RFK Jr. removes all 17 members of CDC's vaccine advisory committee
The committee makes recommendations on the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Monday he is removing all 17 sitting members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory committee and replacing them with new members.
The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) makes recommendations on the safety, efficacy and clinical need of vaccines.
"Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda," Kennedy said in a statement. "The public must know that unbiased science -- evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest -- guides the recommendations of our health agencies."
In a press release, HHS said the Biden administration appointed all 17 sitting ACIP members, with 13 of those appointments occurring in 2024.
The appointments meant the Trump administration would have had to wait until 2028 before choosing a majority of committee members, according to Kennedy.
Kennedy said replacing the sitting committee members would help restore public trust.
"A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science," Kennedy's statement continued. "ACIP new members will prioritize public health and evidence-based medicine. The Committee will no longer function as a rubber stamp for industry profit-taking agendas."
In a separate op-ed written in The Wall Street Journal on Monday announcing the restructuring of ACIP, Kennedy claimed that the committee was plagued by conflicts of interest.
The CDC has published a list of conflicts of interest declarations disclosed by voting members during public meetings since 2000.
Kennedy also wrote that ACIP had never recommended against a vaccine "even those later withdrawn for safety reasons."
In fact, members ACIP have at times recommended a narrower use of a vaccine than what was technically allowed by authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Kennedy had previously claimed he would not touch ACIP. In February Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, who said he had initially struggled with Kennedy's nomination for HHS secretary before voting to confirm him, said Kennedy had promised him no changes would be made to ACIP.
"He has also committed that he would work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring system and not establish parallel systems," Cassidy said at the time in a speech on the Senate floor. "If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes."
In a post on X after the changes were announced Monday, Cassidy said there is a fear the ACIP "will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion. I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case."
Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the FDA's independent panel of vaccine advisers, told ABC News he thought the decision Monday was extremely dangerous.
Kennedy "doesn't have a single example to show where a vote by one of these committees has hurt children," Offit said. "In fact, the opposite is true -- the votes by this committee over the last 25 years have caused children to suffer less and die less. ACIP should be given awards, not fired."
Many major health advocacy organizations also pushed back on the move.
“For generations, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has been a trusted national source of science- and data-driven advice and guidance on the use of vaccines to prevent and control disease … Today’s action to remove the 17 sitting members of ACIP undermines that trust and upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives," said Dr. Bruce A. Scott, president of the American Medical Association, in a statement. "With an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses.”
Former CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen told ABC News she was "deeply concerned for families trying to navigate how to keep their loved ones healthy and safe," following the move to terminate and replace the members of the committee. "Secretary Kennedy’s unprecedented action spreads confusion and casts doubt on transparent public health processes that protect Americans," said Cohen, who served as the head of the CDC during the Biden administration.
Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC in the Obama administration, said Kennedy's move "should erase any remaining doubt that he intends to impose his personal anti-vaccine agenda on the American people."
Kennedy's announcement on ACIP is the latest in a series of unprecedented moves and a rejection of traditional avenues for making announcements related to vaccines.
Two weeks ago, Kennedy announced in a video posted on X that the COVID-19 vaccine would be removed from the CDC's immunization schedule for "healthy children and pregnant women."
Last week, a CDC official, who co-led a part of ACIP, announced she was resigning following Kennedy's announcement on changing COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.
Kennedy replaces fired US CDC panel members, includes anti-vaccine proponents
Members include some with FDA or CDC committee backgrounds Some members have expressed anti-vaccine views Kennedy says they will attend June 25 ACIP meeting
WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) - U.S. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. named eight members to serve on a key panel of vaccine advisers on Wednesday, including several who have advocated against vaccines, after abruptly firing all 17 members of the independent committee of experts. They will sit on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, which advises the agency on who should get the shots after they are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The group of eight - the minimum number allowed by the ACIP founding charter - includes four who have previously worked on committees associated with either the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, or both.
Others have published papers, posted on social media, or written online biographies with anti-vaccine views, including against the mRNA vaccine technology used in some of the newest immunizations such as the COVID-19 vaccine.
Among them is Robert Malone, one of the most prominent voices opposing mRNA vaccines. He is aligned with Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement.
The group also includes Joseph Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Cody Meissner, James Pagano, Vicky Pebsworth and Michael Ross.
Kennedy, who has long questioned the safety of vaccines contrary to scientific evidence, alleged that the prior panel members, many of whom were appointed by President Joe Biden, had conflicts of interest, without providing evidence of specific members' conflicts. He said the move was necessary "to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science."
Committee members said their ACIP work follows rigorous vetting of their financial ties and that they must abstain from votes on any vaccine for which they have a conflict.
Kennedy said on X that the panel would attend the committee's June 25 meeting. Advisers had been expected to deliberate and vote on who should receive a number of vaccines, including the flu shot and 2025-26 COVID-19 vaccine boosters, and the meeting had been slated for June 25-27. No agenda has been published yet.
Shares of vaccine makers Moderna (MRNA.O), which both produced mRNA COVID vaccines, fell marginally while those of Novavax (NVAX.O), opens new tab, which did not utilize mRNA in its vaccine, rose marginally in after-hours trading.
NEW MEMBERS
It is unclear how new members of the panel have been vetted for conflicts of interest, or when the vetting process began.
Meissner and Pebsworth have served on the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, and Meissner also previously served on ACIP. Pebsworth is now associated with the National Vaccine Information Center, a group that advocates for vaccine exemptions and educates about vaccine injury.
Kulldorff is an architect of the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for a lighter public health response to COVID-19 in October 2020, and previously served on an ACIP vaccine safety subgroup.
Levi has in the past said mRNA vaccines can cause serious harm and death, especially among children, and called for their immediate withdrawal.
Ross, a professor at George Washington University, is an operating partner of Havencrest Capital Management, a firm focused on healthcare investments, according to its website.
Senate Democrats seek answers on Trump's World Liberty crypto deal ahead of GENIUS Act vote
A war of words is escalating between Senate Democrats and executives at the crypto firm that is partly owned by President Trump's family, as congressional leaders seek more information about ways in which the first family may be seeking to blend profit with official government action, CBS News has learned.
In an exchange of polite but pointed letters, Senate Democrats demanded more details about a multibillion-dollar transaction between the Trump family's crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, and a pool of investors that includes foreign nationals. And the senators questioned the firm on its launch of a "stablecoin," a crypto product backed directly by U.S. currency.
"The launch of a stablecoin directly tied to a sitting President who stands to benefit financially from the stablecoin's success is an unprecedented conflict of interest presenting significant threats to both our financial system and our democracy," Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon write in the June 10 letter.
The increased attention comes as the Senate is set to vote on the GENIUS Act, which would adopt a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins. Stablecoins, which are pegged to a certain value — typically the U.S. dollar — are designed to be less volatile than other crypto products. This makes it an attractive asset for users who want to move between cryptocurrencies more efficiently.
Warren and Merkley requested financial records related to the $2 billion investment in World Liberty made by MGX, an Emirati firm, and the involvement in the business deal by Binance, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, controlled by a Singaporian national.
The letter is addressed to the CEOs of Binance and MGX, and it asks these firms to preserve communications between Binance officials, MGX, World Liberty Financial, the White House and other U.S. federal government agencies. It also requests communications between specific individuals including President Trump, his sons Barron, Eric and Donald Jr.; Zack and Alex Witkoff, co-founders of World Liberty Financial, and their father Steve Witkoff, the president's special envoy to the Middle East.
The senators' request is in response to a letter sent by World Liberty on May 29, in which the company's lawyers dispute allegations that MGX's $2 billion investment into Binance through World Liberty Financial improperly benefits the Trump family.
"What the Company rejects is the suggestion that legitimate financial innovation—especially innovation that strengthens U.S. competitiveness—should be treated with suspicion simply because it succeeds," says the letter from World Liberty's lawyers, reviewed by CBS News.
CBS News reached out to the White House for comment about potential conflict of interest but did not hear back at the time of publication.
Trump family's business interests in crypto
In the last six months, the Trump family has rolled out a series of announcements related to its business interests in crypto.
In the fall of 2024, the Trumps announced World Liberty Financial, a crypto exchange that says on its website it was "inspired" by Mr. Trump, who is listed as "chief Crypto Advocate," while his three sons are listed as "Web3 Ambassadors."
Months later, they announced both the $TRUMP coin and $MELANIA coin, crypto tokens known as "meme coins," whose value is largely driven by social media buzz. This type of cryptocurrency is not usually used in transactions and is known for erratic price shifts. $TRUMP peaked at around $75 shortly after launch and plummeted to under $8 by April 2025 before rebounding a bit to about $11.
Both crypto ventures have been financially beneficial to the president's family, which receives a share of transaction fees, regardless of how the currency is valued.
The fine print on the World Liberty Financial's website says an entity affiliated with Mr. Trump and his family members own a 60% stake in the company. According to the company's public reports, a Trump family entity "DT Marks DEFI LLC" also holds 22.5 billion of the $WLF tokens and takes an additional 75% in net revenue from future token purchases.
On May 23, the president hosted a gala dinner for the top holders of his $TRUMP coin, where attendees spent an average of $1 million a person to mingle with Mr. Trump at his Virginia golf course. Data from analytics firm Chainalysis shows that entities connected to Mr. Trump and other backers collected more than $300 million in transaction fees related to $TRUMP coin in the lead-up to the dinner.
In April, World Liberty Financial launched a new stablecoin product called "USD1," which is backed by U.S. Treasuries and cash equivalents. MGX agreed to purchase $2 billion worth of this currency to finance a deal with Binance.
"Why — beyond the obvious benefit of gaining favor, directly or indirectly, with the Trump Administration — did you select USD1, a newly-launched, untested cryptocurrency with a no track record?" Senators Warren and Merkley ask in their letter to the MGX and Binance CEOs.
World Liberty Financial has maintained that stablecoins, including their USD1 product, help bolster the strength of the dollar.
"[USD1] is a stablecoin designed to assist in modernizing global access to the U.S. dollar and to enhance American monetary leadership by helping preserve the U.S. dollar's role as the world's reserve currency at a time when rival currencies and closed financial systems are gaining ground," the company said in its May 29 letter.
The company's letter states that if the MGX deal had not been conducted in USD1, it would have been settled in a foreign currency, most likely UAE dirhams. Instead, it argues, keeping transactions in USD1 reinforces demand for the dollar.
"Absent USD1, that capital would have exited the U.S. financial sphere entirely and moved offshore," says the letter.
But Warren and Merkley say the deal raises questions about potential efforts to curry favor with the president's family.
The Senate is set to vote on the GENIUS Act today. If adopted, it would allow the federal government to issue licenses for stablecoin issuers and require those products to be backed by U.S. dollars or other cash equivalents.
Supporters of the bill say it's a critical moment to introduce federal regulation over an increasingly popular investment tool.
But critics like Warren say the bill does not go far enough to strengthen oversight over an industry that the president's family benefits from directly.
"A bill that turbocharges the stablecoin market, while facilitating the President's corruption and undermining national security, financial stability, and consumer protection is worse than no bill at all." she said in a Senate floor debate on May 19.
In May, Senate Democrats pushed to include an amendment that would specifically prevent a sitting president and his family from making money from stablecoin products. Ultimately, this amendment was not included and the bill advanced by a vote of 66 in favor and 22 opposed, with 16 Democrats joining Republicans to support it.
Proponents of the bill aim to have it on the president's desk by July.
Senate Republicans slashed language from the House version of President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" that would have given him the powers of a monarch who could simply bypass the courts if they tried to stop him from pursuing his policy ambitions, according to a report in HuffPost.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released his committee's changes to the judicial section late Thursday night. Notably absent was a "jarring, one-sentence provision that House Republicans buried in their 1,116-page bill," according to HuffPost.
The provision in question "would restrict the ability of any court, including the Supreme Court, to enforce compliance with its orders by holding people in contempt."
Want more breaking political news? Click for the latest headlines at Raw Story.
The one-sentence provision appears in Sec. 70302 "Restriction of Funds," and reads, "No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued..."
According to HuffPost, "Contempt citations are an essential tool for the courts" because "they allow judges to threaten fines, sanctions or even jail if people disobey their orders."
Without contempt citations, the courts could simply be ignored.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told HuffPost that the contempt provision Republicans slipped into the massive spending bill was "a naked attempt to shield members of the Trump administration from court orders," essentially allowing them to operate with impunity, much like royalty.
"Not only does this provision appear to violate the constitutional separation of powers, it also violates Senate rules," wrote reporter Jennifer Bendery. "Republicans are relying on a fast-track legislative process known as budget reconciliation to move the bill, which means everything in it must be related to budget matters. Restricting judges’ abilities to hand down contempt orders has nothing to do with budgets."
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
Trying to rewrite the constitution via a budget bill is something I would have suspected. Grassley stopping it is something is something I wouldn't have expected. So I'll give him credit for that.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Trump Mobile Launches A Bold New Wireless Service for Americans
"I'm incredibly excited to step into this new digital space, hard-working Americans deserve a wireless service that's affordable, reflects their values, and delivers reliable quality they can count on. We're especially proud to offer free long-distance calling to our military members and their families — because those serving overseas should always be able to stay connected to the people they love back home. " - Eric Trump, EVP The Trump Organization
'Very insulted': Trump tells G7 members they've hurt Putin's feelings
U.S. President Donald Trump used a press conference with G7 chair Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to air Russia's grievances about being kicked out of what was then the G8 over the annexation of Crimea.
Carney had just publicly welcomed Trump to the summit when the president launched into his claim that there would never have been a full-scale invasion of Ukraine had he been president.
"The G7 used to be the G8," Trump began before attacking former Canadian Prime Minister Jusin Trudeau in a rambling statement.
Want more breaking political news? Click for the latest headlines at Raw Story.
"Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn't want to have Russia in. And I would say that that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn't have a war right now if you had Russia in, and you wouldn't have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago.
"But it didn't work out that way. But it used to be the G8, and now it's, I guess, what's that? Nine years ago, eight years ago, it switched over. They threw Russia out, which I claimed was a very big mistake, even though I wasn't in politics. And I was very loud about it. It was a mistake in that you spent so much time talking about Russia, and he's no longer at the table, so it makes life more complicated. But you wouldn't have had the war. And other than that, I think we're going to accomplish a lot."
After asking about trade with Canada and whether the U.S. would get involved in the Israel-Iran conflict, a reporter steered Trump back to the topic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump added that he wasn't saying Russia should be let back in to the global policy summit because "too much water has gone over the dam, maybe."
Trump then mocked Trudeau again, saying, "the head of your country, the proud head of your country, didn't want [Putin]."
After another question about Israel, Trump claimed that Putin now talks only to him.
"Putin speaks to me; he doesn't speak to anybody else. He doesn't want to talk because he was very insulted when he got thrown out of the G8, as I would be, as you would be, as anybody would be. He was very insulted.
"And, I mean, he was thrown out by Trudeau, who convinced one or two people along with Obama. He was thrown out. And he's not a happy person about it, I can tell you that. He basically doesn't even speak to the people that threw him out. And I agree with him."
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
Fact check: At G7, Trump makes false claims about Trudeau, Ukraine and immigration
While visiting Canada on Monday for a Group of 7 summit, President Donald Trump repeated one of his many false claims about Canada – again wrongly blaming former Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for getting Russia booted out of the group formerly known as the Group of 8.
Speaking of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump claimed Monday: “He was thrown out – by Trudeau, who convinced one or two people, along with Obama. He was thrown out. And he’s not a happy person about it, I can tell you that.”
In fact, Trudeau did not become Canada’s prime minister until November 2015 – more than 19 months after Russia’s 2014 ouster from the Group of 8, a forum made up of countries with large industrialized economies. It was Trudeau’s Conservative predecessor as prime minister, Stephen Harper, who led the effort to kick Russia out in the wake of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region. Trudeau’s Liberals were not even the biggest opposition party in Canada’s House of Commons at the time.
Trump made the false claim while standing beside Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trudeau’s successor as Liberal leader.
Trump made a similar false claim about Trudeau during an exchange with reporters at the White House in May, incorrectly saying of Russia’s removal from the Group of 8: “I thought it was a very bad decision. It was headed by Trudeau, by the way, and Obama. They were the ones that really fought hard to get Russia out.”
Trade and US aid to Ukraine: Trump made other false claims in his Monday remarks at the G7. Speaking to reporters alongside UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump erroneously described his trade deal with the UK as a deal with the European Union, which the UK does not belong to. Trump then twice repeated his long-debunked assertion that former President Joe Biden had given “$350 billion” in aid to Ukraine.
The figure is not close to correct.
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank that closely tracks international aid to Ukraine, the US had committed about $138 billion in military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine from late January 2022, just prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion, through April 2025. (That period includes more than three months of Trump’s current presidency.)
It’s possible to arrive at different totals using different counting methodologies, but there is, regardless, no basis for Trump’s “$350 billion” figure. The US government inspector general overseeing the response to the invasion of Ukraine says on its website that the US had appropriated about $185 billion for the response through March 2025, including about $90 billion actually disbursed – and that includes money spent in the US or sent to countries other than Ukraine.
The number of Biden-era migrants: While talking about undocumented immigrants at the G7 on Monday, Trump repeated his frequent assertion that “Biden allowed 21 million people to come into our country.” That “21 million” figure is wrong, too. Through December 2024, the last full month under the Biden administration, the country had recorded under 11 million nationwide “encounters” with migrants during that administration, including millions who were rapidly expelled from the country; even adding in the so-called gotaways who evaded detection, estimated by House Republicans as being roughly 2.2 million, there’s no way the total was “21 million.”
More Details Emerge Around the Public Land Sale Bill — and It’s Worse Than You Think
As the magnitude of Senate Republicans’ proposal to sell millions of acres of public land in the West has reverberated over the last two days, opponents are mobilizing to keep what they call a bad idea from becoming law.
They’re encouraging the hunting and fishing community to flood Instagram and Facebook with “hell no” videos and posts that denounce the Wednesday night bill introduced by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). They’re contacting congressional delegations to let them know that the mandatory sale of between 2.02 and 3.04 million unidentified acres of BLM and Forest Service land over the next five years is a political land mine.
And they’re digging into the arcane and dense language of the bill to learn that it has much, much wider ramifications for Western land management than its proponents have indicated.
“Don’t take the bait that this is about ‘affordable housing,’ as its proponent claims,” says David Willms, associate vice president for public lands with the National Wildlife Federation. “It isn’t.”
An attorney, Willms has parsed the bill’s language and concluded that, in both its wording and intention, it intends to remake the map of the Western United States by allowing the sale of public lands that could be used for nearly any purpose under an expansive “associated community needs” definition. He says that could include AI data centers, ski areas, golf courses, or consolidation of large ranches.
Willms and co-host of Your Mountain podcast Nephi Cole detail both the specifics of the bill and its potential consequences in a remarkable podcast that dropped today.
Other conservation groups have calculated the amount and mapped the locations of BLM and Forest Service land that would be eligible for sale under Lee’s bill. It totals 120 million acres across 11 Western states.
For public-land advocates, defeating the Senate Energy and Natural Resources’ budget draft, which contains the public-land sale language, is the biggest fight of their careers.
“Anybody who supports this in the Senate that has any inkling that this is a good idea, they need to get their ass kicked,” says Land Tawney, the animated leader of a lobbying group called American Hunters and Anglers. “We need to flood their social pages with comments. We need to call their offices. These folks are too scared of the public to have public meetings, but if you see them on an airplane coming home for the recess, that’s a good time to remind them to keep public lands in public hands.”
Meanwhile, critter conservation groups like the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation are encouraging their members to get engaged.
“RMEF is very concerned about the federal land sales provision included in Chairman Mike Lee’s energy and natural resources section of the pending budget reconciliation bill and will continue to work to remove that measure from the legislation,” the foundation said in a press release. “We encourage our members to contact their senators to express their opinions about selling two million acres of BLM and national forest lands across the West. ”
Troubling Details in the Bill
Because Lee’s bill draft was dropped on Wednesday evening, following an hours-long meeting of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which he chairs, early reporting focused on the jaw-dropping acreage in play.
The bill, in a section titled “Mandatory Disposal of Bureau of Land Management Land and National Forest Service System Land for Housing,” requires the BLM and Forest Service to “select for disposal no less than 0.50 percent and not more than 0.75 percent” of eligible land for sale. National parks, wildlife refuges, designated wilderness areas, national monuments, and historic sites would be exempt from sale.
The bill identifies additional exemptions: lands where there are legally recognized permits or rights-of-ways are not eligible for sale. That means livestock grazing leases, mining claims, rights-of-way for a transmission line or a pipeline or an energy lease or a solar or wind project. And federal land in Montana is exempt, because that state’s senior senator, Steve Daines (R), negotiated with Lee to omit Montana from the budget package in order to reduce bill-killing opposition.
In a video that discusses some of the provisions of his bill, Lee stresses that the sales would be of “underutilized” federal land “suitable for residential development” in order to alleviate housing shortages around fast-growing Western cities.
That’s not the case, says Willms.
“You’re hearing that this bill would address affordable housing. It won’t,” he says, pointing to bill language that says eligible land must address “local housing needs or any associated community needs.”
“The term ‘community’ isn’t defined,” notes Willms. “We know the administration has called for building data centers on public land. Maybe that’s considered a ‘community need’? It could be a business park. Or maybe a golf course. It’s public land sale under the guise of affordable housing but it’s really for economic development for any use. And land can be nominated for sale by state and local governments, but the bill also says land can be nominated for sale by ‘interested parties.’ That could include corporations, foreign governments, we just don’t know.”
The bill also contains a provision that “a person may not purchase more than 2 tracts of covered Federal land in any 1 sale… unless the person owns land surrounding the tracts of covered Federal land to be sold.” In other words, large landowners could use the land-sale mechanism to buy inholdings and consolidate their private holdings.
Willms also takes exception to Lee’s claim that the public would have opportunities to weigh in on proposed land sales.
“The bill contains language that says all these sales are ‘considered to meet the requirements of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act,’ which means that they are deemed to have already complied with all public-notice and participation requirements,” says Willms. “It basically means the public is cut out of this. These sales will not have a public process.”
If the lands package makes it into the Senate’s version of the budget reconciliation bill, and the bill becomes law, public-land sales would start quickly. The bill calls for the process to start within 60 days of passage and requires the 2 to 3 million acres to be sold within five years, with 90 percent of revenue going to the U.S. Treasury, 5 percent returned to the state of the sale, and 5 percent going to the agency that sold the land.
The upshot, says Willms, is “they’re going to try to jam this through in a week or two without public input, without vetting any of the potential consequences this bill will cause. This bill is not ready for prime time, yet it’s in prime time … everybody is forced to take a vote on it. But I think that’s intentional: jam this [mandatory land sale] into a big bill with a high priority in a tight time frame.”
What’s Next for the Big Beautiful Bill
Sources don’t expect Lee’s lands package to get a vote in his Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
“Under the reconciliation process, they aren’t required to mark up each section in committee,” said an unnamed legislative source who wasn’t authorized to speak to the press. “They will probably not do committee votes in order to avoid taking any more hard votes than what is necessary.”
The committee’s portion of the budget package, containing the land-sale requirement, will go to the Senate budget committee for review and then for a vote on the full Senate floor. That vote could happen prior to the July 4 congressional recess, says the source. The majority Republicans can only lose three votes in the Senate. If the budget package passes the Senate, then it’s likely to return to the House, where it passed by a single vote last month.
“If this does pass the Senate, then I don’t think the House can stomach the lands provision,” the legislative source says. “The House language [that proposed selling 500,000 acres of federal land in Utah and Nevada] was a bridge too far for Representative Zinke (R-Mont.), among others. I think this Senate version is a continent too far for some of these folks.”
A number of sources have criticized Daines for abrogating campaign pledges to defend public land. As the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, widely credited with winning the Republican majority in the Senate, and as a ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he could use his influence to strip or moderate the lands package.
“When this lands package was in the House, we had Zinke stand up and say that selling public land was his ‘San Juan Hill’ and his ‘red line,’” says Willms. “But on the Senate side you don’t have [a Republican] who is saying they will not vote for this.”
But critics say Daines’ deal with Lee has taken both Montana senators out of the fight.
“Hopefully some Republican Senator will stand up and be that champion, but we don’t have that, so there’s a high risk of this provision staying in this bill.”
Which means, if the Senate passes the lands bill, the next and probably last place to kill it will be in the House conference committee.
The unnamed legislative source said that Western senators and representatives are already getting plenty of heat on the topic, and they said that continued pressure could cause them to pull the lands package from the budget bill.
“The hunting and angling community needs to keep the pressure up,” they said. “At the end of the day, the Republican delegations need to realize that the sportsmen’s community is a big voting bloc, and the broader outdoor recreation community is an even bigger voting bloc. These folks need to realize that they’re messing with a $1.3 trillion industry, but even more to the point, they need to realize this is the third rail and they’ve been put in an untenable position by their party’s leadership.”
The larger issue of disposing of the public estate without a public process or a clear public purpose isn’t just a Western issue, the legislative source said.
“It doesn’t matter if you live in Bozeman or Baltimore, these lands belong to you. The best thing I can advise, as someone who sees how members [of Congress] respond to stimuli, is let your Congressman know how you feel. Your members need to hear from you, and the time window is very short to engage.”
Trump says calling Walz after Minnesota shootings would be 'waste of time'
"I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out," Trump said.
"I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I'm not calling him," Trump said. "Why would I call him? I could call and say, 'Hi, how you doing?' Uh, the guy doesn't have a clue. He's a mess. I could be nice and call, but why waste time?"
Trump says calling Walz after Minnesota shootings would be 'waste of time'
"I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out," Trump said.
"I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I'm not calling him," Trump said. "Why would I call him? I could call and say, 'Hi, how you doing?' Uh, the guy doesn't have a clue. He's a mess. I could be nice and call, but why waste time?"
He could be nice according to him. But he won't be. Acting like an azzhat is much more something he is fond of doing.
Murica! Freedumb!
Typical Republican response? "We know he's an azzhole but he's our azzhole!" When the very low bar of being a decent human being can't be met.
So my take away is when a right wing assassin strikes democrats, trump doesn’t care. Expect more assaults on dems in the future due to trumps remarks like this. Complicity in cold blooded murder.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.
I didn't hear him say anything about taxpayers paying for his legal bills or that he would use the DOJ as his personal law firm during the campaign. And here I thought his claim was that he was trying to root out waste and fraud in the government rather than create it...........
Appeals court says DOJ cannot represent Trump in appeal of E. Jean Carroll case
A jury last year ordered Trump to pay the columnist $83 million in damages.
American taxpayers will not be paying for the ongoing appeal of President Donald Trump's $83 million defamation case, a federal appeals court determined on Wednesday.
A panel of judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday denied Trump's request to have Justice Department lawyers argue in his appeal of columnist E. Jean Carroll's defamation case against Trump.
A New York jury last year ordered Trump to pay the former Elle magazine columnist $83.3 million in damages for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her accusation that he sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s. Trump has denied all allegations.
DOJ lawyers had argued that since some of Trump's alleged conduct fell within the scope of his role as president, the Justice Department should be able to defend the president in court. "Substitution is required because once the Attorney General certifies that a defendant is acting within the scope of his office or employment, the United States is the party defendant unless and until a court rules to the contrary," they argued.
ABC News has reached out to Trump's legal team for comment.
Oral arguments in Trump's appeal of the case are set for June 24.
Last week the 2nd Circuit denied Trump's request to rehear his challenge to a $5 million civil judgment another jury awarded Carroll in 2023.
So it was The United States that was found by a jury to have committed sexual assault and sexual assault is within the scope of his "office or employment" as president"?
Murica! Freedumb!
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Donald Trump rambled off a post decrying Fox News’ coverage of him in an angry Truth Social post shared early on Thursday morning.
“The Crooked FoxNews Polls got the Election WRONG, I won by much more than they said I would, and have been biased against me for years,” he wrote.
“They are always wrong and negative. It’s why MAGA HATES FoxNews, even though their anchors are GREAT,” he said, adding, “This has gone on for years, but they never change the incompetent polling company that does their work.”
“Now a new FoxNews poll comes out this morning giving me a little more than 50% at the Border, and yet the Border is miraculously perfect, NOBODY WAS ABLE TO COME IN LAST MONTH,” he shared after viewing the poll.
“60,000 people came in with Sleepy Joe in the same month last year,” he added. “I hate FAKE pollsters, one of the Worst, but Fox will never change their discredited pollster!”
On Jan. 20th trump signed an executive order against any and all DEI programs. That included any government funding and official government celebrations for any and all holidays he considered "DEI". These included but were not limited to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Juneteenth, LGBTQ Pride Month and Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Two of those listed are paid holidays. So what do you think happened next? On the exact date of Juneteenth was observed.....
On Juneteenth, Trump says the US has 'too many' holidays
The president said that the frequency of holidays "must change" and that workers didn't want them.
"The workers don't want it either!" he continued. "Soon we'll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Juneteenth, held on June 19 every year, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and has long been celebrated by Black Americans.
It became the 11th federal holiday in 2021 with a law signed by then-President Joe Biden. The bill passed with broad bipartisan support, receiving unanimous approval in the Senate and all but 14 votes in the House of Representatives.
After Trump's Truth Social post, Biden said on X that he'd celebrated the day in Texas and that making Juneteenth a federal holiday was "one of the proudest moments of my presidency."
"It's a day of liberation. It's a day of remembrance. And it's a day of celebration. Today, it was an honor to be in Galveston where freedom rang out 160 years ago," he said.
The White House press office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider regarding Trump's post.
Most federal offices, such as the US Postal Service, are closed during Juneteenth. Markets such as the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange don't trade during the holiday, either.
But whether private companies and state governments remain open varies. Most major banks are closed for the holiday, but not all companies provide paid time off.
Earlier on Thursday, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said at a press briefing that the White House was open. When asked by a journalist about commemorating Juneteenth, she said she was "not tracking" Trump's signature on any proclamations for the holiday.
"I know this is a federal holiday," she said. "I want to thank all of you for showing up to work. We are certainly here. We're working 24/7 right now."
Trump himself supported making Juneteenth a federal holiday in the wake of widespread protests following the killing of George Floyd. "Make Juneteenth a National Holiday" was included among his "Promise to Black America over 4 years" policy proposals in his 2020 presidential campaign.
During that campaign, Trump took credit for publicizing Juneteenth after moving one of his rallies from June 19 to June 20 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"I did something good: I made Juneteenth very famous," Trump told The Wall Street Journal at the time. "It's actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it."
In the same interview, Trump expressed surprise that his administration had commemorated Juneteenth every year.
"Oh really? We put out a statement? The Trump White House put out a statement?" he said, according to the Journal. "OK, OK. Good."
The White House didn't publish a statement on its website commemorating Juneteenth this year.
Is there a question in anyone's mind about which holiday or holidays trump is referring to when he says there are "too many of them" considering he made that statement on one of them? If you still have a question about that maybe the question you should be asking yourself is just how far down that rabbit hole are you going to dig?
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Maybe he got swept up in the trumpian rapture? You know trump has to have his own gold plated version of heaven somewhere. Rumor has it that it's for whites only but I can't verify that.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
, the Justice Department should be able to defend the president in court.
