|
President Trump's request to claw back $9 billion in congressionally approved spending passed despite objections from Republicans who said it abdicated the legislative branch's power of the purse.
|
|
We speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna about his bipartisan bill calling for the full release of federal documents pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein's criminal charges for sexual trafficking and abuse, which is also currently backed by nine Republicans and every House Democrat. Khanna explains why he's calling for transparency and accountability regarding the Epstein case, and how Trump is working to prevent the same.
Ro Khanna also discusses the massive loss to public media and local news as the Trump administration has successfully stripped $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds over 1,500 NPR and PBS stations across the country. The major cut to funding is possible thanks to the rare process of rescission, which allows the president to request Congress to rescind already-allocated federal funding. Trump's OMB Director Russell Vought has indicated that the administration intends to expand its use of rescission in future legislative sessions. "It's a devastating blow to the education of our children in America and to our democracy," says Khanna, who notes that the cut to public media comes just one week after Republicans voted to pass Trump's deficit-enlarging budget bill. "It's just not true that this has anything to do with fiscal responsibility," Khanna adds.
|
|
On Thursday night, Republicans on the House Rules Committee sought to defuse political pressure around the explosive Epstein issue by adopting a non-binding resolution to possibly consider releasing the Epstein files in the future. It won't have the force of law and may never come up for a vote.
|
|
The 51-to-48 vote came over the objections of two Republicans. The House is expected to give final approval to the package later this week, sending it to Mr. Trump for his signature.
|
|
An even more intense battle is expected on the Senate floor over the nomination of a Trump immigration policy enforcer to a lifetime judicial post.
|
|
"The most important thing that we have to do right now is hold the Republicans that voted for this bill accountable for the devastation that they are causing and the lives that will be impacted." Democratic Congressmember Yassamin Ansari of Arizona explains how Trump's new federal budget, which introduces major cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, housing and education, will worsen wealth inequality and the health disparities, while actually increasing the U.S. deficit by trillions of dollars and supercharging spending for immigration and border enforcement. The congressmember shares her recent experience visiting a detention center outside of Phoenix, calling some of the conditions there the most "dehumanizing" she has ever seen. Ansari, the first Iranian American Democrat to serve as a member of Congress, also condemns the Trump administration's strikes on Iran in June. "I do not believe that the president of the United States should be conducting unilateral military action without authorization from Congress," she says.
|
|
