The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced a further wave of contract terminations late Saturday, noting that they also identified thousands of cases where more than $300 million in loans were granted to children.
The announcements come as the Elon Musk-led agency continues to root out waste, fraud and corruption in the federal government.
DOGE said it identified that the Small Business Association (SBA) granted nearly 5,600 loans for $312 million to borrowers whose only listed owner was 11 years old or younger at the time of the loan. The loans were issued in 2020 and 2021 – while the world struggled with the COVID-19 pandemic – and it is unclear what they were used for.
"While it is possible to have business arrangements where this is legal, that is highly unlikely for these 5,593 loans, as they all also used an SSN with the incorrect name," the agency wrote.
"@DOGE and @SBAgov are working together to solve this problem this week," they added.
When making the announcement, DOGE shared a post on X from Tuesday when it also revealed that in 2020 and 2021 the SBA issued 3,095 loans for $333 million to borrowers over 115 years old.
The borrowers were still marked as alive in the Social Security database. In one case, a 157-year-old individual received $36,000 in loans, the agency said. The loans included PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) and EIDL (Economic Injury Disaster Loan) loans.
In President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday, he bashed instances where he said millions of people aged over 100 were listed on the Social Security database, with one being as old as 360 years of age.
"I know some people who are rather elderly but not quite that elderly," Trump said. "3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129. 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149. And money is being paid to many of them, and we are searching right now."
DOGE also said they canceled one Department of Agriculture contract worth $10.3 million, which it said was "ironically" initiated for "identifying unnecessary contracts."
The cost-saving agency said the termination was one of 162 nonessential contracts it canceled with a total ceiling value of $205 million and savings of $90 million. The agency did not specify what areas of the federal government the remaining contract terminations were made.
Meanwhile, Musk met with a small group of House Republicans on Wednesday evening to discuss the quest to find as much as $1 trillion in government waste, people familiar with the discussion told Fox News Digital.
"The executive DOGE team is confident, they think they can get $1 trillion," one lawmaker familiar with the meeting told Fox News Digital.
"Now, we'll see, right? And the thing is, he acknowledged that we're going to make mistakes, but we're going to correct them very quickly."
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump’s speech before a joint session of Congress put the final nail in the coffin of the Democrats' recognition as the political party of compassion – which was first promoted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt 92 years ago – former Reagan speechwriter Clark Judge told Fox News Digital.
"In the 1930s, thanks to the energy, determination and humanity that FDR projected in his first hundred days and thereafter, particularly in contrast to what was seen as four years of heartlessness and fecklessness in the Hoover administration, the Democratic Party claimed the mantle of the 'compassionate' party, the party of the common man and woman, the party of social justice. A new political era was born," Judge, who served as speechwriter and special assistant to both President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Bush, told Fox News Digital in an assessment of Trump’s speech last week.
"On Tuesday night, with the Democrats sitting on their hands through story after heartrending story of overcoming the injustices of economic mismanagement and wokeness, even as a little boy, whose political ‘incorrectness’ went no farther than loving the police even as he struggles with brain cancer, and following a mere month (a third of a hundred days) of President Trump’s rapid-fire reform rivaling FDR’s, that 92-year-old political era came to an end. For good. Forever," he added.
Trump spoke for about an hour and 40 minutes, notching the longest address a president has delivered before a joint session of Congress, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The longest speech on record was previously held by former President Bill Clinton, when he spoke for one hour and 28 minutes during his State of the Union Address in 2000.
"To my fellow citizens, America is back," Trump declared at the start of his speech.
"Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden Age of America," he said. "From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years. And we are just getting started."
Guests invited to the speech included "everyday Americans," according to first lady Melania Trump’s office, including families who have lost their loved ones to murders carried out by illegal immigrants, the widow of a slain New York Police Department officer, a teenager who was the victim of AI-generated images passed around at school, and a young cancer survivor named DJ Daniel who stole the show with his dad when Trump made his dream of becoming a cop come true.
"Joining us in the gallery tonight is a young man who truly loves our police," Trump told the crowd. "His name is DJ Daniel. He is 13 years old, and he has always dreamed of becoming a police officer. But in 2018, DJ was diagnosed with brain cancer. The doctors gave him five months at most to live. That was more than six years ago."
"Tonight, DJ, we're going to do you the biggest honor of them all," Trump said. "I am asking our new Secret Service director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service."
Judge, who is the founder of the communications firm the White House Writers Group Inc., continued in his assessment of Trump’s speech that the president’s guests last Tuesday brought "life" to the "callousness of the old order."
"Brilliant speech. Vivid. Great structure and flow. Unusually memorable illustrations. The stories of his well-selected guests in the gallery brought to undeniable life the senseless callousness of the old order and the hope for the nation and its future that the Trump administration’s electric beginning has now demonstrated is achievable," he said.
"Great use of humor, too. Particularly clever was the section that climbed the ladder of rising ages in the supposedly active recipients in the Social Security rolls, all the way to the name of a 360-year-old, whoever that turns out to be, or have been. In a moment, wringing waste, fraud, and abuse out of Social Security and much else the government does was no longer code for heartless cutting and became a duty we could all embrace and expect our government to undertake for the benefit of all," he continued.
Other former presidential speechwriters have weighed in favorably over Trump’s speech, including former President George W. Bush’s chief speechwriter, Bill McGurn, during an appearance on FOX Business’ "Mornings with Maria" on Wednesday.
"I greatly enjoyed just having to listen to it. I thought President Trump did exactly what he needed to do. It was well received by Republicans, and he played the Democrats against themselves," McGurn said.
Trump’s director of speechwriting under his first administration, Stephen Miller – who serves as White House deputy dhief of staff for policy under the second administration – shared his criticisms of Democrats on X throughout the speech.
Democrats overwhelmingly remained seated throughout Trump’s address, including when he spotlighted various Americans for nonpolitical issues, such as when Daniel was spotlighted by the president, or when Trump remembered the lives of 22-year-old Laken Riley and 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who were killed at the hands of illegal immigrants.
Democrats protested during the speech, including holding up signs reading "false," "lies," "Musk steals" and "Save Medicaid." Some female Democratic lawmakers wore pink suits in protest of policies they claim are anti-woman, and other Democrats were heard jeering Trump throughout the speech.
Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green generated headlines just as Trump began his speech on Tuesday when he shouted at the president and waved his cane at him while Speaker of the House Mike Johnson demanded order be restored. The Sergeant-at-Arms escorted Green from the chamber.
Former President Barack Obama’s speechwriters, including Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett, also weighed in on the speech on their podcast on Wednesday, saying Trump crafted a speech that was both a formal address and more relaxed, like his rally speeches.
"It was a greatest hit speech, peppered with some new stunts and interesting scary moments, but like a lot of what we've heard before, but he's really relishing in it. He's really enjoying his, he's really, he's really enjoying his time up there," Lovett said.
"I would say it was not surprising in any way," Favreau said of the speech during their "Pod Save America" broadcast.
"Like it felt what I expected, we said this before in our livestream, like a lot of accomplishments for most of the speech, very little news, new policy," he added.
David Frum, who was a speechwriter for George W. Bush, railed against the speech in an opinion piece titled, "Trump, by any means possible," published in the Atlantic last week.
"Eight years later, not even Trump’s staunchest partisans would describe his 2025 address as conciliatory," Frum wrote. "He mocked, he insulted, he called names, he appealed only to a MAGA base that does not add up to even half the electorate. But in 2025, the big question hanging over the nation’s head is not one about oratory, but about democracy. In 2017, Americans did not yet know how far Trump might go. Now they do. They only flinch from believing it."
"Had Trump lost the 2024 election, he would right now be facing sentencing for his criminal convictions in the state of New York. He would be facing criminal and civil trials in other states. He was rescued from legal troubles by political success. Now Trump’s acting in ways that seem certain to throw power away in the next round of elections – if those elections proceed as usual. If they are free and fair. If every legal voter is allowed to participate. If every legal vote is counted, whether cast in person or by mail. Those did not use to be hazardous ‘if’s. But they may be hazardous in 2026," he continued.
Conservatives and Trump allies have rallied around the speech as "historic" and "inspiring," saying the president is coming through on his campaign promises at a breakneck pace.
"In just one month under President Trump, Americans have experienced record results and the renewal of the American Dream with the triumphant return of strong leadership to the Oval Office," U.N. ambassador-designate Elise Stefanik, for example, said in a statement of the speech. "From securing the border, to cutting wasteful spending of our hard-earned taxpayer dollars, to reasserting America First peace through strength leadership to the world stage, President Trump has delivered the most exceptional first month of an American presidency in history. Promises made, promises kept. The American Golden Age is here."
Judge added in his comment to Fox Digital that Democrats’ behavior on Tuesday evening only made Trump look better as the commander in chief.
"To be fair, no matter what he did, the president would have looked good, thanks to the Democrats looking so awful. Central casting and Cecil B. DeMille could not have assembled and staged a more perfect cast of the nasty, self-enthralled, leftist elitists that has come to dominate the party’s establishment," Judge added.
With airline safety being top-of-mind after several deadly or near-death incidents on America’s tarmacs and in its skies, maintenance experts and lawmakers alike are calling for more support for specialized training in jet maintenance.
President Donald Trump has also called for reforming the education system and increasing overall government efficiency, which experts Fox News Digital spoke with said falls in line with their goals as well. Delays and gate changes at airports are also often attributed to urgent maintenance of aircraft.
In the last congressional session, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., unsuccessfully introduced the Aviation Workforce Development Act to expand the "529" qualified-tuition program to include expenses for aviation maintenance and pilot training.
Scott’s hometown of Charleston is notably a hub for the aircraft manufacturer Boeing, and the Senator said that pilot and aviation maintenance jobs are in high demand and provide well-paying careers.
"Unfortunately, the extensive and expensive training they require has undermined Americans’ ability to tap into this vital industry," Scott said, adding that he plans to reintroduce his bill in Congress soon.
"By giving parents flexibility with the hard-earned money they invest into 529 plans, this commonsense legislation provides a pathway to turn today’s students into tomorrow’s pilots. Affording our aviation sector the workforce necessary to sustain the tremendous growth South Carolina has enjoyed will ensure tourists continue to flock to our great state and will provide South Carolinians with reliable and efficient travel."
Meanwhile, the leader of one of the nation’s largest aircraft maintenance training centers said the challenge to properly staff jobs in the increasingly needed field is one that needs support to continue feeding its "pipeline of skilled professionals."
Jason Pfaff, president of Aviation Institute of Maintenance – a school with 15 campuses nationwide that aims to fill the 13,000 annual job openings in its field of study – said support is needed now for these crucial roles.
"The aviation industry relies on highly trained experts to keep planes safe and operational, yet many people don’t realize the demand for these roles—or the impact they have on air travel," Pfaff said.
He spoke of meeting with a student who felt a social stigma about pursuing an aircraft maintenance career, compared to what her friends were seeking to do in life.
However, that feeling changed when she took a tour firsthand to watch aircraft maintainers do their work.
With the deadly crash off Hain’s Point, DC into the Potomac River last month, a jet landing upside down in Toronto and several other incidents, Pfaff said that maintenance workers play a crucial role in ensuring safe air travel.
"[The institute] is thrilled to see a renewed focus on trade careers, and we applaud leaders like Senator Tim Scott for championing aviation education. Aviation maintenance isn’t just a job—it’s a high-paying, high-skill career that keeps the world moving. As industry leaders and policymakers, we have a shared responsibility to spotlight the incredible opportunities in this field."
Pfaff noted some jobs in the field earn upwards of $150,000 per year for a person in their 20s and that thousands of applicants are needed – and Scott and others are right to draw attention to the need for such jobs.
Jose-Marie Griffiths, president of Dakota State University in South Dakota, said that higher education is not "one-size-fits-all" and that universities must play a big role in meeting the changing needs of the U.S. job market – whether it be in the industrial sector or otherwise.
"Higher education institutions must adapt to meet the needs of students at different points in their lives and careers," she said.
In the House, Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, also introduced a bill similar to Scott’s in the last cycle, to increase awareness of tech education opportunities in the same way Pfaff described.
Miller’s bill, if reintroduced, would establish a $1 million grant program for such training in airline maintenance and the similar fields, with the lawmaker saying in a statement that career and technical education "empower students to explore exciting career options, discover their passions, and develop real-world skills that are in high demand."
"A four-year degree is not right for everyone, and our young people should know that they can lead successful careers based on technical expertise. We cannot continue to diminish the role of career and technical education in this country," he said, as nationwide pressure continues to direct students toward standard collegiate postsecondary education.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., has emerged into the spotlight amid a new ethics complaint due to his voting in favor of laws that ultimately funded millions in grants to a nonprofit climate group that pays his wife's consulting firm.
The couple live in Newport and have two children, Molly and Alexander, as well as two grandchildren, according to the senator's website.
Throughout her career, Whitehouse has advised nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations, a state agency, a legislative body and private companies, according to a biography from the Atlantic Council, where she was a nonresident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
Her husband was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. She first began working for the group at the center of the latest ethics complaint roughly two years later, in 2008.
Whitehouse started working for Ocean Conservancy in September 2008, according to her LinkedIn page. She served as a senior policy advisor, and her "consulting work includes providing strategic advice for the Executive Team and Program Directors, raising awareness of ocean policy issues at various workshops and conferences, and engaging key stakeholders in Ocean Conservancy's mission. Areas of policy focus include climate change, ocean plastics, and ocean planning."
Whitehouse is no longer directly employed by Ocean Conservancy, but the organization does pay her firm, Ocean Wonks LLC, for similar consulting.
She became president of Ocean Wonks LLC in 2017, and in this capacity, she "consults for various non-profit organizations, leveraging decades of scientific, regulatory, and policy experience to educate on and advocate for ocean policy issues," according to her LinkedIn.
Ocean Conservancy has notably received more than $14.2 million in federal grants since 2008, according to USASpending.gov. It was given two sizable grants in just 2024, one for $5.2 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and another for $1.7 million from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), both for marine debris cleanup. The former was funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), and the latter was funded through the EPA’s annual appropriations bill. The senator voted for both.
According to tax documents, Ocean Conservancy has paid Whitehouse a total of $2,686,800 either directly or through her firm since 2010.
This was cited in last month's complaint to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics Chairman James Lankford, R-Okla., and Vice Chairman Chris Coons, D-Del., from ethics watchdog the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT).
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Whitehouse spokesperson Stephen DeLeo said, "This is a repeat dark money performance, and the previous attempt by a dark money group to plant these same smears was roundly dismissed by Senate Ethics. The billionaires and Supreme Court capture operatives behind FACT would like to try to stop Senator Whitehouse from shining a light on what they’ve done to deprive regular people of a fair shake before the Court."
"But false accusations from far-right special interests and billionaires will not impede the Senator’s pursuit of an accountable, ethical government that responds to Americans’ needs," he added.
Whitehouse's office also provided a letter to Fox News Digital from the committee last year informing another watchdog group, Judicial Watch, that the senator's actions did not violate "federal laws, Senate rules, or other standards of conduct."
The group had filed a similar ethics complaint to FACT.
Vice President JD Vance said Saturday he was confronted by pro-Ukrainian protesters while he was out walking with his 3-year-old daughter.
"Today while walking my 3 year old daughter a group of ‘Slava Ukraini’ protesters followed us around and shouted as my daughter grew increasingly anxious and scared," Vance posted Saturday afternoon on X.
"I decided to speak with the protesters in the hopes that I could trade a few minutes of conversation for them leaving my toddler alone," he continued. "Nearly all of them agreed."
Vance said it was a "mostly respectful conversation, but if you’re chasing a 3-year-old as part of a political protest, you’re a s--- person."
"Slava Ukraini" is a battle cry for the Ukrainian armed forces, meaning "Glory to Ukraine."
While the vice president didn’t specify what he talked to the protesters about, the Trump administration has cut off funding in the last week for Ukraine and stopped intelligence sharing with the country after a tense Oval Office exchange between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump and Vance.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the vice president’s office for comment.
Tensions rose during the Oval Office meeting Feb. 28 over a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine after Zelenskyy said Russian President Vladimir Putin couldn't be trusted and had breached other agreements.
Trump and Vance then accused Zelenskyy of not being grateful for the support the U.S. has provided over the years and said the Ukrainian leader was in a "bad position" at the negotiating table.
"You're playing cards," Trump said. "You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War III. You're gambling with World War III. And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country."
After Vance told Zelenskyy Ukraine had manpower and military recruiting problems, Zelenskyy said war means "everybody has problems, even you," adding the U.S. would feel the war "in the future."
"Don't tell us what we're going to feel," Trump responded. "We're trying to solve a problem. Don't tell us what we're going to feel."
Zelenskyy was asked to leave the White House after the exchange, a scheduled news conference was canceled and a deal for Ukraine to give the U.S. its rare earth minerals was left unsigned.
The White House has said Zelenskyy must publicly apologize for the Oval Office meeting or the minerals deal won’t be considered.
Vance was also met by protesters last weekend, when his family went on a ski vacation in Vermont a day after the Feb. 28 exchange.
The protesters called him a "traitor" and told him to "go ski in Russia."
Liberal commentator Tim Miller criticized Vance over his X post Saturday, writing, "Dozens are dead in Ukraine because you stopped giving them the intelligence that protected the country from bombs so you can probably handle some yelling in a free country boss."
On Friday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was considering "large-scale" sanctions on Russia "until a ceasefire and final settlement agreement on peace is reached."
"Get to the table right now, before it is too late," he wrote of Russia and Ukraine.
Seattle’s Democratic mayor this week proposed a city ordinance that would strengthen protections for those seeking transgender care and surgeries, while calling out the Trump administration's "hateful, dangerous and discriminatory attacks" against the LGBTQ+ community.
Mayor Bruce Harrell campaigned as a moderate before his win in 2021, pushing public safety and helping local businesses, according to The Seattle Times, although he has expressed support for transgender care previously.
Harrell was elected following riots in the city after George Floyd’s death and the deadly Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone that, along with the pandemic, devastated parts of the downtown area.
Harrell "symbolized a shift toward the center, away from some of Seattle’s further-left leaders," The Seattle Times wrote in 2023 of Harrell’s 2021 win.
On Thursday, conservative Seattle radio host Jason Rantz called Harrell's proposed city legislation "extreme," but "mostly toothless" and mainly "virtue signaling" to gain favor with Seattle progressives.
Harrell proposed the legislation after President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting federal funding for providers of transgender healthcare for people under 19.
"We are proud of Seattle’s reputation as a welcoming and inclusive city for the LGBTQ+ community and recognize their immeasurable contributions to the vibrancy and culture of our city,"Harrell said in a statement this week.
"This legislation is a tangible step to strengthen local protections and stand with our LGBTQ+ community in the face of hateful, dangerous and discriminatory attacks from the Trump administration and others, ensuring that everyone has access to essential healthcare services."
Trump's executive orders have been met with lawsuits and are currently blocked by the courts.
Some hospitals across the country halted transgender care after Trump’s executive orders to avoid losing funding.
A judge in Seattle also blocked the orders in four states in one of the lawsuits filed by a group of Democrat-led states.
Harrell added that the ordinance affirms Washington state’s "Shield Law" that protects transgender people needing reproductive services and those who provide them from prosecution.
Harrell noted this week in a release by the city that he signed a bill in 2022 that made encroaching on reproductive or transgender care a misdemeanor offense.
He added that, as a member of Seattle’s City Council before his election, he was a "vocal" supporter of access to transgender care for city employees.
Several Republican senators have taken issue with the American Bar Association (ABA) and are calling for President Donald Trump to take drastic action against the group. In a letter to ABA President William Bay, lawmakers said the group, which plays a key role in judicial nominations, had become "biased and ideologically captured." Now, those lawmakers want President Trump to "remove the ABA from the judicial nomination process entirely."
Sen. Eric Schmitt, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Sen. Josh Hawley, Sen. Bernie Moreno and Sen. Mike Lee are also calling on their fellow senators to "disregard the ABA’s recommendations."
In the explosive letter there are allegations, including that the ABA has taken political stances against the Trump administration and that the group has been quiet about its taking funds from USAID. The federal aid group has been a target of the Trump administration, something the ABA has criticized.
"The ABA states, ‘Americans expect better.’ But President Trump won both electoral and popular votes. It seems Americans expect — and want — the Trump administration," the senators’ letter reads.
Sen. Schmitt tweeted out the letter along with several criticisms of the ABA’s recent actions and statements. In particular, Schmitt took issue with statements the ABA published on Feb. 10 and March 3, both of which were critical of the Trump administration.
"It has been three weeks since Inauguration Day. Most Americans recognize that newly elected leaders bring change. That is expected. But most Americans also expect that changes will take place in accordance with the rule of law," the ABA wrote in its Feb. 10 statement. Additionally, the Feb. 10 statement condemns the "dismantling of USAID."
The senators reference this statement in their letter, saying that the ABA made "inflammatory claims" against the Trump administration "without citing legal reasoning for those arguments." One of these claims is that the "dismantling of USAID" is illegal, but the senators note that the ABA does not explain why these actions are not permitted under the law.
"It is questionable whether the ABA is committed to defending liberty or its own sources of funding," the senators wrote, referring to the organization’s defense of USAID.
The lawmakers also criticized the ABA’s March 3 statement in which the group slams purported "efforts to undermine the courts." In their letter, the lawmakers note that the association did not issue any statements against former President Joe Biden when he defied the Supreme Court on student loan forgiveness.
In their letter, the senators call out the ABA’s implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion policies, which the Trump administration has been working to root out of the government.
Congressional negotiators have released a bill that, if passed, will avert a partial government shutdown during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump's term.
The 99-page legislation would roughly maintain current government funding levels through the beginning of fiscal year (FY) 2026, which begins Oct. 1. The current deadline to avert a shutdown is Friday, March 14.
House GOP leaders are confident that they can pass a bill to keep the government funded with Republican votes alone, something that has not been achieved since they took over the chamber majority in January 2023.
But on a call with reporters on Saturday morning, House Republican leadership aides emphasized that the bill was "closely coordinated" with the White House – while stopping short of saying Trump backed the measure completely, noting he has not reviewed the specific pages yet.
It includes an additional $8 billion in defense dollars in an apparent bid to ease national security hawks' concerns, while non-defense spending that Congress annually appropriates would decrease by about $13 billion.
There's also an added $6 billion for healthcare for veterans.
The White House has requested additional spending in areas that were not present in the last government funding extension, known as "anomalies."
Aides said the funding is meant to meet "an operations shortfall that goes back to the Biden administration."
"That money, most of that, has already been obligated prior to the start of this administration. So that request reflects an existing hole," a source said.
The bill also ensures that spending caps placed under a prior bipartisan agreement, the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), are followed. The FRA mandated no more than a 1% federal spending increase in FY 2025.
Cuts to non-defense discretionary spending would be found by eliminating some "side deals" made during FRA negotiations, House GOP leadership aides said. Lawmakers would also not be given an opportunity to request funding for special pet projects in their districts known as earmarks, another area that Republicans are classifying as savings.
Overall, it provides for $892.5 billion in discretionary federal defense spending, and $708 billion in non-defense discretionary spending.
"Discretionary spending" refers to dollars allocated by Congress on an annual basis, rather than mandatory spending obligations like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
The bill is what's known as a continuing resolution (CR), which differs from Congress' annual appropriations bills in that it just extends the previous fiscal year's government funding levels and priorities.
It would be the third and final CR extending FY 2024 numbers, through the remainder of FY 2025. Republicans believe it will put them in the best possible position to negotiate conservative government funding priorities in time for Oct. 1.
The previous two extensions were passed under the Biden administration, when Democrats controlled the Senate.
And while some Democratic support is needed to reach the Senate's 60-vote threshold, it's very possible Republicans will have to carry it through the House alone with their razor-thin majority.
House Democrats traditionally vote to avoid government shutdowns. Now, however, Democratic leaders are directing lawmakers in the lower chamber to oppose the Republican CR.
In a joint letter to colleagues sent on Friday, House Democratic leaders accused Republicans of trying to cut Medicare and Medicaid through their CR – despite it being the wrong mechanism to alter such funds.
"Republicans have decided to introduce a partisan continuing resolution that threatens to cut funding for healthcare, nutritional assistance and veterans benefits through the end of the current fiscal year," the statement said. "House Democrats would enthusiastically support a bill that protects Social Security, Medicare, veterans health and Medicaid, but Republicans have chosen to put them on the chopping block to pay for billionaire tax cuts."
But House GOP leaders will need to work to convince nearly all Republican lawmakers to support the bill – despite a history of dozens of conservative defections on CRs over the last two years.
At least one Republican has already signaled he will oppose it. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who has voted against CRs previously, wrote on X last week, "I am a NO on the CR. Congress needs to do its job and pass a conservative budget! CR’s are code for Continued Rubberstamp of fraud, waste, and abuse."
GOP leaders are hoping their close coordination with the White House and a blessing from Trump, however, will be enough to sway remaining holdouts.
While he has not weighed in on the specific bill, Trump posted on Truth Social this week, "I am working with the GREAT House Republicans on a Continuing Resolution to fund the Government until September to give us some needed time to work on our Agenda."
"Conservatives will love this Bill, because it sets us up to cut Taxes and Spending in Reconciliation, all while effectively FREEZING Spending this year," Trump wrote.
A federal judge has ruled against the Denver public schools system’s attempts to block immigration officials from carrying out raids on school grounds, marking a win for the Trump administration as it looks to ramp up its deportation efforts.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico said Denver Public Schools failed to prove that a recent drop in student attendance at schools was due to the Trump administration reversing a 2021 Biden-era policy of protecting schools — and other sensitive areas like churches — from ICE raids. There are currently more than 1.4 million individuals on ICE's final order of removal docket.
Denver Public Schools filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for reversing the policy, claiming the district was "hindered in fulfilling its mission" to students who didn’t turn up to school for fear of immigration enforcement.
Denver Public Schools had sought a preliminary injunction barring the federal government from making arrests at sensitive locations, which was denied. Domenico also denied a request that he grant a nationwide preliminary injunction forcing immigration officials to revert to the 2021 guidance.
Besides a drop in attendance, Denver Public Schools said it had to divert resources to respond to fear among students and families over the lifting of longtime rules.
The school system also argued that rescinding the policy had caused schools to devote time and resources to teaching students and staff how to remain safe from immigration enforcement. Denver Public Schools has trained staff on how to handle ICE officers if they show up at school, telling them to deny agents entry if they don't have a warrant signed by a judge.
Domenico, a Trump appointee and Colorado’s former solicitor general, said that it wasn’t clear how much of the fear surrounding possible enforcement actions in schools was really due to the new rules as opposed to broader concerns of increased immigration actions.
He also pointed out that Denver Public Schools had not yet experienced any raids and noted that the head of ICE also issued a directive to its officers that immigration arrests at sensitive places still had to be approved by supervisors.
The fear over the new rules, as well as the belief that the old rules provided protection to schools, both seem to be "overstated," Domenico said.
It wasn’t clear how much of the fear surrounding possible enforcement actions in schools was really due to the new rules as opposed to broader concerns of increased immigration actions, he said.
Denver Public Schools issued a statement expressing disappointment with the ruling, while asserting that its lawsuit was successful in making public details of the Trump administration rules.
The lawsuit was brought by the school district, not the city of Denver, which is a sanctuary city. The lawsuit stated that there were more than 90,000 students in the Denver Public Schools system during the 2023-2024 school year, and approximately 4,000 were immigrants.
The ruling came just days after Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and the Democratic leaders of other cities were grilled by Republican members of Congress about their so-called sanctuary city policies that they see as undermining Trump’s immigration and mass deportation efforts, as well as making such cities more dangerous.
Since Jan. 20, ICE has arrested and deported thousands of people in the U.S. illegally – most of them being criminals with convictions in the U.S. or their home countries.
Denver has seen a massive population jump in recent years as the city predicts nearly 43,000 people have arrived in the area from the southern border, the lawsuit said.
The ruling also comes as the Trump administration has restarted the detention of illegal alien families that have deportation orders.
Parents are now being detained, including with their children, at two ICE facilities in Texas. These are families who have already had their cases heard and have been ordered removed.
Fox News is told ICE is now actively going into the interior of the U.S. and arresting migrant families that crossed the border illegally in years prior and have been ordered deported from the U.S. by a Justice Department immigration judge. This is known as a final order of removal, of which there are currently more than 1.4 million individuals on ICE's docket.
Border Patrol data shows more than 2 million migrant family units were apprehended while crossing the southern border illegally during the Biden administration.
Fox News’ Bille Melugin and Elizabeth Pritchett as well as The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Democratic strategists argue it would have been better for Democratic lawmakers to skip President Donald Trump's joint address to Congress than to cause disruptions, which have since reportedly caused tensions with party leadership.
"I think it would have been smarter to just boycott the speech," Jim Manley, a Democratic political strategist, told Fox News Digital. "Showing up gave Trump legitimacy that he doesn’t deserve."
Asked if he thought the Democrats interrupting the president's speech was a good strategy, Andrew Bates, who served as senior White House deputy press secretary for former President Joe Biden, told Fox News Digital "no."
"The protests preached to the choir, when we need to grow the congregation — like [Democratic Michigan Sen. Elissa] Slotkin did when she said Republicans will make you pay more "in every part of your life" in order to cut taxes for the rich," Bates said.
Democratic House leadership is reportedly "very unhappy" with the interruptions made by lawmakers during the speech, which included yelling and holding up paddles that read "Musk steals," and called on several of them to attend a "come to Jesus meeting" to discuss their behavior, a House Democrat told Axios.
"I didn't think the Democratic reaction in the room went very well. It just contributed to the theatrics," Brad Bannon, president of Bannon Communications Research, a political consulting firm, told Fox in an interview. "No one can beat Trump at theatrics. I'm sorry, I love my congressional Democrats, but when it comes to theatrics, they don't come close."
"It would have made more sense, in my opinion, to let Trump's words soak in and not act as a distraction to the lies and falsehoods he told," Bannon added. "So I don't think the Democratic reaction in the room was good."
One strategist shared with Fox that they saw private data demonstrating that voters did not like the protests.
Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, stood up during Trump's address and refused to sit down, leading to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., ordering the Sergeant at Arms to remove him from the chamber.
Democratic strategist David Axelrod told Politico that Green's protest likely "got plenty of attaboys from the base," but didn't resonate with most Americans.
"But with many other Americans — and not just Republicans — it was no more appealing than [GOP Reps.] Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert heckling Biden," Axelrod said in an interview. "It’s just not particularly helpful."
Democrats were also criticized for not standing up while the president introduced DJ Daniel, a 13-year-old cancer survivor, during the joint address.
"You know, that is a very individual thing. And aren't there a lot of other things we can be focusing on, as I would think?" Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said when asked why Democratic members did not stand for Daniel. "The word ‘betrayal’ comes to mind with regard to the president."
Another Democrat, Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., told Fox News Digital that it "was a moving story," but that "what Trump left out, of course, is he's cutting research for cancer, which is pretty, pretty bad."
However, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., broke with his party on the issue.
"I don't know why we can't fully celebrate," Fetterman told Nicholas Ballasy for Fox. "I mean, I have a 13-year-old myself, and thank God she's never had cancer, but I think that's something we can all celebrate there. And I think it was a touching moment. And, like I said, that's part of the best of the American experience."
