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Medicaid management system in Texas and other states is plagued by errors

Deloitte-run systems have generated incorrect notices to Medicaid beneficiaries, sent paperwork to the wrong addresses, and been frozen for hours at a time, a KFF Health News investigation has found.

Biden, Trump face off at CNN Presidential Debate which may ‘change the narrative in a massive way’

ATLANTA — In a presidential election rematch that remains extremely close and where every vote may count come November, it’s no understatement to say that there’s an incredible amount at stake in Thursday’s first of two debates between President Biden and former President Trump. The two presumptive major party nominees will face off on the same stage at the CNN Presidential Debate, which is being held at the cable news network’s studios in Atlanta, the largest city and capital of the crucial southeastern battleground state of Georgia. “This is a toss-up race and there’s over two months until the next debate. This showdown is going to set a tone and a narrative heading into this summer’s conventions,” longtime Republican strategist and communications adviser Matt Gorman told Fox News, as he pointed to the earliest general election presidential debate in modern history.  And Gorman, a veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns, emphasized that the debate, which will be simulcast on the Fox News Channel and on other networks, has the potential “to change the narrative in a massive way” as Biden and Trump “try to break out” from the current status quo. WHICH DONALD TRUMP WILL SHOW UP AT THURSDAY’S FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE The debate, which kicks off at 9pm ET, will be 90 minutes in length, with two commercial breaks.  Only the Democratic incumbent and his Republican predecessor will be on the stage, as the third party and independent candidates running for the White House – including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – failed to reach the qualifying thresholds.  To make the stage, candidates needed to reach at least 15% in four approved national surveys and to make the ballot in enough states to reach 270 electoral votes, which is the number needed to win the White House. HOW TO WATCH THE CNN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE SIMULCAST ON THE FOX NEWS CHANNEL Trump and Biden bypassed the Commission on Presidential Debates – which had organized these quadrennial showdowns for over three decades – and instead mutually agreed on the rules and conditions. Those include no studio audience, each candidate’s microphone will be muted except when it’s their turn to answer questions, no props or notes allowed on stage, and no opening statements. There will be closing statements and a coin flip determined that Trump will get the final word. The debate comes as polls indicate a very tight race between Biden and Trump, with the former president holding the slight edge in many national polls and surveys in the roughly half-dozen or so battleground states that will likely determine the election’s outcome. “To put it very simply – debates move numbers in a way few other events do. Period,” Gorman highlighted. “And with over two months to go until the second debate [an ABC News hosted showdown scheduled for Sept. 10], the narratives formed on Thursday night may harden into concrete, so showing up and performing well in Atlanta is crucial.” Both candidates come into the debate with an ample amount of baggage that will offer their rival plenty of potential ammunition. The 81-year-old Biden, the oldest president in the nation’s history, for months has faced serious concerns from voters over his age and physical and mental durability. He’s also been dealing for nearly three years with underwater job approval ratings as he’s struggled to combat persistent inflation and a crisis at the nation’s southern border, as well as plenty of overseas hot spots. FIRST ON FOX: BIDEN CAMPAIGN RIPS TRUMP OVER ‘NEGLECT OF DUTY’ ON EVE OF FIRST 2024 DEBATE Meanwhile, Trump made history for all the wrong reasons last month, as he was convicted of 34 felony counts in the first criminal trial ever of a former or current president. Three and a half years after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters trying to upend congressional certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory, Trump faces criminal charges of trying to overturn the results of the last presidential contest. His promises of second-term retribution against his political enemies have created a backlash, and he’s struggled along with plenty of other Republicans to deal with the combustible issue of abortion two years after the Supreme Court struck down the decades-old Roe v. Wade ruling.  Arguably the biggest question surrounding Thursday night’s debate is which version of Trump will show up? Will it be the undisciplined candidate who continuously interrupted Biden and debate moderator Chris Wallace dozens and dozens of times at their first debate in the 2020 election?  Trump appeared to lose his cool, failed to condemn white supremacists, and his performance was widely panned by political pundits and viewers alike. Or will it be the Trump of the second 2020 debate, when the then-president re-worked his strategy and his disciplined and measured performance was a vast improvement. “If he replicates that performance, Donald Trump’s going to have a very good night,” longtime Republican consultant and veteran debate coach Brett O’Donnell told Fox News. BIDEN AND TRUMP CAMPAIGNS MAKE MOVES ON THE EVE OF THE DEBATE  O’Donnell said his advice to Trump is “watch the second debate you had with Joe Biden in 2020 and replicate that performance. Watch it over and over and replicate that performance in this debate.” “He was measured but firm,” O’Donnell said of Trump. “You can be aggressive and passionate without being offensive.” O’Donnell knows a bit about coaching presidential candidates ahead of their debates. He assisted in debate preparations for George W. Bush in 2004, GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona in 2008, and Republican standard-bearer and then-former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 2012.  This election cycle, O’Donnell coached Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of his debate performances in the Republican presidential primaries. O’Donnell said Biden needs to be careful not “to fall into the incumbent trap… Many if not most incumbents in their first debate, whether it’s Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush or Barack Obama, most incumbents perform poorly in their first

Trump-era China sanctions ended by Biden may be revived under new House GOP bill

FIRST ON FOX: Top House Republicans are leading a bill to reverse the Biden administration’s decision to lift sanctions on a Chinese entity linked to the persecution of Uyghurs. The legislation targeting the Ministry of Public Security’s (MPS) Institute of Forensic Science of China was introduced Wednesday by Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., and is co-led by House China select committee Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. “It’s past time for the U.S. to confront the [Chinese Communist Party’s] human rights abusers, and Congress will have to lead in the absence of a strong commander in chief,” Ogles told Fox News Digital. HONG KONG LAWMAKERS UNANIMOUSLY PASS CONTROVERSIAL SECURITY LAW, GRANTING GOVERNMENT POWER TO CURB DISSENT He accused China’s authoritarian government of “a long and sordid history of human rights abuses.” “Joe Biden has unacceptably chosen to reward a Communist Chinese company despite their genocidal crimes and human rights abuses against the Uyghur population and other ethnic minorities. This legislation to relist China’s Institute of Forensic Science on our Entity List will return us to President Trump’s peace through strength strategy and ensure no U.S. technology is benefiting Communist China’s human rights abuses,” Stefanik said. The bill has 10 more House GOP co-sponsors and is backed by conservative groups Heritage Action and America First Policy Institute. NEW TEXT MESSAGE ALLEGEDLY REVEALS HUNTER BIDEN PROPOSED MEETING FOR DAD, UNCLE AND CHINESE EXEC IN NYC The CCP agency was one of nine entities sanctioned by the Trump administration in May 2020. A press release at the time accused it of being “complicit in human rights violations and abuses committed in China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR).” The sanctions were lifted in November 2023 while the U.S. was working to persuade China to take a more active role in cracking down on the flow of synthetic drugs and fentanyl precursors from within its borders into the U.S. CHINA SILENT AS RUSSIA AND NORTH KOREA FORGE NEW DEFENSE PACT, RAISING REGIONAL POWER SHIFT CONCERNS State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters at the time that the sanctions were “a barrier to achieving cooperation” on the flow of drugs. “When we evaluated the issue and looked at all the merits of de-listing the IFS, ultimately we decided that given the steps China was willing to take to cut down on precursor trafficking, it was an appropriate step,” he said.

Judge rules Montana law defining sex as only male or female is unconstitutional

A judge ruled that a Montana law which defined “sex” in state law, when referring to a person as only male or female, was unconstitutional, saying that the law’s description did not explicitly state its purpose. District Court Judge Shane Vannatta struck down the 2023 law on Tuesday after a group of plaintiffs who identify as transgender, nonbinary, intersex and other identities sued, arguing the law denies legal recognition and protection to people who identify as gender-nonconforming, according to The Associated Press. Vannatta did not address the claim of a lack of legal recognition and protection, but did say that the bill’s title did not adequately explain whether the word “sex” referred to gender or sexual intercourse and that it did not indicate the words “male” and “female” would be defined in the body of the bill. “The title does not give general notice of the character of the legislation in a way that guards against deceptive or misleading titles,” Vannatta wrote. BIDEN OFFICIALS PUSHED TO DROP AGE LIMIT ON TRANS SURGERIES FOR MINORS: REPORT Montana’s law, S.B. 458, is similar to ones passed in Kansas and Tennessee. The bill sought to revise laws to “provide a common definition for the word sex when referring to a human,” the text reads. It defines “male” as “a member of the human species who, under normal development, has XY chromosomes and produces or would produce small, mobile gametes, or sperm, during his life cycle and has a reproductive and endocrine system oriented around the production of those gametes.” “Female” was defined in the bill as “a member of the human species who, under normal development, has XX chromosomes and produces or would produce relatively large, relatively immobile gametes, or eggs, during her life cycle and has a reproductive and endocrine system oriented around the production of those gametes.” The law was sponsored by Republican state Sen. Carl Glimm, who said the legislation was needed after a state judge ruled in 2022 that transgender people could change the gender markers on their birth certificates. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte is proud of the law he signed, which he said codified the long-recognized and commonsense definition of sex, the governor’s spokesman Sean Southard told The Associated Press. “Words matter. And this administration is committed to ensuring words have meaning, unlike this judge, who apparently needs a dictionary to discern the difference between a noun and a verb,” Southard said. Montana Attorney General’s Office spokeswoman Emilee Cantrell said her office would continue to defend the law “that reflects scientific reality.” TRANSGENDER ATHLETE COMPLAINS ABOUT LACK OF SPORTSMANSHIP FROM FELLOW RUNNERS AFTER WINNING GIRLS STATE TITLE CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana applauded the ruling. “Today’s ruling is an important vindication of the safeguards that the Montana Constitution places on legislative enactments,” ACLU of Montana legal director Alex Rate said. The bill was passed in 2023 during a legislative session when a ban on gender transition treatment for minors was also approved and when transgender Democrat state Rep. Zooey Zephyr was expelled from the House floor after a protest against Republican lawmakers who had silenced the Democrat. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sunak, Starmer clash in final TV debate before UK general election

Event in central city of Nottingham covered issues from health to immigration with polls afterwards suggesting a tie. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer have faced off in their final televised debate ahead of the United Kingdom election, going head-to-head over issues from health to immigration and ethics, and struggling to be heard above a noisy protest outside. The debate took place in the central city of Nottingham and represented Sunak’s last big opportunity to give his right-wing Conservatives, who are trailing Labour by about 20 points, a fighting chance in the July 4 polls. He accused Starmer of “taking people for fools” over Labour’s plans to reduce immigration, while Starmer accused Sunak, one of the country’s wealthiest men, of being “out of touch” and too rich to understand the concerns of most common Britons. Sunak repeatedly urged voters not to “surrender” to Labour on everything from borders to taxes, while Starmer stressed that the election was an opportunity for the country to “turn the page” on 14 years of Conservative government dominated by austerity, Brexit and party infighting. A snap YouGov poll said the debate, broadcast by the BBC with senior journalist Mishal Husain as the host, had been a tie, with both men on 50 percent. As the event at Nottingham Trent University got under way, indistinguishable but loud shouting could be heard from pro-Palestinian protesters who had gathered outside. Husain acknowledged the distraction and noted protest was part of the UK’s democracy. Neither Starmer nor Sunak made any reference to the demonstration, which tapered off in the second half of the debate. The two men also clashed over an election date betting scandal that has ensnared several senior Conservative politicians, as well as one Labour candidate who placed a bet against himself. Starmer promised to “reset politics, so that politics returns to public service”, accusing Sunak of showing a lack of leadership over the furore. Sunak, who promised to restore “integrity, professionalism and accountability” when he was named Conservative Party leader and prime minister in 2022, said he had been “furious” when he learned about the allegations. “I’ve been crystal clear: Anyone who has broken the rules should not only face the full consequences of the law, I will ensure that they’re booted out of the Conservative Party,” he added. But in a sign of the public’s growing disdain for its politicians, one audience member’s question – “Are you two really the best we’ve got?” – got loud applause. The two leaders have met at several debates and public sessions with voters, increasingly focusing on who was better suited to lead the country. Sunak’s campaign has struggled since he announced the election outside 10 Downing Street in torrential rain in May. He has since run a lacklustre campaign, and his decision to leave other leaders and skip the main D-Day anniversary ceremony in northern France earlier this month caused uproar. The Conservatives have been battling to win public confidence since it emerged that senior officials, including then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, broke COVID-19 lockdown rules to enjoy parties in Downing Street. Their position deteriorated – and Labour’s poll lead rose sharply – after Sunak’s short-lived predecessor Liz Truss sent interest rates soaring and tanked the pound with unfunded tax cuts in October 2022. The Conservatives are also under pressure from the hard-right Reform UK party, which has seen a spike in support since populist Nigel Farage took the helm. Polls suggest Farage, who has failed on seven previous occasions to become an MP, is on course to win in the east coast constituency of Clacton, beating the incumbent Conservative. British voters are choosing 650 lawmakers for the House of Commons, and the leader of the party that secures a majority of seats, either alone or in coalition, will become prime minister. Adblock test (Why?)

North Korea says it conducted successful test of multiwarhead missile

It is the first known test of a so-called MIRV by Pyongyang, but South Korea is questioning the claim. North Korea claims to have successfully tested a multiwarhead missile, a sophisticated weapon that would provide it with the means to overwhelm missile defences in the continental United States, after a launch that South Korea and Japan said had ended in failure. Pyongyang “successfully conducted the separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads” on Wednesday, state news agency KCNA reported. The separated mobile warheads “were guided correctly to the three coordinate targets”, and a decoy that separated from the missile was verified by radar. “The test is aimed at securing MIRV capability,” it said, referring to multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle technology, which allows multiple warheads to be fired on a single ballistic missile. North Korea has been developing its weaponry as leader Kim Jong Un seeks to modernise the country’s military. A multiwarhead missile was among the weapons he said the country would pursue during a ruling party meeting in early 2021, where he also mentioned spy satellites, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons and submarine-launched missiles. “I had been anticipating a MIRV test for some time now, as this was one of the last remaining items on Kim Jong Un’s modernisation wish list from the Eighth Party Congress back in January 2021,” said Ankit Panda, a senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Panda said Wednesday’s test appeared to be an initial evaluation of some of the key subsystems to develop a workable MIRV. He expected more tests to follow, leading up to a launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on a lofted trajectory. “The presence of decoys is significant. North Korea has made no secret of its intention to stress and overcome US homeland missile defences,” Panda said. “Decoys will assist in that endeavour and will likely be incorporated onto their single-warhead missiles as well.” The KCNA report came a day after South Korea’s military said that Pyongyang had launched a possible solid-fuelled hypersonic weapon that had exploded in midair, while Japan reported debris had fallen into the waters off North Korea’s east coast. South Korea’s military said a joint analysis with the US military suggested the missile blew up in its initial stage of flight, and the weapon tested was not as KCNA described. “Today North Korea disclosed something, but we believe it’s simply a means of deception and exaggeration,” Lee Sung-joon, the spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a briefing. The photos released by the North purporting to be of Wednesday’s test were also most likely fabricated or recycled pictures from a previous launch, he said. Panda said it appeared that Seoul “misinterpreted the nature of this test initially”. South Korea, the US and Japan condemned the launch as a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and a serious threat, and warned against additional provocations in the wake of last week’s summit between Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which the two leaders signed a mutual defence pact. Wednesday’s test was the North’s first weapons launch since it fired nuclear-capable multiple rocket launchers to simulate a preemptive attack on South Korea almost a month ago. In recent weeks, North Korea has also floated numerous rubbish-filled balloons across the border to the south in what it has described as a tit-for-tat response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets via their own balloons. In response, South Korea on June 9 briefly conducted propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts at border areas for the first time in years. Adblock test (Why?)

Palestinians in Lebanon ready to fight if Israel starts war with Hezbollah

Shatila refugee camp, Beirut, Lebanon – Palestinians in Lebanon have watched Israel’s assault on Gaza with simmering anger and are now facing the prospect of a similar fate if Israel wages an all-out war against the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Hezbollah began engaging Israel almost immediately after the latter began its war on Gaza, which has killed more than 37,000 people and uprooted almost the entire population. The Lebanese group has repeatedly said it would stop its attacks on Israel once a ceasefire took hold in Gaza and Israel stopped its bombardment on the people living there. Israel’s assault followed a Hamas-led surprise attack on Israeli communities and military outposts on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed and 250 taken captive. Ready to go home In the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, many people involved in resistance movements told Al Jazeera that they’re not scared, and would fight to support Hezbollah and the wider “axis of resistance” in the region against Israel. But they fear for their families and civilians, worrying that Israel would deliberately target densely populated residential areas in Lebanon, like the Palestinian camps, where tens of thousands of people live packed tightly together. “The Israeli army has no ethics. They don’t abide by human rights or consider the rights of children,” said Ahed Mahar, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command [PFLP-GC] in Shatila. “The Israeli army is just driven by revenge.” Some 250,000 Palestinians live in 12 refugee camps across Lebanon, fleeing there after Zionist militias expelled them from their homeland to make way for the creation of Israel in 1948 – a day referred to as the Nakba, meaning “catastrophe”. Since then, Palestinians have longed to return to their homeland, Hassan Abu Ali, a 29-year-old man who grew up in Shatila told Al Jazeera. If a major war erupted in the country, he said, he and his mother would grab a few belongings and head to the border between Lebanon and Israel. “I think many Palestinians will try to go back to Palestine at once if there is a war. That’s what people in the camp talk about,” he said. Abu Ali said he believes Israel could bomb Palestinian camps and then claim they harboured resistance fighters, justifications similar to those it has used when bombing neighbourhoods and displacement camps in Gaza, according to rights groups and legal scholars. The PFLP-GC has a presence in Palestinian refugee camps across Lebanon. Shown here, PFLP-GC members march in a parade marking Quds Day at Burj al-Barajneh on April 14, 2023 [Mohamed Azakir/Reuters] Palestinians will have “no other option” but to return to their homeland if the camps in Lebanon are destroyed, said Abu Ali, adding that as stateless refugees, Palestinians face harsh legal discrimination and live in poverty in Lebanon. “The only places I’d be able to go to are Palestine or Europe,” Abu Ali told Al Jazeera. “But to go to Europe, I need $10,000 or $12,000 for a smuggler to get out of here. That’s impossible.” Ready to fight? In Shatila, several Palestinian men said their peers would join the armed struggle against Israel if it launched a wider war against Hezbollah. They added that Hamas has attracted thousands of recruits among its traditional supporters and from communities that are historically aligned with Fatah, a rival faction led by Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank. “First of all, there are lots of resistance fighters in all of the camps in Lebanon. Secondly … if a big war starts, then we are not scared. We have thousands and thousands of fighters that are ready to be martyred to free Palestine,” said a man who goes by Fadi Abu Ahmad, a member of Hamas in the camp. Abu Ahmad acknowledged that civilians – especially children, women and the elderly – could be disproportionately harmed if Israel targets Palestinians in Lebanon. But he claimed that most Palestinian refugees believe “their blood is the price they must pay to free Palestine”. He drew a comparison with Algeria’s war of independence from France, which lasted from 1954 to 1962 and led to the deaths of one million Algerians. However, other Palestinians said they feared for their families and loved ones if a war in Lebanon erupted. “I’m not scared of the Israelis or what might happen to me,” said Ahmad, 20, a Palestinian in Shatila who declined to tell Al Jazeera his last name. “But I am afraid of what they might try to do to my little brother and sister. They’re just 14 and nine years old. I don’t want anything to happen to them.” Palestinian scouts carry their national flag, at the 40th commemoration of the Sabra and Shatila massacre – in Beirut on September 16, 2022. During Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Palestinian men, women and children were massacred by forces identified as Lebanese Christian militiamen in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. The official toll is 328 killed, and 991 missing [Bilal Hussein/AP Photo] What to expect? Despite Israel’s threats, many Palestinians don’t expect a larger war on Lebanon due to the strength of Hezbollah. They believe the group’s arsenal, which reportedly includes Iran-made guided missiles and sophisticated drones, is deterring Israel from seriously escalating the conflict. But Abu Ahmad from Hamas notes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could still start a war on Lebanon to appease his far-right coalition partners and maintain power. “Netanyahu is a criminal,” he told Al Jazeera. “And we know that if there is a war in Lebanon, then there will be lots of killing of civilians here, including Palestinians. It could be like Gaza.” Mahar, from PFLP-GC, said a war between Hezbollah and Lebanon would be different from the last major war. In 2006, Hezbollah killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others in a surprise ground attack. In response, Israel targeted civilian infrastructure and power stations in Lebanon. The fighting lasted for 34 days

Man dies after train berth falls on him, railways clarifies…

A Kerala man’s death due to a collapsed upper berth on a train has raised concerns about passenger safety and the proper use of berth securing mechanisms.

Fastest growing group in Texas: Asian Americans

A new Census Bureau report shows the Asian American population went up 5.5% in one year, outpacing overall state growth.

Republicans plan to slam latest Biden union assist in Thursday oversight hearing

House Republicans are preparing to scrutinize an executive order by President Biden on the use of “project labor agreements” that critics call a “radical departure” from typical competitive contracting procedures. Project labor agreements, or PLAs, are pre-hire collective bargaining pacts negotiated between unions and construction contractors to establish terms of employment, according to the Labor Department. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., the chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee’s subcommittee on cybersecurity, IT and government innovation, said that by mandating PLAs, the White House has “no qualms about using the federal contracting process and taxpayer dollars to bestow favors on political allies… instead of enabling fair and open competition for federal contract work.” At a hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday, Mace will open the forum by calling out President Biden as being “in the pocket of labor unions,” and characterizing his 2022 order as a “blatant move to pay back his union buddies,” Fox News has learned exclusively. BIDEN ADMIN ACCUSED OF ‘BRAZEN’ ATTEMPT TO ‘WEAPONIZE’ UNIONIZATION  “This administration isn’t about fair competition or professional judgment; it’s about political favors and keeping union bosses happy. The American people deserve better than a president who prioritizes union coffers over the livelihoods of hardworking, non-union construction workers across the country,” Mace will say. Ben Brubeck, one of the witnesses at the hearing, is a vice president with Associated Builders and Contractors. He and Louisiana Coastal Protection & Restoration Authority executive director Glenn Ledet and Cianbro vice president Aric Dreher all plan to offer similarly biting testimony about the effects the order will have on their ability to bid for government contracts. In his remarks, Brubeck will criticize the order’s effect on his business, and take issue with the idea that in order to bid for federal work, his organization will have to engage in collective bargaining pacts earlier in the hiring process. WEINGARTEN ‘AMONG THE MOST DANGEROUS’ PEOPLE IN US, POMPEO CLAIMS IN WAR OF WORDS WITH TEACHERS UNION BOSS “On behalf of Associated Builders and Contractors, I am giving a voice to the thousands of quality large and small contractors and millions of their employees who want nothing more than to compete to deliver taxpayer-funded projects safely, on time and on budget for their private and government customers,” Brubeck will say, in exclusively-obtained remarks. “But they are effectively boxed out from doing so via government protectionism benefiting special interests that is the foundation of the Biden administration’s harmful pro-PLA policies,” he will say. Brubeck will go on to cite President Biden’s own proud claim that he is the “most pro-union president” in history. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The executive order’s mandate went into effect in January, according to a statement from the committee. Republicans on the panel have claimed the order discriminates against non-union construction firms. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the subject matter of the hearing.