WASHINGTON — Lawmakers on Capitol Hill who spoke to Fox News Digital revealed the issues they would like President Donald Trump to discuss during his address to Congress on Tuesday night.

Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech at 9 p.m. Tuesday to a joint session of Congress, meaning both members of the House and the Senate will convene at the U.S. Capitol to hear the president speak.

Democrat lawmakers said the president should focus on costs during the speech, and they hope he "keeps it short."

"The economy, how we’re going to lower the cost of groceries," Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., told Fox News Digital when asked what Trump should focus on.

TRUMP TO DELIVER FIRST ADDRESS OF HIS SECOND TERM TO JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS

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"Actually doing something that is going to help lower the cost of living for the American people, something he promised to do, but since he's become president, the cost of living has gone up for people," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. "I hope he keeps it short, because he tends to keep it long-winded."

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital that she had already heard the speech and that it is going to be "historic."

"I've heard the speech. It's going to be incredible. It's going to be epic. It's going to be historic," Mace told Fox. "You will laugh. You will cry. And you'll question what the hell has been going on the last four years under the Joe Biden administration. The Democrats have lost their effing minds."

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., who voted to impeach Trump during his first term, said the president should focus on farmers, while Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., said the president should highlight "his vision for the country."

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., thinks the president should focus on the "promises made" and "promises kept" during his first month in the White House. 

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Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said Democrats are "not working with us at all" but that Trump has "got a great track record to celebrate" during his speech.  

Roy said he hopes to hear Trump talk about "what he's accomplished the past month," specifically the issue at the border.

Some Democrats, such as Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., said they will not attend the president's speech, the first joint address of his second term.

Luka Dončić is focused on the Los Angeles Lakers, but he took time to help lift the spirits of a former Dallas Mavericks teammate who will miss the remainder of the season due to injury. 

Veteran guard Kyrie Irving tore an ACL against the Sacramento Kings Monday night, ending his season prematurely and hurting the Mavericks’ playoff hopes. 

Dončić posted on his Instagram story a picture of him and Irving embracing with the caption, "You will come back stronger mi hermano!"

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Dončić calling Irving his brother in the post clearly shows they remain friends after the shocking blockbuster trade before the NBA deadline last month. 

Dončić and Irving were a dynamic duo in the 2½ seasons they played together in Dallas, which included a run to the NBA Finals during the 2023-24 campaign. 

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Both guards averaged 40 minutes per night, while Doncic averaged 28.9 points per game to Irving’s 22.1 points. 

They were opponents Feb. 25 for the first time since the trade, and Dončić had a triple-double — 19 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists — in the Lakers’ 109-99 victory. 

Irving kept the Mavs in it with 35 points, but it wasn’t enough to get the win on the road. 

The Mavericks and Lakers face each other again April 9, but it will be without Irving, who doesn't figure to return until some time during the 2025-26 season.

That game will mark Dončić's return to American Airlines Center, where fans held a public "funeral" to cope with the shock of his departure via trade. 

Irving is a nine-time All-Star, three-time All-NBA honoree and an NBA champion with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016. 

In his 14th NBA season, Irving averaged 24.7 points, 4.6 assists and 4.8 rebounds over 50 games for the Mavericks this season. 

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Davante Adams and the New York Jets appear to be headed towards a divorce. On Tuesday, ESPN reported that the Jets plan to release the three-time All-Pro wide receiver.

News of the pending release of Adams comes just a few weeks after the team said they would part ways with veteran Aaron Rodgers. The four-time NFL MVP signal caller and the star wide receiver have maintained a close relationship since they competed alongside one another for eight seasons in Green Bay.

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Adams started the 2024 season with the Las Vegas Raiders, but he reunited with Rodgers when he was traded to the Jets in October. Gang Green acquired Rodgers in a blockbuster trade two years ago, but the move did not pan out in the way the quarterback or the team likely hoped.

Moving on from Adams will give the Jets some salary cap relief. New York inherited Adams' contract when he was traded to the team, and his salary was due to account for an estimated $38.3 million on the cap in 2025.

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Releasing the six-time Pro Bowl will clear up more than $29 million from the Jets' 2025 salary cap. New York will still have to account for a dead cap charge, albeit the negative charge pales in comparison to what the team would save in 2025.

Shortly after the season ended, Adams suggested his future with the Jets was tied to whether Rodgers returned. The Jets' previous regime brought in some players who played with Rodgers in the past. Before trading for Adams, Gang Green signed Allen Lazard in 2023.

The Jets relieved Robert Saleh of his head coaching duties in October following a 2–3 start to the season.

New York hired Aaron Glenn in January. Darren Mougey was also named the franchise's next general manager that month. Glenn and Mougey will continue to oversee an offseason that is expected to introduce sweeping changes to the Jets.

The Jets were 2-4 prior to Adams' arrival, but their record did not improve much once he joined the team. New York went 3-8 with Adams on the roster and finished with an overall record of 5-12. In 11 games with the Jets, Adams racked up 854 receiving yards.

Garrett Wilson would be the Jets' top receiver once Adams' exit becomes official. Wilson has finished each of his first three NFL seasons with at least 1,000 receiving yards. He also hauled in a career-high 7 touchdown passes.

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After a monthlong delay, President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. These countries are fighting back with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling these tariffs "very dumb."

• A top lawmaker identified the five capabilities he believes the US military needs to innovate in.
• Those areas are missiles, missile defenses, drones, counter-drone systems, and secure comms, Rep. Smith said.
• Special operations forces lead the charge on experimenting with some of those, he added.

There are five critical technologies needed to fight future wars, a top lawmaker on military and defense matters said recently.

Those areas are missiles, missile defenses, drones, counter-drone systems, and secure communications, Rep. Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat and the ranking member of the US House Armed Services Committee, said at a recent symposium in Washington, DC. He said these are the areas where the US needs to innovate and develop game-changing capabilities.

Having the best weapons within those areas, he said, is key to winning future wars. The war in Ukraine is showing just how crucial these capabilities are.

Smith pointed out that the development of countermeasures demands a constant cycle of modifying these systems. That's been seen especially in the mass use of electronic warfare to jam drones; in response, both sides of the war have developed ways to evade frequency jamming.

Beyond drones and counter-drone tech, the importance of missiles and missile defense are increasingly hot topics among military leaders as US rivals and adversaries, from Russia and China to Iran and North Korea, invest in missiles.

The US has seen interceptor stocks strained by Iranian bombardments and lower-end threats like the Houthis in Yemen, who terrorized ships in and around the Red Sea. In a great-power conflict, such as a potential war with China in the Indo-Pacific region, air defenses could be more critical to shield naval bases, air bases, and other installations, as well as ships.

The US military is also developing and fielding certain offensive missile capabilities, like the Typhon Mid-Range Capability, which is a land-based launch option for Tomahawk cruise missiles, and hypersonic missile systems.

Likewise, another key development area has been secure communications and assured navigation. Vulnerabilities in these spaces can be costly in a high-end fight.

For the US military, special operations forces can be seen leading the way in innovative iteration. "They're going to iterating on a day-in and day-out basis, and we need to learn from that and expand it," Smith said at the National Defense Industrial Association US Special Operations Symposium.

US special operators testing out uncrewed systems in different environments against different threats, for example, are at the front lines of figuring out what could be needed for a future fight.

They are often among the first to get their hands on new technologies, and they work closely with the defense industry to develop new systems, leading to real-time adaptations and rapid evolutions.

As special operations leadership said at the recent symposium, operators are going to need cheaper, more expendable weapons, like drones, in a potential future fight.

While this doesn't mean that other systems — such as F-35 Joint Strike Fighters or Ford-class aircraft carriers — aren't needed, it does raise questions about where the US Department of Defense's priorities are.

"We are spending a ton of money at DoD right now that isn't in those five things," Smith said.

The Pentagon is reshuffling the Defense Department's budget. It is still a bit murky, with submarines being among the few clearly articulated priorities, but it's moving roughly $50 billion from legacy programs to new priorities, which do appear to include missile defense and drone-related technologies.

Big challenges for the department in fielding new capabilities can be contracting issues and slow acquisition processes.

Military officials and industry partners at the NDIA special operations symposium spoke about the challenges facing the US military's acquisition process, including requirement and funding hurdles that have hindered the adoption of new weapons and capabilities.

Some speakers highlighted the agile and flexible acquisition process used by US special operations forces as a model for how the Department of Defense can better implement new technologies, especially drones and other uncrewed systems. They said that having a process able to produce a variety of systems could be vital in a longer, protracted conflict.

Others noted that a future, high-speed, highly digitized war could be even more demanding with the rise of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. Questions were raised, too, about whether decision-making will occur at such a pace that humans can't keep up. The technological space is evolving fast.

• Dolly Parton's husband, Carl Dean, died on Monday at the age of 82.
• Parton and Dean had been together for over 60 years.
• In previous interviews with BI, Parton revealed the dishes she loved to cook and share with Dean.

Dolly Parton has always used music to express love to her many fans, but whenever she came home to her husband, Carl Dean, food was their true love language.

On Monday, Parton announced that Dean had died at the age of 82, writing in an Instagram statement that "words can't do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years."

From Taco Bell to homemade fried chicken, Parton and her husband shared countless dishes in their six decades together. We looked back at some of our past interviews with Parton and the stories she shared about the couple's love for food.

Fast food and humble beginnings

Parton and Dean first locked eyes outside a laundromat on the very first day she moved to Nashville in 1964.

"I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me)," Parton wrote on her official website. "He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about."

Parton made just as much of an impression on Dean, who once told Entertainment Tonight that his first thought when they met was, "I'm gonna marry that girl."

"My second thought was, 'Lord, she's good lookin','" he recalled. "And that was the day my life began."

In her 2024 cookbook "Good Lookin' Cookin'," Parton shared memories of those early years with Dean, including Christmases before she became the queen of country music.

"Dolly and Carl couldn't afford anything more than a tiny silver tree that sat on their coffee table and a candle placed in the living room window," one passage reads.

Parton accumulated a net worth of $450 million, but she and Dean never stopped loving their fast-food dinners together.

"We love to just get out in that little camper of ours and drive through restaurants," she told Business Insider in 2022. "I love to get a good burger and french fries on the highway like everybody else, and we go get hot doughnuts now and then. It depends on what we're in the mood for. Whether it's tacos or burgers or whatever, we can go get it!"

Parton told BI that she and Carl Dean were big fans of Taco Bell, where she'd always get the same thing:

• Taco Supreme
• Mexican Pizza
• Rice and beans
• Mild sauce

Weekends filled with Southern cuisine

Parton told BI that she loved cooking delicious feasts with classic Southern dishes for her husband on weekends.

"Sometimes on Saturdays, I'll think, 'Well, I need to make a big ol' lunch for him,'" she recalled with a laugh. "Where there's pinto beans and corn bread and things like that."

Parton's skillet corn bread couldn't be easier; all you need is:

• 2 cups of self-rising cornmeal (she recommends Martha White or White Lily)
• 1-1 ½ cups of buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons of bacon drippings, plus extra for the skillet
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Whenever the couple wanted something lighter, Parton would whip up omelets, scrambled eggs (she has a trick for making them perfectly fluffy), or Dean's favorite broccoli salad, which features:

• 8 cups of broccoli florets
• 6 slices of bacon
• 1 sweet onion
• ½ cup of raisins
• ½ cup of chopped raw pecans

And, for the dressing:

• 1 cup of mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper

Nothing says love like homemade fried chicken

When we asked Parton to share the one dish everyone should make for a successful marriage, she replied: "You can't go wrong with fried chicken."

"I think everybody should really know how to make good fried chicken," Parton added. "No matter where people come from, they love good fried chicken. So you need to make good fried chicken!"

Parton and her sister, Rachel Parton George, include tips for making great fried chicken in their "Good Lookin' Cookin'" cookbook:

• Marinate the chicken overnight before frying for best results
• The marinade should include buttermilk, eggs, onion, garlic, and Tabasco
• For the breading, use all-purpose flour, cornstarch, salt, rosemary, and thyme
• Add chicken fat from the skillet to your gravy

Parton said Dean was also a huge fan of her chicken and dumplings, as well as pork chop with green peas and her mashed potatoes.

"That's one of my husband's favorites," Parton told BI. "But he likes all my cooking."

In her cookbook, Parton also wrote that food allows us to keep people "near us in our memories" because "we're honoring them through food that they loved or shared with us."

"Through the years — good times and hard — food and family have sustained us," she added.

US Health Secretary and long-standing anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing criticism for his equivocal response to the raging measles outbreak in West Texas, which as of Tuesday has grown to 159 cases, with 22 hospitalizations and one child death.

While public health officials would like to see a resounding endorsement of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine as the best way to protect children and vulnerable community members from further spread of the extremely infectious virus, Kennedy instead penned an Op-Ed for Fox News sprinkled with anti-vaccine talking points. Before noting that vaccines "protect individual children" and "contribute to community immunity," he stressed parental choice. The decision to vaccinate is "a personal one," he wrote, and merely advised parents to "consult with their healthcare providers to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine."

Further, Kennedy seemed more eager to embrace nutrition and supplements as a way to combat the potentially deadly infection. He declared that the "best defense" against infectious diseases, like the measles, is "good nutrition"—not lifesaving, highly effective vaccines.

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