The White House is pulling the nomination of Dave Weldon for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director, Fox News Digital has learned. Weldon was expected to have his confirmation hearing on Thursday.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced that it had canceled its hearing in a statement on Thursday morning. However, it confirmed that lawmakers would still vote on the nominations of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya for National Institutes of Health (NIH) director and Dr. Marty Makary for Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
"It became clear that the votes weren't there in the Senate for him to get confirmed. This would have been a futile effort," a source familiar with the nomination told Fox News Digital.
Weldon, a medical doctor and former Florida congressman, has made statements against vaccines in the past, which were expected to be brought up during his hearing. In a 2007 statement, Weldon said there were "legitimate questions" about potential links between vaccines and childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism.
Additionally, during his time in Congress, he introduced legislation with former Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., that would have banned mercury from vaccines.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) top lawyer, who was appointed to the position just this week, has resigned, according to a Thursday morning post on X.
"Hilary K. Perkins has resigned from her position as Chief Counsel of FDA, effectively immediately," the FDA's official X account posted.
Perkins – a former assistant director under Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ) in the consumer protection agency – was selected on Tuesday by acting general Sean Keveney in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a "reorganization" effort by the department, according to an HHS news release.
She previously defended abortion pill access in a high-profile case under Biden's DOJ, and HHS officials were reportedly unhappy with the decision to appoint Perkins but were overruled by White House officials, according to a report from Axios this week.
"We’ve been able to recruit higher quality personnel to HHS than in any time in its history," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said in a statement Tuesday at the announcement of Perkins' assignment on Tuesday. "These are individuals who will return the agency to gold-standard science, evidence-based medicine, and recalibrate its trajectory toward public health rather than industry profiteering."
While on a visit to the New York state Capitol, President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan warned migrant "sanctuary" jurisdictions to "get out of the way" or they will "get exactly what they don’t want, more ICE agents in your community."
New York state law restricts local and state law enforcement agencies from complying with ICE detainers or holding illegal immigrants solely based on their immigration status. Another policy, known as the "Green Light Law," allows illegal immigrants to obtain drivers' licenses valid in the state of New York.
Surrounded by Republican state lawmakers in the state Capitol building, Homan renewed his promise to deport "the worst first" and decried non-cooperation policies such as New York’s, saying that they pose a threat to federal agents and communities.
He urged local and state law enforcement authorities to "let us in the jails" voluntarily but vowed that sanctuary policies would not stand in the way of the Trump administration’s deportation plans.
"This is an attack on immigration enforcement, that’s plain what it is," he said.
Homan said the result of not complying with immigration authorities would be more ICE agents in the community rather than less.
"You’re not going to stop us, New York state, you’ve got to change the sanctuary status. If you don’t, get out of the way, we’re going to do our job," he said. "We’ll double the man-force if we have to. Rather than one officer arresting a bad guy, now I have to send a whole team."
Homan also slammed New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who has said she supports deporting criminal illegals but has criticized much of Trump’s recent immigration actions.
"She’s talking out of both sides of her mouth, saying, ‘I want criminal aliens to be deported,’ while she wants all the roadblocks [so that] it’s not happening," he said.
"Releasing a public safety threat back into the public is just stupid, it’s just common sense," he said. "You have forced us into the community because you have failed to let us in the jail."
Assemblyman Matt Slater, one of the New York Republicans present for Homan's visit, told Fox News Digital, "It is reassuring to know that we finally have partners on the federal level like President Trump and Director Homan who are prioritizing national security and public safety."
"Director Homan sent a clear message that New York's dangerous sanctuary policies that protect criminal illegal immigrants and the Green Light Law will no longer be acceptable," he said.
Hochul did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by the time of publication.
Senate Republicans could then approve the bill on their own with a simple majority.
Senate Democrats are pushing their own, monthlong spending package. However, if the Senate OKs that, the House and Senate are out of sync. The House is now out of session for a week and a half.
Democrats are really torn. They do not want to support the GOP plan. They also want to make this battle a hill to die on to fight back against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday that his party would oppose the spending bill that Republicans drafted and passed through the House, as the Friday midnight deadline looms for Congress to take action to avoid a government shutdown.
"Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort. But Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their Continuing Resolution without any input from Congressional Democrats," Schumer wrote on X, echoing comments he made on the Senate floor.
"Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to pass the House CR," he wrote. "Our caucus is unified on a clean 30-day CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass. We should vote on that."
Schumer called for a one-month spending bill to keep the government open until April 11 so that Democrats can better negotiate a deal. The continuing resolution, which passed through the House Tuesday on a nearly party-line vote of 217-213, would keep the government open for the next six months, for the rest of the fiscal year which ends Sept. 30.
The minority leader addressed the Senate floor after a lunch meeting with Democratic senators on Wednesday, as some were reportedly concerned that a shutdown would be more grim for their party despite them broadly being against the CR.
"There are not the votes right now to pass it," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told reporters after the meeting, according to NBC News. "Democrats had nothing to do with this bill. And we want an opportunity to get an amendment vote or two. And so that’s what we are insisting on."
"Quite frankly, both outcomes are bad," Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., added, according to NBC. "Elections have consequences, but this is an extreme bill. If it passes, it will hurt a lot of ordinary people on the ground. If the government shuts down, that will hurt a lot of ordinary people on the ground, and so that is the dilemma in which we found ourselves."
Warnock said the additional problem he has with the bill "is that I think it advances this project that we’re seeing come from the executive branch, this power grab that does not respect that the power of the purse is with the Congress."
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., has not voiced whether he would support the bill in the upper chamber.
"I’m weighing the badness of each option," Kelly said, acknowledging that supporting the six-month stopgap would set a bad precedent that Republicans can put together funding bills without Democrats involved in the negotiation process.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said he would support the continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown, while Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., said Democrats "are unified in not wanting to shut down the government" but should vote for a short-term bill.
President Donald Trump supports the six-month continuing resolution so Republicans can focus their time early in his second term on advancing his agenda on the border and taxes.
The bill, which bolsters military spending while slashing non-defense domestic programs, needs 60 votes to avoid a filibuster. Republicans hold 53 Senate seats.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has indicated he will reject the continuing resolution, so the GOP needs at least eight Democrats to cross the aisle in order to avoid a filibuster.
Republicans argue it is too late to swap in a one-month bill, as the House is already on recess until March 24.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., signaled to reporters that he is open to having conversations with Democrats on adding potential amendments to the CR.
Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., torched Republicans for keeping Democrats from the negotiation table thus far.
"Republicans are in charge of the Senate, in charge of the House, and have the White House. The American people know who’s in charge," he reportedly said. "It’s ridiculous for Republicans to try to blame the party that’s the minority everywhere."
Politico reported that multiple White House sources say that Schumer will allow enough centrist Democrats to join Republicans in supporting the continuing resolution, despite his vocal opposition of the measure on the Senate floor Wednesday.
"They’re 100 percent gonna swallow it," one White House official reportedly told the outlet. "They’re totally screwed."
FIRST ON FOX: Grassrootsparental rights advocacy group Parents Defending Education (PDE) is urging the Trump administration to reverse "unconstitutional" Biden-era policies that penalize schools for racial disparities in discipline, as outlined in a Dear Colleague letter issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (DOE) in 2023.
The Biden-era document pushes schools "to adopt racially discriminatory discipline policies" or face the loss of federal funding, according to PDE.
"Despite clear Supreme Court precedent holding that disparate impact alone cannot support a Title VI violation, the School Discipline Letter states that racial disparities in school discipline outcomes are prima facie evidence of racial discrimination, even when a school’s disciplinary code is race neutral," the group wrote to the Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Thursday morning. "Moreover, the letter threatens school districts with the loss of federal funds if they do not adjust their procedures to eliminate such disparities."
Biden's DOJ and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released the guide in 2023 for schools to address racial discrimination in K-12 student discipline.
"Discrimination in school discipline can have devastating long-term consequences on students and their future opportunities," then-Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a DOJ release.
"The Justice Department Civil Rights Division uses our federal civil rights laws to protect students from discriminatory discipline, including discrimination in suspensions and expulsions, law enforcement referrals and school-based arrests. The investigations that we describe demonstrate how students may experience discrimination based on multiple facets of their identities and reflect our joint commitment to fully protect all students."
In the letter, the DOE and DOJ agencies wrote that their agencies engaged in "decades of enforcement activity" demonstrating "that discrimination based on race, color, and national origin in student discipline was, and continues to be, a significant concern."
"Discrimination in student discipline forecloses opportunities for students, pushing them out of the classroom and diverting them from a path to success in school and beyond. Significant disparities by race – beginning as early as preschool – have persisted in the application of student discipline in schools," the Dear Colleague letter reads. "While racial disparities in student discipline alone do not violate the law, ensuring compliance with Federal nondiscrimination obligations can involve examining the underlying causes of such disparities."
PDE spokesperson Erika Sanzi told Fox News Digital it's "hard to believe" that the previous administration "thought it was noble, let alone legal, to instruct schools to adopt racially discriminatory discipline policies in order to eliminate racial disparities in their discipline data then threaten them with loss of funds if they didn't fall in line."
At the time of the guide's release, the agencies completed investigations into 14 school districts across 10 states, including Alabama, Arizona, California and others. The investigations focused on whether the schools were unfairly disciplining Black, Latino and Native American students. Concerns included the use of suspensions, expulsions, school-based arrests and other actions the administration deemed discriminatory.
"Not surprisingly, districts got skittish about suspending too many students from certain racial groups for chronically disruptive and even violent behavior, and schools descended into chaos," Sanzi said. "It's long overdue that we rescind this letter … it shouldn't be controversial to state unequivocally that school policies must be race neutral."
The DOE, which President Donald Trump hopes to fully dismantle, has reversed course on much of the previous administration's "woke" and DEI-related policies during his first three months in office. It also launched an investigation this week into 60 universities due to allegations of antisemitism and violence against Jewish students since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.
President Donald Trump is continuing to push for a "gold card" visa that would allow foreign nationals to buy their way into the U.S., replacing a controversial visa scheme that has been dogged for years by concerns about potential abuse by China.
Trump again touted his plan for the gold card, which would allow people to buy a pathway to citizenship for $5 million, on "Sunday Morning Futures."
"I believe that Apple and all these companies that can't get people to come out of college and come because they get thrown out, I think of it, you graduate number one at the Wharton School of Finance or Harvard or Stanford, and you get thrown out of the country. You can't stay more than one day. And they want to hire these people, but they can't. They've complained to me about it. Now they can buy a gold card, and they can take that gold card and make it a part of their deal to get these top students," Trump said on Sunday.
"You're going to have a lot of companies buying gold cards. So for $5 million now, it's a lot of money when you add it up, if we sell a lot of them," he said, later describing it as a "green card on steroids."
Host Maria Bartiromo asked Trump about concerns that the Chinese may exploit it.
"They may, and they may, but they don't have to do that. They can do it in other ways," Trump said.
The visa would replace the EB-5 investor visa program. That program was established in the 1990s and typically required an investment of $1 million, but that could be as low as $500,000 in areas classified as high poverty, and the creation of at least 10 jobs.
There had been unsuccessful efforts to reform the program in both the Obama and Trump administrations amid concerns that the program had been used by the Chinese Communist Party.
"Although the EB-5 program’s goal of stimulating capital investment and job creation in the United States is laudable, it has become clear in recent years that the CCP may be abusing the program to gain access to U.S. permanent residency for their members," Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee said in 2020.
They cited statistics that show that between 2012 and 2018, nearly 80% of nearly 10,000 visas went to Chinese-born investors and that the majority of investors in the backlog were Chinese.
It also involved the creation of "regional centers" that pooled the visa money and funded large investments across the country. While intended to promote growth in poor or rural areas, the drawing of regional maps around specific impoverished pockets was used to pump money into luxury projects in places like New York City and San Francisco.
A bipartisan attempt to reform the program was blocked in 2021 and funding for the program was allowed to expire. It was later resurrected in 2022 with reforms introduced by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
The reforms aimed to tackle fraud, and included audits, background checks and site visits for EB-5 projects, as well as tighter definitions of terms like "capital" to prevent abuse. It also increased the level of funding needed for high poverty areas to $800,000. Of the 10,000 EB-5s made available each year, 2,000 will be earmarked for rural or high poverty areas.
Provisions also include increased Department of Homeland Security (DHS) powers to vet foreign capital to make sure it is lawfully sourced, and requiring foreign agents and third-party promoters of the program to register with DHS.
However, the EB-5 continues to draw criticism, with some immigration hawks saying it did not solve the fundamental issues with the program. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently described the program as "poorly overseen, poorly executed."
Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation, shared those concerns about EB-5.
"With any immigration benefit in America, if you offer it, they will come, and too often seek or use the benefit fraudulently. The EB-5 investor visa program is no exception, as Commerce Secretary Lutnick mentioned. Examples of fraud that program sees include false job creation claims, bogus projects, and pyramid investment schemes," she said.
"Aliens view immigration benefit fraud as low risk, high reward because it is so rarely investigated, let alone punished. It is one reason we have over 9 million immigration benefits applications pending at DHS and another nearly 4 million immigration cases pending at DOJ," she said.
"It is important to scrutinize the current backlogs for immigration benefit fraud, deny those cases, and deport the alien applicants, which helps accomplish an administration priority – mass deportations," she added.
Republicans have identified Georgia’s U.S. Senate election in 2026 as an opportunity to widen their margin over Democrats in the U.S. Senate. After Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's announcement that she will not seek re-election in New Hampshire, all eyes are on Georgia’s Senate race.
"Every battleground state — Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire and Minnesota – is in play, and we play to win," Nick Puglia, National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) regional press secretary, said in a statement to Fox News Digital after Shaheen’s announcement Wednesday.
Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., the first-term senator who helped secure a Democratic majority in 2021, is one of the only Democratic senators up for re-election in a state President Donald Trump won in 2024. Trump won battleground Georgia by just over two percentage points in 2024.
"Jon Ossoff is a Democrat with extreme and reckless policies," Puglia added. "Ossoff wants biological males to be allowed to compete in women’s sports, took a backseat after the tragic murder of Laken Riley and is too weak to stand up to pro-Hamas radicals in his party. Georgians deserve better."
Ossoff's office did not reply to Fox News Digital's request for comment by the deadline of this article.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the popular term-limited Republican, is the GOP’s ideal candidate in 2026 as it challenges Ossoff and seeks to expand its 53-47 Senate majority.
While the governor has not announced a formal bid for the U.S. Senate in 2026, Kemp acknowledged in an interview with Fox News Digital last month, "We’ll have something to say on that down the road."
"We need to flip that seat," Kemp said. "We should have a Republican in that seat, and I believe we'll have one after the '26 election."
Ossoff, 38, became the first millennial elected to the U.S. Senate in 2021, unseating former Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., in a runoff election.
During his fourth year in office, Ossoff highlighted "historic upgrades for Georgia’s infrastructure through the bipartisan infrastructure law," his commitment to supporting Georgia veterans, efforts to secure relief after Hurricane Helene, his public safety initiatives and work to expand healthcare across the state.
Ossoff has issued a series of press releases countering Trump’s executive actions since he returned to the White House in January. Ossoff has led efforts to unfreeze federal funding, raised concern over programs cut by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and rejected the Department of Veterans Affairs' plans to cut 80,000 jobs.
The Georgia senator voted against a bill last week that would have prevented biological males from participating in women’s and girls sports, telling The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a statement, "This bill was overreach."
The New York Times reported last month that a bipartisan group of Jewish leaders in Atlanta asked Kemp to consider running for Ossoff’s senate seat. The letter came after Ossoff voted to block a weapons transfer to Israel and criticized Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza. Ossoff is Georgia’s first Jewish senator.
Ossoff was one of 12 Senate Democrats who voted to pass the Laken Riley Act, named for the 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered by an illegal immigrant while jogging at the University of Georgia last year. The Laken Riley Act imposes increased penalties for undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in the United States.
Prior to serving in the U.S. Senate, Ossoff narrowly lost his campaign to represent Georgia’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2017.
In addition to Georgia, the NRSC has identified New Hampshire, Michigan and Minnesota as key battleground states for the 2026 midterm elections.
Shaheen’s announcement that she will not seek re-election in New Hampshire could further complicate the Democrats’ efforts to regain control of the U.S. Senate. However, it has been 15 years since Republicans last won a Senate election in New Hampshire.
"Another one! Shaheen's retirement is welcome news for Granite Staters eager for new leadership. New Hampshire has a proud tradition of electing commonsense Republicans and will do so again in 2026," Sen. Tim Scott, the NRSC chair, said in a statement to Fox News after her announcement.
Republicans also have their eyes on Michigan, where Democratic Sen. Gary Peters announced he will not seek re-election next year. Trump won Michigan by just over a percentage point in 2024.
Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., also took her name out of the running for another term in the U.S. Senate. Trump lost Minnesota by over four points to former Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz, Minnesota's governor.
The company’s global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that content with community notes applied will not be limited in distribution to users nor have penalties imposed.
Meta, in January, ended its fact-checking program and lifted restrictions on speech on the platform to "restore free expression" across Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms. Meta said its content moderation practices had "gone too far."
"We had a third-party, fact-checking program, which was well-intentioned at the beginning but proved to be really prone to partisan political bias and destroyed a lot of trust and credibility in the system," Kaplan said. "We decided to replace that system, starting in the United States with a crowdsourced, community-based approach, which we announced in January."
Next week, Meta is opening the new community notes program for users to write and rate notes on content across Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
"We’ve developed a waitlist that actually has a couple of hundred thousand people on it, a broad cross-section of Americans who use Facebook and Instagram who want to be able to add context to the content that they are seeing when they think it is misleading," Kaplan said. "And the great thing about community notes is that, first of all, instead of a handful of so-called experts like the third-party fact-checkers, it’s our community, which is broad based, ideologically diverse people from across the political spectrum."
Meta will begin by gradually and randomly admitting people off the waitlist and will take time to test the writing and rating system before any notes are published.
Meta will not decide what gets rated or what gets written but rather the contributors from the Facebook, Instagram and Threads communities, the company told Fox News Digital.
Kaplan told Fox News Digital that Meta is borrowing the algorithm used by X, which the company has open-sourced from its system.
"The algorithm only applies a community note when people who normally disagree agree that something is misleading," Kaplan said. "And that’s the way that you ensure that the bias that crept into the third-party fact-checking system isn’t a part of this system."
Kaplan said all content is subject to community notes, except for advertisements. But contributors can submit notes on almost any other form of content, including posts by Meta, Meta executives, politicians and other public figures.
"Another thing that it won’t do that the third-party fact-checking program did is it doesn’t apply any penalty," Kaplan explained.
"The third-party fact-checking program, in addition to the bias, had penalties attached to it, where if something was rated false, we would dramatically reduce its distribution," Kaplan continued. "And that turned a program that was intended to be about providing additional information into one that was essentially a censorship tool."
Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was put in place after the 2016 election and had been used to "manage content" and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to "political pressure," executives said, but they admitted the system had "gone too far."
"The community notes program is just about providing additional information and context so people can make their own decisions, but it doesn’t apply any distribution penalties or limit the flow of information through the algorithm," Kaplan said.
Under the third-party fact-checking program, fact-checked posts often had their distribution reduced across platforms. Meta said that will not be the case with posts that have community notes applied to them, and it will not affect who can see the content or how widely it can be shared.
Kaplan said Meta believes users "should see both the posts and then also the additional information to give them context about the post."
"We want to make sure that the full range of information is provided," he said.
The community notes will be limited to 500 characters and will be written by contributors in the Meta community notes program.
"Individual members of the community will write and submit notes, and then other members of the community will get to say, ‘Yeah, that looks right to me,’ within the system," he said. "And once the algorithm determines that it received a critical mass of support from people who usually disagree, that is the check on the bias."
"All the changes we made in January were in the service of returning to our roots of free expression, and the third-party fact-checking program has become an impediment to that," Kaplan said. "A community-based system that empowers our users to just provide additional information that people find helpful, I think, is a really big improvement on voice and expression on the platform."
As for who can contribute community notes, Meta told Fox News Digital that contributors must be over 18 years old and have an account that is more than six months old and in good standing. The user must also have either a verified phone number or be enrolled in two-factor authentication.
The community notes feature will be available in six languages commonly used in the United States to start, including English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Portuguese. Meta will expand to other languages down the line.
EXCLUSIVE: A new proposal would expand which military families will qualify for lifetime National Park passes.
The "Benefits that Endure for Lifetimes of Service (BELO'S) Act" would apply to Gold Star families and service members who died from a "service-connected illnesses or service-related incident," like a training accident while in the United States, serious illness or an injury.
Currently, Gold Star families and veterans can obtain a free lifetime pass, as well as anybody with a "permanent disability" regardless of military status.
The legislation is named after the late U.S. Army First Sergeant Marc Belo, who died from cancer related to his military service in May 2024. Belo worked closely alongside Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., the bill’s sponsor, including on a deployment in 2012.
"I’m proud to introduce the BELOS Act, honoring my dear friend and fellow solider, First Sergeant Marc Belo," Evans told Fox News Digital in a statement.
"Marc was a giant— a true leader, role model, and the godfather of flying in our unit. When Marc passed away last year, he left a hole in the hearts of all who knew him. I’m proud to honor him by ensuring families of fallen heroes are never forgotten," he added.
For the current edibility, the passes are offered as part of an effort with the National Parks Service and Operation Live Well, but the bill modifies the Federal Land Recreation Enhancement Act to go beyond just those who died in the usual "qualifying situation" that Gold Star families are determined by.
The bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., and has been referred to the House Natural Resources Committee and the House Agriculture Committee.
An Obama-appointed federal judge ordered Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reveal its plans to downsize the government and to identify all its employees, among other actions.
The directives from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan come as 14 Democratic state attorneys general are suing President Donald Trump, Musk and DOGE, arguing that Musk is unconstitutionally wielding power, according to Politico. Chutkan gave Musk and DOGE three weeks to produce the information, which ultimately will help her decide whether to block DOGE’s operations altogether, it added.
The ruling issued Wednesday requires Musk and DOGE to, among other directives:
The directives also call for admissions that "Elon Musk has directed actions of DOGE personnel" and that "Elon Musk is not supervised by any Officer of the United States other than the President of the United States."
The White House did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.
"The burden to Defendants is minimized by the narrow time period for responsive materials, the exclusion of electronic communications, explicitly exempting President Trump from the requests, extending Defendants’ time to respond, and denying Plaintiffs’ request to notice depositions," Chutkan said in her decision.
"Plantiffs' Discovery Requests shall be limited to information and materials regarding agencies, employees, contracts, grants, federal funding, legal agreements, databases, or data management systems that involve or engage with Plaintiff States; including entities and institutions operated or funded by Plaintiff States," she added.
Republicans are ramping up pressure on Senate Democrats ahead of a vote on the House-passed stopgap spending bill to keep the government open, even dubbing a potential funding lapse as a "Schumer shutdown."
"If they want to shut it down, it's on them," Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told reporters. "That'll be a Schumer shutdown."
Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., recently stressed this point in an op-ed for Fox News, writing, "If there is a shutdown, it will be driven by and directed by the Democrats."
Earlier in the week, House Republicans passed a short-term spending bill, called a continuing resolution (CR), which would keep spending levels the same as fiscal year 2024 until Oct. 1. If a spending bill is not passed by Friday, the government will enter into a partial shutdown.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., took to the chamber floor on Wednesday and said, "Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR," which he slammed for being a "partisan path" to funding the government.
The resolution would notably keep spending levels as they were when former President Joe Biden was in office.
Instead, Schumer said Senate Democrats were interested in passing a "clean" monthlong stopgap bill.
This was echoed by Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who said Wednesday, "Those votes exist on a 30-day CR, without a doubt."
"If the Republicans would bring it to the floor," he added.
But Republicans have made it clear they want to move forward with the House-passed bill.
"The thing that bugs me about this is, keep in mind, this same CR was voted for with these spending levels [in] September and December. So what's the difference now?" Mullin said.
"These same employees that they've been fighting for supposedly, now they're going to yield literally all the authority to the White House because the White House is going to be able to deem them essential and non-essential," he said.
Mullin said Schumer refused to bring 11 of 12 appropriations bills to the Senate floor for votes in the last Congress, despite them having been advanced out of committee. The senator further faulted Democrats for not engaging in negotiations on a spending deal until the last minute. He said Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., only recently came to the table to discuss it with Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine.
A spokesperson for Murray told Fox News Digital in a statement, "For months, Senator Murray has remained at the table ready to negotiate and pass bipartisan funding bills—and she stands ready to work with the Senate Republican majority to immediately pass a short-term stopgap to prevent a shutdown. In fact, she and her Democratic colleagues pressed to get government funding done in December—but Speaker Johnson chose to kick the can down the road and walk away from bipartisan talks."
A representative for Schumer did not provide comment in time for publication.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sounded off on the potential funding lapse, saying, "We all know the Democrats want a shutdown."
"The American people agree with reducing federal spending, getting this country back on the right track. And the Democrats are so opposed to it, they're willing to push to a shutdown. It's all on them," she told reporters.
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said in a statement, "Republicans are doing the right thing for the American people by making sure our government stays open."
However, "Democrats are sacrificing the good of hardworking Americans on the altar of their hatred for Donald Trump. They should reverse course and join Republicans in keeping the lights on in the federal government. Enough with the political games."
Votes on beginning the process to consider the stopgap bill are expected to occur on Thursday, depending on whether Republicans and Democrats come to an agreement to skip lengthy procedural votes that are routine for most votes.
After referring to Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware as "Mr. McBride" during a congressional hearing this week, Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, said he is not obligated to engage in McBride's "fantasy."
While discussing the issue, Self referred to McBride – who identifies as a transgender woman – using male pronouns.
"Well, Michael, I'm a retired Green Beret. I'm not even sure what all the fuss is about," Self told conservative commentator Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire during an interview.
"I mean, he is allowed to live his life — in fact, I spent 25 years on active duty defending his right to live his life as he chooses. But I don't have to participate in his fantasy," Self said.
Rep. Mary Miller, who referred to McBride as "the gentleman from Delaware, Mr. McBride," when recognizing the lawmaker for a floor speech last month, agreed with Self's sentiments, declaring in a post on X, "Exactly! No one should be forced to go along with the Democrats’ delusions. Thank you, @RepKeithSelf, for your boldness."
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., also expressed his support for Self's position, tweeting, "#GoodMan."
McBride referred to Self as "Madam chair" during a hearing on Tuesday after Self, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Europe subcommittee, recognized McBride as "the representative from Delaware, Mr. McBride."
Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., halted the hearing over the issue, demanding that Self introduce McBride the "right way."
"You will not continue" the hearing "with me unless you introduce a duly-elected representative the right way!" Keating declared.
In response to the ultimatum, Self declared, "This hearing is adjourned."
"No matter how I'm treated by some colleagues, nothing diminishes my awe and gratitude at getting to represent Delaware in Congress. It is truly the honor and privilege of a lifetime. I simply want to serve and to try to make this world a better place," McBride tweeted on Tuesday night.
The recent cancelation of $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University by the Trump administration's Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism was seen as a major wake-up call to the country's universities.
In its press release, the task force announced that the "decisive action" is "a notice to every school and university that receives federal dollars."
Leo Terrell, leader of the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, told Fox News Digital that Columbia was an initial target for funding cuts because the school has been "in my opinion, the worst of the worst when it comes to allowing this type of conduct to take place and to continue."
Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive director of the Orthodox Union, told Fox News Digital that "the more dramatic action that the [Trump] administration seems ready to take … seems to be the necessary approach for something as urgent as what we have been facing." Hauer added that his community has "a lot of hope."
Hauer added that recent protests at Columbia University and Barnard College "reminded us how alive the issue [of campus antisemitism] is."
Terrell said President Donald Trump’s executive order directing increased efforts to fight antisemitism "set the tone for every single agency" involved in the task force, which includes the Departments of Justice, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and State, in addition to the U.S. General Services Administration and the FBI. Terrell said newly confirmed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon "is involved in this extensively, per the directive from [U.S. Attorney General] Pam Bondi."
He says experts within his task force will be assessing schools based on about nine criteria to determine whether they are adequately protecting Jewish students. In addition to looking for evidence of hate crimes and examining schools’ tax-exempt status, Terrell said the task force will search for violations of Title VI and Title VII in the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Title VI protects Americans who engage in programs that receive federal funds from discrimination based upon race, color and national origin. Former President Joe Biden’s administration used Title VI when the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights examined hostile antisemitic environments on K-12 and college campuses. Title VII prevents federal employment discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex or color.
The task force’s move at Columbia follows weeks of protests at the university and affiliated Barnard College. In January, students stormed a Columbia classroom and "allegedly threw around [fliers] filled with hateful speech." The following month, more than 50 protesters took over a building at Barnard College and were said to have assaulted an employee.
During a March 5 protest on Barnard’s campus, protesters were pictured passing out pamphlets from the "Hamas media office," in addition to pictures of former Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah and stickers featuring former chair of the Hamas terror organization Yahya Sinwar, according to the Times of Israel. In a press release, Columbia confirmed that four of its students were arrested during the Barnard "disruption." The students were subsequently "suspended and restricted from campus."
The situation at Columbia has grown more complex after former student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for allegedly advocating for Hamas. Terrell said Khalil’s arrest was not conducted at the behest of the task force but explained that "all of this is coming out of the Trump executive order."
A Columbia representative did not respond to questions from Fox News Digital about the cancellation of its grants, its posture toward ICE on campus or whether it plans to continue employing anti-Israel professors who are accused of spreading antisemitic views.
Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, released a statement on March 7 in which she said "Columbia is taking the government’s action very seriously." Armstrong sought to "assure the entire Columbia community that we are committed to working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns. To that end, Columbia can, and will, continue to take serious action toward combatting antisemitism on our campus. This is our number one priority."
When it comes to demonstrating their effective efforts to combat antisemitism, Terrell said schools must "earn trust." Citing as an example "the little feeble action" Columbia has taken in response to funding cuts, Terrell asked, "Is it the money driving them or their concern for Jewish-American students?"
Terrell also said there will be no special rewards for schools that have managed antisemitism without federal involvement.
"They have a fundamental right to protect Jewish Americans and Jewish students," he said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has responded to claims that he secretly helped fund a nearly $100,000 bronze bust of himself that sits inside San Francisco City Hall, calling them "categorically false."
"To imply the Governor personally funded or proposed this effort is categorically false," a spokesperson for Newsom said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "As is customary in the city, the effort was independently proposed by a nonprofit and funded by private donors — not taxpayers… This was reported at the time and isn’t news now."
A new book, written by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter, and titled "Fool's Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, and Traitors Who Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All," claims Newsom used something called "behested payments" – or contributions from donors that politicians ask them to make on their behalf – to help fund the statue.
The book claims two companies owned by Newsom donated about $10,000 to a non-profit to help pay for the bronze bust on a black granite base that is meant to commemorate Newsom's time as mayor of the city.
"Businesses tied to the Newsom family made a modest contribution to the privately funded initiative and raised funds for the effort asreported publicly at the time," Newsom's office said. "The contributions were not in any way ‘secret’ as falsely claimed by some now."
Back in 2015, San Francisco news outlet SFGate reported that Newsom called the bust a "strange thing," and quoted him as saying: "I’m just awkward about it... But now the word is out."
Newsom told SFGate the bust was the brainchild of his supporters and that it would be paid for with private funds. According to the outlet, Newsom said he didn't even know who the supporters and fundraisers were.
The outlet also reported that Newsom sat for the bust with artist Bruce Wolfe multiple times. The work was finished in 2018, according to the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Newsom's office went on to blast the book itself, telling Fox News Digital: "This publication should come with a free tinfoil hat, a lifetime subscription to InfoWars, and a VIP dinner with Elvis Presley and Bigfoot. The authors seem allergic to basic facts — especially the kind you can confirm with a 10-second Google search, like how many children the Governor has."
Crabtree, one of the authors of the book, told Fox News Digital that the book never claims that Newsom organized the bust, and that they stand by their reporting on the project.
According to the San Francisco Arts Commission, the bust includes a bronze plaque with the following quote from Newsom:
"If you distill the essence of everything, what life is about, every single one of us is given a short moment in time on this planet and we all have one universal need and desire, and that is to love and be loved."
Newsom's office also pointed out that his bust sits next to several other busts of former city mayors, including Willie Brown, Dianne Feinstein and George Moscone.
Not surprisingly, the internet erupted with reaction to the bust – with many blasting Newsom.
"Who commissions a bust of themself? Gavin Newsom who clearly thinks very highly of himself," one user wrote on X. "That’s just kind of sick from a politician’s head. Look at me and see how great I am!"
"Gavin Newsom’s new bust is the perfect symbol of his time as governor," another user wrote. "Expensive and ultimately [u]seless for the people of California."
"San Francisco needs a BustReduction! $97K Newscum Vanity Project," another user remarked.
Newsom has emerged as somewhat of a darling for the Democrat party. He served as a surrogate for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris during their 2024 campaign. He is considered a top contender to run for president in 2028.
