; and U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Democrat from California, urge big oil companies be held accountable for high gas prices on Thursday, May 23, 2024, outside of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — As Democrats continue to ramp up their push against the oil industry, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and others on Thursday called out big oil companies and their executives for high gas prices heading into the heavily traveled Memorial Day weekend.

Republicans in turn have blamed President Joe Biden’s energy policies for high gas prices, with the potency of the issue for both parties illustrated by a new poll in seven battleground states that shows the economy and cost of living at the top of voters’ minds in the 2024 campaign for the presidency.

The Biden administration earlier this week said 1 million gallons of oil will be released from reserves in the northeastern United States, in an effort to curb prices ahead of summer driving. And officials with the Biden campaign pointed out Thursday a Wall Street Journal report that prices are trending downward even before the weekend.

The national average price of a gallon of gas was $3.615 Thursday, according to automotive group AAA, down from an all-time high of $5.016 in June 2022.

The Democratic lawmakers at Thursday’s press conference outside the U.S. Capitol included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and U.S. Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island; House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse of Colorado; and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nanette Barragán and Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, both of California.

“Instead of working to lower gas prices for Americans ahead of a busy Memorial Day weekend, Big Oil companies, executives, are huddling to find ways to keep prices high and keep their profits soaring,” Schumer said. The press conference was co-hosted by Climate Power, a strategic communications organization in the climate space and the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group.

Earlier in May, the Federal Trade Commission alleged that Scott Sheffield, the CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources, “attempted to collude with the representatives of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a related cartel of other oil-producing countries known as OPEC+ to reduce output of oil and gas, which would result in Americans paying higher prices at the pump, to inflate profits for his company.”

During Thursday’s event, Schumer said he would be sending a letter to the U.S. Justice Department next week “calling on them to investigate and prosecute collusion and price fixing that may have increased gasoline, fuel and energy costs, based on the report done by the FTC, when they unfortunately allowed (Exxon) Mobil to … merge with Pioneer (Natural Resources), which I thought was a bad idea.”

Schumer added that “the federal government must use every tool at our disposal to investigate the oil industry, hold accountable liable actors and illegal activities. There’s something wrong — very wrong — when big oil companies rake in the cash by polluting the atmosphere and at the expense of the American people.”

Trump and oil companies

The Senate majority leader and his fellow Democratic lawmakers also called out former President Donald Trump over recent media reports saying Trump engaged in a quid pro quo offer with major oil companies’ CEOs in April.

Schumer said “one of the ways big oil companies spend their time these days is cozying up to Donald Trump, who, as we all know, is no enemy to big oil.”

Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president, setting him up for a rematch with Biden.

Separately on Thursday, Whitehouse, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, and Oregon U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said their respective committees launched a joint investigation into Trump’s “quid pro quo offer to big oil.”

The senators are asking nine oil and gas companies and their trade associations for information and documents pertaining to the purported quid pro quo proposed by Trump.

Neguse, a Colorado Democrat, said that for him, “all of this boils down to three words: polluters over people.” He noted that “over the last 16, 17 months, we have witnessed in the House an extreme MAGA Republican majority that has taken every opportunity to pass bill after bill to give giveaways to oil companies and to corporate polluters near and far.”

Republicans blame Biden

Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group, is seeking to turn the arguments back on Democrats. The group this week announced a series of events across the country where it will partner with local gas stations to roll back gasoline prices to what they were when Biden took office.

In March, the House GOP Conference said “the surging prices at the pump Americans are facing are a direct result from Joe Biden’s unprecedented war on American energy, which Biden launched on his first day in office in an attempt to appease his Far Left base by implementing his radical Green New Deal agenda.”

Republicans cited the U.S. Energy Department’s move to pause approvals of new exports of liquified natural gas to all countries without a free trade agreement with the United States, as well as the decision early in Biden’s tenure to kill the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline.

Meanwhile, also Thursday, polling and analysis released by The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, in collaboration with Democratic polling firm BSG and Republican polling firm GS Strategy Group, found “the defining issue for this contest is a more traditional one: the economy.”

Over half of likely voters from swing states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, viewed inflation and the cost of living as the “worst/weakest” part of the economy, according to the report. In seven states combined, Trump led Biden 47% to 44% in a head-to-head matchup. Trump led in all states except Wisconsin.

Neither a spokesperson for the Trump Organization nor his 2024 presidential campaign immediately responded to a request for comment Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, calls on the U.S. Education Department to cut ties with Missouri student loan servicer MOHELA on Wednesday, May 22, 2024, outside the U.S. Capitol. (Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — A group of advocates and progressive Democratic lawmakers called on the U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday to end its contract with MOHELA, a Missouri-based student loan servicer.

U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Greg Casar of Texas and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts urged the department to cut ties with MOHELA, also known as the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri, during a press conference hosted by the Debt Collective, which advocates for canceling student debt.

Advocates and the lawmakers accused MOHELA of being a predatory loan service and failing student borrowers, citing mismanagement, administrative failures and hours-long wait times for assistance.

“It is time to stop their contract, it is time to fire them, it is time to listen to the borrowers that have been speaking up about the struggles that they are facing, and it is time for us to do the right thing,” Omar said. “We are asking the administration to take this step forward because it is past time that we listen to the borrowers that have been suffering under the incompetence of MOHELA.”

The Education Department did not respond on the record to a request for comment Wednesday.

In moves it has characterized as bolstering protections for borrowers, the department launched a new accountability initiative in November and has transitioned to new loan servicing contracts.

‘Nothing short of a nightmare’

MOHELA is at the center of two class-action lawsuits in recent months accusing the nonprofit of a “failure to timely process and render decisions for student loan borrowers enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.”

One of the lawsuits names MOHELA alone, while the other names both the nonprofit and the U.S. Education Department.

The student loan servicer has also taken heat from the Student Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group, and the American Federation of Teachers, a major teachers’ union. In a report from February, the two entities accused the nonprofit of failing “to perform basic servicing functions.”

They also claimed that “more than four in ten student loan borrowers MOHELA services have experienced a servicing failure since loan payments resumed in September 2023.”

In March, MOHELA sent a cease and desist letter to the Student Borrower Protection Center, accusing its report of making “false, misleading and sensationalized claims and insinuations regarding MOHELA and its business activities.”

A spokesperson for MOHELA said in an emailed statement Wednesday that “borrowers are not better off when outside groups spread false and misleading information about our work as a federal contractor for FSA.” The spokesperson added that MOHELA remains “committed to continuing to provide the highest quality of customer service to the borrowers that we serve.”

Student loan servicers are companies contracted by the federal government to handle billing and other administrative tasks regarding federal student loans, according to Federal Student Aid.

MOHELA services nearly 8 million borrowers after winning a contract in 2022 to handle the Education Department’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, said during Wednesday’s event that “at every step,” MOHELA has “failed student loan borrowers.”

“They’ve lost paperwork, they’ve given people the runaround,” Pierce said while standing next to an exhibit displaying what appeared to be a nine-hour hold time when trying to reach one of MOHELA’s customer service representatives.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, at Wednesday’s press conference said MOHELA has a “call-deflection scheme.”

“When it is critical for people to be on the phone with someone, they can’t get on the phone with someone,” Weingarten said.

Shamell Bell, a member of the Debt Collective, said her interactions with the student loan servicer have been “nothing short of a nightmare.”

Bell said she was in a “labyrinth of just false information, false promises and failures that are not just administrative errors” but also “systemic obstacles that jeopardize the financial stability and mental wellness of countless borrowers like myself.”

More student loan forgiveness?

Meanwhile, the Biden administration said earlier Wednesday that it had approved an additional $7.7 billion in student debt relief for 160,500 borrowers. The bulk of the relief — more than $5 billion —?went to nearly 67,000 borrowers partaking in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Wednesday’s move brought the administration’s total loan forgiveness to $167 billion for 4.75 million Americans.

“The Biden-Harris Administration remains persistent about our efforts to bring student debt relief to millions more across the country, and this announcement proves it,” U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “One out of every 10 federal student loan borrowers approved for debt relief means one out of every 10 borrowers now has financial breathing room and a burden lifted.”

More than half of states, all with Republican attorneys general, have sued to block a recent U.S. Department of Education final rule seeking to?protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination. (Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Twenty-six states, including Kentucky, are suing the Biden administration over changes to Title IX aiming to protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination in schools.

Less than a month after the U.S. Department of Education released its final rule seeking to protect against discrimination “based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics,” a wave of Republican attorneys general scrambled to challenge the measure.

Kentucky attorney general leading GOP effort against new Title IX rules over gender

The revised rule, which will go into effect on Aug. 1, requires schools “to take prompt and effective action when notified of conduct that reasonably may constitute sex discrimination in their education programs or activities.”

The lawsuits hail from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

All of the attorneys general in the 26 states suing over the final rule are part of the Republicans Attorneys General Association.

Various advocacy groups and school boards have also tacked onto the states’ legal actions. The lawsuits carry similar language and arguments in vehemently opposing the final rule. They say the new regulations raise First Amendment concerns and accuse the rule of violating the Administrative Procedure Act.

LGBTQ+ advocates say the revised rule offers students a needed protection and complies with existing law.

“Our kids’ experience in schools should be about learning, about making friends and growing as a young person. LGBTQ+ students deserve those same opportunities,” Sarah Warbelow, vice president of legal at the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, said in an emailed statement. “In bringing these lawsuits, these state attorneys general are attempting to rob LGBTQ+ students of their rights, illustrating a complete disregard for the humanity of LGBTQ+ students.”

GOP states band together against new regulations

In the most recent effort, Alaska, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming sued the Biden administration on Tuesday, accusing the Department of Education of seeking to “politicize our country’s educational system to conform to the radical ideological views of the Biden administration and its allies.”

The lawsuit claims that under the updated regulations, teachers, coaches and administrators would have to “acknowledge, affirm, and validate students’ ‘gender identities’ regardless of the speakers’ own religious beliefs on the matter in violation of the First Amendment.”

In another lawsuit, a group of Southern states —? Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina — sued the administration in federal court in Alabama over the new regulations.

Republican Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said President Joe Biden “has brazenly attempted to use federal funding to force radical gender ideology onto states that reject it at the ballot box” since he took office.

“Now our schoolchildren are the target. The threat is that if Alabama’s public schools and universities do not conform, then the federal government will take away our funding,” Marshall said in a press release.

The lawsuit also drew praise from Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said “Biden is abusing his constitutional authority to push an ideological agenda that harms women and girls and conflicts with the truth.” He added that the Sunshine State will “not comply” and instead “fight back against Biden’s harmful agenda.”

Individual states sue the administration?

Meanwhile, some states have opted to file individual lawsuits against the administration.

In Texas, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration late last month in federal court in Amarillo. Paxton filed an amended complaint earlier this week, with two new plaintiffs added.

In an April 29 press release, Paxton said the Lone Star State “will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX at whim, destroying legal protections for women in furtherance of his radical obsession with gender ideology.”

Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration earlier this month in federal court in Oklahoma. The state’s education department also filed a separate suit against the Biden administration.

A hodgepodge of states?

In late April, Republican attorneys general in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration in federal court in Kentucky.

The states argued that the U.S. Department of Education “has used rulemaking power to convert a law designed to equalize opportunities for both sexes into a far broader regime of its own making.”

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, who is leading the complaint with Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, said in a statement last month that the Biden administration’s new rules “would rip away 50 years of Title IX’s protections for women and put entire generations of young girls at risk.”

Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi and Montana also sued the Biden administration in late April, echoing the language seen in the other related lawsuits. Seventeen local school boards in Louisiana also joined the states.

Earlier this month, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota also brought a collective legal challenge to the final rule.

A spokesperson for the Education Department said the department does not comment on pending litigation but noted that “as a condition of receiving federal funds, all federally-funded schools are obligated to comply with these final regulations.” They added that the department looks forward “to working with school communities all across the country to ensure the Title IX guarantee of nondiscrimination in school is every student’s experience.”

The department has yet to finalize a separate rule that establishes new criteria for transgender athletes. So far, 24 states have passed laws that ban transgender students from partaking in sports that align with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project.

A section of the Brown v. Board mural is seen on April 2, 2024, at the Kansas Statehouse. The mural appears outside the former Kansas Supreme Court room where 11 state cases seeking to end segregation of public schools were argued and rejected before the federal case struck down segregation in public education. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday echoed his commitment to advancing racial and educational equity while celebrating the 70th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Biden has spent this past week commemorating the anniversary of the landmark ruling in which the nation’s highest court ruled racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional. The 1954 consolidated case evolved from a challenge to the Topeka, Kansas, Board of Education and other U.S. school systems. Yet 70 years later, research has shown an increase in school segregation across the United States.

“Education is linked to freedom because to be free means to have something that no one can ever take away from you, and that’s the power of an education — that’s why the Brown decision we commemorate today is so important,” Biden said at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., during an NAACP event marking the anniversary.

In a closed-press event on Thursday, Biden met with some of the plaintiffs and families of both Brown v. Board and the cases consolidated under it. Those combined cases include Briggs v. Elliott, from South Carolina; Bolling v. Sharpe, from Washington, D.C.; Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward, from Virginia; and Gebhart v. Belton, from Delaware.

New initiatives

Earlier Friday, the administration unveiled a series of new initiatives aimed at advancing racial and educational equity.

They included $20 million in new magnet school grants for school districts in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina and Texas in an effort to “further desegregate public schools,” according to a White House fact sheet.

The administration is also starting a new technical assistance center to “help states and school districts provide more equitable and adequate approaches to school funding.” The U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights is releasing data on students’ access to and enrollment in math and science courses. The White House also said it would be taking new actions to preserve African American history, such as protecting historic sites and increasing literature access.

During his Friday remarks, Biden said the administration is working to support Black children, noting how, on average, Black children start school nearly seven months behind their white peers when it comes to reading. He attributed this to “the nation’s legacy of discrimination.”

Relieving student loan debt, investing in HBCUs

As the student loan crisis persists, Biden also said “too many young people — Black students — are dealing with unsustainable debt in exchange for a college degree.” So far, the administration has relieved upwards of $160 billion in student debt for nearly 4.6 million borrowers.

Biden said the administration has invested more than $16 billion in historically Black colleges and universities. “HBCUs also don’t have endowments like other colleges and universities that are able to fund research labs and so much more. Well, (Vice President) Kamala (Harris) and I made a commitment to lift HBCUs up and we’re keeping that commitment,” he said.

The president is set to deliver the commencement address at Morehouse College, a historically Black men’s college, on Sunday in Atlanta.

Iuard Caitlin Clark #22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes listens as the crowd cheers after breaking the NCAA women’s all-time scoring record during the game against the Michigan Wolverines at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Feb. 15, 2024 in Iowa City, Iowa. Clark now plays in the WNBA. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — A congressional watchdog in a new report called on the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to improve its enforcement of Title IX compliance in college athletics.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office in the report issued Thursday appeared critical of the OCR’s oversight in expanding opportunities for women in college athletics, saying the office “conducts few proactive activities.” Women take part in college sports at lower rates than men, even though they enroll at higher rates, the report found.

The criticism also arrives at a time when women’s college sports, particularly basketball, have recently gained more popularity and viewership. The prominence of Caitlin Clark, the former guard for the University of Iowa women’s basketball team who became the NCAA Division I’s all-time leading scorer across women’s and men’s basketball, has helped propel the momentum.

During the more than 50 years since its adoption, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 has prohibited discrimination based on sex in activities or programs receiving federal funding. The federal law also mandates “schools to provide equal opportunity based on sex.” The department’s OCR is tasked with enforcing compliance of Title IX.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, released the GAO report with U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.

“Every student who wants to play a sport in college should have a fair and equal opportunity to do so,” said Scott, a Democrat from Virginia.

“Regrettably, today’s GAO report confirms that while female college enrollment numbers outpace male enrollment, opportunities for female athletes significantly lag behind their male counterparts,” he said.

Bonamici, a Democrat from Oregon, said the federal law “sets a standard of equal opportunity that too many schools have failed to meet.” She added that the GAO report “shows that women enroll in college at a higher rate than men but consistently participate in college athletics at a lower rate than men.”

Gap in women’s and men’s sports participation?

The report highlighted the persistent gap in college sports participation between women and men. Approximately 93% of colleges saw lower athletic participation rates for women relative to their enrollment rate during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Title IX also requires schools receiving federal funding to have participation numbers of men and women in college sports to be “substantially proportionate to their overall enrollment,” according to the Department of Education.

Yet, women’s overall athletic participation rate fell 14 percentage points behind their enrollment rate in the 2021-2022 academic year, the GAO found.

Communication delays

The GAO noted that the OCR made “limited use of available data for oversight purposes” and did not “always communicate with colleges in a timely way during monitoring.”

On average, it took half a year for the OCR to respond to colleges after “they submitted their Title IX athletics monitoring reports,” per the GAO.

The congressional watchdog found “years-long delays in communication between OCR and some colleges.” In 10 of 26 cases, it took at least a year or longer for the OCR to communicate with a college. In one case, it took nearly seven years for the OCR to approve the college’s proposed methodology for assessing whether it complied with Title IX athletics requirements, the GAO said.

In response to the report, Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights at the department, said the department is “fully committed to work with GAO to ensure the recommendations are implemented, to the extent possible.”

The attention paid to women’s sports is on the rise, thanks in part to Clark’s popularity on the court. Clark now plays for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever.
In April, the women’s basketball championship garnered more viewers compared to the men’s championship game for the first time in NCAA history, according to Nielsen, which measures media audiences.