SCOOP: Republicans discuss defunding ‘big abortion’ like Planned Parenthood in Trump agenda bill
EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans are discussing measures that could potentially end federal funding of groups like Planned Parenthood as cost-savings in their multitrillion-dollar bill advancing President Donald Trump‘s agenda. Two sources close to the House Energy & Commerce Committee told Fox News Digital that the move was being floated as lawmakers look to find at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts to offset the cost of Trump’s tax priorities. It comes after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said earlier this week that Republicans would target “big abortion” in the budget reconciliation process. “We are working on a lot of different options, but that’s been discussed,” Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital when asked directly about Planned Parenthood. “Yeah, it’s been discussed.” CHINA IS ‘CAVING’ TO TRUMP’S TRADE WAR STRATEGY, EXPERT SIGNALS The House Energy & Commerce Committee alone is tasked with finding $880 billion in spending cuts under its jurisdiction, while intra-GOP disagreements over how to handle potential Medicaid cuts persist. Republicans are working to use the reconciliation process to pass a vast bill with Trump’s priorities on the border, immigration, taxes, defense, energy and the debt limit sometime this spring or summer. By lowering the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, it allows the party controlling both houses of Congress and the White House to pass sweeping legislation while entirely sidelining the opposition, in this case Democrats. The first major hurdle, passing a framework with “instructions” for various committees to find spending cuts or ways to enact a small increase, was passed earlier this year. The Energy & Commerce Committee has a wide jurisdiction that includes health, energy, telecommunications and other policies. Democrats and other critics of Republicans’ reconciliation plans have accused them of trying to slash critical programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security while trying to pay for Trump’s other priorities. However, Republicans have consistently said they will not touch Medicare, and Trump is pushing them to drop taxes on retirees’ Social Security as part of the bill. How deeply to cut Medicaid, however, has been the subject of fierce debate between fiscal hawks and Republican lawmakers in blue states. Defunding Planned Parenthood directly is impossible under reconciliation rules, but Republicans can target groups like it that provide abortions and receive federal Medicaid funds. It could provide some extra wiggle room, but could also be a similarly tricky vote for those front-line members. One House Republican who asked to remain anonymous told Fox News Digital, “I don’t even know what they’re defunding, because you already can’t use federal funds for abortion.” They noted the longstanding Hyde Amendment prevents the use of federal dollars on abortions. Planned Parenthood gets Medicaid dollars for the other health services it provides, not abortion, but critics say those federal dollars are helping prop up the abortion industry. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., told Fox News Digital at an anti-abortion rally in late March, “Congress holds the power of the purse, and President Trump has begun the defunding of Planned Parenthood.” TRUMP WAGERS US ECONOMY IN HIGH-STAKES TARIFF GAMBLE AT 100-DAY MARK “So when we pass the reconciliation bill, we can include defunding Planned Parenthood, and I will do anything possible to make that happen,” Miller said. No final decisions have been made, and it is possible that such provisions do not make it into the final bill. However, the Energy & Commerce Committee is expected to advance its portion of the legislation next week, meaning its plan could be revealed within days. Additionally, while it was not clear before that the conversations had reached the committee level, defunding Planned Parenthood in the reconciliation process has been something that groups like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America have been pushing for months. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., alluded to Republicans’ plans in a speech at the interest group’s gala earlier this week. Johnson said Republicans’ reconciliation bill would redirect funds from “big abortion” to “federally qualified health centers” on Tuesday night. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP When reached for comment, a spokesman for the House Energy & Commerce Committee told Fox News Digital, “Chairman Guthrie, along with other Energy and Commerce Republicans, have been and are continuing to work with members across the Republican Conference to deliver on President Trump’s agenda through the reconciliation process.” “The committee is not yet ready to comment on any policy-specific items that may or may not be included in the final bill text. Energy and Commerce is examining a full menu of options from the committee’s broad jurisdiction such as energy, environment, health, telecommunications, and more,” the spokesman said.
HUD Secretary Scott Turner lays out agency wins during first 100 days, shares priorities for next 100
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner sat down with Fox News Digital to discuss the agency’s biggest wins during the Trump administration’s first 100 days, and shared HUD’s top priorities for the next 100. Some of those wins, according to Scott, include rescinding Biden and Obama-era regulations to spur innovation and creativity in the housing market. Other actions have included reforms focused on ensuring American citizens are the primary beneficiaries of HUD’s resources, and ensuring HUD’s resources can be accessed in a fair and safe manner. Looking to the future, Turner said implementing work requirements for those in HUD-funded housing programs will be a priority, among others. “We are very focused, we’re very detailed, and we’re very deliberate about what we do here,” Turner said. “Progress and success doesn’t just happen. You have to be very intentional about it. You have to be very focused about it. One thing we did on the first day when we came in here is we said we’re going to restore the mission-minded focus of HUD… We’re called to a specific mission to serve the most vulnerable people of our country, as it pertains to housing, as it pertains to homelessness, as it pertains to disaster recovery, the development of communities, forming public-private partnerships.” PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT: HOW TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS STACK UP AGAINST INAUGURATION DAY PLEDGES Part of restoring that “mission-minded focus,” according to Turner, has been to tear down “burdensome regulations,” such as the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule established under the Obama administration and revived by the Biden administration. “We took this rule down in order to restore flexibility and restore the power back to localities. Because every city, every community, is unique,” Turner said, noting that under the now-rescinded rule, bureaucrats in Washington had the power to pick “winners and losers” in local communities. Turner also highlighted a new partnership between HUD and the Department of Homeland Security, aimed at ensuring noncitizens do not take away much-needed HUD resources from American citizens. ‘TOO FAST’ OR ‘EXCELLENT’? AMERICANS GRADE FIRST 100 DAYS OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S SECOND TERM “We are ensuring that American people live in HUD-funded housing,” Turner said. “Also with this partnership, it’s a data collection emphasis to understand who’s living in housing that’s funded by HUD and our FHA insurance, our FHA-backed mortgages, which is also backed by American taxpayers. We took out the non-permanent residence category out of the FHA, which the Biden administration turned a blind eye to.” Turner also touted one of his first actions as HUD secretary, which rescinded the Obama-era equal access rule, requiring HUD-funded programs and shelters to determine eligibility based on a person’s self-identified gender. “We wanted to take this rule down to protect the women of America and ensure that when people enter into a HUD-funded facility, they are entering in after sex at birth,” Turner said of the reform. Looking to the future, Turner said efforts aimed at helping those receiving public assistance become more self-sufficient, such as through work requirements for those in HUD-funded housing, will be a priority for the agency over the next 100 days. “Social safety nets were never meant to be a hammock or a resting place. Social safety nets were meant to be a trampoline, if you will, a tool to project people into a life of self-sustainability and longevity, and so that’s something that we will be concentrating on going here forward these next 100 days, if you will,” Turner said. “Our heart here at HUD is not to grow the amount of people on subsidies, but it is to reduce the number of people on subsidies and help people to live a life of self sustainability, really, to change the trajectory of people’s lives.” HUD PUTS HALF-OCCUPIED HEADQUARTERS BUILDING IN DC UP FOR SALE “We don’t want to grow the size of government,” Turner added. “We want to shrink the size of government.” Turner also said the agency will focus on increasing public-private partnerships to help improve housing affordability and the homelessness epidemic, noting local entities on the ground doing the actual work to affect change are pivotal to HUD completing its mission. When asked about any pushback Turner has received over his slew of policy changes during the Trump administration’s first 100 days, the secretary said part of being a strong “servant leader” is to make hard decisions that everybody may not agree with. “But, I consider them to be healthy decisions for our country,” Turner said. “At the end of the day, our job is one, to be stewards over taxpayer dollars, but also to be stewards over the lives of Americans as it pertains to entering in HUD-funded facilities.”
Mike Waltz, other National Security Council staffers out in latest Trump purge following Signal chat leak
Trump administration National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and other staffers are out at the National Security Council, sources confirmed to Fox News. Fox News confirmed Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, were fired Thursday. Sources said additional staffers removed from the office will likely be announced, and President Donald Trump is expected to speak publicly about the matter. Waltz, who previously served as a Florida congressman and as a decorated combat Green Beret, has come under fire from Democrats and critics since March, when the Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a firsthand account of getting added to a Signal group chat with top national security leaders, including Waltz, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, while they discussed strikes against Yemen terrorists. Waltz took responsibility for the inclusion of a journalist in the group chat, telling Fox News’ Laura Ingraham: “I take full responsibility. I built the group,” he said. “It’s embarrassing. We’re going to get to the bottom of it.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital earlier Monday when asked about reports claiming Waltz and others would be shown the door: “We are not going to respond to reporting from anonymous sources.” WALTZ DOUBLES DOWN ON HEGSETH PRAISE AMID ONGOING PENTAGON CONTROVERSY Trump held a meeting with members of his cabinet Wednesday, following his 100th day back in office Tuesday, with Waltz attending the meeting. Following confirmation of Waltz’s ouster, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Fox News: “The National Security Advisor Waltz is out. He’s the first. He certainly won’t be the last.” Wong served as Waltz’s principal deputy national security advisor, who was detailed in the Signal chat leak as the staffer charged with “pulling together a tiger team” in Waltz’s initial message sent to the Signal group chat in March, the Atlantic reported at the time. “Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours,” Waltz wrote in the group chat.” My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.” Trump told the media April 3 that a handful of other National Security Council staffers had been let go following the Atlantic’s report on the Signal chat leak, which characterized the Trump administration as texting “war plans” regarding a planned strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen. TRUMP REVEALS WHO WAS BEHIND SIGNAL TEXT CHAIN LEAK “Always, we’re going to let go of people we don’t like, or people we don’t think can do the job, or people who may have loyalties to somebody else,” Trump said from Air Force One April 3 when asked about reports on the National Security Council firings. Trump confirmed at the time that National Security Council members had been fired, but remarked it was not many individuals. He added that he continued to trust his National Security Council team, remarking that they’ve “done very well” and “had big success with the Houthis.” The Trump administration maintained, however, that no classified material was transmitted in the Signal chat in March, with Trump repeatedly defending Waltz amid the fallout. The strikes on Houthi rebels unfolded March 15. WILL CAIN SHARES HIS TAKEAWAY ON THE ATLANTIC’S STORY ON THE TRUMP ADMIN’S ‘WAR PLANS’ TEXT Leavitt told the media in March that the White House considered the Signal group chat leak case “closed” while continuing to offer support to Waltz, whose office allegedly mistakenly added the journalist to the chat. “As the president has made it very clear, Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team,” Leavitt told the media in brief remarks during a gaggle outside the White House’s press room March 31. “And this case has been closed here at the White House, as far as we are concerned.” “There have been steps made to ensure that something like that can obviously never happen again,” she continued. “And we’re moving forward. And the president and Mike Waltz and his entire national security team have been working together very well, if you look at how much safer the United States of America is because of the leadership of this team.”
Columbia student activist interviewed by FBI for allegedly saying ‘I like to kill Jews’: court docs
The Columbia University student activist who was recently ordered released from ICE custody was interviewed by the FBI in 2015 after allegedly telling a gun shop owner that “I like to kill Jews.” The activist, Mohsen Mahdawi, visited the gun store in the summer of 2015 and inquired about various firearms while in conversation with the store’s owner, according to court documents submitted by federal authorities last month. The federal government is appealing Mahdawi’s release as of Thursday. “The owner told Windsor, Vermont police officers that Mr. Mahdawi had visited his store twice, expressing an interest in learning more about firearms and buying a sniper rifle and an automatic weapon and that he ‘had considerable firearm experience and used to build modified 9mm submachine guns to kill Jews while he was in Palestine,’” the document reads. “”The store owner stated that Mr. Mahdawi took photos of the store and its merchandise. The store owner gave the police the name of a fellow gun enthusiast who stated that he had a similar conversation with Mr. Mahdawi at the ‘Precision Museum’ in Windsor,” the document continues. “During that conversation, Mr. Mahdawi allegedly told the enthusiast, ‘I like to kill Jews.’” HOMELAND SECURITY TO SCAN MIGRANTS’ SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS FOR ANTISEMITISM: ‘NO ROOM FOR TERRORIST SYMPATHIZERS’ DHS Spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin condemned Mahdawi’s release in a statement on social media. COLUMBIA ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTER MAHMOUD KHALIL CAN BE DEPORTED, JUDGE RULES “When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked and you should not be in this country,” McLauglin wrote. “We have the law, facts and commonsense on our side. No judge, not this one or another, is going to stop the Trump Administration from restoring the rule of law to our immigration system.” Mahdawi, 34, was raised in the West Bank and has now lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years. He confirmed trips to the gun store and gun museum, but denied making antisemitic comments to both the gun store owner and the museum guide in an interview with the FBI. ‘SAFER WITHOUT HIM’: COLUMBIA STUDENT CLAIMS CLASSMATE ARRESTED BY ICE ‘HATES AMERICA’ He now says he practices Buddhism and has “found comfort and healing in the spiritual community,” dedicating his time “to understanding how to achieve a lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis, particularly through the study of conflict resolution.” U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford ordered Mahdawi’s release on Wednesday. “I’m not afraid of you,” Mahdawi declared in a message to President Donald Trump as he left the courthouse. According to the court filing, Mahdawi co-founded the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack. He founded the group with Mahmoud Khalil, another pro-Palestinian activist who was detained by federal immigration officials under the Trump administration earlier this year.
JD Vance explains why meeting Pope Francis hours before his death was ‘a sign from God’
EXCLUSIVE: Washington, D.C. — Vice President JD Vance reflected on his meeting with Pope Francis, just hours before the Holy Father passed away, telling Fox News Digital it was a “great honor” and a “sign from God” to cherish life. Vance sat for an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital on Wednesday. VANCE WAS ONE OF POPE FRANCIS’ LAST VISITORS The vice president told Fox News Digital that he met Pope Francis on Easter Sunday but “didn’t plan to see the Holy Father because he was ill.” “But we were invited to come and visit with him before he went and did his Easter mass appearance,” Vance explained. “I was one of, if not the very last world leader to actually meet with the pope,” Vance said. “I took one of my relatively junior staffers, who is a devout Catholic, and I looked back at him when he was about to meet the pope, and he was crying—it sort of drives home how important this, not just this man, but this institution is to over a billion people worldwide.” “There are 1.5 billion practicing Catholics in the world, so that was a very big moment,” Vance said. PHOTO GALLERY: POPE FRANCIS THROUGH THE YEARS Vance told Fox News Digital that he had a “very gracious meeting” with the pope on Easter Sunday. “The pope was very kind—he was obviously very frail,” Vance said. “We didn’t spend a lot of time together. It was mostly exchanging pleasantries, but he gave a few gifts—he gave my kids Easter baskets, and there was just this very sweet moment.” During the meeting, the pope gave the Catholic vice president three big chocolate Easter eggs for Vance’s three young children, who did not attend, as well as a Vatican tie and rosaries. “I definitely cherish it,” Vance said. Following their meeting, the vice president went to Easter Sunday Mass in Rome at the Tomb of St. Paul with his family, before getting on a plane to India. “I was very excited about that trip—my wife’s parents are from India and I’d never been there,” said Vance. “And about an hour after we landed, a staffer came over and said, ‘Sir, the pope died.’” “I obviously felt very sad, and my thought went immediately to the pope, but also to all these Catholics who love him,” Vance said. “But then it kind of hit me—oh my God—I was one of the last people to talk to him,” Vance said. “I just take it as a great honor and a sign from God to remember that you never know when your last day on this Earth is.”
Biden trans policies ‘promoted prison rape’ and amounted to ‘child abuse,’ Miller says in blistering critique
Former President Joe Biden’s transgender policies increased “prison rape” and “child abuse,” according to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. President Donald Trump has signed a series of executive orders that recognizes male and female as the only two sexes, and requires transgender women born biological males in federal prisons to be housed in male facilities. “The Biden administration promoted prison rape by putting men into female prisons,” Miller said. “That is obviously insane, cruel, and unacceptable. … This administration will not allow that.” Miller also said that the Trump administration’s Justice Department is seeking to crack down on fighting “child abuse” in public school systems with state and local law enforcement stemming from teachers who support children identifying with a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth. “It is child abuse to change a child’s gender, particularly if you do not inform the parents otherwise, if a five-year-old or a six-year-old goes to school, or a seven-year-old goes to school, and the teacher tries to turn the boy into a girl, or the girl into a boy, that is child abuse, and this administration is treating that as child abuse and is a gross violation of parental rights,” Miller said. Likewise, Miller emphasized that the Trump administration is seeking to keep biological men out of women’s sports. Trump signed an executive order in February barring those assigned male at birth from competing in women’s sports, titled, “No Men in Women’s Sports.” The order bans those assigned male at birth from using women’s restrooms and orders the Department of Education to spearhead investigations into cases of possible violations. “This administration ending the Biden administration’s policy and the Democrat party’s policy of allowing men into women’s sports, men into women’s spaces,” Miller said. “We are using every single legal and financial tool we have at President Trump’s direction to make it clear that schools and universities are and will lose federal funds … if you allow men to invade women’s sports and women’s spaces, and this applies to our whole K-12 system.” A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. This is a breaking news story and will be updated. Fox News’ Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.
Reporter’s Notebook: Where we stand with Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
Do not underestimate the importance of Thursday’s meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. Those committee chairmen are looking for guidance from the president about what they need to put in the “big, beautiful bill.” Republicans agree on broad principles. But specifics are the key to either passing or failing this bill. DEMOCRATS’ BOILING POT: A LOOK AT THEIR 2026 GAME PLAN Most Republicans are willing to get behind the president. He has more power in this dynamic than the committee chairmen. But they have not yet scheduled their meetings to write details of the bill, because they aren’t sure exactly what the White House wants. Congressional Republicans are just 26 days away from the Memorial Day deadline set by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to pass the bill. Multiple House committees hammered through their plans for the bill. But the two most important committees – Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce – still have not met. SENATE PUTS TRUMP TEAM IN PLACE, SETS UP AGENDA FIGHT AFTER 100-DAY SPRINT The Ways and Means Committee is in charge of writing the specifics of the tax policy. Energy and Commerce is asked to cut $880 billion. Some of that will touch on entitlement programs if the GOP truly goes that deep with cuts. But already, Republicans are running out of track with such tight deadlines. In the movie “Smokey and the Bandit,” country star Jerry Reed sings the title track, “Eastbound and Down.” The lyrics go: “We’ve got a long way to go. And a short time to get there.” That epitomizes the problem facing congressional Republicans as they race to finish this bill soon – with the hardest decisions yet to be made.
White House vows to implement ‘system of merit’ in US, dismantle DEI ‘strangulation’
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller touted President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs on Thursday. Miller appeared alongside White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt during a Thursday morning briefing, declaring that the administration is bringing a “system of merit” back to the U.S. “This administration is not going to let our society devolve into communist, woke, DEI strangulation,” Miller said. “We are going to have a system of merit.” “It’s not just a social and cultural issue, it’s an economic issue. When you hire, retain and recruit based on merit as President Trump has directed, you advance innovation, you advance growth, you advance investment, you advance job creation,” he continued. DEFUNDING DEI: HERE’S HOW THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS UNDONE BIDEN’S VERY PRIZED PROGRAMS “When a citizen goes to, say, a hospital in a medical emergency, they don’t care what race or sex their doctor or their nurse is. They want the best treatment they can get in that emergency,” he added. WHITE HOUSE OPM ORDERS ALL DEI OFFICES TO BEGIN CLOSING BY END OF DAY WEDNESDAY Trump’s administration has taken big steps to cut DEI programs throughout the federal government, from the Pentagon to the Department of Education. Trump shut down all DEI offices across the federal government during his first week in office and signed a number of executive orders to quickly undo former President Joe Biden’s efforts on the issue. The administration is also leveraging federal funding in an effort to force the nation’s top universities to eliminate DEI programs as well. In February, the Department of Education also warned state education departments that they must remove DEI policies or risk losing federal funding. The Trump administration threatened to pull federal funding if Harvard did not reform governance and leadership, as well as its hiring and admissions practices by August 2025. The letter emphasized the need for Harvard to change its international admissions process to avoid admitting students who are “hostile” to American values or support terrorism or antisemitism. Harvard has so far refused to comply. Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
Bipartisan lawmakers introduce bill to bolster water system protections against hackers
EXCLUSIVE – Bipartisan lawmakers are introducing a bill on Capitol Hill Thursday focused on protecting the country’s water systems from foreign hackers, just months after China admitted behind closed doors that it was responsible for a series of attacks on U.S. infrastructure. Senators Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., authored the Water Cybersecurity Enhancement Act to help protect public water systems and respond to cyberattacks, which have become more frequent in recent years. “In Arizona, we know better than most the importance of safe and secure access to water. But adversaries also understand the importance and are increasingly trying to undermine our water security,” Gallego said. “It is critical that we ensure our public water systems have the resources they need to prevent and respond to cyberattacks. That’s exactly what this bipartisan, commonsense bill does.” The bill would extend and expand a portion of the Safe Drinking Water Act, called the Drinking Water Infrastructure Risk and Resilience Program, to provide technical assistance and grants to community water systems that can be used for training and guidance on cyberattack protections and responses. CHINESE OFFICIALS CLAIMED BEHIND CLOSED DOORS PRC PLAYED ROLE IN US CYBERATTACKS: REPORT Cotton said cyberattacks on public infrastructure are a growing threat. “This bipartisan bill will strengthen our ability to protect essential services and support local water utilities in building stronger cyber defenses,” he added. The bill comes less than a month after the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese officials acknowledged behind closed doors in December that their government was responsible for a series of attacks on U.S. infrastructure. CHINA ATTACKED US WITH HACKERS. WE NEED TO HIT BACK HARD In the exclusive report, those who spoke on condition of anonymity claimed Chinese officials connected the cyberattacks on U.S. ports, airports, utilities and other important targets to America’s support for Taiwan. The report noted that Biden administration officials learned of the attacks first hand during a summit in Geneva, as their Chinese counterparts blamed the campaign, referred to as Volt Typhoon, on a criminal organization. Chinese officials also accused the U.S. of blaming China based on their imagination. BIDEN ADMIN DOUBLING TARIFFS ON CHINESE SOLAR PANEL PARTS AFTER REPORTED ‘INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE’ A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital earlier this month it had made clear to Beijing that the U.S. will continue to take actions in response to Chinese malicious cyber activity targeting the U.S. “Chinese cyber threats are some of the gravest and most persistent threats to U.S. national security,” the spokesperson said. “The United States will continue to use all the tools at its disposal to safeguard U.S. critical infrastructure from irresponsible and reckless cyberattacks from Beijing. President Trump is committed to protecting the American people and U.S. critical infrastructure from these threats.” The Chinese Embassy told FOX Business that China “firmly opposes” the smear attacks against it without any factual basis. BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WARNS STATES OF POSSIBLE ATTACKS ON WATER SYSTEMS FROM FOREIGN HACKERS The Biden administration warned state leaders in March 2024 that cyberattacks by hackers linked to Iran and China could take down water systems across the U.S. if cybersecurity measures were not taken as a precaution. Then Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael S. Regan and Jake Sullivan, the assistant to Biden for national security affairs, said in an email to state governors that cyberattacks were targeting water and wastewater systems throughout the U.S. In the letter, the two Biden administration officials said the attacks could disrupt clean and safe drinking water and impose significant costs on affected communities. In January 2024, Russian hackers launched an attack on the water system in Muleshoe, Texas. The hack caused the small Texas town’s water sytem to overflow and within two hours sent tens of thousands of gallons of water flowing out of the town’s water tower. Muleshoe was one of three small towns in the rural Texas Panhandle targeted by a Russian hacktivist group. Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told legislators in a letter that the cybersecurity firm Mandiant attributed the attack on Muleshoe to Sandworm, which is believed to be connected to Russia’s spy agency, the GRU.
SCOOP: 38 GOP lawmakers say not repealing Biden’s green agenda in Trump tax bill is ‘hypocrisy’
FIRST ON FOX: The House GOP’s standoff over the former Biden administration’s green energy subsides is colliding with Republicans’ plans for a massive bill advancing President Donald Trump‘s agenda. Thirty-eight House Republicans are writing to Ways & Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., the chamber’s top tax writer, urging a full repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the coming budget reconciliation bill. “We are deeply concerned that President Trump’s commitment to restoring American energy dominance and ending what he calls the ‘green new scam’ is being undermined by parochial interests and short-sighted political calculations,” the lawmakers wrote. They argued the IRA subsidies would cost American taxpayers roughly $1 trillion over the next decade. TRUMP EASES AUTO TARIFFS AS HE CELEBRATES 100TH DAY WITH MICHIGAN RALLY “The IRA contains eight major energy subsidies, each of which burdens taxpayers, inflates energy costs, and threatens the reliability of our power grid. Each of these subsidies props up unreliable energy sources while displacing dependable, proven energy like coal and natural gas,” the letter said. The lawmakers then took direct aim at fellow Republicans who are pushing for some of the credits to remain intact. “Republicans ran—and won—on a promise to completely dismantle the IRA and end the left’s green welfare agenda. The first chapter of our 2024 platform reaffirms our commitment to ‘terminating the Socialist Green New Deal.’ Despite our previously unified stance, some Members of our conference now feel compelled to defend wind and biofuel credits, advocate for carbon capture and hydrogen subsidies, or protect solar and electric vehicle giveaways,” the letter said. “Keeping even one of these subsidies opens the door to retaining all eight.” “How do we retain some of these credits and not operate in hypocrisy? The longstanding Republican position has been to allow the market to determine energy production. If every faction continues to defend their favored subsidies, we risk preserving the entire IRA because no clearly defined principle will dictate what is kept and what is culled.” Republicans are working on a massive piece of legislation advancing Trump’s agenda on taxes, border security, national defense and energy, while also raising the debt limit. The budget reconciliation process allows them to do that by lowering the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, thereby allowing the party controlling Congress and the White House to pass sweeping legislation while sidelining the opposition, in this case Democrats. Conservative fiscal hawks successfully got House GOP leaders to agree that the trillions of dollars of new spending in the bill – primarily for Trump’s tax policies – must be offset by at least $1.5 trillion in federal funding cuts. Former President Joe Biden’s IRA subsidies have been a significant flash point in that fight. In March, 21 House Republicans signed a letter urging their colleagues to preserve the green energy tax credit. “Countless American companies are utilizing sector-wide energy tax credits – many of which have enjoyed broad support in Congress – to make major investments in domestic energy production and infrastructure for traditional and renewable energy sources alike,” they wrote. DEFUNDING DEI: HERE’S HOW THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS UNDONE BIDEN’S VERY PRIZED PROGRAMS That letter pointed out that investments have already been made in American entities with the understanding that those subsidies would have a 10-year window. “These timelines have been relied upon when it comes to capital allocation, planning, and project commitments, all of which would be jeopardized by premature credit phase outs or additional restrictive mechanisms such as limiting transferability,” it said. They argued that changing that now could lead to rising energy costs for American families. The anti-IRA Republicans, however, said in their letter that the U.S.’ growing green energy sector was the product of government handouts rather than genuine sustainable growth. “Leaving IRA subsidies intact will actively undermine America’s return to energy dominance and national security,” they said. “They are the result of government subsidies that distort the U.S. energy sector, displace reliable coal and natural gas and the domestic jobs they produce, and put the stability and independence of our electric grid in jeopardy.” Meanwhile, House GOP leaders like House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have made clear they have issues with the wider bill, but share concerns about ending measures in use under the current administration and risking political blowback in GOP districts that have seen investments by entities that have benefited from the subsidies. Fox News Digital reached out to the Ways & Means Committee for comment but did not hear back by press time.